summons you shall have from the will of God It is not perfection not to care for life through impatience nor to have an ear not deaf to death through faintness of courage This resignation was most excellent and very admirable in our Ladie for two reasons First the great knowledge she had of beatitude Secondly the ineffable love she bare to her Son For I leave you to think if our desires follow the first rays of our knowledges and if we be so much the more earnest after a good as we are the better informed of its merit what impatience Patience of our Lady to endure life must our Ladie needs have of life since she received a science of beatitude strong powerful and resplendent above all other creatures God giving her leave to see in Calvarie the abyss of his glories in the depth of his dolours It is no wonder we so very easily affect life seeing we are as the little children of a King bred in the house of a shepheard as the gloss upon Daniel reporteth touching the education of Nebuchadnezzar We know not what a scepter Kingdom or crown is in this great meaness of a life base and terrestrial But had we talked onely one quarter of an hour with a blessed soul and discoursed of the state of the other life our hearts would wholly dissolve into desires Which makes me say It was an act of a most heroical resolution in the blessed Virgin in those great knowledges she had of Paradise to have continued so many years in this life and if you consider the most ardent love she bare her Son who was the adamant of all loves you shall find the holy Virgin who had born all the glory of Paradise in her womb more merited in this resignation she made to see her self separated the space of thirty years both from Paradise and her Son than all the Martyrs did in resigning themselves to deaths strange bloudy and hydeous There is nothing comparable to the martyrdom of Martyrdom of love love It is an exhalation in a cloud It is a fire in a myne a torrent shut up in ditches a night of separation lasteth Ages and all waxeth old for it but its desires Now this holy Mother to be thirty years upon the cross of love without repining without complaint or disturbance peaceably expecting the stroke of her hour what virtue and how far are we from it So now adays throughout the world you see nothing Worldly irresolutions of death Boet. Carm. 1. Eheu cur dura miseros averteris aure Et stentes oculos claudere saeva negos but mourners who are loth to live or faint-hearted that would never die Some crie out Come to me O sluggish death thou hast forgotten me what do I here I am but a living death and an unprofitable burden to the earth Ah death hast thou ears of brass and diamond for me alone Canst thou not shut up mine eyes which I daily drown in my tears Much otherwise when we see one die young fresh flourishing in honour wealth health prosperity we crie out upon death as if it were cruel and malicious To take saith one this young betrothed this poor maid this husband intended this excellent man who so well played the Rhodomont to lay hold of one so necessarie for the publick in the flower of his age Why took it not away this cripple this beggar who hath not wherewith to live Why took it not away this other who daily dies yet cannot die once O our manners O dainty conceits O fit language Were it not some little humane respect we would take Gods Providence by the throat Whom do we contend withal The indifferency we daily see in the death of men where as soon the young is taken as the old the happie as the miserable the Emperour as the porter is one of the greatest signs of Gods Providence to be admired Why then complain we that God maketh us to leave life when he pleaseth It is not a punishment but a wholesom doctrine by which we learn the power of the Divine Wisdom First when we entered into life our advise was not required whether we would be born in such or such an Age such a day such a year such an hour so when we must be gone from hence there is no reason to ask our counsel Let us onely yield up this last loan and not murmure against the father of the family Let us not say this man should go before and this after Who knows them better than God You complain this miserable creature lives so long how know you whether he accomplish the years of his purgatory How know you whether God suffers him to become a spectacle unto you of his patience Why gnash you your teeth for anger that this man rich that man fortunate and that other so qualified is taken hence in his flourishing youth How know you the misadventures and shipwracks which attended him had he still continued in the world You say he was necessary why God will shew there is not any thing necessary in the world but himself Vnâ— aâ—ulso non deficit alter aureus Poor eyes of a bat which see nothing but darkness you would give eyes to Argus and light to the Sun If you desire to take part in the prudence of the just handle the matter so that for the first sign of a good death you be ever indifferent to live or die accordding to our Ladies example Daily expect death stand perpetually on your guard Do as the brave bird the Grecians call Onocratalus which is so well practised Instinct of the Onocratalus Constancy of faith to expect the Hawk to grapple with her that even when sleep shuts up her eyes she sleepeth with her beak exalted as if she would contend with her adversary Know we are continually among rocks and dangers that there needs but one hour to get all or loose all that the day of Judgement comes with the pace of a thief and that we must be ready to receive it and resolute to combat with death to gain immortalitie Hold this concluding sentence of Tertul. Idol c. 2. Hos inter scopulos velisicata spiritu Dei fides navigat tuta si cauta secura si attonita Caeterúm ineluctabile excussis profundum inexplicabile impactis naufragium irrespirabile â— devoratis hypocriphium Second quality of good death Philo l. 3. de vita Mosis in fine Notable speech of Philo of Moses his state 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tertullian as an Oracle Amongst the rocks and shelves of this sea called life Christian faith passeth on breaking the waves filling the sails with Gods spirit ever assured yet ever distrustful and perpetually fearless yet still carefull of the future As for the rest it sees under its feet an abyss not to be passed by swimming and inexplicable ship wrack for those who are drenched a gulf which suffocates all such as it once swalloweth The second
approching near the light love their own darkness They hate the light of their salvation as the shadow of death and think that if you give them eyes to see their blindness you take away their life If they seem Christians they yet have nothing but the name and the appearance the book of Jesus is shut from them or if they make a shew to read they may name the letters but never can produce one right good word 4. Others destroy themselves by false lights who being wedded to their own opinions and adoring the Chimera's of their spirit think themselves full of knowledge just and happy that the sun riseth onely for them and that all the rest of the world is in darkness they conceive they have the fairest stars for conductours but at the end of their career they find too late that this pretended light was but an Ignis fatuus which led them to a precipice of eternal flames It is the worst of all follies to be wise in our own eye-sight and the worst of all temptations is for a man to be a devil to himself 5. Those ruin themselves with too much light who have all Gods law by heart but never have any heart to that law They know the Scriptures all learning and sciences they understand every thing but themselves they can find spots in the sun they can give new names to the stars they perswade themselves that God is all that they apprehend But after all this heap of knowledge they are found to be like the Sages of Pharaob and can produce nothing but bloud and frogs They embroil and trouble the world they stain their own lives and at their deaths leave nothing to continue but the memory of their sins It would be more expedient for them rather than have such light to carry fire wherewith to be burning in the love of God and not to swell and burst with that kind of knowledge All learning which is not joyned with a good life is like a picture in the air which hath no table to make it subsist It is not sufficient to be elevated in spirit like the Prophets except a man do enter into some perfect imitation of their virtues Aspirations O Fountain of all brightness before whom night can have no vail who seest the day spring out of thy bosom to spread it self over all nature will thou have no pitie upon my blindness will there be no medicine for my eyes which have so often grown dull heavy with earthly humours O Lord I want light being always so blind to my own sins So many years are past wherein I have dwelt with my self and yet know not what I am Self-love maketh me sometimes apprehend imaginary virtues in great and see all my crimes in little I too often believe my own judgement and adore my own opinions as gods and goddesses and if thou send me any light I make so ill use of it that I dazle my self even in the brightness of thy day making little or no profit of that which would be so much to my advantage if I were so happy as to know it But henceforth I will have no eyes but for thee I will onely contemplate thee O life of all beauties and draw all the powers of my soul into my eyes that I may the better apprehend the mystery of thy bounties O cast upon me one beam of thy grace so powerfull that it may never forsake me till I may see the day of thy glory The Gospel upon Thursday the fourth week in Lent S. Luke the 7. Of the widows son raised from death to life at Naim by our Saviour ANd it came to pass afterward he went into a Citie that is called Naim and there went with him his Disciples and a very great multitude And when he came nigh to the gate of the Citie behold a dead man was carried forth the onely son of his mother and she was a widow and a great multitude of the Citie with her whom when our Lord had seen being moved with mercy upon her he said to her Weep not And he came near and touched the Coffin And they that carried it stood still and he said Young man I say to thee Arise And he that was dead sate up and began to speak And he gave him to his mother and fear took them all and they magnified God saying That a great Prophet is risen among us and that God hath visited his people And this saying went forth into all Jewry of him and into all the Countrey about Moralities JEsus met at the Gates of Naim which is interpreted the Town of Beauties a young man carried to burial to shew us that neither beauty nor youth are freed from the laws of death We fear death and there is almost nothing more immortal here below every thing dies but death it self We see him always in the Gospels we touch him every day by our experiences and yet neither the Gospels make us sufficiently faithfull nor our experiences well advised 2. If we behold death by his natural face he seems a little strange to us because we have not seen him well acted We lay upon him sithes bows and arrows we put upon him ugly antick faces we compass him round about with terrours and illusions of all which he never so much as thought It is a profound sleep in which nature lets it self fail insensibly when she is tired with the disquiets of this life It is a cessation of all those services which the soul renders to the flesh It is an execution of Gods will and a decree common to all the world To be disquieted and drawn by the ears to pay a debt which so many millions of men of all conditions have paid before us is to do as a frog that would swim against a sharp stream of a forcible torrent We have been as it were dead to so many ages which went before us we die piece-meal every day we assay death so often in our sleep discreet men expect him fools despise him and the most disdainfull persons must entertain him Shall we not know and endeavour to do that one thing well which being once well performed will give us life for ever Me thinks it is rather a gift of God to die soon than to stay late amongst the occasions of sin 3. It is not death but a wicked life we have cause to fear That onely lies heavy and both troubles us and keeps us from understanding and tasting the sweets of death He that can die to so many little dead and dying things which makes us die every day by our unwillingness to forsake them shall find that death is nothing to him But we would fain in death carry the world with us upon our shoulders to the grave and that is a thing we cannot do We would avoid the judgement of a just God and that is a thing which we should not so much as think Let us clear our accounts
of the Hypocondry the disturbances of the waking the stupidities of the Lethargie the fits of the falling sickness the faintness of the Phthisick the heavings of the passion of the heart the pangs of the collick the infections of the leprosie the venome of ulcers the malignity of the plague the putrefaction of the gangrene and all which is horrible in nature After all this it is made a God to whom Elogies Hymns Songs and victimes are offered Empire over the heart is given to it a soul not created but for him who hath saved it is subjected fetters are honoured and its Tyranny adored There are many millions of men in the world Disasters of evil love who would be most fortunate and flourishing if they knew how to avoid the mischievous power of this passion but having not used any consideration or endeavour they have abandoned their bodies to dishonour their reputation to infamy their estates to pillage and their lives to an infinity of disturbances and torments Hence it is that virgins of noble bloud are stolen away that families are desolated that parents are precipitated into their Tombs by ungratefull children that so many young widows are dishonoured in the world that so many miserable creatures after they have served for talk to a City die in an Hospitall that so many little innocents are made away by a death which preventeth their birth that so many Infants are thrown into life as froth of the sea exposed to poverty and vice by that condition which brought them forth Hence is it that chaste wedlocks are disturbed that poysons are mingled that Halters are noozed that swords are sharpned that Tragedies are begun under the Coverture of night and are ended in a full day-light upon a scaffold O God how happy might a soul be which would well consider all this and take what I am about to speak as a letter sent from heaven for the remedy of infinite many evils which in this passion environ our miserable life I invite hither every age each sex all conditions I entreat my Readers to peruse these lines with the same spirit wherewith I addresse them and although it befell me to treat of this subject in my other works notwithstanding never have I yet undertaken it with so much method vigour or force as at this present I will shew you the Essence the Causes the Symptomes and the effects of love as religiously as Vereenndiā periclitari malo quà m probationē l. 1. de anima c. 17. I can possibly supposing my self not bound to follow Tertullians opinion who though very chaste spared not to speak of this subject a little grosly saying for excuse that he had rather put himself upon the hazard of losing shame then a good argument I made you see in the beginning of this treatise that love considered in generall was properly an inclination to the good of Conformity which putteth on divers faces according to the sundry objects and wayes it pursues to arrive thither If it go directly towards God and reflect on a neighbour as his Image loving the one for himself and the other for his Authour this is charity If it diffuse it self upon divers creatures sensible and insensible which it pursueth for its pleasure and commodity it is an appetite and a simple affection as that which is towards hunting birds books pictures pearls and Tulips If it be applyed to humane creatures loving them withall integrity by a reciprocall well-wishing it is Amity If it regard the body for pleasures sake it is a love of venereall concupiscence which being immoderate even Tertull. in exhortatione ad castitatem Nec per aliud fit marita nisi per quod adultera in the intention of marriage fails not to be vitious which made Tertullian say that the same thing an Adulterer would do the married likewise did If it be chaste and guided within the Limits which the Law of God prescribeth it is conjugall love If it overflow to sensuall pleasures It is Luxury S. Denis saith It is not love but an idoll and a fall from true love And Plato Plato in convivio in his Banquet addeth that sober love is contentment of heart eyes and ears but when it will content it self by the other senses namely that of touching it is not love but a spirit of insolency a passion of a servile soul a rage of a triviall lust which maketh shew to love beauty but through its exorbitancy descended to the worst of deformities I know there are learned pens which here distinguish Division of Lone all love into two parts and say there is one of consideration and another of inclination They call it love of consideration when one is therein embarked with a full knowledge and a setled judgement love of inclination when one loveth not able to give any reason But I find this division is not exact enough insomuch as it confoundeth the Genus and Speeies and doth not clearly distinguish the members of this body since all love is nothing else but an inclination and since that which is made by consideration inclineth the loving to the thing loved Whence it appeareth that to mention a love of inclination is to say love is love without any further explication I had rather say there are two loves the one of Election which resulteth from Consideration and is formed when after one hath acknowledged a thing to be fair profitable and pleasing he out of reason affects it The other of humour when without consulting with reason one is suddenly surprized by some secret attractive in the thing loved without giving himself leasure to judge what it is and this properly is to love by humour and fantasie which is now adays the most ordinary love but not the best It is a kind Love of humour of love which quickly beginneth and which never ends slowly so full it is of inconstancy It seems to it self all its bands are silken although they be rough chains it will not take pains to consider them It thinks not it cherisheth the wound nor looks it back on the hand which gave it It is heedlessely engaged and signeth transactions without reading them that it may not be ashamed to abrogate what it made or to entertain that which kills it There are many miserable ones who daily marry upon the first sight and whose amities arise but from a glance which passeth away more swiftly then a shadow and then there must be a thousand repentances to redeem the pleasure of one moment It is ever better to preferre Election for though in the beginning it had not so much sweetnesse in the search it hath lesse sorrow in the possession But to enter farther into the knowledge of Carnall love it is good to penetrate the causes and effects thereof which will the more perspicuously enlighten us in the choice of remedies We see many people in the world who being tormented by this evil euen unto folly seek
be for our advantage There are who escape out of prison by fire others who are faln into precipices very gently and have in the bottome found their liberty others to whom poysons are turned into nutriment others to whom blows of a sword have broken impostumes so true it is that the seeds of good hap are sometimes hidden under the apparances of ill Besides this give your self the leisure to find out the To take things at the worst whole latitude of the evill which strikes you Take if you think good all things at the worst and handle your self as an enemy yet you shall find that this evil is not so bad as it is said that many have gone that way before you and that if God permit it he will give you strength to bear it The fear it self which is the worst of our evils is not so great a torment since it affordeth us precaution industry and fit means and suggesteth us wayes to fear no more If you never have experienced evil you have much to complain that you so little have been a man and if you have some experience of the time past it will much serve you to sweeten the apprehension of the evils to come Vanquish your own conceits as much as you can and pray them not to present unto you under so hideous a mask those pains which women and children have many times laughed at If you in the beginning feel any horrour and the first rebellions of nature lose not courage for Fiducia pallens Statius Theb. Rodericus Toletanus rerum Hisp l. 5. c. 23. all that since the Poet painted Boldnesse with a pale visage We have often seen great Captains as Garcias to quake in the beginning of dangerous battels because their flesh as they said laid hold of their courage and carried the imagination into the most hideous perils Lastly be it how it will be you shall find the remedy of your fears in the presence of that which you fear since there are some who in the irresolution of some affair do endure a thousand evils and so soon as the determination thereof succeedeth though to their prejudice they fell themselves much more lightned Many prisoners who stand on thorns in prison expecting the issue of their triall go very resolute to execution seeing it is better to die once then to live still in the apprehension of death David shook with fear Reg 2. 12. wept and fasted lay on the ground for the sicknesse of his young son But after the death was denounced him he rose up from the earth changed his habit washed and perfumed himself then having worshipped in the house of God he asked for his dinner and first of all comforted Bathsheba upon this accident whereat his houshold-servants were amazed But he taught them we must not afflict our selves for those things whereof there is no remedy I conclude with the last kind of fear which comes from things very extraordinary as are Comets Armies of fire Prodigies in the Heavens and the Air Thunders Lightnings Monsters Inundations Fires Earthquakes Spirits Spectres Devils and Hell Good God! what terrour is there in this miserable life since besides these which are so ordinary with us we must expect other from places so high and so low But howsoever we notwithstanding do find courages which surmount them with the assistance of God although it do not ordinarily happen without some impressions of fear otherwise we must be far engaged in stupidity Comets Eclipses flying fires and so many other Meteors do not now-a-dayes so much affright since we have discovered the causes which is a powerfull proof that ignorance in many occasions makes up a great part of our torments Pericles strook Stratagem of Pericles Polyaenus l. 3. a fire-steel in an assembly of his Captains and Souldiers who were astonished at a thunder and lightning happened in the instant of a battel shewing that what the heavens did was that he was doing before their eyes which marvellously satisfied them Superstition makes a thousand fantasies to be feared whereat we might laugh with a little wisdome The Euseb l. 1. de praeparat Evang. c. 7. Egyptians were half dead when the figure of a huge dragon which sometimes of the year was shewed them did not seem to look well on them and the Romans fell in their Courage when the Cocks which governed their battels did not feed to their liking Hecataeus Hecataeus apud Cunaeum l. 2. de Rep. Hebraeorum an antient Historian telleth that Alexanders whole army stood still to look on a bird from whence the Augur went about to derive some presage which being seen by a Jew named Mosellan he drew an arrow out of his quiver and kill'd it mocking at the Grecians who expected their destiny from a creature which so little knew its own As we laugh at this present at these fopperies so we should entertain with scorn so many dreams and superstitious observations which trouble them enough who make account of them Wild beasts inundation of rivers productions of mountains big with flames sulphur and stonas are other causes of terrour nor hath there ever been seen any more hideous then that which happened these late years in Italy in the last fiering of Mount Vesuvius The burning of Vesuvius in the year 1631. Julius Recupitus which is excellently described by F. Julius Recupitus Then it there can be nothing seen more able to excite terrour unlesse in an instant the bottome of Hell were laid open and all the hideous aspects of the torments of the damned Yet it is a strange thing how among waves of fire which ran on all sides clouds of Ashes which appeared like vast mountains continuall Earthquakes countrebuffs of Hillocks and of houses of Abysses of Gulphs and of Chaoses there were people to be found who yet thought upon their purses and took the way towards their houses to lay hold of their slender substances which makes us see that there is nothing so horrid where the soul of man returned to it self findeth not some leisure to breathe The monsters of the Roman Amphitheatre which in the beginning made the most hardy to quake were in the end despised by women who were hired to combat with them Things not seen which it seems should most trouble the mind because they are most hidden are also in some sort surmounted since we read how that many great Anchorets lay in Church-yards infested with ghosts and spectres and about solitudes in forrests and wildernesses the most retired in the midst of so many illusions of evill spirits as it is written in the Acts of Saint Anthony S. Hilarion and S. Macarius There is nothing but the day of Judgement Hell and the punishments of the damned we should reasonably fear and not out of visionary scruples to free us from all fear § 4. That the Contemplation of the power and Bounty of God ought to take away all our fears BUt if these reason
he should sway his Scepter or his life Cardan who was imployed no less than one hundred hours to make his Horoscope did easily observe in the stars the incommodities of his body and disasters of his person but he could no way attain to the period of his life which is of the secrets reserved in the knowledge and in the method of God All England was extreamly corrupted in her faith under the Regency of this Seimer and the Ladies of the Court were enveloped in the errours of the time He found none but the Lady Marie daughter to Henry the Eight and Katharine which continued in the Religion of their Grand-Fathers and though she was tempted and sollicited on all sides yet she would not suffer her self to be surprized with a new Faith but with a vigorous force did roar against all the torrents of Opinions and the overflowing disorders which reigned in that age It was for this that God did cause her to mount on the Throne of his own Tower and gave her the grace to be both the restorer of Religion and the State by the assistance of this Cardinal As soon as Edward was dead not without suspition Mary the lawfull heir is troubled and Jane is chosen Queen by Faction of poison Dudley Duke of Northumherland who was then most mighty in power and had newly married his Son to the Lady Jane issued from the bloud Royall conceived himself strong enough to begin the Regency of England the better afterwards to usurp the Crown He caused his Daughter-in-Law to be proclaimed Queen of England and seized on the Tower of London and gave order for the apprehending of Queen Mary But the generous Princess being advertised of the attempt did take horse in the time of night and secured her self in a place of strength and conjured all her good Servants to assemble themselves to defend her person and her right It is to be admired that persevering in the true Religion contrary to that of the great ones of the Kingdom at the same time when she conceived her self abandonned and her cause most deplorable that she should behold the principal of the Nobility and Gentry and Commonalty to fall down before her and to offer her their obedience and their Arms to take the possession of the Crown She marched immediately to London in the middle of her Army apparelled in a Gown of Velvet of a violet colour and mounted on a white horse She entered into the Citie with great applauses of her Subjects and surprized the Duke and caused him to deliver his Daughter in Law into her hands It was a spectacle worthy observation to consider the Inconstancy of these worldly affairs and to look on that person who but yesterday promised to himself to force the whole Kingdom under the power of his Laws to tremble now at the fear of death pronounced by his Judges who condemned him to be drawn upon a Hurdle to be hanged drawn and quartered The Queen sent him Catholick Divines to convert him to whom he gave ear and abjuring Heresie he imbraced the Catholick Religion which was the occasion that the Queen did moderate the Sentence of the Execution and was contented that his head onely should be cut off with his sons who was the husband of Jane This miserable Lady from a high Tower where she was prisoner beheld the body of her dear husband without a head at the sight whereof she fell down into a swoun and being a little recovered she melted into tears and did fetch from her heart so many and so deep sighs that they seemed to be able not onely to mollifie the hearts of men but to cleave the Rocks asunder There was a long Deliberation concerning her The Execution of the Lady Jane Fact because the Queen had an inclination to pardon her observing her to be both young fair knowing and of a delicate temper and one who had not offended but by the violent suggestions of her Father-in-law and of her Husband who had put the Crown upon her head But the Judges did remonstrate that it was of a most dangerous consequence to suffer that person to continue alive who had carried the Title of a Sovereign and that one day it might give a new fire to the enterprizes of the Remainder of her Faction On these Considerations the Sentence of Death was pronounced which she received with a Constancy admirable in her Sex and age A Doctour was sent unto her to reduce her to the Catholick Religion which at the first she refused alledging That she had too little time to think on an Affair of that importance Which being reported to the Queen she deferred the Execution for certain dayes to instruct her at more leisure so that she was gained to God and continued to the the last hour of her life in such tranquility of mind that a little before she came out of prison to go to her Execution she wrote divers Sentences in Greek Latine and English on the contempt of Death and when on the Scaffold it was represented to her that she should die by the sword which according to the custom of that Countrey is accounted a nobler kind of Execution than to die by the Axe she said That she would die by that Axe which was yet discoloured with her husbands bloud and couragiously she tendered her neck to the Hang-man drawing tears from her self and the hearts from all those that did behold her O most unfortunate Ambition that hast made so young a Princess a sacrifice of Death who for the excellency of her spirit might have been another Minerva or at least the tenth of the Muses Behold the strange Revolutions which did prepare the way to Cardinal Pool for the performance of those high Designs which God had committed to his Conduct Queen Marie did incontinently make void all the Sentences which had been pronounced against him and called him back into England to which place in a short time he came as if he had been carried on the shoulders of all honest men The Pope made him his Legate and gave him full power to ordain and execute all things which he should conceive necessary for the glory of God and the establishment of the true Religion He travelled to this Work with incomparable wisdom Pool travels to the Reducement of England to the ancient Faith and with a zeal invincible He well perceived that to restore Religion by arms was to undertake a most laborious if not an infinite work which would open all the veins in England and draw drie as well their purses as their bloud and cover the Kingdom with the calamities of civil wars which would continue for many Ages He resolved to put his good Counsels in execution with gentleness which others propounded to perform with all violence And in the first place he had recourse to Prayers The course he held to Mortifications to Vows and to Devotions which he performed in secret and which
It is from this point I intend to draw the first reason which bindeth the Nobilitie to great perfection especially those who are of state and dignitie seeing that how much the more they are eminent in honour so much the more they are proposed as an aim to the eyes of all the world If a little planet happen to be eclipsed who can tell the news thereof but some cold-foundred Mathematician who perchance beholdeth it in the shadie obscurities of the night But if the least change happen that may be to the Sun every one lifteth his eye to Heaven he cannot make a false step but the numberless numbers of men which inhabit the four quarters of the earth do observe it The like thing is seen in the life of Great Life of Great men enlightened men and private persons If an Hermit in his Cell suffer himself to be transported upon some motion of choler who knoweth it but his cat or table And if it be a religious man in a Covent his imperfections are manifested but to few which would be of force to cherish their vices if they did not take their aims rightly levelled towards God But as for great ones all the eyes of men are fixed upon them nor can they suffer eclipse but as suns so darkening the whole world with their shadie obscurities that they who in their own errour have eyes of moles are Arguses and Lynxes to see and censure the actions of men of qualitie Great men vitious resemble King Ozias they all carrie their leprosie upon their forehead Then I demand of you this admitted that they cannot hide themselves no more than the Sun and that they all have honour in special recommendation fearing the least blemishes of fame do you not behold them between the desire of honour and fear of contempt as between the hammer and the anvile enforced as it were with a happy necessitie to do well since to do ill is so chargeable You will say unto me this intention were impure to carrie ones self in praise-worthy actions by the paths of humane respects to which I agree But withal adde it may easily be purged and freed if you prefigure in your mind that so many men as watch upon our actions are so many messengers of God if you consider them not as men but as Angels of this Sovereign Majesty who are assigned for the inquisition of your actions This contemplation well imprinted in your spirit shall by little and little proceed rarifying the most gross thoughts as the Sun-beams do the vapours of the earth and you shall change this necessitie you have to do well by the honest enforcement of those who eâ—lighten you into a will so free and dis-interessed that you will ever after put on a resolution to remain in the lists of virtue although all the world should be blind You will resemble the Sun who placed in Heaven by the Creatours hand if happily he one day should chance to have no spectatours of his light would shine as radiant for the eyes of a Pismere or silly Bee as for the greatest King in the world S. Augustine Aug. de Civit Dei l. 6. c. 10. Doâ—â—â— Archimiâ—â—â— senex jam decrepitus quotidie in Capitolio Mimum agebat quasi libenter Dii spectarent quem homines desi erant An observation of S. Augustine upon â— Comedian maketh mention of an old Comedian who in his younger days after he had a long time played in the Comedies which those blind Idolaters had instituted to the honour of their gods with the general applause of the people the glory thereof did so intoxicate him that playing for the gods he acted all as for men when he grew old and not so followed by his ordinary troup of Auditours he went to the Capitol and made much ado to play his Comedies alone before the statues of his false gods doing all said he then for the gods and nothing for men If this poor Pagan had not failed in the principles of true Religion he had hit the mark It is true men many times serve to pollish our actions their presence is to us a sharp spur which makes the spirit to leap and bound beyond it self The like whereof is seen in Oratours and Preachers to whom their Auditorie sometime serves as pipes to Organs Such penetrate the clouds born upon the wings of the wind who otherwise had low flagged in the dust void of the estimation of men It would be a miserable vanitie to have no other aim than always to play for men and never for God It is fit that all these creatures should serve us for ladders to mount up to Heaven And this it is wherein men of state who are in eminent place have much advantage they are in a great Theatre which is to them a powerful spur to do well yea so forcible that it was a wonder admired by the judicious Cassius Longinus to hear it Longin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ajax said that a Grecian Captain seeing himself in a dangerous encounter involved in night and death desired not of God the safeguard of his life but onely so much day as might suffice to see himself die valiantly Behold the force of this motive to give up a life the most pretious thing in the whole world to enjoy one glimmer of a day-light which could serve to no other purpose but to enlighten his death Then Noble men who are seated in dignitie I leave it to you to conclude if you perpetually being in the mid-day and in the rays of so many as behold you who illustrate your life and make your death lightsom have cause or not to slacken or grow remiss in the course of perfection For the second reason I say the foyl setteth off the sparkling of the diamond and greatens the lustre of virtue How doth a man know what he is if he see not himself in the occasions of good and ill The triumph of virtue as Plato said very well is to have Erit illi gloria aeterna qui potuit transgredi non est transgressus Eccl. 31. Epitaph of Vacia Qui res homines fugit quem cupiditatum suarum infaelicitas relegavit alios faeliciores videre non potuit qui velut timidum atque iners animal metu oblituit ille sibi nen vivit sed quod turpissimum ventri somne libidini Senâ—c ep 55. Theophylact. in Collectan Graec. Epi. An excellent passage of Theophylact. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sin in power and virtue in will To be able to sin to be thereunto sollicited by attractive pleasure and yet not to commit it this is all which a good man can do A solitary life is not alwaies laudable if it be not guided by divine and super-natural helps as that of Saints For what honour is it for a retired man to have this Epitaph of Vacia inscribed upon him Here lyeth be who fled from the world and the affairs thereof confined
vagabonds and loytering rogues furnitures for a gibbet then judge you if it be not a madness to say you desire in all things to separate your selves far from the multitude to enworthy and distinguish your Nobilitie and yet in this one action alone you lessen and vilifie your courage even to the condition of the most captive and abominable creatures of the earth You will say That is true but a man cannot refuse a duel when he is urged Why Because shame Great want of generositie in duels and ignominie always attend say you on these denials See you not by this answer you give arms against your self and freely confess that a duel is not an action of courage For to lay apart the ordinances of the Church take but the laws of Aristotle Ethic. c. 8. a worldly man as your self and more than you doth not he most pertinently demonstrate in his Ethicks that it is not an action of valour when a souldier is valiant while his Captain hath set the enemie on one side and a river on the other to enforce him to fight or because a Sergeant of a band is ready to transfix the veins of his back with a halbard if he retire Virtue which is not virtue but for avoidance of dishonour is true pusillanimitie under the veil of false courage I then demand of you who more tyrannically assaulteth a man either the Sergeant of a band who thrusteth a sword into his reins or the point of honour which possesseth his brains Without all doubt you will agree with me that there is no tyrannie comparable to that of this mad duel which is called Point of honour And in the mean space because forsooth this goodly Sergeant of a band enforceth you and beareth you forward upon the hips with the helve of a halbard you must hasten to a duel you must go to precipitate your self into the throat of hell whereas otherwise were it not for the shame of the world you would not stir a foot Behold a brave act of courage What then shall we answer to those who provoke you That which conscience permitteth and Doctour Bannes adviseth that you seek not dens nor caverns that you go into every place with your head erected and if they shall be so temerarious as to assault you they may find you upon that defence which the law of nature permitteth Behold a good answer for a Doctour but the world is not paid in such coyn Answer them as the wisest among worldlings Augustus Caesar to Mark Anthony who challenging him in single combat he caused in plain terms to be said unto him that when the dispair of the success of his affairs should reduce him to the furious rage of hating his life yet he would find out other ways to die much more honest than by this butcherly frenzie Yea but this is an answer of a coward This coward in the mean time established the prime Empire of the world struggling by strength of arm against a torrent both of arms and opinions which hindered his passage constraining the whole world to yield obedience to his valour and he that challenged him with all his magnanimitie and courage died in the arms of a woman rage and effeminacie sharing the rest of his life as well as the triumph of his death Behold you not a goodly courage Howsoever the matter stands in refusing of a duel the dishonour of the world cannot be eschewed What is the world A mass of mad men If you have sworn to please them by sacrificing your bloud your life with the damnation of your soul are you not then the most miserable slave that ever was fettered in the guives of a rigorous servitude Are you not a soul prodigiously servile so far off are you from having one sole point of courage We then must go out of the world Leave it if you cannot live without the damnation of your soul be gone break the chains immediately But I am too much bound it is fit the goat brouse where he is fastened What counsel shall one give you You can neither go nor stay Resolve then to live in the world trampling under your feet the opinion of the world subjecting the laws of the earth to the Empire of Heaven and then fear not but you shall have courage enough The eighth REASON Proceeding from education ONe of the greatest benefits which man can receive Force of education at Gods hands is the favourable blessing of good education It is it which pollisheth and purifieth nature as one would do a precious stone wholly defiled with earth and filthy ordure it is it which maketh men become Angels and without it the goodliest and best natures would perpetually dwell in brutishness The Historie of A wolf-child Germanie telleth us that heretofore a child was taken in the forrests which was presented to Henrie Landgrave of Hassia From four years old he had been bred among wolves the wolves taught him to go on four feet as a bruit beast he went a forraging with the wolves he divided the prey with the wolves he slept amongst the wolves to be the more warm to conclude he wholly became wolf When he came to be made tractable and tame they were enforced to tie his hands to staves to teach him to go as men do yet did he break all to return to the condition of a wolf so powerful is the force and tyrannie of education Another sucking the milk of a sow took a singular pleasure to wallow in the dirt and lambs nourished with goats milk retain the roughness of hair Hereupon judge O you Noblemen what obligation you have to the Divine Majesty and what motive to tread the paths of perfection since ordinarily as I intend here to prove you meet with all those things which may conduce to the happiness of good education How many spirits think you are there in Defect in education the world that for want of education remain as diamonds buried in a dung-hill which if once you unearth and free from rust and putrefaction will set the sun before your eyes Behold an infant blessed with a beautiful bodie a fair spirit but yet born with a yoak on his neck the yoak of povertie and servitude Misery of want The condition of his birth hath shut him in a cage what means then I pray hath he to work wonders As soon as ever he beginneth to open his eyes he beholdeth himself to be born in a house hanged round about with cobwebs he beholdeth his father and mother to groan under the burden of a needy life his brothers and sisters to roul the same stone There is no question made of civil education instruction or knowledge bread must be sought for so much sollicitude must be had onely to live as bruit beasts that no leisure will be found to think how to live like a man and admit it were thought on there are no books in this poor cottage but rotten
Exaltationes Dei in gutture corum gladii ancipites in manibus corum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal 49. Jud. 5. v. 14. Interp. 70. Interpetum à Rupert in Genes careful to carrie with them into the deserts timbrels to praise God with than arms to defend themselves Praises go before curtlaxes and all warlike engins The Captains of the valourous Debora are for the same cause termed in Scripture Notaries because they went into the war with pen and sword The sword to fight with and the pen to write the praises of God If you demand of Rupertus why in Genesis when all creatures are spoken of there is not one word of the sphear of fire he will answer you that fire because of its barren unfruitfulness is the symbol of ingratitude and for that purpose it is not once mentioned in the place where question was made of the sacrifice of acknowledgement If you ask of S. Chrysostom why God coming to give a law to his people appeared amongst briers and thorns he will tell you it was to shew to this ungrateful people the deformity of their ingratitude signified by those thorny plants S. Ambrose likewise Ambros 1. 6. Hexam c. 4. observeth it was the providence of heaven to give young Tobie an Angel and a god for companions of his voyage The Angel to do him good offices and the dog who is most sensibly mindful to cause him to remember a benefit See you not the world and the law are extended and disposed one in his creatures and the other in all his precepts to impress gratitude in our hearts One of the Ancients Marcus Aurel 1. Antonius de vita sua 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said that to die ungrateful was the most infamous death might be imagined Would you then Nobles have your bodies buried in Churches in places most eminent and conspicuous yet spare not to make ingratitude a sepulchre for your souls Adde hereunto presently a consideration well worthy to be pondered that by how much the benefits you have received from the liberal hand of Almighty God are great and glorious so much the more is it a hideous thing to repay them in the coyn of ingratitude Follow the foot-steps of the Excellent practice of S. Augustine to encourage himself to gratitude Oracle of Doctours S. Augustine pursue the practice which he used to enflame himself to grateful acknowledgements Go ye upon the brink of abysses and speak to Nothing which is not at all nor ever was nor ever shall be Cast up your age and demand of it Where were you so many years It will reply to your heart with dumb words and tell you That which you have been it is And what have you done to God to be at this time that which it is not Take into your hand a Diamond it will tell you it hath essential being with you but it liveth not and what have you done to God to have life above the same Go to Cedars and Palm-trees and you shall understand they have life common with you but you sense above them Under what title was it due to you with what money did you purchase it Go to Eagles and Lions and they will tell you they have sense common with you but you have reason an incomparable good above them You have judgement memory understanding free-will you are men and they are beasts What have you done to God to be made man to be a reasonable creature capable of an infinite good What have you done before your being to be that which you are What sacrifice have you presented being as then in nothing to be born into the world supereminently prelated above all the creatures of the world Well admit you had deserved your being Where have you merited your well-being Say you had merited to be men where have you deserved to be Christians to be selected by the hand of God from so many infinite nations which daily people hell to be washed with the bloud of his Son to be regenerated by the waters of baptism to be impressed with his own stamp to be beautified with his grace supported with his merits enlightened with his knowledge protected under his wings and the shelter of his Angels to have all the means and opportunitie to begin in the world a celestial life and afterward to reign in Heaven for ever and there to remain absorpt in an ocean of pleasures and felicities At what price have you bought all that Are you not a jadish mule to suck such a teat and then to kick with your heels But you say it is common to you with all Christians Particular obligations of Noblemen I answer the Sun is no less the Sun to you for that it enlighteneth the eyes of a Pismear But behold what personally toucheth you and that which you cannot forget without disloyal ingratitude Nature hath cast all men in one and the same mould all are equal according to birth all equal in death who useth to measure with the same ell Linsy-woolsey and cloth of Tissue But what inequality is there in the conditions of life It seemeth when the course of each mans estate and fortune is well considered there is more difference between man and man than between man and beast How many creatures are born ever in the fetters of miserable servitude and salute life with a yoak on their neck And behold you are not onely born free but Noble but great but eminent you come into the world like Diadumenus with a diadem of honour on your foreheads How many do you behold born with very great disproportion of bodie with bunched backs crookedness maladies deformities which they are enforced to carrie with them from their mothers womb to their grave And behold you are born with a bodie well composed that nature hath framed to serve as a Cabinet for the soul which God would lodge in How many stupid gross and obscure spirits unjoynted judgements irregular brains are there in the world And yet God hath given to you a spirit capable of all kind of lights knowledges a judgement well grounded a faithful memory and all the moveables of a fair soul How many children come into the world as little abortives and are afterward left without instruction guid or conduct as lees and dregs of the creatures of the earth And behold how all things co-operate to your education How many millions of mortals daily dissolve into poverty in a wretched and needy life in extream miseries which make them feed upon gall and every day to drench part of their life in tears And behold you are born to great patrimonies infinite riches large revenues behold not onely men and beasts but all the elements also are kept in breath to contribute to your services your magnificence your felicities your delights How many are at the foot of the wheel trampled on and oppressed under the tyrannie of men many times more cruel than wild and savage beasts And
often observed that Noblemen who have established tyrannie in the world have neither been fruitful nor fortunate in their posteritie and as nature is scantie in the propagation of wolves designed for spoil which otherwise would bring all the world into desolation so Almightie God by a secret oeconomie of his divine Providence permitteth not that great men who have made themselves disturbers of publick peace and infringers of laws both divine and human whereof they ought to be protectours should make the bruitishness of their savage souls to survive them in their posterity But as for those who are arranged in the list of sanctitie and modesty God hath as it were immortalized their bloud in their posteritie as we see it happen in worthie and illustrious families But to what value amounteth all this which I have said in comparison of that crown of glorie which God placeth on the heads of Noblemen in the other life when they have virtuously governed in this mortal mansion O what a brave death it is to die under the shadow of the Palms of so many heroical virtues Oh it is the death of a Phoenix to die in the odours of a holy conversation to change his sepulchre into a cradle and even draw life out of the Tomb Oh what an immortalitie it is to survive eternally in the mouths of men but much more to live in Heaven enjoying the knowledge love life and felicitie of God! O Nobles betake your selves betimes and in a good hour to the way of this temple of honour by the exercise of holy virtues which are like Elias chariot all flaming with glory to carrie your purified souls even to the height of the Emperial Heaven THE SECOND BOOK Of Hinderances which worldly men have in the way of SALVATION and PERFECTION The first OBSTACLE Faintness and weakness of Faith Against Atheists HAving sufficiently proved the obligations which Great-ones and men of qualitie have to perfection let us now see the hinderances which may stop the increase thereof as well to take from them all pretext of false libertie as to denote the confusions very frequent in the corruptions of this Age. The first is a certain languor and debilitie of faith which openeth the way to all sorts of vices so that putting all the greatness of the world into a false seeming it beholdeth Paradise and all the blessings of the other life with blear-eyes and clouded with a perpetual eclipse And that you may well Two sects of men conceive this let us observe that in this Age greatly changed by heresie libertie and vice two sorts of men are to be seen whereof the one doth symbolize with just Abel and the other are of the sect of Cain These two brothers began to contend together even in the worlds cradle as Jacob and Esau in the bellie of Rebecca Abel had a soul impressed with a good stamp religious docile pure perpetually fixed in the chaste apprehensions of the Divinitie Cain quite contrary an impious soul greatly infected with the serpents breath black variable wavering in faith and in the virtue of the Divine providence He verily is the father of Atheists and S. Bernard hath properly Bern. serm 24 in Contic Fideicida antequam fratricida Procop. in Genes said He killed faith before he murdered his brother Procopius calleth him the son of the earth because this unfortunate creature perpetually looked downward having already as it were buried in the tomb of oblivion the lights and knowledges of heaven From thence proceeded the irreverence of his unbridled spirit his wicked sacrifices his envie against his brother afterward his furie murder and bloud and lastly a deluge of calamities The onely example of his disaster should suffice to terrifie those who following him in his impietie make themselves undoubtedly the companions of his misfortune but since it also is expedient we proceed herein by discourse and reason I observe the causes and remedies of this infidelitie Faintness and debilitie in Three sorts of consciences from which impiety springs faith and consequently atheism is formed in three sorts of consciences to wit the criminal the bruitish the curious Atheism proceedeth from a criminal conscience when a soul findeth it self involved in a long web of crimes and as it were overwhelmed in the habits of sin In the mean time God doth inwardly Horrible state of a sinful conscience torture prick forward and scourge it and then all bloudy and ulcerous as it is not able longer to remain within it self but tasting so many disturbances in its proper mansion it searcheth evasions and starting-holes expatiateth in the pleasures and delights of the world to dissolve her many griefs and findeth in every thing her gnawing worm She looketh back upon the path of virtue which she hath either forsaken or never trodden as an impossible track the spirit of lies representing it unto her all paved with thorns and briars she re-entereth into herself and saith in her heart that there is none but God who afflicteth her and that necessarily she must free herself from him for our felicities are measured by the ell of our opinion and no man is miserable but he that apprehendeth his own unhappiness Then soothing herself with these humane discourses she herein much laboureth to acquit herself from God from the belief of judgement of hell and the immortality of the soul Notwithstanding she cannot albeit these wicked spirits have scoffed at the mysteries of Religion with their companions as if they would put on a bold fore-head and an impudence strong enough to endure a stroke so dreadful but contend against the essence of God Care findeth them in their bed and is pinned to their silken curtains the thoughts of a Divinitie which they supposed to have totally banished from their hearts in pleasures upon Et ubi Deus non timetur nisi ubi non est Tert. de prescrip 41. Ponam eam possessionem Ericii Isaiah 14. 2. the least afflictions return and make themselves felt with very piercing points which head-long throw them into despair The Prophet Isaiah hath divinely prophesied of such a soul I will make her the inheritance and possession of hedge-hogs Verily the miserable caytif hatcheth in her entrails a thousand little hedge-hogs which as they encrease make their pricks and darts multiply a thousand gnawings a thousand apprehensions as uncapable of repose as apt to afflict a conscience Such heretofore was the state of Nero for this Condition of Nero. barbarous monster who so often had dipped his hand in bloud sought out a bath of delights to bath himself in he ran up and down to prie into all the inventions of the pleasures of the world to rid himself from the arrow which he had in his heart and to dispoil himself for ever of an opinion of the Divinitie This was a matter for him impossible When he was at feasts sports or Theatres the apprehension of God stung his heart as a Bee and
corn to the mil who go even into the ocean to fish for habits and attires for them and most times live within four fingers of death to give them means to flow in delicacies Onely death it is that taketh no suretie For whch cause man dieth in his own person and laboureth by deputie If death would a little give way no Great man would die but by Attorney Out alas O the justice of God how equally dost thou still hold the ballance They that would not here labour as men thou makest them take pain like infernal spirits thou dissolvest the sweat of poor paysants in the consolation of their souls and thou seasonest the delights of rich men with care melancholy dolour jealousie envy anxiety terrours and remorse which are able to make them sweat bloud Were there no other proof this manifestly enough declareth to us how odious this curiositie of Great men is to the Divine Majesty and how punishable since its own delights are changeâ— into chastisements Yet notwithstanding I will produce some reasons that the unworthiness of this wicked excess may punctually be touched with the finger which now adays overfloweth the whole face of the earth First I say it is extreamly unreasonable to be desirous Remedies and reasons against excess to live in the world with reason against all reason to endeavour to put a reasonable creature into a condition of life where it of necessity must bely the law of God and its proper nature O Noblemen God would that you enter into the world like othermen as into a vale of tears and you will arrive there as in a garden of delicacies He would that you come thither as to the mynes to dig and you go thither as to a dicing-house to play he would that you make passage into a servile flesh to obey and you will command Is not this a sin against nature Cross of nature Nemo impune nascitur omnis vita supplicium est To come into the world is to come upon a cross to be man is to stretch out the hands and feet to be crucified The first bed that an infant maketh coming from his mothers womb is on the cross He is as soon in a cross as in nature and suffereth this punishment for no other cause but for that he is born a man The Emperours of Constantinople had in their Palace The purple chamber of Emperours Anna Commena lib. 6. Luitprand de rebus Europ Cyprian de patient Procellas mundi quos ingreditur statim suo ploratu gemitu rudis anima testatur a secret chamber which they called the Purple in which the Empresses for a ceremonious formality were brought to bed and delivered thinking by this means to abolish the acerbities which are as it were affixed to our condition But these petty Porphyrogenites so these children of Emperours were called because they were born in scarlet were notwithstanding born with a cross and saluted life as others with tears and groans The children of Kings come al into the world through this gate of miseries they are born as with a diadem on their fore-heads and yet fail not to be natures little prisoners It is accounted a goodly thing to give them guilded cradles and silken swathing-bands This is to adorn their chains but not to break them they are as well captive in them as heretofore the prisoners in India who rotted in poverty and calamitie even in golden fetters It is a decree of Almighty God O Great-ones that you must be born with the cross on your back and you will cancel it if this yet might be practised with some reasonable evasion and mediocrity it would seem more tolerable but now adays this excess is so enraged that it will plant the tropheys of pride and voluptuousness upon the calamities of mankind What is not done upon tables What is not done in apparel Men cloath as if they were always to live and eat as if they should every day die We prepare an Altar to a false Deitie Tyranny of the belly which at this day with unspeakable violence swayeth in the world It is a bruitish god if you desire to know him for never had he an ounce of of brain A blind god who hath no eyes to behold the miseries of the earth A deaf god who hath no ears to hear the complaints of the afflicted A truantly god who hath no hands to take pains An immoveable god who hath no feet to travel on An effeminate god who hath no heart to undertake any good nor courage to suffer ills A gluttonous god Philip. 2. Quorum Deus venter est gloria in confusione ipsorum Tertul. advers Psych Deus tibi venter est pulmo templum aqualiculus altare sacerdos coquus spiritus sanctus nidor condimenta charismata ructus prophetia vâ—tus est who gourmandizeth all An unclean god who polluteth all This false god according to the Apostle is the belly His temple saith Tertullian is the lungs his Altar the panch his Priest the Cook his holy Ghost the smoke of meats his grace the sauces his prophesie that which may not civilly be spoken As he in his person is enormous so is he no less prodigious in his tyranny It is a wonder to see how he hath his officers in every place For him war is waged against the air and clouds birds are disnestled from the Kingdom which nature hath allowed them For him the face of the earth is turned into a shambles For him seas are sounded depths are plummeted ship-wracking storms and direful tempests are ferried over Man willingly would penetrate heaven and delve even to hell to find out new sacrifices for this fleshly and carnal god and himself being alive he is made the sepulchre of so many massacres that it is a miracle how one man can live who daily burieth so many dead creatures in his entrails All this hurly-burly which Gourmandize emptieth the air earth and seas is made for a stomach four fingers broad for which a little bread and water would suffice in necessity and in superfluity the whole world is too little to satisfie We know not what course to take to find out new curiosities for the palate We sup up oysters alive we seek out mushromes we will know what tast hath the flesh of tortoyses and snails These poor little creatures had good cause to believe that their meanness would enfranchize them but sottish and fordid gluttony draweth a tribute from all and I think their tast will shortly be taken with serpents and ravens But let us not onely accuse the belly the eyes devour more than it They are delighted to behold fishes to swim in a sea of sugar to see forrests nets huntings birds wild beasts houses castles fields arms of sugar had licourousness of tast so much power as it hath little brain it would make a world of sugar and then would dissolve it to be
blown up and cracked in a moment but the hell of envy is an admirable hell for it is a voluntary hell where nothing pleaseth and each thing tormenteth a hell which conteineth fire in it and affordeth no light a hell which always hath the worm present and never the remedy a hell which surprizeth by the eies and diveth even into the heart a hell which incessantly devoureth and never consumeth which hath mischiefs without hopes toyls void of repose and torments without mercy which is as the common fever of all the gall of this universe which exerciseth rage and fury which hath the wanness of death without dying and the cares of a disastrous life without life To divert the hearts of men from it I can propose but two reasons the first shall discover the malignity and the other the calamity thereof It is true that all vices are steeped in the venom of malice which should be a powerful motive for those to fly them who naturally love goodness but Greg. Thaum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basil Seleuc. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyprian de◠zelo livore Greg. Niss in vita Mosis envy hath I know not what kind of particular influence which maketh it infinitely odious and execrable S. Gregory Thaumaturgus saith it is a wasp of Satan which stingeth men as the gad-flie doth oxen S. Basil of Seleucia calleth it the mother of murders S. Cyprian the moth of souls and S. Gregory Nyssen a disease of nature a poysoned gall the root of vices the mother of death and a voluntary Phthisical consumption All the ancient Fathers breath out fire flames when they discourse of it and indeed never can they speak enough of it Besides their authority which is of great value reason herein is very potent For we must needs affirm that by how much the more a vice participateth of the nature of Divels who are as it were the patrons of si by so much the more it is a vice and envy is of the same condition for it is the sin by singularity of denomination called the sin of the Divel As in heaven the first was the sin of pride so the first on earth was that of envy committed by the spirit of impurity and S. Augustine excellently saith envy is a vice Sap. 2. invidiâ diaholi mors introivit in orbem terrarum Aug. l. 2. de doct Christianâ meerly diabolical a sin which defileth the Divels and irrecoverably damneth them It shall not be said to Satan in the sentence of his damnation that he hath polluted the beds of men by his adulteries that he hath taken the goods of other men by his rapines that he hath seized on demains and possessions driving away the lawful owners but that he hath envied the felicity of man The same Authour saith on the Epistle to the Galatians that this vice Homini stanti invidisti Aug. in Epist ad Galat citatur in glossa In zelo invidiae tota sua viscera serpens concutit in haec imprimenda quasi pestem vomit hath the property to pour into the heart of men the poyson of the enemie Yea so it is that particularly the infernal serpent when he imprinteth the sin of envy in the heart of man doth turmoyl his very bowels and extreamly striveth as it were to vomit the blackest pestilence which hell conteineth Dicourse even with your self whether the envious be not tainted with a special malignity since that beyond all other sinners they transcendently suck in the breath of the serpent This black malice more easily discovereth it-self in this than in all the other mortal sins which are verily great exorbitancies of nature but they seem to have some pretext which mollifieth the evill The thief robbeth for his profit the carnal man seeketh out his unlawfull lusts to extinguish the fire of his passion the covetous man saith he is upon good husbandry the ambitious flattereth himself with the thirst of honour which hath heretofore born sway upon Altars and so of other sins their malice hath allways some heat of passion of apparence of good to excuse them But the envious what can he propose but a cold malignity a black cruelty a will determinately ill without sembleance of good Yea you shall find many that are in infinit abundanceas dogs couched on hay who will not eat thereof for it is not their custome nor are they willing other creatures for whom God hath ordained it should come neer it Many there are as Tantalus ever in the middest of fountains yet drink not and perpetually beholding him with a jealous eye that would tast therof The fable of the two envious men so celebrated is not feigned we too much approve it in our manners For it being permitted them to choose what each would aske on this condition that his request being allowed him his companions share be doubled the first who was extreamly covetous had all his desires fixed in the earnest demand of gold and silver but discoursing with himself that by asking he should doe a pleasure to another this onely consideration stayed him and never would he afterward open his mouth to make such a request the other made choise to loose one of his own eyes that his companion might have it doubled and be deprived of both How many are there at this day in the world who embarked with their enemies in the same vessel care not to perish so that they dying may glut their eyes with the death of those whom they hate A most strange malignity to forget the preservation of ones own person to which we are by nature streightly obliged to ruin another The eyes of Gorgons the hissing of serpents the aspect of basilisks are nothing in comparison of an enraged Courtier when he beholdeth him to be carried on the wings of favour whom he would gladly see utterly confounded without recovery Doe we not behold the eyes of a dog when the fortune of another is envied and the heart of a stag when question is made of the works of courage Where are not men to be seen who devour one another alive with mischievous aspects and carry even on their foreheads the gall of their envenomed hearts Where are not such malign spirits to be found who play at fast and loose thrusting him in an instant down to the lowest part of the wheel who was at the top At the Court all things most commonly fall short but malice and envy It is verily the extremity of misery when great ones doe with an open ear too much grace the designs of the envious making themselves as it were instruments of a furious pancher for the ruin of the innocent If we ought to stop our ears with wax among the songs of Syrens here we have need to have them all of diamond What can the envious man expect from this diabolical malice but the reward of Cain in the separation from the sight of God and perpetual affrightments O Cain
sooner is he engaged in one way but his feet itch to transfer him to another If he be upon terms of repulse behold Envie him drenched in desperate and furious envie which maketh him daily die as many deaths as there are others more happy than himself Verily the wheel of Ixion is a silly fable in comparison of the tortures of the ambitious That was a sport which The wheel of Heliogabalus Lampridius i◠Heliogab Heliogabalus did when he took his Courtiers and commanded them to be tied and trussed fast to a great wheel and then rolled and turned them up and down in the water taking infinite pleasure to see them sometime aloft sometime below sometime to tast the sweetness of the air and sometime to be deeply plunged in the water whereof necessity they drank more than enough Ambitious men daily act the same play but they personate it tragically their life is wholly composed of leaps bounds and skips they are the very reeds the very shuttle-cocks of inconstancy they are meer wind-blown haloones which are tossed this way and that way sometime with the foot sometime with the hand They are enforced upon all occasions to bear the fools bable and they miserable have drunk with so long and deep draughts of the water of forgetfulness that they cannot awaken themselves from their drunkenness until death come to close up their eyes Were it not a thousand times better to plant coleworts and roast chessnuts than to live amongst so many servile complacences unworthy of a noble spirit so many frustrated pretensions so many illusions so many scornful repulses so many hopes which crack like a cloud and raise a tempestuous storm where shade and sweet refreshment is expected It is a wonder to behold men to betray their reason to Captivity of charges court the fortunes of Great men to bereave themselves of comfort repose and liberty to be surprized in a mill full of skreaking noises in a confused turmoyl of difficult and thorny affairs poorly to beg a little favour which perpetually escapeth them and oftentimes breaks as a glass in the beauty of its lustre Petrarch dialog 47. l. 1. de remediis Sua negotia gerere laboriosum quid censeas aliena precipue potentium quibus placuisse perpetua servitusest displicuisse discrimen Ex quo ambitioni servire caepisti tibi vivere desiisti Vilis tibi est anima virtus fama quies otium securitas Vix diligunt Reges nisi qui omnibas neglectis se eorum libidini servum fecit Petrarch well acquainted with these considerations spake these most remarkeable words Miserable ambitious men every one hath so much trouble to spin the web of his own affairs and to bring them to a good end and thou with much chearfulness of heart pryest into other mens business yea into the affairs of Greatmen whom it is impossible to please without perpetual servitude nor displease without most evident danger After you began to serve others you ceased to live to your self life virtue renown repose safeguard all is lost to thee Great men love none but such who forsake all to make themselves slaves to their passions What swears of death saith Monsieur D'Ancre never to have one hour of rest to be enforced to give audiences troublesom tumultuous and clamorous to hear and receive suits and unjust supplications to be embroyled in affairs replenished with knots and thorns to make manual signatures devoid of conscience that you may not displease a Great man to grant unlawful decrees wicked commissions attended by infamous executions Although the pretensions of ambition were a whole world can they deserve to be purchased with the prejudice of conscience What would it avail man to be absolute Lord of the whole Universe for a time and a sacrifice of hell for ever But that which maketh the madness of ambitious men much more ridiculous and deplorable is that they all their life time take pains for wind for smoke for nothing The world useth them as Laban did poor Jacob after The ambitious travel for Rachel and find Lea. he had been roasted congealed afflicted hammered on all sides he thought to have a fair Rachel and found a blear-eyed wench by his side Every day a thousand fair promises a thousand hopes a thousand fancies and no effect This fair Rachel this pretended honour after so many services cometh not disgrace much more ugly than was Lea is to be found in the same bed of repose It oftentimes happeneth the greatest men who have Quosdam cum in consummationem dignitatis per mille indignitates irrepsissent misera subit cogitatio ipsos laborasse in titulum sepulchri Senec. de brevit vitae c. 19. Tragical events Esther passed some thirty some fourty years to build a fortune with a thousand disturbances a thousand indignities find they must part with this world and that they have heaped up nothing but a poor title to make a fragment of an Epitaph on their tomb that is it which the Latine Philosopher bravely pronounced Yet are these the most fortunate Others without ever setting foot into pretended greatness fall piece-meal into ruin They are tragical stage-plays where the successes of the ambitious may be read both in sacred and profane histories An Haman hanged on a gibbet fifty cubits high to be beheld a far off and on a gibbet which he had prepared for a man whom he deigned not to rank amongst the number of his slaves An Absalom after he had disturbed the Court 2 Reg. 18. of his father found snairs in the hairs of his own head to entangle him as it is said to a fatal tree and die transfixed with the sharp points of three lances An Abimelech after he had made his enraged ambition Judic 9. float in the bloud of threescore and ten of his own brethren crushed under a tyle thrown from the hand of a woman Nebuchadnezzar became a beast Semiramis slain in a bruitish passion by the hand of her own son Caesar gored with many stabs of daggers in the Senate-house Pompey after he had caused goldē mountains to be carried in triumph finding no more land to conquer he having gained so much wanted five or six foot of ground to make him a sepulchre Another who had taken for ensign a world with the helm of a ship and his Motto Hoc opus shewing that Riorius apud Typotium Euxenides Guevar Courtis 26. 4. his ambitions transported him not to any lower pitch than the worlds conquest found himself to be in a worse estate than if he had been a swabber in a ship Another favorite of Ptolomey King of Aegypt mounted to so high a degree of honour that he had but two discontentments in this life the one that he could grow no more so great he was become the other that the King with all his revenues seemed to him too poor to adde any encrease of riches Few days after this miserable creature was
Ancients both Greek and Latine they will tell us wonders but let us hearken to Holy Scripture and Fathers First Immisit Deus soporem in Adam cumquè obdormivisset tulit unam de costis ejus replevit carnem pro eá aedificavit Deus costam quam tulerat in mulierem Adam particeps Angelicae curiae intravit in sanctuarium Dei August l. 9. de Genes ad lit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aquila 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Symach 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tertul. Accidentium spiritus in Genesis chap. 2. where the creation of woman is declared it is said that God caused a profound sleep to steal upon Adam and that being asleep he drew woman out of his side These words are very considerable What meaneth it that God before he made woman caused sleep to steal into the eyes of Adam I will not here tell you that some have glossed that he could not have admitted this production of woman in any other manner but I affirm with the Septuaginta this sleep was an extasie with Saint Augustine that it was a repture and with others a trance of spirit For he then had need enough to fortifie himself with consideration since woman came into the world who would bid him many battels Poor Adam fell into an apoplexy into a convulsion into swooning fits as already feeling the cross thwartings passions and afflictions he should receive from woman Moreover who can but admire the phrase which the Scripture useth in this creation where it is said woman was built Good God! what meaneth this thou already hadst erected so many goodly buildings Heaven and earth the high and low stations of the world thou hadst created Adam with a plentiful concurrence of many parts and yet the Scripture saith not thou then didst build but when woman was to be created God built God made his first piece of architecture And why It is because woman is a house wherein the heart of man should inhabit who is alas there but too often captive Or is it that a woman costs as much in making as a fair house To build a house you must have so much sand lime stone timber iron-work manufactures hands strokes of hammers masons carpenters and to dress and attire a woman so many coiffs kerchiefs cawls so many false hairs paintings gowns petticotes chopins verdingals whalebones so many carcanets gold chains jewels gemmes attendants that a house were almost as soon built as a woman furnished What doth she when she is built Saint Augustine saith she becomes the scholler of a serpent the gate of sin the fountain of errour and the rust of pietie Good God! what unhappiness is this If from the side of man a flaming dart or keen sword had been drawn they would have done less hurt than an evil woman which I speak without prejudice of the virtuous The first woman ungrateful towards God a traiteress to her husband a murderess of her race made a bridge for Satan to pass into the world and needs would lodge him in her heart whom God had confined to the deep pit of hell Others who have prostituted themselves to evil for these five thousand sixe hundred and thirtie years that the world hath circumvolved have acted upon this large Theatre of many forms so many bloudy tragedies that they make histories to blush thereat The daughters of Loth the Thamars Athaliaes Jezabels Vasties Helenaes Fredegondaes approve it and their ashes also incessantly produce others into the world Work-mistresses of all mischief Alas Mothers instruct your daughters well whilst they are young breed them up in the fear of God frame them to duty imprint on their tender hearts as with a searing-iron the love of chastity modesty in their behaviour and devotion in their souls And you young men who suffer your selves to be cheated and deceived by impudent women permitting them to bewitch you with love-drinks and wicked attractives open your eyes and behold the precipice before you and then I doubt not you will abhor it Trust not their familiar conversation Efficacissimum est glutinum ad capiendas animas mulieris August and dalliances know they are full of danger and that there is not any can resist them without the particular grace of God Strength little availeth the Sampsons sunk to the ground Wisdom is to seek the Solomons fell Valour therein is short the Davids found it Sanctity is not free from their batteries the Elishaes were persecuted by women and the John Baptists therein lost their heads That venerable face those eyes enflamed with heavenly rays which won reverence from the wild beasts of the desert could not mollifie a female dancer That wise head where the maxims of eminent virtues resided was taken from the shoulders of a Saint carried in a dish to a banquet by the sacrilegious hands of a shameless woman That tongue from whence distilled a stream of honey was pricked and pierced with a bodkin wherewith the wretch used to curle her hair Now according to the counsel of Saint Chrysostom take into your hands this bloudy head ask of it O head which should never die who hath drenched thee into the wanness of death Who hath bathed thee in this bloud Who hath put out thine eyes the torches of the elect and thunder-strokes of the wicked Who hath layed an eternal silence on that tongue which first of all announced the Kingdom of Heaven The love of women Lyons and Tigers reverenced me in wildernesses and women massacred me in a Kings Palace women mingled my bloud with wine and made me as a pompous morsel of their tragical banquets When I say this I not onely accuse women but carnal men who suffer themselves to be allured and surprized with sottish love and trampling under foot the honour of God the presence of Heaven and Angels the conjugal bed and faith promised to their wives wallow themselves in execrable adulteries which fill families with opprobrie confusion and tragedies why say I families nay Kingdomes and Empires and if we will well examine it we shall find the greatest part were turned topsie-turvie by foolish love O you that sigh hearing speech of the furious disorders this unhappy sin brings into the world I beseech you with Saint Paul by the very bowels of our Lords mercy offer your bodies to God as an hoast lively holy and acceptable to the Divinity and you especially who are in the state of marriage entertain your beds honourable and chaste cemented with a perpetual knot of faith love and peace that God may please thereon perpetually to shower down from on high his holy benedictions and after the course of this painful life crown you with comforts in the glory of the Blessed The thirty fifth SECTION That the evils of marriage ought not to be imputed to sex but sin and of the disorders committed in this Sacrament IF the unhappiness of marriages proceeded onely from women we might necessarily conclude they were alwayes unfortunate
rich Tell me was it not an honour to King Agathocles who from being the son of a potter raised his fortune to a Throne was it not I say an honour to mingle on his cup-boards earthen vessels with his rich pieces of gold and silver plate that he might not bely his birth Nay so far was he from blushing or from being ashamed at it that he made boast and trophey of it What then would he have done by his poor father if he set such a value upon the mean implements of his cottage And thou wholly Christian as thou art canst not behold without confusion of thy countenance what a great Captain a great King a great States-man sought to proclaim to all the world Contempt of the person of fathers entreth sometimes so far into their souls as it hath transported them into horrible and tragick acts Never have I read any thing upon this subject with more amazement than that mentioned in Justine of a certain African named Cartallus who was by the peoples consent raised to an eminent degree of dignity and casually upon some solemn embassage sent into a place where his father with many other was banished He looking on himself at that time like a peacock gloriously furnished out with the rich ornaments of his employment thought it was not suitable to his honour to admit that his father should so much as see him The unfortunate father became so enraged with this refusal and pride of his son that instantly he raised a sedition and mustering together a tumultuary Army of exiles he fell upon his son although a Magistrate took him condemned him to death presently prepared a high gibbet and attired as he was in gold scarlet with a crown on his head caused him to be fastened to this fatal tree for a strange spectacle What fury of despised nature is this and what butchery Let us pass on to the third tribute obedience which as an Ancient said is the mother of felicities It is the first band of families and chief foundation of Monarchies S. Gregory Nyssen hath a notable observation saying that Moses of set purpose caused the Hebrews to wear ear-rings giving them thereby to understand their beauty and grace was in the ear to wit in obedience and verily in Exodus the people Exod. 32. Tollite inaures filiarum vestrarum auribus asserte ad me Filius noster iste protervus contamax est monitis mostris audire contemnit comessationibus vacat luxuriâ atque convitiis Lapidibus eum obruet populus morietur Deuter. 21. a Aelian var hist lib. 1. beginning to revolt their ear-rings were taken from them as from men unworthy of this priviledge That which is expressed in Deuteronomie is much more bloudy and terrible where the father and mother are permitted to bring forth a disobedient and refractary son in publick and upon their own deposition to cause him to be stoned to death by the people It seems this Law was well understood by a silly Pesant a Mardonian by Nation named Rachones a who being the father of seven sons perceived the youngest of them played the little libertine and unbridled colt What doth he to bring him back into the stable First he endeavoured to cure him with fair words and reasons but finding him to reject all manner of good counsel he bound his hands behind him carried him before a Magistrate accused him and requires he may be proceeded against as a delinquent against nature The Judges who would not discontent this incensed father nor hazard the life of this young man sent them both to the King who at that time was Artaxerxes The good man went thither resolved to seek his sons death where pleading before the King with much servour and forcible reasons Artaxerxes stood amazed at his courage But how can you my friend said he endure to see your son die before your face He being a gardiner as willingly said he as I would pull away leaves from a ranck lettice and not hurt the root The King perceiving this resolution and zeal of justice in the poor man of a gardiner made him a Judge and severely threatened his son with death if his carriage were not better See young man behold wicked son who disobeyest thy father and mother not in a slight matter or of little importance but in such as concerns thy life safety and reputation see what thou maist expect from the justice of God since that of men hath so much severity in this point You dare dispense with your selves in the Laws of piety and Religion not shewing even on festival days any more feeling of God than a beast doth this seem tolerable you haunt the company of buffons wicked and wretched creatures which wast the means that are not yours weaken your body violate your reputation and defile your soul and is not this a crime You make resolutions and frame chymaeraes without advise either of father or mother you bring them into debt you treat clandestine marriages you thrust those alive unto their graves who gave you life and can you think the vengeance of God will ever have leaden feet Faithless and bruitish as you are how many fathers for far less faults have inflicted severities on their children dreadful even to those who read them Marcus Scaurus in the Roman history sent this message to his son who fled with the rest of his Army defeated by the Cimbrians Son you are born of a father who knows either to vanquish or die rather send me your bones than return alive after the death of your honour A father could not endure the flight of a son which was very excusable in a general defeat because it seemed to cast some blemish upon his family and you who surcharge your house with reproach and confusion would you escape unpunished Another father Aulus Fulvius understanding his son had rancked himself in the faction of Catiline a wicked wretch who supported and debaushed all the youth of Rome caused him to be taken in the place and condemned to death and this young man begging pardon with all manner of suppliant intreaties had no other answer but Son I begat you to make war upon Catiline in your Countries quarrel not in Catilines cause to assayl your mother And who can but wonder at another Torquatus that had a son in great employments of the Empire flourishing in honour age and reputation who being accused by the Embassadours of Macedonia to have ill carried himself in their Province when he had it in charge this father with the Senats permission would himself be Judge in the sons cause heard the accusers two whole days together confronted witnesses gave his son full scope to defend himself and to produce all that he could for his justification in the end on the third day he pronounced sentence It having sufficiently been proved unto me that my son Syllanus hath ill acquitted his charge and taken money from the allies of
the Roman People contrary to the command of Laws and honesty I declare him from this time forward unworthy both of the Common-wealth and my house The unfortunate son was so overwhelmed with melancholy upon this judgement given by his father that the next night he killed himself and the father esteeming him degenerate would not so much as honour his funerals with his presence Good God what severity what thunders what lightnings against the disobedience of sons among Pagans And you wicked sons in Christianity where the Law of love should oblige you to the duty which I prove unto you with an adamantine knot do you think all is permitted you And you fathers are not you most worthy of your unhappiness when you cherish by a negligent and soft indulgence the disobediences of your children which you should root up from their infancy and not suffer them to grow to the prejudice of your houses with so many bloudy tragedies as are daily seen in the mournful theater of the worlds Fili suscipe senium tam patris tui non contristes eum in vitâ illius si defecerint sensus veniam da non spernas eum in tuâ virtute Eccles 3. Qui timeâ— Deum honorat pareâ—tes quasi Dominis serviet iis qui segenuerunt miseries Let us conclude upon the fourth duty of children which is succour Son receive the old age of thy father and mother in thy bosom Take heed thou do not contristate them in any kind Beware thou scornest them not if they chance to fall into any debility of spirit Assist them with all thy might It followeth The child which feareth God never fails either in the honour or ayd he should yield to his parents nay more be shall serve them as a servant his Master We need not here seek out examples in holy Scripture or where the Law of nature is handled the more our proofs are taken from Infidels who had nothing at all but the light of reason so much the more clour and weight they have I will not make mention here of a Roman daughter (a) (a) (a) Fulgos l. 5. c. 3. who fed her father from her own breasts condemned to dye of hunger between four wals you may sufficiently see that often recorded in writing Yea under Peter of Castle there lived a man that never ceased weeping until he were put to death instead of his father who was to be executed I speak nothing now at all of that but cannot omit an example recounted in Bibliotheck of the great with Photius who telleth on a time there happened in Sicily as it hath often been seen an eruption of Aetna now called mount Gibel It is a hydeous thing and the very image of hell to behold a mountain which murmurs burns belches up flames and throws out its fiery entrails making all the world fly from it It happened then that in this horrible and violent breach of flames every one flying and carrying away all they had most precious with them two sons the one called Anapias the other Amphinomus carefull of the wealth and goods in their houses reflected on their father and mother both very old who could not save themselves from the fire by flight and where shall we said they find a more precious treasure than those who begat us The one took his father on his shoulder the other his mother and so made passage through the flames It is an admirable thing that God in consideration of this piety though Pagan did a miracle for the monuments of all antiquity witness the devouring flames stayd at this spectacle and the fire roasting and broyling all round about them the way onely through which these two good sons passed was tapistred with fresh verdure and called afterward by posterity the holy field in memory of this accident What may we answer to this what can we say when the virtues eâ—en of Pagans dart lightening-flashes of honesty and duty into our eyes What brasen or adamantine brow can covetous and caytive sons have who being rich and abounding in means deny necessary things to those who brought them into the world yea have the heart to see them struggle with extream misery whilst they offer a sacrifice of abomination to their burning avarice Wicked son wreched daughter know you what you do when you commit such a crime You hold the soul bloud and life of your progenitours in your coffers you burn them with a soft fire you consume them with a lingring and shameful death you are accountable before God for what they suffer And for whom is remorse of conscience For whom infamy For whom necessity For whom punishments in the other life but for such as in this manner abuse a treasure so recommended by God Take heed O children take heed of breaking this triple cord of the Law divine natural and civil which indissolubly tie you to the exercise of that piety which you have abjured Take heed of irreverence disobedience and ingratitude towards your parents expect not onely in the other life the unavoydable punishments of Gods Justice against such contumacy but in this present life know you shall be measured with the same measure you afforded others You know the history of the miserable father dragged by the hair with the hand of his son unto the threshold of his door where seeing himself unworthily used Hold son saith he it is enough the justice of God hath given me my due I committed the like outrage heretofore against my father thy Grand-father which thou at this instant actest upon me I dragged him hither and behold me hither haled Go no further O Justice O terrour O dreadful spectacle Great eye of God which never sleepest over the crimes of mortals O divine hand which ever bearest arms of vengeance hanging over the heads of rebellious children How terrible thou art who can but fear thee who will not heareafter tremble at the apprehension of thy judgements Children be pious live in the duty you have vowed and resigned to your progenitours and to all your superiours Live full of honour and glory in this world live in expectation of palms and crowns which you shall enjoy in the other world And you likewise fathers and mothers embrace charity towards your good children with all affection and if any forget their duty and afterward stretch out hands humbly to your obedience receive them into favour exercise mercy towards them as you desire should be done to you by God our common father But if you still groan under the ingratitude of wicked children and the fear of future evils wipe away your tears sweeten your acerbities season your bitterness with the comfort of a good conscience When you have done all you can and all you ought to do leave the success to God and say unto him My God who hast seen the cause of my afflictions to proceed from my self accept my good desires for the works of this evil child
throne You know what opinion I had of greatness in an age and condition wherein rightfully I might cherish it I voluntarily forsook it preferring repose before all the crowns of the world Now that I am in the haven would you recall me into the storm Daughter leave such words I have seen too many miseries speak to me of my grave not of scepters Alexandra replied that although in his own person he not at all pretended to life nor to the fortune of the living he notwithstanding ought not to neglect his bloud but permit justice to be done and meddle with nothing but by writing a word or two to Malichus the Lieutenant of Arabia who would aid him with money and forces as much as should be needfull In conclusion he was bound to save both his daughter and grand-child from the ravening teeth of this Tyger She deafened his ears with so many reasons that in the end he yielded and treateth with Malichus who should safe conduct him with a good troup of horse The letters are put into the hands of one called Dositheus a cousin of Joseph whom Herod lately had caused to be massacred to be with all safety delivered But the perfidious wretch betraying the bloud of his allye and the fortune of Hircanus in stead of carrying the letter faithfully to Malichus delivered it into Herod's hands who commandeth to require an answer and bring it to him thereby to discover the practice thereof and understand the Arabian's purpose He faileth not to promise Hircanus all assistance inviting him with much earnestness to be with him as soon as possible Herod having discovered the whole plot sends for Hircanus and asked if he received not some letters from Malichus Yes answered he but they contain nothing but complement The other demanded Had you not some present with those letters He confesseth that verily Malichus had presented him with four horses to draw his coach Thereupon without any other form of process the Tyrant made this venerable old man to be murdered embrewing the hoary hairs in the bloud of him who had been a sosterer a father a protectour of him yea all Then after he had imprisoned Alexandra and Mariamne in a strong fort under the custody of Joseph his treasurer and Sohemus the Iturean he goes directly to Rhodes leaving the absolute charge of his Kingdom to his brother Pheroras The history telleth not the sorrow of the Queen Alâ—xandra and Mariamne priâ—onâ—rs and her mother for the death of Hircanus It is probable all was a long time concealed as from such who were held in a straight prison and had conversation with no man Alexandra gnawed her bridle of impatience Mariamne resisted the dull languishments of this captivity with a generous constancy and endeavoured to sweeten the discontents of her mother All her comfort was in God For how could she speak or think of any thing else My God said she you steep all creatures for me in wormwood If I heretofore have loved them and sucked some sweetness from the world for an ounce of honey you have given me a pound of gall From the time I began to bear a Diadem on my head I have felt nothing but thorns and Royalty hath been nothing to me but a specious slavery My God how long shall it continue Shall we not behold that bright day to shine over our heads which is perpetually in its Eastern rising which may drie up our tears and breaking the bands of our captivity place us in Abraham's bosom the liberty of the elect These poor Ladies stayed there perpetually pent up between horrid walls beholding nothing but rocks and savage wildernesses which to their sorrow seemed to resound compassion They knew not in what state the world was much less the affairs of Court. At every season the Goaler came to visit them they expected nothing but news of their death The Guard in the beginning shewed themselves severe in their countenances and reserved in their words all was full of horrour affrightment and melancholy silence In the end for there is no Mariamne conferreth with Sohemus iron but will be softened in the fire Sohemus visiting them more oft according to the commission he had felt fiery arrows flie from the eyes of Mariamne so sharp that they transfixed his heart with compassion judging it a hard thing to hold a Queen in captivity who was able to enthral all hearts with so many supereminent excellencies as Heaven had conferred upon her He began to shew her a pleasing countenance and Mariamne seeing him one day in a good humour took confidence thereby to know some news of the other world Sohemus said this Ladie to him you now behold us in a most wofull state and much unworthy our qualities but the day perhaps will come the storm may blow over Mischief and misery knock not always at one and the same gate You know who I am and that in obliging me you engage not an unable creature much less an ungratefull Tell us in a word to what end doth King Herod hold us here and of what condition are the affairs of the times Sohemus at these words felt his heart assaulted with most violent counterbuffs on the one side he represented to himself the avengement of Herod freshly exemplified in Joseph on the other side he was so touched with compassion of those words this noble Ladie spake to him that the ice of his heart dissolved and began already to evaporate through his eyes Mariamne finding him waver spake boldly Sohemus it is a word which can no whit prejudice you being stored up in deep silence and which may much advantage us for the security of our affairs Sohemus supposing either that Herod never would return again in the quality of a King or that he being under the protection of Mariamne might easily work his reconciliation openeth his heart unto her and saith Madame I put my secrets and life into your hands yea I desire to die before ever I undertake to execute this harbarous command which Herod hath imposed upon me in case the affairs he negotiateth at this time with Caesar succeed not according to his wish And what is it saith Mariamne to him Madame I tremble onely to think of it It is a matter which concerneth your life My friend replieth the good Queen it is his ordinary guise he enjoyned his uncle Joseph as much upon his first voyage But is there no means to deliver us from this Sohemus answereth that Pheroras brother of Herod had charge of the Kingdom and he being a man extreamly distrustfull ever had his eye upon sudden surprizals Well then said this poor Princess we must die on what side soever he turn me I behold nothing but the image of death with which I am already grown acquainted Sohemus comforted her with his best endeavour But she then shutting up her ears from all earthly comfort opened her heart to celestial contemplations daily more and more purifying her soul
her it was a thing in the judgement of all those who would truly weigh it very far from her thought since she had always more feared King Herods love than hatred Lastly that she made no reckoning of life wherein she had suffered too much sorrow yea much less of the Court from whence she never received any contentment and that if they would oppress her by false testimonies it was easie to gain victory of one who made no resistance more easie to take the Diadem from her head and her head from her shoulders but most hard to bereave her of the reputation of a Princess of honour which she had of her Ancestours and would carry to her tomb The poor creature was like a silly sheep in the Lions throat or among the paws of many wolves They proceeded to sentence all tended to baseness It was supposed the King was willing to be rid of her and that sufficed Never was any one to be found who had the courage to plead the cause of this innocent Queen or in any sort to mollifie the passion of Herod All those consciences were oppressed either with crimes or cowardise from whence it came to pass these false Judges did more for the Tyrant than he desired for they all resolved upon death He himself was surprized with horrour though he were wholly a bloudy man and commandeth she should be kept in a prison of the Palace with delay of execution thinking perhaps by that means to make her more plyant to his passion But the enraged Salome who had raised this storm not willing to do any business to halves approched to the King her brother and shewed him such birds were not to be kept in cages that his life and crown thereby ran into hazard that already all tended to a revolt and that if he delayed this execution he hastened the ruin of himself and his whole state Whereupon Herod let fall this word Let her be taken away And behold instantly an officer dispatched to the good Queen who brought her the news of the last hour of her life saluting her with a low reverence and saying Madame Invincible patience and very admirable the King commandeth you must presently die She without any disturbance said Let us then go my friend it cannot be so soon for King Herod but it will be as late for me and speaking this word she set forward and went directly to the place of execution without change of colour having a sweet aspect which drew tears from the whole world To crown her patience as she was ready to receive the stroke of death Alexandra her own mother the companion of her imprisonment the Guardian of her thoughts who had ever been one heart with her betraying bloud nature and all piety by a mischievous trick of state thereby avoiding the suspition of Herod as consenting to her daughters humour came to charge her with most bloudy injuries Barbarous act of Alexandra and it was a great chance she had not taken this poor Ladie by the hair to dreg her up and down the pavement saying to her with the foam of boyling choller That she was wicked and extreamly proud and well deserved to die in that manner by shewing herself refractory to so good a husband Behold verily the greatest indignity which could happen in such an accident There is no better honey nor worse sting than that of bees no better amities nor greater injuries than of allies The patient Mariamne onely made her this answer Mother let my soul pass in peace which already is upon my lips and trouble not the repose of my death and with a generous silence shutting her mouth up to further replies Heroick silence and opening her heart to God the onely witness of her innocency most unworthily used stretched out her neck to the executioner to seal with her bloud the last testimonies of her patience Josephus speaketh not expresly enough of the punishment she doubtless being executed in the manner at that time ordinary which was to behead offenders Most pitifull death of that quality This day-break which bare stil in the rays thereof joy refreshment to the poor afflicted souls through the horrible confusions of tyranny was then extinct in her bloud Yea the eyes of all the standers by bathed in tears beheld her in her eclipse when that fore-head full of Royal Majesty was seen couragiously to affront approaching death which maketh the most confident to tremble and when this alabaster neck was stretched out and bowed under the shining steel to be separated from this beauteous body a shivering horrour crept into the What horrour bones of all the beholders and there was no rock so hard which afforded not the water of tears before she poured out her bloud The head was separated from the body and the body from the soul But the soul never shall be divided from God raising to death such a trophey of patience The limbs lay all cold and stiff extended on the place and the voice of innocent bloud which already penetrated the clouds to ask vengeance of God was instantly heard as you shall understand onely I beseech you stay to behold the Pourtraict and Elogie of the good Queen by us here inserted MARIAMNE REGINA MARIAMNE REGINA MACHABAEORUM STIRPE INCLYTA HERODIS PESSIMI OMNIUM VIRI UXOR OPTIMA FORMA CORPORIS SUPRA CAETERAS EXIMIAANIMI ETIAM VIRTUTIBUS MAJOR INTEGERRIMAE PUDICITIAE ET INELUCTABILIS PATIENTIAE FOEMINA INIQUISSIMIS CALUMNIIS OPPRESSA MARITI GLADIO REGIAS CERVICES DEDIT ANNO ANTE CHRISTI NATALEM VIGESSIMO OCTAVO Upon the Picture of MARIAMNE FOrtune a heavenly beauty did engage To a fell husband who through boundless rage Practiz'd fierce tyranny and foul debate As well in love as in his Royal state She liv'd on gall upon the sword she dy'd Soon in the Lamb's bloud to be purifi'd The Cross so to prevent in pains pertake With patient God mishaps thrice-happy make Which after death immortalize her story And from her body take less bloud than glory Thus from the world this holy Queen remov'd Breaths forth affections to her God belov'd And her great soul to heav'n in silence rears Purg'd in her flame washed with her tears Who bravely so both lives and leaveth breath Makes of a dying life a living death THe disloyal husband who so inhumanely had treated a Ladie worthy of all honour as soon as she rendered up her soul as if he had been strucken by some invisible dart cried out with grief and said he had done an act worthy the wrath of Fury of Herod after the death of Mariamne God then dreadfully howling he ceaselesly invoked the memory and name of the poor dead creature to whom he by his sorrows could not again restore what had been taken from her by the sword of the executioner Wheresoever he went he still was accompanyed with the image of his crime still tormented and assailed with black furies
monsters and hydeous sights He tried all sorrs of festival entertainments dancings and delights to divert this ill but it still augmented in such sort that he was enforced to abandon all the affairs of his Kingdom though he had been very eager and ardent in this employment and became in the beginning thereof doltish and dull not knowing what he did For often in the time of dinner he spake to his servants and commanded them to call the Queen as if she had been yet living they slipped aside without making answer and the whole Court was drenched in terrour and silence In the end not being able any longer to endure the walls of his Palace as if they had upbraided him with his cruelty he ran into the forrests like a mad man where he got a strange maladie of the mind and so horrible a frenzie that the Physitians were to seek saying freely it was a blow from Heaven God who yet reserved him for greater calamities would not at that time take away his life The wicked mother Alexandra who so outragiously had complained of her daughter upon the scaffold instantly died tasting the bitterness of death and loosing her glory Last of all followeth a plague which took away even many of Herod's Counsellers and all that was nothing but the scourge of Heaven in avengement of this death so deplorable and never sufficiently lamented Mariamne of her chaste wedlock left two sons to The sons of Mariamne bred at Rome Herod Alexander and Aristobulus who were very young able to suffer much in time to come but as then incapable of feeling their own miseries Herod to take from them the sense of this cruel tragedy and to raise them likewise by the degrees of good education to the glory of his scepter happily puts them aside and sends them to Rome to be bred in the Court of Augustus Caesar held at that time the Academie of Kings and prime school of the world Some years being passed he had a desire to make a voyage into Italie to salute Caesar and by that opportunity see his children whom he found excellently trained and so accomplished that he purposed with the good leave of Caesar to carry them back into Judea which he did These young Princes returning into Jerusalem with Herod ravished all the people with admiration They were of a gallant presence straight active quick-spirited couragious in the exercise of arms well-spoken affable as lovely as the person of the Father was odious Men looked on them as one would upon the two stars of Castor and Pollux after a storm they replenished all with alacrity and seemed already to win all hearts to approve their titles to the Crown Those notwithstanding who retained the memory of the usage of poor Mariamne their mother could not abstain from tears Pheroras brother of Herod and Salome his sister Calumnie is plotted against them who both had dipped their fingers in the bloud of the innocent Queen entered into affrightments and apprehensions unspeakable seeing the bloud they had shed should one day sway over their heads Wherefore they began silently to calumniate them and caused by trusty instruments many bruits to pass into the ears of Herod which intimated That the Princes his sons in consideration of their mothers wrong had a great aversion from the father and that they never seriously would affect him Herod who as yet in the heat of his affection and could never be satisfied with beholding them gave no credit to this calumny But rather seeing them now upon the confines of maturity sought to match them highly plotting for Alexander the daughter of Archelaus King of Cappadocia named Glaphyra which was assented unto and for Aristobulus he caused him to marry the daughter of Salome his cozen germain so plaistering over the domestick enmities which ever after found many factions Alexander and Aristobulus conversed together with great freedom and uttered whatsoever they had upon their hearts speaking of the death of their mother in such manner that they shewed a great resentment thereof Pheroras and Salome close-biting and watchfull ceased not to provoke them to speech and whatsoever they said either through vanity or sleight disposition to anger or in the liberty of secrecy was instantly by a third person related to the ears of Herod The subtile Salome holding still a power upon her married daughter who was a simple creature put her upon the rack to tell her all that her husband and her brother in law had spoken in the privacy of their mutual conversation She then recounted the words these poor Princes had through simplicity and bravery spoken to wit that Aristobulus vaunted himself The Kingdom belonged to the children of Mariamne as to the line of the true Queen as for Herods other sons who were spread abroad in very great number for he had nine or ten wives that he might make Registers of them in some petty Towns and that they should do well to learn to write and read She added that Alexander said in boasting he was a better man than his father notwithstanding that conversing with him and seeing him of a jealous humour he restrained himself as in a scabbard and durst not discover himself for fear he should give him some suspition of his power That hunting or walking with Herod he did as it were bow and contract himself together that he might not appear taller than his father that if he were to shoot in a bow he purposely made himself unskilfull thereby to take all occasion of envie from him It was a notable act of wisdom to do it but a great folly of youth to breath out many words as innocently spoken as treacherously interpreted and above all an infinite simplicity to commit their secrets to a woman whose heart is as fit to keep what it ought to conceal as a sive to hold water When Pheroras and Salome had a long time filled the ears of Herod with these trifling reports seeing the suspition began to take footing in his mind and that the affection of a father cooled towards his children they struck the iron while it was hot and wished him seriously to take heed of his sons for they spake big and had boldly said That all those who were embrewed in their mothers bloud should not carry the punishment into the other world for verily as they were vexed upon the remembrance of the dead such like words had escaped them Herod was much amazed at this liberty and thought he must repress their boldness by some counterpoize What doth he To humble the hearts of these Princes The young Antipater son of Herod exalted he selecteth among his children one called Antipater his son by Doris nothing noble and who had shamefully been hunted out of the Court he putteth this his son in the turning of a hand upon the top of the wheel not that he had a purpose to raise him but to use him to counterballance the children of Mariamne reputing him
much more dreadfull Herod in few days after he had tried in vain and worn out all humane remedies was reduced to that horrible state of maladie which is rightly described Fearful maladie of Herod by Josephus and Eusebius of Caesarea God would have him in this life tast in long draughts the cup of his justice wasting that caytife carkass with lingering torments Behold the cause why he was touched with a manifest wound from Heaven and assaulted with a furious squadron of remediless dolours He who from his young days had been enflamed with a desperate ambition felt at his death a fire which devoured his marrow and entrails with a secret and subtile flame He who all his life time had an enraged hunger to heap up treasures even to the opening of David's and Solomon's sepulchers to extract booty from thence was afflicted with dog-like hunger both horrible and shamefull which caused him day and night to crie out for meat yet never was satiated He who had made so many voyages and gone so many paces to make himself great saw then his feet swoln with bad and phlegmatick humours He who in his life had caused so many tortures to be inflicted felt outragious and intollerable collicks which racked him He who had taken life away from so many men was seized with an Asthma which hindered his breathing He who esteemed prudence and humane policy for the sinews of his estate felt in his body cramps and convulsions of sinews which gave him many shakes He who shed the bloud of the poor Mariamne who slew her sons to make the kids as saith the Scripture boyl in the milk of their damme briefly he who wallowed in the bloud of about fourteen thousand innocents of purpose to involve therein the Saviour of the world died in his own bloud afflicted with a cruel fluxe He who abused his body with prodidigious luxuries had dying his secret parts filled with lice and vermine with an ignominious Priapism a maladie not to be named Shall we then say the Divine Providence of God hath no eyes to be wakefull for the punishment of the wicked This desperate wretch in stead of adoring the justice of God at his death and kissing the rod which had chastised him dreameth of new slaughters publisheth an Edict by which he sendeth for the principal of the Jews of every Province to Jerico whither he caused himself to be carried and shutting them up in a Theater calleth his sister Salome and her husband Alexas and then speaketh to them in these words It troubleth me not to die and tender the tribute Notorious crueltie which so many Kings have paid before me but I am afflicted that my death shall not be lamented as I desire if you assist not Know then for this purpose I have sent for all the Nobilitie of Judea whom you have in your hands As soon as my eyes are closed put them all to the sword and let not my death be divulged till first the fortune of these same people be known to their friends by this means I hope to fill Judea with tears and sighs which shall make my soul leave my bodie with the more contentment The wretch in saying this with many scalding tears besought his sister by all that which she esteemed in the world most glorious most sacred as if he had asked Paradise of her and that necessarily she must promise it to content him at that instant with oath though afterward it were never executed In this act alone he well declared he had the spirit of a ravening wolf in the skin of a man and that the thirst of humane bloud was become natural to him As he was framing this notable Testament letters Death of Antipater were brought him from Rome written by Caesar's command which certified him that Aâ—me a Jewish Ladie of Livia's train the wife of Augustus had been condemned for sinister intelligence with Antipater and for that cause punished with death as concerning his son he wholly left him to his disposition This man in the very point of death still sucked vengeance with marvellous sweetness Vpon this news he taketh courage again and calls for an apple and a knife busying himself in the paring of it But in these employments as his pains redoubled he waxed weary of life which he so much had loved and at that instant one of his Grand-children named Achiabus who stood near to the bed perceiving he roled his eyes full of rage and made a shew as if he would have stabbed himself with the knife he had in his hand which much affrighted the young Prince held back his arm as well as he could and began to make a terrible out-crie as if his Grand-father had yielded up the Ghost whereupon the whole Palace was in an uproar Antipater who from the prison heard all this tumult supposing Herod was at the last cast his feet itched in his fetters and did not as yet despair of the Crown offering as one would say mountains of gold to his Keeper to set him at liberty But O the judgement of his God! his Goaler in stead of giving ear to all his rewards went directly to his Father and relateth to him how Antipater used all possible means to get out of prison and take possession of the Kingdom Herod houling and knocking his head How saith he will the parricide murther me in my bed I have yet life enough left to take away his Then lifting himself up and leaning on his pillow he calleth one of his Guard Go you immediately saith he to the prison and kill this parricide and let him be buried in Hircanus castle without funeral pomp This was incontinently executed and such was the end of this wicked wretch who had disturbed earth and hell to place himself in his fathers Throne according as certain Mathematicians had foretold him Few days after his death Herod having declared Archelaus for Successour of the Kingdom contrary to his first will which was disposed in the behalf of Antipater after he had accommodated his two other sons with such shares as seemed good to him and given End of a Politician most disastrous large legacies to Augustus Caesar yielded up his wicked soul in rage and despair in the LXX year of his age and XXXVII of his reign A Prince saith Josephus who all his life desired to be Master of his laws and a slave of his passions and who notwithstanding all his great felicities ought to be reputed the most miserable on the earth Behold in what tearms this Authour a great statist speaketh it to teach humane policie there is no prudence wisdom counsel greatness nor happines where God is not present For laying aside eternal torments of the other life wherewith this barbarous man dying in punishments was encompassed I assure my self there is neither peasant nor handi-crafts man if he be not mad would give one day of his life for the thirty seven years of Herods reign which
he passed in continual apprehensions thornie affairs perilous voyages sinister distrusts frosty fears of death barbarous cruelties remorses of conscience the forerunners of hell leaving besides a short and unfortunate posterity Behold his Picture and Elogie HERODES ASCALONITA HERODES ASCALONITA VULTU FERUS ANIMO BARBARUS LUTO ET SANGUINE MACERATUS A QUO NIHIL AD SUMMAM CRUDELITATEM PRAETER DEICIDIUM ABFUIT DEICIDIO VOLUNTAS NON DEFUIT VULPINA FRAUDE REGNUM JUDEAE INVASIT AN. MUNDI TER MILLESSIMO NONGENTESSIMO SEXAGESSIMO QUINTO REGNAVIT IRAE SERVUS JURIS DOMINUS FORTUNA FOELIX CYCLOPAEA VITA INFOELICISSIMUS DESIIT CAELESTI PLAGA FERALIS MORBI ANNO REGNI TRICESSIMO SEPTIMO VITAE FERME SEPTUAGESSIMO CHRISTI OCTAVO Vpon the Picture of HEROD A man no whit with civil grace indu'd Of visage hydeous of manners rude A monster made of massacres and bloud That boldly God Heav'n Natures laws withstood Ill words within no certain limits fall But who once mentions Herod speaketh all BY the carriage of this Court one may see whither vice transporteth great fortunes In the person of Aristobulus and Hircanus you behold that the canker is to a body less dangerous than the discord of brothers to a state In the person of Antipater a friend for advantage who seeketh to fish in a troubled water in the end fisheth his fill but is drowned in the act to teach you there is no policie so great as to be an honest man and that he who prepareth snares for another diggeth his own grave In the person of Pompey an Aribitratour who worketh his own ends under the colour of justice who buildeth his ambition on the ruins of state in the end the earth which faileth him for his conquests denieth him a sepulchre He found no more Countries to conquer and scarcely had he six foot of earth to make him a tomb In that of Hircanus too much credulity too much facility to please others humours too much pusillanimity in the government of Justice which head-long threw him into a life as miserable as his death was cruel and bloudy In that of Anthonie a passionate Judge who turneth with all winds and suffereth himself to be carried along by the stronger without consideration of Justice In that of Joseph and Sohemus that it is perilous to treat with women though free from ill purpose and much more dangerous to reveal a secret which who will safely keep must make his heart a sepulchre for it In that of young Aristobulus how the most beautifull hopes are storm-beaten in the bud and that you must walk upon the prosperitie of the world as on ice that it must be handled like glass fearing always they break not in the lustre of their brightness In that of Alexandra a boundless ambition designs without effect afflictions devoid of consolations torments without patience and a death without deserts and all this because she gave not a good temper of virtue to her soul In that of the sons of Mariamne innocency perfecuted and a little vanity of tongue desperately revenged In that of yong Antipater policy deceived the cloud of humane hopes cracked punishment and revenge ever attending an offender In the person of Herod an enraged ambition which giveth motion to all his crimes a double soul crafty cautelous politick mischievous bloudy barbarous savage and withal in the best of his tricks benummed doltish dall thinking to make a fortune to the prejudice of religion and conscience A goodly fortune to make himself great and live in the hatred of all the world in the remorses of a Cyclopean conscience a thousand times aday to call upon death not being able to die and in the end to die in a body leaprous stinking louzey and death to tear his soul from him with scabs stench and lice to make it survive its torments in an eternity of flames See you not here fair fruits of humane wisdom impiety and atheism In that of Mariamne a soul raised above the highest sphere of true greatness a soul truly royal holy religious courteous mercifull wise affable and endowed with an incomparable patience who as an Eagle strong of wing and courage soaring above the storms of the world maketh her self Mistress of tempests and thunders which for that they had served as an exercise of her constancy and perpetual battels for her life shall through all Ages attend the immortality of her glory THE FIFTH BOOK Fortunate Pietie WE have hitherto beheld a Court which rather resembleth Polyphemus cave than a Kings Palace to teach Great-ones there is no bruitishness so savage wherinto ingratitude towards God and vice doth not precipitate a forsaken soul Let us now see that as unbridled passions are of power to make a hell of a Princes Court so the practice of piety and other virtues make it a true Paradise Behold the Court of Theodosius the Younger a Prince who seemed to be born for nothing else but to allye the scepter to virtues and manifest what royal greatness can do guided by the rules of pietie It is no small miracle to behold a holy King If Ring of God God affected the curiositie of wearing a ring as well in effect as the Scripture attributeth it to him in allegorie the most agreeable characters he would engrave therein were the names of good Kings who are his most lively representations as those who wed together power and goodness two inseparable pieces of God but very incompatible in the life of man such are the corruptions of this Age. Some live in Four sorts of life the world transported with the torrents thereof and that is weakness Others flie the world and in flying oft-times carry it along with them and this is an illusion Others separate themselves as well in body as affection and this is prudence But few are found who bearing the world on their shoulders through necessity do tread it under-foot by contempt of vanities That is it which this great Prince hath done whose Court we here describe for being seated among people he built a desert in his heart and in a vast Ocean of affairs he lived as fishes which keep silence within the loud noise of waves and preserve their plump substance fresh in the brackish waters I go not about to place Theodosius the Younger in the rank of the bravest and most heroick spirits you hereafter shall see others more couragious and warlick but I purposely have selected this history drawn from the Chronicle of Alexandria Zonaras Zozomen Raderius and others to teach certain vain-glorious people who make no account but of those trifling spirits fierce mutinous and unquiet stampt with the coyn of impiety how much they miss of their reckoning seeing this Emperour with the sole arms of piety and modesty carried himself in a very long and most prosperous reign amidst horrible tempests which seemed ready to rend the world and other rash Princes who made shew to swallow earth and seas were drowned in a glass
he had very lately rejected this suit at his Councel-table resolving with himself to refuse it the second time But the battery was too forcible Eudoxia declared it was an ill presage not to ratifie the first grant her son had made by a kind of miracle in such an age such a habit on such a day and among such shouts of the people I know not who could have resisted such sweet violences Arcadius will he nill he was constrained presently Marna destroyed by the infant Theodosius to sign the petition without restriction or modification and which is more to constitute express Commissioners for the execution thereof who failed not upon the urgent sollicitation made by the Empress to raze the temple of Marna and build a most stately Church in the place Behold how potent and religiously cunning women Women stout to do good are when they addict themselves to good But God made all these passages conduce to the glory of his well-beloved Theodosius willing that hell should howl and tremble already under the feet of an infant who was no more than born to make him one day dreadfull to all the powers of impietie The joy the parents conceived for the birth of Contentions between the Empress Eudoxia and S. Chrysostom Theodosius was not long I know not through what mischance Eudoxia contested again with S. Chrysostom upon a wilfulness as forcible in the pursuit as unfortunate in the issue for it steeped the remnant of this poor Princess days in bitter distasts and headlong threw her into a death disadvantagious to the reputation of her life to teach Great-ones and above A good document for Great-ones all Ladies to bridle their passions and never to oppose the authoritie of the Church The Miters of Prelates are as the Crowns of the Kings of Aegypt they carry aspicks which insensibly sting those who too near approach with intention to offend them having justice on their side It was a shamefull spectacle for Christendom to see upon this great Theater of the world a woman contest with a Bishop and hazard her reputation against the most eloquent tongue of the world This Princess was ardent in any thing she enterprized and made all affairs dance to the tune of her intentions she so powerfully wrought the Bishops that they assembled a little Councel of Prelats passionate and plyant to her will who passed a sentence of condemnation against Chrysostom S. Chrysostom banished under pretext of a scroul charged with a tedious contexture of calumnies invented against this holy Prelate Eudoxia would free herself and to give contentment to the people it behoved her to proceed therein with some colour of justice Behold him banished into Bithynia It was a bold act to tear out of the throne of Constantinople a man who filling the sayls of eloquence as easily moved the people as winds do the sands of Lybia which stir at their pleasure The people of Constantinople spared not to murmur as do the waves of a mutinous sea and their mutterings were seconded with an earthquake which happened there at the same time all tended to a revolt if Chrysostom had not been repealed from this exile by the Emperours authoritie Being returned to his See he altered nothing of his former manner crying out thundering and violently beating down the vice and corruptions of that Age. And as by chance Eudoxia caused a silver statue to be dedicated to her self in a publick place at the consecration whereof many sports dances and disorders were used this gave new occasion to speak which so vexed the Emperess that she resolved to ruin him whatsoever it cost her Arcadius shewed himself a little soft and obsequious to the humour of his wife who spared no wyles inventions credit nor violence to bring her enterprize to pass She came in the end unhappy as she was to be as prosperous as she wished in this pursuit S. John Chrysostom is exiled to Cucusa a town in Armenia which hath nothing more remarkable in it than to have been honoured with the banishment of this worthy man He swallowed so many toyls and incommodities in this exile that there he left his life the more to illustrate the glory of his death Divers prodigies happened at Constantinople as messengers of the anger of Heaven armed for revenge of his injustice Among others a violent storm of hail which much astonished all the Citie and four days after Eudoxia died in Death of the Empress travel having long endured many bitter throws It is held her sepulchre shook until such time as the body of the Saint carried in triumph through Constantinople seemed by the presence thereof to fix her tomb who had furnished him with so many disturbances in his life The Emperour Arcadius made no long abode in this world after the death of the Empress his wife and S. John Chrysostom behold him surprized with a maladie which he presently knew to be as it were a fore-runner of his death After he had setled the affairs of his conscience he ordered those of his Kingdom and though he had his brother Honorius Emperour of the West he would not rely upon him for the guardianship of his son all great men are jealous and many times diffident of their own bloud But he appointed as Tutour for his little Theodosius who then was onely eight years of age Isdigerdes King of Persia his friend who deputed a great Prince named Antiochus to establish an absolute peace with the Emperour and offer him his aid against all pretenses that might be raised against his state Artemius a Consular man very wise and faithfull took the stern of affairs in hand which most prosperously he mannaged in the great troubles and revolutions of the Western Empire Theodosius was left an Orphan with four sisters Qualities of Pulcheria sister of Theodosius Flaccilla Pulcheria Arcadia and Marina but above all the rest Pulcheria possessed his heart from his infancy She was the pearl of Princesses and one of the wisest women which ever mannaged the affairs of a Kingdom She had a strong and pleasing spirit a solid pietie an awakened wisdom an incomparable grace to gain hearts to her devotion Her brother made such account of her rare virtues that he associated her for a companion of his Empire holding her in the quality of a Queen She was onely two years elder than himself the one was thirteen the other fifteen years old In the fifteenth year of her age behold her already so capable of government that she was Regent of the Empire and as it were a mother to her brother Artemius who had instructed her in state affairs could not sufficiently admire the vivacitie of her wit the solidity of her judgement the equity of her counsels and the happiness which ordinarily accompanied her resolutions She then resolved to live in perpetual virginity not as some have thought to take away the jealousie of a husband towards a brother and
his heart to change his course of life And being no longer able to contain himself so replenished was he with the love of God and confusion of his own infirmities he turned to his companion and said And what I pray do we seek with all our travels Whither tend all our ambitions Why bear we these arms What pretend we with so much toyl To gain the favour of a man which is more light than the wind more frail than glass more thin than smoak Out alas by what perils hasten we to a greater danger By what steps mount we up to a promontorie of ice where our foot is ever upon the precipice Behold I may from hence forward be the friend of God if I will He persisted to read this book all on fire and became big with a new life which he brought forth then again he cried out as a man rapt with an extasie It is done I have broken my hands from this step from this hour in this place I am resolved to serve God Go my dear friend if you will not imitate me at the least oppose not my resolution The other replieth I am wholly yours God forbid I forsake you in so fair a way by frustrating my self of so honourable a warfare and so rich a reward Behold them from gallants in an instant become Hermits I and my associate enquired for them in the mean space on every side and about evening found our selves in the same Cell condemning them that they must be sought for and saying it was now time to end our walk with the day-light and return to the Citie They seriously made answer They had found their lodging we might do well to go whither we pleased but they were throughly determined never to depart from thence I thought in the beginning it was a counterfeit merryment but better sounding it upon relation what had passed I in effect saw they were men wholly changed We were ashamed to leave them and as yet felt our selves much unable to follow In conclusion we parted with many tears we dregging our hearts in the dust they by supereminence lifting the better part of themselves to Heaven We went to bear this news unto two Ladies their betrothed wives who enkindled with the same spirit afforded a free consent thereunto vowing their virginitie to God at the time when their marriage was almost on the point of consummation The tenth SECTION The admirable change of S. Augustine WHile Pontianus related this Saint Augustine was enchained to his discourse and already felt flashes of lightening and battels in the bottom of his conscience which he had much ado to dissemble It seemed that God took him as a fugitive who was hidden behind him to set him in full view before himself He saw himself saith he in this discourse as in a mirrour foul crooked disfigured and repleat with blemishes and ulcers When he made comparison between his own unworthiness and the life of those brave Champions a holy horrour of his vices so surprized him that he seemed desirous to be dis-engaged and to flie from himself And in this conflict he was still much confounded before his own eyes The resolution of these two gentlemen unveiled his memory embroiled from his youngest years when he remembered he had great inclinations to serve God in the state of continency and to have begged it of him who is the Authour thereof but with so much weakness that he feared that God would not then take him at his word He much wondred how these men in one after-noon could resolve on an affair of so great importance and that he in the space of twelve years stuck fast in the snare In the end he could contain himself no longer but brake the air with a deep sigh saying to his faithfull Alipius What is this What have we heard These simple men are raised and win Heaven by a brave warfare while we with our knowledge wallow in flesh and bloud Do we blush to wait on them Nay rather let us be ashamed not to follow them He spake this very suddenly in great agitation of spirit which appeared in his forehead in his eyes visage colour and voice Alipius very sad beheld him judging there was some transportation in this act From thence he stole into a garden which was very near the chamber where they discoursed as a man distemper'd knowing well what he had been and not as yet understanding what God would do with him at the least he had an intention to give free liberty to sighs which he could withhold no longer Alipius thinking there should be nothing concealed from him step by step follows him and both in private began a good work Augustine said in this retirement My God what binders me that I break not An admirable combat my chains to day to put my self into the libertie of thy children What monster is this Behold my will commandeth my eye to be opened my hand to work my foot to walk this is done without resistance now this same will commandeth it self to forsake a wicked puddle and set it self in the path of virtue why so much resistance Doubtless it will and it will not otherwise it would be obeyed I am yet fastened to the earth by some great root and to day I must cut it off See you not Augustine two messengers from God to wit shame and fear armed with whips which are by thy sides to wyne thee from the way of thy customarie pleasures Turn thy face boldly cut off from henceforth all the knots which have hitherto entangled thy libertie It is done Behold me free I deceive my self I am not as yet where I think Then let us do it now without further promise What is that I feel what I do and do not notwithstanding I believe what is good and recoyl not I draw near I mount up the cause why I stay is but to take breath In the end by pure force behold I am there I touch and almost reach the good so oft desired Out alas I say almost For in effect I touch not nor as yet hold any thing Must I so much doubt to die to death and live for life eternal As I was saith he upon these resolutions near approching my happiness if I did see behind me the image of that I left in forsaking the world I might see abysses and horrours which congealed my heart and yet notwithstanding I stood fair not proceeding nor retiring as a bodie hanged in the air Behold in an instant all the sensual pleasures of my youth which I had so cherished were presented to my imagination as Nymphs and Syrens They seemed to pull me by the garment and say Augustine What Will you forsake us after we so sweetly have trained up your youth Wherein have we disobliged you but in suffering you to enjoy contentments which the law of nature permitteth You now become very hardie in this transportation of your thoughts It is a feaver which
Dragons under-foot and rendered himself the Oracle of the world and the Doctour of Monarchs And what a death to die as in a field with palms planted by his hand manured by his industrie and watched with sweats What a death to have built himself before his death a tomb stuffed with precious stones of so many goodly virtues What a death which hath made it known that S. Ambrose was born for all the world and could not die without the tears of all the world since as every one had his interests in the life of this Prelate so he found in his death the subject of his sorrow What a death to die with these words in his mouth I am neither ashamed to have lived nor fear to die because we have a good Master What a death to return to Heaven as the dove of the deluge to his Ark bearing words of peace as an olive-branch in his mouth What a death to see vice trodden under his feet Heaven all in crowns over his head men in admiration the Angels in joy the Arms of God laden with recompences for his merits Prelates who please your selves with Myters and Croziers would to God this incomparable man as he is the ornament of your Order might be ever the model of your actions And if your dignities make you be as Mountains of Sinai wholly in lights flames and thunder-strokes let the innocency of your life render you by his imitation Mountains of Libanus to bear the whiteness of snow in the puritie of your conversation the odour of incense in your sacrifices and devotions and fountains in the doctrines and charities you shall distribute to the whole world THE SOVLDIER TO SOULDIERS O Brave and couragious Nobility whose Ancestours have fixed the Standards of the Cross upon the land of Infidels and cemented Monarchies with their bloud to you it is I address these lines for you it is my pen laboureth excited with a generous design in hath to honour your profession Here it is where I present the true figures of valour Here I display the palms and crowns which environed the head of your Fathers Here I do restore the value of fair and glorious actions reserved for your imitation Enter with a firm footing and a confident courage into this Temple of glory perswading your selves that there is nothing so great in the world as to tread false greatness under foot and deifie virtues Worldly honour is the feast of Gods said an Ancient where the ambitious are not invited but in quality of IXIONS and TANTALUSSES to serve there as buffons but that which consisteth in valour joyned to integrity of manners ought to be the object of your affections the recompence of your labours and trophey of your memorie Reflect onely with a favourable eye on this poor endeavour which I consecrate to your benefit and afford by your virtues effect to my prayers and accomplishment to my writings THE SOULDIER The first SECTION The excellency of Warlick Virtue IF the profession of arms were as well managed as it is excellent and necessary in civil life we could not have eyes enough to behold it nor tongues sufficient to praise it and although our spirit should arrive to the highest top of admiration it would ever find wonders in this subject not to be attained We seem to hear the Scripture speak that God God of hosts himself affecteth the glory of arms when he causeth himself to be surnamed the God of hosts and when the Prophets represent him unto us in a fiery Chariot all environed with burning Legions at which time the pillars of Heaven tremble under his feet the rocks are rent abysses frown and all the creatures of the universe shake under the insupportable splendour of his Majesty In effect this great Monarch of Town belieged by God Heaven and earth ceaseth not to make war and if we will consider his proceedings we shall find it is more than fifty Ages since he hath laid siege to a rebellious Citie which hath for ditches abysses of iniquity for walls and rampires obstinacy for towers and bulwarks mountains of pride for arms resistance against divine inspirations for artillery tumult and insolency for houses dens of hypocrisie for Palaces labyrinths of dissimulation for tribunal and bar impiety for Temple proper-will for Idol self-love for Captain blindness for souldiers exorbitant passions for counsel folly and for constancy perverse opinion This Citie in a word is the heart of man against The hurt of man which God daily wageth war to give us libertie by our captivitie advancement by our fall greatness by our abasing and life by death which maketh us die to all dead things to live for immortality God would that we fight by his example not onely with spiritual arms but sometimes with material and it is a thing very considerable that Abraham the first Father of all the faithfull was a warriour since S. Ambrose Ambros Offic. lib. 1. cap. 24. Fide primus justitiâ precipuus in praelio strenuus in victoriâ non avarus domi hospitalis uxori sedulus reckoning up all his titles according to the Scripture sheweth he was a good Religious man a good Justice a good Captain a good hoast and a good husband Yea also it is a passage much more admirable to say what Clemens Alexandrinus hath observed that the first Army of the faithfull which ever was marched not thinking thereon under the figure of the Cross and the name of Saviour although it were about two thousand years before the birth of the Messias The fourteenth Chapter of Genesis teacheth us that nine Kings came into the field with their troups to fight four against five Those of Sodom and Gomorrha were there in person who like effeminate Princes turned their back at the first encounter and in flying fell into pits of sulphure Their defeat gave leisure to the enemy to pillage all the Countrey where poor Lot the nephew of Abraham was taken having by mishap chosen his habitation in a Territory fertile in wealth and iniquities The news coming to the ears of Abraham he speedily armed his houshold-servants who were to the number of three hundred and eighten and with shepheards assaulted Kings whom he valorously vanquished bringing back his kinsman and all the booty which his enemies had taken Behold the first battel renowned in Scripture where this brave Doctour of Alexandria before alledged very well subtilizeth and saith that the number of Abrahamâ—s souldiers is represented by three Greek letters T. J. H whereof the first signifieth the Cross and the other two the name of Saviour God being desirous so to consecrate the first arms of believers by the Mysteries of his Greatness to declare that the warfare which is well managed is his work and glory Likewise we do not find that the name of Sun hath been given Warriours suns in holy Writ to a living man with so much lustre and applause as to a souldier and
he had done in all the Courts of the world besides Excess of virtues stand in the account of crimes with malign eyes so as to be culpable one must be an able man Galerius resolved to overthrow Constantine for those qualities which made him amiable to all the world and not thinking it safe to take him away by main force he made war against him like a fox persecuting him in that manner as sometimes Saul did the invincible David He found by chance that a King of the Sarmatians made an incursion on the territories of the Roman Empire and shewed himself â—o furious that none durst any more encounter him than an enraged beast Galerius gave commission to Constantine to bid him battel thinking it was a most honourable pretext to be freed from him and that he had a reasonable excuse with Constantius the father when he should shew him his son dead in the bed of honour The young man who shut up his eyes to danger and onely opened them to glorie went thither readily and all succeeded so prosperously that he not onely brake the troops of the Sarmatians but also led this King along enchained to Galerius This man who received not so much joy to see an enemie at his feet as sorrow for the prosperitie of a friend very coldly commended this encounter and determined with himself to involve the virtue of Constantine in other battels still seeking in his valour the matter of his ruin It was at that time a thing very ordinarie to make condemned men to fight with savage beasts in an Amphitheater thereby to give contentment to those who are delighted to behold such spectacles Galerius called for a combat of Lions and beheld it with Constantine who was very impatient to see that such as undertook the assault of those beasts performed it in his opinion so coldly He therefore had a desire to adventure himself therein Galerius who observed him over-strong for men thought he might find his tomb in the bellie of Lions Note how under colour of withholding him he thrust this young virtue further on alreadie much enkindled with his proper flames The valiant Prince descendeth in person into the list and assaileth the Lion whom he slew with an incomparable strength whereupon so loud acclamations and such extraordinary applauses were raised through all the Amphitheater to the honour of brave Constantins that it alone was sufficient to make the treacherous Caesar burst with anger Envie is a mischievous vice it resembleth those mountains which throw their burning entrails against flowers that blossom on their tops as the envious Envie dart gall and flames against those men who bravely bloom over their heads Galerius made the son of his friend reign in hearts by the same ways wherewith he endeavoured to deprive him of life and Scepter In the end he still persisting in his wickedness and not ceasing to prepare new ambushes some men of good understanding advised Constantine to withdraw himself from the malignity of this wicked man which he did forsaking his Court without leave taken and speedily returning into England where at that time his father expected him with much impatience Zosinius saith that in this voyage he took the post-horses which best fitted him and maimed all the other to take from his enemies the means of pursuit The fourth SECTION His entery into the Empire IT was in this revolution of times that Diocletian and Maximian having dispossessed themselves of the Empire and Constantius having swayed certain years with a most prosperous and peaceable government died at York a Citie of England to the great grief of the West which he had so prudently governed Constantine by good chance was there and nominated by his father for the Empire a little before his death which judgement was approved with such consent of the souldiers and all the people that he had scarcely as yet wiped away his tears when the purple was cast on his shoulders and he saluted Emperour The good son who thought on nothing but to render the last duties of his piety to the memory of his father found this honour unseasonable and would have declined it by all means but a grave Oratour hath said in his Panegyrick there Quis te Cyllarus aut Arion posset cripere quem sequebatuâ— Imperium Eumenius is no horse so swift which can steal from mortal eyes a man whom the Providence of God pursueth with Empire in hand He is constrained to yield though through modesty he would not be absolutely pronounced Emperour but contented himself with the title of Caesar well foreseeing he was to have many great affairs upon his hand before he could be peaceably established in his throne The first shock he had came from two Kings of Germanie to wit Assacar and Gaisus who passing the Rhene with huge troups endeavoured to overwhelm the Gauls thinking to surprize a young Emperour as yet uncollected in the uncertainty of his affairs But he nothing amazed speedily encounters defeats and takes them leading them enchained in a triumph whereupon succeeded an accident which I should rather attribute to the humour of Diocletion than of Constantine For after he had taken his pleasure Constant an 2. upon these two Kings he delivered them over to wilde beasts in a combat which he caused to be presented for the entertainment of the people And although the Oratours of his time much applauded this in him as an act of justice for the great havock they both had made notwithstanding having regard to the qualitie of the persons this proceeding cannot be excused from cruelty never made familiar to the manners of Christians This forreign war drew along with it civil wars A wonderful spectacle of the affairs of the world wherein the powers of the earth encountered together with incredible servours and terrible 〈◊〉 Behold a marvellous game and a great spectacle of the vanities of the world you shall see seven Princes who aspired to the Monarchy haling each one to himself a piece of the purple which they râ—nt in pulling and despoiled themselves of it in seeking to put it on The most fiery of them all who would swallow the whole earth could not have so much as five foot to cover his body Maxentius the son of Maximian companion of Diocletian a man lost in conscience and reputation condemned by the judgement of his own father who thought him unworthy to succeed in the Empire understanding that Constantins was dead and that they had chosen his son the young Constantins born of an English mother entereth into desperate furies and being then at Rome ready for the purpose caused himself to be declared Emperour by the souldiers whom he had gained alluring them by the means of large promises Galerius who after the death of Constantius and the retirement of Diocletian and Maximian thought himself the nearest to the Monarchie laboureth speedily to hinder the tyranny of Maxentius and having already made two Caesars to succeed
to wit Severus and Maximinus he dispatcheth Severus with all diligence to suppress Maxentius and as this Severus was now gone out of Milan bending towards Rome with Legions of African souldiers Maxemins prevented him defeats him as well by treason as force takes him and causeth him to be unworthily strangled Galerius desperately incensed with this outrage would needs fall upon the West all full of lightenings and flames but the distrusts of the safety of his territories stayed him and made him create another Caesar named Lycinlus after whose nomination he survived not long for he died of an incurable ulcer Heaven revenging his misdeeds by a horrible maladie and an enraged death After his decease these two Caesars who were both of his faction Lytinius and Maximinus beheld one another wich a jealous eye and made shew of concestation but Maximinus dying at Tharsas of a very sudden death decideth the difference by an irrevocable resignation In the mean time Maximian who despoiled of Maximiâ—â— the ancient companion of DiocletiaÌ„ would needs return to the Empire his Oration upon that subject the Empire before he had a will to resign it as yet retained bloud sparkling in the veins like a young man and seeing they had lifted his son to the Throne whom he had ever reputed a man of no worth burnt with jealousie and burst with anger He therefore hastened to find out his old Hermit Diocletian in his grot (a) (a) (a) At Carâ—ntium a little village of Sclavoniâ— which Zosimus maketh to pass for the Citie of Charters by a notable equivocation reading Carmuti for Carunti and endeavoured to perswade him by all means possible to reassume the Empire Shall we endure saith he Great Augustus this youngster so proudly to insult over the patrimonie of the universe and make sport with the majestie of the Roman Empire Your authoritie transperted me to a resolution to which that I may speak freely I never had any great inclination but I patiently bare it whilest I saw Galerius and Constantius in the government of the Empire who seemed two heads very fit for a Crown But now behold my Maxentius to whose trust I would not have committed the house of a filly Burgess of Rome to govern it behold a young Britan and another I know not who true mushromes sprung up in a night that would divide between them Europe Asia and Africa God knoweth what I speak is not through ambition but seeing the house of our fathers and our own all on fire it is very good reason we bring water to quench it What do you here in this miserable grot You are not made for it the Eternal Providence which should have fixed you on the government of the world so necessarie are you for it is ashamed to see you among heasts and peasants To speak freely you do amiss and it is very ill interpreted your great courage hath ever better hitherto loved to erre than avow a fault and I still was of your opinion while time permitted but at this present when the world runs all into confusion expecting no reparation but from your hands with what water can you wash the stains of the bloud not of one man nor of two but of a whole world which shall stick upon your forehead and of all posterity if to obey a fantasie of spirit you suffer the Empire to be lost Think you when these young men shall be Masters you shall enjoy this grote in safety You have too much courage and Tyrannie hath too much distrust to leave you so much as life when it can uncontrollably take it from you Let us go presently and reassume the Diadem we shall no sooner stamp with a foot but we shall make all the world follow us in arms for our service If you still affect this kind of retirement you shall thither return again when we have pacified all but believe me an Empire is a shirt never to be put off but with life These perswasions were very moving notwithstanding Diocletian who concluded all his wisdom in the obstinacie of his resolutions replyeth Maximian I absolutely renounce all the friendship which is betwen us if ever you speak to me of such affairs What levitie have you observed in my proceedings to perswade me to this change I protest before the A brave reply of Dioclesian Gods immortal I will never return to the government of the Empire no more than into my mothers womb Miserable man that you are have you yet so little experience of the vanitie of worldly things as to prefer a rag of purple before your libertie I do not know what contentment you may take in government but for my part I protest I then slept on thorns and fed on gall I neither enjoyed day nor night either rest or travel nay not sleep ambition depriving me of things which criminals find under fetters and which nature is pleased should be common to all the world I must live by exteriour shews countenances and smoaks and if others once did what I would have them they made me a thousand times do what I would not It is said a Planet which hath its exaltation in one sign finds ever its counterpoize in another If I had any good success on the one side I was ever paid on the other with some discontent My desires were infinite and though I seemed very potent I never had the hundredth part of what I wished and verily I knew not my self what I would have so many things desired I which daily taught me mine own impotencie What a goodly delight have we to cover the earth with arms and the Sea with vessels and fetch a great circuit to seek out a felicitie which we never find What libertie to live a slave of the world to possess the world What riches to beg even from the sweat of a peasant to entertain riot What tranquilitie to live perpetually in torment Your conscience knows this to be true which I say When you and I would intermeddle with affairs according to the obligation of our charges what care must there be for revenews what travel for militarie matters what watching for justice what noise upon the complaints of so many Provinces poured out at our feet what fear of surprizes what distrust of friends what deadly sweats for treason what anxieties and what apprehensions of so many lamentable events which would happen to others before our eyes If we resigned the care of affairs to two or three men of our cabinet they disturbed one another and sold us to their ambition under colour of service In the end they caused us to carry the seeming Scepter of all their follies and made us accountable for all the havock injustices and miseries of humane kind Is not here cause enough to desire such slaverie If you and I had bodies of whales to clothe and stomacks to be fed with huge sums of gold every hour in the day I would say that needs we
first repast with poison well prepared so to send him into the other world This man amazed at such a dreadfull command asked of the Emperour If he had so well resolved on this affair as to use a son of so great merit in this manner Yea saith he I have thought upon it and it is necessary he die for I must tell you it not being needfull to inform you further that besides the practise conceived by him his life is incompatible with mine The other supposed he had plotted some conspiracy upon the life and scepter of his father behold the cause why he hastened the blow and being already very familiar with poor Crispus he accosted him with great complements of honour and courtesie feigning to make him merry because indeed he then saw him in a very sad humour upon that which had passed between him and Fausta covering his thoughts as much as he might to preserve the honour of his wicked step-mother Hereupon an unhappy banquet was prepared for the innocent Death of Crispus which was the last of his life poison being traiterously given him there where he least expected it Verily this death which way soever we look is most lamentable The Tragedies which bemoan it with so much ornament as that of our Stephanius have much spirit in them but taking onely the thing in the simple nakedness of the fact it ministereth matter of compassion to hearts most obdurate A young Prince at that time the most absolute in the world beautifull as an Absalom valiant as an Alexander innocent as a Joseph at that time taken away when he was at the gates of the Empire which expected him and taken away by a death so hydeous and treacherous and by the commandment of his father who caused him to die as one incestuous not admitting him to speak nor permitting him to justifie himself nor affording leisure to know himself nor one small moment of time to prepare himself for death which is allowed to the most criminal He was silently involved in the extremity of unhappiness to shut up the mouth of innocency and open that of calumny to rail against his very ashes The generous soul ever prepared for this passage by the laws of Christianity which it had so devoutly embraced issued out of his chaste body to hasten to the crown of the Elect leaving incomparable sorrows behind it Alas what doth not a wicked affection a calumny a suspition an unbridled anger an inconsiderate word O you Great-ones will you never learn wisdom by the evils of others As soon as this news came to the Court the wicked The rage of Fausta turned into pitie Fausta well saw it was an effect of her treachery and lively representing before her own eyes this poor Prince whom she before had so much affected at that time so unworthily massacred in a beauty in an age wherein such as die are most pittied and in a goodness which would have given matter of compassion to Tigers and Lions all her passion and hatred was turned into an enraged sorrow which made her crie out and lament at the feet of her husband confessing she had slain the chaste Crispus by her detestable calumny that it was she who had sollicited Calumny discovered him to evil but had found him a Joseph endowed with an invincible chastity and had detested her sin as it well deserved whereupon excited with choler and fearing to be prevented she had proceeded to this dreadfull accusation and therefore was unworthy to live since she had slain the most innocent Prince of the world and stained his own father with his proper bloud Constantine amazed beyond description at so prodigious an accident had neither reply nor sense of a man so much wonder had rapt him from himself but when he saw his holy mother Helena who had so tenderly bred up the poor Crispus bewailing him with unconsolable tears and begging of the father at the least the body of her grand-child to wash it with the waters of her eyes and bury it with her hands saying the wicked beast had slain her Joseph he was pierced to the quick with compassion mingled with fury Then the poor sister of the deceased who seemed nought else but the shaddow of her brother coming also to dissolve her self wholly into tears near to her Grand-mother this spectacle the more enkindled the passion of the Emperour And thinking that Fausta well deserved death being convinced of such a mischief by her own confession he caused her to enter into the bath and so in an instant to be smothered with the vapour which was a punishment wherewith many times they put persons of quality to death Behold the issue of the hydeous loves of Fausta to Death of Fausta teach all Ladies that those passions which begin by complacencies soothings and curiosities very often end in horrible tragedies In the mean time the house of Constantine remained long drenched in a dead silence and all was very secretly carried so that none knowing what publickly to think of the death of Crispus and Fausta it gave occasion to many to affirm they died for some conspiracy We cannot here excuse Constantine of a violent anger a precipitation a proceeding too bloudy Howsoever he caused Crispus to die under a false belief of impurity which he thought was to be revenged and Fausta punished by way of justice Behold why this sin though it hath much mischief in it yet it hath not the determinate wickedness of the sin of David in the death of Urias because the one wrought with a manifest knowledge of his crime and the other proceeded therein with much ignorance and sense of justice Yet Constantine after these exorbitances was touched with great remorse which in the end put him actually on the profession of Christianity The eighth SECTION The calling of Constantine to Christianitie The progress of his Conversion and Baptism I Have always esteemed the saying of S. Paulinus Constant 19. which we before alledged very probable that the faith of S. Helena did not onely make Constantine a Christian but the first of Christian Princes This good mother without doubt gave him the first tincture of Christianity but being of an ambitious and warlike spirit who went along with the main stream of the world he was not so soon confirmed in the faith and integrity of religion Notwithstanding he began to have most lively apprehēsions for his conversion about the seventh year of his Empire which was the year of the defeat of Maxentius whilest he had this great war upon his hands his temporal necessities opening his eyes that he might have recourse to spiritual forces He then endeavoured as he afterward relateth Beginning of the conversion of the Emperour to meditate seriously within himself that there was some Divine Providence from Heaven which gave concussions to victories and Empires without which the counsels of men were cloudy their Armies weak and labours vain Afterward
impatience She to appease him excused herself upon the necessity of the accident happened but this notable Astrologer hearing speech of the birth of a child forsooke the pot and glass which he dearly loved and endeavoured to set the Horoscope of this Ablavius newly come into the world And thereupon said to the hostess Go tell your neighbour she hath brought forth a son to day who shall be all and have all but the dignity of an Emperour I think with Eunapius that such tales are rather made after events to give credit to judicial Astrology than to say they have any foundation upon truth It is not known by what means he was advanced but he came into so great an esteem that he governed the whole Empire under Constantine who freely made use of him as of a man discreet and vigilant in affairs though much displeased to see him too eager in his proper interests And it is said that walking one day with him he took a stick in his hand and drew the length of five or six foot on the earth then turning towards his creature Ablavius why so much sweat and travel In the end of all neither I nor thou shall have more than this nay thou dost not know whether thou shalt have it or no. He was the cause by his factions that Constantine almost caused one day three innocent Captains to be punished with death being ill inform'd had it not been that S. Nicholas then living appeared in a dream the same night to Constantine and Ablavius threatning if they proceeded any further God would chastise them which made them stay execution Ablavius notwithstanding was so tyed to the earth that the words and examples of his Master had small power over his soul in such sort that he had an unhappy end ordinary with those who abuse the favours of God For after the death of Constantine Constantius who succeeded in the Empire of his father taking this man as it were for a Pedagogue so much authority had he assumed unto himself and thinking he could not free himself of his minority but by the death of Ablavius caused him miserably to be butchered sending two for executours of this commission men suborned who saluted him with great submissions and knees bended to the earth in manner of Emperour He who before had married one of the daughters of the Emperour Constans brother of Constantius thinking they would raise him to the dignity of Caesar asked where the purple was They answered they had no commission to give it him but that those who should present it were at his chamber dore He commandeth them to be speedily brought in These were armed men who approaching near unto him instead of the purple inflicted a purple death transfixing him with their swords and renting him as a Sacrifice If the poor man following his Masters example had been willing to set limits upon his fortune and taken shelter at least in the storm to meditate upon the affairs of his conscience he would the less have been blamed but natural desires have this proper that they are bounded by nature which made them The fantasies of ambition which grew from our opinions have no end no more than opinion subsistence For what bounds will you give to the falsehood and lying of a miserable vanity which filleth the spirit with illusion and the conscience with crimes When one goeth the right way he findeth an end but when he wandereth a-cross the fields he makes steps without number errours without measure and miseries without remedy The thirteenth SECTION The death of Constantine IT seemeth great men who have lived so well should never die and that it were very fit they still did what they once have done so happily But as they entred not into life by any other way than that of birth as men so must they issue out from this ordinary residence of mortals as other men Constantine had already reigned thirty and one years and was in the threescore and third of his age living otherwise in a prosperous old age and having a body exceedingly well disposed to the functions of life for he incessantly travelled in the duty of his charge without any inconvenience ordering military matters in his mind instituting laws hearing embassages reading writing discoursing to the admiration of all the world This good Prince earnestly desired the conversion of all the great-ones of his Court. Behold why not satisfied with giving them example of a perfect life he inflamed them to good with powerful words which were to souls as thunder-claps to Hinds not for the delivery of a beast but the production of salvation A little before his death he pronounced in his Palace to those of his Court a very elegant Oration of the immortality of the soul of the success of good and evil of the providence of God in the recompence of pure souls of the terrour of his justice upon the incredulous and reprobate This divine man handled these discourses with so much fervour and devotion that he seemed to have his ear already in heaven to understand mysteries and enjoy an antipast of Paradise A while after he felt some little inequality of temperature in his body which was with him very extraordinary so sound and well composed he was Thereupon he was taken with a fever somewhat violent and causing himself to be carried to the baths he remained not long there for little regarding the health of his body in comparison of the contentment of his soul he was possessed with a great desire to go to Drepanum in Bythinia a Citie which he surnamed of his good mother where was the bodie of S. Lucian the Martyr to which he had a particular devotion He being transported into this desired place felt in this heart an alacrity wholly celestial and for a long time remained in the Church notwithstanding the indisposition of his body fervently praying for his own salvation and the universal repose of his Empire From thence he went directly to a Palace which he had in the suburbs of Nichomedia where feeling the approaches of death he disposed himself for his last hour with the marks of a piety truly Christian His Princes and Captains who heard him speak of death being desirous to divert his mind from this thought said He was become too necessary for all the world and that the prayers of all men would prolong his life But he Of what do you speak to me as if it were not true life to die to so many dead things to live with my Saviour No this heer is not a death but a passage to immortality If you love me hinder not my way one cannot go too soon to God This spoken he disposed of his last Will with a constant judgement and couragious resolution declaring in his Testament the estate of affairs he would establish even in the least particulars and very well remembring all his good servants for whom he ordained pensions and rewards for every one
sober that he gave an example to the most austere Monks so negligent in the neatness of his body that he much gloried to see vermine run up and down on his beard which he wore very long to play the Philosopher in all kinds so patient that he many times endured all sorts of affronts and sharp words from mean men no more moved thereby to anger than a stone If it must needs be according to the said Maxims that a Prince to procure estimation should perform great enterprizes this man was no sooner seated in his Throne but that he practised admirable policies and hastened to make war on the Persians to imitate Alexander the Great to whose virtues he aspired If needs some remarkable act must be done in the begining he at his entrance professing Paganism repealeth the Bishops which Constantius a Christian Prince had banished If liberallitie must be used this man gave all and said his treasures were better among his friends than with himself If excellent Masters in every art and science are to be cherished this man did it with much passion From whence then proceedeth it that with all those goodly parts of Machiavels Prince he hath so little prospered reigning but one year and seven months and dying strucken with a blow from heaven which the Pagans themselves confess to be ignorant from whence it came and dying in a frenzy which caused him to fill his hand with his own blood and cry Thou O Galilean hast overcome and leaving in his death a memory of his name so odious to all posterity The poor man forsaking the way already so happily beaten by Constantine unluckily hasteneth to joyn amity with those wise Politicians who had all Plato's Common-wealth who esteemed themselves the most accurate in the government of the World who promised him by these wiles he practised the absolute extirpation of Christianity and to make him the most awfull and most glorious of all the Emperours of the world And I beseech you what became in the end of all these promises but dreams illusions and vapours Constantius under the holy Philosophy of the cross reigned more than thirty years Constantine waged great wars had great victories great triumphs was attended by great Councels great Cities Constantine left a Religion so established that the malice of an Arian son nor the policy of a new Apostata could not extinguish it Constantine never entred into any battel where he came not off victorious And Julian in the first war he undertook upon the beginning of his empire confounded all his Army led his Captains to slaughter was himself slain as a victime And the sage Politicians which he ever had in his army instead of Priests and Bishops drew him to death to serve as a spectacle of confusion for the one and matter of mirth for the other May we not wel say O Nobilitie that these spirits who divert your hearts from the chast beliefs of your Ancestors from the puritie of faith the candor of a good conscience to invenom them with a doctrine of impietie policy and treachery under colour of humane wisedom are the plagues of States the ruins of houses and the fatal hands to annihilate greatness I will not infer for a necessary conclusion that all such as live in the fear of God and in integrity must ever have pleasing successes according to the world in the manage of temporal affairs this is not a thing absolutely promised to us by God We have not sold him our fidelity and Christianity upon such condition that he should still afford us the bread of dogs and favour us with felicities which he imparteth to Sarazens and Mores I know good Christian Princes may be afflicted sometime for the punishment of certain sins which they with too much indulgence have permitted sometime for a trial and spectacle of their virtue sometime to teach us there is another life for the children of God since they in this same are ill entreated sometime for causes which the providence of God involveth as in a cloud replenished with obscurity and darkness Yet shall you find in reading histories either divine or humane that all those who have progressed on with true feeling of God and with the lightenings of integrity and touches of a good conscience which nature provideth for every man have commonly been the most expected the best beloved the most happy and most permanent And to speak with S. Augustine would not they Aug. lib. 5. de civitate Dei cap. 24. ever be most happy if they had no other felicity but to be just in their commands moderate in their fortunes humble among services modest in praises and faithful servants of God in Empires Wherein consisteth the happiness of man if it be not to fear God so to fear nothing els If it be not to love a Kingdom where we no longer may dread to have companions If it be not to pardon injuries through clemency and not revenge crimes but by justice If it be not to be chast in the liberty of pleasures If it be not rather to command over our own passions than Cities and Provinces Behold the principal felicity of great Constantine which you ought O Noble Men to take for your model Do in your own houses what he acted in an Empire establish there constantly the fear and love of God Banish vices as he from his City of Constantinople the Temples and Victims of false Gods that the honour of the Cross may set a seal on all your thoughts all your counsels all your enterprizes that your examples may serve to God as amber and adamant to attract so many hearts of straw and iron as are now in the world to the love of virtue that these duels of gladiatours condemned by Constantine may be the horrour of your thoughts and detestation of your hearts that devotion chastity humility patience charity virtues so familiar to this great Monarch may make an honourable warfare which shall possess your heart and that all of them may there reign each one in particular with as ample Empire as all of them in general THE STATES-MAN TO STATES-MEN SIRS SInce God hath put the government of people justice and most important affairs into your hands he hath likewise raised you upon a high degree of honour to be looked on in offices no otherwise than as stars in the firmament Your dignities are obligations of conscience that bend like the chains of MEDAEA and scortch weak souls in purple and gold but which on the other part afford to generous spirits a perfect lustre of Divinitie The more light a bodie enjoyeth say the learned so much the more ought it to have of participation and favourable influences for objects which are in a much lower degree than it So likewise must we necessariely say that your qualities which grant you nearer approaches to the source of greatness and embellish you with the rays of the majestie of a Prince do most particularly oblige you
the Sacraments of the Church for this last hour knowing the cause wherefore they came beheld them with a confident countenance and said Perform your Commission boldly It is long since I knew that death alone must open the gates of this prison for me And having spoken this he contained himself some while in a deep silence recommending to God this last act of his life and consigning to him his soul which during this imprisonment he had so often whitened with his tears and purified as in a precious limbeck of eternal charities wherein all great souls are deified This done he went forward with a settled pace to the place of execution which the King would have very secret not to excite the people where seeing himself Behold here saith he the Theater which I have long desired I protest before the face of the living God and his holy Saints that I have ever had most sincere intentions for the good of the State nor am I culpable of any of these crimes objected against me If my innocencie be now opprest there shall come a better posteritie which shall draw aside the curtain and entertain the rays of truth O Rome O Rome would to God thou mightest â—e purified by my bloud and I to be the last victim sacrificed for publick safetie I will not now accuse him who condemned me desiring God rather may open his eyes to see the justice of my cause and the plots practised upon his own soul Behold the recompence I gain for becoming hoarie in his service but God is the faithful witness of all my actions and in his bosom is it now where I lay down my life my bodie my soul and all my interests There was but one poor gentle-man waiter that accompanied him in this passage who as he poured out tears near unto him Boetius earnestly beholding him said Where is your resolution leave these tears for the miserable and tell my father-in-law my wife and children that I have done nothing here unworthie of their honour and that they act nothing unworthie of me by bewailing me with plaints which would be little honourable for the condition of my death but that they rather take this accident as a gift from Heaven They well know I have ever told them it is not here where we should expect repose but in the place where I hope to prepare them a room These words spoken they proceeded to execution by the barbarous commandment given by Theodorick I have read in a very ancient manuscript from whence I have drawn some particulars couched therein that a cruel torture was inflicted on this holy man long time streyning a coard about his fore-head in such sort that his eyes started out of his head and that in the end they knocked him down with a leaver which I cannot think to be probable seeing all other constantly affirm his head was cut off by the hand of a hangman and Martianus who most eloquently wrote his life addeth that by miracle he some space of time held his head in his own hands like another S. Denys until he gave up the ghost before the Altar of a Chappel very near to the place of his execution His bodie was interred in the Church of Saint Augustine to whom he had a particular devotion and his name put among the Martyrs as Baronius observeth because he died partly for the defence of the Catholick Church against the Arians The place of his imprisonment hath been preserved as a great monument of piety his tomb honoured with verses such as that time could afford where among other things this title is given him BOETIUS IN COELO MAGNUS ET OMNI PERSPECTUS MUNDO The King stayed not a whit after this to put Symmachus his father-in-law to death and to confiscate all the goods both of the one and other which was a very lamentable thing yet notwithstanding the couragious Rusticiana bare the death of her father and husband with so great constancy that she deserved to draw all succeeding Ages into admiration for she spake most freely to the King reproching him with his disloyalty and honoured these two eminent souls as Saints much offended with her self if at any time nature won tears from her eyes as judging them too base to be sacrificed to so flourishing a memory The vengeance of God slackened not long to fall Procop. lib. 4. upon the guiltie head of Theodorick for few days after this act as he continually lived in the representations of his crime his imagination was so troubled that being at the table when they came to serve up the great head of a fish he figured to himself it was the head of Symmachus the last of all butchered and although much endeavour was used to remove this fantasie from him it was impossible to give remedy but he rose from the table like a man affrighted crying out murder and felt instantly such a quaking over all his body and besides such convulsions in all his members that he must needs presently be carried to his bed where he was visited by his Phisitian to whom he complained with much horrour that he had shed bloud which would perpetually bleed against him The feaver and frenzie carried him hence into the other world where he had a marvellous account to make of whom we know no more particulars yet Saint Gregorie witnesseth that he learned from the mouth of a man Greg. l. 4. 30 worthy of credit that the same day he died at Rome certain honourable persons being at Lipari a little Island of Sicilie in the Cell of an Hermit who lived in the reputation of great sanctitie he said unto them Know ye that King Theodorick is no more They replying Nay not so we left him alive and in health Notwithstanding saith he I can well assure you he died to day in Rome and which is more is judged condemned and thrown into the store-houses of subterranean fire which we here call the Cauldron of Vulcan And it was a Olla Vulcani strange thing that they being returned to Rome understood the death of this wretched King to have been at that very time told by the Hermit which was held for a most manifest judgement of God and made all those to tremble who heard the relation thereof Athalaricus his grand-child by his daughter although an infant succeeded to his estates under the regency of his mother Amalazunta who restored all the goods had been confiseated to the widow that lived afterward until Justinian got the Empire from the Goths by the means of Bellasartus at which time she made all the images and statues of Theodorick to be broken causing also another process to be framed against him after his death Alas great God who governest the state of this Universe and makest the pillars of Heaven to shake under thy foot-steps what is man who will practise wiles in a matter of policie contrary to thy eternal Maxims How hath this wretch ended
content the King my father and yours who requireth from you no other satisfaction The good Prince answered Ab Brother What have you said you lately perswaded me to an act of pietie at the peril of my life think not now to induce me to an impietie although it should concern all the lives and Kingdoms of the world Behold here the time for you to reign and for me to die I willingly die for the honour I ow to my Religion for which I gladly would suffer death a thousand times if it were possible I neither accuse you nor my father whom I more compassionate than my self and counsel you to render him all the duties of pietie in the decrepitness of age whereinto he is entered As for our step-mother I pray you rather to endure her nature than revenge my death It is the work of God to take knowledge of injuries and for us to bear them When my soul shall leave this miserable bodie it shall ceaselesly pray for you and I hope most dear brother you in the end will renounce this poor libertie which entertaineth you in the sect of the Arians and if dying men use to divine I foretel that being converted to the faith you shall lay foundations of Catholick Religion in all this Kingdom which I am about to moisten with my bloud Recaredus used all the intreaties he could devise never being able to shake the constancy of his brother which much offended King Levigildus and transported him into resolutions very bloudy Notwithstanding those who might yet speak unto him with some liberty counselled him to precipitate nothing in an affair of so great consequence saying there was no apparence that Hermingildus had undertaken any plot against the life and State of his father since he came so freely to present himself upon his bare word that those who find themselves guilty use not to come to burn themselves as butter-flies at the candle That his countenance at this interview was too sweet his speech too proper his deportments too candide to cover so black a mischief and as for change of Sect it was no wonder if the King having given him a Catholick wife he had taken that Religion with its love that it was a complement of a lover which age would bend experience sweeten and prudence in the end deface that he had at that time more need of a Doctour than an executioner since the apprehensions of God were distilled in the heart by the help of tongues not the dint of swords The seventeenth SECTION The death of Hermingildus THe faction of Goizintha transported beyond all considerations ceased not to sound in the ears of the King that Hermingildus was not an offender whose power was to be neglected That his crime was not such as might promise him impunity that the laws of the Countrey had never tolerated such practises that he had violated right both divine and humane becoming a fugitive from his Countrey an Apostata in his religion arebel to the power of his father in such sort that to render his wound incurable he had changed all lenitives into poison That he had levied arms against his Sovereign without regard of his age his name the majesty of the Kingdom and the voice of nature and that there was nothing but the despair of his affairs which had taken them out of his hands That he held correspondence with the enemies of the State to whom he was become an assistant and a companion and now to make himself as impudent to defend a crime as bold to execute it had cast all the fault of his conspiracies upon the Queen his mother-in-law and the marriage of his father shewing himself so insolent in his misery that there was nothing to be expected but tyranny from his prosperity that it was to be extreamly arrogant even to stupidity to seek to retain a chymaera of piety contrary to the will of his father and that never would he be so constant in his superstition if he had not leagued all the interests of his fortune with the Catholicks enemies of the Kingdom That if order were not taken therein they should be hereafter deprived of the power to deliberate on it when they had given him all the means to execute it The credulity of the unfortunate father was so strongly assaulted by these discourses that he resolved to go beyond himself so that on a night which was Easter Eye he dispatched a messenger to the prison with an executioner to let him know he was speedily to make his resolution to choose either life and scepter by returning to the Religion of the Arians or death by persisting in the Catholick That he had a sword and a Crown before his eyes the one for glory the other for punishment the choice of either was referred to himself Hermingildus made answer he had already sufficiently manifested his determination upon this Article that he would rather die a thousand deaths than ever separate himself from the Religion which he had embraced with all reason and full consideration The Commissary replied The King your Father hath given me in charge that in case of refusal I should proceed to execution of the sentence decreed against you What saith Hermingildus He hath condemned you by express sentence saith the other to have your head cut off in this same prison where you are Whereupon the holy man fell on his knees to the earth and said My God my Lord I yield you immortal thanks that having given me by the means of my father a frail brittle and miserable life common unto me with flies and ants you now afford me on this day by these sentences a life noble happie glorious to all eternitie Then rising up again he requested the Commissary he would by his good favour suffer a Catholick Priest to come to him to hear his Confession and dispose him to death He answered It was expresly forbidden by the King his father but if he would admit an Arian Bishop he should have one at his pleasure No saith he for I have detested yea and do still abhor Arianism even to the death and since my father denieth me a favour which ordinarily is granted to the guiltie I will die having no other witness but mine own conscience Which having said he kneeled down again and made his confession to God praying very long for his father his step-mother all his enemies and pronouncing also at his death the name of his dear Indegondis to whom he professed himself bound with incomparable obligations Then afterward having recommended his soul to God under the protection of the most holy Virgin his good Angel and all the Saints he stretched out his neck to the executioner which was cut off with one blow of an ax So many stars as at that instant shined in Heaven in the dead silence of the night were so many eyes open over the bloudy sacrifice of this most innocent Prince from whom a wretched father took
can any longer be a husband That she married him to live and to give life to others by love not to cut her own throat and her childrens through wickedness That a man who renounceth honour can no more pretend to nature To conclude that it is wealth which maketh men and that it was no dishonour to marrie a servant who is the favourite of a mightie King We came not into the world to be masters of fortune but to yield to its Empire What content can there be to walk up and down Towns and Cities like a beggers following a husband the object of the worlds laughter and reserve all is left of his miserable bodie to swords and flames So much were her ears beaten with such like discourses She yieldoth that through a most unspeakable cowardice she forsook her religion and husband to marry this servant who seemed noble enough since he had the golden fleece The King seeing she had yielded added for full accomplishment of inhumanity that Suenes should remain in his own house as a slave to his wise and servant Behold here the extremity of all worldly miseries Yield thy self up said one poor Suenes Admirable constancie sâ—est thou not that of so many palaces and such treasures there is not left for thee so much as a house covered with stubble of so many children none to call thee father Is it not time to forsake thy faith since she who slept by thy sides hath left thee Wert thou amongst the chains of Lestrigons and Tartars thou mightst breath a more wholesom air But to behold thy self a slave to thy servant in thine own house and to have perpetually before thee the infidelity of a disloyal wife for object how is it possible but to overthrow the most stable constancie in the world But Suenes assembling together all the forces of his heart said O faithless and perfidious discourses All is taken from me but they cannot take away Jesus Christ I follow him in libertie and bondage in prosperitie and adversitie in life and death whilest one small threed of life remains in my heart one silly spark of breath upon my lips I will combat against the gates of hell and all the laws of impietie O the power of the spirit of God! O divorce from flesh and bloud O spectacle worthy to be beheld by angels over the gates of heaven with admiration A man to die in so many indignities such punishments such deaths without dying without complaint growing wan or speaking any one word unworthy the lips of a Christian What is it to be a puissant but to brave all the powers of earth and hell What is it to be rich but to place all your treasures in the heart of God II. MAXIM Of the Essence of GOD. THE PROPHANE COURT THE HOLY COURT That it is fit to obey Nature all other Divinitie being most unknown That nothing is so known as God although not acknowledged through our ingratitude ACynick Philospher heretofore sought for a man with a candle at noon-day and now adays the wicked seek God in a clear and full light and when they have found him become blind by their own lights in that they see not him who is not to be known but in the quality of a Judge punishing their offences Out alas what is man without God Tertullian speaking of the countrey about the Euxine Tertul. advers Marcion l. 1. cap. 1. Excellent description of Tertullian sea saith It is a Region separated from the commerce of men as well by the providence of Nature as the reproach of its bruitishness It is peopled by most savage Nations which inhabit if we may say so a wandering cart that serves them for house a habitation which though perpetually in motion is less inconstant than their manners Their abode is uncertain their life wholly savage their luxury promiscuous and indifferent for all sorts of objects They make no scruple to serve in the flesh of their parents in a feast with beeff and mutton and think the death of such cursed who die when they no longer are fit to be eaten Sex softeneth not women in this countrey for they sear off their dugs being young and make a distaff serve for a launce being otherwise so fervent in battel that they had much rather fight than marry The Climate and elements are as rigid as their manners The day is never bright the sun never smileth nor is the skie any thing but a continued cloud The whole year is a winter and the wind ever North. Ice robs them of rivers and if they have liquor the fire affords it The mountains are still covered with ice and snow All is cold in this countrey but vice which ever burneth Yet I must tell you saith he there is not any thing amongst these wonders more prodigious than wicked Marcion For where shall we find a monster more odious or a man in nature more senseless than him who did not acknowledge the Divinitie and will have the causes and sublime reasons given him of the Essence of God which never were nor shall be for then there would be somewhat above God The Emperour Tiberius having conceived some Humano arbitratu divinitâ—s pensitatur nisi homini Deus placuerit Deus non erit Tertul. Apol. c. 5. Nec quicquam refert Deum neges an asseras Arno. l. 1. good opinion of Divinitie in the Person of our Saviour was willing to rank him in the number of other gods but it was not executed because it must pass by decree of the Senate and God who is all that which he is by nature regarded not the judgement of men to authorize his Divinitie You were as good deny God saith Arnobius as to make the truth of his Essence depend upon the weakness of humane reason 1. I ask of you whether there be any thing in the world more present with us and more familiarly known than our self our substance our life our being It seemeth say you it is the most certain of our knowledges Now if I shew the science we have of God is better known to us than our selves God is far stronger more undoubted and invincible than the knowledge we have of our self I necessarily convince the ignorance of the Divinitie is stupid ungratefull and punishable with all the rigours of eternal justice I pray tell me what so certain knowledge can you have of your self Have you it by the knowledge of History which is a reasonable knowledge by revelation which is extraordinary by prophesie which is mysterious by faith which is infallible I do not see you alledge any of these for confirmation of your own being You have no proofs say you more certain than your senses which you know notwithstanding to be bruitish deceivers and deceived in so many objects You hear your self speak you smell your self you touch your self and for that you affirm you are although you have not any knowledge of the better part of
saith he the universe should interest it self in the loss of particulars yea were it of Monarchs We all bud forth like the leaf of a tree and die as the leaf neither our life nor death any thing importeth this great All. Behold that which much abaseth the pride of the most vain-glorious is to think upon a beer and tomb and reflect on that ample grave whereinto all mankind insensibly sinketh That is it which Job called Lapidem calipinis Job 28. 3. Secretarium horroris the stone of darkness That which the Ancients named the secret of horrour The greatest Princes of the earth resemble Alexanders stone the most excellent of the world in the brightness of lustre but so soon as it was covered with dust it had neither force nor beauty beyond other stones How great rich active soever they be the dust of a sepulcher makes it appear they are nothing But God alone hath immortality without dependence because he is what he is All that which may be and not be hath ever some time assigned when it was not or wherein it shall no more be One may Tu autem idem ipse es ann tui non deficient Saecula cuncta tenens anie omnia saecula solus Novatiani l. de Trin. c. 31. at the least find an imaginary time when the most eminent Powers were nothing and for so much as concernethmen it is no difficult matter to give them limits to which and in which they no longer shall be men But of God alone we may truly say his years not onely decrease not but know not what it is to increase For the Eternity of God to speak properly is very long and very short very long in extent for it spreadeth over all Ages very short because in an instant it possesseth all it can have in the infinity of times being ever like the center of a circle which looketh towards all the lines without stirring out of one place 4. Our third Annihilation is that we have much Man hath more non-essence than Essence more non-essence than essence according to Plato's argument because if we have the essence of a man we have not therefore the essence of Heaven of earth creatures nor plants although some similitude thereof We are confined and limited within a particular essence which comprehendeth a soul ignorant and unsatiable a body feeble and frail a strange connexion of a nature mortal and immortal an alliance of a ray of the sun with a dung-hill of a spirit prompt and subtile with most infirm flesh But God who is Excellency of the simplicity and universality of God in comparison of the world what he is containeth in himself all possible essences and which is more containeth them under the sole form of the Divinitie The world is bright in the light of stars resplendent in flames subtile in air streaming in eternal veins of rivers stable on the foundation of the earth rich in mynes fruitfull in plants displayed in flowers and all because it is a world and it a creature But God in one sole indivisible and under one sole form concludeth the fervour of Seraphins the science of Cherubins the majesty of Dominations the height of Thrones the excellency of Principalities the strength of Virtues the superintendence of Arch-angels the charitable offices of Angels the greatness of Heaven the beauty of stars the splendour of lights the activity of fire the subtilitie of air the fruitfulness of earth the eternal freshness of fountains and all we may call great beautifull or pleasing God I say comprehendeth them under this great title I am that I am That is it which Ego sum qui sum Bonum hoc bonum illud â—â—lle hoc illud vide ipswn bonum si potenita Deuâ— videbis non alio bono bonum â—ed bonum omnis boni Aug. l. 8. de Trinit c. 3. Maximus Tyrius Orat. de Deo In Deâ— non est nisi Deuâ— S. Bernard de consider l. 5. made S. Augustine say This and that is good Take away this and that when you speak of God and behold the Sovereign Good so shall you see God who is not good by a borrowed goodness but the Good of all good This first essence is lovely said Maximus of Tyre And verily it is the chief of beauties But how think you is it lovely like a meadow all strewed over with flowers or as Heaven all enamelled with stars Take away this meadow these flowers this Heaven these stars God is nothing of all created things but it is he from whom all creatures derive being beauty goodness force unity and lasting I well know what he is not but cannot say what he is I am satisfied in speaking with S. Bernard In the great God all is God and there is not any thing in him which is not himself Finally our fourth misery is that our essence being Mutability of men so short and slender faileth not to be afflicted with so many mutations so many vicissitudes that we may say there is almost nothing less in us than our selves All change saith the Philosopher beareth with it some image of non-essence and therefore we who change every moment are as it were nothing in nature to be trusted to It is not known with what knot with what chains men should be tied or fettered so variable and inconstant there Proteuses are Ages alter us and in changing us change themselues Infancy becometh adolescency adolescency is taken off by youth youth by manhood manhood by declining years and those years by decrepit age If you reckon well you shall find everyone of these mutations is a species of death As time alters our bodies a thousand other things make impression on our minds Humours passions conversations customs accidents vices and virtues so often transform us into other men that one may say we are the most natural pourtraicts of inconstancy in universal Nature There is none but God can say I Ego Dominus nonmutor Malach. 3. 6. In se â—aneâ—â— innevat omnis nihil accipit quod ipse non dedit esse illi quod est sempiternum semper est proprium S. Leo. ep 93. c. 5. am the God who changeth not There is not any the least shadow of vicissitude in the great abyss of light as he is one without number infinite without limits eternal free from floud and ebbe of time so he is immoveable without augmentation or diminution He stands immoveabâ—e within himself and reneweth all various nature out of himself He takes nothing of men which he gave them not Essence is proper to him as eternal to him It is a maxim in Theologie that simple forms which of themselves constitute a Person make no difference between the subject and nature that is to say God is his Deity his life his eternity and all he is without diversity It is for things composed of divers pieces to be susceptible of many forms and consequently
expence above his ability The mother was extreamly troubled at it and restrained what she might her sons purse but he ever found ways to open it again till such time as she dying and the son seeing himself at liberty he flew into exorbitant expences and became indebted a third or a fourth part more than he was worth This is it which ordinarily overthroweth young A pretty touch of Lewis the twelfth to Francis the first men who expect great fortunes and mighty favours They think to be presently in the midst of the City when they afar off see the band of the dyal They suppose they possess blessings which will never be had they promise are engaged much turmoyl and passionately hoping ruin all their hopes Behold a little the goodly support may be expected from men of the world Drusus the Emperours son who bare all glory in bloom is taken into the other world without making any mention at all of his favourite Agrippa falls from the chariot of favour and found there was nothing got by the service of his Master but debts and discontents He reflects on the father to see if any ray of compassion Affiction of a Courtier frustrated of his hopes will dart from his eyes But Tyberius commanded him to be gone from the Court saying for a full reason he could not endure to look on what his son had loved without renovation of his memory and grief The young Prince returneth into Judaea where though the grand-child of a great King he found himself so needy that he wished to die not having wherewith to live There is nothing more bitter to men of quality Poverty the chief scourge amongst all the scourges of the world than poverty which ever draweth along with it four evil companions dependence upon another contempt shame and misery This generous heart thought that death would better his condition But Cypre his wife a Loyalty of a wife to her husband good Princess chased away this melancholy humour and descending so low as the shame of begging for him procured some little money that he the more sweetly might pass this miserable life for verily he sometimes lived at Herod the Tetrarchs charge sometime upon Flaccus Lieutenant of Syria But this kind of life being beggarly waited on with much reproach he grew impatient and resolved to return to Rome to bury himself in the shadow of favour since he could not touch the body of it The poor Princess his wife seeing there was not any would lend him money unless she bound her self for him did it couragiously exposing her person to all the persecutions of creditours to help her husband But a man much indebted is like one possessed Miseries of a man indebted round beset with a Legion of devils no sooner went one out but ten tormented him Agrippa saw himself assaulted by creditours Provosts and Sergeants which more terrified him than arms or warlick Engines The most powerful of them all was a Controuler of the Emperours house who required a huge summe of money from him whereof he was accountable to Tyberius his Exchequer To this he answered very coldly he was ready to satisfie if he pleased to be patient but till the next day but that night he stole away and went towards Rome to draw more near to the flame must burn him Notwithstanding before his coming he wrote to Tyberius who was in his Island of Capreae to sound the likelyhood of his welcome The Emperour who long before had his wound throughly skinned for the death of his Son wrot back again very courteously giving him assurance of welcome and the truth is he found Tyberius who entertained him with extraordinary favour and lodged him in his palace All his businesses went well had it not been this Controuller whose shadow he still saw before his eyes wrote speedily to the Emperour That Agrippa was endebted to his Exchequer in great sums which he had promised to discharge presently but fled like a faithless man and discovered by his proceedings there was nothing but imposture in his actions This unlucky letter at the first destroyed all his Generous act of Antonia credit For the old man who for all his friendship was resolved not to loose a denier caused him shamefully to pack out of his palace and forbad his Guards to admit him any enterance before he had satisfied his creditours The miserable Agrippa seeking out a God of money to make his vows unto went directly without any fear to the Princess Antonia to acquaint her with his misfortune and beg her favour The Lady was so generous and bountiful towards him that she discharged the debt lending him money in remembrance of his dead mother and for that he had been bred with her son Claudius besides she took singular pleasure in his humour This man whose fortune ebbed and flowed saw himself suddenly raised so that entering into amity with Caesar he made a streight league with Caligula by the express commandements of Tyberius who appointed he should follow him These were two notable ramblers whom chance had so very well coupled together as well for conformity of their humours as the encounter of their hopes They began a life wholly sportive not thinking on the time to come but to hope well of it nor dreaming of any thing but that which might make them merry Agrippa persisting in his ordinary delights undertook Flattery of Agrippa one day as he went in coach with Caligula to speak of Tyberius saying That he was as old as the earth and that it seemed death had forgotten him That it was high time he payd tribute to nature as for himself he wished nothing else in the world but quickly to see Caligula Prince of the world in his place well knowing he should lay hold on a good portion of the felicities which all men were to have under his Empire He found not that Caligula although ardently desirous to see himself suddenly Maister shewed to take any pleasure in this discourse so much he feared the Emperour Tyberius He kept his thoughts in his heart not trusting his tongue with them least stones and bushes might have ears It happened by chance that Eutyches Agryppa's coachman heard all his Master said was some space of time without shewing any appearance of it but afterward being brought before the Provost of the City at his Master Agryppa's request for a pilfery committed by him in his house he said he had many other things to speak which concerned the Emperours life whereupon the Provost carried him to Capreae where Tyberius plunged in his in famous pleasures was sometime without seeing him Agrippa who would needs excuse himself before he was accused wholly forgetting the discourse he had held with Caligula earnestly pressed this servant might be heard so far as therein to employ the credit of Antonia who was very powerful with Tyberius The Emperour answered Agrippa need not fret himself so much in
it is a distinct question which would well deserve a much longer discourse than this present design permitteth (b) (b) (b) Vanity of Astrology We have shewed in some other former tracts and will also manifest once again how vain and frivolous the science of Horoscopes is being taken in that height whereunto the vanitie of some impostours hath raised it not here intending to condemn those who handle Astrologie within limits permitted by the Church Let us now be contented to say it is a savage ignorance to seek to infer from the course of planets an absolute necessity upon mens actions since even judicial Astrologers the most fervent and obstinate durst never proceed so far All say the stars make impressions of certain qualities upon bodies and minds but that they may be diverted by precaution which gave authority to the famous axiom of Ptolomy cited by S. Thomas in the book of destiny affirming (a) (a) (a) S. Thom. opusc defat Sapiens dominabitur astris the wise man shall rule the stars (b) (b) (b) Tertull. de Ido c. 9. Expelluntur mathematici sicut angeli eorum urbe Italia interdicitur mathematicis sicut coelum Angelis Non potest regnum coelorum sperare cujus digitus aut radius abâ—titur coelo Tertullian in the treatise of Idolatry said pertinently that evil Angels are made prime masters of the curiosity of Horoscopes and that as they were banished from heaven so are their disciples from the earth as by an extension of the divine sentence He addeth that man should not at all pretend to the Kingdom of heaven who makes a practise to abuse both heaven and stars It seemes God pursueth those who addict themselves to such vanities as fugitives from Divine Providence And it is very often observed that great-ones who are ensnared in the servitude of this curiosity have felt violent shocks and many times most dreadful events (c) (c) (c) Alexander de Angelis l. 4. c. 40. Henery the second to whom Carden and Gauricus two lights of Astrology had foretold verdant and happy old Age was miserably slain in the flower of his youth in games and pleasures of a Turneament The Princes his children whose Horoscopes were so curiously looked into and of whom wonders had been spoken were not much more prosperous Zica King of the Arabians to whom Astrology had promised long life to persecute Christians died in the year of the same prediction Albumazar the Oracle of Astrology left in writing that he found Christian religion according to the influence of stars should last but a thousand four hundred years he already hath belyed more than two hundred and it will be a lie to the worlds end The year 1524. wherein happened the great conjunction of Saturn Jupiter and Mars in the sign Pisces Astrolgers had foretold the world should perish by water which was the cause many men of quality made arks in imitation of Noâ—hs to save themselves from the deluge all which turned into laughter The year 1630. was likewise threatened by some predictions with an inundation should drown half mankind which proved false by a season quite contrary It was foretold a Constable of France well known that he would dye beyond the Alps before a city besieged in the 83. year of his Age and that if he escaped this time he was to live above a hundred years which was notoriously untrue this man deceasing in the 84. year of a natural death A Mathematician of John Galeazzo Duke of Milan who promised himself long life according to his planets was slain at the same time when he prognosticated this by the commandment of the same Duke Another Astrologer of Henry the seaventh King of England advised this great Prince to take heed of Christmas night was asked whither his own star would send him that night to which he answered to his own house in security of peace Yet was he instantly sent to the tower to celebrate the vigil of this great festival One might reckon up by thousands the falshoods miseries and disasters which wait on these superstitions Who can then sufficiently deplore the folly of Existimant tot circa unum caput tumultuantes Deos. Aurelius one who forsaking the great government of God the fountain of wits and treasure of fortunes makes himself a slave of Mercury or Saturn contrary to the voice of Scripture decision of Councels Oracles of holy Fathers Laws of Emperours consultations of the wise experience of people and consent of all the most solid judgments We will not labour to ruin a doctrine forsaken Against the necessity inferred of prescience both by honour and reason We onely speak against those who will infer a necessity derived from divine prescience by force of which sins themselves according to their understandings are directly caused by the decrees of heaven It is the opinion of Velleius Paterculus who said destiny did all the good and Ita efficitur quod est miserrimum ut quod accidit etiam merito accidisse videatur casus in cuâ—pam transeat evil in the world and that it was a miserable thing to attribute that which proceedeth from above to the demerit of men and to make the ordinances of heaven to pass as crimes of mortals This Maxim was defended by Hereticks even to fury and it is a wonder men have been so wicked as to burden the prime sanctity with all the ordures of the world We well know if destiny be taken for the ordinance by which God establisheth the lives of particulars and states of Empires it is nothing else but the Divine Providence whereof we speak but good heed must be taken from concluding sins within the list of Gods will who onely being pleased to permit them can not in any sort establish or will them And it is here an impertinent thing to say All God hath foreseen shall necessarily happen otherwise he would be deceived in his foresight which cannot be affirmed without blasphemy but he foresaw all future things they then of necessity will happen Who sees not it is a childish toy and that this captious argument must be overthrown by saying All which God hath foreseen necessarily happeneth by necessity and all he foresaw indifferently happeneth by indifferency Now so it is that of all which dependeth on our liberty he hath not foreseen any thing necessarily but indifferently We must then conclude that all is done by indifferency not fatal necessity Hearken to the excellent decision of S. Iohn Damascene Damas l. 2. Orth. fidei c. 32. God foresaw all things but he determineth not all Omnia quidem Deus praenoscit non omnia tamen praefinit praenoscit enim ea quae in nostrâ sunt potestate non autem ea praefinit quia non vult peccatum nec cogiâ— ad virtutem things He well foresaw all which is and shall be in your power but he determines not because he willeth not sin nor will
fit Job 5. Omnia in mensura numero pondere disposuisti Sap. 11. Recal into your thoughts the singular consideration of Boetius (a) (a) (a) Boet de consol Aequo animo toleres oportet quicquid intra fortunae aream geritur cum semel jugo colla submiseris We must patiently suffer all which is done within the circle of Providence seeing we have bowed our necks under its laws by the condition of our birth (b) (b) (b) An excellent resolution upon wordly accidents So soon as you are born you enter within the jurisdiction of Gods ordinance you have undergone the yoke to receive good or evil fortune as he shall please to appoint I ask if you should resolve to give law to him froÌ„ whom you ought to take it were you not most unjust unhappy Most unjust because you would incroach upon Gods inheritance most unhappy because you could not kick against the prick but to hurt your self the more Were you embarked in a vessel you must go not according to your own will but the course of wind and tide If you learned the trade of husbandmen you must cast into the earth to reap again what will come of it and you should sometimes have barren sometimes fertile and fruitful years You have entered into humane life which of its nature is replenished with inconstancies and vicissitudes one while there is good another while evil hap Let fortune roul as God shall please nothing with him is hazardous Would you be so hardy as to tie your self to the wheel of a chariot perpetually running to stay the course which the Divine Providence affords it You desire say you a stable fortune in the world and understand not that were it so there would no longer be either world or fortune since the condition of these inferiour things is in continual mutation When you see the wicked flourish in honour riches Deorum crimeâ— Sylla tam faelix Senec. ad Marcia and reputation say not the prosperity of a wicked man is heavens sin that God walketh upon the vaults of his palace and abandoneth the care of worldly affairs Expect a little Justice will come although many times with a leaden pace How know you whether God will convert this man by surcharging him with prosperities to confound his ingratitude How know you whether resolving to deprive him for his crimes of eternal blessings he gives him some use of temporal benefits in recompence of some moral virtues he hath heretofore exercised Rather say to God O God how profound are thy thoughts Psal 91. 6. Nimis profundae factae sunt cogitationes suae vir insipiens non cognoscet fluâ—tâ—â— non intelliget haec Vis in esse longanimis patiens jungete aeternitati Dei cam illo expecta quâ— infra te sunt August in Psal 91. 2. Conclusion against Fatality and how inscrutable to the ignorant and foolish Expect the day which will draw aside the curtain and make you see all the secrets of the world God expecteth it with so much patience in his eternity why will not you expect it in your mortality 6. The second conclusion shall be never to adhere to this bruitish and savage opinion which puts a fatality upon all the actions of men and all events Beware of the foolish discourse of him who says If my hour be come I shall die and if not I have nothing to fear For see you not according to these unbridled maxims all deliberation all prudence all order of humane life must be taken away Were here a fatality we need no more talke of ships to pass the seas nor medicines to cure maladies nor bread to feed the hungry A man besotted with this folly might free from danger walk on the waves for if his destiny bear him he shall never perish by water He need not at all make use of medicine for his death can neither be delayed nor hastened What avayls it so much as to eat For if he must die of hunger what ever he do he shall fail and if his destinie threaten him not that way he shall live in full assurance Behold here prodigious dotages But God hath he not fixed the number of my years as saith Job You keep a reckoning of his years and montehs you Job 14. 5. Numerm mensium ejus apud te est constituisti terâ—iâ—â— ejus qui preteriri non pâ—â—â—erunt have set him limits which cannot be broken I affirm God knows the number of your days and hath determined them Hath he not on the other part obliged you to your conservation by the law of nature Since you have no revelation from above that God will have you die in such or such a fashion you ought to preserve your life to the last breath and if through rashness you run among precipices shipwracks and musket-shots without obedience without reason without discretion you are the murderers of your selves God hath foreseen you must die at such an hour and of such a death but he hath likewise foreseen it would happen unto you through a most perverse will and an enraged temerity which sought to tempt the counsels of the Omnipotent against all the maxims of verity Know you not God hath set fire and water before you and that you may take which of them you please Liberty of Tertull. advers Marc c. 6. Tota libertâ— arbitrij in utramque partem concessa est homini ut sui Dominus constanter occurreret bona sponte servâ—â—do mala sponte vitandâ— Third conclusion against humane prudence and lazyness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Free-will is absolutely given to man to become a Master over all his actions with a constancy of mind either voluntarily to keep and conserve good or to resist evil with the like freedom said Tertullian 7. The third conclusion will teach us to settle our labour by heavens direction in a good temperature so that we stand not with arms a-cross when we should travel expecting from Gods hand what we ought not to expect without our cooperation and that on the other side we take heed not so to presume of our own abilities as to ascribe thereunto all good successes which happen For both the one and other is hateful before God We know what the Sage Greek said to a Carter plunged in a myre who called aloud on Minerva not seeking to stir himself My freind with Minerva you must stir a hand God is very ready to aid you but you must on your part use correspondence Set up sayl and God will give wind till the earth and you shall receive Heavens benediction But if you think to please your self with an ill rectified devotion and not to care for the affairs of your family will you not be like those barren trees which make a noise with their leaves under the breath of winds and never bear fruits On the other side beware of thinking to be happy by means meerly
Charls of Anjou much fearing this young Lion forgat His sentence and death all generosity to serve his own turn and did a most base act detested by all understandings that have any humanity which is that having kept Conradinus a whole year in a straight prison he assembled certain wicked Lawyers to decide the cause of one of the noblest spirits at that time under heaven who to second the passion of their Master rendered the laws criminal and served themselves with written right to kill a Prince contrary to the law of nature judging him worthy of death in that said they he disturbed the peace of the Church and aspired to Empire A scaffold was prepared in a publick place all hanged with red where Conradinus is brought with other Lords A Protonotary clothed after the ancient fashion mounteth into a chair set there for the purpose and aloud pronounceth the wicked sentence After which Conradinus raising himself casting an eye ful of fervour and flames on the Judge said Base and cruel slave as thou art to open thy mouth to condemn thy Sovereign It was a lamentable thing to see this great Prince on a scaffold in so tender years wise as an Apollo beautiful as an Amazon and valiant as an Achilles to leave his head under the sword of an Executioner in the place where he hoped to crown it â—e called heaven earth to bear witness of Charls his cruelty who unseen beheld this goodly spectacle froÌ„ an high turret He complained that his goods being taken from him they robbed him of his life as a thief that the blossom of his age was cut off by the hand of a hang-man taking away his head to bereave him of the Crown lastly throwing down his glove demanded an account of this inhumanity Then seeing his Cousin Frederick's head to fall before him he took it kissed it and laid it to his bosom asking pardon of it as if he had been the cause of his disaster in having been the companion of his valour This great heart wanting tears to deplore it self wept over a friend and finishing his sorrows with his life stretched out his neck to the Minister of justice Behold how Charls who had been treated with all humanity in the prisons of Sarazens used a Christian Prince so true it proves that ambition seemeth to blot out the character of Christianity to put in the place of it some thing worse than the Turbant This death lamented through all the world yea which maketh Theaters still mourn sensibly struck the heart of Queen Constantia his Aunt wife of Peter of Arragon She bewailed the poor Prince with tears which could never be dried up as one whom she dearly loved and then again representing to her self so many virtues and delights drowned in such generous bloud and so unworthily shed her heart dissolved into sorrow But as she was drenched in tears so her husband thundred in arms to revenge his death He rigged out a fleet of ships the charge whereof he Collenutius histor Neapol l. 5. c. 4. 5. recommended to Roger de Loria to assail Charls the second Prince of Salerno the onely son of Charls of Anjou who commanded in the absence of his father The admiral of the Arragonian failed not to encounter The son of Charls of Anjou taken him and sought so furiously with him that having sunck many of his ships he took him prisoner and brought him into Sicily where Queen Constantia was expecting the event of this battle She failed not to cause the heads of many Gentlemen to be cut off in revenge of Conradinus so to moisten his ashes with the bloud of his enemies Charls the Kings onely son was set apart with nine principal Lords of the Army and left to the discretion of Constantia Her wound was still all bloudy and the greatest of the Kingdom counselled her speedily to put to death the son of her capital enemy yea the people mutined for this execution which was the cause the Queen having taken order for his arraignment and he thereupon condemned to death she on a Friday morning sent him word it was now time to dispose himself for his last hour The Prince nephew to S. Lewis and who had some sense of his uncles piety very couragiously received these tidings saying That besides other courtesies he had received from the Queen in prison she did him a singular favour to appoint the day of his death on a Friday and that it was good reason he should die culpable on the day whereon Christ died innocent This speech was related to Queen Constantia who was therewith much moved and having some space bethought her self she replyed Tell Prince Charls if he take contentment to suffer An excellent passage of clemency death on a Friday I will likewise find out mine own satisfaction to forgive him on the same day that Jesus signed the pardon of his Executioners with his proper bloud God forbid I shed the bloud of a man on the day my Master poured out his for me Although time surprize me in the dolour of my wounds I will not rest upon the bitterness of revenge I freely pardon him and it shall not be my fault that he is not at this instant in full liberty This magnanimous heart caused the execution to be staied yet fearing if she left him to himself the people might tear him in pieces she sent him to the King her husband entreating by all which was most pretious unto him to save his life and send him back to his Father Peter of Arragon who sought his own accommodation in so good a prize freed him from danger of death yet enlarged him not suddenly For his deliverance must come from a hand wholly celestial Sylvester Pruere writes that lying long imprisoned in the City of Barcellon the day of S. Mary Magdalen aproaching who was his great Patroness he disposed himself to a singular devotion fasting confessing his sins communicating begging of her with tears to deliver him from this captivity Heaven was not deaf to his prayers Behold on the day of the feast he perceived a Lady full of Majesty who commanded him to follow her at which words he felt as it were a diffusion of extraordinary joy spread over his heart He followed her step by step as a man rapt and seeing all the gates flie open before her without resistance and finding himself so cheerful that his body seemed to have put on the nature of a spirit he well perceived heaven wrought wonders for him The Lady looking on him after she had gone some part of the way asked him where he thought he was to which he replied that he imagined himself to be yet in the Territory of Barcellon Charls you are deceived said she you are in the County of Provence a league from Narbon and thereupon she vanished Charls not at all doubting the miracle nor the protection of S. Mary Magdalen prostrated himself on the earth adoring
COURT That it is to no purpose to think upon death so far off and that it always cometh soon enough without thinking on it That the best employment of life is to bewel prepared for death and that good thoughts of death are the seeds of immortalitie 1. IT is a strange thing that men being all made out of one and the same mass are so different in beliefs in reasons in customs and actions as the Proteus in Poetical fables Our manners daily Diversitie of men teach us a truth which says There is not any thing so mutable upon earth as the heart of man Yet we see in the world many honourable personages and good men who travel apace to this triumphant Citie of God this Heavenly Jerusalem looking on the blessings of the other life with an eye purified by the rays of faith and expecting them with a hope for which all Heaven is in bloom But there Opinion concerning the other life are an infinite number of black souls marked with the stamp of Cain who consider all is said of the state of the other world as if it were some imaginary Island feigned to be in the Ocean to amuze credulous spirits and fill them partly with pleasing dreams partly with irksom visions If these people could find some apparent proofs they would easily perswade themselves there were no death but their senses convinced of the contrary from experience of all Ages they believe that which they dare not think on and commonly die after so bruitish a fashion that a man may say They had converted the lights of an immortal spirit wholly into flesh But you generous souls whom at this present I intend to guid through the hopes and terrours of the other life observe this first step you must make to enter into a new world with constancy not unworthy a soul sensible of its immortality 2. Life and death are two poles on the which all Life death the two poles of the world creatures rowl life is the first act moveable and continual of the living thing death the cessation of the same act And as there are three notable actions in things animated the one whereof tendeth to nourishment and increase the other to sense the third to understanding so there are three sorts of lives Divers kinds of life the vegetative the sensitive and the intellectual the vegetative in plants sensitive in beasts the intellectual which onely appertaineth to God Angels and men The intellectual life is divided into two other which are the life of grace and glory In Heaven the place of things eternal reign those great and divine lives which never die and which are in a perpetual vigour being applied to the first source of lives which is God But in the more inferiour rank of the world are dying lives of which we daily see the beginning progress and end Here properly is the dominion of death and our onely mystery is to die well Some do it of necessity others every day anticipate it by virtue Now it is my desire here to shew you That death in the state wherein the world is at this present is a singular invention of Divine Providence whether we consider the generality of men whether we look on the vicious or fix our thoughts on the just 3. Some complain of death but you would see Providence of God concerning the sentence of death in the generality of men much other complaints if in such a life as we live there were no death You would see men worn with years and cares daily to charge altars with vows and prayers men insupportable to all the world irksom to life inexpugnable to death men old as the earth incessantly calling upon the hour of death and almost eating one another with despair God hath herein saith Plato well provided for seeing the soul was to be Plato in Timaeo Pater misericors illis mortalia vincula faciebat shut up in the body as in a prison he hath at least made it chains mortal What makes you so much desire life I find saith the worldling it is a pleasure to behold the light the star elements and seasons There will be much more delight to see them one day under your feet than there is now to behold them over your head Are there now so many years you have been upon the earth and have you not yet sufficiently looked upon the elements There were certain people among the Pagans who by laws forbade a man of fifty years to make use of the Physitian saying It discovered too much love of life and yet with Christians you may find at the age of four-score who will not endure a word of the other world as if they had not yet one days leisure to look into it But I must still Ambr. l. 2. de Abel Cain Non advertitis senectutem hanc aerumnarum esse veteranam processionibusque aetatis miseriarum crescere stipendia Scyllâ—o quodam usu circumsonari nos quotidianis naufragiis perform the actions of life Have you not done them enough See you not that to live long is to be long in the entertainment of travel and misery which extend their power over our heads according as the web of our life lengtheneth Do you not consider we are in this life as fish in the sea perpetually in fear of nets or hooks Will you not say we live here in the midst of misery and envie as between Scylla and Charybdis and that to decline once perishing we daily make ship wrack Notwithstanding we are pleased with life as if man were not so much a mortal creature as an immortal misery Do you not know life was given by God to Cain Revolution troublesom the most wicked man on earth for a punishment of his crime and will it rest with you as a title of reward There is great cause to desire life Were there no other miseries which are but too frequent this anxiety and turmoil of relapsing actions would tyre us What is life but clothing and unclothing rising and down-lying drinking eating sleeping gaming scoffing negotiating buying selling masonry carpentery quarreling cozening rowling in a labyrinth of actions which perpetually turn and return filling and emptying the tub of the Danaïdes and to be continually tied to a body as to the tending of an infant a fool or a sick man That is not it which withdraweth me say you But I must see the world and live with the living Had you been all your life Baseness of the world time shut up in a prison and not seen the world but through a little grate you had seen enough of it What behold you in the streets but men houses horses mules coaches and people who tumble up and down like fishes in the sea who have many times no other trade but to devour one another and besides some pedling trifles hanged out on stals When I have seen all this but for half an hour
I say O God how little is the world Is it for this we deceive we swear and make a divorce between God and us But admit we were not interessed in this action must we not rest on the law of God who maketh life and ordaineth death by the juridical power of his wisdom ever to be adored by our wills though little penetrable to understanding Will you I pronounce an excellent saying of Tertullian The world is the Vterus naturae An excellent coÌ„ceit drawn from the words of Tertullian belly of Nature and men are in it as children in the mothers womb the birth of men are the world 's child-bearings death its lying in and deliveries Would you not die to hinder the world from bringing forth and unburdening it self by the way the Sovereign Master hath appointed it We have seen Tyrants of all sorts some invented exquisite torments and tryals others forbade eating and drinking some to weep some caused children to be taken from the teat to strangle them and cut their throats as Pharaoh and Herod But never was there any amongst them who forbade women with child to be delivered The world hath for a long space been big with you and would not you have it to be delivered at the time God's counsels have ordained Were it a handsom thing think you to see an infant presently to have teeth and articulate speech and yet if it might be would stay in the mothers womb using no other reason but that there is warm being Judge now and take the even ballance if the world be the belly of nature if this good mother bare us the time Gods providence appointed if she now seek her deliverie that we may be born in the land of the living in a quite other climate another life another light are not we very simple to withstand it as little infants who crie when they issue out of bloud and ordure at the sight of day-light yet would not return thither from whence they came 4. Behold the Providence of God in that which Providence in the death of the vicious Boet. l. 4. de consol Cum supplicis carent inesâ— illis aliquid alteriuâ— mali ipsâ— impunitâ—s S. Eucher in paraenesi concerneth death in the generality of all men Let us see in this second point the like providence towards the wicked the vicious rich and proud Great-ones who spit against Heaven We must first establish a most undoubted maxim that there is nothing so unhappy as impunity of men abandoned to vice which is the cause the paternal providence of God arresteth them by the means of death dictating unto them an excellent lesson of their equality with other men Mortals circumvolve in life and death as Heaven on the pole artick and antartick from east to west the same day which lengtheneth our life in the morning shorteneth it in the evening and all Ages walk that way not any one being permitted to return back again Our fore-fathers passed on we pass and our posteritie follows us in the like course you may say they are waves of the sea where one wave drives another and in the end all come to break against a rock What a rock is death There are above five thousand years that it never ceaseth to crush the heads of so many mortals and yet we know it not I remember to this purpose a notable tradition of the Hebrews related by Masius upon Josuah to wit Masius in Josuah Notable action of Noah that Noah in the universal deluge which opened the flood-gates of Heaven to shake the columns of the world and bury the earth in waters in stead of gold silver and all sort of treasure carried the bones of Adam into the Ark and distributing them among his sons said Take children behold the most precious inheritance your father can leave you you shall share lands and seas as God shall appoint but suffer not your selves to be intangled in these vanities which are more brittle than glass more light than smoke and much swifter than the winds My children all glideth away here below and there is nothing which eternally subsisteth Time it self which made us devours and consumeth us Learn this lesson from these dumb Doctours the relicks of your grand-father which will serve you for a refuge in your adversities a bridle in your prosperities and a mirrour at all times Moreover I affirm death serves for a perfect lesson of justice to the wicked which they were never willing throughly to understand for it putteth into equality all that which hazard passion and iniquity had so ill divided into so many objects Birth maketh men equal since they receive nought else from their mothers womb but ignorance sin debility and nakedness but after they come out of the hands of the midwife some are put into purple and gold others into rags and russets some enter upon huge patrimonies where they stand in money up to the throat practise almost nothing else throughout their whole life but to get by rapine with one hand and profusely spend with the other Some live basely and miserably necessitous A brave spirit able to govern a large Common-wealth is set to cart by the condition of his poverty Another becomes a servant to a coxcomb who hath not the hundreth part of his capacity It is the great Comedie of the world played in sundry fashions for most secret reasons known to Divine Providence would you have it last to eternity See you not Comedians having played Kings and beggars on the stage return to their own habit unless they day and night desire to persist in the same sport And what disproportion is there if after every one have played his part in the world according to the measure of time prescribed him by Providence he resume his own habit I also adde it is a kind of happiness for the wicked to die quickly because it is unfit to act that long which is very ill done And since they so desperately use life it is expedient not being good it be short that shortness of time may render the malice of it less hurtfull If examples of their like who soon die make them apprehensive of the same way and how seasonably to prepare for death it is a singular blessing for them But if persisting in contempt they be punished it is God's goodness his justice be understood and that it commandeth even in hell 5. But if at this present you reflect on the death of the Just which you should desire I say God's Providence there brightly appeareth in three principal things which are cessation from travels and worldly miseries the sweet tranquility of departure and fruition of crowns and rewards promised First you must imagine what holy Job said That The sweetnes of the death of the just Iob 3. Qui expectant mortem quasi effodientes thesaurum Tert. de pallio Homo pellitus orbi quasi metallo datur this life is to the just as
a myne wherein poor slaves are made to labour that they may hit upon the veins of gold and silver And Tertullian had the like conceit when he said The first man was clothed with skins by the hand of God to teach him he entered into the world as a slave into a myne Now as these hirelings who cease not to turn up the earth with sweat on their brows tears in their eyes and sighs in their hearts no sooner have they met with the hoped vein but they rejoyce and embrace one another for the contentment they take to see their travels crowned with some good event So after such combates such rough temptations so many calumnies so many litigious wranglings such persecutions such vexations and toils which chosen souls have undergone in the thraldom of this body when the day comes wherein they by a Isaiah 38. In laetitia egrediemini in pace deducemini montes colles cantabunâ— coram vobis laudem Apoc. 21. Absterget Deus omnem laehrymam ab oculis eorum mors ultra non erit neque luctus neque clamor neque dolor erit ultra quia prima abierunt ecce nova faciâ— omnia most happy death meet the veins of the inexhaustible treasure whereof they are to take possession they conceive most inexplicable comfort Then is the time they hear these words of honey Go confidently faithfull souls go out of those bodies go out with alacritie go out in full peace and safetie the Eternal Mountains to wit the Heavens and all the goodly companie of Angels and most blessed spirits which inhabit them will receive you with hymns of triumph Go confidently on behold God who is readie to wipe away your tears with his own fingers There shall be no more death no more tears no more clamours no more sorrows behold a state wholly new what repose what cessation of arms what peace Do you not sometimes represent unto your self these poor Christians of whom it is spoken in the acts of S. Clement men of good place banished for Acta Clement the faith who laboured in the quarreys of Chersonesus with a most extream want of water and great inconveniencies when God willing to comfort their travels caused on the top of a mountain a lamb marvellously white to appear who struck with his foot and instantly made fountains of lively water to distil What comfort what refreshment for the drowthie Psal 35. Quoniam apud tefons vitae in lumine tuo videbimus lucem multitude But what is it in comparison when a brave and faithful Christian who hath passed this life in noble and glorious actions great toyls and patience beholds the Lamb of God Omnipotent which calleth him to the eternal sources of life What a spectacle to see S. Lewis die after he had twice with a huge army passed so many seas tempests monsters arms battels for the glory of his Master What a spectacle to see S. Paul the Hermit die after he had laboured an hundred years under the habit of Religion The second condition of this death is great tranquility for there is nothing at that time in all the world able to afflict or by acts unresigned to shake a soul firmly united to its God But what say you Just men if they be rich do they not bear in this last agonie some affection to their riches and possessions Nay so far is it otherwise that they with alacrity go out of all worldly wealth as a little bird from a silver cage to soar in the fields at the first breath of the spring-tide I pray tell me that I may pronounce before you an excellent conceit of S. Clement the Roman Clemens Rom. Recognit in the third of his Recognitions If a little chicken were shut up in an egg the shell whereof were guilded and set out with curious and delicate paintings and had reason and choice given it either to remain in this precious prison or enjoy day-light with all other living creatures under Heavens vault think you it would abide in a golden shell to the prejudice of its liberty And imagine with your self what are all the brave fortunes which have so much lustre in the world they are guilded shells no way comparable to the liberty of Gods children A good rich man dieth as Abraham who says in Origen My Dives fui sed pauperi extorris patria domus nescius ipse omnium fui domus patria sciens me non incubatorem sed dispensatorem divinae largitatis God if I have been wealthy it was for the poor I went out of my house to become a house for those who stood in need of it and am perswaded that thou hast made me a Steward of thy goods to distribute them and not to brood them as the hen her eggs But if the Just man die poor he is by so much the better pleased to forsake wretched lodgings of straw and morter to go into an eternal Palace But doth it not trouble him to leave a wife children and allies He leaves all that under the royal mantle of the eternal Providence and firmly believes that he who hath care of the flowers in the field birds bees and ants will not forsake reasonable creatures so they rest in their duty But if they must suffer in this world he will make of their tribulations ladders and footstools of their glory What shall we say of the body Doth not the soul ill to leave it The body is to the soul as the shadow of the earth in the eclipse of the Moon See you not how this bright star which illuminateth our nights seemeth to be unwillingly captived in the dark but sparkleth to get aloft and free it self from earthly impressions So the faithfull soul readily untwineth it 2 Cor. 5. Scimus quoniam si terrestris domus nostra hujus habitstionis dissolvatur quod aedificationem ex Deo habemus domum non manufactam sed aeternam in caelis Job 29. 18. In nidulo meo moriar sicut Phoenix multiplicabo dies self from the body well knowing it hath a much better house in the inheritance of God which is not a manufacture of men but a monument of the hands of the great Workman Represent unto your self Job on the dung-hill a great anatomy of bones covered with a bloudy skin a body which falleth in pieces and a soul on the lips ready to issue forth as a lessee from a ruinous dwelling Think you he is troubled to leave his body Nay rather he dieth as a Phenix on the mountain of the Sun in the odours of his heroick virtues But that which maketh this death more sweet and honourable than any thing is the hope of beatitude whereof I will speak in the nineteenth Maxim Note that worldlings die here some like unto swallows others as spiders the evil rich pass away as swallows who leave no memory of them but a nest of morter and straw for such are
all the fair riches of the earth The ambitious perish as spiders who present wretched threeds and some little flies in them such are also the snares pursuits and businesses of the world But the Just forsake us like the silk-worm For this little creature had it understanding would be well pleased issuing forth of her prison to become a butterflie to see the goodly halle of great men Churches and Altars to smile under her works What a contentment to the conscience of a just man in death to consider the Churches adorned Altars covered poor fed sins resisted virtues crowned like so many pieces of tapistry by the work of his hands Hath he not cause to say I entered into the list I valiantly 1 Tim. 4. Bonum certamen certavâ— cursum consummavi in reliquo reposita est mihi corona justitiae Exhortation to such nice people as fear death fought I have well ended my race there remains nothing more for me but to wear the Crown of Justice which God keeps for me as a pledge 6. I yet come again to thee worldly man who so much fearest this last hour Learn from this discourse to fortifie thy self against these vain apprehensions of death which have more disturbance for thee than the Sea surges Is it not a goodly thing to see thee tremble at thy enterance into so beaten a path wherein so many millions have passed along before thee and the most timorous of the earth have finished their course as well as the rest without any contradiction All that which seemeth most uneasie in this passage is much sweetened by two considerations the first whereof is That God made it so common that there is no living creature exempt and the other That to dispose us to a great death we every night find in our sleep a little death Wilt thou then still doubt to set thy foot-steps firmly in the paths which the worlds Saviour with his holy Mother imprinted with their tracks After thou hast slept so many years and so long passed through the pettie miseries of death shalt thou never come to the great Why art thou so apprehensive of death Sickness and miseries of the world will one day perhaps make thee desire that which thou now most fearest Were it not better to do by election what must be suffered by necessity Hast thou so little profited in the world that thou hast not yet some friend some one dearly beloved who passed into the other life Needs must thou have very little affection in store for him if thou fearest the day which should draw thee near to his company What is it maketh all these apprehensions arise in thy mind Is it so ill with thee to forsake a world so treacherous so miserable so corrupt If thou hast been therin perpetually happy which is very rare couragiously set a seal upon thy felicity and be not weary of thy good hap which may easily be changed into a great misfortune Many have lived too long by one year others by one day which made them see what they feared more than death But if thou be afflicted and persecuted in this life why art thou not ashamed when God calleth thee to go out faintly from a place where thou canst not stay without calamitie Deplorest thou thy gold silver costly attire houses and riches Thou goest into a Countrey where thou no longer shalt need any of that They were remedies given thee for the necessities of life now that thy wounds shall be cured wouldest thou still wear the plaisters Bewailest thou loss of friends There are some who expect thee above which are better than the worldly more wise more assured and who will never afford thee ought but comfort Thou perhaps laments the habit of body and pangs of this passage It is not death then which makes thee wax pale but life thou so dearly lovedst It hath been told thee in the last agonies of death the body feeleth great disturbances that it turns here and there that one rubs the bed-cloths with his hands hath convulsions shuts fast the teeth choaketh words hath a trembling lower lip pale visage sharp nose troubled memory speech fumbling cold sweat the white of the eye sunk and the aspect totally changed What need we fear all that which perhaps will never happen to us How many are there who die very sweetly and almost not thinking of it You would say they are not there when it happens Caesar the Pretour died putting on his shoes Lucius Lepidius striking with his foot against a gate the Rhodian Embassadour having made an Oration before the Senate of Rome Anacreon drinking Torquatus eating a cake Cardinal Colonna tasting figs Xeuxes the Painter laughing at the Picture of an old woman he was to finish and lastly Augustus the Monarch performing a complement But if something must be endured think you the hand of God is stretched out to torment you above your force or shortened to comfort you He will give you a winter according to your wool as it is said sufferings according to the strength of your body and a crown for your patience You fear nothing say you of all that I mention but you dread Judgement Who can better order that than your self Had you been the most desperate sinner in the world if you take a strong resolution to make hereafter an exact and effectual conversion the arms of God are open to receive you He will provide for your passage doubt it not as he took care for your birth He will accompany you with his Angels he will hold you under the veil of his face under the shadow of his protection if he must purge you by justice he will crown you by his mercy The fifteenth EXAMPLE upon the fifteenth MAXIM The manner of dying well drawn from the Model of our LADIE ONe of the most important mysteries in the world is to die well It is never done but once and if one fail to perform it well he is lost without recovery It is the last lineament of the table of our life the last blaze of the torch extinguished the last lustre of the setting Sun the end of the race which gives a period to the course the great seal which signeth all our actions One may in death correct all the defects of an ill life and all the virtues of a good are defaced and polluted by an evil death The art of dying well being of so great consequence it seems God permitted the death of his Mother to teach us what ours ought to be The death of the Virgin Mary is the death of a Phenix which hath three conditions resolution disengagement and union I begin with resolution of conformity to the will 1. Quality of good death is the indifferency of time and manner of God which is the first quality should be had to die well That is to hold life in your hands as a loan borrowed from Heaven ever ready to restore it at the least
with so much profusion that she could not endure to lodge but in chambers full of delicious perfumes of the East she would not wash her self but in the dew of Heaven which must be preserved for her with much skill Her garments were so pompous that nothing remainned but to seek for new stuffs in Heaven for she had exhausted the treasures of earth Her viands so dainty that all the mouthes of Kings tasted none so exquisite nor would she touch her meat but with golden forks and precious stones God to punish this cursed superfluity cast her on a bed and assailed her with a maladie so hydeous so stinking and frightfull that all her nearest kin were enforced to abandon her none staying about her but a poor old woman already throughly accustomed to stench and death yet could not this proud creature part with her infamous body but with sorrow She was of those souls that Plato calleth Phylosemates which tie themselves to flesh as much as they can and after death would gladly still walk round about their flesh to find a passage into it again Know you what is to be done to die well Cut off in good time the three chains which straightly bind foolish and sensual souls For the first passage that The way how to be well provided for death concerneth earthly goods seasonably dispose of your temporal Entangle not your hands for so short a time as you are to live in great affairs perilous and uncertain which will perplex you all your life and throw you down to death Do not like evil travellers who stay to reckon and contend with their hostess when it is already fair day-light and that the guid wrangles and sweareth at them Digest your little business that you may leave no trouble in your family after death Make a Will clear and perspicuous which draweth not suits after it Preserve your self carefully from imitating that wicked man who caused all his gold and silver to be melted into one mass to set his heirs together by the ears who killed one another sprinkling the apple of discord and the object of their avarice with their bloud Say to your self I brought nothing into the world nor will carry any thing away no not the desire of it Behold one part of my goods which must be restored to such and such these are true debts that must necessarily be discharged Behold another for pious legacies Another for alms to persons needy and indigent another for my servants male and female and my poor friends who have faithfully served me They have wasted their bodies and lives to contribute all they might to my will there is no reason I should forget them Nay I desire mine enemies have some part in my will As for my children and heirs the main shall go to them they will be rich enough if they be virtuous enough Behold how the temporal should be disposed And for so much as concerneth kinred give the benediction of God to your children and all your family leave worthy examples of contempt of the world of humility of patience of charity procure a full reconciliation with your enemies entertain your friends with sage discourses which may shew you gladly accept Gods visitations that you die full of resolutions to prepare them a place and that you expect from their charity prayers and satisfactions for your negligence and remisness If needs some small tribute must be paid to nature in two or three drops of tears it is tolerable But take away these whyning countenances these petty furies these mercenary weepers who weep not knowing why nor for what they mourn As for that which toucheth the state of your body it would be a goodly thing for you to be wail it after you have had so many troubles in it Go out of it like a Tennant from a ruinous house go from it as from a prison of earth and morter Go out of it as on the sea from a rotten leaky ship to leap on the shore and care not much what will become of it after death so it be on holy land Souls well mortified speak not of flesh considering the state of sin but with horrour Yea we find in the bequests of one of the sons of S. Lewis Count of Alencon these words I will Modesty of a son of S. Lewis the Tomb that shall cover my stinking flesh exceed not the charge of fiftie livres and that which encloseth my evil heart pass not thirty livres Behold how the son of one of the greatest Kings in the world speaketh of his body and would you idolatrize yours Lastly for the third condition of a good death it The third quality of a good death must have union with God whereof our Lady giveth us a perfect example For it being well verified by Theologie that there are three unions supernatural and as it were wholly ineffable the first whereof is the sacred knot of the most holy Trinitie which tieth three persons in one same Essence the second is the tie of the Word with humane nature which subsisteth by the hypostasis of the same Word and the third the intimate conjunction of a Son-God with a Mother-Virgin I affirm the Virgin being a pure creature cannot equal either the union of the Trinity or the hypostatical union yet notwithstanding hath the highest place of all created unions as she who was united to God when she lived in the world in the most sublime and sacred manner the spirits of the most exalted Seraphins might imagine which was most divinely expressed by S. Bernard She entered into a deep abyss of divine Profundissimam divinae sapientiae penetravit abyssum quantum sine personali unione creatur◠conditio patitur luci illi inaccesibili videatur immersa D. Bernard serm in signum magnum Mater mea quà m appellatis foelicem inde foelix quia verbum Dei custodit non quia in illa Verbum caro factum est c. Aug. tract 10 in Joan. wisdom so that she was united to light inaccessible so much as a creature might be permitted not arriving to the personal union of God But saying this I not onely speak of the union she had in quality of the Mother of God being one same flesh and one same substance with her Son but of the union of contemplation devotion and submission to the will of God which alone was the center of her felicity as witnesseth S. Augustine My Mother whom you call happie hath all her happiness not so much because the Word was made man in her as for that she kept the word of God who made her and who afterward allied himself to humane nature in her womb as he would say Our Lady was more happy to have conceived God in her heart and continually kept spiritual union with him than to have once brought him forth according to flesh We cannot arrive at this sublime union of the Mother of God but howsoever at least in the last
anima pueri ejus in viscera ejus Eccles 26. 23. Exaltavit vocem ejus de terra in prophetia Tob. 4. 11. of heaven Whom shall I believe touching the verities of God but God himself And verily behold the advise God giveth us to resolve us in doubtful cases which is to follow some great and powerfull authority that may draw our spirits with a strong hand out of so many labyrinths Without it saith S. Augustine there would neither be world rest light wisdom nor religion And if a decisive authority must be chosen where shall we find one more certain than that of a Man-God whose words were prophesies life sanctity actions miracles who by ways secret and incomprehensible advanced the Cross on Capitols and gave a new face to the whole world Now without speaking at this time of the Pentateuc where the Word with his own mouth drew reasons for the immortalitie of the soul against the Sadduces I might alledge the book of Kings where the soul of a little infant returneth into its body at the words of Elias I could produce the true soul of Samuel which returneth from Limbo and speaks to King Saul as the Wiseman rendereth this apparition undoubted which I will shew I might mention the book of Tobias which distinguisheth two places for souls in the other world one of darknes and the other of lights But let us hear Ecclesiastes since Infidels will make an arrow of it against us where after the propositions of the wicked rehearsed in this book to be refuted which must be well observed the Wiseman Eccles 12. 7. decideth and concludes That the body returneth into the earth from whence it came and the spirit to God who gave it Let us hear Wisdom where it is written That the soul of the Just are in the hands of God and Sap. 3. 1. shall not be touched with the torment of death Let us hear the Prophet Daniel who saith Daniel 12. 3. The true Sages shall shine as the brightness of the firmament and that such as instruct many to justice shall be as stars for ever Lastly let us hear our Saviour who speaketh to us clearly and intelligibly in the bloud of all Martyrs Fear not those who kill the bodie and cannot kill the Mat. 10. 28. soul Here will we hold this doctrine of the immortality from his own mouth more than from any other reason he caused us to make it an Article of faith he establisheth upon it all our beatitude why should we then argue and trie new conclusions after the decision of Gods Word 5. I knew well said the wicked man this second Court would condemn me but I am not yet satisfied After nature and faith I appeal to reason I Proofs drawn out of reason will enter into the bottom of my self to know some news of my self What a madness is it to appeal from the decrees of God to reason And yet was this wretch condemned likewise by this tribunal For asking his soul whither wilt thou go What will become of thee after the death of thy body Wilt thou not accompany it in death as thou didst during life I die replieth the soul It is as impossible the light of the Sun become night and fire ice as the soul of man which is the source of life and understanding should be subject to death For from whence should this death and corruption S. Thom. l. 2. contra Gentes c. 79. proceed If thou hast never so little reason thou well seest what the great S. Thomas and all the Sages of the world said A thing cannot die and be corrupted but by one of three ways either by action of its contrary so heat cold moisture and drought corrupt our bodies by their mutual counter-buffs and continual combates or by the want of subject which serves as a basis or foundation to it so the eye dieth when its organ is corrupted or by defect of the assistance of the cause which hath influence into it so the light faileth in the air when the Sun retireth In which of these three kinds wouldest thou corrupt Substantia intellectualis patitur tantum intelligibiliter qui motus potius est perfectivus quà m corruptivus S. Thom. l. 2. contra Gentes c. 55. me Should it be by the action of the contrary I am not subject to bodily impressions but to those onely of the mind which are rather to perfect than corrupt me I am not composed of elements I am not hot cold moist nor drie I admit no contrariety But when I (a) (a) (a) Anima parvo continetur corpore continetque res maximâ—s Aenesius platonicus comprehend in my understanding white black water fire life and death I accord all contraries Death saith (b) (b) (b) Lucr. l. 1. Mors coetum dissipat ollis Lucretius is onely made for the things which have a collection of parts and I am most simple Wilt thou rin me by defect of the body I am of a nature different from body It was sometime without me and I shall be a long time without it for I depend not on it but by accident and chance I take somewhat of it as an hostess in this life but I govern it as a mistress for eternity I make use of the organs of senses but I correct senses and when they tell me the Sun is but a foot broad I prove to them by lively reasons it is much greater than the globe of the earth If I borrow fantasies from imagination I make truths of them and in matter of understanding willing and judging which is my proper profession I have properly nothing to do with bodies as the Philosopher Arist l. 2. de anima l. 2. text 21. Aristotle hath well observed saying I could not be before body but I might remain after the death of body and be separated from it as things eternal from corruptible because I have an action dis-entangled from body which is contemplation All that which is idle perisheth in nature but I have no death because not idle I make it my profession to understand to will and to love which I now exercise in a body but which doth not absolutely depend on body I make use of my senses as of my windows when they shall be no more and that the panes of my prison shall be broken I shall not for all that loose sight but shall see the more easily Behold you not how even at this present I never am more knowing than when I sink into the bottom of my self and separate my self from commerce of sense For I am a Mistress said S. Augustine who see better by my own eyes than by those of my servant Wouldest thou destroy me by the want of an influent cause Needs must God fail if I should be so defective on that part since God having created a thing never reduceth the same to nothing Material creatures are corrupted by changing themselves into
a harder matter for him to preserve souls he created than to derive them from nothing He will because he engageth his Eternal word to give us this assurance yea he will because it is manifested to us by the light of nature One cannot believe a God unless he believe him just and it is impossible to think him just without the belief of an immortal soul as S. Clement reasoneth after Clemens 3. Recogn his Master the great S. Peter For what a stupdity is it to imagine this father of spirits who accommodated the most silly creatures with all the conveniencies of nature hath neglected man so far as to afford him a most lively knowledge and a most ardent thirst of immortality which principally appeareth in the most holy and worthy souls to hold a heart in torment never affording it any means to be satisfied since in all nature he never grants any inclination to any creature whatsoever but that he provideth for its accomplishment But which is more into what mind of a Tartarian can this imagination fall that a sovereign Cause most intelligent very good and Omnipotent should be pleased to burn virtue here with a slow fire to tear it among thorns to tie it on wheels afterward to equal the soul of the most virtuous man of the earth with that of murderers Sardanapaluses and Cyclopes Never should these base thoughts take possession of the heart of man if he had not villified his reason with great sins and drowned his soul in the confusion of bodie Put these prophane spirits a little upon the proof of their opinion and let them consider the reasons of Plinie of Lucretius of Panecus and Soranus they are not men who speak but hogs that grunt They tell you the soul is not seen at its passage out of the body as if the corporal eye were made to see a soul spiritual Doth one see the air the winds odours and the sphere of fire which our soul incomparably surpasseth in subtilitie They ask what doth this soul separated Plin. l. 7. c. 55. Vbi cogitatiâ— illi Quomodo visus auditus aut qued sine his bonum Quae deinde sedes Quae malum ista dementia iterari vitam worte where is its sight its hearing pleasure tast touching and what good can it have without the help of sense Spirits dulled with matter which never gave themselves leisure to find out the curious operations of the soul in the understanding and love whereupon it lives of its own wealth They curiously enquire where so many souls may abide as if hell were not big enough to contain all the Atheists Lastly they adde it is to tyrannize over a soul to make it survive after death Who sees not it is the fear they have of God's judgement causeth them to speak in this manner And are not they well worthy of all unhappiness since they so readily become the enemies of an eternal happiness Let us cut off the stream of so many other reasons and say at this present This should teach us to treat with the dead by way of much respect and most tender charity as with the living It should teach us to use our soul as an eternal substance What would it avail us to gain all the world and The care to be had of the soul loose that which God deigned to redeem by his death Let us forsake all these inferiour and frivolous thoughts which nail us to the earth and so basely fasten us to the inordinate care for our bodies Let us manure our soul let us trim it up as a plot fit to receive impressions of the divinity Let us prepare it for the great day of God which must make the separation of a part so divine from these mortal members Let all that die which may yield to death Let the contexture of humours and elements dissolve as weak works of nature But let us regard this victorious spirit which hath escaped the chains of time and laws of death Let us contemn the remainders of an age already so much tainted by corruption Let us enter into this universality of times and into the possession of Diet iste quem tanquam extremum reformidas aeterni natalis est Sen. ep 102. of eternity This day which we apprehend as the last of our life is the first of our felicities It is the birth of another eternal day which must draw aside the curtain and discover to us the secrets of nature It is the day that must produce us to these great and divine lights which we behold with the eye of faith in this vale of tears and miseries It is the day which must put us between the arms of the father after the course of a profuse life turmoyled with such storms and so many disturbances Let us daily dispose us to this passage as to the entrance into our happiness Let us not betray its honour Let us not wither up its glory Let us not deface the character which God hath given it We are at this present in the world as in the belly of nature little infants destitute of air and light which look towards and contemplate the blessed souls What a pleasure is it to go out of a dungeon so dark a prison so streight from such ordures and miseries to enter into those spacious Temples of eternal splendours where our being never shall have end our knowledge admit ignorance nor love suffer change The sixteenth EXAMPLE upon the sixteenth MAXIM Of the return of Souls GOd who boundeth Heaven and limiteth earth ordaineth also its place to each creature suitable to the nature and qualities thereof The body after death is committed to the earth from whence it came and the soul goes to the place appointed it according to its merit or demerit And as it is not lawful for the dead body to forsake the tomb to converse with the living so the soul is not permitted to go out of the lists Gods justice ordained for it to entermeddle in worldly affairs Notwithstanding as the divine power often causeth the resurrection of the dead for the confirmation of our faith so it appointeth sometimes the return of souls for proof of their immortality I would not any wise in this point favour all the shallow imaginations which entitle sottish apprehensions of the mind with the name of visions but it is undoubted there is no Country in the world nor time throughout Ages which hath not afforded some great example of apparition of spirits by known witnesses and the judgements of most eminent Mitte quoque advivus aliquâ—â— ex mortuit Scriptura lestatur De cura pro mortuis c. 15. c. c. 10. Luc 14. personages S. Augustine holds it is a doctrine grounded on Scripture experience and reason which cannot be gain-said without some note of impudence although he much deny that all the dreams we have of the dead are ever their souls which return again Such was the belief of
whereof the poor have too much been frustrated to establish thy vanities and fatten thee in pleasures Where is thy liberality Where are thy alms toward miserable creatures who die in affliction in the streets Observe justice and take example by my disasters Husband it is thy wife so beloved that speaks to thee saying Ah my dearest friends where is the faith plighted in the face of the Church Where are the faithful loves which should have no limit but eternity Death no sooner absented me from thy eyes but forgetfulness drew me out of thy heart I complain not thou livest happy and fortunate in thy new affections for I am in a condition wherein I can neither envy nor malice any but I complain that not onely after my death the children which are pledges of our love were distastful to thee but thou hast wholly lost the memory of one who was so precious to thee and whom thou as a Christian oughrest to love beyond a tomb Open yet once unto her the bowels of thy charity and comfort by thy alms and good works a soul which must expect that help from thee or some other The seventeenth EXAMPLE upon the seventeenth MAXIM Apparition of Souls in Purgatorie HIstories tell us the apparation of souls in Purgatory are so frequent that he who would keep an account may as soon number the stars in the sky or leaves on the trees But as it is not fit to be too credulous in all may be said thereupon so a man must be very impudent to deny all is spoken of it and to oppose as well the authority of so many great personages as the memory of all Ages He who believes nothing above nature will not believe a God of nature How many extraordinary things are there the experience whereof teacheth us the effects and of which God hideth the reasons from us The Philosopher Democritus disputing with Solinus Polyhistor the Sages of his time concerning the secret power of nature held commonly in his hand the stone called cathocita which insensibly sticketh to such as touch it and they being unable to give a reason of it he inferred there were many secrets which are rather to humble our spirits than to satisfie our curiosity Who Jul. Scal. A Porta Caâ—eraâ— can tell why the theamede which is a kind of adamant draweth iron on one side and repelleth it on the other Why do the forked branches of the nut-tree turn towards mines of gold and silver Why do bees often die in the hives after the death of the Master of the family unless they be else-where transported Why doth a dead body cast forth bloud in the presence of the murderer Why do certain fountains in the current of their waters and in their colour carry presages of seasons as that of Blomuza which waxeth red when the countrey is menaced with war Why have so many noble families Diâ—â—arus Petrus Albinus certain signs which never fail to happen when some one of the family is to die The commerce of the living with spirits of the dead is a matter very extraordinarie but not impossible to the Father of spirits who holdeth total nature between his hands Peter of Clugny surnamed the Venerable and esteemed in his time as the oracle of France was a man who proceeded in these affairs with much consideration not countenancing any thing either frivolous or light Behold the cause wherefore I willingly make use of his authority He telleth that in a village of Spain named the Star there was a man of quality called Peter of Engelbert much esteemed in the world for his excellent parts and abundant riches Notwithstanding the spirit of God having made him understand the vanity of all humane things being now far stepped into years he went into a Monastery of the Order of Clugny there the more piously to pass the remnant of his dayes as it is said the best incense cometh from old trees He often spake amongst the holy Fryers of a vision which he saw when he as yet was in the world and which he acknowledged to be no small motive to work his conversion This bruit came to the ears of Venerable Peter who was his General and who for the affairs of his Order was then gone into Spain Behold the cause why he never admitting any discourses to be entertained if they were not well verified took the pains to go into a little Monastery of Nazare where Engelbert was to question him upon it in the presence of the Bishops of Oleron and Osma conjuring him in the virtue of holy obedience to tell him punctually the truth touching the vision he had seen whilest he led a secular life This man being very grave and very circumspect in all he said spake the words which the Authour of the historie hath couched in his proper terms In the time that Alphonsus the younger heir of the great Alphonsus warred in Castile against certain factious dis-united from his obedience he made an Edict that every family in his Kingdom should be bound to furnish him with a souldier which was the cause that for obedience to the Kings commands I sent into his army one of my houshold-servants named Sancius The wars being ended and the troups discharged he returned to my house where having some time so journed he was seized by a sickness which in few dayes took him away into the other world We performed the obsequies usually observed towards the dead and four moneths were already past we hearing nought at all of the state of his soul when behold upon a winters night being in my bed throughly awake I perceived a man who stirring up the ashes of my hearth opened the burning coals which made him the more easily to be seen Although I found my self much terrified with the sight of this ghost God gave me courage to ask him who he was and for what purpose he came thither to lay my hearth abroad But he in a very low voice answered Master fear nothing I am your poor servant Sancius I go into Castile in the company of many souldiers to expiate my sins in the same place where I committed them I stoutly replied If the commandment of God call you thither to what purpose come you hither Sir saith he take it not amiss for it is not without the Divine permission I am in a state not desperate and wherein I may be helped by you if you bear any good will towards me Hereupon I required what his necessity was and what succour he expected from me You know Master said he that a little before my death you sent me into a place where ordinarily men are not sanctified Liberty ill example youth and temerity all conspire against the soul of a poor souldier who hath no government I committed many out-rages during the late war robbing and pillaging even to the goods of the Church for which I am at this present grievously tormented But good Master if you loved me
or other act of charity do it stoutly in such manner and disposition that were you eternal on earth you would eternally renounce evil and embrace good So do all the Just and so do they eternize all good and laudable actions But sinners Vellent sine fine vivere ut possint sine fine peccare Discretus autem judex corda pensaâ— affectus non facta who pass out of this life in mortal sin are so framed that might you enter into their hearts you there should find such marks of malice such characters of sin imprinted as with a hot iron that they wish to live eternally to sin everlastingly Their life is mortal but the affections they have towards sin are immortal for which cause Gods justice requires they never be without torment who would never live witout sin And say not to me behold that miserable sinner Admagnam justitiam judicantis pertinet ut nunquam carcanâ— supplicio qui in hac vita nunquam carere volunt peccato seized on by the Divine Justice in the heat of his crime it is not likely he would still persist in his enormous transgression the boyling of his passion would vapour away and his spirit be restored to the calm and reason to its throne Nay much otherwise a sinner who dieth in sin hath the root of affections which is the heart so envenomed that all the sprouts are nought but abomination And although he were to live an hundred thousand years should not some servile fear stop the torrent of his corruption he would spend them in these exorbitancies 3. The second reason is drawn from S. Thomas 2. Reason S. Thom. 1. 2. q. 87. who saith the nature of mortal sin is a privation of spiritual life as death is a privation of corporal Behold a tree which was heretofore thick spread with boughs and flourishing is now parched and drie without force and life Let it be in this state so will it remain still never returning to its first vigour Behold a man likewise who hath killed charity in his heart which is the root of spiritual life by some most grievous sin to die in this state It is the impossibility of impossibilities that in the other world not capable of merit or demerit he may change himself Death Semper puniri potest nunquam potest expiari S. Bernard de consid l. 5. An excellent conceit of Picus Mirandula Tui ipsius quasi arbitrarius honorariusque plastes sictor quam malueris tu tibi formam effinge poteris in inferiora quae sunt bruta degenerare poteris in superiora quae sunt divina ex animi tui sententiâ regenerari Picus Mirand de dignitate hom â— 208. ever reigns there where is trespass and trespass still reigning there deserves to be punished without intermission It is alwayes chastised and never expiated saith S. Bernard And that you may well understand this represent unto your self an excellent conceit of one of the greatest wits which ever flourished Picus Mirandula in the book he composed of the dignity of man We are in this world as in the shop of a Sculptour who laboureth on statues of mettal Behold the burning furnace behold the mettal all boiling behold many moulds ready at hand Say you unto him Sir make us some curious piece worthy of you make us a generous Lion make an Eagle make a triumphant King it is now in your power But if the workman through malice or incivility should say I will make nothing of it I am about to make of all this melted mettal vessels of ignominy and so he doth had not you cause to say unto him what hast thou done all is marr'd there is no time given for you to repent it the mettal is cast I say the like after this great man Behold us in this world as in the house of a plummer or graver our understanding is the enginer who laboureth upon the search of a thousand inventions our will is the Mistress who keeps the mettal still boyling and the mettal is our life and our soul indeterminate God saith unto us up friend be couragious thou may'st make thy self a little God perfectly framed to my likeness Behold take the mould cast it confidently I will make nothing of it saith the sinner I am about to make a hog an owl a serpent a hydeous monster and behold in effect all so made at the hour of death The mettall is cast repentance is unprofitable since hell vomiteth up good desires and affordeth no felicities thou hast made a monster and thou shalt remain a monster whilest thou art in this estate which is immoveable fire likewise shall be annexed to thee to gnaw thee which is the worm in the rotten wood Adde for a third instance that God who is wholly 3. Reason drawn from the right of God and from the nature of sin infinite hath right in him to oblige us to the keeping of the law under an infinite penalty considering the greatness of his perfection and benefits The continuance of the pain is not measured by the lasting of actions A man is hanged who still so remaineth for a theft done in a moment If this be done daily for the reparation of the honour and goods of another man who is offended although he be a captive and a miserable creature what shall we think of offences committed against the Divinity Must we not confess that sin of its own nature and by the onely consideration of its proper malice deserveth infinite punishment since it hath mischief in it respectively infinite And as it needed the Incarnation death and passion of a Word infinite to wash it on earth so it must have an eternal punishment to expiate it under earth What can you find strange in this proceeding I say it is not hell that should put these quaking Puniri non est malum sed fieri poenâ dignum Peccatum non potest residere ad perpetuum nisi in inferno Dionys c. 4. de divin nom Solidissâ—â—i quasi are fusi sunt Job 37. The grievousness of sin Num. 16. and icie fear into our bones It is not pain should be strange unto us but sin It is not an evil to be punished but to be worthy of punishment You complain sin is lodged in hell where would you place it In heaven Is it a fit thing I pray you to carry dirt into a Kings Palace The heavens according to Job are stronger than iron or brass and yet you see these celestial bodies able to carry all the glory of God cannot bear one single sinner so heavy so insupportable he is So soon as the rebellious Angels conceived a sin of pride heaven cried out murder and could not endure them behold them fall from the Palace of glory more thick than flakes of snow or hail on a winters day Where would you lodge this mortal sin On the earth See you not in the book of Numbers how after the
all which here pleaseth and distracteth hearts is but a poor praeludium of the great act of the inexplicable contentment which passeth in eternity O man thou hast heretofore been a little infant in thy mothers womb amongst bloud and ordure involved in thin skins swadled in clouts and swath-bands which nature gave thee thou wast held in them to prepare for this world for this life where thou now breathest air with all liberty know this world is a second womb in comparison of heaven Thou art yet in prison in obscurity in fetters till the coming of the great day wherein God shall give thee a new body a glorious body a spirituall body With these hopes the mother of the young Machabees saw the members of her children hewed and cut in pieces under the bloudy sword of persecution With this hope holy Anchorites filled the desarts with their tears walked on scorching sands trampled dragons under foot stifled the concupiscences of flesh in snows and thorns with this hope Martyrs sacrificed themselves in as many torments as they had members They preached on crosses sang in flames triumphed on wheels and to merit this glory thou wilt not resolve to forsake that company which hath robbed thee of thy heart and dishonoured the character of thy profession Thou wilt not resolve to suffer a little injury a slight persecution Thou wilt not accomplish thy vows discharge thy obligations put thy self into some course of a regular piety And what may we think of thee O soul so many times ungratefull and disloyal if Heaven open in rewards cannot yet dilate thy heart to his love who readily offers them The twentieth EXAMPLE upon the twentieth MAXIM Divers observations upon the length of life and desire of the state of Resurrection IT is not my purpose to enlarge hereupon narration of many Resurrections whereof we have sundry notable examples both in the old and new Testament and in the lives of Saints in which kind there is not an Age which doth not furnish us with store I onely rest upon some observations which evidently shew the passionate desires humane nature hath to the most blessed state proposed us in the Resurrection The Platonists said The presence of felicity was August l. 22. de Civitate Dei c. 11. Omne corpus fugiendum ex Platonicis 2 Cor. 5. 4. Qui sumus in hoc tabernaculo ingemiscimus gravatii eo quod nolumus expoliari sed super vestiri ut absorbeatur quod mortale est a vita the absence of body and that we must flie from it as from a prison to enter into the liberty of beatitude But the Apostle hath much better said That we groan in this tabernacle and are in great pain not that we desire to be despoiled but to be better clothed that all which is mortal in us may be as swallowed up by life Verily we have a tender love of our bodies and even those who do most torment them do it for no other purpose but to place them one day in ease We live not without thinking on this Resurrection and immortality the fruition whereof we shall never find but in Heaven God hath given us this desire to teach us we are created for it but he doth not afford us the performance of it here to tell us we must seek for it else where We desire to live long and commodiously shortness of life taketh away the one and continual sicknesses bereaves us of the other So many men have sought for their resurrection here on earth and have found nought but their destruction Our body in the declining of age is not like Vestal fires to be everlastingly repaired All in it is lost all is dissolved but if any thing therein be re-established it is not to the proportion of its primitive vigour Spirits without which we cannot live cease not to alter our life and the very air we breath drieth and devoureth us There have been men in the world who have in this life made boast of great age as if they had already some scantling of the condition of Resurrection but they have been very rare and to speak truly they have continued long and lived but a while since there is nothing long in a happiness whereof we find an end It is a remarkable thing that the eldest of all the Patriarchs Pet. 2. 3 5. Vnus dies apud Dominum sicut mille anni mille anni sicut dies unus in Genesis who was Methusalem arrived not to the time which S. Peter calleth a day of God A thousand years saith the great Apostle are before God but one day And not any one of the first men of the world with his so many years mounted to the thousand year of his age Yea it is a thing very well to be observed that in the account the Scripture maketh of the years of Patriarchs the age of women is not considered And Baronius findeth the Bible never reckoned the days and years of women but of Sara Judith and Anne the daughter of Phanuel to teach us our lives are short since those of Eve the mother of the living and of so many other mothers from whom men issued entered not into the line of account in Gods Chronicle We know not how long the first woman of the world lived but we understand she returned into dust and that we must tread the like path Greece the mother of fables sought to use posterity as they do children it hath pleased it self to scare us with strange tales of huge bodies and long lives but we have more difficulty to believe them than it facility to invent them Phlegon a rare Authour Phlegon de rebus mirabil c. 17. says he read in Appollonius the Grammarian that the Athenians desirous to fortifie the long Island which was near to their Citie laying the foundation of their fortresses found a sepulcher one hundred cubits long with this Epitaph which said Macrosiris is here interred in the long Island after he had lived five thousand years compleat These are impostures and Rhodomontadoes which seek to brave Ages and cannot affront worms nor be defended from corruption All about us is sufficient to give us a lesson of the shortness of our life The corn on which we live dies every year to the root The Vine feels as many deaths as winters and although it renew every year it cannot attain to the reasonable age of some drunkards Fifty or three-score years make up its age as also of Apple-trees Pear-trees Plumb-trees Cherie-trees and other such like whereof eating the fruits we should think the wood which bears them liveth no longer than we Tame creatures which are perpetually among us live but a while The age of a horse ends at twenty years It is a great chance if a dog arrive to that number The ox will be well contented with sixteen sheep with ten cats are between ten and six pigeons and so many flying fowl live not long for we daily
eat them soon enough as if all this should say unto us What do we so long in the world since all things that must serve our use last so little Gold and silver continue long but last very little in our hands and though one keep them as well as he can they keep not ever one Master If there be creatures which live much longer they flie from us as Harts Crows and Swans you might say they are ashamed to participate in our frailty Great-ones of the earth have in all times done what they could with a purpose to prolong their days so naturally are we desirous of the state of Resurrection but they have many times abridged them seeking to lengthen them Garcias telleth us that a King of Zeilam having learned the adamant had the virtue to preserve life would neither eat nor drink but in a dish which he caused to be made of adamant through a strange giddiness of spirit but he failed not to find death in these imaginary vessels of immortality We make a great matter of it to see men very old they are beheld with admiration But if some desire to come to their age there is not any would have the miseries and troubles of it This Phlegon of whom we now speak who had been one of the most curious Authours of his Age made a book of long liv'd men wherein he confesseth he hath exactly looked into the Registers of the Roman Empire there to find old men and women of an hundred years and scarcely could he meet with a sufficient number of them to fill up a whole leaf of paper But if he would take the number of such as died before fifty which the Ancients called the exterminating death he had filled many huge volumes Pompey took pleasure at the dedication of Bâ—ro in historia vitae mortis his Theater to see a Comedianess act named Galeria Capiola who reckoned ninety nine years since her first enterance into a Theater It was a goodly play of life in a woman who danced on the brink of her grave But how many such like have there been people go into the tomb as drops of water into the sea not thinking on it Nay do but observe all which is Sovereign you will find among all the Emperours which were through so many ages there is not one to be found who attained to the age of a hundred years and four alone arrived to four-score or much thereabouts Gordian the elder came to this point but scarcely had he tasted of Empire but was over whelmed with a violent death Valerian at the age of seventy six years was taken by Sapor King of Persia and lived seven years in a shamefull captivity his enemy making use of his back as a foot-stool when he would mount on horse-back He was at first much greater in the estimation of men than he deserved and every one would have thought him worthy of Empire had he not been Emperour Anastasius a man of little worth and less courage who had more superstition than religion arrived to the age of four-score and eight years when he was blasted with lightening from heaven Justinim reckoned four-score and three which made him wax white in a vehement desire of glorie although being some-what contemptible in his person he was fortunate in Captains They speak of a King called Arganthon who heretofore reigned in Spain the space of four-score years and lived an hundred and fourty But this is rather in fables than authentical histories Of so many Popes as have been since S. Peter not any one hath possessed the See twenty five years scarcely find you four or five four-score years of age John the two and twentieth an unquiet and treasure-heaping spirit was about ninety years when death took off his triple Crown So many had Gregory the twelfth who was created before the schism but his papacy was as short as his life was long Paul the third attained to one above four-scor and was otherwise a man as peaceable of spirit as prudent in counsel Paul the fourth severe imperious and eloquent came to four-score and three Gregory the thirteenth lived as many a Prelate wise courteous prudent liberal who lived too little a while for the Churches good for which he could not end but too soon If we speak of the blessed S. John S. Luke S. Polycarp S. Denys S. Paul the Hermit S. Anthony S. Romuald so many other religious men they lived long And it seems there are many things in religion which further long life as contemplation of things Divine joys not sensual noble hopes wholesome fears sweet sadness repose sobriety and regularity in the order of all actions But all this is little in comparison of the Divine state wherein bodies shall not onely never end but live eternally impassible as Angels subtile as rayes of light quick as thought and bright as stars Conclusion of the MAXIMS by an advice against Libertinism where all men are exhorted to zeal of true Religion and the love of things eternal Of the obscurity and persecution of TRUTH INcredulity is an immortal disease which hath reigned from the beginning of the world and which will never end but with the worlds dissolution Dreams and lies are many times believed because they insinuate themselves into the heart by charms but truth which will never bely her self hath much ado to make her self understood and if she be once known she is beloved when she smiles and feared when she frowneth There are four things have ever been much unknown Four things much unknown in the world time wind terrestrial Paradise and truth Time is a marvellous creature which perpetually passeth over our heads which numbereth all our steps which measureth all our actions which inseparably runs along with our life and we have much business to know it as well in its nature as progression It is a very strange thing that there are such as promise themselves to reckon up the years of the world as of an old man of three-score and yet we know by the experience of so many ages it is a great labyrinth wherein we still begin never to end It was for this cause the Ancients placed the figures Hadrianus Junius of Trytons on high Towrs with tails crookedly winding to represent unto us the intrication of the foulds and compasses of time And for this also Isa 6. Hieron in Isa in the Prophet Esai the Seraphins covered the face and feet of God with their wings to teach us faith S. Hierome that we are very ignorant in things done before the world and in those which shall happen to Non est vestrum nosse tempora momenta quae Pater posuit in sua potestate Actor 1. the end of it If we on the other side consider the wind we cannot but sufficiently understand the commodities and discommodities of it which have made the wise to doubt whether it were expedient there should be
fall no lower but may contemplate all above him and meditate how to raise himself by the hand of God which pulls down the proud and exalts the humble Is a man tempted with pride The consideration of Ashes will humble him Is he burned with wanton love which is a direct fire But fire cannot consume Ashes Is he persecuted with covetousness Ashes do make the greatest Leeches and Bloud-Suckers cast their Gorges Every thing gives way to this unvalued thing because God is pleased to draw the instruments of his power out of the objects of our infirmities 3. If we knew how to use rightly the meditation of death we should there find the streams of life All the world together is of no estimation to him that rightly knows the true value of a just mans death It would be necessary that they who are taken with the curiosity of Tulips should set in their Gardens a Plant called Napel which carries a flower that most perfectly resembles a Deaths head And if the other Tulips do please their senses that will instruct their reason Before our last death we should die many other deaths by forsaking all those creatures and affections which lead us to sin We should resemble those creatures sacred to the Aegyptians called Cynocephales which died piece-meal and were buried long before their death So should we burie all our concupiscences before we go to the grave and strive to live so that when death comes he should find very little business with us Aspiration O Father of all Essences who givest beginning to all things and art without end This day I take Ashes upon my head thereby professing before thee my being nothing and to do thee homage for that which I am and for that I ought to be by thy great bounties Alas O Lord my poor soul is confounded to see so many sparkles of pride and covetousness arise from this caitiffe dust which I am so little do I yet learn how to live and so late do I know how to die O God of my life and death I most humbly beseech thee so to govern the first in me and so to sweeten the last for me that if I live I may live onely for thee and if I must die that I may enter into everlasting bliss by dying in thy blessed love and favour The Gospel for Ashwednesday S. Matthew 6. Of Hypocritical Fasting WHen you fast be not as the hypocrites sad for they disfigure their faces that they may appear unto men to fast Amen I say to you that they have received their reward But thou when thou doest fast anoint thy head and wash thy face that thou appear not to men to fast but to thy Father which is in secret and thy Father which seeth in secret will repay thee Heap not up to your selves treasures on the earth where the rust and moth do corrupt and where thieves dig through and steal But heap up to your selves treasures in heaven where neither the rust nor moth doth corrupt and where thieves do not dig through nor steal For where thy treasure is there is thy heart also Moralities 1. THat man goes to Hell by the way of Paradise who fasts and afflicts his body to draw the praise of Men. Sorrow and vanity together are not able to make one Christian Act. He deserves everlasting hunger who starves himself that he may swell and burst with vain glory He stands for a spectacle to others being the murderer of himself and by sowing vanity reaps nothing but wind Our intentions must be wholly directed to God and our examples for our neighbour The Father of all virtues is not to be served with counterfeit devotions such lies are abominations in his sight and Tertullian saith they are as many adulteries 2. It imports us much to begin Lent well entering into those lists in which so many holy souls have run their course with so great strictness have been glorious before God and honourable before men The difficulty of it is apprehended onely by those who have their understandings obstructed by a violent affection to kitchen-stuffe It is no more burdensom to a couragious spirit than feathers are to a bird The chearfulness which a man brings to a good action in the beginning does half the work Let us wash our faces by confession Let us perfume our Head who is Jesus Christ by alms-deeds Fasting is a most delicious feast to the conscience when it is accompanied with pureness and charity but it breeds great thirst when it is not nourished with devotion and watered with mercy 3. What great pain is taken to get treasure what care to preserve it what fear to loose it and what sorrow when it is lost Alas is there need of so great covetousness in life to encounter with such extream nakedness in death We have not the souls of Giants nor the body of a Whale If God will have me poor must I endeavour to reverse the decrees of heaven and earth that I may become rich To whom do we trust the safety of our treasures To rust to moths and thieves were it not better we should in our infirmities depend onely on God Almighty and comfort our poverty in him who is onely rich and so carrie our souls to heaven where Jesus on the day of his Ascension did place our Sovereign good Onely Serpents and covetous men desire to sleep among treasures as Saint Clement saith But the greatest riches of the world is poverty free from Covetousness Aspiration I Seek thee O invisible God within the Abyss of thy brightness and I see thee through the vail of thy creatures Wilt thou always be hidden from me Shall I never see thy face which with a glimpse of thy splendour canst make Paradise I work in secret but I know thou art able to reward me in the light A man can lose nothing by serving thee and yet nothing is valuable to thy service for the pain it self is a sufficient recompence Thou art the food of my fastings and the cure of my infirmities What have I to do with Moles to dig the earth like them and there to hide treasures Is it not time to close the earth when thou doest open heaven and to carrie my heart where thou art since all my riches is in thee Doth not he deserve to be everlastingly poor who cannot be content with a God so rich as thou art The Gospel for the first Thursday in Lent S. Matthew 18. of the Centurions words O Lord I am not worthy ANd when he was entered into Capharnaum there came to him a Centurion beseeching him and saying Lord my boy lieth at home sick of the palsie and is sore tormented And Jesus saith to him I will come and cure him And the Centurion making answer said Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof but onely say the word and my boy shall be healed For I also am a man subject to Authority having under me
before we die let us take order for our soul by repentance and a moderate care of our bodies burial Let us order our goods by a good and charitable Testament with a discreet direction for the poor for our children and kinred to be executed by fit persons Let us put our selves into the protection of the Divine providence with a most perfect confidence and how can we then fear death being in the arms of life Aspirations O Jesus fountain of all lives in whose bosom all things are living Jesus the fruit of the dead who hast destroyed the kingdom of death why should we fear a path which thou hast so terrified with thy steps honoured with thy bloud and sanctified by thy conquests Shall we never die to so many dying things All is dead here for us and we have no life if we do not seek it from thy heart What should I care for death though he come with all those grim hideous and antick faces which men put upon him for when I see him through thy wounds thy bloud and thy venerable death I find he hath no sting at all If I shall walk in the shadow of death and a thousand terrours shall conspire against me on every side to disturb my quiet I will fear nothing being placed in the arms of thy providence O my sweet Master do but once touch the winding sheet of my body which holds down my soul so often within the sleep of death and sin Command me to arise and speak and then the light of thy morning shall never set my discourses shall be always of thy praises and my life shall be onely a contemplation of thy beautifull countenance The Gospel upon Friday the fourth week in Lent S. John 11. Of the raising of Lazarus from death ANd there was a certain sick man Lazarus of Bethania of the Town of Mâ—ry and Martha her sister And Marie vvas she that anointed our Lord vvith ointment and vviped his feet vvith her hair vvhose brother Lazarus vvas sick his sisters therefore sent to him saying Lord behold he vvhom thou lovest is sick And Jesus hearing said to them This sickness is not to death but for the glorie of God that the Son may be glorified by it And Jesus loved Martha and her sister Marie and Lazarus As he heard therefore that he vvas sick then he tarried in the same place two dayes Then after this he saith to his Disciples Let us go into Jewry again The Disciples say to him Rabbi now the Jews sought to stone thee and goest thou thither again Jesus answered Are there not twelve hours of the day If a man vvalk in the day he stumbleth not because he seeth the light of this vvorld but if he vvalk in the night he stumbleth because the light is not in him These things he said and after this he saith to them Lazarus our friend sleepeth but I go that I may raise him from sleep His Disciples therefore said Lord if he sleep he shall be safe But Jesus spake of his death and they thought that he spake of the sleeping of sleep Then therefore Jesus said to them plainly Lazarus is dead and I am glad for your sake that you may believe because I vvas not there but let us go to him Thomas therefore vvho is called Didymus said to his condisciples Let us also go to die with him Jesus therefore came and found him now having been four dayes in the grave And Bethania vvas nigh to Jerusalem about fifteen furlongs And many of the Jews vvere come to Martha and Mary to comfort them concerning their brother Martha therefore vvhen she heard that Jesus vvas come vvent to meet him but Mary sate at home Martha therefore said to Jesus Lord if thou hadst been here my brother had not died But now also I know that vvhat things soever thou shalt ask of God God vvill give thee Jesus saith to her Thy brother shall rise again Martha saith to him I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection in the last day Jesus said to her I am the resurrection and the life he that believeth in me although he be dead shall live And every one that liveth and believeth in me shall not die for ever Believest thou this She said to him Yea Lord I have believed that thou art Christ the Son of God that art come into this vvorld Moralities 1. OUr Saviour Jesus makes here a strong assault upon death to cure our infirmities at the cost of his dearest friends He suffered Lazarus whom he loved tenderly to fall into a violent sickness to teach us that the bodies of Gods favourites are not free from infirmities and that to make men Saints they must not enjoy too much health A soul is never more worthy to be a house for God than when she raiseth up the greatness of her courage the body being cast down with sickness A soul which suffers is a sacred thing All the world did touch our Saviour before his Passion The throng of people pressed upon him but after his death he would not be touched by S. Mary Maudlin because he was consecrated by his dolours 2. The good sisters dispatch a messenger not to a strange God as they do who seek for health by remedies which are a thousand times worse than the disease But they addressed themselves to the living God the God of life and death to drive away death And to recover life they were content onely to shew the wound to the faithfull friendship of the Physician without prescribing any remedies for that is better left to his providence than committed to our passion 3. He defers his cure to raise from death The delay of Gods favours is not always a refusal but sometimes a double liberality The vows of good men are paid with usury It was expedient that Lazarus should die that he might triumph over death in the triumph of Jesus Christ It is here that we should always raise high our thoughts by considering our glory in the state of resurrection he would have us believe it not onely as it is a lesson of Nature imprinted above the skies upon the plants or elements of the world and as a doctrine which many ancient Philosophers had by the light of nature but also as a belief which is fast joyned to the faith we have in the Divine providence which keeps our bodies in trust under its seal within the bosom of the earth so that no prescription of time can make laws to restrain his power having passed his word and raised up Lazarus who was but as one grain of seed in respect of all posterity 4. Jesus wept over Lazarus thereby to weep over us all Our evils were lamentable and could never sufficiently be deplored without opening a fountain of tears within heaven and within the eyes of the Son of God This is justly the river which comes from that place of all pleasure to water Paradise How could those heavenly
purified by thy favours that they may celebrate continual days of feast in my soul I am already there in desire and shall be there in presence when by help of thine infinite grace and mercy I can be wholly thine The Gospel upon Saturday the fifth week in Lent S. John 12. The chief Priests thought to kill Lazarus because the miracle upon him made many follow JESUS BUt the chief Priests devised for to kill Lazarus also because many for him of the Jews went away and believed in Jesus And on the morrow a great multitude that was come to a festival day when they had heard that Jesus cometh to Jerusalem they took the boughs of Palms and went forth to meet him and cried Hosanna blessed is he that cometh in the name of our Lord the King of Israel And Jesus found a young Ass and sate upon it as it is written Fear not daughter of Sion behold thy King cometh sitting upon an Asses colt These things his Disciples did not know at the first but when Jesus was glorified then they remembered that these things had been written of him and these things they did to him The multitude therefore gave testimony which was with him when he called Lazarus out of the grave and raised him from the dead For therefore all the multitude came to meet him because they heard that he had done this sign The Pharisees therefore said among themselves Do you see that we prevail nothing Behold the whole world is gone after him And there were certain Gentiles of them that came up to adore in the festival day These therefore came to Philip who was of Bethsaida of Galilee and desired him saying Sir we are desirous to see Jesus Philip cometh and telleth Andrew Again Andrew and Philip told Jesus but Jesus answered them saying The hour is come that the Son of man shall be glorified Amen Amen I say to you Unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground die it self remaineth alone but if it die it bringeth much fruit He that loveth his life shall lose it and he that hateth his life in this world doth keep it to life everlasting If any man minister to me let him follow me and where I am there also shall my minister be If any man minister to me my Father will honour him Moralities 1. ADmire here the extasies of our sweet Saviour He is ravish'd by the object of his death and is transported by the Idaea of his sufferings The trumpet of Heaven sounded in the voice which was heard by this great multitude He encourages himself to his combat he looks confidently upon the Cross as the fountain of his glories and planted his elevation upon the lowest abasements Shall not we love this Cross which Jesus hath cherished as his Spouse He gave up his soul in the arms of it to conquer our souls We shall never be worthy of him till we bear the Ensigns of his war and the ornaments of his peace Every thing is Paradise to him that knows how to love the Cross and every thing is hell to those who flie from it and no body flies it but shall find it It is the gate of our mortality whither we must all come though we turn our backs to it 2. What a great secret it is to hate our soul that we may love it To hate it for a time that we may love it for all eternity to punish it in this life to give it thereby a perpetual rest in that to come To despise it that we may honour it To handle it roughly that it may be perfectly established in all delights And yet this is the way which all just men have passed to arrive at the chiefest point of their rest They have resembled the Flowers-de-luce which weep for a time out of their own tears produce seeds which renew their beauties The salt sea for them becomes a flourishing field as it did to the people of God when they came forth of the chains of Aegypt The cloud which appeared to the Prophet Ezechiel carried with it winds and storms but it was environed with a golden circle to teach us that the storms of afflictions which happen to Gods children are encompassed with brightness and smiling felicity They must rot as a grain of wheat that they may bud out and flourish in the ear They must abide the diversity of times and endure the sythe and flail They must be ground in a mill and pass by water and fire before they can be made bread pleasing to Jesus Christ Our losses are our advantages we loose nothing but to gain by it we humble and abase our selves to be exalted we despoil our selves to be better clothed and we mortifie our selves to be revived O what a grain of wheat is Jesus Christ who hath past all these trials to make the heighth of all heavenly glories bud out of his infinite sufferings Aspirations O God I have that passionate desire which these strangers had to see Jesus I do not ask it of Philip nor shall Philip have cause to ask Andrew My Jesus I ask it of thy self Thou art beautifull even in the way of the Cross Thou didst shew thy self couragious in the Abyss of thy pains thou art admirable in the contempt of death The heavenly trumpet hath already sounded for thee and chearfulness gives wings to carry thee to this great combat where death and life fight singly together which makes life die for a time and death live for ever I will forsake my very soul to follow thee in this Agonie and find my life in thy death as thou hast extinguished death in thy life The Gospel upon Palm-Sunday S. Matthew 21. Our SAVIOUR came in triumph to Jerusalem a little before his Passion ANd when they drew nigh to Jerusalem and were come to Bethphage unto mount Olivet then Jesus sent two Disciples saying to them Go ye into the Town that is against you and immediately you shall find an Ass tied and a colt with her loose them and bring them to me And if any man shall say ought unto you say ye That our Lord hath need of them and forthwith he will let them go And this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophet saying Say ye to the daughter of Sion Behold thy King cometh to thee meek and sitting upon an Ass and a Colt the foal of her that is used to the yoke And the Disciples going did as Jesus commanded them and they brought the Ass and the Colt and laid their garments upon them and made him to sit thereon And a very great multitude spred their garments in the way and others did cut boughs from the trees and strawed them in the way and the multitudes that went before and that followed cried saying Hosanna to the Son of David blessed is he that cometh in the Name of the Lord. Moralities 1. OUr Saviour goes to his death in triumph he appears to
and to execute all the decrees of his divine Providence as our chiefest helps to obtain perfection Aspirations OBeauteous garden of Olives which from henceforth shalt be the most delicious object of my heart I will lose my self in thy walks I will be lost with God that I may never be lost I will breathe onely thy air since it is made noble by the sighs of my dear Master I will gather thy flowers since Jesus hath marked them with his bloud I will wash my self in those fountains since they are sanctified by the sweat of my Jesus I will have no other joy but the sorrow of the Son of God nor any other will but his O my sweet Saviour Master and teacher of all humane kind wilt thou be abridged of thine own will which was so reasonable and pure to give me an example of mortifying my passions and shall I before thy face retain any wicked or disordinate appetites Is it possible I should desire to be Lord of my self who am so bad a Master when I see the Authour of all goodness separate himself from himself onely to make me and all mankind partakers of his merits Of the apprehension of JESUS IN that obscure and dolorous night wherein our Saviour was apprehended three sorts of darkness were cast upon the Jews upon Judas and upon Saint Peter A darkness of obduration upon the hearts of the Jews a darkness of ingratefull malignity upon Judas and a darkness of infirmity upon Saint Peter Was there ever any blindness like that of the Jews who sought for the shining Sun with lighted torches without knowing him by so many beams of power which shined from him They are strucken down with the voice of the Son of God as with lightening and they rise again upon the earth to arm themselves against Heaven They bind his hands to take away the use of his forces but they could not stop the course of his bounties To shew that he is totally good he is good and charitable even amongst his merciless executioners and he lost all he had saving his Godhead onely to gain patience When S. Peter stroke the high Priests servant the patience of our Lord Jesus received the blow and had no patience till he was healed If goodness did shew forth any one beam in the garden modesty sent forth another in the house of Anuas when his face was strucken by a servile hand his mouth opened it self as a Temple from whence nothing came but sweetness and light The God of Truth speaketh to Caiaphas and they spit upon his brightness and cover that face which must discover Heaven for us The mirrour of Angels is tarnisht with the spittle of infernal mouthes and wounded by most sacrilegious hands without any disturbance of his constancy That was invincible by his virtue as the willfulness of the Jews stood immoveable by their obduration There are souls which after they have filled the earth with crimes expect no cure of their diseases but by the hell of the reprobate 2. The second darkness appeareth by the black passion of Judas who falls down into hell with his eyes open and after he had sold his soul sold Jesus and both all he had and all he was to buy an infamous halter to hang himself A soul become passionate with wanton love with ambition or avarice is banished into it self as into a direct hell and delivered to her own passions as to the Furies The Poet Hydra had but seven heads but the spirit of Avarice S. Iohn Climacus saith hath ten thousand The conversation of Jesus which was so full of infinite attractions could never win the spirit of Iudas when it was once bewitched with covetousness The tinkling of silver kept him from rightly understanding Iesus He makes use of the most holy things to betray Holiness it self He employes the kiss of peace to begin war He carries poison in his heart and honey in his mouth he puts on the spirit of Iesus to betray him This shews us plainly that covetous and traiterous persons are farthest from God and nearest to the devils 3. The third power of darkness appeared in the infirmity of S. Peter who after so many protestations of fidelity for fear of death renounced the Authour of life One of the Ancients said The greatest frailty of Humanity was that the wisest men were not infallibly wise at all times And all men are astonished to see that the greatest spirits being left to themselves become barren and suffer eclipses which give examples to the wisest and terrour to all the world God hath suffered the fall of S. Peter to make us have in horrour all presumption of our own forces and to teach us that over-great assurance is oftentimes mother of an approching danger Besides it seemeth he would by this example consecrate the virtue of repentance in this fault of him whom he chose to be head of his Church to make us see that there is no dignity so high nor holiness so eminent which doth not ow Tribute to the mercy of God Aspirations Upon S. Peters tears IT is most true saith S. Peter that a proud felicity hath alwayes reeling feet Thou which didst defie the gates of hell hast yielded thy self to the voice of a simple woman All those conquests which thou didst promise to thy self are become the tropheys of so weak a hand Return to the combat and since she hath triumphed over thee do thou at least triumph over thy self Alas I am afraid even to behold the place of my fall and the weak snares of a simple woman appear to me as boisterous chains Yet what can he fear who is resolute to die If thou find death amongst these massacres thou shouldst rather embrace than decline it For what can it do but make thee companion of life it self Our soul is yet too foul to be a sacrifice for God let us first wash it with tears I fell down before the fire and I will rise by water I have walked upon the sea to come to Jesus and I will now return to him by the way of my tears I will speak now onely by my tears since I have lately talked so wickedly with my mouth Since that which should open to speak Oracles for the Church hath been employed to commit foul treason since we have nothing left free to us but sighs and groans let us make use of the last liberty which is left us and when all is spent return to the mercy of Jesus which all the sins of the world can never evacuate I will from henceforth be a perpetual example to the Church by my fall and rising again from death for the comfort of sinners and the fault of one night shall be lamented by me alll the days of my life Moralities upon the Pretorian or Judgement-Hall 1. IN the passion of our Saviour all things are divine and it seemeth they go as high as they could be raised by that Sovereign power joyned with
And if we must needs forsake this miserable body we then desire to leave it by some gentle and easie death This maketh us plainly see the generosity of our Saviour who being Master of life and death and having it in his power to chuse that manner of death which would be least hydeous being of it self full enough of horrour yet nevertheless to conform himself to the will of his heavenly Father and to confound our delicacies he would needs leave his life by the most dolorous and ignominious which was to be found among all the deaths of the whole world The Cross among the Gentiles was a punishment for slaves and the most desperate persons of the whole world The Cross amongst the Hebrews was accursed It was the ordinary curse which the most uncapable and most malicious mouthes did pronounce against their greatest enemies The death of a crucified man was the most continual languishing and tearing of a soul from the body with most excessive violence and agony And yet the Eternal Wisdom chose this kind of punishment and drank all the sorrows of a cup so bitter He should have died upon some Trophey and breathed out his last amongst flowers and left his soul in a moment and if he must needs have felt death to have had the least sense of it that might be But he would trie the rigour of all greatest sufferings he would fall to the very bottom of dishonour and having ever spared from himself all the pleasures of this life to make his death compleat he would spare none of those infinite dolours The devout Simon of Cassia asketh our Saviour going toward Mount Calvarie saying O Lord whither go you with the extream weight of this dry and barren piece of wood Whither do you carry it and why Where do you mean to set it Upon mount Calvary That place is most wild stony how will you plant it Who shall water it Jesus answers I bear upon my shoulders a piece of wood which must conquer him who must make a far greater conquest by the same piece of wood I carry it to mount Calvarie to plant it by my death and water it with my bloud This wood which I bear must bear me to bear the salvation of all the world and to draw all after me And then O faithfull soul wilt not thou suffer some confusion at thine own delicacies to be so fearfull of death by an ordinary disease in a doun-bed amongst such necessary services such favourable helps consolations and kindnesses of friends so sensible of thy condition We bemoan and complain our selves of heat cold distaste of disquiet of grief Let us allow some of this to Nature yet must it be confest that we lament our selves very much because we have never known how we should lament a Jesus Christ crucified Let us die as it shall please the Divine Providence If death come when we are old it is a haven If in youth it is a direct benefit antedated If by sickness it is the nature of our bodies If by external violence it is yet always the decree of Heaven It is no matter how many deaths there are we are sure there can be but one for us 2. Consider further the second condition of a good death which consists in the forsaking of all creatures and you shall find it most punctually observed by our Saviour at the time of his death Ferrara a great Divine who hath written a book of the hidden Word toucheth twelve things abandoned by our Saviour 1. His apparrel leaving himself naked 2. The marks of his dignitie 3. The Colledge of his Apostles 4. The sweetness of all comfort 5. His own proper will 6. The authority of virtues 7. The power of Angels 8. The perfect joys of his soul 9. The proper clarity of his body 10. The honors due to him 11. His own skin 12. All his bloud Now do but consider his abandoning the principal of those things how bitter it was First the abandoning of nearest and most faithfull friends is able to afflict any heart Behold him forsaken by all his so well-beloved Disciples of whom he had made choice amongst all mortal men to be the depositaries of his doctrine of his life of his bloud If Judas be at the mystery of his Passion it is to betray him If S. Peter be there assisting it is to deny him If his sorrowfull mother stand at the foot of the Cross it is to increase the grief of her Son and after he had been so ill handled by his cruel executioners to crucifie him again by the hands of Love The couragious Mother to triumph over her self by a magnanimous constancy was present at the execution of her dear Son She fixed her eyes upon all his wounds to engrave them deep in her heart She opened her soul wide to receive that sharp piercing sword with which she was threatened by that venerable old Simeon at her Purification And Jesus who saw her so afflicted for his sake felt himself doubly crucified upon the wood of the Cross and the heart of his dear Mother We know it by experience that when we love one tenderly his afflictions and disgraces will trouble us more than our own because he living in us by an affectionate life we live in him by a life of reason and election Jesus lived and reposed in the heart of his blessed Mother as upon a Throne of love and as within a Paradise of his most holy delights This heart was before as a bed covered with flowers But this same heart on the day of his Passion became like a scaffold hanged with mourning whereupon our Saviour entered to be tormented and crucified upon the cross of love which was the Cross of his Mother This admirable Merchant who descended from Heaven to accomplish the business of all Ages who took upon him our miseries to give us felicities was plunged within a sea of bloud and in this so precious shipwrack there remained one onely inestimable pearl which was his divine Mother and yet he abandons her and gives her into the hand of his Disciple After he had forsaken those nearest to him see what he does with his body Jesus did so abandon it a little before his death that not being content onely to deliver it as a prey to sorrow but he suffered it to be exposed naked to the view of the world And amongst his sharpest dolours after he had been refused the drink which they gave to malefactours to strengthen them in their torments he took for himself vinegar and gall O what a spectacle was it to see a body torn in pieces which rested it self upon its own wounds which was dying every moment but could not die because that life distilled by drops What Martyr did ever endure in a body so sensible and delicate having an imagination so lively and in such piercing dolours mixt with so few comforts And what Martyr did suffer for all the sins of the
you love binds you fast enough to the Cross without them But do thou O Lord hold me fast to thy self by the chain of thine immensity O Lance cruel Lance Why didst thou open that most precious side Thou didst think perhaps to find there the Sons life and yet thou foundest nothing but the Mothers heart But without so much as thinking what thou didst in playing the murderer thou hast made a Sepulcher wherein I will from henceforth bury my soul When I behold these wounds of my dear Saviour I do acknowledge the strokes of my own hand I will therefore likewise engrave there my repentance I will write my conversion with an eternal Character And if I must live I will never breathe any other life but that onely which shall be produced from the death of my Jesus crucified The Gospel for Easter-day S. Mark 16. ANd when the Sabbath was past Mary Magdalene and Mary of James and Salome bought spices that coming they might anoint Jesus And very early the first of the Sabbaths they come to the Monument the Sun being now risen And they say one to another who shall roll us back the stone from the door of the Monument And looking they saw the stone rolled back For it was very great And entering into the Monument they saw a young man sitting on the right hand covered with a white Robe and they were astonied Who saith to them Be not dismayed you seck Jesus of Nazareth that was crucified he is risen he is not here behold the place where they laid him But go tell his Disciples and Peter that be goeth before you into Galilee there you shall see him as he told you Moralities 1. THe Sepulcher of Jesus becomes a fountain of life which carries in power all the glories of the highest Heaven Our Saviour riseth from thence as day out of the East and appears as triumphant in the ornaments of his beauties as he had been humbled by the excess of his mercies The rage of the Jews looseth here its power death his sting Satan his kingdom the Tomb his corruption and hell his conquest Mortality is destroyed life is illuminated all is drowned in one day of glory which comes from the glorious light of our Redeemer It is now saith Tertullian that he is revested with his Robe of Honour and is acknowledged as the eternal Priest for all eternity It is now saith S. Gregory Nazianzen that he re-assembles humane kind which was scattered so many years by the sin of one man and placeth it between the arms of his Divinity This is the Master-piece of his profound humility and I dare boldly affirm saith S. Ambrose that God had lost the whole world if this Sacred Virtue which he made so clearly shine in his beloved Son had not put him into possession of his Conquests We should all languish after this Triumphant state of the Resurrection which will make an end of all our pains and make our Crowns everlasting 2. Let us love our Jesus as the Maries did that with them we may be honoured with his visits Their love is indefatigable couragious and insatiable They had all the day walkt round about the Judgement-Hall Mount Calvary the Cross and the Sepulcher They were not wearied with all that And night had no sleep to shut up their eyes They forsook the Image of death which is sleep to find death it self and never looked after any bed except the Sepulcher of their Master They travel amongst darkness pikes launces the affrights of Arms and of the night nothing makes them afraid If there appear a difficulty to remove the stones love gives them arms They spare nothing for their Master and Saviour They are above Nicodemus and Joseph they have more exquisite perfumes for they are ready to melt and distil their hearts upon the Tomb of their Master O faithfull lovers seek no more for the living amongst the dead That cannot die for love which is the root of life 3. The Angel in form of a young man covered with a white Robe shews us that all is young and white in immortality The Resurrection hath no old age it is an age which can neither grow nor diminish These holy Maries enter alive into the sepulcher where they thought to find death but they learn news of the chiefest of lives Their faith is there confirmed their piety satisfied their promises assured and their love receives consolation Aspirations I Do not this day look toward the East O my Jesus I consider the Sepulcher it is from thence this fair Sun is risen O that thou appearest amiable dear Spouse of my soul Thy head which was covered with thorns is now crowned with a Diadem of Stars and Lights and all the glory of the highest Heaven rests upon it Thine eyes which were eclipsed in bloud have enlightened them with fires and delicious brightness which melt my heart Thy feet and hands so far as I can see are enamel'd with Rubies which after they have been the objects of mens cruelty are now become eternal marks of thy bounty O Jesus no more my wounded but my glorified Jesus where am I What do I I see I flie I swound I die I revive my self with thee I do beseech thee my most Sacred Jesus by the most triumphant of thy glories let me no more fall into the image of death nor into those appetites of smoke and earth which have so many times buried the light of my soul What have I to do with the illusions of this world I am for Heaven for Glory and for the Resurrection which I will now make bud out of my thoughts that I may hereafter possess them with a full fruition The Gospel upon Munday in Easter-week S. Luke the 24. ANd behold two of them went the same day into a Town which was the space of sixty furlongs from Jerusalem named Emmaus And they talked betwixt themselves of all those things that had chanced And it came to pass while they talked and reasoned with themselves Jesus also himself approching went with them but their eyes were held that they might not know him And he faid to them What are these communications that you confer one with another walking and are sad And one whose name was Cleophas answering said to him Art thou onely a stranger in Jerusalem and hast not known the things that have been done in it these dayes To whom he said What things And they said Concerning Jesus of Nazareth who was a man a Prophet mighty in work and word before God and all the people And how our chief Priests and Princes delivered him into condemnation of death and crucified him But we hoped that it was he that should redeem Israel And now besides all this to day is the third day since these things were done But certain women also of ours made us afraid who before it was light were at the Monument and not finding his body came saying That they saw a vision also
have fastned to thy scale all the fishes of the waters wherein thou bearest sway I will drag thee from the midst of the Kingdome of waves and I will throw thee into a wildernesse thou shalt lie upon the dry land nor shall any one care to sae thy obsequies performed For I have abandoned thee to the beasts of the field ard to the birds of the air to be devoured This sentence of God was executed on the person of the Emperour Tyberius under whom our Saviour suffered that death which gave life to the world Verily he was a man who through the whole course of his Empire made himself the God of himself the slave of his passions and the hatred of mankind He lay close as an Owl in the retirement of his filthy lusts he was greedy as a Griphon in such sort that dying he had above three-score and six millions of gold in his coffers which he with the Empire left to an infamous nephew who as it is thought hastned his death tearing that sensuall soul out of the body which in the world breathed nothing but the love of it self How can a man so wretched so caitive behold himself as a Divinity seeing God in the heighth of glory riches and beauties which so happily entertains him within himself hath so affectionate bowels of mercy for man that he thinks of him from all eternity he presenteth himself unto him on all sides with hands replenished with benefits in so great a diversitie of Creatures and hath in generall so much care of all men and of every one in particular S. Tho opus de Beatit Quasi homo sâ—t Dei Deuâ— that he who were not well instructed by faith might have matter to imagine that Man were the God of God himself Let us besides produce another proof which more 2. Reason drawn from the communication of creatures evidently convinceth this obduratenesse of heart and this cruel rechlessnesse of the Philosophers who teach Indifferency which is that all creatures yea the most insensible are made by God to impart and to compassionate If the Sun hath light it is not for himself he clotheth the Air the Land and Sea with a golded net he imparteth it also as well to the little eyes of the Ant as to those of the mightiest Monarch in the world he soweth seeds of flames and vigour to warm and quicken totall nature If the Air hath Rain it keeps it not eternally within the treasurie of clouds but distilleth it as in a Limbeck to moysten the earth If the Sea have waters it so diveth them among all the Rivers as to bear men and victuall in Vessels and to make it self a knot of commerce from Land to Land from Countrey to Countrey from World Unaquaeque res cogitur dare â—eip â adeo exclusit Deus avaritiam à rebus humanis Guil. Paris l. de univers to World If the earth hath fruits it preserves them not for it self no more then the trees which bear them but plentifully opens its bosome profusely to communicate it self to all nature Every thing saith a great Bishop of Paris is bound by the Divine Providence to communicate it self so true it is that God hath banished avarice from humane things As each creature giveth it self by love so it suffers with others by conformity All the world is united and collected within it self as the parts of an Egg are tyed one within another All the members of the Universe mutually love and embrace and if they make warre it is but to establish their peace If there be want of an element as of Air the Water would mount to heaven or heaven descend to the water rather then not supply the defect of a neighbour It is a law which God hath engraven as with a toole of Adamont in the bosome of Nature It â—ath been observed that Palmes divided one from another by an arm of the Sea which had overflowed the countrey bowed their tops one towards another by a naturall inclination as witnessing their Amity and protesting against the fury of that element which had disunited them and if this sense be in plants what may we say of living creatures where we see cares troubles anxieties goings and comings combats yells neglect and losse of body repose and life with the sense they have of the detriment and dammage of their like And shall we not say then that a man who loveth nothing in the world and onely studieth the preservation of himself is a prodigie in Nature fit to be denyed the Air he breatheth the light which reflecteth on him the fire which warms him the viands which feed him and the earth which bears him I add for a third reason that pity and tendernesse 3. Reason of the tendernesse of great hearts of heart is not onely authorized by God and nature but it is established as by a common decree of nations Photius the learned Patriarch of Constantinople observeth in his Bibliotheque a wonderfull judgement A notable sentence of the Areopagites given in the City of Athens where he saith the Senate of Areopagites being assembled together upon a mountain without any roof but heaven the Senatours perceived a bird of prey which pursued a little Sparrow that came to save it self in the bosome of one of their company This man who naturally was harsh threw it from him so roughly that he killed it whereat the Court was offended and a Decree was made by which he was condemned and banished from the Senate Where the most judiciall observe That this company which was at that time one of the gravest in the world did it not for the care they had to make a law concerning Sparrows but it was to shew that clemency and mercifull inclination was a virtue so necessary in a State that a man destitute of it was not worthy to hold any Place in government he having as it were renounced Humanity We likewise see that the wisest and most courageous men in the world have been infinitely tender full of love zeal affection care anxiety and travel for the good of another David and Jonathan who were the bravest Princes over the people of God loved each other so much that the Scripture speaking of this Amity saith Their souls were tied together with an inseparable band S. Paul was so affectionate and jealous for the salvation of his Corinthians that he seemed to carry them all in his bowels and daily to bring them forth with convulsions and pains attended by joyes and delights not to be expressed Saint Ambrose bitterly bewailed the death of his brother Satyrus that to hear him speak one would think he meant to distill out his eyes and breathe out his soul on his Tombe So did S. Bernard at the decease of his brother Gerard. S. Augustine was a man all of fire before and after his conversion with onely this difference that this fire before the morn-tide of his salvation was nourished with
he fell into an extasie of holy comfort to have found a man so conform to his humour and both of them wept so much out of love over this fountain that they seemed to go about to raise those streams by their tears If he wrote a letter he imagined love gave him the pen and that he dipped it in his tears and that the paper was all over filled with instruments of the passion and that he sent his thoughts and sighs as Courtiers to seek out the well-beloved of his heart When he saw an Epistle or a letter wherein the name of Jesus was not premised it sensibly tormented him saying Sarazins had more devotion for Mahomet a man of sin setting his name in the front of all their letters then Christians had for their Redeemer A holy occasion one day drew him to a Church to hear excellent musick but he perceiving the words were of God and the tune according to the world he could not forbear to cry out aloud Cease profane men Cease to cast pearls into mire Impure airs are not fit for the King of virgins Some took delight to ask him many questions and he answered them nothing but the word love which he had perpetually in his mouth To whom belongest thou To love whence comest thou from love whither goest thou To love who begat thee Love Of what dost thou live upon love where dwellest thou In love He accounted them unworthy to live who died of any other death then of love and beholding a sick-man in an agony who shewed no feeling of joy to go unto God but onely complained of his pain he lamented him as a man most miserable At his entrance into a great Citie he asked who were the friends of God and a poor man being shewed him who continually wept for the love of heaven and heavenly things he instantly ranne to him and embracing him they mingled their tears together with unspeakable joy God often visited him by many lights and most sweet consolations as it happened at that time when he thought he saw a huge cloud between his Beloved and him which hindred and much troubled him but presently it seemed to him that love put it self between them both and gilded the cloud with great and admirable splendours in such sort that through this radiant beauty he saw a ray of the face of his well-beloved and for a long space spake to him with profusions of heart and admirations not to be expressed From this obsequious love he passed to obliging love and made a strong resolution to become profitable to all the world For which purpose feeling every moment to be replenished with sublime and divine thoughts which God had communicated to him and that he had no insight in Grammer nor other slight school-notions he resolved to learn the Latine tongue being now full fourty years old He hit upon a teacher one Master Thomas who taught him words conjugations and concords but he rendred him back again elate conceptions unheard of discourses and harmonies wholly celestiall so much honouring his Master that he dedicated the most part of his books to him wherein for the dead letter he offered unto him the spirit of life Not satisfied with this he added the Arabick tongue of purpose to convert the Mahumetans and for this end he bought a slave for whom having no other employment but to teach him it and he having therein already well profited and endeavouring to convert this wretched servant who had been his teacher the other found him so knowing and eloquent that he had an apprehension that through this industry he was able to confound the Mahumetan-law which was the cause that the Traitour espying his opportunity took a knife and sought to kill his Master but he stopt the blow and onely received a wound which proved not mortall All the house ran at the noise and there was not any one who would not have knocked down the ungratefull creature but he hindered it with all his might and heartily pardoned him in the greatest sharpnesse of his dolours Instantly the officers seized on this compassion and put him into prison where he was strangled repenting himself of nothing but that he had not finished his mischief which caused extreme sorrow in Raymond who bewailed him with many tender tears of compassion After this he undertook divers journies into France Spain Italy Greece and Africk wandring continually over the world and not ceasing to preach write and teach to advance the salvation of his neighbours Paris many times received him with all courtesie in such sort that the Chancellour Bertand who was infinitely affected to knowledges permitted him to reade them publickly in his hall The reverend Charter-house Monks whose houses have so often been sanctuaries for Learning and Devotion were his hoasts and so much he confided in their integrtty and sincerity that he with them deposed all which he had most precious The love of God which is as lightning in a cloud still striving to break forth suffered him not to rest but disposed him to undertake somewhat for the glory of God It is true he had first of all that purpose which afterwards our father S. Ignatius so gloriously accomplished for he was desirous to make Seminaries of learned and courageous spirits who should spread themselves throughout the world to preach the Gospel and to sacrifice themselves for the propagation of Faith For this cause he multiplied his voyages to Rome to Lions to Paris to Avignon incessantly solliciting Popes and Kings to so excellent a work without successe He used fervour and zeal therein but our father thereunto contributed more order and prudence The one undertook it in a crosse time during the passage of the holy See from Rome to Avignon where the Popes more thought upon their own preservation then tha conquests of Christianity The other knew how to take occasion by the fore-lock and he interessed Rome and the Popes thereof in his design The one made his first triall under Pope Boniface the Eighth who having dispossessed a Hermite of S. Peters Chair held those for suspected who were of the same profession fearing they a second time might make a head of the Church The other happened upon Paul the Third who was a benign Pope and he gained his good opinion by his ready services and submissions which tended to nothing but the humility of Jesus Christ The one embroiled himself too much in Sciences even unto curiosity and made them walk like Ladies and Mistresses the other held them as faithfull servants of the Crosse subjected to holy Humility The one stood too much upon his own wit and needs would beat out wayes not hitherto printed with any foot-steps nor conferred enough with the Doctours of his times in matters of Opinion and Concord the other passed through the surges of Universities and followed an ordinary trackt in the progression of his studies The one was of a humour very haughty the other of a spirit
books of the Trinity S. Thomas of Canterbury rested between the arms of France whilest Henry of England thundered sentences and proscriptions of death against him If one countrey become a step-mother another proves a Mother and the Divine Providence the worlds great Harbinger ever findeth some petty work to entertain its elected But if there be no means to escape and that servitudes must be undergone prisons and chains and that scaffolds must be bloudied to satisfie the revenge of an enemy Then is the time when a spirit well habituated in the continuall exercises of virtue entreth into the centre of the soul and beholdeth as from a high fortresse the vicissitude of humane things which here below have in them nothing immovable but their proper unstedfastnesse Then it is when despising these veils of body composed of our inferiour elements it now entereth in thought into the region of Intelligencies then it is when it accosteth the legions of so many Martyrs who on their bodies have received as many wounds as they had members and have moistned the sacred palms of their victories in the effusion of their bloud All which is humane yieldeth to the Tyranny of persecutours but the immortall spirit makes it self a large way all bordered with lawrels in the Temple of glory and reputation and like to the dove of the Prophet whose wings were of silver taketh a high and exalted flight to declare to all ages the innocency of a great courage and to make its relicks survive in Cabinets and in the memory of all good men How many have we seen die on Scaffolds who with the sweetnesse of their countenances terrified the most terrible aspects of executioners They spake they did they suffered they ordered their deaths as matter of Triumph they comforted others in their suffering at a time when they had much to do not to complain themselves They acted together all the parts of wisdome and came off so well in every one as if they onely had undertaken this one It was a great thing for them to do but to do it so exactly is that which for ever makes them the more admirable and it was a matter incredible that speaking so well they yet suffered better in an occasion where words have no credit works no time violence no relaxation nor enmity Compassion The third Treatise Of DESIRE § 1. Whether we should desire any thing in the world The Nature the Diversity and description of Desire THe Sages make a question whether it be a thing to be wished to have no Desire And there are of them who Whether it be good to have no desire think that to live happy and contented we must banish all desires For they are amusements which perpetually entertain us with the time to come which put us on the Rack and burn us by our proper thoughts Desires are the Echoes of our loves which mock us and counterfeit certain voices essences and personages which ordinarily are made of nought else but wind But now say others to have no desires is to have no soul no sense no reason it is to be a fly not a man The Seraphins in Isaiah stand by Gods side yet cease not to clap their wings to signifie unto us there is no soul so perfect and contented which hath not the heart still excited with some generous desire Trees are purified by the winds agitation rivers are cleansed and purged in their perpetuall currents and the heart by desires If we would have no desires we must not talk any more of eating and drinking we must no longer have this young lover sigh after his beloved we must not then admit learned men to make love to wisdome That wrastlers burn with affection of prizes due to their valour and that the souldier covers himself with his wounds to embellish his garlands all ought to be indifferent to us and that is the way quickly to runne into the nature of rocks and stones We must here make a notable distinction of desires insomuch some are naturall given by God to man for the preservation of himself Others are artificiall which arising out of an exorbitant will are nothing but floud and ebb but agitations and tempests Desires are like number one cannot name any so great but that it is capable of addition Hence it proceedeth that the world is replenished The world replenished with desiring souls Psal 50 v. 12. Tabescere fecisti animam meam alia versio liquescere fecisti ut timeam desiderium ejus Eos felicitas ingrata subterfluit ut semper pleni spei vacui commodorum praesentibus caâ—eant dum furura prospectant In Psal 92. Richardâ—â— de S. Victore in Psal 80. An excellent picture of desire with desiring and suffering souls and that there is not almost any one who is not in expectation and breathes not the air of the Region of desires The most part of men resemble the moth which gnaws a garment and in gnawing eateth its own house For by the eagernesse of desiring the future they lose all the pleasure of the present and demolish their fortune by their greedinesse to raise it That is it which the Panegyrick wittily expressed pronounced before Constantine the sonne Felicity glideth by us as the water which streameth along under bridges when still full of hope we rest unfurnished of contentments Desiring hearts saith S Augustine are as those great-bellied women to whom the eternall word hath denounced a Curse in the Gospel All the world would be but a morsell in the mouth of mans heart saith Richardus de sancto Victore since its wishes are infinite and that it is evident that in Infinity what part soever you assigne you are still at the beginning If you desire that I make you a picture of the nature and perquisits of Desire I will tell you it is a strange countrey whereunto the prodigall Child sailed when he forsook his fathers house to undertake a banishment a Country where corn is still in grasse vines in the bud trees perpetually in blossome and birds alwayes in the shell You neither see corn fruit nor any thing fully shaped all is there onely in expectation It is a Countrey full of figures phantasmes illusions and hopes which are dreames without sleep a Countrey where the inhabitants are never without feavers one is no sooner gone but another cometh into its place There dwelleth Covetousnesse a great woman meagre lean starven having round about her a huge swarm of winged boyes of which some are altogether languishing others cast her a thousand smiles as she passeth along upon her self she hath an infinite number of horsleeches which suck upon her to the marrow Time looketh on her afarre off and never cometh near her shewing her an enchanted looking-glasse wherein she seeth a thousand and a thousand false colours which amuse her and when she hath sported enough she hath nothing to dinner but smoke Behold the table of Covetousnesse grounded upon The
these serpents asleep which devour us but we must likewise confesse that if our griefs be short they deserve not so great complaints and if they be long their lasting fashioneth us to patience All is formidable to a body full of long health but the accustoming to things unpleasing causeth the contempt of them Nature hath destinated the most nice and tender to great dolours as women to that of child-bearing to teach us that what we fear most is not alwayes to be most feared When our courage faileth all torments insult over us but if it makes some resistance we much the lesse feel our pain There are who fight even to bloud out of bravery others receive wounds for a very little money others run to the burning chaps of cannons for a small salary there are others to be found who have jested at the gash and others who have played on a lute whilst their members have been flashed with keen rasors to shew that if there be an evil in nature there is much more in our opinion The Philosopher Zeno sought out torments to caste pleasures and said they were nohing if they were not thus seasoned Pain and pleasure interchangeably sway in us as do day and night in our Hemisphere If we must die it is but a moment of adversity to enter into a perpetuall repose Evill taketh up all the parts of our life but death hath onely one instant of time It is so conformed to the most part of the world oppressed with so many afflictions that as Zaleucus the Notable speech of Zaleucus Law-maker said an Edict should fitly have been made to die if God had not imposed a necessity upon it To be born maketh us tributaries to all miseries but death alone freeth us from all imposts Socrates saw his death coming whilst he was philosophising Anaxagoras in pleading Calanus braved it out of temerity and Canius jeasted at it out of merriment If your evil be in the mind is it chiefly sin or folly The evils of the mind which tormenteth you Why forbear you to chastise the one by penance and the other by the credit you will give to the judgement of the wise By this meanes you shall find that Reason will remedy almost all evils without much violence Where Reason is surprised and darkned by the violence Comforts which proceed from time of torments Time quits the medicine There is no evil immortall for the mortall let us make our selves tractable by not thinking on our evils and they cease to be evils according as time stealeth them away from us Think not to dry up the eyes of a mother who hath lost her son or of a wife from whom death Insensible comforts hath taken her husband on the day of the buriall suffer them to weep let the wound bleed and think how to cure it rather by prayers then by discourses The most pertinacious dolours disband with time and we are all amazed that we find our selves above our afflictions as if we had climbed up thither from out of the bottome of abysses He who should see the mount Aetna big with flames and thunders would not think there were any meanes to approach It but its furies passe away with time and we pursue little tracks which insensibly lead us to the top where we find verdant grasse and blooming flowers The like happeneth to us when we in the beginning consider our evil fortune it seemes our mind can never associate with its disasters but in the end the divine Providence discovereth wayes unto us which ere we think on 't bring us to the top of patience where we gather the fruit of our travels Who would not admire the goodnesse of God to say That time doth our businesse without our trouble and if we must be sad we find I know not what in our sadnesse that pleaseth us so that we preferre solitude and silence before the most eloquent consolations The friends of Job seeing these his deep miseries were seven dayes without speaking to him they let him discourse with his own thoughts and gather some case from his own dolour as we draw remedies Julianus Imperator in consola◠Ametil ep 37. out of scorpions I to this purpose observe an excellent invention in the Emperour Julian of the Philosopher Democritus where it is said That Darius King of Persia had lost An excellent observation of Julian the Queen his wife and that excessive melancholy made him disconsolate The wisest men of Greece were called to him to mitigate his torments but it was to play on a lute to the ears of Tygres and Panthers to go about to cure by words fitly applied a grief which had had more of futy then mediocrity in it The Philosopher let all these great comforters to passe on and put himself upon time to expect some disposition in the heart of this Monarch and seeing his mind tired out with his teares began to resent he promised to raise the Queen again if he he would furnish him with things necessary for his purpose the other extremely rapt with this proposition said he therein would employ all the riches of the world which were at his dispose but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Philosopher onely demanded of him three names of such as had never felt any grief or sadnesse to engrave them on the Queens Monument which could not in any sort be found after a long search throughout the whole kingdome of Persia Then Democritus taking his opportunity Alas Sir we may well say the rubies and diamonds of this diadem resplendent on your head dazle your eyes and hinder you from seeing the miseries of your poor subjects not to be able in so great and vast an Empire to meet with three happy men and yet you wonder though born under the condition of mortals that death is entred into your palace He added many grave sayings which the Emperour for his consolation liked very well Whereby we are taught that we must sometimes make use of time to remedy sadnesse If time doth nothing and that it be an evil necessary which we cannot remedy as it happeneth in death and in other accidents which those Ancients called the blows of Destiny why do we resist against heaven and censure the divine Decrees It is a goodly thing indeed to see a man to afflict himself with a fatall necessity Necessity forceth patience which indifferently involveth Monarches and peasants Must God revoke his laws and must he create a world apart to content a simple creature and serve it to its liking But is it not much better to go along with the stream of this water and follow the great current of the divine Providence which maketh all the harmony in the world § 4. That the Contemplation of the divine Patience and Tranquillity serves for Remedies for our temptations LAstly let us behold the assistances of Grace which is incomparably above Nature and let us from Remedies and
after so exquisite torments so that in the one and twentieth Psalme which it is thought our Narr abo nomen tuum fratribus meis in medio Ecclesiae laudabo te Apud te laus mea in Ecclesia magna vota meareddam in conspectu timentium cum Psal 21 Saviour wholly recited when he hanged on the Crosse having reckoned up the dolours which invironed him on all sides he raised himself up as the Palme against the weight of his afflictions and said I will declare thy Name to my brethren in the midst of the whole assembly of the faithfull Yea my God all my praise shall be in thee and for thee I will pronounce thy marvels in thine own house and I will offer thee my vows and sacrifices before all those who make profession to honour thee 6. Encouragements to good Hopes ANd will we then in so great light of Examples in so eminent protection of divine Helps resign our selves over to sadnesse and despair among so many accidents of this transitory life Despair onely belongs to hearts gnawn with dull melancholy and to souls extremely in love with themselves and the commodities of the world or to maligne spirits who have lost all the sparks of good conscience or lastly to the damned Why should we deprive our selves of an inestimable treasure of good hopes which the eternall Father hath kept for us in his omnipotency of which the word Incarnate hath assured us on the Crosse with his bloud and the rest of his life Is it not a goodly thing to see people who bear the character of Christianity to lay down the bucklet and to throw away arms at the first approach of some affliction whatsoever to grumble and murmure against God and men to cruciate themselves like Prometheus on the rocks of Caucasus to torment themselves with a thousand imaginary evils Wo to you Apostate and fugitive children Vae filii desertores dicit Dominus ut faceretis consilium non ex me ordiremini telam non per Spiritum meum Isa 30. 1. Chrysost ad Theodorum who have made resolutions without me and who have weaved a web which was not warped by my spirit It is no extraordinary matter said S. Chrysostome to fall in wrestling but to be willing to lie still stretched out at length on the earth It is no dishonour to receive wounds in fight but to neglect them and to let the gangrene through lazinesse to creep in is a folly inexcusable We entred into this life as into a list to wrestle as into a field of battel to fight why are we amazed if God use us as he did his most valourous champions Let us look upon life on all sides and we shalll find it preserved by good Hopes and is totally ruined by Despair Behold men build after ruines and fires see others after they are come all naked from amidst waves rocks frothy rages of the sea gather together in the haven broken planks of their unfortunate vessels to commit their life to an element whose infidelity they know by experience and taste prosperous successe onely by very slight hopes Yet flie they like Eagles into dangers among all the images of death after they therein have been so ill treated When Alexander was ready to enter into the Indies one said unto him Whither wilt thou go Beyond the world where dying Nature is but a dull lump where darknesse robs men of heavens light and the water hath no acquaintance Aliena quid aequo ra remis sacras violamus aquas Divúmque quietas turbamus sedes Eamus inter has sedes Hercules coelum meruit Senec. suasorta 1. with the earth What shall you see but frozen seas prodigious monsters maligne stars and all the powers of life conspiring your death To what purpose is it to hasten to sail over new and unheard of seas Inconsiderately to interrupt the peacefull seat of the Gods But replyed he Let us courageously go on let us discover those forlorn Countreys Thus did great Hercules deserve to win heaven Hope caused Rome to set Armies on foot after the battel of Cannae and France to triumph over the English by the hands of a silly shepherdnesse wherefore will we despair of our salvation sith the mercy of God was never extinguished nor can he cease to be what he is what a thought of a devil is it to deliver ones self over to despair in the sight of a Jesus who beareth our reconciliation on his sacred members and pleadeth our cause before his eternall Fathet with as many mouths as our sins in him have opened wounds Know we not We have a Bishop who cannot but compassionate Non habemus Pontificem qui non possit compati infirmitatibus nostris tentatum per omnia Heb. 4. our infirmities seeing he himself hath pleased to passe through all those trials and to make experience thereof to his own cost and charges It is not the despair of our salvation which tempteth us but that of temporall goods this suit and that money is lost here is the thing which afflicteth this desolate soul and makes it hate its proper life O soul ignorant of the good and evil of thy life It is thy love and not thy despair alone which tormenteth thee Thou then hast fixed thy Beatitude on this gold this silver on thy profit by this suit and thou lookest on it as on a little Divinity Dost thou forget the words Perdix sovit quae non peperit secit divitias non in judicio in dimidio dierum suorum derelinquet eas Jer. 17. 11. of the Prophet Silly partridge thou broodest borrowed eggs thou hast hatched birds which were not thine let them flie sith thou canst not hold them That which thou esteemest a great losse shall be the beginning of thy happinesse thou shalt ever be rich enough if thou learnest to be satisfied with God But this person whom I more dearly loved then my self is dead and all my purposes are ruined by his death wherefore dost thou resolve with thy self to say now he is dead Began he not to die from the day of his birth Must he be looked on as a thing immortall since both thou and he have already received the Sentence of your deaths from your mothers wombs If thou onely grievest for his absence thou wilt quickly be content for thou daily goest on towards him as fast as the Sun which enlightneth us there is not a day which set thee not forward millions of leagues towards thy Tomb. I am content that they bewail the dead who Ruricius S. Hieron Fleant mortuos suos qui spem resurrectionis habere non possunt fleant mortuos suos quos in perpetuum aestimant interiisse in brevi visuri sumus quos dolemus absentes can have no hope of Resurrection they who believe they are dead never to live again Let them bemoan the losse of their friends as long as they will as
body of the King with those of his three children and hung them upon the walls of Bethshan where they were seen untill the time that certain valiant men of his party took them away by night and gave them buriall Such was the end of this unhappy Prince whom impiety disobedience love of himself and the jealousie of State accompanied with his ordinary ragings threw head-long into a gulf of calamities At the same time that this unhappy battell was David receives the news thereof fought David was pursuing the Amalekites which in his absence had sacked the town of Ziklag which was the place of his retireing that Achish the King of the Philistims had bestowed upon him He was so happy that he overtook those robbers loaden with their prey and took out of their hands his two wives Ahinoam and Abigail whom they had taken away As he came from this battell a young Amalekite presents himself and brings him the news of the death of Saul of Jonathan and of his other sons affirming that he himself had stood by at the death of the King and had helped him to dye by order which he had received from him cutting off the thread of his life and delivering him from those deadly pains that caused him to languish and for a proof hereof he shewed him his Crown and his bracelet which he presented to David hoping for a great reward from him But this virtuous and wise Prince aswell for conscience sake as his reputation took great heed of receiving or manifesting any joy at this accident but on the contrary being moved with extream grief he tore his garments and put all his court in mourning he wept he fasted he made funerall Orations for the honour of Saul and Jonathan and set forth lamentations which caused as great esteem of his virtue as they moved pity to his countrey Not content herewith he caused the Amalekite that brought him the news of the death of Saul to dye by Justice which he himself had helped to confirm according as he had avouched by obedience and by compassion not enduring that he should lay hands upon a King for to take away his life from him by any pretence whatsoever that he could alledge It seemed that after the death of this unhappy Prince David should forthwith have taken possession of all his estates but wisdome hindred him from proceeding herein so hastily They knew that he had not assisted at the the battell for to help his people that he had retired himself into the hands of the capitall enemies of Israel and many might very justly think that he had born arms for Achish which might diminish much the great opinion that they had of his virtue Further also although that Saul was not so much loved in his life-time yet his death might very well have defaced that blemish of hatred that many had conceived against him They considered that he had sacrificed himself with his three sons for the publick safety and had spared nothing for his countrey They had pity on the evil usage that the Philistims had done unto his body his former good actions in time past the dignity of a King his laborious life and tragicall death did quell all the envie that any could have at his fortunes Hence it was that Abner his chief Captain who was a man sufficiently upright would not lose any time but seeing there remained yet a son of Saul named Ishbosheth aged fourty years although he was but of little courage and as little understanding he made him presently to come into the Camp and caused him to be declared the true and lawfull successour of the estates of Saul not so much for the esteem that he had of his sufficiency or for the love that he bore him as intending to reign by him and over him All the people gave unto him the oath of Allegiance except the kindred of Juda from which David was sprung which gathered together in favour of him and crowned him King in Hebron where he reigned about seven years before he possessed the whole power of the Empire The Kingdome of Judah was then one body with The kingdome divided by the ambition of the favourites two heads the house of Saul and David clashing against each other not so much by the inclination of the Masters as by the ambition of the Favourites and Servants which would reign at their costs Abner was high and courageous Joab also the Joab and Abner do seek for the government chief Captain of David stern and violent which would gain the favour of his Master by devouring him in the which he did not succeed well for that the spirit of David was not so feeble as to comply with such behaviour and it was nothing but necessity which caused him to passe by many things These two chief Captains full of jealousie the one Their combat over the other meeting together at the Fish-pond of Gibeon with the chief of the Nobility Abner began first and demanded a combat under pretence of play unto whom Joab which had no need of a spur easily consented Presently one might see the young men of each side nimbly to bestir themselves whose fingers did itch to be at it and did not fail quickly to surprise one another The sport growing hot by little and little came to a full combat and at last to a battell where many remained upon the place Joabs party was the stronger and that for twenty which he lost he killed three hundred and sixty of Abners men who was constrained to retire himself But Azael the brother of Joab a nimble runner followed The death of Azael by his rashnesse him lively with his sword at every turn ready to wound him the other which had no desire to slay him being not ignorant that if it should come to that it would prove the seed of an irreconcileable enmity between him and Joab his brother prayed him twice to depart from him and to content himself with the spoil of some other without being ambitious of his Azael would not hearken unto him but desired to make himself famous by getting the better of the Captain of the Army At last he seeing him insolent unto that extremity turned back and struck him through with his Launce Joab and Abishai his two brethren incensed with that his slaughter followed Abner with all their force who saved himself upon a hill where a great squadron of the family of Banjamin encompassed him and cryed with a loud voice unto Joab saying shall the sword devour for ever and would he make of a sport so deadly a tragedy as if he were ignorant that it was dangerous to drive them to despair Joab caused a retrait to be sounded making a shew to do that for courtesie which he agreed to for necessity Abner laying aside his warlike humour fell in love The disagreeing of Abner and Ishbosheth with a Concubine of Saul named Rispah which was a
their Colours and that it was enough if they did but shew themselves to conquer The Rebels tormented with the affrightments of their conscience and which had not such entertainment as they were promised first were put into disorder after to flight and then to a rout It seemed that on the one part there were men that came to kill and on the other sheep that came to be slain As soon as they were mingled the one amongst the other the sword on the one side made great Massacres on the other the falls and tumblings headlong carried them away in such manner that there remained twenty thousand upon the place Absolon taken with a great astonishment is left by all the world and betaking himself to flight gets The death of Absolon up upon a Mule It hapned that passing through a Forrest his head was catched and wreathed within the branches of a Tree insomuch that his carryer having left him he remained hanging between heaven and earth where he made a very fitting amends both to the justice of God and the goodnesse of his Father Joab had notice thereof who neverthelesse although David had forbidden it stroke him through with three Darts and when as yet he seemed to have life ten young souldiers of the Troups of Joab ran to make an end of him he feared so much that if he should return into favour and authority lest he should take vengeance upon him because he would not follow his party The body was interred in a pit under a great heap of stones for to convince the vanity of him which had caused a stately monument to be built for himself which he called Absolons hand Behold an horrible end of an evil sonne and a rebellious subject which is sufficient to make posterity afraid throughout the revolution of all ages While all this was doing David inclosed in a little Town expected the event of the battell and when as the Posts brought him the news of the Victory he shewed not so much rejoycing as fear asking every moment in what estate his sonne Absolon was which caused that divers durst not bring him the news of his death seeing the trouble of his mind At last Cushi uttered the word and said That they should desire Absolon's end to all the Kings enemies He understood well what he would say and was pierced with so violent a grief that he could not be comforted losing all courage and crying every moment Absolon my sonne my sonne Absolon Oh that this favour had been done for me that I might have dyed for thee Every one cast down his eyes for pitty and the whole victory was turned into sorrow the Palms and Laurels were changed into Cypresse Joab alwayes bold and insolent towards his Master Joabs insolency instead of receiving reproches for his fault casts them upon David and thinks that the means to justifie himself was to speak the more stoutly He enters into the Chamber of his King and reproves him sharply saying to him That he would put to confusion all his good servants that had that day saved his life his house and all his estate That he was of a strange nature and seemed to have been made for nothing but to hate those that loved him and to love those that hated him That it was very clear that he bore no good affection to his Captains and good Souldiers and if they all had perished to save the life of one rebellious sonne he would have been very well satisfied Further he swore to him by the living God that if he did not rise and go forth to see and entertein those that returned from the battell that there should not remain one man onely with him before the morning which would prove a greater displeasure to him then ever he received in all his life He pressed him so vehemently that the King without daring to answer him one word rose up and did all that he would have him This great grief diminished by little and little and the rejoycings of those that came on every side to carry him back to Jerusalem in Triumph gave him no leasure to think upon his losse He endeavoured to draw to him again all those that had separated themselves pardoning all the world with an unspeakable meeknesse being ready even to give Joabs place to Davids mildenesse very great Amasa that was chief Captain for Absolon But Joab quickly hindred this and kild with his own hand him that they had purposed for his successour After that he began to pursue one Sheba a Captain of the Rebels who was retyred into Abela with some remainder of the mutinous and as he was about to besiege it and destroy the City for to take him a woman of discretion and great in credit amongst her people which had made composition with Joab caused him to be slain and threw his head over the walls to put an end to this whole bloodie warre After this re-establishment of his Estate David The last acts of Davids life reigned about eleven years in full peace in continuall exercises of Piety of Devotion of Justice and caused a generall Assembly of the States of his Realme where he made his sonne Solomon which he had chosen to be confirmed and encouraged him to build that great Temple which should be the marvell of the World whereof he shewed him the plat-form the beautifying and the orders in the Idea Two things do a little astonish those which do seek an exact sanctity in this Prince the first that he dyed having unto the last hour a maid of rare beauty by him and the other that he recommended to his son Solomon punishments and deaths by his Testament But there are that answer to those that may be offended with these actions That God hath permitted this to make us the better to relish and admire the perfections of his Evangelicall law whereof the Word Incarnate was made the Law-giver and bringet above all the excellencies of the presents and virtues of the Mosaicall law And that one ought not to expect from David the chastity of a Saint Lewis nor of a Casimire but that one ought to measure things according to the manner of the time according to the law and custome Neverthelesse I should rather say that the plurality of women was not an offence seeing that it was approved of God so that it caused not a weakning of the vigour of the spirits and mortifying their divine functions by too much commerce with the flesh David sinned not in causing the Shunamite to lye besides him seeing that she was in the place of a spouse and approched unto him not for the pleasure which his great age had totally extinguished but for the entertainment of his Royall person Lastly there are other actions that do set forth his virtue besides this which is more worthy of excuse then blame And forasmuch as he ordained by his testament the death of Joab and of Shimei this doth something
his ambition did here bound it self and promised to speak to the King thereof very willingly which she did going expresly to visit him Solomon went forth to meet her made her very great reverence received her with most courteous entertainment and having ascended his Throne he caused another to be set at his right hand for his mother which said to him That she came to make a very little request unto him upon which it would be a displeasure to her to receive any deniall The son assured her and said That she might boldly demand and that he was no wayes intended to give her any discontent As soon as she had opened the businesse and named Abishag's name Solomon entred Solomons rigour into great anger and said she might have added thereto the Kingdome seeing that he was his eldest brother and that he had Joab and Abiathar on his side and without giving any other answer he swore that he would make Adonijah die before it was night whereupon presently he gave order to Benaiah who supplied the office of Captain of the Guard which failed not to slay this young Prince Those that think that Solomon might do this in conscience He cannot well be justified for the murder of his brother and that one may conjecture that God had revealed it unto him take very small reasons to excuse great crimes and see not that whosoever would have recourse to imaginary Revelations might justifie all the most wicked actions of Princes There is not one word alone in the Scripture that witnesses that after the establishment of Solomon this poor Prince did make the least trouble in the State he acknowledged Solomon for King he lived peaceable he was contented with the order that God permitted for the comfort of the losse of a Kingdome which according to the Law of Nations did belong to him he desired but a maid servant in marriage and he is put to death for it Who could excuse this I am of opinion of the The just punishment of God upon Solomon Dr Cajetan who saith that this command was not onely severe but unjust and I believe that hence came the misfortune of Solomon for that having shewed himself so little courteous towards his mother and so cruel towards his brother for the love of a woman God to punish him hath suffered that he should be lost by all that which he loved most After this murder he sent for Abiathar the chief Priest and gave Abiathar the high Priest deprived of his dignity by a very violent action him to understand that he was worthy to die but forasmuch as he had carried the Ark of the living God and had done infinite services for the King his father even from his youth he gave him his life upon such condition that he should be deprived of the dignity of the high Priest and should retire himself to his house The Scripture saith that this was to fulfill the word of the Lord which had been pronounced against the house of Eli but yet it follows not for all that that this depriving was very just on Solomon's side being done without mature consideration And although God ordains sometimes temporall afflictions upon children for the punishment of the fathers yet one cannot neverthelesse inferre from this that those which torment and persecute them without any other reason then their own satisfaction should not any wayes be faulty for otherwise one might avouch that the death of our Lord having come to passe by the ordinance of God Pilate and Caiaphas that did co-operate unto this order without any knowledge thereof should be without offence As for those that think that the Levites were accusers in those proceedings it is a conjecture of their own invention and if indeed it were so one might yet further reason by what Law could the Levites bring accusation against their chief Priest This jealousie of Government is a marvellous beast and those that would excuse it find for the most part that there is no stronger reasons then swords and prisons and banishments In the mean time the news comes to Joab that he was in great danger for having followed the party of Adonijah and as he saw himself on the sudden forsaken and faln from the great credit that he had in the Militia he had recourse to the Tabernacle which was the common refuge and taking hold of the Altar he asked mercy and his life Banaiah the executour of the murder goes to him by Solomons order and commands him to come forth for which he excuses himself protesting that he would rather die then forsake his refuge which was related to King Solomon who without regard to the holy place caused him to be massacred The death of Joab at the foot of the Altar to mingle his bloud with that of the sacrifices Behold what he got from the Court after fourty years services and one may affirm that if it had been sometimes a good mother to him now it acted a cruel step-mother at the last period of his life There remained no more but Shimei to make up the last Act of the Tragedy and although David had given commandment for his death Solomon seemed yet to make some scruple upon the promise of impunity that was made to him and this was the cause that he appointed him the city of Jerusalem for a prison with threatning that if he should go forth thence and onely go over the brook of Cedron he would put him to death The other that expected nothing but a bloudy death willingly received the condition and kept it three years until the time that on a day having received news of his servants that were fled to the Philistims it came into his mind to follow them without taking heed to that which was commanded him which caused that at his return he was murdered by the commandment of Solomon by the hand of Benaiah Behold the beginning of a reign tempestuous and one must not think to find Saints so easily at the Court especially in those which have liberty to do what they please many things slip from them which may better be justified by repentance then by any other apology That which follows in this history of Solomon is all peaceable and pleasing even unto his fall which may give cause of affrightment The third year of his reign he had an admirable Dream after the manner of those that are called Oracles A wonderfull Dream of Solomon It seemed to him that God appeared to him and spoke to him at the which he was in an extasie and seeing himself so near to him that could do all he desired of him with incredible ardency the gift of Wisdome to govern his people the which pleased so much the Sovereign Majesty that not onely he gave him a very great understanding above all the men of the world but further also added thereto Riches and Glory in so high an eminence that none should equall him There
carrying into the other world a great account to give to God for having embroiled the estate of the Church for having behaved her self imperiously and for having alway sought with ardency the satisfaction of her Revenge It is probable that she passed out of this life in the Catholick Belief and in Repentance But as concerning the death of Antonina her confident it is buried in a great obsurity and it is to be feared that her life extremely dissolute even to her old age and her damnable practices have cast her headlong into an eternall misery Justinian languished a long time after Theodora's death having seen all his designs of Warre of Law and of Buildings perfected bestowed his whole time afterwards in serving God and expired the rest of his life in Devotion to which he ever had a very strong inclination It is held that about the end of his dayes he fell into two errours the former whereof was That he should not die and indeed it seemed to all the world that death had passed him since he had already attained to the age of fourscore and four years which is very rare in an Emperour and not conformable to the Scripture which sayes That the life of Mighty men is ordinarily short enough neverthelesse it is not probable that in the solidity of his judgement which endured even to his end he should suffer himself to be perswaded with such a vanity The other fault which he committed is more true which is That by a zeal not discreet enough that he had conceived for the humanity of our Lord he would believe that it was not subject to our miseries but impassible and incorruptible even before his Resurrection He was near of publishing this opinion and authorising it by his ordinances but yet he never did it and repented of it at his last hour calling back in his Will the Patriarch Eutichius that he had driven away for opposing this his errour So Nicephorus writes manifestly and every equitable judgement will conclude with him for the salvation of this Emperour We have very considerable proofs of it first his name hath never been blotted out of the Ecclesiasticall Tables out of which it was a custome to deface the memory of Heretick Emperours Secondly S. Gregory the Great who speaks alwayes very correctly calls him Emperour of pious Memory In the third place Pope Agathon writing after his death saith That he was an Emulatour of the sincere and Apostolick faith Finally he was commended in the sixth universall Counsel with an Elogy worthy of a most Catholick Prince Even some Patriarchs of Constantinople have caused his memory to be yearly celebrated with acclamations of happinesse and publick Orations in his praise His great Austerities his magnificent Almes his Churches his Devotions his Laws his indefatigable pains for the Publick have defaced the spots that so easily slide into the lives of great ones Let us not rashly condemne that which we may excuse with Justice and let us not be evil with Ours if God will be good with His. I confesse that this end somewhat troubles me seeing my self constrained to follow an opinion different from that of a great modern Historian which handles this Emperour with much severity It is true that I have alwayes had a venerable esteem of that Authour knowing well that by the rayes of his virtues and of his learning he hath surpassed the lustre of the most glorious purples Yet the respect which I bear to Truth and the honour which I owe to the memory of great men that have so much obliged the Publick give me permission to say here that Justinian hath never been so black as he hath painted him being ill informed by the writings of Procopius and of Euagrius his enemies or following opinions that by a false intention and manifest equivocation are insinuated into the spirits of men many Ages since Fables easily surprise us and when they are authorised by a long time and by the belief of many persons they passe oftentimes for truths That which I say is manifest in that which Baronius himself writes touching the opinion which he had of the grosse ignorance of Justinian whom he reproaches often in his History that he could neither write nor read and yet it is now more then visible that it is an errour crept in by an equivocation of Names and a fault in Printing which hath caused the name of Justinian in the text of Suidas to be taken for that of Justin as I have already said This is so clear that the Commentatour of Procopius an enemy to Justinian as well as his Authour hath not been able to dissemble it but confesses that he hath observed in history that oftentimes the name of Justinian hath passed for that of Justin and that by this means the ignorance that agreed to his uncle Justin hath been attributed to this Monarch and farther yet the accident of the troubles of mind that befell his nephew Justin That which I say is proved after an excellent manner by the great Cassiodore who might have seen Justinian when being young he came into Italy who calls him aloud The Learned Prince and most wise Emperour And that grave Authour Agapetus who dedicated to him the Treatise of Reigning well which Baronius highly commends sayes openly that he was created Emperour Philosophizing and that in the Empire he ceased not from Philosophy And Procopius his Calumniatour avouches that he spent ordinarily a good part of the night in his closet to study upon the sublimest Sciences and that he could discourse of them pertinently with the ablest Scholars of his age After this judge if there be any reason to set him forth as a Peasant without Learning and without Letters Now as this illustrious Authour was overtaken in that which he spake concerning the wit and the capacity of Justinian so as being a man might he be mistaken in that which he hath written of his manners following some pieces of the slanderous history of Procopius which he had read in Euagrius and in others like him But I intreat my Reader yet once more to see and consider whether it be reasonable to believe that obscure Libel of an Authour enraged against the memory of that Prince to the prejudice of so many grave and judicious persons that have quite contrary opinions of him It is evident that this Procopius was a Libertine and a true Atheist who hath spoken and written in his first book of the History of the Gothes That it is a folly to trouble ones self about the belief of Divine things and that it should be left to every one whether Priestor Lay to believe all that shall seem good to him rather then disturb the Common-wealth being extreme angry that Justinian tormented the Pagans the Jews the Samaritans and endeavoured to reduce the whole world to the Christian and Catholick Belief Judge my Reader hereupon what faith a man deserves to have that making a shew to be a Christian
World and that Heaven makes me be born again in your Person If you will reign happily fear God which is the source of Empires and the Sovereign Father of all Dominions keep his Commandments and cause them to be observed with an inviolable fidelity Take the care and the Protection of his Church Love your young brothers and your sisters rendring your self good and officious to your Kindred Honour the Church-men as your Fathers cherish tenderly your subjects as your children and be all your life time the comforter and the Protectour of the Poor Chastise the vicious and recompense the men of merit Establish not Governments Judges and Officers which are not capable and without reproch and when you have established them deprive them not of their charges without a most just cause Serve first of all for an example to all the world and lead before God and Man a life irreprochable After this action he stayed about a year longer in the world purifying continually his spirit by repentance by good works and by the contemplation of heavenly things And when he saw himself infected with an extraordinary sicknesse he caused immediately the Sacraments to be administred to him and dyed with a most pious and most exemplary death at the age of seventy two years the fourty seventh of his reign and the four teenth of his Empire His Corps were exposed in publick clothed after the manner of a King with a sword and the Gospel which he had so gloriously defended Then he was interred with a stately Magnificence in the Church of Aix the Chappell which he had built He was universally lamented by all the world as the Father of the Universe and the singular ornament of Christianity The Pagans themselves wept for him abundance of tears so true it is that the goodnesse and sweetnesse of a King towards his subjects is a ray of God that renders him lovely in his life and gives splendour even to his ashes after his death He was afterward Canonized by Paschal that was not a lawfull Pope but forasmuch as the true successours of Saint Peter never retracted that action He is held for a Saint and honoured publickly in the Church with the approbation of all ages Saint LEVVIS S. LEWIS K. OF FRANCE I Do not forget that I have already spoken of Saint Lewis in the first Tome but because that was by accident and by the way I will here extend my thoughts somewhat more largely and give you a more compleat Elogium of him It is very true that an Antient faith That great Goodnesse is seldome joyned with great Power and that well-accomplished Kings are so few in number that their names might be comprehended all together within the circumference of a Ring But I may add that if God did take delight to carry this Ring in very deed as the Scripture doth attribute it to him in an Allegory and if he would engrave there the names of all the good Kings that of great S. Lewis would possesse the first place This Monarch was so like unto virtue that if it should have shewed it self on the one side incarnate to mortall eyes and Saint Lewis on the other one should hardly have been able to judge which had been the Copy and which the Originall It is not my intention to write of his life here upon which so many excellent pens have laboured very fortunately but to make a reflexion upon some principall points of his Government Great things do not alwayes cause themselves to be known by a multitude or great variety of discourse but oftentimes by draughts abbreviated And no man in my opinion ought to conceive amisse of this seeing that we measure every day the greatnesse of the Sun by the shadow of the earth and his goings in the Dyals by a little thread I know that heretofore three lines onely represented upon a Table did set forth an Idea of the perfection of the excellentest Painter in the world in the understanding of the skilfull and I will draw here three little draughts for to set before your eyes the beauty and bignesse of the virtues of S. Lewis In one word he hath done three mervellous things whereof the first is that he found out the means to joyn the wisedome of State with that of the Crosse The second that he hath planted humility upon Sceptres where it hath ordinarily very slippery footing and hath likewise placed it amongst the Rubies and Diamonds of the Crown where its lustre is often darkened by the too stately glittering of the World A third is that he hath joyned the devotion of one consecrated to Religion to the courage of the Alexanders and Cesars As for that which concerns the first conjunction it The first marvel the joyning of the wisdom of State with the Gospel Tert. Apol. is so rare that Tertullian who flourished two hundred years after the Nativity of our Lord when as yet there had no speech been of any Emperour that had embraced Christianity said That if the Cesars should become Christians they would cease to be Cesars and if the Christians should become Cesars they would cease to be Christians He conceived that poornesse of spirit could not agree with so high and stately riches nor humility with a sovereign Empire or the tears of Repentance with the delights of the Court that the hungring and thirsting after righteousnesse could not stand with the desire of Conquerours nor pitifulnesse with Arms nor purenesse of heart with the conversing with most pleasing beauties nor peace would consist with the licentiousnesse of warre and suffering persecutions with an absolute power to revenge ones self And neverthelesse Saint Lewis alone hath found means to joyn things together which seem so contrary in the highest degree that ever they were found to be in so-Kingly an estate Amidst the riches of a Kingdome so abundant he was not rich but onely towards the poor and if God had permitted him he would have as willingly covered himself with the habit of Saint Francis as with his Royall Purple He did never consider himself otherwise amongst all the goods that he possessed but as the Steward of Jesus Christ he left unto God willingly the glory of having given them him to needy persons the benefit of receiving them and kept nothing to himself but the pains of distributing them He assaid a thousand times to enter into Religious Orders and yet still answer was made him that God would have him to be King he wore the Crown by way of obedience he used riches onely for necessity and had no other thing in his desire then spiritual nakednesse and a perfect unloosing himself from all worldly things In the midst of an Absolute power he was so meek that his heart seemed a Sea where a calme perpetually reigned The Scarlet of his attire did never colour his face with the heat of anger Arrogance did never puff up his words he made it his glory to communicate himself
Moses lifted up his hands to Heaven and Joshua his Arms upon the head of the enemies of God the one combated with the lipps and the other with the sword the one poured out oyl and wine upon the Altars the other shed the bloud of the wicked to make a sacrifice to the justice of the Sovereign Monarch He was inclined to war by the disposition of God himself he received the sword as from his hands and wore it fifty seven years alwayes in assaults alwayes in defenses alwayes in various encountres and in bloody battels for the safety and the glory of his Nation He hath reaped more Palms then heaven hath stars he made as many combats as journeyes and gained as many victories as he gave battels Happinesse never deliberated whether she should follow his undertakings She was under him as a souldier in pay and whither one carried his Standarts the other incontinently displaied her wings to cover them They never brake asunder and hazard that hath often a foot so slippery found firm ground when it was covered with the arms of Joshua He affronted Gyants that seemed to have been born onely for the terrour of Mankind He tumbled down towers of flesh and trod under feet Monsters that the most valiant durst not so much as look on He took Cities whose walls and Citadels were so high that they seemed to be lost in heaven The Plains of Makkedah of Libnah of Lachish of Debir of Hebron of Gilgal of Gezer and of Jericho bear yet the seeds of his Lawrels Eglon and Ai preserve his Trophes which are yet standing after they have seen the ruines of the Pyramids of Egypt But Gibeon carries away the price of his victories seeing that it was it that saw the Sun stand still upon his Conquest Plato and Aristotle that hold the heavens and the Stars animated Julius Firmicus that believes them filled with sence and with prudence would not have failed to tell us here that it was the love and the admiration of the valour of that great Captain that tyed the Sun by insensible chains in the middst of his firmament and that he could not endure to set before he had seen the end of that famous battell he could see nothing amongst our Antipodes that came near this spectacle he esteemed his Light more noble and more precious for that it had shone that very Day even upon the Valour of the most rare Man of the whole Earth But the Scripture teaches us that the chief of the Luminaries of heaven stood for that time immovable not by any understanding that it had but by obedience that it rendred to its Creatour seeing the Creatour himself would obey the voyce of a man All the Militia of heaven desired to be of the Party the Moon and the Starres waited upon their King and would not move one step that was not troden according to his measures After this do we think it strange that the Rivers turned about their Passages to favour Joshua's and that the sacred Jordan was sensible of the foot-steps of a mortall man to whom the Heavens themselves gave some veneration Millions of men grew pale with fear when they saw one single man with his sword in hand The walls of Cities fell to the ground though he did not touch them but with his eyes The onely presence of one Joshua was worth an hundred Regiments The souldiers thought nothing impossible under him and by him the enemies esteem'd themselves vanquished as soon as seen What may one say of a Generall that subdued thirty and one Kings that brake so many Sceptres that saw so many Crowns and Diadems at his feet One sole Victory carried away upon a Monarch caused the Roman Captains to be seen in a Chariot of Ivory drawn by white Horses and sometimes by Elephants and Lyons Sesostres King of the Egyptians four Kings to be tyed to his Coach for that he had conquered them in battell But our Joshua a subduer of Pride as well as men desires no exteriour pomp to honour his deeds of valour It sufficed him that God Triumphed in him and would not have any other glory but to be under the feet of him that marches upon the wings of the winds and upon the head of Cherubins He was not onely a valiant Souldier and wise Generall but at last the Judge and Prince of his people Great in Arms and in Laws and accomplished in all sort of virtues The Israelites thinking one day that Moses their Conductour had been lost in the Wildernesse desired the High-Priest Aaron to make them a God to supply his default But after that Moses was dead and that they beheld Joshua seated in his place they desired no more any other Deity because they perceived in him the liveliest impression that man can have of God upon the earth Virtues that seemed most contrary were reconciled in him and made but one sole visage of perfection Piety made nothing soft in his Courage nor Courage any thing fierce in his Piety Heigth of Spirit found that she was compatible with Meeknesse Activenesse went the same pase with providence and the most Illustrious of glories reposed in him under the shadow of humility Justice in him did not offend Clemency He imitated the living God that is mercifull even as farre as Hell He punished Crimes with a zeal mixt with ardour and compassion and when he caused Achan that sacrilegeous man to dye at the time that his hand was stiffe to hold the ballance of Justice in an equality he felt in his heart a tendernesse that made him give death to the culpable as a benefit though others took it for a punishment But let us remember while we speak of Joshua that God hath covered him with the rayes of glory to teach us that we are constrained to cover his brave acts in silence To conclude He to whom nothing was wanting but immortality dyed as a setting Sun animating his people with the spirit that went out of his body and some hold that the Hebrews put upon his Tomb the figure of a Sun as if they would say that he was amongst men that which the Sun is amongst the stars and that there is nothing even as far as the shadow of death that hath not kindled for him lights of Immortality JUDAS MACCABEVS WHatsoever Virtue hath of Great whatsoever Valour hath of Generous met in the person of Judas Maccabeus to make a mervell of his life and an Immortall memory of his Name God caused him to be born in a deplorable age in the time that King Antiochus surnamed the Illustrious raised that horrible persecution against the Jews that made the heavens to weep and the earth to blush with bloud It was a sport to that Barbarous man to profane holy things and a continuall exercise to flea and roast Men or to throw them into boyling Caldrons without having any other crime but dying for the true Religion The cruelty of the torments overcomes the weak
and shakes even the strongest The Altars overturn'd upon the bleeding Priests the children strangled in the bosome of their sighing Mothers the flames that without distinction devoured the sacred and profane the Houses that seemed now but dens of Beasts presented to the world an hideous spectacle that gave more desire to dye then courage to live Amidst these desolations was found a gallant old man named Matathias the father of many sonnes all men of valour who went our of Jerusalem to retire himself in the City of Modin There he assembled all those of his family who were followed of whatsoever remained yet of most courageous to oppose themselves against the fury of the Tyrant and to retein the remnants of the true Piety As soon as the infidels had heard that a little handfull of men assaid to subtract themselves from their puissance and refused to make open profession of the Religion of the Pagans they failed not hastily to send unto them a Lieutenant of the Kings that summoned Matathias to render up himself with all his men and to offer Incense to the Idols But this virtuous man assembling his sons and his allies said thus unto them It would be to be too much in love with Life to be willing to spare and keep it in the losse of the true Religion I am sorry that I ever entred into the world when I consider the time to which God hath reserv'd my age to see the disasters of my people and the desolation of holy Jerusalem abandoned to the pillage of rapinous hands and to the prophanation of the impious Her Temple hath been handled as the object of all reproches and those Vessels of Glory that served for the Ministery of the Living God hath been taken away by violence We have seen her streets covered with dead bodies and the little children having their throats cut upon the Carcases of their Fathers And what Nation hath not possessed our heritages and is not inriched with our spoils The holinesse of the Temple hath not stayed sacrilegious hands and so many slaves of that proud City have not been able to preserve themselves from flames After this what interest can we have in life unlesse it be to revenge the quarrell of God I am promised all the honours and all the goods that I can reasonably hope for If I will obey the King Antiochus and range my self on the party of those that have so basely betraied their faith But God forbid that I should ever fall into such a prostitution of Judgment or of courage When all those of my nation shall have conspired to forsake their Law to obey the time and to accommodate themselves to the Prince's will I can answer for my self and for my children and for my brothers assuring my self of their Generosity that they will never do any thing that is base Let all those that shall have a zeal to the true Religion joyn themselves to us and know that amongst so many miseries there is nothing better then to mark with their blood the way of Safety and of Glory to give example to Posterity In the mean time the Kings Commissioners pressed every one to declare himself and to sacrifice whereupon a man of the people of the Jewes whether he was frighted by the terrour of the punishments or allured by the promise of rewards stepped forth to sacrifice upon an Altar set up in publick and dedicated to the false Deities But Matathias having looked steddily upon him felt his heart enflamed with a violent heat of the zeal that possessed him and running to that Apostate killed him with his own hand and laid him dead upon the Altar making him serve for an offering in the place to which he came to be a Priest He added to him also that Lieutenant of the King that commanded them to offer those sacrifices of abominations and declared open warre to all the Infidels that would constrain them to forsake their Law It is a wonderfull thing to consider the power of a man in zeal that contemns his life and is ambitious of death This holy old man began an army with five sons that he had and a few kinsmen He quitted the City of Modin where he could not be the stronger to entrench himself upon a mountain whither those that were zealous for the defence of the antient piety arrived from all sides with their wives their children and their flocks all resolved to live or to dye with the Illustrious Maccabeans Matathias seeing his army every day increase did brave exploits of warre so that he was not contented to beat back the Infidels but assaulted them even in their trenches and chased them away which gave him all liberty to demolish the prophane Altars that they had erected in many places to cause Circumcision to be administred to little Infants and to recover the sacred books out of the hand of the enemyes In fine this valorous Captain after many Combats seeing his last day approch made a long oration to his children enflaming them to the zeal of their Religion against the Tyranny of King Antiochus and after he had given them Judas Maccabeus for their Chief and Simeon for their Counsell blessed them and shut up his life by a most glorious end Judas that had been a good Souldier under his Father became a great Commander amongst his brethren and continued the design that had been traced out unto him by the virtue of their Ancestours employing all his power to raise again the Trophies of the God of Hosts that had been thrown down by the fury of the Infidels I find that this great Cavalier founded his whole life upon Conscience and Honour which he alwayes esteemed above all that is precious in Nature and recommendable to Grace He believed even in perfection a God Sovereignly Almighty that hath an eye always open upon the actions of men that is the distributour of Glory and the Revenger of Iniquities and held firmly that he was to be acknowledged and adored by the worship and the Ceremonies ordained in the law of his Fathers and therefore embraced with an Incomparable ardour the true Religion using his uttermost endeavour to practice defend and maintain it to the prejudice of goods life honour and of all that is esteemed dearest in the world He yielded himself to be totally conducted by Providence which he held to preside in all Battels so that he measured not victories by the multitude of souldiers by arms by fortresses by ammunitions of warre but assured himself that there was a secret Providence from above that made all the happinesse and misery of men From thence it came that he had a wonderfull confidence in the Divine Protection believing himself to be beloved of God whom he loved reciprocally more by sincerity of affection then by exteriour Pomp He never went to fight but he fore-armed himself with strong and ardent prayers he never undertook to give battell but he exhorted his men to implore
whatsoever Honour had stuffed in so many Trophies I see in Castriot a certain object greater then Leonidas and Themistocles I see Pyrrhus I see Alexander and if his Enemies have been more stout then the Macedonians his Valour ought not for that to seem the lesse He was a Souldier as soon as he was born a Man Nature pleased to engrave a Sword upon his Body at the same time as she inspired Courage into his Heart That Stature so proper that Countenance so filled with Majesty those Limbs so strong and so Robustuous those Eyes that mingle the Rainbow with the Lightning those hands that seem to have been made for nothing but to bear the Thunder those Feet that move not one onely step that savours not of a King have told betimes that which fame hath afterward related to all ages Little Eaglet that begannest in thy most innocent years to play with Lightning thou oughtest not to have been so valiant or thou oughtest to have had a more happy Father Shall we say that fortune was unjust in that it prepared chains for this young virtue when she should have planted Laurels Let us rather say that Providence was very wise in that she found out matter for this great Heart that would have consumed it self in its own flames if it had not met with some obstacles to resist it It was meet that this Hercules should beginne to strangle Serpents from his Cradle It was meet that he should be bred in the middle of his enemies to Combate from his Infancy with that which he was to abate in his riper age His Father John Castriot who had little strength and much misery was constrained to give him for an Hostage to Amurath the Turk to be brought up at his Gate Moses now is in Pharohs house and Constantine in Dioclesians but the Path is here more dangerous because it leadeth to the ruine of Salvation and of Honour His proud Master that loves him with a Love worse then all the Hatred in the world would fit him for himself and for his infamous pleasures He aims at the one by the Circumcision that is imprinted on his flesh by an unhappy violence he pursues the other by shamefull courtings which are to the Gallant child farre bitterer then Death He had as 't is reported courage enough to take the sword in hand against him that Pursued him with nothing but with flowers He drew blood from him when nothing could be expected of him but Tears and put himself in danger of experimenting the horriblest Torments that the Cruelty of those inhumane people could invent rather then to deliver voluntarily his Soul to sinne and his Body to dishonour His cruell friend was astonished at so brave a Resolution and turned the furies that he had prepared for his Innocence into the admiration of his Valour The Seraglio Imposes on him the name of Scanderbeg that is the same as Alexander which he took by a good omen to fill up therewith the whole capacity of his brave exploits He was educated in all the exercises of Warre in the Academy of the Turks where he succeded with so much force Art Liking and Approbation that every one carried him in his eyes every one looked on him as a singular prop of Mahomets Empire But he bore alwayes Jesus in his heart he alwayes thought on the means that he might find to break his chain he felt in the bottome of his most generous soul flames that burned him incessantly with the zeal he had to raise again the levelled Altars of the Christians and to destroy the estate of the Ottomans Amurath saw some sparkles of it flying in his conversation although he endeavoured to cover his design with a great prudence The Master began to fear the Slave and was affraid to nourish in his Court a Lyon that might be able to shew him one day his Teeth He endeavoured to destroy him in various encountres making the Excesse of his courage contribute to the Hazard of his Person A resolute Scythian came to Amurath's Court challenging the boldest to fight all Naked with a Poniard in the inclosure of a perillous Circle where of necessity one must Dye or Conquer That man had carryed away already many bloody Palms and put so much confidence in his strength that they were according to his speech but the sacrifices of Death that dared to attend the Thunder of his Arm. Every one trembled for fear when as the valiant Castriot undertook him and putting his Thrust aside with one hand killed him with the other with the acclamations of joy of all those that envy hindred not from applauding Valour This Combat having not succeeded well for Amurath he raises at another time a Persian Cavalier that kept a stirre to fight on Horse-back with a Lance. He was a man accomplished in that Trade who with much chearfulnesse of heart transported himself into Cities and Provinces where he promised himself that he should find Adversaries to exercise his Arms and increase his Reputation He curvetted up and down in the List proudly Plum'd and his flaming Arms made him appear that day as the great Constellation of Orion amidst the lesser Starres A David was needfull for this Goliah our young Alexander assaults him falls upon him as an Eagle handles him very roughly and at length laid him on the sand where he vomited out his soul and bloud doing a sad homage to valour by a just punishment of his rashnesse But Amurath that played the part of Saul failed not to find out some new occasions to Exercise his David He gave him all the most hazardous Employments of the warre wherein he had still so good successe that he changed all the Subjects of his Ruine into Trophies and returned Crowned with Laurels even out of the Bottome of Abysses and out of the throat of Lyons The perfidious Sultan entertained him with good words but handled him with bad deeds He promised him to restore him his estates after his Father's Death but John Castriot's last hour made it appear that if his words were full of artifice his promises were but wind Scanderbeg impatient to stay for that which should never come payes himself by his own hands and seizes himself of his Kingdome of Albania playing the crafty fellow by a Countre-Craft The Alarm of it is in the Court and all Amuraths Passions tend to nothing but Revenge Haly Bassa is sent with an Army of Fourty thousand men to dispatch the Businesse But all his Troops are cut in pieces and he had nothing more honourable in his Expedition then that he was conquered by the brave Castriot Feria and Mustapha pursue the same design with new Forces that experiment the same fortune What shall we say more of Scanderbeg's Greatnesse Amurath besecches the Turban is humbled that visage of the Tyrant that was the same as that of Cruelty it self is mollified and takes the Lineaments of a supplyant after it had born during his whole
fall from Heaven that since Egypt was in being there was never seen the like for it sustain'd it self upon the wings of the Lightning and the Fire and Ice agreed extraordinarily together for the punishment of those perfidious men He saw legions of Grashoppers that made an inundation upon the champains and made havock of the plants finishing to destroy that which the Hail had begun In fine all Egypt was covered with those palpable Darknesses that lasted for the space of three dayes during which the Egyptians remained as bound with the invisible chains of a night without repose which had nothing better in it then to take from them the sight of their disastre But that which terrified them above all the plagues was when the destroying Angel entring at midnight into all their houses killed the first-born from the child of the Millers wife to the Kings son and there was not an house wherein the first blossome of the Family was not lopped off by the pittilesse hook of Death The fathers were touched with a stupid grief the dissheveld mothers threw themselves down upon the bodies of their infants to gather from their mouths the remainders of their life the whole family sent out howlings rather then complaints and the evil was so universall and so pressing that there was neither consolation nor remedy Pharaoh sighed at every Plague and seemed to be willing to turn to God but as soon as he had the least release he returned to his obstinacy which was a mark of a Reprobate soul Yet his subjects sensibly touched with the last accident urged the Hebrews to be gone and would no longer oppose the counsels of God The day of departure is taken and the six hundred thousand combatants with an innumerable number of women and little children after the ceremony of the Paschall Lamb travell to the red-Sea loaden with gold with silver with suits of apparell and with all the richest spoiles of Egypt The pillar of cloud and of fire marched before them in the head of the Army to give signall to the twelve Tribes that beheld it visibly on all parts Notice is given in the mean time to King Pharaoh that those fugitives were already stoln away and gone enriched with the treasures of his People And although he had given some kind of consent to their going yet he enters again into his furies assembles his light-Charriots and all the flourishing Legions of Egypt to pursue the Israelities They failed not to overtake them quickly upon the Sea-shore so that the two Armies were in view of one another The one of which was filled with a great number of people badly prepared at that time for a combat valour forsaking their heart and their hands ready to throw away their arms The other was composed of sprightfull and well trained Regiments to whom choler and the hope of booty gave a new vigour The glittering of the Arms the Clouds of dust that were raised the shouts of the Souldiers mingled with the neighing of Horses gave mortall strokes to the hearts of that poor multitude which had now no other thought but to dye murmuring and to revenge their death on Moses by their murmures Alas said they What! were there no Graves in Egypt to bury our lives and miseries without leading us into the Wildernesse to deliver us for a prey to the sword of the Egyptians and to the Birds of rapine Did we not say well that we should have stayed peaceably in the bondage wherein God had ranged us without making these great provisions and shutting our selves all up as in a net to deliver our selves to the discretion of our enemies We have the sea on one side and on the other our incensed Masters that breathe nothing but fire and bloud on which hand soever we go we see nothing but images of death and infallible marks of the misery that threatens us All the Army was filled with fear and the sighs of the Wives and of the Children abated the courage of the Fathers and of the Husbands who expected nothing any more but to be the subject of an horrible butchery But the generous Moses although he had an heart pierced with grief to hear their blasphemies ran through the ranks of the Army encouraged the Captains animated the People and as long as he had any voyce or breath cried without ceasing Courage my friends ye are here assembled to see the wonders of the God of Hosts Behold them onely without troubling your selves and God shall fight for you See and consider those brave Egyptians your persecutours and believe that it is the last time that you shall see them for they shall be no more And after he had said this he spake to God with a silence that surpassed all clamours and therefore God answered him What hast thou to do any more to cry thus after me Lift up thy Rod stretch forth thine hand divide the floats of the Sea and make thine Army march through the fair middle on dry foot This was executed and all that great people of the Israelites animated by the spirit of God and the voyce of Moses that marched in the head of them descended with a firm footing and a secure countenance into those Abysles where the water of the sea retiring it self apart made them ramparts of Chrystall on each side and discovered to them in the middle a path that the hand of God seemed to have laid with tapistry for to make them passage The pillar of fire that was planted in the midst of the two armies furnished them with unparrallel'd lights to manifest the works of God and on that side which looked towards the Egyptians it was horrible and dark bearing already the presages of the funerals that attended them The Angel of God shut up in this engine of fire darted out Thunder-striking looks upon the Diadem of Pharaoh and upon all those that encompassed him Their courage failed them and nothing now was left them but a rage yet fuming after bloud They throw themselves desperately into the sea which they promised themselves to passe over on dry foot as advantageously as their adversaries But the waters returning into their bed with an impetuous course invelop'd those miserable men there was nothing now but a confusion of men and horses of Arms and Charriots of bodies pestering one another that disputed their life with the waves and dyed expiring out the remainders of their fury Pharaoh the King was drowned the assistance of his Captains had not the strength to save him whom the hand of God would destroy Nothing was to be seen but Bucklers and Turbans floating upon the water and death painted in a thousand faces that made a mervellous booty The Israelites being in an extasie at these wonders thundred out a song in the praise of God that hath since ravished the heart and ear of all Ages After that Moses had drawn his people out of the captivity of Egypt he imitated God that did not
all Nature He was Indefatigable in his Travels Zealous for the honour of God disobliged from his own interest in the punishment of the Sacrilegeous Patient in his own Injuries Familiar to Few Courteous to all a Companion of Angels the Favorite of God of a Life very long and of a Memory that shall have no end SAMUEL DANIEL SAMVEL DANIEL SAmuel that seemed to have been born for nothing but to pray and to passe away his life in the Tabernacle of God got very forward at Court and in the managing of the great affairs of State His Birth is a Miracle his Life an Example and his Death the immortality of his virtues He was one of those infants that are expected a long time before they come that are the sons of so many vowes and that pay the expectation of their Nativity by the happinesse of their Life It belongs onely to great things to be seen before they are by presages by desires by hopes and to make themselves be seen after they are no more by an eternall memory Hannah his mother barren in children but fruitfull in virtues conceived him rather by her sighs then by her pleasures He was a gift of the Tabernacle which she rendered to the Tabernacle and as she had obteined him by supplication she made of him a man of prayer devoted from his infancy to the Divine Ministeries and a Nazarite by expresse vow which lived in abstinence and had no other profession but contemplation It is by these exercises that God raises great Personages and we cannot choose but expect brave actions on earth from a man that hath much commerce with heaven So God began betimes to communicate himself to him and to make him partaker of his secrets He informed him of the destruction of his Master Eli the High-Priest and powerfully fitted him for his Service This Eli was a reverend old man a Judge of the People that had lived in an high reputation and great glory amongst the Israelites but his reign being too soft his children that were now great abusing his authority practised a petty Larceny even as far as unto the sacrifice it self and committed impurities and debaucheries of women which are most ordinarily two of the chiefest things that make a change of Government there being nothing that doth more exasperate the subject then the avarice and the luxury of those that rule the one making attempts upon their goods and the other upon their bed A grave father of the Church addressing a spirituall direction to a Governour admonishes him That it is not enough for him to be innocent if all his family doth not imitate him and form themselves according to his examples for what profit is it sayes he to a miserable people to have a Prince or Governour wise and moderate if while he absteins from things not permitted there be one of his servants that making use of his name and power takes occasion to satiate his Avarice These wicked sons of Eli Hophni and Phineas committed a thousand extortions under the authority of their father and dishonoured his gray hairs by the incontinence of their dissolute youth The complaints thereof came to their fathers ears but instead of depriving them of their Offices and Commissions which they held of him which would have been a means to wash away the stain that was imprinted on his renown he contented himself with giving them a weak admonition which having little force upon their passions had yet lesse effect upon their actions God then took the businesse in hand after a very strange manner for the Philistims the sworn enemies of the chosen people ran upon their Frontiers and put an army into the field which obliged the Israelites to arm to hinder the waste that they made but being come to the encountre they lost the Battell wherein 4000 men were slain upon the place The conquered people resuming heart and arms set on foot an huge Army that marched under the wings of the Ark of Covenant conducted by Hophni and Phineas to whom it apperteined by office But these debauched men and ill-train'd for war rather precipitated then gave a scond Battel and did their businesses in it so ill that thirty thousand men were cut in pieces and they themselves increased the number of the dead and were both slain in defence of the Ark that was taken and carried away by the Philistims This deplorable news being come to the ears of Eli gave him such a confusion of spirit that he let himself fall and dyed upon the place mourning for the Ark of Covenant above his own children His house fell into great contempt after his death as had been foretold him and none of his race came to old-age the hand of God not ceasing to revenge the Injuries of his Tabernacle and of his People to instruct great ones that are in Offices to look carefully to this that Religion and Justice as two sisters by an indissoluable knot be kept fast to one another The Affairs of the Jews were in a piteous estate after the losse of those two Battels and there was need of a puissant hand to repair those losses But the Sovereign Master lent his thereto and raised up Samuel to settle again all that the furies of the wars had shaken This good Pilot consecrated himself by a Tempest and took the Government when every rationall man would have thought of quitting it This was a sign that he entered into it by wayes very clean coming in a time when there was more matter for compassion then Ambition He had no other Love but that of the Publick good he knew no other Avarice but that of time nor other Pleasures but Businesses His first aime in the Government was to banish Idolatry and to put in vigour again the worship of the true God well knowing that the most fatall plagues of States come from the contempt of Religion He was a man of order of a great understanding and of a powerfull speech that never fell to the ground He caused ordinarily whatsoever he had a mind to establish surest to passe Generall Assemblies that what concerned the good of every man might be done by the advice of all the World One of the first functions that he exercised was to make an excellent Oration to the People and to tell them of their infidelity making them see That Gods forsaking them came from that they had forsaken God and that if they would enjoy the favours of his protection as their fathers did they ought necessarily to banish the strange Gods and to abolish eternally the names of Baal and Astaroth to whom many amongst them had devoted themselves that God the Sovereign Master could not endure any companion in his Throne and would not have to do with hearts divided to imaginary Deities That if they served him faithfully he hoped that he would deliver them from the hand of the Philistims and would exalt again the glory of their nation that had
much onely as would load two mules to build an Altar to the true God with holy ground and not profaned by Idolatry expressing by this request that he desired to worship the true God in spirit and in truth though he received not Circumcision nor the other Ceremonies of the Jews He aded to his former suit the permission to accompany his master to the Temple of the Idols through a pure civility without rendring any inward adoration to the Gods of Syria which the Prophet granted him and sent him away in peace all full of blessing But Gehazi Elisha's servant was like to spoil all by a wicked cozenage for he ran after Naaman who seeing him come alighted out of his chariot and received him with much honour asking what he desired of him The other feigned that two children of the Prophets were come to see his master and that he desired to gratifie them with a talent of silver and to give to each of them a change of raiment Naaman thought himself obliged by this request and instead of one talent gave him two with two handsome suits of clothes causing all of it to be carried by two of his servants by reason that a talent of silver was a good load for one man Gehazi thought that he had succeeded bravely in his cheat but when he presented himself to his master he told him that he had been present in spirit at all that had passed and that he was not ignorant that he had at present silver from Naaman enough to become a great Lord and to buy lands and servants but for punishment of his crime the leprosie of Naaman should stay on him and should passe as an inheritance to all his race and at that instant he was stricken with the leprosie and retired himself leaving an horrible example to all those that betray their conscience to satiate their covetousnesse It happens that these bad servants extremely black the reputation of their masters that have not alwayes their eyes on their shouldiers as Elisha had to see that which passes behind them but when they imagine that they live very innocently and that they discharge their consciences in their charges one may find that a crafty wife or a corrupted Committee sell them by a thousand practices and devour the marrow and the bloud of men under the favour of their name Sigismond the Emperour made one of his officers named Pithon that had betrayed his affairs through covetousnesse of money drink up a glasse of melted gold 'T was but a bad potion but sutable for the chastisement of an overflowing avarice that hath no longer eyes for heaven having already given all her heart to the earth It is credible that Naaman was advertised of the untrustinesse of Gehazi and that this nothing blemished the high reputation of Elisha that was spread through all Syria After the cure of this Naaman Benhadad that was his Master and his King fell into a mortall sicknesse and when he had learnt that the Prophet Elisha was come as farre as his city of Damascus he dispatched Hazael one of the prime men of his Kingdome with fourty camels laden with great riches to consult with him about the hope that he might have of his recovery and to desire his help The Prophet was not like Hyppocrates that would cure none but Greeks and refused to go into Persia though he was invited thither by letters and by the offers of that great and magnificent King Artaxerxes But quite contrary the man of God thought that one ought not to limit the gifts of heaven and that he that opens the treasures of nature to all the Nations of the earth would not have one detain the marks of his power without communicating them to those that bear in any fashion his Image He cleansed the leprosie of Naaman but yet for all that cured not Benhadad because it was a decree of Providence that he should die of that sicknesse The Scripture tells us not expresly what became of those great presents but it leaves us to think that Elisha refused them as he had done those of Naaman and did nothing that belyed his generosity Although one may also believe that he accepted them as well to diminish the levies of the enemies of his people as to spread them amongst the poor of his own countrey He spake onely to this Hazael the Kings Embassadours a very short speech which was that he should die of that sicknesse and should never rise out of his bed again and yet in appearance he commands him to tell him that he should escape it and recover again his health Which causes here a question to arise thorny enough touching the permission of a lie and which hath made Cassian and other antient Divines say that there are some profitable lies which one ought to make use of as one uses serpents to make treacle But this opinion is no way followed but is found condemned by S. Augustine and the most renowned Doctours So that when Elisha said to Prince Hazael touching his King He shall die but tell him he shall escape we ought to take it as a command that authorizes a lie but as a prophecy of that which should be done For the Prophet foresaw these two things with one and the same sight both that Benhadad should die and that Hazael to flatter him should promise him health and life And therefore he addes Tell him that he shall escape which in a Prophets terms is as much as a future and means that although I declare to you his death yet I know you well and am certain that according to your politick Maxims you will not fail to promise him a cure It is just as God commaaded the evil spirit to lie and to deceive Ahab foretelling what he would do and not commanding that which ought not to be done according to the laws of a good conscience As Elisha was foretelling of that Kings death he felt an extasie of spirit and changed countenance notably and began to weep whereat Hazael was much astonished and had a curiosity to know the reason of a change so sudden But the Prophet continuing in the trans-ports of his spirit said unto him I weep and I sigh bitterly for I know the evils that thou wilt make my poor people one day suffer Thou wilt burn down the fair cities thou wilt make the young men passe by the edge of the sword thou wilt dash out the brains of the little infants thou wilt inhumanely rip up women great with child thou wilt sack my dear countrey for which I now pour out my tears by way of advance The Embassadour was amazed at a discourse so strange and said Why What am I should do all these outrages God forbid that I should ever ever proceed so farre I have in all this no more belief then hath my dog But Elisha insisting told him I know by divine Revelation that thou shalt be King of Syria and that which I
cruell Manasses King of Judea had been spoiled of the Sceptre and led prisoner into Babylon chained as a salvage beast he was sensibly touched with his affliction and made a severe repentance being cast with his irons into a deep pit where he converted himself to God with bitter sorrows and roarings of heart that made him obtein a pardon of his sins even so far as to restore him his Liberty and his Crown He behaved himself exceeding well the rest of his dayes destroying that which he had made and repairing that which he had destroyed But he left behind him a wicked son who having imitated him in his vices followed him not in his repentance It was the impious Amon who was neverthelesse the father of the holy King Josiah who began to reign at eight years old and was governed by the good and salutary precepts of the Prophet Jeremy who took him into a singular affection This good Prince consecrated the first fruits of his government by the extirpation of Idolatry which he detested alwayes by words and combated by an indefatigable zeal He never took any repose till he had caused the Idols in Jerusalem and in the neighbouring places to be beat down plucking up all those abominations even by the root He had sworn so capitall an enmity with impiety that he persecuted the authours of it even to the grave which the condition of our mortality seems to have made as the last sanctuary of naturall liberty yet he caused the bones of those that had heretofore sacrificed to Idols to be burnt upon the same Altars as had been prophaned by them After that he commanded that the Temple should be purged and that the order of the sacrifices and of the praises of God should be there carefully observed The reading of a good book found in the Temple had so powerfully wrought upon him that he assembled his people and caused it to be read in presence of all the world with fear and trembling at the threatnings conteined therein against the impious Then he conjured all the company there present to renew in the sight of God the oath of fidelity and to promise him never to depart from his Laws and his commandments which was performed There was a re-birth of a quite other world under the reign of this wise Prince that rejoyced the heart of the Prophet Jeremy but he tasted a little honey to drink afterward a cup of wormwood Josiah was now come to the flower of his age and of his brave actions having reigned more then thirty years in a mervellous policie and great tranquility when Pharaoh Necho King of Egypt making war against the Assyrians would passe through Judea which gave some fear to this good Prince as well for the oppression of his subjects that were menaced by the passage of a great army as not to give cause of discontentment to the King of Assyria and therefore he bestirrs himself to resist him and to oppose his passage It is the misery of little Princes to be engaged in the differences of greater ones as between the Anvill and the Hammer they cannot favour the Party of the one but they must render themselves the sworn enemies of the other and Neutrality renders them suspected to both It is a difficult passage where whatsoever Industry one brings to it one often leaves behind the best feathers of his wings Josiah without advertising the King of Assyria that the Party would not be maintainable if he sent not a powerfull Ayd arms suddenly against a mightier then himself Necho sends to him his Embassadours to tell him that he meant no harm to his Person or to his State that his design was against another King whom he went to combate by the orders of Heaven that God was with him and that if he endeavoured to stop his passage evil would betide him for it Notwithstanding these pressing speeches Josiah goes out to meet him and as he was come to coping with his adversary at the very beginning of the mingling he was wounded mortally with an arrow and commanded his Coachman to draw him out of the combate which he did and as he was put in his second charriot which followed his charriot of war after the fashion of Kings he gave up the ghost without finding any remedy to divert the sharpnesse of that fatall stroke His body was brought back to Jerusalem all bloudy and the mournings for his death were so sensible and so piercing that it seemed as if there had been an universall sacking of the whole City Never Prince was so beloved never any more passionately lamented nor is there to be found any one among all the Kings of Judea that had lesse vices and more zeal for the honour of God his life was without spot his reputation without reproach and to say truth his goodnesse was as it were the breath that all the world did breathe Poor Jeremy was so cast down at a death so suddain that he lost all his joyes and begun then according to S. Jerome to make those sad lamentations that have engraved his grief on the memory of all men To question why so good a King after so many actions of Piety was killed by the hand of an Infidell as an old suit that humane curiosity hath commenced against providence from the begining of the world Some said Plinie thrive by their wickednesse and others are tormented even by their own Sacrifices But who are we to think to draw the curtain of the Sanctuary before the time and to know the reasons of all that God does and permits in the world For one virtuous Prince that is afflicted in the accidents of humane things we shall find alwayes ten wicked ones that have ended miserably and yet we cease not to quarrell with the ordination of heaven By what contract is God to make his servants alwayes winne at play and war Must he do perpetually miracles to make himself be thought what he is What wrong did he do Josiah if after a reign of one and thirty years conducted with great successes and an universall approbation he dy'd in the bed of valour defending his countrey and rendring proofs of the greatnesse of his courage What injury was it to have given him the honour to carry the hearts of all his subjects to his grave and to spread the glory of his name through all ages and all the living After that we have seen in histories 100 Tyrants dye almost all in a row of hideous and bloudy deaths we come again to King Manasses who after he had shed so much bloud passed out of this life by a death peaceable enough we return to Herod and Tiberias and to Mahomet who died in their beds as if they had been great Saints of fortune canonized by their happinesse Alas what is the life of these and of their like to be stabb'd every moment in the heart and in the publick opinion to be cursed of a million of mouths every
the Kings house a famous officer an Ethiopian by Nation and a man of heart who hearing of the cruelty that was used against the Prophet took pity on him and said boldly to the King What Sir can your Majesty well approve of the rigours that poor Jeremy is made to suffer for doing the function of a Prophet It well appears that his enemies would have his skin for they have let him down with ropes into a deep dungeon where it is almost impossible to breathe There is danger if this good man dyes by this ill usage that you are guilty of his death and that this may draw some wrath of God upon your Majesty He spake this with so good an accent that the King was moved and gave him charge to take thirty souldiers and to draw him thence which he did quickly casting down to him old linnen raggs to put under him that he might not be galled by the cords when they should make him ascend out of the bottome of that hideous prison When he was plucked up again the King had another time the curiosity to see him not in his Palace but in some secret place of the Temple where Jeremy spake to him with much fervency and tendernesse telling him that the onely means to save his person his house and all the City was to render up himself to Nabuchodonosor and that if he refused to do it he and all his would be destroyed The King answered that he was afraid to commit himself to the King of Babylon lest he should deliver him to his rebellious subjects that had fallen from him to the enemy Jeremy replyed That he need not fear any such thing and affectionately beseech'd him to have pity on his own soul on his wife and on his children for otherwise there would happen a great misery This poor Prince feared to attempt this against the opinion of those that governed him and to scatter them by this means from his party Nay he was afraid even to be seen with Jeremy and recommended to him very much to keep secret that discourse and to tell no body that he had spoken to him about State affairs He was sent back to Prison that he might not make the seditious mutiny and all that he could obtein was not to be plunged again in that pit from whence he had been delivered In the mean while Nabuchodonosor after a long siege carryed the city of Jerusalem which was taken about mid-night the enemies being entred by a breach that no body perceived Zedekiah much amazed betakes himself to flight with his wife and children and a few men of war about him taking his way through night darknesse affrights fear and a thousand images of death The Chaldeans had notice of his retreat and caught him on the plains of Jericho where he was immediately forsaken of his men and left with his wives and little children that sent out pitifull cryes through the apprehension of servitude and death He was carried away from thence to Riblah where Nabuchodonosor was expecting the issue of that siege This unfortunate Prince was constrained to present himself before the frightfull countenance of a barbarous King puffed up with his victories and prosperities who loaded him with reproaches and confusions upbraiding him with his rebellion his ingratitude and unfaithfulnesse he would willingly have been ten foot under ground before he suffered such indignities thinking himself sufficiently punished by having lost his crown and liberty But this cruell Conquerour would give other satisfactions to his revenge for after he had a long time digested his gall and thought on the means that he would use to punish him he causes his children to come before him and commands the Hangmen to murther them in the fathers sight These poor little ones seeing the glittering sword now ready to be plunged in their bloud cryed out for mercy and called pitifully upon the sad name of their father that had no other power but to suffer his calamity The sword passes throught the bodies of his children to find his heart who dyed as many deaths as nature had given him gages of his marriage He expected that the sword stained with the bloud of his dear progeny should have ended his life and griefs but this inhumane Tyrant having left him as much light as was needfull to illuminate his misery after that he had filled himself with this lamentable spectacle caused his eyes to be plucked out by an execrable cruelty and having commanded him to be put in great and heavie chains caused him to be carried into Babylon where he ended his miserable life and in his Person ended the Kingdome of Judea that had subsisted since Saul four hundred and fourscore years Nabuchodonosor having heard the narration that was made of Jeremy and the good counsell that he had given to his King esteemed him highly and gave charge to Nebuzaradan the Generall of his Army to give him content whether he had a mind to go to Babylon or whether he would stay in his own countrey But to shew he sought not the splendour of greatnesses he chose to make his abode amidst poor Labourers and Vine-dresses that were left after the sacking of the City the better sort being transported into Babylon He was recommended to Gedaliah who was settled Governour of those miserable Reliques of the people by Nebuzaradan but when this Gedaliah was murthered seven moneths after his creation Johanan that was one of the principall men counselled the Jews to quit that miserable land and to follow him into Egypt Jeremy opposed it and foretold misery to all those that should go thither but instead of believing him they dragged him along by force either to afflict him or to prevail over his Prophecyes He failed not to prophesy the desolation of Egypt that was to bend under the arms of Nabuchodonosor whereat his countreymen found themselves incensed and fearing lest he should draw some envy on them stoned him in a sedition The Egyptians hearing talk of the life and predictions of this great personage made account of him and set him up a Tomb where God to honour his servant did great miracles chasing away by his ashes the Crocodiles and serpents Alexander that flourished two hundred years after him admiring those wonders caused his reliques to be transported into Alexandria where he caused a magnificent Sepulchre to be erected for him as the Alexandrian Chronicle reports Behold how virtue persecuted in its own house finds a prop with strangers and even veneration amongst the Infidels God using all sorts of instruments to honour the merits of those that have rendered him proofs of a perfect faithfulnesse S. JOHN Baptist S. PAUL St. IOHN BAPTIST St. PAVL APOSTLE WHat makes an Hermit at the Court a Solitary man in a Tumult a Sacred amongst Prophane a Saint in the house of Herod He was far more secure amongst Wolves amongst Foxes and Tygers then amongst those wicked Courtiers He was more contented with his little
was his condition of life assigned him from his nativity but by this most detestable murder he is now become the Regenet of a great Kingdom Who had a more labouring desire to see the King out of the world than he who daily expected from the hand of death the just reward of his disloyalty We are here ready to represent unto him a paper signed with his own hand and the hands of his Adherents where amongst them all they are obliged against all to defend that person who should attempt upon the person of the King That execrable writing was intrusted in the hands of Bolfou Captain of the Castle of Edinborough whom at the first they had drawn unto their side and being since incensed against some of the Conspiratours hath discovered all the business This is that which we now manifest with reasons more clear than the day and with assurances as strong as truth it self My Lords We demand what is that which the Rebels oppose against all these proofs nothing at all but frivolous conjectures which are not sufficient to condemn the vilest creature in the world although they are made use of to overthrow the person and Majesty of a Queen Ten thousand tongues such as Murrays are and his Accomplices ought not to serve to make half a proof against the honour of Mary and yet you have the patience to hear them rather than chastise them Her poor servants have bin examined again and again they have been torn to pieces and flead alive to accuse the Queen and could ever so much as one effectual word be racked from them to stain her innocence Have they not in the middle of their torments declared aloud and before all the people that she was ignorant of whatsoever was done and that they never heard the least word proceed from her which tended to the murder of the King All their Reasons are reduced into two Conjectures The first whereof is That the Queen committed the said Act in revenge of the death of her Secretary The second is Her Love and Marriage with the Earl of Bothuel the murderer of her husband these two are the inevitable charges against her But to answer to the first I demand If the Queen had any desires of revenge on whom should she exercise that vengeance Upon her husband whom she loved with incomparable affection whom in all companies she defended as a young man seduced by evil counsels to whom she had given a full forgetfulness and abolition of the murder of David Riccio for fear that one day he should be called to an account for it whom she very lately had received into favour and the strictest friendship to whom she had given the testimonies of a fervent love unto the last hour of his death Is it on him that she would discharge her choller or on those who were the Authours and Executioners of the act If she hath pardoned the Earls of Murray and Morton her sworn Enemies whom on a thousand occasions she could cut off here is it to be believed that a Lady who had ever a most tender conscience would destroy a husband so agreeable to her and whom she knew to have never offended but through the malice onely of these desperate spirits But why then hath she married him who made this attempt against the King her husband This is their second Objection and to speak the truth the onely one which they so much crie up For this it is that they have taken away her Rings and Jewels and put in the place of them infamous letters invented by Buchanan or some like unto him who treat of love not as in the person of a Princess but of a loose licentious woman And these Letters when they were produced did appear to be never made up or sealed but exposed to all the world as if so chaste and so wise a spirit as this Queen could be so stupid or so wicked as to publish her own infamy to the face of all the world But in the end they say the Marriage was accomplished And who did do it but these onely who now do make it a capital Crime These are they who did give advice to this match by reasons did sollicit it by pursuits did constrain it by force and did sign it by continuance Behold we are here ready in your presence to represent unto you the Contract which doth bear their names and seals of Arms which they cannot disprove The Queen hath protested before God and men that she had rather die ten thousand deaths than to have married Bothuel if she had thought he had been stained but with one drop of her husbands bloud and if he had not been proclaimed to be innocent And now judge My Lords with what impudence they dare appear before you and do believe that the Queen of England hath sent you hither to serve their passions and sacrifice so great a Princess to their vengeance We do hope all the contrary and do firmly perswade our selves that the great God the undoubted Judge of the living and the dead will inspire you with such counsels as shall give the Day to Truth for the glory of your own consciences and the comfort of the most afflicted of Queens who desireth not to breathe out the rest of her life that is left her but under the favour of your Goodness This in this manner being spoken the Agents and Deputies for the Queen having aloud protested that they here assembled not to acknowledge any power Superiour to the Crown of Scotland but onely to declare in the behalf of their Queen being unwilling to lose time in words they came to the proofs and did defend them with incredible vigour making in the first place the falsifications which were very ordinary with the Earl of Murray to appear in full Councel In the second place representing the Contract of the Marriage with Bothuel which he condemned to be signed by him and his Adherents Moreover producing the instrument of the Conspiracy against the King subscribed by their own hands and signed by their own Seals And lastly reporting the Depositions of John Hebron Paris and Daglis who being executed for this Act did fully discharge the Queen at the instant of their death before all the people After that the Commissioners had judged the Her justification Queen of Scots to be innocent of all the Cases and Crimes which falsely had been imposed on her by her traiterous and disloyal Accusers and that the proceedings which they made were for no other purpose but to exempt themselves from the crimes which they had committed and to cover the tyranny which they had exercised in the Kingdom of Scotland The Earl of Murray did flie away filled with The confusion of her Accusers fear and with confusion seeing that his life was in great danger if he had not been secretly protected by the Queen of England In the pursuit of this Sentence the most honest of the Councel did
his people I will invoke him in this extremity of my afflictions to render both to you and my self what is due either to our Merits or Demerits Remember Madam that he is the onely Judge a Judge whom the painting and policie of this world can no way disguise although men for a time may obscure the truth by the subtility of their inventions In his name and being as it were both of us before him I must remember you of the secret practises you have used to trouble my Kingdom to corrupt my Subjects to forsake their allegiance and to attempt my person I shall represent unto you the unjust dismission which by your Counsel I was overcome to sign when my enemies held their ponyards at my throat in the prison of Locklevin you assured me that the Dismission should be of no force although since you have made it as effectual and powerfull as you could assisting those by your forces who were the first Authors of it You have transmitted my Authority to my Son when be was but in his Cradle and was not able to help himself and since I have by law confirmed the Crown on him you have intrusted him in the hands of my most capital enemies who having forced from him the effect will also take away the title of a King if God doth not preserve him I will profess unto you before the most impartial Judge that beholding my self pursued to death by my Rebels I sent unto you expresly by a Gentleman the Diamond Ring which I received from you with an assurance to be protected by your Authority succoured by your Arms and received into your Realm with all courtesie This promise so often repeated by your mouth did oblige me to come to throw my self into your Arms if I could be so happy to approch them But indeavouring where to find you behold I was stopped in the way environed with Guards detained in strong holds confined to a lamentable captivity in which I do at this day die without numbering a thousand deaths which alreadie I have suffered After that the Truth hath laid open all the impostures which were contrived against me that the chiefest of the Nobilitie of your Kingdom have acknowledged in publick and declared my innocence After that it hath been made apparent that what passed betwixt the late Duke of Norfolk and my self was treated approved and signed by those who held the first place in your Councels After so long a time that I have always submitted to the Orders which were prescribed for my captivitie I do behold my self to be daily persecuted in my own person and in the persons of my servants and totally hinders not onely from relieving the pressing necessities of my Son but from receiving the least knowledge of his condition This is that MADAM which makes me once more to beseech you by the dolorous Passion of our Saviour and Redeemer Jesus Christ that I may have permission to depart your Kingdom to assist my dear Son and to find some comfort for my poor bodie travelled with continual sorrows and with all libertie of conscience to prepare my soul for God who hourly doth call for it Your Prisons have destroyed my bodie there is no more left for my Enemies to satiate their vengeance My soul is still entire which you neither can nor ought to captivate Allow it some place to breathe more freely after its own safety which a thousand times I do more desire than all the greatness in the world What Honour can you receive to see me stifled in your presence and to fall at the feet of my Enemies Do you not consider that in this extreamity if by your means although late I shall be rescued from their hands that you shall oblige me and all mine and especially my Son whom most of all you may assure your own I must beseech you that I may understand your intentions concerning this and that you will not remit me to the discretion of any other but your own In the mean time I shall demand two things the one That being readie to depart this world I may be suffered to have with me some man of honour of the Church to instruct and perfect me in my Religion in which I am resolved to live and die The other That I may have two maids in my Chamber to attend me in my sickness protesting before God they are most necessary for me to keep me from the shame of the simple people Grant me then these Petitions for the honour of God and let it appear that my Enemies have not so much credit with you as to exercise their vengeance and crueltie in a thing of so small a consequence Reassume the marks of your ancient good nature Oblige your own to your self Grant me that contentment before I die as to see all things remitted betwixt you and my self to the end that my soul being inlarged from my bodie it be not constrained to lay open her groans before God for the injuries which you have suffered to be done unto me upon earth But on the contrary that departing from this captivity in peace and concord it may with all content repair to him whom I most humbly beseech to inspire You to condescend to my most just Requests Sheffeild November 28. 1581. Your most desolate most near and most affectionate Kinswoman QUEEN MARY 11. May we not affirm that these Remonstrances and that these words were of power to soften the heart of a Tyger and yet they made no impression on her barbarous soul who being born by a crime could not afterwards live but by iniquity Dear Reader it is true that we are possessed with A parallel on both Queens an amazement on the consideration of the particulars of this History And it may be you have the curiosity to draw open the curtain of the Sanctuary and enter into the secrets of the Divine Providence and in the travers of so much shade and darkness to discover why two Queens of so different qualities were so indifferently handled as it were by the blind conduct of Chance How came it about that nothing but calamity did follow the good Queen and all good fortune seemed not to be but onely for the bad one I will parallel the one with the other and although Queen Elizabeth be dead out of the communion of the true Church and in many considerations had extreamly undervalued and offended France yet I will not so rudely speak of her as she hath been charactered by the eloquent pens of Monsieur the Cardinal of Peron and Monsieur du Vair but content my self to speak of that onely which may be collected from the History written by Cambden her own Historiographer Queen Mary was high and glorious in her birth both by the Father and the Mother Queen Elizabeth did come into the world by a crime and a scandal who made all Christendom to groan It is true indeed she was the daughter of a King but
commandment Wealth and Honour were always on her side Delight and Joy seemed onely to be ordained for her Whatsoever she undertook did thrive all her thoughts were prosperous the earth and the sea did obey her the winds and the tempests did follow her Standards Some would affirm that this is no marvel at all but onely the effect of a cunning and politick Councel composed of the sons of darkness who are more proper to inherit the felicities of this world than the children of the light But we must consider that this is the common condition both of the good and the evil to find out the cause in which the Understanding of man doth lose it self David curiously endeavouring to discover the reason in the beginning did conceive himself to be a Philosopher but in the end acknowledged that the consideration thereof did make him to become a Beast The Astrologers do affirm that Elizabeth came into the world under the Sign of Virgo which doth promise Empires and Honours and that the Queen of Scotland was born under Sagitarius which doth threaten women with affliction and a bloudy Death The Machivilians do maintain that she should accommodate her self to the Religion of her Countrey and that in the opposing of that torrent she ruined her affairs The Politicians do impute it to the easiness of her gentle Nature Others do blame the counsel which she entertained to marry her own Subjects And some have looked upon her as Jobs false friends did look on him and reported him to lye on the dung-hill for his sions But having thoroughly considered on it I do observe that in these two Queens God would represent the two Cities of Sion and Babylon the two wayes of the just and the unjust and the estate of this present world and of the world to come He hath given to Elizabeth the bread of dogs to reserve for Mary the Manna of Angels In one he hath recompensed some moral virtues with temporal blessings to make the other to enter into the possession of eternal happiness Elizabeth did reign why so did Athalia Elizabeth did presecute the Prophets why so did Jezabel Elizabeth hath obtained Victories why so did Thomyris the Queen of the Scythians She hath lived in honour and delight and so did Semiramis She died a natural death being full of years so died the Herods and Tyberius but following the track that she did walk in what shall we collect of her end but as of that which Job speaketh concerning the Tomb of the wicked They pass away their life in delights and descend in a moment unto hell Now God being pleased to raise Marie above all the greatness of this earth and to renew in her the fruits of his Cross did permit that in the Age wherein she lived there should be the most outragious and bloudy persecution that was ever raised against the Church He was pleased by the secret counsel of his The great secret of the Divine Providence Providence that there should be persons of all sorts which should extol the Effects of his Passion And there being already entered so many Prelates Doctours Confessours Judges Merchants Labourers and Artisans he would now have Kings and Queens to enter also Her Husband Francis the Second although a most just and innocent Prince had already took part in this conflict of suffering Souls His life being shortened as it is thought by the fury of the Hugonots who did not cease to persecute him It was now requisite that his dear Spouse should undertake the mystery of the Cross also And as she had a most couragious soul so God did put her in the front of the most violent persecutions to suffer the greatest torments and to obtain the richest Crowns The Prophet saith That man is made as a piece of Elizabeth's hatred to the Queen of Scotland Imbroidery which doth not manifest it self in the lives of the just for God doth use them as the Imbroiderer doth his stuffs of Velvet and of Satin he takes them in pieces to make habilements for the beautifiing of his Temple 12. Elizabeth being now transported into Vengeance and carried away by violent Counsels is resolved to put Mary to death It is most certain that she passionately desired the death of this Queen well understanding that her life was most apposite to her most delicate interests She could not be ignorant that Mary Stuart had right to the Crown of England and that she usurped it she could not be ignorant that in a General Assembly of the States of England she was declared to be a Bastard as being derived from a marriage made consummated against all laws both Divine and humane She observed that her Throne did not subsit but by the Faction of Heresie and as her Crown was first established by disorder so according to her policie it must be cemented by bloud She could not deny but that the Queen of Scotland had a Title to the Crown which insensibly might fall on the head of the Prisoner and then that in a moment she might change the whole face of the State She observed her to be a Queen of a vast spirit of an unshaken faith and of an excellent virtue who had received the Unction of the Realm of Scotland and who was Queen Dowager of the Kingdom of France supported by the Pope reverenced throughout all Christendom and regarded by the Catholicks as a sacred stock from which new branches of Religion should spring which no Ax of persecution could cut down The Hereticks in England who feared her as one that would punish their offences and destroy their Fortunes which they had builded on the ruins of Religion had not a more earnest desire than to see her out of the world All things conspired to overthrow this poor Princess and nothing remained but to give a colour to so bold a murder It so fell out that in the last years of her afflicting imprisonment a conspiracy was plotted against the Estate and the life of Elizabeth as Cambden doth recite it Ballard an English Priest who had more zeal to his Religion than discretion to mannage his enterprize considered with himself how this woman had usurped a Scepter which did not appertain unto her How she had overthrown all the principles of the ancient Religion How she had kept in prison an innocent Queen for the space of twenty years using her with all manner of indignity how she continually practised new butcheries by the effusion of the bloud of the Catholicks he conceived it would be a work of Justice to procure her death who held our purses in her hand and our liberty in a chain But I will not approve of those bloudy Counsels which do provide a Remedy far worse than the disease and infinitely do trouble the Estate of Christendom Nevertheless he drew unto him many that were of his opinion who did offer and devote themselves to give this fatal blow The chiefest amongst them was
report of the Hereticks themselves as it appeareth in the Book of Cambden who hath wrote the Life of Cambden pag. 493. Elizabeth and who doth not deny but that Walsingham did open and make up the letters again which Gifford brought him counterfeiting in them what he thought good And he himself confesseth that it was the judgement of the most rational men that the Secretaries of the Queen of Scotland were seduced and corrupted with money And it is certain that Amanuensium absentium qui pretio corrupti videbantur testintonio oppressa est they demanded a Recompence of Walsingham who told them that they ought to content themselves with their lives And added that in condemning their Mistress without producing the Witnesses they had not proceeded according to the Rules of Justice Observe here the judgement of the Hugenots themselves her most cruel Enemies I speak of those who have some sparks of a good conscience and not of those Incendiaries who write Rapsodies full of ignorance and folly All this may serve for an invincible proof of her innocence but her evil Judges The unjust Judgement who had sold themselves to iniquity did not cease to proceed further even to the Sentence of Condemnation which they carried to the Queen of England and was presented to the Parliament for the publication of it Thither Elizabeth did come in person with a studied Speech where she gave thanks to God for the Deliverance from this danger and thanks to her Subjects for the affection to their Queen Afterwards coming to the work in hand she shewed her self to be extreamly afflicted for the Queen of Scotland that a Person of her Sex Estate and Bloud should be convicted to have conspired against her Adding that she was most willing to pardon her and to abandon her own life if it would render the affairs of England more flourishing but in this effect she would neither prejudice her self nor the good of her Kingdom In this action she came with a heart full of vengeance however she would put upon it the reputation of Sweetness and of Clemency imitating the Herods and Tyberius Caesar who never did worse than when they spake best and laughed in their hearts when they distilled the tears of Crocodiles from their eyes With joyned hands she desired that her Parliament would but demand that thing of her which most willingly she would not grant Sometimes she would flatter them with the Respects and cordial Affections they did bear her on purpose to incite them to pursue this business Sometimes she seemed to be weary of their too much zeal Sometimes she said she would preserve her self And sometimes she said she would abandon her own preservation to exercise her clemency Her spirit which was greatly given to dissimulation made never more leaps nor daunced more Rounds than in this business And to speak the truth she perplexed her self in her own labyrinth and endeavouring too much to hide her self she laid her self more open saying unto those who demanded the death of the Queen of Scotland I pray and conjure you to content your self with an Answer without an Answer I approve your judgement and comprehend the reasons but I pray you excuse the carefull and the doubtfull thought which doth torment me and take in good part the gracious affection which I bear you and this Answer if it be of that worth as you esteem it for an Answer If I say I will not do what you demand peradventure I shall say more than I think If that I will do it I shall precipitate my self to my ruin whom you are willing to preserve In the end the Sentence of Death was confirmed by the Authority of Parliament and Beal was sent to the Queen of Scotland to carry her the news of her mournfull Condemnation and to acquaint her that the Estates demanded the Execution to be dispatched for Justice Security and Necessity Her great heart was no way dejected at this so violent a Rigour and damnable Injustice but listing up her eyes and her hands to Heaven she gave thanks to God demanding immediately a Priest to administer to her the Sacrament and to dispose her to die Paulet Execrable indignity who had the guard of her did use her after this most barbarously commanding the Officers of her house to beat down the cloth of State that was in her chamber but when he observed that no man would touch it and that they onely answered him by tears and lamentations which would have softened the heart of any man he performed the Execution by the Guard and took from the poor Prisoner all the marks of Royalty to make her behold her Funeral alive and to make her heart to bleed with a mortal wound before the bloud were drawn from the veins of her body by the hands of the Hang-man But Elizabeth did yet deferre the Execution whether it were for the fear of sorreign Princes being not able to see clear enough into their power and protection or whether it were to gain the imaginary Reputation of Mercy or whether by degrees she would consume this poor sacrifice by a small fire prolonging the languors of her imprisonment The other was resolved to write unto her not in a base and begging stile to crave her life but to demand an honest Burial Behold her letters to that effect MADAM I Give thanks to God with all my heart who by the Sentence of Death hath been pleased to put an end to the tedious pilgrimage of my life I desire not that it may be prolonged having had too long a time to trie the bitterness of it I onely beseech your Majestie that since I am to expect no favour from some Zealous Ministers of State who hold the first place in your Councels I may receive from You onely and from no other these following favours In the first place I desire that since it is not allowed me to hope for a Burial in England according to the Solemnities of the Roman Church practised by the ancient Kings your Ancestours and mine and that in Scotland they have forced and violated the Ashes of my Grand-fathers that my Bodie when my Adversaries shall be satiated with my innocent bloud may be carried by my own servants into some holy Land and above all if it may be into France to be there interred where the Bones of the Queen my most honoured Mother are lodged to the end my poor Bodie which knew no rest whiles joyned to my soul might now find rest being separated from it Secondly I beseech Your Majestie in the apprehension which I have of the tyrannie of those to whose power You abandon me that I may not suffer in any private place but in the view of my servants and other people who may give a testimonie of my faith and of my obedience to the true Church and defend the remnant of my life and my last sighâ— against the false Reports which my Adversaries may contrive
smiling she added some few words that she blamed Paulet and Deurey who guarded the Prisoner for not delivering her from that pain It is true that in the morning she sent one named Killigrew to Davison to forbid to put that command in Execution whether it were that her Remorse of Conscience had put her into some frights her sleeps being ordinarily disturbed with horrible Dreams which did represent unto her the images of her Crimes or whether it were an artifice to procure her the reputation of being mercifull in killing with so much treachery The Secretary came to her in the field and declared to her that the Order for the Queen of Scotland's death was now finished and sealed on which she put on the countenance of displeasure and told him that by the Counsel of wise men one might find out other expedients by which it is believed that she intended poison Nevertheless she now was commanded that the Execution should be delayed And as Davison presented himself to her three dayes afterward demanding of her if her Majesty had changed her advice she answered No and was angry with Paulet for not enterprising boldly enough the last of the Crimes And said moreover That she would find others who would do it for the love they did bear unto her On which the other did remonstrate that she must think well of him for otherwise she would ruin Men of great Merit with their posterity She still persisted and on the very same day of the Execution she did chide the Secretary for being so slow in advancing her Commands who as soon as he had discovered the affair the evil Counsellours did pursue the expedition with incredible heat for they sent Beal a Capital Enemy of the Catholicks with letters directed to certain Lords in which power was given them to proceed unto the Massacre who immediately repairing to the Castle of Fotheringhey where the Queen was prisoner they caused her to rise from her bed where the Indisposition of her body had laid her and having read unto her their Commission they did advertise her that she must die on the morning following 16. She received this without changing of her countenance and said That she did not think that the Queen her Sister Her death and miraculous constancy would have brought it to that extremity But since such was her pleasure death was most agreeable to her and that a Soul was not worthy of celestial and eternal joys whose body could not endure the stroke of the Hang-man For the rest she appealed to Heaven and Earth who were the witnesses of her Innocence adding that the onely Consolation which she received in a spectacle so ignominious was that she died for the Religion of her Fathers she beseeched God to increase her constancy to the measure of her afflictions and to welcome the death she was to suffer for the expiation of her sins After she spake these words she besought the Commissioners to permit her to conser with her Confessor which by a barbarous cruelty was refused a cruelty which is not exercised on the worst of all offendours and in the place for a Director of her conscience they gave her for her comforters the Bishop and the Dean of Peterborough whom with horrour she rejected saying That God should be her Comforter The Earl of Kent who was one of the Commissioners and most hot in the persecution of her told her Your life will he the death and your death will be the life of our Religion Declaring in that sufficiently the cause of her death whereupon she gave thanks to God that she was judged by her Enemies themselves to be judged an instrument capable to restore the ancient Religion in England In this particular she desired that the Protestants had rather blamed her effects than her designs After the Lords were retired she began to provide for her last day as if she had deliberated on some voyage and this she did with so much devotion prudence and courage that a Religious man who hath had all his Meditations on death for thirty years together could not have performed it with greater Justice And in the first place she commanded that supper should be dispatched to advise of her affairs and according to her custom supping very soberly she entertained her self on a good discourse with a marvellous tranquillity of mind And amongst other things turning her self to Burgon her Physitian she demanded of him if he did not observe how great was the power of the Truth seeing the sentence of her death did import that she was condemned for having conspired against Elizabeth and the Earl of Kent did signifie that she died for the apprehension which they had that she should be the death of the false Religion which would be rather her glory than a punishment At the end of supper she drank to all her Servants with a grave and modest chearfulness on which they all kneeled down and mingled so many tears with their wine that it was lamentable to behold As soon as their sobs had given liberty to their words they asked her pardon for not performing those services which her Majesty did merit and she although she was the best Mistress that ever was under heaven desired all the world to pardon her defects She comforted them with an invincible courage and commanded them to wipe away their tears and to rejoyce because she should now depart from an abyss of misery and assured them that she never would forget them neither before God nor men After supper she wrote three letters one to the King of France one to the Duke of Guise and the third unto her Confessor Behold the letter in its own terms which she wrote unto King Henry the Third SIR GOD as with all humility I am bound to believe A Letter unto Henry the Third having permitted that for the expiation of my sins I should cast my self into the Arms of this Queen my Cousin having endured for above twenty years the afflictions of imprisonment I am in the end by her and her Estates condemned unto death I have demanded that they should restore the papers which they have taken from me the better to perfect my last Will and Testament and that according to my desire my body should be transported into your Kingdom where I have had the Honour to be a Queen your Sister and ancient Allie but as my sufferings are without comfort so my requests are without answer This day after dinner they signified unto me the sentence to be executed on the next day about seven of the clock in the morning as the most guilty offendor in the world I cannot give you the discourse at large of what is passed It shall please your Majesty to believe my Physitian and my servants whom I conceive to be worthy of credence I am wholly disposed unto death which in this Innocence I shall receive with as much misprision as I have attended it with patience The
the day of its own brightness to consider how Providence guarding her dear Pool as the apple of her eye did reserve him for a time which made him the true Peace-maker of that nation For this effect it came to pass that Henry the Eighth The Estate of England having reigned eighteen years in schism leading a life profuse in luxury ravenous in avarice impious in Sacriledge cruel in massacres covered over with ordures bloud and Infamy did fall sick of a languishing disease which gave him the leisure to have some thoughts on the other world It is true that the affrighting images of his Crimes The death of Henry the Eighth and the shades of the dead which seemed to besiege his bed and perpetually to trouble his repose did bring many pangs and remorses to him Insomuch that having called some Bishops to his assistance he testified a desire to reconcile himself unto the Church and sought after the means thereof But they who before were terrified with the fury of his actions which were more than barbarous fearing that he spoke not that but onely to sound them and that he would not seal to their Counsels which they should suggest unto him peradventure with the effusion of their bloud did gently advise him without shewing him the indeavours and the effects of true repentance and without declaring to him the satisfactions which he ought to God and to his Neighbours for the enormities of so many Crimes He was content to erect the Church of the Cardeleirs and commanded that Mass should there be publickly celebrated which was performed to the great joy of the Catholicks which yet remained in that horrible Havock To this Church he annexed an Hospital and some other appurtenances and left for all a thousand Crowns of yearly Revenue As he perceived that his life began to abandon him he demanded the Communion which he received making a show as if he would rise himself but the Bishop told him that his weakness did excuse him from that Ceremony he made answer That if he should prostrate himself on the Earth to receive so Divine a Majesty he should not humble himself according to his duty He by his Will ordained that his Son Edward who was born of Jane Seimer should succeed him and in the case of death that Marie the Daughter of Queen Katharine should be the inheritress of the Crown and if that she should fail that his Daughter Elizabeth although a Bastard should fill her place and possess the Kingdom On the approches of death he called for wine and those who were next unto his bed did conceive that he oftentimes did repeat the word Monks and that he said as in despair I have lost all This is that which most truly can be affirmed of him for it is a very bad sign to behold a man to die in the honour of his Royal dignity and by a peaceable death who had torn in pieces JESUS CHRIST who had divided the Church into schisms who of the six Queens that he espoused had killed four of them who had massacred two Cardinals three Archbishops eighteen Bishops twelve great Earls Priests and Religious Men without number and of his people without end who had robbed all the Churches of his Kingdom destroyed the Divine worship oppressed a million of innocents and in one word who had assasinated mercy it self Howsoever he wanted not flatterers who presumed to say and write that his wisdom had given a good order to his affairs and that he happily departed this world not considering what S. dustine doth affirm That all the penitencies of those who have lived in great disorders and who onely do convert themselves at the end of their life being pressed to it by the extreamity of their disease ought to be extreamly suspected because they do not forsake their sins but their sins do forsake them It was observed indeed that at his death this King did testifie a repentance of his savage and inordinate life but we cannot observe the great and exemplary satisfactions which were due to the expiation of so many abominable sins King Antiochus made submissions of another nature and ordered notable restitutions to recompense the dammages which he had caused to the people of the Jews nevertheless he was rejected of God by reason of his bloudy life and the Gates of the Temple of mercy were shut against him for all eternity The foundation of a small Hospital which Henry caused at his death was not sufficient to recompense the injuries of so many Churches which he had pillaged nor of so much goods of his Subjects as he had forced from them seeing we know by the words of the wise man That to make a benefit Eccles 34. of the substance of the poor is to sacrifice a Son before the eyes of his Father He had by his Testament ordained many tutors to The Reign of Edward His Uncle Seimer spoileth all his Son who were able to have made as many Tyrants but Seimer Uncle by the mothers side to the deceased King gaining the favour of the principal of the Lords of the realm whom he had corrupted with mony and great presents did cause himself to be proclaimed Protector and Regent He took a great possession on little Edward the Son of Henry heir to the Crown whom he brought up in schism and Heresie against the intentions of his Father This furious man immediately began his Regency with so much insolence that he almost made the reign of Henry the Eight to be forgotten he fomented the poison which he had conceived under him he did use the Catholicks most unworthily and did cut off the head of his own Brother by a jealousy of women But as he had made himself insupportable so it came to pass that the affairs of war which he had enterprized against the French did fall out unfortunately for him Dudley one of the chiefest of the Lords drawing a party to him did accuse him of Treason and caused his head to be cut off on the same Scaffold where before he had taken off the head of his own Brother This death was followed with great fears and horrible commotions for the Regency which presently after was extinguished by the death of the young King Edward This poor Prince was rather plucked with pincers The Qualities and death of King Edward from his mothers womb than born and he could not come into the world without giving death to her who conceived him He was said to have none of the comeliest bodies He spake seven languages at fifteen years of age and in his discourse did testifie a rare knowledge of all those sciences which were most worthy of a King It seemeth that death did advance it self to ravish his spirit from his body which did awake too early and was too foreward for his age for he died in his sixteen year having not had the time throughly to understand himself and to see by what course
certain fears uncertain counsels deaths full of calamity long punishments fleeting pleasures posterity either none or of no continuance But on the other side if you please to contemplate the Records of Christian Princes who have governed their Kingdomes with sincerity of mind with gentlenesse of hand with a prudent moderation and an invincible integrity thorow so many crosse accidents temptations and discouragements of humane affairs you may behold Hero's beloved of their own feared by their enemies to have lived safe in felicity and accumulated glories and to have left behind them acceptable pledges of their own virtues for many generations Therefore casting away the counsels of such an impious and execrable Warre overcoming the charges of ambition with the comforts of a valiant modesty and repressing irregular desires by charity let us make our adresses to God the founder of Safety and the reconciler of Divisions for when we despair he can repair our extremity is the crisis of his opportunity But what is it that hath disobliged the desires frustrated the expectations of all men and almost tired out the oppressive sighs of the mourning Church with such tedious disappointments Is it Honour Is it Wealth Truly if Honour it is that which hath ministred not the weakest influence unto the vehement inducements of this Warre an opinion of contempt should now be cashiered when the fierce oppositions of two potent Kingdomes are engaged What affluence can out-age the plenty which either of them may justly boast What is more admirable then their Power What more undaunted then their Valour Fortitude in a cause so miserable is inded rather to be lamented then desired worthy the compelled praises of an Enemy or the dolefull experience of a Sarazen but being exercised in a mutuall discord among Christians most undervalued when best extolled a Spaniard hath no reason to contemne a French-man nor a French-man to despise a Spaniard yet either of them hath his advantages whereon to build a wish that their united strength might be exhibited in a more just contestation and a better fate If the question be concerning your Propriety it is a businesse so perplexed that Archesilaus hath long agone determined that it can never be determined so that if we contend about the Rights of Kingdomes Cities and Families we shall prove his words to be full of truth who called it the confusion of things and fortunes necessarily teeming with eternall jarres and endlesse disagreements about the assertions And if all things should be transacted according to the rigour of Justice we should neither have a King nor a rich man remaining If any man therefore were possessed of whatsoever the sagacity of his wit could suggest unto his wishes whatsoever opinion could fancy or appetite imagine let him plead that immense and perplexed Charter of Kingdomes from Nembrotus who first imposed the yoke upon free necks let him derive it downwards thorow the labyrinthed Successions of so many Ages or let him calculate upwards digging up his grandfather and great-grandfathers great-grandfather till by the search of so many Sepulchres he hath wearied the tenacious memory of the desirous and confounded the prudence of the skilfull what will he meet with at length but a suppeditation of fresh discord and fuell for new fires of tumult Who can be the arbitratour who the judge to compose such great differences as will result from such involved causes The Lord would not divide the inheritance between the Brethren he that appointed measure to the Heavens set bounds to the sea and prescribed a proportion to all the Elements even he refused to divide the Lamb between the kinsmen being confirmed that the avarice of men was contentious and implacable Therefore if Christ himself should now descend from heaven neither would he judge and determine your wealth your interest your propriety and fortunes neither if he would should he by the umpirage of his impartiall equity define all things according to your sense and will What remaineth therefore but that all Ages be worn out and wasted by infamous and degenerate Warre the parts and factions being not unequally matched and both sides most desirous of their ends and interests But is it so glorious and worthy an enterprise for such great Princes so pious so majesticall and such potent Lords of sea and land to contend about one city nay perhaps one castle and that too almost battered down by the thunder-bolts of warre nay about the very dust and rubbage and all this with deadly enmity which can be profitable to none but hurtfull to many I understand O ye wise and intelligent Counsellours to Princes what answer you will return to this that your Interest is herein concerned and your Honour engaged lest the propriety of your Masters should be diminished by that League which the whole world expecteth But I now leave that to be discussed by your prudence and equity whether the whole Christian world should be endangered in their fortunes lives bloud salvation and destruction of all things to give a minister of State a Kings servant an assurance of some fethery and airy fame and perhaps deepest routed in his own opinion What should such elevated souls as yours have for the object of their wishes but that all things should have a sweet and peaceable composure to the advantage both of Kings and Kingdomes But if you please ponder this choice whether it be not farre better for the Princes Honour and the utility of his State to remit somewhat of that tenacity of spirit and indeclinable rigour of mind then to subject and expose all things to the violence of fire and to the advantage of plunderers and murthering thieves But perhaps you imagine that it is better for Kingdomes to suffer direptions and devastations then ruine but what else is devastation then a direfull perdition 'T is a miserable comfort to destroy that you may not be destroyed and to take the burning of Cities to be felicities compared with rapine as if you should suppose it to be some goodly thing to die to avoid death That body is not lost that may be preserved by the sparing of a single nail In a great and flourishing Kingdome nothing doth perish if a small town or a castle be surrendred thereby to purchase a generall peace and lasting tranquillity Ministers of State lose nothing of their fame if they be reputed the fortunate Peace-makers of the world rather then the Fire-brands of a Kingdome and State-barrettours How many of this tenacious obstinacy and destructive circumspection have the unfortunate people blasted with execrations and defamed with reproaches because by litigious juglings they had deluded the world into an universall equipage of sorrow and complaint rather conniving at the destruction of all things then that they in the most speechlesse calamity would part with a toy of Honour to revive a perishing State But if any among you shall lend an ear of favourable regard to the complaints of the whole Christian world and
revolt ibid. His designs ibid. His Ambition 148 He caused himself to be proclaimed King ibid. He giveth battell to his Father wherein he is overthrown and killed 149 We must not condemn him that by lawfull means seeks his own Accommodations 46 Achior his oration 182 It is pleasing to Holophernes and his souldiers ibid. The pernicious counsell of Achitophel 148 Adonijah competitour of the Crown and his faction 151 The fault of Adonijah in his Councell of State ibid. Adonijah desired the Shunamite which did complete his misfortune 152 Adonis an admirable fish 38 A good deed done to a great one in Afflictions is of much value 142 what are the subjects of Afflictions 57 The dispositions of Ages 19 The death of Agrippina 273 Ahab goeth to meet Elijah in person 249 He desireth Naboths Vineyard 251 His death 253 Ahashuerus his banquet which continued for the space of one hundred and fourscore dayes 188 Alcimus the false high Priest 199 Amantius plotteth against Justin ian 58 A notable observation of Clemens Alexandrinus 83 The courage we may derive from the Sacrament of the Altar 80 Shallow and fantastick Ambition 13 The Ambition of Ecclesiasticks and Religious men much more subtle then others ibid. Crodield daughter of king Caribert a religious woman raiseth great troubles by her Ambition ibid. Ambition which buddeth in hearts of base extraction is most insolent which is instanced in a Chirurgion of S. Lewis is wisely repressed and chastised by the prudence and justice of King Philip the third of France 115 The French revengers of Ambition ibid. The furious Ambition of Alexius the Tyrant of Greece punished by the valour and justice of the French 116 Ambition the beginning of all evils 292 The effects of Ambition and envie ibid. The fury and infidelity of Ambition 296 The inhumane cruelty of Ambition 297 What Amity is 5 Three sorts of Amity ibid. Naturall Amity and its foundation ib. Amity of demy-gods 6 Amity grounded upon honesty ib. Men too endearing uncapable of Amity ib. Men banished from the Temple of Amity ib. Reasons for which women do seem uncapable of Amity 7 Degeneration Amity 8 There may be spirituall Amities between persons of different sexes endowed with great virtue and rare prudence 9 Amity in S. John Chrysostome 10 The right stains of Amity are forgetfulnesse of friends negligence contempt dessention suspition distrust inequality impatience and infidelity 11 12 Six perfections which preserve Amity ib. Bounty a true note of Amity 13 The benefits of Amity ib. Patience most necessary in Amity 14 There may be a celestiall Amity by the commerce of man with God 22 What Anger is 86 Divers degrees of Anger ib. Three Regions of Anger the first of sharp choler the second of bitter choler the third of fury 87 Remedies against these three sorts of Anger ib. The propertie of the Yew-Tree like unto Anger ib. Anger is very prejudiciall in military art in a Generall 118 Philip of Valois a great and generous King looseth a battell out of a pievish humour of Anger ib. The barbarous Anger of Bajazet ib. Lewis the younger admonished by Bernard chastiseth himself for his Anger by sadnesse and penance ib. Anger of women ib. Anger out of simplicity many times causeth hurt for a word too free witnesse that of Enguerrand ib. The humility and wisdome of Queen Anne to overcome the passion of Anger 120 Addresse of Bavalon to appease the Anger of the Duke of Brittaign 121 Anastatius dying Amantius his high Chamberlain aimed at the Empire 158 Antonina wife of Belizarius prostiâ—uted herself to Theodosius whom she and her husband had made their adopted son 164 Antiochus his horrible cruelty 197 The death of Antiochus â—01 How we ought to govern our Antipathies 246 A notable sentence of the Areopagite 2 The notable practise of S. Athanasius 10 The Essence and nature of Aversion 45 How Aversion is formed ib. The character and true image of a spirit subject to Aversion ib. The consideration of the love which God bears to his creatures is a powerfull remedy to cure Aversion ib. The first motions of Aversion for the most part are inevitable ib. The example of our Saviour serveth for a strong remedy to sweeten our Aversions 47 It is a shame to have an Aversion against one for some defect of Body or some other deformity of nature when as we are bound to love him ib. A generous act of a Pagan who teacheth us powerfully to to command our Aversions ib. The death of Azael by his rashnesse 144 B THe Prophets of Baal are murthered 250 The Basilisk cannot be enchanted 10 The love of Batsheba 145 Bathsheba fitly insinuates her self and procures the crown for her sonne Solomon ib. The martiall virtues of Bayard 214 He is wounded at the taking of Bressin 216 Beautie imperious 16 An excellent saying of venerable Bede 68 Bees bear the sign of a Bull on their bodies 60 Belizasius is chosen generall against Gilimer who had usurped the crown from Hilderick 161 He marcheth to the gates of Carthage ib. A triumph after the manner of the Ancients was ordained in honour of Belizarius 162 The valour of Bellizarius 163 His rare qualities 164 The originall of the miseries of Belizarius ib. The cause why Belizarius was debased was because he had violated the persons of the Popes ib He is brought into disgrace and his offices taken from him 167. Belshassar makes a sumptuous banquet and the hand-writing upon the wall in unknown characters is discovered 246 He is murthered ib. Bethulia is besieged 282 The Bethalians murmure against the Priests ib. The picture of Boldnesse 76 The Essence of Boldnesse ib. The notable Boldnesse of Saints who have often defended the truth with the hazard of their lives against the rage and malice of cruell and bloudy tyrants 78 Why Boldnesse is not in God ib. The rash love of the Earle of Bothuel 295 Boucicaut is taken prisoner 211 By his wisdome he endeavoreth the liberty of himself and other Lords and obtaineth it 212 His whole course of life contrary to that of Souldiers generally was very religious 213 C CAligula her fury against Seneca 274 Calumny against Julian and Seneca 275 Divers degrees of Calumniatours 94 From whence the degree of Cardinall cometh  George Castriot was a souldier as soon as he was born a man 209 He died of a Feaver in the city of Lyssa 210 Presages of the generosity of Cesar 79 An excellent conceit of Charity 25 The source of Charity 102 The rare qualities of Charlemaign the Great 172 His great learning ib. His seriousnesse in his study ib. Martel and Pepin reproduced in the person of Charlemaign ib. His rare virtues ib. His brave exploits against the Infidels 173 His war with the Italians and his succouring the Church which did groan under the chains of the Lombards ib. His entrance into Rome in great pomp ib. He warreth against the Saracens ib. He was the first King of France 174
strange boldnesse 73 The example of our Saviour ought to encourage us against Fear 74 Resolutions against Fear 75 We must Fear nothing in the world to the prejudice of our souls 81 Fidelity and its excellency 14 The mervellous effects of fire 86 Rebellion of the Flesh 16 What true Fortitude is and the parts thereof 74 Qualities of a good Friend 8 Great men are not ordinarily the best Friends ib. The choise of a Friend ib. A man must not adhere too much to himselfe to be a good friend ib. Friends ought to advise and correct 14 Who loves himself too much hath no Friend 37 G THe affectionate Letter of the Lord Bishop of Geneva 11 The disaster of Gilimer and his captivity 162 A great industry to Give well 13 There is none but God which is for it self 1 When we distrust our selves we must have recourse to God 18 An excellent reason of S. Augustine to shew the inclination we have to God 23 An objection about the invisibility of God ib. God rendreth himself infinitely amiable in totall nature ib. The Sun the Image of God ib. The commerce of man with God 24 The means to acquire the love of God 27 The practise of the Love of God ib. How we may learn to love God above the love of the world ib. We must learn to love God himself and by the character of his substance which is Jesus ib. Onely sinne hated by God 34 God in his Essence accordeth the diversitie of all Essences 46 The sympathies and antipathies which God hath wisely impressed on Essences and in union ibid. God for the punishment of nicenesse will suffer that which man most â—ears to fall upon him ibid. Three considerable qualities in the blessing of God 50 God is busied about this world as his stoue of burthen 59 God is not capable of hope since he possesseth all 63 God is independent of all creatures and the source of his felicities proceedeth from the infinitie of his perfection ibid. God hath no need of our conversion to increase his glory 64 God supporteth all good hopes by reason of the infinite capacity of his Essence ibid. We must place our hopes in God by the example of the holy humanity of Jesus Christ ibid. God when he pleaseth taketh away all the obstacles which oppose despair 68 The wonders which God maketh to appear in the old Testament by the help of his creatures ib. God indifferently treateth elect souls as reprobate during life without shewing that he despaireth of their salvation ib. God never faileth with necessary succours and sufficient grace to lave us ibid. It is the providence of God which doth preserve us and instruct us to drive away all fear 73 The picture of the tranquility of God 88 God to speak properly hath no anger ib. Three sorts of thunderbolts which figure unto us how God doth proceed with the chastisements of men ib. God doth all by seeing and by being seen 95 The differences of our knowledges from those of God 96 A great example of the weaknesse of mans spirit when God leaves it 148 Godfrey Duke of Bovillon a most resolute and fortunate Generall 207 The excellency of Goodnesse 136 Grace by the contemplation of divine things is a remedy for our temptations 50 The great and magnanimous goodnesse of Lewis the twelfth 120 Great things were made for the lesser 131 An excellent observation of S. Gregory 80 H THe direfull example of Haman against the inraged who are at a little offended 91 Hamans malice against Mordecai 193 Haman is condemned to be hanged and the Jews preserved 195 Hatred a hideous Comet 32 Its nature properties and degrees ibid. It is called Antipathy ibid. Hatred cometh out of Love 33 Melancholy hatred by Grecians is called Man-hatred ibid. Simplicity of divine Essence exempt from Antinathy or hatred ibid. Hatred of humour and how it is to be handled ib. Reasonable hatred and its illusion 35 Hatred of Interests which begets suits and Duels 36 A notable example of appeasing Hatred 37 The utility of Hatred ibid. How Hatred is to be diverted 38 Means to eschew and prevent the Hatred of powerfull men 39 A comparison of a ship and the heart of man 42 The sons of Heli behave themselves very disorderly to the great dishonour of his gray hairs 235 His connivence or at the most gentle reproof no whit doth better them ib. God punisheth Heli for the sins of his sons ib. He dieth ibid. Henry Eight grown more hardened against Cardinall Pool 314 The death of Henry the Eighth 315 Herodias slept not one good sleep with Herod so long as S. John Baptist was alive 269 Her daughter beggeth the head of S. John Baptist which is granted unto her ibid. The history of Hester 187 Hester the neece of Mordecai ibid. She is married to Ahasuerus King of Persia and declared Queen 188 Her excellent virtues and endowments 189 She is acquainted with the plot of Haman for the utter destruction of the Jews 191 Her prayer to God ib. She presenteth her self to Ahasuerus 192 She inviteth Ahasuerus and Haman to a Banquet ib. She relates to the King the plot of Haman against her self and her people 194 Hierom his great affâ—ction to S. Paul 11 Hierusalem is besieged by Lysias and brought to great extremity 203 Holophernes angry at the great preparation made by the Jews for their defence 182 Holophernes ravished at the speech of Judith 184 Holophernes his army defeated 186 The Image and Nature of Hope 61 The good husbanding of Hope 62 We must adapt our selves to our Hopes ibid. We must ground our Hopes well ibid. Powerfull friends may serve for a suport for Hope ibid. We must not too soon reject nor too late put forward in pursuit of our Hopes 63 The Hopes of the world are very deceitfull and have no solitude 64 Three sorts of Hope ib. One may reasonably fly that which is in any wise hurtfull 46 Hypatius his speech 161 I I Conoclasts or Image-breakers an heresie sprung up even in Rome it self 174 Jealousie is a degree of the envious 91 The seed of Jealousie 92 Jealousie for honours and dignities ibid. Learned men subject to jealousie ibid. Jealousie in marriages holdeth the first place in the Envious ibid. Jealousie defined according to S. Thomas ibid. Out of what Jealousie is framed ibid. Description of Jealousie 93 Jealousie compared to the Abysse ibid. Jealousie maketh havock in the heart ibid. Advice to women concerning jealousie ib. The bloudy effects of the Jealousie of Saul 141 Joab his Jealousie over Abner 145 Jeremiah a man of sorrow 263 His sanctity ibid. Jeasabel threatneth to take away Elijahs life 250 Jesabel thrown out of a window dieth miserably 253 The love of Jesus towards his heavenly Father 28 For what reasons Jesus prayed on earth 64 The excesse of the contrition and dolours of our Lord Jesus 69 Jesus Christ acquired â—s boldnesse by his fear 79 Three powerfull succours of our
saith S. Dennis What a roaring of the Lion saith S. Hierome What a Flow of Learning what a Torrent of Eloquence who makes us to understand the Mysteries unknown in all Ages and that as much by his Admiration as his Words He wrote his Epistles with his Ear in Heaven and with a Style in the School of Paradise The feeblenesse of humane Words could not sustain the force of his Spirit In the Affective part he was filled with a Seraphick His Love Love with a fire drawn from the most pure flames of Heaven which was shut up within his heart and within his bones and did uncessantly burn him without consuming him On his mortified flesh he did bear the Characters of a suffering God which were his dearest Delights He was no more himself he was all and altogether transfigured into that amiable Word by a Deifick transanimation He lived on his Bloud he breathed not but by his Spirit he spake not but by his Words he thought not but by his Meditations yet neverthelesse in some manner he did leave God and the delicious School of Paradise to run unto his Neighbour to save his Soul and in this exercise of Charity he defied Tribulation Anguish Hunger Nakednesse Dangers Persecutions and bloudy Swords and burning Fagots and boiling Caldrons If Hell it self were portable he would adventure to have carried it on his back for the love of his Neighbour He looked upon the world as if every mothers son were of his begetting he carried in his heart Europe and Asia and Afâ—ick and all the Provinces of the Earth to communicate the Light of the Gospel either by himself or by his children whom already he had begotten in Jesus Christ Nothing rebated him nothing hindred nothing stopped him He gave no bounds to his Love since God had given no limits to his Spirit With these fair and extraordinary qualities God gave him Successe in the preaching of the Gospel which did draw upon him the admiration of all the Apostles He marched in triumph through all Provinces and God was on his heart He was like unto that Ark of the Testament which is spoken of in the Revelations Apoc. 21. which at the same time that it was perceived did cause a Lightning to be seen a Voice to be heard the Hail to rattle and the Earthquakes to roar so wheresoever S. Paul did passe there were the Light of Learning the Oracles of Wisdome the impetuous Tempest of words of fire which made the Philosopers and Kings to tremble and even removed Nature it self Behold here the difference which was between S. Paul and Seneca which being well considered we shall forbear to admire wherefore one was so fruitlesse in the Court of Nero and the other had so great successe in Rome and amongst so many Nations After that Paul was for a season retired from Rome Saint Paul leaves Rome Nero grows worse and worse leaving unto Seneca a strong tincture of the Christian Faith Nero did every day grow worse and worse insomuch that having killed his brother his wife his mother this scourge of mankind in the wicked jollity of his heart had a plot in his head to set the City of Anno Neron 10. Chron. 66. Rome on fire which was almost wholly consumed with it whiles he from a high tower did behold it and laughing at the calamity did sing the burning of Troy the great which did so exasperate the spirits of his Subjects that on the year following the chief of the Empire did enter into a conspiracy against him in which were comprised Senatours Captains Colonels The Conspiracy against him detected Citizens Ladies and all the choicest personages in Rome but misfortune so would have it that the secret being dispersed amongst so many people it did not answer the event to which it was designed but being discovered it occasioned a bloudy butchery in Rome Nero like an enraged Tygre desiring nothing more then to bathe himself in bloud Seneca's name was entred at the last in the list of the The constant and the famous death of Seneca Conspiratours whether his Scholar had conceived a jealousie against him mistrusting his high Virtue and fearing lest he should tear the Diadem from his head or whether the insolence of his deportments had put him into that condition as not to indure the very shadow of a Tutor It was now a long time since this great personage overcome with grief at so many tragicall accidents did leade a retired life in his Countrey-house not farr from Rome There was not against him any manifest conviction to rank him amongst the Conspiratours as Tacitus hath observed It is onely said that one of that number named Natalis did depose before Nero that he was sent to Seneca by Piso who was the chief of the Conspiratours to complain that he would not suffer him to give him a visit and to meditate an enterview to which Seneca made answer that such a meeting in so dangerous and so fatal a time could be profitable neither to the one nor to the other and as for the rest that his life subsisted not but in the safety of the life of Piso On this the Tribune of the Emperours Guard was dispatched to Seneca to understand what answer he could make to the Deposition of Natalis On the evening he arrived at Seneca's house which he suddenly invironed with a troop of Souldiers He was no sooner entred but he found him at supper with his wife and two friends he presently acquainted him what he had in Commission from the Emperour on which Seneca confessed that Natalis indeed was sent unto him by Piso to intreat him to receive a visit from him but he excused himself by reason of indisposition and retirednesse without speaking one word more unto him adding that he had never so high an esteem of Piso as to judge that the safety of his life did depend upon him thar such flattery was not suitable to his disposition and that Nero knew it very well who by experience had alwayes found in Seneca more of Liberty then of Servitude The Tribune made a faithfull report of Seneca's answer in the presence of Poppea that impudent woman and Tigillinus that execrable villain who in those cruel designs were the onely two that were now of his Majesties sacred Counsel This barbarous Prince who had promised his Tutor that he would rather die then permit that any offence should be done unto him did bear that respect unto him as not to question him on that Conspiracy amongst so many other Senators peradventure he had not a brow of brasse enough to outface the reproaches of so eloquent a mouth He demanded of the Tribune if he did not prepare himself to a voluntary death who made answer That he observed not the least sign of it either in his countenance or discourse whereupon he was commanded to return to Seneca and to signifie unto him that he must die The Tribune
whether in reverence to the man or for fear to precipitate the death of such a Minister of the State by too hasty an execution demanded counsel of Fannius his Captain what in this case he ought to do who did advise him to execute the command of the Emperour and this was done by a sloth fatall to all of the Conspiracy some Ladies onely excepted who shewed themselves more courageous then the Senatours and the Cavalliers Howsoever he having not the heart to carry these heavy tidings did deliver his Commission to a Centurion who informed him with the last of all necessities Seneca without troubling himself desired so much liberty as to make his Will which was refused him On which he turned to his friends and said That since it was not permitted to him to acknowledge their merit that he would leave unto them the very best of all he had which was the Image of his Life in which if they would please to call to mind how he had passed it in so many commendable Exercises they should enjoy for their recompence the reputation of a faithfull and a constant friendship And this he spake not out of arrogance but as it were by the authotity of a Father when he bids his last Farewell unto his Children recommending to them to imitate him in what he had done well and so said S. Paul to his Disciples Be you imitatours of me as I am of Jesus Christ This made their hearts to melt and they began all to weep but he did endeavour to wipe away their tears mingling sweetnesse with reproaches What do you mean he said where are the Precepts of Philosophy where is that Reason so long prepared against all the chances of humane Life who is he that can be ignorant of the cruelty of Nero and who did not see that after the death of his mother and his brother there nothing remained but to adde unto it the murder of his Master and Governour After this Discourse which served for them all he embraced his wife gave her his last farewell and having fortified her against the terrours of the present dangers he did intreat and conjure her to moderate her grief and to sweeten the sorrows of her dear husband by the consideration of his life which was without reproach He loved most tenderly that virtuous Lady and did not cherish his own life but for her sake saying sometimes That he would spare himself a little the more becausâ— in an old man there lived a young woman who deserved that he should take care for her and being not able to obtain from his dear Paulina that she should love him more fervently her love being in the highest degree of perfection she should obtain from him that he should use himself for her sake with the more indulgence This fair Lady observing all that had passed said That there was no longer life for her after the death of him whom she loved above all things in the world and that she would keep him company in the other world On that word he stood a little in a pause and would not contradict her as well for the glory of the action as for the love which he did bear her and for the fear he had to leave so dear a person to the affronts of an enemy be therefore said unto her My dear Love I have shewed you the sweetnesse and the allurements of life but I see you preferre unto it the honour of a generous death I will not envy the example of your Virtue and although the constancy in our death shall be equall in us both yet yours shall be alwayes more glorious then mine for you contribute unto it a courage which is above your sex Having said this they caused their veins to be opened by one hand in the presence one of the other and because the body of her husband was attenuated by great abstinence and the bloud did issue but slowly from him he gave order that there should be a new incision made in the veins of his legs and of his feet The poor old man did endeavour to put himself all into bloud and indured cruel dolours but more in the body of his dear wife then in his own which was the reason that he caused her to be conveighed into another chamber to mitigate a little the sorrows which one had for the other in beholding themselves to die with so much violence It is a wonderfull thing that this great man had so untroubled and so ready a spirit in so fatall an act He called his Secretary to whom he did dictate his last Thoughts which were full of a generous constancy In the mean time Nero having no particular hatred against Paulina and considering that the death of so innocent a Lady would but render himself and his cruelty more abhorred did command that her veins should be stopped and the bloud stanched which it appeared that she suffered to her greater grief both by the short time that she out-lived her husband and by the inviolable faith which she did bear unto his ashes and she looked ever after as she were some prodigy such abundance of bloud and so much spirits she had lost Seneca was yet remaining in the tedious pangs of death when upon advice he demanded poyson of his Physicians which had no operation at all his members being already cold and his body shut up against all the forces of the poyson He caused himself therefore to be carried to a Bath and taking some of the warm water he sprinkled his servants with it that stood about him saying according to Cornelius Tacitus That he offered that water to Jove the deliverer after which words he entred into the stove and was stifled with the vapour that did arise from it Many grave Personages have conceived that he died a Christian and though it is no easie matter to perswade those to this opinion who are possessed with another and who speak but with little consideration on this subject yet there are not wanting grounds to prove the truth thereof Flavius Dexter a most antient Historian who hath composed a small Chronicle from the Nativity of our Saviour unto the fourth Age affirmeth in expresse terms that in the sixty fourth year Seneca entertained good thoughts of Christianity and that he died a Christian although not a declared one S. Hierome in the Book of Ecclesiasticall Authours doth put him in the number of Saints that is to say of those who acknowledge and confesse Jesus Christ Tertullian a most grave Authour saith that he was one although not openly S. Augustine in the City of God alledgeth many excellent passages of a Book which Seneca undoubtedly did write against the Superstition of the Pagans in which he overthrows all the Heathenish Religion of Rome although he doth not vigorously perswade them to change it for fear of troubling the Estate This Book was afterwards condemned and burned by the Enemies of our Religion The holy Doctor doth