and yet there comes an heire whom they thought not vppsn who wyth great delyte reioyseth in the fruite and vse of all their paynefull trauels It is a iust Sentence that such as haue beguyled many should reape the recompence of their abuses since Gods iustice goeth by measure and hath regarde to the equitie of thinges wythout Parciallitie to persons It is no indifferencie that that which a wicked Father hath heaped for on heire alone by the preiudice of many goodmen should be enioyed by him many yeares for that the line to measure all thinges ought to be equall and goodes gotten by shyfte are for the most part lost wyth shame the same falling out in common experience that what the wicked Father wins wyth studie and sorrow the vnthryftie sonne wastes in Solace and Negligence And what the one Plantes in toyle and care the other remooues in ease and welfare béeing a Lawe in Gods iustice that the Prodigall Sonne should scorne at the sighes of his Couetous Father You séeme according to the figure of the Scripture for the silling of one Patte of Water to wade continually wetshood in the lake of this miserable Worlde You drye vp the noritour of your brayne wyth the fume of sighs You breake your bodye wyth the toyles of this lyfe and aduenture your honour to fyll but one Iarre or Pitcher wyth Water and yet lyke as for the time you liue it will not quench your appetite so in the ende you will be dryuen to dye of Thirst and the Potte which wyth so great payne you haue fylled in your lyfe shall after your death be broken against the walles of a prodigall heire who will laugh to sée it runne as a ryuer and reioyce to water the streates wyth the Ryches that you Locked full dearely in your sewrest Chestes Remember that he is not Ryche that possesseth much goodes but he whose desires are satisfyed and his minde contented The liberall man liues in beste securitie for that his liberalitie continues his friendes and reclaimes his enemies And Golde and Siluer giue better renoume to those that spende them then to such as hoard them vp for that couetousnesse makes the hoarders to bée hated where liberalitye draweth loue to the spender By these I wishe you to be aduised that gayne and getting are weake pillors to vpholde good name for that Couetousnesse and honor are of themselues contrarye and can holde no congruencie together in one man All the vices of this worlde haue in themselues some taste except Couetousnesse which bringes griefe for the goodes that others haue and Ielousie and suspition for the riches that are euen vnder our owne handes For to be riche it belonges also to haue the fruition of riches the same giuing pleasure to such as can take it as the possession serueth to such as can vse it The perplexities of the couetous man are to suspect his Seruauntes and distrust his kindred to set Espyalles ouer his Wyfe and doubt his Children to bée fearefull of the thiefe and to be Ielouse euen of his owne shaddowe Yea he is so miserable that he settes more garde of his money then of his person He takes no pleasure but in casting his Reckoninges in Compting his Siluer in Selling his Wares and in multiplying his Commodities estéeming it as his Paradice to bée alwayes gayning and neuer spending to bée alwayes winninig and neuer loasing to bée alwayes receiuing and neuer lending and to be alwayes getting as though he should neuer dye But when there is question to disburse money though it be for thinges necessarie Oh then he is as farre from modestye as he is full of malice accursing to the Diuell both Wyfe Children and Familie and in that Passion hée estéemes suche to deceaue him most in whom hée hath greatest reason to repose Confydence and who in deede are the best Stewardes and Husbandes of his commodityes So that if Couetous men would Consider what a swéete thing Lyberalitye is they would tourne their desires to gayne much into a disposition to géeue more for that it is not of so great value that which the Liberall man doth géeue as is his recompence Séeing that for the pleasure hée doth to anye hée is to Redemaunde the Trybute of his Libertie Yea the Liberall man is the Lorde ouer those People where hee lyueth and the leader of all suche as haue to doe wyth him For that their Recompence béeing certayne there are none wyll denye him their Seruice Where to the Nygarde and Couetous man where one wyll heare him manye wyll feare him where none wyll speake to him manye wyll auoyde him Where none wyll geeue him any thing many wyll practise agaynst him Where none will visitte him many will abhorre him where none wyll employe him many wyll accurse him Yea who wyll Demaunde any thing of the Couetous man that denyeth all thinges to himselfe or how hath he a mynde to succour Straungers that is not touched in Conscience to suffer his owne to Starue Manye Couetous men doe wée sée now a dayes to whom God geeues Power to gette Ryches Pollecye to kéepe them Heartes to defende them Lyfe to possesse them but not Lybertye to reioyce and vse them So that though they bee Lordes ouer the Ryches of others yet they are Slaues euen to that whiche themselues Possesse Wherein I am of Opinyon that by so muche more Excellent is Honeste Pouertie then Cursed Couetousnesse By how muche the Poore man is contented wyth Little where to the Richeman a great deale seemes nothing And therefore what mynde canne bée more Myserable then to sighe for the goodes of an other more by desire then by default The gréedie mynde caryeth no Disposition to Spende vppon his Parentes and friendes séeing hée accomptes that Stolne which hée employeth of himselfe Therefore it is a false Witnesse to call the couetous man rich since it is not he that hath riches but rather riches are maisters of him For the which he takes no small paine to get them vseth as great care to kéepe them and suffereth no lesse griefe to forgoe them Yea I accompt not the couetous riche men so happie as the pore labourer and deluer of the earth For that wyth his mattocke the one drawes reliefe and noriture out of the earth and the other wretchedly hydes in the earth his treasure and felicitie and how secretly so euer it is hyd yet he standes not so suspicious of any as of himselfe For if he haue two keyes to his Chest to kéepe his money from stealing he suffereth ten cares in his harte to kéepe him from spending So that the care being great to kéep and the griefe no lesse to loase I wishe all men well aduised how they beginne to get since to saue a little of their wealth they are subiect to put in hazarde much of their honor Therefore who will be reuenged of a richeman can wish him no greater passion then
amorous dames geue to their seruaunts and friends 169 A letter aunswering certaine perticuler requestes from the Court and that it is not cōuenient to visite often those women whose husbands be absent 171 A discourse touching such as are in the ministerie and professe religion 173 Still touching the discourse of religion and of the professors of the same 178 The end of this discourse rebuking such Ministers as are wanderers 180 A resolution of certaine familiar and naturall questions with apparant coniectures and tokens of death 182 A discourse of the cononising of the Pagan Gods and why they are holden for Gods together with an exposition of sundrie poeticall inuentions tending to the same 187 A rebuke to ambicion vnder the speech of a sauage man vttered in the Senate of Rome 193 ¶ FINIS To the Gouernour Angulo declaring many good doctrines with other consolations to such as are Widowers THe fourth of Ianuary I receyued your letters which standing albeit more vpon varietie of wordes then necessitie of matter yet they well expressed your setled grauetie and no lesse resembled our auncient friendshippe Amongest other things bearing prayse to your behauiour I am glad you haue forsaken the warres and giuen ouer the regiment of Nanarre for that I hold those people hard to reclaime and not easie to gouern And in this common absence of oures albeit we could not cōueniently cōmunicate in the state and parts of our priuat conuersation yet for that you were employed out of the realme I remayned alwayes in desire to knowe howe you kept societie with fortune because such are the checkes and mutations which she bringes generally vppon the people of the world that she neither dissembleth with the straūger and much lesse pardoneth such as be naturall For which cause Cicero writing to his friēd Attiquus restrayneth one friend to wishe to an other more then these thrée things to enioye health to possesse honour and not to suffer necessitie the same well expressing a Christian modestie and truly agréeing with humaine reason For to him that hath sufficiencie to furnish the vse necessitie of his life what remaineth to be required more who enioyeth continuall health lacketh nothing to make vp the ful felicitie of his worldly delites what can that man haue lost in this worlde who neuer lost the reputation of honour Therefore neyther I for you nor you to me are bound to desire more one for an other then to haue health for the solace of our transitory time to enioye a compotent measure of wealth for the administration of our life and to be raised to honour by the which we may retayne reputation For as all other thinges are passed to vs by fortune not to honour vs but to affront vs So sir I wish you this moderation to rest contented with that which God hath bestowed of you and giue him often recompence of humble thankes for taking you out of so many daungers for as much do we owe to God for the daungers from which he deliuereth vs as for the great wealth dignities wherevnto he hath alwayes raised vs. God is so good and loues vs with so swéete affection that alwayes he requireth vs continually he doth vs good neuer ceasseth to visite vs and seldome spareth to aduertise vs yea he handleth vs not as our offences deserue but as his mercie willeth euill should it stand with vs sniners if with the rod of sinne God should do present iustice séeing that such is the horrer and infamie of sinne that if imediatly with the fact God would put vs to punishments our soules would be caried forthwith into the bottomes of hell As it is suffred in the high and hidden secretes of God to dissemble some things to pardon others and correct the rest so let vs remember that God vseth no small mercie to hym whom he chastiseth in this worlde since that to whome hée giues no affliction it séemes he is of him much forgotten Therefore when God administreth to vs diseases sorrowes deathes and infelicities they be not thinges wherewith hée chastiseth vs but necessarie matters by the which he visiteth our fraile condicion wherein his intention is not to loase vs but to admonish vs not to make vs stumble but to holde vs from falling not to poyson vs but to purge vs not to make vs slide into sinne but to call vs to amendement of behauiour so that with this full measure of bountie and mercie he giues vs not onely that which we aske but prepares vs more to that which he would we should demaund of him this giues me occasion to smile that our power being little our selues so small a thing and our knowledge so slender yet we thinke and conster to great importance all our enterprises when in déede that which in our opinion wée holde most profitable takes sometime a contrary habit and becomes most hurtfull and against vs. By meanes whereof the Lorde with good reason vsing his wonderfull mercie takes from vs those occasions wherewith we may offend him and leades vs in the exercise of such thinges as stand vs in most stéede to serue him God deales in one sort with the Christian sinner and in an other maner with the iust man to the sinner he pardoneth his offence and from the iust he takes away the occasions to sinne by which we finde that we stand more déepely bound to him which suffreth vs not to fal then to him that lendes vs his hand to helpe vs vp againe This much sir to instruct you in patience for the losse of so good a wife whose death if you lament in the office of a good husband I haue not ben without my sorow according to the dutie of a faithfull friend And albeit there is no doubt but your wife was a right worthy member of a noble house and therewithall plentifully replenished with euery condicion appertayninge to the vertue and modestie of a woman yet since in her creation she brought with hir a subiection to death I thinke your wisedome is too great to make that grieuous to you which nature ordeyneth common to all yea if in your wife were fully filled a full example of all perfection you can not in better sort expresse your zeale then to suffer God to haue his will without grudge And if you reioysed in the vse of so happie a wife whilest she liued let your gladnes still continue for that you hope she is now happely layde vp wyth God with whom this is one familiar propertie that the more honest we be the lesse while we liue for that being deare to him he doth the sooner drawe vs to his kingdome I knowe that in your wife God had expressed a spirit of great méekenesse to you made her very acceptable to her neighbours most plawsible to your parents very pitifull to the poore wherein by how much she was agréeable to all and her nature hurtfull to none by so much haue you to hope
fruit more liked by how much it is incorporate in the vertues and name of an excellent patron In which respect knowing that there shines in your Ladiship a vertue of learning and iudgement as doth the pearle in the gold that your mind is diuinely enclined to the coÌ„templation of vertuous studies I beseech you let this be admitted amongest the publike monumeÌ„ts of your vertue though farre vnworthy of your noble desire yet beeing couered with the winges of your authoritie and name it may bee holden so much the more perfect and plawsible by how much it is an imp grafted in the soyle of your greatnes and enritched with the golde of your name and vertues Referring the faultes rather to the infirmitie of my skil and knowledge then to my desire and will which is wholly dedicated to the seruice of your right honorable Father and his house At my chamber in the Blacke Friers in London the fourth of February 1575. Your honours humbly to dispose and commaund Geffray Fenton The contents of euery perticuler Chapter TO the gouernour Angulo doclaring many good doctrines with other consolations to such as are widowers fol. 1 To Sir Peter Giron banished into Oran comforting such as liue in exile 4 To Don Frederique of Porting all Archbishop of Saragoce and Viceroy of Catholiogne wherein the author commends to him a letter of the Emperour M. Aurelius 11 To the Duke of Alua contayning an exposition of a text of the Apostle with other antiquities 14 To Don Fardinando do Toledo to whom are expounded two authorities of Scripture and the custome of the Egiptians in the death of their friends 17 A discourse before the Emperour Charles the fifth wherein is handled the pardon that Christ demaunded of his father for his enemies 19 To what purpose or ententions tended all the speeches of Iesus Christ 20 That when Christ gaue pardon he left nothing to forgeue 22 That God was wont to be called the God of vengeance and now is he named the father of mercy 24 A discourse afore the Emperour wherein is touched the conuersion of the good theefe 27 The good theefe hauing no other thing to offer to god offred him his hart and his tongue 32 How wickedly the euill theefe spake hanging on the crosse 35 The good theefe rebuked his fellow hanging on the crosse 37 A discourse expounding this text of the Psalme Irascimini nolite peccare 42 For such as enter into religion 47 An other discourse tending to religion 49 Instructions still tending to men entred religion 52 This discourse was vttered in the presence of a noble Lady at her churching 53 A discourse in the presence of a great assembly of noble Ladies of the good and euill that the tongue doth 55 A letter to a great learned maÌ„ answering to certaine demaunds 62 Demaundes and aunsweres 62 Touching the warre which a man makes against himselfe 65 Plutarch to the Emperour Traian a letter tending to instruct Princes newly raysed to principalities 68 The Emperour Traian writeth to his teacher Plutarch debating that albeit a good man may be banished yet he is not for that dishonored 70 The Emperour Traian writing to the Senate of Rome discloseth the trauels of Princes in their gouernements 71 The Senate of Rome writeth to Traian their Emperour partly to aunswere to some particulers of his former letters and with all expressing documeÌ„ts necessary to the instructioÌ„ of a Prince 75 Of the great reuerence giuen in times past to auncient men with certaine priuileges appertaining to old age 77 To a noble personage touching the difference betwene the friendship of men and loue of God. 79 In this letter is debated the difference betwene a seruaunt and a friend 81 A letter to a noble personage wherein is debated why God afflicts good men 83 The author vnder termes to reproue his friend that had charged him to haue taken out of his chamber a Pomander speaketh iustly against such persons as delite to be perfumed 85 A letter to a perticuler friend rebuking all such as offer outrage or iniurie to any that are new by conuerted to the faith of Christ calling them infidels or miscreants or by any other name of reproch 88 A letter to a nobleman touching familiarly how inconuenient it is for a man maried to haue a womaÌ„ friend besides his wife 90 A treatise of the resurrection of Iesus Christ together with an exposition of the fifth article of the Creede that he discended into hell and rose againe the third day 93 Touching the resurrection of Christ 101 Certaine meditations and considerations vppon the resurrection of Iesus Christ 103 Certaine testimonies of Pagan authors seruing to approue christian religion written in forme of a letter to a noble man. 107 The Originall of tiranny and Idolatrie together with the punishments of tirants and Idolators how Abraham was chosen chief of the Hebrewes 112 The author aunswereth a congratulation sent to him vppon the gift of a Bishopricke 117 There are no greater riches then honour nor pouertie more intollerable then infamie 120 The author modestly reprehendeth his friend for not yeelding to his request 124 A letter aduertising Parents not to be carelesse in the education of their children and that a man of honestie and vertue ought not to suffer ill resort or leude demeanor in his house 126 The author writeth to his sister seruing in the Court partly hee instructeth her how to liue in Court and partly satisfieth her request vnder a short discription of loue 127 To a noble man in consolation for the death of his daughter in law 130 A discourse written to a great Princesse of the vertues and life of the noble Queene of Zenobia 133 Touching diseases and the discommodities which old age bringeth 135 One friend writeth to another of the rage of enuie and the nature thereof 138 One friend rebuketh another for that of a gentlemaÌ„ he is become a marchant this letter tendeth to the rebuke of couetousnes 141 A letter in consolation declaring the discommodities of Anger the benefites of pacience 145 A discourse of the ages of mans life 150 A continuing of the discourse begon wherein is brought in an other opinion 153 VVhich of the opinions is most worthy 154 The conclusion of this discourse wherein the author is resolued that there be but three ages 156 Considerations for Iudges criminall expressed in a familiar letter from one friend to another wherein is vsed a necessarie authoritie of a Philosopher 167 A discourse of the antiquities of Corinth with an exposition of the prouerbe Non cuiuis contigit adire Corinthum 160 That we ought rather to present before God the loue which wee beare him then the seruices we do to him 162 A short letter partly in rebuke and partly in persuasion 165 A letter to a daintie Lady faâ—â—e sicke for the death of hir little Dogge 657 To an old gentleman enamored of a young Lady this letter toucheth the perplexities which
imprint any carrect in the same By the meaning of which commaundement we may gather that the children of Jsraell hauing dwelt many yeares with the Egipans learned of them many wicked and pernicious customes For as more then any other people they were geuen to the Mathematyke Sciences and other artes and faculties supersticious as Magicke and Nigromoncie so there was no nation that in the death of their friendes expressed greater ceremonies then the Egiptian who showed signes of stronger frendship to his friende being dead then when he liued For when eyther the Father lost his Sonne or the Sonne bereaued of his Father or any other man by death was depriued of his priuate friende they resorted forthwith to this custome to shaue the one halfe of their haire expressing therby that their frende being dead they had lost the one moytie of their hart For which cause God forbad the Hebrews to make themselues balde to the end they should not be like the Egiptian women who in the funerals of their husbands parents childrē or great frends vsed to scratch disfigure their faces with their proper nailes which custome god forbad in the womē of Jsrael least for vsing the ceremonies of the Egiptiās they stood not subiect to the scourges of Egipt the inferiour sacrificators of Egipt whē their high priestes died vsed to make certaine carrects according to their particuler fancie in their handes armes or brestes to the end that as often as they behelde them they might expresse compassion teares as also at the death of their king all the officers seruants of his house made woundes in their armes hands face or head euery one making his wound so much the déeper by how much he stood in fauor with the king But God cōmaunding the Hebrues to refraine such wilfull hurting of thēselues forbad them to imitate the Egiptians nor to folow the customs of the houshold seruants of their king for that in all those cerimonies were effects of superstiton only innouated by the deuill yea they brought hurt to such as liued were in vaine to those that were dead In the olde law God also forbad men to labor the fielde with yokes of oxen asses And to Sowe in one grounde two kindes of graine with such lyke which were not without mistery because all those customes depended vppon the Cerimonies of the Egyptans which God would not should holde any vse amongest the people of Jsraell But here we haue to note that God restrayned not men to vse sorrow and teares in the death of their frendes For as other Cerimonies are in our will eyther to doe or not doe them so sorrow and heauines for the losse or absence of a friende doe as naturallie follow flesh◠and bloud as our appetite to eate and drinke and though by reason some men may dissemble them yet by nature there are fewe that can auoyd them Therfore God that made the hart and ioyned to it his affections neuer added any law to forbid teares and wéeping séeing to the hart whose chiefest propertie consists in tendernes there can be offered nothing more intollerable or grieuous then to sée it selfe deuided frō the thing it holdes most deare the same standing good in apparant example in the experience and disposition of any two creatures who after their long conuersation together if they be seperated or their faunes enforced will imediatly according to their kinde declare their passion the Lion will roare the Cow will yeall the Swine will gront the Dog cannot but howle much more then is the condition of Man subiect to sorrow and heauines as in whom nature bréedes a more quicke and raging sence of passion for the discontinuance of their deare frendes And if we haue compassion ouer the misaduenture of a straunger or the losses of our neighbour suffering casualtie or liuing in absence are we restrained to lesse remorce for the death of our great frend whom we see put into the graue For which cause the Philosopher was of opinion that so many times did a man dye how often he loste his friendes For that since two hartes vnited in one honest affection haue but one being and place of residence it is good reason that we bewayle the death of our chosen friendes euen with the same nature and compassion which we would doe our owne The Seconde part of the discourse is drawne out of Deut. in this text Eligite ex vobis viros sapientes c. my will is sayth God that all such as aspire to the administration of publike gouernemēt shall be wise and noble This commaundement was not pronounced of God without great misterie but chiefely that gouernours should be both wise and noble for that as wisedome without noblenesse is a troublesom thing so nobility without wisedome is but as a soule without a body or as a painted fire that becomes the wall but giues no heat to the beholder Therfore as to be gouerned by a maiestrate flowing in science knowledge fayling of noblenesse is both miserable troublesome so it cannot but be intollerable to liue vnder the controulment of him to whom fortune hath geuen greatnes of place birth grace nature denied discression other temperances of the spirit so that to make vp a full perfection it is necessary the iudge haue knowlege to debate determine causes nobilitie to moderate the residue of the affections of the minde yet The wisedome which god requires in the maiestrates of his cōmon weale ought not to stretch to subtlety or tiranny but to be tempered with modestie swéetnes gracious behauiour for a iudge in the office causes of coūcel is no lesse boūd to the obseruation of the law religion faith equitie then to be voyd of all hate enuy feare couetousnes or other corrupt affectiōs it was not without cause that god cōmaūded to institute the iudges ouer his people of noble cōdition seing it is a great argument of the sewertie tranquility of the state whose magestrate is compoūded of nobilitie and modestie Therfore the first gouernour that administred the cōmonweale of god was the easie gracious Moyses whom gods prouidence led to be nourished in the court of Pharao by the kings daughter to the end that in such societie experience of so many wise and noble iudges he might learne how to entreat assure good men in their innocencie how to chastice the euill amid their wickednes the affaires of war are far different from the policie gouernemēt of a cōmonweale established for that in matters of enterprise it is méete the captaine be valiant but to gouerne at home let the magestrate expresse affabilitie swéetnes for that a ruler ought rather to be terrible in threats then in punishement so to tēper his authoritie that his people may feele his power rather with his liberality thē with iniuries And albeit it is no generall rule that all the
aduising vs by the example that to be good christians and true folowers of our redéemer it behoueth vs afore we passe out of this life to desolue breake all rankor and malice for the froward and sedicious shall haue much to endure in the other world if in this lyfe they were slow to pardon and forgeue But since the spéech which the Lord expressed vpon the crosse was so high and excellent it can not be out of purpose to dispute what good thing the Hebrews did to deserue so famous a pardon for somuch more noble and great is the remission by how much lesse there is occasion geuen to doe it In the death of our Sauiour the Hebrues offered many great and vnnaturall iniuries for the least whereof much lesse that there was merite of pardon where in the act was sufficient desert to haue them all throwne quicke into the depest bottoms of hell In the first they did not onely put him to death by malice being the man most tollerable in their common weale but they set at libertie Barrabas a common murderer of the quicke and crucified Iesus Christ which raysed from death such as suffered death if the execution had ben don in some distant village farre remoued from the Cities and resort of people the iniurie and dishonour had ben more tollerable But to their wicked Conspiracie to put him to death they ioyned a most abhominable meane and manner of execution and applying it proper to their reuenge to bring open shame to his innocencie they crucified him in the great Citie of Ierusalem where Christ stoode in state of good reputation for his sermones and had there his allies and kynred euen men of great honour and honestie In their determination to put him to death although they published the execution in Ierusalem yet if they had eyther taken the nighte or chosen some priuate house the time and place had not so apparantly detected their malice For that is more thē barbarous fiercenes where is no respect to time place nor person obseruations naturally remembred euen amongst tigers and lions in their extreamest passions of rage and furie But of the contrary at the the third hower they led him out of the Citie and the sixth they crucified him and at the ninth houre he yéelded vp the Ghost seasons wherein the day raigneth in his most clearenes and people make their comon assembles In whose sight they ought to haue forborne to haue crucified that innocent Lambe betwéene two théeues he whose race and linage was of Kinges and estéemed to be the soueraigne Prophet But to persecute him as well with ignominie as with paine they gaue him societie with Robbers and théeues to the ende the world might thinke that he was the greatest théefe of all They might lastly haue referred him to a kinde of death lesse slaunderous to heare and not so cruell to suffer but according to their insatiable malice they restrained Pilate to that election choise of death as wherein might be wrought to our Redéemer most apparance of obliquie and shame for malice being the Maystresse of iniustice sturres vp both the thoughtes and handes of men to wicked things Albeit these were the works which they did the merites for the which Iesus Christ should procure them Pardon and mercie yet in recompence of this vnworthie death and so many blasphemous wrongs Christ cryed with a pitifull voyce saying Father forgeue them for they know no what they doe Here may be brought in the saying of the Prophet speaking in the person of Iesus Christ Supra dorsum meum fabricauerunt pecatores prolongauerunt iniquitatem suam as if he had sayd I know not what I haue don against thée oh sinagog and yet thou hast ben against me from mine infancie thou hast persecuted me in my youth and in the fruite and ripenes of mine age thou hast crucified me and yet hast discharged all thy sinnes vpon my shoulders Supra dorsum meum fabricauerunt pecatores Adam was the first that layd vpon my shoulders disobedience his Wyfe Eue slouth and epicuritie Cayn his sonne Murder and slaughter the Patriarke Loth incest King Dauid adulterie Jeroboam his Sonne Idolatry and all the Sinagog so discharged vppon me her malice that where they in their wickednesse committed the crimes I vpon the Crosse payd for them the raunsome of their paines which are not onely for that they layde vppon my backe all their offences but because that assembling and heaping wickednesse vpon wickednesse they haue prolonged their iniquitie and haue not bene sorie for that they haue done but because they were hable to doe no more so that if their ioyes were great to sée my death great also was their displeasure by the meane of my resurrection Thus these miserable Hebrewes haue encreased and prolonged their iniquitie bearing enuie to the Doctrine of Iesus Christ of which enuie they conceiued hatred and of that hatred they conspired together to Crucifye him and being bolde to Crucifye him they tooke impudencie to mocke him and after they had Scorned him they denied his resurrection and so resolued into obstinacie that Iesus Christ sayde not of them without cause Expugnauerunt me a Iuuentute mea Continuinge to Persecute me euen vnto my Graue But hauing thus deduced the smale reasons of the Hebrues to put Christ to death together also with the slender occasions they gaue him to obteine there Pardon Let vs withal speake of the great bountie wherewith he recompensed their crueltie and of the vnuersall pardon which he obteyned of his Father for them wherein the circumstances deserue almost as much to be noted as the pardon it selfe Iesus Christ then well expressed his inestimable bountie in the prayer which he commended to his Father at the instant of his death requiring pardon for his enemies A thing so much the more vehemently desired of him by how much he knew it was most necessarie to them for whom he prayed Christ also felt bitterly the teares and sorrowes of his mother but that was a passion according to the nature condition of a sonne But the distruction of the Hebrues touched him in the zeale and compassion of a creator The dollors of his Mother could not stay him from dying for his enemies for that he knew that she had brought him forth in great ioye but he had redéemed the Hebrues with most bitter trauell In this also appeared his wonderfull bountie that in his Prayer he called not on the maiestie of God by the title of Lorde but by the name of Father A name truly wherin is vertue to make easie and tractable the hart of a man being appealed vnto by his Sonne Frons meretricis facta est tibi et noluisti erubescere reuertere ad me et dic Pater meus es 〈◊〉 Sayth God speaking to the Sinagogge of the Jewes by his Prophet Jeremye as if he had sayde Oh Jsraell albeit thou art so obstinate is thy
malice that thou takest no more shame of thy Sinnes then a common woman deuiding her body to straunge Fleshe yet if thou come afore me in Prayer and call me Father I will aunswere thée and acknowledge thée for my Sonne By this we haue to thinke that it was not to obteyne a small thing when he began his Prayer by this inuocation Father forgeue them yea he made offer of the same Phrase for the remission of his Enemies which he would haue done if he had prayed for the aduauncement of his best friendes But in recompence of this Wonderfull affection and Zeale that Nation replenished with malice Cryed out to Pylate to Crucifye him who refusing to committe his Innocencie to sentence and not fynding in him worthynesse of Death they cryed eftsoones Sanguis eius super nos et super Filios nostros Be not so scrupulus to Iudge an offendour saye they for if thou thinke thou doest an vniust thing let the Venggeance of his innocencie fal vpon vs and our Posteritie but from this petition Iesus Christe séemed to appeale for that as they Cryed that his bloud might be agaynst them so of the contrary he sought to make that Holy effusion profitable to them So that where they demaunded of Pylate their condemnation he Prayed to his Father for their Pardon For a man to doe no Euill to his Ennemie may very well happen to Pardon Ennemies belonges to the Office of CHRISTIANS to loue an Ennemie is the worke of a perfect man But to pardon him which would not obteyne pardon was neuer done by any but by Iesus Christ For when the Hebrewes cryed Sanguis eius super nos Christ lyft vp his voyce and zeale to his Father Pater ignosce illis There was no great distance betwéene the time of the petition of the Jewes and the Prayer of our Sauiour for as they cryed at the the third hower to haue him crucified and that the reueng of his bloud might light vpon them and theirs so at the ninth hower Christ prayed to his Father to forgeue them Oh Father sayth he let not the vengeance of my death redownd vpon them neyther stretch out thine Ire vpon this people that know not what they do for they are ignorant of the price of their demaunde and protestation that with such obstinate vehemencie they pursue to Pilate Much better then did the Apostle consider and féele this great miserie when he sayde Accessitis ad sanguinis aspersionem melius loquentem quam abell Oh wretched Hebrews and happie Oh we Christians who haue obteined pardon by the effusion of the bloud of the Sonne of God shed by your meane this spéech sure was farre otherwayes then the saying of Abell crying iustice iustice but our Sauiour sayd mercie mercie So that the iniquitie so generall and sinne so wicked as ours is had néede of such an aduocate as is Iesus Christ for who was so fitte to obtaine Pardon for our sinnes as he whose innocencie made him without sinne That God was wont to be called the God of vengeance and now is he named the Father of mercie IEsus Christ Langushing in torment and Martirdome vpon the Crosse expressed an other maner of Testament to the worlde then King Dauid who in the very passions of death charged Salomon his Sonne not to suffer the gray heares of Joab to come to the graue without bloud nor the liues of his subiects seruantes to end without reuēg yet they had not somuch as touched his garmēt to offend him where the Lord would not cease to purchase pardō euen for those by whose violēt hāds was wrought the effect of his death Deus vltionum dominus deus vltionum saith Dauid speaking of the iustice of god thou Lord art the god of reuenge since that from the instant that we commit the offence it is thou that thondrest punishment vpon vs yea thou art so called because of the feare that the world hath of thée that thou dealest with the generations of men in so great rigor with the auncients he was called the God of reuenge for the immediatly that Adam had transgressed he was chased out of the earthly paradise the regions of the earth by the vniuersalflud were drowned the two cities by his rigor subuerted the faction of Aron and Abiram consumed the idolators that offred worship to the calfe cōmitted to death the théefe of Hiericho stoaned and the host of Senacherib ouerthrowne yea without offring wrong to any he did iustice to all That god in those times was the god of vēgeāce appeareth in the actiō on the moūt Raphin whē the Hebrues demaūded of Moyses to geue them flesh to eate which tourned to their great domage for that they had scarcely begon to tast the flesh of the quailes falling in their host whē loe the indignation of the lord slew such multitudes of them that the scripture forbears to expresse the nomber The reuēge of the offence of the king Abimelech denying the Jsraelites to passe thorow his coūtries was it not executed thrée hūdreth years after the falt in the raign of Saule to whō god said I kepe remēbrāce of the smal regard which Abimelech gaue to my cōmaundements stopping the passage of my people thorow his realmes against whom looke that thou rise arreare thine armie cut in péeces all his people sparing neither man woman nor beast by which example with many others of equall continuance and equitie the men of the world may perceiue how déepe and vnsearchable are the iudgmentes of god who somtimes punish the ymediat offender oftentimes transferreth the correction vpon such onely as discende of their race So that he punisheth no man without desert and therfore not without mistery is he called by the Prophet the God of reuenge because that albeit he vseth to dissemble for sometime our transgessions committed against his maiestie yet they are not parpetually forgotten with him The same God that the Hebrues had and worshipped in those times doe the Christians hold at this day as true and soueraigne Lord of whom the Apostle yéeldes better testimonie to the Church then did Dauid to the sinagog For Dauid called him the God of vengeance and the Apostle honoureth him by the name of Father of mercie and consolation wherin as Dauid was not without some occasion to ascribe vnto him that surname title so the Apostle also had better reason to inuocate him in the phrase of mercifull father for that in that law of rigor feare God had a propertie to chastise people nations where in this law of grace he visiteth vs in affection mercy whereby hauing chaunged custome he hath also ioyned vnto him an other propertie of name title being now worthely called the father of mercy according to his many examples of mercie pitie expressed vpon many sinners as vpon S. Mthew in remitting his vseries vppō Mary Magdaline in pardoning her vanities vpō
the Samartiayne in forgeuing her adulteries vpon the théefe in purging his theftes vpon S. Peter that had denied him and vpon the wretched Hebrues that conspired his death Oh mercifull Iesus delight of our soules since the time is past wherein thy father was named the God of reuenge the season come wherein he is called vpon by the name of father of mercies we besech thée oh sauiour of the race of man to haue pitie vppon our soules amend our liues we that are thy brethern members of thy church and since in losing our selues we lose much the meane of our safetie stands onely in thy goodnes pardon vs according to thy holy custome propertie of thy nature oh creator of all things redéemer of al faultes since thou hast spoken by thy Prophete J will not the death of a sinner but that he liue and bee conuerted Beholde vs Oh Lorde in thy presence and conuerted to thée Receaue vs Oh infinit and perpetual God as our Father and pardon vs as thy childrē and as we confesse with humilitie Tibi solipecauimus so let it be thy pleasure to saye to thy Father Pater ignosce illis he was called in the olde law the God of reuenge because his will was that there should be restitutiō of eye for eye tooth for tooth and hande for hand But in the law of grace he is called Father of mercy for that he hath cōmaunded to render loue for hate honour for infamy clemencie for cruelty pardon for iniurie Locuti sunt aduersum me lingua dolosa et odio circundiderunt me expugnauerunt me gratis ego autem orabam sayth Dauid speaking in the person of Iesus Christ Oh sinagog full well doe I know that thou canst worke me no more euil then thou hast already don for thou hast hated me with thy hart blasphemed me with thy tonge killed me with thy hands in recompence of these deadly wrongs I prayed to my father for thée with vehement humilitie called vpon him to heare my praier This Prophecie sure as it was pronoūced by Dauid both king Prophet so hath it also ben accomplished by Iesus Christ For at the time when they crucified him with nailes torments at the instāt when they blasphemed him with their tongues at the season when they helde his Prophets in derision ▪ yea when he licored the earth with his bloud and opened the heauens with his tears euen then did he pray with great cōpassion to his father to pardon them oh wonderfull boūtie of our sauiour who seing euen frō the crosse his greatest enemies Quod loquuti sūt aduersum illum quod odio circundiderūt without occasiō expugnauerūt illū yet he praied for thē as if they had ben frée exempt from fault great is the action of this boūty ouerpassing the reach of man and exceding the iudgment of Angels and yet a worke right worthie of the Lorde betwéene whose holy intentions and Wicked working of his Ennemies is expressed no small difference For that for loue they rendred hate they appoynted him prisoner where he purchased their deliuery they accused him where he excused them they persented him afore Pilate where he offered them to God his father yea where he desired to haue them pardoned they procured to sée him crucified so that in this he expresseth a greater zeale to them then they can beare to themselues for that he holdeth the offender absolued demaūdes pardon of his Father afore the falt he confessed They prepared gal and vineger to present him in the passion of death and sharped their launce to pearce his sydes and yet he besought his father to remit the punishemēt afore they had actually commited the sinne if the sonne of God would haue demaunded any other thing of his Father the present view and estate of his martirdome ministred sufficient occasion for he might haue desired of his Father to remoue the panges of his passion or to ease the paines of his fleshe pearced thorow with nailes to take his enemies from his presence to preuent the obloquie to suffer betwéene two théeues or lastly he might haue demaūded that after his death to his body might be ioyned a sepulcher But to requestes of such nature the sauiour of the world séemed to cary small regard lesse expectation of cōfort or ease to his owne distresse no he estéemed it a thing far more worthy of him an act of greater charity to require pardō for his enemies rather thē to séek solace for his presēt sorowes or be careful for his pains to com ech redéemer of the world let it please thée we besech thée that as in the act of the holy sacrifice celebrated by thée vpō the crosse thou prayedst for thine enemies besought thy father to pardō thē that euen by the same boūty thou wouldst also vouchsafe to prai to thi father for vs particularly saying pater ignosce illis for albeit we were not of the nōber of those that crucified thée yet we ar not exempt frō trāsgressing thy commaundementes and are euen with the first that haue offended thée it suffised not Christ to saye onely Pater ignosce illis but in excusing them he added Nesciunt Quid faciunt Oh Father sayth he forgeue them as people that know not the harme that they doe in putting me to death and as men ignorant of the displeasures that wil happen for want that they haue not knowne me vouchsafe to supplie the fault of their ignoraunce Quia nesciunt quid faciunt Rightly spake the Lorde of them when he sayd They know not what they doe for ignorance was to them knowledg that by his bloud should be a appaised the wrath of the Father the seats eftsoones replenished which were made voyd by the offence of the wicked Angels the olde sinne of Adam defaced the vniuersall world redéemed This was an assured argument of their ignorance for that they put to death the sonne of God the inheritour of eternitie the workeman of the world the lord of angels he which is not only iust but iustice it selfe truly they knew not what they did since the time will come wherin shal be redemaūded of thē the blood of the innocent their citie destroyed layd open to spoyle their riche temple reuersed their sacrifices confoūded their law take end yea vntill the reuolution of the world they shall wander as vagabounds without law without king Nesciunt quid faciunt for by the effusion of that precious bloud the Church hath succéeded the smagog Iesus Christ taken place of Moyses baptim supplanted circumcision the Apostles succeded the Prophets the olde testament the new the crosse of Iesus Christ abollished the serpent of brasse the sacraments of the Church defaced the olde sacrifices so that as they toke away the lyfe of Iesus christ with paines on the crosse so in the same he put end to their sinagog
therewith haue made seruice offerings to the Lord Multiplicati sunt super capilos capitis mei et cor meuÌ„ dereliquit me I am falne into that age sayth Dauid that I haue no more sight remaining Mine enemies haue enuironed me my frends are dead my sinnes haue made me fall my good daies are now drawne to end so that my grieffes sorrows perplexities are mo in nomber then my hears but my greatest heauinesse of all is that my hart hath forsaken me wholoaseth his eyes the other particuler parts of his body together with all his goods can not but loase right dear great things but he that loaseth his hart loaseth assuredly all that can remaine or aperteine to a man For that within the wombe of our mothers the hart is the first that engendereth taketh lyfe and the last that dissolueth and vanisheth to death So that lyke as so longe as our hartes leaue vs not we may both loue feare and serue God so also if the hart loase his vigor and géeue vs ouer assuredly we haue neyther power nor facultie to Fast Praye or perseuer in Breath And therefore according to Saynt Hierom it is a great gyfte of GOD to be endued wyth a Constant and Valiant mynde as on the other syde to haue fayntnesse of hart and Pusillanimytye canne not but beare Testimonye and Prooffe of great Punnishement Audi popule Audi qui non habes cor sayth GOD by his Prophete Jeremie heare my voyce Oh generation of Jsraell and hearken to my wordes Oh People of the Hebrues I call thée Foole because thou art wythout harte yea I saye thou hast no harte because thou art a foole wher the Prophet in this phrase charged the people to haue no hart he imposed vpon them infidelitie as though they had neither fayth nor belefe in Iesus Christ the true god because the lyke as when the hart dyeth the life dissolueth euen so by Christ aspiring vpon the Crosse the sinagog tooke ende So that the Prophete was not without great reason to call the Hebrues Fooles men without hart séeing the testimony of so many miracles suffised them not much lesse were they satisfied with the nomber of benefites blessings with infinit Sermons perfourmed by our sauiour Iesus Christ all tending to make them Christians and yet wrought small impression in them by reason of their slender knowledge and great follie Euen so according to morrall phrase when we say any man hath want of hart it is asmuch as if we should charge him not to haue Iesus christ in his spirit for that as vndertaking to doe any good worke Iesus Christ is he that geues vs hart puts vs in reason euen so by good conclusion that man we may saye is depriued of reason and vnfurnished of hart which loues not Christ thinkes not on Christ serues him not feareth him not and hopes not in him So that in the Lawe of GOD to call a man without hart is no other thing then to saye he hath a body without a soule Omni custodia custodi cor tuum sayth the Wise man euery one ought to kéepe and double garde his hart to the ende it be not defiled by the fleshe oppressed of the worlde deceaued by the Deuill and that it be not altogether exercised by his fréende nor outraged by his enemie For that euen so much and no more haue wée in Iesus Christ then we geue vnto him Possession and place in our harte Wherein according to the measure of our confidence in GOD shall we finde recompence and retribution in him Yea if we geue our selues altogether to him he wyll assuredly be wholy ours So that all those thinges which the Lord geues vnto vs being holy harty or vnfained it belonges to vs the better to Prepare our offeringes to God euen from our hartes fixed in our harte vnfaynedly to touche our hart to kéepe our hartes alwayes replenished wyth Holy desires and enuironed with good thoughts For which occasion it suffised not the wiseman to bid vs simplie kepe our hartes but he enioyned vs to a double and diligent garde the better to aduertise vs that as the Eyes may be preserued by their Eyeliddes the mouth defended by the lippes the féete and handes kept from harme by Armour Gauntlets and a mans treasure holden from the Théefe vnder Locke and Key So there can nothing in this world suffise to forbid an ambicious minde to thinke and desire And so falling eftsoones vppon our first matter I saye that much doth that man offer to God that offereth his hart as also what hath he more to lose that loseth his hart the same appearing in the conuersion of this good théefe who euen as he hanged vppon the crosse because he offered to God onely his hart founde this recompence to be caryed into the eternall Tabernacle of God and communicate in his glorie Let then the example of this théefe stande before vs all that notwithstanding we haue not handes Féete Eyes Siluer Golde precious Iewels or clothes to offer to God yet let vs not be troubled or gréeued For who hath not these thinges in his power let him not doubt to be acceptable to the Lord if he present his hart replenished with holy desires The Sister of Moyses was diseased Moyses himselfe Stutted Tobyas was Blinde Mimpheboseph was Lame Zacharias the Priest was Dumbe yet these imperfections hindred not these men to be holy vertuous yea God called some of them to the function ministerie of his will If we haue our hartes whole holy sound the Lord obserues little the state of our other members no he makes no care whether they be perfect or putrified for this théefe in his senteÌ„ce of condemnation death had his limmes brused broken his mouth his eyes whole body crucified but his hart only reteining integritie he offred it to his sauiour and by his â—…yth constancie purchased the benefit of saluation And albeit in so small a respit of time in so quicke sharpe torments in so greuous apprehension of the dollors and terrors of death suffered by this théefe on the Crosse he coulde perfourme no great penaunce expresse no varietie or copie of spéeche or vtter apparant remorse by sighes sorrowe or publike contrition yet for that to his passions he ioyned greatnesse and constancie of harte wyth fayth and deuotion to GOD The Lorde dyd accept not onely that which he dyd then but also what he would haue done if he had not ben preuented by death How wickedly the euill THEEFE spake hanging on the Crosse THe Wicked Théefe speaking to Iesus Christ sayd if thou be that same Christ that is the sonne of God deliuer thy selfe from death and vs from this Passion of torments Oh cursed impudencie to pronounce such Horrible blasphemie against the maiestie of our Sauiour For albeit the Sonne of God was committed to the Crosse and
in the Companie of Robbers dyd suffer a slaunderous Death yet it was not for the he had any communitie with the offences of the théeues and much lesse suffered for his proper crimes but for the Sinnes of the Worlde Quae non rapui tunc exsoluebam I make sayth Christ by the Prophete satisfaction for the faltes done by others others haue eaten the Apple and yet I paye the price of it Though I haue committed no Crime yet mine innocencie is put to punishement Yea where others haue troubled the commonweale I am committed to iustice and hauing no nature or effect of offence in me yet I passe vnto death for the sinnes of the whole Worlde Right iust was the occasion of our Sauiour to holde such argument For that if they crucifyed him vnder a most smarting and infamous death it was not for that he had deserued it but to the ende that by it mankinde should be redéemed This théefe sayd not with sewertie that he was Christ and therefore by making wicked doubt question whether he were the sonne of God or not he deserued not with his companion to be made a Christian But the good théefe making no doubt of his omnipotencie sayde absolutly Lorde haue remembrance of me and therefore was not onely adopted to Christianitie but also there was ioyned to his fayth recompence of eternall saluation In the same maner S. Peter said not if thou be Christ I wil beleue in thée but he protested in bolde fayth and cryed J beleue that thou art the Sonne of the euerliuing God For who will receaue the grace and blessing of God his fayth ought to be without scrupull or doubt he that wil obteine any thing of god saith the Apostle it apperteines to him to aske it with a faith that is not doubtful for if God giue vs not forthwith that which we demaunde of him it is more for that we know not how to aske him then that he is harde to grauÌ„t our requests Let it then be farre from vs to say with the wicked théefe If thou be Chrict saue thy selfe and vs also but let vs rather with the Blinde man of Hierico say Oh sonne of Dauid haue pitie vpon vs For so shall we be made to sée with the blinde man and not caried into damnation wyth the Théefe Who in saying to Christ Salua te met ipsum et nos thought to perswade him to leaue the Passions of the Crosse and put himselfe in libertie and deliuer him from death For this was the opinion of this wicked théefe that euen as Pilate put on him the senteÌ„ce of death for his thefts and roberies euen so also there was no lesse guiltinesse in Christ as béeing vntruely holden a Seducer of the People and a man contrarie to the common Weale And therefore he thought that as the Terrors of Death made him vnwilling to dye so also there remayned in Christ a desire to lyue longer Wherein his error was so much the greater by how much he considered not that ther was necessitie of Christs death for the redemtioÌ„ of the world for which cause though he wished to liue loÌ„ger yet our sauiour desired the present stroke of death according to his owne words to his disciples Desiderio desideraui hoc pasâ—ha manducare vobiscuÌ„ at other times sayth he I haue celebrated with you this feast the which at this preseÌ„t I esteme to be truly passeouer in holy scripture The doubling and reiteration of a worde is a signe of vehement and great desire the which was wel expressed in the zeale of our sauiour who by this phrase Desiderio desideraui published manifestly that he had no lesse desire to dye for vs then most desirous to redéeme vs For of that nature was his thirst and desire to ouercome our perpetuall death that he expected nothing more then the houre wherein he might employ for vs his most holy and vndefiled lyfe There was great similitude and likenes betwéene the blasphemie of this wicked théefe and the request of the Jewes who willed him to descend from the crosse and they would all beléeue in him wherevnto if our sauiour had condiscended and abandoned the agonies of the crosse al the world had stand crucified with death sinne and the perpetuall perplexities of Hell Oh wicked théefe Oh people hardened and obstinate if Christ had come down from the crosse according to your requestes or if he had deuided himselfe from the paines of death following the blasphemous motion of the condemned théefe much lesse that it had bene happie with any sort of people but of the contrary Hell had bene alwayes open for you and the gates of Paradise perpetually closed agaynst our posterities For the Lorde came not to descende but to mount and ascende not to eschew the crosse but to dye vpon it Cum exaltatus fuero a terra omnia traham ad me ipsum sayth our Lorde Iesus Christ Because now I goe Preaching from one countrey to an other and that I haue my ryches dispersed you cannot haue knowledge of my might nor of the vertue and benefites that are in my power But when you sée me elected and chosen to the crosse euen in the same place shall be my treasure This spéech truely is of great admiration for the good sort and leaues no little feare to the wicked Omnia traham ad me ipsum by the which we are instructed that who will obteine any thing of Iesus Christ ought to aske it vpon the crosse For neuer was the Lorde so liberall as when he was Crucifyed at no time so rych as when he was Naked nor at any time so mighty as when he was condemned to death All these treasures did Christ bring with him from heauen to earth and from the earth he recaryed them with him to the trée of his suffering and being there he dispersed them through out the worlde so that he that is found most neare the crosse of our sauiour on him is bestowed the most plentifull rewarde it was on the crosse that he recomded his soule to his Father his Church to S. Peter to Nicodemus his body and to the good théefe the ioyes of Paradise it was on the crosse where he commaunded the Sunne to hyde his lyght the stoanes to breake the vayle of the Temple to rent the graues to open and the dead to ryse agayne which carieth an assured Testimonie that in his death was wrought the effect of our lyfe it was on the crosse that he spake to his Father gaue comfort to his mother had remembrance of his Disciple pardoned the beléeuing théefe and illumined the centurion to the end he might know Iesus christ to be the redéemer and confesse himselfe a sinner it was on the crosse where his side was opened his bloud shed where he shewed most plentifully his charitie expressed most myldly his patience and vsed greatest clemencie Yea it was the place where his death tooke ende and our redemption receaued beginning Lastly
deserue to be chastised and matters that ought to be dissembled So it can not but happen to the furious man that in place to appease and couer iniuries he will of himselfe thunder reproches agaynst the parties But now after the daungers and domages that come by Anger it apperteynes to reason and congruencie to exhibite a fewe remedies to Cure or qualifie those moodes In all our affayres and actions it is good to fore sée both what may happen to vs and what may be sayde of vs For so shall we be Armed that albeit men geue vs cause to be Angrye yet they shall haue no power to make our passion furious And therfore the same néede that the poore man hath of Riches and the Foole of Wisedome the same necessitie hath the harte of patience For béeing Subiect to many Afflictions and the troubles no lesse that assayle him together wyth the daungers that depende on them wthout comparison many mo be the thinges which he ought to suffer in patience then that are Lawfull for him to reuenge wyth his Tongue And if of euery wronge that is done to vs and of euery aduersitie that is naturall to our condition we should reteyne special accompt and reckoning our hands would neuer cease to reuenge our Tongue weary with complayning and our hart wasted and broken with sighing For what man béeing a member of this miserable lyfe to whom is not one equall desire that his dayes and troubles might dissolue together Men béeing so ouergrowne wyth vices and so deuoured wyth affayres and businesses it is maruell that since they are so slow to cutte of their cares and troubles that the waues of their proper aduersities doe not rise and swallowe them vp And if the Phisitions ordeined to cure infirmities of the body would binde themselues to heale the sorows of the hart they should in particuler haue more patients mustering afore their gates then in times past were inhabitantes in Rome when it was best replenished For so naturall is the sickenesse of trouble and vexation that though many eschew it yet few haue power to liue long exempt frō it What is he either past present or to come who in his body hath not felt some paine and in his hart some passion hath not suffered some losse or spoile of his goodes or infamye to his person or at least who can walke so vpryghtlye to whome is not done some Iniurye or some Scorne or Reproache spoken But he that is Vexed wyth all these Aduersities and wyll make Headde agaynste them and Remedye them Let hym bée assured that euen then shall he laye the plotte of the ende and dispatch of his life when he begins to put order to these incurable harmes For as there is no Sea without working no Warre without daunger nor Iourney without trauell Euen so that there is no worldly lyfe voyde of troubles nor any estate without stombling blockes it is most apparant in this that there liues no man so happie which hath not wherin to be greued and wherupon to complaine For how many doe we sée whom Pryde makes fal Enuie consumes Anger torments Pouertie wasteth and Ambicion endeth their dayes so that for the most part such is the miscontentment of our mindes that our aduersities traueling our spirites in Martirdome driue vs to wishe rather an honest death then to languishe in so troblesome a lyfe And so if we will accomplishe this commaundement To be angrie and sinne not let vs in accidentes which the world fortune and nature bring vpon vs dissemble some suffer some conceale some and remedie the rest and in all thinges let vs follow reason and flée opinion For such as enter into Religion SVch as be Religious or aspire to the office and ministerie of the Church ought to haue alwaies afore their eyes the wordes which God spake to Abraham saying Depart out of thy Countrey and from amongest thy frendes and goe into the lande which I shall shewe thée and abyde where I commaunde thée For vnder these wordes shall they finde comprehended all that God doth for them and lykewise that which they are bounde to doe for the seruice of god Abraham being in the house of Tara his father and Aran and Achor his Bretherne Chaldees and Idolators God appeared vnto him and bad him leaue his Countrey and Parentes and goe where he would guide him and rest where he would commaund him and in recompence of this obedience sayth God I will make thée Lord ouer great nombers of people and will so geue thée my blessing as thou shalt for euer remaine blessed Out of these wordes may be gathered foure things which God commaunded Abraham and other foure things which God promised him So that as a Lorde he teacheth him in what he ought to serue him and withall tels him what rewarde he will geue him for his seruice Afore God called Abraham it was not founde that there was any vertue in him and much lesse that he had done any seruice to God only the scriptures make mencion that he was of the generation of Saruth and sonne af Tara and had to his Brother Aran which all were Gentils and Idolators Cassianus sayth that of thrée sorts be called those that come to the perfection of Religion One sort God calles by holy inspirations an other sort is chozen of men by good councels The thirde sort is constreyned to enter into Religion by some necessitie or misaduenture happened to them So that albeit the perfection of Religion be alwayes one yet the meanes to come thereunto are many The first function or estate is called deuine and consistes as is sayd in this when the great goodnes of God so toucheth the hart of a man that he leaueth that which he doth and doth that which he ought estraunging his minde from worldly thinges and raysing it to deuine and heauenly contemplations The seconde is called humaine or worldly as when any wicked liuer is tourned to God by the councell of some good man as Hippolito was conuerted to the Fayth by the instructions of S. Laurence The thirde vocation may be called constrayned or by necessitie as when a man of dissolute conuersation and falling into aduersitie is conuerted to God And as these be the thrée manners of calling and meanes to enter into Religion so if they be wel considered I sée not how the first oftentimes eyther doth much profite nor the last much hinder for more or lesse to serue God in religion For there haue bene many of those which God hath called to Religion condemned and many others which came to serue him by force haue ben saued Christ called and chused to the Colleadge of his Disciples the cursed Judas and the Apostle S. Paule being reuersed and falne from his Horse necessitie compelled him to know Iesus Christ So that Judas being exalted fell and S. Paule being falne was exalted This I bring in this place to the ende that none estéeme much or
yea the souereigne delight of mortal folks is the solace of their lyfe and the greatest terror they suffer is the opinion and conceit of death Beastes exercize generation fruites returne séedes to their planter corne yéeldes his graine of increase and birds leaue egges in their nestes And all for no other reason then that knowing they can not alwayes liue they leaue others to liuein their place yea for no other purpose doe men beasts eate drinke sléepe and execute their other naturall actions then therby the more to preserue and pamper lyfe and with more securitie to prolong and shyft of death And for that in generall experience nature loues her conuersation and abhorreth all thinges hurtfull to her increase we sée there is nothing more comforts the man that is sicke then when he is tolde that he may eate of what his appetite lykes best euen so there is no worde that doth more amaze or mortifye him then when he is put in remembrance of his mortalitie and to prepare his conscience for with one woorde he hath sewertie of lyfe and wyth an other he heareth his sentence of death Whereof was verifyed a right true experience in the good king Ezechiell to whom in one houre in one house and to one person euen to himselfe was pronounced by the Prophete Esay that he was condemned to death and that GOD had eftsoones giuen him Pardon So that hauing deserued by the grauitie of his sinnes that GOD should take his lyfe from him God afterwardes through the fulnes of his mercie and consideration of his teares and repentance found occasion to pardon his death how incensat and rude soeuer any creature is yet we sée he hath iudgment to eschew the fire that burnes him to auoyd the Laborinth made to his distruction not to clime with desperate perill those high rockes from whose tops is present effect of death whereunto by what other reason is he induced then to preserue life which he holdeth deare flée death which nature teacheth him to feare The brute beast fléeth death and yet he is of a condition not to iudge of the worthines solace of life but to man nothing is more deare then life of al other thinges he holdeth death in most terror for that liuing he knoweth what he is being dead he cannot tel what shal become of him since after death there is no restitution no more then a trée once hewen downe can be eftsoons replanted Frendship the office of societie require that we wish to our frends much habilitie might power but with a greater affection we wish them long life yea this stands in common regard with vs all rather to séeke to prolong our lyfe thē encrease our welth not to make a greater care to augment our treasor then to continue our dayes which being true what a wonderfull prouidence of God nature is this that the confidence of life death consistes only in the tong who hath the same office in the administration of the life of man which is incidēt to the portall or wyket of a great palaice thorow the which do enter al things that we eat vse by the other do issue all that we thinke and speake So that it holdes good conformatie with the saying of the Wiseman that lyfe and death are in the power of the tongue since lyfe is at the portall of our Palaice readie to depart when death striking on the hamor of our conscience séekes to enter yea there is no part of our bodie wherein we stande more subiect to daunger of lyfe and death then in our mouth and tongue for that they being the open gates of the tower and truncke of the bodie lyfe may go out without speaking and death hath libertie to enter without knocking Habemus thesaurum in vasis fictilibus sayth S. Paule as if he had sayde Oh what payne haue Christians to beare in féeble and frayle vessels such precious treasures as fayth in the vnderstanding charitie in the will pietie in the handes loue in the hart chastetie in the bodie and lyfe and death in the tongue Yea they are vertues infused into vessels corrupt and appoynted to consociate members putrifyed who being so daungerous to be managed and most easie to be broken what suretie or gard is there to the lyfe when in the mouth is found no gouernement and to the tongue is denied the gyfte of secrecie For hauing no boanes to controule it nor senewes to restrains it what science or meane hath it to doe that we commaunde it or how can it reteine and kéepe secret thinges which are referred to his trust and confidence Therefore to the man that feareth death and desireth long lyfe it is necessarie he minister gouernement to his tongue lest he know not how to prolong his lyfe and much lesse finde out where vpon his death may come Salomon then sayde wisely that death and lyfe were in the power of the Tongue Meaning that as to some men the tongue hath saued their lyfe so in others wicked speach hath wrought the occasion of their death For that to a Noble minde an iniurious worde doth more hurt then a great cutte or wounde of a swoorde on the bodie of a barbarous or rude man And to proue by many examples and figures in the Scripture the operation of the tongue in the action of lyfe and death we reade that Cayn béeing asked of God why he had slaine his Brother Abell In place to repent him of the fact and aske Pardon of God he sayde that his fault was greater then that Gods mercie could forgeue it against whom S. Augustine cryeth vehemently that much lesse that the mercie of the Lord could be inferior to the fault of Cayn séeing that to pardon and forgeue is a thing proper to God and to reuenge and punishe is farre estranged from his nature So that there is no doubt but greater was the offence of Cayn in the wordes he sayd then in the Murder he did since if with the stroake of the swoorde he tooke away the lyfe of his Brother by the Blasphemie of his tongue he gaue death to his soule To kil his Brother was euil done but to dispaire in Gods mercie was euen a transgression of the deuill for that more doe we offende God to estéeme him without mercie then in any other sinne we commit against his maiestie Some of the Jewes Crucified Iesus with torments and some with their tongues in whom I thinke was déeper effect of sinne then in the rest that pearced his bodie with nayles For that they layd their handes on him by ignorance but the other fylled their tongues with false testimonie Blasphemed Crucifyed him by malice It is written in the Prophete Esay discoursing vppon the fall of Lucipher Quia dicebat in corde suo in coelum conscendam et super astra dei c. Because thou hast sayd Oh Lucipher that thou
wouldest mount vp to the highest Empire of heauen and there erect thy Throane and be lyke to the most high and mightie God it was good iustice that thou shouldest fall from that thou wast since thou aspirest to be that thou oughtest not yea in thy ouerwéening expressed in Proude and Arrogant wordes was wrought the reason and effect of thy wretched fall wherein let all men be warned to take héede what they saye what they doe and what they thinke since Lucipher was not throwne from the seate where he sate euen into the bottomlesse Pitte where he fell but for the disdainefull wordes which he spake and arrogant thoughtes he conceiued So that as his weening defaced him in heauen so through his wickednes was he recommended to Hel. Senacherib King of the Assirians and a great Blasphemer against the omnipotencie of God preparing a mightie Armie against Jerusalem sent his Heralds to King Ezechias with this sommonce Non te seducat deus tuus in quo fiduciam habes non enim poterit vos quis de manu mea eripere Take héede King Ezechias sayth he and be not abused in confidence and opinion that the ayde of thy God or the power of thy huge Armie are hable to protect thée from the stroake of my hande for that I will compell thée eftsoones to communicate in the tribute and subiection of thy Auncesters But so God kindled in indignatioÌ„ against these arrogaÌ„t threats that euen afore he had done any pillage or murder in the countrye and in the beginning of the Siege afore Hierusalem beholde the Angall of the Lorde killed in one night a Hundreth and fourscore Thousande men of his Armie and himselfe fléeing to his Citie of Niniue was there slaine by his owne children loasing in this sort through the wickednesse of his tongue his Honor his hoast his Kingdome and his Sinfull lyfe where many other Princes of the Assirians Perses Meades and Egiptians afore him notwithstanding they executed great cruelties ouer the common weals of the Hebrues yet they made warres with their weapons and kept their tongues in rest and therefore were punished with more fauor then most wicked Senacherib Therefore amongst Princes in Kingdomes magistrates in publyke office and Prelates in their congregations as it is a thing of most equitie that they doe iustice so is it no lesse vnséemely to be Blasphemers or wicked speakers since oftentims men doo more accompt of iniurious words spoken against them then of the punishment that is layd vpon them And neyther for the Prince in his kingdome nor the generall in the Camp nor to the church man in time of peace can it be any way conuenient to be proude in their conuersations lesse byting in their woordes The kindred of Cayn sonnes of the Patriarke Noe sayd they would build a tower whose toppes should aspire to heauen to saue them from the surie of the fludde if God sent any vpon the earth Wherein as they imagined that in their handes laye the power too auoyd death and not in the might of God to take from them their lyfe So we haue assuredly to holde it a great Misterie that for so great an offence GOD would not Punishe them in their persons nor spoyle their goodes nor reuerse their Cyties and much lesse take from them their vices but onely he Chastised them in their Tongues agaynst whose Pryde and Arrogancie it is a good argument that GOD boare a greater displeasure then agaynst the Huge Tower they had erected For that if he hadde not more dispized theyr conspyring Tongues then theyr suttle Buyldinges he would rather haue defaced theyr Tower then confuzed and Chaunged theyr Languages Before these Cursed BABILONIENS drewe into Councell to Buylde this Tower the whole Worlde spake but one sort and Phrase of Language But GOD séeing the disposition of People and Nations declining too doe Wickedly tooke from them the manner of speaking where if it had so pleased him he might haue drowned them as he dyd the Armye of Pharao or stricken them Blynde as he dyd the Sodomites or haue Burnt then quicke as he dyd the Children of Aaron But according too the Custome of his Iustice since wyth theyr Tongues they had disobeyed him he prouided that in their Tongues more then in any other thing was published their Punishement Oh that men in these times would looke vppe too the iustice which God thundred vpon Babylon so should they forget to Murmure forbeare to blaspheame yea if the impression of those threats would take place in their minds I doubt not but the backbiters would turne their tongs from slaunder al men cease to sinne yea if the consideration of Gods iustice stood afore the secret conscience iudgments of princes they would not be so subiect to flatterie although the time is now growne to this corruption that who cannot flatter is estéemed eyther malicious or proude Such is the danger of the tong that if it be not restrained to order limit it hath a naturall libertie to speake euen to our owne hurt And the spéech being none other thing than the image figure of the minde there is no lesse necessitie of temperance councel in the controlement of our tong then to gouerne our conscience There is no other member apperteyning to man wherein we haue a more facilitie to offende then in the tongue by whose vnbridled swiftnes we are often times caried into voices souÌ„ding euen to our proper harms as happened to the Amalechite that brought Dauid the first newes of the death of Saule I come from the Camp of the Hebrues sayth he bring thée tydinges that thy auncient enemie king Saule is dead wherof these eyes are true witnesses for that these handes slewe him obeying his owne request But Dauid notwithstanding he was deliuered of an enemie could not but disdaine the boldnes of the messenger to lay violent handes vpon the Lords anoynted and therefore he gaue this sentence of him Let thy bloude be vpon thine owne heade since thy mouth hath condemned thy life and thy selfe hast spoken against thy selfe saying J haue killed the anointed of the Lord whose garmeÌ„t thou oughtest not so much as to touch and much lesse spoyle the libertie of his life Here Dauid did not iustice vpon this messengere so much for the murder he had done as for that he made vaunt and glorie of it So that as he slewe Saule wyth the sworde so also he Killed himselfe wyth his proper Tongue And albeit in respect of the Auncient Quarrell and Warres betwéene Saule and Dauid this poore Amalechite had thought to haue béene the bringer of gladde Tydinges and for recompence to haue receiued great aduauncement yet greater was the consideration of Dauid to reuenge the offenâ—â—â—â—…ne against God then eyther to reioyce in the newes or regard the commodities that grue to him by the death of King Saule Wherein by somuch was his perfection and charitie greater
to rise againe So prouident is the Lorde ouer the vertuous sayth the Prophete and so carelesse to the sinner that if the iust man swimme vpon the mayne Sea he will not suffer him to be drowned Where the wicked walking vpon the firme Lande shall fall headlong into wels and déepe pittes which the Scripture doth conster to that foule and huge enormitie of sinnes of the which he hath no power to repent All this I haue written vpon the occasion of the sins wherein King Dauid fell who notwithstanding vsed suche diligence to rise againe and from the time of his restitution so labored to liue in Gods feare that albeit he was brused with his fall yet he was not greatly hurt Immediatly then that the Lorde aduertised Dauid by the Prophet Nathan that he was so much kindled agaynst him both for the Adulterie and Murder that he would sende vppon him punishment according to the greatnesse of his falt The good King lift vp his hart and handes to the Lorde and cried Peccaui and confessing himselfe to be an abhominable sinner he rent the heauens with his sighes and watered the earth with his infinit teares wherin it is not to be doubted but that the exercize of so vnfayned repentaunce and confession of his falt was a great degrée to his forgiunesse He willed not the Prophete to dispute with God and saye on his behalfe that he was frayle or that the Deuil had deceiued him or that it was a sinne humaine But he aspiring to the mercie of God exhibited confession of his fault saying Tibi soli peccaut et malum coram te feci Wherein in not séeking to iustifie his fault he founde forgiuenesse of his trespasse Here may be gathered to the comfort of all good Christians that after Dauid had sinned he went not so soone to searche God as God was readie to receiue him whose prouidence perfection is such ouer his chozen that though they fall in any notorious Crime yet he suffereth them to haue no perseuerance in it according to the experiēce of his heauenly bountie expressed vpon S. Mathew and S. Paule whom Christ searched with the blind man neare the highe way with others of whom the Scripture giues testimonie that Christ searched them Then let all Christians confesse the wonderfull clemencie of God who euen in our negligence goeth out to séeke vs though we praye him not yet he prayeth vs and where we forget to call to him he fayles not to call vpon vs so that if we loase our selues and be the instruments of our owne destruction it is not so much for that we haue sinned as for that after our transgression we will not beléeue Let vs therefore take pleasure to heare when God calles vs Let vs be glad to be founde when the Lord searcheth vs Let vs be readie to folow whē he guides vs Let vs be willing to beléeue when he takes from vs all deceyt And let vs thinke vs happie to serue him when he is disposed to pay vs our hire Yea since he is so liberall and pitifull towardes vs let vs with the councell of S. Paule Go with confidence to the throane of his grace For séeing he went to séeke Dauid who had offended him let vs beléeue that he will be founde and entreated of any that is his true seruant the conditions of the house of God being such that as none are compelled to enter into it so it resistes none that knocke at the Gates Where Dauid stoode not to reason with himselfe that he had Sinned in this or in that we haue to gather by him that the matter of our Saluation consistes not so much in multiplycation of woordes as too correct our liues and encrease dayly in good déedes And truely GOD hath no necessitie of great Cryes to the ende he may heare vs and lesse néede of many reasons too perswade him too vnderstande vs since Dauid vsed no other solicitor for the remouing of Gods wrath then the imploration of a penitent harte Crying Tibi tibi soli peccaui et coram te malum feci Yea though men regarde for the most part the exposition of the Tongue yet wyth GOD the impression of the harte standes alwayes most acceptable as appeared in this conuersion of Dauid who acknowledging simplie that he had sinned without further dispute with God the Lord was neyther scrupulous nor suspicious for that he spake no more but one woorde but had regard to the sinceritie of the harte where with he repented Oh omnipontent Iesus and swéet comfort of our soules grant that with Dauid we may cease to sinne and beginne to amende our lyfe let vs with S. Paule confesse our sinnes with intention to offend no more And where by our proper corruption we ar subiect to dayly transgression without the ayde of thy holy spirit graunt that as thy law is replenished with mercie so with Dauid we may finde remission confessing with him that we haue sinned with intent to offende no more Let vs in the deuotion of Dauid recommende to Gods mercie the faultes and ignorances of our youth for that in that tender age wée know not what wée dyd and were ignorant in that wée ought to doe Wherein where Dauid asked pardon of GOD onely for the transgressions of his youth and not for the Sinnes he committed when he was olde and well experienced in the thinges of the world the faults of which age are not to be called ignorances but malices not simplicities but filthie enormities not light vanities but heauie vices and not faults done for want of knowlege but offences committed wyth well aduized will and resolution We haue reason to thinke that if his olde age had bene also defiled with crimes and sinne he had likewise offered them vp as a sacrifize with the confession of the abuses of his youth By which is wel proued that much doth it import when God pardoneth our sinnes past without sufferance eftsoones to retourne fal into them againe For Dauid had no sooner cryed Peccaui then GOD was readie to aunswere Loe heare J forgeue thee Whereby it is manifest that we are more slow to confesse our offences then God to exhibite his mercie And so for end of this discourse That life and death are in the power of the tongue we sée that as to many it hath bene the occasion of death so to the good king Dauid it was the meane to preserue his lyfe here through grace and in the other world to establishe it in eternall glory to the which the spirite of God bring vs all Amen A Letter to a great learned man aunswering to certeine demaundes THis hath bene alwayes one strange propertie in your frendship that the more I traueled to serue you the more you studied to troble me and that not so much for necessitie of matter as with intētion to exercize proue my skill wherein albeit to your wit is ioyned a naturall redines more
heauie for want of exercise become vnapt and idle they are not tired by labour only but withall through custome of ease and rest and by the heauie waight of their owne bodies euen so that felicitie that hath suffred no communitie with misfortunes can haue no great continuance but when it hath kept long warres with his incommodities and by suffring iniuries is made hard then is he in his perfection and armed to resist all harmes God suffring his people sometimes to encounter very rude and hard aduentures the better to prepare them to a true iudgement and examination of themselues We haue no great néede to exercise mercie to a good man for that though in apparāce his estate séeme néedie yet his vertue makes him no way miserable No no man is vnhappy but he that estéemes himselfe so by the base reputation of his courage Demetrius was of opinion that there was no man vnhappie but hée to whom aduersitie neuer hapned And as vertue and wisedome are hid oftentimes in those persons whom eyther malice pursueth enuie oppresseth or fortune contemneth so for the most part God suffreth aduersities to exercise their force against such as are most strong not to tempt them aboue their power but through exercise to make them better established Fortune proued the force of fire in Scaeuola the violence of pouertie in Fabricius the perplexities of banishment in Rutilius torments in Regulus poyson in Socrates ingratitude in Scipio persecution in Caesar and death in Cato There is nothing that sooner makes a man great and mightie then the triall of a peruerse fortune nor any thing bréedes a more stabilitie of fayth and patience then the exercise of aduersities as was well expressed in the wonderfull constancie of Scaeuola whō wée may not call vnhappie for that hée burnt his right hand in the fier of his enemies nor repute Fabricius wretched for that whilest hée was absent from the gouernement of the common weale he laboured his groundes with his owne handes and much lesse may we referre to the conquest of fortune the vertue of Regulus who béeing led to the Gibbot was made there a monument of fayth and an example of patience Let vs not estéeme those men wretched who suffer so great things for that by the passion of them they are made happie yea they are the preparatiues to true felicitie and the comfortable guides that leade men to the perpetual ioyes and tranquilities of heauen The Author vnder termes to reproue his friend that had charged him to haue taken out of his chamber a Pomander speaketh iustly against such persons as delite to be perfumed IN a singuler combat betwéene two Romane Knightes in the time and presence of Quintus Fabius it hapned that the victor holding in his mercie vnder his féete him that was vanquished Thou shalt sayth he denie in this presence that thou hast sayd and acknowledge thy report to bée false and wicked or otherwise this sword shall minister reuenge to the vntruthes which thy lying tongue hath pronounced Oh sayth the other that thou knewest aswell how to vse the victorie as thy fortune hath suffred thée to winne it or that there were in thée as good desert or merit of Knighthode as thou art my mortal enemie then wouldest thou not be more desirous of my life then to preserue thine honour suffice thée that thy counsell shall not tempt me to the preiudice of mine innocencie for if my strength fayle to fight further thou shalt find in mée no want of hart to die By the discourse of this auncient example I am bolde to make insinuation into the wronge you haue offred mée making mée guiltie of the Pomander which you lacke which you haue not onely layed to my charge in expresse termes betwéene you and mée but also you haue of late accused mée by a publique letter compounded of the vapoures of your braine more full of choller then furnished wyth discreation which giues mée occasion to say with the Romane Knight that forgetting the regard of a friend you are falne into the malice of an enemie séeing you estéeme more your Pomander then mine honour I am not determined to make accompt of the iniurie and much lesse to answere your letter in passion bearing more regard to the profession I followe then to the house I am come of since it is most sure that after my death there wil be no accompt demaunded whether I haue vsed my selfe as a Knight but rather if I haue liued as a Christian And therefore the weapons wherewith I am bound to fight are patience hope abstinence charitie and humilitie armes alwayes sufficient to defend my person and without the which I would not liue But albeit for many good respectes I forbeare to ioyne reuenge to this iniurie yet it is not without reason and libertie that I say my fancie The thinges which the men of this worlde doe by passion onely and without aduise procéede indifferently of want of wisedome superfluous hope or ouerwéening which in man of respect ought to be eschewed for that they be two humors so factious in mans bodie that the end drawes him to doe nothing but what anger prouokes him vnto and the other is hatefull to all reason and Councell And if for euery storme of fortune we become weake and complaine it can not follow but in time we shall imbrase dispaire and hasten the vntimely destenie of our lyfe Which seldome happeneth to a man resolute and wise with whom patience and reason haue more custome then choller and passion It is without fruite to speake fruitfull thinges to a man possest with passion for that he hath neyther sense to tast them nor wisedome to féele them Yea it is in vaine to communicate with him that is obstinate furious or incredulous for that when we thinke them most apt to be perswaded it is then they are furthest of from Councell and in laboring to appease them oftentimes we geue encrease to their anger specially if we reduce to their memorie thinges that were the cause of their paine By these Sir you haue to gather that to men of vertue honestie and estate euen such as you ought to be it apperteynes to take héede that they doe nothing to make them hatefull For that one fault onely suffiseth to make infamous a whole race dishonoring as well those that are past as such as are present leauing withall an infection of bloud to such as are to come In Cassianus it is mencioned that certaine Pagans vsing outrage and iniurie to a religions man of honest lyfe asked him by disdaine what fruite or profite he had by his Christ Is not this answered he a singuler fruit not to be moued with the bitter wordes which you pronounce agaynst me and so easely to pardon the heauie wronges you haue done to me an aunswere sure worthie to be written in the hartes of men since thereby we are instructed how great is the vertue of patience and of
to haue him steale from her to enriche his frende to communicate wyth his minion and be a straunger to his Wife and to minister to the wantes of his Concubine and be wythout pitie to his proper Children In the Lawe of Christianitie the same fayth the woman is bounde to kepe to her Husband he is al so bounde to obserue to her But if Wyues had the lyke authoritie to chastise as Husbandes take libertie to accuse sure they would neyther take to such sorrow the disorders of their Husbandes nor in them would be founde such facilitie to offende Besides from the season that Man and Woman be vnited by the holy promise and couenaunt of mariage they haue so small iurisdiction in perticuler ouer themselues that it is a kinde of theft if eyther the one or the other alien or deuide their bodies Consider therefore Sir the great occasions you giue to your Wyfe who hauing youth riches and beutie and courted with no simple importunities If she were otherwayes then she is she would perhaps bestow her hart vpon some one of those many that bestow vpon her their eyes occasion may doe much and there is no worse thing to tempt a Woman then the ill example of her husband For your parte if you thinke your Wyfe not worthie to receiue recompence of affection at least haue consideration of her merit and let not her loyaltie discouer your penurie nor her constancie complaine of your want of honor If you will not obserue to her the Law of a husband for the respectes of your soule your honor your goodes and your health at least remember that what pleasures or felicyties you finde in the companie of your Concubine are nothing in regarde of the disquiets you shall finde when you come home For how wise how secret how temperate or how holy so euer a Wyfe be yet she had rather die then not to giue reuenge to the iniuries of her Husbande or not to make him féele her Ielousie And therefore to men that are drowned in fancie wyth forreyne Women it is in vayne to repose in the Baude who will be corrupted or in the Concubine whose indifferencie makes her a blab Séeing in cases of Ielousie Wyues are so suttle and wyth all so liberall that the better to espie and trace out the Confederacies of their Husbandes they will not sticke to corrupt hte Quicke by money and Coniure the deade by Charmes And so God graunt you that you want and defende you from that you deserue A Treatise of the Resurrection of IESVS CHRIST ▪ together wyth an Exposition of the Fifth Article of the Créede that he discended into Hell and roase againe the thirde day ACcording to your request I haue sent you herewith the declaration of the fifth Article of the Créede in substance as I published it but not in sort as I pronounced it For that it is impossible that in the Penne should be represented the facilitie grace and edifying vertue of the Tongue according to the opinions of the best Philosophers and Orators both Gréeke and Latine wyth whom the Penne was accompted insufficient to satisfie or compare wyth the honor which they had gotten wyth the Tongue and specially to recorde or write Sermons wherein they helde that the matter should loase his Grace and the auther his reputation Notwithstanding according to your power to commaunde me you shall finde no want of desire to doe you seruice albeit vnder this condition that if you be not satisfyed the fault is more in your importunitie then in my charitie and so to the matter The fifth article of our faith expressing that Christ discended into hell roase eftsones the third day contayneth two partes whereof the first comprehendes our confession that he went into hell and in the second is contayned his resurrection Some deuines deuide it into two articles but wée draw it into one contayning notwithstanding two partes tending to one end We confesse that our redéemer being buried his holy bodie remayned in the graue thrée dayes being in déede dead during that season But his soule in the meane while was not ydle for that it discended into hell to do there a wonderfull action which he accomplished And so we confesse that on the third day his soule was reioyned to his bodie to geue it reall and essentiall life So that there can be no dout that he roase not againe hauing obteyned the victorie against death Wherein if we consider thinges in iudgement and equitie we shall find great matter in the humilitie of the sonne of God and in whom may be séene the singuler mercie of the father not sparing his sonne and his readie obedience to accomplish the eternall will of his father all inuiting vs to beare no small loue and thankfulnes to him In this article and in the former are declared the degrées by the which the sonne of God discended and embased himself euen to thinges incredible for a personage of that dignitie The first degrée was to make him man and to vouchsafe to be borne at a time certaine he which was borne eternally The second was that he yet humbled himself more to suffer sentence and publike condemnation as a malefactor In the third he tooke vppon him the torments of the crosse a death most cruell and more infamous then any other sort of passion By the fourth he was content to suffer death not as God albeit being God but as man in such sort as the very person of God suffred death In the fifth he suffred himselfe to be buried as others that were dead making himselfe like them in all thinges as if he had bene comprehended vnder the curse of Adam to retorne into dust whereof he was formed yea he that was frée from sinne and the curse And by the last steppe or degrée he discended into hel whether were discended such as stood destitute of their proper iustice to the end to open to them the gate of the kingdome of heauen By these degrées if we consider spiritually the discending of Iesus Christ we shall find it as long as is the distance of heauen from whence he came vntill the Center of the earth whether he discended And as there restes no other place any further to embase the sonne of God so would he not bée committed to more humilitie only there remayned one degrée which proceded of sinne and the fellowship of Sathan ▪ out of the which the person of Christ was exempted hée which came to redéeme sinners and iustifie men and vanquish the deuill All that he could suffer to be made a sacrifice for our sinnes the sonne of God was enclined embased vnto it sinne only except whereunto he could not be subiect for that there is too great enimitie betwene the iustice of the sauiour the malignity of sinne The greatest part of the degrees aboue mencioned concerning the discending and humilitie of the sonne of God are declared by the Apostle who speaking by
the suggestion of the holy Ghost saith that the sonne of God being very God was content to disguise himselfe not to be entreated of the world as God but embasing his estate euen to take vppon him the forme of a bondman and appeare to the world in the representation of a man becomming altogether a seruaunt whose obedience refused not the passions of death yea the infamous execution of the crosse In this as is sayed is expressed the greatest part of this wonderfull embasement of estate which the sonne of God tooke vppon him séeing of very God he is made very man and being man he embased himselfe vnder all men being handled as a poore slaue of whom the world made no reckoning From thence he suffred an other embasement euen to be passed to condemnation of death and not a death in common maner but the execution whereunto were ioyned dishonour infamie and bitter torments Of this humilitie the Prophets haue written saying he was put on the ranke of offendors and accompanied with wicked men In an other place Esay giues this testimonie of him that he neuer hid his face from such as would buffet him nor his shoulders from those that would strike him nor bis beard from any that would rent it In Jeremie also is declared the assemblie of the wicked against the Lord and the conspiracies which they leuied to persecute destroy him to empoyson his meate and life In S. John albeit he had made the world yet hee was misknowne of the world and the Euangelist hath comprehended in few wordes the depth of the place from whence the Lord discended séeing being the workman of the worlde he is come notwithstanding in such extremitie that the world misknew him For much lesse that he was acknowledged for Lord and maker of the world séeing hée was not iudged worthy to dwell in the world being innocent he hath bene condemned and albeit his iustice and integritie were publike and manifest yet the world made no conscience to throw vppon him those great wronges yea being assuredly knowne htat his enemies accused him by faulse testimonie yet the wisemen of the world would rather condemne iustice then displease the wicked Lastly the humilitie and handling of Christ agréed fully with the Prophet Dauid speaking in the person of our Lorde in these termes J am no man but a worme of the earth the reproch retraict and shame of men and the scome of the people There rested yet one degrée spoken of in this present article of the Créede wherein we confesse that the sonne of God discended into hell after his death And touching the declaration of this last discending we haue to consider that this article may be vnderstanded in two sorts they both being certaine catholique and ful of great misteries The first intelligence hath bene alreadie begone to be declared and containes a demonstration of the great humilite and wonderfull embasement supported by the sonne of God in this world being reduced to the vtter extremities of sorrowe torments shame and infamie There is no spirit sufficient to comprehend fully the great sorow expressed by the Lord in these words my soule is heauie euen vnto death The feare and heauines being so much the more apparant great terrible by how much they enforced drops of bloud to fall from his face euen to the earth All the other Passions wherewith the world vexed him were of no meaner effect and therfore complayning to his father he cried Oh saue me Lord for the waters and broyles of the tempest are entred euen to take away my life I am sunke in a gulfe of myer and can find no place firme to fix my foote vppon Wherein is ment no other thing but the storme and furie of our sinnes with the punishments due together with a signification of all our miseries and that which the Deuill and the world could doo by the meane of the vnrighteous and wicked keping warre against our Sauiour with persecutions torments and vexations In this sort was his discending into the deapth and bottome of the earth and by consequence the first intelligence of our Article which together with all that depends vppon it may be proued by the second vnderstāding which must presuppose that such as afore the comming of Christ were dead in his fayth and in his spirit and knowledge had obtayned pardon and were truly reconciled with God notwithstanding the gates of heauen were not open to them vntill the Lorde which deliuered them had passed therein as the onely iustifier and true pacifier In the meane whyle they remayned in rest in a place named Hell or bottome of the earth exspecting their deliuerie when the sonne of God should come to draw them from thence But all this whyle they were neyther in the companie of the Damned and much lesse endured their tormetes neyther had the Deuill any iurisdiction of them Séeing if they had bene of the reprobate and Damned sort the Deuill had had perpetuall power ouer them as he hath had and hath ouer the Cursed and miserable who die wythout repentance of their sinnes and without participating in the benefit of the bloud of the Sonne of god And for that by the occasion of sinne and reigne of the Deuill the gates of heauen were cloased and the ioy and vse of beatitude stood restreyned and limited to a certaine time I say that that place was a prison and the prison of Hell a place wherein the Fathers of fayth exspected the comming of the Sauiour of the worlde In this place then were the auncientes that were iust not that they felt the tormentes of the Damned but had onely a careful desire to sée the prophesies accomplished and themselues deliuered and al to enioy the presence and companie of the Sauiour together wyth that most happie vision of the maiestie of god So that in this sort did the soule of Iesus Christ discende into that place accompanied wyth his diuinitie which neuer forsooke him and dissoluing the prisons he brake in péeces all the Cheines and Linkes that helde tyed the soules of the faythfull This was it that Zachary the Prophet ment when he sayd that by the vertue of the bloud of thy stomacke and of thy Testament thou hast drawen thy prisoners out of the Lake wyth out Water Wherein the Prophete speaketh euen wyth the Sonne of God as true God and Sauiour of men and foreséeing such great miserie he sayth that by the vertue of his bloud wherin consisted the Saluation of men he had drawen his Subiectes and frendes out of their darke prison which he signifieth by the Lake wythout Water Séeing that in such lyke places Conquerors are woont to bestow their Prisoners for their more punishement and better securitie in prison By the same also the Prophete takes the comparison of a great Prince that entreth into the Lande of his enemie not to shake his Sworde and remaine there but to surmount and hauocke
his enemie and take from him by force his Seruauntes and Subiectes whom of long time he had holden Prisoners By this is shewed the great power of Iesus Christ according to his owne phrase in these tearmes So long as a strong man sayth he and well furnished wyth weapons kepes his house and defendes it by force all that he hath is in peace But if there come one more mightie then he he makes him forsake his garde chaseth him out of his house and becomes Lord of al his goods euen so did our Lord with the Deuill expressing vppon him his wonderful power and great victory which he obtayned against the kingdome of darknes For séeing the Deuill hath layed aside his weapons it is a signe he is vanquished and séeing death is conquered the Deuill must néedes remayne disfurnished of Armes And séeing the depthes and bottomes of the earth haue bene illuminated by the light and presence of our sauiour the kingdome of darkenesse is defeyted and brought to ruine And so for conclusion we find thrée great considerations in the first part of this Article Wherof the first hath ben debated comprehending the great discending and extreame humilitie which the Sonne of God tooke vppon him to saue man and confound the works of sinne The second consists in this that whilest his most holy body accōpanied with his diuinitie remayned in the graue to testifie that he was truly dead His soule discended into the darke prisons where were deteined the holy fathers notwithstanding they were not in the power of the deuill For albeit they were iustified by the vertue of the mediator and their fayth and repentance yet they were banished from heauen and put as it were in prison to witnesse the effect and operation of sinne together wyth the necessitie which man had of the comming of the sonne of God to geue them their full remedie So that the sauiour of the worlde entering into this prison and confounding all darkenesse by his great light did fully comfort and satisfye by his presence the holy soules which exspected him wyth a desire farre aboue the iudgement or comprehēcion of man it was then that those good auncient Fathers saw the accomplishment of the promise long afore made to them that out of their séede should ryse one that should breake the heade of the great Serpent Then all their desires were accomplished beholding euen wyth their eyes the maiestie and presence of him whom so often they had séene in contemplation and Spirite In whom they had layde vppe all their hope from the remembrance of whom they dyd neuer swarue and by the onely thought of whom they had ouercome all their aduersities taking comfort in him in their miseries and perplexities Then did Abraham sée him who was promised to blesse al his people and al Nations in the faith of whom he was circumcised and made alliance with god Jsaac saw him whom he prefigured when his father thought to haue sacrifised him he saw the sprinkles and markes of the bloud whose effusion was most swéete before the face of the father from the beginning of the world Jacob who had called vpon this sauiour in his death saw his desiers fulfilled no more resting which he might require Melchisedech saw the great sacreficator the sacrifice of whom had neither end nor rule Moises spake then with the great Prophet which God promised to send to deliuer his people from the captiuity of the spirituall Egipt whose power and authoritie should be so perentory and great that who would not obey him should dye eternall death And the great Prophete Dauid embraced then the health which hee had so long desired he saw then that great and mighty Christ of whom hée had made so many holy ditties and songes in whose hope he had so many times taken comfort and vanquished sinne Lastly all the iust of the times past saw the accomplishment of their desiers the end of their sighes the remedye of their miseries the comfort of their sorowes the victory againste death hell and sinne and all by the presence of the captaine which came to guide them euen vnto the sight and maiestie of god Oh how possible are the perplexities which men suffer vnder hope of the promises of GOD How happie is that abiding or expectation which for pawne hath the verity of GOD Howe well assured and well recompenced is that patience which is of longe sufferance and neuer swarueth All these auncient Fathers were in diuers seasons and yet they had all one faith they were all inspired with one spirite all serued one Lorde all liued and dyed in one hope they all bare their crosse in this lyfe they all were made prisoners in that place lastely they all saw in one instant him whom they had so long expected together with the fulfillinge of al the promises which had ben made to them There the Sauiour of the worlde spake to them publishinge good newes touchinge their remedyes and restitution And comunicated with them the greatnes of the misteries which it behooued him to doe for their Redemption there is no doubt but with them he vsed most deare familiaritie Yea he who was alwaies so ioyfull with his owne vsed no lesse fauour and consolation to those with whom his Father had made alliance and so iustely kept his promises And they likewise rendred no small thankes and praises to the Lorde that had so accomplished his worde for the Saluation of the world yea they departed out of their olde prisons with no small triumphes to follow their captaine which had ouer come so many and greate ennemies The third consideration is that our sauiour Iesus Christ did not only breake the prisones and deliuer the holy Fathers but also by this discending hée brought a great astonishment and feare into hell and ouer the whole kingdome of the deuill making him know that his forces were dissolued and that now was brought to effect the breaking of his head expressed long before by prophesie and that the gates of his darke kingdome were throwne open and all hys workes brought to nought Euen as a captaine victor entering into the fortresse of his ennemie and hauing once pluckte downe the munition and ensignes so committes it to ruine and spoile that he leaues an easines to subdue it as often as he will euen in the same sort the Sunne of God gaue such a terrour to the kingdome of hell that sathan and his ministers knew well their forces were broken that there remained vnto them no possibilitie eftsones to reestablish a kingdome of sufficient power to resist the meanest souldier of that great captain that hereafter he could take no prisoners except some wretched cowardes people of smal valure which would offer thēselues to be captiues of their proper and miserable will. In this sort the princypalitie of hell so felte the inuincible and assured power of him who being dead and his body left in the Sepulcher shaked them
notwythstanding with so great Warre that on the one syde he leuyed those Prisoners that were kept restrayned and on the other his vertue so weakened their infernall forces that they remeyned euer since vanquished It was then that they sawe and knew that their Hell whither they thought to haue reduced all mankinde was forced and dissolued And that sinne which they had introduced into the worlde and death that ensued it were deade and vanquished by the conquest of this newe and inuincible Prince That was it which the Apostle spake of that the sonne of God hath defaced and sacked the powers of Hell the worlde am putting them to publyke confusion and Triumphing ouer them in his proper person So that the enterprises of our Sauiour in this comparison represent vnto vs the forme and actions of a valiant Capteyne marching before men before Aungelles and before the face of the Father wyth a great troupe of enemies vanquished bounde and spoyled of their forces In the beginning of this Article wée touched that our Lorde made his discending by certeyne degrées yea euen to a Wonderfull embasement of himselfe and knowne onely to the diuine wisedome This embasement hath ben Prophecied vnder the signe of discending from Heauen vnto the the Bottomes of the Earth But now we say that of all those degrées by the which he discended and of al other things which in the wisedome of the world made him séeme so embased vanquished he caried a wonderfull victory which encreased alwais more more In the first degrée he was made man that was the true and eternall sonne of god This step and wonderfull humilitie albeit it is great yet he neuer abandoned his diuinitie no he could not loase it and much lesse diminishe it by it his humanitie was greatly exalted being by the same meane so connexed with the diuinitie that one selfe person was GOD and man ▪ if it were possible that God might gaine in any thing it might be sayd that he gained in this but hauing want of nothing he gaines not as a néedie man For he hath no necessitie of any thing and much lesse can there be added to his greatnesse But because the gaine of men is great in this receiuing a benefite which was neuer Communicated with Angelles for God neuer tooke aliance nor séede of Aungelles but chused the Linage of Abraham we say also that there was a gaine and profite to God béeing a true declaration of his riches and of his workes which are comformable to him together wyth a playne manifestation of his mercie This victorie against sinne and the deuill is truly worthie of the person of the Sonne of God Séeing that mankinde which was put to perdition by the suttletie of the Serpent is redéemed and redeliuered from the seruitude of the Deuill and restored to an estate of habilitie to be the Children of God by the meane of this sauiour The seconde degrée of this discending of the Lord was in that he was condemned publykly as a malefactor In this descending there is a great want and yet by it he recouered a wonderfull victorie For béeing our brother he deliuereth vs from the eternall condemnation so that all our libertie and absolution depende vppon his Condemnation he hath payde the debtes which he made not euen so those shall be discharged which ought them He was Condemned by the Sentence of men and wée absolued in the iudgement of God hauing deliuered vs from the cursse of the law which had condemned vs The thirde degrée was when he was iudged to the Death of the Crosse For by his death he brake the forces of Death dispoyling him of his weapons wherewyth he had made so great and vniuersall slaughters For which cause the Apostle demaundes of death where was his victorie and where were become the meanes by the which he determined so many men By the fourth steppe or degrée he was put into the Sepulcher but the better to comprehend the true sense of this passage it is méete we make some iudgment and construction of thinges The storye of the Gospell declareth that our Lorde being dead Joseph demaunded of Pylate to take his bodie from the crosse and burie it which Pylate suffered by the ordinance of god And hauing taken it from the crosse they wrapped it in a newe Linnen cloath and layde it in a Sepulcher where no man had yet lyen Lastly hauing embawmed him wyth the oyntmentes which Nicodemus brought they left the body in the graue roulling to the mouth therof a great stoan Mary Nagdalin and the other Mary considering well in their vnderstanding the sayd sepulcher All this serueth to two effectes the first is to render testimony of the truth of the death of Iesus Christ shewing also a great misterie comprehended vnder the graue but the Church comprehendes both the one and the other in one worde his Sepulcher and that he remayned there thrée dayes expresseth the truth of his death making by that meane his resurrection more euident In this Article the imbasement and humilitie of the sonne of God encreaseth more and more as also his spirite and victorie which he hath obteined for vs For it is sayd first of al that he suffered the condemnation of Pilate and was executed and so being dead his body was buried It séemes that all these bring encrease to the victory of the deuill the world and death But of the contrarie it is our victory that is enlarged For by how much nere doth approch and is manifested the death of our Lorde by so much more is at hand the end and ruine of our death Death is dead and vanquished in such sort that he hath no power agaynst vs and for such one we put him into the graue Esay hath Prophesied that the Lord should destroy death eternally and drye vp the teares of his people and take away the dishonor of the earth in which words may be discerned the full victory against death which hath no power to cōfoūd nor make sorowful the true Christian It is not sayd by this that we shall not die and not féele death which is naturall but by this is expounded that the pricks and sorrows of death are vanquished haue no authority against a Christian séeing that for the exchange of this temporall lyfe he goeth to the eternall life accompanied with the fayth that he hath had that Christ is his redemption his life In this is performed the Prophecie of Ose speaking in the name of the Lord Oh death J will be thy death the same agréeing with the Apostle who assureth vs that our death is vanquished by the passion of Iesus christ our sepulcher buried in his yea our death hath lost his forces which made him reigne ouer vs and our graue hath lost his power and possibilitie to reteine vs stil seing it cannot now any more hold vs in propertie or perpetuitie but as it were by deputation and for a time In
this sepulcher of the sonne of God is also conteined the mistery of the coniunction which we haue with him by death the graue the end of the death burying of Iesus christ tending to this that we die be buried with him For as the bands and forces of our death were broken by the vertue of the death of him that killed death euen so by our death must be vanquishe the stinges prickes of that death that the merite of our sinnes made due to vs This is the same which the holy Ghost speaketh by the mouth of the Apostle We are buried wyth Christ in his death to the end we participate wyth his life béeing impossible we should communicate wyth his lyfe if first we haue no action or societie wyth his death for that wée can not haue parte in the one vnlesse wée accompanie him in the other And so the last degrée conteynes as hath béene alredie declared that he discended into Hell committed the Deuill to spoyle and brake his Prysones for euer Wherein according to the text of the Apostle his victorie encreased and became great euen by the same measure that he embased and humbled himselfe Thus much for the first part of our Article and so let vs discend to the second part wherein we confesse that the sonne of God roase againe from death and the third day retorned really and truly into life Touching the resurrection of Christ LIke as the foure Euangelistes haue vsed great diligence to perticulate the outrages condemnation and death of the sonne of God euen so they haue bene no lesse carefull to set out poynt by poynt his restoring and resurrection According to the computation of the time vsed in the gospel he died the Friday at ix a clocke in the euening roase againe the Sunday following in the morning ioyntly whervnto we agrée that he remayned thrée dayes thrée nights in the graue taking part of the Friday which was the daye of the death for the whole day and the residue of the Sunday being his resurrection for an other whole daye All which do serue manifestly to the proofe truth of his death and restoring to life being al foreordained and established in the counsell of God. Joseph demaunded of Pilate his body to burie it but Pilate desirous to know whether he were dead in déede sent for the same purpose a Centenier to discouer a truth and then condiscended to Josephes request yea when they came to take downe the dead bodies from the crosse because they should not remaine there the next day being the great feast of their Sabboth they found the two théeues on liue and our Lord dead All which with many other approbations which may be alledged together with some perticulers which we meane to ioyne to the sequele of these are sufficient proues of his resurrection Our Lorde béeing thus put into the graue and embawmed Soldiours were set to garde the Sepulcher And in the meane whyle his Disciples remayned sorrowfull and heauie hauing very little hope of his Resurreciton and small knowledge of the scriptures to the vnderstanding of this misterie They beleued that their maister had preached the trueth and that he was most iust in his workes and that God had sent him But touching the matter of resurrection they were very blind and doubtfull After there was time enough perfourmed for the proofe fayth and testimonie of his paineful death and to establish the accomplishement of the misteries and prophesies The Sunday morning bringing wyth him the triumphes of hell and death he Roase againe and returned to lyfe and to such a lyfe that after that death had no more power ouer it béeing defaced deuested of all meanes eftsoones to exercise his iurisdiction Imediatly after he was risen agayne he appeared to his Disciples to assure them of the consolations giuen vnto them before he dyed and wythal to accomplishe the words spoken and promised by him That he would rise againe the third day The first person to whom he reuealed himselfe after his resurrection was the virgin Mary his Moother as who aboue all others liued in most expectation for him and he lykewise bare vnto her a most deare affection For if we consider her by her fayth she had it more great then al the rest And if wée haue regarde to Seruices she merited wyth the best hauing nourished him followed him wyth no small care pouertie and perplexitie thirtie thrée yeares In her is expressed a good Testimonie of his death for that standing at the foote of the Crosse where she felt the accomplishment of the prophesie of Simeon that the sword of sorrow should pearce thorow her intralles she was chosen of the Father to serue in an estate of great excelencie euen so was she accomplished wyth thoughtes and actions méeke for the seruice of such a function And albeit both by her perseuerance béeing greater then the rest that followed the Lord and that the trauelles of his Death were of more Passion to her then to others hauing more interest first of that holy companie to whome he disclosed his Resurrection Yet the Euangelistes ascrybing nothing to the singularitie of persones leaue all that aparte and recyte to whome he appeared wyth all such circumstances and proofes as serue for Testimonie agaynst the People of the Jewes He appeared to Mary Mardaline in forme of a Gardiner in the selfe same Gardeyne where he hadde béene Buried He appeared to his Disciples the selfe same daye in the place where they were drawne together for feare of the Iewes He appeared to two Disciples which went to Emaus At the ende of Eyght dayes he appeared once againe to his disciples S. Thomas being then present who was absent the first time Lastly he was séene of his Disciples neare the Sea of Gallile there being yet besides these so many other testimonies to confirme this trueth that it were but superfluous to ad more to the authorite of these Thus much for the narration of the History And lyke as the Resurrection of that Messias was of great importance so also was it prefigured and foreshewed by the prophets that went afore For Jonas was throwen into the Sea and swalowed of a Whale and yet by the mercie of God after he had remained thrée dayes and thrée nights in the bellie of the Fish he came out safe and sound to accomplishe the commaundement of god In this Jonas the Seruaunt of the almightie was a figure of our sauiour For as he was cast into the Sea to saue from wracke all the others that were in the shippe and that by the consent and determination of the Mariners Euen so our Lorde was past to condemnation by the councell and resolution of men and for their safetie throwne into the Sea of persecution of death in such sort that the earth receiued him as it doth other dead bodies reteining him thrée days thrée nights as a body deiected without life yet in the
end the power of God raysed him againe drue him out of the graue hauing vanquished death Of this besides many other prophesies Dauid hath written most manifestly speaking in the person of our Lorde as a man that by the inspiration of the holy Ghost J always sayth he set afore mine eyes the Lord whom I haue of my right hande to kepe me that J fall not For this cause doe J reioyce and my tongue shall beare Testimonie of my contentment but specially for that my fleshe shall rest in hope For Lorde thou wilt not leaue my lyfe in the graue nor suffer thy holy one to see corruption Thou hast shewed me the way of lyfe euen so shalt thou fill me wyth pleasure by thy presence For thou bearest in thy right hand a perpetual blisse In these wordes the Lord sheweth the singuler fauor which he receiued of his father in the death had not domination ouer him but was subdued and vanquished shewing withall the gladsome contentment he had to sée the eternall Father on his right hand In this hope he offered his body to the death dispersed it vpon the crosse receiued the graue being certeine of his resurrection victory that aswell touching himselfe as also for all mankind wherin declaring also his confidence ioy of his victory he sayth that his Father hath not suffered that his lyfe should remaine prisoner in the graue for euer and much lesse that his soule should be there deteyned not retourne eftsoones to be revnited to his body And lastly that his most holy body conceiued by the holy Ghost in the womb of the Virgin and who had passed so many Passions of Tormentes for the Seruice and Obedience of his Father should not suffer corruption in the Graue but afore Nature coulde accomplishe that operation his Soule shoulde eftsoones receaue coniuntion wyth his Bodye The Prophet sayth moreouer that he hath shewed him the way to retorne to life concluding with action of thankes that he hath surmounted death and sinne The sonne of God did not only obteyne priuilege to rise againe but also to him was ioyned power to make his resurrection afore there was any such signe of corruption in his body as naturally appeares on others that be dead this respect was kept on the behalfe of his most holy person and the flesh which he had taken for that effect béeing pure and wihtout any marke of sinne Besides all these we may consider vppon the end of this Psalme a great misterie of the victorie which our Lord obtayned against death together with the assurance of our resurrection the same leauing vs satisfied and certayne that once againe we shall réenter into the possession of our bodies after wée haue abandoned them by the rigor of death With this Psalme S. Paule proues the resurrection of the Messias against the Jewes saying that Dauid was dead and buried whose Sepulcher was well enough knowne amongst the Jewes concluding that séeing the body of Dauid had passed by that corruption which is common and generall to all dead men it was not possible that those wordes should be vnderstanded by him and therefore what he said he meant it by Iesus Christ whom neyther hell nor the graue had power to deteyne and to whose flesh could be attributed no sense or suffrance of corruption So that Dauid being a Prophet and hauing receiued promise by othe that the Messias should discend of his séede prophesied of his comming vnder the forme of wordes afore recited This is of great importance for Christians to whom it is a true approbation and sommarie of all the workes which the Lord did and of all our religion together with an assured gage or pawne of all our hope Saint Paule sayth that it is concluded the resolution alreadie set downe against the aduersaries and vnbeleuing that Iesus Christ is the sonne of God the same being proued in this that the father hath raysed him from the dead with a great force and wonderfull testimonie thereby to shew that he was his onely sonne Wherein on the one side might be séene the sentence of men the condemnation of the worlde the reprobation of the people of the Jewes the iniuries outrages and tormentes of the Crosse and of death which may alleage agaynst the sauiour of the worlde that he was not the Sonne of God but an abuser Séeing he was condemned by so great personages endured so many afflictions yea fixed on the crosse in such sort and such extremitie that the miserable worlde might estéeme him for such one as of long time had bene Prophecied that is that he was not reputed a man as others were but as one most abandoned of God and of all men And on the other side might be séene the holy Prophesies workes and wordes of our Sauiour and his Doctrine expressing the reason of his comming and the misery of his death together wyth the sentence of his Father who to shew himselfe true in his workes and promises had raised him againe from death declaring that he was his true sonne All these thinges béeing of such importance were foretolde by Iesus Christ afore his death béeing willing to Prophesie and published his resurrection both to his frendes and to his enmies to comfort the one and conuince the other Yea he thought méete to manifest it to all to make the worlde vnderstande that he was sent of the eternall Father to saue the worlde and that it was he that had ben promised in the Law offering himselfe to death of his onely and proper will. The Jewes demaunded of him some signe to know who he was but he aunswered that they should haue no other signe but that of Jonas For as Jonas issued out of the bellie of the Whale the thirde day So the thirde day after his death he should eftsoones ryse out of the center of the earth hauing in that action vanquished death As he went once to Hierusalem he tolde his Disciples that he should be deliuered into the handes of the gentiles he comunicated the forme of his death assuring them that the third day he should rise againe And speaking with them a little before his death he comforted them saying that after his resurrection he would go before them to Gallely So that our confession by the which we acknowledge our Lorde to be risen againe the third day is confirmed by good and great testimonies requisite in a thing of so high misterie and importance being also matter of no small consolation to the children of GOD together with assured testimonyes that may bee gathered againste the wicked in the Holy Scriptures and predictions which our Lorde made before hys death Certaine Meditations and considerations vpon the resurrection of Iesus Christ THe firste consideration that the faithfull christian may take of this resurrection of Christe dependes vppon the meane wée haue already spoken of For in his resurrection we may comprehend that which appertaines to the
are we al reuiued and raised again in Jesus Christ This accomplishment appertaines to the liberalitie of the dyuine maiestie which hath reestablished and restored vs to the benefittes which he hath already communicated to vs Our death is vanquished on all partes and on all sides our life is eftsons reestablished Wée are absolued and made frée of all thinges séeing we haue on our side the death and lyfe of Iesus Christ the soueraigne bownty drawes vs from sinne the sacrifice is offered and we haue obtained pardon for our iniquities being but poore wretched slaues we are made rich and haue obteyned libertie to be the children of god And if we loose this benefitte it is eyther for some newe falt of ours or that wée will not cast or chaunge our olde skinne In effecte in this Article is disclosed the great humility and mercy of the Sonne of GOD who refused not to go into the darke prisons of the Earthe to deliuer the Soules of the iust there deteined and dispoile the Deuill of all his force and power to the ende that men may with more ease vanquish and surmount him We sée also that after all this he rose againe the thirde day and returned into true lyfe yea a life so excellent that death hath no more power ouer it nor any possibilitie eftsoones to preiudice it We haue shewed how this resurrection hath ben sufficiently iustefied euen by the places of Scripture accordinge to the testimonye of the créede That Christ rose againe the third day accordinge to the Scriptures which séemes to haue ben taken of the Apostle Wée haue also declared how necessary was this resurrection for the approbation of the dignitie of the person and doctrine of Christe séeing that in the same he is expressed the Sonne of god Wee haue also debated how it is to be vnderstanded and practised this great mistery partly for the regarde of our Lord and partely for the resurrection spirituall and corporall which he workes in vs by vertue of his restitution There remains nowe to declare who they be that practise the contentes of this article in faith and workes and who they bee that satisfie it not Such as professe and practise the substance ot this Article as appertaineth are those that perseuer in the mortification of their sinnes their fleshe and their disordered suggestions of the olde Adam that they reduce and bring him euen to the graue that is that they make a full and perfecte victory of him with a great remorse in themselues and a resolute hatred to all wicked and ill actions returning by the same meane into a newnesse of lyfe new desiers and new operations and actions Béeinge lastly altogether conformable to that newenesse which the Sonne of God is wont to coÌ„municat with suche as are risen againe with him Those be they that accompanie our Sauiour For as he is risen againe to be neuer after made subiect to death so the faithfull risen againe spiritually féele themselues so conuerted and out of taste of the woorkes of sinne that the spiritual death can not pearce so déepe as their hart And as our Lord rose againe triumphing so shall they also haue a glorious restitution beinge repurged of all wicked affections and enclyned to all good thinges to whom the yoke of the gospell shall séeme easie and swéete and shall trauell in great thirste and appetite to obserue the comaundementes of god Their charitie shall enflame their patience prepared to suffer all paines and tribulations they are glorified in the glorie of Iesus CHRIST they haue an honestie and purity of conscience they are chaste they loue their neighbour perfectly and pardon with all their harte suche as doe offend them They retire themselues from the thinges of this worlde and abandon the pompes and ambitions of the same as though they were vnapte therevnto and had no mindes affected to such transitory vanities For they are made newe men restored and raised againe by the Sonne of God who hath triumphed both ouer death and all dead thinges And so are they made his that hath raised them to serue him with new fruites which their new life bringes forth They feare not to suffer death to maintaine that which God hath ordeined they care neither for reproche nor hunger to defend iustice truth For their new life kepes them from smelling of those thinges which might hinder their faith perseuerance and constancie of hart in the traine of the gospell and ioynes vnto them a certainty of a better life which assureth them of all thinges Of the contrary such as be estraunged from this practise haue no other thinge but the simple name of those that are raised againe They are as painted sepulchers set out to the show without and within conteine nothing but rottennes and corruption such were the Pharasies with whom they haue only the title of lyfe and liuely and in effect are nothing els then dead rotten and corrupte Reteyninge that stinke and loathsomnes which is wonte to be aboute dead bodies Such be many of our christians who vnder thys name hyde a pride and arrogancie which the deuil teacheth them instructing them withall to be couetous and impatient the more to make them sauour of their stinke and filthynesse Lastly those be they that haue not chaunged nor cast their skinne and who being not mortefied can not be raised again For resurrection presupposeth death as there can be no death but there muste first be a life wherewith I ende the exposition of this article yéeldinge thankes for all thinges to GOD whom I beséech to continue his people in that proportion of faith which he thinkes necessary to their saluation Certaine testimonies of Pagan Authors seruing to approue christian Religion written in forme of a letter to a Noble man. ACcordinge to your requeste I haue sente you here with my opinion though not so liberally as you looked for yet with that faith industrie as may very well serue to satisfie your conscience and leaue me â—â—quited of my promis estéeming it to appertaine to me to instruct you séeing of your selfe you expresse such desier to know and learn. And albeit the matter it selfe drawing many circumstances requires a long time yet where thinges are debated faithfully and the resolution accepted diligently that that is long séemes not tedious and though it be little yet it may be enough for instruction beseechinge you to waye my reasons which I haue not drawn out of dreames but written them out of the best resolutions and agréementes of my bookes The vertue of christian religion is so great the miracles that haue confirmed it haue ben so publike and euident and the innocencie holynes of lyfe of such as haue professed it haue bin so cleare and manifest that the very enemies haue bin driuen to beare testimony with it notwithstandinge that they impugned it with all their industrie Yea it is a thinge wonderful seruing sufficiently to declare that our religion is
guided by the hand of God that besides the large great testimonies annexed to the gospel it selfe yet the aduersaries beare with it such witnesse and authority to the dishonour of sathan his errours that by their owne confessions we sée that the cause why they remaine in their hardnes of hart without receiuing the light way that leades to eternal life hath proceded of their sinnes and blindnes making them subiect to the subtill suggestions and pollecies of the deuil wherein for a proofe I shal not so much néede to infer authorities of scripture and olde christian authors who notwithstanding are sufficient to verifie and confirme our faith as to take to my ayde the weapons of our enemies to the ende that by the testimony of their proper consciences wée may remaine absolued and they condemned The firste testimony I will produce shal be Tertulian a writer in the time of the primatiue church a man of greate knowledge maintayning the cause of the Christians against the Pagans and pleading and writinge publykely on the christians side And hauing as it were but sipped and tasted of christianity Hee had more fully surfeyted of the Pagan faith to whom he bare a resolute zeale hee was in the times of the Emperours Seuerus and Caracalla being about two hundred thrée score and ten yeares after the death of Christ All the argumentes which he inferreth against the Pagans he deriueth from their proper historyes and of thinges that were done in that tyme showing the reason why Christ was not worshipped at Rome The Romaines had this custome not to Canonize any newe God although the Emperour woulde haue it so without the approbation and consent of the Senate the same well appearinge in all the Romaine Edictes and histories wherein is defended to receiue any Straunge GOD wythout the authoritie of the Senate and that by reason of the great inconuenyences happening by the lybertie that euerie one tooke to patronise himselfe with one GOD a part as may be séene in the times of the Bachanales and other seasons It happened that Pilat who had giuen sentence of death against Christ notwithstanding he was stubburne in hys opinion yet being conuinced both by his conscience and the certainty he had of the restitution of him whom he had condemned to death Aduertised Tiberius the Emperour of all that had passed touchinge the death and resurrection of our Lorde The Emperour obseruing with this report the opinions and great renoune that went of his passion wrote to the Senate that it were good to canonize Iesus Christe for a God But the Senate whether it was for that they were not called to the first consult of this matter or that they would not make thinges so easie to the Emperour specially in a case of so great importance fearing it woulde growe to example and consequence helde opinion contrary to the Emperour and would not suffer that CHRISTE should be worshipped as god Whervpon the Emperour published an Edicte againste such as woulde accuse christians the deuill hauinge then stirred vp the Iewes and Gentilles to persecute those that had receiued the gospell by which it came to passe that in the time of Tiberius the christian church was somwhat in rest the gospell fructifiinge greatly amongest the gentiles Thus much for Tertulian who durste not haue written so in his time if thinges had passed otherwayes For then was Rome in her estate and statutes of the Senate were diligently preserued by registers where vnto Tertulian sendes the gentiles referringe them to their proper actes and ordinaunces wherein they may finde that the first persecution againste the christians was in the raigne of Nero In all these are ministred many thinges of consideration declaring that the affaires of the gospell haue bene managed by a special prouidence of God For firste GOD so wrought that Poncius Pilate who had passed CHRIST to execution bare witnesse to his Father of the greatnesse of him whom he had condemned Secondly the lawes of the Senate and contention that was betwéen the Emperour and the magistrates make good fayth and proofe that the refusing to canonize christ at Rome was not by any default that was founde in him but by reason of the vaine ordinances obserued there by the libertie of which they had power to accept for GODS such as they woulde and reiecte whom they helde not acceptable Besides the greate prouidence of GOD is knowne in this that the diuinitie of Iesus Christe being sufficiently iustefied as wel by his workes as by hys holy doctrine yea by the testymonyes of his enemyes yet he would not suffer him to receiue this dishonour to be accepted of the people of Rome for god and much lesse to be compared and placed amongest theyr false gods whom they worshipped he which was true God and had preached that there was but one God and that al others were nothing els but abusers and spirites of the Deuill This prouidence also shewed it selfe great in this that albeit the Emperour was no christian yet he forbad vppon great paines to trouble persecute or to accuse the christians the same being the cause that the gospell was published in his first age and that the gentilles and Pagans gaue eare to it to the end that when the great persecutions should happen the church might be found to haue some foundation and certaine troupes of christians vnited by the holy word of the gospell And therefore we haue to conclude that all these things and accidentes haue ben guided gouerned by the wisedome of God séeing they serue to the approbation of so high a mistery For our seconde testimony we will vse Plutarke a Pagan borne and of no small authoritie amongst them and at no time well disposed to the christians He thinking to set downe a reason why the Oracles of the gentilles had taken ende aledging many thinges according to his blindnes and without any knowledge in the affaires of God recites an historie by the relation of a frende of his of no small authoritie and knowledge as is suggested To this was referred so much the more stabilitie of faith and credit by howe muche he makes it to happen in hys time He saith that sailing into Italy and being in a shippe accompanied with his said frend and many others about the euening they fel with the coast of certain Ilandes now called Cuzolares confining vppon Italy There the winde failed them and by that necessitie were driuen to go on shoare in one of those Ilandes called Paff 〈…〉 e. Before the mariners had supped the Sea being at a softe and still calme they hard a voice comming out of the Iland which called one of the patrons of their ships beinge an Egiptian and had to name Tamus which was vnknowne to many of the company suffisinge to see him a Captaine and Gouernour amongst them This voice calling him thrée tymes he aunswered but to the thirde as kinge what it would to whom the voyce replyed aloude
in these wordes O Tamus when thou shalt ariue at Salus nere to the I le of Corfu tell them that their great God Pan is dead All the Nauie fell into greate feare and trouble of minde with the sounde of the voyce and consulting what was to be done Tamus to whom was committed the confidence of the message resolued that if the winde serued he would passe by the place assigned by the voyce without saying any thing giuing no other credit to it then as a vision or illuding suggestion but if the winde sayled then he promised to performe the imbassage Accordinge to which resolution the wynde abating he was dryuen to rest at anker euen in the same place Tamus standinge vppon the vppermoste hatches of the shippe began to erye with a loude voyce The great God pan is dead He had no sooner ended his spéeche but there were heard generall lamentations sighes sorrowes skrikinges with straunge and wonderfull voyces and that in maruelous multitudes This accident was forthwith caried to the knowledge of Tyberius the Emperour who raised all possible diligence to vnderstand what might that GOD Pan be that they sayde was dead wherein the wisemen and wysardes of that time aunswered him according to their superstitions and vaine coniectures This Pan was a God which the gentiles worshipped there being many other Gods of that name And this happened about the time of the passion of Christ as may be gathered by the yeares of the raigne of Tyberius the Emperour In déed Pan in gréeke signifieth al. Wherevpon many do gather that al this was spoken of the death of Iesus Christ true God and lord ouer al things But because the gentiles held Pan for a God there is good congruency to take the death of this Pan for the spiritual death of the Prince of deuilles for the destruction of his kingdom and the ruin of his errours by the which he hath kept in captiuitie all mankind To this are conformable the noise and voyces of the spirites complayninge and lamentinge the ruin of their Prince and his spirituall death being nowe made naked of the strength and forces wherwith he oppressed and vexed mankind The same author affirmes that about the same time one Demetrius passing by the yles Orcades neare to England was tolde that not long since there was heard great whispering and howlings in the ayre and many fearefull thinges séene the wyse men of those Ilandes construing those prodigious things to the death of some great god which opinion hath some reference with the iudgemēts of the other woonders But these strange sights significatiōs in the world interpret in true testimony and iudgement the strangnes of the death of our souiour Iesus christ and of the victories which he hath obtained together with his triumphant glory The third testimony we may draw from Traian the Emperour a Prince Pagan albeit much resolued into pagancy a great persecutor of the christians yet so qualified by the truth of the gospel that he was constrained to moderate his crueltie though not so much as he ought yet so farre as ministred ease to the godly Plinius Secundus established hys deputie in Asia against the christians aduertiseth the Emperour that he founde no other ill in the christians but that they made certaine assemblies not to erect any Monopolie nor to commit theft nor to vse ribaldrie nor practise deceit not to desier the goods of others nor to execute any vylanus act only the cause that they assembled together was to communicate in common and necessary actions as to eate drinke together offring no hurt or preiudice to any That which hée found most wicked ill in them was that they were adicted to a certain superstiton not declaring it and so concluded that there was no ill in them This was in the beginning of our christian religion yet in that time the professors of it were bitterly persecuted But notwithstādinge they were accused and suffred imposition of great Crimes yet when they came to the triall and proofe no small matter amongst people Pagans they were holden so guiltles that euen their ennemies gaue testimony of their innocency the Deuill notwithstanding keping them so blinde that they had no iudgement of that which they did nor vnderstood what they pursued and much lesse knew what they were whom they caused to die so cruelly Plinie foūd thē not culpable in any thing except a certain superstition and yet without an apparance of il he estéemed it superstition to beléeue that one man dead on the crosse was the sauiour of all men not considering further the groundes of this religion The assemblies they made were chiefly to celebrate the sacrament of the supper which contained a greater mistery then Plinie could finde out But the Emperour hauing this aduertisement from his deputy forbad ani more to enquire against christiās willing notwithstanding that such of them as were attainted conuinced should be punished corrected Tertulian deriding this edict exclaimes against it saying oh ordenance confused foolish he forbids inquisition because they be innocent and yet leaues liberty to chastise them as offendours in one instant he pardonith and yet he is cruell he confesseth innnocencie and yet dissembleth it if he will punish them why defendes hee information against them And if hee will not haue them enquired vpon why doth he not absolue them There are established in euery Prouince prouostes to apprehende and imprison théeues robbers and euery one hath liberty to kill a publike enemie and to execute such as the lawe hath conuict of treason But alone touching the christians it is not suffred that they bee cifted as offendours and yet is it lawefull that euery one accuse them as though they bee thinges different to cutte of any one as an offendour or to present him as a malefactor Wherein thys Edicte suffereth thys contraryetie denyinge information and enquirie against the christians and yet leaues libertie to punish them if they be found guiltie For if no man informe againste a christian howe shall he be founde guiltie And in case of information what meane is there to accuse him and so consequently to punnishe him not findinge hym culpable of any thing So that the Emperour would that they were punished not as culpable but only for that they were Christians In all which as may be discerned the testimony which the firste Christians had of theyr proper ennemyes together with the simplycitie of the statutes by whose meane they were persecuted Euen so in all these thinges is matter tending to the aduowing and iustification of our iueice The Fourth testimonie wée may draw out of the doings of Adrian a Prince Pagan and dieng in the same superstition Who vpon the viewe and consideration of certain inhihitions deliuered to him in writing by Quadratus a Disciple of the Apostles and Aristides a Philosopher conuerted to christianitie dispatched commissioners to his proconsull of Asia enioyning him not to molest the
to tell you what sorrow is Séeing it is an action due to my place and age to wéepe fast and praye but to you it apperteynes to daunce deuise tryffle Notwythstanding as I haue told you in short what a frende is so I will not sticke to fill vp the residue of your desire to debate briefly the nature of loue not that I would instruct you but to warne and aduise you hoping you will rather Loue as a Christian then as a Courtier Wherein I recommende vnto you chiefely to bée wise in your wordes discréete in your actions secret in your thoughtes particuler in your frendships modest in your behauiour and aboue all follow the instructions of your owne vertues and flée the example of such as draw to vice Yea haue more regarde to your selfe then to any other person since in the ende your vertues are sure of their rewarde for that God will preferre you to Mariage and put into the minde of the Prince to endue you wyth worthie Portion Take héede therefore you bée not lyght in lookes vayne in life lauishe of spéech nor a scoffer at men for that wyth Ladyes of these Conditions men of the Court take pleasure to deuise but none will haue fancie to Marie them So that the best dowrie to aduaunce the Mariage of a young Lady is when she bringes in her countenaunce myldnesse in her spéeche wisedome in her behauiour modestie and in her whole lyfe vertue For that there is no man what vayne and lyght affections soeuer hée haue but though hée take pleasure to sewe and serue a fayre Ladye yet in case of Maryage hée wyll séeke out Vertue and reiect Beautie But now to our purpose of Loue It is an opinion wyth you Ladyes of the Court that Loue and to bée a Louer consistes onely to be gaye in apparell to be set out in diuersitie of Coullers of Feathers to be pensiue to be passioned to solycite to beholde and often to entertaine his Lady wyth discourses of Loue Thinges no lesse vayne and light then most farre from the true propertie of loue Séeing of this qualetye is the good and true loue that to him that hath default of force it géeues him strength and in him that hath it alreadye it confirmes it further To him that is simple it géeues Quickenesse of spirite To him that hath want of Courage it géeues boldenesse and stomacke By it the Couetou◠man is made liberal and it sets open the Purse of the nigarde So that in the harte where he is entred he suffereth no imperfection nor inciuility but lifts their thoughts vp to high actions and searching that he loueth there are none perceiueth what he endureth when we cast our eye vpon a thing there is differenc to prayse it and to loue it ▪ for that the thing which we praise and loue not assone as it is commended it is forgotten but that which we loue truly wée laye vp in the the secret corner of our thoughtes we plant it in our will and bring it forth in the fruite of our memorie It stands always afore our eyes our eyes send it downe to the safe keeping of our harte Loue is beste knowne to the harte that loueth and he of himselfe onely feeles when he is content or miscontent fauoured or not fauoured suspected or trusted mery or sadde or in dispair or assured Yea his passions are not knowne to others if his affections be honest for that he will rather suffer in griefe then giue cause of offence estéeming his meritte so much the greater by how much his martirdome is painefull and his passion so muche the more worthie by how much his intention assureth his hope To instruct you in the signes of suche as loue truely you must obserue the behauiour of the parties when they depart one from another For it is no other thing the seperation of two frends then to deuide one hart into two moities the same moste commonly appearing at the time of leaue taking when in the one is disclosed want of wordes and in the other aboundaunce of teares you shall know likewise that loue that is accompanied with fastnesse when the partie enterpriseth great things and estéemeth little those of base importance loue alwaies enabling his subiects to high actions raising their thoughtes to great purposes Zo that the hart that loues lokes not to be commaunded but learns to win merit by preuention he offereth no excuse but is ready to execute he is not required to be liberall but finds out wherin he may be aceptable he suspectes not his mistres but takes all to the best he beleeues no report since he is assured of her vertue he is not importunate but makes his hope his felicitie if she but begin to like he puts wings to his affection yea he makes her the image of his thoughts liues wholy dedicated to her deuotion And therefore if he loue dearly hd liues in thought to please in care to offende in desire to suffer in feare to disclose and louing much he giues much thinking it no liberalitie if he refuse any thing since if he haue once giuen his wil and consent it is nothing to giue withal his abilitie and wealth and being possest by another he must think he hath nothing of his owne In like sort the true louer studies to be circumspect in behauiour estéeming it a swéet felicity to haue his thoughts delytes priuate he is modest in countenance the better to bleare the eyes of spies please the minde of his mistres And he is patient to suffer estéeming him not worthy of reward vnlesse he endure to the ende And where true loue is there wronges must be borne and no wordes deliuered to the dyshonour of his Lady By whom if any occasion be giuen yet he must alwayes haue this lesson that patience is a vertue and secret scilence doth best solicite since the true Trumpet of loue is not the Tongue that speaketh but the harte that sigheth Yea as the Tongue is restrayned from speaking but not the hearte from Louinge So I holde it better to loue wyth sewertie then to deceiue wyth swéetnesse since in the one is the vertue and bringes his rewarde and the other being the vice is sure of his Punnishement And so good Sister if any your Seruauntes in Courte iudge me a louer by this short discourse I haue written I praye you tell them that béeing a member of the worlde I haue a propertie in worldly actions and perhaps had bene as worldly as the best if Philosophie had not drawne me from the world To a Noble man in Consolation for the death of his Daughter in Law. THis hath bene alwayes a true obseruation from one time to an other that afore any great chaūce or accident there were forshewed certeine straunge and prodigious signes which as the Gentils interpreted according to their Superstitions so it belonges to vs Christians to take them as
Aduertisementes and warninges Séeing they are Messengers and Heraldes of God not to amaze and confounde vs but to warne and aduise vs he delyting more to sée our liues amended then to punishe vs according to our faults according to that comfortable text of Dauid Castigans castigauit me dominus sed morti non tradidit me So liberall is the mercie of God my Sauiour towardes me sayth he that albeit he hath threatened to strike me yet he hath not so much as touched me But comming somwhat more particulerly to your estate my purpose that late importunate trauell which you toke in the mariage of your sister your great heauy misfortune in the burning of your house castle the late disagréement and faction betwéene you and your bretherne and this lamentable death of the Marques your Daughter in lawe séeme to me to be thrée plagues most pitifull to heare gréeuous to endure deseruing no lesse compassion then the ten scourges wherewith Egipt was afflicted for that the one were thundered vpō a king tirant the other ministred to a christiā knight Yea the plagues of Egipt were dispersed thorow the whole land where your griefs are altogither within your hart by means wherof where afore you wer holdē but as a christiā you are now of a cōfessor made a martir not so much for the aduersities that are happened as for the patiēce you vse bearing those crosses according to vertue not as mā vnfortunate if you were persecuted as Noe was of the Idolators or as Ioseph by his Bretherne or as the good man Iob by his frends it could not be but very gréeuous though nothing daungerous For that as in the Palaice of Princes who is most Fauoured of the Prince is best estéemed of the People So in the house of God his preferment is greatest whom Christ doth most chastise since to none other ende are the Corrections hee géeues vs then to putte vs in Remembraunce and prepare vs to one pefection God suffered Tobyas to bée Blynde Susanna to suffer Sentence and Daniell to bée Imprisoned not for that hée would them ill but to erpresse the Loue hée bare them this béeinge one propertie in Gods Affection to Chastise those that hée Loueth and leaue others to their Destruction There is no greater Temptation then neuer to bée Tempted and no more sorer Punishement then of GOD neuer to bée Corrected since who receaueth no Afflictions in this Worlde beares a Signe that of GOD hée is muche forgotten Yea the Perplexityes wherewyth GOD vysiteth vs ought rather to bée called Aduertisementes then Punishementes For that they are Disciplines necessarye to our amendement and not Stumblinge Blockes to make vs fall further This made Dauyd say Omnes fluctus tuos induxisti super me All the trauelles and Daungers Oh Lorde which thou weart woont Indifferently to impart to many thou hast now reduced and retourned vppon mée onely Job hauing loste his Goodes his Cattell and his Children sayde and demaunded of GOD Haec sit mihi consolatio vt affligens me dolore no parcas Greater Consolation coulde not the Lorde sende mée in this Worlde then Punishing my faultes to spare no sortes of sorrowe vppon mée for that in a calamitie it is one comfort when men know the vtter most of their mishappes and that they can not bée Puninished further Mihi absit gloriari sayth Saynt Paule Nisi in Cruce Domini Estéeming it no greater glorie then to endure troubles as by that meanes to come to communicate wyth the glorye of Christ It is good the LORD laye his hande vppon vs for that by it wée are ledde to humylitie and taught to enter into the consideration of our selues And the Rewarde and Recompence that God Mynistreth to suche as Obeye and serue him is to suffer them to bée Traueyled in Afflictions since hée knoweth that there is no better Passage to the Eternall Glorye and Felicyties of Heauen then to beare the Crosse of Trybulation here in Earth For through Exercise of Aduersitie menne béecome Humble and béeing often tryed they are the better Iustifyed as the Mettall that passeth thorough many Fiers ryseth more to his fynenesse and Perfection For my parte Sir albéeit I haue not the facultye of a Prophette nor the inspyration of an Apostle Yet I dare assure you that if in Patience you receaue all your perplexities you shall receaue your rewarde wyth others whom GOD hath made happye by Troubles béeing no other thinge the Trybulation of the Iuste then a warning of our faultes and an aduertisemente of that wée ought to doe Wherein speakyng more particulerly I saye that to bée Sorrowfull for the death of your Daughter you haue reason according to Fleshe and Bloude as well for the Opinion of her Vertue Beautie Age and Kyndred as in regarde of the deare affection you bare her But if you consider wythall your Office towardes GOD you haue to thinke that séeing hée hath so ordeyned the beste Sacrifyce you canne Offer is to reste satisfyed wyth his will Not to Murmure of that is done since of necessitie it must bée so nor debate wyth him why hée hath done it for that in his purposes is great Wisedome which in the ende bringes forth all thinges for our beste You must thinke Sir it is a voyage that must bée perfourmed by us all and béeing a Tribute so due hée is vnthankefull that payeth it with grudging Since for this debt wée are taken out of al Debtes and béeing cleared of all Bondes wée remayne for euer most happely layde vp in the Frée felicities of god It was a Lawe amongest the Lidians that the Father Burying his Sonne was not forth wyth comforted till the yeare was past as thinking it too soone to put consolation to so great sorrowes since the hearte that is but newely gréeued can not better bée comforted then to haue tyme to Lamente his losse For that as menne in Sorrowe féele their harmes more gréeuously then that at the firste they canne géeue place to Comfort So there canne bée no greater ease in the perplexities of Fortune then when they sée others Communicate in compassion wyth them This I saye for that where you may thinke I haue written this Letter too late you may wythall knowe that I dyd it rather of Industerie then of forgetfulnesse Wherein because the Experience of the Disposition of heartes heauely Loaden wyth Sorrowe made mée somewhat doubtfull whether out of hande I should comfort your gréene gréeues or deferre them vntill by time they were more apt to receaue Consolation I thought it not vn necessarye to suffer you to Waue in your heauynesse till your Teares somewhat ceassing your hearte might bée also reduced to Capacitie and Iudgement In cases so resolute as Death Menne are not to vse desperate Sorrowe since there is no Remedie to recouer the losse but rather to dissemble the chaunce by discression hauing more néede of Magnanimitie and great courage to
and mind The writers describe her to be of goodly personage her eyes blacke and of quicke motion her forhead large of good aspect her mouth little and lippes red her téeth white more by nature then by Art her face of complexion perfect white and red her stomacke raysed and her witte most ready and excellent wherein shée was holpen by a déepe knowledge in the Greeke Latine Yea in her personage she bare such estate maiestie and in her countenance such affabilitie swéetenes that if she were feared by meane of her seueritie shée was eftsons loued by reason of her beauty In al this pomp of beautie bountie authoritie riches power she was neuer suspected to be dissolute nor foūd affected to vanities esteming it to belong to the dignitie of her place vertue to shew no lesse integritie in example then to be void of lightnes in life Oftentimes her husbād Odenatus hath ben heard confesse that after she was once conceiued she wold neuer suffer his actuall company for that it brought staine to her chastitie holding it to belong to women to marrie more for the respect of procreation and children then to accomplish their pleasures Shée did eate but once a daye and spake little which made her body disposed her minde liuely She could drinke no wyne but was so curious to séeke for pleasant waters that for the price she might haue prouided the most precious wynes Assone as the kinges of Egipt and other Princes conspiring vnderstood of the death of her husband they dispatched Embassadors not so much to visite and comfort her as to offer league and confederacie with her so redouted was she by reason of her rare vertue Aurelius at that time being chosen Emperour of Rome made great prouision to passe into Asia to make warre vppon Quéene Zenobia being an enterprise not of the least importance to the Romaines Wherein he found such smarting effect of her vertue and inuincible valiancie of her souldiers that he saw great difficultie to conquere her by Armes And therefore assayed the remedie of swéete wordes and promises in this short letter following Aurelius Emperour of Rome and Lord of all Asia to the honorable Quéene Zenobia ALbeit to women standing in disobediēce as thou doest it can not but be vnworthy to minister requestes yet considering clemencie is a vertue nothing inferior to iustice I thought good to offer to thée the choyse assuring thée that if thou wilt take the benefit of my mercie I will giue honour to thy person and pardon to thy people The gold the siluer thy other treasure remayning in thy pallace shall not be diminished nor thy selfe deuided from thy kingdome of Palmerine which I giue thée during thy life and after to be disposed at thy pleasure vnder this condicion that thou resigne thy other kingdomes and Prouinces in Asia and acknowledge supremacie in the Empire of Rome and of thy people of Palmerina I demaund no other obedience then as confederates and friends So that if vnder these condicions thou wilt dissolue thy Camp thou shalt receiue reconcilement to the obedience of Rome and retaine certaine men of warre sufficient for the suretie of thy person and seruice of thy Realme Of thy two sonnes left by Odenatus thy husband thou shalt keep 〈◊〉 with thée him whom thou louest best send the other to me not that I will leade him prisoner but kéepe him as a pawne of thy behauiour And for the prisoners retained on both sides they shal be redeliuered in enterchange without raunsome And so I acknowledge thée happie more by fortune then by vertue This Letter bringing no amaze to the mind of Zenobia she gaue present aunswere as followeth Zenobia Queene of the Palmerines and Lady of whole Asia and the kingdomes thereof to Aurelius Emperour of Rome gréeting c. THat thou giue to thy selfe the title of Emperour of the Romaines I holde it both iust and conuenient But to make thée Lord ouer the realmes of the East I say there is neither reason nor right Since thou art not ignorant that those kingdomes are due to me only the one part discending by right of progenie the other I haue wonne by my prowes and vertue Thou sayest that if I yéeld obedience to thée thou wilt giue me recompence of great honour and ioyne forgiuenes to the faultes of my people to the one I say there is no necessitie of remission where hath bene no fault committed nor in thée is any power to forgiue against whom could be no possibilitie of offence And for the other it could not be either honest or iust that being as I am absolute to commaund ouer Asia I should as priuate be brought to the seruice of Rome Thou offrest to leaue me possest of the golde the siluer and my other treasure within my pallace wherein I can not but wonder with what grace thou canst aspire to dispose the goods of an other as thine owne thinges which thine eyes shal not sée nor thy hands touch for that I hope that afore thou come to be the executor of my goods in Asia I shall make liberalitie of all thy riches in Rome Touching the warre thou hast areared against me it is iniust afore the immortall Gods and most vnreasonable in the reason of men séeing thou fightest not to resist an iniurie but to inuade an innocent And I take armes to repulse a wrong and defend my right So that thy comming into Asia is but to rauish the goods of an other where my sword is drawn to kéepe innocents from oppression Think not that the name of the Romanes is terrible to me nor that the face of thy huge hoste can amaze me for if it be in thy hand to giue the battell in the Goddes is the authoritie to dispose the victorie and the successe of warres for the most part followeth not the nomber and courage of the souldiers but hath regard to the iustice innocencie of the quarrell That I attend thée in the field is no small glory to me where thou inuading a wydow reapest nothing but shame The cause of Widowes are protected by the Gods to whō it belongs to abate the pride of the rauishor and retayne to themselues the reuenge of desolate persons But if the Goddes suffer thée to be victor and that the furie of thy ambicion take away my life and goods yet in Rome it shal be published as it is in Asia knowne that Zenobia is made a sacrifice for the defence of her patrimonie and to preserue the honour of her husband Therefore cease henceforth to threat feare or flatter me since I am resolute to offer vnder one deuocion my life and my kingdome Wherein in doing as much as I am able I do more then I ought esteming it better to leaue a monument of my vertue then to liue with shame And if my fortune giue me vp into thy hands she world shall beare me
to an old man to haue desire to that which the force and strength of nature denie him to execute What reckoning of temperance is there to be made in old men since their stomackes being weake they are the more subiect to surfet their mindes fierie and their bodies drie their substance is nothing but fume their yeres make them credulous suspicious ambicious malicious couetous and forgetfull carying them withall into euery passion of nature and that more by the furie of their age being a burden intollerable then that they waigh things according to iustice order and reason Men in many respects and at many times more light in sence and iudgement then setled in grauetie and counsell borowing credit by their yeres and wanting that experience which many young men haue of lesse continuance It is an ordinary speach with many of these old men that if they were to begin againe and that in their youth they had known that which the successe of yeres hath brought to them they would liue after an other gouernement and do otherwayes then they haue done So that for one young man that hath not done that which hee ought there be many old men that would do more if they could to whom it is proper to shew a will aboue the power and possibilitie of their bodies euen like to a Drayne Bée whose sting being shot yet he flies vp and downe homming as though he were hable to do more harme Cicero in vaine prayseth old age for his nearenesse to the other perpetuall and happie life as for the hope they haue to visite the spirites of good men alreadie layed vp in rest Seeing we sée all men eschew that iorney being more naturall to the creatures of nature to prolong life then to bee officers in that fatall visitation Yea Cicero himselfe sought to auoyde it when hée was surprised by his enemies who compelled him to goe that iorney which hee had so much commended and so litle desired It is in vaine to desire longer life when we sée nothing but present certeintie of death and yet the greatest care of olde men is to kéepe them from death and their greatest feare to fall into his handes Yea it is this care that depriues them of the residue of the felicities of this life For that the desires of the flesh are so swéeee and importunate that naturally wée desire to establish a perpetuitie of our béeing here though it bée contrary to the eternall ordinance and impossible to the power of kind and nature For by how much we séeke to make our life long by so much do wée shorten it and by how much wée thinke it encreaseth and aduaunceth by so much doth it decline and abate the lyfe of man béeing none other thing then as a bubble of water which swelling with a vaine wynd vanisheth euen when hée is at his greatest If an olde man will vse the authoritie of his age he is intollerable euery one escheweth him and of the contrary if hée play the young man he is an ill example and euery one mockes him The olde man is to do no seruice for that he hath no power neither is he to be serued for that hée is troublesome and passioned He is no companion for young men for that to his yeares belonges too great ceremonie and euen to old men he is troublesome by the very properties and impediments of his age subiect to hemming spitting coughing and many other loathsome dispositions If they bée poore their parents disdayne them and béeing rich they are thought to liue too long for their heires and successors They spend much and get litle they speake often and do seldome Yea their couetousnes encreaseth wyth their yeres which is the greatest corruption that can happen to man. So that I sée not by what reason Cicero could so much commend olde age béeing the very dregges and consumption of the life of man whom hée makes subiect to all diseases which makes mée of opinion that if there bée any age in man worthy of prayse it is more due to youth then to olde age For that the one is fayre and the other deformed the one is sound and the other diseased the one disposed the other froward the one strong the other weake And youth is apt to all exercises but the delites of age are resolued into plaintes passions and dollors So that the one being necessary the other intollerable the one full of griefe and the other frée from passion I sée no particular dignitie due to olde age other then in reuerence and much lesse how the consolations of Cicero can minister remedies since most olde men do féele their infirmities with more griefe and bitternesse then that wordes onely can giue them remedie One friend writeth to an other of the rage of Enuie and the nature thereof SVch is the infirmitie of the present season that men of vertue rising into fauour find enuie to hinder their merit and malice to minister recompence to their painefull desertes enuie being alwayes such an enemie to vertue that where it can not oppresse it yet will it lie in waite to suppresse the glory therof There is no felicitie so well assured nor estate so modest which is not subiect to the inuasion of enuie For that enuie being none other thing then a branch of iniustice it stirres vp the thoughts to wicked purposes and armes the handes to actions of iniquitie The enuious man hath no respect either to the vertue or fortune of any but to the good thinges that are in them not reioycing so much in the goods that are his owne as in the domage hurt hée doth to others his office stretching chiefely to desire that no good thing happen to an other Yea hée will not sticke to suffer hurt himselfe vppon condicion to make his neighbour féele more harme according to the Poeticall example following Jupiter disposed to suruey the estate of the worlde sent downe for that purpose one of his Aungels disguised in the fourme of a man whom he ordained to fall first into felowship with two men trauailers on the way as it séemed and in that respect not the lesse conuenient for his companie They perfourmed together many dayes iourneys wyth those delites and fortunes which happen to such as wander countreys In the end the Angell hauing drawne from them all those thinges hée required to satisfie his desire disclosed vnto them whose messenger he was and hauing power to dispose of the liberalitie of Jupiter hée sayd that for their good companie hée would giue them present recompence Whereuppon he willed them to aske what they would and who made the first demaund should not onely haue fully all that he required but the other should haue forthwith double as much The one of these two trauaylers was a couetous man and the other an enuious man betwene whom this offer of the Angell bred no small contention For the couetous
to liue long For that greater is the penaunce by his long lyfe in couetousnesse then any other reuenge that can be taken of him Great is that ambicion and slaunderous that couetousnesse which neyther for shame of the worlde nor for feare of death is restrained or moderated and tenne times great is the abuse of him who hauing no necessitie séekes to exchaunge contentment for care solace for sorrow libertie for bondage pleasure for paine and watching for sléeping Yea accursed is that man that fals from the reputation of seruice in warres to the profession of broakage in martes and Marchaundise And forbearing to climbe hilles and mountaynes to resist the enemie is contented to kéepe the vally and Robbe his Countreymen that be passengers euen lyke to many olde men who when they waxe weake in force without séeke to growe strong in malice wythin By these Sir I wish you to consider what Dampnable office you haue taken in hand and into what discredible Opinions you are growen with bringing to your friendes no small griefe and to your selfe a lamentable infamie I aduise you for ende to chaunge your mind séeing it is easier to suffer that want of wealth thē to dissemble the abuse of honor A Letter in consolation declaring the discommodities of anger and the benefites of patience I Would you were as good a Phisition as I know you to be a true christian then would you eyther vse the proper remedie to infelicities which is patience or at least shake of the heauinesse of your misfortune which iustly béecomes a wiseman For as to all naturall infirmities afflicting the body phisicke is able to aforde cures proper and conuenient So when tribulations happen and the minde is trauelled the man of God will not contest or argue why he is visited but looke vp to the will of the Lorde wyth whom our medicines are alreadie compounded though not swéete and pleasaunt to our taste yet necessarie and profitable to our saluation and health And albeit oftentimes he deales not wyth vs as we would and looke for yet we finde from time to time that he trauelleth to our remedie and knowing best the humor that offendes vs he can in due season applye the medecine that best worketh to our deliuery And therefore when we are in tribulation and séeme to aske of God in vaine we ought not forthwith to enter into murmure but to weigh with that little he denyeth vs then the many graces he hath graunted vs afore it being to great an vnthankefulnesse to forget the many blessinges we haue receiued and béeing denyed but small thinges to rayse great complaynies agaynst him But as a mischiefe knowne of before and diligently looked for is not so gréeuous as when it comes vppon a suddeyne So for that I haue alwayes knowne you to bée resolute in the chaunces of tyme and fortune I hope you stande now in leaste necessitie of Councell when there is most occasion of courage or vertue estéeming it all one to foresée a mischiefe when you are sewer of the remedie And yet béecause Afflictions are the true Touche stoanes to trye the Affections of Friendes I thought good to offer myselfe to Communicate wyth you not in direction for that I know you hable and well aduised but in Councell which béeing faythfully giuen ought to finde no season vnapt to be receiued Lyke as in experience of Worldly thinges euery newe mutation bringes wyth it for the present a newe care and leaues notwythstanding the minde in greater sewertie at last So for your part if you knewe the necessitie of afflietions your owne debilitie If you considered wel of fortune and her chaunges If you weighed men wyth their malices And discerned betwéene the worlde and his allurementes you would not suffer heauinesse for that which is necessary nor séeke your succoures in thinges that entertaine your misery since it is more miserable to be with out vertue then to be afflicted Such is the suttle malice of the world that the lesse héed men giue to it the more doth it prepare to strike them to the end to giue them afterwards a greater wounde Many men sounde and disposed dye sooner of diseases newely growen then the weake that haue languished many yeares in their infirmities And therefore séeing it is most sewer that the wretched man canne not passe wythout myserie he is more Wise that canne taste his trauelles by little and little then hée that tryeth them al together For that many thinges are Eaten by morsels which if they weare Swallowed togeather woulde bringe Perill of Stranglinge Euen so at sundrye times wée suffer many perplexities which if they should trauell vs all at once our frayltie weare too weake to resiste them for that they woulde deuoure vs all in one daye So that séeing God hath so ordeyned that what wée holde our selues most sewer of wée sée oftentimes suffer most Perill Why doe wée complayne of want of reste when wée haue vndertaken a Iourney wearie and troublesome Why doe wée thinke muche to stomble hauing chosen a stoanie way How canne wée thinke to sléepe in securitie when in the seames of our Bedde bée sowen thoughtes and cares Lastly there is no reason to thinke wée should bée frée in Heauen séeing wée stande bounde to the Worlde There is no more Power in fortune to assure thinges then in the Sea to bée calme béeing Subiect to the Wyndes And no more Authoritie hath shée to dispose thinges then the simple Maryner that committes his Sayles to the Wynde which dryueth his Shippe not whether hée woulde but whether the Waues and Wynde doe shooue her It is an infallible rule that all Naturall courses are Subiect to mutation euery yeare and all Worldely menne that hunte after Fortune are sewer to suffer Eclipse euery moment So that séeing Naturall thinges béeing necessarie canne not reteyne alwayes one essence and béeing It is most iuste that the goodes of fortune perishe which are superfluous I am sorie for your miseaduenture as if it hadde happened to my selfe And more sorie that I canne not as I woulde make knowne wyth what hearte I beare compassion to you Since it is one principall office amongest Friendes to Communicate in fortunes and though their persones bée deuided yet to exercise Communitie of councell comforte and remedie So that hauing no possibilitie to come to you standinge Subiect to the Seruice of the Prince and lesse expectation of reliefe béeing not hable to minister to mine owne wantes I thought to vse the industrie of my Penne to declare the disposition of my harte hoping you will accept that that is and looke for no more then may be and where in giuing you aduise to make no reckoning of that is happened you may perhappes take occasion to thinke that eyther I know not the grauetie of the chance or els that I estéeme you to haue want of iudgment I cannot but confesse to holde this opinion that albeit you are subiect to
shall bée prepared at my table and I will béestow you in the height of my glory to the ende you may there haue the fruition of my Diuinitie This truly is a most highe and great mistery for the Apostles to follow Iesus Christ hauing abandoned parentes and friendes countrey and goods yea renounced their proper willes God thought them not worthie of recompence so much for that as for that they perseuered till the ende he sayth not to his Disciples you are onely they that are tempted but you haue remayned wyth me in my temptations Wherin he giues vs to know that in the other worlde none shall haue place at the table of God but such as perseuere in him to the end One of the priueleadges which God giues to his friendes sayth Dauid is that no temptation shall haue power to chaunge their mindes nor any aduersitie be hable to make them giue ouer the good they haue béeginne vntill the ende For that the gyft of constancie is of many desired and of few obteyned And therefore to béeginne a good worke is the custome of good men to pursue and follow it is the office of the vertuous But to leade it to his ende and effect is a pryuileadge mearly appertayning to those that be holy and Religious And to speake the truth wyth what industry so euer we enforce our selues and vnder what wéening so euer we presume yet to resist an ill we are to tender of harte and farre to moueable of condition So that right happy is it with those that shall heare Christ say You are they that haue perseuered wyth mee and therefore you are regenerate and shall enioy wyth mee for euer the perfect ioy and felicity A resolution of certayne famyliar and naturall questions wyth apparant coniectures and tokens of death I Would your importunities were as iust as my excuses are reasonable so should the contencion be easely resolued whether be greater my faultes or your complaints In him that makes request it is easie to find wordes to speake for that he speakes in desire but to whom the sute is made belongs great discretion for that all denials are hatefull not so much by the merit and consideration of the cause as for that the affection of the sutor may be corrupt Which I do not alledge here to the proofe of your fault for that in our friendship should remaine no faction nor yet to iustifie my excuses if they beare not both reason and innocencie Assuring you that séeing it pleaseth you to make a triall of my wit more for exercise then possibilitie of knowledge I wil ioyne my self to your fancie not so much for necessitie as to kéepe vse of my imperfection You aske me wherefore men containe greater corpolencie and substance of body then women I say it procedes of the heate which is more aboundant in the one then in the other For heate being of a nature td encrease and swell giues vnto men a greater perfection in stature and nature then to women whose humors being tempered with cold makes their bodies lesse substantiall and of more infirmities You would know how it hapneth that of foure Elements the fire and the aire are incorruptible and of the contrary the earth and the water are subiect to corruption To this I sayd it is of necessitie that all thinges intangled with corruption are first made colde but the fire cannot suffer cold for that it is an enemie to cold and the aire albeit sometimes bring forth cold yet it is alwayes full of fire Where the earth and water hauing their temperature of cold and heate are subiect to corruption by the nature and qualitie of their composition You aske whereuppon it commeth that oftentimes we shrinke and enter into a cold after we be deliuered of our vrine The reason is this so long as the vrine being hot remayneth yet in the bladder neither the bladder nor the partes about it can féele any cold but the bladder béeing discharged all the sayd partes are eftsones filled with an aire more colde then was the vrine for there is nothing voide in nature And that aire occupying the place of the vrine causeth naturally the shiuering and cold that wée feele You would know how it hapneth that when we fare very cold cōming hastily to the fire to séeke warmth we feele a griefe or ache in our finger endes and warming vs by leasure we haue no mocion of paine This may be aunswered by experience that when we passe out of one countrary into an other mutation is great as may be séene in trées who being plied bowed by litle and litle breake not but strayning them by force they rent in two euen so the heate that is within holdeth the cold out repulsing withall the moysture and so one contrary is resisted by an other The same béeing the cause that receiuing warmth by litle and litle the heat within comes out is not hindred by the cold which causeth the lesse sence or féeling of paine But in receiuing suddenly the warmth of the fire we do by violence draw out a great heat and by the repugnancie that it findes with the cold not fully gone bringes no small paine to the partie You aske me by what reason most women the first and second month that they are with child haue that disordered appetite to eate coales and other strange thinges The reason of that appetite is that nature hath drawne downe all the bloud of the woman to helpe to forme the fruite in her wombe Which bloud being corrupted makes also the stomacke pertaker of his vice and corruption By which occasion the stomacke being pressed with such matter so corrupt requireth all meats that are vaine lothsome ta +king his lust desire to many things according to the qualety or impression of the matter wherewith he is charged For if it abounde with an humor malancholike which is blacke it formeth an appetite to coales such like things if it suffer aboundance of sharpe fleame it bréeds a lust to thinges sharpe and eger the lyke iudgement being proper for all other humors To your demand why women and Eunukes haue their voice so small and shirle I say it procéedes of the quill or pype of their wesand which being strait cannot be enlarged by reason of the humor whereof it is full and heate onely hath power to make it wyder For as we sée out of little and small phyfes come a voice cleare shirle And out of smal trunks the lowdest sownd Euen so is it of the pype of the wesand which by reson of his subtlety is called lowd or shirle You aske me why such as conteine but meane stature are for the most parte more wise then those that haue great bodies That may be by this reason that in a little body the senses spirits are always better vnited cōpact then in a great where in a greater by reason they
the more Subiect to complaynt by how muche their mindes lyue alwayes trauelled in trouble and Ielousie You aske me how it happeneth that Louers in the presence of their Ladyes lose liberty of speache and doe oftentimes forget that which they had studyed and well considered to speake It may bée that infyrmitie procéedes of the trouble of the minde engendred by a looke or glaunce cast by stealth vppon the thing that they Loue and standing so amazed in minde the tongue hath no facilytie to the action of his dutie séeing the beginning of the speach deriueth of the mind or spyrit to whom the tongue serues as an interpretor to expresse his conceytes This happeneth also to many who called to question in the presence of a Prince or magestrate fall oftentimes into a passion of stutting or meare scilence specially if they bée trauelled either with feare or falshod of conscience To that you aske me why Louers are shamefaste to discouer their affections I say that men haue certaine appetites naturall and necessary as to drinke and eate which of necessity they must satisfy to preserue lyfe and auoyde death so they haue other affections which albeit are natural yet not necessary but superfluous vaine and withall dishonest from those are deryued many disordered appetites as is the rage of loue which is an affection blind engendred of Idlenes and for that it bringes vnto men an estimation of beast lines and dishonesty The most sort séeke as much as they can to hyd their loue vnder figures apparances to liue in expectatiō of that they desire You aske me also how it happeneth that louers discerne not the vices falts of their amorous frends That must néeds be an error deriuing of their proper affection which deuides them from their true iudgment sences For louers as saith Plato are like to such as hunt after estats offices or to those that are giuen to wyne to whom al estats are welcome al wines seeme to giue a pleasing tast besides according to the philosophers al great mocions hinder those that be lesse So that loue hauing occupied the chief most principal mocions of the spirit troubleth for the most part the vertue original of the sences the same being the cause with Plato why louers are made blinde with the sight of their Ladies and according to the same the poets haue fained Cupid without eyes And where you desire me to giue a reasō why men be hoarse of corrupt voyce after they haue slept I thinke that impedimēt comes no otherwaies then by a replexiō of humors caused by a rawnes or indigestiō of meat the same occupying the vpper parts of the body makes the head dull heauie therfore the pipe of the weysand being ful of the said humors they must necessarily be impedimentes to the voyce and make it hoarse and hollow Thus muche touching the Exposition of your Philosophicall demaundes And now where you require me by a speciall and lardge request to Communicate wyth you what I haue harde and read eyther in Phylosophye or Physscke by what apparant signes tokēs may be iudged whether one that is sicke shall dye or lyue for that as you say you haue a daughter in daunger and would gladly know her destiny The resolution of this demaund albeit appertaineth more properly to your doctor of Physicke then vnto me that am a Diuine studying more how to Preache then to iudge of complexions yet séeing you will haue my opinion I pray you let me debate with you as a Christian that as God hath nombered the yeares of our lyfe and set downe a limit which no man can passe so if it bée his good pleasure your Daughter shall yet lyue but if hée thinke it conuenient for her Saluation hée knoweth best when to call her to him For it is not onely hée that géeueth lyfe but hée is euen the selfe lyfe And therefore according to the office of a Diuine more then in the councell of a Phisition I wyshe you to put her in remembraunce of her mortalitye and prepare her to God in whom and none other all good Christians ought to béelieue is power to chaunge our lyfe and translate vs to himselfe Many and many haue I knowne abandoned of the worlde and extreamely past succour and helpe of man haue yet receiued restitution of God and liued many yers and many againe recouered of sicknes past all apparaunce of daunger and yet payd their tribute to nature when was no expectation of death A thing that is not to be construed to the well or ill handling of the Phisition but to be referred to the prouidence of God which hath so ordeyned it The king Ezechias was giuen ouer of the Phisitions and the sonne of the host of Samaria was dead but at the commaundement of God the Chylde reuiued and Ezechias was recouered But leauing those Testimonies of Scripture to a further leasure let vs gather some opinions of the Philosophers who wyth many auncient Phisitions haue set downe in wryting certayne notable Signes to discerne the perill of Death in such as are Sicke Plynie in his seauenth Booke and one fifty Chapter sayth that a man being sicke of any sharp infirmitye as of a Frenzie if hee fall sometimes into a suddayne myrth or burst out into great laughing that Patient expresseth great tokens of present death if any bée sicke of a corruption of humors malencholike and set himselfe to behold or stare much vppon another without sturring his eye of long such one is not farre from death If a man be sicke of a Feuer collerike or sharp and his pulse moue vncertainely sometimes quicke and somtimes slow such one no doubt enclines to death Who is sicke of a burning Feuer and vseth sometimes to draw vp the shéete or double the cloathes of the bed or plucke of the thrumbes of the same in that man is great coniecture of the end of his lyfe One that hath lyen long sicke and beginnes to shut and close his eyes often and set his téeth and mouth carieth great apparance of death He that is striken wyth the plague and being halfe awake and beginneth to raue and murmure to himselfe caryeth manifest coniecture of death If any aboue the age of fourescore yeares fall into a gréedy hungar to eate and drinke wythout measure it is a signe they haue not long to liue A young Chylde being sharppe in wit and ready in aunsweres or that he shew in that tender age a discression accomplished in that childe is no iudgement of long life These be the coniectures of the Philosophers which I haue gathered more to content you then that I assure them to be infallible aduising you for end to recommend your daughter to God who only hath power to dispose all thinges by the same prerogatiue whereby he hath made them of nothing A discourse of the Canonisiing of the Pagan Gods and why
are chaunged into many formes of appetyte sometimes desiring one thing and sometime an other swelling sometimes wyth pryde as a Lyon and sometimes taking the forme of a Hart by reason of their weakenesse and feare and in the practise of sleyghtes and subtleties are tourned into the similitude of a Foxe These be the names that Ouid sets before the eyes of men as wonderfull examples of thinges which happen in the world as you and all readers of stayed minds may finde by the discourse of his Booke of the Metamorpheses wherein you may perceiue that the auncientes aswel philosophers as Poets when they began any work of importance they called vpon the ayd and fauor diuine according to the Testimonye of Plinie in an Oration he made in the prayse of Trayan wherein he commended the Custome of the auncients to make inuocation afore the beginnig of their woorke and Iudged that there could be no assured nor wise beginning of any enterprise without the speciall ayd and councell of God. Ouid was not ignorant of this custome and being a gentleman Romane he was also an Astrologian Philosopher polityke and excellent Poet as it is well expressed on his Bookes of Metamorphoses specially in the first which conteyneth indifferently both Philosophy excellent Poetry In the second booke he declars himselfe a perfect Astrologian giuing no apparance to haue any opinion that he was a man liuing as he fayned nor that he had any children charyot or horse But vnder this fabulous discription he declareth the naturall course of the Sunne of the firmament together with the naturall effects that folow of them wherein to rebuke such as are ignorant and of little knowleadge in the Science he bringes in Phaeton king of the Indees who hauing a highe pride wéening in his knowlege albeit by the iudgment of the Historians he was very vnresolute simple led diuerse people into error by his Lawes and statutes corrupt which was that fier of error wherewith he burned al the earth Some fained him to be the sonne of the sunne vnto whom they approiated al mē of singuler wit helde him as God of sciences But the occasion that the Poets tooke was vpon his death which hapned in the voiage he made vppon the riuer Pano leading a great army by water by reason of the great heate and there was diuinely killed with an arrow or bolt that fell from heauen But to retorne eftsoons to Ouid it must be considered that séeking to establish in his work an end and purpose which was to shew to al good wits that should come after him the excellency of his conceyt and wonderfull inuention of his Metamorphoses which with good right may be called the mother of Poesie and also his resolute knowlege in all disciplines togither with the copie and variety of his doctrine ioyned to an exact iudgment in pollicy histories knowing he was a man whose frailty bare many impediments without the ayd of God to execute and perfect the purpose he had taken in hand began his work by a forme of inuocation to God saying Oh milde gods I besech you séeing al metamorphoses transformations procéed of you to assist me so blisse me in the beginning that I may haue grace to continue to the end being therby the better able to recompt the thinges that are hapned from the beginning of the world vnto our time so discēded into the parts of his argument as is expressed vppon his works Thus you haue the contents of your cōmaundement my promise which I haue sent you not contriued of myselfe but as I haue sought them amongest the writings of learned men hoping they will satisfie you the better since I was careful to write nothing which is not iustified by good authority A rebuke to ambicion vnder the speache of a sauage man vttered in the Senat of Rome SO much doe your importunities trouble me that I wish to be either further from you or at least that my condition were not so priuate seing that to the nearenes of the place you ioyne your authority make all things serue to your occasion to trouble me If you claime me to your deuotion in respect of your merits you bring staine to your liberalitie since to exact recompence is a manifest exprobation of benefits receiued and in a demaund so suddein so great and concerning so many euen of the greatest there can be no lesse falt in you to tempt my patience then rebuke in me to hazard my ignorance for that he that is the executor of the falt is lesse guilty blamable then he that giueth the occasion But séeing you proue me in a matter so high and ielouse I will to auoyd perticuler chalenge send you my opinion vnder this discréet and excellent discourse of a vilayn published in the presence of the whole Senate of the Romanes recommended to posterity in wryting by M. Aurelius wherein if you finde your selfe touched wyth your proper errors haue regarde to the reasons of this rude Orator and be no lesse reformed of your couetousnesse then he made the Senate ashamed of their ambicion and Tyrannie assuring you that as ambicion is the beastly nourse of couetousnesse and both they créepe in in these dayes vnder a forme and maner of seueritie So it can not bée but that man which desireth power is an ill mayteyner of Iustice and he that thirsteth for glory runnes with great swiftnes into actions of iniuries and oppression And therfore who aspireth to glory and seeks his prayse of wycked men must of necessitie be lyke vnto them But now to our villayne who speaking in a time when Rome was chaunged in Customes and Ciuill vertues peopled more with flatterers then men of simplicity and truth you must also imagine him to stand at the bar in this discription his face litle thin his countenāce sharp and pearcing his couller blacke swarffy his haire disordered staring his eyes rolling and fiery his bearde long and thicke his eyebrowes clowdie and hanging his necke and stomake all hairy his girdle of bulrushes pleated his shooes of the skinne of a wylde Boare and holding in his hande a great staffe or troncheon And being entred the Senate in this hydeous figure he protested the reasons of his comming with no lesse boldnesse maiesty of countenance spirit then his presence garments were monstrous terrible Oh graue fathers sayth he that in your liues fūctiōs wer expressed such effect of piety cōpassiō as your outward presēce declare merit of reuerence apparāce of equity thē to my cōplaints should be ioyned presēt pitie grace to mine inocēcy iust fauor clemency I salute you with that affection which the oppression of my country can best aford and with that hart which you haue torne in péeces with long miseries exaction I beséech the imortall Gods so to inspire you with a spirit of iustice
is an infallible propertie in his iustice to minister rewardes to good men aboue the rate of their merittes and prepare punishment to the wicked vnder their deseruinges And where Christ commaunds not without great misterie that we should hold in our handes our candles lighted and neither vse the seruice of the candlestick nor appoint others to hold them for vs it is to aduertise vs that if God ought to saue vs it ought to be through his great mercy onely and not by any meane of our proper merittes although in our actions we ought alwaies to expresse a holy industrie and diligence In like sort it is not enough in the profession of religion that we be girt that we haue cādles that we hold thē in our hands or that we haue many candles but it belongs to our christianitie to haue thē burning with light not as dead and stinking snuffes wher by we are warned the better were it not to enter into religiō at al if in the same we correct not the abuses of our liues gather profit by the fruit doctrine of the gospel by the example of the great prophet S. Iohn baptist being himself as the scripture saith the candle that burned gaue light are boūd al sincere vertuous religious men to take hede that they want no wax of good life to burne and be lesse replenished with vices to giue impedimēts to their lights so that no other thing is the religious man vndeuoute then a candle dead it can not by any similitude resemble a candle light but rather a snuffe troden out quenched where the man of the church hath no other good thing in him then his habit by the which he ought neuer the more to exalt or glorifie himself since afore the maiesty of God it is no no other thing to be reputed a holy man holding nothing of vertue but his habit then a candle whose light being quenched his qualitie lieth dead The virgins that had not their lamps lighted according to the iudgement of the gospel deserued not to enter with the bridgrome euenso the man by whom is not performed the dutie of a good Christian and muchlesse hath fulfilled the office of a Churchman may stande assured that when de dyeth he shall not be founde amongst those that are inuited but past ouer to the fellowship of such as are deceiued That great is the grace which God sheweth to that man whom he withdrawes from the world and reduceth into holy religion for that there is more suretie to stande and not so much subiection to fall and if he suffer him to stumble he hath appoynted him helpes to hold him vp and many readie meanes to repentance Since that in the Church he hath more oportunitie to serue God and lesse occasion to commit sinne And albeit being compounded vpon humors and complexions of corruption we cannot but erre in thinges corrupt and worldly Yet such is the care and protection of God ouer those that he loueth and hath called and chozen to the seruice office of the Church that if sometimes he suffer them to fall the better to make them know him it is not without the readie assistance of his hand to helpe them essoones to ryse agayne Yea he seldome suffereth them to slyde into such faultes as may geue him occasion to be angrie with them Therefore who vnder the habite of religion riseth into a minde of Pryde Ambition Epicuritie or Malice is amongest the children of God the same that Satan is to all Christians Dathan amongest the Jsraelites Saule amongest the Prophets and Judas amongest the Apostles Wherein let all men be warned that haue will to enter into Religion that afore they séeke it they may know wherefore they follow it since for no other cause ought they to come to the cōmunion of Religion but to amend and reforme their liues For albeit the sinceritie of Religion receiue great sinners yet it is with no tolleration to commit heynous Crimes after they be inuested What other thing is ment by that Discipline of the Scripture wherein the Lande of Promise for traueling in small labors on the Holydayes they were commaunded to be stoaned But that to the man of the Church sinning lightly in Religion was merit of great seueritie punishment for that a small sinne committed in the world beares an estimation of a grieuous crime in the Church Take héede sayth S. Paule that you receiue not the grace of our Lorde in vaine And what other thing doth he then receiue it in vaine who makes no reckoning of his election and cares not to be called to the Church and deuided from the worlde For as by baptisme we are sanctified euenso by the profession of the ministerie we are regenerat Let euerie one then take héede what it is that he takes in hande afore he beginne to manage so holy a function and whether they be professors by will or by necessitie For all religions being of the institutions of holy personages as it can not be tollerable that in their ministers be any imperfections or want of perfect deuotion and vertue So who in the habite of religion will liue prophanely or follow the libertie of the worlde in that man is no apparance of reformation and lesse argument of fayth or vertue And therfore in the church for some perticuler mento be more exempt and priuileadged then others or to aspire aboue the congregation and communitie of the Church in any priuat or familiar prerogatiue although it may be suffered for a time yet religion can not holde it tollerable long For no more then the Sea can beare bodies that be dead no more hath the Church a nature to brooke in her ministers mindes of Ambition and Pryde for which cause it is called order as wherein are conteined all thinges well ordered which without this order cannot but beare to cōfusion Who hath once taken the habite of religion and will still continue entangled with the customes of the worlde and exercise his minde in vanities can not but breake the statutes of Religion and stande in perill of infidelitie since the doctrine of the gospell and the libertie of the world could neuer holde societie or fellowshippe together A discourse in the presence of a great assemblie of Noble Ladyes of the good and euill that the tongue doth Mors et vita in manibus linguae IF to men of the worlde were power of election to demaunde the thinges they desire most afore all other temporall felicities they would require to liue long And if on the other syde they had libertie to contesse what thing in the World they abhorred most who doubtes not but all men loth nothing more then to dye Wherunto there is to be made this readie reason that as liuing they enioye that they haue and dying they leaue to be that they are So with life all things are remedied by death there is nothing which hath not end
christians for that they are and beare the name of christians He had not sure erected this Edict had hee not bene well informed of the innocency and iustice of such as followed christian religion and had some taste by the doctrine of Quadratus and Aristides of the reasons appertaining to the mistery of the gospel For he deuised to builde Temples dedicated to the seruice and woorshipping of Christ wherein his counsell restrayned hym alleadginge that in that example woulde be generall conuersion to christianitie In this may be discerned the conscience of his councellours who stoode vpon no other impediments but a certain feare that by that meane the multitude would come to the knowledge of the truth Those tēples that he did build were not subect to idolatrie neither would he suffer customes of superstition beeing for those respectes called the temples of Adrian Marcus Antonius Aurelius declared in fauour of the christians that they worshipped the immortal God he gaue libertie to whom would be a christian and forbad expressely that they should be molested The Emperour Alexander Seuerus published a lawe in grace of the christians that they should not be persecuted and much lesse restrained to vse publike conference and action of their religion he had hanging in his Oratorie the Image of a Crucifix and deuised to builde a Temple wherein Christ should be worshipped but he suffered many impedimentes that drew him from it All this was wrought by Gods prouidence foreséeing that the Sauiour of the worlde shoulde not be put amongst other false Gods. This Prince in all his deuises and spéeches had great familiaritie wyth this principall point of christian discipline Not to do to an other that which he would not haue done to himself wherin was good declaration that his conscience could not denie that truth which those men professed that were persecuted of the world Valerius Maximus the Emperour was a great vexer of the christians yet the truth of the gospell and the chastisementes of God which he had bitterly felt made him oftentimes reuoke the straight and seueare Edictes which he had ordeined against the christians giuinge libertie to who would professe the state and opinion of christianitie and they not to be vexed by any persecutions All these men and great Princes were sworne ennemies to the religion and died in their ignorance and blindnes whose testimonies are of no small effect against the ennemies of Christ For when they ceased to vexe and persecute the church and beare fauour to the christians it procéeded of none other motion thē of the puretie of religion and of the iustice and innocencye of those that professed it together with their constancie in all actes of vertue bearing withal a setled hatred to all vices They saw also the sundry maruelles and prodigious things which were don daily for the reformation of that doctrine and felt the anger of GOD and his chastisementes thundered vppon such as persecuted the churche So that it séemes that in those thinges was a spirit enforcinge those mightie Princes to testifie for that doctrine and beare fauour to it to the ende that on all sides errour and falsehoode might be driuen away as béeing not hable to remaine where the lighte of the gospell should dispearse his beames In that time when the gospell began to be planted and sowen and that the name of a christian was so dearely solde to him that bare it the prouidence of God raised a meane to remoue the crosse from the churche to the end shée were not so oppressed with persecutions as not to haue leasure to recouer breath and eftsones take fresh courage Thys respitte was giuen by the meanes to haue conuersation with the Pagans and yet remained from the Emperour Tiberius vntill Nero who was the first that persecuted the primatiue churche yea this persecution brought greate slaughter to the christians euen to the principalles of the church and Christes Disciples hauinge brought to perfection their race and course and accomplished all those thinges that appertained to their time and for the which they had bene myraculously preserued The Emperour Domitian contynued this affliction and by him notwythstandinge the goodnesse of GOD wroughte a meane to cease and remoue all those tormentes for that by the hate which Domitian boare to the doinges of his predecessour Nero he with the Senate brake all the statutes and ordenances of Nero By which was ministred to the churche good oportunitie to reenter into comforte and courage bringinge some reste to the gospell the better to haue it communicated in some sewertie and to plant it with greater power So that in good viewe and consideration of these affaires and actions we may discerne in these discourses of the christian church a woonderfull fauour and prouidence of GOD séekinge on the one side to proue and examine his churche by a rigorous crosse shewinge her the traces and steppes of her Sauiour to the ende to followe hym and on the other side he exhibited a Fatherly loue and incomprehensible prouidence making her truly to se that neither the furie of the kingdome of Sathan nor the rage of his ministers are sufficient to supplant and roote it out of the worlde yea hauinge on her part the infinitte power of GOD she shall stande eternally and yet the worlde not know the meane how she is preserued By this meane also may bee discerned how readily and feruently the yre of GOD is kindled againste the aduersaries of the gospell séeinge that all the Romaine Emperours which persecuted it suffered wicked and monstrous endes As of the contrary such as were moderate and temperate founde fauour with GOD and were lesse punnished of the world laying them in comparison wyth Nero Domitian and such other like Princes whom the Deuill helde in hys deuotion to persecute the churche By these meaness the Prymatiue churche was mayntained sometimes in one estate sometimes in an other vntill the raigne of Julian the Apostat who being a christian in hys beginninge was seduced by Libinius Sofista his schoolmaister to abandon Christian faith and restore Paganry together wyth the sacrifices and superstitions which had bene abolished by the lighte of the gospell By these it is woonderfull to see howe christian faith encreased séeinge the impedimentes of persecution that were raised against it But much more are to be woondered at the respytes succours and comfortes which euen her proper ennemyes ministred vnto her as well appeareth no lesse by the relation of those myghty Princes Emperours before declared then also by the persecution of this Iulian in whom Gods prouidence wrought no lesse benefitte and fauour then in any of the rest séeing that notwithstandinge this Prince persecuted the church with greater arte and hate then any of his predecessours yet God forbare not to raise her into an estate of great spirituall prosperitie this tirant séeing as well in his life as his death euident tokens that God was his enemie For euen in his time the gospell was
preached and receyued by the greatest part of the world by which the wisedome and goodnes of God disclosed manifestly that that which floated and florished in despite of the industrie crueltie and power of the worlde was come from Heauen from whence was ministred vnto it all fauour succour and ayde The Originall of tirrannie and Idolattie together with the punishments of tirantes and Idolators how Abraham was chosen chéefe of the Hebrewes YOur letter no lesse full of modestie and swéetenesse then replenished with doctrine and iudgement bringes no small delight to me for that to your déepe science already in thinges I finde remeyning a zealous desier yet to know more wherin I can not but accompt it to belong to my office to adde to your zeale and trauell my faith and diligence though not able to teach you further yet as touching the request of your letter to shew my opinion leauing it to be controlled by that fauour and wisedome where with you are wonte to measure and iudge the errours of your frendes But touching the matter as you haue to remember that out of the race of Cain issued Nembroth the great tirant Who by his ambition and pride subdued all men and Nations of his time enforcing them to liue vnder his tribute and customes So there is no doubt but these tirranous spirittes are most hurtfull to the world and by the Scriptue reputed as ennemies of God For their desier to heare rule makes them breake all order of iustice bearing no regarde to lawes nor ordinaunces Yea in respect to encrease maintaine their principallitie they giue suffrāce to all men to be insolent with liberty to committe disordered actions In the time of Nembroth were many possessed with this wicked spirit of pride and ambition who assemblinge together conspired to builde a tower of incomparable rate of height and measure to the ende to perpetuat their name and reputation amongst men But God beholding their arrogant intentions and willing to manifest the wickednesse of that tyrannye and presumption of that pryde bréeding so many miseries and euils let fall his anger vpon them confounding in such sort the Tongs of the builders and workmen that one vnderstoode not an other since they all spake vnknowne and straunge Languages Afore the foundation of the Tower of Babilon there was but one language in all the world God then inflicting vpon the earth a wonderfull punishment by the confusion and diuersitie of speaches But thus it happened that the first men hauing lyued but vnder the vse knowledge of one tongue and now béeing in confused deuided into many dispersed themselues thorow the worlde by whose posterities haue bene continued all those diuersities of languages that now reigne This diuision of tongues was the cause that the Tower of Babilon was not ended by which occasion also the Princes of the earth leauing their tyranie were driuen to search new coūtreyes to inhabite euery one following his language as an ensigne sunder the which they might plant and multiply By this diuision of men and Countreys people fell into so great erors that forgetting the doctrine of God together wyth the promises he had made to men the most part of the world became Idolators declining to such superstitions as the deuill inuented dayly to aduaunce his purposes So that Idolatry toke his beginning of infidelitie and the wicked inclinations of men deliting leaue the right way to folow that that leades to perdition To this was much helping the forgetfulnesse of the trueth and the negligence of men caring not to folow religion and doctrine and much lesse to teach it to others An other originall or fountaine springes of the loue of our selues called Selfeloue together wyth an insaciable will which men haue to put themselues in libertie inducing them faythfully to searche a thousand waies for their satisfaction and by some meane to inuent abhominable Superstitions whervnto the deuill is so readie to minister assistance wythall the art and fauor he can that poore sinners to make them the more hardened and desperate fixing vpon certaine faulse and deceitfull experiences attribute in the ende dignitie to any thing of the which according to their coniecture they had receiued ayd or answere In other places they haue a certaine feare in their consciences which restraines them to demaund of God the things which themselues estéeme to be wicked dishonest By that it comes to passe that they are pleased with the seruice of these faulse gods who care not but only to be serued as gods wythout regarding whether the men be iust or vnrightful For seing these dissembled Gods be deuils in déed passible to all actions councels of deuils they are of cōmon congruency enemies of iustice frends to wickednes those be the preparations that the deuil finds in the harts of such as he hath enchaunted abusing them with perswasion that there is a god of battels another of robberies a God of drunkenes another of whordome all these Gods béeing most delyted with such as most are giuen to dishonest acts infidelity also the root of al sinnes was one cause why those miserable people were ignorant of the greatnes power of god yea they could not be brought to beléeue that one God was sufficient to furnish perticulerly al things necessary to the vse of men seruice of the world of this came the plurality of gods men belieuing that they were restrained to precinct and limit that euery god had his perticuler estate to gouerne Of which sprang the first Idolatry for some worshipped the Sunne with many other triffling and dishonest things others did worship to deuilles which abused them by illusions oracles yea somtimes by certaine aparances of remedies tending notwithstanding to their ruine This blindnes was suffered by the iustice of god to punish such as leauing the light run after darknesse making themselues iudges of their proper affections ruled their hartes according to the same how good or euil so euer they were in which respect god willing to punish those vices excesses suffered the deuill to raise faulse signes miracles euen to aduance the destruction of such as fell into spoyle by their infidelitie and multitude of their transgressions And albeit Idolatrie was great before the flud and that the worlde pursued alwayes his first corruption béeing stirred vp by the Deuill who induced men to a forgetfulnesse of God Yet the mercie of God who had not forgotten his Promises made to mankinde so prouyded for the effect of his Promise that he chused a People particular to reestablish wyth him the trueth of his Promises and alliaunces To them he gaue a perfecte lyght to guyde them agaynst those Darkenesse and obstinacies which the Deuil raysed agaynst them he established lawes and ordinaunces touching the Seruice of Religion wyth expresse Commaundement that they obserue them and bée attentiue to the worde of God the better to arme