And who is not content to depart out of an olde ruinous house What pleasure haue wee in this world which draweth neere to an end euery day which selleth vnto vs so deere those pleasures that wee receiue therein What other thing is this life but a perpetual battell and a sharpe skirmish wherein we are one while hurt with enuie another while with ambition and by and by with some other vice besides the suddaine onsets giuen vpon our bodies by a thousand sorts of diseases and fluds of aduersities vpō our spirits Who than will not say with S. Paul I desire to be dissolued and to be with Christ Why do we daily pray that the kingdom of God should come if it be not for the desire which we ought to haue to see the fulfilling therof in the other life We haue a thousand testimonies in the scripture that the death of the body is a certaine way by which we passe into that true and eternal life and into our owne countrey Flesh and bloud saith Saint Paul cannot inherite the kingdom of God neither doth corruption inherite incorruption For this corruptible must put on incorruptiō and this mortali must put on immortalitie then shall bee fulfilled that which is written Death is swallowed vp in victory They that beleeue in Iesus Christ haue already ouercome death sin and hell And therefore contemning death they may say O death where is thy sting O graue where is thy victory The sting of death is sinne and the strength of sinne is the law but thanks be vnto God which hath giuen vs victory through our Lord Iesus Christ. He which hath raised vp the Lord Iesus shall raise vs vp also Our conuersation is in heauen from whence also we looke for the sauiour euen the Lord Iesus Christ who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like vnto his glorious body according to the working whereby he is able euen to subdue all things-vnto himselfe Ye are dead saith he to the Colossians and your life is hid with Iesus Christ in God When Christ which is our life shall appeere then shall ye also appeere with him in glory My brethren saith he to the Thessalonians I would not haue you ignorant concerning them which are a sleepe that ye sorow not euen as other which haue no hope For if we beleeue that Iesus is dead and is risen euen so them which sleepe in Iesus will God bring with him Iesus Christ saith he to the Hebrewes was partaker of flesh and bloud that is to say was truly man that he might destroy through death him that had the power of death that is the deuill And that he might deliuer all them who for feare of death were all their life time subiect to bondage God hath saued vs and called vs with an holy calling as he saith to Timothie not according to our works but according to his owne purpose and grace which was giuen to vs through Christ Iesus before the world was but is now made manifest by the appeering of our Sauiour Iesus Christ who hath abolished death hath brought life immortalitie vnto light through the Gospel I am sure saith Iob that my redeemer liueth and he shall stand the last on the earth And though after my skin worms destroy this body yet shall I see God in my flesh Whom I my selfe shall see and mine eyes shall behold and none other for me Iesus Christ is our head and we are his members This head cannot be without his members neither can forsake them Where Christ is there shall we be also He that considereth diligently these places of Scripture and infinite others contained therein it cannot be but he should haue great ioy and comfort in his hart against all feare and horror of death And then comming to compare the miseries which neuer leaue this life with that vnspeakable happines and felicitie which eye hath not seene neyther eare hath heard neyther came into mans hart which God hath prepared in the second and eternall life for all faithfull beleeuers a christian will not onely passe ouer this mortall life with ease and without trouble but will euen contemne and make no account of it in respect of that which is immortall But to whome is death sweete if not to them that labour The poore hireling is well at ease when hee hath done his dayes woorke So death is alwayes sweete to the afflicted but to them that put their trust in wordly things the remembrance thereof is bitter Now then the children of God are not afrayd of death but as Cyprian writeth in an Epistle sent to the Martyrs of Christ hee that hath once ouercome death in his owne person doth daily ouercome him in his members so that we haue Iesus Christ not onely a beholder of our combates but also an assistant and fighter with vs. And by his grace abounding in the harts of the faithfull they are so much the more bent to meditate vpon the benefites of the future and eternall life as they see that they are inuironed with greater store of miseries in this fading and transitorie life Then comparing both togither they find nothing more easie than to finish sweetly their race and to value the one as litle as they account the other absolute in all felicitie Moreouer seeing heauen is our countrey what is the earth else but a passage in a strange land And bicause it is accursed vnto vs for sinne it is nothing else but the place of our banishment If our departure out of this world be an entrance to life what is this world but a sepulcher And to dwell heere what is it else but to be plunged in death If it be libertie to be deliuered out of this bodie what is this bodie but a prison And if it be our chiefe happines to enioie the presence of our God is it not a miserie not to enioie it Now vntill we go out of this world we shal be as it were separated from God Wherefore if this earthlie life be compared with the heauenlie no doubt but it may be contemned and accounted as it were doung True it is that we must not hate it but so far foorth as it keepeth vs in subiection to sinne And yet whilest we desire to see the ende of it we must not be carelesse to keepe our selues in it to the good pleasure of God that our longing may be far from all murmuring and impatiencie For our life is as a station wherein the Lord God hath placed vs that we should abide in it vntill he call vs backe againe Saint Paul indeed bewailed his estate bicause he was kept as it were bound in the prison of his body longer than he would groned with a burning desire vntill he was deliuered but withall to shew his obedience to the wil of God he protested that he was ready for both bicause he knew
time forward to liue a mortall life so that his bodie and soule became subiect to infinite miseries and damnable infirmities which draw vpon them the condemnation of eternall death Notwithstanding God whose goodnes and mercie are endles reestablished and assured the succession of his immortall inheritance vnto those whom it pleased him by grace to make dead to sin and aliue to himselfe through the satisfaction of his wrath made by the innocencie of his eternall sonne purging them in his bloud and opening vnto them by him the gates of heauen after he hath renewed them in righteousnes holines and innocencie that they may follow after godlines and religion And knowing that man so fraile and weake might easily fall downe vnder the heauie burden of those miseries and calamities whereunto the corruption of his nature made him subiect and wherein by reason of hereditarie sinne he should remaine during this mortall life as also that those furious and continuall passions which are mingled togither in his soule being ioined to the common infirmities of his bodie would be of too great force to throwe him againe headlong into destruction this infinite mercie of God appointed that from the beginning there should remaine in the spirite of man a little sparke of light which driueth him to a naturall loue of the truth and to a desire to inquire after it yea which pricketh and prouoketh him not to sleepe altogither in his vices This weake instinct being awaked stirred vp holpen and disposed by the pure grace vertue and power of the author of all goodnes draweth and moueth a Christian regenerated by the holie Ghost after knowledge of himselfe and hatred of that which is in him to seeke after and to couet with a speciall hartie desire that goodnes and righteousnes whereof he is void and that glorious libertie of which he depriued himselfe Furthermore the same heauenlie grace blessing this holie desire of the man regenerate causeth him to draw out of the doctrine of holie scriptures that wherewithall he may if not heale perfectly his wicked inclinations yet at the least containe and represse them in such sort that they breake not out into any damnable execution He teacheth him also to receiue the infirmities of his flesh as fatherly chastisements for his sin and as necessarie means to exercise him and to keepe him in awe And lastly for the vpshot and perfection of all happines and felicitie in this world he instructeth him how he may lead a quiet and peaceable life in beholding the woonderfull works of the diuinitie which he is to adore and honour and in the amendement and correction of his maners naturally corrupted by squaring them after the patterne of vertue that so he may be made worthie and fit to gouerne humane affaires for the profit of manie and at length attaine to the perfection of a wise man by ioining togither the actiue life with the contemplatiue in the certaine hope and expectation of a second immortall and most blessed life Whereunto also the precepts and discourses of learned and ancient philosophers may serue for-our instruction and pricking forward as also the examples which are liuely reasons of the liues of so manie notable men as histories the mother of antiquitie do as it were represent aliue before our eies And this in my iudgement is sufficient generally to vnderstand of Man seeing we are heerafter to discourse more particularly of both his principall parts the bodie and the soule Of the bodie and soule ACHITOB THe bodie and soule are so knit and conioined togither that nothing can separate them but death the destroier of all which through sinne and for the iust punishment thereof entred into the world And this is no sooner done but that whatsoeuer we see of man vanisheth from before our eies the earthie part returning into the masse of earth frō whence it came according to that saying of Aristotle that All things are resolued into those things whereof they are compounded likewise that which is spirituall and inuisible goeth into an eternall immortalitie from whence the being thereof proceeded ASER. Truly this knitting togither and coniunction of the bodie and soule is a most wonderfull thing in nature yea as manie of the philosophers say against nature seeing the soule which is light is contained within the bodie being heauie that which is of celestiall fire within that which is cold and earthie that which is inuisible within that which is palpable that which is immortall within that which is mortall But what Where is the sence of man which is able to comprehend the reason of the doings of that great Maister-builder of the vniuersall frame Yea there is more For during this coniunction as all things that mooue within this generall globe are maintained by agreeing discords euen so of necessitie there must be such a harmonie betweene the bodie and the soule that by the helpe of the one the other subsisteth and abideth and that through their continuall striuing sometimes the one and then the other be in the end obeied AMANA Thou tellest vs heere of a wonderful strange thing that that which is spirituall and immortall sometime obeieth that which is mortal and made of a corruptible lumpe But I vnderstand thee well This proceedeth of the imperfection and imbecillitie of our nature For as Socrates said if we were perfect philosophers we would neuer agree with our selues but resist continually Now following this matter make vs to vnderstand more particularly ARAM what the bodie and soule are what properties they haue and what is the excellencie both of the one and the other ARAM. With a good will my companions and first I will begin at the definition of a body A body as the Philosophers say speaking generally of all things that haue bodies is that which may be deuided and measured after three sorts in length in breadth and in deapth Or according to others a bodie is a masse or lump which asmuch as lieth in it resisteth touching and occupieth a place A body saith Plato is that which being in his proper place is neither heauie nor light but being in a strange place first inclineth somewhat then is driuen and caried forward either with heauines or lightnes Hereupon both he and other Philosophers discourse learnedly and profoundly of the particular nature of al bodies of the earth of the fire of the aire of the water and of all other both simple and compound bodies and of their contrarie motions But seeing all those discourses are at this present without the compasse of our Academy let vs simplie with more profite and that according to the scripture define the body which we haue vndertaken to handle We say then that the body is flesh that euery affection of the flesh is deadly and that the works therof are vncleannes pride fornication enmity debate wrath contention enuy murder gluttonie and such like and therfore that the bodie is made of
Paule we speake the truth euery one to his neighbour who is euery one that needeth our helpe and let all faining and dissimulation be banished from vs and all roundnes and integritie of hart and manners appeere in all our actions let vs hate periurie and treason periured and traiterous persons knowing that faith being taken away the whole foundation of Iustice is ouerthrowne al bonds of friendship broken and all humane societie confounded Of Ingratitude Chap. 40. AMANA AS the remembrance of an euil is kept a long time bicause that which offendeth is very hardly forgotten so we commonly see that the memorie of benefits receiued is as suddenly vanished lost as the fruite of the good turne is perceiued Which thing doth so ill beseeme a man well brought vp and instructed in vertue that there is no kind of Iniustice which he ought more to eschew And therefore my Companions I thinke that according to the order of our discourse we are nowe to speake of the vice of Ingratitude that knowing the ignominie therof and the pernitious effects which flowe from it we may beware of spotting our life therewithall ARAM. An vngratefull person can not be of a noble mind nor yet iust And therefore as Sophocles said a man is to remember him often of whome he hath receiued curtesie and pleasure For one good turne begetteth another and euery gentle hart easily pardoneth all iniuries except vnthankfulnes which it hardly forgetteth ACHITOB. Ingratitude maketh men impudent so that they dare ioine togither to hurt those that haue been their friends and them to whom they are bound both by blood and nature Let vs then heare ASER discourse more amply of this pernitious vice ASER. If man had not shewed himselfe vnthankfull for the vnspeakeable benefits which he had receiued of his Creator by eating of the fruite of the tree of life at the perswasion of Satan contrarie to his expresse commandement to whome he owed all obedience it is certaine that neither sinne nor death neither through them any kind of miserie and calamitie should haue had any power ouer him But as by his Ingratitude he neglected his obedience to his Lord and Creator so it seemeth also that his punishment was according to the manner of his offence For his owne members which before were in subiection to the will of his spirite rebelled against it and that with such force that they led him often captiue into the bondage of sinne Now although we are necessarily and iustly made inheritors of the same curse both of sinne death yet how become we so dull of vnderstanding as to desire with cheerefulnes of hart and without constraint to succeede him in the cause therof I meane Ingratitude which we ought to hate in greater measure and to slie from it more than from death it self by reason of the euils which it hath brought vpon vs Notwithstanding if we looke narrowly into the iustest mans life that is it will be a hard matter yea altogither vnpossible to find it purged and exempted of this detestable vice aswell towards God as towards his neighbours But this is farre woorse to behold the greatest part of men to nourish and feede their soules with Ingratitude as if they tooke singular delight therein by accustoming their mindes to keepe very diligently the memorie of the aduersities and iniuries which they suffer and to let the remembrance of those graces and benefits which they receiue slip away incontinently euen as soone as the pleasure of them is past Whereas dutie bindeth all persons to esteeme as a great benefit all fauour how little soeuer it be which the heauens or mer impart vnto them and to preserue it in perpetuall memorie as in a most safe Treasurie wherein they may keepe lay vp those good things which they receiue But contrariwise vnthankefull men suffer the remembrance of their greatest felicities to slide away suddenly which is the cause that they are alwaies void of happines of rest and tranquillitie and full of vnquietnes vncertaine desires which is an argument of the imperfection of their reason and of their ignorance of that which is good This is that which Seneca saith that the life of the ignorant is vnthankful wauering vnstaied in things present through the desire of things to come And as it is the propertie of an ignorant man to be alwaies troublesome to himselfe so from Ingratitude and the forgetfulnes of our prosperitie proceede cares melancholie passions to no purpose which consume men pull on age vpon them more than yeeres For it is vnthankfulnes that causeth vs to be neuer contented with our present estate but to complaine and murmure in steede of giuing praise as it becommeth vs to him that sendeth vs far better things than we deserue Vpon the least touch of affliction the Ingratitude for a million of graces receiued before causeth vs to cry out that we neuer had any thing but mishap whereas rather we ought to take aduersitie for a blessing and testimonie of the loue of God towards vs being assured that by Iustice rightly ordeined he dispenseth pouertie and riches health sicknes honor and contempt according as he seeth it expedient for euery one of vs. Yea it is necessarie by reason of the intemperancie of our flesh which is redie to cast off the yoke of the Lord when he handleth vs ouergently that he should reiue vs in hard with the bridle and keep vs within the compasse of some discipline least we wholy giue ouer that seruice obedience which we owe vnto him But to vexe our selues vpon euery occasion and as often as things fal out contrary to our inconstant rebellious will which for the most part is ignorant of that which belongeth vnto it is that which Pythagoras sayd To eat our hart or to offend wound our soule and spirit by consuming them with cares griefs as also not to know that one cause which most of all troubleth this miserable life is the suddain entrance of sorowes and irksomnes into the hart which afterward will not depart out of it but by litle and litle These are melancholy passions voyd of reason which as Plato saith proceed from naughty fumes and bitter vapors gathered togither within vs and which ascend and mingle themselues amidst the passages of the soule Euen as our strange and vnwoonted dreams testifie signifie that there is within vs repletion of grosse gluish humors perturbations of the vital spirits so are those euil vapors which darken our senses dim the eies of our soule namely ignorance rebellion arrogancie murmuring vnsatiable desires other inward corruptions which ingratitude stirreth vp and nourisheth and which hinder vs from acknowledging the benefits that God bestoweth vpon vs either towards him by thanksgiuing or towards his creatures by good deeds which he accepteth as done to himself For only God needeth nothing neither asketh any thing for
himselfe indebted for the glorifieng of his name whether it were by death or by life For it belongeth to him to determine what is expedient for his glorie Wherefore if it behooueth vs to liue and die vnto him let vs leaue both our life death to his good pleasure but yet so that we alwaies desire rather to die than to liue be ready cheerfully to renounce this life whensoeuer it pleaseth the Lord bicause it holdeth vs vnder sin And let vs hold this Maxime that no man hath throughly profited in the school of Christ Iesus but he that with ioy gladnes expecteth the day of death and of the last resurrection S. Paul in his epistle to Titus describeth al the faithful by this mark the scripture when it propouÌ„deth vnto vs matter of reioicing calleth vs backe thither Reioice saith the Lord in Luke and lift vp your heads for your redemption draweth neere It were absurd that that thing should breed nothing but sorow and astonishment in vs which Christ thought was fit matter to worke ioy in vs. Now than seeing death is dead to them that beleeue in him there is nothing in death which a maÌ„ ought to feare It is true that the image thereof is hideous and terrible bicause that besides the violent taking away of life it representeth vnto vs the wrath of God which biteth like a serpent but now the venome of it is taken away and can not hurt vs. And as through the brasen serpent which Moses lift vp in the wildernesse the liuing serpents died and their venome hurt not the Israelites so our death dieth and is not able in any sort to hurt vs if we behold with the eyes of faith the death of Iesus Christ Briefly it is nothing but an image and shadow of death and the beginning and entrance vnto true life Wherefore concluding our present speech let vs learne that as our miserable nature had brought vs to the like condition of death so the grace of God maketh this difference that some namely the wicked die to their destruction and others which are the children of God led by his spirit and word die to liue more happily so that their very death is precious in the sight of God And although the lust of our fleshe beyng blind and earthly striueth continually against the desires of the spirit seeking to separate vs as far as it can from our soueraigne Good yet let vs haue this ingrauen in our harts that they are happy that know the vanitie of this world more happy that set not their affections vpon it and they most happy that are taken out of it to be with GOD in the kingdome of heauen The ende of this Academie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist lib. 2. Eth. cap. 2. Aug. lib. 2. de doct chr cap. 40. Aug. lib. 8. de ciuit Dei cap. 6. 7. 8. c. Aristotle de Mundo Lib. 6. Strommat This commendation of vertue is chiefly to be vnderstood of faith the roote of all good vertues Hebr. 1. Psalm 8. All things were created for man To knowo our selues is true wisedome The soule is truly man Socrates was called the father of Philosophie Socrates said that the knowledge of God and of our selues must be ioined together Wherin the dutio of man consisteth Ignorance of our selues the cause of much euill What man is Gen. 1. Col. 3. The ende of mans being There is a double reason in man Heraclitus wept continually Democritus alwaies laughed The iudgement of Philosophers concerning the nature of man Pindarus Homer Timon Plinie The custome of the Scythians The presumptuous opinion of the Stoiks The end of the knowledge of our selues The wilfull fall of man The restoring of man All men naturally haue some loue and liking of the truth Effects of Christian regeneration The perfection of a wise mans life The wonderfull coniunction of the bodie and soule All things are preserued by agreeing discords The definition of a bodie Gen. 6. Rom. 8. Gal. 5. The works of the flesh Man is a little world Gen. 3. Of the conception and fashioning of man Of the excellencie of the bodie and of all the parts thereof Great secrets of nature The diuersitie of mens voices and writings The soule is infused not 〈◊〉 The definition of the soule Pythagoras was the first that was called a Philosopher The diuision of the soule Plato maketh sixe parts of the soule Aristotle diuideth it in two parts Foure parts of the soule The best diuision of the soule The soule cannot be diuided but is made subiect to two parts Both parts of the soule are corrupted Rom. 7. 23. The properties of the soule The actions of the soule The beautie of the soule Gal. 5. 22. 23. The true delight of the sense Phil. 4. 4. Luke 10. 20. How a man ought to vse both body and soule Nothing woorse to man than man himselfe Rom. 7. 18. 19. There is no good thing in the flesh of man Man is a mutable creature Pleasure and griefe the cause of passions Manis more carefull of his body then of his soule The ende cause and remedie of bodily diseases Naturall passions The definition of passion The diuision of passions All men haue naturally a desire of happines No man by nature can finde out the right way that leadeth to happines The word of God sheweth vs the right way to happines Of the perturbations of the soule The scope of our passions The ancient heathen may rise vp in iudgement against many Christians in these daies The originall nature and effects of perturbations All perturbations are contained vnder these foure heads Desire Ioy Feare Griefe An excellent comparison The cause of the diseases of the soule Reason is the medicine of the soule A sound soule correcteth the naughtines of the bodie The passions of the soule are headstrong and hard to be cured The passions of men commonly bring foorth effects contrarie to their purposes Reason is wisedome inspired from heauen A remedie against passions Examples of death by ouer-great ioy Herennus died for feare Plautius through griefe The effects of desire Vertue is alwais without excessiue passion The nature of worldly goods A wise soule gouerneth the affections What it is to liue happilie The common drife of men What men ought chiefly to leuell at The worke of philosophie The proper end and scope of Philosophie Why the philosophers could neuer attaine to the souereigne good in this life The definition of philosophie The diâ—ision of philosophie Of diuine philosophie How we must behaue out selues in searching our the secrets of God Of naturall philosophie Aâ—ule to be kept in naturall philosophie Against sorcerers magitians and birth-gazers The issue of all things is to be referred to the prouidence of God Of morall philosophie God the Idea of all good The benefit that commeth by philosophie Philosophie is the art of life What it is to play the philosopher Where and how philosophie is
mislike publike charges and by and by they blame the priuate life labouring that they may be imploied They forsake one countrie to go and dwell in another and suddenly they desire to returne againe into their former waies They that haue neither wiues nor children seeke and wish for them and when they haue them they desire oftentimes nothing more than to be rid of them and soone after ye shall see them married againe Haue they heaped vp great store of wealth and increased their reuenues by halfe so much more they desire notwithstanding to make it altogither as much The soldier seeketh to be a captain from a captaine to be maister of the campe from maister of the campe to be lieutenant to the king then he would gladly make himselfe king The seelie Priest would be a Curate from a Curate Bishop from a Bishoppe Cardinall from a Cardinall Pope and then would commaund Kings and soueraigne Princes Kings are not contented to raigne ouer their owne subiects but bende themselues alwaies to enlarge their limits to make themselues if they can the onely Monarchs Briefly all men whose harts are set vpon worldly goods when they are come to this estate of life they would attaine to that and being come thereunto some other neae desire carieth them farther so that this mischiefe of continuall vncertaine and vnsatiable lustes and desires doth more and more kindle in them vntill in the ende death cut off the thred of their inconstant and neuer contented life This commeth to passe bicause the alteration of an Estate and condition of life plucketh not out of the mind that which presseth and troubleth it namely the ignorance of things and imperfection of reason But they who through the studie of wisedome are furnished with skill and vnderstanding and know that all humane and earthlie things are vncertaine deceitfull slipperie and so many allurements vnto men to drawe them into a downe-fall and destruction they I say doe laie a farre better and more certaine foundation of their chiefe Good contentation and felicitie For they are so farre off from being caried away as worldlings are with the desire of greatnes riches and pleasure that they rather desire lesse than they haue contemne them and so vse them as though they had them not And deliuering their soules by the grace of God from all those perturbations which besiege them in the prison of their bodies they lift vp their wishes and desires yea they refer al the endsof their intents actions to this only marke to be vnited and ioined to the last end of their soueraigne Good which is the full whole fruition of the essence of God that their holy affections might be at once fulfilled and satisfied by enioying that diuine light through a most happie immortal life when they shal be vncloathed of this body of death of all concupiscences passions reioice in such a felicitie as neither eie hath seene nor eare heard nor euer entred into the hart of man Moreouer we ought to know if we haue neuer so litle iudgmēt reason that in al worldly things how great goodly soeuer they seeme to our carnall eies sences there is such a mixture of bitternes dislike ioined with the fruition of them that if we could diuide the euil from that which of the ignorant sort is called good weigh them one against another there is no doubt but the bad part would easily weigh down what goodnes soeuer could be found amongst them But how shal we call that good which is so mingled with euill which oftentimes hurteth more than it profiteth and which being possessed abundantly cannot yet keepe the possessor thereof from being wretched and miserable What contentation can a man find therein seeing that such a Good commonly slippeth away as soone as it is receiued and alwaies worketh an vnsatiable desire thereof What felicitie shall we expect and looke for in the fruition of that thing which waxeth old and perisheth and which men are alwaies afraid to loose Now I pray you who can doubt iustly but that the qualitie and nature of riches of glorie of honour and pleasure is such Whereupon we must conclude that man can finde no goodnes contentation or happines in any thing that is earthly and mortall Besides who knoweth not sufficiently the poore estate of mans life which in the fairest of his race commeth to nothing in the twinkling of an eie so that all his bodily shewe and brightnes turneth suddenly into putrefaction Who doth not try more than he would how full his life is of sharpe griefes and pricking miseries and how it is assaulted with continuall troubles With how many percing cares doth it abound and what griping griefes doe pursue it Briefly as a wise Grecian said hauing but the bare name of life it is in effect and truth a continuall paine And truly that thing hath no beeing in deede which changeth without ceasing as the nature of man doth which neuer continueth in the same estate no not the least moment that is I would gladly aske of thee who readest this or doest meane to reade it what day or what hower thou hast passed or now passest ouer since thou hadst any iudgement or knowledge wherein thy body hath not felt some griefe or thy hart some passion As there is no sea without tempest warre without danger or iourney without trauell so there is no life without griefe nor calling without enuie or care neither did I euer see or know that man who hath had no cause to be grieued or to complaine Doth not experience daily teach vs that no man liuing can make choise of any estate void of all trouble or flie one inconuenience but that he is in danger to fall into another Is it not also most certaine that a sudden ioy or prosperitie is but a fore-warning or signe of some griefe heauie calamitie at hand But what Shall we for all this think man so miserable that sailing all his life time in stormes and tempests he cannot possibly attaine to any safe hauen against the rage of them Shall we in such sort depriue him during the time of his being in this world of all Good contentation and happines as if there were no meanes to auoid or at leastwise to mollifie the mishaps and miseries of mankind that he faint not vnder the heauy burden of them Wherefore then do wise men by so many learned writings inuite vs diligently to seeke after and with a burning zeale to embrace holy vertue saying that by hir alone a man may liue happily and contentedly in euery calling and may enioy therein the soueraigne Good through the tranquillitie and rest of his soule purged of perturbations by Philosophy Was it in vaine and fruitles that an infinite number of famous personages whom Histories the mother of antiquitie set before our eies imploied so great trauell passed infinite watchings for sooke and contemned riches pleasures honors and worldly
Of the Harmonie and agreement that ought to be in the dissimilitude or vnlike callings of subiects by reason of the duty and office of euery estate 743 67 Of Peace and of Warre 754 68 Of the ancient Discipline and order of Warre 764 69 Of the office and duty of a Generall 772 70 Of the choise of Souldiors of the maner how to exhort them to fight and how victory is to be vsed 783 71 Of a happie Life 794 72 Of Death 804 THE FIRST DAIES WORKE of this Academie with the cause of their assemblie WHen GOD by his infinite and vnspeakable goodnes beholding with a fatherly bountifull and pitifull eie our poore France which most cruel against it selfe seemed to run amain most furiously to throw it self headlong into the center of some bottomlesse gulfe had sent from heauen the wished-for newes of peace in the midst of ciuill and domesticall armies which a man might say were of purpose prepared for the finall ouerthrow of this French Monarchie that hath florished so long time sparing by his heauenlie grace and fauor and that in despite of them the bloud of those men who held foorth their right hand to cut off the left among manie who touched with the loue of their countrie and with true zeale to pietie reioiced at this so well liking and healthfull newes fower yong gentlemen of Aniou who came togither to serue their Prince and to sacrifice their liues if need required for the welfare and safetie of the Common wealth were none of the last that sought out one another and met togither to testifie ech to other as their mutuall kindred and sworne frendship did inuite them the ioy which filled their souls arising of so happie and vnlooked for successe and alteration of affaires to the end also that they might giue glorie and praise to him who for the benefit of his knoweth wel how to take order euen in those things which according to the iudgement of men are desperate and past recouery And that which gaue them greater occasion to reioice for this peace and so diligently to seeke out one another was this bicause contratie to hope they saw the meanes offered them to returne home and to continue an exercise that greatly pleased them which not long before the last fal of France into troubles they had happily begun Now to let you readers vnderstand what this exercise was these fower gentlemen being of kin and neere neighbors and in a maner of one age were by the care and prudence of their fathers brought vp and nourished togither from their yoong yeeres in the studie of good letters in the house of an ancient wise gentleman of great calling who was the principall stocke and roote of these fruitfull buds This man by reason of his manifold experience and long abode in strange countries knew that the common corruption of French youth of it selfe inclined to pleasure proceeded chiefly from the ouer great licence and excessiue libertie granted vnto them in the Vniuersities of this Realme as well through the fault and negligence of the gouernors and tutors in them as also bicause of the euill gouernment of the townes at this day He knew also that they were no lesse abused who thinking to auoide this dangerous downe-fall at home did send their children to studie abroad amongst strangers where the traffike and merchandise of mischiefs is more common and easie to be made bicause they feare not that newes will presently or so speedily be caried to their parents as if they were neere vnto them Oh how well woorthie of eternall praise is the prudence of this gentleman bringing to my remembrance Eteocles one of the most noble Ephories of Lacedemonia who freely answered Antipater asking fiftie pledges that he would not giue him children least if they were brought vp farre from their fathers they should change the ancient custome of liuing vsed in their owne countrie and become vicious but of olde men and women he would giue him double the number if he would haue them Wherevpon being threatened by this king if he speedily sent him not of the youth we care not quoth he for threatenings For if thou command vs to do things that are more greeuous than death we will rather choose death so carefull were the men of old time that the dressing and trimming of these yoong plants should not be out of their presence But let vs go on with our matter This good and notable old man hauing spent the greater part of his yeeres in the seruice of two kings and of his country and for many good causes withdrawen himselfe to his house thought that to content his mind which alwaies delighted in honest and vertuous things he could not bring greater profit to the Monarchie of France than to lay open a way and meane to preserue and keepe youth from such a pernicious and cancred corruption by offering himselfe for example to all fathers and shewing them the way to haue a more carefull eie in the instruction of their children and not so lightly to commit them to the discipline of vices by the hands of mercenarie and hired strangers And this was begun vpon these fower yoong gentlemen whom he tooke to his owne house by the consent of their parents offering himselfe to the vttermost of his power to helpe their gentle nature which appeered in them woorthie their ancestors by training it vp first in the feare of God as being the beginning of al wisedome secondly in humane learning and knowledge which are necessarie helps to liue well and happily to the benefit of the societie of men To this end after that he himselfe had shewed them the first grounds of true wisedome and of al things necessarie for their saluation according to the measure of grace giuen him from aboue and as their age could conceiue them he labored earnestly to haue in his house some man of great learning and wel reported of for his good life and conuersation vnto whom he committed the instruction of this yoong Nobilitie Who behaued himselfe so wel in his charge that not greatly staying himselfe in the long degrees of learning which being ordinarie and vsuall in our French Colledges are often more tedious besides losse of time than profitable to youth after he had indifferently taught his schollers the Latine toong and some smackering of the Greeke he propounded for the chiefe part and portion of their studies the morall philosophie of aucient Sages and wise men togither with the vnderstanding searching out of histories which are the light of life therein following the intent and will both of him that set him on worke and also of the parents of this Nobilitie who desired to see their children not great Orators suttle Logitians learned Lawiers or curious Mathematicians but onely sufficiently taught in the doctrine of good liuing following the traces and steps of vertue by the knowledge of things past from the first ages vntill this present that they
as he is man and according to his habilitie and maner of life he imitateth and followeth is diuers from that which by speciall grace from aboue commeth to the elect accompanieth them and helpeth them in all their actions This is full of faith and of vndeceaueable assurance of eternal promises the other weake troubled and woonderfully hindred wherin a man can neuer haue any certaine resolution This is that which caused Aristotle who was Platoes disciple and prince of the Peripatetike schoole to say that the more knowledge a man hath the greater occasion of doubting was offred Neither can we iudge otherwise but that the same reason of trouble and doubting mooued the aboue named Heraclitus that great Philosopher to spend his life in continuall weeping howsoeuer he alleageth wisely that it was for the compassion he had of mans nature both for that the life of men consisted in nothing but in miseries as also because all the labours wherein they exercised themselues seemed vnto him to be woorthy of great commiseration and pitie namely seeing that they being farre wide of iustice did yet through too greedie desire make themselues slaues vnto all couetousnes and vainglorie This also was an argument of inconstancie and wauering in Democritus who neuer came abroad amongst men but he laughed vnmeasurably at all their works and deeds Howbeit herein he said truely that the life of man was vanitie and follie and that all their lustes and desires were fonde and woorthy to be laughed at But such extremities of laughter and weeping are not seemely in him who is well instructed in the studie of Philosophie and in the certaine knowledge of himselfe which thing these Philosophers so earnestly laboured to attaine vnto as we shall see anon after we haue learned what other ancient men haue thought of the nature and state of man What other thing saith Pindarus is man than the shadow of a dreame in ones sleepe Whereby he sheweth the vanitie of man by an excellent manner of speaking verie significantly vttering his meaning For what thing is lesse than a dreame yea than the shadow of a dreame Homer hauing compared mortall creatures together both in respect of their continuance as of the maintenance of their life crieth out that of all those which walke on the earth and draw breath there is not one more miserable than man Timon the Athenian detesting much more than al these the imbecility of mans nature vsed and imploied all his skill to perswade his countrimen to abridge and shorten the course of their so miserable life and to hasten their end by hanging themselues vpon gibbets which he had caused to be set vp in great number in a fielde that he bought for the same purpose vnto whose perswasions many gaue place Plinie rehearsing the great miseries wherewith man commeth into this world and the manifold labors wherin he liueth saide that it were good for a man not to be borne at all or else so soone as he is borne to die It was a custome amongst the Scythians to weepe at the birth of their children and to reioice and make a solemne feast at the death of their parents Now as the opinions of these philosophers heere named by vs who being destitute of the light of God and of true religion had no other foundation but their owne humane and weake discourses are to be reiected for inclosing all mankind in such a vile and abiect estate so on the other side we must take heed that we enter not into that presumptuous opinion of many others who endeuour to lead man to the consideration of his dignitie and excellencie as being endewed with infinite graces For they persuade him that through the quicknes of his vnderstanding he may mount vp to the perfect knowledge of the greatest secrets of God and nature and that by the only studie of philosophie he may of himselfe following his owne nature become maister of all euill passions and perturbations and attaine to a rare and supreme kinde of vertue which is void of those affections that being thus exempted and freed from all vice he may lead a most happy and perfect life This did the Stoike philosophers with one consent maintaine and teach saying Whosoeuer receiued their doctrine if in the morning he were very wicked in the euening he should become a very good man if he laid himselfe downe to sleepe being ignorant vicious poore the next morning he should arise wise vertuous rich happie and iust Zeno Seneca Diogenes Chrysippus and infinite mo otherwise endewed with most fruitful doctrine as we shall vnderstand heerafter were of this opinion Insomuch that Chrysippus said that Dion the chiefest man for knowledge in Syracusa was no lesse vertuous than his god Iupiter to whom they attributed perfect diuinitie Seneca also boasted that he had receiued life by the benefit of God but to liue wel from himselfe Thus whilest they granted to mans power such an excellent and diuine disposition they lift him vp in a vaine presumption in pride and trust in himselfe and in his owne vertue which in the end cannot but be the cause of his vtter vndoing We therefore holding the meane betweene these two contrarie opinions as the perfection and goodnes of all things consisteth in mediocritie and continuing to speake of man as we haue alreadie begun do say that the knowledge of himselfe is very necessarie for him and that hauing perfectly attained therunto he hath cause both to be humbled greatly as also to glorie and reioice First to humble himselfe through the sence and feeling of his vanitie peruersnes corruption in which respect he ought to hate and be displeased with himselfe bicause he beholdeth his destruction and condemnation ingrauen in his conscience Secondly he is to glorie in the knowledge of God which inseparably followeth the other after he hath learned this that in the mercie of God he may recouer that which is wanting in himselfe hauing once beene made and fashioned of God who is altogither pure wise true good and almightie to the end he might be partaker of his glorie For the obtaining heerof he had giuen vnto him from the beginning as trustie guides godlines holines and religion godlines to the end he might knowe thereby that he had God for his father holines to yeeld vnto him continuall glorie and praise and religion to keepe him in a continuall meditation of his grace and benefits and to serue him for an indissoluble bond to knit him to his Creator who threatened him with death if he did the contrarie But our first father through ingratitude and disobedience forsaking those heauenlie guides to follow his owne free-will depriued himselfe and all his posteritie of that promise of eternall life that was made vnto him Whereupon being dead to his first life which was most happie and innocent through his offence and peruersnes of his sin he began from that
reason worketh in the soule of a prudent man by curing the passions and perturbations thereof and by causing him to rest ioyfull and contented in what estate and condition soeuer he be Let vs note moreouer which we touched in the beginning of this present discourse that all these passions of the soule are much more dangerous than those of the bodie bicause the most hurtfull passions of the bodie are first ingendred of those in the soule For the bodie yeeldeth it selfe ready to serue the desires appetites and pleasures of the soule which being ouercome and in the power of fleshly prouocations procureth in the end destruction to them both But contrariwise the soule being ruled by reason resisteth mightilie all corporall passions and is nothing at all or verie little made partaker of their euill dispositions whereas on the other side the bodie is constrained to alter and change with euery infirmitie of the soule If the minde be troubled what cheerefulnes can be seene in the face The diseases of the bodie hinder not the soule from effecting all good vertuous actions yea many haue brought forth the fruits of wise philosophers and great captaines when they were vexed with diseases which they could neuer do at least verie few of them that were corrupted and defiled in soule And therfore Democritus said very well that it was much more conuenient and meet for a man to haue care of his soule than of his bodie For if the soule be perfect she correcteth the naughtines of the body whereas the strength disposition of the body without the vse of reason hurteth both the soule and it selfe Moreouer that the passions of the soule are harder to be perceiued and knowne and consequently more vneasie to be cured who doth not easily feele it being greeued but in the least part of his bodie yea what griefe doth not of it selfe sufficiently appeere either by some inflammation or by the colour of the visage or by some other outward shew But how many do we fee whose soules are extreemly sicke spoiled and corrupted with vice and yet being depriued of all feeling they thinke themselues to be the soundest men in the world And that they are headstrong and vneasie to be cured we may know by this that the body is in the end so farforth obedient that if reason be vrgent vpon it she forceth euen the naturall passions of hunger thirst and sleepe findeth out besides a thousand remedies to help it self But when the passions of the soule haue once beene grounded and rooted within it without resistance they haue such pearcing pricks that oftentimes they presse ouerwhelme all reason which is their onely medicine and preseruatiue And yet to fill vp the measure of all miserie such is the froward nature of man that he is much more slothfull to seeke out this remedy of the soule than that of the bodie as we touched in the beginning of this present discourse Moreouer the iudgement of reason being oftentimes diseased within him is the cause that when he thinketh to finde health he encreaseth his euill and falleth into those inconueniences which he desired most of all to eschew Example hereof we haue in those who being led onely with a desire of glory and honor obtaine nothing by their dooings if we consider them well but shame and dishonor The like may be said of all the other diseases of the soule which commonly are accompanied and followed with effects contrary to their endes and desires What remaineth then seeing we perceiue the dangers to be great which follow al the perturbations of the soule but that knowing it to be more easie not to receiue them than to driue them out being receiued we preuent them and hinder them from taking liuely roote within our soules by making reason which as Hesiodus saith is a diuine guide and wisedome inspired from aboue so strong and powerfull that it may be able by the grace of God to resist al the assaults of vnbrideled desires and the froward affections of this flesh But behold yet a better and more certaine remedie namely that being assured that all perturbations are but opinions drawne from our will through a iudgement corrupted with the affections of this flesh we labor by good and sound reasons to ouerthrow and confound these false and erronious opinions perswading our selues that whatsoeuer we imagine to be good or euill in the world which is the cause that our minds are depriued of their rest and quietnes is indeede neither good nor euill and so consequently that it ought not in any sort to breed passions within vs. Hereof the sequele of our discourses shall by the helpe of God giue vs to vnderstand more at large and furnish vs with examples of pernicious effects which proceed from all the passions of the soule We will here by the way note their force hauing learned out of Histories that they haue oftentimes set vpon the harts of men in such violent maner that some through desire some for ioy those by feare others by griefe haue ended their liues Diagoras the Rhodian and Chilon hearing that their children had wonne the price at the games of Olympus felt such a motion in them of the spleene that they were stifled with laughter Herennus the Sicilian as he was led prisoner for being a copartner in the conspiracie of Caius Gracchus was so astonished oppressed with the feare of his iudgement to come that he fell downe strke dead at the entrie of the prison Plautius the Numidian looking vpon his dead wife tooke it so to hart that casting himselfe vpon the dead body he arose no more but was there stifled with sorrow As for extreme desire or coueting there is nothing that so greatly mooueth or carieth away the minds of men or that commeth neerer to their destruction than this foolish passion indangereth their life Galeace of Mantua saying oftentimes to a damsell of Pauia whom he courted and made loue to that he would suffer a thousand deaths for hir seruice if it were possible was in iest commanded by hir to cast himself into the riuer which he presently performed was drowned But we shal alleadge more fitly such testimonies of the fond effects of desire and of all the perturbations of the soule when we discourse more particularly of euery vice that proceedeth from them In the meane time I would gladly aske this question of him that is most ignorant vicious and carnall whether he will not grant vertue to be a good of the soule There is none so impudent whose conscience would not compell him to confesse the same And yet no man is caried away with too great a desire of vertue neither doth any reioice therein too excessiuely after he hath obtained it Likewise there is none that feareth so vehemently least he cannot obtaine hir as that the feare thereof driueth the soule out of his place and rest For
as wel earthly as eternall Which that we may more surely auoid and marke better the excellencie and beautie of vertue by the lothsomnes and deformitie of vice bicause contraries set one by another as blacke neare to white shew themselues a great deale better I thinke it will not be to wander besides the matter if we bestow the rest of our mornings worke in the handling thereof ASER. There is no euill in man as the philosopers say but vice if we take that for euill which is offensiue Neither doth any thing offend and make a man woorse but that which endammageth his soule And in this maner vice onely and sinne is hurtfull vnto him yea as Plutarke saith is sufficient of it selfe to make a man miserable AMANA As vertue saith Plato is the health and forceable vigor of the soule so vice is the sicknes and imbecillitie thereof which hauing gotten a habit maketh a man vicious and corrupt For it is certaine that if men had sufficient force and constancie to resist vice which we haue by inheritance they would follow after vertue But being ouercome by the loosenes of their sensualitie they are led captiues as it were in a triumph vnder the yoke of sin Let vs then hearken to ARAM who I thinke will not forget to paint out vnto vs this pernitious Hydra with all hir colors that she may be so much the more odious vnto vs. ARAM. I haue alwaies learned of wise men that this saying of an ancient man is most true That there is a hundred times more paine in doing euill than in well doing and that vice hath the same effect in the soule which the dropsie hath in the bodie For both of them do plant in man a continuall desire of that which breedeth his greatest bane Whereupon most miserably he seeketh after his owne perdition and ruine with paine and trauell wheras he might passe through felicitie in this life into that life which is eternall and most happie One chiefe occasion heerof as I thinke may be attributed to the ignorance of euill For what wicked man is so dull of vnderstanding that if he knew certainly what vice were would not with all his might separate himselfe as farre from it as for the time he drew neere vnto it By a stronger reason it foloweth that he which truly knoweth it before it be growen to a habit within him wil shun it more diligently bicause we begin then to hate vices as Plutarke saith when by reason we vnderstand what shame and harme commeth of them Therefore it must needs be very profitable for vs to vtter heerin that which we haue learned by the studie of philosophie and that briefly for this present hoping heerafter to intreate more particularly of the principall parts of vice First we will define it then consider the pernitious effects thereof in the soule and the fruits which it bringeth with it thirdly declare how it neuer escapeth vnpunished and lastly shew how we must fortifie our selues against the priuie watchings and snares of such a dangerous and mightie enimie Vice is an inequalitie and iarring of maners proceeding from mans naturall inclination to pleasures and naughtie desires This inclination not being reined with the bit of reason guided by the spirit of grace nor ruled by the wise declarations thereof causeth a man by little and little to giue ouer himselfe to all wicked passions the end of one being the beginning of another whereby he becommeth most vnhappie yea more wild and sauage than any brute beast Chrysippus a Stoike philosopher called vice the proper essence of vnhappines And surely it is a very perfect workmaister of wretchednes disposing and framing men to all kinde of mischiefe and miserie For after it hath once taken hold of the soule it will neuer forsake it vntill it hath wholie brused ouerwhelmed and destroied it filling it daily with perturbations and new passions with voluptuousnes rancor enmities reuenge murders anguish feare fruitlesse repentance ambition couetousnes and with all other lusts which are incurable diseases of the soule after they haue once taken roote therein For the more they waxe the more they will grow vice being as Plato saith of an infinite and endles race And therefore the aboue named Chrysippus said not without reason that to auoid so dangerous an enimie and one that ought to be so odious vnto vs it were better for vs to cast our selues headlong into the sea than to suffer it to raigne ouer vs. Plato also writeth that it is far better for a man not to liue at all than to liue wickedly or in ignorance For such a life can haue no fitter name than to be called a true shadow of death I meane of eternal death which followeth the wicked euen at the heeles Bias one of the Sages said That no man could iustly be termed a captiue although he were loden with irons except also he were compassed about with vices Moreouer we see that neither sword nor fire doth carie away a man so violently as vice doth Many haue suffered a thousand outrages and punishments with such constancie that tyrants were sooner wearie of persecuting them than they of suffering Besides they had so great power ouer themselues that in the midst of torments they were able to stay their voice altogither insomuch that one would haue either iudged them to be senselesse or els think that in seeing them he did not see them But vice alwaies discouereth it selfe and euery where appeereth shamefull infamous and hurtfull Thales called vice the hurtfullest thing in the world bicause that where it is it marreth and destroieth all Moreouer it maketh those things which otherwise seeme honorable and magnifical lothsome and vnpleasant when it is mingled with them yea it appeereth so much the more infamons as the nobilitie and authoritie whereunto it is ioined is greater bicause then it discouereth better what pernitious and damnable effects it hath For taking a swift course by the high way of power and driuing forward euery wicked affection to execution it causeth choler to be turned presently into murder loue into adulterie couetousnes into confiscation and so in other passions But as the vices of the greater sort are more dangerous so no doubt shame and dishonor are likewise doubled vpon them bicause they are better seene and noted whereby they become more odious and contemptible to euery one Besides their reward lieth at their gate in great measure which will not be long from them For to whom more is giuen of him more shall be required And I pray you what greater cause of shame and blushing can that man haue who being borne to command men of all estates and conditions doth himselfe obey such vile and abiect things as are sensualitie ignorance concupiscence other like passions wrought by vice which being without reason are made to obey and to be ruled by reason Neither are we more
that the studie of letters is rich and vndoubtedly giueth vs the knowledge of things Moreouer nothing may be compared to sciences which comfort vs in our life time and cause vs to liue after death ASER. O science saith Plato how would men loue thee if thou wert knowne Fire and aire are not more necessarie for life than is the art and rule of good liuing which is shewed vnto vs by learning And as health is the conseruation of the bodie so is doctrine the safegarde of the soule But we are to vnderstand more amply of thee AMANA what is the greatnes and beautie of sciences AMANA Whatsoeuer is profitable not onely for a house and familie for a citie and nation but generally for all mankinde may well be accounted deere precious and woonderful as so excellent a thing ought to be bought with all that a man hath especially if it be the true substance of all happines and felicitie and the efficient cause of prudence which is an excellent guide for mens actions to make them woorthy of an immortality What can one desire more than profite pleasure and honor which are those things wherewith all men are commonly led The treasure of Arabia and India may well bring some pleasure to man but yet alwaies vnperfect seeing all riches is of it selfe blind bringeth no light to the soule but receiueth hir brightnes from the soule when it is framed according to vertue Great and proud armies may by notable victories procure to themselues renowm and glory but blame woorthy a title of honor but forced and vniust if their enterprises are not grounded vpon equitie iustice The marchant sailing on large and terrible seas may reape profite by his trafficke but bought with the perill of his life and hazard of his certaine patrimonie Neither can this be done except he haue first laide a good ground of his voiage vpon a sure discourse of reason and vpon the direction of a good and wise pilot Now of all these things thus poore of themselues and begging all their ornaments else where what certain ioy true honor or great profite may a man chalenge to himselfe and not rather looke for a sodaine change of them into a woorse estate than they were in before through the inconstancie and vncertaintie of mans nature Where then shall we seeke for these great and rare properties to finde that which of it selfe will be vnto vs profitable pleasant and honorable altogither and that not for an instant but for euer Truely in science or knowledge which first is able to mollifie mans nature being before sauage and wilde and to make it capable of reason secondly frameth and setleth his iudgement that he may passe the course of his daies in al tranquillitie of minde to the profite of many lastly causeth him to die in honor with certaine assurance of eternall life and happines It is knowledge that maketh man prudent for doctrine bringeth foorth prudence and worketh vnspeakable pleasure in his soule For the searching out of the truth is the proper worke and perfection of the spirite neither doth any delight come neere to that which a man taketh in learning It is science which guideth mens iudgements whereby their chiefest deliberations and counsailes are executed aswell in feats of war as in the establishment and preseruation of lawes kingdoms monarchies commonwealths cities and peoples likewise in the regiment and gouernment of all worldlie affaires either generall or particular which are well or ill guided according as he that manageth or gouerneth them is instructed To this purpose Seneca saide that they who being destitute of knowledge did learne onely by experience to gouern publike affaires although they were borne with a diuine and happy spirit yet both late and to the detriment of their common-wealth they would in the end become good gouernors of the people As contrariwise they that should come thereunto being garded with the precepts of knowledge so they caried a good minde woulde quickely and without paine become woorthy of their charge O wisedome saith Cicero the guide of our life the onely cause of vertue and enimie tovice what should not we only but euen all the life of men be without thee Thou hast builded townes thou hast gathered together dispersed and wandering men that they might liue in a societie of life and in common friendship Thou compellest them to come togither first by keeping all in a house and by mariage then by the common vse of words and speech Thou hast beene the inuentresse of lawes and the mistres of maners and discipline We haue no recourse but to thee in our afflictions we craue aide and succour of thee we put our selues wholy into thine armes Truely one day well and iustly spent according to thy holie precepts is to be preferred before an immortalitie of time consumed in wickednes and vice With what riches shall we furnish our selues rather than with thine which hast liberally giuen vs the meanes to obtaine tranquillity in this life and hast taken from vs all feare and terror of death Briefely we may be assured that science is the onely diuine and immortall qualitie in vs and that infallible rule which bringeth both peace and warre to their perfect proportion without which whosoeuer goeth about to frame any glorious or happy building doth asmuch as if he should vndertake to sarle in the midst of the sea without a rudder or walke through vnknowne places without a guid Now the ancients knowing the greatnes difficultie of knowledge and that it cannot be obtained as it falleth out in all great matters without great paine and trauell that their labor might become profitable vnto vs they I saie who had spent their life euen with sweating in seeking out the secrets of nature and were desirous to ease mans studie who otherwise is inclined from his youth to pleasure rest haue diuided science for vs into diuers parts Which they did to this ende that step by step according to the nicenes of our spirits euen as our bodies are first nourished with milke and then with stronger meats we might finde therein apt and conceiueable foode and in the ende be made partakers of the secrets of perfect wisedome euery one according to his capacitie and need expecting the full vnderstanding thereof in the immortality of that second and most happie life First then al arts and sciences handled by reason were diuided into three principall kinds into Philosophie Rhetoricke and Mathematicke Afterwards ech of these sciences was diuided into three other parts and kinds Philosophie into Moral Logicall and Physicall or Naturall Rhetoricke into Demonstratiue Deliberatiue â—udiciall Mathematick into Arithmetick Musick and Geometry Since that for greater facilitie and that it might be more easie to learne all humane philosophie hath beene reduced into art as we haue it at this day from whence the name of liberall arts came bicause they are woorthy beseeming a free
perfection of these two great gifts of nature is a good sound iudgement proceeding from pondering and from a firme discourse of reason lightned by the spirit of God and by the same spirit purged from error illusion and all vaine opinion which are vsuall in man and hinder him from iudging aright of the truth But to continue our speech of the woonderfull effects of memorie so much esteemed of Plato that he writeth that we shuld leaue of to be men become like to the gods if our memory could retaine and keepe so much as the eies can read and see We must not here forget to make mention of Iulius Caesar that great monarke of whom Historiographers report that at one time he caused his Secretaries to write vnto foure seuerall persons of sundry matters and that oftentimes he would indight a letter to one of his Secretaries read in a booke and heare another speake all at one time Seneca rehearsed two thousand sundry names hauing onely heard them pronounced before beginning at the last and continuing to the first By these examples we see the greatnes of memorie wherby we may easily indge how profitable it is for the inriching of the minde with all things necessarie to the gouernment of mans estate Yea it is vnto vs a helpe requisite to saluation as that whereby we keepe in remembrance the gifts and graces which we daily receiue from the goodnes and fauor of God to this end that we should not be vngrateful but yeeld vnto him glorie and praise without ceasing Nowe bicause one of you my companions touched this that they which haue a ready and quick wit commonly want memorie that they which hardly learne retaine and keepe better that which they haue learned I will giue you this reason with Plutark that hardnes of belecfe seemeth to be the cause why men comprehend slowly For it is very euident that to learne is to receiue some impression whereupon it followeth that they which resist least are such as soonest beleeue And therefore youth is easier to be perswaded than old folks sick than sound women than men and generally the weaker that thing is which discourseth and doubteth the easier may a man put and adde vnto it what he will as likewise the selfe same thing is sooner lost and let slip away Some others as Iustine Martyr saith haue rendred this reason of the quicknes or slownes of mans wit saying that it commeth of the good or immoderate mixture temperature of the elements of which our bodies are compounded and framed and of the symmetrie and proportion of the organicall or iustrumentall parts ioyned togither in him And surely these seeme to giue the true reason therof For we see many who in their beginning and first age shew that they haue a prompt and sharp wit but when they come to old age are changed become slow and dul to conceiue Which is a great token and argument that a good or bad complexion and constitution of the body is the cause of such a disposition either in quicknes or slownes of spirit as the difference of yeeres doth affoord them Besides doe we not perceiue that they which haue the head ouergreat and ill fanored whom we cōmonly call great blockheads bicause there is not an equall symmetry and moderate proportion betweene that and the other parts of the bodie are naturally vnapt to conceiue and to bring foorth any sensible and wittie thing But the resolution of al this speech shall be that all gifts of the spirit are from aboue that amongst all sorts of men there are some found that are prompt wittie to comprehend great and diuine things by a speciall grace and fauour which God hath bestowed vpon them Some by the gift of the holie Ghost haue wisedom others knowledge and vnderstanding of things and all giuen to euerie one for the profiting both of himselfe and of his neighbor Knowing therefore by this present discourse according to the weakenes of our iudgement the creation and nature of the spirit which is the principall and most noble part of vs and that whereof dependeth and proceedeth all our happines rest and felicitie let vs be carefull and diligent to search it out and to prouide such things as it desireth of vs as helps to that effect bestowing all our care labour and studie to adorne and deck it with righteousnes and holines according to the holie desire therof wherin consisteth life and peace And let vs beware that we seeke not to feede it with strange meats which may make it sorrowfull and with which our flesh aboundeth to hir death and destruction But mortifieng all the deadly desires and affections thereof let vs labour not to walke any more according to the flesh but according to the spirit and let vs know that all wearisomnes and tediousnes which troubleth the tranquillitie and rest thereof proceedcth from the want of experience in affaires from the want of good discoursing grounded vpon a resolute and setled iudgement and from the want of skill fitly to apply our selues to present occasions And this is that which troubleth all sorts and conditions of life as well rich as poore But the way to preserue the spirite in rest and quietnes is to nourish and exercise it in the studie of wisedome where it learneth reason which of it selfe can cure it of all sorrow anguish and greefe through wise discoursing and worke in it a like inclination and constant behauior in euerie alteration of life causing man to liue happie throughout the whole course of his life not without the hope and certaine expectation of a blessed immortalitie The end of the second daies worke THE THIRD DAIES WORKE Of Dutie and Honestie Chap. 9. ASER. ALthough all things were created of diuers natures and properties and manie of cleane contraries yet by an incomprehensible wisedom they were appointed to refer themselues to one onely certaine and common end namely to shew foorth the infinite power and greatnes of their worke-maister sufficient in the lest of his works with admiration to rauish man to whom he hath made al things subiect But as in him alone the treasures of his heauenly graces haue been without comparison more liberally vnfolded and that in all fulnes and bountie as well in regard of the goods and commodities of this life which he draweth from heauen from the earth from the aire from the water from beasts and plants and generally from all things contained vnder the cope of the firmament as also in respect of that vnspeakable happines and eternall felicitie which by the speciall grace of God is purchased and assured to him onely in the immortalitie of the second life so also hath God from the beginning vntill this present and for euer reserued to himselfe a particular homage and that not for a time or for certaine yeeres of his life but to continue without intermission from time to
freely to giue counsaile in that thing which concerneth the dutie of a good man or the charge wherunto we are called The sages vertuous men heretofore haue alwaies shewed themselues to be such in their free counsailes wise declarations as hereafter we may handle more largly In the meane time we may haue here Demaratus for an example of this commendable libertie of speech who comming from Corinth into Macedonia when Phillip was at variance with his wife with his son was demanded by the king whether the Graecians did agree wel among themselues Truly sir quoth he to him it becommeth you wel to inquire after the concord of the Athenians Peloponesians in the meane while to suffer your owne house to be ful of diuision and domesticall discord Diogenes also being gon to the camp of the same Phillip at the same time that he returned from making war against the Grecians being led before him the king asked him if he were not a spy Yes truely answered the philosopher I am a spy com hither to espy thy impudency folly who not constrained by any dost set downe as it were on a dicing boord in the hazard of one houre both thy kingdome life Demosthenes being demanded of the tirant Epemetes why he wept so bitterly for the death of a philosopher a cōpanion of his seeing it was a strang matter to see wisemē weepe yea altogither vnbeseeming their profession know said he to him that I weepe not for the death of this philosopher but bicause thou art aliue For I tel thee that in the Academies we are more sorrowfull for the life of the wicked than for the death of good men Let vs learne then by your present discourse that talke being the messenger of thought discloseth our maners a great deal more than the lines draughts of our face do And as that tree whose root is drie can haue no greene leaues so from a vicious and corrupted soule nothing but vile filthy speeches can proceede which a wise man ought wholy to shunne bicause to make small account of euill words leadeth a man by litle and little to dishonest deeds Let all vaine speech also be banished from vs and let vs take great heed that we neuer speake either in sport or earnest any one word that is not tru knowing that to be true in word is the beginning and foundation of a notable vertue Moreouer let vs know that truth is not onely betraied of those that speake falsely and maintaine a lie but also of those that dare not confesse and defende it publikely Let vs know that aboue all things we must dedicate our voice and speech to sing the praises of God remembring the saying of that holy man Gordius who as he was led to the place of punishment was exhorted by some to leaue his opinion and so saue his life To whom he answered that the toong ought to vtter nothing that is iniurious to the Creator thereof Lastly let vs know that we must refer euery word to the glory of his name and to the profit of our neighbors The end of the third daies worke THE FOVRTH DAIES WORKE Of Friendship and of a friend Chap. 13. ASER. MAn being a reasonable creature borne for ciuill societie to obserue lawes and iustice and to exercise in the world all duties of gentlenes and goodnes the fairest and most fruitfull seede that God hath infused and sowne in his soule and that draweth him to this ende is loue and charitie towards his like But as euerie action of mans life standeth in need to be guided by the vertue of Prudence whereof we discoursed yesterday so in truth she is verie necessarie in euerie good and vnfained friendship For this cause I thinke companions that we shall obserue the order of our discourses if we begin this daies worke with the handling of friendship and of the true and perfect dutie of a friend AMANA Nothing that seemeth to be profitable whether it be honor riches pleasure or whatsoeuer else is of this kinde ought to be preferred in any respect before friendship Yea a man is to make more account of friends as Socrates said then of any other mortall thing ARAM. Perfect friendship saith Aristotle is to loue our friend more for his benefit than for our owne and therefore a friend is alwaies profitable and necessary But he is greatly deceiued saith Homer that seeketh for a friend in the court and prooueth him at a feast But let vs heare ACHITOB discourse hereupon ACHITOB. Rare things are commonly most esteemed amongst men the more pretious they are of their owne nature so much the more are they had in request This we may very aptly apply to a friend seeing there is nothing so rare as one that is vnfained and stedfast neither any thing so excellent and perfect as he is if he be a good and prudent man And for this cause the philosophers accounted friendship to be the chiefest and most excellent good of fortune as being least of all subiect to hir and most necessarie for man But bicause the wickednes of men is so great in these daies that nothing is so sacred and holy which is not violated corrupted brought to confusion no maruell if men impudently abuse this name of a friend so much reuerenced in olde time that some take it to themselues being altogither vnwoorthie thereof and others as freely although to their losse and shame grant them this excellent title and esteeme them for such in truth towards them as they falsely vaunt themselues to be But that we be not deceiued with the greater number which is not alwaies the surest marke let vs briefly consider what friendship is what fruits spring from hir who may rightly challenge this title of a friend what maner of one we ought to choose how we must trie him before we take him for such a one then the meanes whereby to keepe him and lastly what mutuall dutie friends are to vse one towards another First we say with Socrates that true friendship cannot be framed but by the helpe and grace of God who draweth like to the loue of his like that euerie perfect friendship is to bee linked with the bond of charitie and ought to be referred to God as to our soueraigne good and cheefest friend and therefore that true friendship cannot be setled betweene the wicked who being at discord within themselues can haue no concorde and agreement one with another Moreouer there is to be found in friendship whatsoeuer men thinke woorthie to be desired as honestie glorie tranquillitie of minde and pleasure and consequently a happie life which cannot bee amongst the wicked Friendship is a communion of a perpetuall will the end whereof is fellowship of life and it is framed by the perfect habit of a long continued loue Whereby wee may perceiue that there is a difference betwixt loue and
that an incontinent man chooseth not neither consulteth when he offendeth as one that knoweth full well that the euill he committeth is euill and had resolued with himselfe not to follow it but being ouercome with perturbations yeeldeth thereunto Whereas the intemperate man committeth euill of election and setled purpose to follow it accounting it a good thing to be desired And this commeth through a long custom habit of vice which is the cause that he neuer repenteth him of the fact but taketh pleasure therein whereas on the contrarie side the repentance of an incontinent man followeth hard at the heeles of his sinne and transgression In this maner then proceedeth intemperance vntill men are wholie addicted and giuen ouer to vice This is the cause why the sensuall and vnreasonable part of the soule contendeth no more with reason which then is as it were starke dead and suffereth it selfe to be caried to vgly and vnnaturall vices and to all fleshly desires bicause the diuine part of the soule is weakened in such sort that she hath no more strength nor feeling of hir essence which is an enimie to vice And thus accustoming hir selfe to follow nothing but the will of the bodie she forsaketh God altogither who seeing himselfe forsaken leaueth hir to hir concupiscences from whence is ingendred this exceeding luxuriousnes euen against nature this mortall venemous and bloodie enuie this furious and barbarous crueltie this insatiable couetousnes this bloud-thirstie ambition and other incurable diseases of the soule too wel knowen amongst vs whereof the sequele of our discourses will affoord a more ample knowledge vnto Thus we see that intemperance as Cicero saith is the mother of all the perturbations in the soule and causeth man as Socrates said to differ nothing from a beast bicause he neuer thinketh vpon that which is best but onely seeketh how to satisfie and content the vnbridled desires of pleasure and lust hauing no more vse of reason than beasts haue Intemperance saith Eusebius corrupteth the soule and destroieth the bodie bicause it constraineth a man for loue of pleasure and desire to satisfie it to do that which he knoweth well is dishonest and vile And as the winds torment and tosse that ship which they haue seazed vpon now heere now there and will not suffer it to be guided by hir maister so intemperance moouing and compelling the soule to disobey reason suffereth hir not to enioy tranquillitie and rest which is an assured hauen of harbour from all winds Intemperance saith Aristotle is a vice that proceedeth from the coueting part of man whereby we desire to enioy vnlawfull pleasures It is hir propertie to choose the fruition of hurtfull and vile pleasures supposing none to liue happily but such as passe away their life in them This vice is vnseparably accompanied with the troubling of all Order with impudencie vnseemlines luxuriousnes sloth negligence and dissolutenes In a word intemperance remooueth and troubleth all tranquillitie of the mind and leadeth men to all kind of wickednes the end of one vice being the beginning of another which Socrates called the punishment of sinne that doth not cleanse but kill the malefactor There is no kind of dissolutenes wherein the intemperate man plungeth not himselfe no wickednes or crueltie which he executeth not for the satisfying of his vncleane desires and vnsatiable lusts no feare or imminent danger which can draw him backe And further he laboreth oftentimes to procure that glorie and honor should be giuen to his most cursed and execrable misdemeanors imagining and fansying with himselfe dreames answerable and agreeable to that he most desireth Wherein he resembleth mad men who haue alwaies before their eies those Ideas and shapes which worke the apprehension of their furie and hold them in the vision and inward view of that which most troubleth their diseased braine But to make this vice of intemperance more odious vnto vs and to moue vs more earnestly to flie those causes that nourish it labouring to cut off all those branches and hurfull fruits which it bringeth with it as superfluitie gluttony ambition pride and other excesses in all kind of delight wherof we will intreat more particularly heerafter let vs call to mind examples of such pernitious effects as it hath brought foorth in them that voluntarily submitted themselues vnder hir tyrannous gouernment Although we should search throughout all ancient histories yet hardly could we alledge a more euident testimonie than the life of Heliogabalus bicause there is no kind of cursed mischiefe of detestable lust of iniustice of crueltie wherwith he was not defiled Yea he fel into such a furious frensie of vice that seeking to become a woman and to be maried to one of his minions thinking in that sexe better to satisfie his beastlines he apparelled himself after such a fashion that he was neither man nor woman And knowing it impossible for him by reason of his impietie and corrupt life to escape a miserable end and violent death which ought rather to haue been vnto him an occasiō of amendment he was so bewitched with intemperance that he prepared poisons ready at hand to poyson himself withall if he perceiued himselfe pressed of his enimies And to make his death luxurious according to his desire he kept his poisons in vessels made of precious stones He prouided also silken halters to hang himself withall if he saw that more expedient for him than to be poisoned or if he should thinke it better to murder himselfe he kept for that purpose kniues made of precious mettals Likewise he caused a high tower all gilded to be built all 〈…〉 his death as fittest occasion should be offred In the meane while he gaue not ouer that execrable kind of life which through Gods iust iudgement he ended being depriued of all those means wherwith he desired to serue his owne turne in his death For he was strangled by the souldiers of his gard who trailed him in that maner through all places of the citie of Rome Nero one of his predecessors was little better than he For he slew a Romane Consul called Atticus that he might haue the free vse of his wife and pleased himselfe so much in his crueltie that he was the murderer of his own mother brother sister of two wiues which he had named Octauia and Poppea Likewise he put to death his schoolemaster Seneca and many other good men But his end dissembled not his life For beyng hated of all and sought for to be slayne he killed himselfe Commodus an other emperor not finding wherwith to satisfie his intemperance in three hundred concubines three hundred buggerers which he kept in his palace committed incest with his owne sisters Caligula also did the like but the one of them was slain by his wife the other by his concubine Proculus a Romain emperor was so much giuen to lust that he bragged how in
too carefull to keep themselues But to come to the conclusiō of our discourse we say with Aristotle that concupiscences and desires change the bodie and make the soule outragious that so many as are infected with such a pernicious and damnable vice as intemperance is are no mē but monsters in nature leading a life altogether like to that of brute beasts which being destitute of all reason know nothing better or more honest than pleasure hauing no knowledge of the iustice of God neither reuerencing the beautie of vertue bestow al the courage craft force that nature hath giuen them to satisfie and to accomplish their desires So that if death brought with it an end of all sence and feeling and an vtter abolishing of the soule as well to men as to beasts intemperate folks should seeme to gaine much by enioying their desires and lusts during their life time and to haue good cause to waxe old and euen to melt in their foule filthie pleasures But seeing we know for truely he that doubteth hereof is very ignorant most miserable that sence and feeling remaine after death and that the soule dieth not with the body but that punishment yea euerlasting payne is prepared for the wicked let vs be careful to do the will of our father which is in heauen whilest we haue time that in the triumphing day of his eternal sonne we may not heare to our confusion that sentence of his mouth Depart from me ye workers of iniquitie At which time the iust shall shine as the sunne in the kingdome of God and the wicked shall be cast headlong into euerlasting fire where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth Of Sobrietie and Frugalitie Chap. 19. ARAM. SOcrates vsed to dispute earnestly and grauely of the manner of liuing as of a thing of great importance For he said that continencie in meate and drinke was as it were the foundation and beginning of skill And truely the minde is much more prompt to comprehend all good reason when the operations of the braine are not hindered by vapours which the superfluitie of meates send vp thither I am of opinion therefore that we handle this vertue of sobriety which dependeth of temperance and is contained vnder the first part thereof namely vnder continencie ACHITOB. To liue well and frugally saith Plato is to liue temperately and as Epictetus saith there is great difference betweene liuing well and liuing sumptuously For the one commeth of temperance frugalitie discipline honestie and moderation of the soule contented with her owne riches and the other of intemperance lust and contempt of all order and mediocritie In the end the one is followed with shame and the other with true and lasting praise ASER. We can not well vse our spirite saith Cicero when we are stuffed with meate Neither must we gratifie the belly and intrailes only but also the honest ioy of the mind For that which is contained in the other parts perisheth but the soule separated from the body abideth for euer Let vs then harken to AMANA of whome we may vnderstand howe necessary sobrietie is for a happie life AMANA If we set before our eies the long and happy life of the Ancients so long as they obserued sobrietie and frugalitie out of doubt we will attribute one principall cause of our so short life and so full of infirmities to the riot superfluitie and curiositie of diet which at this day are seene amongst vs. The life of our first Fathers was it not maintained a long time with fruits milke honie and water Who euer came neere their long and happie daies since those times What preparation of exquisite victuals did those six hundred thousand Israelites thinke to find that came out of Egypt to go into a new land walking fortie yeeres through the wildernes drinking nothing but water and many times wanting that After those first ages the Grecians and Romanes loued sobrietie more than all other nations And as the Hebrewes vsed to eate but once a daye which was at dinner so the Grecians onely supped For this cause we read that Plato being demanded whether he had seene any new or strang thing in Sicilia answered that he had found a monster of nature which did eate twice a day This he spake of Dionysius the tyrant who first brought vp that custome in his countrey In the time of Iulius Caesar the Germaines a strong and warlike people liued onely of milke cheese and flesh not knowing what wheate and wine were nor yet what it was to labour the ground or to sowe Yea how many millions of men are there at this day in the West regions and Ilands who know not what all this superfluitie and daintines of fare meaneth and yet liue long and healthie in all frugalitie the greatest part of them vpon herbs and rootes whereof they make cakes in steede of wheate and others of raw flesh Whereby it is easie to iudge that sobrietie is the preseruation and maintenance of health and of naturall strength and vigor and so consequently of the life of man But when we looke higher and with the eies of our mind marke the excellent glorie and immortall praise deserued by so many Camilli Scipiones Fabriti◠Metelli Catones and by a thousand other famous families which executed so many woorthy acts by their owne vertue and yet in the meane while kept such a simple and sober diet that the most of them were contented with bread herbs and water endured and tolerated cheerefully all iniuries of weather went but homely araied and altogither contemned gold and siluer out of question we will iudge those men very blind and farre from the white of such glorie and honour who imbrace nothing but dissolutenes superfluitie lust dronkennes pride and all such like imperfections that beare sway amongst vs who behold Vice mounted so high that men must in a manner blush as much to speake of Vertue or to be vertuous in a thousand companies as in that happy time of the Ancients they were ashamed of vice or to be vitious And truly I thinke that these men being past shame care but little for the glorie that hath beene in many ages seeing they liue for the body onely after a brutish impietie without all regard of the foule or of the second life What say I for the body Nay rather they are the destroiers thereof seeing it cannot be denied but that sobrietie is a great benefit and helpe to preserue health and bodily strength and to expell diseases and is to be vsed as a good foundation to attaine to a happy old age The experience heereof is well knowne to euery one although there were no other proofe but this that we see the simple sort of people that labor and trauell to liue with bread and water grow old in health whereas our Princes and great Lords being delicately brought vp in idlenes die yoong men tormented with infinite diseases especially when they
those that are vnwoorthie of them to commit many follies Amongst which we may note superfluitie for a verie pernitious vice hauing this propertie in it to draw the wils of men secretly to induce them to couet delights Wherunto after they haue once addicted themselues they busie their mindes with nothing but to make prouision of friuolous exquisite and sumptuous things taking smal care yea forgetting easily those things that are profitable and necessarie whereof afterwards they perceiue themselues to stand in great need Now the end of all superfluities wherein men plung themselues after diuers manners is pleasure which chiefly and for the most part they seeke in such a riotous and delicate life as causeth the bodie without labor to enioy all his desires lustes and delights or else in the fruition of worldlie glorie wherein through vnprofitable and superfluous expences they striue to excell or at leastwise to match those that are greater than themselues Concerning the marke whereat they aime there is nothing more hurtfull to man than pleasure and delight which as Plato saith serueth for a baite and allurement to draw him to commit wickednes as hereafter we may discourse in more ample manner thereof as also of that luxurious life whose desire and contentation is in whoredome And that I may begin to handle the other two general points wherein they that are giuen to superfluitie and costlines seeke delight namely the delicate life and curiositie of expences let vs consider of the fruites that issue and proceed from them First when men suffer themselues to be ouertaken with the Epicures doctrine and appeere so carefull to serue their bellie nourishing it in excesse daintines gluttonie and dronkennes is it not from this headspring from whence diseases and euill dispositions of the bodie proceed We are sicke saith Plutark of those things wherewith we liue neither is there any proper and peculiar seed of diseases but the corruption of those things within vs which we eate and the faults and errors which we commit against them Homer going about to prooue that the gods die not groundeth his argument vpon this bicause they eate not as if he would teach vs that drinking and eating do not only maintaine life but are also the cause of death For thereof diseases gather togither within our bodies which proceed no lesse of being too full than of being too emptie And oftentimes a man hath more to do to consume and digest meat put into his bodie than he had to get it Phisitions saith Seneca cry out that life is short and art long and complaint is made of nature bicause she hath graunted to beasts to liue fiue or six ages appointed so short a time of life for men who are borne for many great things We haue no smal time but we lose much time and life is long enough if it be well imploied But when it passeth away through excesse and negligence and no good is done therein in the end through constraint of extreame necessitie although we perceiue it not going yet we feele it is gone Moreouer a man may reckon greater store of griefs than pleasures that come to him frō his nourishment or to speake better the pleasure of eating is but small but the toile and trouble that men haue in prouiding it is great It were hard to repeate the shamefull paines and toilesome labors wherewith it filleth vs. Many a mans soule saith Solon is ouerwhelmed and as it were clothed with feare least it should stand in need within the bodie as it were in a mill and turning alwaies about like a milstone it seeketh after nourishment Heereupon it remaineth void and destitute of feeling and desire of all honest things and attendeth onely to the insatiable lustes of the flesh which is neuer contented bicause need and necessitie are alwaies ioined with desire of superfluitie The ancient Egyptians vsed this custome to cleaue in sunder the bodie of a dead man to shewe it to the sunne and to cast the guts and intrailes into the riuer and being thus clensed to imbaulme the rest And in very deede those inward parts are the pollution and defiling of our flesh and are properly the veric Hell of our bodies But which is worse is it not the stuffing and filling of the bellie that maketh the mind for the most part dull and vncapeable of any science or reason whereby the diuine part of man is oppressed and ouerwhelmed through the waight and force of that part which is mortall A wise soule is a cleare brightnes said Heraclitus O how hard a matter is it saith Cato to preach to the bellie which hath no eares and which will take no deniall howsoeuer the case standeth And as when we behold the sunne through thicke clouds and vndigested vapours we see it not cleare but with a pale and wannish light and as it were plunged in the bottome of a cloud so through a troubled and defiled bodie heauily loaden with food strang meates the brightnes and clearnes of the soule must needes become pale troubled and dimmed not hauing such forceable light as to be able thereby to pearce through vnto the contemplation of those things that are great heauenlie subtil exquisite and hard to discerne I thought in my hart saith the wise man to withdrawe my flesh from wine that I might bend my mind to wisedome and eschew follie vntill I knew what was profitable for the children of men It is not for kings it is not for kings to drinke wine nor for princes strong drinke least he drinke and forget the decree and change the iudgement of all the children of affliction To whom is woe To whom is sorow To whom is strife To whom is murmuring To whom are wounds without cause And to whome is the rednes of the eies Euen to them that tarie long at the wine to them that go and seeke mixt wine which in the beginning is pleasant but in the end pricketh like a serpent and poisoneth like a Cockatrice And in another place the wise man speaking of gluttonie faith that it drieth the bones and that more die by it than by the sword We see that beasts fatted vp languish through sloth and idlenes neither do beasts faint through labor onely but also by reason of the masse and heauie weight of their owne bodies Furthermore the vice of gluttonie and drunkennes is neuer alone but draweth with it a thousand other excessiue and dissolute fashions For as Plato saith it stirreth vp lust griefe anger and loue in extremitie and extinguisheth memorie opinion and vnderstanding Brieflye it maketh a man twise a childe And in another place the same Philosopher saith that gluttonie fatteth the bodye maketh the minde dull and vnapt and which is worse vndermineth reason Wine hath as much force as fire For as soone as it hath ouertaken any it dispatcheth him And as the North or Southwind tormenteth the Lybian sea so
that were vertue it selfe leauing behind them the path of that vertue from whence honor ought to proceed and which is able of it selfe to adorne decke men fall into the same reckoning that Ixion did who as the Poets say had to do with a cloud supposing it to haue been the goddesse luno whereupon the Centaures were engendred Euen so worldly men embracing vaine-glory onely which is but a false shadow of true vertue all their doings deserue so small commendation that if they were well waied they should rather be found worthy of blame and dishonor than of that honour which they so greatly seeke and aske after For this cause the ancient Romanes built two Temples ioined together the one being dedicated to Vertue and the other to Honor but yet in such sort that no man could enter into that of Honor except first he passed through the other of Vertue But seeing the way of vertue is so litle frequented at this day no maruell as Hesiodus saith if so great a heape of wickednes be dispersed through the world that all shame and honor haue forsaken and abandoned the life of man Now if an honest man preferre the losse of his honor before his owne life to the ende he be none of those that content themselues with a deceitful Idea and platforme in stead of the thing it self let him learn aboue all things to know wherin true glory and honor consist and from whence he may deserue praise which first is in Goodnes and Iustice Secondly in guiding all humane actions prudently according to duetie comelines and honestie These are the only meanes to get durable and eternall honour glory and praise which always folow vertue as the shadow doth the body hauing this propertie to make men wise iust good and prudent and to bring them to the best excellentest and most diuine habite that can be in men which is the vprightnes of reason and iudgement and to the perfection next after God of the reasonable nature which is such a disposition of the soule as consenteth and agreeth with it selfe Therfore that goodnes and excellencie which proceedeth of wisedome and good instruction is the first step to come to honor bicause from that as from a liuely fountain floweth euery vertuous and praise-woorthie action practised by a prudent man For as Cicero saith no man can be prudent but he must needs be good Now this is cleane contrary to the common opinion of those that run so swiftly now adays after honor and reputation who being ignorant of euery good cause and reason and hauing corrupt and wicked conditions imagine in their mindes that so long as they do some act well liked of great men and for which they may be noted out by them to be men of valure making good penywoorths of their skin and of their conscience also whether it be in fight or in the execution of some other commandement of theirs they shal haue cause to thinke themselues worthy of great honour and to be preferred before other men For they suppose that honor ought to be measured by that good wil and liking which men conceiue of thē although they thēselues be most wicked and not by the triall of the worke whether it be good or euil in it selfe But I wonder at their follie For seeing they haue no goodnesse in them how can they iudge what ought to be done or left vndone according to equitie and iustice And what honor wil they deserue in all their actions being guided onely with a desire of worldly glory which as Quintilian saith is the chiefe principal euil Do not they also propound to themselues as a recompence of their paine and trauell aduancement to high estates and dignities that they may the better enioy worldly pleasures Whereby they become slaues to mortall goods and riches all their life time and depriue themselues of that precious libertie of the soul for which a noble hart ought to fight to suffer death But a good man adorned with goodnes and iustice propoundeth vnto himselfe a farre other end For admiring nothing but vertue he seeketh not to be honored but in obeying hir in following hir steps and in referring all his doings to the infallible rule thereof He knoweth as Seneca sayth that glory is to be followed not to be desired that it is gotten by such a noble courage as measureth al things by conscience not doing any thing for ostentation and vanitie The price and reward which he expecteth in this life for euery laudable action is to haue done it and yet he depriueth not himselfe of glory which remayneth immortal vnto him among good men for his iust vertuous deedes neither careth he at all what the wicked or ignorant sort think or speake of him Hauing layd this ground and foundation of all his intents and purposes he looketh not to the most beaten way nor to the present state of things that he might apply himselfe to the tyme as though he feared that he should be left behind but desireth rather to abide vnknown in his simplicitie than with the hurt and detriment of his soule to intrude himselfe among the greatest And if he vndertake or execute any thing he hath iustice and prudence alwaies for his guids and then neither feare nor danger is able to driue him from his determinate purpose which how soeuer it falleth out is alwaies no lesse woorthie of honor and praise than their actions who do nothing but for worldlie glorie deserue blame and dispraise which they feare most of all and labor to auoid True it is that these men who ambitiously seeke after vaine glorie and greatnes may say vnto me that things go farre otherwise than I speake of and that their doings who apply themselues to the pleasure and liking of the greater sort without sparing their liues are as much extolled as the others that respect the vprightnes of causes are set light by and contemned But I answer them againe that it is the dutie of a prudent man rather to feare the iudgement and opinion of a few wise men than of an ignorant multitude Neither ought he to leaue his conceiued purposes grounded vpon reason for the praise of men For they that do otherwise declare euidently that they liue not but for the world hauing no care of the principall and chiefe end of their being Bion compared such men very fitly to vessels with two handles which are easily caried by the eares whethersoeuer a man will So these men being praised and much made of vndertake all things boldly yea the burning heate of glory oftentimes carieth them so farre that they praise commend their owne doings to no purpose Which is so vnseemelie a thing as Aristotle saith that it is more blamewoorthie than lying which commonly goeth with it and is also a great argument of an inconstant mind But as Plutark saith the more reason a man hath gotten by Philosophie the more
saith it lifteth vp our minds to attend to that which is most excellent laudable best and most profitable Therefore let vs heare ACHITOB discourse of the woonderfull effects of this great and woorthie vertue ACHITOB. Whatsoeuer is done manfully and with a great courage appeereth very decent and beseeming a man But the perfection of euery work consisteth in this that it be done by a staied and constant reason which reacheth vs that there is nothing after God but honestie which we are to admire to make account of to desire and that we ought not in any sort to shrinke and yeeld vnto perturbations or to any other humane accident whatsoeuer Which opinions being well imprinted in our minds pricke vs forward to enterprize those things that are most excellent difficult and fullest of labors perils For being free from all earthly care and void of feare or sorow we contemne euen death it selfe and are in such sort prepared against all griefes that our contentation lieth heerin that the greatest and most exceeding paines will not continue long that the least will vanish away of themselues and that we shall be maisters of the middle sort This is that which the Philosophers by infinite learned writings required to be in the vertue of Fortitude with which the force and strength of the bodie hath nothing common as that which is a Good that belongeth to the bodie But this is an immortall Good of the soule consisting in the power and direction of the spirite being fortified and confirmed through the studie of Philosophie and causing man of his owne accord to make choice of and to perfect all honest things for their owne sakes Fortitude then as Cicero saith is that part of honestie which is knowne by the excellencie greatnes and dignitie of the hart which after aduised counsell and good consideration causeth man to vndertake without feare all perillous matters and constantly to endure all kind of trauell For constancie and dignitie are neuer farre from Fortitude in greatest distresses bicause it adorneth him that possesseth hir with the contempt of griefe and of death causing him to esteeme nothing vntollerable that can happen to man neither any thing euill that is necessarie And so it is the preseruation of a firme setled iudgement in things that seeme terrible full of danger seeing it is the knowledge of that which a man ought to indure Plato also calleth it the knowledge of all good and euill as though he would say that nothing can come to a valiant and noble minded man against his expectation although it may be contrarie to his will bicause he is setled and prepared to vndergo all euents as if he had certainly foreseene them Aristole saith that Fortitude is a mediocritie betweene fearing and enterprizing Moreouer it maketh a man fit for all occasions of dangers and trauels and holdeth him betweene these two extremities of cowardlines and rashnes which vices are very hurtfull to a happie and commendable life The same Philosopher saith that whosoeuer will be strong and valiant must be free from all feare of death constant in aduersities void of feare in perils chosing rather to die honestly than to saue himselfe vilan ously He must endeuor to build noble enterprises hauing for his companions hardines greatnes of hart good confidence and hope besides industrie and patience Then he commeth to set downe many kinds of Fortitude Cicero agreeing well with him saith that Magnificence Considence Patience and Perseuerance are the parts of Fortitude Magnificence sheweth it doing great excellent things Confidence in this that a valiant man conceiueth good hope of the euent of them Patience in a voluntarie and continuall suffering for the loue of honestie and vertue and Perseuerance in a perpetual constancie and in a firme and stedfast abiding in his purposes and resolutions vndertaken with good consideration following reason Moreouer Fortitude as the Stoicks said very well is a vertue that fighteth for equitie and iustice And therefore neither they that suffer for vniust matters nor they that fight for their priuate commodities not being led onely with zeale of publike benefit can boast except falsly that they are decked with this pretious vertue For these latter sort of men are rather to be called cruell barbarous mercenaries and hired hangmen destroying all humanitie and the others impudents shameles and desperate yea so much more woorthie of blame as guiltie of wilfull madnes in that they shew themselues constant in doing euill But those men are valiant of great courage who thinke that no action whatsoeuer no time or season ought to be void of iustice who deliuer the oppressed and those that are wronged who build all their deuises vpon vertuous works They saith Aristotle are void of generositie who fight either for feare of reprehension or by constraint or being stirred vp with other mens speech or of choler or through ignorance of dangers And this was Platoes meaning when he said that all strong and valiant men were hardie but not all hardie men valiant bicause hardines commeth to men either by arte anger or pollicie but Fortitude is ingendred in the soule by nature and holie education And therefore this vertue standeth not in need either of choler rancor ambition pride or of any other euill passion whereby to bring to passe braue and glorious effects but is rather an vtter enimie vnto them because it proceedeth from a mature and ripe consideration and election of reason which causeth a man boldly to put in execution whatsoeuer he knoweth to belong to dutie and honestie according to that place whereunto he is called And this also is the cause that he neuer taketh any thing in hand rashly what pretence soeuer it hath neither is he kept backe by any feare in those matters which offer him good occasion of putting to his hand what hazard or imminent danger soeuer seemeth to threaten him But according to that sentence of Socrates that the hardest things ought to be taken in hand and executed with greater constancie and valure of hart after he hath well and prudently grounded his enterprise vpon a certaine knowledge and firme discourse of reason neither reproches nor praises neither promises nor threatnings or torments neither pleasures nor griefs are able to cause him to breake off or in any sort to alter and change his resolution which remaineth alwaies praise-woorthie and is neuer subiect to repentance the matter falleth out bicause we are not to iudge of enterprises by the euents which are altogither out of our power but by the ground-worke and foundation wherupon they were built And further when the greatest dangers are then is the time wherein a valiant man being nothing at all abashed most of all sheweth his strength prowes neuer taking himselfe to be ouercome as long as his vertue is free and at libertie to giue him new supplie of meanes to set forward againe his matters otherwise in a
placed With such speeches he fought vnto the death Will wee haue other examples of woonderfull prowes and courage Iudas Macchabeus after many victories obtained by him against the Lieutenants of Antiochus and against those of Demetrius was set vpon and assailed with two and twentie thousand men others say two and thirty thousand hauing himselfe but eight hundred or a thousand with him And being counselled to retire into some place of safetie God forbid quoth he that the Sunne should see me turne my backe towards mine enemies I had rather die than staine the glorie which I haue gotten by vertue with an ignomintous and shamefull flight In this resolute perswasion he greatly weakened his enemies and yet died more through wearisomnes than of blowes or woundes which he had receiued in fight Leonides king of Sparta hauing with him but three hundred naturall Lacedemonians fought and put to flight at the strait of Thermopylis three hundred thousand Persians but he and all his died of the woundes which they receiued in that fight Lucius Dentatus a Romane was endued with such Fortitude and Generositie that one writeth of him that he was in sixe skore battels and skirmishes and eight times came away Conquerour from fighting hand to hand that he had receiued of his Captaines by waye of rewarde and in token of his valure eighteene launces twentie bards for horses foure skore and three bracelets and sixe and thirtie crownes and lastly that by his meanes nine Emperours triumphed in Rome Eumenus a Macedonian Captaine hauing beene put to the woorst by Antigonus retired into a strong hold where being besieged and brought to parly through necessitie of victuals and munition it was signified vnto him from his enemie that reason would he should come and speake with him vnder his faith and promise without Hostages seeing he was both greater and stronger But Eumenus made him this answer that he would neuer thinke any man greater than himselfe as long as he had his sword in his owne power And therefore demanding of him no woorse conditions than as one that thought himselfe to be his equall he sailed foorth vpon his enemies with such valure and courage that he saued himselfe out of their handes and afterward greatly troubled Antigonus Aristomenes the Messanian being taken by the Lacedemonians and deliuered fast bound to two souldiers to be kept he drew neere to a fire and burned asunder his bands with a litle of his flesh afterward comming suddenly vpon his keepers he slew them both and saued himselfe Lysimachus being cast to a Lion by Alexander bicause he gaue to Calisthenes the prisoner that poison wherewith he killed himselfe fought with it and stretching foorth his arme and hand all armed into his throte he tooke hold of his toong and strangled him Whereupon the Monarch euer after greatly esteemed and honoured him By this small number out of infinite examples which I could heere mention we see the great and woonderfull effects of this vertue of Fortitude which are no lesse in euerye part thereof touched in our discourse as heereafter I hope we shall declare at large Wherefore we may well say that this vertue is very necessarie to liue well and happily and to lead vs to the end of our being which is to referre both our life and death to the onely exercise of dutie and honestie that by it we enioy the true rest of the soule which is nothing else as Cicero saith than a peaceable sweete and acceptable constancie which vndoubtedly alwaies followeth Fortitude being crowned with these two inestimable rewardes the contempt of griefe and of death whereby we forsake that which is mortall that we may imbrace heauenlie thinges in the hope and certaine expectation of that happie immortalitie Of Timorousnes Feare and Cowardlines and of Rashnes Chap. 26. ACHITOB WE may call to remembrance that saying of Plato before mentioned that a temperate man not indued with the vertue of Fortitude falleth easilie into cowardlines basenes of mind which is the defect of that vertue which euen now we described and likewise that a strong and valiant man without the direction of Prudence and Temperance is easily caried away with temeritie and boldnes which is the excesse of the same vertue Which two vices are so hurtfull in the soule that he which is infected with them holdeth much more of the nature of a beast than of that essence wherein he was created Let vs then consider what these imperfections are that through the horror of that infamie which followeth them we may be more zealous to follow that which is decent and honest ASER. We must take good heede saith Cicero least through feare of peril we commit any thing that may iustly argue vs to be timorous and fearfull But withall we must beware that we offer not our selues vnto dangers without cause than which nothing is more foolish and blame-woorthie AMANA It is not seemely for a man saith Plato to commit any cowardly act to auoid perill Temeritie also setteth foorth it selfe with courage and contempt of dangers but vnaduisedly and to no purpose But let vs heare ARAM who will handle this matter more at large ARAM. Albeit there is no greater disgrace than to be iustly reproched with a cowardly and faint hart especially for youth to be called effeminate yet is that feare good which turneth vs away from dishonest things and maketh man staied and wel aduised This is the cause why the Ancients speaking of feare made it twofold the one good necessarie the other euill and hurtfull The first which they grounded vpon a good discourse of reason iudgement was so esteemed and honored of them that in the citie of Sparta which for armes arts flourished most among the Grecians there was a temple dedicated consecrated to this feare which as they affirmed better maintained and preserued the estate of Common-wealthes than any other thing whatsoeuer bicause thereby man was led to stand more in awe of blame reproch dishonor than of death or griefe Which thing maketh him both apter readier to vndertake to execute all vertuous laudable matters whensoeuer good iust occasion shall be offred also more staied against euerie rash vniust enterprise that might procure dammage to the common-wealth And this was the occasion of that Prouerbe Feare alwaies accompanieth shame Another reason alleadged by these wise men whie they honoured in such sort this fained goddesse was bicause to doubt and feare nothing was more hurtfull to Common-wealths than their verie neighbour enimies the feare of whome was their safetie and assurance The other naughtie and pernicious feare standeth of two kinds The first beeing destitute of all good reason and assured iudgement is that which we call Cowardlines and Pusillanimitie alwaies followed of these two perturbations of the soule Feare and Sadnes and is the defect of the vertue of Fortitude which wee purpose
without a soule The memorie of such men of whome we see but too many examples among vs ought to be buried in obliuion and during their life time they should remaine vnknowne aswel for their owne honor as for the good of the common societie of men to which they could not but be offensiue and hurtfull For the most part they are not onely afraid of men of the hazards of warres of troubles seditions of the dangers of long voyages of the losse of their goods of diseases of dolors yea of the least discommodities and aduersities that can befall men the euent of all which causeth them vsually to forget all reason and dutie but they are also frighted with dreames they tremble at sights and visions they credite false abusing spirits and with a forlorne feare they stand in awe of the celestiall signes Briefly vpon the least occasions that may be and such as are vnwoorthie the care of a prudent and valiant mind they fall oftentimes into such vexation of spirite that they loose it altogither and become mad and inraged insomuch that many haue hastened forward with their owne hands the end of their so miserable daies As we read of Mydas king of Phrygia who being troubled and vexed with certaine dreames grew to be desperate and died voluntarily by drinking the bloud of a Bull. Aristodemus also king of the Messenians being in warre against his subiects it happened that the dogs howled like woolnes which came to passe by reason of a certain herbe called Dogsteeth growing about his altar at home Wherupon vnderstanding by the Southsayers that it was an euill signe he was stroken with such a feare and conceit thereof that he slue himselfe Cassius the captaine had a better hart when he answered a Chaldean Astrologian who counselled him not to fight with the Parthians vntill the Moone had passed Scorpio I feare not quoth he Scorpions but Archers This hee spake bicause the Romane armie had beene put to the worst before in the plaine of Chaldea by the Parthian archers Neuertheles that which we spake of Midas and Aristodemus is seldome followed yea is rarely found amongst cowards and base minded fellowes who commonly flie from temporall death as much as may be as also from griefe which they feare in such sort that contemning all vertue and iustice they labour for nothing more than to preserue their liues togither with their carnall commodities for the obtaining of which they seeme to liue cleane without all care of their soule as if hir portiō were in this world should end togither with the bodie The effects of this feare of death are sufficiently felt of euerie one in particular the number of them being verie small who would not willingly make as we say a sluce to their consciences that they might be deliuered thereof Let vs then confesse our selues to be fearefull and faint-harted and not boast of Fortitude and generositie of hart which will not suffer vs to stand in feare no not of certaine death in an holie and honest cause so farre is it from fearing and forsaking dutie through doubt of an vncertaine death That which Speron rehearseth in his dialogues of a gentleman of Padua sufficiently sheweth what maruellous force is in the apprehension and conceit of death which extendeth it selfe not onelie vpon the spirites of men but also changeth the nature of their bodies who want constancie to beare and sustaine a small and light griefe for the inioieng of eternall goods This yoong gentleman being put in prison vpon some accusation it was tolde him that of a certaintie his head should be cut off the daie following Which newes altered him in such sort that in one onelie night hee was all white greie-headed whereof before there was no shew or appearance and so he liued long time after Besides experience daily ministreth vnto vs sufficient proofe of the mischiefes which proceed of want of courage and faint-hartednes especially in matters of estate gouernment and publike offices wherein a fearefull and soft man for euerie reproch dislike or euill opinion of the world yea of such as are most ignorant and much more for the least dangers of his person and for feare and threatnings of the greater sort yeeldeth easilie against all dutie and suffereth himselfe to be drawne to the error of the wicked and common sort As for the middle and lesser sort wherefore serue they being void of reason and assurance Homer saith that king Agamemnon dispensed with a rich Coward for going to warre personally for a Mare which he gaue him Wherein truly he had great reason bicause a fearefull man hurteth much and profiteth little not onely in warre but euen in euery good and vertuous action This caused that great captaine Paulus Aemilius to say that magnanimitie and courage were for the most part reuerenced in euery enimie of theirs but that cowardlines although it had good successe yet was it alwayes and of all men despised I might here mention sundry vices which ordinarily growe and are nourished of cowardlines and pusillanimitie as namely crueltie treason breach of promise impatiencie idlenesse slouth couetousnes enuie backbiting and all iniustice were it not that I hope the sequele of our discourses will offer vs matter and occasion to handle these vices particularly our houre not affording vs time and leasure to enter vpon so many things togither There remaineth yet a word to be spoken of that feare which I said did accompany the froward and wicked many times being called by the Poet a seruile feare which through the onely horror of punishment holdeth them backe from practising their wicked purposes Of them spake Pythagoras when he sayd that he which careth not for doing of euill in any other respect but onely bicause he would not be punished is very wicked Now although such feare is accursed and to be condemned in all yet is it necessarie for the preseruation of humane societie For otherwise all things would run to confusion through the shameles malice of the wicked of whom the earth is full And it is a great deale better that through such feare they should be restrained from their wicked desires and wils than that they should without all feare abandon themselues to put them in execution albeit they are no way excusable before God who requireth to be serued with hart and spirit Neuerthelesse such feare doth not alwayes stay them from putting their malice in effect but the more they are retained so much the more are they inflamed and kindled with a desire to satisfie their corrupt will which in the end is constrained to burst foorth and euidently to shew that mischiefe which they kept secret a long time But if the commō sort saith Seneca be staied by lawes from committing euil the Philosopher contrarywise hath reason for all lawes doing good not bicause the law commandeth it and abstaining frō euil not bicause it forbiddeth it but bicause
he knoweth the one to be honest and the other vile and wicked Hauing now seene that vice which is cleane contrary to Fortitude and knowing that euery vertue hath a counterfeit follower thereof no doubt but rashnesse is that vice which falsly shrowdeth it selfe vnder the title of Fortitude and valure For this vertue easily ouerthroweth it selfe if it be not vnderpropped with good counsaile and the greater abilitie it supposeth to haue in it selfe the sooner it turneth aside to wickednesse if prudence gouerne it not This is that which Isocrates saith that Fortitude ioined with Prudence is auaileable but otherwise it procureth more euill than good to the possessors thereof If Fortitude saith Lactantius without necessarie constraint or for a dishonest matter hazardeth hir selfe into daungers she chaungeth into rashnesse He that doth anie thing at all aduentures saith Aristotle not considering how well he doth it ought not to be called vertuous but onely if he put it in execution after knowledge consultation and election Therefore as it is a noble acte to make such account of vertue as for the loue thereof not to feare the losse of life otherwise very deare so is it a point of rashnesse and follie to contemne life vpon a small and light occasion Rashnesse than is that which causeth a man with ioy of hart and for a vaine and friuolous matter to cast himselfe into certaine vndoubted daungers and to desire earnestly to fall into them to vndertake all things vnaduisedly and vnconstrained to expect those perils which he knoweth will fall vpon him The Elder Cato hearing certaine men to commend one openly who desperately hazarded himselfe and was bold without discretion in perils of warre said vnto them That there was great difference betweene much esteeming of vertue and little waighing of life as if he would haue said that it is a commendable thing to desire life to be vertuous And truely to liue and die are not of themselues good but to do both of them rightly and in a good matter So that to shunne death if it proceed not from a faint hart is not to be reprehended But rashnesse is especiallie to be condemned in Captaines and Heads of Armies as that which procureth great dammage to kingdomes and monarchies and to so manie as march vnder their conduct This is that which Iphicrates an Athenian captaine would haue vs learne who compared in an armie the Scoutes lightly armed to the handes the Horsemen to the Feete the battaile of Footemen to the Stomacke and breast and the Captaine to the Head of a Mans bodie For sayde he the Captaine that hazardeth himselfe too much and throweth himselfe into daunger without cause is not retchlesse of his own life onely but also of all those whose safetie dependeth vpon him and contrarywise in taking care for the safegard of his owne person he careth therewithall for all those that are vnder him Isadas the Lacedemonian seeyng Epaminondas with the Thebane armie at hand agaynst the Spartanes readie to force and take their Citie vnclothed himselfe starke naked puttyng off his Shirte and all and taking a Partisane in one hand and a sworde in the other he went with might and mayne agaynst his enemies where he shewed great prowesse and valure For which behauiour although he had a Crowne giuen him by the Seignorie according to the custome that was amongst them yet he was fined bicause he hazarded his lyfe so rashly We see daylie among vs but too manie examples of great mischiefes which befall men through their rashnesse led with ambition and desire of vayne-glorie Therefore to conclude and to drawe some profite out of our present discourse we say that we ought to feare the incurring of blame and dishonour for filthie and vnhonest matters and for euill deeds and are to shun all feare proceeding of want of courage of pusillanimitie and of a depraued and corrupted nature this last as proper and peculiar to the wicked and the other as that which maketh a man vnapt to all good and commendable thinges And as it is an acte of Prudence and Fortitude to prouide for a tempest and for stormes to come when the shippe is still in the Hauen and yet not to be afrayd in the middest of stormes so is it a point of rashnesse for a man to throw himselfe wittingly into an euident danger which might be auoyded without any breach of Vertue and Iustice Therefore Plato saith that timorous and rash men feare enterprise vnaduisedly whatsoeuer they take in hand but that noble minds do all things with prudence This also is that which Seneca saith thou maist be valiant if thou cast not thy selfe into perils nor desirest to fall into them as timorous men do neither abhorrest or standest in feare of them as being timorous But following the sage aduice of Cicero before we enterprise any thing we must not onely consider whether it be honest and commendable but also whether there be any like meane to execute it that neither throgh cowardlines we giue it ouer nor through greedie desire and presumption we purchase to our selues the reputation of rash men obseruing moreouer in euery matter of importance this Maxime of estate that before we begin any thing we must diligently prepare and foresee whatsoeuer is necessarie thereunto Of Magnanimitie and Generositie Chap. 27. ARAM. WHen that saying of Aristotle cōmeth to my remembrance that Fortitude isa mediocritie in fearing enterprising but that Magnanimitie consisteth in great things I am somewhat troubled in the vnderstāding of this sentēce bicause it semeth he would put a difference betweene Fortitude and Magnanimitie as if this latter had more excellencie and perfection in it than the other For this cause my Companions hauing intreated this morning of the vertue of Fortitude I propound now vnto you to discourse vnto vs what Magnanimitie is ACHITOB. Among mortall and perishing things there is nothing as the Philosophers say that ought to trouble the Magnanimitie of a noble hart But I find that they propound vnto vs in this word such a wisedome as cannot be in him that remaineth all his life time subiect to affections and perturbations For this they would not haue in true Magnanimitie which notwithstanding is wel able to bring foorth infinite wonderfull effects out of a noble mind causing it to be neuer vnprouided of a good resolution to be put in execution according to the ouerthwarts that happen vnto him ASER. The propertie of a noble spirit saith Cicero is not to be turned aside through ingratitude from the desire of doing good to all men euen to his enemies as also to leaue carking for that which is mortall that he may imbrace celestiall things But we shall vnderstand more at large of thee AMANA how these marueilous effects are works of true magnanimitie AMANA Although the vertue of Fortitude be neuer perfected without Magnanimitie which is as much to say as generositie or noblenes of
recouering any victuals were taken from them To whome they made this onely answer that forasmuch as they had liued for the space of 338. yeeres in freedom they would not die slaues in any sort Whereupon such as were most valiant assembled togither and slew those that were most growne in yeeres with women and children Then they tooke all the riches of the citie and of the temples and brought it into the midst of a great hall and setting fire to all quarters of the citie each of them tooke the speediest poison they could find so that the temples houses riches and people of Numantia ended all in one day leauing to Scipio neither riches to spoile neither man or woman to triumph withal For during the whole time wherin their citie was besieged not one Numantine yeelded himselfe prisoner to any Romane but slew himselfe rather than he would yeeld Which Magnanimitie caused Scipio to bewaile the desolation of such a people in these words O happie Numantia which the Gods had decreed should once end but neuer be vanquished Now albeit these examples and infinite other like to these are set foorth vnto vs by Historiographers as testimonies of an excellent Magnanimitie whereby they would teach vs both to be neuer discouraged for the most tedious trauels and irkesome miseries of mans life and also to stand so little in awe of death that for feare thereof much lesse for any other torment or griefe we neuer commit any thing vnbeseeming a noble hart yet notwithstanding no man that feareth God and is willing to obey him ought to forget himselfe so much as to hasten forward the end of his daies for any occasion whatsoeuer This did Socrates knowe very well when he said that we must not suffer our soule to depart from the Sentinell wherein she is placed in this bodie without the leaue of hir Captaine and that so waightie a matter as death ought not as Plato saith to be in mans power But if it be offred vnto vs by the will of God then with a magnanimious hart void of al starting aside in any thing against dutie we must set free this passage being staied and assuredly grounded vpon that consolation which neuer forsaketh a good conscience not onely through the expectation of a naked and simple humane glorie which most of the Heathen propounded to themselues but of that life which abideth for euer following therein the constancie of Alcibiades a great Captaine of Grecia who hearing the sentence of his condemnation to death pronounced said It is I that leaue the Athenians condemned to die and not they me For I go to seeke the Gods where I shall be immortall but they shall remaine still amongst men who are all subiect to death Socrates also hauing a capitall accusation laid against him wrongfully directed his speech to the Iudges and said vnto them that his accusers by their false depositions might wel cause him to die but hurt him they could not adding further that he woulde neuer leaue his profession of Philosophie for feare of death I â—m per swaded quoth he in Plato that this my opinion is very good namely that euery one ought to abide constantly in that place and trade of life which either he hath chosen himselfe or is appointed him by his superior that he must account that for the best and hazard himselfe therein to all dangers without feare either of death or of any other thing whatsoeuer And therfore I should erre greatly if obeying the Generall of warre which ye appointed vnto me in Potidaea Amphipolis and Delos and abiding in that place wherein he set me without feare of death I should now for feare of death or of any other thing forsake that rancke wherein God hath placed me and would haue me remaine in as I alwaies beleeued thought namely that I should liue a student in Philosophie correcting mine owne and other mens vices Now if I should do otherwise I might iustly be accused for calling my selfe a wise man not being so indeed seeing to feare death is to thinke that to be which is not But neither I nor any other man ought to do all that we may either in iudgement or in warre to the end to auoid death For it is very certaine that he who would in time of battell cast downe his armour and flie away might by that meane auoid death and the like is to be vnderstood in al dangers perils if he were not afraid of infamie But consider O countreymen that it is no very hard matter to auoid death but farre more difficult to eschew wickednes and the shame therof which are a great deale swifier of foote than that is O speech woorthie of eternal praise and such a one as instructeth a Christian notably in a great and noble resolution namely to run the race of his short daies in that vocation wherunto God hath called him and that in the midst of tortures torments all agonies of death From which whilest we expect a happie passage we ought to be no more destitute of an apt remedie in all those things which according to the world are most irkesome and desperate but sustaine them with like constancie and woorthines not departing from the tranquillitie and rest of our soules which is a more noble act than to hasten forward the end of our daies that we may be deliuered of them But howsoeuer it be let vs alwaies preferre a vertuous and honest death before any kind of life be it neuer so pleasant And seeing that one and the same passage is prepared aswell for the coward as the couragious it being decreed that all men must once die the louers of vertue shall do well to reape to themselues some honor of common necessity and to depart out of this life with such a comfort Now to come to the second commendable effect of this vertue of Magnanimity wherof Heroical men were so prodigall heeretofore for the benefit and safetie of their enemies we can bring no better testimonie than the courteous fact of Fabritius the Romane Consul towards Pyrrhus who warred against him and whose Physition wrote vnto him that he offered himselfe to murder his maister by poison and so to end their strife without danger But Fabritius sent the letter vnto him and signified withall that he had made a bad choice of friends aswell as of enemies bicause he made warre with vpright good men and trusted such as were disloiall and wicked whereof he thought good to let him vnderstand not so much to gratifie him as least the accident of his death should procure blame to the Romanes as if they had sought or consented to end the warre by meanes of treason not being able to obtaine their purpose by their vertue Camillus a Romane Dictator is no lesse to be commended for that which he did during the siege of the citie of the Fallerians For he that was Schoolemaister to
imbecillitie to be stirred vp to anger and to be troubled let vs follow that commandement of the Scripture Not to sinne in our anger neither to let the sunne go downe vpon our wrath least we shew our selues to haue lesse vertue and curtesie than the Ethnike Pythagorian Philosophers who albeit they were neither of kinne nor allied yet kept this custome inuiolable that if peraduenture they were entred into some contention and choler one against another before the sunne went downe they appointed a meeting where they imbraced and shooke hands one with another Further we haue carefully to auoyd all occasions which we know might induce and prouoke vs to choler As Cotis king of Thracia wisely behaued himselfe when one brought him a present of many goodly vessels curiously made and wrought but very brittle and easie to breake bicause they were of glasse After he had well recompenced the gift he brake them all for feare least through choler whereunto he knew himselfe subiect he should be mooued with wrath against any of his seruants that should breake them and so punish him too seuerely And of this matter we may also draw a good instructiō for all those that are placed in authoritie aboue others namely that they beware least they correct or punish any body in their choler but only when they are void of all vehement passions considering the fact in it selfe aduisedly and with quiet and setled sences knowing that as bodies seeme greater through a miste so doe faults through choler which for the most part carieth Princes headlong to commit execrable and cursed cruelties Among many examples we may note that of the emperor Theodosius who being mooued with anger against those of Thessalonica for a commotion which they made for staying his lieutenant sent his army thither with commādement that they should be vtterly rooted out whereupon fifteene thousand were slaine neither women nor children being spared Of which fault repenting him but too late he made a law afterward whereby he willed that the execution of his letters Patents and Commaundements should be held in suspence and deferred thirtie days after signification and knowledge of them namely when any were to be punished more rigorously than of custome he vsed Neither is it lesse dangerous in an estate that the administration of publike charges should be committed to such as suffer themselues to be ouer-ruled with wrath seeing there are not in a maner fewer matters which are to be winked at and dissembled than to be punished corrected And although Magistrates haue authoritie iust cause to punish vices yet haue they no licence to shew thēselues to be passionated But this being a matter of Policie let vs continue our morall instructions and note that which we read of Plato deseruing to be considered of here who being very angry with a seruaunt of his for a great fault committed by him and seeing Xenocrates to come towards him requested him if he were his friend to correct that seruant of his bicause at this present quoth he anger surmounteth my reason Whereby this wise Philosopher declared sufficiently that if the first motions are not at all in our power through the imperfection of our nature yet at the lest reason may serue for a bridle to hinder euery naughtie execution teaching vs likewise that we ought to vse and exercise our power and authoritie ouer others without any extreme passion Further that we may haue such imperfections in greater hatred we are to note that choler hath been the ouerthrow of many great men as it was of the emperor Aurelianus who was endued with notable vertues but otherwise easilie mooued to anger whose wrath was such that their death with whom he was displeased was the onely remedie to appease it For being one day incensed against Mnesteus his Secretarie he knowing his masters disposition for the safegard of his life deuised to write counterfaiting the emperors hand in a litle scroule the names of the principall captaines of his army putting himselfe in the number of those whom he had fully purposed to put to death and bearing it vnto them sayd that he saw this bill fall out of the emperours sleeue Whereat they being astonished and giuing credit thereunto resolued with themselues to preuent it and so falling vpon him slew him Moreouer it is well known to euery one that choler may greatly hurt health whereof men are for the most part desirous enough It was cause of the emperour Valentinians death who through crying out in his choler brake a veine in his neck From this vice proceedeth another detestable imperfection which is swearing a thing directly contrary to a wise mans life and condemned by the lawe both of God and man whereof we might easilie be cured by custome if first we destroied Impatiencie and Choler which prouoke blasphcmie The Romanes obserued an auncient decree which expresly commaunded that when yong men would sweare by the name of some God they should first go out of the house wherin they were Which was a commēdable mean both to retain keep them frō swearing lightly vpō the suddain also that they might haue good laisure space to bethink thēselues This would be very profitable for vs towards the correction of this vice the vnmeasurable licence whereof ought to be kept backe and chastised by some better meanes Yea it were very expedient and necessarie to renew and put in practise that law of good king S. Lewes that all blasphemers should be marked in the forehead with an hot iron yea punished with death if they would not be corrected otherwise Such contemners of the name of God ought to learne their lesson of Carilaüs the Ethnicke and Pagan who being demanded why the images of the Gods in Lacedemonia were armed to the end quoth he that men might feare to blaspheme the Gods knowing that they are armed to take reuengement Concluding therefore our present discourse let vs learne to decke our liues so well with patience which is so profitable and necessary to saluation and to a good and happie life that we be patient towards all men in all things to the end we may obey the will of God and reape the fruite of his promises as the end of patience is the expectation of things promised And let vs know that the learning and vertue of a man is knowne by patience and that he is to be accounted to haue lesse learning and vertue that hath lesse patience Further let vs learne that the office dutie of a prudent and noble minded man is to winke at many things that befall him to redresse other things to hold his peace at some things and to suffer much so that he follow reason alwaies and flie opinion Lastly we are to know that he which endureth euill patiently shall know also how afterward he may easily beare prosperitie and that euery christian offereth an
miserable passions which depriue vs of true rest tranquillitie necessarie for a happie life let vs be carefull to learne how to discerne true happines from mishap that we may reioyce in that which is good and as readily giue thanks to the author thereof as naturally through a false opinion which we haue of euill we sustaine humaine miseries and crosses vnpatiently First then let vs heare the sundry and notable opinions of many ancient men touching good and ill hap If thou knowest all that ought to be knowen in all things said Pythagoras thou art happy Let them be accounted very happy said Homer to whom fortune hath equally wayed the good with the euill The greatest miserie of all said Bias is not to be able to beare miserie That man is happie said Dionysius the elder that hath learned from his youth to be vnhappy For he will beare the yoke better whereunto he hath been subiect and accustomed of long tyme. Demetrius surnamed the Besieger said That he iudged none more vnhappy than he that neuer tasted of aduersitie as if he would haue sayd that it was a sure argument that fortune iudged him to be so base abiect that he deserued not that she should busie hir selfe about him That man saith Cicero is very happy who thinketh that no humane matters how grieuous soeuer they may be are intollerable or ought to discourage him iudging also nothing so excellent wherby he should be mooued to reioyce in such sort that his hart be puffed and lift vp thereby Yea he is very happy who fitly and conueniently behaueth himself in all things necessary for him Nothing is euil saith Plutarke that is necessarie By which word Necessarie both he and Cicero vnderstand whatsoeuer commeth to a wise man by fatall destinie bicause he beareth it patiently as that which cannot be auoyded thereby increasing his vertue so much the more and so no euill can come to a good man Solon drawing neerer to the truth of sincere happinesse sayd that it consisted in a good life and death and that to iudge them happy that are aliue considering the danger of so many alterations wherein they are were all one as if a man should before hand appoint the reward of the victorie for one that is yet fighting not beyng sure that he should ouercome Socrates speaking rather with a diuine than a humane spirite sayd that when we shall be deliuered from this body wherein our soule is inclosed as an Oyster in his shell we may than be happy but not sooner and that felicitie cannot be obtained in this life but that we must hope to enioy it perfectly in the other life as well for our vertues as by the grace and mercy of God Not the rich said Plato but the wise and prudent auoyd miserie They that thinke sayth Aristotle that externall goods are the cause of happines deceiue themselues no lesse than if they supposed that cunning playing on the harpe came from the instrument and not from Arte but we must seeke for it in the good and quiet estate of the soule For as we say not that a body is perfect bicause it is richly arayed but rather bicause it is well framed and healthfull so a soule well instructed is the cause that both hir selfe and the bodie wherein she is inclosed are happy which cannot be verified of a man bicause he is rich in gold and siluer When I consider all the aboue named wise opinions of these Ethnikes and Pagans I cannot sufficiently maruell at the ignorance and blockishnes of many in our age touching Good and Ill hap bicause they labor to make these words priuate and to tie them to the successe of their affections in worldly matters which if they fall out according to their desire and liking behold presently they are rauished with extreme ioy boasting of thēselues that they are most happy But contrarywise if they misse of their intents by and by they dispaire and thinke themselues the vnhappiest men in the world Do we not also see that most men iudge them happy that possesse riches pleasure delight glory and honour and those men miserable that want especially if after they had aboundance they loose it by some mishap the cause wherof they commonly attribute either to good or ill lucke which they say ruleth all humaine affaires We read that Apollonius Thianaeus hauing trauelled ouer al Asia Afrike and Europe sayd that of two things whereat he maruelled most in all the world the first was that he alwayes sawe the proud man commaund the humble the quarellous the quiet the tyrant the iust the cruel the pitifull the coward the hardie the ignorant the skilfull and the greatest thieues hang the innocent But in the meane while who may doubt whether of these were the happiest that the good were not rather than the wicked if happines according to the ancients to the truth be perfected in good things then it is certain that whosoeuer enioieth al good things shall be perfectly happy Now nothing can be called good but that which is profitable and contrary to euill so that whatsoeuer may as so one be euill as good ought not to be called good Moreouer it must be the possession of some firme stedfast and permanent Good that maketh a man happy For nothing ought to wax old to perish or decay of those things wherin a happy life consisteth seeing he that feareth to loose them cannot be sayd to liue quietly Therefore neither beautie nor strength and disposition of body neither riches glory honour or pleasure can be truely called Goods seeing oftentymes they are the cause of so many euils waxe old and vanish away many times as soone as a man hath receiued them and lastly worke in vs an vnsatiable desire of them How many men are there to whom all these things haue been the occasion of euill And how can we call that good which being possessed and that in abundance cannot yet keep the owner thereof from being vnhappy and miserable Wherfore we may say that happines cannot be perfected by the possession of humane and mortall things neither vnhappines through the want of them but that the true felicitie which we ought to desire in this world consisteth in the goods of the soule nourished in the hope of that vnspeakable euerlasting happines which is promised and assured vnto it in the second life And so we say that none are vnhappy but they who by reason of their peruersnesse feele in their conscience a doubting of the expectation of eternall promises as also they that giue ouer themselues to vice whose nature is to corrupt destroy and infect with the venom that is alwayes about it all things whereof it taketh hold As for the common miseries of mans life they cannot in any sort make him vnhappy whose naturall disposition maners beyng framed and decked with vertue are able to giue to impart to euery
vnto him For this latter is of a proud and presumptuous nature always enuied and as commonly it is not freely admonished so it giueth eare vnto and receiueth as litle but the other is plaine and simple folowed of compassion and ready to receiue counsell Besides it awaketh a Christian and stirreth him vp to humble himself before the maiestie of God to cal vpon him and to trust wholy to his onely grace and vertue Now if some as I haue sayd are so faint harted that they suffer themselues to be ouerwhelmed vnder the burthen of turmoiles and calamities let vs attribute the cause thereof to ignorance and want of good iudgement which depriueth them of learned sound cogitations and discourses that tend to a constant disposition wherein the happines of this life consisteth As for vs if we desire to approch neere to that perfection which is required by the Sages let vs propound to our selues their examples to folow that we may be temperate and constant in euery estate and condition of life We read of Socrates that one and the same countenance was noted in him all his life time that it was neither sadder nor pleasanter for any thing that happened vnto him He changed it not when he heard the sentence of his death pronounced no not when he dranke the poison folowing therein the contents of his condemnation albeit he was then aboue three-skore yeeres of age Publius Rutilus a Romane being vniustly banished neuer changed his coūtenance or behauiour neither would put on any other gowne than that he vsed to weare although it was the custome of such as were banished to alter the same Neither would he leaue off the marks of a Senator nor request the iudges to absolue him but led the rest of his dayes with the same greatnes grauitie and authoritie that he vsed before not shewing himselfe any thing beaten down with sorow for the strange alteration of his first estate Quintus Metellus surnamed Numidicus bicause he had subdued that countrey of Numidia being driuē into exile through a popular faction and sedition went into Asia where as he beheld certaine players he receiued letters from the Senate whereby he was certified that the Senators people with one common consent had called him backe againe Which good newes he bare with the like modestie that he did his banishment not departing from the Theater before the sportes were ended nor shewing his letters to any of his friends that were round about him before he had assembled them togither in his lodging to deliberate of his returne to Rome The same grauitie and constancie caused Diogenes when he heard one hit him in the teeth with his banishment from Pontus by the Synopians to make this answer And I haue bounded them within the countrey of Pontus We must account the whole scope of the firmament for the bonds of our countrey as long as we liue here Neither ought any man within those limites to esteeme himselfe either banished or a stranger seeing God gouerneth all things by the same elements Therefore Socrates said that he tooke not himselfe to be either an Athenian or a Graecian but a worldling And how shal we thinke that they who sustained so courageously their banishment from their countrey which was so deere vnto them that they preferred the benefite thereof before the safetie of their life their depriuation absence from their families friends and goods would not much more vertuously haue suffred all lesse aduersitie Therefore to end our present discourse let vs learn that nothing belonging to this present life hath neither more euill nor good in it than according to the end which befalleth it that it is our dutie to keep our selues moderate constant and vpright both in prosperitie and in aduersitie which is the propertie of true magnanimitie and greatnes of courage Let vs not lift vp our selues aboue measure for any temporall felicitie nor be too much discouraged bicause we are visited with aduersitie but wisely expect what will be the end of both which a good and vertuous man shal always find to be happy when he changeth his mortall estate for a life that is certain and euerlasting The ende of the eight daies worke THE NINTH DAIES WORKE Of Riches Chap. 33. ASER. YEsterday we bestowed the better part of the day in discoursing of good and ill hap of prosperitie and aduersitie which with a swift pace following each other seeme to change to turne and to ouer-turne incessantly the dealings and desires of men Now forasmuch as we made mention of the ignorant multitude which placeth happines felicitie in the vading goods of the world affirmed to the contrary that this felicitie was very miserable bicause it maketh a man more insolent and arrogant giueth him greater occasion to bewaile than to reioice in his fortune I think we ought to consider more neerely of the nature of such goods as are no goods beginning with Riches whereunto men are slaues more than to any other thing albeit they procure them the greatest euils AMANA Riches saith Epictetus are not in the number of goods For they stirre vs vp to superfluitie and pull vs backe from temperance And therfore it is a very hard matter for a rich man to be temperate or for a temperate man to be rich As a man cannot vse a horse saith Socrates without a bridle so he cannot vse Riches without reason ARAM. It is almost impossible said Diogenes that vertue should dwell in a rich citie or house For riches bring with them pride to him that possesseth them excessiue desire in gathering them couetousnes in keeping them all filthines dissolutenes in the enioying of them But let vs heare ACHITOB who will handle this matter more at large ACHITOB. As children of three or fower yeeres of age haue no other care or thought but how they may play and passe their time with the hauing of dailie foode according to their appetite not considering or taking any care for the meanes which they might haue and which would be necessarie for the nourishing of their old age so it seemeth to me that the men of our time behaue themselues when through a more than childish ignorance they labor without ceasing to gather to increase wealth which will do them seruice but a little while not caring in the meane time for certaine and immortall goods which wil nourish them for euer And yet the soule created according to the image of God cannot better preserue and shew foorth hir diuine nature in this mortal bodie than by contemning all earthlie humane and vading things But to the end we be not of the number of those that fill themselues with such passions to purchase their owne destruction let vs consider by the testimonies of the ancient Sages of the nature and qualitie of riches and of the visible effects which they dailie bring foorth in those that serue possesse
it is a greater point of Magnanimitie to surmount the common nature of men by a woonderfull diuinitie of the soule than to follow after that which beasts are able to do better than we For many of them in this earthly generositie whereof many men make so great account excell surpasse the best of them all In all debates controuersies with our enimies let vs retaine as Cicero counsaileth vs grauitie constancie and chase awaye all choler bicause nothing that is done through perturbation can be done constantly or be approoued of any Let vs not be afraid said Antisthenes to wish all the good in the world to our enimies except valure which may make them rash to venture vpon our life and let vs giue ouer all will to procure them any hurt or displeasure or any maner of reuenge Let vs rather desire not to be spared of them in those things which are blame-woorthie in vs that so we may be more readie to amend and correct them Let vs loue our enimies blesse them that curse vs do good to them that hate and persecute vs ouercomming euill with good and leauing all vengeance to him that hath reserued it to himselfe who by his power directeth the nets swords hatchets instruments and scourges of his wrath all which are our enimies for the amendment of our life and then shall we shew foorth those true effects of the vertue of Fortitude Magnanimitie which our heauenly Father requireth of vs. The ende of the ninth daies worke THE TENTH DAIES WORKE Of Iustice. Chap. 37. ASER. TRue Philosophie saith Socrates is to know and to practise both priuately and publikely those things that are honest iust This is that Prudence which teacheth vs well and nobly to gouerne both domestical and ciuill affaires the name whereof is Temperance and Iustice. By which speech this wise Philosopher taught vs the straight and vnseparable coniunction and knot of the foure Morall vertues being neuerthelesse distinguished by their proper and particular effects Which hauing hitherto offred vs matter wherein to reioice our spirites about the three first riuers flowing out of the fountaine of Honestic there remaineth now for vs to consider of the last of them which although it be but one particular yet in truth it is the very perfection of all dutie and is called Iustice the precepts whereof if we keepe diligently we shall truly become images of God his essence be made according to his likenesse Let vs then begin my companions to intreat of this great and heauenly vertue AMANA Iustice saith Cicero is the mistresse of all the other vertues and as it were their Queene She is the ground-worke of euerlasting glory and renowme and without hir nothing can be praise-woorthie She putteth a difference between the good and the bad which being taken away saith Seneca nothing foloweth but confusion For to reward the wicked and not the good to afflict the vertuous and not to chastice the euill man is to make a gallimaufrey of vice and vertue ARAM. What is Iustice but godlinesse saith Lactantius and what is godlinesse but the knowledge of God our Father Notwithstanding in respect of vs Iustice is commonly taken for an equall distribution of right and of lawes But of thee ACHITOB we shall presently vnderstand the greatnesse and riches of this precious vertue and the vnspeakeable fruites which she distributeth liberally for the profit of all men ACHITOB. No kingdome common-wealth or citie saith Plato can be either well ruled or instituted in the beginning or preserued and kept in a happie estate without diuine or humane Iustice without the counsaile of the aged or without the fauor of the heauenly wisdome Now that is diuine iustice as Lactantius saith whereby we are ioyned to God by deuotion and good will and humane Iustice knitteth vs vnto men by mercie and humanitie Whereby we see that the foundation of all Iustice is grounded vpon that honor seruice which we owe to God whereupon we are induced to be dutifull to our neighbors according to charitie Therfore we must aboue all things loue Iustice and apply all our studie thereunto seeing it is the first and principal point that concerneth the direction of a Christian mans life yea mo are partakers of the fruit thereof than of any other vertue Iustice saith Seneca is the law of God and the bond of humane societie For auoiding therfore of confusion in this matter we say with Plato that Iustice obserued and kept towards God taketh vnto it the name of pietie But we will enter into the handling of that Iustice onely which hath respect to our dealings with men being by the same Plato called an equall distribution towards all the world according to the deserts of euery one and a sure foundation of cities and common-wealths He saith also that Iustice requireth vpright dealing throughout a mans calling and charge and that nothing is more like to the greatnes of God than a man perfectly iust Aristotle calleth Iustice a generall vertue bicause he that hath hir perfectly may boast that he hath within him all the other vertues For he could not know what were iust and vniust nor make choice of the one and flie from the other if he were not prudent to which vertue that thing doth properly belong Neither could he exercise the precepts of Iustice if by temperance he knew not how to moderate all his passions and priuate affections not suffering himselfe to be ouercome either with wine gluttonie lust couetousnes or with any other desires and motions which hinder the vse of reason Besides he could not practise one principall diuine point of iustice which is to succour with all his might the afflicted and oppressed and to prouide that no man be wronged if it lie in his power notwithstanding any danger whereinto he may fall although it be certaine losse of life and of all earthlie and transitorie goods I say he could not practise this if through Fortitude and Generositie he contemne not death the earth and whatsoeuer sauoreth of the world that he may be so farre foorth as his humane nature will suffer a follower of the diuinitie Iustice saith Cicero is a constant and perpetuall will and desire to giue to euery one his right She is the proper vertue of a noble minded man bicause she is profitable to others but to hir selfe fruitles laborious and perilous Yea that man onely may be called iust that profiteth as many as he can but hurteth none that is alwaies at agreement within himselfe and is a friend to God to men and to himselfe Iustice saith Diogenes worketh great tranquillitie and perfect felicitie in our soules For to be afraid of none and not to blush at the sight of any mans person bringeth with it great contentation and is as it were the perfection of life which is proper onely to a iust soule Iustice saith Hesiodus is a
the meane time we will heere note that the deniall of Iustice hath procured to many their death or vndoing Phillip the first king of Macedonia was slaine by Pausanias a meane Gentle-man bicause he would not let him haue Iustice against Antipater who had offered him wrong Demetrius the besieger hauing receiued many requests and supplications of his subiects threw them all into the water as he went ouer the bridge of a riuer whereupon his subiects conceiued such hatred against him that within a while after his army forsooke him and yeelded themselues to Pyrrhus his enimie who draue him out of his kingdome without battell In our time Henrie king of Sweathland striking with a dagger a Gentle-man that asked Iustice of him stirred vp the Nobilitie and people in such sort against him that putting him into prison where he is at this present they elected his yoonger brother to be their king who nowe raigneth But for a more woonderfull matter we might heere rehearse how God to shew vnto vs his detestation of Iniustice hath sometimes suffered his iudgement to fal out in that very howre and time which such as were vniustly condemned did assigne to their vniust Iudges In the liues of the kings of Castile we finde that Ferdinando the fourth of that name putting two knights to death more through anger than iustly one of them cried aloud in this sort O vniust king we cite thee to appeere within thirtie daies before the tribunall seate of Iesus Christ to receiue iudgement for thy Iniustice seing there is no other Iudge in earth to whome we can appeale from thy vniust sentence Vpon the last of which daies he died likewise True it is some man may say that death is so naturall and the hower thereof so vncertaine although determined that no other cause thereof ought to be supposed but onely necessitie But yet when it followeth so neerely some notable wickednes committed and some disquietnes and torment of mind is mingled therewith in the soule as it commonly falleth out we may take such a death for a testimonie and beginning of the Iustice of God who will not suffer the vniust man to rule any longer but exerciseth his iudgements diuersly in due time and season vpon those that are not to giue an account of their doings to men like themselues And as for such as are of meaner estate and lower in degree God suffreth also many times their punishment to be notorious and that sometime by such as are not much better than themselues Heereupon Apollonius that great Philosopher said that in his peregrination ouer three parts of the world he maruelled most at two thinges whereof the first was that he alwaies sawe the greater theeues hang the lesse and oftentimes the innocent And thus it fell out in the time of king Phillip the long wherein a Prouost of Paris named Henrie Lapperell caused a poore man that was prisoner in the Chastelet to be executed by giuing him the name of a rich man who being guiltie and condemned was set at libertie by him But his reward followed him hard at the heeles being for the same accused conuicted hanged and strangled Not long after a President of the Parliament named Hugues of Crecy met with the same fortune for a certaine corrupt iudgement giuen by him Therefore let euery one of vs learne to flie from this pernitious vice of Iniustice namely from euery action repugnant to the dutie of christian charitie and destroying the bond of humane societie through the vtter spoiling of the riuers that flow from the fountaine of honestie And let vs be afraid through such impietie to fal into the indignation and wrath of the Almightie to whome onely as to the author of Iustice and to whome all time is as nothing it belongeth to define and to determine thereof when after what sort and how farre it standeth with reason all which things are vnknowne to vs. If he deferre sometime the punishment of Iniustice let vs know that it is for their greater and more greeuous condemnation who multiplie and heape vp daily vpon their heads iniquitie vpō iniquitie And for an example which great men ought to follow and not suffer Iniustice to be practised according to euery mans fancie or vnder any other pretence whatsoeuer we wil propound vnto them the fact of a Pagan king who shall rise vp in iudgement against them if they do otherwise The Prince I meane is Artaxerxes surnamed Longhand and king of the Persians who being requested by a Chamberlaine of his whome he greatly fauoured to do some vniust thing hauing by his diligence found out that he vndertooke this suit for another who had promised him thirty thousand Crownes called of them Dariques he commanded his Treasurer to bring the like summe vnto him and then said vnto his Chamberlaine Take this mony which I giue thee For in giuing it vnto thee I shall be neuer the poorer whereas if I had done that which thou requiredst of me I should haue beene more vniust Alexander Seuerus the Emperour handeled after another fashion yea more iustly a seruant of his who vsed like a horse-leech of the court to sucke their bloud that had to deale with his master by thrusting himselfe forward and profering his means to fulfill their request for a good reward by reason of the fauour which he bare him which turned to the great dishonor of his imperiall maiestie bicause a Prince ought not to make greater account of any thing than of the grace and fauor of his gifts and benefites This monarch caused him to be tied to a post and choked with smoke making this proclamation by sound of trumpet That they which sell smoke should so perish with smoke Now to enter into the last point of that matter which is here propounded vnto vs we must diligently note that as it is the dutie of all Magistrates and of such as haue authoritie ouer others to chastice to punish euery malefactor so likewise they must beware lest vnder pretēce of exercising Iustice they fall into another kind of Iniustice through ouer-much rigor which is as hurtfull or rather more than that vice whereof we discoursed euen now namely into Seueritie which causeth them to be misliked for crueltie and belongeth rather to a beastly and sauage nature than to the nature of man For clemencie and compassiō neuer ought to be separated from a good iust sentence which is to hold smal faults excused or but lightly to punish thē prouided alwayes that Iustice be not violated Clemencie saith the wise man is the true preseruation of the roial throne And therefore one of the ancients said that it was ill to be subiect to a prince vnder whom nothing was tolerated but worse when all things were left at randon We may alleage here for an example of ouer-great seueritie the fact of Manlius Torquatus a Consull of Rome who caused his
consequently the bond and preseruatiue of humane societie But if we being well instructed by the spirite of wisedome feede the hungrie giue drinke to the thirsty lodge them that want harbour and clothe the naked sowing in this manner by the works of pietie that talent which is committed to our keeping we shall reape abundantly in heauen the permanent riches treasures of eternall life Of Couetousnes and of Prodigalitie Chap. 42. ACHITOB IF that diuiue rule of Cicero were aswell written in our hart as he desired to haue it setled in his sonne that onely that thing is to be iudged profitable which is not wicked and that nothing of that nature should seeme profitable we should not behold amongst vs so many cursed acts as are daily committed through the vnbrideled desire of the goods of this world For that which most of all troubleth men is when they thinke that the sin which they purpose to practise is but small in respect of the gaine thereby craftily separating profite from honestie and so suffering themselues to be ouercome of couetousnes which is the defect of liberalitie whereof we discoursed euen now whose excesse also is Prodigalitie of which two vices we are now to intreat ASER. Every one that coueteth treasures said Anacharsis one of the wise men of Graecia is hardly capable of good coūsell and instruction For the couetous man commonly murmureth at that which God permitteth and nature doth so that he will sooner take vpon him to correct God than to amend his life AMANA It is a hard matter said Socrates for a man to bridle his desire but he that addeth riches therunto is mad For couetousnes neither for shame of the world nor feare of death will not represse or moderate it self But it belongeth to thee ARAM to instruct vs in that which is here propounded ARAM. Since the greedie desire of heaping vp gold and siluer entred in amongst men with the possession of riches couetousnesse folowed and with the vse of them pleasures and delights whereupon they began to saile in a dangerous sea of all vices which hath so ouerflowen in this age of ours that there are very few towers how high so euer seated but it hath gone vp a great deale aboue them For this cause I see no reason why men should esteeme so much or iudge it such a happy thing to haue much goodly land many great houses and huge summes of readie money seeing all this doth not teach them not to be caried away with passions for riches and seeing the possession of them in that maner procureth not a contentation void of the desire of them but rather inflameth vs to desire them more through an insatiable couetousnes which is such a pouerty of the soul that no worldly goods can remedie the same For it is the nature of this vice to make a man poore all his life time that he may find him self rich only at his death Moreouer it is a desire that hath this thing proper and peculiar to it selfe to resist and to refuse to be satisfied whereas all other desires helpe forward the same and seeke to content those that serue thē Couetousnesse saith Aristotle is a vice of the soule whereby a man desireth to haue from all partes without reason and vniustly with-holdeth that which belongeth to another It is sparing and skantie in giuing but excessiue in receiuing The Poet Lucretius calleth it a blind desire of goods And it mightily hindereth the light of the soule causing the couetous man to be neuer contented but the more he hath the more to desire and wish for The medicine which he seeketh namely gold and siluer encreaseth his disease as water doth the dropsie and the obtaining thereof is alwaies vnto him the beginning of the desire of hauing He is a Tantalus in hell who between water and meat dieth of hunger Now it is very sure that to such as are wise and of sound iudgement nature hath limited certaine bounds of wealth which are traced out vpon a certaine Center and vpon the circumference of their necessitie But couetousnesse working cleane contrary effects in the spirit of fooles carieth away the naturall desire of necessarie things to a disordinate appetite of such things as are full of danger rare and hard to be gotten And which is worse compelling the auaritious to procure them with great payne and trauell it forbiddeth him to enioy them and stirring vp his desire depriueth him of the pleasure Stratonicus mocked in olde ryme the superfluitie of the Rhodians saying that they builded as if they were immortall and rushed into the kitchin as if they had but a little while to liue But couetous men scrape togither like great and mightie men and spend like mechanicall and handy-craftesmen They indure labour in procuryng but want the pleasure of enioying They are like Mules that carie great burthens of golde and siluer on their backes and yet eate but hay They enioy neyther rest nor libertie which are most precious and most desired of a wise man but liue alwayes in disquietnesse being seruauntes and slaues to their richesse Their greatest miserie is that to encrease and keepe their wealth they care neither for equitie or iustice they contemne all lawes both diuine and humane and all threatnings and punishmentes annexed vnto them they liue without friendship and charitie and lay holde of nothyng but gayne When they are placed in authoritie and power aboue others they condemne the innocent iustifie the guiltie and finde alwayes some cleanly cloke and colour of taking and of excusing as they thinke their corruption and briberie making no difference betweene duetie and profite Wherfore we may well say in a word That couetousnes is the roote of all euill For what mischiefs are not procured through this vice From whence proceed quarels strifes suites hatred and enuie theftes pollings sackings warres murders and poisonings but from hence God is forgotten our neighbour hated and many times the sonne forgiueth not his father neither the brother his brother nor the subiect his Lord for the desire of gaine In a worde there is no kind of crueltie that couetousnesse putteth not in practise It causeth hired and wilfull murders O execrable impietie to be well thought of amongst vs. It causeth men to breake their faith giuen to violate all friendship to betray their countrey It causeth subiectes to rebell against their princes gouernours and magistrates when not able to beare their insatiable desires nor their exactions and intollerable subsidies they breake foorth into publike and open sedition which troubleth common tranquillitie whereupon the bodie politike is changed or for the most part vtterly ouerthrowen Moreouer the excesse of the vertue of liberalitie which is prodigalitie may be ioyned to couetousnesse and than there is no kind of vice but raigneth with all licence in that soule that hath these two guestes lodged togither And bicause it is a thing that
the Cannibals who yet spare domesticall blood But God the iust Iudge would not that such an execrable wickednes should be long concealed vnpunished For when it could not be found out by any inquirie of man one of the murderers touched with the hand of God and taken with an extreame sickenes being as it were mad and as Cain was in times past disclosed his sinne of himselfe the hainousnes whereof so troubled him that he said he could hope for no mercie Afterward recouering his health he was taken vpon his owne confession and being conuicted of the fact accused all the authors thereof of whome some are executed and the rest expect no better euent That couetousnes causeth subiects to rebell against their couetous Princes and that oftentimes to their ouerthrowe we haue an example in Mauritius the Emperour who was depriued of the Empire and had his head cut off besides the death of his fiue children of his wife by reason of the ill will of his people and men of warre which he had purchased who could beare no longer his couetousnes whereby he was mooued to winke at spoiles and murders and to keepe backe the pay of his souldiors In the time of S. Lewes the king the people of fiue cities fiue villages of high Almaigne which at this day we call Switserland raised such a great tumult sedition that they put to the edge of the sword all their Princes Lords and Noble-men the chiefe cause therof was their couetousnes which made them oppresse their subiects with vniust exactions The niggardlye sparing of king Lewes the eleuenth mooued strangers greatly to contemne him and was in part the cause of the rebellion of his subiects For hauing put away in a maner all the Gentlemen of his houshold he vsed his Tailor alwaies for his Herald of Armes his Barber for Embassador and his Phisition for his Chancellour and in derision of other kings he ware a greasie hat of the coursest wooll We find in the chamber of accounts a bill of his expences wherein is set downe 20. souse for two newe sleeues to his olde dublet and an other clause of 15. deniers for grease to grease his bootes And yet he increased the charges of his people three millions more than his predecessour had done and alienated a great part of his Demaine Sparing may well be vsed which at this daye is more necessarye than euer and yet the maiestie of a king nothing diminished neither the dignitie of his house and without the abasing of his greatnes Likewise those men who after they haue hoorded much treasure are so besotted and blinded with a couetous loue of their wealth that they will not vpon any necessitie imploy it can no more auoid their destruction than the other before mentioned This doth the historie of Calipha king of Persia teach vs who hauing filled a Tower with gold siluer iewels and pretious stones and being in warre against Allan king of the Tartarians was so ill succoured of his owne people bicause he would not giue them their pay that he was taken in his towne and by Allan committed prisoner in the said Tower with these words If thou hadst not kept this treasure so couetously but distributed it amongst thy souldiors thou mightest haue preserued thy selfe and thy citie Now therefore enioy it at thy ease and eate and drinke thereof seeing thou hast loued it so much And so he suffered him to die there of hunger in the midst of his riches The punishment which Dionysius the elder king of Syracusa laied vpon a rich couetous subiect of his was more gentle but woorthie to be well noted being full of instruction For being aduertised that he had hid great store of treasure in the ground he commanded him vpon paine of life to bring it vnto him which he did although not all of it but retained part which he tooke with him went to dwell in another citie where he bestowed his monie vpon inheritance When Dionysius vnderstood thereof he sent for him and restored all his gold and siluer saying vnto him forasmuch as thou knowest now how to vse riches not making that vnprofitable which was appointed for the vse of man take that which before thou wast vnwoorthie to enioy And to speake the truth there is no reason wherewith the couetousnes of such men may be coloured For if they say that they spend not bicause they care not for spending it is a point of great follie in them to labour to gather more wealth than they want But if they desire to spend and yet dare not for niggardlines do so nor enioy the fruite of their labour they are a great deale more miserable Whereby it appeereth vnto vs what a goodly and commendable thing it is to be content and satisfied with a little which freeth vs from the desire of vnnecessarie things Now if we are to take those things for superfluous which we will not vse we ought for the reasons already set down to make no lesse accoūt of those which we would abuse in riot and superfluitie The couetousnes of Darius king of the Persians was beguiled and laughed to scorne through the subtile inuention of Nitocris Queene of Babylon some attribute it to Semiramis who being desirous to welcome hir successors that were touched with auarice which she abhorred aboue al things caused a high sepulcher to be erected ouer those gates of the citie through which there was most passage with these words ingrauen therein If any king of Babylon that shal come after me find want in his treasurie let him open this tombe and take as much as he will Otherwise let him not open it for it will not be best for him After many ages were past and none of the kings of Babylon had touched the said sepulcher Darius conquering the kingdom caused the coffin to be opened thinking to find there that which was promised Neuerthelesse he found nothing there but a dead body with this writing If thou wert not insatiable and very couetous thou wouldest not haue opened the tombe of the dead Moreouer that couetousnes oftentimes blindeth men so farre as that it causeth them to take away their owne life without feare of condemning their soules many examples thereof are left in memorie of whom some through griefe for some great losse of goods others to leaue their children rich haue voluntarily procured their own death Cassius Licinius was of this number who being accused attainted conuicted of many thefts and briberies and beholding Cicero President at that time about to put on the purple gowne to pronounce sentence of confiscation of goods and of banishment he sent word to Cicero that he was dead during the processe and before condemnation and presently in the field he smothered himself with a napkin hauing no other meaning therein but to saue his goods for his children For then the lawes concerning the punishment of such as had
aliue as after their death by refusing to ouer-liue them Queene Hipsicrates the wife of king Mithridates cōmeth first to mind who bare such loue towards hir husband that polling hir selfe for his sake although she was yong and very faire she acquainted hir selfe with the wearing of armour and rode with him to the war And when he was ouercome by Pompey she accompanied him in his flight through all Asia whereby she mollified the griefe and sorow which he receiued by his losse Triara wife to Lucius Vitellus brother to the emperour Vitellus seeyng hir husband in a daungerous battell thrust hir selfe amongst the souldiours to beare him company and to helpe him both in death and life and fought as well as the valiauntest amongst them When king Admetus his wife sawe hir husband very sicke and heard the answere of the oracle which was That he could not recouer except one of his best friendes died for him she slew hir selfe When the wife of Ferdinando Gonçales a prince of Italy knewe that hir husband was prisoner and in daunger of death she went to visite him and putting on his apparell abode in his place whilest he beyng clothed in hir garmentes saued him-selfe Zenobia Queene of Armenia seeing hir husband Radamisus flie from a battell and not beyng able to follow him bicause she was great with childe besought him to kill hir Which when he thought to haue done she was striken downe with the blowe of a sworde but being taken of the enimie and throughly healed Tyridates the king who had vanquished hir husband maried hir afterward for the great loue that was in hir The princesse Panthea loued hir husband Abradatus so well that when he died in Cyrus campe she slue hir selfe vpon his bodie Artemisia Queene of Caria for the great loue she bare to hir husband that was dead dranke all the ashes of his bodie meanyng thereby to be his sepulchre When Iulia the wife of Pompey sawe a gowne of hir husbande 's all bloodie wherewith he had offered some sacrifice she imagined that he was slayne and so died presently after When Porcia the wife of Brutus heard of hir husbandes death and perceiued that hir kinsfolkes tooke away all meanes of killing hir self she drew hote burning coles out of the fire and threw them into hir mouth which she closed so fast that shee was choked thereby Sulpitia beyng carefully restrained by hir mother Iulia from seeking hir husband Lentulus in Sicilia whither hee was banished shee went thither beyng apparelled like a slaue banishing hir selfe voluntarily rather than she would forsake hir husband Octauia sister to Augustus and wife to Antonius notwithstanding the iniurie that hir husband offered vnto hir in preferring before hir a Queene that was nothing so yong or faire as she bare such great loue towards him that setting aside al intreatie of hir brother she would neuer leaue hir husbands house but stil brought vp his children by his first mariage as carefully as if they had been hir owne Moreouer she sought by all means to reconcile those two emperors saying that it was an vnworthy thing that two so mightie princes the one for the euil intreatie of his sister the other bicause he was bewitched by a wicked woman should warre one against another As this vertuous princes had taken hir iourney as far as Athens where she ment to take shipping to seeke out hir husband being then in war with the Parthians bringing with hir souldiers mony furniture other munitions he sent hir word that she should passe no farther but stay for him at Rome This she performed and sent him all the aboue named things not seeming at all to be offended with him Wheras he in the mean while skorned hir sporting himself with Cleopatra in the sight and knowledge of all men and afterward delt worse with hir when the warre was begunne between him and Augustus For he sent a commandement to Octauia at Rome to go out of his house which she presently obeied albeit she would not therefore forsake any of hir husbands children but wept and bewailed hir mishap which had brought hir to be a principal cause of that ciuill warre Aria the wife of Cecinna followed in a little boate vnto Rome hir husband who was taken prisoner bicause he had borne armes against the emperour Claudius Being there condemned to die she would haue borne him companie but that hir sonne in lawe and hir daughter stayed hir When she sawe that she strake hir head so hard agaynst the wall that she fell downe amazed and beyng come to hir selfe agayne sayde vnto them You see that you can not hinder me from dying cruelly if ye stay mee from a more gentle death They being astonished at the fact and at hir words suffered hir to do what she would who then ran to the place where hir husband was and slewe hir selfe first after she had spoken thus courageously vnto him I am not Cecinna sorie for that which is done but bicause the race of thy life must end When Seneca was condemned to die by Nero and had libertie to chuse what kind of death he would he caused his veines to be opened in a bath His wife Paulina of hir owne accord did the like to hir self in the same bath mingling togither their blood for a greater vnion and coronation of their long and perfect loue Whereof Nero being aduertised presently commanded that hir veines should be stopt constraining hir thereby to liue a little longer in continuall griefe Hipparchia a very faire rich woman was so farre in loue with the Philosopher Crates who was hard-fauoured and poore that she maried him against all hir kinsfolks minde and followed him throughout all the countrie being poorely apparelled barefoote after the Cynick fashion Pisca seeing hir husband pine away daily through a great and strange discase which he had concealed from hir of long time hauing at the length knowledge thereof and perceiuing it to be incurable she was mooued with pitie for the euill which he suffered whom she loued better than hir selfe and therevpon counselled him with great courage to asswage his griefe by death and the better to stirre him vp thereunto she offered to beare him companie Whereunto hir husband agreeing they imbraced each other and cast themselues headlong into the sea from the top of a rocke The king of Persia taking prisoner the wife of Pandoërus whom he had vanquished and slaine would haue maried hir But she slew hir selfe after she had vttered these words God forbid that to be a Queene I should euer wed him that hath beene the murderer of my deere husband Pandoërus Camma a Greekish woman of the countrie of Galatia bare such loue to hir husband euen after his death that to be reuenged of a great Lorde called Synorix who had put hir husband to death that he might marrie hir she gently
If prudence and reason are most necessary in all parts of house-keeping their effects are well woorth the nothing and to be desired in this part of which we will now intreate For power and authoritie are of themselues too surlie and imperious in him that knoweth not how to represse them wisely yea they are easily turned into intollerable arrogancie if the bridle of reason restraine them not Therfore seeing we liue in a free countrie wherin the ancient absolute power of life death ouer slaues hath no place they to whome God hath granted this fauour to excell and to goe before others whether it be in gifts of nature or in graces of the soule or otherwise in the goods of Fortune they I say must in no wise contemn those that seeme to haue beene forgotten and stripped of all these good things Besides a father of a familie must consider that he ruleth not slaues but free persons Therfore he must vse their seruice although not franckly for nothing yet as that which commeth from a willing and free mind not dealing roughly with them vpon euery occasion but rather handling them gently as the creatures of God made after his image seeing the poorest man is created for the selfe same principall ende that the mightiest and richest is Aristotle granteth this that although a Maister is not bound in anie respect to his Vassaile so farre foorth as he is a Vassaile yet bicause slaues are men he is of opinion that all lawes of humanitie ought to be kept with them What then ought we to doe to such as submit themselues freely vnto vs to whome also we are vnited and linked by christian charitie as to brethren and inheritours of the same goods and promises And yet we see that maisters fall into bitter anger crie out offer outrage vse violence and lay handes of their seruants vpon small or no occasion at all as if they were vnreasonable creatures yea handling them woorse than they doe their brute beastes That this is true we see not one of them but he hath great care that his horses be well fed dailie looked vnto harnessed and decked Besides he taketh great heede that they be not tyred nor ouer-laboured but as for their seruants they neither spare nor comfort them one whit nor haue any respect to their ease and rest For mine owne part I thinke that such maisters deserue rather to be seazed vpon as mad men than admonished as sociable persons I wish therefore that euery maister of a house had these two properties in him namely that with all clemencie and meekenes he would vse the seruice obedience of them that are vnder him by considering of them with reason and by looking rather to the good affection and desert of his seruant than to the great and profitable seruice which he draweth from him The other point is that the maister vsing the sweate and seruice of his should not seeme to be displeased teastie or hard to content but rather alwaies shewe foorth a gentle kinde of fauour and curtesie or at least a seuere familiaritie seasoned with a cheerefull and merrie countenance Whosoeuer shewe themselues to be such men besides the glorie which they shall obtaine by being taken generally for gentle and curteous men their houshold seruants will loue them the more and will reuerence them as their fathers not standing in such awe and feare of them as men commonly doe of intollerable tyrants Moreouer as this assembly of a maister and of seruants tendeth as euery other societie also vnto some good end the maister hauing regard to that which concerneth him and his house and his seruants to the hope of profite and commoditie order must be taken that they which haue with all carefulnes discharged their dutie and yeelded that fidelitie and diligence that is requisite to their superiour be not defrauded of the price reward hire and desert of their trauels For if we thinke it great villanie to rob another man let vs esteeme it nothing lesse to keepe backe the fruite of life and to defraud the labours perils watchings and excessiue cares of our seruants in not recompencing them Therefore concerning this part of a house called the Maisterlie part we will note this that as the Ancients made their slaues free thereby to drawe from them voluntarie and vnconstrained seruice and to deliuer themselues of that feare and distrust which they alwaies had of their slaues accounting that prouerbe true As many enimies as slaues so ought we to bring vp and to nourish our hired and mercenary seruants which serue vs in these daies with a free and liberall kind of loue by dealing gratiously with them by perswading them with reason and by rewarding them liberally and this will induce them to serue honour and esteeme vs as if our weale and woe were wholy common with them The last part of the house remaineth nowe to be intreated of which is the perfection thereof and is called the Parentall part comprehending vnder it the Father and Mother or one of them with the children The head of a familie saith Aristotle commandeth ouer wife and children but ouer both as free persons and yet not after one and the same manner of commanding but ouer the wife according to gouernment vsed in a popular state and ouer the children royally or Prince-like This commandement ouer children is called royall bicause he that begetteth commandeth by loue and by the prerogatiue of age which is a kind of kinglie commanding Therefore Homer calleth Iupiter the father of Men and of the Gods that is king of all For a king must excell by nature and must be of the same kind as it is with the aged in respect of the yoonger sort and with him that begetteth in regard of his child ouer whome he ought to be as carefull as a king is ouer his subiectes Vnto this part of the house a Father of a familie must haue a carefull eye bicause heereuppon chiefly dependeth the honour and quietnes of his house and the discharge of his dutie towardes God and his countrie namely by making his children honest and of good conditions As the desire and pricke of nature sayth Dion driueth vs forward to beget children so is it a testimonie of true loue and charitie to bring them vppe and to intreate them after a free manner and to instruct them well Therefore a Father of a familie shall satisfie his dutie concerning this parte of a house by the good education and instruction of his children and by exercising them in vertue For manners and conditions are qualities imprinted in vs by longe tracte of tyme and vertues are gotten by custome care and diligence Heereafter we are to consider more amply and particularly of the instruction of youth and therefore at this time we will content our selues with the giuing of certaine generall precepts woorthie to be diligently obserued of euery good father of a familie towards
commit the keeping of such a pretious pledge least that befall them which Hyperides an Orator of Grecia said to one who told him that he had sent a slaue with his son to gouerne him you haue quoth he done very wel for in steede of one slaue you shall receiue twaine Therefore it is very necessarie that such maisters should be chosen for them as are learned and of good life conuersation that as good Gardiners sticke downe certain props hard by yong plants to keepe them vpright so wise teachers may plant good instructions precepts about yoong men that their maners may be according to vertue Let fathers beware least being mooued with couetousnes they make choice of maisters vnworthy their charge that they may pay the lesse stipēd seking for good cheape ignorance seeing that as Plato saith as childrē beare away as it were the minds of their progenitors so the vices of the Schole-maisters flow vpon their schollers At this age of youth the children of Rome did hange in the Temple a little coller or iewell which they ware about their necks during the time of their infancie declaring therby that they renounced all childishnes and that they were to chang their maners for the time to come In token wherof one gaue them a white robe and a purple coate to teach them by the white colour to shunne vices which made the soule blacke and by the purple to striue to make their life glister and shine with good manners and vertue And it seemeth that the Latines called this age Iuuentus bicause of the aide and helpe which men promised to themselues through the vertuous inclination that appeered in yoong children We saw before sufficiently what is further required of this age in regard of their instruction Adolescencie is the fourth age of man beginning at the foureteenth yeere and continuing vntil the 28. and it is deriued of this verbe Adolesco which signifieth to growe For then doe men growe in bodie in strength and reason in vice and vertue And at that age the nature of a man is knowne and whereunto he bendeth his minde which before could not be discerned by reason of the ignorance of his age This is that which Cicero saith that the studies vnto which we addict our selues in the time of our adolescencie like to herbes and fruites that are come to their fashion declare what vertue there will be in time of ripenes and what manner of haruest wil follow Therefore yoong men saith this Father of eloquence must make choice of one certaine kind of life whereunto they are to giue themselues all their life time without any manner of contradiction and being constant therein they must draw all their actions to that onely end as an arrow is drawne towards a white But forasmuch as in the corruption of our time we see poore fruits of this age when it is left to it selfe we may well say that in this season of adolescencie children haue greatest neede to be gouerned ruled and kept in great awe For the inclination to pleasures and the eschewing of labour which are naturall in man commonly begin then to assault him with such violence that if yoong men be not well followed they quickly turne to vice hate those that giue them good instruction become presumptuous and ready to leaue that which before they loued and taking no care for the time to come like beasts seeke for nothing but to satisfie their lustfull desires For this cause that good Emperour Marcus Aurelius said to those vnto whome he recommended his son after his death Beware that he bathe not himselfe in slipperie pleasures and desires seeing it is a hard matter to moderate and to stay the burning affections of a yoong man especially when he seeth in his own hand a licence not limited which offereth vnto him all kind of contentation And truly this vnbrideled licence of not being in subiection to any which yoong men desire and seeke after so earnestly and for want of right vnderstanding falsly call and imagine it to be libertie bringeth them in bondage to seuerer and sharper maisters than were those teachers Schoole-maisters which they had in their infancie namely to their lusts and disordred desires which are then as it were vnchained and let loose But he which knoweth that to follow God and to obey right reason are reciprocall and necessarily following ech other must thinke that to leaue his infancie first youth and to enter into the ranke of men is no freedome from subiection but only a chang of commandement bicause our life in lieu of a hired maister who gouerned vs before hath then a heauenly guide that is reason to whome they onely that obey are to be reputed taken for free men For after they haue learned to will that which they ought they liue as they will whereas the freedome of the will in disordred actions and affections is small feeble weake and mingled with much repentance These are those good reasons which ought to sound often in the eares of yoong men and be supplied by little litle through the study of good letters Morall Philosophie of ancient men vntill they haue wholy in possession that place of maners which is soonest mooued and most easily led are lodged therin by knowledge and iudgement which will be as a gard to preserue and defend that age from corruption Vnto which things the Ancients looked very diligently both to represse boldnes which commonly is the companion of adolescencie and also to chastice their faults seuerely We read that one of Cato his sons of the age of 15. yeeres was banished for breaking a pot of earth in a maids hand that went for water so was Cinna his sonne bicause he entred into a garden and gathered fruite without leaue Therefore if a yoong man be well guided with reason he will chuse propound to himselfe that kind of life which he purposeth to keepe vntill death and begin some commendable life that is had in recommendation among vertuous men The ancient Romanes minding to make declaration heereof when their children were come to that age they brought them to the common market place clothed with a mans gowne and caused them to scatter nuts heere and there after that to forsake all play signifieng therby that they must leaue the follies of their first age to imbrace more graue and serious matters It belongeth to their duty saith Cicero to honor their Elders to marke who are the honestest men of best report that by their coūsel they may learn to liue according to vertue good maners haue honor alwaies before their eies And as in calme weather whē a man is vpon the sea he must prouide such things as are necessary against a storme so in time of adolescencie men must furnish themselues with temperance sobriety continency laying vp store of
haue not onelye infinite testimonies in the Scripture that the estate of Magistrates is acceptable before God but which is more it is adorned with honourable titles that the dignitie therof might be singularly recommended vnto vs. When we see that all men placed in authoritie are called Gods we must not esteeme this title to be of smal importance seeing it appeereth therby that they are authorized by him and represent his maiestie in the ruling gouerning of vs. If the Scripture as that heauenly word saith called them Gods vnto whom the word of God was giuen what is that else but that they haue charge cōmission from God to serue him in their office as Moses Iosaphat said to their Iudges whom they appointed ouer euery citie of Iudah to exercise iustice not in the name of men but in the name of God By me saith the wisedome of God kings raigne and princes decree iustice By me princes rule and the nobles and all the iudges of the earth Moreouer we see that many holye men haue obtained kingdomes as Dauid Iosias Ezechias some gouernments and great estates vnder kings as Ioseph and Daniel others the guiding of a free people as Moses Iosua and the Iudges whose calling and estate was acceptable to God as he hath declared by his spirite Wherefore no man ought to doubt of this that ciuill superioritie is not onely a holie and lawfull calling before God but also the holiest and most honourable of all other whereunto all the people is subiect aswell by the establishment of the right of the estate as by the holie and heauenly ordinance of God And if the Magistrate be perswaded as it is certaine that many Estates haue had that foundation that the cause of his first institution and voluntarie subiection whereunto the people submitted themselues for their cōmon benefit was that excellencie of vertue which appeered in some aboue the rest ought he not to thinke himselfe vnwoorthy of so honourable a title if he want the cause of the beginning thereof But further if the Magistrate know that he is appointed the minister of Gods iustice vnto what great integritie prudence clemencie moderation and innocencie ought he to conforme frame himselfe With what confidence dare he suffer any iniquitie to haue entrance into his seate which he vnderstandeth to be the throne of the liuing God With what boldnes will he pronounce any vniust sentence out of his mouth which he knoweth is appointed to be an instrument of the truth of God With what conscience will he subscribe to or seale any euill statute with his hand which he knoweth is ordained to write the decrees of God To be short if the Magistrate call to mind that as God hath placed the Sunne and Moone in the heauens as a token of his diuinitie so is he also appointed in earth for the like representation and light will he not thinke that he is to imploy and bestow all his care and studie that he may represent vnto men in all his dooings as it were an image of the prouidence defence goodnes clemencie and iustice of God It is certaine that the Magistrate is the same thing in the Common-wealth which the hart is in the body of a liuing creature If the hart be sound and pure it giueth life vnto the whole body bicause it is the fountaine of the bloud and of the spirits but being corrupted it bringeth death and destruction to all the members So fareth it with the Magistrate who is the soule of the people their glasse and the white whereat all his subiects aime If he liue vnder right reason truth and Iustice which are the proper wil of God onely he is not vnlike to a line or rule which being first right it selfe afterward correcteth all other crooked things that are applied vnto it For nothing is more natural than that subiects should conforme them selues to the manners deedes and words of their prince The wise Hebrew Plato Cicero and Titus Liuius haue left this Maxime vnto posteritie as an infallible rule of Estate And Theodoricus king of the Gothes writing to the Senat of Rome goeth yet further vsing these words as Cassiodorus rehearseth them That the course of nature would sooner faile than the people would leaue off to be like their Princes But further as the hart in the bodies of liuing creatures is last corrupted insomuch that the last relicks of life seeme to abide therein so it is meete that if any disease corrupt the people the soueraigne Magistrate should continue pure and sound vnto the end from all that pollution If there be any euill in the soule it proceedeth from the wickednes of the body being subiect to peruerse affections and looke what good thing soeuer is in the body it sloweth from the soule as from the fountaine thereof Now as it would be against nature if the euils of the body should come from the soule the good gifts of the body should be corrupted by the vices of the spirite so would it be very absurd that corrupt manners euill lawes vice and vngodlines should proceede from the Magistrate vnto the people seeing as Plato saith he holdeth the same place in the Common-wealth that reason doth in the soule which guideth the other parts by wisedome And forasmuch as the whole Common-wealth representeth but one certaine bodye compounded of diuers members whereof the Magistrate is the Head and most excellent of all he must also vse such equitie that he profit euery one of them and beware that he be not contagious to the whole publike body through his euil example The people saith Seneca giue more credite to their eies than to their eares that is to say they beleeue that which they see sooner than that which they heare And to instruct the people by precepts is a long and difficult way but to teach them by examples is very short and of greater efficacie Therefore the Magistrate must be more carefull of that which he doth than of that which he speaketh And that which he prescribeth his subiects for a rule as it were by law must be confirmed of him by works and deedes For as he is chiefly bound to follow the lawes of God and nature so he must make all those lawes and statuts which he establisheth in his estate according to that paterne And therfore one of the Ancients said very wel that the prince togither with his subiects had one and the same God to serue one law to keepe and one death to feare We will then briefly comprehend the dutie of the Magistrate in these three things in ruling in teaching and in iudging his people which duties are so neerely knit and ioined togither that the one cannot be well exercised without the other and he that faithfully dischargeth one fulfilleth them all For this cause Plato saith that the arte and science of the King of the
passe to the detriment of the realm notwithstanding any letters of commandement whatsoeuer Among other things the king may not alienate his crowne reuenues without some cause knowen to the sayd officers of accounts and to the parliaments And which is more publike treaties with neighbour states edicts and decrees haue no authoritie before they are published in the high courts By which moderation his power is not lessened but made surer more durable and lesse burthensome to his subiects being wholy separated from tiranny which is hated of God and men as we may haue further knowledge by discoursing thereof particularly So that ouer and besides those fiue kindes of monarchies mentioned of vs tiranny may be put for the sixt which we may call that wherein the monarch treading vnder foote the lawes of nature abuseth the libertie of free subiects as if they were slaues and other mens goods as his owne Among the auncients the name of tyrant was honourable and signified nothing else being a Greeke worde but a prince that had gotten the gouernment of the estate with out the consent of his subiects and of a companion had made himselfe a master whether he were a wise and iust prince or cruel and vniust And in deed most of them became wicked to make sure their estate life goods knowing that they were fallen into many mens hatred bicause they had inuaded the soueraigntie In this respect therfore was this dominion rule called tyrannical bicause it gouerned in lord-like maner without right ouer free men compelled and forced to obey But generally we may call that a tirannie when the prince accounteth all his will as a iust law and hath no care either of pietie iustice or faith but doth all things for his owne priuate profite reuenge or pleasure And as a good king conformeth himselfe to the lawes of God and nature so a tyrant treadeth them vnder foote the one striueth to enriche his subiects the other to destroy them the one taketh reuenge of publike iniuries and pardoneth his owne the other cruelly reuengeth iniuries done to himselfe and forgiueth those that are offered to others the one spareth the honour of chaste women the other triumpheth in their shame the one taketh pleasure to be freely admonished and wisely reprooued when he hath done amisse the other misliketh nothing so much as a graue free and vertuous man the one maketh great account of the loue of his people the other of their feare the one is neuer in feare but for his subiects the other standeth in awe of none more than of them the one burtheneth his as little as may be and then vpon publike necessitie the other suppeth vp their bloud gnaweth their bones and sucketh the marrow of his subiectes to satisfie his desires the one giueth estates and offices to meete with briberie and oppression of the people the other selleth them as deare as may bee and careth not for the oppression of his subiectes the one in time of warre hath no recourse but to his subiects the other warreth against none but them the one hath no garde or garrison but of his owne people the other none but of straungers the one reioyceth in assured rest the other languisheth in perpetuall feare the one is honoured in his life tyme and longed for after his death the other is defamed in his lyfe and rent in pieces after his death Examples hereof are in euery mans sight And therefore Diogenes the Sinopian meeting one day in the citie of Corinth with Dionysius the younger tyraunt of Syracusa who was then brought into the estate of a priuate man banished from his countrey and fallen from his dignitie spake thus vnto him Truely Dionysius thou art nowe in an estate vnwoorthie of thee The tyraunt standing still withall made him this answere I like thee well Diogenes bicause thou hast compassion of my miserable fortune What replied the Philosopher doest thou thinke that I pitie thee I am rather grieued to see such a slaue as thou who deseruest to growe olde and to die in that cursed estate of a tyraunt as thy father did to take thy pleasure in suche safetie and to passe away thy tyme freely amongst vs without feare And to say truth tirannie is suche a miserable condition that euen they that practise it and glorie therein are constrained manie tymes to confesse with their owne mouth that no kinde of life is so wretched as theirs This selfe tyrant Dionysius when hee was in the greatest glorye of his estate declared as much to Democles one of his familiar friendes who had sayd that he was most happie Wilt thou quoth Dionysius to him enjoy my felicitie but for one day onely Whereunto when Democles agreed hee caused him to be serued at the table as himselfe was woont to be with all the magnificence that could be deuised hanging in the meane while a sworde right ouer his head which was tied to the roofe aloft onely by one haire of a horse taile When Democles perceiued that he was well contented to make a short dinner and to passe away the rest of the day in his former estate Loe quoth the tyraunt then vnto him how happie our life is which with all our armed garde hangeth but by a little threed Moreouer the raigne of tyraunts beyng without measure and reason and guided onely by violence cannot be of any long continuaunce This is that which Thales the wise man sayde that there was nothing so straunge or rare as an olde tyrant And albeit they liue miserablie in perpetuall distrust of euery one yea of their neerest kindred yet their ende is more wretched For there were fewe of them that died not a cruell and extraordinarie death most of them being slayne and murdered and others persecuted with straunge griefes died like mad and desperate men through the remembraunce of their corrupt life and of the cruelties which they had committed In auncient time tyrannie was so detestable that euen scholers and women sought to winne the reward of honour by killing tyraunts as Aristotle the Logitian did who slew a tyraunt of Sycionia and as Thebe who killed hir husband Alexander tyrannt of the Phereans Thirtie tyraunts were slayne in one day in the Citie of Athens by Theramenes Thrasibulus and Archippus who had but three-score and tenne men to execute that enterprise Leander tyraunt of Cyrena was taken aliue and being sewed into a leather bagge was cast into the sea Aristodemus tyraunt of Cumes tooke Xenocrita by force beyng a wealthie citizens daughter whome he had banished and keeping hir with him as his wife shee stirred vp Thymoteles and others to recouer the libertie of their countrey who beyng safelie let into the tyrants chamber by hir slew Aristodemus Besids the auncientes had appoynted great rewardes and recompences for the murderers of tyrauntes namelie titles of Nobilitie of Prowesse of Chiualrie images and honourable titles to bee shorte the goodes
otherwise thou shalt not be accounted a king but a tyrant c. I leaue the rest of the clauses in his Testament Moreouer liberalitie wel vsed as we haue els-where handled the same is a very comely ornament for a Prince Socrates said that it was the dutie of a good king to be beneficiall to his friends and of his enemies to make good friends to which purpose nothing will helpe him more than liberalitie Neither must he be only liberal but magnifical also and sumptuous prouided alwaies that of magnifical he become not prodigal which would soone make him an exactor and in the end a tyrant But a soueraigne Prince must especially haue an eie to this that the rewards of vertue due to woorthy men be preferred before all his gifts and good turnes and that he recompence such as haue deserued any thing before he giue to them that haue deserued nothing For an vngratefull Prince will hardly retaine an honourable and vertuous man any long time in his seruice Neither is the estimation of a reward and of a good-turne all one bicause a reward is giuen for desert and a benefite by grace Besides a Prince must be alwaies true and as good as his promise that men may giue greater credite to his bare word than to another mans oath For it ought to bee as an Oracle which looseth his dignitie when men haue conceiued such an euill opinion of him that he may not be beleeued vnles he sweare And if he pawne his faith at any time he must account it sacred and inuiolable bicause faith is the foundation and staie of iustice vpon which the estate of great men is grounded as we discoursed else-where That saying of Theopompus King of Sparta is also to be well noted by the Prince When a friende of his asked him how a king might keepe his kingdome in safetie he answered By granting libertie to his friends freely to tell him the truth He must take their aduice in doubfull matters that he may gouern his estate more assuredly waighing and iudging of their opinions with great prudence Neither must he thinke them his best seruants that praise all his sayings and dooings but those that with modestie reprooue his faults he must discerne wisely betweene them that cunningly flatter him and those that loue and serue him faithfully that wicked men may not be in greater credite with him than good men For this cause also he must carefully enquire after his houshold seruants and familiar friends that he may knowe them well bicause all other men will take him to be such a one as they are with whome he conuerseth ordinarily Osiris King of Egypt had for his Armes a Scepter with an eye in the toppe of it noting thereby the wisedome that ought to be in a king namely that it belongeth not to one that wandereth out of his way to direct others that seeth not to guide that knoweth nothing to teach and that will not obeye reason to command Likewise in all his actions he must vse reason as a heauenlie guide hauing chased away the perturbations of his soule and esteeme it a greater and more royall matter to command himselfe than others He must thinke that it is the true and proper office of a king not to submit him-selfe to his pleasures but to containe his owne affections rather than his subiects Further he must vse to take pleasure in those exercises which may procure him honour and cause him to appeere better to the worlde He must not seeke for reputation in vile things which men of base estate and naughtie behauior commonly practise but follow after vertue onely wherein wicked persons haue no part Let him remember alwaies that he is a King and therefore that he must striue to doe nothing vnwoorthie so high a dignitie but continue his memorie by valiant and noble acts This is that wherein one of the wise Interpreters knew wel how to instruct K. Ptolemy who demanded of him how he might behaue himselfe that neither idlenes nor pleasures might distract him It is said he in thine owne power as long as thou commandest ouer a great kingdome and hast so many great affaires to manage continually which will not suffer thee to distract thy mind vpon other matters If priuate men borne to vertue are willing many times to die that they may purchase honour much more ought kinges to doe those thinges which will procure them honour feare and estimation euery where during their life also through their brightnes shine a great while after their death Moreouer a prince must be warlike and skilfull in warfare prouiding carefully all things necessarie for warre and yet he must loue peace and vsurpe nothing that belongeth to another man contrary to right nor enter into warre but to repell violence in extreame necessitie Aboue all things he must feare ciuill dissentions as most pernitious to his Estate and take aduice prudently concerning the meanes wherby all occasions of their entrance may be taken from his people Heerein learning will helpe him well and the knowledge of histories which set before his eies the aduentures that haue befallen both small and great and cal to his remembrance the times past whereby he may better prouide for the time to come Vnto which if he adde the counsell of wise men as we haue already touched he shall knowe more perfectly whatsoeuer concerneth the good of his estate But aboue all he must knowe howe to make choice of men and not thinke them wise that dispute curiously of small things but those that speake very aptly of great matters Neither let him account those men best and worthiest of credite that haue gotten most authoritie but trie and indge them by their profitable works namely if he see that they giue him wise and free counsell according as occasions concurre and affaires require and then let him alwaies with speed execute those things which by their counsell he findeth good and necessary For the conclusion therefore of our present discourse we will comprehend the office and dutie of a good Prince in fewe words namely if he serue God in sinceritie and puritie of hart if he inquire diligently after the truth of his word and cause his subiects to liue thereafter if he prouide for their profit redresse their miseries and ease them of oppression exaction and polling If he be pliable to heare the requests complaints of the lest indifferent and moderate in answering them ready to distribute right to euery one by propounding reward for vertue and punishment for vice If he be prudent in his enterprises bold in his exploits modest in prosperitie cōstant in aduersitie stedfast in word wise in counsail briefly if he gouerne in such sort and raigne so well that all his subiects may haue what to imitate and straungers to commend The ende of the fifteenth daies worke THE SIXTEENTH DAIES WORKE Of a Councell and
nothing doth cast forth more liuely marks and beames of a wonderful diuinitie than husbandry For most of other arts were inuented long time after man was created of God and augmented since by the industrie of many Onely husbandry gaue sufficient testimonie of it self of the incomprehensible power of God when presently after the creation of the elements there came out of the bowels of the earth all kinds of herbes and plants garnished with their proper vertues for the seruice commoditie of man Man himself also by a diuine and natural instinct hath been from the beginning more enclined and disposed to the tillage of the earth than to any other studie vocation whatsoeuer as we read of our first fathers who commonly called themselues Laborers of the earth and feeders of cattell Husbandry and the countrey life were so much commended esteemed of the auncients that many of them haue written sundry bookes therof in Greek Latin and many monarchs haue heretofore left their great palaces contemned their purple robes and diademes that they might giue themselues to the manuring of countrey cōmodities Cyrus was neuer better pleased and contented than whē he might be dressing of some goodly piece of ground and setting of a certaine number of trees checker-wise Dioclesian forsook the scepter of his empire that he might with-draw himselfe into the fields and trim with his owne hands trees graffs seuerall plots of ground and gardens Besides in husbandry and the countrey life profite aboundeth with pleasure and gaine with delight As for profite it is very euident For a good husbandman is alwais prouided of bread wine flesh fruit wood and other Aliments And concerning pleasure it is incredible to one that hath skill and will to consider of the maruels of nature besides a thousand delights with exercises as pleasaunt and profitable for his health as can be And that benefit which is most excellent and chiefest of all I meane tranquillitie of mind may more easily bee obtained by the Muses darlings and louers of knowledge in the midst of the open fields and pleasaunt sound of waters than amongst the noise of suites dissentions wherwith cities are replenished It belongeth to the dutie of labourers to liue in their simplicitie and to do their endeuor in tilling the fields For the performing hereof they stand in need of 3. things of skill to know the nature of the soile and the seasons of sowing and gathering of will to be diligent and carefull to continue in their countrey labour and lastly of abilitie to prouide oxen horses cattell other instruments of husbandrie By this discourse therefore we may see what things are most requisite and necessarie for the institution of a happy common-wealth and that no man is so industrious wittie or prudent that of himselfe without the helpe of another he can liue without societie and minister to himselfe all necessary things For this cause the fellowship of many togither was found out that by teaching iudging defending giuing taking changing seruing and communicating their works and exercises one with an other they might liue well and commodiously togither Which thing will vndoubtedly come to passe in euery Common-wealth when euery one walking in his vocation directeth his will and worke to the seruice of God his prince and countrey Of Peace and of Warre Chap. 67. ARAM. IVstinian the Emperor in the Preface of his Institutions saith That it is necessarie for the imperial maiesty to haue respect to two times namely of peace and of warre that it may be prouided against all euents either of the one or the other Lawes and good politike statutes are necessary for it in time of peace that the Prouinces may be quietly gouerned but in time of warre it must alwayes haue armour readie and couenient forces to helpe friends to resist enimies and to containe disobedient subiectes within compasse Nowe hauing hitherto intreated of that policie which chiefly respecteth the tyme of peace we must hereafter my companions referre to our discourses that small knowledge which we haue of warlike discipline And first I thinke we must oppose these times of peace and warre one agaynst the other and consider of their cleane contrary effectes that we may bee so much the more easily ledde and perswaded to desire and procure that which is best and most profitable for euery estate and monarchie Therefore I propounde vnto you this matter to discourse vpon ACHITOB. If it be possible as much as in you is saith the Apostle haue peace with all men and let the peace of God rule in your hartes to the which ye are called in one body For truely without peace all riches is but pouertie all mirth but mourning all life but death But no man can perfectly know the benefit of peace that hath had no triall of the burthen of warre ASER. If ye walke in my ordinaunces saith the eternall God I will send peace in the land but if ye will not obey me but despise mine ordinaunces I will send a sword vpon you that shall auenge the quarell of my couenaunt and ye shall be deliuered into the hand of the enimie Now let vs heare AMANA discourse vpon that which is here propounded vnto vs. AMANA Lycurgus entring into the gouernement of the Lacedemonians and finding their Estate greatly corrupted determined with himselfe to change their whole Policie For he thought that if he should onely make some particular lawes and ordinances it would doe no more good than a slender medicine would profit a corrupt bodie full of many diseases before order were taken for the purging resoluing and consuming of the euill humors that a new forme and rule of life might afterward be prescribed His enterprise although great and difficult yet fell out very well and his lawes were receiued approoued of the people after a little force and feare wherwith at first they were restrained But this law-maker referred all his lawes to warre and to victorie and kept his subiects in continuall exercise of Armes not suffering them to learne any other science or handi-craft vnto which he appointed the Ilotes onely who were men brought in subiection by the right of warre Whereby Lycurgus seemeth to haue beene of this mind that force ought to be mistres in all worldly matters and that other things serue to no purpose if they want Armes which by a certaine right of warre that shall alwaies continue amongst men bring in subiection to Conquerours the persons goods of those whome they ouercome It seemeth also he thought that there was neuer any true peace amongst men but onely in name and that all Princes and people liue in continuall distrust one of another and doe nothing else for the most part but watch how to surprize each other as Plutark elegantly setteth it out notwithstanding all leagues and goodly agreements that passe betweene them Numa Pompilius second king of
vpon no other vse than vpō the paiment of his men of war as also to keepe that money apart from his ordinary receipts But bicause this is not duely obserued the people are doubly vexed for they pay their money and yet are polled on all sides Notwithstanding all these ordinarie charges the poore pesants would thinke themselues happie if they were discharged by erecting victualing tents for the men of warre as they haue been forced to doe of late yeeres Now what good issue can be hoped for when the souldiors through an vnbrideled licence sack spoile and burne the poore subiects This hath alwayes been seene that houses families kingdoms and Empires haue come to ruine and pouertie bicause the poore were contemned and the subiects giuen ouer to the robberies of souldiors The immoderate licence of the Pretorian souldiours who were to the emperors as the Ianitzaries are to the Turke and of other men of warre was no small helpe to ouerthrowe the Romane Empire For taking vpon them to elect Emperours at their pleasure one was chosen in one armie and an other else-where and presently murdered by those that had elected them Their insolencie also caused seditions and ciuill warres whereupon those kingdoms and countreys that were vnder the Romane obedience reuolted And it commeth to passe oftentimes that their vnruly behauiour incenseth the people in such sort against them that their destruction followeth As it hapned to all the Frenchmen that were in the I le of Sicilia in the yeere 1281. vpon Easter day at the first peale to Euensong at what time they were all put to death by a secret conspiracie for their insolencies and whoredoms whereupon this prouerbe doth yet remaine amongst vs The Sicilian Euensong There is no corner of this kingdom where the people being halfe mad through the iniuries receiued from the men of warre haue not committed infinite and cruell massacres We may not here forget to propound the wise and warlike discipline of Bellizarius lieutenaunt generall to the Emperor Iustinian who for valure and temperance was equall to the ancient Romanes as histories testifie of him which was the cause that he reconquered all Italy possessed by the Barbariās Not long since during the warre of Piemont which was a very schoole of vertue and of warrelike knowledge the pesaunt husbandman and artificer were suffered quietly at their worke the warre continuing betweene warriours onely for the possession and not the ruine of the countrey And as the people were then glad to receiue amongst them such armies so they dispaire no lesse at this day bicause all warlike discipline all policie both diuine and humane is in such sort extinguished yea all kind of humanitie and societie which is to be seen amongst barbarous people that it is lawfull for Frenchmen to sacke spoile and put to ransome Frenchmen that are many times of the same side faith and condition and that without punishment But let vs not looke for prosperitie and good successe in our enterprises before there be some other order and discipline obserued The ende of the seuenteenth dayes worke THE EIGHTEENTH DAIES WORKE Of the office and dutie of a Generall Chap. 69. ASER. THose men commonly prosper in their affairs that vnderstand them throughly and manage them well diligently considering aduisedly what hath beene heretofore that they may in some sort iudge of that which is to come bicause all worldly things haue euermore some agreement with the ages past Which commeth of this that beyng the works of men they haue had and will alwayes haue like formes and therfore must of necessitie haue like effectes But the cause of the good or euill successe of men in respect of mans nature consisteth in this that the meanes and maner of proceeding iumpe with the time wherein the very condition therof and the occasion offred is diligently to be obserued And if this consideration taketh place in all priuate affaires it is much more necessarie in warre wherein a light fault oftentimes procureth losse ouerthrow to a whole armie whose good or ill happe dependeth of the head and leader therof according as he is either woorthy or vnwoorthy of his charge My opinion therfore is my companions that we alleage in this place whatsoeuer we know belongeth to his duetie and office I propound now the discourse of this matter to you AMANA Men disdaine commonly to obey such as know not how to commaund well Therfore euery Generall of an armie ought to labour carefully that men may behold and see a certaine greatnes magnanimitie constancie in all his doings ARAM. A Generall must be had in estimation of his souldiors and of that reputation that they may giue credite to his prudence otherwise an army doth quickly become rebellious and troublesome to be guided But let vs learne more amply of ACHITOB whatsoeuer concerneth this matter ACHITOB. Lamachus a great Athenian captain sayd that no man must offend twise in warre bicause the faults are of so great waight that for the most part they bring with thē the ouerthrow of the state or losse of life to those that commit them and therefore that it was a hard and daungerous matter to haue experience thereof So that Prudence gotten by vse ought to bee hastened forward bicause it is deerly bought so long a cōming that oftentimes death preuenteth it It must be hastned forward by the diligent enquirie of those things that haue fallen out both before since our time that we may become wise by other mens perils For this cause it is very necessarie that whosoeuer taketh vpon him the honor of guiding an armie should exercise his minde as much in science and in the knowledge of histories as he doth his body in all martiall actes that so he may diligently obserue the deedes of famous personages see how they gouerned themselues in warres and examine the causes of their victory thereby to flie the one and to follow the other And bicause it is against reason that a well armed man should obey him that is vnarmed or that they should take the rudder out of the Pilots hand to saue the ship in a storme that haue no skill in sea-faring matters it is very requisite that whosoeuer vndertaketh to commaund an army should first haue gotten a good report of all men for his valure and greatnesse of courage whereby his authoritie will be reuerenced as being bestowed vpō one that is woorthy of it forasmuch as titles of dignitie do not honor men but men are an ornament to titles Now if souldiors haue conceiued a good opinion of the desert and valure of their captaine it will be as a sharpe spur to pricke them forward in well doing and cause them to honor to loue his commandements For true zeale of vertue that is to say the desire to imitate it is not imprinted in mens harts but through a singular good will reuerence towards that
to lay them vp in a sure place The dignitie of a Head of an armie is in truth greatly to be accounted of especially when it is ioyned with prowesse and experience the chief point whereof is to saue him that must saue all the rest Therefore Timotheus an Athenian captaine and Chares also an other captaine shewed one day openly vnto the Athenians the skarres of many woundes which he had receiued in his body and his shield also that was spoyled and thrust through with many pushes of a pike but now quoth he I am of another minde For when I besieged the citie of Samos I was very much ashamed that an arrowe shotte from the walles fell harde by me being then too venturous a yong man and hazarding my selfe more rashly than became the Head of so great an armie And yet when it greatly profiteth the whole enterprise and is a matter of no small importance that the Generall of the armie should put his life in daunger then he must yeeld and imploy his person not sparing himselfe or giuing place to their wordes who say that a good and wise captaine ought to die of age or at least to be olde But where small benefit ariseth if he prosper well and contrarywise an vniuersall losse and generall hurt to all if any thing but well betide him no wise man will require it or be of the opinion that he should venture himselfe as a common souldiour doth whereby he being the Generall should be in daunger of destruction And yet in the meane while he must not be lesse carefull ouer the safetie of those valiaunt men that follow him or thrust them into danger but very warily remembring the saying of that good emperor Antoninus that he had rather saue one citizen thā put a thousand enimies to death The answer of Scipio was very like it whē he was earnestly requested by the souldiours at the siege of Numantia to gine an assault I had rather quoth he haue the life of one Romane than the death of all the Numantines He vsed also to say that all things ought to be assaied in warre before the sword be taken in hand And in deed there is no greater victory than that which is gotten without sheding of bloud Sylla Tiberius Caligula and Nero had no skill but to commaund and to kill but that good Augustus Titus and Traian were always ready to sollicite to request and to agree by forgiuing Augustus also said that although a prince were mightie yet if hee were wise hee would neuer giue battell vnlesse there were more apparant profite in the victorie than losse if the enimie should ouercome And in deede he neuer gaue battell but vpon necessitie We reade of that great captaine Narses who subdued the Gothes vanquished the Bactrians and ouercame the Germaines that he neuer gaue his enimies battell but he wept in the Temple the night before Theodosius the Emperor suffred not his men to assault any towne nor to lay siege vnto it before tenne dayes were past causing this proclamation to be made vnto them that hee graunted these tenne daies to the ende they might accept and taste of his clemencie before they had experience of his power It is a common saying that it is not enough for a Captaine to know how to leade his men well to the fight vnlesse he foresee also the meanes to retire and to saue them in tyme of neede And it is no lesse fault in a Captaine to fall into an inconuenience vnlooked for than through too much mistrust to let slippe an occasion of doyng some great exploite when it is offred For want of experience breedeth rashnesse in the one and taketh away boldnesse from the other Neither must a good captaine onely vse present occasion well but hee must also iudge wisely of that which is to come distrusting alwayes the doubtfull issue of all enterprises of warre For this cause the ancient Generals of armies both Greekes and Latines neuer marched but in armour nor incamped although they were farre from their enimies but they closed their campe round about with a trench And when Leonidas was demanded the reason hereof he aunswered bicause as the sea hath his sandes gulfes and rocks so hath war his among which none is more perillous and hurtful than this of I had not thought it Among other things necessary in a captaine the knowledge of nature and of the situation of places is very requisite which is to know how the mountaines are lift vp how the valleis hang how the Champian fields are couched togither and to know the nature and course of riuers the bredth of marishes This is profitable in two respects First a man learneth thereby to know his owne countrey so to be more skilful to defend it Secondly hauing by that means had good practise of the seat of that countrey he may easily conceiue the situation of another place of which sometime he must necessarily consider So that if a General be wanting herein he is destitute of the chief vertue which a good captain ought to haue For it is that which teacheth him to find out the enimy to encamp himself to guide an host to set his men in aray for the battell and to take the aduauntage at the siege of a towne Among other great praises that authors giue to Philopaemenus prince of the Acheans they forget not this that in time of peace he studied diligētly how he might war more skilfully And when he was in the fields with his friends he would stand stil many times and conferre with them vsing such like speeches If the enimie were in this mountaine and we here with our campe who should haue the aduantage how might we seeke him out marching on in battell If we would retire how should we do If they retired how should we folow thē Thus in the way he set before them all the chances that might happen to a campe then he would heare their opinions and after set down his own confirming it with reasons This he did so well that by reason of these continual disputations and cogitations no hinderance could befall him when he guided an army which he could not redresse Xenophō sheweth in Cyrus his life that being ready to set forward in that voyage which he vndertooke against the king of Armenia he said familiarly to his men that this iourny was but one of those huntings which they had so often practised with him He willed those whom he sent to lye in ambush vpon the mountaines to remember when and how they went to pitch their nets vpon the small hils and to those that went to begin the skirmish he sayd that they resembled such as went to rouze a beast out of his denne to driue him to their nets This noble Prince shewed well that his exercise of hunting was not vnprofitable vnto him as in deede it is a true
the guiding of them be giuen to good vertuous and expert Captaines ledde onely with a desire to doe their dutie to their King and Countrie this kingdome will be feared of strangers and without feare it selfe of their assaults and enterprises Especially if in the Prince his absence the soueraigne authoritie of commanding absolutely in the armie be committed into the hands of a Captaine woorthy his charge as we haue discoursed who is able to win the harts of men and to prouoke them to their dutie by liuely and learned reasons as namely That all men must die and therefore that it were too great follie in a man to refuse to die for publike profit which bringeth vnto vs immortall glorie seeing he must once of necessitie yeeld vp his life that a glorious death is alwaies to be preferred before a shamefull life stained with reproch briefly if he can ground his exhortations vpon the occasion of taking armes of time place estate and condition of the enimies and of the good that will come to them if they obtaine the victorie But in all these things the iustice and equitie of the cause of war is that which most of all maketh good men courageous who otherwise neuer ought to fight We may read a million of goodly Orations made in time of warre set forth in one volume with which euery wise and prudent Captaine may helpe himselfe according as occasion is offred Now if that ancient order discipline of which we haue hitherto discoursed and which may be learned more at large in their excellent writings were renued imitated by our armies as the late vse and practise of Armes exercised at this day is apt and fit for the same being more terrible than that of the Ancients who had no gun-powder no doubt but great obedience of souldiors towards their Captaines would arise of it whereas now a daies in steede of commanding they haue nothing left but an humble request to be vsed towards their souldiours who neuertheles turne it into contempt and want of courage But if true obedience were ioined with good order the hope of prosperous successe in our enterprises would be farre greater Nowe when our affaires succeede happily so that wee haue our enimies at aduantage or haue gotten some victorie wee must beware least insolencie blind vs in such sort that trusting to our good happe we goe beyond our bounds and loose the occasion of a certaine and sure benefite through hope of some greater good as yet vncertaine Hannibal after the discomfiture of the Romanes at Cannas sent men to Carthage to carie newes of his victorie and withall to demand a newe supplie Whereupon the Senate was long in deliberating what was to be doone Hannon a prudent old man was of opinion that they were to vse the victorie wisely and to make peace with the Romanes which they might obtain of them with honest conditions and not to expect the hazard of another battell He said that the Carthaginians ought to bee satisfied with this declaration alreadie made to the Romanes that they were such men as could stand against them and therfore seeing they had woonne one victorie of them they should not venture the losse of it in hope of a greater This prudent counsell was not followed although afterwarde the Senate did acknowledge it for the best when that occasion was lost Alexander the Great had already conquered all the East when the Common-wealth of Tyrus being great and mightie bicause the Citie was situated in the water as Venice is and astonished at the greatnes fame of that Monarches power sent their Embassadors vnto him to offer what obedience subiection he would require vpon condition that neither he nor his men would enter into the Citie Alexander disdaining that one citie would shut their gates against him to whō the whole world was open sent them backe again without accepting their offer went thither to pitch his Campe against it After he had continued the siege 4. moneths he thought with himself that one onely Towne would shorten his glorie more than all his other conquests had done before wherupon he purposed to try an agreement by offering that vnto them which thēselues had required before But then the Tyrians were waxen so lustie and bold that they did not only refuse his proffers but also executed as many as came to conclude with them Whereupon Alexander being mooued with indignation caused an assault to be made with such heate and violence that he tooke and sacked the towne put some of the Inhabitants to the edge of the swoord and made the residue seruants and slaues Agreement and composition is alwaies to be preferred before continuance of warre And howsoeuer a man may seeme to be assured and as it were certaine of the victorie yet ought he to doubt the vncertaintie of humane things That courageous and valiant Hannibal being called out of Italy by his Countriemen to succour them against the Romaines by whome they were besieged when his armie was yet whole demanded peace of them before he would enter into battel bicause he saw that if he lost it he brought his Countrie into bondage What then ought another to do that hath lesse vertue and experience than he But men fall into the error of vnmeasurable hope vpon which staying them selues without further consideration they are ouerthrowne Sometimes when we contemne our enimie too much and bring him into a desperat estate we make him more venturous to vndertake and violent to execute any dangerous matter Despaire said Tubero is the last but the strongest assault and a most inuincible tower For this cause the ancient Romane Captaines were very diligent and carefull to lay all kind of necessitie to fight vpon their men and to take it from their enimies by opening vnto them passages to escape which they might haue shut vp against them K. Iohn bicause he would not make peace with the English host which desired to escape onely with life was taken and caried prisoner into England and his armie consisting of fortie or fiftie thousand men was discomfited by ten thousand Englishmen some say more some lesse Gaston de Foix hauing woonne the battell at Rauenna and following after a squadron of Spaniards that fled lost his life and made all that a praie vnto the enimie which he had conquered before in Italy Ancient histories are full of such examples and namely of small armies that ouercame those that were great and mightie Darius against Alexander Pompey against Casar Hannibal against Scipio Marcus Antonius against Augustus Mithridates against Sylla had greater forces without comparison than their enimies Therefore good Traian said that to accept of warre to gather a great number of men to put them in order to giue battell appertaineth to men but to giue victorie was the worke of God onely so that great armies preuaile but litle against the wrath of the Highest If
then we would knowe a good way how we shall neuer be vanquished we must not trust to our armour or force but alwaies call vpon God to direct our counsels for the best By this also we shall be perswaded to vse victorie mildly seeing it is the propertie of valiant men to be gentle and gratious ready to forgiue and to haue compassion of them that suffer and indure affliction There is no true victorie as Marcus Aurelius wrote to Popilion Captaine of the Parthians but that which carieth with it some clemencie so that a rigorous and cruell man may not in reason be called victorious And it is most true that to ouercome is humane but the action of pardoning is diuine As touching the sacking and ouerthrow of townes taken in warre carefull heede saith Cicero must be taken that nothing be done rashly or cruelly For it is the propertie of a noble hart to punish such onely as are most guiltie and the authors of euil and to saue the multitude Briefly to obserue in all thinges whatsoeuer is right and honest to be valiant and gentle to be an enimie to those that doe vniustly fauourable to the afflicted seuere to quarrellers and full of equitie to suppliants are those praise-woorthie qualities for which Alexander Iulius Casar Scipio Hannibal Cyrus and many other both Greeke and Romane Captaines are most commended who ought to be imitated in the arte of warre by all excellent men Of a happie Life Chap. 71. ARAM. WE haue hitherto discoursed my Companions of vertues vices for which the life of man is praised or dispraised in all Estats and conditions whereunto the varietie of maners and inclinations to sundry studies and works cal men and make them fit Wherin we haue chiefly followed the ends and bounds of honestie equitie propounded by Moral Philosophers from whence they draw particular duties and all actions of vertue vsing a very commendable and excellent order disposition Now seeing we are come to the end of the cause of our assemblie as we began it with the true Christian knowledge of the creation of man and of the end of his being vnknowne to so many great personages in the world who are lightened only with humane sciences which are but darkenes in regard of that heauenly light the eternal word of God that guideth the soules of the beleeuers I think that we ought also to end and breake vp this our meeting togither with the maner of a happie life and death according to those endes that are propounded vnto vs by the infallible rule of all vertue and truth which if they be not so subtilly set downe and disputed as the Philosophy of the Ancients is yet at the least they are without comparison better and more certaine Go to then let vs heare you discourse first of a happie life ACHITOB. Blessed are they saith the Prophet that dwell in the house of God and that euermore praise him hauing his waies in their harts He will giue them grace and glory and will with-hold no good thing from them that walke vprightly ASER. What happier life can we require than that which S. Iohn calleth eternal life namely to know one only true God Iesus Christ whō he hath sent But it belongeth to thee AMANA to feede our spirits with this excellent subiect AMANA Although the spirite of God teaching his iust and holy will by a doctrine that is simple and void of all vaine shew of wordes hath not alwaies obserued and kept so strictly such a certaine order and methode to prepare and to direct their liues that shall beleeue in him as the Philosophers did who affected the greatest shew outwardly that they could thereby to make manifest the sharpnes of their wit the greatnes of their humane vnderstanding yet may we easily gather out of this diuine doctrine which doth more deface all glittering shew and beauty of humane sciences than the Sun excelleth darkenes a most excellent order teaching vs to frame a happie life according to the mould paterne of true heauenly vertue This order consisteth of two parts the one imprinting in our harts the loue of iustice the other giuing vnto vs a certaine rule that will not suffer vs to wander hither thither nor to slip aside in the framing of our life Concerning the first point the Scripture is full of very good reasons to encline our harts to loue that Good which in deed is to be desired I meane perfect righteousnes With what foundation could it begin better than by admonishing vs to be sanctified bicause our God is holy Whereunto the reason is added that although we were gone astray as sheepe scattered dispersed in the Labyrinth of this world yet he hath gathered vs togither to ioine vs to himselfe When we heare mention made of the coniunction of god with vs we must remember that the bond thereof is holines and that we must direct our steps thither as to the end of our calling that we may be transformed into the true image of God which through sinne was defaced in the first man consequently in vs. Moreouer to mooue vs the more to embrace that only true God the spirit of God teacheth vs that as he hath reconciled vs vnto himselfe in his son Iesus Christ so he hath appointed him to be vnto vs an example and paterne vnto which wee must conforme our selues This heauenly worde also taketh occasion to exhort vs thereunto in infinite places drawing his reasons from all the benefits of God and from all the parts of our saluation As when it is saide That seeing God hath giuen himselfe to be our Father wee are to be accused of notable ingratitude if wee behaue not our selues as his children Seeing Iesus Christ hath clensed vs by the washing of his blood and hath communicated this purification vnto vs by baptisme there is no reason why we should defile our selues with new filthines Seeing he hath ioined ingrafted vs into his body we must carefully looke that we defile not our selues in any sort being members of his body Seeing he that is our Head is gone vp to heauen we must lay aside all earthly affections and aspire with all our hart to that heauenly life Seeing the holy Ghost hath consecrated vs to be the temples of God we must labour and striue that the glorie of God may be exalted in vs and beware that we receiue no pollution Seeing our soules and bodies are fore appointed to enioye that immortalitie of the kingdome of heauen and the incorruptible Crowne of God his glorie we must endeuour to keepe both the one and the other pure and vnspotted vntill the day of the Lord. Behold surely good grounds meete to frame and institute a happie life by and to mooue a Christian to bring foorth the effectes of such an excellent and woorthie title throught the loue
from them as much as we can Heereupon we see in what disquietnes of minde all they are that order their liues after their owne counsel how many waies they assay to attaine to that vnto which their ambition couetousnes carieth them But they that submit themselues wholy vnder the yoke of Gods wil neuer entangle themselues in these snares For first they neither desire hope or imagine of any other meanes to prosper by than the blessing of God and therefore they stay and rest themselues assuredly therupon as vpon that which is able to giue thē a good issue in all things and true felicitie which cannot in any wise be in the dooings of wicked men what false prosperitie soeuer appeereth in the eies of flesh Heereof it commeth that they aspire not through iniustice or other sinister meanes to any worldly goods but contemne them seeking after the onely true goods which turne them not aside from innocencie For they are assuredly perswaded that the blessing of God is not extended vpon the woorkers of iniquitie but onely vpon such as are vpright in their thoughts and works Moreouer it serueth for a bridle to restrain them that they burne not with a disordred desire of worldly goods bicause they holde this for certaine that the blessing of God cannot helpe them to obtaine that which is cleane contrary to his word whereby we are commanded to withdraw our whole hart from this world that we may lift it vp in the meditation of eternall happines The Lord saith Iustine Martyr will not honour his children with worldly happines for a reward of their pietie For those things that are subiect to corruption can not be a recompence to good men for their vertue bicause they are circumscribed and limited by the change of the mortall estate of vertuous men who are depriued altogither of them at the time of their death And as good men are not said or accounted to be of the world so their glorie riches and wealth are not in the earth So that in what estate soeuer a Christian man is he feeleth him selfe alwaies mooued to giue glorie to God iudgeth that all things are appointed by him in such sort as is most expedient for his saluation If aduersitie presse him the miseries of mans life seeke to make him distrust the grace and fauour of God or to murmure against him through impatiencie he striueth so much the more on the other side to consider of his heauenly iustice and goodnes in that he chasticeth him iustly and for his benefite and arming him-selfe with patience he expecteth with a quiet and thankefull mind the issue of God his ordinance wherevnto he wholy submitteth himselfe Besides he considereth howe God calleth all his to beare their crosse and teacheth them to prepare them-selues to sustaine a hard and laborious life full of trauell and of infinite kindes of euils vnto which Iesus Christ their Head was first made subiect Where this consolation followeth presently vpon it that such a life is a preparation to follow him into his eternall glorie Yea the more we are afflicted and indure miseries the more is our societie with Christ Iesus certainly confirmed vnto vs. Now the chiefe rule propoūded vnto vs by the spirite of God concerning this matter is that with what kinde of tribulation soeuer we are afflicted we should looke to this ende to acquaint our selues with the contempt of this present life that we may thereby be brought on to meditate vpon the life to come But bicause this diuine wisdome knoweth full well that we are enclined and led with a blind euen brutish loue of this world it vseth a very apt reason to draw vs backe and to awaken our sluggishnes that our harte shoulde not bee too much setled vpon such a foolish loue There is none of vs that will not seeme to aspire throughout the whole course of his life to a heauenly immortalitie yea to striue for the obtaining of it For we are ashamed not to excell the brute beastes in some thing whose condition would seeme to be more happy than ours if we had no hope of eternitie after death Neuerthelesse if a man examine the counsels deliberations enterprises and workes of euery one he shall find nothing but earth in them being such as tend altogither to the commoditie of this life Now this blockishnes proceedeth from hence that our vnderstanding is as it were dimmed with that vain brightnes which riches honors and powers haue in outward shew wherby it is hindred from looking farther In like maner our hart being pressed with the affections of the flesh which propound vnto it couetousnes ambition and all other carnal desires our soule is at length perswaded to seek for hir felicitie vpon earth The Lord therefore to meete with this mischief teacheth his seruants to know the vanitie of this present life by exercising them daily with diuers miseries He sendeth thē no prosperitie which is not mingled with greater aduersitie that by learning to condemne altogither this earthly life they may frame their harts to desire and to meditate vpon the life to come Wherefore when they trie by afflictions that this present life considered in it selfe is full of disquietnes of troubles altogither miserable and in no respect happy that all the wealth thereof had in so great estimation is transitorie and vncertaine vaine and mingled with infinite miseries they conclude therupon that nothing is to be sought or hoped for in this world but calamitie and that the crowne of glory true felicitie is to be looked for else-where namely in heauen Notwithstanding as long as they enioy this life he would not haue them so to contemn it as to grow into a hatred therof or to be vnthankful to God for the benefits which they daily receiue therin of his maiestie but rather to account it a speciall gift of his heauenly clemencie in that through the midst of those tribulatiōs which they endure he maketh a way and entrance for them vnto eternal life For which for those infinit blessings which they receiue also in this life of his goodnes they acknowlege that they are bound to yeeld vnto him immortal thanks labouring only to vnfold themselues out of this ouer-great desire of mā caried away with the disordinate loue of this life that they may transferre their chief affection to the celestial heauenly life And seeing it is so that al the faithful as long as they remain vpon earth are as sheepe appointed to the slaughter to the end they might be made conformable to their head Christ Iesus surely they should bee accounted passing wretched if they did not lift their mindes on high to surmount all that is in the world and to go beyond the regard and care of things present On the contrary side if they haue once lift vp their thoughts aboue the earth whē they shall see the vniust prosper in the world
when themselues shal be vngently handled by thē when they shal endure reproch when they shal be polled or afflicted with any kind of iniurie their comfort in al these euils will be to haue the last day before their eies in which they know that the lord wil gather his faithful ones togither into the rest of his kingdom that he wil wipe away the teares frō their eies crown thē with glory clothe thē with gladnes satisfie them with the exceeding sweetnes of his delicacies exalt them vnto his high mansion in a word make them partakers of his happines In the meane time going on in their course with all tranquillitie ioy of spirit they are cheerfully to giue vnto God that homage worship that is due vnto him submitting themselues wholy to his greatnesse receiuing with all reuerence his cōmandements Next they must put that trust hartie assurance in him which they haue receiued by knowing him aright attributing to him all wisdom iustice goodnes vertue truth making this account that all their happines is in communicating with him Inuocation foloweth wherby their soules must haue recourse vnto him as to their only hope whē they are pressed with any necessity In the last place is thanksgiuing which is that acknowledgement wherby all prayse is giuē vnto him Vnder these 4. points of worship trust prayer and thanksgiuing all those innumerable duties which we owe to God may well be comprehended Moreouer the contempt of this present life and the meditation of that which is immortal heauenly will teach vs the right vse of earthly goods created of God for the seruice of man as necessary helpes for this life Which things we must not neglect in such sort that we neuer vse them but vpon constraint necessity taking no delight in them as if we were sencelesse blocks Much lesse may we abuse them by ouer-great lust in superfluity delights but apply them to that end for which God hath created appointed thē for our good not for our hurt namely that they should sustain nourish preserue delight our nature vsing thē in al temperance mediocritie with thanksgiuing So that we are to vse these goods as though we vsed them not that is to say our chief affection and desire must be so smally set vpō them as if we were wholy depriued of them and we must be disposed and affected as well to sustaine pouertie patiently with a quiet mind as to vse abundance moderately Especially let vs referre the true and holy vse of all our earthly commodities to the works of charitie as we haue already touched knowing that all things are so giuē vnto vs by the goodnes of God appointed for our commoditie as things cōmitted to our trust of which we must one day giue account before his maiestie For the conclusion therfore of our speech we learn that thelife of a Christian is a perpetuall studie and exercise of the mortification of the flesh vntil it be so throughly dead that the spirit of God may raigne fully in his soule We learn also that our whole life ought to be a meditation and exercise of godlines bicause we are called to sanctification that true happines of life in this world consisteth therein namely when being regenerated by baptisme and the spirit of God we haue the loue of righteousnes throughly imprinted in our harts and follow the diuine rule thereof by framing and directing all our actions to the glory of our God and profit of our neighbors Wherfore euery one of vs must take his vocation and calling for a principle and ground for a station assigned of God vnto which we must direct our leuell withdrawing our mindes from the yoke and bondage of those naturall perturbations that are in vs. Wee must not be led with ambition and desire to take hold of many sundry matters at once being assured that euery worke done according to our calling how contemptible soeuer it be among men shineth before God and shall be rewarded by him beyng accounted very precious in his sight Of Death Chap. 72. AMANA NO man ought to be ignorant of this that after God had created man in the beginning he placed him in a garden and paradise ful of al pleasures and delights and gaue him leaue to vse all things contained therin the fruit of the knowledge of good and euill onely excepted which was expresly forbidden Neuerthelesse being vnable to keepe himselfe in that high degree and great dignitie he fell by disobedience so that thinking to make choice of life he chose the fruit of death as God had foretold him saying Whensoeuer thou eatest of this fruit of the knowledge of good and euil thou shalt die the death which thing fell vpon him and vpon all his posteritie Whereby we see that the reward and recompence of sinne is death not onely bodily death but which is more spirituall whereby we are banished and shut out of the heauenly kingdome and inheritance if we apprehend not that great grace and mercy of the father offered to all that draw neere vnto him by true confidence in Iesus Christ to the ende as the Apostle saith that as sinne raigned vnto death so grace might raign by righteousnes vnto eternall life through Iesus Christ our Lord. And this is the onely way wherby to passe from death to life when we shall be subiect to no condemnation or afflictiō Moreouer neither sworde famine nor any other miserie can hurt vs no not temporal death which according to mās iudgement is the extreamest of all miseries shall in any sort confound vs but rather be a meane and pleasant way for vs to passe by from prison and bondage to ioyfull liberty and from miserie to happinesse Therfore my companions as death is the end of all men happy to the elect and vnhappy to the reprobate so let vs finish our discourses with the handling thereof ARAM. Nothing but death and the end of this bodily life is able to accomplish the wish and desire of a faithful christian For the spirit being then deliuered as it were out of a noisome and filthie prison reioyceth with freedom and libertie in those pleasant places which it seeketh after and desireth so earnestly ACHITOB. It is decreed that all men must once die And therfeore as the Wiseman saith whatsoeuer thou takest in hand remember the end and thou shalt neuer do amisse Now ASER as thou beganst to lay the foundation of our Academie so make thou an end of it with the treatise of Death that endeth all things ASER. It is no maruell if natural sense be mooued astonished when we heare that our body must be separated from the soule But it is in no wise tollerable that a Christian hart should not haue so much light as to surmount suppresse this feare whatsoeuer it be by a greater comfort and consolation For if
we consider that this tabernacle of our body which is weake vicious corruptible casuall and inclining to putrefaction is dissolued and as it were pulled downe by death that it may afterward be restored to a perfect firme incorruptible and heauenly glory shal not this certain assurance compel vs to desire earnestly that which nature flieth and abhorreth If we consider that by death we are called home from a miserable exile to dwel in our countrey yea in our celestial coūtrey shall we not conceiue singular consolation thereby But some man may say that al things desire to continue in their being For the same cause I say we ought to aspire to the immortalitie to come where we haue a setled estate which is not seene at all vpon earth How commeth it to passe that the bruite beasts and sencelesse creatures euen wood and stones hauing as it were some feeling of their vanitie corruption are in expectation of the iudgement day that they may be deliuered from their corruption and yet we that haue some light of nature boast that we are illuminated by the spirit of God lift not vp our eies aboue this earthly putrefaction when we talk of our beeing But what shal we say of those men whose number alas is very great who quenching all natural light opposing themselues directly against the testimonies of truth which presse their consciences sound daily in their eares dare yet doubt of yea impudently deny this day of iudgement and the change of this mortall life into a second which is immortal If the word of god so expresly set down for our assurance be of so litle credit that it wil not satissie them yet how is it that they are not conuinced by the writings of so many Ethnike and heathen Philosophers who make the immortalitie of the soule out of doubt by the consideration of the being of this life conclude a iudgemēt to come which bringeth perpetuall happines and felicitie to the soules of the blessed euerlasting miserie paine to them that are vnhappy Plato vnder the name of Socrates may serue for a fit teacher for such Epicures and Atheists that wil not heare the heauenly word of the almighty Frō whence commeth it saith he that we see so many wicked mē passe the course of their days in worldly happines and fclicitie and die in great rest quietnes whereas on the other side so many good men liue die in great afflictions most hard calamities The reason is bicause God doth not punish and chastise all the wicked vpon the earth to the end men may know that there is a iudgement to come wherin the vngodlines of such men shal be corrected Neither doth he recompence all good men with blessings in this world to the ende they may hope that there is a place in the other life where the vertuous shal be rewarded Likewise he doth not punish all the wicked nor reward al good men here beneath least men should thinke that the vertuous folowed vertue in hope of a carnal earthly reward or eschewed vice for feare of punishmēts torments in this world For so vertue should be no more vertue seing there is no action that may cary the surname of vertuous if the intent of him that doth it be in hope of some earthly carnal recompence not for the loue of vertue it self that he may be accepted of God and so conceiue hope of eternal rewards in the other life Also he punisheth and correcteth some wicked men vpon earth rewardeth some good men least if good men only were afflicted the wicked suffred in quiet men might be brought to beleeue that there were no prouidence that the diuine nature had no care of vs so all men would giue ouer themselues to folow iniustice By the sequele of this speech Plato inferreth proueth that there is one God that hath care ouer his cretures that naturally euery spirit loueth him better that striueth to resemble him in manners fashiōs of liuing that reuerēceth honoreth him thā those that feare him not but despise him whose conditions are altogither vnlike his Moreouer he prooueth euidētly that good men in feare reuerence of the Deitie striue to imitate it by good works done to the benefit and safetie of others and contrarywise that the wicked despise God and all lawes both diuine and humane whereupon it followeth that God loueth good men and hateth the wicked And bicause we see that good mē are subiect to calamity ignominy in this world we must therfore vndoubtedly confesse that there is another life after this wherein good men are eternally rewarded the wicked punished Otherwise it would folow that God cared more for the wicked than for the good which were too absurd to graunt From hence that diuine Philosopher draweth this conclusion that the life of a wise man ought to be a perpetual meditation of death and that the very feare to die not any desire to liue is that which maketh death fearefull to them that know not the immortalitie of the soule Now then ought not these men to blush for shame that dare doubt of the second life and future iudgement when they heare this discourse of an Ethnike and Pagan destitute of that true light of God and sincere religion which is manifested to vs in Iesus Christ Truly nothing is more cleere in all the holy scripture than that as before the first day mētioned in Genesis all things were possessed of Eternitie so that there was neither time nor yeere nor moneth nor season but all things were in that Eternitie so when the last day shal come all shall be eternall for the felicitie of the good torment of the wicked But to returne to our speech of death the worde of God giueth vs to vnderstand of three kinds of death the one is the separation of the soule from the body with the dissolution of the body vntill the resurrection and of this is our present discourse The second is the death of sinne as it is said oftentimes that they are dead that nourish themselues in sinne The third is called in the Apocalyps the second death and sometimes eternal death vnto which the wicked shal be condemned in the last iudgemēt Therfore to cōtinue our speech of corporal temporal death if the doctrine of the sonne of God be neuer so little apprehended of vs by faith we shall see cleerely enough that the faithful ought to haue that in great request which to humane sense seemeth neither happie nor to be desired seeing it turneth to their saluation It belongeth to him that will not goe vnto Iesus Christ to feare death and to be vnwilling to goe to Christ is a badge of such a one as wil not raign with him What traueller hauing passed many dangerous wayes reioyceth not when he draweth neer to his countrey
of confidence Our hope must be grounded vpon the grace of God Of vaine hope Who are soonest throwen downe with aduersitie Wencelaüs The diuision of hope Of the true and infallible hope Of earthly hope Speeches vnbeseeming a wise man The fruit of hope Our life would be insupportable without hope Cineas talke with I'yrrhus concerning his great hope Pyrrhus compared to a Dice-plaier Caesar was led continually with new hope Two things hurtfull to men We must not judge of enterprises by the euent Ill hap is more common than good Seneca aduiseth vs to prepare our selues to all cuents What the author vnderstandeth by the word Fortune Rom. 15. 5. Exod. 34. 6. Patience a salue for all sores Of the Stoicall patience Vertue is neither without affection nor subiect to affections Of true patience The definition of patience The fruits of patience Prou. 16. 32. Of impatiencie choler and wrath The definition of anger Who are most giuen to impatiencie and choler Aristotle contrary in opinion to the Stoicks How impatiencie and choler may be cured What the wicked iudge of patience Leuit. 19. 18. Deut. 32. 35. Whereof choler is bred A good way to remedie choler The counsaile that Athenodorus gaue to Augustus Eph. 4. 26. A notable custome of the Pythagorians Cotis brake his glasses to auoyd occasion of wrath Magistrates ought not to punish any in their choler As Theodosius did Plato refused to correct his seruant in his anger Aurelianus anger was the cause of his death Valentinian in his anger brake a veine and died thereof Against the infamous vice of swearing A notable decree of the Romanes S. Lewes his law against swearing Carilaüs 1. Thes 5. 14. Heb. 10. 36. This word Man is in Latin Hâ—mo froÌ„ whence is deriued humâ—nitas which signifieth curte fie or gentlenes No nation voyd of curtesie Reasons to mooue vs to loue our neighbours A Temple dedicated to Mercie What Charitie is The definition and effects of Meekenes A medioeritie must be kept betweene mildnes and crueltie Philip a Prince of a good and mild nature Antigonus Oh that Princes would consider this Alexander A commendable combat Bessus cruelly put to death for killing Darius Iulius Caesar M. Aurelius Dion All priuate reuenge commeth of frailtie Lycurgus Lewes the 12. Henry the 2. The Stoicks The Epicures Wherein good and ill hap consist Who is happie in Socrates iudgement Who is happie The cause why Amasis forfooke his alliance with Policrates An ordin arie imperfection in man A meane to auoid the â—â—â—re of our 〈◊〉 An other imperfection Notable opinions of good and ill hap Solon sayd that happines consisted in a good life and death The doctrine of Socrates and of the papists is all one touching the hope of eternall life The common opinion of men concerning happines and vnhappines Whereat Apollonius maruelled most Notable reasons to shew that no worldly thing can be called good and that happines cannot be perfected by any such thing Wherein true happines consisteth Who are vnhappy The happinesse of man commeth from within him Our life compared to table-play Alexander and Crates opposed one against an other Agamemnon Where we must seeke for true happines Who is happie in this world A pretie comparison A similitude A similitude Common effects of the fraile nature of man Prosperity more hurtfull than aduersitie Plato was requested by the Cyrenians to giue them lawes Good counsell for those that are in prosperitie Alexander Iulius Caesar Pompey A wise foresight of Sylla An excellent oration of P. Aemilius to his souldiers M. Aurelius Philip king of Macedonia Archidamas Cyrus The instabilitie of humane things The common effects of aduersitie The fruits of the study of Philosophie Craesus The Romanes were wise and constant in aduersitie The propertie of Vertue oppressed The wonderful constancie of Socrates P. Rutilus Q. Metellus Diogenes Socrates tooke the whole world for his countrey The fruits of riches Of the nature qualitie and effects of riches Riches of them selue are the good gifts of God but the euils wrought for or by theÌ„ come froÌ„ the corrupt nature of man The Poets fained Pluto to be the God of riches appointing Hell for his kingdome The euill disposition of the mind is the true cause of the hurt that commeth by riches From whence happines and contentation commeth Great madnes in coueting monie Examples of the contempt of riches M. Curius Phocion Philopaemen Cimon Anacreon Xenocrates Socrates Fiue Doubles in France make a peny of our coine Lycurgus abrogated the vse of gold and siluer coine Luke 16. 13. 1. Tim. 6. 9. Luke 12. 16. What riches we ought to treasure vp The chief cause why riches are so earnestly desired Against those that think poore men lesse happy than the rich A pretie comparison Matth. 19. 21. 23. No comparison between worldlie and heauenlie treasures The fruits of pouertie An excellent defence for pouertie Examples to shew that pouertie was more esteemed of than riches Zeno. Diogenes Cleanthes Menedemus Asclepiades Pythagoras kept a spare diet Philoxenus Who ought to be esteemed poore Diogenes supposed Alexander to be poorer than himself A friend is to wish 3 things to his friend What pouertie is odious Aristides Where the fulnesse of riches is to be sought Griefe pleasure the causes of all passions in men Idlenes is the mother nurse of all vice Idlenes is against nature Scipio was neuer idle To what end we must studie Philosophie Pythagoras precept against Idlenes Notable examples of the redresse of Idlenes Claudius Adrianus Scipio Nasica The Ephoryes of Lacedemonia Gelon A similitude Sweat is placed before vertue Prouerb 24. 30. 31. Idlenes decaieth the health of the body No man ought to hide his life Of gaming and of the effects thereof Chilon refused to make a league with dicers The occasion that mooued the Lydians to inuent games Alphonsus decree against play How we may recreate our selues Of perseuerance An excellent precept of Phocylides Examples against idlenes An excellent comparison How politicall knowledge must be preserued The fruits of idlenes The end of our life Matth. 10. 22. Matth. 12. 36. A pretie comparison Good friends or sharp enimies are necessarily required to a happy life Why men are beholding to their enimies How men behaue theÌ„selues now adays towards their enimies Murder forbidden A notable sentence Leuit. 24. 17. Psal 9. 9. 16. Matth. 5. 10. To suffer iniurie patiently is a badge of a most absolute vertue A commendable kind of reuenge Good counsaile of Seneca We must do nothing in choler An apt similltu le How a man may profit by the backbiting of his enimies The best kind of reueng How many wayes a maÌ„ may receiue iniurie Men must not take the law into their owne hands although it be not rightly executed Of the offence done to honor The excuse of quarrellers Socrates void of reuenge We must not be mooued with mocks Ptolemaeus How a man may repulse a mocke Cato
labour by all meanes to end the contentions of their subiects They must not be parties in their subiects quarrels The thirteenth The fourteenth Fiue necessary things for the preseruation of euery common-wealth All liuing creatures loue the place of their birth It is the dutie of euery subiect to defend his countrey The nobilitie is the ornament of a Common-wealth Of the law prosapia To whom the defence of a countrey chiefly belongeth What order is The end of order What gouernment is Ignorance is no sufficient excuse for a magistrate What prudence is What a christian empire is We must spare no cost to help the common-wealth Ephe. 4. 5. 6. All things stand by proportion Six sundry callings of men necessary in euery good common-wealth No nation but adoreth some diuinitie The sacrifices of Christians Three sorts of sacrifices Of priests and pastors Wherein the office of true pastors consisteth Esa 56. 10. 11. Against dumbe dogs and couetous sheep-heards Tit. 1. 7. 8. 9. The qualities of a good pastor 1. Pet. 5. 2. 3. Vices to be auoided in a pastor The dutie of a good magistrate consisteth in foure things Iustice distributed into 7. parts Of armes and of the necessitie of them What nobilitie is Three kinds of nobilitie Which is right nobilitie Macrines letter to the Senate of Rome touching nobilitie Malach. 2. 10. When nobilitie of birth is to be esteemed Of riches and burgeises Riches are the sinewes of war They are necessary in a Common-wealth The exceeding riches that Dauid left to Salomon The number of workmen about Salomons temple Augustus maintained yeerely 44. legions of souldiors The limites of the Romane Empire in the time of Augustus Of Artes and Artificers What an Arte or occupatiō is Arte is an imitation of nature Three things necessary for the life of man The vse of Aliments The vse of houses The vse of garments The dutie of all artificers Artificers of one Science ought not to dwell all togither Of Aliments labourers The prayse of husbandry The antiquitie therof Men haue been always more inclined to husbandry than to any other vocation Princes haue forsaken their diademes to fall to husbandry Cyrus Dioclesian Profit and pleasure are ioyned togither in husbandry The countrey fitter for students than the citie The dutie of husband men Three things necessary for them Euery common-wealth must be always prouided against all euents both of peace warre Rom. 12. 18. Col. 3. 15. Leuit. 26. 3. 6. 14. 15. 25. Lycurgus referred all his lawes to warre appointing the Ilotes onely to deale with occupations Numa referred all his lawes to peace The keeping of Ianus Temple shut was a signe of peace among the Romanes The discommodities of a long peace Excellent comparisons betweene the composition of the world and of euery happy Common-wealth How the vertues are knit togither and depend one of another Peace is to be preferred before warre The effects of peace The effects of warre What kingdom is happie Warre maketh men cruell and peace gentle Archidamus letter to the Elians Cato misliked Caesar for breaking of peace Wherefore and when we must begin warre Phocion disswaded the Athenians from warre The fruits of vniust warre When a warre is lawfull Traian neuer vndertooke vniust warre Antigonus testimonie of the iniustice of warre Caesar Famine and the plague follow warre Malcontents are glad of war Causes why the exercise of arms must alwaies continue Augustus kept 40. legions in continuall exercise of warlike discipline Constantine the Great Good considerations for a Prince It is not the weapon that maketh a warriour From whence valure proceedeth Three things necessarily required in men of warre Good will commeth from good institution Reuerence from the wisedome and experience of Captaines Obedience is wrought in them by the diligence of the Heads The vertue of the Captaines is much in war The ancient order of the Romane armie The Romanes diuided their armie into three parts The benefite of this Romane order The wisedome of the Switzers fighting on the Frenchmens side Frenchmen loosing the first encounter loose also the victorie Some armies are furious and yet keepe good order Good order in armies is neuer without hope of victorie In the French armies is furie without order The ancient warlike discipline of the Romanes What manner of campe the ancient Romanes had Of the ancient obedience of souldiors to their captains Of the execution that was shewed vpon souldiors that offended The tithing of armies was most seuere How Captaines were punished if they offended Aurelius letter to a Tribune touching warlike discipline The corruption of warlike discipline in these dayes Aurelius punished adulterie and theft committed by his souldiors with death True payment of souldiors redresseth many disorders amongst them The vnrulines of the Pretorian souldiors The Sicilian Euensong Bellizarius The mild wane of Piemont The crueltie of these late French warres Time and occasion are diligently to be waighed in all matters The good or ill successe of an army dependeth of the captaine A captaine must not offend twise in warre Prudence gotten by vse must be hastened forward by knowledge No man ought to be generall before he haue obtained the renowne of a valiant man Cimon preferred an army of Harts before an army of Lions What captains are woorthiest of their charge Coruinus Oration to his souldiors Captains vsed in old time to make Orations to their souldiors Captains ought to make much of their souldiors The benefit of making Oratiōs to souldiors A good captain must be alwayes furnished with munitions and victuals Cyrus Oration to his captains A good captain must neuer suffer his army to be idle Warre ought to be speedily ended A good captain must not be ouer venturous A General must not rashly hazard himselfe When he ought to venture himselfe Antoninus preferred the life of one citizen before the death of a thousand enimies Scipio would haue all wayes tried before the sword were vsed in warre When Augustus would haue battell giuen Narses always wept the night before he gaue battell Two faults to be eschewed of euery captain A good General must alwayes seare the worst I had not thought it a dangerous speech in a captaine A good captain must haue skill to discerne the situation of places The benefit of Geometry in a General Philopaemenus in time of peace studied the discipline of war Cyrus resembleth his going to warre to hunting Hunting is an image of warre P. Decius C. Marius neuer gaue his enimies occasion to force him to fight The captains of an armie must be very secret I. Caesar very secret in tyme of warre L. Metellus Affaires of war must be debated by many but concluded by few Vrgent occasions in warre require short deliberation Cato a notable paterne for all captains to folow Pompey How Cato diuided the spoiles One godly man in a campe is in place of many Souldiors ought to begin their war with prayer and end with praise thanks-giuing Why a
man must vse his own subiectes in warre Three causes from whence proceeded the ruine of the Romane empire The diuision of the empire weakened the same Dangerous to an Estate to call in forraine succours As appeereth by the Sequani By the Frenchmen The end that forraine souldiours propound to themselues Reasons why forraine force is woorth nothing The cause of the last destruction of Italy The discommoditie of bringing in hired Captaines Dangerous for a Prince to call in a Potentate to succour him Examples of the change of Estats by meanes of forraine succour Charles the fift bound by oath not to bring any forraine souldiors into Germany Charles 7. made decrees for French souldiors What inconueniences France is fallen into by hiring Switzers Francis 1. established seuen legions of footmen How a Prince may vse the succours of his Allies How a Captain should exhort his souldiors How victory is to be vsed Examples of such as knew not how to vse victorie wisely and to take opportunitie offered The Tyrians besieged and subdued by Alexander It is not good to fight with desperate men Iohn king of France taken by the Englishment Gaston de Foix. Small armies that ouercame great Victorie commeth only from God Valiant men are full of compassion No true victorie without clemencie Ringleaders of euill are to be punished and the multitude to be pardoned Humane sciences are but darkenes in regard of the word of God Psal 84. 4. 5. 11. Iohn 17. 3. Of the loue of righteousnes Leuit. 19. 2. 1. Pet. 1. 15. 16. Holines is the end of our calling Christ is a paterne of righteousnes vnto vs. Malach. 1. 6. Eph. 5. 26. 30. Col. 3. 1. 2. 1. Cor. 6. 19. 1. Thes 5 9. We must alwaies striue to come to perfection What the dutie of euery faithful man is Rom. 12. 1. 2. What it is to consecrate our selues to God Gal. 2. 20. True loue of God breedeth in vs a dislike of ourselues Matth. 16. 24. Fruits of the deniall of our selues Selfe loue is the cause of the most of our imperfections The definition of charitie 1. Cor. 13. 4. The effect of true charitie towards our neighbour The naturall inclination of men Corruptible things are no sufficient recompence for vertuous men Rom. 8. 28. Matth. 16. 24. 25. Rom. 8. 17. How God teacheth vs to know the vanitie of this life We must not hate the blessings of this life Psal 44. 22. The comfort of the godly in the midst of troubles Math. 25. 34. Isai 25. 8. Apoc. 7. 17. The summe of our dutie towards God The true vse of temporal things Wherein a happy life consisteth Gen. 2. 17. Rom. 6. 23. Rom. 5. 21. Temporal death is the way that leadeth the godly from bondage to blessednesse Heb. 9. 27. Ecclus 7. 36. The comsort of euery true christian against death Rom. 8. 22. Against Atheists and Epicures that deny the immortalitie of the soule Plato prooueth that there is a iudgement to come and a second life How good men are discerned from the wicked The afflictions of the godly in this world prooue a second life Three kinds of death Apoc. 20. 6. Why the faithfull ought to desire death What the life of man is Phil. 1. 23. 1. Cor. 15. 50. 53. 54. 55. 56. 57. 2. Cor. 4. 14. Phil. 3. 20. 21. Col. 3. 3. 4. 1. Thes 4. 13. 14. Heb. 2 14. 15. 2. Tim. 1. 9. 10. Iob 19. 25. 26. 27. Iohn 12. 17. 1. Cor. 2. 9. Who they be that feare not death A comparison betweene this life and that which is eternall Phil. 1. 23. Titus 2. 13. Luke 21. 28. How death can not hurt Psal 116. 15. A TABLE OF THE PRINCIPALL MATTERS CONTAINED IN THIS ACADEMIE A ADmonition sundrie instructions how to admonish wisely Pag. 153 Aduersitie who are soonest thrown downe with aduersitie 301. the cōmon effects thereof 345. the Romanes were wisest and most constant in aduersitie 347. examples of constancie in aduersitie 348 Adulterie the miserable effects of adulterie 240. the punishment of adulterers among the Egyptians 241. Zaleucus law and the law of Iulia against it 240. testimonies of Gods wrath against it 241 Age hath no power ouer vertue 61. the diuision of the ages of man 563-564 Ambition two kindes of ambition 224. the cause of ambitious desires 225. the effects of ambition 224. 229. examples of mê void of ambition 186. ambition breedeth sedition 225. ambitious men full of selfe-prayse 226. examples of ambitious men 227. c. they cannot be good counsellours to Princes 231 Anger the crueltie of Theodosius committed in his anger 316. Valentinian brake a veine in his anger 317 Apparell against excesse in apparell 219. examples of sobrietie in apparel 219 Archbishop the free gird of a Pesant giuen to an Archbishop 158. the Archbishop of Magdeburg brake his neck in dancing 216 Armes Armie the exercise of armes must alwayes continue 762. the auncient order of the Romane armie 766 Arrogancie dwelleth in the ends with solitarines 157 Aristocratie the description of an Aristocratie 579. the estate of Lacedemonia was Aristocraticall 580 Artes and Artificers the necessitie of artes and artificers in a common-wealth 750. artificers of one science ought not to dwell all togither 751 Authors how much we owe to good authors 45 Authoritie what authoritie a prince hath ouer his subiects 670 B Backbiting the prudence of Dionysius in punishing two backbiters 388. when backbiting hurteth most 460 Bankets the custome of the Egyptians and Lacedemonians at bankets 203 Beard what vse is to bee made of a white beard 572 Belly the belly an vnthankefull and feeding beast 201. 202. it hath no eares 212 Birth the follie of birth-gazers 42 Biting what biting of beasts is most dangerous 460 Body the wonderfull coniunction of the body and soule of man 19. the conceptiō framing and excellencie of the body 21 Brother he that hateth his brother hateth his parents 542. the benefite that brethren receiue by hauing common friends 544. examples of brotherly loue 545 C Calling callings were distinct from the beginning 478. sixe sundry callings necessary in euery common-wealth 744. holinesse is the end of our calling 795 Captaine the losse of a captaine commonly causeth the ruine of an armie III. how captaines were punished if they offended 768. a captaine must not offend twise in warre 773. what captains are woorthiest of their charge 784. the captains of an armie must be very secret 781. two faults to be eschewed of euery captaine 778. how a captain should exhort his souldiors 790 Cheere good cheere keepeth base mindes in subiection 206 Children must loue feare reuerence their father 533. the dutie of children towardes their parents 541. examples of the loue of children towards their parents 541 Choler whereof choler is bred 314. how the Pythagorians resisted choler 315. magistrates ought to punish none in their choler 316 Citie what Citie seemed to Clcobulus best guided 264 Citizens who are truly citizens 606
children of Fraunce or to prouide for the gouernement of the kingdome or for other matters The kinges sate amongst them and were Presidentes except at one assemblie wherein was debated the noblest cause that euer was namelie to whome the kingdome of Fraunce belonged after the death of Charles the faire whether to his cosin Phillip de Valois or to Edward king of England his brother in lawe King Phillip was not President not beyng at that time king and besides a partie No doubt but the people receiue great benefit by this assemblie of estates For this good commeth vnto them that they may drawe neere to the kings person to make their complaints vnto him to present him their requests and to obtaine remedie and necessary prouision for redresse Whereby we may easily iudge that many who haue written of the duetie of magistrates and such like treatises are greatly deceiued in maintaining this That the estates of the people are aboue the prince which laieth open a gappe to the rebellions of subiects against their soueraign so that this opinion can haue no reason or good ground to leane vpon For if this were true the commō-wealth would not be a kingdom or monarchy but a pure Aristocratie as we haue declared heretofore Yea what shew of reason is there to maintaine this error seeing euery one in particular al in general bowe their knees before the king vse humbly requests supplications which his maiestie receiueth or reiecteth as it seemeth best vnto him But in this case we except a king that is captiue beside himself or in his infancie For that which is thē decreed by the estates is authorized as from the soueraign power of the prince Moreouer we may see what great good commeth to the king by the assemblie of his estates in the first speech which master Michael de l' Hospital Chauncellor of France made at the last assemblie of estates at Orleans Where he confuteth at large their opinion that say that the king after a sort diminisheth his power by taking aduise and counsell of his subiects seeing he is not bound so to doe as also that he maketh himselfe too familiar with them which breedeth contempt and abaseth his roiall dignitie But we may aunswere them as Theopompus king of Sparta did his wife who obiected this vnto him by way of reproch that by bringing in the Ephories and minglyng their gouernement with his he would leaue his authoritie and power lesse to his children than hee receiued it from his predecessours Nay said this Prince vnto hir I will leaue it greater bicause it shall be more assured The Emperour Aurelius sayd as much to his mother bicause hee freely heard euery one Besides as we see that in any great perill of sea or fire kindled to the daunger of publike profite no mans seruice or succour is reiected how base soeuer his calling is so it cannot but be profitable for the Estate when it is threatned with ruine and the affaires therof are of greatest importance to receiue the counsell of all that haue interest therein laying the opinions in the balance rather than the persons from whom they come And hereby the soueraigne maiestie and prudence of a Prince is knowen when he hath both power and skill to waigh and to iudge of their aduice that giue him counsel and to conclude with the soundest not the greatest side But to go forward with that which remaineth let so many as haue this honour to be ordinarie counsellors to Princes remember the saying of Solon the wise That they are not called thither to please and to speake to their liking but to vtter the truth and to giue them good counsell for common safetie that they must bring with them for an assured and certaine foundation of their conference about state-affaires a good intent mooued with reason and iudgement to profite him not with passions or desires of vain-glory of couetousnesse of emulation of any other imperfection that leadeth them to their priuate profite that they must at the entrie of the councell chamber vnclothe themselues of fauour towardes some of hatred towardes others and of ambition in themselues and aime at no other marke than at the honour of God and safetie of the Common-wealth To this ende they must necessarilie be furnished with wisedome iustice and loyaltie As for skill and knowledge although it be requisite in counsellors of estate namely the knowledge of the lawes of histories and of the estate of Common-wealths yet sound iudgement integritie and prudence are much more necessarie Aboue all things they must hold nothing of other Princes and Seignories that may binde them to their seruice And yet now a dayes to receiue a pension of them is so common a matter but very pernitious in any estate that it is growen to a custome Agesilaus would not so much as receiue a letter which the king of Persia wrote vnto him but sayd to his messenger that if the king were friend to the Lacedemonians he need not write particularly to him bicause he would also remaine his friend but if he were their enimie neyther letter nor any thing else should make him for his part otherwise affected To bee short let counsellors of estate learne of Plutarch that it is necessarie for them to be free from all passions and affections bicause in giuing of counsell the mind hath most force towards that wherunto the will is most enclined As for feare danger or threatnings they must neuer stay them from doyng their duetie but let them constantly propound and maintaine that which they iudge to be good and profitable for the Common-wealth We read that the Thasiens making warre with great vehemencie against the Athenians published a decree that whosoeuer counselled or spake at any time of concluding a peace between them should die the death Within a while after one of the citizens considering what great hurt his countrey receiued by that warre came one day into the assembly of the people with a halter about his necke and cried with a loud voyce that he was come thither to deliuer the Common-wealth by his death that they should put him to death when they would and that for his part he gaue them counsell to abrogate that law and to make peace which was done and he pardoned Considius a Romane Senatour would neuer be from the Senate no not when Caesar ruled all by violence and did what pleased him and when none of the other Senatours came any more through feare of his force And when Caesar asked him how he durst be there alone to stand against him bicause quoth he my age taketh all feare from me For hauing from hence forward such a short time to liue in I am not greatly carefull to saue my life If kings did correct all those that giue them ill counsell as Solyman did one of his Bassaes who was his kinsman they would not so readily
consent to the passions of great men This Infidell caused him to be hanged bicause he counselled him to put a Gentleman to death vniustly which he had done that he might enioy his wife more casilie Now for the conclusion of our discourse we will here set downe the aunswer of one of the Hebrew interpreters to king Ptolemie who asked him To whome a Prince should trust or commit himselfe To those sayd this wise man that loue him so entirely that they cannot be drawen from him neither through feare gifts or gayne bicause he that aspireth to riches is naturally a traitour Let vs learne that a counsell wel instituted and compounded of good men is a most necessarie point in the establishment and preseruation of euery estate and as the olde Prouerbe saith Good councell is better than manie hands Let vs learne that all those that are called thereunto ought to aime at nothing but at publike profite of which the happinesse and greatnesse of the Prince dependeth who must not contemne the counsell and seruice of the least when they can profite the Common-wealth but heare them willingly and satisfie their iust requests Of Iudgements and of Iudges Chap. 62. ACHITOB WE are now my companions according as the sequell of our speech requireth to consider of Iudgements which I affirmed in the beginning to be one of those two things whereof euery Common-wealth consisteth and that according as they are ordained the affaires of the estate proceed well or ill Therfore I leaue the discourse of this matter to you ASER. No citie saith Plato can truly be called a city if it want iudgements well instituted and consequently iudges to exercise them AMANA Iudgements are lawfull to such as vse them aright and Iudges are to vs the ministers of God for our good as Saint Paule saith Now let vs heare ARAM vpon this matter ARAM. As it is a very dāgerous matter for an estate to wauer daily in deliberations and not to be well resolued touching the affaires thereof or after resolution to leaue them without speedy executiō so the establishment of many good lawes and ordinances bringeth greater peril thā profit to the same estate if they be not seuerely obserued kept For the authoritie of the soueraign magistrate in whose name they are made is so much the more cōtemptible amongst his subiects as they know that they are lesse obeied as though the fault proceeded from his insufficiencie of skil to command He that leadeth well before is the cause why he is wel folowed the perfectiō of the art of a good Querie of the stable consisteth in making the horse obedient in bringing him to good order so the principall effect of the knowledge of a king is to iustruct wel his subiects in obediēce To this purpose the establishment of good iudges ouer thē wil help well that they may take knowledge of such as gain-say and resist the publike lawes and ordinances of his maiestie who is to authorize their iudgements as the chiefe sinewes of the whole body of his estate For nothing euer caused Common-wealthes to flourish so much as the constant keeping of their countrie lawes and the strict execution of iudgements agreeable vnto them And as Cicero saith those estates that are neer their ouerthrow all things beyng in a desperate case fall into this miserable issue that men condemned by the lawes are restored and iudgements giuen are cancelled which things when they come to passe euery one knoweth that their ruine is at hand without all hope of safetie Moreouer forasmuch as the Prince knoweth that he is as it were bound and indebted for iustice he ought to be so much the more careful that it may be rightly administred by those to whom he cōmitteth that office especially seeing he must answer for it himselfe before god to whom he may not say that he charged the consciences of his iudges therwith so discharged his own Wherfore if he adorne his estate with resolute prudent officers who will exactly preserue the bond of the common-welth by the seueritie of their iudgements vpright holding of the balance no doubt but all kind of publike felicitie will issue from the same But let vs briefly consider what iudgement is the diuision of iudgements their administration what manner of Iudges ought to exercise them Iudgement is properly that which is ordained by the Magistrate obseruing the tenor of the law But forasmuch as through the infinit varietie of causes times places and persons which cannot be comprehended in any lawes or statuts whatsoeuer punishments were referred to the will and power of the Magistrates and the dammages of ciuill matters to the conscience religion of the Iudges that which they determine by resolute sentences according to their opinion is also called Iudgement although more properly it may be called a Decree For this cause we say that as there are two principall pointes in euery Common-wealth which Magistrates must haue before their eies that is the law and equitie so also there is the execution of the law and the duty of the Magistrate which consisteth either in commanding in decreeing or in executing Of Iudgementes some are called priuate some publike some criminall others ciuill Priuate iudgements are of bondages prescriptions Gardianships Wardships contracts testaments successions mariages Publike iudgements concerne hainous offences against God man as sacriledge treason restitution of monie or other bribes taken by Magistrats robbery of the kings treasure forgeries theft wilfull and constrained murders Plato speaketh at large of these in his booke of lawes and it would be an infinite matter and smally to our instruction to seeke out the diuers kinds of iudgements which either haue beene or are among men But this is well woorth the noting that amongest the ancient Grecians and Romanes all iudgements both priuat and publike were from point to point followed and with all rigor obserued and they that stood against them were prosecuted and set vpon with fire and sword Among other examples Diodorus rehearsech a storie of the Phocians a people of Grecia condemned by the iudgement of the Amphyctions in a certaine summe of monie bicause they had tilled a great deale of ground that was consecrated to the gods Which summe when they refused to paye they pronounced their countrie as confiscate and consecrated to the gods wherupon arose a warre called the holie warre made by the rest of the Grecians against them and in the ende their vtter ruine subuersion Whosoeuer was once accused of any crime before the Iudges in Lacedemonia although he were absolued yet he abode a certaine time after in that estate of a criminall person during which time enquirie might be made againe of him and newe iudgement giuen according to his desert If the Ephories condemned their kings in any summe yea if it were to death their iudgements were executed with all rigor The