perpetrated The tears of the disconsolate mother were not omitted in her absence Cleopatra made this whole Tragedie to be presented the combate was much enkindled and the battery was forcible Herod who wanted no eloquence in his own occasions replieth with a countenance very lowly and modest Prince and you Sirs who are of the Counsel I hold the Apologie of Herod full of craft scepter of Judea neither of Hircanus nor Alexandra never having had any purpose to flatter them for this end yea much less to fear them You know Most Illustrious Anthonie the Kingdom is in my hands I hold it of you from you all my greatness ariseth and in you all my hopes are concluded If you command I am at this present ready not onely to leave the scepter but my life also which never have I been desirous to preserve but for your service But it troubleth me the way of death being open to all the world the path of reputation which is more dear to me than life should be shut against my innocencie I am persecuted by women and much I wonder how the soul of Queen Cleopatra wholly celestial can nourish so much spleen against a King who never hath failed in any respect lawfully due to her merit For Alexandra it is not strange that she raise such a storm against me her fierce and haughty spirit hath always opposed my patience endeavoring by all means to disparage my government to pull a crown from me which a more puissant hand than her Ancestours hath placed on my head What apparence is there that being by the favour of the Romans a peaceable possessour of a Kingdom the which even by the consent of my adversaries I sought not so regular was my ambition I should attempt a horrible crime which cannot fall but into the mind of a monster No man will be wicked in chearfulness of heart the memorie of the recompence which man proposeth to himself ever beareth the torch before the crime To what purpose should I attempt upon the life of Aristobulus to settle my affairs They were already established your gracious favour most Noble Anthonie hath afforded me more than all their machinations can vanquish But I perpetually have kept back the bloud Royal from dignities What keeping back is it when I have cherished them in my own bosom as much as possible Every one knows Hircanus the prime man of this Royal family being held as a prisoner among the Parthians I bent all my spirits employed all my credit to have him set at libertie and to procure his return to Court where he now liveth in full tranquilitie enjoying all the priviledges of Royaltie but the carefull sollicitude of affairs It is known I have divided my crown and bed with his grand-child Mariamne making her both Queen of people and wife of a King I have given the High-Priesthood to her brother Aristobulus of my meer and free will not enforced by any constraint as being absolute in the mannage of my own affairs and if in ought I delayed him it was because the minority of his age ran not equal with my affections but in effect he hath been beheld High-Priest at eighteen years of age which is a favour very extraordinarie Alexandra his mother who maketh way to this business hath ever had all the libertie of my Court except the licence of ruining herself which she passionately pursueth For what reason had she to hide herself in a coffin and cause herself to be carried in the night as a dead bodie to steal from my Court and after she had wronged me in mine house to traduce me among strangers If she desired to make a voyage into Aegypt she needed to have spoken but one word it had been sufficient But she pleaseth herself in counterfeiting a false peril in a real safetie to thrust into the danger of life those who make her live in all reposed assurance I having discovered this practice did not let fall one word of bitterness against her desirous she should enjoy at her ease the sight of me as a spectacle of patience thinking all folly sufficiently punished with its own proper conscience Certain time after the death of this young Prince happened which draweth tears of compassion from me for I loved him and much it troubled me his mother perverted the sweetness of his exellent nature and cut more stuff out for his youth than he was able to stitch together He is dead not in my house but in the house of his mother dead by an accident which no man could prevent dead sporting in the water a faithless element where a thousand and a thousand have without any such purpose perished dead among the youth of the Court with whom daily be disported himself His own meer motion bare him into the water the bravery of his youth caused him to dally even in danger it self without any possibility to divert him and his own mishap hath drowned him It is to tie me to bard conditions if Alexandra will make me both accountable for the youthfull levities of her son as if I were his governour and of the frail inconstancy of elements as if I were Lord of them This pernicious spirit spake this with so much grace and probability that he gained many hearts So much force had eloquence even in the hands of iniquitie Behold him now on the shore out of peril remaining in Anthonie's Court in all liberty to attend the sentence of his justification In the mean time being as he was wise and liberal in all occasions by force of presents he purchased the hearts of the chief and made all the accusation of Cleopatra appear to be the passion of a woman ill advised Mark Anthony himself said to Cleopatra she did ill to intermeddle so much with forreign Kingdoms and that if she took this course she would raise enemies prejudicial to her estate That Herod being a King it was not fit to use him like a subject and that it would be her happiness rather to have him a friend than an enemie As these things were handled in Anthonie's Court the Queen Mariamne and her mother Alexandra ceased not to be observed by the sollicitous diligence of the mother and sister of Herod Joseph his uncle An act of great stupiditie in Joseph uncle of Herod played the Goaler and often visited Queen Mariamne sometime to treat some affairs with her sometime in the way of complement This man began to burn like a butterflie in the eyes of this incomparable beauty and much affected her although he saw himself far off from all manner of hope Notwithstanding he found some contentment to have fixed his affection in so eminent a place This passion made him foolish and full of babble having already rudeness enough of his own nature which made him utter strange extravagancies For one day there being occasion to speak of Herod's affection to Mariamne his wife Alexandra the mother mocked thereat in an exorbitant
and they shall oppose you in the land of your abode Cruel father that thou art who quite dead and turned into ashes afflictest the Common-wealth by children ill instructed thou woundest and tearest Christianity Were it not justice thinkest thou to break up thy tomb and disturb thy ashes for having voluntarily bred a little viper for thy countrey to which thou art accountable for thy life And from hence it cometh to pass that fathers who have carried themselves so negligently and perfidiously in their childrens instruction are the first who drink down the poyson they mingled for others over-whelmed with toyls and miseries for the continual disorders of these extravagants O how often they make complaint like the Eagle in the Emblem of Julian when strucken by a mortal arrow partly framed out of her own wings she said Out alas wretched bird that I am must I breed feathers to serve as a swift chariot to the steel which transfixeth my body Must I bring forth children to give me the stroke of death What remedie then for this unhappiness which creeping into the bowels of the most flourishing Monarchies depopulates and deprives them of good subjects and furnisheth them with shadows of men What remedy but to observe three things in this matter First to give a good tincture of Religion to your children pious apprehensions of God and a filial fear of his judgements Secondly to manure them with arts suitable to their understanding and condition to settle them in the world upon some good employment lest having nought to do they become fit to act any evil Thirdly to accommodate them as much as possibly and reasonably may be with exteriour moveables called the blessings of fortune that necessity open not them the gate of iniquitie and then leave the rest to the providence of God whose eye is alwayes open over his work Behold the course most fit to be observed Pietie goeth foremost for as the eloquent Prelate of Cyrenes saith It Cynes ad Arcad is not onely the foundation of houses but of whole Monarchies Parents now adays seek to do quite contrary and set the cart before the horse they voluntarily imitate the stupidity of those Aegyptians who prepared Altars to a Reer-mouse for no other reason but that she is weak-sighted and is a friend of the night Now they preferred darkness before light by right of antiquity but these do much worse for putting Heaven and earth into one ballance they set an estimate upon terrene things to the villifying and confusion of celestial Nay there are mothers to be found so malicious as was one named Clotilda not the Saint but a mad woman who being put to her choice either to consent her sons should enter into a Monastery to become religious or resolve to see them loose their lives Kill kill said she I had rather behold them dead than Monks How many are there now adays who for a need would suffer their children to become Pages to Antichrist to make a fortune at the least would well endure to see them preferred to honour in the great Turks Court with ship-wrack of their Religion There are few Queen Blanches either in courage or worth who rather desired to behold her children in their grave than in sin They must now adays be either Caesars or nothing None fear to put them into infamous houses into scandalous places to give them most wicked Teachers to thrust them into snares and scandals under hope of some preferment Nay with how many travels and services crouchings and crimes do these miserable creatures purchase their chains All Non omnes curia admittet castra quos ad liborem pericula recipiant fastidiosè legunt bona mens omnibus patet Senec. Ep. 44. cannot find a fortune in Court Warfare picks out those with a kind of disdain whom it entertains for labours and hazards of life Onely virtue shuts not the gate against any yet it is daily despised Vnfortunate fathers and wretched mothers live on gall and tears rise and go to bed with gnawing care to set an ungratefull son on the top of fortunes wheel who quickly grows weary of them and after their deaths gluts himself with the delights they with so much industrie prepared for him mindless of those who obliged him Nay far otherwise he unfolds the riots of his unbridled youth even upon their tombs God grant this evil may pass no further and that the father and son do not one day reproach one another in the flames of hell that the one ministred matter of damnation and the other gave accomplishment William the learned Bishop of Guliel de Lugdun tract de avarit rubric 11. Lions relateth that a young Hermit retiring into a horrid wilderness to attend the exercise of penance saw his father and brother whom he had left in the world embroiled in ill causes at that time deceased and buried in everlasting fire who made hydeous complaints the son questioning his father as authour of his ruin by amassing unjust riches for him and the father answering the son was the source of all his calamities since to make him rich he had spent his miserable life in perpetual anxiety and now suffered eternal punishments in the other world for loving a disloyal son more than Almightie God Cursed blindness to buy tortures and gibbets with afflictions and crosses O fathers and mothers let your first care extend to those whom you begat to teach them virtue rather by your example than others instruction These young creatures are your shadows your ecchoes they turn and wind themselves easily to imitate those who gave them life and from whom they hope both wealth and honour Wo to the father and mother who make their children witnesses of their crimes and not content to be evil make their sin immortal in the immortality of their descent An infant though but two years old should be used with much regard as if it were an intelligence enchased in this little body It is a great sacriledge to impress the first tincture of vice on those who as yet rest in the innocency of baptism The good Eleazar being advised to dissemble his Religion to save his life or at least to make semblance of eating hogs-flesh beholding round about him many youths who expected the end of this combat pronounced these worthy words couched in S. Ambrose God forbid I should serve for an incentive Ambrose l. 2. de Jacob. Nequaquam contingat mihi ut sim senex incentivum ju venilis erroris qui esse debet forma salutaris instituti Adulterio delectatus aliqui◠Jovem respicit inde cupiditatis suae fomenta conquirit Julius Firm. de error profan to the vices of these young people who should rather be a pattern of wisdom God forbid I defile my gray hairs with this execration and that posterity may take notice I opened the gate to impiety by my example That is undoubted which Julius Firmicus spake Nothing hath
much as businesses of that nature would permit But her mother Alexandra touched to the quick to behold her self amongst so many spies she who was ever desirous to converse and live with all royall liberty resolved to play at double or quit to break the guyves of specious servitude or yield her neck to Herods sword if it should come to pass her calamity transported her into such extremity What doth she Cleopatra that Queen who had filled the world with her fame was then in Aegypt and naturally hated Herod as well for his barbarous disposition as for particular interests of her own person For she knew he much had entermedled in her affairs and given Mark Anthony counsel to forsake her yea to kill her This Tyrant was so accustomed to say Kill that he easily advised others to use the same medicine which was with him to his own maladies frequent It is a strange thing that Cleopatra one day passing through Judea he resolved to send her into the other world thinking therewith to gratifie Mark Anthony but was disswaded by his friends saying it was too audacious to attempt and able for ever to ruin his fortune The design was never published But Cleopatra had cause enough besides to hate Herod which much emboldened Alexandra to write to her in such like terms ALEXANDRA to the Queen CLEOPATRA Health Madame SInce God hath given you leave to be born the most Letter of Alexandra to Cleopatra accomplished Queen in all qualities it is fit your Greatness serve as a sanctuary for the innocent and an Altar for the miserable The wretched Alexandra who hath much innocency void of support and too many calamities without comfort casteth her self into the arms of your Majesty not to give her a scepter but to secure the life of her and her son the most precious pledge which remaineth of heavens benignity Your Majesty is not ignorant that fortune having made me the daughter and mother of a King Herod hath reduced me to the condition of a servant I am not ambitious to recount my sufferings which I had rather dissemble but whatsoever a slave can endure in a gally I bear in a Kingdom through the violence of a son in law who having stoln the diadem from my children would also deprive them of life We are perpetually among spies sharp knives and black apprehensions of death which would less hurt us if it were more sudden Stretch out a hand of assistance to the afflicted and afford us some petty nook in your Kingdom till the storm be over-blown and that we may see some sparkles of hope to glimmer in your affairs Glory thereby shall abide with you and with us everlasting gratitude Cleopatra having received these letters made a ready answer and invited her to hasten speedily into Aegypt with her son protesting she should esteem it an unspeakable glory to serve as a sanctuary and refuge for the affliction of such a Princess Resolution of departure is taken but the execution is a hard task The poor Io knows not how to withdraw Enterprise of Alexandra her self from this many-eyed Argus In the end as the wit of woman is inventive especially in matters that concern their proper interests she without discovering ought to any one no not to her daughter Mariamne fearing least her nature too mild should advise her rarher to rest in the lists of patience than to attempt ways so perilous she I say onely advising with her own passion in this business caused two beers to be made a matter of ill presage to put her self and son into thinking by this means to elude the diligence of the Guard and so to be carried to the sea where a ship attended her and by this way save her life in the power of death But by ill hap a servant of hers named Aesop who was one of those that were appointed to carry the beers going to visit one called Sabbion a friend to the house of Alexandra let some words fall of the intention of his Mistress as thinking to to have spoken to a faithful and secret friend of hers The perfidious Sabbion had no sooner wrung the worm out of this servants nose but he hasteth to open all to Herod supposing it was a very fit opportunity to work his reconciliation he having a long time been suspected and accounted to be of Alexandras faction Herod after he heard this news wanted not spies and centinels The poor Lady with her son is surprised upon the beers drawn out of the sepulcher of the dead to return to the living ashamed and disgraced that her Comedy was no better acted little considering that after her personated part had failed she could nothing at all pretend to life Herod notwithstanding whether he feared the great credit Cleopatra had or whether he would not wholy affright Alexandra thereby with the more facility to oppress her contained himself in the ordinary dissimulation of his own nature without speaking one sole word unto her Although very well in the face of this painted hypocrisie was seen that the clouds were gathered together to make a loud Thunder-crack raise an unresistable tempest The caytive after he had given so many deaths Pitiful death of young Aristobulus in the horrour and affrightment of arms would inflict one even as it were in sport upon a fair sommers day Being at dinner at the house of the miserable Alexandra feigning to have buried in deep oblivion all what was past saith that in favour of youth he this day would play the young man and invite the High-Priest Aristobulus his brother in law to play at tennis with him or some other like exercise The sides were made the elumination was enkindled The young Prince hot and eager played not long but he became all on a water as at that time happened to many other Lords and Gentlemen Behold they all run to the rivers which were near this place of pleasure where they dined Herod who knew the custom of Aristobulus and well foresaw he would not fail to cast himself into these cold baths suborneth base villains who under the shew of pastime should force him to drink more than he would All succeeded as this traiterous wretch had premeditated Aristobulus seeing the other in the water uncloathed himself quickly and bare them company There was no cause why he should swim sport and dally upon this element ever dangerous although less faithless than Herod The poor sacrifice skipped up and down not knowing the unhappiness which attended him But the accursed executioners remembred it well For spying their time in this fatal sport they smothered the poor High-priest under the waters in the eighteenth year of his age and the first of his High-priesthood This bright Sun which rose with such splendour and applause did set in the waves never to appear again but with horrid wanness of death on his discoloured visage Humane hopes where are you True dreams of Vanity and
summons you shall have from the will of God It is not perfection not to care for life through impatience nor to have an ear not deaf to death through faintness of courage This resignation was most excellent and very admirable in our Ladie for two reasons First the great knowledge she had of beatitude Secondly the ineffable love she bare to her Son For I leave you to think if our desires follow the first rays of our knowledges and if we be so much the more earnest after a good as we are the better informed of its merit what impatience Patience of our Lady to endure life must our Ladie needs have of life since she received a science of beatitude strong powerful and resplendent above all other creatures God giving her leave to see in Calvarie the abyss of his glories in the depth of his dolours It is no wonder we so very easily affect life seeing we are as the little children of a King bred in the house of a shepheard as the gloss upon Daniel reporteth touching the education of Nebuchadnezzar We know not what a scepter Kingdom or crown is in this great meaness of a life base and terrestrial But had we talked onely one quarter of an hour with a blessed soul and discoursed of the state of the other life our hearts would wholly dissolve into desires Which makes me say It was an act of a most heroical resolution in the blessed Virgin in those great knowledges she had of Paradise to have continued so many years in this life and if you consider the most ardent love she bare her Son who was the adamant of all loves you shall find the holy Virgin who had born all the glory of Paradise in her womb more merited in this resignation she made to see her self separated the space of thirty years both from Paradise and her Son than all the Martyrs did in resigning themselves to deaths strange bloudy and hydeous There is nothing comparable to the martyrdom of Martyrdom of love love It is an exhalation in a cloud It is a fire in a myne a torrent shut up in ditches a night of separation lasteth Ages and all waxeth old for it but its desires Now this holy Mother to be thirty years upon the cross of love without repining without complaint or disturbance peaceably expecting the stroke of her hour what virtue and how far are we from it So now adays throughout the world you see nothing Worldly irresolutions of death Boet. Carm. 1. Eheu cur dura miseros averteris aure Et stentes oculos claudere saeva negos but mourners who are loth to live or faint-hearted that would never die Some crie out Come to me O sluggish death thou hast forgotten me what do I here I am but a living death and an unprofitable burden to the earth Ah death hast thou ears of brass and diamond for me alone Canst thou not shut up mine eyes which I daily drown in my tears Much otherwise when we see one die young fresh flourishing in honour wealth health prosperity we crie out upon death as if it were cruel and malicious To take saith one this young betrothed this poor maid this husband intended this excellent man who so well played the Rhodomont to lay hold of one so necessarie for the publick in the flower of his age Why took it not away this cripple this beggar who hath not wherewith to live Why took it not away this other who daily dies yet cannot die once O our manners O dainty conceits O fit language Were it not some little humane respect we would take Gods Providence by the throat Whom do we contend withal The indifferency we daily see in the death of men where as soon the young is taken as the old the happie as the miserable the Emperour as the porter is one of the greatest signs of Gods Providence to be admired Why then complain we that God maketh us to leave life when he pleaseth It is not a punishment but a wholesom doctrine by which we learn the power of the Divine Wisdom First when we entered into life our advise was not required whether we would be born in such or such an Age such a day such a year such an hour so when we must be gone from hence there is no reason to ask our counsel Let us onely yield up this last loan and not murmure against the father of the family Let us not say this man should go before and this after Who knows them better than God You complain this miserable creature lives so long how know you whether he accomplish the years of his purgatory How know you whether God suffers him to become a spectacle unto you of his patience Why gnash you your teeth for anger that this man rich that man fortunate and that other so qualified is taken hence in his flourishing youth How know you the misadventures and shipwracks which attended him had he still continued in the world You say he was necessary why God will shew there is not any thing necessary in the world but himself Vnâ— aâ—ulso non deficit alter aureus Poor eyes of a bat which see nothing but darkness you would give eyes to Argus and light to the Sun If you desire to take part in the prudence of the just handle the matter so that for the first sign of a good death you be ever indifferent to live or die accordding to our Ladies example Daily expect death stand perpetually on your guard Do as the brave bird the Grecians call Onocratalus which is so well practised Instinct of the Onocratalus Constancy of faith to expect the Hawk to grapple with her that even when sleep shuts up her eyes she sleepeth with her beak exalted as if she would contend with her adversary Know we are continually among rocks and dangers that there needs but one hour to get all or loose all that the day of Judgement comes with the pace of a thief and that we must be ready to receive it and resolute to combat with death to gain immortalitie Hold this concluding sentence of Tertul. Idol c. 2. Hos inter scopulos velisicata spiritu Dei fides navigat tuta si cauta secura si attonita Caeterúm ineluctabile excussis profundum inexplicabile impactis naufragium irrespirabile â— devoratis hypocriphium Second quality of good death Philo l. 3. de vita Mosis in fine Notable speech of Philo of Moses his state 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tertullian as an Oracle Amongst the rocks and shelves of this sea called life Christian faith passeth on breaking the waves filling the sails with Gods spirit ever assured yet ever distrustful and perpetually fearless yet still carefull of the future As for the rest it sees under its feet an abyss not to be passed by swimming and inexplicable ship wrack for those who are drenched a gulf which suffocates all such as it once swalloweth The second
whereof the poor have too much been frustrated to establish thy vanities and fatten thee in pleasures Where is thy liberality Where are thy alms toward miserable creatures who die in affliction in the streets Observe justice and take example by my disasters Husband it is thy wife so beloved that speaks to thee saying Ah my dearest friends where is the faith plighted in the face of the Church Where are the faithful loves which should have no limit but eternity Death no sooner absented me from thy eyes but forgetfulness drew me out of thy heart I complain not thou livest happy and fortunate in thy new affections for I am in a condition wherein I can neither envy nor malice any but I complain that not onely after my death the children which are pledges of our love were distastful to thee but thou hast wholly lost the memory of one who was so precious to thee and whom thou as a Christian oughrest to love beyond a tomb Open yet once unto her the bowels of thy charity and comfort by thy alms and good works a soul which must expect that help from thee or some other The seventeenth EXAMPLE upon the seventeenth MAXIM Apparition of Souls in Purgatorie HIstories tell us the apparation of souls in Purgatory are so frequent that he who would keep an account may as soon number the stars in the sky or leaves on the trees But as it is not fit to be too credulous in all may be said thereupon so a man must be very impudent to deny all is spoken of it and to oppose as well the authority of so many great personages as the memory of all Ages He who believes nothing above nature will not believe a God of nature How many extraordinary things are there the experience whereof teacheth us the effects and of which God hideth the reasons from us The Philosopher Democritus disputing with Solinus Polyhistor the Sages of his time concerning the secret power of nature held commonly in his hand the stone called cathocita which insensibly sticketh to such as touch it and they being unable to give a reason of it he inferred there were many secrets which are rather to humble our spirits than to satisfie our curiosity Who Jul. Scal. A Porta Caâ—eraâ— can tell why the theamede which is a kind of adamant draweth iron on one side and repelleth it on the other Why do the forked branches of the nut-tree turn towards mines of gold and silver Why do bees often die in the hives after the death of the Master of the family unless they be else-where transported Why doth a dead body cast forth bloud in the presence of the murderer Why do certain fountains in the current of their waters and in their colour carry presages of seasons as that of Blomuza which waxeth red when the countrey is menaced with war Why have so many noble families Diâ—â—arus Petrus Albinus certain signs which never fail to happen when some one of the family is to die The commerce of the living with spirits of the dead is a matter very extraordinarie but not impossible to the Father of spirits who holdeth total nature between his hands Peter of Clugny surnamed the Venerable and esteemed in his time as the oracle of France was a man who proceeded in these affairs with much consideration not countenancing any thing either frivolous or light Behold the cause wherefore I willingly make use of his authority He telleth that in a village of Spain named the Star there was a man of quality called Peter of Engelbert much esteemed in the world for his excellent parts and abundant riches Notwithstanding the spirit of God having made him understand the vanity of all humane things being now far stepped into years he went into a Monastery of the Order of Clugny there the more piously to pass the remnant of his dayes as it is said the best incense cometh from old trees He often spake amongst the holy Fryers of a vision which he saw when he as yet was in the world and which he acknowledged to be no small motive to work his conversion This bruit came to the ears of Venerable Peter who was his General and who for the affairs of his Order was then gone into Spain Behold the cause why he never admitting any discourses to be entertained if they were not well verified took the pains to go into a little Monastery of Nazare where Engelbert was to question him upon it in the presence of the Bishops of Oleron and Osma conjuring him in the virtue of holy obedience to tell him punctually the truth touching the vision he had seen whilest he led a secular life This man being very grave and very circumspect in all he said spake the words which the Authour of the historie hath couched in his proper terms In the time that Alphonsus the younger heir of the great Alphonsus warred in Castile against certain factious dis-united from his obedience he made an Edict that every family in his Kingdom should be bound to furnish him with a souldier which was the cause that for obedience to the Kings commands I sent into his army one of my houshold-servants named Sancius The wars being ended and the troups discharged he returned to my house where having some time so journed he was seized by a sickness which in few dayes took him away into the other world We performed the obsequies usually observed towards the dead and four moneths were already past we hearing nought at all of the state of his soul when behold upon a winters night being in my bed throughly awake I perceived a man who stirring up the ashes of my hearth opened the burning coals which made him the more easily to be seen Although I found my self much terrified with the sight of this ghost God gave me courage to ask him who he was and for what purpose he came thither to lay my hearth abroad But he in a very low voice answered Master fear nothing I am your poor servant Sancius I go into Castile in the company of many souldiers to expiate my sins in the same place where I committed them I stoutly replied If the commandment of God call you thither to what purpose come you hither Sir saith he take it not amiss for it is not without the Divine permission I am in a state not desperate and wherein I may be helped by you if you bear any good will towards me Hereupon I required what his necessity was and what succour he expected from me You know Master said he that a little before my death you sent me into a place where ordinarily men are not sanctified Liberty ill example youth and temerity all conspire against the soul of a poor souldier who hath no government I committed many out-rages during the late war robbing and pillaging even to the goods of the Church for which I am at this present grievously tormented But good Master if you loved me
be for our advantage There are who escape out of prison by fire others who are faln into precipices very gently and have in the bottome found their liberty others to whom poysons are turned into nutriment others to whom blows of a sword have broken impostumes so true it is that the seeds of good hap are sometimes hidden under the apparances of ill Besides this give your self the leisure to find out the To take things at the worst whole latitude of the evill which strikes you Take if you think good all things at the worst and handle your self as an enemy yet you shall find that this evil is not so bad as it is said that many have gone that way before you and that if God permit it he will give you strength to bear it The fear it self which is the worst of our evils is not so great a torment since it affordeth us precaution industry and fit means and suggesteth us wayes to fear no more If you never have experienced evil you have much to complain that you so little have been a man and if you have some experience of the time past it will much serve you to sweeten the apprehension of the evils to come Vanquish your own conceits as much as you can and pray them not to present unto you under so hideous a mask those pains which women and children have many times laughed at If you in the beginning feel any horrour and the first rebellions of nature lose not courage for Fiducia pallens Statius Theb. Rodericus Toletanus rerum Hisp l. 5. c. 23. all that since the Poet painted Boldnesse with a pale visage We have often seen great Captains as Garcias to quake in the beginning of dangerous battels because their flesh as they said laid hold of their courage and carried the imagination into the most hideous perils Lastly be it how it will be you shall find the remedy of your fears in the presence of that which you fear since there are some who in the irresolution of some affair do endure a thousand evils and so soon as the determination thereof succeedeth though to their prejudice they fell themselves much more lightned Many prisoners who stand on thorns in prison expecting the issue of their triall go very resolute to execution seeing it is better to die once then to live still in the apprehension of death David shook with fear Reg 2. 12. wept and fasted lay on the ground for the sicknesse of his young son But after the death was denounced him he rose up from the earth changed his habit washed and perfumed himself then having worshipped in the house of God he asked for his dinner and first of all comforted Bathsheba upon this accident whereat his houshold-servants were amazed But he taught them we must not afflict our selves for those things whereof there is no remedy I conclude with the last kind of fear which comes from things very extraordinary as are Comets Armies of fire Prodigies in the Heavens and the Air Thunders Lightnings Monsters Inundations Fires Earthquakes Spirits Spectres Devils and Hell Good God! what terrour is there in this miserable life since besides these which are so ordinary with us we must expect other from places so high and so low But howsoever we notwithstanding do find courages which surmount them with the assistance of God although it do not ordinarily happen without some impressions of fear otherwise we must be far engaged in stupidity Comets Eclipses flying fires and so many other Meteors do not now-a-dayes so much affright since we have discovered the causes which is a powerfull proof that ignorance in many occasions makes up a great part of our torments Pericles strook Stratagem of Pericles Polyaenus l. 3. a fire-steel in an assembly of his Captains and Souldiers who were astonished at a thunder and lightning happened in the instant of a battel shewing that what the heavens did was that he was doing before their eyes which marvellously satisfied them Superstition makes a thousand fantasies to be feared whereat we might laugh with a little wisdome The Euseb l. 1. de praeparat Evang. c. 7. Egyptians were half dead when the figure of a huge dragon which sometimes of the year was shewed them did not seem to look well on them and the Romans fell in their Courage when the Cocks which governed their battels did not feed to their liking Hecataeus Hecataeus apud Cunaeum l. 2. de Rep. Hebraeorum an antient Historian telleth that Alexanders whole army stood still to look on a bird from whence the Augur went about to derive some presage which being seen by a Jew named Mosellan he drew an arrow out of his quiver and kill'd it mocking at the Grecians who expected their destiny from a creature which so little knew its own As we laugh at this present at these fopperies so we should entertain with scorn so many dreams and superstitious observations which trouble them enough who make account of them Wild beasts inundation of rivers productions of mountains big with flames sulphur and stonas are other causes of terrour nor hath there ever been seen any more hideous then that which happened these late years in Italy in the last fiering of Mount Vesuvius The burning of Vesuvius in the year 1631. Julius Recupitus which is excellently described by F. Julius Recupitus Then it there can be nothing seen more able to excite terrour unlesse in an instant the bottome of Hell were laid open and all the hideous aspects of the torments of the damned Yet it is a strange thing how among waves of fire which ran on all sides clouds of Ashes which appeared like vast mountains continuall Earthquakes countrebuffs of Hillocks and of houses of Abysses of Gulphs and of Chaoses there were people to be found who yet thought upon their purses and took the way towards their houses to lay hold of their slender substances which makes us see that there is nothing so horrid where the soul of man returned to it self findeth not some leisure to breathe The monsters of the Roman Amphitheatre which in the beginning made the most hardy to quake were in the end despised by women who were hired to combat with them Things not seen which it seems should most trouble the mind because they are most hidden are also in some sort surmounted since we read how that many great Anchorets lay in Church-yards infested with ghosts and spectres and about solitudes in forrests and wildernesses the most retired in the midst of so many illusions of evill spirits as it is written in the Acts of Saint Anthony S. Hilarion and S. Macarius There is nothing but the day of Judgement Hell and the punishments of the damned we should reasonably fear and not out of visionary scruples to free us from all fear § 4. That the Contemplation of the power and Bounty of God ought to take away all our fears BUt if these reason
of torments is a thing to be feared above all things most dreadful Paulus Orosius in the historie he dedicated to Saint Paul Oros l. r. c. 10. Chariots of Pharaoh Augustine observeth that the tracks of Pharaohs chariots after his detestable death remained a long time upon the sands of the Red sea to serve as an example for posteritie Behold O Noblemen the bloudy foot-steps of so many and so many Great-ones who have gone before you whose spoils are perhaps as yet in your hands their bodies in putrefaction and their souls in torments Resemble not State of worldlings those that pillaged the souldiers of Sennacherib who strucken with the revengeful hand of Heaven found men of ashes in golden arms they took the gold Desperate death without thinking at all of the ashes which scattered by the ways Take good heed how you suffer your selves to be deceived with the glimmer of the honours of these ill-living Great-ones lest you be surprized with their death and catastrophe The day of death will come be it sooner or later the post is on the way who bringeth the date hereof If you have lived ill a thousand terrours a thousand frightful fantasies will then besiege your heart altogether drenched in the bitterness of death A tumultuous army of thoughts shall strike an alarm to your repose some shall represent unto you your goodly palaces many times cemented with the bloud and sweat of poor men which you must forsake and pay all in one gross sum other all the goods which you shall have invaded either by violence or subtiltie whereof you shall be stript and shall go to the judgement of God devoid of riches and surcharged with accounts others shall decipher unto you the follies of your youth other will depaint unto you the day of judgement and hell before you sensibly make proof of them The Ladie which sleepeth by your sides and ever holdeth the fire and spur in your hearts moving you to new violences and extortions to foment her pride and entertain her pompous vain-glory shall leave you then to wrestle with death and shall seek the safety of her own affairs Your eldest son for whom you presently pawn your soul to all injustice and exhaust your own abilities as the spider to make him great shall willingly out-run the steps of death to close your eyes and scarcely shall there be found in the house some poor old woman to shrowd your bodie in a winding-sheet to be put into a coffin In the mean while the soul seperated from the bodie shall be presented to the judgement of God to receive the inevitable sentence Alas doth he not sleep a long and deadly sleep who is not awakened with the sound of such a trumpet The thirteenth REASON Taken from Reward AN Ancient said that the two most powerful Punishment and Reward Deities of the Common-wealth Deities of Common-wealths were Punishment and Reward These likewise are the two bases and as it were the two fundamental laws upon which God the Creatour hath established the policie of the Universe As he is a severe revenger of offences so he is most liberal in rewards The Scripture Miserationes ejus super omnia opera ejus Psal 144. Justice by weight Mercy infinite Pondus statera judieia Domini Ponam in pondere judicium justitiam in mensura Prov. 6. Isaiah 28. Joel 2. Essundam de spiritu meo super omnem carnem Isaiah 40. Qui mensus est pugillo aques palmo coelos ponderavit teacheth us this in very remarkeable tearms speaking of the Justice of God and gives it him in strict measure when there is no question of chastisement as if it were an act disproportionable to his nature and his ordinary practice But when he is actually disposed to pardon a sin to reward a good work to crown a virtue he poureth out his graces as out of a golden tonnel with a free and plenteous provision For the same reason the Prophet Isaiah saith He measureth the waters with his fist and poyzeth the Heavens with his palm that is to say he giveth chastisements and afflictions signified in the Scripture by the waters with a sparing and close hand but as concerning rewards represented by the Heavens he pours them on all parts with his sacred and bounteous hands Fear not then O Noblemen that you having vowed a faithful service to your great Master shall be in any kind frustrated of the recompence which he hath established for his servants He hath always the reward in his hands If Merces mea mocum est Apoc. 22. he present on one side the sword of Justice to sinners on the other he extendeth unto you the olive of peace and benignitie Figure to your selves the great Emperour bearing in his arms an Eagle with two heads who in one beak held a thunder-bolt and in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Maximil 11. apud Tipotium other a branch of Palm with this motto Every one in his time God runneth the same course if he hath thunder-bolts to crush rebellious heads he hath palms to crown the faithful services which men of quality render to him And without speaking here of rewards O Noblemen common to you with others if you be constantly ranged in the way of virtue you shall find that God will liberally give you three things which those of your condition ever hold in great esteem And what are those A house competently rich a solid glory a flourishing Three sorts of Great men make fortunes posteritie and how is that Amongst those who enjoy great fortunes some build like mothes others like swallows the rest like halcyons Those build like mothes who raise houses of injustice and iniquity which in the same proportion as they are reared to the clouds unperceivably sink into hell wear waste and in the end quite vanish away This is the goodly consideration of holy Job speaking of the palace of the wicked He hath built his house Job 27. 18. Aedificavit sicut tinea domum suam as the moth And how doth she build With destroying You will say this little creature harboured in some cloth or old garment maketh much adoe he gnaweth and gnaweth day and night as endeavouring to build a lodging for himself and in gnawing discovereth himself the end of his travel is his loss and nakedness O how divine is the Scripture to represent so natively to us the blindness of the great and rich of this world who suppose they can make magnificent and happy houses without the foundation of the fear of God! All in doing this build as the moth that is to say House of the moth in gnawing they have plots and designs in the Countrey in the Citie in every place they have Overseers and Architects they employ the mason the carpenter they raise houses of pleasure they make magazins fretted with gold and silver they buy they purchase they contrive in their
corn to the mil who go even into the ocean to fish for habits and attires for them and most times live within four fingers of death to give them means to flow in delicacies Onely death it is that taketh no suretie For whch cause man dieth in his own person and laboureth by deputie If death would a little give way no Great man would die but by Attorney Out alas O the justice of God how equally dost thou still hold the ballance They that would not here labour as men thou makest them take pain like infernal spirits thou dissolvest the sweat of poor paysants in the consolation of their souls and thou seasonest the delights of rich men with care melancholy dolour jealousie envy anxiety terrours and remorse which are able to make them sweat bloud Were there no other proof this manifestly enough declareth to us how odious this curiositie of Great men is to the Divine Majesty and how punishable since its own delights are changeâ— into chastisements Yet notwithstanding I will produce some reasons that the unworthiness of this wicked excess may punctually be touched with the finger which now adays overfloweth the whole face of the earth First I say it is extreamly unreasonable to be desirous Remedies and reasons against excess to live in the world with reason against all reason to endeavour to put a reasonable creature into a condition of life where it of necessity must bely the law of God and its proper nature O Noblemen God would that you enter into the world like othermen as into a vale of tears and you will arrive there as in a garden of delicacies He would that you come thither as to the mynes to dig and you go thither as to a dicing-house to play he would that you make passage into a servile flesh to obey and you will command Is not this a sin against nature Cross of nature Nemo impune nascitur omnis vita supplicium est To come into the world is to come upon a cross to be man is to stretch out the hands and feet to be crucified The first bed that an infant maketh coming from his mothers womb is on the cross He is as soon in a cross as in nature and suffereth this punishment for no other cause but for that he is born a man The Emperours of Constantinople had in their Palace The purple chamber of Emperours Anna Commena lib. 6. Luitprand de rebus Europ Cyprian de patient Procellas mundi quos ingreditur statim suo ploratu gemitu rudis anima testatur a secret chamber which they called the Purple in which the Empresses for a ceremonious formality were brought to bed and delivered thinking by this means to abolish the acerbities which are as it were affixed to our condition But these petty Porphyrogenites so these children of Emperours were called because they were born in scarlet were notwithstanding born with a cross and saluted life as others with tears and groans The children of Kings come al into the world through this gate of miseries they are born as with a diadem on their fore-heads and yet fail not to be natures little prisoners It is accounted a goodly thing to give them guilded cradles and silken swathing-bands This is to adorn their chains but not to break them they are as well captive in them as heretofore the prisoners in India who rotted in poverty and calamitie even in golden fetters It is a decree of Almighty God O Great-ones that you must be born with the cross on your back and you will cancel it if this yet might be practised with some reasonable evasion and mediocrity it would seem more tolerable but now adays this excess is so enraged that it will plant the tropheys of pride and voluptuousness upon the calamities of mankind What is not done upon tables What is not done in apparel Men cloath as if they were always to live and eat as if they should every day die We prepare an Altar to a false Deitie Tyranny of the belly which at this day with unspeakable violence swayeth in the world It is a bruitish god if you desire to know him for never had he an ounce of of brain A blind god who hath no eyes to behold the miseries of the earth A deaf god who hath no ears to hear the complaints of the afflicted A truantly god who hath no hands to take pains An immoveable god who hath no feet to travel on An effeminate god who hath no heart to undertake any good nor courage to suffer ills A gluttonous god Philip. 2. Quorum Deus venter est gloria in confusione ipsorum Tertul. advers Psych Deus tibi venter est pulmo templum aqualiculus altare sacerdos coquus spiritus sanctus nidor condimenta charismata ructus prophetia vâ—tus est who gourmandizeth all An unclean god who polluteth all This false god according to the Apostle is the belly His temple saith Tertullian is the lungs his Altar the panch his Priest the Cook his holy Ghost the smoke of meats his grace the sauces his prophesie that which may not civilly be spoken As he in his person is enormous so is he no less prodigious in his tyranny It is a wonder to see how he hath his officers in every place For him war is waged against the air and clouds birds are disnestled from the Kingdom which nature hath allowed them For him the face of the earth is turned into a shambles For him seas are sounded depths are plummeted ship-wracking storms and direful tempests are ferried over Man willingly would penetrate heaven and delve even to hell to find out new sacrifices for this fleshly and carnal god and himself being alive he is made the sepulchre of so many massacres that it is a miracle how one man can live who daily burieth so many dead creatures in his entrails All this hurly-burly which Gourmandize emptieth the air earth and seas is made for a stomach four fingers broad for which a little bread and water would suffice in necessity and in superfluity the whole world is too little to satisfie We know not what course to take to find out new curiosities for the palate We sup up oysters alive we seek out mushromes we will know what tast hath the flesh of tortoyses and snails These poor little creatures had good cause to believe that their meanness would enfranchize them but sottish and fordid gluttony draweth a tribute from all and I think their tast will shortly be taken with serpents and ravens But let us not onely accuse the belly the eyes devour more than it They are delighted to behold fishes to swim in a sea of sugar to see forrests nets huntings birds wild beasts houses castles fields arms of sugar had licourousness of tast so much power as it hath little brain it would make a world of sugar and then would dissolve it to be
sooner is he engaged in one way but his feet itch to transfer him to another If he be upon terms of repulse behold Envie him drenched in desperate and furious envie which maketh him daily die as many deaths as there are others more happy than himself Verily the wheel of Ixion is a silly fable in comparison of the tortures of the ambitious That was a sport which The wheel of Heliogabalus Lampridius i◠Heliogab Heliogabalus did when he took his Courtiers and commanded them to be tied and trussed fast to a great wheel and then rolled and turned them up and down in the water taking infinite pleasure to see them sometime aloft sometime below sometime to tast the sweetness of the air and sometime to be deeply plunged in the water whereof necessity they drank more than enough Ambitious men daily act the same play but they personate it tragically their life is wholly composed of leaps bounds and skips they are the very reeds the very shuttle-cocks of inconstancy they are meer wind-blown haloones which are tossed this way and that way sometime with the foot sometime with the hand They are enforced upon all occasions to bear the fools bable and they miserable have drunk with so long and deep draughts of the water of forgetfulness that they cannot awaken themselves from their drunkenness until death come to close up their eyes Were it not a thousand times better to plant coleworts and roast chessnuts than to live amongst so many servile complacences unworthy of a noble spirit so many frustrated pretensions so many illusions so many scornful repulses so many hopes which crack like a cloud and raise a tempestuous storm where shade and sweet refreshment is expected It is a wonder to behold men to betray their reason to Captivity of charges court the fortunes of Great men to bereave themselves of comfort repose and liberty to be surprized in a mill full of skreaking noises in a confused turmoyl of difficult and thorny affairs poorly to beg a little favour which perpetually escapeth them and oftentimes breaks as a glass in the beauty of its lustre Petrarch dialog 47. l. 1. de remediis Sua negotia gerere laboriosum quid censeas aliena precipue potentium quibus placuisse perpetua servitusest displicuisse discrimen Ex quo ambitioni servire caepisti tibi vivere desiisti Vilis tibi est anima virtus fama quies otium securitas Vix diligunt Reges nisi qui omnibas neglectis se eorum libidini servum fecit Petrarch well acquainted with these considerations spake these most remarkeable words Miserable ambitious men every one hath so much trouble to spin the web of his own affairs and to bring them to a good end and thou with much chearfulness of heart pryest into other mens business yea into the affairs of Greatmen whom it is impossible to please without perpetual servitude nor displease without most evident danger After you began to serve others you ceased to live to your self life virtue renown repose safeguard all is lost to thee Great men love none but such who forsake all to make themselves slaves to their passions What swears of death saith Monsieur D'Ancre never to have one hour of rest to be enforced to give audiences troublesom tumultuous and clamorous to hear and receive suits and unjust supplications to be embroyled in affairs replenished with knots and thorns to make manual signatures devoid of conscience that you may not displease a Great man to grant unlawful decrees wicked commissions attended by infamous executions Although the pretensions of ambition were a whole world can they deserve to be purchased with the prejudice of conscience What would it avail man to be absolute Lord of the whole Universe for a time and a sacrifice of hell for ever But that which maketh the madness of ambitious men much more ridiculous and deplorable is that they all their life time take pains for wind for smoke for nothing The world useth them as Laban did poor Jacob after The ambitious travel for Rachel and find Lea. he had been roasted congealed afflicted hammered on all sides he thought to have a fair Rachel and found a blear-eyed wench by his side Every day a thousand fair promises a thousand hopes a thousand fancies and no effect This fair Rachel this pretended honour after so many services cometh not disgrace much more ugly than was Lea is to be found in the same bed of repose It oftentimes happeneth the greatest men who have Quosdam cum in consummationem dignitatis per mille indignitates irrepsissent misera subit cogitatio ipsos laborasse in titulum sepulchri Senec. de brevit vitae c. 19. Tragical events Esther passed some thirty some fourty years to build a fortune with a thousand disturbances a thousand indignities find they must part with this world and that they have heaped up nothing but a poor title to make a fragment of an Epitaph on their tomb that is it which the Latine Philosopher bravely pronounced Yet are these the most fortunate Others without ever setting foot into pretended greatness fall piece-meal into ruin They are tragical stage-plays where the successes of the ambitious may be read both in sacred and profane histories An Haman hanged on a gibbet fifty cubits high to be beheld a far off and on a gibbet which he had prepared for a man whom he deigned not to rank amongst the number of his slaves An Absalom after he had disturbed the Court 2 Reg. 18. of his father found snairs in the hairs of his own head to entangle him as it is said to a fatal tree and die transfixed with the sharp points of three lances An Abimelech after he had made his enraged ambition Judic 9. float in the bloud of threescore and ten of his own brethren crushed under a tyle thrown from the hand of a woman Nebuchadnezzar became a beast Semiramis slain in a bruitish passion by the hand of her own son Caesar gored with many stabs of daggers in the Senate-house Pompey after he had caused goldē mountains to be carried in triumph finding no more land to conquer he having gained so much wanted five or six foot of ground to make him a sepulchre Another who had taken for ensign a world with the helm of a ship and his Motto Hoc opus shewing that Riorius apud Typotium Euxenides Guevar Courtis 26. 4. his ambitions transported him not to any lower pitch than the worlds conquest found himself to be in a worse estate than if he had been a swabber in a ship Another favorite of Ptolomey King of Aegypt mounted to so high a degree of honour that he had but two discontentments in this life the one that he could grow no more so great he was become the other that the King with all his revenues seemed to him too poor to adde any encrease of riches Few days after this miserable creature was
surprized by King Ptolomey courting a Mistris of his for which contempt in that instant the Ladie was enforced to drink poison and the unfortunate Courtier was hanged before his own lodging Another minion of the Emperour Constantius after he had mannaged the Julius Capit. affairs wars revenues houshold and person of the Emperour was disgraced and put to death because he presented to his Master at that time incensed with choler a pen ill made for writing to sign certain dispatches withal Macrinus a hunter a fencer Eunapius in Aedes a scrivener became an Oratour then a Fiscal next Pretour of the Palace then Emperour and lastly was massacred with his son Piadumenus Ablavius most powerful under Constantine torn in pieces under Constantius as a victim What circumvolutions what comedies what tragedies what examples to those who in this world have no other aim but to become great casting under foot all laws both divine and humane Out alas It is said that Cambises King of Persia to teach Herod l. 5. justice to a certain President of his who newly then entered into office commanded him to cover the chair of judicature with the skin of Sesamnes his father put to death and flayed because he had been an ill Judge What should he do being seated on this Note woful Tribunal upon the bloud of his father but become wise by a dreadful experience An infinite number of ambitious men are in office and magistracie mounted upon the ruins and bloud of their Predecessours who have made most wicked and deplorable trials and have pursued the same ways without fearing the like event I. Learn O Noblemen that all the greatness of Instructions the world cannot make you great if not by contempt of it All therein is little and yet to despise that little is a great matter II. Know that your fortunes ought to be as the Sixtus in bibliotheca Patrum Non est minimum in humaenâ vitâ negligere minima halcyons nest which seemeth sowed to her bodie Matters most aptly proportioned to our nature are the best What face soever a man sets upon it he is little Much turmoyl of government and affairs may well hinder him but never make him happy III. You must use the honour which God hath Semper circumveniunt montem Sir nunquam ad terram promissionis perveniunt Petrus Blesensis p. 40 allotted you as the coyn of his coffers for which you in his last judgement are accountable and must limit your pretenses and desires with mediocrity otherwise you shall be as they who wandered perpetually about the mountain of Sir without ever arriving at the land of promise Conclusion of the Second Book That the life of a bad Courtier is a perpetual obstacle to virtue TO approve good by words and pursue evil in effect to condemn the world and adore it to desire heaven and be fixed to the earth to love ones self excessively and live perpetually contrary to the better part of our self to seek for peace and live in an everlasting warfare to lodge in one same heart fire and ice sickness and health joy and sorrow death life To command imperiously and obey faintly to be ever abroad and never out of prison to dream without sleep and sleep without repose to be divided to all the world and never within ones self To wish that which cannot be had and contemn what is possessed To seek after that which hath been despised and hourly to change resolution To exercise no piety but by constraint nor reason but by fits Not to avoid one sin but by another and to descend into the precipice with open eyes To take up the buckler after the wound received and to be cured by the overthrow of health To slake thirst with salt water and quench fire with sulphur To have no constancy but for evil nor amity for any thing but that which deserveth it not To have sottish actions and glorious pretexes as much faith as the ice and assurance as the wind To be the slave of a thousand false Deities and not to reflect on the true Divinity To prefer the fetters and onions of Aegypt before the liberty and palms of the heavenly Sion To leave Paradise to follow the gardens of Tantalus and those enchanted Islands which recoyl backward according to the proportion we think to approch them To carry under a smooth countenance a heart spotted as the skin of a panther To joyn a voluptuous life to a penurious avarice to prodigality servitude to predominance nobilitie to baseness pride to misery and envy to pitie To promise without faith swear without regard command without reason appoint without order affect without choise hate without cause walk without a path and to live perpetually banished from ones self so to become too much tyed to ones self This is the life of a Courtier who hath alienated himself from the life of God Adde hereunto that vice is commonly waited on with a most painful life wherein if endeavour be not used to sanctifie it by virtue there is found a hell anticipated where a Paradise is imagined Petrus Blesensis Chancellour to the Archbishop of Epist 4. Canterhury having some time attended in the Court of the King of England recounteth the evils he there found by experience in a letter which he addressed to the Chaplains of the same Prince There he complaineth the Courtiers many times suffer for hell all those pains which S. Paul endured for Heaven For they are exposed to dangers both of sea and land rivers and mountains thieves and false brothers to fasting and watching to weariness and to all the incommodities of human life He hath seen saith he bread and wine served up which one could not put into their mouthes without shutting their eyes such loathing it enforced and viands that killed men under the shew of nutriment He hath known Lords draw their swords for a cabbin which deserved not a battel among hogs He hath seen a Prince who delighted to be attended by officers suddenly surprized to whom he gave notice of his remove when they had physical drugs in their bellies and made them oftentimes run themselves out of breath through forrests and darkness and at other times to pine away in expectation of all that which would but frustrate their hope He hath seen harbingers troublesom before they received gifts and most ungrateful after they had them who made no scruple to put an honestman out of his lodging and to pull him both from table and bed that he might lie in the streets He hath seen at Court porters worse than Cerberus with whom the memory of a benefit lasted not three days and who took pleasure to make those stand in the durt and rain that had obliged them Buffons and jesters found ever free passage nothing but virtue and honesty had a wainscot face shewed them Finally all the plagues of Aegypt dwelt there frogs flies ulcers rivers of
To repress all the desires and concupiscences of flesh and if one have any feeling thereof not to give consent thereunto IV. Never to stay at all upon thoughts and imaginations of things dishonest but so soon as they present themselves to chase them away and extinguish them in your heart no otherwise than you should quench a burning hot iron in a fountain V. To mortifie your senses which are most commonly Eyes Oculi patellae luxuriae Isidor apud S. Bern. tom 1 serm de luxuria Salvian l. 3. de gubernat Oculi tui videbunt extranea cor tuum loquetur perversa Prov. 23. 3. the fore-runners of sin and above all to restrain your eyes which according to the opinion of S Isidore are as dishes wherein luxurie serveth up the viands of voluptuousness They are the windows the alurements the snares the conduits of love It buddeth in the eyes that it may at leasure blossome in the heart And therefore it is fit to stand upon your guard with so subtile and vigorous a sence which often filleth the soul with appetites and flames I do not say that one should look upon nothing and always live as if the soul were buried alive in the flesh but I affirm you must divert your sight from objects which dart a sting into a mind sensible of such penetrations As for the ears there is no doubt they may serve as handles for love and that it hath taken many that way An evil word hath fingers to incite the flesh He who heareth it and he that willingly speaketh it is not innocent before God Smelling blasteth chastitie and tast roughly assaulteth but kisses and unchast toucheâ— cut her throat VI. To flie idleness reading of love-books comedies stage-plays immodest pictures feasts private familiarities loose companie and all occasions of sin VII To have in detestation even the shadows of impuritie To speak to proclaim in every place the praises of chastitie and for this purpose to love penance mortification of the bodie labour rough and harsh apparel modestie even to the seeming somewhat wayward the Sacrament of the Eucharist the meditation of the four last things devotion towards the most blessed Virgin and all that may conduce to the maintenance of honestie VIII To remain firm in great and forcible temptations is verily the trophey of chastitie Since as Plato hath said the triumph of virtue is to have the power not the will to sin It was a notable act of Chastitie of Charls the 8. continencie in Charls the eigth ardently to love a maiden endowed with an exquisite beautie to have her at his dispose and yet to abstain for one sole word Lyps in monitis politic lib. 2. cap. 17. Exemplo 12. addit datos puellae 500. aureos which this poor creature spake to him brought even into his chamber For she by chance perceiving the picture of our Ladie cast her self at the Kings feet shewed him this image crying out with a face all bathed in tears Sir I beseech you for this Virgins sake preserve the honour of a silly maid At this word spoken for a young King enkindled with love and absolute in power to conquer the motions of lust is it not a matter that meriteth much applause IX To contemn great rewards and high advancements of fortune for the preservation of chastitie Johannes Moschus in prato A couragious Ladie As did that noble Lady of whom John Moschus speaketh who seeing her husband consume in perpetual prison for debt not able any way to relieve him was reduced to terms of extream and miserable want and besides pursued by a man of prime note with all sorts of allurements offers and accommodations which might shake and stagger an afflicted heart and enforce her to condescend to a sin which seemed to have necessity for a patroness she notwithstanding stood firm like a rock preferring chastitie poor and patient before a rich and delicate dishonour I could also nominate creatures as pure as strong adorned with most excellent natural parts more chaste more wise more fortunate than Lucrece who with as much industry as courage have refused powerful and passionate men that sought them with such excessive benefits as would have overwhelmed any inferiour chastitie But they not to commit one onely sin covered under the curtain of the night have despised treasures to guard another jewel in an earthen vessel who for this act deserve to be raised above the stars X. To withdraw the chastity of others from this sink with liberal alms great labour infinite incommodities As that worthy Hermit Abraham Abraham the Hermite did of whom Surius speaketh who loaden with years and merits went into a brothel-house in disguised habit to reduce a Niece of his that went astray as at this day many honest matrons worthy of eternal memory spare nothing to gain poor abused doves out of the faulcons tallons and dedicate them to Altars where soon after they work wonders in matter of virtue XI To suffer in your body great torments yea Hieron in vita Pauli Sabel l. 5. c. 6. death it self for the defence of chastity as many holy virgins have done As that youth reputed the son of a King of Nicomedia who fast tyed on a bed of flowers and wooed by a Courtizane with intention to corrupt him spit out his tongue like a dart of fire and bloud in the face of this she-wolf A tongue Lingua silet clamatque silens loquiturque pudorem sanguine quae pinxit sola pudicitiam A bold attempt of Didymus which in dumb eloquence speaketh to all posteritie and proclaimeth the honour of chastitie XII To expose your self to great sufferings for the preservation of others chastitie As that brave Didymus a young beardless Gentleman who beholding a poor Christian maid named Theodora thrown into a brothel caused her to escape by giving her the habit of a man and himself remained for pledge in the attires of a woman expecting the fury of executioners Ambr. lib. 2. de virgin Quasi adulter ingressus si vis Martyr â—grediar Vestimenta mutemus conveniunt mihi tua mea tibi sed utraque Christo Tua vestis me verum militem faciet mea te virginem Bené tu vestieris ego melius exuar who gave him the crown of Martyrdom Saint Ambrose makes him speak to the maid to this effect Sister I am come hither as an adulterer and if it please you I will go out a Martyr Let us change habits I pray you we are as I perceive both of one stature My apparrel very well fitteth you but yours will set much better upon me and both will agree in the service of Christ Jesus My attire shall make you a virgin and yours me a Martyr You shall be most fortunately clothed and I more happily despoiled It was so done Didymus was apprehended and Theodora understanding it run back like a lyoness amidst the swords to die with him The twenty
conduceth to inform the judgement And besides he that in all actions hath not memory when there is occasion to manage some affair oftentimes findeth he hath not well called to mind all particulars which putteth him into confusion Behold why as all men have not servants for memory as had the Kings the great men of Persia and Romans it is necessary to have recourse to registers records and table-books to help your self Some are of so happy memory that they go as it is said to gather mulberries without a hook to the well without a pitcher into the rain without a cloak Understanding II. To be intelligent and able to judge well and for this purpose he must endeavour to know the men with whom he converseth their nature humour their capacity intention and proceeding to penetrate affairs even to the marrow not contenting himself with the outward bark and superficies To Docibility consider them in all senses all semblances To put a tax upon things according to their worth not to run into innovations and cunning inventions which disguise objects To take counsel of the most understanding Choice saithful and disinteressed men to condescend to good counsels by docility of spirit after they are well examined ever to rest upon that which hath most honesty integrity security III. In every deliberation which one makes upon 4. Rocks of prudence any occasion to preserve ones self from four very dangerous rocks which are passion precipitation self-conceit and vanity Passion coloureth all businesses with the tincture it hath taken Precipitation goeth headlong downward into ruin Self-conceit not willing to forgo some hold gnaweth and consumeth it-self Vanity maketh all evaporate in smoke IV. To have a great circumspection and consideration Circumspection Pagulus Junius not to expose your self but to good purpose To doe like that sea-crevis which hideth himself till he hath a shell over his head and striketh no man To spie occasions out and mark how the little hedg-hog doth into what quarter the wind changeth to alter the entrance into his house To stand always upon your guard to discover the ambushes and obstacles which occurre in affairs To hold the trowel to build with one hand and the sword in the other to defend your self Well to observe these four precepts To have your face open but your thoughts covered from so many wiles which perplex our affairs To be sober in speech Not lightly nor easily to confide in all men nor on the other side to shew too much diffidence V. To be very vigilant in affairs to fore-see what Fore-sight vigilance may happen in occasions and prompt to find out means which may forward the execution of a good design You find yet to this day in some old medals for a Hierogliph of prudence a mulberry-tree Hierogliph of prudence having a crane upon his branches and on the stock thereof a Janus with two heads To teach us that one proceedeth in matter of prudence first by not precipitating no more than the mulberry the wifest of all trees which is the last that blossometh to enjoy them with the more security and thereby to avoid the pinching nips of frost In watching as the crane doth who abideth in an orderly centinel In casting the eye upon what is past and fore-seeing the future as this ancient King of Italy to whom for this cause is given a double face VI. To use dexterity promptitude and constancy Execution in the execution of things well resolved on that is the type and crown of prudence Many brave resolutions are seen without fruit or effect which are like egs full of wind All is but a shadow and a meer illusion of prudence Seasonable time must be taken for as Mithridates one of the greatest Captains of the world saith Occasion is the mother of all affairs Occasio omnium gerendarum rerum mater A notable medal and time being well taken you must execute warily effectually constantly Ferdinand Duke of Bavare seems to have made a recapitulation of the principal actions of this virtue upon a piece of coyn where was to be seen prudence like a wise virgin seated on the back of a Dolphin and holding in her hand a ballance with this motto in three words Know Choose Execute quickly The virgin bearing the Cognosce elige matura ensigns of wisdom said you must know The Ballance that you must ponder and elect with mature deliberation The Dolphin with his agility that you must set a seal upon your businesses by a prompt execution VII In the conclusion of the whole the best wisdom True prudence is to distrust your own judgement and to expect all from heaven often asking of God not a wisdom humane crafty and impious which is condemned but the wisdom of Saints which investeth Cogitationes mortalium timidae incer tae providentiae nostrae sensum autem tuum quis sciet nisi dederis sapientiam Sap. 9. us with the possession of a true felicity The thoughts of mortal men are fearful and their providence uncertain My God who is able to know thy meaning if thy self give him not wisdom Behold the virtues which guid the senses and conversation of man against the disorders of flesh and bloud the chief plagues of nature Let us now survey those which oppose the second impurity to wit covetousness Of the vritues which oppose the second impurity called covetousness to wit poverty justice charity The seven and twentieth SECTION Poverty of rich men THere are three sorts of poverty poverty of necessity poverty by profession poverty of Three sorts of poverty affection Poverty of necessity is that of the wretched a constrained needy and disastrous poverty Poverty by profession is that of Religious professed by their first vow which is meritorious and glorious Poverty of affection is an expropriation from the inordinate love of terrene goods We speak not here to you O Noble men of the poverty of rogues which is infamous nor of that of the Religious which to you would be insupportaable and to your condition unsutable but of the poverty of affection the practise whereof is necessary for you if you desire to be Cittizens of Heaven The practise is I. To acknowledge all the goods and possessions Practice of the poverty of affection you have are borrowed which you must infallibly restore but when you know not You live here like birds who are always hanging in the air where either fortune dispoileth or death moweth the meadow and then it never groweth again It is a great stupidity of spirit a great unthankfulness to God if you account that to be yours which you may dayly lose and which in the end you shall forgoe for ever Think not you have any thing yours but your self If August ep ad Armentar Paulinam Divitiae si diliguntur ibi serventur ubi perire non possunt Non sublime sapere nec sperare
Religion and justice according to their power and in case of corruption they wished upon themselves by way of execration the trembling of Cain the leaprosy of Gehezi the lot of Judas and all that which may astonishman V. To have ears always open and bowels of compassion ready to hear the complaints of widdows orphans afflicted and forlorn people who endure all the torments of the world to break through the press to manifest their miseries The Emperor Trajan hath done many brave and eminent Notable act of Trajan acts but none of his atchievements were so resplendent as the justice he readily afforded to a virtuous widdow Her son had been slain and she not being able to obtain justice had the courage to accost the Emperour in the midst of the Citty of Rome amongst an infinit number of people and flourishing legions which followed him to the wars he was then going to take in Valachia At her request Trajan notwithstanding he was much pressed with the affairs of a most urgent war alighted from his horse heard her comforted her and did her justice This afterward was represented on Trajans pillar as one of his greatest wonders And it is said he was highly commended and admired by S. Gregory the great VI. To doe good and to execute justice with expedition not stretching the leather with the teeth as said the good King Lewis the 12. taxing the delayes reverences and neglects of Judges The Chronicle Strange act of Theodorick Chron. Alexandrinum of Alexandria relateth an admirable passage of Theodor. King of the Romans to whom a widdow named Juvenalis made her complaint that a suit of hers in Court was drawn at length for the space of three years which might have been dispatched in few days The King demanded who were her Judges she named them they were sent unto and commanded to give all the speedy expedition that was possible to this womans cause which they did and in two days determined it to her good liking Which done Theodorick called them again they supposing it had been to applaud their excellent justice now done hastned thither full of joy Being come the King asked of them How commeth it to pass you have performed that in two days which had not been done in three years They answered The recommendation of your Majesty made us finish it How replieth the King When I put you into office did I not consign all pleas and proceedings to you and particularly those of widdows You deserve death so to have spun out a business in length three years space which required but two days dispatch And at that instant commanded their heads to be cut off The good Juvenalis was so strucken with admiration for such an act that she came to the King to render thanks and to offer candles to him as to a holy Saint And would to God Theodorick had still persevered in such integrity VII Not to be contented with conscience alone but to have science also well to examine matters and to observe the formes of right Not to cause any body to be punished or tormented by precipitation without sufficient poofs It is a lamentable thing when through a desperat hast an innocent is bereaved of that in a moment which never can be again restored although he should live an hundred years But it is to be wickedly unjust when that is also confirmed by malice and cruelty which Mad cruelty of Piso Senec. de ira lib. 1. c. 16. was begun by mistaking As happend to Piso who rashly condemned a poor soldier to death wrongfully suspected of the murder of his living companion As the innocent man had now his neck under the sword of his executioner this camerado of his supposed to be slain by him appeared living and in health The Centurion who attended the execution brought them both back again with much concourse of people to present them to Piso This furious judge enragedly ashamed of the first sentence which he overhastily had given commanded they should both be put to death and that also the Centurion should be added to them One because he was already condemned although guiltless another because he was thought to be dead and the third because he would preserve in the Judge wisedome and innocency This Barbarian shortly after paid for this fault joyned with many others by a merveilous turn of Fortune and a most shameful death VIII To be more inclining alwaies to mercy than severity yet notwithstanding well to take heed least this mercy degenerate into a softnesse very prejudicial to the maintainance of justice Also to visit prisons to see what is fit to be done and not suffer prisoners to consume in a tedious and irksome misery without true cause of delay IX To extend the hand that honest men may be maintained protected recompenced for services done to the Common-wealth and Malefactours punished and used according to their demerits since reward and punishment as Democritus said are the two Divinities of Weals-publike and the two poles on which the affairs of the world do move X. As for the justice of particular men it is to Justice of particulars obey Laws and Magistrates keep peace and concord among their neighbours To wrong no man in his honour body goods allies reputation nor any thing that appertaineth to another either by word deed or by sign XI To be true in words loyal in promises faithful in proceedings to handle the affaires which one manageth roundly and freely without dissimulation deceit treachery to avoid usury and all unjust gain to pay debts not to withhold servants or hirelings wages to be ready to satisfie those whom one hath offended often to beg of God that in the day of his great Assises we may appear in the robe of Justice to expect with all confidence the benigne breath of his mercies The twentie ninth SECTION Practise of Gratitude ONe Of the noblest acts of justice is the acknowledgement Benoficia pulveri si quid mali patimur marmori insculpimus A singular saying of Sir Thomas More Amb. l. 6. Hexan c. 4. Tolies dog of a benefit A virtue very rare in this Age where as well Sir Thomas More said good turns are written in sand and injuries and revenges on marble Saint Ambrose assureth us it was not without mystery young Toby took a dog for the companion of his voyage God would he should learn acknowledgement of benefits in the nature of this creature the Hierogliph of gratitude The acts of acknowledgement are I. Not to deny dissemble nor ever to forget a benefit Gratitude of Hebrews 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joseph Anti. l. 4. but to acknowledge it retain it praise extol it as the ancient Hebrews did who set marks on their armes and ensigns at their gates for the remembrance and acknowledgement of a benefit received It is a great shame to be ashamed to owe a benefit and to avoid the sight of a benefactor as if his presence upbraided either
the Roman People contrary to the command of Laws and honesty I declare him from this time forward unworthy both of the Common-wealth and my house The unfortunate son was so overwhelmed with melancholy upon this judgement given by his father that the next night he killed himself and the father esteeming him degenerate would not so much as honour his funerals with his presence Good God what severity what thunders what lightnings against the disobedience of sons among Pagans And you wicked sons in Christianity where the Law of love should oblige you to the duty which I prove unto you with an adamantine knot do you think all is permitted you And you fathers are not you most worthy of your unhappiness when you cherish by a negligent and soft indulgence the disobediences of your children which you should root up from their infancy and not suffer them to grow to the prejudice of your houses with so many bloudy tragedies as are daily seen in the mournful theater of the worlds Fili suscipe senium tam patris tui non contristes eum in vitâ illius si defecerint sensus veniam da non spernas eum in tuâ virtute Eccles 3. Qui timeâ— Deum honorat pareâ—tes quasi Dominis serviet iis qui segenuerunt miseries Let us conclude upon the fourth duty of children which is succour Son receive the old age of thy father and mother in thy bosom Take heed thou do not contristate them in any kind Beware thou scornest them not if they chance to fall into any debility of spirit Assist them with all thy might It followeth The child which feareth God never fails either in the honour or ayd he should yield to his parents nay more be shall serve them as a servant his Master We need not here seek out examples in holy Scripture or where the Law of nature is handled the more our proofs are taken from Infidels who had nothing at all but the light of reason so much the more clour and weight they have I will not make mention here of a Roman daughter (a) (a) (a) Fulgos l. 5. c. 3. who fed her father from her own breasts condemned to dye of hunger between four wals you may sufficiently see that often recorded in writing Yea under Peter of Castle there lived a man that never ceased weeping until he were put to death instead of his father who was to be executed I speak nothing now at all of that but cannot omit an example recounted in Bibliotheck of the great with Photius who telleth on a time there happened in Sicily as it hath often been seen an eruption of Aetna now called mount Gibel It is a hydeous thing and the very image of hell to behold a mountain which murmurs burns belches up flames and throws out its fiery entrails making all the world fly from it It happened then that in this horrible and violent breach of flames every one flying and carrying away all they had most precious with them two sons the one called Anapias the other Amphinomus carefull of the wealth and goods in their houses reflected on their father and mother both very old who could not save themselves from the fire by flight and where shall we said they find a more precious treasure than those who begat us The one took his father on his shoulder the other his mother and so made passage through the flames It is an admirable thing that God in consideration of this piety though Pagan did a miracle for the monuments of all antiquity witness the devouring flames stayd at this spectacle and the fire roasting and broyling all round about them the way onely through which these two good sons passed was tapistred with fresh verdure and called afterward by posterity the holy field in memory of this accident What may we answer to this what can we say when the virtues eâ—en of Pagans dart lightening-flashes of honesty and duty into our eyes What brasen or adamantine brow can covetous and caytive sons have who being rich and abounding in means deny necessary things to those who brought them into the world yea have the heart to see them struggle with extream misery whilst they offer a sacrifice of abomination to their burning avarice Wicked son wreched daughter know you what you do when you commit such a crime You hold the soul bloud and life of your progenitours in your coffers you burn them with a soft fire you consume them with a lingring and shameful death you are accountable before God for what they suffer And for whom is remorse of conscience For whom infamy For whom necessity For whom punishments in the other life but for such as in this manner abuse a treasure so recommended by God Take heed O children take heed of breaking this triple cord of the Law divine natural and civil which indissolubly tie you to the exercise of that piety which you have abjured Take heed of irreverence disobedience and ingratitude towards your parents expect not onely in the other life the unavoydable punishments of Gods Justice against such contumacy but in this present life know you shall be measured with the same measure you afforded others You know the history of the miserable father dragged by the hair with the hand of his son unto the threshold of his door where seeing himself unworthily used Hold son saith he it is enough the justice of God hath given me my due I committed the like outrage heretofore against my father thy Grand-father which thou at this instant actest upon me I dragged him hither and behold me hither haled Go no further O Justice O terrour O dreadful spectacle Great eye of God which never sleepest over the crimes of mortals O divine hand which ever bearest arms of vengeance hanging over the heads of rebellious children How terrible thou art who can but fear thee who will not heareafter tremble at the apprehension of thy judgements Children be pious live in the duty you have vowed and resigned to your progenitours and to all your superiours Live full of honour and glory in this world live in expectation of palms and crowns which you shall enjoy in the other world And you likewise fathers and mothers embrace charity towards your good children with all affection and if any forget their duty and afterward stretch out hands humbly to your obedience receive them into favour exercise mercy towards them as you desire should be done to you by God our common father But if you still groan under the ingratitude of wicked children and the fear of future evils wipe away your tears sweeten your acerbities season your bitterness with the comfort of a good conscience When you have done all you can and all you ought to do leave the success to God and say unto him My God who hast seen the cause of my afflictions to proceed from my self accept my good desires for the works of this evil child
fashion and indeed somewhat too bitter according to her custom Joseph who was desirous to entertain the Queen in the good favour of his Master were it out of folly or drunkenness said Madame your mother Alexandra may tell you what pleaseth her But to give you a clear and ample testimony of King Herod your husband his love know that in case he happen to be put to death he hath commanded me to kill you not being able to abide in the other world without your company At these words the poor Ladies looked pale with horrour Out alas the frantick man said Alexandra in her heart what will he do living if after death he intend to destroy those who are yet alive In the mean time many bruits the dreams of the credulous were spred through Jerusalem that Herod was dead that Mark Anthony had caused him to be executed he being convicted of the murder of Aristobulus whether these rumours were divulged by Herods enemies or whether himself caused them to be secretly buzzed to try the face and disposition of the times The wise Mariamne seemed to believe nothing Alexandra grew passionate and bated like a hawk on the pearch entreating Joseph with all possible supplications he would remove them from Court and conduct them to the Court of Guard of the Roman Legions disposing them into the hands of Colonel Julius from thence to pass to Mark Anthony for she vehemently desired this Prince might see her daughter perswading herself that so soon as he should behold her he would be taken with her beauty and doe any thing in her favour These intentions being oblique were unhappy in the success and all Alexandras pursuits served her for no other purpose but to vent her passion In the end Herod returneth victorious with authenticke Return of Herod testimonies of his justification and Anthonies amity notwithstanding the endeavours of Cleopatra God reserving this parricide for a life like Cain attended with a death most dreadful His mother and sister fayled not presently upon his arrival to serve him up a dish of their own dressing and to tell him the design which Alexandra had to put herself into the power of the Romans Salome envious against Mariamne even to fury steeping her serpentine tongue in the gall of black slander accused her of some secret familiarity with Joseph whereupon Herod who was extreamly jealous thought in that very instant to ruin her and so drawing Mariamne aside he demanded of her from whence this correspondence grew which she had contracted with Joseph The most chaste Queen who never went out of the lists of patience shewed her self both with eye visage countenance word to be so penetrated with this cursed calumny that well the trayterous wretch perceived how far she was alienated from such thoughts and verily being ashamed to have uttered such words he asked pardon of her bemoaning with scalding tears his credulity giving her many thanks for her fidelity and making a thousand protestations of an everlasting affection The good Ladie who was displeased to behold such hypocrisie said covertly to him That truly it was an argument of love to his wife to desire her company in the other world He who understood by half a word presently perceived what she would say and entered into such desperate fury that he seemed as a mad man tearing his beard and hair of his head and crying out Joseph had betrayed him and that it was apparent he had great correspondence with Mariamne otherwise so enormous bruitishness would never have escaped any man as to reveal such a secret Thereupon he commandeth Joseph should be killed in the place to serve as a victim at his return not consenting to see him nor hear one sole word of his justification It was a great chance he had not at that time finished the sacrifice of his intemperate cruelty and that to satisfie his chymerical humour he had not put Mariamne to death But the irrefragable proofs of her innocency and the impatient ardours of his love withheld the stroke onely to make the sparkles of his choller flie further off he discharged it upon Alexandra shutting her up for a time keeping her a part from the Queen her daughter and doubtlesly resolving with himself it was in her shop where all these counsels plotted for his ruin were forged and fyled Certain time after Herod saw himself embarqued Troublesom affairs of Hâ—rod in another business which he thought to be at least as perillous as the former Mark Anthony who always had lent his shoulders to underprop him after he had for a long time stroven against the fortune of Augustus Caesar fell to the ground in the Actiack battel ending his hopes and life with a most mournfull catastrophe This accident struck the Tyrant more than one would think seeing his support ruined his affairs which he supposed to have been so well established in one night dissolved and that he had him for an enemy who was in a fair way to become Emperour of the world His friends and enemies judged him as a lost man He who already had escaped so many ship-wracks despaireth not at all in this extremity but resolves to seek out Caesar who was then at Rhodes and prostrate himself at his feet But before he set a step forward he did an act wholly barbarous and inhumane Hircanus the true and lawful King who by his Most lamentable death of Hircanus sweetness and facility had first raised Antipater and afterward saved Herod's life seating him in the Regal throne to the prejudice of his own allies was as yet alive worn even with decrepitness for he now was past eightie years of age The Tyrant fearing lest he being the onely remainder of the bloud Royal should again be re-established in the throne by the suppliant request of the people who much affected his innocency seeing him already upon the brink of his grave threw him head-long into it tearing out his soul with bruitish violence which he was ready to yield up to nature Some held this was meer crueltie without any colour of justice wherewith this diabolical Prince was wont to palliate his actions Others write that Hircanus days were shortened upon this occasion Alexandra being not able to put off her ambition Ambition of Alexandra causeth the death of her father but with her skin seeing Herod gone upon a voyage from which it was likely he should never return sollicites her father Hircanus shews him the time is come wherein God will yet again make his venerable age flourish in Royal purple The Tyrant is involved in snares from which he can never free himself Fortune knocketh at the gate of Hircanus to restore the Diadem which is due to him by birth-right and taken away by tyranny It onely remaineth that he a little help himself and his good hap will accomplish the rest Hircanus answereth her Daughter the time is come wherein I should rather think of my grave than a Regal
her it was a thing in the judgement of all those who would truly weigh it very far from her thought since she had always more feared King Herods love than hatred Lastly that she made no reckoning of life wherein she had suffered too much sorrow yea much less of the Court from whence she never received any contentment and that if they would oppress her by false testimonies it was easie to gain victory of one who made no resistance more easie to take the Diadem from her head and her head from her shoulders but most hard to bereave her of the reputation of a Princess of honour which she had of her Ancestours and would carry to her tomb The poor creature was like a silly sheep in the Lions throat or among the paws of many wolves They proceeded to sentence all tended to baseness It was supposed the King was willing to be rid of her and that sufficed Never was any one to be found who had the courage to plead the cause of this innocent Queen or in any sort to mollifie the passion of Herod All those consciences were oppressed either with crimes or cowardise from whence it came to pass these false Judges did more for the Tyrant than he desired for they all resolved upon death He himself was surprized with horrour though he were wholly a bloudy man and commandeth she should be kept in a prison of the Palace with delay of execution thinking perhaps by that means to make her more plyant to his passion But the enraged Salome who had raised this storm not willing to do any business to halves approched to the King her brother and shewed him such birds were not to be kept in cages that his life and crown thereby ran into hazard that already all tended to a revolt and that if he delayed this execution he hastened the ruin of himself and his whole state Whereupon Herod let fall this word Let her be taken away And behold instantly an officer dispatched to the good Queen who brought her the news of the last hour of her life saluting her with a low reverence and saying Madame Invincible patience and very admirable the King commandeth you must presently die She without any disturbance said Let us then go my friend it cannot be so soon for King Herod but it will be as late for me and speaking this word she set forward and went directly to the place of execution without change of colour having a sweet aspect which drew tears from the whole world To crown her patience as she was ready to receive the stroke of death Alexandra her own mother the companion of her imprisonment the Guardian of her thoughts who had ever been one heart with her betraying bloud nature and all piety by a mischievous trick of state thereby avoiding the suspition of Herod as consenting to her daughters humour came to charge her with most bloudy injuries Barbarous act of Alexandra and it was a great chance she had not taken this poor Ladie by the hair to dreg her up and down the pavement saying to her with the foam of boyling choller That she was wicked and extreamly proud and well deserved to die in that manner by shewing herself refractory to so good a husband Behold verily the greatest indignity which could happen in such an accident There is no better honey nor worse sting than that of bees no better amities nor greater injuries than of allies The patient Mariamne onely made her this answer Mother let my soul pass in peace which already is upon my lips and trouble not the repose of my death and with a generous silence shutting her mouth up to further replies Heroick silence and opening her heart to God the onely witness of her innocency most unworthily used stretched out her neck to the executioner to seal with her bloud the last testimonies of her patience Josephus speaketh not expresly enough of the punishment she doubtless being executed in the manner at that time ordinary which was to behead offenders Most pitifull death of that quality This day-break which bare stil in the rays thereof joy refreshment to the poor afflicted souls through the horrible confusions of tyranny was then extinct in her bloud Yea the eyes of all the standers by bathed in tears beheld her in her eclipse when that fore-head full of Royal Majesty was seen couragiously to affront approaching death which maketh the most confident to tremble and when this alabaster neck was stretched out and bowed under the shining steel to be separated from this beauteous body a shivering horrour crept into the What horrour bones of all the beholders and there was no rock so hard which afforded not the water of tears before she poured out her bloud The head was separated from the body and the body from the soul But the soul never shall be divided from God raising to death such a trophey of patience The limbs lay all cold and stiff extended on the place and the voice of innocent bloud which already penetrated the clouds to ask vengeance of God was instantly heard as you shall understand onely I beseech you stay to behold the Pourtraict and Elogie of the good Queen by us here inserted MARIAMNE REGINA MARIAMNE REGINA MACHABAEORUM STIRPE INCLYTA HERODIS PESSIMI OMNIUM VIRI UXOR OPTIMA FORMA CORPORIS SUPRA CAETERAS EXIMIAANIMI ETIAM VIRTUTIBUS MAJOR INTEGERRIMAE PUDICITIAE ET INELUCTABILIS PATIENTIAE FOEMINA INIQUISSIMIS CALUMNIIS OPPRESSA MARITI GLADIO REGIAS CERVICES DEDIT ANNO ANTE CHRISTI NATALEM VIGESSIMO OCTAVO Upon the Picture of MARIAMNE FOrtune a heavenly beauty did engage To a fell husband who through boundless rage Practiz'd fierce tyranny and foul debate As well in love as in his Royal state She liv'd on gall upon the sword she dy'd Soon in the Lamb's bloud to be purifi'd The Cross so to prevent in pains pertake With patient God mishaps thrice-happy make Which after death immortalize her story And from her body take less bloud than glory Thus from the world this holy Queen remov'd Breaths forth affections to her God belov'd And her great soul to heav'n in silence rears Purg'd in her flame washed with her tears Who bravely so both lives and leaveth breath Makes of a dying life a living death THe disloyal husband who so inhumanely had treated a Ladie worthy of all honour as soon as she rendered up her soul as if he had been strucken by some invisible dart cried out with grief and said he had done an act worthy the wrath of Fury of Herod after the death of Mariamne God then dreadfully howling he ceaselesly invoked the memory and name of the poor dead creature to whom he by his sorrows could not again restore what had been taken from her by the sword of the executioner Wheresoever he went he still was accompanyed with the image of his crime still tormented and assailed with black furies
an instrument proper for this end For certainly this Antipater was of a dark spirit close and mischievous much of his Father Herods disposition as it was presently to be seen When he was advanced he resolved fully not to descend but with loss of life and to hold that Kingdom as well as others by some notable trick Behold why he played the Proteus and changed himself into all forms to gain credit with Herod who then began to like him very well and he the more to fortifie himself spared not under hand to aggravate the calumny against the children of Mariamne and after he had thrown the stone withdrew his arm so cunningly that it seemed he had not touched it for he always was conversant with Alexander and Aristobulus with much respect as with his Masters yea when he made false tales to tickle the ears of his father then feigned he by a counterfeit modesty to take their cause in hand and defend them so discreetly for his own advantage that thereby he cast them further into suspition King Herod judged that to countenance him it were to good purpose to send him to Rome which he did allotting him a flourishing retinue and an infinite number of recommendations There it was that he much embroyled businesses writing to his father That he had discovered at Rome strange plots that he should take heed of his brothers Alexander and Aristobulus that they had practised ill dispositions in every place that their purpose had no other aim but to shorten his days and dispossess him of his Empire This had so much the more colour for that these miserable Princes galled with their repulse could not dissemble their discontent they ever casting forth some words which gathered by the spies of Pheroras and Salome never fell to the ground Herod sighed to see that he having pacified all abroad the fire should kindle in his own house and thereupon had some desire to arrest his sons but he would attempt nothing upon their persons without Caesars command referring all to him both for his ordinary complacence and safeguard of his own affairs After he had revolved this affair with a thousand anxieties in his heart wherein he bare the chief extent of his counsels he resolved in his own person to carry his sons to Rome and accuse them before Caesar In the whole course of this long way from Palestine to Italie he held himself close and reserved not making the least disgust against his children appear that he might not occasion in them any suspition Being arrived at Rome he learned Augustus Caesar was then in the Citie of Aquileia without delay he went thither conducting with him Alexander and Aristobulus who were received by the Emperour who was as their father with all demonstration of love In the mean time this miserable father spying his opportunity demands day of Caesar for an audience which he affirmed was of great consequence it was granted him and he came at the time appointed bringing these two poor delinquents who doubted nothing nor at that time sought any thing but to laugh and pass their time with their ancient acquaintance When they were in the midst of a brave assembly of Princes there present Herod breathing out a great sigh said Behold me GREAT CAESAR a happy King by your favour and an unfortunate father through the disgrace of my house If nature had denied me children fortune should see me without miseries all my disasters proceed from my own progeny It much troubleth me to defile your ears worthy Caesar with the recital of so great wickedness but necessity which hath no law enforceth me and your justice which establisheth all laws inviteth me Behold my two unnatural sons who after they had received the honour to be bred at your feet after they had obtained from me all the favours which could be expected froÌ„ a King by your gracious clemency sufficiently powerfull and from a father of his own nature most indulgent betraying the glory of the education they had at your hands forgetting even the nature and bloud they received from me have attempted a crime which I dare not name I live too many years in their opinion and too long enjoy a Kingdom which with so much labour I purchased I have opened to them the gate of honour that they may enter after that natural death shall close up mine eyes and they will pass through by the portal of parricide preparing ambushes for my life to snatch away the spoil steeped in my bloud Behold I prostrate them at your feet not willing to retain any right in mine own displeasure neither of King nor father but that which shall be decreed for me by your justice Yet notwithstanding O Great Caesar I would beseech you to bestow upon my old age which you have pleased so much to honour some repose in my own house and free me from the hands of these parricides So likewise I think it not expedient for children so ungratefull who have trampled laws both divine and humane under foot to live any longer and still to have the Sun in their eyes to serve as a witness and an upbraiding of their crime Herod spake this with a marvellous vehemency so that he put the whole assembly into an astonishment and these poor young men who had as much innocency as simplicity seeing themselves charged on the sudden with such a tempest of words made the apple of their eyes to answer and weep in good earnest They endeavoured to speak fearing least their silence might make them culpable but the more they strove so much the more the sobs choaked up their words Augustus Caesar who was a judicious and courteous Prince saw well by this their aspect these young men had more mishap than malice and casting a gracious eye upon them Courage my children be confident saith he answer at your leisure and be not troubled All those there present bare already much compassion towards them and Herod shewed even by his countenance he was moved so eloquent are the tears of nature Alexander seeing the eyes of the whole assembly very favourable took heart represseth his sighs being as he was eloquent speaketh in these terms MY LORD AND FATHER Your Majesty Apologie of Herodâ—s son before Augustus hath not brought us so far to the Altars of mercy to offer us up as a sacrifice to revenge we are at the knees of Caesar as in the Temple of Clemency whither being conducted by your warrant command it maketh us say your words are sharp but proceedings most sweet If calumny had so altered your excellent nature as to make you take resolution upon our lives to the prejudice of our innocency you might have done it in Palestine as a father and a King the sentence and execution were in your own hands But God permitted you to bring us to the Court of Augustus not to leave the head where the crown was designed but rather to return it back
circumstances of his crime Behold you not saith he a bruitish stupiditie to conspire against your father having as yet the bloud of your brothers before your eyes and all the assurances of the scepter in your hands Needs must you perpetrate a parricide to make your self possessour of a Crown which was acquired for you by so solemn and authentical a Testament Look you after nothing but the bloud of your father to set a seal upon it yea of a father whose life is so dear to all bonest men and of nature so indulgent to love his children that have never so little merit An ingratitude able to make Heaven blush and earth tremble under your feet An ingratitude worthy that all the elements should conspire to punish it This man ceased not to discharge against him words of fire with a masculine eloquence and the miserable Antipater prostrated himself on the ground and prayed God to do a miracle in favour of him to make manifest his innocency since he found himself so oppressed by the malice of men It is wonder saith the Historian that those who during their life have believed no God would yet acknowledge him at their death This man lived as if there were neither Heaven God nor Angels and now seeing himself in the horrours of death prayed the Divinity to excuse his crime Varus saith unto him My friend expect not extraordinarie signs from Heaven in your favour but if you have any good reasons boldly produce them The King your father desireth nothing more than your justification Thereupon he stood confounded like a lost man Varus taking the poison that had been before represented to the Councel caused it to be given to an offender already condemned who instantly died and all the assembly arose as it is said with manifest condemnation of Antipater His father esteeming him absolutely convicted required of him his complices he onely named Antiphilus who brought the poison saying this wicked man was cause of all his unhappiness It was a great chance Herod at that time had not caused the sentence of death to be executed upon him but according to his ordinary proceeding he resolveth to inform Caesar of all that had passed and to send him the whole process formally drawn to order all at his pleasure In the mean time Antipater is streightly imprisoned expecting hourly as a miserable victim the stroke of death Herod at that time was about seventy years of age Horrible state of Herod in his lattâ—r days and already felt through imbecillity of body the approach of the last hour It was a very hard morsel for him to digest Never man better loved this present life Very freely would he have forsaken his part of the next world eternally to enjoy this though he in effect was therein most unhappy Towards the end of his days he grew so harsh so wayward then so collerick and furious that his houshold servants knew not how to come about him they handled him in his Palace as an old Lion chained with the fetters of an incurable malady He perswaded himself he was hated of all the world and was therein no whit deceived as having given too great occasion thereof The people almost forgot their duty with impatience and could no longer endure him As soon as his sickness was bruited abroad Judas The golden Eagle thrown down and Matthias the principal Doctours of the Jewish Law who had the youth at command perswaded the most valiant of their sect to undergo a bold adventure which was that Herod having re-edified and adorned the Temple of Jerusalem and as he had always shewed himself for the accommodation of his own estate to be an Idolater of Caesars fortune to set upon the principal gate the Romane Eagle all glittering in gold This much offended the sight of the Jews who could not endure any should place portraictures of men or beasts or any other figures in their Temples so much they abhorred such monsters which their fathers had seen adored in Aegypt Behold why this Judas and Matthias who were the chief thinking the sickness of Herod would help them began earnestly to exhort the most valiant of the young men who every day frequented their houses to take in hand the quarrel of God according to the spirit of their Ancestours and to beat down this abomination which they had fixed upon their Temple That the peril was not now so great Herod having enough to do to wrastle with his own pain but if it should happen they lost their lives to die in so glorious an act was to be buried in the midst of palms and triumphs There needed no more to encourage the youth Behold a troup of the most adventurous came forth about the midst of the day armed with axes and hatchets who climbed to the top of the Temple and hewed in pieces the Eagles in the sight of the whole world Judas and Matthias being there present and serving for trumpets in this exploit The noise hereof instantly came to the Palace and the Captain of the Guard ran thither with the most resolute souldiers He much feared some further plot and that this defacing of the Eagle might prove a preamble to some greater sedition But at the first as he began to charge the people retired which the more encouraged him for pursuit Fourty young men of those who had done the feat were taken in the place Judas and Matthias who accompanied them deeming it a thing unworthy to flie away and that at the least they ought to follow them in peril whom they had brought into danger Being presented to Herod and demanded from whence this boldness proceeded they freely answered Their plot had been fully agreed upon among themselves and if it were to do again they would be in readiness to put it in execution in regard they were more bound to Moses than Herod Herod amazed at this resolution and fearing greater commotions caused them to be secretly conveyed to Jerico whither himself after though crazy was carried and assembling the principal spake to them out of his litter making a long narration of the good offices he had done in favour of the whole Nation of the Temple he had built for them of the ornaments with which he had enriched it adding he had done in few years what their Asmonean Kings could not perform in six-score And for recompence of his piety at noon day they had hewed down with notable boldness a holy gift which he had raised in the Temple wherein God was more interessed than himself for which he required a reason These now fearing any further to incense him declined the danger and put him upon their companions leaving them to the pleasure of the King At that time the High-priesthood is taken from Matthias and another Matthias who was held to have been the authour of the sedition burned alive that night with his companions at which time an eclipse of the moon was seen that made this spectacle
he passed in continual apprehensions thornie affairs perilous voyages sinister distrusts frosty fears of death barbarous cruelties remorses of conscience the forerunners of hell leaving besides a short and unfortunate posterity Behold his Picture and Elogie HERODES ASCALONITA HERODES ASCALONITA VULTU FERUS ANIMO BARBARUS LUTO ET SANGUINE MACERATUS A QUO NIHIL AD SUMMAM CRUDELITATEM PRAETER DEICIDIUM ABFUIT DEICIDIO VOLUNTAS NON DEFUIT VULPINA FRAUDE REGNUM JUDEAE INVASIT AN. MUNDI TER MILLESSIMO NONGENTESSIMO SEXAGESSIMO QUINTO REGNAVIT IRAE SERVUS JURIS DOMINUS FORTUNA FOELIX CYCLOPAEA VITA INFOELICISSIMUS DESIIT CAELESTI PLAGA FERALIS MORBI ANNO REGNI TRICESSIMO SEPTIMO VITAE FERME SEPTUAGESSIMO CHRISTI OCTAVO Vpon the Picture of HEROD A man no whit with civil grace indu'd Of visage hydeous of manners rude A monster made of massacres and bloud That boldly God Heav'n Natures laws withstood Ill words within no certain limits fall But who once mentions Herod speaketh all BY the carriage of this Court one may see whither vice transporteth great fortunes In the person of Aristobulus and Hircanus you behold that the canker is to a body less dangerous than the discord of brothers to a state In the person of Antipater a friend for advantage who seeketh to fish in a troubled water in the end fisheth his fill but is drowned in the act to teach you there is no policie so great as to be an honest man and that he who prepareth snares for another diggeth his own grave In the person of Pompey an Aribitratour who worketh his own ends under the colour of justice who buildeth his ambition on the ruins of state in the end the earth which faileth him for his conquests denieth him a sepulchre He found no more Countries to conquer and scarcely had he six foot of earth to make him a tomb In that of Hircanus too much credulity too much facility to please others humours too much pusillanimity in the government of Justice which head-long threw him into a life as miserable as his death was cruel and bloudy In that of Anthonie a passionate Judge who turneth with all winds and suffereth himself to be carried along by the stronger without consideration of Justice In that of Joseph and Sohemus that it is perilous to treat with women though free from ill purpose and much more dangerous to reveal a secret which who will safely keep must make his heart a sepulchre for it In that of young Aristobulus how the most beautifull hopes are storm-beaten in the bud and that you must walk upon the prosperitie of the world as on ice that it must be handled like glass fearing always they break not in the lustre of their brightness In that of Alexandra a boundless ambition designs without effect afflictions devoid of consolations torments without patience and a death without deserts and all this because she gave not a good temper of virtue to her soul In that of the sons of Mariamne innocency perfecuted and a little vanity of tongue desperately revenged In that of yong Antipater policy deceived the cloud of humane hopes cracked punishment and revenge ever attending an offender In the person of Herod an enraged ambition which giveth motion to all his crimes a double soul crafty cautelous politick mischievous bloudy barbarous savage and withal in the best of his tricks benummed doltish dall thinking to make a fortune to the prejudice of religion and conscience A goodly fortune to make himself great and live in the hatred of all the world in the remorses of a Cyclopean conscience a thousand times aday to call upon death not being able to die and in the end to die in a body leaprous stinking louzey and death to tear his soul from him with scabs stench and lice to make it survive its torments in an eternity of flames See you not here fair fruits of humane wisdom impiety and atheism In that of Mariamne a soul raised above the highest sphere of true greatness a soul truly royal holy religious courteous mercifull wise affable and endowed with an incomparable patience who as an Eagle strong of wing and courage soaring above the storms of the world maketh her self Mistress of tempests and thunders which for that they had served as an exercise of her constancy and perpetual battels for her life shall through all Ages attend the immortality of her glory THE FIFTH BOOK Fortunate Pietie WE have hitherto beheld a Court which rather resembleth Polyphemus cave than a Kings Palace to teach Great-ones there is no bruitishness so savage wherinto ingratitude towards God and vice doth not precipitate a forsaken soul Let us now see that as unbridled passions are of power to make a hell of a Princes Court so the practice of piety and other virtues make it a true Paradise Behold the Court of Theodosius the Younger a Prince who seemed to be born for nothing else but to allye the scepter to virtues and manifest what royal greatness can do guided by the rules of pietie It is no small miracle to behold a holy King If Ring of God God affected the curiositie of wearing a ring as well in effect as the Scripture attributeth it to him in allegorie the most agreeable characters he would engrave therein were the names of good Kings who are his most lively representations as those who wed together power and goodness two inseparable pieces of God but very incompatible in the life of man such are the corruptions of this Age. Some live in Four sorts of life the world transported with the torrents thereof and that is weakness Others flie the world and in flying oft-times carry it along with them and this is an illusion Others separate themselves as well in body as affection and this is prudence But few are found who bearing the world on their shoulders through necessity do tread it under-foot by contempt of vanities That is it which this great Prince hath done whose Court we here describe for being seated among people he built a desert in his heart and in a vast Ocean of affairs he lived as fishes which keep silence within the loud noise of waves and preserve their plump substance fresh in the brackish waters I go not about to place Theodosius the Younger in the rank of the bravest and most heroick spirits you hereafter shall see others more couragious and warlick but I purposely have selected this history drawn from the Chronicle of Alexandria Zonaras Zozomen Raderius and others to teach certain vain-glorious people who make no account but of those trifling spirits fierce mutinous and unquiet stampt with the coyn of impiety how much they miss of their reckoning seeing this Emperour with the sole arms of piety and modesty carried himself in a very long and most prosperous reign amidst horrible tempests which seemed ready to rend the world and other rash Princes who made shew to swallow earth and seas were drowned in a glass
hath observed and ever having on his lips the Cruentae manus vestigia parietes tui Lugdune testantur Hieron ep 3. name of S. Ambrose His body after the soul departed was taken up to be presented to Maximus as the monument of a faithfull assassinate O God! who shall here be able to cleave a cloud to read through so much darkness and so many shadows the secrets of your Providence This poor Abel butchered by the hand of a Cain with a cruelty so barbarous a manner so perfidious and a success so deplorable A Prince who sheltered the whole world under the valour of his arms forsaken by the most trusty servants of his house An Emperour most Religious separated by death from the assistances of Altars A Monarch most just given as a prey to injustice One of the best Maâ—â—â—rs of the earth slain by servile hands and used like a beast among the halbards and courtelaxes of his own servitours So many rare qualities as were in him leave nothing else to mortals but the sorrow to have lost him A man who deserved to have lived Ages torn from his Throne and life in his 28 â—h year after a reign so advantagious to the Church and wishfull to all the world O Providence Must he pass away as the foam glideth on the face of the water Must he be hayl-strucken as the Crown Imperial the honour of a garden in the height of his beauty Must he wither as lightening causeth pearls in their growth leaving them in stead of a substance nought else but a shell O God! What bloud of Abels must be shed in all Ages to teach us a lesson which telleth the reward of our children consisteth not in the favour and prosperities of the world but that seeing in such innocency they are so roughly handled your justice hath infallibly disposed them for another life where they live covered with the purple and glory of your Son whose sufferings they have imitated The poor Constantia wife of Gratian hearing this lamentable news was seized with overwhelming sorrow and as soon as she came to herself again Ab Gratian saith she my Lord and dear husband I have then found an evil worse than your death which is to have been the cause of the same Must my name be so much abused Must the love of a creature so caytive as I am engage into danger a life so important as yours I began my unhappiness from the day of my birth being Ambros in Psal 61. Meminit Gratiani morsistâ— magis est peccati fuga quà m morientis detrimentum born after the death of my father Constantius nature not permitting me to see him who gave me life That little age I have hath not ceased to be turmoiled with many uncertainties which enforce me to reap thorns in the fortune of Caesars where the world imagineth roses Yea I avow my most honoured Lord that this accident hath outgone all my apprehensions For although I figured you mortal as a man I could not suppose that he in whom all my charities and hopes survived should be taken from me so suddenly in a fortune so eminent in an age so flourishing with a death so unworthie of his goodness not leaving me at the least a son in my entrails to be born of me as his mother and which is worse that I instantly must Ob my dearest Gratian the sweetest amongst all men living redeem your bloudie bodie with the price of gold from the hands of a wretched slave My God I confess I have no strength to bear these calamities so violent if you afford it not The news of this death which flew like a fatal bird through all the world transfixed the hearts of all good men The little Valentinian resented it beyond his age seeing himself deprived of a brother whom he so faithfully had loved S. Ambrose though most couragious selt himself as it were surprized with sorrow and sadness not being able to unlose his tongue to pronounce any funeral Oration All the Court was infinitely affrighted as if Maximus had already been at the gates of Milan to finish the catastrophe of the Tragedy Justina the Empress mother of young Valentinian taking the care of affairs for her son in minority instantly made her address to S. Ambrose and besought him to undertake an Embassage and present himself before Maximus so to divert the stream of his arms which came to pour themselves on Italie and to demand the body of his pupil humbly praying not to neglect him dead whom he alive had so faithfully served The thirteenth SECTION The Embassage of S. Ambrose OUr great Prelate couragiously undertook the business fortifying his heart with assistances of Heaven to treat with the murderer of his son for one may well say the love he bare to the dead equalled that of fathers towards their children The acts of his first Embassage are lost although the effect hath been sufficiently published Which was the diversion of the arms of Maximus so much feared by the Empress Justina But as for the Emperours body it was impossible to gain it from him for Maximus said he with-held it upon a point of State well knowing this spectacle would have no other effect but to exasperate the memory of what was past and that the souldiers through fury might revenge the dead body much ashamed they had betrayed their living Emperour This wicked man insatiable in his desires and perfidious in his promises soon repented to have signed the peace complaining that Ambrose had with his fair words cast him into a sleep he was full of impetuous passions and incessantly threatned to pass into Italie nor should any thing hereafter hinder his intentions which made S. Ambrose enterprize a second Embassage at the sollicitation of the Empress Justina of whom we have a most faithfull narration from the pen of the Saint himself in an Epistle which he wrote to the Emperour Valentinian to yield him an account of his Commission There he relateth how being arrived in the Citie of Trier where Maximus had placed his Throne that he the next morning went to the Palace to speak to him in private The treacherous man who with so many Legions could not endure the counterbuff of truth delivered by a Bishop thinking to silence him sent one of the gentlemen of his chamber to demand if he had any letters from Valentinian to deliver him if so he should receive answer but that he might not speak to the Emperour himself but in full Councel S. Ambrose replieth that was not the audience which is usually given to persons of his quality that he had most important affairs to handle which might better be privately expressed in his cabinet than at the Councel-table He prayed the gentleman of his chamber to let him know this his request which indeed was most civil He did so but brought back no other answer but that he should be heard in Councel The good Bishop said that was somewhat
Dragons under-foot and rendered himself the Oracle of the world and the Doctour of Monarchs And what a death to die as in a field with palms planted by his hand manured by his industrie and watched with sweats What a death to have built himself before his death a tomb stuffed with precious stones of so many goodly virtues What a death which hath made it known that S. Ambrose was born for all the world and could not die without the tears of all the world since as every one had his interests in the life of this Prelate so he found in his death the subject of his sorrow What a death to die with these words in his mouth I am neither ashamed to have lived nor fear to die because we have a good Master What a death to return to Heaven as the dove of the deluge to his Ark bearing words of peace as an olive-branch in his mouth What a death to see vice trodden under his feet Heaven all in crowns over his head men in admiration the Angels in joy the Arms of God laden with recompences for his merits Prelates who please your selves with Myters and Croziers would to God this incomparable man as he is the ornament of your Order might be ever the model of your actions And if your dignities make you be as Mountains of Sinai wholly in lights flames and thunder-strokes let the innocency of your life render you by his imitation Mountains of Libanus to bear the whiteness of snow in the puritie of your conversation the odour of incense in your sacrifices and devotions and fountains in the doctrines and charities you shall distribute to the whole world THE SOVLDIER TO SOULDIERS O Brave and couragious Nobility whose Ancestours have fixed the Standards of the Cross upon the land of Infidels and cemented Monarchies with their bloud to you it is I address these lines for you it is my pen laboureth excited with a generous design in hath to honour your profession Here it is where I present the true figures of valour Here I display the palms and crowns which environed the head of your Fathers Here I do restore the value of fair and glorious actions reserved for your imitation Enter with a firm footing and a confident courage into this Temple of glory perswading your selves that there is nothing so great in the world as to tread false greatness under foot and deifie virtues Worldly honour is the feast of Gods said an Ancient where the ambitious are not invited but in quality of IXIONS and TANTALUSSES to serve there as buffons but that which consisteth in valour joyned to integrity of manners ought to be the object of your affections the recompence of your labours and trophey of your memorie Reflect onely with a favourable eye on this poor endeavour which I consecrate to your benefit and afford by your virtues effect to my prayers and accomplishment to my writings THE SOULDIER The first SECTION The excellency of Warlick Virtue IF the profession of arms were as well managed as it is excellent and necessary in civil life we could not have eyes enough to behold it nor tongues sufficient to praise it and although our spirit should arrive to the highest top of admiration it would ever find wonders in this subject not to be attained We seem to hear the Scripture speak that God God of hosts himself affecteth the glory of arms when he causeth himself to be surnamed the God of hosts and when the Prophets represent him unto us in a fiery Chariot all environed with burning Legions at which time the pillars of Heaven tremble under his feet the rocks are rent abysses frown and all the creatures of the universe shake under the insupportable splendour of his Majesty In effect this great Monarch of Town belieged by God Heaven and earth ceaseth not to make war and if we will consider his proceedings we shall find it is more than fifty Ages since he hath laid siege to a rebellious Citie which hath for ditches abysses of iniquity for walls and rampires obstinacy for towers and bulwarks mountains of pride for arms resistance against divine inspirations for artillery tumult and insolency for houses dens of hypocrisie for Palaces labyrinths of dissimulation for tribunal and bar impiety for Temple proper-will for Idol self-love for Captain blindness for souldiers exorbitant passions for counsel folly and for constancy perverse opinion This Citie in a word is the heart of man against The hurt of man which God daily wageth war to give us libertie by our captivitie advancement by our fall greatness by our abasing and life by death which maketh us die to all dead things to live for immortality God would that we fight by his example not onely with spiritual arms but sometimes with material and it is a thing very considerable that Abraham the first Father of all the faithfull was a warriour since S. Ambrose Ambros Offic. lib. 1. cap. 24. Fide primus justitiâ precipuus in praelio strenuus in victoriâ non avarus domi hospitalis uxori sedulus reckoning up all his titles according to the Scripture sheweth he was a good Religious man a good Justice a good Captain a good hoast and a good husband Yea also it is a passage much more admirable to say what Clemens Alexandrinus hath observed that the first Army of the faithfull which ever was marched not thinking thereon under the figure of the Cross and the name of Saviour although it were about two thousand years before the birth of the Messias The fourteenth Chapter of Genesis teacheth us that nine Kings came into the field with their troups to fight four against five Those of Sodom and Gomorrha were there in person who like effeminate Princes turned their back at the first encounter and in flying fell into pits of sulphure Their defeat gave leisure to the enemy to pillage all the Countrey where poor Lot the nephew of Abraham was taken having by mishap chosen his habitation in a Territory fertile in wealth and iniquities The news coming to the ears of Abraham he speedily armed his houshold-servants who were to the number of three hundred and eighten and with shepheards assaulted Kings whom he valorously vanquished bringing back his kinsman and all the booty which his enemies had taken Behold the first battel renowned in Scripture where this brave Doctour of Alexandria before alledged very well subtilizeth and saith that the number of Abrahamâ—s souldiers is represented by three Greek letters T. J. H whereof the first signifieth the Cross and the other two the name of Saviour God being desirous so to consecrate the first arms of believers by the Mysteries of his Greatness to declare that the warfare which is well managed is his work and glory Likewise we do not find that the name of Sun hath been given Warriours suns in holy Writ to a living man with so much lustre and applause as to a souldier and
and that all Ladies who sometimes love vapour where it is not be loved must of necessity have love in store for them They enter into so great vanities as they cast their affections upon none but Princesses or eminent beauties esteeming the rest of the world too base for the entertainment of their affections They resemble those birds of Aegypt who will not build their nests but upon Palms nor will they love but in a high place Of this quality were Endimion and the Emperour Caligula who in the end distasting all the women in the world transferred the ambition of their loves above the sphere of fire supposing they were hardy enough to take the Moon in marriage One would not believe the frenzie of this passion if we had not by experience seen men of most base extraction with much content to entertain their thoughts upon the loves of the Queens of Antioch and Sicilie transporting themselves with joy whensoever it was told them they were entered far into their gracious favours This is it which maketh me say that we in two things know the greatness of our soul to wit that it can frame a world to its knowledge as God hath created one in nature and can lodge the thoughts in so high a place that the poorest begger of the world can entertain affection for the most emiment person of the earth The rich who do as it were forbid the use of elements cannot deny love but it is a gross infirmity to love out of the sphere of your power that which you can no more enjoy than the Moon in the Heavens If we will love aloft let us love him who hath made us When once we have passed far into his heart we shall find all the greatness of the world much lower than our feet If you my souldier entertain these fantastick loves I from this present will send you to the Strophad Islands with those who search for the hand of glory the Philosophers stone and quadratura circuli and who oft-times distil the money out of their purses with that little brain which is left them through the same limbeck I fear you rather have the love of servitude and Love of bondage make a Goddess of a piece of flesh to which it is your glory to sacrifice your liberty being so blind as to kiss the fetters of your slavery instead of breaking them Verily it is a pittifull thing to see a man burn in ice and congeal in fire having the colour wan the visage meagre the eyes hollow the cheeks sunk the spirit giddy the reason uncollected and the heart wholly feaverish for the love of a creature who flouteth him To see a man who walketh in his solitude and creepeth like a spectre not knowing whether he be of the number of the living or dead who speaketh writeth who prieth who hopeth who feareth laugheth sigheth waxeth pale blusheth desireth detesteth dieth riseth again sinketh into an abyss and then toucheth Heaven with a finger who playeth a Comedy of a dozen Personages in one hour and passeth through more metamorphoses in a day than Ovid in three years Oh what a miserable thing is it saith the golden mouth of Constantinople to seek to be rosted in ashes and so desperately love a beauty which is onely fair in the fantasie of a feaverish brain and of which in a short time the most licorous worms would scorn to make their dung-hill O my souldier let such a frenzie never enter into your heart you were better serve a Turk or an Arabian than such a love It is the punais-worm which bites while she liveth and after death maketh her infection to be felt Why go you about to idolatrize a woman Have you not slavery enough at home but you must needs seek it abroad Withdraw your self in good time from this captivity gain the haven before the storm surprize you for if you once be engaged there is neither arm nor oar can serve to bring you back again Is it not a comely thing think you to behold a souldier who hath a sword by his side able to hew monsters to seek to play the cocks-comb in quest of a wily wench that exerciseth the most infamous tyranny over him that ever was heard of It is said Omphale took the Diadem from a King named Hercules and set her slippers on his head That Dionysius the Tyrant wrote the expeditions of his Kingdom with his hand and that Mirrha cancelled or signed them at her pleasure That King Athanaricus tied the strings of Pincia's shoes That Themistocles caused himself to be purged and let bloud with his captive Mistress He that should see all the follies of the entranced lovers might observe an infinite number of matters much more strange In serving a scornfull piece who makes you die a thousand times a day you can oft-times hope for no other thing but ever to serve and if you come to the end of your pretensions brag not so much you perhaps have nothing but that which servants or persons more unworthy have obtained before you This well deserveth indeed to betray your honour and to commit such silly actions but if you open your eyes to see the end of this goodly stage-play you shall do as those who caused themselves to be shaved when they escaped a ship-wrack you would not let so much as a hair remain upon that young head which suffered it self to run at liberty after such sottish loves If you plunge your self further into this passion you Love of fury shall find fury which tieth cords which mingleth poisons which sharpeneth swords which openeth black caverns which erecteth gibbets which kindleth coals which prepareth racks which produceth all that may discover the proceedings of an engaged love and which maketh an arrow of all crimes to hit the mark it aimed at Were I in your place I would tear from my heart the sleightest cogitations which occur by this folly as cankers vermine and serpents and I would ride on post if it were possible beyond the elements with purpose to avoid such encounters All the bravest souldiers have made boast of chastity It was the trophey of Cyrus to whom God for this cause gave all the treasures of Asia It was the triumph of Alexander who in recompence had the conquest of the Persians and the Emperour Julian who made profession Julianus apud Ammianum to imitate him although he had renounced all the Sacraments would never forsake chastity which he had learned amongst Christians saying This virtue made beautifull lives as Painters fair faces But not to search any further into the ruins of antiquity look what your Bayard did upon this point behold an admirable passage which I will relate in the same words as it is expressed in his history They had caused a young maid to be conveyed into A Royal act of military chastitie his chamber which was one of the fairest creatures of the world and indeed she was endowed with
sea where the tempest handled the vessels of Lycinius so ill that an hundred and thirty were lost and the rest put to flight Whilest these things were in doing Constantine very streightly besieged the Citie of Byzantium having raised plat-forms that were like huge mountains which at the least equalled in height the walls of the Citie from whence he battered it and endammaged it with much facility Lycinius seeing it was not the securest way for him gaineth Bithynia where he trieth his utmost endeavour making arrows of all wood but all succeeded so ill with him that of an Army which exceeded an hundred thousand men there scarce remained thirty thousand He who could not yet find in his heart to give over shuts himself up in the Citie of Nicomedia where Constantine furiously assaulteth him so that seeing himself upon the extream despair of his affairs he went out of the Citie and cast himself at the feet of Constantine laying aside the purple robe and Diadem and onely demanding a place of safety where he might pass the rest of his days which could not much longer continue for he was fully three-score years of age A certain Priest of Nicomedia who lived at that End of Lycinius time there and who set hand to this History saith that Constantine sent him into France to bewail his sins but the more probable opinion is that he put him to death being weary of his disturbances and having much distrust of his spirit notwithstanding that Constantia still lived and begged of her brother the life of her husband Constantine cannot be excused to have used most severe punishments even against his nearest kindred having still in his head the fire of war and ambition and not being reconciled but very late to the mildness of Christianitie Behold how so many Emperours being removed he remained sole Master of the world making afterwards divisions to his brothers the sons of Theodora as he thought good He that would attentively consider this arrival of Constantine to Monarchy and the reign of more than thirty years which God gave him shall see more clear than day that all these favours came not to him but by the virtue of true Religion whose Altars he the first of all Emperours exalted The seventh SECTION The vices and passions of Constantine before Baptism with the death of Crispus and Fausta I Will not here present unto you a Constantine in outward lineament as Eusebius hath done to cover his faults and onely expose beauties to view It is no wonder that he had vices before Baptism but it is the miracle of Christianity to change Lions into Lambs sinks into fountains and thorns into roses and tulipans The ice of winter makes the beauty of the spring darkness contributes to the lustre of light nor ever is the sun more bright than after an eclipse So grace which is the splendour of eternal light makes it self to be seen with more triumphs in arms where it hath subdued most iniquities It is certain that this warlike humour of Constantine transported him into vanities ambitions jealousies and in some sort into a bloudy disposition which was greatly fomented by the education he received in the Palace of Diocletian Behold a prodigious accident which happened in his house by a precipitation ill ordered the death of his poor son Crispus poisoned by the commandement of his father upon a wicked and sinister calumny raised upon him by his step-mother Verily my pen shaketh with humour being to touch upon this history and I know many Grecian flatterers either have passed it over in silence or been willing to disguise it in favour of Constantine but the holy Martyr Artemius freely avoweth before Julian the Apostata who reproched him with it forbearing to deny a fact which was very notorious yet desirous to sweeten it by intervening circumstances Cardinal Constant 19. Bar. Baronius is much displeased with Eusebius who hath spoken nothing of it as if it were a thing very strange that a man who wrote to the son the life of his father in form of a Panegirick should not charge his writings with crimes and furies which men then endeavoured to suppress by all means Great men have Alban animal Albertus their judgements too tender for such like histories and ordinarily resemble that creature which bears his gall in his ear They cannot hear a true Historie in any thing which toucheth them without offence they must sometimes understand their own lives in the rumours of people where the one unlimittedly takes the liberty of speaking all since the other takes licence of doing all The vices of Constantine about these times cannot be concealed But he having caused his son Crispus to be put to death and thereunto added the death of his wife Fausta who had raised the calumny against the innocent this distick was affixed to the gates of his Palace attributed afterward to Consul Ablavius Saturni aurea saecla quis requirat Sunt haec gemmea sed Neroniana It was an allusion to the humour of Constantine who much loved pearls and precious stones as also to that which passed in the matter of Crispus and Fausta the substance whereof is this Let us not seek any more for the golden Age of Saturn Behold one all of pearl but the Age of Nero. Let us speak what we think most probably to have happened in this affair We have already mentioned how Constantine in the prime of his youth was espoused in his first wedlock to Minervina upon The first marriage of Constantine which the Writers of his time have much praised him as a Prince very chaste who to avoid wandering and unlawfull pleasures willingly tyed himself to a legitimate marriage and from that time took upon him the spirit of a husband It is an easie matter to believe that this Minervina whom he married had taken the name of Minerva because of the Minervina wisdom grace and beauties resplendent in her person It seemeth these great perfections of mind and body ever draw along with them a certain fate which affordeth them no long continuance but rather the lives of roses that in the evening make a tomb of the scarlet whereof in the morning they made a cradle The poor Princess quickly died after she had brought forth to Constantine at one birth which was her first and last two twins to wit a son named Crispus and a daughter who from the name of her Grand-mother was called Helena and afterward married to Julian the Apostata This Crispus was verily the most accomplished Crispus and his qualities Prince of that Age for he at the very first sucked in piety with his milk having the most glorious S. Helena for his first Mistress in Christianity From thence being initiated in the study of good letters he had for Tutour that famous man Lactantius Firmianus one of the most eloquent and ancientest Authours of Christianity who being the instructour of Caesars notwithstanding lived in such
impatience She to appease him excused herself upon the necessity of the accident happened but this notable Astrologer hearing speech of the birth of a child forsooke the pot and glass which he dearly loved and endeavoured to set the Horoscope of this Ablavius newly come into the world And thereupon said to the hostess Go tell your neighbour she hath brought forth a son to day who shall be all and have all but the dignity of an Emperour I think with Eunapius that such tales are rather made after events to give credit to judicial Astrology than to say they have any foundation upon truth It is not known by what means he was advanced but he came into so great an esteem that he governed the whole Empire under Constantine who freely made use of him as of a man discreet and vigilant in affairs though much displeased to see him too eager in his proper interests And it is said that walking one day with him he took a stick in his hand and drew the length of five or six foot on the earth then turning towards his creature Ablavius why so much sweat and travel In the end of all neither I nor thou shall have more than this nay thou dost not know whether thou shalt have it or no. He was the cause by his factions that Constantine almost caused one day three innocent Captains to be punished with death being ill inform'd had it not been that S. Nicholas then living appeared in a dream the same night to Constantine and Ablavius threatning if they proceeded any further God would chastise them which made them stay execution Ablavius notwithstanding was so tyed to the earth that the words and examples of his Master had small power over his soul in such sort that he had an unhappy end ordinary with those who abuse the favours of God For after the death of Constantine Constantius who succeeded in the Empire of his father taking this man as it were for a Pedagogue so much authority had he assumed unto himself and thinking he could not free himself of his minority but by the death of Ablavius caused him miserably to be butchered sending two for executours of this commission men suborned who saluted him with great submissions and knees bended to the earth in manner of Emperour He who before had married one of the daughters of the Emperour Constans brother of Constantius thinking they would raise him to the dignity of Caesar asked where the purple was They answered they had no commission to give it him but that those who should present it were at his chamber dore He commandeth them to be speedily brought in These were armed men who approaching near unto him instead of the purple inflicted a purple death transfixing him with their swords and renting him as a Sacrifice If the poor man following his Masters example had been willing to set limits upon his fortune and taken shelter at least in the storm to meditate upon the affairs of his conscience he would the less have been blamed but natural desires have this proper that they are bounded by nature which made them The fantasies of ambition which grew from our opinions have no end no more than opinion subsistence For what bounds will you give to the falsehood and lying of a miserable vanity which filleth the spirit with illusion and the conscience with crimes When one goeth the right way he findeth an end but when he wandereth a-cross the fields he makes steps without number errours without measure and miseries without remedy The thirteenth SECTION The death of Constantine IT seemeth great men who have lived so well should never die and that it were very fit they still did what they once have done so happily But as they entred not into life by any other way than that of birth as men so must they issue out from this ordinary residence of mortals as other men Constantine had already reigned thirty and one years and was in the threescore and third of his age living otherwise in a prosperous old age and having a body exceedingly well disposed to the functions of life for he incessantly travelled in the duty of his charge without any inconvenience ordering military matters in his mind instituting laws hearing embassages reading writing discoursing to the admiration of all the world This good Prince earnestly desired the conversion of all the great-ones of his Court. Behold why not satisfied with giving them example of a perfect life he inflamed them to good with powerful words which were to souls as thunder-claps to Hinds not for the delivery of a beast but the production of salvation A little before his death he pronounced in his Palace to those of his Court a very elegant Oration of the immortality of the soul of the success of good and evil of the providence of God in the recompence of pure souls of the terrour of his justice upon the incredulous and reprobate This divine man handled these discourses with so much fervour and devotion that he seemed to have his ear already in heaven to understand mysteries and enjoy an antipast of Paradise A while after he felt some little inequality of temperature in his body which was with him very extraordinary so sound and well composed he was Thereupon he was taken with a fever somewhat violent and causing himself to be carried to the baths he remained not long there for little regarding the health of his body in comparison of the contentment of his soul he was possessed with a great desire to go to Drepanum in Bythinia a Citie which he surnamed of his good mother where was the bodie of S. Lucian the Martyr to which he had a particular devotion He being transported into this desired place felt in this heart an alacrity wholly celestial and for a long time remained in the Church notwithstanding the indisposition of his body fervently praying for his own salvation and the universal repose of his Empire From thence he went directly to a Palace which he had in the suburbs of Nichomedia where feeling the approaches of death he disposed himself for his last hour with the marks of a piety truly Christian His Princes and Captains who heard him speak of death being desirous to divert his mind from this thought said He was become too necessary for all the world and that the prayers of all men would prolong his life But he Of what do you speak to me as if it were not true life to die to so many dead things to live with my Saviour No this heer is not a death but a passage to immortality If you love me hinder not my way one cannot go too soon to God This spoken he disposed of his last Will with a constant judgement and couragious resolution declaring in his Testament the estate of affairs he would establish even in the least particulars and very well remembring all his good servants for whom he ordained pensions and rewards for every one
men at arms he lived laborious amongst shepheards chaste in the Courts of Kings temperate in government a companion of Angels in his retirement and as it were Omnem istam sâ—cunâ—um corpus habitationem coelestis puritate conversationis obduxerat mentem râ—gâ—ns carnem sâ—â—jicâ—nâ— nomine Dei vocatus est id câ—jus similituâ—inem se perfectâ— virtuâ—is â—bâ—rtate formaverit Ambros l. 2. de Cain Abel a cabinet-friend of God having continually Heaven for object and all greatness in contempt He had blotted out all that which was man in him by the purity of a conversation wholly celestial The flesh was in him under such subjection and the spirit in such Empire that he merited the name of God in the resemblance of whom he was transformed by the superabundance of his virtues Behold that great disciple of Moses Josaah what piety in the service of the Omnipotent what sweetness in government what greatness of spirit in noble enterprizes what patience in difficulties what prudence in direction what dispatch in expeditions It is no wonder if at the sight of these eminent qualities walls and Cities fell Giants waxed pale rivers retired back the sun stood still and one and thirty Kings underwent the yoke Behold Samuel the Father Master and Judge of two Kings the Doctour of Prophets the Sanctuary of the poor the pillar of the Church Is it not a magnificent spectacle to see him go out of charge after so long a government and so great a diversitie of affairs with a heart so untainted and hands undefiled as if he had perpetually conversed with Angels Is it not a most heroical action which he did in the first of Kings when after the election of 1 Reg. 22. Loquimini de meâ—â—â—ram Domino â—oram Christo ejus Saul having voluntarily resigned his dignity he shewed himself with up-rear'd head in the midst of the people and gave liberty to all the world from the least to the greatest to complain and make information against him before the King newly chosen If it may be found that in his magistracy he ever did the least wrong to any man he is theâ—e ready to afford all satisfaction that may be thought fit But as he had lived most innocently at this word was lifted up a loud crie proceeding from a general consent of the people which highly proclaimed the integritie of his justice Is not this a praise of more value than millions of gold and Empires But above all reflect often on the Wisdom of God Incarnate Jâ—sus Christ the Saviour of the world as the prime model of all States-men which the Prophet Isaiah hath exactly represented in the eleventh Chapter of his Prophesie where he figureth the Redeemer unto us in quality of a Judge to serve for an instruction and an example to all posterity First for as much as concerneth his perfections he gave him seven sorts of spirits very consonant to a true Politician to wit the spirit of Wisdom and Understanding the spirit of Counsel and Strength the spirit of Science of Piety and the Fear of God wherewith he was wholly replenished Then describing his manner of proceeding he saith He shall not judge according to humane apparences by the inconsiderate views of carnal eyes and the relation of a rash tongue but he shall do justice to the poor and fortifie himself with all kind of vigour for the defence of so many gentle souls as are oppressed in the world To this purpose he shall strike the earth with the words of his mouth using his tongue as a rod of correction and shall overthrow the wicked with the breath of his lips Justice shall be so familiar to him that he shall make use of it as of a girdle of honour or a rich bawdrick which brave Captains wear The effects of his government shall be so eminent that the wolf under his reign shall be seen to cohabit with the lamb the leopard with the goat the calf with the lion and little children to play with basilisks and aspicks willing in these allegories to signifie that he shall mollifie the most savage humours by his laws to reduce them to the temper of reason Behold somewhat near how this divine Writer describeth the Policie of the King of Monarchs All those who have insisted in his steps have been glorious in the memory of men and he that would number up through all Ages so many great States-men should make a large Volume I will not at this time produce Melon Injuriosâ—s Carmerus Robert Ausâ—ert surnamed the Man of God Oenus Godegrandus Ledwardus Eginardus Raoul Fulbertus Hildwinus Monsieur Stephen of France Guarinus William of Mountaigue Henrie Arnaudus of Corgues Rochfort and the most famous Thomas More not speaking of so many other lights of Ages which have illustrated us much nearer where we may find a large list of uncorrupted men Many have so worthily filled the chairs of justice that they have deserved to pass forward to Altars there to possess the prime places of Prelacies I satisfie my self to draw out of Marcianus Cassiodorus Baronius and ancient Manuscripts the life of Boetius where you may observe the body of History sufficiently replenished with matters very considerable ANIC MANL TORQVAT SEVER BOETIVS BOETIUS The first SECTION His great Nobilitie BEhold here how I make a great States-man to walk along in his rank the honour of the gown and the singular ornament of the purple garment who hath had the priviledge to revive learning in his life and at his death to bury all the Roman greatness in his tomb It is the most Illustrious Boetius whom I have selected almost in the first Ages of Christianitie as the most accomplished personage that hath flourished in the quality of a man of the long robe throughout Christendom For if you consider his extraction it was the noblest of his time if you regard his means he was of the most honestly rich if you reflect on his wit he dazeled the eyes of the most learned if you behold his innocency his life was as a pearl without blemish If you weigh his dignity he had been three times Consul of Rome if you enquire after his negotiations and government you shall find he lived in the greatest revolutions of the Roman Empire when affairs were most thorny If you will observe his constancy you shall see a pillar of diamond not to be shaken with all the counterbuffs of iniquity and if a brave death may set a seal upon a good life you will be enforced to admire him beholding him to die on a scaffold for the defence of piety and justice which are the two poles that support all the great Policie of this Universe The unhappiness is there hath not been some Authour found in that iron Age to have written the acts of this great man in a stile suitable to his merit we should have discovered marvellous treasures but since I must make my way through so great
of the bosom thereof as a man treacherous and put into the hands of the Guard to lead him to Pavia the place of his imprisonment He was not suffered to speak with his father-in-law Symmachus for all those who were honoured with his friendship are sequestred scarcely had he the means to give the last adieu to his wife Rusticiana who seeing her husband suddenly fallen from so eminent a dignitie into such disaster could not contain from saying unto him with scalding tears Syr is this then it which your innocencie hath deserved If the King be resolved to put you to death why suffereth he still a piece of your self to live which hath ever been so dear unto you I have courage enough to follow you either in exile imprisonment or death But Boetius replied again in few words that he might not any further increase her grief Madam the hour is not yet come trouble not your self to see me suffer for justice It is a title of honour which God hath reserved for his children The education which you have derived from your good father and the instructions you have received from me give me occasion to hope you will bear this accident with a Christian resolution My daughter it is not fit that our tears which fall from so much a higher place as we have been bred in greatness may shew any dejection in the estimation of men Support your self a little under your burthen and open your heart to the consolations of heaven since those of earth are mingled with so much acerbities Then turning to his children all dissolved into tears My children saith he God hereafter will become your father Make provision of great virtues which have ever been the inheritance of our house for all other blessings are but dust and wind This is the lesson which God giveth you in the change of my fortune Comfort your good mother by the dutie of faithfull obedience and live in hope Perhaps you shall see me again if it please God sooner than you imagine These words were arrows that pierced these faithfull hearts with most just resentments of nature which could not quickly end notwithstanding all the lenitives that might be applied The sixth SECTION The imprisonment of Boetius THe great changes of fortune which suddenly happen have this property in them that they strike our souls as waves not foreseen and give us the blow before we have leisure to understand our selves The poor Boetius seeing himself between four walls sequestered from the Citie which had served as a theater of glory for all his house taken away from the love of his own bereft of his library and all the most precious accommodations of life shut up as a victim destined for a bloudy sacrifice found himself in the beginning surprized with an over-whelming sadness as he hath left expressed in writing He bewailed with broken sighs his innocency unworthily handled he traced in his thoughts the marks of his former fortune he cast his eyes upon his forsaken family which seemed to him in the Lions throat he called into memory the unworthiness of his accusers who had been heard against him the ingratitude of the Senate that had condemned him for being faithfull unto them the cruelty with which this sentence was executed the wrack of his means the loss of his reputation and all the black horrours which a man declared criminal of treason figureth to himself In this abyss of disturbances he was displeased as Eâ—eu cur durs miseros a verteriâ— Ã â—e Et stentes oculis claudere saeâ—â— negas Lib. 1. Metr 1. it were with death which layeth hold on so many young men that desire nothing but to live and deigned not so much as to shut up his eyes which he perpetually moistened with his tears Hereupon we may see that the most couragious spirits in these accidents so strange and unexpected ever pay some tribute to the natural passions of men But likewise on the other side we shall observe the power which a well rectified judgement hath over it self when we behold it to dissipate all the troubles and agitations of the heart by the vivacity of reason and use of precepts of wisdom which he most exactly practised in this his captivity We have also the book of his Consolation composed in this prison which is verily in the judgement of learned men one of the most excellent pieces of work that may be framed on this subject where he introduceth Philosophie who visiting and awakening him from this dead sleep of sadness What Boetius saith she are you be then whom I have fed with my milk whom I have cherished with so good nutriments and bred up until you arrived to the strength of mans estate Verily I have given you arms which would strengthen you against all the strokes of fortune were it not that you have forsaken them Know you me no longer From whence proceedeth this silence Tell me is it out of shame or stupidity I had rather it were derived from a just bashfulness but as far as I can perceive you are become wholly senseless Will you say nothing to me Ah poor man he is not absolutely lost but so near as I can guess he hath a Lethargie a common disease with those who suffer themselves to be transported with illusions of the mind He hath forgot himself but he will recover when he shall know me Let us onely wipe his eyes surcharged with terrestrial humours and covered with a thick cloud of the world This done Boetius came to himself and framed an admirable Dialogue with this Queen of spirits to which I remit the Reader contenting my self to observe here the principal arguments which served him for his Consolation to the end we may learn with him in our afflictions to fix our resolution on the will of God and suck honey from the rock as the Scripture speaketh The first reason proposed to him by this Wisdom Lib. 1. pros 6. Maximus somes salutis vera de mundi gubernatione sententia descended from Heaven was to ask of him what opinion he had of the Providence of God and whether he thought the world moved by chance or were governed by reason God forbid saith Boetius that Iever come to this degree of folly as to think that all here below is casually done I know God ruleth in the world as in an house built by his own hands and that nothing happeneth in the affairs of men but either by his command or permission Thereupon Philosophie crieth out Just God! it is verily marvellous that a man who hath such an understanding of the Divine Providence can be sick of the disease wherewith I see you surprized My friend you entered into the world as into a list or circle whereof this Providence hath made the circuit with his own hands It is fit you Lib. 1. pros 1. alibi patiently suffer all that which happeneth to you within these limits as an ordinance
the Sacraments of the Church for this last hour knowing the cause wherefore they came beheld them with a confident countenance and said Perform your Commission boldly It is long since I knew that death alone must open the gates of this prison for me And having spoken this he contained himself some while in a deep silence recommending to God this last act of his life and consigning to him his soul which during this imprisonment he had so often whitened with his tears and purified as in a precious limbeck of eternal charities wherein all great souls are deified This done he went forward with a settled pace to the place of execution which the King would have very secret not to excite the people where seeing himself Behold here saith he the Theater which I have long desired I protest before the face of the living God and his holy Saints that I have ever had most sincere intentions for the good of the State nor am I culpable of any of these crimes objected against me If my innocencie be now opprest there shall come a better posteritie which shall draw aside the curtain and entertain the rays of truth O Rome O Rome would to God thou mightest â—e purified by my bloud and I to be the last victim sacrificed for publick safetie I will not now accuse him who condemned me desiring God rather may open his eyes to see the justice of my cause and the plots practised upon his own soul Behold the recompence I gain for becoming hoarie in his service but God is the faithful witness of all my actions and in his bosom is it now where I lay down my life my bodie my soul and all my interests There was but one poor gentle-man waiter that accompanied him in this passage who as he poured out tears near unto him Boetius earnestly beholding him said Where is your resolution leave these tears for the miserable and tell my father-in-law my wife and children that I have done nothing here unworthie of their honour and that they act nothing unworthie of me by bewailing me with plaints which would be little honourable for the condition of my death but that they rather take this accident as a gift from Heaven They well know I have ever told them it is not here where we should expect repose but in the place where I hope to prepare them a room These words spoken they proceeded to execution by the barbarous commandment given by Theodorick I have read in a very ancient manuscript from whence I have drawn some particulars couched therein that a cruel torture was inflicted on this holy man long time streyning a coard about his fore-head in such sort that his eyes started out of his head and that in the end they knocked him down with a leaver which I cannot think to be probable seeing all other constantly affirm his head was cut off by the hand of a hangman and Martianus who most eloquently wrote his life addeth that by miracle he some space of time held his head in his own hands like another S. Denys until he gave up the ghost before the Altar of a Chappel very near to the place of his execution His bodie was interred in the Church of Saint Augustine to whom he had a particular devotion and his name put among the Martyrs as Baronius observeth because he died partly for the defence of the Catholick Church against the Arians The place of his imprisonment hath been preserved as a great monument of piety his tomb honoured with verses such as that time could afford where among other things this title is given him BOETIUS IN COELO MAGNUS ET OMNI PERSPECTUS MUNDO The King stayed not a whit after this to put Symmachus his father-in-law to death and to confiscate all the goods both of the one and other which was a very lamentable thing yet notwithstanding the couragious Rusticiana bare the death of her father and husband with so great constancy that she deserved to draw all succeeding Ages into admiration for she spake most freely to the King reproching him with his disloyalty and honoured these two eminent souls as Saints much offended with her self if at any time nature won tears from her eyes as judging them too base to be sacrificed to so flourishing a memory The vengeance of God slackened not long to fall Procop. lib. 4. upon the guiltie head of Theodorick for few days after this act as he continually lived in the representations of his crime his imagination was so troubled that being at the table when they came to serve up the great head of a fish he figured to himself it was the head of Symmachus the last of all butchered and although much endeavour was used to remove this fantasie from him it was impossible to give remedy but he rose from the table like a man affrighted crying out murder and felt instantly such a quaking over all his body and besides such convulsions in all his members that he must needs presently be carried to his bed where he was visited by his Phisitian to whom he complained with much horrour that he had shed bloud which would perpetually bleed against him The feaver and frenzie carried him hence into the other world where he had a marvellous account to make of whom we know no more particulars yet Saint Gregorie witnesseth that he learned from the mouth of a man Greg. l. 4. 30 worthy of credit that the same day he died at Rome certain honourable persons being at Lipari a little Island of Sicilie in the Cell of an Hermit who lived in the reputation of great sanctitie he said unto them Know ye that King Theodorick is no more They replying Nay not so we left him alive and in health Notwithstanding saith he I can well assure you he died to day in Rome and which is more is judged condemned and thrown into the store-houses of subterranean fire which we here call the Cauldron of Vulcan And it was a Olla Vulcani strange thing that they being returned to Rome understood the death of this wretched King to have been at that very time told by the Hermit which was held for a most manifest judgement of God and made all those to tremble who heard the relation thereof Athalaricus his grand-child by his daughter although an infant succeeded to his estates under the regency of his mother Amalazunta who restored all the goods had been confiseated to the widow that lived afterward until Justinian got the Empire from the Goths by the means of Bellasartus at which time she made all the images and statues of Theodorick to be broken causing also another process to be framed against him after his death Alas great God who governest the state of this Universe and makest the pillars of Heaven to shake under thy foot-steps what is man who will practise wiles in a matter of policie contrary to thy eternal Maxims How hath this wretch ended
of this repose news came unto her very hastily that she must return to Court to appease the discord between her children who were ready to encounter one another and to embroil the Kingdom in the desperate desolations of Civil war The good woman did not as those who hold retirement from the vanities of the world as a punishment nor ever are with themselves unless necessity make them take the way which they cannot elect by reason So soon as she understood these importunities which called her back to the affairs of the world she hastened to prostrate her self at the sepulcher of S. Martin shedding forth bitter tears and saying My God you know my heart and that it is neither for fear of pain nor want of courage that I retired from the Court of my children but that seeing their deportments and affairs in such a condition that I could not think my self any ways able to profit them by my counsels I made choice of the means which I thought most likely to help them which are prayers And behold me here now humbled at the tomb of one of your great servants to beg of you by his merits and ashes to pacifie the differences of these unfortunate children and to behold with the eye of your accustomed mercies this poor people and Kingdom of France to which you have consigned and given so many pledges of your faithfull love My God if you think my presence may serve to sweeten the sharpness of these spirits I will neither have consideration of my age nor health but shall sacrifice my self in this voyage for the publick but if I may be of no other use but to stand as an unprofitable burden as I with much reason perswade my self I conjure you for your own goodness sake to receive my humble prayers and accommodate their affairs and ever to preserve unto me the honour which I have to serve you in this retirement A most miraculous thing it is observed that at the same time when the holy woman prayed at the tomb the Arms of the brothers now ready to encounter to pour forth a deluge of bloud suddenly stopped and these two Kings not knowing by what spirit they were moved mutually sent to each other an Embassage of peace which was concluded in the place to the admiration and contentment of the whole world Thus much confirmed Clotilda in her holy resolution wherein she lived to great decrepitness of age And in the end having had revelation of the day of her death she sent for her two sons Childebert and Clotharius whereof this who was the most harsh was in some sort become humble having undergone certain penances appointed him by Pope Agapetus to expiate many exorbitances which he had committed for such is the most common opinion These two Kings being come the mother spake to them in these terms I was as it were resolved to pass out of the world without seeing you not for the hatred of your persons which cannot fall into a soul such as mine but for the horrour of your deportments that cannot be justified but by repentance God knows I having beheld you so many times to abandon the respect you ow to my age and the authoritie which nature gave me over your breeding never have endeavoured to put off the heart of a mother towards you which I yet retain upon the brink of my tomb I begged you of God before your birth with desires which then seemed unto me reasonable but which perhaps were too vehement and if ever mother were passionate in the love of her children I most sensibly felt those stings yielding my soul as a prey to all cares and my bodie to travels to breed and bring you up with pains which are not so ordinarie with Queen-mothers I expected from your nature some correspondence to my charitable affections when you should arrive to the age of discretion I imagined after the death of your father my most honoured Lord that my age which began to decline should find some comfort in your pietie But you have done that which I will pass under silence For it seemed to me your spirits have as much horrour of it as mine which yet bleedeth at it nor do I know when time will stench the bloud of a wound so bydeous Out alas my children you perswaded your selves it was a goodly matter to unpeople the world to enlarge your power and to violate nature to establish your thrones with the bloud of your allies which is a most execrable frenzie For I protest at this hour wherein I go to render an account of mine actions before the living God that I should rather wish to have brought you into the world to be the vassals of peasants than to see the Scepter in your hands if it served you to no other use but to authorize your crimes Blind as you are who behold not that the diamonds of a Royal Crown sweat with horrour upon a head poisoned with ambition When you shall arrive to that period wherein I am now what will it help you to have worn purple if having defiled it with your ordures you must make an exchange with a habit of flames which shall no more wear out than eternitie Return my children to the fair way you have forsaken you might have seen by what paths the Providence of God led the King your father to the throne of his Monarchie you might have also observed the disasters of Kings our near allies for that they wandered from true pietie That little shadow which you yet retain of holy Religion hath suspended the hand of God and withheld the fatal blow which he would otherwise have let fall upon your state If you persist in evil you will provoke his justice by the contempt of his mercie Above all be united with a band of constant peace for by dividing your hearts you disunite your Kingdoms and desiring to build up your fortunes by your dissentions you will make desolate your houses Do justice to your poor people who lived under the reign of your father with so much tranquilitie and which your divisions have now covered all over with acerbities Is it not time to forget what is past and to begin to live then when you must begin to die My children I give you the last farewel and pray you to remember my poor soul and to lodge my bodie in the sepulcher of the King your father as I have ever desired The Saint speaking this saw that these children who had before been so obdurate were wholly dissolved into tears and kneeling about her bed kissed her hands having their speech so interrupted with sobs they could not answer one word Thereupon she drew the curtain over all worldly affairs to be onely entertained with God And her maladie daily encreasing she pronounced aloud the profession of the Catholick faith wherein she died then required the Sacraments of the Eucharist and extream Unction which were administred unto her and by her
received with infinite devotion From thence forward she for some time onely lived on extasies of her soul turning that little breath which remained on her lips to the praises of God and in the end rendered up her happy Ghost the third day of June on the first hour of the night pronouncing in the instant of death these words Ad te Domine levavi animam meam Deus meus in te confido non erubescam The History telleth that the chamber where she died at the instant when her soul departed out of her body appeared very lightsom and that her sacred members yielded forth a most sweet savour which left to all there present a great estimation of her sanctity Her body was enterred as she desired at the feet of S. Gevovefue for she was so humble that she accounted her self most happy to submit her diadem to the ashes of a poor shepherdess Her memory hath been so honourable throughout all France that she is yet reverenced under the name of S. Clothe which is the vulgar word O woman truly worthy to bear a Crown of stars gold silver and precious stones are too base for you If statues should be erected suitable to your desert Diamonds Emeraulds and Topases which have been employed on the pourtraicts of the Queens of Aegypt would be of too mean a value in respect of your praises Oh Queens oh Princesses nay oh Ladies and Gentle-women why do not you at the least in your houses that which she performed in an ample Kingdom What a glory What an Empire and what a triumph to issue from the house of a King of Burgundie as an innocent lamb a poor orphan married for despight and to enter into a Court full of idolatries which seemed then a forrest of ravenous beasts yet knew so well how to charm them with invincible spells of her piety as to convert a King warlike haughty a Pagan and in converting him to change the whole face of a great Monarchy All that which we retain of Religion piety and happiness under God we ow to this holy Queen O France France my dear Countrey how art thou bound to her memory to her name to her virtue and how much oughtest thou to preserve the precious treasure of faith which she hath so happily recommended unto thee by her example I speak not at all now of the particular favours thou hast received from Heaven I say nothing of thy flower-de-luces of thy holy Viol of thy Standard of thy cure of the Kings Evil and other such like I onely mention that which thou mayest boast before the face of all Nations nor ever shalt thou loose the glory which S. Gregorie the Great an incomparable Greg. ep 6. l. 5. quae est 106. man who flourished above a thousand years since gave thee in his books when he called thee the lamp of the whole world and saith thy Monarchs as much surpassed all other sovereign Princes as Kings transcend the people I pronounce that which thou mayest publish as Baron tom 10. anno Christi 960. Constant Octavi 49. a priviledge very extraordinary that Constantine the Great made heretofore a decree which was afterward engraven upon the Altar of S. Sophia in the prime Church of Constantinople by which he expresly forbade all his posterity to make any alliances or marriages with forreigners wheresoever under Heaven except the French Nation as if this Religious Monarch had foreseen that they were the Kings of France who should second him in the zeal he bare to the support of the Church See and consider the favours God hath done thee herein Behold thy neighbours behold the powers and sovereignties of the earth behold the Empires and Kingdoms where is it that one alone may be found from the memory of men which hath received Catholick Religion with more favour which hath defended it with more courage which hath preserved it with more constancy Behold the Roman Empire and thou shalt see presently after Constantine his sons to be Hereticks and his son-in-law an Apostata Behold Italie and thou shalt see it sheltered under the protection of thy Kings Behold Spain and thou shalt see it over-run with Goths Vandals and Sarazens and the Scepter in the hands of Arian Kings Behold England and thou shalt see that it did not seriously receive the faith till six hundred years were fully expired after the publication of the Gospel Poland accounteth but six hundred and two and fifty years since it was Christian Muscovia six hundred and two and twenty Thou O France alone art it to whom Jesus Christ being in the agony of his dolorous passion when he recommended his mother to S. John and his soul to his father designed and miraculously deputed a Pastour to wit the glorious S. Denys who received the first rays of the knowledge of God in this eclipse which happened at the death of our Saviour to diffuse his divine lights afterward with his bloud upon the mountains where thy Virgins do as yet lead a life wholly Angelical O France wherefore hast thou enlightened all the parts of the world with thy conquests Wherefore thy Kings having communicated themselves with so much sweetness and facility have they augmented their Majesty by familiarity with the people which usually dissolveth it Why have they appeared as Amathists which shine so much the more as they are often worn Why hast thou been a Seminary of all great spirits Why hast thou in all times held predominance in learning and sciences like unto the Altar of the Sun from whence light is borrowed to illuminate all other lamps Why dost thou astonish all histories with the continuance of thy Monarchy to which there is none to be found comparable in the world Why hath God so many times enriched thee by thy losses enobled thee by thy disasters raised thee by thy ruins and precipices Fecitque cadendo Ne caderes Is it not for having preserved this precious jewel of Clotilda this faith this Religion which he hath consigned to thy Kings and to thy people Oh blind if thou knowest it not Oh insensible if thou neglectest it Oh unfortunate if thou loosest it Go yet and see the ashes of this good Princess which are in thy capital Citie ashes worthy to be kissed of Queens honoured by Kings and reverenced by all people So long as there shall be Sacrifices and Altars Angels and men the name of holy Clotilda shall live and spread it self with a sweet odour through all the Provinces of Christendom and my pen which taketh its flight much further than my design intended shall be the messenger of her greatness with so much the more fidelity as it hath confidence in her protection I will also to crown this work represent unto you a Lady issued of her bloud a grand-child of one of her sons who hath done in Spain that which this in France converting her husband to the faith and by consequence gained the Nation The tenth SECTION
on with little noise through the meadows and in an instant turneth into a great river and this river into light and this light into a sun but a sun which affordeth lustre and water to all the world The powers of the world which glitter with so much pomp have this almost ever proper to them to be either unprofitable or malign What did those great Philosophers who framed worlds in their idaeas What did the Plato's Aristotoles and Zeno's Could they ever perswade any one silly hamlet to live under those goodly Common-wealths they instituted on paper What did the Alexanders Caesars and Pompeys with all their forces but tend to the destruction of mankind It is a strange thing that the last Plin. l. 7. c. 26. Cruel vanity of Pompey of them caused a Temple to be built to Minerva over the gate whereof he commanded to be engraven that he had taken routed and slain two millions one hundred four-score and three thousand men pillaged or sunk eight hundred forty six ships made desolate one thousand five hundred thirty eight Cities and towns Behold how the great-ones of the earth make themselves remarkable as dreadfull Comets by the ruin of the whole world But Jesus in establishing his Religion would not be powerfull but to do good since He is the Adamant saith Salvianus who hath drawn Salvian de provid l. 4. â—halyâ—em affectu quasi spirante 〈◊〉 â—â—cris sui manibus this mightie mass of Iron of all Ages with the hands of his love and lively affections towards mankind How can the tree be better known than by the fruits And upon what may one more reasonably ground the judgement made of Religion than upon the works thereof What have all other Religions taught but to cut the throats of children to embrue Altars of Idols with bloud but to create ordures and abominations to cover secret mischiefs with the veyl of hypocrisie to authorize fables and canonize vice But Christian Religion is that alone which brought piety into the world where it was before unknown It is that which hath crushed murderous and adulterous gods under the ruins of their Temples which demolished profane altars suppressed sacrifices of humane bloud destroyed Amphitheaters where they gloried to tear men in pieces which confounded witch-crafts tamed pride quailed convetousness stopped the inundations of luxury repressed extravagancies of ambition choaked enraged desires of avarice and turned a land of Tigers Leopards and fiery Serpents into a Paradise of delights It is that which drew from Heaven all the virtues whereof some had before been unheard of others contemned the rest persecuted It is that which taught humility chastity virginity modesty temperance justice and fortitude That which discovered true prudence which opened the sources of contemplation which furnished out the Hoast of religious Orders which brake so many chains of the world trampled under foot so many Idols of gold and silver seated poverty in the throne of glory erected statues of innocency established purity even in thoughts Is it not that which so many Martyrs Confessours Doctours Virgins have done whose triumphs we daily honour Is it not upon these that Jesus having vanquished so many monsters imprinted the rays of his sanctity which is preserved and maintained even in the corruption of Ages in the persons of so many as God hath reserved to himself Must we not confess that a life led according to the doctrine of Jesus Christ is a manifest conviction of all errours and a little miracle in the world 5. From thence when we consider by what means our Saviour hath wrought this establishment which are found so contrary to all humane ways and how he acteth in suffering how he draws to him in rejecting how he is exalted by his abasings glorified by his ignominie enriched by poverty how he doth raise by destroying how he lives by his death and is eternized by dying This is it which transporteth humane understanding into admiration of the greatness of our Religion 6. Finally if you also cast your eye on this last The repose which our faith promiseth perfection of Repose you shall well understand how Alexander after he had conquered the Persians being desirous to pass into the Indies those who thought they were at the worlds end disswaded him and said It was time for Alexander to rest where the sun Tempus est Alexandrum cum orbe sole desinere Senec. Suasor and the world ended But our Religion goes much further than the sun and this inferiour condition of the world It hath the total universe for object of its travel and the Kingdom of Heaven for its repose All other Sects proposed pleasures to themselves for object of their pretensions which might make them desire the body of a horse or a hog to enjoy it with the more advantage But God lifting us up to himself above the tracks of the sun and time promiseth the same delights which he hath for himself in the vision possession and fruition of that divine face which makes all the Happy (a) (a) (a) Scimus quoniam si terrestris domus nostrae habitationis hujus dissolvitur quòd aedisicationem a Deo habemus domum non manufactam aeternam in coelis 2 Cor. 5. Invisibilem tanquam videns sustinuit Heb. 11. 27. We know this house of morter and clay failing wherewith we are covered God hath prepared an eternal building for us in Heaven not made by the hand of man as the Apostle assureth us and as we shall deduce towards the end of these Treatises Thither it is our faith paceth roundly on beholding with a purified eye the lights of Heaven a God invisible as if he were already visible Unto this life it is we prepare our souls and begin on earth to make the first essays of Beatitude 7. I then demand of you O Noble men whether Errours of the times S. Hilarius l. 8. de Trinit Fidem potius ipsi constituunt quim accipiunt all this well considered you ought not to abhor these petty undertakers who seem to come into the world not to receive Rules of Faith in it but to prescribe them They who cannot reform a silly flie in the works of Nature will make themselves Monarchs in the belief of our faith and trick up a new this great work of Religion which derives its accomplishment from God They believe what pleaseth themselves to displease the prime Verity and create a new symbol in the chymaeraes of their wits to introduce an impiety into Christianity Needs must they have a fling at the Bible as if it were the book of a man labour about the fountain-heads of the four rivers of terrestrial Paradise the speaking serpent Noah's Ark the Tower of Babel the red Sea the jaw-bone and foxes of Sampson as if the Omnipotency of God were not a pledge sufficient enough against all these weaknesses and curiosities of wit which saith Tertullian Tert. de praescript Doctrinae
expence above his ability The mother was extreamly troubled at it and restrained what she might her sons purse but he ever found ways to open it again till such time as she dying and the son seeing himself at liberty he flew into exorbitant expences and became indebted a third or a fourth part more than he was worth This is it which ordinarily overthroweth young A pretty touch of Lewis the twelfth to Francis the first men who expect great fortunes and mighty favours They think to be presently in the midst of the City when they afar off see the band of the dyal They suppose they possess blessings which will never be had they promise are engaged much turmoyl and passionately hoping ruin all their hopes Behold a little the goodly support may be expected from men of the world Drusus the Emperours son who bare all glory in bloom is taken into the other world without making any mention at all of his favourite Agrippa falls from the chariot of favour and found there was nothing got by the service of his Master but debts and discontents He reflects on the father to see if any ray of compassion Affiction of a Courtier frustrated of his hopes will dart from his eyes But Tyberius commanded him to be gone from the Court saying for a full reason he could not endure to look on what his son had loved without renovation of his memory and grief The young Prince returneth into Judaea where though the grand-child of a great King he found himself so needy that he wished to die not having wherewith to live There is nothing more bitter to men of quality Poverty the chief scourge amongst all the scourges of the world than poverty which ever draweth along with it four evil companions dependence upon another contempt shame and misery This generous heart thought that death would better his condition But Cypre his wife a Loyalty of a wife to her husband good Princess chased away this melancholy humour and descending so low as the shame of begging for him procured some little money that he the more sweetly might pass this miserable life for verily he sometimes lived at Herod the Tetrarchs charge sometime upon Flaccus Lieutenant of Syria But this kind of life being beggarly waited on with much reproach he grew impatient and resolved to return to Rome to bury himself in the shadow of favour since he could not touch the body of it The poor Princess his wife seeing there was not any would lend him money unless she bound her self for him did it couragiously exposing her person to all the persecutions of creditours to help her husband But a man much indebted is like one possessed Miseries of a man indebted round beset with a Legion of devils no sooner went one out but ten tormented him Agrippa saw himself assaulted by creditours Provosts and Sergeants which more terrified him than arms or warlick Engines The most powerful of them all was a Controuler of the Emperours house who required a huge summe of money from him whereof he was accountable to Tyberius his Exchequer To this he answered very coldly he was ready to satisfie if he pleased to be patient but till the next day but that night he stole away and went towards Rome to draw more near to the flame must burn him Notwithstanding before his coming he wrote to Tyberius who was in his Island of Capreae to sound the likelyhood of his welcome The Emperour who long before had his wound throughly skinned for the death of his Son wrot back again very courteously giving him assurance of welcome and the truth is he found Tyberius who entertained him with extraordinary favour and lodged him in his palace All his businesses went well had it not been this Controuller whose shadow he still saw before his eyes wrote speedily to the Emperour That Agrippa was endebted to his Exchequer in great sums which he had promised to discharge presently but fled like a faithless man and discovered by his proceedings there was nothing but imposture in his actions This unlucky letter at the first destroyed all his Generous act of Antonia credit For the old man who for all his friendship was resolved not to loose a denier caused him shamefully to pack out of his palace and forbad his Guards to admit him any enterance before he had satisfied his creditours The miserable Agrippa seeking out a God of money to make his vows unto went directly without any fear to the Princess Antonia to acquaint her with his misfortune and beg her favour The Lady was so generous and bountiful towards him that she discharged the debt lending him money in remembrance of his dead mother and for that he had been bred with her son Claudius besides she took singular pleasure in his humour This man whose fortune ebbed and flowed saw himself suddenly raised so that entering into amity with Caesar he made a streight league with Caligula by the express commandements of Tyberius who appointed he should follow him These were two notable ramblers whom chance had so very well coupled together as well for conformity of their humours as the encounter of their hopes They began a life wholly sportive not thinking on the time to come but to hope well of it nor dreaming of any thing but that which might make them merry Agrippa persisting in his ordinary delights undertook Flattery of Agrippa one day as he went in coach with Caligula to speak of Tyberius saying That he was as old as the earth and that it seemed death had forgotten him That it was high time he payd tribute to nature as for himself he wished nothing else in the world but quickly to see Caligula Prince of the world in his place well knowing he should lay hold on a good portion of the felicities which all men were to have under his Empire He found not that Caligula although ardently desirous to see himself suddenly Maister shewed to take any pleasure in this discourse so much he feared the Emperour Tyberius He kept his thoughts in his heart not trusting his tongue with them least stones and bushes might have ears It happened by chance that Eutyches Agryppa's coachman heard all his Master said was some space of time without shewing any appearance of it but afterward being brought before the Provost of the City at his Master Agryppa's request for a pilfery committed by him in his house he said he had many other things to speak which concerned the Emperours life whereupon the Provost carried him to Capreae where Tyberius plunged in his in famous pleasures was sometime without seeing him Agrippa who would needs excuse himself before he was accused wholly forgetting the discourse he had held with Caligula earnestly pressed this servant might be heard so far as therein to employ the credit of Antonia who was very powerful with Tyberius The Emperour answered Agrippa need not fret himself so much in
it is a distinct question which would well deserve a much longer discourse than this present design permitteth (b) (b) (b) Vanity of Astrology We have shewed in some other former tracts and will also manifest once again how vain and frivolous the science of Horoscopes is being taken in that height whereunto the vanitie of some impostours hath raised it not here intending to condemn those who handle Astrologie within limits permitted by the Church Let us now be contented to say it is a savage ignorance to seek to infer from the course of planets an absolute necessity upon mens actions since even judicial Astrologers the most fervent and obstinate durst never proceed so far All say the stars make impressions of certain qualities upon bodies and minds but that they may be diverted by precaution which gave authority to the famous axiom of Ptolomy cited by S. Thomas in the book of destiny affirming (a) (a) (a) S. Thom. opusc defat Sapiens dominabitur astris the wise man shall rule the stars (b) (b) (b) Tertull. de Ido c. 9. Expelluntur mathematici sicut angeli eorum urbe Italia interdicitur mathematicis sicut coelum Angelis Non potest regnum coelorum sperare cujus digitus aut radius abâ—titur coelo Tertullian in the treatise of Idolatry said pertinently that evil Angels are made prime masters of the curiosity of Horoscopes and that as they were banished from heaven so are their disciples from the earth as by an extension of the divine sentence He addeth that man should not at all pretend to the Kingdom of heaven who makes a practise to abuse both heaven and stars It seemes God pursueth those who addict themselves to such vanities as fugitives from Divine Providence And it is very often observed that great-ones who are ensnared in the servitude of this curiosity have felt violent shocks and many times most dreadful events (c) (c) (c) Alexander de Angelis l. 4. c. 40. Henery the second to whom Carden and Gauricus two lights of Astrology had foretold verdant and happy old Age was miserably slain in the flower of his youth in games and pleasures of a Turneament The Princes his children whose Horoscopes were so curiously looked into and of whom wonders had been spoken were not much more prosperous Zica King of the Arabians to whom Astrology had promised long life to persecute Christians died in the year of the same prediction Albumazar the Oracle of Astrology left in writing that he found Christian religion according to the influence of stars should last but a thousand four hundred years he already hath belyed more than two hundred and it will be a lie to the worlds end The year 1524. wherein happened the great conjunction of Saturn Jupiter and Mars in the sign Pisces Astrolgers had foretold the world should perish by water which was the cause many men of quality made arks in imitation of Noâ—hs to save themselves from the deluge all which turned into laughter The year 1630. was likewise threatened by some predictions with an inundation should drown half mankind which proved false by a season quite contrary It was foretold a Constable of France well known that he would dye beyond the Alps before a city besieged in the 83. year of his Age and that if he escaped this time he was to live above a hundred years which was notoriously untrue this man deceasing in the 84. year of a natural death A Mathematician of John Galeazzo Duke of Milan who promised himself long life according to his planets was slain at the same time when he prognosticated this by the commandment of the same Duke Another Astrologer of Henry the seaventh King of England advised this great Prince to take heed of Christmas night was asked whither his own star would send him that night to which he answered to his own house in security of peace Yet was he instantly sent to the tower to celebrate the vigil of this great festival One might reckon up by thousands the falshoods miseries and disasters which wait on these superstitions Who can then sufficiently deplore the folly of Existimant tot circa unum caput tumultuantes Deos. Aurelius one who forsaking the great government of God the fountain of wits and treasure of fortunes makes himself a slave of Mercury or Saturn contrary to the voice of Scripture decision of Councels Oracles of holy Fathers Laws of Emperours consultations of the wise experience of people and consent of all the most solid judgments We will not labour to ruin a doctrine forsaken Against the necessity inferred of prescience both by honour and reason We onely speak against those who will infer a necessity derived from divine prescience by force of which sins themselves according to their understandings are directly caused by the decrees of heaven It is the opinion of Velleius Paterculus who said destiny did all the good and Ita efficitur quod est miserrimum ut quod accidit etiam merito accidisse videatur casus in cuâ—pam transeat evil in the world and that it was a miserable thing to attribute that which proceedeth from above to the demerit of men and to make the ordinances of heaven to pass as crimes of mortals This Maxim was defended by Hereticks even to fury and it is a wonder men have been so wicked as to burden the prime sanctity with all the ordures of the world We well know if destiny be taken for the ordinance by which God establisheth the lives of particulars and states of Empires it is nothing else but the Divine Providence whereof we speak but good heed must be taken from concluding sins within the list of Gods will who onely being pleased to permit them can not in any sort establish or will them And it is here an impertinent thing to say All God hath foreseen shall necessarily happen otherwise he would be deceived in his foresight which cannot be affirmed without blasphemy but he foresaw all future things they then of necessity will happen Who sees not it is a childish toy and that this captious argument must be overthrown by saying All which God hath foreseen necessarily happeneth by necessity and all he foresaw indifferently happeneth by indifferency Now so it is that of all which dependeth on our liberty he hath not foreseen any thing necessarily but indifferently We must then conclude that all is done by indifferency not fatal necessity Hearken to the excellent decision of S. Iohn Damascene Damas l. 2. Orth. fidei c. 32. God foresaw all things but he determineth not all Omnia quidem Deus praenoscit non omnia tamen praefinit praenoscit enim ea quae in nostrâ sunt potestate non autem ea praefinit quia non vult peccatum nec cogiâ— ad virtutem things He well foresaw all which is and shall be in your power but he determines not because he willeth not sin nor will
they could the government of Justinian under the shadow of exactions of excessive sums of money levied on all sides So that in short time the whole Citie was seen in arms and filled with malecontents who under colour of defence of publick good committed shamefull outrages and pillages unpunished The people never fail to favour rebellions and to second the evil purposes of the factious for that is the way to put ones self between two dangers and to be exposed as a prey to all violence The Emperour seeing the malignity of this storm and well understanding he could not divert it but by strong resistance dispatched the Regiments of the Heruli to over-run the Rebels They being rough gamesters made a great massacre of the people whilst the blind iron made no distinction between forreigner and native This served more to exasperate minds transported with extremities saying They no longer must hope for safetie since the Prince had sold their lives to Barbarians The sedition was so much enkindled that women and children became parties ceasing not to throw stones and fire from on high out of windows upon the Emperours souldiers They seeing themselves charged of all hands entered into an inexorable fury which was waited on by so strange a butchery that it in an instant covered the streets with bloud and dead bodies The Patriarch beholding all this misery had recourse to the arms of heaven since earthly Powers could do nothing so that he presently advanced a procession of Ecclesiasticks who bare the books of the Gospels and Images of our Saviour But the Herull became then enraged Elephants with the sight of their bloud nor could they look on any Image but of revenge or entertain any Gospel but the sword They onely called force to counsel when reason was banished and acted all which violent rage might in an unlimited power You would have said signal had been given for fire and sword to commix and confound all that might be disordered Crimes were freed from chains of laws and Religion which useth to become a veil for protection of suppliants had no obstacle in it to stay the heat of this fight The Emperour who onely required to pacifie the sedition needs would call the people into the Theater to sweeten and inform them of his intentions but the rebellious cried out instantly it was to deceive and the more easily to ensnare them and the excess of their wickedness having taken away the hope of pardon they took Hypatius and lifted him on high upon a target to pronounce him Emperour in sight of all the world The whole Citie stood five days in so horrible confusions that it seemed a very image of hell In the end God favouring the right of lawfull Princes Justinian found effectuall means to disarm rebellion attracting some by great liberalities and dis-countenancing the rest he so changed the face of affairs mingling likewise force with industry and favour that he caused Hypatius the imaginary Emperour to be taken with Pompey his Associate and condemning them to death dissolved the whole conspiracy which had before been so fatal to the people that thirty thousand remained dead on the place Eulogius was far engaged in the faction of Hypatius so that saving his life by flight all his goods were confiscated The miserable man not knowing of what wood to make his arrow returned to his former trade and hid himself in great obscurity to make it a veil for his crimes Notwithstanding moved with remorse of conscience he began in this alteration of state to make a virtue of his necessity and to sacrifice his body to penance which had been vowed to sensuality The Hermit Daniel afterward met him by chance and perceiving him much milder and more tractable than he was at Constantinople How goes the world with you Eulogius said he having been the King in a Tragedie what part play you now To which all over-covered with shame he replied His ingratitude had abused the blessings of God and men yet for all this not lessened their goodness and that if Father Daniel would once again pray for him not to restore him to the Court where he too long lived in the death of his innocency but a little to sweeten the sharpness of his poverty he would be gratefull for it all days of his life The Hermit answered Confide not in me my friend the experience of your follies hath made me wiser than I was Though poverty be irksom it is an evil necessary for you Remain in the condition whereunto your birth disposed you and ask not riches again which would onely serve to make you nought VI. MAXIM Of PRAEDESTINATION THE PROPHANE COURT THE HOLY COURT That our Salvation is a thing done nor need we take care of it That our eternal happiness is yet in our hands and expecteth our endeavour 1. GReat things are not unlike the sources Maluit ortus scrutari quà m nosse tuos Lucanus of Nilus whereof the Ancients said nature made them rather to be looked after than found so many great wits have been employed to enquire the causes of Praedestination yet all have confessed It was an abyss of the riches of Gods wisdom and Rom. 11. knowledge whose judgements are incomprehensible and ways not to be tracked Fear not the judgements of God which of themselves Maxims against fatalitie are nought but justice and goodness but fear your works which have so little assurance and so much iniquitie Say not your salvation is a thing done and that God having determined it from all eternity without calling you to counsel good works can do nothing to advance your happiness nor bad to encrease your unhappiness Know God who of his meer bounty calleth you will neither save nor damn you but by justice Think not it is destiny or necessity begins this business God by his grace hath put the mould and cizars into your hands to fashion your self such as you desire to be reputed First secure your self of your self by contributing to the graces which prevent you He who is good to himself shall never find God evil The great judgement of Tertullian fore-stalled the disputation of men when he said (a) (a) (a) Notable saying of Tertullian Non est bonae solid◠fidei sic omnia ad voluntatem Dei referre ita adulari unumquemque dicendo nihil fieri sine jussione ejus ut non intelligamus aliquid esse in nobis ipsis Tertul. l. de exhort castitatis It was neither a good faith nor very solid to referre all to the will of God and so flatter the world by saying nothing is done in the world without the Ordinance of God but we must understand there is some power in us which God himself expecteth to accomplish the work of our salvation To say then The great God hath determined of us in his eternity without making any reflection upon our works Is to make a pillow for the sloth of some and to
abundance unless we will say such as have been the most persecuted were the most eminent Where it seems it is an act of the Divine Providence to have many times given to vicious and faithless husbands the best wives Good wives of bad husbands in the world as Mariamne to Herod Serena to Diocletian Constantia to Licinius Helena to Julian the Apostate Irene to Constantinus Copronymus Theodora to the Emperour Theophilus Theodelinda to Uthar Thira to Gormondus King of Denmark Charlotte de Albret to Caesar Borgia Catherine to Henrie of England Katherine of England Flor. Remond This Ladie was infinitely pious yea beyond limit It is good to be devout in marriage and not to forget she is a married wife much way must be given to the humours of a husband much to the care of children and family and sometimes to loose God at the Altar to find him in houshold cares But this Queen onely attended the affairs of Heaven and had already so little in her of earth that she shewed in all her deportments to bemade for another manner of Crown than that of Great Brittain She for the most part shut her self up in the Monasteries of Virgins and rose at mid-night to be present at Mattins She was clothed from five of the clock not decked like a Queen but contented with a simple habit saying The best time should be allowed to the soul since it is the better part of our selves When she had the poor habit of Saint Francis under her garments which she commonly ware she reputed her self brave enough The Fridays and Saturdays were ever dedicated by her to abstinence but the Eves of our Ladies feasts she fasted with bread and water she failed not to confess on wednesdays and fridays and in a time when Communions were very seldom she had recourse thereunto every sunday In the fore-noon she continued six hours in prayer after dinner she read two whole hours the lives of Saints and speedily returned to Church from whence she departed not till night drave her thence This was to eat honey and Manna in abundance in a condition which had too strong ties for the earth to be so timely an inhabitant of Heaven Whilest she led this Angelical life her husband young and boyling overflowed in all sorts of riot and in the end came to this extremity as to trample all laws both divine and humane under foot to repudiate his lawfull wife who brought him children to serve as pledges of marriage and wed Anne of Bollen Since this love which made as it were but one tomb of two parts of the world never have we seen any more dreadfull The poor Princess who was looked on by all Christendom as a perfect model of all virtue was driven out of her Palace and bed amidst the tears and lamentations of all honest men and went to Kimbolton a place in commodious and unhealthy whilest another took possession both of the heart and scepter of the King So that here we may behold virtue afflicted and a devotion so constant that the ruins of fortune which made all the world tremble were unable to shake it She remained in her solitude with three waiting-women and four or five servants a thousand times more content than had she lived in the highest glory of worldly honour and having no tears to bewail her self she lamented the miseries she left behind her There is yet a letter left which she wrote to her husband a little before her death plainly shewing the mild temper of her heart and the force of devotion which makes the most enflamed injuries to be forgotten to procure conformity to the King of the afflicted who is the mirrour of patience as he is the reward of all sufferers My King and dearest spouse Insomuch as already the hour of my death approcheth the love and affection I bear you causeth me to conjure you to have a care of the eternal salvation of your soul which you ought to prefer before mortal things or all worldly blessings It is for this immortal spirit you must neglect the care of your bodie for the love of which you have thrown me head-long into many calamities and your own self into infinite disturbances But I forgive you with all my heart humbly beseeching Almightie God he will in Heaven confirm the pardon I on earth give you I recommend unto you our most dear Mary your daughter and mine praying you to be a better Father to her than you have been a husband to me Remember also the three poor maids companions of my retirement as likewise all the rest of my servants giving them a whole years wages besides what is due that so they may be a little recompenced for the good service they have done me protesting unto you in the conclusion of this my letter and life that my eyes love you and desire to see you more than any thing mortal Henrie the eight notwithstanding his violence read this letter with tears in his eyes and having dispatched a Gentleman to visit her he found death had already delivered her from captivity X. MAXIM Of PROPER INTEREST THE PROPHANE COURT THE HOLY COURT Every understanding man should do all for himself as if he were his own God and esteem no Gospel more sacred than his Proper Interest That proper Interest is a tyranny framed against the Divinitie and that a man who is the God of himself is a devil to the rest of the world THis Maxim of the Prophane Court is the source of all evils the very plague of humane life and one may say it is the Trojan horse which beareth fire and sword saccage and rapine in its entrails From thence proceed ambition rebellion sacriledge rapine Disloyalties that spring from this marim concussion ingratitude treacherie and in a word all that which is horrid in nature Self-love which should be contained within the limits of an honest preservation of ones self flieth out as a river from his channel and with a furious inundation covereth all the land it overthrows all duty and deep drencheth all respect of honesty Men who have renounced piety if they peradventure see themselves to be strong and supported with worldly enablements acknowledge no other Gods but themselves They imagine the Jupiter of Poets was made as they they create little Sultans and there is not any thing from whence they derive not tribute to make their imaginary greatness encrease When this blindness happeneth in persons very eminent it is most pernicious for then is the time when not being awed by the fear of a God Omnipotent they turn the world upside down to satisfie miserable ambition And such Princes there have been who have rather profusely lost the lives of thirty thousand subjects than suffered so much land to be usurped upon them as were needfull for their tomb Others whom birth hath not made Caesars extend Practise of worldly men Ingratitude their petty power what they may They observemen sound
father which was done he remaining unknown in the Citie of Sydon But that he was now returned as from the gates of death to demand his right as being the indubitate and lawfull heir of the Kingdom This Impostour had gained a subtile fellow a servant of Herod's houshold who taught him all the particulars of the Court the better to colour his counterfeiting He led the Bear through all the Citie with good success and great applause of the people who embraced this false Alexander as a man returned back from the other world For besides that the Jews were credulous enough in any thing which flattered them they were ever much inclined to the race of poor Mariamne whose son this man counterfeited to be under this pretext he was very welcome into all the Cities where there were any Jews and the poor Nation freely impoverished themselves to afford some reasonable support to this imaginary King When he saw himself strong in credit and coyn he was so confident as to go to Rome to question the Crown against Heroa's other sons there wanted not those whereof some countenancing him by credulity others through the desire they had of alteration bare him to the throne He failed not to present himself before Augustus Caesar the God of fortune and distributour of Crowns shewing he had been condemned to death by his own father through false rumours but was delivered by the goodness of the God he adored and the mercifull hands of the ministers of execution who durst not attempt on his person beseeching him to pitie a fortune so wretched and a poor King who threw himself at his feet as before the sanctuary of justice and mercy Every one seemed already to favour him But Augustus a Monarch very penetrating perceived this man tasted not of a Prince for taking him by the hand he found his skin rough as having heretofore exercised servile labours Hereupon the Emperour drew him aside saying Content thy self to have hitherto abused all the world but know thou art now before Augustus to whom thou must no more tell a lie than unto God I will pardon thee on condition thou discover the truth of this matter but if thou liest in any one point thou art utterly lost This man was so amazed with the lustre of such majesty that prostrating himself at his feet he began to confess all the imposture Augustus perceived by the narration he was none of the most daring in impostures and said Friend I give thee thy life on condition thou ransom it in my Galleys thou hast a strong body and canst well labour the Scepter would have been too full of trouble I will have thee take an Oar in hand and live hereafter an honest man without deceiving any As for the Doctour who had been Tutour to this counterfeit Alexander the Emperour observing him to be of a spirit more crafty and accustomed to evil practises caused him speedily to be put to death One might make a huge Volume of such Impostours as have been entrapped in their tricks but satisfie your self with experience of Ages and if you dare believe me take in all your affairs a manner of proceeding noble free sincere and true throughly perswading your self what the Wise-man said That he who goes forward with simplicity walketh most confidently XII MAXIM Of REVENGE THE PROPHANE COURT THE HOLY COURT That it is good to reign over men like a Lion and take revenge not permitting fresh favours to abolish the memorie of old grievances That mildness and pardon is the best revenge THis maxim of the prophane Court more properly proceeds from the throat of Tygres and Lions than the lips of men but being harsh in execution it is ever direfull in it's effects The experience How this maxim opposeth common sense of Tiberiuses Caligulaes Neroes Domitians Herodes and so many other who have pursued this with events so tragical and lives so monstrous are fit lessons to convince a heart which yet retaineth some humanity All power imployed onely to hurt is ever pernicious Notable verities and having made havock it resembleth the ruins of buildings which overwhelm not any but such as they oppress by falling on them Man is a creature more tender than any other and must be handled with much respect Nor is there any bloud so base which ought not to be spared as much as justice and reason may permit The most part of men in these miseries and weaknesses of nature seldom hit upon innocencie but by passing through many errours He who cannot tolerate some one banisheth all virtue He must necessarily excuse many things within himself who pardons nothing in another If he think himself a God his nature ought to be mercie and if a man the experience of his own faults should render him more favourable to the like in another It is a strange folly to think greatly to prosper by rigour For all done through fear being forced cannot be of long lasting unless the course of humanity fail The savage beast is then much to be dreaded when he sees the knife on one side and rails on the other There is no strength so feeble which becomes not fierce upon the defensive within the limits of necessity A man who menaceth every one with blows of a cudgel sword or fire should remember he is not a Briareus with an hundred hands and hath but one life Now becoming cruel and inexorable he makes himself an enemy of all mankind which hath so many hands and so many lives Such an one thinks he is well accompanied in revenge who shall find himself all alone in peril Then let us here say there is nothing so Sovereign The scope of the discourse for the government of men as the love of a neighbour clemency and pardon and that the character of an excellent nature is to forgive all other so much as reason may permit and to pardon nothing in himself Love is the first law of nature and last accomplishment Excellencie of love of our felicity Love from all eternity burneth in the bosom of the living God and if he breath with his Word as he doth with a respiration substantial he breaths nought but love He respiteth this love by necessity within himself he inspireth it by grace out of himself and lastly draws all to himself by love The worthy S. Dyonisius in the book of Divine attributes Division of love 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Dyoni distinguisheth three sorts of love one is called circular the other love in a right line and the third oblike Circular love properly is that which carrieth the soul with full flight into the bosom of God and there holds it as in a sweet circle of ravishing contemplations which transport it from perfection to perfection never finding end or beginning in the Divinity Love in a right line is that which tends directly to creatures by wayes not onely lawful and lawdable loving them for God of God and in
not if an enemy he hath done according to the world what he ought If he were wise he hath not done it without reason if simple he deserves compassion Who ever bit a dogg because he was bitten by a dogg Or who ever entered into a combat of kicking with a Mule If he did it in anger let us give him leisure to come to himself and he will correct himself without our trouble to give assistance If it be a superiour or man of eminent quality let us suffer that which God hath set over us if a person of base condition why by striving against him shall we make him our equal What pleasure hath a woman whose hands are so delicate to seek to foul them with crushing flies and catterpillars Let us reflect on the carriage of humane things we are all faulty and live among errours There is no wise man whom some indiscretions escape not We shall never live content if we learn not to excuse in another what our selves are Are we not ashamed to exercise in a life so short eternal enmities Be hold death comes to separate us although we forcibly hold one another by the throat let us give a little truce to our reason light to our understanding and rest to our ashes JESUS in his last words recommended forgiveness to us moistned with his tears and bloud Go we about to tear his Testament that we afterward may pull his Images in pieces The bloud of Just Abel still bubleth on the earth and is unrevenged shall we then seek to revenge it O my God we utterly renounce it with all our hearts and are ready to seal peace with our bloud that by thy bloud thou maist sign our mercy The twelfth EXAMPLE upon the twelfth MAXIM Of Reconciliation CONSTANTIA THere is nothing more certain than that he who seeks revenge shall find the God of revenge It followeth those who pursue it and when they think to exercise it on others they feel it falling on their own heads It is onely proper to base and infamous spirits to endeavour to glut themselves with bloud and to delight in the miseries of mortals but souls the most noble are ever beautified with the rays of clemency Theophilus one of the most bloudy Emperours that Zonar Theophilus a bloudy Emperour ever ware the diadem an enemy both of heaven and earth of Saints and men as he had lived on gall would end in bloud He felt his soul on his lips flying from him and saw death near at hand which he could not escape It was time he should now yield up life to others when it appeared he could no more take it from them But this wicked man holding at that time Thephobus one of his prime Captaines imprisoned in his own Palace upon certain jealousies conceiv'd he was too able a man and well worthy of Empire commanded a little before his death to have his head cut off and causing it to be brought to his bed side he took it by the hair held it a long time in his hands so much was he pleased with this massacre then seriously beholding it he cried out It is true I shall no langer be Theophilus nor art thou any more Theophobus And many times repeating these words he yielded up his damned ghost like a ravenous wolf which passed from bloud to infernal flames although certain revelations spake of his deliverance Behold how having taken in his youth evil habits of cruelty and revenge he persevered in them to his death being besides most unfortunate and infamous in all his enterprises But contrariwise it is observed all great-ones disposed to clemency have been very glorious and most happy before God and men I could here reherse very many yet pursuing our design I rest contented with relation of a notable pardon given by a Queen to a Prince on a Friday in memory of our Saviours Passion It cannot be said but so much the greater and more outragious injuries are so much the more difficult is their pardon especially when one hath full power of revenge in his hands Now the injury whereof we Conradinus speak was the death of poor Conradinus which well considered in all its circumstances rendereth this clemency whereof I intend to speak much more admirable Know then this Prince son of the Emperour Conradus went into Italy with a huge army to defend the inheritance of his Ancestours pretending it to be unjustly usurped by the wily practises of Charls of Anjou He stood at that time in the midst of his armies sparkling like a star full of fire courage when Pope Clement the fourth seeing him pass along with so much Nobility said Alas what goodly victims are led to the Altar His valour in the tenderness of his age was as yet more innocent than wary and he had to do with a Captain whom warlike experience had made more subtile in this profession Charls being ready to give him battel resolved it He gave battle to Charls of Anjou was best to weary out this young vigour to afford him the bait of some success in appearance the more easily to draw him into his snare He gave the leading of one part of his army to a Captain of his called Alardus commanding him to bear all the royal ensings as if he had been Charls of Anjou's person Conradinus thinking he had nothing to do but to conquer what he saw before his eyes for decision of the difference advanced his troups which falling like a tempest upon the enemies quickly dispatched Alardus who was slain in the battel as some histories record carrying from all this ostent of regallity a fatal glory into a tomb This young Mars supposing the war ended by the death of his Adversary presently proclaimed victory at which time Charls of Anjou who lay hidden in a trench with the activest troups as yet very fresh came suddenly upon him He did all that for his defence which a brave spirit might in an evil fortune But his army being cut in pieces he was enforced to save himself after the loss of twelve thousand dead in the place His calamity caused him to change the habit of a King into that of a horse-keeper for his greater security so much he feared to be known by those who would decide the dint of war by his bloud He embarked His taking with his cousin Frederick of Austria to pass unto Pisa committing himself in this disguised habit to a Pilot who much importuned him for his hire He had not then about him either bread or money so that he was constrained to pull off a ring and leave it in pledge to the Pilot to assure the debt He seeing these young men of a graceful garbe and considering this jewel was not a wealth suitable to their habit doubted some trick and gave notice to the Governour a crafty man who complying with the times laid hold of the Princes and put them into the hands of the Conquerour
river Miser qui porcum esurit defecit in saginam Chrysol serm de prodigo Plato 9. de Rep. such an one there is who hath sold himself for the life of a hog who will never have his fill of hogs draft as S. Peter Chrysologus said of the prodigal child Men covetous of bodily riches would willingly make themselves horns and claws of iron to speak with the wise Plato of purpose to take and defend the one his wealth the other his loathsome pleasures Many times iron gates must be broken to purchase a fruition Inorditate love of health which draweth along with it a thousand disturbances Behold how a man who is excessively enamoured of his own health becomes suppliant and servile to his bodie He fears his proper dyet all kind of airs are dreadful to him nor can he take but with distrust those very comforts which afford him life He makes of his stomach a soyl of drugs he perpetually consulteth with his Physicians he tells his infirmities to all the world he seeks out extraordinarie cures as he often hath imaginarie diseases he lives in an afflicting equality would many times rather transgress Gods ten commandments than fail in one of Hypocrates aphorisms I leave you to think what death were not much sweeter than health so religiously preserved See now on the other side a worldly woman who Slavery of women Cultus magna cura magna virtulis iâ—ria Cato Censorius feeleth her beautie that short tyrannie already in the wain and yet would cherish it in the opinion of men who heretofore adored it or of such likewise who may be taken in the same snare What doth not this silly creature to make her self to be esteemed fair What time wasteth she not to seem slender to wash paint to divide the white well to mingle the red to powder her hair to make her self ey-browes to preserve the whiteness of her teeth to set a vermillion tincture on her lips little patches like flies on her cheeks choose stuffs and think of new fashions What torture inflicteth she not on her bodie with those iron stayes and whale-bones How many turns maketh she dayly before a looking-glass What perplexities of mind what apprehensions least her defects may appear And what discontent when after such torments so miserably ended she sees her self despised by men before she becomes the food of worms What Captain of a Galley was ever so cruel to fettered slaves as vanity and love of the body are to the soul Pursue the track of all other pleasures and you shall find them painful and dolorous and in the end you will be enforced to say there is no worse bondage than that which is afforded to wretched flesh The Prophet Scribe ei super huxum Isai 30. 8. Observation upon Esay Flower of box Esay speaking of punishments due to sinners worldlings saith they are written on box whereupon we may say with S. Hierom it is to shew the lasting of it since characters graven on such kind of wood cannot so easily be taken off But I here consider a secret which teacheth me box bears no fruit onely satisfied to produce a flower which otherwise making a goodly shew killeth bees that suck it The Prophet in this figure presented to us a lively image of pleasure which surprizeth the eyes by a vain illusion whilest it conveieth poison into the heart Rest then assured you shal never meet with solid contentment of mind but by the wayes the Saviour of the world shewed us on earth to transfer us to Heaven The just are here below as Life of the Just little halcyons on the trembling of waters or nightingales on thorns They find their joys amongst holy tears and their delights in austerities of life There is nothing so Sovereign as early to accustom to depend little on your body and quickly to forsake a thousand things by election which you shall be enforced to abandon of necessitie When a manner of virtuous life is chosen and which hath some austerity in it custom makes it sweet grace fortifieth it perseverance nourisheth it and glorie crowns it How many worldlings dayly putrifie in a miserable condition who have from their tender age yielded all submission to their flesh and how many delicate bodies in monasteries have we seen which the whole world condemned to the beer from their entering into religion to go out of hair-cloth ashes fasts as a Phoenix from her tomb A life without crosses is a dead sea which breedeth nought but stench and sterility but austerity is like the Aegyptian thorn which had an excellent grace in crowns We are called to Christianity to bear a God crucified Glorificate portate Deum in corpote vestro on our flesh and as it were impressed with the Characters of Divine love Let us carefully preserve our selves from prostituting members to sensuality made to be the Temple of the living God and the ornament of Paradise Holy Job was in state so lamentable that those who beheld him could scarcely tell whether it were a man reduced into a dunghil or a dunghil into the shape of a man Notwithstanding in the midst of these smarting dolours which over-ran all his body and the afflictions which assailed his mind he received so unspeakable comforts from God that himself confesseth to have nothing so strange in his own person as his proper torments Behold the reason why he exalted Mirabiliter me crucias Job 10. himself on his dunghil as upon a throne of virtue he adorned himself with his wounds as with a royal purple he took the Scepter in hand over all effeminacies of body and pronounced Oracles unto us which to all Ages shew that there is neither evil nor affliction wherein God maketh not his miracles of our pains and his glorie of our rewards The thirteenth EXAMPLE upon the thirteenth MAXIM The Miserable event of Lust AMMON the Son of DAVID IT is not one of the least miseries of the greatest of all evils I mean sin that the ill example which often accompanieth it doth likewise survive it It is to say truly a most bitter fruit of this direful tree or rather a scien which it in growing produceth and which being fed from it's sap stands upright after the fall of it Nor is it strange that when once the mercy of God onely able for this great work hath stifled the monster sin in the soul of parents yet fails it not though wholly dead to infect their families and poison their posteritie with the stench of it's ordure David that great Prince that King according to Gods heart had lost the affections and sweet indulgencies of it by an adultery and an homicide He afterward weepeth he humbly prayeth he lowdly cries and God who is willing to be moved turneth his eyes from his crimes and that he may no more hereafter see them applies the sponge to cleanse them yet behold long after Ammon one
COURT That it is to no purpose to think upon death so far off and that it always cometh soon enough without thinking on it That the best employment of life is to bewel prepared for death and that good thoughts of death are the seeds of immortalitie 1. IT is a strange thing that men being all made out of one and the same mass are so different in beliefs in reasons in customs and actions as the Proteus in Poetical fables Our manners daily Diversitie of men teach us a truth which says There is not any thing so mutable upon earth as the heart of man Yet we see in the world many honourable personages and good men who travel apace to this triumphant Citie of God this Heavenly Jerusalem looking on the blessings of the other life with an eye purified by the rays of faith and expecting them with a hope for which all Heaven is in bloom But there Opinion concerning the other life are an infinite number of black souls marked with the stamp of Cain who consider all is said of the state of the other world as if it were some imaginary Island feigned to be in the Ocean to amuze credulous spirits and fill them partly with pleasing dreams partly with irksom visions If these people could find some apparent proofs they would easily perswade themselves there were no death but their senses convinced of the contrary from experience of all Ages they believe that which they dare not think on and commonly die after so bruitish a fashion that a man may say They had converted the lights of an immortal spirit wholly into flesh But you generous souls whom at this present I intend to guid through the hopes and terrours of the other life observe this first step you must make to enter into a new world with constancy not unworthy a soul sensible of its immortality 2. Life and death are two poles on the which all Life death the two poles of the world creatures rowl life is the first act moveable and continual of the living thing death the cessation of the same act And as there are three notable actions in things animated the one whereof tendeth to nourishment and increase the other to sense the third to understanding so there are three sorts of lives Divers kinds of life the vegetative the sensitive and the intellectual the vegetative in plants sensitive in beasts the intellectual which onely appertaineth to God Angels and men The intellectual life is divided into two other which are the life of grace and glory In Heaven the place of things eternal reign those great and divine lives which never die and which are in a perpetual vigour being applied to the first source of lives which is God But in the more inferiour rank of the world are dying lives of which we daily see the beginning progress and end Here properly is the dominion of death and our onely mystery is to die well Some do it of necessity others every day anticipate it by virtue Now it is my desire here to shew you That death in the state wherein the world is at this present is a singular invention of Divine Providence whether we consider the generality of men whether we look on the vicious or fix our thoughts on the just 3. Some complain of death but you would see Providence of God concerning the sentence of death in the generality of men much other complaints if in such a life as we live there were no death You would see men worn with years and cares daily to charge altars with vows and prayers men insupportable to all the world irksom to life inexpugnable to death men old as the earth incessantly calling upon the hour of death and almost eating one another with despair God hath herein saith Plato well provided for seeing the soul was to be Plato in Timaeo Pater misericors illis mortalia vincula faciebat shut up in the body as in a prison he hath at least made it chains mortal What makes you so much desire life I find saith the worldling it is a pleasure to behold the light the star elements and seasons There will be much more delight to see them one day under your feet than there is now to behold them over your head Are there now so many years you have been upon the earth and have you not yet sufficiently looked upon the elements There were certain people among the Pagans who by laws forbade a man of fifty years to make use of the Physitian saying It discovered too much love of life and yet with Christians you may find at the age of four-score who will not endure a word of the other world as if they had not yet one days leisure to look into it But I must still Ambr. l. 2. de Abel Cain Non advertitis senectutem hanc aerumnarum esse veteranam processionibusque aetatis miseriarum crescere stipendia Scyllâ—o quodam usu circumsonari nos quotidianis naufragiis perform the actions of life Have you not done them enough See you not that to live long is to be long in the entertainment of travel and misery which extend their power over our heads according as the web of our life lengtheneth Do you not consider we are in this life as fish in the sea perpetually in fear of nets or hooks Will you not say we live here in the midst of misery and envie as between Scylla and Charybdis and that to decline once perishing we daily make ship wrack Notwithstanding we are pleased with life as if man were not so much a mortal creature as an immortal misery Do you not know life was given by God to Cain Revolution troublesom the most wicked man on earth for a punishment of his crime and will it rest with you as a title of reward There is great cause to desire life Were there no other miseries which are but too frequent this anxiety and turmoil of relapsing actions would tyre us What is life but clothing and unclothing rising and down-lying drinking eating sleeping gaming scoffing negotiating buying selling masonry carpentery quarreling cozening rowling in a labyrinth of actions which perpetually turn and return filling and emptying the tub of the Danaïdes and to be continually tied to a body as to the tending of an infant a fool or a sick man That is not it which withdraweth me say you But I must see the world and live with the living Had you been all your life Baseness of the world time shut up in a prison and not seen the world but through a little grate you had seen enough of it What behold you in the streets but men houses horses mules coaches and people who tumble up and down like fishes in the sea who have many times no other trade but to devour one another and besides some pedling trifles hanged out on stals When I have seen all this but for half an hour
all the fair riches of the earth The ambitious perish as spiders who present wretched threeds and some little flies in them such are also the snares pursuits and businesses of the world But the Just forsake us like the silk-worm For this little creature had it understanding would be well pleased issuing forth of her prison to become a butterflie to see the goodly halle of great men Churches and Altars to smile under her works What a contentment to the conscience of a just man in death to consider the Churches adorned Altars covered poor fed sins resisted virtues crowned like so many pieces of tapistry by the work of his hands Hath he not cause to say I entered into the list I valiantly 1 Tim. 4. Bonum certamen certavâ— cursum consummavi in reliquo reposita est mihi corona justitiae Exhortation to such nice people as fear death fought I have well ended my race there remains nothing more for me but to wear the Crown of Justice which God keeps for me as a pledge 6. I yet come again to thee worldly man who so much fearest this last hour Learn from this discourse to fortifie thy self against these vain apprehensions of death which have more disturbance for thee than the Sea surges Is it not a goodly thing to see thee tremble at thy enterance into so beaten a path wherein so many millions have passed along before thee and the most timorous of the earth have finished their course as well as the rest without any contradiction All that which seemeth most uneasie in this passage is much sweetened by two considerations the first whereof is That God made it so common that there is no living creature exempt and the other That to dispose us to a great death we every night find in our sleep a little death Wilt thou then still doubt to set thy foot-steps firmly in the paths which the worlds Saviour with his holy Mother imprinted with their tracks After thou hast slept so many years and so long passed through the pettie miseries of death shalt thou never come to the great Why art thou so apprehensive of death Sickness and miseries of the world will one day perhaps make thee desire that which thou now most fearest Were it not better to do by election what must be suffered by necessity Hast thou so little profited in the world that thou hast not yet some friend some one dearly beloved who passed into the other life Needs must thou have very little affection in store for him if thou fearest the day which should draw thee near to his company What is it maketh all these apprehensions arise in thy mind Is it so ill with thee to forsake a world so treacherous so miserable so corrupt If thou hast been therin perpetually happy which is very rare couragiously set a seal upon thy felicity and be not weary of thy good hap which may easily be changed into a great misfortune Many have lived too long by one year others by one day which made them see what they feared more than death But if thou be afflicted and persecuted in this life why art thou not ashamed when God calleth thee to go out faintly from a place where thou canst not stay without calamitie Deplorest thou thy gold silver costly attire houses and riches Thou goest into a Countrey where thou no longer shalt need any of that They were remedies given thee for the necessities of life now that thy wounds shall be cured wouldest thou still wear the plaisters Bewailest thou loss of friends There are some who expect thee above which are better than the worldly more wise more assured and who will never afford thee ought but comfort Thou perhaps laments the habit of body and pangs of this passage It is not death then which makes thee wax pale but life thou so dearly lovedst It hath been told thee in the last agonies of death the body feeleth great disturbances that it turns here and there that one rubs the bed-cloths with his hands hath convulsions shuts fast the teeth choaketh words hath a trembling lower lip pale visage sharp nose troubled memory speech fumbling cold sweat the white of the eye sunk and the aspect totally changed What need we fear all that which perhaps will never happen to us How many are there who die very sweetly and almost not thinking of it You would say they are not there when it happens Caesar the Pretour died putting on his shoes Lucius Lepidius striking with his foot against a gate the Rhodian Embassadour having made an Oration before the Senate of Rome Anacreon drinking Torquatus eating a cake Cardinal Colonna tasting figs Xeuxes the Painter laughing at the Picture of an old woman he was to finish and lastly Augustus the Monarch performing a complement But if something must be endured think you the hand of God is stretched out to torment you above your force or shortened to comfort you He will give you a winter according to your wool as it is said sufferings according to the strength of your body and a crown for your patience You fear nothing say you of all that I mention but you dread Judgement Who can better order that than your self Had you been the most desperate sinner in the world if you take a strong resolution to make hereafter an exact and effectual conversion the arms of God are open to receive you He will provide for your passage doubt it not as he took care for your birth He will accompany you with his Angels he will hold you under the veil of his face under the shadow of his protection if he must purge you by justice he will crown you by his mercy The fifteenth EXAMPLE upon the fifteenth MAXIM The manner of dying well drawn from the Model of our LADIE ONe of the most important mysteries in the world is to die well It is never done but once and if one fail to perform it well he is lost without recovery It is the last lineament of the table of our life the last blaze of the torch extinguished the last lustre of the setting Sun the end of the race which gives a period to the course the great seal which signeth all our actions One may in death correct all the defects of an ill life and all the virtues of a good are defaced and polluted by an evil death The art of dying well being of so great consequence it seems God permitted the death of his Mother to teach us what ours ought to be The death of the Virgin Mary is the death of a Phenix which hath three conditions resolution disengagement and union I begin with resolution of conformity to the will 1. Quality of good death is the indifferency of time and manner of God which is the first quality should be had to die well That is to hold life in your hands as a loan borrowed from Heaven ever ready to restore it at the least
with so much profusion that she could not endure to lodge but in chambers full of delicious perfumes of the East she would not wash her self but in the dew of Heaven which must be preserved for her with much skill Her garments were so pompous that nothing remainned but to seek for new stuffs in Heaven for she had exhausted the treasures of earth Her viands so dainty that all the mouthes of Kings tasted none so exquisite nor would she touch her meat but with golden forks and precious stones God to punish this cursed superfluity cast her on a bed and assailed her with a maladie so hydeous so stinking and frightfull that all her nearest kin were enforced to abandon her none staying about her but a poor old woman already throughly accustomed to stench and death yet could not this proud creature part with her infamous body but with sorrow She was of those souls that Plato calleth Phylosemates which tie themselves to flesh as much as they can and after death would gladly still walk round about their flesh to find a passage into it again Know you what is to be done to die well Cut off in good time the three chains which straightly bind foolish and sensual souls For the first passage that The way how to be well provided for death concerneth earthly goods seasonably dispose of your temporal Entangle not your hands for so short a time as you are to live in great affairs perilous and uncertain which will perplex you all your life and throw you down to death Do not like evil travellers who stay to reckon and contend with their hostess when it is already fair day-light and that the guid wrangles and sweareth at them Digest your little business that you may leave no trouble in your family after death Make a Will clear and perspicuous which draweth not suits after it Preserve your self carefully from imitating that wicked man who caused all his gold and silver to be melted into one mass to set his heirs together by the ears who killed one another sprinkling the apple of discord and the object of their avarice with their bloud Say to your self I brought nothing into the world nor will carry any thing away no not the desire of it Behold one part of my goods which must be restored to such and such these are true debts that must necessarily be discharged Behold another for pious legacies Another for alms to persons needy and indigent another for my servants male and female and my poor friends who have faithfully served me They have wasted their bodies and lives to contribute all they might to my will there is no reason I should forget them Nay I desire mine enemies have some part in my will As for my children and heirs the main shall go to them they will be rich enough if they be virtuous enough Behold how the temporal should be disposed And for so much as concerneth kinred give the benediction of God to your children and all your family leave worthy examples of contempt of the world of humility of patience of charity procure a full reconciliation with your enemies entertain your friends with sage discourses which may shew you gladly accept Gods visitations that you die full of resolutions to prepare them a place and that you expect from their charity prayers and satisfactions for your negligence and remisness If needs some small tribute must be paid to nature in two or three drops of tears it is tolerable But take away these whyning countenances these petty furies these mercenary weepers who weep not knowing why nor for what they mourn As for that which toucheth the state of your body it would be a goodly thing for you to be wail it after you have had so many troubles in it Go out of it like a Tennant from a ruinous house go from it as from a prison of earth and morter Go out of it as on the sea from a rotten leaky ship to leap on the shore and care not much what will become of it after death so it be on holy land Souls well mortified speak not of flesh considering the state of sin but with horrour Yea we find in the bequests of one of the sons of S. Lewis Count of Alencon these words I will Modesty of a son of S. Lewis the Tomb that shall cover my stinking flesh exceed not the charge of fiftie livres and that which encloseth my evil heart pass not thirty livres Behold how the son of one of the greatest Kings in the world speaketh of his body and would you idolatrize yours Lastly for the third condition of a good death it The third quality of a good death must have union with God whereof our Lady giveth us a perfect example For it being well verified by Theologie that there are three unions supernatural and as it were wholly ineffable the first whereof is the sacred knot of the most holy Trinitie which tieth three persons in one same Essence the second is the tie of the Word with humane nature which subsisteth by the hypostasis of the same Word and the third the intimate conjunction of a Son-God with a Mother-Virgin I affirm the Virgin being a pure creature cannot equal either the union of the Trinity or the hypostatical union yet notwithstanding hath the highest place of all created unions as she who was united to God when she lived in the world in the most sublime and sacred manner the spirits of the most exalted Seraphins might imagine which was most divinely expressed by S. Bernard She entered into a deep abyss of divine Profundissimam divinae sapientiae penetravit abyssum quantum sine personali unione creatur◠conditio patitur luci illi inaccesibili videatur immersa D. Bernard serm in signum magnum Mater mea quà m appellatis foelicem inde foelix quia verbum Dei custodit non quia in illa Verbum caro factum est c. Aug. tract 10 in Joan. wisdom so that she was united to light inaccessible so much as a creature might be permitted not arriving to the personal union of God But saying this I not onely speak of the union she had in quality of the Mother of God being one same flesh and one same substance with her Son but of the union of contemplation devotion and submission to the will of God which alone was the center of her felicity as witnesseth S. Augustine My Mother whom you call happie hath all her happiness not so much because the Word was made man in her as for that she kept the word of God who made her and who afterward allied himself to humane nature in her womb as he would say Our Lady was more happy to have conceived God in her heart and continually kept spiritual union with him than to have once brought him forth according to flesh We cannot arrive at this sublime union of the Mother of God but howsoever at least in the last
period of thy life having bid adieu to the world and drawn the curtain between thee and creatures endeavour to be united as perfectly as is possible to thy Creatour First by good and perfect confession of the principal actions of all thy life Secondly by a most religious participation of thy viaticum in presence of thy friends in a manner the most sober well ordered edificative thou maist In the third place seasonably receiving extream unction thy self answering if it be possible to the prayers of the Church and causing to be read in the approaches of this last combate some part of the passion Lastly by the acts of faith hope charity and contrition I approve not the manner of some who make studied remonstrances to dying men as if they were in a pulpit nor of those who blow incessantly in their ears unseasonable words and make as much noise with the tongue as heretofore Pagans with their kettles in the eclipse of the Moon We must let those good souls depart without any disturbance in the shades of death S. Augustine would die in great silence desiring not to be troubled with lamentations nor visits for ten days together where having hanged some versicles of Psalms about his bed he fixed his dying eyes upon them with a sweetness most peacefull and so gave up the ghost It is good to say My God I believe assist my incredulitie I know my Crâ—do Domine adjuva incredulitatem meam Marc. 9. Scio quod Redemptor meus vivit c. Job 9. Si ambulavero in medio umbrae mortis non timebo mala quoniam tu mecum es Psal 22. Quid mihi est in coelo c. Psal 72. Quare tristis es anima mea c. Psal 83. Redeemer is living and that I shall see him in the same flesh which I at this present disarray Though I must walk into the shades of death I will fear nothing because Oh my God thou art with me What have I to desire in heaven and what would I of thee on earth My flesh and my heart are entranced in thee O the God of my heart and my portion for all eternitie Wherefore art thou so sad O my soul and why dost thou trouble me Turn now to thy rest because God hath afforded thee mercie Behold how the Virgin our Ladie died behold how Saint Lewis died behold how Saint Paula departed of whom Saint Hierom (a) (a) (a) Hier. ep 27. ad Eustoc Digitum ad â— tenens crucis signum pingebat in labiis Anima erumpere gestiens ipsum stridorem quo mortalis vita finitur in laudes convertebat said The holy Lady rendering up her life put her finger on her mouth as desirous to imprint the sign of the Cross upon it turning the gasps of death and last breath of the soul into the praises of God whom she so faithfully had served XVI MAXIM Of the Immortalitie of the SOUL THE PROPHANE COURT THE HOLY COURT Little care is to be had of the Soul after death so all be well with it in this life That we have an immortal Soul capable of happiness or unhappiness eternal 1. A Man who doubteth and questions the immortalitie of the Soul sheweth in the very beginning that he almost hath no soul that retaining nought but the substance of it to suffer he hath lost the lights and goodness which might crown it Never enter these thoughts into any man without making a tomb of flesh for his reason whilest he so flattering his body forgets all the excellencies of his soul We must here follow the counsel of ancient Sages when a Libertine will impugn a verity known by the onely light of nature it is not needfull to answer his absurdities but to lead him directly into the stall and to shut him up with beasts speaking unto him the sentence which the Prophet Daniel pronounced against Nebuchadnezzar Thou shalt hereafter be banished Sentence against the wicked Ejicient te ab hominibus cum bestiis ferisque erit habitatio tua Daniel 4. from the companie of men and thy abode shall be with beasts and savage creatures All speak and all dispute for the Maxim of the Holy Court and although we ought to have full obligation to faith which manifestly hath set this truth before us thereunto affixing all the order of our life and the principal felicity we hope for yet are we not a little enlightened with so many excellent conceits which learning furnisheth us withal upon it and which I will endeavour to abbreviate comprehending much in few words 2. I will then say for your comfort that it hath happened that an Heretick lost both of understanding and conscience having opposed the belief of Purgatory heresie being a beaten path to infidelity came to this point of folly as throughly to perswade himself that death ended all things and that these endeavours of prayers and ceremonies which we afford to the memory of the deceased were given to shadows He did all a wicked man might to tear himself from The belief of the immortalitie of the soul invincible Condemnation of impiety in the tribunal of nature himself and belie that which God made him but it was impossible for him as you shall see in considering the three chambers of justice wherein he was condemned First he entered into the Court before the tribunal of Nature and thought he saw a huge troup of all the learned men of the earth and all Nations of the universe who came to fall upon as a mighty cloud armed with fire and lightening My God said he what is this The great Tertullian Quod apud multos commune invenitur non est erratum sed traditum Tertul. said and it is true that verities which fall into the general understandings of all men as acknowledged avowed and confessed by all sorts of nations ought to be believed as by a decree of Nature The example thereof is evident For all men in the world believe that the whole is greater than a part that the superiour number exceedeth the inferiour That the father and mother should be honoured as the Authours of life That one must not do to another what he would not be done to himself And because every one understands and averreth this by the light of nature he would be thought a beast or a mad man who should contradict it Now from whence proceedeth it that the belief of the souls immortality holds the same place with these general Maxims although it be otherwise much transcendent above our sense If I regard the course of time and revolution Tertul. de testimonio animae of Ages from the beginning of the world one cannot assign any one wherein this faith hath not been published by words or actions correspondent to the life of the other world And if some depraved spirits have doubted it they were gain-said by publick voice by laws ceremonies customs protestations of Common-wealths of
another nature and return into elements but I who have no matter subsist by necessity absolutely entire and wholly incorruptible without suffering these changes Ask likewise thy understanding and it will repeat Radix intellectualitatis est immaterialitas Avicenna apud Caprâ—ol Modus operandi sequitur modum essendi The operations of the soul are admirable the philosophical Axiom The workman is known by the work by the operation of every thing its nature is discovered from whence ensueth that if the manner which thy soul useth in its functions and operations be wholly spiritual we may truly say it is all spirit all indivisible and wholly incorruptible Now where is it that it worketh not with a tenderness and admirable spirituality First in the separations it maketh of universal natures in numbers relations proportions orders correspondencies harmonies in things eternal and divine Secondly in judgements discourses disputations comparisons applications which it maketh on every thing Thirdly in the considerations and reflections it hath on it self yea over all its actions almost in infinitum If it did not work spiritually how could it harbour in the memory so many seas rivers mountains valleys cities and castles How could it put so many places into one place not holding any place If it operated not spiritually and indivisibly how could it be whole in each of its actions The body because it is body and quantitative and divisible what it doth with one part it doth not necessarily with another what it toucheth with the hand it doth not necessarily touch with the foot but the soul is all in its action If the soul understand all the soul understandeth If the soul will all the soul willeth If the soul suffer all the soul suffereth For it is in an indivisible That August l. de spiritu anima c. 19. Anima in quibuscumque suis motibus tota est Manilius l. 4. Astron I am nusquam natura latet pervidimus omnem was it which S. Augustine judiciously spake The soul is all in each of its motions Mortal things can do nothing immortal But our soul to teach us its immortality doth wonderfull works which fear not the sithe of time the wheel of inconstancy nor power of death it our-lives stones mettals Aegyptian Pyramids and the worlds seven wonders It is a strange thing to see a humane spirit which taketh away the veil from nature and looketh into the bottom and penetrateth into the very marrow It entereth into these great labyrinths of essences it defineth divideth distinguisheth severeth it appropriateth maketh marvellous dissections mounteth above the tracts of the Sun and time scoreth out the course of the Heavens the periods of the Stars It deciphereth eclipses to an instant and foregoeth by understanding those great celestial bodies whose motions are more swift than wind or thunder From thence it expatiateth into the air there to hear the winds blow rain pour down tempests roar lightnings to flash rain-bowes and crowns arise It descendeth into the deep caverns of the earth there to meditate on the mettals It floateth on the sea it reckoneth the veins of the abyss it keeps a register of so many birds and fishes so many terrestrial creatures so many worms and serpents so many hearbs and plants All this great frame of nature passeth through its consideration from the cedars of Lybanus to the hyssop It createth sciences it inventeth arts it findeth out an infinite number of devices It governeth the great bodies of Kingdoms and Common-wealths with passages of incomparable prudence Arms and laws cures of maladies commerce navigations industries of mechanicks and finally a million of rarities are produced from the sources of the wit of man who cannot yet understand his own worth Besides what is more spiritual more independent on matter than the action of the will than free-will which beareth the beginning of its motion and elevation within it self not borrowing it from any What is more divine than to see a heart more capable than abysses which cannot be satiated with all the things in the world The plant is contented with a little dew the horse with a few oats and hay because animal and vegetative nature is limited to certain small quantities But the immaterial soul as it is in some sort infinite bendeth to infinitie (a) (a) (a) Omnibus fere ingenita est fame post mortem expido Et unde anima affectaret aliquid quod velit post mortem si ribil de postero sciret Tertul. de testim animae It speaketh of Heaven as of its mansion and of God as of the object of its felicity It desireth to live ever it taketh incomparable care for posteritie it interesseth it self in the future which it would never do were it not its hereditary possession Sleep which tameth Lions cannot overcome it It learns its immortality even in the image of death there it is where it incessantly worketh travelleth by sea and land negotiateth converseth sporteth rejoyceth suffereth hunteth after a thousand objects both good and bad and knoweth says Eusebius that having no end in its motion it hath none in its life And to conclude in a word what is there more admirable for the proof of our immortality than this synderesis this conscience which is in the body contrary to the body and a perpetual enemy of senfual nature which pleadeth which questioneth which strikes us with remorse upon the rememberance of sin What is there less corporal than a soul which can see its body burned flesh pulled off with pincers and members torn piece-meal one after another to maintain and preserve a belief which it judgeth to be true as did the Martyrs Never should we behold such a combat between the soul body were they not two pieces quite different the one whereof is sublime spiritual immortal the other low frail and mortal We likewise daily see how the soul wholly retired within it self as it happeneth in apprehensive speculations and raptures is more strong and knowing than ever being touched by some ray from commerce with Intelligencies to which it hath so much relation We find by experience that upon the declining Eaâ— decrescente corpore augeri maxime videmus Aenesius Illa sine hoc vinit melius hoc sine ista nee pejus Claudius Marcus l. 3. de statu animae c. 3. Manifest conviction age when the body shrinketh it hath much more vigour in counsels and judgements which giveth us assurance it cannot any way participate of the corruption of the flesh Who will consider the effects of the soul in three principal things which are Intelligence Sanctitie and Courage shall find all therein is divine And if the wicked smothering these gifts of God will put themselves willingly into the rank of bruit beasts do they not well deserve the place of devils 6. Finally we say we have a soul immortal because God both can and will make it such He can for he is Omnipotent and it is not
a harder matter for him to preserve souls he created than to derive them from nothing He will because he engageth his Eternal word to give us this assurance yea he will because it is manifested to us by the light of nature One cannot believe a God unless he believe him just and it is impossible to think him just without the belief of an immortal soul as S. Clement reasoneth after Clemens 3. Recogn his Master the great S. Peter For what a stupdity is it to imagine this father of spirits who accommodated the most silly creatures with all the conveniencies of nature hath neglected man so far as to afford him a most lively knowledge and a most ardent thirst of immortality which principally appeareth in the most holy and worthy souls to hold a heart in torment never affording it any means to be satisfied since in all nature he never grants any inclination to any creature whatsoever but that he provideth for its accomplishment But which is more into what mind of a Tartarian can this imagination fall that a sovereign Cause most intelligent very good and Omnipotent should be pleased to burn virtue here with a slow fire to tear it among thorns to tie it on wheels afterward to equal the soul of the most virtuous man of the earth with that of murderers Sardanapaluses and Cyclopes Never should these base thoughts take possession of the heart of man if he had not villified his reason with great sins and drowned his soul in the confusion of bodie Put these prophane spirits a little upon the proof of their opinion and let them consider the reasons of Plinie of Lucretius of Panecus and Soranus they are not men who speak but hogs that grunt They tell you the soul is not seen at its passage out of the body as if the corporal eye were made to see a soul spiritual Doth one see the air the winds odours and the sphere of fire which our soul incomparably surpasseth in subtilitie They ask what doth this soul separated Plin. l. 7. c. 55. Vbi cogitatiâ— illi Quomodo visus auditus aut qued sine his bonum Quae deinde sedes Quae malum ista dementia iterari vitam worte where is its sight its hearing pleasure tast touching and what good can it have without the help of sense Spirits dulled with matter which never gave themselves leisure to find out the curious operations of the soul in the understanding and love whereupon it lives of its own wealth They curiously enquire where so many souls may abide as if hell were not big enough to contain all the Atheists Lastly they adde it is to tyrannize over a soul to make it survive after death Who sees not it is the fear they have of God's judgement causeth them to speak in this manner And are not they well worthy of all unhappiness since they so readily become the enemies of an eternal happiness Let us cut off the stream of so many other reasons and say at this present This should teach us to treat with the dead by way of much respect and most tender charity as with the living It should teach us to use our soul as an eternal substance What would it avail us to gain all the world and The care to be had of the soul loose that which God deigned to redeem by his death Let us forsake all these inferiour and frivolous thoughts which nail us to the earth and so basely fasten us to the inordinate care for our bodies Let us manure our soul let us trim it up as a plot fit to receive impressions of the divinity Let us prepare it for the great day of God which must make the separation of a part so divine from these mortal members Let all that die which may yield to death Let the contexture of humours and elements dissolve as weak works of nature But let us regard this victorious spirit which hath escaped the chains of time and laws of death Let us contemn the remainders of an age already so much tainted by corruption Let us enter into this universality of times and into the possession of Diet iste quem tanquam extremum reformidas aeterni natalis est Sen. ep 102. of eternity This day which we apprehend as the last of our life is the first of our felicities It is the birth of another eternal day which must draw aside the curtain and discover to us the secrets of nature It is the day that must produce us to these great and divine lights which we behold with the eye of faith in this vale of tears and miseries It is the day which must put us between the arms of the father after the course of a profuse life turmoyled with such storms and so many disturbances Let us daily dispose us to this passage as to the entrance into our happiness Let us not betray its honour Let us not wither up its glory Let us not deface the character which God hath given it We are at this present in the world as in the belly of nature little infants destitute of air and light which look towards and contemplate the blessed souls What a pleasure is it to go out of a dungeon so dark a prison so streight from such ordures and miseries to enter into those spacious Temples of eternal splendours where our being never shall have end our knowledge admit ignorance nor love suffer change The sixteenth EXAMPLE upon the sixteenth MAXIM Of the return of Souls GOd who boundeth Heaven and limiteth earth ordaineth also its place to each creature suitable to the nature and qualities thereof The body after death is committed to the earth from whence it came and the soul goes to the place appointed it according to its merit or demerit And as it is not lawful for the dead body to forsake the tomb to converse with the living so the soul is not permitted to go out of the lists Gods justice ordained for it to entermeddle in worldly affairs Notwithstanding as the divine power often causeth the resurrection of the dead for the confirmation of our faith so it appointeth sometimes the return of souls for proof of their immortality I would not any wise in this point favour all the shallow imaginations which entitle sottish apprehensions of the mind with the name of visions but it is undoubted there is no Country in the world nor time throughout Ages which hath not afforded some great example of apparition of spirits by known witnesses and the judgements of most eminent Mitte quoque advivus aliquâ—â— ex mortuit Scriptura lestatur De cura pro mortuis c. 15. c. c. 10. Luc 14. personages S. Augustine holds it is a doctrine grounded on Scripture experience and reason which cannot be gain-said without some note of impudence although he much deny that all the dreams we have of the dead are ever their souls which return again Such was the belief of
simplicity to forsake certain pleasures for an uncertain beatitude That the glorie of Paradise is most certain to good men WE live here among the groans of creatures Opinion concerning beatitude every one well understands he is not in his right situation and all the world turns from one side to another like a sick man in a bed and if any one lie still it is rather through the impotencie of motion than the happiness of repose Our soul well knows it is the daughter of a good house that there is another place which expecteth it another life which inviteth it It seeth some glimmers of felicity in the mass of this bodie but hath much ado to follow them so many illusions deceive it upon one side and so many obstacles oppose it on the other The great floud and ebbe of perpetual disturbances Disturbances of life August l. 2. de Trinit c. 12. Amor magis sentitur cum prodit indigentia shew us we are made for some great matter since among so many objects there is none which either fully or long contenteth us We understand our happiness by the continual change of our miseries and our strong appetite by distast of all things Love which according to Plato is the son of indigence never is so ill as with its own mother from whom it learns nothing but its poverty which addeth a sharp spur to direct it to riches When I read S. Gregory Nazianzen in the great Naz. de itineribus vitae The divers wayes of humane life according to S. Gregory That the choice of conditions of life is hazardous work he compiled of sundry courses of life it seems to me I behold a man in the enterance of a labyrinth much distracted who will and will not who desires waxeth drouthy is intranced and become pale yea in the height of his delights It seems to me nature leadeth him through all the corners of her Kingdom and sayes unto him O man what wouldest thou do to become happie Behold I conduct thee through all the parts of my jurisdiction of purpose to afford thee felicitie which thou seekest Wilt thou then marrie fy no saith he for there is too much hazard in the adventure single life it is painfull would you have children they cloy with too much care barreness it hath no support riches they are treacherous to their Master and many have been in danger to loose life for having too much wherewith to live charges and honours they cost overmuch and are indeed dead trees whereinto ostriches flie as well as eagles would you have favour it is a squib which cracks in the air and leaves nothing behind it but burnt paper and smoak but if the Courts of Great-ones afford good fruit there is store many times of evil birds which devour it Thou wouldest then live in subjection saith nature since thou canst not command He replieth he could not obey I will make thee poor saith she to teach thee humilitie you were as good quoth he to put me on the wheel Thou shalt have beautie it is the snare of lust youth it is the bubling of time strength it shall be inferiour to bulls nobility it is too full of libertie eloquence it is too vain skill in pleading it is nought but wrangling Wouldest thou wear a sword by thy side it is to live either an homicide or to become a victime of death retire into some wilderness it is to languish Will you have title it is to become captive traffick it hath too much hazard and pains travel it hath too much toil sail on the sea there are too many storms stay on the land it is repleat with miseries learn some trade all is full of craft and I find none good manure the earth I am not able live idlely that is to rot alive One knoweth not on what side to turn him in the Obtiruntur humilitate depressa nutant celsa fastigio S. Eucherius Miseries of this present life world poor states are overwhelmed under their miseries great totter born down with the weight of their own greatness We find by experience that we here lead a painfull bitter and corruptible life which is fruitfull in miseries knowing in all whereof it should be ignorant and many times impotent but to do ill A life over which elements predominate which heats burn cold congeals humours swell maladies torment the very air and viands wherewith it lives cease not to corrupt A life which loves tyrannize hopes flatter cares devour anxieties oppress joyes make profusely dissolute A life which ignorance blindfolds flesh tempteth the world deceives sin poisoneth the devil beguiles inconstancy turmoileth time takes away and death despoileth Now what spirit is so bruitish and unnatural Necessary consequence which considering upon one side how God accommodateth all creatures even the least flies to the full latitude of that felicitie their nature admitteth and on the other side seeing this great abyss of miseries Bonum omnes conjectant maxime vero principalissimum Aristot politic lib. 1. cap. 1. wherein we role in this life doth not judge that God who in his nature is most wise and benign hath not so given the King of creatures over as prey to injuries and calamities as not to have reserved a life of spirits for him since he is spirit to please him by an intellectual felicitie 2. The Sages of Gentilism have looked this verity Opinion of the wise Summum hominis bonum est perfectio per sua intellectiva in the face by the sole ray of natural light For if we consult with Alpharabius the Arabian he will tell us that the Sovereign felicitie of man consisteth in a perfect dispose of the functions of his soul as well those which concern the understanding as such as depend on the will If we ask of the Philosopher Heraclitus what wiped his eyes so many times drenched in his tears He will tell you that it was the contemplation of a good not imaginable which expected souls in the other life If we desire to understand the apprehensions of Metrodorus we shall learn the soul must ascend until it behold time in its source and the infinity of the first Being If we cover to hear Plato upon it doth not he discourse in his Phedon that the soul recollected within it self mounteth to the Divinity Ascende donec saeculum rerum videas infinitatem Plato in Phaedone Mercur Trismeg Pymander cap. 1. Plotinus Ennead 1. l. 6. Ennead 5. l. 8. whose image it carrieth and that in the fruition thereof it satisfieth all desires It it not likewise the doctrine of Trismegistus in his Pymander Doth not he teach us the soul after death of the bodie returns to its nature as a troubled water which purifieth when it is setled And doth not Plotinus triumph on this subject in publishing that blessed souls at their passage out of bodies go to the first beautie which hath power to make
all which here pleaseth and distracteth hearts is but a poor praeludium of the great act of the inexplicable contentment which passeth in eternity O man thou hast heretofore been a little infant in thy mothers womb amongst bloud and ordure involved in thin skins swadled in clouts and swath-bands which nature gave thee thou wast held in them to prepare for this world for this life where thou now breathest air with all liberty know this world is a second womb in comparison of heaven Thou art yet in prison in obscurity in fetters till the coming of the great day wherein God shall give thee a new body a glorious body a spirituall body With these hopes the mother of the young Machabees saw the members of her children hewed and cut in pieces under the bloudy sword of persecution With this hope holy Anchorites filled the desarts with their tears walked on scorching sands trampled dragons under foot stifled the concupiscences of flesh in snows and thorns with this hope Martyrs sacrificed themselves in as many torments as they had members They preached on crosses sang in flames triumphed on wheels and to merit this glory thou wilt not resolve to forsake that company which hath robbed thee of thy heart and dishonoured the character of thy profession Thou wilt not resolve to suffer a little injury a slight persecution Thou wilt not accomplish thy vows discharge thy obligations put thy self into some course of a regular piety And what may we think of thee O soul so many times ungratefull and disloyal if Heaven open in rewards cannot yet dilate thy heart to his love who readily offers them The twentieth EXAMPLE upon the twentieth MAXIM Divers observations upon the length of life and desire of the state of Resurrection IT is not my purpose to enlarge hereupon narration of many Resurrections whereof we have sundry notable examples both in the old and new Testament and in the lives of Saints in which kind there is not an Age which doth not furnish us with store I onely rest upon some observations which evidently shew the passionate desires humane nature hath to the most blessed state proposed us in the Resurrection The Platonists said The presence of felicity was August l. 22. de Civitate Dei c. 11. Omne corpus fugiendum ex Platonicis 2 Cor. 5. 4. Qui sumus in hoc tabernaculo ingemiscimus gravatii eo quod nolumus expoliari sed super vestiri ut absorbeatur quod mortale est a vita the absence of body and that we must flie from it as from a prison to enter into the liberty of beatitude But the Apostle hath much better said That we groan in this tabernacle and are in great pain not that we desire to be despoiled but to be better clothed that all which is mortal in us may be as swallowed up by life Verily we have a tender love of our bodies and even those who do most torment them do it for no other purpose but to place them one day in ease We live not without thinking on this Resurrection and immortality the fruition whereof we shall never find but in Heaven God hath given us this desire to teach us we are created for it but he doth not afford us the performance of it here to tell us we must seek for it else where We desire to live long and commodiously shortness of life taketh away the one and continual sicknesses bereaves us of the other So many men have sought for their resurrection here on earth and have found nought but their destruction Our body in the declining of age is not like Vestal fires to be everlastingly repaired All in it is lost all is dissolved but if any thing therein be re-established it is not to the proportion of its primitive vigour Spirits without which we cannot live cease not to alter our life and the very air we breath drieth and devoureth us There have been men in the world who have in this life made boast of great age as if they had already some scantling of the condition of Resurrection but they have been very rare and to speak truly they have continued long and lived but a while since there is nothing long in a happiness whereof we find an end It is a remarkable thing that the eldest of all the Patriarchs Pet. 2. 3 5. Vnus dies apud Dominum sicut mille anni mille anni sicut dies unus in Genesis who was Methusalem arrived not to the time which S. Peter calleth a day of God A thousand years saith the great Apostle are before God but one day And not any one of the first men of the world with his so many years mounted to the thousand year of his age Yea it is a thing very well to be observed that in the account the Scripture maketh of the years of Patriarchs the age of women is not considered And Baronius findeth the Bible never reckoned the days and years of women but of Sara Judith and Anne the daughter of Phanuel to teach us our lives are short since those of Eve the mother of the living and of so many other mothers from whom men issued entered not into the line of account in Gods Chronicle We know not how long the first woman of the world lived but we understand she returned into dust and that we must tread the like path Greece the mother of fables sought to use posterity as they do children it hath pleased it self to scare us with strange tales of huge bodies and long lives but we have more difficulty to believe them than it facility to invent them Phlegon a rare Authour Phlegon de rebus mirabil c. 17. says he read in Appollonius the Grammarian that the Athenians desirous to fortifie the long Island which was near to their Citie laying the foundation of their fortresses found a sepulcher one hundred cubits long with this Epitaph which said Macrosiris is here interred in the long Island after he had lived five thousand years compleat These are impostures and Rhodomontadoes which seek to brave Ages and cannot affront worms nor be defended from corruption All about us is sufficient to give us a lesson of the shortness of our life The corn on which we live dies every year to the root The Vine feels as many deaths as winters and although it renew every year it cannot attain to the reasonable age of some drunkards Fifty or three-score years make up its age as also of Apple-trees Pear-trees Plumb-trees Cherie-trees and other such like whereof eating the fruits we should think the wood which bears them liveth no longer than we Tame creatures which are perpetually among us live but a while The age of a horse ends at twenty years It is a great chance if a dog arrive to that number The ox will be well contented with sixteen sheep with ten cats are between ten and six pigeons and so many flying fowl live not long for we daily
on thy part what ingratitudes on mine Preserve me in what is thine and wash away with the precious bloud of thy Son what is mine Shelter me under the wings of thy protection from so many shadows apparitions and snares of the father of darkness and grant that though sleep close my eys yet my heart may never be shut to thy love Lastly fall asleep upon some good thought that your night as the Prophet saith may be enlightened with the delights of God and if you chance to have any interruption of sleep supply it with ejaculatory prayers and elevations of heart as the just did of old called for this reason The crickets of the night Thus shall you lead a life full of honour quiet and satisfaction to your self and shall make every day a step to Eternity The marks which may amongst others give you good hope of your predestination are eleven principall 1. Faith lively simple and firm 2. Purity of life exempt ordinarily from grievous sins 3. Tribulation 4. Clemency and mercy 5. Poverty of spirit disengaged from the earth 6. Humility 7. Charity to your neighbour 8. Frequentation of the blessed Sacrament 9. Affection to the word of God 10. Resignation of your own mind to the will of your Sovereign Lord. 11. Some remarkable act of virtue which you have upon occasion exercised You will find this Diary little in volume but great in virtue if relishing it well you begin to put it in practice It contains many things worthy to be meditated at leisure for they are grave and wise precepts choisely extracted out of the moral doctrine of the Fathers Though they seem short they cost not the less pains Remember that famous Artist Myrmecides employed more time to make a Bee than an unskilfull workman to build a house EJACULATIONS FOR THE DIARY In the Morning MY voice shalt thou hear in the morning O Lord In the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee and will look up Psal 5. 3. Thou shalt make thy face to shine upon me and all the beasts of the forest shall gather themselves together and lay them down in their dens Psal 184. 22. My dayes are like the dayes of an hireling Untill the day break and the shadows flie away Job 7. 1. Cant. 4. 6. Beginning a good work In the volume of the book it is written of me I delight to do thy will O my God yea thy Law is within my heart Psal 40. 7. 8. In good Inspirations The Lord God hath opened mine ear and I was not rebellious neither turned away back Isaiah 50. 5. At Church How amiable are thy Tabernacles O Lord of hosts Psal 84. 1. Before reading Speak Lord for thy servant heareth 1 Samuel 3. 9. Speaking My heart is inditing a good matter I speak of the things which I have made touching the King Psal 45. 1. Eating Thou openest thine hand and satisfiest the desire of every living thing Psal 145. In Prosperity If I do not remember thee let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth If I prefer not thee above my chief joy Psal 137. 6. Adversity The Lord killeth and maketh alive 1 Sam. 2. 6. Shall we receive good at the hand of God and shall we not receive evil Job 2. 10. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glorie Luke 24. 26. Troubles Surely man walketh in a vain shew surely they are disquieted in vain Psal 39. 6. Calumnies If I pleased men I should not be the servant of Christ Gal. 1. 10. Praises Not unto us O Lord not unto us but unto thy Name give glorie Psal 115. 1. Against vain hope As a dream when one awaketh so O Lord when thou awakest thou shalt despise their image Psalm 73. 20. Pride Whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased Luke 14. 11. Covetousness It is more blessed to give than to receive Acts 20. 35. Luxury Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ 1. Cor. 6. 15. Envy He that loveth not his brother abideth in death 1 John 3. 14. Gluttony The Kingdom of God is not meat and drink Rom. 14. 17. Anger Learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart Matth. 11. 29. Sloth Cursed be he that doth the work of the Lord negligently Jer. 48. 10. Rules of Faith God cannot be known but by himself What is to be understood of God is to be learned by God Hilar lib. 5. de Trin. God doth not call us to the blessed life by hard questions In simplicity must we seek him in piety profess him Idem lib. 10. Remove not the ancient bounds which thy fathers have set Prov. 22. 28. Many are the reasons which justly hold me in the bosom of the Catholick Church Consent of people and nations Authority begun by miracles nourished by hope encreased by charity confirmed by antiquity August lib. De utilitate credendi To dispute against that which the universal Church doth maintenance is insolent madness Idem Epist 118. Let us follow universality antiquity consent Let us hold that which is believed every where always by all Vincentius Lyrinensis De profanis vocum novitatibus Acts of Faith Lord I believe help thou mine unbelief Marc. 9. 24. I know that my Redeemer liveth c. Job 19. 25. Hope Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me Psal 24. 4. I will be with him in trouble I will deliver him and honour him Psal 90. 15. Charity Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee My flesh and my heart faileth but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever Psal 73. 25 26. Feed me O Lord thy suppliant with the continual influence of thy Divinity This I request this I desire that vehement love may throughly pierce me fill me and change me into it self Blosius PRAYERS for all Persons and occasions For the Church WE beseech thee O Lord graciously to accept the prayers of thy Church that she being delivered from all adversitie and errour may serve thee in safety and freedom through Jesus Christ our Lord. For the King WE beseech thee O Lord that thy servant CHARLS by thy gracious appointment our King and Governour may be enriched with all encrease of virtue whereby he may be able to eschew evil and to follow Thee the Way the Truth and the Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. For a Friend ALmighty and ever-living Lord God have mercy upon thy servant N. and direct him by thy goodness into the way of eternall salvation that through thy grace he may desire those things which please thee and with his whole endeavour perform the same through Jesus Christ our Lord. For Peace O God from whom all holy desires all good counsels and all just works do proceed give unto us thy servants that peace which the world cannot give that both our hearts may be set
fall no lower but may contemplate all above him and meditate how to raise himself by the hand of God which pulls down the proud and exalts the humble Is a man tempted with pride The consideration of Ashes will humble him Is he burned with wanton love which is a direct fire But fire cannot consume Ashes Is he persecuted with covetousness Ashes do make the greatest Leeches and Bloud-Suckers cast their Gorges Every thing gives way to this unvalued thing because God is pleased to draw the instruments of his power out of the objects of our infirmities 3. If we knew how to use rightly the meditation of death we should there find the streams of life All the world together is of no estimation to him that rightly knows the true value of a just mans death It would be necessary that they who are taken with the curiosity of Tulips should set in their Gardens a Plant called Napel which carries a flower that most perfectly resembles a Deaths head And if the other Tulips do please their senses that will instruct their reason Before our last death we should die many other deaths by forsaking all those creatures and affections which lead us to sin We should resemble those creatures sacred to the Aegyptians called Cynocephales which died piece-meal and were buried long before their death So should we burie all our concupiscences before we go to the grave and strive to live so that when death comes he should find very little business with us Aspiration O Father of all Essences who givest beginning to all things and art without end This day I take Ashes upon my head thereby professing before thee my being nothing and to do thee homage for that which I am and for that I ought to be by thy great bounties Alas O Lord my poor soul is confounded to see so many sparkles of pride and covetousness arise from this caitiffe dust which I am so little do I yet learn how to live and so late do I know how to die O God of my life and death I most humbly beseech thee so to govern the first in me and so to sweeten the last for me that if I live I may live onely for thee and if I must die that I may enter into everlasting bliss by dying in thy blessed love and favour The Gospel for Ashwednesday S. Matthew 6. Of Hypocritical Fasting WHen you fast be not as the hypocrites sad for they disfigure their faces that they may appear unto men to fast Amen I say to you that they have received their reward But thou when thou doest fast anoint thy head and wash thy face that thou appear not to men to fast but to thy Father which is in secret and thy Father which seeth in secret will repay thee Heap not up to your selves treasures on the earth where the rust and moth do corrupt and where thieves dig through and steal But heap up to your selves treasures in heaven where neither the rust nor moth doth corrupt and where thieves do not dig through nor steal For where thy treasure is there is thy heart also Moralities 1. THat man goes to Hell by the way of Paradise who fasts and afflicts his body to draw the praise of Men. Sorrow and vanity together are not able to make one Christian Act. He deserves everlasting hunger who starves himself that he may swell and burst with vain glory He stands for a spectacle to others being the murderer of himself and by sowing vanity reaps nothing but wind Our intentions must be wholly directed to God and our examples for our neighbour The Father of all virtues is not to be served with counterfeit devotions such lies are abominations in his sight and Tertullian saith they are as many adulteries 2. It imports us much to begin Lent well entering into those lists in which so many holy souls have run their course with so great strictness have been glorious before God and honourable before men The difficulty of it is apprehended onely by those who have their understandings obstructed by a violent affection to kitchen-stuffe It is no more burdensom to a couragious spirit than feathers are to a bird The chearfulness which a man brings to a good action in the beginning does half the work Let us wash our faces by confession Let us perfume our Head who is Jesus Christ by alms-deeds Fasting is a most delicious feast to the conscience when it is accompanied with pureness and charity but it breeds great thirst when it is not nourished with devotion and watered with mercy 3. What great pain is taken to get treasure what care to preserve it what fear to loose it and what sorrow when it is lost Alas is there need of so great covetousness in life to encounter with such extream nakedness in death We have not the souls of Giants nor the body of a Whale If God will have me poor must I endeavour to reverse the decrees of heaven and earth that I may become rich To whom do we trust the safety of our treasures To rust to moths and thieves were it not better we should in our infirmities depend onely on God Almighty and comfort our poverty in him who is onely rich and so carrie our souls to heaven where Jesus on the day of his Ascension did place our Sovereign good Onely Serpents and covetous men desire to sleep among treasures as Saint Clement saith But the greatest riches of the world is poverty free from Covetousness Aspiration I Seek thee O invisible God within the Abyss of thy brightness and I see thee through the vail of thy creatures Wilt thou always be hidden from me Shall I never see thy face which with a glimpse of thy splendour canst make Paradise I work in secret but I know thou art able to reward me in the light A man can lose nothing by serving thee and yet nothing is valuable to thy service for the pain it self is a sufficient recompence Thou art the food of my fastings and the cure of my infirmities What have I to do with Moles to dig the earth like them and there to hide treasures Is it not time to close the earth when thou doest open heaven and to carrie my heart where thou art since all my riches is in thee Doth not he deserve to be everlastingly poor who cannot be content with a God so rich as thou art The Gospel for the first Thursday in Lent S. Matthew 18. of the Centurions words O Lord I am not worthy ANd when he was entered into Capharnaum there came to him a Centurion beseeching him and saying Lord my boy lieth at home sick of the palsie and is sore tormented And Jesus saith to him I will come and cure him And the Centurion making answer said Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof but onely say the word and my boy shall be healed For I also am a man subject to Authority having under me
souldiers and I say to this go and he goeth and to another come and he cometh and to my servant do this and he doth it And Jesus hearing this marvelled and said to them that followed him Amen I say to you I have not found so great faith in Israel And I say to you that many shall come from the East and West and shall sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven but the children of the Kingdom shall be cast out into the exteriour darkness there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth And Jesus said to the Centurion Go and as thou hast believed be it done to thee And the boy was healed in the same hour Moralities 1. OUr whole Salvation consists in two principles The one is in our being sensible of God and the other in moving toward him the first proceeds from faith the other comes of charity and other virtues O what a happy thing it is to follow the examples of this good Centurion by having such elevated thoughts of the Divinity and to know nothing of God but what he is To behold our heavenly Father within this great family of the world who effects all things by his single word Creates by his power governs by his councel and orders by his goodness this great universality of all things The most insensible creatures have ears to hear him Feavers and tempests are part of that running camp which marcheth under his Standard They advance and retire themselves under the shadow of his command he onely hath power to give measures to the Heaven bounds to the Sea to joyn the East and West together in an instant and to be in all places where his pleasure is understood 2. O how goodly a thing it is to go unto him like this great Captain To go said I Nay rather to flie as he doth by the two wings of Charity and Humility His charity made him have a tender care of his poor servant and to esteem his health more dear than great men do the rarest pieces in their Cabinets He doth not trust his servants but takes the charge upon himself making himself by the power of love a servant to him who by birth was made subject to his command What can be said of so many Masters and Mistresses now adays who live always slaves to their passions having no care at all of the Salvation health or necessities of their servants as if they were nothing else but the very scum of the world They make great use of their labours and service which is just but neglect their bodies and kill their souls by the infection of their wicked examples Mark the humility of this souldier who doth not think his house worthy to be enlightened by one sole glimpse of our blessed Saviours presence By the words of Saint Augustine we may say he made himself worthy by believing and declaring himself so unworthy yea worthy that our Saviour should enter not onely into his house but into his very soul And upon the matter he could not have spoken with such faith and humility if he had not first enclosed in his heart him whom he durst not receive into his house 3. The Gentiles come near unto God and the Jews go from him to teach us that ordinarily the most obliged persons are most ungratefull and disesteem their benefactours for no other reason but because they receive benefits daily from them If you speak courteously to them they answer churlishly and in the same proportion wherein you are good you make them wicked therefore we must be carefull that we be not so toward God Many are distasted with devotion as the Israelites were with Manna All which is good doth displease them because it is ordinary And you shall find some who like naughty grounds cast up thorns where roses are planted But we have great reason to fear that nothing but hell fire is capable to punish those who despise the graces of God and esteem that which comes from him as a thing of no value Aspirations O Almighty Lord who doest govern all things in the family of this world and doest bind all insensible creatures by the bare sound of thy voice in a chain of everlasting obedience Must I onely be still rebellious against thy will Feavers and Palsies have their ears for thee and yet my unruly spirit is not obedient Alas alas this family of my heart is ill governed It hath violent passions my thoughts are wandering and my reason is ill obeyed Shall it never be like the house of this good Centurion where every thing went by measure because he measured himself by thy commandments O Lord I will come resolutely by a profound humility and an inward feeling of my self since I am so contemptible before thine eyes I will come with Charity toward these of my houshold and toward all that shall need me O God of my heart I beseech thee let nothing from henceforth move in me but onely to advance my coming toward thee who art the beginning of all motions and the onely repose of all things which move The Gospel for the first Friday in Lent S. Matth. 5. Wherein we are directed to pray for our Enemies YOu have heard that it was said thou shalt love thy neighbour and hate thine enemie But I say to you Love your enemies do good to them that hate you and pray for them that persecute and abuse you that you may be the children of your Father which is in Heaven who maketh his Sun to rise upon good and bad and raineth upon just and unjust For if you love them that love you what reward shall you have Do not also the Publicans this And if you salute your brethren onely what do you more Do not also the heathen this Be you perfect therefore as also your heavenly Father is perfect Moralities 1. A Man that loves nothing but according to his natural inclination loves onely like a beast or an infidel The best sort of love is that which is commanded by God and is derived from judgement conducted by reason and perfected by Charity Me thinks it should be harder for a good Christian to hate than love his enemy Hate makes him our equal whereas love placeth us quite above him By hating a mans enemy he breaks the laws of God he fights against the Incarnation of Christ which was acted to unite all things in the bands of love he gives the lie to the most blessed Eucharist whose nature is to make the hearts of all Christians the lame he lives like another Cain in the world always disquieted by seeking revenge and it is a very death to him to hear another mans prosperity Whereas to love an enemy doth not bind us to love the injury he hath done us for we must not consider him as a malefactour but as a man of our own nature as he is the Image of God and as he is a Christian God doth onely command perfect
I eat drink sleep when I do business when I am both in conversation and solitude Whither shall this poor soul go which thou hast thrown into a body so frail in a world so corrupt and amongst the assaults of so many pernicious enemies Open O Lord thine eyes for my guidance and compassionate my infirmities without thee I can do nothing and in thee I can do all that I ought Give me O Lord a piercing eye to see my danger and the wings of an Eagle to flie from it or the heart of a Lion to fight valiantly that I may never be wanting in my duty and fidelity to thee I ow all that I am or have to thy gracious favour and I will hope for my salvation not by any proportion of my own virtues which are weak and slender but by thy boundless liberalities which onely do crown all our good works The Gospel upon Munday the first week of Lent out of Saint Matthew 25. Of the Judgement-Day ANd when the Son of man shall come in his Majesty and all the Angels with him then shall be sit upon the seat of his Majesty And all Nations shall be gathered together before him and he shall separate them one from another as the Pastour separateth the sheep from the goats And shall set the sheep at his right hand but the goats at his left Then shall the King say to them that shall be at his right hand Come ye blessed of my Father possess you the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world For I was hungred and you gave me to eat I was athirst and you gave me to drink I was a stranger and you took me in naked and you covered me sick and you visited me I was in prison and you came to me Then shall the just answer him saying Lord when did we see thee an hungred and fed thee athirst and gave thee drink and when did we see thee a stranger and took thee in or naked and covered thee or when did we see thee sick or in prison and came to thee And the King answering shall say to them Amen I say to you as long as you did it to one of these my least brethren you did it to me Then shall he say to them also that shall be at his left hand Get you away from me you cursed into fire everlasting which was prepared for the Devil and his Angels For I was an hungred and you gave me not to eat I was athirst and you gave me not to drink I was a stranger and ye took me not in naked and you covered me not sick and in prison and you did not visit me Then they also shall answer him saying Lord when did we see thee an hungred or athirst or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to thee Then shall he answer them saying Amen I say to you as long as you did it not to one of these lesser neither did you it to me And these shall go into punishment everlasting but the just into life everlasting Moralities 1. BEhold here a Gospel of great terrour where our spirit like the Dove of Noah is placed upon the great deluge of Gods wrath and knows not where to find footing Every thing is most dreadfull But what can be more terrible than the certainty of Gods judgement joyned with the great uncertainty of the hour of our death It is an unchangeable decree that we must all be presented before the high Tribunal of the living God to render a just account of all which our soul hath done while it was joyned with our body as we are taught by S. Paul We must make an account of our time spent of our thoughts words actions of that we have done and that we have omitted of life death and of the bloud of Jesus Christ and thereupon receive a judgement of everlasting life or death All men know that this must certainly be done but no man knows the hour or moment when it shall be So many clocks strike about us every day and yet none can let us know the hour of our death 2. O how great is the solitude of a Soul in her separation from so many great enticements of the world wherein many men live and in an instant to see nothing but the good or ill we have done on either side us what an astonishment will it be for a man suddenly to see all the actions of his life as upon a piece of Tapistree spred befor his eyes where his sins will appear like so many thorns so many serpents so many venemous beasts Where will then be that cozening vail of reputation and reason of state which as yet cover so many wicked actions The soul shall in that day of God be shewed naked to all the world and her own eyes will most vex her by witnessing so plainly what she hath done 3. O what a parting water is Gods judgement which in a moment shall separate the mettals so different O what a division will then be made of some men which now live upon earth Some shall be made clear and bright like the stars of heaven others like coals burning in hell O what a dreadfull change will it be to a damned soul at her separation from this life to live onely in the company of devils in that piercing sense of torments and eternal punishment It is a very troublesom thing to be tied with silken strings in a bed of Roses for the space of eight days together What may we think of a damned soul which must dwell in a bed of flames so long as there shall be a God 4. Make use of the time given you to work your salvation and live such a life as may end with a happy death and so obtain that favourable judgement which shall say Come O thou soul blessed of God my Father possess the kingdom which is prepared for thee from the beginning of the world There is no better means to avoid the rigour of Gods judgements than to fear them continually Imitate the tree mentioned in an Emblem which being designed to make a ship and finding it self wind-shaken as it grew upon the land said What will become of me in the sea If we be already moved in this world by the bare consideration of the punishment due to sin think what it will be in that vast sea and dreadfull Abyss of Gods judgements Aspirations O King of dreadfull Majesty who doest justly damn and undeservedly save souls save me O Fountain of Mercy Remember thy self sweet Jesus that I was the cause of that great journey which thou tookest from God to man and do not destroy me in that dreadfull day which must decide the Question of my life or death for all eternity Take care of my last end since thou art the cause of my beginning and the onely cause of all that I am O Father of bounties wouldest thou stop a mouth
before we die let us take order for our soul by repentance and a moderate care of our bodies burial Let us order our goods by a good and charitable Testament with a discreet direction for the poor for our children and kinred to be executed by fit persons Let us put our selves into the protection of the Divine providence with a most perfect confidence and how can we then fear death being in the arms of life Aspirations O Jesus fountain of all lives in whose bosom all things are living Jesus the fruit of the dead who hast destroyed the kingdom of death why should we fear a path which thou hast so terrified with thy steps honoured with thy bloud and sanctified by thy conquests Shall we never die to so many dying things All is dead here for us and we have no life if we do not seek it from thy heart What should I care for death though he come with all those grim hideous and antick faces which men put upon him for when I see him through thy wounds thy bloud and thy venerable death I find he hath no sting at all If I shall walk in the shadow of death and a thousand terrours shall conspire against me on every side to disturb my quiet I will fear nothing being placed in the arms of thy providence O my sweet Master do but once touch the winding sheet of my body which holds down my soul so often within the sleep of death and sin Command me to arise and speak and then the light of thy morning shall never set my discourses shall be always of thy praises and my life shall be onely a contemplation of thy beautifull countenance The Gospel upon Friday the fourth week in Lent S. John 11. Of the raising of Lazarus from death ANd there was a certain sick man Lazarus of Bethania of the Town of Mâ—ry and Martha her sister And Marie vvas she that anointed our Lord vvith ointment and vviped his feet vvith her hair vvhose brother Lazarus vvas sick his sisters therefore sent to him saying Lord behold he vvhom thou lovest is sick And Jesus hearing said to them This sickness is not to death but for the glorie of God that the Son may be glorified by it And Jesus loved Martha and her sister Marie and Lazarus As he heard therefore that he vvas sick then he tarried in the same place two dayes Then after this he saith to his Disciples Let us go into Jewry again The Disciples say to him Rabbi now the Jews sought to stone thee and goest thou thither again Jesus answered Are there not twelve hours of the day If a man vvalk in the day he stumbleth not because he seeth the light of this vvorld but if he vvalk in the night he stumbleth because the light is not in him These things he said and after this he saith to them Lazarus our friend sleepeth but I go that I may raise him from sleep His Disciples therefore said Lord if he sleep he shall be safe But Jesus spake of his death and they thought that he spake of the sleeping of sleep Then therefore Jesus said to them plainly Lazarus is dead and I am glad for your sake that you may believe because I vvas not there but let us go to him Thomas therefore vvho is called Didymus said to his condisciples Let us also go to die with him Jesus therefore came and found him now having been four dayes in the grave And Bethania vvas nigh to Jerusalem about fifteen furlongs And many of the Jews vvere come to Martha and Mary to comfort them concerning their brother Martha therefore vvhen she heard that Jesus vvas come vvent to meet him but Mary sate at home Martha therefore said to Jesus Lord if thou hadst been here my brother had not died But now also I know that vvhat things soever thou shalt ask of God God vvill give thee Jesus saith to her Thy brother shall rise again Martha saith to him I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection in the last day Jesus said to her I am the resurrection and the life he that believeth in me although he be dead shall live And every one that liveth and believeth in me shall not die for ever Believest thou this She said to him Yea Lord I have believed that thou art Christ the Son of God that art come into this vvorld Moralities 1. OUr Saviour Jesus makes here a strong assault upon death to cure our infirmities at the cost of his dearest friends He suffered Lazarus whom he loved tenderly to fall into a violent sickness to teach us that the bodies of Gods favourites are not free from infirmities and that to make men Saints they must not enjoy too much health A soul is never more worthy to be a house for God than when she raiseth up the greatness of her courage the body being cast down with sickness A soul which suffers is a sacred thing All the world did touch our Saviour before his Passion The throng of people pressed upon him but after his death he would not be touched by S. Mary Maudlin because he was consecrated by his dolours 2. The good sisters dispatch a messenger not to a strange God as they do who seek for health by remedies which are a thousand times worse than the disease But they addressed themselves to the living God the God of life and death to drive away death And to recover life they were content onely to shew the wound to the faithfull friendship of the Physician without prescribing any remedies for that is better left to his providence than committed to our passion 3. He defers his cure to raise from death The delay of Gods favours is not always a refusal but sometimes a double liberality The vows of good men are paid with usury It was expedient that Lazarus should die that he might triumph over death in the triumph of Jesus Christ It is here that we should always raise high our thoughts by considering our glory in the state of resurrection he would have us believe it not onely as it is a lesson of Nature imprinted above the skies upon the plants or elements of the world and as a doctrine which many ancient Philosophers had by the light of nature but also as a belief which is fast joyned to the faith we have in the Divine providence which keeps our bodies in trust under its seal within the bosom of the earth so that no prescription of time can make laws to restrain his power having passed his word and raised up Lazarus who was but as one grain of seed in respect of all posterity 4. Jesus wept over Lazarus thereby to weep over us all Our evils were lamentable and could never sufficiently be deplored without opening a fountain of tears within heaven and within the eyes of the Son of God This is justly the river which comes from that place of all pleasure to water Paradise How could those heavenly
purified by thy favours that they may celebrate continual days of feast in my soul I am already there in desire and shall be there in presence when by help of thine infinite grace and mercy I can be wholly thine The Gospel upon Saturday the fifth week in Lent S. John 12. The chief Priests thought to kill Lazarus because the miracle upon him made many follow JESUS BUt the chief Priests devised for to kill Lazarus also because many for him of the Jews went away and believed in Jesus And on the morrow a great multitude that was come to a festival day when they had heard that Jesus cometh to Jerusalem they took the boughs of Palms and went forth to meet him and cried Hosanna blessed is he that cometh in the name of our Lord the King of Israel And Jesus found a young Ass and sate upon it as it is written Fear not daughter of Sion behold thy King cometh sitting upon an Asses colt These things his Disciples did not know at the first but when Jesus was glorified then they remembered that these things had been written of him and these things they did to him The multitude therefore gave testimony which was with him when he called Lazarus out of the grave and raised him from the dead For therefore all the multitude came to meet him because they heard that he had done this sign The Pharisees therefore said among themselves Do you see that we prevail nothing Behold the whole world is gone after him And there were certain Gentiles of them that came up to adore in the festival day These therefore came to Philip who was of Bethsaida of Galilee and desired him saying Sir we are desirous to see Jesus Philip cometh and telleth Andrew Again Andrew and Philip told Jesus but Jesus answered them saying The hour is come that the Son of man shall be glorified Amen Amen I say to you Unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground die it self remaineth alone but if it die it bringeth much fruit He that loveth his life shall lose it and he that hateth his life in this world doth keep it to life everlasting If any man minister to me let him follow me and where I am there also shall my minister be If any man minister to me my Father will honour him Moralities 1. ADmire here the extasies of our sweet Saviour He is ravish'd by the object of his death and is transported by the Idaea of his sufferings The trumpet of Heaven sounded in the voice which was heard by this great multitude He encourages himself to his combat he looks confidently upon the Cross as the fountain of his glories and planted his elevation upon the lowest abasements Shall not we love this Cross which Jesus hath cherished as his Spouse He gave up his soul in the arms of it to conquer our souls We shall never be worthy of him till we bear the Ensigns of his war and the ornaments of his peace Every thing is Paradise to him that knows how to love the Cross and every thing is hell to those who flie from it and no body flies it but shall find it It is the gate of our mortality whither we must all come though we turn our backs to it 2. What a great secret it is to hate our soul that we may love it To hate it for a time that we may love it for all eternity to punish it in this life to give it thereby a perpetual rest in that to come To despise it that we may honour it To handle it roughly that it may be perfectly established in all delights And yet this is the way which all just men have passed to arrive at the chiefest point of their rest They have resembled the Flowers-de-luce which weep for a time out of their own tears produce seeds which renew their beauties The salt sea for them becomes a flourishing field as it did to the people of God when they came forth of the chains of Aegypt The cloud which appeared to the Prophet Ezechiel carried with it winds and storms but it was environed with a golden circle to teach us that the storms of afflictions which happen to Gods children are encompassed with brightness and smiling felicity They must rot as a grain of wheat that they may bud out and flourish in the ear They must abide the diversity of times and endure the sythe and flail They must be ground in a mill and pass by water and fire before they can be made bread pleasing to Jesus Christ Our losses are our advantages we loose nothing but to gain by it we humble and abase our selves to be exalted we despoil our selves to be better clothed and we mortifie our selves to be revived O what a grain of wheat is Jesus Christ who hath past all these trials to make the heighth of all heavenly glories bud out of his infinite sufferings Aspirations O God I have that passionate desire which these strangers had to see Jesus I do not ask it of Philip nor shall Philip have cause to ask Andrew My Jesus I ask it of thy self Thou art beautifull even in the way of the Cross Thou didst shew thy self couragious in the Abyss of thy pains thou art admirable in the contempt of death The heavenly trumpet hath already sounded for thee and chearfulness gives wings to carry thee to this great combat where death and life fight singly together which makes life die for a time and death live for ever I will forsake my very soul to follow thee in this Agonie and find my life in thy death as thou hast extinguished death in thy life The Gospel upon Palm-Sunday S. Matthew 21. Our SAVIOUR came in triumph to Jerusalem a little before his Passion ANd when they drew nigh to Jerusalem and were come to Bethphage unto mount Olivet then Jesus sent two Disciples saying to them Go ye into the Town that is against you and immediately you shall find an Ass tied and a colt with her loose them and bring them to me And if any man shall say ought unto you say ye That our Lord hath need of them and forthwith he will let them go And this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophet saying Say ye to the daughter of Sion Behold thy King cometh to thee meek and sitting upon an Ass and a Colt the foal of her that is used to the yoke And the Disciples going did as Jesus commanded them and they brought the Ass and the Colt and laid their garments upon them and made him to sit thereon And a very great multitude spred their garments in the way and others did cut boughs from the trees and strawed them in the way and the multitudes that went before and that followed cried saying Hosanna to the Son of David blessed is he that cometh in the Name of the Lord. Moralities 1. OUr Saviour goes to his death in triumph he appears to
And if we must needs forsake this miserable body we then desire to leave it by some gentle and easie death This maketh us plainly see the generosity of our Saviour who being Master of life and death and having it in his power to chuse that manner of death which would be least hydeous being of it self full enough of horrour yet nevertheless to conform himself to the will of his heavenly Father and to confound our delicacies he would needs leave his life by the most dolorous and ignominious which was to be found among all the deaths of the whole world The Cross among the Gentiles was a punishment for slaves and the most desperate persons of the whole world The Cross amongst the Hebrews was accursed It was the ordinary curse which the most uncapable and most malicious mouthes did pronounce against their greatest enemies The death of a crucified man was the most continual languishing and tearing of a soul from the body with most excessive violence and agony And yet the Eternal Wisdom chose this kind of punishment and drank all the sorrows of a cup so bitter He should have died upon some Trophey and breathed out his last amongst flowers and left his soul in a moment and if he must needs have felt death to have had the least sense of it that might be But he would trie the rigour of all greatest sufferings he would fall to the very bottom of dishonour and having ever spared from himself all the pleasures of this life to make his death compleat he would spare none of those infinite dolours The devout Simon of Cassia asketh our Saviour going toward Mount Calvarie saying O Lord whither go you with the extream weight of this dry and barren piece of wood Whither do you carry it and why Where do you mean to set it Upon mount Calvary That place is most wild stony how will you plant it Who shall water it Jesus answers I bear upon my shoulders a piece of wood which must conquer him who must make a far greater conquest by the same piece of wood I carry it to mount Calvarie to plant it by my death and water it with my bloud This wood which I bear must bear me to bear the salvation of all the world and to draw all after me And then O faithfull soul wilt not thou suffer some confusion at thine own delicacies to be so fearfull of death by an ordinary disease in a doun-bed amongst such necessary services such favourable helps consolations and kindnesses of friends so sensible of thy condition We bemoan and complain our selves of heat cold distaste of disquiet of grief Let us allow some of this to Nature yet must it be confest that we lament our selves very much because we have never known how we should lament a Jesus Christ crucified Let us die as it shall please the Divine Providence If death come when we are old it is a haven If in youth it is a direct benefit antedated If by sickness it is the nature of our bodies If by external violence it is yet always the decree of Heaven It is no matter how many deaths there are we are sure there can be but one for us 2. Consider further the second condition of a good death which consists in the forsaking of all creatures and you shall find it most punctually observed by our Saviour at the time of his death Ferrara a great Divine who hath written a book of the hidden Word toucheth twelve things abandoned by our Saviour 1. His apparrel leaving himself naked 2. The marks of his dignitie 3. The Colledge of his Apostles 4. The sweetness of all comfort 5. His own proper will 6. The authority of virtues 7. The power of Angels 8. The perfect joys of his soul 9. The proper clarity of his body 10. The honors due to him 11. His own skin 12. All his bloud Now do but consider his abandoning the principal of those things how bitter it was First the abandoning of nearest and most faithfull friends is able to afflict any heart Behold him forsaken by all his so well-beloved Disciples of whom he had made choice amongst all mortal men to be the depositaries of his doctrine of his life of his bloud If Judas be at the mystery of his Passion it is to betray him If S. Peter be there assisting it is to deny him If his sorrowfull mother stand at the foot of the Cross it is to increase the grief of her Son and after he had been so ill handled by his cruel executioners to crucifie him again by the hands of Love The couragious Mother to triumph over her self by a magnanimous constancy was present at the execution of her dear Son She fixed her eyes upon all his wounds to engrave them deep in her heart She opened her soul wide to receive that sharp piercing sword with which she was threatened by that venerable old Simeon at her Purification And Jesus who saw her so afflicted for his sake felt himself doubly crucified upon the wood of the Cross and the heart of his dear Mother We know it by experience that when we love one tenderly his afflictions and disgraces will trouble us more than our own because he living in us by an affectionate life we live in him by a life of reason and election Jesus lived and reposed in the heart of his blessed Mother as upon a Throne of love and as within a Paradise of his most holy delights This heart was before as a bed covered with flowers But this same heart on the day of his Passion became like a scaffold hanged with mourning whereupon our Saviour entered to be tormented and crucified upon the cross of love which was the Cross of his Mother This admirable Merchant who descended from Heaven to accomplish the business of all Ages who took upon him our miseries to give us felicities was plunged within a sea of bloud and in this so precious shipwrack there remained one onely inestimable pearl which was his divine Mother and yet he abandons her and gives her into the hand of his Disciple After he had forsaken those nearest to him see what he does with his body Jesus did so abandon it a little before his death that not being content onely to deliver it as a prey to sorrow but he suffered it to be exposed naked to the view of the world And amongst his sharpest dolours after he had been refused the drink which they gave to malefactours to strengthen them in their torments he took for himself vinegar and gall O what a spectacle was it to see a body torn in pieces which rested it self upon its own wounds which was dying every moment but could not die because that life distilled by drops What Martyr did ever endure in a body so sensible and delicate having an imagination so lively and in such piercing dolours mixt with so few comforts And what Martyr did suffer for all the sins of the
you love binds you fast enough to the Cross without them But do thou O Lord hold me fast to thy self by the chain of thine immensity O Lance cruel Lance Why didst thou open that most precious side Thou didst think perhaps to find there the Sons life and yet thou foundest nothing but the Mothers heart But without so much as thinking what thou didst in playing the murderer thou hast made a Sepulcher wherein I will from henceforth bury my soul When I behold these wounds of my dear Saviour I do acknowledge the strokes of my own hand I will therefore likewise engrave there my repentance I will write my conversion with an eternal Character And if I must live I will never breathe any other life but that onely which shall be produced from the death of my Jesus crucified The Gospel for Easter-day S. Mark 16. ANd when the Sabbath was past Mary Magdalene and Mary of James and Salome bought spices that coming they might anoint Jesus And very early the first of the Sabbaths they come to the Monument the Sun being now risen And they say one to another who shall roll us back the stone from the door of the Monument And looking they saw the stone rolled back For it was very great And entering into the Monument they saw a young man sitting on the right hand covered with a white Robe and they were astonied Who saith to them Be not dismayed you seck Jesus of Nazareth that was crucified he is risen he is not here behold the place where they laid him But go tell his Disciples and Peter that be goeth before you into Galilee there you shall see him as he told you Moralities 1. THe Sepulcher of Jesus becomes a fountain of life which carries in power all the glories of the highest Heaven Our Saviour riseth from thence as day out of the East and appears as triumphant in the ornaments of his beauties as he had been humbled by the excess of his mercies The rage of the Jews looseth here its power death his sting Satan his kingdom the Tomb his corruption and hell his conquest Mortality is destroyed life is illuminated all is drowned in one day of glory which comes from the glorious light of our Redeemer It is now saith Tertullian that he is revested with his Robe of Honour and is acknowledged as the eternal Priest for all eternity It is now saith S. Gregory Nazianzen that he re-assembles humane kind which was scattered so many years by the sin of one man and placeth it between the arms of his Divinity This is the Master-piece of his profound humility and I dare boldly affirm saith S. Ambrose that God had lost the whole world if this Sacred Virtue which he made so clearly shine in his beloved Son had not put him into possession of his Conquests We should all languish after this Triumphant state of the Resurrection which will make an end of all our pains and make our Crowns everlasting 2. Let us love our Jesus as the Maries did that with them we may be honoured with his visits Their love is indefatigable couragious and insatiable They had all the day walkt round about the Judgement-Hall Mount Calvary the Cross and the Sepulcher They were not wearied with all that And night had no sleep to shut up their eyes They forsook the Image of death which is sleep to find death it self and never looked after any bed except the Sepulcher of their Master They travel amongst darkness pikes launces the affrights of Arms and of the night nothing makes them afraid If there appear a difficulty to remove the stones love gives them arms They spare nothing for their Master and Saviour They are above Nicodemus and Joseph they have more exquisite perfumes for they are ready to melt and distil their hearts upon the Tomb of their Master O faithfull lovers seek no more for the living amongst the dead That cannot die for love which is the root of life 3. The Angel in form of a young man covered with a white Robe shews us that all is young and white in immortality The Resurrection hath no old age it is an age which can neither grow nor diminish These holy Maries enter alive into the sepulcher where they thought to find death but they learn news of the chiefest of lives Their faith is there confirmed their piety satisfied their promises assured and their love receives consolation Aspirations I Do not this day look toward the East O my Jesus I consider the Sepulcher it is from thence this fair Sun is risen O that thou appearest amiable dear Spouse of my soul Thy head which was covered with thorns is now crowned with a Diadem of Stars and Lights and all the glory of the highest Heaven rests upon it Thine eyes which were eclipsed in bloud have enlightened them with fires and delicious brightness which melt my heart Thy feet and hands so far as I can see are enamel'd with Rubies which after they have been the objects of mens cruelty are now become eternal marks of thy bounty O Jesus no more my wounded but my glorified Jesus where am I What do I I see I flie I swound I die I revive my self with thee I do beseech thee my most Sacred Jesus by the most triumphant of thy glories let me no more fall into the image of death nor into those appetites of smoke and earth which have so many times buried the light of my soul What have I to do with the illusions of this world I am for Heaven for Glory and for the Resurrection which I will now make bud out of my thoughts that I may hereafter possess them with a full fruition The Gospel upon Munday in Easter-week S. Luke the 24. ANd behold two of them went the same day into a Town which was the space of sixty furlongs from Jerusalem named Emmaus And they talked betwixt themselves of all those things that had chanced And it came to pass while they talked and reasoned with themselves Jesus also himself approching went with them but their eyes were held that they might not know him And he faid to them What are these communications that you confer one with another walking and are sad And one whose name was Cleophas answering said to him Art thou onely a stranger in Jerusalem and hast not known the things that have been done in it these dayes To whom he said What things And they said Concerning Jesus of Nazareth who was a man a Prophet mighty in work and word before God and all the people And how our chief Priests and Princes delivered him into condemnation of death and crucified him But we hoped that it was he that should redeem Israel And now besides all this to day is the third day since these things were done But certain women also of ours made us afraid who before it was light were at the Monument and not finding his body came saying That they saw a vision also
He pacifieth Heaven by sweetening the sharpness of his Heavenly Father quenching by his wounds the fire which was kindled of his just anger Every thing smileth upon this great Peace-maker Nature leaveth her mourning and putteth on robes of chearfulness to congratulate with him his great and admirable conquests It is in him that the Heavenly Father by a singular delight hath poured out the fullness of all Graces to make us an eternal dwelling and to reconcile all in him and by him pacifying by his bloud from the Cross all that is upon earth and in Heaven This is our Joshua of whom the Scripture speaketh that he clears all differences and appeaseth all battels No stroke of any hammer or other iron was heard at the building of Solomon's Temple and behold the Church which is the Temple of the living God doth edifie souls with a marvellous tranquilitie 2. The Sun is not so well set forth by his beams as our Saviour is magnificently adorned with his wounds Those are the characters which he hath engraved upon his flesh alter a hundred ingenious fashions The Ladies count their pearls and diamonds but our Saviour keeps his wounds in the highest attire of his Magnificences It is from thence that the beauty of his body taketh a new state of glory and our faith in the resurrection is confirmed that the good fill themselves with hope miscreants with terrour and Martyrs find wherewith to enflame their courage These divine wounds open themselves as so many mouthes to plead our cause before the Celestial Father Our Saviour Jesus never spake better for us than by the voice of his precious Bloud Great inquiry hath been made for those mountains of myrrh and frankincense which Solomon promiseth in the Canticles but now we have found them in the wounds of Jesus It is from thence that there cometh forth a million of sanctified exhalations of sweetness of peace and propitiation as from an eternal Sanctuary A man may say they are like the Carbuncle which melteth the wax upon which it is imprinted for they melt our hearts by a most profitable impression At this sight the Eternal Father calms his countenance and the sword of his Justice returneth into the sheath Shall not we be worthy of all miseries if we do not arm these wounds against us which are so effectual in our behalf And if this bloud of our Abel after it hath reconciled his cruel executioners should find just matter to condemn us for our ingratitudes John the Second King of Portugal had made a sacred vow never to refuse any thing which should be asked of him in the virtue of our Saviour's wounds which made him give all his silver vessel to a poor gentleman that had found out the word And why should not we give our selves to God who both buyeth and requireth us by the wounds of Jesus 3. Jesus inspireth the sacred breath of his mouth upon the Apostles as upon the first fruits of Christianity to repair the first breath and respiration of lives which the Authour of our race did so miserably lose If we can obtain a part of this we shall be like the wheels of Ezechiels mysterious chariot which are filled with the spirit of life That great Divine called Matthias Vienna said That light was the substance of colours and the spirit of Jesus is the same of all our virtues If we live of his flesh there is great reason we should be animated by his Spirit Happy a thousand times are they who are possessed with the the Spirit of Jesus which is to their spirit as the apple of the eye S. Thomas was deprived of this amorous communication by reason of his incredulitie He would see with his eyes and feel with his hands that which should rather be comprehended by faith which is an eye blessedly blind which knoweth all within its own blindness and is also a hand which remaining on earth goeth to find God in Heaven Aspirations GReat Peace-maker of the world who by the effusion of thy precious bloud hast pacified the wars of fourty ages which went before thy death This word of peace hath cost thee many battels many sweats and labours to cement this agreement of Heaven and earth of sence and reason of God and man Behold thou art at this present like the Dove of Noah's Ark thou hast escaped a great deluge of passions and many torrents of dolours thrown head-long one upon another Thou bringest us the green Olive branch to be the mark of thy eternal alliances What Shall my soul be so audacious and disordered as to talk to thee of war when thou speakest to her of peace To offer thee a weapon when thou offerest her the Articles of her reconciliation signed with thy precious bloud Oh what earth could open wide enough her bosom to swallow me if I should live like a little Abiram with a hand armed against Heaven which pours out for me nothing but flowers and roses Reign O my sweet Saviour within all the conquered powers of my soul and within my heart as a conquest which thou hast gotten by so many titles I will swear upon thy wounds which after they have been the monuments of thy fidelity shall be the adored Altars of my vows and sacrifices I will promise thereupon an inviolable fidelity to thy service I will live no more but for thee since thou hast killed my death in thy life and makest my life flourish within thy triumphant Resurrection FINIS AN ALPHABETICAL TABLE Setting down the most observable Matters contained in the first three TOMES of the HOLY COURT A Aâ—dâ—rites Fol 38 Abdâ—lâ—â—in 7 Abraham the Hermit 86 Abstinence defined 468 The Aâ—â—rons of men must be directed to one assured Butt 67 Apprehension of Affronts 47 Retreat into the Conscience in Affronts is a good remedy against them 58 Aglae a noble Dame 379 She is a worldly Widow ibid. She is in love ibid. Her admirable Conversion 380 Her devotion in enquiry after Martyrs ibid. Her speech to Boniface her Steward ibid. Agrippa Grand-child of Herod 3â—2 His flatterie ibid. Alexander son of Mariamne imprisoned 130 Alms the works of God 9 Ambition an itch 56 It is a forreign vice ibid. It is the life of a slave 57 The Ambitious are miserable ibid. Extream disaster of an Ambitions man ib. Ambitious men travel for Rachel and find 〈◊〉 58 Ambition was the God of Antiochus 347 Sr. Ambrose 175 His Calling ib. His Election 176 His rare endowments 179 His government ib. He cherisheth the Religious 181 He took away superstitions and excesses ib. His puritie of invention ib. His Oration against Symmachus 184 He refuteth Symmachus his strongest arguments ib. His answer concerning the dearth 186 His greatness in the Conversion of Sr. Augustine 188 He speaketh unto the two souls of his Pupils 211 His brave speech to Theodorick 214 The majestie of Sr. Ambrose 205 His prudence and charitie 209 He is persecuted by Justice 206 Resolution of Sr.
Death 24 Its Attendants 66 Meditation of Death 67 Death of the Just is sweet 415 Quality of a good Death is the indifferency of time and manner 416 Worldly irresolutions of Death 417 The way how to be well provided for Death 418 A good Death must have Union with God 419 A notable Aenigma of Death 436 Devotion defined 467 That the great number of Devout men should settle men in Devotion 82 The adhering to creatures doth marre all in Devotion ib. Pretext of Devotion dangerous illustrated by the Fowler 203 Devotion subject to many illusions and the reason why 381 Gross and afflicting Devotion 382 Three blemishes of anxious Devotion ibid. Quaint Devotion 383 The pomp and practises of this Devotion ibid. Reasons of the nullity of this Devotion 284 Transcendent Devotion ibid. Illusions of this Transcendent Devotion 385 S. Lewis the true Table of Solid Devotion 387 State of the Church under Diocletian 234 His conditions ibid. He forsaketh the Empire 235 Dissimulation reigneth every where 394 Dissimulation doth ruin humane faith 395 Dissimulation shamefull to the Authour of it ibid. Dissimulation doth debase a man ibid. The horrours and hatred of Dissimulation 396 The troubles and miseries of Dissimulation ibid. The dreadfull Events of Dissemblers ibid. The power of the Divinity over Infidels 346 Different opinion of the Divinity 348 It is a sacriledge to make Divinity of proper Interest 390 How abominable vicious Domesticks are 17 Duels unlawfull 14 A Duel is no act of Courage ibid. Who anciently entered into Duels ibid. There is want of Generosity in Duels ibid. Authors of Duels 224 Courage of Duellers like to that of the possessed 22â— Dydimus his bold attempt 86 E EDucation its force 15 Defects of Education ibid. Moses educated in the Court. 16 Education of Children recommended by excellent passages of the holy Fathers 17 Eleazar his Combat 347 The Isle of Amber the felicity of Epicurus 40â— The Philosophie of Epicurus doth bear sway in the world 404 The foundation of Episcopal life 180 Eponina a rare example of Conjugal Piety 306 Errours of the Time 341 Eternity of nothing first humilation of man 349 Eucharist the foundation of Paradise 72 Greatness of the Eucharist ibid. Eusebius the Patron of Hereticks 252 Eustatius his Oration at the opening of the Councel 253 Evils generally proceed from ignorance and from the want of the knowledge of God 62 Evil alwayes beareth sorrow behind it but not true pennance 66 Eudoxia mother of Theodosius 138 Her humour ibid Bishops treat with her ibid. Her Zeal ibid. She goeth into Palestine 147 Her return is laboured by Chrysaphius ibid. She lived in the Holy Land in the Eutychian heresie 153 Her Conversion 155 Her worthy life and glorious death ibid. Remedies and reasons against Excess 52 Indignity of Excess in apparel ibid. Necessity of Examen 71 Six things in the Examen to employ the most perfect ibid. Ill Example the work of Antichrist 22 Exemplar crimes deserve Exemplar punishments 23 An Observation upon the Chariot of Ezechiel 451 F FAith what it is and the dignity thereof 62 Its Object and the manner of its working ibid. Touch-stone to know whether we have Faith 63 Heroick acts of Faith ibid. How acts of Faith may be made easie 64 What ought to be the Faith of good Communicants 72 To be Faithfull to the King one must be loyal to God 236 To be Faithfull is to be conformable to reason 340 The great Providence of God in the establishment of Faith ibid. The repose which our Faith promiseth 341 Constancy of Faith 417 Fathers and Mothers compared to Ostriches 16 Fantasies to gain honours 25 Conclusions against Fatalitie 36 Maxims of Fatalitie 365 Favorinus his excellent Observations 10 Excellency of Fidelity 395 Flattery punished 349 Flattery inebriateth Great-men from the Cradle 46 Great Spirits enemies to the Flesh 405 Immoderate love of health doth make a man become suppliant and servile to the Flesh 406 Plotinus a great enemy to his own Flesh 405 Instance upon the weakness and miserie of the Flesh ibid. Hierom his Observation upon the Flower of Box. 406 A notable Fable of the Flie and Silk-worm 43 Fortitude defined 486 Fantasies of Ancients upon the Names of Fortune 360 Fortune is in the power of Providence ibid. A Conclusion against those who curse Fortune 362 Manners are changed with Fortune 364 G GAramant the Fountain 301 GOd's hands a golden bowl full of the Sea 9 God named Obliging in the beginning of the World 19 God a great Thesis 22 God is better known to us than our selves 344 God most easie to be known ibid. All things contribute to the knowledge of God 345 God in this life handleth the wicked as the damned 348 God is who he is 349 Excellency of the Simplicity and Universality of God in comparison of the World 350 Perfections of God 351 God his Goodness 355 367 An excellent similitude of God with the Ocean 351 The God of Hosts besiegeth a Citie 217 Diversity of Gods 349 Gods pastime what it is 42 Why God admitted not the Ostrich and Swan into the number of Victims ibid. Knowledge of the Goodness Justice and Power of God 356 357 God governeth the world with two hands 430 God will replenish us with himself 437 Desperate desire of worldly Goods 418 Gratian the son of Valentinian 200 His excellent qualities 201 Affectionate words of S. Ambrose unto him ibid. His zeal and virtue by the direction of S. Ambrose ibid. His admirable Charity 202 Maximus rebellâ—th against him ibid. His pitifull death 204 Gratitude in the Law of God 20 Excellent proofs of natural Gratitude 19 Gratitude defined 488 The acts of Gratitude 90 Gratitude of the Hebrews ibid. Practise of S. Augustine to encourage himself to Gratitude 20 Greatness of God 437 Greatness of an honest man 48 Lives of Great-ones enlightened 6 The great virtue of Great-ones 7 Authority of Great-ones to strengthen Devotion 8 Great-ones heretofore have perverted the world 21 Great-ones that are vicious draw on themselves horrible execrations of God 23 Great-ones strangely punished 24 Three sorts of Great ones do make Fortune 25 True Devotion in Great-ones 60 Humility of Great-ones 92 A good Document for Great-ones 139 Plague of Great-ones 140 Great-ones are the flatterers of Gods 349 H HEart of man what it is 69 HEbrews horribly persecuted 347 Heliogabalus his wheel 57 Hell defined 432 How the fire of Hell burneth 430 Helena the Beauty and grace of her time 236 She is married to Constantius ibid. Her exceeding virtue ibid. Exceeding love of Constantius and Helena ibid. Effects of Heresie 35 Herod depresseth the Royal Stock 117 His deep Hypocrisie and Dissimulation 120 He is accused for the death of Aristobulus ibid. His Apologie for himself full of craft 121 His Oration against his Wife 125 His fury after the death of Mariamne 127 He advanceth Antipater his son whom he had by Doris 128 His horrible condition in his latter days 134 Herod's
corruptible matter of Earth but after he became a Christian he lived upon the most pure influences of heaven S. Gregory Nazianzen saith he more breathed S. Basile then the aire it self and that all his absences were to him so many deaths S. Chrysostome in banishment was perpetually in spirit with those he most esteemed S. Jerome better loved to entertain his spirituall amities in little Bethelem then to be a Courtier in Rome where he might be chosen Pope And if we reflect on those who have lived in the light of nature Plato was nothing but love Aristotle had never spoken so excellently of friendship had he not been a good friend Seneca spent himself in this virtue being suspected by Nero for the affection he bare to Piso Alexander was so good that he carried between his arms a poor souldier frozen with cold up to his throne to warm him and to give him somewhat to eat from his royall hands Trajan brake his proper Diadem to bind up the wound of one of his servants Titus wept over the ruines of rebellious Jerusalem A man may as soon tell the starres in the heavens as make an enumeration of the brave spirits which have been sacrificed to amity Wherefore great hearts are the most loving If we seek out the causes we shall find it ordinarily proceedeth from a good temperature which hath fire and vigour and that comes from good humours and a perfect harmony of spirit little Courages are cold straightned and wholly tied to proper interests and the preservation of their own person They lock themselves up in their proprieties as certain fishes in their shell and still fear least elements should fail them But magnanimous hearts who more conform themselves to the perfections of God have sources of Bounty which seem not to be made but to stream and overflow such as come near them This likewise many times proceedeth from education for those who fall upon a breeding base wretched and extremely penurious having hands very hard to be ungrasped have likewise a heart shut up against amities still fearing lest acquaintance may oblige them to be more liberall then they would contrariwise such as have the good hap to be nobly bred hold it an honour to oblige and to purchase friends every where Add also that there is ever some gentilenesse of spirit among these loving souls who desiring to produce themselves in a sociable life and who understanding it is not given them to enlighten sands and serpents will have spectatours and subjects of its magnificence Which happens otherwise to low and sordid spirits for they voluntarily banish themselves from the conversation of men that they may not have so many eyes for witnesses of their faults So that we must conclude against the Philosophers of Indifferency that Grace Beauty strength and power of nature are on their side who naturally have love and affection §. 2. Of Love in generall LOve when it is well ordered is the soul of the universe Love the soul of the universe which penetrateth which animateth which tieth and maintaineth all things and so many millions of creatures as aspire and respire this love would be but a burden to Nature were they not quickned by the innocent flame which gives them lustre as to the burning Bush not doing them any hurt Fornacem custodiens in operibus ardoris Eccl. 43. at all I may say that of honest love which the wise man did of the Sunne That it is the superintendent of the great fornaces of the world which make all the most Love the superintendent of the great Fornace of the world Faber ferrarius sedens juxta in eodem considerans opus ferri vapor iguis uret carnes ejus in calore fornacis concertatur c. Eccl. 29 38. Pieces of work in Nature Have you ever beheld the Forge-master described by the same wise-man You see a man in his shirt all covered over with sweat greace and smoke who sporteth among the sparks of fire and seemeth to be grown familiar with the flames He burns gold and silver in the fornace then he battereth it on the Anvil with huge blows of the hammer he fashioneth it he polisheth it he beautifies it and of a rude and indigested substance makes a fair piece of plate to shine on the Cup-boards of the most noble houses So doth love in the world it taketh hearts which are as yet but of earth and morter it enkindleth them with a divine flame It beats them under the hammer of tribulations and sufferings to try them It filleth them by the assiduity of prayer It polisheth them by the exercise of virtues lastly it makes vessels of them worthy to be placed above the Empyreall heaven Thus did it with S. Paul and made him so perfect Act. 9. that the First verity saith of him that he is his vessel of election to carry his name among nations and the Kings of the Earth and that he will shew him how much he must suffer for his sake The whole nature of Pigri mortui oetestandi eritis si nihil ametis Amare sed quid ameris videte August in Psal 31. Hoc amet nec ametur ab ullo Juvenal Seven excellent things the world tendeth to true love every thing loves some of necessity other by inclination and other out of reason He who will love nothing saith S. Augustine is the most miserable and wretched man on earth nor is it without cause that in imprecations pronounced over the wicked it is said Let him not love nor be beloved by any The ancient Sages have observed in the light of Nature that there are seven excellent things to be esteemed as gifts from heaven which are clearnesse of senses vivacity of understanding grace to expresse ones thoughts ability to govern well Courage in great and difficult undertakings fruitfulnesse in the productions of the mind and the strength of love and forasmuch as concerneth the last Orpheus and Hesiodus have thought it so necessary that they make it the first thing that came out of the Chaos before the Creation of the world The Platonists revolving upon this conceit have built us three worlds which are the Angelicall nature Vide Marsilium Ficinum in convivium Platonis An exâ—ellent conceit of the Platonists the soul and the Frame of the universe All three as they say have their Chaos The Angel before the ray of God had his in the privation of lights Man in the darknesse of Ignorance and Sinne The materiall world in the confusion of all its parts But these three Chaoses were dissipated by love which was the cause that God gave to Angelicall spirits the knowledge of the most sublime verities to Man Reason and to the world Order All we see is a perpetuall circle of God to the world and of the world to God This circle beginning in God by inestimable perfections full of charms and attractives is properly called Beauty and
his flock and kill his brethren by your ill example Carnall love in what person soever is still ill situate said Epictetus In a maid it is a shame in a woman it is a fury in a man a lewdnesse in youth it is a rage in mans estate a blemish in old-age a disgrace worthy of scorn You will say all these considerations are very effectuall but that they cure not passion already enflamed and almost desperate of remedy Remedies for affections which come against our will To that I answer we must proceed with more efficacy and addresse among such as are surprised with vehement affection of which they would be free but they find all possible repugnancies I approve not the course of certain directours who think all maladies are healed by words as if they had ears To what purpose is it to hold long discourses and to appoint many meditations to a sharp feaver which is full of ravings and furious symptomes All the maladies of Love are not cured in one and Diversity of the maladies of love and their cures the same manner There are some who are engaged in the sense of the passion but not in the consent to the sinne which is expresly sent by God to persons very innocent but not entirely perfect to punish some negligencies or some slight liberties of conversation whereinto they have suffered themselves to slide by surprisall that they may feel the danger of sinne by the torment they suffer and may correct themselvs by the scent of the smoke before they be involved in the flame And this many times lasteth long being ordained as under a sentence of the divine Providence as a punishment to become afterward a bridle to negligence and a precaution against peril Some also are permitted by heaven and imposed upon certain souls who had a little too much rigour towards such as were tempted to the end they might learn by their experience more mildly to handle suffering hearts and not exasperate their wounds by the sharpnesse of the remedy Witnesse that old man of whom Cassian speaketh who having roughly entertained a young religious man that discovered his passion Cas Col. 2. de discret Intellige te vel ignotarum hactenus a dia bolo vel despectum to him was tempted so violently that he thereby became frantick and understood from the venerable Abbat Apollon this had befaln him by reason of his great harshnesse and that although he hitherto had not felt any rebellion against chastity it was because the devill either knew him not or contemned him There are some which like tertian and quartan agues have their accesses and recesses measured and what diligence soever be used therein well the pain may be mitigated but the root is not taken away till it arrive to a certain period of time wherein the sick man is insensibly cured There are some driven away by hunger and others overthrown by a reasonable usage as it happeneth to melancholy Lovers whose bodies are dry and brains hollow if you appoint them fasts and austerities ill ordered you kill them Some advise them recreation wine bathes honest and pleasing company necessary care of the body Some sweet and active entertainment which gives not leasure to the wild fancies of the mind but this must be taken with much moderation There are some who expect a good sicknesse and many bloud-lettings which may evacuate all the bloud imprinted with Images of the thing beloved to make a new body others are cured by a suit a quarrell ambition an ill businesse great successe a new state of life a voyage a marriage an office a wife There are now very few fools of Love to be found who neglect worth and honour to serve their passion There are nice and suspicious Loves which have more of vanity then concupiscence when one troubleth and hinders them from honestly seeing that which they love they are distempered and if one resist them not they vanish away as if they had not had so much intention to love as to vanish It were almost necessary for many if it may be done without sinne or scandall to converse continually for being somewhat of their own nature coy they still observe some defect in the thing beloved which weakneth their passion and find that the presence is much inferiour to their Idea which is the cause they easily desist from their enterprise having more shame to have begun it then purpose to continue it Some are enflamed by deniall others become totally cool by contempt as proud and predominate loves who have not learn'd to suffer the imperious carriage of a woman a disdain of their mistresse a cunning trick a coldnesse a frown makes them quickly break their chains One would not believe how many humane industries there are to cure the pain of Love but ever it is better to owe ones health to the fear of God to Penance to Deuotion then to all other inventions For which cause you must consider the glorious battails which so many heroick souls have waged to crush Solid remedies this serpent and to walk with noble steps in the liberty of the children of God Some have fought with it on thorns as S. Bennet others on flowers as the Martyr Nicetas who being Admirable examples of the combats of Saints against Love bound on a bed of roses with silken cords to resign himself to the love of a courtesan spit out his tongue in her face Others have thrust sharp pointed reeds under their nails as S. John the Good others have quenched it in snows as S. Francis others in flames as S. Martinian who being by an unchaste woman sollicited to sinne burnt his face and hands to over-throw the strongest passion by the most violent pain There are many of them in the new Christianity of Japonia who pursue the same wayes and run to their chimney-hearths to vanquish the temptations of the flesh thinking there is not a better remedy against this fire then fire it self Others have overcome this bruitishnesse by a savage life as S. Theoclista who being taken by Arabians stole from them and was thirty years hidden in the forrests living on grasse and clothing her self with leaves To say truly there is not any virtue hath cost mankind so much as invincible Chastity But since these manners of conquests are more admirable then imitable at least mortifie your body by some ordinary devotion Make use of the memory of death make use of assiduity of prayer of labour of care over the eyes ears heart and all the senses Humble your spirit and submit to obedience that your flesh may obey you Be not transported with extravagancies Ubi furoris insederit virus libidâ—niâ— quoque incendium nâ—cesse est peneâ— Casde spiritu fornic c. 23. animosity and revenge since Anger and Love according to the Ancients work upon one subject and that the same fervours of bloud which make men revengefull will make them unchaste fail not to heal
he fell into an extasie of holy comfort to have found a man so conform to his humour and both of them wept so much out of love over this fountain that they seemed to go about to raise those streams by their tears If he wrote a letter he imagined love gave him the pen and that he dipped it in his tears and that the paper was all over filled with instruments of the passion and that he sent his thoughts and sighs as Courtiers to seek out the well-beloved of his heart When he saw an Epistle or a letter wherein the name of Jesus was not premised it sensibly tormented him saying Sarazins had more devotion for Mahomet a man of sin setting his name in the front of all their letters then Christians had for their Redeemer A holy occasion one day drew him to a Church to hear excellent musick but he perceiving the words were of God and the tune according to the world he could not forbear to cry out aloud Cease profane men Cease to cast pearls into mire Impure airs are not fit for the King of virgins Some took delight to ask him many questions and he answered them nothing but the word love which he had perpetually in his mouth To whom belongest thou To love whence comest thou from love whither goest thou To love who begat thee Love Of what dost thou live upon love where dwellest thou In love He accounted them unworthy to live who died of any other death then of love and beholding a sick-man in an agony who shewed no feeling of joy to go unto God but onely complained of his pain he lamented him as a man most miserable At his entrance into a great Citie he asked who were the friends of God and a poor man being shewed him who continually wept for the love of heaven and heavenly things he instantly ranne to him and embracing him they mingled their tears together with unspeakable joy God often visited him by many lights and most sweet consolations as it happened at that time when he thought he saw a huge cloud between his Beloved and him which hindred and much troubled him but presently it seemed to him that love put it self between them both and gilded the cloud with great and admirable splendours in such sort that through this radiant beauty he saw a ray of the face of his well-beloved and for a long space spake to him with profusions of heart and admirations not to be expressed From this obsequious love he passed to obliging love and made a strong resolution to become profitable to all the world For which purpose feeling every moment to be replenished with sublime and divine thoughts which God had communicated to him and that he had no insight in Grammer nor other slight school-notions he resolved to learn the Latine tongue being now full fourty years old He hit upon a teacher one Master Thomas who taught him words conjugations and concords but he rendred him back again elate conceptions unheard of discourses and harmonies wholly celestiall so much honouring his Master that he dedicated the most part of his books to him wherein for the dead letter he offered unto him the spirit of life Not satisfied with this he added the Arabick tongue of purpose to convert the Mahumetans and for this end he bought a slave for whom having no other employment but to teach him it and he having therein already well profited and endeavouring to convert this wretched servant who had been his teacher the other found him so knowing and eloquent that he had an apprehension that through this industry he was able to confound the Mahumetan-law which was the cause that the Traitour espying his opportunity took a knife and sought to kill his Master but he stopt the blow and onely received a wound which proved not mortall All the house ran at the noise and there was not any one who would not have knocked down the ungratefull creature but he hindered it with all his might and heartily pardoned him in the greatest sharpnesse of his dolours Instantly the officers seized on this compassion and put him into prison where he was strangled repenting himself of nothing but that he had not finished his mischief which caused extreme sorrow in Raymond who bewailed him with many tender tears of compassion After this he undertook divers journies into France Spain Italy Greece and Africk wandring continually over the world and not ceasing to preach write and teach to advance the salvation of his neighbours Paris many times received him with all courtesie in such sort that the Chancellour Bertand who was infinitely affected to knowledges permitted him to reade them publickly in his hall The reverend Charter-house Monks whose houses have so often been sanctuaries for Learning and Devotion were his hoasts and so much he confided in their integrtty and sincerity that he with them deposed all which he had most precious The love of God which is as lightning in a cloud still striving to break forth suffered him not to rest but disposed him to undertake somewhat for the glory of God It is true he had first of all that purpose which afterwards our father S. Ignatius so gloriously accomplished for he was desirous to make Seminaries of learned and courageous spirits who should spread themselves throughout the world to preach the Gospel and to sacrifice themselves for the propagation of Faith For this cause he multiplied his voyages to Rome to Lions to Paris to Avignon incessantly solliciting Popes and Kings to so excellent a work without successe He used fervour and zeal therein but our father thereunto contributed more order and prudence The one undertook it in a crosse time during the passage of the holy See from Rome to Avignon where the Popes more thought upon their own preservation then tha conquests of Christianity The other knew how to take occasion by the fore-lock and he interessed Rome and the Popes thereof in his design The one made his first triall under Pope Boniface the Eighth who having dispossessed a Hermite of S. Peters Chair held those for suspected who were of the same profession fearing they a second time might make a head of the Church The other happened upon Paul the Third who was a benign Pope and he gained his good opinion by his ready services and submissions which tended to nothing but the humility of Jesus Christ The one embroiled himself too much in Sciences even unto curiosity and made them walk like Ladies and Mistresses the other held them as faithfull servants of the Crosse subjected to holy Humility The one stood too much upon his own wit and needs would beat out wayes not hitherto printed with any foot-steps nor conferred enough with the Doctours of his times in matters of Opinion and Concord the other passed through the surges of Universities and followed an ordinary trackt in the progression of his studies The one was of a humour very haughty the other of a spirit
facil and sweet The one took the golden branch with violence the other gathered it gently as if the Providence of God had put it into his hands Now Raymond not satisfied with seminaries of students embraced the conquest of the Holy Land and stirred up many cities of Italy in this matter exhorting them to make contributions wherein he was so perswasive that the city of Pisa alone which is none of the greatest furnished him with devotists who made of one sole free gift twenty five thousand crowns which he would by no means handle leaving it to the dispose of the Pope who would not give ear to the erection of new Colledges so much were the affairs of the Papacy embroiled He more easily obtained one thing which was one of his three wishes to wit the suppression of the books of Averroes an enemy to Christianity which many with too much curiosity read in the Schools of Philosophy God many times grants good dispositions to his servants whereof he will not they have the accomplishment making them appear more eminent in sufferings then actions This great man was of the number of those for he made himself most remarkable in the love of suffering wandring over the world in extreme poverty great incommodities of heat cold nakednesse hunger scorns contempts dolours banishments dangers both by sea and land shipwracks treasons chains prisons and a thousand images of death One day travelling alone through a huge forrest he met two lions which caused some little fear of death in him as he witnesseth in his writings desirous to live that he might yet on earth serve his well-beloved but in this great surprisall be had a thought that love would put it self into the midst of this passage and make him endure death with the more contentment herewith he comforted himself and the lions drew near and licked his face bathed in tears of Devotion and kissed his feet and hands doing him no harm Men were more sharp and discourteous to him who ceased not to drag him before Tribunals to charge him with calumnies for his extraordinary wayes to give sentence against him but in all he appealed to his well-beloved who never forsook him Seeing himself destitute of all succour for the conversion of Sarazens he passed alone into the kingdome of Thunes where he freely disputed with the chief of the Mahometans concerning the greatnesse and excellency of our Faith against the impostures of Mahomet which was the cause that he was immediately cast into prison and condemned by the King himself to have his head cut off to which he disposed himself with an incomparable fervour of love At which time one of the prime men of State in the countrey who had conceived well of him out of the admiration of his wit perswaded the King to be satisfied with banishing him out of his kingdome and that by this way he should do all he was obliged unto for the preservation of his own law and should get the reputation of a mild Prince among Christians abstaining from the bloud of such a man which he did but he was thrust out of Thunes with so many blows and ignominies that he therein gained a noble participation in the Crosse of Jesus Christ The fervour which incessantly boiled in his veins suffered him not to be long at rest He went into the kingdome of Bugia as Jonas into Nineveh crying out aloud through the streets that there was in the world but one Religion and that was ours and that the law of Mahomet was a meer imposture and a fantasie He was instantly laid hands on as a mad-man and lead to the high Priest named Alguassin who asked him whether he knew not the Laws of the countrey which forbad him upon pain of death to speak against Mahometisme To which he answered he could not be ignorant of it but that a man who knew the truth of Christian Religion as he did could do no other but seal it with his blood This Alguassin proud of science perceiving him to be a man of a good wit entred farther into discourse with him where he found himself shamefully gravelled which made him forsake the Syllogismes of the School to have recourse to the arguments of tyrants which are arms and violence for he caused him to be presently taken as an Emissary Goat there being not any Mahometan hand so little which delighted not to hale and leade him with blows untill they brought him into the most hideous prison which was rather a retreat then a gaol where he endured a thousand miseries with an unshaken constancy The Genowayes his good friends who traffick in these parts moved with his affliction got with good round summes of money a more reasonable prison for him where he began again to dispute with the most learned of the sect and made himself to be so much admired by those his adversaries that they endeavoured to gain him to their Religion promising him wife family honours and riches as much as he could wish but he mocked at all their machinations and seeing them fervent to dispute he persisted therein with great strength of reason and courage They said words were lost in the air but they must take the pen in hand and write on both sides with which he was infinitely pleased and spent nights and dayes in prison to compose a great volumn for defence of our Religion But the King of Bugea coming into his capitall city dissipated all these counsels much fearing the touch of his Law which was gold of a base allay and caused him the second time to come out of prison From thence he sought to get something in Greece passing over into Cyprus where he disputed against the Nestorians and Jacobites who rendred him poison for the honey of his discourses whereof he was like to die had he not been preserved by divine Providence and the assistance of a good Angel The blessed man had already passed forty years in a thousand toils and crosses and spared not to suffer by reason of the flames of love which burnt his heart but he knew not whether he suffered or no so much he took to heart the cup which God had mingled for him Verily our Lord appearing one day unto him and asking him if he well knew what love was of which he so many years had made profession he very excellently answered If I do not well know what Love is I at least well understand what Patience is meaning that it was to suffer since nothing troubled him for the satisfaction he had in Gods causes And another time being asked whether he had Patience he said All pleased him and that he had no cause of impatience which onely belongs to them who keep the possession of their own will Lastly being about fourscore years of age he considered within himself what he said afterwards that love was a sea full tempests and storms where a port was not to be hoped for but with the losse of himself and
alone unexpectedly set upon by a number of souldiers he slew some of them in the place with his own hands and scattered the rest with the â—â—â—archus lightning flashes which reflected from his face It which crowned Pyrrhus in two duels It which made Constantine appear like a thunder-stroke in the battel Valer. l. 3. cap. 2. against Maxentius It which animated Scevola when left alone in the streights of an Island by the Ebb of Plin. l. 7. cap. 28. the sea he withstood a whole Army of Barbarians It which accompanied Sicinvius in a hundred and twenty pitched battels and affixed on his body fourty five wounds as so many Rubies It which taught Cynegirus after his hands were cut off to lay hold of a vessel of his enemies fleet with his teeth It which Sabel l. 7. Aenead 6. caused a souldier of the Roman Army seeing himself lifted on high and born with his armour upon an elephants Trunk unaffrightedly to strike him with so strong and violent a blow that he made him let go his hold and alone become victorious over a beast which carrieth turrets and houses on his back It is more easie to number the Stars in the sky then to keep a register of so many valourous men who have been throughout all ages Women and Virgins have had a share in glory of this kind among many nations envying the Laurels which crown the heads of brave Captains The Scythian Alexander ab Alexandro Jaxametes married not their daughters untill they brought the head of an enemy The Lacedemonian women defeated the army of Aristomenes who Pausanias in Messeniacis had assailed them at a sacrifice and they massacred them with spits Lybyssa slew seven men in a battel with her own Aeneas Sylvius in historia Bohe miae hand Semiramis was in a Bath when hearing the news of the rebellion of a Province of her Empire she speedily hastned thither not taking the leisure to put on her shoes or dresse her and brought it to obedience Herodotus She caused to be graven on a pillar of her tomb That Nature had made her a Woman but that Valour had equalled her to the most valiant Captains that she had made rivers to run along according to the current of her liking and her likings by the course of Reason that she had peopled desart lands hewed with the sword through rocks with silver-sowed fields which were unknown but to savage beasts and that amidst all her affairs she ever had time for her self and for her friends In the fore-going Age in the warres of Hungary Ascanius Contorius lib. 5. Bellar. Tranfilvan we reade of a young Christian woman at the siege of Agria who with her mother and husband fought against the Turks and the husband being slain the mother advised her daughter to retire and to interre the body of her dear Spouse But the valorous Amazon having answered It was no time for funerals took the sword of her dead husband thrust her self into the thickest of the troops killed three Turks with her own hand and in the end bare away the body of her well-beloved on her shoulders in despite of so many enemies who ceased not to shoot at her What may one adde to this Military Boldnesse Do we not daily see examples of it in our French Nobility who fight upon occasions as if every man had a hundred bodies to lose There is another which hath place in civill life and which maketh men bold in conversation forward in affairs courageous in occasions and patient in adversity Many who have not this great heart are content to be eternally what they are and do cultivate a litte life within the limits of modesty But others breathe nothing but businesses but bargains but forreign commerces but sea-voyages fearing neither storms nor shipwracks When this hardinesse meets with great States-men it maketh them pillars of Adamant which a thousand countrebuffs cannot shake All the malice which is in corrupt minds impiety in profane inventions in the factious daring in the insolent terrour in the potent threats in the passionate and cruelty in the bloudy doth not make them go back one step They think with wisdome they speak with liberty they act with courage nor have they any other fortune in their heads but the law other life but innocency other aim but truth other reward then glory Of this temper was the magnanimous Papinian the honour of Lawyers Notable Boldnesse Spartianus to whom the Emperour Severus dying recommended his two sonnes with the Government of the Empire But the impious Caracalla having embrewed his hands in the bloud of his own brother Geta and desirous this great man should set some Colour by his eloquence before the Senate and People upon an action so barbarous he freely answered him it was more easie to commit a paricide then to justifie it uttering this truth to the prejudice of his head which this wretched Prince caused to be cut off and which the posterity of great men hath honoured with immortall Crowns Of the like constancy was Aristides the Locrian in the Court of Dionysius King of Sicily who would have married one of his daughters but the father stoutly answered he had rather see her in her sepulchre then in the bed of a tyrant which cost him the life of his children nor for all this did he repent him of his free Boldnesse Such also was the great Oratour Lycurgus who managed the affairs of the Athenian Common-wealth with such equity and constancy that being ready to die he caused himself to be carried to the Senate to give an account of all the actions of his life and to satisfie all those whom he might have offended in his Government but such a life instead of stains had nought but palms and lights To this may be joyned the boldnesse of Saints who have so often defended the Truth with the perill of their life against the rage of Tyrants as that of S. Athanasius against the Emperour Constantius That of S. Ambrose against Maximus That of S. Chrysostome against Eudoxia That of S. Basil against Valeus Of S. Stanislaus against Boleslaus Of S. Thomas against Henry King of England With this a million of Religious are to be found who have undergone and Voyages of Canada the Indies do daily undergo the labours of Giants who forsake the smiling favours of their native soil to go into places whither it seems nature hath been afraid to come Thither they passe through an infinity of dangers tempests and monsters there they live in forlorn wildernesses among tombs of ice and snow there they seed upon that which to the curious and nice would be a death to taste All sweetnesse and pleasures of humane life are thence banished rigours toils and miseries there perpetually reign their eyes see none but barbarous visages their ears hear nought but out-cryes and yells their taste finds onely bitteâ—nesse their travels nought but
what necessity is there that for sparing a good word you must perpetually live either a sacrilegious or an excommunicate person Lastly you must think you are not immortall the very moment which is now in your hands you must divide The third remedy it with death even the sun which you to day have seen to rise out of his couch before his setting may see you in your Tomb. Moreouer know that should you all your life time have preserved an inviolable virginity should you have built a thousand hospitalls and spent your whole estate in entertaining of the poor should you have lived in Hair-cloth among thorns and in great abstinencies if you into the other world carry a dramme of resolved and determinate hatred of a neighbour with unwillingnesse to hear any words of reconciliation all which may be in you of virtue or merit will nothing avail you your lot shall be with reprobate souls devils O God! what a sentence what a Decree what a punishment is this and who would now purposely cherish hatred against his neighbour unlesse he had lost all Reason all sense and discretion Let us conclude with the third remedy against the furious and bloudy who are not content to fume but like unto Aeina do throw forth their all-enflamed bowels nor are ever satiated but with outrages and humane bloud This is it which makes us to behold the goodly duells which have at all times been the profession of servile souls of fools or mad-men There we see men bewitched with a cursed and damnable opinion seeking upon the least injury to require reparations sealed with humane bloud to engage seconds to make them complices of their crime and companions of their misery to send challenges many times by pages apparelled like women then to cut anothers throte with horrible fury to dragge a long chain of allies to make a pitchd battel of a single combat and mothers and wives in the mean time to tremble in expectation of the issue of this butchery Some slight fellow who hath a soul miserably shallow and base to cover his cowardise and acquire reputation will wash his impurity in humane bloud It is not courage which puts him forward he who would behold him a little in the buisinesse should see him ready to swoon to wax pale and tremble If he would follow his own nature he would fly a hundred leagues off and never look behind him but for a little vanity that Hacksters may praise him and say he hath fought a duell he tormenteth his mind and especially when he is among pots and glasses he shews himself valiant Ah Rodomont Is this your businesse you cannot speak but you must menace to slash a man Bloudy beast where have you learnt this but in the school of Furies and devils and do not say he hath put an affront upon me What affront a cold countenance a harsh word a piece of foppery which you would never have taken notice of had you not been void of the reason of an honest man None would affront you were not you your own affront behold the root of all these enflamed angers And he who will give remedy to them must cut them off in his imagined contempt where indeed there is none and therefore it is fit Multos absolvemus si coeperimus antè judicare quà m irasci Senec 3. de ira c. 29. Terminum etiam marinis fluctibus ac tempestatibus fabricator descripâ—â—â—â—arena maris exigua saepe inter duas acics inter capedo est si reprimere iram non potes memento quia indignabundum mare nil ultra spumam fluctuationem effert Simocaâ—â—â— he retire to the haven of silence and lessen what he may in his imagination the injury which he thinks he hath received when you shall have well weighed it you will find that you of a fly have made an elephant The true means to forgive all the world and to pardon it is to judge of offences before we be angry There are offences which we should laugh at others which we at least should deferre and some we should speedily pardon If this stay you not at least think upon the end and say Behold a quarrell which begins to be enkindled there is nothing wanting but a poor word fair and advised yea verily but meere silence to give remedy thereto If I augment it in stead of lessening it I do put fire to dry wood which will make a terrible havock to consume me first I must be a homicide or a sacrifice to death or live in brawls quarrels and eternall divisions which will involve parents children brothers cousins and a whole posterity Behold the goodly fruit which brutish anger bringeth Since I can prevent all this by a little discretion and patience am I such an enemy of my own good as willingly to seek my proper ruine The sea is tempestuous but there needs but a little sand to represse it and when it hath made all its menaces which seemed ready to swallow all the world it retires back contenting it self onely to leave froth and broken shells Behold if you have eyes the goodly gain which The direfull example of Haman a against the enraged who are at a little offended Haman made of his anger and how seeking to remedy an affront he transfixed himself with eternall misery Mardocheus whom he accounted a beggar had not saluted him at his entrance into the Kings palace for which he must be revenged His reason suggested to him he was a man of no worth why wilt thou take notice of him No I will destroy him What! for not saluting thee He is a Jew by nation and peradventure he hath seen on thy garments the figures of the Persian gods embroidered and dares not bend his knee lest it might be thought he gave this honour to thy gods and he should be esteemed an Idolater It is no matter I am resolved to ruine him If thou beest gone so farre take then the head of the culpable and pardon all the rest who are innocent No I will destroy him with all his race See I have in my hand the Kings Signet-ring and I go to dispatch letters throughout all the Provinces that all the Jews may be slain which shall be found on such a prefixed day O God! what a slaughter for the deniall of a silly salutation to make choler swim in the tears of so many widows and orphans in the murther of so many mortalls in the bloud of so many Provinces Dost thou think there is not a God in heaven to take vengeance upon such torturing cruelties God may do what he pleaseth But I must be revenged my wife and my friends advise me so Alas unhappy wretch He was then contriving his direfull designe when the vengeance of God fell upon his head Behold him disgraced lost and shamefully supplanted by a woman coming to the palace of the King his Master he heard the roaring of a lion which said Take
his ambition did here bound it self and promised to speak to the King thereof very willingly which she did going expresly to visit him Solomon went forth to meet her made her very great reverence received her with most courteous entertainment and having ascended his Throne he caused another to be set at his right hand for his mother which said to him That she came to make a very little request unto him upon which it would be a displeasure to her to receive any deniall The son assured her and said That she might boldly demand and that he was no wayes intended to give her any discontent As soon as she had opened the businesse and named Abishag's name Solomon entred Solomons rigour into great anger and said she might have added thereto the Kingdome seeing that he was his eldest brother and that he had Joab and Abiathar on his side and without giving any other answer he swore that he would make Adonijah die before it was night whereupon presently he gave order to Benaiah who supplied the office of Captain of the Guard which failed not to slay this young Prince Those that think that Solomon might do this in conscience He cannot well be justified for the murder of his brother and that one may conjecture that God had revealed it unto him take very small reasons to excuse great crimes and see not that whosoever would have recourse to imaginary Revelations might justifie all the most wicked actions of Princes There is not one word alone in the Scripture that witnesses that after the establishment of Solomon this poor Prince did make the least trouble in the State he acknowledged Solomon for King he lived peaceable he was contented with the order that God permitted for the comfort of the losse of a Kingdome which according to the Law of Nations did belong to him he desired but a maid servant in marriage and he is put to death for it Who could excuse this I am of opinion of the The just punishment of God upon Solomon Dr Cajetan who saith that this command was not onely severe but unjust and I believe that hence came the misfortune of Solomon for that having shewed himself so little courteous towards his mother and so cruel towards his brother for the love of a woman God to punish him hath suffered that he should be lost by all that which he loved most After this murder he sent for Abiathar the chief Priest and gave Abiathar the high Priest deprived of his dignity by a very violent action him to understand that he was worthy to die but forasmuch as he had carried the Ark of the living God and had done infinite services for the King his father even from his youth he gave him his life upon such condition that he should be deprived of the dignity of the high Priest and should retire himself to his house The Scripture saith that this was to fulfill the word of the Lord which had been pronounced against the house of Eli but yet it follows not for all that that this depriving was very just on Solomon's side being done without mature consideration And although God ordains sometimes temporall afflictions upon children for the punishment of the fathers yet one cannot neverthelesse inferre from this that those which torment and persecute them without any other reason then their own satisfaction should not any wayes be faulty for otherwise one might avouch that the death of our Lord having come to passe by the ordinance of God Pilate and Caiaphas that did co-operate unto this order without any knowledge thereof should be without offence As for those that think that the Levites were accusers in those proceedings it is a conjecture of their own invention and if indeed it were so one might yet further reason by what Law could the Levites bring accusation against their chief Priest This jealousie of Government is a marvellous beast and those that would excuse it find for the most part that there is no stronger reasons then swords and prisons and banishments In the mean time the news comes to Joab that he was in great danger for having followed the party of Adonijah and as he saw himself on the sudden forsaken and faln from the great credit that he had in the Militia he had recourse to the Tabernacle which was the common refuge and taking hold of the Altar he asked mercy and his life Banaiah the executour of the murder goes to him by Solomons order and commands him to come forth for which he excuses himself protesting that he would rather die then forsake his refuge which was related to King Solomon who without regard to the holy place caused him to be massacred The death of Joab at the foot of the Altar to mingle his bloud with that of the sacrifices Behold what he got from the Court after fourty years services and one may affirm that if it had been sometimes a good mother to him now it acted a cruel step-mother at the last period of his life There remained no more but Shimei to make up the last Act of the Tragedy and although David had given commandment for his death Solomon seemed yet to make some scruple upon the promise of impunity that was made to him and this was the cause that he appointed him the city of Jerusalem for a prison with threatning that if he should go forth thence and onely go over the brook of Cedron he would put him to death The other that expected nothing but a bloudy death willingly received the condition and kept it three years until the time that on a day having received news of his servants that were fled to the Philistims it came into his mind to follow them without taking heed to that which was commanded him which caused that at his return he was murdered by the commandment of Solomon by the hand of Benaiah Behold the beginning of a reign tempestuous and one must not think to find Saints so easily at the Court especially in those which have liberty to do what they please many things slip from them which may better be justified by repentance then by any other apology That which follows in this history of Solomon is all peaceable and pleasing even unto his fall which may give cause of affrightment The third year of his reign he had an admirable Dream after the manner of those that are called Oracles A wonderfull Dream of Solomon It seemed to him that God appeared to him and spoke to him at the which he was in an extasie and seeing himself so near to him that could do all he desired of him with incredible ardency the gift of Wisdome to govern his people the which pleased so much the Sovereign Majesty that not onely he gave him a very great understanding above all the men of the world but further also added thereto Riches and Glory in so high an eminence that none should equall him There
and the Cup was found in the sack of the youngest The brothers are seized with a profound astonishment and the poor child so amazed that he hath not a word to defend himself They begin all to afflict themselves and to rent their clothes and return to the City as Thieves taken in the fact to render an account to the Governour As soon as he saw them he reproched them of ingratitude and said to them that they were much deceived to come to him to steal seeing there was not a man in the whole world that had more news of secret things then he All prostrate themselves on the ground and do him Reverence Judah takes the word and sayes That they came not to excuse themselves that they had nothing to say since God had rendred their iniquity so visible that they were come all to offer themselves to him to be his slaves with him that had done the deed Nay it shall not go so saith Joseph but the culpable shall stay with me and ye shall return all of you at liberty to your house Then Judah drew near desired audience with a profound humility and declared how that child was his Fathers heart and life and that having received order from his Excellence to pluck him out of the arms of the old man and to bring him they had given him battells to make him resolve on that Voyage to which he would by no means hearken But the desire they had to give all possible satisfaction to his greatnesse had made them presse that businesse so farre as to oblige themselves life for life body for body and to deliver their little children to death in case that they brought not back their brother Benjamin that thereupon the goodman rendred himself with much difficulty and that to go and tell him at present that his dear sonne in whom he lives and by whom he breathes is stayed prisoner in Egypt for a case of theft would be to give him a double death and to send him to the Grave with inconsolable griefs And therefore he beseech'd his Greatnesse to shew them mercy and to take him for a slave in the place of his brother Benjamin Joseph could hear no more so much love and pity did he feell in the bottome of his heart He caused all the servants to withdraw not being willing that any of the Egyptians should be witnesse of this action and then he lifted up his voyce with a great sigh and a torrent of tears that glided from his eyes and said I am Joseph is my Father yet alive At that speech these poore men stood so surprised and in such an extasie that they made him no reply By how much the more he saw them astonished by so much the more did he make much of them and making them approach very near him he said again I am Joseph I am he that ye sold to the Ishmaelites to be carried into Egypt Trouble not your selves God permitted this for my good and for yours Two years of Famine are past there are yet five remaining and I have been sent from on high into Egypt to nourish you and to preserve you in the rigour of the time It was not by your counsels but by the ordinances of God that I came into this Kingdome And now behold I am as a father to Pharaoh the Superintendent of his house and the Prince of Egypt Go haste ye to return to my father carry him the news of my life and of my dignity relate to him all the glory and all the magnificence that invirons me and tell him that I expect him here and that it is the will of God that he should come to sojourn in the land of Goshen where he shall have all that he can desire for his children and for his flocks This said he embraced them weeping begining with the little Benjamin and then they took the boldnesse to speak to him with open heart about all that had passed thinking themselves obliged above all measure to his goodnesse The fame of this acknowledgement ran in the house of Pharaoh who ordered Joseph to cause his Father to come and sojourn in Egypt with his brothers dispatching many charriots to carry all his baggage The children returned Triumphing and gave him the news that his sonne Joseph was alive and the second person of the Realm of Egypt that had the managing of all The Good-man thought that it was a dream and the admiration of it held him so seized that he could not come to himself again at length when he saw that it was all in good earnest and that the Chariots that were to carry away all his family were at the gate he said that now there remained nothing more for him to desire if his sonne Joseph was alive and that he would see him before his death Some time after he departed being encouraged by an heavenly Vision that promised him all good successes in that journey and when he was arrived at Goshen he dispatched Judah to give the newes of it to his sonne Joseph who at the same instant went up into his Coach to go to meet him and seeing him embraced him with close enfoldings weeping for joy and tendernesse upon his neck His Father holding him between his arms said My son It is at this houre that I shall dye content since God hath shewed me the grace to see you and to leave you alive after me The holy man was also presented to King Pharaoh who made him a great enterteinment and demanded of him his age to which he answered that he was but an hundred and thirty years old that those dayes were few and evil and were not extended to the age of his Fathers He blessed the King and his place of abode was assigned in the land of Goshen where he lived in a most full content And now I demand of my Reader if there be any thing more magnificent more sweet and more benigne then the heart of Joseph in all the circumstances of that Reconciliation with his brethren We see many Histories wherein the Grandees of the earth that mount up on their Thrones after they have been offended who have nothing so ordinary as to make Furies and Vengeances with squadrons of Hangmen march with them by their side to Ruine those that have done them any displeasure But this man after he had been so cruelly used after he had been stripped of his cloathes cast into an old pit of water domineered over and sold to Barbarians by his own brothers with an intention to keep him in an hard slavery the rest of his dayes not onely forgets all that had passed but pardons them with a profusion of Charity he does them good he over-whelms with good offices those ungratefull men and in obliging them he hath but one trouble which is to see them shamefull of their crime He weeps while he embraces them one after another He would not that that fault should be imputed to them
He sayes that it was a design of God on which they should think no more unlesse to thank him These bad brethren after their fathers death finding themselves pricked with remorse of conscience and imagining that that pardon was but a dissembling cast themselves at his feet and beseech him to lay aside all the resentments of past wrongs but he raised them weeping and promised them a Charity totally fraternall and for ever inviolable And though he was so puissant and so absolute he never advanced his own children to the prejudice of his brothers observing them and respecting in every thing the right of Eldership which nature had given them over him Certainly a man that hath such a power over himself ought to be looked upon on earth as a Starre that should descend from heaven and as the liveliest image of the divine Goodnesse he merits not onely to triumph on Pharaoh's charrets but on the Heaven of heavens and so be beheld by Angels with admiration of his desert Finally that which was glorious in Joseph for the fulnesse of this perfection was the strength and equality of an incomparable spirit he was alwayes like himself and saw all the changes of his fortune without changing He descends into the deep pit with the same countenance as he mounts upon Pharaoh's charret He complains of nothing He accuses no body He stifles all the displeasures and all the resentment of nature in him He is loved of his Mistresse without condescending to her passion He is hated of her without accusing her cruelty He is accused without defending himself persecuted without resisting So many years roul over his head without writing one onely word to his father to the disadvantage of his inhumane brothers He suffers with silence He hides his evils with industry He does good without affectation He bears upon his shoulders all the cares of a great Government without groaning under his burden He communicates his glories and his pleasures He reserves to himself onely the toils He takes the bitter and the sweet the hard and the soft prosperities and adversities as the sea that receives all the rivers without changing either colour or savour All his life is but a picture that hath alwaies the same visage and as the Deâ—ty does continually one and the same action without altering or wearying it self he continues the exercises of his goodnes without remission even to the last article of his life MOSES WHat spectacle is this here A cradle of bulrushes floating upon the River Nile and in it a little abandoned Infant for whom his own mother is constrained to make a grave of water to avoid the fury of the murderers that came to pluck him from the breast His sister follows him with weeping eyes and sayes to him Go poor child whither fortune shall conduct thee go my dear brother upon the floats of a furious Element which perhaps will be more favourable to thee then those inhumane men that seek thy life when as thou knowest not yet what 't is to live This River will have pity on thee or if it swallows up thy cradle in its waves it will lodge thy bones in its bosome and cover thy death to sweeten the bitterest of our evils which is to have eyes to look upon our misery But while that this poor maid weeps upon the bank of Nilus and mingles her tears with the water of the River Providence takes the care of that cradle she makes her self as the Pilot of that little vessel which is without mast without rudder without cordage she supplies all and does all she shews how one may find life in death and an haven in a shipwrack The daughter of King Pharaoh comes with her female train and in it is her intention to bathe her self but in God's intention that she might be made the mother of that little Infant exposed to the mercy of the waters and that since she could not be so by Nature she might be by Adoption She discovers first of all that cradle which was on the waters side and dispatches one of her damsels to take it up and bring it her that she might see what was in it she finds a very fair child which pleads his case before her by the cloquence of his tears and of his cryes and implores her mercy against the fury of the Infant-slayers Her heart is melted in compassion towards it and she gives command that it should be kept and nourished his sister standing opportunely by sayes unto her that she knew where was a good Nurse that would well acquit her self of that duty if it pleased her Majesty that she might call her whereto she having shewed some inclination she causes the mother to come that nursed with all security her dear Infant which she had exposed through diffidence This little body drawn out of the bundle of rushes is he that God hath chosen to shake all Egypt to overthrow the pride of Pharaoh's and to draw his people out of Captivity The Hebrews were already multiplied exceedingly in the Kingdome of Egypt after the death of Joseph in the space of sixty five years and began to make themselves feared of their Masters The face of the Realm was changed and he that was then upon the Throne was a Prince that remembred not any longer the obligations that the Monarchy had to the Patriarch Joseph but blamed the counsels of his Predecessours for having permitted a stranger-people to have a dwelling in his Kingdome that seeming to him according to humane Policy of pernicious consequence and thinking that that waxing stronger as it did every day might be capable to make an attempt upon the State or be serviceable to those that had a design to make a commotion and to embroil the affairs of the Kingdome He judged not ill according to the rules of Politicians and for that purpose he resoved with himself to abate and to destroy them by what means soever it was done The first was to consume them amongst stones and mortar in the structure of those prodigious Pyramids that are to be seen in Egypt The second was to command the Midwives to kill all the Male-children which they did not execute through the fear which they had of God and the horrour of that command This made him advise upon a third means and ordain that all the Boyes from the day of their birth should be drowned in the River Nile But God that would teach Princes and State-Ministers that although one should have in Idea any just and lawfull design yet one never ought to seek to compasse it by unjust and violent means permitted not this unhappy Prince that gnawed himself with cares and unquietnesse and tormented his life by so many new inventions of malice and of fury ever to bring about what he projected and his successour after a thousand scourges and a thousand disastres of his Kingdome which he saw every day fall by pieces before his eyes was buried in the red
that if Baal were God they ought to follow him but if there were no other God but that of Israel called upon from all times by their Fathers it was he to whom they ought to adhere with an inviolable fidelity To this the assembly made no answer there being none that was willing to set himself forward upon an uncertainty Then Elijah taking the word again said Behold four hundred and fifty Prophets of Baal on one side and I a Prophet of the true God all alone on the other part in this place here To make a tryall of our Religion let there be two Oxen given us for each of the two parties let them be cut in pieces and the pieces put upon a pile of wood without puting any fire to them either on one side or on the other we will expect it from heaven and the Sacrifice upon which God shall make a flame appear from on high to kindle it shall carry away the testimony of the true Religion To this all the people answered with a confused voyce that it was a good Proposition The Victims were brought sacrificed and put upon the wood to be consumed The Priests of Baal began first to invoke the heavenly fire and to torment themselves with great cryes and a long time without any effect It was already mid-day and nothing had appeared to their advantage whereat being very much astonished they drew out their Razors and make voluntary incisions upon themselves according to their custome thinking that a prayer was never well heard if it were not accompanied with their blood which the evil Spirit made them shed in abundance to satiate his Rage This nothing advanced the effect of their Supplications which gave occasion to Elijah to mock at the vanity of their Gods saying that Baal that gave no answer was asleep or busie or on a journey or perhaps drinking at the Tavern He remained either with security amidst so many enraged Wolves covered with the protection of the God of Hosts and began to prepare his Sacrifice taking twelve stones in memory of the twelve Tribes of Israel to erect an Altar to the name of God after which he divided the Offering into divers parts put them all upon the pile and that none might have any suspition that there was fire hidden in some part of them he caused abundance of buckets of water to be thrown upon the Sacrifice and all about it and then began to say Great God God of Abraham of Isaac and of Israel shew now that thou art the God of this people and that I am thy servant I have obeyed thee in all this resting my self upon thy word Hear me my God my God hear me and let this assembly learn this day of thee that thou art the true God and the absolute Master of all the universe and that it is thou that art able to reduce their hearts to the true belief Scarce had he ended his prayer when the Sacred fire fell down from heaven upon his Sacrifice and devoured the Offering and the Altar to the admiration of all the People who prostrating themselves on the ground began to cry That the God of Israel was the true God Take then sayes he the false Prophets of Baal let not one sole man of them escape us The People convinced by the Miracle and the voyce of Elijah without expecting any other thing fall upon those false Prophets takes them and cuts them all in pieces Ahab amidst all this stood so astonished that he durst not speak one onely word nor any way resist the Divine Command The Prophet bad him take his refection and go into his Coach for the so much desired rain was near and having said so retired himself to the top of the Mount Carmel and sent his servant seven times to the sea to see whether he could discover any clouds but he saw nothing till the seaventh time and then he perceived a little cloud that exceeded not the measure of a hand and yet he sends him to tell Ahab that it was time to Harnesse if he would not be overtaken with the rain He mounted instantly into his Coach to get to the City of Jezrael and Elijah ran before as if he had wings In the mean time the Heavens grew black with darknesse the clouds collect themselves the wind blowes and the Rain falls in abundance Ahab failed not to relate to Jezabel all that had been done desiring to make the death of those Prophets passe for a decree of heaven for fear lest that imperious woman should upbraid him with the softnesse of his courage But she not moved with those great miracles of fire and water that were reported to her began to foam with wrath and to swear by all her Gods that she would cause Elijahs head to be laid at her feet by the morrow that time The Prophet is constrained to fly suddenly to save himself not knowing to whom to trust so that having brought with him but one young man to accompany him in the way he quitted him and went alone into the wildernesse wherein having travelled a day he entred into a great sadnesse and laid him down under a Juniper-tree to repose himself and there felt himself very weary of living any longer and said to God with an amorous heart My God it is enough take mee out of this life I am not better then my fathers It is a passion ordinary enough to good men to wish for death that they may be no more obliged to see so many sinnes and miseries as are in the World and to go to the place of rest to contemplate there the face of the living God But this desire ought to be moderated according to the will of God As he was in that thought sleep that easily surprises a melancholy spirit and wearied with raving on its pains slipt into his benummed members and gave some truce to his torments But that great God that had his eyes open to the protection of so dear a person dispatched to him his guardian Angell who awaked him and shewed him near his head a cruse of water and a loaf of bread baked under the ashes for such are the banquets that the nursing Father of all Nature makes his Prophets not loving them for the delights of the body but contenting himself to give them that which is necessary to life he saw well that it was a Providence that would yet prolong his life He drank and ate and at length being very heavy fell asleep again But the Angel that had undertaken the direction of his way waked him and told him that it behooved him to rise quickly by reason that he had yet a long way to go Elijah obeyed and being risen found that he had gained a merveilous strength so that he journied fourty dayes and fourty nights being fortified with that Angelicall bread till such time as he came to the Mountain Horeb. There he retired himself into the hollow of a Rock unknown
observe that he never spake ill of the Christians although he hath violently inveighed against the Jews which testifieth that he was endued with some good thoughts in the favour of it His brother Gallio being Proconsul in Achaia would never judge S. Paul for any fact of Religion although the Jews did presse him to it with much importunity Adde to this that our Seneca two years before his death did live a retired life under the colour of indisposition of body and would no more frequent the Temples of the Heathen as also that he would not procure his own death before the Emperour expresly had commanded it as being then of the opinion of the Christians who did forbid self-murder and also that at last that he did forbid the vain pomp and the vain ceremonies at his Funerals These Reasons being weighed do draw unto this Conclusion That it is more beseeming our Religion to conceive well of the Salvation of Seneca then to condemne him The strongest Objection which can be made against this Opinion is That at his death Cornelius Tacitus doth make him to invoke on Jove the Liberatour But no esteem ought to be given to this Argument for Tacitus could not understand that which was altogether out of his knowledge seeing that Seneca did never make open profession of Christianity but kept that thought totally concealed from Nero and all the Heathen And we ought not to be amazed that he was not comprised in that search which was made for Christians it being sufficiently manifest that many illustrious Christians have lived in the Courts of the Heathen Emperours and dissembled their Religion they being not bound in conscience to declare it at all times to run wilfully into Martyrdome Moreover this Historian above named hath written divers things very lightly especially when he maketh mention of the Religion of the Jews and Christians which he describes rather according to his own Idaea then any wayes according to the truth insomuch that when Seneca at his death implored Jesus the Deliverer he did not forbear to translate Jesus into Jove As rashly as this he leaves recorded to posterity that the Jews are descended from the hill Ida the name of which he saith the Jews do bear and that they worship the head of an Asse as also that the Christians confessed that they were Incendiaries and that they burned the city of Rome under Nero. But we find by S. Paul himself in his Epistle written from Rome unto the Philippians that he had many Christians in the house of Nero and Linus the successour of S. Peter who was there present at that time doth rank Seneca amongst them with an high title of commendation and though his History hath been corrupted by the Hereticks and the Ignorant it is never the lesse received in those Points which are comformable to the other Fathers of the Church so that Tacitus in this ought not to be considered This Name then of Redeemer or Deliverer whereof Tacitus maketh mention and this sprinkling of the water which the Faithfull were accustomed to present to God in the manner of Libation doth imploy some secret of which he never heard And as for that Objection that there are some opinions in Seneca's Books which are not conformable to the Christian Religigion it is of no value seeing those Works were composed before his Christianity And to that which others do alledge that he himself was the authour of his own death it is most manifestly false seeing he did not suffer a vein to be opened before the expresse commandment of the Emperour who had pronounced against him the sentence of Death as I have said already which was afterwards executed according to the fashion of those times in which by the permission of Magistrates the houshold-servants of the party condemned performed that office which belonged to the publick executioner of Justice Besides this in the beginning of Christianity Seneca who had but a light tincture of it could not yet know that it was not allowable for him to assist his at his death seeing that many Christian Virgins have killed themselves to divert the violations by their designed ravishers and yet have not been condemned for it S. Paul returning to Rome according to the Calculation of Baronius did find that Seneca was dead and that he was deprived of a great help in the propagation of the Gospel Howsoever he desisted not with all his endeavour to advance with S. Peter the Christian Religion which by and by they shall both bedew with their bloud For Nero to fill up the horrour of his crimes did begin the first Persecution against the Christians And it is our glory saith Tertullian that he was in the head of our Persecutours The wicked Prince perceiving that he could not wipe away the evill reputation with which he was defamed for the burning of Rome did cause the Christians to be accused and did torment them with outrageous and inhumane punishments Some were nailed to Crosses distilling their bloud drop by drop in extremity of pain Others by cruel inventions were covered with the skins of savage beasts and exposed to bandogs who would fly upon them with a most violent rage and tear them in pieces Others being fastned to blocks were burned by degrees by fire with Diabolicall art and sport insomuch that in the Evening when the Sun made haste to bed to be no longer polluted with such horrible spectacles the bodies of the Faithfull being all on fire did serve as torches for the reprobate joyes of the Heathen Nero would be then in his gardens to glut his barbarous eyes with the Torments of those innocent Souls Happy ye Stars who in the combats of that laborious night did behold so many victorious Souls ascend from the midst of the flames to take possession of the Temple of eternall Lights The Infidels themselves had compassion on them knowing that it was an artifice of Nero's to sacrifice those poor Victims to his brutish cruelty Not long after S. Peter and S. Paul did find themselves to be involved in the same Persecution for as they endeavoured themselves to perswade Chastity to some Christian Ladies against the allurements and surprisals of the Emperour he grew enraged at it and commanded them to be locked up in close prison from whence some few dayes after they were taken forth to go to their Execution where S. Peter was crucified with his head downwards and S. Paul was beheaded after they had converted many Souls and even the Executioners themselves They kissed one another with tears of joy and with an assured pace they marched to their place of torment as to a garden inamelled with the most delightfull beauties of Nature At every minute their sacred mouths did call upon the name of their most beloved Master and the pleasures they resented to excommunicate with him in his Sufferings did not permit them to have the least fear of that which of all fears is the most horrible in
a King in Name onely and that the Queen signed The pernicious language of an Incendiary first in all the Declarations and did not permit that any Effigies should be stamped on the moneys but her own That of necessity he must discharge himself from the tutelage of that Imperious woman and teach her to submit to the law of Nature which allows not that Sex to command their husbands On the other side this Forger of iniquity heating two furnaces with one fagot ceased not by his complaints to set on fire the heart of the Queen telling her That she must chastise the rash young Man and retain the Sovereignty entire on her own side otherwise his unruly passions attempting to part the Crown betwixt them would take it away from them both and put all things into a confusion This was the occasion that Mary arming her heart with a manly courage would enjoy the Rights and Prerogatives of her birth and did afterwards reign in full authority 4. This young Husband who of a Subject was become The jealousie of King Henry Stuart Darley a Master could not with moderation endure his change of fortune but daily endeavoured to hold more of command than of compliance The Queen also who desired to be known the sole efficient Cause of his preferment being unwilling to lose the name of Mistress in taking that of wife did distast his importunity deferred his Coronation and did allow him but a little part in the affairs of the Kingdom She ordinarily did confer much with David Riccius her Secretary an old and a discreet man who with great honour possessed her ear and her good opinion for she cherished him rather for the necessity of her affairs than for any attractive qualities that were in him for he was but of a deformed body as they who have seen him do affirm But the calumny of the The Book of the death of the Queen of Scots printed in the year 1587. Puritans who know of every wood how to make an arrow did not forbear in their bold discourses to reflect upon the honour of Queen Mary concerning that subject although it was the most incredible and the most ridiculous thing in the world Cambden also the most sincere of all Historians of the pretended Religion and Monsieur de Castelnau have disdained to speak of it as being an out-rage which had no foundation at all of truth although the Earls of Morton and Lindsey two execrable Incendiaries who had undertaken the divorce of the Royal House following the spirit of Heresie most impudently to breathe forth the greatest lies did work a great alteration on the King in the cooling of his affections to his wife The spirit of Henrie now became furious and A spirit tormented with two great devils did perceive it self to be possessed on by two fiends The one the Jealousie of Love the other of Estate which both at one time did commit a prodigious Ravishment on his heart They made him believe that he passed for a King in fansie onely and that his Throne was no more than a meer picture whilest another was made a Partner in his bed In effect the excellent Beauties of the Queen which had given him such heats of love did now raise his jealousie to the height of those flames He was all on fire perpetually night and day and being tormented with shadows suspitions and rages with choller frenzies and with terrours he lived as on the wheel not knowing which way to turn himself His passion did suggest unto him a bloudy remedy A tragick remedy by the death of the Secretary of the Queen which was to draw the Secretary from the Cabinet of the Queen at the hour of supper and under colour of communicating some affair unto him to stab him with a ponyard in the Presence-Chamber The body being all bloudy by threescore wounds which it received fell down just at the door of his Mistress imploring Heaven and earth against those who by so black a treason had ravished his life from him in the flower of his hopes The Queen being frighted at the noise did run to the door and with his bloud received the last breathings of his soul some drops of the bloud falling on her outward garment She startled at the horrour of the sight and believed that some sprinklings of the bloud had painted on her face the opprobriousness of the act But as she made her complaint the Murderers The passion of divelish fury presented a pistol to her without any regard to the brightness of her Majesty or the bigness of her womb desiring nothing more than at one blow to destroy both the Tree and the fruit They locked her up in a chamber of the Palace taking from her all her ordinary servants and putting a Guard on her of four-score souldiers On this the Estates met and the pestilent Councel were assembled where with mouthes full of fire the Hereticks ceased not to breathe forth Rebellion Bloud and Butcheries They gave it out aloud That they ought not by halfs to do a work of so great importance and since the Queen who was a Pillar of the Papists Religion in Scotland was already shaken they ought to lay her low as the earth and utterly destroy her in giving allowance to the Libels and the Calumnies which were published against her They had attempted to have seduced the The horrible attempt of Heresie spirit of the young King promising him to put the Crown in peace upon his Head if he would maintain and support their Design to which as he shewed an inclination they began to weave an horrible conspiracy to take from him all the most eminent persons of the State and imbarque the innocence of the Queen in the common shipwrack The Earl of Murray who fled into England for having raised Arms against their Majesties returned back and came into Scotland rathers as a Triumpher than a guilty person They made him an overture of their pernicious counsels which he entertained with horrour for as yet he was unwilling that the Affairs should be carried on with such an extremity of violence wherefore in private he repaired to the Queen demanding pardon for his offences past and promising all obedience for the time to come He counselled her to recollect and rouze up her spirits and pardon the injuries passed and to take away from the Conspiratours all the apprehensions of Despair The Queen bending her spirit to the necessity of the time and her present affairs did receive him with all courtesie and told him that she was ready to perform all as he pleased She assured him that he was not ignorant that her heart was without gall having always pardoned offences even to her own destruction by her too much clemency And though she had been used by him with too much rigour for a Brother that she would not cease to cherish him and to gratifie him above all other to give him the
commandment Wealth and Honour were always on her side Delight and Joy seemed onely to be ordained for her Whatsoever she undertook did thrive all her thoughts were prosperous the earth and the sea did obey her the winds and the tempests did follow her Standards Some would affirm that this is no marvel at all but onely the effect of a cunning and politick Councel composed of the sons of darkness who are more proper to inherit the felicities of this world than the children of the light But we must consider that this is the common condition both of the good and the evil to find out the cause in which the Understanding of man doth lose it self David curiously endeavouring to discover the reason in the beginning did conceive himself to be a Philosopher but in the end acknowledged that the consideration thereof did make him to become a Beast The Astrologers do affirm that Elizabeth came into the world under the Sign of Virgo which doth promise Empires and Honours and that the Queen of Scotland was born under Sagitarius which doth threaten women with affliction and a bloudy Death The Machivilians do maintain that she should accommodate her self to the Religion of her Countrey and that in the opposing of that torrent she ruined her affairs The Politicians do impute it to the easiness of her gentle Nature Others do blame the counsel which she entertained to marry her own Subjects And some have looked upon her as Jobs false friends did look on him and reported him to lye on the dung-hill for his sions But having thoroughly considered on it I do observe that in these two Queens God would represent the two Cities of Sion and Babylon the two wayes of the just and the unjust and the estate of this present world and of the world to come He hath given to Elizabeth the bread of dogs to reserve for Mary the Manna of Angels In one he hath recompensed some moral virtues with temporal blessings to make the other to enter into the possession of eternal happiness Elizabeth did reign why so did Athalia Elizabeth did presecute the Prophets why so did Jezabel Elizabeth hath obtained Victories why so did Thomyris the Queen of the Scythians She hath lived in honour and delight and so did Semiramis She died a natural death being full of years so died the Herods and Tyberius but following the track that she did walk in what shall we collect of her end but as of that which Job speaketh concerning the Tomb of the wicked They pass away their life in delights and descend in a moment unto hell Now God being pleased to raise Marie above all the greatness of this earth and to renew in her the fruits of his Cross did permit that in the Age wherein she lived there should be the most outragious and bloudy persecution that was ever raised against the Church He was pleased by the secret counsel of his The great secret of the Divine Providence Providence that there should be persons of all sorts which should extol the Effects of his Passion And there being already entered so many Prelates Doctours Confessours Judges Merchants Labourers and Artisans he would now have Kings and Queens to enter also Her Husband Francis the Second although a most just and innocent Prince had already took part in this conflict of suffering Souls His life being shortened as it is thought by the fury of the Hugonots who did not cease to persecute him It was now requisite that his dear Spouse should undertake the mystery of the Cross also And as she had a most couragious soul so God did put her in the front of the most violent persecutions to suffer the greatest torments and to obtain the richest Crowns The Prophet saith That man is made as a piece of Elizabeth's hatred to the Queen of Scotland Imbroidery which doth not manifest it self in the lives of the just for God doth use them as the Imbroiderer doth his stuffs of Velvet and of Satin he takes them in pieces to make habilements for the beautifiing of his Temple 12. Elizabeth being now transported into Vengeance and carried away by violent Counsels is resolved to put Mary to death It is most certain that she passionately desired the death of this Queen well understanding that her life was most apposite to her most delicate interests She could not be ignorant that Mary Stuart had right to the Crown of England and that she usurped it she could not be ignorant that in a General Assembly of the States of England she was declared to be a Bastard as being derived from a marriage made consummated against all laws both Divine and humane She observed that her Throne did not subsit but by the Faction of Heresie and as her Crown was first established by disorder so according to her policie it must be cemented by bloud She could not deny but that the Queen of Scotland had a Title to the Crown which insensibly might fall on the head of the Prisoner and then that in a moment she might change the whole face of the State She observed her to be a Queen of a vast spirit of an unshaken faith and of an excellent virtue who had received the Unction of the Realm of Scotland and who was Queen Dowager of the Kingdom of France supported by the Pope reverenced throughout all Christendom and regarded by the Catholicks as a sacred stock from which new branches of Religion should spring which no Ax of persecution could cut down The Hereticks in England who feared her as one that would punish their offences and destroy their Fortunes which they had builded on the ruins of Religion had not a more earnest desire than to see her out of the world All things conspired to overthrow this poor Princess and nothing remained but to give a colour to so bold a murder It so fell out that in the last years of her afflicting imprisonment a conspiracy was plotted against the Estate and the life of Elizabeth as Cambden doth recite it Ballard an English Priest who had more zeal to his Religion than discretion to mannage his enterprize considered with himself how this woman had usurped a Scepter which did not appertain unto her How she had overthrown all the principles of the ancient Religion How she had kept in prison an innocent Queen for the space of twenty years using her with all manner of indignity how she continually practised new butcheries by the effusion of the bloud of the Catholicks he conceived it would be a work of Justice to procure her death who held our purses in her hand and our liberty in a chain But I will not approve of those bloudy Counsels which do provide a Remedy far worse than the disease and infinitely do trouble the Estate of Christendom Nevertheless he drew unto him many that were of his opinion who did offer and devote themselves to give this fatal blow The chiefest amongst them was
his avarice And as she had her eyes blinded and was applying her self to the Block she began the Psalm In te Domine speravi In thee Lord have I hoped and amongst those sacred words In manus tuas into thy hands which she again and again and divers times repeated the Executioner trembling and indisposed made one stroke with his Ax and in stead of her neck the Ax fell higher and cutting off some part of her Coyf it made a grievous wound on the hinder part of her head whereupon readily dispatching two strokes more the Executioner took up the head from the body and shewed it openly all pale and bloudy as it was yet still carrying in her eclipsed eyes the attractives of that brave Soul which now did cease to animate her body and with a horrible voice he pronounced Long live Queen Elizabeth and so let the Enemies of the Gospel perish which word the Dean repeated and the Earl of Kent applauded when all the world besides them were in tears The bloud was collected in silver Basons and the Corps was laid forth on the Scaffold Her poor Maids drew near unto her desiring that they might be permitted to divest her and to bury her with their own hands But the furious Earl did drive them out of the hall and caused the sacred body to be carried into a Chamber of the Castle where it was locked up He also ordered that the Cloath and boards should be burnt that were purpled with the bloud of this Martyr as if there were any Element in the world that was able to take away so celestial a tincture These two Virgins did not cease to follow with their eyes the body of their Mistress looking upon her as well as they could through the clefts of the door as she still lay bloudy and but half covered They waited there like two Magdalens at the Sepulcher until such time as she was interred in the Cathedral Church of Peterborough where all the best sort of men as long as it was allowed did repair to let fall their tears and lay forth their sighs upon her Tomb. The news being brought to London all the Bells did ring for joy to convey the tidings of it to cruel Elizabeth who did conceal her self rather for shame than grief although she counterfeited to be extreamly touched for the Death of her Kinswoman And in effects she often felt the Remorse of Conscience and had horrible Dreams which did make her to cry out in the night and to wake her Maids of Honour with her affrights 17. As long as Truth or Virtue or Men shall continue upon the earth that wound shall bleed as long as there shall be Eyes or Tears in this Vale of misery there shall be tears distilled on these Royal Ashes and the piety of the living shall never cease with full hands to strew Lilies and Violets and Roses on her Tomb. Marie whom Heaven absolvest doth now commence an eternal Process against Elizabeth she shall be brought before as many Tribunals as there are reasonable Spirits and shall daily be condemned without ending of her misery because she put no end to her injustice It seemeth that God did expresly give her a long life as to Cain to Herod to Tyberius and other Tyrants to fill up the measure of her iniquity to possess a bloudy Scepter amongst Jealousies Affrights and Defiances and to see her hell alive whom at last stooping unto the impotency of age and slighted by her own creatures she would often complain that all the world did abandon her and that she had not one left in whom she might repose her confidence God hath dried up her root on Earth and made her die childless He hath placed on her Throne the bloud of Mary who at this day doth hold the Crown of England and of Scotland Great GOD if it be permitted to enter into the cloud of thy great Mysteries and the Secrets which thou hast concealed from our Eyes Is it not from this bloud we shall one day see a flower to arise the most illustrious of the Posterity who between his hands shall bring forth the Golden Age who shall make the Ancient Piety to triumph and on his Royal shoulders shall carry it even into the Throne of Glory who shall render divine honours to the ashes of his Mother and about her Tomb shall make the Cypress trees to grow that shall advance unto the Stars her honoured Name which they shall wear engraved on their leaves Elizabeth shall then be but a Specter of horrour and her pernicious Councellers shall appear round about her as the pale shades in the center of Darkness England shall awake from her long Lethargie and with veneration shall look on her whom she hath dishonoured with so much fury Incomparable Marie we say no more that Providence hath been a Step-mother and that she hath used you with too much rigour and violence She hath caused you to enter in a garden covered with palms and laurels which you have bedewed with your tears manured with your afflictions enobled with your combats and honoured with your bloud She hath mounted you on a Scaffold where you have acted the last and most glorious Tragedie that was ever represented in the world by your Sex or in your condition The Angels O Divine Princess from the portals of Heaven did with admiration contemplate your Combat they encouraged your Constancy they sang your Praises and with emulation they prepared for you your everlasting Crowns The heart of a woman against a hundred leopards The heart of a Diamond against a thousand hammers which never turned for all their violence which never could be tempted with the glitterings of honour which always did temper with gall the most delicious contentments of this life to follow he JESUS her wounded JESUS her JESUS crucified for her The most Catholick Queen in the world who honoured nothing more than Churches and Priests and Altars to live twenty years as it were without a Church without a Priest and without an Altar to make in her self a Temple of her body an Altar of her heart and a Sacrifice of her bloud nay what shall I say in a Death so abandoned to be her self the Altar to be her self the Priest and her self the Sacrifice What Virgin hath seen the twentieth year of her captivity What Martyr hath sanctified so many prisons Who hath ever made experience of so many Deaths in one Who hath ever seen Death to come with a more willing foot And who hath indeer'd it with a greater joy who hath mannaged it with wisdom and who hath accomplished it with greater glory Your fair Name O Marie borne on the Wings of Triumph and Renown doth pass through Sea and Land is an object of Veneration to the people and of Ornament unto Heaven where your Soul with advantage doth rejoyce in the pleasures of eternal happiness Look down fair Soul and behold your Islands and your Realms with those
the day of its own brightness to consider how Providence guarding her dear Pool as the apple of her eye did reserve him for a time which made him the true Peace-maker of that nation For this effect it came to pass that Henry the Eighth The Estate of England having reigned eighteen years in schism leading a life profuse in luxury ravenous in avarice impious in Sacriledge cruel in massacres covered over with ordures bloud and Infamy did fall sick of a languishing disease which gave him the leisure to have some thoughts on the other world It is true that the affrighting images of his Crimes The death of Henry the Eighth and the shades of the dead which seemed to besiege his bed and perpetually to trouble his repose did bring many pangs and remorses to him Insomuch that having called some Bishops to his assistance he testified a desire to reconcile himself unto the Church and sought after the means thereof But they who before were terrified with the fury of his actions which were more than barbarous fearing that he spoke not that but onely to sound them and that he would not seal to their Counsels which they should suggest unto him peradventure with the effusion of their bloud did gently advise him without shewing him the indeavours and the effects of true repentance and without declaring to him the satisfactions which he ought to God and to his Neighbours for the enormities of so many Crimes He was content to erect the Church of the Cardeleirs and commanded that Mass should there be publickly celebrated which was performed to the great joy of the Catholicks which yet remained in that horrible Havock To this Church he annexed an Hospital and some other appurtenances and left for all a thousand Crowns of yearly Revenue As he perceived that his life began to abandon him he demanded the Communion which he received making a show as if he would rise himself but the Bishop told him that his weakness did excuse him from that Ceremony he made answer That if he should prostrate himself on the Earth to receive so Divine a Majesty he should not humble himself according to his duty He by his Will ordained that his Son Edward who was born of Jane Seimer should succeed him and in the case of death that Marie the Daughter of Queen Katharine should be the inheritress of the Crown and if that she should fail that his Daughter Elizabeth although a Bastard should fill her place and possess the Kingdom On the approches of death he called for wine and those who were next unto his bed did conceive that he oftentimes did repeat the word Monks and that he said as in despair I have lost all This is that which most truly can be affirmed of him for it is a very bad sign to behold a man to die in the honour of his Royal dignity and by a peaceable death who had torn in pieces JESUS CHRIST who had divided the Church into schisms who of the six Queens that he espoused had killed four of them who had massacred two Cardinals three Archbishops eighteen Bishops twelve great Earls Priests and Religious Men without number and of his people without end who had robbed all the Churches of his Kingdom destroyed the Divine worship oppressed a million of innocents and in one word who had assasinated mercy it self Howsoever he wanted not flatterers who presumed to say and write that his wisdom had given a good order to his affairs and that he happily departed this world not considering what S. dustine doth affirm That all the penitencies of those who have lived in great disorders and who onely do convert themselves at the end of their life being pressed to it by the extreamity of their disease ought to be extreamly suspected because they do not forsake their sins but their sins do forsake them It was observed indeed that at his death this King did testifie a repentance of his savage and inordinate life but we cannot observe the great and exemplary satisfactions which were due to the expiation of so many abominable sins King Antiochus made submissions of another nature and ordered notable restitutions to recompense the dammages which he had caused to the people of the Jews nevertheless he was rejected of God by reason of his bloudy life and the Gates of the Temple of mercy were shut against him for all eternity The foundation of a small Hospital which Henry caused at his death was not sufficient to recompense the injuries of so many Churches which he had pillaged nor of so much goods of his Subjects as he had forced from them seeing we know by the words of the wise man That to make a benefit Eccles 34. of the substance of the poor is to sacrifice a Son before the eyes of his Father He had by his Testament ordained many tutors to The Reign of Edward His Uncle Seimer spoileth all his Son who were able to have made as many Tyrants but Seimer Uncle by the mothers side to the deceased King gaining the favour of the principal of the Lords of the realm whom he had corrupted with mony and great presents did cause himself to be proclaimed Protector and Regent He took a great possession on little Edward the Son of Henry heir to the Crown whom he brought up in schism and Heresie against the intentions of his Father This furious man immediately began his Regency with so much insolence that he almost made the reign of Henry the Eight to be forgotten he fomented the poison which he had conceived under him he did use the Catholicks most unworthily and did cut off the head of his own Brother by a jealousy of women But as he had made himself insupportable so it came to pass that the affairs of war which he had enterprized against the French did fall out unfortunately for him Dudley one of the chiefest of the Lords drawing a party to him did accuse him of Treason and caused his head to be cut off on the same Scaffold where before he had taken off the head of his own Brother This death was followed with great fears and horrible commotions for the Regency which presently after was extinguished by the death of the young King Edward This poor Prince was rather plucked with pincers The Qualities and death of King Edward from his mothers womb than born and he could not come into the world without giving death to her who conceived him He was said to have none of the comeliest bodies He spake seven languages at fifteen years of age and in his discourse did testifie a rare knowledge of all those sciences which were most worthy of a King It seemeth that death did advance it self to ravish his spirit from his body which did awake too early and was too foreward for his age for he died in his sixteen year having not had the time throughly to understand himself and to see by what course
Saviour Jesus Christ to animate our constancy 80 The power of the name of Jesus ibid. The admirable effects of the Crosse of Jesus ibid. To know whether our Lord Jesus was subject to Anger 88 The eye of Jesus watching sparkling and weeping 96 Impatient men o◠divers qualities 54 The picture of Impudence 83 Divers spirits subject to impudencie ibid. The miserable end of an unhappy Impudent man 86 It is a hard thing not to feel some Incommodities life being so full of them 46 The kingdome of Inconstancy 24 Three sorts of Envious Indignation 93 The plot of Ingobergua to cure her husbands passion of love succeeded ill out of too much affectation 107 John Baptist apprehended 267 His rare qualities ibid. He is beheaded 269 Joab and Abner do strive for the government of Judah 144 Joab and Abner combat ib. Joab in his fault upon necessity is tolerated by David ib. Joabs insolency 149 The death of Joab 153 The courage and resolution of Joachim who executed the office both of a Priest and Captain 181 The good offices of Jonathan 141 Josiah slain 263 Joseph the son of a shepheard 219 His divine qualities 220 His brethren sell him ibid. Mervellous constancy of Joseph amidst those great temptations of the Court and of his Mistresse 221 He is accused for attempting to ravish that honour which he preserved ib. He is imprisoned ib. He is taken out of the prison and doth interpret Pharaohs dream 222 He is promoted to high preferment by Pharaoh ibid. Josephs deportment in Court a pattern for all Courtiers ibid. His singular piety and modesty 223 His fidelity to his Prince ibid. His demeanour in his government 224 His brethren came down to Egypt for food and their intertainment 225 He meeteth with his aged Father and apointeth him a place to live in 226 Josua his education 196 His familiarity with Moses ibid. He is made Generall of the Army of the Israelites ibid. His death 177 Three sorts of Joy 48 The art of Joy 51 The Israelites murmure against Moses 231 232 They have war with the Amalekites and worst them 233 The Israelites disrelish Samuel 236 A great famine in Israel which was caused by a very great drought 249 Judas Macchabeus the sonne of Mattathias made Generall over the Army of the Hebrews against the tyrannie of Antiochus 198 His piety for restoring the Temple ib. Particular favours which he received from God ib. He maketh peace with the Romans 199 He defeated nine Generals of Antiochus in pitched battell 200 Isaiah his vision 260 His eloquence as his birth is elevated ib. He is sawed alive 262 The kingdome of Judah divided by the ambition of favourites 144 The rare endowments of Judith 181 Her prayer to God 183 Her speech to Holophernes being brought before him 184 Her courteous entertainment ibid. Judith being conducted by Vagoa to Holophernes Pavillion in his sleep cut off his head 185 She returneth to the Bethulians with the head of Holophernes ibid. Her entertainment by the Citizens of Bethulia ibid. Her counsell to the people ibid. An excellent observation of Julian 58 Acts of Justice in punishment and reward  Justine who was born a Cow-heard mounted to the throne of the Emperours of Constantinople 158 The fidelity and goodnesse of Justinian ibid. His greatnesse 159 His nature and manners ibid. His manner of life was austere ib. Some abuse the belief of men in reporting that he could neither reade nor write mistaking Justinian for his uncle Justin ibid. His great love to learning but chiefly Law and Divinity ibid. A great conspiracy against him 160 A speech concerning the mutiny against him ibid. Justinian kept prisoner in his palace and Hypatius is proclaimed Emperour ibid. The stoutest men assail Justinian in his Palace 161 The sedition against Justinian is appeased ibid. The reflux of the affairs of Justinian 164 The defects of Justinian 168 Justinian in the latter end of his age fell into two great errours 169 K THe words of the Wise man directed to the Kings of the times Wisd 6. 131 Kings ought to professe the outward worship and service of God for the performance of his duty and the example of his people 133 Knowledge of ones self 18 Knowledge ought to be moderate 153 L THe prodigious victory which in the end Lotharius gained over himself after a great storm of the passion of love in becomming Religious 113 The cruell handling of Pope Leo. 175 Strange desire of Lewis the eleventh 113 Generous act of Lewis the eleventh 120 An excellent observation of Libanius 81 All happinesse included in Love 1 God the Father of Unions doth draw all to unitie by Love ibid. The sect of Philosophers of the indifferency of Love ibid. The first reason against the indifferency of Love is that thereby he maketh himself as chief end and the God of himself ibid. The second reason is drawn from the communication of creatures 2 A third real on against the indifferency of Love is drawn from the tenderness of great hearts ibid. Wherefore great hearts are most loving 3 Love is the soul of the universe ibid. Love is the superintendent of the great fornace of the world ibi The nature of Love ibid. The definition of Love with its division 4 The steps and progression of Love ibid. The causes of Love ibid. The means to make ones self to be worthily loved ibid. Notable effects of Love in three worlds ibid. Love includeth all blessings 5 There are miserable Lovers in the world ibid. Who loveth too much loveth too little 6 A notable comparison of S. Basil touching Love 9 Love is a strange malady 14 Disasters of evill Love 15 Division of Love ibid Love of humour ibid. Interiour causes of Love 16 The secret attractives of Love ibid. Modification of their opinion who place Love in transportation ib. The senses being well guarded shut up all the gates against Love 17 The miserable estate of one passionately in Love ib. The diversities of Love ib. Evill Angels intermeddle in the great tempests of Love 18 Cruelty of Love on the persons of Lovers ibid. Love is sometime the punishment of pride ib. Advices and remedies against Love in its full 19 The medall of Love hath two faces ib. An excellent conceit of Solomon concerning Love ibid. Disasters of Love in each age and condition 20 Advice to all sorts of persons concerning Love ibid. Diversitie of the maladies of Love and their cures 21 Remedies for the affection of Love which come against our wills ibid. Admirable example of the combate of Saints against Love ib. Separation the first remedie against Love 22 The counsell and assiduity of a good directour is an excellent antidote against Love ibid. The conversation of God with man by the mystery of the incarnation in the consummation of Love 24 The Eucharist the last degree of Love ibid. The Love of Saints towards Jesus ibid. The growth of Love like to pearls 25 The Empire and eminencies of
Divine Love ib Qualities of Divine Love by which we may know whether it inhabiteth a soul 26 Pliantnesse Liberality and Patience three principall marks of Love ibid. Twelve effects of Love ibid. Three orders of true Lovers in the world ib. Nine degrees of Seraphical Love for the conterplative ib. That it is good to be honestly Loved 38 We most ardently Love the things we most lose 58 The scandalous of the Emperour Lotharius and Valdrada 109 The Love of David and Jonathan 140 Excellent loyaltie of a Ladie 8 Lysias his speech before the raising of the siege of Hierusalem 203 Lysias is taken and slain by the souldiers ibid. M THe gallant resolution of Maccabeus who with a handfull of men gave battell to a great army wherein being over powered he lost not his honour but his life 204 Some Men are in the world as dislocated bones in the body 52 Man terrible above all terribles 72 Man as he is the most miserable of all creatures so he is the most Mercifull 98 Man hath no greater evil then himself ibid. An observation of Bernardine concerning Marriage 35 Mattathias the father of Judas Machabeus opposeth the tyranny of Antiochus 197 He refuseth to offer incense to Idols ibid. His courage for Religion 198 His glorious death ibid. Utility of Melancholy 55 A notable example of Meroven to divert youth from Marriage 106 The first Mervell in the life of S. Lewis is the joyning of the wisdome of State with the Gospell 177 The second is of the union of Humility and Greatnesse 179 The third is his devotion and courage ibid. Incomparable Mildnesse of Lewis the sonne of Charlemaign 120 Mildnesse of the first men 99 The beauty and utility of Mildnesse 100 Sin and Folly the chief evils of the Mind 58 Remedies for Minds full of scruple 56 Moderation of the Kings of France 117 Great Moderation in S. King Robert 119 Mordecai his excellent personage 187 His entertainment in the Court of Ahashuerus ib. He discovereth the treason which was plotted against Ahashuerus ib. Moses flooted in the river of Nile in a cradle of bull-rushes 227 His education 228 He killeth an Egyptian 229 He withdraweth into the countrey of Midian ib He talketh with God ibid. He dyeth having first seen the land of promise from mount Nebo 234 Gods judgement on wicked Murray 300 N NAaman the Assyrian commanded by Elisha to wash seven times in the river Jordan 257 His leprosie stayes upon Gehezi 258 Naboth unjustly condemned and slain 251 Nathan and Bathsheba's advice 151 Nature necessarily brings with it its sympathies and antipathies 46 Nebuchadonozar his dream 242 He worshippeth Daniel 241 He erecteth a statue of gold of sixty cubits high 243 He commandeth all his nobles to do homage to it ib. He commandeth the three children that disobeyed his command therein to be cast into the fornace 244 His second dream and the interpretation by Daniel ibid. His misfortune is bewailed by the whole Court 245 He is again found out and reinvested in his throne ib. The birth and education of Nero. 271 The perfidiousnesse of his mother ibid. His cruelty towards Britanicus 272 The love of his mother did degenerate to misprision ibid. His present to his mother ibid. His horrible attempt upon his mother ibid. The amazement of Nero. 273 Nero continueth his cruelties ibid. He falls in love with Poppea and doth estrange himself from his wife Octavia 274 Nero grows worse and worse 284 The conspiracy against him is detected ibid. The image of Nice-ones 49 Treason against the Duke of Norfolk and his ruine 299 The horrible Catastrophe of the Duke of Norfolk 300 O FLight from Occasions is the most assured bulwark for chastity 18 Octavia calumniated by Poppea 274 Ozias Prince of the people in the presence of Joachim appeaseth the people of Bethulia 182 P THe over-fond love of Parents to their children is chastised in them 272 The exercise of Patience what it is 37 Necessitie forceth Patience 58 S. Paul tender in holy affections 8 He came to Rome 279 He is falsly accused ibid. His conversation with Peter ib. He preacheth the Gospel ib. He is threatned and persecuted 280 He is condemned to the whip but diverted that punishment ib. He is committed to the hands of Felix ibid. He appears before the Tribunal of Felix ibid. Drusilla comes to hear him ib. S. Paul appeals to Rome 281 The young Agrippa king of Judea with his sister Bernice assist at the judgement of S. Paul ib. Festus is touched with his words ibid. He is imbarqued for Rome ibid. He arrives there and treateth with the Jews ibid. S. Paul is undoubtedly known by Seneca ibid. His Oration to the Senate of Rome 282 The effect of his Oration ibid. The paralel betwixt S. Paul and Seneca 283 The grace of Jesus and the Crosse are the two principles of S. Paul ibid. His perfection and high knowledge 284 He leaveth Rome ibid. The politick counsell of Pharaoh 227 He dreameth 222 He fails in his purposes 228 Marks of reprobation in Pharaoh 230 The plagues of Egypt ibid. An excellent conceit of Plato concerning terrestriall love 222 An excellent conceit of Platonists  The secrets of the Divine Policy of God 238 The birth and education of Cardinall Pool 313 His love of solitude ibid. His travels and return to England ibid. The combat in his spirit 314 He took part with God ibid. He is made Cardinall ib. He is considered on to be made Pope 315 He retireth again into solitude ibid. He travels to the reducement of England to the antient faith 317 His speech to the States 318 Princes the workmanship of God 132 What the wisdome of a Prince should be 133 Princes should not give too much authority to their subjects 144 Whether learning be fitting for Princes 153 That learning is fitting for Princes defended ibid. The favour of Princes is very uncertain 219 Procopius his extravagant fables of Justinian and Theodora disproved 168 The secrets of Providence 164 The great Providence of God in Josephs entring and negotiating in Egypt 218 R REason remedieth all humane actions 57 The love of Reputation is a strong spur 81 The wicked Revenge of an Abbot and of John Proclytas against the French 119 Rigour misbecometh persons Ecclesiasticall 99 The causes of differences of Rigour ibid. Elogy of the city of Rome 79 The estate of Rome and court of Nero when Paul came to it 271 The Practise of Romulus 131 The end o◠Royaltie 131 Royalty a glorious servitude 132 Royalty a mervellous profession ibid. S THe Essence and Image of Sadnesse 54 Four kinds of Sadnesse 55 The remedies against Sadnesse 57 The three Sadnesses of our Blessed Saviour 60 Samuel from his infancy was conversant in the Tabernacle 235 His zeal and other rare qualities 236 His speech to the people ibid. His wisdome in concluding a peace with the Philistims ibid. He dieth 240 The widow of Sarepta's oyl and meal fails not during the
the General in this siege that she disposed his heart to what she pleased In such sort that going forth in the fear and confusion of all the people she returned with peace and assurance of quiet which made them all to come out to receive her at the Citie gates with loud acclamations some throwing flowers other Crowns and all rendering thanks to her as their Sovereign Preserveress She apprehended so much joy therewith that in the very instant she expired in her honours at the Citie gate and in stead of being carried to the throne was brought to her tomb with the infinite sorrow of all her countrey I leave you to think if humane comforts have such force what will the great joy of God be for these unheard-of spectacles these continual triumphs and inexhaustible sources Must we not say we should there every moment leave our souls in the height of pleasure were not the happiness of it conjoyned to immortality XX. MAXIM Of RESURRECTION THE PROPHANE COURT THE HOLY COURT That we must not deny our bodies the benefit of time since they must perish That we must use our bodies as the Temples of God since they must rise again WE may truly say there is not any mysterie The resurrection proved more than any other mysterie in all our faith which God hath pleased to teach and prove unto us more effectually than the resurrection For it being sufficiently averred that our salvation consisteth in the knowledge of three principal Articles which are that of the Trinity of the incarnation with its extension made to the Sacrament of the Altar and of the Resurrection although they be all of like necessity yet it seems God disposing himself more to our ends than his own hath more abundantly explaned himself in this last mysterie which most concerneth our peculiar profit It is very true that for the doctrine of the Trinity the Incarnation and the Sacrament of the Altar he was contented to give us some figures of them in the old Testament not fully shewing the effects but for the Resurrection he was pleased to establish it even before his coming into the world really and actually by raising many dead by the merits of Elias and Elizeus as we learn in the history of Kings It is well enough known that having afforded to the Ancients very obscure knowledges of the Trinity and Incarnation for the Resurrection alone he made the law of nature the Mosaical the order of the world the form of Common-wealths and the Evangelical law to speak so intelligibly that he could speak nothing more perspicuously In the law of nature I understand the chief Secretary Scio quod Redemptor meus vivit in novissimâ— die de terra resurrecturus sum c. Job 19. of the world Job who crieth out on the dunghil I know my Redeemer liveth and that at the last day of the world I must rise again from the earth and shall see God in mine own flesh that I shall see my self in person and that my eyes shall behold him and no other this hope I keep as a pledge in my bosom A man who lived about three thousand years ago before all books all Doctours and all schools to speak in so clear terms so pressing so peremptory is it not a prodigie In the Mosaical law besides formal passages in the Ecce ego aperiam tumulos vestros educam vos de sepulchris vestris Ezech. 33. Macch. 2. Math. 22. D. Tho. art 1. ad 2. supplem q. 75. prophet Ezechiel I will open your tombs and will take you from your sepulchers besides the generous confession of the Macchabees we have in the Pentateuch a passage alledged for proof of the resurrection by the Son of God himself which for this purpose ought to be held as an argument necessary and invincible It is so many times said The God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob Now he is not the God of the dead but of the living and therefore needs must these Patriarchs beliving not onely in the immortality of their souls for the soul makes not a man entire but in future resurrection In the order of the world we have the new birth Tertul. l. de Resur c. 12. and 13. Greg. Mag. 14. mor. c. 10. Cyril Catech. 18. Macar hom 5. de Resur Nil Ora. 2. de Pasca Theod. serm de Provid of stars dayes seasons planets of birds who make a perpetual image of the Resurrection in the world on which the holy Fathers enlarge with much eloquence In the form of Common-wealths and policie of the universe we observe the great care all Nations the most barbarous have had of the burial of bodies not to have been but through an instinct and estimation of the resurrection Which the chiefmen in Gentilism have publickly and notably professed And although they had very weak knowledge of other mysteries of our faith and spake of it with much obscurity in the point of resurrection they unfolded themselves most distinctly and expresly Mercurius Trismegistus in the first chapter of Pymander assureth us of the resurrection of bodies as a thing infallible The great Athenagoras sheweth it was the doctrine of Pythagoras and Plato the two first lights of Philosophy And verily we have also the writings of Plato which witness the wicked shall be judged and condemned to hell in bodie and soul a passage alledged by S. Justine in the tenth of his Common-wealth and which is more this singular man to win us to this belief hath couched a very notable axiom in his Phedon where he saith that all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato in Phaedon Plin. l. 7. c. 55. which is living in the world comes from some thing dead Democritus who was as Hippocrates affirmeth one of the wisest men in the world wished the bodies of the dead should be honourably used in respect of resurrection which Pliny could not dissemble Phocyllides said the same in verses written as with the rayes of the Sun Nay if we would consult with the tombs of the dead we shall find there hath not been any but some wicked and irregular spirits who have renounced the blessings of the other life as by publick profession causing it to be engraven on their tombs So did Sardanapalus the most infamous of men whose epitaph Aristotle having read said It was more fit for a hog than a King So did that wretched woman of Bress whose monument is yet to be seen in antiquities causing to be set over her ashes That after the death of her husband Vixi ultra â—â—tam nihil credidi Nihil unquam pâ—ccavit nisi quod mortua â—st Brisson formul she had been neither widdow nor wife and that her house served onely for a snare to loves Otherwise that during life she never believed any thing but life So did one Julia who caused also to be inscribed over her bones That she had lived seven and twenty years without committing any
sin but by resigning her self to death But on the contrarie you observe some of the Gentiles who professed the happiness of the soul in the other life and the resurrection even on their tombs We at this day read in Rome the Epitaph of Lucius and Flavius two friends who witnessed In caelo spiritus unus adest Vt in die censorio sine impedimento facilius resurgam Brisson They would have but one grave on earth since their souls make but one in Heaven And that of Aulus Egnatius who maketh mention That all his life-time he learned nothing but to live and die from whence he now deriveth the joys of beatitude And that of Felicianus who having led a solitarie life saith He did so to rise again with the more facility being freed from trouble at the day of Judgement Where the Interpreters under this word Trouble understand his wife What voice of nature is this What touch of God What impression of verity In the Evangelical law besides the passages of S. Matthew 22. of S. John 5. of S. Paul 1. to the Corinthians 15. the Saviour of the world remained fourty days upon earth after his resurrection that he might be seen reviewed touched handled and manifested to more than five hundred people assembled together as writeth S. Paul in the fore-alledged place of purpose most deeply to engraft the mysterie of resurrection in the hearts of the faithfull 2. And as for that which concerneth reason this belief was acknowledged to be so plausible and conform to humane understanding that never hath there been any who doubted it were it not some hereticks furious infamous and devillish as the Gnosticks Carpocratians Priscillianists Bardesanites Albigenses and such like enemies of God and nature or Epicures and Libertines who finding themselves guilty of many crimes have rather desired not to be perswaded of the end of souls and bodies to burie their punishments with their life For which cause they framed gross and sensual reasons touching this truth unworthily blaspheming that which their carnal spirit could not comprehend What impossibility should there be in resurrection Reason of possibility to an Omnipotent hand We must necessarily say it comes either from matter or form the final or efficient cause It cannot come from matter since our bodies being consumed by death the first matter still remaineth and after a thing is once created never is it meerly reduced into nothing Shall it be said that God who made thee of nothing cannot make thee again of the remainders of matter and that he hath less power over dust than over nothing The Philosopher Heraclitus saith birth is a river which never dries up because nature is in the world as a workman in his shop who with soft clay makes and unmakes what he list Think we the God of nature cannot have the like power over our flesh that nature hath over the worlds Proceeds the impediment from form It cannot since the soul which is the form of bodie remaineth incorruptible and hath a very strong inclinatiion to its re-union Proceeds it from the end No since Resurrection is so the end of man that without Leoin l. 2. de mirac c. 52. it he cannot obtain beatitude for which he is created perfect felicitie being not onely the good of the soul but of the whole man Will then impediment arise from the efficient Wonders of nature cause And is it not an indignity to deny to the Sovereign power of god the restauration of a body he made being we daily see so many wonders in nature whereof we can yield no reason Why doth a liquor extracted from herbs by a certain distillation never corrupt Why is water seven times purged not subject to corruption Why doth amber draw a straw along which other mettals repel Why do the lees of wine poured to the root of vines make them fruitfull How with so base ingredients are so goodly and admirable glasses made Why do men by the help of a fornace and a limbeck daily make of dead and putrified things so wonderous essences What prostitution of understanding to think that the great Architect having made our bodies to pass through this great fornace of the world and through all the searces his divine providence ordaineth cannot render them more beautifull and resplendent than ever What should hinder him Length of time There is no prescription for him Multitude of men That no more troubles him than millions of waves do the Ocean since all Nations before him are but one drop of dew The condition of glorions bodies COnsider I pray the state of glorified bodies and observe that there commonly are four things irksom to a mortal bodie sorrow weight weakness and deformity These four scourges of our mortality shall cease in the Resurrection being banished by gifts quite contrarie to their defects We may truly say among the miseries of bodie there is not almost any comparable to pains and maladies which are in number so divers in their continuance so tedious in their impressions so sharp that it is not without reason an Ancient said health was the chief of Divinities and an incomparable blessing For what is a soul inforced perpetually to inhabit a sickly bodie but a Queen in a tottering and ruinous house but a bird of Paradise in an evil cage and an Intelligence tied to attend on a sick man As the bodie very sound serves the soul for a house of pleasure so that which is continually crazy is a perpetual prison Now observe that against the encounters of all sorts of pains and maladies God communicateth to glorified bodies the chief gift which is impassibility wherewith they shall be exempt not onely Apoc. 21. Abstergeâ— Deus omnem lachrymain ab oculis eorum c. Isai 49. Non esurient neque sitient neque percutiet eos aestus from death but from hunger thirst infirmities and all the diseases of this frail and momentarie life O God what a favour is the banishment from so many stones gravels gouts nephreticks collicks sciaticks from so many pains of teeth head heart so many plagues and sundry symptoms of malladies which afflict a humane body This good if maturely weighed will be thought very great by such as have some experience of the incommodities of this life Adde also thereunto a singular Theological reason that this gift shall not be in us by a simple privation as the non-essence which the Epicureans imagined but by a flourishing quality communicated by God to our bodies and which shall have the force to exclude all whatsoever is contrarie and painful onely admitting the sweet impressions of light colours melodies odours and other things pleasing to sense Note I say quality Scot. in 4. distinct 49. q. 13. Durand d. 15. 44. q. 4. num 13. for I am not ignorant Divines dispute concerning the true cause of the impassibility of a glorified bodie and that some place it in a virtue and external
their Colours and that it was enough if they did but shew themselves to conquer The Rebels tormented with the affrightments of their conscience and which had not such entertainment as they were promised first were put into disorder after to flight and then to a rout It seemed that on the one part there were men that came to kill and on the other sheep that came to be slain As soon as they were mingled the one amongst the other the sword on the one side made great Massacres on the other the falls and tumblings headlong carried them away in such manner that there remained twenty thousand upon the place Absolon taken with a great astonishment is left by all the world and betaking himself to flight gets The death of Absolon up upon a Mule It hapned that passing through a Forrest his head was catched and wreathed within the branches of a Tree insomuch that his carryer having left him he remained hanging between heaven and earth where he made a very fitting amends both to the justice of God and the goodnesse of his Father Joab had notice thereof who neverthelesse although David had forbidden it stroke him through with three Darts and when as yet he seemed to have life ten young souldiers of the Troups of Joab ran to make an end of him he feared so much that if he should return into favour and authority lest he should take vengeance upon him because he would not follow his party The body was interred in a pit under a great heap of stones for to convince the vanity of him which had caused a stately monument to be built for himself which he called Absolons hand Behold an horrible end of an evil sonne and a rebellious subject which is sufficient to make posterity afraid throughout the revolution of all ages While all this was doing David inclosed in a little Town expected the event of the battell and when as the Posts brought him the news of the Victory he shewed not so much rejoycing as fear asking every moment in what estate his sonne Absolon was which caused that divers durst not bring him the news of his death seeing the trouble of his mind At last Cushi uttered the word and said That they should desire Absolon's end to all the Kings enemies He understood well what he would say and was pierced with so violent a grief that he could not be comforted losing all courage and crying every moment Absolon my sonne my sonne Absolon Oh that this favour had been done for me that I might have dyed for thee Every one cast down his eyes for pitty and the whole victory was turned into sorrow the Palms and Laurels were changed into Cypresse Joab alwayes bold and insolent towards his Master Joabs insolency instead of receiving reproches for his fault casts them upon David and thinks that the means to justifie himself was to speak the more stoutly He enters into the Chamber of his King and reproves him sharply saying to him That he would put to confusion all his good servants that had that day saved his life his house and all his estate That he was of a strange nature and seemed to have been made for nothing but to hate those that loved him and to love those that hated him That it was very clear that he bore no good affection to his Captains and good Souldiers and if they all had perished to save the life of one rebellious sonne he would have been very well satisfied Further he swore to him by the living God that if he did not rise and go forth to see and entertein those that returned from the battell that there should not remain one man onely with him before the morning which would prove a greater displeasure to him then ever he received in all his life He pressed him so vehemently that the King without daring to answer him one word rose up and did all that he would have him This great grief diminished by little and little and the rejoycings of those that came on every side to carry him back to Jerusalem in Triumph gave him no leasure to think upon his losse He endeavoured to draw to him again all those that had separated themselves pardoning all the world with an unspeakable meeknesse being ready even to give Joabs place to Davids mildenesse very great Amasa that was chief Captain for Absolon But Joab quickly hindred this and kild with his own hand him that they had purposed for his successour After that he began to pursue one Sheba a Captain of the Rebels who was retyred into Abela with some remainder of the mutinous and as he was about to besiege it and destroy the City for to take him a woman of discretion and great in credit amongst her people which had made composition with Joab caused him to be slain and threw his head over the walls to put an end to this whole bloodie warre After this re-establishment of his Estate David The last acts of Davids life reigned about eleven years in full peace in continuall exercises of Piety of Devotion of Justice and caused a generall Assembly of the States of his Realme where he made his sonne Solomon which he had chosen to be confirmed and encouraged him to build that great Temple which should be the marvell of the World whereof he shewed him the plat-form the beautifying and the orders in the Idea Two things do a little astonish those which do seek an exact sanctity in this Prince the first that he dyed having unto the last hour a maid of rare beauty by him and the other that he recommended to his son Solomon punishments and deaths by his Testament But there are that answer to those that may be offended with these actions That God hath permitted this to make us the better to relish and admire the perfections of his Evangelicall law whereof the Word Incarnate was made the Law-giver and bringet above all the excellencies of the presents and virtues of the Mosaicall law And that one ought not to expect from David the chastity of a Saint Lewis nor of a Casimire but that one ought to measure things according to the manner of the time according to the law and custome Neverthelesse I should rather say that the plurality of women was not an offence seeing that it was approved of God so that it caused not a weakning of the vigour of the spirits and mortifying their divine functions by too much commerce with the flesh David sinned not in causing the Shunamite to lye besides him seeing that she was in the place of a spouse and approched unto him not for the pleasure which his great age had totally extinguished but for the entertainment of his Royall person Lastly there are other actions that do set forth his virtue besides this which is more worthy of excuse then blame And forasmuch as he ordained by his testament the death of Joab and of Shimei this doth something
trouble those spirits which have an inclination to mildnesse they say that Joab was his kinsman his faithfull servant the best of his Captains the chief Commander that had followed him from his youth accompanied him through infinite dangers and upheld the Crown a thousand times shaking upon his head He never medled in the factions that were raised against the King he was alwayes the first that dissipated them by the vigour of his spirit resolution counsell of his Arms and of his Sword If he slew Abner it was in revenge of his Brother which the other had slain If he stabbed Amasa it was the chief Captain of the Rebell Absolon whom they would have put in his place for to lay then great faults of the State upon him If he spoke freely to David it was alwayes for his good and for his glory in the mean time at his Death he recommended him to be punished after that in effect he had pardoned him all his life But to all this I say that the last actions of so great a King are more worthy of honour then censure The punishment of Joab proceeded not from a Passion but from a Justice inspired by God which would satisfie the voyce of blood the which cryed still against the murders committed by this Captain Further also there was a secret of State as saith Theodoret which is that this Joab shewed himself against the re-election of Solomon and was ready to trouble the peace of the Realm And as concerning Shimei to whom he had sworn that he would not cause him to dye he kept his promise to him faithfully abstaining from doing him any evil while he lived although he was in absolute power for to hurt him but as his oath was personall he would not extend it upon his sonne and tye his hands contenting himself to recommend unto him that he should do justice according as his wisedome and discretion should direct him It is very fitting that we should think highly of this Prophet and that we should rather search out the reason of many of his actions from the secret inspiration of God then from the weaknesse of humane judgement He lived near upon three-score and twelve years reigned fourty and dyed a thousand and thirty two years before the birth of our Saviour leaving infinite treasures for the building of the Temple and eternall monuments of his devotion and understanding It was a speciall favour to him that the Saviour would be born of his bloud and that his birth was revealed to him so many dayes before it was known to the world He hath often set it down upon the title of his Psalmes and was in an extasie in this contemplation by the fore-taste of that his happinesse Men are accustomed to take their nobility and their names from their Ancestours that go before them But David drew it from a Son which is the Father of Glory and Authour of Eternity The industrious hands of men have taken pains in vain to carve him out a Tomb Death hath no power over him seeing that he is the Primogenitour of life All things are great in his person but the heighth of all his greatnesse is that he hath given us a Jesus SOLOMON SOlomon was he that ordered the holinesse of the Temple and yet he can hardly find place in the Holy Court The love which gave Solomons entry into the Realm full of troubles him the Crown by the means of his mother Bathsheba hath taken from him his innocency The Gentiles might have made him one of their Gods if Women had not made him lesse then a man His entrance into the Throne of his father was bloudy his Reign peaceable his Life variable and his End uncertain One may observe great weaknesses at the Court at his coming to the Crown confused designs desperate hopes a Prophet upright at the Court a woman full of invention an old Courtier overthrown and little brotherhood where there is dispute of Royalty David was upon the fading of his Age and his Throne looked at by his Children which expected the dissolution of their father He had taken the authority upon him to decide this question by his commands not willing to be ruled therein by nature nor to preferre him whom she had first brought into the world but him which should be appointed by God and best fitted thereto by his favours Bathsheba a subtil woman Bathsheba fitly insinuares her self and procures the Crown for her son Solomon that had carried him away by violence of a great affection kept her self in her possession and had more power over the mind of the King then all his other associates Amidst the kindnesses of an affectionate husband which is not willing to deny any thing to her whom he loves she drew this promise from David that he would take her sonne Solomon to be successour in his Estates This was a little miracle of Nature in his Infancy Solomons infancy pleasing and it seemed that all the Graces had strove together to make a work so curiously polisht His mother loved him with infinite tendernesse and his father could not look upon him without amazednesse He was married at the age of nineteen years and David before he departed from the world saw himself multiplied by his son in a second which was Roboam Aristotle hath observed well that children which are married so young do seldome bring forth great men and this observation was verified in Roboam who caused as many confusions in his life as he had made rejoycings at his birth This strengthened Solomon at the beginning in his own and his mothers pretences But Adonijah his brother which immediately followed Absolon was before him in the right of Eldership and promised himself to have a good part of the Empire The example of that unfortunate brother which had Adonijah competitor of the Crown and his faction expired his life in the despair of his fortune was not strong enough for to stay him which treading as it were in the same steps went on infallibly unto his last mischance David endured too long for him and it seems to him that the greatest kindnesses that a rich father could do for his sonne when he is come to die is to suffer himself to die He had sufficiently well knitted his party together binding himself closely to the chief Priest Abiathar and to Joab It seemed to him that having on his side the Altars and Arms he was invincible But in that burning desire that he had to reign he The fault of Adonijah in his Counsel of State committed very great faults which put an end to his life by an event very tragicall He did not sufficiently consider the power of his father who governed himself by the orders of them in the disposition of their Royalty and saw not that to undertake to succeed him without his good will was to desire to climb to the top of the house vvithout going up by the stairs His
Commission with their own Names On which she demanded by what Law they would proceed against her the Canon Law or the civil Law and because she knew very well that they were no great Lawyers she conceived it would be requisite that some should be sent for from the Universities in Europe They replied That she should be tried by the civil Law of England in which they were sufficiently experienced But she who well observed that they would intangle her with a new Law on purpose against her made answer you are gallant Gentlemen and can make what Laws you please but I am not bound to submit unto them since you your selves in another case refuse to be subjected to the Salick Law of France Your Law hath no more of Example than your proceeding hath of Justice On this Hatton Vice-Chamberlain to the Queen of England advanced himself and said unto her you are accused for conspiring the ruin of our Mistress who is an anointed Queen Your degree is not exempted to answer for such a Crime neither by the Law of Nations nor of nature If you are innocent you are unjust to your Reputation to indeavour to evade the judgement The Queen will be very glad that you can justifie your self for she hath assured me that she never in the world received more discontent than to find you charged with this accusation Forbear this vain consideration of Royalty which at this present serves for nothing Cause the suspitions to cease and wipe away the stain which otherwise will cleave for ever to your reputation She replied I refuse not to answer before the States of the Realm being lawfully called because I have been acknowledged to be a presumed Heir of the Kingdom Then will I speak not as a subject but in another nature without submitting my self to the new Ordinance of your Commission which is known to be nothing else but a Malicious net made to inwrap my innocence The Treasurer on this did interrupt her and said we will then proceed to the contempt to which she made answer Examine your own consciences and provide for your Honours and so God render to you and your children as you shall do in the judgement The next morning she called one of the Commissioners and demanded if her Protestation were committed to writing And if it were she would justify her self without any prejudice to the Royal dignity Whereupon the Commissioners did presently assemble themselves in the Chamber of presence where they prepared a Scaffold on the upper end whereof was the seat Royal under a Cloath of State to represent the Majesty of Queen Elizabeth and on the one side of it a Chair of Crimson Velvet prepared for her The courageous Queen did enter with a modest and an assured countenance amongst the stern Lords thirsting after her bloud and took her place Bromley the Chancellour turning towards her did speak in these words The most Illustrius Queen of England being assured not without an extream Anguish of spirit that you have conspired the destruction of her of the Realm of England and of Religion to quit herself of her duty and not to be found wanting to God herself and her people hath without any malice of heart established those Commissioners to hear the things of which you are accused how you will resolve them and shew your innocency This Man who had spoken ill enough had the discretion to speak but little And immediately as he had given the signal the perverse Officers who were more than fourty in number did throw themselves upon her like so many mastives on a prey propounding a thousand captious questions to surprize her but the generous AMAZA did shake them off with an incredible vivacity In the end all things were reduced to the letter of Babington in which he gave her notice of the conspiracy and to the answer which she made to it exhorting him to pursue his design but most of all to the depositions of her own Secretaries who gave assurances that she did dictate the said letter as also other letters to forreign Princes to invade England with arms They did press her on these falsities which seemed to carrie some probability with them but she did answer invincibly to them as most clearly may appear by those terms which I have drawn from her several answers and tied them together to give more light to her Apology wherein the clearnes of her understanding and her judgement is most remarkable IF the Queen my Sister hath given you a Commission The invincible Apology of the Queen to see Justice done it is reasonable that you should begin it rather by the easing of my sufferings than by the oppressing of my innocence I came into England to implore succour against the Rebellion of my Subjects My bloud alliance Sex Neighbourhood and the Title which I bear of a Queen did promise me all satisfaction and here I have met with my greatest affliction This is the twentieth year that I have been detained Prisoner without cause without reason without mercy and which is more without hope I am no Subject of your Mistresses but a free and an absolute Queen and ought not to make answer but to God alone the Sovereign Judge of my Actions or bring any prejudice to the Character of Royal Majesty either in my Son the King of Scotland or his Successours nor other Sovereign Princes of the earth This is the Protestation which I have made and which I repeat again in your presence before I make any answer to the Crimes which are imposed on me The blackest of all the Calumnies do charge me for having conspired the Death of my most dear Cousin and after many circumventions all the proofs are reduced to the Letter of Babington the Deposition of my Secretaries and my sollicitations made to forreign Princes to invade England with Arms. I will answer effectually to all these Articles and make the justice of my Cause most clearly appear to those who shall without passion look upon it And in the first place I swear and protest that I never saw this Babington who is made the principal in this Charge I never received any letter from him neither had he any letter from me I have always abhorred these violent and black counsels which tended to the ruin of Queen Elizabeth and I am ready to produce letters from those who having had some evil enterprize have excused themselves that they have discovered nothing to me because they were assured that my spirit was opposite to such Designs I could not know what Babington or his accomplices have done being a Prisoner he might write what he pleased but I am certain that I never saw nor heard of any letter to me And if there be found any Answer written by me to those things which never so much as came into my imagination it is an abominable forgery We live not in an Age nor a Realm that is to learn the trade to deceive I am
informed that Walsingham one amongst you who hath conspired my death and the death of my Son doth make use of such artifices and hath counterfeited a letter from me in answer to that of Babingtons which he intercepted The other innocently believed it and took his oath that it came from me but all this is no more than one simple conjecture There should be a million of witnesses more clear than the rays of the Sun to impeach a Sovereign Queen who comprehends within her Authority so many millions of lives And a man unknown a man half dead is believed against me who spake all that he knew and that he knew not to deliver himself from the horrible cruelties of his Examiners Let them produce but one letter of my hand one shadow of the crime and I will yield my self convinced I speak it in the sincerity of my heart and of the tears of my eyes I would not conquer a Kingdom with the bloud of the vilest person picked out of the scum of the people much less with the bloud of a Queen I will never make a shipwrack of my soul in conspiring the ruin of a person to whom I have vowed so much honour and friendship For my Secretaries I did alwayes take them for honest men if they do charge me and accuse me in their Depositions to have dictated an Answer to Babington's letter they have committed two great faults the first in violating the Oath which they have made to be secret and faithfull to their Mistress the second in inventing so detestable a Calumny against her to whom they ow all Reverence and Fidelity In a manner all the belief that you draw from them doth amount to more than that it comes form perfidious men O good God In what a desperate condition is the Majesty and the safety of Princes if they depend upon the writings and the witnesses of their Secretaries in affairs of so high a consequence How many are of them who prostitute themselves to the uncertainty of riches How many of them for fear onely do comply with the menaces of the great-ones They are men of Fortune who follow the ebb and flow of Inconstancy If those poor men have taken their Oaths as you say it was onely to deliver themselves from the horrour of your torments and put all upon the crowned head of a Queen which they thought was inaccessible to your Commissions But what Lawyers are you to put Babington to death without bringing him before me face to face To open his mouth by torments to tell a lie and then to shut it up for ever against the Truth If my Secretaries are yet alive let them come into my presence and I assure my self that they will not persist in that Deposition which you object against me Doth it not easily appear that you proceed here on a bad belief and that you borrow these poor Formalities to give some slight tincture to your prejudgings I never did dictate any thing to my servants but what Nature did suggest unto me for the recovering of my liberty This is the third Objection of your Proces And I demand of you if I have not committed a great crime to desire a benefit which every common voice doth teach us which the laws do approve which all men do practise which Nature prompts the Nightingales and every little Bird unto that are imprisoned in their Cages what can he do less that sees himself in irons but implore the assistances of his friends and desire that some strong hand of mercy might open the prison for him I confess I have had the desire of liberty but I deny that I sought the effect thereof by that means which you alledge It is a strange thing that a Prisoner all whose action are spied into and every step she treads is counted should do the affair which great Sovereigns though of a free and most absolute power could not remove So many years are now passed since I have been as it were in the chains of miserable captivity yet neither the offers which I have made nor the assurances which I have given nor the increase of my sickness nor the declining of my age could move my Sister to my inlargement Have I not offered to contract a strict Friendship with her to cherish her to respect her above all the Princes in Christendom to forget all offences to acknowledge her the true and legitimate Queen of England submitting all my Rights to the benefit of her peace neither to pretend to nor take any part of the Crown during her life and to remove both the Title and the Arms of the Kingdom of England which I did attribute to my self by the commandment of Henrie the Second King of France And yet all these submissions have prevailed nothing for my Deliverance Am I so much to be blamed if I have desired forreign Princes my Friends and my Allies to draw me out from the depth of these miseries And yet I neither have nor was ever willing to confirm into the hands of the King of Spain the Right which he pretended to the Crown of England although he hath been angry with me concerning it but I have given respect unto my Sister so far that I have neglected both my life and liberty to satisfie her interests and have delighted my self with the prayers of Esther and not with the sword of Judith But I now speak and declare that since England is inequitable and so unkind unto me that I neither ought nor will misprise the aid of other Kings I have here sincerely declared my thoughts and my counsels to you on this Accusation and if Right and Equity must give way to Power and Force must oppress the Truth amongst men I do appeal to the living God who hath an absolute Empire of command over Elizabeth and my self I swear unto you by God and protest unto you on my honour that for this long time I have had my thoughts on no Kingdom but onely that of Heaven which I look on as the haven after my long sufferings I believe I have now satisfied all your Objections And you know indeed in your own conscience that nothing doth charge me but my birth nor render me guilty but my Religion But I will not deny that to which by Gods goodness I am born nor remove the character which I received in the day of my Baptism I have lived and I will die a Catholick It is the crime alone for which I need no Advocate to defend me in which I desire all the world to be my witness and fear not the severest Judges The poor Princess did mingle these words with her tears fore-seeing the persecution of her friends and considering how barbarously her Royal Dignity was exposed to the Advocates of the Palace who did all seem to have sworn her death Howsoever in their consciences they were touched to the quick because that what she represented was most true even by the