he who produceth an act of vertue propose to himself an unjust end his intention depraveth his action and the wicked quality of his heart deriveth it selfe into his worke A fault as S. Augustine saith which hath blemished the most beautifull actions of morall vertues appearing among the antient Ethnickes who have proposed to themselves for the end of their actions not purely justice but some of them profit others revenge some delight and the most vertuous among them ambition and vanity The heart being the beginning of naturall life is likewise the principle of goodnesse in morall life nor is there any other difference save onely that in the body it dyeth last and in matter of vertue the first For in the body all other parts dye before the heart wholly decay but in the matter of vertue so long as the heart remaineth alive whilest the intention continues sound and the will sincere all the actions are vigorous good and laudable yea and those which in regard they were vitious in their subjects could not merit glory being vertuous in their conclusion are yet worthy of excuse But the heart of vertue once dead the intention perverted and the will corrupted all is rotten and the most faire vertues become infamous vices and the most glorious acts punishable crimes This is the secret of this sacred word in the Gospell From the heart issueth all evill Lib. 6. Eth. cap. 12. Wherefore the Philospher saith that every laudable action is composed of two peeces of Prudence which chooseth a good subject and of morall vertue which maketh an election of an upright end and as gold borroweth of the earth its matter of the Sunne its forme lustre and value so vertuous actions ought to take from Prudence both Counsell meanes and measure as their matter from justice and honesty the right end and sound intention as her forme soule and esteeme Here you see that no action be it private or publike can either be good or honest if it be not just CHAP. 2. That an uniust action cannot be profitable to States against Machiavill I Further affirme that it cannot bee profitable to the publike For divers level not their actions and counsels to goodnesse and honesty but onely to utility and following that pernicious maxime of the Pyrrhonians that there is nothing just of it selfe and by it its owne nature but onely out of the opinion and custome of men and as that Barbarian in Tacitus saith In a great fortune that which is most profitable is fullest of equitie or as Eudemus blasphemed That whatsoever was profitable for Republiques was iust Perverse Axiomes which nature condemneth reason reproveth God hath in abhomination and people detest and which under colour of profit raise the cabane of ruine Since to banish Iustice from humane society is as much as to teare the soule from the body and to take the Sunne from the world It is as much as to change as S. Augustine saith Kingdomes into Colonies of theeves it is to arme man against man to introduce licence with licence disorder with disorder desolation Now those who measure the justice and honesty of things by utility of what kinde of utility intend they to speake of particular or publike If of particular they discover themselves if of publike they deceive themselves If they call that just whatsoeuer they finde profitable to themselves they shew themselves traitors to publike good or if they imagine that what is unjust may be advantagious to States they erre in the principles For if a State be no other than a generall society of men in Cities or Provinces united together under the authority either of the whole multitude as in a Democracie of principall persons as in an Aristocracie or of a Prince as in a Monarchie whereon is this society founded but upon Vnion whereon this union but upon obedience upon what is obedience founded but upon lawes and whereon lawes but upon equity To take equity from lawes is of lawes to make them violencies to violate obedience is to destroy it to destroy obedience is to dissolve union to dissolve union is to dissipate society and to part society is to subvert the State what followes then save onely that what is just is the conservation of States and what unjust is the destruction thereof Iustice conserves maintaines a domes all in nature and art much more in policy and humane society which onely are capable of Iustice as we prove at large Nature her selfe teacheth us this For it is the union of the foure qualities which conserveth our bodies an union fastened by the knot of their mutuall concord as their peace is established upon that temperature which upholdeth and representeth in their commerce a kinde of naturall justice But if one of these usurping over another the temperature be thereby disturbed justice being thereby violated peace is broken peace once broken union is dissolved and the structure is destroyed That which conserveth this inferiour world is the marriage of the foure elements a marriage knit by their accord as their accord is founded upon the justice of the proportion and equality conjoyning them in one So as if one offering injury to the other this equality happen to be disturbed justice being thereby wounded their accord would be dissolved their concord destroyed their conjunction soone be unloosed Art herein confirmeth what nature commendeth to us See wee not in Musicke how every voyce keeping his tone without troubling the tone of others this iustice they observe frameth their accord whence proceedeth the harmony the sweetnesse and grace of Musicke Now if one voyce usurpe upon another violating hereby this justice it troubleth the accord and of this pleasing sound formerly composed of so many well ordered voyces sufficient to ravish the spirits of all hearers there remaineth nothing save a tumult of confused jarres enough to dull the eares of all auditors Doe not measures in Poetry clauses in Rhetoricke reasons in Philosophy numbers in Arithmeticke the compasse in Geometry the rule in Architecture the disposition of colours in limming briefly the so well observed proportions in all the workes of art and industry doe they not represent in some sort a kinde of shadow of justice If therefore Iustice adorn and conserve whatsoever is in nature and what art produceth if all beautifull things borrow from thence their gracefulnesse solid matters their force things living their subsistence inanimate things their ornament and since even those things which seeme uncapable can notwithstanding not subsist without some shew thereof How can it be that humane society which alone is capable of right and reason should any way maintaine it selfe amidst injustice injury and violence Would not a State without justice resemble a body without the temperature of humours a world without the equality of elements a Musicke without the harmony of voices a worke without the proportion of those parts which composeth it what would such a worke be but a meere deformity such
the dignity of high charges the most assured meanes is that which King Agesilaus sheweth us To say that which is good and to do what is honest which in a word is to shew our selues irreprehensible in our counsels and actions If you will have good renowne learne to speake well and to do better saith Epictete in Strabo Whereupon Socrates giveth this briefe instruction to Magistrates for the acquiring a good name to wit to endevour to be the same they would appeare For both mines of gold and springs of water though hidden do notwithstanding continually send forth certaine marks upon the surface of the earth which discover them the former small graines of gold the latter coolenesse and humidity So likewise true vertue engraven in the soule daily sendeth forth certaine and evident signes of her presence as flashes of her light Dissimulation may counterfeit truth but never imitate her and lesse perfectly represent her The Ape beareth certain touches of mans face but every man still knowes it for an Ape The painted grapes of that ancient Limmer had the forme and colour of true ones but they deceived onely birds The counterfeit Cow of Myron deluded onely other cattell The apples of Sodome deceive the eye beholding them but not the hand touching them Counterfeit gold may impose true apparances upon the eye but it cannot cosen the test Apparances and pretexts may well disguise vice but facts will manifest it and if Midas have Asses cares hee is much the nearer to hide them or to stoppe mens mouthes when Reedes and Canes having neither eyes to see nor cares to heare will finde a tongue to discover and divulge it There is nothing so bidden but comes to light saith the Scripture A good name and chiefly in men elevated to honour is a tender businesse and of the nature of flowers which lose their smell and grace if they be but onely touched It is therefore not onely necessary to preserve it from blame by avoyding ill but even from suspition in eschewing whatsoever carryeth the shadow thereof blame foyleth honour suspition blasteth it and though after difference vertue rest entire yet doth the authority thereof remain wounded and as the Sunne eclipsed by the opposition of the gloomy body of the Moon remaineth still cleare in it selfe but darkesome to us So vertue eclipsed by the mischievous encounter of suspition and publicke distrust though she be at all times cleare and shining in her selfe yet so it is that she becommeth obscure and uselesse for others 2 In producing the workes of vertue To leave one terme is not to touch the other To avoyd evill is as much as not to be ill but it is not presently to be good Vertue faith the Phâ—losopher tendeth to operation to avoyd blame is not to be reproachable but it is not instantly to be commendable Praise is due onely to vertuous actions but to flye vice and practise vertue to avoyd reproach and merit glory is the perfection It is from thence the splendor of a faire and solid renowne resulteth Men cannot praise but what they prize nor prize but what they know nor know but what they discover Vertue appeareth not it is hidden in the soule but the reputation her workes produce in the opinion of men is a light causing her to be both admired and reverenced To this purpose the Astrologers say that we see not the Sunne but the light thereof onely and the Philosophers that we discover not the presence of spirituall substances but by their actions The good odour discovers the Muske good workes vertue Wee see not God the Angels the soule nor the winde but we perceive Gods presence in the world the Angels in their place the soule in the body the winde in the ayre by their effects of God by his Providence of the Angels by his wonders of the soule by its discourse of the winde by its blast Wouldst thou have thy vertue commended let us see it Desirest thou we should see it cause it to operate shew her workes and we shall perceive her presence afford us her fruits and we will returne her due commendations How wilt thou have us know that thou art in possession thereof if thou producest it not or that it is living in thee if it have no operation It cannot be without living nor live without working Habitude saith the Philosopher is in the power vertue in the action vertue cannot be idle if shee be so she dyes if she dyes she is no more Fire leaves to be when it gives over burning the spring dryeth up when it leaveth running the tree dyeth when it putteth forth no more leaves The Crocodile as they say leaves to live when he makes an end of growing the heart loseth life as sâ—one as motion The life of all things ends with theâ—r operation So vertue ceasing to operate is eyther not any longer any thing or will speedily be reduced to nothing She is either dead or drawing on towards her end her vigour is extinguished with her action and her idle languishing and dying habitude onely remaineth CHAP. 12. Of the ordering of life and manners which is the other head of Politicke Iustice towards himselfe VErtuous actions then are necessary both for the conservation of vertue and for the production of honour and praise which is her light lustre Here may enter nay here ought all vertues to meet not onely Politicke but even those vertues proper to a private man as temperance chastity sobriety humility modesty benignity and others which regulate their lives and manners who are therewith adorned these being not precisely necessary in a Magistrate as a Magistrate but very fitting as he is a man and more as he is a Christian Nay I say as a Magistrate he ought to possesse them in a higher degree than the vulgar since in a selected person nothing ought to be ordinary but all choice all high and all proportionable to the place he holdeth For as man as touching the body participateth of the elements with beasts and plants but yet in a more excellent manner proportionable to the dignity of his reasonable nature raysing him above the rest of corporall things so those vertues practised in a slacke manner among the people ought in Princes and Magistrates to be farre more eminently exercised For they being instituted not onely for the maintenance of peace but of good manners likewise among the people they owe for the one vigilancy and conduct for the other example and good life and if peace requisite in society be not ordained and appointed but to cause them to live vertuously and according to the lawes of just reason it seemeth that those who governe them are not so much redevable for their good guidance in causing them to live in peace as for their good example in procuring them to live well The one is but the meane the other the end Wherefore it is that not onely Politicke vertues but all the rest
of Politicke Iustice towards the Publicke HEreon depends the last office of Iustice concerning those things the Magistrate oweth to the Publicke being no other than good example vigilancy solicitude fidelity and love to publicke good Hee oweth to himselfe the study of vertue for ordering his life and the honour of his dignity he oweth it to the publicke for a patterne and subject of imitation The Philosopher sayes Arist Bonus omnium mensâ—ra That the iust man is the rule and measure to all others Since being what all men ought to be he sheweth to all what each man ought to doe And truely since the rule of mans life is no other than the law of just reason hee who liveth accordingly is he not the living law and he animated rule of all other mens lives No v who better deserveth to be a director and moderator of men then he who may be the rule of their lives and who can better regulate their lives than hee who rightly directeth them To whom can it better belong to govern them than to him who is able to rule them or to rule them than to him who rightly governs them To whom better suiteth eyther power seconded by vertue capable to conduct men to their true end or vertue armed with power to draw them thereto The States and Policies regulating humane society ayme as I have lately toached not onely to cause men to live peaceably but vertuously likewise and sutable to the lawes of reason being the true good of man This was the Maxime and ayme of Plato Aristotle Xenophon Licurgus Solon and of the Roman Civilians of whom Tertullian in his Apologeticke gives this testimony that their lawes were neare approaching to innocency And all those who have at any time eyther described erected or polished Republickes and Empires but chiefly Christian States which take their rule and levell from Gods law ayme at this one end For as an ancient Bishop of France said very gravely Moses gave the forme of living to the Hebrewes Numa to the Romans Steph. Tornacensis Epist 166. Phoroneus to the Grecians Trâ—smegistus to the Egyptians and the Sonne of God to Christians Nay they raise themselves higher and aspire even to conduct men to God concurring with spirituall power and lending thereto forces and succours towards so pious an enterprise Whereupon Constantine the Great was not in the wrong when hee tearmed himselfe a Bishop out of the Church since the same care and vigilancy which Bishops have within the Church to traine up soules to God either by perswasion example commandement or by the threats of the spirituall sword the like had this religious Prince abroad in Policy concerning his State by his perswasions by his exemplary life by his lawes and by the power of the temporall sword Not putting by usurpation the sickle of his authority into the Churches harvest but zealously affording the charitable hand of publicke force to the reapers therein Now Princes and those who have the administration of States under them have double meanes to arrive to this end whereto they ought to tend justnesse of lawes and exemplarity of their lives The law commands forbids permits punisheth recompenceth commands good forbids evill permits what is indifferent punisheth transgressions rewardeth obedience When example comes from whence law proceeds without commanding it commands the good in doing it without forbidding it forbids evill in flying it without speaking it permits what is lawfull in practising it besides it makes all men clearely see the equity of punishment in avoyding what the law accounteth criminall and the justice of recompence in performing those things shee rewardeth The law for its enforcements hath Iudges Sergeants Executioners Tribunals Gallowes Whips the Sword and constraint Example hath onely mildenesse attractions sweetnesse love reason yet doth it sooner reduce men under the yoake of its Empire thus naked and disarmed then the law as well armed as it is For the arms of law can onely strike the body but the shafts of example slide even into the heart and soule Gayning the heart the whole man is caught the Will is enchained the affections captivated and are sooner drawn to their duty by the mildnesse of reason than by the rigour of commandment Men saith Seneca trust more to their eye than their eares to what they see than to what they heare Besides as the Philosopher sayes in his Ethickes Good presented in particular Arist lib. 10 Eth. ca. â— and single doth more move by example than in generall and in grosse as the law propounds it Example hath more efficacy than Philosophy to teach more perswasion than eloquence to incite more authority than the law to command and is of greater force than armes to compell Without arguments it convinceth without discourse it perswadeth without menaces it commandeth without Serjeants it constraineth and forceth men yea even those who will neither credit reason nor consent to perswasion nor obey authority nor feare any force cannot refuse imitation to good example And though the law and force have often more power to deter men from vice yet at least it cannot be denyed but example hath greater power to incline them to vertue which is the end of the law and the ayme of its menaces and chastisements Example proposeth vertue not as dead in writing but lively in action it sheweth reason not imperious in its precepts but attractive in its operations it intimateth the law not by the commandment of the superiour but by his life which doth more powerfully command And truely since civill Lawyers say that the Magistrate himselfe is the living law ough he not likewise to affirme that his good example is a lively and perpetuall promulgation of the law Hence ariseth the obligation tying those who command to joyne good example to just commandements to establish the one by the other and not to destroy obedience in inferiours by neglect or authority in themselves by vice and in all men good manners by licentiousnesse But besides the power we are to observe the credit Example hath over hearts Is there any thing more just than from whence the law proceedeth thence should the modell for the observation thereof issue and that the same power intimating it as needfull to reason should make it gratefull to the will Men whom nature hath made free would not be ruled Despotically and servilely as the Philosopher saith but Royally and Politickly They are rather to be induced by reason than hated by constraint and by shewing them by example the Iustice of commandements to cause the necessity of obedience to become voluntary by the desire of imitation But if the superiour doe that himselfe which he forbiddeth or doth not the same he commandeth hee either condemneth his law by his life or his life by his law shewing how eyther his law is unjust or his life irregular or both the one or other ridiculous To which purpose Seneca writing to Lucilius spake a word to be
prastent ea in re hominibus ipsis antecellat than to be excellent above other men in the same thing wherein man is superiour to all Creatures If therefore he who more than ordinarily pursueth vertue doth likewise extraordinarily follow the light of reason To whom can Eloquence be more beseeming than to the vertuous to the end that the same order which the Law of reason haâ—h setled in him the sweetnesse of perswasion may communicate extend and imprint in all others But to what vertue is this ornament more sutable than to the vertue Politicke which being borne for others procuring the good of others appearing for generall profit upon the Theater of honors ought to issue forth well adorned to shew her selfe in her full trim with all things that may contribute to make her recommendable and usefull in the presence of all men I say recommendable for can any thing acquire greater authority to the vertue appearing in publicke than doth Eloquence ravishing men with admiration I say likewise usefull for even as in Nature Vtilitie and Ornament are inseparable and there being nothing more profitable for the world than what doth most adorn it as the Sun light This is also particularly seene in Art as in Architecture wherein Pillars being the beautie of the building are likewise the supports So Eloquence Cic. 3. de Oratore Multum ego in excellente Oratore eodernque vire bono pono esse ornamentâ— in universacivitate which wee terme the ornament of Politicke vertues is no vaine one but wherein benefit accompanieth beauty usefulnesse is annexed to gracefulnesse and the good thence arising to humane society equaliseth the delightfulnesse And as the eye contributeth much ornament to the body and with all great commodity So the I loquence of a vertuous States man highly adometh the whole body of the common-wealth but doth much more profit it For wisedome indeed giveth good Counsels Prudence fitting meanes to bring them to perfection Iustice good intentions courage brave resolutions but what wisedome knoweth what Prudence makes choice of what Iustice procureth what good soever courage resolveth on or attempteth Eloquence perswadeth and makes it well liking to others so as it addeth to all the parts of Politicke vertue not onely gracefulnesse and beauty but vigour and authority I will not here resolve upon what the Orator Cassins and the Lawyer Scavola disputed upon in the Roman Orator to weet whether Prudence Cic. lib. 1. de Oratore or Eloquence laid the first foundations of Republickes and humane societies yet may one safely say Isrash Eloquence were unable to make this master-piece dumb Prudence could not effect it but the one had need of the others assistance Eloquence requiring the reasons of Prudence and Prudence the perswasions of Eloquence But holy Writ and Gods revelations summon me to soare yet higher and to referre the Source of States and Common-wealths not to men but God not to humane Prudence or Eloquence which had never knowne neither that by its counsels nor this by its allurements how to curbe men naturally borne to liberty under the yoke of obed once but rather to the naturall inclination ingrafred by God in the soule of man to live in society and for living in this societie to establish order and to submit themselves unto some one Now it is very probable that those to whom men have subjected themselves in execution of Gods oâ—dinance ingraâ—ed and imprinted in them have beene the most excellent of all other not onely to invent by Prudence just and profitable decrees but moreover to make Iustâ—ce appeare and to perswade profit by word of mouth And though the Law having higher authority useth no preface nor perswasion but only a full and absolute commandement Yet surely those who first proposed Lawes to men were obliged to make it appeare unto them by discourse that their commandements were just not tyrannicall their authority reasonable and not violent Whereupon the Roman Orator sayth That the ancient Law-makers Cic. lib. 3. de Orat. Lycurgus Solon Pittacus and others were endued with wisedome to invent good Lawes and with Eloquence also to perswade the admittance thereof Yea the Scripture it selfe noteth how when God established Moses at a Law-maker and conducter of his people Moses alleadging for his excuse the defect of Eloquence hoping thereby to have discharged himselfe of this Commission God was pleased not onely to give him power and wisdome but moreover unlosed his naturall stammering and stuttering in speech to the end he might propose and establish his Lawes not onely wisely and with authoritie but gracefully likewise and with perswasion And the Sonne of God being come into the World to settle the State of his holy Church and to give men the law of perfection was pleased to accompany his infinite wisedome in ordayning and his soveraigne authoritie in commanding with his divine Eloquence in perswading so as the Gospell sayth That the sweetnesse of those gracious words flowing from his mouth Mâ—rahane ur oâ—â—â—nâ—t in verbis gratia qua procedebat de â—re cjus NuÌ„quam sic loquâ—â—us est homo wrapt all men in admiration causing them to protest that never any man spoke with so much truth sweetnesse and force So indeed the Eternall increated and subsistent word framed his speech and his sacred mouth was the Organ his word the conceipt and his voyce the sound of the divine word And when afterward he sent his Apostles to erect the Spirituall estate over the whole world the Foundations whereof he had formerly layd in Iudaa tongues were the last peece wherewith hee armed them after he had stored them with wisdome counsell and authority But heavenly tongues to the end that as their power and wisdome was spirituall so should their Eloquence be also and that from whence the Law and Commandements which they intimated to men did proceed even from thence and not from humane Art should their perswasion be derived But since God the soveraigne and absolute Lord of man hath found it fitting and convenient to use towards us as being desirous to draw us unto him not onely commandements but exhortations as the Apostle speaketh would he not hereby instruct us Tanquam deâ— exhortantâ— per noâ— hee I say who seeth apparantly the most secret and most hidden passages of mans heart that nothing doth more excite or hath greater power and Empire over man than speech and plausible perswasion and that discourse sooner gayneth hearts by the sweetnesse of reason and pleasing force of truth than rough Authoritie by the terrour of her power CHAP. 15. Of the Efficacy of Eloquence IT is therefore a happy advantage when Eloquence and the faculty of discourse concurre joyntly with their wisdome and Authority who rule or governe men nor can one desire eyther a fairer ornament to their dignity or stronger armes for their vertue For we have not to deale with brute Beasts which absolute force may captivate nor with Angels
contrary motions to fall into the concordancy of so just a cadence as Aristotle himselfe acknowledgeth such a harmony in so great a contrariety could not possibly proceed from any rash or sudden encounter but from the sage conduct of some intellectuall spirit Perceive we not how in man Reason either doth or ought to conduct both the will the appetite the senses the members the body the passions affections habitudes vertues cogitations words actions resorts motions and al the oeconomy of this worlds abridgement Is it not apparant that humane reason governes all this sublunary world guideth all the inferiour creatures appeaseth the Lyons fury surmounts the Elephants force reacheth the Eagle-high flight danteth the Tigers rage bridleth the Horses toughnesse stayes the Buls mad heat applieth to his particular use the most indomitable beasts and causeth that to become as it were reasonable by direction which is otherwise unreasonable by nature and extraction Is it not evident how in all the parts both of Art and Science Reason is the first mover and how she disposeth Words in Grammar Clauses in Rhetorick Cadencies in Poetry Arguments in Logick Reasons in Naturall Vertues in Morall Lawes in Civill Measures in Geometry Numbers in Arithmetick Tunes in Musick Drugs in Physick Stones in Architecture Colours in Painting and Materials in all sorts of Workmanships A marvellous thing that the wit of man communicateth a kinde of reason even to insensible things as wood stones iron and the like in bestowing on them so beautifull an order in these works which as those of Dedalus do insensible move and do live inanimate and though unresonable do yet carry upon them the Workmans understanding If therefore Reason move and govern all in Nature Science and Art should not Reason likewise in civill society direct all And that the wise who in this great body is as Reason and the Intelligent Soule by his wisdome should also bee the moving Soule thereof by his counsels Is it fitting Reason being the leading card in petty matters that folly should proceed in important occasions or that imprudency give the motion or ambition preoccupate the place wisdome ought to possesse or that rashnesse snatch away the steerage or helm which Reason should guide I have seene a great vanity under heaven saith the Spirit of God in the Scripture fools rays'd upon the Tribunall the wise sitting on the ground it is like as to see the Saylor at the Poop and the Pilot at the Prow But yet a slender talent of wisdome is not sufficient for such as ought by their counsels to procure publick peace and by their judgements to maintain justice among men since it is necessary that whatsoever communicateth any goodnes should possesse the same in eminency As God doth essence the Primum mobile motion the Sunne light Fire heat Musk good sent Salt quick savour and the Fountain water whatsoever seeketh to diffuse ought to bee well filled and redound to it selfe to suffice others as Nature first rayseth plants and other creatures to their perfect essence before she forme in them seeds for the communication of their essence by propagation so wisdome ought to have well ripened and perfected judgement before it bee able to produce the seeds of sage counsels whence springs the good and tranquility of States CHAP. III. That Politick Wisdome is rare and what parts are requisite for the framing thereof BVT Wisdome as saith Aristotle in his Ethicks being an excellent knowledge of things esspecially of most high and universall matters as it ought to be the Squire the Rule and Measure of the meanest and most particular affayres such as those ordinarily happening in civill affayres so is it requisite for the raysing it selfe to a higher pitch it be adorned with a capable spirit a powerfull judgement a strong nature a deeper study and a very great experience qualities which though separate are not very ordinary being united are admirable Nature without study is by so much the more dangerous by how much it is more violent for as without husbandry the fatnesse of any field serveth only to bring forth the more brambles which choak the good seed so without study which cultivateth nature the strength of spirit serves only to produce the more violent passions which darken reason and hinder it from seeing cleare into affayres It is true experience and honesty may in some sort rectifie this fault but never either sufficiently nor perfectly repayre it for still without Science experience remayneth blinde honesty feeble and both of them faulty Honesty desires good but knowes it not experience knows it yet only by the events which are but particulars and daily changeable and not by immoveable principles universall and applyable to all occurrents so as experience without science walketh still either fearfully or rashly but knowledge seeing all things in their sourses and infallible cause perfecteth nature guideth honesty lightneth experience and causeth it to march confidently upon all occasions to the end it bee not timerous and understandingly lest it be precipitate On the other side study without a strong nature is rather chargeable than usefull as solid meates to a sickly stomack oppressing it with his ponderosity instead of nourishing it by naturall digestion and in truth wits for the most part resemble severall soyles the strong beare good corne weake earth either choakes the graine or change it into cockle A good naturall wit and study matching together open the passage to high employments But before exercise have put them into practice they are as tooles in the hand or reasons in the thoughts of a workman who hath Art but no practice so as without experience these two qualities though right commendable are not yet sufficient to frame what is tearmed wisdome being an excellency in the knowledge of things One attayneth the Art of Fencing upon the Theater Limming upon the Picture and as Plato sayth the Potters Art is finished upon his earthen ware A good naturall wit disposeth study formeth experience perfecteth man and these three parts happily united make up a right wiseman requisite for the conduct of weighty affayres And as three things are fitting for tillage fertillity of soyle goodnesse of seed the husbandmans industry so in point of our subject these three peeces are necessary a good wit a better instruction and Art acquired by use Wherefore it is that in a well ordered warre souldiers are never raysed to the highest ranks before they have passed thorow the meanest offices to the end that having learned this exercise in inferiour charges they may come thorowly instructed to more important places So likewise in well policed States highest dignities are never conferred but upon such who have gayned experience in meaner offices The ancient Romans mounted not at once to the Consulship but by degrees as by the Oedility the Tribunat the Pontificat these being the steps whereby they ascended and as schooles of honour where those were framed for affayres whom they after intended to
toward the safety of Common-wealths Choller likewise with Envie Feare Voluptuousnesse and other passions drawing the soule to their side cause it to become evill affected toward the true end tempting it to undertake wicked waies transporting it to foolish and rash inconsiderations Whereupon Iulius Caesar in Salust setteth downe this maxim of State Sal. de Coniur Catil Those saith he who consult ought to be void of all affections and passions which obfuscate the spirit and hinder it from discerning the truth And the Philosopher hath this excellent sentence or rather Oracle worthy to be written in letters of gold That it is a most apparent truth that none can be truely Prudent if he be not good and iust Wherein even by this naturall reason hee condemneth of imprudencie and timerity what commonly is called worldly Prudence And the spirit of God telleth us in holy VVrit Ezod 23. That covetousnesse and bribery blindeth the hearts of the Prudent and concupiscence perverteth their spirits with the like words of holy Scripture shewing vs that the smoake of vitious passions dim the light of Prudence in the eye of understanding Dan. 13. But what either more solid or safe instruction is there for the right learning to rule our passions than Gods word VVhat more harmonious musicke for the stilling these furious divels than the sound of this divine Booke what more direct rule to moderate these naturall motions than the Law of the Author of Nature what more powerfull armes to overcome them than his precepts what stronger restraint to containe them than his feare They transport Nature they surmount reason they slip from morall vertue Humane Philosophy cannot master them there is nothing save onely the law of God which can rightly regulate them it belonging solely to God to subdue mans spirit The Law of God is without imperfection saith the Prophet and doth perfectly convert soules For there it is where we learn the true force to vanquish the passions of the â—rascible and the true temperance to rectifie the motions of the concupiscible part It is there where we are instructed by Gods owne mouth who hath not onely truth it selfe to instruct us but supreame authority to command us mildnesse against choller love to our enemies against hatred pardon against vengeance resolution against feare patience against persecutions whereon is formed in the soule a divine forme to overcome whatsoever might terrifie us it is therin where we are taught the feare of God against the baits of the flesh the vanity of the world against the desire of Riches the obligation and danger of great Offices against the ambition of honours whence the soule draweth a blessed temperance to slight all whatsoever allureth to the contrary Being thus armed with sorce against the feare of apparent mischiefes and with temperance against the love of all perishable substance it can no way feare any thing but evill it selfe which is iniquity nor love but the true good to wit vertue No assaults can cause us to waver from our dutie nor baits draw us to injustice And herein consisteth the true Prudence of the Serpent according to holy Writ who exposeth his whole body to preserve his head It teacheth us that this Prudence knoweth how to forsake upon just occasion both goods honours and life it selfe to conserve justice a right necessarie qualitie for publique persons who in the execution of their offices if therein they seeke publique good finde not their particular advantage but divers baits to slight and many assaults to overcome Here you see how the Law of God is the sacred Schoole of true Politick Prudence Jnstruct your selves saith God O you that iudge the earth serve God in feare It is from thence the Magistrate ought as Samuel did to take his light and conduct to administer affaires by true Prudence It is thence the noble acts of fortitude are seene to spring in the resistance of all assaults when at any time vertue is engaged in difficult times From thence it is we see occasions of heroick acts of temperance in scorne of dignities and honours to proceede Acts which crowne their Author with immortall honour and fill these with confusion whom they cannot draw to imitation Briefly it is from thence a magnanimious heart deriveth this generous Prudence and this resolute spirit the testimony whereof he produceth in his life the fruit in his offices and the glory in his good name The end of the first Booke THE SECOND BOOK Of those vertues which doe forme honesty and integrity for the well imploying of sufficiencie CHAP. 1. Of Politicke Iustice in generall NAture hath not contented her selfe in having bestowed on all things necessarie faculties whereby to operate but shee hath further added to those faculties certaine inclinations and dispositions which cause them to tend to their objects for the production of their actions For the eye besides the facultie of seeing hath an inclination to visible objects the care to harmonies the taste to savours the smell to sweet scents Now this inclination is added to serve as a provocation to the powers lest they should remaine idle So God framing and adorning the soule doth not onely bestow thereon those vertues requisite to understand how to operate rightly but doth besides adde others which incline dispose and give it a propension towards the objects convenient for the production of vertuous acts VVisedome and Prudence are the two general vertues which acquire to a Politician the sufficiencie worthily to governe Common-wealths â—ustice and honesty with the vertues thereon depending follow after to infuse into the soul the disposition inclination motion and propension to employ to good purpose both Wisedome and Prudence which without justice and honesty would in truth not remaine idle but become pernicious These being not vertues but dangerous vices Wisedome in a perverse soule becomming deceitfull and Prudence in a dissembling one malitious It is as the Peach-tree which receiving the qualitie of the soyle where it is planted in Persia is poysonous elsewhere nutrimentall It is the Camelion which taking its tincture from the objects nearest unto it being neare clay appeareth of a muddy colour neare gold of a glorious hew neare filth of a foule colour neare a Diamond it casteth the lustre of a pretious stone So the will imprinteth the qualitie the die and colour in the action either good if it be sincere or evill if it be pernicious For there is this difference betweene the workes of injustice and the actions of vertue that in the former there is no regard but onely to the dexterity in the latter the workmans honesty is considered there the hand and art performe all here the heart and intention have the greater share So as if the heart be not good the intention upright and the end lawfull the worke cannot be exemplarie though it appeare excellent If the Architect build a faire house for a foule end his irregular intention disgraceth not his skill but if
for all good States-men it moreover procureth the favour and love of God thereby to cause all their designes gloriously to succeed and happily to surmount all oppositions To this purpose we reade in our Histories that Philip the King of France after so many battels victories and triumphs which crowned him with immortall honour applying himselfe yet daily more and more to piety to the exaltation of Religion to the foundation enrichment and adornement of Churches certaine States-men intimated unto him under colour of publike good that so great liberalities exhausted his treasure and that he might employ this beneficence both to better purpose and with greater glory to himselfe in advancing the poore families of souldiers and gentry then in adding more to the riches of Churches and Altars Yee then wonder answered this wise King at what I doe for the worship of God but if you reflected upon the frequent necessities and perplexities wherein wee have beene formerly plunged in our warres and battels and out of which the mercifull hand of the Almighty hath a thousand times visibly protected and saved us beyond all humane reason and likelihood having wrought so great things both for the safety of our person and the glory of our State yee would finde no excesse but rather a defect in what I doe for his service I alleadge this sage answer as proceeding from a King who understood the truth thereof by experience to shew that if great persons and those who stand at the helme of great States and Empires did feriously consider the occasion they have to invocate the favour and particular assistance of God amidst so many traverses obstacles and difficulties as daily encounter in eminent affaires they would become more pious and religious towards God then divers of them for the most part appeare to be CHAP. 7. Of the duties and particular fruits of Religion and politicke Piety BVt since Religion ought not to be vaine nor without workes nor piety a tree without fruit the fruits therefore of piety fit for a right Politician are zeale towards the worship of God obedience to his ordinances reverence towards his mysteries respect to his ministers and submission to his Church God hath placed in heaven saith an holy Father two great lights the Sunne and Moone and on earth two soveraigne powers the spirituall and temporall but as in the heavens the Moon borrowes her light from the Sunne so on earth the temporall ought to receive from the spirituall the light of true wisedome necessary for its guidance The law of God which the Church proposeth and explicateth ought to regulate the world the light of God which this Sun distributeth ought to illuminate it It goeth astray if it follow not this light and it loseth this light if it turne the backe from this Sunne CHAP. 8. Of the integrity of the Intention which is the other duty of that Politicke Justice which reflecteth on God THe integrity of intention in counsels and actions is the other dutie of Politicke Iustice towards God For it is a quality requisite in every just and honest action as the forme which gives being to morall honesty but the intention cannot bee sincere but by relation of the action to the true end of man which is God So as the action cannot be good and just if it tend not to God either by the hearts intention or at least by the nature of the worke which of it selfe hath relation to God by meanes of the beauty of that object it reflecteth on And in this sense all the excellent actions of Pagans and Infidels performed for the beauty of vertue not for vanity profit vengeance and other vitious and irregular ends and affections had of themselves a kinde of relation to God though man be not aware thereof Nay it is moreover the opinion of the most learned Divines that these actions by their condition appertaine to eternall reward though the hindrance of infidelity causeth them to faile in the attainement For whatsoever is effected purely for a vertuous end is good what is good is gracious in Gods sight that which is agreeable to God is conformable to his will either revealed unto us by his law or ingrafted in us by nature and whatsoever is sutable to his will belongeth to life everlasting since the Scripture saith That life is found in the observation of his will but each thing belonging to life everlasting is not sufficiently availeable for the acquisition thereof if faith charity grace and all other necessary qualities doe not concurre Who knowes not that the faith of a Christian dying out of the state of grace is notwithstanding a thing belonging to eternall life in its owne nature yet by reason of sinne though it appertaine thereto it arriveth not thereto As the childe who is debarred of his paternall inheritance to whom it belongeth when at any time the right acquired by his origine becommeth unprofitable unto him by his offence So all good morall actions have naturally right to the inheritance of celestiall felicity which is mans last end but they faile thereof through their default when either sinne or infidelity maketh their former right unusefull to them Now this is sufficient to shew that all actions purely performed for a vertuous end be they particular acconomicall or Politicall levell and goe directly toward God though man dream not at all of any relation to that end This foundation layd I say that to cause a Politicke action to become just and honest it must be armed with a right intention and which tendeth to God if not by the expresse cogitation and ayme of the soule yet at least by the good and lawfull quality of the object But the object is good when it is conformable either to naturall reason being the unwritten law or to Gods law which is the written reason or to just humane lawes and those not contrary to God and nature which is Reason explicated enlarged unfolded and proposed by those who have authority serving as a rule to all particular actions Every maxime constitution and action being not squared and added to one of these three Rules can reflect upon no other thing than either pleasure profit ambition or some other disordinate passion unlawfull objects not being able to imprint in a morall act other than injustice and dishonesty All this doth punctually shew us that it is an obligation in Politicke justice concerning God to conforme by a right intention our propositions counsels and actions either to naturall reason or to divine law or to just humane lawes and by this meanes to cause the State to tend to God which is the common end both of the Church and State of spirituall and temporall of body and soule And truely since Iustice willeth us to afford to every man his due temporall States being of Gods institution and demaine Iustice commandeth us that an administration conformable to his will should have relation to his glory Thither it is all ought to ayme
namely amongst Christians who acknowledge whence they come where they are and whither they tend as knowing their originall their estate and end The whole world is made for man and man for God now though he hath two distinct parts the body and soule two different motions one of reason the other of appetite and consequently two severall estates spirituall and temporall yet so it is that he hath but one onely finall end which is the enjoyment of God He is therefore obliged to cause all to ayme at God body and soule reason and appetite the spirituall and temporall As the Prophet David who sayd unto God Both my soule and my flesh thirst after thee All within mee aspireth to thee O Lord my soule and the powers therof my flesh with its dependencies these two parts composing my all though different in nature unite themselves by affection and having but one end have likewise but one desire causing their divers motions to tend to the same Center See here that not onely the soule but the body likewise ought to ayme at Almighty God who is the finall end and will be the crowne of both when after the resurrection the soule faelicitated by the vision of the God-head shall make the body happy by the redundance of her beatitude so as both of them shall enjoy God the soule by vision the body in its manner by the sensibility of these sweets the soule by union the flesh by participation and society the soule by the intermise of the light of glory the flesh by the communication of the soules glory So as if God be the end the Crowne and the soveraigne good not of the soule onely but likewise of the body And if these two parts composing man ought equally to ayme at God is it not altogether necessarie that Politicke power having charge to direct whatsoever belongeth to the body should propose God both for object and end as well as the spirituall power which governeth these things touching the soule If the flesh cause man to perish can the spirit save him If the temporall make him slip from God the spirituall desiring to conduct him to God shall it not see it selfe frustrated of the desired end To undoe ones selfe on the one side is no lesse than to be lost on both sides since the soule followes the body the one part the other and the whole the parts CHAP. 9. Of the care of a good renowne being the first duty of Politicke Iustice towards our selves AFter we have given to God our sincere Intentions we after owe to our selves the care of a good name which is necessary in a Magistrate for profiting the publike as the communication of the Suns light is for illuminating the world Moses in Deuteronomy required this quality for those he intended to place over the people Cap. 2. and this point dependeth on the other for as a straight body casteth an upright shadow and a counterfeit one a crooked so commonly a good conscience casteth the shadow of a singular reputation a wicked one the shadow of a bad fame And though the intention be a secret of the heart not comming to sight before the eyes of men yet doth shee shout forth as a hidden root the fruits of such actions as discover the treee Yee shall know them by their fruits saith truth it selfe It was no unfitting resemblance when the Ancients compared vertue to the body and a good name to the shadow following the same For as the body perspicuated by the light casts a shadow which may be called the daughter of light and of the body of light causing it by encountring the body and of the body producing it by being reflected upon by the light So vertue lightened by publike acknowledgement produceth reputation which may be termed Ioynt-daughter to vertue and acknowledgement of acknowledgement which seeing vertue takes notice thereof and of vertue which encountred by acknowledgement produceth it So that as the shadow is the production of the body lightened so honour is the childe of vertue acknowledged But it happeneth that in the morning the Sunne reflecting a farre off upon the body the shadow goes before towards noone beating plumme upon it the shadow walkes aside by it towards evening leaving it behind the shadow followes it The like it is in rare and eminent persons the first view of springing vertue beginneth betimes to cast before them the reputation which precedeth them levelling the way for them to great actions In the midst of their course being exposed perpendicularly to the eyes of all men glory marcheth along by them and afterward in the evening of their age the certaine proofes they have shewed of their vertue and goodnesse goe before them as a cleare Sunne to prepare for them a renown which shall follow them eternally in the memory of after-ages Observe all the Ancients who have appeared upon the Theater of the most famous States honour hath gone before them at their entry accompanied them in their course and followed them after their death honour hath beene the Herald which marching before them hath opened the way for them to great designes honour hath beene their inseparable convoy in the execution of their famous exploits honour hath moreover beene their immortall crowne after their decease And it is a touch of Gods divine Providence in the conduct of sublunary States so to governe those whom he pleaseth to make choice of as instruments of his favours and for the safety of Empires as he causeth the glory of their vertue betimes to appeare amidst the darknesse of most corrupted ages putting them into credit in the midst of disorder raysing them in the middle of ingratitude maintaining them in the throng of envies illustrating them among calumnies affording them this honour not for a subject of ambition and vanity but for occasion and obligation to imploy the vertue afforded them for publike utility and after they have shewed themselves worthy cooperators with his Providence in so great a worke hee for ever conserveth the memory of theirnames to the end their vertue having beene usefull for the age they lived in their example may serve for future times Good fame therefore is the inseparable shadow of vertue in publike persons and as Mathematicians measure the height of the body by the length of the shadow and as the Ancients have discovered by the extent of the shadow of Mount Athos the sublimity of its eminent top so shall we seldome be deceived in taking the modell of the vertues in eminent persons from the measure of their reputation For it is a maxime verified by experience that most men following the tide of naturall inclination are more subject to scandalise than praise and if they erre in their judgements concerning those who govern them they are sooner transported to rash censures than to waine praises The very shadow of one single vice sufficeth to procure publike blame a thousand vertues being no more than necessary to
in all hearts It is moreover the naâ—ure of good to become more profitable the farther it is diffused Whence it is that all things naturally have either seed to communicate by the production of their semblables whatsoever good they have or an inclination to diffuse themselves to the end to communicate them Salt hath not its savour but to the end to bestow it Muske its scent but to impart it the Sun its light but to make it common All whatsoever hath any perfection capable of communion is borne for others should vertue then alone be to it selfe should it be solitarie in the world or so envious as to hide her beauty or so particular as thereof to deprive the publicke If she conceale the good she hath through envy she is criminall if by negligence she is vicious if to avoyd the danger of vanity her over-advisednesse makes her timorous and this over-much feare reprehensible It is requisite she avoid her detriment yet not that she abandon her duty Vertue beareth the obligation of profiting the Publicke continually annexed thereto and the generality have right to demand this debt of her whereof shee cannot duely discharge her selfe without endeauouring to acquire and conserue a good fame in producing laudable and inimitable actions Let men see your good workes saith the Scripture whereupon diuers learned Diuines haue held that although euery man be absolute master of his owne goods to giue or dispose them at his pleasure yet that he is not absolute disposer of his same but onely the faithfull guardian and dispencer thereof he oweth the conseruation thereof to the publike though hee neglect it for his owne particular nay though he were Master yet so it is as the Civilians say it â—oncerneth the Common-wealth that priâ—ate persons should not mis-employ their goods how much more then that they wrong not their reputation If therefore the good fame of priuate persons be the publiâ—ke intrest what shall wee say of that of publicke persons and of such who raised up to the throne of honors are obliged to cause their vertues to appeare by so much the more illustrious as it is farther exposed to the view of all men and by so much the more profitable since it ought to be usefull to all others That degrees and dignities do particularly oblige publicke persons to conserue their reputation as in the world and in man the little world the parts which hold the most eminent places have more luster and beauty than the rest The ranke they hold sufficiently sheweth what they ought to be and what manner of persons they ought to appeare Doe we not plainely see how whatsoeuer is most high and eminent in the Vniuerse hath more glosse and majestie then the rest So as one would say that nature desired to deuide to each thing either beauty according to the ranke or a ranke proportionable to its beauty The celestiall bodies raysed on high above the rest as upon the fane or pinacle of this beautifull Temple of the world have they not likewise more splendor than all other bodies and seemeth it not that the clarity they have maketh them worthy the place they possesse Among elementary bodies fire holding the highest place is it not the most pure and the earth enjoying the lowest ranke is it not inferiour to all the rest as well in beauty as situation In the order and disposition of the parts whereof mans body is so gracefully composed the face as most eminent is it not accompanied with a greater variety of graces adorned with more attractions animated with more lively colours and the eyes placed in the upper part of the face as stars in the firmament of this little world shew they not in their excellency far surpassing all other parts the justice nature observes in the distribution of rankes Are not these as it were secret instructions given by nature to those who hold the highest dignities among men to rayse by a good reputation the splendor of their vertues in equality with their ranks and to shew themselves most worthy of honour as it importeth they should be most honoured as being the face and eyes of the States body the Sunne and firmament of the Common-wealth when the earth sheweth clearer than the skies and the feet fairer than the face is it not a prodigy in nature a monster in reason and a disorder in policy That a good name is needfull for publicke persons for the authorizing their dignity and vertue Now besides the degree they hold the very service they owe to the publicke obligeth them to the care and observation of their renowne without which all their actions being without reputation will prove unprofitable and all their advises as the Oracles of Cassandra hissed at and rejected how good or true soever they be For as the Coyne not marked with a lawfull stampe passeth not in matter of merchandize though it be of good gold or silver so the words and actions not carrying the marke of a good reputation suit not with generall approbation even when they are just and may be usefull The substance is good but the stampe is rejected Truth it selfe loseth its grace and weight in the mouth of such as are suspected of vice and untruth and even vertuous actions are not readily received comming from such whose innocency is questionable We feare them as we doe Presents sent from enemies either that they are mistaken or that they seeke to deceive No man will beleeve as the fable saith that the Foxe will give sound advise or that the Wolfe can doe good the skinne is suspected though the counsell be sound Who knoweth not that in a certaine ancient Republicke a good law which a suspected person propounded would never be admitted before the same was proposed by a person of knowne integrity So much doth suspition enervate a good esteeme maintain credit Nor doth the defect of a good renowne onely breed suspition but even scorn which doth utterly ruine authority and therwith all the fruit of sagest counsels and fairest actions Opinion rules all the world and setteth the value on all things yea even on men and on vertue it selfe It extendeth its empire or if you please to have it so its usurpation over the most sacred things and vertue it selfe I meane that generous vertue vaunting to extract her estimation from her selfe seeth her selfe constrained of she desire authority to begge it of opinion If she rest satisfied with her owne conscience she must be forced to please her selfe in print but if she will appeare and make her selfe usefull to men shee must necessarily have two witnesses if she intend to be receiueable and that to the priuate testimony of the conscience she adde the suffrage of publicke esteeme CHAP. 11. Of the meanes to acquire and conserve a good renowne BVt to acquire and conserve this good name The first meanes is avoyding ill so necessary for the maintenance of the authoritie of vertue and
love and search the known good if wee do not farther adde those qualities requisite to enable us for the production and putting them in practise to the end to arm politick vertue with all her necessary peeces First then wisdome and prudence afford capacity and sufficiency Iustice honesty and their associats inspire a good affection and right intention It remaineth that I shew those parts adding thereto force and efficacy But even those vertues serving for knowing and willing good do also concurre to the enablement and action For every vertue is a habitude and perfection added to the powers of the reasonable soule to afford it the dexterity the vigour the ease and facility to operate and act agreeably to the rules of reason Whereupon the Philosophers generally call Vertue an operative habitude since every vertue tends to action and as Aristotle saith Vertue is no other than a quality making him good who possesseth it Arist lib. 2. Eth. cap. 6. Virtus est qua honum facit habentem opus ejus reddit bonum and his operation laudable So as Saint Augustine was in the right when in generall hee names Vertue A quality for the well ordering the actions of this life and more briefly The good Virtus est qualitas qua rectè vivitur Aug. l. 2. de lib. arb c. 18. 19. Virtus est honus usus liberi arbitrii ibid. and right use of freewill So in that every vertue reflecteth upon the action as its aym and fruit those vertues shewing light whereby to know good and inclining us to love it do likewise afford us the ability to produce it The same vigour of the root of which the tree makes use towards the conception and form of the fruit is likewise serviceable thereto for the production and perfection thereof And the same wind causing a ship to lanch forth and sayle doth likewise drive it into the haven The like agility animating the runner of the Olympick games to appeare in the lists doth also cause him to perform his race to touch the goal and gain the prize and that which begins to give him motion to his course doth consequently afford him both progresse and victory Wisdome and Prudence are not only even before the action usefull for the understanding of what is fit to bee done and of the meanes we are therein to use but they further guide the course of the action and the one serving as a fane the other conducting and prescribing the measure accompany and carry it to the desired end In like manner justice honesty and all vertues thereon depending besides that they dispose and inc ine the soule to honest and laudable actions they are likewise very usefull in the exercise of the very actions themselves not only causing man to be willing but to be able also to do good yet do I find notwithstanding certaine qualities and vertues properly destinated for the disclosing and producing of what prudence hath conceived and justice designed as honest and profitable Vertues and qualities without which justice hath often only good wishes without fruit and prudence sage counsels without successe Now these qualities are chiefly required in publick persons encountring in their most pious enterprizes a thousand obstacles through which they are to break lets which they are to rebate difficulties which they are to overcome and this not being feaseable for them without necessary armes their honesty remayneth uselesse and their wisdome fruitlesse if they be thereof unprovided I reduce these qualities to foure heads Authority Good Fortune Courage and Eloquence Authority causeth sage and just counsels to bee received Good Fortune makes them succesfull Courage addes credit therto and Eloquence perswades the performance and in truth without Eloquence they often appeare bitter without Courage weak without Good Fortune fruitlesse and nullified without Authority So as Authority causeth them to overcome all obstacles Good Fortune all difficulties Courage all resistances and Eloquence all humane aversions and passions Yet will I not say either that Eloquence is a vertue or that Authority or Good Fortune are inherent qualities and fastned to man as habitudes Courage arising out of Fortitude and Magnanimity justly holdeth one of the first ranks among politick vertues as I will shew in the sequell of this Discourse But Authority and Good fortune are but exteriour guifts of God being not in us but by his onely favour when at any time he authorizeth us among men causing our good counsels happily to succeed both for his glory and the generall good And as for Eloquence it is no vertue but an Instrument causing vertues to be of validitie and an ornament decking and beautifying them Now to place these foure qualities in their proper rankes and offices know that authority conferreth credit Good fortune successefulnesse Fortitude resolution and constancie Eloquence perswasion gracefulnesse and as it were Beautie And all these foure united give perfection to Politicke Vertue and a Period to my intended Worke. CHAP. II. Of Authoritie THe Authoritie whereof I speake in this place is not the dignity nor power which the charge conferreth but a reputation or if you please a wright and price which generall opinion and esteeme with a joynt consent affords to the vertuâ— counsell deeds and words of certaine persons clevated to high offices which all looke upon as Gods on earth or as men sent by God for the publike benefie and safety of all For there are diveâ—â— advanced to dignities who though adâ—â—â—ed with vertue and endued with judgment and science yet being unfurnished of this Authoritie which opinion affordeth to some particulars they misse the principall instrument setting a value upon men among men though their counsels be never so good and well grounded yea even where sufficiencie equally shineth with integritie yet so it is they are not so much as listned unto What in some other mans mouth would carry weight with it looseth its estimate in theirs and their Prudence is like the Gold and Pearles in some Countryes where the Inhabitants eyther regard them not or slight them as not knowing their worth Who knowes not that Cockles marked with the publicke stampe are the currant coyne in certaine newly discovered Countries namely in Congo For it is not the scarcitie of gold and silver which reduceth them to this extremitie but either the ignorance contempt or a contrary custome Gold and silver abound there but these people yeeld the precedence to base Cockle-shels if not in price at least in imployment The former loosing in these mens opinions the ranke and dignity Nature allowes them Gold was not in use in the Citie of Sparta by Lycurgus his Lawes but Iron onely which bearing the publike stamp was able and did all things in matter of commerce whilest gold though more rich and precious lay unprofitably moulding in some obscure retreat The like estimate the publick stamp gives to coynes generall opinion but chiefly that of the Prince whence authority hath its
cause right and reason to take place to support innocencie and to bereave iniquity of its liberty to doe ill yet notwithstanding not to have a heart more puffed up with vaine-glory but only a mind farther charged with care and not to grow passionate but for publicke interest and not seeke by their proper labours but only the good and quiet of others not to rule for themselves but by commanding to be serviceable to all to shew themselves as terrours to oppressors and the safety of the oppressed and not to employ Authority but in defence of what needeth support or to resist what cannot otherwise be repelled but by such a Iustice as is armed with power is the thing in truth which ravisheth all men with admiration It is that which acquireth and maintaineth credit in publick opinion causing those who execute such actions to be reverenced as the Gods of other men In this sort Iob representeth the credit he had among those of his Nation namely by his Iustice and equity When I drew neare sayth he the Gates of the Citie Iob. cap. 23. and when they prepared a Chaire for me in the middle of the place the young men retyred and the old men arose and stood up out of Honour The Princes gave over speaking holding the finger on the mouth The Governours were silent and their tongues were fastened to their pallats The Eare that heard my discourse esteemed me right happy and the Eye contemplating my gravity gave testimony to all men of me Because I had delivered the poore who had only cryes and sighes to defend them and the oppressed Orphan who found no reliefe I have comforted the afflicted heart of the Widow I cloathed my selfe with Iustice as with a Garment of Honour and a Diadem of Glory I have bin the Blind mans Eye the Lame mans foot and the Poore mans Father See here plainly in this example drawne out of Scripture how the credit authority of a Magistrate is the fruit of his Iustice and Integrity It is fitting that a Souldier know how to use his armes if he will have them defend him It is likewise requisite that he who is endowed with worthy qualities of the minde know how to employ them if hee intend they should grace him and put him into or maintaine him in authority For hee must understand how to take his favourable times moments and occasions to produce and manifest them The observation of seasons constellations dayes and houres is not more necessary for those who undertake husbandry to plant sow graft or to inoculate successefully If either Prudence or good fortune faile at this point we shall never advance any thing and be it that wee trip by indiscretion or slip by misfortune in this passage we shall still make the nose and ground meet save only that Imprudencie herein is blamable Infortunitie excusable But to conclude all this discourse concerning Authority The acquiring thereof is not all we must likewise beware we abuse it not or loose or weaken it by-imploying it to every frivolous purpose and without necessitie For as those who daily take Physicke make it uselesse and inefficacious by the over frequent use thereof taking away its vigour and operation by the custome So those who in all affaires and accidents are overstiffe and will straine their Authority to the height enervate and weaken it so as resolving never to slacken or unbend the bow they in the end doe absolutely breake it It is fitting sometime to give that way in lesse important occasions which a man would not doe in the obtaining what is fitting in more principall occurrents it is not necessary in passing a River to goe directly against the streame and to afflict our selves with an unnecessary toyle but rather to overcome its force in by asing the current and by a little descending and not by direct mounting to breake its force and make way Who so knoweth how to give way when in discretion he ought shall overcome all with patience We are to keepe the shoot-anchor for great tempests Credit and Authority for eminent occasions small ones ought not to detaine it to the end great ones may meet it in its full measure We have an excellent example hereof in Tacitus where a famous Senatour Cajus Cassius speaketh these notable words to the Senate in a Subject of consequence Tac. lib. 14. Anual 1. I have divers times not opposed many scarce reasonable things which have bin proposed in this assembly to the end not to destroy by over importune and frequent contradictions all the Authority I have but to keep it intire for the Common-wealths necessities if happily affaires stand in need of firme and free Counsell Here you see how Prudence ought to husband Authority CHAP. 7. Of good Luck ORder is transmuted when the Blinde lead the cleare-sighted Neverthelesse in worldly affaires if Fortune guide not Prudence yet doth she at least open the way for it and causeth it to attaine its ayme Prudence may passe on without the conduct of fortune but not arrive to the end wherto it aspireth without the favour of fortunes Convoy So as Prudence inventing sage Counsels and Fortune affording happy events The cleare-sighted disposeth the way but the blind findeth the passage It is not therefore sufficient to have Prudence for the proposing of good Counsels and Credit and Authority to cause them to be received if fortune accompany not the execution to make them successefull For though it be true that the Wiseman ought not to be answerable for events they being out of his Iurisdiction but onely for such Counsels as depend upon himselfe yet so it is notwithstanding that hee both seeketh and desireth his pretensions as all other things doe and when for the obtayning thereof he hath performed what he eyther ought or is able to effect in conclusion he findeth himselfe frustrate The glory of his Prudence doth not greatly content him without the fruit and if he merit not reproach yet seemeth he worthy of compassion since the vulgar in matter of affaires regard not the counsels but the events they more esteeme a naughty counsell with happy event than a good and sage one which succeedeth not and good fortune once sayling him both Wisedome Prudence Iudgment and all things seeme to be wanting in the opinion of men Truly those vvho having on their part performed what they ought yet doe only want successe may defend themselves with the answer which Siramnes a Persian Gentleman made to certaine of his friends who wondred why his Enterprises were so improspcrous his propositions being so pithy Plut. in his Morals of the notable saings of Princes Kings and Captaines The reason sayd he is because I am only Master of my discourse but Fortune of the effects Yet notwithstanding when good counsels take effect men alwayes esteeme them the best and when they succeed not the contrary event causeth them to be in some measure suspected In a word Prudence
ordained by Gods Providence willing that these their designes should succeed to make use of them toward the execution of his Eternall decrees whether they imagine or aime at any such matter or otherwise If their designes be honest and just he imployeth them by his expresse will If wicked and unjust he suffers them and by his wisdome draweth there out the good he intendeth But this good fortune seemes to be so farre affected to some as it not onely followes their persons but even all things concerning them or that have relation unto them as the Prosperitie of Augustus followed all his Lieutenants who with incredible good fortune obtained for him infinite famous victories Alexander the Great his fortunes followed his very pictures and the Ancients were of opinion that his pourtraicts carried about the neck made those happy and fortunate who wore them And wee reade in the histories of Bohemia how that famous Captaine Iohn Zisca who never lost Battaile where himselfe was present had so great conffdence in his good fortune as he ordained that after his death his skin should be taken off and a Drum to be headed therewith with which he commanded should be beaten up in the head of the Armie perswading himselfe that the like good fortune continually following his person whilest helived would likewise follow his skin and carkasse after his Decease The same felicity following famous Commanders in warre causing them to performe brave exploits doth likewise accompany even in matters of peace those generous soules whose counsels and directions God blesseth for the prosperity of States in such a measure as all they advise succeeds and is effectuall when as whatsoever others no lesse prudent and capable shall propound or seeme to set forward becommeth vaine and fruitlesse to shew us that in the decrees of humane Prudence Fortune or to speake more properly Gods Providence will maintaine the Empire But though the enjoyment of good fortune be a thing not otherwise depending on us then is the finding of a hidden treasure which not the designe but the luckie accident causeth to come to passe Yet so it is that as a good husband maketh better use of this found treasure then a prodigall who spends all so a Prudent and sage person doth better employ his good fortune then doth a foole or indiscreet person who looseth it in abusing it It is God then who giveth this good fortune but it is man who makes use of it his favour conferres it but our Prudence must imploy and manage it And as Gods grace doth not exclude but command mans cooperation in things concerning his eternall salvation So Gods favour restraineth not but requireth mans concurrencie in what hath reflection upon the conduct of temporall affaires and the good fortune hee confer reth on some hath such depenâ—anâ—ic on his benificence as their Prudence their Diligence and their Industrie are at all times reqâ—ilsite â—â—ward the validitie thereof For God maketh not use of man as of an inanimate unreasonable Instrument cooperating nothing of himselfe toward the work mans art but suffring him to performe all but he employeth him as an instrument endowed with soule and reason who being moved ought also himselfe to stirre and following his proper and voluntary propension upon the first motion his mover gives him to finish together with him the designed worke Good fortune followed Augustus from his Cradle even to his Grave but observe how hee hath at all times employed it by his paines husbanded it by his diligence managed it by his wisdome so farre forth as he hath left it questionable whether his Prudence be more obliged to his fortune in having so faithfully followed it or his fortune to his Prudence in having so sagely conducted it Alexander likewise was happy Fortune seeming to make choyce of him for her Favourite but had he slept in Idlenesse had he not seconded his Fortunes by his Travailes and Courage his Fortune would never have layd him in the Bed of Victories and Triumphs which acquired him the Title of Great It is therfore necessary for those who are secoÌ„ded with good successe in their designes counsels to endeavor on their parts to employ it profitably to manage it discreetly I say discreetly since fortune is ofte offended with such as abuse her favors who attempt all things who unadvisedly undertake actions and who without sounding the foard fall into the precipice supposing their good fortune hath compacted with their impradencie obliging her selfe to follow it at all points There is no treasure so great but Prodigality can draine it nor Fortune so propitious that folly will not frustrate And it is ordinarily seene that the most fortunate are in conclusioÌ„ crushed with the greatest miseries for being over confident of their Prosperity they commit the grossest absurdities so as the same good Fortune which in favouring blindeth them in blinding overthroweth them causing them out of their owne folly to pay use for her former benefits We are to acknowledg that Fortune being blind may trip standing on a Bowle she may turne having Wings she may flye away If Prudence shew her not light Discretion settle her not and the reverence we beare her oblige her not to stay Discretion ought to be seconded by Modestie since Pride and insolency are the most dangerous rockes threatning the prosperous They are ordinarily engendred by good Fortune yet doe they commonly spoyle and ruine their productrix For presumption moveth men not at all to measure their forces throwing them headlong into hazards whence good fortune cannot disingage them it causeth them to scorne others this scorne rayseth envie out of envie arise Counter checks enmities and contradictions which in the end shake the fortune of the most prosperous for having carried themselves over insolently in their advancements So as better counfell cannot be followed than to imitate the modesty of Agathocles who from the Pottery being raysed to Royaltie Caused Earthen Vessels to be mingled with those of Gold and silâ—ver at his Table to the end the remembrance of his former meanesse might hinder him from growing proud of his Present Groatnesse What felicitie therefore soever followth the prosperous hee ought never to forget hee is man and how the very thing seeming to rayse him above others is but onely the puffe of a fraile Fortune which may forsake him in a moment as the Winde causing a Ship to sayle often leaves her in the middle of her Voyage We are to consider that there are divers things which contribute toward the conservation and maintenance of good Fortune and chiefly the good will and friendship of other men which is lost by Pride but gayned and maintayned by moderation But since good Fortune is a heavenly guift and a favour from God as I have formerly shewed the most assured meanes to maintaine it is an humble acknowledgment toward him who bestoweth it an acknowledgment consisting of two points In rendring him the honour and glory by thankesgiving
and in not imploying it but in just enterprises and conformable to his holy Will by a pure and upright intention For when wee abuse Gods Benefits or alsume the Honour thereof to our selves or when we imploy it only to our own particular profit or when we make use thereof against the Giver God ordinarily revoketh his guifts or turneth them to the ruine and Confusion of ungratefull persons Whereupon wee see in History and dayly Experience that those who have the greatest good Fortunes and Prosperities in this World often fall upon most fatall and unfortunate ends Wherein wee are to acknowledge the Iustice of Gods Iudgements in the chasticement of their ingratitude CHAP. 9. Of Fortitude and Courage IVstice often encountreth divers impediments in the execution of the good it designeth Le ts I say so strong sometimes and so violent as Authority cannot overcome them nor can good fortune divert them if Fortitude and Courage breake not through and surmount them Fortitude therefore is a right necessary vertue to performe and execute by overcomming all opposite resistances And it is hereof we are now to treate Nature hath imprinted in all things a certaine inclination not only to procure good and avoyde evill but even to resist things contrary eyther hindring the pursuite of what is profitable or casting in our way what is hurtfull unto us Fire hath a naturall propension not onely to raise it selfe aloft from interiour places not agrecable thereto and to tend to its naturall sphere and convenient residence but moreover to resist all things corrupting it or hindring its mounting Water hath not onely an inclination to slide toward the Sea the place it seekes for but a swiftnesse and violence to make it selfe way over bankes ditches rockes and mountains resisting her course A stone besides the weight causing it to fall to its center hath the strength and hardnesse to crush and breake things opposite to its descent All living creatures besides the naturall appetite inciting and drawing them toward objects pleasing to their senses are besides stirred up by a secret instigation to arme themselves either with beake teeth nayles or other naturall weapons against whatsoever shall hinder them from the approach or enjoyment of those things they affect Man likewise is not onely endowed with the concupiscible apperite inclining him to the purchase of things sutable to his nature and to the avoyding their contraties but with an irascible appetite likewise serving him as a spur and affording him vigour to fight against all resistances restrayning him from the good hee aymeth at and against all mischies attempting and assalting him The flashes and motions of this irascible appetite as hop bold nesse and choler the three principall passions of the irascible being well ordered and conducted by reason serve as souldiers to vertue to fight under her Ensigne against such difficulties and resistances as shee encounters in the execution of her designes So Saint Gregory of Nice Greg Nâ—ss Nemesiu l. 4. Philos ca. 13. Iraest armigera concupiscentiae elegantly termeth Choler a souldier under the pay of concupiscence fighting for her against all things opposing her pursuits A souldier arming himselfe in loves quarrell to overthrow and surmount whatsoever shall crosse her desires Now if Temperance doth so evenly regulate the desires of love as to cause man not to love or desire but onely what is conformable to reason In this case the motions of the irascible part arming themselves against oppositions are just and reasonable and serve as instruments for vertue For the Stoicks were in the wrong in condemning all Passions as vitious As Lycus King of Thrace who destroyed al the vines in his kingdome because Wine inebricâ—ated the passions Hier ep ad Câ—esiphon contra Pelagiu Ex homine passionem tollere hoc est bominem ex homine tollere and in striving utterly to bereave us thereof since passions are naturall to man vice being not derived from nature but from the will Wherefore the Philosopher rejecteth this Proposition as false And the church it selfe at a famous Councell in Saint Hieromes time condemned as heretickes certaine Anachorites who would introcuce a kinde of Apathie and impassibility Since saith this holy Father he who wholly taketh passions from men doth as much as he who breaveth man of his humane nature Nay I will say more it is to rob man of the spurre toward vertue For God hath ingrafted these transports and motions in man not to follow them as bruit beasts without reason or restraint but to make reasonable use thereof as provocations exciting us to the eschewing of ill and pursuit of good Reason sheweth man both good and ill the Will inciteth us toward good and diverteth us from ill Passions well ordered by reason serve as spurs to the will to put her forward with more ardour and vehemencie whither reason conducts her and her motion leads her But chiefly when the good which vertue proposeth is difficult and hardly to be executed for vertue at such times intreates the passions of the irascible to lend her strong hand and as souldiers to take armes for her assistance And presently at her summons Hope the first motion of the irascible begins to arme and to put her in heart Hope is seconded by a generous Audacitie as with a second Champion who surmounting the consideration of all obstacles which might stoppe his course exposeth and puts himselfe forward without all feare of danger to such meanes as may serve him to execute his resolution But if the resistance of wicked persons oppose and crosse him Choler as a third souldier comes to the rescue which pricking and awaking the soule as with a quickning sting heats and inflames her with a holy violence against iniquity But by reason these three souldiers are dangerous if they be not moderated by the lawes of good discipline and in that hope may prove rash Audacitie foolish and Choler precipitate Wee are therefore to be warie lest presumptuous Hope engage us not in desperate enterprises indiscreet boldnesse into impossibilities blinde Choler into inevitable ruines But rather that consideration guiding Hope discretion boldnesse and reason Choler vertue by this meanes may employ these three Champions in the sage valorous and happy execution of her intentions For there is this difference betweene those who follow the violence and brutalitie of their passions and others who regulating them by reason make use of them onely as incitements towards vertue that the former foolish cast themselves upon the very swords point which nature hath given them the latter imploy it prudently to the right use the former hereby finding onely therein their ruine the latter extracting thence their glory Those if they enterprise any good action suffer themselves to bee transported precipitately to their downefall soone losing their fyrinesse in the progresse of what they undertake The second governing their transports by judgement revigorate their resolutions the further they engage themselves in dangerous
likewise are right necessary in Magistrates even by the lawes of Pagans and by the decrees of humane wisedome Who knoweth not the Carthaginian law commanding such a temperance as it even obliged men to abstaine from wine Who is not acquainted with the Roman lawes so strictly enjoyning Chastity to Senators and to others raysed to honours as the privation of their dignity was the penaltie of their impudicity It is apparant that Quintus Curtius of an Illustrious family was degraded from the Senate by the Censors for his adulâ—eries Sâ—lâ—â—st in Conâ—u Catâ—â—â—â— and that Lucius Sulpitius of a Confularie family for a small suspition of incontinency was not onely dismissed from his dignity but moreover cast into prison Who hath not read what that ancient Chancellour to Thierry King of the Goths said That Purple could not be dyed but by Mayden handâ— which sufficiently sheweth how it cannot be worne but by modest persons Who is ignorant what the same King Thierry writ to a certain person whom he appointed for Iudge Be said he the Temple of Innocency the sanctuary of temperance the Altar of Iustice let every profane thing bee farre removed from so sacred a charge under a religious Prince Magistracie ought to be a kind of Priesthood I alledge this not to swell paper but to confirme my proposition that even humane lawes without speaking of Christian and divine obligations though farre more perfect and strict in this case require in those who govern besides the vertues necessary for good government those likewise requisite for well living For how can any expect to be rightly governed by him who lives disorderly himselfe by hâ—s conduct who knowes not how to guide himselfe or looke for publicke and punctuall discipline from him who suffers passions and vices to beare chiefe sway in his private family If an ancient Author say That he who is not a kinde husband cannot be a good Senator and the Apostle That hee who ruleth not well his family cannot governe the Church well How can he who is not an honest man ever prove a good Magistrate or that he who suffers shipwracke of a good conscience should have care of the Common-wealth He saith S Basile who suffereth himselfe to be transported by Passion how can he governe others by reason He in whom will sensuality and a very beast beare sway how can he be thought fit to governe men He who no longer will doe himselfe Iustice how can hee afford it to his neighbour The man who is mischievous to himselfe how can he be good to others saith holy Writ Can one communicate what he hath not or give what is not in his power The Gospell saith We gather not Grapes from Thornes nor Figs from Thistles This sheweth the connexion and tye which is betweene Politicke vertues and those in a private person which indeed are as the Basis and ground of the former as nature is before dignity the man before the Magistrate and the substance before the accident The Iustice which each man oweth to himselfe obligeth him first to regulate his soule his affections his passions his motions and vices and then hee shall become the more capable to render Iustice to others by how much hee shall know by himselfe what is due unto them Naturall and divine lawes doe onely propose our selves to our selves for a rule and measure of what we owe to our neighbours Moreover the ordering and suppression of passions and vices is requisite in Magistrates by reason these darken the understanding deprave the affections and make man incapable to give good and wholsome counsell since the vicious and irregular soule either sees not what is good through imprudence or suppresseth it our of malice but also by reason the vices and excesses of those who governe doe at all times draw after them the ruine of States Luxury ryot and intemperance draw them to great expences and prodigall expences to extortions injustices and violencies One abysse drawes on another Steph Tornacensis 215. said an ancient Bishop of France The pit of pleasures drawes on the gulfe of expences and the abysse of expences that of rapines Thence it is that the ancient Roman lawes prescribed the measure and mediocrity in matter of apparrell traine and table to all those who governed the Common-wealth For in truth all vices in great persons are prejudiciall to the Publicke since neither fire water greatnesse or power cannot exceed their limits but this excesse doth speedily overthrow all the ordinary bounds and all the most commodious preventions in the world These observing order are most usefull but quitting once their confines they become most pernicious The Sunne quickning all things by its light causeth all to quake at its Eclipse If avarice possesse them extortion followes if ambition private plottings if choler cruelties if hatred revenge if envy looke for commotions the overthrow of all States Who knowes not that the hatred of Marius against Silla of Aman against Mordocheus of Theophilus Patriarch of Alexandria against Saint Iohn Chrysostome of Licinius against Constantine the Great transported the first to the ruine of all the City of Rome another to destroy the whole nation of the Iewes a third to disturbe all the Easterne Church and the last to prosecute all the Christians within his Empire Of so great importance is it that the passions of great persons should be contained by the bridle of reason as the furie of wilde beasts under iron and chaines So wofull a thing it is when a foole and a sword vice and authority passion and power meete together But vertues concerning the government of particulars are yet necessary in publicke persons for a concluding consideration to wit for the acquiring reputation and good same being things of no meane consequence for the maintaining authority For though men be obliged to reverence power so it is notwithstanding that they cannot reverence it heartily unlesse it be visibly accompanied with a good life Otherwise they cause us to be of Salvians opinion That dignity in an unworthy person is an ornament in the dirt Or as Saint Basil said That he who is a servant to sinne D. Basil crat de Prinscip is unworthy to be master over men True it is that nature made all men equall but if order will have a distinction of rankes Iustice ought to make this distinction and merit the election And though both divine and humane lawes command us to honour our superiours though vicious and irregular yet so it is as we distinguish in this case betweene the dignity and the person betweene the Image of Isis and the Asse that carried her Reverence is alwayes slacke and subject to the least oppositions and chances when it is as it were divided betweene honour and scorne It followes therefore that the true means to maintaine the honour of any office is to joyne thereto a good life which causeth the person to be reverenced CHAP. 13. Of good Example which is the first duty
prototype of this divine pattern God in this mans heart hath engraven a lively knowledge of this truth that those whose dignities cause them neerest to resemble him ought most neerely to approach unto him by duty and love and that the degree of piety should equalize that of preferment that the greatnesse of the benefit received should bee the modell of acknowledgement To consider likewise that the highest Angels are most ardent in his love the promptest to know and accomplish his commandements And from this Principle as from a celestiall seed we see spring the blessed maximes conformable to eternall verities Iust counsels sage advices the administration of earthly things according to celestiall lawes briefly all the fruits worthy of this Christian and divine Philosophy Hee then seeth how Iustice being obliged to allow to each man what is his right that after the service due to Almighty God the regulating of our manners being a right due to our selves holdeth the first rank in obligation and ought likewise to have the first place in discharge hee knoweth how the rule which ought to bee as the modell to all the world ought chiefly to be very direct in it selfe That the words of Iustice are found to be of very flat taste if the soule savour not the fruits That to govern well and live wickedly if it bee not incompatible is at least dishonest That sage counsels do only profit others but a lewd life endammageth its authour That there is nothing so foolish as to follow the Silk-worm who spins silk for us and ends her dayes in the action industrious for others to himselfe pernicious hee in conclusion sees how after he hath set himselfe in good order the last duty of Politick Iustice is to be carefull of the publick good and to despise his proper interest That it is as much as to make himselfe pretious not to be bought or allured by any reward That there is nothing so glorious as to shew himselfe incorrnptible in an age wherein the glittering of gold tempteth the fidelity of all and overcometh the constancy of many That Integrity then is most laudable when by reason of corrupted times covetousnesse seemes to bee excusable That it is an unworthy thing to make the earths excrements mens Idols and that those base metals Nature buries in her lowest bottoms should usurp the principall place in the affections of a reasonable soule That it is a shame and reproach to Christians to see very Pagans shew greater integrity and more incorruption and affection to the publick good in the administration of Offices than we do That the ancient Romans as Valerius the great witnesseth namely those of the Aelian family rather chose to bee poore in a plentifull Republick then rich in a poore one And that now even those who professe the knowledge of the true God blush not at all when they impoverish whole Cities and Kingdomes to enrich their private families with publick spoyles Out of these considerations ariseth and springeth this excellent resolution of despising our particular out of zeale to the publick and to shew our selves liberall of riches covetous of vertue and surmounting gold the conquerour of all things to make it appeare we are invincible From thence arise all those wholsome counsels which the generous liberty of a soule free from covetousnesse produce together with all those famous acts of loyalty toward our Prince of moderation in power in support of innocency of resistance against injury of incorruption against all sorts of tentations of the peace of Cities the repose of Provinces augmentation of Empires wholsome lawes just governments and all those faire designes which Princes conceive in the inclinations and motions of those generous persons which after God and themselves are the principall motions of their soules and our safety For even as those starrs meeting in conjunction with the Sunne do much availe toward the causing his influences to become good and favourable unto us as the Pleiades which cause the light to appeare pleasing and gratious unto us at the Springs return whereas the Canicular starres make it scorching in Summer So those who by their just and good counsels move the will and authority of good and just Princes concurre with them and are the organs and instruments of a fortunate age Symm Bonis iustis Princiâ—ibâ—â—s bonâ— decora suadentes instrumenta sunt boni saeculi O happy ages who enjoy such miracles and alike treasures miracles in truth for the rarity treasures for their necessity O fortunate France who amid all thy miseries hast never wanted those brave Catoes and Phocions who have a thousand times saved thee from ship wrack at what time danger causing the ambitious to â—â—â—nk and feare the timorous to retire zeale hath bestowed on thee the good courage the valiant and God the necessary O great soules who conceive these generous designes not to breath but for the publick and to banish their particular you quit a slight profit and carry away the Laurell of an incomparable honour what you trample upon is but a little earth and in exchange the approbation of Kings the suffrages of Provinces the acclamation of people the culogies of History the benediction of men the glory of God here on earth commendations and on high immortall Crownes are your rewards The end of the second Book THE THIRD BOOK Of Vertues and Qualities which give vigour and grace to execute CHAP. 1. The proposition and divisiâ—â—â— of matters discused in this last Book TO know good and to will it to know it and to seek it to see it and tend toward it all this is not the attaynment thereof Power is necessary for the compassing what we aspire unto For what benefit were it for brute beasts to have sense to apprehend and an appetite to incline towards things fitting for them if notwithstanding they wanted both feet and wings to convey them whither their appetite inclineth them for the obtayning what their sense apprehendeth The Art and will of sayling plowing painting building what use would they afford to the Pilot Plowman Painter or Architect if the last wanted his trowell to set hands to work the next his pencill for the expression of his idaeas the third his plough to stirre the earth the fourth his rudder and sayles to part the waves Knowledge is unprofitable where power fayleth and vaine the desire which cannot arrive to its ayme The wisdome of God knoweth all things and his bounty is boundlesse but had he not equall power to bring to light both what he knoweth and willeth his bounty would remayn fruitlesse and his wisdome worklesse the one could not appeare the other not communicate it selfe nor should wee know either how much the one knoweth or how greatly the other loveth us It is therefore not enough to have treated of and handled in the two former Bookes the vertues instructing the understanding in the knowledge of good and those in particular disposing the will to