from Alexandria for that he would not sign this proposition this drew compassion from her The spirit of Constantia tainted with this doctrine began already to cast an evil odour upon the Emperour her brother and Eusebius coming thereupon to make recital of that which passed in Alexandria between Alexander and Arius set such a face upon the whole business that he made as it is said the Sun with a cole figuring out the good Prelate Alexander as a passionate man who could not endure an excel-cellent spirit in his Bishoprick 'T is a pitifull thing that great men see not the truth but through the passions of those that serve them This poor Alexander who was a holy old man and grown white in the exercises of Religion was then presented to the Emperour by the information of Eusebius as a fool who under a grizled head had extravagancies of youth in such sort that Constantine Constantine deceived vouchsafing to write unto him taxed him as the authour of this tumult in that he put a frivolous question into consultation and gave occasion of dispute which could never have proceeded but from abundance of idleness And as for Arius he said of him that he gave too much scope to his spirit upon a subject which might much better have been concealed And for the rest they should be both reconciled mutually pardoning each other and hereafter hindering all manner of disputations upon the like occasion Alexander who had done nothing but by the Councel of an hundred Bishops seeing himself treated in a worse condition than Arius was in the Emperours letters and considering the blasphemy which this Heretick had vomited against the Divinity of the Word was reputed as a trifle thought verily they had endeavoured to envenom the spirit of Constantine to the prejudice of the truth For this cause he informed the other Bishops and namely Pope Sylvester of the justice of his cause answering very pertinently to the calumnies objected against him On Eusebius a true patron of hereticks the other side Eusebius who beheld the integrity of this holy Bishop with an ill eye and who had very far engaged himself to maintain Arius embroiled the affairs at Court as much as his credit might permit In the end the disputation was so enkindled through the Christian world that needs must a general Councel be held to determine it Three hundred and eighteen Bishops are assembled Councel of Nice at Nice a Citie of Bithynia by the approbation of Pope Sylvester at the request of the Emperour Constantine who invited the most eminent by express letters and gave very singular direction as wel for their journey as their reception Never was there seen a goodlier company It was a Crown not of pearls nor diamonds but of the rarest men of the world who came from all parts like bees bearing as saith S. Augustine honey in their mouths and wax in their hands There you might behold Venetians Arahians Aegyptians Scythians Thracians Africans Persians not speaking of Western Bishops who were there already in no small number It was a most magnificent spectacle to behold on one side venerable old men white as swans who still bare upon their bodies the scars of iron and persecution which were invincible testimonies of their constancy on the other men who had the gift of miracles so much as to force the power of death and tear from him the dead out of their tombs on the other part men accomplished in Theologie and eloquence who in opening their mouthes seemed to unfold the gate of a Temple full of wonders and beauties There was to be found that great S. James of Nisibis Paphnutius and Potamion There was Hosius S. Nicholas the first Gregorie the father of our Nazianzen Spiridion and so many other worthymen The good Pope S. Sylvester could not be present therat by reason of the decrepitness of his age but sent thither three Legats Hosius Vitus and Vincentius The Emperour received them all most lovingly kissing the scars of some and admiring the sanctity of others never satisfying himself with the modesty and good discourse of all both in particular and general Among these children of God were likewise some Satans adherents to Arius who discovered in their eyes and countenances the passions of their hearts These turbulent spirits fearing the aspect of this awfull assembly softly suggested divers calumnies to surprize the spirit of the Emperour which very naturally retained much goodness And for this purpose they presented to him many requests and many papers charged with complaints and accusations upon pretended domages Verily these proceedings were sufficient to divert this Prince from the love he bare to our Religion were it not that through the grace of God he had already taken very deep root in the faith In the end to do an act worthy of his Majesty beholding himself to be daily burdened with writings wherein these passionate Bishops spake of nothing but their own interests he advised them to set down all their grievances and all the satisfactions which they pretended to draw from those who had offended them and present them on a day designed They failed not to confound him with libels and supplications but this grave Monarch putting them into his bosom said openly Behold a large Zozom l. 1. cap. 16. proportion of Accusations all which must be transferred to the judgement of God who will judge them in the latter day As for my self I am a man nor is it my profession to take notice of such causes where those that accuse and such as be accused are Bishops Let us I pray you for this time leave these affairs and treat we the points for which this Councel is here assembled onely let every one following therein the Divine clemencie pardon all that is past and make an absolute reconciliation for the time to come When he had spoken this he took all the civil requests presented unto him and caused them to be cast into the fire which was much applauded by all those who had their judgements discharged from partialities In the mean space the Bishops before they entered into the Councel took time to examine the propositions that were to be handled and leisurably to inform themselves of the pretensions of Arius who was there present and who already felt the vehemency of the vigour of S. Athanasius though he was yet but a Deacon in the Church of Alexandria The day of the Councel being come the Bishops assembled in the great Hall of the Palace where many benches were set both on the one side and other Every one taketh his place according to his rank Baronius thinketh the Legats of the Pope were seated on the left hand as in the most honourable seats which he very pertinently proveth In the first place on the right hand sat the venerable Bishop Eustatius who was to begin the prayer and carry relations to the Emperour The Bishops remained silent for a Constantius in the
I eat drink sleep when I do business when I am both in conversation and solitude Whither shall this poor soul go which thou hast thrown into a body so frail in a world so corrupt and amongst the assaults of so many pernicious enemies Open O Lord thine eyes for my guidance and compassionate my infirmities without thee I can do nothing and in thee I can do all that I ought Give me O Lord a piercing eye to see my danger and the wings of an Eagle to flie from it or the heart of a Lion to fight valiantly that I may never be wanting in my duty and fidelity to thee I ow all that I am or have to thy gracious favour and I will hope for my salvation not by any proportion of my own virtues which are weak and slender but by thy boundless liberalities which onely do crown all our good works The Gospel upon Munday the first week of Lent out of Saint Matthew 25. Of the Judgement-Day ANd when the Son of man shall come in his Majesty and all the Angels with him then shall be sit upon the seat of his Majesty And all Nations shall be gathered together before him and he shall separate them one from another as the Pastour separateth the sheep from the goats And shall set the sheep at his right hand but the goats at his left Then shall the King say to them that shall be at his right hand Come ye blessed of my Father possess you the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world For I was hungred and you gave me to eat I was athirst and you gave me to drink I was a stranger and you took me in naked and you covered me sick and you visited me I was in prison and you came to me Then shall the just answer him saying Lord when did we see thee an hungred and fed thee athirst and gave thee drink and when did we see thee a stranger and took thee in or naked and covered thee or when did we see thee sick or in prison and came to thee And the King answering shall say to them Amen I say to you as long as you did it to one of these my least brethren you did it to me Then shall he say to them also that shall be at his left hand Get you away from me you cursed into fire everlasting which was prepared for the Devil and his Angels For I was an hungred and you gave me not to eat I was athirst and you gave me not to drink I was a stranger and ye took me not in naked and you covered me not sick and in prison and you did not visit me Then they also shall answer him saying Lord when did we see thee an hungred or athirst or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to thee Then shall he answer them saying Amen I say to you as long as you did it not to one of these lesser neither did you it to me And these shall go into punishment everlasting but the just into life everlasting Moralities 1. BEhold here a Gospel of great terrour where our spirit like the Dove of Noah is placed upon the great deluge of Gods wrath and knows not where to find footing Every thing is most dreadfull But what can be more terrible than the certainty of Gods judgement joyned with the great uncertainty of the hour of our death It is an unchangeable decree that we must all be presented before the high Tribunal of the living God to render a just account of all which our soul hath done while it was joyned with our body as we are taught by S. Paul We must make an account of our time spent of our thoughts words actions of that we have done and that we have omitted of life death and of the bloud of Jesus Christ and thereupon receive a judgement of everlasting life or death All men know that this must certainly be done but no man knows the hour or moment when it shall be So many clocks strike about us every day and yet none can let us know the hour of our death 2. O how great is the solitude of a Soul in her separation from so many great enticements of the world wherein many men live and in an instant to see nothing but the good or ill we have done on either side us what an astonishment will it be for a man suddenly to see all the actions of his life as upon a piece of Tapistree spred befor his eyes where his sins will appear like so many thorns so many serpents so many venemous beasts Where will then be that cozening vail of reputation and reason of state which as yet cover so many wicked actions The soul shall in that day of God be shewed naked to all the world and her own eyes will most vex her by witnessing so plainly what she hath done 3. O what a parting water is Gods judgement which in a moment shall separate the mettals so different O what a division will then be made of some men which now live upon earth Some shall be made clear and bright like the stars of heaven others like coals burning in hell O what a dreadfull change will it be to a damned soul at her separation from this life to live onely in the company of devils in that piercing sense of torments and eternal punishment It is a very troublesom thing to be tied with silken strings in a bed of Roses for the space of eight days together What may we think of a damned soul which must dwell in a bed of flames so long as there shall be a God 4. Make use of the time given you to work your salvation and live such a life as may end with a happy death and so obtain that favourable judgement which shall say Come O thou soul blessed of God my Father possess the kingdom which is prepared for thee from the beginning of the world There is no better means to avoid the rigour of Gods judgements than to fear them continually Imitate the tree mentioned in an Emblem which being designed to make a ship and finding it self wind-shaken as it grew upon the land said What will become of me in the sea If we be already moved in this world by the bare consideration of the punishment due to sin think what it will be in that vast sea and dreadfull Abyss of Gods judgements Aspirations O King of dreadfull Majesty who doest justly damn and undeservedly save souls save me O Fountain of Mercy Remember thy self sweet Jesus that I was the cause of that great journey which thou tookest from God to man and do not destroy me in that dreadfull day which must decide the Question of my life or death for all eternity Take care of my last end since thou art the cause of my beginning and the onely cause of all that I am O Father of bounties wouldest thou stop a mouth
from whence we all come we are content to have virtues onely by imagination and vices in their true essence Nembroth professed himself a servant of the true God and yet adored the fire in secret Jesus hath many worshippers in words but few in truth Some stand upon formalities others upon disguised habits others amuse themselves about ceremonies others go as upon certain springs to make themselves counted wise Most men would seem what they are not and much troubled to be seen what they are All their time doth pass in fashions and countenances but death and Gods judgements take off all those masks 3. To say that we have seen a man exteriourly devout and spiritual except he be so inwardly is to say we have seen a house without a foundation a tree without a root a vessel move upon the sea without a bottom and an excellent clock without a spring For the same which the foundation is to a house the root to a tree the bottom to a ship and the spring to a clock the same is a mans interiour life to all virtue What is a man the better who resembles window-cushions which are covered with velvet and stuft with hay or to be like the picture of Diana in Homers Island which wept to some and laught to others A little spark of a good conscience is better than all the lights of the world Why do we crucifie our selves with so many dissimulations so many ceremonies so many enforcements upon our natures to serve and please men onely to get smoke He that sows wind saith the Prophet shall reap a storm Let us live to our selves in the purity of a good conscience and of a perfect humility if we desire to live for ever with God Those shadows of false devotion proceed from the leaves of that fig-tree wherwith Adam and Eve covered their nakedness do not we know that hypocrisie is the same thing to virtue which painting is to faces and that it is the very moth which devours sanctity and will at the day of judgement make all those appear naked which to the world seem well apparrelled Aspiration O God of all truth wherefore are there so many fictions and counterfeit behaviours Must we always live to please the eyes of others and run after the shadow of vanity which leaves nothing but illusion within our eyes and corruption in our manners I will live unto thee O fountain of lives within whom all creatures have life I will retire my self into my own heart and negotiate with it by the secret feeling of a good conscience that I may treat with thee What need I the eyes of men if I have the eyes of God They alone are sufficient to do me good since by their aspect they give happiness to all the Saints I will seek for thee O my beloved Lord from the break of day till the dead time of the night All places are solitary where thou art not and where thou art there onely is the fullness of all pleasures The Gospel for Wednesday the second week in Lent S. Matth 20. The Request of the wife of Zebedce for her sons James and John ANd Jesus going up to Jerusalem took the twelve Disciples secretly and said to them Behold we go up to Jerusalem and the Son of man shall be delivered to the chief Priests and to the Scribes and they shall condemn him to death and shall deliver him to the Gentiles to be mocked and scourged and crucified and the third day he shall rise again Then came to him the mother of the sons of Zebedee with her sons adoring and desiring something of him who said to her What wilt thou She saith to him Say that these my two sons may sit one at thy right hand and one at thy left hand in thy Kingdom And Jesus answering said You know not what you desire Can ye drink of the cup that I shall drink of They say to him We can He saith to them My cup indeed you shall drink of but to sit at my right hand and left is not mine to give to you but to whom it is prepared of my Father Moralities 1. WHat a short life have we and yet such large and vast ambitions We fear every thing like mortal men and yet desire all as if we should be immortal upon earth It is a strange thing to observe how the desire of honour slides even amongst the most refined devotions Some one is counted an Angel of Heaven amongst men who hath not forsaken his pretence upon earth Ambition sleeps in the bosoms of persons consecrated for the Altars It overthrows some whom luxury could not stir and moves those whom avarice could not touch We desire all to be known and to seem what we are not but this seeming is that which doth bewitch us All passions grow old and weaker by age onely the desire of worldly riches and honours is a shirt which we never put off till we come to the grave Why do we so extreamly torment our poor life by running after this shadow of honour which we cannot follow without trouble nor possess without fear nor lose without sorrow It is not a strange folly that men love such vanities till the very last instant of their own ruins and fear nothing so they may tumble into precipices of gold and silver 2. What great pains you take for these children as if they did not more belong to God than you you cast day and night where to place them when the Providence of God which is the great Harbinger of the world hath already markt their lodgings One is settled in a good Religious course another in the grave another perhaps shall have more than is necessary to make him a good man Eve imagined that her son Cain having all the world would have become some great God when ambition made him a devil incarnate You shall rarely make your children great Saints by getting them great honours You desire they should possess all that which overthrows them and pretending to make a building with one hand you destroy it with the other By all your earnest wishes and all your laborious endeavours for advancement of your children you effect nothing but thereby give them enticements to pleasure and weapons for iniquity 3. Whereupon should we build our ambitions if not upon the bloud of the holy Lamb At the foot of the Cross we behold a God covered with bloud crowned with thorns and reproches who warns us to be humble and at the same time we eagerly pursue worldly glory and ambition We resemble that unhappy daughter of Miltiades who did prostitute her self under her fathers Tropheys By our unmeasurable hunting after honours amongst the ignominies of Jesus Christ we abandon our selves to dishonour and make no other use of the Cross but onely to be a witness of our infidelity Aspirations AVoid be gone you importunate cares of worldly goods and honours you little tyrants which burn the bloud within our
wonder that in this passage he useth an Hebâ—ew word for two purposes signifying two contraries to wit to shine and to be darkened It is to shew us that obscuritie which cometh A worthy letter in Job from adversitie is a true and perfect light It then being admitted which all mouthes do preach and pens do write that adversities are necessary to make up a great virtue we will thereon conclude that perfection will be more sutably accommodated to the lives of Great men than any other though never so good since they are those who daily are exposed to the greatest hazards The crosses of religious and private men are but meer paper in comparison of those which happen to the Great men of the world The learned Sinesius saith they Sinesius de regno ad Arcadium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are illustrious on every side one while they mount as high as Heaven another while they descend even to the abyss their change is never in the mean and their fortune is pointed out in extremities this manifestly declareth that as their fortune hath no bounds so they should not limit their virtues O men of honour it is a brave thing to see you couragious in disasters as Eagles who flie confronting that part of heaven where raging tempests most reign not unlike Dolphins who leap and bound with full carreer in the tumultuous waves or as vast rocks who erect their crests against the clouds and mock at the foamie waves billow-beating their feet This is truly the element of virtue resembling the pretious stone called Ceraunia by the Grecians as one would Ceraunia say the Thunderer for it is bred among thunders and is found in places where Heaven all swoln with anger hath cleft the master-pieces of the worlds great magazin So after the black vapours of obloquie after the mistie clouds which have dis-coloured our reputation after envie rage after brutish furies after oppressions of innocencie after the death of kindred after faithlesness of friends after disgrace after thunders shot from the Capitol when you behold a heart firmly fixed in a fair situation which enfoldeth it self within it self and sucketh in the tasteful sweetnesses of a good conscience then behold a thunder-stone which gladdeth Angels and dazeleth eyes fearful of his lightening flashes Conclude then upon this whole discourse that greatness is the very element of great virtue and if you yet hereof doubt learn the same from the authoritie of God who hath judged greatness so necessary an object for virtue that he hath conducted all his greatest servants to perfection if not by the enjoying of greatness at the least by contempt thereof and never had they been so great if struggling with greatness they had not scorned to be great Our Saviour to shew he was the example of perfection would appear great in refusing a world which Satan had as it were unfolded before his feet He would the virtue of the greatest of all men should appear in the refusal of the greatest of all titles when S. John Baptist denied the name of Messias He sheweth the greatness of his faithful servant Moses in the contempt of Pharaoh's kingdom He gave Nero's Court to S. Peter and S. Paul as the Amphitheater of their glorie He likewise many times hath drawn Hermits from the unfrequented desarts to make them mannage great matters in the Catastrophe of their lives in the palaces of Princes so necessary it is to have to do with greatness to act something important If God hath transferred to Court as it were on the wings of impetuous winds those that were by birth and profession alienated to work wonders there what Theatre O ye Noblemen expect you more suitable then this to place virtue in her fairest seat Or what obligation can you have more strictly binding to perfection than your selves The fourth REASON Proceeding from riches IT was a thing very strange amongst the plagues wherewith Aegypt ever bent to resist the spur the more deeply to wound it self was chastised by the angrie hand of God to behold Nilus that great and goodly river wholly become bloudie but yet more marveilous to see that from one and the same river the Aegyptians drew bloud and the Israelites a lively Joseph Antiquit Jud. l. 2. c. 5. and christalline stream The like ordinarily is seen in the lives of good and bad rich men The bad draw into their store-houses gold and silver heaped one upon another by rapines and violence as in a river consisting of the veins and bloud of the poor The good in the honest abilities which Heaven hath graciously given them find pure water which they suffer to distil for the publick good as through the conduit of their liberalities All that which the holy Writ and eloquent tongues of the Fathers thunder out replenished with threats horrour and malediction against riches is not understood but of those whereof the vices of men and not the condition of the things have made the use damnable Such riches are deceitful shadows which cover an apparent good under an undoubted evil they are hands that take their Master by the throat they are poinyards with a golden haft which delight the eyes with vain seemings and pierce the heart with mortal wounds they are precipices furnished with precious jewels such as Heliogabalus desired to illustrate his death with they are hights which are not measured but by their falls they are deadly poisons steeped in a golden cup. For this Eusebius Emys Hom. de Sancta Epiphania nisi sit Episcopus Rhegiensis An tu hunc hominem potentem faelicem vocas qui in suam mortem fortis est Cui proventuum fallax umbra praesentium aeternorum congregat causas malorum Quis beatam dixerit validam in suum jugulum dexteram Quis laudet velocem ad ardua praecipitia festinantem Quis ejus miretur ascensum quem de summo prospicit esse casurum An illum faelicem vocas qui gemmato atque aurato sibi poculo venena miscet cause Eusebius Emyssenus said Poor man who admirest those that are on the top of the wheel of the favours and riches of the world whereunto they have ascended by iniquitie are maintained by violence and cannot descend but by headlong ruin How blind are you to have thoughts so unmanly and unworthy of a Christian Esteem you a frantick man to be stout and couragious who stabs himself with a poinyard Say you he hath a brave steddie hand who hits his own heart right with a daggers point Say you that man is happie who holdeth the shadow of good in his hands to produce to himself an eternitie of evils Who hath ever said He who nimbly mounteth on a rock to precipitate himself was an ableman Who hath said seeing him on the steepic cliffs top ready to fall This man is happie all the world hath an eye upon him Who hath said of him that hath a golden cup in his hand filled
thereunto are more manifest as I will make it appear in the sequel of this discourse First the Scripture speaking of ambition called it Reasons and remedies Psal 18. 14. Ab alienis parce servo tuo Ambition a Forreign vice A singular description of man a forreign vice Pride in man is not in its element it always seeketh height and man is even lowness it self What is man if we consider him in his own nature without the assistance of grace but an excrement of impurity in his conception a silly creature in his birth a bag and sponge of ordures in his life a bait for worms in his death The soul is in the body as in a Chariot of glass The days are the courriers which perpetually run upon a full gallop The four wheels are vanity weakness inconstancy misery The way is of ice the goal is death and the end oftentimes is a precipice The pleasures thereof as saith Plato are winged and wholly armed with pricks and stings to leave in flying a sharp point in the heart the dolour and discontents thereof drench it in a cup full of gall and its feet are of lead never to forsake it Can then such a creature be possessed with ambition such a dung-hill nourish pride All that we behold both above and beneath Al the world teacheth us the lesson of hâ—mility on the right on the left hand in this great house of nature serves as a lesson of humility for us Heaven which circumvolveth over our heads enameled with stars created in a higher place than we the earth which we tread under our feet which serveth us for a nurse afterwards for a sepulchre the little air we breath without which we cannot live the water which in its wonder hath swallowed up wisdom and afterwards the bodies of the most knowing men of the earth as we read of Aristotle beasts whose spoils we carry about us our body which according to account hath for its portion about three thousand diseases our soul which knoweth not what shall become of her and which cannot tell whether she shall serve as an immortal fewel to those devouring flames that have no limits but eternity or no All preach to us our baseness all thunder out the terrour and affrightments of Gods judgements and amongst so many subjects of humility you O Noblemen have leisure to puff up your selves and to fill your minds with the gentle breathing blasts of imaginary honour At the least if needs you must elevate your selves if you of necessity must take a great deal of state upon you choose the best way but insensible as you are what Ambition the life of a slave do you take upon you becoming ambitious the life of a slave the life of Cain This is the second consideration which I propose of power sufficient to instruct a soul that will give never so little predominance to reason We all naturally love liberty and suppose that to be of ones self is an inestimable good Inestimabile bonum est suum esse Senec. ep 67. Misery of the ambitious Now the most captive Galley-slaves are not greater bond-men than the ambitious The slave hath a chain and a captain who proudly insulteth over him an ambitious man hath as many fetters as he hath appetites as many servitudes as pretensions as many slaveries as manners of ambition His Captain is his unguided passion which tyrannizeth over him day and night with all possible cruelty The slave practizeth and tameth himself in his own condition the ambitious is always savage he always flieth before himself and never overtaketh himself to enter into himself He is in no place because he would be every where and yet notwithstanding he is tormented every where his feaver burneth him where he is not The slave freeth himself with money the ambitious man findeth gyves of gold and silver The slave findeth no chain so straight but that it sometimes giveth him leave to sing the ambitious is never free out of himself there are nothing but objects of frenzie fire-brands of concupiscence and within himself there is not any thing but worms flames and executioners The slave findeth at least liberty in death and death which carrieth the key of all close coverts cometh lastly to unlose all the bands of his servitude an ambitious soul as soon as it is parted from the body is consorted with devils in their tortures as it imitated them very nearly in their passion What a life what a death is this Find you any comparable if not that of unfortunate Cain The Scripture saith The life of Cain Genes 4. 16. Hebr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Procep in Genes that he withdrawing himself from the sight of God did inhabit the land of instability and Procopius thereto addeth an ancient tradition that he perpetually saw certain spectres with swords of fire which brought horrible affrightments upon him Is the ambitious man better used Is not he perpetually separated from the face of God seeing as saith S. Hierom man is divided from the Divinity not by the degrees Hier. Epist ad Damas Peccantes recedunt à Deo affectuum non locorum spatiis of body but of soul which are the affections And how much more the soul is scattered in the waste emptiness of ambition which is indeed a meer vanity so much more it strayeth from this sovereign Majesty which is the onely verity Is it not in the Kingdom of inconstancy In every place where he setteth his feet there is nothing but slippery yce or downfal The saying of the Prophet is accomplished Psal 34. 6. Fiat via illorum tenebrae labricum Angelus Domini persequens eos Extream disaster in his person Let their way be made dark and slippery and the Angel of our Lord persecute them Behold all the most lamentable extremities which may be imagined in a voyage ever to go upon yce and thereon to walk in the obscure darkness of the night and to have behind you in the rere a Sergeant who hasteneth you forward and all this is found in the life of the ambitious What passage is not slippery in the favours of the world all which are feathered and full of mutable conditions What darkness is there in a wretched creature who hath no pitie at all of himself who maketh a liberty of his fetters honour of his ignominie and tropheys of his torments What Sergeant is more troublesom What spectres and what swords of fire more teribble than the pricks of this enraged passion which as much and as violently forceth man as a bull goared with a goad rusheth through some headlong precipice Where is it that the ambitious man can find place of stability and center of repose If he be in quest of honour and when is he not behold him in a whirl-pool in fire behold him in the feverish accesses of heat and cold which afford him no intermission Admit he obtain what he pretendeth unto no
him There are none but certain Harpies which as saith Cardinal Petrus Damianus flie round about Altars to pillage them who bear him the like good will as Ravens do to carrion He lives in a kind of stupidity of spirit in continual indisposition of body disgrace in his temporal fortunes the fable of the world the object of Heavens anger and earths execration Finally he resembleth an old sepulcher that hath nothing in it but stench and titles Happily then ponder in your heart what the life of a Priest ought to be who is the house of God of the cabinet and as it were of the bosom of God To think a wickedness is a crime to commit it a sacriledge to bear it to the Altar is a sin which hath no proper name there are titles and offices of all vices Oh how pure should that mouth be which approcheth to kiss the son of God! Oh how clean should those hands be which are chosen to purge away the worlds ordures Oh how chaste ought that heart to be that is bedewed with the bloud of the Word Eternal What a horrour when a faithless soul from the bed of wolves goeth out to find the Lamb and carrieth the pollutions of the earth to the Sanctuary of the living God like to that beastly Empress Messalina spoken of by the Satyrist (c) (c) (c) Faeda lupanaris tulit ad pulvinar odorem who bare to the Imperial bed of Claudius her husband the infamy and noisomness of places which should not be so much as named in the Palace of a Roman Emperour S. Peter (d) (d) (d) Instruebaâ— Petrus discipulos actus vitae suae omni horâ custoâ—ire in omni loco Deum respicere firmiter cogitationes malas cordi suo advenientes mox ad Christum allidere S. Clem. Ep. 1. ad Jacobum said we must break all ill thoughts by the exercise of the presence of Jesus Christ as the waves are dashed against the rocks And S. Chrysostom (e) (e) (e) Necesse est sacerdotem sic esse purum ut in Coelo collocatus inter ipsâ—s Coeli virtutes medius staret Chrys de Sacerdotio advised Priests to be pure as if they were in Heaven amidst the Angels Chastity saith holy Zeno is happy in virgins strong in widdows faithfull in the married but with Priests it ought to be wholly Seraphicall It is fit he should have little of the body who is made to manage and handle the body of the Son of God It is fit he should have small commerce with the flesh who knoweth how to incarnate the living God in his hands A carnal soul ready to sell his patrimony for a mess of pottage as the unworthy Esau is more fit for hogs than the Sanctuary They heretofore sacrificed to the Sun without effusion of wine and those who sacrifice to the Master of the Sun ought to entermarrie sobrietie with chastitie which are ever mutually linked together The banquets of rich seculars said S. Jerome (f) (f) (f) Convivia vitanda sunt secularium maximè eorum qui honoribus tument Consolatores nos potâ—us maeroribus suis quà m convivas prosperis noverint Facile contemnitur Clericus qui sâ—pe vocatus ad prandium ire non recusat Hieron Ep. 2. Neposian are not so proper for Church-men It is much fitter to comfort them in afflictions than to accompany them in their feasts A Priest who is still present at weddings is never well esteemed of He that would behold the modesty which is to be observed at the tables of Ecclesiastical men let him at the least take a model upon that which Tertullian writeth in his Apologetike of the Primitive Christians Our table saith he hath nothing in it which tasteth of sordidness sensuality or immodesty we eat there in proportion we drink according to the rules of temperance so much we satiate our selves as is necessary for men that must rise in the night to offer their prayers to God We there speak and converse as in the presence of God our hands washed and candles lighted every one reciteth what he knows of holy Scripture and of his own conceit all to the praise of God Prayer endeth the banquet as it gave beginning thereunto From the table we go to the exercise of modesty and honesty You would say if you saw us it were not a supper we had in hand but a lesson of piety The seventh SECTION The fourth perfection of a Prelate which is observed in Zeal and charitie YOur fourth mark is scarlet the sign of the ardent charity and zeal you ought to retain towards the house of God The buckler of brave Champions of the God of Hosts should be Num. 2. Clypeus fortium ejus ignitus viri exercitus in coccineis a buckler of fire and all his souldiers must appear in crimson cassocks You must early learn to bay the hares skin in the hall that you may afterward go into the field for the hunting of souls You must become a wall of fire to serve as a rampart in the house of God You must be a star to run over and enlighten the little world recommended to your charge You must oppose the power of great-ones the strength of the sturdy the wiles of the crafty the close practises of the wicked to divert ill actions advance good leave unprofitable destroy vice plant virtue chastise delinquents recompence men of merit protect the poor justifie the innocent You must be an eye to the blind a foot to the lame arm and hand to the maimed a Sanctuary to all the world You must have as many chains to oblige men to you as God hath given you means of well-doing Let the miseries which in a right line would hasten to you if it be possible may pass no further than you Let your house be a shop where from stones the sons of Abraham may be raised The High-Priest heretofore bare the whole world on his habit of which he was as it were the Advocate and you must think when you are in office all the world is on your shoulders and that both the living and dead shall have a share in the duty which you shall render thereunto It shall be your act to carry the torch of example before the people to instruct men to cure and comfort their infirmity to pray and sacrifice both for the world of the living and those whom death already hath divided from our conversation What charity think you can you have to be discharged from these obligations You must learn Nullum omnipotenti Deo tale sacrificium quale est zâ—lus animarum Greg. super Ezech. hom 12. to love souls as the most pretious moveables you have in the world to please your self with the places where the objects of your zeal are and the knots of your charge rather than the Courts of Princes when you shall have untamed spirits to govern let them serve as an arrest for
seen to wax hoary in the Northern snows I see the Roman Caesars who invade or those which are already effeminated by their proper vice or such as are wanderers and dis-united not to have an assured State to resist their enemies My ears are perpetually filled with the acts of Cynogirus who having both his hands cut off bit the arms and ships of his enemies with his teeth of one Otryades who wrote his victory with his own bloud of one Sergius who fought four times with the left hand which Plinie observeth in his History as a prodigie of the one-eyed Horatius who defended a bridge against the Army of his enemies of a maid named Claelia who passed over Tyber on horse-back of one Sicinnius that had been in six-score combats and bare away thirty six spoils of his enemies with five and fourty wounds at divers times I will not extenuate their prowess nor take away from them the honour they deserved for to say there was no valour nor vigour in these ancient courages were to proceed against common opinion But we now adays see many Aristarchuses in the world who have spirits so retrograde that when we speak of bruit beasts they highly glorifie them above men as if they were of the race of Ulysses his souldiers who as fables tell us were turned into hogs so when we come to compare the valour of Christians with that of Infidels they find nothing which on our part may give them content so much have they either of malice or stupidity Let me die if in the sole life of Captain Bayard Prowess of Christians warlick atchievments may not be observed which in manage and valour surpass those of Alexander's and Pompey's and he that would number all the heroick actions which have been performed in our wars sometimes by silly souldiers sometimes also by Christian women might as soon reckon the stars in the firmament And had I now undertaken to make a simple enumeration of great Captains which have flourished in Christendom it would weary pens fill books and confound readers I would willingly know whether Constantine going out of an Oratory where he prayed with the Bishops before he had so many battels was less valiant against Maxentius Maximianus Licinius If Theodosius in recommending himself so particularly to the prayers of Monks have the less done his devoir against Maximus and Eugenius Whether Heraclius were the more remiss for carrying the Image of our Blessed Ladie in his hands when he subdued Cosroes King of Persia in three pitched battels Whether Clodovaeus did the less good when he caused his standards to march under the conduct of the prayers of Saint Martin Whether Charls Martel were weakened in his devotions when at the onely battels of Towers he cut in pieces three hundred three-score and fifteen thousand Saracens with the most hydeous slaughter that ever was seen Whether Charlemaine in being so firmly tied to Altars felt his arm to fail against the Lombards Saxons and Moors Whether the sword of Godfrey of Bovillon after so many actions of piety were the less keen when it cleft the Barbarians at a blow from the crown of the head to the girdle-stead and glistered in azure all covered with rays of Palms and Laurels Whether Bellisarius in being a good Catholick did the less charge the Goths And whether Simon Momfort in taking his sword from the Altar were the less dreadfull to the Albigean Hereticks Assuredly there is nothing so strong nothing so invincible nor triumphant as a valour which marcheth under the laws of Christian Religion The Turkish Nation which seemeth to be born to brandish the sword and to have ample transcendency in matters of arms feareth not so much the Persian and Tartarian standards as the banners of Christians And Baronius in an Epistle dedicatory of his Annals which he wrote to the Great Henry the Fourth of famous memory observeth that they hold it as a fatal Prophefie among them that their Empire shall never be destroyed unless it be by the hands of French-men If they have obtained victories against Christians in so many wars it hath ever been our divisions that have disarmed us our ambitions that have devoured us our Apostata-brothers who have betrayed us our Infidels who have acquainted them with our intentions our industries and arms our mutual quarrels which have wasted us our sins that have chastised us the hand of a powerfull God which hath excited the Saracens to purifie under some colour of temperance and justice those lands which ours had defiled by so many ordours and sacriledges for otherwise there could not be any force in the world able to resist Christian Princes were they well united We know it by the success of the battel of Lepanto and the prowess of George Castrioth called Scanderbeg who with a flying camp defeated seven Generals of the Turkish Army in seven great battels wherein he slew two thousand men with his own hand and in the end made Amurath stark mad to see himself defied beaten and maimed by a petty Lord and with so small numbers What could this brave courage have done had it been assisted with men gold and arms answerable to his merits Are you not then very ridiculous O Souldier when to be accounted valiant you play the Cyclop and fear lest devotion might weaken your courage Accuse not your Religion for it is holy accuse not devotion for it is innocent Rather accuse your own impiety your own neglect your own unworthiness of spirit and your own baseness that is it which enfeebleth you and causeth that you are onely valiant to play the beast No man looseth courage but he that never had it and no man hath it if he beg it not of the true God of hosts Where should we seek for light but of the Sun for water but in rivers and heat but in fire And where think you to find true strength but with the God of the strong The more you shall be united to him the more able shall you be not that he will ever give you strength of body as to Milo that you may bear an ox but in serving him you shall have from him the courage of a man who hath his root in reason his increase in piety and his Crown in true glory The fourth SECTION Manifest Proofs which declare that Pietie and Valour are not things incompatible IT is an intollerable thing to see certain young Roarers who think to make themselves esteemed valiant by profession of impiety and have as it were but one shame which is not to be shameless at all as if we had never seen nor as yet was ever heard in the world of souldiers furnished before God and men with great and Divine virtues who fail not to be as couragious as Lions Let us not search out Saints of the Martyrologe let us onely behold among a thousand one man whose life was very lately printed written in a low stile I mean the Marshal Boucicaut who
of his valour and the trust he had in God he first of all appeared in the head of his Army and with many paces set forward before the rest making his horse curvet in a martial manner It was an easie matter to know him for his arms shined all with gold and his helmet was set with precious stones His enemies began to fall roundly upon him but the Captaines of Constantine seeing their Emperour so generously to out-brave danger followed him with such fervour as if every one of them expected an Empire for recompence They fell like lightning upon their enemies who were much amazed at this first charge yet they notwithstanding made good resistance but maugre all their endeavours those of Constantine brake through and defeated them Maxentius beholding his Cavalry in which he Maxentius defeated reposed all his hope to be so ill handled resolved upon a retreat to make use of his bridge and drown Constantine engaged in the pursuit of those that fled But oh the justice of God! The wicked man as saith the Royal Prophet falleth into the ditch which he himself had digged It is not known whether those besotted engineers failed in their design or whether the great numbers of those that fled caused this ruin but the bridge brake under Maxentius his feet and threw him into Tiber all bloudy like another Pharaoh in the red sea with all the principal of his Empire who environed his person He amazed at so violent a fall hoped yet to recover the other shore being excellently mounted where he was seen to wrestle a certain time with the waves which in the end swallowed him up There was in the begining a great slaughter of those who made resistance but in the end seeing their Emperour drowned they yielded all to the mercy of Constantine who stayed the victorious sword in the hands of souldiers to consecrate it to clemency He did well to search for the body of Maxentius in Tiber to take off his head which was fixed on the point of a lance and born to Rome and Africk to satisfie justice for the enormous forfeits he had committed when he was alive From thence this brave Conquerour is received in the City of Rome as an Angel descended from heaven for the deliverance of the world Never was triumph so highly valued as his because in the tropheys of other Emperours they triumphed for the gaining of some far-distant Province but in this lost Rome recovered it-self The Queen of Nations ceased to be the prey of Nations breathed now a sweeter ayr of ancient liberty If ever Prince saw a glorious day in all his life this was it which shined then over the head of Constantine They came from all parts of Italy to behold him and those who had seen him thought they had lived long enough supposing it unfit to behold any other humane thing Amongst so many notable spectacles at that time in the City none was looked upon but he his face was the object of all their admirations and his valour the matter of all discourses The Senate to witness the joy they conceived for this victory prepared him a triumphal Arch all of marble one of the stateliest monuments that ever had been raised to the honour of a Conquerour wherein this Inscription was engraven IMP. CAES. FL. CONSTANTINO MAXIMO P. F. AUGUSTO S. P. Q. R. QUOD INSTINCTU DIVINITATIS MENTIS MAGNITUDINE CUM EXERCITU SUO TAM DE TYRANNO QUAM DE EJUS OMNI FACTIONE UNO TEMPORE JUSTIS REMPUBLICAM ULTUS EST ARMIS ARCUM TRIUMPHIS INSIGNEM DICAVIT This said that the Senate and people of Rome dedicated this triumphal Arch to Constantine Emperour and Great Pontifice happy Prince and Augustus because by an instinct of Divinity and an admirable greatness of courage he had with his Army freed the Common-wealth from a Tyrant and all his faction by the justice of his arms Where in the Arch on the right hand were read these words Liberatori Urbis on the left hand Fundatori Quietis which clearly declared him the Freer of the Citie and Founder of Repose There was likewise inscribed on it the number of years in which they desired to render vows for this glorious victory Observe as you pass along that the Senate was as yet Pagan yet knowing the devotion which Constantine bare to the Saviour of the world though he were not then a declared Christian they abstained from the mention of Gods and spake onely of one Divinitie The sixth SECTION The death of Diocletian and feats of Arms performed by Constantine against Lycinius SInce I have undertaken to represent the famous warlick Acts of Constantine to shew his arrival to Monarchy I will here insert the end of Diocletian and Lycinius When Constantine caused his Standards to march against Maxentius there remained no more of so many Caesars but Lycinius who was created a little before the death of Galerius The brothers of Constantine would alter nothing Diocletian remained in his retirement There was none but this Lycinius who was an old souldier a man raised from nothing but advanced by arms and who had done so good services to Galerius the creature of Diocletian in the war which he had against the Persians that out of meer respect of his valour he was chosen Emperour In all other things he was of a rude and gross spirit as derived from Peasants and who all his life had done nothing else but handle iron either for tillage or war not having acquired any neatness of a civil life Behold the cause why being ignorant and proud he extreamly hated learning which he called the poison of the Empire and had it been in his power he would have banished all knowing men that there might be none able to reproach his ignorance Constantine as wise as he was warlick saw well he must mannage this spirit who might much trouble him in his design against Maxentius for which cause following this counsel he promised him a share in the Empire and his sister Constantia in marriage It is held this marriage was solemnized at Milan a little after the defeat of Maxentius where many treaties passed between Constantine and Lycinius touching their principalities and from that time a most favourable Edict was made for the re-establishment of Christians the honour of Christianity which Lycinius although a Pagan refused not to sign Victor addeth that Diocletian was sent for to the wedding of Lycinius For it was much desired to hear him speak and see what he had upon his heart his spirit being very able to give cause of distrust to two Princes who were desirous to establish themselves in all security The subtile Hermit on the other side who feared to be overtaken made an answer in which he besought their Majesties to give him leave to live in his Hermitage and affoord him that for delight which others commonly tooke for punishment That he had not for the time to come any mind upon
assembly of Bishops while expecting his coming and suddenly he appeared not accompanied with any Guard or souldiers but with a small number of friends Eusebius who was there present saith in his History that never was any thing seen more admirable than the person of this Monarch at the meeting of this Councel For besides that he was of a most gallant stature and a singular presence he was delighted to hold it as it were enchased in rich attire The purple wherewith he then was clothed mingling the lustre thereof with the rays of precious stones which sparkled on his head made reflections of grace and majesty arise in the eyes of all the beholders He passed through the middle of the Assembly and all the Prelates rose up to do him reverence Then being come unto his place he stood upright expecting from the Bishops a sign given him to sit which being done and prayer ended he sat down upon a golden chair very low which was placed in the middle to the end he might be encompassed with so great a number of Saints as a Palm with a row of Cedars The others also being seated near him Eustatius selected out to open the Councel stood up and made an Oration whereof we find some pieces in Gregorie a Priest of Caesarea which import thus much We have very much obligation O sacred Majestie to Oration of Eustatius at â—he opening of the Councel render immortal thanks to the living God in that he hath made choice of your person to put the Empire of the world into your hands and that by your means destroying idolatrie he hath exalted the glorie of his Altars and established Christianitie in that tranquilitie which we presently enjoy It is an act from the right hand of the Omnipotent which we durst not hope for in our days if God had not made you to be born for the good of the universal world It is a prodigie to have seen you in a short time to calm so many tempests disperse so many smoaks of sacrifices to devils extirpate so many horrible superstitions and enlighten such cloudie darkness with the rays of the knowledge of the true God The world which was before polluted with ordures is purified the name of Saviour is known to Nations the most barbarous The Father is glorified the Son adored the Holy Ghost declared a Trinitie consubstantial that is to say one same Divinitie in three Persons is acknowledged by all the faithfull That is it O sacred Majestie which supporteth the greatness of your Empire with those three fingers of power wherewith it holdeth the mass of the earth poized as it were to serve as a basis As your felicitie is inseparably tyed to its honour so ought you to reverence defend and invincibly protect all that which concerneth the glorie thereof Behold a strange accident and which is to us more sensible than the persecution of Diocletian They go about to dis-member the Trinitie and thrust the knife of division into its throne One Arius who hath taken his name from furie a wolf bred among us in a sheeps skin a Priest of Alexandria an enemie of the doctrine of Apostles and Prophets hath proclaimed war against the Son of God endeavouring to deprive him of the essence honour and power which he holdeth equal from all eternitie with his heavenly Father This is it which hath assembled us here to condemn his errour and most humbly to beseech your Majestie that when you have heard the opinions of all these great men here present you will hold a steadie hand upon the preservation of Apostolical doctrine and command all those to be cut from our body who will persever in their damnable opinions to the end we may breath the Christian air in all liberty which the world beginneth already so sweetly to taste under the happiness of your reign Then was the time saith S. Hierom when the first trumpet began to sound against Arius After the good Bishop of Antioch had ended the Emperour beholding all the assembly with a very gracious aspect spake in Latin to retain the majesty of the Roman Empire and in a moderate tone those words which are couched in Eusebius the sense whereof we render Venerable Fathers I must needs affirm that I never Oâ—ation of Constantine desired any thing more passionately than to enjoy your sweet presences and infinitely am I bound to God that he hath accomplished my desires granting me a blessing that I prefer before all the happiness in the world which is to see you all here assembled and united in will for the glory of God and peace of the Church I pray you suffer not the storm to surprize us in the haven thereby to snatch from us the comfort which we already have in our hands and if God hath given us victorie against Tyrants let us not turn our arms against our selves to tear out our proper entrails It is most certain these domestick troubles are much more to be feared than all the hostilities in the world The sword of persecution can dissever nothing but members but these divisions tend to the subversion of souls which maketh them so much the more dangerous beyond common wars as the spirit is above the body God having afforded me so many victories and so many prosperities I proposed to my self there remained nothing from me to ask of him but an humble acknowledgement of his benefits and leisure to rejoyce with those whom I saw through his favour in repose sheltered under the good success of mine arms and the authority of my Laws It hath been a grief very sensible unto me to understand of those revolutions which have passed in our Citie of Alexandria and which have afterward dispersed themselves through the rest of Christendom I have done all that possibly I might in the beginning to stop them but seeing the evil increased with so much danger I have called you hither to apply the last remedy I beseech you O venerable Priests of the living God to preserve among your selves that concord which I think I may read in your countenances and not to suffer your selves to be deprived of the benefit of peace since the Divine providence hath selected you to establish it upon Altars by your prayers for all the rest of the world Cut off speedily the root of evil and sweetly pacifie these troubles of the Church you shall do a thing most acceptable to God and as for my self who am your fellow servant I shall hold me obliged as for a singular benefit The Interpreter explicated the Oration of the Emperour in the Greek tongue Then the propositions of Arius were read At the reading whereof the most part of the Bishops stopped their ears for horrour as afterward S. Athanasius observed From thence they proceeded to opinions where the disputation was enkindled on both sides Constantine afforded a singular attention to all that was said peaceably entertained sentences encouraged all the world sweetened acerbities
some beggers whose misery she assisted Her whole heart went towards God her feet to the Church her hands to alms her eys to reading books of devotion her arms to exercises and works of her sex all her body to sacrifices and victims of her soul Observe you young maids who read these pages of what wood God useth to frame Saints and that never any happeneth to produce the miracles which Clotilda did in the conversion of a Kingdom not acting wonders of virtue in the interiour of the soul The King her uncle was so ravished with these pretious parts that the excess of his admiration turned into a furious jealousy for beholding this spirit more masculine than he could have wished and fearing least she might be possessed by some other besides himself he had no purpose to marry her but kept her so straightly that one would have said to have seen him he was the dragon in fables that ever stood centinel near the golden apple But oh silly humane prudence which still rowing against the current of the providence of God findest as many precipices in passion as thou openest snares for innoceny This man notwithstanding all his endeavours which went the contrary way bred up in his house a maid whom God had already destined to chastise his cruelty and make he unwitting thereof his Scepter tributary to a valorous husband who was to marry Clotilda and joyn the Kingdom of virtues to the force of his arms The second SECTION Clodovaeus requireth Clotilda in marriage CLodovaeus King of France a man born to make it appear what valour may produce when it is supported by piety dayly advanced his conquests among the Gauls yet still in so many victories remained a slave to Idolatry God was willing to win him to himself by the ways of chast love and by the means of a wife which should sanctifie his person and house The fame of the beauty and virtues of Clotilda which spread through neighbour Kingdoms with so sweet an odour failed not to approach him at that time when he was upon terms to take a wife in lawful marriage Love which many times surprizeth as well by the ear as the eye so enkindled him at the report made by his Embassadours of the perfections of this divine maid that he no longer retained either heart or thought but for her He affected what he never saw with a love mixed with reverence felt a more noble flame than he was wont which scorched him with a generous passion and excited him to require this Princess as the type of his felicities The difficulties proposed upon the effecting of this marriage augmented desire in him For he was of a vigorous spirit who measured all by the greatness of his own courage and resolved to break through obstacles to crown his purposes He addressed himself to his great favourite Arelianus and having opened unto him the project of this marriage would needs instantly dispatch him upon a solemn Embassage to confer with the maid and treat with the King her uncle This man who understood the suspicions and apprehensions of Gombaut made it appear unto him that the conquest of the golden fleece and the marriage of Clotilda were almost one and the same thing and that no access could be had to this maid without first speaking to this bull who threw flames and fire through his throat Clodovaeus conjureth him to use all possible industries to satisfie his passion assuring him he could not oblige him in any matter whereof he would be more sensible Aurelianus obeyeth and taking a ring from the Kings finger with certain other Jewels to present the Lady hastened towards Burgundy I cannot here conceal that which Baronius the Father of Ecclesiastical History was unwilling to omit seeing it is witnessed by good Authours and hath nothing incredible therein but onely with such who think it is a note of wisdom to seem very incredulous We know by what hath been spoken before that Clotilda seldom appeared in publick if it were not at Church and cast her eyes on very few but the poor God made use of this disposition for her good for Aurelianus having learned this Lady dayly conversed willingly with needy persons and that it was necessary to seem of this quality to speak unto her without suspicion took the habit of a beggar and as the servant of Abraham sent by the first Father of believers treated the loves of Isaac in requiring water of Rebecca who was to be his future spouse so this man managing the commssion of marriage for the prime King of the faithful resolved to beg alms of Clotilda to find means of access to her and for this cause he stood at the gate of a Church among a great rabble of beggers expecting till Mass were done that he might see the Princess come forth She failed not to perform acts of charity to all the poor according to her custom and perceiving this man who seemed of a generous aspect in these miserable rags felt her heart seized with extraordinary piety beholding one of so good carriage reduced to such misery and without any further enquiry she gave him a piece of gold Aurelianus seeing this royal hand so charitably stretched out to succour a counterfeit want whether he were transported with joy or whether he were desirous to make himself observed by some act he lifted up the sleeves of the Princess which according to the fashion of robes than usually worn covered all even to her hands and having bared her right hand kissed it with much reverence Clotilda blushed heartily thereat yet passed on further not shewing any resentment nor blaming the begger as some Authours adde Well saith she in secret to an old Lady who was her confident friend Have you observed what this begger did The other replied It was a very easie matter to note it since this act had painted her forehead with a most lively scarlet But yet said Clotilda to her what think you of it The Lady answered smiling What can I els think but that your rare perfections joyned to your liberality have transported him For my part I suppose said the Princess he hath some other design and if you think good we will cause him to come to the Palace to beg alms and thereupon take occasion to be informed of his person Aurelianus failed not to entertain this commandement which was the scope of his desire and accordingly to pass to the place assigned him where Clotilda beholding him soundly chid him for his boldness in lifting up the sleeve of her garment and kissing her hand He who was a most queint Courtier found out his evasion and said The custom of his countrey permitted to kiss the lips of Ladies at salutation but the happiness of his condition having abased him so low he could not aspire to the face Behold the cause why he contented himself with the hand it being a thing very reasonable to kiss a hand which is the source of
Essence and appertenances thereof HOpe is the gate of a great Pallace replenished with riches It is in my opinion the place The Image and nature of Hope which Tertullian termeth when he calls it the portresse of Nature It looketh on and considers upon one side pearls which are as yet in the shell and Naturae jaâ—tricem on the other upon Roses in the midst of thorns which it thinks it may enjoy with some labour Such is the nature of Hope according to S. Thomas It is a motion of the S. Thom. 1. 2 q. 40. art 2. appetite which followeth the knowledge one hath of a good future possible and somewhat difficult It hath two arms with which it endeavoureth to pursue and embrace objects whereof the one is called Desire and the other Belief to be able to obtain what one desireth Thus doth learned Occham define it It is not sufficient Occham quodlibeto 3. q 9. to say that a thing is beautifull pleasing and profitable to create Hope unlesse it be shewed it is possible and that one may arrive thereunto by certain wayes which are not out of his power who hopeth So Hope if it be reasonable hath ordinarily wisdome strength eloquence amity and money for it for these are the things which raise its courage At the gates of passion we see huge heaps of people of all manner of dispositons who flatter it and behold it of one side lovers who seek for a mate For Philo said it was the virtue of lovers on â—hilo lib. Quod deterius c. the other side Courtiers who run after favour on the other aspirers who canvas for offices and dignities on the other Laborours and Merchants but above all there are many young-men bold and resolute who therein have a great share because as saith Aristotle they Arist l. 2. Rhet. c. 12. have little of the past and much of the future Or as S. Gregory Nazianzen affirmeth for that nothing is Nazian de vita sua 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hard to a fervent spirit Moreover it sitteth upon a Peacock and its face is encompassed with a Rainbowe by reason it infinitely charmeth and recreateth the minds of such as follow it by very pleasing semblances and as King Mithridates saith it hath I know not what kind Mithrid in epist Graecis of sweetnesse which pleaseth even then when it deceiveth but if you observe it you shall find it holdeth an Anchor in the right hand to fix the desire of the wise as on the contrary it carryeth in the left hand an enchanted mirrour wherein it letteth fools see a thousand slight trifles all which turn into smoke Pleasure waiteth on it whilst we hope for it is that which sweetneth all the labours of life and which serves for a spur to all great and generous actions But if it falls out that things happen not as they were figured in the imagination then are all these Courtiers delivered over to a furious Monster called Despair which drags them down to the foot of a mountain and oft-times drencheth them in gulphs and precipices Behold in few words the nature definition difference composition object subject the causes and the effects of hope Let us now see how we may govern this Motion § 2. That one cannot live in the world without Hope and what course is to be held for the well ordering of it THey are of too haughty a strain who never friendly entertein Hope and think there is no life for them if Felicity be not alwayes at their gate The condition of creatures is such that all their blessings never come to them all at one It were to go about to expresse a word without letters to compose a happinesse without joyes and contentments succeeding one another How can hope be banished from earth sith Heaven which is so well content hath not renounced it The blessed souls after the vision of God do yet hope something which is the Resurrection of their bodies to which they most ardently wish to be reunited those which are represented under the Altar in the Apocalypse who ask vengeance Apoc. 6. of their blood at the tribunall of the Divine Justice are instantly clothed with white garments in token of this most bright flesh which is to be joyned to their immortall spirits Heaven which expecteth nothing for the perfection of its beauties ceaseth not to revolve each moment of the day and night to diversifie them But we must confesse that earth is the place of Hopes which are as seeds of our Felicities from whence it cometh that what the Grecians call to some we name it to hope Our soul here resembleth the Sperare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 First Matter which is perpetually enamoured of new forms and as the understanding of Angels according to the saying of a great Philosopher is all that which it ought to be from the beginning and becometh not Carolus Bovilus de intellectu humano Angelico new at all Contrariwise Humane understanding is nothing in the beginning and becomes all in processe of time So our will is like unto white Writing-tables wherein we easily write or blot out all we will The estate of perfection must be expected to imprint it with a lasting Character So many young plants so many little living creatures so many children so many imperfections so many wishes warn us that we may live here with hope we have so little of time present that we are enforced to dilate our selves upon the future This insensibly delighteth us and stirs us as Trees which seem to take pleasure to be rocked by the winds It being resolved that we necessarily must expect and hope The good husbanding of hopes whilst we are in the world It remaineth to consider how we may well employ this passion in hoping good things and hoping them by wayes very direct and in an orderly manner First It is a shamefull thing to say there are such who hope all that which is to be feared One promiseth himself the death of a Kinsman the other the confusion of a family another to seduce some silly maid another to debauch a married wife another to satisfie his revenge another to scrape together as much as his avarice can wish and so many other things which are most unhappy Hopes the successe whereof God sometimes permitteth when he will chastise wicked men What a horrour is it to hope for crimes and to feed ones self with anothers evils as if one sought nourishment from coals and serpents If our thoughts be not alwayes so high as the glory of heaven at least let us not abase them so low as Hell If they cannot be divine let them not be inhumane let them ty themselves to blessings permitted and not to objects so unworthy One may expect wealth children health knowledge honour an office a marriage and so many other things which are commodious for humane life without desiring disasters
figureth it unto us a woman for it is a feminine vice to skirmish with the Tongue in the want of courage and virtue It hath by its sides two waiting-women one whereof is called Surprizal and the other Deceit because these Lucian The picture of Slander are the two vices which make Calumny prevail the one surprizing credulous spirits the other sophisticacating and disguizing Truth It is very curiously decked and pranked up for who would not abhorre it if it had not some exteriour attractive to surprize the unwary It neverthelesse shews in its countenance passion and rage for it is as hard to hide Love and Hatred as a Cough or Fire It holds in one hand a Torch like that of the Furies and who hath not heard that a great personage called it the Phaeton of the world because it sets all a fire and in combustion With the other hand Lipsius de Calumnia she catcheth a poor man by the hair as if she were ready to strangle him and albeit he implore heaven and earth to his aid there is not any one to deliver him out of the hands of this murtheresse These are the effects of the tyranny of this Passion Before it marcheth a vast fellow dry frightfull and lean whose eyes are sharp He is Envy's Agent and the inseparable companion of Slander On the right hand is seen a man with great ears such as were Midas'es who makes a shew to receive this impostresse with open arms Ignorance and Suspicion seeing the disposition and inclinations he hath do put a yoke about his neck and lead him by the nose Behold just so they are composed who readily hear Detractions They for the most part are open-eared to receive all poured in but otherwise suspicious and ignorant Lastly Repentance cometh behind all mourning and ill clad saying What have we done This creature was innocent and then with a finger sheweth Truth which in the Evening presenteth her self to enlighten darknesse It is the misery of humane things that one never almost repenteth a wickednesse but when it is remedilesse Nothing may be added to the conceit of this excellent Painter so happily he hath hit it I will onely say that if you desire to know the officers and inferiour ministeâ—s of this tyrannicall Passion they are not all equall in qualities or vices I find three principall Orders of them The first is of those who slander of purpose to vilifie the actions of others and to weaken their reputation Divers degrees of Calumniatours whether they be disposed thereto by some motive of pride which cannot endure any thing eminent but it self or through some jealousie as it happeneth in concurrencies of professions and conditions or out of some pretension of interest These are not gone so far yet as to black Slander for they do not report any criminall matters but content themselves to fall upon some defects sometimes slight and sometimes sufficiently apparent yea they seem to be reserved in matter of Slander for they do as the spies of the Land of Promise who first told its beauties and singularities before they mentioned its monsiers They lick the person before they bite they know the number of his virtues and perfections as if they had undertaken to make a Panegyrick of them saying This man is witty is sober is temperate is just and other such like neverthelesse there is alwayes a Conclusion which in the end marrs all You see likewise of this sort who cover the praises of another under a sad silence others who ascribe to chance that which was out of virtue others who by comparison of excellent men extenuate the acts of him whom they would blame others who punctually decipher all the defects of a good action others who say they have great compassion of his imperfections of whom they speak and would have supplied them at their own charge if it were in their power To conclude all such have some honest cloake for their Passion The second order is much more dangerous for it comprehendeth those who publickly and confidently speak of defects not common and incident but important and notable So you find an infinite number of them in the world who seem to have studied the lives the estates the families and genealogies of a whole City and as nothing can exempt it self from the curiosity of their eyes so none escapeth the poison of their tongues The third order is that of the Devill the father of Calumniatours and conteineth such as invent mischiefs and crimes with defamatory libels to brand the reputation of persons most innocent and many times very virtuous And as it is said that the ink of the Cuttle-fish poured into lamps maketh the bravest pieces of Painting to be seen with horrour so these wicked tongues when they have cast their poison upon the lights of a life the most innocent make it appear with hideous deformities One cannot say how damnable this vice is for it proceedeth from a source of Hell to ruine and extirpate all the members of humane society and if there be a disorder which deserveth that all men detest it and by common consent make warre against it This stands in the first place Such as forge Calumnies are extreamly detestable but those who lend their ears to receive them and do easily believe all which is suggested to their credulity against the same persons whom they have loved without hearing their justification grievously offend the divine Majesty and shew they have little judgement but much wilfulnesse An ear very hard to evil reports is needfull in a time when the tongue is so soft and streaming in an overflow of words § 4. Humane remedies of Envy IF you at this present seek for humane remedies which Humane remedies against Envy may be applied against the poisonous passion of Envy and Jealousie I can then tell you that this evil laies hold very often by the eyes and that it is expedient to guard them with a carefull heed and to divert them what one may from objects which are of power to excite many inordinate motives in the soul in this kind To what purpose is it to be so curious in the affairs of one towards whom you have no affection since by understanding his prosperities you very often learn your own disastres you look on his lands his houses his bravery his pomp his family his alliance his friends and all that entring into your heart through the curiosity of your eyes causeth therein fits of a lingering feavour which wasts and consumeth you The amourous eye sucketh in a sweet poison and the envious eye feeds it self with a venome which is full of bitternesse It perad venture expecteth that beholding the parts of the person it hateth it shall see the mischief it wisheth but God permits it there to find what least it would and that those envenomed aspects serve for a torment to the soul S. Gregory Nyssen in the life of Moses saith it
Syrians thought that he that engaged himself so boldly was the most interressed and that without doubt there was all likely hood that it was Ahab they fell upon him with ardour so that he thought he should have been hemmed in But when he betook himself to crying out aloud animating his souldiers to his defence the enemies that had a mind to spare him retired to fall on Ahab It happened that an Archer letting fly an arrow at randome stroke him with a mortal wound whereupon he commanded his Coach-man to turn about and to draw out of the mingling well perceiving that he was grievously hurt All the Army was immediately scattered and the Herald of Arms proclaimed that every man might return to his home King Ahab dyed the same day and his body was brought back to Samaria where it happened that as his Coach that was all bloody was a washing in a pool of the same City the Dogs ran thither and licked up his bloud according to Elijahs prophecy Ahaziah his sonne succeeded him inheriting the superstition and misery of his father for after he had reigned a very little while he fell out at a window of his house and grievously hurt himself without being ever able to find a remedy to his evill And having forsaken God sent messengers to the God of Ekron to know if he should recover from that sicknesse but the Prophet Elijah having met his Messengers upon the way rebuked them sharply for that they went to consult with Idols as if there were no God in Israel and commanded them to tell their Master that he should not be cured of his wound but should dye without ever rising out of the Bed wherein he lay This Prince offended at this truth causes the Prophet to be pursued and sends one of his Captains with fifty souldiers to apprehend him This man in mockery called him Man of God and prayed him to descend from the mountain whither he had retired himself but Elijah persisting alwayes in his spirit of rigour said that he would give him proofs that should make him know that he was not a Man of God through vanity and irrision and at the same instant he caused fire to descend from heaven which consumed him and all his company Ahaziah sends another of them for the same purpose which meets also with the same successe He charges again a third the Captain of which gained Elijah by submission and brought him to his Master to whom he spake constantly the truth and advertised him of his approaching death and the other durst not do him any mischief well knowing that he was under Gods protection The truth of the Prophecyed was manifest soon after by the death of Ahaziah who had for successour his brother Joram who reigned twelve years and although Elijah was already translated from this life that is but a passage to another estate his Prophecy failed not to be accomplished particularly upon the house of Ahab and the wicked Jezabel For Elisha according to the order of God and the command received from his Master caused Jehu to be crowned to reign in Israel To this purpose he dispatched one of his Disciples put a violl in his hand wherein was the oyl destined for his unction giving him charge to go to Ramoth in Gilead where Jehu one of Jorams principall Captains commanded and besieged the city continuing the siege that Joram had laid before it whiles he went to Samaria to be dressed of some wounds that he had received in the warre against the Syrians Aboue all he recommended to him that the businesse should be kept very secret and that when he should be arrived he should call Jehu aside and withdraw into some chamber and there consecrate him King with that unction that he had in his hand making him know that God gave him his masters house and crown to revenge the bloud of the Prophets and servants of God upon the race of Ahab and on Jazabel This sonne of a Prophet sent by Elisha did all that was commanded him and arriving at the Camp found Jehu environed with other Captains and signified to him that he had a word or two to speak to him which made him quit the company and enter into a neighbouring chamber where the other powred out the sacred oyle upon his head said to him I have anointed you this day over the people of the God of Israel and consecrated you King to ruine from God the house of Ahab your Master and to revenge the bloud of the Prophets and servants of God upon Jezabel who shall be eaten up of Doggs and no body shall give her buriall As soon as he had said this he opens the door and flies Jehu comes forth and shews himself to his Captains who had a curiosity to know what had passed in that treaty and asked of him what that mad-man meant that came to him Jehu feigning that they well enough knew the cause of it and need not go about to inform themselves held them in expectation and in fine declared to them that it was one of Elisha's desciples that had brought him the news that he should reign in Israel and that such was the will of God It is a wonderfull thing that none of the chief men of the Army opposed themselves against it but that all at that very instant laid down their Cloaks under Jehu's feet as it were to raise him a throne and cryed out God save the King The conspiracy against Joram being framed he hinders any notice to be given him and marches with a strong hand to the City to surprise him and Ahaziah King of Judah together with him that was come to visite him in his sicknesse The sentinell that stood at the gate of the City told that he saw a body of Cavaliers coming in a right line to the City whereupon the King ordered that one of his men should go out to discover it This Scout was gained by Jehu and ranged himself on his side Another is sent out which doâ—s also the same whereat the King being much astonished takes his Coach and and Ahaziah his to see what the businesse was As soon as he perceived Jehu he said What are you not a man of peace Whereto Jehu replyed What peace while the fornications and poysonings of Jezabel your Mother are yet in full vigour Joram saw plainly by his countenance and by that answer that there was mischief and began to wheel about saying to Ahaziah his companion We are betrayed and seeing that he was no way prepared to make resistance to such a power betook himself to flight But Jehu bending his Bow le ts fly an Arrow at him that pierced him through and killed him in his Chariot At the same instant he caused his body to be taken up to cast it on the road in the field of Naboth and pursued Ahaziah who having received a mortall wound as he fled gave up the Ghost at Megiddo from whence he was carried to