bounty that he would vouchsafe to comfort her and confirm her spirit which was descended into the bottom of the Abyss of the miseries of this world Her prayer being ended she was inspired with infusions of love towards her Creatour and armed with a noble confidence she in this manner did express her self Wherefore art thou so sad my soul if GOD permits She comforteth her self in prison this for thy sins shouldest thou not kiss the Rod that strikes thee and adore that infinite mercy who doth chastise thee by temporary punishments not willing to make thee an object of that choler which is kindled by an eternity of flames and if this comes unto thee to approve thy virtues dost thou fear to enter into the furnace where that great workman will consume the straw onely that burns thee and will make thee to shine as gold wherefore art thou so sad my heart To be deprived of liberty and the delights of the Court take unto thee the wings of contemplation and of love and fly thou beyond these waters fly thou beyond the seas which inviron these Islands and understand that there is no prison for a Soul which GOD doth set at liberty and that all the world doth belong to him who knows how to misprise it In these considerations she took incomparable delight 1. Hope against all hope and as well as she could did charm the afflictions of her imprisonment when behold a blind felicity which made her to see unexpected events GOD stirred up a little Daniel to deliver this poor Susanna a little Infant the son of the Earl of Douglas did feel his little heart touched with the miseries of this brave Queen and had the hardiness to speak thus unto her Madam if your Majesty will understand a way to your deliverance I can give it you We have here below a Gate at which we sometimes do go forth to delight our selves upon the water I will bring you the key and have the Boat ready in which fearing my fathers anger I must save my self with you The Queen extreamly amazed at the discourse of the child made answer My little friend your counsel is very good Do as you speak and acquaint no man with it otherwise you will ruine us if you will oblige me for so great a favour I will make you a great man and you shall have content all your dayes In the mean time for want of pen and paper she wrote on her hand-kerchief with a coal and found a means to advertise the Viscount of Selon touching that design assigning both the day the place where he should attend her to which he disposed himself with so much activity as if he had rather wings to flie than paces by foot to measure The child failed not to put in execution what he promised The Queen took the key in her hand opened Her departure the Gate and nimbly leaped into the Boat with this little Companion of her fortune she took her self the pole into her hand seeing the young child had not force to steer the boat she began to guid it and to save her life by the favour of her arms One of her maids named Queneda seing her Mistress in this difficulty did leap into the water out of a window of the Castle and abandoned her self to the mercy of the waves to joyn herself unto the fortunes of her Mistress O good GOD How may the stars in the greater silence of this world with admiration behold so great a Queen to sit at the stern of a boat with oars in her hand and practising a trade of life which necessitie doth teach her and felicity doth govern The waters stroaked into a calm did perceive the effects of her fair hand and gently opened themselves to make a passage for her At last she arrived at the bank on the other side and found there the Viscount who received her with all reverence and joy She retired her self into a place of safety and thought on the means to re-establish her self to which she found her good subjects well disposed and in a short time raised an Army of about seven thousand men At which the Enemies being inraged drew up against them in great bodies and giving them battel they over-powered them in number and obtained the victory The encounter was bloudy to which one part did contribute courage and the other fury Seven and fifty personages of Honour of the House of Hamilton which is next unto the King did with their dead bodies cover the field where the Battel was fought The Queen who with horrour entertained the apprehension of so many massacres did prefer an innocent Retreat before an uncertain Victory Her bastard Brother the chief of the Rebellion of an imaginary King did now make himself an absolute Tyrant and as much as in him lay he endeavoured to root out the rest of the true Religion in Scotland by the perswasion of Knox and Buchanan he stripped the Churches naked to cover himself he oppressed all honest men and let himself loose unto all manner of insolence 8. The deplorable Queen is constrained to depart Her Retreat into England where her enemies accused her out of her Kingdom to fall no more into such cruel hands She took shipping having a desire at first to sail into France where her Memory was still preserved in singular Reputation but having a lofty heart though excellently well tempted she was ashamed to transport her self to be seen in the condition of a banished woman in a place where all the graces and virtues had given her so many tropheys She cōceived that concealed Misery was the more supportable and that it was more expedient for her to live in an Island which was an out-corner of the world than in the splendour of France Besides she conceived that she A civil shame doth hinder good designs ought to continue within the Neighbour-hood of her own Kingdom the better to facilitate her Return unto it The Archbishop Hamilton a most wise old man did disswade her from that resolution understanding very well the Deportments of Murray with the Queen of England and because she made apparence to give but little heed unto his counsels he threw himself at her feet with tears in his eyes and besought her not to follow the greatness of her mind as to make choice of that place which would be her certain destruction On the other side Elizabeth did sollicite her again and again and did importune her by a thousand courtesies to repair into England to which at last she condescended as if Necessity had prepared links of Diamonds to chain her to her misfortunes The innocent Dove in endeavouring to eschew the nets of the Fowler did fall into the talons of the Hawk She came into a Kingdom from whence Justice and Religion were banished by the horrible factions of the Hereticks She put her self into her hands who had usurped her Scepter and who made use
Anthony could find no other way to make Herod to be acknowledged for King while there was yet any of the bloud Royal left capable of rule so much this people loved their natural King and abhorred a stranger After these slaughters Herod mounteth to the top Entry of Herod to the crown of the wheel behold all the thorns as he thinketh pulled out of his feet he now had nothing to grapple with but an old man an infant and two women the last remainder of the noble race of the Asmodeans Hircanus was the aged man who in truth grew old among the thorns and horrible changes of his state He was as yet captive among the Parthians but the King although a Barbarian had so much commiseration of his so greatly afflicted goodness that he permitted him to live with all free libertie in his Citie of Babylon This poor Prince who had passed his whole life void of ambition bare the change of his fortune with great equalitie and temper of mind The Jews who at that time inhabited in the Parthians dominions beholding him all wounded disfigured wretched abandoned disarrayed did notwithstanding honour him as their King with so much respect and reverence that he had almost found a Kingdom in Captivitie Herod who saw this man might serve as a colour for those spirits that would aym at him in the swinge of his affairs as yet not well confirmed dispatcheth an express Embassadour to the Parthian King with many presents and letters sweetned with silken words wherein he besought him not to bereave him of the greatest contentment he could possibly have in this world which was to be grateful to those who had obliged him Hircanus said he was his benefactour his Protectour his Father and since God had given him some repose in his affairs it was an unspeakable comfort to him to share the scepter greatness and affluent content of Kings with a friend so faithful worthy to be beloved The King of Parthia willing to gratifie King Herod whom he beheld supported by the Roman Empire the power whereof he more feared than honoured the virtue gave free leave to Hircanus to go whither he would he put the business in consultation with the prime Peers of his countrie who much disswaded him But through the easiness of his singular nature which ever swallowed the bait without consideration of the hook he yielded himself to the dissembled courtesies of Herod and returned directly to Jerusalem where he was received with infinite demonstrations of amitie Behold the whole Regal familie in the hands of this Tyrant Hircanus had but one onely daughter named Alexandra a woman no whit of her fathers temper for she was extreamly haughtie and had much adoe with herself to bite the bridle in this servitude She was mother of two children one son and one daughter the son was the little Aristobulus and the daughter Mariamne married to Herod Mariamne was accounted the most beautiful Princess Marriage of Mariamne to Herod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Euphonie Mariamne of the earth for Gellius who went prying after all the beauties of the world to make relation thereof to Mark Anthony having well considered all the most exquisite Master-pieces of Nature when he beholdeth Mariamne in Palestine he protesteth all other beauties were terrestrial in comparison of this which seemed to have been composed amongst the the heavenly Orbs. This man saw nothing but the exteriour bark and was rapt with admiration but her form was not worthy esteem in comparison of the noble qualities of her mind She was a grandchild of the great Machabees well versed in the Law of God discreet wise stayed circumspect courteous chast as Susanna but above all couragious and patient who lived in Herods Court as Job on the dunghil Never beautie and virtue were so disgraced in any match This creature which had power to make so many brave Princesses to sigh for her and who might have beheld so many obsequious services done at her foot hath now Herod for her husband who had nothing humane in him but lineament and figure It was to match the Lamb with the Wolf the Dove with the Faulcon and to tye a living body mouth to mouth with the the dead to marrie such a Lady to so Prodigious a Monster But he who already had power in his hand passionately sought her as well for her in comparable beauty as besides for ever to establish his state considering the alliance of this little creature descended from so many Kings would cover the obscuritie of his house and gain him more reputation among the Jews Hircanus grand-father to Mariamne and Alexandra her mother seeing Herod was Master of his desires the Scepter already in his hands although by injustice and tyrannie measuring all things by his fortune not person judged this way might be yet advantagious and that his wife might mollifie him and make him favourable to the Royal bloud The generous Lady well foresaw that the putting her into Herods hands was to cast her into the Lions jaws But not to gainsay those to whom she had been taught to sacrifice her whole life and to obey the Laws of necessitie she under-went the yoke fortifying her Royal heart against all the stormy tempests which seemed already to menace her Behold her married Herod loveth her as the hunter venison for his appetite and advantage his love being not of power to make him loose one sillie grain of his ambition or crueltie This perverse Herod depresseth the Royal stock and violent spirit who held the Kingdom as a wolf by the ears ever wavering yea even in the secure safetie of his affairs endeavoured nothing but to rid himself of those whose spoils he possessed the respect of this good Queen being not able to sweeten or soften his savage humours He well shewed how little affection he bare towards her allies when it might any way import his pretended interest even at that time when there was question to substitute a High-Priest in the place of Hircanus who having his ears cut off with much deformitie necessarily fell into the irregularity ordained by Law which forbad him Altars Herod daily saw the Aristobulus the brother of Mariamne put from the High-Priesthood young Aristobulus in his Palace son of Alexandra and sole brother of his wife a most accomplished Prince to whom every one destined the Myter He sets his eyes a-wandering and finds out on the further side of Euphrates in the Citie of Babylon an unknown Jew named Ananel and createth him High-Priest This was a pill which Alexandra the mother of Aristobulus and Mariamne could not swallow yet thought fit to dissemble it She saw her house manifestly dejected in that her son after so many obligations was dispossessed of an honour to which bloud nature and the consent of the whole world called him to give it to a man of no value she could not so well digest her choler but that she thundred more lowdly than
It is credible that Haman had an hand in that execrable design seeing that he gave so little thanks to Mordecai for having been the discoverer of it but the dissimulation that he brought to cover his fact and his mighty power that rendred him so terrible suffered him not to be involved in the ruine of those wretched men These two Courtiers had an eye to one another and sought nothing but each others ruine the power of the one being alwayes suspected by the other when God without Mordecai's thinking of it sent him a great succour by the choice which was made of his Niece to be the Kings wife The History sayes that Ahasuenus would shew his magnificence and made great feasts for the space of an hundred and fourscore dayes in which he entertained the Princes the governors of Provinces and all the Nobles of the Realm He would have the people too to have their share and for that purpose he caused to be set up at the entrance of his gardens which he was wont to dresse with his own hands abundance of great Pavilions of Sky-colour born up with marble pillars and tyed together with ribands of red silk and rings of ivory He caused also certain beds of gold and silver to be set up upon a pavement of emerald and other precious stones ranged by a proportion made after the Mosaicall fashion which had a very fine grace Thither he invited all the people of that great city of Shushan and caused them to be served in vessels of gold and of silver with most exquisite viands and delicious wine and left every one to drink according to his ability without constraining any one Vasthi the Queen on the other side made a banquet for the women in the Royall palace wherein she forgot nothing to equall the stately Grandeurs of the King her husband This merry life lasted the space of seven dayes in the last of which the King being very jolly and inflamed with wine commanded the Eunuchs that were about him to cause the Queen to come with the Crown upon her head in her most gorgeous attire to make a shew of her beauty in the presence of all the people The Queen took no pleasure in this command and refused to go in which sayes Sulpicius the wife was wiser then the husband in that she was not willing to make a spectacle of the beauty of her body to men full of meats and wine and deserved so much the more commendation as she was more constant to keep the Laws of modesty and comelinesse But this was not taken that way as that sacred Historian presents it they imagined that she had some of the disposition of beautifull women that she was a little proud and scornfull which caused that she was not so well beloved of the Grandees of the Court who as it is credible having long since a desire to do her some ill office laid hold on this occasion They caused that refusall to be reported very harshly by the Eunuchs to the King when it might have been sweetned and moderated they made use of his wine as of an instrument of their iniquity and exasperated him also by the diminution of his Authority whereof Princes are very jealous if they have not much stupidity Assoon as the answer of the Queen was published the King turned himself about to the seven principall Councellours of his State who were alwayes by his side and governed the Kingdome and demanded their advice what he should do to represse his wives pride Memuchan which was the last and the rashest made of this deniall a crime of State and said That it tended to the disorder of all the other women because that other women every one in her condition framed themselves after the example of the Queen and would draw a licentious advantage over their husbands founded upon that affront done to his Royall Majesty and that every where they would domineer which would overthrow the order of Nature and cause great troubles in all houses and therefore he was of the opinion that the Queen should be divorced by the King her husband and that an Edict should be made to be sent through all his Kingdomes touching the obedience that women owe to those that are their heads The man perhaps was ill dealt with in his lodging by his wife and under shadow of Policy would revenge his wrongs It is very true that the Law of God strictly recommends the submission of the wife towards the husband but it ought to be understood in things good and reasonable for if a wife were bound to render a blind obedience to all the extravagances of a husband that hath but little wit and much passion she should be the most miserable of all slaves There were many reasons that might make Vasthi's action be excused but because they saw that Memuchan had pleased the King by his discourse all the rest of the Councellours of State ran to servitude and condemned her to a long torment by a short sentence She was degraded and divorced which was a thing ordinary enough to those Kings who made no great account of losing a wife seing that they had so great a number of them in ther Seraglio The Edict was also made in the tearms that the other had required it and the name of that poor Queen went up and down the whole Kingdome as a sad story and a true portraiture of an abased greatnesse God permitted all this to make way for Hester whom he had destined to Ahasuerus his bed not for her self but for the safety of her people After the divorce and the disastre of poor Vasthi a new Queen must be sought out and the King comforted about his losse A great culling is made through all the Provinces of the Kingdome of the handsomest Virgins to be brought to Court This little Hester is found very delightfull being endowed with a perfect beauty and a naturall grace that surpassed all things She is carried amongst abundance of others and as soon as the King cast his eyes upon her he liked her and commanded Hegai the Eunuch that had the superintendency of his Seraglio to have a great care of that young damsel to spare nothing on her and to give her seven waiting-maids with all necessary equipage Those Virgins that were thus chosen for the Prince's bed made a novitiate of twelve moneths in which time they had all leasure to fit themselves and to learn the civilities of the Court. After this they were presented to the King who took those that pleased him most and when any one had passed a night in his chamber she was sent in the morning into a new Seraglio unto the charge of another Eunuch and returned no more to the King if she was not asked for and that by name Hester spent but ten moneths in her prepartion and was incontinently conducted to the King who liked her above all the maids that he had ever seen and declared her
imaginative brains their rents and revenues and measure all things with the ell of eternitie Notwithstanding one would be amazed to see that all this goodly building of fortune composed of injustice concussions and rapines cemented together with the sweat and bloud of the poor falleth by little and little into ruin and when this cometh into the judgement of God the foolish moth who hath so gnawn to feed and cover himself findeth himself naked hungrie ashamed and extreamly miserable Those build like swallows who also much labour House of swallows to erect houses but with little success of fruit for posterity Swallows after they have well built in Summer forsake us in Autumn and leave no other memory of them but of morter straw and dung so many Noblemen oft-times build palaces make huge purchases and that with unspeakeable industrie but because they proceed therein with sinister and impure intentions God suffereth not their posterity to enjoy it We see houses emptie as swallows nests in Autumn Some men will ask who built this house Answer will be made such a one a mushrome of the Court coming from nothing in one night in all other things faithless to God and men who hath not left any thing memorable behind him but his vices and thus all the fame of this man consisteth in picking of straws which are temporal riches scattered here and there and in the dung of an ill name which he leaveth to posterity Behold an aim ill taken for the raising of fortunate buildings But as for you O virtuous Noblemen God permitteth you to build as Halcyons How is that Two notable properties are observed in the nest of the Halcyon The first is that the architecture of it is so strong so durable it cannot be broken or cut even with the violent stroak of iron The second that it is so proportioned to the bird as if it were sowed to her bodie in such manner that no creature can therein be received but the architect himself Justly behold the conditions which God hath given to your houses when they are built upon the fear of his holy Name They are strong of force lasting against all the strokes of fortune nor is there any violence which can open them to destroy them It is the infallible promise of God The house of the Domus impiorum delebitur tabernaculaâ— vero justorum germinabunt Prov. 1. 11. wicked shall be demollished but the tabernacles of the just shall flourish Moreover they have a certain benediction which disposeth all things in good order the rule of expence proportioned to the quality of their persons the Oeconomie sage and prudent in such sort that all things are mannaged there with measure and compass as in the Halcyons nest And as an ancient Writer hath said older is the world of worlds which retaineth all things in their lustre and uniteth them with a seam and lasting band When once it is fixed in the families of Great ones which happeneth by the means of piety where it always produceth the same effects which it doth in this great Universe The second reward is the honour so much desired by noble spirits It falleth out that the wicked are sometimes raised to the greatness of the world but they are therein as Comets as stars of mud and earth who taking a false lustre make shew for a time in the air of vanity and afterwards they are scattered casting pestilence and poison into the four quarters of the world On the contrary real Noblemen are like true stars planted and enchased by the hand of God even in the firmament of honour to enlighten an eternity Their glory is fixed with nails of adamant Calumnie may perhaps shake it but never overthrow it yea time it self confesseth that there is neither pincers nor hammer can work this effect It is God that promiseth this Whosoever shall glorifie Quicumque glorificaverit me glorificabo eum qui autem contemnunt me erunt ignobiles 1 Reg. 2. 30. Fantasies to gain honours me I will glorifie him and those which despise me shall become ignoble Hereupon judge how solid the honour of Great men truly virtuous is since it is fastened to the honour of God himself who glorieth in honouring them A thousand and a thousand Princes and phantastick great Ladies have galloped honour upon the full speed and with a discomposed spirit have invented imaginary forms to find credit and admiration in the hearts of men Some have caused mountains and rocks to be cut to raise statues to themselves as Semiramis Others have taken crows parrats and other birds counterfeiting human speech and have taught them a lesson which was to salute them as gods afterward enfranchizing them for the open field have sent them into the air to carrie these salutations and impress in the minds of men a false idea of their divinity so did Psapho Others have taken the figures of Eagles Lions and Serpents as certain Kings of Aegypt to strike a terrour into the souls of mortal men others have left Medails triumphant Arches Colossuses goodly Palaces Theaters Amphitheaters as the Romane Emperours others have placed themselves openly upon Altars as Caligula who set the figure of his own head upon the statue of Jupiter Posterity hath exploded all this the times have derided it oblivion hath swallowed all of them or if it hath not set its biting tooth therein it hath been for no other cause but to leave them to a hateful and detestable memory a thousand times worse than forgetfulness Much otherwise Great men that build their fortunes upon the foundations of the fear of God from small and feeble beginnings have come to so high a pitch that they have replenished all tongues with their praises all hearts with their admiration all Ages with the monuments of their glory For it is God alone that causeth men to take aims of true and solid greatness and who with a puissant arm dasheth and overwhelmeth those spirits which suffer themselves to be transported with the torrent of vanity courting airy smokes emptie apparences and flying clouds whereby they produce monsters in stead of deserved honour seated fairly upon the firm rock of constancy God hath in such wise shewed himself to have greatness in his own hands that extracting men from the dregs and froth of the earth he hath made them mount so high that oftentimes Imperial heads radiantly glittering with Rubies and Diamonds have bowed under the ashes of a poor fisher-man And who seeth not that the true and onely mean to enter into the possession of honour is straitly to unite ones self with this Divine Majesty from whence on man reflect all the lustrous rays of greatness For a third reward this sovereign Mover and Architect of our lives and fortunes doth propagate also the glorie of Fathers to their children and giveth them a flourishing posteritie which makes them eternally live in the memory of men by the most lively images of their virtues It is
a most irrefragable motive of detestation of any vice when the baseness and ignominie thereof is discovered for that is it which hath most power over generous spirits Now so it is this hypocrisie which maketh you O Noblemen always to live disguised is quite contrary to the condition of a brave and generously elated spirit Because if it be impressed with a good stamp it naturally loveth the liberty and freedom which unavoidably is oppressed in these palliations crouchings and counterfeitings They are the tricks of Apes and Foxes and in no sort are suitable to the nature of a generous Lion Besides seeing God openeth unto us the great Hypocrisie confuted in the great book of the world book of the world as a piece of parchment guilded and traced with his pencil for us therein to read that which is for our instruction if we will consider diligently the most sublime things we shall find they naturally strike at this vanity which maketh you to display apparences to the eyes of men outwardly having nothing solid within It seemeth that all the master-pieces of this celestial and elementary world as it were by a common consent do hide all what they have of most eminency and worth bearing for devise I hide the better part It is true Parte sui meliore latent that Heaven sheweth it self wholly relucent in stars and brightness but covereth his powerful influences which by their secret extent give motion to this great house of nature It is true the air maketh his meteors to appear to the view of the whole world but this secret virtue which doth penetrate us even to the heart and bringeth life and refreshment to us upon its wings who can tell me what colour it is of The fire unfoldeth his flames to us but this commanding heat which conquereth and softeneth the hardest mettals do we behold it The caim sea delighteth us with his smiling countenance at that time especially when it becometh as it were frizled and curled by some gracious and gentle gale and coloured with the beams of a bright Sun which beat upon it but this lustruous beauty what is it in comparison of the treasures which he concealeth in the store-houses of his abysses The earth it self likewise maketh her boast in the spring varied and enameled with her natural pieces of painting and sparkled with a thousand petty flowers which stand as the eyes of the meadows but these do eclipse each evening and morning Quite contrary the mettals which the earth encloseth and as it were engulfeth in the entrails after they are wrought and polished by the artful hands of Lapidaries retain a lustre of a long date which resplendently shine upon cup-boards of Kings and the Great men of the earth What lesson of nature is this to hide all which it hath of greatest value And what corruption of nature in man to hold in the bottom of his heart stench and dung-hills and to plaister it over with a vain hypocrisie God hath not onely imprinted this verity of Hypocrisie condemned by the laws of heaven Sport of God and what 1 Cor. 1. Quae stulta sunt mundi elegit Deus ut confundat sapientes infirma mundi elegit Deus ut confundat fortia ignobilia mundi contemptibilia elegit Deus ea quae non sunt ut ea quae sunt destruereâ— which I speak in the great book of nature but he hath as it were engraven and stampt it with his hand in the monuments of the old and new law The pastimes of Great men are Theaters Tilt-yards and Amphitheaters and the sport of the Divine wisdom in this Universe is to hide treasures under the bark and mantle of some persons base and abject in apparence In the old law a stammering shepheard is chosen to carrie the word to a Monarch to shake and overturn with a poor wand the pillars of his Empire to divide seas to calm billows to open the bowels of rocks to command all the elements and fill the world with wonders In the new law simple fisher-men almost as dumb and mute as the fishes themselves are chosen to catch in their nets Philosophers Kings Cities Provinces and Empires Behold the ordinary custom of God to hold pearls in shels sweet perfumes in very abject boxes The true mark of greatness in the judgement of God is at first blush externally not to appear great On the contrary it is the act of a flat ridiculous and benummed vanity to be desirous to furprize the eyes with a counterfeit and captious beauty which afterward appearing in its native colours makes the deformity thereof the more disfigured What a shameful thing it is to a heart which hath Deformity of hypocrisie never so little resentment of nobility to erect a resplendent sepulchre to boast exteriourly marbles guildings characters titles and to have nothing within but bones put refaction and ashes to cast a certain lustre through the ignorance and obscurity of an Age become bruitish and then to be in effect but a silly worm to live in the world as a snail to make long silver traces and to be nothing else but froth to have the back covered with velvet like a cushion and the belly stuffed with hay to make ostent of leaves and verdure like a wood and to be replenished with serpents Is it possible that a noble heart when it hath no other super-visour but its own conscience can suffer these shames A gentile spirit said to an old man who caused his grisly hairs to be painted with the lustre of green youth Poor fool although thou couldst deceive the whole world with thy hair yet death well knoweth they are gray So when Scit te Proserpina canum an hypocrite shall happen to conceal his jugling from all those who accompany him which indeed cannot be done men now being endued with penetrating eyes yet one cannot deceive the eye of his conscience quick-sighted to pierce such falshoods with bright reflection I say nothing of the shame and ignomie that must be undergone after it is discovered and taken with the manner like a cut-purse I speak nothing of the racks tortures affrightments and perplexities in which they live who desire to entertain these seemings A great wit hath well said that such Stephanus Edvensis in Reg. 3. 18. people are the oxen of Baal who are cut for sacrifice in little gobbets but notwithstanding receive not fire from Heaven these miserable creatures macerate and kill themselves to sacrifice themselves to the appetites of the world without ever tasting the consolations of God which they have renounced Let us lay their pains apart let us admit that with these laborious endeavours they might always live cloked always hidden from the eyes of the world yea even from the all-piercing eye of their own conscience It is most manifest and considerable for the second 2. Reason reason that it is impossible to deceive God whose eye replenished
house he used her not in the quality of a Queen nor a wife but of a poor sacrifice which he caused to be shut up commanding to murder her as often he he fell into any danger of his own life for fear some other should enjoy her after his death shall find the Ladie had most just cause to make him this answer Herod notwithstanding who would not afford such liberty was so moved with these words as it was a great chance he had not laid violent hands upon her shewing by his eyes sparkling with anger his shrill voice and hands lifted up he would proceed to force And as he stamped up and down transported with rage acting his anger like a fencer without Mariamne's reply to any one word the perfidious Salome thought it was now high time to strike her stroke She sent a trusty servant Strange mischief whom she a long time had suborned to cause him to depose a calumny as wicked as ridiculous to wit that Mariamne having a purpose to give Herod a love-drink had addressed her self to him who was cup-bearer to the King to corrupt him with many promises to which he never had given ear For the rest he had such instruction given him that if perhaps Herod should ask what this potion was he should answer without further difficulty it was the Queens invention and that herein she onely required the service of his hand This wicked fellow entered into the chamber in cold bloud and very seriously makes oath hereof whereupon Herod who was already enkindled becoming more enflamed than ever thought within himself he must no longer wonder from whence these his impatiences in love proceeded At that instant he caused an Eunuch to be laid hold on one of the Queens most trusty servants supposing nothing was done without his knowledge He putteth him to the torture causing him to be most cruelly tormented of purpose that his body very feeble not being able to endure the violence of tortures and on the other side having nothing to say against his good Ladie in whose conversation he had never perceived any thing but honour and virtue should for a long time remain in very great perplexities In the end he let a word fall saying he had seen Sohemus talk a long while in secret with Queen Mariamne as framing some relation to her and that after this very time he well perceived she was troubled Herod had no sooner heard this word It is enough said he take him from the torture and let Sohemus be called Sohemus knew nothing what had passed and lived in great contentment having very lately obtained a good government by the Queens recommendations He was wholly amazed they laid hold upon him and would enforce him to confess the discourse which he had with Mariamne during this specious imprisonment But he persisting in denial is massacred in the place Herod retired into his cabbinet Death of Sohemus drinking in deep draughts the gall and poyson of his deadly choller and contriving in his heart the fury which he soon after was to shew in publick For without giving any truce to his spirit he assembled his Prive-Counsel and sendeth for the Queen who expected nothing less than such proceeding This monster who always endeavoured to give colour of justice to his most exorbitant actions beginneth a long speech which he had prepared at leisure and while every one was in horrour and silence not knowing what would be the catastrophe of the Tragedy except the couragious Mariamne who was armed with an invincible constancy against all exigents he speaketh unto them in such like words SIRS It seemeth God will counterpoize the prosperities Oration of Herod against his wife of my state by the misfortunes of my house I have found safety in winds and tempests in so many painfull voyages as I have undertaken so many thorny affairs which I have ended to find a storm in my own Palace You are not ignorant how I have cherished the whole family of Hircanus within my bosom in a lamentable time when it was in decay and confusion for recompence whereof as if I had hatched the egs of a serpent I have got nothing but hisses and poyson God knoweth how often I have dissembled and how often I haue cured my self by patience Notwithstanding I cannot so harden my heart but that it may be softened and ever become penetrable to a new wound Behold the Queen my wife who following the steps of her mother is always ready to disquiet my repose As soon as I was returned from the voyage so full of danger as you know I brought her news of the happy success of my affairs She shewing the little account she made both of my state and person at that time heard me with so great disdain that what endeavour of courtesie soever I used never could I extort from her pride one good word And afterward not contenting herself therewith she proceeded to very bloudy injuries which I love better to conceal for the honour of yours ears and come to deeds Behold one of my faithful servants who testifieth she would have suborned him to give me a love-potion to wit a poyson of purpose to turn my brain or take away the life which God reserveth for me to acknowledge the many good offices which you all in general and each one in particular have afforded me Thus you see how I am returned my head crowned with lawrel honoured and courted by the prime men of the world to serve as a sport for the malice and a mark for the treachery of a woman whom I cannot reclaim by the force of love nor benefits no more than if she were a Lyoness Consider what you ought to do I deliver her into the bands of your justice not willing to direct my self herein by my own advise to the end posterity may know that my proper interests are ever seated beneath the truth Herod speaking these words would seem less passionate putting all tortures upon his natural disposition plyable enough But he notwithstanding so vehemently fretted that all the Counsel knew well he was in heat of choller and that his purpose was no other but to ruin the poor Queen She is summoned to answer at that instant without an Advocate The glorious Amazon Grand-child of the Machabees Admirable modesty of the poor Queen and Inheritrix of their patience being presented before this wicked tribunal 28. years before the coming of the Son of God did then what he afterward taught us most remarkably by his example Never from her mouth was heard one syllable of impatience never did she use one sole word of recrimination and being able to declare to the Counsel a thousand and a thousand outrages received by herself and the persons of her nearest allies she swalloweth all these bitternesses with a patience more than humane Onely saith she that as concerning the essential Article of this accusation to wit The love-potion which was objected against
torch do you set on fire to burn and consume the house of God when blind with affection and benummed in judgement you so embrace your young apes that you strangle them with excess of indulgence To enkindle ambition in the veins of these yong sots almost at their coming out of the cradle to set them on the top of the house over mens heads with an arm and sling of silver be they vitious be they impious and dissolute be they stupid and heavy as earth so that they have the breath of favour and oars of silver as had the rowers of Queen Cleopatra needs must they be placed on the top of the Turret to be seen the further off Many times charges of great importance and superintendence over the heads of so many mortals are given to men to whom a silly farmers wife would not have committed the keeping of a cow The Idumeans enterprize upon the Sanctuary and these owls endeavour to drink up the Lamp-oyl of Churches by an ambition of so strong a flight that it will admit no limits but infinitie Have you no commiseration of the publick The Commonwealth is at this day an old song say you whereof little care is to be had we desire to know more than an air which is that of our own proper interest since it is an act of prudence well to accommodate ones affairs Yet are you no whit ashamed of your selves though silver furnish you with a brow of mettal to regard no man yet is it a shamefull thing to be desirous to erect in the world the tree of Nebuchadnezzar turned topsie-turvie where four-footed beasts are above and little birds beneath Were it not a goodly thing to see horses asses and bulls to neigh bray and bellow upon the branches of trees while the small birds of Heaven so many celestial spirits thrust from the rank which wisdom and virtue giveth go mourning up and down among the thorns of a necessitous life But we must prefer our children answer you Who says the contrary Raise them on the steps of actions Christian solid and illustrious cause them to pass through the Temple of virtue before they go to that of honour examine their talents their capacity their ability otherwise you do not advance but precipitate them into publick scorn into loss of reputation and danger of soul This benefice is not a benefice but a malefice but a golden snare a carcanet of Medea a Trojan horse which will produce arms You in procuring such an honour resemble those idolatrous parents who sacrificed their children to the God Moloch that is to Seldenus de Diis Syris pag. 78. say to the Sun and caused them to be burnt alive in the hollow statue of the Sun not caring to forgo their lives so they might loose them in those flames and lights which were the Hieroglyphicks of honour Oh meer madness for the life of a flie which we daily share with death to be willing to damme your self and posterity to stand on the brink of the abyss and not deign so much as onely open your eyes to behold the precipice The third SECTION Of vocation or calling IF you desire to know how you should proceed in the preferment of your children to Ecclesiastical degrees first understand it is true Mercury is not made of all wood If question be concerning a husbandman merchant artificer or shepheard we trie the nature of the children and endeavour to accommodate each one of them according to their dispositions and natural inclinations Suppose you it is onely fit for the Church to expose them at adventure without election or discretion What exorbitancy is it to think it lawfull to take the simplest and weakest for Priests and Religious What tyranny to divert some with all sorts of cunning and violence and thrust others on as it were with a fork To have in all your proceeding no other aim but the benefit of your family to force the Laws of Heaven to bow under the interests of your house to give that to God which you cannot settle else-where and if any accident happen to take that from God which you have given him Hereby it cometh to pass that after many years we behold birds which change both their plumage and kind upon some very slight cause not speaking of those who do so by way of counsel and conscience the scarlet Cloak succeeding the Church Cassock and the sword the Breviary wherein they do much worse than the wooers in the house of Ulysses who being not able to gain access to the Mistress made their address to the servants But these forsake the Ladie whom they have espoused to court the chamber-mayds professing all their life time the infidelity of their promises by the exchange of their habits Vocation is most necessary for admittance into the Church which appeareth in two points The one ordinary the other extraordinary Extraordinary calling hath marks and signs that draw near to a miracle So we see those who have been great and eminent in the Church have had some Genius which hath even in their infancy made the first glimmers of their greatness to appear drawing the whole world after them with astonishment So Moses though he were a little child tossed Pharaoh's Ioseph Antiq. lib. 2. cap. 5. Diadem like a shuttle-cock which gave a very ill presage to the Aegyptians of their approching ruin So Elias seemed from his mother to suck fire with milk which was a prediction his mouth should one day be as indeed it was the Arsenal of the God of hosts So the cradle of S. Epiphanius as Ennodius Epiph. de Prophetis Ennodius Anonymus in ejus vitâ Raderus Crantzius l. 4. relateth was seen all on fire A vine in a vision issued out of the mouth of little S. Ephraem A flaming pillar environed the head of S. Modestas And it is written that Gregorie the seventh who from a base extraction was born to the throne of S. Peter heaping together the chips he found in his fathers shop who was a Joyner and arranging them in divers figures innocently wrote without thinking thereon as a child in sport Dominabor à mari usque ad mare All these callings and many other of the like kind are known by extraordinary signs the rest take the ordinary way and are observed to be in the good nature of children fit to be dedicated to the Church which is a matter very considerable If you ask wherein this good nature consisteth I answer It is not in the influence of stars nor in the Genius as Pagans have placed it nor simply in the beauty of mind in the goodness of constitution health strength vigour of body though these may much contribute thereunto but it appeareth in two principal rays of which the one is tranquility from passions by making a reposed calm in a soul fit to entertain the spirit of God the other which ariseth from the first is the docibleness of a mind
life of beasts and clothed himself likewise with a most simple habit desirous to shew exteriourly some tast of the reverence we ow to the bloud of the Son of God Besides abstinencies commanded he ordinarily fasted the saturday which is dedicated to the memory of the Blessed Virgin He never fed at his repast but on one dish and though he had great quantity of silver vessels he caused himself to be served in pewter and earth being glorious in publick and in his particular an enemy of worldly pomps and vanities I leave you to think how much this kind of life is alienated from the curious Nobility to whom we must daily give so many priviledges and dispensations that it seems it is for their sakes needfull to create another Christendom besides that which hath been established by the Son of God A man would say to see how they pamper their bodies they were descended from Heaven and that thither they should return not passing through the sepulcher for they deifie it and to fatten and guild a dung-hill covered with snow sport with the bloud and sweat of men Superfluity of tast being so well repressed all went Sage government of a family in true measure in the house of this good Marshal his retinue was very well entertained according to his quality and he had a very solemn custom by him religiously observed which was speedily to pay his debts and as much as he might possible to be engaged To pay his debts to none It is no small virtue nor of sleight importance if we consider the Nobility at this time so easily engulfed in great labyrinths of debts which daily encrease like huge balls of snow that fall from mountains and which require ages and golden mynes to discharge them Is it not a most inexcusable cruelty before God and men to see a busie Merchant a needy Artificer every day to multiply his journeys and steps before the gate of a Lord or a Ladie who bear his sweat and bloud in the pleyts of their garments And in stead of giving some satisfaction upon his most just requests it is told him he is an importunate fellow and he many times menaced with bastonadoes if he desist not to demand his own Is not this to live like a Tartarian Is not this to degrade ones self from Nobilitie Christianitie and Reason Is not this to thrust the knife into the throat of houses and entire families Alledge not unto me that it is impossible for you to pay at that time what is demanded Why well foreseeing your own impotency have you heaped up debts which cannot be discharged Why do you not rather admit the lessening of your port Why cut you not off so many superfluous things Are not your sins odious enough before God but you must encrease them with the marrow of the poor From hence ariseth the contempt of your persons the hatred of your name the breaches and ruin of your houses This man in well paying his debts was served and A singular discretion respected of Officers like a little Deitie there was no need to doubt nor to make a false step into his house Never would he suffer a vice or a bad servant were it to gain an Empire Blasphemies oaths lies slanders games quarrels and such like ordures were banished from his Palace as Monsters and if he found any of his family in fault he dismissed them lest they should infect the other yet not scandalizing them nor divulging their offences At the table he spake little and did voluntarily entertain himself with example of virtues in the lives of Noblemen not opening his mouth to discourse of his own proper acts but with singular sobriety In his marriage he demeaned himself most chastely and had such a horrour against impuritie that he would not so much as keep a servant who had a lustful eye Behold the cause why passing one day on horsback through the streets of the Citie of Genoa as a Ladie presented her self at her window to comb her hair and one of the Gentlemen of the Marshals trayn seeing her tresses very bright and beautifull cried out Oh what a goodly head of hair staying to behold her the Lord looked back on him with a severe eye saying It is not well done it is not fit that from the house of a Governour a wanton eye should be seen to glance In this point and all the rest which concerned the commerce and repose of Citizens he rendered so prompt and exact justice that it was a proverb amongst those of Genoa when any one was offended to say to him who had wronged him If you will not right me my Lord Marshal will The other understanding it oft-times rather chose to submit himself to right than expect a condemnation which was inevitable He so by this means gained the good opinion of the people that the inhabitants of the Citie sent to the King beseeching he might continue the government to the end of his days which having obtained it seemed to them they had drawn an Angel from Heaven to fix him at the stern of their Common-wealth At the time that the Emperour of Constantinople then dispossessed of one part of his Empire by the great Turk came into France to demand succour and had obtained of the King twelve hundred men defrayed for a year many widdow-Ladies were seen at the Court who complained of injustices and oppressions by them endured after the death of their husbands whereby this good Marshal was so moved with compassion that with much freedom he instituted an Order of Knights for the defence of afflicted Ladies which he surnamed The Order of the white Ladie because they who made profession of it bare a schuchion of gold enameled with green and thereon the figure of a Ladie in colour white thus sought he by all occasions to do good and shewed himself a great enemy of idleness the very moth of minds He ordinarily rose early in the morning and spent about three hours in Prayer and Divine Service at the end whereof he went to Councel which lasted till dinner time After his repast he gave audience to all those who would speak with him upon their affairs not failing to behold his Hall daily full of people whom he speedily dispatched contenting every one with answers sweet and reasonable from thence he retired to write letters and to give that order to his Officers which his pleasure was should be observed in every affair and if he had no other employment he went to Vespers At his return he took some pains then finishing the rest of his office ended the day The Sundays and Holy-days either he went on foot in some pilgrimage of devotion or caused the life of Saints or other victories to be read daily more and more to dispose his manners unto virtue When he marched in the field he had an admirable way not to oppress any of his company nor would he permit even in the
an Angelical grace but that her eyes were swoln with extremity of tears When the Captain saw her How now fair maid saith he unto her what say you Why come you hither The poor creature fell on her knees and said Alas Sir my mother hath commanded me I should do what you would have me yet I am a virgin and never had I any disposition to do ill were it not necessitie enforced me thereunto for my mother and my self are so poor that we perish for hunger and I wish to God I were dead before I commit this act or at least that I were not in the number of unhappy maids The noble Lord touched to the quick with the words of this creature answered her having tears in his eyes Verily pretty soul I will not be so wicked as to take that from you which you so faithfully have kept for God Thereupon he caused her to beveiled covering her with a mantle lest she might be known he lighted a torch and not recommending her to any other conducted her himself to rest in the house of his kinswoman The next day he sent for the mother and said to her Are not you a wicked woman to betray the honour of your daughter which ought to be more dear unto you than life You deserve a punishment so much the more rigorous as that I understand you are a Ladie for in doing this you wrong Nobilitie The poor woman wholly confounded knew not what else to answer but that they were as poor as might be Is there no man saith he who requires her in marriage Yes truly saith she an honest man a neighbour of mine but he demandeth six hundred florens and I am not worth the one half of it Then the brave Bayard drew out his purse and said Hold here are two hundred crowns which are of more value than six hundred florens of this Countrey to marry your daughter withal I adde also thereunto a hundred more to cloth her and a hundred to relieve your poverty but my will is you dispatch it in three days all which was accordingly done with an unspeakable joy of the mother and daughter which made them live thenceforth very honourably O Nobility I present not here unto you an Hermit it is a Captain it is a French souldier who was composed of no other flesh bones nor bloud than you while he in the mean time performeth an act of a Religious man the most mortified he exerciseth the liberality of a King he equalleth therein and as it were surmounteth the heroical deeds of the greatest Saints It is true that S. Nicolas saved the honour of virgins contributing thereunto his gold and silver It is true that in doing it he generously triumphed over the covetousness of temporal goods but he served not in this action as a triumph to himself which is verily the choisest piece of eminent virtues Behold a Cavalier who vanquisheth both avarice and love the two most dangerous rocks of the world Bayard commandeth his purse in a fortune not the best accommodated which meriteth not the least applause but Bayard commandeth himself in a flourishing age in a vigorous body in presence of an object so amiable I beseech you let us no longer say that chastity is onely found in Cloysters it is every where where the fear of God is where generosity or real virtue is What can so many wretches answer to this who fill the world with sins the Nobility with disgraces their bodies with diseases their name with infamy and load so many poor abused creatures with miseries and despair What can so many spruce Gallants answer who brave it through the streets and make ostents in borrowed feathers and in habits standing indebted to the Mercer for the stuff and to the poor Taylor for the fashion paying neither the one nor other True jack-daws of Esope who deserve that all other birds should assemble to pull their plumes off which they have stoln to entertain their vanity What will here so many gluttons and gamesters answer who eat and rent up the entrails of men by their bloudy riots Is it possible that this souldier should have four hundred crowns which was then a huge sum to give in one onely alms and those who in bravery talk of nothing else but pistolets the belly and game have not a denier to throw to a poor body I will also shew â—ou an essential virtue of your profession which is a certain mixture of honesty justice and loyalty due to the King the Weal-publick your conscience even towards your enemies themselves in the example of this admirable man justly called The Captain without fault The eighth SECTION Against the perfidiousness of interests THere is given to you for the accomplishment of these goodly precepts a great virtue of the time which is to betray faith Altars and all that which is precious in nature or magnificent in Religion to advance your fortune without any fear at all to trample on the throats of your most faithfull friends that you may go directly to the Temple of Honour or the riches of the world Poor Janisary think you that to be the shortest way Have you never learned that if you take fidelity out of the world you pull down the principal Altar of the Temple the sanctity of humane hearts the commerce of men the repose of life the knot and band of all felicities Perjury saith an Oracle hath a son without name feet or hands and who wandereth Oraculum Epicylidi redditum apud Nicaetam up and down throughout the world and crusheth in pieces the heads of the perfidious even to the fourth generation You in the subsequent discourses shall behold the goodly successes of such proceedings I for this present tell you to strengthen these precepts that were faith and integritie banished from the rest of the world they might be found in the heart of a French souldier Our excellent Bayard from whom I more affect still to derive this model than from any other made it well appear in an affair where the life of the most eminent man of the Church was interessed He was at that time in Italie sent by the King to assist the Duke of Ferrara against the armie of Pope Julius then much opposite to France although so many other worthy Popes heartily loved our Nation See the cause why he sent to the Duke one Mounsieur Augustine Gerlo a Gentleman of Milan a traitour and factious to perswade him to forsake the French alliance with intention to destroy them and that in recompence he would give him his neece in marriage and make him Captain General of the Church This Prince would not in any wise understand him but he handled the matter so by his policie and advantagious promises that he gained this Augustine who gave him his hand that he in few days would destroy the Pope by the help of a mischievous morsel which he could easily give him The Duke of Ferrara
applaudeth as not to hope to be paid for his praises They are subject to much credulity whether it be through some easiness of nature too weak or by overmuch presumption and self-love in such sort that they quickly esteem themselves fair and worthy to be beloved by those who feign affection not seeing that fishes are taken with nets and women with the credulity of their light belief They undertake designs to make servants who are not of the order of Arch-angels to serve them as Raphael did Tobie not pretending power over their hearts and honours They are infinitly delighted to see a man prostrate at their feet especially when he hath some qualities which put him into the estimation of the world It is a glory among the quaintest to have gained slaves who love their chains and who will no longer live nor die but for them This is the cause they counterfeit themselves to be little Idols and take many sacrifices of smoak and although they at that time have not any intention to offend God notwithstanding they suffer themselves to dissolve among so many offers of services complement and protestations and in the end feel it is a very hard matter to defend ones self from an enemy who onely assaulteth us with gold and incense Drops of rain are composed of nothing but water and do by their continual fall penetrate stones so much sweetness of words submissions and observances redoubled one upon another are able to make a rock rent in sunder how can they but transport a woman who issuing from a bone faileth not to retain all the softness of flesh Love sometimes hath wings to fall upon its prey with a full souce and sometimes it goeth along with a crooked pace That which it cannot obtain by a prompt heat it expecteth from a constant importunity From thence ensue private conversation and disorders which make tales in cities stage-plaies bloudy tragedies which being begun behind a curtain are many times ended at the gallows I do not find a better remedy to stop the beginnings of lust than to behold the end thereof A Lady who solicited in matter of dishonour in the first baits shall draw the curtain and behold a huge gulf of scandals injuries rages and despairs will as willingly descend into Hell alive as consent to this bruitish passion She will seasonably proceed to remedies and unfold her heart in the secret of Confession will discover the deceipt of it and by this means avoid an infinity of disasters Thrice yea four-fold happy is she who will take these words as an Oracle and enchace them in her heart to remember them eternally The eight SECTION Discretion in the mannage of affairs WHen we have begun to polish our selves by these virtues Discretion will regularly apply us to conversation and affairs every one A title which the Wiseman expresseth by the word Sensata Eccles 7. And S. Paul useth the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tit. 2. much recōmending to women the care of houshold affairs according to her qualities A woman is a poor thing which hath no imployment nor discretion as there are many to be found who having lived to the age of ninety years have not learned any thing but to dress and undress themselves Why should we have a reasonable soul were it not to enrich it with knowledges which are necessary to us both for our selves the government of those which fall into our hands As we profess not to be wise so we have not made a vow of stupidity We should love as our eye-sight the reading of good books which teach us how to become better for they are wise companions and honest entertainments from whence we never behold jealousies nor scandals to arise It is not a very barren delight to behold women who as soon as they have made a silly complement have nothing else to say unless they talk of their ruffs or some such kind of trifles At the least I wish those who never have been willing to learn to speak would one day practise to hold their peace But they deafen the world with their prattle and daily deliver an Iliad of speeches wherein there is not so much as one good word Tell me not these maids so knowing are more subject to caution I would not have them I say unto you all learned as the Sybils and Muses but who will envy them an honest science of things which serve for the direction of manners There is none but spiders and such little creatures that turn flowers into poison We ought not to fear that a maid to whom good foundations of humility and devotion are given will abuse this celestial manna which is found in sage Writers I have learned from one full of wisdom and experience that for one young virgin instructed in learning which hath failed in her honour twenty other have been found of the ignorant who have so much the more grosly erred as they had the less knowledge of their fault I intend not by this counsel proposed which is to perfect them by reading that therefore we give liberty to the curiosity of reading of all sorts of books and namely those which treat of loves though in a very gentile manner for they have a little sting in them soft as silk which insensibly enters into the heart and when they describe this passion unto you with so many exquisite terms and honest inventions they create so beautifull loves that in seeking to imitate them we produce such as are deformed If we must become learned we ought to do it in that manner as the Saints Tecla Catharina Eudoxia Marcella Paula Fabiola Eustochium who with the spoils of Egypt furnished the Cross and Altars of our Saviour Nor would I advise a virgin to go and hide her self in a granary or cave to devour books It is fit she season her reading with works proper to her profession Let us never suffer her to be idle but so soon as age rendereth her capable let us give her some little direction and exercise in the house For why should we be ashamed to work with the needle since Augustius Caesar the founder of Empires reputed such kind of imploiments not unworthy of his daughters and that the Romans many years preserved as a relick the distaff of Queen Tanaquilla much more charily than the lance or sword of Romulus thinking it was more necessary to give women examples of industry than furnish men with idaeaes of war One would not believe how much the earnestness some have upon a good piece of work diverteth all other passions which may embroil the spirit but whosoever will make trial shall find that innocencie is never better lodged than at the sign of labour I leave you to think when a maid hath endeavoured to learn from her tender years matters fit for housewivery even to the kitchin what a goodly light is in that house whether it proceed from a father or from a husband for
affairs of Christianitie in this flourishing Monarchy with prowesses and successes incomparable so likewise are we tied to her in an immortal obligation to have cast the first seeds of piety into the Court of our Kings that it might with the more authoritie enter into the souls of all their subjects The good Princess like to a pearl which cometh from the salt sea beheld her self involved almost from her birth in great acerbities and horrible confusions from whence she arose with so much lustre as she made of adversities the steps to the temple of glory She was daughter of Chilperick who contending for the scepter against Gombaut his elder brother King of Burgundy with more temeritie than reason sunk down to the ground and was forsaken by the people whom he had excited against this his brother who verily was a bad King But God who giveth Sovereigns leave to reign favouring a just cause even in the person of an evill man gave victorie to the elder He most truly made use of his fortune for having surprized his younger brother at the siege of a City he caused him to loose his head on a scaffold and not content with this murther extended his vengeance against the wife of the deceased by an act most unworthy For causing a stone to be tied to her neck she was thrown into the river and it was a great chance he had not inflicted the like upon two other virgins the lamentable remainders of this unfortunate marriage But beholding them as yet so young and innocent he thought their life could not be prejudicial to his estate and their death might be ignominious to his reputation Behold the reason why he contented himself to shut the one of them up in a Monastery and retained the other which was our Clotilda with himself that she might be bred in his Court. The holy maid entereth into the Palace of her Uncle as a sheep into a Lions den having no reason to repose much assurance in a man who still had the bloud of her father and mother in his hands Notwithstanding great is the power of virtue when it is enchaced in beautie For this cruel Basilisk who had an eye of bloud and poyson no sooner considered the praise-worthy parts of this Princess but that feeling himself dazeled with her aspect and his heart softened with the innocency of this poor orphan he instantly took compassion upon her who never inclined to it before He began to behold her with a pleasing countenance to endear her to wish and promise her much good But the good creature who could not think after so strange an affliction she was any more to pretend to greatness and pleasures of the world threw her self between the arms of the Cross that there she might find those of God and though in publick she stifeled the resentments of her sorrow with a discreet patience not resisting the storm nor striking her head against the rocks yet in the secrecy of her retirement she daily dissolved her self into tears and found no comfort but in the wounds of the worlds Saviour My God said she to him I adore your holy providence which drencheth me with gall and wormwood in an age wherein maidens of my qualitie accustom not to walk but on roses perhaps you know my pride hath need of such a counterpoise and you in all equitie have done that which your wisdom thought good Behold I have my eyes still all moistened with the bloud of my father and the bodie of my poor mother which being covered with so many waves cannot have over it one silly tear from the eyes of her daughter which fail not every night to pour forth streaming rivers My God Your name be blessed eternally I require nought else of you but the participation of your sufferings It is no reason I here should live without some light hurt seeing you wounded on all sides for my example Some have been pleased to wish me I should receive and take contentments in the hope of a better fortune where would they have me gather those pleasures I am yet upon the weeping shores of the river of Babylon I fix all my consolations and songs at the feet of your Cross promising to desire nothing more in the world but the performance of your holy will There is I know not what kind of charm in holy sadness which cannot be sufficiently expressed but such it is that a soul contristated for God when it is fallen into abysses wherein all the world reputes it lost findeth in the bottom of its heart lights and sweetnesses so great that there is not any comfort in the world to be compared with them Clotilda was already come to these terms and if for obedience she had not learned to leave God for God she had been softened with those tears by suffering her self voluntarily to slide into a lazy sorrow but considering that whilest she was in the house of this uncle an Arian heretick she was bound by God to instruct with her example all those who were to be spectatours of her actions she set her hand couragiously to the work and shewed her self so able of judgement in her carriage and so regular in all her deportments that her life became a picture of virtue which spake to all the world Although she were derived from the bloud of Kings she shewed to have no other nobility but that which springs from worthy Actions As her face was free from adulterate beauty so her soul was exempt from those affected authorities and disdains which ordinarily grow with great fortunes Her aspects were simple and dove-like her words discreet her actions sober her gestures measured her carriage honest her access affable her conversation full of sweetness and profit She was a virgin in mind and body living in marvellous purity of affections and amities which she fomented by the virtue of humility which the Ancients esteemed to be as the wall of the garden of charity God oftentimes suffering impurity of body to chastise the rebellion of the soul She was so humble of heart that she accounted her self as the meanest servant of the house not scorning at all to apply her self to inferiour offices which she notwithstanding performed with so much majesty that even in spinning with a distaff she seemed a Queen She was marvellously wise in her counsels prompt and agil in execution moderate in all good successes constant in bad ever equal to her self She spake little never slandered envied none did good to all the world not pretending her own interests expecting from God alone the character of her merit and the recompence of her charities She had no worldly thing in her person and as little regarded her attyres as the dust of the earth She knew almost but one street in the City where she dwelt which was the same that lead to the Church Sports and feasts were punishments to her and she was seldom found in the company of men unless it were
so many charities since the doors of Churches from whence we expect good are kissed Clotilda was much pleased with this reply and well saw this man belyed his habit by his discourse and garb She therefore importuned to tell who he was and from whence it proceeded that he was reduced to such misery as to beg his bread Madam saith Aurelianus since your Greatness presseth me thus far you shall know I am born of a good place and that it which hath brought me to this state is nothing els but the love of a Lady whom I court not for my self but for one of the greatest Princes under Heaven The maid was very curious to know who this Prince was as also the Lady sought unto with so much pains Aurelianus seeing it was now time to speak to the purpose said The Lady is three steps from me for indeed it is your self At which she began to blush again and to shew some disturbance of mind but quoth he Madam trouble not your self since I am in a place where I with confidence may speak unto you your Excellency shall know I am sent by Clodovaeus King of France my Master who is the best Prince and the most valiant Monarch in the whole world The fame of your most precious and eminent qualities coming to his ear he desireth to marry you and hath dispatched me to give you notice thereof and require your consent I could have entered into the Court with some very solemn Embassage but the difficulties the King your uncle enforceth upon you made me resolve to take this attyre to speak to you with the more freedom You may well assure your self this marriage shall make you the prime Queen of the West and the most happy in the world and to approve the authority of my commission behold the ring of the King my Master which I present unto you There is not any woman so holy who is not capable of much delight upon praises afforded her and who doth not willingly open her eyes to greatness Clotilda was not so insensible as not to be touched to the quick with such an Embassage howsoever she shewed in this surprisal she had within her a heart very faithful to God for most freely refusing the ring and interrupting the Embassadour Speak no more Syr said she I know your Prince is a Pagan and I a Christian God forbid that I ever marry an Infidel were he the Monarch of the world Madam replieth the Gentleman frame to your self no difficulties upon the difference of Religions my Prince is not so tied to his Sect as not to forsake it for your love But what means will there be said Clotilda to gain my uncle I do not think he hath any purpose to marry me The Embassadour answereth If you give me your consent we will find opportunity to bear you from hence Not so replyed the prudent maid it is a course I will never admit Ah why Madam saith Aurelianus should you do it who would condemn your discretion Is it a sin in your Religion to flie from the den of a furious wretch to resign your self into the hands of a King We know how he used your father and mother and how he also treateth you at this time At this word the Lady poured forth some tears and said Do by Embassadours all that possibly you can and assure the King your Master that I hold my self much honoured by the choise he maketh of me and that he cannot be so soon for God as I for him at least in heart and body when the King my uncle shall give me leave Upon these conditions I take your ring which I very charily will keep All this passed very happily in a Court of the Palace where she ordinarily spake to the poor interrogating them of their necessities and none perceived there was any other business but the care of the poor her confident friend onely excepted who had a share in the secrets of Clotilda The third SECTION The Embassage to the King of Burgundy for the marriage of Clotilda AUrelianus touched Heaven with his finger that he had so successefully thrived in his commission and forgot not parcel-meal to relate to the King his Master all the particulars of his voyage entertaining him above all with a curious discourse made upon the admirable beauty and singular prudence of Clotilda Clodovaeus burnt with impatience and would presently have taken the King of Burgundy by the beard to make him let go his hold but wisdom adviseth him he must observe therein requisite formalities and that it was fit to send his Embassadours to Gombaut to require of him his neece in marriage which he speedily did appointing thereunto his faithful Aurelianus to whom he allotted a flourishing company of Nobility which caused such apprehensions to arise in the mind of the Burgundian that he slept not upon it either night or day From whence proceedeth it said he to himself that Clodovaeus knoweth my neece since I have hitherto kept her so close that she hath seen nothing but the wals of the Church and my Palace Is there some eel under a rock Would he have my estate This French man is too harsh I would neither have him for a son in law nor a neighbour Besides this maid who hath seemed hitherto as a lamb in my house being at my dispose when she behold her self Queen of France and have swords at her command who can tell whether she will not shew me her teeth and revenge on me the bloud of her father and mother I must rather keep her immured within ten iron gates that she may not escape my power Behold a great act of State which I must cunningly play This man environed with such thoughts receaved the Embassadours of France very sleightly and having promised with all speed to give them answer he was wary enough not to discover all the thoughts he had thereupon but taking the most pleasing pretext answered that he honoured the King Clodovaeus as one of the most valiant Princes of that Age and should ever account the service done him as one of the greatest favours he could receive from Heaven but as for this alliance which he sought it was a matter he could not thinke on First because his neece had never raised her ambition so high as to pretend marriage with so great a King having nothing in her person so eminent as might deserve such a husband and although there were some equality on this side yet was there on the other part an assential impediment which was diversity of Religions it being a thing unheard of for a Christian maid to marry a Pagan nor could he permit it without betraying the salvation of his nlece and disgracing himself through the whole world Aurelianus who well knew where it itched with him replyed in few words That for the qualities of his neece he should not trouble himself that the woman best beloved was ever best conditioned that it was
protection which God will give them to stay the effect of hurtfull causes In such wise that according to the opinion of those Doctours glorious bodies shall be impassible as were the three Children in the fornace of Babylon not that their bodies were impenetrable to fire but because God hindered the action of flames on their bodies But I had rather say with S. Thomas it is done by a quality internal 1. part q. 97. art 1. and 5. q. 82. art 1. and adherent to the bodies of the blessed Because this manner besides that it is sweet easie and suitable to the magnificence of God is more noble more natural and nearer approaching to the condition of celestial bodies Against the second incommodity of mortal body which is terrestrial weight we shall have subtility a gift much to be desired and which also opposeth the beastliness and stupidity that insensibly cause aversion in reasonable and intellectual nature We cannot Damascen l. 4. de side c. ultim and Ambros l. 10. in Luc. cap. ultimo be ignorant that many Divines place this subtility of glorious bodies in a virtue they shall have to penetrate the most massy objects not bruising or breaking them like a spirit and that it were an errour either to say it were impossible to the divine power or was not done by our Saviour when he came out of his mothers womb or when he entered into the chamber Notwithstanding I think this penetration of bodies should be judged as extraordinarie to a blessed bodie without having any necessarie dependance Durand in 4. d. 44. q. 5. D. Thom. in 4. l. 4. q. 2. art 2. and 5. q. 83. ◠2. of its condition But I had rather believe with S. Thomas Doctour Durandus the Roman Catechism that this gift of subtility whereof question is here made consisteth in a great vigour of sense proceeding from a perfect disposition of organs and a tenderness of spirits and besides in an entire subjection and admirable pliantness of the body to the soul and of appetites to reason a matter which I esteem more than the penetration of Semiramis wals The third blemish of our bodies which is weakness and infirmity shall be excluded by the grace force and agility which will bring to pass that the blessed may go from one place to another not by a simple ability and equality of the motion of steps going forward but an impetuousness as would be that of an eagle who should fall upon her prey or of an arrow shot by a strong hand according to S. Augustines opinion August l. 22. de Civit. c. ultim Vbi volet spiritus ibi protinus erit corpus Isaiah 40. Qui sperant in Domino mutabunt fortitudinem Doctour Scotus thinks this agility will proceed from the force of the soul with substraction of weight which shall at that time be taken away from the body in this state of immortality Others think this weight shall onely be suspended and interdicted in its effect not for ever but for the space the blessed shall desire who besides this admirable lightness shall have great and sprightly forces Lastly the fourth accident of this mortal and corruptible state is deformity which hath sometimes been so troublesom to many souls little couragious greatly faithless that there have been such found in Pagan antiquity who voluntarily deprived themselves of life to be delivered from the shame and grief they conceived to be born in a body notably deformed Beauty although it be often decried since it began Of beauty to serve for a bait and to be an instrument to sin yet it must be confessed when it contracteth good alliance with the spirit and virtue namely that of chastity it hath qualities so lovely and excellencies so noble that without arms or guards it exerciseth power even over the hearts of Monarchs Zeno said grace of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 body was a Voice of flower a flower of voice voice of flower because it draweth amity to it as the flower of a garden not crying out nor tormenting it self a flower of voice because it is one of the most flowery eloquences among the attractives of nature Earthly sovereignties often employ the whole extent of their power to make themselves beloved yet never attain it but this as the rayes of the sun not breaking either gate or window gets enterance for it self in humane heart and not alledging any other reason nor affording patience of resolution transporteth a soul which lives more in that it loveth than in that it animateth And yet what is temporal beauty but a transitory charm an illusion of senses a voluntarie imposture a slave of pleasure a flower which hath but a moment of life a dyal on which we never look but whilest the sun shines on it What is humane beauty but a dunghil covered with snow a glass painted with false colours a prey pursued by many dogs a dangerous Hostess in a frail house a sugered fruit in a feast which some dare not touch for respect and others gourmandize through sensuality Go trust so fading a good Go betake you to so unhappy a snare Go tie your contentments to so slippery a knot What else will happen unto you but to court a fantasie which loosening your hold will leave you nothing but the sorrow of your illusions If beauties must be loved let us love them in the state wherein they shall never cease to be beauties let us love them in the glory of their resurrection where they shall be placed as Queens in their thrones The beauty of glorified bodies saith Durandus the Durand in 4. de 44. q. 8. Divine consisteth in three things First in a pure and resplendent colour conjoyned to a most perfect and distinct proportion of all members without the least blemish or defect able to give the least aversion Secondly in a singular smoothness as would be that of a mirrour receiving the Sun beams directly Thirdly in an interiour light which as other Doctours with a general consent do adde will diffuse it self over the body with an incomparable lustre if it happen not that the blessed to manifest themselves to feeble and mortal eyes stay the course of the rays of glory as did our Saviour in the conference he had with the two pilgrims of Emaus O Beauties which never tarnish O lights which Daniel 12. Qui docti fuerint fulgebunt tanquam splendor firmamenti c. Math. 13. Fulgebunt justi sicut sol in regno Patris eorum know not what it is to be eclipsed O house of God! O Temple of peace When will the great day come which shall devest us from all we have mortal to put us into the bosom of immortality But we must confess that among all the considerations may be had upon this subject we have not any more pleasant or effectual than the triumphant Resurrection of our Saviour which is the root and hope
the midst of Compared to the pit of the Abysse Apoc 9. 2. this smoke strange grashoppers are seen which waste and consume all that is verdant What is the pit of the Abysse but Jealousie And what are those smokes but its suspicions and what is the darkned Sun but Reason all over oppressed by Passion and what are those grashoppers but the evil effects of cruel Jealousie which over runneth mankind Ah! How many innocent Ladies have been wounded by this monster in their honour more precious with them then life Ah! How many miserable wives have served for victimes to the fury of enraged husbands who have thrust a sword through the moity of their owne flesh to satisfie their barbarous Tyranny Our eyes are still moistned with this bloud and our minds cannot speak of it but with horrour All the Jealousies men entertain for the goods and persons of the world have this proper that they presently make their deformity appear in the disorder of sundry passions which tosse turmoile them Who could see a jealous heart should behold a huge swarm of distrusts and suspicions which issue The havock it makes in the heart thence as spirits of Hell and hasten to whisper in its ear she becometh cool in love she was in such a place to watch an opportunity to see such an one If she be simple she dissembles if she be prudent she is cunning if she be pensive she contriveth plots if she be lightsome she figureth fruition to her self Never did a more detestable plague come out of the Abysse to trouble the peace of Marriages never was any thing seen so unjust never any thing so cruel An innocent Advice to women creature who abhorreth sin as hel sees her self wounded in reputation more dear to her then life transfixed with mortall arrows all covered over with ordure and bloud in the soule of a passionate man afterward this unhappinesse stretching further first filleth the house with division then the neighbours with curiosity and the whole city with a tale which trotteth on tongues Many times they passe from sport to actions tragicall direfull and diabolicall It hath happened that Jealous women running up and down the streets and fields to discover their husbands loves have been torne in pieces by wild beasts and husbands have been hanged and strangled for having sought by infamous wayes into the secret of confession Many times banishments and murders have followed which have put all into combustion witnes Theodosius his appeal and Mariamne of whom I have spoken very amply in the first volume of this Book It is undoubted that a husband makes his wife loyall by accounting her such and that he who suspecteth evil in an innocent creature gives her occasion of sin Never doth a generous husband slightly fall into these weaknesses Women also are most injurious when they give cause of suspicion by a licentious life which striketh the understanding of the most stupid man It is to cast oil into the flame and to wish it may not burn when one in all occasions carrieth her self ill and cannot endure suspicions which ordinarily wait on actions too free as the shaddow on the body And that which is more insupportable is that certain women chast enough in their conscience will needs many times appear Libertines to increase the distrusts of a husband and to hold his soul in a hell of torments when they should by all wayes endeavour to diver his Jealousies A woman is ill advised to complain of the Jealousie of her husband when she thinks it sufficeth to have a husband for the Sacrament and a friend for her own liking and so that she preserve her self from the extremity of Infamy that all is permitted her in wedlock When she imagines it a decent thing to be alone and in the obscurity of darknesse with men who are not reputed Angel-Raphaels guardians of Chastity to roam and run up and down the streets orchards and gardens to hearken after appointments walks and junketings to receive and write love-letters to be quaint and to desire to be esteemed such to serve others in their humours and to wish to be alike served to wear a wanton garment to be bare-brested to talk freely to live wantonly to despise all that is said to follow her own pleasure Doth not all this tend to prostitution of Honour and to shipwrack of Chastity § 3. Two other branches of this stock which are Indignation and malicious Envy with calumny its companion BUt let us lay aside that which concerneth the Jealousies of Marriage There are others plunged in Two other sorts of the envious Indignation this passion who have a perpetuall indignation to see those to prosper who are really wicked or whom they in their thoughts do imagine to be so They would willingly call God in question and see not to speak with S. Augustine that the fish which they esteem happy August in Psal 91. in the bait hath the hook already in his throat I behold others who afflict themselves and are unquiet not for these considerations only which were more tolerable but because others are farre more excellent then they either in wit industry beauty or in estate desirous out of an irregular appetite of proper excellency and most palpable ambition to stand in all things transcendently conspicuous to the prejudice and abasement of others and such Envy saith the most eminent of Doctours is of all the most perfect and absolute and is ordinarily to be found among concurrencies of age of fortune and profession We see others who are not content with simple thoughts but thrust their passion forward to wretched effects and I observe that these are disposed to evil by divers motives Some have a dark and cloudy Envy as the Philistims who went and secretly filled the pits with earth which the Patriarch Abraham had made with much labour for the benefit of many so we behold them who silently seek to frame obstacles against all the good works which they observe to be begun casting the stone of scandall as far as they can then pulling back the arm which threw it Others are possessed with a furious 1 Reg 18. 11 and fantastick Envy as that of Saul who setting himself loose to the extravagancies of his maligne spirit sought to transfix David with his launce to the wall when he for his Recreation plaid on the harp so we see mischievous souls who out of a transportation of frenzy do brutish acts against such as wish them well Others have a determinate Envy and a formall habitude which proceedeth to rage to glut themselves in bloud and massacres such was that of Josephs brothers and of Cain who embrewed his hands in the bloud of Abel out of the jealousie of a sacrifice It seldome happens but that this Fury concludeth in some execrable Tragedy At least it hath calumny for a perpetuall companion which is a hideous monster whose picture anciently Apelles drew He
will if they might have had but the permission given them He saw that he subsisted not but by his favour which he abused so basely He resolved to pick a quarrell with him and asked him instantly What might a Great King do that would honour a Favourite to the highest Point Haman thinking that that Question was not made but in favour and Consideration of him Answers with an Immeasurable Impudence That to honour worthily a Favourite and to shew in his Person what a great Master can do that Loves with Passion He must clothe him with his Royall Cloak put the Kings Diadem upon his Head set him upon his own Horse and command the greatest Prince of the Court to hold his Stitrop and his Bridle and lead him through all places of the City and to Cause an Herald to Proclaime before him That it is thus that Ahasuerus honoureth his Favourites The Prince was astonished at this Insolence and to make him burst with spite said to him that his Opinion was very good and therefore he commanded him to render all those honours presently to Mordecai the Jew that was at the Palace Gate This Divel of Pride was seized with so great an amazement at that Speech that he had not so much as one word in his mouth to Reply and as he was Vain-glorious and Insupportable in his Prosperity so there was nothing more Amated or more Base in Adversity He extreamly racks his spirit to dissemble his discontent The fear of Death and Punishments due to his Crimes if he did resist the Pleasure of the King made him swallow all the bitternesse of that Cup. A strange thing Poor Mordecai that was all nasty covered with Sack-cloth and Ashes is fetched is washed is trimmed up and clad after the fashion of a King Haman presents himself to hold the Stirrop of the Horse and to lead him by the Bridle while his Enemy was shewed in Triumph to the eyes of the whole City of Shushan How much Resistance do we think he made not to accept this Honour What thoughts came into his head whether it was not a Trick of Haman that would give him a short Joy to deliver him to a long Punishment He could not believe his Eyes nor his Reason he thought that all this had been a Dream In the mean while the whole City of Shushan beheld that great Spectacle and could not be sufficiently amazed at so extraordinary a Change Haman after the Ceremony was over returns very sad unto his House deploring with his Wife and friends the sad sport of Fortune The Confusion of their troubled spirits suggests nothing to them but Counsels of despair and they say That since Mordecai hath begun sure he will make an end He was very loath to go to that Feast of the Queens he feared that it would prove a sacrifice and that he should be the offering Hester that saw that her sport was spoiled if he was not present caused him secretly to be engaged and pressed by the Eunuchs of the King who under colour of Civility conduct him to his finall Misery He enters into the Chamber of the Feast The King dissembles all that had been done there was nothing talked of at the first but of passing merrily the time away Every thing flourished every thing Laughed but Poyson was hid under the Laughter and Venome under the Flowers At the end of their Repast the King Conjures the Queen to tell him at last what it was that she desired of him because he was fully resolved to divide his Crown and Sceptre with her Then sending forth a great sigh she cryed Alas Sir I do not sue to your Majesty for any of all the Honours or the Riches of your Empire but I desire of you onely my own and my poore peoples Lives which some would overthrow Destroy and Massacree by an horrible and bloody Butchery Sir I ought no longer to disguise any thing to your Majesty God hath made me be born of that Nation which is given for a Prey under your Authority and destin'd to the Shambels It is me that they aime at If they had gone about onely to make me and my People Slaves I would have held my peace and stifled my groans But Sir what have I done that my Throat should be cut after I shall have seen the Bloud of my nearest Kindred shed before mine Eyes to be thrown as the last Sacrifice upon a great heap of Dead Bodies and Buried in the Ruines of my dear Countrey Alas Sir shew us Mercy You that are the Mildest of all Princes restore me my soul and the lives of my whole Nation The King entered into an Admiration of Extasie upon these Words and said to the Queen I know not to what this Discourse tends or where the Man or the Authority is that dares do this without my command Then she replyes He to whom your Majesty hath given your Seal that Traytor and perfidious Haman It is he that hath caused bloudy Letters to be written through all the Provinces to deliver me and my People up to Death and know Sir that his cruelty rebounds upon your head Haman quickly perceived that he was a lost man and the Palenesse of Death came at the same instant into his Face The King rises from the Table and walks into the Garden that was hard by to chew upon his Choler The Queen that had put her self into a Melancholy casts her self down upon the Bed Haman throwes himself at her feet and as a man that is drowning layes hold on what ere he meets with He beseeches her he Urges her he Conjures her to shew him Mercy and in saying so bowed himself down upon the Bed and approached very near unto her The King entring at the same time into the Chamber and finding him in that Posture How sayes he will he also violate the Queen my Wife in my Presence and in my House Let some body take him away Instantly they come and cover his Face as they were wont to do to those that were carried away to Punishment and one of the Eunuchs thought of saying That he had prepared a pair of Gallows of fifty Cubites high for Mordecai the Preserver of the Kings Life It is that which is his Due answered Ahasuerus and let him be hanged suddenly upon the Gibbet that he hath set up This was executed without delay there being no body that was not extream joyfull of his Ruine Mordecai was called to the Palace to take his Place and to Govern all the Houshold of the Queen that now acknowledged him in the presence of the King her husband for her Uncle Hester afterward beseech'd the King to command Dispatches to be sent through all the Provinces to countermand and to make void the Letters of Death which cruell Haman had caused already to be spread through all the Kingdome This was found very reasonable and they were forthwith Expedited in these Termes Artaxerxes the Soveraign Lord and King of
extremity particularly inspired by God made a sign with his fingers before Bajazet because he understood not his Language as if he would declare himself the Kinsman of the Count of Nevers who beheld him with so pitifull an eye that it was able to have rent the most rocky-heart Bajazet being perswaded by this sign that he was of the Bloud Royall caused him to be let a part among the prisoners where afterwards by his great wisdome he endeavoured the liberty of those noble Gentlemen and his own I cannot think that the puny Novices of war of our time will compare themselves to the valour of this Heroick man accomplished with such gallant prowesse Let us come if you please and look into his deportment and conversation and consider whether he were of the number of those who professe themselves wicked that they may seem valiant Our Boucicaut was a man who whilest in time of peace he governed the City of Genoa heard daily two Masses with so exemplar devotion that he never suffered any man to speak to him in the Church where he said the office with singular attention for which he so accommodated his company that you should never see the least action of uncomlinesse in Divine Service which he did not severely punish And the Historian addeth that he who had beheld his people at Divine Service would rather think he saw Religious men then Souldiers Noblemen have power to draw their families to what posture they please were it not through pusillanimity of spirit they many times give way to the torrent of nurture and contenting themselves to be good make all the rest naught by the easinesse of their Natures I mention not here a Canonized Saint an Hermit a Religious man or a Priest I speak of a Marshall of France of a most ardent Warriour and Valiant Souldier Behold I pray whether Piety be imcompatible with Arms. This Brave Captain happily made his Will disposing of all his devotions his affairs and Charge each day he executed some part hereof doing all the good he could whiles he lived not expecting the casuall portions of others piety as those who cause Torches to be carried behind to light them when they have lost their eyes and indeed never do well but when they are in a condition to be able to do no more This charitable Lord particularly informed himself of the necessities of the bashfull poore and as the rarest pieces of his Cabinet set their names down in his Register He appointed on every side his Alms to the poor Religious to Widows to Orphans to needy Souldiers namely to those who through disability of old age and sicknesse could labour no more He visited Hospitals giving according to his means round summes of money to furnish and accommodate them if he walked in the streets he ever had charity in his hands that himself might give all he could for he took therein a singular contentment and never was he seen to be so merry as when he had distributed good store of money This was to him as his hunting his game his delight He bare a singular devotion in memory of the passion of our Saviour towards the fryday and whilest he was able did eat nothing on that day but fruits and Puls absteining from all which participated of the life of Beasts and clothed himself likewise in a most simple habit desirous to shew outwardly some taste of the Reverence we owe to the bloud of the sonne of God Besides abstinencies commanded he fasted ordinarily on the Saturday which is dedicated to the memory of the Blessed Virgin He never fed at his repast but on one dish and though he had great quantity of silver Vessels he caused himself to be served in Peuter and Earth being glorious in publick but in his particular an enemy to worldly pomps and vanities I leave you to contemplate how far this kind of life is alienated from the curious Nobility of our dayes to whom so many Dispensations and Priviledges must daily be given that it seems it is needfull for their sakes onely to create another Christendome besides that which hath been established by the Sonne of God A man would say to see how they pamper their bodies they were descended from heaven and that thither they would return without passing through the Grave they Deifie themselves and to fatten and guild a stinking Dunghill covered over with snow they sport with the bloud and sweat of men Superfluity of taste being so well qualified all went in true measure in the house of this good Marshall his retinue was well enterteined according to his quality and he had a very solemn custome by him religiously observed which was speedily to pay his debts and as much as he might possible to be ingaged to none It is no small virtue nor of mean importance to be out of ingagements of this kind if we consider the Nobility at this time so easily plunged in great labyrinths of Debts which daily increase like huge Snow-balls that fall from the mountains and require Ages and golden Mines to discharge them Is it not a most inexcusable cruelty before God and man to see a busie Merchant a needy Artificer every day to multiply his journeyes and steps before the gate of a Lord or a Lady who bear his sweat and bloud in the pleits of their garments And in stead of giving some satisfaction upon his most just demands it is told him he is an importunate fellow and many times is menaced with bastinadoes if he desist not to demand his own Is not this to live like a Tartarian Is not this to degrade ones self from Nobility Christianity and Reason Is not this to ruine and as it were to cut the Throats of whole Houses and Families Alledge not to me that it is impossible for you to pay what is demanded at present foreseeing your weaknesse of estate why have you heaped so many debts which cannot be discharged Why do you not rather lessen your port and live more frugally Why do you not cast off many superfluous things that might be spared Are not offences odious enough before God but you must increase them with the marrow of the poor From hence cometh the contempt of your Persons the hatred of your Name the breaches and ruine of your Houses This man by paying his debts well was honoured and respected of his Officers like a Demy-god there was no need of making any question or doubt nor to make a false step into his house He would never suffer a Vice or bad servant were it to gain an Empire Blasphemies Oaths Lyes Slanders pastimes Quarrels and such like disorders were banished from his Palace as monsters and if he once found any of his family in fault he put them away least they should infect the other yet he would not scandalize them nor divulge their offences At the Table he spake little and did voluntarily entertein himself with the example of virtues which he observed
the living God with so much force and vigour as they made tender the bowels of the God of mercy that descends and speaks athwart the Flames and Thrones to bring about their safety Moses and Aaron failed not to discover themselves to the most eminent of the chosen people concerning the Counsel that God had taken of their Liberty whereat they were at first so joyed that they prostrated themselves on the earth through respect adoring the divine Goodnesse that carried himself with so much love to the easing of their misery but when this businesse proved thorny and full of obstacles their courage failed them and had almost as leave crouch in their Servitude as buy their Liberty at the price of a reasonable pain Yet Moses accompanied with his brother courageously transports himself to Pharaoh's Palace speaks to him with a generous liberty from the living God and declares to him his Commands which were to dismisse his people and let them go out of Egypt to sacrifice in the wildernesse He that reigned at that time was one Pharaoh Cenchris an haughty and insolent Prince who having never heard any such language said That he knew not that God that intermeddled to make him such Commands and that he was fully resolved not to let go the prey which he held in his hands that all these discourses of Sacrifices and of Devotions proceeded from nothing but a pure idlenesse fatall to the Jewish people and that he would give them so much exercise that they should not have the leasure to dream on such Fancies And in effect he commanded the Commissaries that presided over the labour of those poor slaves to redouble their Pains and augment their Burdens The straw that was furnished them before to make the brick taken from them they were constrained to seek for it where they could and yet for all this the number of their bricks which they were bound to render every day was not diminished And though this was a thing impossible for them yet must they expect rods and bastonado's and all imaginable rigours This made a great noise amongst the People which began already to murmure against Moses and Aaron blaming their enterprise and complaining that they would set them at Liberty It is a most ordinary thing in all great affairs there are spirits that are like those watry clouds that never carry lightning so cannot they ever conceive any thing that is vigorous they would have good things but they would have them loosely and would willingly desire that Nature should renew for them the favours of the Terrestriall Paradise and should give them roses that should never be compassed about with thorns But as one ought not to be rash and violent to push forward businesses out of a giddy humour so ought one not to be slack and effeminate in letting those alone that oblige us by conscience and by duty Moses desists not for all this but takes a stout resolution to advance the work of God even to the Point whither Providence would have it come He had on one side men to combate with that resisted their own good and on the other an impious obstinate and cruel Prince he gains the one by reasons and by sweetnesse he brings down the other by threats and prodigies One may here manifestly see the paths that God hath trodden in the punishment of Pharaoh when he would abandon a King or a great man for his demerits and sacrifice him to his Justice letting him fall into a reprobate sense which is the last step that one makes to enter into hell He permits him to satiate an Ambition or a Revenge to intangle himself in some great design under the pretense of Justice and of Honour and forasmuch as he is extremely thirsty after the greatnesse of the earth puts him upon a pinacle in the highest dignities and the most magnificent negotiations leaves him to himself and to the wishes of his own heart and although he be vicious gives him great successes and incomparable prosperities that puffe up his heart and make him presume upon his own conduct He takes from him the taste of Divine things letting him slide into a contempt of the holy Word and of all the admonitions that one can give him about his safety If he hath any faithfull Counsellour he puts him out and substitutes in his place flatterers and enchaunters If there come any scourge from heaven to overwhelm him he is made believe that it is but a naturall thing and ordinary enough and that he ought not to trouble himself about such a businesse If he be sensible of any evill that affrights him men endeavour suddenly to scatter it and to make him understand that that is not the wrath of God but an order of Nature and that he may mock at the tempest as soon as the calm returns All this is made visible in this miserable Prince A great Kingdome great Ambitions Revenges hereditaty against the chosen People an immoveable design to root them out a contempt of God successe in his vengeances and some satisfaction of spirit by the pains of those miserable ones Moses baffled the Flatterers hearkned to the Magicians adored the Plagues of heaven turned into laughters as soon as they were passed an heart at last hardned by its own malice and not by the work of God who doth no more make sin then the Sun makes the night Moses endeavours first to gain him by the force of reasons and by the sweetnesse of words whereto when he shewed resistance he employed Miracles for the proof of his Commission which the King caused to be counterfeited by his Magicians opposing the Shadow to the Light and a Lie to Truth After which the wrath of Heaven caused those ten Plagues related in Exodus successively to rain upon him For that unfortunate Prince saw first of all the River of Nile all in bloud as if it had demanded Vengeance of God for those little Innocents that had been cast into it He saw Frogs that came out of the same Stream by an impetuous ebullition in such a manner as that they covered all the fields entred into the houses filled the tables mounted upon the beds and gave horrour and torments to all Egypt He saw thick clouds of Gnats that were raised all on a sudden casting themselves upon the cattle and upon the men with so irksome a trouble that their life was full of bitternesse He saw after that armies of all sorts of Flies so different in their kind so violent in their assaults and so pernicious in their effects that they defiled every thing with their venome He saw a furious mortality of Beasts that fell every moment and infected the air by their corruption He saw the bodies of his Subjects all laden with Ulcers wherewith the Magicians themselves in punishment of their crimes were covered in such a fashion as that they could stand no longer in the presence of their King He saw the most horrible Hail
best testimony of full satisfaction As he departed the King came in and then it appeared Love and Piety how Grace and Nature wrought their effects for the innocent Queen fashioning her countenance and her words to the most sensible passion spake thus unto him Alas and wherefore thus SIR Is this that I have deserved for loving you above all the men in the world Must I be forced from your friendship to adhere to my most cruel Enemies If I have deserved death for doing you all the good that lay in the possibility of my power what hath this little Innocent in my womb commited whom I do not preserve but onely to increase your power The Excess of these violent proceedings will tear away the life both from the Mother and the child and then I am afraid you will too late discover the violence and rage of those who perswade you to destroy that which you should hold most dear and to bury your self in my ruins As she spake these words and mixed them with The King reconciled with the Queen her tears the Kings heart was softened into compassion Upon his knees he demanded pardon breathing forth many sighs accompanied with groans and tears of love And having declared to her the conspiracy that was plotted for her ruine he told her That he now came either to live or to die with her This confidence did greatly rejoyce her and having exhorted him above all things to appease the anger of God and particularly to have recourse unto his mercy she gave him instructions necessary for him she counselled him to dissemble this their love and make not the least discovery of it to the Conspiratours but onely to represent unto them that he had found the Queen very ill and that the violence of her malady might be as strong as poison or steel to take her out of the world That there was now no more need of keeping any Guard upon her for in passing affairs according to their advice he would answer for her if God should not otherwise dispose of her This counsel was followed and after the King had perswaded the Rebels to what he had desired he returned to his dear wife and about midnight both of them saved themselves nine or ten thousand armed men being drawn together by the diligence of the Earl of Bothuel who in one morning made the whole rebellion to vanish with the Rebels Now the Earl of Murray had re-possest himself Choller and Vengeance Nejudicial of the favour and good opinion of the Queen but the King who well understood the pernicious counsels of which he was the Authour and that he made him serve to be his instrument at the death of the Secretary could by no means endure him and though the good Queen who would have nothing done violently had expresly charged the contrary he was resolved to seize upon him But Murray apprehending the ill intent of the King towards him did by a most detestable crime prevent it by drawing to him the Earl of Bothuel a man bold of spirit and of hand and prevailing on him to massacre the King assuring him that he should marry the Queen if ever he arrived to the end of his fatal Enterprize This miserable King whom Jealousie had transported to the cruel murder of the Secretary was now again fully reconciled to his wife and loved her most tenderly and conceived an extream pitie to see her youth intangled among such pernicious counsels of her enemies He was then at Glasco sick of the Small-pox which the Queen understanding she immediately repaired thither to bring him unto Edingborough where were better accommodations for him At the same time Horrible inventions of Envy and Vengeance the Conspiratours assembled themselves to accomplish their Design and moreover they had a desire to involve the Queen and her Son in the same ruin but they feared that it would be too apparent and it would be more expedient for them to bring all the Envy of the death of the husband upon the head of his wife whom they conceived to be still highly offended for his ill demeanour towards her To which purpose they undertook to torment her spirit and prompt her to thoughts of vengeance which they never could effect so strong was the new knot of their reconciled love They deliberated amongst themselves to put this miserable Prince to death by fire and because it was inconvenient to perform it in the Palace they entered into counsel amongst themselves to remove him into a fair house which was at the upper end of the Citie where they had prepared a fatal Myne for his destruction His sickness being such the Queen accorded to his removal and very innocently did take her husband by the hand and did conduct him to the Entery of his Lodging where with a singular prudence she disposed of every thing which concerned the recovery of his health And not contented with that she stayed with him without the apprehension of any danger of infection which put the Plotters of this delicate conspiracy into fear but she seemed to be nothing troubled at it and staying with him until midnight she entertained him with all the satisfaction that he could expect from so bountifull a Nature As soon as she was retired behold by the secret The death of Henry Stuart artifice of the powder to which fire was given under the lodging of the King the chamber was blown into the Air and the bed all on fire He found himself to be desperately in wrapped in this calamity and the Authours of the Mischief conspiring with the Elements did dispatch him outright having found him half dead in a Garden into which place the violence of the fire had thrown him The Queen hearing of it was possessed with a wonderfull amazement and lost in the depth of sorrow she feared every thing and knew not what to do or what to hope every hour attending to see the end of that Tragedy to be the beginning of another on her own life The malicious Earl of Murray who now had given the blow by the instrument of his wickedness as he had spoken a little before to those that were nearest to him that the King should die the same night did cunningly retire himself The people murmured and knew not what to take to but the clearest sighted amongst them perceived that it was a work of this pernicious Brother who had a desire utterly to destroy the Royal Family to mount himself upon the Throne And this is that which Cambden assureth us in the Cambden in the first part of his History in the year 1567. first part of his History who though by Religion he was a Calvinist and by profession the Historiographer to the Queen of England yet he hath not dissembled the truth in confirmation whereof he produceth proofs as clear as the day with the attestations of the Earls of Huntley and Argathel two principal Lords of Scotland who