birth under your favour It is the third Part of a Court absolutely holy which not unlike the Citie S. John saw in his profound comtemplations cannot ascend from our manners to Heaven unless it descend from Heaven into our manners I likewise endeavour to fashion it in Books by the model of things celestial to imprint it on lives and I now undertake the defence of truth which constituting your salvation and composing your happiness well deserve to be the most serious employments of your mind It is true Sir all Maxims of State that depend not on the Maxims of God are effects of carnal prudence which end in flesh and all fortunes that rest not on him who with three fingers supporteth the globe of the earth rather pursue the way of precipices than the path of exaltation The wisdom of the world loves nothing so much as that whereof it is most ignorant it runs after honour not knowing what honour is ever hungry and still needy nor having any other aim but to make it self a Mistress over giddie spirits to become the slave of all passions Which maketh me say there are none but the blind who seek after it the miserable who find it the sottish who serve it and the forlorn who tie themselves to its principles But the wisdom of Heaven which I in these Maxims present you is so transcendently sublime above all humane inventions as the light of stars surpasseth the petty sparklings and slitting fires of the earth It is that which leisurely marcheth by holy paths to the sources of day-light and as being present before the throne of God beholdeth glory and felicitie unfolded in his hands It is the element of great souls such as yours and when they once are throughly settled therein they find tastfulness which turneth into nutriment and nutriment which passeth to immortalitie Your prudence may read in your own experience what I express in my Treatises nor need you go any further than your own life to meet with the proofs of these excellent verities You know Sir how the Divine Providence in the first flower of your age drew you from ill ways and snatched you out of the hands of infidelity as a Constantine from the palace of Diocletian to serve as a Buckler for the Church whereof impietie would have made you a persecutour This Providence knew so well how to separate bloud from manners that it caused you to demolish what your Ancestours had raised and preserving their dignity without touching their errours to make of the unhappiness of their judgement the beginning of your felicity From thence you see with what success the hand of God hath conducted you to the height of this most eminent glory wherein France at this present beholds you as a Prince accomplished in the experience of affairs and times the Father of good counsels the undertaker of great actions endowed with a spirit which seems an eternal fire and to be parallel'd by nothing but the goodness of your own heart You live peaceable as in the right sphere of true greatness where you perpetually reflect on two Poles God and the King You seek for the one in the other and you walk to the God of life by the most lively of his Images His Arms are beheld to prosper in your hands as well as his Edicts in your mouth You have born thunder and Olives throughout France under your protection awfull at one time and amiable at another but ever prosperous in both Yea fully to crown your happiness the Divine goodness hath afforded you a house flourishing in riches and honours which comprehendeth in its latitude two Princes of the bloud to serve as pillars for the State It gave you a wife who hath made of her fruitfulness the trophey of her virtues and entered by love into an eclipse to become the Mother of lights and bring forth children to bear the hope of Flower-de-luces The eldest Son whom your Excellency hath committed as a sacred pledge to our Colledge at Bourges would trouble us to tell you from whence he hath taken such and so many splendours and sparkling flames of wit which dazle the eyes of those who have the honour to be near him were not you his Father He is a Pearl who maketh it appear by the equality of his Orient that if Nature have equalled his birth to the greatest on earth he will equal his virtues to his extraction SIR I speak this ingeniously that you may both behold in your own Person what I treat in my books as also understand that true piety soweth the seeds of the most solid greatness But besides the relation this Design seems to have to the pleasure of God over you I find much obligation to offer it you as a slender testimony of a singular gratitude in our Superiours and our whole Societie which would willingly suffer their affections to pass through my pen if it had as much eloquence as the main body tenders respect and zeal to your service You have been pleased to make it known by your good purposes to love it by election defend it by justice honour it with your opinion encrease it with your liberalities and if your benefits be ornaments unto it your judgement serve for Apologies I received a notable portion in your favours whilest you resided in Bourges where your Excellency called me to deliver the Word of God and to confess your virtues in my discourses as I must acknowledge my discourses to proceed from your virtues It was by your conversation I perceived that as there is nothing too high for your understanding so there is not any thing too low for your bounty God hath bestowed on you the gift which the Scripture attributeth to the Patriarch Joseph to oblige hearts with sweetness not unlike the Engines of Archimedes which made water mount in descending so yours causeth not your humility to descend but to make it re-ascend to the source of the prime sublimity Which done not presuming any thing in regard of your Excellency but daring all through your courtesie I present these MAXIMS of the Holy Court of which many will make their reading others their precepts but you will I hope frame your virtues of them on earth to make them your Crowns in Heaven So wisheth SIR Your most humble and most obsequious servant in our Lord N. CAUSSIN S. J. The Design and Order of the BOOK I Find Courteous Reader my Works do insensibly encrease under the savour of thy good opinion as plants sprout under the aspect of the most benign stars I had confined my self to that which concerneth the Historie of Courts and still rest in the same resolution But saw a piece verie necessarie in these times wanting in my Work which was the Treatise of MAXIMS and majestie of our Religion I almost durst not undertake it so much the subject seemed to require judgement preparation and abilitie But God having inspired me with a strong conceit I might be
hath arrived at this degree ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a little Deitie conversing in mortal flesh and addeth That as all good Oratours endeavour to be like Demosthenes so our whole employment in this life must be to beget in our selves a resemblance to God it is that wherein lies all our perfection The third SECTION Perfection and wherein it consisteth NOw lest this Doctrine which is something too sublime should dazle your sight and not enflame your courage I will lay before you a more familiar Divinity which is that there are two kinds of Perfection the one of Glory the other of Pilgrimage That of Glory is reserved for the next life that of Pilgrimage is our chiefest affair in this It is divided ordinarily into perfection of state and perfection of operation Perfection of state is as that of Ecclesiastical degrees and Magistrates who are obliged by the duty of their profession not onely to the common virtues but also to others more eminent Perfection of operation is that which consisteth in good habits Never trouble your self with the perfection of state but live contented with that condition wherein Gods Providence hath placed you assuring your self that the best philosophie is to discharge your office well It imports not upon what stuff you work so you work well for it is the manner and not the matter which shall bear the prize Great dignities are oftentimes great vizards behind which lies no brain and small fortunes may with little noise do such things as are of no small value with God Apply your self earnestly to the perfection of operation which consisteth in guiding the Heart Tongue and Hands in perfect charity Addict your self to the practise of good and solid virtues which produce all wonders on earth and receive all Crowns in Heaven The fourth SECTION Virtues and their degrees IF you desire to know their names qualities and degrees I will tell you a wise saying of Plato There are four kinds of Virtues the first Purgative the second Illuminative the third Civil the fourth Exemplary The Purgative serve to cleanse our hearts of vices and imperfections to which our depraved nature is subject The Illuminative settle the soul in a calm resulting from the victory we have gained over passions The Civil encline a man to the duty he oweth his neighbour every one according to his degree and to a good conversation amongst men The Exemplary are those which make the furthest progress into perfection and may be looked upon as models whereof the beholders are to take copy So order it that your virtues may arrive at such a height as that they may not onely purge your heart enlighten your soul and dispose you to good conversation but may be as a light also to others to manifest you in them by imitation of your good example I adde here in few words the definitions and acts of virtue by which you may direct your practise Prudence Prudence according to Aristotle is a virtue which ordereth and prepareth all things that concern the ordering of our life Richardus de Sancto Victore assigneth to it five parts that is Judgement Deliberation Disposition Discretion and Moderation Judgement discerneth the good from the bad Deliberation teacheth how to do all things advisedly Disposition sheweth what order we must observe Discretion instructeth how to give way sometimes to occasions and yield to humane infirmities not adhering obstinately to our own opinions Moderation holdeth the scales and measure of every affair The effects hereof according to Albertus Magnus are these To proceed to the knowledge of God by the knowledge of your self to see in every thing what is best and to embrace that to weigh the beginnings proceedings and events of affairs to take care your thoughts go not out of God your affections be not too much employed upon creatures your inrentions be without mixture your judgement diverted from evil and applied to good your words polished your actions measured all the motions of your body well ordered To avoid the four rocks that molest all good affairs which are Passion Precipitation Vanity and Self-opinion To keep secrets carefully to know to choose to execute Devotion Devotion is a readiness of mind to those things which concern the service of God the parts of it are Adoration Thanksgiving Oblation Repentance Prayer Mortification Union with God by contemplation Frequentation of the Sacrament Conformity of will to the Divine Providence and the zeal of souls Humilitie Humilitie according to Saint Bernard is a virtue which maketh a man disesteem himself out of a deep knowledge of himself the chief points thereof are To know our selves well to prize our selves little to flie humane applause to preserve our senses free from itch of honour to despise bravely all worldly things to affect a retired life to acknowledge and confess freely our faults to hearken willingly to advice to yield to others to submit your will and judgement to obedience to shun splendour and pomp in such things as concern our selves to converse freely with the poor Povertie Povertie is the moderation of covetousness respecting temporal things the parts whereof are To cut off superfluities to have no inordinate care of worldly things to bear the want of necessities patiently to enter into an absolute nakedness of spirit Obedience Obedience according to Bonaventure is a reasonable sacrifice of our own will and according to Climachus a life without curiositie a voluntary death a secure danger The points thereof are To perform what you are commanded readily stoutly humbly indefatigably though it be contrary to your own inclination to make an entire resignation of your own judgement opinion and will to be sent imperiously upon hard and troublesom employments and to undergo them chearfully without delay excuse or reply to be indifferent in all things to covet nothing nor refuse any thing to do nothing of your self nor to presume to have a greater inclination to such things as are mean and laborious than to such as are more splendid and less burdensom Chastitie Chastitie is an abstinence from impure pleasures Its parts are purity of mind and body vigilant guard of the senses shunning of occasions honesty of speech mortification of Curiositie exact decencie care of our self Modestie Modestie is a composure of your self consisting in government of the whole body gesture attire play recreation but especially of the tongue which is to be restrained from detraction contention boasting disclosing of secrets idleness imprudence importunitie irreverence affected silence Abstinence Abstinence is a virtue which moderates the concupiscence that relateth to delectation of sense The parts thereof are To have no rule but necessity in all which concerneth the pleasures of the body to fear the very least stains of all those things which reason counteth dishonest and to preserve your self in a holy bashfulness to observe the Fasts commanded and to adde some out of private devotion to put far from you all curiosity of diet apparel and sensual
more than an ordinary souldier This seemed commendable in him but he was so desperately proud and cholerick that he would have all things carried according to his own counsels much offended with the least contradiction and accounting himself so necessary that nothing could be done without him On the other side the young Emperour who was jealous of his authority seeing that through his presumption he took too much upon him he in all occasion sought to depress him which the other ill digested but he continuing in this arrogant and harsh disposition Valentinian violently moved did resolve to be rid of him Behold why one day as Arbogastus approched to his Throne to do him reverence he looked awry on him and gave him a ticket by which he declared him a man disgraced and deprived of his charge He furious as a dog who byteth the stone thrown at him after he had read the ticket tore it in pieces in the presence of the Emperour through extream impudency and cried out aloud You gave me not the charge which I hold nor is it in your power to take it from me This he spake presuming of support from the souldiers whom he had ever esteemed From this day forward he ceased not to make his distasts appear and to bend his spirit to a mischievous revenge There was by misfortune at that time in the Court one named Eugenius who was accounted a wittie man but cold and timorous that heretofore had professed Rhetorick and acquired a good talent in speaking Arbogastus supposed his own boldness would make an excellent temper with the coldness of this man and having along time much confided in him he made him an overture to seize on the Empire which he at first refused But the other having promised him the death of Valentinian and his sword for defence gave consent to a most enormous assassinate All men were amazed that the poor Emperour in a fatal morning was found strangled by the conspiracy of Eugenius and Arbogastus aided by the Gentils who desired nothing but the liberty of Paganism This news brought a most sensible affliction upon Saint Ambrose for the Emperour was assured that the Bishop came to Vienna expresly to entreat his return into Italie which having understood he reckoned up the days and expected his arrival with unspeakable impatience But S. Ambrose who would not by importunity thrust himself into unnecessary affairs as he through charity was unwilling to be wanting in necessary having understood that the Emperour was daily upon his return deferred this voyage which had been most requisite to hinder Arbogastus over whom he had a great power Valentinian advertised of this delay wrote to him and earnestly pressed him to come adding he meant to receive Baptism at his hands for he was as yet but a Catechumen The good Prelate having received the Emperours letters speedily undertook the journey using all expedition when at his coming to the Alps he heard the deplorable death of the poor Prince which made him return back again and wash as he saith his own steps in his proper tears most bitterly every moment bemoaning the death of his dearest pupil The Providence of God was very manifest in his Manners of Valentinian Ambrosius de obitu Valent. death for Valentinian was drawn from Empires of the world in a time when he seemed now fully ripe for Heaven It is an admirable thing how the direction of S. Ambrose whom in his latter days he onely affected had metamorphosed him into another man In the beginning he was thought to be over-much delighted in tourneys and horse-races he so took away this opinion of him that he would hardly permit these sports in the great festival entertainments of the Empire The Gentiles who made observations on all his life had nothing to reproach in him but that he excessively delighted in the slaughter of savage beasts whom he caused to be taken and fed for his pleasure saying it diverted him from cares of the Empire He to satisfie all the world caused instantly all those creatures to be killed and disposed himself to attend the affairs of his Councel with so good judgement and so great resolution that he seemed a Daniel in the midst of the Assembly of Elders These envious people having watched him so far as to observe him at the table objected he anticipated the hour of his repast yet he so addicted himself to abstinence that he was seen in feasts rather seemingly than effectually to eat for sometimes in entertaining others he fasted tempering devotion and charity with a singular discretion Finally to give testimony of his infinite chastity it was told him there was in Rome a female Comedian endowed with a singular beauty having attractives which ravished all the Nobilitie This understood he deputeth one expresly to bring her to the Court but they being passionately in love with her corrupted the messenger so that he returned without doing any thing The Emperour rechargeth and commandeth that she with all expedition should be brought It was so done but she coming to the Court the most chaste Emperour would not so much as onely see her but instantly sent her back again saying That if he being in a condition which gave him the means to satisfie all his pleasures and in an Age which ordinarily useth to be very slippery in matter of vice and which is more not married abstained from unlawfull loves his subjects might well do somewhat by his example Never servant saith S. Ambrose was more in the power of his Master than the body of this Prince was under command of the soul nor ever Censor more diligently examined the actions of others than he his own Though all these dispositions infinitely much comforted the holy Prelate and namely the desire he expressed to receive Baptism two days before his death asking every instant if Bishop Ambrose were come notwithstanding his heart was transfixed to see him taken away in a time when he went about to make himself most necessary for all the world His death was generally bemoaned by all men and there was not any nay not his enemies which for him poured not out their tears It is said that Galla his sister wife of the Emperour Theodosius at the news of his death filled the Court with inconsolable lamentations and died in child-bed which came by excess of grief for which Theodosius was pitifully afflicted The other sisters of the Prince who were at Milan ceased not to dissolve into tears before the eyes of S. Ambrose who had no word more effectual to comfort them than the assurance that his faith and zeal had purified him and the demand he made of Baptism had consecrated him to the end they should no longer be in pain with the ease of his soul The good Bishop took a most particular care of his obsequies and burial where he made a Funeral Oration found yet among his Works In the end remembering his two pupils Go saith he O you most
Common-wealth of the Athenians and which made Machiavel with his great list of precepts to be disasterous in all his undertakings These kind of subtile men better understand the mysterie of disputation than how to live to discourse than to counsel and to speak than to do They all have as it were three things much opposite to good counsels The first is that they are variable fickle and uncapable of repose which is the cause that as the Sun sometimes draweth up a great quantitie of vapours which he cannot dissipate so they likewise by this vivacitie perpetually active do amass together a great heap of affairs which their judgement can never dissolve The second is that they swim in an infinite confusion of reasons and inventions resembling oftentimes bodies charged with too great abundance of bloud who through a notable excess find death in the treasure of life The third is that seeking to withdraw themselves from common understanding they figure to themselves subtilities and chymaeraes which are as the Towers of the Lamiae as Tertullian speaks on which no man hath thought or ever will which is the cause that their spirit floating in this great tyde of thoughts seldom meeteth with the dispatch of an affair Adde likewise to this that God is pleased to stupifie all these great professours of knowledge and make them drink in the cup of errour in such sort that we coming to discourse concerning their judgement find they have committed many faults in the government of Common-wealths which the simplest peasants would not have done in the direction of their own houses This hath been well observed by the Prophet Isaiah when he said of the Councellours of Pharaoh Isaiah 19. The Princes of Tanais are become fools the Princes of Memphis are withered away they have deceived Aegypt with all the strength and beautie of her people God hath sent amongst them a spirit of giddiness and made them reel up and down in all their actions like drunken men The holy Job hath said the Job 12. same in these terms God suffereth these wise Councellours to fall into the bazards of senseless men God maketh the Judges stupid taketh away the sword and belt from Kings to engirt their reins with a cord God maketh the Priests to appear infamous supplanteth the principal of the people changeth the lips of truth-speakers taketh away the doctrine of old men and poureth out contempt upon Princes Behold the menaces which the Sovereign Master pronounceth against those who wander from the true way and therefore my Politician without perplexing your spirit with an infinity of precepts which have been touched by a great diversitie of pens I affirm that all which you may here expect consisteth in four things which are as four elements of your perfection to wit Conscience Capacitie Discretion and Courage The first and most necessary instruments of all arts and namely of this profession is Conscience which verily is the most ancient Governess of the soul and the most holy Mistress of life It is that which will instantly dispose you to the end whereunto you are to pretend in the exercise of an office It is that which will tell you that having given your self to the publick you are taken away from your self that you must not enter into this Sanctuary of justice with a beggarly base or mercenary intention but to aim sincerely at God and the good of the Common-wealth It is that which will discover unto you those three wicked gulfs of ambition avarice and impuritie which have swollowed all spirits dis-united from God It is that which will teach you that what is done in Heaven is proportionably acted in a Mathematical circle and that which is done in the great Regiment of Angels ought to be done in the government of men It is that which will firmly support you on the basis of the Eternal Providence It is that which will render you next unto God by often thinking on God and will make you speak what you think and do what you speak It is that which will instruct you that the spirit of man is like a Sun-dyal which is of no use but when the Sun reflecteth on it and that you likewise expect not your understanding may have any true light and direction for the government of people if not enlightened with a ray of God Besides it will give you means to enter into a holy list of piety and justice which are the two fundamental pillars of all great estates Piety will assign you two sorts of devotion the one common the other singular The common will cause you piously to honour and serve God you first having most pure and chaste beliefs in that which concerneth true faith without any mixture of curiosities and strange opinions for Insuspicabilis secreti reverendaeque majestatis cognitio est Deum non nosse nisi Deum S. Zeno serm de Nativitat it is a very great secret in matter of religion not to believe of God but what he is and that man ever knows him sufficiently who is holily ignorant of him esteeming him infinitly to transcend his knowledges Secondly it will apply you to divine Worship and publick ceremonies in a manner free cordial and Religious for the satisfaction of your interiour and the example of the publlck Singular devotion will move you to consider how being a publick person and charged with affairs which expect the motion of the Divine Providence you have a great dependance on Heaven and that it therefore wil shew you according to the proportion of your time and leisure some hour of retirement to negotiate particularly with God in imitation of Moses that great States-man who had so familiar a recourse to the Tabernacle For if that be true which S. Gregorie Nazianzen saith that we ought to have God in mind as often as we breath it is so much the more suitable to States-men as they have most need to suck in this life-giving spirit as from the fountain of the Word by the means of prayer Saint John Damascene in a Dialogue he made against the Manichees holdeth this opinion That the greatest Angels are as clocks which come in the end to languish and faint if God do not continually draw them upward by the breath of his spirit so must we say that the goodliest Spirits and strongest Intelligences lessen and wax old every moment if they resume not vigour in the intellectual source by the virtue of devotion When you shall be instructed in these principles this wise Mistress whom I call your conscience will make you find in a right course the perfection of justice which consisteth in four principal things The first is neither to act nor shew to your subjects the least suspition of evil or sin For you must begin your government by your own example and since your spirit is the first wheel whereunto all the other are fastened it is necessary to give it a good motion It is held when the
believe them Wert not thou mad Cruel ambition thou hast given me the stroke of death Disastrous riches you have forged gyves which now fetter me Loves pettie vipers of inhumane hearts you ceased not to breath and enkindle sparks which made these fires for me Wicked companies charming companies traiterous companies you were the chains of my ruin O why was not the womb of my Mother that served for the first bed of my conception the Sepulcher of my birth O why the stars which predominated at my coming into the world in lieu of their benign aspects threw they not darts of poyson against me Why did not the earth swallow me in my Cradle Must I live one sole moment to live an enemy of God eternally O God what an abyss is thy judgement Let us draw let us draw aside the curtain of silence thy spirit can no longer endure me nor my pen maintain the conceptions of my heart 6. It seems enough is said to shew the horrour of mortal sin which alone is the cause and procurer of Hell Think serously on all I have said and all I have omitted and if you desire to eschew the unhappiness of a reasonable creature which I have expressed observe I pray perpetually and inviolably these things which I would if I might inscribe on your hearts in unremoveable characters The first is that you must diligently seek to fore-arm your selves against a certain liberty of heart which neither feareth sin hell nor evils of the other life liberty of heart which swayeth now adays throughout the world of which Sathan makes use to blunt the darts of heaven and all the incitements to the fear of God as being the true way of athiesm and an undoubted note of damnation But contrariewise frame unto your self a conscience termed timorous a conscience filially and lovingly fearfull which layeth hold without scruple and disturbance even of the least offences and imperfections Fear is the mother of safety and the means Nemo saepius opprimitur quà m qui nihil timet frequentissimum calamitatis initium securitas Velleius not to fear hell at all is to fear it always In the second place you must effectualy apprehend frequent relapse into mortal sins which is the second note of reprobation For when a creature suddenly returneth into enormous sins and playeth as between Paradise and hell it is a sign he harboureth in this evil heart a plain contempt of God and an eternal root of sin the sprout whereof is an everlasting punishment In the third place you must still live in the state wherein you would die and often to call your soul to an account of your actions Ah my soul If you were at this present instant to dislodge out of this world are you in a state to be presented before the inevitable throne of the Sovereign Judge Have you not some touch of mortal sin Is there not some restitution to make some satisfaction not accomplished Rests there not in your heart some blemish of evil company worldly love which slackeneth your purposes Let us break let us break these chains there is neither pleasure money nor honour can hold You must seek salvation and say O God of mercy O most mild Saviour I embrace thy Altars and implore thy clemencie deliver my poor soul from the snares of Sathan and eternal death at the great day when heaven and earth shall flie before thy Justice I am neither greater than David nor more holy than S. Paul not to think of Hell All my members quake and bloud waxeth cold in my veins when I reflect on it O Jesus O love of eternal mountains deliver not a soul over to this infernal beast which will have no lips but to praise and confess thee eyes but to behold thee feet but to run after thy commandments nor hands but eternally to serve thee The eighteenth EXAMPLE upon the eighteenth MAXIM Of Judgement and of the pains of Hell ALl affairs of the World end in one great affair of the other life which is that of the judgement God will give upon our soul at its passage out of the body A heart which hath no apprehension thereof unless it have some extraordinarie revelation of its glorie is faithless or stupid to extremity The simple idea's of this day make the most confident to quake not so much as pictures but have given matter of fear and if some sparks of knowledge touching that which passeth at the tribunal of God come unto us it ever produceth good effects in souls which had some disposition to pietie Curopalates relateth that whilest Theodora possessed Curopalates Scilizza the Empire of Constantinople with her son who was yet in minoritie one named Methodius an excellent Painter an Italian by Nation and religious by profession went to the Court of the Bulgarian King named Bogoris where he was entertained with much favour This Prince was yet a Pagan and though trial had been made to convert him to faith it succeeded not because his mind employed on pleasures and worldly affairs gave very little access to reason He was excessively pleased with hunting and as some delight in pictures to behold what they love so he appointed Methodius to paint an excellent piece of hunting in a Palace which he newly had built and not to forget to pencil forth some hydeous monsters and frightful shapes The Painter seeing he had a fair occasion to take his opportunity for the conversion of this infidel instead of painting an hunting-piece for him made an exquisite table of the day of judgement There upon one part was to be seen heaven in mourning on the other the earth on fire the Sea in bloud the throne of God hanging in the clouds environed with infinite store of legions of Angels with countless numbers of men raised again fearfully expecting the decree of their happiness or latest misery Below were the devils in divers shapes of hydeous monsters all ready to execute strange punishments upon souls abandoned to their furie The abyss of Hell was open and threw forth many flames with vapours able to cover heaven and infect the earth This draught being in hand the Painter still held the King in expectation saying he wrought an excellent picture for him and which perhaps might be the last master-piece of his hand In the end the day assigned being come he drew aside the curtain and shewed his work It is said the King at first stood some while pensive not being able to wonder enough at this sight Then turning towards Methodius what is this said he The religious man took occasion thereupon to tell him of the judgements of God of punishments and rewards in the other life wherewith he was so moved that in a short time he yielded himself to God by a happy conversion If draughts and colours have this effect what do not visions and undoubted revelations which were communicated to many Saints concerning affairs of the other life Every one knows the
Nero who by Anicetus the same man who before killed his mother did raise a horrible calumny against the honour of his wife and caused this instrument of the devil to affirm that he had played with the Empresse on which he caused her to be banished and poor Octavia as a guilty person did suffer under that wicked sentence and was banished into the Isle of Pandaluria and because Poppea could not sleep in quiet with Nero as long as Octavia was alive he filled up his cruelty and by a most unworthy death he sacrificed her to the appetite of that most bold woman whom afterwards he killed with a spum of his foot on the end of his life and of his Empire My pen is weary to describe so many horrours and doth go over them as on so many burning coals but my Reader it is to represent unto you that this pernicious caitiste causing the poyson of his evill actions to diffuse it self into the veins of all the city of Rome The world was in its heighth of iniquity when S. Paul and Seneca meeting together at one time did endeavour to cure the maladies of this wicked Court the one by Philosophy the other by the Gospel Behold here the manners learning abilities and the successe both of the one and of the other Who hath not Seneca in veneration a good Authour Johannes Sarisburiensis saith hath not the understanding of a reasonable man He is known by all knowing men in his Writings and mis-known by some in his Manners and his Life Suillius a Roman Advocate accused for corruption and banished by the counsell of Seneca at what time he was imployed in the government of Affairs did write a defaming Book against that great From whence proceeded the calumnies against Seneca personage which two Greek Historians but men of small judgement Dion and Xiphiline have followed and in many things have blamed him with as much passion as impertinence This Opinion hath infected divers spirits who either for want of capacity or application do discourse unto us of Seneca as of a man quite contrary to his Books which hath made me diligently to examine his Life to take away the abuse and to give you an Idaea of that puissant Genius with as much clearnesse as sincerity Know then that he was a Roman by his Extract His birth and Bloud He was born at Corduba a city in Spain which was then under the Empire of Rome and full of Italians who being born almost in all the parts of the world were yet born within the Circle of their Empire His father was of an ordinary family a Gentleman of no great account removed from the observation of the world and as farre from command as from ambition addicted above all things to the study of Eloquence reasonably learned but of an admirable memory for having but once heard them he would readily rehearse two thousand names and two hundred verses His mother was named Helvia one of the most beautifull women in the Empire full of understanding and judgement of a high virtue and a rare modesty she had some knowledge in letters and an extraordinary capacity to increase that knowledge if time and custome had given her leave to take an advantage of it His elder brother was called Novatus or Gallion and had a great command in the Empire His younger brother was named Mela a man farre from ambition who lived in the house and studied Eloquence with his Father who in that regard did preferre him in his own judgement above his brothers But Seneca was nourished and advanced in Rome His Education and Spirit in the time of Augustus Cesar he received his first elements of learning under the Discipline of his father and afterwards studied Philosophy under Attalus and Socion In his first years he made the vigour of his Spirit the force of Eloquence and the abundance of Learning to appear so fully in him that he was admired by the most knowing men But that great spirit did by degrees consume his body which was lean and thin and troubled with defluxions and the ptisick which would have brought him to his grave if the cruelty of Nero had not prevented it He was obliged to make an Oration in publick before The fury of Caligula against him Caligula the Emperour concerning which that monster in nature who could not endure any thing that was great and praisefull and by a malignity of manners envied all professours of Learning did pronounce aloud that he had too much spirit and that they must kill him which had presently been put in execution if one of the Mistresses of the Emperour who knew Seneca and favoured him for his Eloquence had not perswaded him that he was not worth killing a lean poor fellow and one whom death would suddenly of it self take away from the world Howbeit he lived many years afterwards and increased in knowledge as in age and as much in Eloquence as in them both attending a more favourable time to make a manifestation of it Claudius succeeded the Emperour Caligula who was not a man for Seneca and though he was indued with extraordinary qualities for a Courtier yet the favour of the times did not much smile upon them His clear spirit and his brave works made him to be known in the house of Germanicus a Prince of the Bloud who was poysoned in the flower of his age and left behind him children of great consideration namely two Princesses who made themselves diversly talked of in Rome the one was Julia the other Agrippina the mother of Nero. This Julia took an affection to Seneca being much pleased with the beauty Dion doth distinguish them in his 9. Book and Suetonius chap. 29. of his spirit and the grace of his discourse He daily frequented the house of Germanicus being no lesse in discretion then in favour and wisely judged that these two high-born Princesses might one day contribute to the making of his fortunes But the Court is an uncertain sea where sometime a tempest doth arise when a calm is expected The favour of Julia in the stead of advancing Seneca did suppresse him and did almost overwhelm him without any hope of rising again although in the end it was in effect the cause of all his reputation It came to passe that Messalina the wife to the Emperour Claudius the most insatiable woman in her lusts that Nature ever produced did conceive an enraged hatred against the house of Germanicus and especially against the Princesse Julia because she was highly esteemed for her rare beauty and the high spirit of Messalina could not endure that any Lady should be praised at Court for her beauty but her self Besides she perceived that her husband whom she absolutely governed did make very much of that young Princesse she therefore caused her to be falsly accused for prostituting her honour and procured her to be banished the Court. An inquiry was made after those who
Prince what sinne hath he committed to espouse the most honest Lady in Rome called Paulina and to have lived with her in the condition of a good husband and in a perfect intelligence But he made love to the mother of the Emperour This slander never came into the thought neither of Tacitus nor Suetotius nor any other Historian who was a man of judgement It was onely the invention of an Impostor infected with poyson that dreamed of any such thing Agrippina had other manner of gallants and servants then Sececa in her Court she sought not after bodies made thin with abstinence and manners quite removed from such commerce In a Court so clear-sighted there could never be discovered any familiarities which might give the least impression of such a thought and which would have removed both the one and the other no Seneca did rather encline too much unto severity then to give any allurements to Agrippina The Glosser yet goes further and saith That he was His falling off from Agrippinaâ ungratefull to her What ingratitude he alwayes endeavoured to tie the spirits of the mother to the son in a perfect friendship and did not cease to redresse all breaches that might give occasion of offence But when he observed that Agrippina did mount upon the Throne of her son did give audience to the Ambassadours of the Nations did visit the Armies and when he heard her vaunt that the Empire came unto him by her means and that she would take it away from him when she thought good he could not digest it He preserved himself in that fidelity which he had sworn unto the Emperour but he never counselled him either to remove Agrippina or to displease her When Nero very warmly called him and Burrhus together and in a great fright told them that his mother had conspired against his life and that he was but a dead man if he did not prevent it Seneca remained so lost in amazement that in all his life he was never dumb but at that instant And Cornelius Tacitus makes no mention of the least word he did let fall that might witnesse his consent to so horrible a deed It is true that he composed the Declaration of Nero after his mothers He is excusable for making the Declaration death but it was by a rigorous necessity He found himself betwixt two desperate extremities either to leave the whole Empire at randome to forsake the Helm and the Vessel in the tempest and tender his neck to Nero or to find some lenitive to ease the calamities so full of virulence Some there are that do thus excuse him for it and say It was no marvel that he did deport himself in this fashion because he was near to Princes and that those who even make a profession of virtue do study their own preservation and oftentimes conceal those affairs which they cannot redresse For my own part I am of judgement that great men being in a place where they are obliged to speak if they should wilfully or timerously hold their peace do grievously offend God by their silence and that Seneca should rather have died then have adhered to Nero polluted with his mothers bloud and execrable to all the world He had before demanded leave to be gone from Court wisely foreseeing the tempests that follow but he could not obtain it nor resist Nero without putting himself in danger of his life You see there may be a time when an honest man should rather venter his life then give a scandall unto Virtue But his dissimulation could not help him from being made at last a sacrifice to his most cruel Scholar as we anon shall declare unto you But for the present let us demand and examine the Why Seneca having so many gallant qualities did perform so little in the reâormation of Manners cause why Seneca with so much Power Authority Eloquence Philosophy and humane Wisdome did effect so little for the reformation of manners in the Court of Nero and in the City of Rome It is without all doubt that the wisdome of Books was too low for so high a design We must make use of the grace of Redemption and the Bloud and the Gospel of Jesus to redresse such lamentable confusions Let us then behold S. Paul who at the same time did come to plant the Faith in Rome and talked with Seneca and made him to behold more excellent Light in the purity of his Life and Doctrine It is not my intention in this place to write at large Serrar Baran Cornel. the life of S. Paul which is already sufficiently known but particularly to touch on those things which he did at Rome when Seneca was in the government of the Affairs of the Empire Neverthelesse it is expedient to make a short recapitulation of the Times and the Voyages of this great Apostle to understand the occasion that did bring him to Rome and what he there did practise for the advancement of the Faith S. Paul being born in the second or third year of S. Paul came to Rome our Saviour was miraculously converted to the Christian Religion in the three and thirtieth year of his age By his Extraction he was a Jew born in the city of Tarsus in the Province of Cilicia where was a flourishing University from which came Antipater Archidemus Artemidorus Diogenes and Diodorus But S. Paul although he took his birth in the air of the Philosophers and had some tincture of their Principles did not amuse himself on the Philosophy of the Gentiles but retiring to Jerusalem he studied at the feet of Gamaliel a great Doctour of the Mosaick Law The zeal which he had for his Religion made him furiously to persecute Christianity from his birth unto the time that he was subdued by the Spirit of God and of a ravening wolf was made a lamb of the Fold Saul fell saith S. Augustine and Paul did rise the Interpretation of which name according to Hesychius is admirable to shew unto us that all things are marvellous in him even his name it self After his Conversion he preached in Arabia and in S. Paul falsly accused Damascus for the space of three years and did powerfully convince the Jews on the verities of our Faith who to divert the course of his Ministery in the imbroilments which then were raised between the King of the Arabians and the Romans did accuse him for having moved in the favour of Rome against the Arabians and their King Aretas who at that time held the city of Damascus and had placed in it a Governour of his own faction This Barbarian made an exact inquisition and would have apprehended S. Paul Baron Christi Anno 39 Cornel. in 2. apud Corin. cap. 11. who was then in the same city But his brethren the Christians were very carefull to deliver the Innocent from the hands of the guilty and shewing themselves neither slothful nor fearful in a busines of
to himself by the miserie of his passions who could not endure any man to be more happy than himself who hid himself for fear who in present liveth not either for another or for himself but for his belly sleep and pleasure Behold a poor praise and which well sheweth virtue doth not alwaies consist in the flight from greatness but in the conquest over passions which is by so much the more glorious by how much the adversaries are more invincible Theophylact said that gold is like the river Rhene for one cause which is that anciently those warlike Nations inhabitants of Germany used it to prove their children in as we use to trie gold with a touch-stone As soon as these little creatures were born they carried them to the Rhene and plunged them in that river and then knew by certain signs given by the child either in wrestling with the waves or in shewing much terrour and affrightment whether he would be couragious or cowardous He that bare himself bravely in this merciless element was their true son Men are not tried in Rhene said this learned Authour to see whether they be men but in Pactolus in a river of gold place them in honours reputation in affluence of riches this will procure you a never-erring judgement of their virtue What knoweth one how he who is born and bred all his life time amongst cobwebs would use cloth of gold if he had it What knoweth one how humble a man may be who is as soon found in misery as in nature by the course of his lineal extraction Who knoweth how abstinent one would be in the full delicacies of a great feast who hath never seen upon his table but cabages and turneps Who knoweth how remperate another would be in commanding over men who never hath exercised his power but over dogs and calves It seemeth all virtues either are no virtues or are stifled in a low condition if we speak morally But to see a man poor in spirit in aboundant plenty Great virtue of Great men of riches humble in large trains of attendants which he daily beholdeth prostrated at his feet temperate in a thousand occasions of excesses which hourly are presented to him moderate in a fortune ever upon increase peaceful in the clattering clamours of affairs uniform and equal in the vicissitude of humane accidents a man who can do all August tract 13. de verbo domini Magna virtus est cum faelicitate luctari magna faelicitas à faelicitate non vinci he would and will do nothing but what is reasonable a man that suffereth not his appetites to flie like little butter-flies fluttering amidst the concupiscence of creatures but limits them in the lists of modesty and not touching the earth but with the soles of his feet fixeth the better part of himself in Heaven this is to behold a perpetual miracle We must then necessarily aver if we will not belie our judgement and reason that in the greatest occasions of ill is shewed the greatest reflection of good Great felicities are so ticklish that it is more easie to live on the dung-hil of Job with patience than in the mannage of great Kingdoms with moderation Saint Bernard said to Pope Eugenius He is truly great Bernard ad Eugen. l. 2. Magnus cui praesens faelicitas si arrisit non irrisit on whom fortune hath smiled and not deceived him It is a heavie burthen to bear a great fortune This is daily seen in the spirits of this Age there needeth but a little sparkle of felicitie to dazle their eyes to puff up their skin to drench them in pride in ingratitude in tyrannie in a deluge of dissolutions One sole hour which a favorite may have in the prosperitie of the Court will make him forget a friendship of thirty years standing a most evident mark of a weak spirit On the contrary to pass from a poor garden into a Kings Palace as Abdolomin did and Abdolomin handle the Scepter with the same humilitie of heart without prejudice of authoritie that one would do a spade is a virtue which rarely hath an example upon earth but is admired in Heaven it self It is a virtue which cometh to men from the treasures of God not from their pedegree It is the fairest object which the Sun drawing aside the curtain of the night discovereth upon earth And I doubt not but the divine providence hath purposely held some religious Monarchs in the world as our S. Lewis for example to declare how high Christian perfection may ascend which is to plant humilitie upon the diamonds of regal crowns to lead in Court an Hermitical life to command greatness and humilitie which seldom are of alliance mutually to embrace as sisters Adde for the third reason which is received by the common consent of all men living in the world that tribulation serves as a fornace for virtue the more stout and masculine it is the more it glitters in affliction What knoweth a man that hath alwaies been bred in a lazie languishing life as the trees of Sodom in the dead sea with what measure perfection is measured Prosperities are like a veil tissued with Prosperitie gold by the fingers of fortune to cover the ulcers of vice and adversitie is the Theatre of generous spirits who feed themselves with afflictions as the Sun with salt water What a glorious spectacle is it to behold saith S. Cyprian an invincible courage counter-buffed Cyprian de mortal with storms and tempests on whom it seemeth Heaven will burst and fall in pieces to behold him I say amongst the threats of the air ruins of the world alwaies standing upright as a great brazen Colossus scorning these as mists and small flakes of snow What a brave word is it to hear a man say in a Quanta sublimitas inter ruinas generis humani stare erectum Sen. de provid Digni visi sumus Deo in quibus experiretur quantum humana natura potest pati Typotius in Symbol Quasi meridianus fulgur consurget tibi ad vesperam cum te consumptum putaveris orieris ut lucifer Job 11. 17. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã world of contrarieties which oppose him God be praised who hath deemed us worthy to serve as a trial of humane nature to see to how high a pitch patience could mount What a Majesty it is to be able to bear this fair ensign wherewith our Lewis the Twelfth with a generous affection was much pleased which was a celestial cup advanced in rays of gold amongst eclipses with this motto Inter eclipses exorior And surely virtue never shineth so much as when she is in eclipse which it seems the Holy Ghost would mysteriously signifie in these words of Job Thou brave spirit who strugglest against tempests thou shalt find thy noon in the evening and when thou shalt esteem thy self annihilated thou then shalt elevate thy self as the morning-star It is a
from their damnation an infinitie of blasphemies and invincible obstinacie a long web of contrarieties opposite to the advancement of his honour amongst men a subversion of the world All this might have been avoided in giving them one small hour of repentance which with what fervour detestation and dolour would they have embraced Yet notwithstanding without regard to this beauty this grace this excellency of nature these praises this good or ill behold them taken in the boiling ardour of their crime strucken with the thunder of the Divine Justice thrown down broken in shivers captivated in prisons of fire left to the sword of vengeance to eternal tortures never seeing amidst their darkness and sulpherous flames one sole beam of the eyes of Mercy O terrible sentence inexorable sentence Oh unhappy spirits O judgements of God! What a terrour what a bottomless depth you are Judge now O ye Great men if the crimes of knowledge and malice are so rigorously punished what will become of you if you live neglective of the Divine Majestie you being among the people as were the Angels among other creatures Secondly no punishment is more sharply nor Punishment of the ungrateful sacrifice of jealousie lawfully inflicted than upon the ungrateful who deserve that all the elements with their best forces should conspire in the avengement of their offences since they violate a law engraven on this universe by the hand of nature Their punishment is the sacrifice Non fundet oleum nec imponet thus Num. 5. of jealousie spoken of in Scripture whereon neither oyl nor incense is powred there is no more oyl of mercy to sweeten their torments no more incense of prayers to appease Gods anger nothing is theâe but thunder lightnings and vengeance Now it appeareth that Noblemen and Great-ones cannot depart from the service of God without a deep mark of ingratitude for the benefits which I have touched before and you thereon will necessarily infer they transcending others in condition should not in case of failing or neglect expect an equalitie of punishments God will call Heaven and earth Horrible execrations of God upon great men vitious to their Judgement and then speak to them in the presence of all creatures with a voice of thunder Hearken ye O you Princes of the earth I made you as Eagles I gave you strong wings to lift you up to mount Libanus and to extract pith from the Cedars I advanced you in spirit in judgement in courage in riches in reputation in honour above other men I imprinted the rays of my power upon your fronts to infuse the regard of your persons into the hearts of the people I held Heaven and earth men and beasts in breath to contribute to your authoritie and services And you have taken arms employing all my treasures to make war against me you have lived not as reasonable men but as bruit beasts without God without law without ever casting your eyes to Heaven but to vomit out blasphemies in the face of it If I haue put power into your hand you have employed it in oppressing the weak If justice you have perverted the use of it and made the ballance incline to the tyrannie of your passions What can such an ingratitude expect I leave the conclusion to your selves In the third place seeing the bad example of great Exemplar crimes deserve exemplar punishment men is most pernicious to the inferiours by the strength of their authoritie which draweth their weak souls to a servile imitation God expresly counterpoizeth the insolence of their vices by singular and remarkeable punishments to the end that those who are attracted by the lustre of their fortune may be affrighted with their falls It is true we are in this world as owls in the night our eyes benummed and surcharged with terrestrial humours which hinder us throughly to penetrate this cloud of the Divine Providence Notwithstanding God darteth forth as it were out of these clouds certain flashing sparks of fire and light to make you read in the punishment of so many ill-living great men the unrelenting rigour of his justice High steeples are not so often rent and defaced by Strange punishments the violence of thunder as are Crowns and Diadems on the heads of wicked Princes with Heavens chastisements Read sacred and profane Stories what strange punishments are there of great men One sheweth a desire to leap into Heaven to plant his throne among the stars yet God maketh him eat hay with the beasts enforcing him to die alive not onely to honours and the nature of man but to lead a life in bruitishness This was Nebuchadnezzar Another in the middest of the fervour of a feast heareth the great clock strike his hour and seeth the hand of a man on the wall drawing a dreadful sentence against him This was Belshazzar Another dieth eaten up with lice as Herod Another loathsom with infections as Antiochus Another hanged on a tree as Absalom Another on the gibbet which he had prepared for him whom he accounted for his slave as Haman Another dying by his own hand not being able to find any other in the world more cruel than himself as Nero. Another maketh himself a sepulchre with drunkenness as Alexander Another is massacred in the midst of the Senate as Caesar Another from the throne of the Roman Empire goeth to prostrate his foe the Persian to become thereby a foot-step for him to mount on horse back as Valerian Another is carried about in a Cage as Bajazet Another is strucken with lightening as Anastasius Another is slain in his camp by a hand invisible as Julian the Apostate Great volumns might be made if one would compile all these mortalities they make Theatres to resound and Tragedians deplore Consider O Noblemen if in this world good and ill are given to us as it were in picture since the figure of the world passeth away saith the Apostle Praeterit figuâa hujus mundi 2 Cor. 7. Sagitta tua transeunt vex tonitrui tui in rota Psal 76. 19. and since God useth such rough rods to chastise the vices of great men what will that be in the other world The arrows of chastisement do presently pass away but the voice of thunder the sentence of judgement shall go like a wheel and the execution shall have no end If there happen unto you a loss of goods it is an arrow that passeth loss of children an arrow that passeth sickness an arrow that passeth disgrace an arrow that passeth temporal death even a feathered-arrow which doth nought else but pass away But eternal death is the thunder in the wheel which never passeth To be drenched in a lake of sulphur as a victime of vengeance in a fire enkindled with the breath of Gods anger to see nothing but devils to abide in nothing but torments to suffer pains in every sense to find hell in his own conscience to have no other life but an eternity
ãâã Sixtus in Biblioth PP De Deo etiam vera loqui periculum est Hesychius in levitic it is an ulcer that ever itcheth and which without ceasing is iterated by continual scratching it is as a hors-leech which draweth out all the bad bloud and filleth till it burst It is a magpy a byting worm which taketh men by the ears as well as dogs But above all it is most pernicious in matter of Religion Sixtus an ancient Authour cited in the Bibliotheke of the Fathers hath spoken a thing very remarkable When a man speaketh of God yea with all veritie we must always therein proceed reservedly as if we trod upon thorns It were better saith S. John Chrysostom not to know him than to know him ill Hesychius teacheth us one must approach to him as to fire too great a distance maketh us quake with cold and over near approches burn us Secondly judge whether any bodie would not Perverse proceeding of the wicked say it were a great weakness of understanding to be desirous to proceed in matter of Religion by such knowledges as are common with bruit beasts and forsake those of men And yet this is it which you do when leaving the eye of understanding and the light of a rectified judgement which God hath given man by priviledge of excellency you will hear see and touch begging a truth from bruitish sense which is absolutely to raise them above their reach See you not how the Moon by her interposition eclipseth the Sun and when you in matter of faith interpose sense you obscure the light of judgement the true sun of your soul which dictateth to you that it is a thing most reasonable the creature should submit himself to the Creatour that it carefully keep it self from daring to comprehend him in the universality of his nature and shut up this vast Ocean in a little cockle-shel It is a pitiful thing to hear that these curious spirits should suffer themselves to be surprized by a quack-salving impostour who casteth mists afore their eyes by force of delusions and to contend with God who giveth them as many obligations and assurances of his promises as there are letters in the Scripture This Deus tot tantis voluminibus cavet debitor non tenetur Chrys serm 25. is not onely to crack the eye-string of a reasonable judgement but also to pull out the eye of faith all pure and celestial as it is You demand proofs of your Religion frantick man look back upon the birth the progress and state of the Church This is the great sign the Ladie clothed with the Sun Apocal. 12. which one cannot be ignorant of without a prodigious blindness Admit it were nothing to have for proof so great Invincible proofs of pietie so universal so constant consent of all the Prophets to presage many Ages before the effect the birth life death of the Messias the establishment of the Church the conversion of the Gentiles so determinately and punctually that even the most diabolical spirits who had from all times these Scriptures in their hands seeing this consequently to happen which succeeded in the oeconomie of Christianity were enforced to yield to truth That it were nothing to have seen through all Ages a thousand and a thousand miracles in Heaven in earth on the sea done in confirmation of Christianity in the sight of the most wittie and malicious who bent all their endeavour to censure reject and contradict them Notwithstanding the evidence was so palpable so strong so invincible that Tyrants yea the most enraged bloudy executioners convinced with the proofs thereof let fall the sword which they had taken in their hand for the slaughter of Martyrs and stretched out their necks to the persecutours to be beheaded That it were nothing to tell what a good Authour upon account taken hath observed that there hath been eleven millions of Martyrs of all sexes ages and conditions who have sealed the Religion which we profess by effusion of their bloud and in this list an infinite number of persons of eminent quality who considerately proceeded in the least occasions that have abandoned the easeful accommodations of their fortunes their estates dignities yea their scepters and diadems to deliver as a prey to most enormous and exquisite torments a most precious life which they might have led in honour in reputation according to the world in pleasures in delights in wonders That it were nothing to say that after persecutions there sprung up an infinitie of brave spirits intelligent clear-sighted furnished with all sorts of human knowledges as the Justins Tertullians Cyprians Augustines and so many other of the same profession who after they had seriously and judiciously examined the state of Christianity have embraced it professed it defended it some with their pen some with sweat and some with their bloud The Heavers are not enameled with so many stars as the Church hath had great men the prodigies and lights of the world who by their learned writings have illustrated the verities of our Religion I leave you to think if among so many great Suns which have garnished Heaven and earth with brightness one should behold a ridiculous reeremouse to creep out of a hole and say it is not day and that all these suns are but darkness whether he deserve not to be burnt and stampt to power That all this which I have said being very strong and specious enter not into the list of account what may one answer to two things which are Great force in two points very eminent in Christianitie the consideration whereof is of power to settle the most wavering spirit to wit the marvellous proceeding which hath been held in the establishment of our Religion and the most pure sanctitie of the doctrine thereof What is there humane in this law which is established against all humane ways by a success so strange and admirable that it engulfeth all spirits in wonder Where were in these beginnings eloquence favour of Princes their revenues their estate their arms their souldiers Where were the promises of honour reputation Establishment of the Church dignitie Where were the moving allurements of sense and all that which useth to feed and foment sects From whence cometh it that the Church Sola Ecclesia persecutionibut stetit marlyriis coronata est Crudelitas illecebra est sectae plures efficimur quoties metimur à vebis semen est sanguis Christianorum Hier. in vita Mala Tert. in Apol. c. 50. alone hath encreased under tempestuous storms in persecutions in the slaughters of three hundred years during which time there was no engine which hell used not no torment which the devil invented not no inventions which the Great-ones of the earth with powerful hand conspiring executed not All the plaistered pretended sects which have seemed desirous to take this away are quite vanished From whence it cometh to pass that the Church alone hath maintained
it is full of gall and darkness You know what is written in the vision of the prophet Elias God is not to be found in the rustling of impetuous winds in boysterous stormes in turmoyles in fire but in a gentle gale which bringeth light and refreshment in its wings Likewise veritie fit to handle the conversion of souls is not ordinarily in these ardent and contentious disputations where the prizes of fast and loose are played but in the repose of a quiet spirit temperate moulded in the hands of a prudent docibleness For faith runneth a different course from human sciences To say why this and why that to sift the causes the effects the tenents the utmost bounds of a point it is the vulgar track of inferiour schools Faith which hath God himself for object who is a bottomless abyss of light and perfection cannot demonstrate all that it believeth otherwise it would not be faith nor God would not no more be God He that seeketh faith seeketh not reason Athens hath nothing to intermeddle with Jerusalem nor the Academie with the Church Our school is the porch of Solomon which teacheth us we must search for God with simplicitie of heart and not with frivolous curiositie Faith moveth upon two poles the first is to believe what God hath revealed the second to believe because he who is an eternal truth hath revealed it without any other restriction specified modification or humane distinction What wrong doth the Creatour to us if he would have us believe more of him than we are able to comprehend It is not for the iron to ask of the Magnet or Load-stone from whence those charms and secret influences come wherewith he attracteth and captiveth him It is enough that he follow When God proposeth a verity unto thee by the voice and general consent of the Church poor man thou kickest thou friskest thou dost appeal to human reason to sense to judgement which have wings too short and insufficient to undertake such a flight Whilest thou therein proceedest in the manner thy faith will be no true faith but a phantasie which will entertain thee with false illusions and leave thee real torments It is a great science in matter of Religion to have a holy and conscientious ignorance All Hereticks saith Tertullian Omnes tument omnes scientiam pollicentur Sapientiae haec veritas ' est interdum sapere quod nolis Hilar. 5. de Trinit initio Third disposition Purity of life promise reason and knowledge All of them assail faith with human understanding God teacheth us another way which is to adore his mysteries with submission of spirit and make of our own proper judgements a sacrifice on the Altar of faith The third thing which you are to have in great recommendation is diligently to purge your conscience from the rust of sin The spirit of God is pleased and fed amongst lilies and nothing so much hindereth heavenly doctrine as impuritie of life Pearls are dissolved in vineger and truth in a heart made bitter with the corruption of vice If you desire that it should come to you observe three things exactly First endeavour as much as you can possibly to free your self from a certain spirit of presumption which puffeth men up and inebriateth them with the love of their own judgement before they be throughly awakened and from hence it cometh that they affectionately imbrace themselves and make such esteem of their own thoughts words maxims that all seemeth gold This is a pernicious illusion and which stoppeth up all excess to our Saviour who is much pleased to converse with the humble Secondly live with great puritie of soul and body Qui diligit cordis munditiem amicum habebit Regem incorruptio facit esse proximum Deo Prov. 2. 2. Sap. 6. carefully preserving your self from being engulfed in sensual affections pleasures and ordures of flesh which bury the soul in a puddle and make it uncapable of all good God hath not upon earth a more pleasing hostess than purity of heart 'T is that which procures for us the amity of the Sovereign King and placeth us near the Divinity Finally labour to adorn your self with Charity and the very bowels of pitie towards the poor and persons afflicted assisting them according to the ability which you have and when you fortified with such arms shall daily knock at the gates of Heaven by incessant prayer asking grace speaking and conferring oft-times with some Catholick Doctour virtuous charitable and peaceful I have infinite hopes the Father of light will dart upon your heart his beams and give you leave to know the truth In the mean space ponder a little in your heart Four very notable points to discover the falshood of the pretended four notable points which will make you discover the falsitie of the pretended Religion The first is the beginning The second the progress The third the foundation of the Doctrine The fourth the fruits Behold four touch-stones to judge aright of Religion If all this do well accord with reason and veritie in the pretended Religion I give you leave to follow it but if all therein be tottering and ruinous I beseech you open your eyes a little and view your misery after you have so often shut up your ears against reason and your heart against charitie Then first of all consider whether this Religion Original you profess be ancient or new If it be ancient and the Religion of the Apostles you ought to follow it if new you ought to condemn it no man doubteth Now it is as new as noveltie it self which is proved first by the name thereof since every Religion which is called reformed ought necessarily to have been deformed for a thing is not reformed which never had deformitie This is clear And every Religion which is said to be reformed in things essential as are Sacraments was then before deformed in matters essential and so deformed that in a word it was no longer a Religion For it is as impossible a Religion can subsist without the veritie of faith and Sacraments as to say that a man can be a man without a reasonable soul Now this Religion of which we make question according Pretended religion new and therefore none at all to your saying was deformed in essential things to wit in Sacraments whereby it appeareth it was no more a Religion than a lying truth to speak properly is truth it self Wherefore we must conclude that those which boast they have reformed it within these hundred years have made it wholly new as if the Sun had been annihilated for a thousand years space and that God came to restore it it would be an absolute new Sun so is this Religion wholly new Behold then The proof thereof is evident if every new Religion as is most evident carrie its condemnation see you not that this same which you profess is false since it proveth it self to be new and onely discovered
Finally if we will give any credit to ancient monuments the marbles in Churches and tombs of our Ancestours speak for us Behold verily the powerful and invincible reasons Most wholesome advise how to resolve on choise of Religion Augustin contra ep fund which made S. Augustine resolve upon the Religion we profess Many great considerations said he with much reason keep me in the obedience of the Catholick Church The consent of people and Nations hold me The authority of the same Church which is risen up by miracle nourished with hope augmented by charity established by its antiquity The succession of Bishops holds me therein whith beginning in the See and authority of S. Peter to whom God recommended Evangelio non crederem nisi me Ecclisiae Catholicae commoveret authoritas Contra ep Manich. Most weake foundation of the Pretenders the care of the flock is maintained to this present time Lastly the name of Catholick holds me in it He addeth he would not believe the Gospel it self if he were not convinced by the authority of the Church Let us now see whether you have better choise and more consideration than this worthy man who is one of the prime wits of the world Let us see what your Ministers oppose against so many infallible proofs to cover their want of antiquity mission succession miracles sanctity judgement and reason They cease not to buzze out every where a false pretext of Scripture which verily is the greatest illusion that ever was For these wicked ones seeing themselves battered on every side from the beginning of this reformation knew well in their consciences the Scripture was against them Yet notwithstanding said they to mock at the faith of mankind and lead them into Atheism we must avoid the decisions of a Power lively and lawful we must onely take colour from the holy text we will make it say what we list we will maintain nothing is to be believed but what is written and that which is written we will disguise with our glosses and consequences to catch those who think they have some wit Behold the onely means to colour our pretences You then who are endowed with sufficient and Reasons which shew the nullity of this foundation solid judgement consider a little how deceitfull weak and ruinous this foundation is First it appears the devil and all Hereticks of former times have 1. Reason taken the same foundation ever saying the Scripture was on their sides which is most untrue Notwithstanding behold to what pass all hereticks came Munter proved by Scripture he was the Prophet Neque enim natae funt haereses nisi dum scripturae bonae intelliguntur non bene August ad Consentium ep 222. David George a diabolical man that he was God Eon condemned by the Councel of Rhemes that he was the true Messias even by the same Scripture Secondly the world having been two thousand years and more without Scripture the first were 2. Reason written in Hebrew by abbreviation with such ambiguity that every one following his own opinion might frame a Bible to his own liking Yea sometimes such diversity was found in the Hebrew Greek Latine and Chaldaick letter that where one read David another read a bowl where one the liver another a pillow where one beauty another a savage beast where one the word another life where one read the liâââg another the dead And you who neither know Hebrew Greek nor Latine on whom will you relie Thirdly upon passages written in every express 3. Reason terms as This is my body the spirits of men have forged two hundred opinions quite different what then will become of difficulties more thorny Julian Bishop of Tolledo wrote a volumn of apparent contradictions Juliani ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in Scripture which in substance hath none but which notwithstanding seem many times to say things directly contrary such obscurity there is in some passages Whom should we believe Do you not see this were a means to maintain eternal divisions if there were not Judges to decide differences in a kingdom but that every one should carry the cause according to the proportion of his loud crying to make his texts and allegations to be of force What would this come unto And you would bring the like disorder into the Church Fourthy in the ancient law the Bible was in the 4. Reason Ark and no man durst open it and turn it to resolve controversies upon this Rule but did expect the decision thereof from the Priests mouth who had a lawful succession The lips of the Priest are the Malach. 2. 7. store-houses of knowledge and from his mouth you shall enquire the law said the Prophet Malachie Fiftly the wisest men in the world after they had 5. Reason maturely thought upon it found no other way to determin controversies but to have recourse to the decision of a Head Such is the opinion of S. Irenaeus S. Augustine and S. Hierome Vincentius Lirinensis and all other Sixthly it is the commandment of God When any Ezech. 44. 24. A most just proceeding controversies shall be raised my Priest shall hold sessions and shall judge For of necessity we must have an authority commanding magistral and decisive For Conclusion can one speak any thing more 6. Reason just than that in case any place of Scripture hath obscurities in it it were to much better purpose to hear thereupon the decision of ancient Fathers disinteressed from our controversies than to enforce our selves to pass upon the judgement of a passionate Adversary without warrant or authority When in the year 1523. heresie began first in France and that there was but one Minister a wool-carder called John Clarck in the Citie of Meaux where should we find the interpretation of Scripture in the mouth of this carder or in a lawful Councel Judge behold what you go about you may hereby see how much this pretext of Scripture is malicious shifting and frivolous I adde that they overthrow themselves by those 7. Reason ways wherewith they seek to establish themselves For if we ought not believe any thing but that which is written in what place of their Bible will they find that twenty thousand passages must be taken out of ours In what place will they shew us the books of the Macchabees are not Canonical In what place that Sunday must be kept holy and not Saturday In what place that vows must be broken In what place that Iesus Christ is eaten by the mouth of faith and so many other places which make us sufficiently understand they ruin themselves by their own hands Finally for the fourth consideration take the 4. Point Math. 7. Effects of heresie maxim from the Son of God To judge well of a sect you must judge by the fruits and the effects What fruits and what effects have we seen to come from this pretended Religion The fear of God stifled
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
thereunto are more manifest as I will make it appear in the sequel of this discourse First the Scripture speaking of ambition called it Reasons and remedies Psal 18. 14. Ab alienis parce servo tuo Ambition a Forreign vice A singular description of man a forreign vice Pride in man is not in its element it always seeketh height and man is even lowness it self What is man if we consider him in his own nature without the assistance of grace but an excrement of impurity in his conception a silly creature in his birth a bag and sponge of ordures in his life a bait for worms in his death The soul is in the body as in a Chariot of glass The days are the courriers which perpetually run upon a full gallop The four wheels are vanity weakness inconstancy misery The way is of ice the goal is death and the end oftentimes is a precipice The pleasures thereof as saith Plato are winged and wholly armed with pricks and stings to leave in flying a sharp point in the heart the dolour and discontents thereof drench it in a cup full of gall and its feet are of lead never to forsake it Can then such a creature be possessed with ambition such a dung-hill nourish pride All that we behold both above and beneath Al the world teacheth us the lesson of hâmility on the right on the left hand in this great house of nature serves as a lesson of humility for us Heaven which circumvolveth over our heads enameled with stars created in a higher place than we the earth which we tread under our feet which serveth us for a nurse afterwards for a sepulchre the little air we breath without which we cannot live the water which in its wonder hath swallowed up wisdom and afterwards the bodies of the most knowing men of the earth as we read of Aristotle beasts whose spoils we carry about us our body which according to account hath for its portion about three thousand diseases our soul which knoweth not what shall become of her and which cannot tell whether she shall serve as an immortal fewel to those devouring flames that have no limits but eternity or no All preach to us our baseness all thunder out the terrour and affrightments of Gods judgements and amongst so many subjects of humility you O Noblemen have leisure to puff up your selves and to fill your minds with the gentle breathing blasts of imaginary honour At the least if needs you must elevate your selves if you of necessity must take a great deal of state upon you choose the best way but insensible as you are what Ambition the life of a slave do you take upon you becoming ambitious the life of a slave the life of Cain This is the second consideration which I propose of power sufficient to instruct a soul that will give never so little predominance to reason We all naturally love liberty and suppose that to be of ones self is an inestimable good Inestimabile bonum est suum esse Senec. ep 67. Misery of the ambitious Now the most captive Galley-slaves are not greater bond-men than the ambitious The slave hath a chain and a captain who proudly insulteth over him an ambitious man hath as many fetters as he hath appetites as many servitudes as pretensions as many slaveries as manners of ambition His Captain is his unguided passion which tyrannizeth over him day and night with all possible cruelty The slave practizeth and tameth himself in his own condition the ambitious is always savage he always flieth before himself and never overtaketh himself to enter into himself He is in no place because he would be every where and yet notwithstanding he is tormented every where his feaver burneth him where he is not The slave freeth himself with money the ambitious man findeth gyves of gold and silver The slave findeth no chain so straight but that it sometimes giveth him leave to sing the ambitious is never free out of himself there are nothing but objects of frenzie fire-brands of concupiscence and within himself there is not any thing but worms flames and executioners The slave findeth at least liberty in death and death which carrieth the key of all close coverts cometh lastly to unlose all the bands of his servitude an ambitious soul as soon as it is parted from the body is consorted with devils in their tortures as it imitated them very nearly in their passion What a life what a death is this Find you any comparable if not that of unfortunate Cain The Scripture saith The life of Cain Genes 4. 16. Hebr. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Procep in Genes that he withdrawing himself from the sight of God did inhabit the land of instability and Procopius thereto addeth an ancient tradition that he perpetually saw certain spectres with swords of fire which brought horrible affrightments upon him Is the ambitious man better used Is not he perpetually separated from the face of God seeing as saith S. Hierom man is divided from the Divinity not by the degrees Hier. Epist ad Damas Peccantes recedunt à Deo affectuum non locorum spatiis of body but of soul which are the affections And how much more the soul is scattered in the waste emptiness of ambition which is indeed a meer vanity so much more it strayeth from this sovereign Majesty which is the onely verity Is it not in the Kingdom of inconstancy In every place where he setteth his feet there is nothing but slippery yce or downfal The saying of the Prophet is accomplished Psal 34. 6. Fiat via illorum tenebrae labricum Angelus Domini persequens eos Extream disaster in his person Let their way be made dark and slippery and the Angel of our Lord persecute them Behold all the most lamentable extremities which may be imagined in a voyage ever to go upon yce and thereon to walk in the obscure darkness of the night and to have behind you in the rere a Sergeant who hasteneth you forward and all this is found in the life of the ambitious What passage is not slippery in the favours of the world all which are feathered and full of mutable conditions What darkness is there in a wretched creature who hath no pitie at all of himself who maketh a liberty of his fetters honour of his ignominie and tropheys of his torments What Sergeant is more troublesom What spectres and what swords of fire more teribble than the pricks of this enraged passion which as much and as violently forceth man as a bull goared with a goad rusheth through some headlong precipice Where is it that the ambitious man can find place of stability and center of repose If he be in quest of honour and when is he not behold him in a whirl-pool in fire behold him in the feverish accesses of heat and cold which afford him no intermission Admit he obtain what he pretendeth unto no
not the ballance of wicked Chanaan of whom the Scripture saith Chanaan in manu ejus statera dolosa but the ballance of Jesus Christ which is the Cross There we ought to weigh the pleasing and the profitable good and evil sowr and sweet time and eternity and to proportion our judgements resolutions designs actions proceedings to this great ballance which cannot deceive us And as we are exteriourly to resist this torrent of popular opinions so we interiourly have our passions which we must necessarily extirpate that we may give a judgement upon every thing with full liberty otherwise they cast chaff into our eyes and so blind us III. To live here as a pilgrime of the world disarrayed 3. To live a pilgrime of all To esteem nothing our own but our selves All that which maketh us defie quarrel contest accuse God and man is that we have thought our selves to be proprietaries of those things of which we have but onely the use We must saith Epictetus take all the blessings and honours of the Epict. Encheri l. c. 12. world as a passenger who going out of a ship gathers cockle-shels upon the sand yet ever hath his eye upon the ship to which he is engaged Saint Chrysostom maketh such account of this maxim that he saith There is but one virtue in the world that causeth all other virtues which is to carry ones self as a pilgrim of this world and a Citizen of Paradise IV. To have a very good opinion of the providence 4. Opinion of providence Non fecit abiit of God who covereth as it were under the shadow of his royal mantle all creatures S. Augustine saith that God hath not made the world afterward to leave it like a Carabin who hath shot off his pistol He governeth and desendeth it as the good nurse who driveth away the wasp from her infants face whilest it securely sleepeth He yieldeth himself accountable for all the hairs on our head And dost thou Aug. hom 14. tom 10. pag. 103. Times ergo ne pereas cujus capillus non peribit Si sic tua custodiantur superflua in quaÌta securitate est amima tua Non perit capillus quem cum tondetur non sentis perit anima per quam sentis then saith S. Augustine fear to perish considing in God One hair taken from thy head without thy knowledge or feeling shall not perish and shall thy soul be destroyed which is the root of all thy thoughts and of all thy understandings If God so preserve thy superfluities what will he do to thy treasures Trust with confidence in the providence of God if you desire always to live content If your life be a feast the Divine providence is the salt which seasoneth it If that be a pilgrimage this is the staff If that be a night this is the break of day If you will fight it is a steely buckler If you sleep it is a bed of repose Our life is composed of three shadows which are time past time present and the future Will you have a good share in them all said that admirable Emperour Marâus Aurelius Dispose time past to forgetfulness Marc. Aurel. Anton. l. 2. de vita sua the present to sanctity and justice the future to providence V. To know the ways of this sacred providence we must take heed not to be too wise like some arrogant 5. To flie evil innovation and scattered spirits who boast to wander and alienate themselves from the way which all Saints have held and searching out new paths find every where illusions and precipices All these lovers of innovation and proper judgement are Pharaoh's Counsellours who have drunk in the cup of giddiness There is likewise found a little book of Apothegmes Interrogare sapientem dimidia sapientia est Homo sapiens est quaÌdiu quaerit sapientiam ubi putatse ad ejus culmen pervenisse desipit 6. An assured butt translated out of Arabick into Latine by Drusus which hath these remarkeable words To consult with the wise is to be already half wife A man is wise so long as he seeketh wisdom but when he supposeth he hath throughly attained it then he becometh a fool VI. To have an assured scope to aim at not onely in general which is to seek in all things the greatest glory of God and ones own salvation but also in particular to make and propose to your self a regular and well-pondered course of life Some have so many affairs that they have not leisure either to live or die others have nothing to do and are perpetually wandering and as it were looking for the key of their house and never entering into it We Vacation must take in hand some employment and moderate retirement therein following the inspiration of God an intention pure to live in the place which shall be most proper for us to unite our selves to him according to our capacity following withal the consultation which we ought to make with our own natural constitution the direction of those who know and govern us provided they be dis-interessed from their own passions It is a business of no small importance to have good success herein Some find without thinking thereof conditions which seem made to their nature as the nest of the Halcyon is fit to his body Others for that they have made a false step are enforced to bite the bridle all their life time if by patience they do not correct the defects of their carriage Above all things it is convenient here to purifie your intentions and if you must be embarqued in the Court life not to come thither as a Jannisary or a Mamaluck to make a fortune and do nothing else VII To embrace a true and solid piety such as 7. Solid piety our Fore-fathers have consigned over to us in all simplicity and such as the Church instructeth us Not to plaister nor disguise it for the accommodation of these petty ends Such a practice is a great abomination and cannot in conclusion avoid dreadful and dangerous accidents You must serve God interiourly with great sincerity of heart and most pure thoughts of his Majesty exteriourly applying Synesius de regul ad Arcad ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã your self to ordinary services and ceremonies with most sincere freedom without superstitions scruples vanities presumptions singularities Behold saith Synesius the basis of the estate and total greatness of man VIII To frame to your self a soul which is in a certain temper of integrity consisting in well 8. Honesty following the light of nature and the touch of Heaven which teacheth us we must do to another all that which we would have others to do unto us and not to offer to another what we dislike in our selves Behold the road-way of honesty which whosoever forsaketh to become craftie ever byassing to his pretended advantages shall in the end of his account find himself deceived That great
conduceth to inform the judgement And besides he that in all actions hath not memory when there is occasion to manage some affair oftentimes findeth he hath not well called to mind all particulars which putteth him into confusion Behold why as all men have not servants for memory as had the Kings the great men of Persia and Romans it is necessary to have recourse to registers records and table-books to help your self Some are of so happy memory that they go as it is said to gather mulberries without a hook to the well without a pitcher into the rain without a cloak Understanding II. To be intelligent and able to judge well and for this purpose he must endeavour to know the men with whom he converseth their nature humour their capacity intention and proceeding to penetrate affairs even to the marrow not contenting himself with the outward bark and superficies To Docibility consider them in all senses all semblances To put a tax upon things according to their worth not to run into innovations and cunning inventions which disguise objects To take counsel of the most understanding Choice saithful and disinteressed men to condescend to good counsels by docility of spirit after they are well examined ever to rest upon that which hath most honesty integrity security III. In every deliberation which one makes upon 4. Rocks of prudence any occasion to preserve ones self from four very dangerous rocks which are passion precipitation self-conceit and vanity Passion coloureth all businesses with the tincture it hath taken Precipitation goeth headlong downward into ruin Self-conceit not willing to forgo some hold gnaweth and consumeth it-self Vanity maketh all evaporate in smoke IV. To have a great circumspection and consideration Circumspection Pagulus Junius not to expose your self but to good purpose To doe like that sea-crevis which hideth himself till he hath a shell over his head and striketh no man To spie occasions out and mark how the little hedg-hog doth into what quarter the wind changeth to alter the entrance into his house To stand always upon your guard to discover the ambushes and obstacles which occurre in affairs To hold the trowel to build with one hand and the sword in the other to defend your self Well to observe these four precepts To have your face open but your thoughts covered from so many wiles which perplex our affairs To be sober in speech Not lightly nor easily to confide in all men nor on the other side to shew too much diffidence V. To be very vigilant in affairs to fore-see what Fore-sight vigilance may happen in occasions and prompt to find out means which may forward the execution of a good design You find yet to this day in some old medals for a Hierogliph of prudence a mulberry-tree Hierogliph of prudence having a crane upon his branches and on the stock thereof a Janus with two heads To teach us that one proceedeth in matter of prudence first by not precipitating no more than the mulberry the wifest of all trees which is the last that blossometh to enjoy them with the more security and thereby to avoid the pinching nips of frost In watching as the crane doth who abideth in an orderly centinel In casting the eye upon what is past and fore-seeing the future as this ancient King of Italy to whom for this cause is given a double face VI. To use dexterity promptitude and constancy Execution in the execution of things well resolved on that is the type and crown of prudence Many brave resolutions are seen without fruit or effect which are like egs full of wind All is but a shadow and a meer illusion of prudence Seasonable time must be taken for as Mithridates one of the greatest Captains of the world saith Occasion is the mother of all affairs Occasio omnium gerendarum rerum mater A notable medal and time being well taken you must execute warily effectually constantly Ferdinand Duke of Bavare seems to have made a recapitulation of the principal actions of this virtue upon a piece of coyn where was to be seen prudence like a wise virgin seated on the back of a Dolphin and holding in her hand a ballance with this motto in three words Know Choose Execute quickly The virgin bearing the Cognosce elige matura ensigns of wisdom said you must know The Ballance that you must ponder and elect with mature deliberation The Dolphin with his agility that you must set a seal upon your businesses by a prompt execution VII In the conclusion of the whole the best wisdom True prudence is to distrust your own judgement and to expect all from heaven often asking of God not a wisdom humane crafty and impious which is condemned but the wisdom of Saints which investeth Cogitationes mortalium timidae incer tae providentiae nostrae sensum autem tuum quis sciet nisi dederis sapientiam Sap. 9. us with the possession of a true felicity The thoughts of mortal men are fearful and their providence uncertain My God who is able to know thy meaning if thy self give him not wisdom Behold the virtues which guid the senses and conversation of man against the disorders of flesh and bloud the chief plagues of nature Let us now survey those which oppose the second impurity to wit covetousness Of the vritues which oppose the second impurity called covetousness to wit poverty justice charity The seven and twentieth SECTION Poverty of rich men THere are three sorts of poverty poverty of necessity poverty by profession poverty of Three sorts of poverty affection Poverty of necessity is that of the wretched a constrained needy and disastrous poverty Poverty by profession is that of Religious professed by their first vow which is meritorious and glorious Poverty of affection is an expropriation from the inordinate love of terrene goods We speak not here to you O Noble men of the poverty of rogues which is infamous nor of that of the Religious which to you would be insupportaable and to your condition unsutable but of the poverty of affection the practise whereof is necessary for you if you desire to be Cittizens of Heaven The practise is I. To acknowledge all the goods and possessions Practice of the poverty of affection you have are borrowed which you must infallibly restore but when you know not You live here like birds who are always hanging in the air where either fortune dispoileth or death moweth the meadow and then it never groweth again It is a great stupidity of spirit a great unthankfulness to God if you account that to be yours which you may dayly lose and which in the end you shall forgoe for ever Think not you have any thing yours but your self If August ep ad Armentar Paulinam Divitiae si diliguntur ibi serventur ubi perire non possunt Non sublime sapere nec sperare
which Names of land inebriate all shallow brains Nor through affectation to display a large list of titles and qualities The time hath been when men named lands at this day lands denominate men So many abject villages boroughs hamlets brave it in paper and set our memories on the rack to name one man who should rather be named and renowned for virtues which are the inheritance of men Our Ancestours who raised their titles upon noble actions were men of heaven but now when we so passionately seek to acquire names of the earth we well thereby declare we are men of the earth III. When one is arrived by virtue to some fortune and condition eminent not at an instant to turn Modesty in its exaltation Humility of Primistaus and Pope Benedict the 11. his brain as with a voluntary drunkenness and forget not only his poor parents but himself also affecting wry-mouths crabbed looks disdains ill countenances and much exteriour seeming to blot out the memory of his extraction The good Primislaus being come from the fortune of a peasant to the Sovereingty of Bohemia caused his country-cassock and high shoes to be kept in the Church and yearly represented to him to renew the memory of his bloud and thereby cherish his own humility Pope Benedict the eleventh the son of a silly peasant his mother being brought unto him in a rich and sumptuous habit with intention much to please him turned his eyes away and said he could not acknowledge this woman for his mother But she afterwards returning to him in her rustick attire he acknowledged her and yeilded all the duties of a good son Their hearts were deep in humility not of these petty spirits who are ashamed of their beginning and resemble those beasts which think they are well hidden if their heads be covered shewing the rest of their bodies IV. Neither to make your self Fierabras nor the Knight of the burning sword in matter of valour Those who most brave it in words are found very short in performance The world is full of Rodomonts Rodomonts who onely are transported with arrogant and sudden furies as Rabsaces in the Scripture but few are found truely valourous When Homer maketh his brave Captains march he gives them silence for guid Contrarywise he maketh cowards to babble and chatter like cranes The one pass along like great rivers letting their streams glide softly with silent majestie the other do nothing els but murmur like little brooks A sign of not being valiant at all is to strive to seem valiant V. To boast the beautie of bodie is to have a Vanitie of beautie great defect in the judgement which is the beautie of the soul It is verily a desperate vanitie when a Lady under the colour that some scribling Rimer hath given her the locks of Aurora the eyes of Venus the port of Juno the feet of Thetis makes her self the Queen of Antioch and glorifies her self many times with a beautie meerly imaginarie Queen Ridiculous pride of Queen Stratonica Stratonica wife of Seleucus had not one hair upon her head yet notwithstanding gave six hundred crowns to a Poet who had celebrated her in his verse and sung that her hair had the tincture of the Marigold I know not how this soothing flatterer meant it but this Queen became very proud which made her so much the more ridiculous Although this beautie were true it is but white and vermillion skin distended over a carkase which covereth many ordures It is a dung-hill blanched with snow an Idol of fools a flower of the field which hath as it were for horizon the instant of its birth We may Mirabar celerem fugitivâ âtate ruillam Et dum nascuntur consenuisse rosas well give it the epitaph of the Rose Here lies the Rose in one day come From the first Blossom to a Tombe VI. A much more notorious solly it also is to boast and brave it in apparel which are plaisters of the scars of sin to wit nakedness borrowed feathers from all kind of birds unpunished thefts witnesses of our povertie which causeth us to beg the assistance of all creatures to cover our shame What an indignitie is it to be desireous to brave it above ones state qualitie or port and to arrive at this height ofttimes to bear the fat and marrow of the poor in the plaits of garments Nay these many rapines are not sufficient to entertain this enraged prodigalitie Debts must grow which cannot be discharged Silk Habits must be dragged at your heels and a Sergeant readie behind you to shew gold and hide miserie and sin to adorn a bodie as if it were a Temple of Aegypt with all possible splendour and to lodge within it the soul of a Rat. What infamie is it to behold in a banquet a Roman Lady called Lollia Paulina carrie about her in chains carcanets and pretious stones a Plin. l. 9. c. 35. Paulina bare about her a milion of gold million of gold and her father who had dispoiled all the Roman Provinces to cloath this onely daughter drink afterwards poyson overwhelmed in the despair of his own affairs Is not the chamlet coat of the greatest of all our Kings S. Lewis is it not of power to confound all Courtiers of both sexes who having nothing worthy of praise in them would dignifie themselves with apparel shewing they have like Peacocks a little head little brain beautifull feathers and a long tail VII Not to be proud for riches for they are a river which now this day pass along by your lodging and are no more yours than the river of Seyne Nor to look with a surley face in great fortunes and dignities for it is a vizard in a Comedie which must presently be pulled off Not to value your self Super eminence of person highly for a happie memorie for it is as it were the bellie of the soul many times filled with much windiness nor for wit for it is often but thin like the spiders web fit to catch flies and nothing else nor for the judgement for much to confide therein is a dangerous leprousie in the heart of man VIII To measure your self by your own rule Modestie to know your own abilitie not overmuch to presume of your own forces not to undertake a great burden and shrink under the weight of it To speak little of your self and of all that which is your own not to overprize nor deject your self to do good without speaking of it to obey the commandments of Superiours faithfully readily couragiously to moderate desires to love mediocritie in all things to have a sweet affable and respective conversation Megnanimity IX If you be truly humble you will necessarily have the acts of magnanimitie which are to undertake great things for the honour of God For there is not any thing so potent as the humble man who expecteth all his power from heaven To contemn the
thy self in silk and cuttest thy beard in fashion thou dost crisp and comb thee thou dost court thy hair and knowest not thou seekest for a Master Thou thinkest thou hast found a precious stone but thou meetest with a counterfeit Thou thinkest she is a lamb but she proves a wolf yea a serpent which beareth fire and flames thou must take her at adventure and such as she is must keep her Oxen and asses are tryed before they be Nulla uxoris electio sed qualiscumque venerit habenda Hierom. contra Jovin bought sayes Saint Hierom but wives are taken without notice of their humour and deportment Nay which is worse this poor maid with huge sums purchaseth her slavery Fathers and Mothers have sweat hard for the space of twenty or thirty years to amass a portion Behold they have attired decked and adorned her like a temple and she is led out with the sound of violins as to the galley and many times thrown into the arms of a husband who wasteth all And the young man to become a slave makes a thousand journeys offereth a thousand supplications a thousand thanksgivings and as many salutations Ah poor creatures if you be weary of your liberty are there no prisons caverns nor chains more pleasing Galley-slaves who toil at the oar hope after five years after ten years or some term prescribed them to be discharged from bondage The ill married are enforced to expect death for freedom from their fetters and there is not any Deitie to which they offer more vows and candles than to death which is notwithstanding the terrible of terribles I give you leave to think when two contrarie humours meet as fire and water a holy man with a spitefull and an immodest wife or a noble spouse with a wicked husband what an affliction it is Saint Augustine relates that certain thieves cruel and bloudy to torture captives resolved on an execrable barbarism which was to joyn and straightly tie a live body with a dead and so let the poor patient expire amongst ordures and insupportable stenches It is the very like when a holy and pious wife meets with a husband impious wicked and unnatural she alive by grace and virtue is joyned to a rotten carrion which intollerably tormenteth her and if she in such occasions exercise patience she gains so many crowns as there be hours in every day Let us pass further and not here conceal some Raram facit mixturam cum sapientiâ forma nihil est tutuÌ in quo totius populivota suspirant Molestuni est possidere quod nullus habere vel amare dignatur Pauperem alere difficile est divitem ferre tormentum Mulier cum parit tristitiam habet roses of marriage mingled among thorns If beauty be therein jealousie doth easily slide into it and doubtless it is more aimed at and is more subject to be surprized by temptations If there be deformity it much altereth the band of affections If there be riches and ample fortunes they are exposed to much embroylment great travel and infinite peril for the strokes of thunder ruine not any thing so often as the tops of high steeples If there be povertie it is a misery intollerable Are there children wives you know how dear they cost you They who are tortured on the rack suffer nothing in comparison of a poor creature who is constrained to be delivered of her fruit by a travel extraordinary hydeous painfull and oftentimes in seeking to give life to another she there leaves her own This sometime happeneth because those children come into the world laden with benefices mitres and croziers Abuse precedes birth they are fathers before they are children It is not yet known whether they be males or females and all the world sees they already are charged with ecclesiastical livings Mothers you still bear them in your entrails their fortunes their accidents their maladies their deaths through a reflection of nature imprint on your hearts all their passions all their disasters you are transfixed with as many martyrdoms as evils happen to your children nay should all succeed prosperously and according to the course of nature yet must you a second time produce them to honours estates and fortunes This pain perpetually ties you to the rack To have them upon your hand and not wherewith to provide for them is a very sensible sorrow yet richly to endow them is to give them where withal to enkindle their lust entertain disobedience and cherish vice You think after your travels they will afford you the like who oftentimes prove lewd ungratefull and malicious wretches that waste the wealth you amassed for them as it were on your tombs Behold the slender scantling of the toyls and perplexities of marriage drawn from the Doctrine of holy Fathers I wonder not at all those ancients in the ceremonies of marriage carried before the bride a torch made of black thorn and never of any other wood to testifie wedlock was replenished with difficulties very thorny Nor shall I any more admire their custom who in like manner caused the new wife to touch fire and water For to say truly she passeth through the boyling ardours of many dolours through the waters of infinite many afflictions and may repeat that versicle when she hath met with some ease I have passed through Psal 65. 12. Ecce transivimus per ignem aquam eduxisti not in refrigerium fire and water and thou hast set me in repose and comfort Now it is not sufficient to have expressed the inconveniences of marriage if we also declare not the causes and remedies thereof and this Reader is the reason why I desire you to proceed in your attention Men who will always conclude to their own advantage speaking of this matter cast all upon women and ordinarily affirm we must not ask from whence the evils of marriage come it is enough to say one cannot be married without a wife and that woman is the source and seminary of all the miseries and disasters which happen in this affair Behold a very slippery place what shall we answer It seems that generally to condemn women were to produce more testimonies of passion than marks of judgement They are the mothers of men by nature nurses by charity and as it were hand-maids by patience It is the devout sex the sex of compassion and pitie They daily do many good things they succour the necessities of the poor they visit hospitals prisons the sick they replenish Churches and edifie families with examples of pietie and can you then speak ill of them Notwithstanding as we are not to flatter them so it is undoubted that those who have once resigned theÌselves to evil and become libertines in sin are the cause of many ills and practice much frailty in their sex and cunning in their behaviour to disturb families and the affairs of the world if not guided by virtue If we now will consult with the
of water God made his birth and education singularly to Extraction of Theodosius contribute to the sanctity of his life He was descended from Trajan called the good Emperour by supereminence of worth his Grand-father was the great Theodosius a man who in wariness had no superiour that preceded him and in piety no better second than his Grand-child The Emperour Arcadius was his father a most generous Prince who in the very beginning of the fifth Age to wit the year after the Nativity of our Saviour four hundred and one saw this infant rise as a bright star at that time when he ended the course of his life as the Poets feigned the Sun reareth himself from the bed of aged Tython to illustrate the world His nativity was foretold His birth foretold by the mouth of Saints his most tender infancy consecrated by the destruction of idols God at one and the same time putting him in the number of the living and in the rank of Protectours of the Church by a most remarkeable act of which behold the narration Saint Procopius an Hermit endowed with admirable Prophesie of S. Procopius sanctity illumined with the spirit of prophefie living in the Isle of Rhodes praying daily for the destruction of some remnants of idolatry which reigned in the Roman Empire when by good chance two holy Prelates Porphyrius and John the one Bishop of Gaza the other of Caesarea in Palestine sayling for that purpose to Constantinople went to lodge in the Hermitage of this holy man He having received them with all respect answerable to their qualities and entertained them according to the poverty of the Cell understanding they travelled to the capital Citie of the Eastern Empire of purpose to obtain an Edict from the Emperour absolutely to destroy the Temples of idols and bridle the insolencies of Pagans who stirred with so much the more boldness as the drouping faintness of the government of those times promised them impunity he was infinitly comforted to see so great personages undertake so worthy a work and God then prompting him these words he saith Courage Fathers the glory of this conquest is due to your pietie Go stoutly to Constantinople and acquaint the holy Bishop John Chrysostom with this design resolving to execute what he shall think fit For the rest know the Empress is nine moneths gone with child and that which is more she beareth an Emperour in her womb upon the mother and the son who is to be born depends the expedition of this affair They very glad of this prediction left the good Hermit Procopius and in ten days arrived at Constantinople where presently they visited S. John Chrysostom who received them with much respect and very great contentment The affair being put into deliberation the Bishop of Constantinople saw well that the Empress might therein much assist and that God ordinarily useth the pietie of women to advance the affairs of Religion Notwithstanding he durst not present these two Prelates to her fearing his recommendation might be prejudicial for he very lately had a sharp difference with the Empress It was Eudoxia a woman Eudoxia mother of Theodosius of a great spirit and who naturally loved virtue as milk in her infancy but she had a heart extreamly haughty and quickly would be offended if any thing of great consequence were undertaken against her authority Behold wherefore S. Chrysostom who was of no pleasing disposition as one who had a spirit alienated from ordinary complements sometimes towards those of his own coat reprehending her openly at many meetings in the point of glory wherein she most desired to be soothed raised her indignation to the clouds She was as yet in the height Her humour of her passion against him and therefore he judging it to no purpose for him to sollicite her caused the two Bishops to be presented by the means of one called Amantius an attendant of Eudoxia's chamber a very wise man and of great credit with his Lady She who knew her child-bed time at hand gave very free access to religious men as hoping all good success by help of their devotions and seeing these two Bishops Bishops treat with the Empress were very particularly recommended to her by Amantius in quality of persons endowed with a very eminent sanctity she was unsatisfied till she had seen them and having most courteously saluted them excusing her bigness with child to have hindered her passage to the door of their reception according to the usual practice towards persons of their worth she forbear not most affectionately to conjure them to employ their most fervent prayers to obtain of God a happy delivery for her The holy Bishops after they had wished her the child-birth of Sarah of Rebecca and Saint Elizabeth began to declare the cause of their voyage unfolding in very express terms the indignity of this Idolatrie the insolency of Pagans the contempt of things sacred the oppression of people the lamentable mischief it would be to behold the worshipping of idols still to flourish which to abolish the Saviour of the world had so much sweat so much wept and shed so much bloud and to see it predominate as it were in the eyes of a most magnificent Emperour and a most religious Empress who had all the means to extirpate it That in such a field the palms of eternal glory should be gathered and that better they could secure their estate than by destroying the work of Satan to erect the tropheys of Jesus Eudoxia taketh fire being thereto otherwise well Zeal of Eudoxia enough disposed and promiseth to recommend the business to the Emperour to obtain the dispatches they required for their better contentment The Bishops retired expecting the effect of this promise The Ladie faileth not to offer her requests and strike the stroke with her best dexteritie But Court affairs proceed not always on the same feet which the desires of the zealous move upon she findeth the Councel engaged in these retardations who think it to no purpose to roul such a stone That idolatrie should Judgement of Arcadius his Councel be left to bury it self and at leisure dress its own funerals That the means to ruin it is to remove the heads of the sect from all kind of honours and publick dignities to forbid the exercise of superstition and Conventicles which they make in private houses to subdue Idolaters and burn them as it is said with a soft fire That the demolishment which should be made of those great Temples of Idols which yet remained would make much noise and yield little fruit that this might thrust rebellious spirits into manifest despair and in a word it was feared it might be a means to turn the coyn of the Emperours coffers another way who drew a good round revenue from the Citie of Gaza which even at that time was in hand The consideration of interest which ever holdeth as Porphyrius unfoldeth the
he had very lately rejected this suit at his Councel-table resolving with himself to refuse it the second time But the battery was too forcible Eudoxia declared it was an ill presage not to ratifie the first grant her son had made by a kind of miracle in such an age such a habit on such a day and among such shouts of the people I know not who could have resisted such sweet violences Arcadius will he nill he was constrained presently Marna destroyed by the infant Theodosius to sign the petition without restriction or modification and which is more to constitute express Commissioners for the execution thereof who failed not upon the urgent sollicitation made by the Empress to raze the temple of Marna and build a most stately Church in the place Behold how potent and religiously cunning women Women stout to do good are when they addict themselves to good But God made all these passages conduce to the glory of his well-beloved Theodosius willing that hell should howl and tremble already under the feet of an infant who was no more than born to make him one day dreadfull to all the powers of impietie The joy the parents conceived for the birth of Contentions between the Empress Eudoxia and S. Chrysostom Theodosius was not long I know not through what mischance Eudoxia contested again with S. Chrysostom upon a wilfulness as forcible in the pursuit as unfortunate in the issue for it steeped the remnant of this poor Princess days in bitter distasts and headlong threw her into a death disadvantagious to the reputation of her life to teach Great-ones and above A good document for Great-ones all Ladies to bridle their passions and never to oppose the authoritie of the Church The Miters of Prelates are as the Crowns of the Kings of Aegypt they carry aspicks which insensibly sting those who too near approach with intention to offend them having justice on their side It was a shamefull spectacle for Christendom to see upon this great Theater of the world a woman contest with a Bishop and hazard her reputation against the most eloquent tongue of the world This Princess was ardent in any thing she enterprized and made all affairs dance to the tune of her intentions she so powerfully wrought the Bishops that they assembled a little Councel of Prelats passionate and plyant to her will who passed a sentence of condemnation against Chrysostom S. Chrysostom banished under pretext of a scroul charged with a tedious contexture of calumnies invented against this holy Prelate Eudoxia would free herself and to give contentment to the people it behoved her to proceed therein with some colour of justice Behold him banished into Bithynia It was a bold act to tear out of the throne of Constantinople a man who filling the sayls of eloquence as easily moved the people as winds do the sands of Lybia which stir at their pleasure The people of Constantinople spared not to murmur as do the waves of a mutinous sea and their mutterings were seconded with an earthquake which happened there at the same time all tended to a revolt if Chrysostom had not been repealed from this exile by the Emperours authoritie Being returned to his See he altered nothing of his former manner crying out thundering and violently beating down the vice and corruptions of that Age. And as by chance Eudoxia caused a silver statue to be dedicated to her self in a publick place at the consecration whereof many sports dances and disorders were used this gave new occasion to speak which so vexed the Emperess that she resolved to ruin him whatsoever it cost her Arcadius shewed himself a little soft and obsequious to the humour of his wife who spared no wyles inventions credit nor violence to bring her enterprize to pass She came in the end unhappy as she was to be as prosperous as she wished in this pursuit S. John Chrysostom is exiled to Cucusa a town in Armenia which hath nothing more remarkable in it than to have been honoured with the banishment of this worthy man He swallowed so many toyls and incommodities in this exile that there he left his life the more to illustrate the glory of his death Divers prodigies happened at Constantinople as messengers of the anger of Heaven armed for revenge of his injustice Among others a violent storm of hail which much astonished all the Citie and four days after Eudoxia died in Death of the Empress travel having long endured many bitter throws It is held her sepulchre shook until such time as the body of the Saint carried in triumph through Constantinople seemed by the presence thereof to fix her tomb who had furnished him with so many disturbances in his life The Emperour Arcadius made no long abode in this world after the death of the Empress his wife and S. John Chrysostom behold him surprized with a maladie which he presently knew to be as it were a fore-runner of his death After he had setled the affairs of his conscience he ordered those of his Kingdom and though he had his brother Honorius Emperour of the West he would not rely upon him for the guardianship of his son all great men are jealous and many times diffident of their own bloud But he appointed as Tutour for his little Theodosius who then was onely eight years of age Isdigerdes King of Persia his friend who deputed a great Prince named Antiochus to establish an absolute peace with the Emperour and offer him his aid against all pretenses that might be raised against his state Artemius a Consular man very wise and faithfull took the stern of affairs in hand which most prosperously he mannaged in the great troubles and revolutions of the Western Empire Theodosius was left an Orphan with four sisters Qualities of Pulcheria sister of Theodosius Flaccilla Pulcheria Arcadia and Marina but above all the rest Pulcheria possessed his heart from his infancy She was the pearl of Princesses and one of the wisest women which ever mannaged the affairs of a Kingdom She had a strong and pleasing spirit a solid pietie an awakened wisdom an incomparable grace to gain hearts to her devotion Her brother made such account of her rare virtues that he associated her for a companion of his Empire holding her in the quality of a Queen She was onely two years elder than himself the one was thirteen the other fifteen years old In the fifteenth year of her age behold her already so capable of government that she was Regent of the Empire and as it were a mother to her brother Artemius who had instructed her in state affairs could not sufficiently admire the vivacitie of her wit the solidity of her judgement the equity of her counsels and the happiness which ordinarily accompanied her resolutions She then resolved to live in perpetual virginity not as some have thought to take away the jealousie of a husband towards a brother and
nature They alledge unto me for all reason that I may hope for a good fortune and that it was sufficient even in my fathers judgement If imaginary hopes are of power to dispossess true and lawfull heirs what may we hereafter expect to be solid in the world As for my own part I have nothing to do with such fantasies as they form to themselves I desire not great fortunes but content my self with that mediocrity my birth hath allotted me A little wealth shall suffice to put me in safeguard against the accidents of a necessitous life and sweetly to manure the sciences my father left me as a portion Hereupon Madame I most humbly beseech your Majestie will be pleased to be informed of this I affirm and if you find it as it is true to do me justice which I must seek in your Court it being banished from all the world beside She spake these words with so much grace that all those there present were ravished therewith persecuted beauty never wanting compassion throughout the world Every one wished her well each one became her Advocate yet some were pleased to importune her with many curious questions in this affair to put her upon replies and make her exercise the vivacity of her excellent wit wherein most happily she gave satisfaction Theodosius beheld all this with affectionate tenderness The eye and tongue of this creature mutually divided his heart at one and the same instant love surprized him by the eyes and ears Pulcheria without making any other proposition promiseth all favour to the suppliant and having dismissed her goeth to visit her brother who had the arrow of chaste love deeply fixed in his heart Resolutely he saith to his good sister that never would he have other wife than Athenais They were now upon the point to proceed in the marriage but it was found she was uncapable of that Sacrament being not as yet baptized Her Paynim father had bred her in Paganism better she knew the Theogonie of Hesiodus than the Genealogie of Jesus Christ better Homers I liads than the Books of the Gospels better the Apothegms of Pythagoras than the Commandments of God All the Court which had been rapt in a dmiration with her pleading was much troubled to see so fair a soul drencht in infidelity some seriously treated with her about her conversion Atticus the Patriarch of Constantinople employed himself therein to the utmost of his power Paulinus a great favourite of Theodosius who was now upon some terms of jealousie with him by occasion of a late accident made himself as it were a prime agent in this business seeing his Master affected it so ardently And being well read in Divine and humane learning beyond the profession of a sword-man and most eloquent to explicate himself he marvellously by his conference advanced the conversion of Athenais In the beginning she was Her conversion obstinate in Pagan doctrine and fortified herself upon all propositions with Homers Iliads which she alledged as her Gospel and when the great indecencies were opened to her which this Poet attributeth to these heathen gods she sheltered herself with subtilities as a hedge-hog with his quills evading by oblique interpretations drawn from the allegorical sense so that much ado there was to disarm her In the end God who would have her to be his unsealeth her eyes and makes her behold as in the glass of a bright mirrour on the one side the impertinences of idolatry and on the other the greatness majesty verity solidity of our faith As soon as the first reflection began to fall directly upon her understanding behold all the wild fancies of her opinions were scattered to give place to the truth Never any soul more savourly tasted its conversion never any creature more affectionately resented the benefit of calling to Christianitie She bathed herself in the knowledge of our mysteries as in a sea of delights and in short time became so skilfull in the law that she wrote in Homers verses the principal acts of Jesus Christ and even as Mary Magdalene with the same hayr wherewith she had weaved nets for wanton love made a towel to wipe the feet of our Saviour so the devout Athenais consecrateth from henceforth all the graces of her wit and learning which she had mis-used in vanities to the tropheys of Jesus She was baptized at Constantinople with joy and incredible magnificence named Eudoxia at the holy Font of Baptism confirmed in Christianity nourished with holy Sacraments wherein she was entertained with most sensible devotion The ceremonies ended Pulcheria caused her to be called saying Eudoxia my Sister it is now time you forget the house of your father and that you withdraw the suit against your brothers God who hath granted you the life of the soul and lights of faith hath magnificently provided for the ornament of your person for he hath chosen you to be the lawfull wife of the Emperour Theodosius our most honoured Lord and brother All is agreed on and such is his resolution nothing more remaineth but your consent The holy maid astonished at such words covered her fore-head with the vermillion of shamefac'dness and prostrating herself at the feet of Pulcheria besought her to entertain her onely in her Palace with her maids in the quality of a servant to wash the feet of others as Abigail spake But the more she shewed humility the more she seemed recommendable and Theodosius to whom virtue served as a powerfull motive was after her conversion much more enflamed to love her She must yield herself to the will of God Behold her wife of the Emperour the marriage was solemnized on the 7. of June in the year 421. with all pomp correspondent to the majesty of so great an Emperour and the joy of such a marriage Her brothers understanding the good fortune their sister had afflicted as they were with their own conscience fled like wild men no man pursuing them But the good Queen consecrating the first acts of her Christianity to forgetfulness of injuries caused them to return and obtained of the Emperour for the one the government of Sclavonia and for the other a most honourable place in Court God knows the good women who with so much charity had assisted her were not forgotten Nothing was changed in her but sect and condition all the virtues of humility modesty and affability remained with her and how much the higher she was raised so much the more she undervalued herself as if she had fore-seen the storm which should afterward assail her Hither it is I call all noble and great men who Sanctity of Theodosius his Court. flatter their sensuality by a false imagination of impossibility in the way of perfection while they abide in Courts and greatness in company and affairs The Court of young Theodosius was at that time the prime Court of the world that of the Roman Emperour was fallen into eclipse Thither was the confluence of all
coloured pretext Notwithstanding it cast most strong apprehensions into the soul of his Lady who too well knew the deportments of this Prince But considering this precious pledge of her husband held for an undoubted earnest-penny of his command she goeth and consecrateth all the difficulties which she conceived to the obedience towards her Lord. The poor Lady was no sooner arrived but was ravished and violated to satisfie the bruitish lust of a man more drunk with love than wine The Palace of a Christian Emperour which should be a Sanctuary for the chastity of Ladies is by an act black and villanous defiled The chaste turtle who would not survive her honour as soon as she returneth to her lodging exclaimeth against her husband with outragious words thinking he had consented to this disaster Go saith she to him ingratefull and unnatural man as thou are to prostitute the honour of thy wife to the bruitishness of a Prince abandoned by God and men dost thou not yet feel the executioners of thy conscience which reproach thee with thy crime Maximus much amazed at such words What is the matter or where have you been foolish woman saith he She shewing the ring Dost not thou yet acknowledge thy disloyaltie silly and perfidious man behold that which will accuse thee before God He as she began to unfold herself too soon found his own shame enjoyneth her to silence and dissimulation and hath no vein in him which tendeth not to vengeance Valentinian had a brave and valiant Captain who supported the whole Empire this was Aetius very lately adorned with the spoils of Attila whom he in a pitcht battel had vanquished Maximus thought he must ruinate this pillar to make the whole house to fall and therein was not deceived But being a man full of craft so dissembleth what was past concerning his wife as if it had never come to his knowledge onely he endeavoureth to gain the good opinion of a powerfull Eunuch named Heraclius who was the Emperours instrument and having already gotten him at his devotion suggesteth to him in great secret he had learned from a good hand that Aetius Lieutenant General of the Emperour was much puffed up with the victory he obtained against Attila and that he on all sides practised confederacies both within and without the Kingdom to make himself absolute Master of all that under the shadow of entertaining the French and Gothes in good correspondence with the Empire he purchased them for his own service with the Emperours revenues and that nothing remained for him but to set the Diadem upon his own head which quickly he would do were he not with all speed prevented Heraclius faileth not roundly to relate all this to his Master who was already stirred with jealousie towards Aetius seeing his fortune took so high a flight that it seemed to mount above wind and tempest Valentinian a hair-braind Prince perpetually drunk with lust and choller without any further inquisition sendeth for Aetius to the Palace and with enraged passion How saith he Traytour is it thou who undertakest to bereave me of the Crown and saying that taketh out a poinyard which he had in his bosom and killed him with his own hand An act both bold and barbarous The poor Aetius who had born the brunt of an Army of seven hundred thousand men who first confronted a man that shoke the pillars of all Empires who returned from the Gaules amply loaden with victorious Palms one of the most glorious Captains that ever was at that time shewed at Rome as a prodigy of valour fell dead as a sacrifice at the feet of his Master receiving by the just judgement of God that entertainment he before had given to Bonifacius the great Governour of Affrick Valentinian as if he had acted a Master-piece went presently to one of his wisest Counsellours to boast thereof asking of him if he had not well played his prize The other replieth Sacred Majesty if you had taken a hatchet with your right hand and cut off your left arm in stead of giving this accursed blow you had not done so ill And I believe you too soon will feel the loss you have received These words were not without effect for the death of Aetius being presently after divulged it put the souldiers into fury who loved him as a brave and valiant Captain under whose standard they had given so ample testimonies of their worth Two of the most hardy of them Ostias and Transtilas after they had massacred the Eunuch Heraclius assailed the person of the Emperour who was at that time in the field of Mars and desperately murdered him it being impossible to free himself from their hands God permitting this in revenge of the murder lately committed and so many adulteries wherewith this miserable Prince degenerating from the bloud of Theodosius was polluted Maximus who cast the stone and afterward withdrew his arm causing all this tragedy to be acted to his own advantage after the death of Valentinian as being most eminent obtained the Empire with little resistance and his wife during these enterprizes being dead perhaps through discontent for her own disaster seeketh the marriage of the Empress Eudoxia wife of Valentinian and daughter of our Athenais The poor Princess drenched in a deluge of sorrow for the death of the Emperour her husband shewed in the beginning to be deaf in this motion of marriage but as the spirits of women are mutable and soothed with glory in few days forgetting death she resolveth to live among the living and for accommodation of her affairs weddeth Maximus Behold him in a short time in the Throne and bed of his Master revenging himself of one wickedness by another much more execrable But vice in greatness hath ever a staggering foot Maximus was no sooner entred into the Palace but his head aked and the remorse of conscience distracted him His most trusty friends heard him sighing say he esteemed that ancient Damocles happy who was a King but the space of a dinner-while so much already was he disquieted with the Empire as if he had soreseen his own catastrophe It chanced one day this unhappy man familiarly discoursing with his new spouse let a word escape him which cost him his life for to give her a great token of his affection he confessed himself to have intermedled in the design of Valentinian his death not so much for the desire of the Empire as of her beauty Eudoxia was strucken with strange horrour at these words not supposing her first husband had been deprived of life and scepter by his practices and therefore resolving to be revenged she covereth her plot with dissimulation and bendeth all her powers to content his humour She saw how her mother had been used at Constantinople so that from thence probably she could expect no succour The fury of revenge transported her to an Wicked revenge of a woman act very hazardous which was to call Gensericus King of the
tractable with ease to dispose it self to inclinations of honesty Behold these two principal heads whereon this excellent nature of an inestimable price is established And first forasmuch as concerneth the tranquility of passions it is undoubted that every man being composed of four elements by consequence draweth along four roots of all the motions thereof which are Love Fear Pleasure Sorrow There is not a man which feeleth not some touch But as every sea hath his winds though Mariners observe that some are more tossed than others so though every soul have its passions we must confess there be some of them are mildly disposed and others more roughly distempered You see men who from their most tender age tast of strange extravagancies choller harshness rage despight which maketh them to be of a spirit fantastical uncivil and obstinate against which you must ever fight with an armed hand Others from their cradles are endued with a peaceable soul as a sea in the time that Halcyons build their nests on the trembling agitation of waters they have inclinations to virtue wholly Angelical in such sort that they seem to be as it were conveyed therein as fishes in their element From this repose from passions ariseth the second condition of good nature that is docibleness of spirit the beginning of education and happiness of life For as Divines require in those who receive faith a certain Religious affection to divine things discharged and purified from all spirit of contradiction so in matter of moral virtue and piety we stand in need of a tractable soul which fixeth it self on good instructions as the ivie cleaveth to trees and pillars Go not then about when you make choice of an Ecclesiastical man to tender some Esau some spirit of the field who is onely pleased with arms and slaughter of beasts Take rather a Jacob under the pavilions a sweet and temperate spirit that is wholly disposed to the sound of virtues But you Noble Spirits who have met with this excellent Ezech. 28. Omnis lapis pretiosus operimentum tuum foramina in die quâ conditus es preparata sunt nature I may speak the words of the Prophet unto you God hath given you a soul wholly covered with precious stones enriched with gifts and admirable talents he hath enchased it in a body endowed with a singular temperature as a diamond set in the head of a ring Much hath he given you and therefore much requireth at your hands The seventh SECTION Of Virtues requisite in the carriage of a Prelate The first is Wisdom DO you demand what God requireth from you I answer five principal virtues which were very wel represented in the ephod of the High-Priest of the old law as S. Gregorie the great (a) (a) (a) Greg. de Pastor p. 2. cap. 3. hath well observed This ephod was a certain mantle that covered the shoulders composed of four colours of hyacinth purple white and scarlet the whole wrought all over with threeds of gold enterlaced with curious work-manship Why this dressing why these colours To teach you seasonably to bear on your shoulders the conditions requisite to your profession The hyacinth or skie-colour signifieth the first thing you ought to do is to flie as the plague of virtues from these travantly and unworthy spirits who have no other object in the possession of the goods of the Church but flesh-pots and play you are to frame for your selves a soul totally noble wholly elate meerly celestial which conceiveth strong resolutions one day to dedicate it self to God not in a mercinary manner but with the utmost endeavour of its power Think not (b) (b) (b) Mediocre nè putes quod tibi commissum est Primùm ut alta Dei videas quod est sapientiae Deinde ut excubias pro populo Dei deferas quod est justitiae castra defendas tabernacula tucaris quod est fortitudinis Teipsum continentem ac sobrium praestes quod est temperantiae Amb. de Oââic lib. 1. saith S. Ambrose that being called to an Ecclesiastical state you have a slight commission from God Wisdom requireth you consider the mysteries of Heaven and that you be highly raised above the ordinary strain Justice willeth you to stand centinel for the people who expect aid from your prayers Strength desireth you to defend the Tabernacle and Camp of the God of Hosts Temperance ordaineth you live with singular sobriety and continency You are said Saint Isidore of Damieta (c) (c) (c) Isido Polusiota lib. 3. ep 2 placed between divine and humane nature to honour the one with your sacrifices and edifie the other by your examples A Priest (d) (d) (d) Sacerdos debet esse Christi alumnus à peccatis segregatusrector non raptor speculator non spiculator dispensator non dissipator pius in judicio justus in consilio devotus in Choro stabilis in Ecclesiâ sobrius in mensâ prudens in letitiâ purus in conscientiâ assiduus in oratione patiens in adversitate lenis in prosperitate dives in virtutibus expeditus in actibus sapiens in sermone verax in predicatione Alphons Torrez ought to be as a young child issued out of the school and bosom of the son of God even as an Angel to govern the Church not to despoil it to treat with God in prayer not to handle a sword He should be entire in his judgements just in his resolutions devout in the Quire firm in the Church sober at table prudent in recreations pure in conscience serious in prayer patient in adversity affable in prosperitie rich in virtues sage in words upright in preaching and free in all good actions Great S. Denis the dreopagite (e) (e) (e) S. Dionys ep 3. ad Demophilum addeth a notable sentence saying That he who most especially seeketh to transcend others in holy Orders ought most nearly approach to God in all sorts of virtue For which cause your education should not be in the ordinary way If you have brothers that are to be bred for the world let them live in the practice and fashions of the world O how unworthy are you of the hopes to which God calleth you if you envie them the favour of the house and of those I know not what kind of petty trifles of their own profession Your condition is much other if you follow that spirit which guideth you (f) (f) (f) Bern. l. 4. de consid c. 6. Vbi de comitatu Episcopi inter mitratos discurrere calamistratos non decet Heretofore Monasteries were the chief schools of Kings and the Great-ones of the earth to cause them to suck in virtue with the milk your abode should be in places where you have engaged your heart and your faith which best can prepare and manure you for the life you have chosen It is truly a scandal to your profession if you be ashamed to wear a habit proper for an Ecclesiastical man and blush at the
there is no infancie but is replenished with God if it render it self not unworthy thereof Little Infants heretofore have confronted executioners and born away the crown of martyrdom and will you betray our altars What will you answer to your good brother the Emperour Gratian of holy and glorious memorie when he shall say My brother I never thought my self vanquished by mine enemies whilest I left the Diadem on your head It hath not grieved me to die since my place was replenished with so good a Successour I freely have forsaken the Empire being perswaded the ordinances I made in favour of Religion would remain inviolable to posteritie Brother these are the spoils I gained over divels these are my titles and tropheys these the pledges of my pietie and monuments of my faith which you have since taken away from me by your Edicts What may an enemie do more You have violated what I so piously ordained for the glory of Altars It is a thing which he who so unworthily bare arms against me never did The sword which transfixed my bodie did me less hurt than your Edicts more sensible am I of the wound you impressed on my cinders than that which the Tyrant fixed on my members The one took from me the life of bodie but this bereaves me the life of memorie and virtues On this day it is that I loose an Empire since I see my self deprived of that I always preferred before Empires and that it is taken from me after my death yea by the hand of a man whom I infinitly loved Brother If you have done this of your own accord you have condemned my faith and if by constraint you have betrayed your own and being wholly dead as I am you make me die in you who are of my self the better part On the other side think you not but that the Emperour Valentinian your father whose name you bear will say unto you Son you have done me much injury so to condemn my conscience and to believe I ever had any purpose to tolerate superstitions so prejudicial to Christianitie I punished all crimes that came to my knowledge But never have I heard of an Altar of Victorie nor profane sacrifices to be made in a Sovereign Court before the eyes of all Christendom Dear son you greatly dishonour the respect which is due to the memorie of your father if you think he oweth his Empire to superstition and not to his Religion I heartily beseech God most Sacred Majestie if this affair be so important as you see to your conscience to the memorie of your father the ashes of your brother your own reputation to the judgement which posteritie shall give upon you and that which transcendeth all other considerations to the universal Church you now do what you will one day wish to have done when we shall appear before the eyes of the whole Church Triumphant to the end your actions may be free from reproof as my counsels are of Repentance Who could resist these thunder-bolts Symmachus reputed at that time as we have said the prime States-man in the Roman Empire both for eloquence and authoritie was ashamed of his superstition and in pleading for Victorie lost it well shewing it was nothing since it had so little countenanced a man who ascribed so much unto it which made Ennodius Dicendi palmam Victoria tollit amico Transit ad Ambrosium plâs favet ira Deae Ennodius say Symmachus in pleading for Victorie hath lost the victorie left by him in the hands of S. Ambrose plainly discovering the Goddess was very unreasonable to forsake those that served her and gratifie such as offended her The triumph of S. AMBROSE in the conversion of S. Augustine The sixth SECTION Of the Nature and Condition of this great Man I Come to one of the most remarkable actions of The greatnes of S. Ambrose in this conversion S. Ambrose resplendent in the conversion of great S. Augustine the benefit whereof heaven and earth have divided since this incomparable man serves as a support for the Church Militant in the revolution of so many Ages and an ornament to the Church Triumphant through all eternitie It is none of the least gifts from Heaven that our Ambrose was selected for an affair of so great importance that the whole world might find its interests therein and for a victorie so eminent that were the Angels as capable of envie as they are repleat with charitie as they have loved the Conquest they would envie the glory thereof Happie voice of thunder which made this hind to bring forth her young after the throws and agitations of twelve years Happie the Beseleel who so well hath laboured in the Exod. 31. Tabernacle of the living God Happy the David who hath subdued this Rabbath so many times shaken 2. Kings 12. by the arms of great Captains Happy the Alexander who with the sword of the word hath cut so many Gordian knots as held this great Spirit in disturbance I here defie all the Amphitheaters which have been in the world and so often mixed the bloud of men with that of Lyons and Elephants I call those spectacles which so many times have attracted the eyes of Cesars I desire the jousts turneys races chariots triumphs and those magnificences may be proposed which have drawn bloud from all the veins of the world to establish superfluitie and that it may be considered whether there were ever combat comparable to this which I present where a holy Bishop entred into the list against the prime Spirit of the world where God sits enthroned where the Angels ranged before the gates of Heaven contemplate where three parts of the world expect the issue of this duel where Heaven applaudeth the earth trembleth where hell frowneth the divels houl to see themselves deceived of their prey Where the victorious Ambrose triumpheth where the unvanquishable Augustine yieldeth to be confirmed by his fall to be raised by his abasing fortified by his weakness Gentle Reader I intreat you as my purpose is no other but to enchase in this historie of S. Ambrose the acts of Ecclesiasticks who to him are so particularly tied that you think it not strange if I more at large distend my self upon a narration so proper for the subject which I treat of I doubt not but the manner wherein I shall unfold it will render it wholly new as the greatness thereof made it honourable and the utilitie still seasoneth it with some particular delight That we may here well observe the ways of the Impediments in the conversion of S. Augustine Divine providence in the direction of mans salvation and the strength of S. Ambrose quickened with the Spirit of God it is necessarie to consider the powerfull oppositions that so long time hindered this conversion which I reduce to three principal heads Curiositie Presumption and Carnal Love It is a dangerous pestilence in matter of Religion to take the wind
must return to these kind of spoils to content us But we have to do with few things and for a little space I swear unto you that from the time I betook me to this retirement it hath seemed that all the elements were for me and that I never was more powerfull more rich or contented I have found all that which I sought for health repose truth wisdom arts and the Gods Go not now about to colour your specious oration with pretexts of the publick good I well know where your ambition itcheth believe me he is nearest to heaven who least careth in whose hands the earth is What importeth it that young Constantine Maxentius and Licinius divide the world I shall see them strive together like arâs about a grain of earth If the world must be lost as it is very likely I had rather it were in their hands than mine I very well see the Empire is sick to the death I have for saken it like an old Physitian wil hear no more speech of it than of a body in the coffin Believe me neither you nor I can do any thing for its health but to witness our inability All those who have admired our resolution in forsaking the Diadem wil be the first that will cast the stone against our inconstancy if we weakly go about to require again that which we so generously have abandoned God forbid I should enter into a fantasie to despoil my self of a glory that never any one Monarch had before me which is the contempt of a world when I had it in mine hands If you be resolued to loose your self do it without company your frindship ought to pretend nothing upon me to the prejudice of mine honour and conscience And whereas you propose unto me the danger of my person I do not think that envy will extend it self over the coleworts and lettice of this little garden planted by mine own hands and should they come thither I have already lived long enough according to the course of nature enough to satisfie the desire which I had if glory and too much to see the miseries of the world I will not think much to render up this life which I have upon my lips to him who gave it me We must needs say this man had a great understanding and goodly Maxims For had not mischief given him the spirit of a hangman against Charistianitie he might be accounted in the number of the greatest Emperours Maximian was much amazed at the constancy of his resolution Notwithstanding the desire he had to return to his former honour being insatiable he spared not to take the purple again and bear himself as Emperour protesting it was the desire of publick good which put the Scepter into his hands It is an admirable thing how his ambition was Maximian the baloon of fortune discountenanced He who promised himself much respect was hissed at by the souldiers as a man vain unconstant and shallow was chased out of Italie and Sclavonia and other places which he sought to possess and reduced as it were to such terms as to see himself at the mercy of his son which he apprehended as the last of his afflictions Although some have thought there was collusion between the father and the son for the accommodation of their affairs He wished now to be in the bottom of a cave with his Diocletian but since he had begun the play he must finish his act The subtil man who well foresaw that Maxentius a brain-sick Prince was upon ruin resolved to league himself firmly to the fortune of Constantine Behold why being retired in haste towards him having engaged his house in the Empire it was not difficult for him to find access there as also for that the new Emperour in this great concourse of arms and affairs was very willing to make use of the counsel of a man refined in policie Maximian entereth so far into the heart and judgement of Constantine that to tie him the more to himself and wholly cement up his own affairs he gave his daughter Fausta in marriage to him whom the young Prince espoused in his second wedlock having first of all been married to Minervina by whom he had two children Crispus and Helena This marriage of Fausta was solemnized with much magnificence and the son rendred so much honour to his father-in-law that he seemed to retain nothing of the Empire but the name and habit dividing with him the rest of his power We may well say the spirit of Maximian was turbulent 3. Disposition and insupportable for not satisfying himself with all this excellent entertainment he thought he was nothing if he wore not upon his forehead the Diadem which he had forsaken He began to set things in order at the Court and to prepare factions in such sort that he seemed to have no other purpose but to set his son and his son-in-law together by the ears to enjoy both their spoils In the end he put his design very far upon the fortune and life of Constantine being as he was vain to talke of his enterprizes namely to his daughter Fausta whom he esteemed to be of a good disposition he opened himself so much to her that he made as saith the Wiseman of his lips the snare of his soul For the young married wife having more affection in store for her husband than her father and who having already the tast of Empire would not yield it up to him to whom she had owed her birth hastened to tell all to Constantime advising he should take heed of his father-in-law and that he was a wicked man who would if it were possible deceive all the Gods of Olympus for the desire he had to reign Maximian well perceiving that his daughter had discovered the plot and that there was no further safetie for him at the Court of his son-in-law secretly stole away and endeavoured to regain the East but was taken tardy at Marsellis and there strangled to give an end to his life all his designs Some have written that he hanged himself through despair of his affairs others that it was by the commandment of Constantine Others have said that his son-in-law Eusebius was willing to save him but the publick hatred born against Maximian prevented clemency which I think the more probable Verily I would not disguise the exorbitances practised by Constantine before his entrance into Christianity for he cannot be justified upon some disorders But since Zosimus the historian who pardoneth him in nothing chargeth him not with this death I see no cause why we should accuse him Behold the desperate end of Maximian after he Victor Nazarius Non omnia potes Dij te vindicant invicem had persecuted the Church embroiled Empires all armed the whole world by the extravagances of his ambition an infamous halter taketh a little air from him which he thought he could not freely enough breath whilst
which might slide into the heat of contention and guided all the affairs to peace In the end Arius Condemnation of Arius is condemned and a form of faith conceived for the equality of the Word with the Father whereat many Arians much amazed failed not to strike sail and yield themselves to the plurality of voices fearing least their contestation might ruin their reputation with the Emperour It is thought Eusebius the Historiographer was of this number a man of the time who knew how to comply readily with the humour of those who had authority and force in their hands As for the other Eusebius Bishop of Nicomedia who had maintained the faction of Arius with much passion he saw himself shamefully fallen from the opinion of his great credit and durst not refuse to sign the doctrine of the Councel Greatly was he streightned in another Session to pronounce excommunication upon Arius his creature saying he was consenting to the decision of the Councel under shadow of some perplexed words which he made use of to cover his opinion The fathers shutting up their eyes to all human reasons and fortifying their arms against favour surprized this Eusebius and Theognis Bishop of Nice in the condemnation of Arius which they would not sign declaring them upoÌ this refusal deprived of their Bishopricks They interposed the authority of the Emperour who suspended the execution on such condition that they gave satisfaction to the Councel Never were men more humbled namely Eusebius who thought himself the all-predominant for he was constrained speedily to retire and address his request to the Bishops in terms most suppliant in which he protested wholly to submit himself to the decrees of the Councel yet notwithstanding he spared not to embroil matters with an infinity of wiles and malice which made the Emperour open his eyes to confirm their sentence who had condemned him and send him into banishment with subrogation of another in his place though he afterward by ordinary submission was repealed At that time happened a marvellous labyrinth of affairs in which began the combats of great S. Athanasius which are to take up another S. Athanasius History besides this it extending much further beyond the years of Constantine As for the success of Arius after the banishment of ten years he still intermedling with factions found means to be heard in another Councel of Jerusalem where feigning a penitence artificially counterfeited he handled the matter so by the practises of Eusebius who was then in favour that he was absolved with commandment given to the good Alexander Bishop of Constantinople to receive him into the communion of the Church The holy Prelate stoutly refused it knowing well it was an hypocrisie which tended to annul the decrees of the Councel of Nice and bring confusion into the Church But Eusebius of Nicomedia ceased not to make armed inhibitions threatening that in case of refusal he would deprive him of his Bishoprick He who cared not so much for the loss of his dignity as the safety of the Church forsook all these subtilities of Theologie and exhorting his people to a fast of seven days by the counsel of S. James of Nisibis who was then present spared not to macerate his body with austerities and present to God day and night his humble supplications to divert this scourge In the end the affair being very shortly to be determined he prostrated his face against the earth before the Altar and said My God if it be true that Arius ought to morrow to be received into the communion of the faithfull I beseech you let your poor servant Alexander go in peace and not loose the faithfull people with the wicked But if you be resolved to preserve your Church and I may be assured you will do it look on the threats of Eusebius and deliver not your inheritance to the scorn of the wicked but rather take Arius out of this world lest we receiving him may seem to introduce heresie and impiety into your house The next day Arius went early in the morning End of Arius from the Emperours Palace very well accompanied with Eusebius and walked in pomp through the streets of Constantinople He was a man more subtile than confident and it is thought the apprehensions he had of the issue of this combat put terrour in him and this terrour caused him to step out of the way Behold the cause why being by chance in the market-place of Constantinople he retired into a publick place of ease to satisfie the necessities of nature Socrates holdeth he cast forth a great quantity of bloud and thereupon falling into a swoon not being able to be holpen he yielded up his wicked soul by a just punishment from Heaven leaving to posterity a perpetual detestation of his life with a horrour of the very place of his death Eusebius caused the body to be intrerred Alexander breathed again and all the Church triumphed upon the admiration of the judgements of God seeing that he who had raised so many bloudy tragedies was dead in his own bloud and after he had infected the soundest parts of the world with his poison vomited up his contagious soul in the publick infections drawing on his criminal head the execration of all Ages The twelfth SECTION The government of Constantine HAving shewed unto you the greatness of Constantine Constant 19. Constantinople erected in matters of Religion let us now behold it in his politick government It is no slight note of the vigour of his spirit that he enterprized to make another Rome and so prosperously to have perfected this his design There is found among the Gentiles a certain Epigram in the ruines of ancient Rome which said It stood in need of Gods to make it but there was but one God necessary to destroy it What may we say of the courage prudence happy success of the Emperour in the establishment of Constantinople We will not make him a God as the Pagans but say he was a man singularly assisted by the providence of God in the greatness of his undertaking He perceived in this new change of Religion there were in Rome many harsh spirits and that even among the principal whom he could not reclaim to Christianity as his zeal fervently desired Behold whether desirous to consecrate to God a place better purified from Idols where he might be served with more consent and better judgement or whether he were transported with the desire of honour and the memory of posterity he resolved to build a City which should bear his name and be as it were the master-piece of a great Monarch For this purpose he had some desire to build on the ruins of Troy the Great thinking the fame of the place renowned for its unhappiness through all the parts of the habitable world might contribute somewhat to the glory of his name but he having laid the foundations God gave him notice in sleep that this was not the place
drew from the City and made them so like their lodgings they had at Rome that they were so ravished therewith as it seemed their houses by miracle had been transferred from Rome to Constantinople The two chief Churches were those of the Apostles and of S. Sophia to whom Constantine gave beginning but the greatness of the work is due to the Emperour Justinian Our great Monarch who had his eye open over all forgot not to establish a good Colledge in his City whereunto he drew the choise of learned men in all professions dignifying and adorning it with immunities and great priviledges in such sort that Aurelius Victor called him the nursing-Father of learning and pursuing this design he took a particular care to erect a good Library and above all to furnish it with good store of holy books well written the superintendency whereof he gave to Eusebius of Caesarea Behold the estate of his Constantinople which he by Edict commanded to be called New Rome and Sozomen assureth that in multitude of people in abundance and riches it surpassed the ancient which is not very hard for any to believe who will consider Rome in the absence of Emperours being then but as a Palace disinhabited yet could not Baronius endure S. Gregory Nazianzens speech who said Constantinople as much in his time excelled the other Cities as Heaven surpasseth earth This would suffice to shew the politick prudence of great Constantine but it shineth also in other points of which I think this to be most considerable that he held for the space of thirty years an Empire so great in a time wherein the Emperours had ordinarily so short a reign that they resembled those creatures which enjoyed but one day of life in an age when the people were so apt to revolt that the sea had not more agitations than all Kingdoms had vicissitudes in an establishment of Religon very new wherein commotions are commonly most dangerous We may well say this Prince had something in him above all that which is humane to cement together an Empire of so long continuance in affairs so discordant It is true that he tolerated the sects of Pagans for meer necessity otherwise he must have killed the whole world to make a new of it The wise Prince well saw it was a thing impossible to annihilate superstition in an instant which had taken such deep root for a thousand years about which time Rome was built but in this civil peace which he gave to all the East he insensibly undermined the foundations of impiety and verily by little and little it perished in his hands His spirit sparkling like a fire could not rest but seeing the Magistrates of the Empire were moreover busie yet not discharging the duty of their places and that by the greatness of their power they made themselves too absolute he altered the whole government dividing their charges and multiplying the offices of the Empire For which Zosimus blameth him not considering it was the policy of Augustus Caesar reputed one of the most ablest Princes of the world and that he who will consider the state of the Empire established by Constantine shall find so much order in this great diversity so much wisdom in inventions so much courage in executions so much stability in continuance that he shall have more cause to admire the deep counsels of the Emperour than find what to blame in his government The same Zosimus as a Courtier and a Pagan extreamly displeased with great liberalities which Constantine exercised towards the Churches furiously taxeth him upon the matter of tributes Tributes saying He invented new and exacted them with much violence And yet notwithstanding there are no tributes under Constantine the use whereof is not observed to have been in the Age of the former Emperours For concerning the impost of a certain sum of gold and silver paid by merchants from four years to four which the Grecians called Chrysargyros although the name were then new the manner of it could not be so since the Historiographer Lampridius in the life of Alexander Severus makes mention of the gold of merchants And as for that which was also imposed upon prostitute women it was likewise under the reign of the same Alexander So that he who will compare that which is done before Constantine and that after him in this article shall there find much moderation in his proceedings For so far was it from him to surcharge the people that he gave a relaxation of the fourth part of tributes which is so much as if a King after the space of four years passed should free his people for a year from ordinary subsides which would be no small liberality Now concerning the violence whereof this man complaineth the Edicts of Constantine testifie that he would not have any man to be so much as imprisoned for monies due to his coffers True it is he had Cod. Theod. l. 2. de exactionibus a list of the names of men of quality in the Empire with a taxe of their revenews to enforce them to publick necessities and by this means discharge the poor Otherwise it is well known this Prince was Cod. Theod. l. 2. tit 2. Victor so zealous for justice that he would not suffer even the letters of favour obtained from him should have any power to the prejudice of ancient laws And that if any of his favourites had a process and would beg of him to interpose his authority for him he would leave him to justice willing rather to afford him coin out of his coffer than one sole word of favour which might dispose the Judges to bend the ballance more to one side than another He had his eye upon his Officers and retained them in their duties discovering and chastising corruptions and banishing with his whole endeavour all crimes that were against the law of God and publick tranquility He was much seconded in the administration of affairs by the diligence of Ablavius the greatest favourite of the Prince and Superintendent of Justice who was verily a man of Judgement had he not blemished the gifts of God with unfatiable avarice He was surnamed The Baloon of fortune for the many changes which happened in his person For it is held that he was of very base extraction born in Constantinople then called Byzantium and that a Mathematician arrived in this City upon the instant the mother of Ablavius was to be delivered This man weary of his way and very hungry went into an Inne where he cals for dinner his hostess was very busie to provide it for him at which time one came to entreat her to assist a neighbour of hers in her child-birth for she practiced the office of a Midwife This made her forsake her guest to help the poor creature who was said to be in great danger if she gave not remedy The business being dispatched she returned to her guest who was very angry and murmured with much
a Harpy which did onely attend to catch golden fish I saw also some plunged in a huge heap of pistolets so that neither heads nor bodies appeared but onely one tip of a toe made like the paw of a Griphon as a notable painter not long since delineated covetuousness Going somewhat further I discovered the Den of Bacchus where I saw fifes timbrels ivy and goat-skinns huge smoke of roasts feasts and men buried in wine and good cheer Beyond it they passed to the grots of Lust where crimes were done which would make the most innocent pens guiltie in writing them for as there must be an extream impudence to commit them so ought much shamefastness be used to conceal them Nothing so much astonished me as to see Ecclesiasticks without religion Ladies without shame young maids tainted who knew so much of that whereof they should be ignorant that the most prostituted could teach them nothing Afterward the sport turning into bloud I saw strange teacheries horrible circumventions execrable treasons which spake of nothing but of tying halters and mingling poisons I also saw some who made it their practise to kill men openly and said there was no safetie for them in innocency but much rather in the enormities of sacriledges I thought I had seen all when I afterwards perceived a chamber hideously black said to be the study of Lucifer and that the brave spirits of this time fludied there under the regency of Herod Tiberius and Pilate to find out the way how to believe in God no longer and to know all the refined policy of former ages I should be tedious and troublesome to decipher all the particulars of this prodigious Citie The painting hath told much of it but the greatest unhappiness which I saw there is that it is more true than I could wish For not to touch upon the honour of so many good men which are yet both in the body of justice and in all other companies I must tell you that among the sons of Seth there are many Children of Cain which make up this Babylon The third SECTION The destruction of Babylon and the government of the Divine Providence over the Estates of the World I Courteously beseech you O ingenious Politician to run your eyes over these lines which I have traced to stay a little your hast and to consider with me the knot of all this policy the source progresse issue and remedy of all these disorders perhaps you may find more reason in my discourses than your passion can expect Consult awhile with your heart sound your soul go to the bottom of your conscience I fear there may be some pits of the abyss and grashoppers of the Apocalyps which are those black vapours that have hitherto eclipsed all the lights of your understanding I will not conceal from you that there are three sorts of souls one virginal another already changed and somewhat corrupted the rest shameless such as those which are called in Scripture vast and giant-like-souls I Eccles 23. the Greek vers 5. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã do not think to find by your proceedings that you have a virgin-soul nor will I likewise perswade my self you have the soul of a giant which expecteth no other remedy but thunder I should rather believe you have a stomack depraved by some wicked principles whereinto either the unhappiness of your education the presumption of your ability or tickling-hope of good success in worldly affairs hath thrown you Wil you that I touch with a finger the begining of your disorder You have been too much flattered upon the excellency of your wit which is not to speak truly one of the shallowest of the time but there is much wanting of the singularity you imagine You have insensibly retired your self from that great judgement which S. Denys calleth the eternal Dionis c. 1. de divinis nominibus hearth of all the most purified lights and most chast affections and by withdrawing your self have taken a great quantity of false lights into your corrupt understanding and much coldness into your heart which have brought upon you a remisness in good manners and a notable disorder in all the parts of your soul You have seen heaven and all the hopes of the other life as Mathematicians make us to behold in a dark chamber whatsoever passeth abroad through a little cranny in such manner that all things we see appear like shadows and landskips turned topsy-turvy Behold what happeneth after you have stopped up all the windows and accesses of heavenly light you have made a little hole for the moon and all the blessings of the other life have seemed very slender to your distrustful spirit you have put on a resolution to make a fortune at what price soever and to build on earth like Cain after you have almost renounced the hopes of heaven In doing this you have played the unruly Ass thinking to escape from the bands of the dependance you have on God you have made your self your blessing your end your (a) (a) (a) Aug. l. 3. de libero arbit c. 24. Cui bonum non est Deus sibi ipsi vult esse bonum suum sicut sibi est Deus God Thereupon you have thought of the means you are to hold to arrive at this scope already framed in your imagination It seemeth to you all things succeeded according to your wit travel and industry used therein with some small help of fortune God no whit at all intermedling with affairs here below You have drawn absurd consequencies of the prosperity of some subtile spirits not looking into the bottom of the business The success of your affairs which seemed to you most prosperous notwithstanding your crimes and unlawfull proceedings have emboldened you mischievous spirits which dayly converse with you have confirmed you In the end behold your self reduced as it were to this point as to suppose you are to hold on a course in all affairs and governments of the world which may be craftie captious worldly and independent of divine laws if not for some popular apparence If this be so I demand of you why then in the Vide Lipsium in notis ad 3. lib. politic c. 4. p. 125. judgement of that great Politician Thucidides and all other well understanding men is it observed that these curious wits despoiled of the fear of God have alwayes been most turbulent and unhappy in the manage both of their own affairs and the publick also as on the contrary those who had not so much knowledge and invention but pursued the general instinct of God have held their estates better governed in simplicitie more prosperous in the ignorance of evil and much more firm in the lasting of their felicity Never was there a more refined wit than Achitophel of whom the Scripture said Consilium Achitophel quasi siquis consulerit Deum 2. Reg. 2. men consulted with him as with a God yet never was there any
but I pronounce you must so repress all motions which comhat against reason that they sparkle not in publick both to your own disadvantage and the ill example of those who behold you Philosophers have noted that thunders which stir about break of day are the most dangerous and you shall observe if a man in the first rays of his dignity early discover covetousness love hatred revenge avarice and other passions which much hasten to the prejudice of the publick and that the voice of the people be raised up as the roaring of thunder he looseth as much reputation as if he were already corrupted in mind Discretion will also shew you the way how to manage your dignity in a manner neither too harsh arrogant nor haughty but sweet affible and communicative and with it to retain an honest and temperate gravity thereby to villifie the character which God hath imprinted on those whom he calleth to charges and commands It was a pleasant mockery to behold those Kings of Aegypt appear daily in new habits with the figures of beasts birds and fishes to put terrour upon the people and give subject to Poets to make fables of Protous This affected gravity is not in the manners of Great men who naturally love nothing of singularity above others but the eminence of their excellent qualities Our spirits are not so base and childish as to be satisfied with semblances they desire some thing more solid and he is ever best esteemed among the wise who is more respected for the interiour than the outward seeming Discretion will discover unto you the conditions manners inclinations abilities and wants of those whom you are to govern and with a finger shew you the bent which way you must encline to lay hold of men It is at this day no small matter to mannage humours which are as different as they are incompatible The problem of the wolf the goat and the colewort is daily renewed If a ferri-man find himself much troubled to pass these three things severally from one side of the river to the other that the wolf may do no hurt to the goat nor the goat to the colewort in his absence what prudence think you must a States-man have to accord so many dogs and hares hawks and doves Saint Gregorie saith Paradise hath nothing in it but blessed souls and hell is filled with miserable but the world wherein we live containeth merchants very different You shall behold under your government a great number of simple innocent poor and afflicted creatures Think A notable practise given by King Theodorick to Cassiodorus Proprio censu neglecto sine invidiâ lucri morum divitias retulisti Et unde vix solet reportari patientiâ silentium voces militaverunt tibi loudantium God hath principally created you for them open your heart with an amorous compassion extend to them the bowels of your charity stretch out affectionately to them your helpfull hands take their requests lend ear to their cries cause their affairs to be speedily dispatched not drawing them along in delays which may devour them strengthen your arm against those that oppress them redeem the prey out of the Lions throat and the Harpies talons For this it is that Kings Princes States and Officers are made To actions of this kind is it that God promiseth all the blessings of Heaven and admirations of earth For this sort of processes are crowns of glory prepared By this means a man diveth into the bottom of the heart and good opinion of people This is the cause that one hath so many souls and lives at command as there are men who the more sweetly breath air by the liberality wherewith they are obliged The greatness of man before God is not to replenish earth with armies and make rivers of bloud and to raise up mountains of dead bodies but to do justice to a poor orphan to wipe away the tears of a forlorn widow to steep in oyl as the Scripture speaketh the yoke of people which live on gall and worm-wood For not touching here any thing in particular we know that in all Realms of Christendom there are very many persons who sigh under necessities almost intolerable to the most savage and who daily charge eares with complaints and Altars with vows for their deliverance Now that we have a King so well disposed to justice and near his person so sage a Councel a Parliament so zealous for the publick good so many honourable men endowed with so sincere intentions when may we reasonably expect the comfort of people if not at this hour when miseries are eminent clamours piercing and dispositions very good Alas if there be any thing in the world wherein a great States-man may be seen to oblige the present and replenish the future times with admiration of his virtues it is in procuring the advancement of so holy an affair for which Heaven is in expectation and the hands of so many thousands of people are daily lifted upon Altars Such and so many Officers for not having had any other aim in charges but the accommodation of their own affairs have passed away like phantasms leaving nothing here behind them but ordure nor bearing ought with them into the other world but crimes They have found that the souls of the wounded Anima vulneratorum clamavit Deus in ul am abire non patitur have cried to Heaven against them and that God hath not let it pass without revenge as speaketh holy Job in the four and twentieth Chapter where he at large explicateth both the calamity of the poor and the chastisement of the rich who persecute them But all those who have constantly addicted themselves to the maintenance of justice and the consolation of afflicted persons besides the Crowns which they enjoy in Heaven live gloriously in the memory of men Their mouthes which are opened for justice after Regnantis facultas tunc ââditior cùm râmittiâ acquirit nobiles thesauros famâ neglectâ vilitate pecuniae Cassiod l. 1. Epist 16. they are shut up as Temples are truly worthy to have lillies and roses strewed on the marble which incloseth them and that their posterity may also reap the good odour of the virtues of their noble ancestours which hath made it march with up-rear'd head before the face of the people You on the other part shall behold travels and laudable actions which good judgement will invite you to recompence wherein you must shew your self generous and liberal For although virtue be always well enough payed with its own merit yet must we affirm it to be one of the greatest disorders which may happen in a State when in sowing benefits nought else is reaped but ingratitude and that to be capable of rewards one must become remarkeable in crimes On the other side there will be many defects presented that must be corrected which are either of persons very well conditioned fallen into some slight offence by surprize and
a scarcity of Writers who have handled this subject I will endeavour to render it as little irksom in stile as it is profitable in matter As for the first quality I have observed in him which is his great Nobility it is certain he summed up a thousand years since his Ancestours began to be resplendent with singular lustre in the Citie of Rome which is no small space to say that ten Ages which waste rocks and wear elements had not altered the honour of this great Family He was descended from the house of those great Manlii whose hearts extended as far as the Roman Empire The most celebrated amongst them named Marcus Manlius defended the Capitol against the Gauls in the extream necessity of the Romans and redeemed as it were from the abyss the Citie which God had chosen to command over so many nations He was a man truly valorous who wanted nothing but to have been born in an ample Kingdom and not in a Republick jealous of the greatness of its subjects For he having too much courted the People to the prejudice of Magistrates was accused to have sought a change of government and was precipitated from the Capitol which he had defended to the end the theater of his glory might be turned into the scaffold of his punishment Never could any thing be seen more deplorable than this brave Captain when pleading his cause where he was upon question of his last unhappiness having produced about four hundred Citizens delivered from great necessities by his means then thirtie spoils of noble enemies whom he had slain with his own hand then ten Crowns then fourty other prizes of valour as he beheld the incensed Judges much enclining to his ruin he shewed his naked breast as yet covered over with honourable scars received in so many great battels for his Countrey and then turning his eyes his up-reard hands to heaven towards the Capitol he prayed the Gods to give the People of Rome the same understanding for the preservation of his person that they had afforded him for the safety of the Weal-publick in the defence of the Citie of Rome This spectacle was so ravishing that it was impossible to condemn him in sight of this noble fortress which subsisted not but by his valour but his enemies causing him to be carried into another place exercised a heavy judgement and an act odious to posterity which was attended by great sterilities and pestilences attributed to the death of this noble personage The other Manlius very eminent was he who slew in single combat the Captain of the Gauls in sight of both the Armies For this man advancing himself on a bridge assailed and defended by both parts challenged aloud the most valorous among the Romans to combat man to man which being understood Manlius slowly came forth with the leave of his Dictatour and having well observed his adversary who immeasurably braved it he struck him so nimbly that he fell down stark dead in the list then taking his chain off all bloudy he hung it about his own neck from whence he was surnamed Torquatus which title did afterward likewise remain unto his whole posterity The third of this race much renowned in histories by an act one of the severest ever exercised was that Torquatus who caused his sons head to be cut off for having charged and vanquished his enemy without leave The young mantickled with the honour of his Ancestours seeing a fair occasion to fight took the opportunity And not expecting the permission of his father overthrew the enemies of the Roman people in killing with his own hands a man of note in single combat whereupon full of joy he returneth with the applause of the souldiers and hasteneth to seek out his father who commanded the Army bearing in his hands the spoils of his enemies and saying aloud Father behold the cause why I may be esteemed your son But the father turning his eyes away caused the trumpet to be sounded to gather all the souldiers together and in the middest of a great Assembly as General he pronounced sentence against his son and said unto him SON Since without any respect either of the dignitie of a Consul wherewith the Common-wealth hath honoured me or the majestie of the title of a father which nature hath afforded me over you you have fought contrary to my Edict dissolving the sacred knot of military discipline which hath hitherto maintained the greatness of the Roman State I well see you have reduced affairs to such necessitie that either I must forget the Common-wealth or myself and mine But God forbid the publick suffer for our faults and that we must expiate the temeritie of one young man by the disasters of so many innocent persons Here an act of State must be performed which is for the present somewhat odious but shall be profitable for youth through all posteritie My son I have sense of nature as a father and as a Captain I resent also the stashes of this youthfull virtue which is so charming in its illusion but since I must either by your impunitie annual or by your bloud seal the commandment of the Consuls you being of my bloud I cannot think you so degenerate as to deny to re-establish by your punishment the Laws of arms which you by your errour have destroyed Thereupon he commanded the executioner to bind him and lead him to the place of punishment to be beheaded wherewith the Assembly was so astonished as if all the Captains had their heads under the same sword For every one was drenched in a deep silence until the bloud of this young Prince was seen to gush forth for then the souldiers spared neither sorrow nor execrations taking the body by main force to cover it with its spoils and enterre it with all honour I had a desire to touch this particularly thereby to teach the Reader that the great constancy which Boetius witnessed in the whole course of his life and especially at his death was in him hereditary It were a long piece of work for him who would prosecute all the acts of the Ancestours of Boetius since by the report of Saint Hierom this family hath been so illustrious that scarcely can one man be found therein which hath not enjoyed or deserved the Consulship Wherefore I may well say it was a very particular Providence of God upon this admirable man which being pleased to raise him to the condition of a great States-man hath caused him to be nobly born For although it cannot be denied but that many descended from very mean extraction have sometimes exceedingly well improved in the mannage of States yet must we affirm they have stood in much need of time diligence and eminent virtues to give a counterpoize to this defect of bloud Ordinarily those who arise from these degrees being derived from base birth are many times envied and little respected whereby finding themselves offended they often take harsh ways to
reason we are to think they are able to advance the lustre of an excellent Governour vowed to the Robe and to a life peaceable as Seneca and Cicero I have been the more willing purposely to use this Preface to the end that coming presently to speak of the great learning of our Boetius it might not diminish the credit we ought to have of his abilitie in state-affairs It is sometimes so dangerous to be Vide Boro Ann. 990. learned among gross spirits that the tenth Age which was very dull made as it were the good Pope Silvester the II. pass for a Magician because he understood Geometrie And it is not above four-score years ago that to know Greek and Negromancie were as it were one and the same thing in the opinion of the ignorant He that proceedeth by such bruitish ways would take Boetius for a Devil such knowledge had he for it must be confessed that in the revolution of so many ages there hath not been many seen who arrived to such a degree of science As our spirits are limited so every one freely taketh his share according as his inclination leadeth him his aim moveth him his understanding transporteth him his labour supporteth him and he that cannot prevail in one science applieth himself to another since the diversitie of arts is so great that it is able to satisfie the most curious allure the most nice and encourage the weakest But as for our Boetius he entred into the secrets of all sciences and as there was nothing too holy for his great virtue so might not any thing be found so elate as to exempt it self from the vivacitie of his spirit Julius Scaliger hath very well given testimonie of Scalig. in Hypercritiâo him according to his merit when he said the wit learning industry and wisdom of Severinus Boetius challenged all the Authors of the world as well Graecians as Latines not excepting any He addeth that all which he composed in Poesie was divine and that nothing might be found either more elegant or grave in such manner that the abundance of supereminent conceits choaked not the grace nor curiositie took any thing from the proprietie thereof And whereas he writeth that his prose seemed not equal to the verse but retained somewhat of the barbarism of that Age I assure my self Scaliger may have taken some works falsly attributed to Boetius as there are in the great Mass compiled under his name which have likewise deceived Cardinal Baronius who imputeth the book of the Discipline of Schollars to him which is one of the most silly pieces that could come from a man alienated from common sense Among other things this Author saith that he hath been in the Citie of Julius Caesar called Paris to take the air and that he there hath seen many bad schollers discoursing of Nations and giving a face to the Universitie as it had in later times which will seem ridiculous to every one who shall consider the life of Boetius and the times wherein he flourished It is no wonder if those who have admitted such works for pieces of Boetius not through want of judgement which hath been in these two personages whom I mention very great but for fault of giving time to examine them they there have found matters which with them have lessened the opinion of such an Author But this is very certain that all which is extant of this brave Writer hath in it vigour grace puritie spirit and excellent good consequence as appeareth in the books of Consolation As for the rest he hath not so confined himself in this great eloquence but that he entereth into the most profound questions of Philosophie and Theologie and should he have no other honour but to make Aristotle first speak Latine who was unknown in the West I should make much more account of him than if he had raised Orpheus up again with his Harp The great knowledge he had of Geography Arithmetick Musick and all which concern the Mathematicks was the cause when any one stood in need of some piece of wit they went presently to Boetius as the onely man of the Empire who was esteemed a true Library animated with the spirit of all Arts. It is a pleasant thing to read what the King Theodorick wrote to him in requiring a dial of him to present it to the King of Burgundy Behold the words of his great Secretarie Cassiodorus It is not reasonable to contemn the requests which Kings our neighbours with all confidence make unto us and especially when they require some slight things which they account in the number of great treasures It happeneth oftentimes that the dalliances and conceits of wit obtain that by sweetness which arms cannot gain by force If we needs must play let us so use the matter our sports may be made for the good of the publick and let us search for things serious even in pleasures The K. of Burgundie intreateth of me with much instance twodyals the one circumvolved with water the other with the sun and he prayeth me to send skilful masters to shew him this invention Let us afford entertainment to this Nation to the end they may hold those things for miracles which we here daily use for recreation I understand the report which their Embassadours have made of these the like workmanships which hath much amazed them as a thing very extraordinarie Now I know you are so accomplished in all sorts of sciences that you have tasted in the fountain of all the industries what others seek to practise by rote For you for this purpose remained in the Universitie of Athens and have so fairly allied together the Romane robe with the Grecian mantle that their doctrine by your means is become wholly Latine You are ignorant of nothing that is in the speculative nothing which is in the practick and all that which the Athenians would attribute to themselves of singularitie you have transported into our City of Rome Your translations have made Ptolomy the Astrologian Nichomachus the Arithmetician Euclid the Geometrician Plato the divine Aristotle the Logician Archimedes the Mathematician to speak Latine All sciences dispersed among so many men and so many wits through all ages are in you altogether united you have interpreted them all with such perspicuitie of discourse retaining the proprietie of language that should these Authours return to life again they would prefer your translation before their own originals Afterward he enlargeth himself upon the praise of Fugam solis aquiparat quod motum semper ignorat Inviderent talibus si astra sentirent Vbi est illud horarum de lumine venientium singulare miraculum si hos umbra demonstrat Cassiodorus l. variar Epist 45. the Mathematicks then returning to his diall he saith it is an admirable thing to see that a little immoveable steel every day performeth as much way as the sun and that if the stars had understanding they would
of pretious things received from the love of subjects The river which glideth along said he though it do no other spoil still worketh out its channel so companies of souldiers which pass through towns and villages though military discipline be there observed fail not to bring thither with them much damage and therefore it was his pleasure the places should be recompenced which had been overcharged For the same reason he appointed fifteen hundred crowns of alms to be delivered to the venerable Bishop S Severinus to distribute them among the peasants which he knew had been vexed with the harbouring of certain warlick companies Verily as it is no smal temerity in particular men who have neither any charge nor knowledge of affairs to argue great men upon tributes and the husbanding of their treasures so would it be a neglect to conceal from them upon occasions the moderation they ought to use herein since it is so exactly recommended by the law of God and published in all histories If a stranger raised from the bottom of barbarism shewed himself so Religious in matters of subsidies towards men whom his arms had newly made tributary Princes and Lords of Christendom have good cause to consider what they ow to a people which is given them as to Fathers and Protectours of the publick There is no doubt but the exorbitancies committed in such like affairs are most important charges of conscience which much clog a soul in the agonies of death and in the dreadful judgement of Almighty God There is also to be seen an Edict of the same Prince where having understood that in the payment of taxes the rich made the heaviest part of the burden to fall upon the shoulders of the meaner and that the undertakers of this business ill behaved themselves therein he detesteth all these abuses as injuries done to his own person and gave full liberty to those who had been wronged to complain to him that such order might be taken as he should judge reasonable This manner of proceeding made him so beloved that other Princes having passed away like dreams of one night he reigned thirty years in a most supereminent degree of respect which those even of the religion contrary to his own bare him The third Maxim given him by Boetius was to make himself most exact in the exercise of justice because it is the basis of thrones and the spirit which animateth all government and he so deeply impressed this in his heart that the desire he had to render every one what was his was changed in him to a most ardent thirst and a continual hunger He selected out the most untainted and uncorrupted Governours he could find and spake these words unto them related by Cassiodorus Use the matters so that Judges of Provinces may be very careful in the observation of laws that Tribunals spare not to thunder out sentences against ill manners that theeves may fear the gates of your Palaces that the a dulterer may tremble before a chast Officer that the forger may feel horrour at the voice of a Herauld and that all crimes may be banished from our territory That no man oppress the poor that persecutours be apprehended and pursued as disturbers of publick repose You shall make a general peace when you have beaten down the authours of mischiefs which are committed Let Cassioder raâ l. 22 Mihipropria cura dilapsi est postquam generalem coepicogitare custodiam Opto meiâ benè sed quod possit esse commune Captains contain their souldiers in all manner of discipline in such sort that the labourer the merchant the sailer and the artificer may understand arms are not made but for their defence I will not likewise that my nearest allies be pardoned in any case of justice since I have taken the Common-wealth into my charge I have despoiled my self of my proper interests I wish well to mine but in the generality Pursuing the maxims I will recount an admirable passage which he used among others to make his justice remarkable A Roman Lady left widow by Manuscriptum P. Sirmundi Joannes Magnus Laurentius Venetus the death of her husband had lost a son born of this marriage who was secretly stoln from her and in servitude bred up in another Province This child grown up a young man received notice from a good hand that he was of free extraction and son of a Ladie whose name was given him her aboad and all circumstances which caused him to undertake a voyage to Rome with intention to make himself known unto her He came directly to his mother who was much perplexed with certain love-affairs having betrothed her self to a man who often promised her marriage yet never accomplished it This lover then absent and detained by urgent affairs very far from Rome the Ladie had the space of about thirtie days free wherein she kept this young man in her house acknowledging him and particularly avowing him for her son throughly convinced by evident tokens so that then her charitie was so great towards him that she ceased not to weep for joy in the recovery of her loss The thirtie days expired the Lover returned and seeing this guest newly come to her house demandeth of the Lady what man he was and from whence he came She freely answered he was her son He whether moved by jealousie thinking this might be but a colour or that preteÌding the marriage of the widow he would not have a charge of children plainly told her if she sent not away this found child from her lodging never should she have any share in his affection The unhappy creature surprized with love to serve his passion renounceth her own entrals and readily banisheth from her house this son over whom she had so many tears The young man seeing himself as between the hammer and the anvil in so great a necessitie of his affairs hasteneth to require justice of the King who most willingly heard him and commanded the Lady should be brought before him to be confronted by him She stoutly denied all the pretensions of this young man saying He was an impostor and ungrateful who not contenting himself to have received the charities of a poor creature in her house needs would challenge the inheritance of children The son on the other side wept bitterly and gave assurance she had acknowledged him for her own very lively represeÌting all the proofs which passion and interest put into his mouth The King sounded all passages to enter into the heart of the Lady and asked her whether she were not resolved to marry again She answered if she met with a man suitable to her she would do what God should inspire her The King replied Behold him here since you have lodged this guest thirtie days in your house and have acknowledged him so freely what is the cause why you may not marry him The Lady answered He had not any means which ever is necessary for houshold expence
demonum prurientibus auribus nâtâ are doctrines of devils grown up to please the itch of incredulous ears We must believe one Article and leave another believe the Trinity and doubt of the Sacrament Invocation of Saints Purgatory Images and Ceremonies of the Church as if it were not evident that whosoever divideth faith hath none at all It is not much to the purpose to dispute of Religion after the sweat of Confessours bloud of Martyrs and so many millions of miracles Never would belief be so sick were it not preceded by the death of virtue all will be unhappy for them who loose piety the root of happiness But what repose hath a Catholick who may dying say I trust to God for a gift which The notable assurance of a Catholick cannot proceed but from God I die in the faith of Constantine Theodosius Clodovaeus S. Lewis and so many millions of Saints I go where all the wisest and most entire part of mankind doth go I follow the authoritie of eighteen General Councels wherein all Ages assembled together the wisest men of the world I die in the belief of the Church which is professed throughout all the habitable world The living and the dead The stones and marbles of the Tombs of mine Ancestours speak for me The stars will fall from the Heavens before my faith can be shaken And therefore O Catholicks strike at Heaven That zeal ought to be had towards Religion gate by continual prayer ask of the Father of lights a lively Faith a most sincere zeal towards your Religion suffer not your judgement to change in the massie composition of body plunge it not in sensuality polish it for the great fruition of God entertain it with consideration of his beauty nourish it with antipasts of his glory It onely appertaineth to sensual souls black and distrustfull to suffer themselves to fall into pusillanimities and faintness which lessen the esteem we should have of our vocation towards Christianity It onely appertaineth to carnal spirits and who want faith in the house of faith to set the riches and affairs of the world above Religion But Hoc est sidem in domo fidei non habere Cyprian de mortalitate you O Great-men learn hereafter to value your selves not by these frail and perishable blessings which environ you by that skin which covers you by those false ornaments of life which disguise you by all those beauties which never are nearer ruin than when they most sparkle with lustre Learn to behold all humane things from the top of the Palace of Eternity and you shall see them like rotten pieces which possess a nothing of times infinitie Why do we here entertain our selves with earthly considerations as fire which absented from its sphere is fed with fat and coals Let us open our bosoms to these fair hopes wherewith the Religion we profess sweerly replenisheth our hearts We no longer are pilgrims Ephes 2. and vagabonds nor strangers of the Testaments but Citizens of Saints and the domesticks of God built on the foundation of Apostles and Prophets on the fundamental stone which is Jesus Christ Let us enter into this goodly train of Ages into this admirable fellowship of Patriarchs Martyrs and Virgins Let us hasten to the sources of light and never end but in infinitie The first EXAMPLE upon the first MAXIM Of the esteem one ought to make of his Faith and Religion The PERSIAN CONSTANCY IF the estimation of things eternal do not as yet Drawn out of Theodoret Cassiodorus Epiphanes Theod. l. 5. c. 38. Epiph. Scolasticus Cassiod histor tripart l. 10. c. 32. Baro. tom 5. anno 4201. alii sufficiently penetrate your heart reflect on that which so many valiant Champions have done to preserve a blessing which you presently possess by grace and which you often dis-esteem through ingratitude I will produce one example amongst a thousand able to invite the imitation of the most virtuous and admiration of all the world In the time when Theodosius the younger swayed the Eastern Empire the Persians who had been much gained by the industry of the Emperour Arcadius his father and afterward entertained by his infinite sweetness and courtesie lived in good correspondence of amity with the Christians so that many of our Religion adventured themselves in their Territory some to make a fortune in the Court others for pleasure many for commerce and the rest there to establish true piety Matters of Religion proceeded then very prosperously and the most eminent men of the Kingdom shut up their eyes against the Sun which this Nation adored to open them to the bright Aurora of Christianity But as there are some who never enjoy any thing so there are others who never have enough Some Indiscreet zeal Christians not contented with their progressions which were well worthy of praise thought they lost all out of the desire they had to leave nothing undone Which is the cause I much approve those Ancients Helinandus apud Vincent who placed the images of wisdom over the gates of great houses with this inscription Experience is my Vsns me genuit mother So the wisest and most experienced thought nothing was to be precipated that mean advancements accompanied with safety were more to be valued than great splendours which drew precipices and ruins after them On the contrary young and fiery spirits thrust all upon extremitie supposing their power extended to the measure of their passion Nothing is more dangerous in any affair than when indiscreet fervour takes the mask of zeal or that a feaver of Reason passeth for a virtue All his thoughts are deified his foot-steps sanctified and although nothing be done for God it is said all is for him Bishop Audas a man endowed with great and singular virtues but extreamly ardent and unable to adapt his zeal to the occasion of times needs would countenance the humour of the blind multitude and went Audes destroyeth a Pyraeum Commotions for matters of Religion Others Baranaves or Goronaves Judgement of Theodoret upon this action out in the midst of the day to destroy a Pyraeum which was a Temple wherein the Persians kept fire to adore it Men quickly enflamed in matters of Religion fail not to raise a great sedition which came to the notice of King Ildegerdes Audas is sent for to give an account of this act He defendeth himself with much courage and little success for the Christians benefit for the King turning his proper justification into crime condemns him upon pain of death to re-edifie the Temple he had demolished which he refusing to do was presently sacrificed to the fury of Pagans Theodoret blames him that he unseasonably ruined the Temple and convinceth him by the example of S. Paul who seeing in Athens many Altars dedicated to false God contented himself with refuting the error without making use of the hammer to destroy it as well fore-seeing the time was
honour conferred protesting to be nothing the less pliant to his commands and that the period of his obedience should be the end of his life Constantius fell into such a fury upon this news that he deigned not so much as to see his Embassadour but sent him presently a letter of disclaim which he desired might be read to the Army commanding forthwith to lay down the title of Augustus unless he would leave his life Julian who already had passed the Rubicon hazardeth the business and advanced towards Italie with his troups wherewith the Emperour infinitely irritated made an Oration in the midst of his Army shewing to the souldiers the treason and wickedness of Julian in terms very pressing and saying He went to require a speedy satisfaction well knowing God condemneth the ungrateful Numen perenni suffragio damnat ingratos Death of Constantius with an everlasting judgement Hereupon every one cried out he must needs march on to fight with the traitour and rebel and verily the Emperour hastened thither by great journeys at which time he felt himself seized by a feaver so ardent that he burnt like an oven and was besides so troubled all night with dreams and horrible visions which told him his good Angel had forsaken him and that it was time to leave life and Empire which he did being chastised by God for his cruelty towards Catholicks and by his death left Julian in full possession of all He instantly pulled off the mask and caused the Temples of the gods to be opened persecuting Christians not so much by the bruitishness of Diocletian as with subtile wiles of a wise Politician But behold the invincible force of our Religion Punishmentâ of Julian remarkable and how unhappiness is necessarily tied to all their designs who forsake the true God He was resolved to shut up the name of Christian within a narrow nook of the earth calling us by the name of Galileans But God limiting the enterprizes of this impious man and not confining his own name hath covered with the beams of his own glory and knowledge all the parts of the habitable world and contrariwise the name of this deplorable Prince is ignominious For although Emperours the most bloudy against our religion are named without addition never almost is Julian pronounced but that for a note of eternal infamy the Apostate is added He set out an Edict by which he deprived Christians of the knowledge of letters Yet God hath permitted millions of Writers to spring up in Christianity whilest other superstitions as Judaism Gentilism and Mahometism being now fallen into extream ignorance there is none but Christianism the mother of sciences and mistress of mankind He resolved to re-edifie the temple of Jerusalem and having given the commission thereof to Alipius bals of fire were seen to issue from the foundations as fast as they laid them which made the design as frivolous as the place was inaccessible He extreamly affected honour yet change of religion made him so contemptible that the most abject people mocked at him saying he must shave his beard to make halters and that he spent so much in sacrifices that he would unfurnish the world of sheep and oxen He sought to give himself authority yet were his laws spiders webs continually broken by his subjects In the end to imitate Alexander he would undertake a war against the Persians but after infinite many toils he was there strucken by a blow from Heaven which quickly concluded his life and shut up his mouth by the blasphemy we have heard when filling his hand with bloud which distilled from his body he threw it against heaven and said Thou O Galilean hast vanquished This miserable Prince who thought by the help of his false Gods to command the waves of the sea and to walk upon Stars being pulled from the Empire at the age of thirty and one year and the first of his reign was carried on a beer as a sad spectacle for all those who adored his fortune His death was waited on by the bone fires of Persians and joy of Christians whose chains this day were dissolved his memory was buried in execrations and horrours nor were there any yea of pens the most sacred who had not gall for him so true it proves that a man who hath defiled his sanctification and sets Jesus aside findeth hell every where as in all things he sought to oppose the Divinity VIII MAXIM Of the Perfections of JESUS which make him amiable THE PROPHANE COURT THE HOLY COURT That we should love things visible not troubling our selves with invisible That all love is due to Jesus Christ by reason of his incomparable excellencies ALl the greatest evils in the world do ordinarily proceed from the ill manage of love which exceeding the limits prescribed by God causeth every where a deluge to occasion afterward disasters Sensual men perswade themselves one cannot love but by the eyes And verily they are those who according to the saying of Clemens Alexandrinus begin the skirmish in all the battels of worldly love And if ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Clem. Alex. Nutibus oculorum ibant Isaiah 3. 16. Baseness of worldly loves Astomorum Gens vestita frondium lanugine halitu tantum vivens we follow the opinion of the Prophet Isaiah we shall term them The feet of the heart since by them it goeth to objects of bodies to which it inclines But O good God how wretched are these loves of things visible since they idolatrize a little skin and resemble the people called Astomes who are clothed with leaves and live on smoke The carnal man who daily crucifieth himself upon so many crosses as he entertaineth thoughts for the creature he loveth is taken by the eye with a little exteriour skin called by the Physitians Epidermis Pull that a way from this body which gives him so many martyrdoms he would think that a monster he now adoreth for a Goddess Is not this a strange weakness of judgement and must we not confess the eyes so enflamed in their pursuits are very scanty in their fruition reserving to themselves no other object than thin colours which put upon them so many illusions to occasion so many flames I hold every judicious man will be enforced Love of invisible things most penetrating through the sole consideration of nature to affirm the most noble loves yea the greatest are employed on things invisible For behold a woman who with a most lively and fervent affection loved her husband be he taken away and carried to a tomb in the flower of his age and greatest splendour of his fortune she presently becomes passionate at it more through necessity than election It is not to speak truly the body she loveth for should that be left to her discretion it would in a short time become insupportable What is it then she esteemed most in this person The spirit which imprinted the character of its beauty and vigour upon this
and never to serve God but with a shoulder yea with all manner of hypocrisie I wish thou wert hot or cold but insomuch as thou art Vtinam frigidus esses aut calidus sed quia teyidus es nec frigidus nec calidus incipiam te âvomere ex âre meo Apoc. 3. luke-warm being neither âot nor cold I will vomit thee out of my mouth To all objections of Scripture and Saints framed against this Maxim we have but one onely answer It is the world we cannot live otherwise the goat must brouze where he is tied He who would live as an honest man and not be according to the fashion shall ever be poor Reason 4 To which I answer It is so far otherwise that Benedictio Domini divites facit nec sociabitur eis afflictio Proverb 10. one cannot be rich persisting in integrity that who will well examine families and houses shall find riches the most stable most honourable and delightfull were ever on virtues side as we may see in the examples of Abraham Jacob and David if we will not learn it by our own experience The blessing of God make the rich and drives affliction from them But quite contrary the fortunes which proceed by crooked and sinister ways bring most dangerous effects along with them for before their coming they cause toyls and unspeakable anxieties but being arrived they expose a man to publick scorn in stead of making him worthy of regard since they insensibly are consummate and in the end always reserve to him who possesseth them treasures of anger and vengeance Would you see the proof of all I have said Look on the travel bestowed in purchase of ill gotten goods and you shall find it was for that the Saviour of the world called riches thorns because thorns bear a fragrant flower but the fruit is very bad and which is more they serve for a retreat to vipers A silly gain which in the beginning smiles to the eye is the flower of the thorn but when it is swallowed with great convussion of mind and body it proves an ill fruit as likewise being involved in an impure conscience it is as the viper among thorns Will you therein observe publick scoâh and indignation When you behold a man of base condition Simon Majolus who by unlawfull ways is come to great for ââmes he is looked on as the flea which an artificer fettered with a chain of gold to make matter for gazers O the flea said one it is well for her she wears a golden chain the basest of vermine bears the best of mettals Is she not very miserable to have her liberty so enthralled Why was she not content to be a flea and not to become a Ladie Yet was this silly creature innocent but whosoever excessively raiseth his estate by injustice deserves he not well to be the object of all the aims of slander and the anger of God Our Lord saith the Scripture shall wither Radices superbarum gentium arefaciet Dominuâ Eccles 10. Residuum locustae comedit bruchus residium bruchi comedit erugo Joel 1. Plin. lib. 2. cap. 103. up the roots of proud Nations Will you see the progression and conclusion thereof The Grashopper according to the saying of the Prophet Joel hath a share herein to wit in bravery and riot of apparrel the other part falls to the gluttonous flie which is the superfluity of diet and the last is eaten by rust as are unprofitable treasures of the covetous who almost all resemble the fountain of Jupiter Hammon so cold in the day time one cannot drink of it and so hot by night they dare not touch it In the day of prosperity they have bowels of ice for the miseries of the poor and in adversity their goods are all on fire pillaged burnt and carried away by those who least deserve to enjoy them Finally the day of Judgement must be undergone to expiate many times by long torments the goods we can no longer enjoy Do we not understand how the God of vengeance speaks to the rich of the earth who are rich in iniquity To thee I come thee great Ezech. 29. Ecce ego ad te Draco magne qui cubas in medio fluminum dicis meus est sluvius ponam frââum in maxillis tuis agglutinabo pisces fluminum tuorum squammis tuis extraham te projiciam te in desertum Dragon who lodgest in the midst of rivers of gold and silver and sayest These rivers are mine I will put a bridle into thy mouth and will fasten to thy scales so many little fishes as thou on every side hast entrapped by so many injustices so many concussions so many falshoods and I will take thee out of thy element out of thy honours and riches which thou hast abused and I will thrust thee into the desert on the sand reproachfull as thou art faint and despoiled nor shall any man compassionate thy misery Oh how poor are they always who are rich with iniquitie (a) (a) (a) Against too much horrour of poverty which nourisheth the fervour of interests But what if serving God faithfully in his vocation Reason 5 he must be poor O poverty which didst receive the Son of God born as between thine arms in a wretched stable and who sawest him conclude his innocent life in so great nakedness that it had no other veil to cover it but the bloud which gushed from his wounds must it needs be that having been so much honoured by the King of Monarchs and all Saints who waited on him thou here below shouldst be reputed as the dregs of nature the scum of the world the fury of humane life must Christians come to that pass rather to desire to be esteemed crafty robbers and excommunicates than poor No man Nemâ tam pauper potest esse quà m natus est omnia si non concupiscimus possidemus Minut. Faelix saith Minutius Faelix how poor soever comes to the poverty wherein he is born we should possess all had we learned to desire nothing but the rage now a days frequent to appear in the world what one is not the madness which maketh frogs desire to swell like bulls is the cause many stile a reasonable fortune with the title of poverty whilest a thousand and a thousand who live in the world in the midst of extream miseries had they hit upon thy fortune would think them elves equal in point of felicity to Caesars One esteems himself poor if he have not thirty fourty fifty thousand crowns to buy an Office which is a fearfull exorbitance of our Age. One accounts himself poor if he have not five and twenty thousand crowns to give with a daughter in marriage when the daughters of France had not heretofore above six thousand One imagineth he is poor if vails of an Office make not thirty or fourty thousand livres of rent when the Chancellours of
the tongue From thence it cometh to pass that children are framed to this exercise almost from their cradle Women yea they who make account to refine in devotion keep now adays shops of counterfeiting the Dissimulation reigneth every where great-ones think it is their trade the mean who are as their shadows take the same course The world becomes a Theater of fictions where truth hath much ado to be known so many false visages are put upon it To speak truly one would say the earth had changed its nature and were now become a Sea where the simple like poor creeping worms are abandoned to the malice of the most subtile It was a worthy speech of the Prophet who said to God Alas Lord have you then made so many mortals like silly Habac. 1. 14. Facies homines quasi pisces maris quasi reptiles fishes and wretched worms which have no government Deceit hath sowed its subtilities every where it hath every where spred nets and snares and never ceaseth to drive take and entrap and it seems would catch the whole world with its book It rejoyceth at its own crime as if it were a virtue and maketh sacrifices with the instruments of mischief It judgeth of happiness by the multitude of preys and acknowledgeth no other God but it s own good fortune 2. Now as for you who are perswaded in this Maxim that to prosper in conversation with men and affairs of the world necessarily the foxe's skin must be put on simplicity being too sottish and disarmed to bear any sway in humane life I pray at leisure 1. Reason against counterfeiting the blemish of truth consider some reasons which I intend to present and rather weigh them in the ballance of judgement than of Passion First know that in the instant you resolve to be crafty to be a lier a deceiver you proclaim war against a great Divinity which will follow you step by step all your life time which will discover you when you shall not know it even to the bottom of your thoughts which will overthrow all your pernicious intentions and hold the sword of God's vengeance over your head even to the gates of hell This puissant adversary against whom you undertake The power of truth resistance if you as yet know it not is truth the most ancient and admirable of all virtues which hath ever been and which shall never end nay could you make your thoughts penetrate into an abyss of time and could you flie through ten millions of Ages there should you find truth But if you say it was not before Heaven and earth and that in pronouncing this word you had some reason which cannot be at the least denying verity and speaking truth yet must you find truth so necessary is its being It runs through time saith S. Augustine not August l. 2. de liber arb Non peragitur tempore non migrat locis nec nocte intereipitut nec uâbra includitur nec sensibus corporis subjacet omnibus proxima omnibus sempiterns c. being under the laws of time it passeth through all and shifteth not place it is hidden in night not obscured by night it is in the shadow not shut up in shadows it is not subject to sense since it swayeth over understandings It is always near us nay let us rather say It is within us or we live in it and although it do not occupie place it possesseth all place in its Empire It exteriourly giveth notice it appeareth inwardly it turneth all into the better and is not changed by any into worse Of it unless belied one cannot think ill and without it unless by flattery of self presumption we cannot enough discern What then shall we say more since God himself is Truth verity of Essence verity of Reason verity of Speech as Theologie teacheth us All virtues are truly for him but he is not called by their names as he is by the title of truth (a) (a) (a) Ego sum via veritas vita Joan. 14. 10. It is the apple of his eye his heart his solace his delight his power his wisdom his throne and dignity All what God is is nothing but verity It penetrateh all virtues as fire and light do all the parts of the world There is not any thing so victorious or triumphant in all greatness for it never ceased since the beginning of the world to crush heads which rebel against light It hath untwisted so many webs scattered so many wyles overthrown so maÌy lies brought to nothing so many sects destroyed so many humane powers trampled under foot so many dragons And you who pretend to be the cunning and refined spirits of the time renounce it you take up arms against it and are not afraid of it you think to avoid it but it will avoid you and the first of your afflictions shall be to loose sight of it O my God what a bold enterprize is it to draw a strong adversary upon us and to provoke thy justice when we may enjoy thy Clemency Remember you the son of Cyrus who closely attempted A notable Act or a King of Aethiopa Herod l. 3. on Aethiopia with his arms and prepared to make war against it But the King thereof to stay him was pleased to send him his bowe and caused to be said unto him Adbunc venus that is you come against the Master of this bowe He was so amazed at the sight of this armory that he surceased from the temerity of his counsels to provide for the safety of his person Now had you seen the arms of truth which from so many Ages have quailed so many monsters and gained so many victories you would fear to contest with such a Princess She will never forsake you if you renounce untruth and if you do it not on earth you will be enforced to do it in hell Hyppocrates gave the eyes of a star to truth but should Hippoc. ep 10. he have seen her face more uncovered he had said it was a Sun which illuminateth by its light animateth the best spirits by its vivacity as it dissipateth the mists of lies by virtue 3. Besides not content with this when you in this Reason 2 manner undertake discourses of silk and promises of Dissimulation ruineth humane faith wind to reveal a secret to lay snares for the simplicity of a man to satisfie yovr passion or serve your ends you commit another crime most pernicious to humane society for you seek by these sleights to ruin all belief and fidelity The Ancients made so much account of humane saith which is constancy and stedfastness of words consonant to the heart and performance of promises that the Romans placed it in their Capitol close by the side of their prime Divinity and one of their Poets durst say Faith was Excellency of fidelity Cato Censorius Silius Ante Jovem generatum est tantum in pectore Numen before Jupiter
alive as one of yours forget me not after death I ask no part of your great riches but onely your prayers and some alms for my sake which will much assist to mitigate my pains My Mistress oweth me about eight franks upon a reckoning between her and me let her bestow it not for my body which hath no need of it but the comfort of my soul which expecteth it from your charities I know not how I found my self emboldened by these speeches but I had more desire to enterain it than fear of the apparition I demanded whether it could tell me news of one of my countrey-men named Peter Dejaca who died a while since To which he made answer I need not trouble my self with it for he was already in the number of the blessed since the great alms he gave in the last famine had purchased heaven for him From thence I fell upon another question and was curious to know what had happened to a certain Judge whom I very well knew and who lately passed into the other life To which he replied Sir speak not of that miserable man for hell possesseth him through the corruption of justice which he by damnable practice exercised having an honour and soul saleable to the prejudice of his conscience My curiosity carried me higher to enquire what became of King Alphonsus the Great at which time I heard another voice that came from a window behind me saying very distinctly It is not of Sancius you must demand that because he as yet can say nothing to the state of that Prince but I may have more experience thereof than he I deceasing five years ago and being present in an accident which gave me some light of it I was much surprized unexpectedly hearing this other voice and turning saw by the help of the Moons brightness which reflected into my chamber a man leaning on my window whom I intreated to tell me where then King Alphonsus was Whereto he replied he well knew that passing out of this life he had been much tormented and that the prayers of good religious men much helped him but he could not at this present say in what state he was Having spoken thus much he turned towards Sancius sitting neer the fire and said Let us go it is time we depart At which Sancius making no other answer speedily rose up and redoubled his complaints with a lamentable voice saying Sir I intreat you once again remember me and that my Mistress perform the request I made you The next day Engelbert understood from his wife what the spirit told him and with all observation disposed himself speedily and charitably to satisfie all was required What may we infer upon this but S. Augustine's conclusion which he left in a book of care for the dead fifteenth Chapter Holy Scriptures witness that the dead are sometimes sent to living men as on the contrarie S. Paul amongst the living was lifted up to heaven As we ordinarily know not what becomes of the persons of the dead so we must confess the dead know not all is done in the world at the time it is done but they afterwards learn it from those who pass out of this life into the other and converse with them Yet they understand not all sorts of affairs but those which may be told them and such as are permitted to remain in their memories that recount them to souls who must know them Angels who are present to actions here beneath may also discover to the dead what the Sovereign Arbiter to whom all things are subjected shall appoint to come to the knowledge of the one or other XVIII MAXIM Of Eternal unhappiness THE PROPHANE COURT THE HOLY COURT That we cannot be miserable when we are no more That the wicked being no more for this present life are everlasting for the pains of the damned THat there is an inevitable judgement of Belief of a judgement most general God for the damned fire darkness eternal prisons O Libertine and prophane soul is not a proposition needs to be proved by many reasons and arguments It is the subject of all books the discourse of all tongues the confession of all people the great voice of nature which forgetfulness cannot obliterate Naturâ pleraque suggeruntur quasi de publico sensu Tertul. de animâ impiety extinguish nor an evil conscience take away The Hebrews Grecians Latins Chaldeans Persians Arabians Abissines Affricans Indians and not speaking of others all Nations most remote from our region most savage in manners most strange in customs have believed proclaimed protested do believe proclaim and protest this through all Ages and although different in condition all notwithstanding agree in the faith of a living God who knoweth seeth judgeth of the good and bad deeds of this life ordaineth rewards for virtue and punishments for vice It is the order of God who governeth the world The order of God with two hands which are justice and mercie If you take away one of them you maim him It is the condition of humane and Divine things where contraries are ever counter-ballanced by contraries say Notable speech of S. Thomas S. Thom. opus 63. Non est infernus peior coelo Sicut coelum syderibus sic infernus damnatis ornabitur The opinion of Philosophers ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Trismegist in Pimandro Cle. Alex. strom 5. Philosophers If there be a Paradise for virtues there must be a hell for crimes No less doth hell contribute to publish Gods omnipotencie than Paradise As heaven is furnished with stars hell shall be with the damned and the justice of the Sovereign will no less appear in the condemnation of the culpable than in the defence of innocents I knew not what made Doctour Tostatus say that Plato placed hell in the sphere of Mars since he very well mentions it in the concave of abysses in his Phedon Trismegistus in Pymander omitted not to speak of avenging flames due to impiety The Stoicks treat among their secrets of the general fiering of the world as witnesseth Clemens Alexandrinus in his stromata And other Philosophers according to Tertullian speak of secret fire which must serve as an instrument of Gods vengeance The most stupid have seen it the most insolent have frownd at it and the most forlorn are astonished with it And verily it is a hydeous thing to behold onely on paper what the Authour of the cardinal works of Jesus Christ writeth To burn in flames which wast not Inconsumptibilibus flammis corpus allambentibus ardere in proprio adipe frixâs libidines bullire c. How the fire of hell burneth nor shall ever be consumed to be scorched through the whole body with remediless fires to be broiled alive in his own grease and broiled with stains of his impurities not to be taken off To see nothing but pits of fire and flaming furnaces without ease relaxation remedy change or diminution of sentence Notwithstanding O
Libertine thou dost ask how this material fire burneth spiritual souls It is one of the most unfortunate sciences not to understand hell but by proper experience to dispute the activity of a fire as true as the mouth of God and unfaithfully deny on earth what must everlastingly be learned under earth Algazel the Arabian Avicen said a damned soul suffers no other pain but the object of its eternal perdition Algazel and Avicen behold two goodly Authours to oppose the wisdom of the eternal word I am of opinion we learn from devils how to believe in God and derive our Theology from the lips of the wicked and our belief from infidelity as if one should prostitute a Vestal to a lost man Alas wretched spirit how worthy art thou of compassion when not satisfied to play the Epicure in thy manners thou wilt divide thy Libertinism with Philosophy If this discourse which ought to be dedicated to holy horrour of Gods judgements Gulielm Paris de universo did permit farther question one might shew with the great Bishop of Paris that a damned soul kept in a prison of fire retains all the same senses as if it were with the bodie in the middest of flames since we feel in this life such vivacity onely from the imagination that it in us produceth the same effects which the presence of objects doth And this Doctour witnesseth he hath seen and known men who needed no other purgation but the sight of a medecine But if the sole idea do thus what will the real impression of fire work upon a soul which raised by the Divine power above its ordinarie force leaves a form and a character as if a hot-iron were stamped on the flesh We might deduce with S. Thomas Turrecremata Cajetan Isolam and Ocham all the exquisite dolours of a soul that feeleth it self imprisoned as in a cage of fire and stormeth seeing it self not onely deprived of sweet liberty but tormented by an imperious element destined by God for its punishment by extraordinary ways by a suppliment of the antipathy of senses and which shamefully wrack it as if a person of eminent quality were insolently abused by some slave come from the Moors or Arabia We should likewise set before you with other Divines See S. August 21. Citie of God S. Gregory in the 4. of his dialogues S. Thomas contra Gentes l. 4. c. 90. Suar. part 3. and the R. P. Theophilus Raynaud in his natural Theology where this question is excellently handled the quality of a prodigious deformity caused by fire raised above its condition which extreamly afflicteth an immortal spirit then especially when it understands the excellent gifts wherewith God had endowed it the favours and glories it might pretend unto this most blessed eternity One might say with many other modern Doctours that the soul being the root of sensitive qualities is no less tormented by objects dissenting from sense than as if sense were present and hath a spiritual sense by the help of which it trieth and feeleth the fire with an experimental knowledge wholly like the action of sense All these opinions might be argued with many instancies and reasons but it being not according to the scope of this design I say in one word with S. Gregory the Great There is made in the soul from a visible fire a heat and an invisible pain It is true the soul separated from the body hath not a natural antipathy and disagreement from fire but what this imperious element cannot have remaining within the limits of nature it obtaineth by a particular ordinance and disposition of God who chooseth and expresly deputeth it to serve him as an instrument and a sign in this action and to be as an eternal messenger of his anger against a damned soul Now as the Sovereign Judge of the world gave life to Cain for a punishment so according to S. Ambrose he engraved by the same means a disastrous mark on his person which continually set before the eyes of this fratricide the image of his crime and the Divine justice In such manner that oftentimes turmoyled during life in the miseries and confusions of his bruitish spirit so soon as he represented to himself this sign he acknowledged the decree of God who prolonged his life to lengthen his calamities So this Divine hand Omnipotent in its effects imprinteth fire on a damned soul as the true token of his justice the character of his anger the centinel and executioner of his eternal will who beareth the face of an incensed God with all his decrees in his own flames who presseth and lieth heavy on this miserable thing separated from the sight of God and resigned through an eternal malediction to the life of divels 2. Thou must here understand O Reader this Foundation of the eternity of the pains of the damned truth touching the eternity of the pains of the damned confirmed by express texts of holy Scripture and the decision of the universal Church and by all Ages is grounded upon the justice of God ever to be adored by our wills although impenetrable to the weakness of our understanding and for confirmation hereof I think we should not omit the reasons of S. Gregory S. Bernard and S. Thomas before we produce that which to me seems the most formal for although they are not all necessarie in their conclusions yet they fail not to furnish us with much light and to give matter of true piety which is the butt whereat we aim in this discourse You O sinner demand why is a deadly sin strucken and punished with an eternal pain I answer you first with S. Gregory 1. Reason of S. Gregory the Great that if an eternal malice be proved in sin justice by all reasonable ways requireth the chastizement of it to be eternal for an eternity of crimes Non transeunt opera nostra ut videantur sed temporalia quaeque velut aeternitatis semina jaciuntur must be counterballanced with an eternity of miseries Now sin in some sort is eternal and in some manner extends beyond our life which alone is capable of merit or demerit For tell me those stones and kernels of pomegranades and apple-trees and all other trees created in the first week of the world were they temporary or eternal Temporary you will say for they fell before the tree And yet behold they propagate to our time and live in as many trees as there are of their kind on earth for these five thousand years or thereabouts The like is it with the actions you do at this present For they seem to pass in a moment yet are they so many seeds of eternity Reader understand well what I say behold here a secret wherewith daily to acquire a rich treasure of merits make me all your virtues as eternal by the sincerity of your intentions as they in effect are such in their consequence When you do a good work be it prayer alms
is when men of quality who affect the reputation of being judicious prostitute their wits to these gods of straw and dung and for the tuneable cadence of a rime loose all harmonies of faith and conscience All hereticks who make boast to assail the Church Their ignorance for so many Ages have likewise made a shew to bring with them into this combat some recommendable qualities Some came with points of logick other with knowledge of things natural other with eloquence some vaunted profoundness in Scriptures the rest to be versed in the reading of Councels and holy Fathers They who have had no excellent thing in them have brought an austere countenance and semblance of moral virtues But such kind of men have nothing but ignorance with bruitishness but scoffing sycophancy but language and the wind of infamous words How can it then become them to talk of the Bible and to argue upon holy Scripture and the mysteries of our Religions Shut up your ears against these Questions if you be unable to stop their mouthes Is it handsom think you to see a wretched and infamous Tertul. l. 2. advers Marc. c. 2 Censores divinitatis dicentes sic non debuit Deus sic magis debuit c. Tert. de praescript contra haeres l. 1. fellow to make himself the censurer of Divinity and correctour of Scripture God should have done this and that in such and such a fashion say they as if any one knew what is in God but the spirit of God himself who is never so great as when he appeareth little to humane understanding There is but one word saith Tertullian to determine all disputations with such kind of men do but ask them whether they be Christians whether they renounce their Baptism and Christianitie If so let them wear the turbant or go into the Countrey of God-makers and Gentiles But if they make profession of one same Christ and one same Religion with us why do they bely their profession by the impudence of their unbridled speeches Faith saith S. Zeno is not faith when it is sought S. Zeno serm de fide Non est fides ubi quaritur fides Tertul. Nobis curiositate opus non est post Christum nec inquisitione post Evangelium We stand not in need of curiosity after Jesus Christ nor to search for the Gospel said S. Cyprians great Master Should an Angel from Heaven speak unto us we are to change nothing in our belief We have betaken us to the side of truth we have a law which the Word declared unto us which ten millions of Martyrs have signed with their bloud which the best part of mankind professeth the wisest heads of the world have illustrated by the light of their writings To whom would we abandon it To a caytive spirit which hath nothing great in it but sin nothing specious but illusion nothing undoubted but the loss of salvation Effects of Libertinism and punishment of the Impious 5. THe neglect of God is the root of all wickedness nor can there be any thing entire in a soul despoiled of the fear of God Impiety causeth most pernicious effects in States First for that it maketh havock of all good manners leaving not one spark of virtue Secondly in that it draweth on the inevitable vengeance of God upon Kingdoms and Common-wealths which suffer this monster to strengthen it self to their prejudice Philo in the Book he made that no salary of an unchast The table of Philo of the manners of Libertines woman should be received in the Sanctuary very wisely concluded when he shewed that he who is a Libertine and voluptuous having no other aim in the world but the contentments of nature is unavoidably engaged to all manner of vice He becomes saith he bold deceitfull irregular unsociable troublesom chollerick opiniative disobedient malicious unjust ungratefull ignorant treacherous giddie inconstant scornfull dishonest cruel infamous arrogant insatiable wise in his own judgement lives for himself and is unwilling to please any but himself one while profuse presently covetous a calumniatour an impostour insensible rebellious guilfull pernicious froward unmannerly uncivil a great talker loud vaunter insolent disdainfull proud quarrelsom bitter seditious refractory effeminate and above all a great lover of himself Nay he goes further upon the like epithets very judiciously and sheweth us the seeds of all evils spring from this cursed liberty Now I leave you to judge if according to the saying Tunishments of God upon Libertinism of Machiavel himself the means quickly to ruin an estate be to fill it with evil manners who sees not that Libertinism drawing along with it all this great train of vices of corruptions tendeth directly unto the utter desolation of Empires But beside there have been observed in all Ages hydeous punishments from God caused by impiety over Cities Provinces Kingdoms and Common-wealths which have bred these disorders And that you may be the better satisfied upon this point I have at this time onely two considerations to present unto you drawn from two models In the first you shall see God 's justice exercised before the Incarnation upon the sins of infidelity and irreverence towards sacred things In the second you shall behold the rough chastisements of those who after the Incarnation lifted themselves up against the worlds Saviour When God was pleased to correct the infamous Balaam who was a Patriarch of atheists and wicked ones he commanded not an Angel to speak unto him because he was a Doctour much unsuitable to a carnal spirit but he raised a she-ass to instruct him in so much as he was become worse than a beast It is likewise loss of time to deal with Libertines by proofs derived from Schools or from the invention of sciences Men as bruitish as themselves must be made to speak to them who will put them in mind of the way they have held and the salary they have received of their impieties First I establish this Maxim for such either who are not yet hardened or are too yielding and consenting to evil company that there are not any sins which God hath so suddenly and more exemplary punished than such as were committed against Religion The Prophet Ezechiel a captive in Babylon under King Nebuchadnezzar discovered among tempests and flames that marvellous chariot which hath served for matter of question to all curious digladiation for the learned and admiration for all Ages I say the great S. Justine Martyr touched the sense very near when he said S. Iustin in Epist ad Orthodox q. 44. An observation upon the chariot of Ezechiel that in four figures whereof the one was of an ox the other of a man the third of an Eagle the fourth of a Lion God signified the divers chastisements he would exercise upon King Nebuchadnezzar in that from a reasonable man he should become bruitish eating grass as an ox and that his hair should grow as the shag of a
As soon as you have received the Sacrament say this prayer of S. Bernard in his Meditations upon the Passion O Heavenly Father look down from thy Sanctuary from the Throne of thy glory upon the blessed sacrifice which our High Priest Jesus thy most innocent and sacred Son doth offer unto thee for the sins of his Brethren Pardon the multitude of our offences and have compassion upon our miseries Hearken to the voice of the bloud of that immaculate Lamb which crieth out to thee and he himself standeth before thee at the right hand of thy Majestie crowned with honour and glory Behold O Lord the face of thy Messias who hath been obedient to thee even unto death and put not his blessed wounds out of thy sight nor the satisfaction he made for our sins out of thy rememberance O let every tongue praise and bless thee in commemoration of thy infinite goodness who didst deliver thy onely Son over to death upon Earth to make him our most prevalent Advocate in Heaven For Petition Immediately after you have recited the Lords Prayer say these words of the aforesaid Liturgie O God be mindfull of all Pastours and faithfull people dwelling in all parts of the habitable world in the union of the Catholick Faith and preserve them in thy holy peace O God bless our most gracious King and his whole Kingdom hear the prayers which we offer up at thy Altar O God remember all those that travel by sea or land and are exposed to so many dreadfull dangers Remember the many poor prisoners and exiles who groan under the miseries of the world O God remember the sick and all such as are in any discomfort of mind Remember the many poor souls opprest with bitterness who implore thy succour Remember also the conversion of so many Hereticks Infidels and sinners whom thou hast created after thine own image O God remember our Friends and Benefactours Accept this sacrifice for us sinners and let us all feel the effects of thy Mercy drive away scandal war and heresie and grant us thy peace and love And at the end of the Communion O God pour down thy graces upon us direct our steps in thy ways strengthen us in thy fear confirm us in thy love and give us at last the inheritance of thy children It is very expedient also to have our devotions ordered for every day of the week The seventeenth SECTION Devotion ordered for the days of the Week WE may derive an excellent practise of Devotion for every day of the Week from the Hymn of S. Ambrose used by the Church For therein we learn to give God thanks for every work of the Creation and to make the greater world correspond with the lesser Sunday which is the day wherein the light was created we should render thanks to God for having produced this temporal light which is the smile of Heaven and joy of the world spreading it like cloth of gold over the face of the air and earth and lighting it as a torch by which we might behold his works Then penetrating further we will give him thanks for having afforded us his Son called by the Fathers The Day-bringer to communicate unto us the great light of faith which is as saith S. Bernard a Copy of Eternity we will humbly beseech him that this light may never be eclipsed in our understandings but may replenish us every day more and more with the knowledge of his blessed will And for this purpose we must hear the word of God and be present at Divine Service with all fervour and purity Take great heed that you stain not this day which God hath set apart for himself with any disorder nor give the first fruits of the week to Dagon which you should offer up at the feet of the Ark of the Covenant Munday which is the day wherein the Firmanent was created to separate the celestial waters from the inferiour and terrestrial we will represent unto our selves that God hath given us Reason as a Firmament to separate divine cogitations from animal and we will pray unto him to mortifie anger and concupiscence in us and to grant us absolute sway over all passions which resist the eternal Law Thesday the day wherein the waters which before covered the whole element of Earth were ranked in their place and the earth appeared to become the dwelling nurse and grave of man we will figure unto our selves the great work of the justification of the world done by the Incarnate Word who took away a great heap of obstacâes as well of ignorance as of sin that covered the face of the whole world and made a Church which like a holy Land appears laden with fruit and beauties to raise us up in Faith and to bury us in the hope of the Resurrection We will beseech him to take away all hinderances to our soul so many ignorances sins imperfections fears sorrows cares which detain it as in an abyss and to replenish us with the fruits of justice Wednesday wherein the Sun Moon and Stars were created we will propose unto our selves for object the Beauty and Excellency of the Church of God adorned with the presence of the Saviour of the world as with a Sun and with so many Saints as with Stars of the Firmament and we will humbly beseech God to embellish our soul with light and virtue suitable to its condition Especially to give us the six qualities of the Sun Greatness Beauty Measure Feâvour Readiness and Fruitfulness Greatness in the elevation of our mind above all created things and in a capacity of heart which can never be filled with any thing but God Beauty in gifts of grace Measure to limit our passions Fervour in the exercise of charity Readiness in the obedience we ow to his Law Fruitfulness in bringing forth good works Toursday the day wherein God as S. Ambrose saith drew the birds and fishes out of the waters the birds to flie in the air and the fishes to dwell in this lower Element We will imagine the great separation which shall be made at the day of Gods judgement when so vast a number of men extracted from one and the same mass some shall be raised on high to people Heaven and enjoy the sight of God others shall be made a prey to hell and everlasting torments And in this great abyss and horrour of thought we will beseech God to hold us in the number of his elect and to be pleased to mark out our predestination in our good and commendable actions Friday wherein the other creatures were brought forth and man created who was then appointed to them for a King and Governour we will set before us the greatness excellency and beauty of this Man in the Talents which God hath given him as well of grace as of nature How much it cost to make him the hands of the Creatour being employed in his production Hands saith S. Basil which were to him as a
worshipped but the belly luxury gaming and uncleanness Many make walks and races wherein none can run far without stumbling for they resemble the list of Atalanta and Hippomenes rather than the race where S. Paul exhorted Christians to run there the sences flattered with a thousand delightfull objects many times put themselves in array there the bloud is enflamed the tongue untied concupiscence enkindled there licentiousness often rendeth the vail which until then was over the face of modesty and impudently becomes portress to love These are the sacriledges which drie up years breed disorder amongst seasons barrenness in the bowels of the earth and despair in our miseries The seventh SECTION The four conditions of recreation YOur recreation must have four especial things choise of persons good intention innocency moderation Choise of persons in avoiding evil company as the most dangerous shelf of life for the friendship of wicked men is like a bundle of thorns tied together to burn and crackle in the fire Your friendship must be virtuous faithful disinterested if you mean to have any fruits of it Good intention as to cherish health and strength that they may serve the soul for a good man should seek good even in play and at meals like the saint who rose in the night and fed with a poor hungry brother that he might not be ashamed of eating at a disorderly hour Innocency for much consideration must be used therein lest nature should dissolve into bruitish life un worthy a generous heart Behind comes gluttony intemperate gaming foolish jesting and detraction in this age hard to be avoided The book most ordinary in companies of men is man himself Now very few take delight to disourse of the Old and New Testament nay not so much as of the old Roman Councels Aegyptian Pyramids or ancient wars of Caesars Men study books of the time talk of garbs clothes looks conditions business customs alliances and though we have no intent to wrong any yet is it very easie in such variety of discourse to let fall many words of far less value than silence it is an excellent quality to still good matter into company either upon accasion by question consequence narration or proposition as the reverend Jaquinot observes in his Address Moderation For as the wise man saith Prov. 25. 16. We glut our selves with hony so ought we to have a care that recreations made to refresh the mind tend not by excess to dissoluteness You must observe what the time place and persons require and to pass the time must not exceed your self by profuseness The eighth SECTION Of vicious conversation and first of impertinent THe Hebrews say play anger the cup and conversation are the windows of the soul through which she is many times seen more than she would be he is wise who makes use of meetings and company as of a file to polish his mind and to make it continually more apt for its functions Vicious conversation may be reduced almost to three heads that is impertinent vain evil Impertinent as the clownish foolish troublesom which many have through want of discretion fashion and civility Theophrastus one of the quaintest wits of antiquity relateth some passages which he saith he observed in his time arguing a great weakness of judgement some saith he lay hold on one that is going about business of concernment to tell him something as they pretend of great importance which when told is nothing but foolery Others invite a travellour newly come out of the countrey very weary to walk up and down others pull a man out of a ship ready to weigh anchor to entertain him with follies on the shore others come to bear witness after the cause is judged and bring with much sweat a Pphysitian to the dead others pretend to know the way and undertake to lead the rest but go wrong at the very first and protest they have forgot it Others make rude enquiry into business and ask a General of an Army whither he goes and what is his design Some also there are saith he so rustick that not admitting any thing worth admiration in civil life they stand still to look upon an ox as men in rapture and in company have no better behaviour than to take their dog by the muzzle and say what a fine dog this is well he keeps the house Such conversation is able greatly to vilifie a man and to take from him all estimation he can gain in his profession The ninth SECTION Of vain conversation VAin conversation is that of talkers flatterers vain-glorious and the like poor Theophrastus in my opinion was much tormented with a talker since he so well describeth one who with much passion praised his wife told what he dreamed the last night what he had to dinner that he had a weakness of stomack From thence taking flight he discoursed of times and assured him the men of ours came not near the ancients in any thing Then he told him that corn was cheap that there were many strangers in the city that if it would rain the year would be fruitfull that he had a field to be ploughed that Damippus gave the greatest wax light at an offering that there were so many stairs in such a building that he had counted them with a thousand of the like Such people adds the Author are more to be feared than a feaver He that would live in quiet must seldom keep them company Horace mentions one very like who put him into a great sweat and when he saw he was so tired that he knew not which way to turn himself I see Sir saith he that I am troublesom but there is no remedy since I have met with you I must needs wait on you for God be thanked I have nothing else to do Flatterers are much more acceptable though many times more dangerous for they will tell you that all the world cast their eyes upon you that you are much esteemed that the whole town talks of such a fortunate action of yours that you have an excellent wit a handsom body a good grace winning behaviour that every thing becomes you and that it seems Nature when she had made you broke her mold because she never since framed the like If you speak they bid silence to all the world then extol your words as oracles and if you jest at any they burst with laughter to please you and deifie your imperfections This is that which poysons freindship and blinds humane life The Vain-glorious will for the most part entertain you with commendations of themselves and have a thousand petty singularities in their carriage their attire their speech their houses their attendants to shew that they have something more than others The aforesaid Authour saith he hath observed some that held it a great honour to have a Blackamore lackey that they might be the more noted and if they sacrificed an ox they nailed the horns at their gates to
I eat drink sleep when I do business when I am both in conversation and solitude Whither shall this poor soul go which thou hast thrown into a body so frail in a world so corrupt and amongst the assaults of so many pernicious enemies Open O Lord thine eyes for my guidance and compassionate my infirmities without thee I can do nothing and in thee I can do all that I ought Give me O Lord a piercing eye to see my danger and the wings of an Eagle to flie from it or the heart of a Lion to fight valiantly that I may never be wanting in my duty and fidelity to thee I ow all that I am or have to thy gracious favour and I will hope for my salvation not by any proportion of my own virtues which are weak and slender but by thy boundless liberalities which onely do crown all our good works The Gospel upon Munday the first week of Lent out of Saint Matthew 25. Of the Judgement-Day ANd when the Son of man shall come in his Majesty and all the Angels with him then shall be sit upon the seat of his Majesty And all Nations shall be gathered together before him and he shall separate them one from another as the Pastour separateth the sheep from the goats And shall set the sheep at his right hand but the goats at his left Then shall the King say to them that shall be at his right hand Come ye blessed of my Father possess you the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world For I was hungred and you gave me to eat I was athirst and you gave me to drink I was a stranger and you took me in naked and you covered me sick and you visited me I was in prison and you came to me Then shall the just answer him saying Lord when did we see thee an hungred and fed thee athirst and gave thee drink and when did we see thee a stranger and took thee in or naked and covered thee or when did we see thee sick or in prison and came to thee And the King answering shall say to them Amen I say to you as long as you did it to one of these my least brethren you did it to me Then shall he say to them also that shall be at his left hand Get you away from me you cursed into fire everlasting which was prepared for the Devil and his Angels For I was an hungred and you gave me not to eat I was athirst and you gave me not to drink I was a stranger and ye took me not in naked and you covered me not sick and in prison and you did not visit me Then they also shall answer him saying Lord when did we see thee an hungred or athirst or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to thee Then shall he answer them saying Amen I say to you as long as you did it not to one of these lesser neither did you it to me And these shall go into punishment everlasting but the just into life everlasting Moralities 1. BEhold here a Gospel of great terrour where our spirit like the Dove of Noah is placed upon the great deluge of Gods wrath and knows not where to find footing Every thing is most dreadfull But what can be more terrible than the certainty of Gods judgement joyned with the great uncertainty of the hour of our death It is an unchangeable decree that we must all be presented before the high Tribunal of the living God to render a just account of all which our soul hath done while it was joyned with our body as we are taught by S. Paul We must make an account of our time spent of our thoughts words actions of that we have done and that we have omitted of life death and of the bloud of Jesus Christ and thereupon receive a judgement of everlasting life or death All men know that this must certainly be done but no man knows the hour or moment when it shall be So many clocks strike about us every day and yet none can let us know the hour of our death 2. O how great is the solitude of a Soul in her separation from so many great enticements of the world wherein many men live and in an instant to see nothing but the good or ill we have done on either side us what an astonishment will it be for a man suddenly to see all the actions of his life as upon a piece of Tapistree spred befor his eyes where his sins will appear like so many thorns so many serpents so many venemous beasts Where will then be that cozening vail of reputation and reason of state which as yet cover so many wicked actions The soul shall in that day of God be shewed naked to all the world and her own eyes will most vex her by witnessing so plainly what she hath done 3. O what a parting water is Gods judgement which in a moment shall separate the mettals so different O what a division will then be made of some men which now live upon earth Some shall be made clear and bright like the stars of heaven others like coals burning in hell O what a dreadfull change will it be to a damned soul at her separation from this life to live onely in the company of devils in that piercing sense of torments and eternal punishment It is a very troublesom thing to be tied with silken strings in a bed of Roses for the space of eight days together What may we think of a damned soul which must dwell in a bed of flames so long as there shall be a God 4. Make use of the time given you to work your salvation and live such a life as may end with a happy death and so obtain that favourable judgement which shall say Come O thou soul blessed of God my Father possess the kingdom which is prepared for thee from the beginning of the world There is no better means to avoid the rigour of Gods judgements than to fear them continually Imitate the tree mentioned in an Emblem which being designed to make a ship and finding it self wind-shaken as it grew upon the land said What will become of me in the sea If we be already moved in this world by the bare consideration of the punishment due to sin think what it will be in that vast sea and dreadfull Abyss of Gods judgements Aspirations O King of dreadfull Majesty who doest justly damn and undeservedly save souls save me O Fountain of Mercy Remember thy self sweet Jesus that I was the cause of that great journey which thou tookest from God to man and do not destroy me in that dreadfull day which must decide the Question of my life or death for all eternity Take care of my last end since thou art the cause of my beginning and the onely cause of all that I am O Father of bounties wouldest thou stop a mouth
veins and fill the most innocent pleasures of our life with bitter sorrows what have I more to do with you My children shall be what God will They shall be but too rich when they have virtue for their portion and but too high when they shall see a true contempt of the world under their feeet God forbid that I should go about any worldly throne upon the holy Lambs bloud or that I should talk of honours when there is mention made of the holy Cross O Jesus thou father of all true glories thou shalt from henceforth be my onely crown All greatness where thou art not shall to me be onely baseness I will mount up to thee by the stairs of humility since by those thou camest down to me I will kiss the paths of Mount Calvary which thou hast sprinkled with thy precious bloud esteem the Cross above all worldly things since thou hast consecrated it by thy cruel pains and brought us forth upon that dolorous bed to the day of thy eternity The Gospel upon Thursday the second week in Lent out of S. Luke 16. Of the rich Glutton and poor Lazarus Tâe was a certain rich man and he was clothed wâth purple and silk and he fared every day magnifically And there was a certain begger called Lazarus that lay at his gate full of sores desiring to be filled of the crums that fell from the rich mans table but the dogs also came and licked his sores And it came to pass that the begger died and was carried of the Angel into Abraham's bosom And the rich man also died and he was buried in hell and lifting up his eyes when he was in torments he saw Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom And he crying said Father Abraham have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger into water for to cool my tongue because I am tormented in this flame And Abraham said to him Son remember that thou didst receive good things in thy life time and Lazarus likewise evil but now he is comforted and thou tormented And besides all these things between us and you there is fixed a great Chaos that they which will pass from hence to you may not neither go from thence hither And he said Then father I beseech thee that thou wouldest send him unto my fathers house for I have five brethren for to testifie unto them lest they also come into this place of torments And Abraham said to him They have Moses and the Prophets let them hear them But he said No father Abraham but if some man shall go from the dead to them they will do penance And be said to him If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither if one shall rise again from the dead will they believe Moralities 1. A Rich man and a poor meet in this world the one loaden with treasures the other with ulcers They both meet in the other world the one in a gulf of fire the other in Abyss of delights Their ends are as different as their lives were contrary to teach us that he which shall consider rightly the end of all worldly sins and vanities will have in horrour the desire of them And as there is nothing for which goodly poor men may not hope so is there nothing which wicked rich men should not fear He that is proud of riches is proud of his burdens and chains but if he unload them upon the poor he will be eased of his pain and secured in his way 2. The life of man is a marvellous Comedie wherein the greatest part of our actions are plaid under a curtain which the Divine Providence draws over them to cover us It concealed poor Lazarus and kept him in obscurity like the fish which we never see till it be dead But Jesus draws the curtain and makes himself the historian of this good poor man shewing us the state of his soul of his body of his life and death He makes him appear in Abrahams bosom as within the temple of rest and happiness and makes him known to the rich man as to the treasurer of hells riches Are we not unworthy the name which we carry when we despise the poor and hate poverty as the greatest misery since the Son of God having once consecrated it upon the throne of his manger made it serve for his spouse during life and his bride-maid at the time of his death 3. This rich glutton dreamed and at the end of his dream found himself buried in hell All those pomps of his life were scattered in an instant as so many nocturnal illusions and his heart filled with eternal grief and torment His first misery is a sudden unexpected and hydeous change from a huge sea of delicacies into an insufferable gulf of fire where he doth acknowledge that one of the greatest vexations in misery is to have been happy Another disaster which afflicts him is to see Lazarus in Abrahams bosom to teach us that the damned are tormented by Paradise even to the very lowest part of hell and and that the most grievous of their torments is they can never forget their loss of God So saith Theophylact that Adam was placed over against the terrestrial Paradise from whence he was banished that in his very punishment he might see the happiness he had lost by his soul fault Now you must adde to the rest of his sufferings the great Chaos which like a diamond wall is between hell and Paradise together with the privation of all comfort those losses without remedy that wheel of eternity where death lasteth for ever and the end begins again without ceasing and the torments can never fail or diminish 4. Do good with those goods which God hath given you and suffer them not to make you wicked but employ your riches by the hands of virtue If gold be a child of the Sun why do you hide him from his father God chose the bosom of rich Abraham to be the Paradise of poor Lazarus So may you make the needy feel happiness by your bounty your riches shall raise you up when they are trodden under feet The Prophet saith you must sow in the field of Alms if you desire to reap in the mouth of Mercy Aspirations O God of Justice I tremble at the terrour of thy judgements Great fortunes of the world full of honour and riches are fair trees oft-times the more ready for the ax Their weight makes them apt to fall and prove the more unhappy fuel for eternal flames O Jesus father of the poor and King of the rich I most humbly beseech thee never give my heart in prey to covetousness which by loading me with land may make me forget Heaven I know that death must consume me to the very bones and I shall then possess nothing but what I have given for thee Must I then live in this world like a Griffin to hoard up much gold and
honour of God and the reverence of sacred things shall not accompany all your pretences For if you ground your piety upon any temporal respects you resemble that people which believes the highest mountains do support the skies 2. There are no sins which God doth punish more rigorously nor speedily than those which are committed against devotion and piety He doth not here take up the scourge against naughty Judges usurers and unchaste persons because the Church is to find remedy against all faults which happen in the life of man But if a man commit a sin against Gods Altar the remedy grows desperate King Ozias felt a leoprofie rise upon his face at the instant when he made the sume rise from the censor which he usurped from the high Priests Ely the chief Priest was buried in the ruins of his own house for the sacriledge of his children without any consideration of those long services which he had performed at the Tabernacle Keep your self from simonies from irreverence in Churches and from abusing Sacraments He can have no excuse which makes his Judge a witness 3. Jesus was violently moved by the zeal which he bare to the house of his heavenly Father But many wicked rich men limit their zeal onely to their own families They build great Palaces upon the peoples bloud and they nothing care though all the world be in a storm so long as they and what belongs to them be well covered But there is a revenging God who doth insensibly drie up the roots of proud Nations and throws disgrace and infamy upon the faces of those who neglect the glories of Gods Altars to advance their own He who builds without God doth demolish and whosoever thinks to make any great encrease without him shall find nothing but sterility Aspiration O Most pure Spirit of Jesus which wast consummate by zeal toward the house of God wilt thou never burn my heart with those adored flames wherewith thou inspirest chaste hearts Why do we take so much care of our houses which are built upon quick-silver and roll up and down upon the inconstancies of humane fortunes while we have no love nor zeal towards Gods Church which is the Palace which we should chuse here upon earth to be as the Image of heaven above I will adore thy Altars all my life with a profound humility But I will first make an Altar of my own heart where I will offer sacrifice to which I doubt not but thou wilt put fire with thine own hand The Gospel upon Tuesday the fourth week in Lent S. John 7. The Jews marvel at the learning of Jesus who was never taught ANd when the festivity was now half done Jesus went up into the Temple and taught And the Jews marvelled saying how doth this man know letters whereas he hath not learned Jesus answered them and said my doctrine is not mine but his that sent me If any man will do the will of him he shall understand of the doctrine whither it be of God or I speak of my self he that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glorie but he that seeketh the glorie of him that sent him he is true and injustice in him there is not Did not Moses give you the Law and none of you doth the Law Why seek you to kill me The multitude answered and said thou hast a Devil who seeketh to kill thee Jesus answered and said to them One work I have done and you do all marvel Therefore Moses gave you circumcision not that it is of Moses but of the Fathers and in the Sabbath ye circumcise a man If a man receive circumcision in the Sabbath that the law of Moses be not broken are you angry at me because I have healed a man wholly in the Sabbath Judge not according to the face judge just judgement Certain therefore of Jerusalem said Is not this he whom they seek to kill And behold he speaks openly and they say nothing to him Have the Princes known indeed that this is Christ But this man we know whence he is But when Christ cometh no man knowerh whence he is Jesus therefore cried in the Temple teaching and saying Both me you do know and whence I am you know and of my self I am not come But he is true that sent me whom you know not I know him because I am of him and he sent me They sought therefore to apprehend him and no man laid hands upon him because his hour was not yet come But of the multitude many believed in him Moralities 1. IT appears by this Gospel that Jesus was judged according to apparences not according to truth It is one of the greatest confusions which is deeply rooted in the life of man that every thing is full of painting and instead of taking it off with a spunge we foment it and make our illusions voluntary The Prophet Isay adviseth us to use our judgement as men do leaven to season bread All the objects presented to our imaginations which we esteem are fading if we do not adde some heavenly vigour to help our judgement 2. To judge according to apparences is a great want both of judgement and courage The first makes us prefer vanity before truth the second gives that to silk and golden clothes which is properly due to virtue We adore painted coals and certain dark fumes covered outwardly with snow But if we did know how many great miseries and what beastly ordure is hidden under cloth of gold silk and scarlet we would complain of our eyes for being so far without reason It is a kind of Apostacy and rebellion against Gods providence to judge without calling God to be a president in our counsel or to take in hand any humane inventions without the assistance of his Spirit 3. God is pleased to lodge pearls within cockles and bestows his treasures of wisdom and virtue many times upon persons who have the most unfashionable outsides to countercheck humane wisdom He makes his orators of those who are speechless and numbers of frogs and flies to overthrow mighty armies He makes Kings out of shepherds and serves himself of things which are not as if they were The most pleasing Sacrifice which he receives upon earth is from the humble and when we despise those we divert the honours of God We offer Sacrifice to the worlds opinion like the Sages of Egypt who did light candles and burn incense to Crocodiles The Jews lost their faith to follow apparences and there is no shorter way to Apostacy than to adore the world and neglect God 4. An ill opinion make folks many times pass a rash judgement They mount into Gods chair to judge the hearts of men The chaste doves are used like Ravens and Ravens like Swans Opinion puts false spectacles upon our eyes which make faults seem virtues and virtues crimes Yet nevertheless we should think that virtuous persons will not conceive an ill suspition of their neighbour without a very sure
ground Saint John Climacus saith fire is no more contrary to water than rash judgement is to the state of repentance It is a certain sign that we do not see our own sins when we seek curiously after the least defects of our neighbour If we would but once enter into our selves we should be so busie to lament our own lives that we should not have time to censure those of others Aspirations O Judge most redoubtable who dost plant thy Throne within the heart of man who judgest the greatest Monarchs without leaving them power to appeal Thy judgements are secret and impenetrable That which shines to our eyes like a Diamond is like a contemptible worm in thy ballance That which we value as a Star thou judgest to be a coal We have just so much greatness virtue and happiness as we have by enterance into thy heart And he whom thou esteemest needs not the judgement of mortal man No innocent is justified nor guilty person condemned without thee and therefore I will from henceforth judge onely according to thee I will lay down all my affections and take thine so far as I shall be able and I will account nothing great but what shall be so in thy esteem The Gospel upon Wednesday the fourth week in Lent S. John 9. Of the blind man cured by clay and spittle ANd Jesus passing by saw a blind man from his nativitie and his Disciples asked him Rabbi Who hath sinned this man or his parents that he should be born blind Jesus answered Neither hath this man sinned nor his parents but that the vvorks of God may be manifested in him I must vvork the vvorks of him that sent me whiles it is day the night cometh vvhen no man can vvork As long as I am in the vvorld I am the light of the vvorld When he had said these things he spit on the ground and made clay of the spittle and spred the clay upon his eyes and said to him Go wash in the Pool of Silo which is interpreted sent He vvent therefore and vvashed and he came seeing Therefore the neighbours and they vvhich had seen him before that he vvas a beggar said Is not this he that sate and begged Others said that this is he But others no not so but he is like him But he said that I am he They said therefore to him How vvere thine eyes opened He answered that man that is called Jesus made clay and anointed mine eyes and said to me Go to the Pool of Silo and vvash and I vvent and vvashed and saw And they said to him Where is he He saith I know not They bring him that had been blind to the Pharisees And it vvas the Sabbath vvhen Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes Again therefore the Pharisees asked him how he saw But he said to them he put clay upon mine eyes and I washed and I see Certain therefore of the Pharisees said This man is not of God that keepeth not the Sabbath But others said How can a man that is a sinner do these signs And there vvas a schism among them They say therefore to the blind again Thou vvhat sayest thou of him that opened thine eyes And he said that he is a Prophet The Jews therefore did not believe of him that he had been blind and saw until they called the Parents of him that saw and asked them saying Is this your son vvhom you say that he vvas born blind how then doth he now see His parents answered them and said We know that this is our son and that he was born blind but how be now seeth vve know not or vvho hath opened his eyes vveknow not ask himself he is of age let himself speak of himself These things his parents said because they feared the Jews For the Jews had now conspired that if any man should confess him to be Christ he should be put out of the Synagogue Therefore did his parents say that he is of age ask himself They therefore again called the man that had been blind and said to him Give glorie to God vve know that this man is a sinner He therefore said to them Whether he be a sinner I know not one thing I know that vvhereas I was blind now I see They said therefore to him What did he to thee How did he open thine eyes He answered them I have now told you and you have heard vvhy vvill you hear it again vvill you also become his Disciples They reviled him therefore and said be thou his Disciple but vve are the Disciples of Moses vve know that to Moses God did speak but this man vve know not vvhence he is The man answered and said to them For in this it is marvellous that you know not vvhence he is and he hath opened mine eyes And vve know that sinners God doth not hear But if a man be a server of God and do the vvill of him him he heareth From the beginning of the vvorld it hath not been heard that any man hath opened the eyes of one born blind unless this man vvere of God he could not do any thing They answered and said to him Thou vvast vvholly born in sins and dost thou teach us And they did cast him forth Jesus heard that they cast him forth and vvhen he had found him he said to him Dost thou believe in the Son of God He answered and said Who is he Lord that I may believe in him And Jesus said to him Both thou hast seen him and he that talketh vvith thee he it is But he said I believe Lord and falling down he adored him Moralities 1. JEsus the Father of all brightness who walked accompanied with his twelve Apostles as the Sun doth with the hours of the day gives eyes to a blind man and doth it by clay and spittle to teach us that none hath power to do works above nature but he that was the Authour of it On the other side a blind man becomes a King over persons of the clearest sight and being restored to light he renders again the same to the first fountain from whence it came He makes himself an Advocate to plead for the chiefest truth and of a poor beggar becomes a confessour and after he had deplored his misery at the Temple gate teacheth all mankind the estate of its own felicities We should in imitation of him love the light by adoring the fountain of it and behave our selves as witnesses and defenders of the truth 2. God is a light and by his light draws all unto him he makes a break of day by his grace in this life which becomes afterward a perfect day for all eternity But many lose themselves in this world some for want of light some by a false light and some by having too much light 3. Those lose themselves for want of light who are not at all instructed in the faith and maxims of Christian Religion and those instead of
and who knoweth himself to be deformed and wicked yet faileth not by Nature to be in love with himself So through a love of Concupiscence he may love things which have neither Beauty nor Goodnesse although he daily have a blind feeling of some thing suitable to sensuallity and an unperceivable attractive As for love of reason which is properly Humane love one may be assured it alwayes looks directly upon good and fair not simply but good fair acknowledged agreeable to its contentment This is the root of all reasonable amities and hitherto those great sources Means to make ones self to be beloved worthily of love reduced which are Honesty utilitie Delectation Resemblance reciprocall love obliging and pleasing conversation Within these six heads in my opinion the fifteen means to make one to be beloved are comprised which are touched by Aristotle in the second book of his Rhetorick To wit to love that which a friend loveth to entertain his apprehensions his joyes and his discomforts his hatred and Amities to keep him in a laudable opinion of our sufficiency by good parts of wit courage virtue industrie and reciprocally to hold him in good esteem to love him to oblige him to praise him unto others to bear with him in his humours to trust him with your secrets readily to serve him without forgetfulnesse or negligence to be inviolably faithfull to him which we will more amply deduce in the subsequent section But if you regard its effects I find three great empires Notable effects of love in the 3. worlds it exerciseth in the world naturall civil and supernaturall In the naturall it causeth all simpathies antipathies accords ties generations productions In the civill world it builds two cities as saith S. Augustine very different If it be good it raiseth a Citie of peace wherein chaste Amities sway and with them Truth Faith Honour Virtues contentments delights If it be bad It makes a Babylon full of confusion where cares fears griefs warre enmities impurities adulteries incests sacriledges bloud murther and poison inhabit and all that which commonly ariseth from this fatall plague In the supernaturall world it causeth nine effects which are very well figured by the celestiall throne of love composed of nine diaphanous globes whose effects are Solitude Silence Suspension Indefatigability Languishment Extasie and Transanimation which we more at length will consider in the sequele of this Treatise §. 2. Of Amity AMITY is the medecine of health and Immortality Eccl. 6. Medicamentùm vitae Amity the tree of life of life and in a manner doth that in Civill life which the tree of life in terrestriall Paradise promises in naturall life with an infinite number of sweetnesses and pleasures it immortaliseth us after death in the remembrance of that which is most dear unto us in the world It is that which giveth light to dark affairs certainty It Includeth all blessings to doubtfull support to tottering goodnesse to evil grace to good order to irregular ornament to simple and activenesse to dead By it the banished find a countrey the poor a patrimony great ones find offices the rich services the Ignorant knowledge the feeble support the sick health and the afflicted comfort Should a man live on Nectar and Ambrosia among starres and Intelligencies he would not be happy if he had not friends to be witnesses of his good fortune and we may truly say that Amity continually makes up the greater part of our Felicities It is not here my purpose to extend my self with full sail upon the praise thereof since so many excellent wits have already handled this subject but to shew how good Amities are to be chosen and how to be cultivated There are some who make profession to be friends What amity is Affectus est spontanea suavis animi ad aliquem inflectio Cassiod de amicit and know not so much as what friendship is but Aristotle plainly proves there is difference between affection Good-will Love Amity and Concord Affection is a spark of love not yet throughly formed in which understanding hath some slight passion Good-will A simple Good-will and consent born towards some one although many times there be no great knowledge of the party as it happeneth to such who of two Combatants favour rather the one then the other not knowing either of them Love is an affection already formed and inclined with fervour to the good of Conformity Amity is a love of mutuall well-wishing grounded upon communication Whence may be inferred that all those who love are not friends but all such as are true friends necessarily love The meanest people may love the most eminent but there can be no Amity since they therein find not correspondence There are entranced lovers in the world who are enamoured Miserable lovers of all beauties none returning them love again which deserves either laughter or compassion seeing they may directly go to the first of Beauties where they shall find reciprocall contentment After love followeth concord which is the fruit of it in the union of judgement and will Now well to understand how to choose good Amities the Species or kind of them must be known wherein I find that one Hippodamus a great Platonick Philosopher hit right when he established three sorts of Three sorts of amity Amities whereof one belongs to beasts the other to men and the third to Demi-gods Animall-Amities are those which subsist onely in Animal-amity Nature and which are common to us with beasts Thus saith S. Augustine a mother which loveth Pro mugno laudarurus sum in homine quod videam in Tigride August 410. homil 38. her children for flesh and blouds sake not otherwise raising her thoughts towards God doth but as a Hen a Dove a Tigresse a Serpent and so many other living creatures which have so great affection towards their little ones It is not that these Amities are not very necessary since Nature inspires them and powreth them into the veins with the soul by admirable infusions which preserve the estate of the world entire It is good much to affect ones own but we must build upon the first elements of Nature and by Grace and Reason raise the edifice of true charity Parents ought to love their children as a part of their own bodies which Nature hath separated from themselves But Amity should never divide their hearts Children are bound to love their parents as fishes their water Brothers cannot too much esteem the love and Concord which they mutually maintain together A husband and a wife are bound to a most strict commerce of Amity since as God produced a word in heaven and with the word the holy Ghost So he hath been pleased to create Adam on earth as his own Image and out of this Image he hath drawn Eve to be unto a man a spirit of peace and a love of a perpetuall lasting There is no doubt but that to fail in
his adversities it is a palled in perils it triumpheth in glories If it hear speech of his praises it is Manna fallen from heaven if he be blamed it is a poysoned arrow which transsixeth the heart The eye the tongue the arm all the veins and arteries bend to his defence Add for the third Antidote that Amity is notably entertained Conversation and its contentments by conversation and mutable communication which should be full of liberty freedome and confidence There it is where one entreth into community of secrets of thoughts counsels inventions opinions industries affairs and purposes There it is where hearts discover their nakednesse and where spirits going out of Christalline breasts make a sweet mixture of fires and lights There it is where saith the Wiseman Prov. 27. 17. Ferrum ferro acuiâur homo exacuit faciem amici sui v. 19. Quomodo in a quis respondent vultus prospicientium sic corda hominum manifesta sunt prudentibus Iron sharpeneth Iron where one Intelligence awakens another There it is where the bottome of the heart becomes as a fountain of clear water wherein souls behold each other by admirable reflections One reckoneth up his life his courses his voyages his hazards his enterprizes his successes his joyes his annoyes his Sympathies his Antipathies The other receiveth all this into his bosome and reciprocally opens himself to his friend Oh what sweetnesse oh what an Atome of the life of the blessed is this communication when it is inviolably grounded upon virtue and honesty What a contentment it is to see a poor man who was as a cloud surcharged with storms and darknesse to free himself and become bright by aspect of the beams which reflect from the eyes of a friend to clear up at the words which come from his lips to receive infusions wholly celestiall which put in order things confused give vigour to the languishing comfort in affliction and hope amidst despairs Time stealeth away in these entertainments and is not felt hours are not numbred moments are there pretious the space which intercurres between two Suns seemeth but one Whosoever importunely troubles these conversations are like Birds of ill presage and night which separates them although it be the mother of Repose is not alwayes welcome unlesse it in sleep restore those beloved delights it took away Yet it is good to moderate this conversation the Conversation must be moderated Praenuntia est tribulationis laetitia satietatis Gregor in Job c 3. Absence is sometimes a stratagem of Amity nature of humane things being such that pleasure when it is arrived at the highest is not far distant from distaste The more that Flowers breath forth their excellent odour so much the sooner they wither and by how much the more love produceth fires and sparklings so much the more it is weakned unlesse it be repaired by reason which is swallowed by sense Absence entertained by letters full of confidence is not alwayes without its profit for the soul by the memory tasteth what it hath taken in by the understanding and gives it self more leasure to recogitate its pleasures which are not so well perceived when presence drencheth the mind in a deluge of contentments and gives it not leasure to bethink it self It is a goodly thing verily to Bounty a true note of Amity behold these affectionate complacents yet never is one a good friend if he come not to the fourth point which is to wish and to do good to those he loveth It is now-a-dayes a true testimony of Amity to give liberally of ones own in a time when silver is the God of the world and interest the mark whereat all intentions aim There are some who would rather give the bloud of their veins then ought of their purse would suffer incredible toils for a friend and would not diminish for him the least part of their ordinary expence yet Amity never is perfect unlesse it enter into a free communication of necessary helps as much as ability and reason permit Whosoever Benefits of Amity invented benefits gave wings to Amity and made arrows of gold which insensibly penetrate hearts the most unnaturall An Elephant who beareth Towers and houses on Glorificabit me bestia agri dracones struthioneâ Isa 34. his back cannot carry a benefit without a gratefull acknowledgement of it It is that which quencheth the fire that sparkleth in the eyes of Lions which stayeth their paws keen as rasours and makes them adore that which is thrown out to them as a prey to be devoured Liberality is a hook we must ever hold in the water we must not fear many times to lose to conferre once well a good office done to a friend That man deserveth never to get any thing who thinks all he giveth is lost and who gives not at all but to receive double His intentions are mercenary and his favours are like Lime-twigs he maketh a Market-place of the Temple of Amity and profaneth all that is sacred in it to consecrate it to his own passion It is an excellent industry to give well and it requireth A great industry to give well much study There are such as give all they cannot keep and are never liberall but in extremity like to the fountain of Spoleto which never appeared but when the countrey was threatned with an approching famine Others send Presents to no purpose Leander in Umbria and unseasonably as if one should give books to a Peasant and arms to a Scholar Their gifts are many times so unhappy that they may be reckoned among the mischiefs their enemies wish Others throw largesses by starts and distribute not favours but cast them at random and there are oft to be found such who giving to all for want of giving with judgement oblige none They hasten to those who desire nothing of them not seeing it is a great torment to be obliged to one to whom one would owe nothing There are who make themselves to be adored before they open the golden gates of liberality they are shut up within so many locks that an age passeth before they succour the misery of a friend they put oyl into the lamp to light it when it is quite out and do good to Hobgoblins and spirits in tombs It is too late to give to a friend if Senec. l. 2. de Benefic c. 20. you stay till he demand it you give him twice when you deliver him out of his torment Archesilaus well understood this mystery who laid a bag of money under the pillow of his sick friend whom he knew to be in great necessity without telling him from whence this supply came and rather choosing he should have the pleasure to find it then the pain to ask it What good is it to do as the officers of great ones who are stately in their distributions and think not they ever have given ought unlesse it were long asked They make themselves
the heart by the Garb the Humour the smiles the speech the silence the courage the discretion of a man layes a plot with her passion to betray her reason The poison of love by little and little spreads it self throughout all the veins the presence of the object begins to cause blushing palenesse unquietnesse disturbance of the mind so that she cannot tell what she desireth nor what she would have Absence awakeneth the Imagination which makes an Eccho of all the discourses of all the actions that past in presence This man is presented unto her in a thousand shapes there is not a lineament a word a gesture but is expressed The understanding quickly creates to it self too many ill lights the will too much fire and the soul wholly propendeth to the thing beloved Yet the fire of God awakeneth her and suffers her to have good respites which makes her ashamed to tell her own thoughts to her proper heart Conscience and Honour make some resistance and glimmering flashes and if there be found some good directour who may help them in this first battell they many times get the victory But if a soul be deprived of good counsel abandoned to it self and which is worse soothed in its malady by some soft and complying spirit it is an unhappinesse which cannot sufficiently be deplored Reason is weakned shamefac'tnesse flies away passion prevaileth there is nothing left but wandering of the soul a feaver a perpetuall Frenzy a neglect of works of affairs of functions sadnesse languour Impatience Confidence and affrightment Shall she say so shall she do so God forbids it the law menaceth it and honour cries vengeance The pleasure of a dream and beyond it nothing but Abysses Love notwithstanding urgeth and strikes at all considerations they impute to starres to destiny to Necessity what is nothing but folly They think businesse is done when it is but thought on that they must be audacious and that there are crimes which are sanctified in the worlds opinion by the good hap of their succestes They come Prosperum ac foelix seclus viâtus vocatur Senec. Diversities of Love to that passe that they no longer sinne by method but through exorbitancy In some Love is sharp and violent in others dull and impetuous in others toyish and wanton in others turbulent and cloudy in others brutish and unnaturall in others mute and shamefac't in others perplexed and captious in others light and tradsitory in others fast and retentive in others fantastick and inconstant in others weak and foppish in others stupid astonished in others distempted in some furious and desperate It enflameth the bloud it weakens the body it wanneth Moechia affinis Idololatriae Tertul. de pudicitia the colour it halloweth the eyes it overthrows the mind it hath somewhat of being possessed and witchcraft something of Idolatry For you behold in those who are entred farre into this passion flouds and Ebbs of thoughts Fits and Countenances of one possessed and it is in all of them to deifie the creature of whom they are so passionately enamoured and would willingly set it in the place where the Sun and starres are yea upon Altars All which proceeds from it is sacred chains and wounds are honourable with them if they come from this beloved-hand They would die a hundred times for it so it throw but so much as a handfull of flowers or distill but a poor tear on their Tombe It is to deceive to say that love excludeth all other passions it awakeneth them and garboileth them and makes them all wait on it it causeth Aversion Hatred Jealousie envie hope sadnesse despair anger mirth tears scorn grief songs and sighs and as it is thought that evil spirits shuffle in storms to stirre up lightning flasks and make the thunder-stroke the more terrible and pernicious So is it likewise true that the Evil Angels intermeddle in the great tempests of love angell of darknesse involveth himself in these great tempests of love many times making use of the abominable minestery of Magicians and acteth Treasons furies fierings poysonings murders and ransackings And how should it spare its enemie since it Cruelty of love on the persons of lovers is cruell to it self It maketh some to sink in the twinkling of an eye drinking their bloud and insensibly devouring their members It confineth others into regions of Hobgoblins and darknesse It kils and murdereth those who have the most constantly served it It sharpned the sword which transfixed Amnon It shaved and blinded Samson It gave a Halter to Phyllis A downfoll to Timagoras A gulph to Caleazo and caused Hemon to kill himself on the tomb of Antigone Volumes would not be sufficient for him who should write all the Tragedies which daily arise from this passion all pens would be weak words be dryed up and wits lost therein § 8. Remedies of evil Love by precaution I Leave you now dear Reader to argue within your self whether one who hath never so little humane judgement for his comportment and quiet ought not to bend all his endeavours to banish the fury which plungeth his whole life in so great acerbities and such horrible Distrust ofones self recourse to God calamities But if you desire to know the way the first thing I advise you while you are yet in perfect health is seriously to consider that one cannot be chaste but by a most singular gift from God as the wise-man saith and therefore it is necessary to have a particular recourse to the most blessed Trinity which according to S. Gregory Nazianxen is the first of virgins humbly beseeching it by the intercession of the most pure among creatures and by the mediation of your Angel-guardian to deliver you from the reproches of the spirit of impurity in such sort that you may passe Love is sometimes the punishment of pride Climachus de castitate your life innocently and it may become inaccessible to the pollutions of flesh If you feel your self free from this vice yet enter not into any vain complacence of your self as if it proceeded from your own forces and not from heavens benignity Above all take heed of pride for the most illuminated Fathers have observed that God oft-times permitteth arrogant spirits to fall into carnall sinnes to abate the fiercenesse of their courage by the sensible ignominy of the stains of luxury and this is so proper to quail the exorbitance of humane arrogance that God had not a better Counterpoise to make S. Paul humble in such heighth of revelations then the sting of the flesh Pardon not your Et ne magnitudo revelationis extollat me datus est mihi stimulus earnis meae Angeâus Satanae qui me colaphizet Cor. 2. 12. self any thing no not so much as the shadow of this sin but onely excuse such as fall through some notable surprisall or pitifull frailty Think if you have not experienced the like falls you are beholding to
Book which comprehends all secrets we at least should consider the divine Providence in the matter of the burdens of all the world to diminish our nicenesse to gain opinion and understanding which may alter our judgement A sage Roman shewing to an impatient man the Sence l. 3. nat quaest Praeferri scies quid deceat si cogitaveris orbem terrarum notare whole world surrounded in a great deluge of miseries said unto him I assure my self you would not so much play the milk sop nor have a soul so effeminate if you would think that the whole world swimmeth in a dreadfull sea of calamities All things conform themselves to the nature of their originall and we have elsewhere said that Bees bred in the dead body of a Bull Bees bear the figure of a ball on their bodies carry the resemblance of their Progenitour pourtrayed by certain little lineaments in their proper body The world hath produced us and Jesus Christ hath regenerated us by his Death and most precious Bloud never should we rest untill we carry upon us some token Glorisi care portate Deum in corpore vestro 1 Cor. 6. of nature wailing and of a God suffering according to S. Pauls precept Glorifie and hear the Image of God in your body § 6. Advice to impatient Souls IMpatient Souls to you I speak I ask you Is it a small motive to you to suffer that have the Universe for a Companion God for an Example and God for the Guerdon of your Patience All creatures saith S. Paul sigh groan and are as it were in labour Rom. 8. 22. expecting that day wherein all things shall be glorified in the resurrection of bodies and will you be of so Ad communem hanc Rempublicam quisque promodulo exsolvimus quod debemuâ quasi canonem passionum inferimus S. August in Psal abject a courage as to be like unprofitable burdens with arms acrosse in the midst of a suffering world and before the eyes of the God of suffering Is it not a scandall to the Religion we professe often to afflict our selves with great and heavy sadnesses for causes most light To see too you would make one think the Law the Sacraments and Jesus Christ himself were cast away Where is the Consolation of holy Scriptures the fruit of Preachings the sweetnesse of Prayers Where is that huge cloud of Examples of so many Patient ones whose courages you so often have admired where are good purposes good thoughts where are so many resolutions so well taken in the time of prosperity must the least adversity make you to shrink back Verily Ideots and silly women who have neither the wit nor knowledge which you have do many times bear no flight burdens with much courage and you after so many good instructions lay down arms and make it appear that stupidity hath more foree with them then all the precepts of wisdome have power over your weaknesse People who live according to nature find remedies for their sadnesse in nature it self Bathings Wine Playes Balls Hunting open Air and so many other recreations make them passe away their evil Is it possible but that the cosideration of the first verity and the divine Providence should mitigate yours What is it can have such power over you It is strange that things the most frivolous torment you Call back into your thoughts what I have said to you concerning the matter of your pleasures It greives you you have not thrived in this affair nor have had the successe of reputation which you exspected what a folly is this as if I should be troubled that the air and winds were not at my dispose Will you never cease from usurping that which appertaineth not to you will you never order your own house without taking care for things out of it You afflict you self for a word spoken of you wretched that you are to tie your felicity to the condition of tongues There would almost be Very true no slander if it were not made slander by thinking thereon you torment your self for the losse of health or of some other good which was very pretious with you Impute your crosse to your affection so excessively to have loved a blessing which you might lose and to have coveted all good things without you to have an ill guest within your own house You put your self upon the rack with the fear of the future why do you set your foot into the possession of another why do you not leave the future to the divine Providence why do you reap dolours in a field where you are not permitted to sowe you incessantly complain of poverty of sicknesse and other inconveniences of life if you think to live here free from pain you must build a world a-part and not be contented with the elements which served your ancestours turns God here distributeth burdens as the father of a family doth offices to all his domesticks every one must bear that which is allotted him otherwise if he do not he is a bastard and not a legitimate child and if having one he hear it Quod si extra disciplinam cujus participes facti sunt omnes ergo adulterini non fââii Heb. 12. 8. with a perpetuall vexation he deprives himself of the crown of patience the value whereof is as inestimable as the force thereof hath in all times been judged invincible Have you forgot what S. Paul said If you be saith he out of the number of those who live in a regular discipline and who daily have their petty charge in Gods family wherein they are subjects I assure you you are not used like children of the house but as very bastards left to live at randome Believe me our burdens are like the stone of the Sybils which to some weighed Dio. Chrys orat 13. Marvelous stone of Sybils like lead and to others as a feather oft-times the weight or lightnesse of your evils proceeds from nought but your own disposition Imagination hath made you believe it nice breeding which hath been bestowed on you and evil habits wherein you have been perpetually nousled fail not to accomplish your misery Accustome your self a little to do that work well for which you came into the world Learn that you must bear the miseries of mans condition since you participate of humane nature and that thanks be to God you are not a monster When you have learnt to suffer something you will begin to enter into the possession of your soul in which alone you shall find all felicities if so you be united to your beginning Courage poor impatient one raise your self a little above your self by the grace which is given you from on high and so many good assistances which you can never want The God of patience and Consolation will confirm you will fortifie you and will give you the reward of your fidelity The seventh Treatise Of HOPE § 1. The Description
affrightment in the towns and as many sackings as quarterings Those which sit at the Stern of Empires and Common-wealths are greatly accountable to God for that which hath past in this businesse Kings ought not onely to maintain Justice by their Arms but to teach it by their behaviour and to consecrate it by their examples The Doctour Navarrus hath set down divers sins against Justice by the which Princes Common-wealths and Lords may offend against God mortally as to take unlawfully the goods that belong not to them and to keep them without restitution To govern loosely and negligently their Kingdomes and Principalities To suffer their Countreys to be unprovided of victualls and defence necessary which may bring their Subjects in danger of being spoiled To wast and consume in charges either evil or unnecessary the goods which are for the defence of their estates To burden excessively their subjects with Imposts and Subsidies without propounding any good intent therefore and without having any necessity not pretended but true and reall To suffer the poor to die with famine and not to sustain them with their Revenues in that extremity Not to hearken to reasonable conditions for a just Peace and to give occasion to the enemies of the Christian name to invade their Lands and root out our Religion To dispense either with the Law of God or Nature To give judgement in the suits of their Subjects according to their own affection To deceive their creditours to suppresse the Liberty and Rights of the people to compell them by threatnings or importunate intreaties to give their goods or to make marriages against their wills or to their disadvantage To make unjust Wars to hinder the service of the Church to sell offices and places of Charge so dear that they give occasion to those that buy them to make ill use thereof To present to Benefices with Cure of Souls persons unworthy and scandalous To give Commissions and Offices to corrupt and unfit officers To tolerate and permit vices filthinesse and robberies by their servants and to condemne to death and cause to be slain unjustly without due order of Law and to violate the marriage-beds of their Subjects All these things and others which this Doctour hath noted cause great sins of Injustice in the persons of great ones unto which they ought especially to take heed and to prevent the same it is most necessary that they be instructed in the duties of their charge and in the estate of their affairs bending themselves thereto as the most important point of their safety and seeing that the passion of Hatred or Love which one may bear to some person will trouble the judgement and pervert Justice S. Lewis counselled the King his son strongly to keep his heart in quiet and in the uncertainty of any differences alwayes to restrain his own affection and to keep under all movings of the spirit as the most capitall enemy to Reason Many Princes have often lost both their life and Sceptre for giving themselves to some unjust action and there is no cause more ordinary for which God translates Kingdomes from one hand to another then Injustice as on the contrary those Princes which have been great Justiciaries do shine as the stars of the first magnitude within Gods Eternity and even their ashes do seem as yet to exhale from their Tombs a certain savour which rejoyceth people and keeps their memory for ever blessed But one cannot believe the rare mixture that Justice Goodnesse its Excellency and Goodnesse make joyned together Goodnesse is an essence profitable and helpfull which serves as a Nurse to Love it hath its originall in the Deity and from thence disperseth it self by little veins into all created Beings and mixeth it self with every object as the light with every Colour It drives away and stops up evil on every side and there is no place even to the lowest hell where it causeth not some beam of its brightnesse to shine Beauty which amazeth all mortall eyes is but the flower of its essence but Goodnesse is the fruit thereof and its savour is the savour of God which all creatures do taste and relish God which as Casiodore saith is the cause of all Beings the life of the senses the wisdome of understandings the love and glory of Angels having from all eternity his happinesse complete in his own bosome hath created man that he might have to whom to do good as Gregory Nyssen writes and S. Cyprian saith that this eternall Spirit did move upon the waters from the beginning of the world to unite and appropriate the Creature to its self and to dispose it for the loving inspirations of its Goodnesse The Prince which according to the obligement of his Charge would make himself an imitatour of God ought to be exceedingly good with four sorts of Goodnesse of Behaviour of Affability of Bounty and of Clemency I say first of Behaviour for that there is small hope of any great one which is not good towards God which keeps not his Law and rules not his life thereby if he have any virtues they are all sophisticate and if he do any good it is by ebbing and flowing by fits and for some ends No person can be truly good towards others which doth not begin with himself he must needs have Christian Love without which no man shall ever see God if he possesse this virtue he will first have a love of honour to those which have begot him a conjugall love for his wife a cordiall love to those of his bloud and all his kindred from thence it will spread it self over his whole house and through all his estate and will cause him to love his Subjects with a certain tendernesse as his own goods and as the good shepherd cherisheth his flocks He will imitate our Lord which looked from the top of the mountain upon the poor people of Judea that followed him and his heart melted for them with singular compassion Herein doth truly consist the virtue of Piety which gives so great a lustre to the life of Princes Now according to the Goodnesse that is in his heart he must needs pour it forth upon all his by these three conduit-pipes that I have said of Affability of Liberality and of Clemency Affability which is a well ordered sweetnesse both in words and converse ought to increase together with a Prince from his tender age This is a virtue which costeth nothing and yet brings forth great fruit it procures treasuries of hearts and wills which do assist great ones when need requires A good word that cometh forth of the mouth of a King is like the Manna that came from heaven and fell upon the desert It nourisheth and delighteth his Subjects it hath hands to frame and fashion their hearts as it pleaseth him it carrieth with it chains of gold sweetly to captivate their wills The command that cometh with sweetness is performed with strength invincible and every
labours very advisedly to reconcile the son to His reconciliation by the means of Joab the father by the mediation of a very discreet woman of Tecoah which came with a counterfeit pretence and complained to the King that she being mother of two sons the one in a hot quarrel had slain his brother and that they would constrain her to deliver up the other to justice that processe might be maid against him to the end to extinguish all her race And therefore she entreated his Majesty to be gracious to save her son that remained and not wholly to deprive her of all comfort in the world The which David having agreed to she declared to him that he ought to practice the same towards his own son which he would have done for one of his subjects that we were all mortall and that we passe away here below as the current of a stream that we should imitate the goodnesse of God which loves our souls and would not that they should perish As this woman spoke with so much discretion David was in doubt that Joab had instructed her and made her under-hand to act this fine play the which she affirmed and so much gained the heart of David that he gave full permission to Joab to fetch back the banished to his house although it was for the space of two years without seeing him Absolon grew so melancholick by his being so far from the court without seeing the king his father that having oftentimes sent to Joab to put an end to his businesse seeing that he would not come to him for friendship he caused his corn to be set on fire to make him come for anger for the which he excused himself and entreated him to ask of David in his behalf either that he might dye or that he might have leave to see him This good father could no longer dissemble the movings Absolons revolt of nature but having sent for him he embraced him and gave the kisse of peace and re-establishes him in the court The spirit of this Prince was lofty tempestuous movable which could not contain it self any longer within the bounds of obedience For the space of the five years of his removall from the court he had leisure enough to bite the bridle and as it is credible he had projected already the design of reigning his ambition seemed to him sufficiently well founded Amnon his eldest brother was dead Celeab the son of Abigail the second of his brethren made no great noise he saw himself underpropt on his mothers side by the King of Gesher his grand-father This was a Prince well made upright pleasing courteous liberall secret courageous and capable of great undertakeings He saw his father upon the declining of his age who had lost very much of that vigour testified so many times in his battels Adonija was too much a fondling and Solomon yet a childe and not able to His designs oppose him He conceived that the Empire could not slipp out of his hands And indeed there was great hopes for him if he had had so much patience to stay for it as desire to command He made too soon to appear what was in his mind causing himself to be encompassed when he marched forth with souldiers and a guard which was a sign of Royalty Further also he ceased not to gain the hearts and secretly to get the good will of all his fathers subjects He was up betimes in the morning and set himself at the entrance of the Palace to take His ambition notice of all those that had any businesse to propound to the King One never saw Prince more prodigall in courtesies he call'd them to him he embraced them he kissed them he enquired of their countrey of their condition of their suit and of that their negotiation He did justice to all the world and said that there was no other mishap but that the King was old and tyred with businesses and had not a man to hear the complaints of his subjects and to render them justice and that if one day he had the charge which his birth deserved he would give full satisfaction to every one By this meanes he made himself conquerour of hearts and traced out great intelligence throughout the Provinces guiding himself by the counsels of Achitophel who was the most refined spirit the best dissembler and most pernicious that was in the whole Kingdome David did not sufficiently watch over the actions of his sonne and the secret workings of this evil Counsellour the evil increased and their party was already framed Absolon asketh leave of the King his father to go to Hebron under pretence of performing a vow but with an intent to proclaim himself King That which he desired was granted to him he marches under this coverture with a train and splendour carrying many people with him and Sacrifices to offer He gives order in the mean while to all his confederates that at the first sound of the Trumpet they should march forth into the field to go to meet him and to bring him all the Troops that they could gather together All this was readily performed and without further Absolon caused himself to be proclaimed King dissimulation he declared himself and caused himself to be crowned in Hebron the news came quickly to David which brought him word that his son Absolon was revolted against him and had got possession of Hebron and that all the forces of the Kingdome run to him Here one may see a great example of the judgement A great example of the weaknesse of mans spirit when it is left by God of God of the weaknesse of a man left to himself as also the beams of an high and profound humility To speak according to man all that David did in this encounter of affairs was low and feeble He might have taken the field with the Regiments which he had which amounted at least to six or seven thousand men and have unwoven this web of conspiracy at its springing forth And if he had not perceived himself strong enough he had sufficient means to maintein himself in Jerusalem to entrench and fortifie himself there and to tyre out those spirits of his Rebels He might have enterteined him with good hopes promises and treaties and have cooled this first heat by rallying by little and little the affections of his subjects to his own party And if he had conceived his affairs to be in ill plight he should have been the last that had taken notice of it after the manner of those great Captains which carry hope in their faces even then when they have despair in their heart to keep together their Troopes in their duty But this poor Prince at the newes of this rebellion talked of nothing but flying and leaving his chief City and saving himself in the by-paths of the wildernesses he is the first that goes forth without a horse to ride on on his bare
heretofore found and pillaged in Rome were sent back again to the Place from whence they had been transported by Titus Vespatian This warre was finished in three moneths with an Army of six thousand men so easie it is to row when God conducts the vessell But that of the West was very long in its continuance Obstinate in its Resistance Malignant in its Designes and Lamentable in its Effects Theodoric King of the Goths as I have said in the life of Boetius had made himself Master of Rome and of all Italy where he reigned with great authority He left for Successour Athanaric sonne of his daughter Amalazunta at that time but nine years old under the Protection of his Mother She was the most accomplish'd Princesse of her age and most worthy to govern an Empire Neverthelesse since she saw her self invironed with those Goth Princes that were of an humour sufficiently cruell and that did not easily brook her domination She honoured with her confidence Theodate one of the principall of them because he was of the blood Royall and appeared the most moderate of all the rest playing rather the Philosopher then the Captain This ungratefull man after the death of the little Athanaric who was not of a long life was moved with so furious a State-jealousie that by the basest of Treasons he caused that poor Princesse to be strangled in a Bath fearing lest she as being farre more able then he in the managing of affairs and he holding the Sceptre onely by her favour might take too great a share in the Government But this unnaturall man that thought to settle his Crown by the death of that innocent Queen totally ruin'd his affairs and could not avoid the vengeance of God that pursues Traytours even to the gates of hell The Emperour Justinian that had already projected to recover his City of Rome and all Italy out of the hand of the Goths hearing the rehearsall of that horrible basenesse committed against the person of Amalazunta that had sought Alliance with him failed not to take the occasion and to declare a warre against Theodate thinking that it was then a good time to set upon an Empire when he that governs it begins to be forsaken of God for the enormity of his Crimes This cowardly King was so much astonished at this news that at first he humbled himself by very great submissions offering the Sovereignty to the Emperour of the East and contenting himself to reign under him But the other seeing him so wicked and so weak despised him and caused Belizarius to advance with his Army into his Territories who suddenly possessed himself of Sicily Theodate although an Arrian Heretick had recourse to the Pope and invited him as well by Intreaties as by Menaces to make a Voyage to Constantinople to Treat a Peace between the two Crowns Agapetus who was then seated on Saint Peters Chair was so Poor and Indigent that he had not wherewith to furnish himself with Provision for the Journey that he was fain to pawn the Sacred Vessels of Saint Peters Church to bear his charges by the way He failed not to transport himself into the East and was received by Justinian with all the respects due to so high a Dignity but when he came to touch upon the point of Peace the Emperour told him That the businesse was already too farre advanced That that Warre was an Holy Warre against the Enemies of God and his Church which ought not to be hindered by the Counsells of a Pope and that he need fear nothing that Theodate could do who was more able to threated then to hurt The Pope suffered himself easily to be perswaded and quitting the Interests of that King busied himself about the Government of his Church It is a wonder that he had so much Authority as to depose Anthimus Patriarch of Constantinople who had been brought in by Faction and to substitute Menas in his Place in spight of the Empresse Theodora who had not at that time all the power that is attributed to her over the spirit of her Husband The Good Shepheard after he had Courageously done the duty of his Charge dyed in Constantinople where he left a most sweet odour of his sanctity In the mean while Belizarius pursues the Conquest enters into Pou and takes Naples by night using a Stratagem of Warre that made him put on three hundred men through subterraneous places where there passed nothing but water The taking of so flourishing a City gave astonishment and rage to the Goths who Conspired against their King Theodate and substituted by Election Vitiges in his place who was not of so Noble a Family but who seemed to them Bold and Generous to repair the Ruines of the State As soon as he was chosen he suddenly caused Theodate to be slain who was surprised in his flight and washed away by his blood the murther of Amalazunta This Prince was agitated with two contrary Passions with the desire of solitude and with the motion of his ambition the one counselled him to quit the Empire the other to retain it while that he would content them both he contents no body and was surprised in his irresolution In this conjuncture of affairs the Grecian Generall advances and marches straight to Rome which receives him with open Arms some through love and others through impotence Vitiges desirous to make his Crown renowned by some illustrious Act and to confirm by his Valour the judgement of those that had chosen him assembles from all parts the Goths spurring them on both with the Glory of their Nation and the necessity of their affairs in such a manner that in a small time he lay siege to Rome with an Army of an hundred and fifty thousand men It is in this occasion that the Valour of Belizarius was made visible in all its advantages for with an Army of six thousand men he susteined that prodigious number of Barbarians amidst sicknesse hunger and a thousand other incommodities and when the Romans wanted Arms and Ammunitions of Warre he made Arrowes of the Statues of the Gods and of the Cesars to throw at the head of his enemies In the end having sollicited with diligence and expected with constancy the succours that came to him from the East he raised the siege and scattered all that thick Cloud of Armies that environed him Vitiges is constrained to retire into Ravenna where he besieges him and presses him so strictly that he forces him to deliver to him his City and even his own Person He was carried away Prisoner with his Wife and abundance of Lords to Constantinople presented to Justinian and served for a Pompous object in the Triumph of Belizarius who was received with the full satisfaction of all the Nobles with the admiration of the wisest and with the generall acclamation of all the World The Emperour alone began to be pricked with jealousie and to entertein him with coldnesse In the mean space the Goths make
carrying into the other world a great account to give to God for having embroiled the estate of the Church for having behaved her self imperiously and for having alway sought with ardency the satisfaction of her Revenge It is probable that she passed out of this life in the Catholick Belief and in Repentance But as concerning the death of Antonina her confident it is buried in a great obsurity and it is to be feared that her life extremely dissolute even to her old age and her damnable practices have cast her headlong into an eternall misery Justinian languished a long time after Theodora's death having seen all his designs of Warre of Law and of Buildings perfected bestowed his whole time afterwards in serving God and expired the rest of his life in Devotion to which he ever had a very strong inclination It is held that about the end of his dayes he fell into two errours the former whereof was That he should not die and indeed it seemed to all the world that death had passed him since he had already attained to the age of fourscore and four years which is very rare in an Emperour and not conformable to the Scripture which sayes That the life of Mighty men is ordinarily short enough neverthelesse it is not probable that in the solidity of his judgement which endured even to his end he should suffer himself to be perswaded with such a vanity The other fault which he committed is more true which is That by a zeal not discreet enough that he had conceived for the humanity of our Lord he would believe that it was not subject to our miseries but impassible and incorruptible even before his Resurrection He was near of publishing this opinion and authorising it by his ordinances but yet he never did it and repented of it at his last hour calling back in his Will the Patriarch Eutichius that he had driven away for opposing this his errour So Nicephorus writes manifestly and every equitable judgement will conclude with him for the salvation of this Emperour We have very considerable proofs of it first his name hath never been blotted out of the Ecclesiasticall Tables out of which it was a custome to deface the memory of Heretick Emperours Secondly S. Gregory the Great who speaks alwayes very correctly calls him Emperour of pious Memory In the third place Pope Agathon writing after his death saith That he was an Emulatour of the sincere and Apostolick faith Finally he was commended in the sixth universall Counsel with an Elogy worthy of a most Catholick Prince Even some Patriarchs of Constantinople have caused his memory to be yearly celebrated with acclamations of happinesse and publick Orations in his praise His great Austerities his magnificent Almes his Churches his Devotions his Laws his indefatigable pains for the Publick have defaced the spots that so easily slide into the lives of great ones Let us not rashly condemne that which we may excuse with Justice and let us not be evil with Ours if God will be good with His. I confesse that this end somewhat troubles me seeing my self constrained to follow an opinion different from that of a great modern Historian which handles this Emperour with much severity It is true that I have alwayes had a venerable esteem of that Authour knowing well that by the rayes of his virtues and of his learning he hath surpassed the lustre of the most glorious purples Yet the respect which I bear to Truth and the honour which I owe to the memory of great men that have so much obliged the Publick give me permission to say here that Justinian hath never been so black as he hath painted him being ill informed by the writings of Procopius and of Euagrius his enemies or following opinions that by a false intention and manifest equivocation are insinuated into the spirits of men many Ages since Fables easily surprise us and when they are authorised by a long time and by the belief of many persons they passe oftentimes for truths That which I say is manifest in that which Baronius himself writes touching the opinion which he had of the grosse ignorance of Justinian whom he reproaches often in his History that he could neither write nor read and yet it is now more then visible that it is an errour crept in by an equivocation of Names and a fault in Printing which hath caused the name of Justinian in the text of Suidas to be taken for that of Justin as I have already said This is so clear that the Commentatour of Procopius an enemy to Justinian as well as his Authour hath not been able to dissemble it but confesses that he hath observed in history that oftentimes the name of Justinian hath passed for that of Justin and that by this means the ignorance that agreed to his uncle Justin hath been attributed to this Monarch and farther yet the accident of the troubles of mind that befell his nephew Justin That which I say is proved after an excellent manner by the great Cassiodore who might have seen Justinian when being young he came into Italy who calls him aloud The Learned Prince and most wise Emperour And that grave Authour Agapetus who dedicated to him the Treatise of Reigning well which Baronius highly commends sayes openly that he was created Emperour Philosophizing and that in the Empire he ceased not from Philosophy And Procopius his Calumniatour avouches that he spent ordinarily a good part of the night in his closet to study upon the sublimest Sciences and that he could discourse of them pertinently with the ablest Scholars of his age After this judge if there be any reason to set him forth as a Peasant without Learning and without Letters Now as this illustrious Authour was overtaken in that which he spake concerning the wit and the capacity of Justinian so as being a man might he be mistaken in that which he hath written of his manners following some pieces of the slanderous history of Procopius which he had read in Euagrius and in others like him But I intreat my Reader yet once more to see and consider whether it be reasonable to believe that obscure Libel of an Authour enraged against the memory of that Prince to the prejudice of so many grave and judicious persons that have quite contrary opinions of him It is evident that this Procopius was a Libertine and a true Atheist who hath spoken and written in his first book of the History of the Gothes That it is a folly to trouble ones self about the belief of Divine things and that it should be left to every one whether Priestor Lay to believe all that shall seem good to him rather then disturb the Common-wealth being extreme angry that Justinian tormented the Pagans the Jews the Samaritans and endeavoured to reduce the whole world to the Christian and Catholick Belief Judge my Reader hereupon what faith a man deserves to have that making a shew to be a Christian
tender age in this voyage conceiving that he ought not to spare any thing which the service of God might require The ardent love caused him to expose his Royall person not onely to wearinesse but to the most dangerous blows of battels There is a certain jealous strictnesse of judgement in the understanding of men which would not that any one person should be excellent in the degree of Sovereignty in two illustrious qualities The reputation of Arms took away the high title of eloquence from Julius Cesar and we may see that S. Lewis contented himself with his rare devotion without taking that high part that he deserved in valour But this is the truth that he was courageous heroicall and valiant above all those brave ones whom the opinion of men do often deifie without very much desert Together with all his devotion he seemed to have obliged himself to take up Arms against his enemies even from his tenderest infancy He made wars both by sea and land in Europe Asia and Africa He was set upon in his minority by the neighbouring Princes and by the greatest Lords of his State from which he freed himself both by wisedome and valour marching forth into the field with the assistance of God and good counsell of his Mother He disarmed Philip his Uncle by courtesie the English by force he vanquished the inconstancy of Theohald by his stedfastnesse and the self-conceitednesse of Peter de Drues by his patience After he had pacified his kingdome he undertook the Holy War by a pious generousnesse of heart in the which he shewed marvellous valiantnesse of his person Joinville that was present saith that he stoutly ventured himself into the hottest conflicts of the battalions and fought fiercely with his own hand scattering and overthrowing the Sarazens that opposed his enterprises They speak much of the valour of Attila that visiting a certain place was set upon by two souldiers that had a purpose to kill him and escaped both the one and the other by his valour and mention But S. Lowis on a day having gone aside from the Army was set upon by six whom he put to flight by a victorious resistance When they were in some doubt about going a shore in his first voyage to Africa he was the first that threw himself upon the Coast of the Enemies with his sword in his hand without any amazement although he was up to the neck in water When he was seen at the beginning of the battel arrayed in his Royall arms he appeared like a Sun to the whole Army but as soon as he began to enter into the fight he was like a lightning that made a wonderfull flashing upon the Infidels together with all the misfortune of the time wherewith he was overborn he took the great and famous City of Damiata in his first voyage he discomfited the Sarazens in two battels he fortified four great places in Syria he compell'd the Emmiers of Egypt to restore him his prisoners he provided for the safety of all the Christians that were remaining in Palestine In his second voyage he vanquished at the first onset the Africans which had antiently made Italy Greece and Spain to tremble and had so long time disputed for the Empire of the world with the Romans and if he had not been hindred by sicknesse he had forthwith made himself master of Thunis and Carthage Behold what this ardent love did by his hands But the love indefatigable the true and faithfull character of a great stoutnesse of courage caused him not to be amazed at any thing and that he continued with an invincible magnanimity under the most burthensome accidents that contraried his enterprises This love caused him to make tryall of another voyage after the sad accidents of the first this love caused that the seas filled with terrours the Lands with Ant-heaps of Sarazens formed into Batalions the air that seemed from every part to let fly arrows of pestilence the wayes which were full of toyles the wars of terrours and maslacres the encounters of evil successe and the champions of a million of divers kinds of death never altered the constancy of his invincible heart The very day of his captivity after he had lost a great battel which overthrew all his affairs when as he saw the wayes covered with the dead bodies of his servants when he saw the river Nilus smoaking and bubling up the French blood when as the arrows of the Sarazens did fly round about his head like the hail on a winters day when as he was taken and carried to the Aunt of the Sultan and that he heard the clamours of those outrageous mouths that he saw so many infernall faces that might shake a soul of the stoutest temper he remained still in a great tranquility of mind and asked his page for his book of prayers which being ready he began to perform the duty of his Orazons which he presented every day to God with as quiet a spirit as if he had been returned from taking a walk in his gardens The very day that he was seased upon by the pestilence he beheld death coming upon him with a settled countenance he disposed of the affairs of his kingdome and of his house with a great judgment gave very excellent instructions to the princes children comforted all his good servants strengthened himself with the Sacraments entred into extasies of divine love which drove out of his heart all the cares of this present life The poor Prince sooner failed of his life then he could fail of his constancy and faithfulnesse to his high virtue It is here O Providence that you cover with a canopy of the night and darknesse the great events of the affairs of the world it is here that we acknowledge your government This Prince so wise so humble so holy which deserved that the world should bend under his laws and to have constrained good fortune to fly no where but about his colours in the mean while was handled by you as it seems to many not like to an indulgent mother but as by a step-mother severe and rigorous Alas the Lands have often undertaken the yoke and the seas have spread their back with coverlids by a pleasing calmnesse under the arms and vessels of Pirates Was there none but this Monarch to whom all creatures ought to have served as a defence that could deserve to be so evil handled at your hands In the first of his expeditions he lost his liberty and in the second his life What is the meaning of this O Providence draw the courtain a little uncover your secrets and unceil our eyes to behold them She answereth that the generall truth hath revealed to us in the Gospel his judgements on this point when he said to the Jewes which were come to take him behold your hour and the power of darknesse It is true that by a certain order of God and for causes very reasonable well known to his Providence
all rhe Nations that are from India to Ethiopia To the Princes and Governours of the seven and twenty Provinces of our Empire Greeting Many abusing through their Pride the Goodnesse of Princes and the Honours that have been given them do not onely endeavour to oppresse People but also by a detestable Felony to attempt upon the Life of their Benefactours not being able to bear the Weight of the Glory to which they are Exalted They are not contented to be Ingratefull for Benefits and to Violate the Laws of Humanity but perswade themselves that though they runne out into so great Crimes they shall escape the Judgments of that Great God from whom nothing is Concealed Their Fury is so irregulated that though they be defiled with all sorts of Vices they Accuse those that are Innocent and observe punctually all the Justnesse of their Duty endeavouring to ruine them by the Artifices and Juglings of their Lyes And for this they surprise the Ear of Kings who have an Heart full of Goodnesse and Sincerity measuring those that are near their Persons by their own Dispositions The Proof of this may befound in Antient Stories and even in those of our Dayes too which shew sufficiently how the Good Intentions of Kings are Corrupted by the wicked Counsels of their Ministers and Servants For this Reason we ought to give order for the Peace of our Provinces and if we are Constrained to make you a Countermand know that it proceeds rather from the necessity of the Times then from the inconstancy of our Resolutions It is necessary that you should understand that Haman the son of Amadatha a Macedonian by Nation and Affection after he had been promoted by our Goodnesse to the second Place of our Kingdome hath defiled by his Cruelty the effects of our Piety and hath puffed himself up with so great an Arrogance as to have dared to attempt to deprive us of our Sceptre and of our Life For he resolved to cause Mordecai to Dye to whose Fidelity I own my preservation and to destroy with him Hester the Companion of our Bed and of our Sceptre with her whole Nation by Inventions pernicious and till this time unheard of He hoped by this means that having taken away ouâ Conservatours he might surprise us in a Dereliction and translate the Kingdome of the Persians to the Macedonians But we have discovered that the Jews destined to death by this wicked Villain are without fault That they use good Laws and that they are the true Children of the most High most Great and Everliving God by whom the Empire is given and preserved to us And for this Reason we make void and disannul the Letters that he hath directed to you in our Name to cause them to be Murthered making you to know that the Authour of the Lye hath been hanged upon the Gallowes at the Gate of Shushan God rendering to him that which he hath deserved Furthermore we Will and Ordain that the Jews live in all our Provinces according to their Law and Ceremonies and that you assist them in bringing their Enemies to Punishment the same day that they had determined to destroy them seeing that the God Almighty hath turned to them into Joy that day of Tears and Grief And since that that is Important even for our Life and Preservation We Command that that Day be put in the number of the Feasts that Posterity may know the Recompenses of our Faithfull Servants and the Punishment of those that oppose our Will and make attempt upon our State And if there be any Province or City that refuses to solemnize that very Day with Joyes and Chearfulnesse befitting it we Will that it be destroyed with Fire and Sword and that it be made inaccessible to Men and Beasts to perpetuity to give an Example to others by the punishment of their contempt and Disobedience The Commands of the King were diligently executed and the Jews Dreaded and Honoured in all places by reason of the great Credit that Mordecai had with the King his Master It seemed that the Sunne was risen a new for these people heretofore afflicted and that Heaven powred down upon them blessings in abundance There was nothing every where but Joyes but Dances but Feasts in Testimony of so publick an alacrity But it is clear that Hester held yet somewhat of the Old Testament in the searching out of the enemies of her Nation and in the Revenge that she caused to be ex-excised every where upon them that had sworne her Ruine Haman's House was given her and ten of his Sons hanged to accompany the punishment of their Father Five hundred men were slain in Shushan for having adhered to that miserable man and through all the rest of the Cities of the Kingdome much blood was shed on the same day that had been assigned for the Massacres of the Hebrews We must avow that this History is wonderfully Tragicall and one of the most wonderfull Revolutions of Fortune that ever arrived to Great ones to make Posterity feare the Judgements of a God whose Hand is as weighty in the Chastisement of Crimes as his Eye quick-sighted in the discerning of Hearts The SOULDIERS JOSHUA JUDAS MACCABEUS IOSVE IVDAS MACHABEE HE must be ignorant of the chief and most visible of beauties that knowes not Joshua One cannot see the Sun without remembring the great commerce that this Valourous Captain had with the King of Stars All the World lift their eyes up to it but none hath ever lifted his voyce as far as it to make himself be heard and to make himself to be obeyed The Stars knew Joshua because he bore the Name of him that formed them It is he that first gave us the fore-tasts of the name of Jesus at which the Heaven the Earth and Hell do bend the knee What lovely thing had not this generous Joshua seeing one cannot name him without mentioning Salvation which is the wish and content of all men Who would think that such a spirit had been born and bred in servitude And yet he was Pharaohs slave he was as the rest in the chain that was at that time common to all his people Those were very patient that could endure it but he was far more valiant that found a means to break it When in his little infancy he played upon the banks of the River of Nile with the other prisoners he then strook terrour into all its flotes and the Angels of Egypt knew that he should tread under his feet the pride Pharaoh and carry away the spoils of that proud kingdome so many times cemented with the blood of his brethren He did every thing by Moses's orders and Moses did nothing without him If one was the eye of his people the other was the arm if one was the Conductour of them the other was the Protectour If one had the Providence the other reserved to himself the execution which is ordinarily the most difficult piece of Prudence
dinner of Locusts and wild Honey retired in his Cabben then at the fight of the pomps and pleasures of the King of Galilee But God that is the Master of Kings and the Directour of Hermites hath thus disposed of him and willed that he should dye at Court after he had so long a time lived in the wildernesse It is not certainly known what occasion drove him to it whether he went thither by zeal or whether he was sent for by design or whether he was forced by violence Some think that the miseries of his countrey afflicted under the government of a dissolute Prince affecting him with a great Compassion He went out of the desert of his own accord to admonish the king of his duty Since that all those that came neer him and that were obliged to speak to him were mute partly by a servitude fatall to all those that are tyed to the hopes of the world and partly also being seized with fear by reason of the power and cruelty of a womans spirit that possessed Herod Others as Josephus have written that the Prince hearing every day of the great concourse of all sorts of people that went to the wildernesse to see Saint John was afraid lest under colour of piety this might make some change of State Tyrants love not men endowed with an extraordinary virtue and that have not learnt the trade of flattering their voyce is the Cock that frights those cruell Lyons their life is a flash of Lightning that dazles their Eyes their actions are as many Convictions of their Iniquity And therefore this Authour saith that without other form of processe Herod caused him to be apprehended to prevent him and break off those assemblies that were made about him Yet it is probable and more consonant to the Scripture which assures us that this Prince bare some respect to John and heard him and did many things according to his advice that he proceeded not against him at first with so much violence But the cunning Fox as he was according to the judgement that the Eternall Truth made of him seeing that Saint John was in an high esteem for holinesse and in great credit amongst the people strived to winne him and to draw him to him to make himself be reputed for a good Prince that cherished honest men and to maintain by this means his authority that was already rottering and little rooted in the true Maximes of a good Government It was thus that Dionysius the Tyrant made use of the Philosophers not for any affection that he bare them but to appropriate them to the bad intentions that he had in State and to give them some colour by the expresse or interpreted approbation of those personages that were in reputation for their wisdome But Herod did ill choose his man this was not a Court-flatterer a Tool for all Trades a Shoe for all Feet but a stiffe and austere man to whom a whole World would not have given the least temptation to do any thing against his conscience It would be a superfluous thing to enlarge ones self at length upon the rare qualities of Saint John who having been many times highly commended by the Creatour of Virtues and the Distributour of true praises who hath preferred him above the greatest of the world seems to have dryed up by his abundance the Elogies of the most eloquent Let us content our selves to say that there are abundance of excellencies in him enough to make all chaires speak and all pens write even to the end of the world He was born of the blood of Aaron the brother of Moses the first ornament of the Priesthood and the great Conductour of the People He came out of a barren Womb which he rendered fruitfull above all fecundities of the earth His birth was declared miraculously by the voyce of an Archangell He was sanctified almost as soon as conceived and virtue appropriated him to her self before that nature had brought him to the Light He was a worshipper of the word when he was yet in the bowels of his mother and received the first rayes of the everlasting day before that his eye was open to the brightnesse of the Sun Reason was advanced to him by a wonder altogether extraordinary He hath had this honour to know first after the Virgin Mary the news of that high mystery of the Incarnation and of the Redemption of the world Of all the Nativities of so many children of Adam the Church celebrates none but that of John who hath this common with our Saviour and his most holy Mother who by a speciall priviledge honoured his birth by her actuall presence So that he saw his first day under the aspect of the Mother of the Universe His name was given him by an Archangell a name of grace and favour that shewed he was placed in the ranke of the dearest delights of Heaven and the tongue of his dumb Father tyed by an heavenly virtue was loosed by its power that it might pronounce that fair name He was exempted from grievous sins and as many Divines hold even from veniall He consecrated his retirement in the Desert almost as soon as he entered into the world Farthermore he was a Prophet and more then a Prophet a Virgin a Doctour a forerunner of the Son of God the Trumpet of Repentance the Authour of a Baptisme that ushered in that which regenerates us all whereof Jesus was pleased to receive the sprinckling In fine he was the Horizon of the Gospel and the Law and the first that shewed with the finger the Lamb of God and the Kingdome of Heaven But let us make no reckoning of what I have alleaged but let us say onely that which the word hath said of him That he was not a Reed to bow at every wind nor a man that could be allured by the delicacies of the Court He spake there as a Prophet he conversed there as an Angell and at last dyed there as a Martyr The time furnished him with an occasion about which he could not speak without making much noyse and he could not hold his peace without betraying his Conscience That Herod Antipas which we are to speak of here was the sonne of the great Herod the Murtherer of the Innocents and of a Samaritan woman who after the death of his Father forasmuch as the Legitimate issue of Mariamne had been unworthily murthered to make way for unjust heirs had for his part of the Kingdome of Judea Galilee which he held in quality of a Tetrarch He was a Prince of a small courage addicted to his pleasures lascivious and loose that endeavoured to preserve himself by poor shifts having nothing stout nor warlike in his person He had a brother named Philip which held another parcell of that Kingdome of Judea dismembred and little enough considerable the Romans having possessed themselves of the best part of it after they had deposed Archelaus that had reigned as Successour of his
resolve to examine the Processe himself The Saint was presented before one of the most corrupt Judges under heaven he was brother to Pallas a servant infranchized who in the Reign of Claudius was the God of the times and Felix as Cornelius Tacitus doth affirm being covered with the great power and favour of his brother did usurp the Authority of a King which he managed with a servile spirit making Cruelty and Lasciviousnesse to reign with equal power in his Government He was the husband or rather the adulterer of three Queens and she who then possessed him was called Drusilla who was the daughter of that Agrippa who was in chains by Tiberius of whom I have made mention in the Tome of the Maxims and descended from the bloud of Mariamna She was married to one named Azizus King of the Emmessaeans but because that Royalty was of no great extent she preferred the President above the King so that Felix courting her for her rare beauty she did willingly forsake her husband to espouse the brother to the great Favourite Pallas who lived then under a most high consideration She conversed with him according to the Law of the Jews and was almost as nice in the curiosity of Religions as of her beauties which was the reason that the more to gratifie her Felix did cause S. Paul to be brought before him He was brought in chains before the President and S. Paul before the Tribunall of Felix the Prince of the Priests failed not to make his appearance at Cesarea with the Antients of the Jewish Nation who brought with them an Advocate named Tertullus to plead against S. Paul which he performed coldly enough But the great Champion of Jesus Christ did defend himself with so great a vivacity of spirit that the Judge did clearly discover that he was not guilty of any fault which was the occasion that he used him with the more humanity and told him that at leisure he would decide that businesse himself in the mean time he permitted him to live at more liberty not hindering any to come unto him and administer things necessary for his life yet for all this he was still under a guard of Souldiers Not long after Felix called for him and his wife Drusilla comes to hear him Drusilla who was the cause of his more gentle usage did speak unto him in the presence of her husband and desired to hear him on his discourses of Faith which gave a fair occasion to our Apostle to speak who driving on his Discourse with vigour did so enlarge himself on the subject of Justice of Chastity and of universall Judgement that Felix was much afraid and interrupted his Discourse fearing that he should leave some Scruples on the conscience of his wife concerning their marriage It is easie to conjecture that this poor Princesse was much shaken at it although the chains of Love and of Ambition did so link her to the world that we do not reade that she was absolutely converted to the Faith and number of the Christians Felix stopping his ears to Judgement did open his eyes to money and having learned that S. Paul had brought great sums of Charity unto Jerusalem he oftentimes spoke with him and seemed to make much of him hoping to gain something from him but when he perceived that there was nothing to be had and that the time of his Commission was expired he left Saint Paul to the discretion of Festus his successour desiring in that to gratifie the Jews and to divert the accusation which they intended at Rome against him Festus being arrived at Jerusalem was invironed Festus renews the Processe S. Paul appealeth to Rome by the chief of the Jews who with importunity did demand that Paul might be sent to Rome to be judged there having a design to kill him by the way But the President did deny them and did command them to come to Cesarea where he would continue in the expectation of them Thither they did transport themselves violently to follow their Accusations which were all effectually answered and confuted by S. Paul who did demonstrate that he had offended neither their Law nor the Temple nor Cesar Festus to content the importunity of the Jews did demand of him if he would go to Jerusalem to decide the controversie there but he refused the Jurisdiction of those perverse people and said That he stood at the Tribunall of Cesar and would have no other Judge and that he appealed to the Emperour The Judge had some debate thereupon and it was resolved that he should be sent to Rome In the mean time the young King Agrippa the son The young Agrippa King of Judea with his sister Bernice assist at the judgement of Paul of that Agrippa before specified came to Cesarea with his sister Bernice to complement the new Governour who received them with great courtesie and amongst other things he made a relation to them of his prisoner which possessed them both with a great curiosity to see him Festus did invite them to the Audience at which on the next morning they appeared with great pomp This was a great Theatre which God had prepared for the publishing of the Gospel where were present a King a Queen the Governour of the Romans the principall of the Nation of the Jews and an infinit number of people who did attend the successe of that action S. Paul having received commandment to speak made a long discourse couched in the Acts of the Apostles where he rendred a reason of his Faith and spake most worthily of the Resurrection of the dead of his Conversion to Christianity of the Apparition of Jesus of the Publication of the Gospel and of the Prophecies that did forego it He declared himself with so much ardency that Festus the President who was a Festus touched with the words of S. Paul Heathen and found his Pagan conscience wounded by his truths was constrained to interrupt him and to tell him That much learning had made him mad but S. Paul replyed to him That he spoke the words of Truth and Sobriety and turning from him to King Agrippa he took him to witnesse it as being one who was not ignorant of the Prophets This young King was so ravished at it that he professed publickly to the Apostle that he had felt him in his heart and that he had almost perswaded him to be a Christian whereupon S. Paul made a great acclamation of joy wishing him that happinesse to be like him in all things his Bonds excepted not judging that this Prince was yet an object capable of the Crosse He was of a sweet condition but he had then great obstacles which hindred him from embracing the saving Truth Bernice who assisted at that Audience was a most lovely Princesse the sister of this Agrippa and Drusilla but not so happy in the reputation of her Honour as of her Beauty She was married first unto her uncle and
whole Negotiation to the Queen and trust to none to whom she had not spoken and openly testified her desires In the mean time the Earl of Leicester who had promised to speak unto her and who onely could give a fair colour to the estate of that Marriage to perswade Elizabeth to incline unto it did deferre to speak unto her from day to day and being importuned to it by the violent sollicitations of the Duke he counterfeited himself sick and continued in a malignant silence He knew very well that to ruin a good busines The fury of Elizabeth we must make use of an indiscreet tongue he therefore permitted that some Ladies who for the most part with curiosity enough do deliver the secrets of lovers should report the first news of it unto the Queen This was to put her spirit upon the Rack and to torment her in the most sensible part She who was extreamly jealous on any motions that were made unto her concerning the Queen of Scotland and would grow into a fury upon the least discourse that did reflect upon her right unto the Crown finding her self assaulted at one time by two strong passions did enter into a rage that cannot be represented Her spirit which naturally was formed for dissimulation could not now conceal it self but she did let fall some words unto the Duke of Norfolk telling him That although he slept softly upon a cushion be should take care it was not taken from him And immediately upon it leaving off these riddles she sharply reproved him for presuming on the marriage with the Queen of Scotland without first acquainting her with it The Duke made answer That he never attempted any thing of himself without attending her pleasure and commandement and that he gave an express charge to the Earl of Liecester to acquaint her with it and to desire her condiscent unto it but perceiving her Majesty was averse unto it he would willingly forbear any further suit having no other aim but to rule his life and fortunes according unto her intentions On this promise she departed from him and went to look out the Earl of Liecester who was the Master of the Guard of the Chamber who understanding that she was advertised that the secret of the marriage was deposed in his brest he was suddenly possessed with a great fear which made him look pale and tremble in the presence of the Queen whom he prevented and with tears in his eyes besought her to excuse him that he had not acquainted her with it because he said he waited an opportunity to find her in a good humour to give the less trouble to her mind which is found before to be too much disquited His counterfeit sickness his pale colour but above all the inordinate affection which Elizabeth did bear unto him did at that time save him from the thunder of her Choler But poor Norfolk did presently behold himself abandoned by his friends discountenanced by the Queen followed spied persecuted and at last confined to the Tower of London Not long after there were scaffolds made in the The horrible Catastrophe of the Duke of Norfolk great Palace a Tribunal was planted and seats were made one both sides of it for the Commissioners to sit who were to be his Judges He was brought to the Bar by two Knights before whom an Ax was carried the back whereof was turned towards the accused The Earl of Talbot was made President of the Court and sate on the Judgement seat and on both sides of him there were ranked a considerable number of Judges and Counsellours After that their Commission was read the Duke was cited and accused to have endeavoured to dispossess Queen Elizabeth and to set the Queen of Scotland on her Throne To hold great intelligence with the Pope and forreign Princes enemies to the Crown of England and with his possession to have assisted the enemies of the State with many more particulars The poor Duke was much amazed to see himself so suddenly invested with so dangerous an accusation and charged with so many Articles He desired that he might be allowed Counsel to draw up his justification but it was refused and being demanded to answer readily to the Crimes of which he was accused he replied very innocently I commend my self to God and to my Peers The Atrocity of the Crimes do amaze me but the Royal Clemency of her Majesty which hath conferred favours on me beyond my hope doth again incourage me I beseech you my Lord President that I may have right done unto me and that my memory may not be too much oppressed with the variety of confused complaints I acknowledge my self happy to have you my Peers to be my Judges and most willingly do commit my life to the integrity of the greatest part of you assuring you on my innocence that I will not faulter with you and though I do ingeniously acknowledge that I have not altogether directed my actions according to an exact rule of Justice yet so it is that I have not offended her Majesty At that time there was one Barret Advocate General to the Queen a violent man bold against those who were fearfull and fearfull of those who were bold who to shew his abilities and the zeal which he did bear to the service of his Mistress did vigorously proceed against the Duke and did perplex him with multitudes of words The good Duke who knew better how to handle his sword than his tongue and had withall but an uncertain memory did defend his honour and his life as well as he could but his party was no way equal so much Authority perfidiousnes and malice did pour down upon him that he was not able to wade through it At the last he was commanded to withdraw that they might advise upon his sentence and on his return they shewed the edge of the Ax towards him to carry him before hand the sad news of the sentence of his death which condemned him to be drawn upon a sledge unto the Gibbet to be there hanged drawn and quartered This sentence did startle him at the horrour of it and produced from him these expressions Sentence is here pronounced against me as a Traitour but I do trust in God the Queen I hope though I am deprived of your company I shall rejoyce in that which is in Heaven in that assurance I will prepare my self for death I desire nothing of the Queen but onely that she will be favourable to my Children and my servants and that there may be care taken for the discharge of my debts Some moneths afterwards the sentence of death being a little moderated he was brought to the place of execution where he died like a Divine rather than a Souldier preaching to the people and accusing himself that he treated on the marriage with the Queen of Scotland without acquainting his own Queen with it He also accused himself of having seen letters written
Gentlemen are despoiled of almost all their goods complaints are universall and daily multiplied against Taxes and Exactions which are the aliment that pampers this prodigious pastime But no force of treasure is comparable to the greedinesse of the exactours themselves those gluttons of oppression The riches of a few men causeth a penury amongst all men the odious rejoycings of the unjust are saginated with the tears of the miserable Who is the Architect the Contriver the Artizan of all these evils King Lewis say they is the Authour of the Warre But can a Prince so pious so chaste so perpetually cloathed with the fear of God raise such storms cause such tempests Whilst he lived he daily lifted up undefiled hands to Heaven was frequently conversant in holy Mysteries and a common Father of such an exemplary and chastised Conscience that he could not forgive himself the least contamination till he had craved mercy from his God and washt away his pollution with the Sacramentall Bloud he fought by necessity he overcame by valour he was magnanimous in Resolution famous in Warre and forward in Peace Who therefore can conceive that horrid and bloudy Councels tending to the destruction of the whole Christian world could have had either a conception in or a welcome into that religious sacrary of his heart Who can imagine that hatred and grudges that displeasures and revenge could find an entertainment in his breast But perhaps the Emperour delights in dissentions and nourisheth his fancy with the turbulency of Christian affairs Judgement forbid that any man should believe this for he is a Prince accomplished with the best endowments and compounded of equity and ingenuity vivacity of spirit and solidity of wisdome What can be more agreeable to him then with the gentle hand of a Pacificatour to quiet his Germany shaken with such a dreadfull inundation of Warres What Is the King of Spain then the disturber No man can prove that who hath the most intimate acquaintance with the sense and apprehensions of that great King For he if any other hath a Christian mind a pleasant wit more prone to love and concord then disposed to quarrels and controversies There is nothing of fiercenesse or immoderation in him nothing of malevolence and despight he is carefull to enjoy his own greatnesse carelesse to exercise an unjust domination From whence then floweth all this sea of bloud if no anger lodgeth in celestiall minds Who seeth not that it happens not by humane designment but that it was hatcht in Tophet and the Mali Genii of the Nations have cherisht it to this formidable growth that they might blast our flourishing estate abate our plenty and undermine our happinesse The Affairs of Christendome were too potent when the Factions of Hereticks were overthrown it was their machination to turn our swords reaking with the bloud of our enemies into our own bowels They raised the commotions in Italy at Mantua and they broached all the Warres in Germany they have engaged by a malignant enmity the principall Crowns of Christian Fame in an implacable Warre raging with ineffable destructions the Church mourning Infidels and carnall men rejoycing and hell it self triumphing In the great vicissitudes of things there hath often intervened a bad mind which vitiateth the counsels or retardeth the good determinations of Princes and diverteth them from taking a right aim at Glory Scarce had they saluted the skirts of his Dominions but being exagitated by factious whirlwinds the good King recrowned with triumphant Laurels is called into Italy the Alpes must be penetrated in the depth of winter a journey must be forced thorow rocks concealed with now and lined with armed men the opposite forces must be intermingled and battels fought upon all disadvantages which difficulties being conquered by a wonderfull courage and an equall felicity and therefore they devise and trust to other arâs of gubernation then God hath prescribed as if he saw not enough or were carelesse of his people They excogitate new subtil and crafty wayes of procedure whereby to augment their own and entangle the estates of others and if they can to intermingle and endanger all They conceive it to be the part of a King to mind themselves alone to guard and watch the safety of themselves alone to referre all things to themselves and to make their way to ample and royall profits if any opposition come in their way over the carcasses of their subjects That truth and falshood know no distinction but with reference to our profit unto which all the lives of all our actions must be concentrick and that whatsoever is profitable is onely unlawfull among fools that an humble and timorous conscience is too importunate in the method of high Counsels That subjects should be taught to exercise Religion with a scrupulous tendernesse that Princes must practise it or upon it for advantage That solid virtue is an hinderance if not lawfull 't is the shadow and resemblance of it that is commodious that honesty is praised yet freezeth that nothing is unlawfull to Kings that is magnificent for the Kingdomes This is not that I may use the words of the Apostle This is not that wisdom which descendeth from above but earthy carnall diabolicall which imposeth upon minds bewitched and involveth Kingdomes in a miserable destruction Farre different Excellent Princes is your reiglement and vastly opposite is your understanding to these infernall notions For were it committed to your care to manage the Affairs not of a Christian Empire but to govern the Kingdome of the Sarazens yet this Doctrine would occurre from the very Books and Institutes of Heathenish Legislatours that craft is pernicious to those that turn the globe of Government that this is humble and base and alwayes hatefull seldome and never long together advantageous Whereupon Thucydides the most scientificall Polititian saith That a Common-wealth is better governed and more prosperously by moderate men and such as have an indifferent wit then by the acute and such as are superabundantly industrious But yer should you act the parts of men exiled from God and lawlesse in the world yet according to humane sense and as is believed no unprofitable craft excuse were due to them who have the overseeing of many things which concern all men But now seeing that you perceive that your Empires are continued to you chiefly by those things by which they began who seeth not that Christian Kingdomes are established in Faith Justice and Lenity and that they are subverted by Impiety Injustice and Cruelty Who observes not that those men who stray from the Canons of heavenly Wisdome precipitate themselves into devious enormities and caliginous observations Consult if you please the whole body of History and consider what have been the exits of Tiberians and Herodians you shall sind this to be the pedigree of their everlasting reproach first a subdolous and wily mind a life full of thorny cares and dawning jealousies brittle and fugitive hopes
Hermingildus who will perpetually be yours what over happen Those who have armed your clemency to the ruin of your bloud have chased me from your Court and Palace but not been able to separate me from your love I have lived hitherto like a poor exile and as it were a dead man among the living If my enemies be not satisfied with my miseries behold Sir I stretch my hands wholly disarmed to the power which nature hath given you over me ready to live or die at your feet The King whether he dissembled his passion or whether he truly were touched with such a spectacle of piety embraced him with much tenderness saying Ah my son evil same hath depainted you much other than you are I assure you this confidence which you have witnessed unto me hath now set you free from all suspition You are very welcome most dear son where have you left the Princess your wife The Prince replied She should speedily be at Court Goizintha faileth not to be there present and to shew to her son-in-law all possible courtesies which so confirmed the mind of Hermingildus that he instantly discharged himself from all distrust and prepared to send suddenly for Indegondis to come to the Court A friend notwithstanding whispered him in the ear that it was not necessary for him to hasten so much and that he must ever fear a still sea an old man amorous and a step-mother too courteous The fifteenth SECTION Hermingildus wickedly betrayed THis speech was but too true for the pernicious Goizintha foreseeing if Hermingildus were once again fully possessed of the heart of his father whereof there was some probability he would not fail to revenge himself on her for the affront done to his wife and if it were not with diligence prevented he might discover her sleights and disturb all her faction She therefore called a fatal Councel wherein she resolved to overthrow this poor Prince She gained unto her infamous men who poured into the ears of King Levigildus whatsoever they thought good she suborneth witnesses she causeth letters to be produced and frameth a gross calumny giving her husband to understand that this reconciliation of his son was but a matter of disguise the better to arrive at the scope of his intentions that he hath sworn the ruin of his father and that his spirit is become so arrogant he cannot endure him as a companion in the Empire that it is a thing undoubted that all the Romans desire to lift him to the throne That he hath practised alliance with the Emperour of Constantinople whereof express letters might be produced and to shew this is a business already concluded he hath delegated his wife a cunning and turbulent spirit into Africa to pass from thence to Constantinople and to bring with her all the forces of the Empire to fall upon Spain that there was no other remedy but with all speed to prevent his design and to make him feel the power of despised clemency She spake so much both of truth and falshood and her Commissioners were so well practised to forge many suspitions and represent a thousand accidents in affairs which seemed to confirm this conspiracy that in the end Levigildus entered into a frenzy more gross than had possessed him before and having declared his son guilty of treason he caused him to be suddenly taken and shut up in a strait prison It was a pitifull thing to behold this Prince a man wholly innocent seized on in the middest of all the pleasing triumphs of the Court which they had prepared to honour his arrival betrayed even at that time when he least thought thereon and used with so much cruelty A matter very natural to heresie where after they had clothed him with sackcloth he was so loaden with chains that he became crooked not being able at all to lift up his head He then well knew his hour was come so that renouncing all the pleasures of this life he began couragiously to prepare himself for death The King accompanied with some Commissioners whom he had given in charge to draw his process would needs see him and beholding him suffered himself instantly to be transported with great disturbances of choller calling him ungratefull parricide and wicked wretch The Prince mildly answered Sir could I foretel I should know what I had done and wherefore I am accused but since I have no such spirit I will die in silence The father replied his ill conscience suggested thereof enough unto him and that he knew but too much what designs he had upon the State and the life of his father that he would have him speak freely and that if he could justifie himself in these points he would gladly hear him Hermingildus at that time made the Apologie which I have else where expressed in Latin approching as near as I might to his own intentions and phrase and am here ready to render it in our language that I may not frustrate my Reader of it Sir said the Prince the proof of my innocencie is as easie as the defence thereof is difficult I reposed next after God all my confidence in your Majestie to choak the flame of cruel envie wherewith you see me assailed and as it were still smoking I attended to implore your name to challenge your power and to have you for witness of my fidelitie unworthily treated by slander and now I have you for an ardent accuser and a most severe Judge nay which is more an incensed father You have caused me to be taken as it were from the table of a feast by you prepared for congratulation of my return you have made me to be despoiled of purple to be bound and fettered like a galley-slave I fear lest the justification of my actions may not be the condemnation of yours and that in seeking to defend mine own innocencie I be not enforced to accuse the errour of my father which is to me one of the greatest punishments I can suffer Notwithstanding since you command I should speak not that in the condition whereunto affairs are arrived I may hope of any thing either by my discourse or silence but hap what may I will pour into your ears the last voice of my bloud For did my accusers demand no other thing than my life I would willingly give it them without reply but seeing they go about to fasten infamie on mine ashes I beseech your Majestie to hear the few words I have to say The business here is not a new crime it is a very long time since the Queen your wife and our step-mother Goizintha began to weave this web against my brother and me to deprive your scepter of its lawfull heirs and give your Crown as a prey to her ambition Would to God I might now call out of the other world the blessed sould of my dead mother to be present at this judgement She would speak and I might be silent she would remember your Majestie how
being in the agonies of that fatal hour which took from us this great Queen she embraced my brother and me beseeching you by your chast loves and inviolable faith of marriage to be unto us both father and mother We were then of an age wherein we could not as yet either feel or bemoan our losses Notwithstanding seeing you bowed over the bodie which yielded up the ghost with weeping eyes we gave our infant-tears to her memorie as a just tribute of Nature but you taking your little orphans into your bosom forbade them to mourn which you could hardly do and wiping away their tears promised you hereafter would become to us a father for protection and a mother for indulgence I then grew up under your eyes spinning out the course of my innocent years and am come to an age capable to bear some share in your hopes Had you any thing at that time in the world more dear unto you than your Hermingildus Dignities were for him for him Empires wars were made by him and peace concluded in his name Hermingildus was the object of your thoughts the entertainment of your discourse the contentment of your heart Your Majestie then resolved to marrie me although very young you found out for me a wife daughter of a King sister of a King neece of a King but such an one as by her virtues surpassed all titles of Kingdoms Ah poor maid who would have said then that thou wast reserved to be the subject of so lamentable a Tragedie I was reputed the most happie man of the world since for me were born so many singular virtues and perfections admired by all men I must confess I loved this Princess not so much by the ways of an ordinarie love as a certain admiration of her virtues For I have received the faith by her pietie her example and her doctrine holding in her soul the rank of a husband a disciple and as it were of her own son Thereupon Goizintha began to possess your heart and to gain superemtnence in your affairs so changing your will by her ordinarie practises that she hath turned all your ancient favours into disdain your confidence into suspition your resolution into disturbance and your mud temper into command This woman hath so persecuted me that in your Court I neither enjoyed watchings rest recreation nor affairs without danger But I have willingly passed under silence all that which touched mine own person until she fell upon an action so barbarous which were sufficient to justifie the Scythians and Tartars I have no words to speak it having so much sorrow to feel it Enough is said when there hath been seen a daughter of so many Kings trampled under the foot of a woman whose birth I will not reproch because indeed I well know it not a Princess most innocent beaten even to bloud by a mother-in-law a Ladie replenished with honour disarayed of her garments by unworthie servants and plunged by little and little into a pool in a cold season to consummate a Martyrdom such as the ancient Tyrants never invented more cruel for women contenting themselves to impose oftentimes onely nakedness for a punishment Had I revenged my self of such inhumanitie with sword and fire no man could have thought my proceeding unjust nor my thoughts unreasonable notwithstanding I have still endeavoured to cure my self by the remedie most ordinarie with me which was patience I in silence retired unto a Citie which your Majestie gave me for lively-hood resolved there peaceably to pass my days with my wife whilest we beheld the face of this Court so adverse to our hopes But your Goizintha as if we had committed a great sin in not enduring her to thrust a sword through our throats hath sounded an alarm in your Palace and afterward in all the Province declaring me an enemie to the countrey an usurper of the Crown of my father a Parricide a creature excommunicate and adding thereunto words much more injurious against me and my wife For my part Sir I wish you had rather hearkened to our innocencie than served her passion all then had succeeded better But after strange Levies were made you came thundering upon Sevil to besiege me with a huge Armie so that you seemed to stir all the elements against me I confess it I then followed the instinct which God giveth creatures even the most bruitish to defend their own family and fortune I took arms not to offend you but to safeguard my self and my wife against the furies of a step-mother who makes use of all arrows for our rain Yet seeing my armies reduced to that point that I had no means to escape without giving battel which must necessarily be fatal to both parts I renounced for your sake the laws of nature and am come to render my self up to your discretion I call to witness the Altars holy fire and the Angel-guardians which have seen me prostrated before them of the sinceritie of my intentions and of the tears I have shed for you having not leisure then to bemoan my self Afterward your Majestie sent my brother unto me to give me assurance of your love you called me forth I am come I have suppliantly intreated you have received me I prostrated my self at your feet you have raised me with so many favours and so many tokens of good will that I could require no more for my safetie I ask who hath changed your affection who hath tarnished our joys and withered the olives of peace but she who being not able to ruin me with weapon in hand seeks to have my bloud by form of justice Behold my accusation and crime behold all that which hath made me to be clothed with sackcloth and chained with fetters ordained for Galley-salves The father who was of an ardent spirit interrupteth him hereupon and demandeth where his wife was whether he had not sent her into Africk to pass from thence to Constandinople The Prince answered He had onely projected this in his mind not for any other purpose but to advise upon the safetie of her person not knowing as then how matters would stand and that accidents had taught him he was wise enough in his counsels but less happie than he imagined The King insisteth and interrogateth whether he had not treated alliance with the Emperour Tiberius He thereunto replied that he had never practised any other correspondence but to draw from him some Troups for the defence of his life and that so soon as he saw some overture of peace he had dismissed them resolving to make no further use of them He then was pressed upon divers questions to which he made most pertinent answers shewing very evidently to the miserable father the colours and pretexts which they made use of to ruin him unless passion should cast a film over his eyes In the end seeing he could not convince his son to have practised any thing since the accord was made between them both he made a