the miserie of the time and malice of Herod permitted Mariamne still reposing in the calmness of her Prudence of Mariamne noble spirit declared to the King in her natural sweetness That he was the support of her house greatly decayed and at that time upon such terms that she had no care to pretend to scepters she onely desired to breath her last in the world with honour If he should give a Miter to her brother Aristobulus it were to make a creature from whom he had no cause at all to fear his throne being throughly established and he being one from whom resonably he might expect any thing having the tender youth of this Prince as a soft piece of wax in his hands This act would make him rule in hearts as well as in Provinces when he should be known to be a father and a Protectour of a young son of Hircanus whose virtue he always had honoured Briefly that the honour which she had by matching with him seemed not compleat to her whilst she saw her allies kept from degrees wherein he might establish them without prejudice of his authority Herod suffered himself this time to be gained by The youn Aristobulus created High-Priest the charming sweetness of Mariamne and having deliberated the affair with his Councel he resolved to give the High-Priests place to young Aristobulus his brother in law which was performed with much ceremonie He assembleth his friends in the hall of his Palace then sending for Alexandra he made in the presence of them all a premeditated speech complaining of her saying she had a mutinous turbulent spirit which sought nothing but to embroyl the affairs and take a Scepter from him which heaven had caused him to purchase with so much travel and pain to put it into the hands of an infant to the prejudice of the Queen her daughter Notwithstanding that forgetting all injuries he could not neglect his own disposition which was to do good even to those that wished him ill in confirmation whereof he gave the High-Priesthood to her son his purpose having never been other and the subrogation of Ananel having not been made but during the time of expectation of maturitie in the tender age of an infant This ambitious mother according to her sex The ambitious woman and indeed beyond her sex upon the offer of this High-Priests place was so sensibly transported with joy that tears gushed from her eyes and she at that instant freely protested to Herod That she had endeavoured all she could possibly to keep the Miter in the Royal familie supposing it an unworthy thing to transfer it els-where but as for the Kingdom she never had pretended thereunto and that such resolutions should never enter into her thoughts Whensoever it should please Almightie God to call her out of the world she would die well satisfied leaving her son High-Priest and her daughter Queen As for the rest if she had exceeded in some words she was excusable as a passionate mother towards a son who well deserved to be beloved a mother in law of the King to whom kindred and alliance permitted somewhat the more libertie and a daughter of a King to whom slaverie was a hard morsel and her stomach unable to digest it But hereafter since he used her so courteously he should have no cause to complain of her obedience Hereupon they shook hands and behold they are friends But out alas The amities of the world are like the felicities thereof If the amities be deceitful the felicities are tyed to a rotten cable or grounded upon the moving sand The poor mother rejoyced for a little sense-pleasing flattery of her feaverish ambition and saw not that her son was not to speak really the High-priest but a sacrifice of the savageness of Herod The discreet Mariamne who by long observation had learned to hold prosperity as suspected suffered her heart not to be so dissolved into joy but that she stood still armed against the counterbuffes of Fortune The feast of the Tabernacles greatly celebrated Entrance of Aristobulus into the High-Priesthood amongst the Jews being come Ananel after he had served as an o in ciphering is shamefully rejected Aristobulus beginneth to excercise his charge He was at that time but seventeen years of age yet of a gallant stature tall and straight as a palm tree radiant as a star and very like his sister When the people beheld him cloathed with the pontifical habiliments which were replenished with majesty and to go towards the Altar and perform those ceremonial rites with so much gravity and comliness he appeared as a new Sun which brake out of the clouds and came to gild the world before covered over with darkeness All the hearts of those poor Hebrews which so much had sighed in the civil wars freshly bloomed and newly opened themselves as roses at the benigne and gentle aspect of this young Prelate His excellent natural graces enchased in the majesty of his robes rendred an incredible lusture which dazeled the eyes of all beholders Some stedfasty beheld him and became as statues yet shewing by their tears their eyes were not made of marble Others spake to him with infinit dumb testimonies of a never-silent hearty affection The rest made resentments of their hearts burst forth from their lips not being able to with-hold acclamations too free and profuse for the season but for their love excusable They remembred the virtue of the ancient Machabees who had delivered them from Idolatry they knew the wretched Hircanus was no other than a shadow following his own funerals they retained the fresh memory of the grand-father of this young High-priest Aristobulus the Great who had been carried bound fettered to Rome like a gally-slave they were not ignorant how Alexander his father and Antigonus his uncle had lost their lives by opposing the government of a stranger This young Prince onely remained free from so many shipwracks and in the green tenderness of his youth they saw all the hopes of their Country to bud and blossom And as one is credulous to hear what he affecteth they perswaded themselves Herod who at the beginning had demanded the Kingdom in the name of this young Aristobulus would come to let go his hold giving way to justice and for this cause they with the more liberty enlarged themselves in these applauses but poor creatures they reckoned without their host Herod having beheld this countenance in the people instantly observed that according to his own Maxims he had played the Clark and that this was not his ordinary manner of proceeding entring at that time into a furious jealousy he maketh the High-Priest and his mother and wife to be so narrowly watched that neither within nor without the Palace they could stir a finger but Herod Malice of Herod was advertised of it The prudent Mariamne amongst these suspitions lived still in grace sweetning upon one side and other all acerbities as
with lawful and necessary circumstances touch the motive without extravagancies and the intention which hath excited us to do it and continuance of the sin to represent the state of the soul to the life Yet for all this you must not so much think upon this preparation nor the means to unfold your self that thereby the principal part of penance be neglected which is contrition This contrition is a sorrow to have offended God Contrition not principally for the deformity of sin and the fear of punishment for that is nothing but attrition but for that this sin is committed against God infinitely good and infinitely amiable and for that one maketh a firm resolution to be confessed and to preserve himself from sin in time to come Behold the point of contrition which to attain you must seriously and advisedly represent to your self the greatness goodness power wisdom justice love mercy benefits of God opposed to your malice weakness Hostility of sin baseness ignorance presumption misery ingratitude and well figure to your self the hostility of mortal sin to obtain an eternal detestation against it To consider how it ruineth riches honours credit reputation posterity and Empires That it soyleth the glory of an innocent life and leaveth a character of infamy That it overthroweth bodies health good grace that it openeth the gates of sudden and unexpected death That it maketh man blind dumb deaf wicked senseless stupid savage and many times furious and enraged by the remorse of conscience That it dispoileth a soul of all the graces beauties excellencies priviledges love favour of God hope of life and salvation That it killeth it and rendeth it more cruelly than a tiger or panther That a life of God was needful to take away such a blemish and that if a soul be spotted at the hour of death an eternity of flames cannot deliver it and such like In sins which seem least you shall always have great cause of contrition when the benefits of God shall be represented unto you which he particularly and personally hath conferred upon us opposed to our childishness of heart tepidity slackness infidelity negligence ingratitude As for the proceeding Proceeding in confession to confession the preparatives being well made it is needful to choose a Confessour who hath four qualities jurisdiction reputation knowledge discretion and after you have confessed to him entirely faithfully sincerely to accomplish the penance enjoyned you with obedience promptness and punctual diligence afterward to take a new spirit to resist temptations and to busie your self in good works with more courage than ever The eleventh SECTION The Practice of Examen THe practice of Confession is made more easie Necessity of examen by the examen of conscience as well general as particular Think not too much is required of your profession if there be speech used to you of the examen of conscience Not onely the Philosophers have made it as Pythagoras Seneca Plutarch but poor barbarous Indians by the relation of Apulejus took an account every evening of the good and evil they had done each day This is it which is required of you Prepare daily a little Consistory of justice in your conscience see what passeth within your self acknowledge your defects and amend them to prevent the justice of God It is said the eclipse of the Sun causeth the earthquake and the eclipse of reason by ignorance of the interiour man produceth great disorders in the Culielm Pariâ—iens c. 12. Sacro poenite In hoc Tribunali sedet misericordia assidet autem justitia ubi quicquid contra poenitentem inscribit justitia totum delet misericordia acumen styli velut â—igens in corde poenitentis soul For the wicked spirit saith Procopius upon the first of Kings endeavoureth to use us as did the Ammonites the inhabitants of Jabes They seek to pull out our right eye and to bereave us of the sight of our selves to bury us in great and deep confusions But let us make use of all the lights which God hath given us to cast reflections into the bottom of our thoughts The conscience is an admirable Tribunal where Justice pleadeth and Mercie sentenceth All that which the me writes the other blotteth out putting as it were the point of the pen upon the heart of the penitent A good Interpreter of the Scripture relateth the Delrio ser de Conscientia vision of a wise man who on a day sought for the house of conscience and it seemed to him he beheld a Citie built with goodly architecture beautified with five gates which had as many narrow paths ending in one larger way Upon this way stood a Register who took the names of all passengers to record them Beyond that he saw two Tribunes attended by a great concourse of the common people who governed the inferiour parts of the Citie above was beheld a Cittadel wherein a great Princess commanded who had a scepter in hand and crown on her head By her side was a Ladie very ancient and venerable who in one hand held a torch with which she lighted this Queen and in the other a goad wherewith she pricked her if she governed not according to her direction The wise man amazed asked in his heart what all this train meant and he heard a voice within which said unto him Behold thy self ere thou art aware arrived at the house of conscience which thou â—oughtest for These five gates thou seest are the five senses The way where they all meet is common sense All the people which enter in by heaps are the objects of the creatures of the world which first touch our senses before they pass into the soul This Register who writeth down the names is imagination that keeps record of all things These two Tribunes are the two appetites the one is called the appetite of concupiscence which is ever in search after its desires the other the appetite of anger extreamly striving to strike at all obstacles which oppose its good either real or pretended This mass of people thou seest are the passions which make ill work in the inferiour parts of the Citie This Princess in the Cittadel with crown and scepter is reason The ancient and venerable Ladie by her side is conscience She hath a torch to shew the good way and the goad to prick those that wander In a word if Dictamen rationis spiritus corrector paedagogus animae S. Thom. 1. p. q. 79. thou desirest to know what conscience is it is a sovereign notice of good and ill which God impresseth on our hearts as with a hot iron and is very hard to be taken off Happy he who often visiteth this interiour house God hath given him and pondereth all his thoughts his words and actions to adopt them to the measures of the eternal law You know a general examen hath five parts Parts Thanksgiving invocation discussion petition resolution In thanksgiving we thank God
willeth us to take moderate pleasure in creatures which he hath made for our content and ease that we may enjoy them in time and place every one according to his condition profession and rule of wisdom Synesius saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pleasure lays hold of the soul Somnus balnea dolorem mitigant S. Thom. 2. q. 138. Date siceram merentibus vinum iis qui amaro sunt animo Prov. 2. the Creatour hath given the feeling of pleasure to sense to serve as an arrest to the soul and to hold it in good quarter with the body Saint Thomas among the remedies of sadness prescribes sleep and bathing The Scripture it self counselleth us to give wine and other fitting draughts for them to drink who have their hearts oppressed with bitterness If one think to make a great sacrifice to God resting perpetually stretched and involved in a pensive austeritie of spirit as being desirous to avoid all pleasures of life he deceiveth himself It hath happened that many running in their own opinion to Paradise by this path according to peculiar fancie have found themselves on the borders of hell Fourthly to remember our life is a musick-book Our life is a musick-book seldom shall you find there many white notes together in the same line black are mixed among them and all together make an excellent harmonie God gives us a lesson in a little book which hath but two pages the one is called Consolation the other Desolation It is fit for each of them to take its turn In the day of adversity think of prosperity In the day of prosperity remember your self of adversity That great Prelate of Cyrenum Synes in hymno said that the Divine Providence hath mingled our life as one would do wine and water in a cup some drink the purest some the most compound but all tast a commixtion Fifthly if you exactly compare our condition to that of an infinite number of miserable creatures who groan in so many tedious and disastrous torments you will find your fardel but a dew But we have a certain malignity of spirit which ever looks back on the good it hath not to envy it and never considers the evil from whence it is freed to render thanks to God Behold some are in the bottom of a dungeon in fetters others are bowed in painful labours from the rising to the setting Sun to get their bred Some have the megrim in their head the gout in their feet and hands the stone in their kidneys Others are overwhelmed with business loss misfortunes strange and portentous accidents yet carry it out with courage Your heart is nipped with a little sadness and behold you despair what effeminacie of spirit is this It is said hares seeing themselves pursued on every side had one day resolved to drown themselves but coming to the brink of a river and beholding frighted frogs who cast themselves at all adventure in the water to escape Courage said they we are not yet the most miserable treatures of the world behold those who are more fearfull than we Ah how often should we say the same if we saw the miseries of others Sixthly is it not a goodly thing to behold a man Unworthines of sadness who probably speaking is in the favour of God who is here nourished with Sacraments with Christs body and bloud with the word of his Master who liveth among so many helps and comforts spiritual and temporal who expecteth a resurrection a Paradise a life eternally happy and happily eternal in so beautifull a societie of Saints to frame pensiveness and scruples to himself of his own head to afflict himself like a Pagan or a damned soul that hath no further hope It is related that God one day to give an antipast of beatitude to a holy man turmoiled with sundry cogitations caused an unknown little bird to chant in his ear in so melodious a manner that instantly his troubled spirit became clean and pure and held him rapt many years in the most tastfull delicacies may be imagined O if you often had strong imaginations of Paradise how your melancholy would melt and dissolve as snow before the Sun-beams Lastly sing spiritual canticles labour employ Noble tears your spirit without anxiety and if needs you will weep lament your imperfections bewail the miseries of the poor sorrow for your curiositie lament the passion of your spouse grieve and sigh at your impatience after this glory of Paradise weep over the deluge on the earth look back like a chast dove on Dulces lachrimae sunt ipsi fletus jucundi quibus restrintur ardor animi quasi relaxatus evaporat affectus the ark of your good father Noe the father of repose and consolation Then will I say of such tears with S. Ambrose O the delicious tears O the pleasing complaints which extinguish the fervours of our mind and make our affections sweetly to evaporate The two and twentieth SECTION The third combate of the spiritual man against impuritie ALl impuritie of life ariseth from three sources whereof S. John speaketh concupisence of Joan. 2. Three sources of impietie the flesh concupiscence of the eyes and pride of life Let us now see the practice of virtues which oppose these three sorts of impurities Against concupiscence of the flesh temperance chastitie modestie do wage war Against the concupiscence of eyes to wit the unbridled desires of temporal blessings povertie justice charitie mercie gratitude Against pride of life humilitie obedience magnanimitie patience clemencie The three and twentieth SECTION Practice of Chastitie CHastitie is a virtue which represseth the impure lust of the flesh a celestial virtue an Angelical virtue which maketh heaven and Angels descend upon the earth and in this kingdom of mortalitie planteth the image and titles of immortality Clemens Alexandrinus maketh mention of certain Clemen Alex. strommat enchanted mountains at the foot whereof was heard a voice as of people preparing themselves for battel a little further the encounter and conflict and on the top songs and triumphs Behold as it Three sorts of chastitie were the condition of three sorts of chastitie With some it beginneth with labour and uncertaintie there is at the first toil and resistance against lust but the even thereof is not known With others it is become more manly as being already practiced in combats With others it triumpheth after a long habit yet notwithstanding whilest here on earth it abideth it is never absolutely secured The acts thereof are Acts. I. To renounce all unlawfull voluptuousness of the flesh II. To abstain from carnal acts not onely those which are unlawfull but sometime such as are permitted among married folk upon just occasion or for some certain time which is very ordinarie or perpetually which is singular and remarkable in the lives of some Saints So Martianus lived with his wife Pulcheria and Henry the Emperour with the Empress Chunegundis III.
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
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 â—â—ditior cùm râ—mittiâ— 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
civil life which happeneth to them through depraved habits and inordinate idleness whereinto they have suffered themselves to slide from their tender years or by some other corruptions of a melancholy spirit which they soment to the prejudice of their repose These kind of natures are good neither in the countrey citie house-keeping nor in religion For we find that in all things we must use endeavour and that we came into the world as into a galley where if one cannot manage either the stern or oar he must at the least make a shew to stir his arms and imitate the Philosopher Diogenes who roled his tub up and down wherin it was said he inhabited to busie himself For my August l. â— de Civit. Dei Philo de sacri Abel Cain part I like well those people who banished all idle gods out of their walls and retained such as enjoyned travel For to live and take pains is but one and the same thing and that which the nourishment we take operateth for the preservation of life labour doth the like for accommodation thereof In the fifth station you have women of the sea who Non est ira super iram mulieris Eccles 15. much deceive the world by their fair semblances for they at first appear quiet and peaceable as a sea in the greatest calm having no want of grace or beauty which promiseth much good to those who know them not but one would not believe how they shift away upon the least wind of contradiction which is raised how they are puffed up and become unquiet with anger love avarice jealousie and other passions very active Such an one seeth the flower of the thorn who knoweth not the pricking thereof and such an one beholdeth with admiration those excellent beauties who cannot believe how many pricks and stings they cover under these imaginary sweetnesses You shall therein ordinarily observe very great levity and impatience which maketh them hourly to change their resolution in such sort that they think nothing so miserable as to remain still in one and the same condition I have seen young widows who had washed S. Zeno Hoâ— de continent the bodies of their husbands with their tears wiped them away with their hairs and as it were worn it by force of kisses and who not content with these ardent affections discharging the surplusage of their passion upon their own proper bodies tore their hair pulled their cheeks were rather covered with dust than apparel They died every hour saying they could not live one sole moment without their best-beloved and filled the air and earth with their complaints which was the cause why such as came to the funerals knew not whether they should bewail the dead or the dying Notwithstanding presently after these goodly counterfeitings they began again to reform their hair and change the dust of the pavement into the powder of Cypress to put painting upon their tears to adorn with a carcanet of pearl the neck which they seemed to destine to a halter to seek for Oracles from their looking-glass and to do all things as if death and love conspired to make their feast in one and the same Inn. I have observed others who being yet under the yoak were the best servants in the world but as soon as they saw themselves at liberty there were no worse mistresses than they There are noted to be in the heart of a woman the passions of a tyrant and should they continually have wheels and gibbets at their command the world would become a place of torture and execution Never have I seen passions more hard to vanquish for in the end the sea which threateneth the world to make but one element suffereth it self to be distinguished into ditches by little grains of sand which stayed it with the commission they received thereupon from God but when a woman letteth the reins of her passion go there is not as it were neither law divine or humane which can recal her spirit to reason Fair maids take ever from the modesty of your hearts the laws which may be given you by justice In the sixth degree are the natures of the Ape who Custodi te à muliere mâ—lâ— Prov. 6. have a certain malice spightfull and affected and such spirits may be found of this kind who day and night dream on nothing but mischief They are filled with false opinions sinister judgements disdains smothered choller discontents acerbities in such sort that the ray of the prosperity of a neighbour reflecting on their eyes makes them sigh and groan And as those Apes which sculck in the shop of a Trades-man mar his tools disturb his works scatter his labours and turn all topsie-turvie So these malicious creatures spie occasions to trouble a good affair to dissolve a purpose well intended to overthrow a counsel maturely diliberated to cause a retardation on the most just desires and frustrate the most harmless delights How many times do we behold the sun to rise chearful and resplendent in a bright morning and every one is abashed to see a mist arise which in this serenity doth that which blemishes on a fair body It is said it sometimes proceedeth from a sorceress which darkeneth that glorious eye of the day with her charms And how often have you observed prosperities more radiant than the clearest summers day which have been cloyed with duskie vapours by the secret practises of a woman who biteth the bridle in some nook of a chamber Fair maids malice is an ill trade It ever drinketh down at least the moity of the poison which it mingled for others In the seventh Region there are some kind of owls Mulicrum penus avarissimum or wild-cats certain creatures enemies of day of all conversation all civility and all decorum who having received from God many honest enablements to adorn life and to do good to persons necessitous so lock up their entrails that you may sooner extract honey and manna from flints than get a good turn out of their hands How is it possible they should be courteous to oblige their likes since they are many times cruel to themselves defrauding themselves of the necessities of life which are as it were as common as elements to satisfie a wicked passion of avarice that gnaweth them with a kind of fury For they endure in abundance part of that which the damned suffer in flames perpetually and fearing lest the earth may fail them they bewail what is past they complain of the present they apprehend the future they love life onely to hold money in prison and fear not death but for the expence must be made at their funerals Let us take heed we resemble not those fountains Fountain Garamant Holunicus S. Bonaventura in dieta which are so cold in the day that they cannot be drunk and so hot in the night that none dare come near them Let us do good both in life and death
of this repose news came unto her very hastily that she must return to Court to appease the discord between her children who were ready to encounter one another and to embroil the Kingdom in the desperate desolations of Civil war The good woman did not as those who hold retirement from the vanities of the world as a punishment nor ever are with themselves unless necessity make them take the way which they cannot elect by reason So soon as she understood these importunities which called her back to the affairs of the world she hastened to prostrate her self at the sepulcher of S. Martin shedding forth bitter tears and saying My God you know my heart and that it is neither for fear of pain nor want of courage that I retired from the Court of my children but that seeing their deportments and affairs in such a condition that I could not think my self any ways able to profit them by my counsels I made choice of the means which I thought most likely to help them which are prayers And behold me here now humbled at the tomb of one of your great servants to beg of you by his merits and ashes to pacifie the differences of these unfortunate children and to behold with the eye of your accustomed mercies this poor people and Kingdom of France to which you have consigned and given so many pledges of your faithfull love My God if you think my presence may serve to sweeten the sharpness of these spirits I will neither have consideration of my age nor health but shall sacrifice my self in this voyage for the publick but if I may be of no other use but to stand as an unprofitable burden as I with much reason perswade my self I conjure you for your own goodness sake to receive my humble prayers and accommodate their affairs and ever to preserve unto me the honour which I have to serve you in this retirement A most miraculous thing it is observed that at the same time when the holy woman prayed at the tomb the Arms of the brothers now ready to encounter to pour forth a deluge of bloud suddenly stopped and these two Kings not knowing by what spirit they were moved mutually sent to each other an Embassage of peace which was concluded in the place to the admiration and contentment of the whole world Thus much confirmed Clotilda in her holy resolution wherein she lived to great decrepitness of age And in the end having had revelation of the day of her death she sent for her two sons Childebert and Clotharius whereof this who was the most harsh was in some sort become humble having undergone certain penances appointed him by Pope Agapetus to expiate many exorbitances which he had committed for such is the most common opinion These two Kings being come the mother spake to them in these terms I was as it were resolved to pass out of the world without seeing you not for the hatred of your persons which cannot fall into a soul such as mine but for the horrour of your deportments that cannot be justified but by repentance God knows I having beheld you so many times to abandon the respect you ow to my age and the authoritie which nature gave me over your breeding never have endeavoured to put off the heart of a mother towards you which I yet retain upon the brink of my tomb I begged you of God before your birth with desires which then seemed unto me reasonable but which perhaps were too vehement and if ever mother were passionate in the love of her children I most sensibly felt those stings yielding my soul as a prey to all cares and my bodie to travels to breed and bring you up with pains which are not so ordinarie with Queen-mothers I expected from your nature some correspondence to my charitable affections when you should arrive to the age of discretion I imagined after the death of your father my most honoured Lord that my age which began to decline should find some comfort in your pietie But you have done that which I will pass under silence For it seemed to me your spirits have as much horrour of it as mine which yet bleedeth at it nor do I know when time will stench the bloud of a wound so bydeous Out alas my children you perswaded your selves it was a goodly matter to unpeople the world to enlarge your power and to violate nature to establish your thrones with the bloud of your allies which is a most execrable frenzie For I protest at this hour wherein I go to render an account of mine actions before the living God that I should rather wish to have brought you into the world to be the vassals of peasants than to see the Scepter in your hands if it served you to no other use but to authorize your crimes Blind as you are who behold not that the diamonds of a Royal Crown sweat with horrour upon a head poisoned with ambition When you shall arrive to that period wherein I am now what will it help you to have worn purple if having defiled it with your ordures you must make an exchange with a habit of flames which shall no more wear out than eternitie Return my children to the fair way you have forsaken you might have seen by what paths the Providence of God led the King your father to the throne of his Monarchie you might have also observed the disasters of Kings our near allies for that they wandered from true pietie That little shadow which you yet retain of holy Religion hath suspended the hand of God and withheld the fatal blow which he would otherwise have let fall upon your state If you persist in evil you will provoke his justice by the contempt of his mercie Above all be united with a band of constant peace for by dividing your hearts you disunite your Kingdoms and desiring to build up your fortunes by your dissentions you will make desolate your houses Do justice to your poor people who lived under the reign of your father with so much tranquilitie and which your divisions have now covered all over with acerbities Is it not time to forget what is past and to begin to live then when you must begin to die My children I give you the last farewel and pray you to remember my poor soul and to lodge my bodie in the sepulcher of the King your father as I have ever desired The Saint speaking this saw that these children who had before been so obdurate were wholly dissolved into tears and kneeling about her bed kissed her hands having their speech so interrupted with sobs they could not answer one word Thereupon she drew the curtain over all worldly affairs to be onely entertained with God And her maladie daily encreasing she pronounced aloud the profession of the Catholick faith wherein she died then required the Sacraments of the Eucharist and extream Unction which were administred unto her and by her
comfort It is that which cooleth our ardours drieth our tears breaketh our setters and dissipateth our annoys If we be in darkness it is the light if we be anxious it giveth counsel If we be in a labyrinth of errours it is the thread which guideth us if in danger of shipwrak it is the haven and if we be at the gates of death it is life Away with all curiosities southsayers sorceresses and superstitions unworthy the name of a Christian Fie upon despaire and minds affliction Let us learn in all things which appertain to us speedily and effectually to fix our selves on the will of the will of the omnipotent let us continually say God seeth this affair since nothing escapeth the quickness of his eye He loves me as his child because he is goodness it self He is just because he is the measure of all justice He is potent because there is not any thing can resist his will Let us expect awhile the trouble I endure is but a flying cloud and God will do all for the best Let us say with S. Augustine O Sovereign Father who governest the vast frame of heaven I submit to thy direction Lead me on the August de civit Dei c. 8. l. 8. Duc me summe pater vasti moderatorolympi quacumque placuit nulla parendi est mora Aasum impiger fac nolle comitabor gemens malusque patiar facere quod licuit bono right hand lead me on the left turn to what side thou pleasest I follow thee without reply or delay For what should I get by resistance but to be dragged weeping and to bear becoming evil what I might do sincerely becoming good Heaven earth and sea said Nicephorus Gregorius (a) (a) (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Niceph. Greg. l. 7. fight against a wicked man as a fugitive from Providence and a disturber of Justice Let us learn to sleep securely in this conformity to the will of God as a little infant on the teat of his nurse It is at the sight of this providence that Jonas buried in the belly of a whale and covered under the Oceans waves made a chappel of the devouring gulph which was to have been his punishment speaking affectionately to God (b) (b) (b) Jon. 2. 4. Omnes fluctus gurgites tui super me transierunt veruntamen rursus videbo templum sanctum tuum Behold all thy waves and abysses pass over my head yet I despaire not to behold thee in thy Temple It was in sight of this that the Patriarch Noe shut up in the Arke whilst wrathful heaven thundered over the earth the winds were unfettered the pillars of the world tottered with fatal convulsions whilst men and houses were torn in pieces to serve as a pastime for the Sea and that yels of beasts mingled with the cries of so many mortals ecchoed round about lastly when all the world swam he rested in an incomparable tranquillity adoring the counsels of Gods justice Sacred Providence we prostrate on the earth adore thee vindicate us from the bondage of our passions make us die to so many dead things of mortals that we hereafter may live in thy delight The fourth EXAMPLE upon the fourth MAXIM Divers observations upon Providence LEt us a little withdraw our minds from discourses to the consideration of examples like those who labouring on some curious works refresh their eyes with beholding the verdure of meadows or lustre of Emeralds Volumes might be compiled without end by him who would follow the foot-steps of divine Providence in so great a labyrinth of times and Histories so innumerable But it is not my purpose in these abbreviations where I endeavour to suppress much and well express a few things If you behold this Providence in nature there are eternal miracles which astonished the wise animated all voices gave matter to all pens and filled all the books in the world On what side soever we turn our eyes we meet this great Mistress with a hundred Providence of God in the ordinary works of nature arms and as many hands which incessantly travel to do us good It enlighteneth us in the beautie of stars and lights it warmeth us in flames it refresheth us in the air it delighteth us in the enamel of meadows it moisteneth us in the streaming of chrystal fountains it profiteth and enricheth in the fertility of fields so many trees and shrubs such diversity of fruits such wholesome hearbs such a great Vid. Senec. l. 4. de benef quantity of viands so well divided into all the seasons of the year so many living creatures some whereof come from the water others from the earth the rest from the air every part of the world bringing its tribute so many medicinable waters so many rivers which afford such delicious shores to the land for commerce and all humane accommodation I now let all this pass and coming to matters more particular demand of you who was the cause Particular providence over divers â—ountries Joannes Metellus that in the Canary Island called Ferro when it is roasted with droughts and heaven affordeth no succour by showers nor rivers by waters there is found a huge tree which seemes to change all the leaves thereof into as many petty fountains for every on distilleth water and all render it in such abundance that it sufficeth both men and their flocks Who doth all this good husbandry but the divine Providence And who is it supplies scarcity of rain in Egypt commandeth Nilus to over-flow the fields in his limited time to bear in his inundations the wealth of Pharos but it Who maketh Antidotes grow in places where poysons spring but its wisdom If Africk have many serpents there are Psylles which destroy them If other countries breed store of makes there are Ashen flowers which drive them away If Egypt hath a Crocodile â—istoria Sinarum part 4. it affords an Indian rat which bursteth it There are likewise trees to be found which having venemous roots upon one side yield a remedy on the other By what hand are framed so many wonders of nature which make books incessantly speak but by that of this great Work-man But if you on the other side will consider it in the Admirable â—rotection of â—en in rare accidents protection of men what doth it not by the ministery of its good Angels I see upon one side in histories the little King Mithridates involved in lightening-flashes whilst he innocently sleepeth in his infant cradle the flames consuming his clothes and linnens and not touching his body at all To whom think you should I attribute this On the other side I ponder the prodigie so loudly Philippus Anthologia Graec. l. 1. proclaim'd in the Greek Antholigie of a ship-wrack equally surprizing a father and a son which took away the life of the father and gave the son leave to arrive in a safe harbour having no other vessel but the corps of his deceased father
anima pueri ejus in viscera ejus Eccles 26. 23. Exaltavit vocem ejus de terra in prophetia Tob. 4. 11. of heaven Whom shall I believe touching the verities of God but God himself And verily behold the advise God giveth us to resolve us in doubtful cases which is to follow some great and powerfull authority that may draw our spirits with a strong hand out of so many labyrinths Without it saith S. Augustine there would neither be world rest light wisdom nor religion And if a decisive authority must be chosen where shall we find one more certain than that of a Man-God whose words were prophesies life sanctity actions miracles who by ways secret and incomprehensible advanced the Cross on Capitols and gave a new face to the whole world Now without speaking at this time of the Pentateuc where the Word with his own mouth drew reasons for the immortalitie of the soul against the Sadduces I might alledge the book of Kings where the soul of a little infant returneth into its body at the words of Elias I could produce the true soul of Samuel which returneth from Limbo and speaks to King Saul as the Wiseman rendereth this apparition undoubted which I will shew I might mention the book of Tobias which distinguisheth two places for souls in the other world one of darknes and the other of lights But let us hear Ecclesiastes since Infidels will make an arrow of it against us where after the propositions of the wicked rehearsed in this book to be refuted which must be well observed the Wiseman Eccles 12. 7. decideth and concludes That the body returneth into the earth from whence it came and the spirit to God who gave it Let us hear Wisdom where it is written That the soul of the Just are in the hands of God and Sap. 3. 1. shall not be touched with the torment of death Let us hear the Prophet Daniel who saith Daniel 12. 3. The true Sages shall shine as the brightness of the firmament and that such as instruct many to justice shall be as stars for ever Lastly let us hear our Saviour who speaketh to us clearly and intelligibly in the bloud of all Martyrs Fear not those who kill the bodie and cannot kill the Mat. 10. 28. soul Here will we hold this doctrine of the immortality from his own mouth more than from any other reason he caused us to make it an Article of faith he establisheth upon it all our beatitude why should we then argue and trie new conclusions after the decision of Gods Word 5. I knew well said the wicked man this second Court would condemn me but I am not yet satisfied After nature and faith I appeal to reason I Proofs drawn out of reason will enter into the bottom of my self to know some news of my self What a madness is it to appeal from the decrees of God to reason And yet was this wretch condemned likewise by this tribunal For asking his soul whither wilt thou go What will become of thee after the death of thy body Wilt thou not accompany it in death as thou didst during life I die replieth the soul It is as impossible the light of the Sun become night and fire ice as the soul of man which is the source of life and understanding should be subject to death For from whence should this death and corruption S. Thom. l. 2. contra Gentes c. 79. proceed If thou hast never so little reason thou well seest what the great S. Thomas and all the Sages of the world said A thing cannot die and be corrupted but by one of three ways either by action of its contrary so heat cold moisture and drought corrupt our bodies by their mutual counter-buffs and continual combates or by the want of subject which serves as a basis or foundation to it so the eye dieth when its organ is corrupted or by defect of the assistance of the cause which hath influence into it so the light faileth in the air when the Sun retireth In which of these three kinds wouldest thou corrupt Substantia intellectualis patitur tantum intelligibiliter qui motus potius est perfectivus quà m corruptivus S. Thom. l. 2. contra Gentes c. 55. me Should it be by the action of the contrary I am not subject to bodily impressions but to those onely of the mind which are rather to perfect than corrupt me I am not composed of elements I am not hot cold moist nor drie I admit no contrariety But when I (a) (a) (a) Anima parvo continetur corpore continetque res maximâ—s Aenesius platonicus comprehend in my understanding white black water fire life and death I accord all contraries Death saith (b) (b) (b) Lucr. l. 1. Mors coetum dissipat ollis Lucretius is onely made for the things which have a collection of parts and I am most simple Wilt thou rin me by defect of the body I am of a nature different from body It was sometime without me and I shall be a long time without it for I depend not on it but by accident and chance I take somewhat of it as an hostess in this life but I govern it as a mistress for eternity I make use of the organs of senses but I correct senses and when they tell me the Sun is but a foot broad I prove to them by lively reasons it is much greater than the globe of the earth If I borrow fantasies from imagination I make truths of them and in matter of understanding willing and judging which is my proper profession I have properly nothing to do with bodies as the Philosopher Arist l. 2. de anima l. 2. text 21. Aristotle hath well observed saying I could not be before body but I might remain after the death of body and be separated from it as things eternal from corruptible because I have an action dis-entangled from body which is contemplation All that which is idle perisheth in nature but I have no death because not idle I make it my profession to understand to will and to love which I now exercise in a body but which doth not absolutely depend on body I make use of my senses as of my windows when they shall be no more and that the panes of my prison shall be broken I shall not for all that loose sight but shall see the more easily Behold you not how even at this present I never am more knowing than when I sink into the bottom of my self and separate my self from commerce of sense For I am a Mistress said S. Augustine who see better by my own eyes than by those of my servant Wouldest thou destroy me by the want of an influent cause Needs must God fail if I should be so defective on that part since God having created a thing never reduceth the same to nothing Material creatures are corrupted by changing themselves into
be therein sufficiently informed The Jews were heretofore the chosen people and are become the reprobate God for them drave back the waves of the read sea and suffered them to walk drie-foot between two waters as between two chrystal vaults and afterward why did he drown them so many times in rivers of their bloud with so horrible slaughters that in the whole siege of Jerusalem under Titus and Vespasian were reckoned according to Josephus his calculation eleven hundred thousand Vide Iosephum Hegesippum Thraenos dead God opened to them the sides of rocks to quench their thirst and afterward why dried he up the dugs of women who saw their little ones die between their arms they unable to give them one drop of milk God for them made Manna and clouds of Quails to showt and why afterward did he so afflict them with such cruel and enraged a famine that the hands of mercifull mothers slew and roasted on coals their own proper children and eat them to satisfie their hunger God carried them through deserts as upon eagles wings and wherefore afterward did he abandon them to eagles and vultures which so many times made carrion of the bodies of his children God had given them a land so fat and fruitful that it streamed altogether milk and honey and wherefore afterward had it entrails of iron denying food to the living yea burial to the dead God gave them strength as a devouring fire before which all Nations were but as straw and why afterwards became it the shuttle-cock of the arms of Infidels God gave them liberty for an inheritance and why afterward obtained they not so much as an honourable servitude Why at the siege of Jerusalem among so many thousand prisoners did they so much disdain to make use of a Jew that there being never a a Cross to crucifie them they were reserved for beasts to devour them rather than derive any service from them God gave them knowledge and wherefore afterwards became they blockish idle and stupid in all learning God ordained for them the assistance and protection of Angels and why afterward forsook they their Temple crying out aloud Let us depart let us depart from hence God destined to them Royalty and Empire over neighbouring Nations and why afterward had they not one inch of land at their own dispose and especially of land where formerly Jerusalem was built unless they purchased it with money onely to enjoy it one hour or two in the year and weep over it and bedew it with the water of their eyes after they had so often moistened it with their bloud God established priest-hood to them and afterwards what became of Jerusalem the Holy What became of Solomon's Temple the miracle of the world Where is the Propitiatory the Table of Proposition-bread the Rational which was before the peoples oracle Where is the majesty of High-priests the comeliness of Prelates the perpetuity of Sacrifices From whence comes it that it is above fifteen hundred years ago since this miserable Nation goes wandering through the Regions of the earth as abandoned into an eternal exile without Priests without Temple without Sacrifice without Prince King or government O eternal God how hast thou thrown down thy foot-stool O God of justice how hast thou made desolate thy royal Priesthood O God of vengeance how hast thou suffered thy Sanctuary to be profaned Who hath ever heard speech of such a punishment There have been adulteries rapines concussions gluttonies yea and idolatries which God hath not revenged in this manner A captivity of three-score and ten years expiated all these sins but this after fifteen hundred years to what sin may we attribute it but to the neglect of the essence of the Word Incarnate After the time that the Son of God shut his eyes steeped in tears and bloud over the miserable Jerusalem he never hath opened them to afford them mercy A Lord so sweet so mild so clement as that he raised thieves almost from bloud and robbery in an instant to thrones of glory for having acknowledged and confessed his name so roughly to chastise the neglect of his authority for the space of so many Ages what meaneth this but to prove the opposing of the divine Essence of God is a crime of all the most hydeous and unspeakable Run over the Histories of antiquity as long as you Tragical events of the wicked please revolve in your memory all the experiences which your Age may afford and if you see the impious come to a good end say There is no cause of fear Cain their Patriarch banished from the sight of God lived long like a melancholy spirit among forrests with a perpetual affrightment until Lamech took away his life The Cainists were all drenched in the waters of the deluge Pharaoh drowned in the Red-sea Nebuchadnezzar turned into a beast Holofernes slain in his bed by the hand of a woman Senacherib lost one hundred four-score and five thousand men for a blasphemy Antiochus strucken with a horrible maladie Birds did eat the tongue of Nicanor and his hand was hanged up over against the Temple Heliodorus was visibly chastised by Angels Herodes Agrippa born from the Theater to the bed of death The President Saturninus strucken blind Hermianus eaten by worms in his Pretourship Leo the fourth all covered over with botches and carbuncles Bamba crowned with a diadem of pitch after his eyes were pulled out Julian the Apostate strucken with a dart from Heaven Michael the Emperour who had in his train a heap of young scoffers that in scorn counterfeited the ceremonies of the Church was torn in pieces as a victim by his own servants Olympius strucken with thunder in a bath And if we observe times more near Rogero dragged to a laystall Vanin burnt at Tholouse Alsan Calefat divided between fire and water and slain by his own hand Great eye of God which art ever open upon the sins of the earth who can steal himself from the lightning-flashes Great hand of God who thunderest and lightenest perpetually over rebellious heads who is able to resist thy justice Advice to Youth and such as too easily give way to impietie O Unfortunate youth who having received the first tincture of good instruction after thou wert bred with so much care and honour by those to whom thou owedst thy birth betrayest the tears of thy parents the travels of thy teachers and the whole hopes of the publick How canst thou embark thy self among these treacherous and ignominious associates How canst thou walk among so many shelves and precipices not so much as once opening thy eyes to behold the abyss thou hast under thy feet So many heads crushed in pieces under the Divine vengeance are as broken masts and shivers of a shipwrack advanced on the promontory of rocks to give notice of the deplorable events they have found whose examples thou still pursuest yet thou lookest on them with arms across and dallyest in
world the benefits that God hath conferred upon their families is it not most fitting that we endeavour to acknowledge in some manner the liberality of the Divine Majesty This act consisteth in three things First in the Memory which represents to the Understanding the benefit received and this Understanding considers the hand that gives them and to whom and how and wherefore and by what ways and in what measure Thereupon an affectionate acknowledgement is framed in the Will which not able to continue idle spreads it self into outward acts to witness the fervour of its affection To practise this well it is requisite to make a catalogue of the benefits of God which are contained in three kinds of goodness and mercy The first is that whereby he drew this great Universe out of the Chaos and darkness of nothing to the light of being and life for our sakes creating a world of such greatness beauty profit measure order vicissitude continuance and preserving it as it wereby the continual breathing of his spirit affording to every thing its rank form propriety appetite inclination scituation limits and accomplishment But above all making man as a little miracle of Nature with the adornments of so many pieces so well set to bear in his aspect the beams of his own Majestie The second bounty is that whereby he hath decreed to raise in man all that is natural to a supernatural estate The third that whereby he hath raised the nature of man being fallen into sin into miserie into the shadow of death to innocence bliss light and eternal life This is the incomprehensible mystery of the Incarnation of the Word which comprehends six other benefits that is the benefit of the doctrine and wisdom of Heaven conferred on us the benefit of our Saviors good examples the benefit of Redemption the benefit of Adoption into the number of Gods children the benefit of the treasure of the merits of Jesus Christ the benefit of the blessed Eucharist Besides those benefits which are in the generality of Christianity we are to represent in all humility often to our selves the particular favours received from God in our birth nourishment education instruction in gifts of soul and body in means and conveniences in friends allies kinred in vocation estate and profession of life in continued protection in deliverance out of so many dangers in vicissitude of adversities and prospeâ—ity in guidance through the degrees of age wherein every one in his own particular may acknowledge infinite passages of the Divine Providence All this pouring it self upon the soul with consideration of the circumstances of each benefit at last draws from the Will this act of acknowledgement which maketh it to say with the Prophet David Who am I O Lord God and what is my house that thou hast brought me bitherto 2 Sam 7. 18. The seventh SECTION A Pattern of Thanksgiving HEreupon you shall give thanks for all benefits in general and particularly for those you have received at present which at that time you are to set before you that may season this action with some new relish The Church furnisheth us with an excellent form of Thanksgiving to God in the hymn Te Deum or else say with the blessed spirits O God power and riches and wisdom and strength and honour and blessing be unto thee for ever and ever O God glory be to thee on high and on earth peace good will towards men I bless thee I worship thee I give thanks to thee for thy great glory and thy benefits O Lord God heavenly King God the Father Almighty and thou also O Lord Jesus Christ my Saviour onely Son of the Heavenly Father perfect God and perfect man Thou that takest away the sins of the world and sittest at the right hand of God the Father And thou O Holy Gbost consubstantial with the Father and the Son most blessed Trinitie receive my prayers in giving thanks The eighth SECTION Of Offering or Oblation The third Act of Devotion REligion and Sacrifice had their beginning in the worlds infancy and ever since have been linked together by an indissoluble tie God who giveth all will have us give to him meaning we should take out of his store that which our Nothing cannot afford Observe here a thing remarkeable That as in the Law of Moses there were three kinds of Sacrifice that is Immolations Libations and Victims Immolations which were made of the fruits of the earth Libations of liquours as oyl and wine Victims of living creatures so likewise God requires that we give him our actions for fruits our affections for liquours and our selves for victims This is done by the act of Oblation or Offering which is a way of sacrifice by which we offer our selves and all that belongeth to us at the Altar of the Divine Majesty To perform this act well we must have first a pure apprehension of the power and dominion which God hath over us secondly an intimate knowledge of our own dependence upon him considering that we not onely have received being and all things annexed to being from his goodness but that we are also sustained perpetually by his hand as a stone in the air and that if he should let go never so little we should be dissolved into that Nothing out of which we are extracted From thence will arise an act of Justice in the will ready to give to God that which is his and as the Holocaust where the hoast was quite consumed in honour to the Divine Majestie was heretofore the noblest of all Sacrifices so will we imitate this excellent act of Religion by consecrating not onely our actions and affections but all that we are unto God wishing to be dissolved and annihilated for his sake if it might be for the glory of his Divine Majestie But if this annihilation cannot be real we must at the least form it to our mind in an extraordinary manner acquiring to our selves as much as is possible twelve dis-engagements wherein the perfection of the Holocaust consisteth The first is a divesting our selves of all affection to temporal things so that we no longer love any thing but for God of God and to God The second a dis-entangling from our own interest in all our actions The third an absolute mortifying of sensuality The fourth a separation from friendships sensual tural and acquired that they have no longer hold on our heart to the prejudice of virtue The fifth a banishing of worldly imaginations in such a manner that the meer representation of them may beget aversion and horrour in us The sixth a discharge from worldly cares not necessary to salvation The seventh a deliverance from bitterness of heart and discontents which ordinarily arise from eâ—cessive love to creatures The eighth a valiant flight from all kind of vanity of spirit The ninth a contempt of sensible consolations when God would have us to be weaned from them The tenth a renouncing of scruples of mind
silver whereof I shall never have use and still be vexed with care how to preserve it O most mercifull Lord suffer me not to be taught by hell fire that which I may have neglected to learn out of thy Gospel I most heartily renounce all luxury and pomp of the world and this carnal life which would always busie it self about my body If thou be pleased to make me rich I will be so for the poor and if thou make me poor I will make my self rich in thee who art the true riches of all thine elect The Gospel upon Friday the second week in Lent S. Matth. 21. Of the Master of a Vineyard whose son was killed by his Farmers ANother Parable hear ye A man there was an housholder who planted a Vineyard and made a hedge round about it and digged in it a press and builded a tower and let it out to husbandmen and went forth into a strange Countrey And when the time of fruits drew nigh he sent his servants to the husbandmen to receive the fruits thereof And the husbandmen apprehending his servants one they beat another they killed and another they stoned Again he sent other servants more than the former and they did to them likewise And last of all he sent to them his Son saying They will reverence my Son But the husbandmen seeing the Son said within themselves This is the heir come let us kill him and we shall have his inheritance And apprehending him they cast him forth out of the Vineyard and killed him When therefore the Lord of the Vineyard shall come what will be do to those husbandmen They say to him The naughty men he will bring to nought and his Vineyard be will let out to other husbandmen that shall render him the fruit of their seasons Jesus saith to them Have you never read in the Scriptures The stone which the builders rejected the same is made into the head of the corner By our Lord was this done and it is marvellous in our eyes Therefore I say to you That the Kingdom of God shall be taken away from you and shall be given to a Nation yielding the fruits thereof And he that falleth upon this stone shall be broken and on whom it falleth it shall all to bruise him And when the chief Priests and Pharisees had heard his Parables they knew that he spake of them And seeking to lay hands upon him they feared the multitudes because they held him as a Prophet Moralities WE have reason to fear all that is in us yea even the gifts of God All his favours are so many chains If they bind us not to do our duty they will bind us to the punishment due for that neglect Our soul is given us by God as a thing borrowed from Heaven we must not be too prodigal of it We must dig up ill roots as we do in land cultivated The time will come that we must render up the fruits and shall we then present thorns Examine every day how you profit and what you do draw every day a line but draw it toward eternity What can you hide from God who knows all What can you repay to God who gives all and how can you requite Jesus who hath given himself 2. How many messengers doth God send to our hearts without intermission and how many inspiratiosn which we reject So many Sermons which we do not observe and so many examples which we neglect Jesus comes in person by the Sacrament of the Altar and we drive him from us to crucifie him when we place the Devil and Mortal sin in his room What other thing can we expect for reward of all these violences but a most fearfull destruction if ye do not prevent the sword of justice by walking in the paths of Mercy Our vanities which at first are like small threeds by the contempt of Gods grace come to be great cables of sin He that defers his repentance is in danger to lose it and will be kept out of the Ark with the croaking Raven since he hath neglected the mourning of the sorrowfull Dove 3. It is a most horrible thing to see a soul left to it self after it hath so many times forsaken the inspirations of God It becomes a desolate vineyard without inclosure The wild Boar enters into it and all unclean and ravenous creatures do there sport and leap without controle God hangs clouds over it but will let no drop of water fall upon it The Sun never looks upon it with a loving eye all there is barren venemous and near to hell Therefore above all things we must fear to be forsaken of God Mercy provoked changes it self into severe Justice All creatures will serve as Gods instruments to punish a fugitive soul which flies from him by her ingratitude when he draws her to him by the sweetness of his benefits Aspiration ALas O great Father of the worlds family I am confounded to see thy vineyard so ill ordered made so barren and spoiled My passions domineer like wild beasts and devours the fruits due to thy bounty I am heartily sorry I have so little esteemed thy graces and to have preferred all that which makes me contemptible before thee I do this day renounce all the abuses of my soul I will grow and prosper under thy blessings I will flourish under thy aspect and fructifie under thy protection Command onely thy graces and sweet dews of Heaven which are as paps of thy favours to rain upon me and water this rotten trunk of my heart Speak to that eye of love that beautifull eye of Jesus that it will shine upon me but once with that ray which doth make souls happy for ever The Gospel upon Saturday the second week in Lent S. Luke 15. Of the prodigal Child ANd he said A certain man had two sons and the younger of them said to his father Father give me the portion of substance that belongeth to me and he divided unto them the substance And not many days after the youngest son gathering all his things together went from home into a far Countrey and there he wasted his substance living riotously And after he had spent all there fell a sore famine in that Countrey and he began to be in need and he went and cleaved to one of the Citizens of that Countrey and he sent him into his Farm to feed swine And he would fain have filled his belly of the husks that the swine did eat and no body gave unto him And returning to himself he said How many of my fathers hirelings have abundance of bread and I here perish for famine I will arise and will go to my father and say unto him Father I have sinned against Heaven and before thee I am not now worthy to be called thy son make me as one of thy hirelings And rising up he came to his father and when he was yet far off his father saw him and was moved with mercy and
was there known to all the world and the disdain of that ungratefull Nation closed the hands of his great bounty Is it not a great unhappiness to be weary and tyred with often communicating to be wicked because God is good and to shut up our selves close when he would impart himself to us Men make little account of great benefits and spiritual helps for that they have them present They must lose those favours to know them well and seek outragiously without effect what they have kickt away with contempt because it was easily possest 2. The choices and elections of God are not to be comprehended within our thoughts but they should be adored by our hearts He is Master of his own favours and doth what he will in the Kingdoms of Nature Grace and Glory He makes vessels of Potters earth of gold and silver He makes Holy-dayes and working-dayes saith the Wiseman his liberalites are as free to him as his thoughts We must not examine the reason why he doth elevate some and abase others Our eye must not be wicked because his heart is good Let us content our selves that he loves the humble and to know that the lowest place of all is most secure No man is made reprobate without justice no man is saved without mercy God creates men to repair in many that which he hath made and also to punish in the persons of many that which he hath not made 3. Jesus doth not cure his brethren and yet cures strangers to shew that his powers are not tied to any nation but his own will So likewise the graces of God are not to be measured according to the nature of him who receives them but by the pure bounty of him who gives them The humility of some doth call him when the presumption of others doth estrange him The weak grounds of a dying law did no good to the Jews who disdained the grace of Jesus Christ And that disdain deprived them of their adoption of the glory of the New Testament of all the promises and of all Magistracy They lost all because they would keep their own wills Let us learn by the grace of God to desire earnestly that good which we would obtain effectually Persons distasted and surfetted cannot advance much in a spiritual life And he that seeks after perfection coldly shall never find it Aspirations THy beauties most sweet Jesus are without stain thy goodness without reproch and thy conversation without importunity God forbid I should be of the number of those souls which are distasted with Monna and languish after the onions of Egypt The more I taste thee the more I incline to do thee honour Familiarity with an infinite thing begets no contempt but onely from those whom thou doest despise for their own faults O what high secrets are thy favours O what Abysses are thy graces We may wish and run But except thou cooperate nothing is done If thou cease to work all is undone I put all my happiness into thy hands It is thou alone which knowest how to chuse what we most need by thy Sovereign wisdom and thou givest it by thy extream bounty The Gospel upon Tuesday the third week in Lent S. Matth. 18. If thy brother offend thee tell him of it alone BUt if thy brother shall offend against thee go and rebuke him between thee and him alone if he shall hear thee thou shalt gain thy brother and if he will not hear thee joyn with thee besides one or two that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may stand And if he will not hear them tell the Church and if he will not hear the Church let him be to thee as the Heathen and the Publican Amen I say to you whatsoever ye shall bind upon earth shall be bound also in heaven and whatsoever ye shall loose upon earth shall be loosed also in heaven Again I say to you that if two of you shall consent upon earth concerning every thing whatsoever they ask it shall be done to them of my Father which is in heaven for where there be two or three gathered in my name there am I in the midst of them Then came Peter unto him and said Lord how often shall my brother offend against me and I forgive him until seven times Jesus said to him I say not to thee until seven times but until seventy times seven times Moralities 1. THe heavens are happy that they go always in one measure and in so great a revolution of ages do not make one false step but man is naturally subject to fail He is full of imperfections and if he have any virtues he carries them like dust against the wind or snow against the sun This is the reason which teaches him that he needs good advice 2. It is somewhat hard to give right correction but much harder to receive it profitably Some are so very fair spoken that they praise all which they see and because they will find nothing amiss they are ordinarily good to no body They shew to those whom they flatter their virtues in great and their faults in little they will say to those who are plunged in great disorders they have no other fault but that they are not sufficiently carefull of their own health Others do correct with such sharpness and violence that they wound their own hearts to cure other mens and seem to have a greater mind to please their own passions than to amend those whom they would instruct Correction should be accompanied with sweetness but it must carry withall a little vigour to make a right temper and to keep a mean between softness and austerity Jesus in the Prophet Isaiah is called both a rod and a flower to shew us according to Origen that he carries severity mingled with sweetness to use either of them according to the diversity of persons 3. It is not a very easie thing to receive brotherly correction patiently we are so far in love with being well thought of And after we have lost the tree of life which is virtue it self we would keep the bark of it which is onely reputation All shadows proceed from those bodies upon which somewhat shines honour is the child of a known virtue and many when they cannot get one lawfull are willing to have a Bastard This is the cause why so many resemble those serpents which requite them with poison who sing to them pleasant songs Whatsoever is spoken to instruct them makes them passionate and dart out angry speeches against those who speak to them mild and gentle words of truth and tending to their salvation Rest assured you can never get perfection except you count it a glorie to learn and discover your own imperfections 4. There is nothing of more force than the prayers of just men which are animated by the same spirit and cimented together with perfect concord They are most powerfull both in heaven and earth When they desire what
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
the living God with so much force and vigour as they made tender the bowels of the God of mercy that descends and speaks athwart the Flames and Thrones to bring about their safety Moses and Aaron failed not to discover themselves to the most eminent of the chosen people concerning the Counsel that God had taken of their Liberty whereat they were at first so joyed that they prostrated themselves on the earth through respect adoring the divine Goodnesse that carried himself with so much love to the easing of their misery but when this businesse proved thorny and full of obstacles their courage failed them and had almost as leave crouch in their Servitude as buy their Liberty at the price of a reasonable pain Yet Moses accompanied with his brother courageously transports himself to Pharaoh's Palace speaks to him with a generous liberty from the living God and declares to him his Commands which were to dismisse his people and let them go out of Egypt to sacrifice in the wildernesse He that reigned at that time was one Pharaoh Cenchris an haughty and insolent Prince who having never heard any such language said That he knew not that God that intermeddled to make him such Commands and that he was fully resolved not to let go the prey which he held in his hands that all these discourses of Sacrifices and of Devotions proceeded from nothing but a pure idlenesse fatall to the Jewish people and that he would give them so much exercise that they should not have the leasure to dream on such Fancies And in effect he commanded the Commissaries that presided over the labour of those poor slaves to redouble their Pains and augment their Burdens The straw that was furnished them before to make the brick taken from them they were constrained to seek for it where they could and yet for all this the number of their bricks which they were bound to render every day was not diminished And though this was a thing impossible for them yet must they expect rods and bastonado's and all imaginable rigours This made a great noise amongst the People which began already to murmure against Moses and Aaron blaming their enterprise and complaining that they would set them at Liberty It is a most ordinary thing in all great affairs there are spirits that are like those watry clouds that never carry lightning so cannot they ever conceive any thing that is vigorous they would have good things but they would have them loosely and would willingly desire that Nature should renew for them the favours of the Terrestriall Paradise and should give them roses that should never be compassed about with thorns But as one ought not to be rash and violent to push forward businesses out of a giddy humour so ought one not to be slack and effeminate in letting those alone that oblige us by conscience and by duty Moses desists not for all this but takes a stout resolution to advance the work of God even to the Point whither Providence would have it come He had on one side men to combate with that resisted their own good and on the other an impious obstinate and cruel Prince he gains the one by reasons and by sweetnesse he brings down the other by threats and prodigies One may here manifestly see the paths that God hath trodden in the punishment of Pharaoh when he would abandon a King or a great man for his demerits and sacrifice him to his Justice letting him fall into a reprobate sense which is the last step that one makes to enter into hell He permits him to satiate an Ambition or a Revenge to intangle himself in some great design under the pretense of Justice and of Honour and forasmuch as he is extremely thirsty after the greatnesse of the earth puts him upon a pinacle in the highest dignities and the most magnificent negotiations leaves him to himself and to the wishes of his own heart and although he be vicious gives him great successes and incomparable prosperities that puffe up his heart and make him presume upon his own conduct He takes from him the taste of Divine things letting him slide into a contempt of the holy Word and of all the admonitions that one can give him about his safety If he hath any faithfull Counsellour he puts him out and substitutes in his place flatterers and enchaunters If there come any scourge from heaven to overwhelm him he is made believe that it is but a naturall thing and ordinary enough and that he ought not to trouble himself about such a businesse If he be sensible of any evill that affrights him men endeavour suddenly to scatter it and to make him understand that that is not the wrath of God but an order of Nature and that he may mock at the tempest as soon as the calm returns All this is made visible in this miserable Prince A great Kingdome great Ambitions Revenges hereditaty against the chosen People an immoveable design to root them out a contempt of God successe in his vengeances and some satisfaction of spirit by the pains of those miserable ones Moses baffled the Flatterers hearkned to the Magicians adored the Plagues of heaven turned into laughters as soon as they were passed an heart at last hardned by its own malice and not by the work of God who doth no more make sin then the Sun makes the night Moses endeavours first to gain him by the force of reasons and by the sweetnesse of words whereto when he shewed resistance he employed Miracles for the proof of his Commission which the King caused to be counterfeited by his Magicians opposing the Shadow to the Light and a Lie to Truth After which the wrath of Heaven caused those ten Plagues related in Exodus successively to rain upon him For that unfortunate Prince saw first of all the River of Nile all in bloud as if it had demanded Vengeance of God for those little Innocents that had been cast into it He saw Frogs that came out of the same Stream by an impetuous ebullition in such a manner as that they covered all the fields entred into the houses filled the tables mounted upon the beds and gave horrour and torments to all Egypt He saw thick clouds of Gnats that were raised all on a sudden casting themselves upon the cattle and upon the men with so irksome a trouble that their life was full of bitternesse He saw after that armies of all sorts of Flies so different in their kind so violent in their assaults and so pernicious in their effects that they defiled every thing with their venome He saw a furious mortality of Beasts that fell every moment and infected the air by their corruption He saw the bodies of his Subjects all laden with Ulcers wherewith the Magicians themselves in punishment of their crimes were covered in such a fashion as that they could stand no longer in the presence of their King He saw the most horrible Hail
did frequent her house Seneca was named amongst the foremost Calumny against Julia and Seneca and by calumny invelopped in the same accusation whether it was suspected that he had treated of love with her or whether it was thought that he was an accomplice in her excesses and had flattered her in her passion without giving her advice It is true that our Seneca was then in the flower of his age and was none of those fullen and stern Stoicks that had put the world into a fright He had a gentle spirit discreet and agreeable to women but he was too advised to let his passions flie so high as to commit any loose act in the house of the Cesars Dion his greatest enemy doth justifie him in this businesse and doth confesse that all this accusation was most unjustly grounded and that Messalina was so depraved and so corrupted with the inordinatenesse of filthy lusts that no credit was to be given to her Neverthelesse she ceased not to bear down the innocent with the weight of her power she condemned the Princesse to banishment and afterwards to death as Dion and Suetonius do affirm It did much afflict her that Seneca was alive who by divers sentences in the Senate was allotted to death but the good Emperour Claudius was most unwilling to extinguish in that Spirit the Glory of Eloquence and of the Empire desired his life of the Senate and was contented that he should be banished into the Isle of Corsica where at the beginning he was touched with a melancholy amazement to find himself separated from the pleasures of the Court to live amongst the rocks and people as ungentle as the rocks but he imployed all his Philosophy to comfort himself and to temper the eagernesse of his fortune with the tranquility of his mind Here his spirit being delivered from the noise and the tumults of Rome and the servitudes of the Court did altogether reflect upon it self and found there those Lights and those Treasures which before lay undiscovered to him Tribulation is to men as a spurre to incite them to the production of brave works and of generous actions and this appeared in Seneca who in this Seneca benished to Corsica where he composed excellent works place of banishment did write most excellent Treatises neither did his conversation with those rude inhabitants alter the graces or the beauty of his language He treated there with the Intelligences and dived into the Contemplation of the World He took off the vail from Nature that she might the better be seen in her majesty Howsoever in that solitary place he had sometimes his hours of affection beholding himself severed from his mother whom he tenderly loved and whom in that affliction he comforted w th a letter which might pass for a good book He passionately desired the company of his brothers and some personages of Honour who loved him with as much sincerity as profession There was some that think it strange in Seneca that he should desire and endeavour his return and that in his consolatory letter to Polybius he did write the praises of the Emperour Claudius who did banish Seneca did well to desire and procure his liberty him But have not they somthing to do who exact more perfection in Seneca a man at that time of the world then is required in a Prophet where is the bird that doth not sometimes beat his bill against the cage to find out the door to his liberty Jeremy was exceeding patient and yet he humbly besought K. Zedekiah to draw him out of prison where he had suffered much and much feared that he should be committed again unto it Doth not S. Paul say that liberty is better then slavery that one is to be supported by necessity and the other to be procured by reason What fault hath Seneca done that in his exile he wrote unto Polybius a great favourite a letter consolatory on the death of his brother and inserted in it a few good words to appease the Emperour Should he have spared a period or two to deliver himself from a banishment where he had continued for the space of eight years I should no way approve him for bestowing flatteries on a wicked man which should be an act unworthy of a Philosopher for a generous spirit had better to endure the extremity of evil then praise a tyrant and give applauses to his person You may observe how carefull he is in that Tract to give not so much as one Complement to Messalina who was a very bad woman although she had the command of all he onely praised an Emperour who in that time wherein he wrote his Consolation to Polybius was in good reputation and made the face of the Empire look farre otherwise then it did in the Reign of Caligula his predecessour He is so discreet that all the praises he doth give him are no more then wishes Let the Powers of Heaven preserve him long on The excellent Complement of Seneca earth Let him surmount the years and the acts of Augustus and as long as he shall be mortall let there not any die in his house Let him give us a long sonne to be Master of the Roman Empire having approved him by his long fidelity And let him have him rather for his Colleague then for his Successour Afterwards he addresseth himself to Fortune speaketh unto her Take heed O Fortune how thou makest thy approaches to him Let not thy power be seen in his person but by thy bounties Let him redresse the calamities of mankind and re-establish all that which the fury of his Predecessour hath ruined and made desolate Let that fair Starre which is risen when the world was falling into the Abysmes continue alwayes to illuminate the Universe Let him pacifie Germany and let him open England Let him gain and surmount the Triumphs of his Father His Clemency which is the first of his Virtues doth promise that I shall not be a Spectatour onely and that he hath not cast me down to raise me up no more But why say I cast down he hath upheld me from the hour that I fell into my misfortune when they would have thrown me headlong down he interposed and by the moderation of his divine hands he laid me gently on the earth He hath entreated the Senate for me and not content himself to give me life he hath desired it of others that I might enjoy the Grant with more assurance Let him deal with me as he pleaseth I assure my self that his Justice will find my cause to be good or his Clemency will make it so It is all one to me whether I am judged not guilty by his Equity or whether I am made innocent by his Bounty In the mean time I rejoyce in my miseries with a sensible consolation to see the course of his Mercy which goes through the Universe and which every day doth call forth the Banished from this
from ruine 'T is a rash determination that bloweth off the victorious laurels of so many Christian Kings with such a blind and precipitate whirlwind of words Justly therefore are the Manichees obnoxious to a spirituall Outlawry from the Church whilst I know not whether they more impudently assert innocence or more blameably disarm it All Ages concurre in the justification of Warre against Infidels but the intermingled contentions of the Faithfull have been alwayes reprehended and never impartially tolerated Be pleased to take a review of an old instrument There were many and bitter discords among the Jews many tumults many warres but ever against those that had abandoned the true Religion and collapsed into foul Idolatry and the worship of the Gentiles The Israelites indeed upon the division of the Tribes fought against the Benjamites with a fierce warre and an infinite destruction but this was rather the fury of grief rushing into arms for the revenge of a woman violated with prodigious lust then any destinated opposition or just controversie for the enlargement of their territories The magnanimity of David could scarce be induced to a just resistance of his sonne Absolon forcing his way unto his Fathers Throne thorow the bloud and carkasses of many Citizens till Joab had obstinately dissipated that languidnesse of his gentle mind so detestable an undertaking was it for those who were brethren by the bonds of Nature and Religion to forfeit all civill respects to the rage of warre If you please to consult the first times of the Christian Emperours you shall find Constantine opposing his forces against Julian but not till he became the desertour of Christ and the Standard-bearer of impiety You shall also find Theodosius the Great levying his utmost strength against Maximus Eugenius and Arbogastus but his quarrel was with most perfidious Tyrants who under the veil of Religion laboured to hide flagitious and damnable excesses You shall scarce meet with any Prince in the more innocent times who took up arms to be embrewed in Christian bloud but upon the most deliberate and important causes And indeed Baronius doth excellently observe that the Crosse was first opposed to the Crosse in arms in the Warre which Constantius raised against Magnentius A horrible wickednesse saith he and not to be attempted but by a Christian Tyrant a dissembler of Religion and an Hereticall Emperour I am not ignorant that Augustine hath handled this subject and question against Faustus and that he hath established the equity of Christian arms upon the foundation of the Gospel because John in so exemplary a rigour of life perswaded not the souldiers enquiring after the means of their salvation to cast away their weapons but to be contented with their pay and to strike no man Because also the Apostle not without cause saith That Princes bear not the sword in vain But if it be lawfull to yield our assent to the approbation of his judgement we shall find that all those darts were ejaculated against the mad phrensies of the Manichees who would have Christians to abstain from the sword and to bear the most cruel injuries of treacherous Infidels unrepelled unrevenged He would not therefore either cherish the severity or irritate the power of Christian Princes in an unlawfull Warre against their brethren for in the same place he exclaimeth a defire of doing violence a cruel preparation of mind to revenge an implacable mind a barbarous lust to rebel a secret speculation of Lordly dominion and other such as these are the causes which are justly culpable in the Warres Now who are they according to the opinion of S. Austin that consociate themselves and their adherents in an unjust Warre First they that are hurried into Arms by a blind violence of spirit not so much for love of Justice as a greedinesse of revenge Who being provoked by some injury inhumanely and unmeasurably rave and rage abhorring all attonement and refusing by the authority of an incensed reason to chide out their Passions those petulant and contentious inmates In the second place they who endeavour a Rebellion against their lawfull Sovereigne and casting off the yoke of their Allegiance precipitate themselves into all licencious enormities Finally they who out of a sole desire of Ruling involve and mingle the Kingdomes of their neighbours in commotions and intestine discords and that they may extend their Empire open a passage to their ambitious expectations by all designes either violent or fraudulent Consider now best Princes what a proclivity there is in such to boil with indignation and displeasure to burn with paroxisms of envy and exacerbations of revenge yea and to be tickled with an apprehension of purchasing or amplifying a Kingdome How obvious it is the reins being let loose to transcend the just limits how easie a matter to counterfeit Justice to pretend necessity and now to trample upon those Laws which before were so much outwardly reverenced you will undoubtedly find it true that it is more easie to take up then to moderate and temper Arms. But that I may not detain you long Aquinas requireth three things to the justification or legitimation of a Warre the Authority of the Prince a just Cause and a right Intention whereunto other Divines have added warrantable Reasons to obtain the end it is absolutely unlawfull therefore for private men to appear in Arms for the prosecution of their own right though in judgement This God hath delegated unto Princes that that might happen seldome which must needs be violent To the Lords of the earth we may say with Seneca I am he that God hath chosen out of so many men that I might be his Vicegerent upon earth I am the supreme Arbiter of life and death unto the Nations It is in the hand of my power to dispose the lot of their conditions to all my people These millions of swords that guard my peace shall at the lest intimation of my pleasure be all unsheathed What Cities shall perish and which shall flourish is my jurisdiction To be able to put all these things in execution is indeed a great matter but to forbear the pursuance of them unlesse necessity require it is farre more divine It is a lawfull wish that he to whom all things are lawfull would confine his will to the practice onely of lawfull things The right of the Sword is not extended when it devolveth into the Protection of one but is rather restrained One hand is stretched forth that all may be bound affairs are managed by the wisdome of a paucity lest the temerity of the whole multitude should precipitate them into a promiscuous destruction The parsimony even of the meanest bloud is to be praised No man is more unjustly invested with a superiority over others then he that is prodigall of their lives though in a just emergence Those thunderbolts must be slowly shot which the wounded persons can reverence Let Kings therefore beware lest they glorifie themselves by that faculty