imitate your Graces profitable and well-seasoned retirements I wish excellent Lady there were any thing wherein I might better expresse the devoted service I ow to your eminent self and illustrious Family but since weak endeauours can produce but slender effects and noble dispositions do readily pardon incident imperfections I will rest in the cheerefull hope of Excuse and in the ardent Vow of a studious willingnesse to become worthy the Title of Your Graces humblest and most obsequious servant THOMAS HAWKINS To my Lord MY LORD THE DUKE OF ANGVIEN ELDEST SONNE OF MY LORD THE PRINCE MY LORD I Finish the Holy-Court in my Books when your age inviteth you to begin it in your manners and for your first exercise of arms I offer you the Combats and Empire over Passions which is greater then that of the world There it is where you shall know the industry of a warre which nature wageth and reason teacheth us which is never too soon learned and which is ordinarily but too late understood Princes in other battels speak with mouths of fire and make use of a million of hands but in this which I represent they are alone and therein employ but the moitie of themselves one part of Man being revolted against the other Besides all the honour of the uictory rests in themselves arms fortresses and Regiments not at all participating therein and if they prove fortunate in these encountres they stand in the esteem of wise men for Demy-Gods Their quality obligeth them to this duty more then other men since Passions are winds which in popular life raise but little waves but in them stir up mountains of water For which I am perswaded that as you so dearly have loved the labours of my Pen and sought for your instruction out of my Books I could not do a better service or more suitable to your age then by arming you against these plagues which have so often tarnished Diadems on the brow of Cesars and turned Conquerours into Slaves Sir I promise my self much from your Greatnesse in this Conquest seeing it already hath given testimonies to the world worthy of your eminent Birth which oblige you to virtue out of a necessity as strong as your disposition is sweet VVit which is as the principall Genius of your house hath in you cast forth glimmers that have flown throughout Europe when you publickly answered throughout all Philosophy in an age wherein other Princes begin to learn the first elements You have placed wisedome on the highest Throne of Glory and it by your mouth hath rendred Oracles to instruct the learned and astonish Doctours In the first season of life which so many other spend in delights you have heightned the lights of your understanding by the labour and industry of study living as certain Plants which bear the figure of Starres all invironed with Thorns It is time that all your Brightnesse change into Fire and since Sciences are but Colours which appeare not in the night-time if Virtue do not illuminate them they must be gilded with the rayes of your good life and enkindled with the ardours of your courage as you very happily have already begun Sir I do assure my self that of all those things you know you will onely approve the good and that of all such as you can you will do none but the just This is it you owe to the King to whom you have the honour to be so near This is it which the education of the most prudent of Fathers and the tender care of the best of mothers exact This is it that France which looketh on you as a Sien of its Lillies wisheth This is it which bloud the mostnoble on Earth breeding the most happy in the world and that face where Grace and Majesty make so sweet a commixion cease not to promise us As there is nothing little in you so we must not endure any thing imperfect and if that which we take to be spots in the Sun be Stars it plainly sheweth us that all must be splendour in your condition and that we must not expect years since the wit of Princes in much swifter then time Your great Vncle who gained the battel of Cerisoles said to those who upbraided him with his youth that he did not cut with his beard but with his sword and I am perswaded that you will imitate his valour to take part in his glory yea even in this your minority wherein the Kings colours being already to fly under your name My Lord remember the throne of the Sun among the Egyptians was supported by Lyons and that you must be all heart to support that of our most Christian King in imitation of the great Prince to whom you ow your Birth For whose sake I wish you as many blessings as Heaven promiseth you esteeming my self most happy to be able to contribute my labours and services to the glory of your education since I have the honour to call my self by just title SIR Your most humble and most affectionate servant in our Lord N. CAUSSIN A TASTE OF THE SEVERALL DISPOSITIONS OF MEN VVhich serves for a Foundation to the Discourse of PASSIONS THE HOLY COURT was not as yet sufficiently beautified with the eminent lustre of Glory wherein I represented it but it was necessary that taking possession of the Empire over passions it should wear a crown which it hath gained by its travell and wrought by its proper virtues In this last Tome dear Reader I present thee the absolute reformation of the soul by eternall principles and the victory over powers which oppose Reason Thou art not ignorant that Angels and bruit beasts are but of one piece the one being wholly Spirit and the other Flesh But Man a middle creature between Angels and bruit beasts participateth both of flesh and Spirit by an admirable tye which in him occasioneth continuall war of Passions which are properly commotions of animall and sensitive nature caused by the imagination of good and evil with some alteration of body They take their origen from two Appetites of which the Concupiscible causeth Love Hatred Desire Aversion Joy and Sadnesse The Irascible causeth Hope Despair Boldnesse Fear and Anger To this ordinary number I add Shamefastnesse Envy Jealousie and Compassion to accomplish our work in all its parts All Passions are generally in all men but all appear not in all There is a certain mixture in nature which is the cause that the worst have something of good and the best something of bad Now note that as the Platonists distinguish five sorts of divels to wit Fiery Airy Aquatick Terrestriall and Subterranean so humane spirits are divided into as many forms which produce merveilous diversities in every nature The Fiery are Spirits of fire whereof some seem to be enkindled with the purest flames of stars which are magnanimous pure vigorous bold intelligent active amiable and munâ—ficent And of this sort are the most illustrious of Kings and of Queens
flourished in France Mounsieur Godefroy hath published this written by an ancient Authour under Charls the Sixth These petty Rodomonts who make boast of duels meer cowardice covered with an opinion of courage durst not behold this Captain without doing that which heretofore was done to the statues of the Sun that is to put finger on the mouth and admire For not to speak of his other acts of prowess it is he who was present The Marshal Boucicaut at that furious battel wherein Bajazet the Turkish Emperour waged war against the King of Hungarie where there were many French-men the Duke of Burgundie then called the Count of Nevers being there in person The history saith that the Turk coming to fight with dreadfull forces began so furious a charge the air being thickened with a black cloud of arrows that the Hungarians who were reputed good souldiers much trembled at this assault and fled away The French who ever had learned in all battels Piety and valour of a French souldier to vanquish or die unwilling so much as to hear any speech of the name of flight pressed into the Turkish Army notwithstanding the stakes and pyles fixed in the earth to serve as hinderances and attended by some other troups brake the Vanguard of the Turks by the counsel and example of this brave Marshal whereat Bajazet much amazed was ready to retire at which time it was told him there was but a very little handfull of French men who made the greatest resistance and that it were best to assault them He who kept his battalions very fresh returneth and came to fall upon these poor souldiers now extreamly tired Never did angry Lion exercise such violent force amongst the javelins of hunters as was then the prowess which shined in this generous Captain For he having no further purpose but to sell his own life and those of his companions as dear as he could so negligently betrayed he with the French Cavalry and some few other people who stuck to him did such feats of arms that it was thought twenty thousand Turks were slain in the place In the end this prodigious multitude able to weary out the most hardy although it had been but to cut them to pieces did so nearly encompass our French that the Count Nevers with Marshal Boucicaut and the most worthy personages were taken prisoners The next day after this dismal battel Bajazet sitting Horrible spectacle under a pavillion spred for him in the field caused the prisoners to be brought before him to drench himself in bloud and vengeance which he so passionately loved Never was spectacle seen more worthy of compassion the poor Lords who had done wonders in arms able to move Tigers were led as it were half naked straitly bound with coards and fetters no regard being had neither to their bloud which was noble nor youth which was pitifull nor their behaviour most ravishing these Saracens ugly and horrible as devils set them before the face of the Tyrant who in the winck of an eye caused their throats to be cut at his feet as if he meant to carrouse their bloud The Count Nevers with two other Counts of Ewe and Marche had now their heads under the symitar and their lives hung but as it were at a thread when Bajazet having heard by his interpreters that they were neer kinsmen to the King of France caused them to be reserved commanding they should sit on the ground at his feet where they were enforced to behold the lamentable butchery of their Nobilitie The valiant Marshal Boucicaut in his turn was produced covered with a little linnen cloth to massacre him over the bodies of so many valiant men He who was wise and particularly inspired by God in this extremity made a sign with his fingers before Bajazet who understood not his language as if he would declare himself the kinsman of the Count of Nevers who beheld him with an eye so pitifull that it was of power to rent rockie hearts Bajazet being perswaded by this sign that he was of the bloud Royal caused him to be set apart to remain a prisoner where he afterward by his great prudence endeavoured the liberty of those noble Gentlemen and his own I cannot think these petty Novices of war will compare themselves to the valour of this man accomplished with such heroick prowess Let us come if it please you to consider him at Pietie of a souldier leisure whether he were of the number of those who profess themselves wicked that they may seem valiant He was a man who in time of peace whilest he governed the Citie of Genoa daily heard two Masses with so exemplar devotion that he never suffered any man to speak to him in the Church where he said the Office with singular attention for which he so accommodated his company that you should never see the least action of uncomeliness in Divine service which he did not severely punish But the Historian addeth that who had beheld his people at Mass would rather think he saw Religious men than Souldiers Noblemen are of power to bend their families to what they please were it not that through softness of spirit they many times give way to the torrent and contenting themselves to be good make all the rest nought by the easiness of their natures I speak not here to you of a Canonical Saint a Hermit a Religious man a Priest I speak of a Marshal of France of a most ardent warriour Behold I pray whether piety be incompatible Notable devotion of a souldier with arms This brave Captain happily made his Will disposing of all his devotions his affairs and charge each day he executed some part hereof doing all the good he could during his life not expecting the casual portions of others piety as those who cause the torch to be carried behind to light them when they have lost their eyes and indeed never do well but when they are in a condition to be able to do no more The charitable Lord informed himself very particularly of the necessities of the bashfull poor set their names down in his Registers as the rarest pieces of his cabinet appointed on every side his alms to poor Religious to widdows to orphans to needy souldiers namely those who through inability of old age and sickness could labour no more He visited Hospitals giving according to his means round sums of money to furnish and acommodate them if he walked in the streets he ever had charity in his hands that himself might give all he could for he therein took a singular contentment and never was he seen to be so merry as when he had distributed good store of money this was his hunting his game his delight He bare a singular devotion towards the friday in memory of the passion of our Saviour and whilest he was able did eat nothing on that day but fruits and pulse abstaining from all which participated of the
on thy part what ingratitudes on mine Preserve me in what is thine and wash away with the precious bloud of thy Son what is mine Shelter me under the wings of thy protection from so many shadows apparitions and snares of the father of darkness and grant that though sleep close my eys yet my heart may never be shut to thy love Lastly fall asleep upon some good thought that your night as the Prophet saith may be enlightened with the delights of God and if you chance to have any interruption of sleep supply it with ejaculatory prayers and elevations of heart as the just did of old called for this reason The crickets of the night Thus shall you lead a life full of honour quiet and satisfaction to your self and shall make every day a step to Eternity The marks which may amongst others give you good hope of your predestination are eleven principall 1. Faith lively simple and firm 2. Purity of life exempt ordinarily from grievous sins 3. Tribulation 4. Clemency and mercy 5. Poverty of spirit disengaged from the earth 6. Humility 7. Charity to your neighbour 8. Frequentation of the blessed Sacrament 9. Affection to the word of God 10. Resignation of your own mind to the will of your Sovereign Lord. 11. Some remarkable act of virtue which you have upon occasion exercised You will find this Diary little in volume but great in virtue if relishing it well you begin to put it in practice It contains many things worthy to be meditated at leisure for they are grave and wise precepts choisely extracted out of the moral doctrine of the Fathers Though they seem short they cost not the less pains Remember that famous Artist Myrmecides employed more time to make a Bee than an unskilfull workman to build a house EJACULATIONS FOR THE DIARY In the Morning MY voice shalt thou hear in the morning O Lord In the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee and will look up Psal 5. 3. Thou shalt make thy face to shine upon me and all the beasts of the forest shall gather themselves together and lay them down in their dens Psal 184. 22. My dayes are like the dayes of an hireling Untill the day break and the shadows flie away Job 7. 1. Cant. 4. 6. Beginning a good work In the volume of the book it is written of me I delight to do thy will O my God yea thy Law is within my heart Psal 40. 7. 8. In good Inspirations The Lord God hath opened mine ear and I was not rebellious neither turned away back Isaiah 50. 5. At Church How amiable are thy Tabernacles O Lord of hosts Psal 84. 1. Before reading Speak Lord for thy servant heareth 1 Samuel 3. 9. Speaking My heart is inditing a good matter I speak of the things which I have made touching the King Psal 45. 1. Eating Thou openest thine hand and satisfiest the desire of every living thing Psal 145. In Prosperity If I do not remember thee let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth If I prefer not thee above my chief joy Psal 137. 6. Adversity The Lord killeth and maketh alive 1 Sam. 2. 6. Shall we receive good at the hand of God and shall we not receive evil Job 2. 10. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glorie Luke 24. 26. Troubles Surely man walketh in a vain shew surely they are disquieted in vain Psal 39. 6. Calumnies If I pleased men I should not be the servant of Christ Gal. 1. 10. Praises Not unto us O Lord not unto us but unto thy Name give glorie Psal 115. 1. Against vain hope As a dream when one awaketh so O Lord when thou awakest thou shalt despise their image Psalm 73. 20. Pride Whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased Luke 14. 11. Covetousness It is more blessed to give than to receive Acts 20. 35. Luxury Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ 1. Cor. 6. 15. Envy He that loveth not his brother abideth in death 1 John 3. 14. Gluttony The Kingdom of God is not meat and drink Rom. 14. 17. Anger Learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart Matth. 11. 29. Sloth Cursed be he that doth the work of the Lord negligently Jer. 48. 10. Rules of Faith God cannot be known but by himself What is to be understood of God is to be learned by God Hilar lib. 5. de Trin. God doth not call us to the blessed life by hard questions In simplicity must we seek him in piety profess him Idem lib. 10. Remove not the ancient bounds which thy fathers have set Prov. 22. 28. Many are the reasons which justly hold me in the bosom of the Catholick Church Consent of people and nations Authority begun by miracles nourished by hope encreased by charity confirmed by antiquity August lib. De utilitate credendi To dispute against that which the universal Church doth maintenance is insolent madness Idem Epist 118. Let us follow universality antiquity consent Let us hold that which is believed every where always by all Vincentius Lyrinensis De profanis vocum novitatibus Acts of Faith Lord I believe help thou mine unbelief Marc. 9. 24. I know that my Redeemer liveth c. Job 19. 25. Hope Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me Psal 24. 4. I will be with him in trouble I will deliver him and honour him Psal 90. 15. Charity Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee My flesh and my heart faileth but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever Psal 73. 25 26. Feed me O Lord thy suppliant with the continual influence of thy Divinity This I request this I desire that vehement love may throughly pierce me fill me and change me into it self Blosius PRAYERS for all Persons and occasions For the Church WE beseech thee O Lord graciously to accept the prayers of thy Church that she being delivered from all adversitie and errour may serve thee in safety and freedom through Jesus Christ our Lord. For the King WE beseech thee O Lord that thy servant CHARLS by thy gracious appointment our King and Governour may be enriched with all encrease of virtue whereby he may be able to eschew evil and to follow Thee the Way the Truth and the Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. For a Friend ALmighty and ever-living Lord God have mercy upon thy servant N. and direct him by thy goodness into the way of eternall salvation that through thy grace he may desire those things which please thee and with his whole endeavour perform the same through Jesus Christ our Lord. For Peace O God from whom all holy desires all good counsels and all just works do proceed give unto us thy servants that peace which the world cannot give that both our hearts may be set
to obey thy Commandments and also that by thee we being defended from the fear of our enemies may pass our time in rest and quietness through the merits of Jesus Christ our Saviour In the time of Plague LEt thy anger cease O Lod and be appeased for the iniquity of thy people as thou hast sworn by thy self O holy God holy and strong holy and immortal have mercy upon us For the Clergy ALmighty and everlasting God who by thy Spirit dost sanctifie and govern the whole body of the Church graciously hear our prayers for all those whom thou hast ordained and called to the publick service of thy Sanctuary that by the help of thy grace they may faithfully serve thee in their several degrees through Jesus Christ our Lord. For a Citie COmpass this Citie O Lord with thy protection and let thy holy Angels guard the walls thereof O Lord mercifully hear thy people For the sick O God the onely refuge of our infirmities by thy mighty power relieve thy sick servants that they with thy gracious assistance may be able to give thanks unto thee in thy holy Church through Jesus Christ For grace LOrd from whom all good things do come grant unto us thy humble servants that by thy holy inspiration we may think those things that be good and by thy merciful guiding may perform the same through our Lord Jesus Christ For the afflicted O Almighty God the afflicted soul the troubled spirit crieth unto thee Hear O Lord and have mercy for thou art a merciful God For friends I Beseech thee O Lord for all those to whom I am indebted for my birth education instruction promotion their necessities are known unto thee thou art rich in all things reward them for these benefits with blessings both temporal and eternal For enemies O God the lover and preserver of peace and charity give unto all our enemies thy true peace and love and remission of sins and mightily deliver us from their snares through Jesus Christ our Lord. For travellers ASsist us mercifully O Lord in our supplications and prayers and dispose the way of thy servants towards the attainment of everlasting salvation that among all the changes and chances of this mortal life they may ever be defended by thy most gracious and ready help through Christ our Lord. For a Family ALmighty and everlasting God send down thy holy Angel from heaven to visit protect and defend all that dwell in this house through Jesus Christ our Lord. For the dying FAther of spirits and God of all flesh receive the souls which thou hast redeemed with thy bloud returning unto thee For the fruits of the earth O God in whom we live and move and have our being open thy treasure in the due season and give a blessing to the works of thy hands For women in travel O Lord of thy goodness help thy servants who are in pains of child-birth that being delivered out of their present danger they may glorifie thy holy name blessed for ever Against temptation ALmighty God which dost see that we have no power of our selves to help our selves keep thou us both outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul through Jesus Christ For misbelievers and sinners ALmighty and everliving God who desirest not the death of a sinner mercifully look upon all that are deceived by the subtility of Satan that all evil prejudice laid aside they may return to the unity of thy truth and love For Prisoners O God who didst deliver S. Peter from his chains and restoredst him to liberty have pitie upon thy servants in captivity release their bonds and grant them freedom and safety for his merits who liveth and reigneth with thee and the holy Ghost ever one God world without end For temporal necessaries REplenish those O Lord we beseech thee with temporal nourishment whom thou hast refreshed with thy blessed Sacraments Against tempests DRive spiritual wickedness from thy house O Lord and preserve it from the malignity of tempestuous weather A Prayer of Thomas Aquinas before study O Unspeakable Creatour who out of the treasure of thy wisdom hast ordained Hierarchies of Angels and hast placed them above the highest heaven in a wonderfull order and disposed them sweetly for all parts of the world Thou the true fountain and incomprehensible principle of light and wisdom vouchsafe to illuminate the darkness of my understanding with a beam of thy light remove the darkness wherein I was born sin and ignorance Thou who makest the tongues of infants eloquent loosen my tongue and pour forth the grace of thy spirit upon my lips give me acuteness to apprehend capacity to retain subtility to interpret aptness to learn readiness to speak direct my beginning further my progression and perfect my conclusion THE PENITENT OR ENTERTAINMENTS for LENT And for the first day upon the Consideration of Ashes THou art Dust and to Dust thou shalt return Genes 3. 1. It is an excellent way to begin Lent with the consideration of Dust whereby Nature gives us beginning and by the same Death shall put an end to all our worldly vanities There is no better way to abate and humble the proudest of all Creatures than to represent his beginning and his end The middle part of our life like a kind of Proteus takes upon it several shapes not understood by others but the first and last part of it deceive no man for they do both begin and end in Dust It is a strange thing that Man knowing well what he hath been and what he must be is not confounded in himself by observing the pride of his own life and the great disorder of his passions The end of all other creatures is less deformed than that of man Plants in their death retain some pleasing smell of their bodies The little rose buries it self in her natural sweetness and carnation colour Many Creatures at their death leave us their teeth horns feathers skins of which we make great use Others after death are served up in silver and golden dishes to feed the greatest persons of the world Onely mans dead carcase is good for nothing but to feed worms and yet he often retains the presumptuous pride of a Giant by the exorbitancie of his heart and the cruel nature of a murderer by the furious rage of his revenge Surely that man must either be stupid by nature or most wicked by his own election who will not correct and amend himself having still before his eyes Ashes for his Glass and Death for his Mistress 2. This consideration of Dust is an excellent remedy to cure vices and an assured Rampire against all temptations S. Paulinus saith excellently well That holy Job was free from all temptations when he was placed upon the smoke and dust of his humility He that lies upon the ground can
purified by thy favours that they may celebrate continual days of feast in my soul I am already there in desire and shall be there in presence when by help of thine infinite grace and mercy I can be wholly thine The Gospel upon Saturday the fifth week in Lent S. John 12. The chief Priests thought to kill Lazarus because the miracle upon him made many follow JESUS BUt the chief Priests devised for to kill Lazarus also because many for him of the Jews went away and believed in Jesus And on the morrow a great multitude that was come to a festival day when they had heard that Jesus cometh to Jerusalem they took the boughs of Palms and went forth to meet him and cried Hosanna blessed is he that cometh in the name of our Lord the King of Israel And Jesus found a young Ass and sate upon it as it is written Fear not daughter of Sion behold thy King cometh sitting upon an Asses colt These things his Disciples did not know at the first but when Jesus was glorified then they remembered that these things had been written of him and these things they did to him The multitude therefore gave testimony which was with him when he called Lazarus out of the grave and raised him from the dead For therefore all the multitude came to meet him because they heard that he had done this sign The Pharisees therefore said among themselves Do you see that we prevail nothing Behold the whole world is gone after him And there were certain Gentiles of them that came up to adore in the festival day These therefore came to Philip who was of Bethsaida of Galilee and desired him saying Sir we are desirous to see Jesus Philip cometh and telleth Andrew Again Andrew and Philip told Jesus but Jesus answered them saying The hour is come that the Son of man shall be glorified Amen Amen I say to you Unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground die it self remaineth alone but if it die it bringeth much fruit He that loveth his life shall lose it and he that hateth his life in this world doth keep it to life everlasting If any man minister to me let him follow me and where I am there also shall my minister be If any man minister to me my Father will honour him Moralities 1. ADmire here the extasies of our sweet Saviour He is ravish'd by the object of his death and is transported by the Idaea of his sufferings The trumpet of Heaven sounded in the voice which was heard by this great multitude He encourages himself to his combat he looks confidently upon the Cross as the fountain of his glories and planted his elevation upon the lowest abasements Shall not we love this Cross which Jesus hath cherished as his Spouse He gave up his soul in the arms of it to conquer our souls We shall never be worthy of him till we bear the Ensigns of his war and the ornaments of his peace Every thing is Paradise to him that knows how to love the Cross and every thing is hell to those who flie from it and no body flies it but shall find it It is the gate of our mortality whither we must all come though we turn our backs to it 2. What a great secret it is to hate our soul that we may love it To hate it for a time that we may love it for all eternity to punish it in this life to give it thereby a perpetual rest in that to come To despise it that we may honour it To handle it roughly that it may be perfectly established in all delights And yet this is the way which all just men have passed to arrive at the chiefest point of their rest They have resembled the Flowers-de-luce which weep for a time out of their own tears produce seeds which renew their beauties The salt sea for them becomes a flourishing field as it did to the people of God when they came forth of the chains of Aegypt The cloud which appeared to the Prophet Ezechiel carried with it winds and storms but it was environed with a golden circle to teach us that the storms of afflictions which happen to Gods children are encompassed with brightness and smiling felicity They must rot as a grain of wheat that they may bud out and flourish in the ear They must abide the diversity of times and endure the sythe and flail They must be ground in a mill and pass by water and fire before they can be made bread pleasing to Jesus Christ Our losses are our advantages we loose nothing but to gain by it we humble and abase our selves to be exalted we despoil our selves to be better clothed and we mortifie our selves to be revived O what a grain of wheat is Jesus Christ who hath past all these trials to make the heighth of all heavenly glories bud out of his infinite sufferings Aspirations O God I have that passionate desire which these strangers had to see Jesus I do not ask it of Philip nor shall Philip have cause to ask Andrew My Jesus I ask it of thy self Thou art beautifull even in the way of the Cross Thou didst shew thy self couragious in the Abyss of thy pains thou art admirable in the contempt of death The heavenly trumpet hath already sounded for thee and chearfulness gives wings to carry thee to this great combat where death and life fight singly together which makes life die for a time and death live for ever I will forsake my very soul to follow thee in this Agonie and find my life in thy death as thou hast extinguished death in thy life The Gospel upon Palm-Sunday S. Matthew 21. Our SAVIOUR came in triumph to Jerusalem a little before his Passion ANd when they drew nigh to Jerusalem and were come to Bethphage unto mount Olivet then Jesus sent two Disciples saying to them Go ye into the Town that is against you and immediately you shall find an Ass tied and a colt with her loose them and bring them to me And if any man shall say ought unto you say ye That our Lord hath need of them and forthwith he will let them go And this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophet saying Say ye to the daughter of Sion Behold thy King cometh to thee meek and sitting upon an Ass and a Colt the foal of her that is used to the yoke And the Disciples going did as Jesus commanded them and they brought the Ass and the Colt and laid their garments upon them and made him to sit thereon And a very great multitude spred their garments in the way and others did cut boughs from the trees and strawed them in the way and the multitudes that went before and that followed cried saying Hosanna to the Son of David blessed is he that cometh in the Name of the Lord. Moralities 1. OUr Saviour goes to his death in triumph he appears to
He is never damnified but alwayes equall to himself because he admitteth not Age but is one day composed of Eternity One may object here that to hope for any thing from another it is not alwayes necessary he be absolutely greater or more worthy then we We hope from artificers we hope likewise from our servants the performance of businesses which we put into their hands and therefore one might inferre that it is not a proposition contrary to reason to say that God can hope something from us as are the praises and service which we are bound to render to him as were likewise our conversion To that I answer it is true that the greatest Monarchs of the earth may hope from the meanest persons of their God is independent of all creatures and the source of his felicities proceedeth from the infinity of his persections kingdome because they are men and have dependence of men and in this God greatly humbleth great men when he makes them see that all this glorious pomp of their fortune which seems to afford matter of jealousie to heaven and of new laws to earth subsisteth not but by the commerce of merchants and by the labour and sweat of peasants all which makes no impression on the Divinity It exspecteth say you our praises as if God were not his owne praise to himself as if he stood in need of a mortall mouth to honour an Essence Tanquam momentum staterae sie est ante te orbis terrarum Sap. 11 3. Resoluto mundo diis in unum confusis cessante naturâ acquiesâ—â— sibi cogitati onibus suis traditus Sence ep 9. immortall Were all the lipps of men the most eloquent at this present covered under ashes what would it concern him All the world is before him no more then the turn of a ballance Hath not he the morning starres round about his awfull throne I mean those great Angels all replenished with lights and perfections who praise him incessantly And were the world annihilated and the very Angels confounded in the masse of starres and elements he would ever be God alwayes as great as himself and even left alone to his thoughts in his own thoughts he would find heaven But yet you will say he may expect our conversion which partly dependeth on our selves since he who made us without us will not save us without us It is easie to reply thereupon that God hath no need of the God hath no need of our conversion to encrease his glory Fasciculum suum super terram sundavit Amos 6. conversion of men to augment his glory but to establish their salvation and should he have need he continually hath his elect before him in the book of his prescience without blotting forth or thereunto adding any names Think you he expecteth till we have done to judge of our works He knoweth from all eternity what we must do in such or such an occasion his prescience not imposing any necessity upon our free-will This great God sitting in the highest part of heaven continually Manet spectator cunctorum Deus visionisque ejus praesens aeternitas cum nostrorum actuum qualitate concurrit Boet. l. 5. p. 6. beholdeth all the actions of men and the eternity of his vision perpetually present infallibly meeteth with the quality of our merits It letteth us go according to the current of the stream and the choice of our liberty but if he would proceed with absolute power there is no will so determinate upon evil which can resist him And therefore we must conclude his account is already made both within himself and without himself he not any whit depending on the future It is more clear then the day that God cannot hope God supporteth all good hopes by reason of the infinite capacity of his Essence Sperastis in Domino in seculis aeternis in Domino Deo forti in perpetuum Isa 16. 2. but it is likewise most manifest that he supporteth all good hopes by reason of the capacity of his Essence of his power and of his goodnesse and therefore Esay speaks very notably You have put your hope in our Lord who is in eternall ages In our Lord I say the true God whose strength is not limitted by length of time Men are weak and God is the God of the strong Men sometimes preserve for a time but God guardeth us eternally Men have their wills as changeable as their power is limitted but God besides that he is of a constancy unshaken exerciseth a power unbounded Where then may we better lodge our hopes then in the Divinity There it is where our second modell I meane the holy We must place our hopes in God by the example of the holy Humanity of Jesus Christ In te projectus sum ex uteâ—o spes mea ab ube ribus matrismeae For what reasons our Lord prayed humanity of Jesus placed all his hope My God my Hope I did cast my self between thy arms so soon as I began to be born in the world and at my going from my mothers bosome But one may here aske of theology If Jesus had the virtue of Hope what is it then he might hope I answer that if he might pray he might hope For prayer and namely a request is not made but with hope to obtein that we seek for Now who doubteth but that Jesus prayed on earth and doth he not also pray now in heaven He prayed saith Theology for four reasons First for the exercise of his virtue which is most excellent Secondly for our example Thirdly for the accomplishment of his commission and lastly for necessity I am not ignorant that S. John Damascen hath said that Christ prayed not but in appearance Damascen l. 4. de side insomuch as prayer being properly an ascension of the mind to God it could not be that the soul of Jesus Christ should mount anew into the Divinity since from the day of his Conception it was there as it were enchased not being able to be separated from it one sole moment But this question is satisfied by saying with Vazquez that it is true that our Lord in regard of the person of the Word could not pray having in this kind no superiour but by reason of the Humanity which might be wanting and indigent without the help of the Divinity therefore he mounted up to the source of the word not by vision and beatifick love which he already enjoyed but by the knowledge of science infused and by a new desire to impetrate something of his heavenly Father I say he already had Beatitude and that he was as it were engulfed in lights of glory he notwithstanding had not yet glorification of his body exaltation of his name extent of his Church from one pole to the other which made him pray and to say with S. John I beseech thee O Father make me glorious and resplendent before the face of all Creatures as I was from
extremity particularly inspired by God made a sign with his fingers before Bajazet because he understood not his Language as if he would declare himself the Kinsman of the Count of Nevers who beheld him with so pitifull an eye that it was able to have rent the most rocky-heart Bajazet being perswaded by this sign that he was of the Bloud Royall caused him to be let a part among the prisoners where afterwards by his great wisdome he endeavoured the liberty of those noble Gentlemen and his own I cannot think that the puny Novices of war of our time will compare themselves to the valour of this Heroick man accomplished with such gallant prowesse Let us come if you please and look into his deportment and conversation and consider whether he were of the number of those who professe themselves wicked that they may seem valiant Our Boucicaut was a man who whilest in time of peace he governed the City of Genoa heard daily two Masses with so exemplar devotion that he never suffered any man to speak to him in the Church where he said the office with singular attention for which he so accommodated his company that you should never see the least action of uncomlinesse in Divine Service which he did not severely punish And the Historian addeth that he who had beheld his people at Divine Service would rather think he saw Religious men then Souldiers Noblemen have power to draw their families to what posture they please were it not through pusillanimity of spirit they many times give way to the torrent of nurture and contenting themselves to be good make all the rest naught by the easinesse of their Natures I mention not here a Canonized Saint an Hermit a Religious man or a Priest I speak of a Marshall of France of a most ardent Warriour and Valiant Souldier Behold I pray whether Piety be imcompatible with Arms. This Brave Captain happily made his Will disposing of all his devotions his affairs and Charge each day he executed some part hereof doing all the good he could whiles he lived not expecting the casuall portions of others piety as those who cause Torches to be carried behind to light them when they have lost their eyes and indeed never do well but when they are in a condition to be able to do no more This charitable Lord particularly informed himself of the necessities of the bashfull poore and as the rarest pieces of his Cabinet set their names down in his Register He appointed on every side his Alms to the poor Religious to Widows to Orphans to needy Souldiers namely to those who through disability of old age and sicknesse could labour no more He visited Hospitals giving according to his means round summes of money to furnish and accommodate them if he walked in the streets he ever had charity in his hands that himself might give all he could for he took therein a singular contentment and never was he seen to be so merry as when he had distributed good store of money This was to him as his hunting his game his delight He bare a singular devotion in memory of the passion of our Saviour towards the fryday and whilest he was able did eat nothing on that day but fruits and Puls absteining from all which participated of the life of Beasts and clothed himself likewise in a most simple habit desirous to shew outwardly some taste of the Reverence we owe to the bloud of the sonne of God Besides abstinencies commanded he fasted ordinarily on the Saturday which is dedicated to the memory of the Blessed Virgin He never fed at his repast but on one dish and though he had great quantity of silver Vessels he caused himself to be served in Peuter and Earth being glorious in publick but in his particular an enemy to worldly pomps and vanities I leave you to contemplate how far this kind of life is alienated from the curious Nobility of our dayes to whom so many Dispensations and Priviledges must daily be given that it seems it is needfull for their sakes onely to create another Christendome besides that which hath been established by the Sonne of God A man would say to see how they pamper their bodies they were descended from heaven and that thither they would return without passing through the Grave they Deifie themselves and to fatten and guild a stinking Dunghill covered over with snow they sport with the bloud and sweat of men Superfluity of taste being so well qualified all went in true measure in the house of this good Marshall his retinue was well enterteined according to his quality and he had a very solemn custome by him religiously observed which was speedily to pay his debts and as much as he might possible to be ingaged to none It is no small virtue nor of mean importance to be out of ingagements of this kind if we consider the Nobility at this time so easily plunged in great labyrinths of Debts which daily increase like huge Snow-balls that fall from the mountains and require Ages and golden Mines to discharge them Is it not a most inexcusable cruelty before God and man to see a busie Merchant a needy Artificer every day to multiply his journeyes and steps before the gate of a Lord or a Lady who bear his sweat and bloud in the pleits of their garments And in stead of giving some satisfaction upon his most just demands it is told him he is an importunate fellow and many times is menaced with bastinadoes if he desist not to demand his own Is not this to live like a Tartarian Is not this to degrade ones self from Nobility Christianity and Reason Is not this to ruine and as it were to cut the Throats of whole Houses and Families Alledge not to me that it is impossible for you to pay what is demanded at present foreseeing your weaknesse of estate why have you heaped so many debts which cannot be discharged Why do you not rather lessen your port and live more frugally Why do you not cast off many superfluous things that might be spared Are not offences odious enough before God but you must increase them with the marrow of the poor From hence cometh the contempt of your Persons the hatred of your Name the breaches and ruine of your Houses This man by paying his debts well was honoured and respected of his Officers like a Demy-god there was no need of making any question or doubt nor to make a false step into his house He would never suffer a Vice or bad servant were it to gain an Empire Blasphemies Oaths Lyes Slanders pastimes Quarrels and such like disorders were banished from his Palace as monsters and if he once found any of his family in fault he put them away least they should infect the other yet he would not scandalize them nor divulge their offences At the Table he spake little and did voluntarily entertein himself with the example of virtues which he observed
by causing him to be espoused to the daughter of an high Priest of the city of Heliopolis consecrated to the sun but he caused him to be called The Saviour of the world and commanded that he should be carryed through the capitall city upon his triumphant chariot and that the Herald of Arms should cause men to bend their knees before him that he might be acknowledged of all the people and that all the world might understand that nothing was done but by his orders Where are those admirers of the fortunes of glasse that happen to to the wicked where are those adorers of the Colussu's of dirt that appear by the help of some false guildings and are immediately reduced to dust Let them see and let them consider that the God of heaven and earth which we adore is the God of honour too whereof he gives a share to his when it pleases him with magnificences that surpasse all whatsoever one can imagine For a prison of three years Joseph is exalted to a principality of fourscore with an authority so absolute that it never yet had its equall since the foundation of the Monarchy of the Egyptians It now remains to observe for the instruction of Courtiers the deportments of Joseph in that Charge and although the Scripture sayes very little of that businesse enlarging it self principally upon the narration of his reconciliation with his brethren yet it omits not to give us something whereon to meditate and whereby to instruct our selves about his demeanour at the Court. In the first place he is greatly to be commended for having preserved through his whole life a piety inviolable in the Religion of his fathers without altering the service of the true God by any bad tincture of the superstition of the Egyptians Represent to your selves a child about seventeen years of age that was in a strange Nation as the Morning-star whereof the Scripture speaks in the midst of clouds without a father without a mother without a governour or a teacher without a Priest without a Sacrifice without a Law without Precepts and without example that saw himself allured and powerfully sollicited to quit his Religion by that complacency which he desired to give his Prince by the consideration of his fortune by the friendship of the great ones by the condition of his marriage and by the liking which he might aim at of a people extremely fastned to their errour that could not easily endure those that had any other opinion of their Gods then their madnesse did prescibe And yet in an age so tender he holds his own by constancy of mind against the mighty by reason against the sages of the countrey by warinesse against his own wife by sweetnesse and by prudence against the people He remains alone amongst so many millions of superstitious men an adorer of the truth in spirit without other sacrifices or ceremonies which were not lawful for him to use To speak truth he that shall weigh all these circumstances will find a marvellous weight of virtue and constancy in this holy personage We may see many of the young gentry sufficiently well educated at the first that coming to breathe the air of liberty amongst the Hereticks and having not the frequentation of the Sacraments so free as formerly easily forget their duty and without having any other corruptour to sollicite them corrupt themselves of themselves through the want of courage and wearisomnesse of virtue But if there be any baits of pleasure or of honour that allures them to the side of impiety they tread often times under foot all that there is of divine and humane for the satisfying of their sensuality But this young man that saw every day before his eyes a thousand stumbling-blocks in a Nation that was addicted to Idolatry above all the People of the World and that had often torn in pieces those that expressed any contempt of their Ceremonies preserves himself amidst these enticements and these furies as a fountain of fresh-water in the midst of the salt-Sea The true God alwayes returned into his thoughts when he was to combate against the passion of his Mistresse when he was to present himself to the King when he was to require an oath of his brethren it was by the true God and when he was ready to render up the Ghost he conjured his children not to let his bones rot in a land of Idolatry Yet some men may wonder that in so long a sojourning as he made in Egypt and in an authority so absolute he tooke care onely of the Politick affairs and advanced not the interests of his Religion Some may marvell at the alliance that he made with a daughter of a Priest of Idols which could not be without putting his conscience in great danger there being nothing more full of Artifice then superstition that is upheld with Love But to this I answer That all that he could do then was to preserve his Faith without pretending to ruine the contrary It was not expedient that the figure should incroach upon the Body and that Joseph should do the work of the Messias This demolition of the prophane Temples and this destruction of the Idols was not due but to Jesus Christ and to the Deifying operations of the Evangelicall Law after the coming of the Holy Spirit How should Joseph have been able to enterprise the conversion of the Gentiles seeing that our Lord would not permit no not his Disciples while he was yet on earth to make incursions and missions into the Countrey of the Heathens commanding them to stay for that spirit of fire and light that was to inflame the whole world with its ardours And as for that which touches his allyance there was not yet any Law that forbad the Mariages of the Jews with the Gentiles and he had but newly seen the example of his Father Jacob who had allyed himself with the house of Laban This was done indifferently enough in the Law of Nature by reason that God had not commanded any thing that was contrary to this practice and because that his People were yet but a little family in the middle of the world But this fashion was changed afterward as it is clear by the Scripture and those who produce the Examples of Abraham and of Jacob to perswade allyance with Infidels shew that they have little Reason and much Passion In the second Place I say that the Modesty of Joseph is of a rare Example and of a strength of mind almost incomparable Which will be easie enough to prove to those that know how seriously to weigh the change of humour and of spirit that honour ordinarily brings with it and especially when it is great and sudden and falls upon a person that is not accustomed to it There are some that are like the Thracians that make themselves Drunk standing about burning coals by the odour of a certain herb which they throw into the fire after which they dance
the day of its own brightness to consider how Providence guarding her dear Pool as the apple of her eye did reserve him for a time which made him the true Peace-maker of that nation For this effect it came to pass that Henry the Eighth The Estate of England having reigned eighteen years in schism leading a life profuse in luxury ravenous in avarice impious in Sacriledge cruel in massacres covered over with ordures bloud and Infamy did fall sick of a languishing disease which gave him the leisure to have some thoughts on the other world It is true that the affrighting images of his Crimes The death of Henry the Eighth and the shades of the dead which seemed to besiege his bed and perpetually to trouble his repose did bring many pangs and remorses to him Insomuch that having called some Bishops to his assistance he testified a desire to reconcile himself unto the Church and sought after the means thereof But they who before were terrified with the fury of his actions which were more than barbarous fearing that he spoke not that but onely to sound them and that he would not seal to their Counsels which they should suggest unto him peradventure with the effusion of their bloud did gently advise him without shewing him the indeavours and the effects of true repentance and without declaring to him the satisfactions which he ought to God and to his Neighbours for the enormities of so many Crimes He was content to erect the Church of the Cardeleirs and commanded that Mass should there be publickly celebrated which was performed to the great joy of the Catholicks which yet remained in that horrible Havock To this Church he annexed an Hospital and some other appurtenances and left for all a thousand Crowns of yearly Revenue As he perceived that his life began to abandon him he demanded the Communion which he received making a show as if he would rise himself but the Bishop told him that his weakness did excuse him from that Ceremony he made answer That if he should prostrate himself on the Earth to receive so Divine a Majesty he should not humble himself according to his duty He by his Will ordained that his Son Edward who was born of Jane Seimer should succeed him and in the case of death that Marie the Daughter of Queen Katharine should be the inheritress of the Crown and if that she should fail that his Daughter Elizabeth although a Bastard should fill her place and possess the Kingdom On the approches of death he called for wine and those who were next unto his bed did conceive that he oftentimes did repeat the word Monks and that he said as in despair I have lost all This is that which most truly can be affirmed of him for it is a very bad sign to behold a man to die in the honour of his Royal dignity and by a peaceable death who had torn in pieces JESUS CHRIST who had divided the Church into schisms who of the six Queens that he espoused had killed four of them who had massacred two Cardinals three Archbishops eighteen Bishops twelve great Earls Priests and Religious Men without number and of his people without end who had robbed all the Churches of his Kingdom destroyed the Divine worship oppressed a million of innocents and in one word who had assasinated mercy it self Howsoever he wanted not flatterers who presumed to say and write that his wisdom had given a good order to his affairs and that he happily departed this world not considering what S. dustine doth affirm That all the penitencies of those who have lived in great disorders and who onely do convert themselves at the end of their life being pressed to it by the extreamity of their disease ought to be extreamly suspected because they do not forsake their sins but their sins do forsake them It was observed indeed that at his death this King did testifie a repentance of his savage and inordinate life but we cannot observe the great and exemplary satisfactions which were due to the expiation of so many abominable sins King Antiochus made submissions of another nature and ordered notable restitutions to recompense the dammages which he had caused to the people of the Jews nevertheless he was rejected of God by reason of his bloudy life and the Gates of the Temple of mercy were shut against him for all eternity The foundation of a small Hospital which Henry caused at his death was not sufficient to recompense the injuries of so many Churches which he had pillaged nor of so much goods of his Subjects as he had forced from them seeing we know by the words of the wise man That to make a benefit Eccles 34. of the substance of the poor is to sacrifice a Son before the eyes of his Father He had by his Testament ordained many tutors to The Reign of Edward His Uncle Seimer spoileth all his Son who were able to have made as many Tyrants but Seimer Uncle by the mothers side to the deceased King gaining the favour of the principal of the Lords of the realm whom he had corrupted with mony and great presents did cause himself to be proclaimed Protector and Regent He took a great possession on little Edward the Son of Henry heir to the Crown whom he brought up in schism and Heresie against the intentions of his Father This furious man immediately began his Regency with so much insolence that he almost made the reign of Henry the Eight to be forgotten he fomented the poison which he had conceived under him he did use the Catholicks most unworthily and did cut off the head of his own Brother by a jealousy of women But as he had made himself insupportable so it came to pass that the affairs of war which he had enterprized against the French did fall out unfortunately for him Dudley one of the chiefest of the Lords drawing a party to him did accuse him of Treason and caused his head to be cut off on the same Scaffold where before he had taken off the head of his own Brother This death was followed with great fears and horrible commotions for the Regency which presently after was extinguished by the death of the young King Edward This poor Prince was rather plucked with pincers The Qualities and death of King Edward from his mothers womb than born and he could not come into the world without giving death to her who conceived him He was said to have none of the comeliest bodies He spake seven languages at fifteen years of age and in his discourse did testifie a rare knowledge of all those sciences which were most worthy of a King It seemeth that death did advance it self to ravish his spirit from his body which did awake too early and was too foreward for his age for he died in his sixteen year having not had the time throughly to understand himself and to see by what course