was your enemie you were his but he never yours For hostilitie comes from an usurper and defence from a lawfull Prince You do well to justifie your self upon this attempt but there is not a man will believe your justifications Who sees not you hated his life whose burial you hinder Paulinus addeth that for conclusion he dealt with him as one excommunicate and seriously adviseth him to expiate the bloud he had shed by a sharp penance This liberty of our admirable Prelate amazed all the Councel and Maximus who never thought that a Priest in the heart of his State in the midst of his Legions in the presence of his Court could have the courage to tell him that which he would never endure to hear in his Cabinet commanded him speedily to depart from the Court All those who were friends of the holy man advised him to be watchfull upon the ambushes and treason of Maximus who found himself much galled but he full of confidence in God put himself on the way and wished Valentinian to treat no otherwise with Maximus but as with a covert enemy which did afterward appear most true But Justina the Empress thinking S. Ambrose had been over-violent sent upon a third Embassage Domnin one of her Counsellours who desirous to smooth the affairs with servile sweetness thrust them upon despair of remedie The fourteenth SECTION The persecution of S. Ambrose raised by the Empress Justina WE may well say there is some Furie which bewitcheth the spirits of men in these lamentable innovations of pretended Religions since we behold effects to arise which pass into humane passions not by an ordinary way Scarcely could Justina the Empress freely breath air being as she thought delivered from the sword of Maximus which hung over her head tyed to a silken threed when forthwith she despoiled her self furiously to persecute the authour of her liberty O God what a dangerous beast is the spirit of a woman when it is unfurnished of reason and armed with power It is able to create as many monsters in essence as fantasie can form in painting Momus desired the savage bull should have eyes over his horns and not borns over his eyes but Justina at that time had brazen horns to goar a Prelate having eyes neither above nor beneath to consider whom she struck Authority served as a Sergeant to her passion and the sword of Monarchs was employed to satisfie the desperate humours of a woman surprized with errour and inebriated with vengeance Saint Ambrose like a sun darted rays on her and she as the Atlantes who draw their bowe against this bright star the heart of the world shot back again arrows of obloquie As women well instructed and zealous in matter Herod lib. 4. Solem orientem execrantur of Religion are powerfull to advance the Christian cause so when they once have sucked in any pestilent doctrine they are caprichious to preserve their own chymeraes The mistresses of Solomon after they had caused their beauties to be adored made their idols to be worshipped so Justina when she had gained credit as the mother of the Emperour and Regent in his minority endeavoured to countenance the Arian Sect wherein she was passionate that the sword Sect of Ariant of division might pass through the sides of her own son into the heart of the Empire The Arians had in the Eastern parts been ill intreated under the Empire of Theodosius and many of them were fled to Milan under the conduct of a false Bishop a Scythian by Nation and named Auxentius as their head but who for the hatred the people of Milan bore to this name of Auxentius caused himself to be called Mercurinus He was a crafty and confident man who having insinuated himself into the opinion of the Empress failed not to procure by all possible means the advancement of his Sect and did among other things very impudently demand a Church in the Citie of Milan for the exercise of Arianism Justina who in her own hands held the soul of Justina an Arian demandeth a Church in Milan her son Valentinian as a soft piece of wax gave it such figure as best pleased her and being very cunning there was not any thing so unreasonable which she did not ever colour with some fair pretext to dazle the eyes of a child She declared unto him that the place she possessed near his persō wel deserved to have a Church in Milan wherein she might serve God according to the Religion which she had professed from her younger days and that it was the good of his State peacefully to entertain every one in the Religion he should chose since it was the proceeding of his father Valentinian which she by experience knew had well succeeded with him To this she added the blandishments of a mother which ever have much power over a young spirit so that the Emperour perswaded by this Syren sent to seek S. Ambrose and declared unto him that for the good of his State and peace of his people it was in agitation to accommodate his thrice-honoured mother and those of her Sect with a Church in Milan At this word S. Ambrose roared like a Lion which made it appear he never would yield to the execution of such requests The people of Milan who honoured their Prelate as the lively image of the worlds Saviour when they once perceived that Valentinian had suddenly called him and that some ill affair was in hand they left their houses and came thundering from all parts to the Palace whereat Justina was somewhat astonished fearing there was some plot in it and so instantly commanded the Captain of the Guard to go out and disperse the rude multitude which he did and presenting himself with the most resolute souldiers he found no armed hands to resist him but huge troups of people which stretched out their necks and cried aloud They would die for the defence of their faith and Pastour These out-cries proceeding as from men affrighted terrified the young Emperour and seeing the Captain of his Guards could use no other remedie he besought S. Ambrose to shew himself to the people to mollifie them and promise that for the business now treated which was to allow a Church to the Hereticks never had those conclusions been decreed nor would he ever permit them S. Ambrose appeared and as soon as he began to open his mouth the people were appeased as if they had been charmed with his words whereupon the Empress grew very jealous seeing with the arms of sanctity doctrine and eloquence he predominated over this multitude as the winds over the waves of the sea A while after to lessen the great reputation of S. Ambrose Strange conference pretended by the Empress she determined to oppose her Auxentius against him in a publick reputation and though she in her own conscience wel understood that he in knowledge was much inferiour to S. Ambrose notwithstanding she reputed him impudent
worm-eaten walls no arms but the anviles of a shop or forge no other musick but their obstreperous clatter no other Master but the necessitie of learning nothing no other lesson but ignorance and misery Behold seeing you might have been reduced to this condition of life what have you done to God before your being to be that which you are He hath not been content to give you bloud wealth qualification spirit and courage but also he alloweth you the happiness of good education which setteth and composeth all the natural parts into a fair way You demand of me whether I judge seriously the education of Great-ones and men of quality to be such I affirm at the least it hath all the possible means and opportunity so to be in which consisteth the knot of obligation we seek for And without going further is it not an uncontrolable proof which sufficiently declareth that even the education of Court is worthy recommendation to say that God seeking out a school for the greatest States-man that ever was in the world chose no other place than the Court of a King You know Education of Moses at Court what a man Moses was how great how eminent how much beloved of Almighty God who elected him to be a conduct and captain of six hundred thousand men at arms to give him a regency over the elements and a power to replenish the four quarters of the world with the greatness of his prodigies What did he to breed him and frame him to so high and supereminent a condition to so heroick virtues Did he suffer him to be bred as other Hebrew children in fear in bondage in poverty which overwhelm the goodliest and best dispositions as soon as they begin to set forward No he brought him to the Court of Pharaoh he caused him to be nourished in the exercises of Nobilitie to swallow all the wisdom of the Aegyptians who then were in reputation to be the wisest men in the world This is it which S. Stephen said in the Acts Eruditum omni sapientia Aegyptiorum Acts 7. 12. Learning and Courtliness of Moses Philo de vita Moses And Philo in the book he hath written of the life of Moses unfolding to us the history of his education saith he learned in the Court of the King of Aegypt Arithmetick Geomitry Musick as well contemplative as practick Philosophie and the secrets of Hierogliphicks But to shew Noblemen how lawful it is to learn Court-civilities and garbs without contracting the vices the same Moses who learned all lawful sciences from the Aegyptian Doctours never would suck milk from nurses of the same Nation which might infuse any bad influence upon his manners God held the very same course in the education Daniel and his companions bred at Court Pueros in quibus nulla esset macula decoros forma eruditos omni sapientia cautos scientia doctos disciplina Dan. 1. of the Prophet Daniel and of those three holy children who planted the trophey of their faith among the burning coles of an oven he caused them to be educated in the Court of King Nebuchadnezzar he caused them to learn the Chaldaik language to be trained in literature to be afterwards presented to the King well instructed in all sorts of sciences From hence you may judge that education of great men is a matter full of worth and recommendation since God who disposeth all with so excellent oeconomy in favour of the just hath pleased to give to his greatest minions and favorites the Courts of Kings for a school And in effect we must aver Why men of qualitie are best bred there is the best education where the best tools and instruments of great actions are and these are found in the houses of personages of qualitie Education of children is begun in the choise of nurses Poor people take such as necessity permitteth many times surcharged with imperfections and disproportions of nature which make corruption creep into the child with the milk the rich and those of quality elect them with all possible advantage which gold credit or authority can procure This choise of nurses is of no small importance The Scripture observeth that King Glossa Lyr. in Daniel Nebuchadnezzar nursed by a Goat Nebuchadnezzar having beē from his infancy exposed in a forrest and nourished by a wild goat contracted thereby brutish manners so that degenerating into a vehement stupidity and most barbarous pride it made him afterwards by the just punishment of heaven return to the life of beasts among whom he had been bred The same happened in the person of the Emperour Caligula a portentous prodigie of man who seemed Dio. Cassius nurse of Caligula to be born for no other purpose but to shew the world the mischief which a great power can perpetrate in a great brutishness It is held this corruption came to him neither from father nor mother who both were reputed the most honest and prudent in the Roman Empire But it is said that perhaps of purpose to make him one day martial they gave him a masculine brave nurse For she was hairy on the face as man she drew a long bowe she ran at the ring she curvetted a horse like a rider but in other kinds she was mischievous and cruel and made her little nurse-child superlatively inheritour of her vices If then the goodness of nurses be one of the principal favours which happeneth in education who will have them if not Noblemen As soon as Ladies and women of qualitie are ready to be brought in bed every one will present them a nurse every one will offer one of their own choise there is not a visitant nor gossip that will not roam from house to house for this purpose and redouble journey after journey It falleth out oftentimes that after the mothers do neglect personally to give their children suck and use so much curiofitie in the election drawn by considerations meerly terrene that overmuch choise maketh them to elect ill The children of rich men become droughty amongst a mass of fountains wherewith they are presented to suck from their infancy and those of poor men amongst the incommodities of nourriture grow up as safforn under hail God counterpoizing to the one their over much sollicitude of human helps and supplying the want in the other Notwithstanding it cannot be denied but that a moderate choise of nurses ever accommodated to Gods greater glory is most available to the infant and that persons of qualitie have this favour much more transcendent than others After the nurses come the governours and governesses The poor creatures are instantly abandoned and cast amongst a little crew of children their ordinary companions and play-fellows and there have they all liberty to besmear one another as a Colliers sack In the houses of great-ones there is always some sage woman who giveth the first tincture and impressions to the souls of children and beginneth to trace on their
from their damnation an infinitie of blasphemies and invincible obstinacie a long web of contrarieties opposite to the advancement of his honour amongst men a subversion of the world All this might have been avoided in giving them one small hour of repentance which with what fervour detestation and dolour would they have embraced Yet notwithstanding without regard to this beauty this grace this excellency of nature these praises this good or ill behold them taken in the boiling ardour of their crime strucken with the thunder of the Divine Justice thrown down broken in shivers captivated in prisons of fire left to the sword of vengeance to eternal tortures never seeing amidst their darkness and sulpherous flames one sole beam of the eyes of Mercy O terrible sentence inexorable sentence Oh unhappy spirits O judgements of God! What a terrour what a bottomless depth you are Judge now O ye Great men if the crimes of knowledge and malice are so rigorously punished what will become of you if you live neglective of the Divine Majestie you being among the people as were the Angels among other creatures Secondly no punishment is more sharply nor Punishment of the ungrateful sacrifice of jealousie lawfully inflicted than upon the ungrateful who deserve that all the elements with their best forces should conspire in the avengement of their offences since they violate a law engraven on this universe by the hand of nature Their punishment is the sacrifice Non fundet oleum nec imponet thus Num. 5. of jealousie spoken of in Scripture whereon neither oyl nor incense is powred there is no more oyl of mercy to sweeten their torments no more incense of prayers to appease Gods anger nothing is theâ—e but thunder lightnings and vengeance Now it appeareth that Noblemen and Great-ones cannot depart from the service of God without a deep mark of ingratitude for the benefits which I have touched before and you thereon will necessarily infer they transcending others in condition should not in case of failing or neglect expect an equalitie of punishments God will call Heaven and earth Horrible execrations of God upon great men vitious to their Judgement and then speak to them in the presence of all creatures with a voice of thunder Hearken ye O you Princes of the earth I made you as Eagles I gave you strong wings to lift you up to mount Libanus and to extract pith from the Cedars I advanced you in spirit in judgement in courage in riches in reputation in honour above other men I imprinted the rays of my power upon your fronts to infuse the regard of your persons into the hearts of the people I held Heaven and earth men and beasts in breath to contribute to your authoritie and services And you have taken arms employing all my treasures to make war against me you have lived not as reasonable men but as bruit beasts without God without law without ever casting your eyes to Heaven but to vomit out blasphemies in the face of it If I haue put power into your hand you have employed it in oppressing the weak If justice you have perverted the use of it and made the ballance incline to the tyrannie of your passions What can such an ingratitude expect I leave the conclusion to your selves In the third place seeing the bad example of great Exemplar crimes deserve exemplar punishment men is most pernicious to the inferiours by the strength of their authoritie which draweth their weak souls to a servile imitation God expresly counterpoizeth the insolence of their vices by singular and remarkeable punishments to the end that those who are attracted by the lustre of their fortune may be affrighted with their falls It is true we are in this world as owls in the night our eyes benummed and surcharged with terrestrial humours which hinder us throughly to penetrate this cloud of the Divine Providence Notwithstanding God darteth forth as it were out of these clouds certain flashing sparks of fire and light to make you read in the punishment of so many ill-living great men the unrelenting rigour of his justice High steeples are not so often rent and defaced by Strange punishments the violence of thunder as are Crowns and Diadems on the heads of wicked Princes with Heavens chastisements Read sacred and profane Stories what strange punishments are there of great men One sheweth a desire to leap into Heaven to plant his throne among the stars yet God maketh him eat hay with the beasts enforcing him to die alive not onely to honours and the nature of man but to lead a life in bruitishness This was Nebuchadnezzar Another in the middest of the fervour of a feast heareth the great clock strike his hour and seeth the hand of a man on the wall drawing a dreadful sentence against him This was Belshazzar Another dieth eaten up with lice as Herod Another loathsom with infections as Antiochus Another hanged on a tree as Absalom Another on the gibbet which he had prepared for him whom he accounted for his slave as Haman Another dying by his own hand not being able to find any other in the world more cruel than himself as Nero. Another maketh himself a sepulchre with drunkenness as Alexander Another is massacred in the midst of the Senate as Caesar Another from the throne of the Roman Empire goeth to prostrate his foe the Persian to become thereby a foot-step for him to mount on horse back as Valerian Another is carried about in a Cage as Bajazet Another is strucken with lightening as Anastasius Another is slain in his camp by a hand invisible as Julian the Apostate Great volumns might be made if one would compile all these mortalities they make Theatres to resound and Tragedians deplore Consider O Noblemen if in this world good and ill are given to us as it were in picture since the figure of the world passeth away saith the Apostle Praeterit figuâ—a hujus mundi 2 Cor. 7. Sagitta tua transeunt vex tonitrui tui in rota Psal 76. 19. and since God useth such rough rods to chastise the vices of great men what will that be in the other world The arrows of chastisement do presently pass away but the voice of thunder the sentence of judgement shall go like a wheel and the execution shall have no end If there happen unto you a loss of goods it is an arrow that passeth loss of children an arrow that passeth sickness an arrow that passeth disgrace an arrow that passeth temporal death even a feathered-arrow which doth nought else but pass away But eternal death is the thunder in the wheel which never passeth To be drenched in a lake of sulphur as a victime of vengeance in a fire enkindled with the breath of Gods anger to see nothing but devils to abide in nothing but torments to suffer pains in every sense to find hell in his own conscience to have no other life but an eternity
corn to the mil who go even into the ocean to fish for habits and attires for them and most times live within four fingers of death to give them means to flow in delicacies Onely death it is that taketh no suretie For whch cause man dieth in his own person and laboureth by deputie If death would a little give way no Great man would die but by Attorney Out alas O the justice of God how equally dost thou still hold the ballance They that would not here labour as men thou makest them take pain like infernal spirits thou dissolvest the sweat of poor paysants in the consolation of their souls and thou seasonest the delights of rich men with care melancholy dolour jealousie envy anxiety terrours and remorse which are able to make them sweat bloud Were there no other proof this manifestly enough declareth to us how odious this curiositie of Great men is to the Divine Majesty and how punishable since its own delights are changeâ— into chastisements Yet notwithstanding I will produce some reasons that the unworthiness of this wicked excess may punctually be touched with the finger which now adays overfloweth the whole face of the earth First I say it is extreamly unreasonable to be desirous Remedies and reasons against excess to live in the world with reason against all reason to endeavour to put a reasonable creature into a condition of life where it of necessity must bely the law of God and its proper nature O Noblemen God would that you enter into the world like othermen as into a vale of tears and you will arrive there as in a garden of delicacies He would that you come thither as to the mynes to dig and you go thither as to a dicing-house to play he would that you make passage into a servile flesh to obey and you will command Is not this a sin against nature Cross of nature Nemo impune nascitur omnis vita supplicium est To come into the world is to come upon a cross to be man is to stretch out the hands and feet to be crucified The first bed that an infant maketh coming from his mothers womb is on the cross He is as soon in a cross as in nature and suffereth this punishment for no other cause but for that he is born a man The Emperours of Constantinople had in their Palace The purple chamber of Emperours Anna Commena lib. 6. Luitprand de rebus Europ Cyprian de patient Procellas mundi quos ingreditur statim suo ploratu gemitu rudis anima testatur a secret chamber which they called the Purple in which the Empresses for a ceremonious formality were brought to bed and delivered thinking by this means to abolish the acerbities which are as it were affixed to our condition But these petty Porphyrogenites so these children of Emperours were called because they were born in scarlet were notwithstanding born with a cross and saluted life as others with tears and groans The children of Kings come al into the world through this gate of miseries they are born as with a diadem on their fore-heads and yet fail not to be natures little prisoners It is accounted a goodly thing to give them guilded cradles and silken swathing-bands This is to adorn their chains but not to break them they are as well captive in them as heretofore the prisoners in India who rotted in poverty and calamitie even in golden fetters It is a decree of Almighty God O Great-ones that you must be born with the cross on your back and you will cancel it if this yet might be practised with some reasonable evasion and mediocrity it would seem more tolerable but now adays this excess is so enraged that it will plant the tropheys of pride and voluptuousness upon the calamities of mankind What is not done upon tables What is not done in apparel Men cloath as if they were always to live and eat as if they should every day die We prepare an Altar to a false Deitie Tyranny of the belly which at this day with unspeakable violence swayeth in the world It is a bruitish god if you desire to know him for never had he an ounce of of brain A blind god who hath no eyes to behold the miseries of the earth A deaf god who hath no ears to hear the complaints of the afflicted A truantly god who hath no hands to take pains An immoveable god who hath no feet to travel on An effeminate god who hath no heart to undertake any good nor courage to suffer ills A gluttonous god Philip. 2. Quorum Deus venter est gloria in confusione ipsorum Tertul. advers Psych Deus tibi venter est pulmo templum aqualiculus altare sacerdos coquus spiritus sanctus nidor condimenta charismata ructus prophetia vâ—tus est who gourmandizeth all An unclean god who polluteth all This false god according to the Apostle is the belly His temple saith Tertullian is the lungs his Altar the panch his Priest the Cook his holy Ghost the smoke of meats his grace the sauces his prophesie that which may not civilly be spoken As he in his person is enormous so is he no less prodigious in his tyranny It is a wonder to see how he hath his officers in every place For him war is waged against the air and clouds birds are disnestled from the Kingdom which nature hath allowed them For him the face of the earth is turned into a shambles For him seas are sounded depths are plummeted ship-wracking storms and direful tempests are ferried over Man willingly would penetrate heaven and delve even to hell to find out new sacrifices for this fleshly and carnal god and himself being alive he is made the sepulchre of so many massacres that it is a miracle how one man can live who daily burieth so many dead creatures in his entrails All this hurly-burly which Gourmandize emptieth the air earth and seas is made for a stomach four fingers broad for which a little bread and water would suffice in necessity and in superfluity the whole world is too little to satisfie We know not what course to take to find out new curiosities for the palate We sup up oysters alive we seek out mushromes we will know what tast hath the flesh of tortoyses and snails These poor little creatures had good cause to believe that their meanness would enfranchize them but sottish and fordid gluttony draweth a tribute from all and I think their tast will shortly be taken with serpents and ravens But let us not onely accuse the belly the eyes devour more than it They are delighted to behold fishes to swim in a sea of sugar to see forrests nets huntings birds wild beasts houses castles fields arms of sugar had licourousness of tast so much power as it hath little brain it would make a world of sugar and then would dissolve it to be
the Palace where judgements were given in the forme of Heaven for the very stone-work was of Saphirs which are of celestial colour and in the feelings clouds were counterfeited and in those clouds certain birds reputed as messengers of justice as if they had been delegated to see the deportments of men in discharge of their offices and to advise them that giving judgement on earth they must ever have an eie and an ear in Heaven I also discover this by another observation of Jud. 45. Scripture for it teacheth me that the brave Princess Debora surnamed the Bee judged the people and held her Assizes under a Palm or as it is probable after the reason both of the one and other were heard she took a leaf of this tree and gave it to him who had the right And from this practise Exornétque tuas plurima palma fores Mortial is derived the custom to plant Palms at the gates of great Advocates and Justiciers which was likewise observed in ancient Rome Now why think you would God have the first sessions of justice to be held under Palms but to signifie that which Philo speaketh of that as the Palm beareth his heart and strength in the top so good judges direct their whole understanding and affections to heaven living perpetually as in the presence of the Divinitie or else that as the virtues of the Palm are innumerable so the excellencies of justice are infinite Adde also hereunto a passage in a Caldaick Commentary upon Ecclesiastes which telleth how Solomon that great King under whose principality peace and justice mutually embraced as sisters to shew what account he made of those who well managed matters of right caused a most sumptuous Palace to be erected for them of most exquisite workmanship called the House of Judgement and through excess of favour ordained they should partake of the wine of offerings which was presented on the Altars of the living God and which came from a vine planted and manured by the hand of Solomon himself Is it Exod. 32. not to place justice in heaven to admit it to the communication of the honours and offerings of God So the people of Israel supposing one day that Moses was lost instantly asked of Aaron Gods to govern them as thinking there must be some divinitie to supply the loss of this great States-man Why then do you wonder if S. Augustine in the book he cōposed of Order praiseth the practise of Pythagoras who never taught politick science to his disciples till they had passed through many long trials esteeming the other arts were apt to debaush the mind but that this applied lively colours and as it is said varnished and perfected up the table It is not very hard at this time to conclude what the excellency of a brave States-man is but the discovery of him is very rare And I will tell you that considering well the tables which Delbenius hath made upon Aristotle his Phylosophy and comparing them with other exquisite pieces I have seen two Cities very different both which bare the title of Policy but the one in effect was false Policy and the other the City of Verity I will present them unto you plainly and sincerely according to the like design of S. Augustine in his City of God and according to the Idaea's of ancient Sages not plancing at our times which I will neither praise nor condemn my nature and profession having disposed me to much ignorance of worldly affairs The second SECTION The table of Babylon drawn from sundry conceptions of the most singular wits of Antiquity WE then have beheld the City of wicked Policy in those ancient paintings to be built upon ruines in a land of quick-silver wholly cemented with bloud Earth-quakes are there very frequent and I know not what kind of outragious winds blow so dangerously as if they would tear all in pieces The waters were there infected the air killed those which breathed in it the viands produced death under a false apparence of life The inhabitants saw nothing but wolves and foxes by their sides ravens and owls on their houses comets over their heads serpents and scorpions at their feet which were there seen as abundantly strewed as flowers in the ennamell of the spring The gates Plutarch de curiosit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 resembled those fatall portalls whereof histories make mention that were never opened but to pass away carrion and ordure and withall this the Citizens were so powerfully charmed that they esteemed themselves most happie supposing to sleep on thorns was to live among violets and roses It is verily a wonder that without there were some shadowes of pietie but within not so much as a Temple For in truth the Burgesses of this Citie never looked up to heaven but to blaspheme it and all of them greedily sought for earth covered with a vail of sky-colour I saw no other Gods there but Honour Gain and Pleasure to which souls and bodies were sacrificed in much greater number than Solomon slaughtered oxen in the solemnitie of his most magnificent Sacrifices I saw huge caves where there were all sorts of beasts and likewise many monsters that much resembled the Harpyes Gorgons and chymaera's of antiquitie I perceived also some solitarie dens where I was certified great sacriledges were committed of power to make darkness which served them for a cover to blush for shame being unable to deceive the eys of God The men which walked in the streets appeared like Centaures and were clothed with an habit spotted over like the skin of a Panther The Chirurgians who diffected some of them newly dead gave assurance they had found two hearts in them Howsoever it is certain they shewed as it is said marvellous cunning in their words and had no other pastime all the day but to lay snares not sparing their greatest friends for indeed they were extreamly treacherous and cruell in all which concerned their own interests As I more attentively considered their orders and distinctions I saw there were three labyrinths very different In the first which was at the very entrance stood the least wicked who were not as yet practised in black mischiefs contenting themselves to exercise some slight tricks of wit for they in good earnest deceived one another and took much pleasure in mutuall cousenage and called this kind of sport legier-demain I saw there many creatures that served their masters not forgetting their own affairs and who mowed the meadow whilest it was plenty I saw Merchants some of which foisted in false wares others disguised them others overprized them others sware without end and some likewise swallowed up perjuries as sweetly as the most delicate viand I saw Artificers who used many deceits in their manufactures and better understood the trade of lying than any other I also saw some who sold wind silence and time and had excellent inventions to get money Some by certain influences drew it out as doth
of God to which you have submitted your self It is he who governeth our lives our conditions our fortunes If you be resolved to give law to the policie of the Omnipotent from whom you ever ought to receive it what else will you gain but to make your self mutinous and to render your condition more troublesom by your impatience I pray you think with your self if you were embarqued in a vessel you must go according to the impulsion of winds and not the motion of your affections If you till and sow you shall have fruitful and barren years according to the diversitie of seasons and you would have a fortune ever equal and perpetually stable you would hold back by force of arms its chariot incessantly circumvolving Are not you very simple not to know that if she were not inconstant she could no longer be fortune Go not about here to question with me upon the afflictions of good men and the prosperities of evil What injurie doth God to an innocent if be allot him the share of all those great souls whom he will not entertain in the pleasures of an idle life but in the exercise of virtue Know you not there are fishes that die in standing waters and are delighted in the bubling of sluces Great spirits go all that way they no more loose themselves in tribulation than the sun in his eclipse which onely serveth to make him more resplendent And what advantage think you do the wicked derive Si miserum est voluisse prava potuisse miserius est Lib. 4. Prosa 4. from the benefits of this life Is there any thing more miserable than to be transformed into a beast by the enormitie of vices and to adde impunitie to so many crimes You say they do whatsoever they list and I say they are thereby so much the more miserable for if it be an unhappiness to desire an evil it is a double miserie to have the power to execute it If all offenders were punished according to their demerit they should have some benefit which they have not to wit the punishment of their misdeeds which being a work of justice cannot but be good they should have some bridle to stay their exorbitancy some apprehension of the judgements of God which being stoln from them by long prosperities what else remaineth for them but to pass to the extremitie of punishments by the extremitie of crimes For my part if I should throughly punish Lib. 3. Met. S. Quid dignâ—m stolidis mentibus improcer c. a depraved man I would ordain for him neither wheels flames nor tortures but I would burst him with honours gold silver and riches and when be were full up to the throat I would draw aside the curtain to let him see virtue and Paradise of which he had betrayed the one and lost the other by the disaster of his carriage The second question which Philosophie asked him was if he knew well who himself was And Boetius answering He was a man of honour reviving the memory of the great riches and dignities he had enjoyed heretofore Verily saith she to him I well see Vide Bern. Lib. 2. de Consideratione cap. 89. there is much forgetfulness of your condition and niceness in your complaints If God had put gold as well as bloud into your veins and given you leave to be born full stuffed with precious stones or laden with honours and dignities from your mothers womb you had some cause to deplore that the inheritances of your birth were taken from you but who are you or from whence come you I could tell you how many years it is since you were born a little infant all naked creeping on the earth and having a mouth open to cries and hunger which had not so much as one little hair on the bodie to cover it and now you take upon you the spirit of a Monarch and think you have nothing if you possess not all Verily are you not one of the most miserable if you do not know how to take contentment in that which is left you and not still to tie your self to sorrows for that which you have lost You have a father-in-law Symmachus one of the most excellent men in the world you have a wife the pearl of her sex you have children of great hope How many things would you buy at the price of your life if you had lost them and yet you think you are miserable when you possess them and when they are employed with all their endeavour for your deliverance Your vessel doth yet lie at anchor and is not altogether broken I see comfort in something for the present and hope for the future and happen whatsoever will I will save you by swimming But needs must I freely confess Lib. 2. Pros 4. that I find a little niceness in this your act when you deplore with so much bitterness and affliction the petty wants of your condition Tell me I pray you is there any man in the world who possesseth a felicitie so full and free as not to dispute with his fortunes to make his estate more happie The condition of worldly goods findeth every where thorns prosperities never come all together and although they arrived in heaps they ever would have a slippery place One is accommodated with honest means but is of base extraction which maketh him to blush in good company Another is very Noble but is so poor in his estate that it were much sitter for him to be unknown Another is born of good rank and hath no want of riches but he bewaileth that part which he hath lost consecrating himself to retirement with wilfull tears Another hath met with a goodmarriage but his barrenness maketh him amass riches for a stranger Another hath children to have cause of great miseries and to speak in a word you shall find very few who well agree with their condition Through all there are evils which give happiness to those who are ignorant of them and borrour to such as have tried them Adde also a reason that these men very fortunate are extreamly sensible upon the touch and as there needs not any thing but a pegge to stay a piece of artillerie upon the way so the least accident hindereth the glory of their greatness How many think you are there who would teach Heaven with a finger if they had but onely the surplusage of your fortune This place which you call your banishment is the countrey of so many honest men as inhabit it and if you reason well you shall find that there is as it were nothing miserable if not made so by opinion Finally I ask you whether ever you have had any thing in the world more precious than your self If you answer truly you will protest unto me assuredly no and yet notwithstanding behold you thanks be to God if you will to have so much and more for your self than ever you had and that neither prison
her for love which she cannot have by nature It is a shadow of the goodness of God who ceaseth not to provide for our necessities to love us as his children Hosea 11. Et ego quasi nutritius Ephraim portabam eos in brachiis meis nescierunt quod curarem eos In funiculis Adam traham eos in vinculi◠charitatis Exod. 2. to defend us as the apple of his eye I was said he by his Prophet as the foster-father of my people I bare them all between my arms they never vouchsafing to open their eyes to my protection Yet will I draw them to me by the hands of Adam which are the chains of my charity Behold in Exodus the little Moses who floateth on Nilus in a cradle of reeds the mother for fear of the rigour of men abandoneth him to death the sister followeth him with her eyes to see what will become of him but her weakness could do nothing to warrant him from danger God in the mean space becomes the Pilot of this little bark he conducteth it without sails without rudder without oars he bears it upon the waves he makes it arrive at a good haven He draweth out this infant who was as a victim exposed to make of him a God of Pharaoh one day to drown in the red sea the posterity of those who would have drenched him in Nilus 8 Adde to this immenss goodness justice an inseparable His Justice virtue of the Divinity which seems to oblige God to preserve and direct what he created But it is to judge most abjectly of this divine understanding to say as did Averroes he abused his magnificence and soyled his dignity if he busied himself in the mannage of so many trifles S. Ambrose judged better when he said If God wrong himself in the government Amb. l. 1. offic c. 13. Si injuria est regere multò major injuria fecisse cum aliquid non fecisse nulla sit injustitia non curare quod feceris summa inclementia of the world did he not himself a greater injury in creating it For to do or not to do what one is not obliged unto hath no injustice in it but to abandon a creature after it is produced is a stain of inhumanity And if we regard the justice which appertaineth to the government of men what malignity and prostitution of mind were it to think souls the most caitive having some spark of justice yet God who must be sovereign perfection would suffer the world to be exposed to fortune or delivered over to tyrāny as a prey and a booty without any care of it or inquiry into injustices There is not any Age which could not furnish out a million of proofs against these mischievous beliefs if we would open our eyes to consider them but our distrusts and pusillanimities blind us and alienate us from knowledge of those truths which God reserveth for the most purified souls 9 To conclude the last colume which should settle His Power our faith in the verity of divine government is the magistral power God exerciseth over all the world which he ruleth tempereth and directeth with one sole thought much otherwise than did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist l. de mundo heretofore those practick wits who vanted to animate statues because they by certain engines gave them motion Wretched and blind that we are ever bowed down to the earth perpetualy divested of those great lights of Saints We measure God by the ell of men we cloth him after our fashion and we hold impossible to the Divinity what our understanding cannot comprehend Shall we never say with the Prophet Jeremiah O most strong O onely great and Hier. 32 19. Fortissime magne potens Domine excercituum nomen tibi magnus consilio incomprehensibilis cogitatu cujus oculi aperti sunt super omnes vias filiorum Adam onely potent The God of bosts is thy name Thou art great in thy counsels incomprehensible in thy cogitations and thy eyes are upon all the waies of the children of Adam We daily see upon men who are but worms of the earth so many tokens of Gods power A King speaketh and a hundred thousand swords hasten out of scabbards at the sound of one syllable A master of a family builds and at one silly beck behold so many artificers so many mules and horses some draw materials out of the bottom of quarries others carry them in waggons some make morter and cement others hew stones some raise them aloft others lay them some play the carpenters and others polish marbles There are some who work in iron and others in brass all is done to the liking of one man who is possessed of a little money Do you never consider God as a great King in an army as a great father of a family in a house who by his sovereign power governs all he created not with a toilsome care but an incomparable facility He gave in the begining of the creation an instinct to all Guil. Par. de vnivers 1. p. par 3. c. 14. Nascitur aranea cum lege libro lucern◠living creatures and there is not any so little a spider which comming into the world bringeth not its rules its book its light it is presently instructed in all it should do God speaketh interiourly to all creatures in a double language with a powerfull impression a secret commandement he gives a signal into the world and every one doth his office every one laboureth regularly as in a ship and all things Deus ipse universa sinu perfectae magnitudinis potestatis includit intentus sempe operi suo vadens per omnia movens cuncta vivificans universa Tertul. l. de Trin. c. 2. agree to this great harmony of heaven The little Nightingal in the forrests makes an Organ of her throat sometimes breaking her notes into warbles sometime stretching them out at length The Swallow is busie in her masonrie the Bee toileth all the day in her innocent thefts the Spider furnisheth out the long train of her webs and makes more curious works with her feet than the most skilfull women can weave with their hands Fishes play their parts under the water beasts of service labour in their duty small grains of seed though dead and rotten give life to great trees which advance to the clouds There is nothing idle in all nature nothing disobedient but men and divels who employ their liberty to resist him whose power is as just as it is eternal 10 Let us then concluding this discourse adore the divine Providence which holdeth the helm of the universe Let us behold it as a watch-tower furnished with a thousand fires that abundantly enlighten this Ocean whereon we sail Let us behold it as a burning pillar in the wilderness of this life Let us behold it as our pole-star and never loose sight of it It is our support our sweetness our
experience might have made him vveigh vvhat the jealousie of an old man may do vvho desires the more honour and life the nearer he sees them to their setting His reason might have taught him to judge vvhat the artifices vvere of a vvoman beloved hovv imperious over a husband He thought of nothing but climbing vvithout endeavouring to take avvay the hinderances which he had about his feet Other wayes also he contented himself to have the favour of some without seeking that of others which it may be had no great desire to set him forward but were of a reall power to hinder him There are some which hold themselves offended because they are not intreated and which endeavour to hinder a businesse without having any other reason but that they were not employed in it Adonijah contented himself to have Abiathar and Joab for him but he considered not that Nathan the Prophet and Zadok the Priest and Benaiah the Captain whom he contemned were mighty and able to trouble his pretensions Further for fear lest he should fail in the businesse he made too much haste of it taking into his company souldiers and a guard in imitation of Absolon And when as he should have kept himself retired and recollected within himself he opened himself too much and published his designs which were like to those pearls that instead of a good substance had nothing but an outward rind He made a great feast to which he invited all his brethren without speaking of Solomon he called Abiathar and Joab without making mention of Nathan and Zadok The one made great chear and created a King amongst their pots and glasses whilst that Nathan and Zadok vented all their secrets and countremined all their designs Amongst these excessive joyes of Adonijah Nathan Nathan and Bathsheba's advice plotted together with Bathsheba declared to her the news of the pretensions of the imaginary King exhorted her strongly to oppose him and shewed her the means thereto They take their counsels together with a resolution to make the proceedings of Adonijah to sound aloud in the ears of David It is agreed that Bathsheba should enter into the chamber of the King first and that Nathan without understanding any thing of their conference should wind in as it were upon a sudden and as it were to strike up the businesse when as she already had well proceeded in the discourse All this was artificially executed Bathsheba with many honied words causeth David to remember his promise represented to him the enterprise of his sonne Adonijah and sets forth before him the pitifull handling that she with her dear son must expect in case that the design of the Rebel should take effect Nathan an eloquent speaker comes in as if he were amazed and without shewing that he bore any affection to any party he laid chief hold on the authority and pleasure of the King which he comes to understand as the true oracle of the Realm to conform himself thereto and without falling into passion against Adonijah he caused him to send his secret intelligences and carriages avouching that if he had undertaken that without communicating it to him he makes his proceedings very strange This was to interest David in the businesse in such a manner as he failed not presently to command Nathan and Zadok to set Solomon upon his mule to cause his guard and his old Regiments to accompany him unto Gibeon and there without any delay to consecrate him King and to give the people to understand that he had chosen him for his lawfull successour All this was executed with vigorousnesse incredible Solomon is declared King when as a woman so ardent had taken it in hand And while Adonijah was yet drinking with his confidents the trumpet sounded through the town with great outcryes of joy and unspeakable clapping of hands He had thought that all this had been done for him but Jonathan the son of the high Priest Abiathar put them all beside this belief and told them with lamentation together for their overthrow what that was which was done and that Solomon was coming presently to be consecrated All their hearts failed upon the news of this chance and they separated themselves as much as they could from each other to take away the suspicion of a conspiracy which was but too manifest Solomon is brought back to the Palace with strong acclamations and all the officers and servants entring into the chamber of David gave him a thousand benedictions for the choice that he had made wishing to the new King all the greatnesse and all the prosperity of his father Adonijah saw well that he was gone too farre and fearing lest Solomon might make the first triall of his power at the cost of his life he fled unto the ordinary refuge taking hold of the horns of the Altar and entreating Solomon for his life who gave it him upon such condition that he should keep himself within his duty and would not spot a day so glorious for him by shedding the bloud of his miserable brother Joab and Abiathar dissembling their intelligence with Adonijah ran to worship as well as others him whom willingly they would have devoured seeing that their safety consisted at that time in hiding their intention But after that David had his eyes closed up and The death of David and the bloudy engrance of Solomon that Solomon saw himself confirmed by the generall consentment of all orders those waves of the Court which as yet had made but little frizlings began to raise a great tempest Adonijah after he had lost a Kingdome endeavoured Adonijah desired the Shunamite which completed his misfortune to get a woman and goes directly to Bathsheba the Queen-mother to uphold his request She was not unwilling to see him fearing that he had still retained some bitternesse in his heart upon the things that had passed behold wherefore she presently asked him whether he came as a friend to which he answered that all was quiet but that he had one request to make to her knowing well the credit in which she was with the King her son The Queen having shewed him a good countenance and a free willingnesse to serve him he opens the matter to her and saith That she was not ignorant that the Kingdome did appertain to him by the right of Eldership but seeing that God had otherwise disposed of it that he did willingly acquiesce and desired nothing of the King but that it would please his Majesty to give him Abishag in marriage that maid which served David his father in his old age It is clear that this Prince was good and of an easie nature that could content himself with so small a thing and his request was not uncivil seeing that she was but a servant and never the wife of his father which had no other commerce with her then to receive the service and assistance necessary for his health Bathsheba was very glad that
she should receive all possible courtesies Some men will marvel at all this proceeding of Judith A woman so handsome and so capable to tempt men to go into the midst of Souldiers without fearing to expose her modesty that was so dear to her not considering that she kindled love and that she was yet in the fair season of her years capable to admit that which she moved in others Who had told her that the Assyrians would let her freely passe without attempting any thing upon her honour What security could there be in a dissolute Militia that propound to themselves the ravishing of women for a recompence of their toils And suppose she had promised her self that in case she should be forced her soul should remain incorruptible in the corruption of her body yet sure an honest woman would hardly ever expose her body to the least affront although it were to save a city If we consider all this according to man it cannot be defended but who should dare so to condemne that which was done by a manifest inspiration of God and of her good Angel that lead her as by the hand and made her walk securely upon the tops of precipices and kept her alwayes green as the Ivie in the ruines of old decayed walls With all this she was skilfull in the art of dissembling and deceived those souldiers that took a singular pleasure to hear her talk And who would make a scruple to speak words with two meanings to deceive an enemy in warre and to save his life seeing that some Divines and the Lawyers agree that there are deceits that are good and commendable being done to a good end and by lawfull means She was then conducted to the Generall Holophernes whom she found seated on his Throne under a pavilion of gold and purple all bestudded with emeralds proud as a peacock that spreads in the sunne the mirrours of his tail for which alone he seems to have been created She suddenly prostrates her self on the earth and makes him a reverence of civility and not of adoration He failed not to be taken with her at first sight just as she had plotted and to make of his eyes the snares of his soul Those that were about him began to say with admiration that the Land that bore so handsome women deserved to have no labour spared in its conquest Holophernes caused her instantly to be raised up again and because she feign'd that she had some fear and that she was seiz'd with a profound reverence at the aspect of that great Generall of an Army knowing well that he was vain and that it would conduce much to surprise him He speaks to her with an incomparable sweetnesse assuring her that he was not so terrible as men would make him and that since that he had had the Arms of that great Monarchy in his hands he never did hurt to any one that rendred himself to the obedience of his Master that he bore no ill will to her Nation but that if they had reduced themselves to their duty he would not have permitted so much as that a sword should have been lifted up against them And therefore he desired to know from whence it came that she had forsaken her City and was come to his Camp Then that Lady holily-deceitfull began to speak to him after such a winning manner that an hundred Holophernes's would have had work enough to defend themselves against such batteries of Love She beseeched him to hear with attention and to take her speeches in good part by which God would accomplish a great affair That she knew well that Nebuchadonozor had been chosen of God to be King of the whole world and that all the puissance of his Monarchy was included in Holophernes where it lived and triumphed magnificently for the safety of the good and the chastisement of the wicked That she was not so ignorant of humane things as not to have heard of the Prudence and valour of an Holophernes who hath the honour to be the onely man in the Kingdome of Nebuchadonozor that is arrived to so high a degree of Power as that it cannot be equalled by any thing in the world but by the goodnesse of his disposition for he desires to be powerfull for nothing but to do good and all the Provinces well know the good order that he hath put to all the businesses of the Realm She declared to him that she had heard of what had passed in Achiors person and told him that he truly discovered the weak spirit of her Nation and that he might do good upon it at the present now God was provoked against it and had threatned by his Prophets to destroy it And therefore they were all seized with an unspeakable affright besides that hunger and thirst conspired together to their ruine and they had taken a resolution to kill all the cattle to drink their bloud and not to spare even the things consecrated to the divine Majesty which is a sign of a manifest reprobation And this was the reason that she had left that abominable city and was come as a messenger from God to give him this advice She added that the God which she adored was very great and that she would not fail to pray him to make known his will and to tell her the time that he hath determined for the utmost misery of that unfortunate City with intention to inform him of the news that at last she might lead him even to the gates of Jerusalem delivering up to him all that people as sheep without a shepherd and that there should not be so much as a dog that should bark against him it being very reasonable that men and beasts should submit themselves under a power so formidable conducted by the hand of the most High and by the orders of his Providence Holophernes that had already been taken by the Eyes was now chained by the Ears with the sweetnesse and profit of that discourse His heart was no more his own he courts her and promises her that her God shall be his God and that he will make her great in the house of Nebuchadonozor and renowned through all the earth At the same instant he causes her to enter into the chamber where his treasures were to shew her his Magnificence and ordered what should be given her day by day from his own table for her diet Whereto she answered that it was not yet permitted her according to her Law to enter into a community of table with those that are of any other Religion but her own and that providing for it she had caused what was necessary for her to be brought with her But when your provision comes to fail sayes Holophernes what shall we then do with you She replyed that she hoped to accomplish the businesse that had brought her thither before that her ordinary food should be all spent Thereupon he commanded that she should be conducted into a
were ruled by the Elder with a sweet and amiable discretion in which there was much satisfaction and small constraint The People of God reteined alwayes very near this form of Governing for the Antient Patriarchs presided over the rest as Masters of Families more by Reverence then by Command Moses in that high Authority that could do every thing both upon Men and upon the Elements never assumed the name of King and his Successours till Samuel his time contented themselves with the Stile of Judges of the People Nimrod was the first amongst the Gentiles that usurped a new Domination over the liberty of the Nations that he subdued by Arms having learned in the continuall Massacres of Beasts Cruelty towards Men. Not but that Kingdoms and Monarchies since that time have been holily instituted of God But he hath alwayes willed that Kings should learn that there was none but he in the Universe of all the Creatures that was an absolute Master having alone the Power to Create and to Annihilate what or whom he pleases This is not permitted to the Greatest Monarchs on the Earth who remaining within the bounds of their charges ought to acknowledge themselves the Vicegerents and Substitutes of God to Conduct Men to their End making them arrive at the heighth of Felicity by the wayes of Justice and of Religion But when they stray from these intentions and abuse the Goods the Bloud and the Life of their Subjects as if they were the Proprietours of them and not the Stewards they render themselves responsible to Gods Judgement for all the abuses that are committed in the whole Kingdome through their default This change of Government projected by the Israelites was not according to Gods Heart who comforted Samuel and told him that he ought not to be sad for that they were weary of him seeing they were weary of God Himself which is an Infinite Goodnesse and gave him Collegues in his Empire He Commanded him to make known to them the Right of a King which should be to take their children for his servants and to Employ them on such Trades as he should judge fit for the profit of his House to usurpe their Lands and Inheritances to accommodate therewith his Minions to exact Tithes of their Revenues of their Vines and of their Corn to enrich therewith his Officers and in a word that he would govern every thing after his own Fancy Those that take these words as a Right that God established in favour of Kings are very farre from the sense of the Scripture for they are spoken by way of Menace and not of Approbation Otherwise we should avouch that King Ahab had right to take away Naboth his Vineyard for which he was so sharply reprehended and so severely punished with his Wife Queen Jesabel Yet it is most Just that Kings and Sovereigns should have some reasonable Tributes from the People to support the Majesty of the Kingdome to maintein their Family to protect their Subjects against Hostilities to open them Trading to give them means to preserve and increase their Revenues to make Friendships to live peaceably in their Commodities and to defend them against the violent Usurpers of their Goods The School-Doctours as Cajetan and Gregory de Valentia require four Conditions to justifie Imposts The First is The Power and Authority of the Prince The Second That they tend to a good End The Third That they be according to the ability of the Subject The Fourth That they be imposed upon fit Persons and rather upon certain Marchandises then upon that which is totally necessary to the Life of Man Samuel failed not well to aggravate to the People the Burdens that they should undergo by choosing them a King and the Repentance that they should have of it when the evil should be incureable But It being hard to make them believe Reason that never use it but when it flatters their own will The Israelites were no way diverted from their Proposition by all possible Remonstrances but continued to demand a King with great urgency desiring to be like in that to so many other Nations They were much like the Froggs in the Fable that prayed Jupiter to give them a King whereto he agreeing threw into their Lake a great piece of Wood which much astonished them at first but seeing it without Motion they despised it and said that they desired a King Robustuous Active and Nimble whereupon he gave them a Bird of Prey that ceased not to devour them After which they made great Complaints but he would hearken to them no more So God caused this miserable People to be advertised that when they should be weary of the Domination of Kings and that they should desire another form of Government he would have no ears for their Requests All this inflamed them the more so resolved were they upon their Misery Samuel being willing to deliver himself from their Importunities purposed to choose them a King and to give him to them with his own hand not for any mind that he had to keep yet the Government but for the zeal that he had of the Glory of God and of Justice desiring that the pains that he had taken to procure peace unto his people and to preserve it many years together might not be made unprofitable through the Caprichio's of an evill Successour that perhaps might take a pride in changing all that he had so carefully established He did not cast his eyes upon his own Kindred to make himself a creature in whom he might reign according to flesh and blood but he took by the Order of God a man very ignore and little taken notice of amongst his brethren Here is a mervellous sport of Divinity that calls things that are not as things that are that makes the Light break out of Darknesse and traces the rayes of his Glory upon an heap of dirt Saul of the Tribe of Benjamin the least amongst the Hebrews and one of the least qualified in that Tribe a Countrey-man into whose heart the Court and Royalty never entred not so much as in a Dream went to seek his fathers Asses that then were gone astray A domestick servant that was with him seeing that he lost his labour in that search gives him notice that in the neighbouring village there was a great Personage that was ignorant of nothing and that he could well tell them news of their losse and added that he had a piece of silver that was worth about six pence which he would make a present to him Saul consents to it and they goe along both together into the Village of Ziph where Samuel was that was to be present that day at a Sacrifice and a Feast that was made among the Principall men Without thinking on it they meet him and asked of him where was the Prophets house Samuel knew by revelation that it was he of whom God had spoken to him and whom he had chosen to be the King of his