the deluge which after it had born the whole world in the bowels thereof amongst so many storms and fatal convulsions of universal nature reposed on the mountains of Armenia So S. Monica when she so long time had carried in her entrails and heart a spirit as great as this universe among so many tears and dolours so soon as she was delivered of this painful burden went to take her rest on the mountains of Sion A little before her death beholding Heaven from a high window which opened on a garden she seemed there already to mark out her lodging so much she witnessed resentment and extasie towards her son Augustine who at that time made this admirable colloquie with her couched by him afterward in his Confessions The conclusion was that she said unto him My son I have now no more obligations to the world you have discharged all the promises of Heaven to me and I have consummated all the hopes I might have on earth seeing you a Catholick and which is more resolved to perfection of the life you have embraced When it shall please God to call me I am like fruit ripe and falling that holdeth on nothing Soon after she betook her to her bed being surprized with a feaver which she presently felt to be the messenger of her last hour Behold the cause why she being fortified with arms and assistances necessary for this combat took leave of Augustine and his brother there present affectionately entreating them to remember her soul at the Altar onely meditating on Heaven and neglecting the thought of the land of Africa which she had seemed at other times to desire for the sepulcher of her body And as her other son said unto her Madame my mother we as yet are not there we hope to close your eyes in our own countrey and burie you in the tomb of your husband this holy woman seeing this man would still tie her to the present life and divert her from cogitation of death which to her was most sweet beheld him with a severe eye and then turning her self towards her son Augustine Hearken saith she what he saith as if we absent from Africa must needs be further from God She often cast her dying eyes towards this son who was her precious conquest and who in her sickness served her with most particular assistances affirming that Augustine had ever been a good son towards her and though he had cost her many sorrows he never had forgotten the respect due to a mother Verily there was a great sympathie between the soul of such a mother and such a son which was infinitely augmented after this happy conversion and therefore we must give to nature that which belongs to it The child Adeodatus seeing his Grand-mother in the last agony as possessing the affections of his father threw out pitifull out-cries in which he could not be pacified And S. Augustine who endeavoured to comfort them all upon so happy a death withheld his tears for a time by violence but needs must he in the end give passage to plaints so reasonable The Saint died as a Phenix among Palms and they having rendered the last duties to her pursued the way begun directly for Africk Behold how the conversion of S. Augustine passed and though many cooperated therein yet next unto God S. Ambrose hath ever been reputed the principal Agent and for that cause his great disciple said of him (b) (b) (b) Aug. contra Julianum Pelagianum l. 1. c. 6. Excellens Dei dispensator quâ—m veneror ut patrem in Christo enim Jesu per Evangelium ipse me genuit eo Christi ministerio lavacrum Regenerationis accepi Ambrose is the excellent steward of the great father of the family whom I reverence as my true father for he hath begotten me in Jesus Christ by the virtue of the Gospel and God hath been pleased to make use of his service to regenerate me by Baptism Whilest stars and elements shall continue it will be an immortal glory to the Bishop Ambrose to have given the Church a S. Augustine of whom Volusianus spake one word worth a thousand (c) (c) (c) Volusian Epist 2. Vir est totius gloriae capax Augustinus In aliis sacerdotibus absque detrimento cultus divini toleratur inscitia at cum ad Antistitem Augustinum venitur Legi deest quicquid ab eo contigerit ignorari Augustine is a man capable of all the glorie of the world There is much difference between him and other Bishops The ignorance of one Church-man alone prejudiceth not Religion but when we come to Bishop Augustine if he be ignorant of any thing it is not he but the law which is defective because this man is as knowing as the law it self The eleventh SECTION The affairs of S. Ambrose with the Empeperours Valentinian the father and Gratian the son LEt us leave the particulars of the life of S. Ambrose to pursue our principal design which is to represent it in the great and couragious actions he enterprized with the Monarchs of the world Let us not behold this Eagle beating his wings in the lower region of the ayr but consider him among lightenings tempests and whirl-winds how he plays with thunder-claps and ever hath his eye where the day breaketh The state of Christianitie stood then in need of a The state of Christendom brave Prelate to establish it in the Court of Great-ones The memory of Jâ—lian the Apostata who endeavoured with all his power to restore Idols was yet very fresh it being not above ten years past since he died and yet lived in the minds of many Pagans of eminent quality who had strong desires to pursue his purpose On the other side the Arians who saw themselves so mightily supported by the Emperour Constans made a great party and incessantly embroyled the affairs of Religion Jovinian a most Catholick Emperour who succeeded Julian passed away as a lightening in a reign of seven moneths After him Valentinian swayed the Empire who had in truth good relishes of Religion but withal a warlick spirit and who to entertain himself in so great a diversitie of humours and sects whereon he saw this Empire to be built much propended to petty accommodations which for some time appeased the evil but took not away the root He made associate of the Empire his brother Valens who being a very good Catholick in the beginning of his reign suffered himself to be deceived by an Arian woman and did afterward exercise black cruelties against the faithfull till such time as defeated by the Goths and wounded in an encounter he was burnt alive by his enemies in a shepherds cottage whereunto he was retired so rendering up his soul in the bloud and flames where with he had filled the Church of God The association of this wicked brother caused much disorder in the affairs of Christendom and often slackened the good resolutions of Valentinian by coldness and
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
extremity particularly inspired by God made a sign with his fingers before Bajazet because he understood not his Language as if he would declare himself the Kinsman of the Count of Nevers who beheld him with so pitifull an eye that it was able to have rent the most rocky-heart Bajazet being perswaded by this sign that he was of the Bloud Royall caused him to be let a part among the prisoners where afterwards by his great wisdome he endeavoured the liberty of those noble Gentlemen and his own I cannot think that the puny Novices of war of our time will compare themselves to the valour of this Heroick man accomplished with such gallant prowesse Let us come if you please and look into his deportment and conversation and consider whether he were of the number of those who professe themselves wicked that they may seem valiant Our Boucicaut was a man who whilest in time of peace he governed the City of Genoa heard daily two Masses with so exemplar devotion that he never suffered any man to speak to him in the Church where he said the office with singular attention for which he so accommodated his company that you should never see the least action of uncomlinesse in Divine Service which he did not severely punish And the Historian addeth that he who had beheld his people at Divine Service would rather think he saw Religious men then Souldiers Noblemen have power to draw their families to what posture they please were it not through pusillanimity of spirit they many times give way to the torrent of nurture and contenting themselves to be good make all the rest naught by the easinesse of their Natures I mention not here a Canonized Saint an Hermit a Religious man or a Priest I speak of a Marshall of France of a most ardent Warriour and Valiant Souldier Behold I pray whether Piety be imcompatible with Arms. This Brave Captain happily made his Will disposing of all his devotions his affairs and Charge each day he executed some part hereof doing all the good he could whiles he lived not expecting the casuall portions of others piety as those who cause Torches to be carried behind to light them when they have lost their eyes and indeed never do well but when they are in a condition to be able to do no more This charitable Lord particularly informed himself of the necessities of the bashfull poore and as the rarest pieces of his Cabinet set their names down in his Register He appointed on every side his Alms to the poor Religious to Widows to Orphans to needy Souldiers namely to those who through disability of old age and sicknesse could labour no more He visited Hospitals giving according to his means round summes of money to furnish and accommodate them if he walked in the streets he ever had charity in his hands that himself might give all he could for he took therein a singular contentment and never was he seen to be so merry as when he had distributed good store of money This was to him as his hunting his game his delight He bare a singular devotion in memory of the passion of our Saviour towards the fryday and whilest he was able did eat nothing on that day but fruits and Puls absteining from all which participated of the life of Beasts and clothed himself likewise in a most simple habit desirous to shew outwardly some taste of the Reverence we owe to the bloud of the sonne of God Besides abstinencies commanded he fasted ordinarily on the Saturday which is dedicated to the memory of the Blessed Virgin He never fed at his repast but on one dish and though he had great quantity of silver Vessels he caused himself to be served in Peuter and Earth being glorious in publick but in his particular an enemy to worldly pomps and vanities I leave you to contemplate how far this kind of life is alienated from the curious Nobility of our dayes to whom so many Dispensations and Priviledges must daily be given that it seems it is needfull for their sakes onely to create another Christendome besides that which hath been established by the Sonne of God A man would say to see how they pamper their bodies they were descended from heaven and that thither they would return without passing through the Grave they Deifie themselves and to fatten and guild a stinking Dunghill covered over with snow they sport with the bloud and sweat of men Superfluity of taste being so well qualified all went in true measure in the house of this good Marshall his retinue was well enterteined according to his quality and he had a very solemn custome by him religiously observed which was speedily to pay his debts and as much as he might possible to be ingaged to none It is no small virtue nor of mean importance to be out of ingagements of this kind if we consider the Nobility at this time so easily plunged in great labyrinths of Debts which daily increase like huge Snow-balls that fall from the mountains and require Ages and golden Mines to discharge them Is it not a most inexcusable cruelty before God and man to see a busie Merchant a needy Artificer every day to multiply his journeyes and steps before the gate of a Lord or a Lady who bear his sweat and bloud in the pleits of their garments And in stead of giving some satisfaction upon his most just demands it is told him he is an importunate fellow and many times is menaced with bastinadoes if he desist not to demand his own Is not this to live like a Tartarian Is not this to degrade ones self from Nobility Christianity and Reason Is not this to ruine and as it were to cut the Throats of whole Houses and Families Alledge not to me that it is impossible for you to pay what is demanded at present foreseeing your weaknesse of estate why have you heaped so many debts which cannot be discharged Why do you not rather lessen your port and live more frugally Why do you not cast off many superfluous things that might be spared Are not offences odious enough before God but you must increase them with the marrow of the poor From hence cometh the contempt of your Persons the hatred of your Name the breaches and ruine of your Houses This man by paying his debts well was honoured and respected of his Officers like a Demy-god there was no need of making any question or doubt nor to make a false step into his house He would never suffer a Vice or bad servant were it to gain an Empire Blasphemies Oaths Lyes Slanders pastimes Quarrels and such like disorders were banished from his Palace as monsters and if he once found any of his family in fault he put them away least they should infect the other yet he would not scandalize them nor divulge their offences At the Table he spake little and did voluntarily entertein himself with the example of virtues which he observed
the times than themselves Judge then upon all this which I have here discoursed whether one ought to fortifie himself so much the more with virtue and courage by how much he beholdeth himself exposed to great and perpetual occasions either of sin or misery Whether the Courtier have less obligation to virtue than the Religious since he seeth himself at all turns in greater and more evident perils Judge if this be a favour of Almighty God to have a subject of penance and a fair field to exercise patience how Courtiers herein are made happy and how many palms they might reap if they would adde the application of spirit sincerity of intention and spiritual direction to the exercises of their profession Through the want of these virtues thinking to gain all they loose all merit escapes them and all their life the bad thiefs cross abideth with them And that which is most deplorable is that they adore their punishments and like the tribe of Zabulon of whom scripture speaketh Deut. 31. Inundationem maris quasi lac sugent they suck in the water of the sea as milk and all bitterness seems sweet as sugar to their depraved tastes The tenth REASON Which dependeth on acknowledgement or gratitude HAd Noblemen and worldly Great-ones no other spur to incite them to perfection but the acknowledgement of so many benefits which they have received from the liberal hand of God it were always a potent motive to a heart truly generous who feareth ingratitude more than death It is not without mysterie that God in the beginning of the world's creation of twelve names attributed unto him he taketh that of Elohim derived God named Obliging in the beginning of the world from an Hebrew word signifying to tie and oblige making himself at the very first known to man even in the worlds infancy under the title of obliging to teach him that he is born among benefits the acknowledgement of which should become natural to him That great man Philo the Jew in A notable discourse of Philo. the book he entituled Noes Plant figureth unto us a certain tradition of the Sages of his Nation to wit that God the Creatour after he had framed the world as a Scutcheon of his Nobilitie a contracted table of his titles a mirrour of his greatness and wisdom demanded of the Prophets or the Angels then in glory what they thought of this work and that one among them after he had highly commended the architecture of this goodly universe said freely that he also therein yet required one perfection to see a seal upon so many brave and rich inventions What is it saith the Eternal Father I would desire replied he a strong voice powerful harmonious which born upon the wings of the winds and clouds upon the Chariot of the air might replenish all the part of the world and incessantly eccho forth night and day in praises and thanksgiving for your incomparable benefits Verily a goodly invention and worthy of an Angelical spirit yet notwithstanding God hath sufficiently provided for this defect For framing the world as a large clock he hath proportionably given to man the place which this celestial spirit seemed to require And that it might not be otherwise than so the first wheel of this great clock of the world is the primam mobile the continual motion The world a Clock and how the secret influences of Antipathies and Sympathies which are as it were hidden in the bowels of nature The hand thereof is this goodly and beautiful embowed frettizing of the heavenly orbes which we behold with our eyes The twelve signs are as it were the distinctions of the twelve hours of the day The Sun exerciseth the office of the steel and gnomon to point out time and in its absence the Moon The lights and stars contribute thereto their lustrous brightness The sea the azure of his waves for ornament The earth serves for counterpoize The stony quarries the mettals and the plants for an Emblem to ezercise the wisest in the knowledge of this great work-man The living creatures are the small chimes and man is the great clock which is to strike the hours and render thanks to the Creatour This acknowledgement of course is due to God from all men and the failing herein is greatly punishable for two reasons The first is That God hath with his finger engraven it in the nature of the world The second That he extraordinarily recommended it in the new and old Law As concerning what toucheth the law of nature benefits are the wings of love more swift than tempests they Natural graitude excellent proofs of it Aelian l. c. 22. Plin. l. 10. c. 5. Aelian l. 8. c. 3. overtake birds in their flight We behold in history where on one side a Stork cometh to cast a precious stone into the bosom of a maid which had healed her of a wound and on the other side an Eagle that seeing the bodie of a young man burned which had fed and cherished her cast herself with alacritie into the flames of her enkindled pile Good turns are golden nets which catch the swiftest gliding fishes we find the proof hereof when the Dolphins assembled with troups upon the Sea-shore where they celebrated the obsequies of one called Ceranus who had before freed them from the snares of the fisher-men Benefits are sharp-pointed arrows which throughly penetrate the heart of Tygers and Lions We find it in the historie of Androdus who because Interroga juments docebunt te volatilia agri indicabunt tibi Agnovis bos possessorem suum asmus praesepe domini sui Israel autem non me cognovit Isaiah 2. Gratitude in the law of God he had pulled a thorn out of a Lions foot made a beast of service of him and led him through all the Citie of Rome gentle and meek as a lamb O how strong bird-lime is a benefit all generous birds are taken with it there is none but some certain ill-conditioned Owls which escape from it Noblemen will you think you do too much if you should acknowledge the benefits of your Creatour since beasts the most savage recompence good turns received from slaves and forgetting their nature cannot but remember a benefit though small As for the written law what virtue is more often recommended than gratitude and thankful acknowledgement God giveth not any benefits without preparing monuments If he deliver his people out of Aegypt a lamb of Passe-over under the title of gratitude is to be offered for ever if he give Manna a pot thereof is reserved in the Tabernacle if he work wonders with Moses rod it is preserved for an eternal memory Gratitude is the key of the land flowing with milk and hony ingratitude is a channel from whence all the plagues of heaven pour down upon rebellious and contumacious heads Is it not very remarkeable that the Israelites were more Excellent observations upon this
doctrine made as many slips as steps he roundly said his curiosity had never born him so far that way and that he better had loved to contemn such things than study them As for the rest the doctrine of Manes depended not upon the knowledge of eclypses since never had it been eclypsed Augustine perceived his Doctour was not Non usquequequâ— imperitus erat imperitiae suae Confes 4. c. 7. wholly ignorant since he understood at the least how to acknowledge his own ignorance but was otherwise absolutely distasted with the divinity of the Manichees seeing so little support in Faustus who was the primepillar of the faction and the snare which he would make use off to stay him was the beginning of his liberty It was to make a banquet of flowers and songs for one almost famished to seek with words to give him satisfaction In the end after a long abode in Africk he resolved to go to Rome not so much to find verity in its source which as yet he proposed not to himself to be in the Church of Rome as to dissolve the irksomness of teaching Rhetorick at Charthage the youth whereof was extreamly insolent His friends propounded unto him for his aim a far other air much different successes from his former labours and another recompence for his merit adding besides it was a sweeter climate where young men held within the lists of good discipline yielded their Masters full satisfaction It was the strongest bait could therein be found for the sweetness of his spirit was incompatible with the boldness of the schollars of Carthage which was the cause that secretly stealing away from his good mother who could not with her tears hinder the voyage he set sail for Italy and came to Rome Behold him in the chief Theater of the world where he began to shew himself and entertain an Auditory in his Chamber to be known and forthwith appear in publick Courts where he learned the students of Rome gave their Reader good words but the time of payment being come they inconsiderately many times forsook the Teacher to exercise elsewhere the like deceit which infinitely displeased him and seeing that by good fortune a Rhetorician was sought after for Milan he handled the matter so by the assistance of some Manichees whom he yet courted for his own ends and by the favour of Symmachus Pretour of the City that this charge was stayed for him Behold him then at Milan where the providence Hidden passages of divine providence in reclayming souls of God had marked out his lodging Behold him in the field of battel where he was to be assaulted Behold him in the Amphitheater where he should be disarmed Behold him in the sphere where he must be illuminated As we have beheld the strong oppositions which stopped up the way in the salvation of this great soul let us now see the means God used for his conversion Here is an admirable spectacle and worthy the consideration of noble spirits since of all the works which God doth out of himself nothing hath so much manifested his wisdom bounty mercy and power as the conversion of men We observe in the effects and experiences of nature that one thing draweth another in foure special manners to wit sympathy motion heat and secret atraction Sympathy say I or natural conformity so the stone tendeth downwards into the bosom of the earth because it there finds reposes Motions so the hammer drives the nail and one man leads another by the hand Heat so the sun raiseth up the vapours of the earth after it hath subtilized and heated them Secret atractions so amber draws the straw and the adamant wyns the iron The spirit of God ingenious and powerful in our conversions makes use of these same four attractions to draw us to him Attractions which are able to gain the harshest disarm the most savage heat the remissest and startle the stupid Attraction of sympathy consisteth in good nature and sweet inclination which the Master-workman giveth us for virtue Attraction of Motions is seen in the conuersion of good company where examples of piety sweetly stir a soul to that which is its good Attraction of heat is insinuated by the word of God which is a sword of fire to make strange divisions between the soul and flesh Secret attraction is a most particular touch from God who taketh men by ways hidden interiour and extraordinary So many times we see conversions infinitely strange Such was that of S. Paul Notable conversions who felt a blow in the bloud of S. Stephen when he shed it by so many hands as he gave consents to the furie of his executioners Such was that of the Jugler Genesius under Dioclesian who in a full Theater scoffing at the ceremonies of Christians at the same time became a Confessour of the faith and Martyr of Jesus Christ Such was that of Mary neece of Abraham the Hermit who was gained to God in a supper which she had made in a bourdel Such likewise was that of Irais a poor maid-servant of Alexandria who Martyrol Rom. 16. Martii 22. Septemb. as the Samaritan going to draw water left her pitcher to run to Martyrdom and joyning her self to Christians which were led to execution bare away the first crown Such was that of a thief who forsook his wicked life beholding a yound Monk that ate wild roots and another converted having seen Paphnutius the Hermit drink a glass of wine who never Joannes Aegid de doctrina Patrum titul Charit num 6 had drunk any before and then onely did it by a resignation of his own judgement and proper will into the hands of another who commanded it The thief at that instant thus concluded That if this holy man were so enforced by virtue for an action so contrary to ordinary life he himself might well by the help of resolution undertake the same predominance over his passions and of an ill man become a Saint as he did Briefly such was the conversion of Parentius a man of quality who exercised a place of judicature in a City of Italy For having seen a young swyn-herd who taught his companion a trick to make his hogs readily run into into the Sty which was to say to them Enter hogs into the sty as wicked Judges into Hell and then perceiving that these beasts readily obeyed this word he laughed heartily but presently changing all his mirth into serious actions he set himself to ponder on the difficulties he found of salvation in the great corruptions of justice and was so touched that he tooke the habit of Franciscans where he so far proceeded in Chronic. Minorum virtue that he became General of the Order and visited bare-foot all the houses of S. Francis It must be confessed there are great priviledges of Gods providence in such affairs I am willing briefly to recite examples of these secret attractions because they are very famous and I set
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
Beware how you enter into the list among so many noble spirits there to discover your weaknesse and to adde nothing to the lustre of the honour of so many worthy Ancestours but to render your own crimes the more remarkable Shew your self herein a reasonable man and endeavour that all your actions may be as lines which grow from the centre of wisdome to be produced with all felicitie Remember things past rectifie the present foresee those to come Above all learn to set a true estimation upon every thing in the world and suffer not your self to be surprised by the illusions of so many objects which when they have charmed the eyes and overthrown reason leave nothing behind them but sorrow to have done ill and impotencie of doing well In conversation take the measure of your self and the like of those with whom you deal to husband and accommodate your self reasonably to all the world yielding to every one the respect which his merit seems to require The exercise of devotion will not hinder you from the endeavour how to become an able man in your profession from being honest civil discreet affable liberal obliging stout couragious patient which are the principal qualities of a Courtier It is not desired that to be devout you should have a spirit drowzie sluggish overwhelmed not that through overmuch simplicitie you make profusion of your self in an Age where bountie seemeth to be the prey of insolent spirits Wisdom will teach you neither to intrude nor pour out your self to dissemble through virtue that which ought to be concealed to adapt your self to companies and affairs to believe nothing lightly nor to promise nor decide any thing without consideration to persevere in certain things not ill because you have begun them not to be harsh nor too much complying since the one tasteth of brutishness the other inclines to flatterie To propose to your self good and evil which may arise from an affair to moderate the one and tollerate the other Above all honour the King next after God as the source of all greatness and the fountain of the most noble lights which reflect on Nobilitie Honour him with profound respect as the lively Image of God Love him sincerely serve him with all fidelitie If you be employed in affairs and governments endeavour to persist therein with conscience and honour which are the two mansions of a great soul If you have merit without employment and recompence say not therefore that all is lost It is a good business to be well at rest to manure your spirit to enable your self with reading and peaceable conversion to govern your house Learn nothing but what you ought to know Search that onely which you may profitably find desire nothing but what you may honourably wish for And be not conceited to run after a spectre of imaginarie favour nor to mount to a place where you cannot stay without fear nor fall without ruin So many great Monarchs so many Princes Lords and valorous men who are come from Courts and the profession of arms to enter into the Temple of pietie assure us this life is capable of Saints and that no man ought to despair of virtue but he who renounceth it If the brevitie of this Treatise would permit I would willingly set before you a David a Josias an Ezechias a Charlemaign a S. Lewis a Hermingildes a Henry a Stephen a Casimire a Godfrey of Bovillon a Wenceslaus an Edward an Elzear an Amideus I would make you see flourishing Squadrons of Martyrs drawn from warfare amongst which you would admire a Maurice an Exuperius a Sebastian a Marius a Mennas an Olympiades a Meliton a Leontius a Maximus a Julian an Abdon a Sennen a Valens a Priscus a Marcellus a Marcellinus a Severinus a Philoromus a Philoctemon and so many such like Finally I would shew in the latter Ages men worthy of all honour eminent in arms and enobled with singular pietie but I now content my self to draw from Eusebius Theodoret Nicephorus Zozimus Socrates Sozomenus Cedrenus and above all Cardinal Baronius the life of Great Constantine who hath been the very prime man amongst Christian princes and hath witnessed especially after his Baptism a masculine pietie and a great example of sanctitie IMP. CAES. FLAVIVS CONSTAN AVG. CONSTANTINE The first SECTION The Providence of God over Constantine I Will shew to Christian Nobilitie its source in the life of the prime Gentleman of Christianitie If we respect antiquitie greatness and dignitie we shall not find a Prince either more anciently noble than he who first of all among Emperours deserved the title of Christian or more truly great than he who so happily engraffed the empire of the universe on the tree of the Cross or more justly honourable than he who cemented his honour with the bloud of the Lamb. It is the admirable Constantine Greatness of Constantine who so perfectly allied valour to pietie Monarchy to humilitie the wisdom of the Cross to the government of the world the nails and thorns of the passion to the Diadem of Kings and delights of the Court that he hath left matter of meditation for the wise of profit for Religious of imitation for Monarchs and of wonder for those who admire nothing vulgar Behold a marvellous Theatre of the providence of Theatre of Divine Providence God whereunto I would willingly invite all those spirits repleat with humane policie and devested of heavenly Maxims who are onely great by the greatness of their ruin to see how the breath of God demolisheth the Towers of Babel to raise the walls of Sion how the subtil are surprized in their subtility how the science of men becometh blind in its proper lights how the vigour of the world is slain by its own hands how stabilitie is overturned by the supports it chooseth how the spirit of flesh at unawares contributeth to plant the Gross on the top of Capitols and heads of Monarchs by the same ways wherewith it promised to over-cloud them with darkness and abysses I here produce a Constantine beed up very young in the Court of Diocletian who had an intention to become a scourge to Christianitie but God surprized him therein as Moses in the Court of Pharaoh to stop the stream of persecution to calm the tempests of the time confound Idols and raise the Church on the ruins of Gentilism Reader stay a little on the frontispice of this history and behold how the Eternal Providence led this young Constantine by the hand like another Cyrus to humble the Great-ones of the earth before his face and to give him hidden treasures to take Isaiah 49. from him so many bars and impediments to open for him so many gates of iron and to cause so many Kings to turn their faces and afford him their place There was at that time twelve heads which alreadie either wore the diadem or thought themselves capable of it Diocletian and Maximian held the highest place
of his valour and the trust he had in God he first of all appeared in the head of his Army and with many paces set forward before the rest making his horse curvet in a martial manner It was an easie matter to know him for his arms shined all with gold and his helmet was set with precious stones His enemies began to fall roundly upon him but the Captaines of Constantine seeing their Emperour so generously to out-brave danger followed him with such fervour as if every one of them expected an Empire for recompence They fell like lightning upon their enemies who were much amazed at this first charge yet they notwithstanding made good resistance but maugre all their endeavours those of Constantine brake through and defeated them Maxentius beholding his Cavalry in which he Maxentius defeated reposed all his hope to be so ill handled resolved upon a retreat to make use of his bridge and drown Constantine engaged in the pursuit of those that fled But oh the justice of God! The wicked man as saith the Royal Prophet falleth into the ditch which he himself had digged It is not known whether those besotted engineers failed in their design or whether the great numbers of those that fled caused this ruin but the bridge brake under Maxentius his feet and threw him into Tiber all bloudy like another Pharaoh in the red sea with all the principal of his Empire who environed his person He amazed at so violent a fall hoped yet to recover the other shore being excellently mounted where he was seen to wrestle a certain time with the waves which in the end swallowed him up There was in the begining a great slaughter of those who made resistance but in the end seeing their Emperour drowned they yielded all to the mercy of Constantine who stayed the victorious sword in the hands of souldiers to consecrate it to clemency He did well to search for the body of Maxentius in Tiber to take off his head which was fixed on the point of a lance and born to Rome and Africk to satisfie justice for the enormous forfeits he had committed when he was alive From thence this brave Conquerour is received in the City of Rome as an Angel descended from heaven for the deliverance of the world Never was triumph so highly valued as his because in the tropheys of other Emperours they triumphed for the gaining of some far-distant Province but in this lost Rome recovered it-self The Queen of Nations ceased to be the prey of Nations breathed now a sweeter ayr of ancient liberty If ever Prince saw a glorious day in all his life this was it which shined then over the head of Constantine They came from all parts of Italy to behold him and those who had seen him thought they had lived long enough supposing it unfit to behold any other humane thing Amongst so many notable spectacles at that time in the City none was looked upon but he his face was the object of all their admirations and his valour the matter of all discourses The Senate to witness the joy they conceived for this victory prepared him a triumphal Arch all of marble one of the stateliest monuments that ever had been raised to the honour of a Conquerour wherein this Inscription was engraven IMP. CAES. FL. CONSTANTINO MAXIMO P. F. AUGUSTO S. P. Q. R. QUOD INSTINCTU DIVINITATIS MENTIS MAGNITUDINE CUM EXERCITU SUO TAM DE TYRANNO QUAM DE EJUS OMNI FACTIONE UNO TEMPORE JUSTIS REMPUBLICAM ULTUS EST ARMIS ARCUM TRIUMPHIS INSIGNEM DICAVIT This said that the Senate and people of Rome dedicated this triumphal Arch to Constantine Emperour and Great Pontifice happy Prince and Augustus because by an instinct of Divinity and an admirable greatness of courage he had with his Army freed the Common-wealth from a Tyrant and all his faction by the justice of his arms Where in the Arch on the right hand were read these words Liberatori Urbis on the left hand Fundatori Quietis which clearly declared him the Freer of the Citie and Founder of Repose There was likewise inscribed on it the number of years in which they desired to render vows for this glorious victory Observe as you pass along that the Senate was as yet Pagan yet knowing the devotion which Constantine bare to the Saviour of the world though he were not then a declared Christian they abstained from the mention of Gods and spake onely of one Divinitie The sixth SECTION The death of Diocletian and feats of Arms performed by Constantine against Lycinius SInce I have undertaken to represent the famous warlick Acts of Constantine to shew his arrival to Monarchy I will here insert the end of Diocletian and Lycinius When Constantine caused his Standards to march against Maxentius there remained no more of so many Caesars but Lycinius who was created a little before the death of Galerius The brothers of Constantine would alter nothing Diocletian remained in his retirement There was none but this Lycinius who was an old souldier a man raised from nothing but advanced by arms and who had done so good services to Galerius the creature of Diocletian in the war which he had against the Persians that out of meer respect of his valour he was chosen Emperour In all other things he was of a rude and gross spirit as derived from Peasants and who all his life had done nothing else but handle iron either for tillage or war not having acquired any neatness of a civil life Behold the cause why being ignorant and proud he extreamly hated learning which he called the poison of the Empire and had it been in his power he would have banished all knowing men that there might be none able to reproach his ignorance Constantine as wise as he was warlick saw well he must mannage this spirit who might much trouble him in his design against Maxentius for which cause following this counsel he promised him a share in the Empire and his sister Constantia in marriage It is held this marriage was solemnized at Milan a little after the defeat of Maxentius where many treaties passed between Constantine and Lycinius touching their principalities and from that time a most favourable Edict was made for the re-establishment of Christians the honour of Christianity which Lycinius although a Pagan refused not to sign Victor addeth that Diocletian was sent for to the wedding of Lycinius For it was much desired to hear him speak and see what he had upon his heart his spirit being very able to give cause of distrust to two Princes who were desirous to establish themselves in all security The subtile Hermit on the other side who feared to be overtaken made an answer in which he besought their Majesties to give him leave to live in his Hermitage and affoord him that for delight which others commonly tooke for punishment That he had not for the time to come any mind upon
the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereupon this man sought to reprehend him alledging some passages of scripture maliciously interpreted of which he made use to establish the unhappy heresie which denied that the Son was the same essence of God his Father and took away from Jesus Christ the diadem of the Eternal Divinity by making him a meer creature Alexander who was not a man of mean account but such an one as to his sanctity of life added solid doctrine defended himself couragiously against the impostures of this malign spirit very well justifying his belief touching the Divinity of our Saviour which having been throughly proved in the Assembly of an hundred Bishops who were first of all called together for this purpose under Hosius Legat of Pope Sylvester he pronounced the sentence of excommunication against Arius and his complices This wicked man who burst with anger to see this condemnation passed against him by those whom he reputed to be infinitely under him in ability put himself into the field with very much ostent the differences he lately had with these Prelates making him understand his Divinity was odious if he therein used not some colour to disguise the malice thereof He also practised so many wiles that he dazeled the eyes even of those who were men very eapable for after he had deduced his reasons with a great facility of words and large quantity of specious passages and that he thereunto added a cold countenance counterfeiting himself a modest man persecuted for the truth he trained spirits not vulgar to the love of his novelties All the very same proceedings have been seen with the Herericks of this time and if so many corrupt souls had not wholly enclined to their own ruin God gave them sufficient examples in elder evils to avoid the new We Proceeding of Arians may well say when we behold these schisms and heresies to arise that there is some comet of the kingdom of darkness which insensibly throweth plague and poison into hearts It is a strange thing that a little sparkle let fall in Alexandria caused instantly so many fires that having invaded Aegypt Lybia Thebais and Palestine they in the end involved almost the whole world No man at that time cared how to live but every one was ready to dispute Bishops bandying against Bishops drew the people distracted with opinions The Churches houses and Theaters ecchoed in the sharpness of contentious disputations and the Cities forgetting all other miseries rent one another for the interpretation of a word Arius to gain support instantly seeketh for favour from the Court. And knowing that Eusebius Bishop of Nicomedia was of great credit he used all the flatteries of which this man was capable enough to gain him to his side This Eusebius was eminently furnished with all those dispositions and industries which the most subtile Hereticks have at any time exercised to trouble the Church of God He was verily one of the worst men then in the Empire since he had sold his soul to ambition so much the more pernicious as it was covered with a veil of Religion It is true which the Hebrews say that Vineger is an ill son of a good father for it is commonly made of the best wine so there is nothing more sincere than an Ecclesiastick who liveth in the duty of his profession but when corruption falleth thereinto and that he hath once degenerated there is not a worse sharpness nor a more dangerous malice Religion served this wicked man as a buskin for all feet for it had no other bounds but that of his own interests and he ever like weather-cocks on the top of steeples turned his face on what side soever the wind blew In the persecutions of Christendom he made himself an Idolater in the garboyls of Lycinius he leaned much to his side and when he saw Constantine absolute in the Empire never was man more plyable to flatter him Doubtless he had all the qualities we have seen in Luther Calvin and so many other new Sects who have still sought favour from Great-ones by wyles and most perillous charms So wanted he not excellent parts and great eminencies for he had a spirit very subtile speech cunning a face which spake before his tongue and as for his extraction he soared so high as to make himself the kins-man of Caesars The air he desired to breath was the Court and his Bishoprick when he was absent seemed to him a banishment Behold the cause why he drew near to the center of the Empire as much as he could in such sort that being first Bishop of Berytus he put himself forward to the chair of Nicomedia afterward took the heart of the Kingdom and in the end setled himself in the Royal Constantinople This alteration of chairs had in this time a very ill savour and this life of Court so passionately affected by an Ecclesiastick not called thereunto could not in any sort find approbation among good men Great personages are sometimes very lawfully in Court for the service of Kings and publick necessities but they are thereas the birds of Baruch upon Baruch 6. 70. Job 26. white thorns as the Gyants of holy Job which mourned under the waters as those sweet fountains found in the salt Sea An ambitious man who heweth down mountains to arrive thither and liveth not exemplary deserveth to be regarded therein as a fish out of his element or the pyde bird whereof Jeremie speaketh whom all the rest assailed with Jer. 12. 2. beak and talon Eusebius notwithstanding little regarded the reputation of a good Prelate so that he might arrive to the height of his enterprizes To insinuate himself the more into the good liking of the Emperour he gained Constantia sister of Constantine and widow of Lycinius as Calvin did afterward the sister of Francis the first The good Lady who being despoiled of Empire by the death of her husband and had no longer so much employment to number the pearls of her Diadem would needs then intermedle with curious devotion and dispute on the mysteries of the holy Trinity Constantine after the death of S. Helena his mother held her at his Court with much respect that she might the more easily digest the acerbities she had conceived in the loss of her husband and much easier was it to entertain her in the affairs of the Church than in those of Empires Besides he found it not amiss that she might busie her self in the doubtfull questions of Bishops So pursuing the Genius of her curious spirit she passed so far that she became an Arian by the practises of this Eusebius who having already gotten credit with her spake to her of Arius as of a worthy man persecuted by his own side for his great abilities and explicating to her his doctrine in popular terms which said there was no apparence how a son could be made as old as his father and that poor Arius had been banished
suitable to the greatness of this Mysterie Another having lived free from the bands of marriage caused to be set on his tomb Vixit sine impedimento Brisson for He lived without hinderance which was a phrase very obscure to express what he would say Notwithstanding it was found this hinderance whereof he spake was a woman This may well happen through the vice and misery wherein the state of this present life hath confined us but to speak generally we must affirm had it been the best way to frame the world without a woman God had done it never expecting the advise of these brave Cato's S. Zeno homil de continent Aut hostis publicus aut insanus and whosoever endeavoureth to condemn marriage as a thing not approved by God sheweth that he is either out of his wits or a publick enemy to mankind The great S. Peter in whose heart God locked up 1 Pet. 3. Vi qui non credunt Verbo per conversationem mulierum sine verbo lucriâ—iâ—nt the Maxims of the best policie of the world was of another opinion when he judged the good and laudable conversation of women rendered it self so necessary for Christianity that it was a singular mean to gain those to God who would not submit themselves to the Gospel Whereupon he affordeth an incomparable honour to the virtue of holy women disposing it in some sort into a much higher degree of force and utility than the preaching of the word of God and in effect it seemeth this glorious Apostle by a spirit of prophesie foresaw an admirable thing which afterward appeared in the revolution of many Ages which is that God hath made such use of the piety of Ladies for the advancement of Christianity that in all the most flourishing Kingdoms of Christendom there are observed still some Queens or Princesses who have the very first of all advanced the Standard of the Cross upon the ruins of Infidelity Helena planted true Religion in the Roman Empire Caesarea in Persia Theodelinda in Italie Clotilda in France Indegundis in Spain Margerite in England Gysellis in Hungarie Dambruca in Poland Olga in Russia Ethelberga in Germanie not speaking of an infinite number of others who have happily maintained and encreased that which was couragiously established Reason also favoureth my proposition for we must necessarily confess there is nothing so powerfull to perswade what ever it be as complacence and flattery since it was the smoothest attractiveâ— which the evil spirit made use of in the terrestrial Paradise to overthrow the first man setting before him the alluring pleasures of an Eve very newly issued out of the hands of God Now every one knows nature hath imparted to woman a very good portion of these innocent charms and it many by these priviled ges are also powerfull in actions so wicked why should not so many virtuous souls generoully employed in the service of the great God bear as much sway since he accustometh to communicate a grace wholly new to the good qualities that are aimed to his honour I conjure all Women and Ladies who shall read this Treatise to take from hence a generous spirit and never permit vice and curiosity may derive tribute from such ornaments as God hath conferred on them it being unfit to stuff Babylon with the gold and marbles of Sion The second SECTION That women are capable of good lights and solid instruments SInce I see my self obliged by my design to make a brief model of principal perfections which may be desired for the complishment of an excellent Ladie and that this discourse cannot be throughly perfected without observing vicious qualities which are blemishes opposite to the virtues we endeavour to establish I will make use of the clew of some notable invention in so great a labyrinth of thoughts the better to facilitate the way I remember to have heretofore read a very rare manuscript of Theodosius of Malta a Greek Authour touching the nuptials of Theophilus Emperour of Constantinople and his wife Theodora which will furnish us with a singular enterance into that which we now seek for so that we adde the embelishment of so many Oracles of wisdom to the foundations which this Historian hath layed He recounteth that this Theophilus being on the Anno 830. Zonoras saith that she was onely step-mother and relateth it somewhat otherwise but let us follow our Authour point to dispose himself for marriage the Empress his mother named Euphrosina who passionately desired the contentment of her son in an affair of so great importance dispatched her Embassadours through all the Provinces of the Empire to draw together the most accomplished maidens which might be found in the whole circuit of his Kingdom And for that purpose she shut up within the walls of Constantinople the rarest beauties of the whole world assembling a great number of Virgins into a chamber of his Palace called for curiositie The Pearl The day being come wherein the Emperour was to make choice of her to whom he would give his heart with the Crown of the Empire the Empress his mother spake to him in these terms MY LORD AND SON Needs must I confess that since the day nature bound me so streightly to your person next after God I neither have love fear care hope nor contentment but for you The day yieldeth up all my thoughts to you and the night which seemeth made to arrest the agitations of our spirit never razeth the rememberance of you from my heart I acknowledge my self doubly obliged to procure with all my endeavours what ere concerneth your good because I am your mother and that I see you charged with an Empire which is no small burden to them who have the discretion to understand what they undertake It seems to me since the death of the Emperour your father my most honoured Lord I have so many times newly been delivered of you as I have seen thorny affairs in the mannage of your State And at this time when I behold you upon terms to take a wife and that I know by experience to meet with one who is accomplished with all perfections necessary for your State is no less rare than the acquisition of a large Empire the care I have ever used in all concerns your glory and contentment is therefore now more sensible with me than at any other time heretofore It is true O most dear Son that the praise-worthy inclinations which I have observed in your Mujestie give me as much hope as may reasonably by conceived in the course of humane things yet notwithstanding the accidents we see to happen so contrary to their proceedings do also entertain my mind in some uncertaintie That you may take some resolution upon this matter behold in the Pearl of Constantinople I have made choice of the most exquisite maidens of your Empire to the end your Majestie may elect her whom you shall judge most worthie of your chaste affections I beseech God
a love more fervent than their flames and the ax which separated the head from thy bodie placed a Crown on thy head I behold thee with an eye wholly rapt with the beauties of thy glorie I a thousand times kiss thy wounds and take part in thy tropheys and sanctifie my self by loving thee as a Martyr of Jesus Christ What then remains O blessed soul but that I imitate thee and though executioners forbear my bodie never to spare my pains That all my life may be but a martyrdom and that there be not any part in me which serves not as a victim to the sacrifice of my patience Aglae having performed her duties and caused a Church to be built dedicated to God in memory of the Martyr S. Boniface entered into a Monastery and perfected her self in the glorious travels of penance finishing her course near her well-beloved and entombing her ashes at his feet THE SECOND PART OF MAXIMS Of the HOLY COURT THE DESIGN WE have directly looked towards God in the first Part deducing Maxims which most nearly concern the Divinitie I now descend in this Second to those which touch the direction of this present life and consider them in three respects whereof one tendeth to the service of God the other to our neighbour and the last stayeth upon our selves In the first I treat of Pietie against all counterfeit devotion In the second I shew we must carry our selves towards our neighbours with justice sinceritie and sweetness excluding our own ends dissimulation and crueltie In the third I entertain what concerns the ordering of our selves in prosperitie against Epicureans and in adversitie against impatience upon accidents of humane life wherein I endeavour throughout effectually to observe the disorders which Plato and Aristotle noted were the causes of the destruction of Families Cities and Empires THE SECOND PART Touching the Direction of this present Life IX MAXIM Of DEVOTION THE PROPHANE COURT THE HOLY COURT That if Devotion must be used we should embrace that which is in fashion accommodating it to our ends That we must be devout for God and that if Devotion be not solid it is no longer Devotion IT is a matter very considerable that Devotion is subject to many more illusions than all other virtues of which we have proof enough from our own experience although we could find no other foundation in reason But if the judicious Reader The cause wherefore Devotion is subject to so many illusions desire to know the cause I will tell him that as nothing hath been so much turmoiled and counterfeited as Religion which hath in all Ages been disfigured by such variety of Sects so it is no marvel if Devotion which is according to S. Thomas as the branch of this tree find the like contrarieties Bodies most delicate are soonest corrupted by extream impressions so this virtue which is of a temperature very subtile since it is as it were the cream of charity may easily be perverted by the evil mannage of it Adde that the wicked spirit seeing this exercise is very necessary for us seeks to envenom it in its sources to the end we may draw poison from those things which might be our remedy Besides men either through superabundance of idleness presumption of ability through love of their own conceits or desire of novelty multiply their inventions upon this matter and many make golden Goldē calves taken for Cherubins The practice of the Lacedemonians calves to themselves in Bethel in stead of the Cherubins of Jerusalem The Lacedemonians ever attired their gods according to the fashions and humours which then swayed in their Citie Every one delights to dress up devotion by the pattern of his passions I affirm one cannot worthily enough praise the practise of so many devout souls which live in singular purity either in Religious or Civil life And I may say it is an Host of the living God as terrible in his mildness as he is sweet in his terrours I honour all the bodies yea the particulars with the honour their deserts have acquired But as the strongest truths fail not to be invaded by some obscurities so it is no wonder if in the ordering of virtues some defects creep into the life of particulars which should no way prejudice the integrity of the general Of Dark Devotion THere is a dark Devotion which is rude and Gross and afflicting Devotion stupid another nice a third transcendent and a fourth sincere and solid I call a stupid devotion that which establisheth all virtue in indiscreet and immoderate austerities which very often kill the body and extinguish the total vigour of the mind that which without any obligation of the Church or of some particular Order or sage direction ties it self to straight and rigorous observations rather for satisfaction of self-will than through any other sense of piety and which placeth in this act all Christian perfection not minding so many other duties which strictly bind us to matters more considerable We have heard the Idolaters of the Eastern parts kill themselves with recital of a fearfull number of prayers to their Idols roul in the scorching sands clog themselves with fetters and slash themselves with razors thinking by these ways they may arrive to the top of sanctity Nor can we likewise be ignorant what is sufficiently declared unto us by holy Scripture that many of the Ancients were much enclined to these superstitious devotions establishing therein all the order of spiritual life in such sort that they perpetually afflicted their bodies and in the mean time suffered their hearts to sway in empty vanities burning avarice rigours and cruelties towards their neighbours wholly insupportable Such was the devotion of Pharisees so often rebuked and condemned herein by the lips of the eternal Truth For when you saw them walk in publick you beheld men lean and disfigured who bare scrowls of parchment on their heads wherein they wrote some sentence of the Law of God and tied thorns to the border of their gowns to prick and torment their heels whilest the heart uncontroulably committed all disorder Such also was the devotion of certain superstitious reproved by the Prophet Isaiah in the 58. Chapter where God speaketh Isaiah 58. saying unto them Who ever hath gone about to exact such fasts from you and such devotion as you practise to afflict the bodie a whole day together how the head lie on sackcloth and ashes Is this then that which you call fasting and can you think days and times spent in such actions are very acceptable to God I will teach you another kind of fast Break off those Dissoloe colligationes impietatis solve fasciculos deprimentes bargains you have made with such iniquity tear in pieces the bundles of unjust and insupportable obligations let the poor go at libertie who are overwhelmed with wants Take the yoke from them which they can no longer bear give food to the hungrie lodge pilgrims and
corruptible matter of Earth but after he became a Christian he lived upon the most pure influences of heaven S. Gregory Nazianzen saith he more breathed S. Basile then the aire it self and that all his absences were to him so many deaths S. Chrysostome in banishment was perpetually in spirit with those he most esteemed S. Jerome better loved to entertain his spirituall amities in little Bethelem then to be a Courtier in Rome where he might be chosen Pope And if we reflect on those who have lived in the light of nature Plato was nothing but love Aristotle had never spoken so excellently of friendship had he not been a good friend Seneca spent himself in this virtue being suspected by Nero for the affection he bare to Piso Alexander was so good that he carried between his arms a poor souldier frozen with cold up to his throne to warm him and to give him somewhat to eat from his royall hands Trajan brake his proper Diadem to bind up the wound of one of his servants Titus wept over the ruines of rebellious Jerusalem A man may as soon tell the starres in the heavens as make an enumeration of the brave spirits which have been sacrificed to amity Wherefore great hearts are the most loving If we seek out the causes we shall find it ordinarily proceedeth from a good temperature which hath fire and vigour and that comes from good humours and a perfect harmony of spirit little Courages are cold straightned and wholly tied to proper interests and the preservation of their own person They lock themselves up in their proprieties as certain fishes in their shell and still fear least elements should fail them But magnanimous hearts who more conform themselves to the perfections of God have sources of Bounty which seem not to be made but to stream and overflow such as come near them This likewise many times proceedeth from education for those who fall upon a breeding base wretched and extremely penurious having hands very hard to be ungrasped have likewise a heart shut up against amities still fearing lest acquaintance may oblige them to be more liberall then they would contrariwise such as have the good hap to be nobly bred hold it an honour to oblige and to purchase friends every where Add also that there is ever some gentilenesse of spirit among these loving souls who desiring to produce themselves in a sociable life and who understanding it is not given them to enlighten sands and serpents will have spectatours and subjects of its magnificence Which happens otherwise to low and sordid spirits for they voluntarily banish themselves from the conversation of men that they may not have so many eyes for witnesses of their faults So that we must conclude against the Philosophers of Indifferency that Grace Beauty strength and power of nature are on their side who naturally have love and affection §. 2. Of Love in generall LOve when it is well ordered is the soul of the universe Love the soul of the universe which penetrateth which animateth which tieth and maintaineth all things and so many millions of creatures as aspire and respire this love would be but a burden to Nature were they not quickned by the innocent flame which gives them lustre as to the burning Bush not doing them any hurt Fornacem custodiens in operibus ardoris Eccl. 43. at all I may say that of honest love which the wise man did of the Sunne That it is the superintendent of the great fornaces of the world which make all the most Love the superintendent of the great Fornace of the world Faber ferrarius sedens juxta in eodem considerans opus ferri vapor iguis uret carnes ejus in calore fornacis concertatur c. Eccl. 29 38. Pieces of work in Nature Have you ever beheld the Forge-master described by the same wise-man You see a man in his shirt all covered over with sweat greace and smoke who sporteth among the sparks of fire and seemeth to be grown familiar with the flames He burns gold and silver in the fornace then he battereth it on the Anvil with huge blows of the hammer he fashioneth it he polisheth it he beautifies it and of a rude and indigested substance makes a fair piece of plate to shine on the Cup-boards of the most noble houses So doth love in the world it taketh hearts which are as yet but of earth and morter it enkindleth them with a divine flame It beats them under the hammer of tribulations and sufferings to try them It filleth them by the assiduity of prayer It polisheth them by the exercise of virtues lastly it makes vessels of them worthy to be placed above the Empyreall heaven Thus did it with S. Paul and made him so perfect Act. 9. that the First verity saith of him that he is his vessel of election to carry his name among nations and the Kings of the Earth and that he will shew him how much he must suffer for his sake The whole nature of Pigri mortui oetestandi eritis si nihil ametis Amare sed quid ameris videte August in Psal 31. Hoc amet nec ametur ab ullo Juvenal Seven excellent things the world tendeth to true love every thing loves some of necessity other by inclination and other out of reason He who will love nothing saith S. Augustine is the most miserable and wretched man on earth nor is it without cause that in imprecations pronounced over the wicked it is said Let him not love nor be beloved by any The ancient Sages have observed in the light of Nature that there are seven excellent things to be esteemed as gifts from heaven which are clearnesse of senses vivacity of understanding grace to expresse ones thoughts ability to govern well Courage in great and difficult undertakings fruitfulnesse in the productions of the mind and the strength of love and forasmuch as concerneth the last Orpheus and Hesiodus have thought it so necessary that they make it the first thing that came out of the Chaos before the Creation of the world The Platonists revolving upon this conceit have built us three worlds which are the Angelicall nature Vide Marsilium Ficinum in convivium Platonis An exâ—ellent conceit of the Platonists the soul and the Frame of the universe All three as they say have their Chaos The Angel before the ray of God had his in the privation of lights Man in the darknesse of Ignorance and Sinne The materiall world in the confusion of all its parts But these three Chaoses were dissipated by love which was the cause that God gave to Angelicall spirits the knowledge of the most sublime verities to Man Reason and to the world Order All we see is a perpetuall circle of God to the world and of the world to God This circle beginning in God by inestimable perfections full of charms and attractives is properly called Beauty and
their affairs they have very few good friends But there are some among them who are endowed with so eminent virtues affabilitie and bounty that they win affections and find friends who would willingly offer themselves up as a sacrifice for their glory Amity desireth equallity If it find it not it makes it and although one cannot alwayes exact it in an Arithmeticall proportion and that two friends of divers qualities cannot be in all kinds equall in offices rendred one to another yet it is ever necessary therein to observe some proportion which many great ones do not thinking all is due to them and that having usurped the bloud and sweat of men they are but victimes born to be sacrificed to their magnificence Which made the great Aristotle say That if of two friends the one should become a God he would cease to be a friend In Arist 8. 9. Moral which he spake as a man and a man ignorant of the Divinity For he figured to himself a god of a luskish and proud humour wholly busied within himself and disesteeming all whatsoever under himself But had he Tertull. contra Marcionem Nihil tam Deo dignum quam salus hominis known the ineffable sweetnesse of the divine Bounty he would rather with Tertullian have said that there is nothing so worthy of God as the salvation of man Secondly it is most certain that those who love too much are not very proper for great and strong amities Who loves too much loveth little for with over much eagernesse to love all they love nothing You find men of honour in the world who are extremely endearing and who create amities innumerable Men too endearing incapable of amity their heart resembleth the weathercock on a steeple which turns with every wind they no sooner see one but they oppresse him with favours promises and courtesies but such amities resemble those bubbles of water which rise upon a river during the time of a shower and break as soon as they grow Birds which have yet the shell on their backs are taken with the sweetnesse of their bait and think they have gotten their favour upon the first acquaintance but the prudent well see that they say to all the world is not spoken to them They do as Plato who in the beginning thought The Judgement of Plato Seneca lib. 6. de Benefic c. 18. Negavit illi jam apud Platonem positum officium One must not adhere too much to ones self to be a good friend himself much obliged to a Ferriman that courteously without asking ought had wafted him imagining this was done in respect of his merit but when he afterward perceived he thus entertained persons of the meanest condition He then could well say Friend I ow thee nothing Moreover we may truely affirm that such are never good friends who too much adhere to themselves and rest fully satisfied with themselves For amity being a certain transportment of a friend to a friend it loveth to go out and readily succour such as stand in need of its help but the man who is fast tied to his own interests captived by his own employments irrevocably squared out to his own hours is a piece not to be stirred Unequall spirits but with many engines Adde also to those the fantasticall suspicions and unequall spirits who daily at least have some fit of folly and infinitely vary both in manners and visage which maketh poor Amity to fare ill in their hands But prudent and patient friends who have need of them strive to find out the folds of their hearts to observe their good fits and the lightsome seasons of their mind Lastly I would banish out of the temple of Amity Men banished from the Temple of amity all wicked lives and evil humours weak brains and indiscreet tongues which are not retentive of a secret the over-curious the light the exorbitant flouters Buffons the sad mischievous murmurers great talkers and the Ceremonious To choose a friend well it is necessary he be honest The choice of a friend prudent of a good disposition cordiall obliging faithfull and patient Honesty is the foundation of all the most eminent amities without which there is not any thing can be of a solid subsistence Prudence is the instrument for every thing and the Rule of all the actions of mans life Good disposition seasoneth the greatest pleasures of conversation Cordiality makes a commixion of hearts and minds which is the principall scope of Amity Obligations maintained by mutuall offices straightly knit affections Fidelity which is an unmoveable rock against all the assaults of men and time which tend to the division of hearts and Patience in the defects of a friend is that which crowneth the perfections of Love §. 4. Of Amity between persons of different Sex I Hold my self obliged by the necessity of the subject to speak here of the Amity of different Sexes especially between people of the world as also because many complain that men of our profession would willingly handle them as Hermites of Thebais and wholly forbid them the conversation of women I will deliver what conscience and civility permit in this It is often asked whether women be capable of good Amity and whether it may be tyed between sex and sex out of wedlock-bands This is a very hard question for me to resolve because having all my time been employed according to the laws of my profession to court wisdome and virtue and having had little practice but amongst the sagest and most virtuous women it is not so easie for me to judge of the humours of such as are bred otherwise If we consult with Histories we see millions of Lovers who complain of the infidelity of their Mistresses On the other side women wage warre with men ceasing not to accuse their inconstancy and all your feigned Romans eternally chant forth the same song which were able to tire spirits any thing serious but it is evident that these vices with which they reproch one another chastising with severity that which they commit through idlenesse proceedeth not so much from sex as from the nature of a shamefull passion of love which hath no more stability then the wind in the Spring and the sea in a Calm It is certain that evil love hath its disloyall ones every where but since we are insensibly engaged to treat of Amity after so many excellent pens who have handled the same subject we are rather to observe what is commonly done in virtuous love then that which is acted out of the madnesse of Concupiscence Some have thought women were not so proper for Reasons for which women seem lesse capable of Amity Amities because they resemble a cloud in the Rainbow which receiveth the impression of all colours in their naturall diversified forms besides for that according to Pliny they are imaginative more then any creature in the world which suggesteth to them infinite many
of the Hypocondry the disturbances of the waking the stupidities of the Lethargie the fits of the falling sickness the faintness of the Phthisick the heavings of the passion of the heart the pangs of the collick the infections of the leprosie the venome of ulcers the malignity of the plague the putrefaction of the gangrene and all which is horrible in nature After all this it is made a God to whom Elogies Hymns Songs and victimes are offered Empire over the heart is given to it a soul not created but for him who hath saved it is subjected fetters are honoured and its Tyranny adored There are many millions of men in the world Disasters of evil love who would be most fortunate and flourishing if they knew how to avoid the mischievous power of this passion but having not used any consideration or endeavour they have abandoned their bodies to dishonour their reputation to infamy their estates to pillage and their lives to an infinity of disturbances and torments Hence it is that virgins of noble bloud are stolen away that families are desolated that parents are precipitated into their Tombs by ungratefull children that so many young widows are dishonoured in the world that so many miserable creatures after they have served for talk to a City die in an Hospitall that so many little innocents are made away by a death which preventeth their birth that so many Infants are thrown into life as froth of the sea exposed to poverty and vice by that condition which brought them forth Hence is it that chaste wedlocks are disturbed that poysons are mingled that Halters are noozed that swords are sharpned that Tragedies are begun under the Coverture of night and are ended in a full day-light upon a scaffold O God how happy might a soul be which would well consider all this and take what I am about to speak as a letter sent from heaven for the remedy of infinite many evils which in this passion environ our miserable life I invite hither every age each sex all conditions I entreat my Readers to peruse these lines with the same spirit wherewith I addresse them and although it befell me to treat of this subject in my other works notwithstanding never have I yet undertaken it with so much method vigour or force as at this present I will shew you the Essence the Causes the Symptomes and the effects of love as religiously as Vereenndiā periclitari malo quà m probationē l. 1. de anima c. 17. I can possibly supposing my self not bound to follow Tertullians opinion who though very chaste spared not to speak of this subject a little grosly saying for excuse that he had rather put himself upon the hazard of losing shame then a good argument I made you see in the beginning of this treatise that love considered in generall was properly an inclination to the good of Conformity which putteth on divers faces according to the sundry objects and wayes it pursues to arrive thither If it go directly towards God and reflect on a neighbour as his Image loving the one for himself and the other for his Authour this is charity If it diffuse it self upon divers creatures sensible and insensible which it pursueth for its pleasure and commodity it is an appetite and a simple affection as that which is towards hunting birds books pictures pearls and Tulips If it be applyed to humane creatures loving them withall integrity by a reciprocall well-wishing it is Amity If it regard the body for pleasures sake it is a love of venereall concupiscence which being immoderate even Tertull. in exhortatione ad castitatem Nec per aliud fit marita nisi per quod adultera in the intention of marriage fails not to be vitious which made Tertullian say that the same thing an Adulterer would do the married likewise did If it be chaste and guided within the Limits which the Law of God prescribeth it is conjugall love If it overflow to sensuall pleasures It is Luxury S. Denis saith It is not love but an idoll and a fall from true love And Plato Plato in convivio in his Banquet addeth that sober love is contentment of heart eyes and ears but when it will content it self by the other senses namely that of touching it is not love but a spirit of insolency a passion of a servile soul a rage of a triviall lust which maketh shew to love beauty but through its exorbitancy descended to the worst of deformities I know there are learned pens which here distinguish Division of Lone all love into two parts and say there is one of consideration and another of inclination They call it love of consideration when one is therein embarked with a full knowledge and a setled judgement love of inclination when one loveth not able to give any reason But I find this division is not exact enough insomuch as it confoundeth the Genus and Speeies and doth not clearly distinguish the members of this body since all love is nothing else but an inclination and since that which is made by consideration inclineth the loving to the thing loved Whence it appeareth that to mention a love of inclination is to say love is love without any further explication I had rather say there are two loves the one of Election which resulteth from Consideration and is formed when after one hath acknowledged a thing to be fair profitable and pleasing he out of reason affects it The other of humour when without consulting with reason one is suddenly surprized by some secret attractive in the thing loved without giving himself leasure to judge what it is and this properly is to love by humour and fantasie which is now adays the most ordinary love but not the best It is a kind Love of humour of love which quickly beginneth and which never ends slowly so full it is of inconstancy It seems to it self all its bands are silken although they be rough chains it will not take pains to consider them It thinks not it cherisheth the wound nor looks it back on the hand which gave it It is heedlessely engaged and signeth transactions without reading them that it may not be ashamed to abrogate what it made or to entertain that which kills it There are many miserable ones who daily marry upon the first sight and whose amities arise but from a glance which passeth away more swiftly then a shadow and then there must be a thousand repentances to redeem the pleasure of one moment It is ever better to preferre Election for though in the beginning it had not so much sweetnesse in the search it hath lesse sorrow in the possession But to enter farther into the knowledge of Carnall love it is good to penetrate the causes and effects thereof which will the more perspicuously enlighten us in the choice of remedies We see many people in the world who being tormented by this evil euen unto folly seek
de concent l. 38. I were created to live free from all worldly contrarieties I who commit so many fins on the other part will to day do an act of virtue in honour of my Master and in despite of passion Let us go to heaven by love since we cannot go thither by sufferings This is the true gate by which we enter into the sanctuary eternally to enjoy the sight of the inaccessible beauties of the holy and regall Trinity Hear you not the God of peace who saith to us If thou O unhappy soul wilt still persist in Hatred I pronounce unto thee the six punishments of Cain Banishment from the sight of God fear stupidity of mind the life of a beast the malediction of the earth and as Procopius addeth persecuting Angels armed with swords of fire who shall pursue thee like spectres and spirits in all places and shall make themselves visible and dreadfull to thee at the last day of thy life Behold here deservedly thy inheritance since being mortall thou makest thy enemies immortall and dost still persecute the afflicted widow and her children who are become orphans after the death of a husband and a father whom thou hatest The strongest enmities oft-times are appeased at the sight of a dead body and a tomb which we find exemplified in Josephus for Alexander was extremely hated by the Jews as having reigned over them with a rod of Iron But when death had closed up his eyes and that the Queen his wife most sorrowfully presented Joseph l. 3. c. 23. A notable example to appease hatred her self accompanied by two young children and exposed the body of her husband saying aloud Sirs I am not ignorant that my husband hath most unworthily used you but see to what death hath brought him if you be not satisfied tear his body in pieces and satisfie your own revenge but pardon a deplorable widow and her little innocent orphans who implore your mercy The most salvage spirits were so softned by this act that all their hatred turned into pity yet you Barbarian still persist to hate a man after his death to persecute him in a part of himself to tear him in pieces in his living members O good God if you renounce not this revenge you will be used like Cain as an enemy of mankind and a hang-man of Nature O flame O love O God! As thou art dispersed throughout us by love so banish all these cursed Hatreds of Hell and make us love all in thy goodnesse to possesse all in thy fruition § 6 Of the profit may be drawn from Hatred and the course we must hold to be freed from the Danger of being Hated THere now remains to consider here what profit may be derived from hatred and with what Oeconomy Utility of hatred it may be husbanded to render it in some sort profitable and in case it be hurtfull to prevent its assaults and sweeten its acerbities If the industry of men found out the way to make preservitives out of the most dangerous poysons why should it be impossible for us to make some notable utilities to arise out of a passion which seems not to be created but for the dammage and ruine of all things yet it is certain that Nature which never is idle in its productions hath given it us for a great good For it may serve love well rectified in its pretentions it furnisheth it with centinels and light-horse to hinder that which opposeth its inclination and to ruine all contrarieties banded against its contentments How often would Nature throw it self out of stupidity into uncertain dangers and most certain mischiefs were it not that naturall a version did awaken it did avert it from its misery and insensibly shew it the place of repose Is it not a wholesome Hatred to hate Pride Ryot Ambition and all ill Habits Is it not a reasonable Hatred discreetly to fly from maladies crosses incommodities which hurt the body and nothing advantage the mind This passion which in the beginning seemed so hideous teacheth us all this When it is well managed it conspireth against others by an according Discord to the lovely Harmony of totall Nature One may say there is happinesse and advantage to hate many things but what profit can one find in passive Hatred which makes a man many times to be hated and ill wished without cause or any demerit To that I answer with Saint Ambrose that it is That it is good to be honestly loved good to avoid such a kind of Hatred that it is fit to make ones self to be beloved with all honour by good men and to gain as much as possible the good opinion of all the world thereby to render glory to God as Rivers carry their tribute to the Ocean A publick Bonum est testimonium habere de multorum dilectione hinc nascitur fides ut committere se tuo affectul non vereatut alienus quem charum advertit pluribus Ambr. l. 2. offic c. 7. Means to gain the good will of the publick person who is in the employments and commerce of the great world may have all the treasures of the Indies and all the dignities of old Rome but if he have not the love and good-will of men I account him most indigent and poor Thence it is that confidence taketh beginning without which there is no fortune maketh any notable progression nor affair which can have such successe as might be expected It is infinitely profitable for great men that they may divert the Hatred of the people to have innocency of life greatnesse without contempt of inferiours revenues without injustice riches without avarice pleasures without ryot liberty without tyranny and splendour without rapine All the rich who live in the society of men as Pikes called the tyrants of rivers in the company of other fishes to ruine devour and fatten themselves with the bloud of the commons are ordinarily most odious but as there is a certain fish which Elians History calleth the Adonis of the Sea because Adonis an admirable fish Aelian l. 9. c. 16. de animal it liveth so innocently that it toucheth no living thing strictly preserving peace with all the off-spring of the sea which is the cause it is beloved and courted as the true darling of waters so we find in the world men of honour and estate who came to eminent fortunes by pure and innocent wayes wherein they demeaned themselves with much maturity sweetnesse and affability which put them into the possession of the good opinion of all the world But those who are hated ought diligently and carefully to consider from whence this hatred proceedeth and by what wayes it is fomented that fit remedies may thereunto be applyed There is a hatred which cometh from equals another How hatred is to be diverted from inferiours a third from great ones and sometimes from powerfull and subtile women which is little to be feared That which proceedeth
Life those of Rigour He desires Peace and it is denyed him and sues for an agreement and is slighted His arrogance being sorely pricked vomits out nothing but whirlwinds of fire and comes to fall before Croye the Capitall City of the Valiant Castriot with an Army of two hundred thousand men The other defends himself with six thousand One onely place bayes that great Deluge the Storm is scattered the Siege raised the shame of it remains on the face of the Sultan with so lively a Tincture that the Shadow of death must passe over it to blot it out He that had lived with Glory dyes with the sadnesse of his Ignominy and carries with him into the other World the unability to revenge himself and an eternall desire of vengeance Mahomet his sonne the Scourge and Terrour of the Universe that overthrew two Empires took two hundred Cities killed twenty Millions of Men comes to split against the same Rock Was there need of so much blood to write upon Castriot's Trophies the Title of Invincible Who would Imagine that a mortall man should have gone so farre who should believe that those exploits were the Actions of a slave Truly we must avow that he lent his Name to God in all this businesse and that God lent his Arm to him It is said of him that he never refused Battell never turned his back never was wounded but once very Lightly He slew two thousand Barbarians with his own hand which he cleft ordinarily with his Coutelax from the head down to the Girdle Mahomet desired to see that Thunder-bolt that he bore in his hands and had it in veneration although so many times bedewed with his Subjects blood He saw the Steel but he never saw the Arm that gave it Life O brave Castriot If the State of Christians could have been delivered from the Tyranny of the Sultans it should have been by thy hands We must now acknowledge that our wounds are irrecoverable seeing that our divisions hinder us from enjoying the succour of so Divine an hand The Feaver that took thee hence in the City of Lissa in the Climactericall of seven and nine the most to be feared by old men extinguished all our hopes by the same burnings that consumed thy Body After thou hadst lived the most Admirable of Captains thou dyedst like a truly Religious melting the hearts of all those that beheld thee by a most sensible Devotion Thy victorious spirit soared up to the Palace of the Beautifull Sion after it had performed in the Body all that was possible for a most eminent Virtue and an Happinesse to which nothing was wanting but imitatours The most barbarous thy Enemies have kissed thy Sepulchre have Reverenced thy Ashes and shared thy Bones as the dearest Reliques of Valour And now thou hast no more to do with a Tomb seeing that thy Memory hath found as many Monuments as there are Hearts in all ages BOUCICAUT BAYARD BOVCICAVD BAYARD WE need not search the Catalogue of Saints and Martyrs for a Souldier Furnished before God and men with great and Divine virtues Behold one among a thousand I mean the brave Marshal Boucicaut who flourished in France under Charles the Sixth Those petty Rodomonts who boast of their Duels but indeed meer cowardise varnished with a glossy colour of valour durst not behold this most excellent Cavalier without doing that which was antiently done to the Statues of the Sunne that is to put finger on the mouth and admire For not to mention his other acts of prowesse it is he who was present at that daring Battell which the Turkish Emperour Bajazet waged against the King of Hungary the Duke of Burgundy then called the Count of Nevers with many other of the French Gentry being there in person The History relateth that the Turkish Emperour coming to fight with dreadfull forces began so furious a charge the air being darkned with a black cloud of Arrows that the Hungarians who were alwayes reputed good Souldiers being much amazed with this fierce assault fled away The French who in all Battels had ever learned to conquer or dye not willing to hear so much as the least speech of the name of flight pierced into the Turkish army notwithstanding a field of Pikes and stakes fastned in the earth did hinder their approch and attended by some other Troops brake the Vangard of the Turks by the counsell and example of this brave Marshall whereat Bajazet much amazed was about to retire but that at the same time it was told him that it was but a very little handfull of Frenchmen that made the greatest resistance and that it was best for him to assault them The Turk who kept his Battalions very fresh returneth and fell like lightning upon these poor Souldiers now extreamly wearied Never did an angry Lyon exercise more violent force against the Hunters Javelins then this generous Cavalier shewed prowesse which shined in the midst of the adventurous Pagans For seeing himself at last negligently betraied he having no other purpose but to sell his own life and those of his companions at as dear a rate as he could he with the French Cavalry and some other people that stuck to him did such feats of Arms that it was thought twenty thousand Turks were slain in the place At last this prodigious multitude able to tire out the most hardy although it had been but to cut them in pieces did so nearly encompasse our French that the Count of Nevers with Marshall Boucicaut and other the most worthy Personages were taken Prisoners The next day after this dismall Battell the proud Bajazet sitting under a Pavillion spread for him in the field caused the prisoners to be brought before him to drench himself in blood and revenge which he alwayes most passionately loved Never was seen a spectacle more worthy of Compassion A sad spectacle The poor Lords who had wrought wonders in Arms able to move Tygers were led to the slaughter half naked straight bound with cords and fetters no regard being had either to their bloud which was noble or youth which was pitifull or their behaviour which was most ravishing These Saracens ugly and horrible as Devils set them before the face of the Tyrant who in the twinkling of an eye caused their throats to be cut at his feet as if he meant to carouse their bloud The Count of Nevers with the Count of Ewe and the Count of Marche had now their heads under the Symiter and their lives hung as it were by a thread when Bajazet who had heard by his interpreters that they were near Kinsmen to the King of France caused them to be reserved commanding them to sit at his feet on the ground where they were enforced to behold the lamentable butchery of their Nobility The valiant Boucicaut covered with a little linnen cloth in his turn was brought forth to be massacred over the bodies of so many valiant men He being wise and in this
others through a compliance with the humours of Ahab and Jezabel The news of his death comes instantly to the Court and Jezabel carries it to the King without specifying to him any other thing telling him onely that Naboth was out of the world and that he might now enjoy his spoils all at leasure To speak Truth Great ones have great cause to make to God Davids Prayer and to beseech him to deliver them from others sinnes and from those that are hidden from them Unfortunate Ahab knew nothing of all that had passed and takes not the pains to inform himself of the manner of that death He trusted all to his wife and gave her his signet his authority his heart and Counsels It was enough to make him guilty to put the Government of his Kingdome into the hands of that Sidonian woman who he might well know had great inclinations to bloud and rapine Princes do wisely not to rely too much in every thing upon their Counsellours of State without watching over their actions and using all diligence to discover their deportments without believing any thing lightly either on one side or the other Ahab without taking any farther information was going to possesse himself of Naboths bloudy spoil when the Prophet Elijah by the command of God came and found him upon the way and began to roar against him as a Lyon What sayes he Murther the Innocent and take away his Inheritance bedewed with his bloud After this what is there more to do Know Sir that the Vengeance of God hangs over your head and that in the same place as the Doggs licked the bloud of Naboth they shall lick yours This unhappy Prince extreamly amazed at so thundering a speech was not incensed against the Prophet but endeavouring to pacifie him said to him Wherein have I offended you and in what have you found me your enemy that you use me with all these rigours You are enough mine enemy sayes the Prophet seeing you are Gods and since yee have sold your selfe through love to an Idolatrous woman to serve her passions and commit so many wicked acts in the face of God In punishment of your crimes He will ruine your House and blot out your Posterity the bloud of that murthered Innocent will cost Jezabel dear for she shall be caten up of Doggs in the field of Jezreel Poor Ahab returns hanging down his head without passing farther tormented on one side by the remorse of his own Conscience and on the other by the love he bare to his Sidonian whom he would not any way displease He said nothing to her of all that shee had done without his privity in Naboth's businesse whether through affection or through fear of her wicked Spirit He revenges himself upon himself he rents his Clothes he fasts he covers himself with sackcloth without putting it off even when he went to bed which softned the heart of God who ordained that the Kingdome should not be taken from him during his life but that his Posterity should be deprived of it Three years were slipt away and Elijah was absent when Ahab resolved to proclaim warre with the King of Syria to recover Ramoth one of his Cities that the other had usurped and engaged Jehosaphat King of Juda to his party making a new Alliance of Arms and Interests with him When they were assembled Jehosaphat which had a zeal to the true Religion said That it would be good to consult with some Prophet before they enterprised the warre and Ahab to content him called for four hundred but they were the false Prophets of his wife who were none of the best and who foretold him all falsoly that he should have an happy issue of his enterprise King Jehosaphat asked Ahab whether amongst that great number of Baals Prophets there were never a Prophet of the true God that one might hear speak meaning by this to induce him to his duty and to the knowledge of the true Religion Ahab replyed that there was none at present but a certain man named Michaiah but he could not endure him because he prophecied nothing but mischief to him Jehosaphat said that he ought not for that to hate him but that it would be good to hear him and instantly was sent away a Gentleman of the Court to call him This man ceased not to advise him upon the way to remit something of that rigour that was usuall to him and to render himself complacent to the King as all the other Prophets had done whereto he answered That he could do nothing against the Spirit of God nor against his conscience When he was come he perceived a great assembly of false Prophets who all approved that warre One among them named Zedechiah had made himself iron horns to signifie to King Ahab that he should ransack all Syria with a mighty power and that nothing should resist his Arms. But Michaiah being asked spake at first by fiction as the other Prophets foretelling prosperities without end Whereat the King being astonished that he did it against his custome conjured him not to flatter him and to tell him openly the truth To which he answered that he would not counsell him to hazard a battell against the King of Syria for if he did his whole army would be scattered and added also that God had given permission to the wicked spirit to deceive him and that he had found no better way to do it then to speak by the mouth of so many false Prophets that encompassed him Whereupon Zedechiah being incensed at that speech gave him a blow and the King commanded his Person to be seized on and to be put in prison to be kept there fasting with bread of tribulation and water of anguish till his return But the Prophet assured him that if he went he should never return again It is a strange thing that we cannot believe Truth that comes from the mouth of Gods servants because it complyes not with our passion It is also a manifest punishment to those that despise it not to consider that God begins the ruine of their fortune by the blinding of their Counsels Ahab obstinate to his miserie marches with all his Army against the King of Syria Jehosaphat engaged through inconsideration in that league pursues what he had ill begun and thinks that there is no better means to justifie an errour then Perseverance When the two Kings approached the enemy and the Armies were ranged in Battell the King of Syria gave expresse charge to his most resolute men to aim at the King of Israel and to endeavour to carry him it being the true means to dispatch the businesse and put an end to the warre Ahab began to fear his unhappinesse and prayed Jehosaphat to go into the mingling putting him forward with courage out of a design perhaps to cause him to be destroyed and to draw all the weight of the Army upon him by diverting it from his person And indeed when the
of a licentious King and of a wanton mother whose head the King did cause to be cut off for her unchastness The one from five years of age was brought up in France with so much piety gravity and honour that nothing more could be added or desired The other had a licentious Education under the bad Example of her licentious parents The one had an excellent an active and a clear spirit resembling the quality of the Sun The other was of a crafty malignant and a sullen Nature resembling the condition of a Cornet The one was experienced in the knowledge of tongues and sciences as much as was necessary for an honest Lady who ought not to appear too learned The other gave her self to such a vanity of study that oftentimes she committed some extravagances as when she undertook to translate the five books of the Consolation of Boetius to comfort her self on the Conversion of Henrie the Fourth The one did speak and write with an extraordinary clearness and an accurate smoothness The other in her expressions was harsh and did much perplex her thoughts as may appear in a subscription of a Letter written with her own hand and directed to Henrie the Fourth after his Conversion Vostre saeur sice soit a la virille avec novelle Je n'ay que faire Elizabeth R. which is in English Your Sister if it be after the old fashion with the new I have nothing but to do Elizabeth R I leave to the most liberal Interpreter to divine what she meaneth by it The one had a generous free and a credulous heart The other was malicious obstinate and deceitfull The one loved honour to which her condition had obliged her The other had a furious and bloudy Ambition and spared none to improve the interest of her Greatness The one retained an admirable constancy in her ancient Religion by reason whereof though she was outragiously persecuted yet she omitted nothing in her devotion The other did put on Religion as she did her mask making her self a Heretick amongst Hereticks and a Catholick amongst Catholicks for when in the reign of her sister Mary she made a high and solemn profession of the Roman Faith she afterwards counterfeited her belief and betrayed that character to authorize heresie and rebellion against the Church The one feared God and finding her self the Relict of Francis the Second at seventeen years of age she had rather stoop to the marriage yoke to give life unto a King than to live inordinately and under the veil of widow-hood to conceal her secret wantonness The other who had not so strict a conscience did find a way to reconcile Ambition and Love and lived not married and not a maid and though I am unwilling to believe that she lived so salt and melting a life as some have affirmed yet I cannot deny but that she had her Favourites and her Minyons which Cambden her own Historiographer doth not conceal The one studied for the advancement of Virtue The other for the advancement onely of vain Reputation The one held forth a generous liberty in all her actions The other painted her life and covered her vices with great pretences she extreamly feared the censure of Posterity which made her with so much artifice to indeer unto her the ablest men of forreign Countreys and entertained mercenary quills to increase her glory thinking by that means to conceal her Defects and blind the eyes of mankind Wherefore we ought not to give too much belief to some Historians though otherwise men of esteem who deliver many and great praises having received many and great Presents Men of that quality are always credulous enough and are not accustomed to bark at those who do feed them with bread The one was very religious in her promises the other was captious and inconstant and this most visibly she made apparent to the Duke of Alencon Brother to Henrie the Third of France who was come into England to espouse her and though the Contract of the Marriage was confirmed both on the one side and the other and though the Marriage-Ring was given yet she broke all for the Caprichiousness of one night and to obey the cries of some Maids of Honour who besought her that she would not marry The one was full of bounty to her poor Subjects to whom she could not do all the good she desired by reason of the Rebellions that were stirred up in her Kingdom The other was carefull enough not to tax her Subjects with Imposts or with Subsidies which caused her to be beloved of her people who in all the virtues of a Prince do cherish nothing more than a moderation in their Subsidies The one was indued with an extream sweetness of disposition which sometimes did seem to lie too open and defenceless as when with out seeing justice done she pardoned great Crimes which tended to the diminution of her Authority The other was naturally cruel a lover of bloud and one who horribly tormented the Catholicks and too easily would bring the Heads of her Great-ones upon the Scaffold to obtain the honour and title of being just among popular Spirits To conclude one reigned like a Dove and the other like a Bird of prey It is a horrible thing to read the History of her Reign written by her Admirers where in stead of the Contemplation of Virtues and of Beauties you shall observe in every page the Rages of Accusers bloudy Judgements Proscriptions Massacres which I alledge not in any disparagement to the Nation which I love with a true Christian charity but to the ignominie and the shame of Heresie It seems to me when I read the Life of Elizabeth that I enter into the Countrey of the Anthropophagi where I behold nothing but men drawn upon Sledges Hang-men tearing out of bowels and dividing carkases into quarters which are still dropping bloud and hanging in the most remarkable places of the Citie as the tapestry of the ancient cruelty of the Puritans I assure my self that those who are now in authority under so gracious a Prince do reflect upon it with as much horrour as my self and by their moderation will endeavour to wipe away the stains of so bloudy a Time Who is he then that is not amazed to see Virtue so forsaken and the best Queen in the world to lead so tempestuous a life persecuted in her estate in her body in her honour in her own person in the person of her friends despoiled outraged dishonoured torn by bloudy calumines drawn to unjust Tribunals locked up in so many prisons abandoned by those most near unto her and sacrificed by her kinred to the vengeance of her enemies and that in so tragical a manner and by so barbarous a hand And how comes it to pass that the other being laden with crimes did mount on the Throne by ways unexpected and did continue there by uncontrouled power and reigned as if she had all good Fortune at her own