fall no lower but may contemplate all above him and meditate how to raise himself by the hand of God which pulls down the proud and exalts the humble Is a man tempted with pride The consideration of Ashes will humble him Is he burned with wanton love which is a direct fire But fire cannot consume Ashes Is he persecuted with covetousness Ashes do make the greatest Leeches and Bloud-Suckers cast their Gorges Every thing gives way to this unvalued thing because God is pleased to draw the instruments of his power out of the objects of our infirmities 3. If we knew how to use rightly the meditation of death we should there find the streams of life All the world together is of no estimation to him that rightly knows the true value of a just mans death It would be necessary that they who are taken with the curiosity of Tulips should set in their Gardens a Plant called Napel which carries a flower that most perfectly resembles a Deaths head And if the other Tulips do please their senses that will instruct their reason Before our last death we should die many other deaths by forsaking all those creatures and affections which lead us to sin We should resemble those creatures sacred to the Aegyptians called Cynocephales which died piece-meal and were buried long before their death So should we burie all our concupiscences before we go to the grave and strive to live so that when death comes he should find very little business with us Aspiration O Father of all Essences who givest beginning to all things and art without end This day I take Ashes upon my head thereby professing before thee my being nothing and to do thee homage for that which I am and for that I ought to be by thy great bounties Alas O Lord my poor soul is confounded to see so many sparkles of pride and covetousness arise from this caitiffe dust which I am so little do I yet learn how to live and so late do I know how to die O God of my life and death I most humbly beseech thee so to govern the first in me and so to sweeten the last for me that if I live I may live onely for thee and if I must die that I may enter into everlasting bliss by dying in thy blessed love and favour The Gospel for Ashwednesday S. Matthew 6. Of Hypocritical Fasting WHen you fast be not as the hypocrites sad for they disfigure their faces that they may appear unto men to fast Amen I say to you that they have received their reward But thou when thou doest fast anoint thy head and wash thy face that thou appear not to men to fast but to thy Father which is in secret and thy Father which seeth in secret will repay thee Heap not up to your selves treasures on the earth where the rust and moth do corrupt and where thieves dig through and steal But heap up to your selves treasures in heaven where neither the rust nor moth doth corrupt and where thieves do not dig through nor steal For where thy treasure is there is thy heart also Moralities 1. THat man goes to Hell by the way of Paradise who fasts and afflicts his body to draw the praise of Men. Sorrow and vanity together are not able to make one Christian Act. He deserves everlasting hunger who starves himself that he may swell and burst with vain glory He stands for a spectacle to others being the murderer of himself and by sowing vanity reaps nothing but wind Our intentions must be wholly directed to God and our examples for our neighbour The Father of all virtues is not to be served with counterfeit devotions such lies are abominations in his sight and Tertullian saith they are as many adulteries 2. It imports us much to begin Lent well entering into those lists in which so many holy souls have run their course with so great strictness have been glorious before God and honourable before men The difficulty of it is apprehended onely by those who have their understandings obstructed by a violent affection to kitchen-stuffe It is no more burdensom to a couragious spirit than feathers are to a bird The chearfulness which a man brings to a good action in the beginning does half the work Let us wash our faces by confession Let us perfume our Head who is Jesus Christ by alms-deeds Fasting is a most delicious feast to the conscience when it is accompanied with pureness and charity but it breeds great thirst when it is not nourished with devotion and watered with mercy 3. What great pain is taken to get treasure what care to preserve it what fear to loose it and what sorrow when it is lost Alas is there need of so great covetousness in life to encounter with such extream nakedness in death We have not the souls of Giants nor the body of a Whale If God will have me poor must I endeavour to reverse the decrees of heaven and earth that I may become rich To whom do we trust the safety of our treasures To rust to moths and thieves were it not better we should in our infirmities depend onely on God Almighty and comfort our poverty in him who is onely rich and so carrie our souls to heaven where Jesus on the day of his Ascension did place our Sovereign good Onely Serpents and covetous men desire to sleep among treasures as Saint Clement saith But the greatest riches of the world is poverty free from Covetousness Aspiration I Seek thee O invisible God within the Abyss of thy brightness and I see thee through the vail of thy creatures Wilt thou always be hidden from me Shall I never see thy face which with a glimpse of thy splendour canst make Paradise I work in secret but I know thou art able to reward me in the light A man can lose nothing by serving thee and yet nothing is valuable to thy service for the pain it self is a sufficient recompence Thou art the food of my fastings and the cure of my infirmities What have I to do with Moles to dig the earth like them and there to hide treasures Is it not time to close the earth when thou doest open heaven and to carrie my heart where thou art since all my riches is in thee Doth not he deserve to be everlastingly poor who cannot be content with a God so rich as thou art The Gospel for the first Thursday in Lent S. Matthew 18. of the Centurions words O Lord I am not worthy ANd when he was entered into Capharnaum there came to him a Centurion beseeching him and saying Lord my boy lieth at home sick of the palsie and is sore tormented And Jesus saith to him I will come and cure him And the Centurion making answer said Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof but onely say the word and my boy shall be healed For I also am a man subject to Authority having under me
willeth us to take moderate pleasure in creatures which he hath made for our content and ease that we may enjoy them in time and place every one according to his condition profession and rule of wisdom Synesius saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pleasure lays hold of the soul Somnus balnea dolorem mitigant S. Thom. 2. q. 138. Date siceram merentibus vinum iis qui amaro sunt animo Prov. 2. the Creatour hath given the feeling of pleasure to sense to serve as an arrest to the soul and to hold it in good quarter with the body Saint Thomas among the remedies of sadness prescribes sleep and bathing The Scripture it self counselleth us to give wine and other fitting draughts for them to drink who have their hearts oppressed with bitterness If one think to make a great sacrifice to God resting perpetually stretched and involved in a pensive austeritie of spirit as being desirous to avoid all pleasures of life he deceiveth himself It hath happened that many running in their own opinion to Paradise by this path according to peculiar fancie have found themselves on the borders of hell Fourthly to remember our life is a musick-book Our life is a musick-book seldom shall you find there many white notes together in the same line black are mixed among them and all together make an excellent harmonie God gives us a lesson in a little book which hath but two pages the one is called Consolation the other Desolation It is fit for each of them to take its turn In the day of adversity think of prosperity In the day of prosperity remember your self of adversity That great Prelate of Cyrenum Synes in hymno said that the Divine Providence hath mingled our life as one would do wine and water in a cup some drink the purest some the most compound but all tast a commixtion Fifthly if you exactly compare our condition to that of an infinite number of miserable creatures who groan in so many tedious and disastrous torments you will find your fardel but a dew But we have a certain malignity of spirit which ever looks back on the good it hath not to envy it and never considers the evil from whence it is freed to render thanks to God Behold some are in the bottom of a dungeon in fetters others are bowed in painful labours from the rising to the setting Sun to get their bred Some have the megrim in their head the gout in their feet and hands the stone in their kidneys Others are overwhelmed with business loss misfortunes strange and portentous accidents yet carry it out with courage Your heart is nipped with a little sadness and behold you despair what effeminacie of spirit is this It is said hares seeing themselves pursued on every side had one day resolved to drown themselves but coming to the brink of a river and beholding frighted frogs who cast themselves at all adventure in the water to escape Courage said they we are not yet the most miserable treatures of the world behold those who are more fearfull than we Ah how often should we say the same if we saw the miseries of others Sixthly is it not a goodly thing to behold a man Unworthines of sadness who probably speaking is in the favour of God who is here nourished with Sacraments with Christs body and bloud with the word of his Master who liveth among so many helps and comforts spiritual and temporal who expecteth a resurrection a Paradise a life eternally happy and happily eternal in so beautifull a societie of Saints to frame pensiveness and scruples to himself of his own head to afflict himself like a Pagan or a damned soul that hath no further hope It is related that God one day to give an antipast of beatitude to a holy man turmoiled with sundry cogitations caused an unknown little bird to chant in his ear in so melodious a manner that instantly his troubled spirit became clean and pure and held him rapt many years in the most tastfull delicacies may be imagined O if you often had strong imaginations of Paradise how your melancholy would melt and dissolve as snow before the Sun-beams Lastly sing spiritual canticles labour employ Noble tears your spirit without anxiety and if needs you will weep lament your imperfections bewail the miseries of the poor sorrow for your curiositie lament the passion of your spouse grieve and sigh at your impatience after this glory of Paradise weep over the deluge on the earth look back like a chast dove on Dulces lachrimae sunt ipsi fletus jucundi quibus restrintur ardor animi quasi relaxatus evaporat affectus the ark of your good father Noe the father of repose and consolation Then will I say of such tears with S. Ambrose O the delicious tears O the pleasing complaints which extinguish the fervours of our mind and make our affections sweetly to evaporate The two and twentieth SECTION The third combate of the spiritual man against impuritie ALl impuritie of life ariseth from three sources whereof S. John speaketh concupisence of Joan. 2. Three sources of impietie the flesh concupiscence of the eyes and pride of life Let us now see the practice of virtues which oppose these three sorts of impurities Against concupiscence of the flesh temperance chastitie modestie do wage war Against the concupiscence of eyes to wit the unbridled desires of temporal blessings povertie justice charitie mercie gratitude Against pride of life humilitie obedience magnanimitie patience clemencie The three and twentieth SECTION Practice of Chastitie CHastitie is a virtue which represseth the impure lust of the flesh a celestial virtue an Angelical virtue which maketh heaven and Angels descend upon the earth and in this kingdom of mortalitie planteth the image and titles of immortality Clemens Alexandrinus maketh mention of certain Clemen Alex. strommat enchanted mountains at the foot whereof was heard a voice as of people preparing themselves for battel a little further the encounter and conflict and on the top songs and triumphs Behold as it Three sorts of chastitie were the condition of three sorts of chastitie With some it beginneth with labour and uncertaintie there is at the first toil and resistance against lust but the even thereof is not known With others it is become more manly as being already practiced in combats With others it triumpheth after a long habit yet notwithstanding whilest here on earth it abideth it is never absolutely secured The acts thereof are Acts. I. To renounce all unlawfull voluptuousness of the flesh II. To abstain from carnal acts not onely those which are unlawfull but sometime such as are permitted among married folk upon just occasion or for some certain time which is very ordinarie or perpetually which is singular and remarkable in the lives of some Saints So Martianus lived with his wife Pulcheria and Henry the Emperour with the Empress Chunegundis III.
with the goods which God hath given us If men be ungrateful he will suffer us to reap reward even from his hands A covetous soul which in the prosperity of its affairs and superabundance of riches heareth not the clamours of the needy is as the hen which is said to be deaf in summer is like a bottle full of silver which affordeth nothing till it be broken is a mil-wheel which much laboureth and gaineth nothing a hog which never doth good but at his death It hath always folly for guid servitude for dowry and misery for recompence In the eighth are those which are said to be composed Inveni amarirem morte mulierâ—m Eccles 7. of a certain mixture of powders very different which causeth them to be of humours light giddy fantastical in such manner that they daily make an infinite number of metamorphoses and one knoweth not in what mould they must be cast to put them into a state of consistence You may there observe a spirit which is perpetually upon change which ceaseth not to jump from desire to desire like a bird from branch to branch A spirit which will and will not which saith and unsaith doth and undoeth and which continually hindereth it self in its thoughts All that which you think to be very firmly settled with such kind of persons is tied with a sliding knot and there needeth but the turn of a hand to overthrow what is thought to be best established One thing they retain very constantly in such an ebbe and floud of inconstancies which is obstinately to fix themselves upon their own opinions and no more to give way to reason than rocks to waves It is verily one of the greatest vices which may be in a woman as being the seminary of all disorders that grow in houses I have ever learned from Antiquity that the noblest Spirits are those which give good counsels and that such as willingly hearken unto them come nearest joyn with them in a laudable degree of goodness But such as neither can give good advise nor receive it from others are the very worst natures of the world Preserve your selves Maidens from this imperfection which is the blemish of a noble courage the worm of concord the poison of life the inseparable companion of folly Make it not your trophey to be refractory against the advises and remonstrances of those to whom nature justice and reason hath subjected us otherwise you would travel much and get nothing in recompence but the perfection of a mule I set in the ninth place maids who are of the nature Mulier compta Eccles 9. of those proud kind of creatures as of peacocks or little dogs which are glutted with curiosities whilest so many poor people die for hunger in the streets This order is now adays much spread over the world for it is filled with nice women who seem to be born for nought else but to make it appear how high the desires of exorbitant nature may mount when a great fortune supporteth them Many little fisking ghossips are seeÌ„ who are made up like puppits so curiously bred that they seem to be fed with potable gold between cotten and silk Those are the divinities of fathers and mothers who raise rain and fair weather in their houses at the onely aspect of their countenances The joy and sadness of the whole family waiteth on the condition of their humours they must no more be offended than those stars which are thought to send tempests upon such as have not saluted them What may one hope from a soul altogether drenched in these delicacies Follies attend the increase of age and multiply by infinit degrees Reason is trampled under foot and passion armed with a great power makes it self to be carried on the shoulders of men Desires are without measure wills without bridle passion without moderation and sensuality without resistance bravery tattle impertinent babble toyishness love afford no passage to truth and if there be any devotion it is altogether silken so coy and curious it is in the choice of persons Sacraments are good if they be not tied to hands where vanity seeketh its interests yea pride is planted upon the hair-cloth of penance and if God would chastise such creatures to their liking he must tie up his rods with silk or else they never would receive correction When they leave their parents to be delivered to husbands they go to change power and not nature A husband is ever uncivil according to their saying if they have not permission to do any thing And as Ptolom Almag 2. it is said the moon never agreeth in qualities with the sun but when she hath eclypsed him so they find not any concord in marriage but in the diminution of his authority whom God hath given them to be their head They carry along with their portion all the vices of their childhood which oftentimes accompany them even to the grave They have no eyes to see adversity no nor ears to hear it the miseries of the poor touch them so little as if they were made of marble and the care of their family shall never interrupt their pleasures What a life is it to behold a woman who although she rise in a time when the sun is near noon-tide notwithstanding as if she feared the vapours of the serain she is armed before she come out of her bed with a restorative from the kitchin to keep her colour the more fresh From that time she causeth her self to be attired and clothed like an Idol by three or four servants who have more ado to preserve her beauty than ever had the Vestals of Rome to maintain the sacred fire One presenteth her with red another with white one holds a looking-glass and another dares not tell her that the time of Mass is already past whilest my Lady taketh her head-dressings yet must the Canons of the Church be broken as easily as a glass to obey the humours of a woman and to celebrate then when it is to be doubted whether the sun begin not to bend already to his setting Mass is past over with making sowr faces and looking scornfull with a good grace with some slight ceremonies of devotion which go no further than the outward parts There it is where resolutions are made of entertainments of time to be chosen for the rest of the day Then follow the visits of child-bed women gaddings and coachings dancings and bankets where the prattle is so loud that a few women could suffice to make the noise of a mil. They much love to hear discourse upon all kind of affairs They that have not their spirits so subtile entertain themselves upon trifles and slight complements which they have studied for the space of ten years Others who can shew they have read a great quantity of love-pamphlets or such like would seem of ability so far as to give law to Poets and writers who have not this kind of relish
so much confusion in habits Citizens wives will become Queens if we hereafter would be taken for Queens we must become Citizens wives Perhaps those who censure us in this point require too much of us and some are therein transported with so much zeal that if we would believe them we should make all the Maries of Egypt to be at Court Those who intend to treat with us in this manner by falling upon our hair and attires touch not our hearts for could any one truely perswade us to virtue we should cover our selves with a sack so that it might advance the glory of God and the profit of our neighbour yet do I think we have some right to comliness and propriety in our garments ever abiding within the limits of the most regular in such sort that the wise may not blame our superfluities nor those who are more favourable accuse our defects But to speak sincerely there is a kind of frenzy in our proceeding He who should see the stuffs taken up somtimes at the Mercers to cloth a little body whereof the worms will quickly make a dung-hill would say they had undertaken to cover some huge Whale and he who should reckon up all the furnitures of a Ladie as they lie on a table having never seen any woman would think it were a Mercery to furnish a little Citie we resemble those birds which have no body and are as it were nought else but feathers we use therein so many fashions disguizes and invention that we tire our spirits so much studie and affection that many of us make so much business about a ruff as if we had a Common-wealth of Athens to manage And that which is most horrible is these vanities are drawn from the bloud of the poor and in the same proportion as they are extracted they so impoverish as I fear posterity may have more cause to curse our dissolutions than cherish them Nay worse is done when they so vehemently affect to begin the adultery of their bodies by that of the face that it is insensibly eaten into with painting and poyson as if they would derive beauty from corruption Then certain fashions of apparel are found out which seem to be made rather to sell bodies than to cover them I do not know what may be reserved for the eyes of a chast husband when through all markets the secret parts of his wives body are exposed as open as if they were ready to be delivered over to the best bidders I cannot tell what husbands can be pleased with the publication of this nakedness if not certain Platonists who would approve the law this Philosopher made as it is said of community of beds than the doctrine of idaeaes which would be viands too empty to satiate the hunger of concupiscence Verily if we yet retain a vien of the perfect Christianity which swaied in the golden age we ought to stifle by a generous consent all these abuses and make of the spoils of superfluity a Sacrifice of mercy giving in part for the relief of the poor that which hitherto we have dedicated to the fantasies of our spirits Since we are born with some supereminencies of body and are the goodliest creatures of the world why should we go about to beg glory from poisons of the earth from worms and spoils of the dead If opinion have put us unto it it is now long since withered by the confusion of so many hands who incessantly gathered it The glory of the greatest Ladies shall not hereafter survive but in great modesty The seventh SECTION Chastitie THis is the shortest way we have to the preservation It is the qualitie S. Paul calleth sanctificatione 1 Tim. 2. Saluabitur perfiliorum generationem sapermanserit in fide dilectione sanctificatione cum sobrietate of Chastity an incomparable virtue and the richest jewel of our sex It ought to be as natural to us as flight to birds swimming to fishes beauty in flowers and rays in the sun You need not ask what may become of a maid or wife who is prodigal of a good which should be as firmly united to her body as her hearts She is capable of all sorts of crimes and were there question to open all the gates of hell incontinency alone would put the keys into her hands There is no beast in the world that is not better than a prostitute who by the dishonour of her bed hath charged her soul with sins her body with intemperance her renown with reproaches and her memory with execration We ought so to instruct our daughters in the virtue of purity that they may not know the least shadow of sins which are committed in the world I approve not those little Dynaes who will see and smell out so many customes of Countries and entertainments for they too soon learn that which they too late will forget and take so much fire in at the ears and eyes that water enough will not be found to extinguish it I do not wish a maid though very young should be delighted in the company of children which are not of her own sex I likewise fear those of her sex who are too curious their company is sometimes so much the more dangerous than that of men as we least take heed of a domestick enemy That Chastity is ever the most stable which knoweth not so much as what voluptuousness may pretend unto I will think crows might become nightingales when any one should Hierom. ad Laetam Securiâ—ris est continentiae nescire quod quaera make me believe that a creature of our sex which is delighted to hear or utter scoffs speeches of double sense which cover ordure under golden words either is chast or can any long time continue as she is Let us guard the eyes mouth and ears of those young maidens as Temples dedicated to Honour and let us do nothing in their presence which they cannot imitate without sin let us teach them not to addict themselves either to pleasures of the mouth or sleight desires to take and freely possess any petty favours A creature which much coveteth to have that which her condition cannot afford hath many enemies in her heart which will deliver her body over to dishonour and her soul to confusion Let us cut off as much as we may so many wanton songs idle books infamous pictures gossipings dancings and banquets never is a beast taken but with some bait nor chastity lost but that such attractives serve as fore-runners There are not so many lost spirits to be found among women well bred who in sin pretended nothing but sin but the love of divers Ladies proceedeth rather from vanities of the mind than weakness of the body They desire to be in some esteem and admiration of those who can neither esteem nor admire them but in the pretensions of their own interests they take delight to be commended for their beauties which never any man so profusely
with the excess thereof for fear that good Offices be turned into misprisions and Charity render it self too importunate But so it is that we must confess that Pieces well wrought are never seen in so great a number as to bring any fastidiousness to them who do know their merit Here do I stop my pen and if there appears any worth in this Volume I look upon it as on the Mirrour planted on the wall of a Temple in Arcadia where those that beheld it in stead of their own face saw the representation of the Divinity which they adored Even so in all this which may bring any profit to the Reader I see nothing of my own but I acknowledge the Father of lights who is the Beginning and the End of all which we do make praise-worthy And I beseech him if there be found any thing attractive in these Discourses that He will like the Load-stone draw up the Readers and carry them to the love of their Creatour to whom is due the tribute of all honour as to him who is the Beginning of all Perfection It is indeed the onely consolation which we can receive from our labours For not to dissemble the Truth he that cares more to write than to live flattering his pen and neglecting his conscience shall have work enough to defend himself from the Scurf the Rat and from Oblivion And when in a passionate life he shall carry with him the applauses of the world it shall be as a small sacrifice unto him of smoke abroad to lodge a fire and tempest in his own house It is reported that the Stars contribute their beams to enlighten the Infernals and I can affirm that all the lights of Understanding and Reputation shall serve onely to inflame the torments of a reprobate soul who shall shut his eyes against God to open them onely to let in Vanity In the end after many Editions of the HOLY COURT as I desired here to put the last hand to it I am now retired into the solitary place of Quinpercorentin for the love of the truth where the honesty of the Inhabitants have made me to find it as my Countrey which other men have taken for a place of banishment There on the banks of the Ocean at the feet of a Saint who is the Tutelar of the Village perceiving that God had sweetened to me all the bitterness both of men and of the times by the infusion of his Paternal Consolation I have composed more Treatises both of Doctrine and Piety to render in some sort my silence profitable to the publick of which one day I will give a good account unto my Readers if God shall grant me life Amongst other things I have digested into good order this Work of the HOLY COURT and I have enriched it with a remarkable Augmentation of the Lives and Elogies of the Illustrious Personages at Court as well in the Old as the New Testament Now I do produce it to the light after that by the singular favour of Heaven the obstacles are removed and Truth acknowledged on the Throne of Lights with which God hath round environed it THE TABLE OF THE Chief CONTENTS of the First Tome of the HOLY COURT FIRST BOOK Motives to stir up Persons of quality to Christian Perfection MOTIVE Page THat the Court and Devotion are not incompatible 1 I. Name of Christian. 2 II. Nobilitie 4 III. Eminent Dignitie 5 IV. Riches 8 V. Corporal endowments 9 VI. Endowments of the mind 11 VII Courage 13 VIII Education 15 IX Court a life of penance 17 X. Gratitude 19 XI Example 21 XII Punishment 22 XIII Reward 24 SECOND BOOK Hinderances that worldly ones have in the path of salvation OBSTACLE Page I. WEak faith 26 II. Errour in faith in Religion 30 III. To live according to opinion 37 IV. Inconstancie of manners 39 V. Masked life 41 VI. Ill mannage of time 43 VII Libertie of tongue 45 VIII Curiosity in bearing affronts 47 IX Carnal love 49 X. Superfluous Attire 51 XI Envie 54 XII Ambition and Avarice 56 Conclusion A bad Courtiers life is a perpetual Obstacle to virtue 58 THIRD BOOK Practice of VIRTUES SECTION Page I. DEvotion for Great-ones 60 II. Wherein consisteth all Devotion and Spiritual life 61 Character of the spiritual man ibid. Character of the carnal man ibid. III. First combat of a spiritual man against ignorance 62 IV. Practice of faith ibid. V. Four other lights to disperse ignorance 64 VI. Twelve Maxims of salvation ibid. VII Twelve Maxims of wisdom 66 VIII Practice of Devotion and Prayer 68 IX Necessitie of confession ibid. X. Practice of confession 69 XI Practice of examen of conscience 71 XII Practice of receiving 72 XIII Practice of hearing Mass 74 XIV Practice of meditation 75 XV. Practice of vocal prayer and spiritual reading and frequenting Sermons 77 XVI Second combat of the spiritual man against pusillanimitie 78 XVII Twelve Maxims to vanquish temptations 79 XVIII Remedies against the passions and temptations growing from every vice 81 XIX Shame in well doing 82 XX. Affection towards creatures ibid. XXI Indiscreet affliction of mind and sadness 83 XXII Third combat of the Spiritual man against impurity 85 XXIII Practise of chastity 85 XXIV Practise of temperance 86 XXV Practise of modesty 87 XXVI Practise of prudence and government in conversation ibid. XXVII Against another impurity to wit desire of having and first of poverty of the rich 89 XXVIII Practise of justice ibid. XXIX Practise of thankfulness 90 XXX Practise of charity 91 XXXI The practise of humility and magnanimity 92 XXXII Practise of patience 93 XXXIII Practise of daily actions 94 Instructions for Married XXXIV Misery of marriages ill managed 96 XXXV Evils of marriage grow from disorders therein committed 99 XXXVI Selected instructions for the married 101 XXXVII Instructions for Widdows 102 To Maids XXXVIII Praises of virginity and of the modesty they ought to observe in their carriage 104 To Fathers and Mothers XXXIX Concerning bringing up and instructing children 107 To Children XL. Of piety towards parents 110 The fourth Book treateth of Impiety of Courts and Unhappy Policie page 114 The fifth Book setteth forth Fortunate Pietie page 137 A TABLE OF THE TITLES and SECTIONS contained in the Second Tome of the HOLY COURT THE PRELATE SECT Page I. THat it is convenient the Nobilitie should govern the Church 165 II. That the Nobilitie should not aspire to Ecclesiastical offices but by lawfull ways 167 III. Of the Vocation or calling of a Prelate 168 IV. Virtues requisite in the carriage of a Prelate 169 V. The second virtue of a Prelate which is Fortitude of spirit against Avarice and Riot 170 VI. The third Qualitie of a good Prelate which is purity of life 171 VII The fourth perfection of a Prelate which is observed in Zeal and Charity 172 VIII The fifth excellency of a Prelate which is science and prudence ibid. IX The Motives which noble Prelates have to the duty of their
due to God ibid. 5 Of the Reverence which the Holy Humanity of our Lord did bear to his Eternall Father 84 THE TWELFTH TREATISE Of Anger 1 THe Origen of Anger its Nature Causes and Diversities 86 2 Three principall kinds of Anger 87 3 The Contemplation of the serenity of the diuine Spirit is the mistresse of meeknesse 88 4 That the example of our Saviour doth teach us the moderation of Anger ibid. 5 Politick Rimedies to appease such as are Angry 89 6 Morall Remedies against the same passion ibid. THE THIRTEENTH TREATISE Of Envie and Jealousie 1 THe Picture thereof 91 2 The Definition of Envie its severall kinds and first of Jealousie ibid. 3 Two other branches of this stock which are Indignation and malicious Envie with Calumny its Companion 93 4 Humane remedies of Envie 94 5 Divine remedies drawn from the benignity of God 95 6 The mercifull eye of Jesus serveth for an antidote against all sorts of Envie 96 7 A Detestation of Envie 97 THE FOURTEENTH TREATISE Of Mildnesse and Compassion 1 THe great misery of Man makes Compassion necessary in the world 98 2 The Essenc of Compassion and how it findeth place in hearts most generous 99 3 Moderate severity is necessary in Government but it ought to be free from Cruelty 100 4 The goodnesse of God beateth down the rigour of men ibid. 5 The Mercies of the incarnate word are able to soften the harshest hearts 101 HISTORICALL OBSERVATIONS Vpon the four Principall Passions which are as four Devils disturbers of the HOLY COURT OBSERVAT. Page 1 THe disasters of such as have yielded to the Passion of Love and the glory of souls which have surmounted it 107 2 Observations upon the Passion of Desire wherein we may behold the misery of Ambitious and turbulent spirits 112 3 Observations upon Anger and Revenge 117 4 Observations upon Envie which draweth with it Jealousie Hatred and Sadnesse 121 A TABLE Of the LIVES and ELOGIES of Illustrious Persons contained in the Fifth Tome MOnarchs 131 David 139 Solomon 151 Justinian 158 Charlemaign 172 S. Lewis King of France 177 Judith 181 Hester 187 Josuah 196 Judas Machabeus 197 Godfrey 207 George Castriot 209 Boucicaut 211 Bayard 214 Joseph 218 Moses 227 Samuel 235 Daniel 241 Eliah 248 Eyisha 265 Isaiah 260 Jeremiah 263 S. John Baptist 267 S. Paul and Seneca 271 Mary Stuart 291 Cardinall Pool 313 A Treatise of the Angel of Peace to all Christian Princes 1 THE HOLY COURT FIRST BOOK Of Reasons which should excite men of qualitie to Christian Perfection That the COURT and DEVOTION are not things incompatible The FOUNDATION of this TREATISE THe wise Hebrews have observed a matter worthy of consideration for the direction of Great-ones to wit that between the bed of the Kings of Judea The gloss upon Isaiah ch 38. observeth also Juxta parietem Templi Solomon extruxit palatium A notable observation of the Hebrews and the Altar of God there was but one single wall and they adde that David one of the most holy Monarchs had reserved for himself a secret postern through which he passed from his chamber to the house of God that is to say the Tabernacle which served as a sanctuarie for his afflictions and an arsenal for his battels They say likewise he left the key of this sacred postern to his Posteritie a key a thousand times more pretious than Fortune the golden Goddess of the Romans giving to it the imitation of his virtue as an everlasting inheritance Achaz was he who stopping up the gate of the Temple Parali 2. 28. clausit januas Templi shut against himself the gates of Gods mercie and thereby opened the passage to his own confusion This is to instruct Princes and all persons of quality that as the element of birds is the air and water of fishes so the element of great spirits if they will not betray their own nature nor bely their profession is piety Yet notwithstanding it is a wonder how the Court where the most noble spirits should reside hath in all Ages been cried down in matter of virtue You will say hearing those speak who make many fair and formal descriptions of the manners of Courtiers that the Court is nothing else but a den of darkness where the heavens and stars are not seen An admirable definition of the Court drawn out of divers ancient Authors but through a little crevis that it is a mil as the Ancients held it always skreaking with a perpetual clatter where men enchained as beasts of labour are condemned to turn the stones That it is a prison of slaves who are all tied in the golden guives of speciors servitude yet in this glitter suffer themselves to be gnawn by the vermine of passion That it is a list where the combatants are mad their arms nothing but furie their prize smoke their carreer glassie ice and utmost bounds but precipices That it is the house of Circes where reasonable creatures are transformed into savage beasts where Buls gore Lions roar Dogs worrie one another Vipers hiss and Basilisks carrie death in their looks That it is the house of winds a perpetual tempest on the firm land ship-wrack without water where vessels are split even in the haven of hope Briefly that it is a place where vice reigneth by nature misery by necessity and if virtue be found there it is but by miracle Such discourses are often maintained with more The Answer fervour of eloquence than colour of truth For to speak sincerely the Court is a fair school of virtue for those who know how to use it well In great seas great fishes are to be found and in ample fortunes goodly and heroick virtues This proposition which putteth an incompatibilitie of devotion and sanctitie into the life of men of eminencie seemeth to me very exorbitant for three reasons The first for that it is injurious to God the second prejudicial to humane societie and the third sheweth it to be false by the experience of all Ages To prove these three verities The Defence of the Court. is to ruin it in the foundations the proofs whereof are easie enough which we will begin to glance at that hereafter we may deduce them more at length For as concerning the first it cannot be denied to be a great injurie to almightie God to strike at his heavenly and paternal providence This is to touch him in the apple of his eye and in the thing which he esteemeth most pretious Now so it is this maâ—ime which establisheth an impossibilitie of devotion the first wheel of virtue in the life of Great ones imputeth a great defect unto the government of God The divine providence is a skilful posie-maker who knoweth artificially how to mingle all sorts of flowers to make the Nosegay of the elect called in holy Scripture Fasciculus viventium It constituteth the different manners of lives different qualities and conditions It leadeth men by divers way
are employed to figure chymeras and monsters in their own sensual wills What oyl burneth and incense smoketh before the devils altar when Abuse of an idolatrous spirit Si quis Christianus â—leâ—m â—ulerit ad Sacra gentilium vel Synagogam Judâ—â—rum festiâ— ipsorum diâ—bus aut lucerâ—â— accenderit de societate pellatur Canon Apost 70. Hel of science so many talents so many perfections are unprofitably wasted in vice and vanity In the mean time the 70. Canon of the Apostles excommunicateth those who onely bear oyl to the Jews Synagogue or the Paynims Temples And in what account shall we hold the Christians who make a perpetual sacrifice of all the faculties of their souls to the corrupt vices and follies of the world Wise men affirm that beside the fire which shall devour the bodies and souls of the damned for ever there is a hell of science and conscience which shall particularly torment those who have been endowed with a generous spirit and have ill employed it When Adam opened his eyes to see his nakedness his spirit and knowledge served him for a keen knife to transfix his soul his ignorance in that kind was a great part of his felicitie What disastrous misery shall then befal those unhappy spirits of the damned when they shall know their abilities all the good things they might have done and all the ill they have done Although all the flames and tortures should surcease they would find their hell in the eye of their own knowledge and in their own understanding No eye to a man is more troublesom than Bern. l. 3. de consider Nullus â—â—lestior oculus enique suo non est aspectus quem tenebresa conscientia suffâ—gere magis volit minus possit his own It is that which the cloudie conscience desireth most to avoid and can least do it saith S. Bernard speaking of the eye Ponder hereon O Noblemen whether this motive meriteth not to be seriously considered Hell vomiteth up brave spirits who after they have served for instruments of vice are now become the food of flames Augment not the number The knowledge of God of ones self and the studie of virtue is a fair employment of a Noble spirit wherein man cannot be too seriously busied nor more fruitfully The seventh REASON Proceeding from Courage OF all these reasons before alledged which serve as a spur to the Nobilitie seriously to imbrace perfection I see not any comparable to Courage which is a force of spirit consisting in two principal points as Aristotle and S. Thomas Aristot 3. Eth. 22. q. 125 observe to wit to undertake and suffer great things with judgement and by the excitement of honesty This courage among all the excellencies of the spirit Courage compared to the river Tygris by S. Ambrose Ambros in haec verba Gen. 2. Nomen fluminis tertii Tygris Quodam cursis rapido resistentia quaequâ— transverberat noque aliquibus cursus ejus impedimentorum harâ—â— obstaculis Greatness of Courage is powerful elate stirring and astonishing and very well S. Ambrose compareth it to the river Tygris which among all streams hath its current most swift and violent so as with an unresistable impetuositie it combatteth and surmounteth all obstacles opposed against it Thus saith he Courage flieth through perils breaketh throngs and works it self a passage through a world of contrarieties This courage is an Eagle which confronteth storms a Lion which opposeth all violences a Diamond which never is broken a Rock which scorneth waves an Anvile which resisteth all the strokes of the hammer It is a thing which with admiration ravisheth heaven and earth to behold in the flesh of a frail and feeble man a spirit to make trial of all accidents which is amazed at nothing which surmounteth all difficulties and which would rather cast it self into the gates of hell with undoubted loss of bodie than into the least suspition of remisness This striketh the spirit with admiration and be it either in military actions or civil Courage is highly valued though success always answer not good enterprises and enemies most cruel are enforced to admire a valour and vigour of spirit that never bowed under an evil which it was not able to vanquish The Historie of Herodotus relateth that one called Herodot Suid. in voci Death of Callimachus Calimachus in the battel of Marathon being found by the Persians stuck all over with arrows like a hedge-hog standing boult upright amongst a heap of dead bodies as if he had been under-propped by the counterpoize of the same arrows they were so astonished with the dauntless valour of this dead man that they held himas immortal Never did Seneca Senec. de constantia sapiâ—nt so demonstratively shew the strength of his eloquence as in praising the courage of Cato This man saith he hath not opposed nor fought with savage beasts it is for hunters He hath not pursued monsters with fire and sword he lived not in an Age in which it was believed that a man supported Heaven with his shoulders Behold why he was not esteemed A notable praise of strength of Courage as a Hercules nor as an Atlas who notwithstanding fought with greater monsters than Hercules He carried another manner of burden than did the fabulous Atlas He alone combated against ambition a monster of many heads against the vices of a degenerate Citie and which daily like an old house was sinking with the excess of weight This incomparable Stâ—â—iâ— sâ—lus â—â—dentem Râ—â—publicam quaÌ„tum modo una retrahi manu poterat retinuit donec vel abreptus vel abstractus comitem se ruinâ— diâ— sustentatâ— dedit A singular commendation of Cato man supported the Roman Common-wealth as long as he could yea even when it fell into the abyss of a thousand lamentable confusions he yet held it up with a hand prompt always upon the brink of the precipice and not being able longer to under-prop it over-born as he was by the violence of mischiefs he chose his tomb in the sepulchre of his Countrey What greatness what Majesty Undoubtedly courage hath so much lustre and glitter that obstinacy it self which is a vice in all things else very hard and rude being clothed with the mantle of courage findeth much reputation amongst men Now this generositie of which we speak is a faithful and an inseparable companion of true Nobilitie All great men ordinarily have a courage A lance graven on the skin Dion Chrys Orat. 4. very high and even as certain brave Lacedemonians were born from their mothers womb with a lance pourtrayed and characterized upon their skin so all Noblemen seem to bring magnanimitie into the world from the day of their birth This might be a marvellous motive to lead them in a straight and direct line to great and valiant actions were it not that the evil spirit instantly spreadeth a film over their eyes and makes them feel impressions of meer sluggishness
worm-eaten walls no arms but the anviles of a shop or forge no other musick but their obstreperous clatter no other Master but the necessitie of learning nothing no other lesson but ignorance and misery Behold seeing you might have been reduced to this condition of life what have you done to God before your being to be that which you are He hath not been content to give you bloud wealth qualification spirit and courage but also he alloweth you the happiness of good education which setteth and composeth all the natural parts into a fair way You demand of me whether I judge seriously the education of Great-ones and men of quality to be such I affirm at the least it hath all the possible means and opportunity so to be in which consisteth the knot of obligation we seek for And without going further is it not an uncontrolable proof which sufficiently declareth that even the education of Court is worthy recommendation to say that God seeking out a school for the greatest States-man that ever was in the world chose no other place than the Court of a King You know Education of Moses at Court what a man Moses was how great how eminent how much beloved of Almighty God who elected him to be a conduct and captain of six hundred thousand men at arms to give him a regency over the elements and a power to replenish the four quarters of the world with the greatness of his prodigies What did he to breed him and frame him to so high and supereminent a condition to so heroick virtues Did he suffer him to be bred as other Hebrew children in fear in bondage in poverty which overwhelm the goodliest and best dispositions as soon as they begin to set forward No he brought him to the Court of Pharaoh he caused him to be nourished in the exercises of Nobilitie to swallow all the wisdom of the Aegyptians who then were in reputation to be the wisest men in the world This is it which S. Stephen said in the Acts Eruditum omni sapientia Aegyptiorum Acts 7. 12. Learning and Courtliness of Moses Philo de vita Moses And Philo in the book he hath written of the life of Moses unfolding to us the history of his education saith he learned in the Court of the King of Aegypt Arithmetick Geomitry Musick as well contemplative as practick Philosophie and the secrets of Hierogliphicks But to shew Noblemen how lawful it is to learn Court-civilities and garbs without contracting the vices the same Moses who learned all lawful sciences from the Aegyptian Doctours never would suck milk from nurses of the same Nation which might infuse any bad influence upon his manners God held the very same course in the education Daniel and his companions bred at Court Pueros in quibus nulla esset macula decoros forma eruditos omni sapientia cautos scientia doctos disciplina Dan. 1. of the Prophet Daniel and of those three holy children who planted the trophey of their faith among the burning coles of an oven he caused them to be educated in the Court of King Nebuchadnezzar he caused them to learn the Chaldaik language to be trained in literature to be afterwards presented to the King well instructed in all sorts of sciences From hence you may judge that education of great men is a matter full of worth and recommendation since God who disposeth all with so excellent oeconomy in favour of the just hath pleased to give to his greatest minions and favorites the Courts of Kings for a school And in effect we must aver Why men of qualitie are best bred there is the best education where the best tools and instruments of great actions are and these are found in the houses of personages of qualitie Education of children is begun in the choise of nurses Poor people take such as necessity permitteth many times surcharged with imperfections and disproportions of nature which make corruption creep into the child with the milk the rich and those of quality elect them with all possible advantage which gold credit or authority can procure This choise of nurses is of no small importance The Scripture observeth that King Glossa Lyr. in Daniel Nebuchadnezzar nursed by a Goat Nebuchadnezzar having beē from his infancy exposed in a forrest and nourished by a wild goat contracted thereby brutish manners so that degenerating into a vehement stupidity and most barbarous pride it made him afterwards by the just punishment of heaven return to the life of beasts among whom he had been bred The same happened in the person of the Emperour Caligula a portentous prodigie of man who seemed Dio. Cassius nurse of Caligula to be born for no other purpose but to shew the world the mischief which a great power can perpetrate in a great brutishness It is held this corruption came to him neither from father nor mother who both were reputed the most honest and prudent in the Roman Empire But it is said that perhaps of purpose to make him one day martial they gave him a masculine brave nurse For she was hairy on the face as man she drew a long bowe she ran at the ring she curvetted a horse like a rider but in other kinds she was mischievous and cruel and made her little nurse-child superlatively inheritour of her vices If then the goodness of nurses be one of the principal favours which happeneth in education who will have them if not Noblemen As soon as Ladies and women of qualitie are ready to be brought in bed every one will present them a nurse every one will offer one of their own choise there is not a visitant nor gossip that will not roam from house to house for this purpose and redouble journey after journey It falleth out oftentimes that after the mothers do neglect personally to give their children suck and use so much curiofitie in the election drawn by considerations meerly terrene that overmuch choise maketh them to elect ill The children of rich men become droughty amongst a mass of fountains wherewith they are presented to suck from their infancy and those of poor men amongst the incommodities of nourriture grow up as safforn under hail God counterpoizing to the one their over much sollicitude of human helps and supplying the want in the other Notwithstanding it cannot be denied but that a moderate choise of nurses ever accommodated to Gods greater glory is most available to the infant and that persons of qualitie have this favour much more transcendent than others After the nurses come the governours and governesses The poor creatures are instantly abandoned and cast amongst a little crew of children their ordinary companions and play-fellows and there have they all liberty to besmear one another as a Colliers sack In the houses of great-ones there is always some sage woman who giveth the first tincture and impressions to the souls of children and beginneth to trace on their
knowing God nor man To expect a judgement and to live in continual injustice To know that we must return naked to the earth and yet to dispoil the whole world to cloath our selves To build as if one should always live eat and drink as if we should never die some men to trace up and down the streets with a plume of feathers on their head and fetters on their heels women to bestow a fourth part of their life time in dressing and besmearing themselves to make themselves gross on one side and little on another to raise turrets on their heads to put shackels on their heels to be transported with so much sollicitude about a ruff as if they had a Venetian Common-wealth to mannage Others to confound with curtesie whom they would gladly eat with salt Others to kill one another about the interpretation of a word and a thousand such like things which are indeed most impertinent Notwithstanding opinion disguiseth them opinion besotteth them and opinion giveth credit to all this Do you then think it a matter worthy of your generositie to serve follies under the shadow that fools approve them Do you not behold for the second reason that you being free of condition and not having the power to disgest some reasonable service you notwithstanding undergo the basest servitude that may be imagined A young Lacedemonian whom fortune had made a slave rather chose death than to carry a chamber-pot to his Master saying it was unworthy of his condition and yet opinion maketh us to bear a fools bable opinion maketh us carry not in our hands but in the prime piece of man the head a sink of old dotages amassed altogether by light idle fantastick spirits afterward confirmed by laws by the tyranny of custom What shall we call slavery if this be none I call your consciences to witness if you sometimes shall begin to breath in a more free air and see the bright day of the Children of God you in your selves will blame all these inventions of the worldly life which enforce you to feel tormenting racks in your attires in your recreations in the complements of conversation O how often are verified those sayings of the sage Roman inserted by S. Augustine in the sixth book of the Citie of God When you shall come to consider all the trayn of ceremonies A notable saying August l. 6. de Civitate Dei c. 10. Si cui intueri vacet quae faciunt quaeque patiuntur invenient tam indecora honestis tam indigna liberis tam dissimilia sanis ut nemo dubitaturut fuerit furere eos si cum paucioribus furerent nunc sanitatis patrocinium est insanientium turba Abderites Caelius l. 30. c. 4. and hypocrisies of Court you will find them ill agreeing with honest minds unworthy of free men and not different from fools and in effect you will confess that no creature should doubt to term them follies if the number of sots were less the best veil they have is the multitude of fools Do you not behold a goodly pretext as if moles were the less blind because they have companions in their darkness Behold a point of servitude extreamly unworthy of a noble spirit to say that one condemneth in his conscience an act which he putteth in practice that he instantly may obey a vain opinion of the world It is said the Abderites after they had beheld the tragedie of Andromeda and Medusa became all frantick even from the least to the biggest and ceased not to sing to clap their hands to crie to whistle through the streets and to have no discourse nor thought of any thing but Medusa and Andromeda If then you had entered into their citie you had played the fool for fear to be despised by fools Is not this an intolerable weakness of spirit in a well-composed soul to have good lights and knowledges of Almighty God which incessantly beat upon our understanding and yet to play the fool and to comply with anothers humours For the third reason I say this belief which is given 3. Reason Tyranny of opinion to opinion passeth into a wicked and scandalous tyranny over Christians for by the force of cherishing and fomenting these maxims in the heart of the world they are transferred into nature Vices are not contented to be vices but by this tyrannical law of opinion formed in the ideaes and lives of persons of quality they make themselves to be adored under the colour of virtue Cardinal Jacques de Vitry relateth that a Countrey-fellow A pretty observation of Cardinal Jacques de Vitry carrying one day a young sucking pig to the market certain pleasant wits who had agreed upon this sport every one of them severally encountering him in divers cross ways of the streets and asking him what was his purpose to carry a dog to the market did so intoxicate his brain that beaten out blow after blow with such like interrogations he absolutely perswaded himself that to be true which he first supposed was begun for sport and cast his pig with shame upon the pavement and thinking it a true dog gave the other opportunity to gain by this sleight Behold what the tyrannie of opinions redoubled one upon another can do They made this poor man believe that this pig was a dog although all his senses suggested the contrary And I leave you to think what this torrent of the false Maximes of the world doth not falling with unresistable furie upon a dul and half dead faith It weakeneth all that which is Christian in a soul and planteth a wicked Idol of humane respects which causeth that all actions are measured by the rule of vulgar opinions And if there be yet any reliques of a good conscience this tyrant smothereth them as a Pharao and wholly perverting the nature of things giveth boldness to sin and shame of well-doing to virtue Behold a mean to drench all mankind in the gulf of confusion Is not this then abominable If these considerations of the folly servitude and tyranny of this life which are spun according to the web of the opinions of the world cannot serve for an antidote for our ill at the least think the day will come when truth shall take place and vice vanish into smoke It will happen unto you as to Tigers for whom hunters when they have taken away their whelps affixe looking-glasses in the ways to amuse the savage beasts and in the mean time they save their own lives by the help of flight The Tigers Illusions of Tigers forthwith most affectionately stay thinking they shall draw their little captives from the reflection of this mirrour and set them at liberty in the end they strike it till it is broken loosing together both their young ones and the instrument of their deception These opinions which you now adore these dreams these fantasies which you behold in the specious glasses of the world shall be lost at the hour of
various colours of the doves breast which one knoweth not how to distinguish See you not that this is to betray your own manhood What ought you to do to avoid this Obstacle First to enter into your selves to consider what passeth there to behold from what root from what source this tumultuary life proceedeth to take away the cause to suppress the effect To apprehend seriously the end for which man is created to bend all your sinews and arteries to arrive thither to use creatures as means and instruments of happiness by the way of use not fruition To purge the soul from sins which oftentimes raise this storm by a good general Confession and seriously cut off those passions which most seditiously assault you To accommodate all your daily actions by the advise of your Spiritual Father and to make a good resolution strictly to observe it as much as in you lieth To consider how many Pagans to make themselves eminently excellent in some facultie have determined of their own meer motion to be confined to caverns and shaved like fools for avoidance of company and retirement to that which they intended so did Demosthenes the Oratour why should not we to save our souls do that which he did to refine his language If any weakness occur after these good purposes not to disturb your self for it supposing constancy impossible because it falleth out you are inconstant to correct what is past to order what is present to prevent things to come and to fortifie your self even by falls The fifth OBSTACLE Dissimulation ONe of the greatest obstacles of virtue is for that man liveth in the world as on a stage perpetually with a mask on his fore-head every one would seem that which he is not and none will avow what he is Those which come nearest to God are the most simple because the divine nature is simplicity it self The most remote are the most double and palliated This simplicity the prime Simplicity the chief virtue of Saints virtue of Saints which hath guilded the face of the golden Age with its rays is so alienated from the custom of our times that not so much as the name thereof is known It is taken to be fopperie although it be the quintessence of prudence To be simple is to make the heart accord with the What it is to be simple tongue and hands It is to have in all your deportments a natural and genuine sincerity exempt from fraud from vanity and hypocrisie It is a thing almost as rare in Court as a white raven the mask is better beloved than the visage the resemblance than the essence opinion than conscience The most part of Courtiers are monsters with two tongues and two hearts few are there which take 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Devise of Amphiaraus not Amphiaraus devise the quite contrary way who said he would be and not seem At this day in matter of virtue men better love to seem what they are not than to be what they seem It were a ridiculous vanity said Saint Gregory Nazianzen if Greg. Nazian in D. Iambie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Ant should take an Ape for a Lion and the poor Ape should afterwards fall into the throat of the Wolf it should be small contentment to be esteemed by this little creature a Lion in fantasie and to be devoured by this other beast in verity And yet notwithstanding corrupt depraved nature doth elect all her virtues and felicities in picture and punishments in essence I have much wondered at an ancient A rare medal of Mark Anthonie medal which Villalpand in his Epistle in the Frontispiece of his book which he dedicated to Philip the third King of Spain affirmeth to have fallen into his hands In this medal was seen on one side the magnificent Temple of Jerusalem with certain Hebrew characters much deformed with rust on the other side there was the figure of Mark Anthonie well engraven with this inscription Solomon This invention came from Herod a great flatterer of Roman Princes on whom he saw his fortunes depended and verily he followed Mark Anthonies standard while good success waited on his colours but afterwards beholding that all yielded to the victorious arms of Augustus Caesar he sought and obtained his favour by all possible subtile endeavours Howsoever he caused this beautiful medal to be made which gave to the veriest sot among Princes the name of the wisest amongst Kings and Mark Anthony who neither had piety nor religion in his soul beheld himself even willingly stamped in this coyn as the true Guardian and Church-warden of the Temple of God so much man affecteth the very shadows of good after he hath lost the substance At this day this passion outragiously predominateth even to furie in all places there is nothing but counterfeiting and affectations Hypocrisie reigneth in painting in habits The kingdom of hypocrisie hypocrisie is in complements hypocrisie is in businesses hypocrisie lodgeth in all ages all sexes all conditions hypocrisie goeth even to Altars Ambition avarice luxury and other vices although deeply rooted forsakes man when he forsakes himself it is onely hypocrisie which attendeth him to his grave and will sleep under his ashes so many golden lies are witnesses thereof which perpetually do enshrine carkasses Man is so made to seem what he is not and to dissemble that which he is so double and so replenished with mutable essences that he himself is deceived in himself and taketh himself for other than he is Men are not contented to corrupt their apparrel their language hair visage soul body sciences arts but they also will violate virtues the daughters of the Divinitie they dispoil them of their natural plumes to cloth vice If there be excess Counterfeit virtues of cruelty in the chastisement of some crime it is called justice if choler be predominant it is termed zeal if effeminacy of heart creep in it is entituled meekness prodigality borroweth the name of mercy niggardliness of good husbandry cowardise of prudence obstinacy of constancy inconstancy of facility and circumspection weakness of courage of humility pride of liberty laziness of tranquility disturbance of spirit of vigilancy precipitation of fervour dulness of good counsel and not to keep promise with any man is said to be equal with all men Saint Gregorie the Great excellently moralizeth Greg. moral 3. c. 22. Job 40. Sunt nonnulla vitia quae ostendunt inse rectitudinis speciem sed ex pravitatis prodeunt infirmitate Reasons against hypocrisie Baseness of this vice this in the book of Job where he sheweth that the most part of men are all gristle which hath the resemblance of bones but not the solidity of bones they have the appearance of virtue but not the firmness What remedy is there for this abuse deep-rooted in nature I will onely produce two reasons well worthy of consideration First that speaking to noble hearts it seemeth to me it is to produce
a most irrefragable motive of detestation of any vice when the baseness and ignominie thereof is discovered for that is it which hath most power over generous spirits Now so it is this hypocrisie which maketh you O Noblemen always to live disguised is quite contrary to the condition of a brave and generously elated spirit Because if it be impressed with a good stamp it naturally loveth the liberty and freedom which unavoidably is oppressed in these palliations crouchings and counterfeitings They are the tricks of Apes and Foxes and in no sort are suitable to the nature of a generous Lion Besides seeing God openeth unto us the great Hypocrisie confuted in the great book of the world book of the world as a piece of parchment guilded and traced with his pencil for us therein to read that which is for our instruction if we will consider diligently the most sublime things we shall find they naturally strike at this vanity which maketh you to display apparences to the eyes of men outwardly having nothing solid within It seemeth that all the master-pieces of this celestial and elementary world as it were by a common consent do hide all what they have of most eminency and worth bearing for devise I hide the better part It is true Parte sui meliore latent that Heaven sheweth it self wholly relucent in stars and brightness but covereth his powerful influences which by their secret extent give motion to this great house of nature It is true the air maketh his meteors to appear to the view of the whole world but this secret virtue which doth penetrate us even to the heart and bringeth life and refreshment to us upon its wings who can tell me what colour it is of The fire unfoldeth his flames to us but this commanding heat which conquereth and softeneth the hardest mettals do we behold it The caim sea delighteth us with his smiling countenance at that time especially when it becometh as it were frizled and curled by some gracious and gentle gale and coloured with the beams of a bright Sun which beat upon it but this lustruous beauty what is it in comparison of the treasures which he concealeth in the store-houses of his abysses The earth it self likewise maketh her boast in the spring varied and enameled with her natural pieces of painting and sparkled with a thousand petty flowers which stand as the eyes of the meadows but these do eclipse each evening and morning Quite contrary the mettals which the earth encloseth and as it were engulfeth in the entrails after they are wrought and polished by the artful hands of Lapidaries retain a lustre of a long date which resplendently shine upon cup-boards of Kings and the Great men of the earth What lesson of nature is this to hide all which it hath of greatest value And what corruption of nature in man to hold in the bottom of his heart stench and dung-hills and to plaister it over with a vain hypocrisie God hath not onely imprinted this verity of Hypocrisie condemned by the laws of heaven Sport of God and what 1 Cor. 1. Quae stulta sunt mundi elegit Deus ut confundat sapientes infirma mundi elegit Deus ut confundat fortia ignobilia mundi contemptibilia elegit Deus ea quae non sunt ut ea quae sunt destruereâ— which I speak in the great book of nature but he hath as it were engraven and stampt it with his hand in the monuments of the old and new law The pastimes of Great men are Theaters Tilt-yards and Amphitheaters and the sport of the Divine wisdom in this Universe is to hide treasures under the bark and mantle of some persons base and abject in apparence In the old law a stammering shepheard is chosen to carrie the word to a Monarch to shake and overturn with a poor wand the pillars of his Empire to divide seas to calm billows to open the bowels of rocks to command all the elements and fill the world with wonders In the new law simple fisher-men almost as dumb and mute as the fishes themselves are chosen to catch in their nets Philosophers Kings Cities Provinces and Empires Behold the ordinary custom of God to hold pearls in shels sweet perfumes in very abject boxes The true mark of greatness in the judgement of God is at first blush externally not to appear great On the contrary it is the act of a flat ridiculous and benummed vanity to be desirous to furprize the eyes with a counterfeit and captious beauty which afterward appearing in its native colours makes the deformity thereof the more disfigured What a shameful thing it is to a heart which hath Deformity of hypocrisie never so little resentment of nobility to erect a resplendent sepulchre to boast exteriourly marbles guildings characters titles and to have nothing within but bones put refaction and ashes to cast a certain lustre through the ignorance and obscurity of an Age become bruitish and then to be in effect but a silly worm to live in the world as a snail to make long silver traces and to be nothing else but froth to have the back covered with velvet like a cushion and the belly stuffed with hay to make ostent of leaves and verdure like a wood and to be replenished with serpents Is it possible that a noble heart when it hath no other super-visour but its own conscience can suffer these shames A gentile spirit said to an old man who caused his grisly hairs to be painted with the lustre of green youth Poor fool although thou couldst deceive the whole world with thy hair yet death well knoweth they are gray So when Scit te Proserpina canum an hypocrite shall happen to conceal his jugling from all those who accompany him which indeed cannot be done men now being endued with penetrating eyes yet one cannot deceive the eye of his conscience quick-sighted to pierce such falshoods with bright reflection I say nothing of the shame and ignomie that must be undergone after it is discovered and taken with the manner like a cut-purse I speak nothing of the racks tortures affrightments and perplexities in which they live who desire to entertain these seemings A great wit hath well said that such Stephanus Edvensis in Reg. 3. 18. people are the oxen of Baal who are cut for sacrifice in little gobbets but notwithstanding receive not fire from Heaven these miserable creatures macerate and kill themselves to sacrifice themselves to the appetites of the world without ever tasting the consolations of God which they have renounced Let us lay their pains apart let us admit that with these laborious endeavours they might always live cloked always hidden from the eyes of the world yea even from the all-piercing eye of their own conscience It is most manifest and considerable for the second 2. Reason reason that it is impossible to deceive God whose eye replenished
it self with such apprehensions shall always live in fetters It is good to observe the causes and remedies thereof to draw consolation from thence You O Noblemen apprehend injuries obloquies Querelae sunt nauseantis animâ— in quas fere â—elicati foelâ—ces incidunt From whence this niceness proceedeth and disgraces from whence suppose you do these apprehensions proceed Of too much felicity ill disgested You have a stomach of paper which can concoct nothing it is so inebriated with the tastful sweetness of some never-ceasing prosperities that with the least disgust it is overthrown and yet notwithstanding to live now a days in the world you must procure an Ostriches stomach who swalloweth even iron it self Secondly this proceedeth from a spirit proud and clate We observe that those who upon all occasions are ready to give affronts are most tender in receiving any They cut a large thong out of another mans leather but if you prick them never so little you even pull their skin over their ears It is the course which was noted in the monster of nature Caligula Caligula a great scoffer Fâ—rendarum contumeliarum impatiens facienuarum Cupidissimus He had a tongue unbridled to scoff indifferently at all kind of objects If any man challenged him for it he was enragedly offended Thirdly these affronts oft-times are such as our fantasies make them if we help them not out with our opinions their arrow entereth not to make an affront We must believe it to be such otherwise all injuries are but as stones cast into the wind which have no force It is recounted that Cornelius a Senatour shed many tears in full Senate when Corbala called him bald Ostrich Seneca admireth that Senec. de Constan Struthiccamelus depilâ—tus such a man who in all things else had shewed himself most couragiously opposite against other injuries lost his constancy for one ridiculous saying which might have been smothered in laughter whence it first tooke birth because this blow was rather given him by his own imagination than by the tongue of his enemy Fourthly this niceness in the resentment of injuries Nimio otio ingenia natura infirma muliebria inopia verae injuriae lascivientia ordinarily taketh its being from a soft and effeminat spirit which knoweth not what an affront is and had great need to encounter some true and real thing that it may no more become haughty with vain shadows This is it which most judiciously that great Oracle of Latin Philosophy hath observed For remedie to this obstacle I will produce Remedies two very considerable things The first is that if a generous heart could once be perswaded that the most noble revenge which might be drawn from affronts were to scorn them and that such is the manner of all great spirits he would make unto himself a buckler of diamond The studie of great souls should be to doe good and suffer wrong against all these petty inferiour disturbances Now I affirm all the greatness of a fair soul fit to have heaven for a theater of its actions should resolve to do good and suffer ill to know not onely how to tolerate an ingratitude but how to fasten benefits S. Augustine upon the 93. Psalm proveth this verity August in Psal 93. Convitia fiunt stellis cum dicitur illa stella Mercurie est illa Saturni quid ille cum audiunt tanta convitia nunquid moventur numquid non exercent cursus sues Sic homo qui in natione perversa tortuosa habet verbum Dei sicut luminare est â—ulgens in caelo unto us by a fine induction which he draweth from the stars Injuries saith he are dayly done to the stars One saith behold the star of Mercury behold Saturn is it not then a great wrong to these beautiful stars enchaced by the hand of God in the azure vault of the heavens to put them into the possession of I know not what kind of petty pilferer or of an old dotard who is said to have devoured his own children These stars which are as it were the eyes of the Omnipotent to behold all that which passeth hcer below are they offended with the injuries which men doe them Have they ever turned out of the way for that Have they ever lost one sole step of their regular motion No assuredly So you O Noble men whom God hath placed in the sphere of greatness to enlighten men what importeth it you if a perverse and wayward people slander your reputation Never shall you be great if you know not the way of doing well and suffering ill Do like the Sun and stars shine and glitter in the firmament of sanctity and give detractious tongues leave in the mean time to lick up dust Saint Cyprian in the treatise which he composed Cypr de patientia Est nobis cum Deo virtus communis inde patientia incipit inde claritas ejus dignitas caput jumit Patience the nature of God of patience mounteth yet a little higher and after Tertullian pertinently declareth that patience in injuries is a ray of the Divinity and the true virtue of Nobility What patience it is in God so many Ages to have suffered Temples of Idols erected to the contempt of his name To make days and times still to circumvolve rivers to glide winds to blow autumn to put on a saffron robe grapes to ripen the elements to serve and hold total nature in breath for a thousand and a thousand sacrifices to hell To cast flowers from heaven with a bounteous hand upon contumacious heads who well deserve the stroak of the thunder-bolt What patience is it in the Saviour of the world to behold the Sun eclipsed all the stars to put on mourning weeds the whole frame of this vniverse to be troubled both above and beneath his Cross and he in the mean time to remain affixed in this chair of patience without motion This magnanimity in injuries is the true stamp Admirable remedie of David 2. Reg. 16. with which God for his imitation impresseth all Noble and great spirits See I pray you what remedy King David used against the malevolent tongue of Semei he fled from an unnatural son and in flying fell into the violence of an enraged tongue which darted against him shafts of fire and transfixed him even to the heart Behold his Captains ready to pull him down like mastives But David replied No I will that he live and what know you whether this be not now a powerful trial from the divine providence who hath sent this man for an exercise of virtue My God O that onely the odour of my Sacrifice might ascend even to thy Altars Saint Ambrose admireth so much Ambr. Apol. 1. de David c. 6. O altitudo prudentiae O altitudo patientiae O devorande contumeliae grande inventum Ecce verborum contumelia parriciaii levavit erumnam this greatness of courage that he crieth
satietas poenitentia The disorder of it wicked love is full of anxiety and ever in its satiety it finds repentance Disorder You may as well tell the leaves of the trees the sands of the sea and the stars in the skie as number the disorders which have vomited and still overflow upon the face of the earth by means of the sin of luxury If there be poyson to be dissolved love mingleth it If swords be forged and fyled to transfix the sides of innocent creatures love hammereth and polisheth them in his shop If there be halters to be fastened wherewith to strangle love weaveth and tyeth them If there be precipices love prepareth them If there be massacres love contrives them If you go about to find little embryons even in the mothers womb to be bereaved of the life which they have not as yet tasted love is the authour and actour of these abominable counsels All the mischief and crimes which have in former Ages been perpetrated love hath done them and daily invented them It hath from all times pushed and shouldred good order out of the world It hath been the butt and aim of all the vengeances of God It hath been strucken with fire and brimstone from Heaven swallowed in the entrails of the earth drenched in the waters of a general deluge Yet it escapeth yet it perpetually armeth yet it walloweth it self in bloud and slaughter yet it holdeth the sword of justice ever perpendicular over the head and in conclusion it is esteemed but as a sport Is not all this of power sufficient to make it be believed that this filthy vice is an infallible mark of reprobation Flie O Noblemen this fleshly pestilence of mankind and never suffer it to exercise its tyranny over hearts consecrated by the precious bloud of the Lamb. All consisteth in flying far from the occasions thereof If you love danger you shall perish therein If you had the best intentions which did ever bud in the hearts of Saints yet if you seek out occasions of doing ill they become crooked and distracted Nature being Remedies as now it is corrupted the ignorance of vice better serves our turn than all the precepts of virtue Our affections attend on our knowledge the absence of objects maketh us to forget all our most enflamed desires To live in lust and idleness to have our eyes always in pursuit unchaste books in our hands to hear comedies and impure stage-plays to have gluttonous discourse in our mouth to frequent buffons and loose livers to converse familiarly with women these are not the instruments of chastity it is â—ather to put oyl into the flame and then to complain of much heat Petrarch in his books against vanity giveth remedy Petrarch l. 1 2. c. 23. de remediis Occupatio liber incultier habitus villus asperior secessus inque unum aliquid jugiâ— intentio aâ—â—aec testis charus verendus frequâ—nâ— admonitio dulces minae si quando res exigat asperae Cyprian de bono pudor Ante ocules obversetur defermis atque dejectus peccati pudor nihil corpori liceat ubi vitandum est corporis vitium Cogitetur quam honestum sit viâ—â—â—se dedecus quam inhonestum victum esse à dedecore to the wounds which seem to have been inflicted in the time of his loves Love creepeth into idleness handle the matter so that he may always find you busied Love is pleased with curiositie of attire give him hayrcloth He is entertained with feasts subdue him with austerity He will fall upon some object scatter and confound him He laboureth to find out a loose and unbridled spirit hold yours extended upon some good affair He requireth liberty private places night darkness let him have witnesses and enlighten him on every side He will be governed by fantasie keep him dutiful both by admonitions and menaces S. Cyprian found nothing more powerful to conquer a temptation of dishonest wantonness than to turn the other side of the medal and as this sin hath two faces so not to stay upon that which looketh amiable and attractive to deceive us but to behold that which under a black veil sheweth it self to be pensive sad shamefac'd desperate and full of confusion The great Picus Mirandula said the most part of men yielded to temptation because they never tasted the sweetness of glory which is drawn from the victory over a sin Above all it is behoveful to use the advise of a wise Arabian who represented to himself perpetually over his head an eye which enlightened him an ear which heard him a hand which measured out all his deportments and demeanours The exercise of the presence of God joyned with prayer frequentation of Sacraments often invocation of the Mother of purity and the Angels Guardians of chastity daily blunt a thousand and a thousand arrows shot against the hearts of brave and undaunted Christian Champions Adde hereunto that it is good to live in a ceaseless distrust of ones self which is the mother of safety that you may not fall into the fire it is good to avoid the smoke not to trust ones self too much to those petty dalliances which under pretext of innocency steal in with the more liberty Mother of pearls produce sometimes windy bunches for true and native pearls and the will through complacence of passion ill digested in stead of good love bringeth forth silly abortions of amities which are nothing but flashes and wild fantasies yet such as may notwithstanding dispose an emptie soul to some finister affections The tenth OBSTACLE Excess in diet and apparel THe world was as yet in her cradle man was Terrestrial Paradise the chamber of justice no more than born when God making a Palace of justice of terrestrial Paradise pronounced against him the sentence of labour and pain and afterward wrote it as with his finger in the sweat of his brow Thou shalt eat thy bread Gen. 3. 19. In sudore vultus tui vesceris pane Noblemen appeal from the sentence of labour with the sweat of thy brow Noblemen perpetually appeal from this sentence as if they were not men it seemeth labour is not for them Let nature hold to the chain and labour those grosser bodies which are moulded of the clay of Adam they have forsooeth bodies composed of I know not what kind of starrie matter which never must sweat nor take pains but in a dance What a folly it is Ought not he to be dissolved into sweat since he is to be reduced into ashes He cannot free himself from the sentence of death and why shall he decline pains-taking seeing it proceeded from one and the same mouth in the same time and upon one and the same subject But behold the reason which is that to satisfie the sentence of labour sureties are found the houses of rich men are filled with officers and servants who take pains in their fields prune their vines carry
government of the Church III. Throughly to retain the summary of the Christian doctrine to inform your self of the explication of every Article not for curiosity but duty To read repeat meditate ruminate them very often To teach them to the ignorant in time of need But above all to give direction to your family that they may be instructed in those things which belong to the knowledge of their salvation It is an insupportable abuse to see so many who drag silk at their heels and have Linx's eyes in petty affairs to be many times stupid and bruitish in matter of Religion and in the knowledge of God IV. To abhor all innovation and liberty of speech which in any the least degree striketh at the ancient practices of the Church V. And therefore it is necessary as our Father Judicious notes of S. Ignatius concerning sincere faith S. Ignatius hath observed to praise and approve Confession which is made to a Priest and the frequent * * * Haec Authoris 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 notanda non probanda Communion of the faithful interpreting the devotion of others in a good sense VI. To recommend the Sacrifice of the Mass to love practice perswade others to the laudable custom of being present thereat as much as may be To esteem Church-musick prayers Canonical hours Supplications Processions and such like VII To praise the Orders of Religion the vows of poverty chastity obedience works of supererrogation and evangelical perfection ever generally preferring virginity and continency in discourse before marriage VIII To esteem of Reliques to recommend the veneration and invocation of Saints to be much affected to the service of the most blessed Mother of God to approve of pilgrimages which are orderly performed Indulgences and Jubilies which the glorious King S. Lewis recommended to Philip his son in his last words IX To have a religious opinion of the abstinences and fasts instituted by the Church and of the manner of penances and mortifications which religious and other devout persons piously practice X. To maintain the commandments of the Church and ordinances of Superiours both by word and example and though their lives should not be conformed to their doctrine yet not to detract nor murmure at their actions in publick or private thereby to alter in the peoples belief the reverence and respect to their dignity but as much as shall be expedient privately to admonish them of their defective carriage in their charges XI Highly to esteem the doctrine of sacred Theologie which is taught in schools and to make account of the great Doctours whom the Divine providence hath raised in this latter Age valourously to oppose heresies XII Not to insist in ordinary discourses upon exaggerations comparing men who live in this Age with the Apostles Doctours and Saints of antiquity XIII To fix our selves upon the resolutions of the Church that what our own peculiar reason would judge to be white we to esteem it black when the decrees of the Church it self shall be so always preferring the judgement of the Church before our private opinion knowing that humane reason especially in matters of faith may easily be deceived but the Church guided by the promised Spirit of truth cannot erre XIV Not in considerately to be embroyled in the thorny controversies of predestination Highly to commend grace and faith but warily without prejudice of free-will and good works XV. Not so to speak of the love and mercy of God that one may seem thereby to exclude the thoughts and considerations of fear and divine justice Behold the ordinary rules to preserve your self in faith If you now desire to know how this virtue is purified and refined in mans heart and in what consisteth the excellency of its acts behold them here You must carefully take heed of having onely a dead faith without charity or good works which S. Augustine calleth the faith of the devil It is a night-glimmer obscure and melancholy but lively faith is a true beam of the Sun The acts of a strong and lively faith are I. To have great and noble thoughts of God as Heroick acts of faith Matth. 8. that brave Centurion of whom it is spoken in S. Matthew who supposed the malady health death life of his servant absolutely depended upon one sole word of our Saviour and thought himself unworthy he should enter into his house Cassius Longinus a Pagan Cassius Longinus libro 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so learned that he was called the Living Librarie one day reading Genesis could not sufficiently admire the sublime speculations which Moses had of the Divinity when he wrote of the worlds creation that God at the sound of one sole word made the great master-pieces of this universe to rise out of nothing as heaven earth water the Sun and Moon II. To believe with great simplicity removed from all manner of curiosity and nice inquisition God Si levaveris cultrum tuum super eo polluetur Exod. 20. would not the point of the knife should be lifted up on his Altar to cut it So likewise the point of humane spirit must not be raised on the Altar of faith nor the curtain drawn to enlightē the mysteries with the torch of reason S. Lewis was most perfect in this degree who would not stir a foot to behold a miracle in confirmation of his belief III. To believe with great fervour esteeming nothing impossible to your faith as did that simple shoemaker who under a King of the Tartars removed Paulus Veneus l. 1. c. 18. de reb orient a mountain in the sight of the whole world by the fervour and simplicity of his faith IV. Not to stagger nor be afflicted when you ask any thing of God in your prayers holding it undoubted that it will be granted if it be for the greater glory of the Sovereign Master and your more advantageable profit You must always hold your hands lifted up in some kind as Moses did even to the Exod. 17. setting of the Sun to vanquish our Amalekites V. To have a generous heart and full of confidence in adversity not to admit distrust during the storm but with firm footing to expect the consolation of heaven even when we shall be in the shades of death as said the Prophet VI. Little to prize temporal goods in comparison of eternal To be ready to dispoil ones self from all the pleasures and commodities of the world if there be any danger of faith as that brave Courtier Hebr. 11. Moses who forsook the contentments of Pharaohs Court to be afflicted with his own people VII To give alms liberally with a firm belief that the hand of the poor is the treasury of God VIII To employ even life it self as so many Martyrs have done and to seal your faith with your own bloud This is the most heroical act but yet it ought to be guided by discretion Now to make easie the acts of faith I.
It is good oftentimes to consider how reasonable glorious and full of merit this act is Reasonable How acts of faith may be made easie to submit the creature to the Creatour glorious to see the Sovereign Lord so served and honoured that for the defence of one sole word but once pronounced by his mouth a thousand and a thousand good servants are ready to bestow their lives full of merit in as much as we give a free consent voluntary and pious and not being enforced by manifest evidence II. To be often confounded in the weakness and incapicity of our understanding which is found so short in the knowledge of many petty things There needeth no more but the foot of an Ant to stay it and a glass of water to drown it What stupidity then is like this to be desirous to make ones self over-wise and to judge that impossible which cannot be comprehended in matter of Religion III. To apply your mind to the consideration of motives which may form in your spirit a probability of that which is proposed unto you as are those I have noted before and which will give good enterances to the inspirations of God IV. To retire from the toyl of senses which do nothing but disturb when you consult with them in things spiritual and to raise your soul above flesh to be illuminated by the Sun of Intelligences V. To take away the obstacles of all sorts of impurity and namely of pride all disordinate affection VI. To strike at Heaven gate with prayer seeing faith cometh unto us from treasures of the Father of light Faith so planted fortified and manured by good works illuminateth a soul All the savage and cruel beasts all the bruitish passions chimaeraes dreams irresolutions which went roaming up and down in this great forrest of confusions amongst the shadows of night are scattered so soon as this radiant Sun beginneth to dissipate darkness with his divine rays Then is it that a soul wholly clad with Hope the clear lights of hope which causeth it to expect the blessings of the other life goeth on with a great and constant resolution as one who hath for support the infinite power of God who is as faithful in his promises as rich in rewards Behold how this monster ignorance is overthrown by the arms of light The fifth SECTION Of four other rays which serve to dissipate ignorance BEsides the torch of faith God also gives us the Beam of understanding light of understanding of counsel wisdom and prudence which are as unvaluable riches wholly replenishing the soul with splendour as saith the Prophet Isaiah The gift of understanding doth free us from a certain bruitishness which is the cause that men tying themselves onely to external and sensible things are perpetually out of themselves at which time understanding calls them back again and makes them to re-enter into their house to see the beginning progress and end of the life of man from whence he cometh whither he goeth what will become of him Counsel enlighteneth us in things doubtful to Of counsel take a good way Wisdom putteth us out of an apprentiship and Of wisdom draweth us from a certain childishness which maketh men as little ones and carnal mutually entertaining themselves with temporal things And the knowledge of God raiseth and causeth them to turn their faces directly towards Eternity Prudence considereth good and evil according to Of prudence the quality and quantity thereof It examineth the circumstances of actions and sheweth us what ought to be done in such a time such a place and such occasions The sixth SECTION Twelve fundamental Considerations of spiritual life partly drawn from that worthy man John Picus Mirandula FRom the five rays explicated before proceed Note that it is good often to meditate these maxims either one a day or all together great and goodly lights by direction of which a life wholly new is begun John Picus of Mirandula a great and remarkable man held for a prodigie of wit much tasting the content of spiritual life enlightened by the rays of a wisdom absolutely celestial establisheth twelve Considerations which we ought continually to meditate on for the practice of the knowledge of God I. The first the nature and dignity of man to wit 1. Consideration nature and dignity of man that the first and ceaseless endeavour of man should be of man himself to see what he hath been what he is and what he shall be What he hath been nothing what he is a reasonable creature what he shall be a guest of Paradise or of hell of an eternal felicity or of an everlasting unhappiness What he is according to nature a master-piece Greatness of the soul where many prerogatives meet together a body composed of a marvellous architecture a soul endowed with understanding reason spirit judgement will memory imaginations opinions A soul which flieth in an instant from one pole to the other descendeth even to the center of the world and mounteth to the top which is found in an instant in a thousand several places which embraceth the whole world without touching it which goeth which glittereth which shineth which diggeth into all the treasures and magazines of nature which findeth out all sorts of inventions which inventeth arts which governeth Common-wealths which disposeth worlds In the mean time she beholdeth about her self an infinite number of dogs that bark at her happiness and endeavour to bite her on every side Love fooleth her ambition turmoyleth her avarice Tyranny of passions rusteth her and lust enflameth her vain hopes sooth her pleasures melt her despair over-bears her choler burns her hatred filleth her with gall envie gnaweth her jealousie pricketh her revenge enrageth her cruelty maketh her savage fear frosteth her sorrow consumes her This poor soul shut up in the body as a bird of Paradise in a cage is altogether amazed to see her self assailed by all this mutinous multitude and though she have a scepter in her hand to rule she notwithstanding oft suffereth her self to be deceived ravished and dragged along into a miserable servitude From thence behold what man is through sin vanity weakness inconstancy misery malediction What he becometh by grace a child of light a terrestrial Angel the son of a celestial Father by adoption brother and coheir of Jesus Christ a vessel of election the temple of the Holy Ghost What he may arrive unto by glory to be an inhabitant of Heaven who shall see the stars under his feet which he hath over his head who shall be filled with the sight of God his beginning his end his true onely and original happiness II. The benefits received from God considered 2. Benefits of God in general as those of creation conservation redemption vocation and in particular the gifts of the body of the soul of nature of capacity ability industry dexterity wariness nobility offices authority means credit reputation
good success of affairs and such like which are given to us from Heaven as instruments to work our salvation And sometimes one of the greatest blessings is that which few esteem a benefit not to have all these advantages which lead a haughty weak and worldly spirit even into a headlong precipice but quite contrary good disadvantages in the opinion of the world put him into the estimation of heavenly things Man beholding what he hath been what he is what will become of him from whence he proceedeth whither he goeth and how the union with God his beginning is his Scope But and Aim if he doth that which reason dictateth to him he instantly takes a resolution neither to have vein sinew nor artery which tendeth not to his end to conquer his passions and no longer to serve creatures but so far forth as he shall know them profitable to lead him to his Creatour Everie creature speaketh these words to man O man keep what Bernard de gradibus humilit Serva commissum expecta promissum cave prohibitum is given to thee expect what is promised thee and avoid what is forbiden thee III. The third consideration is the passion of the Son of God a bottomless abyss of dolours scorns annihilations love mercy wisdom humility patience charity the book of books the science of sciences the secret of secrets the shop where all good resolutions are forged where all virtues are purified where all knots of holy obligations are tied the school where all Martyrs are made all Confessours all Saints Our weakness our faintness come not but for want of beholding this table of excess Who ever would open his mouth to complain of doing too much of suffering too much of being too much abased too much despised too much turmoyled if he considered the life of God delivered over and abandoned for him to so painful labour so horrible confusions so insupportable torments O my God my wounded God! As long S. Bonav in stimul Nolo vivere sine vulnere cum te videam vulneratum 4. Example of Saints as I shall see thy wounds I will never live without wound IV. The examples of all Saints who have walked in the royal way of the cross When we consider the progression of Christianity and the succession of so many Ages wheresoever our consideration setteth foot it findeth nothing but the bloud of Martyrs combats of Virgins prayers tears fastings sack-cloth hair-cloth persecutions afflictions of so many Saints who have as it were won heaven by main force Such have been found who had heretofore filled sepulchers with their members S. Zeno homil de Sancto Arcadio Remorabantur in luce detenti quorum membris pleniâ—erant tumuli torn with engins and swords of persecution and were yet alive to endure and suffer in their bodies which had more wounds then parts of body to be tormented Is it not a shame to have the same name the same Baptism the same profession and yet to be always desirous to tread on roses To be embarked in this great ship of Christianity with so many brave spirits which even at this day hourly do wonders in the world and to go under hatches to sleep in the bottom of the vessel as needless out-casts and the very scorns of reasonable nature V. The peace of a good conscience the inseparable 5. Inward peace companion of honest men which sugareth all their tears which seasoneth all their acerbities which dissolveth all their sharpness a perpetual banquet a portative theater a delicious torrent of inexplicable contentments which begin in this world and which many times are felt even in chaines prisons and persecutions What will it be when the consummation shall be made in the other world when the curtain of the great Tabernacle shall be drawn when we shall see God face to face in a body impassible as an Angel subtile as a ray of light swift as the wings of thunder radiant as the Sun when he shall be seen amongst so goodly and flourishing a company in a Palace of estimable August Nesâ—io quid erit quod ista vita non erit ubi lucet quod non capit locus ubi sonat quod non rapit tempus ubi â—let quod non spargit flatus ubi sapit quod non minuit edacitas ubi haeret quod non divellit eternitos 6. Condition of this life wel described glory and when one shall lead no other life but that of God of the knowledge of God of the love of God as long as God shall be God What will this life be nay what will this life not be since all the goods thereof either are not or are in such a life of lights which place cannot comprehend of voyces and harmonies which time cannot take from us of odours which never are scattered a feast which never is finished a blessing which eternity well may give but of which it never shall see an end VI. It is to be considered on the other side the condition of this present life A true dream which hath the disturbances of sleep but never the repose a childish amuzement a toyle of burdensom and ever-relapsing actions where for one rose a thousand thorns are found for one ounce of honey a tun of gal for blessings in apparance evils in substance The most happy there count their years and cannot reckon their griefs The carriers of the greatest honours are there all of ice and oftentimes are not bounded but with headlong ruines Its felicities are floating Ilands which always recoyl backward at that time when we think to touch them with our finger They are the feasts of Heliogabalus Lamprid. Heliogab where there are many invitations many ceremonies many reverences many services and at the end thereof we find a table and a banquet of wax which melts before the fire and from whence we return more hungry than we came It is the enchanted egge of Oromazes wherein this impostour vanted to have enclosed all the happiness of the world and in breaking it there was found nothing but wind All these pleasures flatter our senses with S. Eucher in paranesi Omnia haec conspectui nostro insidiosis coloribus lenecinantur vis illa ocâ—lorum attributa lumini non applicetur errori an imposture of false colours why do we suffer those eyes to be taken in the snares of errours which are given to us by heaven to behold the light and not minister to lying Yea that which greatly should distast us in this present life is we live in an Age stuffed with maladies as old age with indispositions We live in a world greatly corrupted of which may be said It is a monster whose understanding is a pit of darkness reason a shop of malice will a hell where a thousand passions outragiously insult over it Its eyes are two conduit-pipes of fire from whence flie sparkles of concupiscence its tongue an instrument of malediction its visage a painted
forementioned Emperour Antoninus saith the wisdom of man consisteth in three points well to behave Antonin l. 5. de vita sua himself towards God which is done by Religion with himself which is done by mortification of his passions and with men which is effected by sparing and tolerating them every where doing good and after he hath done good to have his ears prepared to hear evil IX To govern his desires within the limits of his 9. Government of pretensions capacity and modesty It is a great note of folly to attempt all things and do nothing to be turmoyled with the present and to have always the throat of an enraged concupiscence gaping after the time to come to be vexed with himself and not to be of power to repose within himself to make the steps of honour the degrees of his ruin to raise a fortune like a huge Colossus to make it fall upon his Senec. ep â—â— Contemnere omnia quivis potest omnia habere nemâ— own shoulders and to leave no other witnesses of his greatness but the prints of his fall It is a thing very difficult to have much and impossible to have all but it is so easie a matter to despise all that it consisteth in nothing but in a bare refusal X. To procure such an equality of spirit so even 10. Tranquility so regular that he scarcely feel the approach of happiness and when it is lost not to make any shew of it To behold the good of another as his own and his own as another mans To hold riches and honours as a river that glideth to day for you to morrow for another It is the nature thereof always to run gently what wrong doth it to us When prosperity laugheth on you look back upon adversity which cometh in the rere and remember you have seen tall ships lost in the harbour even as it were in jest S. Augustine pleased to repeat that verse of Virgil Mene sali placidi vultum fluctusque quietos August ep 113. alibi Ignorare jubes desirous thereby to signifie to us that we should no more confide in the prosperities of the world than to a still sea which in his over-great calm oft-times presageth the near approaching tempest Brave and valorous Captains heretofore made a Sacrifice to war in the midst of peace and in the midst of war dressed Altars to Peace to declare that in good we should live in distrust of ill and in evil in hope of good but in both the one and the other ever in equality This verily is one of the master-pieces of wisdom which God imparteth to spirits greatly resigned and who have passed through the most thin and slender searces XI To behave ones self prudently in all kind of 11. Discretion in affairs occasions to examine the tenents and utmost bounds the original progress end Never to judge till you have seen the bottom of the business and therein to carry your self so that if success cannot wait on your desires you may not justly accuse either any crooked intention or want of discretion We are masters of our wils but God hath reserved to himself the command over events XII To be always ready to depart from hence 12. Meditation of death chearfully when death shall sound the retreat Saint Chrysostom saith finely This life is a nest framed of straw Chrys hom 2. in epist Pauli ad Coloss and morter we are the little birds shall we putrifie in the stench of this filthy nest If devotion hath made us wings why are we slothful Let us bravely mount and take that flight which our Eagle tracked out unto us in the day of his Ascension Remember the quintessence of al wisdom is the meditation of death It is a business we should learn all our life time to exercise it once The faults therein committed are irreparable and the loss without recovery This consisteth in three things resignation dis-engagement and union As for resignation be not too faint-hearted nor suffer your self to be called upon to pay a debt which so many millions of men have discharged before you and which so many millions shall likewise pay after you shew to those who visit you patience in your sickness resolution at your last hour and not to desire any thing but spiritual assistances As for your departure go out of the world as the chicken out of the shell I. Dispose of your temporal goods in time by making a just clear and perspicuous will 2. Restore the goods of another 3. Pay your debts as far as you can 4. Lay open your affairs 5. Give pious legacies to charge the Altars of mercy with the last victims 6. Reconcile your self and above all things beware you carry not with you too much confidence and inordinate affection into the other world 7. Take order for the education of your children 8. Dispose of offices if you have any with an upright conscience 9. Forget not the labours of your poor servants After this disengagement draw the curtain betwixt your self and all creatures By a good confession unite your self to your Creatour by the sacred viaticum extream unction by acts of faith hope and charitie by good suffrages of the Church good admonitions good purposes good remembrances of the death of our Saviour yielding your soul up upon a Crucifix as a child who sleepeth on the breast of his nurce The eigthth SECTION The Practice of Devotion and Prayer ONe of the shortest ways to gain wisdom is to be devout Devotion is as it were the flame and lightening-flash of charitie and it is properly a prompt and affectionate vivacitie in Voluntas quâ—dam prompta tradendi se ad ea quae pertinent ad Dei famulatum S. Th. 2. 2. quaest 82. S. Dionys de divin nomin cap. 3. Prayer in mount Tabor things which concern the service of God It principally shineth in prayer and in the exercise of the works of mercy Prayer as saith the great Saint Dionysius the Areopagite is as it were a chain of silver which from heaven hangeth downward to draw man up from earth and unite him to God It is the mount Tabor where an admirable transfiguration is made of the soul into God It is the spirit which speaketh to God which poureth it self on God in conclusion it is coloured by God even as Jacobs ews did denote their burden to be of Genes 30. the same colour of which those wands were that they stedfastly beheld It is it which the Apostle pleased to say Beholding the glory of God we are transfigured Corinth 2. 3. Gloriam Domini speculantes in eandem imaginem transformamur à claritate in claritatem tanquam à Domini spiritu into the same image from brightness to brightness as by the spirit of God Prayer is the conduit of grace It is as very well S. Ephraim hath said The standard of our warfare the conservation of our peace the bridle
with lawful and necessary circumstances touch the motive without extravagancies and the intention which hath excited us to do it and continuance of the sin to represent the state of the soul to the life Yet for all this you must not so much think upon this preparation nor the means to unfold your self that thereby the principal part of penance be neglected which is contrition This contrition is a sorrow to have offended God Contrition not principally for the deformity of sin and the fear of punishment for that is nothing but attrition but for that this sin is committed against God infinitely good and infinitely amiable and for that one maketh a firm resolution to be confessed and to preserve himself from sin in time to come Behold the point of contrition which to attain you must seriously and advisedly represent to your self the greatness goodness power wisdom justice love mercy benefits of God opposed to your malice weakness Hostility of sin baseness ignorance presumption misery ingratitude and well figure to your self the hostility of mortal sin to obtain an eternal detestation against it To consider how it ruineth riches honours credit reputation posterity and Empires That it soyleth the glory of an innocent life and leaveth a character of infamy That it overthroweth bodies health good grace that it openeth the gates of sudden and unexpected death That it maketh man blind dumb deaf wicked senseless stupid savage and many times furious and enraged by the remorse of conscience That it dispoileth a soul of all the graces beauties excellencies priviledges love favour of God hope of life and salvation That it killeth it and rendeth it more cruelly than a tiger or panther That a life of God was needful to take away such a blemish and that if a soul be spotted at the hour of death an eternity of flames cannot deliver it and such like In sins which seem least you shall always have great cause of contrition when the benefits of God shall be represented unto you which he particularly and personally hath conferred upon us opposed to our childishness of heart tepidity slackness infidelity negligence ingratitude As for the proceeding Proceeding in confession to confession the preparatives being well made it is needful to choose a Confessour who hath four qualities jurisdiction reputation knowledge discretion and after you have confessed to him entirely faithfully sincerely to accomplish the penance enjoyned you with obedience promptness and punctual diligence afterward to take a new spirit to resist temptations and to busie your self in good works with more courage than ever The eleventh SECTION The Practice of Examen THe practice of Confession is made more easie Necessity of examen by the examen of conscience as well general as particular Think not too much is required of your profession if there be speech used to you of the examen of conscience Not onely the Philosophers have made it as Pythagoras Seneca Plutarch but poor barbarous Indians by the relation of Apulejus took an account every evening of the good and evil they had done each day This is it which is required of you Prepare daily a little Consistory of justice in your conscience see what passeth within your self acknowledge your defects and amend them to prevent the justice of God It is said the eclipse of the Sun causeth the earthquake and the eclipse of reason by ignorance of the interiour man produceth great disorders in the Culielm Pariâ—iens c. 12. Sacro poenite In hoc Tribunali sedet misericordia assidet autem justitia ubi quicquid contra poenitentem inscribit justitia totum delet misericordia acumen styli velut â—igens in corde poenitentis soul For the wicked spirit saith Procopius upon the first of Kings endeavoureth to use us as did the Ammonites the inhabitants of Jabes They seek to pull out our right eye and to bereave us of the sight of our selves to bury us in great and deep confusions But let us make use of all the lights which God hath given us to cast reflections into the bottom of our thoughts The conscience is an admirable Tribunal where Justice pleadeth and Mercie sentenceth All that which the me writes the other blotteth out putting as it were the point of the pen upon the heart of the penitent A good Interpreter of the Scripture relateth the Delrio ser de Conscientia vision of a wise man who on a day sought for the house of conscience and it seemed to him he beheld a Citie built with goodly architecture beautified with five gates which had as many narrow paths ending in one larger way Upon this way stood a Register who took the names of all passengers to record them Beyond that he saw two Tribunes attended by a great concourse of the common people who governed the inferiour parts of the Citie above was beheld a Cittadel wherein a great Princess commanded who had a scepter in hand and crown on her head By her side was a Ladie very ancient and venerable who in one hand held a torch with which she lighted this Queen and in the other a goad wherewith she pricked her if she governed not according to her direction The wise man amazed asked in his heart what all this train meant and he heard a voice within which said unto him Behold thy self ere thou art aware arrived at the house of conscience which thou â—oughtest for These five gates thou seest are the five senses The way where they all meet is common sense All the people which enter in by heaps are the objects of the creatures of the world which first touch our senses before they pass into the soul This Register who writeth down the names is imagination that keeps record of all things These two Tribunes are the two appetites the one is called the appetite of concupiscence which is ever in search after its desires the other the appetite of anger extreamly striving to strike at all obstacles which oppose its good either real or pretended This mass of people thou seest are the passions which make ill work in the inferiour parts of the Citie This Princess in the Cittadel with crown and scepter is reason The ancient and venerable Ladie by her side is conscience She hath a torch to shew the good way and the goad to prick those that wander In a word if Dictamen rationis spiritus corrector paedagogus animae S. Thom. 1. p. q. 79. thou desirest to know what conscience is it is a sovereign notice of good and ill which God impresseth on our hearts as with a hot iron and is very hard to be taken off Happy he who often visiteth this interiour house God hath given him and pondereth all his thoughts his words and actions to adopt them to the measures of the eternal law You know a general examen hath five parts Parts Thanksgiving invocation discussion petition resolution In thanksgiving we thank God
after which caused an excellent wit to say that it drew life out of its blows and made a dug of its wounds Oh happy soul that resembleth this generous plant and which repleat with pious desires holy affections and sincere intentions produceth apprehensions and works a thousand times more precious than myrrhe when in the meditation the rays of Jesus Christ who is the true Sun of justice strikes the heart The practice of prayer consisteth in mental vocal Necessity and easiness of meditation and mixt Mental is that which is exercised in the heart vocal which is formed in the mouth mixt participateth of both Think it not to be a new thing not severed from your profession to meditate It were so if one would make your brain serve as a lymbeck for subtile and extravagant raptures disguised in new words and forms But when one speaketh of meditation he adviseth you to ponder and ruminate the points and maximes which concern your salvation with all sweetness that fruit most agreeable to your condition may be derived from thence The faintness weakness infidelity ignorance driness which reigneth in your souls cometh from no other source but the want of consideration Take this worthy exercise couragiously in hand and you shall feel your heart fattened with the unction of the Holy Ghost and your soul of a wilderness to become a little Paradise of God Be not affrighted hereat as if it were a thing impossible for you use a little method and you shall find nothing more easie and familiar What have you so natural in vital life as to breath And what more proper in the intellectual than to think Your soul hath no other operation for night and day it is employed in this exercise The Sun casteth forth beams and our soul thoughts Gather together onely those wandering thoughts which are scattered amongst so many objects into your center which is God Employ one part of the spitit industrie invention discourse which you are endowed withal for the mannaging of worldly affairs Employ them I say in the work of your salvation and you shall do wonders I undertake not here to raise you above the earth nor in the beginning to plunge you into the seven degrees of contemplation whereof S. Bonaventure speaketh in the treatise he composed thereof I speak not to you of fire unction extasie speculation tast of What you must understand to meditate well repose or glory but I speak that in few words which you may read more at large in the works of so many worthy men who have written upon that subject First know what meditation is secondly how it is ordered Meditation properly is a prayer of the heart by Definition of meditation which we humbly attentively and affectionately seek the truth which concerns our salvation thereby to guid us to the exercise of Christian virtues That you may meditate well you must know the causes degrees matter and form of meditation The Causes principal cause thereof is God who infuseth himself into our soul to frame a good thought as the Sun doth upon the earth to produce a flower It is a goodly thing to have the spirit subtile and fruitful It is to work without the Sun saith Origen to think to do any thing here without the grace of the Holy Ghost The first degree which leadeth to good and serious prayer is a good life and principally purity of heart tranquility of spirit desire to make your self an inward man Saint Augustine reciteth a saying of Porphyrius very remarkeable which he deriveth Aug. l. 9. de civit Dei c. 23. Deus omnium Pater nullius indiget sed nobis est benè cum cum adramus ipsam vitam precâ—m ad cum sacientes pâ—r inquisitionem imitationem de ipse from the mouth of this perfidious man as one should pull a thing stoln out of a thiefs coffer God the Creatour and Father of this whole Universe hath no need of our service but it is our good to serve him and adore him making of our life a perpetual prayer by a diligent enquiry of his perfections and imitation of his virtues Observe then the first degree of good prayer is good life The second as well this Authour hath noted is the perquisition to wit the search of verities by thinking on the things meditated which are the sundry considerations suggested to us by the spirit in the exercise of meditation The third is the affection which springeth from these considerations Our understanding is the steel and our will the flint As soon as they touch one another we see the sparkes of holy affections to flie out We must bray together the matters of prayer as Aromatick spices with the discussion of our understanding before we can extract good odours The fourth is the imitation and fruit of things we meditate on It is the mark at which our thoughts should aim otherwise if one should pretend nothing else but a vain business of the mind it would be to as much purpose to drive away butter-flies as to meditate Good meditation and good action ought to be entertained as two sisters holding one another by the robe As for the matter of meditation you must know Matter of meditation that all meditations are drawn from three books The first and most inferiour is the book of the great Three books of meditation world where one studieth to come by knowledge of the creature to the Creatour The second is the book of the little world where man studieth himself his beginning his end qualities habits faculties actions functions and the rest The third is the book of the Heavenly Father Jesus Christ our Saviour who verily is a guilded book limmed with the rays of the Divinity imprinted with all the characters of sanctity and from thence an infinitie of matter is drawn as those of benefits of four last things of the life death and passion of Jesus and of all the other mysteries You must digest every one in his time according to the opportunity tast and capacity of those who meditate Some appropriate meditations to every day of the week others make their circuit according to the moneth others follow the order of the mysteries and life of our Saviour as they are couched in so many books written of these matters The practice and form of meditation consisteth in six things The first to divide the subject you would Practise and form contained in six articles meditate on into certain points according to the appointment of some Directour or the help of a book Article 1 As if you meditate upon the knowledge of ones self to take for the first point what man is by nature For the second what he is by sin For the third what he may be by grace The second a little before the hour appointed for Article 2 meditation to call into memory the points which you would meditate on The third after you have implored the
sacriledge to live for our selves That we cannot have a worse Master than our own liberty and scope and such like things In the fifth place come the affections which are Article 5 flaming transportations of the will bent to pursue Affections and embrace the good it acknowledgeth as when S. Augustine having meditated upon the knowledge Aug. Solil 11. Serò te amavi pulchritudo tam antiqua tam nova Serò te amavi tu intus eras ego foris ibi te quaerebam in istâ forniosa quae fecisti ego deformis irruebam of God brake forth into these words Alas I have begun very late to love thee a beauty ever ancient a a beauty ever new Too late have I begun Thou wert within and I sought for thee without and have cast my self with such violence upon these created beauties without knowledge of the Creatour to defile and deform my self daily more and more To this it much availeth to have by heart many versicles of the most pathetical Psalms which serve as jaculatory prayers and as it were enflamed arrows to aim directly at the proposed mark For conclusion you have colloquies which are reverent Article 6 and amorous discourses with God by which Colloquies we ask of him to flie the evil or follow the good discovered in the meditation And of all that which I say discussion light affection a colloquie may be made upon every point but more particularly at the end of the prayer And note in every prayer especially in colloquies you must make acts of the praise of God in adoring him with all the Heavenly host and highly advancing his greatness and excellencies Of thanksgiving in thanking him for all benefits in general but particularly for these most eminent in the subject we meditate Of petition in asking some grace or favour Of obsecration in begging it by the force of holy things and agreeable to the Divine Majesty Of oblation in offering your soul body works words affections and intentions afterward shutting all up with the Pater Noster Behold briefly the practice of meditation If you Another manner of meditation more plain profitable yet desire one more plain more facile and greatly profitable often practice this same As the true meditation of a good man is according to the Prophet the law of God and the knowledge of ones self meditate the summary of your belief as sometimes the Creed of the Apostles sometimes the Pater noster sometimes the Commandments of God sometimes the deadly sins sometimes upon the powers of your soul and sometimes your five natural senses The manner shall be thus After you have chosen a place and time proper and a little sounded the retreat in your heart from temporal affairs First invoke the grace of God to obtain light and knowledge upon the subject you are to meditate Secondly if it be the Creed run over every Article briefly one after another considering three things what you ought to believe of this Article what you ought to hope what you ought to love How you hitherto have believed it hoped it loved it How you ought more firmly to believe it hereafter to hope for it more confidently to love it more ardently It if be the Pater Noster meditate upon every petition what you ask of God the manner how you ask it and the disposition you afford to obtain it If the Commandments of God what every Commandment meaneth how you have kept them and the course you will presently hold the better to observe them If the powers of your soul and five senses the great gift of God which is to have a good understanding a good will a happy memory to have the organs of eyes ears and all the senses well disposed for their several functions How you have hitherto employed all these endowments and how you will use them in time to come Thirdly you shall make oblation of all that you are to God and shall conclude with the Pater Noster and Ave Maria. Another manner very sweet for Another way those who are much affected to holy Scripture is mixed prayer consisting in three things The first to make prayer to obtain of God grace and direction in this action as it hath been said above The second to take the words of holy Scripture as a Psalm a text of S. John S. Paul and such like things to pronounce it affectionately pondering and ruminating the signification of each word and resting thereon with sweetness while our spirit furnisheth us with variety of considerations The third to make some resolution upon all these good considerations to practice them in such and such actions of virtue Lastly to end the meditation with some vocal prayer The fifteenth SECTION Practice of vocal prayer spiritual lection and the word of God THe practice of vocal prayer consisteth in Practice of vocal prayer three ways three things to observe whom we should pray unto what we ought to pray for and how to pray For the first we know what the Church teacheth us how next unto the Majesty of the most Blessed Trinitie incomparably raised above all creatures * * * Praemonitus praemunitus To whom to pray we pray to the Angels and Saints who are as it were the rays of this great and incomprehensible Sun from whom all glory reflecteth Above all creatures we reverence the most holy Mother of Praise of the Blessed Virgin God who hath been as a burning mirrour in the which all the beams of the Divinity are united Origen calleth her the treasure of the Trinitie Methodius the living Altar Saint Ignatius a Celestial prodigie Saint Cyril the Founderess of the Church Saint Fulgentius the Repairer of mankind Proclus of Cyzike the Paradise of the second Adam the shop of the great Union of two natures Saint Bernard the Firmament above all firmaments Andrew of Crete the image of the first Architype and the Epitome of the incomprehensible excellencies of God All that may be said redoundeth to the glory of the workman who made her and advanced her with so many preeminences yea that alone affordeth us a singular confidence in her protection The devotion towards this common Advocate of mankind is so sweet so sensible so full of consolation that a man must have no soul not to relish it Next we Angels honour those Angelical spirits who enamel Heaven with their beauty and shine as burning lamps before the Altar of this great God of hosts We have a particular obligation to our holy Angel Guardian whom God hath deputed to our conservation as a Celestial Centinel that perpetually watcheth for us We behold in Heaven with the eyes of faith an infinite number of chosen souls who read our necessities in the bosom of God written with the pen of his will and enlightened with the rays of their proper glory who apply this knowledge to their beatified understanding Behold the objects of our
humble he is and the more humble the less sensible is he of the crosses which happen to things without us VIII We must prevent occasions and not afford them too much power over our hearts in all those things the loss whereof may trouble us IX To eschew the occasions of places of persons recreations and affairs which use to disturb the peace of our minds X. If one feel himself inwardly moved to bridle the tongue that so the apprehensions of the heart may not break forth To reenter into your self To ask truce of your passion stedfastly believing that you shall pardon many offences if you begin to understand before you grow angry Against vanitie I. To represent to ones self very often the extream vanitie of all worldly things II. The misery of the present state wherein all things invite us to humility III. The vanity of opinions which afford us nothing but wind IV. The blindness incapacity inconstancy perverseness of mens judgements who often love and admire all that which is the most vitious V. The frailty of honour and reputation which is sought by unlawful ways VI. The tortures and torments of a vain spirit VII The ostentation in good successes the discouragement in bad VIII The surprizal of his practices and imperfections which cannot be hidden from the most judicious IX The worm which gnaweth all good works by the means of vanity and the shameful deprivation of eternal comforts to attend the search of earthly smokes Against gluttony I. Represent unto your self the miserable state of a soul bruitish and bemired in flesh II. Hardness of heart III. The dulness of understanding IV. The infirmities of body V. Loss of goods VI. Disreputation VII What a horrour it is to make of the members of Jesus Christ the members of an unclean creature VIII What indignity it is to adore and serve the belly as a bestial and base god IX The great excess of sins which proceed from this source X. The punishments of God upon the voluptuous Against intemperance of tongue I. To consider that it is the throne of vain-glory II. An evident sign of ignorance III. The gate of slander IV. The harbinger of scoffing V. The Architect of lying VI. The desolation of the spirit of piety VII The dissipation of the hearts safety VIII The inseparable companion of idleness as saith S. John Climacus Against Sloth The indefatigable labour of all creatures in the world both civil and natural II. The facility of good works after grace given by Jesus Christ III. The anxiety of an inconstant and fleeting spâ—rit IV. Shame and contempt V. The confusion at the day of Judgement VI. The irrecoverable loss of time Of three temptations which hinder many in the way of perfection to wit shame of well-doing over-much affection to some creature and pensiveness in well-doing The nineteenth SECTION Against the shame of well-doing MAny would quickly be in the way of a life truly Christian having souls of an excellent temper and pious relishes of God but that they have one temptation who would believe it it is the shame of well-doing Their souls are big with Eagles stone good desires resembling the Eagles stone which ever hath another in it and never brings it forth So have they in their hearts according to their own opinion a good resolution seriously to embrace devotion but the fear of what men will say scattereth as many good thoughts as the heart can conceive What practice of remedies will you have against this pusillanimity effeminate soul Onely consider what you do and if you be ashamed it can be of nothing but of your self Unworthines to be ashamed of wel-doing First I ask who maketh you blush in the service of your spouse Do you blush at his poverty At his deformity At his ignorance Or tell me what decay have you observed in him to imprint a blushing vermillion on your face Poor How can he be so since he maketh all rich Deformed How can he be so since he is original beauty spred over all the creatures of the world Ignorant How can he be so since he is the Eternal Wisdom Tell me then what have you to be ashamed of Some will say that you would seem to be virtuous and devout Do not so but be so indeed If you have not cause to blush for Heaven why should you blush for virtues which are the daughters of Heaven Behold what sacriledge you commit Shamefac'dness is made for vices It is the veil wherewith nature covereth them when they endeavour to hide themselves and you will shadow virtues Alas the Martyrs have become red with bloud to preserve devotion and you blush with shame to betray it A feaverish respect towards some creature which passeth away in the turning of a hand hindereth perhaps thirty or forty years of virtue O misery Secondly what have you so much to excite and Number of the devout should settle you drive you forward in well-doing Think you your self to be at this present the onely creature in the world which tasteth devotion A thousand and a thousand well qualified have advanced the standard of piety If the number of the bad authorize wickedness why should not so goodly a troup of honest men furnish us with confidence enough to vanquish one impious fantasie which verily is nothing nor hath any substance but what your remisness affordeth it Then tell me in the third place what is it you so Doubt and childishness of this shame much fear to addict your self wholly to devotion The twinkling of an eye a silly smile a breath of words which quickly passeth and hurteth none And behold why you forsake God What is more easie to be overcome than all that A little silence answereth all It is not required of you you should oppose your arms against the violent stream of a torrent Silence onely is demanded and to hope well which are the two easiest things of the world Will Isai 11. In silentio spe erit fortitudo vestra you put a great affront upon a babler who flouteth at your devotions Answer him not All he saith is to put you into passion your impatience pleaseth him your silence confoundshim In the end he cannot say so much but that you may hear much more He hath but one mouth and you have two ears Let Michol revile and persist you in dancing 2 Reg. 9. before the Ark your patience shall stop all mouths and in the end purchase all crowns But you fear What ' you should fear you cannot persevere in the way of virtue and that many changes may cast some aspersion of inconstancy upon you You do well to fear your self if you so much expect perseverance from your self But if you look for it from God ought you not to have more hope of his goodness than fear from your own infirmities You are not advised to make your devotions eminent by some notable alteration extraordinary in the exteriour
fourth SECTION Practice of temperance TEmperance taken in general is a virtue which S. Thom. 2. 2. quaest 141. represseth the appetites of concupiscence in things that please the senses especially of touch and Temperance the first tribute of sanctitie tast The temperance of touching consisteth in chastitie that of tasting is properly abstinence and sobrietie It is the first virtue which God seems to have required of man from the worlds in fancie the first tribute of sanctitie and innocencie which our first parents could not leave without loosing themselves and all posteritie A virtue which is the horizon that separateth vegetative man from the intellectual A virtue which raiseth us from the earth and bringrth us near to heaven A virtue which makes a noble soul shine in a mortal bodie as a torch of odoriferous wood in a Christaline watch-tower On the contrarie a bodie surcharged with kitchin-repletion holdeth the soul as one would a smoking snuff of a candle in a greasie lantern The acts of this virtue are I. In refection to have no other rule but necessitie Refection of bodie S. Aug. Conf. 1. 31. Hoc me docuisti ut quemadmodum medicamenta sic alimenta sumpturus accedam no other aym but the glory of God and entertainment of the bodie for the service of the soul Saint Augustine after his conversion came to meals as himself saith as into an infirmarie to take a medicine II. To take all the necessities of bodie as the Aegyptian dog doth the water of Nilus running thereby saving himself from superfluous excesse To take them as the souldiers of Gedeon drank at the fountain in the hollow palms of their hands cheerfully not prostrating themselves on the ground or as the dove taketh grains of corn pecking her meat up with her bill and turning her eye to heaven III. To eat and drink with all civilitie decencie discretion and seeing we must use this necessarie trade of a beast to do it at least like a man IV. To abstain from prohibited meats in times limited by the Church exactly to observe fasts devoutly ordained by the same authoritie and practiced by our Ancestours not becoming nicely curious nor repining at Lenten abstinencies To prescribe also a law to your self of some fasts of devotion upon certain dayes of the week and especially friday as many noble personages have done and daily do Gallen that great Physitian advised to Fast of Gallen Joann Sarisâ— Policr lib. 8. make a fast from ten days to ten in the manner of a physical prescription affirming it was an excellent mean to defend ones self from great and dangerous maladies V. To be very sober in drinking to take little wine and mingle it well Drunkenness saith Saint Ambrose is a superfluous creature in the world It S. Ambros de Elia Jejun A drunkard what is the scorn of nature it is an old shoe soaked in water A man is no longer a man but a bottle perpetually filled and emptied He lives like a But which doth nothing but leak and roul up and down and when the head thereof is knocked out you find nothing there but lees and dregs wine is a familiar or spirit which possesseth him and is the milk of Venus which nourisheth his concupiscence All his life is an enterlude and drunkennesse his tomb All men truely great are sober It is utterly to degenerate from Nobilitie to be addicted to this infamous vice You who serve Kings who are in their Royal seats Vae qui potentes estis ad bibendum as the Sun in the heavens remember your selves that heretofore in the Sacrifice of the sun hony was offered not wine VI. To be very temperate in the quantitie of viands Phylocorus Histor lib. 12. For it is a very great shame to make ones self as it were a living sepulchre of all sorts of butcheries and build to your self a tomb of fat with excesse in eating as did the wretched Dionysius spoken of by Aelian who had grooms of his chamber about his bed ever readie night and day to prick him with needles with distances between lest his fat conspiring with sleep should suffocate him On the other side it is dangerous to destroy your stomach by scrupulous and extraordinarie observations of your own inventing which may put you into a course of providing pain for your self and attendance for others VI. Not to be so curious in the choice of delicate meats but to take them indifferently according to your quality and profession It may happen that a Noble man feeding on a curious dish with sobriety may observe temper and another cracking his guts with beans fall into a nasty superfluity of gourmandise The virtue of temperance is not so much in the matter as the manner It is written that a great Roman Lord being retired into the deserts of Egypt to attend contemplation was one day visited by an Aeyptian Monk who had all his life time been a gross peasant bred among cows and cattle and had an iron stomack which in excessive quantity devoured the most sordid and despicable meats This man much scandalized to see the Roman Monk feed on that which seemed delicate to him and to drink a little wine at his repast forsook his Cell with small account of his host and much presumption of his own temper when the other miraculously penetrating into his thoughts reprehended him and he at that time easily acknowledged himself very short of his perfection whom he despised VIII Not to have your mind employed on sauces Shameful law of the Sybarites and kitchin-cookeries as those lasy Sybarites who made such account of a new kind of broth found out that by an express law they permitted the authour thereof to enjoy it alone one whole year before the invention should be communicated to any other IX Not to enlarge your thoughts upon viands Strang greediness with a greediness and profusion of spirit as if one would swallow the sea and fishes therein as Epicharmus writeth of a certain gentleman who bowed his whole body in eating crashed his teeth made a noise with his chaps blew his nose rubbed his ears made a certain sound in his throat all his body went a long with it A true mediocrity of feeding is to be neither too greedy and gluttonous nor too abstinent or transported but modest in your countenance prompt to help prudent to see what is done and to prevent want in others It would ill become Notable distraction a Noble man so to abstract his spirits at the table as those good religious men of whom it is recorded in the history of the Anchorets of Aegypt that they took capon for cabbadge They were at Theophilus the Patriarch of Constantinoples table and did eat like mad men thinking they still had been in their Monastery It happened the Bishop carving to the eldest of them gave him the wing of a capon and courteously said unto him Father eat hereof
conduceth to inform the judgement And besides he that in all actions hath not memory when there is occasion to manage some affair oftentimes findeth he hath not well called to mind all particulars which putteth him into confusion Behold why as all men have not servants for memory as had the Kings the great men of Persia and Romans it is necessary to have recourse to registers records and table-books to help your self Some are of so happy memory that they go as it is said to gather mulberries without a hook to the well without a pitcher into the rain without a cloak Understanding II. To be intelligent and able to judge well and for this purpose he must endeavour to know the men with whom he converseth their nature humour their capacity intention and proceeding to penetrate affairs even to the marrow not contenting himself with the outward bark and superficies To Docibility consider them in all senses all semblances To put a tax upon things according to their worth not to run into innovations and cunning inventions which disguise objects To take counsel of the most understanding Choice saithful and disinteressed men to condescend to good counsels by docility of spirit after they are well examined ever to rest upon that which hath most honesty integrity security III. In every deliberation which one makes upon 4. Rocks of prudence any occasion to preserve ones self from four very dangerous rocks which are passion precipitation self-conceit and vanity Passion coloureth all businesses with the tincture it hath taken Precipitation goeth headlong downward into ruin Self-conceit not willing to forgo some hold gnaweth and consumeth it-self Vanity maketh all evaporate in smoke IV. To have a great circumspection and consideration Circumspection Pagulus Junius not to expose your self but to good purpose To doe like that sea-crevis which hideth himself till he hath a shell over his head and striketh no man To spie occasions out and mark how the little hedg-hog doth into what quarter the wind changeth to alter the entrance into his house To stand always upon your guard to discover the ambushes and obstacles which occurre in affairs To hold the trowel to build with one hand and the sword in the other to defend your self Well to observe these four precepts To have your face open but your thoughts covered from so many wiles which perplex our affairs To be sober in speech Not lightly nor easily to confide in all men nor on the other side to shew too much diffidence V. To be very vigilant in affairs to fore-see what Fore-sight vigilance may happen in occasions and prompt to find out means which may forward the execution of a good design You find yet to this day in some old medals for a Hierogliph of prudence a mulberry-tree Hierogliph of prudence having a crane upon his branches and on the stock thereof a Janus with two heads To teach us that one proceedeth in matter of prudence first by not precipitating no more than the mulberry the wifest of all trees which is the last that blossometh to enjoy them with the more security and thereby to avoid the pinching nips of frost In watching as the crane doth who abideth in an orderly centinel In casting the eye upon what is past and fore-seeing the future as this ancient King of Italy to whom for this cause is given a double face VI. To use dexterity promptitude and constancy Execution in the execution of things well resolved on that is the type and crown of prudence Many brave resolutions are seen without fruit or effect which are like egs full of wind All is but a shadow and a meer illusion of prudence Seasonable time must be taken for as Mithridates one of the greatest Captains of the world saith Occasion is the mother of all affairs Occasio omnium gerendarum rerum mater A notable medal and time being well taken you must execute warily effectually constantly Ferdinand Duke of Bavare seems to have made a recapitulation of the principal actions of this virtue upon a piece of coyn where was to be seen prudence like a wise virgin seated on the back of a Dolphin and holding in her hand a ballance with this motto in three words Know Choose Execute quickly The virgin bearing the Cognosce elige matura ensigns of wisdom said you must know The Ballance that you must ponder and elect with mature deliberation The Dolphin with his agility that you must set a seal upon your businesses by a prompt execution VII In the conclusion of the whole the best wisdom True prudence is to distrust your own judgement and to expect all from heaven often asking of God not a wisdom humane crafty and impious which is condemned but the wisdom of Saints which investeth Cogitationes mortalium timidae incer tae providentiae nostrae sensum autem tuum quis sciet nisi dederis sapientiam Sap. 9. us with the possession of a true felicity The thoughts of mortal men are fearful and their providence uncertain My God who is able to know thy meaning if thy self give him not wisdom Behold the virtues which guid the senses and conversation of man against the disorders of flesh and bloud the chief plagues of nature Let us now survey those which oppose the second impurity to wit covetousness Of the vritues which oppose the second impurity called covetousness to wit poverty justice charity The seven and twentieth SECTION Poverty of rich men THere are three sorts of poverty poverty of necessity poverty by profession poverty of Three sorts of poverty affection Poverty of necessity is that of the wretched a constrained needy and disastrous poverty Poverty by profession is that of Religious professed by their first vow which is meritorious and glorious Poverty of affection is an expropriation from the inordinate love of terrene goods We speak not here to you O Noble men of the poverty of rogues which is infamous nor of that of the Religious which to you would be insupportaable and to your condition unsutable but of the poverty of affection the practise whereof is necessary for you if you desire to be Cittizens of Heaven The practise is I. To acknowledge all the goods and possessions Practice of the poverty of affection you have are borrowed which you must infallibly restore but when you know not You live here like birds who are always hanging in the air where either fortune dispoileth or death moweth the meadow and then it never groweth again It is a great stupidity of spirit a great unthankfulness to God if you account that to be yours which you may dayly lose and which in the end you shall forgoe for ever Think not you have any thing yours but your self If August ep ad Armentar Paulinam Divitiae si diliguntur ibi serventur ubi perire non possunt Non sublime sapere nec sperare
in incerto divitiarum 1. Tim. 9. you love riches put them in a place assured for eternity II. If you be not poor live in riches like the poor Oftentimes place your self in thought even in that state you were born in from your mothers womb or in that state you must return unto in the earth You then will have no cause to become proud of your riches when you shall see your self encompassed with false feathers fastened together with wax which with the first rayes of the other life will scatter and flie away III. Never suffer gold and silver to predominate over you like a King but hold them under obedience like a slave All these things come from the earth and are made for the use of an earthly body What esteem can a Soul make of them unless she become terrestrial If you regard necessity you have but very little need of them if your own sensual appetites you shall never satisfie them Leave concupiscence and serve necessity IV. Live in such a manner that if you did know it to be purely and simply the will of God you should from this day be despoiled of all your wealth and nothing left you but so much as would suffice to entertain life you notwithstanding would shew this change to be acceptable to you saying with holy Job God hath given it to me God hath taken it from me his name be praised Theodoret makes mention Martyr of poverty Same 's of a very rich man a Persian by nation and a Christian by profession called Same 's from whom the King of Persia took all his plentiful possessions depriving him of gold silver garments stock revenues and retinue and not contenting himself with that gave his wife and house to a servant of this holy man further enforcing him to serve as a slave to this varlet most ungrateful and barbarous to his good Master Behold herein whither humane miseries may arrive Notwithstanding Same 's a rock of constancie was never a whit shaken having this maxime well imprinted in his heart that for accessories we must never lose the principal V. Govern your house in all frugality and modesty Make the expences which you know to be necessary and agreeable to your estate not as a possessour but as steward and know you shall be accountable Divitem te sentiant pauperes of the poors portion before God Apprehend not so much the future time either for your self or children nor afflict your self for present or passed loss Likewise when you have good success in your affairs pass over it as a wary Bee over honey not clamming your wings according to the notable sentence of S. Augustine in his Epistle to Romanian Living in August ad Romani ep 113. Non frustrà in nullis copià pennas habet apicula nectiâ— enimhaerentem this manner although you have Craesus his wealth you shall live happily poor It is said that a great Pope with all the riches which he had and dayly distributed for supply of needy mankind was thought to be poorer and as I may say more expropriated than a silly Hermit who had nothing in his Cell but a Cat he now being become a Master over his own affections The eight and twentieth SECTION Practice of Justice THat which the air is in the elementary world Necessity of Justice the sun in the celestial the soul in the intelligible justice is the same in the civil It is the air which all afflicted desire to breath the sun which dispelleth all clouds the soul which giveth life to all things The unhappiness is it is more found on the paper of Writers than in the manners of the living To be just is to be all that which an honest man may be since justice is to give every on what appertaineth to him It 's Actions are I. To subject within us the body to the soul and First Justice the soul to God For the first actions of injustice are to place passions upon Altars reason in fetters and not to search for the Kingdom of heaven but in the sway of our own private interests II. Concerning him who sits in place of magistracy to have an ardent zeal for the maintenance of lawes to bend all his endeavours to apply all the forces of his mind and courage to authorize justice to strengthen his arme against the torrent of iniquities and to put all his peculiar interests under the discharge of his employments He must have a great spirit to carry himself in that manner and especially in a world of corruptions A good and perfect justicer like unto Job is a Phenix Ages as scarcely produce Job 19. him and when he dyeth he contristates the whole world Where shall you find him who can attribute to himself this rare commendation couched Justitiâ indutus sum vestivi me sicut vistimento diademate judiâ—io meo Oculus fui caeco pes claudo Pater eram pauperum contereâ—am molas iniqui de dentibus illius auferebam praedam Helmodi Chronicon Admirable Justice without favour in the books of this worthy man I am clothed with justice as with a garment I am adorned with righteousness as with a diadem I have been an eye to the blind a foot to the lame a father of the poor I brake the jaw-bones of the unjust man took the prey out of his teeth III. Not to know the favour either of parents friends flesh or blood when there is occasion of doing an act of justice as Canutus King of Denmark did who after he had examined the process of twelve theeves and condemned them found one who said he was extracted of royal blood It is reason saith the King some grace should be done to him wherefore give him the highest gibet So the famous Zeleucus to satisfie the law pulled out one of his own eyes and the other of his son So Andronicus Commenus caused publiquely to set one of his favourite on the pillory and commanded all those who wrought mischief under the hope of his favour either to leave injustice or life So the Emperour Justine suffered one of his greatest minions to be apprehended at his own table by the Provost and thence dragged to execution IV. To abhor those who betray justice either for Peremptorium est in principe vel auram adorari munerum vel favorem quaercre personarum Cassiod Ignis devorabit tabernaculâ— corum qui munerà accipiunt Job 15. Oath of Magistrates under Justitian money revenge love or any other passion as monsters of nature murderers of mankind to hold them anathematized with the great excommunication of nature Not to admire their fortune nor in any sort to participate in their riches to become a companion in their crimes holding this undoubted that the fire of Gods judgement will devour their Tabernacles who practise these corruptions In the form of an oath exhibited under the Emperour Iustinian the Magistrates sware to maintaine
our ingratitude or disability II. To be thankfull not onely in the presence of the benefactour by some little vain ostentation of acknowledgement but to publish it to others in time and place and to retain it as it were engraven in a respective memorie III. To recompence him according to power not onely in proportion but superabundantly which that it may be the better effected to consider what is given to us from whom when and how A benefit is ever best accepted from a friendly frank and free hand and many times from whom it is least expected in a pressing necessitie A benefit from a harsh man given as it were frowardly is a stonie loaf of bread which necessitie enforceth us to take not free-will It is no gift when that is given which can no longer be withheld as Emanuel the Emperour who Sordid liberalitie of Emanuel Conunus seeing his full coffers in the hands of the Persians said to his soldiers Go take them I give them to you It is a negligent and remiss giving when the extream want of a poor man is expected As the fountain of Narni which never distilled its streams Leander in umbrià but on the eve of a famin A small courtesie seasonably done deserveth much and that was the cause why King Agrippa made a poor servitour named Joseph lib. 18. antiq Thou mastus the second man in a kingdom for having given a glass of water Thaumastus the second person of his kingdom for that he had given him a glass of fair water in his great necessitie when under Tyberius he was tied to a tree before the Palace of the Emperour and endured a most ardent thirst IV. As it is not good to suffer a benefit to wax old so it is not always expedient to recompence it so readily as if we bear our obligation with impatience and that we had an opinion this benefit came to us from a hand besmeared with bird-lime with intention to grasp another The best way is to let your observances creep into credit in time and place with so much the more precaution as they ought to have the less of ostentation The thirtieth SECTION Practice of Charitie SAaint Ireneus as we have said calleth charitie a Eminentissimum charismatum S. Iren. l. 4. c. 63 S. Maximus Occonem cent 1. 38. Reg. 4. c. 2. Plenitudo legis Charita Aug. tract in epist Joan. Derothem 5. Bibliothec. PP Doct. 6. most excellent present from heaven the top and zenith of all virtues gifts and favours of God Saint Maximus saith it is the gate of the Sanctuarie which leadeth us aright to the vision of the holy Trinitie It is the double spirit which Elizeus required wherewith to love God and our neighbour Behold the whole law behold all perfection You are not much to afflict your self saith S. Augustine to become perfect Love God and then do what you will For if you desire to know whether your love towards God be real and not counterfeit mark how you love your neighbour By how much the lines draw nearer one to another so much the more they approch to the center By how much the nearer you approch to your neighbour in love by so much the nearer you are to God The Actions of this Royal virtue are Acts of Charitie I. To have an affectionate delight in God for that he is God all-wise all-good all-powerfull all-amiable all-just all mercifull the original fountain of all wisdom goodness power beautie justice mercie Most heartily to rejoyce that he sitteth in the throne of glorie as in an abyss of splendour adored without intermission by all the celestial powers by all the Saints by all the exalted Spirits To desire that all the creatures in the world might adore and serve him that all understandings were replenished with the knowledge of him all memories with his benefits all wills with his love Such was the affection of that good Fryer Giles companion to Saint Francis who was much moved in beholding the beauties of God and afterwards wept bitterly because as he said love was not beloved enough Amor non amatur II. To be sensibly sorrowfull for the impieties heresies infidelities errours sins dissolutions which have covered the face of the earth To resent the injuries done to God as one would the rebukes of a good father of a loving brother or of some person most tenderly affectionate as the apple of your eye It is an admirable thing to see in Scripture a poor Mervelous zeal of a Lady Princess daughter in law of Heli falling in travail upon the news brought her of the taking of the Ark of covenant and death of her husband and neighbours for her neither to think of father brother husband no nor the pains of her child-bearing nor to complain of any thing but of the surprisal of the Ark and to have dying these words on her lips Farewel the glory of Israel since the Ark of God is taken 2. Reg. 4. Translata est gloria de Israel quia capta est Arca Dei away what zeal is this in a woman And now adays one cannot loose a greyhound a curtal jade a bird but all the house is filled with noice and outcries whilest for injuries done to God the hearts of men are very insensible III. To love all mortal men as creatures made to the image of God but above all the faithfull in the qualitie of persons destined to the sovereign beatitude to wish them true blessings as justification grace virtues spiritual progression glory Moreover to desire they may be fortunate in riches honour credit good success in their affairs if such comforts may conduce to procure them beatitude IV. Never to despise never to judge rashly never to interpret other mens actions in an ill sense but to compassionate their infirmities bear their burdens excuse their weaknesses make up and consolidate the breaches of charitie happened by their fault to hate imperfections and ever to love men yea even your enemies Therein the touch-stone of true charitie is known The means to preserve one from his enemies is to pardon enemies said S. Augustine One Disce diligere inimicum si vis cavâ—re inimicum Aug. in Ps 99 of the goodlyest spectacles able to attract Angels to to the gates of heaven to behold it is neither Theaters Amphitheaters Pyramids nor Obelisks but a man who knoweth how to do well and hear ill and to vindicate himself from ill by doing well Cardinal Petrus Damianus relateth how he being a student at Faenza one told him of an Act of charitie happened as I believe in his time at the same place of which he made more account than of all the wonders of the world It was a man whose An excellent passage of charitie eyes another most trayterously had pulled out and this accident had confined him in a Monasterie where he lived a pure and unspotted life yielding all offices of charitie according
to give beginning to your Sacrifice IX This action should serve as a preparative to another more long and serious devotion which you are to make in your closet when first you come out of your bed If you have so gorgeous garments to put on that necessarily you must bestow some notable time to dress you it is a miserable servitude Observe you not it should be done to render your tribute to God Then cloath your self indifferently Exercise of the morning as much as shall be necessary for comlyness and health Afterward with bowed knees use five things Adoration Thanksgiving Oblation Contrition Five things to be practised and Petition Adoration in adoring God prostrated on the earth resounding like a little string of the worlds great harp and offering to the Creatour this whole universe as a votive-table hanged upon his Altar wholly resigning your self to his will For this act it is very expedient to use the Hymn of the three children in the fornace who called all creatures as by a check-roul to the praises of God Thanksgiving for all benefits in general and particularly for that you have happily passed over this night The Church furnisheth us with an excellent form of thanksgiving in the Hymn Te Deum laudamus Oblation of your faculties sences functions thoughts words works and of all that you are remembering the sentence of S. John Chrysostom That the worst avarice is to defraud God of the oblation of your self Offer to God the Father your memorie to replenish it with profitable and good things as a vessel of election to the Son your understanding to enlighten it with eternal verities to the Holy Ghost your will to heat it with his holy ardours Consign your bodie to the Blessed virgin to preserve it under the seal of puritie Contrition in general for all sins and particularly for some vices and imperfections which most surcharge you with a firm purpose to make war against them and extirpate them with Gods assistance Petition not to offend God mortally nor to fail with grace light and courage to resist those sins to which you are most inclined To practice those virtues which are most necessarie for you To be guided and governed this very day by the providence of God in all that may concern the weal of your soul bodie and things external To participate in all the good works which shall be done in the Christian world To obtain new graces and succours for the necessities of your neighbours whom you then may represent and this by the intercession of Saints wherewith your prayer should be seasoned Spiritual lesson It is then to very good purpose to spend some quarter of an hour at the least in reading some spiritual book imagining it as a letter sent from God to you for direction of your actions X. When you put on your apparel to acknowledge Cloathing your great servitude so to serve with much industry the most abject and brutish part of man To think you garnish a body which even this very day may be a putrified rottenness What time and diligence had Jesabel used in the last day of her life to adorn and deck a body that was trampled under the feet of horses and gnawn by dogs some few hours after Masse must be heard at a due hour in the manner Masse before related and that is a most especial act of devotion XI The second employment of the day is in Affairs the affairs which one mannageth whether it be for the publick or for your own particular in the government of your familie or discharge of some office A good business is a good devotion and nothing is so much to be feared as idleness which is a very antheap of sins He who taketh pains said the ancient Fathers of the desert is tempted but by one devil he that is idle by them all There is no person so noble or eminent that ought not to find out some employment If iron had the reason of understanding it would tell you it better loved to be used by much exercise than to rust and consume in the corner of a house XII In the practise of charges offices affairs to use knowledge conscience dexteritie diligence Knowledge in learning that which is profitable to be known for the discharge of dutie in informing ones self of that which cannot be guessed at in hearing counsel examining and weighing it with mature deliberation Conscience in administering all things with integritie according to laws both divine and humane Dexteritie in doing all things discreetly peaceably with more fruit than noyce In such manner that one shew not anxietie in affairs but like that Prince of whom in ancient time one said That in the most busie occupation he seemed ever to have the greatest vacation Diligence observing occasions well and performing every thing in time and place He that hath never so little spirit and good disposition shall always find wherein to employ himself principally in the works of mercy both spiritual and temporal amongst so many objects of our neighbours miseries XIII Time of repast recreations sports and visits Recreation should be very regular for fear nature be not dissolved in a lazy and bestial life greatly unworthy of a noble heart Away with gluttony play detraction curiosity scoffing babling Let the conversation be as a file to smooth and cleanse the spirit and ever to adapt it to its proper functions XIIII One should not in affairs recreations retirements omit at some times to elevate his heart to God by jaculatory prayers Happy are they who Elevation of heart to God in every hour of the day do make unperceivably some litle retrait in their hearts casting their eye like a lightning-flash upon the hour past and foreseeing the direction of the next Above all after dinner it is fit to reenter into ones self and to see the good order which hath been given for the execution of the mornings good purposes XV. In the evening before you go to bed you Evening are to use examen of conscience Lytanies and other vocal prayers with the preparation of the meditation of the next day happily to shut up the day with acts of contrition faith hope charity prayers for the living and dead Thereupon settle your self to sleep with some good thought to the end according to the Prophet your night may be lightned with the beauties of God If any interruption of sleep happen mark it out with jaculatory prayers and elevations of heart as anciently the Just did who for this cause were called the crickets of the night This doing you shall lead a life replenished with honour repose satisfaction towards your self and shall each day advance one step forward to eternity The marks which amongst others may give you a good hope of your predestination are principally twelve First A lively simple and firm faith 2. Purity of heart which ordinarily is free from grievous sins 3. Tribulation
strangers have had an ill report raised by occasion of their houshold servants who ministred matter of suspition either through excess of their bravery or their gentle garb and handsomness of proportion too lovely either for their age proper to wantonness or the vanity of a haughty spirit or confidence in the favour of their Mistress All that by prudence should be prevented which the world through malice may imagine I desire not to see about you a houshold Steward so spruce nor any servant who may savour of an effeminate Comedian no wanton musician the true instrument of Satan to poison your ear with his warbling Have nothing remiss nothing which may smell of the stage in your family but rather Quires of widdows and virgins to be an honour to your sex and to serve as a recreation in your most innocent delights Let the reading of godly books never be laid aside and let your prayers be so frequent that they may serve as a buckler to repel the fiery arrowes of evil thoughts which ordinarily assail youth Let virtue consummate the good which intemperance had prepared for it self Redeem virgins to present them to the chamber of the spouse Take care of widdows to mingle them as violets amongst virgins and Martyrs It is a garland you shall give to God for his crown of thorns wherein he bare the sins of the world It is very hard and almost impossible to cut away all the seeds of passions which we may call avant-passions because concupiscence sootheth our senses and insinuateth it self very subtilely but it is in the power of the will to dismiss or entertain them The God of nature said in the Gospel evil thoughts homicides adulteries fornications thefts false witness-bearings blasphemies Matth. 15. proceeded from the heart The spirit of man is more propending to evil than good from the first cradle of infancy and in this battel of the spirit and the flesh whereof the Apostle speaketh our soul is almost Galat. 5. 1. wholly floating and knows not to what part to incline No man comes into the world without bringing vice and ill inclinations with him and he is the best who hath the least evil and can preserve a fair body amongst many little infirmities The Prophet said he was troubled and that thereupon Psal 76. he held his peace He tells you one may be angry without sin like Architas the Tarentine who said to his servant I would chastise thee were I not angry which sheweth it was no sin but a simple passion for otherwise anger puts not the Justice of God in execution That which is spoken of one passion may be understood of another It is proper to man to be moved with choller and for a Christian to overcome choller So the flesh desires carnal things and by the itch thereof draweth the soul to mortal pleasures But it is your part to quench the heat of lust by the love of Christ and to conquer the flesh when it seeks liberty by the help of abstinence in such sort that in eating it may search for nourishment not lust and bear about the spirit of God descending into it with a firm and even pace Every man may be subject to passions which are common to nature We are of one and the same clay of the same element Concupiscence may as well be found in silk as in wool It neither fears the purple of Kings nor contemns the poverty of beggers You were better have the disease of stomach than will Rather let the body obey than the spirit and if you must needs make a slippery step do it rather with the foot than modesty not flattering your self before sin with pretence of a future penance which is rather a remedy of misfortunes than an ornament to innocents For you must ever defend your self from wounds where sorrow serves for remedy To Maids The thirty eighth SECTION The praises of virginity and the modesty they ought to observe in their carriage THe great S. Basil calleth virginity the perfume S. Basil apud Melissam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the living God and I note from the thirtieth chapter of Exodus this perfume of God which is spoken of was composed of four ingredients to wit of Galbanum Myrrhe Onyx and Incense Galbanum is the juice of an aromatick herb as white as milk and which borrowing its name from milk figureth unto us the whiteness and purity of virginity Myrrhe it is mortification Onyx a kind of little oyster from whence issued a most odoriferous savour signifies its constancy and Incense in flames its patience in tribulations But as for purity I say reasonable nature hath engraven on the hearts of all mortals and namely maids so particular a love of integrity that souls the most prostituted to sin have ever had some remorse and feeling of the honour they had forsaken Should I prove this by a passage of Scripture or a Father it were the less effectual because it may be said chastity ought to be praised by such lips I will evict this verity from the confession of a Pagan to let you understand it is a voice of nature Behold a passage of Seneca whom I have ever much admired Senec. natural quaestion l. 1. c. 16. Est aliqua etiam prostitutae modestia illa corpora publico objecta ludibrio aliquid quo infelix patientia lateat obtendunt adeò lupanar quoque verecunâ—um est It is a wonder saith he that prostituted women still retain some modesty and that those bodies which seem not to be made but to serve as an object for publick uncleanness have ever some veil for their unhappy patience The infamous place it self is in some sort bashfull See the cause why there never hath been any people so loose and exorbitant which afforded not some honour to chastity convinced by their own conscience But we must likewise affirm it was never known to be true purity until the standard was advanced by Jesus Christ and his most Blessed Mother We find even among those who lived in the law of nature some shadows of chastity We have from the relation of Tertullian that one Democritus voluntarily made himself blind by earnest looking on the Sun that he might not behold the corporal beauty of women shutting up two gates from love to open a thousand to wisdom But what chastity is this I pray since himself confesseth he did it not for any other purpose but to be freed from the importunities of lust seeking out therein his own peculiar ends not the honour of the Creatour A Christian Champion proceedeth much otherwise He hath eyes for the works of God and none for concupiscence He pulleth not out his Tertul. Apolog Christianus uxori suae sâ—li masculus nascitur animo adveraùs libidinem caâ—us est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Meliss 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a O continentiam gehennae sacerdotum diabolus praecipit auditur nihil apud eum refert
by the gate of infidelity could not raign but in the disastrous miserie of his Countrie Although Hircanus should yield up his right be were dispensable in this his modesty The more unworthy he should esteem himself to rule the more were his worth The glorie which he endeavoured to decline in the undervaluing of his own person would wait upon him even to his tomb Yea should they object to him his great sweetness facility of nature it were more suitable to the piety and gentleness of the Jews If doves were to choose themselves a King they would rather have a statue than a spar-hawk This wilie spirit by such like remonstrances quickly found much credulitie partly in the minds of those who affected innovation partly amongst such as were guided by justice but all saw not how under the colour of publike good he sought to raise a Monarchie for himself or his heires He thus having already put the iron into the fire gained the heart and opinion of Hircanus by all kind of observances and restimonies of amitie which was a matter not hard to do this Prince suffering himself to be governed by those who made shew of any the least affection towards him Behold him now as Cunning of Antipater Procurator Tutor and Master of this flexible spirit whom he so under pretext of friendship possessed that the actions of Hircanus sought no other issue no other extent but as they were guided by the thought and counsels of Antipater Notwithstanding when he proposed to him to make war against his brother to repossess himself of the Royal Throne he found his heart all of ice was fain to use his best endeavour to enkindle him by reason of the excessive coldness of nature In the end he on day plainly discovered to him That this abrenunciation of rule which he had transacted with his brother was a thing incompatible with his honour and life What eye would not be dissolved into tears to behold him despicable and wretched whilst his brother lived in all superabundance and pomp It were to confound the Laws of nature it were to authorise tyrannie to say that little theeves should live in fetters and Aristobulus who had usurped a Kingdom sit in silken robes and resplendently glitter in diamonds That a Kingdom was a shirt which never was to be put off but with life That they were tales of lasie Philosophers to affirm that Diadems were tissued with thorns their Rubies and Diamonds never having pricked any man The life which Hircanus then led was good for a Religious Essean but not for a King To conclude that the people desired with passion to see him reestablished in the throne of his Ancestours He plied the ear of the Prince with so many forcible words that he already began to gain him but yet found himself combated by two powerfull reasons the one was his oath by which he had renounced principalitie and the other his weakness From the oath Antipater absolved him saying he had sworn to a sin and that there was no obligation to execute it For inabilitie he made overture unto him of Arabian succours which he had in his power So that finding him wavering upon this wicked passage he cast into his soul black jealousies of his brother as of him who after he had usurped his estate would enterprise on his life counterfeiting conspiracies framed against him with so much art that Hircanus yielded himself up and gave him an absolute commission to make war or peace as best pleased him This concluded the apple of discord is cast Antipater faileth not to solicite Arethas the Arabian King who cometh with a huge Armie to fall upon Palestine not without barbarous hostilities and lamentable desolations even to the neer straitning of Aristobulus and the holding him besieged in Jerusalem the capital Citie of his Kingdom But as the greatest serpent devoureth the lesser it Pompey in Palestine happened about the time of these undertakings the Romans under the conduct of Pompey the Great making their Eagles to glitter in Syria and leading an Armie of fire before which the pettie Kings were but as chaff forced the Arabian to retire into his kingdom they marching in all parts victorious and undertaking to give law peace and war to whom they pleased The two brothers fail not to seek the gracious favour of the Roman every one in his own way with their best endeavour well seeing that therein was the main of the business Aristobulus as the more free couragious and royal found in the very beginning most favour having presented to the Roman amongst other largesses a golden vine one of the most curious workmanships of the world which was afterward seen to serve as an ornament in the Capitol In the end behold the two brothers contesting at the feet of Pompey to plead not for a meadow or a wine-yard but for a Kingdom little considering that putting their fortune into the hand of a stranger who had no other law but his own ambition under the shadow of arbitration he would fix his tallons Antipater beholding from the beginning the ballance to bend towards Aristobulus as unto him from whom the Romans had most cause to hope readiest service for their pretences spared not to disgrace him to lay aspersions on him to cast the Romans into a distrust of his spirit and perpetually play the sleeping dog before Pompey in such sort that Aristobulus forseeing well that this pernicious man abusing the name and weakness of his brother sold them both to the Romans stood upon his guard having more animositie than abilitie to resist the armie of a vast Empire The poor Prince shrinking under the burden of such an enterprise is taken put into fetters with two of his sons and as many daughters and was lead to Rome to serve as a sport in Pompeys triumph Jerusalem is Aristobulus prisoner Jerusalem tributary made tributarie the High-Priests place given to Hircanus and all authoritie in the hand of Antibater It was a spectacle which drew tears even from those who before loved not Aristobulus to behold this unfortunate King in fetters with the Princes his sons and those much to be deplored Princesses his daughters all heires of their fathers miseries who left their countrie where they had flourished with so much honour to seek amongst tedious and irksom voyages both by sea and land servitude or death which ever is the ordinarie vow and prayer Antipater established of the wretched Antipater as yet all bloudie gathered the Palm of this victorie and establisheth his little Monarchie which he a long time had plotted Hircanus resembled an old sepulchre which retaineth nothing but a bare title all was acted by him in apparance and nothing for him in effect the other entertained and courted the Romans with his money gave presents sent and received Embassadours practised supports gained correspondencies corrupted powers ruined resistances which opposed his greatness and made this poor High-Priest
Anthony could find no other way to make Herod to be acknowledged for King while there was yet any of the bloud Royal left capable of rule so much this people loved their natural King and abhorred a stranger After these slaughters Herod mounteth to the top Entry of Herod to the crown of the wheel behold all the thorns as he thinketh pulled out of his feet he now had nothing to grapple with but an old man an infant and two women the last remainder of the noble race of the Asmodeans Hircanus was the aged man who in truth grew old among the thorns and horrible changes of his state He was as yet captive among the Parthians but the King although a Barbarian had so much commiseration of his so greatly afflicted goodness that he permitted him to live with all free libertie in his Citie of Babylon This poor Prince who had passed his whole life void of ambition bare the change of his fortune with great equalitie and temper of mind The Jews who at that time inhabited in the Parthians dominions beholding him all wounded disfigured wretched abandoned disarrayed did notwithstanding honour him as their King with so much respect and reverence that he had almost found a Kingdom in Captivitie Herod who saw this man might serve as a colour for those spirits that would aym at him in the swinge of his affairs as yet not well confirmed dispatcheth an express Embassadour to the Parthian King with many presents and letters sweetned with silken words wherein he besought him not to bereave him of the greatest contentment he could possibly have in this world which was to be grateful to those who had obliged him Hircanus said he was his benefactour his Protectour his Father and since God had given him some repose in his affairs it was an unspeakable comfort to him to share the scepter greatness and affluent content of Kings with a friend so faithful worthy to be beloved The King of Parthia willing to gratifie King Herod whom he beheld supported by the Roman Empire the power whereof he more feared than honoured the virtue gave free leave to Hircanus to go whither he would he put the business in consultation with the prime Peers of his countrie who much disswaded him But through the easiness of his singular nature which ever swallowed the bait without consideration of the hook he yielded himself to the dissembled courtesies of Herod and returned directly to Jerusalem where he was received with infinite demonstrations of amitie Behold the whole Regal familie in the hands of this Tyrant Hircanus had but one onely daughter named Alexandra a woman no whit of her fathers temper for she was extreamly haughtie and had much adoe with herself to bite the bridle in this servitude She was mother of two children one son and one daughter the son was the little Aristobulus and the daughter Mariamne married to Herod Mariamne was accounted the most beautiful Princess Marriage of Mariamne to Herod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Euphonie Mariamne of the earth for Gellius who went prying after all the beauties of the world to make relation thereof to Mark Anthony having well considered all the most exquisite Master-pieces of Nature when he beholdeth Mariamne in Palestine he protesteth all other beauties were terrestrial in comparison of this which seemed to have been composed amongst the the heavenly Orbs. This man saw nothing but the exteriour bark and was rapt with admiration but her form was not worthy esteem in comparison of the noble qualities of her mind She was a grandchild of the great Machabees well versed in the Law of God discreet wise stayed circumspect courteous chast as Susanna but above all couragious and patient who lived in Herods Court as Job on the dunghil Never beautie and virtue were so disgraced in any match This creature which had power to make so many brave Princesses to sigh for her and who might have beheld so many obsequious services done at her foot hath now Herod for her husband who had nothing humane in him but lineament and figure It was to match the Lamb with the Wolf the Dove with the Faulcon and to tye a living body mouth to mouth with the the dead to marrie such a Lady to so Prodigious a Monster But he who already had power in his hand passionately sought her as well for her in comparable beauty as besides for ever to establish his state considering the alliance of this little creature descended from so many Kings would cover the obscuritie of his house and gain him more reputation among the Jews Hircanus grand-father to Mariamne and Alexandra her mother seeing Herod was Master of his desires the Scepter already in his hands although by injustice and tyrannie measuring all things by his fortune not person judged this way might be yet advantagious and that his wife might mollifie him and make him favourable to the Royal bloud The generous Lady well foresaw that the putting her into Herods hands was to cast her into the Lions jaws But not to gainsay those to whom she had been taught to sacrifice her whole life and to obey the Laws of necessitie she under-went the yoke fortifying her Royal heart against all the stormy tempests which seemed already to menace her Behold her married Herod loveth her as the hunter venison for his appetite and advantage his love being not of power to make him loose one sillie grain of his ambition or crueltie This perverse Herod depresseth the Royal stock and violent spirit who held the Kingdom as a wolf by the ears ever wavering yea even in the secure safetie of his affairs endeavoured nothing but to rid himself of those whose spoils he possessed the respect of this good Queen being not able to sweeten or soften his savage humours He well shewed how little affection he bare towards her allies when it might any way import his pretended interest even at that time when there was question to substitute a High-Priest in the place of Hircanus who having his ears cut off with much deformitie necessarily fell into the irregularity ordained by Law which forbad him Altars Herod daily saw the Aristobulus the brother of Mariamne put from the High-Priesthood young Aristobulus in his Palace son of Alexandra and sole brother of his wife a most accomplished Prince to whom every one destined the Myter He sets his eyes a-wandering and finds out on the further side of Euphrates in the Citie of Babylon an unknown Jew named Ananel and createth him High-Priest This was a pill which Alexandra the mother of Aristobulus and Mariamne could not swallow yet thought fit to dissemble it She saw her house manifestly dejected in that her son after so many obligations was dispossessed of an honour to which bloud nature and the consent of the whole world called him to give it to a man of no value she could not so well digest her choler but that she thundred more lowdly than
of water God made his birth and education singularly to Extraction of Theodosius contribute to the sanctity of his life He was descended from Trajan called the good Emperour by supereminence of worth his Grand-father was the great Theodosius a man who in wariness had no superiour that preceded him and in piety no better second than his Grand-child The Emperour Arcadius was his father a most generous Prince who in the very beginning of the fifth Age to wit the year after the Nativity of our Saviour four hundred and one saw this infant rise as a bright star at that time when he ended the course of his life as the Poets feigned the Sun reareth himself from the bed of aged Tython to illustrate the world His nativity was foretold His birth foretold by the mouth of Saints his most tender infancy consecrated by the destruction of idols God at one and the same time putting him in the number of the living and in the rank of Protectours of the Church by a most remarkeable act of which behold the narration Saint Procopius an Hermit endowed with admirable Prophesie of S. Procopius sanctity illumined with the spirit of prophefie living in the Isle of Rhodes praying daily for the destruction of some remnants of idolatry which reigned in the Roman Empire when by good chance two holy Prelates Porphyrius and John the one Bishop of Gaza the other of Caesarea in Palestine sayling for that purpose to Constantinople went to lodge in the Hermitage of this holy man He having received them with all respect answerable to their qualities and entertained them according to the poverty of the Cell understanding they travelled to the capital Citie of the Eastern Empire of purpose to obtain an Edict from the Emperour absolutely to destroy the Temples of idols and bridle the insolencies of Pagans who stirred with so much the more boldness as the drouping faintness of the government of those times promised them impunity he was infinitly comforted to see so great personages undertake so worthy a work and God then prompting him these words he saith Courage Fathers the glory of this conquest is due to your pietie Go stoutly to Constantinople and acquaint the holy Bishop John Chrysostom with this design resolving to execute what he shall think fit For the rest know the Empress is nine moneths gone with child and that which is more she beareth an Emperour in her womb upon the mother and the son who is to be born depends the expedition of this affair They very glad of this prediction left the good Hermit Procopius and in ten days arrived at Constantinople where presently they visited S. John Chrysostom who received them with much respect and very great contentment The affair being put into deliberation the Bishop of Constantinople saw well that the Empress might therein much assist and that God ordinarily useth the pietie of women to advance the affairs of Religion Notwithstanding he durst not present these two Prelates to her fearing his recommendation might be prejudicial for he very lately had a sharp difference with the Empress It was Eudoxia a woman Eudoxia mother of Theodosius of a great spirit and who naturally loved virtue as milk in her infancy but she had a heart extreamly haughty and quickly would be offended if any thing of great consequence were undertaken against her authority Behold wherefore S. Chrysostom who was of no pleasing disposition as one who had a spirit alienated from ordinary complements sometimes towards those of his own coat reprehending her openly at many meetings in the point of glory wherein she most desired to be soothed raised her indignation to the clouds She was as yet in the height Her humour of her passion against him and therefore he judging it to no purpose for him to sollicite her caused the two Bishops to be presented by the means of one called Amantius an attendant of Eudoxia's chamber a very wise man and of great credit with his Lady She who knew her child-bed time at hand gave very free access to religious men as hoping all good success by help of their devotions and seeing these two Bishops Bishops treat with the Empress were very particularly recommended to her by Amantius in quality of persons endowed with a very eminent sanctity she was unsatisfied till she had seen them and having most courteously saluted them excusing her bigness with child to have hindered her passage to the door of their reception according to the usual practice towards persons of their worth she forbear not most affectionately to conjure them to employ their most fervent prayers to obtain of God a happy delivery for her The holy Bishops after they had wished her the child-birth of Sarah of Rebecca and Saint Elizabeth began to declare the cause of their voyage unfolding in very express terms the indignity of this Idolatrie the insolency of Pagans the contempt of things sacred the oppression of people the lamentable mischief it would be to behold the worshipping of idols still to flourish which to abolish the Saviour of the world had so much sweat so much wept and shed so much bloud and to see it predominate as it were in the eyes of a most magnificent Emperour and a most religious Empress who had all the means to extirpate it That in such a field the palms of eternal glory should be gathered and that better they could secure their estate than by destroying the work of Satan to erect the tropheys of Jesus Eudoxia taketh fire being thereto otherwise well Zeal of Eudoxia enough disposed and promiseth to recommend the business to the Emperour to obtain the dispatches they required for their better contentment The Bishops retired expecting the effect of this promise The Ladie faileth not to offer her requests and strike the stroke with her best dexteritie But Court affairs proceed not always on the same feet which the desires of the zealous move upon she findeth the Councel engaged in these retardations who think it to no purpose to roul such a stone That idolatrie should Judgement of Arcadius his Councel be left to bury it self and at leisure dress its own funerals That the means to ruin it is to remove the heads of the sect from all kind of honours and publick dignities to forbid the exercise of superstition and Conventicles which they make in private houses to subdue Idolaters and burn them as it is said with a soft fire That the demolishment which should be made of those great Temples of Idols which yet remained would make much noise and yield little fruit that this might thrust rebellious spirits into manifest despair and in a word it was feared it might be a means to turn the coyn of the Emperours coffers another way who drew a good round revenue from the Citie of Gaza which even at that time was in hand The consideration of interest which ever holdeth as Porphyrius unfoldeth the
PULCHERIA Long live the Second S. Helena God preserve the Saint Preserve the Orthodox Preserve Her who is the Guardian of Faith What tropheys of Alexanders and Caesars are comparable to such honour Raderus who hath learnedly written her life maketh a collection of her titles and calleth her the holy Pulcheria ever a virgin always sacred a virgin out of marriage a virgin in marriage daughter of an Emperour wife of an Emperour Mistress of Emperours Protectress of Popes Guardian of faith Bulwark of the faithfull Honour of the Church Glory of the Empire the new Helena the new Miracle of the world the new Example for posterity The titles which Saints have given her and her name in the quality of a Saint have been couched in the Menologe of the Grecians and the Roman Martyrologe the 10th September a month wherein she passed from this world to the glory of Saints in the year of our Lord 453. And Martianus her husband being not able to live without this celestial soul fled quickly hence after her to enjoy the recompence of his piety Of whom behold here the Picture and Elogie P. F. AVG. IMP. MARCIANVS FL. VALERIUS MARTIANUS SOLA VIRTUTUM COMMENDATIONE AD IMPERIUM EVECTUS PULCHERIAE CONJUGIS INTEGRAE INTEGER CONJUX MODERATUS DOMI PRINCEPS FORIS ATTILAE FURORI MODUM IMPOSUIT QUASSATUM IMPERIUM CONTRA PARTHOS ET VANDALOS CONFIRMAVIT PRUDENTIA ET ORTHODOXAM FIDEM ADVERSUS EUTY CHEN TUTATUS EST FIDE VIXIT AETATI SATIS IMPERIO PARUM SIBI SEMPER VICTURUS OBIIT ANNO CHRISTI CDLII IMPERIO VI. MENS VI. Upon the picture of MARTIANUS A Man without estate Souldier untrain'd Husband not wiv'd an Emperour unstain'd Whose strength triumphant acts and virtues bright We may his proper children call aright What did he not since in himself he made No change but to a Scepter from the spade LEt us return now to our pilgrime Eudoxia who Eudoxia lived in the holy land in the Eutychian heresie lived in the holy land not being in the way of sanctity A woman endowed with a goodly body and a fair spirit hath the charge of a vessel very hard to be steered more of such suffer shipwrack than reach the Haven The good Princess departed from Constantinople in grief gall and anxiety which proceeded from the change of her fortune and that which is more seduced also with the heresie of the wicked Eutyches Theodosius her husband yielded at the first encounter and submitted under the obedience of the Church Eudoxia still persisted so apt the nature of women is to maintain an errour with obstinacy She had but too much wit to be deceived and yet not prudence enough to discover the deceit A wolf clothed in the skin of a sheep that is to say one Theodosius a false Monk who had gained her under appearance of sanctity and much wrought upon her during her abode in Palestine wholly plunged her in the mire of heresie which she supported in his favour and endeavoured to illustrate by the subtilitie of her wit How was it possible but this heresie of Eutyches masked with the false zeal of reverence towards the Person of the Son of God might not ensnare a woman very easie to take impressions which had semblance of devotion since even divers holy Hermits who numbred many years in austerities and penance before they were well informed suffered themselves to be transported with this novelty Among others the great Gerasimus was seen to fall that Angel of the desert who tamed Lions and used them as Mules was beheld involved in the snares of this infamous Apostata from whom he afterward freed himself by the mercy of God It was a lamentable thing to see this poor Empress who had forsaken all the greatness of Court to live in retired solitariness thus caught in the nets of her own judgement She thought daily to amass infinite heaps of good works in the exercises of piety which she incessantly practised and it was but dust she bare in her hands blown away by the wind of presumption God would not loose this fair soul which he had enchased in a beauteous body to make her in the end of her days an exact miracle of virtue and as she kicked somewhat too eagerly against so many testimonies of verity he resolved to break this feminine pride with the iron rod of another very sensible affliction Eudoxia's affliction in her daugher She was then in her own opinion out of the danger of inconstancy but had still one part of her self upon the Imperial Throne who received all the violence of the storm to make the effects thereof pass into her heart by the painfull counterbuff of a love which could not be renounced without a petty apostacy in nature Eudoxia her onely daughter inheritrix of the name Strange disorders in the Roman Empire and beauty of her mother was married to Valentinian Emperour of Rome to be the subject of a wofull tragedy and to make posterity behold that too eminent greatness is often ruined with thunder This Valentinian sisters son of the Emperour Honorius cousin of Theodosius not being able to content himself with the springs of his own house according to the proverb and repose himself in the beauty of a Princess so accomplished as he in lawfull wedlock had espoused daily went a hunting after change in the infinity of forbidden loves The sensuality of this Lust ruineth Empires Prince so much displeased God that for this vice he ruined in his person this great Roman Empire which so many times had caused her victorious chariots loaden with Palms and Laurels to pass over the heads of the Kings and Monarchs of the world so often had it been shaken and so many times established by concussion needs must a wicked sin of luxury interpose irrecoverably to entomb it The Emperour then beholdeth with a wanton eye the wife of an eminent Senatour named Maximus and seeing this Lady was honest and loyal to her husband he thought her a bird not easily caught Behold he resolveth to trie all the priviledges of his power and break all the bands of equity to give vent to his passion What doth he Behold he inviteth Maximus to a sumptuous and royal banquet which he had prepared miserable man who knew not this feast was a snare laid to entrap the honour of his wife After supper Valentinian inviteth him to play under the colour of passing away the time which he most willingly did and so heateth him in game that after he had lost all he gageth down the ring off his finger wherewith he used to seal his letters Valentinian wan it greatly rejoycing not so much for the value of the gemme in it which was of great price as to have found a passage to his treacherous design He presently dispatcheth a gentleman with this ring who bare news to the Lady that her husband sent for her to the Palace to salute the Emperour This was a very well
her the news thereof The Empress saluted him very courteously and disposed her heart to speak to him touching a certain sum of money she desired to give for the entertainment of his Monks but the good man divining the thoughts of her heart saith to her Madame trouble not your self for this money there are other affairs which more concern you know you very shortly must depart out of this world and now you ought to have but one care which is to entertain your soul in that state you desire it should part out of this life Eudoxia at the first was amazed at this discourse It seemeth souls as Plato saith go not but with grief out of fair bodies but this was too much disengaged to do in the end of those days any unresigned act After she had a long time talked to Euthymius as one would with Angels she gave him the last adieu full of hope to see him at the Rendez-vous of all good men Returning into Ierusalem she had no other care but to set a seal upon all her good works then distributing whatsoever she had to the poor she expected the stroke of death freely and resignedly her soul was taken out of her body throughly ripened for Heaven as fruit which onely expects the hand of the Master to gather it She was about threescore years of age having survived Theodosius her husband and Pulcheria Flaccilla Marina Arcadia for all of them went before her into the other world she was married at twenty years of age she spent twenty nine in Court and as it were eleven in Jerusalem she deceased in the year of our Lord 459. the 21. year of Pope Leo and the 4. of the Emperour Leo Successour of Martianus A woman very miraculous among women who seemeth so much to have transcended the ordinary of her sex as men surpass beasts More than an Age is required ere nature can produce such creatures They are born as the Phenix from five hundred to five hundred yeare yea much more rare A great beauty great wit great fortune a great virtue great combats great victories to be born in a poor cottage as a snail in his shell and issue out to shew it self upon the throne of an Empire and die in an hermitage all is great all is admirable in this Princess But nothing more great nothing more admirable than to behold a golden vessel with sails of linnen and cordage of silk counterbuffed by so many storms over whelmed and even accounted as lost in the end happily to arrive at the haven Behold her Potraicture and Elogie AVGVSTA EVDOXIA EUDOXIA AUGUSTA THEODOSII JUNIORIS CONJUX EX HUMILI FORTUNA IN MAGNUM IMPERIUM TRANSCRIPTA SCEPTRUM VIRTUTIBUS SUPERAVIT CELESTIS INSTAR PRODIGII FOEMINA INGENIO FORMA VITA SCRIPTIS ET RELIGIONE CLARISSIMA CUM VICENIS NUPTA ANNOS XXIX EGISSET IN IMPERIO ET UNDECIM FERME IN PALESTINA HIEROSOLIMIS RELIGIOSISSIMO EXITU VITAM CLAUSIT ANNO CHRISTI CDLX AETATIS LIX Upon the picture of EUDOXIA Fortune unparallel'd beauty her own A spirit that admits no Paragon Divine immense although it seem to be 'T was but the Temple of the Deitie HEr example drew an infinite number of great Ladies to contempt of pleasures and vanities of Court to seek the Temple of repose in the deserts of the holy Land Among others Queen Eudoxia her Grand-child who as we have said was married into Africk treading the world under foot with a generous resolution came with her Crown to do homage at the tomb of her Grand-mother kissed her ashes as of a holy Empress and was so ravished with the many monuments of virtue she had erected in the holy Land that there she would pass the residue of her days and choose her tomb at the foot of that from whence she derived her bloud and name It is a great loss to us that the learned books written by this Royal hand have been scattered for those varieties of Homer which are extant are not Eudoxia's Photius much more subtile than Zonaras to judge of the works of antiquity maketh no mention thereof in the recital of the writings of this divine spirit but of her Octoteuch which he witnesseth to be a worthy heroick and admirable piece Behold that which is most remarkeable in the Court of Theodosius And verily for as much as concerneth the person of the Emperour he did enough to make himself a Saint by living so mortified in his passions in the delights of a flourishing Court It is a meer bruitishness a very plague of mans soul to make no account of Princes but of certain braggards vain brain-sick and turbulent spirits who fill histories with vain-glorious bravadoes whoredoms murders and treacheries these are they of whom the spirit of flesh an enemy of God proclaimeth false praises and such an one seemeth to himself sufficiently great when there appeareth a power in him to do ill A calm spirit united docible temperate though he have not so many gifts of nature is a thousand times to be preferred before these vain-glorious and audacious who are onely wise in their own opinion valiant in rashness happy in vice and great in the imagination of fools It is good to have the piety of Theodosius and to let over-much facility work in praying and pray in working to have the beak and plumage of an Eagle and the mildness of a Dove to lay the hide of a Lion at the feet of the Stature of piety As for Pulcheria she was the mirrour of perfection among the great Princesses of the earth yet not without her spots but still giving water to wash them away And for Eudoxia you find in her what to take what to leave many things to imitate few to reject but an infinite number to admire Behold in the end the Fortunate Pietie which I have set before your eyes as a golden statue not onely to behold it in passing by but to guild your manners with the rays and adorn your greatness with the glory thereof Who will not admire the prosperity of the Empire of Constantinople in the manage of Theodosius of Pulcheria of Martianus under the rule of piety and not say Behold the world which trembleth in all the parts thereof under the prodigious armies of Barbarians who seem desirous to rend the earth and wholly carry it away in fire and bloud from the center Behold the Roman Empire which hath trodden under foot all Scepters and Crowns of the earth ruined dis-membred torn in a thousand pieces in the hands of a vitious Emperour who buried it under the shivers of his Scepter and behold on the other side God who preserveth his Theodosius his Pulcheria his Martianus among these formidable inundations which cast all the world into a deluge as heretofore he did Noe in the revengefull waters which poured down from Heaven to drown the impurities of the earth What nurse was ever so carefull to drive a flie from the face of her little infant while
unfold according to the succession of Ages the Elogies of great men who in the practice of the world flourished in all piety to cast confusion upon the foreheads of such who being heirs of their bloud and fortunes alienate themselves so far from their merit Yet cannot I absolutely promise any thing First because the exercise of preaching and other ministeries afford me little leisure to write and although I might have some time for this purpose yet have I some other labours upon the holy Scripture of a longer task which would require their season Secondly I see many worthy men who much more ably can perform it than my self my talent is small and my pen is slow it can hasten nothing I must ponder my works before I publish them though very imperfect They ever seem to me too soon to take flight and light I would as it were perpetually hold them by the wings Briefly it is no small labour to find so many Saints in Courts You know the Philosopher who searched for men with a candle at noon-tide and had much ado to find any How much more difficult think you is it to meet with Saints especially in the decrepitness of this Age wherein there is little vigour and many maladies If you require books of me I say give me Saints although verily I rather should endeavour to engrave sanctity in my manners than writings The time will come when books shall be gnawn by moths on earth and works in Heaven esteemed LAUS DEO THE HOLY COURT THE SECOND TOME TREATING OF The PRELATE The SOULDIER The STATES-MAN The LADIE Written in French by NICHOLAS CAUSSIN of the S. of JESUS Translated into English by Sr. T. H. DEUS EST NOBIS SOL ET SCUTUM LONDON Printed by WILLIAM BENTLEY and are to be sold by John Williams at the Crown in St. Pauls Church-yard 1650. To the RIGHT HONOURABLE EDWARD D'SACKVILE Earl of DORSET Baron of BUCKHURST Lord Chamberlain to the Queens Majestie Knight of the Noble Order of the Garter and of his Majesties most Honourable PRIVIE-COUNCEL RIGHT HONOURABLE THe eminent and well deserved place your Honor holds in the Court of her Majesty to whose gracious favour the first part of my Work was heretofore humbly consecrated emboldens me in the adventure of this present address to your Honour nor shall there I hope any notable disproportion appear to the eyes of the judicious that I thus purposely select your Honour to wait on her HIGHNES in a printed Dedication who at Court in so near a degree daily attend on her Sacred person The great and general applause with which France hath entertained the whole Work in the original gave encouragement to my pen to continue that first labour in the translation of this Second piece Here may be seen the Court of a great and glorious Prince standing conspicuous to all eyes like a goodly fabrick raised on four fundamental columns two of which the Souldier and the Sates-man may not improperly seem to reflect on your Honour The first when in the fair occasions of his Majesties fit employments his just reason shall at any time call you forth into action The second in the present and frequent use he hath of your well matured counsels Both which by masculine courage and sober wisdom aptly personated in CONSANTINE and BOETIUS are here presented to the life as strong patterns for imitation It is your Honours patronage that thus brings them with the rest into the fruition of English air and me by this opportunity into the grateful acknowledgement of many favours received from your Honour which since I cannot make known by more real demonstrations I offer this poor endeavour to supply the plentifull desires of him who resolves to persist The humble devoted servant of your Honour T. H. TO THE WISDOM of GOD INCARNATE ETernal WISDOM Supream INTELLIGENCE behold me prostrate before the abyss of your great and Divine lights to offer up the homage of my person and book acknowledging the nothing both of the one and other and protesting to have neither spirit nor pen which is not of You and for You who are the source of good thoughts and accomplishment of all praise-worthy discourses The Design and Order of this BOOK WE have to speak properly but two great Books Heaven and the Bible which shall never perish The rest bear some sway and have some lasting among men yet in conclusion we find their ends but the most part of those which are written in these days fall into the world as drops of rayn into the sea of which the Ocean neither feeleth the approach nor departure I exposed my first Tome of the HOLY COURT amidst such a throng of Writers as it were with this conceit thinking I carried a little dew into a great River and that when I had spoken some truths as it were passing along I should in my birth bury my self in the tomb of so many volumns which is excusable by the law of necessity and honourable for the multitude and quality of those which are there to be found Notwithstanding I see that God who guideth our lives and pens hath been pleased this work should gain some estimation and that as it hath exceeded the merits of its Authour so hath it surmounted his hope exposing it self with some fruit and comfort by an endeavour which I shall never think ill employed This hath again put the pen into my hand to continue what I had begun whereunto such Honourable personages have perswaded me with motives so reasonable that having small ability to undertake a second labour I had likewise less power to refuse it Such as complain my pen hath not soon enough satisfied their desires must remember that though tardiness be a mother somewhat unpleasing yet are not the children therefore deformed The production of good Books should not resemble that of certain birds which according to the saying of an Ancient issue from their mothers before they are born Symposius but we must a long time form and foment them in our minds that they may appear in publick for it is a very poor business by precipitation to be able to hope no other thing but through haste to fail that you may repent at leisure I rather fear the reproach of rashness than delay because in this mortal state wherein we live all our perfectest actions are no other than gross essays of perfection This may be spoken without extenuating the worth of some celestial wits who make expedition and goodness walk hand in hand it being absurd that those who are unable to imitate them should boast infirmities opposite to their abilities For my part I content my self to afford good liking and admiration to the Works of others reserving nothing else but labour for mine own And although notwithstanding my endeavour I never find sufficient satisfaction in this Book to please those Readers whom I have found so propitious yet doubt not but I have in some sort
torch do you set on fire to burn and consume the house of God when blind with affection and benummed in judgement you so embrace your young apes that you strangle them with excess of indulgence To enkindle ambition in the veins of these yong sots almost at their coming out of the cradle to set them on the top of the house over mens heads with an arm and sling of silver be they vitious be they impious and dissolute be they stupid and heavy as earth so that they have the breath of favour and oars of silver as had the rowers of Queen Cleopatra needs must they be placed on the top of the Turret to be seen the further off Many times charges of great importance and superintendence over the heads of so many mortals are given to men to whom a silly farmers wife would not have committed the keeping of a cow The Idumeans enterprize upon the Sanctuary and these owls endeavour to drink up the Lamp-oyl of Churches by an ambition of so strong a flight that it will admit no limits but infinitie Have you no commiseration of the publick The Commonwealth is at this day an old song say you whereof little care is to be had we desire to know more than an air which is that of our own proper interest since it is an act of prudence well to accommodate ones affairs Yet are you no whit ashamed of your selves though silver furnish you with a brow of mettal to regard no man yet is it a shamefull thing to be desirous to erect in the world the tree of Nebuchadnezzar turned topsie-turvie where four-footed beasts are above and little birds beneath Were it not a goodly thing to see horses asses and bulls to neigh bray and bellow upon the branches of trees while the small birds of Heaven so many celestial spirits thrust from the rank which wisdom and virtue giveth go mourning up and down among the thorns of a necessitous life But we must prefer our children answer you Who says the contrary Raise them on the steps of actions Christian solid and illustrious cause them to pass through the Temple of virtue before they go to that of honour examine their talents their capacity their ability otherwise you do not advance but precipitate them into publick scorn into loss of reputation and danger of soul This benefice is not a benefice but a malefice but a golden snare a carcanet of Medea a Trojan horse which will produce arms You in procuring such an honour resemble those idolatrous parents who sacrificed their children to the God Moloch that is to Seldenus de Diis Syris pag. 78. say to the Sun and caused them to be burnt alive in the hollow statue of the Sun not caring to forgo their lives so they might loose them in those flames and lights which were the Hieroglyphicks of honour Oh meer madness for the life of a flie which we daily share with death to be willing to damme your self and posterity to stand on the brink of the abyss and not deign so much as onely open your eyes to behold the precipice The third SECTION Of vocation or calling IF you desire to know how you should proceed in the preferment of your children to Ecclesiastical degrees first understand it is true Mercury is not made of all wood If question be concerning a husbandman merchant artificer or shepheard we trie the nature of the children and endeavour to accommodate each one of them according to their dispositions and natural inclinations Suppose you it is onely fit for the Church to expose them at adventure without election or discretion What exorbitancy is it to think it lawfull to take the simplest and weakest for Priests and Religious What tyranny to divert some with all sorts of cunning and violence and thrust others on as it were with a fork To have in all your proceeding no other aim but the benefit of your family to force the Laws of Heaven to bow under the interests of your house to give that to God which you cannot settle else-where and if any accident happen to take that from God which you have given him Hereby it cometh to pass that after many years we behold birds which change both their plumage and kind upon some very slight cause not speaking of those who do so by way of counsel and conscience the scarlet Cloak succeeding the Church Cassock and the sword the Breviary wherein they do much worse than the wooers in the house of Ulysses who being not able to gain access to the Mistress made their address to the servants But these forsake the Ladie whom they have espoused to court the chamber-mayds professing all their life time the infidelity of their promises by the exchange of their habits Vocation is most necessary for admittance into the Church which appeareth in two points The one ordinary the other extraordinary Extraordinary calling hath marks and signs that draw near to a miracle So we see those who have been great and eminent in the Church have had some Genius which hath even in their infancy made the first glimmers of their greatness to appear drawing the whole world after them with astonishment So Moses though he were a little child tossed Pharaoh's Ioseph Antiq. lib. 2. cap. 5. Diadem like a shuttle-cock which gave a very ill presage to the Aegyptians of their approching ruin So Elias seemed from his mother to suck fire with milk which was a prediction his mouth should one day be as indeed it was the Arsenal of the God of hosts So the cradle of S. Epiphanius as Ennodius Epiph. de Prophetis Ennodius Anonymus in ejus vitâ Raderus Crantzius l. 4. relateth was seen all on fire A vine in a vision issued out of the mouth of little S. Ephraem A flaming pillar environed the head of S. Modestas And it is written that Gregorie the seventh who from a base extraction was born to the throne of S. Peter heaping together the chips he found in his fathers shop who was a Joyner and arranging them in divers figures innocently wrote without thinking thereon as a child in sport Dominabor à mari usque ad mare All these callings and many other of the like kind are known by extraordinary signs the rest take the ordinary way and are observed to be in the good nature of children fit to be dedicated to the Church which is a matter very considerable If you ask wherein this good nature consisteth I answer It is not in the influence of stars nor in the Genius as Pagans have placed it nor simply in the beauty of mind in the goodness of constitution health strength vigour of body though these may much contribute thereunto but it appeareth in two principal rays of which the one is tranquility from passions by making a reposed calm in a soul fit to entertain the spirit of God the other which ariseth from the first is the docibleness of a mind
tractable with ease to dispose it self to inclinations of honesty Behold these two principal heads whereon this excellent nature of an inestimable price is established And first forasmuch as concerneth the tranquility of passions it is undoubted that every man being composed of four elements by consequence draweth along four roots of all the motions thereof which are Love Fear Pleasure Sorrow There is not a man which feeleth not some touch But as every sea hath his winds though Mariners observe that some are more tossed than others so though every soul have its passions we must confess there be some of them are mildly disposed and others more roughly distempered You see men who from their most tender age tast of strange extravagancies choller harshness rage despight which maketh them to be of a spirit fantastical uncivil and obstinate against which you must ever fight with an armed hand Others from their cradles are endued with a peaceable soul as a sea in the time that Halcyons build their nests on the trembling agitation of waters they have inclinations to virtue wholly Angelical in such sort that they seem to be as it were conveyed therein as fishes in their element From this repose from passions ariseth the second condition of good nature that is docibleness of spirit the beginning of education and happiness of life For as Divines require in those who receive faith a certain Religious affection to divine things discharged and purified from all spirit of contradiction so in matter of moral virtue and piety we stand in need of a tractable soul which fixeth it self on good instructions as the ivie cleaveth to trees and pillars Go not then about when you make choice of an Ecclesiastical man to tender some Esau some spirit of the field who is onely pleased with arms and slaughter of beasts Take rather a Jacob under the pavilions a sweet and temperate spirit that is wholly disposed to the sound of virtues But you Noble Spirits who have met with this excellent Ezech. 28. Omnis lapis pretiosus operimentum tuum foramina in die quâ conditus es preparata sunt nature I may speak the words of the Prophet unto you God hath given you a soul wholly covered with precious stones enriched with gifts and admirable talents he hath enchased it in a body endowed with a singular temperature as a diamond set in the head of a ring Much hath he given you and therefore much requireth at your hands The seventh SECTION Of Virtues requisite in the carriage of a Prelate The first is Wisdom DO you demand what God requireth from you I answer five principal virtues which were very wel represented in the ephod of the High-Priest of the old law as S. Gregorie the great (a) (a) (a) Greg. de Pastor p. 2. cap. 3. hath well observed This ephod was a certain mantle that covered the shoulders composed of four colours of hyacinth purple white and scarlet the whole wrought all over with threeds of gold enterlaced with curious work-manship Why this dressing why these colours To teach you seasonably to bear on your shoulders the conditions requisite to your profession The hyacinth or skie-colour signifieth the first thing you ought to do is to flie as the plague of virtues from these travantly and unworthy spirits who have no other object in the possession of the goods of the Church but flesh-pots and play you are to frame for your selves a soul totally noble wholly elate meerly celestial which conceiveth strong resolutions one day to dedicate it self to God not in a mercinary manner but with the utmost endeavour of its power Think not (b) (b) (b) Mediocre nè putes quod tibi commissum est Primùm ut alta Dei videas quod est sapientiae Deinde ut excubias pro populo Dei deferas quod est justitiae castra defendas tabernacula tucaris quod est fortitudinis Teipsum continentem ac sobrium praestes quod est temperantiae Amb. de Oâ—â—ic lib. 1. saith S. Ambrose that being called to an Ecclesiastical state you have a slight commission from God Wisdom requireth you consider the mysteries of Heaven and that you be highly raised above the ordinary strain Justice willeth you to stand centinel for the people who expect aid from your prayers Strength desireth you to defend the Tabernacle and Camp of the God of Hosts Temperance ordaineth you live with singular sobriety and continency You are said Saint Isidore of Damieta (c) (c) (c) Isido Polusiota lib. 3. ep 2 placed between divine and humane nature to honour the one with your sacrifices and edifie the other by your examples A Priest (d) (d) (d) Sacerdos debet esse Christi alumnus à peccatis segregatusrector non raptor speculator non spiculator dispensator non dissipator pius in judicio justus in consilio devotus in Choro stabilis in Ecclesiâ sobrius in mensâ prudens in letitiâ purus in conscientiâ assiduus in oratione patiens in adversitate lenis in prosperitate dives in virtutibus expeditus in actibus sapiens in sermone verax in predicatione Alphons Torrez ought to be as a young child issued out of the school and bosom of the son of God even as an Angel to govern the Church not to despoil it to treat with God in prayer not to handle a sword He should be entire in his judgements just in his resolutions devout in the Quire firm in the Church sober at table prudent in recreations pure in conscience serious in prayer patient in adversity affable in prosperitie rich in virtues sage in words upright in preaching and free in all good actions Great S. Denis the dreopagite (e) (e) (e) S. Dionys ep 3. ad Demophilum addeth a notable sentence saying That he who most especially seeketh to transcend others in holy Orders ought most nearly approach to God in all sorts of virtue For which cause your education should not be in the ordinary way If you have brothers that are to be bred for the world let them live in the practice and fashions of the world O how unworthy are you of the hopes to which God calleth you if you envie them the favour of the house and of those I know not what kind of petty trifles of their own profession Your condition is much other if you follow that spirit which guideth you (f) (f) (f) Bern. l. 4. de consid c. 6. Vbi de comitatu Episcopi inter mitratos discurrere calamistratos non decet Heretofore Monasteries were the chief schools of Kings and the Great-ones of the earth to cause them to suck in virtue with the milk your abode should be in places where you have engaged your heart and your faith which best can prepare and manure you for the life you have chosen It is truly a scandal to your profession if you be ashamed to wear a habit proper for an Ecclesiastical man and blush at the
satisfaction of my mind but the establishment of my fortune Notwithstanding I have wholly left it through a most undoubted knowledge that we cannot resolve on any thing solid therein Judge you what you please but ever a well rectified spirit will be ashamed to profess a science not supported by reason and which knows almost no other trade but to deceive This at that time somewhat startled him but stayed not his purpose so much he loved to deceive himself and so much he resolved to find out this secret in the end But ever as he waded further not discovering firm land he found trouble in a barren labour and much vanitie where he to himself proposed some soliditie Nothing confirmed him so much in contempt of this folly as the discourse he had with Firminus a young man of eminent qualitie sick of the same disease that he was for the curiositie of Astrologie ceased not to incite him as being born of a father an Astrologer a man of honour but so curious that he calculated the very horoscope of cats and dogs that were whelped in his house yet so little had he profited therein that at the same time his son came into the world a servant of his neighbours being delivered of a male-child he foretold according to the rules of his art that both of them being born under one same constellation should run the like fortune which was so false that this Firminus his son being born of a rich family progressed far into the honour of the times whilest the son of the servant notwithstanding the favours of his goodly horoscope waxed old in servitude This young man who made this narration though convinced by his own experience still suffered himself to be beguiled with his proper errour so difficult it is to take away this charm by force of reasons Our Augustine by little and little dispersed those vapours both by the vivacitie of his own excellent judgement and the consideration of others folly He was likewise solicited to attempt a kind of magick much in request among the heathen Philosophers of that Age which was to seek predictions from the shop of the devil by means of the effusion of the bloud of beasts and sometiemes of children But God who as yet held a bridle on this uncollected soul and would not suffer it to be defiled with those black furies gave him in the beginning so much horrour upon all these proceedings that a Negromancer promising him one day to bear away the prize of Poesie in a publick meeting of Poets if he would assure him of a reasonable reward he answered that were the Crown to be given in those games of profit of gold wholly celestial he would not buy it by such kind of ways at the rate of the bloud of a flie Which he partly spake through some sence of pietie partly also by the knowledge he had of the illusion and barrenness of such sciences He was much more troubled about the Articles His Religion of Faith for though from his childhood he was educated in Christian Religion under the wings of his good mother S. Monica yet suffering his mind to mount up unto so many curiosities he had greatly weakened the sence of pietie And being desirous to penetrate all by the help of humane reasons when he began to think on the Christian maxims of Faith he therein beheld much terrour and abyss He came to this condition that not content with the God of his forefathers who taught him holy counsels and the universal voice of the Church he put himself upon masterie now wholly ready to shape a Divinitie on the weak idaeas of his own brain The Manichees at that time swayed in Africk who having found this spirit and seeing he might one day prove a support to their Sect they spared nothing to gain him and he being upon change it was not very hard to bring him into the snare This Sect sprang from one named Manes a Persian by birth and a servant by condition who having inherited the goods of a Mistress whom he served from a good slave which he had been had he remained in that siate became by studie an ill Philosopher and a worse Divine for mingling some old dotages of the magick of Persians with other maxims of Christianitie partly by the help of his purse partly also by an infinitie of impostures derived from his giddy spirit he made himself head of a faction protesting he was the holy Ghost His principal folly consisted in placing two Gods in the world the one good the other bad who had many strange battels The bodie as he said was the creature of the evil God and the soul a portion of the substance of the good enthraled in matter And following these principals he gave a phantastical bodie to the Saviour of the world esteeming it a thing unworthy of the Word to be personally united to the flesh which he held in the number of of things execrable Behold the cause why those who were ingulfed in this Sect made shew to abstain from meat and wine which they termed the dragons gall I do not think that ever Augustine fully consented to all the chymeraes of Manes which were innumerable but at the least he relished this Sect in the opinion it had of the original and nature of the bodie and soul and in many other articles even to the believing as himself witnesseth fables most ridiculous Great God! who thunderest upon the pride of humane spirits and draggest into the dust of the earth those that would go equal with Angels What Eclypse of understanding What abasing of courage in miserable Augustine To say that a man whose eye was so piercing doctrine so eminent and eloquence so divine after he had forsaken the helm of faith and reason became so abandoned as to make himself a partie of the Sect of a barbarous and phantastical slave who in the end for his misdeeds was flayed by the command of the King of Persia as if the skin of this man could no longer cover a soul so wicked Behold whither curiositie transporteth an exorbitant spirit Behold into what so many goodly gifts of grace and nature are dissolved Behold now the Eternal Wisdom besotteth those who forsake him to court the lying fantasies of their imagination A second obstacle went along with this extravagant A second impediment Presumption curiositie to settle him fixedly in errour which was the presumption of his own abilities an inseparable companion of heresie He that once in his brain hath deified crocodiles and dragons not onely adoreth them but will perswade others that he hath reason to set candles before them and burn incense for them It is a terrible blow when one is wounded in the head by his proper judgement whose ill never rests in the mean We come to the end of all by the strength of industrie Stones are pulled forth from the entrails of men the head is opened to make smoak issue
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
leave a spirit in perpetual dotage Let us rather set our feet on the steps of Catholick Religion where we planted them from our tender age It is not so cloudy as the Manichees suppose it Ambrose hath already much freed me from errours let us pursue the rest I but Ambrose hath not leasure for thee Let us read where shall Disturbances of mind in S. Augustine we find necessary books and where have fit time Thy schollars busy thee all the mornings take at least some hours after noon to enjoy thy self But when shall I admit the necessary visits of friends that must be entertained and when the preparations for my lectures and when my recreations Let all be lost so I may gain my self This life as thou seest Augustine is most miserable and death uncertain If it catch thee upon a surprise in what estate wilt thou leave this world And where dost thou think to learn that which here thou hast neglected But how if death also should conclude the faculties and life of the soul It is a madness to think onely on it since all the greatness and choise of Religion wisdom and sanctity fights for the immortality of the soul We should never so much employ the spirit of God in so great advantages as he hath given us if we had no other life but that of flies and ants Augustine thy evil is thy sensuality If thou wilt find God thou must forsake thy self and from this time forward bid a long adue to worldly pleasures Thou art deceived when thou hast left them thou wilt have the repentance to have done that too soon which thou oughtest not to do nor canst thou any more make an honourable retreat into the world Let us live we have good friends we may in the end have an office a wife means and all sort of contentments There are too man◠miserable enough through necessity that consent not to it by any act voluntary To conclude a wife and the truth of the Gospel are not things incompatible Behold how this poor spirit turmoiled it self in the retirement of his cogitations as himself hath declared in his Confessions He beheld the life of Saint Ambrose and his chastity with an eye yet benummed and surcharged with terrestrial humours and it reflected some rays upon him but he found it so high mounted in the throne of its glory that the sole aspect affrighted him he measured continency by his own forces not by the grace of God Behold why he Confes 6. 11. Amans beatam vitam timebam illam in sede suâ despaired of a single life and thought a wife was a chain sometime unhappy but ever necessary He lived at that time with Alipius and Nebridius two noble Africans his intimate friends who followed him charmed with his doctrine and sweetness of his conversation and from this time they proposed that life to themselves which they afterward led He often put them upon the intention to establish a good manner of life to pass the rest of their days in the study of wisdom Alipius who was very chast maintained this could not be done in the company of women according to an ancient saying of Cato who affirmed If all the world were without a woman it would not be exempt from the conversation of gods Augustine that was less chast than Alipius and much more eloquent prepared himself to dispute this question strongly and firmly against him so that it seemed saith he that the old serpent spake by his mouth so much he connected together reasons and allegations to maintain his opinion The good Alipius was much amazed to behold such a great spirit so tyed to flesh and as he attributed much to all his opinions respecting him as his Master it was a great chance he had not drawn him into voluptuousness through a simple curiosity of experience This miserable snare stayed all his good purposes and needs must he break them to put this great soul into full libertie The ninth SECTION Three accidents which furthered this Conversion IT happened either by the industry of holy Saint Monica who failed not to observe opportunities for the salvation of her son or by a secret inspiration of God that the woman whom he had brought with him from Africk and with whom he had always lived in fair correspondence preserving to him inviolable faith as if she had been his lawfull wife resolved to leave him saying That she had now fulfilled the measure of her sins That it was time to think upon a retreat that she should die with this onely grief not to have tears enow to wash the offences of her youth so unthriftily wasted For the rest never man should possess her after him and that all her loves should be from this time forward for him who made her onely she recommended unto him a son which she left praying he would shew himself as a father and mother unto him Augustine was much amazed at this speech It seemed his heart was pulled away from him to see himself separated from a woman he so faithfully had loved and on the other side he was full of confusion to behold that she shewed him the way which he sought he not yet feeling himself strong enough to follow her example It was not in his power to stay her any longer nor to approve what she did His spirit was pensive and divided not knowing upon what to resolve After the departure of this woman the mother who as yet knew not the will of God speaks to him of marriage and he cast his eyes upon a young virgin of a very good house which much pleased him who though she were two years younger than the lawfull age of marriage permitteth he resolved to stay for her but in the mean space he found out new loves taking another unlawfull woman in the place of her whom he had forsaken Yet for all that he desisted not from the enquiry of truth feeling none of all those engagements more than that of love which made the sharpest resistance against him and seeing he could not accost S. Ambrose in his great multiplicity of affairs with that facility he wished he made his address to Simplicianus Holy Simplicianus Priest of the Church of Milan He was one of the most venerable men that was then in Europe endowed with infinite piety and excellent literature For this consideration he was delegated by his holiness to serve as a spiritual Father to S. Ambrose Otherwise he was so humble and modest that to give his Bishop the upper-hand he very often counterfeited ignorance in questions which he right well knew consulting with S. Ambrose as an Oracle because of his dignity and giving a perfect example to all of the duty we ow to the Prelates of the Church Besides these ornaments of virtue and science this holy man had strong attractives in the facility of his conversation and sweetness of entertainment so that a certain particular grace
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
this after he had most particularly invoked the assistance of the God of hosts he put himself on the way to cast the lot of the worlds Empire Never was there a more prosperous war It seemed the Angels of Heaven led the Emperour by the hand and that the bloud of Gratian so traiterously shed raised Furies in the Camp of Maximus The encounter of the two Armies was at Sissia where those of the contrary party accounted themselves strong having the river for bulwark which separated them from approches terrible to their treachery But the brave souldiers of Theodosius nothing amazed although already much wearied and all dusty with the long journey they had taken laying hold of occasion by the forelock speedily passed the river and furiously charged the enemy These wicked men were so astonished to see themselves surprized by such an action of courage that so soon as they had taken a view of them they turned their backs Maximus hardy for a black Overthrow of Maximus mischief and remiss in a field of battel shamefully abandoned his Army instantly the earth was covered with bodies the river filled with bloud and good success reserved a part to the clemency of the victour Theodosius pursued his fortune and grapling with Marcellinus who was no abler man than his brother defeated him returning now very fresh from the victory he bare away in the first battel And as at the same time he had notice that Maximus was retired into Aquileia he who desired to cut away the root of war went thither with his army to besiege it The justice of God fought powerfully against this Cain and the time was come in which with his bloud he must wash the spots of his crime God who in punishments holdeth some conformity with the sin would that as this miserable creature had stirred the military men against his Prince he should be betrayed by the same souldiers in whom he had all his hopes reposed It is a strange thing that these people abhorring the wickedness of this man took seized and shamefully despoiled him of the very habiliments and marks of Emperour which he had arrogated to himself then tying and binding him like a Galley-slave they presented him to Theodosius It was the greatest extremity of unhappiness which might befal him to say that in stead of measuring with his dead body the place he should have defended living with his sword in hand he was used as a King disarrayed to let him be seen by all the world as a spectacle of infamy Theodosius beholding him so humbled had some pitie of him and reproching him with his treachery demanded who caused him to enterprize this tragedy He being a coward and a flatterer answered in so humble terms that he discovered to have had this belief that his design no whit displeased his Majesty in other things excusing himself with great submission and making it appear he was a true lover of life He never had so good an opinion of his wickedness as to hope for an ordinary death yet seeing the Emperour changed colour and spake to him in a sweeter tone he was in some hope to obtain life when the enraged souldiers haled him and tore him in pieces His death Inter innumeras manus fertur ad mortem Pacatus or as others have written delivered him to the hangman who cut off his head At the same time Theodosius dispatched Count Arbogastus to seize on his son who was a young child as yet bred under the wing of his mother whom Maximus caused to be called the Victorius and had already declared him Caesar when suddenly he was taken and massacred to accompany his father The Good man his Admiral understanding the general discomfiture of affairs voluntarily drowned himself preventing the hand of a hangman which would not have failed him but all the water in the sea was not sufficient to wash away the stain of his Masters bloud from his soul since the eternal flames never can free it Behold the issue of Maximus after the rapine of four or five years Behold to what the designs of the wicked tend who under pretext of Religion seek the advancement of their temporal affairs Behold to what hypocrisies and goodly humane policies which make use of God as a mask for their wickedness are finally reduced Behold a stroke of thunder which hath left nothing on earth behind it but noise and stench O bestial and bewitched men who having so good lessons of the justice of God written with the bloud and sweat of so many miserable Sacrifices pursue still the ranks to be companions of the like misfortune S. Ambrose is much glorified for treating with this man who deceived so many others as with one excommunicate unwilling to be so much as saluted by him who vowed so many services at his feet and freely fore-telling the misery should befall him if he appeased not the celestial vengeance with a sincere repentance The seventeenth SECTION The affliction of S. Ambrose upon the death of Valentinian WHosoever hath said that Scepters are made of glass Crowns of perfumed thorns and the ways of great men are all of ice bordered with precipices hath said no less than truth It is verily a thing most strange that the golden seelings of Palaces tremble over crowned heads and that in the heat of feasts the hand of Heaven visibly on the walls figureth the sentence of their death In the mean time we desperately love the vanities of the world nothing is thought on but to set our foot on mens throats that we may the more eminently be seen to draw the bloud of this universe out of its veins to cement up the ruins and tie our selves to a miserable world which daily falleth apieces even in our own hands The poor Valentinian was restored to the Throne by Theodosius after the death of Maximus and had onely past three or four years in peacefull tranquilitie disposing himself to good according to the latitude of his own heart and giving way to be wholly governed by the Counsels of Saint Ambrose whom he heretofore had persecuted When behold him taken away at the age of one and twenty years by a horrible treason which did as it were mingle his bloud with that of his brother Gratian. The good Prince passed into France being then at Vienna near Lions accompanied by the Count Arbogastus Arbogastus a French-man by Nation who had lived till then in singular good reputation for he was a man of worth having a well-composed body a quick spirit a generous behaviour and much practice in the exercise of arms which had so dignified him that he held the prime place in the Empire to the which he had rendered good services He was very well beloved by the souldiers for besides his excellent parts he bare an irreconciliable hatred to avarice and appeared so little curious to enrich himself that being so great a Captain as he was he would be Master of no
more than an ordinary souldier This seemed commendable in him but he was so desperately proud and cholerick that he would have all things carried according to his own counsels much offended with the least contradiction and accounting himself so necessary that nothing could be done without him On the other side the young Emperour who was jealous of his authority seeing that through his presumption he took too much upon him he in all occasion sought to depress him which the other ill digested but he continuing in this arrogant and harsh disposition Valentinian violently moved did resolve to be rid of him Behold why one day as Arbogastus approched to his Throne to do him reverence he looked awry on him and gave him a ticket by which he declared him a man disgraced and deprived of his charge He furious as a dog who byteth the stone thrown at him after he had read the ticket tore it in pieces in the presence of the Emperour through extream impudency and cried out aloud You gave me not the charge which I hold nor is it in your power to take it from me This he spake presuming of support from the souldiers whom he had ever esteemed From this day forward he ceased not to make his distasts appear and to bend his spirit to a mischievous revenge There was by misfortune at that time in the Court one named Eugenius who was accounted a wittie man but cold and timorous that heretofore had professed Rhetorick and acquired a good talent in speaking Arbogastus supposed his own boldness would make an excellent temper with the coldness of this man and having along time much confided in him he made him an overture to seize on the Empire which he at first refused But the other having promised him the death of Valentinian and his sword for defence gave consent to a most enormous assassinate All men were amazed that the poor Emperour in a fatal morning was found strangled by the conspiracy of Eugenius and Arbogastus aided by the Gentils who desired nothing but the liberty of Paganism This news brought a most sensible affliction upon Saint Ambrose for the Emperour was assured that the Bishop came to Vienna expresly to entreat his return into Italie which having understood he reckoned up the days and expected his arrival with unspeakable impatience But S. Ambrose who would not by importunity thrust himself into unnecessary affairs as he through charity was unwilling to be wanting in necessary having understood that the Emperour was daily upon his return deferred this voyage which had been most requisite to hinder Arbogastus over whom he had a great power Valentinian advertised of this delay wrote to him and earnestly pressed him to come adding he meant to receive Baptism at his hands for he was as yet but a Catechumen The good Prelate having received the Emperours letters speedily undertook the journey using all expedition when at his coming to the Alps he heard the deplorable death of the poor Prince which made him return back again and wash as he saith his own steps in his proper tears most bitterly every moment bemoaning the death of his dearest pupil The Providence of God was very manifest in his Manners of Valentinian Ambrosius de obitu Valent. death for Valentinian was drawn from Empires of the world in a time when he seemed now fully ripe for Heaven It is an admirable thing how the direction of S. Ambrose whom in his latter days he onely affected had metamorphosed him into another man In the beginning he was thought to be over-much delighted in tourneys and horse-races he so took away this opinion of him that he would hardly permit these sports in the great festival entertainments of the Empire The Gentiles who made observations on all his life had nothing to reproach in him but that he excessively delighted in the slaughter of savage beasts whom he caused to be taken and fed for his pleasure saying it diverted him from cares of the Empire He to satisfie all the world caused instantly all those creatures to be killed and disposed himself to attend the affairs of his Councel with so good judgement and so great resolution that he seemed a Daniel in the midst of the Assembly of Elders These envious people having watched him so far as to observe him at the table objected he anticipated the hour of his repast yet he so addicted himself to abstinence that he was seen in feasts rather seemingly than effectually to eat for sometimes in entertaining others he fasted tempering devotion and charity with a singular discretion Finally to give testimony of his infinite chastity it was told him there was in Rome a female Comedian endowed with a singular beauty having attractives which ravished all the Nobilitie This understood he deputeth one expresly to bring her to the Court but they being passionately in love with her corrupted the messenger so that he returned without doing any thing The Emperour rechargeth and commandeth that she with all expedition should be brought It was so done but she coming to the Court the most chaste Emperour would not so much as onely see her but instantly sent her back again saying That if he being in a condition which gave him the means to satisfie all his pleasures and in an Age which ordinarily useth to be very slippery in matter of vice and which is more not married abstained from unlawfull loves his subjects might well do somewhat by his example Never servant saith S. Ambrose was more in the power of his Master than the body of this Prince was under command of the soul nor ever Censor more diligently examined the actions of others than he his own Though all these dispositions infinitely much comforted the holy Prelate and namely the desire he expressed to receive Baptism two days before his death asking every instant if Bishop Ambrose were come notwithstanding his heart was transfixed to see him taken away in a time when he went about to make himself most necessary for all the world His death was generally bemoaned by all men and there was not any nay not his enemies which for him poured not out their tears It is said that Galla his sister wife of the Emperour Theodosius at the news of his death filled the Court with inconsolable lamentations and died in child-bed which came by excess of grief for which Theodosius was pitifully afflicted The other sisters of the Prince who were at Milan ceased not to dissolve into tears before the eyes of S. Ambrose who had no word more effectual to comfort them than the assurance that his faith and zeal had purified him and the demand he made of Baptism had consecrated him to the end they should no longer be in pain with the ease of his soul The good Bishop took a most particular care of his obsequies and burial where he made a Funeral Oration found yet among his Works In the end remembering his two pupils Go saith he O you most
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
prayed to God most devoutly and would not permit any man should enter into his Chamber during the time of his devotions he was so obedient to those who commanded in the Army that he never refused any Commission imposed upon him Yea well fore-seeing that the last charge enjoyned him by the Admiral Bonnivet was most dangerous and as it were impossible yet he went thither sacrificing his life to the commandments of the Lieutenant of his Prince that he might not digress from his ordinary custom There was he slain by the most generous manner of death that might happen to any Captain of his quality He was a Lion in arms who with a choice company of men selected by him and trained to this profession wrought such admirable effects that there was not any battel won of which he was not ever the principal cause Never was any man more terrible to an enemy in the conflict but out of it it was said he was one of the most affable and courteous men of the earth He was so ill a flatterer of Great men that to gain a Kingdom he would not be drawn to speak any thing but reason His practice was to honour the virtuous speak little of the vicious less also of his own deeds of arms never to swear do favours to all who required as willingly as if himself were to receive the benefit to give secret alms according to his ability in such sort that it is written that he besides his other acts of piety married at the least a hundred young mayds Behold of what elements his soul was inwardly composed As for the manner of his carriage in the war he Marvellous contempt of money as little cared for money as the dirt of the earth and desired not to have any but to give Witness an act of great liberality which is related of him He by fair law of arms took a Spanish Treasurer who carried with him fifteen thousand Ducats one of his Captains named Tardieu swore enraged with choller that he would have part of the booty because he was in the expedition This good Captain smiling said to him It is true you were of the enterprize but are not to share in the booty and were it so you are under my charge I therefore will give what I think good This man entered into more violent fury and went to complain to the General who having well considered the business adjudged it wholly to Bayard He caused his Ducats to be carried to a place of safety and commanded them to be spred on a table in presence of all his people saying to them Companions what think you Do you not here behold fine junkets Poor Tardieu who had been put by his pretensions by express sentence of his Captains looked on this money with a jealous eye and said If be had the half of it he would all his life be an honest man Doth that depend on this saith this brave spirit Hold I willingly give that which you by force could never obtain and so caused at the same instant seven thousand five hundred Ducats to be told out to him The other who in the beginning thought it was but a meer mockery when he saw it to be in good earnest and himself in possession of that he desired he cast himself on both his knees at the feet of Bayard having abundant tears of joy in his eyes and cried out Alas my Master my friend you have surpassed the liberality of Alexander how shall I ever be able to acknowledge the benefit which I at this time do receive at your hands Hold your peace said this incomparable man if I had power I would do much more and thereupon causing all the souldiers of the Garrison to be called he distributed the rest of the Ducats not keeping one sole denier for his own use I ask of you whether this were not a heart of pearl wherein there could not one least blemish of avarice be found Yea also when he passed through the Countrey even in a land of conquest he paid his expence And one saying unto him Sir This money is lost for at your departure from hence they will set this place on fire He answered Sirs I do what I ought God hath not put me into the world to live by rapine Pursuing this course he did an act at the taking of An excellent act of Chevalier Bayard Bressia a Citie of Italie for ever memorable which I will here deduce as it were in the same terms as it is couched in his History Which is that being set in the head of the Perdues he first entered and passed the rampire where he was grievously hurt in the top of his thigh with the thrust of a pike so that the iron stuck in the wound he nothing terrified said to Captain Molard I am slain but it is no matter let your men march confidently the Town is won Hereupon two souldiers bare him out of the throng and seeing the wound streamed forth much bloud they pulled off their shirts and rent them to bind up his thigh then in the first house they hit upon they took a little door off the hindges and laid their poor Captain upon it to bear him the more easily From thence they went directly to a great house which they supposed to be very convenient for his accommodation It belonged to an honest Gentleman who was retired into a Monasterie to avoid the fury of souldiers For the saccadge of this Citie was so dreadfull that there were reckoned as well of Venetians who defended it as Burgesses to the number of twenty thousand slain The Ladie stayed in this house with two fair daughters who had hidden themselves in a barn under hay As they knocked at the gate the mother arming her self with resolution openeth it and beholdeth a Captain all bloudy born upon this plank who presently set Guards about his lodging and demanded a place to retire unto The Ladie leadeth him into the fairest chamber where she cast her self at his feet and said Sir I offer this house unto you and all within it for I well know it is yours by the law of arms I onely beg of you you will be pleased to save me and mine honour as also of two poor maids ready to marry which my husband and I have bad between us The Captain answered Madame I do not know whether I shall escape this wound or no but I faithfully promise you whilest I live there shall be no injury done to you nor your daughters no more than to mine own person Onely keep them in your chamber and let them not be seen Send for your husband and assure your self you have a guest who will do you all courtesie possible The Ladie much comforted to hear him speak in that manner obeyed and employed all her care to give him good entertainment She presently perceived she had lodged an honest man when she saw the Duke of Namures the brave Gaston de
to these Embassadours of Diocletian who were much amazed thereat But the brave Prince after their departure restored all had been presented unto him saving he loved better to see riches in the coffers of his subjects and to retain their loves for himself than to have all the treasures of the Indies in his house without friendship It was verily a fair and generous lesson which he taught the Great-ones of the earth who through excess of avarice heap together all that which they must forsake and in great abundance of wealth have a main want of two things which ought to be eternall to wit Love and Truth Constantius did all this by ways of moral virtues for although he had very good inclinations to Christianitie he was no Christian by profession being as yet straitly associated to the great persecutours thereof yet because the accidents of time and place might permit it he freely made use of Christian Officers judging those would be most loyal in his service who were most constant in piety And to this purpose Eusebius addeth that he being one day desirous to make trial of the faith of Christians which were of his train commanded them to sacrifice to Idols which the most faithful constantly refused resolving rather to forsake Court and life than to be traitours to the character of their Religion Others yielding to the stream of the times and hope of worldly favours shewed themselves somewhat To be faithful to the King one must be loyal to God more pliant to his will which he having perceived dismissed them all supposing they might well be perfidious to their Prince since they had been disloyal to their God And as for the rest having highly commended them he afforded them extraordinary preferment One would wonder from whence such sincere affections Helena should arise in so ill education as he found among Persecutours of the faith But for my part I think we ought to impute this change next after God to the holy and couragious Helena whom he espoused in his first marriage and who was mother of our admirable Constantine This incomparable Lady that sought the Cross with more industy than others do Empires hath engraven her praises with an adamantine pen in the memory of all Ages It is strange why certain modern Graecians as Nicephorus and others have been so desirous to attribute to Greece this creature so that striving to make her a Grecian they have made her an out-cast I have not so much leisure in this treatise as to amuse my self in recounting and refuting their fabulous narrations being naturally an enemy of men affectedly eloquent who have no other profession but to lye in good terms I speak that which is the more probable agreeing It is the opinion of Polidorus lib. 10. Of Radulâ—h in his Poly. chron l. 4. cap. 29. Of Hunter lib. 1. Of Oâ—â—â— in the Treatise of Roman Emperours Of Harpsselaius in his histor Eccles of England Lipsius is of another opinion with what is written by Cardinal Baronius whose opinions are ordinarily most sincere Helena was an English woman by Nation daughter of one of the best qualified men of this great Iland who lodged in his house the Lieutenant of the Roman Empire Zosimus the historian who could neither love Constantine nor his mother morally hating Christianity reproacheth her that she was no Lady and speaketh as of a woman of base extraction but we may well say that his history when he speaketh of faithful Princes hath mingled much gall with his ink Certain it is that Helena being a stranger could not be in the Roman Empire of reputation equal to so many Princesses of the Court from whom Constantius might at that time expect alliance yet was very honourable in her own Country not so much by Nobility of bloud as that of faith wherein in my opinion she already was instructed there being many Christians in England under the Empire of Diocletian For I hold with S. Paulinus that she was the first Mistress of her Son in the faith and that we should not have had a Constantine if God had not given us an Helena Princeps Principibus Christianis esse meruit non tam suâ quà m Helenae matris fide saith this great Bishop Constantius at that time Governour in great Britain Beauty and grace of S. Helena for the Roman Emperour being lodged in the house of her father did cast his eye upon Helena who was endowed with an absolute beauty by reason whereof as we may conjecture she was afterward called Helena in the Empire this name being not otherwise familiar with the English With this eminent comlines of body she had modesty and a singular grace which was a ray imprinted by God upon her forehead as he did heretofore to the virtuous Hester to make her amiable to all the world It is true which Eustatius a Greek Bishop said that beauty which hath no grace is a bait floating on the water without a hook to be taken and to catch nothing but when these two things do meet they exercise much power over hearts And at that time Constantius felt the eyes of Helena had made more impression upon his soul than could the sword upon his body and being a Prince of a singular continency so highly praised by the Pagans themselves he would not require the daughter of his host by any other means than those of a lawful marriage which Zosimus hath not wholly denied in this point more respective than some Graecians of Christianity The father seeing the honour His marriage done him by his host made no difficulty to resolve upon it and the prudent Helena with as much ease condescended to the will of those to whom she owed her being She entred into marriage for the universal good of the Church to which she should bring forth a Constantine Her first care was to soften the warlick humour of her husband by the temper of sweetness and goodness which she gave him in such sort that in so great a rage of shedding of Christian bloud which than reigned he kept his hands the rest of his days most innocent This marriage was as the sacrifice of Juno where the gall of the offering was never presented There was so much love on both sides that the spirit of Constantius lived onely in that of Helena and Helena as the flower of the sun perpetually followed the motions of this bright star together with all the good dispositions of her husband The young Constantine born in the same Britain seemed also more firmly to knit the knot of these chast loves when behold an obstacle which interposeth Constantius is sent to succeed in the Empire and is Inconstancy of men declared Caesar by the Emperour Maximianus on this condition that he should forsake Helena his wife and marry Theodora the daughter-in-law of the same Emperour An Empire is a mervellous flash of lightning in the eyes it dazleth and shuts them up from
all other consideration This good husband who had so much affection for his dear spouse suffers himself to be won by the ambition and easiness of his nature which bowed much to the wills of those who seemed to wish him well and by the lustre of the purple presented to him Maximianus would needs play the Tyrant aswell over loves as men and plotting marriages placeth his daughter in the conjugal bed of Constantius to plant him in the Throne of Caesars S. Helena of more worth than an Empire understanding Virtue of S. Helena the news bare this alteration with great constancy not complayning either of the chance force or disloyalty of Constantius but accounted it an honour that to refuse her no other cause was found but the good fortune of her husband She more feared than envied Scepters and was hidden in her little solitude as the mother of pearl under the waves breeding up her young Constantine in such sort as God should direct her Constantius touched with this admirable virtue lived in body with Theodora and in heart with his Helena He gave contentment in the East to a man Imperious and served the times to have his will another day But he was in the West in the better part of himself Besides when he was absolute and that he must needs divide the Empire with Galerius his Colleague he voluntarily resigned the rest of the world unto him to have France Spain and his I le of England where the moity of his heart remained It is a very hard matter long to restrain an honest Love of Constantius and S. Helena and lawful love It is said when Sicily was torn from Italy by an arm of the Sea which interposed it-self a-thwart palm-trees were found by the violence of waters rent asunder which in sign of love still bowed the one to the other as protesting against the element which had separated their loves The like happened to Constantius and Helena the torrent of ambitions and affairs of the world having parted their bodies could not hinder the inclinations of their hearts Constantius returned into Great Britain there to live and make his tomb for he in the end died in the Citie of York And as he being on his death-bed was asked which of his children he would have succeed him since besides Constantine he had three sons by Theodora at that time forgetting his second wife and her off-spring he answered aloud CONSTANTINUM PIUM I will have no other successour but the PIOUS CONSTANTINE which was approved by all the Army Thus God the Master of Scepters and Empires willing to reward the modestie of the virtuous Helena laid hold of her bloud to give it the Empire of the world in the end leaving the sons of Theodora to whom Maximian promised all the greatness of the world The third SECTION His Education and Qualitie A Great Oratour hath heretofore said speaking Gregor epist 6. l. 5. ad Childebertum Quantò caeteros homines regia dignitas antecellit tantò caeterarum gentium regna regni profectò vestri culmen excellit of Constantine that he appeared as much above Kings as Kings above all other men It is the Elogie which afterward S. Gregorie gave to our Kings Verily he was accomplished with a spirit and bodie in so high a degree of perfection that there needed no more but to see him to judge him worthy of an Empire Nature sometimes encloseth great souls in little bodies ill composed as fortune hath likewise placed Kings in Shepherds Cottages It is an unhappiness deserving some compassion when a great Captain is of so ill a presence as to be taken for one of his servants and be made to cleave wood and set the pot over the fire to prepare his own dinner as it heretofore happened to Philopaemen Constantine took no care for falling into such accidents Beautie of Constantine It seemed as Eumenius saith that nature from above had been dispatched as a brave harbinger to score out a lodging for this great soul and to give him a bodie suteable to the vigour of his spirit so well was it composed He was of a stature streight as a palm of an aspect such that the Oratours of that time called it divine of a port full of Majestie his eyes sparkled like two little stars and his speech was naturally pithie sweet and eloquent his bodie so able for militarie exercises that he amazed the strongest and so sound that he had no disease In these members so well proportioned reigned a vigorous spirit very capable of learning if the glorie of Arms had not wholly transported him into actions of his profession His father well enformed of his fair qualities caused him to come into the East where he took a tincture of good letters at the least so much as was needfull for a warlick Emperour and applied himself seriously to the exercise of Arms wherein he appeared with so much admiration that he was alreadie beheld with the same eye one would an Achilles or an Alexander were they alive again Diocletian who had not as yet forsaken the Empire would have him at his Court to work him from apprehension of Christianitie to which he might be alreadie much disposed and draw him to the hatred of our Religion It was a most dangerous school He was bred in the Court of Diocletian for this young Prince for education ordinarily createth manners and we are all as it were that which we have learned to be in our younger dayes Constantine notwithstanding gathered flowers in this garden-bed not taking the breath of the serpent which was hidden there-under He soon learned from Diocletian militarie virtue prudence to govern souldiers good husbandrie in revenews authoritie to become awfull but he took nothing either of his impietie or malice This Barbarous man in the beginning passionately loved him and would perpetually have him by his sides but when he saw that passing through Palestine and other parts of his Kingdom the young Constantine was more respected than himself so much his carriage especially compared to the harsh countenance of the Emperour had eminence in it he began to grow into suspicion and as it is said desired secretly to be rid of him But Constantine prevented the blow retiring under an honourable pretext to the Court of Galerius the associate of his father Constantius who most willingly left this son with him in pledge thereby to hold some good correspondence with him This Galerius was a creature of Diocletians who Constantine at Court of Galerius had heretofore declared him Caesar yet still retained such power over him that when he had displeased him he made him run on foot after his coach not deigning so much as to look upon him He in the beginning very courteously entertained the son of his faithfull friend affording him all manner of favours but in process of time he conceived a strong jealousie beholding in this young Mars more excellent parts than
sober that he gave an example to the most austere Monks so negligent in the neatness of his body that he much gloried to see vermine run up and down on his beard which he wore very long to play the Philosopher in all kinds so patient that he many times endured all sorts of affronts and sharp words from mean men no more moved thereby to anger than a stone If it must needs be according to the said Maxims that a Prince to procure estimation should perform great enterprizes this man was no sooner seated in his Throne but that he practised admirable policies and hastened to make war on the Persians to imitate Alexander the Great to whose virtues he aspired If needs some remarkable act must be done in the begining he at his entrance professing Paganism repealeth the Bishops which Constantius a Christian Prince had banished If liberallitie must be used this man gave all and said his treasures were better among his friends than with himself If excellent Masters in every art and science are to be cherished this man did it with much passion From whence then proceedeth it that with all those goodly parts of Machiavels Prince he hath so little prospered reigning but one year and seven months and dying strucken with a blow from heaven which the Pagans themselves confess to be ignorant from whence it came and dying in a frenzy which caused him to fill his hand with his own blood and cry Thou O Galilean hast overcome and leaving in his death a memory of his name so odious to all posterity The poor man forsaking the way already so happily beaten by Constantine unluckily hasteneth to joyn amity with those wise Politicians who had all Plato's Common-wealth who esteemed themselves the most accurate in the government of the World who promised him by these wiles he practised the absolute extirpation of Christianity and to make him the most awfull and most glorious of all the Emperours of the world And I beseech you what became in the end of all these promises but dreams illusions and vapours Constantius under the holy Philosophy of the cross reigned more than thirty years Constantine waged great wars had great victories great triumphs was attended by great Councels great Cities Constantine left a Religion so established that the malice of an Arian son nor the policy of a new Apostata could not extinguish it Constantine never entred into any battel where he came not off victorious And Julian in the first war he undertook upon the beginning of his empire confounded all his Army led his Captains to slaughter was himself slain as a victime And the sage Politicians which he ever had in his army instead of Priests and Bishops drew him to death to serve as a spectacle of confusion for the one and matter of mirth for the other May we not wel say O Nobilitie that these spirits who divert your hearts from the chast beliefs of your Ancestors from the puritie of faith the candor of a good conscience to invenom them with a doctrine of impietie policy and treachery under colour of humane wisedom are the plagues of States the ruins of houses and the fatal hands to annihilate greatness I will not infer for a necessary conclusion that all such as live in the fear of God and in integrity must ever have pleasing successes according to the world in the manage of temporal affairs this is not a thing absolutely promised to us by God We have not sold him our fidelity and Christianity upon such condition that he should still afford us the bread of dogs and favour us with felicities which he imparteth to Sarazens and Mores I know good Christian Princes may be afflicted sometime for the punishment of certain sins which they with too much indulgence have permitted sometime for a trial and spectacle of their virtue sometime to teach us there is another life for the children of God since they in this same are ill entreated sometime for causes which the providence of God involveth as in a cloud replenished with obscurity and darkness Yet shall you find in reading histories either divine or humane that all those who have progressed on with true feeling of God and with the lightenings of integrity and touches of a good conscience which nature provideth for every man have commonly been the most expected the best beloved the most happy and most permanent And to speak with S. Augustine would not they Aug. lib. 5. de civitate Dei cap. 24. ever be most happy if they had no other felicity but to be just in their commands moderate in their fortunes humble among services modest in praises and faithful servants of God in Empires Wherein consisteth the happiness of man if it be not to fear God so to fear nothing els If it be not to love a Kingdom where we no longer may dread to have companions If it be not to pardon injuries through clemency and not revenge crimes but by justice If it be not to be chast in the liberty of pleasures If it be not rather to command over our own passions than Cities and Provinces Behold the principal felicity of great Constantine which you ought O Noble Men to take for your model Do in your own houses what he acted in an Empire establish there constantly the fear and love of God Banish vices as he from his City of Constantinople the Temples and Victims of false Gods that the honour of the Cross may set a seal on all your thoughts all your counsels all your enterprizes that your examples may serve to God as amber and adamant to attract so many hearts of straw and iron as are now in the world to the love of virtue that these duels of gladiatours condemned by Constantine may be the horrour of your thoughts and detestation of your hearts that devotion chastity humility patience charity virtues so familiar to this great Monarch may make an honourable warfare which shall possess your heart and that all of them may there reign each one in particular with as ample Empire as all of them in general THE STATES-MAN TO STATES-MEN SIRS SInce God hath put the government of people justice and most important affairs into your hands he hath likewise raised you upon a high degree of honour to be looked on in offices no otherwise than as stars in the firmament Your dignities are obligations of conscience that bend like the chains of MEDAEA and scortch weak souls in purple and gold but which on the other part afford to generous spirits a perfect lustre of Divinitie The more light a bodie enjoyeth say the learned so much the more ought it to have of participation and favourable influences for objects which are in a much lower degree than it So likewise must we necessariely say that your qualities which grant you nearer approaches to the source of greatness and embellish you with the rays of the majestie of a Prince do most particularly oblige you
to all the great virtues which concern the Weal-publick It oftentimes happeneth that those who flie from charges and affairs under pretext of tranquilitie of spirit if they be not well rectified therein find instead of repose a specious sluggishness and those who make profession of arms if they take not good heed suffering all the innocencie of the Golden Age to languish make themselves virtues of the iron Age but your conditions which have a certain temperance of a life more sweet accompanied with laudable employments open the way to you which maketh and crowneth merits Yet is there need of a soul very able to preserve it self sincerely in charges among so many corruptions and of a heart perfectly purified to link it wholly to the interests of God who with three fingers of his power supporteth Estates and Empires That is the cause why I offer this Treatise not so much to give Maxims of State of which there are always enough to be found as sometimes to awaken a good conscience which is a true ray reflected from the eternall Law to the end that among so many temptations of Honour and such burdens of affairs it may not lose any part of its vigour If you deign to spend some hours of your leasure hereon it perhaps wil not be unprofitable for at least that will let you see a States-man as rare as a Phenix and as pure as an Angel But if this consideration furnish you with any good thoughts for your perfection I shall esteem my self well recompensed for the service which I in this work have vowed to your eminent qualities THE STATES MAN The first SECTION The excellencie of Politick Virtue I Have ever made account of the division of virtues which the Platonists use when they call the one Purgative the other Illuminative the third Civil and the last Exemplar Purgative virtues are those which give to our souls the first tincture of sanctity For they take our heart wholly possessed as it is yet with earthly passions and discharge it from so many imperfections which ordinarily corrupt nature to give it a tast of heavenly things Illuminative afford us day-light when we have vanquished the agitations of sense establish us in the sweetness of some repose where we begin to behold the entrances progresses and issues of the world wherein we are placed and the course of this great Comedy called life The Civil draw us out of our selves to apply us to our neighbour and to render every one his due according to his degree in the good conversion betwixt man and man Exemplar proceed much further in perfection for they expose themselves in publick to serve as models for others and appear in charges and dignities in the government of Kingdoms Provinces Cities and Communalties This is it which I call here the virtue of a States-man taking the word generally not only for those who are engaged in the manage of Monarchies Sovereignties and Re-publicks but also for such as exercise justice and other principal charges of civil life We must Excellentibus ingeniit citius defueritars quâ civem regant quà m quâ hostem superent Tit. Liv. lib. 2. affirm this politick virtue which maketh true States-men is a rare piece and as it were the cream and most purified part of wisdom seeing that not contenting it self with a lazy knowledge of virtue it laboureth to build adorn and establish the civil world by the maintenance of justice without which in the amplest Kingdoms are the greatest thefts If the world be a harp as saith the eloquent Sinesius D. Tho. 22. q 58. Justicia legalis praeclarior omnibus moralibus quia bonum commune preâ—minet bono singulari Tertul. l. 2. adversus Marcion Bonitaâ— Dei operata est mundum justitia modulata est justice windeth up the strings stirreth the fingers toucheth the instrument giveth life to the airs and maketh all the excellent harmonies If the world be a Musick-book framed of days and nights as of white and black notes justice directeth and composeth If it be a ring justice is the diamond If it be an eye justice is the soul If it be a Temple justice is the Altar All yieldeth to this virtue and as it is enchaced in all laudable actions so all laudable actions are incorporated in justice It is an engine much more powerful in effect than was that of Archimedes in idaea for it doth that in Kingdoms which this man could never so much as imagine in his mind though ambitious enough in inventions It maketh I say Heaven to descend on earth and earth to mount up to Heaven Heaven to descend in introducing a life wholly celestial in the uncivil conversation of men earth to mount up in drawing it from dreggs and corruption of a covetous and bloudy life to enlighten it with rays of a prudent knowledge to embelish it with virtues diversifie it with beauties and settle it in the center of repose God maketh so much account of an honest man Genes 8. v. 27. according to the Hebrew text recommended to the government of others that having chosen Noah to command over onely seaven souls shut up in the Ark as in a moving prison he calleth him his Heart for to say truly we must have the heart of God to bring forth counsels sufficiently able to save men and to be in the same instant the mouth of God to pronounce the Oracles of truth God asketh Job who is the man on earth Job 8. 33. Ordinem Coeli that shall make the musick of Heaven To which I would willingly answer It is a good Justicier For in what consisteth this harmony of Heaven We are not in my opinion to imagine it according to the dotages of some Philosophers who of it have made unto themselves a celestial musick composed of voyces and sounds formed by the mutual encounter of those admirable Globes The harmony of Heaven is nought else but the good order of the sun the moon stars day and night and seasons which daily progress along with a regular pace and measured motion not erring in the least point This order which is so excellent and divine in Heaven is introduced upon earth by the means of justice which guideth and governeth all the actions of men within the circuits and limits of duty so sagely and divinely that he who would observe so many singular laws which books recommend unto us should quickly make earth become a little Heaven For the same reason Origen interpreting Isay 66. Coelum miki sedes est Efficiuntur sedes Dei facti prius conversatione peritia coelestes Orig. Philostr l. 1. c. 18. this passage of Isay where God saith Heaven is his Throne sheweth that the Paradise and Heaven of God upon earth is justice from whence it cometh to pass that such as use it as they ought are wholly celestial in science life and conversation Was it not this consideration which drew the Babylonians to build
figure a great Master whom I know of necessitie to be endowed with a most stable science and a most excellent will And for this cause I conclude be cannot be ignorant of the things be hath produced seeing this ignorance falleth not even upon beasts most stupid and I say that he knowing them governeth them without pain Omnipotent though he be there being no greatness nor multitude of burdens which can weaken the forces and vigour of this infinite Spirit As there is not any thing too great for his capacity so is there nothing too little for his bounty Nothing escapeth his Paternal Providence nor doth he think it a matter unworthy of his care to govern a butter-flie since he esteemed it a thing consonant to his bounty to create a butter-flie Now for us to think that he knowing able and willing to govern the world is diverted from it through pleasures and contentments he taketh for his own delights is a most gross imagination for why should we attribute to God apprehensions and assertions which we would be ashamed to give to men if they made not profession to be of the number of the altogether idle Behold how this singular wit discourseth and verily it is to be wholly ignorant of God to have any conceit of him less than infinite Independent Sovereigntie cannot admit a companion and the inexhaustible force of a Creatour who made all sufficeth to govern all An Angel cost him no more in the making than a silk-worm and a silk-wom cost him no less to produce it than an Angel Why do you not judge that which is to be made by it which is already made When you entered into the world the Divine Providence as a harbinger prepared your lodging for you it was not in your power to make your self then either rich or poor Master or servant King or subject your affairs were dispatched and your counsel not asked God also in silence draweth out the web of your life if you desire to be happy you have nothing to do but to contribute your free-will to his work But if you have set up your rest to become a Politician contrary to the decrees of Providence and to bend the byass to your pretended interests is it not to do the same thing which a frog should if she sought to swim against the current of Rhodanus or Danubius Would not it be as ridiculous as if a flie should seek to soar up to heaven and fix her little feet to stay the course of the Primum Mobile You say I press you and if you Against the ancient saying touched by Tertullian Non licet Deos nosse gratis Diogen Laer. lib. 4. can prosper well in the affairs of the world by these ways of piety and honesty which are ever annexed to a firm belief of a divine Providence you would rather take this same than any other To it I answer that which Laertius speaketh of the Philosopher Byon who having before been an atheâ—st afterward by chance disposing himself to invoke the false gods became most superstitious in their service under hope of some temporal commodities which he thought to gain O Aug. Enar. 2. in Psal 25. Dicis Deo Haec est justitia tua ut mali floreant boni laborent Deus tibi respondet Haec est fides tua Hoccine tibi promisi ad hoc Christianus factus es ut in spculo storâ—res great fool saith this Authour who could not propose gods to himself unless he made them mercenary and would needs have the belief of a Divinitie depend on the successes of his person and house God saith S. dugustine engageth not his promise to make us happy according to the world so soon as we become honest men If you say unto him O God where is your justice to suffer the wicked so to flourish good men to be afflicted He will answer Where is your faith where is that promise I have made you Have you made your self a Christian to be happy in the world This were to make a virtue beggerly wanton and interessed which must ever be payed with prosperities we may well say it resigned it self to God for good morsels and not for honesty It is much to be feared lest the pleasures of the present may make it loose the tast of the recompence promised in Heaven as it is said the dogs which hunted among the flowers of Mount Gibel lost heretofore the tracks of the hare If following good Policie we should be unhappy towards the world we might ever comfort the captivity of our body by the liberty of our mind and guild our chains of glory with our virtues We should enter into the community of great spirits who have done all good to endure all evil we should much more rejoyce to be in the bottom of the prison with S. Paul than in the heaven on earth which Cosroes the Persian King caused to be built But God is not so harsh to a good conscience that he desireth to hold it still in the incommodities of present life but much otherwise if you will well discourse there will be found an infinite number of good Princes excellent Magistrates and all sorts of persons qualified who pursuing the way of honesty have been most prosperous in the mannage of affairs And if you consider your Politicians who make profession to refine all the world either you have seen but the first station of their plaistered felicity or have ever found great labyrinths horrible confusions fortunes little lasting dejection in their posterity hatred and the execration of Ages I think I have fully illustrated these truths in the histories which I have written of Herod Theodosius Maximus Eugenius Constantine Dioclesian Constans Jalian and divers others And if you yet desire to behold with a ready eye how there is no policie powerfull against God and how he surprizeth the most subtile making snares of their greatest cunning to captive them behold Joseph sold by his wicked brothers for fear he should be honoured and yet see him honoured because he was sold Behold Haman who practised the ruin of the Hebrews to raise himself and see him raised on a gibbet of fifty cubits high to humble him Behold Jonas who would also be a Politician contrary to the counsels of his Master yet tempests pursued him the lot served him for an arrest the sea for a Mistress of constancy the belly of a Whale which should be his sepulcher for a Palace He came to the haven by ship-wrack much more safe in the entrails of a fish than in a ship Behold Pharaoh who becomes crafty and thinketh by ruinating the Israelites his Scepter is throughly established God surprizeth him in subtility and makes him know the oppression of this poor people is the instrument of his ruin A little child which lieth floating on the waters of Nilus in a cradle of bulrushes as a worm hidden in straw and whose afflicted mother measureth his
would not absolutely say fools Hereunto was added a tale that in the year of an universal peace there was a Ladie who travelling with her husband into some other Province had learned a certain manner how to beautifie her face which she very curiously made use of the rest perceiving it caused her to play at King and Queen which was a pastime where the Ladie who became Empress by the custom of the game commanded the rest what she thought good and all yielded obedience to her The Empress chosen imposed upon all her train to wash their faces which this counterfeit woman being inforced to do as the water dissolved the painting and that she appeared as she was the confusion of her forehead was so excessive that she as it were died with grief not daring afterward to undertake the like Their attire port gate countenance words houses moveables tables recreations were carried with simplicity yet accompanied with majesty civility decorum and seasoned with as true pleasures as humane life may afford I saw many old men of an hundred years and upward who were yet very fresh whereat I was much amazed and one of them looking on me Why saith he do you wonder We live here on innocent meats whereby it cometh to pass that we do not so much as know the names of diseases of which it is said you have huge registers which are the purchasers of your intemperance We have here no desire to drie up our entrails and shorten our days we are all great in the obedience we render to the law all rich in the contentment of our desires and all pleased with the happiness one of another We have no passion to tear our hearts nor cares to prejudice our lives nor avarice to burn us up alive in our houses nor ambition to make us wings fastened on with wax so to flie up to the clouds and make both land and sea famous by our falls We have an excellent law which is never to proceed against the law of nature and to tell you the truth the ignorance of sins wherein we live serves us better than all the precepts of virtue do others There is no war among us but against vices which we rather desire to vanquish than all sorts of monsters We know not what plagues mean because we neither infect the air nor land with blasphemies or bloud The seasons of the year have with us the same equality which our spirits enjoy and the sun smileth on us in all his mansions as we endeavour to have a charity perpetually smiling and the bowels of compassion towards our like When we would behold goodly Theaters we reduce into our memory the vanities of men to bewail them so much as they are frivolous We see this great spectacle of the world which it is very hard to imitate and to fault it is a crime The greatest eloquence among us is truth and the first science we teach our children is that which instructeth them not to tell a lie Above all we endeavour piously to honour and serve God uniting us to his Spirit and submitting our ways to the main stream of his Providence I stood very attentive to hear this old man speak for I was in a good place yet not contenting my self simply with what he had said I needs would see their Churches their devotions their laws and their justice their commerce and their Policie I saw the places dedicated to the service of God were exceedingly well governed observed and frequented and that their devotion was not a slight fore of apish tricks nor affected countenances but a solid belief of the Divinity with most pure affections They had no great store of bells nor took any pride to ring them nor to publish festivals with much noise nor to set up Faiâ—â— at the enterance into Churches nor to sell jewels not wear rich apparel nor to glory in their kitchins Their great solemnities were better known by silence and devotion than by any other exteriour ostent It was a blessing to behold that heresie had altered nothing either in their doctrine or manners for they had ever declared themselves enemies of all innovation and as it is said that fishes are silent and draw near to the source of waters so they banishing from their Citie all those contentious disputations set their mouthes to the fountains of verity Thither came at the time whilest I was there an able man who thought to preach Controversies to them and difficult distinctions of School-divinity but the better sort of French-men demanded whether he preached in Hebrew or no. They could not endure any one should perplex their consciences by vehemently raising up an infinite number of too subtile arguments and many times unhonest so much they feared to bring any mixture upon their innocency finding more assistance in the lights of good nature than the subtilities of men I considered how at their going from Church they went to visit goodly great Hospitals which were excellently well founded and administered for the help of the poor as well forreigners as domesticks and I saw the most curious Ladies went confidently into them with charitie in their hands humbling themselves to the services of the most indigent This made me so enamoured of their government that I judged it the quintessence of the same Theologie And verily when I sought to inform my self of their laws I found they had as few as their soundest men had medicines They were all grounded on the doctrine of the Saviour of the world namely on that word which forbiddeth us to do that to others which we would not to be done to our selves Their state was Monarchal under the government of a good King whom they honoured as a visible Divinity This King had a Councel composed of the prime men of the world who lived like Angels and spake as Oracles so much reverence they bare them that when they appeared in the streets they were seen to pass along with a certain silence mingled with veneration as if they had been animated Reliques I likewise saw old Captains grown white in forreign wars under the shadow of Palm-trees and a flourishing warlike troup readily disposed to do bravely upon occasion The obedience was there so great that if a souldier had his arm ready up to strike upon the first sound of retreat he would withhold the blow All rewards were for virtues and Fortune much complained that she in this Countrey had neither Altar nor credit Very rarely should you see a man advanced but by long and faithfull trials of his merit so that honours were there fastened as it is said with lyme and cement because they sought for nothing more honourable from great actions than the contentment to have done them All was there so peaceable that it seemed this whole Citie was the nest of Halcyons which calmeth the brow of Heaven and appeaseth tempests The Citizens entertained one another as the fingers on the hand every one taking part
Common-wealth of the Athenians and which made Machiavel with his great list of precepts to be disasterous in all his undertakings These kind of subtile men better understand the mysterie of disputation than how to live to discourse than to counsel and to speak than to do They all have as it were three things much opposite to good counsels The first is that they are variable fickle and uncapable of repose which is the cause that as the Sun sometimes draweth up a great quantitie of vapours which he cannot dissipate so they likewise by this vivacitie perpetually active do amass together a great heap of affairs which their judgement can never dissolve The second is that they swim in an infinite confusion of reasons and inventions resembling oftentimes bodies charged with too great abundance of bloud who through a notable excess find death in the treasure of life The third is that seeking to withdraw themselves from common understanding they figure to themselves subtilities and chymaeraes which are as the Towers of the Lamiae as Tertullian speaks on which no man hath thought or ever will which is the cause that their spirit floating in this great tyde of thoughts seldom meeteth with the dispatch of an affair Adde likewise to this that God is pleased to stupifie all these great professours of knowledge and make them drink in the cup of errour in such sort that we coming to discourse concerning their judgement find they have committed many faults in the government of Common-wealths which the simplest peasants would not have done in the direction of their own houses This hath been well observed by the Prophet Isaiah when he said of the Councellours of Pharaoh Isaiah 19. The Princes of Tanais are become fools the Princes of Memphis are withered away they have deceived Aegypt with all the strength and beautie of her people God hath sent amongst them a spirit of giddiness and made them reel up and down in all their actions like drunken men The holy Job hath said the Job 12. same in these terms God suffereth these wise Councellours to fall into the bazards of senseless men God maketh the Judges stupid taketh away the sword and belt from Kings to engirt their reins with a cord God maketh the Priests to appear infamous supplanteth the principal of the people changeth the lips of truth-speakers taketh away the doctrine of old men and poureth out contempt upon Princes Behold the menaces which the Sovereign Master pronounceth against those who wander from the true way and therefore my Politician without perplexing your spirit with an infinity of precepts which have been touched by a great diversitie of pens I affirm that all which you may here expect consisteth in four things which are as four elements of your perfection to wit Conscience Capacitie Discretion and Courage The first and most necessary instruments of all arts and namely of this profession is Conscience which verily is the most ancient Governess of the soul and the most holy Mistress of life It is that which will instantly dispose you to the end whereunto you are to pretend in the exercise of an office It is that which will tell you that having given your self to the publick you are taken away from your self that you must not enter into this Sanctuary of justice with a beggarly base or mercenary intention but to aim sincerely at God and the good of the Common-wealth It is that which will discover unto you those three wicked gulfs of ambition avarice and impuritie which have swollowed all spirits dis-united from God It is that which will teach you that what is done in Heaven is proportionably acted in a Mathematical circle and that which is done in the great Regiment of Angels ought to be done in the government of men It is that which will firmly support you on the basis of the Eternal Providence It is that which will render you next unto God by often thinking on God and will make you speak what you think and do what you speak It is that which will instruct you that the spirit of man is like a Sun-dyal which is of no use but when the Sun reflecteth on it and that you likewise expect not your understanding may have any true light and direction for the government of people if not enlightened with a ray of God Besides it will give you means to enter into a holy list of piety and justice which are the two fundamental pillars of all great estates Piety will assign you two sorts of devotion the one common the other singular The common will cause you piously to honour and serve God you first having most pure and chaste beliefs in that which concerneth true faith without any mixture of curiosities and strange opinions for Insuspicabilis secreti reverendaeque majestatis cognitio est Deum non nosse nisi Deum S. Zeno serm de Nativitat it is a very great secret in matter of religion not to believe of God but what he is and that man ever knows him sufficiently who is holily ignorant of him esteeming him infinitly to transcend his knowledges Secondly it will apply you to divine Worship and publick ceremonies in a manner free cordial and Religious for the satisfaction of your interiour and the example of the publlck Singular devotion will move you to consider how being a publick person and charged with affairs which expect the motion of the Divine Providence you have a great dependance on Heaven and that it therefore wil shew you according to the proportion of your time and leisure some hour of retirement to negotiate particularly with God in imitation of Moses that great States-man who had so familiar a recourse to the Tabernacle For if that be true which S. Gregorie Nazianzen saith that we ought to have God in mind as often as we breath it is so much the more suitable to States-men as they have most need to suck in this life-giving spirit as from the fountain of the Word by the means of prayer Saint John Damascene in a Dialogue he made against the Manichees holdeth this opinion That the greatest Angels are as clocks which come in the end to languish and faint if God do not continually draw them upward by the breath of his spirit so must we say that the goodliest Spirits and strongest Intelligences lessen and wax old every moment if they resume not vigour in the intellectual source by the virtue of devotion When you shall be instructed in these principles this wise Mistress whom I call your conscience will make you find in a right course the perfection of justice which consisteth in four principal things The first is neither to act nor shew to your subjects the least suspition of evil or sin For you must begin your government by your own example and since your spirit is the first wheel whereunto all the other are fastened it is necessary to give it a good motion It is held when the
Sun stood still in the time of Josuah the Moon and all the Stars made the like pause Governours and Masters have this proper to themselves that in all they do they pour forth their spirits into such of their subjects who are for the most part neither good nor bad but by the relation they have to the life of those on whom their fortunes depend The second is not to suffer an evil since as said Peceare non cohibere peccantes juxta aestima Dostheus l. Italicorum Agapetus to the Emperour Justinian to commit and permit crimes when one hath full power to hinder them is as it were one and the same thing There are no flatteries so charming nor importunities so forcible which should ever make a well composed spirit to bend to the permission of a sin which he knoweth to be against the honour of God and the tranquilitie of his conscience Fabricianus a Roman Captain in ruining a Fortress of the Samnites kept their Venus which he sent to Rome for the beauty of the workmanship and it is thought the aspect of this statue was the first occasion of making his wife an adulteress and caused him afterward to serve as a victim to the loves of this unchaste woman by horrible massacre It happeneth oftentimes that Masters of families who seem very innocent in their persons retain scandals in their houses through a certain pusillanimity and dissimulation which draw upon them the chastisements of God and disasters very extraordinary The Scripture saith the High Priest Eli was the lamp of God before 1 Reg. 33. juxta 70. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was extinguished by a wicked toleration of the excesses of his children which rent his house and buried him in publick ruins Take good heed there be not some houshold servant raised by your indulgence who rendereth your favours odious and liberalities criminal by abuse of the power which you have put into his hands Alkabicius the Astrologer observeth there are stars of their own nature benign and which would ever behold us favourably were it not the neighbour-hood of some others malign altered their sweet inclinations And there are many Masters and Mistresses to be found in the world endued with a humour exceedingly good if the near approaches which bad servants make to their persons did not destroy this temper That man Qualities of an Officer is truly stout and happy who findeth or maketh men of honour well disposed faithfully affected industrious vigilant laborious indefatigable sober in speech prompt in execution patient and able in their charges for good souldiers make glorious Captains and good Officers great States-men The third condition of the zeal of justice is that you never be pleased an ill act be done under the shadow that you were not of counsel thereunto or that it never came to your knowledge You may very well rejoyce not to have at all contributed to evil yea not to the birth of evil for this were otherwise to betray your conscience which ought to have the same capacity to abhor all vices and embrace all virtues as faith inclineth to believe all verities revealed unto it I leave you to think what conscience Sextus Pompeius of elder time had to whom as he entertained Augustus and Mark Anthonie in his ship and being in the heat of his feast a servant came to tell him if so he pleased he quickly would put these two Princes into his power thereby to make him Monarch of the world He a little while thinking on this matter said to him who brought the news Thou shouldst have done it and never told me of it This well shewed he bare some respect to fidelity but was very far from that perfection which hateth evil yea even that which is out of the compass of ones own knowledge The fourth is that you must correct disorders as much as you possibly may declaring you have a natural horrour against all sins which resist laws both divine and humane and that the love of honesty hath made you to pass it as it were into your nature I do not see where the virtue of a great States-man may shew it self with more lustre than in the exercise of justice S. Gregorie the Great saith A Greg. in Job 29. Justitiâ— firmatur â—â—lium Prov. 16. mixture of oyl and wine must be made to heal the wounds of men in such sort that minds may not be ulcered with too much severity nor grow remiss by an excess of indulgence The rod must be used to touch and the staff to support love should not soften nor rigour transport matters into despair Moses the first States-man burned inwardly with the fire of charity and was outwardly wholly enkindled with the flames of the zeal of justice As a loving father he offered his soul to God even to the wish to be blotted out of the book of life to save his people as a Judge he took the sword and bathed it in the bloud of Idolaters He was in all kinds both a couragious Embassadour and an admirable mediatour pleading before God the cause of his people with prayers and before his people the cause of God with the sword It is to do all to execute good justice God Evectâ—s in exâ—â—lsum iâ—â—e magis â—itis despice Cassiod hath set you on high for no other cause but to behold vices beneath if you exalt them they will trample you under-foot you shall perpetually drink the greatest part of the poison you mingled for others and when you shall break down the hedge the snake as the Scripture threateneth will sting you Eccles 10. 8. the first When a good conscience hath accommodated you with this condition so that you have no other intention but to advance goodness in your own person and in those who belong to you you are not a little advanced in the perfections of a great Statesman yet it is fit Conscience Science and Capacity be had for the discharge of great employments and especially by him who makes profession to govern men sometimes as untractable as Hydra's of many heads Campanus Bishop of Terni of whom we have some Campanus Interamneâ—us Episcop Works in the Bibliotheca Patrum in the book which he composed of magistracy requireth four conditions in him A wit vigorous a carriage neither dejected nor unpleasing a prudence full of maturity when there is occasion to consult upon an affair and a promptness to take time in the instant to execute that which hath once been well resolved on He saith a vigorous wit for it is very fit the soul should be full of lights and flames which is to serve others for a guide and as there is no wit so great which hath not many defects so it is very necessary it be polished by good letters which unite and incorporate in one sole man the faculties of many others and by the conference of the wise which taketh away all that which excellent natures
but I pronounce you must so repress all motions which comhat against reason that they sparkle not in publick both to your own disadvantage and the ill example of those who behold you Philosophers have noted that thunders which stir about break of day are the most dangerous and you shall observe if a man in the first rays of his dignity early discover covetousness love hatred revenge avarice and other passions which much hasten to the prejudice of the publick and that the voice of the people be raised up as the roaring of thunder he looseth as much reputation as if he were already corrupted in mind Discretion will also shew you the way how to manage your dignity in a manner neither too harsh arrogant nor haughty but sweet affible and communicative and with it to retain an honest and temperate gravity thereby to villifie the character which God hath imprinted on those whom he calleth to charges and commands It was a pleasant mockery to behold those Kings of Aegypt appear daily in new habits with the figures of beasts birds and fishes to put terrour upon the people and give subject to Poets to make fables of Protous This affected gravity is not in the manners of Great men who naturally love nothing of singularity above others but the eminence of their excellent qualities Our spirits are not so base and childish as to be satisfied with semblances they desire some thing more solid and he is ever best esteemed among the wise who is more respected for the interiour than the outward seeming Discretion will discover unto you the conditions manners inclinations abilities and wants of those whom you are to govern and with a finger shew you the bent which way you must encline to lay hold of men It is at this day no small matter to mannage humours which are as different as they are incompatible The problem of the wolf the goat and the colewort is daily renewed If a ferri-man find himself much troubled to pass these three things severally from one side of the river to the other that the wolf may do no hurt to the goat nor the goat to the colewort in his absence what prudence think you must a States-man have to accord so many dogs and hares hawks and doves Saint Gregorie saith Paradise hath nothing in it but blessed souls and hell is filled with miserable but the world wherein we live containeth merchants very different You shall behold under your government a great number of simple innocent poor and afflicted creatures Think A notable practise given by King Theodorick to Cassiodorus Proprio censu neglecto sine invidiâ lucri morum divitias retulisti Et unde vix solet reportari patientiâ— silentium voces militaverunt tibi loudantium God hath principally created you for them open your heart with an amorous compassion extend to them the bowels of your charity stretch out affectionately to them your helpfull hands take their requests lend ear to their cries cause their affairs to be speedily dispatched not drawing them along in delays which may devour them strengthen your arm against those that oppress them redeem the prey out of the Lions throat and the Harpies talons For this it is that Kings Princes States and Officers are made To actions of this kind is it that God promiseth all the blessings of Heaven and admirations of earth For this sort of processes are crowns of glory prepared By this means a man diveth into the bottom of the heart and good opinion of people This is the cause that one hath so many souls and lives at command as there are men who the more sweetly breath air by the liberality wherewith they are obliged The greatness of man before God is not to replenish earth with armies and make rivers of bloud and to raise up mountains of dead bodies but to do justice to a poor orphan to wipe away the tears of a forlorn widow to steep in oyl as the Scripture speaketh the yoke of people which live on gall and worm-wood For not touching here any thing in particular we know that in all Realms of Christendom there are very many persons who sigh under necessities almost intolerable to the most savage and who daily charge eares with complaints and Altars with vows for their deliverance Now that we have a King so well disposed to justice and near his person so sage a Councel a Parliament so zealous for the publick good so many honourable men endowed with so sincere intentions when may we reasonably expect the comfort of people if not at this hour when miseries are eminent clamours piercing and dispositions very good Alas if there be any thing in the world wherein a great States-man may be seen to oblige the present and replenish the future times with admiration of his virtues it is in procuring the advancement of so holy an affair for which Heaven is in expectation and the hands of so many thousands of people are daily lifted upon Altars Such and so many Officers for not having had any other aim in charges but the accommodation of their own affairs have passed away like phantasms leaving nothing here behind them but ordure nor bearing ought with them into the other world but crimes They have found that the souls of the wounded Anima vulneratorum clamavit Deus in ul am abire non patitur have cried to Heaven against them and that God hath not let it pass without revenge as speaketh holy Job in the four and twentieth Chapter where he at large explicateth both the calamity of the poor and the chastisement of the rich who persecute them But all those who have constantly addicted themselves to the maintenance of justice and the consolation of afflicted persons besides the Crowns which they enjoy in Heaven live gloriously in the memory of men Their mouthes which are opened for justice after Regnantis facultas tunc â—â—ditior cùm râ—mittiâ— acquirit nobiles thesauros famâ— neglectâ— vilitate pecuniae Cassiod l. 1. Epist 16. they are shut up as Temples are truly worthy to have lillies and roses strewed on the marble which incloseth them and that their posterity may also reap the good odour of the virtues of their noble ancestours which hath made it march with up-rear'd head before the face of the people You on the other part shall behold travels and laudable actions which good judgement will invite you to recompence wherein you must shew your self generous and liberal For although virtue be always well enough payed with its own merit yet must we affirm it to be one of the greatest disorders which may happen in a State when in sowing benefits nought else is reaped but ingratitude and that to be capable of rewards one must become remarkeable in crimes On the other side there will be many defects presented that must be corrected which are either of persons very well conditioned fallen into some slight offence by surprize and
reason we are to think they are able to advance the lustre of an excellent Governour vowed to the Robe and to a life peaceable as Seneca and Cicero I have been the more willing purposely to use this Preface to the end that coming presently to speak of the great learning of our Boetius it might not diminish the credit we ought to have of his abilitie in state-affairs It is sometimes so dangerous to be Vide Boro Ann. 990. learned among gross spirits that the tenth Age which was very dull made as it were the good Pope Silvester the II. pass for a Magician because he understood Geometrie And it is not above four-score years ago that to know Greek and Negromancie were as it were one and the same thing in the opinion of the ignorant He that proceedeth by such bruitish ways would take Boetius for a Devil such knowledge had he for it must be confessed that in the revolution of so many ages there hath not been many seen who arrived to such a degree of science As our spirits are limited so every one freely taketh his share according as his inclination leadeth him his aim moveth him his understanding transporteth him his labour supporteth him and he that cannot prevail in one science applieth himself to another since the diversitie of arts is so great that it is able to satisfie the most curious allure the most nice and encourage the weakest But as for our Boetius he entred into the secrets of all sciences and as there was nothing too holy for his great virtue so might not any thing be found so elate as to exempt it self from the vivacitie of his spirit Julius Scaliger hath very well given testimonie of Scalig. in Hypercritiâ—o him according to his merit when he said the wit learning industry and wisdom of Severinus Boetius challenged all the Authors of the world as well Graecians as Latines not excepting any He addeth that all which he composed in Poesie was divine and that nothing might be found either more elegant or grave in such manner that the abundance of supereminent conceits choaked not the grace nor curiositie took any thing from the proprietie thereof And whereas he writeth that his prose seemed not equal to the verse but retained somewhat of the barbarism of that Age I assure my self Scaliger may have taken some works falsly attributed to Boetius as there are in the great Mass compiled under his name which have likewise deceived Cardinal Baronius who imputeth the book of the Discipline of Schollars to him which is one of the most silly pieces that could come from a man alienated from common sense Among other things this Author saith that he hath been in the Citie of Julius Caesar called Paris to take the air and that he there hath seen many bad schollers discoursing of Nations and giving a face to the Universitie as it had in later times which will seem ridiculous to every one who shall consider the life of Boetius and the times wherein he flourished It is no wonder if those who have admitted such works for pieces of Boetius not through want of judgement which hath been in these two personages whom I mention very great but for fault of giving time to examine them they there have found matters which with them have lessened the opinion of such an Author But this is very certain that all which is extant of this brave Writer hath in it vigour grace puritie spirit and excellent good consequence as appeareth in the books of Consolation As for the rest he hath not so confined himself in this great eloquence but that he entereth into the most profound questions of Philosophie and Theologie and should he have no other honour but to make Aristotle first speak Latine who was unknown in the West I should make much more account of him than if he had raised Orpheus up again with his Harp The great knowledge he had of Geography Arithmetick Musick and all which concern the Mathematicks was the cause when any one stood in need of some piece of wit they went presently to Boetius as the onely man of the Empire who was esteemed a true Library animated with the spirit of all Arts. It is a pleasant thing to read what the King Theodorick wrote to him in requiring a dial of him to present it to the King of Burgundy Behold the words of his great Secretarie Cassiodorus It is not reasonable to contemn the requests which Kings our neighbours with all confidence make unto us and especially when they require some slight things which they account in the number of great treasures It happeneth oftentimes that the dalliances and conceits of wit obtain that by sweetness which arms cannot gain by force If we needs must play let us so use the matter our sports may be made for the good of the publick and let us search for things serious even in pleasures The K. of Burgundie intreateth of me with much instance twodyals the one circumvolved with water the other with the sun and he prayeth me to send skilful masters to shew him this invention Let us afford entertainment to this Nation to the end they may hold those things for miracles which we here daily use for recreation I understand the report which their Embassadours have made of these the like workmanships which hath much amazed them as a thing very extraordinarie Now I know you are so accomplished in all sorts of sciences that you have tasted in the fountain of all the industries what others seek to practise by rote For you for this purpose remained in the Universitie of Athens and have so fairly allied together the Romane robe with the Grecian mantle that their doctrine by your means is become wholly Latine You are ignorant of nothing that is in the speculative nothing which is in the practick and all that which the Athenians would attribute to themselves of singularitie you have transported into our City of Rome Your translations have made Ptolomy the Astrologian Nichomachus the Arithmetician Euclid the Geometrician Plato the divine Aristotle the Logician Archimedes the Mathematician to speak Latine All sciences dispersed among so many men and so many wits through all ages are in you altogether united you have interpreted them all with such perspicuitie of discourse retaining the proprietie of language that should these Authours return to life again they would prefer your translation before their own originals Afterward he enlargeth himself upon the praise of Fugam solis aquiparat quod motum semper ignorat Inviderent talibus si astra sentirent Vbi est illud horarum de lumine venientium singulare miraculum si hos umbra demonstrat Cassiodorus l. variar Epist 45. the Mathematicks then returning to his diall he saith it is an admirable thing to see that a little immoveable steel every day performeth as much way as the sun and that if the stars had understanding they would
not conceiving what he would say In a few days this Anastasius who so much feared thunder that he fled into a Cave so soon as at any time he heard the least notice thereof was slain by a thunder-stroke upon the very stairs of the place which he had chosen for a sanctuarie Justine derived from base birth and mounted through all the degrees of War to the dignitie of the Captain of the Guard was chosen Emperour of whom he being a valiant man and well beloved Theodorick began to cōceive a great jealousie still fearing he might take out of his hands the Empire he had usurped The beginning of the storm was that Justine an Emperour most Catholick treated the Arians of Constantinople who had been tolerated under Anastasius with the severitie ordained by laws despoiling them of Churches which they had boldly usurped They failed not to address their complaints and offer up their grievances to the ears of Theodorick who interpreting the disgrace of his sect to the contempt of his person entered into violences more fit for a Barbarian than a King who had been trained up to civilitie by such good counsels for he threatened to turn all Rome into fire and bloud if the Emperour Justine did him not right and for this purpose he sent Pope John commanding him to go speedily to Constantinople to cause the Churches to be rendered to the Arians supposing his dignitie would procure him full power with the Emperour The Pope answered he had made very ill choice of him for such an Embassage that the rank he held in the Church permitted him not to be a provider of Churches for the Arians and that if he had any bad design upon his person he was ready to stretch out his neck for the defence of the Church there being no need for him to pass the seas for this and undertake the voyage This made him enter into much greater extravagancie threatening the Citie with a deluge of bloud if it were not remedied Behold the cause why the Pope was intreated to go to Constantinople and to find some way how to sweeten affairs yet to let nothing pass to the prejudice of his conscience He yielded to the tears of the people and undertook the voyage of Constantinople accompanied with some of the principal Senatours where the Emperour Justine received him with much submission and unspeakable magnificence Theodorick expecting the issue of this great Embassage which was not so soon ended entered further and further into a vast labyrinth of suspicions and jealousies beginning to distrust Roman Senatours and to monopolize all affairs with his Goths which was the beginning of his ruine He at that time did four things which infinitely grieved all good men The first was he advanced two who appeared like two comets over the heads of mortals The one was called Congiastus and the other Trigilla both men of rapine and concussions who by their evil deportment did much disgrace the authoritie of their Prince The second was that he who heretofore used great moderation in matter of subsidies bare himself therein most inordinately by the perswasion of those two Goths who were prodigiously covetous and insariable in their avarice The third was that in a grert scarcitie of victuals he caused all the corn to be taken out of the fields near Rome enforcing every one by an express Edict to sell that little which he had upon a very low price for the Kings own granaries and the entertainment of souldiers which gave occasion of many tears the poor entering into despair if the force of this Edict should be of long continuance In the end for a fourth violence he fell upon the most eminent Senatours dispoiling them of their goods and threatening them banishment and death under suspitions of treasons Boetius endeavoured to cure Theodorick by all the sweetest ways but seeing his spirit was become very dark and much altered in all that which might be said reasonable not to loose honour and good conscience in the general ship-wrack he foresaw he began to roar like a Lion against the corruptions of this mercenary Court He stoutly set upon these two powerful favourites and resisted them in the greatest vigour of their credit with such liberty and constancy that it well from that time forward appeared this man had his soul in his hand being ever ready to resign it for the defence of justice Trigilla who was the Superintendent of the whole government of the Empire and the instrument of King Theodorick would fain seem an able man and to give colour of wisdom and reason to actions disproportionable namely in that Edict published concerning the great heaps of corn amassed together in the magazine of the Prince in the sharp wants and indigencies of the people Boetius loudly blamed this manner of proceeding and ceased not to declare the miseries of Provinces in words very effectual demanding audience of the King for the good of his State Theodorick whether he had not as yet altogether renounced the reputation of a righteous Prince or that he thought his great favourite Trigilla was grounded upon most pertinent reasons and strong encounters of affairs which made him stir up these novelties would needs in his cabinet hear a conference between Boetius Trigilla concerning the Decrees where Boetius defended the cause of the poor with such weight of reasons prudence and courage that he hindered the battery of Trigilla and prevailed so far with the Prince that he procured him to revoke his Edicts whereupon these two favourites with all the faction which followed them finding themselves immeasurably offended began more and more to cast into the soul of Theodorick already much changed infinite distrust against Boetius and the whole Senate And then Paulinus and Albinus two personages the best qualified in Rome who had run through all the most honourable charges of the Common-wealth were very ill intreated by suggestions and suspicions which these men had raised against them Boetius seeing the affairs reduced to such a pass where dissimulation could not repair them spake in the end to Theodorick in full Senate with all the libertie which his conscience dictated unto him saying SIR I am not ignorant that we are in a time wherein it is as it were much easier to flie than to speak of the State of this Empire without offence to any and that all discourse which at this present may be framed will ever be suspected by those who have made even our thoughts criminal to your Majestie Yet must I needs say it is a matter very hard to be silent in so great revolutions of affairs since nature hath not created us like crocodiles who are said to have eys to weep not a tongue to complain I perceive we loose as it were all that which we have of Romane in us and that in this universal disaster where all the world should strengthen their arms against violence men are contented to do as in a thunder
nor fetters may prejudice the libertie of your spirit The third reason which is very much at large deduced in this divine Work is drawn from the vanitie of all temporal goods where wisdom proveth by very good reasons That if the sorrows we have for the world might be measured at the rate of the things which contristate us as there is nothing great in this vale of tears so should there not be any thing capable of much disquiet Mourn we for mettals which are the nests of rust and the tinder of concupiscence for attires which are the nourishment of mothes for bodies which are the food of worms for houses which are the bones of the earth piled one upon another with cement and morter for precious stones which are the excrements of an enraged sea borrowing their worth from our illusion for honours which are golden masks and weather-cocks of inconstancie What a folly is it to hold retirement for a punishment which so many brave spirits have taken for a Paradise and to think our selves sharply punished when we no longer behold behind us great trains of servitours who burden us with their crimes and make us become answerable for their souls What an errour is it to desire to hold riches locked up which never are what they ought to be but when they are distributed For they resemble a dung-hill which stinketh when it is together heaped and fatteneth the fields when it is spread abroad We move Heaven and earth to flie from povertie and find it in our riches for great fortunes are now adays so hungrie and have so much ado to maintain themselves that although the needie are ever the most poor yet is there nothing more beggerly than the rich who have a thousand dependances and a thousand necessities whereunto their felicitie is fastened as with a chain What a charm is it to think then to be happie when you mannage the affairs of Great-ones where never is any thing done to please them if you make not your self a slave to all their passions where favours are granted of feathers and disgraces inflicted of lead Where your sleep your life and your faith is sold for a pleasing fantasm which lasteth no longer than the dream of one night Deserveth not a man to be strucken down as an enemie of reason when unloosened from this slaverie he withereth languisheth and sighs for his fetters ready prest a thousand times to kiss the hands of him who again would enchain him Prof. 6. l. 3. O gloria gloria millibus hominum mortalium nihil aliud nisi aurium in statio magna What a mockerie is it to affect greatness among men as if a rat would make himself a lord among mice and to feed himself with glorie which is nothing but a swelling of the ear Oh Boetius Seneca desired under Nero and Papinian under Antoninus the solitude which thou now enjoyest but whilst they endeavoured to break their bands leaned to a ruinous wall the mass of their greatness transported and buried them Behold thy self retired Dum ruitures moles ipsa trahit from affairs into a chamber of Pavia behold thy self in repose and among books the first entertainment of thy young days why dost thou not now presently make a virtue of the happiness which the providence of God offereth thee For a third point he considered the fruits that might be derived from tribulation when it is well mannaged Prosperitie saith this wisdom unto him is windie open slipperie and inconsiderate Adversitie quite otherwise is sober reserved prudent and circumspect the one under apparences of felicities bringeth unto us an infinitie of lies the other is ever grave and sincere the one deceiveth us the other instructeth us the one blindeth us the other enlighteneth us the one polluteth us the other purifieth us the one charmeth us and tieth up our understanding the other enfranchizeth us the one separateth us from our sovereign good and maketh us fall into a thousand sorts of vanities the other draweth us back as with a book to the consideration of eternitie the one createth for us many flatteries the other discovereth unto us many true friends Let us suffer a little Boetius and if this seem troublesom think that as thy prosperities have passed away so shall thy adversities The last day of thy life which cannot be far off will ever be the last of thy ill fortunes if thou leave not it it will forsake thee it is an ordinance of God that favours and disgraces cannot be of long continuance and that for mortals there is no evil immortal Finally for the last reason the holy man who had composed so learned books of the mysteries of our faith forsaking all the comforts of humane things drenched himself very far into the consideration of blessings in the other life of eternity and the excellency of God He considered it as an infinite sea of essence This is inserted in my Journâ—â— bounty beatitude which encloseth in it self all being all good all veritie He saw the whole Universe in this immensity of God as a spunge would be in the midst of the ocean an atom in the air and a little globe of glass enchased in the first Heaven He saw in his bosom all glory all dignities all riches all treasures all pleasures all consolations all delights all joys and all beatitudes he walked at ease in those fourteen abysses of greatness which are in God to wit infinitie immensitie immutabilitie eternitie omnipotencie wisdom perfection sanctitie benignitie power providence mercie justice and the end whereunto all things tend From thence he beheld the Word Incarnate the true King of the afflicted and all the Saints laden with crosses and persecutions thinking himself very happy to mingle his tears with the bloud of so many brave courages who had gained Heaven with violence This consolation overflowing his heart drowned all his acerbities and infinitely sweetened the sharpness of his captivity Behold the fruits which the wise Boetius gathered in his prison well shewing that virtue is an hostess tractable in every lodging and who looseth no part of her liberty in chains It onely appertaineth to huge mountains to bear snow and verdure at one and the same time and to great souls to retain a holy vigour in the strength of afflictions The seventh SECTION The death of Boetius IT is a loss that the Authours which have written of this death have cut off so short the last act of a life so eminent There is not any thing saith one so curious in a statue nor so hard to polish as the nails and nothing which more clearly maketh the perfection of a man accomplished in virtues to be seen as a good death I will here speak that which I have drawn from the most probable authours touching the death of Boetius It is certain he was very long in this prison since he complaineth in the Preface of a book which he composed during the time of
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
civil life which happeneth to them through depraved habits and inordinate idleness whereinto they have suffered themselves to slide from their tender years or by some other corruptions of a melancholy spirit which they soment to the prejudice of their repose These kind of natures are good neither in the countrey citie house-keeping nor in religion For we find that in all things we must use endeavour and that we came into the world as into a galley where if one cannot manage either the stern or oar he must at the least make a shew to stir his arms and imitate the Philosopher Diogenes who roled his tub up and down wherin it was said he inhabited to busie himself For my August l. â— de Civit. Dei Philo de sacri Abel Cain part I like well those people who banished all idle gods out of their walls and retained such as enjoyned travel For to live and take pains is but one and the same thing and that which the nourishment we take operateth for the preservation of life labour doth the like for accommodation thereof In the fifth station you have women of the sea who Non est ira super iram mulieris Eccles 15. much deceive the world by their fair semblances for they at first appear quiet and peaceable as a sea in the greatest calm having no want of grace or beauty which promiseth much good to those who know them not but one would not believe how they shift away upon the least wind of contradiction which is raised how they are puffed up and become unquiet with anger love avarice jealousie and other passions very active Such an one seeth the flower of the thorn who knoweth not the pricking thereof and such an one beholdeth with admiration those excellent beauties who cannot believe how many pricks and stings they cover under these imaginary sweetnesses You shall therein ordinarily observe very great levity and impatience which maketh them hourly to change their resolution in such sort that they think nothing so miserable as to remain still in one and the same condition I have seen young widows who had washed S. Zeno Hoâ— de continent the bodies of their husbands with their tears wiped them away with their hairs and as it were worn it by force of kisses and who not content with these ardent affections discharging the surplusage of their passion upon their own proper bodies tore their hair pulled their cheeks were rather covered with dust than apparel They died every hour saying they could not live one sole moment without their best-beloved and filled the air and earth with their complaints which was the cause why such as came to the funerals knew not whether they should bewail the dead or the dying Notwithstanding presently after these goodly counterfeitings they began again to reform their hair and change the dust of the pavement into the powder of Cypress to put painting upon their tears to adorn with a carcanet of pearl the neck which they seemed to destine to a halter to seek for Oracles from their looking-glass and to do all things as if death and love conspired to make their feast in one and the same Inn. I have observed others who being yet under the yoak were the best servants in the world but as soon as they saw themselves at liberty there were no worse mistresses than they There are noted to be in the heart of a woman the passions of a tyrant and should they continually have wheels and gibbets at their command the world would become a place of torture and execution Never have I seen passions more hard to vanquish for in the end the sea which threateneth the world to make but one element suffereth it self to be distinguished into ditches by little grains of sand which stayed it with the commission they received thereupon from God but when a woman letteth the reins of her passion go there is not as it were neither law divine or humane which can recal her spirit to reason Fair maids take ever from the modesty of your hearts the laws which may be given you by justice In the sixth degree are the natures of the Ape who Custodi te à muliere mâ—lâ— Prov. 6. have a certain malice spightfull and affected and such spirits may be found of this kind who day and night dream on nothing but mischief They are filled with false opinions sinister judgements disdains smothered choller discontents acerbities in such sort that the ray of the prosperity of a neighbour reflecting on their eyes makes them sigh and groan And as those Apes which sculck in the shop of a Trades-man mar his tools disturb his works scatter his labours and turn all topsie-turvie So these malicious creatures spie occasions to trouble a good affair to dissolve a purpose well intended to overthrow a counsel maturely diliberated to cause a retardation on the most just desires and frustrate the most harmless delights How many times do we behold the sun to rise chearful and resplendent in a bright morning and every one is abashed to see a mist arise which in this serenity doth that which blemishes on a fair body It is said it sometimes proceedeth from a sorceress which darkeneth that glorious eye of the day with her charms And how often have you observed prosperities more radiant than the clearest summers day which have been cloyed with duskie vapours by the secret practises of a woman who biteth the bridle in some nook of a chamber Fair maids malice is an ill trade It ever drinketh down at least the moity of the poison which it mingled for others In the seventh Region there are some kind of owls Mulicrum penus avarissimum or wild-cats certain creatures enemies of day of all conversation all civility and all decorum who having received from God many honest enablements to adorn life and to do good to persons necessitous so lock up their entrails that you may sooner extract honey and manna from flints than get a good turn out of their hands How is it possible they should be courteous to oblige their likes since they are many times cruel to themselves defrauding themselves of the necessities of life which are as it were as common as elements to satisfie a wicked passion of avarice that gnaweth them with a kind of fury For they endure in abundance part of that which the damned suffer in flames perpetually and fearing lest the earth may fail them they bewail what is past they complain of the present they apprehend the future they love life onely to hold money in prison and fear not death but for the expence must be made at their funerals Let us take heed we resemble not those fountains Fountain Garamant Holunicus S. Bonaventura in dieta which are so cold in the day that they cannot be drunk and so hot in the night that none dare come near them Let us do good both in life and death
sufficient she pleased the King his Majesty who was not ignorant of her perfections and for the matter of Religion which was the most considerable he hoped the King would put on a resolution to become a Christian The Burgundian replied this affair was of such importance that he would not confide in successes upon hopes which are always uncertain but that he must see an express promise from the King of France and thereupon dismisseth the Embassadour thinking he had sufficiently hindered the business But the brave Aurelianus speedily dispatched a Currier to Clodovaeus to shew unto him where the obstacle lay and to get a promise from him to become a Christian The King who was so transported with affection that he was on tearms to refuse nothing hastily gave the promise required of him which being afterward presented to Gombaut by the Embassadour it made him sweat apace not knowing further what invention to make use off to avoid this fatal blow notwithstanding he answered that this marriage was of so great consequence that it could not be decreed but in an Assembly of his States thinking by this trick he might dissolve the design of Clodovaeus or draw the affairs out at length with such delayes that he should trouble all the world But this was it which transfixed him so far humane prudence is cunning to ruin it-self by its proper inventions For the most active French Nobility so journing in Burgundy in the expectation of the States sowed in the spirits of the Magistrates and people the great good would enfue to their Nation by this alliance when they should come to be all united together as brothers but if they once refused the request of a great Prince so replenished with honour and courtesie they must necessarily proceed to arms which could not but be fatal to their Kingdom The Burgundians hungry after repose very well tasted these reasons and the prudent Clotilda spared not silently to strike her stroak insensibly gaining the chief of the Councel to follow her inclinations Aurelianus who had a very sharp and clear-sighted spirit much pressed the States nor could Gombaut make so many knots but that he still dissolved them In the end he must come to the point The States assembled and the King came thither with a studyed speech wherein he had heaped together with very great subtility all the reasons which made him apprehend this alliance with the French but God who maketh great alterations in Kingdoms as billows in the sea so disposed the hearts of the Burgundians that all allegations opposed against the design of this marriage seemed but dreams and Chimaeraes One of the greatest States-men rising up made a long speech and declared to the King That the repose of his Kingdom at which he aimed in all his discourse consisted in this alliance That marriages had in all times been rather the knots of peace than incentives of war that the comfort which might grow from such an action would destroy all the acerbities and divisions of factious spirits that the greatest troubles of Kingdoms had been often pacified by good alliances that the French were become so powerful it was not fit to deny them any thing that the request of Clodovaeus was so fair it could not be rejected without a notable act of incivility That there was not any beast more cruel in the world than love changed into hatred and that it was to be feared least intreaties of a lover might end in the fury of a conquerour That the offer he made to become a Christian would for ever be glorious to their Nation for furthering such a piety That Clotilda had naturally affection for her Countrey and wit enough to gain her husband and wholly transport him to the love of her Nation That the people were tyred with so many wars which would infallibly grow much more bloudy than ever if they slighted the faithful love of so great a Monarch This man connected so many reasons one upon another that he prevailed and almost all came to this conclusion that they must with all speed send the Princess to the King of France who required her The miserable Gombaut finding himself ruined on all sides said he would use no obstacle but did think it fit to observe the deportments of his niece for she had vowed her self to God and to enter into Religion The Embassadour understanding this last evasion extreamly laughed from the botom of his heart and said if the Princess were that way disposed the King his Master would not be so earnest in her pursuit as to cause her to break her vow But that it was fit she should be heard which was done and she being asked thereof answered that her devotion had never hitherto transported her so far as to make any vow of virginity and although she were infinitely pleased with the sweet retirement she enjoyed in the Court of her uncle notwithstanding if it were his good pleasure to marry her to the King of France on this condition that he became a Christian she would not be so indiscreet as to hinder it Upon this answer of the Princess the Deputies of both Nations there present gave a loud applause and cried out the marriage was concluded The King himself dissembling his passion forced a smile and well saw it was high time to forgo what he could hold no longer He disposed of her train very poorly as a man naturally covetous saying His neece was too fair for him to give her so many rich attyres That the rose was sufficiently beautified with its leaves and the sun with his rays and that all humane arts arrived not to the perfections of nature Aurelianus did not with much earnestness insist hereupon so much he feared least the disposition of this man might change and he invent some new tricks to hinder their departure But he resolved instantly to carry this Princess away The uncle seeing her upon her journey began much to flatter her which he had never done before saying Go too neece I well perceive that notwithstanding your devotions you are of the humour of other women and affect glory You are weary to abide with an uncle you will have a husband and needs must he be a King Proceed I shall not be against it let every one settle their affections where they may expect their felicity Good daughter you see how much I endeavour to content you and how it being in my power to hinder this marriage which I thought to be little advantagious to my Realm yet have I been willing to cause it to be confirmed in a general assembly of my States to render your desires the more assured This affection which I at this present witness sufficiently declareth that I for a long space have entertained most sincere and hearty affections for the good of your house For that which passed concerning your father and mother troubled no man so much as my self God is my record thereof But dear daughter there was a
with a constancy which amazed this bloudy soul that so tortured her In the end she again took her garments going out of the water as from an Amphitheater of her glorious battel The twelfth SECTION The retreat of Hermingildus and his Conversion HErmingildus who knew nothing of what had passed beholding her somewhat pase and weakened with such harsh usage asked her if she felt any pain of body or affliction of mind to discolour her so much more than ordinary but the wise Princess replied It was nothing and that there was not any thing so important as to be worthy of his knowledge He who well perceived that she by her discretion dissembled some great affront enquired very curiously of those who might inform him and somewhat too soon discovered the cruel disgrace which his mother-in-law Goizintha had put upon his wife This transfixed him with a dolour so sensible and so enkindled him with fire and choller in his heart that if the fear of God and the sweetness of his wife had not served for a counterpoize to his passion he had torn this wicked Queen in pieces But the good Indegondis prostrating her self at his feet besought him by all that which was most noble in him not to precipitaâ—e the matter into such extremities and prevailed so well with her natural eloquence that he was contented to remove presently from the Court and retire to Sevil which his father had given him for his lively-hood Then was the time when those chast loves which had been crossed by the disturbances of Goizintha all obstacles being overcome enlarged themselves as a river which having broken his banks poureth it self with a victorious current in the wideness of his channel Hermingildus could not sufficiently satisfie himself to behold so many virtues in so great a beauty the modesty which she had witnessed in this last disgrace gave him apprehensions of her piety above all may be said Those who seek nothing in marriage but sensual pleasure which is more thin than smoke and much lighter than the wind cannot imagine how much these fair amities which are the daughters of virtues nourish holy delights These are celestial fires which are ever in the bosom of God as in their sphere It is he who begetteth them and breedeth them they being not constrained to descend upon earth to beg a caytiff nourishment from perishable creatures which promise so many wonders and produce nought but wind These two great souls beheld one another with the eyes of the dove and were mutually enflamed with affections so honest and innocent that Angels would not be ashamed to entertain the like fires since they are those of charity which is the eternal furnace of all souls the most purified Indegondis perceiving she had already great power in the affection of her husband and that there was no longer any step-mother to dissolve her designs sollicited him seriously for his Conversion and said Sir I must confess unto you the honour I have received from your alliance seemeth not accomplished whilest I behold between us a wall of division which separateth us in belief and Sacraments Since our amities are come to that point as to enjoy all in common and that they unite things most different why should we divide God who is most simple of nature Why should we make two Religions and two Altars since we now live in such manner that we have but one table one heart and one bed Verily Sir if I saw the least ray of truth in the Sect you profess and some hope of salvation I would submit thereunto the more to oblige me to your person which I love above all the things in the world But it is most undoubted that you are ill rectified that you pursue a fantasie in stead of a verity and that dying in this state you loose a soul so noble which I would purchase with expence of my bloud I boast not to be learned as you Arians who have so many goodly allegations of Scripture that you make the ignorant believe God is all that which to your selves you imagine Sir I for my part think the chief wisdom in matter of religion is not to be so wise as you are and to have a little more submission of spirit for faith is the inheritance of the humble and never doth the day of God shine in a soul which hath too much light of man You well see this heresie of the Arians is a revolted Band which hath forsaken the high way to wander cross the fields you are not ignorant that this Arius was a wicked Priest who raised an heresie for despight that he was not made Bishop and was rejected and solemnly condemned in a Councel of three hundred and eighteen Bishops These men were wise enough for you and me I fix my self upon their resolutions I follow the generality of the Church I adhere to the body of the tree and you tie your selves to a rotten branch I have no argument more strong than the succession of lawfull Pastours than the conformity of the Universal Church than the succession of all Ages than the wisdom sanctity and piety which I see resplendent on our side Besides I come from a Countrey where we have seen all the Arian Kings our neighbours round about to have had most unhappy ends when in the mean time my great grand-father King Clodovaeus for having sincerely embraced Catholick Religion received so many blessings from Heaven that he seemed to have good hap and victories under his pay I am not the daughter of a Prophet nor do I vaunt to have the spirit of prophesie but I dare well foretel the Kingdom of Spain shall not be of long continuance unless it vomit out this pestilence of Arianism which lies about the heart of it I would to God with expence of my life I might establish my Religion then should I account my self the most contented Queen of the world Hermingildus knew not what to answer to the strength of truth and love two the most powerfull things in the world onely he said it was a business which well deserved to be pondered and that these changes in persons of his quality are subject to much censure if they have not great reason for caution The good Princess to give him full leisure to advise thereupon handled the matter so by her industrie that he conferred with S. Leander who was a strong pillar of the Catholick faith in Spain The sage Prelate so well mannaged the spirit of this Prince that with assistance of God and the good offices of Indegondis who moved Heaven and earth for this conversion he drew him from errour This brave courage so soon as he saw the ray of truth needs would acknowledge and freely confess it taking the Chrism of Catholicks with pomp and solemnity even to the giving a largess of golden coyns which he purposely caused to be stamped a little too suddenly making his own image to be engraven thereon with a
humane and politick without Heavens direction For so doing you will build upon quick-silver phantasms of greatness which will afford you illusions in this life to drench you in the other into eternal confusions When you have done all which justice and conscience Nec consilio prudenti nec remedio sagaci divinâ— providentiae fatalis dispositio subverti vel reformari potest Apul. Metamor 9. Heâ— fatis superi certasse minores Sil. Ital. l. 5. dictate leave successes to God and know there are strokes from Heaven that cannot be vanquished either by prudence of counsels or any humane remedies We are to be answerable unto God with our good desires not powers the petty gods of the earth can do nothing against the Decrees of Heaven Take these words of S. Paul not as ordinary but as Oracles of an immutable Veritie (a) (a) (a) Rom. 8. Prudentia carnis mors est prudentia autem spiritus vita pax Prudence of flesh is death but prudence of spirit is peace and life If you have good success in ought you do thank God and look on him saith (b) (b) (b) Bernard de consider l. 5. Tob. 6. 3. S. Bernard as an Omnipotent Will a virtue full of affection an eternal light a sovereign beatitude which replenisheth all here below with the abundance of his ever-honoured bounty But if in doing all you can you find main oppositions and irksom afflictions in the world say as the chast Sara did seeing her self injured by her servant O God I turn my face to the Ad. te Deus faciem mâ—am converto ad te oculos meos dirigo Peto Domine ut de vinculo improperii hujus absolvos me aut certe desuper terram cripias me c. place whence I expect my consolation I fix mine eyes on thee because thou settlest all my hopes I beseech thee deliver me from the fetters of this disgrace or deliver me out of this world Thy counsels are impenetrable to the weakness of my understanding but I am wel assured of one thing that he who faithfully serves thee shall never be deceived If his life be assaulted with afflictions it shall reap Crowns If it be exposed to the ardour of tribulations thou wilt stretch out an assisting hand If thou exercisest it under thy chastisements it shall be to make it find out the path of thy mercies The fifth EXAMPLE upon the fifth MAXIM Of the Providence of GOD over states and riches of the world EULOGIUS THe Divine Providence is a marvellous workman Drawn from the observation of Paul a Greek Authour which ruleth here below over the heads of mortals it laboureth in this great mass of mankind it takes men of earth to make them of gold and of those men of gold makes men of earth It commixeth slaves and Kings and causeth the one not thinking of it to spring from the other in the revolution of times as Plato said But we who know not all its secrets sometimes blame the works of it which should rather stir up our admiration than be subject to our censure One complaineth the wealth of the world is not well divided and that the wicked have ever the greatest share Men who oftentimes know not how to part with a finger breadth of land but by dis-joyning most intimate charities would make themselves distributers of the worlds fortunes as if they looked more narrowly into the world than he that made it I will here set down a memorable history drawn out of a rare Grecian Authour named Paulus who Paul Syllegus l. 3. c. 48. compiled many Narrations learned from the best of his Age. He recounteth how in the time of the Emperour Justin the elder about the year 528. after the birth of Christ there was in Thebais one named Eulogius a stone-cutter by his trade of poor means but very rich in virtue Which maketh us say Poverty resembles the Island of Ithaca as said Archesilas which Poverty the Isle of Ithaca 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stob. serm 93. though rough and bushie failed not to breed the bravest men of Greece whom she made use of as a school for all the exercises of virtues This man who at that time had no other wealth on earth but his hands spared not to store up treasures of good works as pledges in Heaven He feared Virtues of a good poor man God was devout chaste sober abstinent courteous peacefull charitable and embraced eminent virtues in a mean fortune It is a strange thing that notwithstanding his labour which was hard enough he fasted most part of his time even to Sun-set and with the little money he got by the sweat of his brows relieved the poor He walked like Abraham before pilgrims he washed their feet and received them into his little house with all possible charity Then seeking out needy persons of his own Parish to give them some refection according to his abilitie he extended his compassion even to beasts not suffering any thing to escape his bounty One would have said seeing all this poor trades-man did he had been some rich Lord such abundance appeared in so low a poverty It happened that a holy Hermit called Daniel who Daniel the Hermit made a rash demand lived in great reputation for the excellent endowments of his soul passing along that way so journed in the poor cottage of Eulogius who received him like an Angel descended from Heaven He who was a most spiritual man looking very far into the Mason's life found therein such eminent perfection that he well perceived devotion many times lodged with little noise in a secular life and that God who is a great Master had servants every where This so enflamed him to the love of those virtues he observed in his hoste that returning to the Monastery he exercised great devotion as fasting three whole weeks together with intention to obtain an ample estate from God for Eulogius Fervour so transported this good man that he considered not that God who preserveth us to health loveth us not to curiosity and that the banquets he made for his greatest servants as Elias and S. Paul the Hermit when he for them opened the treasures of Heaven were onely bread and clear water of fountains Notwithstanding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he without intermission importuned Heaven by his prayers complaining God who was most just gave riches in excess to so many sinners to puff up their pride and foment riot when the poor Mason who deserved rivers should stream nothing but gold for him was invaded by harsh poverty which tied up his hands from virtue But he persisting day and night to beg the fruit of his request heard a voice from Heaven which commanded him to lay aside so indiscreet a request saying If his Eulogius left his poverty he would forsake his conscience But he pertinaciously persevering in the pursuit of his desire through a goodness wholly blind answered He well knew
August serm 19. de verbis Apost Inhonestos amatores â—stendite Siquis amore foeminae lasciviens vestis se aliter quà m amatae placet illi dixerit nalo te habere tale birrhum non habebit si per hyemem illi dicet in lacinia te amo eliget tremere quà m displicere Numquid illa tamen damnatura est Numquid adhibitura tortores Nunquid in carcerem missura Hoc solum ibi timetur non te videbo faciem meam non videbis of our love towards God pertinently maketh use of the practise of prophane loves Behold saith he these foolish and dishonest Amourists of the world I demand whether any one surprized with the love of a woman attyreth himself any otherwise than to the liking of his Mistress If she say I would not have you wear such a cloke he puls it off I command you in the midst of winter to take a sommer garment he had rather shiver with cold than displease a miserable creature But yet what will she do if he obey not Will she condemn him to death Will she send him executioners Will she thrust him into a dungeon Nothing less she will onely say if you do not this I will never see you more This word alone is able to make a man tear himself in pieces in the endeavour of complacence and service O foul confusion of our life and prostitution of spirit A God who makes a Paradise of his aspects and a hell in his separation from us promiseth never to behold us with a good eye unless we keep his commandements nor can his menaces but be most effectual since he hath sovereign authority in his hands He deserves to be served above all things service done to him is not onely most pleasing but after this life gaineth recompence In the mean time we rather choose to live the slaves of creatures and dwell under the tyranny of our passions than to embrace the yoke of God Were it not fit we hereafter order the small service we do to God as well in our prayers as actions in such sort that there be neither work word nor thought from morning till night which hath not all its accommodations and is not squared within the rule God desireth of us with intentions most purified and indefatigable fervours Finally the last character of love is to suffer for 3. To suffer Satiabor cum apparuit gloria tua Psal 16. Satiabor cum affâ—ictuâ— fuero ad similitudinem tuam Jesus the father of sufferings and King of the afflicted The Kingly Prophet said I shall be satisfied when thy glory shall appear to me Another translation importeth I shall be well pleased when I shall behold my self marked with the characters of thy sufferings Jesus Christ in the great sacrifice of patience made in the beginning of Ages supplyes the person of a great Bishop putting on flesh wholly imprinted with dolours a heart drenched in acerbities a tongue steeped in gall Round about him are all the most elevated and couragious souls who all wear his livery and both constantly and gloriously dispose themselves to this great model of dolours Would we at the sight of so many brave Champions lead a life lazy languishing and corrupt Know we not all creatures of the world groan and bring forth that all elements are in travel and in a ceaseless agitation The air it self say Philosophers is perpetually strucken with the motion of heaven as with a hammer or whip that this benummed mass may not hatch any poyson Rivers are cleansed and purified by the streaming current of their waters The earth is never in repose and the nature of great things is generously to suffer evils The clock goeth on by the help of its counterpoise and Christian life never proceedeth in virtue but by counter-ballance of its crosses Our souls are engaged by Oath to this warfare Animas nostrâ—s authorati in has pugnas accessimus Tertul. ad Scap. so soon as first we enter into Christianity said the noble Tertullian Suffering is our trade our vow our profession Love which cannot suffer is not love and if it cease to love when it should bear it never was what it professed A lover said in Olympius that when he was onely Olympius Te sine vâ— misero mihi lilis nigra videntur Pallentesque rosae c. some little moment absented from the creature he most loved in the world all the best seasons were irkesome all discourses troublesome and the greatest delights turned into bitterness Flower de-luces seemed cole-black in the meadow when he beheld them in his pensive solitude roses the most vermillion grew pale gilli-flowers lost their lustre the very bay-trees which resist winters cold could not withstand the sadness caused by this absence but in a moment they all appeared quite withered to him Viands with him had no rellish wine tast nor sleep repose But so soon as this creature returned all was animated by her presence Flower-deluces became white again roses resumed their vermillion gilli-flowers their beauty lawrels their verdure wine and viands their tastfulness and sleep its contentment But if there happened any harsh and painful accidents which he must bear for her sake they seemed a Paradise All worldly loves speak the same yet are we unwilling to say or do any thing for this excellent Word of God which is endowed with a beauty incomparable exalted above all the beauties of the sons of men This Jesus who maketh a Paradise spring from his eyes This Jesus who distilleth honey from lips of roses for the comfort of his elect This Jesus who causeth Nations to tremble under the force of his word as under flaming arrows and is attired with the conquest and tropheys of souls Behold him on the bright empyreal Heaven crowned with a diadem of honour and revested with celestial purple who regardeth us who beholdeth us and never ceaseth to draw us unto him So many brave spirits have followed him amongst torrents thorns and flames which they found replenished with a sweetness that charmed their pain in the sight of their best beloved It is this sweetness turned the stones of S. Stephen into flower-de-luces and changed the burning coles of S. Lawrence into roses For it S. Bartholomew despoiled himself of his skin as freely as of a garment and S. Catharine hastened to the wheel armed with keen rasors S. Tecla to Lyons S. Agnes to the wood-pile S. Cicely to the sharp sword and S. Appollonia suffered her teeth to be torn out with as much ease as the tree suffers his leaves to fall away from him O the sweetness of Jesus who makes all the valiant and knoweth how to turn doves into eagles of fire Shall we never understand what it is to love him towards whom all generous hearts sigh and for whom all charities are crowned with immortal garlands The eighth EXAMPLE upon the eighth MAXIM Of the admirable change of worldly love Drawn from the Ecclesiastical history
retro criminâ—â—â— venia c. in the Book he composed of games and sportive entertainments sheweth by lively and urgent reasons there is no game nor recreation in all the world can be compared to the soul of a Christian whose conscience is a portative Theater where incessantly are presented many admirable shews All which is powerfull and energetical to glad a well-composed soul and to entertain it in eternal delights is eminently found in the exercises of piety If the chief source of peace and alacrity be to be throughly reconciled to God is it not in this Angelical Devotion is it not in piety that an entire reconciliation is made with our Master that the stool the ring and shoes of hyacinth are put on to walk in the paths of his commandments If there be nothing so majestical so delicious so pleasing as the contemplation of truth whereon our soul liveth as the eye on colours the Bee on dew and the Phenix as it is said on the thinnest vapours of the air is it not here where after so many errours so many fantasies so many illusions which turmoyled our minde in the disturbances of the world we enjoy in purity and plenitude the consideration of the most noble Maxims of spiritual life If it be a sweet and sensible repose having obtained remission of sins of the life past to return into the peaceful harbour of a good conscience is not here the rock where so many waves are broken where so many little curs which cease not to bark in the bottom of a troubled conscience are appeased and where the soul becomes a calm sea beautified and curled with the rays of an enamoured and smiling Sun Finally if there be no greater pleasure in the world than to despise temporal pleasures and to temple under foot the vanities which Monarchs themselves have set over their heads where are they despised but in this school of virtue where mortification of passions is learned and the exercise of goodly and heroick actions which give the soul an antipast of Heaven in this mortal life and an enfranchisement from fear of death How can a devout soul which lives amongst so many helps so many remedies so many comforts give the least advantage to one black and cloudy thought of the world What can we find out able to contristrate us amongst such succours and lights O a thousand times happy soul which having chased away all these illusions of vanity beholdest with a clear serene eye the ever to be adored rays of this verity The ninth EXAMPLE upon the ninth MAXIM Of Solid Devotion SOlid Devotions resemble those rivers which run under the earth they steal from the eyes of the world to seek for the eyes of God they study solitudes and retirements they are wholly shut up within themselves and it often happens that those of whom we speak least on earth are the best known in Heaven I verily think among all the great examples which may be produced of piety in Courts there will not any one be found more sincere or more strong than that of S. Lewis as it appeareth by all the acts of his S. Lewis the true Table of the most solid Devotion life namely that which was written by his Confessour It is an easie matter to judge his was a most holy life because the most dis-interessed he having no other aim but to dissolve his person his Kingdom his wife and children into the will of God to make the world no longer to be ought else but a Temple of the Divinity The Divine providence drew him out of his Kingdom with an Abraham's faith gave him among so many lands and seas the conduct of a Moses and to set a seal on him of all his greatness caused him to end his life with the patience of Job We find many Princes who embraced piety one after one fashion another after another and who have covered great vices with great virtues but it is a very hard matter to find one either more universal in all actions of virtue or more free from blame in the point of innocencie than our S. Lewis David ows all he is more to pennance than to innocency Constantine the Great before he was a Christian saw himself most unhappily stained with the bloud of his allies Theodosius the elder was enflamed with choller which cost many people of Thessalonica their lives Arcadius persecuted S. Chrysostom at the solicitation of the Emperess his wife Honorius his brother who was very pious and innocent had nothing warlike in him and ever better knew what the white cock named Rama did in whom he took pleasure than the capital Citie of the world whereof he was Emperour Theodosius the younger entertained love or hatred according as his Eunuchs and women dictated Belisarius one of the bravest Captains which the earth ever bare had a very commendable souldier-like piety but did all at the will of Theodora the Emperess observing her passions even to the taking the Pope and putting him into prison by her command Narses who succeeded him did wonders and subdued Totila the most valorous King which ever reigned among the Goths he was very devout to the Blessed Virgin to whom he attributed all his victories but withal so insolent that to be revenged for a word of disdain which his Mistress the Emperess of Constantinople spake he gave Italie over as a prey to the Lombards Finally to conclude this Relation and to speak of that which more nearly concerneth us Charlemaigne was the greatest Emperour of the world in matter of religion valour policy liberalitie sweetness and affability but the love of women though expiated by sharp pennance set blemishes on this Sun which the memory of ensuing Ages hath much ado to wash off It is a strange thing that God chastised the sins of the father in his own daughters who had very little care of their honour through too free an education and indulgence of the Emperour who spared the punishment of his own sins in another There hath not been almost in all the Monarchies but one S. Lewis who was so like to virtue that if it upon one side appeared incarnate to mortal eyes and on the other shewed this great King there would have been much ado to know which were the copie and which the principal He had three things very recommendable in him religious wisdom in the brightest lustre of the world humility planted even upon the rubies and diamonds of the Royal Crown courage and valour invincible in a devotion incomparable Who would see a manifest token of his wisdom let him behold how his spirit in the greatest concussions of worldly accidents stood ever in the same posture without any whit forgoing the ordinary exercise of his piety One sole action of his life which was his taking in Aegypt made what I say well to appear This good King having lost a great battel which ruined all his affairs saw the wide fields covered with the
of his children who casteth an eye on these bad lessons though blotted out fails not to read them and to learn thence the science of his own ruin This unhappy Prince scorns to reflect on the mild temper the pennance and zeal of his father to look on his exorbitancies He cannot see this Sun but in eclipse and not seeking to make choice among so many eminent virtues which had made him happie he will not follow his steps but in a path where needs he must meet with ill adventures Although the holy Scripture speaketh not of the wicked deportments of this Prince until his incest yet there is a great probability he began not at the end nor mounted this tower of confusion by the top but rather arrived thither by the degrees of a life irregular effeminate and freed from the care of the soul wholly to resign himself to the service of the bodie and itâ—s concupiscence But in so much as loathing which always waits very near upon the most exquisite pleasures is wont every moment to put the levity of sinners upon new objects and in that besides the pride of those who hate thee O God supremely amiable perpetually mounteth until their giddiness precipitate them into the abyss Behold here our wicked one our Ammon plotteth incest with his sister Epicure before there was an Epicure in the world who rejecteth mean crimes distasteth common pleasures and projecteth an incest with his own sister not considering how unreasonable it is to sacrifice the honour of the royal house the tranquility of his father his soul and salvation to the distemper of his fancy He turneth his eyes from heaven and from the God of heaven whose wonders his father had so often sung unto him he is wholly for passion which predominateth over him nor entertains any other cogitations but to satisfie it Already this feaver which takes away his sense hath enflamed his bloud leaving him nought in his veins but the fire of hel which more and more encreaseth The contagion of this unsound soul spreads over the bodie Behold saith the historie he fals sick for the love of his sister who hath nothing at all in her which can displease him but her chastitie because that sets before him the great difficulties of his enterprize He hath a friend and this proves his main unhappiness a worldly wise one a flattering friend a companion of his riots but such amities which deserve not the name resemble false fires which seeming all enflamed are nothing elss but smoke very easily dissipated and whose bright splendour onely serves to lead into precipices This was Joadab one of David's Nephews who having Jodab counselleth Ammon to incest with his sister Thamar searched into the change both of his countenance and humour quickly understood the reason of it from his lips so that too easily complying with his passion he lastly gave him this counsel Lie saith he on your bed counterfeit sickness the King doubtless will visit you you shall beg of him that your sister Thamar may come to you to prepare your diet and he without doubt will assent to it Cruel friend nay rather soothing enemy what doest thou Thou well knowest that thus flexibly to serve the passion of this violent spirit thou subjectest him to the extremitie of all unhappiness Thou stranglest this Prince whilst thou flatterest him and in lieu of good offices givest him a hand to lead him down into ruin Were it not better to use fire and steel for the cure of this mad man than to comply with his malady to render it incurable Were it not better with a bitter but charitable correction to purge his bad humours than to powr into him a pleasing poison There is nothing more faithfully or more readily executed than an ill advise quickly our amourist is in his bed he entreateth Thamar of the King who came to visit him where behold the father too good for so bad a son grants what he demandeth The poor virgin likewise obeyeth the commands of her father and the suggestions of her own heart which had but too much tenderness towards so execrable a brother She runs like an innocent victim to the knife which must cut her throat she follows the bait not doubting the hook and goeth fearless into a place where she must loose all This dissembling sick man at first refuseth Ammon dissembleth sickness the broths she had prepared to procure him an appetite but having given command all should depart out of the chamber desires his sister to bring them in she who nothing doubted the practise readily goes in offers them to him but the enraged creature seizeth on her and requires to lie with her The poor Princess surprized in this attempt seeks Thamars advise to temper him with sweet words Alas dear brother saith she commit not such a violence upon me remember with your self this abomination is without example in Israel Banish such thoughts from you and take heed you enterprize not an act which will among the wisest be esteemed an unspeakable folly Whither shall I go after such a shame or what will you do when you have purchased so ill reputation By all means speak to the King he is a good father he perhaps will freely afford you that which you by violence would take The enraged monster will not so much as understand her he forceth her he finds himself to be the stronger and makes use of this advantage for the satisfaction of a passion nay rather of a fury which even the most part of bruit beasts abhor It is a strange thing how those who seek their contentment in the contempt of God and his ordinances make an ill reckoning They meet with worm-wood even in honey their fingers are pricked whilst they gather roses the odour of which so soon paineth them and in a word they see that loathing concludeth what was begun by disturbances and impatience This inconstant spirit promised himself pleasures without anxiety or period but behold him foiled in the first fruition This infinite love finds it's end in the beginning or rather it's change into aversion hatred Behold he presently despiseth his sister yea excessively Ammon despiseth his dishonoured sister mark the Scripture The hatred was much greater than was ever the affection He commands her to be gone and she exaggerating the second offence committed by him his so unworthy usage of her after such an outrage he willeth one of his servants to drive her out and shut the door after her Who can describe the griefs and agonies of this afflicted creature defamed by her brother and thrust by a groom out of a house wherinto she came not but to do him service She cast ashes on her head rent her garments lifts her hands over her head goes away weeping and lamenting like one distract to seek out her brother Absolon to give him an account of her dolours and to ask revenge This Prince one of
all its spectatours fair and amiable There it is saith he we shall live for ever in the palace of verity which is the mother-nurce nourishment and essence of our soul There it is that all is all and where each part becometh a whole There it is where happiness is indefatigable and plenitude never gives a loathing to him who possesseth it And who knoweth not the raptures of Seneca when Senec. ep 102. in the hundred and the second Epistle he speaks of the soul which goeth out of the body as from a wretched vessell to enter into these vast Temples of Intelligences and lights deriving its nourishment and increase from the same place whence it took its beginning May we not say this truth so loudly professed by men who lived in a belief different from ours is a publick voice of humane nature touched by the ray of its felicitie Divines teach us our appetite is finite in its essence Infinity of out Appetites Nubes ad alta levatur densâ—ta vento impellitur ut currat calore dissolvitur ut evanescat c. Greg. in Job l. 8. c. 10. Eccl. 12. 7. A notable enigma of the Wiseman infinite in its productions It is a miracle to see a heart so little big with so many desires and perpetually to go like a wheel enflamed with its ardours or rather a fire which makes a prey of its own way and is nourished with proper hunger It is a cloud saith S. Gregory swoln with vapours tossed with winds scattered by heat It daily makes abortion of a thousand production and when it thinks to have all embraceth nothing The wiseman speaking of death saith it is that which shall break the pitcher at the fountain and the wheel upon the cistern Some explicate this litterally of the veins and brain But I had rather at this present say this pitcher is the heart of man which ceaseth not to go to the water of the Samaritan whereof our Saviour spake when he said He who shall drink Omnis qui biberit ex aqâ—s hac siâ—iâ—t iâ—rum Joan. 4. of this water shall ever be thirsty It is a water which never quencheth thirst and which sometimes serves for an incentive to insatiable desires And the pitcher so many times fruitlesly filled with this water the heart so often drenched in these frail and momentarie pleasures shall split against the rock of death remaining still at the fountain of concupiscence Nay I will tell you the heart is a wheel over the cistern of life which ceaseth not to draw up buckets filled with wind one while running after one object another time after another not finding contentment and at the last day the wheel shall be broken over the cistern when man if not warie shall be surprized in the labyrinth of his designs and confusion of his hopes 3. Now consider the wisdom of God who having Providence of God in the limits of out appetites given us an infinite appetite would not limit it but by himself he would be our good and being unable to be the end of himself because he hath no end he will be ours to make us in some sort infinite He will not we put our felicities in commands and honours because they often resemble the Idol Moloch which was outwardly of gold inwardly morter and because honour is rather in him who honoureth than in the honoured He will not we ground our selves upon riches for either they be gems which are the scum of elements or mettals which are the harbours of rust and enkindlers of avarice or garments the food of moaths or houses which are mountains composed of the bones of the earth or fruits beasts and so many other productions of nature which cannot make us happie seeing they besides their frailty are of a servile nature being made for the service of men and not for their glorie He will not we place God will replenish us with himself our happiness on pleasures because all blessings of sense go not beyond sense and for that their condition is either to starve men by their barenness or strangle them with their superfluities The best part Greatness of God Isa 28. 5. Corona gloriae sertum exultationis of our selves being the spirit he will replenish us with himself who is the chief of spirits It is he said the Prophet Esay who is the Crown of true glorie and the posie of all comforts the Crown because his felicitie is wholly circular and fully replenished as the circle without any defect the posie insomuch as in his sole essence he comprehendeth all the good of creatures which are as petty flowers of this goodly garden It is necessarie saith Tertullian that all greatness In unum necesse est summitas magnitudinis eliquetur Tertul. l. 1. adversus Marcion c. 3. Bernard l. 5. de consider c. 5. and beauties be extracted into one alone which is the first greatness and prime beauty He loves as charity he knows as verity he sits as equitie he ruleth as majesty he governeth as chief he defends as safety he operateth as virtue he revealeth as light he assisteth as piety he doth all in all things and such as he is he giveth himself unto us I demand of you whether he deserveth not to be eternally displeased who cannot content himself with God Nay that which here maketh his communication the more perfect and admirable is that Divines observe their be two felicities in heaven The one of object the other formal That of object is the S. Thom. 2. 2. q. 3. good by which we become happy and formal is the possession of the same good Felicitie of object is that which looketh towards God without any reflection upon us formal felicitie is that which respecteth our proper good We might see God as a Similes ei erimus quoniam videbimus cum sicuti est Joan. 1. 3. distant mirrour which were not ours and which had not the power to make us lovely We might love him with a love of good will by the sole consideration of his perfections We might rejoyce at his good without relation to our own benefit But the goodness of God would not onely make us happie with the felicitie of our object but by formal beatitude He will not well behold him with a lazie and barren eye but with a vision which rendereth us like to himself He will not we love him onely with a love of good will but with a love of ardent desire as our good and repose He will not we rejoyce onely because he is God but for that he is our God our scope and contentment 4. The point of this beatitude consisteth in a The essential point of beatitude is union with God perfect union of our soul with God who is the fountain of spirits the object of all regular loves and the circle of felicity So long as we are in the world saith the Apostle we are as pilgrims in
own tears and that in the same manner they are produced to beatitude by Plin. 21. 5. Lilium lachrymâ suâ seritur their proper afflictions but it is to see themselves in a state of power to loose the grace of God and to be able to be separated from the first of lives by an action of death That is it which made Job being on the dunghil like to the dunghil it self as on the throne of patience to deplore his condition and say Why hast Quare me posuisti contrarium tibi sum mihimetipsi gravis thou made me seeing I am contrary to thy divine Majesty That is it which renders me in supportable to my self Now there shall be in beatitude an impotencie of sin because in full sight of Sovereign good it will be impossible to propend to the least evil or least disorder without which there can be no sin Moreover as our knowledges are here wretched Excellency of beatifick science and starven there is not a man so knowing in the world who for one drop of knowledge hath not a tun of ignorance and who in the little he knoweth hath not ever many errours which stick to science as the worm to the tree or the moath to the cloath Now there above the ray of increated light which shall appear in full lustre will dissipate all the weakness of understanding all inconsiderations all faults and shall fill us with a most resplendent verity So that our In lumine tuo videbimus lumen soul shall be like to that Aegyptian pyramid which perpendicularly reflected on by the Sun cast no shadow Lastly we see our love is ill guided in this way-faring Beauty of beatifick love compared to the weakness of wordly love life it sticks upon so many frivolous objects which are foolish fires that often lead it into precipices It is taken by the eys with blessings which have nothing more certain in them than their loss blessings which we ever shall leave by death if they forsake not us by misfortune Being surprized it tumbleth therein and perpetually bendeth to all which feedeth its dolours and drives away content All it least can do is that thing it most desires all it seeks is many times the good it escheweth It looseth labour to run after a flitting phantasm and if it stay it is not but through despair not to overtake all which kils it But if it come to possess what it loves it is instantly turmoiled with its happiness and not having need to labour any more in desires it grows mouldly in proper fruition It is willing to be resisted to enkindle its flame and resistance thrusts it into rage as possession into distast That is it which maketh me say the earth being made for us we are not made for the earth and that we should seek the place where love suffers neither offence nor interruption I say offence for it hath an object which contents all the world and offendeth none I say interruption for if we cease to love in Paradise it must proceed from God or from our selves If it be by the commandment of God we cease to love we shall cease in loving and in ceasing we shall incessantly love since we shall cease through love This cessation cannot come from us for we shall love without obstacle and of necessitie that Sovereign good which for its infinities will not be beloved but in infinitum O what pleasure to have but one pleasure and what joy to derive all joys from their source Why say we not with S. Augustine O fountain of life O vein of living waters when shall I come to thy delights and eternal sweetness I here on earth sigh after thy beauties O holy Hierusalem in a land scorched with fervours of sensuality O when will it be that I shall come before the face of my God! Think you I shall see that fortunate day that day of comfort and triumphs that day which God hath made and which takes its eastern rise from his eys O bright day which hath no evening nor knows what the setting Sun is When do you think I shall hear that word Enter into the joys of thy Master enter into a joy inaccessible to sorrow wherein is all good with an eternal banishment of all evil There it is where youth waxed not old where life hath no limits where beauty decays not where love knoweth not what it is to be cold nor health to impair O dear Citie With weeping eyes we behold thee afar off we thy poor exiles but yet thy children redeemed with his bloud who makes thee happie by his aspects Stretch out thy arms unto us O mild Saviour cast an eye on us from the haven in these storms of life and give us leave to walk in so undoubted paths that we may come to the place where thou livest and reignest for ever The nineteenth EXAMPLE upon the nineteenth MAXIM Of the Pleasures of beatitude THe joys of Paradise are without example and as they are here above our experience so they pass beyond our imagination Yet well may we conceive raised bodies shall have some manner of contentment in the perfect use of their senses and beauty of objects which shall satiate them with everlasting delights When after a long winter which covered us in darkness and buried us in snow we behold a new world arise under the benign favour of the spring and consequently the golden days of summer we feel our heart dilate seasonably taking in some antipast of the repose of the blessed What sweetness is it to enjoy delights in a body sound and a spirit well purified What contentment to behold those goodly Palaces where is seen an admirable consort of art and nature so many Hals so well furnished within such rich hangings such most exquisite pictures such marbles such gildings and without mountains which make a natural theater tapistred without art to surpass all workmanship forrests which seem born with the world hedges and knots curiously cut alleys and mazes where both eyes and feet are lost rivers which creep along with silver purlings about gardens enameled with most fragant flowers cavernes replenished with a sacred horrour grots and fountains which gently gliding contend with the warble of birds and so many other spectacles which at first sight astonish spirits and never satiate All this is but a little atome I do not say of the essential pleasure of the blessed which is ineffable but of the sole content of the senses of a glorious bodie which may in some sort be expressed S. John to accommodate himself to the weakness Apoc. 21. and 22. of our understanding hath made a description of it in the Apocalyps where he depainteth this goodly Cittie of the blessed with singular curiosity It is a pretty thing to consider how Lucian an excellent wit though a bad man intruding into our mysteries hath set out in his idea's to the imitation of it the life of
eat them soon enough as if all this should say unto us What do we so long in the world since all things that must serve our use last so little Gold and silver continue long but last very little in our hands and though one keep them as well as he can they keep not ever one Master If there be creatures which live much longer they flie from us as Harts Crows and Swans you might say they are ashamed to participate in our frailty Great-ones of the earth have in all times done what they could with a purpose to prolong their days so naturally are we desirous of the state of Resurrection but they have many times abridged them seeking to lengthen them Garcias telleth us that a King of Zeilam having learned the adamant had the virtue to preserve life would neither eat nor drink but in a dish which he caused to be made of adamant through a strange giddiness of spirit but he failed not to find death in these imaginary vessels of immortality We make a great matter of it to see men very old they are beheld with admiration But if some desire to come to their age there is not any would have the miseries and troubles of it This Phlegon of whom we now speak who had been one of the most curious Authours of his Age made a book of long liv'd men wherein he confesseth he hath exactly looked into the Registers of the Roman Empire there to find old men and women of an hundred years and scarcely could he meet with a sufficient number of them to fill up a whole leaf of paper But if he would take the number of such as died before fifty which the Ancients called the exterminating death he had filled many huge volumes Pompey took pleasure at the dedication of Bâ—ro in historia vitae mortis his Theater to see a Comedianess act named Galeria Capiola who reckoned ninety nine years since her first enterance into a Theater It was a goodly play of life in a woman who danced on the brink of her grave But how many such like have there been people go into the tomb as drops of water into the sea not thinking on it Nay do but observe all which is Sovereign you will find among all the Emperours which were through so many ages there is not one to be found who attained to the age of a hundred years and four alone arrived to four-score or much thereabouts Gordian the elder came to this point but scarcely had he tasted of Empire but was over whelmed with a violent death Valerian at the age of seventy six years was taken by Sapor King of Persia and lived seven years in a shamefull captivity his enemy making use of his back as a foot-stool when he would mount on horse-back He was at first much greater in the estimation of men than he deserved and every one would have thought him worthy of Empire had he not been Emperour Anastasius a man of little worth and less courage who had more superstition than religion arrived to the age of four-score and eight years when he was blasted with lightening from heaven Justinim reckoned four-score and three which made him wax white in a vehement desire of glorie although being some-what contemptible in his person he was fortunate in Captains They speak of a King called Arganthon who heretofore reigned in Spain the space of four-score years and lived an hundred and fourty But this is rather in fables than authentical histories Of so many Popes as have been since S. Peter not any one hath possessed the See twenty five years scarcely find you four or five four-score years of age John the two and twentieth an unquiet and treasure-heaping spirit was about ninety years when death took off his triple Crown So many had Gregory the twelfth who was created before the schism but his papacy was as short as his life was long Paul the third attained to one above four-scor and was otherwise a man as peaceable of spirit as prudent in counsel Paul the fourth severe imperious and eloquent came to four-score and three Gregory the thirteenth lived as many a Prelate wise courteous prudent liberal who lived too little a while for the Churches good for which he could not end but too soon If we speak of the blessed S. John S. Luke S. Polycarp S. Denys S. Paul the Hermit S. Anthony S. Romuald so many other religious men they lived long And it seems there are many things in religion which further long life as contemplation of things Divine joys not sensual noble hopes wholesome fears sweet sadness repose sobriety and regularity in the order of all actions But all this is little in comparison of the Divine state wherein bodies shall not onely never end but live eternally impassible as Angels subtile as rayes of light quick as thought and bright as stars Conclusion of the MAXIMS by an advice against Libertinism where all men are exhorted to zeal of true Religion and the love of things eternal Of the obscurity and persecution of TRUTH INcredulity is an immortal disease which hath reigned from the beginning of the world and which will never end but with the worlds dissolution Dreams and lies are many times believed because they insinuate themselves into the heart by charms but truth which will never bely her self hath much ado to make her self understood and if she be once known she is beloved when she smiles and feared when she frowneth There are four things have ever been much unknown Four things much unknown in the world time wind terrestrial Paradise and truth Time is a marvellous creature which perpetually passeth over our heads which numbereth all our steps which measureth all our actions which inseparably runs along with our life and we have much business to know it as well in its nature as progression It is a very strange thing that there are such as promise themselves to reckon up the years of the world as of an old man of three-score and yet we know by the experience of so many ages it is a great labyrinth wherein we still begin never to end It was for this cause the Ancients placed the figures Hadrianus Junius of Trytons on high Towrs with tails crookedly winding to represent unto us the intrication of the foulds and compasses of time And for this also Isa 6. Hieron in Isa in the Prophet Esai the Seraphins covered the face and feet of God with their wings to teach us faith S. Hierome that we are very ignorant in things done before the world and in those which shall happen to Non est vestrum nosse tempora momenta quae Pater posuit in sua potestate Actor 1. the end of it If we on the other side consider the wind we cannot but sufficiently understand the commodities and discommodities of it which have made the wise to doubt whether it were expedient there should be
adhere to silly inventions of their own spirit and you would almost say the Father the Holy Ghost and the Word of God it self were nothing with them in comparison of particular devotions of some Saints or some slight observances which they practise according to their own fancie But if one happen to reprove them upon it they are uncivilly offended therewith and think such as speak with reason are not within the compass of the upright judgement of faith I affirm these kind of proceedings are not according to the order of the Church the which honoureth all Saints yea and the blessed Virgin in a degree infinitely beneath the Divine Majesty nor doth it honour them but to honour God in them and by them But if some abuse mysteries must we therefore overthrow Altars If some popular spirits ill instructed grow superstitious must one therefore become a Libertine Must innocency be forsaken the more to hate the guilty It is a pittifull thing to see good spirits who make profession of Catholick Religion and have in some things good apprehensions of piety to take such liberty of words to themselves that we know not what to make of them Ought not they to consider that a popular errour is one thing and a position of the Church another If some particulars introduce exorbitant devotions let them reject blame and condemn them We neither undertake to defend nor justifie them But when we speak of the invocation of Saints of their Reliques Canonizations Indulgences of the authority of our Holy Father of the Institution of Religious Orders and so many such like which are authorized by general Councels and by the belief of all antiquity doth not a good judgement see that to go about to oppose these Maxims is to do that which S. Augustine speaketh To suffer ones self to run into a folly which hastneth to the height of insolencie He who admitteth a leak in a ship drowns it who divideth Religion hath none at all who resolves to believe this and reject that believes nothing All that which cometh from one same authority ought to be believed with like equality Our faith is not grounded upon natural judgement upon wit and discourse but on the submission we ow to God and the Church which is the Interpretess of his counsels He who abideth therein abides in true wisedom who goeth out of it shall find nothing but an Ocean of disturbances and the shipwrack of his faith The second order of Libertines is of Neuters wavering and distrustfull who are almost upon the indifferencie of Religions and hold their faith as a hawk without leashes It quickly flies a way and leaveth them to replenish more setled brains and more capable souls In this number you have many squeazy stomachs who affect to be Masters in matter of Religion and are extream greedy of all sorts of innovations And if there be some bold spirit who with sensual reason censureth the mysteries of our Religion that man is according to their tast a brave fellow and his books deserve to be bound up in gold and purple The Bible is not wise enough for them their spirit of rebellion findeth faults and contradictions therein They are in search of hidden mysteries as were the Argonautes who went out to win the golden fleece And could they lay hold on Mahomets Alcoran they will not spare to read it the more to confound themselves in the labyrinth of their errours After they have run all over sounded all quoted all they find themselves empty and have nothing so assured as incertainty nothing so undoubted as the loss of their faith which they have almost wholly transformed into a cursed Neutrality the head-long descent of a horrible precipice The third order comprehendeth idle loyterers and people of the throat and kitchen who bear in their ensign for devise that which is said to have been inscribed on Sardanapalus his tomb Drink eat fill thy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 self in the ordures of flesh and think thou hast nothing but that which thou affordest to thy sensualitie They all say with Epicurus As for my self I cannot understand any felicitie unless it be in palates in lips in ears in the belly and all that which is common to us with beasts These kind of men have not so much to do as other they are not sollicitous concerning the secrets of nature curious books mystical Cabals the Gospel not Turkish Alcoran they have found their God in themselves and indeed will acknowledge no other but the belly Their continual employment is to furnish out tables for it which are its Altars and to offer unto it dishes and sauces in sacrifice The fourth region containeth the malign covert and narrow observers who yet still retain some fear of the smoke of the faggot behold the cause why they dare not declare themselves in open manner They enter into the fold as wolves clothed in a sheeps skin and tell the sheep they are much affected to their conservation but that the dogs must be taken away which do nothing but deafen their ears with barking both day and night These are such as sow propositions with a double meaning and have ever a back-shop to hide themselves in such as say Catholick religion is good if it were purged from so many superstitions such as deceive young men under colour of doctrine and when they have hit upon a curious spirit whom they esteem retentive of a secret recommended they draw the curtain aside and reveal the mysteries of iniquity to him They are such as make disguises and differences which no man imagined and make truth combat against A theism with so feeble arms that it were much better defended to be left to its own nakedness such as have a store-house of evil books more impure than the stable of Augaeus out of which they derive all their profanations cloying the ears of the simple with a thousand objections ever made in the name of a third person who never dreamt of them Lastly such as silently build the Babylon of execrable confusions The fifth rank comprehendeth all those who have sold their souls to ambition and particular interest and have nothing of religion but seeming and ceremonies They are such as would make no scruple to set a foot upon the throat of their best friends to raise their own fortune higher Such as live fattened up with the Altar being many times enemies of the Altar Such as lift their children aloft with an arm of silver through all the ways of injustice above the heads of men and make the Church a prey to their ambition Such as are present at Divine Service with postures of a puppet-player Such as go to Gods word as to a Comedy to see and to be seen more for Adonis than Jesus and who in conclusion turn all piety into scoffs retaining nothing of it but a fantasm to serve their own ends The sixth manner is of such Vt introierunt quidam homines
danger like a wanton victim which leaps and skips between the ax and the knife God is my witness I write these lines with a spirit of compassion for so many who dissolutely abuse the gifts of Heaven and if any one happen upon the reading of this I beseech him by the love of his salvation not to despise a pen which tendereth so sincere affection for the good of his soul A man who hath never so little reason should he not argue within himself and say Verily the harmonious consent of so many Ages which have upheld and reverenced a Religion innocent pure and holy is not a matter of sport The horrible punishments of such as sought to disengage themselves from the homage due to the Divinity of Jesus Christ are no fables since we still behold the foot-steps of their ruins The lights and reflections of the Divinity which beset me on every side are speaking tongues the consent of so many Ages and holy personages yet alive on the earth are no small testimony These kind of men who seek to sow dangerous maxims in our minds are creatures of little authority evil manners and of a conversation either insolent or covert They are neither Apostles nor Prophets It is not credible truth should so long be hidden to be discovered to them amidst their abomination They have neither sanctity miracles nor reason They are not rich but in libertinous words and blasphemies All they can promise me is nothing else but a slight contentment of nature in this life yet cannot they give it me For amidst these unlawfull pleasures I feel my conscience much disturbed and perplexed with remorse If I feared God I should find this fear would banish all other affrightments from my heart Now have I that both of men and laws yea even of beast It seemeth at every accident which happeneth to me each creature becomes a sword and an arrow of God to punish my evil thoughts and inordinate actions If that be not true which these men promise as they make no clear proof of what they say behold me then convinced of the most horrible crime which hath ever been behold me the object of all the execrations that have fallen on their heads who bent themselves against God Behold me fettered in eternal and inexplicable pains which I shall escape neither alive nor dead Every understanding man always inclineth to the surest way I see that following the opinion my Ancestours had in matter of Religion there can happen no other evil unto me buâ— to be an honest man to replenish my heart with good desires my thoughts with pleasing hopes my hands with works of justice and to waste my self like a torch of aromatick wood in a life satisfied with it self and laudable to posterity whereas going along with these I walk on thorns and ice in the depth of night not knowing who pursues me behind Avaunt novelties avaunt cursed impieties farewel infamous atheisms adieu execrable liberty you shall never be ought with me O youth if thou didst well tast these words what repose what contentment what glory shouldst thou acquire O unhappy youth which adherest to these impious and licentious companies what wilt thou say when time shall have taken from thee the scarf which now veileth thine eyes and that thou shalt see the chastisement of God which shall follow thee in all thy undertakings misery by thy sides torments and pains before Against toleration thee and peoples execration over thy head But you meek ones and you men to halves who endure with soft and flexible ears unworthy blasphemies against God under the shadow of wit and pleasant entertainment if you have yet any vein of Christianity in all your body ought it not to bownd and leap against these criminals who in the heat of wine and banquets flout in your presences at the truth of a Religion which your Ancestours left you with so much sweat such virtues and so many good examples If you who be men of quality and authority persecute even to the gates of hell such as once have offended you when you do negligently suffer them to dishonour him who hath imprinted the ray of majesty with his finger on your faces do you not render your selves guilty of all the crimes committed through your coldness and neglects God hath preserved since so many Ages doth and will preserve this Kingdom by the piety of our great King by the zeal of his Clergie by the prudence of his Councel and good Officers and by the devotion of people which are as sincere in France as in any place of the world enlightened with the rays of faith But it is for impiety that Crowns are broken that Scepters flie in pieces and Empires have in all times passed from Nation to Nation It is I saith the great God who make Councellours fools and Judges stupid I who Adducet Consilarios in stultum finem change the golden girdle of Kings into a coard I who throw confusion on the brow of Priests I who supplant the greatest when they seek to overthrow true pietie The Edict of Darius a Pagan King which he made in favour of the Hebrews Temple hath astonishing words when he saith What man soever shall be so Omnis homo qui hanc mutaverit jussionem tollatur lignum de domo ipsius erigatur configatur in eo domus ejus publicetur Esdras hardie as to change and alter my commandment for the building of the Temple of God let a gibbet be erected for him of the same wood of which his house is built let it be raised in the street let him be affixed thereunto and his house confiscated This teacheth you it is a great unhappiness to build your house at the expence of Gods houses Rafters and beams of such edifices have many times served for instruments of punishment to such as raised them The favours of great men fortunes of ice inexhaustible riches reputation friends companions factours lackeys buffons all have forsaken them as butter-flies which escape the hand of a child they are fallen through the sin of impiety which hath made an eclipse of their fortune and life in the brightest lustre of their greatness That the Remedie of our evil consisteth in the Zeal of our Faith 6. THe Remedie of evils which turmoyl us is wholly in our own hands and the cure of our wounds dependeth on our own wills Good examples and strong laws may do all on spirits which have not yet totally renounced their own good nor is there any one so desperate who is not taken either by the hands of virtue wholly made of adamant or feareth not to fall into the chains of justice Let Ecclesiasticks whom God hath entrusted with his bloud his word and his Sacraments begin first of all to dart rays of sanctity in the firmament of honour where God hath placed them Let secular men in dignities and eminent fortunes affect zeal in Religion Let such as are
a stable foot to receive it willingly with a spirit infinitely peacefull afterward to be fortified by Sacraments of the Church with most exemplar devotion and having given the last adieus to his good subjects to go out of the world and all glorious honours as joyfull as from a prison But God with drew this stroke when life held but by a slender threed and heard the many prayers made throughout all France He restored you to life at the same time he had given it you He setled the pillars of this State which then tottered over our heads He raised our joys again which were faded and gave us that we would not loose to gain the whole world It is SIR to tell you you must perform all God requireth at your sacred hands and so to profit in sanctitie that the earth may one day give you in reward of piety the Altars you have raised to Heaven by the valour of your arms To the King of all Ages Immortal and Invisible to GOD alone be given honour and glory for ever and ever THE CHRISTIAN DIARY THE AUTHOURS DESIGN OF the practice of Virtues I have already spoken in my Book of the HOLY COURT This is a small Pattern thereof in every days action It should employ your heart rather than your eyes or hand It is short to read but if you practice it you will in one day find years and ages of felicitie Indeed we have at this present many spiritual Books which eccho one another This Age is as fruitfull in words as barren in works Enclining to speak much to do nothing evapourating the best part of wit by pen or tongue Nevertheless in matters of Devotion it is apparent that a man cannot say too much that which he can never do enough and that in so great a penurie of worthy acts we should not be sparing of good words I present you with this short Treatise carry it in your hand as the clock which a great Prince wore in a Ring it striketh every hour of the day and agreeth with Reason as true dials with the Sun If you read it with attention you will find it great in its littleness rich in its povertie and large in its brevitie Great books make men sometimes more learned seldom more innocent This reduceth wisdom to practice and prosperity to devotion By often reading it and doing what it directeth you shall know what it is for it hath no other character of its worth than that of your virtues THE CHRISTIAN DIARY The First PART The first SECTION The Importance of well ordering every Action of the day A Wise Hermit as Pelagius a Greek Authour relates being demanded if the way to perfection were very long said That the Virtues accompany one another and if a man would himself he might in one day attain to a proportionable measure of Divinitie Indeed our Virtues are all conjoyned in our Actions our Actions in the Hours the Hours in the Day the Days in the Moneth the Moneths in the Year and the Years in the Ages Every day is a little map of our life and the way to be soon perfect is to use much consideration and perfection in the performance of every days action See here a draught thereof the lineaments of which I have taken in part from one endued with much wisdom religion integrity whom I would willingly name did I not fear to offend his humility which can suffer all things but his own praises The second SECTION At Waking THe Sun hath long since for your benefit chased away the shades of night to delight you with the sight of the wonderfull works of God and your curtains are yet undrawn to entertain you with a shadow of death Arise out of bed and consider that this great star which makes you begin the course of this day must this day run about ten or twelve millions of leagues and you how many steps will you proceed towards virtue This unwearied Harbinger is gone to take you up a lodging in the grave Each minute is so much deducted from your life Will you not follow the counsel of the Son of God and work while it is day A long night will shortly cover you with its wings in which you will not have the power to work Suppose every day a day in Harvest suppose it a Market-day suppose it a day wherein you are to work in a golden Mine suppose it a ring which you are to engrave and ennammel with your actions to be at night presented on Gods Altar Set before you the excellent consideration of S. Bernard That your actions in passing pass not away for every good work is a grain of seed for eternal life Say with the famous Painter Xeuxes Aeternitati pingo I paint for eternity Follow the counsel of Thomas Aquinas Do every action in the name of Jesus Christ desiring to have the approbation and good affections of all the Church Militant and Triumphant Do it as if the glory of God the welfare of all the world and your whole salvation depended on it and as if that were to set the seal to all your works Contrive over night the good works you are to do the next day on what points you are to meditate what sin you are to vanquish what virtue you are to practice what business you are to do that with a well-digested foresight you may give birth to every thing in its own time This is Ariadnes clew which guides our actions in the great labyrinth of Time without which all would go to confusion Be curious sometimes to know of what colour the dawning of the day is prevent the light as the Wiseman adviseth to praise God Take heed of imitating that Epicurean swine who boasted that he had grown old without seeing the Sun either rise or set It is a good custom to rise betimes but hardly perswaded to Ladies and those Antipodes to Nature who change the night into day and the day into night The famous Apollonius being very early at Vespasian's gate and finding him stirring from thence conjectured that he was worthy to govern an Empire and said to his companion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This man surely will be Emperour he is so early That unto which you are to dispose the day may be divided into four parts Devotion Practice of Virtues Business and Recreation Devotion should bear the light and open the door to all our actions As soon as you awake make an account you are to give the first fruits of your reason your sense and faculties to the Divine Majesty Let the Memory immediately call to mind that the works of God must be done Let the Understanding cast an ejaculation upon its Creatour like a flash of lightening Let the Will enflame it self with love of him Let the Heart let flie the burning shafts of desires and celestial affections Let the Mouth and Tongue labour to pronounce some vocal prayer to the most blessed Trinitie Let the Hands lift
world the benefits that God hath conferred upon their families is it not most fitting that we endeavour to acknowledge in some manner the liberality of the Divine Majesty This act consisteth in three things First in the Memory which represents to the Understanding the benefit received and this Understanding considers the hand that gives them and to whom and how and wherefore and by what ways and in what measure Thereupon an affectionate acknowledgement is framed in the Will which not able to continue idle spreads it self into outward acts to witness the fervour of its affection To practise this well it is requisite to make a catalogue of the benefits of God which are contained in three kinds of goodness and mercy The first is that whereby he drew this great Universe out of the Chaos and darkness of nothing to the light of being and life for our sakes creating a world of such greatness beauty profit measure order vicissitude continuance and preserving it as it wereby the continual breathing of his spirit affording to every thing its rank form propriety appetite inclination scituation limits and accomplishment But above all making man as a little miracle of Nature with the adornments of so many pieces so well set to bear in his aspect the beams of his own Majestie The second bounty is that whereby he hath decreed to raise in man all that is natural to a supernatural estate The third that whereby he hath raised the nature of man being fallen into sin into miserie into the shadow of death to innocence bliss light and eternal life This is the incomprehensible mystery of the Incarnation of the Word which comprehends six other benefits that is the benefit of the doctrine and wisdom of Heaven conferred on us the benefit of our Saviors good examples the benefit of Redemption the benefit of Adoption into the number of Gods children the benefit of the treasure of the merits of Jesus Christ the benefit of the blessed Eucharist Besides those benefits which are in the generality of Christianity we are to represent in all humility often to our selves the particular favours received from God in our birth nourishment education instruction in gifts of soul and body in means and conveniences in friends allies kinred in vocation estate and profession of life in continued protection in deliverance out of so many dangers in vicissitude of adversities and prospeâ—ity in guidance through the degrees of age wherein every one in his own particular may acknowledge infinite passages of the Divine Providence All this pouring it self upon the soul with consideration of the circumstances of each benefit at last draws from the Will this act of acknowledgement which maketh it to say with the Prophet David Who am I O Lord God and what is my house that thou hast brought me bitherto 2 Sam 7. 18. The seventh SECTION A Pattern of Thanksgiving HEreupon you shall give thanks for all benefits in general and particularly for those you have received at present which at that time you are to set before you that may season this action with some new relish The Church furnisheth us with an excellent form of Thanksgiving to God in the hymn Te Deum or else say with the blessed spirits O God power and riches and wisdom and strength and honour and blessing be unto thee for ever and ever O God glory be to thee on high and on earth peace good will towards men I bless thee I worship thee I give thanks to thee for thy great glory and thy benefits O Lord God heavenly King God the Father Almighty and thou also O Lord Jesus Christ my Saviour onely Son of the Heavenly Father perfect God and perfect man Thou that takest away the sins of the world and sittest at the right hand of God the Father And thou O Holy Gbost consubstantial with the Father and the Son most blessed Trinitie receive my prayers in giving thanks The eighth SECTION Of Offering or Oblation The third Act of Devotion REligion and Sacrifice had their beginning in the worlds infancy and ever since have been linked together by an indissoluble tie God who giveth all will have us give to him meaning we should take out of his store that which our Nothing cannot afford Observe here a thing remarkeable That as in the Law of Moses there were three kinds of Sacrifice that is Immolations Libations and Victims Immolations which were made of the fruits of the earth Libations of liquours as oyl and wine Victims of living creatures so likewise God requires that we give him our actions for fruits our affections for liquours and our selves for victims This is done by the act of Oblation or Offering which is a way of sacrifice by which we offer our selves and all that belongeth to us at the Altar of the Divine Majesty To perform this act well we must have first a pure apprehension of the power and dominion which God hath over us secondly an intimate knowledge of our own dependence upon him considering that we not onely have received being and all things annexed to being from his goodness but that we are also sustained perpetually by his hand as a stone in the air and that if he should let go never so little we should be dissolved into that Nothing out of which we are extracted From thence will arise an act of Justice in the will ready to give to God that which is his and as the Holocaust where the hoast was quite consumed in honour to the Divine Majestie was heretofore the noblest of all Sacrifices so will we imitate this excellent act of Religion by consecrating not onely our actions and affections but all that we are unto God wishing to be dissolved and annihilated for his sake if it might be for the glory of his Divine Majestie But if this annihilation cannot be real we must at the least form it to our mind in an extraordinary manner acquiring to our selves as much as is possible twelve dis-engagements wherein the perfection of the Holocaust consisteth The first is a divesting our selves of all affection to temporal things so that we no longer love any thing but for God of God and to God The second a dis-entangling from our own interest in all our actions The third an absolute mortifying of sensuality The fourth a separation from friendships sensual tural and acquired that they have no longer hold on our heart to the prejudice of virtue The fifth a banishing of worldly imaginations in such a manner that the meer representation of them may beget aversion and horrour in us The sixth a discharge from worldly cares not necessary to salvation The seventh a deliverance from bitterness of heart and discontents which ordinarily arise from eâ—cessive love to creatures The eighth a valiant flight from all kind of vanity of spirit The ninth a contempt of sensible consolations when God would have us to be weaned from them The tenth a renouncing of scruples of mind
composed a brief form of Confession making the penitent say thus Father I accuse my self That I have been disquieted with anger exasperated with envy puffed up with pride and have thereupon fallen into an inconstancy of mind scoffings slanders and excesses of speech I accuse my self That I have been more ready to judge my superiours than to obey them That being reprehended for my faults I have murmured and shewed my self refractory in matters of duty I accuse my self That I have preferred my self before my betters vaunting and boasting with much vanity and presumption of all that belonged to me and despising others with mockery and derision I accuse my self That I have neglected the duty of my own charge and ambitiously aimed at others I have neither had respect to obedience nor modesty in my words nor government in my carriage but much self-opinion in my intentions hardness in my heart and vain-glory in my words I accuse my self That I have been a Hypocrite stiff in hatred and aversion from my neighbour biting in speech impatient of subjection ambitious of honour covetous of wealth slothfull in works of Charity and Devotion in conversation unsociable and many times uncivil I accuse my self That I have been ready to speak of the actions of others rash in censuring contentious in arguing disdainfull in hearing presumptuous in informing others dissolute in laughter excessive in pleasures of tast and in gaming costly in apparel burthensom to my friends troublesom to the peacefull ungratefull to those who have done me any good harsh and imperious to such as were under my charge I have boasted to have done that which I did not to have seen what I saw not to have said what I said not and on the contrary have dissembled and denied to have seen what I have seen to have said what I did say and to have done what I did do I accuse my self of carnal thoughts impure rememberances dishonest motions which I have not soon enough resisted They who live more dissolutely shall find as Hamartolus a Greek Authour saith that they have great accounts to cast up at the audit of concupiscence wherefore they may examine themselves concerning kisses touchings softness pollutions fornications adulteries abuse of marriage and other sins called monstrous adding also impieties sorceries divinations false oaths perjuries blasphemies calumnies contentions disobediences injustices oppressions falsehoods thefts usuries sacriledges and the like You must not think that there can be made a Form of Confession like a boot fit for all legs consciences are as faces every one hath its diversity what Saint Bernard hath said in general may serve for a direction yet must it be particularized with the circumstances expressing the intention quality manner and continuance of the vice The twentieth SECTION An excellent Prayer of S. Augustine for this exercise taken out of a Manuscript of Cardinal Seripandus O God behold the stains and wounds of my sin which I never can nor will bide from the eyes of thy Majesty I feel the smart of them already in remorse of my conscience and other sufferings ordained by thy providence for my correction but all that I suffer cannot equal my demerit I onely wonder that feeling the pain of sin so often I still retain the malice and obstinacy of it My weakness boweth under the burden yet my iniquitie remaineth immoveable My life groaneth in languishments yet is not reformed in its works If thou deferre the punishment I deferre my amendment and if thou chastise me I can no longer endure Whilest thou correctest I confess my offence but after thy visitation I remember my sorrows no more As long as thou hast the rod in hand to scourge me I promise all But if thou withdraw it I perform nothing If thou touch me I crie out for mercy and if thou pardon I again provoke thee to strike O Lord God I confess my miseries and implore thy clemency without which there is no salvation for me O God give me what I ask of thee though without any merit of mine since without any merit of mine thou hast taken me out of nothing to ask it of thee The one and twentieth SECTION Of Communion the chiefest of all acts of Devotion with a brief Advice concerning the practise of it AS for Receiving remember the six leaves of the Lilly which it ought to have I mean desire and purity before you present your self at it Humility and Charity in presenting your self thanksgiving and newness of spirit after you have presented your self And if you desire to know the qualities whereby you may discern a luke-warm Communion from a fervent I say that a good Communion ought to be light som savoury nourishing effectual Lightsom in illuminating you ever more and more with the light and truth of faith which begets in you an esteem of divine things and a contempt of the worldly fading and temporal Savoury in making you to relish in will and sense what you know by the light of understanding Yet if you have not this last in a tender and sensible devotion be not discomforted at it for sensible devotion will often happen to those that have least charity as Richardus observes upon the Canticles Affectuosa dilectio interdum officit minùs diligentem It is sufficient that you have good habits of virtue in the upper region of your soul Nourishing in keeping your self in a good spiritual estate in good resentments of Heavenly things in good affections towards the service of God free from driness leanness and voluntary barrenhess Effectual in applying your self immediately to the exercise of solid virtues humility patience charity and the works of mercy for that is the most undoubted mark of a good Communion It is good to present your self with sincere intentions pondered and fitted to occurrences communicating as Bonaventure observes sometimes for remission of sins sometimes for remedy of infirmities sometimes for deliverance out of some affliction sometimes to obtain a benefit sometimes for thanksgiving sometimes also for the help of our neighbour And lastly to offer up a perfect praise to the most blessed Trinitie to commemorate the passion of Jesus Christ and to grow daily in love toward him To this end before you communicate you may say this Prayer of Thomas Aquinas O Most sweet Jesus My Lord and Master O that the force of thy love subtiler than fire and sweeter than honey would engulf my soul in an Abyss drawing it from all inordinate affections to things heneath Heaven that I might die with love of thee since out of love thou didst vouchsafe to die on the Cross for me And after Communion make these Petitions of S. Augustine O God let me know thee and let me also know my self Let the end of my desires be ever where thou art O god let me hear no hatred but to my self nor love but to thee and be thou the beginning progress and the end of all my actions O God let me humble my self
pleasures Fortitude Fortitude is a virtue which confirms us against the pusillanimity that may hinder good actions It hath two arms one to undertake the other to suffer Aristotle assigneth it four parts that is confidence patience love of labour and valour Patience Patience is an honest suffering of evils incident to nature The points thereof are To bear the loss of goods sickness sorrows injuries and other accidents with courage neither to complain nor to groan but discreetly to conceal your grief to be afflicted in innocency for justice sake and sometimes even by those that are good to covet and embrace persecutions out of a generous desire to be conformable to the patience of the Saviour of the world Justice Justice is a virtue which giveth to every one that which is his due and all the acts of it are included in this sentence You must measure others by the same measure wherewith you desire to be measured your self Magnanimitie Magnanimitie according to Thomas Aquinas is a virtue which aimeth at great things by the direct means of reason The acts thereof are To frame your self to an honest confidence by purity of heart and manners to expose your self reasonably to difficult and dreadfull exploits for Gods honour neither to be bewitched with prosperitie nor dejected at adversitie not to yield to opposition not to make a stay at mean virtues to despise complacence and threats for love of virtue to have regard onely to God and for his sake to disesteem all frail and perishable things to keep your self from presumption which often ruins high spirits under colour of Magnanimitie Gratitude Gratitude is the acknowledgement and recompence as far as lies in our power of benefits received The acts thereof are To preserve the benefit in our memory to profess and publish it to return the like without any hope of requital Amitie Amitie is a mutual good will grounded upon virtue and communitie of goods The acts thereof are To choose friends by reason for virtues sake communicating of secrets bearing with imperfections consent of wills a life serviceable and officious protection in adversities observance of honesty in every thing care of spiritual profit accompanied with necessary advice in all love and respect Simplicitie Simplicitie is nothing but union of the outward man with inward The acts thereof are To be free from all false colour never to lie never to dissemble or counterfeit never to presume to shun equivocation and double speech to interpret all things to the best to perform business sincerely to forgo multiplicity of employments and enterprizes Perseverance Perseverance is a constancy in good works to the end through an affection to pursue goodness and virtue The acts thereof are firmness in good quietness in services offices and ordinary employments constancy in good undertakings flight from innovations to walk with God to fix your thoughts and desires upon him neither to give way to bitterness nor to sweetness that may divert us from our good purposes Charitie toward God and our neighbour Charitie the true Queen of virtues consisteth in love of God and our Neighbour the love of God appeareth much in the zeal we have of his Glory the acts thereof are to embrace mean and painfull things so they conduce to our Neighbours benefit To offer the cares of your mind and the prayers of your heart unto God for him To make no exceptions against any in exercise of your charge to make your virtues a pattern for others To give you what you have and what you are for the good of souls and the glory of God to bear incommodities and disturbances which happen in the execution of your dutie with patience Not to be discouraged in successless labours To pray fervently for the salvation of souls to assist them to your power both in spiritual and temporal things to root out vice and to plant virtue and good manners in all who have dependence on you Charitie in Conversation Charitie in the ordinary course of life consisteth in taking the opinions words and actions of our equals in good part To speak ill of no man to despise none to honour every one according to his degree to be affable to all to be helpfull to compassionate the afflicted to share in the good success of the prosperous to bear the hearts of others in your own breast to glory in good deeds rather than specious complements to addict your self diligently to works of mercy Degrees of Virtues Bonaventure deciphers unto us certain degrees of Virtue very considerable for practise his words are these It is a high degree in the virtue of Religion continually to extirpate some imperfection a higher than that to encrease always in Faith and highest of all to be insatiable for matter of good works and to think you have never done any thing In the virtue of Truth it is a high degree to be true in all your words a higher to defend Truth stoutly and highest to defend it to the prejudice of those things which are dearest to you in the world In the virtue of Prudence it is a high degree to know God by his creatures a higher to know him by the Scriptures but highest of all to behold him with the eye of Faith It is a high degree to know your self well a higher to govern your self well and to be able to make good choice in all enterprizes and the highest to order readily the salvation of your soul In the virtue of Humilitie it is a high degree to acknowledge your faults freely a higher to bow with the weight like a tree laden with fruit the highest to seek out couragiously humiliations and abasements thereby to conform your self to our Saviours life It is a high degree according to the old Aâ—iom to despise the world a higher to despise no man yet a higher to despise our selves but highest of all to despise despisal In these four words you have the full extent of Humility In Povertie it is a high degree to forsake temporal goods a higher to forsake sensual amities and highest to be divorced from your self In Chastitie restraint of the tongue is a high degree guard of all the senses a higher undefiledness of body a higher than that puritie of heart yet a higher and banishment of pride and anger which have some affinity with uncleanness the highest In Obedience it is a high degree to obey the Law of God a higher to subject your self to the commands of a man for the honour you bear your Sovereign Lord yet a higher to submit your self with an entire resignation of your opinion judgement affection will but highest of all to obey in difficult matters gladly couragiously and constantly even to death In Patience it is a high degree to suffer willingly in your goods in your friends in your good name in your person a higher to bear being innocent the exasperations of an enemy or an ungratefull man a higher yet to suffer much and repine at nothing but
highest of all to go to meet crosses and afflictions and to embrace them as liveries of Jesus Christ In Mercy it is a high degree to give away temporal things a higher to forgive injuries the highest to oblige them who persecute us It is a high degree to pitie all bodily afflictions a higher to be zealous for souls and highest to compassionate the torments of our Saviour in remembering his Passion In the virtue of Fortitude it is a high degree to overcome the world a higher to subdue the flesh the highest to vanquish your self In Temperance it is a high degree to moderate your eating drinking sleeping watching gaming recreation your tongue words and all gestures of your body a higher to regulate your affections and highest to purifie throughly your thoughts and imaginations In Justice it is a high degree to give unto your Neighbour that which belongeth to him a higher to exact an account of your self and highest to offer up to God all satisfaction which is his due In the virtue of Faith it is a high degree to be well instructed in all that you are to believe a higher to make profession of it in your good works and highest to ratifie when there is necessitie with the loss of goods and life In the virtue of Hope it is a high degree to have good apprehensions of Gods power a higher to repose all your affairs upon his holy providence a higher than that to pray to him and serve him incessantly with fervour and purity but highest of all to trust in him in our most desperate affairs Lastly for the virtue of Charitie which is the accomplishment of all the other you must know there are three kinds of it The first the beginning Charitie The second the proficient The third the perfect Beginning Charitie hath five degrees 1. Dislike of offences past 2. Good resolution of amendment 3. Relish of Gods Word 4. Readiness to good works 5. Compassion of the ill and joy at the prosperity of others Proficient Charity hath five degrees more 1 An extraordinary puritie of Conscience which is cleansed by very frequent examination 2. Weakness of concupiscence 3. Vigorous exercise of the faculties of the inward man For as good operations of the exteriour senses are signs of bodily health so holy occupations of the understanding memory and will are signs of a spiritual life 4. Ready observance of Gods law 5. Relishing knowledge of Heavenly Truth and Maxims Perfect Charity reckoneth also five other degrees 1. To love your enemies 2. To receive contentedly and to suffer all adversities couragiously 3. Not to have any worldly ends but to measure all things by the fear of God 4. To be dis-entangled from all love to creatures 5. To resign your own life to save your neighbours The fifth SECTION Of four Orders of those who aspire to Perfection NOw consider what virtues and in what degree you would practise for there are four sorts of those who aspire to perfection The first are very innocent but little valiant in exercise of virtues The second have besides innocency courage enough to employ themselves in worldly actions but they are very sparing towards God and do measure their perfections by a certain Ell which they will upon no terms exceed like the ox of Susis that drew his usual number of buckets of water out of the Well very willingly but could by no means be brought to go beyond his ordinary proportion The third order is of the Fervent who are innocent couragious and virtuous without restriction but they will not take charge of others supposing they are troubled enough with their own bodies wherein they may be often deceived The fourth rank comprehends those who having with much care profited themselves do charitably refresh the necessities of their neighbour when they are called to his aid thinking that to be good onely to ones self is to be in some sort evil Observe what God requires of you and emulate the most abundant graces But if the multiplicity of these degrees of virtue perplex your mind I will shew you a shorter and easier way to perfection The sixth SECTION A short way to Perfection used by the Ancients THe Ancients were accustomed to reduce all virtue to certain heads and some addicted themselves with so much fervour and perfection to the exercise of one single virtue as possessing that in a supream degree by one link onely they drew insensibly the whole chain of great actions One dedicated all his lifes study to government of the tongue another to abstinence another to meekness another to obedience So that at the death of a holy man named Orus as Pelagius relates it was found he had never lied never sworn never slandered never but upon necessity spoken So Phasius in Cassian said upon his death-bed that the Sun had never seen him take his refection for he fasted every day until sun set So John the Abbot professeth that the Sun had never seen him angry that he had never done his own will nor ever had taught others any thing which he had not first practised himself To arrive at this requires much fortitude of spirit If you desire things more imitable be assured you shall lead a good life if you endeavour continually to practise these three words To abstain To suffer To go forward in well doing as S. Luke saith in the Acts of the Apostles of the Son of God To abstain 1. By refraining from all unlawful things and sometimes even from lawful pleasures through virtue 2. By mortifying concupiscence anger desire of esteem and wealth 3. By well ordering your senses your will your judgement and obtaining always some victory over your self by the mastery of your passions To suffer 1. By enduring the burdens of life with patience esteeming your self happy to partake of our Saviours sufferings which are the noblest marks of your Christianity 2. By endeavouring to use a singular meekness in bearing with the oppressions and imperfections of others 3. By undergoing with advice some bodily austerities 4. By keeping your foot firm in the good you have already begun For as old Marcus the Hermit said The wolf and sheep never couple together nor did change and dislike ever make up a good virtue To go forward in well-doing By becoming serviceable and obliging to all the world every one according to his degree but above all having a catalogue of the works of mercy as well spiritual as temporal continually before your eye as a lesson wherein you must be seriously examined either for life or death eternal And for this purpose some Saints had these words in stead of all books in their Libraries Visito Poto Cibo Redimo Tego Colligo Condo Consule Castiga Solare Remitte Fer Ora. To Visit Quench thirst Feed Redeem Cloath Lodge Bury To Teach Counsel Correct Comfort Pardon Suffer Pray Mans best knowledge is how to oblige man the time will come when death shall strip us to the very bones and
souldiers and I say to this go and he goeth and to another come and he cometh and to my servant do this and he doth it And Jesus hearing this marvelled and said to them that followed him Amen I say to you I have not found so great faith in Israel And I say to you that many shall come from the East and West and shall sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven but the children of the Kingdom shall be cast out into the exteriour darkness there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth And Jesus said to the Centurion Go and as thou hast believed be it done to thee And the boy was healed in the same hour Moralities 1. OUr whole Salvation consists in two principles The one is in our being sensible of God and the other in moving toward him the first proceeds from faith the other comes of charity and other virtues O what a happy thing it is to follow the examples of this good Centurion by having such elevated thoughts of the Divinity and to know nothing of God but what he is To behold our heavenly Father within this great family of the world who effects all things by his single word Creates by his power governs by his councel and orders by his goodness this great universality of all things The most insensible creatures have ears to hear him Feavers and tempests are part of that running camp which marcheth under his Standard They advance and retire themselves under the shadow of his command he onely hath power to give measures to the Heaven bounds to the Sea to joyn the East and West together in an instant and to be in all places where his pleasure is understood 2. O how goodly a thing it is to go unto him like this great Captain To go said I Nay rather to flie as he doth by the two wings of Charity and Humility His charity made him have a tender care of his poor servant and to esteem his health more dear than great men do the rarest pieces in their Cabinets He doth not trust his servants but takes the charge upon himself making himself by the power of love a servant to him who by birth was made subject to his command What can be said of so many Masters and Mistresses now adays who live always slaves to their passions having no care at all of the Salvation health or necessities of their servants as if they were nothing else but the very scum of the world They make great use of their labours and service which is just but neglect their bodies and kill their souls by the infection of their wicked examples Mark the humility of this souldier who doth not think his house worthy to be enlightened by one sole glimpse of our blessed Saviours presence By the words of Saint Augustine we may say he made himself worthy by believing and declaring himself so unworthy yea worthy that our Saviour should enter not onely into his house but into his very soul And upon the matter he could not have spoken with such faith and humility if he had not first enclosed in his heart him whom he durst not receive into his house 3. The Gentiles come near unto God and the Jews go from him to teach us that ordinarily the most obliged persons are most ungratefull and disesteem their benefactours for no other reason but because they receive benefits daily from them If you speak courteously to them they answer churlishly and in the same proportion wherein you are good you make them wicked therefore we must be carefull that we be not so toward God Many are distasted with devotion as the Israelites were with Manna All which is good doth displease them because it is ordinary And you shall find some who like naughty grounds cast up thorns where roses are planted But we have great reason to fear that nothing but hell fire is capable to punish those who despise the graces of God and esteem that which comes from him as a thing of no value Aspirations O Almighty Lord who doest govern all things in the family of this world and doest bind all insensible creatures by the bare sound of thy voice in a chain of everlasting obedience Must I onely be still rebellious against thy will Feavers and Palsies have their ears for thee and yet my unruly spirit is not obedient Alas alas this family of my heart is ill governed It hath violent passions my thoughts are wandering and my reason is ill obeyed Shall it never be like the house of this good Centurion where every thing went by measure because he measured himself by thy commandments O Lord I will come resolutely by a profound humility and an inward feeling of my self since I am so contemptible before thine eyes I will come with Charity toward these of my houshold and toward all that shall need me O God of my heart I beseech thee let nothing from henceforth move in me but onely to advance my coming toward thee who art the beginning of all motions and the onely repose of all things which move The Gospel for the first Friday in Lent S. Matth. 5. Wherein we are directed to pray for our Enemies YOu have heard that it was said thou shalt love thy neighbour and hate thine enemie But I say to you Love your enemies do good to them that hate you and pray for them that persecute and abuse you that you may be the children of your Father which is in Heaven who maketh his Sun to rise upon good and bad and raineth upon just and unjust For if you love them that love you what reward shall you have Do not also the Publicans this And if you salute your brethren onely what do you more Do not also the heathen this Be you perfect therefore as also your heavenly Father is perfect Moralities 1. A Man that loves nothing but according to his natural inclination loves onely like a beast or an infidel The best sort of love is that which is commanded by God and is derived from judgement conducted by reason and perfected by Charity Me thinks it should be harder for a good Christian to hate than love his enemy Hate makes him our equal whereas love placeth us quite above him By hating a mans enemy he breaks the laws of God he fights against the Incarnation of Christ which was acted to unite all things in the bands of love he gives the lie to the most blessed Eucharist whose nature is to make the hearts of all Christians the lame he lives like another Cain in the world always disquieted by seeking revenge and it is a very death to him to hear another mans prosperity Whereas to love an enemy doth not bind us to love the injury he hath done us for we must not consider him as a malefactour but as a man of our own nature as he is the Image of God and as he is a Christian God doth onely command perfect
things not impossible That which is very hard to flesh and bloud become easie by the help of grace and reason Our blessed Saviour Jesus Christ being the Father of all harmony can and doth reconcile all contrarieties at his will and pleasure 2. If revenge seem sweet the gaining of it is most bitter But there is nothing in the world more profitable than to pardon an enemy by imitation of our Saviour For it is then that our conscience can assure us to be the children of God and inheritours of his glory We must not fear to be despised for esteeming virtue for such contempt can onely proceed from those who know not the true value of that glory which belongs to the just There is no better way to revenge than leave it to God who always doth his own business When David wept for Saul who was his enemy his Clemency did insensibly make degrees by which he mounted up to the throne of Judah A good work which comes from the spirit of vanity is like an emptied Mine good for nothing God who is invisible would have our aspects turned always toward him and blind toward the world Alms given by the sound of a Trumpet makes a great noise on earth but reaps little fruit in Heaven The flie of vanity is a mischievous thing which destroys all the perfumes of Charity What need we any spectatours of our good works every place is full where God is and where he is not there onely is Solitude Aspirations O God of all holy affections when shall I love all which thou lovest and have in horrour all that displeaseth thy divine Majesty If I cannot love in some person his defects and sins I will love in him thine Image and in that will I acknowledge thy mercies If he be a piece of broken glass in that little piece there will shine some lines of a God-Creatour and of a God-Redeemer If thou hast chosen him to exercise my patience why should I make him the object of my revenge since he gives me trouble to gain me a Crown He is a hammer to pollish and make me bright I will not hurt him but reverence the arm that strikes me I resign all vengeance into thy hands since it is a Right reserved for thy Almighty power And certainly the best revenge I can take is to gratifie my enemy Give unto me O most mercifull Prince the grace to suffer and let the sacrifice of my sufferings mount up to thy propitiatory Throne The Gospel for the first Saturday in Lent S. Matth. 6. Of the Apostles danger at Sea and relief by our SAVIOUR ANd when he had dismissed them he went into the mountain to pray and when it was late the boat was in the midst of the Sea and himself alone on the land And seeing them labouring in rowing for the wind was against them and about the fourth watch of the night he cometh to them walking upon the sea and he would have passed by them But they seeing him walking upon the sea thought it was a ghost and cried out for all saw him and were troubled And immediately he talked with them and said to them Have confidence it is I fear ye not And he went up to them into the ship and the wind ceased and they were far more astonied within themselves for they understood not concerning the loaves for their heart was blinded And when they had passed over they came into the land of Genesareth and set to the shore And when they were gone out of the boat incontinent they knew him and running through that whole Countrey they began to carry about in couches those that were ill at ease where they heard he was And whither soever he entered into towns or into villages or cities they laid the sick in the streets and besought him that they might touch but the hem of his garment and as many as touched him were made whole Moralities 1. WHat a painfull thing it is to row when Jesus is not in the boat all our travel is just nothing without Gods favour A little blast of wind is worth more than an hundred strokes of oars What troublesom businesses there are how many intricate families do labour much and yet advance nothing because God withdraws himself from their iniquities if he do not build the workman destroyes what he is building But all falls out right to those that embark themselves with Jesus They may pass to the Indies in a basket when others shall miscarry in a good ship well furnished 2. But how comes it about that the ship of the poor Apostles is beaten so furiously by the winds and tempests There are many ships with silver beaks with fine linnen sails and silken tackles upon which the sea seems to smile Do the waters reserve their choller onely to vent it upon that ship which carries just persons This is the course of mans life The brave and happy men of this world enjoy their wishes but their ship doth perish in the harbour as it is sporting whereas God by his infinite providence gives tempests to his elect that he may work a miraculous calm by his Almighty power Dangers are witnesses of their floting and Combats are causes of their merit Never think any man happy in his wickedness for he is just like a fish that playes with the bait when the hook sticks fast in his throat We must wait and attend for help from Heaven patiently without being tired even till the fourth which is the last watch of the night All which proceeds from the hand of God comes ever in fit time and that man is a great gainer by his patient attendance who thereby gets nothing but perseverance 3. They know Jesus very ill that take him for a Phantome or an illusion and crie out for fear of his presence which should make them most rejoyce So do those souls which are little acquainted with God who live in blindness and make much of their own darkness Let us learn to discern God from the illusions of the world The tempest ceaseth when he doth approach and the quietness of our heart is a sure mark of his presence which fills the soul with splendour and makes it a delicious garden He makes all good wheresoever he comes and the steps which his feet leave are the bounties of his heart To touch the Hem of his Garment cures all that are sick to teach us that the forms which cover the blessed Sacrament are the fringes of his holy humanity which cures our sins Aspiration O Lord my soul is in night and darkness and I feel that thou art far from me What billows of disquiet rise within my heart what idle thoughts which have been too much considered Alas most redoubted Lord and Father of mercy canst thou behold from firm land this poor vessel which labours so extreamly being deprived of thy most amiable presence I row strongly but can advance nothing except thou come into my soul
Come O my adored Master walk upon this tempestuous Sea of my heart ascend into this poor vessel say unto me Take courage It is I. Be not conceited that I will take thee for an illusion for I know thee too well by thy powers and bounties to be so mistaken The least thought of my heart will quiet it self to adore thy steps Thou shalt reign within me thou shalt disperse my cares thou shalt recover my decayed senses thou shalt lighten my understanding thou shalt inflame my will thou shalt cure all my infirmities And to conclude thou onely shalt work in me and I will be wholly thine The Gospel for the first Sunday in Lent S. Matthew 4. Of our SAVIOUR's being tempted in the Desart THen Jesus was led of the Spirit into the Desart to be tempted of the Devil and when he had fasted fourty days and fourty nights afterward he was hungry And the Tempter approched and said to him If thou be the Son of God command that these stones he made bread Who answered and said It is written not in bread alone doth man live but in every world that proceedeth from the mouth of God Then the Devil took him up into the holy Citie and set him upon the pinacle of the Temple and said to him If thou be the Son of God cast thy self down for it is written That he will give his Angels charge of thee and in their hands shall they hold thee up lest perhaps thou knock thy foot against a stone Jesus said to him again It is written thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God Again the Devil took him up into a very high mountain and he shewed him all the Kingdoms of the world and the glory of them and said to him all these will I give thee if falling down thou wilt adore me Then Jesus saith to him Avant Satan for it is written the Lord thy God shalt thou adore and him onely shalt thou serve Then the Devil left him and behold Angels came and ministered to him Moralities 1. JESUS suffered himself to be tempted saith Saint Augustine to the end he might serve for a Mediatour for an example and for a remedy to work our victory over all temptations We must fight on his side Our life is a continual warfare and our days are Champions which enter into the lists There is no greater temptation than to have none at all Sleeping water doth nourish poison Motion is the worlds soul fighting against temptations is the soul of virtues and glory doth spring and bud out of tribulations Virtue hinders not temptation but surmounts it Jesuâ— fasted saith the ordinary gloss that he might be tempted and is tempted because he did fast He fasted fourty days and then was hungry he did eat with his Disciples the space of fourty days after his resurrection without any more necessity of meat than the Sun hath of the earths vapours to make us thereby know that it onely appertained to him to teach that great secret how to mannage want and abundance by which S. Paul was glorified 2. The first victory over a Temptation is to know that which tempts us Some temptations are gay and smiling at their beginning as those of love and pleasure which end in terrible and bitter storms Others are troublesom and irksom Others doubtfull and intricate Others rapide and sudden which seize upon their prey like an Eagle Others are close and catching These are the snares of Satan who fomes like a Bore roars like a Lion and hisseth like a Serpent We should always have an eye ready to mark from whence the Temptation comes whither it tends what is the root of it what the course what the progress and what power it may have over our spirit 3. Solitude of heart fasting prayer the word of God are weapons of an excellent temper which the Word Incarnate teacheth us to use in this conflict These things are to be used with discretion by the counsel of a good directour to whom a man must declare all his most secret thoughts and bear a breast of chrystal toward him with a firm purpose to let him see all the inward motions of his heart It is also good to note here that our Lord would expresly be tempted in that Desarr which is between Jerusalem and Jericho where the Samaritane mentioned in the Parable did pour wine and oyl into the sores of the poor wounded man to teach us that by his combat he came to cure the wounds of Adam and all his race in the very place where they were received 4. Sin is killed by flying the occasions of it Absence resistance coldness silence labour diversion have overcome many assaults of the enemy Sometimes a Spiders web is strong enough to preserve chastity and at other times the thick walls of Semiramis are not sufficient God governs all and a good will to concur with him is a strong assurance in all perils and it will keep us untoucht amidst the flames of lust 5. Since it imports us so much to fight valiantly let us bring the hearts of Lions Where is our Christianity if we do not give testimony of it to God both by our fidelity and courage How many Martyrs have been rosted and broiled because they would not speak one ill word What honour can you expect by yielding at the first enterance to a temptation Look not upon the violence of it but contemplate the Crown which you should gain by conquering it think at your enterance how you will come off and know for certain that he who truly considers the consequence of a wicked action will never begin it 6. Lent is the Spring-time for sanctified resolutions it mortifies the body that the spirit may triumph it is a time of grace which tends to salvation and mercy It imports extreamly to commend all to God at the beginning to sanctifie this fasting which is part of our devotion we must abstain from flesh and be content with one meal at seasonable hours without making over large collations except age infirmity or weakness labour or necessity of other functions shall dispence with our diet for those who are unable to fast suffer more by their disability than others do by fasting It is good to follow the counsel of Athanasius who adviseth to eat late and little and at a table where there is but one sort of meat We must also fast by abstinence from vice For to weaken our body and yet nourish our naughty passions is to fast as the devils do who eat nothing and yet devour the world by the rage of their malice Sobriety is a stream which waters all virtues Our soul and body are as the scales of a ballance if you pull down the one you raise up the other and if you tame your flesh it makes the Spirit reign and govern Aspirations O Most mercifull Lord Father and Protectour of all my life how great are the temptations and snares whereunto I am subject when
of my Father that is in Heaven be is my brother and sister and mother Moralities 1. IT is a very ill sign when we desire signs to make us believe in God The signs which we demand to fortifie our faith are oft-times marks of our infidelity There is not a more dangerous plague in the events of worldly affairs than to deal with the devil or to cast nativities All these things fill men with more faults than knowledge For divine Oracles have more need to be reverenced than interpreted He that will find God must seek him with simplicity and profess him with piety 2. Some require a sign and yet between Heaven and earth all is full of signs How many creatures soever they are they are all steps and characters of the Divinity What a happy thing it is to study what God is by the volume of time and by that great Book of the world There is not so small a flower of the meadows nor so little a creature upon earth which doth not tell us some news of him He speaks in our ears by all creatures which are so many Organ-pipes to convey his Spirit and voice to us But he hath no sign so great as the Word Incarnate which carries all the types of his glory and power About him onely should be all our curiosity our knowledge our admiration and our love because in him we can be sure to find all our repose and consolation 3. Are we not very miserable since we know not our own good but by the loss of it which makes us esteem so little of those things we have in our hands The Ninivites did hear old Jonas the Prophet The Queen of Sheba came from far to hear the wisdom of Solomon Jesus speaks to us usually from the Pulpits from the Altars in our conversations in our affairs and recreations And yet we do not sufficiently esteem his words nor inspirations A surfeited spirit mislikes honey and is distasted with Manna raving after the rotten pots of Aegypt But it is the last and worst of all ills to despise our own good Too much confidence is mother of an approching danger A man must keep himself from relapses which are worse than sins which are the greatest evils of the world he that loves danger shall perish in it The first sin brings with it one devil but the second brings seven There are some who vomit up rheir sins as the Sea doth cockles to swallow them again Their life is nothing but an ebbing and flowing of sins and their most innocent retreats are a disposition to iniquity For as boiled water doth soonest freeze because the cold works upon it with the greater force so those little fervours of Devotion which an unfaithfull soul feels in confessions and receiving if it be not resolute quite to forsake wickedness serve for nothing else but to provoke the wicked spirit to make a new impression upon her It is then we have most reason to fear Gods justice when we despise his mercie We become nearest of kin to him when his Ordinances are followed by our manners and our life by his precepts Aspirations O Word Incarnate the great sign of thy heavenly Father who carriest all the marks of his glory and all the characters of his powers It is thou alone whom I seek whom I esteem and honour All that I see all I understand all that I feel is nothing to me if it do not carry thy name and take colour from thy beauties nor be animated by thy Spirit Thy conversation hath no trouble and thy presence no distast O let me never lose by my negligence what I possess by thy bounty Keep me from relapses keep me from the second gulf and second hell of sin He is too blind that profits nothing by experience of his own wickedness and by a full knowledge of thy bounties The Gospel for Thursday the first week in Lent out of S. Matth 15. Of the Woman of Canaan ANd Jesus went forth from thence and retired into the quarters of Tyre and Sidon And behold a woman of Canaan came forth out of these coasts and crying out said to him Have mercy upon me O Lord the Son of David my daughter is sore vexed of a devil who answered her not a word And his Disciples came and besought him saying Dismiss her because she crieth out after us And he answering said I was not sent but to the sheep that are lost of the house of Israel But she came and adored him saying Lord help me who answering said It is not good to take the bread of children and to cast it to the dogs but she said Yea Lord for the dogs also eat of the crums that fall from the tables of their masters Then Jesus answering said to her O woman great is thy faith be it done to thee as thou wilt and her daughter was made whole from that hour Moralities 1. OUr Saviour Jesus Christ after his great and wondrous descent from heaven to earth from being infinite to be finite from being God to be man used many several means for salvation of the world And behold entering upon the frontiers of Tyre and Sidon he was pleased to conceal himself But it is very hard to avoid the curiosity of a woman who seeking his presence was thereby certain to find the full point of her felicity A very small beam of illumination reflecting upon her carried her out of her Countrey and a little spark of light brought her to find out the clear streams of truth We must not be tired with seeking God and when we have found him his presence should not diminish but encrease our desire to keep him still We are to make enterance into our happiness by taking fast hold of the first means offered for our salvation and we must not refuse or lose a good fortune which knocks at our door 2. Great is the power of a woman when she applies her self to virtue behold at one instant how one of that sex assails God and the devil prevailing with the one by submission and conquering the other by command And he which gave the wild Sea arms to contain all the world finds his own arms tied by the chains of a prayer which himself did inspire She draws unto her by a pious violence the God of all strength such was the fervency of her prayer such the wisdom of her answers and such the faith of her words As he passed away without speaking she hath the boldness to call him to her whiles he is silent she prays when he excuseth himself she adores him when he refuseth her suit she draws him to her To be short she is stronger than the Patriarch Jacob for when he did wrestle with the Angel he returned lame from the conflict but this woman after she had been so powerfull with God returns strait to her house there to see her victories and possess her conquests 3. Mark with what weapons she overcame the
apparencies O my God my Jesus make me keep the Law of thy love and nothing else It is a yoke which brings with it more honour than burden It is a yoke which hath wings but no heaviness Make me serve thee O my Master since thou beholdest the services of all the Angels under thy feet Make me imitate thee O my Redeemer since thou art the original of all perfections make me suffer for thee O King of the afflicted and that I may not know what it is to suffer by knowing what it is to love The Gospel upon Thursday the third week in Lent S. Luke 4. Jesus cured the Feaver of Simons Mother in Law ANd Jesus rising up out of the Synagogue entered into Simons house and Simons wives mother was holden with a great Feaver and they besought him for her And standing over her he commanded the Feaver and it left her And incontinent rising she ministred to them And when the Sun was down all that had diseased of sundry maladies brought them to him But he imposing hands upon every one cured them And Devils went out from many crying and saying that thou art the Son of God And rebuking them he suffered them not to speak that they knew he was Christ And when it was day going forth he went into a desart place and the multitudes sought him and came even unto him and they held him that he should not depart from them To whom he said That to other Cities also must I Evangelize the Kingdom of God because therefore I was sent And he was preaching in the Synagogues of Galilee Moralities 1. A Soul within a sick body is a Princess that dwels in a ruinous house Health is the best of all temporal goods without which all honours are as the beams of an eclipsed sun Riches are unpleasing and all pleasures are languishing All joy of the heart subsists naturally in the health of the body But yet it is true that the most healthfull persons are not always the most holy What profit is there in that health which serves for a provocation to sin for an inticement to worldly pleasure and a gate to death The best souls are never better nor stronger than when their bodies are sick their diseases are too hard for their mortal bodies but their courage is invincible It is a great knowledge to understand our own infirmities Prosperity keeps us from the view of them but adversity shews them to us We should hardly know what death is if so many diseases did not teach us every day that we are mortal Semiramis the proudest of all Queens had made a law whereby she was to be adored in stead of all the gods but being humbled by a great sickness she acknowledged her self to be but a woman 2. All the Apostles pray for this holy woman which was sick but she herself asked nothing nor did complain of any thing She leaves all to God who is onely Master of life and death She knew that he which gives his benefits with such bounty hath the wisdom to chuse those which are most fit for us How do we know whether we desiring to be delivered from a sickness do not ask of God to take away a gift which is very necessary to our salvation That malady or affliction which makes us distaste worldly pleasures gives us a disposition to taste the joyes of heaven 3. How many sick persons in the heat of a Feaver promise much and when they are well again perform nothing That body which carried all the marks of death in the face is no sooner grown strong by health which rejoyceth the heart and fils the veins with bloud but it becomes a slave to sin The gifts of God being abused serve for nothing but to make it wicked and so the soul is killed by recovery of the flesh But this pious woman is no sooner on foot but she serves the Authour of life and employes all those limbs which Jesus cured of the Feaver to prepare some provisions to refresh him He that will not use the treasures of heaven with acknowledgement deserveth never to keep them When a man is recovered from a great sickness as his body is renewed by health so on the other side he should renew his spirit by virtue The body saith Saint Maximus is the bed of the soul where it sleeps too easily in continual health and forgets it self in many things But a good round sickness doth not onely move but turn over this bed which maketh the soul awake to think on her salvation and make a total conversion Aspirations O Word Incarnate all Feavours and Devils flie before the beams of thy redoubted face Must nothing but the heat of thy passions always resist thy powers and bounties To what maladies and indispositions am I subject I have more diseases in my soul then limbs in my body My weakness bends under thy scourges and yet my sins continue still unmoveable Stay O benign Lord stay thy self near me Cast upon my dull and heavy eyes one beam from those thine eyes which make all storms clear and all disasters happie Command that my weakness leave me and that I may arise to perform my services due to thy greatness as I will for ever ow my salvation to thine infinite power and bounty The Gospel upon Friday the third week in Lent S. John 4. Of the Samatitan woman at Jacobs Well neer Sichar HE cometh therefore into a Citie of Samaria which is called Sichar beside the Mannor that Jacob gave to Joseph his son And there was there the fountain of Jacob. Jesus therefore wearied of his journey sate so upon the fountain It was about the sixth hour There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water Jesus saith to her Give me to drink for his Disciples were gone into the Citie to buy meats therefore that Samaritan woman saith to him How dost thou being a Jew ask of me to drink which am a Samaritan woman for the Jews do not communicate with the Samaritanes Jesus answered and said to her If thou didst know the gift of God and vvho he is that saith unto thee Give me to drink thou perhâ—ps wouldst have asked of him and he would have given thee living vvater The woman saith to him Sir neither hast thou wherein to draw and the well is deep whence hast thou the living vvater Art thou greater than our father Jacob vvho gave us the well anâ— himself drank of it and his children and his cattel Jesus answered and said to her Every one that drinketh of this vvater shall thirst again but he that shall drink of the vvater that I will give him shall not thirst for ever but the vvater that I will give him shall become unto him a fountain of vvater springing up unto life everlasting The vvoman saith to him Lord give me this vvater that I may not thirst nor come hither to draw Jesus said to her Go call thy husband and come hither The
fear glorious without change And it is there onely where we find all our satisfactions perfectly accomplished For to speak truth contentment consisteth in four principal things which are to have a contenting object to have a heart capable to apprehend it to feel a strong inclination to it and to enter into an absolute full possession of it Now God hath provided for all this by his infinite bounty He will not have us affect any other object of pleasure but his own He is God and therefore can have nothing but God for his satisfaction and intends graciously that we shall have the same He will have us thirst after him and quench our thirst within himself and to this our soul is singularly disposed for as God is a Spirit so is our soul onely spiritual We have so strong an inclination to love God that even our vices themselves without thinking what they do love somewhat of God For if pride affect greatness there can be nothing so great as the Monarch of it If luxury love pleasure God containeth all pure delights in his bosom and this which I say may be verified of all sins whatsoever If the presence of a right object and the enjoying be wanting we have nothing so present as God S. Paul saith We are all within him within him we live and within him we have the fountain of all our motions we see him through all his creatures until he take off the vail and so let us see him and taste of his Glory 3. A true and perfect way to make us thirst after God is to forsake the burning thirst which we have after bodily and worldly goods Our soul and flesh go in the several scales of a ballance the rising of one pulls down the other It is a having two wives for us to think we can place all our delights in God and withal enjoy all worldly contentments A man must have a conscience free from earthly matters to receive the infusion of grace we must pass by Calvary before we come to Tabor and first taste gall with Jesus before we can taste that honey-comb which he took after his resurrection Aspirations O God true God of my salvation My heart which feeleth it self moved with an affection-are zeal thinks always upon thee and in thinking finds an earnest thirst after thy beauties which heats my veins My soul is all consumed I find that my flesh it self insensibly followeth the violence of my spirit I am here as within the desarts of Affrica in a barren world the drought whereof makes it a direct habitation for dragons O my God I am tormented with this flame and yet I cherish it more than my self Will there be no good Lazarus found to dip the end of his finger within the fountain of the highest Heaven a little to allay the burning of my thirst Do not tell me O my dear Spouse that there is a great Chaos between thee and me Thou hast already passed it in coming to me by thy bounty and wilt not thou lift me up then by thy mercy The Gospel upon Tuesday the fifth week in Lent S. John 7. Jesus went not into Jewry because the Jews had a purpose to take away his life AFter these things Jesus walked into Galilee for he would not walk into Jewry because the Jews sought to kill him And the festival day of the Jews Scenopegia was at hand And his brethren said to him Pass from hence and go into Jewry that thy Disciples also may see thy works which thou dost For no man doth any thing in secret and seeketh himself to be in publick if thou do these things manifest thy self to the world for neither did his brethren believe in him Jesus therefore saith to them My time is not yet come but your time is always ready The world cannot bate you but me it hateth because I give testimony of it that the works thereof are evil Go you up to this festival day I go not up to this festival day because my time is not yet accomplished When he had said these things himself tarried in Galilee But after his brethren were gone up then he also went up to the festival day not openly but as it were in secret The Jews therefore sought him in the festival day and said Where is be And there was much murmuring in the multitude of him For certain said that he is good And others said No but he seduceth the multitudes yet no man spake openly of him for fear of the Jews Moralities 1. JEsus hides himself in this Gospel as the Sun within a cloud to shew himself at his own time to teach us that all the serets of our life consisteth in well concealing and well discovering our selves He did conceal the life which he took from nature when he might have been born a perfect man as well as Adam and yet did he hide himself in the hay of a base stable He concealeth his life of grace dissembling under silence so many great and divine virtues as if he had lockt up the stars under lock and key as holy Job saith He keeps secret his life of Glory retaining for thirty three years the light of his soul which should without intermission have glorified and cast a divine brightness upon his body But when he concealed himself the stars discovered him at his birth the Sun at his death all the Elements did then confess him and all creatures gave testimony of his Divinity 2. We should be well known of God if we did not so curiously enquire into the knowledge of the world Vanity at this day opens all her gates to manifest divers men to the world who should otherwise be buried in obscurity and darkness It maketh some appear by the luxurious excess of their apparrel as so many sale creatures whose heads being high and costly drest up go to the market of idle love Others by the riches and pomps of the world others by honours and dignities others by the spirit of industry and others by the deeds of arms and policy Every one sets out himself to be seen and esteemed in the world It seemeth that life is made for nothing but to be shewed and that we should always live for that which makes us die We are a kind of walking spirits which return late to our lodgings But yet nevertheless giving our selves so continually to the world me thinks we should at least stay with our selves every day one short hour It is said that the Pellican hides her egs and that they must be stollen from her to make them disclose But vanity is an egge which all the world hatcheth under her wings and none are willing to forsake it 3. If it be needfull to shew your self to the world be then known by your virtues which are characters of the Divinity Let men know you by your good examples which are the seeds of eternity and of all fair actions You must be known by your
whole world as he did proportioning his torments according to the fruits which were to proceed from his Cross Perhaps O faithfull soul thou lookest for a mans body in thy Jesus but thou findest nothing but the appearance of one crusted over with gore bloud Thou seekest for limbs and findest nothing but wounds Thou lookest for a Jesus which appeared glorious upon Mount Tabor as upon a Throne of Majestie with all the Ensigns of his Glory and thou findest onely a skin all bloudy fastened to a Cross between two thieves And if the consideration of this cannot bring drops of bloud from thy heart it must be more insensible than a diamond 3. To conclude observe the third quality of a good death which will declare it self by the exercise of great and heroick virtues Consider that incomparable mildness which hath astonished all Ages hath encouraged all virtues hath condemned all revenges hath instructed all Schools and crowned all good actions He was raised upon the Cross when his dolours were most sharp and piercing when his wounds did open on all sides when his precious bloud shed upon the earth and moistened it in great abundance when he saw his poor clothes torn in pieces and yet bloudy in the hands of those who crucified him He considered the extream malice of that cruel people how those which could not wound him with iron pierced him with the points of their accursed tongues He could quickly have made fire come down from Heaven upon those rebellious heads And yet forgetting all his pains to remember his mercies he opened his mouth and the first word he spake was in favour of his enemies to negotiate their reconciliation before his soul departed The learned Cardinal Hugues admiring this excessive charity of our Saviour toward his enemies applies excellent well that which is spoken of the Sun in Ecclesiasticus He brings news to all the world at his rising and at noon day he burns the earth and heats those furnaces of Nature which make it produce all her feats So Jesus the Sun of the intelligible world did manifest himself at his Nativity as in the morning But the Cross was his bed at noon from whence came those burning streams of Love which enflame the hearts of all blessed persons who are like furnaces of that eternal fire which burns in holy Sion On the other part admire that great magnanimity which held him so long upon the Cross as upon a throne of honour and power when he bestowed Paradise upon a man that was his companion in suffering I cannot tell whether in this action we should more admire the good fortune of the good thief or the greatness of Jesus The happiness of the good thief who is drawn for a cut-throat to prison from prison to the Judgement-hall from thence to the Cross and thence goes to Paradise without needing any other gate but the heart of Jesus On the other side what can be more admirable than to see a man crucified to do that act which must be performed by the living God when the world shall end To save some to make others reprobate and to judge from the heighth of his Cross as if he sate upon the chiefest throne of all Monarchs But we must needs affirm that the virtue of patience in this holds a chief place and teaches very admirable lessons He endures the torments of body and the pains of spirit in all the faculties of his soul in all the parts of his virgin flesh and by the cruelty and multiplicity of his wounds they all become one onely wound from the sole of his foot to the top of his head His delicate body suffers most innocently and all by most ingrate and hypocritical persons who would colour their vengeance with an apparance of holiness He suffers without any comfort at all and which is more without bemoaning himself he suffers whatsoever they would or could lay upon him to the very last gasp of his life Heaven wears mourning upon the Cross all the Citizens of Heaven weep over his torments the earth quakes stones rend themselves Sepulchers open the dead arise Onely Jesus dies unmoveable upon this throne of patience To conclude who would not be astonished at the tranquility of his spirit and amongst those great convulsions of the world which moved round about the Cross amongst such bloudy dolours insolent cries and insupportable blasphemies how he remained upon the Cross as in a Sanctuary at the foot of an Altar bleeding weeping and praying to mingle his prayers with his bloud and tears I do now understand why the Wiseman said He planted Isles within the Abyss since that in so great a Gulf of afflictions he shewed such a serenity of spirit thereby making a Paradise for his Father amongst so great pains by the sweet perfume of his virtues After he had prayed for his enemies given a promise of Paradise to the good thief and recommended his Mother to his Disciple he shut up his eyes from all humane things entertaining himself onely with prayers and sighs to his Heavenly Father O that at the time of our deaths we could imitate the death of Jesus and then we should be sure to find the streams of life Aspirations O Spectacles of horrour but Abyss of goodness and mercy I feel my heart divided by horrour pitie hate love execration and adoration But my admiration being ravished carries me beyond my self Is this then that bloudy sacrifice which hath been expected from all Ages This hidden mystery this profound knowledge of the Cross this dolorous Jesus which makes the honourable amends between Heaven and earth to the eternal Father for expiation of the sins of humane kind Alas poor Lord thou hadst but one life and I see a thousand instruments of death which have taken it away Was there need of opening so many bloudy doors to let out thine innocent soul Could it not part from thy body without making on all sides so many wounds which after they have served for the objects of mens cruelty serve now for those of thy mercy O my Jesus I know not to whom I speak for I do no more know thee in the state thou now art or if I do it is onely by thy miseries because they are so excessive that there was need of a God to suffer what thou hast endured I look upon thy disfigured countenance to find some part of thy resemblance and yet can find none but that of thy love Alas O beautifull head which dost carry all the glory of the highest Heaven divide with me this dolorous Crown of Thorns they were my sins which sowed them and it is thy pleasure that thine innocency should mow them Give me O Sacred mouth give me that Gall which I see upon thy lips suffer me to sprinkle all my pleasures with it since after a long continuance it did shut up and conclude all thy dolours Give me O Sacred hands and adored feet the Nails which have pierced
imitate your Graces profitable and well-seasoned retirements I wish excellent Lady there were any thing wherein I might better expresse the devoted service I ow to your eminent self and illustrious Family but since weak endeauours can produce but slender effects and noble dispositions do readily pardon incident imperfections I will rest in the cheerefull hope of Excuse and in the ardent Vow of a studious willingnesse to become worthy the Title of Your Graces humblest and most obsequious servant THOMAS HAWKINS To my Lord MY LORD THE DUKE OF ANGVIEN ELDEST SONNE OF MY LORD THE PRINCE MY LORD I Finish the Holy-Court in my Books when your age inviteth you to begin it in your manners and for your first exercise of arms I offer you the Combats and Empire over Passions which is greater then that of the world There it is where you shall know the industry of a warre which nature wageth and reason teacheth us which is never too soon learned and which is ordinarily but too late understood Princes in other battels speak with mouths of fire and make use of a million of hands but in this which I represent they are alone and therein employ but the moitie of themselves one part of Man being revolted against the other Besides all the honour of the uictory rests in themselves arms fortresses and Regiments not at all participating therein and if they prove fortunate in these encountres they stand in the esteem of wise men for Demy-Gods Their quality obligeth them to this duty more then other men since Passions are winds which in popular life raise but little waves but in them stir up mountains of water For which I am perswaded that as you so dearly have loved the labours of my Pen and sought for your instruction out of my Books I could not do a better service or more suitable to your age then by arming you against these plagues which have so often tarnished Diadems on the brow of Cesars and turned Conquerours into Slaves Sir I promise my self much from your Greatnesse in this Conquest seeing it already hath given testimonies to the world worthy of your eminent Birth which oblige you to virtue out of a necessity as strong as your disposition is sweet VVit which is as the principall Genius of your house hath in you cast forth glimmers that have flown throughout Europe when you publickly answered throughout all Philosophy in an age wherein other Princes begin to learn the first elements You have placed wisedome on the highest Throne of Glory and it by your mouth hath rendred Oracles to instruct the learned and astonish Doctours In the first season of life which so many other spend in delights you have heightned the lights of your understanding by the labour and industry of study living as certain Plants which bear the figure of Starres all invironed with Thorns It is time that all your Brightnesse change into Fire and since Sciences are but Colours which appeare not in the night-time if Virtue do not illuminate them they must be gilded with the rayes of your good life and enkindled with the ardours of your courage as you very happily have already begun Sir I do assure my self that of all those things you know you will onely approve the good and that of all such as you can you will do none but the just This is it you owe to the King to whom you have the honour to be so near This is it which the education of the most prudent of Fathers and the tender care of the best of mothers exact This is it that France which looketh on you as a Sien of its Lillies wisheth This is it which bloud the mostnoble on Earth breeding the most happy in the world and that face where Grace and Majesty make so sweet a commixion cease not to promise us As there is nothing little in you so we must not endure any thing imperfect and if that which we take to be spots in the Sun be Stars it plainly sheweth us that all must be splendour in your condition and that we must not expect years since the wit of Princes in much swifter then time Your great Vncle who gained the battel of Cerisoles said to those who upbraided him with his youth that he did not cut with his beard but with his sword and I am perswaded that you will imitate his valour to take part in his glory yea even in this your minority wherein the Kings colours being already to fly under your name My Lord remember the throne of the Sun among the Egyptians was supported by Lyons and that you must be all heart to support that of our most Christian King in imitation of the great Prince to whom you ow your Birth For whose sake I wish you as many blessings as Heaven promiseth you esteeming my self most happy to be able to contribute my labours and services to the glory of your education since I have the honour to call my self by just title SIR Your most humble and most affectionate servant in our Lord N. CAUSSIN A TASTE OF THE SEVERALL DISPOSITIONS OF MEN VVhich serves for a Foundation to the Discourse of PASSIONS THE HOLY COURT was not as yet sufficiently beautified with the eminent lustre of Glory wherein I represented it but it was necessary that taking possession of the Empire over passions it should wear a crown which it hath gained by its travell and wrought by its proper virtues In this last Tome dear Reader I present thee the absolute reformation of the soul by eternall principles and the victory over powers which oppose Reason Thou art not ignorant that Angels and bruit beasts are but of one piece the one being wholly Spirit and the other Flesh But Man a middle creature between Angels and bruit beasts participateth both of flesh and Spirit by an admirable tye which in him occasioneth continuall war of Passions which are properly commotions of animall and sensitive nature caused by the imagination of good and evil with some alteration of body They take their origen from two Appetites of which the Concupiscible causeth Love Hatred Desire Aversion Joy and Sadnesse The Irascible causeth Hope Despair Boldnesse Fear and Anger To this ordinary number I add Shamefastnesse Envy Jealousie and Compassion to accomplish our work in all its parts All Passions are generally in all men but all appear not in all There is a certain mixture in nature which is the cause that the worst have something of good and the best something of bad Now note that as the Platonists distinguish five sorts of divels to wit Fiery Airy Aquatick Terrestriall and Subterranean so humane spirits are divided into as many forms which produce merveilous diversities in every nature The Fiery are Spirits of fire whereof some seem to be enkindled with the purest flames of stars which are magnanimous pure vigorous bold intelligent active amiable and munâ—ficent And of this sort are the most illustrious of Kings and of Queens
of Princes and of Princesses good Prelates great and virtuous Ladies the wise the valiant the most notable States-men Generals of Armies Conquerours yea and the Saints most eminet in virtue There are others also Fiery but burnt with the fire of Comets which are maligne counterfeit vicious insolent pievish crosse covetous ambitious cruel arrogant inhumane violent and impetuous Of this matter were composed the Tiberiuses the Herods the Neros and the Domitians who seemed to be born for the desolation of mankind The Airy are likewise of two kinds very different for the one are of a temperate constitution which maketh them mild peaceable pious cordiall sociable gracefull affable courteous pliant witty liberall and active Of this kind are many gentle courteous modest and handsome women men of honour and of quality who make a noble Company and are infinitely apt for all the civilities of a laudable conversation But if they degenerate from this degree they become great caters great scoffers dissolute vain flatterers lascivious and brutish Others like unto stirred air are turbulent stormy cholerick suspitious impatient nice biting undertakers mutable mutinous unquiet murmurers and slanderers It is they who raise quarrels and litigious wranglings in the world who disturb men and affairs wherein they many times are as quick-silver in guildings onely used to make it resolve into smoke Of the Aquaticks some are slow and cold tastelesse without affection without cordiality wedded to their own petty profits and born for themselves Of this rank you see many that make a good shew who resemble those dryed-up or frozen fountains upon a throne of marble which have ostent enough but afford no water Others which like standing and marishy waters are close foul sluggish traiterous and dangerous Others like the sea are ambitious unequal uncertain fantasticall and capricious every moment changing shape in this great Comedy of the world Others are peaceable and usefull as goodly Fountains and great Rivers As for the Terrestriall they are stubborn inflexible dull and stupid of the condition of those people who thought they were at the end of numbers when they had counted to four and could go no further Some in the beginning appear what they are and others have a specious outside which makes them to passe for handsome beasts Sometimes they are loutish cloudy enemies of joy of innocent pleasure of beauty of witty conceits of discourse of inventions slaves of gain and traitours to their own life out of the exorbitancy of their avarice In this number you shall find many like to those which Theophrastus describeth who neither lend fire nor salt to their neighbours who wear hidious habits and cause themselves to be shaven very close that they may be at the lesse cost with their Barber who have Magazines of pedlers and who laden with old keyes walk every day up and down their grounds to see whither they have not changed place Some are like Poulcats others are Fawns and Satyrs who are addicted to base and shamefull lusts captious shifting impudent night-walkers and Hobgoblins who extreamly disturb the repose of humane life if laws armed with force endeavour not to dissipate them to make use of chains to restrain them The Subterraneans are Melancholick close hypocriticall silent fumish sad irreconcileable bloody and venemous They are very apt to hatch revenges long pondred to build labyrinths in their hearts wherein no day light appeareth Neverthelesse as they most times have an impotency in the execution of bad designs so they cherish but not satisfie their passions Yet do these qualitâ—es diversly commix one with another yea the highest with the lowest from whence proceed infinite variations in the spirit of man so that there is not any thing so changeable in totall nature or so hard to be known â—â— man Some seem to be born with good parts but through the want of some help of nature or instruction they degenerate into bad and render themselves very capable of deceits and illusions So many are become Huguenots for that they want vigour of judgement and see not that we rather should referre our selves to a Generall Councell then to their silly arguments Others abuse themselves in spirituall life and would willingly refine devotion even to the talking with Angels and the seeing a white Pidgeon Others to appear strong wits contemn all ordinary guizes make themselves extravagant and as the Antipodes of mankind Others put themselves into the number of confused Scholars who have store of learning but very ill-digested There are some who with much endeavour to seem wise become crafty they converse not but under a mask they set snares in every place they have the talent of plyantnesse They draw tribute out of the good turns they do their friends they make profit of all they become extreamly distrustfull and they would willingly be of that kind of which Theophrastus speaketh who every moment tell their money and make their Lackeys go before them for fear they should run away Others out of too much defire of glory become vain affected in their speech in their actions and in all their proceedings to the studying and learning by heart the slightest complements as do some women whom one would take to be virgins of the Goddesse Memory and such as boast elocution who traffick in hearers and invite to their sermons more then one would to weddings or burials Some out of an intemperance of neatnesse and of dotage upon health torment their life such circumspection use they in their diet their garments their furnitures in all things which are for their use They every where carry their bread and wine along with them and never sit well but in their own chair Others take delight to negottate they alwayes have their hands full of Papers they make a Registers office of their Cabinet they are great Formalists and strangely persecute the world with their punctualities They put one businesse into an hundred dishes and incessantly trouble all such as have to do with them Others desirous to make themselves ouermuch pleasing in their conversation become bablers and ceremonious they are importune and unseasonable in complements they go to prattle with their friends whilest they have a feaver they tell extravagant tales wherein they take themselves to be very facetious although at the latter end of the discourse they be asked where the conceit to be laughed at lies They burthen themselves also with news of no value They make a secret of every thing and give things out for mysteries which are proclaimed with a Trumpet There are some who not to seem flatterers tell truth with an ill grace they are great Censurers and they see not any one whom they reform not from the head to the heel If they put themselves upon matter of doctrine and eloquence they are the Fathers of wits and the creatours of excellent conceits under whom the Empire of learning circumvolveth and if they talk of State-matters of the Church of Justice and of
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
these laws and to break the Knots which God hath tied with his own hands for all the living is a vice which surpasseth all kind of brutishnesse Notwithstanding the evil manners of men corrupt things the most sacred and are the cause that some love their own Bloud farre above God himself and others even furiously persecute them I put likewise in the number of animall-Amities all such as love one another for sport for the Belly and Lust For they have no other scope they do not much better then wanton whelps who cease not to run up and down turn after turn dallying and playing one with another And such as love their wives no otherwise then for pleasure do like the male Crevisse who in his little Cavern hath 〈…〉 the 〈◊〉 of nature many females for whom he fights as for an Empire All this kind of proceeding smells too much of the brute beast nor can it have any merit in heaven The Amities of men are those which are exercised with reason and are ordinarily built upon three foundations Humane Amities and their foundation which Aristotle expresseth in the Treatise he wrote of it which are utility pleasure and morall virtue Utility is now adayes the most common Ciment of worldly Amities and you find few friends who hold it not in much esteem It is that which hath raised Towns Cities and the societie of men That which having raised maintaineth them by mutuall offices rendered one another in the necessities of ordinary life The hand must wash the hand and the finger the finger One contributes his counsel another his industry another his abilities another his pain one his pen another his tongue and another his feet All set themselves awork to do service to Amity I know Philosophers will say that this is somewhat mercenary it notwithstanding preserveth communities and he who would take it out of the world should find almost nothing in it but a meer shadow of Amity Particular Interest is as it were the fift Gospel of Interest the fift Gospel of many Christianity depraved in the minds of many and is the great God of the Time to whom millions of souls do homage Think not that so many busie spirits and men Avaruâ— Evangeliorum irrisor transgressórque perpetuuâ— Climach Grad 16. fervent to make a fortune care much for Idle friends although they were endowed with all the virtues of the Anchorets of the wildernesse They esteem not gods of clay although they had all the curious draughts of Polycletus upon them It is gods of Gold and silver they would have men which may give them whatsoever they desire They carry these dispositions even to Altars and make piety it self mercenary For we see many are little enough moved to hear of the greatest Saints in heaven when a discourse is made of their excellent virtues but if peradventure an extraordinary cure happen thither they runne by heaps and the saint which is the authour of them hath magnificent Altars waited on by many vows offerings Tertull. in lib. ad Natiaver Dâ—i vero qui magis tributaâ—â— magis sancti majestas constituitur in quaestum venditis totam divinitatem non licet eam gratis coli Amities of pleasure Merry jests and Candles It is the poverty of the heart of man to measure all things by proper interest but it is a maxime deep-settled through all Ages in the opinion of the multitude and one may truely say that to him utilitie is the mother of the Gods Others who have a more gentle spirit seek for pleasure in their affections I do not say those pleasures which we have placed in Animall Amities but some worthy recreation as that of the Mathematicks of Eloquence of Poesie of Painting of Musick ingenuous Sports pleasant jests most witty and quaint This hath much predominance upon spirits who love recreative pastime and I think the seven Sages of Greece should they live again would die for hunger in that house where one who can jest with a good grace might make a brave fortune These kind of amities although they may for a time be sweet to sense are subject to change according to the diversitie of Ages seasons humours employments and occasions The best men tie themselves to the honesty of morall Amities grounded upon Honesty virtues and singularly love one who is wise prudent courageous just temperate liberall magnificent weighing all this in the course of a life sutable to Aristotles Philosophy and do please themselves with the familiarity of such a man and are entertained by a Correspondence of manners a delightfull conversation and an affection very sincere but not extraordinary The third sort of Amities which the Pythagorian Amity of Demi-gods calleth of Demi-gods and which we may attribute to the most rare and excellent soul is among such as mutually love one another not for ordinary virtues but for celestiall qualities graces and singular gifts of God and interchangeably love in an extatick manner to wit by a rapture of spirit of heart and affection which causeth all things to be common among them so much as virtue and honesty permitteth Such was the Amity of the first Christians of whom with much wonder the Pagans said Behold how Vide ut invicem se diligant pro alterutro morisint parati Tertull. Apolog they love one another See how ready they are to die each for other and that which the Poets found to be a matter so rare reckoning up some few parts of true friends Christianity made it appear at that time in as many subjects as it had men But at this present the multiplication of persons hath abbreviated the extent of charity That generous spirit which borrowed the golden wings of the dove of the Prophet to fly throughout the world and to sacrifice it self for a neighbour is waxed cold and rests immured within its little house busing it self almost wholly in the preservation of its Individuums From the discourse of these sorts of Amity it is now much more easie to judge of the conditions of a good friend then to meet with the effects of it but if you will follow the way I shall prescribe I will shew you what choice is to be used First I am of Aristotles opinion that Great ones Qualities of a good friend Great men are noâ— ordinarily the best friends to speak according to the ordinary course of life are not very fit for Amities because they love themselves too much and make use of men as of Instruments for their purposes looking after nothing but the establishment of their own greatnesse Besides the licentious life they commonly leade in a fortune which permits them all is the cause that good men love them not unlesse they become as virtuous and magnificent as they are powerfull Which is the cause that being usually encompassed with a multitude of flatterers or of intercessed people who labour to enrich themselves in the mannage of
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
for pretexts to cover their passions some saying It is a touch from heaven and an effect of their Horoscope which cannot be diverted Others Casus in culpam transit Velleius Pater culus complain they are bewitched and that they feel the power of magick Others cast all the blame upon devils who notwithstanding think not so much of them as they may imagine for love comes easily enough from naturall causes without going about to seek for it in the bottome of the Abysse I here remember what Pliny recounteth of one Cresin who manured a piece of ground which yielded him fruit in abundance while Plin. l. 18. c. 16. his neighbours lands were extreamly poor and barren for which cause he was accused to have enchanted them Otherwise said his accuser his inheritance could not raise such a revenue while others stand in so wretched a Condition But he pleading his cause did nothing else but bring forth a lusty daughter of his well Filiam validam bene curatam fed and well bred who took pains in his garden with strong carts and stout oxen vvhich ploughed his land and the vvhole equipage of his Tillage in very good order He then cryed out aloud before the Judges Behold the art magick and charms of Cresin vvilling to shew that we must not seek for hidden and extraordinary causes where ordinary are so evident So in the like case we may say it is a thing most ridiculous Haec sunt veneficia mea Quirites to see a body composed according to nature found and very strong which hath fire in the spirits and bloud in the veins which continually feeds high lies soft and perpetually converseth among women the most handsome to complain of celestiall influences or the sorseries of Venus Totall Nature especially since Interiour causes of love the corruption of sin conspireth to make love It sets Reason to sale if it carefully take not heed and insensibly draweth it to its side There is not almost a stone whereunder some scorpion lyeth not there is not a place where concupiscence spreadeth not out some net for us It fighteth against our selves makes use of our members as of the Instruments of its battels and the Organs of its wiles There is sedition within and warre without and never any repose but by the singular grace of God Tertullian writes the chastity Tertull. de Velandis Continentia majoris ardoris laboratior of men is the more painfull the fervour of concupiscence being the more fiery in their sex and one may justly say that such as persist all their life time in great resistances and notable victories are Martyrs of purity who having passed through fire and water hasten to a place of refreshment We have all one domestick enemy which is our own body that perpetually Rebellion of the flesh S. Climach de castita te grad 15. in fine Quomodo illum vinciam quam ut amem a natura suscepimus Est cooperator hostis adjutator atque adversarias auxiliator simul infidiator c. almost opposeth the dispositions of the spirit If I go about to fetter it saith S. John Climachus it gets out of my hands If I will judge it it grows into favour with me If I intend to punish it it flatters me If I will hate it Nature commandeth me to love it If I will fly from it it saith it is tyed to my soul for the whole time of my life If I will destroy it with one hand I repair it with another Is it too much cherished it the more violently assaults me Is it too much mortified it cannot almost creep watching withers it sleep on the other side fatteneth it whips torment it and dandlings corrupt it By treating it ill I endanger my life by pampering it I incurre death This sheweth how Saints fortified themselves with much precaution diligently observing the condition of Nature the causes of temptations and the maladies of the soul thereby the more successefully to practise the cure They who are most retired said the fore-alledged Authour fail not to feel domestick warres but such as indifferently expose themselves to objects are violently both within and without assaulted The beauty and handsomnesse of one sex is a sweet Beauty imperious Nomen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal 49. Alii reddunt fetam alii pulchâ—it udinem ut sept naginta Interpretes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 poison to the other which entreth in by the eyes and maketh strange havock And I wonder not at all that the Scripture compares it to a Panther a savage and cruel beast which with teeth teareth those she hath amuzed with the mirrour-like spots of her skin drawn to her by the sweet exhalation of her body It is more to be feared said an Ancient then the horns of the Bull the teeth of the Lion the gall of the Aspick yea then fire or flames and the holy Abbot of mount Sinai saith that had not God given woman shamefac'tnesse which is the scabbard wherein this sword is Climach de castreate kept there would be no salvation in the world The love of women caused Sampson's David's and Salomon's shipwracks It hath besotted Sages conquered the strong deceived the prudent corrupted saints humbled the mighty It hath walked on Sceptres The love of women dangerous parched the lawrels of victours thrown trouble into states schisme into Churches corruption among judges fury into arms It hath entered into places which seemed inaccessible but to spirits and lightnings And if beauty be so much to be dreaded when it hath no other companions how dangerous think we is it when it causeth to walk along with it pomp apparell attractives dalliances cunning wires liberty of conversation merriment Good chear Courting Idlenesse Night sollitude familiarity Need we to require any other charms then those to work the ruine of a soul Yet besides these open causes there are other secret ones to be found in the love of humour and fantasie which insensibly fetter a mind and suffer it not to find its chains A modern Authour hath of late written a treatise of the love of inclination wherein he speaks very pertinently of its originall and doth according to his saying Monsiur de la Chambre seem to draw it a second time out of its Chaos To understand his opinion we must presuppose that which S. Thomas saith That totall Nature loveth to present it self in the objects proposed unto it And as they continually proceed from all things coloured images S. Thom. l. 4. contra gentes c 11. The secret attractives of love and figures as it were wholly spirituall which make themselves to be seen as in looking-glasses and are received into the eies to contribute to the effect of sight so every body hath its projections and unperceivable influences as we find in the power of Amber and the Adamant which attract Iron and straw by the expiration they
your self by the practise of retirement of penance of hair-cloth and fasting A holy maid of Alexandria was twelve years in a sepulchre Raderus to free her self from the importunities of concupiscence cannot you be there one hour so much as in thought Another had this stratagem to elude love for she seeing Speculum Anonymi a young man to be very much touched with her love who ceased not to importune her with all the violent pursuits which passion could suggest told him she had made a vow to fast forty dayes with bread and water of which she would discharge her self before she would think of any thing else and asked whether he pleased not to be a Party for the triall of his love which he accepted but in few dayes he was so weakned that he then more thought upon death then love Have not you courage to resist your enemy by the like arms your heart faileth you in all that is generous and you can better tell how to commit a sin then to do penance Then chuse out that which is most necessary and reasonable separation from that body so beloved which by Separation the first remedy its presence is the nourishment of your flames Consider you not that comets which as it is said are fed by vapours of the earth are maintained whilst their mother furnisheth them with food so love which shineth and burns like a false star in the bottome of your heart continually taketh its substance and sustenance from the face which you behold with so much admiration from the conversation which entertains you in an enchanted palace full of chains and charms Believe me unlose this charm stoutly take your felfe off dispute not any longer with your concupiscence fly away cut the cable weigh anchor spread sails set forward go fly Oh how a little care will quickly be passed over Oh how a thousand times will you blesse the hour of this resosolution Look for no more letters regard not pictures no longer preserve favours let all be to preserve your reason Ah! why argue you still with your own thoughts Take me then some Angel some Directour The counsel and assiduity of a good directour is an excellent antidote who is an able intelligent industrious couragious man resign your self wholly up to his advice he will draw you out from these fires of Gomorrha to place you in repose and safety on the mountain of the living God I adde also one advice which I think very essentiall which is infinitely to fear relapses after health and to avoid all that may re-enkindle the flame For Love oft-times resembleth a snake enchanted cast asleep and smothered which upon the first occasions awakeneth and becomes more stronger and more outragious then ever You must not onely fortifie your body against it but your heart for to what purpose is it to be chast in your members and be in thought an adulterer Many stick not to entertain love in their imagination with frequent desires without putting them in execution but they should consider that Love though imaginary makes not an imaginary hell and that for a transitory smoke they purchase an eternall fire § 10. Of Celestiall Amities BUt it is time we leave the giddy fancies of love to behold the beauties and lights of divine Charity which causeth peace in battails conquest in victories life in death admiration on earth and paradise in heaven it self It is a strange thing that this subject the most amiable of all proves somewhat dreadfull to me by the confluence of so many excellent Writers antient and modern who have handled it so worthily since thier riches hath impoverished their successions and their plenty maketh me in some sort to fear sterility They had much furtherance in their design they took as much stuffe as they thought good referring all that to the love of God which is in nature and above nature in grace and beyond grace They have enlarged themselves in great volumes the sight whereof alone seems to have much majesty and to please their own appetites they have said all they might possible But here forasmuch as concemeth my purpose I have reduced my self into contractions of great figures which will not prove troublesome if measures and proportions be therein observed and nothing forgotten of all that which is most essentiall to the matter we treat I find my self very often enforced to confine giants to Myrmecidia opera apud Aelianum the compasse of a ring and to cover ships under the wing of a fly drawing propositions out of a huge masse of thoughts and discourses to conclude them in a little Treatise not suffering sublimity to take ought away of their facility nativenesse of their majesty shadows of their lustre nor superficies of their dimensions Besides that which renders this my discourse the lesse pleasing is that speaking to men of the world I cannot disguise the matter in unknown habits splendid and pompous words conceptions extatick I cannot perswade them that a Seraphin hath penetrated rhe heart of one with a dart of fire and that another hath had his sides broken by the strength of the love of God I must pursue ordinary wayes and teach practises more nearly approching to our humanity I am then resolved to shew there are celestiall Amities which great souls contract with God that their condition is very excellent and most happy and that the practice of them must begin in this world to have a full fruition of them in the other Carnall spirits which onely follow animall wayes have much a-doe to conceive how a man can become passionate in the love of God and think there is no affection but for temporall and visible things It is a Love too high say they to transferre their affections into heaven It is a countrey wherein we have no commerce There comes neither letter nor message thence No ships arrive on that coast It is a world separated from ours by a great Chaos wholly impenetrable That there may be a celestiall amity by the commerce of man with God How would you I love God since he is all spirit and I a body He is Infinite I finite He so High and I so low It is a kind of insolency to go about to think of it Behold how spirits ignorant of heavens mysteries do talk But I maintain upon good grounds that we are made to place our love in the heart of God and that if we do not seasonably take this way well we may go on but never shall we arrive at repose First the Philosopher Plato hath worthily observed An exellent conceit of Plato Plato in Sympos Marlil Ficinus Amor memoria primi ac summi purissuni pulchri Appetitor artis desertor artificis amplectitur speciem eujus non miratur authorem S. Eucherius ep Paraenâ—t that the love we have here below is a remembrance of the first fair sovereign and most pure of all beauties which is
eyes and saw not ears and heard not senses and felt not she was not where she was for she was wholly where her Master was although she knew not where he was She knew no other art but that of love she had unlearnt to fear to hope to rejoyce to be sad all in her turned to love by reason of him whom she loved above all The Angels who descended from heaven to comfort her were to her troublesome nor could she endure them she stood upright near the sepulchre where in the place of death she found her heaven Now as in efficacious plyantnesses are flowers of Liberality love which never bring forth any fruit so it takes a second quality which is to be liberall and much obliging For this cause the hands of the bridegroome according to the Canticles are all of gold and round to shew there is not any thing crooked or rough to stay Cant. 5. 14 Manus ejus tornatiles aureae plenae Hyacinthis alia versio Globi aurei pleni mari his gifts besides they are all filled with pretious stones to figure his benefits unto us Jacinths and Diamonds which he scattereth and bestoweth as liberally as the sand of the sea The Hebrew saith that the same hands are vessels of gold replenished with the sea because love is an Ocean of liberalities which is never exhausted There remains nothing but to be patient which it Patience Pennas habet non pondus Ailredus doth with so much grace that one may say its yoke hath wings not weight The heart of it oft-times is invironed with thorns and it sweareth they are roses It swims in a sea of worm-wood and faith it is sweet water It is covered all over with wounds and protesteth they are Pearls and Rubies It is overwhelmed with affairs and maintains they are recreations It is surcharged with maladies and they are sports with calumnies and they are blessings with death and that is life These three qualities cause twelve very notable effects Twelve effects of love in love which are To love God above all and in comparison of him to despise all To account ones self unhappy if but a very moment diverted from his sweet Ideas To do all that may be and to endure all things impossible to come near him To embellish and adorn our soul to please him To be alwayes corporally present with him as in the Sacrament or spiritually as in prayer To love all which is for him and to hate all which is not for him To desire that he may be declared confessed praised and adored by all the world To entertein all the most sublime thoughts that is possible of his dear person To passe over with sweetnesse all the acerbities suffered in his service To accommodate ones self to all his motions and to receive both sad and joyfull things with his countenance To languish perpetually with the desires to behold him face to face and lastly To serve him without anxiety or expectation of reward These things being so sublime we must not presume to arrive thither at the first dash It is very fit to file and continually to polish our soul by long services and goodly actions to arrive in the end at the happy accomplishment of love For this cause there are reckoned certain degrees by which the soul is led to the pallace of this triumphant Monarch There is a love as yet but young which doth onely begin and hath five degrees within the compasse whereof it dilates it self to passe to a much greater perfection It beginneth first by the taste of the word of God and the sweetnesse it feels by the reading of good books which is a sign that a soul already hath an arrow of true love in the heart This taste maketh a man take good resolutions for the amendment of his manners and order of his life this resolution is followed by a happy penance which bewaileth all the imperfections of the life past with a bitter distaste and a fit satisfaction By this way we proceed to the love of a neighbour and a beginning is made by a tender compassion of his afflictions and a rejoycing at his prosperities Lastly or addicts himself much to many very laudable good works and to the holy exercises of mercy Behold here a most sincere condition and to be wished in many men of honour who may therein persist with great constancy The second order comprehendeth those which are Three orders of true lovers of the World yet more strong and it conteineth five other degrees First they are very assiduous in prayer wherein they are much enlightned with the knowledge of verities and celestiall maximes Secondly they obtain an excellent purity of conscience which they cleanse and polish by an enquiry into their interiour holily curious and perfectly disposed Thirdly they feel the exteriour man much weakned by a generous mortification wherewith concupiscence is quailed Fourthly followeth the vigour of the inward man who finds him self happily enabled to all the functions of the spirit with a certain facility which becometh as it were naturall to him Fifthly appeareth a great observance of the law of God which maketh him apprehend the least atomes of sin through a notable fidelity with which he desires to serve his master In this rank are many good religious who lead a life most accomplished in devotion and in the continuall mortification of senses Lastly in the third order of perfect lovers are the great effects of perfect charity as is not to have any humane and naturall considerations in all ones actions but to tread under foot all respect of flesh and bloud to defend truth Not to stick to earth by any root but to account all things worse then a dunghill to gain Jesus Christ to run before the Crosse and to bear the greatest adversities with a generous patience to love ones enemies to do good to persecutours and in conclusion freely to expose ones life for the salvation of a neighbour To say truly they had need to be persons most heroick to go so far and there is no doubt but this is the full accomplishment of love Notwithstanding nine degrees also are added of Seraphick love which concern Contemplatives which are Nine degrees of Seraphicall love for the contemplative The solitude of a heart throughly purified from all the forms of Creatures Silence in a sublime tranquillity of passions Suspension which is a mean degree between Angell and man Inseparability which adhereth to its welbeloved for an eternity not admitting the least disunion Insatiability which never is satiated with love Indefatigability which endureth all labours without wearinesse Languour which causeth the soul to dissolve and melt on the heart of its beloved Extasie which causeth a destitution of the vegetative and sensitive soul totally to actuate the intellectuall Deiformity which is a degree approching near to beatifick love Then is there made in the soul a deluge of mysterious and adorable
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
too indulgent and another too austere the habit of this pleaseth but the manner of living is distastefull the flesh draweth upon one side and the discipline drives away on the other and her wavering mind can resolve on nothing nor irresolve on nothing but irresolution That admitted and established in this manner I say there are two sorts of Aversion the one whereof is tied to things the other to persons and both of them are of power much to disturb us if we seasonably seek not to give remedy thereto in our most tender years before these dispositions wax old in us and strengthen themselves to our prejudice Now I observe we may find very good remedies out of the consideration of the Divine proceedings of God as I intend to let you see in the sequele of this discourse § 2. The sweetnesses and harmonies of the heart of God shew us the way to cure our Aversions FIrst we see that God loves all things except sinne and hates nothing he hath made Essence Goodnesse The consideration of the love which God bears to his creatures is a powerfull remedy to cure Aversion Diligis omnia quae sunt nihil odisti eorum quae fecisti Sap. 11. 25. Sin corrupteth the goodness of essence in intellectuall creatures Cypr. de Idol vanir à vigore and truth follow one another by necessity of consequence and God hath put nothing into Being which is not in the state of some Goodnesse yea the devils will burn in hell having something good having somewhat of God They have being and substance understanding and will all which considered within the limits of Nature cannot but be good There is nothing but sinne which altereth and depraveth it by the ill usage of it S. Cyprian hath well noted it when hs saith of devils That they were * * * Spiritus insinceri vagi qui posteaquam terrenis immersi vitiis sunt coelesti terrâ—no contagio recesserunt non desinunt perditi perdere spirits impure and sophisticate who having lost their sincerity and heavenly vigour by the contagion of the vices of the earth and who being once lost cease not to ruine men From thence we behold that as in adulterated merchandize and false money there is alwayes some good mixed with the bad so in these unclean spirits there is an Intellectuall nature of it self very good which hath been corrupted by sinne God cannot but love in them all that is his as much as he detesteth all which proceedeth from their rebellion But if there be any thing lovely in creatures so miserable and forsaken which is worthy to entertain the heart of God how can we have an Aversion against so many other things which rest as yet in innocency It is an admirable thing that the heart of God is as God in his Essence accordeth the diversity of all Essences the Father of Harmonies and doth within it self accord things the most opposite For we know all the world in this sovereign being is more beautifull better coloured and more flourishing then it is in it self yet there is no contrariety Water resisteth not fire heat cold drought moisture because it is a Sanctuary of Peace where all diversities conclude in Unity Greek Marvellous Temples where lions were tractable Histories make mention of certain Temples as was that of Adonis wherein lions were tractable that might come to passe from the industry of men and not out of the virtue of the place as Elian the Historian Aelian de animal l. 12. cap. 25. supposeth but here we must say The bosome of God is a true temple of Peace which makes lions familiar with lambs and which uniteth all to it self But to witnesse unto us beside the intention which God hath to dispose us to sympathy hence is it that The sympathies and antipathies which God hath wisely impressed on Essences end in union not satisfied to have united all the parts of the world as those of an Egge he giveth even to creatures insensible certain Bands and dumb Amities which causeth them to seek one after another and to link themselves together by complacence as we see to happen in the load-stone and iron in the amber and the straw whether it be done by a substantiall form which is hidden from us or whether it be by transpiration and effluxion of their substances as the Philopher Empedocles thought and which is more if this sovereign Workman permit Antipathy among creatures he hath reduced all to the good of community since it serves for the conservation of Species which compose the beauty of his Universe So the contrariety between the Lamb and the Wolf is a perfect incitement to the conservation of this creature necessary for humane life Some one may here say that by perswading too How we ought to govern out Aversions Nature necessarily brings with it its sympathies and antipathies Fracast de sympath â—ntipath 1. c. 13. much I perswade nothing for if we admit sympathy for all which God hath created we then must love serpents and poisons we must miserably satisfie our hunger with all impure viands which cannot be done without destroying the principles of nature which necessarily hath its Appetites to good and its Aversions from many things contrary unto it To that I answer we cannot wholly live without Sympathy and Antipathy For we well know that the knowledges of the Senses of the Imagination of the Understanding come to us by the help of Species which represent unto us the quantity figure form habit motion and rest of things but above all the accord and dissonance from whence commonly arise in our soul two affections the one of Dilatation and the other of Restriction For as the soul dilates and spreadeth it self to things which are delightfull to it So it draws back and foldeth it self up at the sight of all is unpleasing to it very well witnessed even in the members of the body which extend or contract themselves according as matters are agreeable or disagreeable to the heart We do not The first motions are for the most part inevitable Senec. l. 2. de Ira. cap. 2. here intend to stifle all the first motions which are not in our power insomuch as they are invincible and inevitable It were to no purpose to make long discourses to a man to exhort him not to have some small quaking in his body when on a sudden cold water is thrown upon him or not to wink with his eyes when a glittering sword is presented as it were to strike him or not to have some dizzinesse in the head by beholding a precipice from a place on high For all that is naturall and may happen to men the most moderate We do not likewise say that we must not flie not One may reasonably fly that which is in any wise hurtfull Nemo enim unquam carnem suam odio habuit sed nutrit sovet eam ficut Christus
who restored his grand-father to his estate and was the honour of his family O good God! A man of the world to speak and do all this for worldly amity to command over himself in all the great aversions of nature to content a friend To act all these admirable prodigies in fight of all the world for the satisfaction of a morall virtue And can it become us to play the nicelings and so much to give way to our aversions to forsake the law of God Nature and our own salvation Will we never understand the saying of Saint Justine That to live according to the propensions of Nature is not to live like a Christian The fifth Treatise Of DELECTATION § 1. That Delectation is the scope of all Nature Its Essence Objects and Differences GOd seemed to have made all things for Delectation since even Creatures which have no God hath made all creatures to have Delectation soul nor reason have a dead Delectation applyed to the place and end for which they were made Had fire sense it would triumph for joy to see it self in an eminent place and a stone would receive contentment to be below the Iron would smile to feel it self enchained by the charms of the Adamant and a straw to behold it self caught by the Amber Now for as much as these things are without judgement all their joy consisteth onely in the cessation of their motion which is done when they are arrived at their proper elements Creatures the most eminent have a sensitive knowledge of things agreeable to them and do infinitely rejoyce in their possession and fruition But man who worketh by more powerfull and exalted engines of reason is created to participate in Joy not by a dead Action but by an understanding and a reasonable fruition And that you may the better conceive wherein the joy of a reall Man consisteth you must know it is composed of four things the first whereof is that to receive one must have an object Four things compose the solid delectation of man pleasing and delightfull which is as the basis of rejoycing and secondly a facultie capable to conceive and know this object which in it self naturally disposeth to Delectation from whence it cometh to passe that a Beast will hear the bravest and best Lutenist in France without any pleasure because it hath not ears to judge of it thence we must go to a third degree which is an affection toward this object otherwise had it all the perfections in the world there is no contentment taken therein from whence it cometh that devils albeit they have a certain presence of the sovereign of all objects which is God and have a certain knowledge of him they cannot find any repose therein because they love him not To conclude the accomplishment of pleasure is the presence possession and fruition of the good which is known to us and which we love For from thence proceedeth a sweetnesse vitall lively and delicious which poureth it self forth into the bottome Why devils love not God whom they know to be so amiable of our souls and diffuseth it self upon our senses as a gentle dew falling on plants See what joy doth if you have never well tryed it which is indeed nought else but a satisfaction of the soul in the enjoying what it loves But now at this present to expresse all the objects and particular causes thereof is a discourse which rather Three sorts of joy extendeth in length then establisheth any solid verity Yet I think one may undertake to affirm there are three sorts of joy some are wholly divine and inspired as those of holy Confessours Virgins and Martyrs who rejoyce in the practice of virtues in austerities and torments others are indifferent partly humane and civill as are the pleasures we take in the beauty and diversitie of naturall things honest amities and sciences in honour and estimation in the successe and prosperity of affairs and in the exercise of great charges Others come from the Base Court and from animall nature as are the pleasures of eating and drinking of feasts of banquets of love of dancing of sports of playes and of jeasting Every one measureth his likings by his own nature Contentments â—â— rather in the will then in pleasing objects and condition and one may truly say that pleasure is not properly in things exteriour but in the interiour of our wills and appetites See we not that all colours have no lustre in the night-time and that necessarily light must awaken and put them in possession of being coloured so all objects in the world are of the same nature they are dumb dead and insensible unlesse the ray of our will reflects on them to actuate them to set them a-work and of them to make matter of our delight If pleasure sprang from the quality of creatures it would be alike in all hearts and never would any thing which is pleasing to one be irksome or distastfull to another but sith we see so many diversities in the contentments of particulars and that one self-same man is sometimes displeased with that he hath most affected we may well say there is some secret in joy which is not derived from any thing else then it self Chiron could not endure to be a feigned God because he daily saw the same things Polycrates was impatient to have Felicity fixed upon him and sought of his own accord to become unfortunate as one glutted with his own happinesse There are a thousand fantasticall tricks in a spirit over-much contented with worldly blessings needs must our appetite in the same tone meet with objects to accomplish our felicity Wherefore it much importeth to habituate it in delight which ariseth from things good and laudable to purchase its joyes at a low rate to have them continually within ones self without begging them from elsewhere which will never happen but by flight from unlawfull lusts and by the application of our minds to things divine For which purpose I will here represent unto you the reproach of evil pleasure that you may adapt your selves to the sources of the delights of God § 2. The Basenesse and Giddinesse of sensuall Voluptuousnesse VVIcked pleasure is an inordinate delight in The essence of this Passion sensuall things proceeding from a soft nice and effeminate soul which adhereth to its flesh and excessively loveth it and which also oft proceedeth from a spirit become cold in the love of God and darkned in the knowldge of the blessings of the other life from bad education and from many vitious habits contracted in youth strange is the dominion of flesh and admirable the sway of pleasures Figure unto your self that you in a Table see that Delubrum voluptatis Isa 13. 21. Edifice which the Prophet Esay calleth The temple of pleasure It is a house of delight where one entrethin by five gates which are all crowned with Roses and carry the badge of youth and
corvetting horseman of the glittering sword and of the lightning lance where we see nothing but death and ruine There is nothing but warres in a passionate spirit the whip of Gods Justice scourgeth the wheel of inconstancy there circumvolveth continually their concupiscence neigheth Pride walks in Triumph anger shooteth its invenomed shafts there virtues are ruined and vices walk in pomp And what pleasure can you have in these tumults and in these nights drawing so near to Hell It is held that pearls have a thick film which darkneth Salmeron in Parab E. vang all their lustre but when they have passed through the entrails of a pigeon which concocteth them by its heat this skin falleth off and they get a radiance infinitely beautious The like happeneth in the matter of a soul troubled with some evil passion it loseth the lustre which is imprinted thereon by the finger of God and fadeth in the obscurity of its concupiscence but if it throw it self into the heart of God which is the holy Ghost it self it tempereth the unrulinesse of passions by his divine ardours and is clothed with the most pleasing lights of the Empyreall Heaven which are the sources of the most innocent delights What a spectacle is it to see a man master over himself who walketh according to the levells of God as the hours by the degrees of the sunne who preferres conscience before riches virtue above honour who will not be knowing but to understand his own ignorance who desireth not to be potent but to do good who of his words maketh decrees of wisdome and of his life a continuall harmony Must we not confesse that he entereth into a fortresse where envy no longer hath a tooth to hurt calumny no serpentine tongue to sting him nor fortune darts to strike him It is not a simple word but an Oracle of the seventy interpreters when they said that a man who hath well mastered his passions is the Physician of his own heart Adde to this victory over passions a good choice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eccl. 30. 2â— ubivulâ—aâ— Exultatiâ— viri est loagaevitas of professions and vocations which are to be exercised in humane life whe ein we necessarily must play some part and have some reasonable employment to entertain our selves otherwise Idlenesse oftentimes becomes the seminary of unquietnesse There are men who be in the world as distlocated bones in the body They have hit ill by the mishap of their choice they are not in the place where the Divine Providence would have them A storm of passion hath peradventure thrust one into a Cloister an infirmity of flesh hath bound another too basely to some poor wedlock those are bands which wisdome cannot break although Imprudence hath many times tied them with its hands we must sweeten them by reason since they vex us by their necessity A heart galled by some ill chance which it knoweth to be incorrigible hath much ado to find any joy it must be created by aâ—t seeing we cannot attain it by good luck It will not be so genuine but perhaps generous enough It is a great mystery in matter of contentment prudently to order the course of ones life and not to put ones self upon bad businesses to be guided rather by Counsel then by passion to dispose his persons and family within limits civilly well rectified neither to make matter for a Comedy of his name nor for a Tragedy of his manners to settle his little fortune in a pure tranquillity not to be offensive nor to have any enemies but such as have proclaimed enmity against Reason Great estates are much more uncapable of contentment then mean they have too great a Train and in the great extent of their appertenances they fall the more often upon all kind of hazards their felicity is a body composed of a million of members multitude burdeneth them and the want but of one afflicteth them We have seen Kings and Princes who could not be merry but by stealing themselves from themselves and by forsaking the ensignes of their dignity to descend to the conversation of more inferiour conditions There are many in the world who are incited by great worldly ambitions but who having met the golden mean habituate themselves in their condition and there to adapt them as Halcyons to their nest They have the dew of Heaven and the fat of the Earth wealth children inheritances houses money health and friends they manure the gifts of God in an assured repose it seemeth contentments are onely made for such men Such is the felicity described by the Poet Martial Wealth which comes by succession not by Martial Epig. â— 10. pains-taking land which affords a good revenew a perpetuall fire no suit no servitude a mind contented a body sound and conveniently strong a prudent simplicity friends sutable domesticks obsequious a Table without art night free from cares and not burthened with wine a bed not sad but chaste sleep which makes the night seem short to desire to be what one is and to reach at no more neither to fear the last day of our life nor to wish it Behold the bounds of humane happinesse which are well enough expressed according to the opinion of the world and such as walk these wayes readily sequester themselves from all disturbances of care and would not in any sort approve the ceremonious customes of the Jews who commonly Cunaeus l. 1 de Rep. Hebr. carryed panniers and Hay along with them in a journey to put them in mind that their ancestours had carried earth and morter in Egypt But yet we must tell you it were to make life too beggerly and too much depending on fortune to think felicity is included within so narrow bounds There needeth but a moment to pull down a nest which a bird hath built with time and pains nor needeth there also but one misfortune to dissipate all the little Oeconomy of humane prudence Learn a good lesson of contentment which shall be not to rejoyce much at vain and mutable things to unloose your self what you may from sense and to fly into the region of Angels therein to find your contentment There is ordinarily much satisfaction in the commerce one hath wirh God in great and worthy actions in good conversations and pure amities in the estimation which proceedeth from virtue in the contemplation of totall Nature therein to find the God of Nature in the last of the maximes and verities of our Religion and if you be of capacity in Eloquence Poetry Painting Musick the Mathematicks in Games which are most spirituall Histories Books meetings of good wits woods and solitudes Discharge your delights as much as you can from matter to approch unto those of Paradise Fix them not on things which are hard to atchieve and easie to be lost practise your spirit to find them in your heart as a good father of a family who ever hath wherewith to live and
to feast his guests in his own house Forget not in the time of fair weather to prevent the stonn of humane accidents and dayly think how you may put your self under covert within your self but which is more into the bosome of God When Gyges his ring was turned towards the world it made him visible to all there present but when he drew it back towards himself he became invisible and impregnable against such as wished him ill If your quality cause you to look towards the world and pompously to propose you to the eyes of beholders remember you must have a Retreat and innocent invisibilities to vindicate your self from the throng of importunacies When you shall have well-grounded the matter of your contentments then neglect not the form and fashion of them Imitate not those who on a sudden drench and drown themselves in pleasure with a voluntary drunkennesse which presently deprives them of all pleasure Distill your joyes like unto a heavenly dew moisten your heart but overflow it not otherwise it is to be feared in such as are of a very soft temper lest the approch of excessive joy may cause a great evaporation of spirit and leave the heart destitute of heat and vigour which caused Zouxes the painter to die laughing as he beheld the rough draught of an old woman which he was a finishing and the Poet Philemon by seeing an Asse that came to eat figs on his Table Howsoever it be distaste sticks to the extremes of the greatest pleasures as Cantharides on the fairest Roses Resemble not those who overflow in their favours who publish their own prosperities and tell them to all the world which raiseth them many envious and maligue spirits who stirre up tempests in their imaginary tranquillity Rejoyce said an antient in your bosome do all the good you practise from morning till night with pleasure and when any misadventure befalleth you ever think it is a great favour from God it went no further and that the divine providence is satisfied with a little hurt Call sometimes to your memory the ill daies and dangers you have escaped by the goodnesse of God that you with the more gust may taste your repose If you be fortunate hold you there and be not like the dog in the Fable who let go his piece of flesh to catch a shadow The foolish Idolaters of Egypt after they had Courted their god Apis in so many studied fashions after they had found him with so much satisfaction after they had received him with so much applause killed him to put another in his place That is it which all senselesse worldly spirits do they disturb their own pleasures and themselves to live to become the conquest of a Chymera of honour or of some pleasing thing which keeps them in a perpetuall famine You are permitted to love the gifts of God to derive a little tribute of contentment out of all creatures to restore it to the Authour to avoid discontented humour spirits troublesome and complaining to please your self with good Company But if you desire to know the mystery of mystenes in pleasure understand you shall never find it but when you shall learn to rejoyce in tribulations out of a desire you have to conform your self to Jesus Christ That is the joy which all the Saints have studied with pain have found with delight and have tasted with glory That is it which Saint Peter calleth The ineffable and the glorified That which S. Jrmes said contained the Exultabitis laetitiâ inenarrabili glorificatâ 1 Pet 1. 8 Omâ—e gaudium Jac. 1. 2. consummation of all comforts That which Saint Paul found in Caverns S. Laurence on the Gridiron S. Katharine on the wheel S. Apolonia in flames Lastly That which cometh from the throne of the Lamb and which with its eternall streams watereth all the plants of Paradise The sixth Treatise Of SADNESSE § 1. It s Description Qualities and the Diversity of those who are turmoiled with this Passion A Wise man said that man entreth into life as The Essence and Image of Sadnesse Cujus initium caecitas obtinet progressum labor dolor exitum error omnia Petrarch de remediis into a Career where in the beginning blindnesse putteth a scarf over his eyes then delivers him over to labour which giveth him a heavie stone to roll all the length of the life labour placeth him in the hands of sorrow and Sadnesse sorrow which properly is a dislike had against objects contrary to its inclination exerciseth him principally in the body Sadnesse which is a passion of the reasonable Appetite that filleth the heart with acerbity by the privation of amiable objects and by the representation of things grievous and opposite to Nature works upon the soul which it incessantly afflicteth Some are slowly wasted by perpetuall languours others are many times seised on with so much violence that they suddenly dye of it as it happened to a son of Gilbert Duke of Montpensier who yielded up the ghost on the Tomb of his father This passion hath for nurse softnesse of spirit seeing a soft soul is ordinarily eaten by anxiety and gnawn by perplexity as iron is consumed by Rust It is seated in Melancholy for the Melancholick are they who most feel the burdens of life the spirit being deprived of alacrity which useth to season things the most bitter Faintnesse and discouragement are ever by its sides to torment it because they are the two passions which dry up the Humidum radicale quench the heate drain the source of spirits and constitute the whole state of its mischief Round about it fly cares discontentments and annoyes since these are its companions and most ordinary enterteinments The heart of it is filled with an infinite number of desires being our discontentments do multiply according to the measure of our desires and that he who desireth nothing quarrels at no body nor is impatient at the burdens which the providence of God layeth on his shoulders It liveth on gall as being nourished by continuall acerbities It looketh back farre off after contentment which flieth from it insomuch as its onely torments consisteth in desiring and not enjoying It beholdeth it self in a pond of standing water because such are the objects of sadnesse which the impatient set before their eyes to stirre up in them many troubled and uncollected fantasies Lastly it is one while little crouching and loutish with a countenance of lead and weeping eyes another while also it is furious enflamed and fietfull to signifie unto us two sorts of impatient men whereof the one silently bites the bridle having no means to come to the end of their pretentions and the other breaks out into extraordinary fury with intention to tear asunder the obstacles which oppose their designs Behold the picture of sadneste drawn out of Philosophy and reason Now I may well adde following the conceits of the wise that I see infinite many in this picture who have
discourses of Philosophers There is question how to help the soul by the body hundred shillings are of more worth then a hundred reasons to a poor wretch who hath need of sustenance and refreshment to solace his pains A little good usage meat apparel a Crosse upon gold or silver remedieth many Crosses of needy people If they to whom God hath given worldly wealth took the pain to imitate so many honourable personages and to accustome themselves to visit the shamefaced poor they would dayly do miracles they would drive away the devils of Melancholy bad humors spectres despairs and maladies they would pull millions of souls out of the hands of their evil fortunes and would be more to men then were the demy-Gods of Antiquity How many herbs simples compositions of physick how many lenitives what powerfull effects of Chyrurgery being well ordered do cure strange infirmities and do pluck one from out of the gates of death But as the cure and easing of the senses is neither present nor efficacious with all the world what should a man do who hath never so little heart but try to cure himself by reason It is it which God hath given unto The comfort derived from reason man instead of so many offensive and defensive armes born with other creatures why should we not use its help It is it which teacheth us that grief is nothing else but an apprehension of division and that Aug. l. 3. de liber at bitr cap 23. Quid est enim aliud dolor nisi quidam sensus divisionis vel corruptionis impatiens as we are out of excesse tyed to all pleasing things in the world so the want of them becomes very sensible in such sort that our Sadnesses ordinarily proceed from our love Experience sufficiently shewing that all such spirits as most are in love with themselves are the most tormented but if we come to lessen thoser geat affections which straightly tie us to conceits and account as lost all which may be lost there is no doubt but we shall begin to find a wholesome medicine for all the afflictions of life A mother greeved for the death of her Amabam misera periturum We most ardently love the things we most lose sonne said in Quintilian That all her evil came from loving too much what she might lose and that our passions are insensibly most ardent for things which must quickly be taken from us as if our grief were to take revenge upon the exorbitancy of our love It is reason that weakneth the opinion of evils which many times torment us more then their effect It which giveth light to things obscure order to confused vigour to languishing and resolution to despair there is nothing for which it finds not a lenitive if poverty make How it remedieth all humane accidents you sad why complain you Ignorant of thy self saith it unto us it is not poverty it is thy fancy which tormenteth thee No man is ever so poor as he is born Hast thou brought gold in thy veins and pearls Poverty in thy entrails that thou complainest of the change of thy condition why dost thou set thy self upon the rack for a thing whereof Jesus made boast and so many wise-men make vows Expect a little Death will make thee as rich as Croesus If thou thinkest thou art poor for that thou hast not what thy covetousnesse desireth it is an Illusion If thou wantest necessaries for life after thou hast lived commodiously and happily it is somewhat pitifull but make thy self a good poor man since God will have thee such suffer a while without murmuring and the divine Providence will not fail to raise for thee the mercy of some rich man to become thy steward Pray be patient endeavour take paines live meanly thou shalt become A suit rich by learning to live contented If a suit be lost what cares what apprehensions what pains what toils are in the same instant lost If it be according to Justice endure it if angainst Justice those who have lost their conscience in making thee lose thy cauie have more cause to be sorry then thou If thou hast lost much in game it is a lesson of wisdome to cure a folly If thou Losse of money hast lost all give thanks to God that thou shalt never lose any more so basely and that thou hast meanes to purchase a little in this occasion If fire and water winds and tempests harpies and theeves take away thy goods what wilt thou do against chance violence and iniquity but preserve submission and innocency The whole masse of worldly wealth is a torrent which swellerh now upon one side and then upon another let that go with patience which thou canst not hold by force If slander assail thy renown and condemne thee perhaps it doth that thou oughtest to do hadst Slander thou more virtues Many by despising themselves have prevented all contempts Tongues cannot hurt thy conscience we stand before God such as we are and all the teeth of calumny take not from us one sole atome of perfection Others have but one tongue to say and thou hast two hands to do Perfect thy life since it hath censures verity will force light through those vapours of maligne spirits derive glory out of thy proper confusion If thou beest discountenanced by great ones put thy self into the good favour of Disgrace God who is above all greatnesse and after thou hast made thy self a slave to men live a while a master over thy self Thou shalt find envy will have consecrated thee and that thy punishments will make a part of thy felicities If thou enterest into sadnesse for being frustrated of some expected good wherefore art thou so earnest in thy desires and so credulous in thy hopes and wherefore makest thou crosses to thy self out of thy own thoughts If it be for the absence Absence of friends of a beloved friend thinkest thou he must continually be tied to thee as if he were a second body It is in absence where our imaginations oftentimes render all that we affect most present we enter into the bottome of our soul and there find the images of our friends despoiled of matter and body we practise the best amities in mind where the envious watch us not the jealous observe us not and the troublesome interrupt not our discourses If this good friend be gone into the other world we every moment run after him and each hour draw near to him Let us be satisfied that his death is the cause that death hath nothing Death terrible for us and that for him we begin to desire what we most fear If we in body must suffer chains imprisonment Bodily pains maladies sharp pains hunger thirst the sword fire and all the hostility of nature we must needs say all which toucheth the skin toucheth us very near and that there are few charming words that can well cast
after so exquisite torments so that in the one and twentieth Psalme which it is thought our Narr abo nomen tuum fratribus meis in medio Ecclesiae laudabo te Apud te laus mea in Ecclesia magna vota meareddam in conspectu timentium cum Psal 21 Saviour wholly recited when he hanged on the Crosse having reckoned up the dolours which invironed him on all sides he raised himself up as the Palme against the weight of his afflictions and said I will declare thy Name to my brethren in the midst of the whole assembly of the faithfull Yea my God all my praise shall be in thee and for thee I will pronounce thy marvels in thine own house and I will offer thee my vows and sacrifices before all those who make profession to honour thee 6. Encouragements to good Hopes ANd will we then in so great light of Examples in so eminent protection of divine Helps resign our selves over to sadnesse and despair among so many accidents of this transitory life Despair onely belongs to hearts gnawn with dull melancholy and to souls extremely in love with themselves and the commodities of the world or to maligne spirits who have lost all the sparks of good conscience or lastly to the damned Why should we deprive our selves of an inestimable treasure of good hopes which the eternall Father hath kept for us in his omnipotency of which the word Incarnate hath assured us on the Crosse with his bloud and the rest of his life Is it not a goodly thing to see people who bear the character of Christianity to lay down the bucklet and to throw away arms at the first approach of some affliction whatsoever to grumble and murmure against God and men to cruciate themselves like Prometheus on the rocks of Caucasus to torment themselves with a thousand imaginary evils Wo to you Apostate and fugitive children Vae filii desertores dicit Dominus ut faceretis consilium non ex me ordiremini telam non per Spiritum meum Isa 30. 1. Chrysost ad Theodorum who have made resolutions without me and who have weaved a web which was not warped by my spirit It is no extraordinary matter said S. Chrysostome to fall in wrestling but to be willing to lie still stretched out at length on the earth It is no dishonour to receive wounds in fight but to neglect them and to let the gangrene through lazinesse to creep in is a folly inexcusable We entred into this life as into a list to wrestle as into a field of battel to fight why are we amazed if God use us as he did his most valourous champions Let us look upon life on all sides and we shalll find it preserved by good Hopes and is totally ruined by Despair Behold men build after ruines and fires see others after they are come all naked from amidst waves rocks frothy rages of the sea gather together in the haven broken planks of their unfortunate vessels to commit their life to an element whose infidelity they know by experience and taste prosperous successe onely by very slight hopes Yet flie they like Eagles into dangers among all the images of death after they therein have been so ill treated When Alexander was ready to enter into the Indies one said unto him Whither wilt thou go Beyond the world where dying Nature is but a dull lump where darknesse robs men of heavens light and the water hath no acquaintance Aliena quid aequo ra remis sacras violamus aquas Divúmque quietas turbamus sedes Eamus inter has sedes Hercules coelum meruit Senec. suasorta 1. with the earth What shall you see but frozen seas prodigious monsters maligne stars and all the powers of life conspiring your death To what purpose is it to hasten to sail over new and unheard of seas Inconsiderately to interrupt the peacefull seat of the Gods But replyed he Let us courageously go on let us discover those forlorn Countreys Thus did great Hercules deserve to win heaven Hope caused Rome to set Armies on foot after the battel of Cannae and France to triumph over the English by the hands of a silly shepherdnesse wherefore will we despair of our salvation sith the mercy of God was never extinguished nor can he cease to be what he is what a thought of a devil is it to deliver ones self over to despair in the sight of a Jesus who beareth our reconciliation on his sacred members and pleadeth our cause before his eternall Fathet with as many mouths as our sins in him have opened wounds Know we not We have a Bishop who cannot but compassionate Non habemus Pontificem qui non possit compati infirmitatibus nostris tentatum per omnia Heb. 4. our infirmities seeing he himself hath pleased to passe through all those trials and to make experience thereof to his own cost and charges It is not the despair of our salvation which tempteth us but that of temporall goods this suit and that money is lost here is the thing which afflicteth this desolate soul and makes it hate its proper life O soul ignorant of the good and evil of thy life It is thy love and not thy despair alone which tormenteth thee Thou then hast fixed thy Beatitude on this gold this silver on thy profit by this suit and thou lookest on it as on a little Divinity Dost thou forget the words Perdix sovit quae non peperit secit divitias non in judicio in dimidio dierum suorum derelinquet eas Jer. 17. 11. of the Prophet Silly partridge thou broodest borrowed eggs thou hast hatched birds which were not thine let them flie sith thou canst not hold them That which thou esteemest a great losse shall be the beginning of thy happinesse thou shalt ever be rich enough if thou learnest to be satisfied with God But this person whom I more dearly loved then my self is dead and all my purposes are ruined by his death wherefore dost thou resolve with thy self to say now he is dead Began he not to die from the day of his birth Must he be looked on as a thing immortall since both thou and he have already received the Sentence of your deaths from your mothers wombs If thou onely grievest for his absence thou wilt quickly be content for thou daily goest on towards him as fast as the Sun which enlightneth us there is not a day which set thee not forward millions of leagues towards thy Tomb. I am content that they bewail the dead who Ruricius S. Hieron Fleant mortuos suos qui spem resurrectionis habere non possunt fleant mortuos suos quos in perpetuum aestimant interiisse in brevi visuri sumus quos dolemus absentes can have no hope of Resurrection they who believe they are dead never to live again Let them bemoan the losse of their friends as long as they will as
be for our advantage There are who escape out of prison by fire others who are faln into precipices very gently and have in the bottome found their liberty others to whom poysons are turned into nutriment others to whom blows of a sword have broken impostumes so true it is that the seeds of good hap are sometimes hidden under the apparances of ill Besides this give your self the leisure to find out the To take things at the worst whole latitude of the evill which strikes you Take if you think good all things at the worst and handle your self as an enemy yet you shall find that this evil is not so bad as it is said that many have gone that way before you and that if God permit it he will give you strength to bear it The fear it self which is the worst of our evils is not so great a torment since it affordeth us precaution industry and fit means and suggesteth us wayes to fear no more If you never have experienced evil you have much to complain that you so little have been a man and if you have some experience of the time past it will much serve you to sweeten the apprehension of the evils to come Vanquish your own conceits as much as you can and pray them not to present unto you under so hideous a mask those pains which women and children have many times laughed at If you in the beginning feel any horrour and the first rebellions of nature lose not courage for Fiducia pallens Statius Theb. Rodericus Toletanus rerum Hisp l. 5. c. 23. all that since the Poet painted Boldnesse with a pale visage We have often seen great Captains as Garcias to quake in the beginning of dangerous battels because their flesh as they said laid hold of their courage and carried the imagination into the most hideous perils Lastly be it how it will be you shall find the remedy of your fears in the presence of that which you fear since there are some who in the irresolution of some affair do endure a thousand evils and so soon as the determination thereof succeedeth though to their prejudice they fell themselves much more lightned Many prisoners who stand on thorns in prison expecting the issue of their triall go very resolute to execution seeing it is better to die once then to live still in the apprehension of death David shook with fear Reg 2. 12. wept and fasted lay on the ground for the sicknesse of his young son But after the death was denounced him he rose up from the earth changed his habit washed and perfumed himself then having worshipped in the house of God he asked for his dinner and first of all comforted Bathsheba upon this accident whereat his houshold-servants were amazed But he taught them we must not afflict our selves for those things whereof there is no remedy I conclude with the last kind of fear which comes from things very extraordinary as are Comets Armies of fire Prodigies in the Heavens and the Air Thunders Lightnings Monsters Inundations Fires Earthquakes Spirits Spectres Devils and Hell Good God! what terrour is there in this miserable life since besides these which are so ordinary with us we must expect other from places so high and so low But howsoever we notwithstanding do find courages which surmount them with the assistance of God although it do not ordinarily happen without some impressions of fear otherwise we must be far engaged in stupidity Comets Eclipses flying fires and so many other Meteors do not now-a-dayes so much affright since we have discovered the causes which is a powerfull proof that ignorance in many occasions makes up a great part of our torments Pericles strook Stratagem of Pericles Polyaenus l. 3. a fire-steel in an assembly of his Captains and Souldiers who were astonished at a thunder and lightning happened in the instant of a battel shewing that what the heavens did was that he was doing before their eyes which marvellously satisfied them Superstition makes a thousand fantasies to be feared whereat we might laugh with a little wisdome The Euseb l. 1. de praeparat Evang. c. 7. Egyptians were half dead when the figure of a huge dragon which sometimes of the year was shewed them did not seem to look well on them and the Romans fell in their Courage when the Cocks which governed their battels did not feed to their liking Hecataeus Hecataeus apud Cunaeum l. 2. de Rep. Hebraeorum an antient Historian telleth that Alexanders whole army stood still to look on a bird from whence the Augur went about to derive some presage which being seen by a Jew named Mosellan he drew an arrow out of his quiver and kill'd it mocking at the Grecians who expected their destiny from a creature which so little knew its own As we laugh at this present at these fopperies so we should entertain with scorn so many dreams and superstitious observations which trouble them enough who make account of them Wild beasts inundation of rivers productions of mountains big with flames sulphur and stonas are other causes of terrour nor hath there ever been seen any more hideous then that which happened these late years in Italy in the last fiering of Mount Vesuvius The burning of Vesuvius in the year 1631. Julius Recupitus which is excellently described by F. Julius Recupitus Then it there can be nothing seen more able to excite terrour unlesse in an instant the bottome of Hell were laid open and all the hideous aspects of the torments of the damned Yet it is a strange thing how among waves of fire which ran on all sides clouds of Ashes which appeared like vast mountains continuall Earthquakes countrebuffs of Hillocks and of houses of Abysses of Gulphs and of Chaoses there were people to be found who yet thought upon their purses and took the way towards their houses to lay hold of their slender substances which makes us see that there is nothing so horrid where the soul of man returned to it self findeth not some leisure to breathe The monsters of the Roman Amphitheatre which in the beginning made the most hardy to quake were in the end despised by women who were hired to combat with them Things not seen which it seems should most trouble the mind because they are most hidden are also in some sort surmounted since we read how that many great Anchorets lay in Church-yards infested with ghosts and spectres and about solitudes in forrests and wildernesses the most retired in the midst of so many illusions of evill spirits as it is written in the Acts of Saint Anthony S. Hilarion and S. Macarius There is nothing but the day of Judgement Hell and the punishments of the damned we should reasonably fear and not out of visionary scruples to free us from all fear § 4. That the Contemplation of the power and Bounty of God ought to take away all our fears BUt if these reason
to save himself in a Region of nothing O poor soul thou fearest the poverty which thy Jesus Resolution against fear hath consecrated in the Crib and in Clouts Thou fearest the reproaches which he hath sanctified in the losse of his reputation thou fearest the dolours which he hath lodged in his virginall flesh thou fearest death which he overcame for thee thou fearest the false opinions of the world And what fearest thou not since thou dreadest fantasies which are lesse then the shadow of an hair There is but one thing which thou fearest not to Nulla metuendi causa nisi ne quod amamus aut adeptum amittamus aut non adipiscamur speratum Aug. q. 33. 83. lose innocency and sanctity which thou exposest to so many liberties and alluring occasions so prodigall thou art of a good which thou hast not O thou welbeloved of God although the most ungratefull to the love of God! wilt not thou dresse thy wounds wilt not thou apply some remedies to those vicious fears which gnaw thee and daily devour thee If thou wilt follow my counsell thy first resolution shall be to regulate the love of thy self not to have so indulgent and passionate a care of all things which concern thee as if thou wert an onely one in the species and that thy death were waited on by the Sepulchre of the world Thy aim should be to unloose thy self as much as thou mayest from so many ties and dependencies which multiply thy slaveries Thou must as it were live here a life of Nabatheans which were people of Arabia who neither planted nor sowed nor Diodor. l. 6. built but by expresse laws flew from delicious and fruitfull Countreys for fear that Riches might subjugate them to Passions the Commands of great ones But if we cannot come to this heighth at least let us have our heart well devested from these ardent affections which we have towards worldly enablements and behold them as one would an inconstant moving of shadows and spirits which glide before our eyes with a swift course and which ever move with the step of time and of the Sun to account as already lost whatsoever may be lost to cast your immortall cares upon an immortall soul and to place it in the first rank of your affections But if naturall love do yet tie us to health to life to honour and to slight pleasures to the preservation of our own person to whom should we entrust all this but to the Divine Providence with whom so many just have deposited their goods their reputation their life their bloud and hove loft nothing by this confidence but have transmitted Qui te tibi committis melius te potest servare qui te potuit antequam esses creare Aug. serm 8. de verbis Apostol their purchases and conquests to the bosome of Eternity In all which happeneth to us let us look towards this eye of God which perpetually beholdeth us this puissant hand of God this amorous direction Let us behold it as our Pole-starre as our flaming pillar as our great intelligence which manageth all the treasures of our life Let us learn to repose us in his bosome to slumber upon his heart to sleep between his arms Upon the first accident which befalleth us let us readily bend our knees in prayer let us adore the ordinances of our sovereign Master Let us behold with a confident countenance all which is happened or may happen Let us say God knoweth all this God permitteth all this God governeth all this He loves me as his creature he wisheth me well as one who hath given himself to him he can free me from this affliction if it be his holy will He is all good to will it he is all potent to do it Nay he is all wise to will and to do all that which is best Let us not meddle with the great current of his Counsels He maketh light in the most dusky nights and havens in the most forlorn shipwracks Were we with him in the shades of death what should we fear being between the arms of life Secondly let us not be corrupted by opinions which invade Nullus est miseriarum modu◠si timetur quantum potest Sence ep 13. us with a great shew of spectres and terrours and make us so often to fear things which are not and which shall never be It is to be too soon miserable to be so before the instant and if we for some time must be so let us consider that all the blessing and evils of the world are not great since they cannot long time be great Let us take away the mask from these fears of Poverty of Sicknesse and above all from humane respects as one would from him who goes about to affright children Why fear we so much such and such accidents which they who are made of no other flesh and bones then we do daily despise The acquaintance with perils hardneth to perils and there is nothing so terrible as the ignorance of reall truths Lastly let us hold for certain that a great part of our tranquillity dependeth upon our conscience Let us settle in Anchora mentis pondu◠timoris S. Gregor it repose by a good Confession let us constantly undertake the fear of God who will cure us of all our fears since the Anchor of the floating understanding is the Honour of the Divinity The tenth Treatise Of BOLDNESSE § 1. The Picture and Essence of it BOldnesse is very well depainted in the bosome of power shewing a heart in its The picture 〈◊〉 Boldness hand all encompassed with spirits and flames its visage is replenished with confidence its habit altogether warlike and countenance undaunted It looketh upon good all invironed with dangers as a Rose among thorns or as the golden fleece among dragons and is no whit amazed but it is on fire to flie through perils and to beat down all obstacles which oppose its conquest Good hap walketh before it by its sides innocency benignity piety strength experience and other good qualities which excite courage The presence thereof dissipateth a thousand petty Fancies which are lost in the obscurity of night not able to endure the sparkling of its eyes All this natively representeth unto us the nature and It s essence condition of Boldnesse which is properly an effect of good hope and a resolution of courage against dangers It is no wonder if Power hold it in its bosome since all the Boldnesse a man hath comes to him from the opinion he conceives to be able enough not to yield to the accidents which may assault him This heart of fire in which so many vigorous spirits sparkle is a token of the bold who commonly have more heat and vivacity from whence it comerh that young-men have herein more advantage then old were it not that they derive more assurance from some other part then from the weaknesse of their age The
had some particular favours from heaven to authorize their actions and to make men believe they had somewhat above man So Moses Joshuah Deborah Gedeon Samson David Solomon and so many others sent by God for the government of his people came with certain characters of his Divinity which gave them an admirable confidence and framed in their souls notable perswasions of their own abilities And it is a thing very remarkable that such as were not in the way of true Religion and who consequently could not have those assistances and singular protections from heaven sought at the least to fortifie themselves with some semblances All which filled Alexander with Boldnesse was that they had perswaded him he was of Divine extraction and that this belief had seized on the souls of the credulous people which was the cause that he was looked on as a man wholly celestiall destinated to the Empire of the world It is thought that Pyrrhus A notable observation of Pyrrhus who imitated him shewed his teeth in great secret to his friends on the upper row whereof the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was engraven and on the lower 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as much as to say He was a King as generous as a lion but that which most made this Elogy good was that these letters were thought to be formed by a Divine hand to give a testimony from heaven of the greatnesse of this Monarch And this being spread among the people it made them to expect prodigious things from him Augustus Cesar who changed the face of the Common-wealth into Empire mounted on the Throne of the Universe by the same means For it is said Adolphus Occo that his father Octavius whilst he sacrificed in a wood having shed a little wine on the Altar there came a flame from it which flew up to heaven whereon the Augur foretold him he should have a son who should Suetonius 9 be Emperour of the world It is added that this Prince being yet very young in his child-hood played Presages of the generosity of Cesar with Eagles and made frogs to cease their croaking by a silly command and that as he entred into Rome after the death of Julius Cesar the Sunne was Dio Ziphilinus in Augusto encompassed with a Rainbowe as a presage of the great Peace he should produce in the Roman Empire Vespatian had never dared to aspire to the Empire Cornel. Tac. histor l. 2. without the favour of presages and namely of that which happened to him on Mount Carmel when sacrificing in the same place and being in a great perplexity of mind what resolution he should make in this affair the Priest bad him to be of good courage and the secret hopes of his heart should have very good successe The world hath not been content to afford Elogies of the City of Rome these favours to men alone but it hath also given it to famous places Rome for good lucks sake was termed among other titles Valence by the name of Valour Solinus l. 1. Gergyrhius and Cephale as much as to say Head to shew it Ammianus l. 15. c. 6. should be the Head of the world Presently also it was flattered with the opinion of its Eternity so that many termed it the Eternall City which was the cause that the Romans in their greatest desolations would never forsake the place It appears out of all this that men having not the power to be ignorant of their own weaknesses never think themselves strong enough if they have not some I know not what of Divinity wherefore we must conclude that the true means to have a generous and solid boldnesse is to be well with God and to tie ones The most bold are such as have a clear conscience self to this most pure spirit by purity of heart for if a little opinion of Divine favour so much encouraged Kings and People what will not the testimony of a good Conscience do The Egyptians amidst so many plagues from heaven Sap. 17. Ipsi ergò sibi tenebris graviores eraut and that dreadfull night which took away their first-born children were dejected and couched low on the earth without any spark of courage because their evill Conscience was more weighty upon them then all their miseries as the Book of Wisdome observeth What assurance can one have in perils when after Carnifiâ—c occulto in authorem sceleris tormenta deserviunt Peleg ad Demetr S. Basil in Isa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he hath committed some crime he feeleth a little Executioner in his heart with pincers and hooks of iron Contrariwise a good Conscience is well compared by S. Basil to that little Kell which environeth the heart and which continually refresheth it with its wholesome waters to signifie unto us that the heart of a good man abides in perpetuall solace which among dangers preserveth it from disturbances I ask you with what assurance stood the good Malchus Hieron in Malcho with his holy wife at the entrance of the lions den when of one side the glittering sword was presented them and on the other they heard those savage beasts to roar and they notwithstanding remained immoveable With what arms but with those which S. Hierome gives them when he saith They were encompassed as Pudicitiae conscientiâ quasi muro septi with a strong wall which they found in the testimony of their innocency whereof they were most certain With what confidence went S. Macarius to lie in the sepulchres of Pagans and wholly fearlesse himself to strike terrour into the spirits of the damned was it not the assurance of his holy life which furnished his heart with all this resolution And shall we then doubt but that the true means to be replenished with a holy Courage is to set the Conscience in good order and to make entire Confession of sinnes to preserve ones self afterward in all possible purity from our infirmities § 5. That Jesus hath given us many Pledges of a sublime Confidence to strengthen our Courage LEt us next contemplate our second Model and consider a thing very remarkable which is that Jesus Christ acquired us Boldnesse by his 〈◊〉 Jesus Christ who putteth us into a holy dread by the consideration of his greatnesse hath acquired us boldnesse by his proper fear These are the words of great S. Leo I have borrowed fear from thee and I S. Leo hom de Pass have furnished thee with my confidence He expresly would admit the agony of Mount Olivet in his sacred Humanity to encourage our pusillanimity that we in mildnesse being Lambs might become Lions by courage and this is the course he hath observed in all his actions in this great contexture of pains and dolours of Christus venit suscipere infirmitates nostras suas nobis conferre virtutes humana quaerere praestare divina accipere injâ—â—ias reddere dignitates quia medicus qui
Ungratefull Base and exorbitant in the excesse of bodily vices especially when those exorbitancies are waited on by shamefull punishments and publick infamy All this is able to confound one who hath any feeling of honour but if shame happen for sinne it must be driven away by virtue nay it is much better to take shame then to be taken by it for the one flyeth the sinne before it be committed and the other blusheth to have committed it There are others to be found who make a little account of grievous sinnes with which they defile their consciences and dishonour their reputation But if there be any blemish or some suspicion concerning the honour of their wife that thrusts them into despair as it happened to Valerius a man of eminent quality who was wounded with the most sensible arrow that ever he received when the Emperour Caligula Seneca de constantia sapientis reproached him at his table and in the presence of many with some very secret defects which he said were on his wives body which was indeed to publish an Adultery and the contempt of a Lord one of his dearest friends and of a man of his own nature fierce enough to take revenge as it happened a while after when the insolencies of this miserable Prince bare him to a violent and a direfull death Let us conclude with a third sort of Shamefac'tnesse which is absolutely bad and blame-worthy when one blusheth for Devotion for Chastity for Temperance and other Virtues which are not accounted of in the souls of Libertines and dissolute people How many are there who to comply with ill company attribute sins to themselves which they never committed and vaunt imaginary vices as if there were no Hell for them but in picture Others had rather be found in an ill place then to be often seen at the feet of a Priest or at the Communion-Table in a time when great spirits accustome not to observe Christian duties They fear lest the reputation of being devout may draw along with it some suspicion of weaknesse they are troubled that nature hath not made them impudent enough to shake off the stings of a good Conscience It is a monstrous shame to betray so good a Mistresse as Virtue and to esteem the services ignominious which are done her They who adulterate metals and potion the sources of lively fountains do lesse ill then such as corrupt the pure lights of the apprehensions we ought to have out of virtue But although it be many times ill to be shamefac'd yet there is not any thing more intolerable then to be impudent for that is it which putteth all vice into authority and all the noblest actions into a base and bad esteem § 3. The excellency of shamefac'dnesse and the uglinesse of Impudency I have alwayes made great account of a Curious note of Clemens Alexandrinus who observeth that at A notable observation of Clemens Alexandr S. Stromat Diospolis a City of Egypt on the gate of a Temple named Pylon were seen five figures To wit of a child of an old man a Hawk a Fish and of a Crocodile A child to signifie Birth an old man to denote death a Hawk to represent the eye of God A fish to be the Hieroglyphick of Hatred and the Crocodile of impudency And this excellent Authour addeth that these five statues onely meant this sentence O you who are born and shall dy Know God hateth impudency Shamefac'dnesse hath been so recommended by all The esteem antiquity had of shamfac'dnesse Vit pudens Antiquity that when one would praise a man of honour by a most speciall title he was called a man of shamefac'dnesse as we see in antient stiles and contrariwise to name a man impudent were to qualifie him with the titles of all vices The Scripture which is admirable in representing to the life the propriety of all things hath not forgotten this For willing in two draughts to give the picture of a bad man in the person of Antiochus it saith An impudent and a crafty king shall rise who shall Consurget Rex impudens facie intelligens propositiones Dan. 8. 23. seek to understand all manner of subtleties And it is a strange thing that going about to set forth a man who was a masse of ordures and bloud it is content to give him for the chief of his titles the term of Impudent in his countenance leaving us from that to conjecture that he had lost shamefac'dnesse the nurce of virtues and the Melissa disc 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Guardian of the Temple of Sanctity To this purpose the learned Melissa in the sixteenth discourse speaks two excellent words The first of all virtues is Innocency and the second Shamefac'dnesse He who hath once lost it hath nothing entire since he hath likewise broken the sacred instrument of all virtues Theophrastus de impudentia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is Conscience Thence we may easily understand that impudency which is no other then a neglect of reputation as Theophrastus a Disciple of Aristotle defineth it is a great evil Should I depaint it I would give it a brow of Brasse What is more impregnable The picture of impudency against blushing I would make it with the eyes of a Frog black and bloudy What is more inflexible to modesty And could I give a voice to my Table I would make the voice of Stentor to resound from its mouth who was the most open-throated of men For what is more filled with outcries or is more tumultuously clamorous I would give it hands of violence and rapine for what is more injurious Wandering feet for what is more straying I would set by its side liberty and hope of impunity which are two disorders that support and foment it Finally it should have all vices waiting on it since he who is not ashamed of doing ill is capeable to produce all manner of monsters I would figure at its seet a Crocodile for it is a creature which from the least of all proportionably becometh the greatest and impudencie which in its beginnings seems in children but a little spark doth in conclusion kindle a huge fire Besides I behold in the region Divers spirits subject to impudency of this unhappy passion divers subjects according to the diversity of age sex and conditions I there see little children to whom Nature hath given a veil of shamefac'dnesse which made their scarlet innocency appear upon the first object of malice And I perceive that Impudency by little and little breaks in upon them some have more of it some lesse but all instantly begin to prattle too freely and indifferently to take liberty by slight mis-becoming actions I see others of them at the age of eighteen and twenty who have shaken off the yoke of parents masters and kindred tearing away even in a moment the scarf of shamefac'dnesse and sucking in the breath of liberty as if they were
gaudium sed Lazarus mortuus est inquir gaudeo propter vos quia non eram ibi An tristitiaâ—â— sed triâ—â—is est anima mea usque ad mortem An excellens observation upon the terming our Saviour a Lambe light of his glory Notwithstanding we must not think he would undergo all sorts of passions especially such as carry in them any uncomely misbeseeming but those he took upon him which were most decent and incident to man If love saith the oracle of Doctours be a humane passion Jesus hath taken it shewing many times tendernesse of affections towards persons of merit as it is said that seeing a young man who had strictly kept the commandments of God from his most innocent years he loved him and had some compassion of him for that he entred not directly into the way of the Gospel being withheld by the love of his riches If fear be accounted among the motions of nature had not he fear and anxiety when he was near unto his passion If you look for joy doth not he say Lazarus is dead but I rejoyce for your sake because by this means the Apostles faith must be confirmed Lastly if sadnesse be the inheritance of our condition hath he not said My soul is heavy to the death But there are other passions which he would never admit as sensuall Love Hatred of a neighbour Envie and Anger As for that which concerneth this last passion it is certain that our Lord was more meek and gentle then all men from whence it came that he would be called the lamb of God by a solemn title and that he in the primitive Church was represented under the same figure as it appeareth in the Christening Font of Constantine where the statue of a Lamb of massie gold poured out the water of Baptisme Never in his greatest sufferings hath he shewed one least spark of anger or impatience but was alwayes calme and peacefull even shewing an incomparable sweetnesse to a naughty servant who had cruelly wronged him at the time of his passion And as for that he did in the matter of buyers and sellers that ought not to be called anger but a servent and vigorous zeal which caused him to punish irreverences committed against his eternall Father Good God! Had we perpetually before our eyes this mirrour of meeknesse we need not seek for any other remedies His aspect would remedy all our anger as the brazen serpent cured the plagues of Israell This sacred fish would cause a Calm wheresoever it rested and the presence of his aspect would banish tempests but since passion so cloudeth our reason let us apply remedies more obvious against the motions of anger §. 5. Politick Remedies to appease such as are Angry ANger being a jealous passion ever grounded upon the opinion of contempt ought to be handled with much industry and dexterity There are some who very soon are cured by joy by the meeting of light-hearted people and by some pleasing and unexpected accident This notably appeared at the Coronation of Philip Augustus where there was a prodigious confluence Rigordus of many people who out of curiosity excessively flocking thither much hindered the Ceremony A certain Captain troubled to see this disorder was desirous to remedy it ceasing not to cry out and thunder with a loud voice to them to be quiet but the earnestnesse of those that thronged had no ears for Thunders which made him being much incensed with anger to throw a cudgell he had in his hand at the heads of such as were the most unruly and this cudgell being not well directed lighted upon three lamps of Chrystall hanging right over the King and Queens heads which breaking the oil abundantly poured down upon them All there present were troubled at an act so temerarious but the pleasure of the fight put off their anger The King with the Queen his wife instead of being offended laughed heartily seeing themselves so throughly besmeared and a Doctour thereupon inferring that it was a good presage and that it signified aboundance of unction both of honours and prosperities which should overflow in their sacred persons they had no power to be angry out of the Imagination of glory which drieth up the root of this passion Verily there is no better a remedy to appease such as are cholerick then to flatter them with honour and submission which likewise was to be seen in that which happened in the person of Carloman He was a virtuous religious man brother of King Pepin who had buried himself in humility Chronicon Cassinense that he might couragiously renounce all the greatnesse whereunto by birth he was called It fell out that being in a Monastery of Italy not discovering himself he begged he might serve in the Kitchin which was granted him But the Cholerick cook seeing him to do somewhat contrary to his liking not contented to use him harshly in words with much indignity strake him But there being not any thing which more vexeth a generous spirit then to see him ill treated whom he most loveth Carlomans companion who was present not remembring himself to be a religious man entereth into a violent anger and suddenly taketh a pestle and throws it at the cooks head to revenge the good father who bare this affront with incredible generosity But so soon as this his companion had declared his extraction and related all which had happened the whole convent fell at his feet who was affronted and begged pardon of him Where were to be seen sundry sorts of passions Some of indignation others of compassion the rest of Reverence But Carloman thought it a thing intolerable to see himself honoured in such a manner whilst his Companion laughed beholding the Cook beaten and the submissions yielded to his Prince There are others who seeing their friends much incensed seign to take their part and seem angry with them saying this wicked fellow must at leisure be chastised to render his punishment the more exemplary Mean while they give time and expect the return of reason and then they perswade the contrary Many also have in apparence pretended fear to flatter the anger of great ones who take pleasure to render themselves awfull in this passion as did Agrippa towards the Emperour Caligula §. 6. Morall Remedies against the same Passion I Will descend into more particulars against the three More particular remedies against the three sorts of anger kinds of choler which we infinuated As for the first which consisteth in that hastinesse and heat of liver that breaks forth in motions somewhat inordinate First I say God is offended to see persons who make profession of a life more pure and whose soul verily is not bad to be perpetually upon the extravagancies of passions unworthy of a well composed spirit Besides it causeth a notable detriment to our repose For by being often angry our gall increaseth as Philosophers observe and the encrease of gall maketh us the more
resembleth the Vulture whom carrions nourish and Greg. Nyss in vita Mosis perfumes kill All the evill it meeteth prepareth a refection of Serpents for its mind and all the good afflicteth it to death Accustome not your self likewise easily to believe those tale-tellers who to gain your good liking by base servitude relate the vices and disasters of the party whom you envie for that much avails to foment your Passion Prosper hath sagely said that the envious are ready to believe all the evils in the world which the Prosper l. 3. de contemplat c. 9. tongue of a complaining spirit telleth them touching the mishaps of such as they hate and if any one by chance not knowing the disease happen to speak good Omne malum quod mendax fama citaverie statim credunt feraliter el qui illud verum non esse probare volucrit contradicunt of them they sufficiently witnesse by their contradiction that they believe not what they say Secondly it is very behooffull incessantly to labour in the mortification of pride and the exorbitant appetite of ones own proper excellency as being the principall root of the passion of Envie as affirmeth the fore-alledged Authour saying that Sathan became envious out of pride and not proud through Envy we must inferre Pride is not the fruit of Envy but Envy a sprout Non superbia fructus invidiae fuit sed invidia de superbiae radice processit Prosper ib. of Pride The ambition you have every where to have the highest place to be in great esteem to possesse a petty sovereignty in all savours necessarily makes you envious and jealous so that one cannot praise any body in your presence but that this commendation instantly seems to tend to the diminution of your reputation Your heart bleeds at it the bloud flieth up into your face nature arms her self to beat back a good office which a charitable tongue would render a person of merit as if it were a great injury and a suit commenced against you It is a sign you deserve little praise since you cannot endure it in another How would you be esteemed since you first of all betray your own reputation shewing your self to be of so weak a judgement Multis abundar virtutibus qui alienas amat Vincen. Bel. 8. 2. l. 4. c. 7. that one cannot speak a good word of another but it ministers matter of an evil thought in you Were you as rich in merits as your mind figureth to you you would no more be moved when a good word is spoken of another then a man infinitely wealthy to give a small piece of coin to a poor creature who were in want I add also a third remedy that many have found to be very efficacious which is to know and much to esteem the gifts that God hath given us to content our selves with what we are and with the state the divine Providence allotteth us without attempting on forreign hopes which would perhaps be great evils unto us S. Chrysologus saith that Envie once shut up Terrestriall Paradise with a sword of fire but I may say it Paradisi nobis amoena flammeo custode seclusit daily stoppeth from us the sources of many contentments which would plentifully moysten all the parts of our life that many would be happy if they could tell how to manure their fortune could content themselves with their own mediocrity and take the felicities which Nature presenteth them without being troubled at others Miserable that they are not knowing how to be happy unlesse another be unhappy unfortunate that they are to forsake Roses which grow in their gardens to hasten to reap thorns in their neighbours Tertullian writeth the Pagans in his time were so Tantinon est bonum quanti est odium Christianorum enraged against the Christians that all their comforts seemed nothing to them in comparison of the pleasure they took to hate and torment them This is the fury which many envious now-a-dayes practise All their prosperities fade all their joyes languish and all their good successes never are accomplished whilst they see those to flourish whom they persecute It grieves them they are what they are that God hath fixed them in a mean condition and that they are not born to be of those great Colosses which shrink and daily fall by the sole burthen of their weight If they knew the black phantasmes of cares which leap on the top of silver pillars and go athwart gilded marbles to find out those pompous lives who most commonly have but the bark of happinesse they would every day a thousand times blesse their condition but this maligne ignorance which sealeth up their eyes makes them complain of all that they should love and causeth them to love all they ought to complain of Lastly to remedy the bitings of Envie you must entertain a spirit of love and correspondence often representing unto your self that a man who loveth none but himself and wholly lives to himself not able to endure the prosperities of another is a piece unlosened from this great universe which altogether bendeth to the unity of our sovereign God who is one in Essence and who gathereth all creatures into the union of his heart What would this jealous man have who is so desperately passionate concerning this creature Doth he not well see that loving so inordinately he takes the course to be no longer loved by her and looseth all he desireth most by the violence of desiring it A woman out of a desire to be beloved would not be tyrannized over She wisheth love not fury fire of Seraphins not of devils These Courtships are offences to her these suspitions injuries these prohibitions rigours these solitudes imprisonments How can she love a man who loves not any but himself who will play a God in the world who will fetter the freedome of creatures which is the will for which God himself hath made neither bands nor chains How can she affect an Argus who observeth her who watcheth her who reckoneth up her words who questeth at her thoughts who prepareth racks of the mind for her in the most innocent pleasures The sole consideration of the ruines and miseries which envie and jealousie do cause to themselves were able to stay these exorbitancies were it once well considered but if these humane reasons seem yet too weak raise your self to divine § 5. Divine Remedies drawn from the Benignity of God O Man Behold for a first remedy among all the Remedy by the consideration of the first modell divine ones thy first modell and contemplate the benignity of God opposed to thy malice It is an excellent thing to consider against an envious eye that God who will reform us to his likenesse doth all the good to the world by simple seeing and by being seen God doth all by seeing and by being seen For by seeing he giveth Essence and grace and by being seen he
carry him in triumph to his throne he thought himself a sleep and in a dream and imagined it so sweet that he in his blindnesse feared the day-light He learned from his son all the successe of this negotiation and the valor us atchievements of the French He knew not what he should believe what he might hope nor what to admire A world of wonders overwhelm his mind and more then ever he bewaileth the losse of his eyes to behold himself bereft of the sight of these incomparable men who seemed to be sent from heaven Finally he saith he is satiated with Empire and worldly greatnesse and that he putteth all his state into the hands of his son His son embraceth him with all unexpressible tendernesse calling him his Lord and Father and protesting he will not intermeddle with any thing of the Empire but the cares whilst he liveth leaving the dignity to his discretion who had given him birth The Father on the other side answered that the piety of his son was more to him then all Empires and that he hereafter should repute himself the happiest man in the world being enlightned by the raies of such virtue in the deprivation of temporall light This was an admirable strife which made it appear that if there be impetuous desires in the Courts of great men there are likewise sometimes to be found moderations which surpasse all mens imagination I am not ignorant Nicetas saith that this affection afterward turned into jealousie but we must note this Authour is passionate against Alexis and his father by reason of the amity he contracted with strangers The French judged it fit that the son should reign by the authority of the father and in respect of his infirmities take the whole government of the State into his hand which he did and all seemed to prosper in his beginnings when after the retreat of ours who had made havock enough in the city out of the liberty of arms rebels stirred who put the whole city into combustion exciting it against the young Emperour and saying that under pretext of Publick good he had called in strangers to the saccage of his Countrey which made him unworthy both of Empire and life The conspiring was so violent that Alexis having no leasure to look about him was betrayed by one of his intimate friends named Mursuflus who pretending to put him into a place of safety threw him into an ugly dungeon where twice having tried to put him to death by poison and seeing his plot succeeded not he out of a horrid basenesse caused him to be strangled Deceitfull Felicities of the world True turrets of Fayeries which are onely in imagination Where shall your allurements prevail from henceforth The poor father hearing the death of his son and the sudden alteration of affairs saith Good God! to what calamity do you reserve my wretched old age I have consummated evils and evils have not yet ended me I am now but a rotten trunk deprived of vigour and the functions of life and if I have any feeling it is onely of my miseries Take this soul which is on my lips and which is over-toiled with worldly Empires and put it in a place where it may no longer fear either hostilities or treasons Ah! Poor son thou art passed away like froth on the water and Fortune did not raise thee within the imaginary Circuit of her Empire but to cast thee down headlong I bewail not my blindnesse it is the happiest of my evils since it bereaves me the aspect of the horrible accidents which by heap passe through my ears Dear Sonne thou hast out-stripped me but I follow thee with a confident pace into the shades of death which shall for me hereafter be the best of lives He gave up the ghost in these anguishes whilst the city of Constantinople was divided by a thousand Factions and turmoiled with fatall convulsions which ministred matter of presage of the change of Empire The people weary of the government of the Angels whose names were Isaac and Alexis had already chosen one called Canabus a man before unknown who was quickly put down by the power and violence of Mursuflus He was a Prince arrogant incontinent and more cunning then prudent who kept not long that Sceptre which he by such wickednesse had usurped For scarcely two moneths and a half were past but that the French returned and besieged Constantinople which the new tyrant had already very well fortified But the Grecians then were so cowardous and affrighted that they made very little resistance and flew before the French and other Westrin and Northem people as before so many Giants Mursuflus as faint-harted in peril as he had been adventurous to commit a treason puts himself upon the sea to flie into Morea but is taken and slain by the divine Vengeance which perpetually hath an armed hand over surious and bloody ambitions The City and Empire of Constantinople yield in the end to the Western power and Baldwin Earl of Flanders is chosen Emperour by the consent of all the army Nicetas a Greek Authour who lived at that time deploreth this change with the Lamentations of Jeremy But it was Gods judgement who would purifie the Eastern Throne defiled by so many wicked actions making a Prince so chast to sit thereon that Nicetas himself is enforced to praise and admire his singular continency as I have observed in my first Treatise Throughout all these Discourse we now see how the desires of the ambitious are chastised and how their hopes being vain their joyes are likewise short and unhappy 7. Historians give most of our Kings this praise that they never had turbulent and troublesome spirits but Moderation of the Kings of France loved Peace and mainteined Justice The History of the Fathers of the West assures us that in the generall combustion of Wars between the French and the English there was a good Hermite named John of Gaunt who ceased not to beseech heaven to quench the fire of these fatall Divisions that he was sent by God to meditate Peace between the two Kings He first went to our Charles the Seventh whom he found infinitly disposed to all the conditions of a good Peace and this gave him occasion to promise him infinite many benedictions from heaven that he should have a Son successour of his Estates to crown his Felicities which happened to him as being a voyce from God and an Oracle of Truth But when the Religious man came to the King of England he would in no sort hearken to him but caused him to be used in a manner unworthy his person which drew the anger of God upon the Kingdome and occasioned him great calamities This subject is so plentifull that I am willing to abbreviate it ambitious desires being so frequent that they have more need to be corrected then sought into Observations upon ANGER and REVENGE BEhold here the Passion from whence sparkles flames and coals proceed which
King he is sufficiently faulty because he is too virtuous They say that Love and Tears are learned without Envy is easily learned at the Court. any master and I may say that there is no great need of studying at the Court to learn Envy and Revenge It is a strange thing that Saul of a simple countrey-fellow should become so malicious and subtil a Courtier as to practise the most refined dissimulations of the Court He had resolved to destroy David and yet conceived that this duel with Goliah had set him in too high an esteem in the opinion of the people and that if he should openly attempt against his life he should bring his own into danger He thought best to bestow on him a chief place in the Army under pretence of honour which might be most subject to the violence of the Philistims believing that his courage would carry him into dangers and that the Philistims being incensed by the death of their countrey-man would no wayes spare him and that by this means his death would be imputed to his Destiny and not to the Envy of Saul But after that he saw that he returned from the manifest dangers with a crowned head with the applause of the people and that he behaved himself within the Kingdom with very great wisdome he began to suspect him more then before he took heed of bestowing great riches on him and married his eldest daughter which he had promised to him to another using him by this means injuriously Nevertheless for that his honour was engaged therein and that one might justly complain of his faithlessnesse he took advice to marry him to his younger which was Michol with very harsh and dangerous conditions making him to buy a thing that was due to him by the death of 200. Philistims conceiving that by so great a number of men and so many fights re-iterated he might be entangled in some mischance or if he should escape that the best that could hap was onely to gain a woman of a costy humour which would be to him but for a reproach and much discontent Behold how mans reasoning doth propound but Humane wisdome overthrown by the power of heaven God which catches the subtil in their devices and overthrows the designs of the malicious to establish his own counsels upon their ruines caused the victories and the marriage of David to succeed to his good content together with the good will and admiration of all the Court Jonathan the eldest son of Saul was so astonished The love of David and Jonathan with his valiant exploits his rare virtues and his incomparable brave carriage that he loved him as his own heart and bereft himself of the most precious things that he had to adorn him withall David likewise swears unto him reciprocally an immortal friendship These two souls to speak according to the phrase of the Scripture were united together with an indissoluble affection Their hearts were two fornaces which continually breathed forth flames of sacred love and might sooner be found without any thoughts then to be without thinking one of the other Their separations were as so many dyings and their meetings again did prevent their paradise The longest dayes were but as a small moment while they lovingly conversed together then they never perceived that the time ran away and they were departed from each other but with promise to visit again as soon as may be Each of them in their absence seemed to it self a wandring soul without habitation and without a body their spirits made wonderful transpirations for to joyn themselves together and talk to each other as in an Idea when Saul hindred their visits Poor Jonathan which was of an incomparable mildnesse The good offices of Jonathan declared to his father as much as he could the Innocency of David and the great services that he had done for the Crown and when he saw his spirit moved against him he was almost ready to die therefore he ceased not to represent to him with horrour of mind the monstrous impiety that it would be to sacrifice such a personage as he which had so often devoted himself for the safety of his Countrey the out-cry of the people and the vengeance of God At other times he dealt with him with sweet and persvvasive language causing him as it were to touch with his fingers the brave carriage and excellencies of David and assuring him that there was not a man in his whole Kingdome which was of a more harmlesse and pleasing a conversation and that it was the joy of his heart and his onely safety to have him alwayes at his side Saul suffered himself to be overcome with these his discourses whether it were indeed that he was perswaded Saul cleared for a while again returns to his evil spirit or whether he feigned himself to be appeased and suffered David whom he had driven farre of to return again near his person But this mad-man upon a day when he played on the Harp in his presence took his launce and endeavoured to strike him through therewith which he dad done if David by his nimblenesse had not avoided that evil blovv and lest that any should charge him vvith this perfidiousnesse he excused it by the distemper of his spirit Jonathan endeavoured yet another time this reconciliation but having been repelled by Saul by pricking words and vvith threatnings to kill him if he did not give over this his frienship with David he saw clearly that there was no more safety for his friend and gave him the counsel which was for himself the sharpest of all causing him to retire David goes from the Court and makes a sad departure from his friend for to avoid the unmercifull fury of his father These two dear souls on the day of this sad departure were pierced with a thousand darts of grief and were a thousand times upon their eyes and lips for to fly from thence and to mingle themselves one with the other The time past caused them to remember that which they had lost the present that which they were to lose and that to come was unto them a bottomlesse pit of terrour and affrightment They apprehended the one for the other as many dangers as there are upon the earth and sea and they could not promise themselves any thing but dayes without comforts and nights full of terrible dreams and torments They poured out so many tears and fetched so many sighs having no other eloquence but that of their hearts mutually wounded in their lodging that it was a thing vvorthy of compassion even of Saul himself This mad-man seeing that he vvas escaped out of David is pursued and escapes his bloudy hands vvould have caused him to be taken and sent forth souldiers for to bring him back But his vvife Michol having descryed the evil intent of her father advertised her husband of it and made him depart suddenly in the deep silence of
all the miserable betook themselves unto him unto the number of 400. men which entrenched themselves in a fortresse going forth every day for to rob to maintain themselves thereby In the midst of all these misfortunes the good Prince kept alwayes in his heart a true love of his countrey and knowing that the Philistims had laid siege before Keilah he failed not to go to help it and to deliver it although this ungratefull city was intened to deliver him to Saul if he had enclosed himself therein the which he would not do having consulted with the Oracle of God but retired himself to the desert of Ziph whither Jonathan that The visit of Jonathan secret and and very profitable to David burned with a great desire to see him came to find him secretly and they were for some time together with unspeakable expansions of heart This good friend comforted him and assured him that he should be King after his father and for himself he would be content to be his second which sufficiently witnessed the wonderfull modesty of this Prince and the incomparable love that he bore to David But the Ziphims men for the time that would provide for their own safety sent their deputies to Saul to advertise him that David was retired into their quarters and if it pleased him to follow him they would deliver him into his hands At the which Saul was exceeding joyful and entred the chase to entrap him compassing him on every side and hunting him like a poor deer chased by men and dogs with great out cries The danger was very manifest and David in great hazard to be taken had it not been for a happy message it may be procured by Jonathan that advertised Saul that the Philistims had taken the field and made great waste upon his lands at which he returned to bring remedy thereto deferring his former design till another occasion In the mean while David ran from desert to desert The rudenesse of Nabal towards David with his troops and was hardly able to live which made him have recourse to Nabal a rich man and that had great means entreating him for some courtesie for to maintain his people which had used him with very great respect defending his house his flocks and all his family against the spoilings of robbers This Nabal that was clownish and covetous answered the deputies of David that he knew not the son of Jesse but that he was not ignorant that there were evil servants enough which were fled from their masters and that he was not in case to take the bread from his hired servants for to give it to high-way men This word being told to David incensed him so much that he was going to set upon his house for to rob and sack it But Abagail the The wisdome of Abigail his wife wife of Nabal better behaved and wiser without busying her self to discourse with her husband that was a fool and drunk caused presently mules to be loaden with provision necessary for the men of war and went to meet David to whom she spake with so great wisdome comelinesse and humility that she turned away the tempest and stayed the swords already drawn out of the scabbards for to make a great slaughter in her house David admiring the wisdom and goodnesse of this spirit of the woman married her after the death of her husband It is so true that a good deed bestowed on a high A good deed done to a great one afflicted is of much value person in time of his affliction and when he hath most leasure to consider it is a seed-sowing which in its time brings forth and bears fruits of blessednesse After that Saul had driven back the Philistims he returns to the pursuit of David accompanied with three thousand men with a purpose to take him although he should hide himself under ground or should fly through the air And indeed he crept up rocks unaccessible David furiously pursued by Saul which were not frequented by any but by wild goats and as he passed that way he entred into a cave for some naturall necessity where David was hid with a small number of his faithfullest servants which failed not to tell him that this was the hand of God which had this day delivered his deadly enemy into his hands and that he should not now lose time but to cut him off quickly whilst that he gave him so fair play and this would be the means to end all those bitternesses wherewith his life was filled by the rage of this barbarous Persecutour This was a strong temptation to a man so violently His generousnesse in pardoning his enemy very admirable persecuted and whose life was sought by so many outrages Neverthelesse David stopping all those motions of revenge resolved in his heart by a strong inspiration of God never to lay his hands upon him which was consecrated King and contenting himself with cutting off the skirts of his coat he went out of the cave after Saul and crying with a loud voice he worshipped him prostrate on the earth holding in his hand the piece of his casock and saying to him Behold my Lord my Father and my King the innocence of my hands and do not believe them any more which filled you with suspicions of poor David you cannot be ignorant at this time that God hath put you into my power and that I could have handled you ill by taking away your life have saved mine own But God hath kept me by his holy grace from this thought and hath preserved you from all evil I never yet had any intent to hurt your Majesty having alwayes reverenced and served it as your most humble servant and subject whiles that you cease not to pesecute me and to torment my poor life with a thousand afflictions Alas my Lord what is it that you desire Against whom are you come forth with so great furniture of Arms and Horses against a poor dead Dog a miserable little beast I beseech the living God to judge between us two and to make you to know the goodnesse of my cause One may avouch that great and glorious actions The greatnesse and benefit of clemency of Clemency do never hurt Princes but that often they do place or keep the Crown upon their heads God and Men concurring to favour that goodnesse that approches so near to the highest Saul was so amazed with this action that he ran to him and embraced him weeping and said to him This is a sure sign O David which I acknowledge at the present and whereby I know for certain that you must reign after me so great a goodnesse not being able to be rewarded but by an Empire I do pray and conjure you onely to have pity on my poor children after my death and not to revenge your injuries upon them hereupon he swore to him to deal with him afterwards peaceably But as this spirit was unequall
labours very advisedly to reconcile the son to His reconciliation by the means of Joab the father by the mediation of a very discreet woman of Tecoah which came with a counterfeit pretence and complained to the King that she being mother of two sons the one in a hot quarrel had slain his brother and that they would constrain her to deliver up the other to justice that processe might be maid against him to the end to extinguish all her race And therefore she entreated his Majesty to be gracious to save her son that remained and not wholly to deprive her of all comfort in the world The which David having agreed to she declared to him that he ought to practice the same towards his own son which he would have done for one of his subjects that we were all mortall and that we passe away here below as the current of a stream that we should imitate the goodnesse of God which loves our souls and would not that they should perish As this woman spoke with so much discretion David was in doubt that Joab had instructed her and made her under-hand to act this fine play the which she affirmed and so much gained the heart of David that he gave full permission to Joab to fetch back the banished to his house although it was for the space of two years without seeing him Absolon grew so melancholick by his being so far from the court without seeing the king his father that having oftentimes sent to Joab to put an end to his businesse seeing that he would not come to him for friendship he caused his corn to be set on fire to make him come for anger for the which he excused himself and entreated him to ask of David in his behalf either that he might dye or that he might have leave to see him This good father could no longer dissemble the movings Absolons revolt of nature but having sent for him he embraced him and gave the kisse of peace and re-establishes him in the court The spirit of this Prince was lofty tempestuous movable which could not contain it self any longer within the bounds of obedience For the space of the five years of his removall from the court he had leisure enough to bite the bridle and as it is credible he had projected already the design of reigning his ambition seemed to him sufficiently well founded Amnon his eldest brother was dead Celeab the son of Abigail the second of his brethren made no great noise he saw himself underpropt on his mothers side by the King of Gesher his grand-father This was a Prince well made upright pleasing courteous liberall secret courageous and capable of great undertakeings He saw his father upon the declining of his age who had lost very much of that vigour testified so many times in his battels Adonija was too much a fondling and Solomon yet a childe and not able to His designs oppose him He conceived that the Empire could not slipp out of his hands And indeed there was great hopes for him if he had had so much patience to stay for it as desire to command He made too soon to appear what was in his mind causing himself to be encompassed when he marched forth with souldiers and a guard which was a sign of Royalty Further also he ceased not to gain the hearts and secretly to get the good will of all his fathers subjects He was up betimes in the morning and set himself at the entrance of the Palace to take His ambition notice of all those that had any businesse to propound to the King One never saw Prince more prodigall in courtesies he call'd them to him he embraced them he kissed them he enquired of their countrey of their condition of their suit and of that their negotiation He did justice to all the world and said that there was no other mishap but that the King was old and tyred with businesses and had not a man to hear the complaints of his subjects and to render them justice and that if one day he had the charge which his birth deserved he would give full satisfaction to every one By this meanes he made himself conquerour of hearts and traced out great intelligence throughout the Provinces guiding himself by the counsels of Achitophel who was the most refined spirit the best dissembler and most pernicious that was in the whole Kingdome David did not sufficiently watch over the actions of his sonne and the secret workings of this evil Counsellour the evil increased and their party was already framed Absolon asketh leave of the King his father to go to Hebron under pretence of performing a vow but with an intent to proclaim himself King That which he desired was granted to him he marches under this coverture with a train and splendour carrying many people with him and Sacrifices to offer He gives order in the mean while to all his confederates that at the first sound of the Trumpet they should march forth into the field to go to meet him and to bring him all the Troops that they could gather together All this was readily performed and without further Absolon caused himself to be proclaimed King dissimulation he declared himself and caused himself to be crowned in Hebron the news came quickly to David which brought him word that his son Absolon was revolted against him and had got possession of Hebron and that all the forces of the Kingdome run to him Here one may see a great example of the judgement A great example of the weaknesse of mans spirit when it is left by God of God of the weaknesse of a man left to himself as also the beams of an high and profound humility To speak according to man all that David did in this encounter of affairs was low and feeble He might have taken the field with the Regiments which he had which amounted at least to six or seven thousand men and have unwoven this web of conspiracy at its springing forth And if he had not perceived himself strong enough he had sufficient means to maintein himself in Jerusalem to entrench and fortifie himself there and to tyre out those spirits of his Rebels He might have enterteined him with good hopes promises and treaties and have cooled this first heat by rallying by little and little the affections of his subjects to his own party And if he had conceived his affairs to be in ill plight he should have been the last that had taken notice of it after the manner of those great Captains which carry hope in their faces even then when they have despair in their heart to keep together their Troopes in their duty But this poor Prince at the newes of this rebellion talked of nothing but flying and leaving his chief City and saving himself in the by-paths of the wildernesses he is the first that goes forth without a horse to ride on on his bare
forasmuch as he was most Catholick and that they feared lest the Chamberlain and his favourite held yet some of the leven of Anastasius that was an Heretick The Cow-herd being then set upon the Throne of Constantine Amantius that had merchandized the Empire seeing himself so shamefully faln from his pretensions plotted a mischievous conspiracy against the new Emperour but he succeeded in it so ill that his design being discovered he lost his life together with his complices after he had lost his honour and his money Justin that was endowed with a great goodnesse did not grow proud and scornful when he was arrived to the top of honours but having married a woman very mean in her first condition he caused her suddenly to be crowned Empresse changing her salvage name of Lupicia into Euphenica He consecrated the beginning of his reign by the return of the Bishops and of all the honest men which he caus'd to be call'd back from the exile to which the Heretick Emperour had condemn'd them He caus'd Religion to flourish again on all sides and express'd a most ardent zeal to render justice to his people without sparing himself in the toyles of war though he was already very aged He enjoy'd the Empire eight or nine years and being a man extreamly humble he lov'd his kindred though of base condition and seeing he had no children of his own he chose his sisters son to make him his Successour and gave him even the Crown before he quitted the Sceptre and the world after a reign of nine years Behold the originall of our Justinian of whom Histories speak very diversly seeing that the admirers of his actions give him high commendations and the enviers of his great fortune who might perhaps have experimented the effects of his severity have scatter'd imputations on him in their reviling Histories that have pass'd even to this age But the most understanding men having well examin'd every thing put him in the rank of the most illustrious Monarchs of all Christendome And indeed it is a wonder how a spirit extracted from the life and condition of a Shepherds took so high a flight in the Temple of glory that having taken in hand all the great designs that may fall into the spirit of a Monarch he prospered in all with a merveilous successe He maintein'd his dignity against the most horrible conspiracies that ever set upon an Empire in the revolution of so many Kingdomes He made wars in Asia in Europe and in Africa which he ended by most eminent victories He recovered Africa out of the hands of the Vandals he powerfully pluck'd the Capitall City of the World out of the tyranny of the Gothes he publish'd eternall Books he erected buildings that remain yet after they have passed more then ten ages He encountred the greatest Captains and the most able States-men that have been ever in the world in the person of Bellisarius and Tribonian And although that when he took the government of the Empire he was five and fourty years of age yet he reigned thirty nine years God crowning all his good actions with a long continuance which serves infinitely for the accomplishment of all great designs I will tell you in few words his Nature and his Manners before I come to his deeds of valour according to the most true relation that I have been able to extract out of Histories without passion and not according to the Idea's of Procopius who hath horribly difigur'd him by a manifest hatred in his railing History This Prince was a man that feared God and firm in the faith of Christianity and although he was at certain times surpriz'd with some errours by the artifices of his wife the Empresse yet the Learned men of the West and Pastours of the East that have so highly praised him after his death testifie sufficiently that his spirit was purged of all the wicked beliefs that his Doctours had endeavoured to infuse into his soul and which he had approved by an excesse of a too credulove zeal Hereticks and Libertines were the object of his hatred and his choler but good Churchmen caus'd in his soul a certain veneration and he studied by all wayes to assist and protect the Churches and the Hospitalls his Liberalities were extended every where in works of piety by great buildings and magnificent alms He was most chast contenting himself all his life with her that God had given him for a companion and his most violent enemies have not been able to tell us one onely womans name that hath possessed his heart to the prejucice of his Bed He could not endure wantonnesse and especially that that brings a shame to nature which he chastised with most rigorous punishments He detested and punished by his laws all those that laid snares to the modesty of Virgins and of Women to corrupt them His manner of life was extream austere and Procopius himself the most cruell of his revilers acknowledges that he was most sober and that he would cause the table to be taken away when he had scarce touched the victuals seeking nothing exquisite therein but denying oftentimes to nature even her necessities He hath seen him he sayes fast the Lents with such an austerity that the devoutest of all his people could not reach it for he would be eight and fourty hours without eating or drinking and at the end of that he drank nothing but water contenting himself with a little bread and a sallade yet he was endowed with a body so well composed and so happily temper'd that after his long abstinencies he appear'd yet ruddy from whence it came that that Calumniatour instead of acknowledging the blessing that God gives in this extraordinarily to some of his servants said That he was a Devil and not a Man Further yet he slept very little and the same man adds that often an hours repose suffised him and that he bewailed the time that he allowed his body He made long prayers night and day and employed the rest of his time in his affairs without admitting any other recreation Those that have publish'd that he could neither write nor reade have abus'd the belief of men taking the name of Justinian for that of his Uncle Justine for the Historian his persecutour confesses that he wrote his Breviats and all his dispatches without troubling his Secretaries He was of a most easie accesse to all the world and was not offended at the importunities no nor at the incivilities that those that were ignorant of the fashions of the Court committed in his presence He heard willingly the differences of his people and he himself pronounced the sentence to determine them his patience was extream he never was mov'd in handling any businesses and decreed even the most rigourous punishments with a cold visage and a tone of a moderated voyce He was a true observer of order who manag'd in his closet with incomparable justice what ere should be produc'd in the whole
heretofore found and pillaged in Rome were sent back again to the Place from whence they had been transported by Titus Vespatian This warre was finished in three moneths with an Army of six thousand men so easie it is to row when God conducts the vessell But that of the West was very long in its continuance Obstinate in its Resistance Malignant in its Designes and Lamentable in its Effects Theodoric King of the Goths as I have said in the life of Boetius had made himself Master of Rome and of all Italy where he reigned with great authority He left for Successour Athanaric sonne of his daughter Amalazunta at that time but nine years old under the Protection of his Mother She was the most accomplish'd Princesse of her age and most worthy to govern an Empire Neverthelesse since she saw her self invironed with those Goth Princes that were of an humour sufficiently cruell and that did not easily brook her domination She honoured with her confidence Theodate one of the principall of them because he was of the blood Royall and appeared the most moderate of all the rest playing rather the Philosopher then the Captain This ungratefull man after the death of the little Athanaric who was not of a long life was moved with so furious a State-jealousie that by the basest of Treasons he caused that poor Princesse to be strangled in a Bath fearing lest she as being farre more able then he in the managing of affairs and he holding the Sceptre onely by her favour might take too great a share in the Government But this unnaturall man that thought to settle his Crown by the death of that innocent Queen totally ruin'd his affairs and could not avoid the vengeance of God that pursues Traytours even to the gates of hell The Emperour Justinian that had already projected to recover his City of Rome and all Italy out of the hand of the Goths hearing the rehearsall of that horrible basenesse committed against the person of Amalazunta that had sought Alliance with him failed not to take the occasion and to declare a warre against Theodate thinking that it was then a good time to set upon an Empire when he that governs it begins to be forsaken of God for the enormity of his Crimes This cowardly King was so much astonished at this news that at first he humbled himself by very great submissions offering the Sovereignty to the Emperour of the East and contenting himself to reign under him But the other seeing him so wicked and so weak despised him and caused Belizarius to advance with his Army into his Territories who suddenly possessed himself of Sicily Theodate although an Arrian Heretick had recourse to the Pope and invited him as well by Intreaties as by Menaces to make a Voyage to Constantinople to Treat a Peace between the two Crowns Agapetus who was then seated on Saint Peters Chair was so Poor and Indigent that he had not wherewith to furnish himself with Provision for the Journey that he was fain to pawn the Sacred Vessels of Saint Peters Church to bear his charges by the way He failed not to transport himself into the East and was received by Justinian with all the respects due to so high a Dignity but when he came to touch upon the point of Peace the Emperour told him That the businesse was already too farre advanced That that Warre was an Holy Warre against the Enemies of God and his Church which ought not to be hindered by the Counsells of a Pope and that he need fear nothing that Theodate could do who was more able to threated then to hurt The Pope suffered himself easily to be perswaded and quitting the Interests of that King busied himself about the Government of his Church It is a wonder that he had so much Authority as to depose Anthimus Patriarch of Constantinople who had been brought in by Faction and to substitute Menas in his Place in spight of the Empresse Theodora who had not at that time all the power that is attributed to her over the spirit of her Husband The Good Shepheard after he had Courageously done the duty of his Charge dyed in Constantinople where he left a most sweet odour of his sanctity In the mean while Belizarius pursues the Conquest enters into Pou and takes Naples by night using a Stratagem of Warre that made him put on three hundred men through subterraneous places where there passed nothing but water The taking of so flourishing a City gave astonishment and rage to the Goths who Conspired against their King Theodate and substituted by Election Vitiges in his place who was not of so Noble a Family but who seemed to them Bold and Generous to repair the Ruines of the State As soon as he was chosen he suddenly caused Theodate to be slain who was surprised in his flight and washed away by his blood the murther of Amalazunta This Prince was agitated with two contrary Passions with the desire of solitude and with the motion of his ambition the one counselled him to quit the Empire the other to retain it while that he would content them both he contents no body and was surprised in his irresolution In this conjuncture of affairs the Grecian Generall advances and marches straight to Rome which receives him with open Arms some through love and others through impotence Vitiges desirous to make his Crown renowned by some illustrious Act and to confirm by his Valour the judgement of those that had chosen him assembles from all parts the Goths spurring them on both with the Glory of their Nation and the necessity of their affairs in such a manner that in a small time he lay siege to Rome with an Army of an hundred and fifty thousand men It is in this occasion that the Valour of Belizarius was made visible in all its advantages for with an Army of six thousand men he susteined that prodigious number of Barbarians amidst sicknesse hunger and a thousand other incommodities and when the Romans wanted Arms and Ammunitions of Warre he made Arrowes of the Statues of the Gods and of the Cesars to throw at the head of his enemies In the end having sollicited with diligence and expected with constancy the succours that came to him from the East he raised the siege and scattered all that thick Cloud of Armies that environed him Vitiges is constrained to retire into Ravenna where he besieges him and presses him so strictly that he forces him to deliver to him his City and even his own Person He was carried away Prisoner with his Wife and abundance of Lords to Constantinople presented to Justinian and served for a Pompous object in the Triumph of Belizarius who was received with the full satisfaction of all the Nobles with the admiration of the wisest and with the generall acclamation of all the World The Emperour alone began to be pricked with jealousie and to entertein him with coldnesse In the mean space the Goths make
Elections of two Kings one after the other who lived but a while and did nothing but the third named Totilas was endowed with so eminent and lovely qualities that he raised up all their hopes and his coming to the Crown of the Gothes was as the infusion of a new soul into a dead body He puts himself suddenly into the field with all that he could rally of the wrack of Vitiges and at first he was so happy that he defeated Bessa and Vitalius The two Generals of Justinian left by Belizarius for the Guard of all the Countrey of Italy After that he took Spoletum dismantled Beneventum planted a Siege before Naples and wan it by valour and by patience But besides he shewed so many proofs of his Moderation and of his Goodnesse toward the Conquered that with all their hearts they wished for nothing more then his Government He gave great order for the comfort of the people that were at that time oppressed with a cruell famine he provided for the security of the Goods of his Subjects chastising rigorously the thieveries of the Souldiers he preserved the modesty of Women and Maids with so much severity that he caused his Generall to be beheaded for having violated a Gentlewoman By these so commendable wayes he rendered himself Master of all Pou and from thence transported himself to Rome which he held a long time besieged and which was at last delivered to him by the treachery of a Court of Guard of Isaurian and Cilician Souldiers He used his Victory with so much clemency that he caused to be proclaimed that the Churches should serve for a Sanctuary forbidding expresly to touch those that should retire themselves thither He used the Pope Pelagius and all the sacred persons with great respect the Ladies with Honour the Citizens with Courtesie contenting himself onely to demolish the Walls of Rome without hurting any thing within He rendered himself so absolute a Master of the City and peoples hearts that every one confessed they had never seen the like and published him worthy of the Empire of the World The Emperour Justinian fortifies his Courage a-against this ebb of bad successes and with draws Belizarius from the warre with the Persians to send him back to Italy believing that all the happinesse of his Arms subsisted wholly in his hands But it seems that Felicity was weary to follow alwayes the Standarts of that valourous Captain the affairs of Warre quite changed their face all good Successes now are onely for the Goths and misfortune seemed to be fastned to all the enterprises of the Romans Belizarius was as a man forlorn in the hands of an evil destiny that darkened his Prudence froze his Courage weakned the strength of his Arms and made him unprofitable to all things so that hee seemed to have passed back into Italy for nothing but to be the spectatour of his own disasters At last he was called home again and Narses the Eunuch was sent in his place who mended the businesse and defeated Totilas in a pitched Battell who dyed suddenly of his wounds Providence if it be permitted here to lift up the veil and to enter into your secrets whence could this change proceed We know that Belizarius was the most accomplished of all the Generals of Armies that were at that time under Heaven He was endowed with a lively and luminous spirit with an inventive understanding with a profound judgement that had nothing like it but his Courage Providence for the future and Activenesse for the present contended in him which should carry away the Palm his Valour was incomparable and his Experience compleat in all sorts of businesse his Prosperity without Insolence and his Adversity without Discouragement He was Prudent Sober Chaste even to a wonder Affable Gracious Liberall Charitable Just Mercifull Happy Not onely the Souldiers respected him but even the Labourers looked upon him as their Protectour and the Father of their Quiet From whence then came it that he made a wrack at the end of his Life and that he saw all the eminent lustre of his Glory bleaked even in his hands Here may Great ones learne a wise Instruction for the governance of their Actions and have cause to admire the Judgements of God And for that purpose I shall enlarge my self upon the causes of the miseries that happened to the fortunes of the highest Lords of the earth and the more curiously search into this History in its source I confesse that the Secret one of Procopius is too rayling in many places where it speaks things incredible but it is not deceived when it tells us that two women Theodora the Empresse and Antonina the wife of Belizarius were the two Helen's of the Empire and the Torches that consumed mankind by their flames Behold saith he from whence began the Misery of Belizarius that ruined his bravest Enterprises and plunged him deep into great displeasures He had in his house a young Gentleman named Theodosius whom he loved with a sincere affection having converted him from Heresie and procured him to be Baptized at Constantinople whose God-father he himself would be He put him so farre in the good esteems of his wife that they having no children of their Marriage resolved both of them to Adopt him Theodosius conquered by so great a courtesie rendred himselfe obedient to Belizarius and above all observant to the humours of Antonina She loved him at first with a tender affection but honest enough which gave occasion to the more curious sort of people to think but permitted not the wiser sort to speak At last as the best Wine degenerates into Vineegre so the chastest Love of the spirit if heed be not taken changes it self to flesh The conversation of the young Theodosius in the African voyage the graces that smiled upon his face the sweetnesse of his speech the wittinesse of his discourses his good offices his observances his confidence and the secrecy of the place kindled so great a fire in the heart of Antonina that she cherished no more that object as a Mother but loved him as a frontlesse woman that sells her prostitution Happy are the women that reject the first thoughts of such miserable designs as the sparkles of the fire of Hell She gave at first too much command to her passion and too much overture to her unhappinesse Her Caresses seemed already too soft to the young man that strived to pay them with respect feigning himself not to understand that language of Love for fear he should make her faulty in his thoughts But she ceased not to pursue him and kindled continually her flames by the liberty of her life Conscience Honour the fear of an Husband contended for a time in her heart but in the end quitted the place She forgot all Divine and Humane Laws and abandoned her self to her passion and openly sollicited Theodosius to sin She acted the part of Potiphars wife but she met not with a Joseph He was
World and that Heaven makes me be born again in your Person If you will reign happily fear God which is the source of Empires and the Sovereign Father of all Dominions keep his Commandments and cause them to be observed with an inviolable fidelity Take the care and the Protection of his Church Love your young brothers and your sisters rendring your self good and officious to your Kindred Honour the Church-men as your Fathers cherish tenderly your subjects as your children and be all your life time the comforter and the Protectour of the Poor Chastise the vicious and recompense the men of merit Establish not Governments Judges and Officers which are not capable and without reproch and when you have established them deprive them not of their charges without a most just cause Serve first of all for an example to all the world and lead before God and Man a life irreprochable After this action he stayed about a year longer in the world purifying continually his spirit by repentance by good works and by the contemplation of heavenly things And when he saw himself infected with an extraordinary sicknesse he caused immediately the Sacraments to be administred to him and dyed with a most pious and most exemplary death at the age of seventy two years the fourty seventh of his reign and the four teenth of his Empire His Corps were exposed in publick clothed after the manner of a King with a sword and the Gospel which he had so gloriously defended Then he was interred with a stately Magnificence in the Church of Aix the Chappell which he had built He was universally lamented by all the world as the Father of the Universe and the singular ornament of Christianity The Pagans themselves wept for him abundance of tears so true it is that the goodnesse and sweetnesse of a King towards his subjects is a ray of God that renders him lovely in his life and gives splendour even to his ashes after his death He was afterward Canonized by Paschal that was not a lawfull Pope but forasmuch as the true successours of Saint Peter never retracted that action He is held for a Saint and honoured publickly in the Church with the approbation of all ages Saint LEVVIS S. LEWIS K. OF FRANCE I Do not forget that I have already spoken of Saint Lewis in the first Tome but because that was by accident and by the way I will here extend my thoughts somewhat more largely and give you a more compleat Elogium of him It is very true that an Antient faith That great Goodnesse is seldome joyned with great Power and that well-accomplished Kings are so few in number that their names might be comprehended all together within the circumference of a Ring But I may add that if God did take delight to carry this Ring in very deed as the Scripture doth attribute it to him in an Allegory and if he would engrave there the names of all the good Kings that of great S. Lewis would possesse the first place This Monarch was so like unto virtue that if it should have shewed it self on the one side incarnate to mortall eyes and Saint Lewis on the other one should hardly have been able to judge which had been the Copy and which the Originall It is not my intention to write of his life here upon which so many excellent pens have laboured very fortunately but to make a reflexion upon some principall points of his Government Great things do not alwayes cause themselves to be known by a multitude or great variety of discourse but oftentimes by draughts abbreviated And no man in my opinion ought to conceive amisse of this seeing that we measure every day the greatnesse of the Sun by the shadow of the earth and his goings in the Dyals by a little thread I know that heretofore three lines onely represented upon a Table did set forth an Idea of the perfection of the excellentest Painter in the world in the understanding of the skilfull and I will draw here three little draughts for to set before your eyes the beauty and bignesse of the virtues of S. Lewis In one word he hath done three mervellous things whereof the first is that he found out the means to joyn the wisedome of State with that of the Crosse The second that he hath planted humility upon Sceptres where it hath ordinarily very slippery footing and hath likewise placed it amongst the Rubies and Diamonds of the Crown where its lustre is often darkened by the too stately glittering of the World A third is that he hath joyned the devotion of one consecrated to Religion to the courage of the Alexanders and Cesars As for that which concerns the first conjunction it The first marvel the joyning of the wisdom of State with the Gospel Tert. Apol. is so rare that Tertullian who flourished two hundred years after the Nativity of our Lord when as yet there had no speech been of any Emperour that had embraced Christianity said That if the Cesars should become Christians they would cease to be Cesars and if the Christians should become Cesars they would cease to be Christians He conceived that poornesse of spirit could not agree with so high and stately riches nor humility with a sovereign Empire or the tears of Repentance with the delights of the Court that the hungring and thirsting after righteousnesse could not stand with the desire of Conquerours nor pitifulnesse with Arms nor purenesse of heart with the conversing with most pleasing beauties nor peace would consist with the licentiousnesse of warre and suffering persecutions with an absolute power to revenge ones self And neverthelesse Saint Lewis alone hath found means to joyn things together which seem so contrary in the highest degree that ever they were found to be in so-Kingly an estate Amidst the riches of a Kingdome so abundant he was not rich but onely towards the poor and if God had permitted him he would have as willingly covered himself with the habit of Saint Francis as with his Royall Purple He did never consider himself otherwise amongst all the goods that he possessed but as the Steward of Jesus Christ he left unto God willingly the glory of having given them him to needy persons the benefit of receiving them and kept nothing to himself but the pains of distributing them He assaid a thousand times to enter into Religious Orders and yet still answer was made him that God would have him to be King he wore the Crown by way of obedience he used riches onely for necessity and had no other thing in his desire then spiritual nakednesse and a perfect unloosing himself from all worldly things In the midst of an Absolute power he was so meek that his heart seemed a Sea where a calme perpetually reigned The Scarlet of his attire did never colour his face with the heat of anger Arrogance did never puff up his words he made it his glory to communicate himself
the evil spirits have their reign and their time which good men are not able to hinder no more then the winter and the night and that the sovereign Creatour and Governour of all things hath limited their powers and their endurings by certain celestiall periods which being not yet come to an end do make all the endeavours which can be used to destroy them unprofitable This is the cause why there is not taken in hand with such eagrenesse as might be wars in the East and Africa nor that we should undertake great designs against the powers of darknesse if we cannot see by very evident conjectures that God directs us as by the hand Neverthelesse as he reveals not alwayes to his Saints the times and seasons of Empires it happens that those that with great zeal and very rationall prudence do embark themselves in generous designs to advance the glory of God should not justly alwayes be commended even in the default of good successe And I may very well say that the most glorious action of S. Lewis was his prison and his death For to kill the Sarazens to make mountains of dead bodies rivers of bloud to overthrow Cities all in a smoke this is that which Chamgy and Tamerlan have done But to do that which S. Lewis hath done it is it which hath no compare it is that which the Angels would do willingly if they could merit it by a mortall body God which had drawn him from his Kingdome with the faith of Abraham which had lead him through so many dangers with the guiding of Moses gave him in the end to seal up his great actions the patience of Job And to countreballance that which the world esteems mishap he would have him to govern a great Kingdome a long time with an high wisdome and profound peace an exact justice for the good and repose of his people and an uncredible sweetnesse of spirit which hath made him the most amiable of all Kings on the earth and a great Saint in Paradise by the consent of all mortals and the Universall approbation of the Church Queens and Ladies JUDITH HESTER IVDITH HESTER ROYNE EXpect nothing Feminine in this Woman all in her is Male all in her is Generous all in her is full of Prodigies Nature hath put nothing in her but the Sex she hath left to Virtue to make up the rest who after she had laboured a long time in this her Master-piece incorporated her self in her work Never was beauty better placed then upon this face which bears a mixture of Terrour and of Love Lovely in its Graces Terrible in its Valour What a Court-Lady is this that came thither for nothing but to draw the sword Her hand did much by destroying an 100000 men in one onely head but her eye did much more then her hand it was that that first triumphed over Holophernes and with a little ray of its flames burnt up a whole army O what a magnificent employment had Love in this act of hers and to say truth he consecrated his arrows never was he so innocent in his Combats never was he so glorious in his Triumphs Represent to your selves a Nabuchodonozor in the flower of his age in the vigour of his Conquests holding a secret Councel wherein he makes a resolution to subdue the World After a short conclusion of an affair so great he calls Holophernes and commands him to march towards the West with an Army of 100000 Foot and 12000 Horse All the Captains assemble themselves together and in all places souldiers swarm It seems that that brave Generall did nothing but give a stamp with his foot to procreate armed men Behold him already invironed with Legions all glittering with fire and flames his Army is on foot with an horrible Artillery of military Engines and a great preparation of Victuall and Ammunition It seemed that heaven looked upon this Host with affrightment and that the earth ecchoed at every step under the clattering of its Arms. The motions of it give terrour to the stoutest sort and confusion to the weaker before it marches Noyses Affrights and Threats after it Weepings Ruins and Desolations Holophernes is in the middle as a Gyant with an hundred arms which promises to himself to demolish smoaking Cities to-overthrow Mountains and to beat all Arms to powder with the lightning of his eyes Ambassadours of all Nations are seen waiting at his gate who present unto him Crowns who offer him Tapers and Incense desire peace and mercy of him and beseech him to grant them servitude But this supercilious Generall would march upon the heads of men and make himself a river of Bloud to water therewith his Palms Fame that publishing with an hundred mouthes the wasts that that Army made on all sides failed not to fly unto Jerusalem and to carry that sad newes unto the people of God Nothing was then heard but the sighs and groans of a scared people who beholding that furious Tempest coming afar off had neither heart nor arms to oppose themselves against it Their courages were dismaied their hands weak their tongues mute they had no other defence but their tears which they powred out in abundance to begin the funeralls of their dear Countrey Manasseh reigned at that time in Jerusalem seven hundred years before the Nativity of our Lord who seeing no expedient to divert this misery abandoned himself to silence and to darknesse But Joachim the High Priest executing a Captains office together with a Priests encouraged his poore people and wiped off their tears to make them see the first ray of hope which they conceived of their dear Liberty He dispatches Posts to all parts and commands the cities that were menaced with the marches of that army to contribute all that they were able of Money Iron Men and Victuals to beat back the common Enemy and above all to prepossesse themselves of the streights of the mountains to stop up the passages where a few men would be able to do much rather then to expect them in the champain where so great forces would swallow up all that could be opposed against them After this he commands publick prayers to be made where the Altar of God was covered with sackcloth and the Priests with hair-cloth all the people were at their supplications tears and fastings even the children prostrated themselves on the earth and cryed to implore the mercy of God This excellent High-Priest not being ignorant that with Piety we ought to move the hand contented not himself onely to weep before the Altar but visited in person the Cities and the Burghs comforting the afflicted stirring up the slack strengthening the weak and doing that which the infusion of the soul doth in the Body in giving life and vigour to all the members of the State The newes comes to Holophernes that the Jews prepared themselves to make resistance to his Army whereat he entred into great fits of choler and called the Princes of the
she should receive all possible courtesies Some men will marvel at all this proceeding of Judith A woman so handsome and so capable to tempt men to go into the midst of Souldiers without fearing to expose her modesty that was so dear to her not considering that she kindled love and that she was yet in the fair season of her years capable to admit that which she moved in others Who had told her that the Assyrians would let her freely passe without attempting any thing upon her honour What security could there be in a dissolute Militia that propound to themselves the ravishing of women for a recompence of their toils And suppose she had promised her self that in case she should be forced her soul should remain incorruptible in the corruption of her body yet sure an honest woman would hardly ever expose her body to the least affront although it were to save a city If we consider all this according to man it cannot be defended but who should dare so to condemne that which was done by a manifest inspiration of God and of her good Angel that lead her as by the hand and made her walk securely upon the tops of precipices and kept her alwayes green as the Ivie in the ruines of old decayed walls With all this she was skilfull in the art of dissembling and deceived those souldiers that took a singular pleasure to hear her talk And who would make a scruple to speak words with two meanings to deceive an enemy in warre and to save his life seeing that some Divines and the Lawyers agree that there are deceits that are good and commendable being done to a good end and by lawfull means She was then conducted to the Generall Holophernes whom she found seated on his Throne under a pavilion of gold and purple all bestudded with emeralds proud as a peacock that spreads in the sunne the mirrours of his tail for which alone he seems to have been created She suddenly prostrates her self on the earth and makes him a reverence of civility and not of adoration He failed not to be taken with her at first sight just as she had plotted and to make of his eyes the snares of his soul Those that were about him began to say with admiration that the Land that bore so handsome women deserved to have no labour spared in its conquest Holophernes caused her instantly to be raised up again and because she feign'd that she had some fear and that she was seiz'd with a profound reverence at the aspect of that great Generall of an Army knowing well that he was vain and that it would conduce much to surprise him He speaks to her with an incomparable sweetnesse assuring her that he was not so terrible as men would make him and that since that he had had the Arms of that great Monarchy in his hands he never did hurt to any one that rendred himself to the obedience of his Master that he bore no ill will to her Nation but that if they had reduced themselves to their duty he would not have permitted so much as that a sword should have been lifted up against them And therefore he desired to know from whence it came that she had forsaken her City and was come to his Camp Then that Lady holily-deceitfull began to speak to him after such a winning manner that an hundred Holophernes's would have had work enough to defend themselves against such batteries of Love She beseeched him to hear with attention and to take her speeches in good part by which God would accomplish a great affair That she knew well that Nebuchadonozor had been chosen of God to be King of the whole world and that all the puissance of his Monarchy was included in Holophernes where it lived and triumphed magnificently for the safety of the good and the chastisement of the wicked That she was not so ignorant of humane things as not to have heard of the Prudence and valour of an Holophernes who hath the honour to be the onely man in the Kingdome of Nebuchadonozor that is arrived to so high a degree of Power as that it cannot be equalled by any thing in the world but by the goodnesse of his disposition for he desires to be powerfull for nothing but to do good and all the Provinces well know the good order that he hath put to all the businesses of the Realm She declared to him that she had heard of what had passed in Achiors person and told him that he truly discovered the weak spirit of her Nation and that he might do good upon it at the present now God was provoked against it and had threatned by his Prophets to destroy it And therefore they were all seized with an unspeakable affright besides that hunger and thirst conspired together to their ruine and they had taken a resolution to kill all the cattle to drink their bloud and not to spare even the things consecrated to the divine Majesty which is a sign of a manifest reprobation And this was the reason that she had left that abominable city and was come as a messenger from God to give him this advice She added that the God which she adored was very great and that she would not fail to pray him to make known his will and to tell her the time that he hath determined for the utmost misery of that unfortunate City with intention to inform him of the news that at last she might lead him even to the gates of Jerusalem delivering up to him all that people as sheep without a shepherd and that there should not be so much as a dog that should bark against him it being very reasonable that men and beasts should submit themselves under a power so formidable conducted by the hand of the most High and by the orders of his Providence Holophernes that had already been taken by the Eyes was now chained by the Ears with the sweetnesse and profit of that discourse His heart was no more his own he courts her and promises her that her God shall be his God and that he will make her great in the house of Nebuchadonozor and renowned through all the earth At the same instant he causes her to enter into the chamber where his treasures were to shew her his Magnificence and ordered what should be given her day by day from his own table for her diet Whereto she answered that it was not yet permitted her according to her Law to enter into a community of table with those that are of any other Religion but her own and that providing for it she had caused what was necessary for her to be brought with her But when your provision comes to fail sayes Holophernes what shall we then do with you She replyed that she hoped to accomplish the businesse that had brought her thither before that her ordinary food should be all spent Thereupon he commanded that she should be conducted into a
of their flying arrows overthrown scattered torn into a thousand pieces by the enterprise of a Jewesse Judith gives not her self the praise of this work it was God that acted in her who was the direction of her hand the strength of her arm the spirit of her prudence the ardour of her courage and the soul of her soul O how great is this God of gods O how terrible is this Lord of hosts and who is there that fears not God but he that hath none at all What Colossus's of pride have faln and shall yet fall under his hands What giants beaten down and plunged even into hell for kindling fiery coals of concupiscence shall smoak in flames by an eternall sacrifice which their pains shall render to the Divine Justice HESTER THe holy Scripture sets before our eyes in this History Greatnesse falling into an eclipse and the lownesse of the earth elevated to the Starres Humility on the Throne and Ambition on the Gallows Might overthrown by Beauty Love sanctified and Revenge strangled by its own hands It teaches Kings to govern and People to obey great Ones not to relie on a fortune of ice Ladies to cherish Piety and Honour the Happy to fear every thing and the Miserable to despair of nothing All that we have to discourse of here happened in the Kingdome of Persia during the Captivity of the Jews in Babylon about four hundred and sixty years before the Nativity of our Lord and under the Reign of Ahasuerus But it is a great Riddle to divine who this Prince was to whom Hester was married and which is called here by a name that is not found in the History of the Persian Kings and which indeed may agree to all those high Monarchs signifying no other thing but The great Lord. Mercator sayes that it was Astyages grandfather of Cyrus and Cedrenus that it was Darius the Mede Genebrand is for Cambyses Scaliger for Xerxes Serrarius for Ochus Josephus and Saillan for Artaxerxes with the long hand The wise Hester that was so much in love with Chastity is found to have had fourteen husbands by the contestation of Authours every one would give her one of his own making she is married to all the Kings of Persia she is coursed up and down through all the Empire and her Espousals made to last above two hundred years But as it is easie enough to confute the Opinions of all those that speak of her so is it very hard to settle the truth of the Chronology amidst so great obscurities The Scripture sayes that Mordecai with Hester was carried away out of Judea into Babylon under the Reign of Nebuchadonozor and if we are of the opinion that marries her to Artaxerxes if we reckon well all the years that were between those two Kings we shall find that this young and ravishing beauty of Hester which caught so great a Monarch by the eyes was already an hundred and fifty years old which is an age too ripe for a maid that one would give for a wife to a King It is impossible to get out of this labyrinth if we do not say that Mordecai and Hester were not transported in their own but in the persons of their ancestours and that that passage means nothing else but that they issued from the race of those that were lead captives with King Jechonias destroyed by Nebuchadonozor so we will take Artaxerxes and not divide that amiable concord of Authours united in this point Represent then to your selves that from the time that the Jews were dispersed into Babylon into Persia into Medea and through all the States of those great Kings they ceased not to multiply in Captivity and that servitude which is wont to stifle great spirits produced sometimes amongst them gallant men Amongst others appeared upon the Theatre the excellent Mordecai a man of a good understanding and of a great courage who by his dexterity and valour delivered all his Nation from death and total ruine He then dwelt in Shushan the capitall city of all the Kingdome and bred up in his house a little Niece the daughter of his brother an orphan both by father and mother which was named in her first child-hood Edisla and after called Hester Now as those great spirits that are particularly governed by God have some tincture of Prophecie he had a wonderfull Dream and saw in his sleep a great tempest with thunderings and lightnings and an earthquake which was followed with a combate of two dragons who were fighting one against the other and sent forth horrible hissings whiles divers Nations assembled together stood and looked upon them expecting the issue of the combate thereupon he perceived a little fountain which became suddenly a great river which was changed into a Light and of a Light transformed it self into a Sun that both watcred and illuminated the earth He knew not what his Dream did mean but he learned the Interpretation of it in the great combates he had with Haman and in the exaltation of his little Niece that was promoted to so high a splendour as to give both evidence and refreshment to all the people of her Nation This Mordecai being a man of good behaviour and quality found means to advance himself to Court and to make his beginnings there in some inferiour office expecting some good occasion to make himself be known He had an eye alwayes open to discover all that passed without any bragging of it He considered the approaches of divers Nations that lived in that Court the humours the capacities the businesses the obligations the intricacies the credit the industry of every one omitting nothing of all that might advance the benefit of his Countrey-men He quickly discovered the spirit of Haman who was at that time a mean Cavalier of fortune but ambitious close crafty revengefull bloudy and capable to embroil a State He had an aversation from him although he had not yet been offended by him and began to distrust him fearing lest he be one day fatall to his people Neverthelesse Haman with the times took an high ascendant and Mordecai feared his greatnesse as one would do the apparition of a Comet It happened that two perfidious Subjects Thares and Bagathan ushers of the door made an abominable conspiracy against King Artaxerxes which Mordecai who was not a drowsie spirit soon perceived and began carefully to watch them observing their goings out and comings in their words and their countenances their plottings and their practices He gave notice of it very opportunely so that being taken arrested and put to the rack they acknowledged the crime and were led away to punishment The King gave hearty thanks to Mordecai commanded him to live in his Palace in a certain office which he bestowed upon him and caused the day to be set down in writing wherein he had been preserved from the conspiracy of those unhappy servants to recompence as opportunity should be offered the good services of his Deliverer
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
end to the miseries of his life Eternal Wisdome said Tertullian you cut your children's throats and use them as sacrifices as if you could not crown them but by their torments as if you could not honour them but by their punishments But why do we complain said a learned Father of the Church Joseph is free in this captivity if his body groans under the irons his spirit walks with God philosophizes with God and thinks that the recompence of a good action is to have done it Behold the exact method that Providence keeps in the conduct of her chosen ones One deep must call upon another deep the deep of afflictions calls for that of glories and the heighths of honour are prepared according to the measure of tribulations It is the gold that according to Job's speech comes from the Ab quilone aurum venit flante Deo concrescit gâ—iâ— Job 37. North it is that divine crystall that is congealed under the breath of God it is those burning arrows of the Lord of hosts that cause those combatants to let fly their colours and that make wounds by communicating lights Joseph's prison was a school of wisdome where God spake and his servant hearkned to him having his ear in heaven and his heart in that of his Master A certain Grace that proceeding from the interiour of his soul spread it self upon his visage and made it self be heard in every one of his words gained him the heart of his goaler that used him kindly having already an high esteem of his innocence and of his virtue There are some men so happy that they find Empires every where which was the cause that this holy Patriarch obtained by merit the charge of all the prisoners that were companions of his misery and made himself by love the governour even of him that held him in captivity It happens in this accident that two of the King's officers his Butler and his Baker were brought into the same prison and given in ward to Joseph to administer to them things necessary for life He comforted them in their adversity and entertained them with good discourses and as he saw them one day very melancholy he inquired after the cause of their sadnesse and perceived that they disquieted themselves about their Dreams The Butler had dream'd that he saw a Vine with three branches which at one time was adorned with leaves with buds with blossomes and with ripe grapes and that after he had gathered of its fruit he squeezed it into Pharaoh's cup which he held in his hand and presented it unto him Whereupon Joseph foretold him that within three dayes he should be re-established in his office The other had seen himself in his Dream carrying three paniers of meal upon his head and it seemed to him that in that which was the highest of all there was abundance of the delicacies of his trade which the birds of prey came and snatched away which made his Prophet denounce to him an ignominious death The effect was answerable to the predictions in the limited time and the one died upon the gallows and the other was re-invested in his place But that being very true which S. Thomas hath observed that there be four sorts of people that easily forget a courtesie Proud men to whom one does some small displeasure though they have been at other times greatly obliged in divers accidents Base and mean persons that are unexpectedly raised to some degree of honour Children that are become men and Prisoners that are set at liberty The Butler was so ravished with his change of fortune that he was no longer mindfull of his friend the enjoyment of a present good making him lose the remembrance of the Prophecy concerning the time to come Yet Providence that would exalt Joseph to the highest top of honour at the time at which she had destined it sent Dreams to Pharaoh about the state of his Kingdome which caused great troubles in his mind there being no body that he could find able to resolve his doubts It was then that the Butler spake not being ignorant that this news would be most pleasing to the King and told him the Dreams that had happened both to him and to his companion when they were in prison adding the interpretation given upon them by a young slave an Hebrew by Nation kept in the same goal and the effect that had followed the Oracles of his mouth Whereat the King being much joyed commanded that he should be instantly fetched out of prison and be brought to be seen and heard by his Majesty which was readily performed for after they had trimmed his hair and cloathed him with a befitting habit he was presented to the Kings eyes who received him with much courtesie and having related to him his Dreams which were of seven kine fat and wonderfull fair that had been followed and devoured by other lean ones and as much as could be out of flesh as also of seven ears of corn extremely well filled that had been eaten up by other empty and barren ones he desired him to give him the Resolution of them Whereupon Joseph shewed a singular modesty telling the King that the true explications of Dreams and all certain and infallible Prophecies came from God which is the father of lights and at length opening his opinion said That Egypt should have seven years such as never were for abundance and fruitfulnesse that should be followed with seven others over which should reign such a barrennesse and famine through all the land that it should deface the memory of all that great fertility that had gone before And therefore he would counsel his Majesty to find out a prudent and active man to give him the superintendency of all the land of Egypt which should have Commissaries under him through all the Provinces that should cause diligently the fifth part of the fruits and the revenues of corn that should proceed every year out of that fecundity to be laid up and kept in the Kings granaries and magazines that should be distributed in divers Provinces for that purpose and that this would be a most secure means to remedy the great famine that should follow that long prosperity The interpretation of Pharaoh's Dream was admired and the advice judged exceeding good which caused the King thinking that there was no man in all his Realm more capable of that design then he that had given the invention of it to establish from that time Joseph in that Charge so important to the whole Nation It is a marvellous thing to consider the honours that this Prince did him and the high titles wherewith he qualified him God being pleased to shew in this that he multiplies the consolations of his faithfull servants above all the measure of the displeasures that they can have received for he did not content himself to give him the silk robe the collar of the order the ring of his finger to procure him a rich marriage
Monarch chusing rather to suffer with his Brethren as saith S. Paul then to taste any more the sweetnesses of a temporall glory It is an act of prudence to steal away from the fury of a wicked Prince who holds for enemy all that there is of virtuous and to hide ones self as those Rivers that go a long way under ground without being seen of any one and then unexpectedly produce themselves to water the meadows to bear boats to serve for a knot to the commerce of men and to make Islands and Beauties for the ornament of Nature These retirings have been advantageous to many whom they have hid for a time with an intention to set them afterward in bright day The fire which devours every thing hath no more to do with the ashes and the rage of Tyrants that swallows up every thing thinks no more on those that enter while they live as it were into the sepulchre of a life unknown to all the world Moses passed from one extremity to another without the middle when forsaking the Court after a stay of fourty years he went to range himself in the life of shepherds and remained as one lost in the world to find himself with God He withdrew himself into the countrey of the Midianites where he had at first approach a pleasing encountre that made him find a commodious dwelling and a marriage according to his heart The sacred History sayes that Jethro a Priest and Shepherd in that Region had sent seven daughters whereof he was the father to draw water at a fountain for their flocks to drink and that having met with other shepherds insolent enough that taking a pride to insult over the infirmity of that sex ceased not to harry them and to hinder them from the use of an Element that nature had made to slide for the commodity of the publick Moses that had the quality of Plato's Magistrate whom he would have to be zealous and courageous for the defence of Justice could not endure the insolence of those wicked men and takes the maidens part whom he defended against oppression with so much successe as that he chased away their adversaries and gave them free liberty to draw water For which they thought themselves very much obliged and failed not to make a large relation to their father of the courtesie of that Egyptian that had taken them into his protection Their father received him into his house and took so much pleasure in his conversation that he gave him one of his daughters in marriage and allied him to his family by an indissoluble amity This new son-in-law accustomed himself to a countrey life and practised the laborious exercises of shepherds so true it is that able men bend their spirit whither they will and are good at doing every thing habituating themselves to persons and to places where their lot hath ranged them bearing equally want and abundance and shewing by their example that there is no life in the world so strange that may not serve for matter to virtue But without speaking yet of the great secrets that God kept hidden in this ordering of Moses I find that it was the means to make a great States-man of him because that Philosopher which hath deserved the title of Divine sayes that a good King is nothing else but a shepherd of a reasonable flock and that he ought to take his first Rudiments from the manner of ordering sheep to succeed well in the Government of Kingdomes that he ought to see the tender love the cares and the toils of the true shepherds to learn how he ought to demean himself towards his Subjects Moses had all leasure to lay those grounds tarrying as many years in his Countrey life as he had before passed at Court and ceasing not to play the Philosopher and to contemplate in that great School of Nature where God spake to him and taught him lessons through the veil of all the Creatures O how little did the pompous pride of the Pharaoh's then seem to him O how contemptible then did seem all those beauties of dust and those fortunes of wind that are at Court His heart dilated it self in the greatnesses of God and became every day wiser then it self This long solitude having purged him from the impurities of the earth rendred him capable of the visits and commerce of God and the time destined to the deliverance of his people being now at hand as he went along entertaining his thoughts he was got farre into the desert and perceived that miraculous Bush all crowned with innocent flames that gave it a delightfull beauty and the fire that consumes every thing seemed rather to dresse then to offend it God meaning to signifie by this the estate of his chosen people for whom the burning coals of Persecution prepared an high lustre of glory Moses charmed with this Vision draws near and hears a voyce out of the middle of the Bush that calls him and having commanded him to put off his shooes through reverence speaks with him and declares to him its will about the going out of Egypt which the Israelites were to enterprise and execute under his command To speak truth this was one of the greatest Colloquies and one of the highest Discourses that was ever under Heaven wherein the Sovereign Master seated upon a Throne of Fire talked with the most excellent man of all Ages touching the means to break the chains of six hundred thousand men besides women and little children that groaned under an horrible Captivity and drowned every day a part of their life in their tears Moses that was now totally accustomed to the sweetnesse of his solitude refused at first to be the Negotiatour of a businesse of so great importance and to betake himself again to the Court of Egypt to treat with Pharaoh alledging his inability the incredulity of the people and the impediment of his speech to free himself from that Embassage But God having assured him that he was He that is that is to say The absolute Being the Independent and the first Originall of all Essences that would be with him and would give him for a companion his brother Aaron who was eloquent enough and in fine having confirmed him by prodigious Miracles that he caused to be done in his presence wan him and made him consent to his will Aristotle in the fifth of his Politicks hath said That of all the things that cause the subversions of Kingdomes and of Empires there was not any more pernicious then Injustice and Oppression of the innocent which may be observed clearly in this proceeding For behold the ruine of a great Realm procured by the cruelty of the Ministers of Pharaoh who by his consent and orders turmoiled incessantly a people miserable and afflicted above all measure Their piercing clamours so many times redoubled clave the clouds and were carried by the Angels even up to the Heaven of heavens represented before the Throne of
the living God with so much force and vigour as they made tender the bowels of the God of mercy that descends and speaks athwart the Flames and Thrones to bring about their safety Moses and Aaron failed not to discover themselves to the most eminent of the chosen people concerning the Counsel that God had taken of their Liberty whereat they were at first so joyed that they prostrated themselves on the earth through respect adoring the divine Goodnesse that carried himself with so much love to the easing of their misery but when this businesse proved thorny and full of obstacles their courage failed them and had almost as leave crouch in their Servitude as buy their Liberty at the price of a reasonable pain Yet Moses accompanied with his brother courageously transports himself to Pharaoh's Palace speaks to him with a generous liberty from the living God and declares to him his Commands which were to dismisse his people and let them go out of Egypt to sacrifice in the wildernesse He that reigned at that time was one Pharaoh Cenchris an haughty and insolent Prince who having never heard any such language said That he knew not that God that intermeddled to make him such Commands and that he was fully resolved not to let go the prey which he held in his hands that all these discourses of Sacrifices and of Devotions proceeded from nothing but a pure idlenesse fatall to the Jewish people and that he would give them so much exercise that they should not have the leasure to dream on such Fancies And in effect he commanded the Commissaries that presided over the labour of those poor slaves to redouble their Pains and augment their Burdens The straw that was furnished them before to make the brick taken from them they were constrained to seek for it where they could and yet for all this the number of their bricks which they were bound to render every day was not diminished And though this was a thing impossible for them yet must they expect rods and bastonado's and all imaginable rigours This made a great noise amongst the People which began already to murmure against Moses and Aaron blaming their enterprise and complaining that they would set them at Liberty It is a most ordinary thing in all great affairs there are spirits that are like those watry clouds that never carry lightning so cannot they ever conceive any thing that is vigorous they would have good things but they would have them loosely and would willingly desire that Nature should renew for them the favours of the Terrestriall Paradise and should give them roses that should never be compassed about with thorns But as one ought not to be rash and violent to push forward businesses out of a giddy humour so ought one not to be slack and effeminate in letting those alone that oblige us by conscience and by duty Moses desists not for all this but takes a stout resolution to advance the work of God even to the Point whither Providence would have it come He had on one side men to combate with that resisted their own good and on the other an impious obstinate and cruel Prince he gains the one by reasons and by sweetnesse he brings down the other by threats and prodigies One may here manifestly see the paths that God hath trodden in the punishment of Pharaoh when he would abandon a King or a great man for his demerits and sacrifice him to his Justice letting him fall into a reprobate sense which is the last step that one makes to enter into hell He permits him to satiate an Ambition or a Revenge to intangle himself in some great design under the pretense of Justice and of Honour and forasmuch as he is extremely thirsty after the greatnesse of the earth puts him upon a pinacle in the highest dignities and the most magnificent negotiations leaves him to himself and to the wishes of his own heart and although he be vicious gives him great successes and incomparable prosperities that puffe up his heart and make him presume upon his own conduct He takes from him the taste of Divine things letting him slide into a contempt of the holy Word and of all the admonitions that one can give him about his safety If he hath any faithfull Counsellour he puts him out and substitutes in his place flatterers and enchaunters If there come any scourge from heaven to overwhelm him he is made believe that it is but a naturall thing and ordinary enough and that he ought not to trouble himself about such a businesse If he be sensible of any evill that affrights him men endeavour suddenly to scatter it and to make him understand that that is not the wrath of God but an order of Nature and that he may mock at the tempest as soon as the calm returns All this is made visible in this miserable Prince A great Kingdome great Ambitions Revenges hereditaty against the chosen People an immoveable design to root them out a contempt of God successe in his vengeances and some satisfaction of spirit by the pains of those miserable ones Moses baffled the Flatterers hearkned to the Magicians adored the Plagues of heaven turned into laughters as soon as they were passed an heart at last hardned by its own malice and not by the work of God who doth no more make sin then the Sun makes the night Moses endeavours first to gain him by the force of reasons and by the sweetnesse of words whereto when he shewed resistance he employed Miracles for the proof of his Commission which the King caused to be counterfeited by his Magicians opposing the Shadow to the Light and a Lie to Truth After which the wrath of Heaven caused those ten Plagues related in Exodus successively to rain upon him For that unfortunate Prince saw first of all the River of Nile all in bloud as if it had demanded Vengeance of God for those little Innocents that had been cast into it He saw Frogs that came out of the same Stream by an impetuous ebullition in such a manner as that they covered all the fields entred into the houses filled the tables mounted upon the beds and gave horrour and torments to all Egypt He saw thick clouds of Gnats that were raised all on a sudden casting themselves upon the cattle and upon the men with so irksome a trouble that their life was full of bitternesse He saw after that armies of all sorts of Flies so different in their kind so violent in their assaults and so pernicious in their effects that they defiled every thing with their venome He saw a furious mortality of Beasts that fell every moment and infected the air by their corruption He saw the bodies of his Subjects all laden with Ulcers wherewith the Magicians themselves in punishment of their crimes were covered in such a fashion as that they could stand no longer in the presence of their King He saw the most horrible Hail
the People with astonishment They removed themselves according to the Orders of their Legislatour to the foot of the Mountain Sinai with a prohibition to passe further All the Mountain smoaked as a great Fornace by reason that God was descended thither all in fire which made it extream terrible But Moses his dear favourite ascended to the highest top amidst the fires the darknesses and the flames in that Luminous obscurity where God presided that spake to him face to face as to his most intimate confident After all that thundering voyce of the Living God was heard that pronounced his Decrees and his Laws in that Chamber of Justice hung with fire and lights that trembled under the footsteps of his Majesty All this Law was set down in writing with a most exact care and is yet read every day in the five Books of the Law Now Religion being the Basis of all Policy without which great Kingdomes are but great Robbings This wise Law-giver applyed his whole care and travell to the rooting out of Idolatry and to the causing of the Adorable Majesty of God to be acknowledged in the condition of a worship truly Monarchicall and incommunicable to any other as appears in the punishment which he inflicted on those that had worshiped the golden Calf For the Scripture saith That when the Israelites perceived that Moses tarried a long time on the Mountain of Sinai in those amiable Colloquies that he had with God they grew weary of it and said to the high Priest Aaron That since that man that had brought them out of Egypt was lost they ought to dream no more of him but make in his place Gods that should march in the head of their Army Aaron that perperhaps had a mind to make them lose the relish of that design by the price to which it would amount demanded of them the Pendents of the ears of their Wives and of their Children to go to work about it but their madnesse was so great that they devested themselves freely of all that they had most precious to make a God to their own phansie Aaron accommodating himself to their humour through a great weaknesse made them a Statue that had some resemblance of the Ox Apis that was adored in Egypt As soon as they had perceived it they began to cry Courage Israel behold the God that hath drawn thee out of the slavery of Egypt Aaron accompanied him with an Altar and caused a solemn Feast to be bidden for the morrow after at which the people failed not to be present offering many sacrifices making good cheer and dancing about that Idol God advertised Moses of that disorder and commanded him to descend suddenly from the Mountain to remedy it although he intended to destroy them and had done it had he not been appeased by the most humble Remonstrances and Supplications of his servant He failed not to betake himself speedily to the Camp where he saw that Abomination and the Dances that were made about it which inflamed him so much with Choler that he brake the Tables of the Law written by the hand of God thinking that such a present was not seasonable for Idolaters and Drunkards He rebuked Aaron sharply who excused himself coldly enough and not intending that so abominable a crime should passe without an exemplary punishment He took the Golden Calf and beat it into dust which he steep'd in water to make all those drink of it that had defiled themselves with that sacrilege and to make them understand that sinne that seems at first to have some sweetnesse is extreamly bitter in its effects After which he commanded That all those that would be on Gods side should follow him and the Tribe of Levi as being the most interressed failed not to joyn with him whereupon seeing them all well animated he gave them order to passe through all the Camp from one door to the other with their swords in their hands and to slay all that they met without sparing their nearest kindred This was executed and all the Army was immediately filled with Massacres Rivers of blood ran on all sides accompanied with the sad howlings of a scared multitude that expected every minute the stroke of death God would have that this so severe a punishment be executed upon those miserable men to cause an eternall horrour of Idolatry which is the most capitall of all sins And to retein the worship of God a thousand pretty Ceremonies were practised after the structure of the Tabernacle of the Ark of Covenant of the Table of the Shew-bread of the Altars and after the institution of the Pontificall habits of the Offerings and of the Sacrifices that were celebrated with much order and a singular Majesty Moses also was indefatigable in rendring Justice sitting from the morning till the night on his Tribunall to hear the requests of all the particular men that came to him which Jethro his father in law that was come to visit him having perceived said to him that it was impossible for him to be long able to undergo so troublesome a labour and that he ought to choose amongst all the people some Puissant men fearing God true and enemies of covetousnesse to administer Justice and that it would be sufficient to reserve to himself the controversies that should be of greatest importance Moses believed his counsell and established an handsome order for the decision of the differences that should arise amongst the People He passed fourty years in the wildernesse in divers habitations partly in war against the enemies partly in preserving peace amongst his People and confirming all the laws which he established by the command of God In this exercise he lived to the age of an hundred and twenty years sepaparated himself from all things of the world and was so united to God that it seemed that even his Body it self passed into the nature and condition of an immortall Spirit In fine God having shewed him upon the mountain Nebo all the Land of Promise which he had got to by so many good counsells and so much pains he dyed in that view without entring into it was mourned for thirty dayes by the Israelites and interred of set purpose in a sepulchre unknown to the eyes of men for fear lest he should give an occasion of some Idolatry to that people that would have held him for a Deity Never had man a Birth more forlorn a Life more various or a Death more glorious of an exposed Infant he became a Kings son of a Kings son an Exile of an Exile a Shepheard of a Shepheard a Captain of a Captain a Prophet of a Prophet a Law-giver of a Law-giver a Sovereign the God of Kings and the King of all the Prophets Active at Court Devout in Solitude Victorious in War Happy in Peace Wise in his Laws Terrible in his Arms a man of Prodigies that opened Seas Manur'd Wildernesses Commanded things Sensible and Insensible and exercised an Empire on
instruments of the Justice that he exercised upon the sins of his people King Nebuchadonozor that reigned in that Monarchy six hundred years before the Nativity of our Lord fell upon Palestine with a mighty Army took and pillaged the city of Jerusalem carried away King Jehojakim with the richest vessels of the Temple and abundance of prisoners of the most noted men amongst which was Daniel accompanied with other young children of a good parentage The King gave charge to Ashpenaz chief Gentleman of his Chamber to chuse him Pages of Royall extraction well made without any blemish or disgrace as well of mind as body that should be versed in arts befitting the Nobility well learn'd in exercises docile and well-governed and that he should teach them the Chaldean Tongue which was the Language of the Kingdome that they might wait upon him in his Chamber Ashpenaz having proceeded in the businesse with much consideration resolved to take Daniel and his three companions Ananias Azarias and Misael From hence one may collect that this young child was endowed with most excellent qualities for the conversation of the world and the life of the Court Some have perswaded themselves that he was the son of King Hezekiah but it is without foundation and with ignorance of the Chronology seeing that if this opinion were true it must be inferred that Daniel that is here dealt with as a child and chosen for Nebuchadonozor's Page was at that time fourscore and ten years old which would be a great impertinency Yet it is credible that he was descended from some son or daughter of the same King but however one may assure that he was of the bloud Royall seeing the King had expresly ordered that the Children that were to appear before him for his service should be taken out of that quality Besides his eminent birth he was endowed with a very gentle fashion knowing according to his age dextrous in the exercises of the Court of a sweet and prudent spirit very different from the temper of him that we proposed in the precedent Elogy But to speak sincerely if a good man ought to be considered as a Temple these exteriour qualities make but the portall there are others in the understanding and in the will that compose the Mysteries of the Sanctuary This young child was endowed with a great intelligence in things of Faith and Religion and of a chaste fear of God and of rare virtues that surpassed farre the ability of his age Who can sufficiently commend that which he did at his entrance into the Court with his companions that took light from his spirit and strength from the imitation of his courage They were now come from the siege of an hunger-bitten city from a long voyage and abundance of wearisome toils they find themselves suddenly in the abundance and delicacies of a magnificent Court where they were to be sed as the other Pages with the viands that were served up to the Kings table Youth hath ordinarily a great inclination to a sensuall life and to content all its appetites so that there are some that seem not to eat to live but to live to eat Yet these young children made a firm resolution to abstain from all the delicious food that was served up to Nebuchadonozor's table whether for the fear that they had lest they should have been offered unto Idols or for the love of Temperance they earnestly beseeched the master of the Pages to entertain them with nothing but with pulse and when he feared lest that usage should make them lean and that the King should perceive it they prayed him to try them for the space of ten dayes assuring him that living in such a manner they should be full of health and vigour This was verified by experience and when they were to appear in the presence of the King they were found in good plight active and well instructed above all the rest The Prophet saith That the beauties of the desert Psal 64. Pinguescent speciosa deserti shall be fat and fruitfull so those bodies that are as deserts deprived of the fat and of the abundance that a voluptuous life ministers to the delicate have a certain blessing of God that infuses into them an health a grace and a beauty sutable to a good temper Do we not see that all those birds of prey that feed themselves with the flesh of beasts send forth an horrid cry but the Nightingales that live innocently by some little seeds of plants sing melodiously Daniel was made to charm the ear of a great King by his discourses to live in contemplations and in lights he would have nothing to do with the smoak and ill vapours of Nebuchadonozor's Kitchen He was full three years under this master of the Pages Praying Fasting keeping the Law of God learning the Language of the Countrey and the Modes of the Court This time being expired he was presented to the King amongst other children of divers Nations who liked him exceeding well with his companions and found that he eminently surpassed the capacity of all those of the Countrey and of the rest that were nourished with him When he was advanced in age and now approaching to thirty years it pleased God to render him very famous at the Court as another Joseph by the Interpretation of a Dream King Nebuchadonozor had a great Vision in his sleep which very much disquieted his mind for there remained in him an Idea that he had dreamt of some magnificent thing but his Dream was escaped from him and he could by no means unfold it whether he said true or whether he dissembled to try his Diviners and all those that undertook to foretell hidden things He makes a great Assembly of the Sages of the Countrey in his Palace to know of them what it was that he had dreamed whereat these men were very much astonished and told him with all humility that no man ever dealt so with the Interpreters of Dreams but that the extraordinary manner was to declare the Vision and then seek for the Interpretation This King that was of an impetuous and extravagant spirit said That he was not contented with that triviall fashion of telling his Dreams to give them matter of inventing afterward such an Interpretation as they would but that the true secret of the Science was to divine the Dream it self The Magicians reply'd That there was none but the Gods that could give a resolution of that and that their commerce was farre distant from ours The King thereupon sent them away with anger and without giving vent to his choler resolved to rid himself of all the Diviners in his Kingdome having already given command to his Captain of the Guard to put them all to death All of them fled and were exactly searched for Daniel that was thought to make profession of these extraordinary Sciences was involved in the same danger there being no want of wicked minded men that seeing him
resolve to dye Yet for all this Elijah orders her to make him a little Loaf baked under the Ashes and to think afterward upon her self and sonne and assure her self that neither her Meal nor Oyl should diminish any thing till such time as the Famine should be past It was a strong proof of the faith of this Sidonian that commanded her to take away the Bread from her self and her sonne to give it to a stranger and quitting that which she had in her hands to rest upon uncertainties Yet she obeyed in that great necessity yielding more to a man that she knew not for the esteem that she had of his virtue and the opinion which she had that he was the servant of the great God then to her own Life So true it is That the Considerations of Religion and of Religious persons touch even the souls of Pagans and of Infidels So was she worthily requited having a little inexhaustible treasure in her house which was sufficient for her Prophet for her self and for her child and this was a particular mercy of the Sovereign power to her that called her to his knowledge by this miracle and would not that Elijah should eat alone the bread which he multiplyed by the words of his mouth but that he should give part of it to the poor as our Saviour did afterward God ordaining that good miracles should be never vain but profitable to the soul and body of men created after the image of God While he stayed in this house the sonne of the Dame of it dyed of a burning Feaver whereof this poor afflicted woman laid the fault upon Elijah saying that he had renewed the memory of her sinnes before God and Elijah complained of God for that he had afflicted his Hostesse But that great Master did all for his own glory for Elijah having three times contracted himself upon the dead body of the child breathed into him the spirit of life and restored him to his mother Three years being now passed in the great anguishes of hunger God commanded Elijah to present himself again to Ahab and was resolved to sent some Rain When the extremity of the evil was very great and no inventions could be found to appease the scourge Ahab a carnall man instead of having recourse to Prayers and Supplications to ease his subjects thought on nothing but preserving his Horses and his Mules He had at his service and at his Court in quality of a superintendent of his House and of his Levies a great and good man named Abdias who moderated the furies of that wicked Court saved the Prophets of God when they were persecuted and greatly comforted the People Ahab resolved to go one way and send him the other to seeek some herbage to feed his Cattle As Abdias was going along his way he met with Elijah the Prophet whom the King had caused to be searched after in his own territories and through all the neighbouring Kingdoms without being ever able to learn any news of him And therefore he was very much amazed at that accost and asked him if he were Elijah whereto he answered that he was the very same and that he should go and give Ahab information of his comming The other making him a low Reverence with his face to the Earth replyed wherein have I ever offended you that you should deliver me into the hands of Ahab with an intention to cause me to be put to death For it is true that there is no Kingdome nor Nation whither my Master hath not sent to inquire news of you without ever getting any light of you and now if I should go tell the King of your arrivall and the spirit of God should carry you away as it doth ordinarily to transport you into some other part I should be found a Lyar and the King would take away my Life What good would it do you to be the cause of my death seeing that I have feared God even from mine infancy and have alwayes honoured his servants so farre as to preserve an hundred Prophets from the horrours of the Persecution and nourish them secretly at mine own charge in Caves wherein they were hidden Do not deprive your self now of a servant that is most gained unto you The Prophet assured him and sware to him that he would appear before Ahab By which I find that this Abdias was very prudent in that he would not rashly carry a news to his Master that should be without effect because that great ones are easily incensed when men are so light as to promise them what they ask and answer not their expectation besides that if they are frustrated of their desire they think themselves to be slighted and are angry even at the times and elements that do not apply themselves to their humours When therefore he was assured by the inviolable oath of a Prophet he went to the King and told him that he had met with Elijah who was ready to present himself to his Majesty This Prince that burned with a passion to see him stayed not till he could come to see him fearing lest he should steal away again but went to meet him in person and having found him asked him with disdain whether he was not the man that embroiled all his Kingdome The Prophet as bold as a Lyon answered him that he had never embroiled any thing but that the trouble came from his Fathers house and from him for that they had forsaken God and followed Baal and that if he would know by experience the errour wherein he was that he should make an Assembly on Mount Carmel of all the People of Israel and summon thither the four hundred and fifty false Prophets that are every day fed at Queen Jezabels Table and that there should be decided the businesse of Religion It was an high attempt on which Elijah had never so much as dreamed had he not had an expresse Revelation from God for one ought not lightly to commit the verity of the faith before the Court and the common people to uncertain disputes and doubtfull accidents from whence the Pagans and Hereticks may by chance draw some advantage But the Prophet being well assured on his side King Ahab exposed himself on His to cause a great revolt among his subjects and a manifest divorce with his wife Yet God would have it so to disabuse him and to bring him back to the true Religion As soon as he had then accepted the condition and commanded the assembly there were gathered together an infinite number of people there being nothing that so much tempts curiosity as the affairs of Religion It was then that one might see the assurance and vigour of a true servant of God for he observing that the King and people who had not yet choaked all the seeds of Truth floated in divers opinions spake solemnly to them That it was no longer time to halt sometimes on one side and sometimes on the other and
his Metropolis Jerusalem to be interred with his Fathers In the mean while Jehu marches victoriously to the City of Jezreel and the miserable Jezabel hearing of the death of her sonne by the conspiracy of his enemy and considering that there was no way to oppose him by arms had recourse to the charmes of her self sex She was yet in such a condition as she thought her capable to enamour that new King Instead of putting on mourning she decks and paints her self and places her self in a window of the City in sight of all the world to see that Conquerour passe by But he having cast his eyes on high asked who that woman was not being able yet well to discern her so farre off and when answer was made him that it was Jezabel the Queen he commanded those that were in the window to throw her down which they did without any farther deliberation and the miserable in falling bedewed the wall with her bloud and expired the remainder of her life under the feet of horses Jehu remembred as he was at supper what had passed and was touched with some remorse for the usage that had been shewed to Jezabel his Mistresse and said to his men Look out the body of that wretched woman and give it buriall for she was a Kings daughter And when they were come upon the place they found nothing but her head with the ends of her feet and hands the Doggs having eat up the rest This history is horrible and none can sufficiently imagine the vengeance of God upon those that violate Religion and shed the bloud of sacred persons and other of Gods servants One cannot justifie Jehu for the bebellion against his Master but in taking him for a scourge of the wrath of God who was an instrument of his Justice without for all that becomming just For whatsoever pretence he made of Religion he was pushed on by a tempestuous and bloudy ambition and made himself a Revenger of Tyrants for no other end but to be their successour filling with crimes the place that he had voided by fury He made use of the Prophets foâ— his own interest and left not to continue the Idolatry of the golden Calves to render himself pleasing to the most powerfull He was an ambiguous spirit and had as many waters and folds as he had pretensions He caused his Mistresse to be killed more for the fear of his mind then for the zeal of Religion This poor Sidonian that was a woman of a good understanding and courage instead of living quietly with her husband was pricked on with a vanity to make her Gods be worshipped and ceased not to persecute the Prophets having sworn that she would cause Elijah to be murthered making him to be followed and sought after in all places without being able to entrap him But on the contrary he ruined her with all her house leaving a terrour to all great ones to enterprise any thing against those that are protected under the covert of the face of God As this Prophet had been a man of Prodigies in all his Life so God limited his conversation amongst men with a strange miracle that since Enoch had not been practised in the world It is said that an egg well emptied and filled with dew will mount on high and follow the raies of the Sun that draws it So Elijah by a long exercise of contemplation was purified from all earthly things and filled with the unction of the Spirit of God He thought on nothing but on Heaven where he had lodged the better part of himself God had revealed to him that he should not dye after the manner of other men but that he should be rapt and carried away into a place of peace and rest He expected that most happy day and thought to steal away even from his own disciple Elisha that would never quit him They were walking both together after they had passed the river Jordan on dry foot Elijah having divided it with his Mantle when behold a burning Chariot drawn with Horses of fire comes to take up the Prophet Elisha his disciple had earnestly begged of him that his Spirit might be multiplyed in him as well in what touches Prophecy as the gift of Miracles and Elijah promised him that it should be granted to him in case that he could see him when he should be taken up And this is the reason for which that dear Disciple never went out of his sight so much as one moment and when that Chariot surrounded with innocent flames presented it self he saw his Master ascend who was on a sudden snatched up above the clouds of heaven in recompence of his zeal and most pure Virginity Elisha looked upon him with tears in his eyes calling him his Father the Chariot of Israel and the Conductour of the people of God In fine when he appeared no longer he rent his clothes wearing mourning for a losse common to all the people of Israel but very particular to him and gathered up his Mantle as a precious Relique which he carefully kept making use of it to divide the waters of Jordan and to renew the miracles of his Master Elijah according to the common opinion was transported to the Terrestriall Paradise from which he is to come at the Renovation of the world And as if in that dwelling of delights he had not yet cast away the care and direction of the Court Joram King of Judah received a Letter from him nine years after his Translation in which he chid sharply for his bad deportments and foretold him the sicknesse that should happen to him Some hold that that Letter was written by Elijah before he was taken up by way of Prophecy and kept till that time by Elisha Others as the Hebrews think that it came by Miracle and by the Ministery of an Angell directed by Elijah at the same time to teach us That the Saints renounce not a Legitimate care of the Court and of the Affairs of the World when they are to be directed to the glory of God to whom the Living and the Dead ought to render the Homages of their Fidelity ELISHA HE that hath seen Elijah cannot be ignorant of Elisha seeing his master made him heir of his Spirit as it were by a wonderfull transpiration That man of fire engraved his character upon the person that he loved most in all the world with so perfect an expression that he seemed to be born again in him in every thing that he had of excellency He went to take a new life in a terrestriall paradise without losing that which he had in the world He lived in the one by himself and in the other by Elisha in the one he performed contemplative Functions and in the other active in the one he was a Demi-god and in the other the Prince of men That Mantle of Elijah was more then an heaven bespangled with its Starres since it carried so many Lights and Sciences It dryed
much onely as would load two mules to build an Altar to the true God with holy ground and not profaned by Idolatry expressing by this request that he desired to worship the true God in spirit and in truth though he received not Circumcision nor the other Ceremonies of the Jews He aded to his former suit the permission to accompany his master to the Temple of the Idols through a pure civility without rendring any inward adoration to the Gods of Syria which the Prophet granted him and sent him away in peace all full of blessing But Gehazi Elisha's servant was like to spoil all by a wicked cozenage for he ran after Naaman who seeing him come alighted out of his chariot and received him with much honour asking what he desired of him The other feigned that two children of the Prophets were come to see his master and that he desired to gratifie them with a talent of silver and to give to each of them a change of raiment Naaman thought himself obliged by this request and instead of one talent gave him two with two handsome suits of clothes causing all of it to be carried by two of his servants by reason that a talent of silver was a good load for one man Gehazi thought that he had succeeded bravely in his cheat but when he presented himself to his master he told him that he had been present in spirit at all that had passed and that he was not ignorant that he had at present silver from Naaman enough to become a great Lord and to buy lands and servants but for punishment of his crime the leprosie of Naaman should stay on him and should passe as an inheritance to all his race and at that instant he was stricken with the leprosie and retired himself leaving an horrible example to all those that betray their conscience to satiate their covetousnesse It happens that these bad servants extremely black the reputation of their masters that have not alwayes their eyes on their shouldiers as Elisha had to see that which passes behind them but when they imagine that they live very innocently and that they discharge their consciences in their charges one may find that a crafty wife or a corrupted Committee sell them by a thousand practices and devour the marrow and the bloud of men under the favour of their name Sigismond the Emperour made one of his officers named Pithon that had betrayed his affairs through covetousnesse of money drink up a glasse of melted gold 'T was but a bad potion but sutable for the chastisement of an overflowing avarice that hath no longer eyes for heaven having already given all her heart to the earth It is credible that Naaman was advertised of the untrustinesse of Gehazi and that this nothing blemished the high reputation of Elisha that was spread through all Syria After the cure of this Naaman Benhadad that was his Master and his King fell into a mortall sicknesse and when he had learnt that the Prophet Elisha was come as farre as his city of Damascus he dispatched Hazael one of the prime men of his Kingdome with fourty camels laden with great riches to consult with him about the hope that he might have of his recovery and to desire his help The Prophet was not like Hyppocrates that would cure none but Greeks and refused to go into Persia though he was invited thither by letters and by the offers of that great and magnificent King Artaxerxes But quite contrary the man of God thought that one ought not to limit the gifts of heaven and that he that opens the treasures of nature to all the Nations of the earth would not have one detain the marks of his power without communicating them to those that bear in any fashion his Image He cleansed the leprosie of Naaman but yet for all that cured not Benhadad because it was a decree of Providence that he should die of that sicknesse The Scripture tells us not expresly what became of those great presents but it leaves us to think that Elisha refused them as he had done those of Naaman and did nothing that belyed his generosity Although one may also believe that he accepted them as well to diminish the levies of the enemies of his people as to spread them amongst the poor of his own countrey He spake onely to this Hazael the Kings Embassadours a very short speech which was that he should die of that sicknesse and should never rise out of his bed again and yet in appearance he commands him to tell him that he should escape it and recover again his health Which causes here a question to arise thorny enough touching the permission of a lie and which hath made Cassian and other antient Divines say that there are some profitable lies which one ought to make use of as one uses serpents to make treacle But this opinion is no way followed but is found condemned by S. Augustine and the most renowned Doctours So that when Elisha said to Prince Hazael touching his King He shall die but tell him he shall escape we ought to take it as a command that authorizes a lie but as a prophecy of that which should be done For the Prophet foresaw these two things with one and the same sight both that Benhadad should die and that Hazael to flatter him should promise him health and life And therefore he addes Tell him that he shall escape which in a Prophets terms is as much as a future and means that although I declare to you his death yet I know you well and am certain that according to your politick Maxims you will not fail to promise him a cure It is just as God commaaded the evil spirit to lie and to deceive Ahab foretelling what he would do and not commanding that which ought not to be done according to the laws of a good conscience As Elisha was foretelling of that Kings death he felt an extasie of spirit and changed countenance notably and began to weep whereat Hazael was much astonished and had a curiosity to know the reason of a change so sudden But the Prophet continuing in the trans-ports of his spirit said unto him I weep and I sigh bitterly for I know the evils that thou wilt make my poor people one day suffer Thou wilt burn down the fair cities thou wilt make the young men passe by the edge of the sword thou wilt dash out the brains of the little infants thou wilt inhumanely rip up women great with child thou wilt sack my dear countrey for which I now pour out my tears by way of advance The Embassadour was amazed at a discourse so strange and said Why What am I should do all these outrages God forbid that I should ever ever proceed so farre I have in all this no more belief then hath my dog But Elisha insisting told him I know by divine Revelation that thou shalt be King of Syria and that which I
reveals to me nor speak any more in his name but then I selt a fire boiling in my heart that was shut up in the marrow of my bones and I fell into a swoon and could not endure the violence of my thoughts without unloading my self by the tongue and publishing that which you inspired into me And for this behold me reduced to irons And have I not good cause to say that which miserable men use to say That the day of my nativity in regard of originall sin and so many calamities that spring from that source is lamentable and cursed and that it were to be wished that the womb of my mother that bare me had been my sepulchre Wherefore did I come out of the bowels of a woman to be a spectatour of so many sorrows and so much confusion The Saints speak sometimes like men according to the sense of the inferiour part of the soul especially when they see themselves overwhelmed with great evils but God raises them up immediately and makes them resume the tongue of heaven As the Prophet was deploring his miseries in that dark prison God gave lights and remorses to his persecutour that came the next day to deliver him either through some compassion or because he had attempted that beyond the limits of his authority The prisoner instead of expressing some kind of weaknesse spake more boldly then before fore-telling even to Pashur that he should be led captive into Babylon and that he should die there the other not daring to enterprise any thing against him After that very time Jeremy betook himself to the Palace to speak with the King and with the Queen his wife to advertise them of the utmost misery that menaced their Crown if they did not make an entire conversion to God to give an example to their Subjects Besides this he gave some State-counsel and told the King that since God had permitted that he should be subdued by the Arms of the King of Babylon that had put him on the Throne and to whom he had promised Faith Homage and Tribute he should do well to keep his promises inviolable rather then to adhere to the King of Egypt and expect the assistance of his Arms. This was the most important point of State that concerned the safety of all the kingdome Neverthelesse King Zedekiah whose spirit was a little soft hearkned to the advice and took sometimes fire but it was but for a little time he being no way constant in his good resolves When he saw himself menaced with a siege by the King of the Babylonians he was affrighted and inclined a little to his side but assoon as he perceived that he diverted his arms another way he brake his promised faith being weary of the rigour of the Tributes that the other exacted of him Thereupon Jeremy ceased not to publish that it was an errour to expect that the army of Pharaoh King of Egypt which was reported to be upon its march to help Jerusalem should do any good that it should return upon its own steps without enterprising any thing that Nebuchadonozor was not so farre off but that in a small time he would render himself before the city to besiege and win it That it was a decree of God and although the Army of the Chaldeans should be defeated yet those that remained though wounded and sick should be sufficient to take Jerusalem abandoned of the Divine protection When he had spoken this publickly he resolved to retire himself for a time and to go into the countrey but he was taken at the gate of the city by Irijah that accused him falsly and said that he was going to render himself to the army of the Chaldeans whereupon he carried him under a good guard to the Magistates who having beaten and ill used him sent him to prison where he remained many dayes without consolation At last the King having heard of what had happen'd to him caused him to come secretly to him and spake to him to conjure him to tell the truth whether those Predictions that he ceased not to sow in the ears of all the world were Revelations from God whereof the Prophet assured him again and gave him some good incitement to incline to the most wholesome counsels Poor Jeremy seeing this Prince use him kindly said unto him Alas Sir what have I done and in what have I offended your Majesty to be used as a rogue by those that usurp your authority What crime have I committed by telling you the truth Where are your false Prophets that said that there was no need to fear the coming of Nebuchadonozor and that he had other businesse to dispatch is he not at length come to verifie my Prophecies Since you do me the honour at present to hear me My Lord and my Master hearken to my most humble request and grant me a courtesie that I desire of you in the Name of God which is that I may no more return into the prison out of which your Majesty hath caused me to be drawn for the continuation of the evils that I have suffered there is able suddenly to tear my soul from my body and it will be but a grief to you to deliver me to death for having given you counsels of life and safety The King was softned by the words of the Prophet but he was so timorous that he durst not take the boldnesse to cause a prisoner to be delivered by his absolute authority fearing the reproaches and out-cryes of those that would have the upper end in all affairs He caused onely the goaler to be bid to use him a little kindlier taking him out of the black dungeon to give him a place more reasonable and to have a care that in that great famine of the city he should not want bread This was executed and he staid some time at the entrance of the prison with a little more liberty during which he spake again to those that visited him and said freely That there was no way to escape the sacking of the city but by rendring themselves to the Chaldeans This made Pashur and his complices incensed again with a great wrath and speak insolently to the King that Jeremy might be delivered to them publishing that he was worthy of death that he was a seditious fellow that did nothing but make the people mutiny and separate them from their obedience to him The miserable Zedekiah that had let these men take too high an ascendent upon his person had not strength of spirit enough to resist them but against his conscience abandoned his poor Prophet to them although it was with some regret These wicked men having taken him let him down with cords into a deep pit of the prison which was full of mire and filth where he expired the remainder of his deplorable life and had dyed there of miseries if God had not raised him up a protectour of whom he never so much as dreamed There was in
Acroceraunia beholding her self in that danger cryed out that she was the mother of the Emperour and that they should make haste to preserve her which was the occasion of her death for immediately on those words she was killed with the blows of the poles and oars Agrippina beholding this goodly pageant and being most assured that it was a design of her sonnes had yet such a command over her passion that she spake not one word and was saved by the swimming of one of those who were not of the Conspiracy The Frigots made haste to receive her and to convey her to her own house which was not farre off The amazement of the accident did not so abate her spirits but she sent to Nero to acquaint him That the Gods and the good Fortune of her Sonne had delivered her from a great danger but she desired him not to take the pains to visit her nor to send any of his servants to her because she desired to take her rest The dismall Prince who every moment attended The amazement of Nero. the issue of this most execrable enterprise was much amazed to understand that she had escaped the danger and counterfeited that the messenger whom his mother had sent was an Assassinate imployed to murder him He awaked Seneca and Burrus to demand their counsel and did remonstrate to them the danger in which he was if he should not throughly accomplish what he had so ill begun These two great personages did look on one another being unwilling to disswade him without effect or to consent unto it by reason of the horrour of it Seneca to whom the fluencies of Language were never before wanting held his eyes fixed on Burrus Captain of the Life-guard as if without speaking to him he would ask him if he had not souldiers enough of his company to execute that which should be conceived to be expedient but Burrus did prevent him and told the Emperour that the men under his command were too much affectionated to the Bloud of the Cesars to undertake so hardy an enterprise They both had a desire to divert him from so bad a deed for the want of an undertaker But the detestable Anicetas Admirall of the Fleet The death of Agrippina did again present himself to put the last hand unto the massacre He immediately with some souldiers did transport himself to Agrippina's castle he broke open the gates and found her in bed forsaken of all the world Assoon as she beheld three frightfull faces to enter her chamber she spake courageously to them and told them if they came to give her a complement that she had no need of it and if they had any other design she believed her son was not so wicked as to command her murder These villains without answering one word did begin the assassinate one struct her with a truncheon another had his sword at her bleeding breast to whom she cryed out and onely said The Belly Souldier the Belly that did bear the monster after which she gave up the ghost her body being hacked with many wounds Her corps was burned that very night and one of her servants killed her self before the funerall pile either for fear of the sonne or for grief of the mother Howsoever Nero caused a Declaration to be published in which not without horrour to the Readers he laid all the fault upon his Mother and after this he had never any rest for he dreamed almost every night that he saw his mother calling him down to hell and beheld unnumbred Furies tormenting him in the flames thereof For all this he desisted not from the nature of a Nero continueth his cruelties Tygre but to the massacre of his mother he added the murder of his wife Octavia the most innocent Princesse on earth The cause of it was one Otho a companion of his deboistnesse had taken from Crispus a man of quality his wife Poppea and in a fury such as Nero's himself had espoused her He told Nero so many wonders of the pleasures of his marriage that he gave him a desire to taste them thinking it would be a means to raise him to a higher dignity but the event was that the Lady perceiving her self to be beloved of the Emperour did totally devote her self unto him and did advise him to send her husband into Portugall under the colour of Ambassadour This cunning woman had a commanding beauty He salls in love with poppea and estrangeth himself from his wise Octavia a sweet and pleasing voyce and incomparable attractions and allurements She did leade Nero as a child and observing him so violently inamoured of her she would be his Mistresse without a Paramour and would not permit his own wife to partake of his bed For which purpose she contrived a detestable plot and caused the virtuous Empresse to be accused for prostituting her self to a player on the Flute who by his birth was an Alexandrian an accusation which could not be spoken without the absolute dislike of all good men nor believed by any but ignorant and depraved persons Neverthelesse Tigillinus the most intimate with Nero who was a great stickler in the marriage with Poppea caused the men and maid-servants of the Princesse to be examined some of whom being torn upon the rack did in the extremity of the torment let fall some untruths to deliver themselves from the intollerable pain others continued constant and there was a maid-servant of that courage that being in the midst of all her torments she said to infamous Tigellinus Know Executioner that there is not one part in all the body of my Mistresse but is more chaste then thy mouth There being not proofs sufficient to destroy her Nero was content to send her away into one of his houses and to be divorced from her under the pretence of barrennesse Not long after she was removed thence and kept under guard and was afterwards called back to Rome to appease the trouble which the absence of so illustrious and so virtuous a Lady had caused She was received with great applause of all the City which so alarm'd the spirit of Poppea that she threw her self at Nero's feet and did remonstrate to him That he should take no more care for his loves but for his life and that this return did tend to nothing else but to ruine him with her self and to make them both fall under the fury of the people That this was not it which she had deserved of his friendship and if he had rather advance in his palace the child of a player on the Flute then to have from her a legitimate heir that would give her leave to depart in a good hour and that she would look out her husband Otho in whatsoever place of the world she could find him She used such and so many attractions so many A hottible calumny counterfeit tears such sweetnesses and such rigours of love that she prevailed with detestable
in it But in my opinion it is unworthy the gravity of so great a personage and I know not to what purpose it is to revile the Ashes of the Dead although it is not forbidden to write a true History to leave a horrour to posterity in recording the lives of the wicked This howsoever may serve for instruction not to play with wasps or incense those who have the pen in their hand and can eternally proscribe their Adversaries After this sport he was imployed upon the Earnest He is made Minister of State and Agrippina mother of the young Emperour desiring to confirm her self in the Monarchy and to govern by her son did supply him with two creatures men of gteat capacity and fidelity Burrus for Arms and Seneca for Laws The first was severe in his conversation the other was of a mild and pleasing disposition They both agreed even to their deaths in the government of the Affairs of State Then it was that Seneca did enter into those great imployments and exercised that high wisdome which he had acquired for the Government of the Empire He began with his Prince who was the first and the most amiable object of all his troubles and although at the first he did expresse himself very tractable and agreeable to all the world yet Seneca perceived in his infancy the His judgement on Nero. marks of a cruel and bloudy nature and told to his intimate friends that he nourished a young lion whom he endeavoured to make tractable but if he should taste once of the bloud of men he would return to his first nature And this was the occasion that at that time he did write for him the two Divine Books of Clemency where with variety of remarkable proofs he doth establish the Excellency the Beauty and the Profit of candor of Spirit and the advantage which redounds unto a Prince to govern his Subjects with Bounty and Love On the contrary he remonstrates the horrour and disastres of Tyrants who would prevail by Cruelty in the management of their Estates All his endeavour tended that way wisely foreseeing that Nero would fall into extreme Cruelties and for that cause he did willingly give way that he should delight himself in Comedies in Musick and such Exercises of softnesse hoping that in some manner it would make more civil his savage nature He also composed for him many eloquent Orations which the young Emperour would pronounce with great grace to the generall admiration both of the Senate and the people He made also many excellent Ordinances some He put his State in good order whereof by the report of Dion were engraved upon a pillar of silver and were read every year at the renewing of the Senate He hated all the inventions the deceits and tricks of State as a trade of iniquity and did ground himself on the eternall principles of Justice by which he kept the Empire in a profound peace in great abundance and a sure felicity So that in a manner Frontine makes a true narration he saith that Seneca had so redressed all abuses that it seems he had brought goodnesse into the Empire and called the Gods from heaven to be conversant again with men In which he made use of the Philosophy of the Stoicks not that which is so rigid and so sullen but that which he had tryed and seasoned for that designe to give to the world a taste thereof His opinions for the The Maximes of Seneca most part are Rationall Sacred and Divine If he speaks of God it is in the same sense as the Of God Saviour of the world did discover to the Samaritan He professeth openly that God is a Spirit and that the difference betwixt God and us is that the better part of us is Spirit but that God is all Spirit most Pure Eternall Infinite the Creatour of the great works of Nature which we behold with our eyes If he speaketh of true Worship and the most sincere Of Religion Religion which we ought to imploy to honour and adore the sovereign King of the Universe he doth sufficiently declare that the worship of God ought to be in Spirit and in Truth as our Saviour hath prescribed When you figure God saith he represent a great Spirit but peaceable and reverend by the sweetnesse of his Majesty a friend to men and who is alwayes present with them who is not pleased with bloudy Sacrifices for what delight can he take in the butchery of so many innocent creatures The true Sacrifice of the great God is a pure Spirit an upright understanding of him and a good Conscience We ought not to heap stones upon stones to raise a Temple to him for what need hath he of it the most agreeable Temple that we can build for God is to consecrate him in our hearts Lactantius hath so much Lactan. div Instit lib. â— cap. 25. esteemed of this passage that in the sixth Book of his Institutions he doth oppose it to the Gentiles as a buckler of our Christianity If there be a question about the Presence of God Of the divine presence Epist 83. which above all things the masters of spirituall life do commend in their Instructions he saith That it is to no purpose to conceal ones self from man and that there is nothing hid from God who is present in our hearts and in our most secret thoughts If we rest in the Contemplation of the Divine Providence Of Providence which is the foundation of our life he believeth a Providence which reacheth over all And in a Tract which he hath composed he pertinently doth answer those who are amazed why Evil arriveth to good people since so great and so good a God hath a care of their wayes He saith That it is the chastisement of a Father an exercise of Virtue and that what we take to be a great Evil is oftentimes the occasion of a great Good that such is the course and order of the world according to the Divine dispensation to which we ought to submit our selves If we consider the Immorrality of the Soul which Of the Immorrality of the Soul Juvâ—e de 〈◊〉 animaâ—â—â— qâ—â—rere â—mò credere Epist 102. is the foundatton of our Faith and of all virtuous actions it is certain that he had a good opinion of it and professerh in his 102. Epistle That he delightneth not onely according to Reason to search after the Eâ—ernity of the Soul but to believe it and he complaineth that a letter received from a friend did interrupt him in that Contemplation which seemed to him so palpable that it was rather to him an agreeable Vision that he had in a Dream then any Discourse in Philosophy And in the end of the Epistle he speaketh of wonders of the originall of the Soul and the return of it to God And in the Preface of the first Book of Naturall Questions which he did write some few
it not these poor miserable creatures desire nothing more than to give me my last Farewel and I am confident my Sister Elizabeth would not have refused me so small a courtesie seeing the Honour of my Sex demandeth that my Servants should be present I am her near kinswoman Grandchild to Henry the eight and Queen Dowager of France besides I have received the Unction of Queen of Scotland if you will not grant this courtesie to one of my quality let me have it at least for the tenderness of the heart of men On this consideration five or six of her ordinary Servants were permitted to accompany her to the place of Execution to which she now was going This Divine Queen whom France had seen to walk in such state and Triumph at the pomp of her marriage when she was followed with all the glory of that Kingdom doth now alas go with this poor train to render her neck unto the Hangman She came into the Hall hung round about with blacks and ascended the Scaffold which was covered with the same livery to accomplish this last Act of her long Tragedy What eyes of furies were not struck blind at the aspect of this face in which the dying Graces did shoot for the last light of their shining Glories As soon as she was sate in a chair prepared for that purpose one Beal did read the Command and the outragious Sentence of her death which she heard very peaceably suppressing all the strugglings of Nature to abandon her self to Grace in the imitation of her Saviour At last Fletcher the Dean of Peterborough one of her evil Counsellours did present himself before her and made a Pedantical Discourse on the condition of the life passed the life present and the life to come undertaking according to his power to pervert her in this her last conflict This was the most sensible to her of all her afflictions at the last minute of her life to hear the studied speech of an impertinent and audacious Minister wherefore she oftentimes interrupted him and besought him not to importune her assuring him that she was confirmed in the saith of the ancient Catholick and Roman Church and was ready to shed her last bloud for it Nevertheless this infamous Doctour did not cease to persecute her with his Remonstrances unto the shades of Death She looked round about the Hall if she could discover her Confessor to demand of him the absolution of her sins but he was so busie that he could not be found A poor Maid belonging to her having thrust her self with all her force into the Croud as soon as she was got through them and beheld her Mistress between two Hang-men did break forth into a loud crie which troubled those who were about the Queen to assist her But the Queen who had a spirit present on all occasions made a sign unto her with her hand that she should hold her peace if she had not a mind to be forced thence The Lords then made a semblance as if they would pray for her but she thanked them heartily for their good will saying that it would be taken as a crime to communicate in prayers with them Then turning to the multitude who were about three hundred persons she thus expressed her self It is a new spectacle to behold a Queen brought to die upon a Scaffold I have not learned to undress to unveil my self and to put off the Royal Ornaments in so great a Companie and to have two Hang-men in the place of the Grooms of my Chamber But we must submit to what Heaven is pleased to have done and obey the Decrees of the Divine Providence I protest before the face of the living God that I never attempted against the Life or Estate of my Cousin neither have I committed any thing worthie of this usage If it be imputed to my Religion I esteem my self most happie to shed even the last drop of my life for it I put all my confidence in him whom I see represented in this Cross which I hold in my hand and I promise and assure my self that this temporal Death suffered for his Name shall be a beginning to me of eternal Life with the Angels and most happie Souls who shall receive my bloud and represent it before the face of God in the Remission of all my Offences There was now a floud in every eye and amongst all her Enemies there were not above four who were able to contain their tears The Hang-man clothed in black velvet fell down on his knees and did demand her pardon which she most willingly granted and not to him onely but to all her persecutours After these words she kneeled down her self praying aloud in Latin and invoked the most holy Mother of God and the triumphant Company of Saints to assist her She repeated her most servent prayers for the Church for her Kingdom for France for her Son for her cruel murtherers for England for her Judges and for her Executioner recommending into the hands of the Saviour of the world her spirit purified as well by love as by affliction The last words of her Pravers were these As thy arms Lord Jesus were stretched forth on the Cross so receive me into the stretched forth arms of thy mercie She uncessantly kissed a Crucifix which she had in her hand whereat one that stood by being offended at the honour which she gave unto the Cross told her That she should carry it in her heart to whom she suddenly made answer Both in my heart and in my hand After this she disposed her self to the Block The Executioner would have taken off her Gown but she repelled him and desired that that office might be performed for her by her own maids who approched to her to prepare her for the stroke of Death And she her self did accommodate them in it as diligently as she could and laid open her neck and throat more white than Alabaster and too much alas discovered for so lamentable a Subject This being done she signed her own Attendants with the sign of the Cross kissing them and with a short smile did bid them farewel to shew that she died as comfortably as constantly making no more resistance than the flower doth against the hand that doth gather it Those poor creatures did weep most bitterly and with their sighs and sobs could have cleaved the rocks when the Queen reproved them saying Nay What do you mean Have I answered for your constancie and that your grief should not be importunate and do you suffer your selves to be thus transported with lamentation when I am going to exchange a temporal Kingdom full of miserie for an everlasting Empire filled with fellcitie It was discovered that she had a Cross about her of great value which she intended to have bestowed on one of her nearest friends promising the Executioner to recompence him some other way but this enemy of the Cross did force it from her to satisfie
eyes enlightened with the Beams of the face of God Consider the waves of the Ocean which cease not to carry the Memory of your Deeds unto the ends of the earth pardon your Subjects and wash away the stain which the effusion of that generous bloud hath made since you had rather be a Messenger of Reconciliation than to be the Bearer of Vengeance O great and illustrious Brittanie Is it possible that this bloud hath yet wrought nothing on the hardness of thy heart and that thou dost still delight by force of Arms to fight against Heaven to oppose thy own safety and to shut the gate against thy own happiness Where is that glory of thy Christianism which heretofore did make thee to be lookt upon as on a land of Benediction which opened her liberal breasts to give so many Doctours to Europe so many Lights of learning to the Church so many Examples of piety to all Christendom and so many Confessors unto Paradise Thy Kings by a pious violence have forced their way to Heaven and their people have followed their foot-steps There was nothing spoken of thee but obedience to the Church of Rome of Saints of Reliques of Piety of Combats of Virtue and of Crowns And since the devil of lust and rebellion raised from the most black Abyss hath seized on the soul of a miserable King thou hast sullied thy perfection thou hast destroyed thy Sanctuary the lamentable Reliques whereof are now spread over all the world and the sacred stones of thy Temples groaning amongst the Nations do attend the day of the Justice of God and the Re-union of the hearts of thy people in the performance of his service What hast thou done with the cradle of Constantine and of S. Helena who were born with thee to give Laws unto all Christendom What hast thou done with those precious stones which composed that Diadem the beams whereof did sparkle with admiration in the eyes of all the people in the world Return O Sbunamite return Return fair Island to thy first beginning the hand of God is not shortned his arms all day are stretched forth to receive thee If the insolent hands of Heresie have made them bars which have been planted for so many years do not think but the hands of true piety will tear away the disorders which protect themselves in the night of so corrupted an Age. Feign not to thy self imaginary horrours and overthrowings of Estates by the Inquisitions and Thunders of Rome The beams of the Sun will make the Manna to melt which no Power can destroy The bloud of this immortal Queen shall break the Diamond in pieces and one day work those great effects which we our selves cannot believe nor our Posterity sufficiently admire It is in your veins most mighty Monarch of Great Brittain where still her bloud doth run That cruel Axe which made three Crowns to fall with one head hath not yet poured it all out it doth preserve it self in your body and in the body of your Posterity animated with the Spirit of Marie and imprinted with the image of her goodness It is she who hath given you so temperate a spirit such attractive inclinations such royal Virtues and so triumphant a Majesty It is she who uniteth you with the Queen your dear Spouse with a will so cordial and with a love so perfect and makes your marâ—iage as a continual Sacrifice of the Ancients whose offerings that were presented had no gall at all in them The Queen of Scotland your Grand-mother was given unto France and France hath rendered you a Princess according to the heart of God and according to your own-heart a Blossom of our Lilies the Daughter of a King the Sister of a King the Wife of a King Royal in her bloud Royal in her Religion Royal in her Piety in her Prudence and Royal in her Courage She enters into your cares she partakes of your troubles She conspires with your Designs her spirit turneth unto yours and yours continually is ready to meet with hers They are two clocks excellently ordered which at every hour of the Day do answer one another Great Majesties of Brittanie carry the same yoke in the service of God and the piety of your Ancestours and as you have but one heart maintain also but one Religion Establish that which your Grand-mother of everlasting memory hath practised by her Virtues demonstrated by her Examples honoured by her Constancy and sealed with her Bloud CARDINAL POOL LE CARDINAL POLVS NExt unto Boëtius I will insert Cardinal Pool one of the most excellent Men of the Age before us who being chief of the Councel in the Realm of England under Queen Marie did know so well to marry the Interests of the State to the Interests of God that rendering himself the Restorer of Religion he repaired the Ruins of the Kingdom which were fallen into a horrible desolation His Birth most high and illustrious made him a His birth and Education near Kinsman to the King of Great Brittain as well by the Fathers side as by the Mothers His spirit did equal his Nobility but his Virtue did exceed them both and proved him to be the wisest and the most moderate person in all the Clergy The care of his good Mother did with great advantage improve his more innocent and tender years and omitted nothing that might either enlighten his understanding in the knowledge of learning or inflame his heart with a generous heaâ— after gallant actions In his most tender age he testified a Divine Attraction His love of solitude which made him to eschewall commerce of company and secretly did inspire him with the love of Solitude He did delight in the Countrey life where the pureness of the Air the aspect of the Stars the ennammel of the Meadows the covert of the Woods the veins of the Waters and other objects did prepare him as many Degrees to mount up to God as he did there behold Beauties in the discovered breasts of Nature It was for this that he made his first studies near unto the House of the reverend Fathers of the Charters whose conversation he loved more than all the pleasures in the world which occasioned a certain tincture of Devotion and of probitie to pass into his manners which continued with him all his life From thence he removed to the Universities in England where he gave most admirable proofs of his Capacity On the approach of the twentieth year of his age His Travels he travelled into Italie where he beheld the wonders of Rome and had a tast of the rarest spirits in that Age some whereof did afterwards live with him and did much conduce to fill his spirit with the height of learning which made him to be admired by all and the rather because it no way diminished the holy heats of his Devotion Having travelled into forreign Countreys for the space of five years he returned into England where he was lookt
thousand Crowns to him who should bring him to him and having understood that the Pope had made him his delegate into France and Flanders he did importune the French King by all manner of Sollicitation to deliver him into his hands But the brave Prince although it was directly against his Interest would do nothing that was against his generous mind and received the Cardinal with all courtesie and fidelity because he would not offend the Pope howsoever he would not suffer him to continue long in France because he would not exasperate the King of England for he had great use of his assistance in the war which he made against the Emperour Pool was then constrained to repair to Flanders where he was charitably received by Cardinal Everard Bishop of Cambray and he continued there sometimes attending the disposition of the Pope But Henry understanding that he was retired into that Province did again kndle his choler and that in so violent a heat that he promised the Flemmings to entertain four thousand men in pay for ten Moneths in favour of the Emperour against the French if they would abandon the Cardinal to his discretion Howsoever he found none that would favour his violence which did so incense him that he caused the Countess of Salisburie to be arrested She was mother to the Cardinal and daughter to the Duke of Clarence brother to Edward the fourth She was accused for having received a letter from her Son and for having worn about her neck the figure of the five wounds of our Saviour on which he commanded that a Process should proceed against her which was performed accordingly and the perverse and abominable Judges who made all their proceedings to comply with the merciless sury of their Prince did condemn her to death and caused her head to be cut off upon a Scaffold where she gave incomparable demonstrations of her piety and constancy Her dear Son who did love and respect her with all the tenderness of affection was extreamly afflicted at it and could find no comfort but in the order of Gods providence and in the glory of her death which was pretious before God After this the Legate was called back to Rome and after he had informed Paul the third of the misery of the people of Christendom who incessantly groaned under the calamity of war kindled betwixt the two principal Crowns he did contribute the uttermost of his indeavour to provide a remedy for it This good Pope was courteous liberal magnificent well versed in letters and above all a great lover of Astrology It seemeth that the Harmony of celestial bodies with which his spirit was so delicately transported did touch his Soul with a desire to make a like harmony on earth He was passionate for the Peace of Christian Princes and as he well understood the great capacity of Cardinal Pool joyned with the Royal bloud which gave him a more full Authority he did not delay to send him with a most Authenticall Commission to mediate an accord betwixt the two Kings The holy Prelate undertook this busines with great courage being carried to it as well by his own inclination as by election He failed not to represent unto their puissances all reasons both Divine and humane which might move them to an accord for the glorie of God for the glory of their own Monarchies and for the safety of their people But as he found in the ear of Henry the Eighth a Devil of lust which obstructed all the force of reason which was presented to him to divert his passion so he found in the spirit of these two Monarchs a horrible jealousie of Estate which stopped all enterance to his saving Counsels The time was not yet come and it was to row against the wind and tide to press that business any further He was constrained to return to Rome where the Pope gave him Commission to go to Wittimbergh where he continued certain years delighting in the fruits of a sweet tranquillity In the end the Councel of Trent being already assembled to extirpate Heresies and remedy the disorders with which its venemous Contagion had infected the brest of Christendom he was chosen to be president thereof which place for some time he executed to the admiration of his knowledge and the universal approbation of his zeal But when Paul the third having exceeded the age He is considered on to be Pope of four-score years did pay the Tribute common to the condition of the living he was obliged to return to Rome where all the world did cast their eyes on him to make him the head of the Church All things seemed to conspire to his Election his age his bloud his virtue his knowledge his great experience in affairs the general affection of all which did pass almost to veneration It was onely himself that resisted his own Fortune because he would not assist himself and permitted nothing of a submiss softness to over-act his generosity neither in that nature would he be a suppliant although it were for the chiefest Miter in the world The Nephews of Paul the third who as yet possessed the most high Authority of affairs considering the faithfulness of the great services which he had rendered their uncle did perswade him with importunity to this chief Bishoprick of the world And as the Conclave was assembled and the Decision of the great business did approch unto maturity they came at night into his Chamber to speak with him concerning his promotion and to offer themselves to his service to prefer unto him that Sovereign dignity But he shewed so little complacence to their discourse that in stead of making indearments and submissions of which they who pretend to honour are always excessively prodigal he made answer to them That God was the God of light and that the affair which they came about ought not to be treated on in darkness That one word did rebate the edge of their spirits and on the morning following the good Fortune which for two moneths together did look directly on Cardinal Pool did slack its foot at the dismission of the Nephew Cardinals and Julius the Third was chosen Pope a person of much renown and a great Lawyer Pool his Competitor well understanding that it was He retireth again into solitude not expedient to reside under the eyes of a Potentate to whom the power over Christendom was secretly preferred retired to Mentz into a monastery of Saint Benets where he enjoyed the delights of rest to which his inclinations carried him exercising his devotion to the height and recreating himself with good letters which he always loved But God who by his means was pleased to bring about the greatest revolution of Estate as Europe ever saw did cause occasions to arise to draw him from that solitude to return again to his great imployments It is necessary in this place to make mention of the condition of the affairs in England to behold virtue in
he particularly recommended to all holy minds who breathed after the restoring of the ancient Religion In the second place he entered into the heart and possessed himself with the inclinations of Queen Marie whom he found throughly disposed and animated by a generous spur for the glory of God and the felicity of her Kingdom which kept her alwayes exercised on that high thought and comprehended in it the safety of all that Nation In the last he more and more encouraged all the Catholicks by the desires of their repose of conscience and by the liberty of their functions in the exercise of spiritual things In the third place he treated with those who were in an errour with the Spirit of Compassion of Sweetness and of Bounty complying with them in what he could in civil affairs and endeavouring to take from them the apprehension which they had conceived to themselves that the Change of Religion would ruin their fortunes and the establishment of their houses He caused a report to be spread by many remarkeable and grave Personages that he came not to take away their temporal goods but to give them spiritual blessings And as concerning the Goods of the Church which many Great men had usurped in that general Confusion of Affairs he said he would compose it in the best way that Love and Candor could prescribe him Fourthly He did wisely fore-see that with sweetness he should also bring in Authority which might ruin the resistences of those men if any should appear to oppose so saving a work On which he had recourse to the greatest Potentates in Europe whom he secretly affected to this Enterprize He had been before employed on the Peace between Francis the First and Charls the Fifth He did apprehend and attract the spirits of them both with wonderfull dexterity for having dived into the heart of the Emperour and finding the seeds of the Design which afterwards did discover themselves having been dismissed of the Empire and embraced a solitary life he wrought upon him with the recital of his great actions and the Conquests he had obtained and told him That all those strong agitations of his spirit were but as so many lines which ought to tend to the center of Rest that he ought not to weary and torment his good fortune That it was a great gift of God to confine his thoughts on true glory without attending the tide of the Affairs of the world That it was the duty of an Emperour to endeavour the Peace of Christendom and an incomparable honour to accomplish it He touched his heart so directly with these Demonstrations that he opened it and the Emperour declared to him That he had a great desire to that divine Peace and would embrace all reasonable Conditions that should conduce unto it After that he had effected this he made no delay to address himself to the Most Christian King and knowing that he was puissantly generous he wrought upon him by the glory of the great Wars he had sustained and the immortal actions of valour which he produced that by his invincible courage he had at the last wearied the most puissant Potentate in Europe who had him in admiration and desired nothing more than to hold a fair correspondence with him That a fair Peace should be an inestimable benefit to them both which should give rest unto their Consciences and pull down a blessing from on high upon their persons and be a great comfort to their Subjects who were overcharged with the continuation of the war In the end he did demonstrate to him how extraordâ—narily he was beloved of his people who did attend this Effect of his goodness by which he should crown his Valour with all happiness and abundance in his Kingdom The King took fire at this Discourse and the Cardinal most vigorously did blow it up and did remonstrate That two so great Monarchs who were made for Heaven ought not so greedily to hold unto their interests on earth and that they had nothing now to wish but to part their affairs and to save their honour And this indeed they afterwards performed restoring willingly on both sides all that they had conquered since the ordinance of Reconciliation made by Paul the third who some years before did transport himself to Marseilles although he was of a very great age to pacifie the Affairs of Christendom This Accord being so happily atchieved by Cardinal Pool he gained by it the approbation and applause of all Princes who favoured the Catholick cause He observed that the Emperour had his son Philip to marry and that there was nothing more expedient for the advancement of Religion than to allie him to Queen Marie He carried this affair with such secresie and dexterity that the King of Spain was in England and the Marriage published before the plot was discovered By the counsel of Charls Cardinal Pool did deferre his entery into the Realm until the Marriage was concluded and then he entered with all assurances The King himself came to meet him and Queen Marie with all her people received him with extasies of joy He incontinently did draw unto him the affection of all the principal Lords and not long after he counselled the King and Queen to call an Assembly of the most remarkable persons in the Kingdom to whom he spake thus in presence of their Majesties MADAM SInce it hath pleased God after the Confusions of the His speech to the States late times to shine upon us with his eyes of Mercie and at last to place upon the Throne the true and faithfull Inheritress of the Crown who is so worthily espoused to one of the greatest Princes in all Christendom we have a great subject to satisfie our Discontents and advance our hopes This Realm at this day doth imitate the Creation of the world coming forth from its Chaos and dark Abyss to receive the favourable influences of the light The day which by all good men hath been so passionately desired so suspected by the wicked so unlookt for by the incredulous and so attended by the afflicted is at length arrived to destroy our death and to make us new born in the life of the children of God Behold the true Religion which entereth with triumph into all the Cities of this Kingdom from which Impietie and Furie had dispossessed her she holds out her arms unto you adorned with the Palms and the Crowns with which your Ancestours have honoured her she demands again the place which from the first conversion until the furie of these later times she hold with so much honour and satisfaction Will you yet banish her Will you yet continue to persecute her Can you endure that she should present before God her torn and her bloudie Robe and complain again of the outrages of her children My Brethren There is neither life nor salvation but in this Faith which shineth and speaketh in S. Peters Chair It is that which God hath given us
and saith It is the mark of the excellencie of our Religion The third a great obedience to Superiours recommended by S. Paul to the Romans Let every soul be subject to superiour Powers The fourth a sweetness and an admirable patience in persecutions Behold what appeared in the publication of the Gospel If you observe any thing like Consider the force of this proof in the progress of the pretended Religion then have you cause to have a good opinion of it But if you therein do see all her proceedings opposite to the same conclude it is not of God And tell me what are her proceedings in the fore-alledged points It cannot be doubted but that the virtue of humilitie First mark is the foundation of faith and one of the most noble characters of Christian Religion Where humilitie Prov. 11. is saith the Wise-man there is wisdom and God is pleased to drie up the roots of proad people Now Ezech. 10. all heresie is inseparably tied to a proud spirit from whence it took beginning derived nourishment and receives increase We might alledge an infinite number of testimonies to this purpose But we do not now tell you Epiphan hoeres 19. Illebertus hoereticus sub Zacharia how two heretick women of the race of Elxay did as it were cause their spittle to be adored nor how one Hildebert gave the paring of his nails to his sectaries for reliques so true is it that heresie being a sprout of the evil spirit still retains the mark of that pride which having once assaied to disturb Heaven never suffers the earth to enjoy repose It is well known how in the last Age one called John Leyden by trade a botcher and ring-leader of Corvin and Florimon Hereticks in Germanie having first published a law of pluralitie of wives went into the field drawing along with him huge troups of unchaste creatures where after he had played the prophet he caused himself to be chosen King took a triple diadem erected a proud pavilion wherein he gave audience established his Court and Potentates choosing out rogues and reprobates at that time attired in cloth of gold and silver and other costly stuffs which having but a little before served for ornaments on Altars were now cut in pieces by the hands of these Harpies and employed to cover infamous bodies that rather deserved to be involved in sulphur and flames When this King of Cardes marched through the Citie you would have taken him for the great Duke of Muscovia or some antick King of Hierusalem A Page mounted on hors-back bare a Bible covered with plates of gold before him another carried a naked sword willing thereby to expreâ—s he was born for the defence of the Gospel Besides he commonly had in his hand a golden globe whereon these words were engraven King of Justice on earth Anne Delphonse the first of fourteen wives this Impostour had married went along with him covered with a mantle furred with ermines clasped with a great buckle all of massie gold This would seem strange if we had not lately known the insolence of rebels and their imaginary regalities which are mounted to such a height of furie that they draw very near to the like frenzie Yet will we not at this time instance hereupon in any thing concerning this article We onely say that to separate Religion from rebellion and the manners of men from doctrine the maximes of Sectaries make an absolute profession of the most enraged vanity that may be observed in the course of human life For if the Scripture doth so strictly recommend Rom. 12. Non alta sapientes sed humilibus consentientes Prov. 35. Ne innitaris prudentia tuae unto us in the practice of humilitie not to make our selves over wise or able not to rest upon our own judgement nor proper prudence to hearken to our fore-fathers to obey Pastours who have lawful succession to work our salvation with fear and trembling at Gods judgements what may we think of a sect which authorizeth a peculiar spirit which hath ever been the seminary of all schisms and disorders which without distinction putteth the Scripture into all hands to judge of points of faith from whence have risen amongst them an infinite number of divisions which teacheth to account as dotages all that which the piety of our fore-fathers reverenced all that the wisest and most religious men of the earth decided which teacheth to spit against light and trample under foot the commandments of Pastours and Prelates to flatter ones self with assurance of salvation and predestination in the greateste orbitancies and neglects of life Verily it is an admirable thing to behold how the petty spirits of artificers and silly women busie themselves herein and to what a degree of pride they come when abused by I know not what imaginary texts of Scripture they grow big with the opinion of their own abilitie What pride more irregular than to see men not content with the Religion of Charlemaigne and S. Lewis nor of the Churches and tombs of their Ancestours to become so curious as to think their Kings and Pastours to be Idolaters and all the better part of mankind bestial from whom they separate themselves as from people infected with a spiritual contagion and do all they can to deifie their own opinions What pharisie ever came near this height of pride If there were any the least spark of humilitie a good soul would say within it self What do I or where am I It is an old saying He that too much believes in himself is a devil to himself I think I am grounded on the word of God but have not all hereticks had the same foundation which they in conclusion found onely to subsist in their own imagination Why should I separate my self from the main bodie of the ancient Church to satisfie the itch of my peculiar judgement It is not credible that so many men of honour and worth who are clear-sighted in all other things should be deceived in this they may have had doubts and opinions as we but they have overcome them by humility and reason they have stuck to the bodie of the tree they have followed the general consent of people which rather live in uniformitie than adhere to noveltie Let them not be figured to me as Idolaters ideots and men superstitious they have far other aims than these The wisest and most temperate of our side believe them not to be damned in their Religion To what purpose then is all this to handle a business apart to be separated from our near alies from Sacraments Church tombs and to be the cause of so many divisions spoils and bloudshed I plainly see we must hereafter live in re-union It is the spirit of God which commandeth it If I have beliefs in my heart different from the ordinary I ought not divulge them to create schisms and scandals I should inform my self I should obey it is fit I
somewhat yield to the love of those who look after me for my good and the authoritie of such as command over me by justice I cannot perish in making a sacrifice of my proper will for peace and the common good to those whom God hath appointed me for guiders and superiours This is the great science which I will hereafter seek in the government of the inward man Behold what an humble creature might say but insolency the inseparable companion of heresie proceedeth much otherwise And as concerning purity let us not go about to 2. Mark speak of the vices of particular men which are excesses of nature not laws of profession For to say there are vices in one bodie and in one sect is to say nothing but to say these vices are confirmed and authorized by the maxims and examples of the same sect this is to say all Now this is it which we behold in the proceedings of the Pretenders For it cannot be denied but we ought to keep promise with men and by a much stronger reason what we promise to God Yet notwithstanding the principal of the Pretenders have taught by word and practised by example the doctrine of the whole bodie which is that one may break a vow of chastity to wit of a thing very good for it is praised by the mouth of our Savour and S. Paul of a thing very reasonable for millions of Matth. 17. 2 Cor. 7. Saints have practised it in the beginning of the Church of a thing most holy for the scripture hath given it the name of sanctity to break a vow sealed Thessal 4. as with the seal of the invocation of the holy Trinity and the bloud of Jesus to break it not by frailty but profession against the doctrine and practice of all antiquity Is this a mark of the true Church Take the third mark obedience most natural to 3. Mark the primitive Christians and all just men who are called a Nation of obedience and you shall find in Eccl. 3. the infancie of the pretended religion a revolt against all ecclesiastical and secular Powers continued in all times and in all the parts of the world where she might be introduced with such cruelties as we know by experience Take lastly the fourth mark which is the dove-like 4. Mark sweetness that shone in the first Christians even in the times of persecution and you shall find in the pretended Religion there is nothing but Conventicles Consistories of state factions armies ransackings and horrours which make all good consciences to tremble Should I enlarge upon this discourse I could mention matters able to make marbles weep but I will not labour to be eloquent in our evils which I seek to sweeten what I may not intending to exasperate any Onely I ask what will your prime Sectaries answer Publication of the pretended how far from true Christianitie to the Church at the day of judgement when she shall say My first Children bare neither rod nor stick to plant faith in the hearts of men and you have published a Religion all bristled with swords and sooted over with the smoak of Canons all sprinkled with the bloud of Catholicks My lawful children at the publication of the Gospel spake not one bitter word against executioners among the most exquisite torments which might be inflicted And you what vein I pray have you spared in my bodie from whence you drew not rivers of bloud to distain the lilies of France Your fore-fathers built Churches for me and you See Monsieur de Sainctes in the Book of saccage have demolished them They erected Altars and you have pulled them down They advanced Crosses to me and you have broken them They have consecrated Priests for my service and you have massacred them in my arms The Apostles taught me to place the bodies of Saints under Altars and you have taken them from that repose whereunto nature consigned them from that repose many times afforded to malefactours you have divided them between fire and water yea you have infected elements making them as executioners of those venerable bodies whose foot-steps they honoured And of what bodies of a S. Irenaeus burned at Lions of a S. Hilarie at Poictiers of a S. Aygnan at Orleans of a S. Martin and a S. Francis of Paula at Tours not to speak of others The Apostles teach us to honour Kings and you have loaden them with reproches even to the figuring of King Charls the ninth with marks most unworthy in a coyn you stampt with crosses and Church Chalices yea to the disenterring of the heart of Francis the second interred at S. Cross in Orleans and the wasting it in flames Judge now O you Pretenders whether a Religion which carried on the brow thereof acts so barbarous pollutions so hydeous cruelties so execrable can possibly have the least spark of piety For a third consideration examine well the 3. Point Foundation of Catholick Religion Augustin contra ep fun foundation of this new Religion and you shall discover the deceit thereof Catholick religion hath for foundation all that which may settle a fair and generous soul as S. Augustine observed If the word of God should hold the chief place and serve as a basis for this great building of the Church as is most reasonable we incessantly challenge Ministers to shew us one onely text express formal and irreproveable contrary to the articles of our faith For hitherto they have produced nothing but semblances to deceive inferiour judgements being unable to make them good before understanding and capable men If a lawful succession and mission of Pastours be required which is absolutely necessary for the establishment of an Ecclesiastical Hierarchie we shew that from the Apostles hitherward our Prelates and Bishops do all successively follow one another If the authority of Councels demanded which are the sinews the mouthes and living oracles of a true Religion let them be looked on in the revolution of so many Ages and they will be found altogether for us If the interpretations of Fathers and Doctours who were the lights of their times the instruments of the holy Ghost and Secretaries of the Divinity have any weight with a soul wel composed to establish a truth then especially when they all with one accord and consent do speak they loudly condemn the errour and novelism of our Adversaries If miracles which were wrought in the sight of all mankind with so much approbation that they have evicted confession from the most incredulous and reverence from the most stupid weigh down the ballance it is on our side If the studie of perfection and holiness of life be infallible marks of true faith you may as soon tell the stars in the skie as reckon up the number of holy personages who have flourished through all Ages amongst us and who therein are daily noted with such excellencies that living as Angels they speak like true Oracles of the Divinitie
the contrary and that this good man would never become evil with the blessings of God but would rather make them mount up again to their source That were he made rich it would be but for the poor and that wealth would change nothing in him but to make him the more profitable for all the world adding thereto he would answer for him body for body and soul for soul God who was willing to let the Hermit find by very sensible experience the temerity of his request permitted the Mason in an instant to become a wealthy and able man For digging in the earth he there sound a very rich treasure which made him even in an instant bury his piety Behold him changed into another man He who before perpetually sang the praises of God among the wants of poverty like Change of fortune causeth change of manners a little Gold-finch among thorns groaned under the burden of this gold grew pensive anxious sad and suspitious He forgot piety and himself to converse with his gold In the end he resolved to steal out of his Countrey where he was very well known and to travel to Constantinople the Port of all Nations there to unfold the change of his fortune with the more liberty Yet had he some discretion not instantly to appear in full view but to pollish and trick up himself making some apprentiship in the school of the world and of civil life to correct all that which the defect of his birth had left in him either of rudeness or imperfection And being of a good understanding and handsom presence he put himself in the conversation of honest men and drawing near to the fountain of light began to haunt the Court to fashion himself for arms in the Emperours Regiments where being full of crowns and daily having opportunity to oblige souldiers he so well knew how to gain hearts and purchase the good opinion of all the world that mounting step after step he was in some few years made Captain of the Guard to the Emperour Justin Behold him transported from the element of terrestrial men into a new sphere to converse with Gods There he was seized on by a dead drunkenness Riches the mother of vices and neglect of God which change of fortune usually causeth in weak understandings He no longer looks back on his extraction but to hide the defects of it He no more remembers ancient amities but quite to deface the marks of them He neither knew God nor men but for his own ends and services He walketh up and down the Citie of Constantinople like a God in a Comedie wearing rubies and dragging silk after him and he who scarcely had iron to forge a hammer or a trewel will now no longer spit but in gold and silver Prayer is a trouble to him fasts are torments ceremonies of the Church amusements and constraints This eclipse of devotion is waited on by a desperate exorbitance of feasts game and love The more shamefull his birth was so much the more he makes himself ostentous and magnificent to divert all the suspition of it It is the fashion of many Great-ones derived from inferiour rank to drown their former condition in profuse riots and to do as that Roman who sought to cover by strength of gold and silver his fathers cottage who was but a sheapherd Being engulphed in these vast delights the Hermit Vision of Daniel the Hermit who knew not what was become of his Eulogius had a frightfull vision wherein he saw himself suddenly brought before the Tribunal of God He seemed to stand trembling before this awfull Throne environed with Angels of fire who held instruments of terrour in their hands The Judge sitting with incomparable majesty looked on him with an incensed eye and shewed him a man buried in roses and wasted with riots saying unto him Is this then the care thou hast had of thy brothers soul Afterward turning to the Angels executours of his justice Strike said he and spare not this respondent The poor man half dead with fear presently understood this out-cast shewed him was Eulogius who having found great riches by his means led a riotous life at Constantinople He presently threw himself at the feet of the Judge humbly beseeching him with tears and groans to suspend the rod of his indignation on condition he would reduce his friend unto duty Verily he failed not instantly to hasten to the place He went to Constantinople and spake to Eulogius where he was and found him in this ample Citie the most eminent of the Eastern Empire in glorious equipage perpetually near the Kings person or so overwhelmed with visits affairs and delights that it was a whole moneth before he might speak to him though he daily much endeavoured it In the end it was Gods will one day he was admitted into his Cabinet when beseeching him to send away his people for the importance of the business he was to treat that done he presently made himself known remembering Eulogius of his former poverty his trewel and masons life adding that by his prayers he came to this eminent fortune he confidently blamed him for his ingratitude and infidelity towards God The other who took no contentment that amidst his golden glitter and silk the old ragge of his first fortune should be remembered brake off the discourse and shamefully driving him out of his Cabinet asked his waiters what they meant to bring a fool and a melancholy lunatick before him which was the cause the unfortunate Father Daniel was so loaden with blows that he thought he should have been slain in the place Yet all bloudie he crept out of the chamber as well as he could and lifting his eyes up to Heaven humbly besought God steeping every word in his tears and bloud to send Eulogius not more riches and honours but disgrace and poverty knowing it was the onely means to reduce him to reason This quickly came to pass as he wished For Fall of Eulogius the Emperour Justin dying Eulogius was removed both from the favours he hoped and those he possessed which disposed him to a bitterness of heart against Justinian then seated in the Empire But it being dangerous to suffer ill affection towards the Prince to encroach upon the heart he already was so giddy that nothing wanted but opportunity to undo himself Behold here a hydeous treason plotted against the Rebellions and seditions direfull for people new Emperour which aimed to ruin the whole state of the East and to bury Constantinople in its ruins Hypatius and Pompey nephews of the Emperour Anastasius who preceded Justin had also pretences for the Empire which having been little countenanced either through want of time or defect in their merit failed not to be reproduced in this new State wherein Justinian's affairs seemed as yet much unsetled These Rebels had drawn to their side huge factions of mutinous spirits and envenomed the peoples minds by decrying what
they could the government of Justinian under the shadow of exactions of excessive sums of money levied on all sides So that in short time the whole Citie was seen in arms and filled with malecontents who under colour of defence of publick good committed shamefull outrages and pillages unpunished The people never fail to favour rebellions and to second the evil purposes of the factious for that is the way to put ones self between two dangers and to be exposed as a prey to all violence The Emperour seeing the malignity of this storm and well understanding he could not divert it but by strong resistance dispatched the Regiments of the Heruli to over-run the Rebels They being rough gamesters made a great massacre of the people whilst the blind iron made no distinction between forreigner and native This served more to exasperate minds transported with extremities saying They no longer must hope for safetie since the Prince had sold their lives to Barbarians The sedition was so much enkindled that women and children became parties ceasing not to throw stones and fire from on high out of windows upon the Emperours souldiers They seeing themselves charged of all hands entered into an inexorable fury which was waited on by so strange a butchery that it in an instant covered the streets with bloud and dead bodies The Patriarch beholding all this misery had recourse to the arms of heaven since earthly Powers could do nothing so that he presently advanced a procession of Ecclesiasticks who bare the books of the Gospels and Images of our Saviour But the Herull became then enraged Elephants with the sight of their bloud nor could they look on any Image but of revenge or entertain any Gospel but the sword They onely called force to counsel when reason was banished and acted all which violent rage might in an unlimited power You would have said signal had been given for fire and sword to commix and confound all that might be disordered Crimes were freed from chains of laws and Religion which useth to become a veil for protection of suppliants had no obstacle in it to stay the heat of this fight The Emperour who onely required to pacifie the sedition needs would call the people into the Theater to sweeten and inform them of his intentions but the rebellious cried out instantly it was to deceive and the more easily to ensnare them and the excess of their wickedness having taken away the hope of pardon they took Hypatius and lifted him on high upon a target to pronounce him Emperour in sight of all the world The whole Citie stood five days in so horrible confusions that it seemed a very image of hell In the end God favouring the right of lawfull Princes Justinian found effectuall means to disarm rebellion attracting some by great liberalities and dis-countenancing the rest he so changed the face of affairs mingling likewise force with industry and favour that he caused Hypatius the imaginary Emperour to be taken with Pompey his Associate and condemning them to death dissolved the whole conspiracy which had before been so fatal to the people that thirty thousand remained dead on the place Eulogius was far engaged in the faction of Hypatius so that saving his life by flight all his goods were confiscated The miserable man not knowing of what wood to make his arrow returned to his former trade and hid himself in great obscurity to make it a veil for his crimes Notwithstanding moved with remorse of conscience he began in this alteration of state to make a virtue of his necessity and to sacrifice his body to penance which had been vowed to sensuality The Hermit Daniel afterward met him by chance and perceiving him much milder and more tractable than he was at Constantinople How goes the world with you Eulogius said he having been the King in a Tragedie what part play you now To which all over-covered with shame he replied His ingratitude had abused the blessings of God and men yet for all this not lessened their goodness and that if Father Daniel would once again pray for him not to restore him to the Court where he too long lived in the death of his innocency but a little to sweeten the sharpness of his poverty he would be gratefull for it all days of his life The Hermit answered Confide not in me my friend the experience of your follies hath made me wiser than I was Though poverty be irksom it is an evil necessary for you Remain in the condition whereunto your birth disposed you and ask not riches again which would onely serve to make you nought VI. MAXIM Of PRAEDESTINATION THE PROPHANE COURT THE HOLY COURT That our Salvation is a thing done nor need we take care of it That our eternal happiness is yet in our hands and expecteth our endeavour 1. GReat things are not unlike the sources Maluit ortus scrutari quà m nosse tuos Lucanus of Nilus whereof the Ancients said nature made them rather to be looked after than found so many great wits have been employed to enquire the causes of Praedestination yet all have confessed It was an abyss of the riches of Gods wisdom and Rom. 11. knowledge whose judgements are incomprehensible and ways not to be tracked Fear not the judgements of God which of themselves Maxims against fatalitie are nought but justice and goodness but fear your works which have so little assurance and so much iniquitie Say not your salvation is a thing done and that God having determined it from all eternity without calling you to counsel good works can do nothing to advance your happiness nor bad to encrease your unhappiness Know God who of his meer bounty calleth you will neither save nor damn you but by justice Think not it is destiny or necessity begins this business God by his grace hath put the mould and cizars into your hands to fashion your self such as you desire to be reputed First secure your self of your self by contributing to the graces which prevent you He who is good to himself shall never find God evil The great judgement of Tertullian fore-stalled the disputation of men when he said (a) (a) (a) Notable saying of Tertullian Non est bonae solid◠fidei sic omnia ad voluntatem Dei referre ita adulari unumquemque dicendo nihil fieri sine jussione ejus ut non intelligamus aliquid esse in nobis ipsis Tertul. l. de exhort castitatis It was neither a good faith nor very solid to referre all to the will of God and so flatter the world by saying nothing is done in the world without the Ordinance of God but we must understand there is some power in us which God himself expecteth to accomplish the work of our salvation To say then The great God hath determined of us in his eternity without making any reflection upon our works Is to make a pillow for the sloth of some and to
even to the deep and exalt thee above the heavens having my mind employed onely in thy praise O God let me die in my self and live in thy heart and let me receive all that comes from thy providence as gifts from Heaven O God let me persecute my self as an enemie and follow thee as an onely friend O God let me have no assurance but the fear of thy holy Name nor confidence but the diffidence of my self O God when will the day come when thou shalt take away the evil of the Temple that I may behold thee face to face to enjoy thee eternally THE SECOND PART of the CHRISTIAN DIARY The first SECTION Twelve fundamental Considerations of Virtue YOu must firmly believe that the chiefest Devotion consisteth in practise of virtues without which there is neither solid piety nor hope of salvation Paradise holds none but blessed souls and hell the wretched but the world wherein we live hath many kinds of merchants some traffick with Babylon others with Sion some through their ill trading and disorderly carriage go on insensibly to the last misery which is a banishment from the life of God into an eternity of punishment Others go on in a streight line to the first and sovereign happiness which is the vision fruition and possession of God in an eternity of inexplicable joys If you desire to take this latter course I would advise you to set often before you these twelve Considerations which I have inserted in my Book of the Holy Court for in my opinion they are twelve great motives to all actions of virtue The first is the nature and dignity of man that is to say the first and continual study of man ought to be man himself to behold what he was what he is and what he shall be What he was nothing what he is a reasonable creature what he shall be a guest either of Paradise or of hell of eternal happiness or of everlasting misery What he is by Nature a Master-piece in which there are a thousand several motions a Body framed with admirable Architecture a Soul endowed with Understanding Reason Wit Judgement Will Memory Imagination and Opinion a Soul which in an instant flieth from one Pole to the other descends to the centre and mounts up to the top of the world which in one instant is in a thousand several places which fathoms the Universe without touching it which goes glisters sparkles which ransacks all the treasures and magazins of Nature which finds out all sorts of inventions which frameth Arts which governeth States which ordereth worlds This soul in the mean time seeth her passions about her like an infinite company of dogs barking at her happiness and offering on every side to seize upon her with their teeth Love fools her Ambition racks her Covetousness rusts her Lust enflames her Hope tickles her Pleasure melts her Despair depresses her Anger burns her Hatred sowers her Envy gnaws her Jealousies prick her Revenge exasperates her Cruelty hardens her Fears freeze her and Sorrow consumes her This poor soul shut up in the body like a bird of Paradise in a cage is quite amazed to see her self assailed by all this mutinous multitude and although she holds in her hand the scepter of government yet she often suffers her self to be deceived ravished and dragged into a miserable slavery Consider also what man is by sin vanity weakness inconstancy misery and curse What he is made by Grace a child of light an earthly Angel son by adoption to the heavenly Father brother and coheir with Jesus Christ a vessel of election the temple of the Holy Ghost What he may be by Glory an inhabitant of Heaven beholding then those stars under his feet which are now over his head feasted with the sight of God his beginning his end his true onely and original happiness The second the benefits received from God considered in general as those of Creation Conversation Redemption Vocation and in particular the gifts of the body of the soul of nature of capacity ability industry discretion nobility offices authority means credit reputation good success in business and the like which are given us from Heaven as instruments to work out our salvation And sometimes one of the greatest benefits is that which few account a benefit to have none of all those helps which lead a presumptuous weak and worldly soul to ruin but on the contrary their better wants in the esteem of the world beget in him an esteem of heavenly things Man seeing what he was what he is and what he must be whence he cometh whither he goeth and that union with God his beginning is his scope mark and aim if he follow the dictates of his reason presently resolveth that no sinew nor vein he hath but shall tend to this end to subdue his passions and to serve creatures no further than he knows them available to attain to the Creatour Serva commissum expecta promissum cave prohibitum Every creature saith these three things to man O man preserve that which is committed to thee expect that which is promised thee and eschew that which is forbidden thee The third consideration is the Passion of the Son of God an Abyss of grief reproches annihilations love mercy wisdom humility patience charity the book of books the science of sciences the secret of secrets the shop where all good resolutions are forged where all virtues are refined where all knots of holy obligations are tied the school of all Martyrs Confessours and Saints Our weakness and saintness proceeds onely from want of contemplating this infinite tablet Who would once open his mouth to complain of doing too much of suffering too much of being thrown too low too much despised too much disquieted if he considered the life of God delivered over and resigned for his sake to so painful labour so horrible confusions so insupportable torments Nolo vivere sine vulnere cùmte video vulneratum Oh my God! as long as I see thy wounds I will never live without wound saith Bonaventure The fourth the examples of all the Saints who have followed the King in the high way of the Cross When we look upon the progress of Christianity and the succession of so many Ages wheresoever our consideration setteth foot it finds nothing but bloud of Martyrs combats of Virgins Prayers Tears Fastings Sack-cloth Hair-cloth Afflictions Persecutions of so many Saints who have taken Heaven as it were by violence Some there have been who having filled graves with their limbs torn off with engines and swords of persecution yet remained alive to endure and suffer in their bodies which had more wounds than parts Demorabantur in luce detenti quorum membris pleni erant tumuli saith Zeno. Is it not a shame to have the same name the same Baptism the same Profession and to desire ever to tread on Roses to be embarqued in this great ship of Christianity with so many brave spirits and to
go under hatches to sleep like the out-casts and scorns of humane Nature The fifth the peace of a good conscience the inseparable companion of honest men which sugereth all their tears which sweeteneth all their sharpness which melteth all their bitterness a continual feast a portable theater a delicious torrent of unspeakable content which beginneth in this world and is often felt in this life even in chains prisons persecutions what then will it be when consummated in the other life when the curtain of the great Tabernacle shall be withdrawn when we shall see God face to face in a body impossible as an Angel subtile as a beam of light swift as the wings of thunder bright as the Sun and when we shall dwell among so goodly and flourishing a company in a palace of inestimable glory where we shall enjoy no life but the life of God the knowledge of God the love of God as long as God shall be God Nescio quid erit quod ista vita non erit ubi lucet quod non capiat locus ubi sonat quod non rapit tempus ubi olet quod non spargit flatus ubi sapit quod non minuit edacitas ubi haeret quod non divellit aeternitas said S. Augustine What will that life be or rather what will not that life be Since all good either is not at all or is in such a life Light which place cannot comprehend Voices and musick which time cannot ravish away Odours which are never dissipated a Feast which is never consumed a Blessing which Eternitie bestoweth but Eternity shall never see at an end The sixth is on the other side to consider the state of this present life A true dream which hath onely the disturbances but never the rest of sleep a childish sport a toil of burthensom and ever-relapsing actions where for one rose we meet with a thousand thorns for an ounce of hony a tun of gall for apparent good real evil The happiest here may number their years but not their cares The paths here to the highest honours are all of ice and often bordered onely by precipices Its felicities are floating Islands which always retire when we but offer to touch them they are the feast of Heliogabalus where are many invitations many ceremonies many complements many services and at the end of all this we find a table banquet of wax which melts at the fire whence we return more hungry than we came It is the enchanted egg of Oromazes in which that Impostour boasted that he had enclosed all the happines of the world but broken there was found nothing but wind Omnia haec conspectui nostro insidiosis coloribus lenocinantur vis illa occulorum attributa lumini non applicetur errori saith Eucherius All these prosperities flatter our senses with an imposture of false colours why do we suffer those eyes to be taken in the snares of errours which are given us by Heaven to behold the light and not to minister unto lying Besides another thing which should put us into an infinite dislike of this present life is that we live in a time as full of diseases as old age of indispositions we live in a world extreamly corrupt of which may be said it is a monster whose understanding is a pit of darkness his reason a shop of malice his will a hell where thousands of passions outragiously infest him his eyes are two Conduit-pipes of fire out of which flie sparkles of concupiscence his tongue an instrument of cursing his face a painted hypocrisie his body a spunge full of filth his hands harpies talons and to conclude he owns no faith but infidelity no Lord but his passion no God but his belly what content can there be in living with such a monster The seventh If there are any pleasures in this life they do nothing but overflow the heart slightly with a little superficial delectation Sadness dives into the bottom of my soul and when it is there you would think it hath leaden feet never to go thence but pleasure doth onely tickle us in the outside of the skin and then all those sweet waters run down with haste to discharge themselves into the sea of bitterness For this reason Saint Augustine said when any prosperity presented it self before his eyes he durst not touch it he beheld pleasure as a wandering bird that would deceive him and flie away as soon as he should offer to lay hold of it The eighth Pleasures are begot in the sense and like abortives die in their birth their desires are full of disquiet their access of violent forced and turbulent commotions their satiety is seasoned with shame and repentance they pass away as soon as they have wearied out the body and leave it like a bunch of grapes whose juice hath been pressed out as saith Saint Bernard They stretch themselves out at full length to much purpose when they must end with this life and it is a great chance if even during life they prove not executioner to him that entertains them I see no greater pleasure in this world than the contempt of pleasure Nulla major voluptas qâ—à m voluptatis fastidium saith Tertullian The ninth He that consumeth his time in pleasures when they slide away like waters occasioned by a storm findeth himself destitute and ashamed like a Pilgrim despoiled by a Thief so many golden harvests which time presented to him are passed away and the rust of a heavy age furnished him with nothing but sorrow for having done ill and impotence to do well what then remains but to say with that miserable King who gave away his scepter for a glass of water Alas Must I for so short a pleasure loose so great a Kingdom The tenth Sin always carrieth sorrow behind it but not always true repentance It is an extraordinary favour from God to have time to bewail the offences of our life past and to take that time by the foretop Many are sent into the other world without once thinking of their departure and some think of it at their death with many tears but not one good act of repentance they weep for the sins which forsake them and not for God whom they have lost True contrition is a hard work how can he obtain it who hath ever falsified it Faciliùs inveni qui innocentiam servarent quà m qui congruè poenitentiam agerent saith S. Ambrose The eleventh Death all this while is coming on a great pace he waits for you at all hours in all places and yet you cannot wait for him so much as one minute so displeasing is this thought unto you his sentence is more clear and perspicuous than if it were written with the Suns beams and yet cannot we read it his trumpet soundeth perpetually more audibly than thunder and yet we hear it not No wonder that David Psal 49. 4. calleth it according to the Hebrew a Riddle every one beholds the Tablet but