out of that Desart they fixed their eyes vpon three strange humane shapes of a fearefull and vnmeasurable stature in long loose gownes and habited after the manner of Mourners with blacke and grisly haire hanging ouer their shoulders but of countenance most terrible to behold Who calling and beckoning to them both with voice and gesture and they not daring to approch them they vsed such vndecent skipping and leaping with such brutish and immodest gestures that halfe dead with feare they were inforced to take them to their heeles and runne till at length they light vpon a poore countrey-mans cottage in which they were relieued and comforted Sabellicus deliuereth this discourse The father of Ludovicus Adolisius Lord of Immola not long after his decease appeared to a Secretarie of his in his journey whom he had sent vpon earnest businesse to Ferrara The Spectar or Sylvan Spirit being on horse-backe attyred like an huntsman with an Hawke vpon his fist who saluted him by his name and desired him to entreat his sonne Lodowicke to meet him in that very place the next day at the same houre to whom hee would discouer certaine things of no meane consequence which much concerned him and his estate The Secretarie returning and reuealing this to his Lord at first he would scarse giue credit to his report and jealous withall that it might be some traine laid to intrap his life he sent another in his stead to whom the same Spirit appeared in the shape aforesaid and seemed much to lament his sonnes diffidence to whom if hee had appeared in person hee would haue related strange things which threatned his estate and the means how to preuent them Yet desired him to commend him to his sonne and tel him That after two and twenty yeares one moneth and one day prefixed he should lose the gouernment of that City which he then possessed And so he vanished It happened iust at the same time which the Spectar had predicted notwithstanding his great care and prouidence That Philip Duke of Mediolanum the same night besieged the City and by the helpe of Ice it being then a great frost past the Moat and with ladders scaled the wall surprised the city and tooke Lodowicke prisoner Fincelius remembreth vnto vs That in the yeare 1532 a Nobleman of his country had commanded a countreyman a Tenant of his with whom he was much offended either to bring home to his Mannor house a mighty huge Oke which was newly felld betwixt that and Sun-set or he should forfeit his time and the next day be turned out of his cottage The poore husbandman bringeth his cart to the place but looking vpon the massie timber and finding it a thing vnpossible to be done he sits down wrings his hands and falls into great lamentation When presently appeared before him one of these Spirits in the shape of a laboring man and demanding him the cause of his sorrow he was no sooner resolued but If that be all saith the Diuell follow me and I will saue thee the forfeiture of thy Leafe Which he no sooner said but he tooke the huge Oke boughes branches and all and threw it vpon his shoulder as lightly as if it had beene a burthen of Firres or Broome and bearing it to the house cast it crosse the gate which was the common entrance into the house and there left it The Gentleman returning towards night with his friends from hawking spying the doore barricadoed commanded his seruants to remoue the tree But forcing themselues first to stir it then to hew it with axes and lastly to set it on fire and finding all to be in vaine the master of the Mannor was inforced to haue another doore cut out in the side of his house to let his Ghests in for at the backe gate hee had vowed not to enter hauing before made a rash Oath to the contrarie By the aid of these Spirits as Caspinianus giueth testimonie the Bulgarians gaue the Romans a great ouerthrow in the time of the Emperour Anastasius The like the Huns did to the French King Sigebert defeating him notwithstanding the oddes of his great and puissant Armie Of this kinde those were said to be who when the Poet Simonides was set at a great feast came like two yong men and desired to speake with him at the gate Who rising in haste from the table to know their businesse was no sooner out of the roome but the roofe of the hall fell suddenly and crushed all the rest to pieces he onely by this meanes escaping the ruin Those Spirits which the Greekes cal Paredrij are such as haunt yong men maids and pretend to be greatly in loue with them yet many times to their hurts and dammage Mengius speaketh of a Youth about sixteene yeares of age who was admitted into the Order of Saint Francis whom one of these Spirits did so assiduately haunt that hee scarce could forbeare his company one instant but visibly he appeared to him sometimes like one of the Friers belonging to the house sometimes one of the seruants and sometimes againe he would personate the Gouernour Neither was he onely seene of the Youth himselfe whom he pretended so much to loue but of diuers of the Domesticks also One time the Youth sent this Spirit with a Present of two Fishes vnto a certaine Monke who deliuered them to his own hands and brought him backe a commendatorie answer The same Mengius in the selfe same booke speaketh likewise of a faire yong Virgin that dwelt in a Noblemans house of Bonnonia and this saith he happened in the yere 1579. haunted with the like Spirit who whithersoeuer she went or came stirred not from her but attended on her as her Page or Lackey And if at any time vpon any occasion her Lord or Lady had either chid or strooke her he would reuenge that iniury done to her vpon them with some knauish tricke or other Vpon a time hee pretending to be extremely angry with her catched her by the gowne and tore it from head to heele which shee seeming to take ill at his hands hee in an instant sowed it vp so workeman-like that it was not possible to discerne in what place hee had torne it Againe she being sent downe into the cellar to draw wine he snatcht the candle out of her hand and cast it a great distance from her by which occasion much of the wine was spilt this he confest he did only to be reuenged on them who the same day before threatened her Neither could he by any exorcismes be forced to leaue her company till at length shee was persuaded to eat so often as she was forced to do the necessities of nature and thereby she was deliuered from him Another of these Paredrij haunted a Virgin of the same City who was about the age of fifteene yeares who would doe many trickes in the house sometimes merrily and as often vnhappily
be assembled he told them the whole circumstance before related Who vpon no other euidence summoned the party to make his appearance who after strict examination confessed the fact and made restitution of the Vessell For which discouery the Temple was euer after called Templum Herculis Indicis Alexander the Philosopher a man knowne to be free from all superstition reporteth of himselfe That sleeping one night hee saw his mothers funeralls solemnised being then a dayes journey distant thence and waking in great sorrow and many teares hee told this apparition to diuers of his Familiars and Friends The time being punctually obserued certaine word was brought him the next day after That at the same houre of his Dreame his mother expired Iovius reporteth That Sfortia Anno 1525 in a mornings slumber dreamed That falling into a Riuer he was in great danger of drowning and calling for succour to a man of extraordinary stature and presence such as Saint Christopher is pourtrayed who was on the farther shore he was by him sleighted and neglected This Dreame he told to his wife and seruants but no farther regarded it The same day spying a child fall into the water neere vnto the Castle Pescara thinking to saue the childe leaped into the Riuer but ouer-burthened with the weight of his Armor he was choked in the mud and so perished The like Fulgentius lib. 1. cap. 5. reporteth of Marcus Antonius Torellus Earle of Cynastall who admonished of the like danger in his sleep but contemning it the next day swimming in which exercise he much delighted though many were neere him yet he sunke in the midst of them and was drowned not any one being at that time able to helpe him Alcibiades Probus Iustine and Plutarch relate of him That a little before his death which happened by the immanitie of Tismenius and Bagâ—as sent from Critia dreamed That he was cloathed in his mistresses Petticoat or Kirtle Whose body after his murther being throwne out of the city naked and denied both buriall and couerture his Mistresse in the silence of the night stole out of the gates and couered him with her garment as well as she was able to shadow his dead Corps from the derision and scorne of his barbarous enemie No lesse strange was the Dreame of Croesus remembred by Herodotus and Valerius Max. Lib. 1. Cap. 7. Who of Atis the eldest and most excellent of his two sonnes dreamed That he saw him wounded and trans-pierced with steele And therefore with a fatherly indulgence sought to preuent all things that might haue the least reflection vpon so bad a disaster And thereupon where the youthfull Prince was before employed in the wars hee is now altogether detained at home in peace He had of his owne a rich and faire Arcenall or Armorie furnished with all manner of weapons in which hee much delighted which is shut vp and hee quite debarred both the pleasure and vse thereof His Seruants and Attendants are admitted into his presence but they are first vnarmed Yet could not all this care preuent Destiny for when a Bore of extraordinarie stature and fiercenesse had made great spoile and slaughter in the adiacent Region insomuch that the king was petitioned to take some order how he might be destroied the noble Prince by much importunitie and intercession obtained leaue of his father to haue the honour of this aduenture but with a strict imposition that he should expose his person vnto no seeming danger But whilst all the Gallantry that day assembled were intentiue on the pursuit of the Beast one Adrastus aiming his Bore-speare at him by an vnfortunate glance it turned vpon the Prince and slew him Valerius Maximus telleth vs of one Aterius Ruffus a Knight of Rome who when a great Sword-play was to be performed by the Gladiators of Syracusa dreamed the night before That one of those kinde of Fencers called Rhetiarij which vsed to bring Nets into the Theatre and by cunning cast them so to intangle their aduersaries to disable them either for offence or defence gaue him a mortal wound Which dream he told to such of his friends as fate next him It happened presently after That one of those Rhetiarij was brought by a certaine Gladiator being then Challenger into a Gallery next vnto the place where Aterius and his friends were seated as spectator Whose face hee no sooner beheld but hee started and told his Friends that hee was the man from whose hands he dream'd he had receiued his deadly wound When suddenly rising with his Friends to depart thence as not willing to tempt that Omen in thrusting hastily to get out of the throng there grew a sudden quarrell in which tumult Aterius was transpierced by the same mans sword and was taken vp dead in the place being by no euasion able to preuent his fate Cambyses King of Persia saw in a Vision his brother Smerdis sitting vpon an Imperiall Throne and his head touching the clouds And taking this as a forewarning that his brother had an aspiring purpose to supplant him and vsurpe the Crowne he wrought so far with Praxaspes a Nobleman and then the most potent in the Kingdome that by his practise he was murthered Yet did not all this avert the fate before threatned for another Smerdis a Magition and base fellow pretending to be the former Smerdis and the sonne of Cyrus after enioyed the Kingdome and Cambyses mounting his Steed was wounded with a knife in his hip or thigh of which hurt he miserably died Many Histories to the like purpose I could cite from Aristotle Plato Hippocrates Galen Pliny Socrates Diogines Laertius Themistocles Alexander Aphrodiensis Livy AElianus and others As of Ptolomeus besieging Alexandria Of Galen himselfe Lib. de venae Sectione Of two Arcadians trauelling to Megara Of Aspatia the daughter of Hermilinus Phocensis who after was the Wife of two mighty Kings Cyrus of Persia and Artaxes whose history Elianus de Varia Historia lib. 12. writeth at large As also that of Titus Atimius remembred by Cicero Lib. de Divinat 1. By Valer. Maxim Lib. 1. Cap. 7. By Livy lib. 2. By Macrâ—b Saturn 1. with infinite others To the further confirmation that there are Spirits I hold it not amisse to introduce some few Histories concerning Predictions The Emperor Nero asking counsel of the Diuell How long his empire and dominion should last Answer was returned him from that crafty and equivocating Pannurgist To beware of 64. Nero being then in youth and strength was wondrous ioyful in his heart to heare so desired a solution of his doubt and demand presuming that his principalitie should vndoubtedly continue to that prefixed yeare if not longer But soone after â—alba who was threescore and foure yeares of age being chosen to the Imperiall Purple deposed and depriued him both of his Crowne and life The like we reade of Philip King of Macedon and Father to
mayst resolue mee how thou shalt be re-created againe Obserue how the Light this day failing shineth againe tomorrow and how the Darknesse by giuing place succeedeth againe in it's vicissitude The Woods are made leauelesse and barren and after grow greene and flourish The Seasons end and then begin the Fruits are first consumed and then repaired most assuredly the Seeds prosper not and bring forth before they are corrupted and dissolued All things by perishing are preserued all things from destruction are regenerated And thou ô Man thinkest thou that the Lord of the Death and the Resurrection will suffer thee therefore to dye that thou shalt altogether perish Rather know That wheresoeuer thou shalt be resolued or what matter soeuer shall destroy exhaust abolish or reduce thee to nothing the same shall yeeld thee vp againe and restore thee For to that God the same nothing belongs who hath all things in his power and prouidence The whole frame of heauen saith Saint Ambrose in Psal. 119 God made and established with one hand but in the creation of Man he vsed both He made not the Heauens to his Similitude but Man He made the Angels to his Ministerie but Man to his Image Saint Augustine super Ioan. Serm. 18. saith One is the life of Beasts another of Men a third of Angels The life of irrational Brutes desireth nothing but what is terrene the life of Angels onely things coelestiall the life of Man hath appetites intermediate betwixt Beasts and Angels If he liueth according to the flesh he leadeth the life of Beasts if according to the Spirit hee associateth himselfe with Angels Hugo in Didasc lib. 1. speaking of the birth of Man saith That all Creatures whatsoeuer Man excepted are bred and born with naturall defences against injuries and discommodities as the Tree is preserued by the Barke the Bird is couered with her Feathers the Fish defended with his Skales the Sheepe clad with his Wooll the Herds and Cattell with their Hides and Haire the Tortoise defended with his Shell and the skin of the Elephant makes him fearelesse of the Dart. Neither is it without cause that when all other Creatures haue their muniments and defences borne with them Man onely is brought into the World naked and altogether vnarmed For behoofull it was that Nature should take care of them who were not able to prouide for themselues But Man borne with Vnderstanding had by his natiue defects the greater occasion offered to seeke out for himselfe that those things which Nature had giuen to other Animals freely he might acquire by his Industry Mans reason appearing more eminent in finding out things of himselfe than if they had freely bin bestowed vpon him by another From which ariseth that Adage Ingeniosa fames omnes excuderit Artes. To the like purpose you may thus read in Chrisostome vpon Mathew God hath created euerie sensible Creature armed and defended some with the swiftnesse of the feet some with clawes some with feathers some with hornes some with shells c. but he hath so disposed of Man by making him weake that he should acknowledge God to be his onely Strength that being compelled by the necessitie of his infirmitie he might still seek vnto his Creator for supply and succour To come to the Ethnycks Solon being asked What Man was made answer Corruption in his birth a Beast in his life and Wormes meat at his death And Silenus being surprised by Mydas and demanded of him What was the best thing which could happen to Man after a long pause and being vrged by the King for an answer burst out into these words The best thing in my opinion that Man could wish for is not to be borne at all And the next thing vnto that is Being borne to be soone dissolued For which answer he was instantly released and set at libertie Phavorinus was wont to say That Men were partly ridiculous partly odious partly miserable The Ridiculous were such as by their boldnesse and audacitie aspired to great things beyond their strength The Odious were such as attained vnto them the Miserable were they who failed in the atchieuing of them Stoeb Serm. 4. King Alphonsus hearing diuers learned men disputing of the miserie of Mans life compared it to a meere Comedie whose last Act concluded with death And saith he no such is held to be a good Poet who doth not wittily and worthily support his Scoenes with applause euen to the last catastrophe Aristotle the Philosopher being demanded What Man was made answer The example of Weakenesse the spoile of Time the sport of Fortune the image of Inconstancie the ballance or scale of Enuy and Instabilitie Stobae Serm. 96. Man saith an other hath not power ouer miseries but miseries ouer him and to the greatest man the greatest mischiefes are incident Cicero saith That to euery man belong two powers a Desire and an Opinion the first bred in the body acciting to pleasure the second bred in the Soule inuiting to goodnesse And that man saith Plato who passeth the first part of his life without something done therein commemorable and praise-worthy ought to haue the remainder of his life taken from him as one vnworthy to liue From the Philosophers we come next to the Poets We reade Homer in his Iliads to this purpose interpreted Quale foliorum genus tale hominum c. As of Leaues is the Creation Such of Man 's the Generation Some are shak'd off by the winde Which strew'd vpon the earth we finde And when the Spring appeares in view Their places are supply'd with new The like of Mankinde we may say Their time fulfil'd they drop away Then they the Earth no sooner strow But others in their places grow Claudian writeth thus Etenim mortalibus ex quo Terra caepta coli nunquam sincera bonorum c. To mortall men by whom the earth began First to be cultur'd there is none that can Say hee 's sincerely happy or that Lot Hath design'd him a temper without spot Him to whom Nature giues an honest face The badnesse of his manners oft disgrace Him whom endowments of the Minde adorne Defects found in the body make a scorne Such as by War their noble fames encrease Haue prov'd a very pestilence in Peace Others whom peacefull bounds could not containe We oft haue knowne great fame by Armes to gaine He that can publique businesse well discharge Suffers his priuat house to rome at large And such as fault can with another finde To view their owne defects seeme dull and blinde He that created all and He alone Distributes all things but not all to one Iacobus Augustus Thuanus in his Title Homo Cinis you may reade thus Disce Homo de tenui Constructus pulvere qua te Edidit in lucem conditione Deus c. Learne ô thou Man from smallest dust translated On what condition God hath thee created Though thou this day in Gold
yeare 1548 the Chancellor caused his Ring in the publique market place to be layd vpon an Anvil and with an iron hammer beaten to pieces Mengius reporteth from the relation of a deare friend of his a man of approued fame and honestie this historie In a certain towne vnder the jurisdiction of the Venetians one of these praestigious Artists whom some call Pythonickes hauing one of these Rings in which he had two familiar Spirits exorcised and bound came to a Predicant or preaching Frier a man of sincere life and conuersation and confessed vnto him that hee was possessed of such an inchanted Ring with such Spirits charmed with whom he had conference at his pleasure But since he considered with himselfe that it was a thing dangerous to his Soule and abhominable both to God and man he desired to be clearely acquit thereof and to that purpose hee came to receiue of him some godly counsell But by no persuasion would the Religious man be induced to haue any speech at all with those euill Spirits to which motion the other had before earnestly solicited him but admonished him to cause his Magicke Ring to be broken that to be done with all speed possible At which words the Familiars were heard as it were to mourne and lament in the Ring and to desire that no such violence might be offered vnto them but rather than so that it would please him to accept of the Ring and keepe it promising to do him all seruice and vassallage of which if he pleased to accept they would in short time make him to be the most famous and admired Predicant in all Italy But he perceiuing the Diuels cunning vnder this colour of courtesie made absolute refusall of their offer and withall conjured them to know the reason why they would so willingly submit themselues to his patronage After many euasiue lies and deceptious answers they plainly confessed vnto him That they had of purpose persuaded the Magition to heare him preach that by that sermon his conscience being pricked and galled he might be weary of the Ring and being refused of the one be accepted of the other by which they hoped in short time so to haue puft him vp with pride and heresie to haue precipitated his soule into certaine and neuer-ending destruction At which the Church-man being zealously inraged with a great hammer broke the Ring almost to dust and in the name of God sent them thence to their own habitations of darknesse or whither it pleased the higher Powers to dispose them Of this kinde doubtlesse was the Ring of Gyges of whom Herodotus maketh mention by vertue of which he had power to walke inuisible who by the murther of his Soueraigne Candaules maried his Queene and so became King of Lydia Such likewise had the Phocensian Tyrant who as Clemens Stromataeus speaketh by a sound which came of it selfe was warned of all times seasonable and vnseasonable in which to mannage his affaires who notwithstanding could not bee forewarned of his pretended death but his Familiar left him in the end suffering him to be slain by the Conspirators Such a Ring likewise had one Hieronimus Chancellor of Mediolanum which after proued to be his vntimely ruine Concerning the mutation or change of Sex which some haue attributed to the fallacies of the Diuell it is manifest that they haue been much deceiued therein since of it many naturall reasons may be giuen as is apparant by many approued histories Phlegon in his booke De Mirabil Longev telleth vs That a virgin of Smyrna called Philotis the same night that she was maried to a yong man those parts which were inuerted and concealed began to appeare and shee rose in the morning of a contrarie sex As likewise That in Laodicea a city of Syria one AEteta after the same manner rose from her husbands side a yong man and after altered her name to AEtetus at the same time when Macrinus was President of Athens and L. Lamia and AElianus Veter were Consuls in Rome In the time that Ferdinand the first was King of Naples one Ludovicus Guarna a citisen of Salern had fiue daughters of which the two eldest were called Francisca and Carola either of which at fifteene yeares of age found such alteration in themselues that they changed their foeminine habits and names also the one being called Franciscus the other Carolus In the reigne of the same King the daughter of one Eubulus being deliuered vnto an husband returned from him altered in her sex sued for her dowerie and recouered it Amatus Lucitanus testifieth that in the town of Erguira distant some nine leagues from Couimbrica there liued a Nobleman who had a daughter named Maria Pachecha who by the like accident prouing to be a yong man changed her habit and called her selfe Manuel Pachecha Who after made a voiage into the Indies and became a valiant souldier attaining to much wealth and honour and returning married a Lady of a noble Family but neuer attained to haue issue but had an effoeminat countenance to his dying day The like Livy remembreth of a woman of Spoleta in the time of the second Punicke war But a story somewhat stranger than these is related by Anthonius Torquinada That not far from the city Beneventum in Spain a Countrey-man of a meane fortune married a wife who because she was barren vsed her very roughly insomuch that shee lead with him a most discontented life Whereupon one day putting on one of her husbands suits to disguise her self from knowledge she stole out of the house to proue a more peaceable fortune elsewhere and hauing been in diuers seruices whether the conceit of her mans habit or whither Nature strangely wrought in her but she found a strange alteration in her selfe insomuch that she who had been a wife now had a great desire to do the office of an husband and married a woman in that place whither she had retyred her selfe Long she kept these things close to her selfe till in the end one of her familiar acquaintance trauelling by chance that way and seeing her to be so like vnto that woman whom hee before knew demanded of her If she were not brother to the wife of such a man who had forsaken his house so many yeares since To whom vpon promise of secrecy she reuealed all according to the circumstances before rehearsed Examples to this purpose are infinite let these suffice for many A strange Tale is that which Phlegon the freed-man of Hadrianus reporteth of which he protests himselfe to haue bin eye witnesse Philemium saith he the daughter of Philostratus and Charitus fell deepely inamoured of a yong man called Machates who at that time ghested in her fathers house Which her parents tooke so ill that they excluded Machates from their family At which she so much grieued that soone after she died and was buried Some six moneths after the yong man returning
prodigalitie was such His exhibition he exceeded much And when his money was exhausted cleane His credit flaw'd and there remain'd no meane Either to score or pawne he walks alone And fetching many a deepe suspire and grone His melanch'ly grew almost to despaire Now as we finde the Diuels ready are And prest at such occasions ev'n so than One of these Sp'rits in semblance of a man Appeares and of his sadnesse doth demand The cause Which when he seem'd to vnderstand He makes free protestation That with ease He can supply him with what Coine he please Then from his bosome drawes a Booke and it Presents the Youth and saith If all that 's writ Within these leaues thou giv'st beleefe to I Will furnish all thy wants and instantly Vpon condition thou shalt neuer looke On any page or once vnclaspe the booke The yong man 's pleas'd the contract he allowes And punctually to keepe it sweates and vowes Now saith the Spectar note and vnderstand What thou seest done Then holds in his left hand The fast-shut booke his right he casts about Then with his thumbe and finger stretched out Meaning the middle of that hand holds fast The charmed Volume speaking thus at last Natat as saliat Aurum and instantly Six hundred Crownes into his pocket fly This shew'd and done he stands himselfe aloofe Giues him the Booke and bids the Youth make proofe As he before did The same order kept The selfe same summe into his bosome leapt They part the youthfull Schollar is surpris'd With ioyes incredible and well advis'd Within himselfe thinks he How should I curse To lose this more than Fortunatus Purse Which to preuent the surest way I 'le chuse Transcribiug it lest I perchance might loose Th'originalll copy Then downe close he sits Shuts fast his dore and summons all his wits From hand to hand the Booke he moues and heaues Weighing and poising the inchanted leaues Then layes it ope But in the stead of Histories Or Poëms he spies nought saue Magicke mysteries First page by page he turnes it ouer all Saue Characters most diabolicall He nothing sees then pausing a good space His eye by chance insists vpon a place At which he wonders namely'a circle that Is fill'd with confus'd lines he knowes not what Their meaning is and from the Center riseth A Crucifix which the Crosse much disguiseth Clov'n through th' midst and quite throughout dissect Aboue an head of horrible aspect Resembling the great Diuels ougly foule Which seemes on his rash enterprise to scoule On the right side two Crosses more appeare That after a strange guise conioyned were And these are interchangeably commixt And vpon each a Caca-Damon fixt Vpon the left that part exposed wide Which modest women most desire to hide Oppos'd as ev'n as iust proportion can Was plac'd th' erected virile part of man At these much wondring and asham'd withall He feeles a sudden feare vpon him fall Which Feuer shakes him his eye 's dull and dead And a strange megrim toxicates his head Imagining behinde him one to reach Ready t' arrest him for his promise-breach He calls aloud his Tutor is by chance At hand beats ope the dore and halfe in â—â—ance He findes his Pupill and before him spies This booke of most abhorrid blasphemies And questions how it came there He tells truth Then he in stead of chiding cheares the Youth And hauing caus'd a great fire to be made Now sacrifice this cursed Booke he said The Pupill yeelds the flame about it flashes Yet scarce in a full houre 't is burnt to ashes Though it were writ in paper Thus we see Though these Familiar Spirits seeming bee Mans profest friends their loue 's but an induction Both to the Bodies and the Soules destruction Explicit Metrum Tractatus octavi Theologicall Philosphicall Poeticall Historicall Apothegmaticall Hierogliphicall and Emblematicall Obseruations touching the further illustration of the former Tractat. PRide was the first sinne and therefore the greatest It was the Fall of Angels and is that folly in Man to bring him to perdition It striueth to haue a hand in euery noble Vertue as it hath an interest in euerie detestable Vice The Valiant it swells with vain-glory the Learned with selfe-conceit Nay further it hath beene knowne That men of most submissiue spirits haue gloried That they could so far humble themselues as being proud that they haue not been more proud It hath made zealous men presume of their merit wretched men to boast of their misery Come to the Deadly sins It is Pride in the Enuious man to maligne the prosperitie of his neighbor in the Wrathfull man to triumph in the slaughter of his enemy in the Luxurious man to trick himselfe vp and glory in the spoile of his Mistresse in the Sloathfull to scorne labour and delight in his ease in the Auaritious to despise the Poore and trust in his aboundance According to that of Ovid in the fift booke of his Metamorph. Sum foelix quis enim neg at hoc foelixque manebo Hoc quoque quis dubitat tutum me copia fecit Happy I am for who can that deny And happy will remaine perpetually For who shall doubt it Plenty makes me such Bee'ng made so great that Fortune dares not touch Pride saith Isiodor est amor propriae excellentiae It is a loue of our proper excellencie Saint Augustine telleth vs That all other vices are to be feared in euill deeds but Pride is not to be trusted euen in good actions lest those things which be laudibly done and praise-worthy bee smothered and lost in too much desire of Praise Humilitie maketh men like Angels but Pride hath made Angels Diuels It is the beginning the end and cause of all other euills for it is not onely a sinne in it selfe but so great an one that no other sinne can subsist without it All other iniquities are exercised in bad deeds that they may be done but Pride in good deeds that they may be left vndone Pride saith Hieron was borne in heauen still striuing to possesse and infect the sublimest mindes and as if it coueted still to soare vp to the place from whence it fell it striues to make irruption and breake into the glory and power of men which first broke out from the glory and power of Angels that whom it found Copartners in nature it might leaue Companions in ruin From heauen it fell saith Hugo but by the suddennesse of the fall hauing forgot the way by which it fell though thither it aime it can neuer attaine All other Vices seek only to hinder those Vertues by which they are restrained and brideled as Wantonnesse Chastitie Wrath Patience and Avarice Bounty c. Pride onely aduanceth it selfe against all the Vertues of the minde and as a generall and pestiferous disease laboureth vniuersally to corrupt them Now the signes by which Pride is discouered and knowne are Loquacâ—ty and clamor in speech bitternes in silence