to the same port It is that which maketh Kings to reign 1. Reg. 25. 29. and giveth them officers as members of their state and by this means frameth the Court of Great-ones But if after it hath so made and composed them as of the flower and choise of men it should abandon them in the tempest without pole-star without rudder without Pilot were not this with notable deformitie to fail in one of the prime pieces of its work-manship Judge your self For the second reason it is most evident that to further this impossibilitie of devotion in the course of Courtiers lives is to cast them through despair of all virtues which cannot subsist without piety into the libertie of all vices which they will hold not as extravagant fallies of frailtie but as the form of a necessary portion of their profession And as the rank they hold maketh them transcend other men who willingly tie themselves to the manners and affections of those on whom they see their fortunes depend that would be as it were by a necessary law to precipitate mankind into the gulf of corruption To conclude for the third reason this proposition is manifestly contradicted by an infinit number of examples of so many Kings and Princes of so many worthy Lords and Ladies who living in the Ocean of the world as the mother pearls by the dew of heaven have preserved and do yet still preserve themselves for ever in admirable puritie and in such heroick virtues that they cannot gain so much wonder on earth but they shall find in heaven much more recompence This is it which I intend to produce in this Treatise of the Holy Court after I have informed the mind with good and lively reasons which as I hope by the grace of the holy Spirit of God shall make all persons of quality to behold they do infinit wrong to take the splendour of their condition for a veil of their impieties and imperfections Virtue is a marvellous work woman who can make Mercury of any wood yea should the difficultie be great the victorie would be more glorious but all the easieness thereof is in their own hands and the obligations they have to tend to perfection are no less important than those of Hermits as I intend shall appear in the process of this discourse The first MOTIVE Of the obligation which secular men and especially persons of qualitie have to perfection grounded upon the name of Christian. A Great abuse is crept into the minds of secular persons who hold vice in predominance and virtue under controle It is in that they esteem Christian perfection as a bird out of their reach and a qualitie dis-proportionable to their estate As for my self saith one of these I have made provision of virtue according to my quality I pretend not to be a S. Francis nor to be rapt as a S. Paul to the third heaven I find there is no life but with the living and to hold time by the fore-lock while I can Let our pleasures take that scope which nature presenteth to them were we as wicked as Judas if we have the faith of S. Peter the mercy of God pardoneth all An impertinent discourse as I will hereafter declare On the other side there are women who chatter and say I will not be a S. Teresa it is not my intention to be canonized I love better to see my diamonds in my life glitter on my fingers than to carrie themafter my death on my statues I better love a little perfume whilst I yet breath air than all the Arabian odours after my death I will have no extasies nor raptures It is enough for me to wallow in the world I may as well go to Paradise by land as by water Such words are very impure in the mouth of a Christian nay so prejudicial to eternal salvation that through the liberty of speaking too much they take away all hope of doing well For pursuing the tender effeminacy of that spirit they take the measure of virtue very short and disproportionable their intentions being infirm the works are likewise the more feeble not squarely answering the model of knowledge from whence proceedeth a general corruption I affirm not all Christians ought to embrace the perfection of S. Francis and of S. Teresa No. There are some whom the Divine providence will direct by other aims But I say that every Christian is obliged to level at perfection and if he hath any other intention he is in danger to loose himself eternally A bold saying but it is the sentence of S. Austine You should always be displeased with your Aug. Serm. 11 of the Apostle Semper tibi displiceat quod es si viâ— pervenire ad id quod non es Si dixeris sufficit periisti A notable speech of S. Augustine self for that which you are if you desire to attain to that which you are not and if you chance to say it is enough you are undone And who are you that dare limit the gifts of God And who are you that say I will have but such or such degree of graces I satisfie my self with such a sanctity I have proceeded far enough in a spiritual life let us set up our staff here What wickedness is this Is not this to imitate that barbarous and senseless King who cast chains into the sea to tie the Ocean in fetters God hath given us a Xerxes heart of a larger latitude than the heavens which he will replenish with himself and you will straiten it like a snail to lodge him in narrow bounds whom the whole world cannot comprehend Judge if this proceeding be not very unreasonable and if you yet doubt weight two or three reasons which you shall find very forcible and by them you will conclude with me you have no less obligation to be perfect than the most retired Hermit that ever lived in the most horrid wilderness of Egypt The first reason I propose to underprop this assertion is drawn from the nature and essence of perfection At what mark think you should one aim to arrive to this scope If I should say will you be perfect bury your self alive in a sack put a halter about your neck go roast your self in the scorching beams of the Sun go roal your self in snow and thorns this would make you admire your hair stand an end and bloud congeal in your veins But if one tell you God Perfection engrafted upon love hath as it were engrafted perfection with his own hands upon the sweetest stock in the world what cause have you of refusal Now so it is as I say There is nothing so easie as to love the whole nature of the world is powred and dissolved into love there is nothing so worthy to be beloved as an object which incloseth in the extent thereof all beauties and bounties imaginable which are the strongest attractives of amity yea it forceth our affections with a sweet
though too too late You that have made me so many times become red with bloud suffer me once to be ruddie with shame that I so lightly have been deceived to the end I may not blush to see my self converted with all the world And tell me not I pray that I am old Decrepitness is not in years but in manners It is never too late to learn ones salvation and it is ever seasonable to do good Shame is but for those who have neither power nor will to correct their vices Come learn a new warfare of Christians with me which Notable answers to the libertie of Symmachus in earth beareth arms and in Heaven its conquests From whom should I learn the mysteries of Heaven but from him that made it and not from man who doth not so much as know all that passeth in his own house Whom would you have me confide in the matter of belief we ought to have of God but God himself How shall I take you for a Master since in the seeking to teach me you confess your own ignorance You say God is a great secret and must be sought by many ways but he who once hath hit on the readie way why should he amuse himself with crooked turnings You seek him blindfold and we find him in the light You enquire him with suspicions and minds disturbance and we find him in the revelation of the wisdom and veritie of God himself It is a malicious stupiditie to think we can serve this sovereign Master in all sorts of Sects As there is but one sun in the world so is there but one truth It is a streight line which is to be made but one way All other superstitions are crooked lines that have as many semblances as defects How can we reconcile our Religions you adoring the works of your hands and we accounting it an injurie done to God to worship the works of men How shall we have one and the same God if you adore stocks and stones which our God instructeth us to trample under foot To whom shall we entrust this veritie in such a great diversitie of opinions but to a Man-God whose words were no other than prophesies wisdoms and verities his life innocencie sanctitie and virtue his actions power wonders miracles in all parts of the world What secret spirit set the Cross on the top of your Capitol You demand proofs of the Divinitie and I shew you the conquest of a world under the feet of one crucified the less this action hath of man the more you behold therein the work of God Then Symmachus you redemand the Altars of Idols of Grave words for the Emperour whom Of a Christian Emperour whose heart is in the hand of God arms are for the protection of faith Would you have him employ his chast and innocent hands which he never lifted up but to the living God to repair the monuments of a false Deitie In what Historie find you that the Pagan Emperours have built Chappels and Temples for us And think you our great Prince hath less zeal for truth than his Predecessours for falshood They have made all the parts of the world ruddie with our bloud for defence of their Idols but God hath blasted their purposes and overthrown by his power what they would have raised by their injustice Would you that a Christian Emperour should from the ruins of your Gods restore for you in contempt of his own Religion objects of sin on the Altars But let us a little further see the sequel hereof They demand A pertinent reply to the act of Vestals revenews for the Vestals for they cannot otherwise serve their God Behold how couragious the Gentiles are We have imbraced and maintained our faith in povertie injuries and persecutions and they crie out their ceremonies cannot subsist without their own interest It is a shamefull thing to sell virginitie and to fix themselves on profit through the despair of virtues What armies have these maids to maintain who have such care of their revenews Their number exceedeth not seven which they have chosen amongst so many thousands to guard a mercenary virginity that still reserves a night to make experience of marriage Is it for this they must be mytred for this scarletted for this endowed with a thousand priviledges and entertained in magnificent Caroches with a train of Princesses to brave it through the streets of a Citie Behold the holy virgins and poor maidens of Symmachus By my consent let him reflect the eye of his understanding and bodie on the state of our Religious women he shall see companies replenished with honour integritie shame-facedness who know how to use the gift of virginitie as it ought to be They wear no atyres nor pompeous myters on their heads but a poor veil which borroweth its worth from the lustre of their chastitie They know not what belongs to attractives of beautie for they have renounced all curiosities of the world Purple and superfluitie never dwels in their house but rather fasts and austerities It is not their custom to flatter or sell at the price of honour and priviledges the puritie of their bodies but much otherwise they do all as if their sufferings were to be the recompence of their virtues Never will they learn the trade of setting their flesh to sale to the best bidder sell the abstinence from pleasures to them that offer most well knowing the first victory of chastitie is to triumph over greediness of riches which are the most dangerous baits of sin If we should give great revenews to all the maids which are now readie to receive the veil what treasures would furnish out such an expence And if they dare affirm that none is due but to Vestals is it not an impudence to be desirous to deprive Christian virgins from goods given in favour of virginitie as if to be Christians were to be the less chast or as if the Religion they profess were on their foreheads a mark of infamie Who can endure under the reign of most Christian Emperours customs which are onely tollerable in the Empire of Nero's Symmachus demandeth moneys of the Common-wealth for entertainment of his Vestals we by certain modern laws have been bereft the successions which we might expect from particulars without making complaints so temperate we are in our proceedings Some Ecclesiasticks likewise have been made to renounce their patrimony to be freed from Court-obligations and enjoy the priviledges of the Church Were this done to the Pagans they would cast flames from their mouthes for how could it be but very troublesome to purchase the vacancy of a holy ministery with the prejudice of his means in consecrating himself to the safety of the whole world to have necessitie for recompence in his house Wils are valid in favour of the ministers of Idols Be they never so profane in superstition so abject in condition so prodigal of their honour they
of this repose news came unto her very hastily that she must return to Court to appease the discord between her children who were ready to encounter one another and to embroil the Kingdom in the desperate desolations of Civil war The good woman did not as those who hold retirement from the vanities of the world as a punishment nor ever are with themselves unless necessity make them take the way which they cannot elect by reason So soon as she understood these importunities which called her back to the affairs of the world she hastened to prostrate her self at the sepulcher of S. Martin shedding forth bitter tears and saying My God you know my heart and that it is neither for fear of pain nor want of courage that I retired from the Court of my children but that seeing their deportments and affairs in such a condition that I could not think my self any ways able to profit them by my counsels I made choice of the means which I thought most likely to help them which are prayers And behold me here now humbled at the tomb of one of your great servants to beg of you by his merits and ashes to pacifie the differences of these unfortunate children and to behold with the eye of your accustomed mercies this poor people and Kingdom of France to which you have consigned and given so many pledges of your faithfull love My God if you think my presence may serve to sweeten the sharpness of these spirits I will neither have consideration of my age nor health but shall sacrifice my self in this voyage for the publick but if I may be of no other use but to stand as an unprofitable burden as I with much reason perswade my self I conjure you for your own goodness sake to receive my humble prayers and accommodate their affairs and ever to preserve unto me the honour which I have to serve you in this retirement A most miraculous thing it is observed that at the same time when the holy woman prayed at the tomb the Arms of the brothers now ready to encounter to pour forth a deluge of bloud suddenly stopped and these two Kings not knowing by what spirit they were moved mutually sent to each other an Embassage of peace which was concluded in the place to the admiration and contentment of the whole world Thus much confirmed Clotilda in her holy resolution wherein she lived to great decrepitness of age And in the end having had revelation of the day of her death she sent for her two sons Childebert and Clotharius whereof this who was the most harsh was in some sort become humble having undergone certain penances appointed him by Pope Agapetus to expiate many exorbitances which he had committed for such is the most common opinion These two Kings being come the mother spake to them in these terms I was as it were resolved to pass out of the world without seeing you not for the hatred of your persons which cannot fall into a soul such as mine but for the horrour of your deportments that cannot be justified but by repentance God knows I having beheld you so many times to abandon the respect you ow to my age and the authoritie which nature gave me over your breeding never have endeavoured to put off the heart of a mother towards you which I yet retain upon the brink of my tomb I begged you of God before your birth with desires which then seemed unto me reasonable but which perhaps were too vehement and if ever mother were passionate in the love of her children I most sensibly felt those stings yielding my soul as a prey to all cares and my bodie to travels to breed and bring you up with pains which are not so ordinarie with Queen-mothers I expected from your nature some correspondence to my charitable affections when you should arrive to the age of discretion I imagined after the death of your father my most honoured Lord that my age which began to decline should find some comfort in your pietie But you have done that which I will pass under silence For it seemed to me your spirits have as much horrour of it as mine which yet bleedeth at it nor do I know when time will stench the bloud of a wound so bydeous Out alas my children you perswaded your selves it was a goodly matter to unpeople the world to enlarge your power and to violate nature to establish your thrones with the bloud of your allies which is a most execrable frenzie For I protest at this hour wherein I go to render an account of mine actions before the living God that I should rather wish to have brought you into the world to be the vassals of peasants than to see the Scepter in your hands if it served you to no other use but to authorize your crimes Blind as you are who behold not that the diamonds of a Royal Crown sweat with horrour upon a head poisoned with ambition When you shall arrive to that period wherein I am now what will it help you to have worn purple if having defiled it with your ordures you must make an exchange with a habit of flames which shall no more wear out than eternitie Return my children to the fair way you have forsaken you might have seen by what paths the Providence of God led the King your father to the throne of his Monarchie you might have also observed the disasters of Kings our near allies for that they wandered from true pietie That little shadow which you yet retain of holy Religion hath suspended the hand of God and withheld the fatal blow which he would otherwise have let fall upon your state If you persist in evil you will provoke his justice by the contempt of his mercie Above all be united with a band of constant peace for by dividing your hearts you disunite your Kingdoms and desiring to build up your fortunes by your dissentions you will make desolate your houses Do justice to your poor people who lived under the reign of your father with so much tranquilitie and which your divisions have now covered all over with acerbities Is it not time to forget what is past and to begin to live then when you must begin to die My children I give you the last farewel and pray you to remember my poor soul and to lodge my bodie in the sepulcher of the King your father as I have ever desired The Saint speaking this saw that these children who had before been so obdurate were wholly dissolved into tears and kneeling about her bed kissed her hands having their speech so interrupted with sobs they could not answer one word Thereupon she drew the curtain over all worldly affairs to be onely entertained with God And her maladie daily encreasing she pronounced aloud the profession of the Catholick faith wherein she died then required the Sacraments of the Eucharist and extream Unction which were administred unto her and by her
INDEGONDIS Issued from the bloud and house of Clotilda transporteth the Catholick faith into Spain ABout the year five hundred four-score and three Levigildus an Arian Prince reigned in Spain who seeing the house of France held supereminency amongst all the Kingdoms of the world sought the alliance thereof and obtained for wife to his eldest son called Hermingildus the daughter of Sigebert grand-child of Clotilda named in History Indegondis She was one of the most accomplished Princesses of that Age in whom beauty grace and virtue made together an admirable harmony to purchase her the hearts of all the world Every one lamented that this bright day-break which began to enlighten France with its rays went at her rising into a Countrey where the Sun setteth and that so many singular perfections were separated from that Kingdom which had given them birth The good virgin who had no other object but the obedience she ought to render those to whom nature had subjected her went well pleased besides was something satisfied with the title of a Queen which she might justly one day expect But little knew she the combats and difficulties that waited on her in the same place where she hoped to gather nothing else but flowers I do not think hell can ever produce a mischief like unto heresie which wholly perverting good affairs instantly hasteneth to drench all the contentments of this innocent soul in a deluge of tears Alas a million of tortures well deserve to be employed upon the criminal souls of those who were the first authours of this monster For it in all Ages hath disturbed States of Princes ruined so much generous Nobility and sowed division among the most settled amities The wise of that time much apprehended the sending of this young maid into Spain to marry her to an heretical Prince to place her in a Court wholly infected with heresie where no other objects should be presented unto her but errour and vice Behold said they a goodly vessel well rigged well furnished well guided which hath sails of linnen cordage of purple and oars of silver but they go about to expose it to a rough tempest Behold an excellent meadow all enamelled with most delicious beauties of nature but they endeavour to oppose it to cruel Northern blasts Behold a chrystal well polished smooth and delicate but they seek to hazard it to the strokes of the hammer Behold a statue all resplendent with gold and precious stones but they trample it under foot What will a child be able to do amongst so much malice An age so tender amongst so many heads grown hoary in sin A great simplicity amongst so many snares A maid which hath no recommendation but chastity and obedience amongst so many wicked commands Do we think that a father-in-law a husband a mother-in-law will have no power over her spirit That pleasures will not allure her That the dignity of a Kingdom will not move her That the lustre of a Diadem will not dazle her eyes and force prevail upon her If that should be given her which she deserveth it were fit to afford her all but the power to ruin her self Others said very temperately that we must not believe that by gaining a Kingdom she should loose religion that she was of bloud so illustrious it received no blemish that she would rather die than dishonour her birth that she would endure all the torments of Martyrs rather than betray her faith And that if needs she must make ship-wrack of all her fortunes that the last plank she would embrace should be a good conscience that she should be assisted by a good Councel that would never forsake her that there were as yet in Spain very many Catholicks whose tears she would wipe away and sweeten their acerbities That her husband a young Prince was not so obdurate but that she might hope one day to joyn him to the Catholick faith Women are infinitely powerful when they once have gained the heart of a man In the end that she must reflect on the example of her grand-mother who had converted her husband with all his Court and if then cold and timorous considerations had been used upon this marriage France might still have been Pagan If the mother overcame an Idolater the daughter may well prevail on an Arian Yet they which spake thus judged not the conversion of hereticks to be much more difficult than that of Pagans as well for the intolerable pride which ordinarily possesseth their spirits as for a certain malediction which seemeth to be tied to those who voluntarily withdraw themselves from the light and shake off the yoke of lawfull powers Yet notwithstanding considerations of State transported her and Indegondis would take her fortune promising her self so much assistance of God that not onely she should stand firm in the piety of her Ancestours but that if it were possible she would save her husband supposing to her self he was neither of marble nor iron not to be mollified with the attractives of her sex The couragious maid was waited on into Spain by a flourishing conduct of French Nobility where she was received with very great applauses for the reputation which the name of France had acquired in the opinion of all people The King Levigildus her father-in-law was married upon second Nuptials to an Arian wife named Goizintha who was as deformed of body as mind notwithstanding she had charmed the heart of this old man by I know not what kind of sleights that she held predominance upon affairs and bent as it were all his wills at her pleasure She shewed in the beginning an extraordinary affection to this marriage and went in person to the Princess giving her such fair entertainment that it seemed she went about to over-whelm her with courtesies Yet was it to behold night and Aurora in one and the same Chariot to see these two Princesses together For Goizintha besides other deformities of her person was become blind of one eye and Indegondis laying aside so many excellent parts which she had from nature appeared on that day in her attaires like unto those Goddesses which the Poets and Painters form according to the most advantagious idaeaes of their spirits Hermingildus her husband beholding her so accomplished easily felt the glances shot from her eyes were rays from her but arrows for his heart from whence he could receive nought but honourable wounds Never any man bound himself to a creature of the world with a love so forcible so honest and so innocent as did this Prince to this admirable virgin From the first arrival and first glance of the eye he felt his soul transported with a sweet violence and it seemed unto him this stranger came to negotiate with him a love much different from that of flesh and bloud It is a position which hath been sufficiently argued by ancient Sages touching the encounter of amities which are so diversly applied to objects sometimes by ordinary ways as
of sundry mutations But God being from all eternity a most pure Act as he hath not any thing but himself can have no difference with himself He hath nothing Non sui aliquia optimum hibet unun optimum totâ—â— S. Bernard l 5. de consider in himself better than himself He hath no part eminent one above another For he is without parts and all that agreeth to him under this title I am what I am 5. If you are not yet satisfied enough concerning the greatness of this sovereign Being and demand something more particular the Word will tell you in S. John what he learned in the bosom of his Father God is spirit All substance in the world or Deus spiritus est Joan. 4. Beauty of spirit above the world is spirit or body but as the body is base and abject so beauty strength power abideth in the power and jurisdiction of spirit It is the spirit which doeth all which animateth which acteth which quickeneth which governeth all the instruments of nature which worketh great miracles in little bodies and hath nothing so admirable as it self The better part in us is spirit and God is nothing Totus spiritus ennoia totus ratio totus lumen Iren. l. 2. c. 16. but spirit all spirit all intelligence all reason all light said S. Irenaeus But what spirit but God the Father and Creatour of spirits who is as much exalted above the highest Intelligences as spirits are above bodies Our spirits resemble the fire of this inferiour region a gross and material fire which cannot here live unless you put it to wood cole grease or such like But the spirit of God is like the fire near to the celestial globes which Philosophers hold to be tenfold more subtile than air and not to stand in need of any nourishment in its sphere but from its self If we consider the four perfections which give us Perfections of God Magnitudinis ejus non est futis Psal 145. Excesâ—uâ— iâ—mensus Baruc. 4. Intra omnia sed non inclusus extra omnia sed non exclusus Isodor de summo bono c. 2. a full Idaea of the divine Essence to wit infinity immensity immutability eternity this great Spirit possesseth them by title of essence Strive not to comprehend him for he is infinite Infinite not in a certain manner not by comparison of one thing with another not in possibility but absolutely actually infinite as an ample and most glorious treasure of all essences and perfections Assign him no limits for he is immeasurable extended through all measures without measure not by a local extent but an indivisibility of presence He is high and immense He is in the whole universe without confinement He is out of all the universe without any exclusion from it Represent him not to your self under many forms if you desire to figure him in his Nature for he is immutable Enquire not of his age for it exceedeth Non peragitur in to bodiernus dies tamen peragitur quia in co sunt ists omnia August 1. Confess c. 6. eternity such as you may imagine it The present day passeth not with him and yet he is in it since all things are in him But if we regard the three excellencies which in your opinion more concern divine manners to wit Wisdom Goodness and Sanctity I not onely affirm he is wise but I say he is the abyss which swalloweth all wisdoms I do not onely say he is good but the Sanctimonia magnificentis in sanctifiratione ejus Psal 95. 6. source of goodness nature bounty a source never emptied but into it self which continually streameth out of it self I do not onely say he is holy but the root the object the example form of all sanctities Finally if we behold the eminencies which illustrate him in repsect of the eye he hath over exteriour things as are power jurisdiction providence justice and mercy this Spirit is so powerful that he can all but impotency so predominate that there is not any thing from heaven to hell which boweth not under his Laws so provident that he hath a care of the least butterfly in the ayr as well as of the highest Cherubin of the Empyreal Heaven so just that his ballance propendeth neither to one side nor other so merciful that he pardoneth all O great God! Great Spirit How terrible art thou to our understandings and how amiable to our wils Thou commandest by words thou ordainest by reason thou accomplishest by virtue all which is and giving birth to all things onely reservest to thy self Eternity Let it not then be strange if strucken with those rays which dazeled the eyes of Seraphins we yield to thy greatness and rather choose to enter by love into thy knowledge than by knowledge into thy love 6. Let us also in conclusion reflect on this munificent Spirit who replenisheth all the world with his bounty spreading it over all creatures with incomparable sweetness Do you not think you behold the An excellent similitude of God with the Ocean great OceaÌ„ which incessantly furnisheth the air with vapours and waters for all the earth dividing himself to so many objects yet perpetually entire in his greatness and ever regular in the measure of his eternal passages He is singular in essence but very divers in his titles and effects and making his circuit round about the world every one gives him names after his own manner Some call him Indian others Persian some Arabick some Aethiopian and some Britanick others surname him with epithets quite different every one deviseth what he list and in the mean time he ceaseth not perpetually to pass on his way and not content to encompass the whole earth as with a girdle he cleaveth the mountains of Calpe from Arbyla those famous pillers of Hercules to enter thereinto and bedew the world with his pleasing streams He runs a long way he makes a great circuit he advanceth delivious Islands in the midst of his bosom one while he swelleth upon one side presently retireth back from another He is angry he is pacified He bears and swalâ—oweth vessels He engulphs earth he killeth flames he sometimes by long wandering passages goeth under the world and purifying his waters distilled through those large sources maketh fountains and rivers to moisten mortals And that nothing may be wanting to his greatness he mounts up to heaven there to beget clouds and entertain store-houses of waters as in Cobweb lawn to give afterward the spirit of life to trees to plants and all the productions of nature Oh how admirable is he Yet is all this but a silly drop of dew in coÌ„parison of the divine Essence God who is all in all things being not able to be sufficiently known by us in the simplicity of his Essence is called by many names signified by an infinite number of figures represented in divers attributes and
not be possible to God he being Omnipotent Immense Infinite How according to the confession of ancient Philosophers can he replenish all the world with his Divnity and is not able to accommodate himself with enough of it to divinize his holy Humanity Is it because we say it is united to the Word in this mystery in a quite other fashion than the Spirit of God is with the world I admit it For the union of it is truely personal But must it not be confessed the Word in this divine Essence as under title of efficient cause it hath an influence infinite over all the effects of the world and as under title of final cause it hath a capacity to limit and measure all the inclinations of creatures so under title of substantial bound it may confine and accomplish by its personality all possible Essence Why shall we tie the hands of Divine bounty in its communications since it binds not our understanding in its conceptions Is it not a shamefull thing that man will estimate and set a value upon the Divine Essence If God please not man he shall not be God Should we say man is incapable of this communication And how is it that the holy Humanity resisted the Omnipotency of God to the prejudice of his own exaltation since it is found as soon in the union of the Word as in the possession of Essence See we not in nature that the rays of the Sun draw up vapours from the earth and incorporated with them do create Meteors in the air not any one making resistance to his exaltation What contradiction can there be in our understanding against such a maxim seeing it appears the most famous Philosopher said This union of God with man might be very fit and Plutarch also Plutarch in Numa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 speaking of the communication of the Creatour with the creature pronounced these words That God was not a lover of birds nor other living creatures but a lover of men and that it is a very reasonable matter that be communicate himself to his loves and delights But this would seem to abase the Divinity Hear what Volusianus said I wonder that he to whom this whole Volusianus Miror si intra corpus vagientis infantiae latetâ— cui parva putatur universilas c. universe is so small can be shut up within the bodie of a little child having a mouth open to crie as others What uncomeliness is there if God be united to a little body Have not Plinie (a) (a) (a) Plin. Natura nusquam magis quà m in minimis tota est and Seneca (b) (b) (b) Servitus magnitudinis non posse fieri minorem Senec. Homo quippe ad Deum accessit Deus à se non decessit August said That nature was ever so admirable as in little bodies and that it was a slavery in Great-ones to be unable to be little I wonder the Sovereign Lord of all things is so long absent from Heaven and that all the government of the world is transferred to so little a creature From whence proceedeth this amazement but from the baseness of our thoughts If we said God being made man ceased to be God and were despoiled of his Empire Greatness Essence there would be somewhat wherewith to question this Mystery but when we say God came to Man by inclination of a Sovereign bounty and mercy not leaving himself when we say humane nature is received into the Word as a small source into a huge river and not loosing its Essence is fixed upon the personality of the Word it self is it not to honour the power majesty and wisdom of God 5. In what were the Divinity abased Can it be in doing a work so noble so singular so divine that it deserveth to entertain the thoughts of men and Angels through times and eternity What is more specious and more sweet than to represent to ones self the Person of our Saviour who in himself makes an alliance of all was most eminent in spiritual and corporal nature to wit of God and man verily say I one composed of an unheard-of composition to render the majesty of his father palbable and visible to the hands and eyes of mortals What dignity to behold in the world a Man-God become a part of the world to possess the Spirit of God from all eternity who proposed this person as the end of his communications the bound of his power the first-born of all creatures who held all Ages in breath for him all hearts in desires all minds in expectation all creatures in prophesies The Book of God hath written me In copite libri scriptum est de me Psal 39. 8. in the beginning of its first page said the Word with the Psalmist All creatures of this great universe all predictions and conceptions of these two great books the world and the Bible tended to the accomplishment and revelation of this God-Man who should set a golden head upon all nature intelligent sensitive and vegetative All creatures were but leaves and flowers that promised the great fruit which the Prophet calleth The fruit of earth sublime Isaiah 4. 20. We must religiously speak what deserveth to be heard Religiose dicendum reverentér audiendum est quis propter hunc hominon gloris honâ—re coronandum Deus omnis creavit Rupert l. 13. de glor Trinit proces Spi. Sancti with reverence It is for this incomparable man that God created the world and all creatures are but as silly rays from the Diadem of glory which covereth his head What a spectacle to see them all wound up as the strings of a harp to praise and declare unto men the Name of God to behold the nine Quires of Angels enter into this consort and every one of them to honour this first Essence by so many distinct perfections notwithstanding all to confess their ability cannot reach that degree which the Divine greatness meriteth And thereupon behold here the Word Incarnate which passing through all the spheres of nature grace and glory enter into the new sphere of the hypostatical union where it appears as a rainbow imprinted with all the beauties of the father he manifesteth them to men and making himself an adoring God a loving God an honouring God he adoreth he loveth he honoureth God so much as he is adorable amiable and honourable through all Ages for evermore Let us unfold our hearts in the knowledge and love of the Word revealed Let us adore this great sign this eternal character of the living God for whom all signs are Let us make a firm purpose not to pass over a day of our life wherein we afford him not three things due to him by titles so lawfull Homage Love Imitation Homage by adoring him and offering him some small service directed according to times in acknowledgement of the dependence we have of him by an entire comformity of our wils to his Love
raise an Altar against his preferring your ends to his prejudice what do you call it if not tyranny since it is to enterprize upon the goods of your Sovereign who hath not any thing indispensable from his laws no not so much as nothing it self Nay if you afforded God some honourable association Reason 2 though that were tyrannical it would be It is a great sacriledge to make a Divinity of proper interest more tolerable but you allow him a wicked petty interest of honour of gain for companion which you plant in your heart as on an Altar and daily present it the best part of the sacrifice It is to injury a superiour to compare an inferiour with him It is said the very feathers of the Eagle are so imperious Feathers of the Eagle imperious Plin. l. 1. c. 3. they will not mix with the plumage of other birds if they do they consume them with a dull file And think you to mingle God who is an incomparable Wisdom a riches inexhaustible a purity infinite with feeble pretensions which have frenzie for beginning misery for inheritance and impurity for ornament The most barbarous Tyrants as the Mezentiusses found out no greater cruelty than to tie a dead with a living body and you fasten thoughts of the world dead and languishing with God who is nothing but life This is not a simple tyranny but a sacriledge The Civil Law saith you must not appropriate to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Authent Justinia Jus canonicum August ad Licentium your self sacred gold or silver nor transfer to prophane uses what hath been dedicated to God the like whereof is expressed in Laws Ecclesiastical According to which axioms S. Augustine said to Licentius if you had found a golden challice you would give it to the Church God hath granted you a spirit of gold and I may likewise say a heart of gold when he washed and regenerated you by the waters of Baptism and now so far are you from rendering to your Sovereign Master what is due to him that you make use of that heart as of a vessel of abomination to sacrifice your self to devils One Osea 5. Victimas declinâstis in profundum sacrificeth to love another to revenge a third to worldly vanity As for you behold you are altogether upon particular ends which take all the victims from God to throw them into the gulf of avarice A man who hath conceived this Maxim in his Lignuâ— offensionis est aurum sacrificantium Eccl. 31. 17. brain that his affairs must be dispatched at what rate soever hath nothing of God but for cremony he hath created a Temple to a little devil of silver who sits in the middle of his heart It is the object of all his thoughts the bayt of all his hopes and scope of his contentments there is his Tabernacle his Oracle his Propitiatory and all the marks of his Religion I wonder why in Ecclesiastes where the common Translation saith All obeyeth money another very 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pecuniae obediunt omnia Pecuniae respondeÌ„t omnia Eccles 10. 19. ancient letter and derived from the Hebrew phrase hath Money rendereth all oracles for that is it which properly the word respondere signifieth But I cease to admire when I consider the course of the world for in truth I see money is like a familiar spirit such as heretofore Pagans and Sorcerers kept in secret places shut up in a casket or in some broken head or the body of a serpent when they became any thing irresolute they consulted with their Idol and the devil counterfeiting voices through wood and metal gave them answers Now adays the Devil money is in the coffer of the covetous as in a Chappel dedicated to his name and the Infidel if he have any business to perform in his family thinks not at all to take counsel of God upon it nor to appeal to conscience but refers all these enterprizes to the devil of silver who gives him forth crooked Oracles Shall I buy a Benefice for one of my sons who hath no propension to the Church but it must be provided in what sort soever The little devil answers Buy seeing you have money Shall I corrupt a faithless Judge whose soul I know to be saleable to gain an evil spirit Do so since you have money Shall I be revenged upon such a man whom I hate as death by suborning false witnesses and engaging them by strength of corruption in a bad cause Yea since money gives thee this power Shall I buy this Office whereof I am most incapable for never was I fit for any thing but to practise malice Yea since it is money which doth all Shall I take Naboth's vineyard by force and violence to build and enlarge my self further and further upon the lands of my neighbours without any limits of my purchases but the rules of my concupiscence Yea since thou mayest do it by force of money Shall I carry a port in my house-keeping which is onely fit for Lords sparing nothing from expence of the palate nor from bravery in such sort that my lackeys may daily jet up and down as well adorned as Altars on sundays Yea since thou hast the golden branch in thy hand Finally Parva loquor quidviâ— nummis praesentibut opta â—veniet clausum possidet arca Jovem Satyricon Pet. this is to say very little but if thou hast readie money desire all thou wilt it shall come to pass For thou hast Jupiter shut up in thy coffer said the Satyrist See you not much infidelity a great contempt of God plain Atheism Moreover that which likewise makes this manner of proceeding more detestable is Reason 3 that besides its Empire incompatible with God it insinuateth False pretext of interests with such subtilities and pretexts of religion as if it were most devout Black souls of sorcerers given over to all manner of execration make open war against God they say they are altogether for Beelzebub and keep the sabbath to yield him homage and have renounced all the functions of Christian piety in recompence whereof they raise mists in bright mornings by the power which the evil spirits gives them that hearbs and trees may die or such like for their witch-craft extends but to bodies But this furious passion of interests which now adays so powerfully swayeth besides that it sucketh the bloud and marrow of the people and bewitcheth souls which come near it with manifest contagion appears with semblances of religion and true Christianity although it be impossible to serve two Masters according to the words of the Saviour of the world and to accord the devil of proper interests with the Maxims of Jesus Enemies the most dangerous are ever the most covert it were better almost to fall absolutely into disorder than to be flesh and fish hot and cold to halt sometimes on Baal's side another while on the Temple of Solomon's part
period of thy life having bid adieu to the world and drawn the curtain between thee and creatures endeavour to be united as perfectly as is possible to thy Creatour First by good and perfect confession of the principal actions of all thy life Secondly by a most religious participation of thy viaticum in presence of thy friends in a manner the most sober well ordered edificative thou maist In the third place seasonably receiving extream unction thy self answering if it be possible to the prayers of the Church and causing to be read in the approaches of this last combate some part of the passion Lastly by the acts of faith hope charity and contrition I approve not the manner of some who make studied remonstrances to dying men as if they were in a pulpit nor of those who blow incessantly in their ears unseasonable words and make as much noise with the tongue as heretofore Pagans with their kettles in the eclipse of the Moon We must let those good souls depart without any disturbance in the shades of death S. Augustine would die in great silence desiring not to be troubled with lamentations nor visits for ten days together where having hanged some versicles of Psalms about his bed he fixed his dying eyes upon them with a sweetness most peacefull and so gave up the ghost It is good to say My God I believe assist my incredulitie I know my Crâ—do Domine adjuva incredulitatem meam Marc. 9. Scio quod Redemptor meus vivit c. Job 9. Si ambulavero in medio umbrae mortis non timebo mala quoniam tu mecum es Psal 22. Quid mihi est in coelo c. Psal 72. Quare tristis es anima mea c. Psal 83. Redeemer is living and that I shall see him in the same flesh which I at this present disarray Though I must walk into the shades of death I will fear nothing because Oh my God thou art with me What have I to desire in heaven and what would I of thee on earth My flesh and my heart are entranced in thee O the God of my heart and my portion for all eternitie Wherefore art thou so sad O my soul and why dost thou trouble me Turn now to thy rest because God hath afforded thee mercie Behold how the Virgin our Ladie died behold how Saint Lewis died behold how Saint Paula departed of whom Saint Hierom (a) (a) (a) Hier. ep 27. ad Eustoc Digitum ad â— tenens crucis signum pingebat in labiis Anima erumpere gestiens ipsum stridorem quo mortalis vita finitur in laudes convertebat said The holy Lady rendering up her life put her finger on her mouth as desirous to imprint the sign of the Cross upon it turning the gasps of death and last breath of the soul into the praises of God whom she so faithfully had served XVI MAXIM Of the Immortalitie of the SOUL THE PROPHANE COURT THE HOLY COURT Little care is to be had of the Soul after death so all be well with it in this life That we have an immortal Soul capable of happiness or unhappiness eternal 1. A Man who doubteth and questions the immortalitie of the Soul sheweth in the very beginning that he almost hath no soul that retaining nought but the substance of it to suffer he hath lost the lights and goodness which might crown it Never enter these thoughts into any man without making a tomb of flesh for his reason whilest he so flattering his body forgets all the excellencies of his soul We must here follow the counsel of ancient Sages when a Libertine will impugn a verity known by the onely light of nature it is not needfull to answer his absurdities but to lead him directly into the stall and to shut him up with beasts speaking unto him the sentence which the Prophet Daniel pronounced against Nebuchadnezzar Thou shalt hereafter be banished Sentence against the wicked Ejicient te ab hominibus cum bestiis ferisque erit habitatio tua Daniel 4. from the companie of men and thy abode shall be with beasts and savage creatures All speak and all dispute for the Maxim of the Holy Court and although we ought to have full obligation to faith which manifestly hath set this truth before us thereunto affixing all the order of our life and the principal felicity we hope for yet are we not a little enlightened with so many excellent conceits which learning furnisheth us withal upon it and which I will endeavour to abbreviate comprehending much in few words 2. I will then say for your comfort that it hath happened that an Heretick lost both of understanding and conscience having opposed the belief of Purgatory heresie being a beaten path to infidelity came to this point of folly as throughly to perswade himself that death ended all things and that these endeavours of prayers and ceremonies which we afford to the memory of the deceased were given to shadows He did all a wicked man might to tear himself from The belief of the immortalitie of the soul invincible Condemnation of impiety in the tribunal of nature himself and belie that which God made him but it was impossible for him as you shall see in considering the three chambers of justice wherein he was condemned First he entered into the Court before the tribunal of Nature and thought he saw a huge troup of all the learned men of the earth and all Nations of the universe who came to fall upon as a mighty cloud armed with fire and lightening My God said he what is this The great Tertullian Quod apud multos commune invenitur non est erratum sed traditum Tertul. said and it is true that verities which fall into the general understandings of all men as acknowledged avowed and confessed by all sorts of nations ought to be believed as by a decree of Nature The example thereof is evident For all men in the world believe that the whole is greater than a part that the superiour number exceedeth the inferiour That the father and mother should be honoured as the Authours of life That one must not do to another what he would not be done to himself And because every one understands and averreth this by the light of nature he would be thought a beast or a mad man who should contradict it Now from whence proceedeth it that the belief of the souls immortality holds the same place with these general Maxims although it be otherwise much transcendent above our sense If I regard the course of time and revolution Tertul. de testimonio animae of Ages from the beginning of the world one cannot assign any one wherein this faith hath not been published by words or actions correspondent to the life of the other world And if some depraved spirits have doubted it they were gain-said by publick voice by laws ceremonies customs protestations of Common-wealths of
is when men of quality who affect the reputation of being judicious prostitute their wits to these gods of straw and dung and for the tuneable cadence of a rime loose all harmonies of faith and conscience All hereticks who make boast to assail the Church Their ignorance for so many Ages have likewise made a shew to bring with them into this combat some recommendable qualities Some came with points of logick other with knowledge of things natural other with eloquence some vaunted profoundness in Scriptures the rest to be versed in the reading of Councels and holy Fathers They who have had no excellent thing in them have brought an austere countenance and semblance of moral virtues But such kind of men have nothing but ignorance with bruitishness but scoffing sycophancy but language and the wind of infamous words How can it then become them to talk of the Bible and to argue upon holy Scripture and the mysteries of our Religions Shut up your ears against these Questions if you be unable to stop their mouthes Is it handsom think you to see a wretched and infamous Tertul. l. 2. advers Marc. c. 2 Censores divinitatis dicentes sic non debuit Deus sic magis debuit c. Tert. de praescript contra haeres l. 1. fellow to make himself the censurer of Divinity and correctour of Scripture God should have done this and that in such and such a fashion say they as if any one knew what is in God but the spirit of God himself who is never so great as when he appeareth little to humane understanding There is but one word saith Tertullian to determine all disputations with such kind of men do but ask them whether they be Christians whether they renounce their Baptism and Christianitie If so let them wear the turbant or go into the Countrey of God-makers and Gentiles But if they make profession of one same Christ and one same Religion with us why do they bely their profession by the impudence of their unbridled speeches Faith saith S. Zeno is not faith when it is sought S. Zeno serm de fide Non est fides ubi quaritur fides Tertul. Nobis curiositate opus non est post Christum nec inquisitione post Evangelium We stand not in need of curiosity after Jesus Christ nor to search for the Gospel said S. Cyprians great Master Should an Angel from Heaven speak unto us we are to change nothing in our belief We have betaken us to the side of truth we have a law which the Word declared unto us which ten millions of Martyrs have signed with their bloud which the best part of mankind professeth the wisest heads of the world have illustrated by the light of their writings To whom would we abandon it To a caytive spirit which hath nothing great in it but sin nothing specious but illusion nothing undoubted but the loss of salvation Effects of Libertinism and punishment of the Impious 5. THe neglect of God is the root of all wickedness nor can there be any thing entire in a soul despoiled of the fear of God Impiety causeth most pernicious effects in States First for that it maketh havock of all good manners leaving not one spark of virtue Secondly in that it draweth on the inevitable vengeance of God upon Kingdoms and Common-wealths which suffer this monster to strengthen it self to their prejudice Philo in the Book he made that no salary of an unchast The table of Philo of the manners of Libertines woman should be received in the Sanctuary very wisely concluded when he shewed that he who is a Libertine and voluptuous having no other aim in the world but the contentments of nature is unavoidably engaged to all manner of vice He becomes saith he bold deceitfull irregular unsociable troublesom chollerick opiniative disobedient malicious unjust ungratefull ignorant treacherous giddie inconstant scornfull dishonest cruel infamous arrogant insatiable wise in his own judgement lives for himself and is unwilling to please any but himself one while profuse presently covetous a calumniatour an impostour insensible rebellious guilfull pernicious froward unmannerly uncivil a great talker loud vaunter insolent disdainfull proud quarrelsom bitter seditious refractory effeminate and above all a great lover of himself Nay he goes further upon the like epithets very judiciously and sheweth us the seeds of all evils spring from this cursed liberty Now I leave you to judge if according to the saying Tunishments of God upon Libertinism of Machiavel himself the means quickly to ruin an estate be to fill it with evil manners who sees not that Libertinism drawing along with it all this great train of vices of corruptions tendeth directly unto the utter desolation of Empires But beside there have been observed in all Ages hydeous punishments from God caused by impiety over Cities Provinces Kingdoms and Common-wealths which have bred these disorders And that you may be the better satisfied upon this point I have at this time onely two considerations to present unto you drawn from two models In the first you shall see God 's justice exercised before the Incarnation upon the sins of infidelity and irreverence towards sacred things In the second you shall behold the rough chastisements of those who after the Incarnation lifted themselves up against the worlds Saviour When God was pleased to correct the infamous Balaam who was a Patriarch of atheists and wicked ones he commanded not an Angel to speak unto him because he was a Doctour much unsuitable to a carnal spirit but he raised a she-ass to instruct him in so much as he was become worse than a beast It is likewise loss of time to deal with Libertines by proofs derived from Schools or from the invention of sciences Men as bruitish as themselves must be made to speak to them who will put them in mind of the way they have held and the salary they have received of their impieties First I establish this Maxim for such either who are not yet hardened or are too yielding and consenting to evil company that there are not any sins which God hath so suddenly and more exemplary punished than such as were committed against Religion The Prophet Ezechiel a captive in Babylon under King Nebuchadnezzar discovered among tempests and flames that marvellous chariot which hath served for matter of question to all curious digladiation for the learned and admiration for all Ages I say the great S. Justine Martyr touched the sense very near when he said S. Iustin in Epist ad Orthodox q. 44. An observation upon the chariot of Ezechiel that in four figures whereof the one was of an ox the other of a man the third of an Eagle the fourth of a Lion God signified the divers chastisements he would exercise upon King Nebuchadnezzar in that from a reasonable man he should become bruitish eating grass as an ox and that his hair should grow as the shag of a
who devoured them immediately and published an Edict in favour of the true Religion This King reigned seventeen years till such time as Cyrus by a most particular design of God seized upon the Monarchy and dealt favourably with the faithfull people Daniel remained alwayes very considerable having seen five Kings passe away and was at last honoured even by his enemies themselves for his rare virtues and for the wonders that God had placed in his person One may observe in his life abundance of Lineaments that adorn highly the conversation of a true Courtier as are his constancy in Religion his Devotion the tendernesse of his love to God his Charity towards his neighbour his modesty his sparingness to speak of himself his Moderation in Prosperity his Strength of spirit in Adversity his inviolable Firmnesse never to yield to sin his exact Faithfulnesse towards his Master his Conscience Science and Ability in the Administration of his Charges his Love to his Friends his Compassion to the Miserable his affability towards all the World his patient enduring of the humours of Strangers his Prudence in his Conduct and the blessing of God that made all his enterprises prosper THE RELIGIOUS MEN. ELIJAH ELISHA ELIIAH THE PROPHETTT ELISHA THE PROPHETT BEhold here an admirable Courtier that was never of the number of those flatterers of the Court that keep Truth in Iron-Chains and give to vices the colour of virtue Elijah was a Prophet that included the name of God and of the Sun in his Name and who all his life-time bare the perfections of them both as being a true child of Light of Fire and a visible image of the invisible beauties As he was yet hanging at his mothers breast his father had a vision by which it seemed to him that his son sucked fire in stead of Milk and nourished himself with a most pure flame which without offending him furnished him with an Aliment as delicious as possible So was he all his life a Man of Fire and as it seemed that that King of Elements followed the course of his words and will so he burnt also in the Interiour with that fire that kindles the heart of Angels He was the first of men that set up the Standart of Virginity that consecrated it upon his body when it was unknown and despised in the World who made an Angelicall order of the Mount Carmel to which he hath transmitted his spirit through a long and sweet posterity that hath found sources of contemplation which he derived to the world to water the barrennesse of the Earth that hath traced the Originals of all his virtues upon that fair Carmel upon that sacred solitude that was his first Terrestriall Paradise His Speech was Thunder and his Life Lightning his Example a School of great Actions his Zeal a Devouring fire his Negotiations the affairs of Eternity His Conversation an Idea of the Contemplative and Civil Life his Translation a Miracle without peer I leave to those that have undertaken to write his Life the retail of his Virtues and of his Miracles staying onely upon his Actions that he did at Court treating with the Kings Ahab Jehu Ahazias and the wicked Queen Jezabel He flourished nine hundred years before the Nativity of our Lord in the Kingdome of Israel which was then divided both by Religion and by Policy from that of Judah and Jerusalem Ahab the son of Amri an ill Crow of an ill Egge held then the Empire and being married to a Sidonian the daughter of the King of Sidon which was called Jezabel an haughty and malicious woman he was totally governed by her and to render himself complacent to her humours caused a Temple to be erected to the God Baal and near that Temple a Grove to be Planted where were committed all the Abominations ordinary to Idolaters Elijah that burned with the Zeal of the honour of God was touched with a most sensible grief by so scandalous an action and was stireed up by his great Master to destroy that Mystery of Iniquity Now he knowing that it was hard to Preach efficaciously the Truth to Spirits froliking it in the middest of the smiling prosperities of the world thought by the order of the God of the Universe that it was best to afflict that wicked people by a long famine and great adversities to make them reflect upon themselves and return to the worship of the true Religion He sware then aloud and publickly before Ahab for the punishment of his Idolatry that there should not be during three years either rain or dew upon the earth and that the Heavens should become Brasse to chastise that Age of Iron and that he should not expect that it should be opened during that time unlesse it were by the words of his mouth As soon as he had said this in the presence of witnesses he went away to the Eastern Coast and hid himself at the Brook of Carith over against Jordan where God nourished him by Ravens that brought him orderly every day his portion In the mean while the drought failed not to raise a great famine on the earth and chiefly in the Kingdome of Israel where one could see nothing but people crying with hunger But the Heavens took in hand to revenge the God of Heaven and the Clouds that are as the Breasts of the Earth had no water for a people that abused the Elements and all the Creatures to the prejudice of the Creatour In the mean while God that spares not alwayes the Lands and Goods of his Servants in a common havock that they may not amuse themselves on the vain prosperities of the World permitted that that Brook that furnished the Prophet with water should grow dry as well as the rest But as the Ocean which retires it self out of one River swells it self in another so this great Nursing-father of Elias that seemed to fail in matter of that little Rivulet recompensed it by the miraculous liberality of a poor widdow He forsook not that station that Providence had assigned him although barren before he had orders for it from God his Master who sent him to the Countrey of Sidon to Sarepta assuring him that he had already provided for his nourishment The Prophet arriving at the destined place found at the City-gate a poor Widow-woman the mother of a little sonne and forasmuch as he knew that the Famine was great every where that he might not astonish her at first he desired of her onely a glasse of water which she gave him with a good will after which he prayes her to add to it a morsell of bread but the good woman sware to him that she had but one handfull of Meal left in the great rigour of Famine and that she was going to gather two or three small sticks to make a little fire and to bake a Cake which would be the last that she and her sonne should eat in all their lives for after that repast they must
thou dost well Thou art a Christian if thou wilt Against such as betray their Nobilitie not renounce thy baptism and the bloud of thy Saviour Christianitie teacheth thee that the highest and most solid honour thou canst ever pretend unto is to put vice under foot and virtue over thy head why stayest thou to make resolution Unworthy that thou art if thou goest about to tie Nobilitie to flesh and bloud or to some old rotten ruins to some monuments which cover a nothing under the golden traces of an Epitaph Ridiculous that thou art if with full mouth thou vantest a paper-Nobilitie yea which is not thine as if a blind man should boast his Grand-Father had had good eyes and a stammerer that his great Grand-Father had been en excellent Oratour Miserable that thou art if after thy Ancestours have planted the French Lilies amongst the Palms of Palestine sincerely led thereto with the zeal they bare to their saith thou betrayest religion virtue and conscience by a brutish life drenched in wild passions and framest to thy self under a head of gold a foot of clay God who breatheth on the intentions of men reproveth such a Nobilitie and though these mongrels should make themselves as white as Swans God esteemeth them as black as Moors All Amos 9. Nunquid ut filii Aethiopum vos estis mihi Israel Nobilitie before this great Judge is nothing in comparison of justice and perfection Yea so it is that in Holy Writ the Nobilitie of Noe is valued Hae sunt generationes Noe. Noe vir justus erat atque perfectus Behold a marveilous manner saith Saint John Chrysostom to delineate a Genealogie The Nobilitie of Noe wherein Gen. 6. Chryst in Genes Scripture beginneth and saith Behold the Genealogie of Noe. It seemeth to make way through all the Patriarchs from whom Noe was descended It seemeth to make a rehearsal to us of all their titles and signories of their acts and atchievements and presently endeth in saying Will you know the Genealogie of Noe he was a just man and a perfect Behold all his Nobilitie On which subject S. Ambrose S. Ambr. li. de Noe arca Virtues the race of souls Probati viri genus virtutis prosapia est sicut hominum genus homines ita animarum genus virtutes hath an excellent saying Nobilitie hath no better a character than that of sanctitie the race of men are men but the race of souls are virtues Noblemen if you desire to be esteemed worthy your rank do not as the little Sea-crabs who by chance finding the shels of great fishes emptie enter into them without saying by your leave and make boasts of a borrowed habitation Cover not the giddie fantasies and illusions of a spirit drunk with self-love under a vain veil of Nobilitie Rather Notable Act of Boleslaus Cromer lib. 5. do as Boleslaus the fourth King of Poland who bearing the picture of his father hanged about his neck in a plate of gold when he was to speak or do any thing of importance he took this picture and kissing it said Dear father I wish I may not do any thing remissly unworthy of thy name Rather do as that brave Eleazar mentioned in the Nobilitie of Eleazar Book of Machabees who being assaulted with all sort of batteries blandishments menaces and torments to make him counterfeit but one sole sin against his own law he fixed his eyes upon the true point of honour upon the consideration of his Nobilitie Out alas said he to himself alone the whiteness Excellent speech of a noble man 2 Machab. 6. Caepit cogitare ingenitae nobilitatis canitiem atque à puero optimae conversationis actus of that venerable hair with which thy head is covered after it hath grown hoarie in the exercise of thy religion hath it not yet taught thee where the point of honour lies It is not enough for Eleazar not to counterfeit impietie but to profess virtue even at the price of his bloud Now God grant I may not serve as a stumbling-block to the youth of this Citie since God will make this day a Theatre of my constancie I will not belie the law of my Master I will not dishonour the School in which I was bred and brought up My soul shall flie out of this bodie wholly innocent discharged of infidelitie into the bosom of my Ancestours and the honour of my life shall be conveyed into the ashes of my Tomb. These words mixed with his bloud stopped his mouth and life with one and the same seal Behold you not a Nobilitie worthy the sight of Angels the imitation of great spirits and the admiration of the whole world The third REASON Drawn from the greatness and dignitie of Gentlemen SAint Augustine hath spoken very prudenlty discoursing Aug. Sol. 14. Nebis magna indita est necessitas justè rectéque vivendi quia cuncta facimus ante oculos judicis cuncta cernentis upon the presence of God to wit that of necessitie it behoveth us to be virtuous since we are perpetually discovered by the eyes of the great Judge before whom neither the bottomless abyss nor hell it self hath darkness enough to hide us If this exercise of the presence of God were as familiar to us as it is effectual it would be a powerful motive to cleanse all the impurities of our intentions and affections and quickly would give us leave to arrive at the top of perfection A wise Hebrew said very well Wise Counsel Ribbi in Apotheg Hebrae to extirpate sin from the earth it behoveth every one to figure himself a great eye alwayes wakeful upon our actions an ear always open to observe our words a hand indefatigably ever writing and summing up the account of our works But seeing our soul while it is in this mortal habitation folded up in flesh and bloud stirs it self but lazily to the consideration of things purely spiritual expecting the senses by which she operateth should give her the alarm God all-wife all-good serveth himself with an efficacious means to fix us in the contemplation of his presence which is the consideration of men in themselves the most perfect images of God that can be found in this great universe By how much the more we are encompassed and as it were shot through with the eyes of beholders who view serving as witnesses of our actions so much the more doth our obligation of perfection increase The greater part Maxima pars peccatorum tollitur si peccatorum testis assidat Sins committed for want of witnesses Senec. of sins are committed for want of witnesses saith very pertinently a grave ancient Writer If Venus should make a veil of clouds to cover all her favorites as fables imagined the earth would soon be filled with adulterers and quickly become a Gomorrah Nothing dismantleth vice so much as its own nakedness take the mask from it and you bereave it of the means of progression
to himself by the miserie of his passions who could not endure any man to be more happy than himself who hid himself for fear who in present liveth not either for another or for himself but for his belly sleep and pleasure Behold a poor praise and which well sheweth virtue doth not alwaies consist in the flight from greatness but in the conquest over passions which is by so much the more glorious by how much the adversaries are more invincible Theophylact said that gold is like the river Rhene for one cause which is that anciently those warlike Nations inhabitants of Germany used it to prove their children in as we use to trie gold with a touch-stone As soon as these little creatures were born they carried them to the Rhene and plunged them in that river and then knew by certain signs given by the child either in wrestling with the waves or in shewing much terrour and affrightment whether he would be couragious or cowardous He that bare himself bravely in this merciless element was their true son Men are not tried in Rhene said this learned Authour to see whether they be men but in Pactolus in a river of gold place them in honours reputation in affluence of riches this will procure you a never-erring judgement of their virtue What knoweth one how he who is born and bred all his life time amongst cobwebs would use cloth of gold if he had it What knoweth one how humble a man may be who is as soon found in misery as in nature by the course of his lineal extraction Who knoweth how abstinent one would be in the full delicacies of a great feast who hath never seen upon his table but cabages and turneps Who knoweth how remperate another would be in commanding over men who never hath exercised his power but over dogs and calves It seemeth all virtues either are no virtues or are stifled in a low condition if we speak morally But to see a man poor in spirit in aboundant plenty Great virtue of Great men of riches humble in large trains of attendants which he daily beholdeth prostrated at his feet temperate in a thousand occasions of excesses which hourly are presented to him moderate in a fortune ever upon increase peaceful in the clattering clamours of affairs uniform and equal in the vicissitude of humane accidents a man who can do all August tract 13. de verbo domini Magna virtus est cum faelicitate luctari magna faelicitas à faelicitate non vinci he would and will do nothing but what is reasonable a man that suffereth not his appetites to flie like little butter-flies fluttering amidst the concupiscence of creatures but limits them in the lists of modesty and not touching the earth but with the soles of his feet fixeth the better part of himself in Heaven this is to behold a perpetual miracle We must then necessarily aver if we will not belie our judgement and reason that in the greatest occasions of ill is shewed the greatest reflection of good Great felicities are so ticklish that it is more easie to live on the dung-hil of Job with patience than in the mannage of great Kingdoms with moderation Saint Bernard said to Pope Eugenius He is truly great Bernard ad Eugen. l. 2. Magnus cui praesens faelicitas si arrisit non irrisit on whom fortune hath smiled and not deceived him It is a heavie burthen to bear a great fortune This is daily seen in the spirits of this Age there needeth but a little sparkle of felicitie to dazle their eyes to puff up their skin to drench them in pride in ingratitude in tyrannie in a deluge of dissolutions One sole hour which a favorite may have in the prosperitie of the Court will make him forget a friendship of thirty years standing a most evident mark of a weak spirit On the contrary to pass from a poor garden into a Kings Palace as Abdolomin did and Abdolomin handle the Scepter with the same humilitie of heart without prejudice of authoritie that one would do a spade is a virtue which rarely hath an example upon earth but is admired in Heaven it self It is a virtue which cometh to men from the treasures of God not from their pedegree It is the fairest object which the Sun drawing aside the curtain of the night discovereth upon earth And I doubt not but the divine providence hath purposely held some religious Monarchs in the world as our S. Lewis for example to declare how high Christian perfection may ascend which is to plant humilitie upon the diamonds of regal crowns to lead in Court an Hermitical life to command greatness and humilitie which seldom are of alliance mutually to embrace as sisters Adde for the third reason which is received by the common consent of all men living in the world that tribulation serves as a fornace for virtue the more stout and masculine it is the more it glitters in affliction What knoweth a man that hath alwaies been bred in a lazie languishing life as the trees of Sodom in the dead sea with what measure perfection is measured Prosperities are like a veil tissued with Prosperitie gold by the fingers of fortune to cover the ulcers of vice and adversitie is the Theatre of generous spirits who feed themselves with afflictions as the Sun with salt water What a glorious spectacle is it to behold saith S. Cyprian an invincible courage counter-buffed Cyprian de mortal with storms and tempests on whom it seemeth Heaven will burst and fall in pieces to behold him I say amongst the threats of the air ruins of the world alwaies standing upright as a great brazen Colossus scorning these as mists and small flakes of snow What a brave word is it to hear a man say in a Quanta sublimitas inter ruinas generis humani stare erectum Sen. de provid Digni visi sumus Deo in quibus experiretur quantum humana natura potest pati Typotius in Symbol Quasi meridianus fulgur consurget tibi ad vesperam cum te consumptum putaveris orieris ut lucifer Job 11. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 world of contrarieties which oppose him God be praised who hath deemed us worthy to serve as a trial of humane nature to see to how high a pitch patience could mount What a Majesty it is to be able to bear this fair ensign wherewith our Lewis the Twelfth with a generous affection was much pleased which was a celestial cup advanced in rays of gold amongst eclipses with this motto Inter eclipses exorior And surely virtue never shineth so much as when she is in eclipse which it seems the Holy Ghost would mysteriously signifie in these words of Job Thou brave spirit who strugglest against tempests thou shalt find thy noon in the evening and when thou shalt esteem thy self annihilated thou then shalt elevate thy self as the morning-star It is a
under the false veil of courage Two things O Noblemen will make you exactly accountable before the justice of God The first to abuse this gift of courage with vanity The second to defile it with cruelty The one savours of childishness the other of barbarism What can one imagine Baseness of courage in certain Noble men more weak and childish than to have received a courage from God capable to conquer Heaven and to employ it in petty fopperies wherein the thoughts better part and the days actions are wasted to court a Ladie to gormandize a banquet nicely to quarrel upon the interpretation of a word to suck up wind to feed a fond curiositie with other affairs to buy plumes of feathers to censure mens apparel to dress himself up for dancing to play at dice to hold a racket in a Tennis-court to play the Buffon in a feast to utter a secret to forge a calumnie to envie one greater than himself to despise equals to baffle inferiours and a thousand other such like exercises which are the rust and moth of the spirit Behold into what these brave courages which should plant the Flower-deluces in the east are dissolved Is not this a shame Is any thing more punishable than so to abuse the gifts of God Is it not a goodly thing to behold in Poets a Jupiter A Jupiter painting goats on the clouds what it signifies Philost in Appolon lib. 21. cap. 10. who hath forsaken his fiery chariot and winged horses letting all go at random in the mean time to busie himself in painting upon the clouds sometimes Goats Apes and Centaurs Behold what Great men do when forsaking the duty of their charges and the obligation of their professions they vilifie themselves in inferiour actions bestowing therein a great part of their time and as it were their whole spirit Vanity would also be more tolerable were it not that it changeth into cruelty which is apparent in the beastly quarrel and bloudy duels that transform the nature of men into a brutishness absolutely savage and tyrannous We must draw iron out of Against duels the entrails of the earth to make it as it were first to blush with shame before it be ruddy with bloud to see it self employed to such a use to behold it self sharpened by the hands of men to cut and transfix men differences must be determined with the loss of life These miserable creatures sometimes for the interpretation of a word sometime through promptness of spirit provoke one another to single combat they send a letter of challenge the place of meeting is appointed they choose Godfathers as if they would make a baptism with a sacrifice of furies they procure Seconds who well see that to go upon cold bloud to hazard their lives in an unhappy combat against a man that never had offended nor known them is a sublimitie of folly notwithstanding on they go tyrannically led along by the laws of vain honour which hath no other foundation but the sottish brainsick-folly of men All of them have for the most part more outward shew than malice their hearts tremble with cold fear in the consideration of the peril to which they expose themselves yet their lips leave not to sound vain-glorious bravadoes They seek out solitary places like Sorcerers and sometime they go by Moon-shine to act this hateful outrage not seeing at all that God beholdeth them with as many eyes of vengeance as the firmament hath stars At the end Reasons of all this they think to do an act full of courage most Heroick and manly What shall we say here that this passion is a rage more than brutish which hath for inheritance the death of the bodie the eternal and irrecoverable loss of the soul the inevitable anger of God the indignation of Kings the thunder of laws the execration of the just the malediction of heaven and earth No this is not it which I now intend to speak For seeing I treat of generositie which obligeth the Nobilitie first to Almighty God who giveth it secondly to virtue which seeketh it as a most necessary instrument I must shew that in this action of duels pretended to be all courage there is nothing less than courage in it And although they were not liable to the vengeance of God for being infringers of laws both divine and human by this detestable manner of proceeding yet they would be ever greater culpable to blast and defile with this abject humour and remiss spirit the gift of courage which is particularly granted to them out of the treasury of Heaven I know not what false spectacles are clapt over the eyes of the Nobilitie by the spirit of lies forged in the shop of hell which oftentimes make them to take glass for Diamond and a Kestrel for a Faulcon Yes verily you have a certain bird in the mysterie of faulconry called the Hobby which coupleth with the race of Faulcons Goshawks and Sparhawks Yea Kestrels of Nobilitie this wretched bird doth also mix with the Saker and Lanaret she flieth after the Faulconers and hovering over the field if the dogs spring some little bird she sowceth upon it making boasts over this feeble creature seeing she hath neither heart nor resolution to grapple with the great ones Justly herein behold the model of a Gallant who maketh profession to present the letter of challenge to call others to duel he hath degenerated from true Nobilitie and real courage which is produced in goodly and great actions undertaken for the service of God and his King he hath no longer left in him ought but a little fierce rebellious spirit to peck at those whom his own temerity judgeth more weak than himself And shall then this man be taken for a man of courage O Noblemen see you not that true Duel is not an act of couage actions of courage are too high and eminent to impart their worth and honour to lackeys and horsboys Now it is so come to pass that there is not any inferiour foot-man nor petty groom of a stable that will not watch to take revenge by duel that will not endeavour to determine differences by some kind of single combat There is not any vain braggard descended from ignoble plebeyan parents under the pretence that he carrieth a pen in his ear which peradventure might be the sword and lance that his father or grand-father made boasts of upon a shread of parchment to gain 6 d. a day that striveth not to have a sword of a good temper to provoke his adversary to single combat and the more in famous he is the more audaciously he furnisheth himself out for this enterprise presupposing that this is a true means closely to cover his base condition Anciently in the wisest and most valorous Kingdom of Who entered into duels anciently the world those which engaged themselves in these duels were people gathered out of the dregs and lees of men slaves
Finally if we will give any credit to ancient monuments the marbles in Churches and tombs of our Ancestours speak for us Behold verily the powerful and invincible reasons Most wholesome advise how to resolve on choise of Religion Augustin contra ep fund which made S. Augustine resolve upon the Religion we profess Many great considerations said he with much reason keep me in the obedience of the Catholick Church The consent of people and Nations hold me The authority of the same Church which is risen up by miracle nourished with hope augmented by charity established by its antiquity The succession of Bishops holds me therein whith beginning in the See and authority of S. Peter to whom God recommended Evangelio non crederem nisi me Ecclisiae Catholicae commoveret authoritas Contra ep Manich. Most weake foundation of the Pretenders the care of the flock is maintained to this present time Lastly the name of Catholick holds me in it He addeth he would not believe the Gospel it self if he were not convinced by the authority of the Church Let us now see whether you have better choise and more consideration than this worthy man who is one of the prime wits of the world Let us see what your Ministers oppose against so many infallible proofs to cover their want of antiquity mission succession miracles sanctity judgement and reason They cease not to buzze out every where a false pretext of Scripture which verily is the greatest illusion that ever was For these wicked ones seeing themselves battered on every side from the beginning of this reformation knew well in their consciences the Scripture was against them Yet notwithstanding said they to mock at the faith of mankind and lead them into Atheism we must avoid the decisions of a Power lively and lawful we must onely take colour from the holy text we will make it say what we list we will maintain nothing is to be believed but what is written and that which is written we will disguise with our glosses and consequences to catch those who think they have some wit Behold the onely means to colour our pretences You then who are endowed with sufficient and Reasons which shew the nullity of this foundation solid judgement consider a little how deceitfull weak and ruinous this foundation is First it appears the devil and all Hereticks of former times have 1. Reason taken the same foundation ever saying the Scripture was on their sides which is most untrue Notwithstanding behold to what pass all hereticks came Munter proved by Scripture he was the Prophet Neque enim natae funt haereses nisi dum scripturae bonae intelliguntur non bene August ad Consentium ep 222. David George a diabolical man that he was God Eon condemned by the Councel of Rhemes that he was the true Messias even by the same Scripture Secondly the world having been two thousand years and more without Scripture the first were 2. Reason written in Hebrew by abbreviation with such ambiguity that every one following his own opinion might frame a Bible to his own liking Yea sometimes such diversity was found in the Hebrew Greek Latine and Chaldaick letter that where one read David another read a bowl where one the liver another a pillow where one beauty another a savage beast where one the word another life where one read the liâ—â—â—g another the dead And you who neither know Hebrew Greek nor Latine on whom will you relie Thirdly upon passages written in every express 3. Reason terms as This is my body the spirits of men have forged two hundred opinions quite different what then will become of difficulties more thorny Julian Bishop of Tolledo wrote a volumn of apparent contradictions Juliani 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Scripture which in substance hath none but which notwithstanding seem many times to say things directly contrary such obscurity there is in some passages Whom should we believe Do you not see this were a means to maintain eternal divisions if there were not Judges to decide differences in a kingdom but that every one should carry the cause according to the proportion of his loud crying to make his texts and allegations to be of force What would this come unto And you would bring the like disorder into the Church Fourthy in the ancient law the Bible was in the 4. Reason Ark and no man durst open it and turn it to resolve controversies upon this Rule but did expect the decision thereof from the Priests mouth who had a lawful succession The lips of the Priest are the Malach. 2. 7. store-houses of knowledge and from his mouth you shall enquire the law said the Prophet Malachie Fiftly the wisest men in the world after they had 5. Reason maturely thought upon it found no other way to determin controversies but to have recourse to the decision of a Head Such is the opinion of S. Irenaeus S. Augustine and S. Hierome Vincentius Lirinensis and all other Sixthly it is the commandment of God When any Ezech. 44. 24. A most just proceeding controversies shall be raised my Priest shall hold sessions and shall judge For of necessity we must have an authority commanding magistral and decisive For Conclusion can one speak any thing more 6. Reason just than that in case any place of Scripture hath obscurities in it it were to much better purpose to hear thereupon the decision of ancient Fathers disinteressed from our controversies than to enforce our selves to pass upon the judgement of a passionate Adversary without warrant or authority When in the year 1523. heresie began first in France and that there was but one Minister a wool-carder called John Clarck in the Citie of Meaux where should we find the interpretation of Scripture in the mouth of this carder or in a lawful Councel Judge behold what you go about you may hereby see how much this pretext of Scripture is malicious shifting and frivolous I adde that they overthrow themselves by those 7. Reason ways wherewith they seek to establish themselves For if we ought not believe any thing but that which is written in what place of their Bible will they find that twenty thousand passages must be taken out of ours In what place will they shew us the books of the Macchabees are not Canonical In what place that Sunday must be kept holy and not Saturday In what place that vows must be broken In what place that Iesus Christ is eaten by the mouth of faith and so many other places which make us sufficiently understand they ruin themselves by their own hands Finally for the fourth consideration take the 4. Point Math. 7. Effects of heresie maxim from the Son of God To judge well of a sect you must judge by the fruits and the effects What fruits and what effects have we seen to come from this pretended Religion The fear of God stifled
with much impudence and yet it seem modestie The malediction pronounced by the Prophet Ezechiel Vae qui consuunt pulvillos sub omni cubito manus against those who have little pillows of all sorts for the nice to lean upon may now well be renewed never hath there been so many flatteries seen The children of great men are soothed by all kind Flattery inebriateth great men from their cradle of tongues and made drunk with their praises before they be throughly awakened and seeing they are always bred in curiosity it seemeth when any truth is proposed them a Phenix is brought from the other world Servile souls which bend themselves like the fishers angling-line seeing their preferment dependeth upon their impertinent prating and that the Altars of this false greatness will be served with such smoke spare it no more than one would water in a river You shall find few or none that will tell the ape he is an ape this liberty of speech is extant in histories but not at all in our manners The gout seeketh out the houses of rich voluptuous men and flatterie the mansions of the eminent that is it which the Wise-man would say in the Proverbs according to the original translation Prov. 30. Simia manibus nititur moratur in domibus Regis Apes in the Court of So lomon The Hebrews literally understand it by the apes which Solomon caused to be transported by sea with those apes came flatterers and buffons to the Court of this great King which was the beginning of his unhappiness Those which flatter and those which willingly are flattered are much of the nature of the ape and all this tattle of Court is indeed a meer apishness Behold why that learned Prelate Faius Faius in manipulo whose manuscripts have very lately been extracted out of libraries doth most natively represent this verity unto us under the veil of a fiction He feigneth two men the one an extream flatterer A prety tale of an ape the other just and a truth-speaker came to lodge in the house of an old ape at that time encompassed with a plentiful race The ape asked of the flatterer what opinion he had of him This man accommodating himself to the time gave him many specious praises saying he was a vermillion rose and those that environed him were the leaves that he was a Sun and those that were about him were the rays that he was as valiant as a Lion and all his ofspring was a race of young Lions Behold saith the ape it is well and commanded a present to be given him When it came to the truth-speakers turn to say some what he revolved with himself that he could not tell a lie that his nature was always to be true that if his companion had a reward for telling a lie by much more reason he should be wellcome delivering the truth He thereupon freely said to him he was an ape and all those that attended him were apes like himself for which cause the apes provoked assailed him fiercely with their teeth and nails Behold the condition of this Age we cannot brooke a truth our ears being always stopped with perfumed words entertained with false praises and servile complacences Truth findeth no admittance and if happily she hit upon it her words are thorns they tear the skin The most indissoluble friendships in apparence are dissolved by a little freedom of a friend Then it is nothing strange if prating and intemperance of tongue be in such force since the soft temper of spirits of this time cannot endure any the least libertie of speech As we are excessive in praises so we hold no measure in reprehension Those who are absolutely sensible of the touches of honour and cannot tolerate a truth think that all other are insensible so prodigal they are of another mans fame They cut carve chop with the tongue on every side and you may find a feast where more raw flesh is devoured than either boyled or roasted Calumny Calumny doth at this present resemble the tail of the scorpion which either stingeth or ever is ready to transfix it hath never been seen more fiercely enflamed It is the wound of frogs described in â—xodus Et ascenderunt ranae operueruntque terram Aegypti Slander the wound of frogs It was a great scourge to behold these ugly creatures issuing out of Nilus to go crawling up and down the silken furnitures and golden plate of Pharao as well as over the poor cottages of beggars And a greater punishment it is at this day to hear these slanderous tongues pour forth their venom upon all sorts of persons and to assail as well the Miters the Diadems and Scarlet as the russet coat Every one sheweth the stroaks of calumny every one demanding oyl and balm for his wounds doth notwithstanding covertly hold a sharp lancet to wound anothers estimation The honour of Magistrates of Fabius declamat Pessimum humanarum mentium malum est quod semper avidiùs nefanda finguntur affirmationem sumit ex homine quicquid non habet ex veritate Two devils breath out calumny Ladies of young virgins many times most innocent is not spared most faithful servitours are traduced by the wills of calumny men are bold to speak any thing since many are willing to believe all Verily behold the greatest malignity that can be in the minds of men which is that they are pleased to dissemble an evil and that which hath no foundation of verity findeth colour and countenance from the mouth of a calumniatour Two evil spirits ordinarily breath out calumny the one planteth himself in the tongue of the detractour the other in the ears of the hearer They are two sundry winds whereof the one cometh from the gate the other from the window When they toss this tennis-ball one to another you see terrible sport After calumny cometh likewise scoffing with immodest and wicked words which are also put into the mouths of little children to make them witty and pleasing The little creatures doe not yet Scoffing the harbinger of Atheism know whether they have a tongue or no and we perceive they already are initiated in the work of Satan This spirit of scoffing and impurity which pleaseth it self with uncleanness of language is a harbinger of Athiesm that marketh him out a lodging and as it is said that the sea-rat goeth before the whale in the same manner gross and senseless impiety such as it is maketh use I know not of what kind of silly scoffing spirits which are taken to be the wise of the world under the colour that they can compose some bald sonnet whilst they themselves readily give the word when to laugh at it These are Buffons the flies of Aegypt Exod. 8. 27. the curiosities the entertainments the Idols of meetings Aaron striking the dust with his rod madeflies to spring up the greatest scourge of Aegypt I cannot tell who
first practice and most ordinary to hear Mass for those who understand the words there spoken is to follow them with application of spirit and to accompany the silence of the Priest with some meditations or vocal prayers The second is to stay ones self upon the signification of all the parts of the Mass As at the Confiteor to represent to your self man banished from Paradise miserable suppliant confessing deploring his sin At the Introite the enflamed desires of all mankind expecting the Messias At the Hymn of Angels Glory be to God on high the Nativity At the Prayers thanksgiving for such a benefit At the Epistle the preaching of the Praecursour S. John At the Gospel truth preached by the Saviour of the world and so of the rest The third is to divide the Mass into certain parcels and behold a very considerable manner Represent to your self five great things in the mystery of the Mass from whence you ought to draw so many fruits These five things are representation praise Sacrifice instruction nourishment Representation because the Mass is a perfect image Five notable things in the mystery of the Mass Radicati superaedificati in ipso Col. 2. c. of the life and passion of our Saviour and therefore the first fruit you ought to gather from thence is daily to imprint more lively in your heart the actions and passions of the Son of God to conform your self thereunto Praise So many words as are in the Mass aim at this purpose to give praise unto God for this ineffable mystery of our redemption and to conform your self to this action you ought to bend all the endeavour of your heart to praise God whether it be by vocal or mental prayer Sacrifice It is a most singular act of Religion by which we reverence and adore God for the infinite glory of his souereign Being And the Mass is a Mass a Sacrifice true Sacrifice by eminency where the life and bloud of beasts is not offered but the life of a Saviour which is more worth than the life of all Angels and men Cedrenus recounteth that the Emperour Justinian Cedren in Compen hist Wonder of Justinian caused an Altar to be made in the Church of Saint Sophia wherein he used all sorts of mettal of precious stones of the richest materials which might be chosen out amongst all the magazins of nature to incorporate all the beauties of the world in onesole master-piece And verily this Sacrifice is the prime work of God in which he hath as it were locked up all that which is great or holy in all the mysteries of our Religion It was the custom daily to proportion the Sacrifices to the benefits of God When in the old law he gave the fat of the earth they offered the first-fruits to him But now that he hath granted to us the dew of Heaven so long expected his onely Son we must render to him his Son again which is done in the Sacrifice of the Mass And the fruit you should derive from this consideration is at the elevation of the host to offer Jesus Christ to God his Father by the ministery of the Priest and to offer it First for a supream and incomparable honour of the Divine Majesty Secondly for thanksgiving for all benefits received and to be received Thirdly to obtain protection direction and prosperity in all your works Besides offer up all your powers faculties functions actions in the union of the merits of Jesus Instruction Those who understand the words of Instruction 4. of Mass the Mass may draw goodly instructions from reading the Epistle the Gospel the Collects All in general teach us the virtues of honour and reverence towards the Divine Majesty seeing this Sacrifice is celebrated with so many holy sacred and profoundly dutiful ceremonies Of gratitude since God being once offered in the bloudy Sacrifice of the Cross will also be daily presented to God his Father in the title of gratitude And that ought to awaken in us the memory of observing every benefit of God with some remarkable act of devotion Of Charity towards our common Saviour and towards our neighbour since we see a life of God spent for our redemption and all faithful people Nourishment The eye liveth by light and colours Nourishment 5. the Bee by dew the Phenix by the most thin and subtile vapours and the soul of the faithful by the nourishment which it receiveth in the Blessed Sacrament which is purely spiritual This nourishment is not onely derived from the Sacramental Communion Spiritual Communion by the real presence of the body of our Saviour but also by the spiritual Communion which is made when in the Sacrifice of the Mass at the time of the Priest his communicating the same dispositions apprehensions and affections are entertained as if really and actually one did receive For this purpose it is fit to do three things First to excite anew in your self the acts of self-dislike and contrition for your wretchedness and imperfections The second to take spiritually the carbuncle of the Altar not with the pincers of the Seraphin but with acts of a most lively faith a most resolved hope and a charitie most ardent to open boldly the mouth of your heart and pray our Saviour to enter in as truly by the communication of his graces and favours which are the rays of this Sun as by the real imparting of his body and bloud he gives himself to those that communicate The third to conclude all your actions with a most hearty thanksgiving The fourteenth SECTION Practice of Meditation OF four worlds which are the Architype Intelligible Celestial and Elementary prayer imitateth the most perfect being a true image of the oeconomy of the holy Trinitie which according to the maxims of Divines cannot pray to any having no Superiour yet affordeth a model for all prayers For prayer as saith Tertullian is composed of reason words and spirit Of reason as we may interpret by the relation it hath to the Father of words as it is referred to the Word of spirit by the the direction it hath to the third Person Now this principally agreeth with meditation For it is that divine silence delicious ravishment of the soul which uniteth man to God and finite essence to Infinite It is that plenitude and that tear spoken of in Exodus according to an ancient translation Plenitude Exod. 22. 29. because it replenisheth the soul with the splendour of consolations and sources which distil from the Paradise of God Tear yea tear of myrrhe because it distilleth under the eyes of God as doth the tree which beareth myrrhe under the rays of the Sun It is a wonderful thing to behold this little shrub which doth not perpetually expect to be cut with iron that it may drop forth its pleasing liquor but the Sun reflecting on the branches thereof becomes as it were a mid-wife and maketh it bring forth what is sought
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
inability is vanquished by the grace of God and virtue of fortitude which warranteth courage to undertake and strengtheneth it to bear what reason dictateth And Sufferers more couragious than undertakers although to undertake seem a thing very glorious it is notwithstanding the hardest task to endure a temptation to oppose it with unmoved foot to wrastle with it to trample on it and in the end by virtue to erect tropheys over it Saint Thomas very judiciously yieldeth the reasons S. Thom. 1. 2. q. 123. 1. Because he who is assaulted seemeth ever in worse state than he that assaulteth for encountering he always presupposeth himself to be stronger Now it appeareth he who undergoeth some brave action of courage is the assailant and he who withstandeth a temptation is opposed and sometimes shaken without thinking thereof which is far more troublesom and hard and therefore draweth after it much more resolution in case a good and generous resistance be made against it 2. The assailant beholdeth the peril as future and he who is tempted seeth the temptation even almost within his gates in his heart in his bowels 3. The assailant often dischargeth his pistol like an harcubusier before he have leisure to know the danger and readily retireth The other who suffereth burneth as with a gentle fire and in the mean space if he be patient he long time stayeth with a reposed rest yet not striking at all which is a thing worthy of an eternal crown The Alexanders the Caesars who flew like Eagles to the conquest of worlds oftentimes yielded themselves up to the least temptation Their strength was disguised not real The seventeenth SECTION The arms against temptation contained in twelve Maxims THe means to resist temptations is not to frame The means to resist temptations to your self a spiritual insensibility which feeleth nothing It is hard to obtain it so sensible self-love is and when one hath it he rather is a stone than a man It is not to drive away one temptation by another and do one mischief to be freed of another For to pursue such courses is like washing ones self with ink It is not to hide one from all kind of encounters and never to do well for fear to have occasion of a combate against ill but to resist it couragiously in that sort as I will shew That great fore-mentioned John Picus Mirandula hath collected twelve notable maxims the practice whereof is most profitable to enable your self in spitual combate against impotency I. Maxim That you must be tempted on what Thesal In hoc posui sumus Temptation our trade side soever it happen It is our profession our trade our continual exercise The Eagle complaineth not of her wings nor the Nightingale of her song nor Peacock of her tayl because it is by kind and it is as natural for man to be tempted as for a bird to flie to sing to prune her feathers If you forsake not the way of spiritual life fearing to be tempted and turn head to worldly contentments hold it for an infallible verity you therein shall be much more engaged and which is worse without comfort honour merit or recompence you shall leave a paper-Cross which if you knew well how to mannage would load you no more than feathers do the bird you will forsake it say I to take another hard uneasie and bloudy which would invest you in the Confraternitie of the bad thief That great Prelate of France Sydonius Apollinaris relateth Sidon Apol. l. 2. c. 1. that a certain man called Maximus being arrived at the height of honour by unlawful and indirect ways much grived from the first day and breathing out a great sigh spake these words O Damocls I esteem thee most happy to have been a King onely A remarkable speech of Maximus Foelicem te Damocles qui non uno longius prandio regni necessitatem toleravisti Travel of worldlings the space of a dinner time It is now a whole day that I have been so and can no longer endure it II. Remember that in the affairs of the world we fight a longer time we travel more painfully we reap more fruitlesly The end of one toyl is the beginning of another In pains taking there is no hope but ever to labour A temporal toyl draweth after it an eternity of pain III. Is it not a meer folly to believe a Paradise an eternal life a Jesus Christ who made unto himself a ladder of the cross to ascend to the throne of his glorie and you in the mean while to be desirous to live here with arms a-cross To see the Master open Indignity of curiosity the way of Heaven through so many thorns and the servant not to be willing to tread but upon flowers To see under a head all wasted and worn with suffering delicate members as one should make to a Colossus of brass feet of flax IV. Were there no other fruit in temptation but Greatness of temptation conformity to Iesus Christ the conformity which we thereby have with Jesus Christ the sovereign Wisdom it would be highly recompenced A brave Captain said to a souldier who died with him Although thou hadst been unknown all thy life time it is no small honour for thee to die this day with thy Master And who would not hold it for a great glory to have the Son of God for Captain for companion for spectatour for theatre for guerdon in all his afflictions and tribulations Who would not account it a great dignity to be daily crucified with him To distend his hands and arms upon the Cross in withholding them from violences rapines ruins wherewith the spirit of lying transporteth us To fetter your feet and hinder them from running after the unbridied desires of your heart To make bitter your tongue in subduing the pleasures of tast To cover your body with wounds in suppressing the incitements of flesh by a holy mortification To lessen your self by the contempt of honour according to the example of him who being able always to walk upon the wings of Cherubins would creep amongst us like a little worm Galat. 9 Ego stigmata Domini Jesu in corpore meo porto Distrust of ones self of the earth What a glory were it to say what Saint Paul said I hear the marks of my Saviour Jesus on my body V. Not to confide in humane remedies when you undertake to overcome a temptation It is not a thing which dependeth meerly upon us It is necessary God go before and we thereto contribute our free will If he watch not over our heads it will be a hard matter for us to keep centinel No creature is so feeble as he who holdeth himself for strong being onely armed with his own confidence Many Concilium Arausicanum Multa in homine bona siunt quae non facit homo bona Nulla vero facit homo bona quae non Deus praesiet ut faciat
4. Clemency and mercy 5. Poverty of spirit disengaged from earth 6. Humility 7. Charity towards your neighbour 8. Frequentation of the Sacraments of Confession and Communion 9. Love to the word of God 10. Resignation of spirit to the will of your Soveraign Maister 11. Some remarkeable Act of vertue excercized by you upon occasion offered 12. Devotion to our Blessed Lady In honour of whom you shall do well to observe daily three things First to present unto her an oblation every hour of the day of the Angelical salutation when at the striking of the clock you recal your heart to your self Secondly to excercise some mortification of mind or body by some motive of the imitation of her vertues Thirdly to give alms to her honour either spiritual or temporal This have I enlarged in a litle manual called THE CHRISTIAN DIVRNAL Instructions for the Married The thirty fourth SECTION Of the misery of ill governed marriages and to whom we may impute it THE great evils in ill managed marriages made S. Gregory Nyssen and S. Iohn Damascene say Nyss lib. de hom cap. 18. Damasc l. 2. de fide ortho c. 30. wedlock had not been invented but to serve as a remedy for the wound of concupiscence and that if the first Authours of mankind had remayned in original justice the world would have been multiplied in a manner wholy Angelical rather than by the ordinary ways of marriage Notwithstanding S. Augustine and S. Thomas who diligently looked into it assure us marriage was treated in the state of innocency by natural ways since Eve was created before sin and given to man to serue as a companion for him in the worlds propagation But if the divine providence would have pleased to have made choyse of other means for this increase he had created millions of men in the beginning of the world like unto Angels and not one man alone nor one sole woman who were set in the front of all Nations of purpose to produce them with that progress of time and succession we therein observe I pronounce marriage had been without the ardours and disturbances of concupiscence the paines of child-bearing disloyalty riots and discontent but rather entertained with a tender love of the man towards the woman and a perfect obedience of the wife towards the husband with a sweet education of children free from poverty loss and all sorts of troubles Christian Religion endeavoureth to recal wedlock to the purity of the first institution whilst good liking accordeth with the commandments of God and the immutable laws of eternal Justice There is a most remarkable thing written of the Peach-tree that in Persia which was the first and onely place heretofore of its growth it was venoumous and mortal but being carried and transported into other countreys as Aegypt Greece Italie France it wholy changed nature and loosing with the country its malignity bare and to this day beareth fruits rellished with muth tastfulness The like is marriage a strange plant if you leave it in its Province that is to say within the limits of nature extreamly passionat and irregular beware of poyson and death but if you transplant it into the Evangelical Law and manure it with order continency and that restriction which the law of God dictateth to you you shall derive delectation and profit from it for the solace and ornament of humane life Nay we must affirm the exorbitancies which now raign in the world and which draw so many miseries along with them make married people very often feel most harsh conditions and to render marriage a soyle as natural for cares as it is barren for roses and violets Marriage now adays throughout the greatest part of the world is a poesy of thorns we know not whereto lay hold of it on what side soever it be touched it pricks the fingers Marriage is the ivy of Jonah exteriourly verdant with some apparance of cheerfulness and delight but the worm of grief and anxiety gnaws the root within Marriage is the plant which the Indians call the thorny bodkin it is all over sprinkled with stars and the rayes of these stars are nothing els but prickles Maydens take heed one may think to gather a star who shall find a sharp thorn Marriage is the balm of Arabia whereunto little vipers hasten to make their nests such an one sees the leaf and sents the good odour who perceives not the little serpents of a thousand disturbances which lie hidden there-under Marriage is the island of dreams of which the Ancients speak where a thousand griefs are presented covered at first with the veil of pleasure you would swear they were little Cupids who say Come to me young man come to me come hither Nescis quia Ismael est qui tecum ludit fair maid come hither They are entertained they are courted in an instant they take off the mantle and appear as they are with ugly countenances and horrid shapes Marriage is a stormy sea where nothing is to be seen but ruins tempests and shipwracks one cries mercy and another help save if it be possible and there are very few who arrive at the haven without infinit hazard Marriage is a long pilgrimage which finds but three hosteries The first is called false pleasure the second repentance the third calamity and if you go any farther you shall meet with despair The first difficulty there encountered is that of a free-man you become a bond-slave and the sweet liberty which nature impressed on the heart of all living creatures is the first trophey you must hang up over the bridal bed The wife saith the Apostle Mulier sui corporis potestatem non habet sed vir similitèr vir sui corporis potestatem non habet sed mulier 1 Cor. 7. hath no power over her own body that jurisdiction is reserved to the husband nor can the husband reciprocally dispose of his own body for it is in the power of the wife Nay did she know into whose hands she consigned this precious treasure it would be some comfort to say thus much at the least If I be a slave I will choose a good Master But thou silly maid who hast been so tenderly bred and hatched up under the wings of thy parents as a chaste dove art put into the hands of a husband as into the tallons of a faulcon When he wooed thee as a suitor he made shew of much mildness he was a lamb nay rather a wolf in a sheep-skin No sooner was marriage consummate but the mask was taken off he shewed what he was a gamester a man chollerick base barbarous and tyrannical that held this wretched dove in his bloudy claws making her hourly vapour out her life through the sighs of her sorrows Young man who as yet art not fettered in the bands of marriage thou makest love to a maid with infinite services and for that purpose thou learnest to dance the cinque-apace thou clothest
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
answered their desires For in this second Volumn I treat of the Courts of Constantine the Great the two Valentinians Gratian Theodosius the Elder Theodorick in Boetius his cause Clodoveus Clotilda Levigildus Hermingildus and Indegondis in such sort that I have selected the principal sanctities of Great-ones in the first six Ages of Christianity which will not be sleightly valued by those who better love to finish a Work than unboundedly distend it Moreover also to be better than my promise in my first Volumn having taken the Court in general I here descend into particulars and there being four sorts of persons which compose the life of Great-ones that is to say the Prelate the Souldier the States-man and the Court-Ladie I have made a brief Table of the conditions necessary in every state couched in four discourses pursued with as many Books of Histories which contain excellent models of virtues proper to all orders and states of life in persons most eminent I can assure my Reader these Summaries of Precepts which I have so contracted in so few words it being in my power to enlarge them in divers Volumns are not unprofitable and the Histories are so chosen that besides their majesty which unfoldeth the goodliest affairs and passages of Empires in the beginning of their Christianity they have also a certain sweetness which solid spirits shall find as much to transcend fables and modern eloquence as the satisfaction of truth surpasseth the illusions of Sorcerers You shall perpetually therein observe a large Theater of the Divine providence wherein God himself knoweth I have no other aim but to dignifie virtue and depress vice without any reflection upon the persons of these times no more than if I wrote in the Reign of Charlemain or St. Lewis I heartily entreat all those spirits of application who cannot hold their nose over a piece of work unless they find it to suit with their own fantasies imagining that all literature is the eccho of their own thoughts that if they have any Commentary to produce they would rather make glosses upon their own dreams than my Books We are not as yet God be thanked in so miserable an Age that we dare not offer sacrifice to truth without a disguise since it is the glory of Great-ones openly to wage war against vices as their greatest enemies For to speak truly after I had presented my First Tome at the feet of the sacred person of our great King I likewise considered in his Court rich and resplendent lights in all orders which might serve as models for my Treatises but to avoid affectation of all worldly complacence I have purposely declined it my nature and habit having already so alienated me from all worldly pretences that it would prove painfull to me to court any man if he had not Heaven and the Stars to give me for reward For so much as concerneth the form of writing observed by me in this Second Volumn I will truly confess to my Reader that I have therein proceeded rather guided by my proper Genius than art or cunning And although I heretofore have been curious enough to read and observe all what ever Greek or Roman eloquence hath produced of worth yet I confess there is a certain ray of God which encountering with our spirit and mixing with nature is more knowing than all precepts and I may affirm this for the instruction of youth which hath asked my opinion concerning the qualities and conditions of stile True it is I have handled many books written in all Ages and have found the wisest of them to be elevated in conceits and words above the ordinary strain but always free from affectation Others are so passionately enamoured of certain petty courtships of language which are capital enemies of perswasion and which we most especially ought to avoid in discourses of piety the nerves whereof they weaken and blemish the lustre since even those who speak to us out of Chairs by word or writing although in terms discreetly modest make the less impressions on our hearts and many times so seek after their own reputations as they forget how much they are engaged to truth We see some who through over-much wit search out strange ways conceptions different from common understanding words extravagant and in all other things so vehemently adore their own imaginations that they cannot endure any but themselves in paper which is the cause they very seldom meet with the habit of humane understanding as being true Citizens of Plato's Commonwealth of ability to controle all and to do nothing Some glory in barrenness and would willingly be displeased with God that he hath more plentifully sown stars in some parts of the Heaven than in others They can brook nothing that is generous without snarling at it and taxing it supposing beauties and splendours are defects because they surpass their capacities Finally there are some who so furnish themselves with the worth of others ceaseless allegations that they frame discourses like to those Helena's all of gold where we can behold nothing but drapery not being able to distinguish the hand from the foot nor the eye from the face I enter not into the consideration of our times having learned rather to regard the Works of the meanest Writers than censure them But to speak sincerely I never thought it fit to advise or pursue such courses And as in this Work I have not wholly declined learning nor ornament of language which I supposed apt for the purpose endeavouring many times to enchase them with seemly accommodation so have I been unwilling to replenish my leaves with Authours and forreign tongues this being undertaken rather to perswade virtue among men eminent than to fill the common places of young Students I likewise have so intermingled my style that not descending into a petty language of complement which had been below my subject I thought to make it intelligible yea even unto those who make no profession of arts or study My onely aim is to speak and to be understood perswaded thereunto by the saying of Philo That speech and thought are two sisters they youngest whereof is created that the eldest may be known I have more laboured upon the weight of sentences than ornaments of words not at all pretending to the honour of earthly pens which we daily behold to grow in so many Authours of this Age who would be much more absolute did they apply themselves to graver subjects and in some sort imitate the Sun who affording admiration to the world hath none himself Notwithstanding it often happeneth not with the most eminent Writers who ordinarily are endowed with much modesty but certain extreamly profane wits to idolatrize their own inventions to condemn all treatises of worth and value that it is impossible to be eloquent in our language but in the expression of vanities and impurities Truly if question were made to judge of French eloquence the riches of Babylon are not so exquisite as
heretofore ordained for the Vestals by the Common-wealth should at this present be summed up as the coyn of the Weal-publick As the Common-wealth is composed of particulars so hath it no more right over donatives than it hath on particular persons Your selves who govern all preserve for each one what appertains to him and would have justice extend it self further than your power Consult if you please with your magnificence and it will tell you that what you hitherto have given to so many particulars is no more a publick good for the gifts are no longer theirs who bestowed them and that which was in the beginning a benefit by custom and succession of time becomes an obligation It is to affright the consciences of your Majesties with panick fears to think to make you believe you give to our religion that which you cannot take from it without injustice I pray God the secret assistances of all Sects may favour your Clemencie and that this same which hath so long time ayded your Ancestours if it can no longer stand in credit with you may at least keep you in its protection We will on your Majesties behalf afford it all rights and it towards you shall continue ordinarie favours We demand nothing new in requiring the exercise He speaketh of Valentinian of a Religion which hath preserved the Empire for your father now with the Gods and which hath blessed his bed with lawfull heirs of his crown This good Prince being entered into the condition of the Gods immortal beholdeth from Heaven the tears of these poor Vestals and well sees customs cannot be violated which he with so much affection maintained but by the diminution of his authoritie Afford at least this contentment to your good brother received into this celestial companie as to see a decree corrected that was not his own Cover an act under oblivion which he had never suffered to pass had he foreseen the discontent of the Senate and for which the deputies were diverted which we sent unto him when he was alive for the fear his enemies had of his equitie It much importeth the publick to take away a foul blame from the ashes of a good Prince and justifie the passed by abolishment of the present The fifth SECTION The Oration of S. Ambrose against Symmachus MOST SACRED MAjESTIE ALthough your Minoritie gave us undoubted signs It is drawn from his reasons conceptions and as it were from all his own words of the strength of your spirit and constancie of your faith yet the rank I hold near to your person obligeth me to prevent the surprizes of a craftie discourse which creepeth amongst so many golden words as the serpent amongst the flowers It is ill the Governour Symmachus hath employed so fair a tongue on so foul a subject The deceit of his eloquence makes us suspect the weakness of his Gods for ever a bad cause seeketh that support in words which in truth it cannot find Such are the ordinarie proceedings of Pagans when they speak of their superstitions Their Orations resemble those ancient Temples of Aegypt which under golden Tents lodged Idols of Rats and Crocodiles But the Scripture teacheth us rather to live than talk and recommendeth the contempt of language to oblige us to soliditie of virtues That is the cause why most sacred Majestie after I have entreated you to take my discourse rather in the weight of reasons than number of words I will answer to three points which the Governour seemeth to comprize in his speech The first toucheth the Religion of Pagans The second the revenews of Vestals And the third the cause of the famin we have felt A singular refutation of Symmachus his strongest argument I understand in the first article it is Rome which speaketh with her eyes full of tears sighs at her heart demanding the exercise of Pagan superstitions because they are such saith the Governour which drave Hannibal from the walls and the Gauls from the Capitol It is to publish the infirmitie of false Gods to defend them in this manner and better we cannot refute Symmachus than by shewing him armed against himself For I ask if those Gods are the Protectours of this Empire why they so long time suffered Hannibal to triumph in the ruins of Italie Were their hands so short they could stretch them no further than their walls and Temples As for the Gauls what shall I say I much wonder how the governour doth mention it since it is in effect a thing most ridiculous to say that the enemies being in the heart of the Citie all these protecting Gods should stand idle in their Temples in such sort that all histories have published the people of Rome owed their preservation not to the Gods or sacrifices which nothing availed them but to the gagling of a goose which by good hap awakened the drowsie Centinels if it be not that Symmachus as he is inventive enough will say that Jupiter had then forsaken his burning Chariots and thunder-bolts to shut himself up in the throat of this gosling But as a lye is ever industrious to hurt it self did not Hannibal adore the Roman Gods If it be true that they always bear victorie in their hands why did not Hannibal surprize Rome with the assistance of those Gods Or why did not the Romans vanquish Hannibal in all their battels Why had both the one and the other oftentimes the worst On what side soever you turn you must see Gods conquered who cannot denie their impotencie if they avow not their nullitie It is not Rome then that speaketh in this manner as Symmachus makes it never gave she him this commission but she says by the mouthes of her brave Captains Romans what have I done to become a butcherie and Rome speaketh with Majestie to be imbrued with the bloud of so many creatures Victories abide not in the entrails of beasts but the arms of souldiers It is not the death of oxen hath made me subdue Monarchs but the valour of men Camillus by force of arms displayed my standards on the Capitol which your ceremonies suffered to be taken away Attilius exposed his life for the trial of his fidelitie safety of the Weal-publick Scipio Africanus found triumph not among the Altars of the Capitol but in the field of battel If you desire to see the goodly effects of your superstitions behold Nero who was the first that drew the sword of Caesars against the Christians behold Emperours monethly made and unmade like the moon behold those who were the most zealous in your ceremonies whereof some having shamefully enthraled the worlds Empire to forreigners the other promising themselves great victories under the favour of their Gods have found servitude Was not there then an Altar of Victorie in the Capitol From whence I pray proceeded so many sinister accidents if good hap be divinely destined to those who obey it I much repent me of these barbarous ceremonies
there is no infancie but is replenished with God if it render it self not unworthy thereof Little Infants heretofore have confronted executioners and born away the crown of martyrdom and will you betray our altars What will you answer to your good brother the Emperour Gratian of holy and glorious memorie when he shall say My brother I never thought my self vanquished by mine enemies whilest I left the Diadem on your head It hath not grieved me to die since my place was replenished with so good a Successour I freely have forsaken the Empire being perswaded the ordinances I made in favour of Religion would remain inviolable to posteritie Brother these are the spoils I gained over divels these are my titles and tropheys these the pledges of my pietie and monuments of my faith which you have since taken away from me by your Edicts What may an enemie do more You have violated what I so piously ordained for the glory of Altars It is a thing which he who so unworthily bare arms against me never did The sword which transfixed my bodie did me less hurt than your Edicts more sensible am I of the wound you impressed on my cinders than that which the Tyrant fixed on my members The one took from me the life of bodie but this bereaves me the life of memorie and virtues On this day it is that I loose an Empire since I see my self deprived of that I always preferred before Empires and that it is taken from me after my death yea by the hand of a man whom I infinitly loved Brother If you have done this of your own accord you have condemned my faith and if by constraint you have betrayed your own and being wholly dead as I am you make me die in you who are of my self the better part On the other side think you not but that the Emperour Valentinian your father whose name you bear will say unto you Son you have done me much injury so to condemn my conscience and to believe I ever had any purpose to tolerate superstitions so prejudicial to Christianitie I punished all crimes that came to my knowledge But never have I heard of an Altar of Victorie nor profane sacrifices to be made in a Sovereign Court before the eyes of all Christendom Dear son you greatly dishonour the respect which is due to the memorie of your father if you think he oweth his Empire to superstition and not to his Religion I heartily beseech God most Sacred Majestie if this affair be so important as you see to your conscience to the memorie of your father the ashes of your brother your own reputation to the judgement which posteritie shall give upon you and that which transcendeth all other considerations to the universal Church you now do what you will one day wish to have done when we shall appear before the eyes of the whole Church Triumphant to the end your actions may be free from reproof as my counsels are of Repentance Who could resist these thunder-bolts Symmachus reputed at that time as we have said the prime States-man in the Roman Empire both for eloquence and authoritie was ashamed of his superstition and in pleading for Victorie lost it well shewing it was nothing since it had so little countenanced a man who ascribed so much unto it which made Ennodius Dicendi palmam Victoria tollit amico Transit ad Ambrosium plâ—s favet ira Deae Ennodius say Symmachus in pleading for Victorie hath lost the victorie left by him in the hands of S. Ambrose plainly discovering the Goddess was very unreasonable to forsake those that served her and gratifie such as offended her The triumph of S. AMBROSE in the conversion of S. Augustine The sixth SECTION Of the Nature and Condition of this great Man I Come to one of the most remarkable actions of The greatnes of S. Ambrose in this conversion S. Ambrose resplendent in the conversion of great S. Augustine the benefit whereof heaven and earth have divided since this incomparable man serves as a support for the Church Militant in the revolution of so many Ages and an ornament to the Church Triumphant through all eternitie It is none of the least gifts from Heaven that our Ambrose was selected for an affair of so great importance that the whole world might find its interests therein and for a victorie so eminent that were the Angels as capable of envie as they are repleat with charitie as they have loved the Conquest they would envie the glory thereof Happie voice of thunder which made this hind to bring forth her young after the throws and agitations of twelve years Happie the Beseleel who so well hath laboured in the Exod. 31. Tabernacle of the living God Happy the David who hath subdued this Rabbath so many times shaken 2. Kings 12. by the arms of great Captains Happy the Alexander who with the sword of the word hath cut so many Gordian knots as held this great Spirit in disturbance I here defie all the Amphitheaters which have been in the world and so often mixed the bloud of men with that of Lyons and Elephants I call those spectacles which so many times have attracted the eyes of Cesars I desire the jousts turneys races chariots triumphs and those magnificences may be proposed which have drawn bloud from all the veins of the world to establish superfluitie and that it may be considered whether there were ever combat comparable to this which I present where a holy Bishop entred into the list against the prime Spirit of the world where God sits enthroned where the Angels ranged before the gates of Heaven contemplate where three parts of the world expect the issue of this duel where Heaven applaudeth the earth trembleth where hell frowneth the divels houl to see themselves deceived of their prey Where the victorious Ambrose triumpheth where the unvanquishable Augustine yieldeth to be confirmed by his fall to be raised by his abasing fortified by his weakness Gentle Reader I intreat you as my purpose is no other but to enchase in this historie of S. Ambrose the acts of Ecclesiasticks who to him are so particularly tied that you think it not strange if I more at large distend my self upon a narration so proper for the subject which I treat of I doubt not but the manner wherein I shall unfold it will render it wholly new as the greatness thereof made it honourable and the utilitie still seasoneth it with some particular delight That we may here well observe the ways of the Impediments in the conversion of S. Augustine Divine providence in the direction of mans salvation and the strength of S. Ambrose quickened with the Spirit of God it is necessarie to consider the powerfull oppositions that so long time hindered this conversion which I reduce to three principal heads Curiositie Presumption and Carnal Love It is a dangerous pestilence in matter of Religion to take the wind
factious to be herein opinionative and in the mean time when they came to bear arms where they must witness true valour for the service of their Prince such encounters have happened that they so despairingly ran off that they have passed through forrests two leagues over and not seen a tree so much affrighted they were It is not necessary to name them happily they are already too much renowned in the Histories of the times And yet you will make much account of these goodly swaih-bucklers Assure your self the most part of those who shew Courage of duel like to that of the possessed such boyling fury in these barbarous acts are as Lunaticks possessed with an evil spirit You would be amazed to see a little girle so strong that there must be twenty men to hold her From whence I pray hath she this force but that she hath the devil in her body And tell me a young Gentleman who many times hath father mother wife children honours riches pleasures in his life would he go upon cold bloud to deprive himself of all this Would he contemn the sacred Edicts of his Prince now very lately renewed by the zeal of our great Monarch Would he descend with open eyes into hell if he had not some black spirit of the abyss which dreggeth him to the last mischief He doth that for a cold countenance an extravagant word and a caprich of spirit which he would not either for God the King or the whole world We may well say this is the malady of inferiour houses and you take it for valour A poor cocks-comb forsooth called a second who putteth into compremise at the discretion of a crack't brain all that which is most dear unto him in this world and what he hopeth in the other going to be the victim of death or the murderer of a man whom he never saw or knew or if he have seen or known him so far as to love or honour him would he play all this goodly prize if he were not possessed with an evil spirit Yet you admire this Why do you not rather wonder at the countenances the twindges and distorted mowings of the possessed I begin to perswade you to reason say you my Gallant You are an enemy of this race of Cadmus derived from the teeth of serpents and think not these petty wranglers of the times with all their letters and challenges have any valour But if a brave spirit be urged to fight by such kind of men should he refuse it Verily there are main differences in duels in the causes which make them and the proceedings of such as execute them If you must needs go to duel pass thereunto as David in sight of an Army with permission of your Prince or your Captain against some Goliah who hath defied you Go thither with intention to defend the honour of your Nation and to weaken the contrary faction Behold who is worthy If you must go to duel go thither when your King or Lord shall command you to accept the combat to end some notable war and stay a great effusion of bloud but by the hazard of two Champions Behold who is glorious But if you hasten thither upon some chimera of spirit which you call by the name of honour upon some ambiguous word to which you frame an interpretation against your self for a cold countenance a surly brow for a desire which you have to become pledge of the follies of some fellow witless and a slave to his own passions if you hasten thither for the love of some unchaste woman to whom you sacrifice humane bloud how can you be excusable For if you tell me your honour is more precious unto you than your wealth and life and therefore that as the law of nature permitteth you to defend both your riches and body at the point of your sword against a robber and a homicide from whom you cannot otherwise dis-engage your self you have the same right for the defence of your reputation which is in man as the apple in the eye I answer that being so surprized upon the sudden by some assailant who provoketh you threatneth you and thrusteth his sword into your sides if you use not a lawfull defence it is not then said that you are bound to flie with some kind of ignominy Nay I will say besides that if true honour were interessed in refusal of a challenge he that should accept it might likewise according to the laws of conscience seem somewhat tollerable But from whom ought we to derive this estimation and judgement of true honour Is it from certain sleight braggards and witless people who have sold themselves to passion eternally to renounce prudence Behold goodly Judges of honour Behold who well deserveth to prescribe unto us the rule and price of the most precious thing in the world If we desired sincerely to establish the judgement to be made of the point of honour we ought to search into the resolutions of the Church and Civilians but these kind of people are suspected by you as being alienated from the profession of arms Let us enquire it in the mouthes of warriours Was there ever a braver souldier than the late King of most famous memory And hath there likewise ever been a Prince more dexterous in arms and more fortunate than he that now reigneth Since their Edicts condemn duels both in those who challenge and such as are challenged although much different in their proceedings what do we need any other judgement to decide the point of honour But Kings and Princes sovereign say you notwithstanding their Edicts approve those by word of mouth who shew courage in such like actions Who dare reproach them with this Who dare tell them to their faces that they bely their Edicts by their particular judgements Who sees not such words are purposely invented by those men who seek for pretexts to their false liberties Why these Edicts dictated by reason agreed unto with judgement supported by justice provoked by piety to the writing of which Jesus Christ would contribute his own bloud to spare the bloud and with it the souls of so many as are lost and whom to save he gave up his own life Where should we learn the rule of honour the judgement and will of the Prince but in Oracles and virtues which he hath consigned to the memory of all Ages I intreat you trouble my head no more with these dastardly combats and detestable massacres let this be no longer but for the infamous and melancholy bloud-thirsters One Bachet understanding that a Turkish Captain had called his companion into duel What saith he are there no more Christians And have not we cause to say Are there no Saracens nor Moors and other Infidels to turn thâ—â—dge of the sword against our entrails The sixth SECTION Against the ill mannage of Arms. FRom hence it is likewise that you are taught in time of war to play the little Cannibal in arms
understanding these propositions went to find out the noble Bayard in his lodging and made a long discourse to him of the evil disposition of Pope Julius and the enterprises he had both on his life and of the Frenchmen of purpose to enkindle him for revenge Then he pursued his opportunitie and made overture to him of the treason of this wicked Gerlo Bayard beheld him and said How Sir I could never have imagined that a Prince so generous as you would consent to such a mischief and had you done it I swear by my soul before night I would have given the Pope notice of it How answered the Duke he would have done as much either to you or me It is no matter replieth Bayard this treacherie displeaseth me The Duke shrugged up his shoulders and spitting on the ground Mounsieur Bayard saith he I would I had killed all mine enemies in this sort but since you dislike it the matter shall rest and you and I both may have cause to repent it We shall not if it please God replyeth the good souldier but I pray you put this gallant into my hands that would do this goodly piece of service and if I do not cause him to be hanged in an hour let me supply his place The other excused it saying he had given him assurance of his person Behold you not a brave spirit See you not a man of a Royal conscience and of an honestie in all things like to it self Where are these pettie spirits of the abyss more black than specters and infernal furies who have neither loyaltie for their Prince nor Common-wealth but as it may concern their own interests who swallow treasons as big as cammels to gain a flie They would make truth it self to lie were not their issues ever tragical abominable and hideous The ninth SECTION Short and notable Instructions MY souldier follow the precepes which the great S. Augustine gave to Captain Boniface August ep 80. Observe faith and virtue in Arms which never will be prosperous on earth if they be not fortified with blessings from Heaven Beg of God with David to deliver you from your necessities which are your passions he doth nothing to overcome visible enemies that have power over bodies who surmounteth not the invisible bandied against the health of our souls Make use of the world as a thing borrowed do good with its goods and become not bad They are goods since they come from God who extendeth his power over all things both celestial and temporal They are goods since God gives them to good men but they are not also great goods since he affords them to the wicked He takes them away from the virtuous to trie their virtue and from the perverse to chastise their crimes It is true strength health victorie honour wealth are indifferently the portion of all men but conquest over passions virtues salvation of soul immortalitie of bodie glorie honour beatitude are the proper inheritance of Saints Love these goods desire them seek them with all your endeavour do alms-deeds to get them fast as much as your forces will permit all here below passeth away but good works Think when you go to the wars that the strength of your bodie is a gift of God that it is not fit to arm against your sovereign Masters proper benefits Keep promise even with your enemies make peace with all the world voluntarily and war for necessity to acquire the good of peace Be peacefull even in Arms for such men are called the children of God If it be necessarie to kill an enemie in fight let mercy be always exercised in the latter end of the combat principally when there is no further fear of rebellion Adorn your manners with conjugal chastitie sobrietie and modestie It is a ridiculous thing to conquer men and be vanquished by vices to escape the sword and be overthrown by wine If you want means seek it not on earth by wicked practices but secure rather in Heaven that little you have by the exercise of good works Flee these rocks of Nobilitie which we have hitherto spoken against and above all bridle presumption choller the tongue and sensuallitie They are slaves who cannot keep in the mean between servitude and Empire where either chains must be had to master them or a Throne erected to honour them Pesumption if you afford it enterance will make you of a man a baloon filled with wind a scare-crow of honour a temerarious thing void of courage an undertaker without successe a phantastick without shame which in the end shall become burdensome to it self and odious to all the world Choller and folly are two sisters which have in all things the same qualities or if there be any difference it is that the one with more furie maketh havock in an instant and the other produceth her effects with more leisure and cheerfulness whilest you are subject to this passion no man can confide in you in matter of judgement no more than to weather-cocks in the point of stabilitie you will have all other vices in-seed and perpetually live in the sorrow of time past disturbance of the present and uncertaintie of the future As for the tongue it is that which containeth all the good or evil of man It is the needle of the great dial of the soul that must shew all the hours It is the truche-man of our thoughts the image of our actions the interpreter of our wills and the principal key of conversation He that will now adays live in the world saith the famous S. Nazianzen must have a veil over his Nazianz. in Iamb eys a key on his ear a compass on his lips A veil over his eyes not to see or in seeing to dissemble many things a key on his ears to shut them up against so many follies and ordures which proceed from bad mouthes and a compass on the lips to measure and square out all his words with discretion So many secrets unnecessarily discovered so many infamous slanders so many inconsiderate tales so many frivolous promises so many impudent lyes such perjuries and execrable blasphemies so many disasters which oft happen for a sleight speech daily teach us that words have no handles to hold them by and better it is to trip with the foot than the tongue Sensualitie if you powerfully resist it not from the first reflections which reason may present will make you a thing of nothing The three spirits wine love and game will fetter you with a prodigious slavery You will become a living sepulchre a tomb of surphets and slaughters a gulf of calumnies a meer hobgoblin without repose which shall continually handle cards and dice to bereave you of your purse and understanding so to make a spoil of your goods a frencie of your reason and a perpetual feaver of your life Your condition ought not to make you pretend power over men if you seasonably enterprise it not over your own passions
the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereupon this man sought to reprehend him alledging some passages of scripture maliciously interpreted of which he made use to establish the unhappy heresie which denied that the Son was the same essence of God his Father and took away from Jesus Christ the diadem of the Eternal Divinity by making him a meer creature Alexander who was not a man of mean account but such an one as to his sanctity of life added solid doctrine defended himself couragiously against the impostures of this malign spirit very well justifying his belief touching the Divinity of our Saviour which having been throughly proved in the Assembly of an hundred Bishops who were first of all called together for this purpose under Hosius Legat of Pope Sylvester he pronounced the sentence of excommunication against Arius and his complices This wicked man who burst with anger to see this condemnation passed against him by those whom he reputed to be infinitely under him in ability put himself into the field with very much ostent the differences he lately had with these Prelates making him understand his Divinity was odious if he therein used not some colour to disguise the malice thereof He also practised so many wiles that he dazeled the eyes even of those who were men very eapable for after he had deduced his reasons with a great facility of words and large quantity of specious passages and that he thereunto added a cold countenance counterfeiting himself a modest man persecuted for the truth he trained spirits not vulgar to the love of his novelties All the very same proceedings have been seen with the Herericks of this time and if so many corrupt souls had not wholly enclined to their own ruin God gave them sufficient examples in elder evils to avoid the new We Proceeding of Arians may well say when we behold these schisms and heresies to arise that there is some comet of the kingdom of darkness which insensibly throweth plague and poison into hearts It is a strange thing that a little sparkle let fall in Alexandria caused instantly so many fires that having invaded Aegypt Lybia Thebais and Palestine they in the end involved almost the whole world No man at that time cared how to live but every one was ready to dispute Bishops bandying against Bishops drew the people distracted with opinions The Churches houses and Theaters ecchoed in the sharpness of contentious disputations and the Cities forgetting all other miseries rent one another for the interpretation of a word Arius to gain support instantly seeketh for favour from the Court. And knowing that Eusebius Bishop of Nicomedia was of great credit he used all the flatteries of which this man was capable enough to gain him to his side This Eusebius was eminently furnished with all those dispositions and industries which the most subtile Hereticks have at any time exercised to trouble the Church of God He was verily one of the worst men then in the Empire since he had sold his soul to ambition so much the more pernicious as it was covered with a veil of Religion It is true which the Hebrews say that Vineger is an ill son of a good father for it is commonly made of the best wine so there is nothing more sincere than an Ecclesiastick who liveth in the duty of his profession but when corruption falleth thereinto and that he hath once degenerated there is not a worse sharpness nor a more dangerous malice Religion served this wicked man as a buskin for all feet for it had no other bounds but that of his own interests and he ever like weather-cocks on the top of steeples turned his face on what side soever the wind blew In the persecutions of Christendom he made himself an Idolater in the garboyls of Lycinius he leaned much to his side and when he saw Constantine absolute in the Empire never was man more plyable to flatter him Doubtless he had all the qualities we have seen in Luther Calvin and so many other new Sects who have still sought favour from Great-ones by wyles and most perillous charms So wanted he not excellent parts and great eminencies for he had a spirit very subtile speech cunning a face which spake before his tongue and as for his extraction he soared so high as to make himself the kins-man of Caesars The air he desired to breath was the Court and his Bishoprick when he was absent seemed to him a banishment Behold the cause why he drew near to the center of the Empire as much as he could in such sort that being first Bishop of Berytus he put himself forward to the chair of Nicomedia afterward took the heart of the Kingdom and in the end setled himself in the Royal Constantinople This alteration of chairs had in this time a very ill savour and this life of Court so passionately affected by an Ecclesiastick not called thereunto could not in any sort find approbation among good men Great personages are sometimes very lawfully in Court for the service of Kings and publick necessities but they are thereas the birds of Baruch upon Baruch 6. 70. Job 26. white thorns as the Gyants of holy Job which mourned under the waters as those sweet fountains found in the salt Sea An ambitious man who heweth down mountains to arrive thither and liveth not exemplary deserveth to be regarded therein as a fish out of his element or the pyde bird whereof Jeremie speaketh whom all the rest assailed with Jer. 12. 2. beak and talon Eusebius notwithstanding little regarded the reputation of a good Prelate so that he might arrive to the height of his enterprizes To insinuate himself the more into the good liking of the Emperour he gained Constantia sister of Constantine and widow of Lycinius as Calvin did afterward the sister of Francis the first The good Lady who being despoiled of Empire by the death of her husband and had no longer so much employment to number the pearls of her Diadem would needs then intermedle with curious devotion and dispute on the mysteries of the holy Trinity Constantine after the death of S. Helena his mother held her at his Court with much respect that she might the more easily digest the acerbities she had conceived in the loss of her husband and much easier was it to entertain her in the affairs of the Church than in those of Empires Besides he found it not amiss that she might busie her self in the doubtfull questions of Bishops So pursuing the Genius of her curious spirit she passed so far that she became an Arian by the practises of this Eusebius who having already gotten credit with her spake to her of Arius as of a worthy man persecuted by his own side for his great abilities and explicating to her his doctrine in popular terms which said there was no apparence how a son could be made as old as his father and that poor Arius had been banished
from Alexandria for that he would not sign this proposition this drew compassion from her The spirit of Constantia tainted with this doctrine began already to cast an evil odour upon the Emperour her brother and Eusebius coming thereupon to make recital of that which passed in Alexandria between Alexander and Arius set such a face upon the whole business that he made as it is said the Sun with a cole figuring out the good Prelate Alexander as a passionate man who could not endure an excel-cellent spirit in his Bishoprick 'T is a pitifull thing that great men see not the truth but through the passions of those that serve them This poor Alexander who was a holy old man and grown white in the exercises of Religion was then presented to the Emperour by the information of Eusebius as a fool who under a grizled head had extravagancies of youth in such sort that Constantine Constantine deceived vouchsafing to write unto him taxed him as the authour of this tumult in that he put a frivolous question into consultation and gave occasion of dispute which could never have proceeded but from abundance of idleness And as for Arius he said of him that he gave too much scope to his spirit upon a subject which might much better have been concealed And for the rest they should be both reconciled mutually pardoning each other and hereafter hindering all manner of disputations upon the like occasion Alexander who had done nothing but by the Councel of an hundred Bishops seeing himself treated in a worse condition than Arius was in the Emperours letters and considering the blasphemy which this Heretick had vomited against the Divinity of the Word was reputed as a trifle thought verily they had endeavoured to envenom the spirit of Constantine to the prejudice of the truth For this cause he informed the other Bishops and namely Pope Sylvester of the justice of his cause answering very pertinently to the calumnies objected against him On Eusebius a true patron of hereticks the other side Eusebius who beheld the integrity of this holy Bishop with an ill eye and who had very far engaged himself to maintain Arius embroiled the affairs at Court as much as his credit might permit In the end the disputation was so enkindled through the Christian world that needs must a general Councel be held to determine it Three hundred and eighteen Bishops are assembled Councel of Nice at Nice a Citie of Bithynia by the approbation of Pope Sylvester at the request of the Emperour Constantine who invited the most eminent by express letters and gave very singular direction as wel for their journey as their reception Never was there seen a goodlier company It was a Crown not of pearls nor diamonds but of the rarest men of the world who came from all parts like bees bearing as saith S. Augustine honey in their mouths and wax in their hands There you might behold Venetians Arahians Aegyptians Scythians Thracians Africans Persians not speaking of Western Bishops who were there already in no small number It was a most magnificent spectacle to behold on one side venerable old men white as swans who still bare upon their bodies the scars of iron and persecution which were invincible testimonies of their constancy on the other men who had the gift of miracles so much as to force the power of death and tear from him the dead out of their tombs on the other part men accomplished in Theologie and eloquence who in opening their mouthes seemed to unfold the gate of a Temple full of wonders and beauties There was to be found that great S. James of Nisibis Paphnutius and Potamion There was Hosius S. Nicholas the first Gregorie the father of our Nazianzen Spiridion and so many other worthymen The good Pope S. Sylvester could not be present therat by reason of the decrepitness of his age but sent thither three Legats Hosius Vitus and Vincentius The Emperour received them all most lovingly kissing the scars of some and admiring the sanctity of others never satisfying himself with the modesty and good discourse of all both in particular and general Among these children of God were likewise some Satans adherents to Arius who discovered in their eyes and countenances the passions of their hearts These turbulent spirits fearing the aspect of this awfull assembly softly suggested divers calumnies to surprize the spirit of the Emperour which very naturally retained much goodness And for this purpose they presented to him many requests and many papers charged with complaints and accusations upon pretended domages Verily these proceedings were sufficient to divert this Prince from the love he bare to our Religion were it not that through the grace of God he had already taken very deep root in the faith In the end to do an act worthy of his Majesty beholding himself to be daily burdened with writings wherein these passionate Bishops spake of nothing but their own interests he advised them to set down all their grievances and all the satisfactions which they pretended to draw from those who had offended them and present them on a day designed They failed not to confound him with libels and supplications but this grave Monarch putting them into his bosom said openly Behold a large Zozom l. 1. cap. 16. proportion of Accusations all which must be transferred to the judgement of God who will judge them in the latter day As for my self I am a man nor is it my profession to take notice of such causes where those that accuse and such as be accused are Bishops Let us I pray you for this time leave these affairs and treat we the points for which this Councel is here assembled onely let every one following therein the Divine clemencie pardon all that is past and make an absolute reconciliation for the time to come When he had spoken this he took all the civil requests presented unto him and caused them to be cast into the fire which was much applauded by all those who had their judgements discharged from partialities In the mean space the Bishops before they entered into the Councel took time to examine the propositions that were to be handled and leisurably to inform themselves of the pretensions of Arius who was there present and who already felt the vehemency of the vigour of S. Athanasius though he was yet but a Deacon in the Church of Alexandria The day of the Councel being come the Bishops assembled in the great Hall of the Palace where many benches were set both on the one side and other Every one taketh his place according to his rank Baronius thinketh the Legats of the Pope were seated on the left hand as in the most honourable seats which he very pertinently proveth In the first place on the right hand sat the venerable Bishop Eustatius who was to begin the prayer and carry relations to the Emperour The Bishops remained silent for a Constantius in the
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
such as these ought to be handled with much sweetness and clemency or they are covert vices of some wicked consciences which you neither ought nor may as yet manifest and here much industry and wisdom must be used to dislodge sin and draw the winding serpent out of his den as by the hand of the wise woman spoken of in Scripture or they are publick sins of men resolved who sin without hope of amendment to the infection of a Common-wealth and here is it you are to strengthen your self with all your power to take away the evil and evil men These are the precepts which S. Bonaventure giveth in his Treatise of the Wings of the Seraphin This discretion whereof I speak will shew you the manner of proceeding in affairs for it much importeth to lay hold of them by a certain handle which rendereth them much more easie We see by experience that those who make them spectacles of chrystal cut into diamond points for one pistolet on a table think they see a huge treasure in such sort their eyes are filled with illusions and yet their hand if they know not the secret will be much troubled to find out the piece of gold they seek for This daily happeneth in the course of the world affairs have an infinity of faces which present themselves to our thoughts even then when they are most subtile but they are hollow imaginations and he is really an able man who knoweth how to lay his finger upon the point of a business and grasp it as it is said at the right end You expect not here I should speak to you of the mannage of revenues artillerie arms sea-affairs fortifications petitions and decrees they being matters much alienated from my profession from whence I can derive no glory but by the confession of mine own ignorance Every one must look into the substance extent and the quality of affairs he treateth must learn what is profitable to be known for the discharge of his place inform himself of that which he cannot of himself fore-know willingly hearken to advices examine and weigh them with maturity Avoid above all six obstacles of good affairs which are Disorder Confusion Passion Sollicitude Irresolution Precipitation to do all things warily and peaceably so that no anxiety be shewed like unto Sejanus a man who had more spirit Actu otiosiâ— similliâ—us Velleius than conscience and of whom it is said that in the middest of his greatest employments he seemed ever idle There are some who give out many precepts upon every office and do as if one should make a large discourse to a man by teaching him to go Experience which is a wise Mistress so soon as she encountereth with a man endowed with some capacity sheweth him much more than books Finally your last liverie is Courage which is exceedingly necessary for men of your profession Calistenes a disciple of Aristotle observeth that the earthquake of the Isle of Delos was an unlucky presage to the Cities of Buris and Helice which were swallowed up in a gulf So when the bodies of States-men which are as this Island of the Sun tremble and bow to favour what may we expect but an absolute desolation of Provinces It is necessary to have a great courage to strengthen the arm against so great authority of iniquities and violences of men of quality who will confound elements and mix stars with the dust of the earth to come to the end of their exorbitant pretensions A great courage say I to resist the secret allurements which occur on the part of allies and friends especially of powerfull women to whom nature hath afforded such dangerous attractives that it is many times much easier to defend ones self from the horns of bulls the tusks of bores and the throat of Lions than from the cunning practises of such creatures A great courage in the manage of affairs and words that are to be used with certain persons who are quickly angry and heated in their harness what a brave virtue is it to endure and temper them with a mildness of spirit peaceable and charitable as it is said that with a honey-comb fountains of troubled water are cleansed and purified An Ancient said that Avicen de diluviis he who can well suffer an injury is worthy of an Empire his onely silence will disarm a passionate man and throw prostrate at his feet the same who seemed See La journée to roar over his head A great courage also to tolerate the ingratefull who often cast stones against those who gave them honey like unto those Atlantes who shot arrows against the Sun A great courage likewise in the bad success of affairs which cannot always prosper according to the measure of our travel and good desires And to tell you it in a word a very able courage when a man is ready to suffer the loss of office disgrace banishment poverty imprisonment and permit rather to have the heart turned out of your belly than any good resolution to be pulled from you which may be conceived for the Weal publick If you desire to arrive at these precious endowments let the Scripture be ever represented before your eyes as the pillar of clouds and flames which conducted the army of the living God There it is where you shall learn maxims of State scored out with most vigorous reflections of the wisdom of God and where you shall trample under foot with a generous contempt so many illusions which wretched souls seek for in the mouth of Pythonisses and Sorcerers Read the books of Wisdom the Prophets the book of holy Job and the divine Psalms of the King chosen out according to Gods own heart Consider the stream of so many Histories written in this theater of wonders which are characters of fire wherewith the Divine Providence is pleased to be figured to mortal eyes that we may learn the punishment of crimes and the crowns of virtues Represent unto your selves often in your idaeaes those great States-men who have flourished in the course of all Ages and derive light and fire from their examples to illuminate and inflame you in the self same list Behold him who had been refined above all others in the school of God I mean Moses Who Moses Dei de proximo arbiter Tertul. de Monogamiâ— August l. 22. contr Faust cap. 69. hath there been more humble in refusing charges more obedient in accepting them more faithfull in exercising them more industrious in executing the commandements of God more vigilant in government of the people more severe in the correction of vices more patient in sufferance of the infirmities of subjects and more zealous in the cordial love he bare to the whole world With these gifts he became the God of Monarchs he ruined the state of his enemies he unloosed the chains of an infinite number of slaves he opened seas he manured wildernesses he marched in the front of six hundred thousand
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
by a manifest reflection of beauty and goodness sometimes also by passages altogether extraordinary in such sort that it is very hard to divine from whence the knot groweth which tieth two persons who never have seen one another so suddenly that it is done in an instant and so inseparably that it lasteth even to the tomb Some have said it proceedeth from secret influences of the same stars which predominate at their births a matter which they verily have much ado to make good Others have thought it is a work of fortune and that loves were shuffled together like cards to marry sometimes a Queen to a Groom Others have referred it to complexions of the body and to resemblance which useth to be the mother of affections a thing very probable Others to the qualities of humours which is daily sufficiently found But besides this there is a certain secret touch as in the adamant not to us throughly known which readily striketh its blow and speaketh in a dumb language in the bottom of hearts For my part I should think that in this love which Hermingildus bare to Indegondis there should be some very particular passage of the Providence of God who was pleased constantly to bind his heart to her whom he intended to make use of for his conversion The eleventh SECTION The persecutions of Indegondis NEver Nuptials were more full of content nor amities more faithfull nor beginning more prosperous than were these But there is ever in humane things some mischief which sticketh on the most smiling felicities and never giveth wine but with a mixture of dregs I know not what kind of fantasie possessed this wicked step-mother Goizintha but she became jealous of the chast contentments of her son-in-law altogether as it were besotted of this admirable Princess whom he could not endure out of his fight She observed their conversation their discourses their pleasures and ever put her self athwart their designs becoming as troublesom as if she had been one of those malign spirits which use to possess men Indegondis although she passionately loved her husband durst not refuse the flattering entertainment of this step-mother nor shew that she distasted the company of her sex to seek after a man but the Prince extreamly repined hereat and could not dissemble the jealousie of his step-mother saying She ought to be contented with the credit she had in affairs not to prie so narrowly into his marriage and by her importunities take from him his dearest spouse The other let him understand this frequent conversation amity offered her tended to no other end but to convert her to her Religion thereby to render her the more obsequious to his will And verily she well witnessed this design was deeply engraven in her heart For she neither spared endeavour nor subtile practice to seduce this innocent Princess first waging war against her in the shape of a Dragon afterward of a Lion She told her with much cunning that God might as well be served in one Religion as in another That we ought to accommodate our selves to the place where Fortune hath ranked us That it was the chiefest policie of a Kingdom to satisfie the will and inclinations of the King That she was not come into Spain to give Law but example of obedience That her husband never could faithfully love her whilest she entertained any other sense other laws and other Sacraments than himself That never could she be a Queen of people if she embraced not the faith of the people over whom she was to command That it was a folly to fear the reproches of France where the wisest would ever think she had done discreetly to submit to the times That if the same faults are pardonable in those who in erring authorize themselves with a multitude of great complices no man could argue her justly of a verity which she had entertained with a whole Kingdom The wicked woman ceased not to afflict the innocent ears of this young Princess with such like words but she who had not herein a pliant and yielding spirit protested that if she persisted to maintain these discourses it would enforce her to forsake her company and that it was not needfull to use so many subtilities for sooner should her heart be torn out of her belly than her Religion from her soul In saying this she went out of her chamber shewing unto her an eye sweetly discontented with a soul well resolved with which the other offended notwithstanding dissembled her anger so much she feared to disturb her but quickly afterward endeavouring to make this breach up again she tendered her a thousand protestations of affection and ceased not to tyre her out with flatteries whereat the poor Indegondis was much perplexed and could not any longer handle the matter so as not to express her disdain Notwithstanding Goizintha who lost not hope to seduce her attempted once again to get her to be baptized after the Arian manner alledging a thousand reasons whereunto the Princess answered very wisely That she was thanks be to God well christened in the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost and that if the water of the Baptism of the Arians had been cast on her head although she loved her hair as well as any woman of her sort she would cut it off and tear away the skin which had been defiled with such an execration The step-mother hearing these words shifted away and said all foaming with choller That since she would not be baptized after the Arian manner she would prepare another kind of Baptism for her which would wash her from the head to the foot And thereupon enraged she put her self upon a practice wholly barbarous which is related by S. Gregorie the Great and many others to wit that after she had dregged this poor Princess by the hair and tormented her even to the effusion of some bloud she caused her to be taken by two or three of her waiting women commanding them to strip her stark naked then to bind her with cords by the arms and in this posture plunge her in a pool in a very cold season of the year It was a pitiful spectacle to behold the daughter of a king thus cruelly used in the same place where she entered with so many triumphs The impious Goizintha stood upon the brink of the pool as she who bare sway in this torture commanded her wicked servants to drench her in the water not all at once but by little and little that she might endure the longer Martyrdom At every moment the mischievous Queen cried out Say you are an Arian and you are safe The holy maid who had not so much apprehension of death as of her nakedness answered aloud I am a Catholick A Catholick I will die Take away my life in this confession neither fire nor water shall ever have so much force upon me as to make me unsay it She was a long time in this torment
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
for an Epistle of Libanius and it seemed to him he who was King of words might become a King over hearts and Empires His spirit of fire took nourishment on all sides and devoured as well cedars as thorns He as yet retained some affection towards the knowledge of sacred things but curiosities predominated in his mind He penetrated all he could into the secrets of sciences to loose the mystery of faith It is the beginning of infidelity to deifiea man by the tongue and to think the Kingdom of God consisteth in words Who hath not faith and virtue satisfying himself with learning and sciences resembleth those Indian trees which bear muskie Pears whose smell is very oderiferous and tast pleasing but yield a pestilent juice wherewith they use to envenom arrows Julian still manuring his studies and neglecting How he became depraved piety became very vain greedy of slightest applauses a great talker a profuse scoffer extreamly curious to know things future doubtfull in faith temerarious in search of things divine wedded to his own opinion obstinate in his errours and lastly an enemy of Christianity S. Gregorie saith he then observed in him an inconstant Judgement of S. Gregorie Nazianzen wit a fickle head a wandering eye unsteddy shoulders roaming feet vehement laughter garbs and countenances immodest questions ridiculous answers much worse and many other things which promised nothing good in him Maximus a Pagan Philosopher and a Magician concluded his corruption pouring into the bottom of his soul the blackest impiety that might be He was twenty years a Christian and ten projecting the change of his Religion still much tottering yet never daring to let it break forth for fear of the Emperour Constantius his cousin who was very suspitious and one who never would have suffered this alteration of Religion in him He kept him much under without train officers money saw him very seldom and used him with severity so that Julian feared the Court like fire and never durst lift up his eyes before Constantius whom he called the hangman of his family Fear which is an ill Mistress of duty held him in under the mask of Religion whilest the Emperour lived who nothing at all mis-doubting his wicked purposes associated him to the Empire very solemnly For having in a great assembly of his States pronounced a brave Oration upon the choice he made of him he with his own hands gave him the Purple Robe calling him Brother and conjuring him to set his shoulders equal with his to support the burden of Empire and to knit this amity with a stronger knot he gave him his sister Helena in marriage who was not long liv'd All ceremonies of dignity and wedlock done he sent him to govern the Gauls where he performed many brave feats of arms against the Almaignes Then was the time when in so great liberty he was He is a Christian for policy and was an Infidel in his soul uttterly depraved yet still so reserved that although already a Pagan in soul he durst not pass great festivals without going to Church and performing all the ceremonies of Christian Religion as he did on the day of Epiphanie whilest he was in France according to the observation of Ammianus Marcellinus He Marcel l. 21. Prowess of Julian among the Gauls vaunted in an Epistle he wrote to the Athenians that he had three times passed the Rhene pacified the Gauls subjugated all the rebellious towns delivered twenty thousand prisoners out of the hands of Barbarians and sent much matter of triumph to Constantius But whether it were that vanity by which he extolled his slightest prowesses made him odious or whether such as envied his glory did him ill service with the Emperour all he did had not that great splendour which he passionately desired in all his actions Constantius who ever dreaded this his nature much like a standing water caused him to be narrowly looked into at first by trusty men but he by little and little shook off this yoke and made himself to be beloved as much as he might among the Gauls as well the natives of the countrey who were pleased with the freeness of his humour as the souldiers whom he secretly won with fair promises and large hopes In the end whilest the Emperour who was an heretick Subtility of Julian to invade the Empire began the persecution of the Eastern Church this man prepared a faction against him in the West For imagining he was already strong enough he caused himself to be proclaimed Emperour by secret practises feigning otherwise to refuse all he desired He began to play this goodly game with impatient ardour being then at Paris for there it was where the legions of souldiers encompassing him at the shutting in of evening called him Augustus with loud cries whereupon he at first made a shew he would flie and hide himself but at break of day he appeared gently reprehending the souldiers for what they had done and apparently seeming to refuse the title of Emperour They who were hired to undertake this attempt cried out so much the louder as he the more denied the honour offered him He in the mean time to omit nothing in this dissimulation held forth his hand like a suppliant and intreated this might not be wherewith they seemed offended unless he speedily embraced what they presented He was requested that to content the Legions he would instantly grace himself with a diadem He answered It was an ornament he never thought upon nor regarded it at all Some thereupon cried out aloud he might do well to put his wifes dressings upon his head But he replied It were no good presage to adorn a Caesar's head with womens attires Whereupon some said he must then make use of rich hors trappings to counterfeit a diadem But Jalian opposing it said He weither would be a woman nor a horse The Count Maurus who had the word pulled off his chain and put it over his head the souldiers redoubling their acclamations with much alactity When altogether unable sufficiently to dissemble this jugling he not onely accepted this diadem but promised to each souldier five crowns of gold and a pound of silver and then presently dispatched an Embassadour to the Emperour with express letters to this purport That the souldiers had saluted him Emperour which Embassage of Julian in the beginning he much disliked endeavouring to repress them as well by authoritie as fair speeches but they persisted so obstinate in their enterprize that he should have incurred the peril of his life had be not given them satisfaction Behold the cause wherefore he was enforced to take the diadem with all possible repugnance But that he more esteemed the judgement and approbation of Constantius than all the Empires in the world and besought him not to hearken to envious spirits who laboured to embroil them to advance their own ends but that regarding his birth and loyaltie he would confirm him in the
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
Contemplation also is divided into divers degrees Divers degrees of contemplation For there is one ordinary which maketh use of imagination and of sensible species drawn from the sight of objects though it subtilize and purifie them by the help of the understanding There is another termed immediate and perfect which goes directly to God without any mixture of fantasies or aid of creatures but if it be much discharged from all things create it is called dark contemplation because the soul being in it wholly dazeled and as it were blinded with rays of the divine Essence frameth not to it self any sensible idaea of God but beholdeth him by the way of negation banishing all representations and resemblances of creatures the more firmly to adhere unto the simplicity of the first Being But if it proceed in a superiour manner then it mounteth S. Ambros l. 3. de virginibus Influentibus divinis corporeus peregrinatur affectus usus ille exterioris hominis exâ—lesâ—it to the contemplation termed the most eminent which is the whole-sister of the beatified vision and the last heaven whereunto S. Paul was rapt a sphere totally enflamed with seraphical love where the use of sense and exteriour man seems quite annihilated and the spirit transported to the ineffable conversation with the Divinity Now we must observe upon this discourse what S. Thomos in 3. dist 52. the learned S. Thomas said That whilest our life is shut up in this mortal body its manner of actuating proceedeth by simple and ordinary ways which conduct us to the Creatour by contemplation of creatures and if any one understand spiritual things in this sublime nakedness which is discharged of images it is an admirable way and surpasseth all humane things First it is necessary to have a pious affection The ordinary manner of proceeding in things divine to matters divine thence we pass to meditation from meditation to ordinary contemplation which is attended by admiration and admiration by a certain spiritual alacrity and this alacrity by a certain fear with reverence and fear by fervent charity diffused into the exercise of good works These are the most assured ways to walk in spiritual life But these transcendent souls will in the beginning Illusions of this transcendent devotion lift a man up from the earth and make a Seraphin of him from the first day of his apprentiship To meditate well is nothing else but to make a review of our self and actions to adapt them to the commandments of God and counsels of Jesus Christ You must flie fervently even to the third Heaven and remain there rapt without knowledge whether one be on this side or that side of the world But alas how many times happeneth it these Eagles descend from this false emperial heaven to fish some wretched frog in the marsh of this inferiour earth After all these large temples of prayers gilded with so goodly words we see in the Sanctuary a pourtraict of a Rat a soul faint and pusillanimous shut up in self-love tied to petty interests imperiously commanded by so many tumultuous passions which play their prize whilest the spirit slumbers in this mystical sleep and living death They will in the beginning go equal with the seraphical souls of Saints who arrived at this purity of prayer by great mortifications and most particular favours from God But they imitate them so ill that in stead of being suited with great and solid virtues they retain nought but ostentous forms and a vain boast of words What importeth it a devote who cannot tell how to govern her house to know the retire introversion extroversion simplification dark prayer mystical sleep spiritual drunkenness tast fire quiet the cloud of glory and so many other kinds which serve to disguise devotion Know we not many spirits of young women loose themselves herein and seeking too much to refine ancient piety have made it wholly to vapour out in smoke finding themselves as void of humility as they were puffed up with presumption From thence often proceeds the curiosity of matters ravishing and extraordinary to gain to themselves the reputation of great spiritual persons and to sooth themselves with the opinion of a false sanctity When one is once gained by a false pretext of errour it is no hard matter to be perswaded all we think on is a vision all we say is a prophesie and all we do is a miracle The evil spirit finding souls drunk with this self-love hath played strange pranks which may be read in Epiphanius and Cassianus and whereof it would be an easie matter to produce many examples were it not much better to deplore than recount them 8. This vanity not satisfied to harbour in the mind The word of God altered in chairs by the extravagant opinions of hearers which bred it extendeth to the chairs of Preachers where the curious and phanatical spirits of Auditours would willingly hatch chymaera's for such as are yet but young beginners in the mystery One will have that use be made of thoughts transcendent and extraordinary and many times extravagant entangled with a perplexity of periods which leave nothing but noise in the ear and arrogance in the mind the other who is most ignorant startles at this quaint Theologie and seeks to wrest mysteries and disjoynt mens judgements thereby to draw upon all sorts of people discourses of the Trinity and Incarnation involved in visionary imaginations and turned about on a counter-battery of affected antitheses and if this be not as ordinary in all sermons as was the Delphick sword which heretofore served for all purposes in sacrifices it is to be ignorant in the ways of souls elect The other delighteth in doctrines unheard-of in a vast recital of Authours and forreign tongues as if he went about to exercise devils and not instruct Christians some one boasts to alledge neither Scripture Fathers nor any passage whatsoever for fear of marring the plaits of his periods he makes trophey to take all within his own fancy and to borrow nothing of the Ancients as if Bees who rob flowers in the garden to make honey of them were not much better than spiders who spin their wretched webs out of their own substance There are of them who desire to bundle up an endless train of fantastical conceptions without Scripture or reason who seem to tell wonders and rarities most ravishing but if any man will weigh them in an equal ballance he shall find vanities onely big with noise and wind They who have the itch of ear Sapientiae atque facundiae caupones Tertul. l. de anima c. 3. are devoted to the beauty of language and bestir them rather to talk than speak in a sermon They adore discourses replenished with a youth full eloquence and devested of wisdom having no sinews for support and less sting to transfix a heart Good God! how knowing would Preachers be did they understand as saith S. Paul how to speak
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
answer to that there is very much difference between the condition of things eternal and temporal Angels entered almost as soon into felicitie as into being because they were placed in the upper region of the world where miseries cannot approch and who having besides a singular knowledge of God's favour stood not in need to be aided by the counterpoize of adversities But as for us we are not onely born in a soil which is as fertile in calamities as forrests in brids and rivers in fish but besides we are extream ignorant of God's grace when we long enjoy prosperity which is the cause that adversity though necessarily tied to our condition maketh us notably open our eyes to know the felicities which follow it and to understand from what source they proceed As for that which concerneth the Divinity it cannot to speak properly endure any thing contrary by reason of the condition of it's essence which is fully replenished with all sorts of beatitude God said Philon is incommunicable to tribulations he is alwayes vigorous ever free from dolour or pain perpetually in action without weariness still plunged in a sea of most pure delights as being the height end and aim of felicitie Thereupon unable to suffer as he is God and and yet willing to undergo some special part in the great sacrifice of patience which began with the world he took a body and in that body drank the cup of the passion shewing evidently to all mortals that tribulations by their darkness avail to the brightest rayes of glorie which S. Augustine spake in very express terms The onely Son born of the substance of the Father and Vnicus ille de Patris substantiâ Natus aequalit Patri in formâ Dei Verbum quo facta sunt omnia non habebat ubi flagellaretur ad hoc autem earne indutus est ut sine flagello non esset August Quia eras acceptus Deo necesse fuit ut tentatio probaret te Tob. 12. 13. Reg. 4. 2. 9. S. Aug. l. 2. de mirab Scrip. Obsecro ut siat in me duplex spiritus tuus equal to the Father in Divine essence the Word by which all things were created had nothing to suffer as God and is clothed with our flesh to participate in our punishments 2. The second reason which visibly sheweth the secret of Divine providence in the tribulation of the Just is that God being the Sovereign Sanctitie was necessarily to procure and plant it in the souls of his elect by all the most effectual wayes which his wisdom had ordained Now there is not any shorter way to virtue than a well mannaged affliction and therefore it was necessarie to maintain adversity in the world as the nource of great and generous actions of Christianity It was necessarie saith the Scripture to trie thee by tribulation because thou wast acceptable to God It is a matter almost impossible to preserve a great virtue in perpetual prosperity one must be more than a man and to have a double spirit which is excellently well observed by S. Augustine upon the words of Elizeus I intreat your spirit may be doubled in me Elizeus saith he begged the spirit of Elias might be double in him because he was to live in the favour of Court and worldly prosperities where the way is more slippery and dangers most frequent His Master Elias had passed his life in many persecutions wherefore a single spirit was sufficient for his direction adversity being not so difficultly borne as prosperity But insomuch as eminent fortunes are subject to deep drunkenesses and supine forgetfulness of God the Prophet saith by an instinct of the Divinity Let your Fiat in me duplex spiritus Boet. de conso l. 2. pros 8. spirit be doubled in me Prosperity under the shew of felicitie deceiveth us tribulation is ever true the one flatters us the other instructeth us the one tied up our senses and reason the other unbinds them the one is windy empty giddy ignorant the other sober reserved and prudent the one withdraweth us from real good by the allurements of vanity the other reduceth us by a wholesome way into the duty from whence we wandered S. Bernard saith excellently Prosperity is in Quando hoc incautis non fuit ad disciplinam quod ignis ad ceram quod solis radius ad nivem velglaciem Sapiens David sapiens Solomon sed blandientibus nimis secundis rebus alter de parte alter ex toto desipuit Magnus qui incidens in adversa non excidit vel parum a sapientia ne minor cui praesens faelicitas si arrisit non irrisit weak and inconsiderate souls as fire to wax and the sun's rayes to snow David was very wise and Solomon much more yet both charmed by the great success of affairs lost understanding the one at least in in part the other wholly We must affirm there is need of a strong spirit to subsist in adversity without change of reason or constancie but it is much more hard to tast very pleasing prosperities and not be deceived This is the cause why wise providence ever to keep virtue in breath ceaseth not to excercise it in this honourable list of great souls and we behold that following these proceedings it thence deriveth great advantages and many beauties The Scripture noteth that Job (a) (a) (a) Job 42. Merserus in Job returning into the lustre of his former state gave titles to his three daughters much observed for he called one by the name of Day the other Cassia or as some Interpreters say Amber and the third Amaltaeas Horn so the Septuagint translate it We must not think so holy a man would herein do any slight thing or not to some purpose But if we believe Holy Fathers upon it he meant by these three names to signifie the three conditions of fortune The first which was before his great adversities is compared to the day rejoycing us with the natural sweetness of it's serenity The second which was that of his calamity to amber because it is properly in tribulation where virtue diffuseth her good odours It resembleth aromatick spices which more shew their virtue when they are pounded and brought into powder in a morter or incense which never lets it so much appear what it is as when it is cast on coals so that this motto of the Wiseman may be attributed to it (b) (b) (b) Quasi ignis refulgens thus ardens in igne Eccles 50. 10. A resplendent fire and incense burning in the fire In the end issuing forth of tedious tribulations and having been hardened and fortified under storms it openeth it's bosom and unfoldeth admirable fruits which fitly make it to be called the Horn of abundance Whereof we say with S. Ambrose (c) (c) (c) Est ergo beatitudo in doloribus quos plena suavitatis virtus comprimit coercet ipsa sibi domesticis opibus abundans vel ad
a myne wherein poor slaves are made to labour that they may hit upon the veins of gold and silver And Tertullian had the like conceit when he said The first man was clothed with skins by the hand of God to teach him he entered into the world as a slave into a myne Now as these hirelings who cease not to turn up the earth with sweat on their brows tears in their eyes and sighs in their hearts no sooner have they met with the hoped vein but they rejoyce and embrace one another for the contentment they take to see their travels crowned with some good event So after such combates such rough temptations so many calumnies so many litigious wranglings such persecutions such vexations and toils which chosen souls have undergone in the thraldom of this body when the day comes wherein they by a Isaiah 38. In laetitia egrediemini in pace deducemini montes colles cantabunâ— coram vobis laudem Apoc. 21. Absterget Deus omnem laehrymam ab oculis eorum mors ultra non erit neque luctus neque clamor neque dolor erit ultra quia prima abierunt ecce nova faciâ— omnia most happy death meet the veins of the inexhaustible treasure whereof they are to take possession they conceive most inexplicable comfort Then is the time they hear these words of honey Go confidently faithfull souls go out of those bodies go out with alacritie go out in full peace and safetie the Eternal Mountains to wit the Heavens and all the goodly companie of Angels and most blessed spirits which inhabit them will receive you with hymns of triumph Go confidently on behold God who is readie to wipe away your tears with his own fingers There shall be no more death no more tears no more clamours no more sorrows behold a state wholly new what repose what cessation of arms what peace Do you not sometimes represent unto your self these poor Christians of whom it is spoken in the acts of S. Clement men of good place banished for Acta Clement the faith who laboured in the quarreys of Chersonesus with a most extream want of water and great inconveniencies when God willing to comfort their travels caused on the top of a mountain a lamb marvellously white to appear who struck with his foot and instantly made fountains of lively water to distil What comfort what refreshment for the drowthie Psal 35. Quoniam apud tefons vitae in lumine tuo videbimus lucem multitude But what is it in comparison when a brave and faithful Christian who hath passed this life in noble and glorious actions great toyls and patience beholds the Lamb of God Omnipotent which calleth him to the eternal sources of life What a spectacle to see S. Lewis die after he had twice with a huge army passed so many seas tempests monsters arms battels for the glory of his Master What a spectacle to see S. Paul the Hermit die after he had laboured an hundred years under the habit of Religion The second condition of this death is great tranquility for there is nothing at that time in all the world able to afflict or by acts unresigned to shake a soul firmly united to its God But what say you Just men if they be rich do they not bear in this last agonie some affection to their riches and possessions Nay so far is it otherwise that they with alacrity go out of all worldly wealth as a little bird from a silver cage to soar in the fields at the first breath of the spring-tide I pray tell me that I may pronounce before you an excellent conceit of S. Clement the Roman Clemens Rom. Recognit in the third of his Recognitions If a little chicken were shut up in an egg the shell whereof were guilded and set out with curious and delicate paintings and had reason and choice given it either to remain in this precious prison or enjoy day-light with all other living creatures under Heavens vault think you it would abide in a golden shell to the prejudice of its liberty And imagine with your self what are all the brave fortunes which have so much lustre in the world they are guilded shells no way comparable to the liberty of Gods children A good rich man dieth as Abraham who says in Origen My Dives fui sed pauperi extorris patria domus nescius ipse omnium fui domus patria sciens me non incubatorem sed dispensatorem divinae largitatis God if I have been wealthy it was for the poor I went out of my house to become a house for those who stood in need of it and am perswaded that thou hast made me a Steward of thy goods to distribute them and not to brood them as the hen her eggs But if the Just man die poor he is by so much the better pleased to forsake wretched lodgings of straw and morter to go into an eternal Palace But doth it not trouble him to leave a wife children and allies He leaves all that under the royal mantle of the eternal Providence and firmly believes that he who hath care of the flowers in the field birds bees and ants will not forsake reasonable creatures so they rest in their duty But if they must suffer in this world he will make of their tribulations ladders and footstools of their glory What shall we say of the body Doth not the soul ill to leave it The body is to the soul as the shadow of the earth in the eclipse of the Moon See you not how this bright star which illuminateth our nights seemeth to be unwillingly captived in the dark but sparkleth to get aloft and free it self from earthly impressions So the faithfull soul readily untwineth it 2 Cor. 5. Scimus quoniam si terrestris domus nostra hujus habitstionis dissolvatur quod aedificationem ex Deo habemus domum non manufactam sed aeternam in caelis Job 29. 18. In nidulo meo moriar sicut Phoenix multiplicabo dies self from the body well knowing it hath a much better house in the inheritance of God which is not a manufacture of men but a monument of the hands of the great Workman Represent unto your self Job on the dung-hill a great anatomy of bones covered with a bloudy skin a body which falleth in pieces and a soul on the lips ready to issue forth as a lessee from a ruinous dwelling Think you he is troubled to leave his body Nay rather he dieth as a Phenix on the mountain of the Sun in the odours of his heroick virtues But that which maketh this death more sweet and honourable than any thing is the hope of beatitude whereof I will speak in the nineteenth Maxim Note that worldlings die here some like unto swallows others as spiders the evil rich pass away as swallows who leave no memory of them but a nest of morter and straw for such are
quality of a good death is the ready and constant adieu given to the world as did the Blessed Virgin who was so disengaged from it towards death that she touched not earth at all but with the soles of her feet Philo saith God gave Moses leave to live very long perpetually in glorious actions in contemplations in lights so that his body was worn wasted and almost wholly vapoured out into the substance of his spirit By a much stronger reason may one say the like of the Mother of God For it is certain her life was nothing else but a divorce from the world But as Physitians observe that the breath of storks is purified and made sweet in the proportion as they increase in age in such sort that becoming old they yield forth most odoriferous exhalations So the life of this holy Mother which was ever hanging about the heart of her Son ever in the contemplation of the great mysteries of our salvation perpetually in the furnace of love wholly transformed it self into her well-beloved as one wax melted into another as a drop of water poured into a great vessel of wine as incense wasted into flames O what sweetness of breath what odour of virtues in her old age Her body seemed to be exhaled and to vapour out Harph. c. 49. libri de mystic Theol. all in soul the soul which is the knot of life and which possesseth in us the most inferiour part of spirituality dissolved wholly into spirit which is in the middle and the spirit melted entirely into the understanding which hath the highest rank in the soul and which bears the image of the most holy Trinitie Her memory in a silent repose was freed from all rememberances of the world her will resided in languishing fervours and her understanding was wholly engulfed in great abysses of lights there was not one small threed of imagination which tied her to earth O what an adieu to the world It is very well declared in the Canticles by these Cantic 1. 6. Quae est ista quae ascendit per desertum sicut virgula fumi ex aromatibus myrrhae thuris universâ— pulveris pigmentarii The three ties of the world Genes 12. Egredere de terra tua de cognationetua de domo patris tui words Who is it that ascendeth through the desert like a thin vapour composed of odours myrrb incense and all the most curious perfumes Which saith in a word the holy Virgin was wholly spiritualized wholly vapour all perfume all spirit and had as it were nothing of body massiness or earth O how many unreasonably fail in this second condition When death comes to sound his trumpet in our ears and saith to us Let us go thou must dislodge from thy lands inheritances never to return again from thy kinred from the house thy father gave thee to wit thy bodie how harsh that is to ill mortified spirits and which hold of the world by roots as deep as hell and as big as arms Go out of thy land O how hard is this first step to go out of the land to forsake the land not at all to pretend to the land to the gold to the silver to those jewels that inheritance to all that glorious glitter of fortune See the first torment of worldly spirits Such there have been who Desperate desire of worldly goods Joannes Nider seeing themselves in the last approaches of inevitable death have swallowed their gold like pills other to eternize themselves on earth have caused formidable sepulchers to be built wherein they put all their wealths as the Aegyptian King Cheopes who prostituted even his own daughter to raise unto himself a Pyramid for burial so enormous that it seemed the earth was too weak to bear it and Heaven too low to be freed from its importunity Besides he caused to be engraven upon it that the manufactures alone of this sepulcher had cost six millions of gold in coleworts and turneps Others caused to be buried with them dogs horses slaves apparrel dishes to serve them in the other world Yea it is not long ago since there was found in Anno 1544. Belforest Goodly monument of the Emperess Marie Rome a coffin of marble eight foot long and in it a robe embroidered with Gold-smiths work which yielded six and thirty pounds of gold besides fourty rings a cluster of emeralds a little mouse made of another precious stone and amongst all these precious magnificencies two leg-bones of a dead corps known by the inscription of the tomb to be the bones of the Emperess Marie daughter of Stilicon and wife of the Emperour Honorius who died before consummation of marriage About twelve hundred years were passed after she was buried with all these goodly toys which no doubt gave much ease to her soul My God how are we tied to earth Tell me not the like is not done now adays for it is worse since they were buried after death with their riches and you O mortals alive as you are build your sepulchers thereon We see men who having already one foot in the grave if you speak to them of the affairs of their consciences all the spirit yet remaining is perhaps for two or three hours besieged by an infinite number of thoughts of worldly wealth Death crieth out aloud in their ears saying Go from thy land and you pull it to you as with iron hooks After that cometh kinred allies table-frends friends for game buffons amourists and all the delights of former companies Some weep others make shew of tears the rest under a veil of sorrow make bones-fires in their hearts they seem all to appear about the bed and to sing this sad song of S. Augustine Aug. Confes 6. 11. Dimittis ne nos a momento illo non erimus tecum ultra in aeternum Et a momento isto non licebit hoc illud ultra in aeternum Alas do you leave us and shall we hereafter meet no more together Farewel pleasing amities Adieu feasts adieu sports adieu loves This nor that will any longer be permitted from this moment for ever Behold another very slipperie and dangerous step notwithstanding you must leave it Death hasteneth and says Go from thy kinred In the last the body and flesh is presented which seems to say Ah my soul whither goest thou My dear hostess whither goest thou Thou hast hitherto so tenderly pampered me so pompously clothed me so wantonly cherished me I was thy Idol thy Paradise thy little Goddess and where will you put me into a grave with serpents and worms what shall I do there and what will become of me Behold a hard task principally for such of both sexes as have dearly loved their bodies like the Dutchess of Venice Damian opusc in instit ad Blanch. c. 11. The prodigality of a Venetian Ladie and her punishnent of whom Cardinal Petrus Damianus speaketh who was plunged into sensuality
wholly acquired to death sighing after a young Gentleman then absent and not daring fully to manifest her passion In the end death took away the spoils of her life with her pretences The father and mother bewailed her with inconsolable tears furnishing out very honourable obsequies And whereas she most ardently affected her dressings and little cabinet they buried with her all whatsoever she held most precious Six moneths were now past since her burial when the Gentleman she loved named Machates arriving at Trayls came to lodge in the house of his friend her father The spirit of the maid which was of the condition of those whom Plato called body-lovers retaining still the affections with which she went out of her bodie appeared one evening to this Machates with words of affection embraces and dalliances which plainly discovered it was a damned spirit and an instrument of the divel that tormented the one to burn the other The young man at the first was much affrighted with these proceedings notwithstanding becoming tractable by little and little he soon made this specter very familiar It happened during this time that an old servant sent by her Mistress to see what their guest did found Philenion sitting neer unto him with the same countenance and the same garments she ware in her life time whereat much amazed she ran to the father and the mother to tell them their daughter was alive They sharply reprehended her for a distracted and wicked woman as going about again to open their wound which still bled The servant justified her self and answered she had not lost her wits nor spake ought but truth Hereupon she so enkindled the curiositie of her Mistress that she secretly conveyed her self by night into the chamber yet perceived nothing at all able to resolve her The next day being vehemently excited with the curiositie of knowing what to believe of this apparition she threw her self at the feet of Machates and conjured him to tell her the name of the young maid who conversed with him The Gentleman in the beginning was much surprized and sought evasions to divert her but in conclusion either through compassion of the mother whom he saw in the posture of a suppliant or by vanity of his passion which easily unloosned his tongue he confessed he was married to Philenion that it was a business accomplished by the will of the Gods wherein nothing must be altered and speaking this he drew forth a little casket wherein he shewed her a gold ring her daughter had given him with a piece of linnen she ware about her neck protesting she was his wife so much was he seduced by the subtile practizes of the evil spirit The mother having acknowledged the tokens of the deceased fell down with astonishment and coming again to her self she a thousand times kissed one while the ring another while the linnen moistning them with her tears and moving the whole family to sorrow which ran to see this spectacle Then again embracing Machates she signified it would be an infinite favour from heaven to have him for a son in law but that she entreated as a courtesie one comfort he could not deny an afflicted mother which was once again to see her daughter whom she accounted dead The other promised to give her all satisfaction and as Phelenion came secretly according to custom to converse with him he closely sent his lackey to the mother who advertised her husband of it and both of them came into Machates his chamber where they surprized their daughter at which they were so rapt that being not able to utter a word they cast themselves about her neck straightly embracing and with tears bedewing her which fell from their eyes But the daughter with a sad and dejected countenance fetching a deep sigh out of her breast Alas saith she loving father and mother your curiosity will cost you dear for you will lament me the second time Thereupon she fell down dead leaving a horrible stinck in the chamber which filled the whole house with terrour groans and out-cries in such sort that the neighbours came in upon the noise and consequently the whole Citie ran thither to behold the corps The magistrates wondering at an accident so frightfull deputed some Cittizens neerest of kin to open the tomb where the body of Philenion could not be found but a cup a ring she had received from this Gentleman The carrion lying in the fathers chamber was by decree of the Senate thrown on the dunghil the Citie purged and as for Machates he was so overwhelmed with shame and confusion that he slew himself with his own hands Behold what an Authour recounteth onely illuminated by the light of nature who wrote this historie after he had been a spectatour of it of purpose to send a man immediately to the Emperour Hadrian to make a recital thereof unto him as he saith in a letter he directed to a friend of his I might have many things to say upon all circumstances which are not repugnant to that which Ecclesiastical Authours relate concerning other apparitions of the damned But I will not exceed the laws of Historians and it is enough for me here to let you see the belief of the Ancients and the punishment of God upon souls resigned to sin XVIII MAXIM Of Purgatorie THE PROPHANE COURT THE HOLY COURT That death is the remedy of all evils and that the soul separated from the body hath no more to suffer That the soul which hath not in this Ne dogmata de Pâ—râ—atorio pro saâ—â ecclesiae doctrinâ nobis obtrudant Pontificii cavendum est world satisfied Gods justice must pass in the other life through Purgatorie HAve you well considered in Genesis an Genes 2. Angel of fire who with a flaming sword keepeth the gate of terrestrial Paradise placed as an usher of the enterance into the delicious hall which prepared by God to entertain the first man of the world after it had been the theater of his glorie became the scaffold of his punishments Procopius Purgatorie compared to the Cherubins fiery sword observeth that poor Adam at the time of his banishment was placed just over against this Cherubin and that this centinel of the God of hosts no sooner lifted up his curtelaxe but he made a terrour and icie horrour creep into his bones and in that proportion the sparkles flew from the sword of justice fears and affrightments invaded the heart of this offender who being a murderer of his race before he was a progenitour had brought forth a thousand deaths by the sole bite of an apple Alas if the miserable Adam was so astonished at the steel of the Cherubin which dazled his eyes what ought our representments to be what our apprehensions when we think on the flames of purgatory enkindled by the breath of the love and wrath of God So many souls lie there now plunged having heretofore conversed amongst us in mortal abode and we
Libertine thou dost ask how this material fire burneth spiritual souls It is one of the most unfortunate sciences not to understand hell but by proper experience to dispute the activity of a fire as true as the mouth of God and unfaithfully deny on earth what must everlastingly be learned under earth Algazel the Arabian Avicen said a damned soul suffers no other pain but the object of its eternal perdition Algazel and Avicen behold two goodly Authours to oppose the wisdom of the eternal word I am of opinion we learn from devils how to believe in God and derive our Theology from the lips of the wicked and our belief from infidelity as if one should prostitute a Vestal to a lost man Alas wretched spirit how worthy art thou of compassion when not satisfied to play the Epicure in thy manners thou wilt divide thy Libertinism with Philosophy If this discourse which ought to be dedicated to holy horrour of Gods judgements Gulielm Paris de universo did permit farther question one might shew with the great Bishop of Paris that a damned soul kept in a prison of fire retains all the same senses as if it were with the bodie in the middest of flames since we feel in this life such vivacity onely from the imagination that it in us produceth the same effects which the presence of objects doth And this Doctour witnesseth he hath seen and known men who needed no other purgation but the sight of a medecine But if the sole idea do thus what will the real impression of fire work upon a soul which raised by the Divine power above its ordinarie force leaves a form and a character as if a hot-iron were stamped on the flesh We might deduce with S. Thomas Turrecremata Cajetan Isolam and Ocham all the exquisite dolours of a soul that feeleth it self imprisoned as in a cage of fire and stormeth seeing it self not onely deprived of sweet liberty but tormented by an imperious element destined by God for its punishment by extraordinary ways by a suppliment of the antipathy of senses and which shamefully wrack it as if a person of eminent quality were insolently abused by some slave come from the Moors or Arabia We should likewise set before you with other Divines See S. August 21. Citie of God S. Gregory in the 4. of his dialogues S. Thomas contra Gentes l. 4. c. 90. Suar. part 3. and the R. P. Theophilus Raynaud in his natural Theology where this question is excellently handled the quality of a prodigious deformity caused by fire raised above its condition which extreamly afflicteth an immortal spirit then especially when it understands the excellent gifts wherewith God had endowed it the favours and glories it might pretend unto this most blessed eternity One might say with many other modern Doctours that the soul being the root of sensitive qualities is no less tormented by objects dissenting from sense than as if sense were present and hath a spiritual sense by the help of which it trieth and feeleth the fire with an experimental knowledge wholly like the action of sense All these opinions might be argued with many instancies and reasons but it being not according to the scope of this design I say in one word with S. Gregory the Great There is made in the soul from a visible fire a heat and an invisible pain It is true the soul separated from the body hath not a natural antipathy and disagreement from fire but what this imperious element cannot have remaining within the limits of nature it obtaineth by a particular ordinance and disposition of God who chooseth and expresly deputeth it to serve him as an instrument and a sign in this action and to be as an eternal messenger of his anger against a damned soul Now as the Sovereign Judge of the world gave life to Cain for a punishment so according to S. Ambrose he engraved by the same means a disastrous mark on his person which continually set before the eyes of this fratricide the image of his crime and the Divine justice In such manner that oftentimes turmoyled during life in the miseries and confusions of his bruitish spirit so soon as he represented to himself this sign he acknowledged the decree of God who prolonged his life to lengthen his calamities So this Divine hand Omnipotent in its effects imprinteth fire on a damned soul as the true token of his justice the character of his anger the centinel and executioner of his eternal will who beareth the face of an incensed God with all his decrees in his own flames who presseth and lieth heavy on this miserable thing separated from the sight of God and resigned through an eternal malediction to the life of divels 2. Thou must here understand O Reader this Foundation of the eternity of the pains of the damned truth touching the eternity of the pains of the damned confirmed by express texts of holy Scripture and the decision of the universal Church and by all Ages is grounded upon the justice of God ever to be adored by our wills although impenetrable to the weakness of our understanding and for confirmation hereof I think we should not omit the reasons of S. Gregory S. Bernard and S. Thomas before we produce that which to me seems the most formal for although they are not all necessarie in their conclusions yet they fail not to furnish us with much light and to give matter of true piety which is the butt whereat we aim in this discourse You O sinner demand why is a deadly sin strucken and punished with an eternal pain I answer you first with S. Gregory 1. Reason of S. Gregory the Great that if an eternal malice be proved in sin justice by all reasonable ways requireth the chastizement of it to be eternal for an eternity of crimes Non transeunt opera nostra ut videantur sed temporalia quaeque velut aeternitatis semina jaciuntur must be counterballanced with an eternity of miseries Now sin in some sort is eternal and in some manner extends beyond our life which alone is capable of merit or demerit For tell me those stones and kernels of pomegranades and apple-trees and all other trees created in the first week of the world were they temporary or eternal Temporary you will say for they fell before the tree And yet behold they propagate to our time and live in as many trees as there are of their kind on earth for these five thousand years or thereabouts The like is it with the actions you do at this present For they seem to pass in a moment yet are they so many seeds of eternity Reader understand well what I say behold here a secret wherewith daily to acquire a rich treasure of merits make me all your virtues as eternal by the sincerity of your intentions as they in effect are such in their consequence When you do a good work be it prayer alms
c. Et hi carnem quidem maculant dominationem autem spernunt majestatem autom blasphemant Hi sunt in epulis suis macule c. as are utterly impudent in words and Libertines in actions of whom the great S. Jude made a lively description Certain men are crept in among us reprobate and impious spirits who apply all talents of grace and nature to lust and to deny him that made them to wit our Lord Jesus Christ Master and sole Monarch of the whole world Then he addeth they are such as defile their flesh and revolt against lawfull powers such as blaspheme the Divine Majesty They are gluttenous cruel and arrogant who onely think to satiate themselves by others hunger clouds without water tossed with turbulent winds autumntrees barren trees trees twice dead trees rooted out of the territory of the Church They are waves of an enraged sea which foam nothing but confusions wandering commets to which God reserveth a tempest of darkness The Causes of Libertinism well observed by the Apostle S. Jude 3. NOte that this great Apostle doth here touch Jud. Epist Job 20. four sources of infidelity which are in this very considerable The chief and original of this corruption is a bruitish lust which with much infamie overfloweth as well in pleasures of the throat as sensuality which he was willing to express by these words when he said The impious not onely act impurities Hi sunt in epulis suis macula but are the impurities themselves For the Libertines are true Borborites so were certain hereticks called as one would say bemired because they naturally delighted in uncleanness they are dissolute people who have no other God but their belly good cheer and unbridled lust from whence it cometh their understandings clouded with bodily pleasures thicken and become wholly unable for things divine The people heretofore beloved is puffed up with Incrassatus est dilectus reâ—alcitravit deâ—eliquit Deum factorem suum Deut. 31. fat hath kicked against and forsaken its Creatour said Moses Tertullian very well termeth gourmandize the palsey of the understanding for as a body is deprived of sense and motion by the corporal palsey which obstructeth the nerves so the spirit oppressed by sensuality is wholly darkened without any feeling of Religion or any motion to works which concern salvation To live in fat is to shut up the gate of wisdom Opimitâ—â— sapientiam impedit exilitas expedit paralisis mentem prodigit pâ—isis servat Tertul. de anima c. 20. There is a palsey of corporal pleasures which wasteth the spirit and a ptissick which preserves it Nay Oecumenius discovereth somewhat more mysterious unto us when interpreting the word maculae according to the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he saith They are certain rocks hidden under the waves which surprize Saylours and cause hydeous shipwracks This very well agreeth to Libertines and one may call them according to another translation rough rocks bollow Confragosa in mari saxa cavernosaâ— rupes tenias stones and shelves which are the causes of so many falls They are in feasts as gulphs in the Ocean and overtake ere aware spirits already possessed with the vapours of wine and meats at which time they are most Bos ductus ad victimam agnus lasciviâ—â—s ignoram quod ad vincula stultus trahatur donec transfigat sagitta guttur ejus Prov. 7. 2â— open to sottish mirth Ah how many young men deceived by these impostures after they have made shipwrack of reason in a tavern have thereunto added the shipwrack of their faith He was led as an ox to the slaughter or as a skipping lamb not foreseeing his captivitie before the mortal arrow had transfixed his entrails saith the Wiseman The second cause of infidelity is a certain barrenness of wit of judgement discretion of Christian virtues and namely of humility of good works and worthy employments and consequently a swelling of presumption of imaginary ability of vanitie of idleness which is much supported by wicked nature effeminate education too free conversation access of evil company which render a man absolutely barren A matter excellently well signified by these words They are clouds without water such kind of trees as we see in Judea unfurnished Nubes sine â—qua of fruits in Autumn and despoiled of leaves twice dead that is to say quite rotten Faith will be manured by the exercises of piety by presence at Divine Service by keeping of fasts by alms and frequentation of Sacraments Now these wicked ones employed in sensual pleasures and evil company forsake all the characters of their Christianity which maketh them by little and little fall into a great forgetfulness of God into disdainfull pride insupportable neglects and into the maledictions uttered by our Saviours lips against the unfruitfull tree Of these is understood the decree of Heaven Earth Jer. 22. 29. Terra terra terra audi sermonem Domtni Haec dicit Dominus Scribe virum istum sterilem virum qui in diebus suis non prosterabitur Fluctus feri maris despumontes confusiones suas earth earth hearken to the word of God Our Lord hath said Write down this man as a man barren who shall never prosper during his life The third source is a tumult of enraged passions which are waves of the sea that vomit up their confusions for these kind of spirits are in perpetual disturbances nor hath the sea so many waves as they anxieties pride puffeth them ambition precipitateth them hatred gnaweth them delights conquer them choller burneth them fury transporteth them hardness of heart makes them untractable and impudence insupportable And being unable to restrain their passions within themselves they throw them abroad as the froath of waves and scum of confusions That is it which Saint Ambrose said Tunc videbitur ignominia tua adulterium hinnitus alienatio fornicationis tuae supra colles Ambr. l. de Abra. interpreting a passage of Jeremie Then is it thy ignominie thy adulterie thy neighing and strangeness of thy fornication shall be seen to all the world on the mountains Lastly the fourth root which rendereth their evil very desperate is a perpetual inconstancy excellently compated in the passage of the Apostle to flying fires formed in the air from exhalations of the earth This sort of men perhaps may have qualities which may give them some Iustre according to the world and make them appear as stars in the firmament of worldly honour causing some to reflect on them with admiration of their wit their eloquence and behaviour But they are to speak properly stars of earth and smoke like unto that S. John calleth the Apoc. 8. star of worm-wood which being not of the stars enchased by the hand of God in celestial globes but flying flames enkindled by some gross exhalations proceeding perhaps from a dung-hill fall back again Crinemque volantia sydera ducunt on earth from whence they came
of the law and yield your souls up for the testament of your Ancestours Children will you not answer what the holy Machabees did by the lips of their elder brother Let us die in virtue for our brethren and not defile our glory by any crime which may be objected against us Let war be proclaimed against Libertines and blasphemers who will still persevere with deliberate malice in their impiety Let these infernal mouthes be stopped and condemned to an eternal silence Let the standard of the Cross be adored by all Nations and the enemies of Jesus dissolved as wax melted on the flames of burning coals as smoke scattered in the air Let a chast and sincere worship of God flourish every where and sacrifices of praise mount to Heaven to obtain benedictions on earth But you SIR who most near approch to the Kings person having given so many testimonies of your prudence your courage and fidelity seem to speak unto him with the same tongue which holdeth ears enchained by the charms of your eloquence and say what France pronounceth 7. GReat King for whom our Altars daily smoke An Apostrophe of France to the King in Sacrifices and for whom our lips cease not to send forth thanksgivings of prosperitie to Heaven The monsters are not all as yet vanquished Behold the last head of Hydra which God hath reserved to this triumphant sword which the Cross guideth valour animateth justice moderateth and the stars crown Needs must impietie be crushed under those feet which have already trampled on so many Dragons and be fettered with an hundred iron chains under the Altars we daily charge with our vows When Libra the constellation of your birth ariseth the Ram falleth It is not time O Monarch of flower-de-luces that appearing on the throne of justice with Ballance in hand all sparkling with the rays of glorie which environ you after so many battel 's concluded by your victories you humble the horns of this Ram of insolent impiety which dares so confidently oppose both by words and actions the Religion which crown you the spirit which possesseth you and the power which directeth you Alas Alas SIR To what purpose were it to have walked on the smoking ruins of so many rebellious Cities What would it avail to have thrown down in one Rochel so many surly rocks with the help of so great so faithfull and happy counsel and opening one gate there at your enterance to have shut up a thousand against factions and civil wars What contentment could your Majesty have by wiping away the sweats on the Alps you had gotten on the Ocean and to have gathered palms perpetually verdant for you as well in the frozen ice of winter as the scorching beats of summer if you must again behold at your return that Religion you so often defended trodden under the feet of impiety wounded by slanderous tongues outraged by blasphemies and contaminated by insolent spirits who know not God but to dishonour him It now at this time presenteth it self to you with sighs in the heart and tears in the eyes It sheweth unto you the robe which Clodovaeus Charlemaigne and S. Lewis your Predecessours gave you with so much splendour now torn in pieces with such violence it imploreth your assistance it expecteth your power it breaths an air much the more sweet in the confidence conceived of your zeal and courage I call to witness that great Angel which hath led you by the hand to so many conquests and triumphs making you dreadfull to your enemies helpfull to your Allies awfull to your subjects and amiable to all the world it is not here where he will limit your actions and fix the columns of your memorie We still hope quickly to see the day which shall drie up the tears of the poor shall ease their burdens shall sweeten their pains shall â—our oyl on their yokes And from whom should we expect all this but from a Prince so pious so benign We promise our selves to see a Clergie which shall speedily put it self into so good a way under your favour entirely purified from the dregs of simonie ignorance and the liberty of evil actions Who can give us this happiness but a King who hath under his heart a Temple for true piety We sigh for that great day that day which shall for ever wash away the stains of bloud impressed on the foreheads of French Nobilitie which shall dissipate disorders shall stop the current of so many dissolutions and what can assure us of it but the certainty of your Edicts We most earnestly desire to behold an absolute regularitie in justice and in all Officers that a golden Age may shine again which hath so often been varnished through the corruption of souls set at sale And who shall do it but a King that from his most innocent years so much hath cherished the title of Just that be for it contemned the name of a Conquerour which his valour presented him and of Most Sacred which the veneration of his virtues afforded him Impiety vanquished beareth the keys of all these hopes nor shall we have any thing more to fear or desire when that shall be throughly suppressed throughout all the parts of the Kingdom Dear delight of Heaven is it not for this God drew you the last year from the gates of a sepulcher and restored you to life to render us all to our selves Alas Great God what a stroke of thunder was the news of this maladie What a terrour to all Cities What astonishment in all Orders What a wound in the heart of the whole Kingdom Your poor France remembered the 27. day of September made sacred by your royal birth It considered this nativitie had done to your state what the infusion of the soul into a bodie and saw you almost taken hence at the same time that your Majestie entered It beheld all that greatness and those comforts readie to be shut up within your tomb The Queens drenched in their deep sorrow could not speak but by their tears and sobs Your good Officers dissolved in lamentations at the foot of your bed which was become at the Altars of grief All humane hopes were cut off by the violence of the maladie Nothing was expected but the fatal blow which all the world deplored and which no man could divert But who knoweth not SIR God permitted it to let us see your virtues by their bright reflection The lustre of beautifull paintings must be suffered a little to mortifie before we can judge of them We could not sufficiently know your Majestie in the bright splendours of fortune and such good success of arms Needs must we have a character from God of men afflicted and a mark of the Cross of Jesus to consummate so excellent qualities And what heart was not then seized with admiration when we saw a young King so great so flourishing so awfull to look death in the face with a confident eye to expect it with
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
was there known to all the world and the disdain of that ungratefull Nation closed the hands of his great bounty Is it not a great unhappiness to be weary and tyred with often communicating to be wicked because God is good and to shut up our selves close when he would impart himself to us Men make little account of great benefits and spiritual helps for that they have them present They must lose those favours to know them well and seek outragiously without effect what they have kickt away with contempt because it was easily possest 2. The choices and elections of God are not to be comprehended within our thoughts but they should be adored by our hearts He is Master of his own favours and doth what he will in the Kingdoms of Nature Grace and Glory He makes vessels of Potters earth of gold and silver He makes Holy-dayes and working-dayes saith the Wiseman his liberalites are as free to him as his thoughts We must not examine the reason why he doth elevate some and abase others Our eye must not be wicked because his heart is good Let us content our selves that he loves the humble and to know that the lowest place of all is most secure No man is made reprobate without justice no man is saved without mercy God creates men to repair in many that which he hath made and also to punish in the persons of many that which he hath not made 3. Jesus doth not cure his brethren and yet cures strangers to shew that his powers are not tied to any nation but his own will So likewise the graces of God are not to be measured according to the nature of him who receives them but by the pure bounty of him who gives them The humility of some doth call him when the presumption of others doth estrange him The weak grounds of a dying law did no good to the Jews who disdained the grace of Jesus Christ And that disdain deprived them of their adoption of the glory of the New Testament of all the promises and of all Magistracy They lost all because they would keep their own wills Let us learn by the grace of God to desire earnestly that good which we would obtain effectually Persons distasted and surfetted cannot advance much in a spiritual life And he that seeks after perfection coldly shall never find it Aspirations THy beauties most sweet Jesus are without stain thy goodness without reproch and thy conversation without importunity God forbid I should be of the number of those souls which are distasted with Monna and languish after the onions of Egypt The more I taste thee the more I incline to do thee honour Familiarity with an infinite thing begets no contempt but onely from those whom thou doest despise for their own faults O what high secrets are thy favours O what Abysses are thy graces We may wish and run But except thou cooperate nothing is done If thou cease to work all is undone I put all my happiness into thy hands It is thou alone which knowest how to chuse what we most need by thy Sovereign wisdom and thou givest it by thy extream bounty The Gospel upon Tuesday the third week in Lent S. Matth. 18. If thy brother offend thee tell him of it alone BUt if thy brother shall offend against thee go and rebuke him between thee and him alone if he shall hear thee thou shalt gain thy brother and if he will not hear thee joyn with thee besides one or two that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may stand And if he will not hear them tell the Church and if he will not hear the Church let him be to thee as the Heathen and the Publican Amen I say to you whatsoever ye shall bind upon earth shall be bound also in heaven and whatsoever ye shall loose upon earth shall be loosed also in heaven Again I say to you that if two of you shall consent upon earth concerning every thing whatsoever they ask it shall be done to them of my Father which is in heaven for where there be two or three gathered in my name there am I in the midst of them Then came Peter unto him and said Lord how often shall my brother offend against me and I forgive him until seven times Jesus said to him I say not to thee until seven times but until seventy times seven times Moralities 1. THe heavens are happy that they go always in one measure and in so great a revolution of ages do not make one false step but man is naturally subject to fail He is full of imperfections and if he have any virtues he carries them like dust against the wind or snow against the sun This is the reason which teaches him that he needs good advice 2. It is somewhat hard to give right correction but much harder to receive it profitably Some are so very fair spoken that they praise all which they see and because they will find nothing amiss they are ordinarily good to no body They shew to those whom they flatter their virtues in great and their faults in little they will say to those who are plunged in great disorders they have no other fault but that they are not sufficiently carefull of their own health Others do correct with such sharpness and violence that they wound their own hearts to cure other mens and seem to have a greater mind to please their own passions than to amend those whom they would instruct Correction should be accompanied with sweetness but it must carry withall a little vigour to make a right temper and to keep a mean between softness and austerity Jesus in the Prophet Isaiah is called both a rod and a flower to shew us according to Origen that he carries severity mingled with sweetness to use either of them according to the diversity of persons 3. It is not a very easie thing to receive brotherly correction patiently we are so far in love with being well thought of And after we have lost the tree of life which is virtue it self we would keep the bark of it which is onely reputation All shadows proceed from those bodies upon which somewhat shines honour is the child of a known virtue and many when they cannot get one lawfull are willing to have a Bastard This is the cause why so many resemble those serpents which requite them with poison who sing to them pleasant songs Whatsoever is spoken to instruct them makes them passionate and dart out angry speeches against those who speak to them mild and gentle words of truth and tending to their salvation Rest assured you can never get perfection except you count it a glorie to learn and discover your own imperfections 4. There is nothing of more force than the prayers of just men which are animated by the same spirit and cimented together with perfect concord They are most powerfull both in heaven and earth When they desire what
approching near the light love their own darkness They hate the light of their salvation as the shadow of death and think that if you give them eyes to see their blindness you take away their life If they seem Christians they yet have nothing but the name and the appearance the book of Jesus is shut from them or if they make a shew to read they may name the letters but never can produce one right good word 4. Others destroy themselves by false lights who being wedded to their own opinions and adoring the Chimera's of their spirit think themselves full of knowledge just and happy that the sun riseth onely for them and that all the rest of the world is in darkness they conceive they have the fairest stars for conductours but at the end of their career they find too late that this pretended light was but an Ignis fatuus which led them to a precipice of eternal flames It is the worst of all follies to be wise in our own eye-sight and the worst of all temptations is for a man to be a devil to himself 5. Those ruin themselves with too much light who have all Gods law by heart but never have any heart to that law They know the Scriptures all learning and sciences they understand every thing but themselves they can find spots in the sun they can give new names to the stars they perswade themselves that God is all that they apprehend But after all this heap of knowledge they are found to be like the Sages of Pharaob and can produce nothing but bloud and frogs They embroil and trouble the world they stain their own lives and at their deaths leave nothing to continue but the memory of their sins It would be more expedient for them rather than have such light to carry fire wherewith to be burning in the love of God and not to swell and burst with that kind of knowledge All learning which is not joyned with a good life is like a picture in the air which hath no table to make it subsist It is not sufficient to be elevated in spirit like the Prophets except a man do enter into some perfect imitation of their virtues Aspirations O Fountain of all brightness before whom night can have no vail who seest the day spring out of thy bosom to spread it self over all nature will thou have no pitie upon my blindness will there be no medicine for my eyes which have so often grown dull heavy with earthly humours O Lord I want light being always so blind to my own sins So many years are past wherein I have dwelt with my self and yet know not what I am Self-love maketh me sometimes apprehend imaginary virtues in great and see all my crimes in little I too often believe my own judgement and adore my own opinions as gods and goddesses and if thou send me any light I make so ill use of it that I dazle my self even in the brightness of thy day making little or no profit of that which would be so much to my advantage if I were so happy as to know it But henceforth I will have no eyes but for thee I will onely contemplate thee O life of all beauties and draw all the powers of my soul into my eyes that I may the better apprehend the mystery of thy bounties O cast upon me one beam of thy grace so powerfull that it may never forsake me till I may see the day of thy glory The Gospel upon Thursday the fourth week in Lent S. Luke the 7. Of the widows son raised from death to life at Naim by our Saviour ANd it came to pass afterward he went into a Citie that is called Naim and there went with him his Disciples and a very great multitude And when he came nigh to the gate of the Citie behold a dead man was carried forth the onely son of his mother and she was a widow and a great multitude of the Citie with her whom when our Lord had seen being moved with mercy upon her he said to her Weep not And he came near and touched the Coffin And they that carried it stood still and he said Young man I say to thee Arise And he that was dead sate up and began to speak And he gave him to his mother and fear took them all and they magnified God saying That a great Prophet is risen among us and that God hath visited his people And this saying went forth into all Jewry of him and into all the Countrey about Moralities JEsus met at the Gates of Naim which is interpreted the Town of Beauties a young man carried to burial to shew us that neither beauty nor youth are freed from the laws of death We fear death and there is almost nothing more immortal here below every thing dies but death it self We see him always in the Gospels we touch him every day by our experiences and yet neither the Gospels make us sufficiently faithfull nor our experiences well advised 2. If we behold death by his natural face he seems a little strange to us because we have not seen him well acted We lay upon him sithes bows and arrows we put upon him ugly antick faces we compass him round about with terrours and illusions of all which he never so much as thought It is a profound sleep in which nature lets it self fail insensibly when she is tired with the disquiets of this life It is a cessation of all those services which the soul renders to the flesh It is an execution of Gods will and a decree common to all the world To be disquieted and drawn by the ears to pay a debt which so many millions of men of all conditions have paid before us is to do as a frog that would swim against a sharp stream of a forcible torrent We have been as it were dead to so many ages which went before us we die piece-meal every day we assay death so often in our sleep discreet men expect him fools despise him and the most disdainfull persons must entertain him Shall we not know and endeavour to do that one thing well which being once well performed will give us life for ever Me thinks it is rather a gift of God to die soon than to stay late amongst the occasions of sin 3. It is not death but a wicked life we have cause to fear That onely lies heavy and both troubles us and keeps us from understanding and tasting the sweets of death He that can die to so many little dead and dying things which makes us die every day by our unwillingness to forsake them shall find that death is nothing to him But we would fain in death carry the world with us upon our shoulders to the grave and that is a thing we cannot do We would avoid the judgement of a just God and that is a thing which we should not so much as think Let us clear our accounts
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
and who knoweth himself to be deformed and wicked yet faileth not by Nature to be in love with himself So through a love of Concupiscence he may love things which have neither Beauty nor Goodnesse although he daily have a blind feeling of some thing suitable to sensuallity and an unperceivable attractive As for love of reason which is properly Humane love one may be assured it alwayes looks directly upon good and fair not simply but good fair acknowledged agreeable to its contentment This is the root of all reasonable amities and hitherto those great sources Means to make ones self to be beloved worthily of love reduced which are Honesty utilitie Delectation Resemblance reciprocall love obliging and pleasing conversation Within these six heads in my opinion the fifteen means to make one to be beloved are comprised which are touched by Aristotle in the second book of his Rhetorick To wit to love that which a friend loveth to entertain his apprehensions his joyes and his discomforts his hatred and Amities to keep him in a laudable opinion of our sufficiency by good parts of wit courage virtue industrie and reciprocally to hold him in good esteem to love him to oblige him to praise him unto others to bear with him in his humours to trust him with your secrets readily to serve him without forgetfulnesse or negligence to be inviolably faithfull to him which we will more amply deduce in the subsequent section But if you regard its effects I find three great empires Notable effects of love in the 3. worlds it exerciseth in the world naturall civil and supernaturall In the naturall it causeth all simpathies antipathies accords ties generations productions In the civill world it builds two cities as saith S. Augustine very different If it be good it raiseth a Citie of peace wherein chaste Amities sway and with them Truth Faith Honour Virtues contentments delights If it be bad It makes a Babylon full of confusion where cares fears griefs warre enmities impurities adulteries incests sacriledges bloud murther and poison inhabit and all that which commonly ariseth from this fatall plague In the supernaturall world it causeth nine effects which are very well figured by the celestiall throne of love composed of nine diaphanous globes whose effects are Solitude Silence Suspension Indefatigability Languishment Extasie and Transanimation which we more at length will consider in the sequele of this Treatise §. 2. Of Amity AMITY is the medecine of health and Immortality Eccl. 6. Medicamentùm vitae Amity the tree of life of life and in a manner doth that in Civill life which the tree of life in terrestriall Paradise promises in naturall life with an infinite number of sweetnesses and pleasures it immortaliseth us after death in the remembrance of that which is most dear unto us in the world It is that which giveth light to dark affairs certainty It Includeth all blessings to doubtfull support to tottering goodnesse to evil grace to good order to irregular ornament to simple and activenesse to dead By it the banished find a countrey the poor a patrimony great ones find offices the rich services the Ignorant knowledge the feeble support the sick health and the afflicted comfort Should a man live on Nectar and Ambrosia among starres and Intelligencies he would not be happy if he had not friends to be witnesses of his good fortune and we may truly say that Amity continually makes up the greater part of our Felicities It is not here my purpose to extend my self with full sail upon the praise thereof since so many excellent wits have already handled this subject but to shew how good Amities are to be chosen and how to be cultivated There are some who make profession to be friends What amity is Affectus est spontanea suavis animi ad aliquem inflectio Cassiod de amicit and know not so much as what friendship is but Aristotle plainly proves there is difference between affection Good-will Love Amity and Concord Affection is a spark of love not yet throughly formed in which understanding hath some slight passion Good-will A simple Good-will and consent born towards some one although many times there be no great knowledge of the party as it happeneth to such who of two Combatants favour rather the one then the other not knowing either of them Love is an affection already formed and inclined with fervour to the good of Conformity Amity is a love of mutuall well-wishing grounded upon communication Whence may be inferred that all those who love are not friends but all such as are true friends necessarily love The meanest people may love the most eminent but there can be no Amity since they therein find not correspondence There are entranced lovers in the world who are enamoured Miserable lovers of all beauties none returning them love again which deserves either laughter or compassion seeing they may directly go to the first of Beauties where they shall find reciprocall contentment After love followeth concord which is the fruit of it in the union of judgement and will Now well to understand how to choose good Amities the Species or kind of them must be known wherein I find that one Hippodamus a great Platonick Philosopher hit right when he established three sorts of Three sorts of amity Amities whereof one belongs to beasts the other to men and the third to Demi-gods Animall-Amities are those which subsist onely in Animal-amity Nature and which are common to us with beasts Thus saith S. Augustine a mother which loveth Pro mugno laudarurus sum in homine quod videam in Tigride August 410. homil 38. her children for flesh and blouds sake not otherwise raising her thoughts towards God doth but as a Hen a Dove a Tigresse a Serpent and so many other living creatures which have so great affection towards their little ones It is not that these Amities are not very necessary since Nature inspires them and powreth them into the veins with the soul by admirable infusions which preserve the estate of the world entire It is good much to affect ones own but we must build upon the first elements of Nature and by Grace and Reason raise the edifice of true charity Parents ought to love their children as a part of their own bodies which Nature hath separated from themselves But Amity should never divide their hearts Children are bound to love their parents as fishes their water Brothers cannot too much esteem the love and Concord which they mutually maintain together A husband and a wife are bound to a most strict commerce of Amity since as God produced a word in heaven and with the word the holy Ghost So he hath been pleased to create Adam on earth as his own Image and out of this Image he hath drawn Eve to be unto a man a spirit of peace and a love of a perpetuall lasting There is no doubt but that to fail in
he fell into an extasie of holy comfort to have found a man so conform to his humour and both of them wept so much out of love over this fountain that they seemed to go about to raise those streams by their tears If he wrote a letter he imagined love gave him the pen and that he dipped it in his tears and that the paper was all over filled with instruments of the passion and that he sent his thoughts and sighs as Courtiers to seek out the well-beloved of his heart When he saw an Epistle or a letter wherein the name of Jesus was not premised it sensibly tormented him saying Sarazins had more devotion for Mahomet a man of sin setting his name in the front of all their letters then Christians had for their Redeemer A holy occasion one day drew him to a Church to hear excellent musick but he perceiving the words were of God and the tune according to the world he could not forbear to cry out aloud Cease profane men Cease to cast pearls into mire Impure airs are not fit for the King of virgins Some took delight to ask him many questions and he answered them nothing but the word love which he had perpetually in his mouth To whom belongest thou To love whence comest thou from love whither goest thou To love who begat thee Love Of what dost thou live upon love where dwellest thou In love He accounted them unworthy to live who died of any other death then of love and beholding a sick-man in an agony who shewed no feeling of joy to go unto God but onely complained of his pain he lamented him as a man most miserable At his entrance into a great Citie he asked who were the friends of God and a poor man being shewed him who continually wept for the love of heaven and heavenly things he instantly ranne to him and embracing him they mingled their tears together with unspeakable joy God often visited him by many lights and most sweet consolations as it happened at that time when he thought he saw a huge cloud between his Beloved and him which hindred and much troubled him but presently it seemed to him that love put it self between them both and gilded the cloud with great and admirable splendours in such sort that through this radiant beauty he saw a ray of the face of his well-beloved and for a long space spake to him with profusions of heart and admirations not to be expressed From this obsequious love he passed to obliging love and made a strong resolution to become profitable to all the world For which purpose feeling every moment to be replenished with sublime and divine thoughts which God had communicated to him and that he had no insight in Grammer nor other slight school-notions he resolved to learn the Latine tongue being now full fourty years old He hit upon a teacher one Master Thomas who taught him words conjugations and concords but he rendred him back again elate conceptions unheard of discourses and harmonies wholly celestiall so much honouring his Master that he dedicated the most part of his books to him wherein for the dead letter he offered unto him the spirit of life Not satisfied with this he added the Arabick tongue of purpose to convert the Mahumetans and for this end he bought a slave for whom having no other employment but to teach him it and he having therein already well profited and endeavouring to convert this wretched servant who had been his teacher the other found him so knowing and eloquent that he had an apprehension that through this industry he was able to confound the Mahumetan-law which was the cause that the Traitour espying his opportunity took a knife and sought to kill his Master but he stopt the blow and onely received a wound which proved not mortall All the house ran at the noise and there was not any one who would not have knocked down the ungratefull creature but he hindered it with all his might and heartily pardoned him in the greatest sharpnesse of his dolours Instantly the officers seized on this compassion and put him into prison where he was strangled repenting himself of nothing but that he had not finished his mischief which caused extreme sorrow in Raymond who bewailed him with many tender tears of compassion After this he undertook divers journies into France Spain Italy Greece and Africk wandring continually over the world and not ceasing to preach write and teach to advance the salvation of his neighbours Paris many times received him with all courtesie in such sort that the Chancellour Bertand who was infinitely affected to knowledges permitted him to reade them publickly in his hall The reverend Charter-house Monks whose houses have so often been sanctuaries for Learning and Devotion were his hoasts and so much he confided in their integrtty and sincerity that he with them deposed all which he had most precious The love of God which is as lightning in a cloud still striving to break forth suffered him not to rest but disposed him to undertake somewhat for the glory of God It is true he had first of all that purpose which afterwards our father S. Ignatius so gloriously accomplished for he was desirous to make Seminaries of learned and courageous spirits who should spread themselves throughout the world to preach the Gospel and to sacrifice themselves for the propagation of Faith For this cause he multiplied his voyages to Rome to Lions to Paris to Avignon incessantly solliciting Popes and Kings to so excellent a work without successe He used fervour and zeal therein but our father thereunto contributed more order and prudence The one undertook it in a crosse time during the passage of the holy See from Rome to Avignon where the Popes more thought upon their own preservation then tha conquests of Christianity The other knew how to take occasion by the fore-lock and he interessed Rome and the Popes thereof in his design The one made his first triall under Pope Boniface the Eighth who having dispossessed a Hermite of S. Peters Chair held those for suspected who were of the same profession fearing they a second time might make a head of the Church The other happened upon Paul the Third who was a benign Pope and he gained his good opinion by his ready services and submissions which tended to nothing but the humility of Jesus Christ The one embroiled himself too much in Sciences even unto curiosity and made them walk like Ladies and Mistresses the other held them as faithfull servants of the Crosse subjected to holy Humility The one stood too much upon his own wit and needs would beat out wayes not hitherto printed with any foot-steps nor conferred enough with the Doctours of his times in matters of Opinion and Concord the other passed through the surges of Universities and followed an ordinary trackt in the progression of his studies The one was of a humour very haughty the other of a spirit
helps of grace by the contemptation contemptations of things Divinie the example of the Divinity take instruction how to demean our selves Let us look on our first model and consider a strange thing able to make our impatiencies was red not with anger but with shame to say that God all impassible as he is of his own nature not obnoxious to the sword fire sicknesse or any other exteriour violence would in all times suffer men more violent then the sword more ardent then fire more irksome then sicknesse and many times more cruel then salvage beasts It is said there were heretofore made very goodly mirrours of saphyr which were for Princes and Monarchs let us not covet those which cannot much avail us but let us contemplate the admirable saphyr enchased in the Throne of the living God in the Prophet Ezek. 1. 26. Quasi aspectus lapidis sapphiri similirudo Throni Ezekiel and let us therein see and compare our impatiencies with the mildnesse of the Creatour It seemes that by how much the more a dignity is sovereign by so much the lesse ought it to be exposed to injuries because the fear which is had of its power should stamp in hearts rhat respect which love weak cannot imprint yet God a sovereign Majesty a supream Greatnesse an absolute Justice hath endured and doth daily endure so many contradictions of men that it seems Plures idcirco Dominum non credunt quia seculo iratum ram diu nesciunt Tert de patient 〈◊〉 that to give credit to his mercy he occasioneth some prejudice to the terrour of his Divinity Many men saith Tertullian believe not in God because they cannot perswade themselves he is angry with the world since they see it in so peacefull a state What is there more important for God and men then the knowledge of his Divine nature then the fear of his Justice then the much to be adored reverence of his sovereignty Notwithstanding as if he preferred the glory of his patience before his own Being he rather chose patiently to suffer so many faithlesse so many wicked ones so many sinners and that the lips of Blasphemers might dare to say there is no God then that taking revenge in the heat of crimes by punishing every sin it should be said of him Verily there is a God but he is perpetually armed with lightning and terrours ever inaccessible to the prayers of men as those mountains which throw forth their enflamed bowels Nay much otherwise he would be simamed the God of mercy and the Father of goodnesse whereupon Saint Gregory hath judiciously said that his patience walks Pater misericordiarum Dominator Dominus Deus misericors clemens patiens mule◠miserationis c. Deut. 5. Quantum lata mens fuerit per amorem rantum erit patiens Ionganimitatem Totius geniturae tributa dignis indignis patitur simul occurtere Tertul. de patient c. 2 still hand in hand with his charity Wherefote as the love of God towards men is incomparable so his patience to indure the faults and infirmities of sinners admits no comparison How wany Pirates are there daily for whom God openeth seas How many Idolaters for whom he causeth stars to shine fountains to stream plants to sprout harvests to wax yealow and vines to ripen as well as for the faithfull How many ungratefull and rebellious children are there who every day receiving so many benefits from him take them as Hogs do Acorns still grunting towards the ground and never casting an eye towards heaven How many spirits enemies of truth and light disturbers of publick repose transgressours of laws both Divine and Humane do daily frame obstacles against the will of their sovereign Master and yet he fuffers them as if he had no other businesse in the world but patiently to bare and vanquish by benefits the malice and ingratitude of men Hierusalem is the stone of burthen said the Prophet which layeth a burthen upon God himself What will this Oracle of God say but the same conceits which Saint Hierom suggesteth unto us Hierusalem lapis on eris Zachar. 12. upon this passage when he writes that there were seen in places where the Antient wrastlers did exercise huge stones or certain bowls of Iron or Copper with which they made tryall of their strength and he witnesseth that he in a list saw one of those bowls which was so heavie that he could not lift it up from the ground although others robustuous of body and eminent in those exercises could easily carry it Now mark my conceit and say that as those champions of antiquity God is busied about the world as his stone of burden had for object of their strength those weighty bulks on which they daily exercised themselves So likewise God that strong Gyant and great Wrastler as if he stood in need of exercise takes the sphere of this great Universe which he beareth lifterh it up with all facility He takes the Masse of so many mortals whom heaven covers and the earth beareth and there he findeth much resistance he takes his people which he hath chosen and sanctified above all the nations of the world and hence oft-times very many sensible displeasures come A true stone of burden is that Christian that Ecclesiastick that Priest that Religious who belyes his profession who throws disorder and scandall among the people by his ill example yet God tolerateth him God protecteth him God continually obligeth him and if needs he must draw the sword of Justice out of the scabbard it is with delayes consideration and excessive Clemency O infinite Goodnesse And who is that man now that will not bear with a man and who is he that seeing God of nature impassible busie in the world as about his stone of burden from the beginning of Ages cannot bear a small burden whereto he finds himself tyed by duty by condition and by nature § 5. That the great temper of our Saviours soul in most horrible sufferings is a powerfull lenitive against our Dolours AS for the second Modell which is the Word Incarnate the true mirrour of Patience and onely reward of the Patient It is a very strange thing that all nature being so bent upon its conservation as to suffer nothing Jesus Christ did miracles incomprehensible to the spirit of Angels onely of purpose to suffer for man For how could dolour have laid hold on a God of his own nature impassible if it had not passed through all the heavens to take the divine word in the sanctuary of the Trinity which otherwise was meerly impossible but the son of God considering this Impossibility and being fixed in the desire to sustein for us took the body of man to suffer all that which the most cruell could invent and all whatsoever the most miserable might undergo Verily it is an effect of so prodigious a love that it found no belief in senses perswasion in minds example in manners nor
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
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
feet praying him to forget what was past yet he caused his processe to be made in Parliament upon accusations which did more manifest the Passion of the King then any crime in the life of the Count. Notwithstanding the close practise was so great that he was condemned to death and although Lewis terrified by his own Conscience and the generall opinion would not have it to proceed any further yet he confined him to the Bastile where he had spent the rest of his dayes if he had not found means to save himself But whom would he spare who put away and deprived of Office his best servants for having hindered him during his sicknesse to come near unto a Window out of the care they had of his health This passion was a Devil in the heart of this Prince which made him odious to many and filled his whole life with disturbance and acerbity 10. A revengefull spirit spares nothing to please it Aymonius l. 5. c. 39. self and oft-times openeth precipices to fill them with death and ruine It is a strange thing that one sole Wicked revenge of an Abbot and of John Prochytas against the French Abbot of Saint German de Prez named Gaulin had almost ruined the whole Kingdome of France for having been bereaved of an Abbacy He many years revolved his revenge and after the death of Lewis le Begue under whom he had received the injury which he proposed to himself he went to Lewis the German whom he enflamed with so much cunning to the conquest of the Kingdome of France that he set a huge army on foot to surprize the heir of the Crown in the Confusion of his Affairs and the trouble was so great that needs must Lorraigne be cut off from the Kingdome of France to give it to this Conquerour So did John Prochytas the Sicilian who having been deprived of his estate by Charles of Anjou conceived a mortall enmity against the French which made him contrive that bloudy Tragedy of Sicilian Vespres This unfortunate man disguising himself in the habit of a Franciscan went to Peter of Arragon to shew him the means how to invade Sicily and seeing that he and his wife Queen Constance bent all their endeavour thereto he ceased not to stir up the Countrey where he had much credit and used so many engines that in the end he caused one of the most horrible massactes which was ever projected On an Easter-day in the time of Vespres the French had all their throats cut throughout the Island of Sicily No age sex condition nobility nor religious were spared The black spirit of the Abysle drew men from the Altar to runne to the sword which they indifferently thrust into the bosome of their guests nor were so many cryes and lamentations nor such images of death flying before their eyes able to wound their hearts with one sole touch of compassion which useth to move the most unnaturall Rage blown by the breath of the most cruell furies of Hell made them to open the bellies of women and to dig into their entrails to tear thence little Infants conceived of French bloud It caused the most secret sanctuaries of nature to be violated to put those to death who had not as yet the first taste of life Shall we not then say that the passion of revenge which hath taken root in a soul half damned is the most fatall instrument that Hell can invent to overthrow the Empire of Christianity 11. All these accidents well considered are sufficient to moderate the passions which make so much noyse among mankind But let us consider before we go off this stage that Anger and Revenge are not creatures invincible to Courtiers who yet retein som Character of Christianity Robert one of the greatest Kings that ever ware the Crown of France saw his two sonnes bandied against Glaber him when provoked by the practises of the Queen Great moderation in Saint King Robert their mother who ceased not to insult over them they ran to the field with some tumultuary troops and began to exercise acts of hostility which made them very guilty The father incensed by their rebellion and forcibly urged by the sting of the mothers revenge speedily prepares an army and entreth into Burgundy to surprise and chastise them Thereupon William Abbot of S. Benigne of Dion goeth to him and shews that these disorders were an effect of the divine Providence which we should rather appease by penance then irritate by anger that if his Majesty would call to mind he should find that his youth was not exempt from errours committed by the inconsideration of age and the practise of evil counsels that he ought not to revenge with sword and fire that which he had suffered in his own person and that as he would not any should enterprise upon his hereditary possession so it was fit not to meddle with that which was Gods who had reserved vengeance to himself This speech had such power that the good King was instantly appeased caused his children to come embraced them with paternall affection and received them into favour tying their reconciliation with an indissoluble knot What can one answer to the mildnesse of a King accompanied with so much power and wisdome but confesse that pardon is not a thing impossible since this great Prince upon the words of a religious man layes down arms and dissipateth all his anger as waves break at the foot of rocks 12. We must confesse that Regality was never Helgandus in vita Roberti Regis seen allyed to a spirit more mild and peaceable and that his actions should rather be matter of admiration then example He pardoned twelve murtherers who had a purpose to attempt upon his life after he had caused them to confesse and communicate saying it was not reasonable to condemn those whom the Church had absolved and to afflict death upon such as had received the bread of life But what would not he have done who surprising a rogue which had cut away half of his cloke furred with Ermins said mildely to him Save thy self and leave the rest for another who may have need of it 13. This mildnesse is very like to that of Henry the First afterward King of England who seeing his Fathers body to be stayed in open street upon the instant of his obsequies and this by a mean Citizen who complained the soil of the land where the dead which was William the Conquerour was to be interred was his Ancestours inheritance he was nothing at all moved but presently commanded his Treasurer to satisfie the Creditour and to prosecute the pomp of his Funerals 14. Lewis the Eleventh did a King-like act towards Generous act of Lewis the Eleventh the ashes of the fair Agnes who had possessed the heart of his father Charls the Seventh and had persecuted him the son in her life-time At her death she gave threescore thousand crowns for a foundation to
awaken their former aversions Time slideth away very quietly with them untill the arrivall of a very unexpected accident Childeric after the departure of S. Leger useth the greatnesse of his power licentiously and soileth both his Name and Dignity with inconsiderate actions which quickly made this great Minister of State to be deplored and all the Envy to be cast upon the King for having so easily dismissed him The contempt of his person began so to creep into the minds of his subjects that defamatory Libels went abroad upon his Passions and Government which seemed to have no other aim but the weakning of his Authority He thought to quench a coal with flames and entreth into outrageous anger against those whom he suspected to raise any question upon his actions He causeth a gentleman named Bodil to be taken and having caused him to be tyed to a post he commandeth him to be ignominiously whipped contrary to the manner of ordinary punishments which occasioned so much acerbity in the Nobility that all in an instant rebelled against him Bodil transported by the fury of his Passion and encouraged by the number of his Complices out of a horrible attempt kills Childeric whilst he was a hunting and passing on to the Palace extendeth his revenge like a devil fleshed in massacres to the person of the Queen great with child whom he murdered The Court is drenched in deep desolation the pillars of the State totter there is need of able men to free them from this danger The friends of Ebroin and S. Leger who sought their own ends in the employment of these two invited them with urgent reasons covered with the good of the State to return to the world assuring them that all France went to ruine if they supported it not Ebroin to whom South-sayers promised wonders and who under hope he had to forsake the Monks Coul had already suffered his hair to grow to be the better disposed for all occasions shewed himself nothing hard to be perswaded S. Leger therein used more resistance but in the end suffered himself to be overcome leaving the sweetnesse of Solitude to enter again into the troubles of the world which never passeth unpunished but in such as do it by the Laws of pure Obedience He is received into his Bishoprick as an Angel and his friends do all they can to bring him to the Court and to gain him a good esteem in the Kings mind who seemed to stand in need of such a servant to purchase the more authority among the people who with much satisfaction had tasted the sweetnesse of his Government Ebroin on the other side seeing Thierry Childeric's brother had taken possession of the Kingdome was very confident of his return having formerly been of the faction of the young King But he being neglected Leudegesillus an antient favourite of Thierry 's had undertaken the government of affairs The furious Monk storms like a mad-man for the dignity of Master of the Palace which he had possessed and being unable to creep into it by mildnesse he entreth thereinto by open violence He rallieth together all his antient friends in this new change of State he gathereth a tumultuary army and flyeth into the field with so much speed that he almost surprized the King with his Favourite to use them at his discretion Necessity enforceth to offer candles and incense to this devil he is sought unto for peace great recompences are proposed to his crimes his ambition takes no satisfaction but in the object of his design He draweth Leudegesillus to a Conference under shew of accommodation and being a man without Faith or Soul he killeth him emptying his place by a murder to replenish it by a Treachery Notwithstanding he lets Thierry know his arms were not taken but for his service and that he had no other purpose but to reduce all powers under his Sceptre The other was in a condition of inability to defend himself which made him resolve rather to take him for a servant then to have him for a master In the end this horrible fury hidden under the habit of a Monk never ceased until it carried him to the nearest place of a Royall Throne So soon as he was possessed of his former dignity he bent all his powers to vengeance and thought upon nothing but of ridding his hands of such as had crossed his fortune S. Leger was the very first he aimed at in his wicked plots he dispatcheth troops to make havock about the city of Autun and gives commands to murderers executioners of his revenge to lay hold of his person The good Prelate who heard the lamentable cryes of the people afflicted by the detestation of these hostilities went forth and presents himself before these barbarians as a victime of expiation to deliver himself over to death and to stay the stream of the miseries which overflowed his diocesse He was prepared to make an Oration but they as Tygres which had no commerce with musick presently fell upon him and having taken him they pulled out his eyes to lead him in triumph to Ebroin He had already poisoned the ear of the young King having set forth this sage Bishop as the most execrable man on earth and the most capitall enemy he had in the world There remained nothing but to produce him in this state fully to accomplish the contentment his bruitishnesse did aim at He at the same time caused Guerin S. Legers brother to be taken doubly to torment him in that he most loved and having presented them both before the King he beginneth to charge them with injuries and scorns the Saints eclipsed eyes and faces covered all over with bloud nothing mollifyed the heart of this Polyphemus Captivity tyed not the tongues of the two brothers nor excesse of miseries dejected their courages They spake with all liberty what might be expected from their constancy rendering thanks to God that he in this world had chastised them with temporall punishments as true children and menacing Ebroin with an eternity of torments which the anger of God reserved for the exorbitancy of his wickednesse This cruel creature who expected some more pliantnesse in so great a misery was immeasurably offended and instantly commanded them to be separated and Guerin to be speedily put to death He received the sentence of death with great fortitude embracing his blind brother with all unexpressible tendernesse and encouraging him to the last conflict with words full of the spirit of God After this he is bound to a pillar and knocked down with stones Ebroin who would relish his revenge by long draughts found out in his heart inventions of a hangman to torment Saint Leger causing him to walk on stones as sharp as razours and appointing his face to be disfigured by cutting out his tongue his nose and lips to send him from thence a prisoner to the Monastery of Fecan All this was executed yet the patience of this incomparable man by so hideous
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
will if they might have had but the permission given them He saw that he subsisted not but by his favour which he abused so basely He resolved to pick a quarrell with him and asked him instantly What might a Great King do that would honour a Favourite to the highest Point Haman thinking that that Question was not made but in favour and Consideration of him Answers with an Immeasurable Impudence That to honour worthily a Favourite and to shew in his Person what a great Master can do that Loves with Passion He must clothe him with his Royall Cloak put the Kings Diadem upon his Head set him upon his own Horse and command the greatest Prince of the Court to hold his Stitrop and his Bridle and lead him through all places of the City and to Cause an Herald to Proclaime before him That it is thus that Ahasuerus honoureth his Favourites The Prince was astonished at this Insolence and to make him burst with spite said to him that his Opinion was very good and therefore he commanded him to render all those honours presently to Mordecai the Jew that was at the Palace Gate This Divel of Pride was seized with so great an amazement at that Speech that he had not so much as one word in his mouth to Reply and as he was Vain-glorious and Insupportable in his Prosperity so there was nothing more Amated or more Base in Adversity He extreamly racks his spirit to dissemble his discontent The fear of Death and Punishments due to his Crimes if he did resist the Pleasure of the King made him swallow all the bitternesse of that Cup. A strange thing Poor Mordecai that was all nasty covered with Sack-cloth and Ashes is fetched is washed is trimmed up and clad after the fashion of a King Haman presents himself to hold the Stirrop of the Horse and to lead him by the Bridle while his Enemy was shewed in Triumph to the eyes of the whole City of Shushan How much Resistance do we think he made not to accept this Honour What thoughts came into his head whether it was not a Trick of Haman that would give him a short Joy to deliver him to a long Punishment He could not believe his Eyes nor his Reason he thought that all this had been a Dream In the mean while the whole City of Shushan beheld that great Spectacle and could not be sufficiently amazed at so extraordinary a Change Haman after the Ceremony was over returns very sad unto his House deploring with his Wife and friends the sad sport of Fortune The Confusion of their troubled spirits suggests nothing to them but Counsels of despair and they say That since Mordecai hath begun sure he will make an end He was very loath to go to that Feast of the Queens he feared that it would prove a sacrifice and that he should be the offering Hester that saw that her sport was spoiled if he was not present caused him secretly to be engaged and pressed by the Eunuchs of the King who under colour of Civility conduct him to his finall Misery He enters into the Chamber of the Feast The King dissembles all that had been done there was nothing talked of at the first but of passing merrily the time away Every thing flourished every thing Laughed but Poyson was hid under the Laughter and Venome under the Flowers At the end of their Repast the King Conjures the Queen to tell him at last what it was that she desired of him because he was fully resolved to divide his Crown and Sceptre with her Then sending forth a great sigh she cryed Alas Sir I do not sue to your Majesty for any of all the Honours or the Riches of your Empire but I desire of you onely my own and my poore peoples Lives which some would overthrow Destroy and Massacree by an horrible and bloody Butchery Sir I ought no longer to disguise any thing to your Majesty God hath made me be born of that Nation which is given for a Prey under your Authority and destin'd to the Shambels It is me that they aime at If they had gone about onely to make me and my People Slaves I would have held my peace and stifled my groans But Sir what have I done that my Throat should be cut after I shall have seen the Bloud of my nearest Kindred shed before mine Eyes to be thrown as the last Sacrifice upon a great heap of Dead Bodies and Buried in the Ruines of my dear Countrey Alas Sir shew us Mercy You that are the Mildest of all Princes restore me my soul and the lives of my whole Nation The King entered into an Admiration of Extasie upon these Words and said to the Queen I know not to what this Discourse tends or where the Man or the Authority is that dares do this without my command Then she replyes He to whom your Majesty hath given your Seal that Traytor and perfidious Haman It is he that hath caused bloudy Letters to be written through all the Provinces to deliver me and my People up to Death and know Sir that his cruelty rebounds upon your head Haman quickly perceived that he was a lost man and the Palenesse of Death came at the same instant into his Face The King rises from the Table and walks into the Garden that was hard by to chew upon his Choler The Queen that had put her self into a Melancholy casts her self down upon the Bed Haman throwes himself at her feet and as a man that is drowning layes hold on what ere he meets with He beseeches her he Urges her he Conjures her to shew him Mercy and in saying so bowed himself down upon the Bed and approached very near unto her The King entring at the same time into the Chamber and finding him in that Posture How sayes he will he also violate the Queen my Wife in my Presence and in my House Let some body take him away Instantly they come and cover his Face as they were wont to do to those that were carried away to Punishment and one of the Eunuchs thought of saying That he had prepared a pair of Gallows of fifty Cubites high for Mordecai the Preserver of the Kings Life It is that which is his Due answered Ahasuerus and let him be hanged suddenly upon the Gibbet that he hath set up This was executed without delay there being no body that was not extream joyfull of his Ruine Mordecai was called to the Palace to take his Place and to Govern all the Houshold of the Queen that now acknowledged him in the presence of the King her husband for her Uncle Hester afterward beseech'd the King to command Dispatches to be sent through all the Provinces to countermand and to make void the Letters of Death which cruell Haman had caused already to be spread through all the Kingdome This was found very reasonable and they were forthwith Expedited in these Termes Artaxerxes the Soveraign Lord and King of
is a strange thing that a man of nothing found instantly Cities Armies and a Kingdome at his devotion It was now that Jonathan the brother and successour of Judas was sought after and sued to by those two adversary Kings with extreme earnestnesse Pompalus that took the name of Alexander wrote him letters full of honour offering him the Principality and Pontificate of his Nation qualifying him with the name of friend and sending him a purple Robe with a Crown of gold Demetrius whom necessity had rendred very courteous made him also on the other side a thousand fair promises to draw him to his party He exempted him from all Tributes he took away the Garrisons he gave him places of importance by a free gift he received the Jews to offices and governments he restored all those of their Nation that he held in Hostage He granted them an intire Liberty in their Religion and Policy and Revenues also for the Temple so that there was nothing more to be desired Yet Jonathan would never range himself under his Standards but as injuries being yet fresh smart more then old ones the Jews chose rather to give themselves to the son of their most cruel persecutour then to Demetrius that had taken from them their dear Maccabee and held yet their liberty under oppression The party already made against that miserable Prince fortified it self every day and although he took all the good order that his affairs seemed to require yet he could not divert his unhappinesse that dragged him to a precipice It is true that he got the better in some small encountres but when the great battle that was to decide the controversie of the Kingdome was to be given he saw himself very much forsaken and his enemy assisted with the best forces of all Asia He failed not for all that to fight with all possible valour and although his Army was scattered he would never fly but cast himself in the hottest of the mingling killing many of his enemies with his own hand His horse having taken a false step slipped himself into a slough whence he could not get out but he suddenly quitted him got himself on foot and made a great spectacle a King covered with dirt and bloud with his sword in his hand that laid about with a stiffe arm and without remission sustained the hail of arrows that the enemy let flie upon him standing inflexible against all those disastres of his evil fortune In fine he would not quit his Crown but with his life and buried himself in honour Every one bows under the happinesse of that false Alexander he mounts suddenly upon the Throne of his adversary where he receives the services and adorations of all the world Philometer the King of Egypt that had much upheld his party in which he sought his own interests gives him his daughter Cleopatra in marriage whose wedding was magnificently celebrated in the city of Ptolomais in the presence of the two Kings the father-in-law and the son-in-law where Jonathan was also present that was caressed of both the two by extraordinary favours and managed the businesses of his State with all possible advantages Alexander seeing himself in unexpected riches and amidst so many ornaments of a borrowed fortune could not contain himself but let himself flag in a sluggish and voluptuous life abandoning all the affairs of his Kingdome to the discretion of one Ammonius a young brainlesse fellow who carried himself most insolently and incensed the Queen Laodice and all the Nobles of the Court in such a manner as that he was at last set upon and slain in the habit of a woman which he had put on to secure himself God thus taking vengeance of his filthy and effeminate life The Antiochians were first weary of the dissolute life of their Prince that was alwayes in the midst of wine and women which made them believe that he was a supposititious King that had nothing in him of generous They began to regret Demetrius whom they had seen dic with so much courage and knowing that he had left two sons yet very young one of which bore his fathers name and the other was called Antiochus Sidetes They invited the elder of them giving him assurance that he should have the Crown Philometor that was ashamed of the deportments of his son-in-law and that under pretence of moderation desired nothing lesse then to adde the Diadem of Syria to that of Egypt well knowing that so many changes of Masters make a State shake and give fair advantages to those that would invade them upholds this Rebellion forsakes Alexander and by a notable affront takes away his daughter from him to give her to the young Demetrius And to colour his inconstancy he made a Manifest that published That his son-in-law by an execrable disloyalty had made an attempt upon his Kingdome and upon his life which made him break the friendship that he had sworn with him Under this pretence he seizes on some places which it was easie for him to keep whiles he made himself authour of the fortune of the new King The miserable Alexander awaking out of his surfeits saw the Egyptian and all his Subjects bandyed against him and a great army that was coming to fall upon his head which he resisted feebly and quickly forsook his party going to hide himself in the bottomes of Arabia where he was hunted after and entrapped by Zabdiel the Arabian who cut off his head and carried it to the King of Egypt who contemplated it a long time with a spirit more then salvage for which he was punished of God and dyed three dayes after of the wounds he had received by a fall from his horse at the defeating of his son-in-law Behold marvellous sports of fortune and great revolutions that ended not at this point yet Demetrius young of age and government was not a man to settle a Kingdome shaken with so great concussions He thought more of taking the pleasures of Royalty then of bearing the burden of it businesses were to him as many punishments and pastime a continuall exercise This was the cause of new factions and great seditions that were raised in his Kingdome The Maccabees whom he gained to his party rendred him very good offices although he was more ready to receive them then liberall to reward them In the weaknesse of this new Government started up the disloyall Tryphon who had been Captain of the Guard to the false Alexander and having seized himself of a little child that his Master had left behind him he had the boldnesse to propound him for King and true Successour of the Crown When he saw that Jonathan already obliged to Demetrius was able to oppose his designs and to unravel the web of his ambitions he surprised him by a detestable treachery and caused him to be assassinated with his children after he had received the money that he had demanded for his ransome The young King altogether astonished
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
years before his death which makes the truth more remarkable he speaketh clearly that the Soul returneth to heaven if it be well purified from its commerce with earth that heaven is its true Countrey and Element and that it is a great proof of its Divinity that it delighteth to hear of heavenly things as being the affairs proper to it self We must take care not here to judge and condemn Seneca on a doubtfull word as when in his Consolation to Martia he saith That all end by Death and by Death it self He onely there toucheth of Goods and Evils of Honours Riches Pleasures Troubles and the Cares of this present life It is most clear that there is nothing in that Sentence which derogates from the Immortality of the Soul because he concludes that Treatise with the joyes which a happy Soul receiveth in the other life And it is not from our purpose to consider that Seneca sometimes in disputing speaketh by supposition according to the Idaea of others and not according to his own We cannot know better the opinion of an Authour then by his Actions and his Practise and we observe that Seneca hath not onely professed the Immortality of the Soul by words but believeth the effect in secret for he reverenced the Souls of great Personages and did believe them to be in heaven which he testified before he received the Christian Faith when being in a countrey-house of Scipio of Africa he rendred divine honours to his Epist 86. Spirit prostrating himself at the Altar of his Sepulchre and perswading himself he said that his Soul was in heaven not because that he was Generall of the Army but because he lived an honest man and having infinitely obliged his ingratefull countrey he retired himself in a voluntary solitude to his own house to give no fears and jealousies of his greatnesse If we demand where he placed the sovereign good His opinion of the sovereign good and the end of Man we shall find that he established the felicity of this present life to live according to Reason and that of the life to come in the re-union of the Soul with its first beginning which is God From this foundation he hath drawn a rule and propositions which he hath dispersed over all his Books and these are to despise all the goods of the world Honours Empires Riches Reputation Pleasures gorgeous Habiliments stately Buildings great Possessions Gold Silver precious Stones Feasts Theatres Playes and to take all things as accessory and to regard them no more then the moveables of an Inne where we are not but as passengers And above all things to esteem of virtue of the mortification of loose desires of contemplation of eternall virtues of Justice Prudence Fortitude Temperance of Liberality Benignity of Friendship of Constancy in a good course of life of Patience in Tribulation of Courage to support injuries of Sicknesse Banishment Chains Reproaches of Punishments and of Death it self We may affirm that never any man spoke more worthily then he of all these subjects Never Conquerour did subdue Nations with more honour then this great Spirit with a magnificent glory at his feet hath levelled and spurned down all the Kingdomes of Fortune All that he speaketh is vigorons ardent lively His heart when he did write did inflame his style to inflame the hearts of all the world His words followed his thoughts He did speak in true Philosophy but as a king and not as a slave to words and periods His brevity is not without clearnesse His strength hath beauty his beauty hath no affectation he is polished smooth full and entire never languishing impetuous without confusion his discourse is tissued yet nothing unmasculine invincible in his reasoning and agreeable in all things Howsoever we ought not to conclude by his Books that he was a Christian because he wrote them all before he had any knowledge of Christianity and therefore it is not to be wondred at if sometimes he hath Sentences which are not conformable unto our Religion Some one will object that he is admirable in his Writings but his Works carry no correspondency with The answer to the calumniatours of Seneca his Pen. This indeed is the abuse of some spirits grounded on the calumnies of Dion and Suillius which those men may easily see confuted who without passion will open their eyes unto the truth He reproacheth him for his great Riches in lands in gold and silver and sumptuous moveables and layeth to his charge that he had five hundred beds of cedar with feet of ivory It seems that this slanderer was steward of Seneca's house so curious he was in decyphering his estate But all this is but a mere invention for how is it possible that he who according to Cornelius Tacitus did not live but onely on fruit and bread and water and who never had any but his wife to eat with him or two or three friends at most should have five hundred beds of cedar and ivory to serve him at his feasts It is true that he had goods enough but nothing unjustly gotten they were the gifts and largesses of the Emperour And because he had sometimes written that Goods were forbidden to Philosophers he therefore was content to hold them in servitude and not to be commanded by them He was overcome by Nero to carry some splendour in his house as being the chiefest of the Estate and it was put upon him as a sumptuous habit upon some statue We cannot find that he had ever any children but his Books or that he made it his study to enrich his Nephews or his Nieces or to raise a subsistence for his house from the charges greatnesse and riches of the Empire He had the smallest train and pomp that possibly could be and when he had the licence to be at liberty from the Court he lived in an admirable simplicity and which is more he besought Nero with much importunity to discharge him from the unprofitable burden of his riches and to put severall stewards into his houses to receive his revenues but he made answer to him that he did a wrong unto himself to demand that discharge for he had nothing too much and that he had in Rome many slaves enfranchized who were farre more rich then Seneca Yet for all this Reproach is proved to be unjust Dion proceeds further in his slander and alledgeth That he indeared Queens and Princes to him for he wrote their Papers and professed himself a friend to the richest Favourites What is this but to reproach a Courtier with his Trade his Discretion his Civility his Affability which this great personage made very worthily to comply with his Philosophy He married an illustrious Lady and of invaluable wealth What! should he being in that high dignity to please Suillus become suitor to some chamber-maid or for mortifications sake court some countrey girle ought he to bring such a reproach after him to the Court of the
saith S. Dennis What a roaring of the Lion saith S. Hierome What a Flow of Learning what a Torrent of Eloquence who makes us to understand the Mysteries unknown in all Ages and that as much by his Admiration as his Words He wrote his Epistles with his Ear in Heaven and with a Style in the School of Paradise The feeblenesse of humane Words could not sustain the force of his Spirit In the Affective part he was filled with a Seraphick His Love Love with a fire drawn from the most pure flames of Heaven which was shut up within his heart and within his bones and did uncessantly burn him without consuming him On his mortified flesh he did bear the Characters of a suffering God which were his dearest Delights He was no more himself he was all and altogether transfigured into that amiable Word by a Deifick transanimation He lived on his Bloud he breathed not but by his Spirit he spake not but by his Words he thought not but by his Meditations yet neverthelesse in some manner he did leave God and the delicious School of Paradise to run unto his Neighbour to save his Soul and in this exercise of Charity he defied Tribulation Anguish Hunger Nakednesse Dangers Persecutions and bloudy Swords and burning Fagots and boiling Caldrons If Hell it self were portable he would adventure to have carried it on his back for the love of his Neighbour He looked upon the world as if every mothers son were of his begetting he carried in his heart Europe and Asia and Afâ—ick and all the Provinces of the Earth to communicate the Light of the Gospel either by himself or by his children whom already he had begotten in Jesus Christ Nothing rebated him nothing hindred nothing stopped him He gave no bounds to his Love since God had given no limits to his Spirit With these fair and extraordinary qualities God gave him Successe in the preaching of the Gospel which did draw upon him the admiration of all the Apostles He marched in triumph through all Provinces and God was on his heart He was like unto that Ark of the Testament which is spoken of in the Revelations Apoc. 21. which at the same time that it was perceived did cause a Lightning to be seen a Voice to be heard the Hail to rattle and the Earthquakes to roar so wheresoever S. Paul did passe there were the Light of Learning the Oracles of Wisdome the impetuous Tempest of words of fire which made the Philosopers and Kings to tremble and even removed Nature it self Behold here the difference which was between S. Paul and Seneca which being well considered we shall forbear to admire wherefore one was so fruitlesse in the Court of Nero and the other had so great successe in Rome and amongst so many Nations After that Paul was for a season retired from Rome Saint Paul leaves Rome Nero grows worse and worse leaving unto Seneca a strong tincture of the Christian Faith Nero did every day grow worse and worse insomuch that having killed his brother his wife his mother this scourge of mankind in the wicked jollity of his heart had a plot in his head to set the City of Anno Neron 10. Chron. 66. Rome on fire which was almost wholly consumed with it whiles he from a high tower did behold it and laughing at the calamity did sing the burning of Troy the great which did so exasperate the spirits of his Subjects that on the year following the chief of the Empire did enter into a conspiracy against him in which were comprised Senatours Captains Colonels The Conspiracy against him detected Citizens Ladies and all the choicest personages in Rome but misfortune so would have it that the secret being dispersed amongst so many people it did not answer the event to which it was designed but being discovered it occasioned a bloudy butchery in Rome Nero like an enraged Tygre desiring nothing more then to bathe himself in bloud Seneca's name was entred at the last in the list of the The constant and the famous death of Seneca Conspiratours whether his Scholar had conceived a jealousie against him mistrusting his high Virtue and fearing lest he should tear the Diadem from his head or whether the insolence of his deportments had put him into that condition as not to indure the very shadow of a Tutor It was now a long time since this great personage overcome with grief at so many tragicall accidents did leade a retired life in his Countrey-house not farr from Rome There was not against him any manifest conviction to rank him amongst the Conspiratours as Tacitus hath observed It is onely said that one of that number named Natalis did depose before Nero that he was sent to Seneca by Piso who was the chief of the Conspiratours to complain that he would not suffer him to give him a visit and to meditate an enterview to which Seneca made answer that such a meeting in so dangerous and so fatal a time could be profitable neither to the one nor to the other and as for the rest that his life subsisted not but in the safety of the life of Piso On this the Tribune of the Emperours Guard was dispatched to Seneca to understand what answer he could make to the Deposition of Natalis On the evening he arrived at Seneca's house which he suddenly invironed with a troop of Souldiers He was no sooner entred but he found him at supper with his wife and two friends he presently acquainted him what he had in Commission from the Emperour on which Seneca confessed that Natalis indeed was sent unto him by Piso to intreat him to receive a visit from him but he excused himself by reason of indisposition and retirednesse without speaking one word more unto him adding that he had never so high an esteem of Piso as to judge that the safety of his life did depend upon him thar such flattery was not suitable to his disposition and that Nero knew it very well who by experience had alwayes found in Seneca more of Liberty then of Servitude The Tribune made a faithfull report of Seneca's answer in the presence of Poppea that impudent woman and Tigillinus that execrable villain who in those cruel designs were the onely two that were now of his Majesties sacred Counsel This barbarous Prince who had promised his Tutor that he would rather die then permit that any offence should be done unto him did bear that respect unto him as not to question him on that Conspiracy amongst so many other Senators peradventure he had not a brow of brasse enough to outface the reproaches of so eloquent a mouth He demanded of the Tribune if he did not prepare himself to a voluntary death who made answer That he observed not the least sign of it either in his countenance or discourse whereupon he was commanded to return to Seneca and to signifie unto him that he must die The Tribune
Commission with their own Names On which she demanded by what Law they would proceed against her the Canon Law or the civil Law and because she knew very well that they were no great Lawyers she conceived it would be requisite that some should be sent for from the Universities in Europe They replied That she should be tried by the civil Law of England in which they were sufficiently experienced But she who well observed that they would intangle her with a new Law on purpose against her made answer you are gallant Gentlemen and can make what Laws you please but I am not bound to submit unto them since you your selves in another case refuse to be subjected to the Salick Law of France Your Law hath no more of Example than your proceeding hath of Justice On this Hatton Vice-Chamberlain to the Queen of England advanced himself and said unto her you are accused for conspiring the ruin of our Mistress who is an anointed Queen Your degree is not exempted to answer for such a Crime neither by the Law of Nations nor of nature If you are innocent you are unjust to your Reputation to indeavour to evade the judgement The Queen will be very glad that you can justifie your self for she hath assured me that she never in the world received more discontent than to find you charged with this accusation Forbear this vain consideration of Royalty which at this present serves for nothing Cause the suspitions to cease and wipe away the stain which otherwise will cleave for ever to your reputation She replied I refuse not to answer before the States of the Realm being lawfully called because I have been acknowledged to be a presumed Heir of the Kingdom Then will I speak not as a subject but in another nature without submitting my self to the new Ordinance of your Commission which is known to be nothing else but a Malicious net made to inwrap my innocence The Treasurer on this did interrupt her and said we will then proceed to the contempt to which she made answer Examine your own consciences and provide for your Honours and so God render to you and your children as you shall do in the judgement The next morning she called one of the Commissioners and demanded if her Protestation were committed to writing And if it were she would justify her self without any prejudice to the Royal dignity Whereupon the Commissioners did presently assemble themselves in the Chamber of presence where they prepared a Scaffold on the upper end whereof was the seat Royal under a Cloath of State to represent the Majesty of Queen Elizabeth and on the one side of it a Chair of Crimson Velvet prepared for her The courageous Queen did enter with a modest and an assured countenance amongst the stern Lords thirsting after her bloud and took her place Bromley the Chancellour turning towards her did speak in these words The most Illustrius Queen of England being assured not without an extream Anguish of spirit that you have conspired the destruction of her of the Realm of England and of Religion to quit herself of her duty and not to be found wanting to God herself and her people hath without any malice of heart established those Commissioners to hear the things of which you are accused how you will resolve them and shew your innocency This Man who had spoken ill enough had the discretion to speak but little And immediately as he had given the signal the perverse Officers who were more than fourty in number did throw themselves upon her like so many mastives on a prey propounding a thousand captious questions to surprize her but the generous AMAZA did shake them off with an incredible vivacity In the end all things were reduced to the letter of Babington in which he gave her notice of the conspiracy and to the answer which she made to it exhorting him to pursue his design but most of all to the depositions of her own Secretaries who gave assurances that she did dictate the said letter as also other letters to forreign Princes to invade England with arms They did press her on these falsities which seemed to carrie some probability with them but she did answer invincibly to them as most clearly may appear by those terms which I have drawn from her several answers and tied them together to give more light to her Apology wherein the clearnes of her understanding and her judgement is most remarkable IF the Queen my Sister hath given you a Commission The invincible Apology of the Queen to see Justice done it is reasonable that you should begin it rather by the easing of my sufferings than by the oppressing of my innocence I came into England to implore succour against the Rebellion of my Subjects My bloud alliance Sex Neighbourhood and the Title which I bear of a Queen did promise me all satisfaction and here I have met with my greatest affliction This is the twentieth year that I have been detained Prisoner without cause without reason without mercy and which is more without hope I am no Subject of your Mistresses but a free and an absolute Queen and ought not to make answer but to God alone the Sovereign Judge of my Actions or bring any prejudice to the Character of Royal Majesty either in my Son the King of Scotland or his Successours nor other Sovereign Princes of the earth This is the Protestation which I have made and which I repeat again in your presence before I make any answer to the Crimes which are imposed on me The blackest of all the Calumnies do charge me for having conspired the Death of my most dear Cousin and after many circumventions all the proofs are reduced to the Letter of Babington the Deposition of my Secretaries and my sollicitations made to forreign Princes to invade England with Arms. I will answer effectually to all these Articles and make the justice of my Cause most clearly appear to those who shall without passion look upon it And in the first place I swear and protest that I never saw this Babington who is made the principal in this Charge I never received any letter from him neither had he any letter from me I have always abhorred these violent and black counsels which tended to the ruin of Queen Elizabeth and I am ready to produce letters from those who having had some evil enterprize have excused themselves that they have discovered nothing to me because they were assured that my spirit was opposite to such Designs I could not know what Babington or his accomplices have done being a Prisoner he might write what he pleased but I am certain that I never saw nor heard of any letter to me And if there be found any Answer written by me to those things which never so much as came into my imagination it is an abominable forgery We live not in an Age nor a Realm that is to learn the trade to deceive I am
upon as a man slâ—d down from Heaven whose excellent Qualities did promise him the fullness of glory But he suddenly observed the Affairs of the Kingdom His return to England to be greatly perplexed by reason of the horrible divorce which Henry the Eight resolved on who indeavoured at once to separate himself from his wife and from the Church of God He much desired that Pool who was Famous for knowledge and integrity should approve his intention to the end that finding no assistance from Truth he might beg some apparence from the opinions of men This was no small temptation to this young Prelate The Combat in his spirit who was not altogether so austere as to distast all honour of preferment nor so little versed in Court as not to look on the King as the Original from whence it flowed He a long time consulted with himself to find a mean which might make his conscience to accord with the will of the King His integrity which was to him as another Birth did dispute in his heart with the Interest of his Fortune and he sought after the means to temper them into one One day he thought he had found it and addressed himself to the Court to expose his advise unto the King which was an advise more pleasing than just and he had then a care that the liberty of his words should not hinder the pretences to his dignity O who is he that is able to Counsel a King in his passion If you alledge unto him too much of Justice you hazard your Fortune If you comply unto him with too much Gentleness you do betray your heart The words of a Prince are the surnace which doth prove you where you may behold some to burn and consume away like straw and others to come forth purified like Gold The spirit of God did seize on the heart and the tongue of this wise Councellour he forgot all the worldly and flattering reasons he had prepared to open onely his eyes unto the Truth How Sir said be unto the â—â—ng to labour a divorce He took part with God from Queen Katharine after so many years of your marriage who hath brought you issue to succeed you in the Crown It is true that she was given a spouse to your elder Brother but he died in his youth before his marriage was consummated And you have espoused the Queen in the face of the Church with a dispensation as authentical as the Pope could give and which he granted with your consent at the request of the King your Father of glorious memory And since your Majesty hath had a secret Repugnance caused by a respect to him to whom you ow your Birth that can bring no prejudice to the publick Faith nor to the consummation of a marriage followed by such fruits and Benedictions as ordinarily do attend that mutual commerce Alas Sir your Majesty hath consecrated its Reign by so many Royal virtues and excellent Examples which have acquired you the love and admiration of Christendom will it now eclipse so pure a life and so Triumphant a reputation by a stain which cannot be washed away but by the effusion of the bloud of all your Realm Your Majesty hath sacrificed both its Scepter and its pen by the obedience which it hath rendered to the holy Sea and by the book which it hath made in the defence of the Church Cannot it honestly cast off those Laws which it hath authorized by a publick Testimony What will your people say who have so just an apprehension of Religion What will forreign Princes say who have conceived so high an opinion of your Merit Those who do Counsel you to that divorce are the most capital Enemies of your glorie who do draw upon you the indignation of God the censure of the Sovereign Priest the arms of a great estate who being offended at this affront will conjure your ruin That which hath droven you to it is onely a passion of youth which ought to be moderated it is had Counsel from which you should retire your self it is a mischief which you should labour to avoid In this case the advice which doth least please you will be the best The precipitation of so hazardous an Act can bring nothing but repentance This I speak unto your Majesty being driven to it by the fervent zeal which I have unto the safety of its Soul and by the tender respect which I have always born to your Royal Person I must beseech it that I may not be surprized in so important an affair as this marriage is which had his Ordinance in heaven and its happiness on earth This was boldly spoken by a Man who saw that in accommodating his humour to the King he incontinently entered into the possession of the richest benefits of the Kingdom and that crossing his design he exposed his liberty his Estate his life to most apparent danger Nevertheless he had the constancy to make him this grave Remonstrance without following the Example of those which flatter all evil actions and make Divinity to speak that which the interest of their Fortunes doth suggest unto them Henry the Eighth grown more hardened Henry the Eighth was no way softened at this so grave an Oration but on the contrary he had a most earnest desire to arrest his Cosin Pool and to put him to death which had been put in Execution if the hand of God had not withheld the blow He very well observed that the heart of the King was impoysoned with lust and choler even to the despair of all remedy Wherefore not long after finding his opportunity he asked leave of the King under some pretence to go out of the Kingdom and did abandon himself to a willing banishment because he would not offend his conscience He came Pool banished himself into France and stayed sometime in Avignon from thence he traveled to Padua and from Padua to Venice where he was acknowledged and esteemed for one of the chiefest men of Christendom and renowned Pool made Cardinal for excellent quallities In the end God being pleased to demonstrate that there is nothing lost in serving him and that honours are not onely for them who by a politick suppleness do accommodate themselves unto the Times and the lusts of great men he stirred up the spirit of Paul the third a great lover of learned men who made him Cardinal with approbation of all the world So that forsaking a Bishoprick in England for the satisfying of his conscience and the defence of the truth he obtained by his merit so high a place of Eminence in the Church which all the Crimes of a conscience prostituted to evil could never procure unto them Henry who had already declared war against God and all his Saints by his divorce was inflamed with choler by reason of the retreat and the promotion of this holy man causing him to be proscribed over all England and promising fifty
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
torments no whit shaken blessing God for all these things and incessantly praying and forming some stuttering inarticulate sounds to instruct and exhort those who visited him A while after he is called again before this Tyrant who made a sport of his pains and sought to make him end his life by despair to kill the soul with the body But when he perceived his heart was of so strong a temper and that the dreadfull horrour of a poor body carried up and down among so many tortures made nothing for his reputation he gave order to Chrodobert to put him to death and instantly he was delivered to four executioners who led him forth into a forrest which retaineth the name of S. Leger The blessed blind man perceiving his hour approached said to them I see what you go about to do Trouble not your selves I am more ready to die then you to execute me Thereupon three of the murderers relenting prostrated themselves at his feet and craved pardon which he very freely granted and putting himself upon his knees prayed for his persecutours recommending his soul to the Father of souls at which time one of these four executioners persisting in his obduratenesse cut off his head The wife of Chrodobert took the body and interred it in a little Chappel where it did great miracles which have deserved the veneration of people Some time after the detestable Ebroin continuing the wickednesse of his bloudy life was slain in his bed like another Holophernes and suddenly taken out of the world not shewing any sign of repentance to be reserved for an eternall torment Behold all which Envy Jealousie and the Rage of a man abandoned by God can do which letteth us manifestly see that there are not any men in the world worse then those who degenerating from a religious profession return to the vices of the world And on the other side we may behold in the person of S. Leger that there is not any Passion which may not be overcome nor honour which may not be trodden underfoot nor torments which a man is not able to set at naught when he with strong confidence throws himself between the arms of the Crosse there to find those of Jesus Christ LAUS DEO FINIS THE HOLY COURT VVritten in French by N. CAUSSIN S. J. The Fifth Tome Containing the Lives and Elogies of Persons of the COURT most Illustrious both of the Old and New Testament c. divided into five ORDERS Monarchs and Princes Queens and Ladies Souldiers States-men Religious men Printed M.DC.L To the READER HAving employed my first Volumn in pious and profitable discourses I have purposed to set forth in this fifth Tome a sufficient large Court to serve for example Which I have done by uniting to the Histories which I have already published these which I have here added a new which are almost all taken out of the holy Scriptures and handled in a style more solid and contract then specious and enlarged If this Work hath somewhat delayed its coming forth into the light it hath been businesses other wayes coming upon me that hath staid it We have had adversaries to deal with very well known that have by their Requests and by their Libels exceedingly troubled themselves to molest us I have answered them in two Books after a long silence for that the necessity did seem so to require and Authority therein did expresly command my obedience I have done it with the greatest modesty and sincerity that I was able and I may with confidence say that it hath been to the satisfaction of people of quality and desert Since as I understand they have continued their Replies where they largely witnesse their sharpnesse against me But what offence have I committed if in a Cause so good and by order from my Superiours I have undertaken the Defence in generall of a Society in which I have lived near these fourty years and have never learned any thing therein but Wisdome and Virtue They have so little matter that they are compelled to use old News-books against me which have spoken nothing but what hath been interpreted to my honour I have served God the King the Queen and all France without ever offending any person they might be ashamed to reproach me with that which hath been so much for my credit and to imitate those people that threw their Gods at the heads of their enemies for want of arrows God keep me from losing so much time as to reade their Writings or any desire to answer them I should seem to have lost my understanding if I should busie my self in fighting against Shadows and Lies put into Rhetorick so fully refuted by our Justifications and so manifestly condemned by the judgement of the Queen Regent and the rest of the. Powers that have acknowledged and maintained the Innocency of this Society against all Accusations These Books of evil Language are intolerable to all honest people and even odious to those that are rationâ—ll of their own party in so much that I pity their Authours to whom the pains of so great a Volumn with so little successe hath already served for a large punishment Instead of Replies to all those slanders I do sincerely offer up Prayers to God for our Persecutours that he may please to kindle in their hearts his holy Love which may purge out this gall of bitternesse this carnall wisdome and cause them to bring forth the fruits of Truth Justice and Charity The which I have endeavoured to do in this Work wherein I conceive that I have acquitted my self of the promises that I made to the Publick by treating on the true Histories of great Personages and especially those whom the holy Scripture hath honoured by its style for the edification of all the world It is in these illustrious Representations that the mind contents it self it is here that it contemplates the Virtues of famous Persons like the beams of the first Magnitude it is here that it quickens it self to the imitation of their glorious deeds and that it fore-stalls the delights of its own immortality It is here that it learns to endure adversities without departing from the duties of its Calling and firmly to keep its Constancy like the shadow in the Quadrants that remains immoveable under the blasts of the most furious winds not forsaking the measures of the Sunne Receive therefore courteous Reader the fruits of this my labour sprung up in the midst of a tempest that is may find calmnesse in thy favourable acceptance THE MONARCHS THe wisest of Monarchs speaking in the holy Scripture unto the Princes of his age and proceeding at large to give a full warning to all those that should bear part in their honour and imitate their lives delivereth these words by way of Oracle Hearken O Kings not onely The words of the wiseman directed to the Kings of his time Sap. 6. with an ear of flesh but attend with that of the understanding and
heart to give entrance thereby to the Spirit of God If you esteem it a most glorious honour to govern innumerable people and to behold from the throne of your Magnificence Nations bending under your Sceptres Know ye that this Power which lifts you so high above the rest of mortals is borrowed from Heaven and is a gift which hath its originall from God who is the Sovereign of all Monarchs of the World It is He that will examine all your works and search into the secretest of your thoughts You forget that notwithstanding all the services that men render to you you are but the Servants and Attendants of this powerfull King You have not judged sincerely you have not kept the laws which your selves have prescribed nor rendred justice to your Subjects nor walked according to the commands of Him whose person you represent This is the reason why He will appear to you suddainly and terribly separating your soul from your bodies You shall see Him on His Throne of Justice compassed with terrours and you shall know that He exercises most severe judgment over those that bear Rule over men All those poor people which tremble under your power shall be lovingly and mercifully dealt with by God but the mighty shall be mightily tormented if they behave not themselves as they ought and shall know that the greatnesse of their Sovereign Authority shall avail them nothing but to serve to augment their just punishments There are no plagues more fatall to the destruction The end of Royalty of Princes then those who under colour of raising their authority would make themselves great by power to commit and that without punishment all kind of enormities Royalty is an Invention of God appointed not for the benefit of the Kings but of the Common-wealth It was not instituted for the vain-glory of men but for the safety of the World and Princes are more for the peoples sake then the people for theirs All the great things were made to serve the lesser Great things were made for the lesser The Sun the Prince of Lights and the heart of Nature serves as well for the eyes of a little fly as for those of a Monarch The Ocean within that its monstrous extent of Seas and wonders tenders its service to the little Fish enclosed in a small shell which cannot subsist without its attendance The one possesses not the least beam nor the other the least drop of water which it employes not for the Commune The Eternall Father would not that the great things should be great in vain but that they pay for their greatnesse by the favours and cares they are to take for the little ones Thus God commanded Moses to carry all that great people that he had brought out of Egypt to serve them all as a mother and if we will believe Orat. 2. in Adam Saint Basil of Seleucia Kings are made to bear the World In antient time they were lifted up upon Bucklers on the day of their Consecration to cause them to understand that they ought to serve for a Buckler for their whole Realm Nature hath made neither King nor Subject amongst Men. Kings are not born Kings but by the consent of those people which have made themselves a Law to obey him whom God should declare to them by his birth or whom themselves should make by Election Royalty is a power of all the particulars united together in one man to be applyed and exercised according to the Law When Romulus founded the Monarchy of Rome composed of divers people that offered themselves to The practice of Romulus to be noted Navar l. 1. c. 9. him he expresly ordained that every one should bring to him some of the earth and fruits of his countrey whereof he composed a masse and caused it to be buried in a great pit which he called the Word intending to shew by this ceremony that Royalty is a heap of Wills of Powers of Riches united in one onely Power This is a borrowing which Kings make without obligation to restore again but with obligement to render it better They ought to do as the Bees which take of the flowers to make Honey thereof They ought to temper and bring to perfection the Virtues and Qualities of the whole Communalty in their own person to compose thereof the publick happinesse Wherefore do you think that the antient Hebrews Targum Navarinus l. 4. planted trees at the birth of the children of their Kings which they held as sacred and dressed them with carefull diligence to make thereof one day thrones for those little Monarchs when they were come to the Crown but onely to teach them that they ought to cover the people with their protection and to enrich them with goods as the tree defends men from the tempest with its leaves and nourisheth them with its fruit They are not properly Masters in a strict sense for that the Master may do whatsoever he will with his goods without giving account thereof But a King cannot use his subjects but according to the law he must entreat them as the Goods of God for that he is accomptable therefore to the Sovereign Judge of Heaven and Earth whose Stewart he is for a certain time and not proprietary for ever If he abuse this trust although the people cannot recall the authority which they have given to him and which hath been established of it self by a long prescription neverthelesse he is answerable to the Divine Majesty for all that he doth The Divines hold that a King which should reign Navarrus in Manualâ— onely for his own honour and pleasure would sin grievously and put himself upon hazard of loosing his salvation To speak then the very truth Royaltie is a very Royalty a glorious servitude great obligement and a glorious servitude and he that shall well consider all its burthens would not so much as stoop to take up a Diadem lying on the ground Doctor Navarrus and other Divines that treat of the duty of Princes say That to be a King is to be the peoples man who is charged before God upon the perill of his soul to take care of their affairs and to maintein them in peace as far as shall be lawfull and possible to defend them from their enemies to render justice to them by himself or his officers That is to choose men of ability and virtuous to undertake those charges to watch over their actions and their behaviour to chastise the evil ones that trouble the publick quiet and to recompence the good ones That is to keep the Laws to root out abuses to cause piety and good manners to flourish to stop all injustice corruptions and exactions As also to facilitate tradeing to order the conducts for Souldiers to take care for the reparations of publick Buildings for Ammunition and provision for the health and conveniency of his Subjects and to exact nothing of them above their ability