Illud praecipuum â—t magis mores commendarent statum quà m statuâ— mores The greatest knowledge in the world is well to act your part It importeth not in what condition of life we are so that we discharge our conscience and the dutie of our places We must so use the matter that our manners may recommend our condition and not derive their worth from our dignities In the fourth place he used infinite care to maintain conjugal chastity in the lives of the married oftentimes shewing by pregnant reasons that lust (o) (o) (o) Luxu â—â— was a fire which burnt the garment of the soul and wasted mountains even to the bottom And because bravery is ordinarily the nest where dishonesty hatcheth he couragiously opposed profuseness in that kind using sharp reprehensions against women vain and dissolute in attyres One day amongst the rest he proved they were as in a perpetual prison loaden with punishments and condemned by their own sentence (p) (p) (p) Excess in apparel Hinc collum catend constring it inde pedes compes includit Nihil refert à uro cerpus oâ—eretur aut ferro si cervix premitur si gravatur incessus nihil pretium juvat nisi quod vos mulieres ne pereat vobis poena â—repidatis Quid interest aliena sententia an vestra vos damnet Hinc vos etiam miserabiliores quà m qui publico jure damnatur quòd illi optant exui vos ligari Lib. 1. de Virginib It is pity saith he to see a woman that hath upon the one part a great chain about her neck and on the other guives about her feet What matter is it whether the body be charged with gold or iron if the neck be alike bowed under a yoak and the gate bindred The price of your bands serves for no use but to give you cause to fear your torments Miserable that you are who condemn your selves by your own proper sentence yea more miserable than criminals for these desire nothing but their own liberty and you love your captivity In the end he much recommended charity justice government of the tongue flight from ill company and modesty in all deportments whence it came to pass that he wrote those admirable books of Offices which set out all Christian virtues with an eminent lustre The good Prelate was in his Bishopprick as the Pilot in the ship the soul in the body the sun in the world labouring in all kinds and having no other repose but the vicissitude of travailes The fourth SECTION His combates and first against Gentilism IT is time now that we behold our strong Gyant Evident danger of Christendom enter into the list against monsters for armed with weapons of light he enterprised sundry battails against Sects vices and the powers of darkness which sought to prevail I will begin his prowess by the encounter he had with Symmachus Governour of the City of Rome who endeavoured by his eloquence and credit to re-advance the prophane superstitions of Gentilism This combat was not small not less glorious for the memory of S. Ambrose with him that will well consider it the danger was very great for the name and design of Julian the Apostata as yet lived in the minds of many men of quality and of maligne spirits who had conspired with time to stifle Christianity making corrupt and imaginary Deities to re-enter into the possession of the world This Symmachus was the Ensign-bearer a subtile man well spoken and of great authority to whom the Emperours had caused a golden Statue to be erected with the title of The Prime man of the Empire both in reputation wisdom and eloquence and for that cause he promised himself he had power enough to set God and the devil upon one and the same Altar He practised to disguise Pagan Religion by his artifices drawing it from the ordures and bruitishnes thereof chanted by Poets to give it a quite other face and represent it with a mask which he had framed out of sundry Philosophers under the reign of Julian to render it the less odious And seeing the times favoured him by reason that after the death of Gratian a most Christian Prince Valentinian who was an infant under the guardianship of an Arian mother held the stern of the Empire he resolved therefore to fish in a troubled water and by surreption obtained certain Edicts in favour of Paganism against which S. Ambrose framed most powerful oppositions I will render you heer the two pleadings in those terms they were pronounced to confront the babble of a Politician with the eloquence of a Saint The understanding Reader shall heet observe two most rich peices of eloquence which I have rendred rather as an Oratour than a Translatour to give them the lustre they deserve I am desirous you may see in the Oration of Symmachus what a bad conscience can do which hath eloquence to disguise truth and how we must ever judge of men rather by their works than their words The Oration of Symmachus to Theodosius and Valentinian the Younger for the Altar of Victory exercise of Pagan Religion and revenue of Vestals SACRED MAjESTIES SO soon as this sovereign Court wholly possessed by Note that he feigneth Theodosius as present who knew nothing what had passed you hath seen vice subdued by laws and that you through your piety have tazed out the memory of passed troubles it hath taken upon it the authority which the favour of this happy Age hath afforded and discharging the acerbities long time retained upon the heart thereof hath once again commanded me to bring you its complaints in a solemn Embassage Those that wish us not well have hitherto bereaved us of the honour of your audience thereby to deprive us of the effect of your justice But I now come to acquit me of two obligations the one as Governour of the City the other as Embassadour As Governour I do a work which concerneth the Weal-publick and as Embassadour I present you the supplications of your most humble subjects Dissentions we have no more amongst us for the opinion All the Pâ—gan Senatours agreed not before upon this Embassage is ceased that one to become a great States-man must be particular in his opinions The greatest Empire which Monarchs may enjoy is to reign in the love and estimation of their subjects so is it also a matter intolerable in those that govern the State to nourish their divisions to the hurt of the publick and establish their credit upon the loss of the Princes reputation We are far distant from those imaginations for all our care perpetually watcheth for your interest and for that cause we defend the decrees of our Ancestours the rites of our Country and fatal happiness thereof as a thing which concerneth the glory of your age to which you gave a new lustre when you publickly protested never to enterprise any thing upon customs established by our Ancestours Behold wherefore we most
after which caused an excellent wit to say that it drew life out of its blows and made a dug of its wounds Oh happy soul that resembleth this generous plant and which repleat with pious desires holy affections and sincere intentions produceth apprehensions and works a thousand times more precious than myrrhe when in the meditation the rays of Jesus Christ who is the true Sun of justice strikes the heart The practice of prayer consisteth in mental vocal Necessity and easiness of meditation and mixt Mental is that which is exercised in the heart vocal which is formed in the mouth mixt participateth of both Think it not to be a new thing not severed from your profession to meditate It were so if one would make your brain serve as a lymbeck for subtile and extravagant raptures disguised in new words and forms But when one speaketh of meditation he adviseth you to ponder and ruminate the points and maximes which concern your salvation with all sweetness that fruit most agreeable to your condition may be derived from thence The faintness weakness infidelity ignorance driness which reigneth in your souls cometh from no other source but the want of consideration Take this worthy exercise couragiously in hand and you shall feel your heart fattened with the unction of the Holy Ghost and your soul of a wilderness to become a little Paradise of God Be not affrighted hereat as if it were a thing impossible for you use a little method and you shall find nothing more easie and familiar What have you so natural in vital life as to breath And what more proper in the intellectual than to think Your soul hath no other operation for night and day it is employed in this exercise The Sun casteth forth beams and our soul thoughts Gather together onely those wandering thoughts which are scattered amongst so many objects into your center which is God Employ one part of the spitit industrie invention discourse which you are endowed withal for the mannaging of worldly affairs Employ them I say in the work of your salvation and you shall do wonders I undertake not here to raise you above the earth nor in the beginning to plunge you into the seven degrees of contemplation whereof S. Bonaventure speaketh in the treatise he composed thereof I speak not to you of fire unction extasie speculation tast of What you must understand to meditate well repose or glory but I speak that in few words which you may read more at large in the works of so many worthy men who have written upon that subject First know what meditation is secondly how it is ordered Meditation properly is a prayer of the heart by Definition of meditation which we humbly attentively and affectionately seek the truth which concerns our salvation thereby to guid us to the exercise of Christian virtues That you may meditate well you must know the causes degrees matter and form of meditation The Causes principal cause thereof is God who infuseth himself into our soul to frame a good thought as the Sun doth upon the earth to produce a flower It is a goodly thing to have the spirit subtile and fruitful It is to work without the Sun saith Origen to think to do any thing here without the grace of the Holy Ghost The first degree which leadeth to good and serious prayer is a good life and principally purity of heart tranquility of spirit desire to make your self an inward man Saint Augustine reciteth a saying of Porphyrius very remarkeable which he deriveth Aug. l. 9. de civit Dei c. 23. Deus omnium Pater nullius indiget sed nobis est benè cum cum adramus ipsam vitam precâ—m ad cum sacientes pâ—r inquisitionem imitationem de ipse from the mouth of this perfidious man as one should pull a thing stoln out of a thiefs coffer God the Creatour and Father of this whole Universe hath no need of our service but it is our good to serve him and adore him making of our life a perpetual prayer by a diligent enquiry of his perfections and imitation of his virtues Observe then the first degree of good prayer is good life The second as well this Authour hath noted is the perquisition to wit the search of verities by thinking on the things meditated which are the sundry considerations suggested to us by the spirit in the exercise of meditation The third is the affection which springeth from these considerations Our understanding is the steel and our will the flint As soon as they touch one another we see the sparkes of holy affections to flie out We must bray together the matters of prayer as Aromatick spices with the discussion of our understanding before we can extract good odours The fourth is the imitation and fruit of things we meditate on It is the mark at which our thoughts should aim otherwise if one should pretend nothing else but a vain business of the mind it would be to as much purpose to drive away butter-flies as to meditate Good meditation and good action ought to be entertained as two sisters holding one another by the robe As for the matter of meditation you must know Matter of meditation that all meditations are drawn from three books The first and most inferiour is the book of the great Three books of meditation world where one studieth to come by knowledge of the creature to the Creatour The second is the book of the little world where man studieth himself his beginning his end qualities habits faculties actions functions and the rest The third is the book of the Heavenly Father Jesus Christ our Saviour who verily is a guilded book limmed with the rays of the Divinity imprinted with all the characters of sanctity and from thence an infinitie of matter is drawn as those of benefits of four last things of the life death and passion of Jesus and of all the other mysteries You must digest every one in his time according to the opportunity tast and capacity of those who meditate Some appropriate meditations to every day of the week others make their circuit according to the moneth others follow the order of the mysteries and life of our Saviour as they are couched in so many books written of these matters The practice and form of meditation consisteth in six things The first to divide the subject you would Practise and form contained in six articles meditate on into certain points according to the appointment of some Directour or the help of a book Article 1 As if you meditate upon the knowledge of ones self to take for the first point what man is by nature For the second what he is by sin For the third what he may be by grace The second a little before the hour appointed for Article 2 meditation to call into memory the points which you would meditate on The third after you have implored the
pleasures Fortitude Fortitude is a virtue which confirms us against the pusillanimity that may hinder good actions It hath two arms one to undertake the other to suffer Aristotle assigneth it four parts that is confidence patience love of labour and valour Patience Patience is an honest suffering of evils incident to nature The points thereof are To bear the loss of goods sickness sorrows injuries and other accidents with courage neither to complain nor to groan but discreetly to conceal your grief to be afflicted in innocency for justice sake and sometimes even by those that are good to covet and embrace persecutions out of a generous desire to be conformable to the patience of the Saviour of the world Justice Justice is a virtue which giveth to every one that which is his due and all the acts of it are included in this sentence You must measure others by the same measure wherewith you desire to be measured your self Magnanimitie Magnanimitie according to Thomas Aquinas is a virtue which aimeth at great things by the direct means of reason The acts thereof are To frame your self to an honest confidence by purity of heart and manners to expose your self reasonably to difficult and dreadfull exploits for Gods honour neither to be bewitched with prosperitie nor dejected at adversitie not to yield to opposition not to make a stay at mean virtues to despise complacence and threats for love of virtue to have regard onely to God and for his sake to disesteem all frail and perishable things to keep your self from presumption which often ruins high spirits under colour of Magnanimitie Gratitude Gratitude is the acknowledgement and recompence as far as lies in our power of benefits received The acts thereof are To preserve the benefit in our memory to profess and publish it to return the like without any hope of requital Amitie Amitie is a mutual good will grounded upon virtue and communitie of goods The acts thereof are To choose friends by reason for virtues sake communicating of secrets bearing with imperfections consent of wills a life serviceable and officious protection in adversities observance of honesty in every thing care of spiritual profit accompanied with necessary advice in all love and respect Simplicitie Simplicitie is nothing but union of the outward man with inward The acts thereof are To be free from all false colour never to lie never to dissemble or counterfeit never to presume to shun equivocation and double speech to interpret all things to the best to perform business sincerely to forgo multiplicity of employments and enterprizes Perseverance Perseverance is a constancy in good works to the end through an affection to pursue goodness and virtue The acts thereof are firmness in good quietness in services offices and ordinary employments constancy in good undertakings flight from innovations to walk with God to fix your thoughts and desires upon him neither to give way to bitterness nor to sweetness that may divert us from our good purposes Charitie toward God and our neighbour Charitie the true Queen of virtues consisteth in love of God and our Neighbour the love of God appeareth much in the zeal we have of his Glory the acts thereof are to embrace mean and painfull things so they conduce to our Neighbours benefit To offer the cares of your mind and the prayers of your heart unto God for him To make no exceptions against any in exercise of your charge to make your virtues a pattern for others To give you what you have and what you are for the good of souls and the glory of God to bear incommodities and disturbances which happen in the execution of your dutie with patience Not to be discouraged in successless labours To pray fervently for the salvation of souls to assist them to your power both in spiritual and temporal things to root out vice and to plant virtue and good manners in all who have dependence on you Charitie in Conversation Charitie in the ordinary course of life consisteth in taking the opinions words and actions of our equals in good part To speak ill of no man to despise none to honour every one according to his degree to be affable to all to be helpfull to compassionate the afflicted to share in the good success of the prosperous to bear the hearts of others in your own breast to glory in good deeds rather than specious complements to addict your self diligently to works of mercy Degrees of Virtues Bonaventure deciphers unto us certain degrees of Virtue very considerable for practise his words are these It is a high degree in the virtue of Religion continually to extirpate some imperfection a higher than that to encrease always in Faith and highest of all to be insatiable for matter of good works and to think you have never done any thing In the virtue of Truth it is a high degree to be true in all your words a higher to defend Truth stoutly and highest to defend it to the prejudice of those things which are dearest to you in the world In the virtue of Prudence it is a high degree to know God by his creatures a higher to know him by the Scriptures but highest of all to behold him with the eye of Faith It is a high degree to know your self well a higher to govern your self well and to be able to make good choice in all enterprizes and the highest to order readily the salvation of your soul In the virtue of Humilitie it is a high degree to acknowledge your faults freely a higher to bow with the weight like a tree laden with fruit the highest to seek out couragiously humiliations and abasements thereby to conform your self to our Saviours life It is a high degree according to the old Aâ—iom to despise the world a higher to despise no man yet a higher to despise our selves but highest of all to despise despisal In these four words you have the full extent of Humility In Povertie it is a high degree to forsake temporal goods a higher to forsake sensual amities and highest to be divorced from your self In Chastitie restraint of the tongue is a high degree guard of all the senses a higher undefiledness of body a higher than that puritie of heart yet a higher and banishment of pride and anger which have some affinity with uncleanness the highest In Obedience it is a high degree to obey the Law of God a higher to subject your self to the commands of a man for the honour you bear your Sovereign Lord yet a higher to submit your self with an entire resignation of your opinion judgement affection will but highest of all to obey in difficult matters gladly couragiously and constantly even to death In Patience it is a high degree to suffer willingly in your goods in your friends in your good name in your person a higher to bear being innocent the exasperations of an enemy or an ungratefull man a higher yet to suffer much and repine at nothing but
resolve to examine the Processe himself The Saint was presented before one of the most corrupt Judges under heaven he was brother to Pallas a servant infranchized who in the Reign of Claudius was the God of the times and Felix as Cornelius Tacitus doth affirm being covered with the great power and favour of his brother did usurp the Authority of a King which he managed with a servile spirit making Cruelty and Lasciviousnesse to reign with equal power in his Government He was the husband or rather the adulterer of three Queens and she who then possessed him was called Drusilla who was the daughter of that Agrippa who was in chains by Tiberius of whom I have made mention in the Tome of the Maxims and descended from the bloud of Mariamna She was married to one named Azizus King of the Emmessaeans but because that Royalty was of no great extent she preferred the President above the King so that Felix courting her for her rare beauty she did willingly forsake her husband to espouse the brother to the great Favourite Pallas who lived then under a most high consideration She conversed with him according to the Law of the Jews and was almost as nice in the curiosity of Religions as of her beauties which was the reason that the more to gratifie her Felix did cause S. Paul to be brought before him He was brought in chains before the President and S. Paul before the Tribunall of Felix the Prince of the Priests failed not to make his appearance at Cesarea with the Antients of the Jewish Nation who brought with them an Advocate named Tertullus to plead against S. Paul which he performed coldly enough But the great Champion of Jesus Christ did defend himself with so great a vivacity of spirit that the Judge did clearly discover that he was not guilty of any fault which was the occasion that he used him with the more humanity and told him that at leisure he would decide that businesse himself in the mean time he permitted him to live at more liberty not hindering any to come unto him and administer things necessary for his life yet for all this he was still under a guard of Souldiers Not long after Felix called for him and his wife Drusilla comes to hear him Drusilla who was the cause of his more gentle usage did speak unto him in the presence of her husband and desired to hear him on his discourses of Faith which gave a fair occasion to our Apostle to speak who driving on his Discourse with vigour did so enlarge himself on the subject of Justice of Chastity and of universall Judgement that Felix was much afraid and interrupted his Discourse fearing that he should leave some Scruples on the conscience of his wife concerning their marriage It is easie to conjecture that this poor Princesse was much shaken at it although the chains of Love and of Ambition did so link her to the world that we do not reade that she was absolutely converted to the Faith and number of the Christians Felix stopping his ears to Judgement did open his eyes to money and having learned that S. Paul had brought great sums of Charity unto Jerusalem he oftentimes spoke with him and seemed to make much of him hoping to gain something from him but when he perceived that there was nothing to be had and that the time of his Commission was expired he left Saint Paul to the discretion of Festus his successour desiring in that to gratifie the Jews and to divert the accusation which they intended at Rome against him Festus being arrived at Jerusalem was invironed Festus renews the Processe S. Paul appealeth to Rome by the chief of the Jews who with importunity did demand that Paul might be sent to Rome to be judged there having a design to kill him by the way But the President did deny them and did command them to come to Cesarea where he would continue in the expectation of them Thither they did transport themselves violently to follow their Accusations which were all effectually answered and confuted by S. Paul who did demonstrate that he had offended neither their Law nor the Temple nor Cesar Festus to content the importunity of the Jews did demand of him if he would go to Jerusalem to decide the controversie there but he refused the Jurisdiction of those perverse people and said That he stood at the Tribunall of Cesar and would have no other Judge and that he appealed to the Emperour The Judge had some debate thereupon and it was resolved that he should be sent to Rome In the mean time the young King Agrippa the son The young Agrippa King of Judea with his sister Bernice assist at the judgement of Paul of that Agrippa before specified came to Cesarea with his sister Bernice to complement the new Governour who received them with great courtesie and amongst other things he made a relation to them of his prisoner which possessed them both with a great curiosity to see him Festus did invite them to the Audience at which on the next morning they appeared with great pomp This was a great Theatre which God had prepared for the publishing of the Gospel where were present a King a Queen the Governour of the Romans the principall of the Nation of the Jews and an infinit number of people who did attend the successe of that action S. Paul having received commandment to speak made a long discourse couched in the Acts of the Apostles where he rendred a reason of his Faith and spake most worthily of the Resurrection of the dead of his Conversion to Christianity of the Apparition of Jesus of the Publication of the Gospel and of the Prophecies that did forego it He declared himself with so much ardency that Festus the President who was a Festus touched with the words of S. Paul Heathen and found his Pagan conscience wounded by his truths was constrained to interrupt him and to tell him That much learning had made him mad but S. Paul replyed to him That he spoke the words of Truth and Sobriety and turning from him to King Agrippa he took him to witnesse it as being one who was not ignorant of the Prophets This young King was so ravished at it that he professed publickly to the Apostle that he had felt him in his heart and that he had almost perswaded him to be a Christian whereupon S. Paul made a great acclamation of joy wishing him that happinesse to be like him in all things his Bonds excepted not judging that this Prince was yet an object capable of the Crosse He was of a sweet condition but he had then great obstacles which hindred him from embracing the saving Truth Bernice who assisted at that Audience was a most lovely Princesse the sister of this Agrippa and Drusilla but not so happy in the reputation of her Honour as of her Beauty She was married first unto her uncle and
probant ratio confirmat elementa loquuntur dâ—â—ones confitentur sed longè major insania si de veritate Evangelii non dubites vivere tamen quasi de ejus falsitate non dubitares Advise to cold Catholicks imitate them in their doctrine If they expect any other arguments it will appear their frenzie would have no other remedies but the searing-iron and fire As for other Catholicks who believe as the faithful and live as infidels pronouncing JESUS CHRIST with their mouth and renouncing him with their hands I pray them to ponder a saying of one of the rarest wits which the world hath a long time had it is Picus Mirandula expressed by him in these words to his nephew It is a prodigious folly not to believe the Gospel the truth whereof is sealed with the bloud of Martyrs innumerable testified by the Apostles proved by miracles confirmed by reason published and declared by the elements and creatures insensible confessed even by the devils But it is a much more notorious folly not to doubt at all of the verity of the Gospel which one professeth and yet to live as if he made no question of the falsitie thereof What a mockery it is to carrie the name of a poor SAVIOUR and to burn with enraged avarice of an humble SAVIOUR and suffer himself to be exposed to tempestuous winds of exorbitant ambition which breatheth nothing but breaches and ship-wracks of a crucified SAVIOUR and to live in a mass of flesh wholly effeminated with delights and curiosities even to the making their spittings to swim in gold of a meek SAVIOUR and to carry under the name of a Christian a Gorgons eye the anger of an Asp the heart of a Tyger a soul full of revenges of gall of bloud of Monsters of beastly bruitishness O God what Christianity is this Salvianus speaketh a word very remarkeable Salvian 4. de guber Dei Omnis Christianorum culpa Divinitatis injuria est Atrocius sub sancti nominis professione peccamus Ipsa errores nostros religio quam profitemur accusat We cannot sin without making our selves capable of spiritual treason in the highest degree the sins of Christians are sacriledges the name which they bear condemneth their life without any other form of process These colds of the north this yciness which some Catholicks shew in their belief is greatly scandalous and prejudicial to verity because the mis-believing which see them live in such exorbitancy cannot perswade themselves they firmly believe the Gospel which they profess but that all their religion is but an exteriour countenance and rather an idle amuzement of words than a true list of virtue This bringeth a horrible prejudice into the Church of God which should even rent our hearts if we yet retained one onely vein of that noble bloud the Martyrs profusely spent for the defence of the truth The remedies for these essential impediments Remedies in the act of Christianitie are to take away and cut off the causes of this infidelity 1. To prepare a conscience chaste and timerous which never wil make it self an hostess for mortal sin and if by chance it give harbor thereunto to dislodge it presently for sins heaped one upon another by a dissolute deadness of confession make a savage and bruitish soul which seeketh nothing but to be freed from God though it be a matter impossible 2. Not to tast the blessings contentments or honours of the world with too much ardour they easily ensnare our affections and make the forgetfulness of Heaven slide into an insensible soul 3. To eschew curiositie principally in matter of religion as the canker of faith We must resemble the Cuttle a very wise fish who during storms fixeth herself firmly upon the rocks without motion amongst the floating thoughts which a dark cloudy conscience may suggest always to hold ones foot on the rock of S. Peter fixed and stable to trust the direction of the Church and not to forsake our hold It is the most palpable folly which Non plus sapere quam oportet sapere sed sapere ad sobrietatem Rom. 1. can creep into the brain of man to desire wisdom contrary to the wisdom of Saints which is humility 4. To exercise your self diligently in good works as prayers abstinencies frequentation of Sacraments and alms-deeds Faith is given to you as an inheritance of Heaven whosoever endeavoureth not to husband it looseth it The second OBSTACLE * * * Cautè hoc caput non nisi cum delectu adhibito legendum Errour in Religion Friendly and wholesom counsel to the Nobilitie of the pretended Religion AN heresie discovered is a face unmasked S. Hieromn the letter to Ctesiphon Haereses ad originem suam revocasse canfutasse Haereticorum sententias prodidisse superassi est Take away the vizard you disarm her pull away this semblance painted with hypocrisie wherewith she hath plaistered her face you sufficiently refute her you need but to know her to overcome her and when the head of her arrows are bare they have no more force Catholick Doctours have hitherto couragiously endeavoured to take from her this veil and adulterated colours yea even she at this time hath so favourably for you unmasked her self that a man must pull out his eyes if he will not behold her deformity in her rebellion justly detested by the sage and moderate of her own side And I beseech them to consider that this egge which they abhor is laid by the Raven that broodeth in their bosom and it is a great blindness to break the egges of the Asp and cherish the serpent which hath laid them Good and generous souls which yet retain some sparks of a French spirit do well see these proceedings are not according to Scripture which so severely recommendeth the honour of Kings and therefore they sound a retreat they fould up their ensigns freely confessing they have erred as men and protesting not to persevere in mischief like devils There are none but enraged spirits that will be healed by the experience of their own ill and bury themselves in their ruin wise men always make a medicine Optimum est aliena insania frui for themselves of others folly Go to then you who after so many voices from Heaven do still stagger and advise if you ought to return to the Romane Church which is the womb of your beginning and bosom of your repose give me leave that I may take this film from your eyes grow not outragious to what purpose should you stand quaking in these frightful agonies Exercise a little patience I do not doubt but you will bless the hand which layeth hold on you when you shall come to see the light I come not with sword in hand to put a religion into your heads with main force I come to you full of compassion of your misery full of affection for your salvation full of the desire of your ease of your contentment of your
with lightening flashes transpasseth through the abysses and maketh hell it self confess it hath not darkness enough to shadow it from his face Now so it is that God condemneth reproveth chastiseth with the particular indignation of his heart this plaistered life and therefore as the Lev. 11. 18. The swan and the Ostrich rejected by God Interpreters of the Scripture observe he rejected the swan notwithstanding the whiteness of her feathers and the sweetness of note which is ascribed to her nor would he ever admit her in the number of his victimes because under pure white feathers she hideth a black flesh For the same reason he never would have the Ostrich who hath onely the ostentuous boasts of wings and no flight so much he detesteth apparence fruitless and effectless First or last he will saith holy Job take away Job 18. 19. the mask so that the life of hypocrites shall be as the spiders web in the judgement of God they shall think they have sped well but even to have hidden themselves all shall be resolved into thing to make them appear what they are in a most ignominious nakedness They now are Panthers who have their skins spotted with mirrours that search out secret fountains to wash away the ordures and impressions of their crimes as it is related of this creature But the day of God will come when as the Prophet Waters of Panthers Isaiah 15. Aquae Nimrim siccabuntur Isaiah saith the Panthers waters shall wholly be dried and soaked up that is to say as Ailredus interpreteth it that all the counterfeitings and dissimulations of the world shall find no more water to whiten them We all naturally fear the publication of our vices so sensible we are in the touches of honour Those poor Milesian maids who moved with enraged despair ran to halters and steepie precipices could never be diverted from this fury either by the sweet admonishment of their parents or rigorous menaces of Judges but when by decree the naked bodies of those who had violated the law of nature by this most wicked attempt were cast upon the dung-hill the onely apprehension of nakedness and of the nakedness of a bodie bereaved of sense stayed the course of these execrable frenzies And without speaking of ancient Histories William Bishop of Lions relateth that a certain Damsel painted in an Age when simplicity was in great esteem as she went along in a procession behold by chance an Ape came Trick of an Ape out of a shop who leaped on her shoulders and took off her coif and made a little deformity appear covered under painting and dissimulation whereby she felt herself overwhelmed with dolour and confusion If the small affronts and disgraces which we receive in the world have so much force what will it be then when the Sovereign Judge shall take away the scarf and make a cauterized conscience appear What will it be when with as many torches and burning lights as there then shall be of Angels and of the elect by his side he shall penetrate even to the bottom of a lost soul Where then shall be his plaisterings where his dissimulations and hypocrisies in the abyss of this confusion It is a thing which we rather may meditate on in silence than express in words Upon these considerations resolve with your selves to build your salvation upon the firm rock of truth and not on a vain reputation upon the slippery moving sands of human apparences Imitate that good King father of S. Lewis who bare a scepter made like an obelisk in a ring with this devise Volo solidum Tipotius in Simbol perenne as who should say all his intentions aimed at heaven and eternity Make a determinate purpose as much as possibly you may to avoid in your apparel in your hair in your words in your actions all sorts of affectation of hypocrisie of folly as things base sottish ridiculous August l. 83. quaest Summa divina virtus est neminem decipere ultimum vitium est quemlibet decipere and wicked ever remembering this sentence of S. Augustine A great and divine virtue is to deceive no man The last and most mischievous of all vices is to deceive the whole world The sixth OBSTACLE Ill husbanding of time A Notable fable maketh the spider and the silk-worm A notable fable to speak together telling their fortune in a pretty pleasing manner and greatly replenished with moral instruction The poor spider complaineth she laboureth night and day to make her webs with so much fervour and diligence that she unbowelleth herself pouring forth her substance and strength to accomplish her work yet notwithstanding her endeavour so little prospereth as that after she hath brought this her web to perfection a silly servant comes with a broom and in an instant undoes what she could not produce perhaps scarcely in ten years But if it happen she escape from this persecution which seldom is seen in great mens houses yet all the fruit she may expect from so much toyl is but to take some wretched flie in her web Behold you not herein sufficient cause to bewail her misery The silk-worm quite contrary boasteth herself to be one of the most happy creatures which lives on the face of the earth For saith he I am sought after as if I were a precious diamond I am exported from forreign countries happy is he who best can lodge breed entertain and cherish me men bend all their industrie to serve my easeful repose and commodities If I travel my pain is well bestowed but be it how you will silly spider that you take flies I captivate Kings The greatest Monarchs of the earth are involved in my threeds Queens and great Ladies make of my works the entertainment of their beauties and the Potentates which will not depend upon any are dignified by a little worm The four corners of the earth divide my labours with admiration and not being able to go higher although I reach not to Heaven yet I behold the Altars glitter under the embellishments which issue from my entrails And verily there is great difference between the travel of the spider and pain of the silk-worm The industrie of these two little creatures do naturally figure unto us two sorts of persons whereof the one laboureth for vanity the other for verity All men coming into this life enter thereinto as into a shop of toyl which is as natural to them as flight for birds A great man after Adamus de Sancto Victore A worthy Epitaph Conceptio culpa nasci poena necesse mori he had well considered this sentence of Job caused these words to be inscribed on his tomb well worthy of ponderation that is to say Man entereth into being by the gate of not being as he who is as soon in sin as in nature his birth is a punishment his life a travel and his death a necessity And very well Tertullian observeth that
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
doth not this capon seem good meat to you He comming as it were out of a trance How is this capon then Sir I pray you pardon us for we took it for cabbage else verily none of us had touched it X. Not to out-run the hours of repast through impatience not to be so addicted to serve our curiosities and delights that thereby we leave not a good dinner to do a good work Is it not a shameful thing of one Hugucchio who lost two towns as Hugucchio lost two cities for a dinner Jovius relateth for fear he should loose a good meal so that it being at the same instant in his power to give order for a revolt which was plotted he rather chose to sit out his dinner and by this means forsook a fair opportunity XI To content ones self with a little upon occasion as the young Theodosius who thought he had made a good meal when he had eaten certain fops of bread steeped in water within the Cell of an Hermit The wise Hebrews have a proverb which saith Man is known by three things by anger by his purse by his glass It is a note of a well mortified spirit Man known by 3. things when complaints are never made of wants that happen in service for the mouth XII To speak willingly of sobriety yea even in a feast like the Persians or frame some other honest discourse which may give refection to the soul while the body taketh his and beg perpetually of God to deliver us from the necessities of the body and that he weaken in us these base concupiscences of the flesh that we may preserve for him this his tabernacle in all purity The five and twentieth SECTION Practice of Modesty MOdesty is a branch of temperance a goodly Modesty is important and eminent virtue which seemeth as it were to incorporat our soul and make her visible in her actions whose office is to guid the motions gestures words mirth habit gate and garb and all that which appertaineth to the exteriour ornament of the body Her actions are I. To govern the tongue to speak truth in time To speak what and place roundly and freely without deceit palliation boasts impostures detractions II. Never to have a bitter and furious silence prying into anothers words nor to use a tattle unmannerly clamorous and tiresome catching the word out of another mans mouth as little chickens do who snatch bits one from another It was the comparison which father Gontery of happy memory used III. Not to be magistral with a counterfeited gravity nor riotous haughty fierce rude no buffon nor loud laugher A fool saith the wiseman crackleth in laughing as thorns in the fire IV. Not to have your tongue either of too high Tone of voice or low a tone but moderat distinct in sweet honest ordinary intelligible accents V. To have the composition of your countenance Countenance pleasing gratious modest without crabbedness or affectation the carriage of your body native comely free from extraordinary gestures Not to have a giddy head like a linnet always shaking no wrinkled brow nor crumpled nose no perplexed visage nor eyes wandring wanton or proud VI. The apparel neither superfluous fantastik nor Habit. dissolute without too much affecting new fashions nor peremtorily out of your own conceit tying your self to the old but to attend your own condition and remain in the lists of the modesty which is most practised by the wisest Above all let women beware they set not to sale to carnal eyes that nakedness of their breasts which may serve for baits for sin The Scripture saith Whosoever shall cause sparkles of fire to flie into another mans corn shall be acountable for all the dammage which the flames shall make VII To acquire modesty it is good to represent Means to acquire modesty to your self often before your eyes our Saviour conversing upon earth and to pray him he will give us a soul pure and radiant like a star which impresseth his rays upon the body as the Sun on a cloud in and through all to edifie our neighbour The six and twentieth SECTION Practice of prudence and carriage in conversation HAve you observed a fish in the natural history Isidore Uranoscope which the Grecians call Uranoscopus as one would say the beholder of heaven This admirable creature contrary to the nature of others hath but one eye which is as it were a vertical point fixed directly in the top of his head ever elevated and perpetually open to discover so many labyrinths of snares and treacheries as commonly are in the sea Some will say it is Tobias his fish a notable creature which not onely contributeth his gall to illuminate the eyes of the body but his example to enlighten the eyes of the mind It is a true Hierogliph of prudence which telleth us we should at this day converse in the world as in a sea full of monsters tempests rocks perils surprises and that we must have the eye of prudence throughly awakened and purified to preserve and maintain it among so many hazards This prudence in a word according to S. Bernard S. Bernard serm de Vâ—lico is nothing els but the knowledge of good and evil which sheweth how we should demean our selves and the ways we should tread in the course of our life and affairs It is one of the principal virtues because Importance of prudence all our actions depend on it Yea prudence holdeth them as it were enfolded in the plaits of her robe and unfoldeth them according to place time persons occasions which to know is to know all It is said a French King enquiring one day of a man who was held in great reputation of wisdom after divers instructions to govern himself and guide his Kingdom this wise man took a fair large sheet of paper and for an infinite number of precepts which others use to produce upon this subject he onely wrot this word Modus Measure or Mean All wisdom reduced to one word thereby inferring that the whole mysterie of our wisdom and felicity consisteth in doing things with grace fashion and measure and that is it which prudence teacheth We speak not here in particular of the Religious oeconomical military politike monarchical but in general of the direction of life in ordinary conversation For that seemeth annexed to the virtue of modesty Imagine to your self that prudence as antiquity hath presented it unto us Prudence a hand sprinckled with eyes Five fingers of prudence in their Hierogliphs is a hand enchased with eyes which hath five remarkeable fingers wherein all discreet actions are contained These five fingers are memory understanding circumspection fore-sight execution which is to say that for the practice of this virtue I. A good memory is necessary to remember things Memory passed as well what one hath read in books as those which are observed by proper experience for that much
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
standard of your warfare A shame likewise if you must be terrified by way of menaces to make you say your Breviary or if it be needfull to allure you thereunto by I know not what kind of worldly allurements these verily relish of the unworthiness of a childish spirit (g) (g) (g) Onus personale sacrificium laudis fructus labiorum Suarez de orat l. 4. c. 12. ex Clement 1. See you not that benefice draweth an office after it that no man should enlarge your conscience by soothing your neglect and extenuating the obligations you ought to have If you observe not therein that which you shall be advised by a sage and exact spiritual Father you may very well most dangerously wander We are in the Church saith S. Bernard (h) (h) (h) Seminemus hominibus honum exemplum per aperta opera Seminemus Angelis gaudium magnum per occulta suspiria Bern. serm 30. to sow joy and good example Joy for Angels by our devotions and the secret aspirations of our prayers example for men by our good works The mind in the judgement of Philo (i) (i) (i) Occidente sole anima in totum exonerata sensibus mole rerum sensibilium veritatem vestiget in Consistorio domestico Philo de vitâ supplicum should hold a little houshold Consistory where discharged from sense and the mass of sensible things it may study the knowledge of it self and the search of truth You should love your condition even from your tender age and live in the Sanctuary like a young Samuel The toyl of affairs and secular recreations is not for you Leave the onions of Aegypt to sensual souls your entertainments are in the society of Angels (k) (k) (k) Sobriam à turbis gravitatem seriam vitam singulare pondus dignitas sibi vendicat Sacerdotalis Quomodo potest observari à populo qui nihil habet secretum à populo Quid in tâ— miretur si sua in te recognoscit Ambr. Ep. ad Iren. Priestly dignity to which you aspire requireth a sober gravity alienated from the ordinary way a serious life weight and maturity How would you have the people honour you if you have nothing above them How should they admire you beholding vices and imperfections in your manners The fifth SECTION The second virtue of a Prelate which is Fortitude of spirit against avarice and riot THe second livery of your colours is the purple which adviseth you to have a strong and truly noble soul When there is occasion to defend the glory of God you must have the arm of God (a) (a) (a) Si habes brachium sicut Deus simiâ—â— voce tones circunda tibi decorem in sublime erigere Job 40. and the thundring voice of God not to gain respect by austere looks and affectations of severity which many times proceed from much infirmity of spirit The Councel of Aix saith (b) (b) (b) Meminisse oportet quia columba est in divinis Scripturis Ecclesia appellata qua non unguibus lacerat sed alia piè percutit Con. Aquisgran Con. 134. the Church is a dove which teareth no man with her tallans but is pleased sweetly to strike with her wings The true gravity of a Priest consisteth in manners not countenance (c) (c) (c) In constantiâ Sacerdos siâ— adamantinum signatorium Menâ— nostra siguram sui semper custodiens characteris universa que occurrerint sibi ad qualitatem sui status signet atque transformet ipse ocâ—o insigniri nullius incursibus possit Cassian Collat. 6. c. 12 It ought to be a seal of diamond firmly to preserve the characters of virtue and sign others by example This fortitude will come upon you by accustoming not to comply with any vice whatsoever There is not a worse slavery than to put your liberty into the hands of sin It is a long chain and hath many gordian knots cut them resolutely as did Alexander and conquer the Kingdom of your passions which is of more worth than the Persian or Indians Above all if you desire to rule avoid two rocks most dangerous for a Church-man whereof the one is the thirst ever to get a new the other laziness and profuseness in a living already acquired Think not to advance your state and increase the number of your benefices otherwise it were to seek out God for bread not for miracles It were for living to loose well-living so to become a bad merchant not a good Pastour What cause have you of disturbance A reasonable benefice is enough for you If you desire to have a shoe over-wide and not fit for your foot you deceive your self Say not you are poor there can be no poverty where you have God for inheritance and he whom God all-rich sufficeth not deserves to be perpetually poor This desire which men without ceasing have to be ever on increase much villifieth Ecclesiasticks It affords them as many dependences as they have pretensions It makes them servilely sooth the passions and vices of those Great-ones from whom they expect a recompence It robbeth them of the Kingdom of God to tie them to the chain of men who many times are more enthralled than galley-slaves It is a great shame to intrude wickedly hereinto to surprize an honour by the way of a dishonour Saints have obtained benefices by flying them and now we must run over the heads of a man and beast to overtake them That brave Architect Vitruvius thought it very strange that an Artisan presented himself to a great man to be employed in his own faculty and profession and thereupon spake a most remarkeable sentence (d) (d) (d) Vitruvius in praefat l. 6. Caeteri Architecti rogant ambiunt ut architectentur Mihi à Praeceptoribus est traditum rogatum non rogantum opertere suscipere curam quòd ingenuns color movetur pudore petendorum suspiciosum I see Architects who beg and under-hand sue to be employed As for my self I have learned of my Masters that we should not ask of any man but rather be intreated by others to use care and endeavour He must be blameless who blusheth not to require that which may be denied him What would this noble spirit have said had he seen Church-men to debase themselves not onely to supplications but to services most unworthy their quality to obtain cure of souls which others in solitary wildernesses have fled from through bryars and thorns among savage beasts You should imitate that worthy Grecian wrastler of whom Clemens Alexandrinus (e) (e) (e) Clem. Alex. strom l. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An excellent passage of King Robert Glab Rudolphus l. 5. c. 1. Idem refert Juret ad ep 157. Yvonis Carn Quidam tribuunt Henrico Imper. speaketh who after long preparation going to combate stayed himself on the way and looking on a Statue of his god said unto it I have done my duty do you yours Become a good
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
the best of souldiers I speak of Sampson which is so much as to say Sun in our language where it seemeth the Scripture leadeth us by the hand to make us acknowledge that military profession which is under good direction so much excelleth the ordinary vocations of men as doth the Sun the stars For letters yea eloquence and arts which are set out with so much lustre in the estimation of men are covered under the wings of military virtue as very well the Roman Oratour hath acknowledged We do not read that ever the Sun stood still to hear the gracefull words of an eloquent tongue nor to behold the Theaters and Amphitheaters of the Romans nor the Olympick games of Grecians nor all the other objects of admiration which are in the industrie of men But we do well know from the Oracle of truth that this great Star admired by all the world immoveably stayed as charmed by the voice of a souldier the illustrious Josuah at that time when he acted so many brave feats of arms as if it would admire his prowess and enlighten his conquests And what is there also more admirable in the The greatnes and excellency of a brave Captain world than to see a man covered with steel who curvetteth on a generous horse and hasteneth his head bowed to throw himself through the battallions all bristled with launces and swords through so many musket-shots so many hail-showers of iron and so many dreadfull images of death which he as freely defieth as if he were immortal and as little spareth life as if he had a hundred to loose What a spectacle to behold him in a furious conflict like a thunder-bolt in the cloud which forceth his prison and breaks all resistance flying upon wings of fire and the whirling roar of thunder to shake the height of rocks What an affrightment to see him in another posture scaling a wal all beset with arms and terrours and hastening into danger with the same pace and visage as another to a feast What support and what consolation for poor people whom injustice and hostility would butcher as sheep ordained to slaughter to perceive a brave captain with a flying squadron dissevering the malignity of those forces conspired to the ruine of innocents and by the splendour of his arms changing all the storms into calms O what a beauty is it to receive wounds in those combates from whence floweth more glory than bloud O what greatness to reap palms in midst of so many thorns O what a felicity to behold his battels attended by so many laurels congratulations and applauses of the people preserved by this military virtue How can all be in this profession but glorious seeing death it self the terrible of terribles sheweth a face all smiling to those who are buried in their valour as in the true tomb of honour It seemeth holy Histories do likewise describe these The delight of history to praise Captains Induit se loricâ sicut Gigâ—s similis factus est leoni in operibus suis sicut catulus leonis rugientis in venatione great Captains with some delight when they make them march in the war So they tell us (a) (a) (a) 1 Mac. 13. of Judas Machabaeus who having put on his arms appeared like a Gyant and that he in the battel was seen like a roaring Lion seeking out his prey So they describe in the second of Kings (b) (b) (b) 2 Reg. 23. the prowess of David and other valiant men who flourished in this time with most particular Elogies So they depaint unto us in a very admirable manner the strength and stratagems of Gedeon against the Midianites Valour is matter of astonishment which transporteth all men both great and small wittie and dull to honour its qualities Aristotle the politest judgement which hath been in former Ages so much wondereth at this warlick force though far distant from his profession that he composed an excellent Hymn in praise of it which is yet to be found in Diogenes Laertius Where he calleth it a virtue most painfull for mortals but the fairest ornament of Civil life A virtue which hath such attractive beauty that the most generous hearts seek for death with strife to enjoy the lustre of its glory If then this valour have such attraction considered onely within the limits of nature how will it be if once advanced by the assistance of grace and virtues which take al that is harsh from it to make it shine with rays of a true and happy majesty Is there any thing more lovely in the whole world than to see a valorous souldier furnished with qualities of piety prudence justice liberality goodness honesty and with all other graces which are in a sweet disposition as stars sown in the azure of celestial globes Oh Nobility if you knew your own excellency and could conform your life to your dignity what lustre and support would you afford to Christendom It was the faith of a souldier and of a souldier issued from Paganism which the mouth of the living God hath exalted above all the piety of the Israelites when he so highly commended the Centurion of the Gospel for acknowledging the Saviour had as much power over maladies and things insensible as an absolute Captain over his souldiers It was a souldier whom Saint Peter by the revelation of the Angel did first of all consecrate to faith as the first fruits of Gentilism They are warriours which so often replenish our Martyrologes with their names our memories with their veneration and mouthes with prayers offered up to them These hearts have at all times been capable to receive seeds of most noble virtues and now adays they are suffered to putrifie in neglect ordure and bruitishness Oh Nobility deceive not your selves in the acknowledgement of the badges of your profession nor flatter your selves under a false mask of valour I will here represent to you the Palace of military virtue and shew the way you must walk in to arrive thither not suffering your selves to be seduced by chimerical fantasies and illusions of greatness onely big-swoln with smoak and which when they have promised to make mountains produce nothing but rats and vermine The second SECTION The enterance into the Palace of valour and the illusions of Salmoneans and Rodomonts .. THe ingenious Delben who hath composed all Aristotoles moral Philosophie in excellent Tables figureth unto us at the entery into the Palace of valour an enraged Mistress called Audaciousness which seduceth an infinite number of Salmoneans or Rodomonts under colour of virtue It is true she is dumb in this piece of painting but I resolve to shew her full of life in this Treatise and discover to you the slie practises and damnable maxims which she makes use of to deceive the spirits of this Age to the end that the knowledge of the evil may with more facility furnish us for application of remedies Suffer me here O Reader to
the Globe of glass in which the Persians heretofore bare the image of the Sun or else by the imitation of that huge Pharos of Alexandria which enlightened the sea on all sides to guide vessels to a safe haven This was expresly set down to signifie the great and divine lights of wisdom which are in a true Christian valour This Palace seemed wholly built of rocks of the colour of iron streamed with little veins of bloud which well shewed it was purposely done to represent the invincible courage of the pupils of this virtue The Halls were all hanged with prowess and victories and in stead of columes it had great Statues of the most valorous men of the world who flourished in the revolution of so many Ages Valour bare sway within it sitting not on gilli-flowers or roses but encompassed with thorns and sufferings ever armed and still with sword in hand with which it cut off an infinite number of monsters and chased away all Salmoneans from its house In this Palace was the brave Eleazar who as soon as he from far perceived this young Souldier he caused him to draw near and spake to him in these terms Son I doubt not but you found at the enterance into my Iodging a wicked Sorcerer who hath by the ear empoisoned you It is necessary you cleanse it to make your self capable of the singular precepts of valour and wisdom which I am now presently to afford you seeing you for this cause are come hither into my Palace It hath been told you that to be a good souldier you must become a little Cyclop Refutation of the first disorder without any feeling of God or Religion for devotion were but to weaken your warlick humours Those who have said this unto you have told nothing new It is an old song which they have drawn out of Machiavel who thinking to make a Prince have made a wild beast and yet would perswade us it was a man but those that believe it are such onely as bear their eyes on their heels Let us not serve our Piety the first virtue of a souldier selves with this Phylosophie of flesh which maketh valour and devotion as two things incompatible Verily I go not about to require of you an affected enforced and ceremonious piety that is out of the limits of your profession I would have you a souldier and not a Monk but assure you the prime virtue of art military is to have good thoughts and pure beliefs touching the Divinity then to practice suitableness thereto by offices and exteriour actions of pietie When I speak this I am so strong in reasons that Reasons which shew that true piety is the soul of military virtue Chap. 13. and 11. I dare take our enemies themselves for Judges Behold the subtile Machiavel who upon the Decads of Titus Livius sheweth Religion is an admirable instrument of all great actions and that the Romans made use thereof to establish their Citie pursue their enterprizes and pacifie tumults and seditions which rose in the revolution of State Because it was said he more conscience to offend God than men believing his power surpassed all humane things So we see that all those who would form cherish or advance a State although they had no true Religion in their souls have taken pretexts as Lycurgus Numa Sertorius Ismael the Persian and Mahomet I demand of you thereupon my souldier if by the testimony of this man who hath made himself our adversary false beliefs have had so much power upon minds that they have rendered them more docible to virtue more obedient to Sovereignty more adventerous to undertake things difficult more patient to tollerate matters displeasing more couragious to surmount those which make opposition if I say the sole imagination of a false Divinity accounted to punish misdeeds and recompence valour with a temporal salary was powerfull enough to make Legions flie all covered with iron through so many perils must we not say by the confession of our very enemy that a true Religion as ours is which promiseth so many rewards to virtue and punishments for crime not for a time but for all eternity if it be once well engraven in hearts shall produce so many worthy effects beyond those of other Sects as truth is above lying reality above nothing and the sun above the shaddows From whence think you do so many neglects grow but from coldness in Religion For how can a souldier but be valiant when he is confidently perswaded it is the will of the living God that he obey his Prince as if he beheld a Divinity upon earth and that burying himself in the duty of this obedience being well purified from his sins he takes a most assured way to beatitude How can he be but the more couragious having received absolution of his sins by the virtue of the Sacrament since by the Confession of all Sages there is nothing so perplexed so timorous so inconstant as a conscience troubled with the image of its own crimes How should it spare a transitory life having a firm belief of immortality since the wisest have judged that the valour of ancient Gauls which was admired by the Romans proceeded from no other source but from a strong perswasion which the Druides had given them touching the immortality of our souls How could he be but most confident if he stedfastly beheld the eye of the Divine Providence of God perpetually vigilant for his protection How could he be but most fervent if he did but figure the Saviour of the world at the gates of Heaven with his hands full of rewards See you not that all reasons combat for us as well as experience I will not flatter Christians under pretext that I call my self the Christian Knight nor ought I betray my cause under the shaddow of modesty Let all the ancient and modern Histories be read let military acts be examined and courages poized in a just ballance I challenge the ablest Chronicler to present me any valour out of Greek or Roman Historie where the most admirable prowesses are to be seen that I do not shew them perpetually parallel'd yea surpassed by the courage of Christians When I read The Acts of Pagans those histories of elder times I behold Grecians that triumphed for having vanquished Xerxes who to say the truth was a Stag leading an army of sheep never was any thing seen so perplexed And although there had been no opposition yet was this great body composed of a lazie stupified army onely strong to ruin it self I see a young Alexander who to speak truth was of an excellent nature though the most judicious observe great errour in his carriage he oft-times being rash and many times insolent but it was well for him he had to do with such gross Novices whose eyes were dazled with the simple glimmer of a sword for had he come to encounter the arms of Europe his Laurels doubtless would have been
must return to these kind of spoils to content us But we have to do with few things and for a little space I swear unto you that from the time I betook me to this retirement it hath seemed that all the elements were for me and that I never was more powerfull more rich or contented I have found all that which I sought for health repose truth wisdom arts and the Gods Go not now about to colour your specious oration with pretexts of the publick good I well know where your ambition itcheth believe me he is nearest to heaven who least careth in whose hands the earth is What importeth it that young Constantine Maxentius and Licinius divide the world I shall see them strive together like arâ—s about a grain of earth If the world must be lost as it is very likely I had rather it were in their hands than mine I very well see the Empire is sick to the death I have for saken it like an old Physitian wil hear no more speech of it than of a body in the coffin Believe me neither you nor I can do any thing for its health but to witness our inability All those who have admired our resolution in forsaking the Diadem wil be the first that will cast the stone against our inconstancy if we weakly go about to require again that which we so generously have abandoned God forbid I should enter into a fantasie to despoil my self of a glory that never any one Monarch had before me which is the contempt of a world when I had it in mine hands If you be resolued to loose your self do it without company your frindship ought to pretend nothing upon me to the prejudice of mine honour and conscience And whereas you propose unto me the danger of my person I do not think that envy will extend it self over the coleworts and lettice of this little garden planted by mine own hands and should they come thither I have already lived long enough according to the course of nature enough to satisfie the desire which I had if glory and too much to see the miseries of the world I will not think much to render up this life which I have upon my lips to him who gave it me We must needs say this man had a great understanding and goodly Maxims For had not mischief given him the spirit of a hangman against Charistianitie he might be accounted in the number of the greatest Emperours Maximian was much amazed at the constancy of his resolution Notwithstanding the desire he had to return to his former honour being insatiable he spared not to take the purple again and bear himself as Emperour protesting it was the desire of publick good which put the Scepter into his hands It is an admirable thing how his ambition was Maximian the baloon of fortune discountenanced He who promised himself much respect was hissed at by the souldiers as a man vain unconstant and shallow was chased out of Italie and Sclavonia and other places which he sought to possess and reduced as it were to such terms as to see himself at the mercy of his son which he apprehended as the last of his afflictions Although some have thought there was collusion between the father and the son for the accommodation of their affairs He wished now to be in the bottom of a cave with his Diocletian but since he had begun the play he must finish his act The subtil man who well foresaw that Maxentius a brain-sick Prince was upon ruin resolved to league himself firmly to the fortune of Constantine Behold why being retired in haste towards him having engaged his house in the Empire it was not difficult for him to find access there as also for that the new Emperour in this great concourse of arms and affairs was very willing to make use of the counsel of a man refined in policie Maximian entereth so far into the heart and judgement of Constantine that to tie him the more to himself and wholly cement up his own affairs he gave his daughter Fausta in marriage to him whom the young Prince espoused in his second wedlock having first of all been married to Minervina by whom he had two children Crispus and Helena This marriage of Fausta was solemnized with much magnificence and the son rendred so much honour to his father-in-law that he seemed to retain nothing of the Empire but the name and habit dividing with him the rest of his power We may well say the spirit of Maximian was turbulent 3. Disposition and insupportable for not satisfying himself with all this excellent entertainment he thought he was nothing if he wore not upon his forehead the Diadem which he had forsaken He began to set things in order at the Court and to prepare factions in such sort that he seemed to have no other purpose but to set his son and his son-in-law together by the ears to enjoy both their spoils In the end he put his design very far upon the fortune and life of Constantine being as he was vain to talke of his enterprizes namely to his daughter Fausta whom he esteemed to be of a good disposition he opened himself so much to her that he made as saith the Wiseman of his lips the snare of his soul For the young married wife having more affection in store for her husband than her father and who having already the tast of Empire would not yield it up to him to whom she had owed her birth hastened to tell all to Constantime advising he should take heed of his father-in-law and that he was a wicked man who would if it were possible deceive all the Gods of Olympus for the desire he had to reign Maximian well perceiving that his daughter had discovered the plot and that there was no further safetie for him at the Court of his son-in-law secretly stole away and endeavoured to regain the East but was taken tardy at Marsellis and there strangled to give an end to his life all his designs Some have written that he hanged himself through despair of his affairs others that it was by the commandment of Constantine Others have said that his son-in-law Eusebius was willing to save him but the publick hatred born against Maximian prevented clemency which I think the more probable Verily I would not disguise the exorbitances practised by Constantine before his entrance into Christianity for he cannot be justified upon some disorders But since Zosimus the historian who pardoneth him in nothing chargeth him not with this death I see no cause why we should accuse him Behold the desperate end of Maximian after he Victor Nazarius Non omnia potes Dij te vindicant invicem had persecuted the Church embroiled Empires all armed the whole world by the extravagances of his ambition an infamous halter taketh a little air from him which he thought he could not freely enough breath whilst
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
your Baptism which blotteth out all sins according to your maxims I were no sooner washed but I should fear to plunge my self again into an infinity of occasions which might dayly present themselves to my understanding Then would you threaten me with the judgement-day and Hell with terrours able to over whelm my mind Consider whether it would not be more to the purpose to let me persevere in my Sect therein performing all the good I may Can you think that for all this I should be excluded from the mercy of God who will save all men The wise Clotilda replyed thereunto Sir I beseeth your Majesty not to flatter your self with this specious title of mercy for there will be none in the other world for those who have performed it in this without profit Now is the time that God spareth not to stretch out his arms for your obedience if you despise him you will loose him without recovery One can never do too much for eternall life and whatsoever we suffer Paradise may still be purchased at a good penny-worth Alas Sir why do you find so many difficulties in our Religion Think you God doth wrong in desiring to make you believe things which you cannot conceive by humane reason It is he who hath made the soul of man and who accommodateth all the wheels thereof nor is there any one of them which moveth not at his pleasure What marvel is it if man offer the homage of his understanding to God If weakness submit to strength littleness to greatness the finite to the infinite that which is nothing to him who is an abyss of essence goodness wisedom and light If you make a promise to any of your servants although it be unreasonable and almost incredible yet would you have him to believe it without reply and that he take no other ground for this belief but the greatness and infallible word of your Majesty One man exacteth faith of another though both of them are but earth and dust and you think the Sovereign Creatour of Heaven and earth is unjust to make us believe that which our bruitish senses cannot comprehend Is this the submission and obedience we ow Eternal Truth Why should not I believe that three are but one that is to say three persons one onely God since I dayly find my memory understanding and will make but one soul Wherefore should we scorn to adore a Crucified man The Cross is so far from weakening my belief that there is not any thing which more confirmeth it For if the Saviour of the world had come as your Majesty to the conquest of the universe with legions horses treasures and arms he should in my opinion retain that esteem which great Captains hold but when I consider that by the punishment of the Cross he hath reduced the whole world under his laws and planted the instrument of his excessive dolours even on the top of Capitols and the heads of Monarchs I affirm that all is of God in such an affair since there is nothing in it of man Alas Sir if you have a faithful servant who would suffer himself to be tormented and crucified to make you Master of a rebellious Fort would not you find more glory in his loyalty than ignominy in his torments And think you if the Eternal Wisdom having taken a humane body and voluntarily exposed it to extream rigour to wash our offences in his bloud and subdue the pride and curiosities of the earth to the power of Heaven it hath done ought therein reprehensible Have we not much more cause to adore the infinite plenty of his charities than to dispute upon honours which onely consist in the opinion of the world I beseech your Majesty figure not to your self our Religion as an irksome and austere Law when you have submitted to the yoak God will afford you so much grace that all these difficulties which you apprehend will no more burden you than feathers do birds And although it should happen you after Baptism fall into some sin which God by his grace will divert the bloud of Jesus Christ is a fountain which perpetually distilleth in the Sacraments of the Church to wash away all our iniquities Sir I fear least you too long defer to resign your self to the many advertisements which you have received from Heaven If you weigh the favours that God hath done to your Majesty having set a Crown on your head at the age of fifteen years having preserved you against so many factions defended you from so many perils adorned you with so much glory honoured you with so many prosperours successes you shall find he hath reason to require at this time from you what he demandeth of your by my mouth What know you whether he have chosen out yâ—â—r person to make you a pattern to all other Kings and constitute you such in France as Constantine hath been in the Roman Empire which will render you glorious in the memory of men and happy in Heaven to all eternity Verily Sir if you yield not your self up to my words you ought to submit to the bloud of so many worthy Martyrs who have already professed this faith in your Kingdom you ought to submit to so many great Confessours as knowing as Oracles of as good life as Angels who denounce truth unto you You ought to submit to miracles that are every day visibly done at the Sepulcher of great S. Martin which is an incomparable treasure in your Kingdom Sweet-heart answereth the King say no more you are too learned for me and I fear least you should perswade me to that which I have no desire to believe and although you had convinced my soul to dispose it to this belief think you it would be lawful for me so soon to make profession of your faith You see I am King of an infinite people and have ever at my commanda great Nobility who acknowledge no other Gods but those of the Country Do you believe that all spirits are so easy to be curbed and that when I shall go about to take a strange God will it not make them murmur and perhaps forge pretexts to embroil something in my Kingdom For Religion and the State are two pieces which mutually touch one another very near one cannot almost stir the one without the other the surest way is not to fall upon it and to let the world pass along as our predecessours found it Clotilda well saw this apprehension was one of the mainest obstacles of his salvation and she already had given good remedy thereunto practising the dispositions of all the greatest of the Court. Behold the cause why she most stoutly replyed thereunto Sir it is to apprehend fantasies to form to your self such imaginations You are a Prince too absolute and too well beloved to fear these commotions but rather much otherwise I assure you upon mine honour your people are already much disposed to receive our Religion and your Nobility
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
the tongue From thence it cometh to pass that children are framed to this exercise almost from their cradle Women yea they who make account to refine in devotion keep now adays shops of counterfeiting the Dissimulation reigneth every where great-ones think it is their trade the mean who are as their shadows take the same course The world becomes a Theater of fictions where truth hath much ado to be known so many false visages are put upon it To speak truly one would say the earth had changed its nature and were now become a Sea where the simple like poor creeping worms are abandoned to the malice of the most subtile It was a worthy speech of the Prophet who said to God Alas Lord have you then made so many mortals like silly Habac. 1. 14. Facies homines quasi pisces maris quasi reptiles fishes and wretched worms which have no government Deceit hath sowed its subtilities every where it hath every where spred nets and snares and never ceaseth to drive take and entrap and it seems would catch the whole world with its book It rejoyceth at its own crime as if it were a virtue and maketh sacrifices with the instruments of mischief It judgeth of happiness by the multitude of preys and acknowledgeth no other God but it s own good fortune 2. Now as for you who are perswaded in this Maxim that to prosper in conversation with men and affairs of the world necessarily the foxe's skin must be put on simplicity being too sottish and disarmed to bear any sway in humane life I pray at leisure 1. Reason against counterfeiting the blemish of truth consider some reasons which I intend to present and rather weigh them in the ballance of judgement than of Passion First know that in the instant you resolve to be crafty to be a lier a deceiver you proclaim war against a great Divinity which will follow you step by step all your life time which will discover you when you shall not know it even to the bottom of your thoughts which will overthrow all your pernicious intentions and hold the sword of God's vengeance over your head even to the gates of hell This puissant adversary against whom you undertake The power of truth resistance if you as yet know it not is truth the most ancient and admirable of all virtues which hath ever been and which shall never end nay could you make your thoughts penetrate into an abyss of time and could you flie through ten millions of Ages there should you find truth But if you say it was not before Heaven and earth and that in pronouncing this word you had some reason which cannot be at the least denying verity and speaking truth yet must you find truth so necessary is its being It runs through time saith S. Augustine not August l. 2. de liber arb Non peragitur tempore non migrat locis nec nocte intereipitut nec uâ—bra includitur nec sensibus corporis subjacet omnibus proxima omnibus sempiterns c. being under the laws of time it passeth through all and shifteth not place it is hidden in night not obscured by night it is in the shadow not shut up in shadows it is not subject to sense since it swayeth over understandings It is always near us nay let us rather say It is within us or we live in it and although it do not occupie place it possesseth all place in its Empire It exteriourly giveth notice it appeareth inwardly it turneth all into the better and is not changed by any into worse Of it unless belied one cannot think ill and without it unless by flattery of self presumption we cannot enough discern What then shall we say more since God himself is Truth verity of Essence verity of Reason verity of Speech as Theologie teacheth us All virtues are truly for him but he is not called by their names as he is by the title of truth (a) (a) (a) Ego sum via veritas vita Joan. 14. 10. It is the apple of his eye his heart his solace his delight his power his wisdom his throne and dignity All what God is is nothing but verity It penetrateh all virtues as fire and light do all the parts of the world There is not any thing so victorious or triumphant in all greatness for it never ceased since the beginning of the world to crush heads which rebel against light It hath untwisted so many webs scattered so many wyles overthrown so maÌ„y lies brought to nothing so many sects destroyed so many humane powers trampled under foot so many dragons And you who pretend to be the cunning and refined spirits of the time renounce it you take up arms against it and are not afraid of it you think to avoid it but it will avoid you and the first of your afflictions shall be to loose sight of it O my God what a bold enterprize is it to draw a strong adversary upon us and to provoke thy justice when we may enjoy thy Clemency Remember you the son of Cyrus who closely attempted A notable Act or a King of Aethiopa Herod l. 3. on Aethiopia with his arms and prepared to make war against it But the King thereof to stay him was pleased to send him his bowe and caused to be said unto him Adbunc venus that is you come against the Master of this bowe He was so amazed at the sight of this armory that he surceased from the temerity of his counsels to provide for the safety of his person Now had you seen the arms of truth which from so many Ages have quailed so many monsters and gained so many victories you would fear to contest with such a Princess She will never forsake you if you renounce untruth and if you do it not on earth you will be enforced to do it in hell Hyppocrates gave the eyes of a star to truth but should Hippoc. ep 10. he have seen her face more uncovered he had said it was a Sun which illuminateth by its light animateth the best spirits by its vivacity as it dissipateth the mists of lies by virtue 3. Besides not content with this when you in this Reason 2 manner undertake discourses of silk and promises of Dissimulation ruineth humane faith wind to reveal a secret to lay snares for the simplicity of a man to satisfie yovr passion or serve your ends you commit another crime most pernicious to humane society for you seek by these sleights to ruin all belief and fidelity The Ancients made so much account of humane saith which is constancy and stedfastness of words consonant to the heart and performance of promises that the Romans placed it in their Capitol close by the side of their prime Divinity and one of their Poets durst say Faith was Excellency of fidelity Cato Censorius Silius Ante Jovem generatum est tantum in pectore Numen before Jupiter
himself and that without it the world would not be and that it was a Divinity which had a Temple in the hearts of men the most purified and best worthy of God If with one single glance of an eye you might see the world as a huge Theater you therein should behold Empires arms laws Cities Provinces sciences arts riches infinite magnificencies you would be enforced to say the basis which supporteth all this great majesty of Common-wealths is fidelity without which Cities would rather resemble Cyclopean caverns than Temples of peace and justice But if you destroy it not by improvidence or frailty but by the form of a setled life and by example cause others to imitate you is it not to overthrow all that which is best established and to profane whatsoever is most holy 4. You perhaps will say publick virtues little concern Reason 3 you so you may advance your particular interests Craft shameful to the authour of it I will not tell you this answer better becomes the mouth of a Tartar than a Christian but I dare well assure you these ways of craft and deceit which so much please you are most prejudicial to your honour and most fatal for your ruin For first of all say you be a man of quality you are not so unnatural but you have some sense of honour Now rest assured nothing Debasement so much villifieth you as to be reputed a crafty man who carrieth labyrinths in his heart and snares in his tongue Dyon Chrysostomus judiciously observed that nature gave subtility as an inheritance to creatures the most feeble and abject as to Apes Foxes Cats and Spiders but the most generous as Eagles and Lions know not what slights and wiles mean We must likewise affirm all the most eminent and divine spirits are very naturally inclined to sincerity and that it onely belongs to inferiour souls and such as distrust their own ability to amuse themselves in search of inventions and tricks to involve those who treat with them by the way of sincere freedom See you not mirrours render forms when they are leaded think you natively to represent the draughts of verity unless your soul be solid and stable supported by its proper weight on constancy and magnanimity Seneca noted that women the most destitute Subtile women of strength are most inclined to fraud and doubleness Seneca in Octaviâ Pectus instruxit delis sed vim negavit of heart what I speak nothing concerneth the prudent and generous who know how to correct infirmities of sex by virtue but our daily experience teacheth us that there are of them very crafty and such as under a pure and delicate skin with a tongue distilling honey often hide the heart of a panther all spotted over with subtility as the skin of this beast with diversity of mirrours Their throat is Novissima illius amara quasi absinthium acuta quasi gladius biceps Prov. 5. 4. more slippery than oyl said the Wiseman but in the end you find effects more bitter than worm-wood and more penetrating than a two-edged sword What sense is there that a Noble man who would in all things seem more than a man should take upon him the vices of women and inclinations onely fit for silly creatures It is a strange thing to see what the light of nature Sincerity preserved in the light of nature dictated to the souls of infidels so alienating them from all manner of deceit that they made scruple to treat with their enemies by way of dissimulation We learn in Titus Livius that one called Philippus Tit. Liv. l. 2. Decad. 5. giving an account to the Senate what he had negotiated in the Court of the Macedonian King declaring particularly the course he took to entertain Perseus under pretext of peace and to feed him with fair words the old Senatours stood up and aloud protested much to disavow such proceedings as matters opposite to Roman generosity Violence said Thucid. that great Captain Brasidas though it seem unjust is always more excuseable in a man of authority than craft which secretly contriveth some black business under colour of amitie What could there be more odious in nature than a man who to deceive the world might have the art to change faces every hour and seem sometimes white sometimes black Hatred and horrour of doubleness sometimes gray another while grizly sometimes hairy another while beardless in such sort as to be meerly unknown to those who should treat with him Now what deceivers cannot do on their faces they act in their souls through a strange profanation of Gods Image they take upon them a thousand countenances and a thousand impostures to train a poor victim into the snare They flatter they promise they swear they protest they call Heaven and earth to witness you would take all their words for eternal truths but if you speak to them an hour after and that it be time to pull off the mask they with a brazen brow will deny all they said they will mock at all they promised and disavow all they have done with the same lips which before contrived it What Behemoth what Leviathan was ever beheld so Phot. Bibliot p. 67. prodigious in nature I know Ctesias among the great rarities of the Indies makes mention of a Martichore a beast which hath the face of a man and the body of a Lion who counterfeiteth the sound of flutes to charm passengers and then entrappeth and kills them with the tayl of a scorpion all bristled with pricks and which is more makes the same serve for bowe arrows and quiver Needs must this be terribl but to see it before our face is to have one beast for an enemy which may by prudence be avoided which may by force be vanquished and with weapons mastered but in a faithless man you discover under a smiling brow a thousand plagues a thousand Centaurs a thousand Geryons infinite many Charybdes and Syrens who lay snares for you who undo you who ruin you who strangle when they seem to embrace you Can you then admire if among the six abominations of the Linguam mendacem cor machinaâ—s cogitationes pessimas Prov. 6. heart of man deceit be one of the first Laws have not severity enough arms terrour nor scaffolds punishments to chastise affright torment a man with a double tongue and heart who persecuteth truth killeth faith poisoneth friendship and many times plotteth effects of death even in a banquet the solace of life 5. All this is to no purpose will some Polyphemus Reason 4 say so that one prosper in the world either by treason Craft pernicious or craft little heed must be given to the judgements of certain men who are onely able to bark at our fortune not to hinder our felicity Here now is the knot of the business wherein we must consider that besides that the ways of treachery are laborious and
Deum pro cujus spiritu postules pro quâ oblationes annuas reddas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gifts for ransom of the soul answerable to what Tertullian writeth that it was the custom of the ancient Church to pray for the souls of the dead yea and to make annual offerings for them We must no longer say for evasion it is Plato it is Quintilian who speaketh but confess with Aristotle when we see an universal agreement in a proposition it is not one man speaks but the mouth of heaven which uttereth this verity When S. James telleth us God must be feared and proves it by example of the divels themselves he saith not we must fear God because Daemones credunt contremiscunt the divels do so but if any despise him he is therein worse than divels Likewise when the holy Fathers produce an example of Pagans it is not to instruct us by the Pagans but to shew that to waver in the belief of things they generally held by the sentence of nature is to be worse than a Pagan 3. I say for the second argument that so often as Second proof drawn from the light of faith Vnde haec quia ita facienda sunt disputare insolentissimae insania est a truth is proved to Catholicks by the universal consent of the Church and of all Ages if any one chance to make doubt of it it is an evident sign either that he hath a giddy spirit or is malicious in religion This proposition is grounded upon the axiom of S. Augustine who in his Epistle written to Januarius assureth us that when we find the tracks of a custom generally observed throughout the whole Church it is evident that it cometh from the Apostles or those to whom God hath given full Authority in the Church and that to go about to bely or question it is to pass from folly to insolency Now so it is the truth of purgatorie is established by the opinion practice sentence and decisions of all the Church in such sort that there is not any verity of our faith more fortified How is that Begin with our France Behold the Councel of Chalons upon Saone for prayers for the dead and the truth of purgatorie Go into Spain behold that of Braga into Germany behold that of Wormes into Italy behold the sixth Councel held at Rome under Pope Symmachus into Greece behold a number of Synods collected by Martius into Affrick behold the third of Carthage Lastly behold the three Oecumenical of Lateran Florence and Trent which say the same Doth not this suffice to establish a truth in the wit of a man who hath never so little understanding Our adversaries who still bark against this verity as dogs at the moons brightness when they have said Jesus made purgation of sins and that it was said to the good thief thou shalt to day be with me in Paradise or produced some other frivolous objections have shewed all their ability I leave you a little to ponder the goodly consequences Jesus purged sins there is then no purgatorie Should not we have cause to say in the same fashion Jesus prayed for remission of our sins then we no longer stand in need of prayer or pennance and in vain is that S. Luke saith that Jesus must suffer and Luc. 24. 47. that pennance was preached in his name As the prayers of our Saviour destroy not our prayers so his satisfaction overthroweth not ours He prayed that we might pray he satisfied to give strength and merit to our satisfaction which would be dead and unprofitable were they not quickened by his bloud To what purpose is it to say the good thief went directly to Paradise without feeling purgatorie As if we should say it was necessarie for all the world to pass that way Make your self a great Saint and you shall have nothing to do with it Purge all your sins by a love so fervent that the purifying flames may not find any thing to cleanse He who hath payed ows nothing and who hath satisfied in this world shall find unrestrained freedom in the other But think you in a life which contracteth so many stains a soul may be raised in an instant above the celestial orbs to the sight of God before it have passed by those purgations which the Divine justice ordaineth to every one according to his demerits Endeavour is used to deafen your ears with piety wranglings and unprofitable disputations to make you believe purgatory is an invention of interessed Priests it seems this doctrine came into the world but within these two dayes But read the Scripture and see the Fathers who interpret it you shall find proofs to fall upon you like a cloud for confirmation of this verity When S. Paul in the first to the Corinthians third Chapter said that the day of God to wit the day of judgement be it general or particular shall be manifested by fire which shall put every ones works upon trial and that he who upon the foundations of Jesus Basil in Isa c. 1. Non exterminium minatur sed purgationem innuit Ambros Hic ostendit paenas ignis passurum shall build with wood straw or hay to wit with vain and sleight works shall be saved as by fire he clearly declared the doctrine of purgatorie unless you be more illuminated than S. Basil and S. Ambrose who have judged it so for the first saith he threateneth the soul not with destruction but purgation and the other plainly expresseth he speaks of the pains of fire which God hath appointed to purify souls And it is a poor resistance to object he said as by fire and not by fire For it is a manner of expression in Scripture which nothing diminisheth the reality of things otherwise we should say when S. John wrote in the first Chapter of his Gospel that men saw Jesus as the onely Son of God that he were onely a figure of it not a truth And when S. Paul to the Philippians second Chapter witnesseth he was found as a man we might infer he were not man See you not how these silly curiosities of words directly invade the truth When S. Matthew in the twelfth Chapter makes mention of one sin which shall never be remitted either in this world or in the other S. Bernard in his three-score sixth homily upon the Canticles mainly insisteth upon this passage and takes it as an infallible proof of our doctrine When the Evangelist himself toucheth the discourse of the prisonner which shall be put into a place from whence be shall not come until he have paid the last penny Saint Cyprian Cyprian l. 4. ep 2. says plainly It is one thing to be a long time purged for sins by the torment of fire another by the purgation which is made by the passion of Jesus Christ When in the same Authour it is spoken of divers punishments of choller handled in the fift Chapter S. Augustine in
whereof the poor have too much been frustrated to establish thy vanities and fatten thee in pleasures Where is thy liberality Where are thy alms toward miserable creatures who die in affliction in the streets Observe justice and take example by my disasters Husband it is thy wife so beloved that speaks to thee saying Ah my dearest friends where is the faith plighted in the face of the Church Where are the faithful loves which should have no limit but eternity Death no sooner absented me from thy eyes but forgetfulness drew me out of thy heart I complain not thou livest happy and fortunate in thy new affections for I am in a condition wherein I can neither envy nor malice any but I complain that not onely after my death the children which are pledges of our love were distastful to thee but thou hast wholly lost the memory of one who was so precious to thee and whom thou as a Christian oughrest to love beyond a tomb Open yet once unto her the bowels of thy charity and comfort by thy alms and good works a soul which must expect that help from thee or some other The seventeenth EXAMPLE upon the seventeenth MAXIM Apparition of Souls in Purgatorie HIstories tell us the apparation of souls in Purgatory are so frequent that he who would keep an account may as soon number the stars in the sky or leaves on the trees But as it is not fit to be too credulous in all may be said thereupon so a man must be very impudent to deny all is spoken of it and to oppose as well the authority of so many great personages as the memory of all Ages He who believes nothing above nature will not believe a God of nature How many extraordinary things are there the experience whereof teacheth us the effects and of which God hideth the reasons from us The Philosopher Democritus disputing with Solinus Polyhistor the Sages of his time concerning the secret power of nature held commonly in his hand the stone called cathocita which insensibly sticketh to such as touch it and they being unable to give a reason of it he inferred there were many secrets which are rather to humble our spirits than to satisfie our curiosity Who Jul. Scal. A Porta Caâ—eraâ— can tell why the theamede which is a kind of adamant draweth iron on one side and repelleth it on the other Why do the forked branches of the nut-tree turn towards mines of gold and silver Why do bees often die in the hives after the death of the Master of the family unless they be else-where transported Why doth a dead body cast forth bloud in the presence of the murderer Why do certain fountains in the current of their waters and in their colour carry presages of seasons as that of Blomuza which waxeth red when the countrey is menaced with war Why have so many noble families Diâ—â—arus Petrus Albinus certain signs which never fail to happen when some one of the family is to die The commerce of the living with spirits of the dead is a matter very extraordinarie but not impossible to the Father of spirits who holdeth total nature between his hands Peter of Clugny surnamed the Venerable and esteemed in his time as the oracle of France was a man who proceeded in these affairs with much consideration not countenancing any thing either frivolous or light Behold the cause wherefore I willingly make use of his authority He telleth that in a village of Spain named the Star there was a man of quality called Peter of Engelbert much esteemed in the world for his excellent parts and abundant riches Notwithstanding the spirit of God having made him understand the vanity of all humane things being now far stepped into years he went into a Monastery of the Order of Clugny there the more piously to pass the remnant of his dayes as it is said the best incense cometh from old trees He often spake amongst the holy Fryers of a vision which he saw when he as yet was in the world and which he acknowledged to be no small motive to work his conversion This bruit came to the ears of Venerable Peter who was his General and who for the affairs of his Order was then gone into Spain Behold the cause why he never admitting any discourses to be entertained if they were not well verified took the pains to go into a little Monastery of Nazare where Engelbert was to question him upon it in the presence of the Bishops of Oleron and Osma conjuring him in the virtue of holy obedience to tell him punctually the truth touching the vision he had seen whilest he led a secular life This man being very grave and very circumspect in all he said spake the words which the Authour of the historie hath couched in his proper terms In the time that Alphonsus the younger heir of the great Alphonsus warred in Castile against certain factious dis-united from his obedience he made an Edict that every family in his Kingdom should be bound to furnish him with a souldier which was the cause that for obedience to the Kings commands I sent into his army one of my houshold-servants named Sancius The wars being ended and the troups discharged he returned to my house where having some time so journed he was seized by a sickness which in few dayes took him away into the other world We performed the obsequies usually observed towards the dead and four moneths were already past we hearing nought at all of the state of his soul when behold upon a winters night being in my bed throughly awake I perceived a man who stirring up the ashes of my hearth opened the burning coals which made him the more easily to be seen Although I found my self much terrified with the sight of this ghost God gave me courage to ask him who he was and for what purpose he came thither to lay my hearth abroad But he in a very low voice answered Master fear nothing I am your poor servant Sancius I go into Castile in the company of many souldiers to expiate my sins in the same place where I committed them I stoutly replied If the commandment of God call you thither to what purpose come you hither Sir saith he take it not amiss for it is not without the Divine permission I am in a state not desperate and wherein I may be helped by you if you bear any good will towards me Hereupon I required what his necessity was and what succour he expected from me You know Master said he that a little before my death you sent me into a place where ordinarily men are not sanctified Liberty ill example youth and temerity all conspire against the soul of a poor souldier who hath no government I committed many out-rages during the late war robbing and pillaging even to the goods of the Church for which I am at this present grievously tormented But good Master if you loved me
Lion and his body be hoary like the feathers of an eagle worn with old age I adde also to his conceit that God by these representations of four living creatures seemed to say to him O Nebuchadnezzar whilest thou didst sin onely against men I came with the slow pace of an ox to punish thy offences I suffered thee with much sweetness as a man but when thou grewest proud impious atheistical and tottering in the knowledge of the Divinity I fell upon thy crowned head as the eagle upon her prey reducing thee to a bruitish life and if thou goest forward I will pull thee in pieces as if thou hadst passed through the teeth of a Lion This makes me say that God tolerateth sins for some time which are of their own nature very enormous but as for impieties either he speedily chastiseth them in the heat of crime or reserveth them to unspeakable avengements See you not in the history of Kings how he tolerated David defiled with murder 2 Par. p. 26. 18 adultery nine whole months without taking notice of his fault But so soon as Ozias took the incensory to do an act of sacriledge and impiety behold him instantly strucken with leaprousie in the most eminent part of his body Why so Because other sins are many times committed through infirmity incitement or frailty but this which strikes at Gods jurisdiction proceeds from an advised and deliberate malice Behold the cause wherefore God maketh arrows of all wood and vengeance of all creatures to punish it according to its demerit Adde also hereunto a very remarkable proof which is that the Sovereign Judge Observation upon the chastisement of impiety though oftentimes sending his Prophets to stay the crimes of adultery of oppression of injustice and other like suffered them to pass on in an ordinary way yet when he dispatched messengers to confound idolatry and impiety which was raised in Bethel by Jeroboam Reg. 3. 13. he made them flie like eagles and impetuous storms This is verified in Jeroboam King of Israel who began to offer incense to Idols when a Prophet came out of Jerusalem and arrived as the Interpreters observe in Bethel before the incensing was finished which happened in a very short time If one ask how this man of God in less than the space of a sacrifice performed about six leagues for it was as far distant from Bethel to Jerusalem it is answered God bare him on the wings of winds because he went of purpose to destroy atheism and impiety which was hatched among the Israelites And verily being come before this sacrilegious Altar he cried out aloud to Jeroboam's face O Altar Altar listen for much better Altare Altare haec dicit Dominus c. is it to speak to these stones than to an Atheist God hath said and it shall happen an infant shall be born of the house of David called Josias who shall sacrifice the priests which now incense to Idols on their own Altars and there shall he turn their bones into dust Which was afterward performed I now demand if the celestial Father proceeded with such rigour against those who altered some ceremony of the ancient Law that he was not contented to fall speedily upon them more swift than eagles and tempests but caused bones of the dead to be taken out of sepulchers whereunto the right of nature had confined them to burn and consume them on the Altar which they had profaned what will become of those who since the venerable mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God run into horrible sins of infidelity and trample under foot the bloud of the Testament Perhaps you yet conceive not sufficiently the greatnes of this crime but I will make it appear unto you by a powerfull reason S. Denys the Dionys c. 1. de divin nominib Areopagite saith that Being is the most intimate most necessarie most universal and most perfect of all things because it containeth in eminency all perfections which are not but participation of Being And if this essence be strongly rooted in all creatures so that there is none but God who can annihilate it what shall we say of the essence of the Sovereign Creatour which originally containeth all essences God to speak properly being nothing but his own essence There is no doubt but it is an excellency wholly incomprehensible Now we must necessarily infer that by how much the more a thing is excellent so much the more the crimes which assail it are punishable Behold the cause why one cannot almost find pains suitable to Atheism and impiety which resist the essence of God The horrible punishments of the wicked for the sin of Impietie I Moreover affirm if in a time when the Divinity was not yet fully published it notwithstanding inflicted fearfull punishments both on the living and dead who had before-time offended what will become of it after the publication of the Gospel and the coming of the Word Incarnate who maketh speak unto us for the confirmation of his law and word the bloud of so many millions of Martyrs who died for defence of the truth who hath opened to us on earth so many mouthes of Apostles Evangelists Doctours singular in wisdom and sanctity as there are stars in heaven who likewise gave speech to stones and marbles of those ancient Churches to instruct us in our Religion The stone shall crie out in Habac. 2. 11. Lapiâ— de pariete clamabit the midst of walls saith the Prophet Habacuc Nay I demand which is the more tolerable either to despise Joseph in the fetters of bondage or to offer him an affront on Pharaoh's royal chariot Every man of judgement will tell me there is no comparison and that he who yielded not honour to Joseph being a captive seemed not worthy punishment but to deny him honour when Pharaoh having placed him in a chariot of glory caused to be proclaimed by a Herauld of arms Abrec Abrec Let all the world bow the knee before Joseph was a crime of treason We then inferre if the Jews for having neglected Jesus Christ in bonds in opprobries in torments and the pains of the Cross were chastised with hydeous punishments to all posterity what may we expect for such as revile heaven and dishonour Jesus Christ in the chariot of his triumph after they had seen and manifestly known as by ways more than humane that he put all the glory power wisdom and sanctity of the whole universe under his feet and having now also after sixteen hundred years and more through all the parts of the habitable world both Altars and Sacrifices where he hath received services and homages of so many Myters Scepters and Crowns from wise and holy men that it would be easier to number the sands of the sea than to keep an account of them But if you still doubt the punishment of the Jews for the sin of impietie do but read Histories both divine and humane to
from whence we all come we are content to have virtues onely by imagination and vices in their true essence Nembroth professed himself a servant of the true God and yet adored the fire in secret Jesus hath many worshippers in words but few in truth Some stand upon formalities others upon disguised habits others amuse themselves about ceremonies others go as upon certain springs to make themselves counted wise Most men would seem what they are not and much troubled to be seen what they are All their time doth pass in fashions and countenances but death and Gods judgements take off all those masks 3. To say that we have seen a man exteriourly devout and spiritual except he be so inwardly is to say we have seen a house without a foundation a tree without a root a vessel move upon the sea without a bottom and an excellent clock without a spring For the same which the foundation is to a house the root to a tree the bottom to a ship and the spring to a clock the same is a mans interiour life to all virtue What is a man the better who resembles window-cushions which are covered with velvet and stuft with hay or to be like the picture of Diana in Homers Island which wept to some and laught to others A little spark of a good conscience is better than all the lights of the world Why do we crucifie our selves with so many dissimulations so many ceremonies so many enforcements upon our natures to serve and please men onely to get smoke He that sows wind saith the Prophet shall reap a storm Let us live to our selves in the purity of a good conscience and of a perfect humility if we desire to live for ever with God Those shadows of false devotion proceed from the leaves of that fig-tree wherwith Adam and Eve covered their nakedness do not we know that hypocrisie is the same thing to virtue which painting is to faces and that it is the very moth which devours sanctity and will at the day of judgement make all those appear naked which to the world seem well apparrelled Aspiration O God of all truth wherefore are there so many fictions and counterfeit behaviours Must we always live to please the eyes of others and run after the shadow of vanity which leaves nothing but illusion within our eyes and corruption in our manners I will live unto thee O fountain of lives within whom all creatures have life I will retire my self into my own heart and negotiate with it by the secret feeling of a good conscience that I may treat with thee What need I the eyes of men if I have the eyes of God They alone are sufficient to do me good since by their aspect they give happiness to all the Saints I will seek for thee O my beloved Lord from the break of day till the dead time of the night All places are solitary where thou art not and where thou art there onely is the fullness of all pleasures The Gospel for Wednesday the second week in Lent S. Matth 20. The Request of the wife of Zebedce for her sons James and John ANd Jesus going up to Jerusalem took the twelve Disciples secretly and said to them Behold we go up to Jerusalem and the Son of man shall be delivered to the chief Priests and to the Scribes and they shall condemn him to death and shall deliver him to the Gentiles to be mocked and scourged and crucified and the third day he shall rise again Then came to him the mother of the sons of Zebedee with her sons adoring and desiring something of him who said to her What wilt thou She saith to him Say that these my two sons may sit one at thy right hand and one at thy left hand in thy Kingdom And Jesus answering said You know not what you desire Can ye drink of the cup that I shall drink of They say to him We can He saith to them My cup indeed you shall drink of but to sit at my right hand and left is not mine to give to you but to whom it is prepared of my Father Moralities 1. WHat a short life have we and yet such large and vast ambitions We fear every thing like mortal men and yet desire all as if we should be immortal upon earth It is a strange thing to observe how the desire of honour slides even amongst the most refined devotions Some one is counted an Angel of Heaven amongst men who hath not forsaken his pretence upon earth Ambition sleeps in the bosoms of persons consecrated for the Altars It overthrows some whom luxury could not stir and moves those whom avarice could not touch We desire all to be known and to seem what we are not but this seeming is that which doth bewitch us All passions grow old and weaker by age onely the desire of worldly riches and honours is a shirt which we never put off till we come to the grave Why do we so extreamly torment our poor life by running after this shadow of honour which we cannot follow without trouble nor possess without fear nor lose without sorrow It is not a strange folly that men love such vanities till the very last instant of their own ruins and fear nothing so they may tumble into precipices of gold and silver 2. What great pains you take for these children as if they did not more belong to God than you you cast day and night where to place them when the Providence of God which is the great Harbinger of the world hath already markt their lodgings One is settled in a good Religious course another in the grave another perhaps shall have more than is necessary to make him a good man Eve imagined that her son Cain having all the world would have become some great God when ambition made him a devil incarnate You shall rarely make your children great Saints by getting them great honours You desire they should possess all that which overthrows them and pretending to make a building with one hand you destroy it with the other By all your earnest wishes and all your laborious endeavours for advancement of your children you effect nothing but thereby give them enticements to pleasure and weapons for iniquity 3. Whereupon should we build our ambitions if not upon the bloud of the holy Lamb At the foot of the Cross we behold a God covered with bloud crowned with thorns and reproches who warns us to be humble and at the same time we eagerly pursue worldly glory and ambition We resemble that unhappy daughter of Miltiades who did prostitute her self under her fathers Tropheys By our unmeasurable hunting after honours amongst the ignominies of Jesus Christ we abandon our selves to dishonour and make no other use of the Cross but onely to be a witness of our infidelity Aspirations AVoid be gone you importunate cares of worldly goods and honours you little tyrants which burn the bloud within our
find the like to whom wouldst thou have me go but to thy self who doest not yet cease to call me The Gospel upon the third Sunday in Lent S. Luke 11. Jesus cast out the Devil which was dumb ANd he was casting out a devil and that was dumb And when he had cast out the devil the dumb spake and the multitudes marvelled And certain of them said in Belzebub the Prince of Devils he casteth out Devils And others tempting asked him a sign from Heaven But he seeing their cogitations said to them Every Kingdom divided against it self shall be made desolate and house upon house shall fall And if Satan also be divided against himself how shall his Kingdom stand because you say that in Belzebub I do cast out Devils And if I in Belzebub cast out Devils your children in whom do they cast out Therefore they shall be your judges But if I in the finger of God do cast out Devils surely the Kingdom of God is come upon you When the strong armed keepeth his court those things are in peace that he possesseth but if a stronger than he come upon him and overcome him he will take away his whole armour wherein he trusted and will distribute his spoils He that is not with me is against me and he that gathereth not with me scattereth When the unclean spirit shall depart out of a man he wandreth through places without water seeking rest and not finding he saith I will return into my house whence I departed And when he is come he findeth it swept with a besom and trimmed Then he goeth and taketh seven other spirits worse than himself and entering in they dwell there And the last of that man be made worse than the first And it came to pass when he said these things a certain woman lifting up her voice out of the multitude said to him Blessed is the womb that bare thee and the paps that thou didst suck But he said Yea rather blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it Moralities 1. THe Almond-tree is the first which begins to flourish and it is often first nipt with frost The tongue is the first thing which moves in a mans body and is soonest caught with the snares of Satan That man deserves to be speechless all his life who never speaks a word better than silence 2. Jesus the eternal word of God came upon earth to reform the words of man his life was a lightening and his word a thunder which was powerfull in effect but always measured within his bounds He did fight against ill tongues in his life and conquered them all in his death The gall and vinegar which he took to expiate the sins of this unhappy tongue do shew how great the evil was since it did need so sharp a remedy He hath cured by suffering his dolours what it deserved by our committing sins Other vices are determined by one act the tongue goes to all it is a servant to all malitious actions and is generally confederate with the heart in all crimes 3. We have just so much Religion as we have government of our tongues A little thing serves to tame wild beasts and a small stern will serve to govern a ship Why then cannot a man rule so small a part of his body It is not sufficient to avoid lying perjuries quarrels injuries slanders and blasphemies such as the Scribes and Pharisees did vomit out in this Gospel against the purity of the Son of God We must also repress idle talk and other frivolous and unprofitable discourses There are some persons who have their hearts so loose that they cannot keep them within their brests but they will quickly swim upon their lips without thinking what they say and so make a shift to wound their souls 4. Imitate a holy Father called Sisus who prayed God thirty years together every day to deliver him from his tongue as from a capital enemy You shall never be very chaste of your body except you do very well bridle your tongue For loosness of the flesh proceeds sometimes from liberty of the tongue Remember your self that your heart should go like a clock with all the just and equal motions of his springs and that your tongue is the finger which shews how all the hours of the day pass When the heart goes of one side and the tongue of another it is a sure desolation of your spirits Kingdom If Jesus set it once at peace and quiet you must be very carefull to keep it so and be very fearfull of relapses For the multiplying of long continued sins brings at last hell it self upon a mans shoulders Aspirations O Word incarnate to whom all just tongues speak and after whom all hearts do thirst and languish chase from us all prating devils and also those which are dumb the first provoke and loose the tongue to speak wickedly and the other bind it when it should confess the truth O peace-making Solomon appease the divisions of my heart and unite all my powers to the love of thy service Destroy in me all the marks of Satans Empire and plant there thy Trophees and Standards that my spirit be never like those devils which seek for rest but shall never find it Make me preserve inviolable the house of my conscience which thou hast cleansed by repentance and clothed with thy graces that I may have perseverance to the end without relapses and so obtain happiness without more need of repentance The Gospel upon Munday the third week in Lent S. Luke 4. Jesus is required to do Miracles in his own Countrey ANd he said to them Certes you will say to me this similitude Physitian cure thy self as great things as we have heard done in Capharnaum do also here in thy Countrey And he said Amen I say to you that no Prophet is accepted in his own Country In truth I say to you there were many widows in the dayes of Elias in Israel when the heaven was shut three years and six moneths when there was a great famine made in the whole earth and to none of them was Elias sent but into Sarepta of Sidon to a widow woman And there were many Lepars in Israel under Elizeus the Prophet and none of them made clean but Naaman the Syrian And all in the Synagogue were filled with anger hearing these things And they rose and cast him out of the Citie and they brought him to the edge of the hill whereupon their Citie was built that they might throw him down headlong But he passing through the midst of them went his way Moralities 1. THe malignity of mans nature undervalueth all that which it hath in hand little esteems many necessary things because they are common The Sun is not counted rare because it shines every day and the elements are held contemptible since they are common to the poor as well as the rich Jesus was despised in his own Countrey because he
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
a Curiosity black and faulty as those who seek for a Master in matter of Religion and would gladly talk with a devil to learn news from Paradise or such as those who strain curious Sciences so hard that they sqeeze black and maligne vices out of them as Magick or the trick of coining false money or as those who are mad to hear to see to know the vices or mischiefs of others Others have a more innocent Curiosity one of medals another of Tulipaes some of voyages others of companies and indeed of all things which may serve for incentives to Concupiscence There are of them who are much disquieted with matters which little concern them they are curious to know all that passeth in the world in the Indies in Japonia how many elephants the great Mogull keeps who is to succeed the King of China in his Empire whether the great Turk armeth whether the Persian stirreth and what forces Prester John hath for the preservation of his State They think within themselves what a face they would set upon it if they were Kings or Popes They in their heads dispose of Kingdomes They raise Republicks they rig forth ships they pitch battels and after they have doated they find nought but nothing in their hands Others advance not their aims so high but rest satisfied with inferiour thoughts and petty cares as how to trot up and down the streets to visit houses and to ask of all they meet what news do you hear As also to observe post-dayes and to visit their friends round by a list-roll indifferently to heap together the bruits of the City to vent them again without any consideration There are some who make vows of pilgrimages not out of Devotion towards Saints but from a purpose to content their Curiosity They know all the Indulgencies which are throughout all the Churches of the Province and beyond all the houses that are built all the christnings every day all the weddings celebrated all the child-births of male or female all the merchandizes newly brought in all the strangers who arrive all the suits determinated all the charges given all the offices sold all the pamphlets cryed up and down the streets Their heads are wonderfull Fairs whither merchants come from all sides there is not a moment of repose and solitude with such is accounted a petty Hell This multiplicity of Desires is waited on by another In constancy followeth the multitude of Desires Malady of Inconstancy which is properly a levity and an irresolution of mind which sheweth it self in his manners actions and words who is touched with it To say truth this passion is a Devil who inhabiteth in The kingdome of Inconstancy a land of Quicksilver where Earthquakes are almost perpetuall winds blow on each side and blowing make many weather-cocks to turn to and fro and every moment change posture In this place an admirable Creature is to be seen who is not what she is and is that she is not so many faces and figures she hath She likewise is still upon transformations and seems to do nothing at all but to make and unmake her self One while she is great another while little one while grosse another while slender one while affable another while harsh one while serious another while gamesome but ever slippery and if you lay hold of her you catch nothing She goes forth of her lodging to appear in publick as if she came into a Theatre clothed one while in changeable Taffaty another while with different pieces set together out of a singular Fantastick addlenesse of wit She alone representeth all personages talks with all kind of voyces and in all manner of languages After her we behold a million of petty phantasmes imperfect in shape and which seem to be but pieces roughly begun which we may say are her works If you a little observe the men which inhabit this kingdome of Inconstancy you shall find they are people whose humours consist much of air and water for they are alwayes supple and pliant to all manner of objects they have a spirit which brooketh not businesses with a strong and solid penetration to see the bottome of it but onely scratch them with a little bodkin which is blunted and broken presently If you could see their heart and brain you should behold in the one huge squadrons of thoughts which scuffle together like Cadmus his souldiers in the other a mighty masse of desires and indigested purposes which renders them very unable to receive the impressions of the Divinity as S. Basil hath observed upon that Prophet Isaiah 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Basil Hom. 1. in Isaiam It seemeth all this kind of people have a will of wax and that any man may work it which way he list Their passions are sharp and ardent in the beginning so that they transport judgement which is either notably weak or much benummed but they last not for they instantly are troubled at things present and ever tum their face away from the future never as it were being where they are and still being where they neither are nor can be You shall see they every day begin to live yea when they should make an end and if they do any good they do it but by halves never allowing themselves leisure to lick their Bear as they say nor to finish their work so precipitate they are by contrariety of different desires which draw them this way and that way and destroy all the abilities of their wits You shall note in them a great greedinesse after novelties and continuall changes of manners study apparel of wearing their hair of their manner of living gate of voyce of conversation of sports exercises counsels loves of amities words and of mouths which at once breathe forth hot and cold To conclude their life is nought else but the floud and ebbe of a continuall Euripus it is replenished with shadows giddinesse and illusions which in effect make it miserable For commonly it is waited on by disesteem grief shame anxiety and great shipwracks of wit and renown § 3 The four sources out of which ill-rectified desires proceed YOu must know that those restlesse desires which toil us proceed from four sources the first and Four sources of Desires which toil us principall whereof is a Heart void of things Divine there being not saith S. Augustine a more manifest signe that a soul is not well with God then when it entertaineth a multiplicity of desires Moses pulled off his shoes before the burning bush where he saw his eyes cleared by the rayes of the Divine Majesty in my opinion to teach us that his heart was at an end of its journey since he had found the Centre of eternall Rest Whilst the soul of man is out of the limits which God assigned it well it may find Innes to lodge in but it never finds a home But he who knows the way how to accommodate himself in all things
are those that dispute here though beyond their sight concerning the Learning of Solomon and would His Knowledge prove that he composed Comedies and Satyrs but although we cannot deny that he was filled with abundance of Learning yet we must affirm that his Politicall Science had the chiefest place and that all his knowledge of Naturall things tended but to that intent seeing that he specified it in his Prayer that the desire of Wisdome that he professed was onely for the Government of his Kingdome And hence we may gather that Learning is an Instrument very necessary for the accomplishment of Whether learning be profitable for Princes great Princes although that the ignorant may conceive otherwise They say that this makes them too lofty curious and self-conceited and that hence they take the boldnesse to rest upon their own belief and deifie all their opinions a great Authority being sufficiently able to raise up a little sufficiency They bring the examples of Nero and Julian the Apostate both which having so well studied they governed ill and came to an unhappy end But I shall avouch to them that knowledge and judgement without piety is an unprofitable commodity and sometimes pernicious to Kings Hence it is that they take occasion to move extravagant questions to undertake dangerous businesses to authorize their faults by apparent reasons and to be pricked forward with a conceit which causes them to despise all counsels Neverthelesse it is an insupportable abuse to blame The learning of a Prince defended good things in those which either have but the counterfeit thereof or which make an evil use of them I esteem not Nero nor Julian to have been very learned men because they had skill in Poetry and Rhetorick without ever well attaining the knowledge of their principall profession and if they having learned good precepts among humane Writers have abused them shall one say for that that they are naught and dangerous for a Prince By the same reason we might condemne the Sunne because that Phaeton burnt himself in those heats And take away the Water from amongst the Elements because that Aristotle as they say was drowned therein Lastly we might bring an accusation against Nature in generall and so find nothing to be good of all that God made because it may be corrupted by the wickednesse of men But for two or three Princes somwhat learned which have used their skill evilly how many ignorant ones shall we find which have done farre more cruel and barbarous things then these as Dioclesian Licinius Maximian Bajazet and Sclim Nature hath placed all the Senses which are the principles of our Knowledge in the Head to give us to understand that all the lights ought to be in a Prince which is the Head of his Realm The Soul is not more necessary for the Body then Understanding for a King He is as Philo reports to his people that which God is to the creature And what doth God but onely shed forth his clearnesse throughout the whole world visible and invisible and what ought a Monarch to do but to make himself the fountain of good counsels that should maintain his estate What can a Prince do which sees not but with others eyes which speaks not but by the mouth of another which hears not but with borrowed ears but onely lose his estimation in the minds of his Subjects and yield up his Authority as a prey unto those that knowing his insufficiency take the boldnesse to enterprise any thing without punishment I confesse there are those which having not studied have a very good understanding which they have polished by the experience of things in the world and by conversing with great personages but how can we say that those are ignorant which know as much as the books and might serve for examples to Philosophers their modesty doth yet make them affirm and acknowledge that if they had received a deeper tincture of good learning they should have drawn therefrom the more grace and advantage I would in no wise that a Prince should be like to Knowledge ought to be moderate the Emperour Michael Paripanatius which had alwayes Table-books in his hand and a pen composing of Verses or making Periods to run smooth I do not so much esteem such petty shews of superfluous knowledge and ill ordered in a great one but to see a man at the government of people which hath laid a deep foundation of true piety knows the secrets of Philosophy the best purified is no wayes ignorant of Divine and Humane Laws is skilfull in the Histories of all Nations with very diligent Observations and particular applications to his own government A man that can judge speak and act that can expresse himself with clearnesse and majesty of words fitting to his estate this is it which makes him appear as a God amongst men which gives him authority amongst his people which makes him esteemed by his equalls feared by his inferiours terrible to his enemies and honoured by all the world It is by these means that Augustus Cesar Trajan Vespatian Marcus Aurelius Antoninus and so man others whereof Tiraquel reckons up eight and thirty very famous in his Book of Nobility have attained to that heighth of reverence which hath made them honoured throughout all ages For a proof of this we see the great reputation The judgement of Solomon on the contention of the two women that Solomon got in judging of the two women which disputed whose the little infant should be Both of them said equally that she was the true mother the one acted it cunningly the other proceeded therein with truth It was needfull to know which spoke from the heart and which from the tongue onely There are counterfeits so well stuft out and neatly coloured that many able men cannot know nor are able to distinguish the true from the false Parmeno counterfeited so perfectly the cry of a young chicken that one would have thought that nature could not have set out out any thing better in comparison of him So many skilfull men so many gray heads were at that time in the Court of Solomon which lost themselves in this counterfeit without being able to discover it and when he commanded a sword to be brought and to divide the little infant all the world was amazed some thought his judgement was grosse that it was cruel and bloudy but Solomon had studied in the bosome of nature the affections of a true mother When he understood that the one approved of this command and was urgent that the infant should be divided in two he drove her away as an impudent one but when he saw that the other was moved and wounded deeply at her heart and that she cryed with a pitifull voyce that they should rather give the infant all whole to that wicked one then to make two pieces of it When he considered the affrightment on her face and all the veins of her body
by causing him to be espoused to the daughter of an high Priest of the city of Heliopolis consecrated to the sun but he caused him to be called The Saviour of the world and commanded that he should be carryed through the capitall city upon his triumphant chariot and that the Herald of Arms should cause men to bend their knees before him that he might be acknowledged of all the people and that all the world might understand that nothing was done but by his orders Where are those admirers of the fortunes of glasse that happen to to the wicked where are those adorers of the Colussu's of dirt that appear by the help of some false guildings and are immediately reduced to dust Let them see and let them consider that the God of heaven and earth which we adore is the God of honour too whereof he gives a share to his when it pleases him with magnificences that surpasse all whatsoever one can imagine For a prison of three years Joseph is exalted to a principality of fourscore with an authority so absolute that it never yet had its equall since the foundation of the Monarchy of the Egyptians It now remains to observe for the instruction of Courtiers the deportments of Joseph in that Charge and although the Scripture sayes very little of that businesse enlarging it self principally upon the narration of his reconciliation with his brethren yet it omits not to give us something whereon to meditate and whereby to instruct our selves about his demeanour at the Court. In the first place he is greatly to be commended for having preserved through his whole life a piety inviolable in the Religion of his fathers without altering the service of the true God by any bad tincture of the superstition of the Egyptians Represent to your selves a child about seventeen years of age that was in a strange Nation as the Morning-star whereof the Scripture speaks in the midst of clouds without a father without a mother without a governour or a teacher without a Priest without a Sacrifice without a Law without Precepts and without example that saw himself allured and powerfully sollicited to quit his Religion by that complacency which he desired to give his Prince by the consideration of his fortune by the friendship of the great ones by the condition of his marriage and by the liking which he might aim at of a people extremely fastned to their errour that could not easily endure those that had any other opinion of their Gods then their madnesse did prescibe And yet in an age so tender he holds his own by constancy of mind against the mighty by reason against the sages of the countrey by warinesse against his own wife by sweetnesse and by prudence against the people He remains alone amongst so many millions of superstitious men an adorer of the truth in spirit without other sacrifices or ceremonies which were not lawful for him to use To speak truth he that shall weigh all these circumstances will find a marvellous weight of virtue and constancy in this holy personage We may see many of the young gentry sufficiently well educated at the first that coming to breathe the air of liberty amongst the Hereticks and having not the frequentation of the Sacraments so free as formerly easily forget their duty and without having any other corruptour to sollicite them corrupt themselves of themselves through the want of courage and wearisomnesse of virtue But if there be any baits of pleasure or of honour that allures them to the side of impiety they tread often times under foot all that there is of divine and humane for the satisfying of their sensuality But this young man that saw every day before his eyes a thousand stumbling-blocks in a Nation that was addicted to Idolatry above all the People of the World and that had often torn in pieces those that expressed any contempt of their Ceremonies preserves himself amidst these enticements and these furies as a fountain of fresh-water in the midst of the salt-Sea The true God alwayes returned into his thoughts when he was to combate against the passion of his Mistresse when he was to present himself to the King when he was to require an oath of his brethren it was by the true God and when he was ready to render up the Ghost he conjured his children not to let his bones rot in a land of Idolatry Yet some men may wonder that in so long a sojourning as he made in Egypt and in an authority so absolute he tooke care onely of the Politick affairs and advanced not the interests of his Religion Some may marvell at the alliance that he made with a daughter of a Priest of Idols which could not be without putting his conscience in great danger there being nothing more full of Artifice then superstition that is upheld with Love But to this I answer That all that he could do then was to preserve his Faith without pretending to ruine the contrary It was not expedient that the figure should incroach upon the Body and that Joseph should do the work of the Messias This demolition of the prophane Temples and this destruction of the Idols was not due but to Jesus Christ and to the Deifying operations of the Evangelicall Law after the coming of the Holy Spirit How should Joseph have been able to enterprise the conversion of the Gentiles seeing that our Lord would not permit no not his Disciples while he was yet on earth to make incursions and missions into the Countrey of the Heathens commanding them to stay for that spirit of fire and light that was to inflame the whole world with its ardours And as for that which touches his allyance there was not yet any Law that forbad the Mariages of the Jews with the Gentiles and he had but newly seen the example of his Father Jacob who had allyed himself with the house of Laban This was done indifferently enough in the Law of Nature by reason that God had not commanded any thing that was contrary to this practice and because that his People were yet but a little family in the middle of the world But this fashion was changed afterward as it is clear by the Scripture and those who produce the Examples of Abraham and of Jacob to perswade allyance with Infidels shew that they have little Reason and much Passion In the second Place I say that the Modesty of Joseph is of a rare Example and of a strength of mind almost incomparable Which will be easie enough to prove to those that know how seriously to weigh the change of humour and of spirit that honour ordinarily brings with it and especially when it is great and sudden and falls upon a person that is not accustomed to it There are some that are like the Thracians that make themselves Drunk standing about burning coals by the odour of a certain herb which they throw into the fire after which they dance
the living God with so much force and vigour as they made tender the bowels of the God of mercy that descends and speaks athwart the Flames and Thrones to bring about their safety Moses and Aaron failed not to discover themselves to the most eminent of the chosen people concerning the Counsel that God had taken of their Liberty whereat they were at first so joyed that they prostrated themselves on the earth through respect adoring the divine Goodnesse that carried himself with so much love to the easing of their misery but when this businesse proved thorny and full of obstacles their courage failed them and had almost as leave crouch in their Servitude as buy their Liberty at the price of a reasonable pain Yet Moses accompanied with his brother courageously transports himself to Pharaoh's Palace speaks to him with a generous liberty from the living God and declares to him his Commands which were to dismisse his people and let them go out of Egypt to sacrifice in the wildernesse He that reigned at that time was one Pharaoh Cenchris an haughty and insolent Prince who having never heard any such language said That he knew not that God that intermeddled to make him such Commands and that he was fully resolved not to let go the prey which he held in his hands that all these discourses of Sacrifices and of Devotions proceeded from nothing but a pure idlenesse fatall to the Jewish people and that he would give them so much exercise that they should not have the leasure to dream on such Fancies And in effect he commanded the Commissaries that presided over the labour of those poor slaves to redouble their Pains and augment their Burdens The straw that was furnished them before to make the brick taken from them they were constrained to seek for it where they could and yet for all this the number of their bricks which they were bound to render every day was not diminished And though this was a thing impossible for them yet must they expect rods and bastonado's and all imaginable rigours This made a great noise amongst the People which began already to murmure against Moses and Aaron blaming their enterprise and complaining that they would set them at Liberty It is a most ordinary thing in all great affairs there are spirits that are like those watry clouds that never carry lightning so cannot they ever conceive any thing that is vigorous they would have good things but they would have them loosely and would willingly desire that Nature should renew for them the favours of the Terrestriall Paradise and should give them roses that should never be compassed about with thorns But as one ought not to be rash and violent to push forward businesses out of a giddy humour so ought one not to be slack and effeminate in letting those alone that oblige us by conscience and by duty Moses desists not for all this but takes a stout resolution to advance the work of God even to the Point whither Providence would have it come He had on one side men to combate with that resisted their own good and on the other an impious obstinate and cruel Prince he gains the one by reasons and by sweetnesse he brings down the other by threats and prodigies One may here manifestly see the paths that God hath trodden in the punishment of Pharaoh when he would abandon a King or a great man for his demerits and sacrifice him to his Justice letting him fall into a reprobate sense which is the last step that one makes to enter into hell He permits him to satiate an Ambition or a Revenge to intangle himself in some great design under the pretense of Justice and of Honour and forasmuch as he is extremely thirsty after the greatnesse of the earth puts him upon a pinacle in the highest dignities and the most magnificent negotiations leaves him to himself and to the wishes of his own heart and although he be vicious gives him great successes and incomparable prosperities that puffe up his heart and make him presume upon his own conduct He takes from him the taste of Divine things letting him slide into a contempt of the holy Word and of all the admonitions that one can give him about his safety If he hath any faithfull Counsellour he puts him out and substitutes in his place flatterers and enchaunters If there come any scourge from heaven to overwhelm him he is made believe that it is but a naturall thing and ordinary enough and that he ought not to trouble himself about such a businesse If he be sensible of any evill that affrights him men endeavour suddenly to scatter it and to make him understand that that is not the wrath of God but an order of Nature and that he may mock at the tempest as soon as the calm returns All this is made visible in this miserable Prince A great Kingdome great Ambitions Revenges hereditaty against the chosen People an immoveable design to root them out a contempt of God successe in his vengeances and some satisfaction of spirit by the pains of those miserable ones Moses baffled the Flatterers hearkned to the Magicians adored the Plagues of heaven turned into laughters as soon as they were passed an heart at last hardned by its own malice and not by the work of God who doth no more make sin then the Sun makes the night Moses endeavours first to gain him by the force of reasons and by the sweetnesse of words whereto when he shewed resistance he employed Miracles for the proof of his Commission which the King caused to be counterfeited by his Magicians opposing the Shadow to the Light and a Lie to Truth After which the wrath of Heaven caused those ten Plagues related in Exodus successively to rain upon him For that unfortunate Prince saw first of all the River of Nile all in bloud as if it had demanded Vengeance of God for those little Innocents that had been cast into it He saw Frogs that came out of the same Stream by an impetuous ebullition in such a manner as that they covered all the fields entred into the houses filled the tables mounted upon the beds and gave horrour and torments to all Egypt He saw thick clouds of Gnats that were raised all on a sudden casting themselves upon the cattle and upon the men with so irksome a trouble that their life was full of bitternesse He saw after that armies of all sorts of Flies so different in their kind so violent in their assaults and so pernicious in their effects that they defiled every thing with their venome He saw a furious mortality of Beasts that fell every moment and infected the air by their corruption He saw the bodies of his Subjects all laden with Ulcers wherewith the Magicians themselves in punishment of their crimes were covered in such a fashion as that they could stand no longer in the presence of their King He saw the most horrible Hail
wherein their spirits being poured out into an excessive voluptuousnesse the King himself being full of wine and impiety commanded that the magnificent vessels which his grandfather had taken in the Temple of Jerusalem should be brought upon their cupboard which was readily performed and he put them into the hands of his wanton Courtiers and immodest women who mocked at the mysteries of the true Religion That banqueting-house seem'd nothing now but a repair of Bacchanals where Gluttony Love Sport Jeasting exercised all their power and the lascivious devils were unchain'd to induce the ghests to all sort of intemperance when behold a Prodigy comes that changes the dissolute merriments of that Court into an horrible tragedy An hand of a man without the body appeared upon a wall whose fingers seem'd to move and to write unknown characters whereat the King was so affrighted that all his body trembled and his countenance appeared laden with pale colours of Death which spoiled all the sport and caused a great silence in the banqueting-hall Immediately recourse was had to the Sages and Diviners of Chaldea to reade and interpret that writing but they were found alwayes weak in such mysteries as these The Queen Mother had a good soul and retained alwayes some impression of the true Religion she remembred Daniel that was at that time banished from the Court and had in esteem ' his great wisdome and good conversation and thefore as soon as she had heard of the accident that had happened and the great trouble of mind the King her son was in she entred into the hall and spake to him very advantageously of Daniel assuring him that he was a personage that was fill'd with the Deity and that under the Reign of his Grandfather he had given admirable interpretation of hidden things which made him be loved of that great King who fail'd not to declare him the Prince of the Council of the Sages of Chaldea but that the insolences of Evilmerodach insufferable to all the world had driven him from the Court though not from Babylon in which yet he was and that he was the onely man capable to resolve him in so strange a businesse The King received this advice with much joy and commanded instantly that Daniel should be caused to come to him who was retired in his little solitude He is sought for he is found he is brought to his Majesty who entertained him very courteously and asked of him the Interpretation of the words written on the wall promising him that if he would tell him the truth he would give him the purple robe and the collar of the Order But Daniel expressed to him that all these presents moved him nothing and that he aimed at no other honour at the Court then that of his Master whose will and decrees he would declare He puts the King in mind of his Grandfather of the Greatnesse and of the Majesty of his Empire of the absolute power that he exercised over men and how his heart being lifted up against God he was reduced to a brutall life in which he remained the space of seven years till such time as his chastisement giving him wisdome had rendred to him his health and Sceptre After he had prepared the spirit of Belshazzar by a domestick example he told him with a generous freedome that that which he had known to happen to the person of that great King was sufficient to humble him and yet he had exalted himself against the Sovereign Monarch and had caused with much mirth of heart the consecrated Vessels of his Temple to be profaned when he caused his Gods of gold and silver to be praised to the roproach of the true God and that in revenge of so bad an action that hand which he had seen on the wall was sent from heaven and had written three horrible words which are Mene Tekel Pheres that is to say Count Weigh Divide the first signifies that God hath counted the dayes of his reign and hath put a period to them the second that he had been put in the balance of the Sovereign Judge and that he had not been found weight the third that his kingdome should be divided and given for a prey to the Medes and Persians It is a strange thing that Daniel having made so dolefull a prediction King Belshazzar entred not into wrath against him but on the contrary commanded that the purple and collar of gold should be given him which he had promised to the Interpreter of his vision But there will be lesse cause to wonder if we consider that it was a Maxim amongst the Babylonians not to be angry with the Diviners and Astrologers when they foretold any evil to come no more then with the shadow of a Sun-diall that shews the hour or the weather-cock that declares the wind And furthermore this young Prince hearing his Prophet speak with so much judgement and sanctity had him in esteem for a man of God which he ought not to offend and besides that by entreating him with courtesie he hoped that being a friend of the true Gods he might have as much power to turn away the scourge wherewith he was threatned as he had understanding to know it and forced of spirit to foretell it One might also marvel that Daniel who at the the beginning testified that he made small account of the riches and greatnesse of the Court for all that accepted of the purple of the chain and of the dignity of the third person in the kingdome that was presented to him But we ought to observe that sometimes it is an infirmity of spirit not to be able to endure honour when it comes by a Divine disposall and a secret of Providence over us This wise Courtier considered that being of his own nature so farre from all these things they came to seek him out in his solitude and that it was a sign of God that would have it so not for him but for the benefit of his Nation which was much more favourably used in matter of the exercise of their Religion when he was in favour besides that the virtue and moderation which he made glitter in all his actions even in his highest prosperities contrary to the ordinary manner of all those that were then at Court gave more glory to God then if he had been perpetually hidden in an obscure life It was an indiscretion in Belshazzar to expresse so much astonishment and to disclose that prediction by reason that there was a secret conspiracy against him which was plotted amidst those publike dissolutions and the conspiratours were the more animated to the execution of that enterprise when they knew that that Prodigy threatned him The same night they performed their wicked design and outrageously murdered him after he had reigned but nine moneths since his fathers death The principall men of the Kingdome that were of the conspiracy chose one of their complices named Nabonidus who is called in Scripture
hour of the day to remain shut up in the enclosure of a palace walls as old owls and to have no other pleasure but to make fire and bloud rain upon the heads of men What contentment to wax pale at every flash of lightning to tremble at every assault of the least disease to prepare poisons and haltars for every change of fortune to live for nothing but to make men die and to die for nothing but to make the devils a spectacle of their pains Is this it that deserves the name of felicity and the admiration of the world After that Josiah had drawn tears from the eyes of all the Kingdome the people honouring his memory set his son Jehoahaz upon the Throne who reigned but three moneths because that Nechoh puft up with his victory that would not suffer them to think of making a King without his consent came and fell upon Jerusalem and carried him away prisoner into Egypt where he died of displeasure and bad usage He took his brother Eliakim or Jehoiakim to put him in his place and to make him reign under his authority But Nebuchadonozor who esteemed himself the God of Kings could not endure that the Egyptian should intermeddle with giving Crowns came to besiege Jerusalem with great forces and having won it carried away the miserable Jehoiakim captive into Babylon with the flower of the city and the sacred vessels of the Temple when he reckoned yet but the third year of his reign It was a pitifull thing to see this infortunate King in chains after a dignity so short and so unhappy but this so lamentable a change moved his adversary to compassion who released him upon condition of a great annuall tribute He discharged it for the space of three years by constraint his heart and inclinations leaning alwayes towards Egypt and never ceasing tacitely to contrive new plots Besides he so forsook the service of God and abandon'd himself to the impiety of the Idolaters that the admonitions and menaces of the Prophet Jeremy that had foretold him of a most tragicall issue had no power upon his spirit And therefore Nebuchadonozor returned the eleventh year of the reign of this unhappy King and having conquered him again caused him to be assassinated and his body to be cast on the dunghill for a punishment of his rebellion He permitted his son Jehoiachin otherwise Jechonias to succeed him but scarce had this disastrous Prince reigned three moneths before this terrible Conquerour transported him with his mother his wives and servants and made him feel in Babylon the rigours of Captivity after he had robbed him of all his treasures and drawn out of Jerusalem ten thousand prisoners of the principall men of all Judea so that this deplorable Realm was then between Egypt and Babylon as a straw between two impetuous winds incessantly tossed hither and thither without finding any place of consistence Nebuchadonozor made a King after his own fancy and chose Zedekiah the uncle of Jehoiachin who was at last the most miserable of all the rest Here it it that Jeremy received a good share of the sufferings of his dear countrey and found himself intangled in very thorny businesses in which he gave most excellent counsels that were little followed so resolute were the King and Nobles to their own calamity He had been very much troubled under the Reign of Jehoiakim for as he was prophecying one day aloud of the ruine of the city of Jerusalem and the entire desolation of the Temple the Priests seized upon his person and caused the people to mutiny against him out of a design to make him be torn in pieces But it chanced by good hap that some Lords of the Court ran to appease that tumult before whom Jeremy justified himself and protested that it was the Spirit of God that moved to fore-tell those sad disastres for the correction of the sins of Jerusalem and that the onely means to shelter themselves from the wrath of heaven was seriously to embrace repentance and told them that it was in their hands to do him Justice and that if they used him otherwise they would shed innocent bloud that would rebound against them and the whole city Those Courtiers judged that there was nothing in him worthy of death and delivered him from the hands of those wicked Priests that were ready to assassinate him there being no persecution in the world like to that which comes from sacred persons when they abuse their dignity to the execution of their revenge After this shaking command is given him again to hold his peace and to remain shut up in a certain place without preaching or speaking in publick which was the cause that he dictated from his mouth his thoughts and conceptions to Baruch his Secretary commanding him to read them in a full assembly of the people which he did without sparing the great and principall men to whom he communicated them so that this passed even to the ears of King Jehojakim who would needs see the book and when he had read three or four pages of it he cut it with a penknife and cast it into the fire commanding that Jeremy and his Secretary Baruch should be apprehended But God made them escape ordaining that that deplorable King that had despised his Word and the admonitions of his Prophet should fall into that gulf of miseries that had been fore-told him The same abominations ceased not under the Reign of Zedekiah and Jeremy resumed also new forces to fight against them and to publish the desolations that should suddenly bury that miserable Nation then Pashur one of the principall and of the most violent Priests caused the Prophet to be brought before him to reprehend him for that he ceased not to fore-tell evils and to torment all the world by his predictions Whereupon he entred into so great a wrath against the innocent that without having any regard to the decency of his dignity he stroke him and not content with that caused him to be clapt in prison and chains to be put upon him This Divine personage seeing himself reduced to that captivity for having brought the Word of God and being left as it were to himself to do and suffer according to nature and humane passions was seized with a great melancholy and made complaints to God which parted not but from the abundance of love that he bare to him Ha! what said he my God have you then deceived me And who doubts but that you are stronger then I Who am I to resist you You have made me carry your word and to speak boldly your adorable truths to Kings and Peoples and for this I am handled as an Imposture and as the dreg of nature and the reproach of the world Behold what I have gained by serving you with so much obedience and fidelity Often have I said by my self I will obey the Magistrates I will hold my peace and remember no more the thoughts that God
Princes ears with such like words and to breed a distrust in him of Saint John in such a manner as that he consented that he should be apprehended and put in prison under colour as Josephus saith that he went about to change the peoples minds and to embroil the State This detaining of a man so holy and so renowned made a great noyse through all Judea but the wicked woman had this maxime That one ought to take ones pleasure to content nature and little to trouble ones self at the opinions of the world below nor at the complaints of honest men judging that all mouthes ought to be stopped by the rigour of punishments and that she should be innocent when no body durst any more find fault with her actions She slept not one good sleep with her Herod as long as Saint John was yet alive but fearing alwayes either that her pretended husband whom she thought light enough might be softned with compassion to release him or that the people that held him for a Saint might break open the prisons to take him thence she resolved to see the end of him to give all liberty to her unbridled passions She watches the opportunity of Herods birth-day on which he was accustomed to make feasts and to intertein the principall Officers of his Kingdome This crafty woman tampered with all the wills of those that had any power over his spirit for this design and seeing that her daughter was a powerfull instrument to move that effeminate Prince and that he was extraordinarily pleased to see her dance conjured her to employ all her genius and all her industry all the baits allurements and gentilesses that she had in dancing to gain the Kings heart and that if she saw him very freely merry and on terms to gratifie her with some great advantage she should take heed of asking any thing but the head of John and that he was necessarily to fall if she would not see her mother perish and all her fortunes overthrown The daughter obeyed and fits her self even to perfection to please the Princes eyes she enters into the banqueting house richly deck'd and makes use of a dance not vulgar whereat he was ravished and all the Guests that were perhaps hired by Herodias to commend her made a wonderfull recitall of her perfections There was nothing now remaining but to give her the recompence of her pains This daughter of iniquity and not of nature sayes Chrysologus seeing that every one applauded her and that the King that was no longer his own man would honour her with some great present which he would remit to her own choyse even as far as to give her the moity of his Kingdome if she would have desired it made a bloudy request following the instructions of her wicked mother and required that instantly S. Johns head should be given her in a plate Herod felt his heart pricked with a repentance piercing enough but because he had sworn in presence of the Nobles of his Kingdomes to deny nothing that she should ask would not discontent her but gives command to the Master of his House to go to the prison and to cut off S. Johns head to put it in the hands of this wanton wench As soon as the word was pronounced her mother was not quiet till she saw the execution of it to Prison they run every one thought that it had been for some grace since that it was upon the nick of the feast of the Nativity of the King but they quickly saw an effect quite contrary to that thought when S. John was called for and told that he must resolve to dye What think we did this divine forerunner do at this last moment that remained to him of so innocent a life but render thanks to God that made him dye a Martyr for the truth after he had inlightned his eyes with the visible presence of the Incarnate Word which permitted him not to have any thing left in this world to be desired He exhorted his disciples to range themselves about our Saviour who was the Way the Life and the Truth He prayed for his persecutours and for the easing of the miseries of his poor people afterward having a relish of the first contentments of his felicity by the tranquility of his spirit he yielded his neck to the hangman His body was honourably buried by his disciples and his head brought in a plate to that cruell feast put into the hands of that danceresse who presented it to her mother and the mother according to S. Jerome made a play-game of it pricking the tongue with the needle of her hair All that one can speak is below the horrour of its spectacle sayes S. Ambrose The head of S. John of the Prime man of the world that had shut up the Law that had opened the Gospel the head of a Prophet of an Angell is outrageously taken off and delivered for the salary of a danceresse The soberest of men is massacreed in a feast of drunkards and the chastest by the artifice of a prostitute He is condemned on an occasion and on a time in which he would not even have been absolved as abhorring all that proceeded from intemperance O how dangerous is it then to offend a woman that hath renounced her honour Herod gave her an homicide for a kisse The hangmen wash their hands when they are ready to sit down at table but these unhappy women pollute theirs in the banquet with a Prophets bloud The righteous slain by adulterers the innocent by the guilty the true judge by criminall souls This banquet that should have been the source of life brings an edict of death Cruelty is mingled with delights and pleasure with funerals This horrible plate is carried through all the table for the satiating of those unhumane eyes and the bloud that drops yet from his veins falls upon the pavement to be licked up with the ordures of that infamous supper Look upon it Herod look upon a deed that was worthy of none but thy Cruelty stretch out thine hand put thy fingers in the wound that thou hast made that they may be again bedewed with a bloud so sacred Drink cruell man drink that river which thou seest glide to quench thy thirst Look upon those dead eyes that accuse thy wickednesse and which thou dost wound again with the aspect of thy filthy pleasures Alas they are shut not so much by the necessity of death as by the horrour of thy luxury The vengeance of God delayed not long to fall upon those perverse souls that had committed so enourmous a crime Arethas King of the Arabians resenting the affront that had been given to his daughter by those Adulterers enters in arms upon the lands of Herod who bestirrs himself but weakly to resist him Pleasures held him so fast chained that he had not the boldnesse to go to his frontiers in person to oppose his adversary but contented himself with sending a
was called Jesus and that it was difficult for me to strike my heels against the sharps of the spurre And immediately as I lay in amazement prostrate on the ground with those that were with me he commanded me to rise and said unto me That he would make choice of me for his people and for the Nations of the earth to give a testimony of him and to draw them from the power of wicked Spirits to come unto the Light that they may obtain remission of sins and the inheritance of Saints by the means of Faith which subsisteth in Jesus Christ Sirs For this I was not rebellious to the heavenly Vision but incontinently I set my self to preach the Word of God and to exhort all the world to convert themselves unto him by the works of Penitence Behold all my fault having done not any thing against the Law the Temple or against Cesar having alwayes counselled all the Subjects that ever heard me in the Empire to render unto him perfect obedience Neverthelesse certain of the Jews caused me to be apprehended in the Temple and excited the people against me who had torn me in pieces if I had not been succoured by the Armies and the Legions of the Empire God hath preserved my life until this present to discharge the Ministery and the Commission that he hath given me which is to deliver to the Nations the news of eternall Salvation Sirs I do observe you to be great observers of the Religion of the Gentiles you have Idols and Temples most magnificent but we ought not to imagine that God who is a most pure Spirit the Creatour of heaven and earth is inclosed in Temples built by the hand of men or that he stands on need of their works for the accomplishment of his Glory It is he that giveth life breath wealth honour profit and all that we can hope for in this world It is he who from one man hath derived the vast multitude of the people who by a continuall succession do inhabite the roundnesse of the earth It is he who giveth measures unto Times and bounds unto Empires and who inhabiteth a Light unapproachable It is he who inspires us all with a generous curiosity to seek him and to do our endeavours to find him and to touch him with fingers if his condition render him palpable But he is not farre from every one of us For in him we live we move and have our being and to speak according to your own Poet We are of the generation of God It is not then permitted to vilifie the Divine nature beneath us and to make it like unto things insensible as to gold silver precious stones and other materials elabourate by art and by the invention of men And certainly God from on high hath with compassion beheld this ignorance of men and hath given them his Sonne the substantiall Image of his Beauties and the Character of his Glory true God and true Man who is dead for our sins to wash us and regenerate us in his Bloud whose Words are Truth and whose Life a miracle even to the triumphing over Death by his Resurrection It is by him that the eternall Father will judge at the last both the quick and the dead and we all shall be represented before the Throne of his Majesty to receive the salary of the Good or Evill which in our bodies we have done This sovereign Monarch of Angels and of Men suffers not himself to be taken by the flesh or the bloud of bullocks or by the perfumes of incense but by the exercise of Justice and by the purity of our bodies in all sanctification Therefore Sirs as he hath advanced you in Dignity above other men so he hath more particularly obliged you to acknowledge and serve him and to adore him in Spirit and Truth and to render Justice according to the Commission which you have received from Cesar which is to deliver the innocent from the persecution of the insolent that so being true imitatours of his Justice and Mercy you may be one day partakers of his Glory This Discourse was well received by divers of them The effect of his Oration and a day was appointed for another Appearance where he so much explained and enlarged himself that he was sent back and pronounced guiltlesse and permitted to preach the Gospel in Rome with all liberty which gave much encouragemt to all the faithfull and even those who had before forsaken him did now reassemble themselves preaching in the Name of Jesus Phil. 1. 13. and exhorting all the world to Repentance Cornelius reports the opinion of some men who affirm that Saint Paul was expresly delivered by the advice and the authority of Seneca who at that time began miraculously to delight in his conversation And although they could not see one another as often as they would by reason of the considerations of State yet they mutually did write to one another which hath given occasion to some weak men who have not their spirits to counterfeit their letters ill imitated and which all knowing men are assured to be not of the strain either of S. Paul or Seneca Howsoever the fiction of the style doth no way hinder the truth of the antient Deed seeing that S. Hierome doth cite the true Letters which were in his time and doth alledge the Texts which are not now to be found in the Libraries of the Fathers Saint Paul continued at Rome two years after his first voyage where he gained many Christians to the Faith and some of the Court of Nero as is declared in his Epistles Seneca was amazed at the Authority which he had and desired that he might enjoy amongst his the like opinion of Belief as S. Paul had amongst the Christians but there was a difference in their spirits and their proceedings were from divers Methods Seneca was a man and S. Paul The parallel betwixt S. Paul and Seneca a demy-God The one studied with Attalus and Socion the other had the Word for his Doctour and the Angels for his Disciples The one sought after Nature the other found out the God of Nature The one lahoured after Eloquence the other studied Silence which is the father of Conceptions The one pleaded the Causes of parties the other pleaded the Cause of God The one governed the Republick of men the other laid open before us the Hierarchy of Angels The one was in the porch of Zenon the other in the school of Jesus The one laid the world low at his feet with his golden words and when he pleased did carry it on his head the other subdued it with mortification and the arms of the Crosse The one was full of good Desires the other of great Effects The one sought for himself in himself the other found himself altogether in God The one was a Minister of State the other of Heaven The one promised much and performed little the other promised nothing of
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
certain fears uncertain counsels deaths full of calamity long punishments fleeting pleasures posterity either none or of no continuance But on the other side if you please to contemplate the Records of Christian Princes who have governed their Kingdomes with sincerity of mind with gentlenesse of hand with a prudent moderation and an invincible integrity thorow so many crosse accidents temptations and discouragements of humane affairs you may behold Hero's beloved of their own feared by their enemies to have lived safe in felicity and accumulated glories and to have left behind them acceptable pledges of their own virtues for many generations Therefore casting away the counsels of such an impious and execrable Warre overcoming the charges of ambition with the comforts of a valiant modesty and repressing irregular desires by charity let us make our adresses to God the founder of Safety and the reconciler of Divisions for when we despair he can repair our extremity is the crisis of his opportunity But what is it that hath disobliged the desires frustrated the expectations of all men and almost tired out the oppressive sighs of the mourning Church with such tedious disappointments Is it Honour Is it Wealth Truly if Honour it is that which hath ministred not the weakest influence unto the vehement inducements of this Warre an opinion of contempt should now be cashiered when the fierce oppositions of two potent Kingdomes are engaged What affluence can out-age the plenty which either of them may justly boast What is more admirable then their Power What more undaunted then their Valour Fortitude in a cause so miserable is inded rather to be lamented then desired worthy the compelled praises of an Enemy or the dolefull experience of a Sarazen but being exercised in a mutuall discord among Christians most undervalued when best extolled a Spaniard hath no reason to contemne a French-man nor a French-man to despise a Spaniard yet either of them hath his advantages whereon to build a wish that their united strength might be exhibited in a more just contestation and a better fate If the question be concerning your Propriety it is a businesse so perplexed that Archesilaus hath long agone determined that it can never be determined so that if we contend about the Rights of Kingdomes Cities and Families we shall prove his words to be full of truth who called it the confusion of things and fortunes necessarily teeming with eternall jarres and endlesse disagreements about the assertions And if all things should be transacted according to the rigour of Justice we should neither have a King nor a rich man remaining If any man therefore were possessed of whatsoever the sagacity of his wit could suggest unto his wishes whatsoever opinion could fancy or appetite imagine let him plead that immense and perplexed Charter of Kingdomes from Nembrotus who first imposed the yoke upon free necks let him derive it downwards thorow the labyrinthed Successions of so many Ages or let him calculate upwards digging up his grandfather and great-grandfathers great-grandfather till by the search of so many Sepulchres he hath wearied the tenacious memory of the desirous and confounded the prudence of the skilfull what will he meet with at length but a suppeditation of fresh discord and fuell for new fires of tumult Who can be the arbitratour who the judge to compose such great differences as will result from such involved causes The Lord would not divide the inheritance between the Brethren he that appointed measure to the Heavens set bounds to the sea and prescribed a proportion to all the Elements even he refused to divide the Lamb between the kinsmen being confirmed that the avarice of men was contentious and implacable Therefore if Christ himself should now descend from heaven neither would he judge and determine your wealth your interest your propriety and fortunes neither if he would should he by the umpirage of his impartiall equity define all things according to your sense and will What remaineth therefore but that all Ages be worn out and wasted by infamous and degenerate Warre the parts and factions being not unequally matched and both sides most desirous of their ends and interests But is it so glorious and worthy an enterprise for such great Princes so pious so majesticall and such potent Lords of sea and land to contend about one city nay perhaps one castle and that too almost battered down by the thunder-bolts of warre nay about the very dust and rubbage and all this with deadly enmity which can be profitable to none but hurtfull to many I understand O ye wise and intelligent Counsellours to Princes what answer you will return to this that your Interest is herein concerned and your Honour engaged lest the propriety of your Masters should be diminished by that League which the whole world expecteth But I now leave that to be discussed by your prudence and equity whether the whole Christian world should be endangered in their fortunes lives bloud salvation and destruction of all things to give a minister of State a Kings servant an assurance of some fethery and airy fame and perhaps deepest routed in his own opinion What should such elevated souls as yours have for the object of their wishes but that all things should have a sweet and peaceable composure to the advantage both of Kings and Kingdomes But if you please ponder this choice whether it be not farre better for the Princes Honour and the utility of his State to remit somewhat of that tenacity of spirit and indeclinable rigour of mind then to subject and expose all things to the violence of fire and to the advantage of plunderers and murthering thieves But perhaps you imagine that it is better for Kingdomes to suffer direptions and devastations then ruine but what else is devastation then a direfull perdition 'T is a miserable comfort to destroy that you may not be destroyed and to take the burning of Cities to be felicities compared with rapine as if you should suppose it to be some goodly thing to die to avoid death That body is not lost that may be preserved by the sparing of a single nail In a great and flourishing Kingdome nothing doth perish if a small town or a castle be surrendred thereby to purchase a generall peace and lasting tranquillity Ministers of State lose nothing of their fame if they be reputed the fortunate Peace-makers of the world rather then the Fire-brands of a Kingdome and State-barrettours How many of this tenacious obstinacy and destructive circumspection have the unfortunate people blasted with execrations and defamed with reproaches because by litigious juglings they had deluded the world into an universall equipage of sorrow and complaint rather conniving at the destruction of all things then that they in the most speechlesse calamity would part with a toy of Honour to revive a perishing State But if any among you shall lend an ear of favourable regard to the complaints of the whole Christian world and