pleasures Fortitude Fortitude is a virtue which confirms us against the pusillanimity that may hinder good actions It hath two arms one to undertake the other to suffer Aristotle assigneth it four parts that is confidence patience love of labour and valour Patience Patience is an honest suffering of evils incident to nature The points thereof are To bear the loss of goods sickness sorrows injuries and other accidents with courage neither to complain nor to groan but discreetly to conceal your grief to be afflicted in innocency for justice sake and sometimes even by those that are good to covet and embrace persecutions out of a generous desire to be conformable to the patience of the Saviour of the world Justice Justice is a virtue which giveth to every one that which is his due and all the acts of it are included in this sentence You must measure others by the same measure wherewith you desire to be measured your self Magnanimitie Magnanimitie according to Thomas Aquinas is a virtue which aimeth at great things by the direct means of reason The acts thereof are To frame your self to an honest confidence by purity of heart and manners to expose your self reasonably to difficult and dreadfull exploits for Gods honour neither to be bewitched with prosperitie nor dejected at adversitie not to yield to opposition not to make a stay at mean virtues to despise complacence and threats for love of virtue to have regard onely to God and for his sake to disesteem all frail and perishable things to keep your self from presumption which often ruins high spirits under colour of Magnanimitie Gratitude Gratitude is the acknowledgement and recompence as far as lies in our power of benefits received The acts thereof are To preserve the benefit in our memory to profess and publish it to return the like without any hope of requital Amitie Amitie is a mutual good will grounded upon virtue and communitie of goods The acts thereof are To choose friends by reason for virtues sake communicating of secrets bearing with imperfections consent of wills a life serviceable and officious protection in adversities observance of honesty in every thing care of spiritual profit accompanied with necessary advice in all love and respect Simplicitie Simplicitie is nothing but union of the outward man with inward The acts thereof are To be free from all false colour never to lie never to dissemble or counterfeit never to presume to shun equivocation and double speech to interpret all things to the best to perform business sincerely to forgo multiplicity of employments and enterprizes Perseverance Perseverance is a constancy in good works to the end through an affection to pursue goodness and virtue The acts thereof are firmness in good quietness in services offices and ordinary employments constancy in good undertakings flight from innovations to walk with God to fix your thoughts and desires upon him neither to give way to bitterness nor to sweetness that may divert us from our good purposes Charitie toward God and our neighbour Charitie the true Queen of virtues consisteth in love of God and our Neighbour the love of God appeareth much in the zeal we have of his Glory the acts thereof are to embrace mean and painfull things so they conduce to our Neighbours benefit To offer the cares of your mind and the prayers of your heart unto God for him To make no exceptions against any in exercise of your charge to make your virtues a pattern for others To give you what you have and what you are for the good of souls and the glory of God to bear incommodities and disturbances which happen in the execution of your dutie with patience Not to be discouraged in successless labours To pray fervently for the salvation of souls to assist them to your power both in spiritual and temporal things to root out vice and to plant virtue and good manners in all who have dependence on you Charitie in Conversation Charitie in the ordinary course of life consisteth in taking the opinions words and actions of our equals in good part To speak ill of no man to despise none to honour every one according to his degree to be affable to all to be helpfull to compassionate the afflicted to share in the good success of the prosperous to bear the hearts of others in your own breast to glory in good deeds rather than specious complements to addict your self diligently to works of mercy Degrees of Virtues Bonaventure deciphers unto us certain degrees of Virtue very considerable for practise his words are these It is a high degree in the virtue of Religion continually to extirpate some imperfection a higher than that to encrease always in Faith and highest of all to be insatiable for matter of good works and to think you have never done any thing In the virtue of Truth it is a high degree to be true in all your words a higher to defend Truth stoutly and highest to defend it to the prejudice of those things which are dearest to you in the world In the virtue of Prudence it is a high degree to know God by his creatures a higher to know him by the Scriptures but highest of all to behold him with the eye of Faith It is a high degree to know your self well a higher to govern your self well and to be able to make good choice in all enterprizes and the highest to order readily the salvation of your soul In the virtue of Humilitie it is a high degree to acknowledge your faults freely a higher to bow with the weight like a tree laden with fruit the highest to seek out couragiously humiliations and abasements thereby to conform your self to our Saviours life It is a high degree according to the old Aâ—iom to despise the world a higher to despise no man yet a higher to despise our selves but highest of all to despise despisal In these four words you have the full extent of Humility In Povertie it is a high degree to forsake temporal goods a higher to forsake sensual amities and highest to be divorced from your self In Chastitie restraint of the tongue is a high degree guard of all the senses a higher undefiledness of body a higher than that puritie of heart yet a higher and banishment of pride and anger which have some affinity with uncleanness the highest In Obedience it is a high degree to obey the Law of God a higher to subject your self to the commands of a man for the honour you bear your Sovereign Lord yet a higher to submit your self with an entire resignation of your opinion judgement affection will but highest of all to obey in difficult matters gladly couragiously and constantly even to death In Patience it is a high degree to suffer willingly in your goods in your friends in your good name in your person a higher to bear being innocent the exasperations of an enemy or an ungratefull man a higher yet to suffer much and repine at nothing but
highest of all to go to meet crosses and afflictions and to embrace them as liveries of Jesus Christ In Mercy it is a high degree to give away temporal things a higher to forgive injuries the highest to oblige them who persecute us It is a high degree to pitie all bodily afflictions a higher to be zealous for souls and highest to compassionate the torments of our Saviour in remembering his Passion In the virtue of Fortitude it is a high degree to overcome the world a higher to subdue the flesh the highest to vanquish your self In Temperance it is a high degree to moderate your eating drinking sleeping watching gaming recreation your tongue words and all gestures of your body a higher to regulate your affections and highest to purifie throughly your thoughts and imaginations In Justice it is a high degree to give unto your Neighbour that which belongeth to him a higher to exact an account of your self and highest to offer up to God all satisfaction which is his due In the virtue of Faith it is a high degree to be well instructed in all that you are to believe a higher to make profession of it in your good works and highest to ratifie when there is necessitie with the loss of goods and life In the virtue of Hope it is a high degree to have good apprehensions of Gods power a higher to repose all your affairs upon his holy providence a higher than that to pray to him and serve him incessantly with fervour and purity but highest of all to trust in him in our most desperate affairs Lastly for the virtue of Charitie which is the accomplishment of all the other you must know there are three kinds of it The first the beginning Charitie The second the proficient The third the perfect Beginning Charitie hath five degrees 1. Dislike of offences past 2. Good resolution of amendment 3. Relish of Gods Word 4. Readiness to good works 5. Compassion of the ill and joy at the prosperity of others Proficient Charity hath five degrees more 1 An extraordinary puritie of Conscience which is cleansed by very frequent examination 2. Weakness of concupiscence 3. Vigorous exercise of the faculties of the inward man For as good operations of the exteriour senses are signs of bodily health so holy occupations of the understanding memory and will are signs of a spiritual life 4. Ready observance of Gods law 5. Relishing knowledge of Heavenly Truth and Maxims Perfect Charity reckoneth also five other degrees 1. To love your enemies 2. To receive contentedly and to suffer all adversities couragiously 3. Not to have any worldly ends but to measure all things by the fear of God 4. To be dis-entangled from all love to creatures 5. To resign your own life to save your neighbours The fifth SECTION Of four Orders of those who aspire to Perfection NOw consider what virtues and in what degree you would practise for there are four sorts of those who aspire to perfection The first are very innocent but little valiant in exercise of virtues The second have besides innocency courage enough to employ themselves in worldly actions but they are very sparing towards God and do measure their perfections by a certain Ell which they will upon no terms exceed like the ox of Susis that drew his usual number of buckets of water out of the Well very willingly but could by no means be brought to go beyond his ordinary proportion The third order is of the Fervent who are innocent couragious and virtuous without restriction but they will not take charge of others supposing they are troubled enough with their own bodies wherein they may be often deceived The fourth rank comprehends those who having with much care profited themselves do charitably refresh the necessities of their neighbour when they are called to his aid thinking that to be good onely to ones self is to be in some sort evil Observe what God requires of you and emulate the most abundant graces But if the multiplicity of these degrees of virtue perplex your mind I will shew you a shorter and easier way to perfection The sixth SECTION A short way to Perfection used by the Ancients THe Ancients were accustomed to reduce all virtue to certain heads and some addicted themselves with so much fervour and perfection to the exercise of one single virtue as possessing that in a supream degree by one link onely they drew insensibly the whole chain of great actions One dedicated all his lifes study to government of the tongue another to abstinence another to meekness another to obedience So that at the death of a holy man named Orus as Pelagius relates it was found he had never lied never sworn never slandered never but upon necessity spoken So Phasius in Cassian said upon his death-bed that the Sun had never seen him take his refection for he fasted every day until sun set So John the Abbot professeth that the Sun had never seen him angry that he had never done his own will nor ever had taught others any thing which he had not first practised himself To arrive at this requires much fortitude of spirit If you desire things more imitable be assured you shall lead a good life if you endeavour continually to practise these three words To abstain To suffer To go forward in well doing as S. Luke saith in the Acts of the Apostles of the Son of God To abstain 1. By refraining from all unlawful things and sometimes even from lawful pleasures through virtue 2. By mortifying concupiscence anger desire of esteem and wealth 3. By well ordering your senses your will your judgement and obtaining always some victory over your self by the mastery of your passions To suffer 1. By enduring the burdens of life with patience esteeming your self happy to partake of our Saviours sufferings which are the noblest marks of your Christianity 2. By endeavouring to use a singular meekness in bearing with the oppressions and imperfections of others 3. By undergoing with advice some bodily austerities 4. By keeping your foot firm in the good you have already begun For as old Marcus the Hermit said The wolf and sheep never couple together nor did change and dislike ever make up a good virtue To go forward in well-doing By becoming serviceable and obliging to all the world every one according to his degree but above all having a catalogue of the works of mercy as well spiritual as temporal continually before your eye as a lesson wherein you must be seriously examined either for life or death eternal And for this purpose some Saints had these words in stead of all books in their Libraries Visito Poto Cibo Redimo Tego Colligo Condo Consule Castiga Solare Remitte Fer Ora. To Visit Quench thirst Feed Redeem Cloath Lodge Bury To Teach Counsel Correct Comfort Pardon Suffer Pray Mans best knowledge is how to oblige man the time will come when death shall strip us to the very bones and
and onions of Aegypt May we not affirm that they lead no other life but of a mushrome Ought we not al the night before to make our hearts sparkle in good desires and jaculatory prayers when we go to the bed of our celestial bridegroom Endeavour then to awaken and cherish your desire with a thousand aspirations and elevations of heart and have always in your mouth some good words which may be the pledges and earnest-penies of your intentions Behold the first leaf of the lilie The second is called purity I speak not of that Second leaf of the lilie puritie which concerneth the purging of mortal sins by confession which is wholly necessary and cannot be omitted without sacriledge I speak of purity more subtile and fine which consisteth in faith affections and intentions You ought first to have a singular What ought to be the faith of a good communicants faith and a most worthy and serious understanding of the mysterie not onely in believing what the Church teacheth us of this Sacrament either of the reality of the precious body of our Saviour or of transubstantiation but to believe it sincerely clearly firmly without curiosity restriction or hesitation not as those who convinced and as it were confounded with reason do in some sort believe and upon the least occasion repent in their faithless heart what they have believed make to themselves a faith floating and racking up and down like clouds under the breath of the winds When you go to receive the Blessed Sacrament you must do as Abraham did in his Sacrifice hold the bond-men and ass which are your senses at the foot of the hill and let your will and understanding ascend lightened with the torch of faith even to the height to sink it self down into those resplendent nights of the wisdom of Heaven For purity of intention which is the character of Intention our actions I would have nothing side-ways nor bearing upon any byass I will not that you communicate for some humane respect some civil decencie or to please those whose favour you desire nor for some trifling vanity and sometimes hypocrisie or other ends and aims which are far estranged from the ways of God You must communicate with intention to unite your self to God your beginning to whiten and guild your self with his sights to enkindle your self the more in his love to retain the memory of that Sacrifice which he offered on mount Calvarie that is to say of his most venerable passion to appease the anger of God for as many sins as are committed to implore the assistance of Heaven for the necessities of the Church as well for the living as dead to obtain for your self and persons of whom mention is made some victory over temptations some new virtues some temporal grace in as much as shall concern the spiritual state Briefly for thanksgiving for the benefits which we receive from his Divine Majesty both in general and particular Purity of affections consisteth principally in two Purity of affection points To banish from your heart all animosities revenges quarrels punctillioes and readily to reconcile your self before you come to the Altar The other is to free your self not onely from affections dishonest and unlawful but also a little exorbitant which one may have to any creature whatsoever It is convenient your heart be then as a chrystal-vial filled with clear water wherein the least moat of uncleanness may be seen It is to put Adonis in the Adonis in the crib of Bethleem crib of Bethleem which heretofore the infidels did when we communicate still retaining impure passions with a deliberate purpose Germanus Patriarch of Constantinople in his Theory Germ. Patriarch in Theoriâ saith the pixe which is the vessel and resting-place where the Blessed Sacrament is put is called Ciborium as one would say the Ark of lights to teach us that at the onely sight of this Sacrament we must dispel all thoughts of darkness which have possessed our soul And for the better obtaining this purity it is good to practice some devotions in the eve of receiving as mortification of tongue by retirement and silence as abstinence or some other exercise of humility or work of mercy When the day cometh Exod. 5. What ought to be done on the day of Communion run to this heavenly Manna in the morning Amuze not your self too much in decking and accommodating your body nor in scattering and disordering your mind in vain cares and sollicitudes but keep the vessel of your heart as a well stopped pot to pour it out at the table of your spouse It is at the instant of receiving that you must imitate the Seraphins of Third and fourth leaf of the lilly Imitation of Seraphins Isaiah 6. the Prophet Isaiah to hold all your wings still but onely two which are humility and charity These are the two wings on which you ought to poyze your self at your pleasure First grounding all in reverence before the eyes of this ineffable Majesty abasing your self even to the center of your nothing treading under foot all presumptions vanities follies by a most perfect humility of spirit Secondly to Moving wings stir up lively and ardent affections with all the endeavour of your heart and if that suffice not offer all to God in the union of his onely Son and merits of the most Blessed Virgin Mary To cherish the affections of these holy virtues you must have your prayers meditations and considerations upon the Blessed Sacrament well prepared and digested with variety that you may still hold your devotion in breath as Exod. 3. Considerations for Communion Moses before the burning bush Solve calceamentum de pedibus tuis locus in quo stas terra sanctaest Reg. 44. The Hostess of Eâ—izeus I. To represent Moses in the bush burning seized with a holy fire who heard these words Put off thy shoes take away thy sensual affections the land here is holy yea it is the Holy of Holies This is the noble fire which enflameth Angels in heaven and pure souls on earth which is enchased within the species of the Sacrament What ought you then to do II. To represent unto your self that your soul is as the Hostess of the Prophet Elizeus the good Shunamite who prepareth her heart as a lodging for the King of Prophets thanksgiving as a table humility for a seat and charity for a candle lighted III. To represent to your self that it is a Ruth Ruth 2. 8 9. Vnde mihi hoc uâ— invenirem gratiam ante oâ—ulos tuos â—osse me digâ—areris peregrinam mulieâ—em who accounted it a great favour to be esteemed by Booz and to have leave to glean in the fields after his harvest men and acknowledging with gratitude so small a benefit she said with her face prostrated on the earth From whence cometh this favour which I have gained in your presence From whence proceedeth that
4. Clemency and mercy 5. Poverty of spirit disengaged from earth 6. Humility 7. Charity towards your neighbour 8. Frequentation of the Sacraments of Confession and Communion 9. Love to the word of God 10. Resignation of spirit to the will of your Soveraign Maister 11. Some remarkeable Act of vertue excercized by you upon occasion offered 12. Devotion to our Blessed Lady In honour of whom you shall do well to observe daily three things First to present unto her an oblation every hour of the day of the Angelical salutation when at the striking of the clock you recal your heart to your self Secondly to excercise some mortification of mind or body by some motive of the imitation of her vertues Thirdly to give alms to her honour either spiritual or temporal This have I enlarged in a litle manual called THE CHRISTIAN DIVRNAL Instructions for the Married The thirty fourth SECTION Of the misery of ill governed marriages and to whom we may impute it THE great evils in ill managed marriages made S. Gregory Nyssen and S. Iohn Damascene say Nyss lib. de hom cap. 18. Damasc l. 2. de fide ortho c. 30. wedlock had not been invented but to serve as a remedy for the wound of concupiscence and that if the first Authours of mankind had remayned in original justice the world would have been multiplied in a manner wholy Angelical rather than by the ordinary ways of marriage Notwithstanding S. Augustine and S. Thomas who diligently looked into it assure us marriage was treated in the state of innocency by natural ways since Eve was created before sin and given to man to serue as a companion for him in the worlds propagation But if the divine providence would have pleased to have made choyse of other means for this increase he had created millions of men in the beginning of the world like unto Angels and not one man alone nor one sole woman who were set in the front of all Nations of purpose to produce them with that progress of time and succession we therein observe I pronounce marriage had been without the ardours and disturbances of concupiscence the paines of child-bearing disloyalty riots and discontent but rather entertained with a tender love of the man towards the woman and a perfect obedience of the wife towards the husband with a sweet education of children free from poverty loss and all sorts of troubles Christian Religion endeavoureth to recal wedlock to the purity of the first institution whilst good liking accordeth with the commandments of God and the immutable laws of eternal Justice There is a most remarkable thing written of the Peach-tree that in Persia which was the first and onely place heretofore of its growth it was venoumous and mortal but being carried and transported into other countreys as Aegypt Greece Italie France it wholy changed nature and loosing with the country its malignity bare and to this day beareth fruits rellished with muth tastfulness The like is marriage a strange plant if you leave it in its Province that is to say within the limits of nature extreamly passionat and irregular beware of poyson and death but if you transplant it into the Evangelical Law and manure it with order continency and that restriction which the law of God dictateth to you you shall derive delectation and profit from it for the solace and ornament of humane life Nay we must affirm the exorbitancies which now raign in the world and which draw so many miseries along with them make married people very often feel most harsh conditions and to render marriage a soyle as natural for cares as it is barren for roses and violets Marriage now adays throughout the greatest part of the world is a poesy of thorns we know not whereto lay hold of it on what side soever it be touched it pricks the fingers Marriage is the ivy of Jonah exteriourly verdant with some apparance of cheerfulness and delight but the worm of grief and anxiety gnaws the root within Marriage is the plant which the Indians call the thorny bodkin it is all over sprinkled with stars and the rayes of these stars are nothing els but prickles Maydens take heed one may think to gather a star who shall find a sharp thorn Marriage is the balm of Arabia whereunto little vipers hasten to make their nests such an one sees the leaf and sents the good odour who perceives not the little serpents of a thousand disturbances which lie hidden there-under Marriage is the island of dreams of which the Ancients speak where a thousand griefs are presented covered at first with the veil of pleasure you would swear they were little Cupids who say Come to me young man come to me come hither Nescis quia Ismael est qui tecum ludit fair maid come hither They are entertained they are courted in an instant they take off the mantle and appear as they are with ugly countenances and horrid shapes Marriage is a stormy sea where nothing is to be seen but ruins tempests and shipwracks one cries mercy and another help save if it be possible and there are very few who arrive at the haven without infinit hazard Marriage is a long pilgrimage which finds but three hosteries The first is called false pleasure the second repentance the third calamity and if you go any farther you shall meet with despair The first difficulty there encountered is that of a free-man you become a bond-slave and the sweet liberty which nature impressed on the heart of all living creatures is the first trophey you must hang up over the bridal bed The wife saith the Apostle Mulier sui corporis potestatem non habet sed vir similitèr vir sui corporis potestatem non habet sed mulier 1 Cor. 7. hath no power over her own body that jurisdiction is reserved to the husband nor can the husband reciprocally dispose of his own body for it is in the power of the wife Nay did she know into whose hands she consigned this precious treasure it would be some comfort to say thus much at the least If I be a slave I will choose a good Master But thou silly maid who hast been so tenderly bred and hatched up under the wings of thy parents as a chaste dove art put into the hands of a husband as into the tallons of a faulcon When he wooed thee as a suitor he made shew of much mildness he was a lamb nay rather a wolf in a sheep-skin No sooner was marriage consummate but the mask was taken off he shewed what he was a gamester a man chollerick base barbarous and tyrannical that held this wretched dove in his bloudy claws making her hourly vapour out her life through the sighs of her sorrows Young man who as yet art not fettered in the bands of marriage thou makest love to a maid with infinite services and for that purpose thou learnest to dance the cinque-apace thou clothest
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
that God doth no miracles for his own profit he doth not change stones into bread in the Desart to nourish himself after that long fast which he did there make but for his faithfull servants he alters the course of nature and being austere to himself he becomes indulgent to us to teach us that we should despoil our selves of self-love which ties us to our own flesh and makes us so negligent to our neighbour 2. What precious thing is to be gotten by following the world that we should forsake Jesus in the Desart and run after vain hopes at Court and great mens houses where we pretend to make some fortune How many injuries must a man dissemble How many affronts must he swallow How many deadly sweats must he endure to obtain some reasonable condition How many times must he sacrifice his children engage his own conscience and offer violences to others to advance the affairs of great men And after many years service if any foreaird or ruinous business committed to his charge in the pursuit whereof he must walk upon thorns shall chance to miscarry all the fault must be laid upon a good officer and if he prove unlucky he shall ever be made culpable and in the turning of a hand all his good services forgotten and lost and for a final recompence he must be loaden with infinite disgraces It is quite contrary in the service of God for he encourages our virtues he supplies our defects governs our spiritual and yet neglects not our temporal occasions He that clothes the flowers of the Meadows more gorgeously than Monarchs who lodges so many little Fishes in golden and azure shels he who doth but open his hand and replenishes all nature with blessings if we be faithfull in keeping his Commandments will never forsake us at our need But yet we find all the difficulties of the world to put our trust in him we vilifie our cares of eternity and by seeking after worldly things whereby to live we torment our selves and in the end lose our own lives A man that must die needs very few wordly things a very little Cabbin will suffice nature but whole Kingdoms will not satisfie covetousness 3. Jesus flies from Scepters and runs to the Cross he would have no worldly Kingdoms because their Thrones are made of Ice and their Crowns of Glass He valued the Kingdom of God above all things that he might make us partakers of his precious conquest and infinite rich prize But now it seems that heaven is not a sufficient Kingdom for us men run after land and itch after the ambition of fading greatness and sometimes all their life passeth away in great sins and as great troubles to get a poor title of three letters upon their Tomb. Alas do we know better than God in what honour consists that we must seek after that which he did avoid and not imitate that which he followed Let us follow God and believe that where he is there can be no desart or solitude for us They shall never taste the delights of virtue that feed upon the joys of vanity All worldly pleasures are Comets made fat with the smokes and vapours of the earth and in stead of giving light and brightness they bring forth murders and contagions but the following of God is always sweet and he which suffers thereby changes his very tears into nourishment Aspiration O My God! Shall I always run after that which flies from me and never follow Jesus who follows me by incomparable paths and loves me even while I am ungratefull I will no more run after the shadows of worldly honour I will no more have my own will which both is and hath proved so unfaithfull I will put my self into the happy course of Gods disposition for all which shall happen unto me either in time or eternity his carefull eye watches over me it is for me that his hands have treasures and the very Desarts possess abundance O crucified love the most pure of all beauties it is for thee that so many generous Champions have peopled the Desarts and passed the streams of bitterness and sorrow bearing their crosses after thee and thereupon have felt the sweetness of thy visits amongst their cruel rigours God forbid that I should give the lie to so great and so generous a company I go to thee and will follow thee amongst the desarts I run not after bread I run after thy divine person I will make much of thy wounds I honour thy torments I will conform my self to thee that I may find joy amongst thy dolours and life it self amongst thine infinite sufferings The Gospel upon Munday the fourth week in Lent S. John 2. Of the whipping buyers and sellers out of the Temple ANd the Pasch of the Jews was at hand and Jesus went up to Jerusalem and he found in the Temple them that sold Oxen and Sheep and Doves and the Bankers sitting And when he had made as it were a whip of little cords he cast them all out of the Temple the sheep also and the oxen and the money of the Bankers he poured out and the tables be overthrew And to them that sold Doves he said Take away these things hence and make not the house of my Father a house of merchandise And his Disciples remembered that it is written The zeal of thy house hath eaten me The Jews therefore answered and said to him What sign doest thou shew us that thou doest these things Jesus answered and said to them Dissolve this Temple and in three dayes I will raise it The Jews therefore said in fourty and six years was this Temple built and wilt thou raise it in three dayes But he spake of the Temple of his body Therefore when he was risen again from the dead his Disciples remembered that he said this and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus did say And when he was at Jerusalem in the Pasche upon the festival day many believed in his name seeing his signs which he did But Jesus did not commit himself unto them for that he knew all and because it was not needfull for him that any should give testimony of man for be knew what was in man Moralities 1. PIety is a silver chain hanged up aloft which ties heaven and earth spiritual and temporal God and man together Devotion is a virtue derived to us from the Father of all light who gives us thereby means to hold a traffick or commerce with Angels All which is here below sinks by its proper weight and leans downward toward natural corruption Our spirit though it be immortal would follow the weight of our bodies if it were not indued with the knowledge of God which works the same effect in it as the Adamant doth with iron for it pierceth and gives it life together with a secret and powerful spirit from which all great actions take their beginning You shall never do any great act if the
It is from this point I intend to draw the first reason which bindeth the Nobilitie to great perfection especially those who are of state and dignitie seeing that how much the more they are eminent in honour so much the more they are proposed as an aim to the eyes of all the world If a little planet happen to be eclipsed who can tell the news thereof but some cold-foundred Mathematician who perchance beholdeth it in the shadie obscurities of the night But if the least change happen that may be to the Sun every one lifteth his eye to Heaven he cannot make a false step but the numberless numbers of men which inhabit the four quarters of the earth do observe it The like thing is seen in the life of Great Life of Great men enlightened men and private persons If an Hermit in his Cell suffer himself to be transported upon some motion of choler who knoweth it but his cat or table And if it be a religious man in a Covent his imperfections are manifested but to few which would be of force to cherish their vices if they did not take their aims rightly levelled towards God But as for great ones all the eyes of men are fixed upon them nor can they suffer eclipse but as suns so darkening the whole world with their shadie obscurities that they who in their own errour have eyes of moles are Arguses and Lynxes to see and censure the actions of men of qualitie Great men vitious resemble King Ozias they all carrie their leprosie upon their forehead Then I demand of you this admitted that they cannot hide themselves no more than the Sun and that they all have honour in special recommendation fearing the least blemishes of fame do you not behold them between the desire of honour and fear of contempt as between the hammer and the anvile enforced as it were with a happy necessitie to do well since to do ill is so chargeable You will say unto me this intention were impure to carrie ones self in praise-worthy actions by the paths of humane respects to which I agree But withal adde it may easily be purged and freed if you prefigure in your mind that so many men as watch upon our actions are so many messengers of God if you consider them not as men but as Angels of this Sovereign Majesty who are assigned for the inquisition of your actions This contemplation well imprinted in your spirit shall by little and little proceed rarifying the most gross thoughts as the Sun-beams do the vapours of the earth and you shall change this necessitie you have to do well by the honest enforcement of those who eâ—lighten you into a will so free and dis-interessed that you will ever after put on a resolution to remain in the lists of virtue although all the world should be blind You will resemble the Sun who placed in Heaven by the Creatours hand if happily he one day should chance to have no spectatours of his light would shine as radiant for the eyes of a Pismere or silly Bee as for the greatest King in the world S. Augustine Aug. de Civit Dei l. 6. c. 10. Doâ—â—â— Archimiâ—â—â— senex jam decrepitus quotidie in Capitolio Mimum agebat quasi libenter Dii spectarent quem homines desi erant An observation of S. Augustine upon â— Comedian maketh mention of an old Comedian who in his younger days after he had a long time played in the Comedies which those blind Idolaters had instituted to the honour of their gods with the general applause of the people the glory thereof did so intoxicate him that playing for the gods he acted all as for men when he grew old and not so followed by his ordinary troup of Auditours he went to the Capitol and made much ado to play his Comedies alone before the statues of his false gods doing all said he then for the gods and nothing for men If this poor Pagan had not failed in the principles of true Religion he had hit the mark It is true men many times serve to pollish our actions their presence is to us a sharp spur which makes the spirit to leap and bound beyond it self The like whereof is seen in Oratours and Preachers to whom their Auditorie sometime serves as pipes to Organs Such penetrate the clouds born upon the wings of the wind who otherwise had low flagged in the dust void of the estimation of men It would be a miserable vanitie to have no other aim than always to play for men and never for God It is fit that all these creatures should serve us for ladders to mount up to Heaven And this it is wherein men of state who are in eminent place have much advantage they are in a great Theatre which is to them a powerful spur to do well yea so forcible that it was a wonder admired by the judicious Cassius Longinus to hear it Longin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ajax said that a Grecian Captain seeing himself in a dangerous encounter involved in night and death desired not of God the safeguard of his life but onely so much day as might suffice to see himself die valiantly Behold the force of this motive to give up a life the most pretious thing in the whole world to enjoy one glimmer of a day-light which could serve to no other purpose but to enlighten his death Then Noble men who are seated in dignitie I leave it to you to conclude if you perpetually being in the mid-day and in the rays of so many as behold you who illustrate your life and make your death lightsom have cause or not to slacken or grow remiss in the course of perfection For the second reason I say the foyl setteth off the sparkling of the diamond and greatens the lustre of virtue How doth a man know what he is if he see not himself in the occasions of good and ill The triumph of virtue as Plato said very well is to have Erit illi gloria aeterna qui potuit transgredi non est transgressus Eccl. 31. Epitaph of Vacia Qui res homines fugit quem cupiditatum suarum infaelicitas relegavit alios faeliciores videre non potuit qui velut timidum atque iners animal metu oblituit ille sibi nen vivit sed quod turpissimum ventri somne libidini Senâ—c ep 55. Theophylact. in Collectan Graec. Epi. An excellent passage of Theophylact. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sin in power and virtue in will To be able to sin to be thereunto sollicited by attractive pleasure and yet not to commit it this is all which a good man can do A solitary life is not alwaies laudable if it be not guided by divine and super-natural helps as that of Saints For what honour is it for a retired man to have this Epitaph of Vacia inscribed upon him Here lyeth be who fled from the world and the affairs thereof confined
to himself by the miserie of his passions who could not endure any man to be more happy than himself who hid himself for fear who in present liveth not either for another or for himself but for his belly sleep and pleasure Behold a poor praise and which well sheweth virtue doth not alwaies consist in the flight from greatness but in the conquest over passions which is by so much the more glorious by how much the adversaries are more invincible Theophylact said that gold is like the river Rhene for one cause which is that anciently those warlike Nations inhabitants of Germany used it to prove their children in as we use to trie gold with a touch-stone As soon as these little creatures were born they carried them to the Rhene and plunged them in that river and then knew by certain signs given by the child either in wrestling with the waves or in shewing much terrour and affrightment whether he would be couragious or cowardous He that bare himself bravely in this merciless element was their true son Men are not tried in Rhene said this learned Authour to see whether they be men but in Pactolus in a river of gold place them in honours reputation in affluence of riches this will procure you a never-erring judgement of their virtue What knoweth one how he who is born and bred all his life time amongst cobwebs would use cloth of gold if he had it What knoweth one how humble a man may be who is as soon found in misery as in nature by the course of his lineal extraction Who knoweth how abstinent one would be in the full delicacies of a great feast who hath never seen upon his table but cabages and turneps Who knoweth how remperate another would be in commanding over men who never hath exercised his power but over dogs and calves It seemeth all virtues either are no virtues or are stifled in a low condition if we speak morally But to see a man poor in spirit in aboundant plenty Great virtue of Great men of riches humble in large trains of attendants which he daily beholdeth prostrated at his feet temperate in a thousand occasions of excesses which hourly are presented to him moderate in a fortune ever upon increase peaceful in the clattering clamours of affairs uniform and equal in the vicissitude of humane accidents a man who can do all August tract 13. de verbo domini Magna virtus est cum faelicitate luctari magna faelicitas à faelicitate non vinci he would and will do nothing but what is reasonable a man that suffereth not his appetites to flie like little butter-flies fluttering amidst the concupiscence of creatures but limits them in the lists of modesty and not touching the earth but with the soles of his feet fixeth the better part of himself in Heaven this is to behold a perpetual miracle We must then necessarily aver if we will not belie our judgement and reason that in the greatest occasions of ill is shewed the greatest reflection of good Great felicities are so ticklish that it is more easie to live on the dung-hil of Job with patience than in the mannage of great Kingdoms with moderation Saint Bernard said to Pope Eugenius He is truly great Bernard ad Eugen. l. 2. Magnus cui praesens faelicitas si arrisit non irrisit on whom fortune hath smiled and not deceived him It is a heavie burthen to bear a great fortune This is daily seen in the spirits of this Age there needeth but a little sparkle of felicitie to dazle their eyes to puff up their skin to drench them in pride in ingratitude in tyrannie in a deluge of dissolutions One sole hour which a favorite may have in the prosperitie of the Court will make him forget a friendship of thirty years standing a most evident mark of a weak spirit On the contrary to pass from a poor garden into a Kings Palace as Abdolomin did and Abdolomin handle the Scepter with the same humilitie of heart without prejudice of authoritie that one would do a spade is a virtue which rarely hath an example upon earth but is admired in Heaven it self It is a virtue which cometh to men from the treasures of God not from their pedegree It is the fairest object which the Sun drawing aside the curtain of the night discovereth upon earth And I doubt not but the divine providence hath purposely held some religious Monarchs in the world as our S. Lewis for example to declare how high Christian perfection may ascend which is to plant humilitie upon the diamonds of regal crowns to lead in Court an Hermitical life to command greatness and humilitie which seldom are of alliance mutually to embrace as sisters Adde for the third reason which is received by the common consent of all men living in the world that tribulation serves as a fornace for virtue the more stout and masculine it is the more it glitters in affliction What knoweth a man that hath alwaies been bred in a lazie languishing life as the trees of Sodom in the dead sea with what measure perfection is measured Prosperities are like a veil tissued with Prosperitie gold by the fingers of fortune to cover the ulcers of vice and adversitie is the Theatre of generous spirits who feed themselves with afflictions as the Sun with salt water What a glorious spectacle is it to behold saith S. Cyprian an invincible courage counter-buffed Cyprian de mortal with storms and tempests on whom it seemeth Heaven will burst and fall in pieces to behold him I say amongst the threats of the air ruins of the world alwaies standing upright as a great brazen Colossus scorning these as mists and small flakes of snow What a brave word is it to hear a man say in a Quanta sublimitas inter ruinas generis humani stare erectum Sen. de provid Digni visi sumus Deo in quibus experiretur quantum humana natura potest pati Typotius in Symbol Quasi meridianus fulgur consurget tibi ad vesperam cum te consumptum putaveris orieris ut lucifer Job 11. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 world of contrarieties which oppose him God be praised who hath deemed us worthy to serve as a trial of humane nature to see to how high a pitch patience could mount What a Majesty it is to be able to bear this fair ensign wherewith our Lewis the Twelfth with a generous affection was much pleased which was a celestial cup advanced in rays of gold amongst eclipses with this motto Inter eclipses exorior And surely virtue never shineth so much as when she is in eclipse which it seems the Holy Ghost would mysteriously signifie in these words of Job Thou brave spirit who strugglest against tempests thou shalt find thy noon in the evening and when thou shalt esteem thy self annihilated thou then shalt elevate thy self as the morning-star It is a
with poyson This man is fortunate to drink in so rich a goblet And you yet daily say the same when you behold a man in the iniquitie of ill gotten goods covetous ungrateful disloyal perfidious to God and men you think him happie and see not that he twisteth his own ruin in threads of gold and silver Such riches are damnable It is true But who maketh them damnable The perverse disposition of men Take away vice which is not of the essence of riches you will find they are a great prop to virtue and a powerful motive to perfection for those that possess them It is to you Noblemen to whom S. Hierom a a a Hierom. Epist ad Demetriadem Vestri generis eâ—â— habere calcare diâ—â—ias addresseth this worthy saying To you it appertaineth to have riches to tread them under your feet and not carrie them on your head the more they are under you the more they raise you and the more they elevate you to perfection The reasons are manifest and pertinent First it is a matter very difficult to preserve a great virtue in a great povertie it being given but to very few souls yea and to those of the best temper The poorer sort ordinarily have so much employment to think how to live that little time remaineth for them to think how to live well The Difficulties â—f the poor in virtue bellie that hath no bread hath no ears and precepts of wisdom are found very short and insufficient among people perplexed and over-whelmed with want A father of a family who beholdeth poverty in his house besides a multitude of children ranked like Organ-pipes whom he must cloath feed and provide for who seeth creditours attending on him at their day sergeants dogging him processes that afflict him cattel casually to die on the one side his house utterly to sink on the other side his debts not payable but with bankrupting and rents to fail him at a need hath full enough to do to cast time as the proverb saith behind his back Necessitie many times is the mother of vice and when one hath no more goods he is in danger to do that which is not good Behold why the Wise-man asked of God Mendicitatem divitias nè dederis mihi tribue tantum victui meo necessaria nè necessitate compulsus furar perjurem nomen Dei mei Prov. 30. 8. if not great riches at the least exemption from povertie You who have be it great or indifferent means are not brought into this penury if you call not that a penury when you cannot satisfie an exorbitant concupiscence which hath no other pleasure than excess nor other bounds but infinitie You see in your house a settled estate far distant from the multitude of discontents under which so many mortal men do groan ought not this to serve you for some small motive to perfection See you not in Genesis how God willing to exercise Adam in a contemplative life caused him to find at his first coming house table bed and cloath laid If it had then behoved him to take pains to get his dinner and build himself a house as little birds do their nests then had he had pain and care but to the end he should have full liberty for his Masters affairs God took all obstacles from him that he might have no cause to accuse any man in his miserable misfortune but his own ingratitude O you Noblemen God Priviledges of Nobilitie useth you as Adam in terrestrial Paradise he suffereth you to eat the corn at ease which others have sowed and the wine which others pressed he causeth your meat to come to your tables as if it were born by certain invisible engines he holdeth the elements creatures and men in breath not onely to supply your necessities but your well-beseeming accommodation and can you then think he requireth a thing unreasonable of you if giving you all things above other men he would have you virtuous as other men Secondly I say poormen admit the case they be not so pressed with painful necessities of life and that time passeth with them a little more sweetly they may perhaps deafly attend devotion in the silence of a little family but their virtue is not strong enough in the wing to take a long and distant flight nor have they arm enough to undertake great enterprises Their little authority maketh their words not to have much weight nor their actions how laudable soever to be of power to draw others to imitate them Besides rich men sometimes have an aversion from doing well for fear they should have virtue common with the poor from whom they would if it were possible be separated even in elements but great men are ever powerful Authoritie oâ— great men to strengthen their devotion to authorize good works I leave you to think if many not through malice but by the servile slavery of complacencie do praise even their vices and imperfections what will they do with their virtues For we must not suppose as saith the Wise-man that the state of hell is wholly established upon earth and good conscience eternally banished many are vitious more through infirmitie as not being able to resist the tyrannie of opinion and custom than out of affection they bear to vice If it happen rich men advance the standard of piety all the world rangeth themselves under their banner some that were willing and not daring to do it others though unwilling were drawn along with a swinge of superiority which they would not contradict This is an argument which I will hereafter deduce more at large when I shall speak of example And from hence O you rich men judge if God giving you such a liberty and reputation to do well you make ill use thereof what neglect you fall into when you employ your authority to raise vice with a strong hand and put virtue in dis-estimation Anciently pearls were called ushers because they made way Pearls are ushers saith Seneca for Ladies who were adorned with them Rightly may now riches bear the like name every where they are obeyed every where they make place it is a good reason if all the world serve them for ushers they do the same office for piety without which all their goodly lustre will be but unjust pillage Then shall they potently reign when they have restored virtue to her throne Finally to conclude with a third and in my opinion the most formal reason which evidently declareth how riches are absolute obligations unto you of Christian perfection it is that God seemeth to have enchased all in the charity which is exercised towards our neighbour Give alms and behold Luc. 11. 41. Date Elemosynam ecce omnia munda sunt vobis Alms the works of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Synes in Epistol your selves wholly pure This practice of giving alms is so excellent that God hath chosen no other for himself His
solum Hier. 8. out of their tombs shall be shewed to the eyes of Heaven and to the rays of the Sun and it shall be said Behold the bones of them who heretofore have boasted the frail beauty of a little white skin spred over these corrupt impurities Worms and serpents now triumph thereon as in a town taken by force the bodies are a prey of putrefaction and the souls have hell for their tomb O what a Catastrophe is this Preserve your beauty for God men love it as the hunters the flesh of the bore but God cherisheth it as his Temple Handle the matter so that all the extent of its reputation and power may be limited to the service of it's Creatour It shall have command sufficient if it obey him that created it A good Authour relateth Lud. Vives that a strong town debauched was heretofore reformed by the beauty of women who seriously addicting themselves to virtue never beheld any of all those with a good will who required them by the way of lawful marriage that had not first ranged themselves in the lists of devotion and piety This was an effectual means to extirpate vice and gloriously advance the standard of perfection in such sort that in short time the face of the Citie was seen to be changed Practise the same and God will bless your beauties when they shall offer all their homage to his Altars The sixth REASON Drawn from the beauty of the soul THe beauty of the bodie compared to that of Excellencies of the soul remarkeable the soul is but as a candle in comparison of the Sun All the greatness Empire and signorie of man doth onely flow from the excellencie of the soul as a streaming brook from the fountain head If the bodie be a fair shell the soul is the pearl If the bodie be the lantern the soul is the light If the bodie as S. Ambrose saith be the triumphant chariot of the peaceable Solomon the soul is the Queen which sitteth thereon to guid and govern it If the bodie be as the green moss of some sea-neighbouring rock the soul is the diamōd which within hideth it's lustre It is the well-beloved of God which is fallen from his mouth into this mortal prison it is that which advantageously is marked with his stamp and image it is that which beareth the rays and exteriour lineaments of this great Majesty it is that on which the Creatour hath distended The soul clothed with royal purple of God Ezech. 16. Expandi amiction meum super te his royal purple as is said in the Prophet Ez'chiel And this royal garment is no other than a collection of all the perfections of creatures contracted in the soul of man as the figure of the world would be in the circumference of a ring And as heretofore Aaron the High-Priest of the old law bare upon his robe the whole world embroidered and heightened in Gold-smiths work in the same manner our soul beareth in its liveries all created excellencies which are most lively representations of the perfection of the Creatour The Seventie Interpreters in the fore-alledged place of the attire of the soul called it by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is very 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 obscure our Translation soundeth it a thin and slender garment indui te subtilibus Origen deriveth it Aug. Solil 30. from the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth hair as it were saying that this habit of the soul is an attire woven with most fine hair so subtile that the most strong and sharpened sights cannot penetrate the contexture Faith teacheth us it is a substance which What the soul is is not substance of Elements nor substance of God but a substance created of nothing by the Word of God reasonable intellectual spiritual always active always lively so capable that nothing but God can replenish it He that will know more than the eternal Si credit immortalis est ad vitam si non credit immortalis est ad poenam Id. de Symb. ad Catechume n. 3. c. 3. Wisdom hath revealed and will not believe it immortal for his glory shall feel it immortal by the eternity of punishments saith S. Augustine It is not my present purpose to speak either of the excellency or immortality of the soul having fundamentally treated these questions in other discourses I onely speak of this part of the soul which we commonly call the spirit It is undoubtedly true that Spirit wherefore all men have one soul of the same kind but very different in their functions and qualities In some this their soul sleepeth perpetually in flesh and fat and abideth as a sword beset and garnished with Diamonds always sheathed in a scabard of straw and morter without a stroke striking all we can do is to find some sparkling glimmers of common sense and reason therein In others this soul glittereth and twinkleth from its most tender years afterward it penetrateth the clouds and diveth into bottomless abysses with great promptness fervour and vivacitie and that is called the spirit which ordinarily we behold in great and noblemen excellently well thereunto disposed for they are for the most part docible intelligent capable from whence I draw a great motive of the obligation they have in this point seriously to dispose themselves to virtue Constantine the Great heretofore made a law by which he forbade to adorn the Countrey to the prejudice of the Citie If any bodie after the publication Law of Constantine God Inst l. 8. tit 10 Si quis post legem hanc civitate spoliata ornatum hoc est marmora columnas ad rura transtulerit privetur ea possessione quà m ita ornaverit of this law be found to transport the ornaments of Cities to wit Marbles and Columns to Countrey-dwellings let him be deprived of the possession thereof Oh alas Our soul is the Citie of God garnished with so many fair embellishments titles trophies so many triumphant arches so many graces Yet notwithstanding O Noblemen it often happeneth you forsake the Citie to build in the Countrey to leave your souls barren languishing bare and naked whilest you in the mean time stretch all your sinews all your veins to the decking and easeful commodities of the bodie You deserve to be deprived of your possessions and inheritance since you manure it so carelesly I will onely propose two or three reasons to demonstrate Abuse of spirit how reprehensible it is how unworthy a thing it is to apply a noble spirit to trifles and sottish toys which easily may be proved but not sufficiently commiserated First it cannot be denied but that every thing which exceedeth the limits of its own nature thereby becometh very irregular we see all the elements plants beasts and all creatures of the world do constantly hold the ranck which God the Creatour appointed them The fire always retaineth its heat the
worm-eaten walls no arms but the anviles of a shop or forge no other musick but their obstreperous clatter no other Master but the necessitie of learning nothing no other lesson but ignorance and misery Behold seeing you might have been reduced to this condition of life what have you done to God before your being to be that which you are He hath not been content to give you bloud wealth qualification spirit and courage but also he alloweth you the happiness of good education which setteth and composeth all the natural parts into a fair way You demand of me whether I judge seriously the education of Great-ones and men of quality to be such I affirm at the least it hath all the possible means and opportunity so to be in which consisteth the knot of obligation we seek for And without going further is it not an uncontrolable proof which sufficiently declareth that even the education of Court is worthy recommendation to say that God seeking out a school for the greatest States-man that ever was in the world chose no other place than the Court of a King You know Education of Moses at Court what a man Moses was how great how eminent how much beloved of Almighty God who elected him to be a conduct and captain of six hundred thousand men at arms to give him a regency over the elements and a power to replenish the four quarters of the world with the greatness of his prodigies What did he to breed him and frame him to so high and supereminent a condition to so heroick virtues Did he suffer him to be bred as other Hebrew children in fear in bondage in poverty which overwhelm the goodliest and best dispositions as soon as they begin to set forward No he brought him to the Court of Pharaoh he caused him to be nourished in the exercises of Nobilitie to swallow all the wisdom of the Aegyptians who then were in reputation to be the wisest men in the world This is it which S. Stephen said in the Acts Eruditum omni sapientia Aegyptiorum Acts 7. 12. Learning and Courtliness of Moses Philo de vita Moses And Philo in the book he hath written of the life of Moses unfolding to us the history of his education saith he learned in the Court of the King of Aegypt Arithmetick Geomitry Musick as well contemplative as practick Philosophie and the secrets of Hierogliphicks But to shew Noblemen how lawful it is to learn Court-civilities and garbs without contracting the vices the same Moses who learned all lawful sciences from the Aegyptian Doctours never would suck milk from nurses of the same Nation which might infuse any bad influence upon his manners God held the very same course in the education Daniel and his companions bred at Court Pueros in quibus nulla esset macula decoros forma eruditos omni sapientia cautos scientia doctos disciplina Dan. 1. of the Prophet Daniel and of those three holy children who planted the trophey of their faith among the burning coles of an oven he caused them to be educated in the Court of King Nebuchadnezzar he caused them to learn the Chaldaik language to be trained in literature to be afterwards presented to the King well instructed in all sorts of sciences From hence you may judge that education of great men is a matter full of worth and recommendation since God who disposeth all with so excellent oeconomy in favour of the just hath pleased to give to his greatest minions and favorites the Courts of Kings for a school And in effect we must aver Why men of qualitie are best bred there is the best education where the best tools and instruments of great actions are and these are found in the houses of personages of qualitie Education of children is begun in the choise of nurses Poor people take such as necessity permitteth many times surcharged with imperfections and disproportions of nature which make corruption creep into the child with the milk the rich and those of quality elect them with all possible advantage which gold credit or authority can procure This choise of nurses is of no small importance The Scripture observeth that King Glossa Lyr. in Daniel Nebuchadnezzar nursed by a Goat Nebuchadnezzar having beē from his infancy exposed in a forrest and nourished by a wild goat contracted thereby brutish manners so that degenerating into a vehement stupidity and most barbarous pride it made him afterwards by the just punishment of heaven return to the life of beasts among whom he had been bred The same happened in the person of the Emperour Caligula a portentous prodigie of man who seemed Dio. Cassius nurse of Caligula to be born for no other purpose but to shew the world the mischief which a great power can perpetrate in a great brutishness It is held this corruption came to him neither from father nor mother who both were reputed the most honest and prudent in the Roman Empire But it is said that perhaps of purpose to make him one day martial they gave him a masculine brave nurse For she was hairy on the face as man she drew a long bowe she ran at the ring she curvetted a horse like a rider but in other kinds she was mischievous and cruel and made her little nurse-child superlatively inheritour of her vices If then the goodness of nurses be one of the principal favours which happeneth in education who will have them if not Noblemen As soon as Ladies and women of qualitie are ready to be brought in bed every one will present them a nurse every one will offer one of their own choise there is not a visitant nor gossip that will not roam from house to house for this purpose and redouble journey after journey It falleth out oftentimes that after the mothers do neglect personally to give their children suck and use so much curiofitie in the election drawn by considerations meerly terrene that overmuch choise maketh them to elect ill The children of rich men become droughty amongst a mass of fountains wherewith they are presented to suck from their infancy and those of poor men amongst the incommodities of nourriture grow up as safforn under hail God counterpoizing to the one their over much sollicitude of human helps and supplying the want in the other Notwithstanding it cannot be denied but that a moderate choise of nurses ever accommodated to Gods greater glory is most available to the infant and that persons of qualitie have this favour much more transcendent than others After the nurses come the governours and governesses The poor creatures are instantly abandoned and cast amongst a little crew of children their ordinary companions and play-fellows and there have they all liberty to besmear one another as a Colliers sack In the houses of great-ones there is always some sage woman who giveth the first tincture and impressions to the souls of children and beginneth to trace on their
first practice and most ordinary to hear Mass for those who understand the words there spoken is to follow them with application of spirit and to accompany the silence of the Priest with some meditations or vocal prayers The second is to stay ones self upon the signification of all the parts of the Mass As at the Confiteor to represent to your self man banished from Paradise miserable suppliant confessing deploring his sin At the Introite the enflamed desires of all mankind expecting the Messias At the Hymn of Angels Glory be to God on high the Nativity At the Prayers thanksgiving for such a benefit At the Epistle the preaching of the Praecursour S. John At the Gospel truth preached by the Saviour of the world and so of the rest The third is to divide the Mass into certain parcels and behold a very considerable manner Represent to your self five great things in the mystery of the Mass from whence you ought to draw so many fruits These five things are representation praise Sacrifice instruction nourishment Representation because the Mass is a perfect image Five notable things in the mystery of the Mass Radicati superaedificati in ipso Col. 2. c. of the life and passion of our Saviour and therefore the first fruit you ought to gather from thence is daily to imprint more lively in your heart the actions and passions of the Son of God to conform your self thereunto Praise So many words as are in the Mass aim at this purpose to give praise unto God for this ineffable mystery of our redemption and to conform your self to this action you ought to bend all the endeavour of your heart to praise God whether it be by vocal or mental prayer Sacrifice It is a most singular act of Religion by which we reverence and adore God for the infinite glory of his souereign Being And the Mass is a Mass a Sacrifice true Sacrifice by eminency where the life and bloud of beasts is not offered but the life of a Saviour which is more worth than the life of all Angels and men Cedrenus recounteth that the Emperour Justinian Cedren in Compen hist Wonder of Justinian caused an Altar to be made in the Church of Saint Sophia wherein he used all sorts of mettal of precious stones of the richest materials which might be chosen out amongst all the magazins of nature to incorporate all the beauties of the world in onesole master-piece And verily this Sacrifice is the prime work of God in which he hath as it were locked up all that which is great or holy in all the mysteries of our Religion It was the custom daily to proportion the Sacrifices to the benefits of God When in the old law he gave the fat of the earth they offered the first-fruits to him But now that he hath granted to us the dew of Heaven so long expected his onely Son we must render to him his Son again which is done in the Sacrifice of the Mass And the fruit you should derive from this consideration is at the elevation of the host to offer Jesus Christ to God his Father by the ministery of the Priest and to offer it First for a supream and incomparable honour of the Divine Majesty Secondly for thanksgiving for all benefits received and to be received Thirdly to obtain protection direction and prosperity in all your works Besides offer up all your powers faculties functions actions in the union of the merits of Jesus Instruction Those who understand the words of Instruction 4. of Mass the Mass may draw goodly instructions from reading the Epistle the Gospel the Collects All in general teach us the virtues of honour and reverence towards the Divine Majesty seeing this Sacrifice is celebrated with so many holy sacred and profoundly dutiful ceremonies Of gratitude since God being once offered in the bloudy Sacrifice of the Cross will also be daily presented to God his Father in the title of gratitude And that ought to awaken in us the memory of observing every benefit of God with some remarkable act of devotion Of Charity towards our common Saviour and towards our neighbour since we see a life of God spent for our redemption and all faithful people Nourishment The eye liveth by light and colours Nourishment 5. the Bee by dew the Phenix by the most thin and subtile vapours and the soul of the faithful by the nourishment which it receiveth in the Blessed Sacrament which is purely spiritual This nourishment is not onely derived from the Sacramental Communion Spiritual Communion by the real presence of the body of our Saviour but also by the spiritual Communion which is made when in the Sacrifice of the Mass at the time of the Priest his communicating the same dispositions apprehensions and affections are entertained as if really and actually one did receive For this purpose it is fit to do three things First to excite anew in your self the acts of self-dislike and contrition for your wretchedness and imperfections The second to take spiritually the carbuncle of the Altar not with the pincers of the Seraphin but with acts of a most lively faith a most resolved hope and a charitie most ardent to open boldly the mouth of your heart and pray our Saviour to enter in as truly by the communication of his graces and favours which are the rays of this Sun as by the real imparting of his body and bloud he gives himself to those that communicate The third to conclude all your actions with a most hearty thanksgiving The fourteenth SECTION Practice of Meditation OF four worlds which are the Architype Intelligible Celestial and Elementary prayer imitateth the most perfect being a true image of the oeconomy of the holy Trinitie which according to the maxims of Divines cannot pray to any having no Superiour yet affordeth a model for all prayers For prayer as saith Tertullian is composed of reason words and spirit Of reason as we may interpret by the relation it hath to the Father of words as it is referred to the Word of spirit by the the direction it hath to the third Person Now this principally agreeth with meditation For it is that divine silence delicious ravishment of the soul which uniteth man to God and finite essence to Infinite It is that plenitude and that tear spoken of in Exodus according to an ancient translation Plenitude Exod. 22. 29. because it replenisheth the soul with the splendour of consolations and sources which distil from the Paradise of God Tear yea tear of myrrhe because it distilleth under the eyes of God as doth the tree which beareth myrrhe under the rays of the Sun It is a wonderful thing to behold this little shrub which doth not perpetually expect to be cut with iron that it may drop forth its pleasing liquor but the Sun reflecting on the branches thereof becomes as it were a mid-wife and maketh it bring forth what is sought
willeth us to take moderate pleasure in creatures which he hath made for our content and ease that we may enjoy them in time and place every one according to his condition profession and rule of wisdom Synesius saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pleasure lays hold of the soul Somnus balnea dolorem mitigant S. Thom. 2. q. 138. Date siceram merentibus vinum iis qui amaro sunt animo Prov. 2. the Creatour hath given the feeling of pleasure to sense to serve as an arrest to the soul and to hold it in good quarter with the body Saint Thomas among the remedies of sadness prescribes sleep and bathing The Scripture it self counselleth us to give wine and other fitting draughts for them to drink who have their hearts oppressed with bitterness If one think to make a great sacrifice to God resting perpetually stretched and involved in a pensive austeritie of spirit as being desirous to avoid all pleasures of life he deceiveth himself It hath happened that many running in their own opinion to Paradise by this path according to peculiar fancie have found themselves on the borders of hell Fourthly to remember our life is a musick-book Our life is a musick-book seldom shall you find there many white notes together in the same line black are mixed among them and all together make an excellent harmonie God gives us a lesson in a little book which hath but two pages the one is called Consolation the other Desolation It is fit for each of them to take its turn In the day of adversity think of prosperity In the day of prosperity remember your self of adversity That great Prelate of Cyrenum Synes in hymno said that the Divine Providence hath mingled our life as one would do wine and water in a cup some drink the purest some the most compound but all tast a commixtion Fifthly if you exactly compare our condition to that of an infinite number of miserable creatures who groan in so many tedious and disastrous torments you will find your fardel but a dew But we have a certain malignity of spirit which ever looks back on the good it hath not to envy it and never considers the evil from whence it is freed to render thanks to God Behold some are in the bottom of a dungeon in fetters others are bowed in painful labours from the rising to the setting Sun to get their bred Some have the megrim in their head the gout in their feet and hands the stone in their kidneys Others are overwhelmed with business loss misfortunes strange and portentous accidents yet carry it out with courage Your heart is nipped with a little sadness and behold you despair what effeminacie of spirit is this It is said hares seeing themselves pursued on every side had one day resolved to drown themselves but coming to the brink of a river and beholding frighted frogs who cast themselves at all adventure in the water to escape Courage said they we are not yet the most miserable treatures of the world behold those who are more fearfull than we Ah how often should we say the same if we saw the miseries of others Sixthly is it not a goodly thing to behold a man Unworthines of sadness who probably speaking is in the favour of God who is here nourished with Sacraments with Christs body and bloud with the word of his Master who liveth among so many helps and comforts spiritual and temporal who expecteth a resurrection a Paradise a life eternally happy and happily eternal in so beautifull a societie of Saints to frame pensiveness and scruples to himself of his own head to afflict himself like a Pagan or a damned soul that hath no further hope It is related that God one day to give an antipast of beatitude to a holy man turmoiled with sundry cogitations caused an unknown little bird to chant in his ear in so melodious a manner that instantly his troubled spirit became clean and pure and held him rapt many years in the most tastfull delicacies may be imagined O if you often had strong imaginations of Paradise how your melancholy would melt and dissolve as snow before the Sun-beams Lastly sing spiritual canticles labour employ Noble tears your spirit without anxiety and if needs you will weep lament your imperfections bewail the miseries of the poor sorrow for your curiositie lament the passion of your spouse grieve and sigh at your impatience after this glory of Paradise weep over the deluge on the earth look back like a chast dove on Dulces lachrimae sunt ipsi fletus jucundi quibus restrintur ardor animi quasi relaxatus evaporat affectus the ark of your good father Noe the father of repose and consolation Then will I say of such tears with S. Ambrose O the delicious tears O the pleasing complaints which extinguish the fervours of our mind and make our affections sweetly to evaporate The two and twentieth SECTION The third combate of the spiritual man against impuritie ALl impuritie of life ariseth from three sources whereof S. John speaketh concupisence of Joan. 2. Three sources of impietie the flesh concupiscence of the eyes and pride of life Let us now see the practice of virtues which oppose these three sorts of impurities Against concupiscence of the flesh temperance chastitie modestie do wage war Against the concupiscence of eyes to wit the unbridled desires of temporal blessings povertie justice charitie mercie gratitude Against pride of life humilitie obedience magnanimitie patience clemencie The three and twentieth SECTION Practice of Chastitie CHastitie is a virtue which represseth the impure lust of the flesh a celestial virtue an Angelical virtue which maketh heaven and Angels descend upon the earth and in this kingdom of mortalitie planteth the image and titles of immortality Clemens Alexandrinus maketh mention of certain Clemen Alex. strommat enchanted mountains at the foot whereof was heard a voice as of people preparing themselves for battel a little further the encounter and conflict and on the top songs and triumphs Behold as it Three sorts of chastitie were the condition of three sorts of chastitie With some it beginneth with labour and uncertaintie there is at the first toil and resistance against lust but the even thereof is not known With others it is become more manly as being already practiced in combats With others it triumpheth after a long habit yet notwithstanding whilest here on earth it abideth it is never absolutely secured The acts thereof are Acts. I. To renounce all unlawfull voluptuousness of the flesh II. To abstain from carnal acts not onely those which are unlawfull but sometime such as are permitted among married folk upon just occasion or for some certain time which is very ordinarie or perpetually which is singular and remarkable in the lives of some Saints So Martianus lived with his wife Pulcheria and Henry the Emperour with the Empress Chunegundis III.
Anthony could find no other way to make Herod to be acknowledged for King while there was yet any of the bloud Royal left capable of rule so much this people loved their natural King and abhorred a stranger After these slaughters Herod mounteth to the top Entry of Herod to the crown of the wheel behold all the thorns as he thinketh pulled out of his feet he now had nothing to grapple with but an old man an infant and two women the last remainder of the noble race of the Asmodeans Hircanus was the aged man who in truth grew old among the thorns and horrible changes of his state He was as yet captive among the Parthians but the King although a Barbarian had so much commiseration of his so greatly afflicted goodness that he permitted him to live with all free libertie in his Citie of Babylon This poor Prince who had passed his whole life void of ambition bare the change of his fortune with great equalitie and temper of mind The Jews who at that time inhabited in the Parthians dominions beholding him all wounded disfigured wretched abandoned disarrayed did notwithstanding honour him as their King with so much respect and reverence that he had almost found a Kingdom in Captivitie Herod who saw this man might serve as a colour for those spirits that would aym at him in the swinge of his affairs as yet not well confirmed dispatcheth an express Embassadour to the Parthian King with many presents and letters sweetned with silken words wherein he besought him not to bereave him of the greatest contentment he could possibly have in this world which was to be grateful to those who had obliged him Hircanus said he was his benefactour his Protectour his Father and since God had given him some repose in his affairs it was an unspeakable comfort to him to share the scepter greatness and affluent content of Kings with a friend so faithful worthy to be beloved The King of Parthia willing to gratifie King Herod whom he beheld supported by the Roman Empire the power whereof he more feared than honoured the virtue gave free leave to Hircanus to go whither he would he put the business in consultation with the prime Peers of his countrie who much disswaded him But through the easiness of his singular nature which ever swallowed the bait without consideration of the hook he yielded himself to the dissembled courtesies of Herod and returned directly to Jerusalem where he was received with infinite demonstrations of amitie Behold the whole Regal familie in the hands of this Tyrant Hircanus had but one onely daughter named Alexandra a woman no whit of her fathers temper for she was extreamly haughtie and had much adoe with herself to bite the bridle in this servitude She was mother of two children one son and one daughter the son was the little Aristobulus and the daughter Mariamne married to Herod Mariamne was accounted the most beautiful Princess Marriage of Mariamne to Herod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Euphonie Mariamne of the earth for Gellius who went prying after all the beauties of the world to make relation thereof to Mark Anthony having well considered all the most exquisite Master-pieces of Nature when he beholdeth Mariamne in Palestine he protesteth all other beauties were terrestrial in comparison of this which seemed to have been composed amongst the the heavenly Orbs. This man saw nothing but the exteriour bark and was rapt with admiration but her form was not worthy esteem in comparison of the noble qualities of her mind She was a grandchild of the great Machabees well versed in the Law of God discreet wise stayed circumspect courteous chast as Susanna but above all couragious and patient who lived in Herods Court as Job on the dunghil Never beautie and virtue were so disgraced in any match This creature which had power to make so many brave Princesses to sigh for her and who might have beheld so many obsequious services done at her foot hath now Herod for her husband who had nothing humane in him but lineament and figure It was to match the Lamb with the Wolf the Dove with the Faulcon and to tye a living body mouth to mouth with the the dead to marrie such a Lady to so Prodigious a Monster But he who already had power in his hand passionately sought her as well for her in comparable beauty as besides for ever to establish his state considering the alliance of this little creature descended from so many Kings would cover the obscuritie of his house and gain him more reputation among the Jews Hircanus grand-father to Mariamne and Alexandra her mother seeing Herod was Master of his desires the Scepter already in his hands although by injustice and tyrannie measuring all things by his fortune not person judged this way might be yet advantagious and that his wife might mollifie him and make him favourable to the Royal bloud The generous Lady well foresaw that the putting her into Herods hands was to cast her into the Lions jaws But not to gainsay those to whom she had been taught to sacrifice her whole life and to obey the Laws of necessitie she under-went the yoke fortifying her Royal heart against all the stormy tempests which seemed already to menace her Behold her married Herod loveth her as the hunter venison for his appetite and advantage his love being not of power to make him loose one sillie grain of his ambition or crueltie This perverse Herod depresseth the Royal stock and violent spirit who held the Kingdom as a wolf by the ears ever wavering yea even in the secure safetie of his affairs endeavoured nothing but to rid himself of those whose spoils he possessed the respect of this good Queen being not able to sweeten or soften his savage humours He well shewed how little affection he bare towards her allies when it might any way import his pretended interest even at that time when there was question to substitute a High-Priest in the place of Hircanus who having his ears cut off with much deformitie necessarily fell into the irregularity ordained by Law which forbad him Altars Herod daily saw the Aristobulus the brother of Mariamne put from the High-Priesthood young Aristobulus in his Palace son of Alexandra and sole brother of his wife a most accomplished Prince to whom every one destined the Myter He sets his eyes a-wandering and finds out on the further side of Euphrates in the Citie of Babylon an unknown Jew named Ananel and createth him High-Priest This was a pill which Alexandra the mother of Aristobulus and Mariamne could not swallow yet thought fit to dissemble it She saw her house manifestly dejected in that her son after so many obligations was dispossessed of an honour to which bloud nature and the consent of the whole world called him to give it to a man of no value she could not so well digest her choler but that she thundred more lowdly than
he passed in continual apprehensions thornie affairs perilous voyages sinister distrusts frosty fears of death barbarous cruelties remorses of conscience the forerunners of hell leaving besides a short and unfortunate posterity Behold his Picture and Elogie HERODES ASCALONITA HERODES ASCALONITA VULTU FERUS ANIMO BARBARUS LUTO ET SANGUINE MACERATUS A QUO NIHIL AD SUMMAM CRUDELITATEM PRAETER DEICIDIUM ABFUIT DEICIDIO VOLUNTAS NON DEFUIT VULPINA FRAUDE REGNUM JUDEAE INVASIT AN. MUNDI TER MILLESSIMO NONGENTESSIMO SEXAGESSIMO QUINTO REGNAVIT IRAE SERVUS JURIS DOMINUS FORTUNA FOELIX CYCLOPAEA VITA INFOELICISSIMUS DESIIT CAELESTI PLAGA FERALIS MORBI ANNO REGNI TRICESSIMO SEPTIMO VITAE FERME SEPTUAGESSIMO CHRISTI OCTAVO Vpon the Picture of HEROD A man no whit with civil grace indu'd Of visage hydeous of manners rude A monster made of massacres and bloud That boldly God Heav'n Natures laws withstood Ill words within no certain limits fall But who once mentions Herod speaketh all BY the carriage of this Court one may see whither vice transporteth great fortunes In the person of Aristobulus and Hircanus you behold that the canker is to a body less dangerous than the discord of brothers to a state In the person of Antipater a friend for advantage who seeketh to fish in a troubled water in the end fisheth his fill but is drowned in the act to teach you there is no policie so great as to be an honest man and that he who prepareth snares for another diggeth his own grave In the person of Pompey an Aribitratour who worketh his own ends under the colour of justice who buildeth his ambition on the ruins of state in the end the earth which faileth him for his conquests denieth him a sepulchre He found no more Countries to conquer and scarcely had he six foot of earth to make him a tomb In that of Hircanus too much credulity too much facility to please others humours too much pusillanimity in the government of Justice which head-long threw him into a life as miserable as his death was cruel and bloudy In that of Anthonie a passionate Judge who turneth with all winds and suffereth himself to be carried along by the stronger without consideration of Justice In that of Joseph and Sohemus that it is perilous to treat with women though free from ill purpose and much more dangerous to reveal a secret which who will safely keep must make his heart a sepulchre for it In that of young Aristobulus how the most beautifull hopes are storm-beaten in the bud and that you must walk upon the prosperitie of the world as on ice that it must be handled like glass fearing always they break not in the lustre of their brightness In that of Alexandra a boundless ambition designs without effect afflictions devoid of consolations torments without patience and a death without deserts and all this because she gave not a good temper of virtue to her soul In that of the sons of Mariamne innocency perfecuted and a little vanity of tongue desperately revenged In that of yong Antipater policy deceived the cloud of humane hopes cracked punishment and revenge ever attending an offender In the person of Herod an enraged ambition which giveth motion to all his crimes a double soul crafty cautelous politick mischievous bloudy barbarous savage and withal in the best of his tricks benummed doltish dall thinking to make a fortune to the prejudice of religion and conscience A goodly fortune to make himself great and live in the hatred of all the world in the remorses of a Cyclopean conscience a thousand times aday to call upon death not being able to die and in the end to die in a body leaprous stinking louzey and death to tear his soul from him with scabs stench and lice to make it survive its torments in an eternity of flames See you not here fair fruits of humane wisdom impiety and atheism In that of Mariamne a soul raised above the highest sphere of true greatness a soul truly royal holy religious courteous mercifull wise affable and endowed with an incomparable patience who as an Eagle strong of wing and courage soaring above the storms of the world maketh her self Mistress of tempests and thunders which for that they had served as an exercise of her constancy and perpetual battels for her life shall through all Ages attend the immortality of her glory THE FIFTH BOOK Fortunate Pietie WE have hitherto beheld a Court which rather resembleth Polyphemus cave than a Kings Palace to teach Great-ones there is no bruitishness so savage wherinto ingratitude towards God and vice doth not precipitate a forsaken soul Let us now see that as unbridled passions are of power to make a hell of a Princes Court so the practice of piety and other virtues make it a true Paradise Behold the Court of Theodosius the Younger a Prince who seemed to be born for nothing else but to allye the scepter to virtues and manifest what royal greatness can do guided by the rules of pietie It is no small miracle to behold a holy King If Ring of God God affected the curiositie of wearing a ring as well in effect as the Scripture attributeth it to him in allegorie the most agreeable characters he would engrave therein were the names of good Kings who are his most lively representations as those who wed together power and goodness two inseparable pieces of God but very incompatible in the life of man such are the corruptions of this Age. Some live in Four sorts of life the world transported with the torrents thereof and that is weakness Others flie the world and in flying oft-times carry it along with them and this is an illusion Others separate themselves as well in body as affection and this is prudence But few are found who bearing the world on their shoulders through necessity do tread it under-foot by contempt of vanities That is it which this great Prince hath done whose Court we here describe for being seated among people he built a desert in his heart and in a vast Ocean of affairs he lived as fishes which keep silence within the loud noise of waves and preserve their plump substance fresh in the brackish waters I go not about to place Theodosius the Younger in the rank of the bravest and most heroick spirits you hereafter shall see others more couragious and warlick but I purposely have selected this history drawn from the Chronicle of Alexandria Zonaras Zozomen Raderius and others to teach certain vain-glorious people who make no account but of those trifling spirits fierce mutinous and unquiet stampt with the coyn of impiety how much they miss of their reckoning seeing this Emperour with the sole arms of piety and modesty carried himself in a very long and most prosperous reign amidst horrible tempests which seemed ready to rend the world and other rash Princes who made shew to swallow earth and seas were drowned in a glass
Nations the ebbe and floud of great affairs a profound peace an absolute power to satisfie all sorts of desires with attractive objects and delights ever ready to be reaped and in the mean time what a life led the new couple what a life Pulcheria and her sister what monasterie more regular than the Court of this Emperour what virtue what chastity what sanctity what devotion was ever found in Cloysters which hath not here been seen with so much the more lustre as it is more difficult to have all vices a power and all virtues in will If in religion the first account be made of devotion which is the master-wheel of all great actions this Court was as the Tabernacle of the ancient law which born amongst armies environed with hosts of men bristled round about with pikes and javelins ever retained a sweet silence a chaste religion a sacred veneration and perpetually had holy fire in centinel victims and prayers in sacrifice So the Palace of Theodosius amongst all the clamours of affairs all the rumours tumults and accidents which upon one side and other occur in a large Empire never so much slackened as to loose the sweetness of prayer which was as the Manna these Royal souls daily gathered in the desert which they had planted in the midst of their hearts Pulcheria as the Abbess governed the devotion of all the rest by her counsel and example As soon as break of Note here O Noblemen a Holy Court day drew the curtain of Heaven to discover the works of God they adored the work-man and assembling in their houshold Chappel sung the praises of God following therein the course of the Church-prayers The whole time was there circumvolved in compass The divine office had the first fruits affairs and recreations had likewise their turn nothing was exorbitant where all was done by weight and measure If in religious life so much esteem be had of poverty as of walls and rampires of the Citie of God where shall you find a more admirable poverty than in this Court Is it not a prodigious thing to be spoken that this good Emperour for whom seas and rivers ran for whom the earth opened her bosom with so much prodigality for whom she kept so many Magazins of gold and silver within her entrails beholding himself among the revenues of a great Empire so husbanded them for the entertainment of things necessary wherein he was ever magnificent that he suffered no excess in his own person He used all his blessings as things borrowed and sometimes in his own particular would not permit the expence of his diet exceed the value of the work of his own hands He painted very well and took pleasure so much as affairs would give leave to delineate the holy Scripture in most noble characters saying to his familiars it was reason since all the world took pains in his Kingdom himself should have a trade and that as others he should learn to dip his bread in the sweat of his brow and his body being of the same composition which others are it was fit to exercise the same labours Such innocency was very far from the profusions which are made in Princes Courts with the expence of the peoples bloud a matter that beyond all other burdens would surcharge them at the Judgement-seat of God The Emperours sisters to imitate him had always their works in their hands that they might leave no passage open to idleness If in religion Excellent chastity and modesty chastity be esteemed here the conjugal supereminently flourished between Theodosius and Eudoxia virginity in Pulcheria and her sisters Marina Flaccilla Arcadia was as redolent balm which ascended to Heaven in a perpetual sacrifice The very name onely of dishonesty was not so much as known in this Palace yet all things were therein learned but vice and idleness Glances of the eye were simple and dove-like words pondered ordinary discourses of the imitation of Jesus Christ and virtues of Saints carriages full of respect honour and majesty This chastitie abode among the chief in Court and was spread over all the rest by the odour of good example as do the rays of the Sun which involve the whole world without ever parting from the original fountain of light If in religion obedience be esteemed this Court was the very model of well obeying and commanding Those holy souls had made a law to themselves most exactly to observe all the Commandments of God and the Church to reverence the Prelates of the same to cherish assist comfort the religious and all Ecclesiastical Orders with most cordial affection tempted with holy reverence in such sort that the most austere Monks could not be more punctual in religious obedience than all of this Court were in the government of their consciences God for reward imprinted on the Emperours forehead the rays of his Majesty which made him so much the more awfull as he less of purpose sought to make himself such If in religious Orders they live in perpetual exercise Mortification of mortification what life more mortified than to behold so much humility in sovereign greatness so much chastity in vigorous youth in an absolute power to do all so much retention In so much science so much conscience so much temperance among so many occasions of delights Besides the fasts of the Church which were there exactly kept abstinence was observed on the wednesday and friday in every week The Emperour gave the example his wife and sisters imitated it their table was rather a perpetual list of temperance than a provision of dainties It was observed the good Prince travelling one A worthy act day through the heats of summer full of dust and sweat his Court being in great scarcity of water behold a peasant cometh who presenteth him with a draught of cool water in a fair christal glass he was in his passions so mortified that as an other David after he magnificently had recompenced the good mans present he gave it back again to bestow where he pleased without once touching it thinking it unreasonable he should flatter his own tast during the thirst of his followers He sometimes stole away in hunting and went to dine with some Hermit where he fed on a little slice of mouldy bread and drank the clear water of the fountain protesting afterward it was one of the best repasts he had made for commonly it was seasoned with sacred discourse and wholefom counsel In his apparel although he appeared full of majesty according to his quality yet he oftentimes hid under his royal purple the old frock or hair-shirt of some holy Anchoret In publick shews he also abstained from gazing that seeing one would have thought him blind His virtues were so much the more as they had the less of affectation He was in conversation among men as a man and yet therein preserved himself pure as an Angel If religion be the hive wherein the honey of good
it slept as the Providence of God shewed it self affectionate in the conservation of these elevated souls Observe the persons precisely and consider each in particular What happiness in the Empress Eudoxia whilest she laboureth for the glory of Altars God gave the heart of her husband into her hands the world in honour at her feet and a little Theodosius by her fide who in his infancy maketh all the hopes of his mother to bud But as soon as this poor Princess forgetting her duty and self contended with S John Chrysostom behold her cut down with the sythe of death carried away in her flower deprived of the contentment and glory which she possessed Behold she received a breach in her reputation which cannot in the memory of all Ages be repaired Her bones are in horrour and dread till such time as S. Chrysostom banished by her commandment and returning dead to Constantinople came to serve as an anker for the floating ashes of this unfortunate Empress Consider this little Theodosius who even at his birth maketh the Idols to fall the Pagan temples to sink and hell to howl under his feet What glory was it to bury the remainders of Idolatry what a trophey to extirpate under his reign so many monsters of heresies What celestial comfort to see in his time so many learned writings to be laid at his feet to see so many worthy men flourish so many Saints as Leo's Cyrils Chrysostoms Simeons Stilites to see the Church all garnished with stars and lights to sway a Scepter more than fourty years in a peaceful Kingdom among so many tempests and which is more to fall into some defects by sudden surprizal and expiate them by a happy repentance to see himself drawn by a powerfull hand from the brink of a precipice and in the end to yield up his soul in the midst of Palms and good odours of a glorious life See you not a Fortunate Piety Behold Pulcheria as an Eagle on the top of apyramide which ever hath her eye on the Sun and seeth all storms broken and confounded under her feet Was there ever a more fortunate Piety To say that a maid at fifteen years of age swaying Emperours and Empires enchaining all hearts of the world to make herself on earth a Crown might boast to have had the Universal Church for trumpet of her praises and from the government on earth to mount to Heaven by so happy death born as on a Chariot of liberality and magnificence Where may one more manifestly see the happiness of true and solid piety Behold Athenais a silly maid who had not so much as a poor cottage for shelter as soon as she embraceth piety and offereth the faculties of her soul to the honour of Altars behold her raised upon the throne of the prime Empire of the world afterward as she came a little to forget God he sent her a very sharp affliction but as soon as she hath again recourse to the arms of devotion the cloud of calumny cast on her forehead dissevereth the storm passeth away and her face all glittereth in glory and which is most admirable God layeth hold of her even in the gulph of errour whereinto a wicked hypocrite had cast her reconducteth her to Altars receiveth her soul in peace and causeth her to reign both in herself and bloud in all the three parts of the world for she held in person the Scepter of Asia her daughter Eudoxia was married to the Emperour of Rome the Capital Citie of Europe and her Grand-child was Queen of Africk miraculously finding a Kingdom in her own captivity Is not this a fortunate piety Adde also hereunto Martianus a poor peasant who now had his neck under the sword of the executioner falsely accused of a crime whereof he was innocent and God taketh him by one hair of the head delivereth him from shame and peril marvellously guiding him to the government of a great Empire giveth him innumerable prosperities and indeed maketh him another Constantine Ought not impiety to burst with rage and confess that happiness greatness benedictions and favours of Heaven are for piety Here it may be you will also have some rememberance of the Court of Herod where you have seen the poor Mariamne in virtue so ill intreated and will think that piety in this creature was unfortunate But if this thought occur would it not condemn all the Martyrs and all the Saints whose lives notwithstanding we ought to judge most happy since that vanquishing the petty misfortunes of the world she hath fallen into the bosom of felicity Tell me one hour of life in patience and tranquility of soul which this good Queen had among so many strange accidents is it not more worth than the thirty seven years of her husband all clouded with crimes disturbancies and fury Tell me is it not a happiness and an incomparable glory that God would pertake in persecutions with this good Princess suffering himself by this self-same man to be pursued who had been the hammer of all her afflictions Is it nothing to die in the Amphitheater of patience in the Theater of honour by the same sword which was afterward unsheathed against Jesus Christ Is it nothing to give up the life of a Pismeer in exchange of an immortal glory on earth and a happy repose in Heaven And if you besides desire to see her fortunate piety according to the world is it not a blow from Heaven to say that all the race of Herod issued from his other wives was unlucky miserable execrable deprived of their fathers Scepter chased away exiled scourged with whips from Heaven and the Grand-children of Mariamne remained last in royal thrones Tigranes her Grand-child descended from Alexander was King of Armenia crowned by the hands of the Roman Emperours Agrippa the Great issued from Aristobulus who having been fettered with an iron cain through the cruelty of Tyberius was sent back to his Kingdom by Caius Caesar and honoured with a golden chain of like weight with the same of iron wherewith he had been fettered Agrippa the youngest under whom S. Paul pleaded his cause was preserved from the horrible sack of Jerusalem as Lot from the flames of Sodome and reigned in Tyberiade and Juliade even to decrepit age Berenice grand-child of Mariamne was extreamly courted by the Emperour Titus entituled the worlds darling Another called Drucilla was married to Faelix Governour of Judea of whom is spoken in the Acts God likewise recompencing the virtue of the mother in the children by some temporal favours and all those who disposed themselves to virtue were fortunate to make it appear by evident testimonies that unhappiness ariseth from nothing but impiety These two Courts the histories of which we have here represented in my opinion sufficiently shew the unhappiness of impiety and fortunate success in the lives of Great-ones when they are guided according to the laws of Heaven If I hereafter shall continue this work I will
him There are none but certain Harpies which as saith Cardinal Petrus Damianus flie round about Altars to pillage them who bear him the like good will as Ravens do to carrion He lives in a kind of stupidity of spirit in continual indisposition of body disgrace in his temporal fortunes the fable of the world the object of Heavens anger and earths execration Finally he resembleth an old sepulcher that hath nothing in it but stench and titles Happily then ponder in your heart what the life of a Priest ought to be who is the house of God of the cabinet and as it were of the bosom of God To think a wickedness is a crime to commit it a sacriledge to bear it to the Altar is a sin which hath no proper name there are titles and offices of all vices Oh how pure should that mouth be which approcheth to kiss the son of God! Oh how clean should those hands be which are chosen to purge away the worlds ordures Oh how chaste ought that heart to be that is bedewed with the bloud of the Word Eternal What a horrour when a faithless soul from the bed of wolves goeth out to find the Lamb and carrieth the pollutions of the earth to the Sanctuary of the living God like to that beastly Empress Messalina spoken of by the Satyrist (c) (c) (c) Faeda lupanaris tulit ad pulvinar odorem who bare to the Imperial bed of Claudius her husband the infamy and noisomness of places which should not be so much as named in the Palace of a Roman Emperour S. Peter (d) (d) (d) Instruebaâ— Petrus discipulos actus vitae suae omni horâ custoâ—ire in omni loco Deum respicere firmiter cogitationes malas cordi suo advenientes mox ad Christum allidere S. Clem. Ep. 1. ad Jacobum said we must break all ill thoughts by the exercise of the presence of Jesus Christ as the waves are dashed against the rocks And S. Chrysostom (e) (e) (e) Necesse est sacerdotem sic esse purum ut in Coelo collocatus inter ipsâ—s Coeli virtutes medius staret Chrys de Sacerdotio advised Priests to be pure as if they were in Heaven amidst the Angels Chastity saith holy Zeno is happy in virgins strong in widdows faithfull in the married but with Priests it ought to be wholly Seraphicall It is fit he should have little of the body who is made to manage and handle the body of the Son of God It is fit he should have small commerce with the flesh who knoweth how to incarnate the living God in his hands A carnal soul ready to sell his patrimony for a mess of pottage as the unworthy Esau is more fit for hogs than the Sanctuary They heretofore sacrificed to the Sun without effusion of wine and those who sacrifice to the Master of the Sun ought to entermarrie sobrietie with chastitie which are ever mutually linked together The banquets of rich seculars said S. Jerome (f) (f) (f) Convivia vitanda sunt secularium maximè eorum qui honoribus tument Consolatores nos potâ—us maeroribus suis quà m convivas prosperis noverint Facile contemnitur Clericus qui sâ—pe vocatus ad prandium ire non recusat Hieron Ep. 2. Neposian are not so proper for Church-men It is much fitter to comfort them in afflictions than to accompany them in their feasts A Priest who is still present at weddings is never well esteemed of He that would behold the modesty which is to be observed at the tables of Ecclesiastical men let him at the least take a model upon that which Tertullian writeth in his Apologetike of the Primitive Christians Our table saith he hath nothing in it which tasteth of sordidness sensuality or immodesty we eat there in proportion we drink according to the rules of temperance so much we satiate our selves as is necessary for men that must rise in the night to offer their prayers to God We there speak and converse as in the presence of God our hands washed and candles lighted every one reciteth what he knows of holy Scripture and of his own conceit all to the praise of God Prayer endeth the banquet as it gave beginning thereunto From the table we go to the exercise of modesty and honesty You would say if you saw us it were not a supper we had in hand but a lesson of piety The seventh SECTION The fourth perfection of a Prelate which is observed in Zeal and charitie YOur fourth mark is scarlet the sign of the ardent charity and zeal you ought to retain towards the house of God The buckler of brave Champions of the God of Hosts should be Num. 2. Clypeus fortium ejus ignitus viri exercitus in coccineis a buckler of fire and all his souldiers must appear in crimson cassocks You must early learn to bay the hares skin in the hall that you may afterward go into the field for the hunting of souls You must become a wall of fire to serve as a rampart in the house of God You must be a star to run over and enlighten the little world recommended to your charge You must oppose the power of great-ones the strength of the sturdy the wiles of the crafty the close practises of the wicked to divert ill actions advance good leave unprofitable destroy vice plant virtue chastise delinquents recompence men of merit protect the poor justifie the innocent You must be an eye to the blind a foot to the lame arm and hand to the maimed a Sanctuary to all the world You must have as many chains to oblige men to you as God hath given you means of well-doing Let the miseries which in a right line would hasten to you if it be possible may pass no further than you Let your house be a shop where from stones the sons of Abraham may be raised The High-Priest heretofore bare the whole world on his habit of which he was as it were the Advocate and you must think when you are in office all the world is on your shoulders and that both the living and dead shall have a share in the duty which you shall render thereunto It shall be your act to carry the torch of example before the people to instruct men to cure and comfort their infirmity to pray and sacrifice both for the world of the living and those whom death already hath divided from our conversation What charity think you can you have to be discharged from these obligations You must learn Nullum omnipotenti Deo tale sacrificium quale est zâ—lus animarum Greg. super Ezech. hom 12. to love souls as the most pretious moveables you have in the world to please your self with the places where the objects of your zeal are and the knots of your charge rather than the Courts of Princes when you shall have untamed spirits to govern let them serve as an arrest for
understanding these propositions went to find out the noble Bayard in his lodging and made a long discourse to him of the evil disposition of Pope Julius and the enterprises he had both on his life and of the Frenchmen of purpose to enkindle him for revenge Then he pursued his opportunitie and made overture to him of the treason of this wicked Gerlo Bayard beheld him and said How Sir I could never have imagined that a Prince so generous as you would consent to such a mischief and had you done it I swear by my soul before night I would have given the Pope notice of it How answered the Duke he would have done as much either to you or me It is no matter replieth Bayard this treacherie displeaseth me The Duke shrugged up his shoulders and spitting on the ground Mounsieur Bayard saith he I would I had killed all mine enemies in this sort but since you dislike it the matter shall rest and you and I both may have cause to repent it We shall not if it please God replyeth the good souldier but I pray you put this gallant into my hands that would do this goodly piece of service and if I do not cause him to be hanged in an hour let me supply his place The other excused it saying he had given him assurance of his person Behold you not a brave spirit See you not a man of a Royal conscience and of an honestie in all things like to it self Where are these pettie spirits of the abyss more black than specters and infernal furies who have neither loyaltie for their Prince nor Common-wealth but as it may concern their own interests who swallow treasons as big as cammels to gain a flie They would make truth it self to lie were not their issues ever tragical abominable and hideous The ninth SECTION Short and notable Instructions MY souldier follow the precepes which the great S. Augustine gave to Captain Boniface August ep 80. Observe faith and virtue in Arms which never will be prosperous on earth if they be not fortified with blessings from Heaven Beg of God with David to deliver you from your necessities which are your passions he doth nothing to overcome visible enemies that have power over bodies who surmounteth not the invisible bandied against the health of our souls Make use of the world as a thing borrowed do good with its goods and become not bad They are goods since they come from God who extendeth his power over all things both celestial and temporal They are goods since God gives them to good men but they are not also great goods since he affords them to the wicked He takes them away from the virtuous to trie their virtue and from the perverse to chastise their crimes It is true strength health victorie honour wealth are indifferently the portion of all men but conquest over passions virtues salvation of soul immortalitie of bodie glorie honour beatitude are the proper inheritance of Saints Love these goods desire them seek them with all your endeavour do alms-deeds to get them fast as much as your forces will permit all here below passeth away but good works Think when you go to the wars that the strength of your bodie is a gift of God that it is not fit to arm against your sovereign Masters proper benefits Keep promise even with your enemies make peace with all the world voluntarily and war for necessity to acquire the good of peace Be peacefull even in Arms for such men are called the children of God If it be necessarie to kill an enemie in fight let mercy be always exercised in the latter end of the combat principally when there is no further fear of rebellion Adorn your manners with conjugal chastitie sobrietie and modestie It is a ridiculous thing to conquer men and be vanquished by vices to escape the sword and be overthrown by wine If you want means seek it not on earth by wicked practices but secure rather in Heaven that little you have by the exercise of good works Flee these rocks of Nobilitie which we have hitherto spoken against and above all bridle presumption choller the tongue and sensuallitie They are slaves who cannot keep in the mean between servitude and Empire where either chains must be had to master them or a Throne erected to honour them Pesumption if you afford it enterance will make you of a man a baloon filled with wind a scare-crow of honour a temerarious thing void of courage an undertaker without successe a phantastick without shame which in the end shall become burdensome to it self and odious to all the world Choller and folly are two sisters which have in all things the same qualities or if there be any difference it is that the one with more furie maketh havock in an instant and the other produceth her effects with more leisure and cheerfulness whilest you are subject to this passion no man can confide in you in matter of judgement no more than to weather-cocks in the point of stabilitie you will have all other vices in-seed and perpetually live in the sorrow of time past disturbance of the present and uncertaintie of the future As for the tongue it is that which containeth all the good or evil of man It is the needle of the great dial of the soul that must shew all the hours It is the truche-man of our thoughts the image of our actions the interpreter of our wills and the principal key of conversation He that will now adays live in the world saith the famous S. Nazianzen must have a veil over his Nazianz. in Iamb eys a key on his ear a compass on his lips A veil over his eyes not to see or in seeing to dissemble many things a key on his ears to shut them up against so many follies and ordures which proceed from bad mouthes and a compass on the lips to measure and square out all his words with discretion So many secrets unnecessarily discovered so many infamous slanders so many inconsiderate tales so many frivolous promises so many impudent lyes such perjuries and execrable blasphemies so many disasters which oft happen for a sleight speech daily teach us that words have no handles to hold them by and better it is to trip with the foot than the tongue Sensualitie if you powerfully resist it not from the first reflections which reason may present will make you a thing of nothing The three spirits wine love and game will fetter you with a prodigious slavery You will become a living sepulchre a tomb of surphets and slaughters a gulf of calumnies a meer hobgoblin without repose which shall continually handle cards and dice to bereave you of your purse and understanding so to make a spoil of your goods a frencie of your reason and a perpetual feaver of your life Your condition ought not to make you pretend power over men if you seasonably enterprise it not over your own passions
appointed him and that he necessarily must change the countrey whereat being much amazed yet still persisting in his design as not throughly satisfied upon the will of God it is held the tools and instruments of work-men were insensibly transported over the sea to the other shore and that an Eagle setling upon the Level of the Master-Architect took it up and hastened to bear it directly to Byzantium for that is the City whither Zonar Glycâ—â— Constantine forsaking the ruins of Troy transferred his great designs It had heretofore been a very fair City but as arms strike at all which is eminent so had it been infinitely ransacked by many wars happening in the revolution of affairs and Ages Yet it still supported it self with some manner of reputation when this great Prince determined to amplify enrich and perfect it throughly there to fix the seat of his Empire It is added that himself marched round about the wals holding in his hand a half-pike designing the circuit of his future Constantinople and as he still went measuring up and down by the aym of his eye one of his favourites said to him Emperour how long will it be ere you make an end I will finish saith he when he stayes that goeth before me Which made men think there was some heavenly intelligence that conducted his enterprize At the same time he thought he saw in sleep a very ancient Lady which in an instant was turned into a most beautiful virgin whom he adorned and attyred setting his Diadem on her head Observe what is said of the beginnings of Constantinople whether such things happened with all these circumstances or whether we naturally love to tell some strange tales in favour of antiquity as if these fictions were able to give it the more credit One thing is most undoubted which Zosimus although an enemy to Constantine is enforced to admire that the manage of this great design was so prosperous that in five or six years a goodly City was seen on foot which extended about one league in circuit beyond the walls of Byzantium Constantine who had a holy desire to equal it to ancient Rome spared nothing of all that which the invention of men might find out courage undertake and power execute He there built Palaces Theaters Amphitheaters Cirques Galleries and other edifices infinitely admirable so that S. Hierom had reason to say that Constantine to attyre his Constantinople despoiled all the other Provinces It is a Maxim among Great-ones that to make a huge Dragon it is fit he first devour many little serpents and to raise a great City many much less must be ruined to serve for food unto it The greatnesses of God are good deeds those of the world are naturally destructions for they eat and devour their neighbours as the tree which we call the Ivie which insensibly draweth the juice of plants growing near unto it It is not expedient there should be many greatnesses in the world they would drie rivers up as did the army of Xerxes and would impoverish each other by their mutual contestations Yet notwithstanding needs must there be Majesty in the civil world to the proportion of elementary And for this cause God made Kings taking a pattern from himself commandeth we honour them as his living images Kings make the greatnesses of the world which are the effects of their powers Needs must there be a Constantinople that posterity may see Constantine on the back side of the medal for I think his virtues have represented him on the other side very honourable At the least it is a thing exceeding laudable and well considered by S. Augustine that in this infinite store of Pagans which he must yet of necessity tolerate the Emperour permitted not either Temples of Idols Sacrifices or Pagan ceremonies Well might he be curious to cause from all parts to be brought ancient statues of marble brass and other matter which represented Jupiter Cybile Mercury Apollo Castor and Pollux and so many false Divinities which he set up in Theaters Amphitheaters or Races where the courses of horses were used and in other publick places Eusebius followed by Baronius holdeth it was to expose them to the scorn of the people which is very hard to believe for I should rather think that these pieces being the most exquisit workmanships of the world and that Constantine vehemently desiring the beauty of this City could not then resolve upon such a Jewish zeal as to break and deface them but contented himself with the distribution of them into profane places to give lustre to his enterprizes Yet must we say that though we at this present are out of the danger of Idolatry rich men of this Age have no reason to set up so readily in their Halls and cabiners Junâ—'s Venuses and Diana's and so many histories of the Tertul. l. de Idol cap. 6. Metamorphosis with scandalous nakedness Tertullian an eager spirit pursueth all this as a crime and proveth in the book he composed of Idolatry that all those who cooperate in such works do worse than if they sacrificed to Idols the bloud of beasts For they offer saith he their spirit their industry their travel and their estate to Sathan and though they have no intention of sin they minister matter to other of offending God Behold the cause why Constantine although he were in an Age wherein Paganism being still in much request it was very difficult to take away all these figures notwithstanding he disguised them as much as he could witness that a great statue of Apollo being brought to Constantinople one of the best pieces that ever had been seen in those elder times he caused a Constantine to be made of this Apollo changing it into his own image and commanding some parcels of the venerable nails of our Saviour to be enchased over his head It is in my opinion to this same image that he added a golden globe in the hand thereof and over it a Cross with this inscription Tibi Christe Urbem commendo Besides he made three Crosses to be erected the most magnificent that might then be imagined set in the midst of a publick place the statue of the Prophet Daniel among the Lions all covered over with plates of gold to represent a figure of the Resurrection And as for his Palace he caused to be pourtraid at the very entrance thereof the history of the Passion in a most exquisit work wrought and tissued with pretious stones very much resembling Mosayk work All of it being finished he made the dedication of the City on the tenth of May and as it is very probably supposed the five and twentieth of his Empire consecrating it to God in memory of the glorious Virgin Mary and doing great acts of liberty to the people which he commanded by his Edicts to be continued for perpetuity Codin addeth that he caused also sumptuous edifices there to be built for the Christians Senatours which he
according to his merit He divided the Empire between his three sons at that time absent and having distributed their several shares with great providence he gave to Constantius the Empire of the East leaving a Will sealed with his own signet in the hands of a certain Priest whom he appointed to deliver it immediately to his son which he did and afterward Constantius so much honoured this man that being inflexible to all other he onely obeyed him as a God The dispose of his temporal affairs being setled he transferred all his thoughts to familiar discourses which he had with God and yielded up his most happy soul on the Feast of Pentecost the 22. of May about mid-day in the year of our Lord. 337. The souldiers and officers who waited next his person not thinking his end so near at hand upon this news were seized with a grief so outragious that tearing their cloaths and prostrating themselves upon the earth they bewailed their Emperour with complaints which rather resembled yellings than moderate sorrow called him Their Sovereign Lord their good Master common Father of the world His body was put into a coffin of gold covered with purple to carry it to Constantinople where it was many dayes exposed in his Palace attired in Imperial habit receiving the same duties and reverences as if he had yet been alive never was there observed toward any Emperour whatsoever either such great concourse of people or cordial affection not so much as little children but were touched with a sensible grief as if they had lost their father One might have seen among the people some confounded with sad and heavy sorrow others to break forth into complaints the rest to pour themselves out in devotions and prayer When ancient Rome heard the news of his death she caused the baths and publick Places to be shut up all mirth and solace to cease that they might lament the loss of a most honoured father The Princes his children speedily arrived at Constantinople caused his obsequies to be performed after the manner of Christians conducting the body to the Sepulcher with the Clergy wax lights burning and prayers of the Church ordained for the souls of the dead For Eusebius who was there present maketh express mention of the ceremonies which new Hereticks through great impertinency and malignity have endeavoured to deny for the comfort of the dead It is a mervellous thing to consider what power virtue hath over the hearts of men and to behold how many divers sects are different in that which is matter of belief in Divinity but all notwithstanding agree in the honour due to honesty The Pagans would needs canonize Constantine in their manner and made a God of him representing him in a Chariot harnessed out with four horses as flying above the clouds and a hand stretched from Heaven which made shew to hold him in this most blessed mansion of immortality The Greek Church hath honoured his memory as of a Saint although Constantine had so humble an opinion of himself that it is very likely he ordained by his Testament which was afterward seen to be executed in his funerals that his body should be interred not in the Church of S. Peter and S. Paul but before the porch esteeming himself most happy if after he had born the prime Diadem of the world he might serve as a porter to a simple fisherman I now aske of you my Reader who have considered the beginning progress and end of this Monarch where may you find one more clear in greatness of courage more generous in his enterprizes more prudent in his carriage more fortunate in successes more constant in his perseverance Poyze a little and put in a ballance the glory of his arms the happiness of his conquests the wisdom of his laws what virtue think you had he here occasion to make use of to set a new face upon a whole world to oppose Armies with iron stratagems with prudence rebellion of untamed spirits with mildness What arm to resist the torrents of iniquity What stroke to counterballance the inclinations of wils and swift motions of an universal world Greatness of Constantine Verily I must affirm Augustus Caesar was a great Prince for that he changed the face of the State of a mighty Common-wealth built up a vast Empire but not to flatter nor raise our Princes above their merit with the interest of our own cause we shall find this man had some thing in him much greater I admit the other seemeth to you more subtile if you consider him in the maturity of prudence he shewed in his elder days notwithstanding if you behold him in all the parts of his life you shall find great vices therein I say not onely of impurity or neglect but of wickedness and inhumanity which was the cause that he having one day in a banquet taken the shape of Apollo those about him named him Apollinem Tortorem Apollo the Hangman I go not about at this time to search into the vices either of the one or other I admit that Constantine though descended of the most noble bloud of Romans and as fortunate as ever Augustus was in his beginning somewhat cruel Yet no man can deny but that in military virtue he in all points surpassed Augustus Caesar who was never put into the rank of the most warlike Princes Let us not here overprize the supereminency the one had above the other in this point Let us onely compare them in quality of founders of new Estates The one made a new world civil and the other a new world Christian The one to do what he did found a Julius Caesar who before-hand cut out his work for him The other hewed forth a way through rocks flames thornes wholly involved with contrariety The one arranged men under a civil submission in recovery of a Monarchy which is an ordinary thing The other without arms disarmed them from the affection they bare to their ancient superstition which every well understanding Judge will esteem a mattter very difficult because ordinarily men are very obstinate to retain the beliefs which they have held from father to son through the revolution of many Ages Finally Augustus said he found a City of stone speaking of ancient Rome and had made of it a City of marble but Constantine might boast to have raised a Rome wholly new in the establishment of his Constatinople It is affirmed by the Pagans themselves who never attributed any thing to Constantine above his merit that he was at the least say they before bus baptism comparable to all the greatest Princes of the Empire Eutropius a souldier of Julian the Apostata who little loved Christian Princes is inforced through a truth to confess that he was (d) (d) (d) Vir ingens Innumerae in eâ— animi corporiâ— que virtutes clarâ—erunt fortunà in belâ—â— prosperâ fuit verum ita ut non superâ—ret industrian The Prince cap. 2. and upon
eyes in a bason full of glew having observed a huntsman who washed his with fair water and he who being desirous to bathe a little infant in imitation of its nurse hastened to plunge it in a boyling cauldron How many do we daily see in the seemings of affected piety who so well act all countenances as if with such merchandize Paradise were to be purchased And in the mean space they are altogether devoid of true virtues so that he who could penetrate into their hearts should find they were like to those pearls which in stead of a solid body have nothing but the husk Some take devotion as a slight pastime others as a light complement others bend that way for complacence to the humours of another others for glory and although they have consciences as rude as those of the Countrey they would willingly draw Seraphins out of Heaven to govern them to the end that although they cannot have devotion they may at the least gain the reputation to seek after the perfectest others are thereto transported for some slender cloak of liberty and certain accommodations of their own proper interest I do not say but that there are a great number who have intentions most pure and proceed very piously but we must affirm that the defects whereof we speak may craftily slide into the infirmity of our sex For what may we say of a creature to whom ten years of devotion twelve hundred communions and a thousand exhortations have not yet taken off one hair of vanity What may we think of her who eateth the immortal Lamb twice or thrice a week and daily on all occasions becometh a Lioness in her house What may we judge of her who so many times layeth the holy Eucharist on her tongue as a seal of the Spouse not being able to bridle or restrain it so far as to forbear so many indiscreet and evil words what may one presume of her who makes a scruple to drink cool in sommer and to behold a flower with delight yet feeleth no remorse of conscience to have spoken more slanders in one dinner than she hath eaten morsels Verily we betray devotion which is of it self fair and glorious when we use it in such sort and we give matter to exorbitant souls how to justifie their sins by our deportments to which they ever have but too much inclination and think that in depainting us with a coal they make themselves as white as snow There are others who desire devotions extatike and ravishing disguised in strange words in fashions never heard of in ceremonies not accustomed All that which is just prudent and moderate tasteth too much of common other paths must be found to Paradise new habits must be cut out for God under the mould of their fancy to make him known I am not ignorant that there are in Religious Orders souls purified from the dregs of the world which have apprehensions of God most elate nor would I for any thing condemn such blessings But when in ordinary life they speak to me of fashions so extraordinary I ever go along with a leaden pace so much do I feare lest for a strong piety I find a body of smoke I add also others who make to themselves a devotion hydeous pensive melancholy which amazeth those who behold it with the onely sight thereof they voluntarily resigning themselves to as it were perpetual tortures of the mind This virtue hath but too much slander in the world we have nothing else to do but to hide its beauty and to give it a mask of terrour to affright those who have business enough to free themselves from their sensuality I esteem the devotion most proper for our sex is that which hath least of affectation most of effect Every one will be able to direct the prayers she ought to make Confessions Communions according to her own capacity profession and leisure using therein the counsel of some that govern her conscience but let her assure her self she shall never tast devotion at the fountain head but in the practise of virtues and the constancie of good resolutions The sixth SECTION Modestie AFter the interiour is directed by the motions of piety followeth the virtue of Modestie which proclaimeth us exteriourly It is the needle of the dyal which sheweth how our souls circumvolveth times and the hours of the day it which witnesseth the power we have over our passions it which formeth us after the model of great souls it which causeth us to appear in conversation in a manner not onely regular but sweet honest and examplar It is the virtue which S. Peter the Apostle required In incorruptibilitate quieti modesti spiritus 1 Pet. 3 4. of our sex when he advised us to hold the inward man in the incorruptibility of a spirit peaceable and modest This is seen in the carriage gestures and countenances but especially in speech and habits We cannot believe how wise we are in simplicity and how powerfull in mildness It is the strongest armour we have from nature When we mannage a spirit and govern an affair by these sweet and peaceable waies we astonish the most confident we disarm the stoutest and triumph over conquerours We have nothing to do but to hold our peace and our silence speaketh by us But when divesting us of this spirit of sweetness modesty and docibility we put on a fashion haughty scornfull turbulent we are onely able in loud noises which render us contemptible to those who are more powerfull than we troublesome to our equals intolerable to our inferiours and hatefull to all the world With this mild temper of spirit Hester changed King Ahasuerus into a lamb with the same Abigail was much stronger than the arms of David and Jesabel with her natural cruelty having slain Innocents ruined Cities disturbed States was thrown out of a high window on the pavement to be trampled all bloudy under the feet of horses But as concerning Modesty which regardeth the comliness of body attire it is a strange thing how many complaints are made against us upon this point We have already served for the space of so many Ages as a common place to Preachers matter of censure for Edicts a fable for Cities and laughter to our selves In the mean time this love of bravery is so throughly engrafted in our spirits that we will not despoil us of it but with our skin It is an original sin which all women carry with them from their mothers womb for which there is no Baptism to be found he that should go about to wash us from this stain we would have an action against him Yea were this onely usual among great Ladies for whom earth rivers and seas seem to produce wherewith to satisfie their curiosity it would appear less strange but all women are born with this passion they so heartily hug it that there will be almost no distinction made in orders since there is
affairs of Christianitie in this flourishing Monarchy with prowesses and successes incomparable so likewise are we tied to her in an immortal obligation to have cast the first seeds of piety into the Court of our Kings that it might with the more authoritie enter into the souls of all their subjects The good Princess like to a pearl which cometh from the salt sea beheld her self involved almost from her birth in great acerbities and horrible confusions from whence she arose with so much lustre as she made of adversities the steps to the temple of glory She was daughter of Chilperick who contending for the scepter against Gombaut his elder brother King of Burgundy with more temeritie than reason sunk down to the ground and was forsaken by the people whom he had excited against this his brother who verily was a bad King But God who giveth Sovereigns leave to reign favouring a just cause even in the person of an evill man gave victorie to the elder He most truly made use of his fortune for having surprized his younger brother at the siege of a City he caused him to loose his head on a scaffold and not content with this murther extended his vengeance against the wife of the deceased by an act most unworthy For causing a stone to be tied to her neck she was thrown into the river and it was a great chance he had not inflicted the like upon two other virgins the lamentable remainders of this unfortunate marriage But beholding them as yet so young and innocent he thought their life could not be prejudicial to his estate and their death might be ignominious to his reputation Behold the reason why he contented himself to shut the one of them up in a Monastery and retained the other which was our Clotilda with himself that she might be bred in his Court. The holy maid entereth into the Palace of her Uncle as a sheep into a Lions den having no reason to repose much assurance in a man who still had the bloud of her father and mother in his hands Notwithstanding great is the power of virtue when it is enchaced in beautie For this cruel Basilisk who had an eye of bloud and poyson no sooner considered the praise-worthy parts of this Princess but that feeling himself dazeled with her aspect and his heart softened with the innocency of this poor orphan he instantly took compassion upon her who never inclined to it before He began to behold her with a pleasing countenance to endear her to wish and promise her much good But the good creature who could not think after so strange an affliction she was any more to pretend to greatness and pleasures of the world threw her self between the arms of the Cross that there she might find those of God and though in publick she stifeled the resentments of her sorrow with a discreet patience not resisting the storm nor striking her head against the rocks yet in the secrecy of her retirement she daily dissolved her self into tears and found no comfort but in the wounds of the worlds Saviour My God said she to him I adore your holy providence which drencheth me with gall and wormwood in an age wherein maidens of my qualitie accustom not to walk but on roses perhaps you know my pride hath need of such a counterpoise and you in all equitie have done that which your wisdom thought good Behold I have my eyes still all moistened with the bloud of my father and the bodie of my poor mother which being covered with so many waves cannot have over it one silly tear from the eyes of her daughter which fail not every night to pour forth streaming rivers My God Your name be blessed eternally I require nought else of you but the participation of your sufferings It is no reason I here should live without some light hurt seeing you wounded on all sides for my example Some have been pleased to wish me I should receive and take contentments in the hope of a better fortune where would they have me gather those pleasures I am yet upon the weeping shores of the river of Babylon I fix all my consolations and songs at the feet of your Cross promising to desire nothing more in the world but the performance of your holy will There is I know not what kind of charm in holy sadness which cannot be sufficiently expressed but such it is that a soul contristated for God when it is fallen into abysses wherein all the world reputes it lost findeth in the bottom of its heart lights and sweetnesses so great that there is not any comfort in the world to be compared with them Clotilda was already come to these terms and if for obedience she had not learned to leave God for God she had been softened with those tears by suffering her self voluntarily to slide into a lazy sorrow but considering that whilest she was in the house of this uncle an Arian heretick she was bound by God to instruct with her example all those who were to be spectatours of her actions she set her hand couragiously to the work and shewed her self so able of judgement in her carriage and so regular in all her deportments that her life became a picture of virtue which spake to all the world Although she were derived from the bloud of Kings she shewed to have no other nobility but that which springs from worthy Actions As her face was free from adulterate beauty so her soul was exempt from those affected authorities and disdains which ordinarily grow with great fortunes Her aspects were simple and dove-like her words discreet her actions sober her gestures measured her carriage honest her access affable her conversation full of sweetness and profit She was a virgin in mind and body living in marvellous purity of affections and amities which she fomented by the virtue of humility which the Ancients esteemed to be as the wall of the garden of charity God oftentimes suffering impurity of body to chastise the rebellion of the soul She was so humble of heart that she accounted her self as the meanest servant of the house not scorning at all to apply her self to inferiour offices which she notwithstanding performed with so much majesty that even in spinning with a distaff she seemed a Queen She was marvellously wise in her counsels prompt and agil in execution moderate in all good successes constant in bad ever equal to her self She spake little never slandered envied none did good to all the world not pretending her own interests expecting from God alone the character of her merit and the recompence of her charities She had no worldly thing in her person and as little regarded her attyres as the dust of the earth She knew almost but one street in the City where she dwelt which was the same that lead to the Church Sports and feasts were punishments to her and she was seldom found in the company of men unless it were
away by the hand of a hang-man the life which he gave him Had his condition been capable of tears even Tygers themselves would have deplored him seeing so much piety such faith so much goodness such worth eclipsed in a bloud so precious in an Age so flourishing in a fortune so replenished with hope The news of his death hastened to find out Indegondis who was yet in Africa where she also received the last Letter which her husband wrote to her out of prison The servants that were about her person began to make hydeous lamentations as if they themselves had been condemned to death But the couragious Indegondis kissing the letter of her dear husband then opening it with singular reverence and reading the last words which he as it were had steeped in his bloud she cried out Alas Generous and faithfull heart you have done all that which a good man might you have manfully fought you are happily arrived at the Crown Nothing can be desired in you but the imitation of your constancy Servants Why do you weep This is the very day wherein I am a Queen and when I esteem my self the most triumphant woman in the world having my husband a Martyr in Heaven Give me roses and flower-de-luces that I may crown his Image and honour at the least with these testimonies a soul which hath left unto us such sweet odours of virtue She had with her her little Hermingildus almost dead with the wearisomness of travel on the way which indeed had been somewhat easie for the tenderness of his age The mother beholding him Go my son saith she follow your good father God hath given you a favour in your cradle that he doth not to all children which is to be banished for the faith and to take part in the Martyrdom of him who begot you Go little innocent and rejoyce with others before the Altar of the Lamb your mother shall not long stay behind you The child died shortly after and the good Princess Others say he was sent prisoner to the Emperour Mauritius but without ground having for a long time combatted in a brave manner against the apprehensions of nature poured forth on a sudden thick sobs and a main tyde of tears which distilled from her eyes against her will whereupon she mildly said Alas my tears what fitness can you find to bemoan a Martyr My God it is done the father and the son are alreadie at rest there remaineth nothing but to take the mother Behold two parts of the world Europe and Africk which I have filled with my miseries If you will that I yet pass into Asia your will be done But if I no longer be ought but an unprofitable burden to the earth what do I here I have spun out all the web which you gave me I have ended all the hopes of the world why stay you O my God to receive my soul which I bear on my lips She was heard For in few days being all wasted with love travel and desires after an exemplar death she found her tomb in Africk What shall I say here and what shall I do to shut up this discourse We have all certain natural softnesses in the bottom of our souls and some humane apprehensions which alter the force of our judgement My pen cannot almost pass over this history and not commix the waters of mine eyes with mine ink and perhaps also you my Reader cannot peruse it without compassion It seemeth unto you these chaste loves of Hermingildus and Indegondis are too unhappy that such virtues are cruelly handled that such noble courages have met with a fortune sinister hydeous and persecutive even to the tomb You would gladly see these brave spirits after so many tempests such thunder-claps and whirle-winds arrive at a Port of some large temporal felicity You would behold them with Crowns on their heads with Scepters in their hands with Provinces flourishing in revenues with prosperities perpetually smiling in their house with loves free from disturbance desires void oâ— denials affairs without trouble greatness without change pleasures without acerbities and a long posterity fully laden with honours It grieves you that this poor Prince hath passed away as a pearl parched up with lightening in its growth or as an eagle strangled in the shell You bewail this Princess that being born in France she died in Africk separated by the sword from a husband who loved her so tenderly deprived of a son who gave so many good hopes abandoned by all her allies but some poor waiting-women that buried her with sorrow so full of pitie that it was of power to move the monsters of Africk to commiseration Ah ignorant that we are of the works of God perpetually fixed to the earth and deprived of those sparkles of fire and light which burn under the most generous breasts Let us a little draw aside the curtain and see through so many clouds one sole ray of the Sanctuary What injury hath the Divine Providence done to Prince Hermingildus if for a Crown which is the weather-cock of winds if for a Scepter which is the reed of the times if for a life which is the harbinger of death it afford him virtues delights and glories which out-strip the flight of our thoughts which drie up our mouthes which out-run our desires which surmount all our imaginations What injury if it make a Saint of him whose name is couched in Martyrologes whose memory liveth in writing whose praise flourisheth in mouthes whose words are nought but honour and works but blessings whilest his step-mother Goizintha dies like a dog and is buried in the opprobrie of her name What injury if it have so handled the matter that his father touched with a lively repentance hath justified him as an innocent deplored him as a son invoked as a Martyr If it hath sanctified his setters consecrated the tower of his prison raised up his ashes above all the Crowns of the Kings of Spain If it hath given him Altars on earth and a Diadem of beatitudes in Heaven Is it to have despised his virtue neglected his sufferings disobliged his constancy and frustrated his travels What would you have God to have made the virtuous Indegondis A Queen delicate ambitious covetuous haughty which had not spit but in gold walked but on roses flown over the heads of men and putrified in delights How many such like are there who have defiled their names with reproach wearied the earth with their importunities astonished posterity with their deportments and peopled hell with their crimes But this Ladie having been purified with the burning coals of tribulation issued from the hands of God as a vessel of glory to make her lustre resplendent in the sight of all Ages Ah Ladies who read this piece and who many times flatter your selves with the title of virtue in some petty tracks of devotion which have nothing but outward semblance what example of piety see you here What
demonum prurientibus auribus nâ—tâ— are doctrines of devils grown up to please the itch of incredulous ears We must believe one Article and leave another believe the Trinity and doubt of the Sacrament Invocation of Saints Purgatory Images and Ceremonies of the Church as if it were not evident that whosoever divideth faith hath none at all It is not much to the purpose to dispute of Religion after the sweat of Confessours bloud of Martyrs and so many millions of miracles Never would belief be so sick were it not preceded by the death of virtue all will be unhappy for them who loose piety the root of happiness But what repose hath a Catholick who may dying say I trust to God for a gift which The notable assurance of a Catholick cannot proceed but from God I die in the faith of Constantine Theodosius Clodovaeus S. Lewis and so many millions of Saints I go where all the wisest and most entire part of mankind doth go I follow the authoritie of eighteen General Councels wherein all Ages assembled together the wisest men of the world I die in the belief of the Church which is professed throughout all the habitable world The living and the dead The stones and marbles of the Tombs of mine Ancestours speak for me The stars will fall from the Heavens before my faith can be shaken And therefore O Catholicks strike at Heaven That zeal ought to be had towards Religion gate by continual prayer ask of the Father of lights a lively Faith a most sincere zeal towards your Religion suffer not your judgement to change in the massie composition of body plunge it not in sensuality polish it for the great fruition of God entertain it with consideration of his beauty nourish it with antipasts of his glory It onely appertaineth to sensual souls black and distrustfull to suffer themselves to fall into pusillanimities and faintness which lessen the esteem we should have of our vocation towards Christianity It onely appertaineth to carnal spirits and who want faith in the house of faith to set the riches and affairs of the world above Religion But Hoc est sidem in domo fidei non habere Cyprian de mortalitate you O Great-men learn hereafter to value your selves not by these frail and perishable blessings which environ you by that skin which covers you by those false ornaments of life which disguise you by all those beauties which never are nearer ruin than when they most sparkle with lustre Learn to behold all humane things from the top of the Palace of Eternity and you shall see them like rotten pieces which possess a nothing of times infinitie Why do we here entertain our selves with earthly considerations as fire which absented from its sphere is fed with fat and coals Let us open our bosoms to these fair hopes wherewith the Religion we profess sweerly replenisheth our hearts We no longer are pilgrims Ephes 2. and vagabonds nor strangers of the Testaments but Citizens of Saints and the domesticks of God built on the foundation of Apostles and Prophets on the fundamental stone which is Jesus Christ Let us enter into this goodly train of Ages into this admirable fellowship of Patriarchs Martyrs and Virgins Let us hasten to the sources of light and never end but in infinitie The first EXAMPLE upon the first MAXIM Of the esteem one ought to make of his Faith and Religion The PERSIAN CONSTANCY IF the estimation of things eternal do not as yet Drawn out of Theodoret Cassiodorus Epiphanes Theod. l. 5. c. 38. Epiph. Scolasticus Cassiod histor tripart l. 10. c. 32. Baro. tom 5. anno 4201. alii sufficiently penetrate your heart reflect on that which so many valiant Champions have done to preserve a blessing which you presently possess by grace and which you often dis-esteem through ingratitude I will produce one example amongst a thousand able to invite the imitation of the most virtuous and admiration of all the world In the time when Theodosius the younger swayed the Eastern Empire the Persians who had been much gained by the industry of the Emperour Arcadius his father and afterward entertained by his infinite sweetness and courtesie lived in good correspondence of amity with the Christians so that many of our Religion adventured themselves in their Territory some to make a fortune in the Court others for pleasure many for commerce and the rest there to establish true piety Matters of Religion proceeded then very prosperously and the most eminent men of the Kingdom shut up their eyes against the Sun which this Nation adored to open them to the bright Aurora of Christianity But as there are some who never enjoy any thing so there are others who never have enough Some Indiscreet zeal Christians not contented with their progressions which were well worthy of praise thought they lost all out of the desire they had to leave nothing undone Which is the cause I much approve those Ancients Helinandus apud Vincent who placed the images of wisdom over the gates of great houses with this inscription Experience is my Vsns me genuit mother So the wisest and most experienced thought nothing was to be precipated that mean advancements accompanied with safety were more to be valued than great splendours which drew precipices and ruins after them On the contrary young and fiery spirits thrust all upon extremitie supposing their power extended to the measure of their passion Nothing is more dangerous in any affair than when indiscreet fervour takes the mask of zeal or that a feaver of Reason passeth for a virtue All his thoughts are deified his foot-steps sanctified and although nothing be done for God it is said all is for him Bishop Audas a man endowed with great and singular virtues but extreamly ardent and unable to adapt his zeal to the occasion of times needs would countenance the humour of the blind multitude and went Audes destroyeth a Pyraeum Commotions for matters of Religion Others Baranaves or Goronaves Judgement of Theodoret upon this action out in the midst of the day to destroy a Pyraeum which was a Temple wherein the Persians kept fire to adore it Men quickly enflamed in matters of Religion fail not to raise a great sedition which came to the notice of King Ildegerdes Audas is sent for to give an account of this act He defendeth himself with much courage and little success for the Christians benefit for the King turning his proper justification into crime condemns him upon pain of death to re-edifie the Temple he had demolished which he refusing to do was presently sacrificed to the fury of Pagans Theodoret blames him that he unseasonably ruined the Temple and convinceth him by the example of S. Paul who seeing in Athens many Altars dedicated to false God contented himself with refuting the error without making use of the hammer to destroy it as well fore-seeing the time was
inexplicable excellencies Yet say we all we can of him we affirm he never is so well esteemed as when we account him wholy incomprehensible He not onely environeth the world with his presence but beareth it within his arms and bosom He formeth it in his Idae's he accommodateth it in his dispose he penetrateth it by his virtue maintaineth it by his wisdom and establisheth it by his power He is without yet not excluded from it he is within yet not contained he is under yet not drenched he is above yet not advanced He confirmeth scepters and crowns he raiseth Cities Provinces and Monarchies he erecteth States he circumscribeth laws he directeth virtues he enlighteneth stars in heaven he engraveth the beauty of flowers in the meadows and travelleth throughout all nature without taking pains ever present yet always unseen ever in action yet always in repose ever searching yet not needing any thing ever loving yet never burning ever amassing yet never penurious ever giving yet never losing any thing drawning to himself yet hath nothing without himself Good God what say we when we say GOD. Yet thou ô sinner thou yet wilt lift an armed haÌ„d against thy Lord against a God Omnipotent who notwithstanding will not appear potent towards thee but to do thee good Blind and insensible fugitive from the sovereign Essence in the region of nothing and whither wilt thou go not to find the reproches of thy crimes A caytife pleasure a wreched gain a satisfaction of vengeance dissolute company take God out of thy heart to resign thee as a prey to thy passions Thou wilt adore the favours of men that are like the rain-bow in heaven and which having made ostent of so many splendours and varied paintings leave us nothing but water and morter Thou wilt build fortunes upon a foundation of quick-silver upon a frail reed upon a man who beareth all the figures of vanity Thou wilt seek for Paradise in the Capitol as said Tertullian Thou wouldst find sovereign Coelum in Capitolio quaeriin aversi ab ipso Deo coelo Apol. c. 4. Isaiah 30. 3. Decalvare tondere super filios deliciarum tuarum Mich. 1. beatitude in the Courts of great men and perpetually estranged from heaven the living God thou graspest nothing but Chimaeraes of honour and feeble images of content The strength of Pharao saith the Prophet Isaiah shall be thy confusion and the confidence thou hast in the shadow of Aegypt shall be the reproach of thy countenance Shouldst thou not now forsake all thy superfluities Oughst not thou to wear sack-cloth and carry ashes of penance having buried the children of thy delights loves and vanities which so far transported thee into the forgetfulness of eternal blessings If God be the Essence of essences why dost thou please thy self with making so many nothings by committing sins without number infidelities without consideration and ingratitudes void of shame If God be a Spirit why holdest thou thy self perpetually fixed to carnal pleasures which flatter to strangle thee Look on worldly ambitions and thou shalt see them bordered with precipices Reflect on delights and thou shalt find them strewed all-over with thoms View the ways of sin and thou there shalt observe nothing but remorse Ought not we at this time to resolve upon consideration of the greatness and goodness of God to bear a reverence and an eternal love towards him a reverence by faithfully keeping all his laws and commandments and holding his will more dear than the apple of our eyes a love by dayly offering our selves if it were possible a hundred times for him in as many Sacrifices as our soul hath thoughts and body members My God make me from henceforth to enter into the bottom of my soul and to silence all these troublesom creatures all these inordinate passions which so often bereave me of the honour of thy sight Appease their storms and surges that I may silently speak to thee and enter with thee into the great abyss of delights which thou reservest for souls the most purified that there I may be rapt in contemplation of thy bounties may be absorpt in consideration of thy beauties and may wholly dive into thy heart by sacred ardours of thy love The third EXAMPLE upon the third Drawn from Josephus 18. book of his antiquities and S. Luke Act. 11. MAXIM Of the weakness of man and inconstancy of humane things AGRIPPA WHo saith Man says all vanity He is a wretched Arist creature affirms that Ancient whom fortune tosseth as a tennis-ball whom misery and envy poize in a ballance whom time despoyleth death takes away and of whom inconstancy makes Bernard l. 2. de consider c. 9. Fragili corpore mente sterili cui infirmites corporis fatuitus cordis cumulatur traduce sortis a continual metamorphosis He entereth into the world by the gate of sin with a body as frail as his spirit is barren weakness of mortal members and stupidity of heart are given him as a portion of his birth and a necessity of his condition If you as yet be not perswaded of this verity and more esteem to confide in the world and to frame to your self an arm of straw than to seek support from him who sustaineth with three fingers of his power the whole globe of the earth King Agrippa of whom S. Luke maketh mention in the Acts of Apostles and Josephus in the eighteenth book of his Antiquities is able to give you a fair lesson of it You have heard in the History of Herod how this Agrippa grand-child of Herod unnatural Prince put his two sons to death lawful children by the chast Mariamne This Agrippa of whom I speak son of the youngest named Aristobulus came into the world with great priviledges of nature dexterous courteous amiable pleasing born to court and entertain the favour of the world Judaea was a Theater too streight for his great Spirit he burnt with impatience to be seen in the Court of Tyberius Caesar where his mother was already become gracious with one of the greatest Princesses of the Empire Antonia mother of the great Germanicus and the Emperour Claudius It was no hard matter for him to satisfie his desire For behold him presently at the Court of Rome where he closely adhered to the person of Drusus the Emperour Tyberius his son honoured by all the world as successour of the Empire Agrippa â—o well knew how to gain this great Amities of great men barren Prince by the sweet charms of his conversation that he could not live without him but as Tyberius was a frugal man suffering his son not to fall into any excess so Drusus was full of free affection towards his favourite the effects whereof were yet very slender In such sort that Agrippa entertaining correspondence with the son of so great an Emperor more pleasing than profitable for him dayly consumed as the butter-flys in the flames of this greatness so profuse was his
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
instructions to those that are in office and government whereof in part I present you here with the quintessence and marrow desiring you to tast of it He gives his Seraphin six wings The first is Zeal of Gods honour which you shall exercise in observing four things that is 1. Neither to do nor shew to those under you the least shadow of evil or sin 2. Not to give way to it in any kind notwithstanding allurements on one side and importunities on the other 3. Never to be pleased that an evil act be done though without your knowledge for that were to betray your own conscience 4. To correct and take away disorders as much as possibly you can The second wing which you must have is The spirit of compassion to help the sick the aged the weak the faint-hearted the afflicted for these are poor Porcupines laden with prickles and a cerbities to whom you must be a Sanctuary and Rock of refuge Petra refugium Herinaceis The third Patience in the many labours and cares as are in a manner inseparable from offices and governments Patience in ill success of business which doth not always answer our endeavours and wishes Patience in bearing with the ungratefull who often throw stones at those that give them honey like the Atlantes who shot arrows at the Sun Patience in occasions of speech and dealing with such as easily take distast and are galled with their own harness It is a great virtue to soften them with a peacefull still and charitable sweetness as if we cast oyl into the raging sea It was said long since He that can bear an injury is worthy an Empire His very silence will disarm the passionate man and lay him prostrate at his feet who seemed to thunder over his head The Fourth wing is Example which is observed in three things 1. In putting in practice the good counsel and precepts which we give others 2. In managing your dignity in such a way as is neither harsh imperious nor arrogant but mild affable and communicative 3. In retaining withall a decent and moderate gravity that the stamp which God sets on those he calleth to offices and commands may not be debased The Fifth and principal Wing is called Discretion without which all virtues become vices For the honour of great actions lies not so much in doing good as in doing well This Discretion consisteth in four things To govern the good with good judgement To correct the bad To administer well the temporal affairs of your charge To uphold and preserve your self amidst these encumbrances like fresh water in the salt sea The ordering of good is maintained in Three principal Acts. The first to cause those under us to observe strictly such things as are necessary and cannot be omitted without disorder or scandal The second To invite and sweetly attract every one according to his condition capacity and judgement to works of most perfection whereunto they have no formal obligation The third To dispose charges and burthens with a good Oeconomy according to their inclinations and strength of mind whom you are to govern For correction Either they are sleight faults of well conditioned persons which you are to correct such are to be handled very gently Or they are hidden vices of some evil conscience which you neither must nor can make known and there you must use much industry patience and wisdom to dislodge vice and to draw the crooked serpent out of his cave obstetricante manu as the Scripture speaketh Job 26. 23. Or they are known sins of desperate people who offend without hope of amendment infecting a multitude and here you must set your self with all your strength to take away both the fault and the faulty For temporal affairs manage them as we have already shewed and take heed of entangling your mind in them like a fish in a net depriving your self of the liberty of Gods children to serve the earth But above all continually look into your self as the first piece of your government Let your conscience be pure firm and peaceable speaking and doing every thing with much consideration and never despising the counsel of those who are able to advise you Lastly your sixth wing is Devotion which is divided into three kinds the common the singular the continual The common consisteth in performing exactly those duties of piety which are within the bounds of your profession and to do them by way of imitation of that celestial Militia which is always employed in praising God and by way of edification of those to whom you ow this good example Singular devotion obligeth you to seek your principal refuge in the tabernacle following Moses steps for the necessities of your charge Continual devotion ties you to a most fervent exercise of Gods presence which you testifie by a desire to please him in all places occasions and actions by dedicating all your works to him before you begin them and when you end them always to set upon them the seal of thanksgiving due to his Divine Majesty Engrave deeply in your heart this saying of S. Bernard in his first book of Consideration Chap. 5. Cum omnes te habeant esto etiam tu ex habentibus unus Quid solus fraudaris munere tui Usquequò vadens spiritus non rediens If you are one full of business and that all the world share in you take a part as well as others in your self Deprive not your self of a good so justly yours and be not one of those that are ever travelling yet never return home THE FOURTH PART OF THE CHRISTIAN DIARY The first SECTION RECREATION how necessary AS concerning Recreation used in company at meals in lawfull games in taking the air in good conversation it is necessary to divert the mind and refresh the strength Cassian in his 24. Collation chap. 21. relates how an Archer finding S. John the Evangelist playing with a Partridge wondered that so renowned a man could pass the time with so slight a recreation The Saint looking towards the bow in his hand asked him why he did not always carry it bent who answering it would spoil it the Apostle replied so it is with the mind of man which must sometimes be unbent that it may shoot the better The second SECTION Of the Pleasures of the Taste MArk that our minds must onely be unbent not unstrung Avoid those excesses which make men now adays as gluttonous in the eye as the belly It is a strange vanity to affect the repute of a good taste to set the whole mind to serve that part of the body which hath least of the mind and to nourish an esteem which is fed onely with the steam of the kitchin Treat not your belly as Caligula did his horse for he allow'd a Beast for whom nature intended nothing but oats and hay Princely delicacies and attendance And you do the like if you bestow so much cost and pains to feed your most
of my Father that is in Heaven be is my brother and sister and mother Moralities 1. IT is a very ill sign when we desire signs to make us believe in God The signs which we demand to fortifie our faith are oft-times marks of our infidelity There is not a more dangerous plague in the events of worldly affairs than to deal with the devil or to cast nativities All these things fill men with more faults than knowledge For divine Oracles have more need to be reverenced than interpreted He that will find God must seek him with simplicity and profess him with piety 2. Some require a sign and yet between Heaven and earth all is full of signs How many creatures soever they are they are all steps and characters of the Divinity What a happy thing it is to study what God is by the volume of time and by that great Book of the world There is not so small a flower of the meadows nor so little a creature upon earth which doth not tell us some news of him He speaks in our ears by all creatures which are so many Organ-pipes to convey his Spirit and voice to us But he hath no sign so great as the Word Incarnate which carries all the types of his glory and power About him onely should be all our curiosity our knowledge our admiration and our love because in him we can be sure to find all our repose and consolation 3. Are we not very miserable since we know not our own good but by the loss of it which makes us esteem so little of those things we have in our hands The Ninivites did hear old Jonas the Prophet The Queen of Sheba came from far to hear the wisdom of Solomon Jesus speaks to us usually from the Pulpits from the Altars in our conversations in our affairs and recreations And yet we do not sufficiently esteem his words nor inspirations A surfeited spirit mislikes honey and is distasted with Manna raving after the rotten pots of Aegypt But it is the last and worst of all ills to despise our own good Too much confidence is mother of an approching danger A man must keep himself from relapses which are worse than sins which are the greatest evils of the world he that loves danger shall perish in it The first sin brings with it one devil but the second brings seven There are some who vomit up rheir sins as the Sea doth cockles to swallow them again Their life is nothing but an ebbing and flowing of sins and their most innocent retreats are a disposition to iniquity For as boiled water doth soonest freeze because the cold works upon it with the greater force so those little fervours of Devotion which an unfaithfull soul feels in confessions and receiving if it be not resolute quite to forsake wickedness serve for nothing else but to provoke the wicked spirit to make a new impression upon her It is then we have most reason to fear Gods justice when we despise his mercie We become nearest of kin to him when his Ordinances are followed by our manners and our life by his precepts Aspirations O Word Incarnate the great sign of thy heavenly Father who carriest all the marks of his glory and all the characters of his powers It is thou alone whom I seek whom I esteem and honour All that I see all I understand all that I feel is nothing to me if it do not carry thy name and take colour from thy beauties nor be animated by thy Spirit Thy conversation hath no trouble and thy presence no distast O let me never lose by my negligence what I possess by thy bounty Keep me from relapses keep me from the second gulf and second hell of sin He is too blind that profits nothing by experience of his own wickedness and by a full knowledge of thy bounties The Gospel for Thursday the first week in Lent out of S. Matth 15. Of the Woman of Canaan ANd Jesus went forth from thence and retired into the quarters of Tyre and Sidon And behold a woman of Canaan came forth out of these coasts and crying out said to him Have mercy upon me O Lord the Son of David my daughter is sore vexed of a devil who answered her not a word And his Disciples came and besought him saying Dismiss her because she crieth out after us And he answering said I was not sent but to the sheep that are lost of the house of Israel But she came and adored him saying Lord help me who answering said It is not good to take the bread of children and to cast it to the dogs but she said Yea Lord for the dogs also eat of the crums that fall from the tables of their masters Then Jesus answering said to her O woman great is thy faith be it done to thee as thou wilt and her daughter was made whole from that hour Moralities 1. OUr Saviour Jesus Christ after his great and wondrous descent from heaven to earth from being infinite to be finite from being God to be man used many several means for salvation of the world And behold entering upon the frontiers of Tyre and Sidon he was pleased to conceal himself But it is very hard to avoid the curiosity of a woman who seeking his presence was thereby certain to find the full point of her felicity A very small beam of illumination reflecting upon her carried her out of her Countrey and a little spark of light brought her to find out the clear streams of truth We must not be tired with seeking God and when we have found him his presence should not diminish but encrease our desire to keep him still We are to make enterance into our happiness by taking fast hold of the first means offered for our salvation and we must not refuse or lose a good fortune which knocks at our door 2. Great is the power of a woman when she applies her self to virtue behold at one instant how one of that sex assails God and the devil prevailing with the one by submission and conquering the other by command And he which gave the wild Sea arms to contain all the world finds his own arms tied by the chains of a prayer which himself did inspire She draws unto her by a pious violence the God of all strength such was the fervency of her prayer such the wisdom of her answers and such the faith of her words As he passed away without speaking she hath the boldness to call him to her whiles he is silent she prays when he excuseth himself she adores him when he refuseth her suit she draws him to her To be short she is stronger than the Patriarch Jacob for when he did wrestle with the Angel he returned lame from the conflict but this woman after she had been so powerfull with God returns strait to her house there to see her victories and possess her conquests 3. Mark with what weapons she overcame the
running to him fell upon his neck and kissed him And his son said to him Father I have sinned against Heaven and before thee I am not now worthy to be called thy son And the father said to his servants Quickly bring forth the first stole and do it on him and put a ring upon his hand and shoes upon his feet and bring the fatted calf and kill it and let us eat and make merry because this my son was dead and is revived was lost and is found And they began to make merry But his elder son was in the field and when he came and drew nigh to the house he heard musick and dancing And he called one of the servants and asked what these things should be And he said to him Thy brother is come and thy father hath killed the fatted calf because he hath received him safe But he had indignation and would not go in His father therefore going forth began to desire him But he answering said to his father Behold so many years do I serve thee and I never transgressed thy commandment and thou didst never give me a Kid to make merry with my friends But after that thy son this that hath devoured his substance with whores is come thou hast killed for him the fatted calf But he said to him Son thou art always with me and all my things are thine But it behoved us to make merry and be glad because this thy brother was dead and is revived was lost and is found Moralities 1. THis parable is a true table expressing the excursions of a prodigal soul and her return to the mercy of God by the way of repentance Note that the first step which she trode toward her own destruction as Cain did was her departing from God not by changing of place but of heart It departed from the chiefest light which made it fall into an eclipse of reason and so into profound darkness She diverted her self from the greatest bounty which made her encline toward all wickedness being strayed from her sovereign being which made her become just nothing 2. She continued in sin as in a Countrey which was just nothing where she was vexed on all sides with disquiet with cares with fears and discontents All sins toss their followers as the ball is tossed at Baloon Vanity sends them to pride pride to violence violence to avarice avarice to ambition ambition to pomp and riot pomp to gluttony gluttony to luxury luxury to idleness idleness to contempt and poverty and that poverty brings them to all worldly misery For all mischiefs follow a wicked soul which departing from God thinks to find a better condition 3. Affliction opens the eyes of man and makes him come to himself that he may the better return to God There is no journey so far as when a man departs from himself not by place but by manners A sea of Licentiousness interposeth it self between his soul and innocence to divorce her from the way of goodness But Gods grace is a burning wind which dries it up and having brought man to himself takes him by the hand and leads him even to God 4. O what a happy thing it is to consider the effects of Gods mercy in the entertainment of the good father to his prodigal son The one had lost all which he had of a good son but the other had not lost what belonged to a good father The son had yet said nothing when fatherly affection pleaded for him in the heart of his father who felt the dolours of a spiritual labour and his entrails were moved to give a second birth to his son Though he were old yet he went the pace of a young man Charity gives him wings to flie to the embracements of his lost child He is most joyfull of that comes with him even of his very poverty This without doubt should give us a marvellous confidence in Gods mercy when we seek it with hearty repentance It is a sea of bounty which washeth away all that is amiss Since he hath changed the name of master into that of father he will rather command by love than reign by a predominant power No man ought to despair of pardon except he who can be as fully wicked as God is good none is so mercifull as God none is so good a father as he for when you may have lost your part of all his virtues you can never while you live lose the possibility of his mercy He will receive you between his arms without any other reason but your return by repentance 5. The same Parable is also a true glass shewing the life of those young unthrifts who think they are born onely for sport for their bellies and for pleasure They imagine their fathers keep for them the golden mines of Peru and their life being without government their expences are without measure Some of them run through the world they wander into all places but never enter into consideration of themselves They return from forrain parts loden with debts and bring home nothing but some new fantastical fashions cringes and corantoes There are many of them in whom pride and misery continue inseparable after they have lost their money and their brains Their fathers are causes of their faults by gathering so much wealth for those who know not how to use it Yet if they have the true repentance of the prodigal child he must not deny them pardon But mercy must not be had of those who ask it by strong hand or seek it by a counterfeit sorrow Aspirations IT is an accursed wandring to travel into the countrey of nothing where pleasure drops down as water from a storm the miserable consequences whereof have leaden feet which never remove from the heart Good God what a countrey is that where the earth is made of quick-silver which steals it self from under our feet when we think to tread upon it What a countrey is that where if a man gather one bud of roses he must be forced to eat a thousand thorns and be companion with the most nasty filthy beasts in their stinking ordures and be glad to eat of their loathsom draffe for want of other meat Alas I have surfetted and such a misery as this is necessary to make me remember the happiness which I possessed in thy house O mercifull Father behold my prodigal soul which returns to thee and will have no other advocate but thy goodness which as yet pleads for me within thy heart I have consumed all which I had but I could not consume thy mercy For that is as an Abyss which surpasseth that of my sins and Miseries Receive me as a mercenary servant if I may not obtain the name of a son Why shouldst not thou receive that which is thine since the wicked spirits have taken that which was not theirs Either shew me mercy or else shew me a heart more fatherly than thine and if neither earth nor heaven can
ground Saint John Climacus saith fire is no more contrary to water than rash judgement is to the state of repentance It is a certain sign that we do not see our own sins when we seek curiously after the least defects of our neighbour If we would but once enter into our selves we should be so busie to lament our own lives that we should not have time to censure those of others Aspirations O Judge most redoubtable who dost plant thy Throne within the heart of man who judgest the greatest Monarchs without leaving them power to appeal Thy judgements are secret and impenetrable That which shines to our eyes like a Diamond is like a contemptible worm in thy ballance That which we value as a Star thou judgest to be a coal We have just so much greatness virtue and happiness as we have by enterance into thy heart And he whom thou esteemest needs not the judgement of mortal man No innocent is justified nor guilty person condemned without thee and therefore I will from henceforth judge onely according to thee I will lay down all my affections and take thine so far as I shall be able and I will account nothing great but what shall be so in thy esteem The Gospel upon Wednesday the fourth week in Lent S. John 9. Of the blind man cured by clay and spittle ANd Jesus passing by saw a blind man from his nativitie and his Disciples asked him Rabbi Who hath sinned this man or his parents that he should be born blind Jesus answered Neither hath this man sinned nor his parents but that the vvorks of God may be manifested in him I must vvork the vvorks of him that sent me whiles it is day the night cometh vvhen no man can vvork As long as I am in the vvorld I am the light of the vvorld When he had said these things he spit on the ground and made clay of the spittle and spred the clay upon his eyes and said to him Go wash in the Pool of Silo which is interpreted sent He vvent therefore and vvashed and he came seeing Therefore the neighbours and they vvhich had seen him before that he vvas a beggar said Is not this he that sate and begged Others said that this is he But others no not so but he is like him But he said that I am he They said therefore to him How vvere thine eyes opened He answered that man that is called Jesus made clay and anointed mine eyes and said to me Go to the Pool of Silo and vvash and I vvent and vvashed and saw And they said to him Where is he He saith I know not They bring him that had been blind to the Pharisees And it vvas the Sabbath vvhen Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes Again therefore the Pharisees asked him how he saw But he said to them he put clay upon mine eyes and I washed and I see Certain therefore of the Pharisees said This man is not of God that keepeth not the Sabbath But others said How can a man that is a sinner do these signs And there vvas a schism among them They say therefore to the blind again Thou vvhat sayest thou of him that opened thine eyes And he said that he is a Prophet The Jews therefore did not believe of him that he had been blind and saw until they called the Parents of him that saw and asked them saying Is this your son vvhom you say that he vvas born blind how then doth he now see His parents answered them and said We know that this is our son and that he was born blind but how be now seeth vve know not or vvho hath opened his eyes vveknow not ask himself he is of age let himself speak of himself These things his parents said because they feared the Jews For the Jews had now conspired that if any man should confess him to be Christ he should be put out of the Synagogue Therefore did his parents say that he is of age ask himself They therefore again called the man that had been blind and said to him Give glorie to God vve know that this man is a sinner He therefore said to them Whether he be a sinner I know not one thing I know that vvhereas I was blind now I see They said therefore to him What did he to thee How did he open thine eyes He answered them I have now told you and you have heard vvhy vvill you hear it again vvill you also become his Disciples They reviled him therefore and said be thou his Disciple but vve are the Disciples of Moses vve know that to Moses God did speak but this man vve know not vvhence he is The man answered and said to them For in this it is marvellous that you know not vvhence he is and he hath opened mine eyes And vve know that sinners God doth not hear But if a man be a server of God and do the vvill of him him he heareth From the beginning of the vvorld it hath not been heard that any man hath opened the eyes of one born blind unless this man vvere of God he could not do any thing They answered and said to him Thou vvast vvholly born in sins and dost thou teach us And they did cast him forth Jesus heard that they cast him forth and vvhen he had found him he said to him Dost thou believe in the Son of God He answered and said Who is he Lord that I may believe in him And Jesus said to him Both thou hast seen him and he that talketh vvith thee he it is But he said I believe Lord and falling down he adored him Moralities 1. JEsus the Father of all brightness who walked accompanied with his twelve Apostles as the Sun doth with the hours of the day gives eyes to a blind man and doth it by clay and spittle to teach us that none hath power to do works above nature but he that was the Authour of it On the other side a blind man becomes a King over persons of the clearest sight and being restored to light he renders again the same to the first fountain from whence it came He makes himself an Advocate to plead for the chiefest truth and of a poor beggar becomes a confessour and after he had deplored his misery at the Temple gate teacheth all mankind the estate of its own felicities We should in imitation of him love the light by adoring the fountain of it and behave our selves as witnesses and defenders of the truth 2. God is a light and by his light draws all unto him he makes a break of day by his grace in this life which becomes afterward a perfect day for all eternity But many lose themselves in this world some for want of light some by a false light and some by having too much light 3. Those lose themselves for want of light who are not at all instructed in the faith and maxims of Christian Religion and those instead of
Death 24 Its Attendants 66 Meditation of Death 67 Death of the Just is sweet 415 Quality of a good Death is the indifferency of time and manner 416 Worldly irresolutions of Death 417 The way how to be well provided for Death 418 A good Death must have Union with God 419 A notable Aenigma of Death 436 Devotion defined 467 That the great number of Devout men should settle men in Devotion 82 The adhering to creatures doth marre all in Devotion ib. Pretext of Devotion dangerous illustrated by the Fowler 203 Devotion subject to many illusions and the reason why 381 Gross and afflicting Devotion 382 Three blemishes of anxious Devotion ibid. Quaint Devotion 383 The pomp and practises of this Devotion ibid. Reasons of the nullity of this Devotion 284 Transcendent Devotion ibid. Illusions of this Transcendent Devotion 385 S. Lewis the true Table of Solid Devotion 387 State of the Church under Diocletian 234 His conditions ibid. He forsaketh the Empire 235 Dissimulation reigneth every where 394 Dissimulation doth ruin humane faith 395 Dissimulation shamefull to the Authour of it ibid. Dissimulation doth debase a man ibid. The horrours and hatred of Dissimulation 396 The troubles and miseries of Dissimulation ibid. The dreadfull Events of Dissemblers ibid. The power of the Divinity over Infidels 346 Different opinion of the Divinity 348 It is a sacriledge to make Divinity of proper Interest 390 How abominable vicious Domesticks are 17 Duels unlawfull 14 A Duel is no act of Courage ibid. Who anciently entered into Duels ibid. There is want of Generosity in Duels ibid. Authors of Duels 224 Courage of Duellers like to that of the possessed 22â— Dydimus his bold attempt 86 E EDucation its force 15 Defects of Education ibid. Moses educated in the Court. 16 Education of Children recommended by excellent passages of the holy Fathers 17 Eleazar his Combat 347 The Isle of Amber the felicity of Epicurus 40â— The Philosophie of Epicurus doth bear sway in the world 404 The foundation of Episcopal life 180 Eponina a rare example of Conjugal Piety 306 Errours of the Time 341 Eternity of nothing first humilation of man 349 Eucharist the foundation of Paradise 72 Greatness of the Eucharist ibid. Eusebius the Patron of Hereticks 252 Eustatius his Oration at the opening of the Councel 253 Evils generally proceed from ignorance and from the want of the knowledge of God 62 Evil alwayes beareth sorrow behind it but not true pennance 66 Eudoxia mother of Theodosius 138 Her humour ibid Bishops treat with her ibid. Her Zeal ibid. She goeth into Palestine 147 Her return is laboured by Chrysaphius ibid. She lived in the Holy Land in the Eutychian heresie 153 Her Conversion 155 Her worthy life and glorious death ibid. Remedies and reasons against Excess 52 Indignity of Excess in apparel ibid. Necessity of Examen 71 Six things in the Examen to employ the most perfect ibid. Ill Example the work of Antichrist 22 Exemplar crimes deserve Exemplar punishments 23 An Observation upon the Chariot of Ezechiel 451 F FAith what it is and the dignity thereof 62 Its Object and the manner of its working ibid. Touch-stone to know whether we have Faith 63 Heroick acts of Faith ibid. How acts of Faith may be made easie 64 What ought to be the Faith of good Communicants 72 To be Faithfull to the King one must be loyal to God 236 To be Faithfull is to be conformable to reason 340 The great Providence of God in the establishment of Faith ibid. The repose which our Faith promiseth 341 Constancy of Faith 417 Fathers and Mothers compared to Ostriches 16 Fantasies to gain honours 25 Conclusions against Fatalitie 36 Maxims of Fatalitie 365 Favorinus his excellent Observations 10 Excellency of Fidelity 395 Flattery punished 349 Flattery inebriateth Great-men from the Cradle 46 Great Spirits enemies to the Flesh 405 Immoderate love of health doth make a man become suppliant and servile to the Flesh 406 Plotinus a great enemy to his own Flesh 405 Instance upon the weakness and miserie of the Flesh ibid. Hierom his Observation upon the Flower of Box. 406 A notable Fable of the Flie and Silk-worm 43 Fortitude defined 486 Fantasies of Ancients upon the Names of Fortune 360 Fortune is in the power of Providence ibid. A Conclusion against those who curse Fortune 362 Manners are changed with Fortune 364 G GAramant the Fountain 301 GOd's hands a golden bowl full of the Sea 9 God named Obliging in the beginning of the World 19 God a great Thesis 22 God is better known to us than our selves 344 God most easie to be known ibid. All things contribute to the knowledge of God 345 God in this life handleth the wicked as the damned 348 God is who he is 349 Excellency of the Simplicity and Universality of God in comparison of the World 350 Perfections of God 351 God his Goodness 355 367 An excellent similitude of God with the Ocean 351 The God of Hosts besiegeth a Citie 217 Diversity of Gods 349 Gods pastime what it is 42 Why God admitted not the Ostrich and Swan into the number of Victims ibid. Knowledge of the Goodness Justice and Power of God 356 357 God governeth the world with two hands 430 God will replenish us with himself 437 Desperate desire of worldly Goods 418 Gratian the son of Valentinian 200 His excellent qualities 201 Affectionate words of S. Ambrose unto him ibid. His zeal and virtue by the direction of S. Ambrose ibid. His admirable Charity 202 Maximus rebellâ—th against him ibid. His pitifull death 204 Gratitude in the Law of God 20 Excellent proofs of natural Gratitude 19 Gratitude defined 488 The acts of Gratitude 90 Gratitude of the Hebrews ibid. Practise of S. Augustine to encourage himself to Gratitude 20 Greatness of God 437 Greatness of an honest man 48 Lives of Great-ones enlightened 6 The great virtue of Great-ones 7 Authority of Great-ones to strengthen Devotion 8 Great-ones heretofore have perverted the world 21 Great-ones that are vicious draw on themselves horrible execrations of God 23 Great-ones strangely punished 24 Three sorts of Great ones do make Fortune 25 True Devotion in Great-ones 60 Humility of Great-ones 92 A good Document for Great-ones 139 Plague of Great-ones 140 Great-ones are the flatterers of Gods 349 H HEart of man what it is 69 HEbrews horribly persecuted 347 Heliogabalus his wheel 57 Hell defined 432 How the fire of Hell burneth 430 Helena the Beauty and grace of her time 236 She is married to Constantius ibid. Her exceeding virtue ibid. Exceeding love of Constantius and Helena ibid. Effects of Heresie 35 Herod depresseth the Royal Stock 117 His deep Hypocrisie and Dissimulation 120 He is accused for the death of Aristobulus ibid. His Apologie for himself full of craft 121 His Oration against his Wife 125 His fury after the death of Mariamne 127 He advanceth Antipater his son whom he had by Doris 128 His horrible condition in his latter days 134 Herod's
the love with which he will be loved and who hath loved us even in disfavour to transport us to favour Whereby it appeareth that this fair love is nought else but a celestiall quality infused into the soul by which we love God above all and all for God Now I imagine with my self that he is born in our hearts in such a manner as pearls grow in their shells The mother of pearl is first pierced by a celestiall influence as with an arrow fiery and sharp which sollicits and importuneth it to dispose it self to this excellent production Which is the cause that it spreads openeth and dilates it self to receive the dew distilled into it from the air and having moistned it it digesteth concocteth and transfigureth it into this little miracle of nature which is with so much curiosity sought after Behold what passeth in a soul when it bringeth forth this precious love it is prevented by a speciall grace from the Divine Goodnesse which at first gives it a distaste of all things in the world and fixeth a generous spur in the heart to excite awaken and enflame it to the quest of so great a good Then it extendeth dilates and opens all its gates to the Holy Ghost who descendeth into it as the dew of Hermon by qualities and Donec Christus formetur in vobis Gal 4. 10. effects admirable which through free-will it embraceth and ties and habituateth it self therein conceiving and forming Jesus Christ as saith S. Paul Then is the time when this divine love is conceived which is no sooner born but it causeth a rejoycing in the heart of man like unto that which happened in the house of Abraham at Isaacs nativity It is a celestiall laughter The Empire and eminencies of Divine love an extraordinary jubilation an expansion of all the faculties and functions of the spirit and will This little Monarch is no sooner born but it begins to command and sits on the heart as in its Throne All powers do it Instructi in charitate in omnes divitias plenitudinis intellectûs Col. 2. 2. Ailredus tom 13. Bibliorum in speculo charitatis Excellent conceit of charity homage all passions render it service All the virtues applaud at its coronation and confesse they hold of it and are all in it He who is once well instructed in charity aboundeth with all riches and hath the full plenitude of the spirit according to the Apostles and is a Tree grafted with siens of all perfection and which fail not to bring forth their fruits Sciences and virtues are that to us which oars to vessels what the viaticum to travellers what light to blear-eyes what arms to souldiers but charity alone is the repose of the wearied the Countrey of Pilgrims the light of the blind the Crown of the victorious Faith and the knowledge of God carry us to our countrey Hope maintaineth us the other virtues defend us but where charity is perfect as it is in glory one no longer believes any thing because it seeth all one hopes for nought because he possesseth all Temperance combateth against Concupiscence Prudence against errour Fortitude against adversity Justice against inequality But in perfect charity there is a perfect chastity which standeth not in need of the arms of temperance having no blemish of impurity A perfect knowledge which expecteth not any help from ordinary Prudence since it hath no errours a perfect Beatitude which needeth not Fortitude to conquer adversities since to it nothing is uneasie a Sovereign peace which imploreth not the aid of Justice against inequality since all therein is equall For in a word what is charity but a temperate love without lust A prudent love without errour a strong love without impatience a just love without inequality Faith is the first day of our Creation which driveth away darknesse Hope is the second which makes a firmament for us and which divideth waters from waters things transitory from eternall Temperance is the third which arraungeth the waters and storms of passions in their proper element and causeth the land of our heart to appear which sendeth up vapours to God that are its sighs Prudence is the fourth which lighteth up in us the sun of understanding and the lights of knowledge Fortitude is the fifth which sustains us in the Ocean of adversities not suffering us to corrupt as fishes in salt-waters and as birds above the Tempest Justice the sixth for it gives us to command over our passions as Adam who on the same day he was created obtained it over all living creatures But charity is the seventh day The Symbole of Glory which contracteth all delights in the circle of its Septenary And how can it but abbridge all Theology since it abbridgeth God himself S. Zeno ser de fide spe charit Tu Deum in hominem demutatum voluisti tu Deum abbreviatum paulisper à majestatis suae immensitate peregrinari fecisti tu virginali carcere nove nâ—mensibus religasti tu mortem Deum mori docendo evacusti and that we have cause to speak to him in such terms as Saint Zeno did O love what hast thou done Thou hast changed God into Man Thou hast contracted him drawing him out of the lustre of his Majesty to make him a pilgrime on earth Thou hast shut him in the prison of a virginall womb the space of nine moneths Thou hast annihilated the empire of death when thou taughtest God to dy Love thus acknowledged by all the virtues mounteth as on a chariot of Glory maketh it self conspicuous with heroick and noble qualities It is pious since it employeth all its thoughts on God It is generous and magnanimous since it is ever disposed to great designs It is liberall as that which spareth nothing It is strong not yielding to any of all those obstacles which present themselves to divert the course of its intentions Qualities of divine love by which we may know whether it inhabit a soul It is just equally distributing rewards to merit It is temperate admitting no excesses but of love It is prudent having eyes alwayes upon its deportments It is witty to find out a thousand inventions It is violent without eagernesse active without participation sage without coldnesse good without remissnesse and calm without idlenesse But I must tell you though its perfections be without number you shall chiefly know it by three qualities Three principall marks of love which will make it appear unto you plyant obliging and patient I say plyant for there is nothing but fires desires sweetnesse affections joyes admirations extasies Plyantness pleasures transportments for its well-beloved This is the State which the great Origen figureth unto us Orig. Hom. de Magdal of S. Mary Magdalen when he saith that by the strength of love she was dead to all the objects of the world She had her thoughts so employed upon her Jesus that she was almost insensible she had
Ecclesiam Ephes 5. 25. To seek by lawfull wayes ones petty accommodations is not a thing of it self to be alwayes condemned Servus vocarus â—es non fit tibi curae sed â— potes fieri liber magis utere 1 Cor. 7. 21. onely by the first Motives of Nature but also out of Election and Reason all that which is hurtful to the body and health No man saith the Apostle hateth his own flesh but cherisheth and entertaineth it as long as he can therein imitating the tendernesse of affection which Jesus Christ hath for his Church I adde that it is not also my intention to perswade that one should not seek in the care of his life things the most commodious so much as Justice and Reason will permit We must bear with servitude saith this fore-alledged Oracle if we be engaged in this condition but if one can become free I advise him rather to make choice of liberty Yet we are not ignorant but that there are many good men who by the power of virtue afflict their bodies and preferre contempt above all which the world esteemeth that they may conform themselves to the suffering of our Saviour But to rest within the limits of * * * One must take heed of being 〈◊〉 curious Civii life I say that although we may innocently use the blessings of God and put nature to its small pittances yet we must take heed of becoming too suspicious too nice and too apprehensive of those things which are not according to our appetites for otherwise there happen great disturbances and irksome confusions of mind which thrust the health of our soul into uncertainty First when a spirit is too much tied to its skin and It is a hard thing not to feel some incommodities life being so full of them too much bent to flie all the contrarieties of nature it is very beggarly and suppliant towards its body which is not done without much care For life being replenished with great and little incommodities from which Kings themselves cannot be wholly exempt If one apprehend them too much he must live like a man who would perpetually shut his eyes for fear of flies and imploy almost all his time which is so precious in the service of the flesh God himself permitteth it also Timor quem timebam evenit mihi quod verebar accidit Job 3. 25. Secondly God for punishment of this nicenesse will suffer that all we most fear shall happen to us a man many times falleth into mischiefs even by fearing them Death seems to be onely for cowards and when one seeks for liberty by unworthy wayes then he is involved in rhe greatest servitude Thirdly one is in danger to fall into much discouragement One puts himself upon the hazard to live alwayes in insupportable anxiety Debitores sumus non carâ—i ut socundum carnem viâ— vamus Rom. 8. Hier. in ep ad Aglas Non est de ficata in Deum secura confessio quotiâ— die eredent in Christum tollit Crucem suam negat scipsum Bern. ser 85. in Cant. Fuge ad illum qui adversatur per quem talis fias cui jam non adversetur and into sad despair when he sees himself slipped into matters troublesome and very vexing since he sought to avoid the lightest For which cause the Sages counsel us willingly to accustome our selves a little to evill and of our own accord to harden our selves to the end that when it shall come necessity may make that more supportable which we have already assayed by prudence We ow nothing to flesh to live according to flesh saith S. Paul and S. Hierome in the Epistle he wrote to Aglasius clearly giveth him to understand That the Profession of Christianity is not a Profession nice and lazy a true Christian every day beareth the Crosse and renounceth himself S. Bernard said as much in one of his Sermons upon the Canticles Fly saith he to your beloved persecutour that you may find the end of your persecutions in the accomplishment of his will It is a determination from heaven that we should see before our eyes so many great religious men and women most austere whom the divine Providence seems to propose unto us to extend and glorifie the Crosse of Jesus Christ and shew that all is possible to the love of God § 3. The Consideration of the indulgent favours of Jesus Christ towards Humane Nature is a powerfull remedy against the Humour of Disdain IF we be not yet throughly perswaded by these reasons The example of our Saviour serves for another strong remedy to sweeten our Aversions the example of our Saviour ought to make us ashamed For when we more nearly consider his life we find that he onely did not shew an Aversion from things despicable but chose the most abject and contrary to Nature I ask of you what attractive was there in humane nature to draw him from the highest parts of the heavens to its love What saw he in it but a brutish body a soul in the most inferiour order of Intelligencies all covered over with crimes wholly drenched in remedilesse miseries and yet laying aside those beautiful Angels who did shine as Aromatick lamps in his eternall Temple he came upon earth to seek for this lost creature prodigall of his substance a foe to his honour injurious to his glory and not content to reconcile it to Eras â—â—da confusione plena transivi perte vidi â—â— expandi amictum meum super te opeâ—uâ— Ignominram tuam Ezech. 16. Displicentes amati snmus ut fieret in nobis unde placeremus Concil Arausican Nee pereuntem perire patitur nec abaverso avertirur sed fugientem paternâ charitate insequitur revocat blanditur reâ—erso no◠〈…〉 ignoscit sed regnâ—â— promâ—â—it Fraâ—â—â— Abbâ—â— l. 5. de gratia The humours of the world are quite contrary to the designs of God Displicet avaris quòd non corpus aureum habuit displicet impudicis quia ex virgine natus est displicet superbis quòd contumelias â—apienter pertulit displicet delicatis quòd â—ruâ—iatus est displicet timidis quòd mortuus est ut non vitia sua videantur defendere unum in hoc dicunt sibi hoc displicere sed in filio Dei August de agone Christiano his father he espoused it and united it to himself with a band indissoluble putting it into the possession of all his greatnesse to surcharge himself with its miseries This is it which is so notably described by the Prophet Ezechiel when he sets before our eyes a miserable ungracious wretch cast forth upon the face of the earth wallowing in ordures abandoned to all sorts of injuries and scorns whom the Prince of glory looketh on with his eyes of mercy taketh him washeth clotheth adorneth and tyeth him to himself by the band of marriage We naturally have so much Aversion from persons misshapen nasty and infected
which ordinary people daily draw in without any difference but would create another more pure and delicate for their own use God all good and all bounteous doth quite contrary For all that which is greatest most rare and most to be wished is beatitude which boundeth the desires of all the world and he hath shared it with us not dividing it sith he will that every one of us possesse it without division as he enjoyeth himself without distinction of felicity between persons O what a shame is it that a soul created for the delight of God beggeth its contentment from an ape from a parrot from some sauce from a dance or other thing more contemptible The blessing of God hath three things observed by Three considerable qualities in the blessings of God S. Thomas which marvelously recommend it to wit that it is most generall most intimate and most durable If we found rhe like qualities in the pleasures of the flesh I should think they were wise who provided themselves of them but if there be nothing lesse in them then all that which a well-rectified soul may desire why pursue we them to enflame our thirst and provoke our appetites as for what concerneth Generality the benefits of sense have this want they never generally delight sith the train of the Peacock Aurum tuum pax est praedia tua pax Deus tuus pax quicquid hic desideras pax tibi ent quia hoc aurum quod tibi est non potest esse argentum quod vinum est non potest esse panis quod tibi â—ux est non potest esse potus Deus tuus torum erit tibi Aug. in Psal 36. serm 1. which pleaseth the eye with its diversified paintings contents not the taste at all and that which pleaseth the taste doth not necessarily please either the touching or smelling Otherwise doth gold recreate and otherwise delight every creature hath its property and nature which limitteth the virtue thereof within a certain circumference God is the object which gathereth together all delights as he uniteth all blessings O man thou callest here under the little of Contentment all that pleaseth thee Thy gold is thy contentment and thy Farm thy contentment and thy life thy contentment but God is a contentment which includeth all other pleasures among these objects which charm thy senses that which is silver cannot be gold and that which is wine cannot become bread and that which is light cannot serve thee for drink but thy God is that alone which conteineth the models of all pleasures to be imagined Secondly if we regard the manner of delighting all pleasures of sense passe but to the outward skin and if they come to penetrate farther they beat down our senses which are not long able to bear an object so violent although it be gustfull and pleasing Our soul alone as it is in its nature is not mingled with that matter which tyeth things corporall It hath a capacity almost infinite of not being weary of its object and God who is a spirit-Creatour pierceth in into the bottome and overfloweth it with eternall felicities For as for the third consideration we see all sensuall delectations passe along like a torrent which runs through a vally but the blessings of God ever flow with an affluence which never dryeth and therefore Hugh of S. Victor very well compared the favours of heaven to Hugo l. 1. Miscellane orum tit 3. Ad oleum mundi vasa deficiunt oleum mundi in vasis deficit a miraculous oyl which the Prophet Elizeus obtained by his prayer for the good widow for as ordinarily oyl daily decreased in the vessels wherein it was put this quite contrary so multiplyed through the blessing of the Saint that the woman was enforced to say she had no more vessels to put it in And how many see we in the world who keep a wicked slight pleasure as a drop of corrupt oyl which comes to nothing and fadeth away as if it be not spent whereas the consolations of heaven do sometimes so fruitfully overflow upon faithfull souls that they confesse they have not a heart large enough to contein them O soul really penurious worthy of all the poverties on earth whom the riches of heaven cannot suffice what hast thou to do with those standing puddles of Egypt which do onely enflame thirst in thy veins wilt thou never seek for thy refreshment in the Cisterns of Bethlehem § 4. The Paradise and joyes of our Lord when he was on earth LEt us in the second instance behold what joyes Our Lord passed all his life in contentments which were necessarily due to him to give us an example to wean our selves from them Hic est filius meus dilectus in quo mihi bene complacui Mat. 17. 5. and what pleasures the incarnate word made choise of in this life since it must serve us for a modell Verily were there a man in the world worthy to live in perpetuall delight it was he in whom the heavenly Father had chosen to place his heart his joyes and contentments It is he who is called by Saint Augustine the summary of all power the Treasury of virtues the flower and quintessence of contentments the sweetnesse of delights and the perpetuall banquet of Angels As supremely potent he might afford himself all the pleasures of Monarchs as correspondently virtuous he might sanctifie them in his own person As being in possession of the most pure delight in such sort that the onely aspect of his face served for a delicious Totius potestatis summa thesaurus virtutuâ—â— flos delectationum amoenitas deliciarum convivium Angelorum Aug. hom in Exurgens Maria feast to all the blessed souls he seemed to be inseparable from joy He notwithstanding would take so poor a part in the comfort of the world that he who will consider and behold the whole Table of his life from the time of his birth to his death shall find he chose the life of a Halcyon who liveth among thorns whereof her nest is made and on the trembling agitation of waters which serve it for a moving chariot The life of Jesus Christ was a thorny life among a thousand difficulties which invironed it on all sides a life tossed with a thousand afflictions which afforded him no rest a life like unto a piece of Tapestry wrought with threads of gold wherein there was nothing but thickets of bryers and brambles Good God! if we be threatned by some evil we try all manner of helps we offer vows to all the saints and make heaven and earth to conspire if we can to free us from it we beseech God to do miracles in our behalf that we may suffer nothing and he doth a perpetuall one in himself to endure all which a supreme cruelty could invent and an equall patience suffer He permitted sadnesse to settle on him even in the bosome of Beatitude as if a King should
which I more according to humane Remedies The power and providence of God which preserveth us ought to drive away all our fears nature have deduced enter not sufficiently into your mind lift up your thoughts to things divine and when you have contemplated all the devastation of this passion learn a little to deplore your misery which causeth you to fear almost all except that which is able to deliver you from all fear Behold in our first model the Power and Providence of God which are two perfections able to fortifie our weaknesse dissipate all our faintnesse and encourage all our pusillanimity The omnipotency of God not onely sets free from the surprisals of fear but assures all which is under its power and protection to which we voluntary have submitted What should he fear nay what should he noâ— Apud Deum non crit impossibile omne verbum Luc. 1. hope who hath a God for protectour and a God absolutely powerfull His Power and his Essence walk hand in hand insomuch as Power in God is nothing else but the effective Essence of God We need not fear that his jurisdiction is onely extended Nempe in semet manens quod habet est quod est semper uno eodem modo est In eo multa in unum diversa in idem rediguntur ut nec numerositate rerum sumat pluralitatem nec alterationem de variatione sentiar Bernard in Cantic to certain places since it is without limits and embraceth all places That it is limited to a certain number of Ages since it is eternall and involveth all Time That it is greater at one time then at another in that which interiourly concerneth it because it is immutable That it looseth any thing of its vivacity in the revolution of so many years for that it hath an infinite vigour which comprehendeth all the perfections of Essence As much as the Divine understanding can comprehend so much the Divine power can execute Both have no measure and both alwayes go in the same proportion equalling their greatnesses whilst nothing equalleth their worth What abysses and what treasures of power must He possesse who hath within himself so inexhaustible souâ—ces and such communications as are in God who can endlesly communicate himself in the orders of Vegetative Sensitive and Intellectuall nature and lastly in Grace and Glory where he doth so many wonders never emptying nor limiting his Virtue All this great world where the Sun as some Astrologers say is an hundred and fourty times The Sun is an hundred and fourty times bigger then the earth and in twenty four hours goeth more then twelve millions of leagues Prodigious course of some stars greater then the Earth and progresseth in twenty four hours more then twelve millions of leagues where there are fixed Stars which go in the space of an hour more way then a Horseman could in seventeen hundred and twenty six years All the great variety of this Universe where there are creature without number beauties without end and greatnesses to our eyes immeasurable is but an effect of his word He made it with the least blast of his mouth and with the least breath of his mouth can unmake it and instead of it build up an infinity of other worlds much greater and more perfect then this Good God! what say we when we say God when we say the power of God All that is and moves in nature actuateth not but by this predominant Power and should he once draw back an arm totall Nature would cease from its operations and dissolve into nothing All those vast armies which made ostent to tear down smoaking Cities and dry up seas to render mountains navigable to turn the course of whole nature topsie-turvey were overthrown by the hand of God who for this purpose made use of grashoppers and flyes which he calleth his Great Forces Locusta fortitudo mea magna Joel 2. 25. in the Prophet It is he who circumvolveth the heavens who supports the earth who distendeth the waters who quickneth the whole world with his fire and breath who darkneth the air with tempests when he pleaseth who maketh clouds to pour down in deluges who swalloweth up the flects of petty Pharaohs who flyeth upon the curlings of waves who imflameth lightnings and maketh bloud and scorpions to rain upon In manu enim ejus no sermones nostri omnis sapientia attingit à sine usque ad finem fortiter dâ—spoter omnia sâ—aviâ—er Sap. 7. the rebellions of earth O power of God! what do we say when we tell your wondets It is not sufficient to strike terrour into the wicked and to occasion considence in his children since it hath an eternall alliance with this great Providence which governeth the world For in a word we are in his hands both we and all our designs and all our poor providence as for him he powerfully actuateth from one extremity to another and sweetly disposeth of all without any trouble What assurance would a good soul have if it would attentively consider it self all covered under the wing of God all looked upon with the eye of the divine Providence which protects Sceptres and Crowns not forgetting the sillyest little worm of the earth It shielded the little Moses under the waves and the three Children in the flames it likewise shielded all the just nor doth it ever permit them to suffer but to derive lights out of their Eclipses and glory from their torment If we speak with S. Thomas we will say it is the unchangeable rule of all the alterations of the world If with S. Denis it is a fountain which overfloweth Opuse 20. 23. S. Dyonis de coelesti Hiorareh c. 4. Clemens Alexandr in protrept from the highest part of the heavens upon the least creatures of the earth If with Clemens Alexandrinus is is the superintendent of all this great circle which we call the world If it be the rule why do we wander from it If it be the fountain why do we deprive our selves of its favour If it be all Eye why do we depart from its lights Blind that we are if we forget it living daily in its bosome and between its arms disloyall if we forsake it unnaturall if we betray it § 5. That the Example of a God-man ought to instruct and assure us against affrightments of this life LEt us cast our eyes upon the second model and add The example of our Saviour ought to encourage us against fear to these two great Motives which we go about to deduce the example of Jesus which should serve us for a bulwark of Adamant against vitious fear He was the strong of strongs and the most noble Courage which ever fell into the strongest Ideas of Angels The holy Scripture likewise calleth him by the name of Foemina circund abit virum Jer. 32. â—â— Num. 18 â—0 Mares tantum edent ex eo Man and
suum bonum erubescendum est Tertul. de Velandis Virginibus cap. 3. Virgins should blush even at the good they possessed meaning that albeit their virginall body bear nothing upon it but the characters of honour yet ought they not to permit the view of their beauty as a pillage to curious eyes fearing lest any glance might steal away some tender blossome of amiable Virginity There are some who easily blush at the approach of another sex and at words too freely spoken not that they feel themselves guilty of any thing but of a naturall Shamefac'tnesse which cannot suffer the least thought of things reproachfull and many times also out of the fear they have to be suspected in matters of which they in conscience have no remorse This is a sign of a good soul and it is necessary for such an one as will preserve a Chastity inviolable to avoid the least approaches and all which may prejudice Decorum Libanius an excellent Oratour observeth that a Painter one day An excellent observation of Libanius desirous to paint Apollo upon a board of Laurel the colours seemed to be rejected and could not be laid thereon Out of which this curious wit invented an excellent rarity saying That the chaste Daphne who according to the fiction of Poets was turned into a Laurel-tree flying from Apollo who would dishonour her could not endure him yea even in painting although she now was nought else but a piece of insensible wood Whereupon we may inferre that chaste bodies fear the least images and resemblances of impurity and do even beyond a Tomb preserve some sense of Integrity It is read in the life of S. Ephiphanius Simeon Constantin in Epiphan that he gave a kick with his foot after his death at a curious man who looked too near upon him And we also see many who expresly by their will forbid themselves to be opened and to have their entrails pried into by dissections which somewhat savours of inhumanity We must not be too curious in these matters when we make no profession of them For sometimes many maids are more knowing before marriage then is requisite for Chastity Marcia daughter of Fulgosus l. 6 Varro who was one of the rarest wits of her time was skilfull in all arts yea even in Painting but never would she paint naked men lest she might offend modesty Is it not a brave sight to behold a Christian whose bloud flyeth up into his face when he heareth blasphemies vomited forth against God as a good son would blush when the Ashes of his father were defamed What a goodly thing is it to see a vice rejected which a dissolute brazen-face or a confident corrupt spirit suggesteth to a young tender soul of an Angelicall Shamefac'tnesse that draweth bloud from the face and makes use of this vermillion as of mysterious ink to write down the comdemnation of dishonour The second kind of Shamefac'tnesse is much more Humane interessed shamefac'tnesse humane and more interessed which is daily observed in a thousand occasions in the world when one blusheth out of an apprehension of incurring some blemish of a good reputation in what concerneth Extraction Body Wit Profession Integrity Virtue Condition and Estate Some are much vexed at their own birth and when they see themselves raised to some degree of honour they are ashamed that their enemies reproach them with the basenesse of their beginning but they should remember that Birth is a businesse whereunto they are not called that it is no more in our power then are the stars and the winds and that many great personages have boasted they have mounted higher by Virtue then their ancestours had descended by the obscurity of their Extraction Porus the Monarch of the Indies was the son of a Obscurity of birth in great personages Barber Bradyllus Prince of the Sclavonians of a Collier Ortagoras Duke of the Sicyonians of a Cook Agathocles King of Sicily of a Potter and yet they gloried to have made a large way to greatnesse for themselves from the recommendation of their valour Primislaus come from the condition of a peasant to principality caused his old homely rags to be kept that he might sometimes look on them The Archbishop Villegesius son of a Carter commanded wheels to be painted all over his Scutcheons of Arms. There are none but inferiour hearts which are offended with Gods counsels who is the distributour of Glory Others are confounded for deformities of body as he Senec. de constantia sapienâ—is of whom Chrysippus speaketh who was extremely discontented that he was called Sea-Ram and Cornelius who wept in full Senate for being compared to a bald Shame of scoffing Ostritch but this tendernesse of apprehension proceeded from over-much prizing the body which is but a dunghill even in those who are most resplendent in beauty We should prevent such a scoffe upon so slight occasions and to take the word out of their mouth as Vatinius a man much mishapen who mocked so long at his own throat and legs that he in conclusion left nothing for Cicero to declaim against Others love not to have their age talked of as if that which is to be desired were a crime Others must not be seen in a mean habit as if they were much greater then Adam and Eve who in the beginning of the world were cloathed onely with leaves and skinnes Others are infinitely apprehensive to seem poor not confidering that by hiding poverty they reproch themselves and condemne Jesus Christ who spread it over the Crib as on a Throne of Honour Others are dejected with deep melancholy to see themselves despised in parts of Wit Judgement Understanding Capacity Industry and Dexterity in matters whereof they make profession and wherein they think to excell namely when this contempt is offered in company before men of reputation whose good opinion they affect before their competitours their corrivalls their enemies who take a direfull comfort in their confusion Then is the time when one sinketh into the bottome of dishonour and when shamefac'tnesse The strange shame of contempt Laertius covers all the face over Cronus was so abashed that he was not able to solve a Sophisme at King Ptolomy's Table that he died with discontent A Polonian Prince strangled himself upon an oppression of Cromerus lib. 6. Ignominy seeing Bolestaus the Third who was his King had sent him a Hares-skin with a distaffe to upbraid him with his Cowardise in a battel against the Muscovites But we must say truly that all this proceedeth from an enraged desire of punctilio's of Honour which ought never to such extremity take root in the soul of a Christian Lastly there be who are touched with some shame for vices not those which they know do displease God but for such as are accounted ignominious in the opinion of men as to be a Villain a Miser a Liar a Traitour a Falsifier an Impostour a Thief Unjust
carry him in triumph to his throne he thought himself a sleep and in a dream and imagined it so sweet that he in his blindnesse feared the day-light He learned from his son all the successe of this negotiation and the valor us atchievements of the French He knew not what he should believe what he might hope nor what to admire A world of wonders overwhelm his mind and more then ever he bewaileth the losse of his eyes to behold himself bereft of the sight of these incomparable men who seemed to be sent from heaven Finally he saith he is satiated with Empire and worldly greatnesse and that he putteth all his state into the hands of his son His son embraceth him with all unexpressible tendernesse calling him his Lord and Father and protesting he will not intermeddle with any thing of the Empire but the cares whilst he liveth leaving the dignity to his discretion who had given him birth The Father on the other side answered that the piety of his son was more to him then all Empires and that he hereafter should repute himself the happiest man in the world being enlightned by the raies of such virtue in the deprivation of temporall light This was an admirable strife which made it appear that if there be impetuous desires in the Courts of great men there are likewise sometimes to be found moderations which surpasse all mens imagination I am not ignorant Nicetas saith that this affection afterward turned into jealousie but we must note this Authour is passionate against Alexis and his father by reason of the amity he contracted with strangers The French judged it fit that the son should reign by the authority of the father and in respect of his infirmities take the whole government of the State into his hand which he did and all seemed to prosper in his beginnings when after the retreat of ours who had made havock enough in the city out of the liberty of arms rebels stirred who put the whole city into combustion exciting it against the young Emperour and saying that under pretext of Publick good he had called in strangers to the saccage of his Countrey which made him unworthy both of Empire and life The conspiring was so violent that Alexis having no leasure to look about him was betrayed by one of his intimate friends named Mursuflus who pretending to put him into a place of safety threw him into an ugly dungeon where twice having tried to put him to death by poison and seeing his plot succeeded not he out of a horrid basenesse caused him to be strangled Deceitfull Felicities of the world True turrets of Fayeries which are onely in imagination Where shall your allurements prevail from henceforth The poor father hearing the death of his son and the sudden alteration of affairs saith Good God! to what calamity do you reserve my wretched old age I have consummated evils and evils have not yet ended me I am now but a rotten trunk deprived of vigour and the functions of life and if I have any feeling it is onely of my miseries Take this soul which is on my lips and which is over-toiled with worldly Empires and put it in a place where it may no longer fear either hostilities or treasons Ah! Poor son thou art passed away like froth on the water and Fortune did not raise thee within the imaginary Circuit of her Empire but to cast thee down headlong I bewail not my blindnesse it is the happiest of my evils since it bereaves me the aspect of the horrible accidents which by heap passe through my ears Dear Sonne thou hast out-stripped me but I follow thee with a confident pace into the shades of death which shall for me hereafter be the best of lives He gave up the ghost in these anguishes whilst the city of Constantinople was divided by a thousand Factions and turmoiled with fatall convulsions which ministred matter of presage of the change of Empire The people weary of the government of the Angels whose names were Isaac and Alexis had already chosen one called Canabus a man before unknown who was quickly put down by the power and violence of Mursuflus He was a Prince arrogant incontinent and more cunning then prudent who kept not long that Sceptre which he by such wickednesse had usurped For scarcely two moneths and a half were past but that the French returned and besieged Constantinople which the new tyrant had already very well fortified But the Grecians then were so cowardous and affrighted that they made very little resistance and flew before the French and other Westrin and Northem people as before so many Giants Mursuflus as faint-harted in peril as he had been adventurous to commit a treason puts himself upon the sea to flie into Morea but is taken and slain by the divine Vengeance which perpetually hath an armed hand over surious and bloody ambitions The City and Empire of Constantinople yield in the end to the Western power and Baldwin Earl of Flanders is chosen Emperour by the consent of all the army Nicetas a Greek Authour who lived at that time deploreth this change with the Lamentations of Jeremy But it was Gods judgement who would purifie the Eastern Throne defiled by so many wicked actions making a Prince so chast to sit thereon that Nicetas himself is enforced to praise and admire his singular continency as I have observed in my first Treatise Throughout all these Discourse we now see how the desires of the ambitious are chastised and how their hopes being vain their joyes are likewise short and unhappy 7. Historians give most of our Kings this praise that they never had turbulent and troublesome spirits but Moderation of the Kings of France loved Peace and mainteined Justice The History of the Fathers of the West assures us that in the generall combustion of Wars between the French and the English there was a good Hermite named John of Gaunt who ceased not to beseech heaven to quench the fire of these fatall Divisions that he was sent by God to meditate Peace between the two Kings He first went to our Charles the Seventh whom he found infinitly disposed to all the conditions of a good Peace and this gave him occasion to promise him infinite many benedictions from heaven that he should have a Son successour of his Estates to crown his Felicities which happened to him as being a voyce from God and an Oracle of Truth But when the Religious man came to the King of England he would in no sort hearken to him but caused him to be used in a manner unworthy his person which drew the anger of God upon the Kingdome and occasioned him great calamities This subject is so plentifull that I am willing to abbreviate it ambitious desires being so frequent that they have more need to be corrected then sought into Observations upon ANGER and REVENGE BEhold here the Passion from whence sparkles flames and coals proceed which
heart to give entrance thereby to the Spirit of God If you esteem it a most glorious honour to govern innumerable people and to behold from the throne of your Magnificence Nations bending under your Sceptres Know ye that this Power which lifts you so high above the rest of mortals is borrowed from Heaven and is a gift which hath its originall from God who is the Sovereign of all Monarchs of the World It is He that will examine all your works and search into the secretest of your thoughts You forget that notwithstanding all the services that men render to you you are but the Servants and Attendants of this powerfull King You have not judged sincerely you have not kept the laws which your selves have prescribed nor rendred justice to your Subjects nor walked according to the commands of Him whose person you represent This is the reason why He will appear to you suddainly and terribly separating your soul from your bodies You shall see Him on His Throne of Justice compassed with terrours and you shall know that He exercises most severe judgment over those that bear Rule over men All those poor people which tremble under your power shall be lovingly and mercifully dealt with by God but the mighty shall be mightily tormented if they behave not themselves as they ought and shall know that the greatnesse of their Sovereign Authority shall avail them nothing but to serve to augment their just punishments There are no plagues more fatall to the destruction The end of Royalty of Princes then those who under colour of raising their authority would make themselves great by power to commit and that without punishment all kind of enormities Royalty is an Invention of God appointed not for the benefit of the Kings but of the Common-wealth It was not instituted for the vain-glory of men but for the safety of the World and Princes are more for the peoples sake then the people for theirs All the great things were made to serve the lesser Great things were made for the lesser The Sun the Prince of Lights and the heart of Nature serves as well for the eyes of a little fly as for those of a Monarch The Ocean within that its monstrous extent of Seas and wonders tenders its service to the little Fish enclosed in a small shell which cannot subsist without its attendance The one possesses not the least beam nor the other the least drop of water which it employes not for the Commune The Eternall Father would not that the great things should be great in vain but that they pay for their greatnesse by the favours and cares they are to take for the little ones Thus God commanded Moses to carry all that great people that he had brought out of Egypt to serve them all as a mother and if we will believe Orat. 2. in Adam Saint Basil of Seleucia Kings are made to bear the World In antient time they were lifted up upon Bucklers on the day of their Consecration to cause them to understand that they ought to serve for a Buckler for their whole Realm Nature hath made neither King nor Subject amongst Men. Kings are not born Kings but by the consent of those people which have made themselves a Law to obey him whom God should declare to them by his birth or whom themselves should make by Election Royalty is a power of all the particulars united together in one man to be applyed and exercised according to the Law When Romulus founded the Monarchy of Rome composed of divers people that offered themselves to The practice of Romulus to be noted Navar l. 1. c. 9. him he expresly ordained that every one should bring to him some of the earth and fruits of his countrey whereof he composed a masse and caused it to be buried in a great pit which he called the Word intending to shew by this ceremony that Royalty is a heap of Wills of Powers of Riches united in one onely Power This is a borrowing which Kings make without obligation to restore again but with obligement to render it better They ought to do as the Bees which take of the flowers to make Honey thereof They ought to temper and bring to perfection the Virtues and Qualities of the whole Communalty in their own person to compose thereof the publick happinesse Wherefore do you think that the antient Hebrews Targum Navarinus l. 4. planted trees at the birth of the children of their Kings which they held as sacred and dressed them with carefull diligence to make thereof one day thrones for those little Monarchs when they were come to the Crown but onely to teach them that they ought to cover the people with their protection and to enrich them with goods as the tree defends men from the tempest with its leaves and nourisheth them with its fruit They are not properly Masters in a strict sense for that the Master may do whatsoever he will with his goods without giving account thereof But a King cannot use his subjects but according to the law he must entreat them as the Goods of God for that he is accomptable therefore to the Sovereign Judge of Heaven and Earth whose Stewart he is for a certain time and not proprietary for ever If he abuse this trust although the people cannot recall the authority which they have given to him and which hath been established of it self by a long prescription neverthelesse he is answerable to the Divine Majesty for all that he doth The Divines hold that a King which should reign Navarrus in Manualâ— onely for his own honour and pleasure would sin grievously and put himself upon hazard of loosing his salvation To speak then the very truth Royaltie is a very Royalty a glorious servitude great obligement and a glorious servitude and he that shall well consider all its burthens would not so much as stoop to take up a Diadem lying on the ground Doctor Navarrus and other Divines that treat of the duty of Princes say That to be a King is to be the peoples man who is charged before God upon the perill of his soul to take care of their affairs and to maintein them in peace as far as shall be lawfull and possible to defend them from their enemies to render justice to them by himself or his officers That is to choose men of ability and virtuous to undertake those charges to watch over their actions and their behaviour to chastise the evil ones that trouble the publick quiet and to recompence the good ones That is to keep the Laws to root out abuses to cause piety and good manners to flourish to stop all injustice corruptions and exactions As also to facilitate tradeing to order the conducts for Souldiers to take care for the reparations of publick Buildings for Ammunition and provision for the health and conveniency of his Subjects and to exact nothing of them above their ability
threatned to cause them to be burnt alive if they obeyed not and that there was no God either in heaven or upon earth that should be able to deliver them out of his hands These gallant Princes not being able to endure this blasphemy answered constantly that the God which they served was the Sovereign Master of all Kings that nothing was impossible to his power that it was most easie for him to draw them out of a danger so evident but happen what would they would never be so base and cowardly as to betray their Faith and belie their Religion What cannot Resolution do What cannot Courage do What cannot true Piety do And what does not the Spirit of God That three children that were strangers amidst so many millions of Infidels that environed them as enraged wolves amidst the thundring angers of an inexorable King the horrible faces of hangmen whilst the flames of the fornace into which they were suddenly to be thrown flashed over to the horrour and trembling even of those that were without danger should stand as three rocks immoveable to all these violent shakings What menaces did this wicked King employ to make himself to be feared What sweetnesses and allurements to make himself be beloved And yet they remain inflexible to rigours and impregnable to caresses They are cast into those fiery coals that bore a true representation of hell to endure the sharpest of pains and they find there the most sensible of pleasures The fire forgets it self to be fire the fornace strows it self with flowers the gentle breathings of the South-winds temper the ardour of the flames and that which was the most rigorous of punishments becomes a Throne of honour upon which these three Champions speak as Oracles and all the Creatures change themselves into ears to hear them The King that was there present and that had seen them thrown in fast bound and manacled when he saw them walk all three assisted with a fourth that was the Angel of God in that great and horrible fornace as in a meadow enamell'd over with flowers demanded of his Princes whether they were not those same men that were newly thrown into the fire and whence it could come to passe that that Element should change its nature for them after it had devoured their executioners He draws near to the fornace he calls them by their names and commands them to come to him to see if they were not spirits loosed from the body They come forth he embraceth them he is in an extasie for joy and confesses with a loud voyce That the God of those Children is the true God and ordains that he that shall be so hardy as to blaspheme him should be punished with death and his house confiscated What triumph was ever so glorious as that of the true Religion that then made visible her grandeurs to the sight of all the Infidels in her Captivity and when one would have thought her dead wrote her praises in characters of fire The Nobles came about these three Princes considered their habits the hair of their heads their flesh their skin and found that every thing was intire Calumny changed her self into adoration rage into astonishment and those that were thought lost and reduced to nothing saw themselves consecrated by their punishments This should have converted the King and all his Nation to the worship of the true God and yet those chains that keep men bound in their Superstition for a long time and by deep rooted habits being almost indissoluble every thing remained in the same condition and this Prince blinded by the prosperity of his arms carried his ambitions to the highest point to which those of mortall men can mount whilst it pleased God to chastise him by a very extraordinary change A year before that the unhappinesse befell him he saw in a dream a tree of an immense heighth that seemed to him to cover all the earth with its branches the leaves thereof were pleasant the fruit most savoury the beasts of the earth fed under it and lived by the favours they received from it and upon it the little birds of the air made melodious consorts whilst on a sudden he saw an Angel descend from heaven and commanded that the Tree should be cut down her branches scatter'd her leaves shaken off her fruits destroyed that it should be tumbled down upon the grasse wet continually with the dew of heaven bound with a great iron chain and that there should be left onely some small root to spring up again in time to come but that it should lie seven years under ground before it should appear He was much affrighted at this Dream and made a second assembly of the Sages of his Kingdome that could not give any sutable Interpretation of it Daniel was call'd and the Dream related to him from point to point by the Kings own mouth from which he immediately discovered much misery for his Master There is need of a great force of spirit when one is to carry an afflicting Truth to a person that one loves and of whom one hath received great benefits One would have counsell'd Daniel to hold his peace to dissemble to elude the true sense by some appearing Interpretation yet he knowing that God had sent him to that Court not to vaunt himself in the honour of his offices and in the abundance of his riches but have a care of the salvation of his King and to heal the vanities of his spirit although that by interpreting this Dream according to the truth he should bring himself in danger of the ruine of his fortunes He disguised nothing but told him that it were to be wish'd that the effect of that Dream might fall upon his enemies but since that unhappinesse threatned him it would be better to endeavour to divert it then to invent artifices to suppresse it That he was that great Tree that lifted his branches as high as heaven and covered with his shadow the roundnesse of the earth that so many millions of men were in shelter under his protection and breathed by his favour but forasmuch as he had despised God and had entred into a great presumption of his sufficiency without considering that every thing came to him from on high that he should be separated from the conversation of men ranked with beasts that he should eat the grasse of the field as an ox and should be exposed to the rain and to all the injuries of the air living as a beast till such time as he should know that there is one most high God that rules over the kingdomes of Monarchs and gives them to whom he pleases but there being yet a root remaining to that overthrown Tree that there should be some recovery from that brutall life and that he should be put again into his Kingdome when he should know the power of the heavenly virtue This Daniel was a sprightly Courtier to tell a King that he should become
was wished him on the birth of his son did make answer that there needed not such acclamations for nothing could be born from him and Agrippina but what should be pernicious to the Empire Not long after this unfortunate man did die consumed with diseases that attended his filthy life and left behind him his son three years of age who saw his mother banished and being destitute of means was brought up in the house of his Aunt Lepida under the discipline of a dancer and a barber who did corrupt his spirit with the first impressions of vice which from his birth he was too much disposed to receive The times changing his mother returned into favour and by her charms prevailed upon the spirit of the Emperour Claudius the successour of Caligula a simple and The perfidiousnesse of his mother a stupid man who espoused this dangerous woman who afterwards poisoned him by a potion and so placed her own son on the Throne of the Cesars And although the Astrologians had fore-told her that he should be Emperour and withall the murderer of his mother she made nothing of it and thought it no hard bargain to buy the Empire with her own bloud saying Let him reign and let him kill me By the artifice of this wicked woman Nero was saluted Emperour in the seventeenth year of his age with a marvellous applause and in the publick acclamations honoured with all great Names and specious Titles all which he received saving onely that of Father of his Countrey saying He was too young to have so many children He was very tractable in his youth upright gentle discreet well-spoken and demean'd himself for the first five years very worthily under the conduct of Seneca But when he approached to the one and twentieth year of his age the ingredients of vice which with his birth he brought into the world the base education in his infancy the heat of his youth the delights of the Court and which is the greatest of all temptations the Power to do all did weigh down the Philosophy and the Instructions of Seneca who proved by experience That there is nothing more difficult then to perswade those to virtue whom too much Power had put in the possession of all vices His deboistnesse began by the ill examples which he learned in his infancy which were altogether unbeseeming his person he became a Tumbler a Puppet-player a Comedian a Waggoner a Songster and a Minstrel not for Recreation but to make a publick Profession of it to dispute with the Masters of those Faculties and to abandon all the affairs of Peace and Warre to be vacant to those exercises insomuch that he made it more to out-act a Comedian on the stage then to gain a Battle in the field He was also a night-walker and gave and sometimes received many sore blows which did not permit him to passe unknown From hence he laid himself open to most extravagant profusenesse insomuch that he gave to Tumblers the patrimonies of Consuls and made the funeralls of some inconsiderable men to equall the Magnificence of the Obsequies of Kings he never did wear the most gorgeous garments longer then one day He did build his Palaces with so much cost as if he would dispend on them onely all the wealth of Rome When he travelled he would be followed with a thousand caroaches and his mules were all shod with silver He made his halls after the form of the firmament where the vault being of gold intermingled with azure and illuminated with counterfeit starres did roul continually over his head and rained on him showers of flowers and waters of a most exquisite smell There would he dine from noon till midnight in the riot of execrable services He had a touch in his tender age of the vices of wantonnesse luxury avarice and cruelty but being in the beginning it was with some shame concealed in private But in the end he took off that mask by an open and inordinate dissolutenesse which knew no restraint He was of belief that there was not one chaste person in the world and took great pleasures in those who did repeat their filthinesse to him There was never man more abandoned to all manner of uncleannesse without distinction of kindred sex time place or man-hood There was not one part in all his body that was not sacrificed to dishonesty his polluted spirit made him invent those abominations which are not to be indured by chaste ears and with which I will not defile my paper The excesse of his insolencies did at last render him odious to those who were most near unto him and when they gently told him of his extravagancies he would leap into a fury and made a crime of their virtue who did best advise him He filled up the apprenticeship of his enormities with the death of Britannicus a young Prince the sonne of the Emperour His cruelty towards Britannicus Claudius and brother to his wife Octavia in which he imployed the most famous Sorceresse of Rome named Locusta who prepared the poyson and made an assay of it before him on a sucking pig who died immediately now finding it for his turn caused it to be served to his brother as he dined at the table with him The malignity of the poyson was so piercing that in an hour after he fell dead at the feet of his mother and his sister who were both present at this tragick spectacle Nero to excuse himself said That it was the effect of a great sicknesse to which he had been subject from his cradle and that they ought to be of comfort But the Princesses concealing their imagination for fear of provoking his rage did manifestly perceive that he sowed those seeds of his murder which he would afterwards continue in his Family It is almost impossible to believe the tender affection The love to his mother degenerated to misprision with which he prosecuted his mother Agrippina He sometimes did give to the souldiers that did guard his body for their word The good Mother He could not live without her He did put into her hands the most delicate interests of all his Affairs and desired that all things should stoop to her Authority The mother also did indeavour by all possible artifices to tie her self unto his person even unto the using of Charms for it is most certain that she gave him the skin of a serpent inclosed in a bracelet of gold which he carried ordinarily about him and afterwards in despite did lay it by and did look for it not long before his death but could not find it The endearments of this Agrippina were too fond and her kisses more hot then belonged to a mother Seneca was amazed at the horrour of it and to Seneca by a lesse evil diverts a greater avoid a greater evil he procured a young maiden named Acta who otherwise was a slave that came from Asia but very beautifull to serve as a
commandment Wealth and Honour were always on her side Delight and Joy seemed onely to be ordained for her Whatsoever she undertook did thrive all her thoughts were prosperous the earth and the sea did obey her the winds and the tempests did follow her Standards Some would affirm that this is no marvel at all but onely the effect of a cunning and politick Councel composed of the sons of darkness who are more proper to inherit the felicities of this world than the children of the light But we must consider that this is the common condition both of the good and the evil to find out the cause in which the Understanding of man doth lose it self David curiously endeavouring to discover the reason in the beginning did conceive himself to be a Philosopher but in the end acknowledged that the consideration thereof did make him to become a Beast The Astrologers do affirm that Elizabeth came into the world under the Sign of Virgo which doth promise Empires and Honours and that the Queen of Scotland was born under Sagitarius which doth threaten women with affliction and a bloudy Death The Machivilians do maintain that she should accommodate her self to the Religion of her Countrey and that in the opposing of that torrent she ruined her affairs The Politicians do impute it to the easiness of her gentle Nature Others do blame the counsel which she entertained to marry her own Subjects And some have looked upon her as Jobs false friends did look on him and reported him to lye on the dung-hill for his sions But having thoroughly considered on it I do observe that in these two Queens God would represent the two Cities of Sion and Babylon the two wayes of the just and the unjust and the estate of this present world and of the world to come He hath given to Elizabeth the bread of dogs to reserve for Mary the Manna of Angels In one he hath recompensed some moral virtues with temporal blessings to make the other to enter into the possession of eternal happiness Elizabeth did reign why so did Athalia Elizabeth did presecute the Prophets why so did Jezabel Elizabeth hath obtained Victories why so did Thomyris the Queen of the Scythians She hath lived in honour and delight and so did Semiramis She died a natural death being full of years so died the Herods and Tyberius but following the track that she did walk in what shall we collect of her end but as of that which Job speaketh concerning the Tomb of the wicked They pass away their life in delights and descend in a moment unto hell Now God being pleased to raise Marie above all the greatness of this earth and to renew in her the fruits of his Cross did permit that in the Age wherein she lived there should be the most outragious and bloudy persecution that was ever raised against the Church He was pleased by the secret counsel of his The great secret of the Divine Providence Providence that there should be persons of all sorts which should extol the Effects of his Passion And there being already entered so many Prelates Doctours Confessours Judges Merchants Labourers and Artisans he would now have Kings and Queens to enter also Her Husband Francis the Second although a most just and innocent Prince had already took part in this conflict of suffering Souls His life being shortened as it is thought by the fury of the Hugonots who did not cease to persecute him It was now requisite that his dear Spouse should undertake the mystery of the Cross also And as she had a most couragious soul so God did put her in the front of the most violent persecutions to suffer the greatest torments and to obtain the richest Crowns The Prophet saith That man is made as a piece of Elizabeth's hatred to the Queen of Scotland Imbroidery which doth not manifest it self in the lives of the just for God doth use them as the Imbroiderer doth his stuffs of Velvet and of Satin he takes them in pieces to make habilements for the beautifiing of his Temple 12. Elizabeth being now transported into Vengeance and carried away by violent Counsels is resolved to put Mary to death It is most certain that she passionately desired the death of this Queen well understanding that her life was most apposite to her most delicate interests She could not be ignorant that Mary Stuart had right to the Crown of England and that she usurped it she could not be ignorant that in a General Assembly of the States of England she was declared to be a Bastard as being derived from a marriage made consummated against all laws both Divine and humane She observed that her Throne did not subsit but by the Faction of Heresie and as her Crown was first established by disorder so according to her policie it must be cemented by bloud She could not deny but that the Queen of Scotland had a Title to the Crown which insensibly might fall on the head of the Prisoner and then that in a moment she might change the whole face of the State She observed her to be a Queen of a vast spirit of an unshaken faith and of an excellent virtue who had received the Unction of the Realm of Scotland and who was Queen Dowager of the Kingdom of France supported by the Pope reverenced throughout all Christendom and regarded by the Catholicks as a sacred stock from which new branches of Religion should spring which no Ax of persecution could cut down The Hereticks in England who feared her as one that would punish their offences and destroy their Fortunes which they had builded on the ruins of Religion had not a more earnest desire than to see her out of the world All things conspired to overthrow this poor Princess and nothing remained but to give a colour to so bold a murder It so fell out that in the last years of her afflicting imprisonment a conspiracy was plotted against the Estate and the life of Elizabeth as Cambden doth recite it Ballard an English Priest who had more zeal to his Religion than discretion to mannage his enterprize considered with himself how this woman had usurped a Scepter which did not appertain unto her How she had overthrown all the principles of the ancient Religion How she had kept in prison an innocent Queen for the space of twenty years using her with all manner of indignity how she continually practised new butcheries by the effusion of the bloud of the Catholicks he conceived it would be a work of Justice to procure her death who held our purses in her hand and our liberty in a chain But I will not approve of those bloudy Counsels which do provide a Remedy far worse than the disease and infinitely do trouble the Estate of Christendom Nevertheless he drew unto him many that were of his opinion who did offer and devote themselves to give this fatal blow The chiefest amongst them was
it is a distinct question which would well deserve a much longer discourse than this present design permitteth (b) (b) (b) Vanity of Astrology We have shewed in some other former tracts and will also manifest once again how vain and frivolous the science of Horoscopes is being taken in that height whereunto the vanitie of some impostours hath raised it not here intending to condemn those who handle Astrologie within limits permitted by the Church Let us now be contented to say it is a savage ignorance to seek to infer from the course of planets an absolute necessity upon mens actions since even judicial Astrologers the most fervent and obstinate durst never proceed so far All say the stars make impressions of certain qualities upon bodies and minds but that they may be diverted by precaution which gave authority to the famous axiom of Ptolomy cited by S. Thomas in the book of destiny affirming (a) (a) (a) S. Thom. opusc defat Sapiens dominabitur astris the wise man shall rule the stars (b) (b) (b) Tertull. de Ido c. 9. Expelluntur mathematici sicut angeli eorum urbe Italia interdicitur mathematicis sicut coelum Angelis Non potest regnum coelorum sperare cujus digitus aut radius abâ—titur coelo Tertullian in the treatise of Idolatry said pertinently that evil Angels are made prime masters of the curiosity of Horoscopes and that as they were banished from heaven so are their disciples from the earth as by an extension of the divine sentence He addeth that man should not at all pretend to the Kingdom of heaven who makes a practise to abuse both heaven and stars It seemes God pursueth those who addict themselves to such vanities as fugitives from Divine Providence And it is very often observed that great-ones who are ensnared in the servitude of this curiosity have felt violent shocks and many times most dreadful events (c) (c) (c) Alexander de Angelis l. 4. c. 40. Henery the second to whom Carden and Gauricus two lights of Astrology had foretold verdant and happy old Age was miserably slain in the flower of his youth in games and pleasures of a Turneament The Princes his children whose Horoscopes were so curiously looked into and of whom wonders had been spoken were not much more prosperous Zica King of the Arabians to whom Astrology had promised long life to persecute Christians died in the year of the same prediction Albumazar the Oracle of Astrology left in writing that he found Christian religion according to the influence of stars should last but a thousand four hundred years he already hath belyed more than two hundred and it will be a lie to the worlds end The year 1524. wherein happened the great conjunction of Saturn Jupiter and Mars in the sign Pisces Astrolgers had foretold the world should perish by water which was the cause many men of quality made arks in imitation of Noâ—hs to save themselves from the deluge all which turned into laughter The year 1630. was likewise threatened by some predictions with an inundation should drown half mankind which proved false by a season quite contrary It was foretold a Constable of France well known that he would dye beyond the Alps before a city besieged in the 83. year of his Age and that if he escaped this time he was to live above a hundred years which was notoriously untrue this man deceasing in the 84. year of a natural death A Mathematician of John Galeazzo Duke of Milan who promised himself long life according to his planets was slain at the same time when he prognosticated this by the commandment of the same Duke Another Astrologer of Henry the seaventh King of England advised this great Prince to take heed of Christmas night was asked whither his own star would send him that night to which he answered to his own house in security of peace Yet was he instantly sent to the tower to celebrate the vigil of this great festival One might reckon up by thousands the falshoods miseries and disasters which wait on these superstitions Who can then sufficiently deplore the folly of Existimant tot circa unum caput tumultuantes Deos. Aurelius one who forsaking the great government of God the fountain of wits and treasure of fortunes makes himself a slave of Mercury or Saturn contrary to the voice of Scripture decision of Councels Oracles of holy Fathers Laws of Emperours consultations of the wise experience of people and consent of all the most solid judgments We will not labour to ruin a doctrine forsaken Against the necessity inferred of prescience both by honour and reason We onely speak against those who will infer a necessity derived from divine prescience by force of which sins themselves according to their understandings are directly caused by the decrees of heaven It is the opinion of Velleius Paterculus who said destiny did all the good and Ita efficitur quod est miserrimum ut quod accidit etiam merito accidisse videatur casus in cuâ—pam transeat evil in the world and that it was a miserable thing to attribute that which proceedeth from above to the demerit of men and to make the ordinances of heaven to pass as crimes of mortals This Maxim was defended by Hereticks even to fury and it is a wonder men have been so wicked as to burden the prime sanctity with all the ordures of the world We well know if destiny be taken for the ordinance by which God establisheth the lives of particulars and states of Empires it is nothing else but the Divine Providence whereof we speak but good heed must be taken from concluding sins within the list of Gods will who onely being pleased to permit them can not in any sort establish or will them And it is here an impertinent thing to say All God hath foreseen shall necessarily happen otherwise he would be deceived in his foresight which cannot be affirmed without blasphemy but he foresaw all future things they then of necessity will happen Who sees not it is a childish toy and that this captious argument must be overthrown by saying All which God hath foreseen necessarily happeneth by necessity and all he foresaw indifferently happeneth by indifferency Now so it is that of all which dependeth on our liberty he hath not foreseen any thing necessarily but indifferently We must then conclude that all is done by indifferency not fatal necessity Hearken to the excellent decision of S. Iohn Damascene Damas l. 2. Orth. fidei c. 32. God foresaw all things but he determineth not all Omnia quidem Deus praenoscit non omnia tamen praefinit praenoscit enim ea quae in nostrâ sunt potestate non autem ea praefinit quia non vult peccatum nec cogiâ— ad virtutem things He well foresaw all which is and shall be in your power but he determines not because he willeth not sin nor will
likewise constrain any man to virtue (b) (b) (b) Plato l. 2. de republicâ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato in his Common-wealth detesteth all opinions which seek to introduce into the beliefs of people propositions unworthy of Gods goodness namely those which make him authour of sin adding we must not endure to hear it spoken or written by any man in a well rectified Common-wealth Who knoweth not that such are the causes such the effects If the causes be necessary the effects likewise are enchained within the limits of necessity If they be contingent they are all in indifferency Now the prescience of God to speak properly is not the cause of our actions unless it be by meer accident and occasion then it cannot make them necessary Is it not true that the great eye of God equally beholdeth things past present and future And as our eye maketh not things present by beholding them since a wall is neither white nor black by force of my sight and as our memory makes not things past by repassing them by their species so the prescience of God makes not things future by forseeing them they are not because God hath foreseen them but he foresaw them because they so should happen O man if thou beholdest him who made thee thou Faust Reg. de gratia c. 2. l. 2. Si ad factorem homo respicis bonus esse potuisti Si ad praecognitorem tu me progestorum tuorum ordine ut de te malum praenoscerem compulisti mayest have been good But if thou contemplatest him as him who knew thee before the beginning of Ages thou hast enforced him to make an evil judgement upon thee because thou hast made thy self evil Our action although it be not the first dated in execution at the least in the Idaea and order of nature it always foregoeth the divine prescience if we regard its first intentions we may all be honest men if we consider our proceedings we constrain him to foresee of us what is in us If prescience imported any necessity we might conclude God were necessited in all the actions he doth throughout the world because he eternally hath foreseen them all which were most impious Let us not then say But if God hath so foreseen it it will happen by an inevitable necessity for there are three sorts of necessities one most absolute as that of the Essence of God the other natural as light in the sun heat in fire the third is a necessity conditional as is that If God foreseeth such or such a thing it shall happen I say it is a necessity of supposition for you presuppose he foresaw it but instantly you learn he foresaw it not but because it should be and that his prescience is no more the cause of our actions than our memory of the taking of Rochel and wars with the Huguenots 4. After this brain-sick band another riseth 3. Squadron of nice ones according to humane prudence which comprehendeth the subtile and more refined wits according to the judgement of the world who suppose all good success proceeds from prudence and humane industry without the helping hand of God They are such as according to the saying Habac. 1. 16. of the Prophet sacrifice to their nets who kiss their hand as an independent worker of great actions who savourly tast all they do like Bears said to lick their paws when they have eaten honey Greek Authours tell us Mercury was bred by the An observation of the Grecians upon the dependence we have from on high Mentem tunc hominibus adimit supera illa mens quae cujuscumque fortunam mutare constituit consilia corrumpit Velleius l. 2. howers to teach us all wisdom and humane eloquence not guided nor supported by the measures of heaven can neither have nourishment nor subsistence There is no one more blind than he who thinks himself clear-sighted in affairs without the prudence of Heaven all succeeds ill with him and he findeth by experience that God begins the change of fortunes by the corruption of counsels The reason thereof is very manifest since we know all created spirits work not but by the dependence they have upon the increated Essence as also that all Intelligencies have so much excellency as they have relation to the first Intelligence which is the Word of God If we consult with our own thoughts and knowledge Weakness of humane wisdom as being near of kin to us we shall find they have three ill properties which is they are heavy timorous and uncertain as heavy they creep on the earth as timorous they glance at all objects and resolve on nothing as uncertain they are perpetually floating There is none but God who raiseth them by his exaltation setleth them by his stability and staieth them by his immutability All they who disunited from the eternal Wisdom Vanity of Politicians without Gods direction think to prosper in governments honours wordly affairs are Icaruses that seek to counterfeit birds with waxen wings the least ray proceeding from the throne of the Lamb will burn them and make their height serve for no other use but to render their falls the more remarkeable If they be lettered Nicephorus Gregoras l. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they shall stead them as forrests do thieves to cover their crimes and if they have dignities they shall be unto them as the golden and silver precipices of the Emperour Heliogabalus which were not devised but to make his ruin the more memorable Doth not the Apostle proclaim aloud with a voice of thunder to the posterity of all Ages I will pull down the wisdom of the wisest according to the Perdam sapientiam sapientum 1. Cor. 1. Adducit Consiliarios in stultum finem judices in stuporem Job 12. 17. world I will rebuke the prudence of the most subtile And did not holy Job repeat the like Oracles upon the dunghill saying God oftentimes giveth success of affairs most shamefull to the most able Counsellours and he reduceth Judges to a certain stupidity of understanding Hath not the experience of Ages shewed so often in the histories of Pharaobs Herods and all such like that there is no greater wisdom in the world than to be an honest man To be Senec. ep 118. Sapere sapientiae usus est sicut oculorum videre 1. Conclusion against those who curse fortune wise is to use wisdom and to make it serve for direction as the eye for sight 5. Let us draw three concusions from these three propositions we have deduced The first whereof shall be never to do like those vulgar abject souls which is to curse and detest our condition and fortune as it were an effect of some false Divinity and not a Divine Providence Remember daily within your self those words Nothing is done one the earth without cause God hath disposed all with weight and measure Nihil in terrá sine causâ