Selected quad for the lemma: war_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
war_n	caesar_n	civil_a	pompey_n	2,660	5	10.9879	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28489	The theatre of the world in the which is discoursed at large the many miseries and frailties incident to mankinde in this mortall life : with a discourse of the excellency and dignity of mankinde, all illustrated and adorned with choice stories taken out of both Christian and heathen authors ... / being a work of that famous French writer, Peter Bovistau Launay, in three distinct books ; formerly translated into Spanish by Baltazar Peres del Castillo ; and now into English by Francis Farrer ...; Theatrum mundi. English	Boaistuau, Pierre, d. 1566.; Farrer, Francis.	1663 (1663)	Wing B3366; ESTC R14872	135,755	330

Man-kinde for the most part is apt to surfeit himself and wish to make his perpetual abode in these and the like superfluous delights and dainties But it will be first convenient that they that do attempt especially Princes to give themselves over to Worldly pleasures or set themseves upon the delights thereof that they well understand the natures of Vices What a vertuous man sure was Saul befor he came to be King of Israel How was he praised and esteemed by the Holy Spirit in the Holy Scripture and was chosen of God for that Royal Dignity and Charge But how soon was the Sun of his Justice Truth and Obedience Eclipsed How Glorious Magnificent and Just was the beginning of the Reign of Solomon What gallant symtomes did he shew of a vertuous King but he no sooner opened the Gates to Royal pleasures delights and pastimes but he fell into the hands of evil Women who rob'd him of his senses riches and religion Of twenty two Kings of Judab onely five or six did persevere in vertue and goodness unto their lives ends And if thou wilt make a diligent search into the lives of the Kings of Israel from Jeroboam the Son of Nebat there were 19 in all there was none of them that Reign'd well or pleased God in their lives and by that means brought their business to an ill period If we consider the estates of the Assyrians Persians Greeks and Egyptians we finde more evil then good amongst them If we consider what were the Roman Emperors having so many flourishing Kingdomes such large and fertile Provinces under their commands we shall finde them all consumed in Vices filled with Cruelties and wrapped up in Uncleanness that it is a horrour to read their infamous lives in the Histories Oh what a magnificent glory was it to see the flourishing estate of the Roman Republick before Sylla and Marius turmoiled and disquieted it before Cat●lme and Catullus troubled it before Julius Caesar and Pompey vexed it with civil wars before Augustus and Marco Antonio endeavoured its destruction before Tiberius and Caligula defamed it and before Nero and Domician corrupted it For although they inriched and inlarged its Territories by adding great and large Kingdomes to its Dominions yet of far more and greater consequence were the vices and ill customes which were introduced with them to the publick detriment for the Riches and Goods they spent and lost but the Vices remained still on foot as absolute Lords of their Common-weal What Memorial is there in Rome now of Romulus that founded it Or of Numa Pemphilio that built the great Capitol or of Anco Maroio that did surround it with Walls or of Brutus that freed it from Tirants of Camilio that put the Gauls or French to flight Do not these examples c. which have been hinted plainly make appear to our view what chance what happiness attend Supream Magistrates and how that Kings and Princes are more subject to the great changes and assaults of Fortune then any other men in the World for very often the thrid of their lives is more in danger to be cut thereby then any private person and that when they think themselves most secure The infamy which doth follow evil Princes their Vices remaining upon Record in Histories is a thing that they should have respect to much more then to the evil reports and back-bitings of evil principled men For the last can onely defame them living but the first which is History tells and makes odious their vicious lives to all following Generations which being well pondered and weighed by Dioclesian and other Emperors considering the troubles which do attend Princes they set at naught their Crowns and Scepters abhorred to live in command and govern where so vanities and troubles were attendants but retired themselves to a Countrey life rather desiring to sequester themselves all their dayes and spend the remainder of their lives in that pleasant and peaceable solitude then to enjoy the utmost of delights and pleasures which at best are but weak deceitful and perishing enjoyments But now it is time we leave the temporal Princes and turn to treat something of Spiritual Lords beginning with them that counts themselves the Heads of the Church of Rome the Popes the Patriarcks of the Greek Church Arch-Bishops and Bishops c. Would not a man think that they are happy and fortunate in this World they enjoy the greatest Dignities in the Earth they gain what they have and sustain it without dint of Sword preserve themselves in it without much danger or labor most Christian Monarchs do reverence and honour them and kiss their feet they abound in Riches and are full of Dignities and Honours although St. Peter and the Apostles whom they represent were true and lively patterns and examples of poverty yet if thou considerest well and lookest to the end of the Tragedy thou wilt not onely not count them happy but thou wilt loose the appetitious desire of wishing to enjoy their great estate or to be Pope Patriarck Arch-Bishop or Bishop but out of a pure charity thou wouldest bewail them for that Pope or Bishops c. that will govern the Church according to the rules lawes and precepts prescribed by God himself must be like a publick Slave or Servant venture his life to save that of others esteem little of his own health to preserve that of his Neighbours He must watch whilest others sleep set Spies and have his Ambushments all the World over never be without care or quiet that a moment of their lives may not pass without profit to the whole that Sathan with his entrapments do not beguile or disturb their Flock And if it be so as Saint John Chrisostome saith in a Commentary of St. Pauls Epistle to the Hebrews that a Curate or Rector of one onely Church is saved with much difficulty by reason of the great charge of Souls that lies upon him What danger doth he run that is in a higher place and is Bishop of a thousand Congregations or more where shall his portion be if he be negligent to see so many thousand souls fed which being well considered and experimented by Pope Adrian a Learned man in his way who was wont to say and that weeping but to his most particular Friends That amongst all estates of the World none seemed to him more miserable or of a more dangerous condition then that in which he was of Pope For although such Dignities have their Foot-Cloaths and Canopies c. of State very rich adorned with Gold and precious Stones so gallant sumptuous and full of pomp that no more cannot be All this Noble provision all this Royall State unto the foot of which no man forsooth must approach but on his Knees is full of sharp Thornes the rich Mantle they wear is loined with Prickles and Cares like sharpest pointed Needles the burthen is so heavy to bear that it makes the back bend and grow crooked even of

little more paper in the further prosecution of the work in proving how there never was nor will be found any Art Science or other thing wherein men have not excelled all other creatures some more then others and that as it hath been granted them from above Now to add somthing to mans Valew Esteem and Reputation I shall not treat of the seven liberall Sciences nor of Mechanick Arts the invention of which we all certainly know was from man Not to be tedious and troublesome I shall onely hint upon some divine particularities which have been experimentally found in men and thereby to demonstrate how farr the power of man exceeds it self and how great is the subtilty of his wit With very much reason we ought to admire the magnanimous spirit of Alexander the Great who in his Child-hood and most tender years hearing a relation of the many great Victories which King Philip his Father had won he wept bitterly and being asked by his Tutor and Favorites the cause of this his so sudden and passionate tears in time of so much Feasting and Rejoycing For grief and vexation saith he that my Father gained so many Battels Conquered so many Cities People and Enemies that there remains little or nothing for me to act or any unconquered adversary against whom I should exercise that fervent desire I have in me of Warlike exployts that I might attain to and gain part of that honour which my Father got What greater Testimony of an Heroyick minde What greater or more true Prognostication of the generosity of Spirit which would possesse or lodge in the breast of this youth when he should come to maturity of years the which was plainly verified afterwards for before he had attained to thirty years of age he had subjected so many nations gained and conquered so many Towns Castles and Cities that finding no resistance or against whom to bend his might He went to the Deserts of Affrica to fight with the bruit Beasts to satisfie that hungry appitite he had of combate and conquest the Historians relate one thing more of him as strange as any we ever heard of That seeing himself peaceable Monarch and absolute Emperor of the World He called to minde the saying of Democritus the Phylosopher that there was many other worlds he for the Conquest and winning of them caused to be brought together an infinite number of Engineirs and Pioniers to dig delve and endeavour to finde and pluck those Worlds out of the bowels of the earth and that all those that they should discover they should reduce them to obedience under his Empire and Command I could here relate the Noble Acts and Exploits of Caesar and Pompey for Caesar setting aside the Famous Victory in the Civill Warrs he is found to have presented and given fifty field Battels and caused the death of a million one hundred ninty and two thousand men Pompey Besides nine hundred and forty ships which he had taken at sea from diverse Pirats He is storied to have gained and Conquered by force of Armes Nine hundred and sixteen Walled Towns from the Alpes to the consines of Cadiz It will not be proper to hide or omit here that immortal Honour and Renown which Marcus Sergius gained after he had lost his Right hand and received at several times twenty three wounds He entred into Battail foure several times with onely his left hand the which being disabled and made uselesse to him He commanded one to be made of Iron having it fixed and cunningly joyned to the stump of his Arme with which he after raised the Seige of Cremona defended Placencia and gained in France twelve Principal Garrisons For brevity sake we will leave the Fame and Renown that men have gained by Armes For it would be tiresome to relate the multitude of examples I could produce to this purpose But le ts proceed to what they have gotten by the Arts that to this day are in great esteem which are Painting Graving Carving and Limning What divine mistery must there needs be in the Art and Fancy of that Famous Painter Zeuxes who drew a Vine with its bunches of Grapes so lively that hanging it out of his window to dry the birds came down to eat of the fruit thinking they had been natural Grapes Apelles Though ten years he was in portraying and finishing of Venus he at last set her forth so exactly and lively That many young men at first sight fell in love with her as if it had been a living woman for which cause the Magistrates commanded him to keep it private that it might not corrupt the dispositions of youth Who can but wonder to hear what Pausanias a Greek Historian writes of an engenious piece made by a cunning workman in Eraclea a Province of Piloponesis it was a Horse of Copper whose Main Taile and limbs were so subtilly and artificially made that all the Horses that saw it raged to come unto it as if it were a live Mare and very many with that furious and often getting up and down broak their Hoofs Knees and eyes slipping on the smooth burnished Mettal and those that once saw it could not be parted from it with swords or staves as if it had been a hot Maire Tell me seriously what secrets or enchantments What hidden Vertue or what secret thing could Art have put into that Horse to deceive the others or how can it force creatures enjoying life to be taken with so much affection towards an inanimate thing that they should love and hazard themselves for it being only a brazen Effigies without soul or sence Plutarch Praising the excellency of man relates that the great Mathematitian Archimedes drew through the chief place of Saragosa in Sicilia with onely one hand and one cord a great Ship laden with Merchandizes and with as much ease as if he had led a horse or mare by the Reins and this he did onely by the Mathematicks the which Leon Baptista who was a great Architeckt and a rare Artist proposed he would easily do if any great Lord would please to be at the Cost thereof What greater wonder of Nature can there be found then that subtill device which Sabor King of Persia ordered to be made of a Glasse the which was of so large an extent that setting himself down in the midst thereof as upon the rotun ditude of Heaven he saw under his feet the rising and setting of the Sun the Moon and all the Planets and Stars So that in this his so pompious a Seat he seemed not to be a mortall man but an immortal God under whose Power and Command that Glorious Starry Cannopy was subject What greater pattern of Divinity can man give especially a powerfull King then to see himself set in appearance over the Sun and the Starrs which really is the proper Throne of God What Divine wit invented that Statue of Mennon which seemed to be miraculous for alwayes at the rising of the Sun