the Cities Towns and Hills thereabouts with their Inhabitants were consumed by the violence thereof which issued out with unconceivable vehemency I could likewise make mention of Thunders and Lightnings and how many Noble Personages have been destroy'd by this sudden and violent Death as Joroastus King of the Bactrians Captain in the Thehan Wars Ajax after the destruction of Troy Anastasius Emperour after the 27th Year of his Empire Carius also and many other Kings and Emperors who have come to an untimely end by this kind of Death CHAP. VIII Of Earth quakes THE Air is so requisite for the Conservation of Man that there is no Creature can live without it and yet nevertheless it 's so pernicious to mankind when it is corrupt and putrified that the most part of the forementioned Pestilences take their first original from it The Earth which is the most sweet and tractable of the Elements being the common Mother and receptacle of us all being born it nourisheth and sustains us and at last takes us into her entrails as in our Couch and keepeth us until our God shall call us to appear before his Tribunal and yet nevertheless she produceth all the venom and poison with which our poor life is continually assaulted and sometimes by her quakings and agitations many Towns have been demolished and many thousands of Men swallowed down into the depth of her Abyss In the Reign of Mithridates the Earth began to be moved with such an impetuosity that there was not only many Cities ruined but there was above a hundred thousand people swallowed up in it In the Reign of Constantine there was such a great number of Cities and their Citizens ruined in Asia that with great difficulty could the Historians number them In the time of Isocrates and Plato the Earth so opened in Europe that two great Cities with all their Inhabitants were in an instant overthrown and ruined There was never since the memory of man read of a more terrible Earthquake than that which was in the time of Tiberius Caesar by which in the space of a night twelve great Cities were swallowed with all their Inhabitants amongst which was Rollonia Ephesus Caesarea Philadelphia and many others Marc. Varro one of the most worthy Authors that have written in Latin saith That in Spain there was a great Town scituated in a Sandy-placc which was so hollowed and digged by the Connies that finally the Inhabitants for sook it for fear of being buried in its Ruins The same Author writes That there was a City in France which was rendred uninhabitable by reason of the great number of Frogs The same happened in Africa by means of the Grashoppers Theophrastus makes mention of a certain Province made desolate by innumerable companies of Worms Pliny makes mention of a Province that borders on the limits of Ethiopia where the Ants and Scorpions and other Vermin have drove into exile the Men that inhabited there The Flies drove away the Magarenses in Greece The Wasps chased the Ephesians Anthenor writeth That great swarms of Bees drove from a City its Inhabitants and made their Nests in their Houses What testimony have we here of Humane frailty what a School and Discipline to learn Man to know himself in what evidence of the Power of God over his Creatures whose Judgments are so terrible and affrightful that as soon as ever Man beginneth to glory and raise himself against his God he knoweth well how to depress him and therefore he sendeth him Heralds and forerunners of his Anger War Famine and Plagues But moreover there 's no Element nor living Creature though never so contemptible which seeketh and worketh not his ruin and who are not as Ministers and Executors of the Divine Justice as is manifest not only by the testimony of Ethnicks but also by the Sacred Writings when the Frogs and Grashoppers abandoned their proper Elements to ascend up even to the Chamber and Bed of obstinate Pharaoh We have hitherto deduced a strange Philosophy of the misery of Man for if he were of Iron or Steel or harder than a Diamond it would be notwithstanding miraculously wonderful how he could last the one half part of his life-time without being shattered and broken seeing the pain anguish travel and Martyrdom which he must every minute endure and yet notwithstanding the many misfortunes wherewith he is continually afflicted he humbleth not himself under the Almighty hand of his Creator which thing being not well understood by Plato and Pliny seeing this great Gulf of misery in which Man is plunged from his Birth even to his Sepulchre they have called Nature Step-dame and cruel Extortioner who causeth Man to pay so much for his Excellency and Dignity But both the one and the other have under the name of Nature unreasonably accused God of cruelty and injustice for all these evils and this Sea of Misery wherewith Man is overwhelmed cometh not from the hatred of God but from the malice and corruption of Man for he equalling himself with his Maker declined and fell from his pristine Nobility defacing in himself the Image of God and imprinting instead thereof the Image of the Devil Arrogancy and Audaciousness is the cause of all the wounds and maledictions which he receiveth for had it not been for Ambition and desire of being great we had been as the Angels we had remained and been now what we shall be in the Resurrection crowned with Glory and Honour Neither is this all but what is worse and far more vexatious are the distempers of our minds they being far more dangerous than those of our bodies for they of the Body shew themselves by signs either by the bad colour of the Visage or by the unequal beating of the Pulse or some other intemperature or signs of disorder and having known them the Remedy is presently sought after but he that is distempered in mind is render'd uncapable of judging of his own Condition so that the Patient knowing not his distemper seeketh not after Remedies and yet is there also a greater abuse of them which have their bodies afflicted for we call them by the names of the Diseases wherewith they are tormented as them who are troubled with Phrensie we call them Phrenetick them who are vexed with the Palsie we call them Paralytick them who labour under Joint-evil we call Gouty But we do quite otherwise in the maladies of the Mind for those who are angry and Cholerick burning in their Passion murthering one another we call them Valiant and Magnanimous and look on them as persons having their Honour in great Recommendation Those who seduce Women and Maidens immersing themselves in Lust and lasciviousness we term them Lovers and persons endued with Kindness Hmility and sweetness of Disposition Those who are Ambitious and do endeavour by all illicite means to make themselves Great and Honourable we call them Noble Gallant and Persons of Noble and active Spirits Them who are Covetous and make
prickles God having driven man out of Paradice he sent him as an exile or banished man and declared to him that the earth should be accursed for his sake and that in the sweat of his brows he should eat of the Fruits of it for it should produce thorns and thistles until he returned to the earth from whence he came And indeed who is it that has had fuller experience of this malediction than the poor Husbandman who many times after he hath laboured sowed and dunged the earth and all the day long spent himself with pain and trouble and endured the parching heat of the Sun and the rigorous severity of the cold and sometimes the biting of Serpents and sweated and tired themselves all the year round in expectation of the Fruits of their labour and straight there cometh tempestuous and unseasonable weather and cuts him off from all his longing expectations and he receives the unwelcome news of the death of his Cattel another the Souldiers whilest he has been occupied in the fields have pillaged his house and carried away whatsoever he has there so that when he returns from his labour instead of being comforted and receiving rest and consolation is met by his Wife and Children with lamentable relations of the spoil of his substance in short the rustick occupation cannot be more fitly compared than to a continual running-sore or ulcer having a perpetual cause of sorrow sometimes of one thing sometimes of another sometimes of too much Rain some times of too much Drought CHAP. VIII The Miserable life of Merchants considered BUT leaving the poor Husbandmen making their complaints Let us seek farther and inquire into the business of Merchants which at first view seemeth exempt and void of Miseries promising some repose upon the account of the Riches wherewith it aboundeth which employment many wise men as Solon Thales Hippocrates and others have exercised which is a great cause of the Amity and Friendship which we have with Forreign Princes transporting to one City what aboundeth in another but we cannot so well disguise the matter but that at first sight almost we may discern with how great disquiet the lives of Merchants are accompanied to how many dangers are they subject and that continually as well by Sea as Land without reckoning that for the most part of time they are as Fugitives and Vagabonds out of their Towns and Countries and are unlike in nothing to banished men but only that their banishment is voluntary because that they would steal ransack and ravish burn and spoil every thing as well by Sea as Land and all for that they might satisfie their covetous desire of gain and are contented to be deprived of the rest and comfort that they might receive from their Wives and Children Lands and Possessions and be every minute in hazard of their lives and all for an unsatiable avarice which torments them without taking notice that the first Sanctuary of their Confraternity is no other thing than to swear forswear cheat and deceive their Neighbour so that scarce any one Trafficking can enrich himself but by fraud and cousenage and they have a common Proverb amongst them That there needs but only turning their backs towards God for two or three years and a little straining their Consciences for to enrich themselves and make up their Fortunes With which also we may reckon many evils and vexations which belong thereunto when they bring Merchandize from other Countries which are not any ways necessary to the life of man hut only for the amusement of women and children as if our nature of it self was not enough infirm and inclinable to dote on fopperies but we must by such fooleries as these whet and stir it up whilest that there is neither Kingdom nor Province which they cheat not by these novelties and the worst is having received an impression of strange manners they communicate them to us with their Merchandize and that 's not all neither for under pretence and colour of Traffick they hold Intelligence and Correspondency with Forreign Princes discover our secrets lend them Money and in the end sell and betray their Country which hath been experienced in France to the great detriment and desolation of many people But letting pass thousands of their frauds which they use as Sophisticating and disguising their Drugs though mens lives are concerned in them yet nevertheless their art depends so much upon 't that they instruct their Factors and Servants in their Minority and to them who can with most cunning falsify forswear lye aequivocate counterfeit the Genuoise Florentine Venetian they will give greater wages And the matter is brought now to that pass that you durst scarcely go out of a Shop after having bid money for a Commodity but returning presently you shall find it changed and another offered to you as the same by these youngsters who make it no matter to engage their souls to the Devil that they may enrich their Masters There is another sort also of Merchants whom we have not as yet taken notice of who set forth their Shops with other mens estates and borrow of one and the other and after that they have by such artifices as these amassed great sums of money turn Bankrupts and fly far enough from their Creditors finding them where they live at their ease on that which they have cheated and defrauded leaving their Creditors oftentimes in such poverty that there has been them so desperate as to hang themselves seeing that they are frustrated of that which they thought as sure as in their own possession Which things being seriously considered by the Athenians they would not permit that Merchants should dwell with other Citizens but ordered them certain places a-part where they exercised their Merchandize There hath been many Ancient Common-Wealths where the Merchants were not received into Dignities and publick Offices nor admitted to the Councel of the Citizens CHAP. IX Of the Miserable life of the Soldier NEXT let us consider the Tragical Life of them which serve in the Wars which is so severe and rigorous that even the brute beasts would have it in horror who lie close and hid in the night in their Holes and Caves but the Soldier he watches always and lodgeth himself at the Sign of the Moon indureth the Rain Wind Hail Snow suffers hunger heat and cold and when he heareth the sorrowful sign of Battel he must resolve with himself either to receive present Death or else to Murder his Neighbour and offereth himself to be killed for five-pence a day But wouldest thou know how piteous and deplorable a Spectacle War is Have you ever seen the Conflict of the Bear with the Lyon or other like furious Beasts what roaring what rage what cruelty they use in tearing and dismembring one another But how much greater cruelty is it when we see Man against Man transformed as it were into brute Beasts exercising their passionate humours against their fellow Creature
themselves Rich in a short time circumventing their Neighbours by a thousand Subtilties and Inventions we call them thristy and good Husbands who manage well their affairs and so of all the others calling those things Vertues which are really Vices making those things worthy of Honour which merit nought else but blame and misprision And now if we would in order pursue the infinite Maldies with which the minds of Men are for the most part at this day tormented as we have done those of the Body What Eloquence what Words are there that can reach it What Majestick Sentences can comprehend it seeing the Age wherein we are is for the most part involved in so many Vices that it seemeth as if all the Vices of the precedent Age were met together in this CHAP. IX Of Avarice LET us begin at Avarice and whoever saw any thing more rooted and setled in the Earth than this is now for what are all the Cities Republicks Provinces and Kingdoms of this World if we could rightly consider them but meer Shops and Magazines of Covetousness This is the time of which the Prophet Isaiah speaks The Earth is full of Gold and Silver there is no end of their Treasure they joyn House to House Field to Field as if they alone would inhabit in the middle of the Earth And out of this pestilent root of Covetousness proceedeth as from a Fountain all the Evils which are disgorged on the whole World from thence is the original of the most part of the War and effusion of Blood wherewith the Earth is bathed From thence spring Murthers Treasons Sacriledges Pillages Usuries Frauds and Perjuries corruption of Judges and perversion of Witnesses from thence proceed Poisonings prolongation of Law-suits with which the Christian Courts are replenished and yet nevertheless this Vice is so frequent and common amongst men that you can scarcely tell any state or condition that is not therewith tainted Judas and Simon Magus planted the first Root which hath since so well encreas'd that there 's scarcely a Province in Christendom which can be said to be free from it In the time when the Gospel was first planted in the World and its Professors were harassed by a continued and uninterrupted persecution then were the indigencies of poor distressed people taken care of and provided for but now in these last and worst times wherein men have fallen into formality and hypocrisie their wants are so far from being relieved that they only serve for Objects whereon to exercise our scorn I am almost ashamed to relate a monstrous History of the Avarice of an Italian Prelate named Angelot who was exalted to the dignity of a Cardinal and was so poisoned with this unhappy venom of Covetousness that when the Groom had at night given Oats to his Horses he came down by a false Door into the Stable alone without light and being there robbed his own Horses of their Provender and continued so to do and that for so Iong a time that at last the Groom perceiving them grow leaner and leaner hid himself one night in the Stable where catching his Gentleman in the very act gave him so many blows with the Fork that he was fain to be carried into his Chamber receiving this Treatment as a worthy recompence of his base and greedy Humour which story would seem fabulous had not Philâ—lphe and Jovian Pontanus in his Book concerning Liberality and many other Authors made mention of it These are the fruits this the profit of these unhappy Riches which are gotten and obtained with so much pain and labour and kept and preserved with so much Solicitude and parted from with such groans and Exclamations The ancient Romans when their Republick was governed by poor people had all the prosperity desirable but through great Riches and Victories obtained by their Predecessors as the destruction of Corinth Achaia Antioch France Italy Egypt and Spain their Empire began to decline for their Victories Prey and Plunder were the corruption of their Manners and of their ancient Government and Discipline and the occasion and original of cruel War for they which could not be brought down and subdued by force of Arms were vanquished and overcome by softness and luxury so that their Riches have taken vengeance on themselves and it has been with them as it is with Cloth which corrupteth and engendreth Moths and as it is with Corn which breedeth worms that eat it which the great King Solomon experimented in himself when he had amassed such great Treasures that his Riches surpassed the Glory of all other Kings of the Earth and who hath made a full experiment of the delights which arise from the enjoyment of the goods of this world and leaveth us his advice and judgment as followeth I made me saith he great Works I builded me Houses I planted me Gardens and Orchards I set Trees of all sorts of fruit I made me Cisterns of Water for the refreshing the Forests of green Trees I got me Men servants and Maid-servants great herds of Cattel greater than any before me in Jerusalem I amassed great quantity of Gold and Silver I got me Men-singers and Women-singers and all the delights of the sons of Men I made my self great yea greater than was any yet before me I denied my self nothing and had all which my heart desired and after all this I began to contemplate all the works which my hands had made and all the labour which I had taken under the Sun and I considered and saw all that I had made and behold it was nothing but vanity and vexation of spirit and that there is nothing lasting under the Sun Let us hearken a little to the Prophet Baruch whom we shall find to be a more sharper reprover of those who are so affectionately given over to their delights and pleasures Where saith he are the Princes and such as rule and have dominion over the Beasts on the Earth they that have their pastime with the Fowls of the air and they that hoarded up Silver and Gold wherein men trust and made no end of ther gettings are they not vanished and gone down to the grave and others come up in their steads they have seen light and dwelt on the Earth but the way of knowledg have they not known But let us leave these Idolaters and their treasures with Aristophanes Patroclus Virgil's Pigmalion the Polymnestor of Propertius and Horace's Midas with the cruel Rich Man mentioned in the Gospel seeing that the spirits of men which are of a Coelestial and Divine Nature have nothing to do with Gold and Silver which is nothing else but but a real excrement of the Earth CHAP. X. Of Envy BUT let us come to another Vice which they call Envy which as Aristippus assures us is of as near kin to the precedent as is the Mother to the Daughter for one begetteth the other How many are there afflicted with this Evil the season is come that the World