a harder matter for him to preserve souls he created than to derive them from nothing He will because he engageth his Eternal word to give us this assurance yea he will because it is manifested to us by the light of nature One cannot believe a God unless he believe him just and it is impossible to think him just without the belief of an immortal soul as S. Clement reasoneth after Clemens 3. Recogn his Master the great S. Peter For what a stupdity is it to imagine this father of spirits who accommodated the most silly creatures with all the conveniencies of nature hath neglected man so far as to afford him a most lively knowledge and a most ardent thirst of immortality which principally appeareth in the most holy and worthy souls to hold a heart in torment never affording it any means to be satisfied since in all nature he never grants any inclination to any creature whatsoever but that he provideth for its accomplishment But which is more into what mind of a Tartarian can this imagination fall that a sovereign Cause most intelligent very good and Omnipotent should be pleased to burn virtue here with a slow fire to tear it among thorns to tie it on wheels afterward to equal the soul of the most virtuous man of the earth with that of murderers Sardanapaluses and Cyclopes Never should these base thoughts take possession of the heart of man if he had not villified his reason with great sins and drowned his soul in the confusion of bodie Put these prophane spirits a little upon the proof of their opinion and let them consider the reasons of Plinie of Lucretius of Panecus and Soranus they are not men who speak but hogs that grunt They tell you the soul is not seen at its passage out of the body as if the corporal eye were made to see a soul spiritual Doth one see the air the winds odours and the sphere of fire which our soul incomparably surpasseth in subtilitie They ask what doth this soul separated Plin. l. 7. c. 55. Vbi cogitatiâ— illi Quomodo visus auditus aut qued sine his bonum Quae deinde sedes Quae malum ista dementia iterari vitam worte where is its sight its hearing pleasure tast touching and what good can it have without the help of sense Spirits dulled with matter which never gave themselves leisure to find out the curious operations of the soul in the understanding and love whereupon it lives of its own wealth They curiously enquire where so many souls may abide as if hell were not big enough to contain all the Atheists Lastly they adde it is to tyrannize over a soul to make it survive after death Who sees not it is the fear they have of God's judgement causeth them to speak in this manner And are not they well worthy of all unhappiness since they so readily become the enemies of an eternal happiness Let us cut off the stream of so many other reasons and say at this present This should teach us to treat with the dead by way of much respect and most tender charity as with the living It should teach us to use our soul as an eternal substance What would it avail us to gain all the world and The care to be had of the soul loose that which God deigned to redeem by his death Let us forsake all these inferiour and frivolous thoughts which nail us to the earth and so basely fasten us to the inordinate care for our bodies Let us manure our soul let us trim it up as a plot fit to receive impressions of the divinity Let us prepare it for the great day of God which must make the separation of a part so divine from these mortal members Let all that die which may yield to death Let the contexture of humours and elements dissolve as weak works of nature But let us regard this victorious spirit which hath escaped the chains of time and laws of death Let us contemn the remainders of an age already so much tainted by corruption Let us enter into this universality of times and into the possession of Diet iste quem tanquam extremum reformidas aeterni natalis est Sen. ep 102. of eternity This day which we apprehend as the last of our life is the first of our felicities It is the birth of another eternal day which must draw aside the curtain and discover to us the secrets of nature It is the day that must produce us to these great and divine lights which we behold with the eye of faith in this vale of tears and miseries It is the day which must put us between the arms of the father after the course of a profuse life turmoyled with such storms and so many disturbances Let us daily dispose us to this passage as to the entrance into our happiness Let us not betray its honour Let us not wither up its glory Let us not deface the character which God hath given it We are at this present in the world as in the belly of nature little infants destitute of air and light which look towards and contemplate the blessed souls What a pleasure is it to go out of a dungeon so dark a prison so streight from such ordures and miseries to enter into those spacious Temples of eternal splendours where our being never shall have end our knowledge admit ignorance nor love suffer change The sixteenth EXAMPLE upon the sixteenth MAXIM Of the return of Souls GOd who boundeth Heaven and limiteth earth ordaineth also its place to each creature suitable to the nature and qualities thereof The body after death is committed to the earth from whence it came and the soul goes to the place appointed it according to its merit or demerit And as it is not lawful for the dead body to forsake the tomb to converse with the living so the soul is not permitted to go out of the lists Gods justice ordained for it to entermeddle in worldly affairs Notwithstanding as the divine power often causeth the resurrection of the dead for the confirmation of our faith so it appointeth sometimes the return of souls for proof of their immortality I would not any wise in this point favour all the shallow imaginations which entitle sottish apprehensions of the mind with the name of visions but it is undoubted there is no Country in the world nor time throughout Ages which hath not afforded some great example of apparition of spirits by known witnesses and the judgements of most eminent Mitte quoque advivus aliquâ—â— ex mortuit Scriptura lestatur De cura pro mortuis c. 15. c. c. 10. Luc 14. personages S. Augustine holds it is a doctrine grounded on Scripture experience and reason which cannot be gain-said without some note of impudence although he much deny that all the dreams we have of the dead are ever their souls which return again Such was the belief of
Emissenus The eternal nights of hell have been visited by the rays of God plaints and clamours ceased direful chains fell off executioners were amazed and the whole habitation condemned to eternal pains shook under the feet of this admirable Conquerour The Prophet pursueth (b) (b) (b) Parata sedes tua c. Elevaverunt flumina c. Mirabiles elationes maris The seat of glory O Saviour was prepared for thee from all eternity and thereinto thou makest a victorious triumphant entry after so great an inundation of sufferings All the waves of persecutions have roared over thy head and have buried thee in the acerbities of death How much the more this sea of passions immeasurably swelled so much the more thou appearedst resplendent in the supream eminency of thy glory and triumphs 6. (b) (b) (b) The sweetness of the repose of Jesus and all the elect in the state of the resurection Transfer your consideration from thence to the effect of our Saviours glorification which consisteth in repose and stability represented by the Angel which appeared at the resurrection sitting on a solid stone This verily is the great day which we may call the mystical Sabbaoth and the eternal repose of Jesus It is said in the mystery of the creation (c) (c) (c) Complevitque Deus die septimo opus suum quod fecerat requievit die septimo ab universo opere quod patrarat benedixit diei septimo sanctificavit illum Genes 2. 1. The relation of the resurrection to the creation that God rested on the seaventh day and casting his eye on all these great works which he drew out of nothing he thereupon took satisfaction in his spirit and impressed them all as with the seal of his approbation To speak according to our understanding it was an incomparable comfort to the heart of the Sovereign Creatour to behold in six days so goodly a world where before that time reigned an huge imaginary vacuum accompanied with a sad horrour of darkness And to consider how a Nothing in the hands of a great work-man was a mighty thing having been as the ground of the greatness beauty of the universe What contentment to see a heaven distended as a Pavilion over all creatures which already circumvolved with so much impetuousness and besides to see it enameled with so great a number of stars in the peaceable silence of the night and in the day to see it enlightened with a sun which is the visible Image of God invisible the eye of the world the heart of nature the treasury of heat light and influences that animate illustrate and quicken all the parts of this great work To see a moon to serve for a sun by night so constant in her in constancy so regular in her increasings and waynings so measured in all her course so effectual and fruitfull in the impressions she maketh on nature To see days and nights return into our hemisphere at a time prefixed to agree as brothers sisters to afford time one to another and to yield it one in winter another in summer with so much integrity that all therein goes in compass To see the order of seasons a delicious spring-tide strewed all over with flourishing beauties a summer with harvests an Autumn with its fruits and a winter which is as the depository of nature dies to live again with the first rays of renovation To see the Sea so spacious in its extents so fertile in its productions so concluded in its limits to see the floud and ebbe of the Ocean the tomb of curiosity the impetuous stream of rivers the eternal veins of fountains the height of mountains the depth of valleys the winding of hillocks the wideness of fields To see so prodigious a quantity of trees herbs flowers so curious in beauty so wholsom in their utility and so divers in their multiplicity To see so many speckled birds flying in the air which they fill with their natural musick so many fishes to swim in the chrystal of waters so strange a variety of beasts armed some with horns some with teeth some with spurs other with saws many with paws And lastly man who contracteth in himself all the draughts and works of the divine hand and epitomizeth the whole world in his perfections and beareth the most animated character of the living God Is it not true that God casting his eye on this had a certain delight therein as the Master of a family when he sees a house which he had long time designed to be raised in one night entirely perfect throughly furnished and in all kinds accommodated with whatsoever concerns necessity and beauty Here raise your thoughts above all that is mortal The joys of the heart of Iesus in the first instant of the resurrection and momentary Imagine with your self the ineffable joy of the heart of Jesus and the profound repose of his spirit when at the first instant of his resurrection he represented unto himself not creatures elements plants and a corruptible world but a world of wisdom understanding love beauty force and felicity A Church which was to take birth from his The goodly world he beheld in his Jdaea's at the day of his resurrection bloud life from his death and spirit from the most subtile spirits of his heart He then saw this Church as a great Temple divided into two parts whereof one made the Quire another the body In the Quire he beheld an infinite number of Angels who chanted a song of triumph in honour of his victories He saw in his idea the number of the elect who should accompany the magnificent legions of Intelligences He saw about him those sacred first-fruits of immortals whom he very lately had taken out of Limbo and himself he beheld in the front of so many clean and purified souls rejoycing to busie the earth in the memory of his triumphs and to make heaven happy by his sweet aspects He beheld himself as in a picture in that manner Ecce equus albus qui sedebat super cum vocabatur fidelis verax In capite ejus diademata multa vestitus erat veste aspersa sanguine c. Apoc. 19. wherein S. John presenteth him in his Apocalyps all laden with crowns clad in a white garment imbroidered with precious drops of his bloud which gave him a lustre a thousand times more honourable than that of diamonds and rubies and after him an infinite number of celestial Courtiers who waited on the triumph of his resurrection He heard acclamations which gave him the title of True and Faithful voices of trumpets of water and thunder which ceased not to resound Alleluja O what a source of joy did then over-flow the breast of God that treasury of chast delights From the Quire he cast his eyes on the body of his great Temple and saw in magnificent idea's all the state of the Church militant which is compared to
As soon as you have received the Sacrament say this prayer of S. Bernard in his Meditations upon the Passion O Heavenly Father look down from thy Sanctuary from the Throne of thy glory upon the blessed sacrifice which our High Priest Jesus thy most innocent and sacred Son doth offer unto thee for the sins of his Brethren Pardon the multitude of our offences and have compassion upon our miseries Hearken to the voice of the bloud of that immaculate Lamb which crieth out to thee and he himself standeth before thee at the right hand of thy Majestie crowned with honour and glory Behold O Lord the face of thy Messias who hath been obedient to thee even unto death and put not his blessed wounds out of thy sight nor the satisfaction he made for our sins out of thy rememberance O let every tongue praise and bless thee in commemoration of thy infinite goodness who didst deliver thy onely Son over to death upon Earth to make him our most prevalent Advocate in Heaven For Petition Immediately after you have recited the Lords Prayer say these words of the aforesaid Liturgie O God be mindfull of all Pastours and faithfull people dwelling in all parts of the habitable world in the union of the Catholick Faith and preserve them in thy holy peace O God bless our most gracious King and his whole Kingdom hear the prayers which we offer up at thy Altar O God remember all those that travel by sea or land and are exposed to so many dreadfull dangers Remember the many poor prisoners and exiles who groan under the miseries of the world O God remember the sick and all such as are in any discomfort of mind Remember the many poor souls opprest with bitterness who implore thy succour Remember also the conversion of so many Hereticks Infidels and sinners whom thou hast created after thine own image O God remember our Friends and Benefactours Accept this sacrifice for us sinners and let us all feel the effects of thy Mercy drive away scandal war and heresie and grant us thy peace and love And at the end of the Communion O God pour down thy graces upon us direct our steps in thy ways strengthen us in thy fear confirm us in thy love and give us at last the inheritance of thy children It is very expedient also to have our devotions ordered for every day of the week The seventeenth SECTION Devotion ordered for the days of the Week WE may derive an excellent practise of Devotion for every day of the Week from the Hymn of S. Ambrose used by the Church For therein we learn to give God thanks for every work of the Creation and to make the greater world correspond with the lesser Sunday which is the day wherein the light was created we should render thanks to God for having produced this temporal light which is the smile of Heaven and joy of the world spreading it like cloth of gold over the face of the air and earth and lighting it as a torch by which we might behold his works Then penetrating further we will give him thanks for having afforded us his Son called by the Fathers The Day-bringer to communicate unto us the great light of faith which is as saith S. Bernard a Copy of Eternity we will humbly beseech him that this light may never be eclipsed in our understandings but may replenish us every day more and more with the knowledge of his blessed will And for this purpose we must hear the word of God and be present at Divine Service with all fervour and purity Take great heed that you stain not this day which God hath set apart for himself with any disorder nor give the first fruits of the week to Dagon which you should offer up at the feet of the Ark of the Covenant Munday which is the day wherein the Firmanent was created to separate the celestial waters from the inferiour and terrestrial we will represent unto our selves that God hath given us Reason as a Firmament to separate divine cogitations from animal and we will pray unto him to mortifie anger and concupiscence in us and to grant us absolute sway over all passions which resist the eternal Law Thesday the day wherein the waters which before covered the whole element of Earth were ranked in their place and the earth appeared to become the dwelling nurse and grave of man we will figure unto our selves the great work of the justification of the world done by the Incarnate Word who took away a great heap of obstacâ—es as well of ignorance as of sin that covered the face of the whole world and made a Church which like a holy Land appears laden with fruit and beauties to raise us up in Faith and to bury us in the hope of the Resurrection We will beseech him to take away all hinderances to our soul so many ignorances sins imperfections fears sorrows cares which detain it as in an abyss and to replenish us with the fruits of justice Wednesday wherein the Sun Moon and Stars were created we will propose unto our selves for object the Beauty and Excellency of the Church of God adorned with the presence of the Saviour of the world as with a Sun and with so many Saints as with Stars of the Firmament and we will humbly beseech God to embellish our soul with light and virtue suitable to its condition Especially to give us the six qualities of the Sun Greatness Beauty Measure Feâ—vour Readiness and Fruitfulness Greatness in the elevation of our mind above all created things and in a capacity of heart which can never be filled with any thing but God Beauty in gifts of grace Measure to limit our passions Fervour in the exercise of charity Readiness in the obedience we ow to his Law Fruitfulness in bringing forth good works Toursday the day wherein God as S. Ambrose saith drew the birds and fishes out of the waters the birds to flie in the air and the fishes to dwell in this lower Element We will imagine the great separation which shall be made at the day of Gods judgement when so vast a number of men extracted from one and the same mass some shall be raised on high to people Heaven and enjoy the sight of God others shall be made a prey to hell and everlasting torments And in this great abyss and horrour of thought we will beseech God to hold us in the number of his elect and to be pleased to mark out our predestination in our good and commendable actions Friday wherein the other creatures were brought forth and man created who was then appointed to them for a King and Governour we will set before us the greatness excellency and beauty of this Man in the Talents which God hath given him as well of grace as of nature How much it cost to make him the hands of the Creatour being employed in his production Hands saith S. Basil which were to him as a
give the world notice of their offering and to conclude were so great self-lovers that they made Epitaphs even upon their dogs specifying their age qualities and conditions These are testimonies of a soul very frivolous and destitute of all Humility The tenth SECTION Of evil Conversation EVil Conversation is the worst of all as is that of the Harsh who make themselves unsociable in company that of the Opinionated who bear for their motto It is so and It is not so ever contradicting even the clearest truths that of the Crafty and Deceitfull who endeavour to discover all the secrets of others whilest they disguise themselves with a mask of dissimulation and intricate speech feigning ignorance of what they know knowledge of what they are ignorant forgetfulness of promise good will to those they would circumvent and many such like That of the Proud who scorn and despise all but themselves That of the Cholerick who are displeased upon every accident That of Scoffers Buffons and Slanderers who are obscene biting and offensive in all occasions It were a long business to examine all these particularly and I had freely unfolded them in a Treatise of Manners and Passion wherein I hoped to give the Reader satisfaction but that the design of this little book diverted me It were to small purpose to make so long a work of it and it is always better to conclude well than to enlarge ill The eleventh SECTION The Conditions of good Conversations I Tell you in brief S. Bernard Thomas Aquinas and other learned men are of opinion that in Conversation we ought to be affable and pleasing yet not too familiar nor inquisitive into other mens business not suspicious not light not riotous not discontented not affected not imperious not cross not exceptious not jeering not freâ—full not triviall not churlish not too ceremonious not too talkative not too soft and compliant not cholerick not too reserved not proud not vain all those through vanity which is onely rich in fooleries discourse perpetually of themselves as if they were deities But we must govern our selves with great discretion and modesty we must play but not debase our selves laugh but not to excess take recreation but not to effeminacy be constant but not obstinate prudent but not crafty simple but not stupid concealing ill furthering good correcting our own faults by those we dislike in others always bringing home some fruit from this garden of Graces and if acquainted with any secret fit to be concealed we must make our breast its tomb You will find there are ordinarily five qualities which make conversation pleasant The first is an obliging way which sweetly scattereth benefits from which in their due time and place spring up recompences This desire of doing good to all the world is a bait we must keep ever in the water for by it men are taken more easily than fishes And such there have been who by giving a glass of water opportunely have obtained a Kingdom as we see in the story of Thaumastus and King Agrippa The second Affability joyned with a grace and sweet behaviour which hath a most powerfull charm over souls naturally enclined to honesty To do good and not to do it handsomely is nothing A benefit given with grudging is a stony loaf onely taken for necessity The third a quick and wary prudence to discern the dispositions capacities manners humours affections and aims of those with whom we converse and to suit our carriage to every mans temper The fourth Humility without sottishness or servile baseness which teacheth to yield to reason and not to presume upon our own strength The fifth whereof we have already spoken is a discreet Patience to bear with men and business unmoved so that you may keep your heart always in a good posture even in unexpected and thorny accidents He that understands this mystery well deserves to command men being here placed by virtue in a degree next the Angels A good rule for conversing well is to propose unto your self for pattern one of a perfect conversation So S. Augustine referred those that desired to profit in virtue to the conversation of S. Paulinus Vade in Campaniam disce Paulinum But the most effectuall precept is to think how the Incarnate Word would converse if he were in our room by his example we shall do as Joseph in Aegypt of whom the Scripture Psal 105. according to the Hebrew phrase saith he tied the Princes of Pharaoh's Court about his heart The Reverend Gontery a man of great Judgement and no less virtue hath written a little Treatise of Conversation wherein he descendeth very far to particulars He that will read it shall find wise instructions in it The twelfth SECTION Conclusion of the Diary AT night before you go to bed you are to make the examen of Conscience which is the little Consistory of the soul as Philo terms it where having given thanks to God and invoked his holy grace you must recall your thoughts your words your actions your faults and neglects to account that you may see the gain the loss and reckonings of that day to further good to correct evil remitting the one to your own discretion and the other to Gods mercy Esteem this saying of S. Bernard in his book of the the Interiour house as an oratle that one of the chiefest mirrours to behold God in is a reasonable soul which finds it self out There we must seat the Conscience in a Throne with a Sceptre in her hand and all passions and imperfections at her feet There she must take the liberty to say to you Wicked servant thou hast lost a day what sluggishness at thy rising what negligence in labour how great words how little works Why this curious questioning this rash judgement these wandering eyes these straying thoughts Should you have been angry for so slight a cause upon such an occasion should you so freely have censured and murmured at the actions of another should you have taken your refection so sensually and sought your ease in and by all things so greedily and so of the rest If by the grace of God you shall find some kind of virtues yet must you well pick and sift them as the perfume which was to be set before the Tabernacle to present them before the face of God and say in conclusion with all humility as the devout Southwell Quod fui Domine ignosce quod sum corrige quod ero dirige O Lord forgive what I have been correct what I am direct what I shall be This done say some vocall prayer to shut the day up happily with some acts of contrition of faith of hope of supplication for your self and friends Say here O Light of the Children of light bright day which hast no evening The world is buried in the darkness of night and this day quite finished wherein I see as in a little Map how my life shall end O God what benefits do I see in it
controversie and urged them to appear the morrow after to offer Incense and to see how God would like their offering The Anti-Priests failed not to be at the door of the Tabernacle with their Censers in their hands to make a combination apart and to oppose the Pontificate of Aaron But the living God that authorises the true High Priests appeared upon the Tabernacle after a terrible and threatning manner The people that invironed the Mutiners suddenly separated themselves at the voyce of Moses the earth opens it self under the feet of Corah Dathan and Abiram to swallow them up alive with their Pavilions and all their riches The others were devoured by fire from heaven visibly with an extream affright of the whole Army and forasmuch as there remained some rebels that mourned for the dead and enflamed the division the hand of God yet smoaking over their heads was ready utterly to destroy them had not Moses prostrated himself before the Tabernacle praying for them and had not Aaron holding the Censer and beseeching the divine Majesty between the living and the dead appeased the wrath of Heaven But the punishment of these miserable men left much terrour in the souls of the people and an example of perpetuall memory to all those that resist the Powers that are lawfully established by God There were Combats at home and abroad for the Amalekites a salvage nation descended from Esau's children endeavoured to beat back the people of God and gave them battell which Moses accepted and making Joshua Generall of the Army contented himself to go to the top of the mountain to pray to the God of the living and to obtein the Victory His prayers were darts of fire shot upon the enemies for as long as he kept his arms lifted up to God in prayer the Israelites had the better but if he slacked them never so little they had the worst which made Hur and Aaron hold up his Arms to prevent a wearinesse in them and by this means he desisted not till such time as the Adversaries covered with their dead bodies all the field of battell Now because this great People would have been but a confused masse had they remained without law and without policy which is the soul of Assemblies Moses was powerfully inspired by God to make laws as well those that concerned Religion as others that regarded the Civil The Philosophers assure us that every thing that lives in Nature lives by the Light and that all life is nothing else but Light which spreads it self into the whole Universe and not content to guild it with its brightnesse communicates to it quickning spirits and secret influences which make all the productions in the bosome of Matter That which the Light doth in the naturall World the Law imitates in the Civill It is a participation of the first Reason of the ordination and Providence Divine which insinuates it self into the masse of Mankind embellishes it with its splendours and unites it in the point of Felicity by invisible chains of love and obedience Gods reason is the sovereign Law which resides in the Divine understanding in the treasures of his Wisdome and is as the Primum Mobile of all the regulated motions of the intellectuall nature Plato sayes That the World following that rule keeps an equall path with all the fitnesse and all the measures requisite to its preservation But as soon as it departs from it it falls of necessity into great disorders which cannot be surmounted but by the Divine ordination that re-calls Nature to the point of its Felicity And because the Eternall Law is so high and so sublime that it surpasses all our thoughts God hath caused a Rivulet to flow from that source which is the Law of Nature a true light of right Reason imprinted in the understanding of all men But it being so often darkened by the black vapours of the animall Passions there was a necessitie of humane Laws and Magistrates to put them in execution by the punishment of the wicked and the recompensing of the good God gave then a strong inspiration to Moses to prescribe Precepts and Rules to his People that have been admired by all Nations The Manichees by the relation of S. Augustine rejected the law of Moses as wicked and tyrannicall but in this they have been condemned by the Church for there is no doubt but that having been given by God that is the Father of all Goodnesse it was good and profitable to keep the Jews as under a Pedigogie till the grace of the Gospel And S. Paul himself in the Epistle to the Romans where he seems to go about to destroy it calls it for all that Holy Just and Good But if ye compare it to the Law of grace ye shall find it harsh and imperfect The Mosaicall Law saith that great Doctour conteins commands but that Jesus gives assistance the one bestows light to know the other strength to execute In the antient Law God sayes Do what I command thee In the new Law we say to God Give what thou commandest Moses divided that antient Law into three parts the first of which conteined the Morall and was included in the Decalogue the Second comprehended what ever belonged to Ceremonies and was called Ceremoniall the third regarded Justice between party and party and was Judiciall The first teaches how a man ought to carry himself with God and his neighbour to obtein salvation The second treats of the Temple of the Synagogue of the High-Priest of the Priests of the Levites of the Prophets of the Votaries Nazarites and Rechabites It deciphers the instruments of Gods worship as are the Tabernacle the Ark of Covenant the Propiciatory the Table of Shew-bread the Altar of the Perfumes and of the Burnt-offerings It prescribes the order of the Sacrifices and of the Sacraments of the divers observations of Vows of Fasts of Feasts of Jubilees of Shavings of Habits The third part speaks of Kings of Warre of Peace of Marriages of Polygamy of Divorce of Crimes of Theft of Usury of Adultery of Policy of Men-servants of Maid-servants of Hirelings of Strangers and of the Poor All this is read yet to this day in the Penteteuc and is sufficiently expounded by so many Interpreters of Scripture It would be an infinite tedious and unprofitable businesse to go about to decipher it here peece-meal Let us content our selves that as the Morning dyes by bringing forth the Day so the Law is expired by producing the light of the Gospel Moses undertook not so great a work by humane strength and trusted not to himself in so high an enterprise God would conduct it with his Authority and caused the People to be commanded to purifie themselves and to stand ready on the third day to hear his will That day being come from the morning were heard great Thunders and abundance of Lightnings seen that issued out of thick Clouds at the sound of an affrightfull Trumpet that seized all
with the excess thereof for fear that good Offices be turned into misprisions and Charity render it self too importunate But so it is that we must confess that Pieces well wrought are never seen in so great a number as to bring any fastidiousness to them who do know their merit Here do I stop my pen and if there appears any worth in this Volume I look upon it as on the Mirrour planted on the wall of a Temple in Arcadia where those that beheld it in stead of their own face saw the representation of the Divinity which they adored Even so in all this which may bring any profit to the Reader I see nothing of my own but I acknowledge the Father of lights who is the Beginning and the End of all which we do make praise-worthy And I beseech him if there be found any thing attractive in these Discourses that He will like the Load-stone draw up the Readers and carry them to the love of their Creatour to whom is due the tribute of all honour as to him who is the Beginning of all Perfection It is indeed the onely consolation which we can receive from our labours For not to dissemble the Truth he that cares more to write than to live flattering his pen and neglecting his conscience shall have work enough to defend himself from the Scurf the Rat and from Oblivion And when in a passionate life he shall carry with him the applauses of the world it shall be as a small sacrifice unto him of smoke abroad to lodge a fire and tempest in his own house It is reported that the Stars contribute their beams to enlighten the Infernals and I can affirm that all the lights of Understanding and Reputation shall serve onely to inflame the torments of a reprobate soul who shall shut his eyes against God to open them onely to let in Vanity In the end after many Editions of the HOLY COURT as I desired here to put the last hand to it I am now retired into the solitary place of Quinpercorentin for the love of the truth where the honesty of the Inhabitants have made me to find it as my Countrey which other men have taken for a place of banishment There on the banks of the Ocean at the feet of a Saint who is the Tutelar of the Village perceiving that God had sweetened to me all the bitterness both of men and of the times by the infusion of his Paternal Consolation I have composed more Treatises both of Doctrine and Piety to render in some sort my silence profitable to the publick of which one day I will give a good account unto my Readers if God shall grant me life Amongst other things I have digested into good order this Work of the HOLY COURT and I have enriched it with a remarkable Augmentation of the Lives and Elogies of the Illustrious Personages at Court as well in the Old as the New Testament Now I do produce it to the light after that by the singular favour of Heaven the obstacles are removed and Truth acknowledged on the Throne of Lights with which God hath round environed it THE TABLE OF THE Chief CONTENTS of the First Tome of the HOLY COURT FIRST BOOK Motives to stir up Persons of quality to Christian Perfection MOTIVE Page THat the Court and Devotion are not incompatible 1 I. Name of Christian. 2 II. Nobilitie 4 III. Eminent Dignitie 5 IV. Riches 8 V. Corporal endowments 9 VI. Endowments of the mind 11 VII Courage 13 VIII Education 15 IX Court a life of penance 17 X. Gratitude 19 XI Example 21 XII Punishment 22 XIII Reward 24 SECOND BOOK Hinderances that worldly ones have in the path of salvation OBSTACLE Page I. WEak faith 26 II. Errour in faith in Religion 30 III. To live according to opinion 37 IV. Inconstancie of manners 39 V. Masked life 41 VI. Ill mannage of time 43 VII Libertie of tongue 45 VIII Curiosity in bearing affronts 47 IX Carnal love 49 X. Superfluous Attire 51 XI Envie 54 XII Ambition and Avarice 56 Conclusion A bad Courtiers life is a perpetual Obstacle to virtue 58 THIRD BOOK Practice of VIRTUES SECTION Page I. DEvotion for Great-ones 60 II. Wherein consisteth all Devotion and Spiritual life 61 Character of the spiritual man ibid. Character of the carnal man ibid. III. First combat of a spiritual man against ignorance 62 IV. Practice of faith ibid. V. Four other lights to disperse ignorance 64 VI. Twelve Maxims of salvation ibid. VII Twelve Maxims of wisdom 66 VIII Practice of Devotion and Prayer 68 IX Necessitie of confession ibid. X. Practice of confession 69 XI Practice of examen of conscience 71 XII Practice of receiving 72 XIII Practice of hearing Mass 74 XIV Practice of meditation 75 XV. Practice of vocal prayer and spiritual reading and frequenting Sermons 77 XVI Second combat of the spiritual man against pusillanimitie 78 XVII Twelve Maxims to vanquish temptations 79 XVIII Remedies against the passions and temptations growing from every vice 81 XIX Shame in well doing 82 XX. Affection towards creatures ibid. XXI Indiscreet affliction of mind and sadness 83 XXII Third combat of the Spiritual man against impurity 85 XXIII Practise of chastity 85 XXIV Practise of temperance 86 XXV Practise of modesty 87 XXVI Practise of prudence and government in conversation ibid. XXVII Against another impurity to wit desire of having and first of poverty of the rich 89 XXVIII Practise of justice ibid. XXIX Practise of thankfulness 90 XXX Practise of charity 91 XXXI The practise of humility and magnanimity 92 XXXII Practise of patience 93 XXXIII Practise of daily actions 94 Instructions for Married XXXIV Misery of marriages ill managed 96 XXXV Evils of marriage grow from disorders therein committed 99 XXXVI Selected instructions for the married 101 XXXVII Instructions for Widdows 102 To Maids XXXVIII Praises of virginity and of the modesty they ought to observe in their carriage 104 To Fathers and Mothers XXXIX Concerning bringing up and instructing children 107 To Children XL. Of piety towards parents 110 The fourth Book treateth of Impiety of Courts and Unhappy Policie page 114 The fifth Book setteth forth Fortunate Pietie page 137 A TABLE OF THE TITLES and SECTIONS contained in the Second Tome of the HOLY COURT THE PRELATE SECT Page I. THat it is convenient the Nobilitie should govern the Church 165 II. That the Nobilitie should not aspire to Ecclesiastical offices but by lawfull ways 167 III. Of the Vocation or calling of a Prelate 168 IV. Virtues requisite in the carriage of a Prelate 169 V. The second virtue of a Prelate which is Fortitude of spirit against Avarice and Riot 170 VI. The third Qualitie of a good Prelate which is purity of life 171 VII The fourth perfection of a Prelate which is observed in Zeal and Charity 172 VIII The fifth excellency of a Prelate which is science and prudence ibid. IX The Motives which noble Prelates have to the duty of their
with lightening flashes transpasseth through the abysses and maketh hell it self confess it hath not darkness enough to shadow it from his face Now so it is that God condemneth reproveth chastiseth with the particular indignation of his heart this plaistered life and therefore as the Lev. 11. 18. The swan and the Ostrich rejected by God Interpreters of the Scripture observe he rejected the swan notwithstanding the whiteness of her feathers and the sweetness of note which is ascribed to her nor would he ever admit her in the number of his victimes because under pure white feathers she hideth a black flesh For the same reason he never would have the Ostrich who hath onely the ostentuous boasts of wings and no flight so much he detesteth apparence fruitless and effectless First or last he will saith holy Job take away Job 18. 19. the mask so that the life of hypocrites shall be as the spiders web in the judgement of God they shall think they have sped well but even to have hidden themselves all shall be resolved into thing to make them appear what they are in a most ignominious nakedness They now are Panthers who have their skins spotted with mirrours that search out secret fountains to wash away the ordures and impressions of their crimes as it is related of this creature But the day of God will come when as the Prophet Waters of Panthers Isaiah 15. Aquae Nimrim siccabuntur Isaiah saith the Panthers waters shall wholly be dried and soaked up that is to say as Ailredus interpreteth it that all the counterfeitings and dissimulations of the world shall find no more water to whiten them We all naturally fear the publication of our vices so sensible we are in the touches of honour Those poor Milesian maids who moved with enraged despair ran to halters and steepie precipices could never be diverted from this fury either by the sweet admonishment of their parents or rigorous menaces of Judges but when by decree the naked bodies of those who had violated the law of nature by this most wicked attempt were cast upon the dung-hill the onely apprehension of nakedness and of the nakedness of a bodie bereaved of sense stayed the course of these execrable frenzies And without speaking of ancient Histories William Bishop of Lions relateth that a certain Damsel painted in an Age when simplicity was in great esteem as she went along in a procession behold by chance an Ape came Trick of an Ape out of a shop who leaped on her shoulders and took off her coif and made a little deformity appear covered under painting and dissimulation whereby she felt herself overwhelmed with dolour and confusion If the small affronts and disgraces which we receive in the world have so much force what will it be then when the Sovereign Judge shall take away the scarf and make a cauterized conscience appear What will it be when with as many torches and burning lights as there then shall be of Angels and of the elect by his side he shall penetrate even to the bottom of a lost soul Where then shall be his plaisterings where his dissimulations and hypocrisies in the abyss of this confusion It is a thing which we rather may meditate on in silence than express in words Upon these considerations resolve with your selves to build your salvation upon the firm rock of truth and not on a vain reputation upon the slippery moving sands of human apparences Imitate that good King father of S. Lewis who bare a scepter made like an obelisk in a ring with this devise Volo solidum Tipotius in Simbol perenne as who should say all his intentions aimed at heaven and eternity Make a determinate purpose as much as possibly you may to avoid in your apparel in your hair in your words in your actions all sorts of affectation of hypocrisie of folly as things base sottish ridiculous August l. 83. quaest Summa divina virtus est neminem decipere ultimum vitium est quemlibet decipere and wicked ever remembering this sentence of S. Augustine A great and divine virtue is to deceive no man The last and most mischievous of all vices is to deceive the whole world The sixth OBSTACLE Ill husbanding of time A Notable fable maketh the spider and the silk-worm A notable fable to speak together telling their fortune in a pretty pleasing manner and greatly replenished with moral instruction The poor spider complaineth she laboureth night and day to make her webs with so much fervour and diligence that she unbowelleth herself pouring forth her substance and strength to accomplish her work yet notwithstanding her endeavour so little prospereth as that after she hath brought this her web to perfection a silly servant comes with a broom and in an instant undoes what she could not produce perhaps scarcely in ten years But if it happen she escape from this persecution which seldom is seen in great mens houses yet all the fruit she may expect from so much toyl is but to take some wretched flie in her web Behold you not herein sufficient cause to bewail her misery The silk-worm quite contrary boasteth herself to be one of the most happy creatures which lives on the face of the earth For saith he I am sought after as if I were a precious diamond I am exported from forreign countries happy is he who best can lodge breed entertain and cherish me men bend all their industrie to serve my easeful repose and commodities If I travel my pain is well bestowed but be it how you will silly spider that you take flies I captivate Kings The greatest Monarchs of the earth are involved in my threeds Queens and great Ladies make of my works the entertainment of their beauties and the Potentates which will not depend upon any are dignified by a little worm The four corners of the earth divide my labours with admiration and not being able to go higher although I reach not to Heaven yet I behold the Altars glitter under the embellishments which issue from my entrails And verily there is great difference between the travel of the spider and pain of the silk-worm The industrie of these two little creatures do naturally figure unto us two sorts of persons whereof the one laboureth for vanity the other for verity All men coming into this life enter thereinto as into a shop of toyl which is as natural to them as flight for birds A great man after Adamus de Sancto Victore A worthy Epitaph Conceptio culpa nasci poena necesse mori he had well considered this sentence of Job caused these words to be inscribed on his tomb well worthy of ponderation that is to say Man entereth into being by the gate of not being as he who is as soon in sin as in nature his birth is a punishment his life a travel and his death a necessity And very well Tertullian observeth that
principally for the benefits received that day In invocation the light of heaven is required to know our sins and amend them In discussion an account is asked of our soul running through the hours of the day of thoughts words works and omissions In petition pardon of our sins is implored In the up-shot of all good purposes are made to correct ones self by the assistance of grace If you think to live in such purity that you may find nothing more to examine it is for want of light or application of mind Know there are six things ever to busie the most perfect in their examen The first to ponder the roots of our defects errours Six things in examen to employ the most perfect imperfections The second to see the remedies which may be given thereunto The third to distinguish true and solid virtues from those which are no other than virtues in apparence The fourth to pick out in all our works the intentions and motives which transport us and what the affections are which at that time govern our soul The fifth to see what wanteth of perfection in good works which we do and how they may be performed with the most accomplishment The sixth to compare our gains our losses our encrease our decrease in matter of virtue A particular examen is made when one undertaketh Particular examen to wrastle with one vice alone and to extirpate one sole imperfection For he that will sometime strike at them in gross resembleth the souldier of Sertorius Plutar. in Sertor who tugged at a horses tayl by strength of arm to pull it quite away Another more wise pulled it off hair after hair and so prevailed The like happeneth in our vices and defects He must pull them away by little threads who will effectually correct them Wherefore one riseth in the morning with a thought not to fall that day into such an imperfection and to oppose it in every place as some enemy which one would vanquish After dinner retiring himself apart he doth three things The first to ask an account of his soul of the relapses which have been made into this imperfection The second to note the number making so many pricks with a pen. The third to purpose to arm himself for the rest of the day After supper the like exercise is made and so one findeth out from day to day from week to week from moneth to moneth what profit is made There is no imperfection so deeply rooted which is not pulled away by the grace of God you remaining in the constancy of such an exercise The twelfth SECTION The practice of Communion ALl those who dispose themselves to a life more Christian know they have not a means more wholesom nor effectual to acquire and preserve the grace of God than the Sacrament of the Altar and for this cause it is fit both often and duely to have access thereunto But a beautiful looking-glass Communion without preparation what it is in a golden frame in the house of a blind man an excellent lute in the chamber of the deaf a goodly diamond in a truss of straw a honey-comb in the throat of a dead lyon what availeth all this The blind man seeth not the deaf heareth not the diamond sparkleth not the honey-comb nourisheth not And what profiteth likewise the blessed Sacrament in a faint languishing and indisposed soul Imagine according to that which the learned Eucharist the foundation of Paradise Rupertus saith that the Blessed Sacrament is the fountain of terrestrial Paradise which watereth the whole Church with its delicious refreshings All the faithful draw from thence but all come Three sorts of hearts not with the same disposition Some bring thither a heart of paper that is to say a childish heart which padleth in the water and no whit profiteth Others a heart like a sive that lets all go through and retaineth nothing but a little moysture The rest a heart of a sponge which is abundantly replenished with the favours and mercies of God If you desire to communicate fruitfully make a present to your celestial spouse who is pleased to feed among lilies of a lilie of six leaves There are six remarkable qualities Lilie with six leaves to communicate which must be had to accomplish this exercise Two before communicating desire and puritie Two in communicating humility and charity Two after communicating thanksgiving and renovation of the inward man by the oath of fidelity You must then endeavour from the eve of the day Desire you are to receive to make a furnace of desires in your heart that so you may say with the Prophet Jeremie I feel in my heart a burning fire which fixeth Jer. 20. Factus est iâ— corde meo quasi ignis exaestuans claususque in ossibus meis defeci ferre non sustinens it self even in my bones and the violence thereof is such that I cannot bear it Let us go to this sacred table as the thirsty Hart to the stream of waters as an hungry creature to a feast as the bridegroom to the wedding a thousand times desired as the covetous to a myne of gold as the conquerer to spoils Is not there matter sufficient to serve as a spur to your desires since there is our beginning our origen our treasure our sovereign good The mother of young Tobie sighing said My son Tob. 10. Omnia simul in te uno habentes non debuimus demittere te all our treasures our riches our honours our contentments our delights were in thy person and therefore we ought never to be separated from thee But it is verily in this subject we have true cause to speak these words All is in the sacred Eucharist the body the bloud the soul the life the humanity the divinity of Greatness of the Eucharist Jesus Christ all that which he hath derived from the Eternal Father all that which he hath taken from our nature he yieldeth us in this blessed Sacrament and doth as the bee who robbeth the flowers of his Masters garden to restore all again in honey All the perfections which our Lord hath conferred on his own Person are seasoned to us in this high and majestical mysterie as in a honey-comb It is an extension of the Incarnation of the Son of God He was once hypostatically united to one sole man but here he is united to all men as oftentimes as they receive him by a visceral transfusion of himself as one should melt one piece of waxe within another as saith S. Cyril And then who would not desire such an union of a Saviour so merciful with a sinner so miserable of a sovereign Physitian with a sick man so remediless of a King so powerful with a vassal so wretched of a Father so benign with a son so refractary May we not well say that they which tast not this celestial viand have their rellishes much dulled with the leeks
the table of constancie speaketh who played on a lute when his leg was cut off with biting saws and burning cauteries without breathing forth one sillie sigh That is not exacted of you but that you use some moderation and above all you have a soul resigned principally in dolours and small maladies which give you leisure enough to re-enter into your self V. Finally to swim in a strong stream you must Heroick acts of patience fortifie your self against all humane accidents as are the hurly-burlies of fortune which in a moment thrust a man down to the bottom of the wheel banishments imprisonments shipwracks loss of goods infamous accusations even of innocency it self crimes calamities death of friends neer kindred fathers mothers brothers children and all that which hath sadness and horrour in nature Out alas what lightenings thunders tempests on all sides What traps what snares O man miserable creature drenched in the water of thy tears which are more familiar to thee than the sea and rivers to fishes where wilt thou save thy self if thou put not thy self Patience the Sanctuary of mortals under the shelter of patience All is replenished with miseries and to be desirous of exemption is a petty apostacie in nature Tribulation is the Kings high-way beaten and tracked with the sacred steps of thy Master and with a countless number of Saints who all of them have made their afflictions the degrees of their glory Behold thy Jesus he is the brazen serpent planted in the wilderness of this world which healeth all the bitings of our impatience Behold patience it is the salt of the Prophet Elizaeus which purifieth the polluted waters and sweetneth all the bitterness of life The thirty third SECTION Practice of dayly actions ALl our virtues are included in our actions and our actions in the hours the hours in the Every day a table of life day and the day in the moneth the moneth in the year and the years in the Ages Every day is Means of perfection a brief table of our life and the means to make ones self perfect quickly is to perform all our daily actions with mature consideration and perfection Behold a portraict the lineaments whereof I have taken from a man endowed with great wisdom religion and in-integrity whom I would willingly name did I not fear to offend his humility able to endure any thing but his own praises I. It is a long time since the sun for your benefit hath dispersed the shadows of the night that you may rejoyce at the sight of the great spectacle of the works of God and yet your curtains are still shut to entertain you in the duskie image of death Get out Motive to pass the day well of your bed and think this goodly star which maketh you begin the carreer of this day will this day run more than ten or twelve millions of leagues And you how many steps I pray will you set forward to draw neer to virtue This indefatigable harbinger is gone forth to score you out the lodging of a tomb so many minutes are so many points deducted of our life Will not you follow the counsel of the Son of God and do well whilst it is day A great night will speedily involve you under it's wings wherein you shall no more have further means to travel II. Take every day as a day in harvest Take it as Day pretious a day of a fare or mart take it as a day wherein you are to labour in the mines of gold take it as a ring which you must engrave adorn and embellish with your actions to be in the evening offered up at the Altar of God III. Represent unto your self a notable consideration of S. Bernard that your actions pass as not passing For every good work you do is a grain of seed for life eternal Say as did Xeuxes that painter so renowned To paint for eternity Aeternitate pingo I paint for eternity IV. Follow the counsel of S. Thomas Do every Counsel of S. Thomas action in the virtue of Jesus Christ desiring to have all the good intentions and affections of the Church militant and triumphant Do it as if thereon depended S. Thom. de moribus divinis the praise of God the good of the whole world all your happiness and as if it were to set a seal on all your works V. Begin from the evening the purpose of good To provide on the evening for the day to come works which you are to perform the next day what points you ought to meditate on what vice you should resist what virtue exercise what affairs you are to handle to make all appear in its proper time with a well matured providence It is the thread of Ariadne which guideth our actions in the great labyrinth of time otherwise all runneth to confusion VI. Have so much curiositie in you as sometime Diligence in the morning to know of what colour the day-break of morning is outstrip the steps of light according to the counsel of the Wiseman to praise God Take good heed lest you imitate that hog Epicurus who boasted he had waxed old without ever beholding the sun rising or setting It is a good custome to rise in the morning but very difficult to perswade women so and all the Antipodes of nature who change day into night and night into day That famous Apollonius held in his time for an Oracle of the world coming very early in the morning to Vespasian's gate and finding him awake conjectured thereupon that he was worthy to command an Empire and said to one who accompanied him Undoubtedly this man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will be Emperour seeing he is so early a stirrer VII All that which you are to dispose the day Three parts of the day unto is divided into three parts Devotion Business Recreation Devotion must carrie the torch and open the door to all our actions VIII Make account at your first awaking to Awaking give all the first fruits of your faculties senses and functions to the divine Majestie Let the memorie presently put it self in mind that it ought to do the work of God Let the understanding cast a consideration upon its Creatour like a flash of lightning Let the will be enkindled with his love Let the heart shoot forth some fiery shafts some desires and some affections wholy celestial Let the mouth and tongue endeavour to pronounce some vocal prayer to the most Holy Trinitie Let the hands figure on the forehead and breast the sign of the Cross since they are lifted up to heaven Let the arms and feet shake off the sluggishness of sleep as S. Peter did the chaines at the voice of the Angel Behold a good beginning how to offer ones self to God The hair was pulled from the victim and put into the fire before it was sacrificed so must you draw away at your awaking those slighteractions
to give beginning to your Sacrifice IX This action should serve as a preparative to another more long and serious devotion which you are to make in your closet when first you come out of your bed If you have so gorgeous garments to put on that necessarily you must bestow some notable time to dress you it is a miserable servitude Observe you not it should be done to render your tribute to God Then cloath your self indifferently Exercise of the morning as much as shall be necessary for comlyness and health Afterward with bowed knees use five things Adoration Thanksgiving Oblation Contrition Five things to be practised and Petition Adoration in adoring God prostrated on the earth resounding like a little string of the worlds great harp and offering to the Creatour this whole universe as a votive-table hanged upon his Altar wholly resigning your self to his will For this act it is very expedient to use the Hymn of the three children in the fornace who called all creatures as by a check-roul to the praises of God Thanksgiving for all benefits in general and particularly for that you have happily passed over this night The Church furnisheth us with an excellent form of thanksgiving in the Hymn Te Deum laudamus Oblation of your faculties sences functions thoughts words works and of all that you are remembering the sentence of S. John Chrysostom That the worst avarice is to defraud God of the oblation of your self Offer to God the Father your memorie to replenish it with profitable and good things as a vessel of election to the Son your understanding to enlighten it with eternal verities to the Holy Ghost your will to heat it with his holy ardours Consign your bodie to the Blessed virgin to preserve it under the seal of puritie Contrition in general for all sins and particularly for some vices and imperfections which most surcharge you with a firm purpose to make war against them and extirpate them with Gods assistance Petition not to offend God mortally nor to fail with grace light and courage to resist those sins to which you are most inclined To practice those virtues which are most necessarie for you To be guided and governed this very day by the providence of God in all that may concern the weal of your soul bodie and things external To participate in all the good works which shall be done in the Christian world To obtain new graces and succours for the necessities of your neighbours whom you then may represent and this by the intercession of Saints wherewith your prayer should be seasoned Spiritual lesson It is then to very good purpose to spend some quarter of an hour at the least in reading some spiritual book imagining it as a letter sent from God to you for direction of your actions X. When you put on your apparel to acknowledge Cloathing your great servitude so to serve with much industry the most abject and brutish part of man To think you garnish a body which even this very day may be a putrified rottenness What time and diligence had Jesabel used in the last day of her life to adorn and deck a body that was trampled under the feet of horses and gnawn by dogs some few hours after Masse must be heard at a due hour in the manner Masse before related and that is a most especial act of devotion XI The second employment of the day is in Affairs the affairs which one mannageth whether it be for the publick or for your own particular in the government of your familie or discharge of some office A good business is a good devotion and nothing is so much to be feared as idleness which is a very antheap of sins He who taketh pains said the ancient Fathers of the desert is tempted but by one devil he that is idle by them all There is no person so noble or eminent that ought not to find out some employment If iron had the reason of understanding it would tell you it better loved to be used by much exercise than to rust and consume in the corner of a house XII In the practise of charges offices affairs to use knowledge conscience dexteritie diligence Knowledge in learning that which is profitable to be known for the discharge of dutie in informing ones self of that which cannot be guessed at in hearing counsel examining and weighing it with mature deliberation Conscience in administering all things with integritie according to laws both divine and humane Dexteritie in doing all things discreetly peaceably with more fruit than noyce In such manner that one shew not anxietie in affairs but like that Prince of whom in ancient time one said That in the most busie occupation he seemed ever to have the greatest vacation Diligence observing occasions well and performing every thing in time and place He that hath never so little spirit and good disposition shall always find wherein to employ himself principally in the works of mercy both spiritual and temporal amongst so many objects of our neighbours miseries XIII Time of repast recreations sports and visits Recreation should be very regular for fear nature be not dissolved in a lazy and bestial life greatly unworthy of a noble heart Away with gluttony play detraction curiosity scoffing babling Let the conversation be as a file to smooth and cleanse the spirit and ever to adapt it to its proper functions XIIII One should not in affairs recreations retirements omit at some times to elevate his heart to God by jaculatory prayers Happy are they who Elevation of heart to God in every hour of the day do make unperceivably some litle retrait in their hearts casting their eye like a lightning-flash upon the hour past and foreseeing the direction of the next Above all after dinner it is fit to reenter into ones self and to see the good order which hath been given for the execution of the mornings good purposes XV. In the evening before you go to bed you Evening are to use examen of conscience Lytanies and other vocal prayers with the preparation of the meditation of the next day happily to shut up the day with acts of contrition faith hope charity prayers for the living and dead Thereupon settle your self to sleep with some good thought to the end according to the Prophet your night may be lightned with the beauties of God If any interruption of sleep happen mark it out with jaculatory prayers and elevations of heart as anciently the Just did who for this cause were called the crickets of the night This doing you shall lead a life replenished with honour repose satisfaction towards your self and shall each day advance one step forward to eternity The marks which amongst others may give you a good hope of your predestination are principally twelve First A lively simple and firm faith 2. Purity of heart which ordinarily is free from grievous sins 3. Tribulation
sought her adding Behold what you love He seized with horrour hastened to hide himself in a Monastery where he remained the rest of his days to expiate his loves O incomparable patience I would go further but she stays me For what can I speak more having said this Is it not enough to shew chastity can do little of it self but that it dissolveth as incense on the burning coals of charity To give away the light of the day the sweetest of all creatures to give up her bloud drop after drop to give her torn eyes so to avoid a sin which faithless souls account but a sport Infinite many pusillanimous people justly chastised for their sins cannot endure the least sting but with complaint and murmur against God they burn but it is as lawrels crackling in the flames but this virgin in the sharpest rigours of a most sensible torment burnt sweetly couragiously silently O what a perfume of the living God is virginity If the smoke of the bodies of the damned and despairing Babylon perpetually mount to Heaven in a sacrifice of vengeance may we not affirm this delicious perfume of virginity will on the other side ascend as a sacrifice of honour whilest there is Religion and Altars men and Angels O women prodigal of a good irrecoverable Ah wretched maids Ah young witless women that give for a momentary delight a treasure for which the Church hath shed so much bloud Ah inexcusable treachery to give to a bold libertine what is taken from Jesus Christ Ah pusillanimity to yield at the first shock by delivering up a gift of God for which so many virgins have persisted under the teeth and paws of Lions under the sharp irons of tyrannical wheels in cauldrons of scalding hot oyl in the tearing out their eye-strings in dislocation of their bones and massacring their bodies yea even to the last breath of life Unhappy victim made a prey to dishonour what wilt thou answer to an Agnes a Tecla a Katharine a Lucie when they shall shew thee their palms their bloud and wounds more bright and radiant than the stars in the skie And what will they say behold what we have suffered for a virtue which thou hast so sleightly valued as to trample it under foot and through a strange prostitution hast thrown into their eyes who required it not O mothers breed your daughters piously and preserve them as pledges charily recommended unto you by Almighty God What a shame what an ignominie nay what a fury to behold maids now adays ill taught bold amongst men as souldiers wanton as leaping kids and impudent as Syrens who hath ever sequestred shamefac'dness from the soul that did not separate modesty from the bodie How can you account a gadding house-wife a dancing reveller an idle wanton to be modest since the strongest chastities have now adays much adoe to defend themselves from calumnie Snares are laid on every side as well upon the mountain as the valley There is not a stone whereon some scorpion sleepeth not Never was the lust of impudent men so enflamed and yet you dally without fear or danger Hearken to the advise of S. Hierom concerning the instruction of maids with which I will conclude this discourse Let a maid who ought to be the Temple of God be so Hierom. ad Laetam instructed that she neither hear nor speak any thing which tendeth not to the fear of God Let not impure speeches approch her ears Let her be ignorant of worldly pleasures Let her tongue in her tender years be seasoned with the praises of Jesus Christ Let her banish young men from her company who have any loose fashion in their behaviour and let the maids themselves who come amongst them be alienated from worldly commerce least having been ill disciples of sensuality they thereby become the worse Mistresses If she also learn to read let her letters be made of box or ivory and be all called by their names that so they may be a recreation for her eyes to serve as instruments for her instruction Let her in good time practice to write and let her tender hand be guided on the paper to trace the letters which are shewed her Let her have some reward for doing well for in this her minority these sleight ornaments prove to be an allurement to virtue Let her have companions for emulation and entertain a generous envie against their praise Let her not be chidden if she be of a heavie spirit but encouraged by the help of commendation Let her take delight to overcome and be as loth to be vanquished Heed must be taken she hate not studie and travel lest the bitterness she may conceive in her infancy spread beyond her most innocent years Let the first letters she begins to call compose some holy names to prepare her memory to piety Let her have a governess grave and modest Let her entertain her companions with serenity of countenance Let her become affable and amiable to all the world Accustom her not to wear pendants in her ears to paint to load her neck and head with pearls Change not the colour of her hair by art nor frizle or crisp her with fire and irons lest it prove a prediction of infernal flames Take heed she be not touched with the hammer which now adays strikes all the world to wit Vanity Let her not drink in the cup of Babylon which is Impurity beware she go not forth with Dinah to see how the maids of the countrey are attired Let her not be a dancer nor gawdy in apparel Poyson is not given but by rubbing the goblet with honey nor doth vice deceive us but under colour and pretext of virtue Above all let her see nothing either in father or mother the imitation whereof may make her guilty Let her be disposed to the reading of good books and never appear in publick without the advise of her mother Let her not entertain some spruce young Amourist to cast wanton glances nor let her bear particular affection towards any of her servants who may whisper in her ear but cause them to speak aloud that all the rest may hear Let her orderly every day offer her devotion to God be very sober in her deportement and delighted with works worthy of her condition Let her be most obedient nor ever so hardy as to see any or undertake ought without their leave who govern her Doing this she shall save her soul and edifie all the world To Fathers and Mothers The thirty ninth SECTION Concerning the education and instruction of their children O What a goodly chain of gold is Charitie which with its many lincks enchaineth the world The more closely it shutteth the more strength it affordeth The more it tieth our hearts the more it fasteneth our felicities The first liberty of a reasonable creature is the thraldom of an honest love wherein fathers and mothers have a great part for their union floweth from the bowels of
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
doctrine is made Theodosius was most studious and well versed in divine and humane learning he oft spent one part of the night in study that he might employ the day in his affairs and that which is an admirable note of infinite sweetness and facility this good Emperour for whom a thousand and a thousand would have thought themselves most happy to pass the night in watching he for fear of interrupting the sleep of any the meanest servant caused by art a marvellous Admirable lamp lamp to be made which perpetually flamed oyl running thereinto by certain little passages or conduits which easily were turned There was no Prelat so learned who admired not his great promptness to repeat by heart all the texts of the Bible and as for the Civil law he was so conversant therein that he caused by his direction that notable book of Imperial Constitutions to be compiled which to this day beareth his name Briefly to shew that Theodosius in his Court yielded nothing at all in perfection to the most austere Hermits Glycas recounteth that a holy Anchoret who had passed fourty years in the horrour of a dreadfull penance as he one day was touched with some sleight imaginations of his own merit God revealed unto him that in those fourty years he had done nothing in the desert in matter of perfection which the Emperour Theodosius had not performed in his Court This put into his heart so sharp a spur to know the Arrival of an holy Hermit and his discourse with Theodosius conscience of the Emperour that he went directly to the Court where he was very courteously received and considering with himself how the Prince was clothed used served honoured he had much ado to understand where this perfection was In the end one day speaking to him apart he conjured him for Gods sake to recount some good works he did Theodosius felt a marvellous strife in his soul in the contention between his humility and obedience Humility sought to hide it self but the obedience he ought to yield to a man who conjured him with so many signs to tell him in the name of God what he did and to testifie a truth prevailed with him After he had bewailed his imperfections he recounted with much modesty his prayers abstinencies alms mortifications of hayr-cloth and such like and then added that being sometimes enforced to be present in the Theaters to wit in sports and pastimes wherein the wisest were spectatours with much liberty he at that time in such manner withdrew his sight that none of those levities entered into his eyes so that amongst so many horse-races shews oftents pomps noise he was ever in a perpetual tranquility The Hermit was so amazed to hear of such mortification of sense and appetite in occasions so moving that away he went no further presuming of himself but singularly edified by the life of the Emperour If then in his retired life onely he equalled the perfection of Anchorites who now may sufficiently value the virtues of a King which necessarily must be shewed in publick after they have been watered with the tears of his prayers and sweetly manured in the solitude of his heart He was so wise and discreet Great virtues that all his actions and words remained perpetually in as just an equality as do the nights and days under the Equinoctial so mild that he not onely desired to save the living but also to raise the dead so mercifull that all the miseries of the poor which came to him went no further than himself so just that he made a golden Age of his Kingdom so much he obliged the Church that it seemed his hands were fatal to overthrow all the monsters of heresie as are the Eunomians Encratites Macedonians Novatians Donatists Nestorians and other such like and how much the more he endeavoured to advance the Kingdom of God in stopping all impiety with incomparable zeal so much the more God who maketh Kings to reign established his scepter causing the Heavenly powers to fight for him and holding the winds and tempests at command in his favour Witness the notable victory he obtained against Roylas who having passed Danubius with all the forces of Scythia and Russia came pouring like a furious torrent upon Constantinople God so stayed this Barbarian in favour of his well-beloved Theodosius that he turned him into ashes with a thunder-stroke and blasted his whole Army by the violence of horrible tempests On the other side Baravanes King of Persia Notable victory breaking the treaty of peace came into the field with innumerable forces to swallow the Eastern Empire associated with Alamondar the Saracen King who drew along with him no less than an hundred thousand men and all this was scattered in an instant a panick terrour being crept into the disorder of this vast Army This is to teach those who make no account of Princes if they be not hot-spurs rash and many times impious what a devout Emperour can do But since there is no beauty in creatures so perfect Defects of the Emperour which is not soyled with some blemish it cannot be denied but that this excellent Prince had as others his defects Among the rest he is blamed not to have used sufficient industry in affairs but to suffer himself through too much facility to fall into the complacence of others humours He sometimes signed dispatches without wel examining them through overmuch confidence in those who were much conversant about him and being of a singular integrity measured all others by himself Pulcheria his sister to correct this negligence resolved Rare act of Pulcheria to correct the hasty precipitation of her brother one day to draw a transaction in formal and express terms by which Theodosius gave and consigned into her hands his wife Eudoxia to use and handle her at her pleasure He without reading the contents of the writing presented unto him according to his custom let his pen run and signed it Pulcheria wisely made use of this her grant for gently leading the Empress into her chamber she there held her as a prisoner The other demanding the reason this transaction was produced signed by the hand of her husband The good Queen knew not what to think and shewed rather a disposition of offence than laughter Notwithstanding her complaints she was held in captivity and Theodosius asking where the Empress his wife was it was answered she was in the Princess his sisters chamber She is in good company saith he but I wonder what tedious business can keep them so long together Go bid her come hither He was so passionately affected that the hours he spent without beholding her seemed years unto him A Gentleman deputed thereto bare this message to Pulcheria She persisting in her game with a serious countenance sendeth word to the Emperour he should not expect her and that she was not at his command Theodosius was amazed at these words and could not imagine
laying aside all humane respects which had hitherto tyed him to Gentilism for considerations of his State he caused a Throne to be prepared in the Palace of Trajan where having sent for the Senate he declared with the eloquence of a Monarch the reasons which had moved him to this alteration of Religion and said SIRS I doubt not but the change of Religion which Notable Oration of Constantine partly drawn out of his acts and Edicts I have made will appear strange to many who blame all that which they cannot understand and will understand nothing but what flatters their presumption All noveltie is odious to those who love the old age of errour Yet I can tell you this is no new Religion which I have imbraced but that which was begun in the purified souls of the golden Age happily finished in our days The first men of the world had verity in bloom we now see the fruit which we may and shall enjoy if we be not ungratefull to our happiness and traiterous to our own conscience Believe me Sirs the world is almost grown out of it's non-age for God hath taken pitie of the ignorance thereof and made it see it was not time any longer to place Dragons and Owls upon Altars nor other Gods accounted as monsters if they would return into the life of men If our Ancestours blinded by mishap have made to be esteemed for Divinities so many criminals for whom our laws do now ordain punishments we are not bound to participate with the crimes of the one nor the errours of the other under pretext of antiquitie I must confess that I from my infancie have had great distrust upon the follies which I saw in the superstition of Gentiles and that which further confirmed me in this opinion was that one day I heard the answer of an Oracle which had long time stood mute and being demanded the cause of this silence answered The Just hindered it from speaking and we found those Just were the Christians who then had power to stop the mouthes of devils Afterward I began to consider those men whom I saw so persecuted and that there was not a corner of the earth that was not ruddie with their bloud yet were they notwithstanding so patient in their persecutions that they had prayers on their lips for those who rent their hearts out of their bodies This then gave me matter of amazement but when I came to think on their Church which flourished among so many storms and encreased under the swords of persecution this seemed to me more than humane yet transported with the torrent of common opinions I still resisted the voice of God which spake in my heart when it opened my eyes and made me once lively apprehend the dreadfull ends of Emperours who had persecuted Christianitie comparing them to the felicitie of my father Constantius of most glorious memorie who had preserved his hands innocent even to death free from any stain of Christian bloud This was sufficiently potent to move a soul which would easily yield to reason but God redoubling his inspirations made me one day behold in the Heavens a prodigie which many saw with me to wit the figure of the Cross composed of most resplendent light which appeared just at the time I was to wage battel against Maxentius I call the living God to witness that I therein read distinctly these words written as with the rays of the Sun IN HOC VINCE And it is a wonder that I deferred still to yield my self up till such time that the Saviour of the world advertised me in a vision to take into my Standards the sign which I had seen in Heaven the day before I instantly obeyed and have seen so prodigious effects succeed in the defeat of Maxentius which you have admired attributing to man that which was a work of the Divinitie I thought then to have discovered what I was but considerations of state which had too much force upon my soul stayed me and have made me walk along hitherto in a life more licentious than I intended I now protest before the face of Heaven and earth that I am a Christian both in heart and profession nor shall any motives ever alter that which I have so constantly resolved on Yet for all this I purpose not to force any man in his Religion leaving for this time belief as free as elements Yet for the charitie I hear towards my good subjects I cannot but wish them as much good as my self Now all my greatest happiness and which I esteem more than my Purple and Diadem is to entertain the knowledge of a living God which hath been revealed to us by his onely Son Jesus Christ the Doctour and Saviour of the world His person is full of miracles his life of wisdom and goodness his doctrine of puritie and if to conquer our pride and expiate our demerits he hath humbled himself to the punishment of the Cross so much therefore the more ought it to be honourable since he hath done for us all that which an incomparable love can do and endured all that which an invinoible patience may suffer I can do no other but love and singularly honour those who are enrolled under his Standard as my brothers in Religion and let it not seem strange to any if heretofore shewing my self very liberal to beautifie and enrich the Temples of Gentilism I now apply my self to build and adorn the Churches I will render what I ow to God and my own conscience nor shall my subjects who are of a Religion different from mine be any way interessed therein desiring to preserve them as persons whom I hope one day to have companions in faith and coheirs in glorie if they adde never so little consent to the lights wherewith the wisdom of God Incarnate hath replenished the world I onely beseech thee O great God on whom all Scepters and Crowns depend since you have united the East and West under my hands you would arrange them under the yoak of your Law which is the knot of Empires and source of felicitie I offer unto you my person mine Arms my Scepter and all mine abilities humbly begging of you to accept my slender service and to give me the assisting wisdom of your Thrones to govern in all honour all justice all peace and amitie the people which you have committed to my charge This Oration was heard by all the world with Admirable change of the world by the Oration and example of the Emperour very great applause in such sort that for the space of two hours the cries of an infinite number were heard who made many acclamations in favour of Christian Religion Fourty times was repeated UNUS DEUS CHRISTIANORUM There is but one God which is the God of the Christians and thirty times was proclaimed LET THOSE WHO DENY CHRIST COME TO NOUGHT and ten times LET THE TEMPLES BE SHUT UP LET THE CHURCHES BE OPENED And fourteen
love not to please any thing so much as their own sensuality and in these loose companies take fire and wind on all sides to the great prejudice of their reputation I leave it my Daughters to the repose of your recollected cogitations to think what Epitaph may be bestowed upon gentlewomen that lead such a life but that they have employed themselves in the customary actions of a beast nay which a beast daily performs better than they with this disparitie that they have been more inventive to season their sin Behold what honest women commonly most condemn in the carriage of the vitious and imperfect which I have abbreviated in few words being unwilling to enlarge any further upon the other imperfections whereof I have no experience having ordinarily so much entertainment with my books and employments that I have no leisure to study on the manners of this sex The fourth SECTION The tenth Order of Women full of Wisdom and Virtue THe young Emperour took great pleasure to hear the Empress his mother speak so freely concerning the nature of women and he prayed her to perform her promise touching the characters which might serve him in the choice he meant to make whereupon she replied The last and most excellent Order of women is that which heretofore was called the order of Bees women truly divine who seem to have been made upon Celestial globes by the hands of Angels so sweet is their nature their virtue so rare and price so unvaluable They are in houses as the sun in his Orb (a) (a) (a) Sicut sol oriens in mundo in altissimis Dei Eccles 26. and he that would equal their worth should he draw out all mettals and precious stones which the earth hideth in its veins would rather find insufficiency in his purpose than want of merit in his object Bees as said an (b) (b) (b) Nihil habet mortale nisi quod moritur apis nullus nisi artifex nascitur Quintil. Ancient having nothing mortal in them but death they perform actions worthy of immortality Bees are labourers from the day of their birth and it seemeth these are framed for the practice of virtues from their cradle Bees have their little wings these meditation and action Those have a sting these a point of vigour which is the instrument of all perfections Those live under a King and these consecrate themselves to the obedience of Laws both divine and humane Those are great enemies of ordure and these live in the delights of chastity Those travel incessantly and lose not a day unless heaven enforce it (c) (c) (c) Nullus cum per coelum licuit â—lio periit dies Plin. l. 1. these are perpetually in the exercise of good works and loose no time but to give it unto God Those never stay upon withered flowers and these set not their hearts upon any fading things which are under the Moon Those have their hives rubbed with bitter herbs to defend them from venemous creatures and these use mortification of flesh against the poison of pleasures Those make themselves counterpoises with certain little stones to flie the better and these make a counter-ballance with humility to soar the higher Those make honey which serves for nourishment and medicine these have ever charity in their hands to cure the wounds and acerbities of the life of the poor succouring their want by their liberalities Those make the Altars to shine by the help of wax which they produce these adorn and enrich all the Church with the travel of their hands or wealth of their Cabinets What would you to be more noble or divine Why then are you amazed if the Scripture (d) (d) (d) Prov. 19. Domus divitiae dantur à parentibus à Domino autem propriè uxor prudens hath said That houses and riches came from parents but a wise and a virtuous wife from the hand of God The fifth SECTION A brief Table of the excellent qualities of a Ladie and first of true Devotion THe Gentle-women that stood round about the Empress expressed much earnestness to know in few words the excellent qualities of a woman truly virtuous and Euphrosina not to frustrate their desire proceeded in these terms A Ladie well accomplished is like a star with five rays which are the five virtues of Devotion Modestie Chastitie Discretion and Charitie (a) (a) (a) These are the qualities which the Scripture giveth her in divers places Devotion formeth the interiour Modestie makes it appear in the exteriour with a requisite comeliness Chastitie perfecteth both the one and the other Discretion applieth it to the direction of others and Charitie crowneth all her actions (b) (b) (b) The first title of a woman which S. Paul observeth in the Epistle to Titus c. 2. when he calleth her by a Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as one would say suitable to holy things A woman without Devotion were she composed as a Pandora and had she all the beauties which the heart can desire and the imaginations feign is a Bee without a sting which will make neither honey nor wax is a savage beast that nature hath lodged in a painted house is a case covered with precious stones to preserve a dung-hill is a Michol who appeared outwardly with a Crown and lived inwardly a slave to her passions is a piece of flesh already half rotten having not so much as one grain of salt in it Corruption will creep into her life disorder into her manners infamie into her reputation and despair into her salvation Devotion is a virtue hereditary to our sex it is the first portion which God hath granted us it is the title which the Church hath given us it is the most eminent mark of our Nobility If we loose this ornament I cannot see why we should pretend to live having renounced the honour of Christianity But to tell you my opinion Devotion being no other thing but a prompt and vigorous affection which disposeth us to all that which concerneth the service of God it seemeth to me that many among us have great illusions in this point and oftentimes court a fantasie thinking to entertain a truth There are of those who by over-much embracing Altars have overthrown them (c) (c) (c) Altaris dum venerantur evertunt S. Zeno hom de patientia and broken the Idol of Dagon to set their own judgement up in the place thereof I have seen very many who have a slight devotion of apish tricks which onely consisteth in a certain light and childish imitation of countenances and gestures having not any solidity in the interiour For my part I imagine when I think upon such apparences of piety without effect that if apes had a little studied our countenances they would much exceed us in Strabo lib. 1. Aelian de animal l. 7. this point For they are great and mischievous imitatours of all they see witness those who washed their
her for love which she cannot have by nature It is a shadow of the goodness of God who ceaseth not to provide for our necessities to love us as his children Hosea 11. Et ego quasi nutritius Ephraim portabam eos in brachiis meis nescierunt quod curarem eos In funiculis Adam traham eos in vinculi◠charitatis Exod. 2. to defend us as the apple of his eye I was said he by his Prophet as the foster-father of my people I bare them all between my arms they never vouchsafing to open their eyes to my protection Yet will I draw them to me by the hands of Adam which are the chains of my charity Behold in Exodus the little Moses who floateth on Nilus in a cradle of reeds the mother for fear of the rigour of men abandoneth him to death the sister followeth him with her eyes to see what will become of him but her weakness could do nothing to warrant him from danger God in the mean space becomes the Pilot of this little bark he conducteth it without sails without rudder without oars he bears it upon the waves he makes it arrive at a good haven He draweth out this infant who was as a victim exposed to make of him a God of Pharaoh one day to drown in the red sea the posterity of those who would have drenched him in Nilus 8 Adde to this immenss goodness justice an inseparable His Justice virtue of the Divinity which seems to oblige God to preserve and direct what he created But it is to judge most abjectly of this divine understanding to say as did Averroes he abused his magnificence and soyled his dignity if he busied himself in the mannage of so many trifles S. Ambrose judged better when he said If God wrong himself in the government Amb. l. 1. offic c. 13. Si injuria est regere multò major injuria fecisse cum aliquid non fecisse nulla sit injustitia non curare quod feceris summa inclementia of the world did he not himself a greater injury in creating it For to do or not to do what one is not obliged unto hath no injustice in it but to abandon a creature after it is produced is a stain of inhumanity And if we regard the justice which appertaineth to the government of men what malignity and prostitution of mind were it to think souls the most caitive having some spark of justice yet God who must be sovereign perfection would suffer the world to be exposed to fortune or delivered over to tyrāny as a prey and a booty without any care of it or inquiry into injustices There is not any Age which could not furnish out a million of proofs against these mischievous beliefs if we would open our eyes to consider them but our distrusts and pusillanimities blind us and alienate us from knowledge of those truths which God reserveth for the most purified souls 9 To conclude the last colume which should settle His Power our faith in the verity of divine government is the magistral power God exerciseth over all the world which he ruleth tempereth and directeth with one sole thought much otherwise than did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist l. de mundo heretofore those practick wits who vanted to animate statues because they by certain engines gave them motion Wretched and blind that we are ever bowed down to the earth perpetualy divested of those great lights of Saints We measure God by the ell of men we cloth him after our fashion and we hold impossible to the Divinity what our understanding cannot comprehend Shall we never say with the Prophet Jeremiah O most strong O onely great and Hier. 32 19. Fortissime magne potens Domine excercituum nomen tibi magnus consilio incomprehensibilis cogitatu cujus oculi aperti sunt super omnes vias filiorum Adam onely potent The God of bosts is thy name Thou art great in thy counsels incomprehensible in thy cogitations and thy eyes are upon all the waies of the children of Adam We daily see upon men who are but worms of the earth so many tokens of Gods power A King speaketh and a hundred thousand swords hasten out of scabbards at the sound of one syllable A master of a family builds and at one silly beck behold so many artificers so many mules and horses some draw materials out of the bottom of quarries others carry them in waggons some make morter and cement others hew stones some raise them aloft others lay them some play the carpenters and others polish marbles There are some who work in iron and others in brass all is done to the liking of one man who is possessed of a little money Do you never consider God as a great King in an army as a great father of a family in a house who by his sovereign power governs all he created not with a toilsome care but an incomparable facility He gave in the begining of the creation an instinct to all Guil. Par. de vnivers 1. p. par 3. c. 14. Nascitur aranea cum lege libro lucern◠living creatures and there is not any so little a spider which comming into the world bringeth not its rules its book its light it is presently instructed in all it should do God speaketh interiourly to all creatures in a double language with a powerfull impression a secret commandement he gives a signal into the world and every one doth his office every one laboureth regularly as in a ship and all things Deus ipse universa sinu perfectae magnitudinis potestatis includit intentus sempe operi suo vadens per omnia movens cuncta vivificans universa Tertul. l. de Trin. c. 2. agree to this great harmony of heaven The little Nightingal in the forrests makes an Organ of her throat sometimes breaking her notes into warbles sometime stretching them out at length The Swallow is busie in her masonrie the Bee toileth all the day in her innocent thefts the Spider furnisheth out the long train of her webs and makes more curious works with her feet than the most skilfull women can weave with their hands Fishes play their parts under the water beasts of service labour in their duty small grains of seed though dead and rotten give life to great trees which advance to the clouds There is nothing idle in all nature nothing disobedient but men and divels who employ their liberty to resist him whose power is as just as it is eternal 10 Let us then concluding this discourse adore the divine Providence which holdeth the helm of the universe Let us behold it as a watch-tower furnished with a thousand fires that abundantly enlighten this Ocean whereon we sail Let us behold it as a burning pillar in the wilderness of this life Let us behold it as our pole-star and never loose sight of it It is our support our sweetness our
Deum pro cujus spiritu postules pro quâ oblationes annuas reddas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gifts for ransom of the soul answerable to what Tertullian writeth that it was the custom of the ancient Church to pray for the souls of the dead yea and to make annual offerings for them We must no longer say for evasion it is Plato it is Quintilian who speaketh but confess with Aristotle when we see an universal agreement in a proposition it is not one man speaks but the mouth of heaven which uttereth this verity When S. James telleth us God must be feared and proves it by example of the divels themselves he saith not we must fear God because Daemones credunt contremiscunt the divels do so but if any despise him he is therein worse than divels Likewise when the holy Fathers produce an example of Pagans it is not to instruct us by the Pagans but to shew that to waver in the belief of things they generally held by the sentence of nature is to be worse than a Pagan 3. I say for the second argument that so often as Second proof drawn from the light of faith Vnde haec quia ita facienda sunt disputare insolentissimae insania est a truth is proved to Catholicks by the universal consent of the Church and of all Ages if any one chance to make doubt of it it is an evident sign either that he hath a giddy spirit or is malicious in religion This proposition is grounded upon the axiom of S. Augustine who in his Epistle written to Januarius assureth us that when we find the tracks of a custom generally observed throughout the whole Church it is evident that it cometh from the Apostles or those to whom God hath given full Authority in the Church and that to go about to bely or question it is to pass from folly to insolency Now so it is the truth of purgatorie is established by the opinion practice sentence and decisions of all the Church in such sort that there is not any verity of our faith more fortified How is that Begin with our France Behold the Councel of Chalons upon Saone for prayers for the dead and the truth of purgatorie Go into Spain behold that of Braga into Germany behold that of Wormes into Italy behold the sixth Councel held at Rome under Pope Symmachus into Greece behold a number of Synods collected by Martius into Affrick behold the third of Carthage Lastly behold the three Oecumenical of Lateran Florence and Trent which say the same Doth not this suffice to establish a truth in the wit of a man who hath never so little understanding Our adversaries who still bark against this verity as dogs at the moons brightness when they have said Jesus made purgation of sins and that it was said to the good thief thou shalt to day be with me in Paradise or produced some other frivolous objections have shewed all their ability I leave you a little to ponder the goodly consequences Jesus purged sins there is then no purgatorie Should not we have cause to say in the same fashion Jesus prayed for remission of our sins then we no longer stand in need of prayer or pennance and in vain is that S. Luke saith that Jesus must suffer and Luc. 24. 47. that pennance was preached in his name As the prayers of our Saviour destroy not our prayers so his satisfaction overthroweth not ours He prayed that we might pray he satisfied to give strength and merit to our satisfaction which would be dead and unprofitable were they not quickened by his bloud To what purpose is it to say the good thief went directly to Paradise without feeling purgatorie As if we should say it was necessarie for all the world to pass that way Make your self a great Saint and you shall have nothing to do with it Purge all your sins by a love so fervent that the purifying flames may not find any thing to cleanse He who hath payed ows nothing and who hath satisfied in this world shall find unrestrained freedom in the other But think you in a life which contracteth so many stains a soul may be raised in an instant above the celestial orbs to the sight of God before it have passed by those purgations which the Divine justice ordaineth to every one according to his demerits Endeavour is used to deafen your ears with piety wranglings and unprofitable disputations to make you believe purgatory is an invention of interessed Priests it seems this doctrine came into the world but within these two dayes But read the Scripture and see the Fathers who interpret it you shall find proofs to fall upon you like a cloud for confirmation of this verity When S. Paul in the first to the Corinthians third Chapter said that the day of God to wit the day of judgement be it general or particular shall be manifested by fire which shall put every ones works upon trial and that he who upon the foundations of Jesus Basil in Isa c. 1. Non exterminium minatur sed purgationem innuit Ambros Hic ostendit paenas ignis passurum shall build with wood straw or hay to wit with vain and sleight works shall be saved as by fire he clearly declared the doctrine of purgatorie unless you be more illuminated than S. Basil and S. Ambrose who have judged it so for the first saith he threateneth the soul not with destruction but purgation and the other plainly expresseth he speaks of the pains of fire which God hath appointed to purify souls And it is a poor resistance to object he said as by fire and not by fire For it is a manner of expression in Scripture which nothing diminisheth the reality of things otherwise we should say when S. John wrote in the first Chapter of his Gospel that men saw Jesus as the onely Son of God that he were onely a figure of it not a truth And when S. Paul to the Philippians second Chapter witnesseth he was found as a man we might infer he were not man See you not how these silly curiosities of words directly invade the truth When S. Matthew in the twelfth Chapter makes mention of one sin which shall never be remitted either in this world or in the other S. Bernard in his three-score sixth homily upon the Canticles mainly insisteth upon this passage and takes it as an infallible proof of our doctrine When the Evangelist himself toucheth the discourse of the prisonner which shall be put into a place from whence be shall not come until he have paid the last penny Saint Cyprian Cyprian l. 4. ep 2. says plainly It is one thing to be a long time purged for sins by the torment of fire another by the purgation which is made by the passion of Jesus Christ When in the same Authour it is spoken of divers punishments of choller handled in the fift Chapter S. Augustine in
believe them Wert not thou mad Cruel ambition thou hast given me the stroke of death Disastrous riches you have forged gyves which now fetter me Loves pettie vipers of inhumane hearts you ceased not to breath and enkindle sparks which made these fires for me Wicked companies charming companies traiterous companies you were the chains of my ruin O why was not the womb of my Mother that served for the first bed of my conception the Sepulcher of my birth O why the stars which predominated at my coming into the world in lieu of their benign aspects threw they not darts of poyson against me Why did not the earth swallow me in my Cradle Must I live one sole moment to live an enemy of God eternally O God what an abyss is thy judgement Let us draw let us draw aside the curtain of silence thy spirit can no longer endure me nor my pen maintain the conceptions of my heart 6. It seems enough is said to shew the horrour of mortal sin which alone is the cause and procurer of Hell Think serously on all I have said and all I have omitted and if you desire to eschew the unhappiness of a reasonable creature which I have expressed observe I pray perpetually and inviolably these things which I would if I might inscribe on your hearts in unremoveable characters The first is that you must diligently seek to fore-arm your selves against a certain liberty of heart which neither feareth sin hell nor evils of the other life liberty of heart which swayeth now adays throughout the world of which Sathan makes use to blunt the darts of heaven and all the incitements to the fear of God as being the true way of athiesm and an undoubted note of damnation But contrariewise frame unto your self a conscience termed timorous a conscience filially and lovingly fearfull which layeth hold without scruple and disturbance even of the least offences and imperfections Fear is the mother of safety and the means Nemo saepius opprimitur quà m qui nihil timet frequentissimum calamitatis initium securitas Velleius not to fear hell at all is to fear it always In the second place you must effectualy apprehend frequent relapse into mortal sins which is the second note of reprobation For when a creature suddenly returneth into enormous sins and playeth as between Paradise and hell it is a sign he harboureth in this evil heart a plain contempt of God and an eternal root of sin the sprout whereof is an everlasting punishment In the third place you must still live in the state wherein you would die and often to call your soul to an account of your actions Ah my soul If you were at this present instant to dislodge out of this world are you in a state to be presented before the inevitable throne of the Sovereign Judge Have you not some touch of mortal sin Is there not some restitution to make some satisfaction not accomplished Rests there not in your heart some blemish of evil company worldly love which slackeneth your purposes Let us break let us break these chains there is neither pleasure money nor honour can hold You must seek salvation and say O God of mercy O most mild Saviour I embrace thy Altars and implore thy clemencie deliver my poor soul from the snares of Sathan and eternal death at the great day when heaven and earth shall flie before thy Justice I am neither greater than David nor more holy than S. Paul not to think of Hell All my members quake and bloud waxeth cold in my veins when I reflect on it O Jesus O love of eternal mountains deliver not a soul over to this infernal beast which will have no lips but to praise and confess thee eyes but to behold thee feet but to run after thy commandments nor hands but eternally to serve thee The eighteenth EXAMPLE upon the eighteenth MAXIM Of Judgement and of the pains of Hell ALl affairs of the World end in one great affair of the other life which is that of the judgement God will give upon our soul at its passage out of the body A heart which hath no apprehension thereof unless it have some extraordinarie revelation of its glorie is faithless or stupid to extremity The simple idea's of this day make the most confident to quake not so much as pictures but have given matter of fear and if some sparks of knowledge touching that which passeth at the tribunal of God come unto us it ever produceth good effects in souls which had some disposition to pietie Curopalates relateth that whilest Theodora possessed Curopalates Scilizza the Empire of Constantinople with her son who was yet in minoritie one named Methodius an excellent Painter an Italian by Nation and religious by profession went to the Court of the Bulgarian King named Bogoris where he was entertained with much favour This Prince was yet a Pagan and though trial had been made to convert him to faith it succeeded not because his mind employed on pleasures and worldly affairs gave very little access to reason He was excessively pleased with hunting and as some delight in pictures to behold what they love so he appointed Methodius to paint an excellent piece of hunting in a Palace which he newly had built and not to forget to pencil forth some hydeous monsters and frightful shapes The Painter seeing he had a fair occasion to take his opportunity for the conversion of this infidel instead of painting an hunting-piece for him made an exquisite table of the day of judgement There upon one part was to be seen heaven in mourning on the other the earth on fire the Sea in bloud the throne of God hanging in the clouds environed with infinite store of legions of Angels with countless numbers of men raised again fearfully expecting the decree of their happiness or latest misery Below were the devils in divers shapes of hydeous monsters all ready to execute strange punishments upon souls abandoned to their furie The abyss of Hell was open and threw forth many flames with vapours able to cover heaven and infect the earth This draught being in hand the Painter still held the King in expectation saying he wrought an excellent picture for him and which perhaps might be the last master-piece of his hand In the end the day assigned being come he drew aside the curtain and shewed his work It is said the King at first stood some while pensive not being able to wonder enough at this sight Then turning towards Methodius what is this said he The religious man took occasion thereupon to tell him of the judgements of God of punishments and rewards in the other life wherewith he was so moved that in a short time he yielded himself to God by a happy conversion If draughts and colours have this effect what do not visions and undoubted revelations which were communicated to many Saints concerning affairs of the other life Every one knows the
a stable foot to receive it willingly with a spirit infinitely peacefull afterward to be fortified by Sacraments of the Church with most exemplar devotion and having given the last adieus to his good subjects to go out of the world and all glorious honours as joyfull as from a prison But God with drew this stroke when life held but by a slender threed and heard the many prayers made throughout all France He restored you to life at the same time he had given it you He setled the pillars of this State which then tottered over our heads He raised our joys again which were faded and gave us that we would not loose to gain the whole world It is SIR to tell you you must perform all God requireth at your sacred hands and so to profit in sanctitie that the earth may one day give you in reward of piety the Altars you have raised to Heaven by the valour of your arms To the King of all Ages Immortal and Invisible to GOD alone be given honour and glory for ever and ever THE CHRISTIAN DIARY THE AUTHOURS DESIGN OF the practice of Virtues I have already spoken in my Book of the HOLY COURT This is a small Pattern thereof in every days action It should employ your heart rather than your eyes or hand It is short to read but if you practice it you will in one day find years and ages of felicitie Indeed we have at this present many spiritual Books which eccho one another This Age is as fruitfull in words as barren in works Enclining to speak much to do nothing evapourating the best part of wit by pen or tongue Nevertheless in matters of Devotion it is apparent that a man cannot say too much that which he can never do enough and that in so great a penurie of worthy acts we should not be sparing of good words I present you with this short Treatise carry it in your hand as the clock which a great Prince wore in a Ring it striketh every hour of the day and agreeth with Reason as true dials with the Sun If you read it with attention you will find it great in its littleness rich in its povertie and large in its brevitie Great books make men sometimes more learned seldom more innocent This reduceth wisdom to practice and prosperity to devotion By often reading it and doing what it directeth you shall know what it is for it hath no other character of its worth than that of your virtues THE CHRISTIAN DIARY The First PART The first SECTION The Importance of well ordering every Action of the day A Wise Hermit as Pelagius a Greek Authour relates being demanded if the way to perfection were very long said That the Virtues accompany one another and if a man would himself he might in one day attain to a proportionable measure of Divinitie Indeed our Virtues are all conjoyned in our Actions our Actions in the Hours the Hours in the Day the Days in the Moneth the Moneths in the Year and the Years in the Ages Every day is a little map of our life and the way to be soon perfect is to use much consideration and perfection in the performance of every days action See here a draught thereof the lineaments of which I have taken in part from one endued with much wisdom religion integrity whom I would willingly name did I not fear to offend his humility which can suffer all things but his own praises The second SECTION At Waking THe Sun hath long since for your benefit chased away the shades of night to delight you with the sight of the wonderfull works of God and your curtains are yet undrawn to entertain you with a shadow of death Arise out of bed and consider that this great star which makes you begin the course of this day must this day run about ten or twelve millions of leagues and you how many steps will you proceed towards virtue This unwearied Harbinger is gone to take you up a lodging in the grave Each minute is so much deducted from your life Will you not follow the counsel of the Son of God and work while it is day A long night will shortly cover you with its wings in which you will not have the power to work Suppose every day a day in Harvest suppose it a Market-day suppose it a day wherein you are to work in a golden Mine suppose it a ring which you are to engrave and ennammel with your actions to be at night presented on Gods Altar Set before you the excellent consideration of S. Bernard That your actions in passing pass not away for every good work is a grain of seed for eternal life Say with the famous Painter Xeuxes Aeternitati pingo I paint for eternity Follow the counsel of Thomas Aquinas Do every action in the name of Jesus Christ desiring to have the approbation and good affections of all the Church Militant and Triumphant Do it as if the glory of God the welfare of all the world and your whole salvation depended on it and as if that were to set the seal to all your works Contrive over night the good works you are to do the next day on what points you are to meditate what sin you are to vanquish what virtue you are to practice what business you are to do that with a well-digested foresight you may give birth to every thing in its own time This is Ariadnes clew which guides our actions in the great labyrinth of Time without which all would go to confusion Be curious sometimes to know of what colour the dawning of the day is prevent the light as the Wiseman adviseth to praise God Take heed of imitating that Epicurean swine who boasted that he had grown old without seeing the Sun either rise or set It is a good custom to rise betimes but hardly perswaded to Ladies and those Antipodes to Nature who change the night into day and the day into night The famous Apollonius being very early at Vespasian's gate and finding him stirring from thence conjectured that he was worthy to govern an Empire and said to his companion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This man surely will be Emperour he is so early That unto which you are to dispose the day may be divided into four parts Devotion Practice of Virtues Business and Recreation Devotion should bear the light and open the door to all our actions As soon as you awake make an account you are to give the first fruits of your reason your sense and faculties to the Divine Majesty Let the Memory immediately call to mind that the works of God must be done Let the Understanding cast an ejaculation upon its Creatour like a flash of lightening Let the Will enflame it self with love of him Let the Heart let flie the burning shafts of desires and celestial affections Let the Mouth and Tongue labour to pronounce some vocal prayer to the most blessed Trinitie Let the Hands lift
on thy part what ingratitudes on mine Preserve me in what is thine and wash away with the precious bloud of thy Son what is mine Shelter me under the wings of thy protection from so many shadows apparitions and snares of the father of darkness and grant that though sleep close my eys yet my heart may never be shut to thy love Lastly fall asleep upon some good thought that your night as the Prophet saith may be enlightened with the delights of God and if you chance to have any interruption of sleep supply it with ejaculatory prayers and elevations of heart as the just did of old called for this reason The crickets of the night Thus shall you lead a life full of honour quiet and satisfaction to your self and shall make every day a step to Eternity The marks which may amongst others give you good hope of your predestination are eleven principall 1. Faith lively simple and firm 2. Purity of life exempt ordinarily from grievous sins 3. Tribulation 4. Clemency and mercy 5. Poverty of spirit disengaged from the earth 6. Humility 7. Charity to your neighbour 8. Frequentation of the blessed Sacrament 9. Affection to the word of God 10. Resignation of your own mind to the will of your Sovereign Lord. 11. Some remarkable act of virtue which you have upon occasion exercised You will find this Diary little in volume but great in virtue if relishing it well you begin to put it in practice It contains many things worthy to be meditated at leisure for they are grave and wise precepts choisely extracted out of the moral doctrine of the Fathers Though they seem short they cost not the less pains Remember that famous Artist Myrmecides employed more time to make a Bee than an unskilfull workman to build a house EJACULATIONS FOR THE DIARY In the Morning MY voice shalt thou hear in the morning O Lord In the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee and will look up Psal 5. 3. Thou shalt make thy face to shine upon me and all the beasts of the forest shall gather themselves together and lay them down in their dens Psal 184. 22. My dayes are like the dayes of an hireling Untill the day break and the shadows flie away Job 7. 1. Cant. 4. 6. Beginning a good work In the volume of the book it is written of me I delight to do thy will O my God yea thy Law is within my heart Psal 40. 7. 8. In good Inspirations The Lord God hath opened mine ear and I was not rebellious neither turned away back Isaiah 50. 5. At Church How amiable are thy Tabernacles O Lord of hosts Psal 84. 1. Before reading Speak Lord for thy servant heareth 1 Samuel 3. 9. Speaking My heart is inditing a good matter I speak of the things which I have made touching the King Psal 45. 1. Eating Thou openest thine hand and satisfiest the desire of every living thing Psal 145. In Prosperity If I do not remember thee let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth If I prefer not thee above my chief joy Psal 137. 6. Adversity The Lord killeth and maketh alive 1 Sam. 2. 6. Shall we receive good at the hand of God and shall we not receive evil Job 2. 10. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glorie Luke 24. 26. Troubles Surely man walketh in a vain shew surely they are disquieted in vain Psal 39. 6. Calumnies If I pleased men I should not be the servant of Christ Gal. 1. 10. Praises Not unto us O Lord not unto us but unto thy Name give glorie Psal 115. 1. Against vain hope As a dream when one awaketh so O Lord when thou awakest thou shalt despise their image Psalm 73. 20. Pride Whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased Luke 14. 11. Covetousness It is more blessed to give than to receive Acts 20. 35. Luxury Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ 1. Cor. 6. 15. Envy He that loveth not his brother abideth in death 1 John 3. 14. Gluttony The Kingdom of God is not meat and drink Rom. 14. 17. Anger Learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart Matth. 11. 29. Sloth Cursed be he that doth the work of the Lord negligently Jer. 48. 10. Rules of Faith God cannot be known but by himself What is to be understood of God is to be learned by God Hilar lib. 5. de Trin. God doth not call us to the blessed life by hard questions In simplicity must we seek him in piety profess him Idem lib. 10. Remove not the ancient bounds which thy fathers have set Prov. 22. 28. Many are the reasons which justly hold me in the bosom of the Catholick Church Consent of people and nations Authority begun by miracles nourished by hope encreased by charity confirmed by antiquity August lib. De utilitate credendi To dispute against that which the universal Church doth maintenance is insolent madness Idem Epist 118. Let us follow universality antiquity consent Let us hold that which is believed every where always by all Vincentius Lyrinensis De profanis vocum novitatibus Acts of Faith Lord I believe help thou mine unbelief Marc. 9. 24. I know that my Redeemer liveth c. Job 19. 25. Hope Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me Psal 24. 4. I will be with him in trouble I will deliver him and honour him Psal 90. 15. Charity Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee My flesh and my heart faileth but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever Psal 73. 25 26. Feed me O Lord thy suppliant with the continual influence of thy Divinity This I request this I desire that vehement love may throughly pierce me fill me and change me into it self Blosius PRAYERS for all Persons and occasions For the Church WE beseech thee O Lord graciously to accept the prayers of thy Church that she being delivered from all adversitie and errour may serve thee in safety and freedom through Jesus Christ our Lord. For the King WE beseech thee O Lord that thy servant CHARLS by thy gracious appointment our King and Governour may be enriched with all encrease of virtue whereby he may be able to eschew evil and to follow Thee the Way the Truth and the Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. For a Friend ALmighty and ever-living Lord God have mercy upon thy servant N. and direct him by thy goodness into the way of eternall salvation that through thy grace he may desire those things which please thee and with his whole endeavour perform the same through Jesus Christ our Lord. For Peace O God from whom all holy desires all good counsels and all just works do proceed give unto us thy servants that peace which the world cannot give that both our hearts may be set
honour of God and the reverence of sacred things shall not accompany all your pretences For if you ground your piety upon any temporal respects you resemble that people which believes the highest mountains do support the skies 2. There are no sins which God doth punish more rigorously nor speedily than those which are committed against devotion and piety He doth not here take up the scourge against naughty Judges usurers and unchaste persons because the Church is to find remedy against all faults which happen in the life of man But if a man commit a sin against Gods Altar the remedy grows desperate King Ozias felt a leoprofie rise upon his face at the instant when he made the sume rise from the censor which he usurped from the high Priests Ely the chief Priest was buried in the ruins of his own house for the sacriledge of his children without any consideration of those long services which he had performed at the Tabernacle Keep your self from simonies from irreverence in Churches and from abusing Sacraments He can have no excuse which makes his Judge a witness 3. Jesus was violently moved by the zeal which he bare to the house of his heavenly Father But many wicked rich men limit their zeal onely to their own families They build great Palaces upon the peoples bloud and they nothing care though all the world be in a storm so long as they and what belongs to them be well covered But there is a revenging God who doth insensibly drie up the roots of proud Nations and throws disgrace and infamy upon the faces of those who neglect the glories of Gods Altars to advance their own He who builds without God doth demolish and whosoever thinks to make any great encrease without him shall find nothing but sterility Aspiration O Most pure Spirit of Jesus which wast consummate by zeal toward the house of God wilt thou never burn my heart with those adored flames wherewith thou inspirest chaste hearts Why do we take so much care of our houses which are built upon quick-silver and roll up and down upon the inconstancies of humane fortunes while we have no love nor zeal towards Gods Church which is the Palace which we should chuse here upon earth to be as the Image of heaven above I will adore thy Altars all my life with a profound humility But I will first make an Altar of my own heart where I will offer sacrifice to which I doubt not but thou wilt put fire with thine own hand The Gospel upon Tuesday the fourth week in Lent S. John 7. The Jews marvel at the learning of Jesus who was never taught ANd when the festivity was now half done Jesus went up into the Temple and taught And the Jews marvelled saying how doth this man know letters whereas he hath not learned Jesus answered them and said my doctrine is not mine but his that sent me If any man will do the will of him he shall understand of the doctrine whither it be of God or I speak of my self he that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glorie but he that seeketh the glorie of him that sent him he is true and injustice in him there is not Did not Moses give you the Law and none of you doth the Law Why seek you to kill me The multitude answered and said thou hast a Devil who seeketh to kill thee Jesus answered and said to them One work I have done and you do all marvel Therefore Moses gave you circumcision not that it is of Moses but of the Fathers and in the Sabbath ye circumcise a man If a man receive circumcision in the Sabbath that the law of Moses be not broken are you angry at me because I have healed a man wholly in the Sabbath Judge not according to the face judge just judgement Certain therefore of Jerusalem said Is not this he whom they seek to kill And behold he speaks openly and they say nothing to him Have the Princes known indeed that this is Christ But this man we know whence he is But when Christ cometh no man knowerh whence he is Jesus therefore cried in the Temple teaching and saying Both me you do know and whence I am you know and of my self I am not come But he is true that sent me whom you know not I know him because I am of him and he sent me They sought therefore to apprehend him and no man laid hands upon him because his hour was not yet come But of the multitude many believed in him Moralities 1. IT appears by this Gospel that Jesus was judged according to apparences not according to truth It is one of the greatest confusions which is deeply rooted in the life of man that every thing is full of painting and instead of taking it off with a spunge we foment it and make our illusions voluntary The Prophet Isay adviseth us to use our judgement as men do leaven to season bread All the objects presented to our imaginations which we esteem are fading if we do not adde some heavenly vigour to help our judgement 2. To judge according to apparences is a great want both of judgement and courage The first makes us prefer vanity before truth the second gives that to silk and golden clothes which is properly due to virtue We adore painted coals and certain dark fumes covered outwardly with snow But if we did know how many great miseries and what beastly ordure is hidden under cloth of gold silk and scarlet we would complain of our eyes for being so far without reason It is a kind of Apostacy and rebellion against Gods providence to judge without calling God to be a president in our counsel or to take in hand any humane inventions without the assistance of his Spirit 3. God is pleased to lodge pearls within cockles and bestows his treasures of wisdom and virtue many times upon persons who have the most unfashionable outsides to countercheck humane wisdom He makes his orators of those who are speechless and numbers of frogs and flies to overthrow mighty armies He makes Kings out of shepherds and serves himself of things which are not as if they were The most pleasing Sacrifice which he receives upon earth is from the humble and when we despise those we divert the honours of God We offer Sacrifice to the worlds opinion like the Sages of Egypt who did light candles and burn incense to Crocodiles The Jews lost their faith to follow apparences and there is no shorter way to Apostacy than to adore the world and neglect God 4. An ill opinion make folks many times pass a rash judgement They mount into Gods chair to judge the hearts of men The chaste doves are used like Ravens and Ravens like Swans Opinion puts false spectacles upon our eyes which make faults seem virtues and virtues crimes Yet nevertheless we should think that virtuous persons will not conceive an ill suspition of their neighbour without a very sure
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
fear glorious without change And it is there onely where we find all our satisfactions perfectly accomplished For to speak truth contentment consisteth in four principal things which are to have a contenting object to have a heart capable to apprehend it to feel a strong inclination to it and to enter into an absolute full possession of it Now God hath provided for all this by his infinite bounty He will not have us affect any other object of pleasure but his own He is God and therefore can have nothing but God for his satisfaction and intends graciously that we shall have the same He will have us thirst after him and quench our thirst within himself and to this our soul is singularly disposed for as God is a Spirit so is our soul onely spiritual We have so strong an inclination to love God that even our vices themselves without thinking what they do love somewhat of God For if pride affect greatness there can be nothing so great as the Monarch of it If luxury love pleasure God containeth all pure delights in his bosom and this which I say may be verified of all sins whatsoever If the presence of a right object and the enjoying be wanting we have nothing so present as God S. Paul saith We are all within him within him we live and within him we have the fountain of all our motions we see him through all his creatures until he take off the vail and so let us see him and taste of his Glory 3. A true and perfect way to make us thirst after God is to forsake the burning thirst which we have after bodily and worldly goods Our soul and flesh go in the several scales of a ballance the rising of one pulls down the other It is a having two wives for us to think we can place all our delights in God and withal enjoy all worldly contentments A man must have a conscience free from earthly matters to receive the infusion of grace we must pass by Calvary before we come to Tabor and first taste gall with Jesus before we can taste that honey-comb which he took after his resurrection Aspirations O God true God of my salvation My heart which feeleth it self moved with an affection-are zeal thinks always upon thee and in thinking finds an earnest thirst after thy beauties which heats my veins My soul is all consumed I find that my flesh it self insensibly followeth the violence of my spirit I am here as within the desarts of Affrica in a barren world the drought whereof makes it a direct habitation for dragons O my God I am tormented with this flame and yet I cherish it more than my self Will there be no good Lazarus found to dip the end of his finger within the fountain of the highest Heaven a little to allay the burning of my thirst Do not tell me O my dear Spouse that there is a great Chaos between thee and me Thou hast already passed it in coming to me by thy bounty and wilt not thou lift me up then by thy mercy The Gospel upon Tuesday the fifth week in Lent S. John 7. Jesus went not into Jewry because the Jews had a purpose to take away his life AFter these things Jesus walked into Galilee for he would not walk into Jewry because the Jews sought to kill him And the festival day of the Jews Scenopegia was at hand And his brethren said to him Pass from hence and go into Jewry that thy Disciples also may see thy works which thou dost For no man doth any thing in secret and seeketh himself to be in publick if thou do these things manifest thy self to the world for neither did his brethren believe in him Jesus therefore saith to them My time is not yet come but your time is always ready The world cannot bate you but me it hateth because I give testimony of it that the works thereof are evil Go you up to this festival day I go not up to this festival day because my time is not yet accomplished When he had said these things himself tarried in Galilee But after his brethren were gone up then he also went up to the festival day not openly but as it were in secret The Jews therefore sought him in the festival day and said Where is be And there was much murmuring in the multitude of him For certain said that he is good And others said No but he seduceth the multitudes yet no man spake openly of him for fear of the Jews Moralities 1. JEsus hides himself in this Gospel as the Sun within a cloud to shew himself at his own time to teach us that all the serets of our life consisteth in well concealing and well discovering our selves He did conceal the life which he took from nature when he might have been born a perfect man as well as Adam and yet did he hide himself in the hay of a base stable He concealeth his life of grace dissembling under silence so many great and divine virtues as if he had lockt up the stars under lock and key as holy Job saith He keeps secret his life of Glory retaining for thirty three years the light of his soul which should without intermission have glorified and cast a divine brightness upon his body But when he concealed himself the stars discovered him at his birth the Sun at his death all the Elements did then confess him and all creatures gave testimony of his Divinity 2. We should be well known of God if we did not so curiously enquire into the knowledge of the world Vanity at this day opens all her gates to manifest divers men to the world who should otherwise be buried in obscurity and darkness It maketh some appear by the luxurious excess of their apparrel as so many sale creatures whose heads being high and costly drest up go to the market of idle love Others by the riches and pomps of the world others by honours and dignities others by the spirit of industry and others by the deeds of arms and policy Every one sets out himself to be seen and esteemed in the world It seemeth that life is made for nothing but to be shewed and that we should always live for that which makes us die We are a kind of walking spirits which return late to our lodgings But yet nevertheless giving our selves so continually to the world me thinks we should at least stay with our selves every day one short hour It is said that the Pellican hides her egs and that they must be stollen from her to make them disclose But vanity is an egge which all the world hatcheth under her wings and none are willing to forsake it 3. If it be needfull to shew your self to the world be then known by your virtues which are characters of the Divinity Let men know you by your good examples which are the seeds of eternity and of all fair actions You must be known by your
you love binds you fast enough to the Cross without them But do thou O Lord hold me fast to thy self by the chain of thine immensity O Lance cruel Lance Why didst thou open that most precious side Thou didst think perhaps to find there the Sons life and yet thou foundest nothing but the Mothers heart But without so much as thinking what thou didst in playing the murderer thou hast made a Sepulcher wherein I will from henceforth bury my soul When I behold these wounds of my dear Saviour I do acknowledge the strokes of my own hand I will therefore likewise engrave there my repentance I will write my conversion with an eternal Character And if I must live I will never breathe any other life but that onely which shall be produced from the death of my Jesus crucified The Gospel for Easter-day S. Mark 16. ANd when the Sabbath was past Mary Magdalene and Mary of James and Salome bought spices that coming they might anoint Jesus And very early the first of the Sabbaths they come to the Monument the Sun being now risen And they say one to another who shall roll us back the stone from the door of the Monument And looking they saw the stone rolled back For it was very great And entering into the Monument they saw a young man sitting on the right hand covered with a white Robe and they were astonied Who saith to them Be not dismayed you seck Jesus of Nazareth that was crucified he is risen he is not here behold the place where they laid him But go tell his Disciples and Peter that be goeth before you into Galilee there you shall see him as he told you Moralities 1. THe Sepulcher of Jesus becomes a fountain of life which carries in power all the glories of the highest Heaven Our Saviour riseth from thence as day out of the East and appears as triumphant in the ornaments of his beauties as he had been humbled by the excess of his mercies The rage of the Jews looseth here its power death his sting Satan his kingdom the Tomb his corruption and hell his conquest Mortality is destroyed life is illuminated all is drowned in one day of glory which comes from the glorious light of our Redeemer It is now saith Tertullian that he is revested with his Robe of Honour and is acknowledged as the eternal Priest for all eternity It is now saith S. Gregory Nazianzen that he re-assembles humane kind which was scattered so many years by the sin of one man and placeth it between the arms of his Divinity This is the Master-piece of his profound humility and I dare boldly affirm saith S. Ambrose that God had lost the whole world if this Sacred Virtue which he made so clearly shine in his beloved Son had not put him into possession of his Conquests We should all languish after this Triumphant state of the Resurrection which will make an end of all our pains and make our Crowns everlasting 2. Let us love our Jesus as the Maries did that with them we may be honoured with his visits Their love is indefatigable couragious and insatiable They had all the day walkt round about the Judgement-Hall Mount Calvary the Cross and the Sepulcher They were not wearied with all that And night had no sleep to shut up their eyes They forsook the Image of death which is sleep to find death it self and never looked after any bed except the Sepulcher of their Master They travel amongst darkness pikes launces the affrights of Arms and of the night nothing makes them afraid If there appear a difficulty to remove the stones love gives them arms They spare nothing for their Master and Saviour They are above Nicodemus and Joseph they have more exquisite perfumes for they are ready to melt and distil their hearts upon the Tomb of their Master O faithfull lovers seek no more for the living amongst the dead That cannot die for love which is the root of life 3. The Angel in form of a young man covered with a white Robe shews us that all is young and white in immortality The Resurrection hath no old age it is an age which can neither grow nor diminish These holy Maries enter alive into the sepulcher where they thought to find death but they learn news of the chiefest of lives Their faith is there confirmed their piety satisfied their promises assured and their love receives consolation Aspirations I Do not this day look toward the East O my Jesus I consider the Sepulcher it is from thence this fair Sun is risen O that thou appearest amiable dear Spouse of my soul Thy head which was covered with thorns is now crowned with a Diadem of Stars and Lights and all the glory of the highest Heaven rests upon it Thine eyes which were eclipsed in bloud have enlightened them with fires and delicious brightness which melt my heart Thy feet and hands so far as I can see are enamel'd with Rubies which after they have been the objects of mens cruelty are now become eternal marks of thy bounty O Jesus no more my wounded but my glorified Jesus where am I What do I I see I flie I swound I die I revive my self with thee I do beseech thee my most Sacred Jesus by the most triumphant of thy glories let me no more fall into the image of death nor into those appetites of smoke and earth which have so many times buried the light of my soul What have I to do with the illusions of this world I am for Heaven for Glory and for the Resurrection which I will now make bud out of my thoughts that I may hereafter possess them with a full fruition The Gospel upon Munday in Easter-week S. Luke the 24. ANd behold two of them went the same day into a Town which was the space of sixty furlongs from Jerusalem named Emmaus And they talked betwixt themselves of all those things that had chanced And it came to pass while they talked and reasoned with themselves Jesus also himself approching went with them but their eyes were held that they might not know him And he faid to them What are these communications that you confer one with another walking and are sad And one whose name was Cleophas answering said to him Art thou onely a stranger in Jerusalem and hast not known the things that have been done in it these dayes To whom he said What things And they said Concerning Jesus of Nazareth who was a man a Prophet mighty in work and word before God and all the people And how our chief Priests and Princes delivered him into condemnation of death and crucified him But we hoped that it was he that should redeem Israel And now besides all this to day is the third day since these things were done But certain women also of ours made us afraid who before it was light were at the Monument and not finding his body came saying That they saw a vision also
a Curiosity black and faulty as those who seek for a Master in matter of Religion and would gladly talk with a devil to learn news from Paradise or such as those who strain curious Sciences so hard that they sqeeze black and maligne vices out of them as Magick or the trick of coining false money or as those who are mad to hear to see to know the vices or mischiefs of others Others have a more innocent Curiosity one of medals another of Tulipaes some of voyages others of companies and indeed of all things which may serve for incentives to Concupiscence There are of them who are much disquieted with matters which little concern them they are curious to know all that passeth in the world in the Indies in Japonia how many elephants the great Mogull keeps who is to succeed the King of China in his Empire whether the great Turk armeth whether the Persian stirreth and what forces Prester John hath for the preservation of his State They think within themselves what a face they would set upon it if they were Kings or Popes They in their heads dispose of Kingdomes They raise Republicks they rig forth ships they pitch battels and after they have doated they find nought but nothing in their hands Others advance not their aims so high but rest satisfied with inferiour thoughts and petty cares as how to trot up and down the streets to visit houses and to ask of all they meet what news do you hear As also to observe post-dayes and to visit their friends round by a list-roll indifferently to heap together the bruits of the City to vent them again without any consideration There are some who make vows of pilgrimages not out of Devotion towards Saints but from a purpose to content their Curiosity They know all the Indulgencies which are throughout all the Churches of the Province and beyond all the houses that are built all the christnings every day all the weddings celebrated all the child-births of male or female all the merchandizes newly brought in all the strangers who arrive all the suits determinated all the charges given all the offices sold all the pamphlets cryed up and down the streets Their heads are wonderfull Fairs whither merchants come from all sides there is not a moment of repose and solitude with such is accounted a petty Hell This multiplicity of Desires is waited on by another In constancy followeth the multitude of Desires Malady of Inconstancy which is properly a levity and an irresolution of mind which sheweth it self in his manners actions and words who is touched with it To say truth this passion is a Devil who inhabiteth in The kingdome of Inconstancy a land of Quicksilver where Earthquakes are almost perpetuall winds blow on each side and blowing make many weather-cocks to turn to and fro and every moment change posture In this place an admirable Creature is to be seen who is not what she is and is that she is not so many faces and figures she hath She likewise is still upon transformations and seems to do nothing at all but to make and unmake her self One while she is great another while little one while grosse another while slender one while affable another while harsh one while serious another while gamesome but ever slippery and if you lay hold of her you catch nothing She goes forth of her lodging to appear in publick as if she came into a Theatre clothed one while in changeable Taffaty another while with different pieces set together out of a singular Fantastick addlenesse of wit She alone representeth all personages talks with all kind of voyces and in all manner of languages After her we behold a million of petty phantasmes imperfect in shape and which seem to be but pieces roughly begun which we may say are her works If you a little observe the men which inhabit this kingdome of Inconstancy you shall find they are people whose humours consist much of air and water for they are alwayes supple and pliant to all manner of objects they have a spirit which brooketh not businesses with a strong and solid penetration to see the bottome of it but onely scratch them with a little bodkin which is blunted and broken presently If you could see their heart and brain you should behold in the one huge squadrons of thoughts which scuffle together like Cadmus his souldiers in the other a mighty masse of desires and indigested purposes which renders them very unable to receive the impressions of the Divinity as S. Basil hath observed upon that Prophet Isaiah 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Basil Hom. 1. in Isaiam It seemeth all this kind of people have a will of wax and that any man may work it which way he list Their passions are sharp and ardent in the beginning so that they transport judgement which is either notably weak or much benummed but they last not for they instantly are troubled at things present and ever tum their face away from the future never as it were being where they are and still being where they neither are nor can be You shall see they every day begin to live yea when they should make an end and if they do any good they do it but by halves never allowing themselves leisure to lick their Bear as they say nor to finish their work so precipitate they are by contrariety of different desires which draw them this way and that way and destroy all the abilities of their wits You shall note in them a great greedinesse after novelties and continuall changes of manners study apparel of wearing their hair of their manner of living gate of voyce of conversation of sports exercises counsels loves of amities words and of mouths which at once breathe forth hot and cold To conclude their life is nought else but the floud and ebbe of a continuall Euripus it is replenished with shadows giddinesse and illusions which in effect make it miserable For commonly it is waited on by disesteem grief shame anxiety and great shipwracks of wit and renown § 3 The four sources out of which ill-rectified desires proceed YOu must know that those restlesse desires which toil us proceed from four sources the first and Four sources of Desires which toil us principall whereof is a Heart void of things Divine there being not saith S. Augustine a more manifest signe that a soul is not well with God then when it entertaineth a multiplicity of desires Moses pulled off his shoes before the burning bush where he saw his eyes cleared by the rayes of the Divine Majesty in my opinion to teach us that his heart was at an end of its journey since he had found the Centre of eternall Rest Whilst the soul of man is out of the limits which God assigned it well it may find Innes to lodge in but it never finds a home But he who knows the way how to accommodate himself in all things
by our glorious Father S. Gregory the Great it is that which our Fathers have embraced it is that which they have defended by their Words their Arms and their Bloud which they have shed for the Honour of it Nothing is left for those to hope for who are separated from it but the tempests of darkness and the everlasting chains of hell It is well known that the change of Faith proceeds from an infectious passion which having possessed the heart of a poor Prince hath caused these reprocheable furies and the inundations of bloud which hath covered the face of England He hath at his death condemned that which before he approved He by his last Testament destroyed that which before he had chosen wherefore those who have followed him in his Errour may also follow him in his Repentance The Peace the Safety the Abundance the Felicity of the Kingdom are ready to re-enter with the true Faith which if you refuse I see the choller of God and a thousand calamities that do threaten you Return therefore O Shunamite Return O fair Island to thy first beginning feign not to thy self imaginary penalties terrours and punishments which are not prepared but for the obstinate The Sovereign Father of Christendom doth continually stretch forth his arms to thy obedience and hath delegated me as the Dove out of the Ark to bring unto thee the Olive Bough to pronounce Peace and Reconciliation to thee This is the acceptable Hour this is the Day of thy salvation The Night which hitherto hath covered thee is at the end of her Course and the Sun of Justice is risen to bring light unto thee It is time to lay down the works of darkness and to take up the Armour of Light to the end that all the earth inhabited may take notice that thou abborrest what is past embracest what is present and dost totally put thy self into the hands of God for the time to come This Oration was attended with a wonderful approbation of all the assembly and the Cardinal being departed from the Councel the King and Queen commanded that they should debate on this Proposition which was presently taken into consideration and it was resolved That the ancient religion should be established The Chancellour made this resolution known unto the people and did powerfully exhort them to follow the examples which were conformable to the advice of the King and Queen and the most eminent personages in the Kingdom This discourse was revived with a general applause for the advancement of the Catholick faith In the end he demanded that they would testifie their resolution in a Petition to the King and Queen and mediate for a reconciliation to the Cardinal Legate of the holy See which incontenently was done the paper was presented and openly read their Majesties did confirm it both by their authorities and their prayers and humbled themselves on their knees with their Grandees and all the people demanding mercy whereupon an authentick absolution was given by the Legate the bels did ring in all the Churches Te Deum was sung All places were filled with the cries of joyes as people infranchised and coming out of the gates of hell After this King Philip was obliged to go into Flanders by reason of the retreat of the Emperour his father Pool was left chief of the Councellours with Queen Mary who did wonders for the good of Religion of the State It is true that Cranmer and other turbulent and seditious spirits were punished but so great a moderation was used that the Benefices and the Reveneues of the Church did continue in the hands of those who did hold them of the King without disturbing them on that innovation all things were continued that might any way be suffered not so much as changing any thing in marriages because they would not ensnare their spirits The heart of the Queen and of her ministers did think on nothing more than to establish Religion to entertain the holy See to render justice to comfort the people to procure peace and rest to multiply the abundance of the Kingdom They did begin again the golden age when after the reign of five years and odde moneths they were both in one day taken out of the world by sickness which did oppress with grief all honest men and did bury with them in one Tomb the happiness and safety of that Kingdom O providencelnot to be dived into by humane reason what vail hast thou cast on our Councels and our works What might we have not hoped from such beginnings What wisdom would not have concluded That felicity had crowned for ever the enterprizes of this Cardinal An affair so well conducted a negotiation so happy a business of State and the greatest that was ever in any Kingdom whatsoever ought it not to carry his progress unto eternity Where are the fine plots of policy Where are the Arms that in so small a time have ever wrought so great an effect The Chariots of the Romans which covered with Lawrels did march on the heads of Kings did not make their wayes remarkable but by stormings of Towns by Flames and Massacres But behold here many millions of men struck down and raised again with one onely speech so many legions of souls converted with a soft sweetness the face of a kingdom totally changed in one Moment and made the happiest that any Ages have seen And after all this to find the inexoarble Trenchant of Death to sap in one day the two great pillars of Estate and ruinate the house of God which should have reached to the imperial heaven O how true is it that there are the strokes of Fate that is to say an order of the secret purpose of God which is as concealed as inevitable nothing can divert nothing can delay it The counsels of the wise are here blinded their addresses are lost their activity troubled their patience tried and all their reasons confounded Poor Brittain God gave thee these two Great Lights not to enjoy them but as they passed by to behold them Thou art soiled with sacriledges and impieties thou art red with the bloud of the Martyrs The sins of Henrie are not yet expiated and the ignominious passions of his life are punished by the permission of the Errour The Powers of darkness have their times determined by God they will abate nothing of their periods if the invincible hand of the Sovereign Judge doth not stop their courses by his absolute Authority It pertaineth to God onely to know and appoint the times of punishment and Mercy and there is nothing more expedient for man than to submit to his Laws to obey his Decrees to reverence his Chastisements and to adore the Hand that strikes him FINIS THE ANGEL OF PEACE TO ALL CHRISTIAN PRINCES Written in French by N. CAUSSIN S. J. And now translated into English Printed in the Year of our Lord MDCL The Angel of Peace to all Christian Princes IF it be
the assistance of God upon their Arms. He also shewed himself very sensible of the favours of Heaven and desired that God should first of all triumph in all the good successes that accompanied his Standards which he expressed visibly when having defeated the Generals of King Antiochus in manifold assaults and gotten a little rest to his dear countrey he took a pressing care to cause the Temple to be repaired and cleansed that had been horribly profaned by the Infidels It was an incomparable joy to all the people when after so many desolations that had preceded he celebrated a Triumphant Dedication by which he caused the hopes of his Nation to reflourish His cares extended even beyond the World wherein we live and one may well affirm that he was the first of the Antient Fathers of the Old Testament that expressed more openly the charitable offices that ought to be rendred to the souls of the Deceased This manifestly appears in an encounter which he had with Gorgias Generall of the Army of the Enemy in which he lost some Souldiers and when he came to visit the field of battell to view the Dead and to cause them to be carried to the Sepulchre of their Fathers he found that some amongst them had in their clothes certain pieces of the offerings presented to the Idols thinking perhaps that it was lawfull for them to accommodate themselves with it for their use though in effect the Law forbad it This gave a shock at first unto his conscience that was very delicate and he deplored the unhappinesse of those forsaken people that had loaded themselves with profane Booties yet when he thought that that befell them more for want of consideration and by the hope of some little gain then by any consent that they had given to Idolatry he sent twelve thousand Drachmes into Jerusalem to cause Sacrifices to be offered for the rest of their Souls This made him to be honoured with very particular favours of heaven for he hath been sometimes seen in a combat environed with celestiall virtues that watched for his protection and filled his enemies with terror His very dreams were not without a mystery witnesse that which shewed him the Prophet Jeremy and the high Priest Onias who prayed before the face of God for the safety of the People the former of which two put into his hand a guilded sword telling him that it was that wherewith he should bring down to the earth the enemies of his Religion The great love that he had for God reflected it self continually towards his neighbour on whom he contemplated the image of the first beauty He bore in his heart all that were afflicted and burned with a most ardent love for the good of his dear countrey The zeal of Justice possessed his soul and he had no greater delights in the world then to succour widows orphans and all necessitous persons They ran to him as to their true Father they ranged themselves under the shadow of his virtue and found there a refreshment in their most parching heats His conversation was sweet his speech affable his manners without avarice He never sold his Protection nor made any Traffick of his Valour He knew not what it was to buy his neighbours lands to build palaces to plant orchards to make gardens and to heap up treasures He was rich for the poor and poor for himself living as a man untyed from all things else and fastned to virtue alone by an indissoluble knot of duty His Temperance passed even to admiration so greatly did he contemne those pleasures and delights that others regard as their chief felicity He never dreamed of causing the beautifull women-prisoners to be preserved for himself because he was skilfull in the trade of defending Ladies honours rather then assaulting them He never had any Mistresse being perpetually Master of himself and one shall have work enough to find out his wives name it is not read that he had any other children but Virtues and Victories He lived as an Essean estranged from all the pleasures of the flesh and tasted no other contentment in the world then to do great actions He never enterprised the warre against King Antiochus to make himself great and to reign but for the pure love of his Religion and dear countrey Traytours and corrupted spirits blame him for having taken up arms saying That it behoved them rather to suffer the Destinies then to make them That it behoved them to obey the Powers that God had set over their heads That it was a great rashnesse to think to resist the forces of all Asia with a little handfull of souldiers that it could not chuse but provoke the conquerours and draw upon the vanquished a deluge of calamities The world hath been full in all times of certain condescending Philosophers who accommodate themselves to every thing that they may not disaccommodate themselves for virtue They care not what visage is given to Piety so that they find therein their own advantages By how much the more mens spirits are refined to search out reasons to colour the toleration of vices by so much the more their courages are weakned and neglect to maintain themselves in duty There are some that had rather lie still in the dirt then take the pains to arise out of it Judas considered that King Antiochus was not contented with having brought the Jews to a common servitude but would overthrow all their Laws and abolish entirely their Religion He did not believe that it was lawfull for him to abandon cowardly the interests of God He thought that there are times wherein one ought rather destroy ones self with courage then preserve ones self with sluggishnesse He looked not so much upon his strength as upon his duty He perswaded himself that a good Cause cannot be forsaken of God and that we ought to essay to serve him applying our wills to his orders and leaving all the successe of our works to his disposall This great zeal that he had of Justice was accompanied with a well tempered prudence As he never let loose himself in that which was absolutely of the Law so did he never use to rack himself by unprofitable scruples that are ordinary enough to those that are zealous through indiscretion Some of his Nation shewed themselves so superstitious that being assaulted by their enemies on the Satturday they let their throats be cut as sheep without the least resistance for fear of violating the Sabbath if they should put themselves upon a defence Judas following the example of his father Matathias took away that errour which tended to the generall desolation of his countrey and shewed by lively reasons that God who hath obliged us to the preservation of our selves by the Law of Nature had never such an intention as to give us for a prey to our enemies by an indiscreet superstition That it was a good work to defend the Altars and ones countrey against the Infidels and
that it was not to break the Sabboth but rather to sanctifie it Following these pathes he was the first of all the Jews that made a League with the Romans which hath seemed a little harsh to Rupertus and some other Divines But we must consider what Saint Paul saith That if all commerce with the Gentiles had been forbidden to the Jews and to the first Christians they should have been constrained rather to go out of the world then converse in it Never did this great Captain in his most pressing necessities cause the Roman souldiers to come into Palestine fearing lest their approach might bring some damage and profanation to an Holy Land But forasmuch as he saw himself environed all round with Kings that bowed under the puissance of the Roman Empire he thought that it would be convenient to endeavour to gain their friendship to obtain more easily Justice against the oppressions of his neighbours He employed the power of the Infidels not to torment the faithfull but to ruine infidelity He sought to those into whose hands God had put the Power to have the exercise of it to the glory of him that had communicated it to them this was not a crime but a most exquisite piece of prudence The false high Priest Alcimus Judas's adversary did not use the matter so who caused the Armies of Antiochus to come to the destruction of the Altars and to the massacre of his brethren which caused him to be smitten with a stroak from heaven and rendred him execrable to the memory of men But we must acknowledge that of all the great qualities that hath shined in this so famous man Valour hath alwayes held one of the upper ranks He was made for Military virtue and furnished with all the necessary conditions that make Generalls of Armies and Conquerours An elevated birth an happy beginning that he had made under his father science of Warre Authority Happinesse Vigilancy Activenesse Boldnesse Government and whatsoever is best in the profession of Arms had contributed to make of him the wonder of his age He was a Lion's heart that found security in dangers and would not have even Crowns themselves if he did not pluck them out of the midst of thorns One cannot read without admiration the two books of the Maccabees in considering the great progresses that he made in so little time and so many various encounters In the space of six years he sustained the great and prodigious forces of three Kings of Asia opposing himself with a little flying Camp against Armies of fourty sixty an hundred thousand men which he put into disorder and confusion He defeated in ranged battels and in divers combats nine Generalls of the Infidels killing some with his own hand and carrying away their spoils The first amongst them was Apollonius who was of an high repute in Antiochus his Reign because that he had been employed in the principall businesses of the Realm treating with the Romans and the Egyptians for his Master It is the very same that entred into Jerusalem with an army of two and twenty thousand men and under pretence of Peace made there an horrible spoil Assoon as he had heard that Judas Maccabeus had put himself into the field with a strength very little considerable he thought that being Governour of Syria and of Phenicia and at that time upon the place the businesse concerned him above all others and therefore he collects together great troops to stop the progresse of the Jews and to succeed with all security But the valorous Maccabeus prevented him so vigorously that he had not the leasure well to bethink himself he gave him battle wherein his men seeing the assaults of the faithfull people that seemed the assaults of giants began to stagger Whatsoever pains he took to rally them fear had so farre gained upon them that they destroyed themselves for fear of being destroyed Judas by Joseph Gorians report made that day the heads of his enemies to fall under his cuttle-ax as fast as the ears of corn-fall under the hook of the reaper He chose Apollonius out of the middle of his best souldiers and ran to him challenging him to a duel in which the other was overcom in the sight of a trembling army and Judas took away his sword which he used the rest of his dayes in so many glorious combats Seron that was Lieutenant under Apollonius pushed on with vengeance and with glory that made him long since seek out an occasion to make himself renowned thinking that Apollonius his defeat was but a stroke of Fortune and that he should quickly bring Judas into good order rallyed all his forces increasing his army as much as possibly he could which gave at first a great terrour to the Hebrews seeing that the heads of that Hydra which they thought had been cut off pushed forth so suddenly They had journied and fasted the very day of the combat and seemed all discouraged but Judas exhorted them with an ardent speech that put fire and spirit into all his Army It fell so opportunely upon the enemy that Seron thought he had to do rather with hungry wolves then men and although he came with a great deal of bravery to the encountre he quickly perceived that he had sung the Triumph before the Victory and had very much ado to retire with a whole skin contenting himself to run away after he had had the hope of conquering Lysias that was the Almighty under King Antiochus grew mad to see himself out-braved by so small an army of men contemptible and knew not what account to give the King his Master to whom he had promised to root out the remainders of the Jewish people so that there should not be any memory of them left behind He chose on divers occasions three of the best Generalls of all the Armies which were Ptolomy Gorgias and Nicanor Ptolomy made not any great brags Gorgias was vain enough to promise himself the victory and perswaded himself that he was very dreadfull But Judas though he had then but three thousand men badly armed defeated him and took his camp which was filled with great riches which gave a great temptation to the Jewish Army that desired nothing but readily to throw themselves upon the booty Yet their Conductour that knew the art of Warre and that many busying themselves about the spoils had lost their honour and their life gave a strict command that they should not touch that prey of the Infidels before the defeat was perfected and thereupon set himself to pursue his enemies that were in a disorder and after he had killed a good number of them put the rest to flight Nicanor that was the third of those Generalls after he had experimented the valour of Judas with the losse of his men resolved not to commit his reputation to the incertainty of combats but put off the Lions skin to take the Foxes endeavouring to surprise Judas by treachery seeing that he