have chosen you out of the world therfore the world hateth you ver 19. Remember the word that I said unto you the Servant is not greater than the Lord if they have persecuted me they will also persecute you If they have kept my saying they will keepe yours also v. 20. London Printed for Humphrey Moseley at the Princes Armes in St Pauls Church-yard 1654. Advertisement HEribert Ros-weyd published this peece at Antwerp 1621. It is mentioned by Gennadius cap. 63. â—e Scriptoribus Ecclesiasticis and Erasmus long before Ros-weyd's Edition writ some Notes upon it The Author Eucherius was a Roman Senatour but being converted to the Faith he left the Senate and lived in a poor Cell by the river Druentium where his Wife Galla died His two daughters Consortia and Tullia having learnt Christ continued both in the Virgin-life signorum gloriâ claruerunt He sate Bishop in the chair of Lyons as I find him placed by Helvicus in the year of our Lord 443. Some will have him a Century lower but that difference weakens not the certainty of it The peece it self in the Original is most elaborate and judicious and breaths that togatam elegantiam which in most of the Roman Senatours was not more acquired then natural What this Valerian was more then our Authors Kinsman by whose pen his name lives is not certainly known Some will have him to be Priscus Valerianus the Prefect or Deputy of France mentioned by Sidonius Apollinaris Others are willing to let him passe for that Valerian whose Homilies now extant were published by Sirmondus But as it is not determinable so is it not material This we may safely conclude that he was a very eminent noble Personage and one that followed too much after temporal pomp and the powers of this world though neither of them could lend him so much light as would keep him from obscuritie To bring down these top-branches Eucherius layes the Axe to the root of the tree by shewing him the vanity and the iniquity of riches and honours the two grand inticements of popular spirits And this he doth with such powerfull and clear reasons that to virtuous and peaceful minds he hath renderd them not only contemptible but odious Much more might have been spoken against them but seeing the Age we live in hath made all his Arguments Demonstrations he hath in my judgement spoken enough H.V.S. EVCHERIVS to his Kinsman VALERIANVS c. THEY are happily linked in the bond of blood who are held together by the bond of love And for this gift which is descended upon us from the Father of lights both you and my selfe may greatly rejoyce Whom love as well as kindred hath united and those two faire obligations have betrothed in one entire affection One of them wee tooke from the Fathers of our flesh and the other from our private dispositions This double tye by which love binding us on the one side and blood on the other we are mutually knit together hath inforced me to inlarge my selfe in this Epistle with some excesse more then usuall that I might commend unto your Consideration the Cause of your owne Soul and assert the work of our profession to be that Supreme beatitude which is onely true and capable of those things which are Eternal And indeed your own pious propension is not repugnant to the profession of holy living who already by a forward felicity of manners have in some points prevented and met with many things which are taught unâ—o us by sacred learning So that by the meanes of provident and discreet Nature you seem unto me to have seized upon many duties of Religion as the Concessions and Indulgences of our good God towards you whose gift it is that the Divine wisedome should partly find in you and partly conferre upon you the riches of his Kingdome But although by the hands of your Father and Father in law you have been allready advanced and seated upon the highest pinnacles of temporall honours and are still adorned and surrounded with illustrious titles descending from them both Yet I desire and long to find in you a thirst of greater and far higher honours and shall now call you not to Earthly but Heavenly honours not to the dignities and splendour of one short age but to the solid and enduring glories of eternity For the onely true and indelible glory is to be glorified in Eternity I shall therefore speak unto you not the wisedome of this World but that secret and hidden wisdome which God ordained befor the World unto our glory I shall speake with much care and affection towards you and with very little respect or animadversion of my selfe for I have in this attempt considered more what I wish to see perfected in you than what I am able to do in my self The first duty of Man ordained and brought forth into this World for that end my most dear Valerian is to know his Creatour and being known to confesse him and to resigne or give up his life which is the wonderfull and peculiar gift of God to the service and worship of the giver that what he received by Gods free donation may be imployed in true devotion and what was conferred upon him in the state of wrath and unworthinesse may by an obedient resignation make him pretious and beloved For of this saving opinion are we That as it is most certain that we came forth first from God so should we believe it and presse on still towards him Whereupon we shall conclude that he onely rightly and divinely apprehends the purpose of God in making man who understand it thus That God himself made us for himself It is then our best course to bestow our greatest care upon the Soul So shall that which is the first and highest in dignity be not the lowest and last in consideration Amongst us Christians let that which is the first in order be the first cared for let Salvation which is the chiefest profit be our chiefest imployment Let the safeguard and the defense of this take up all our forces let it be not only our chiefest but our sole delight As it surpasseth all other things in excellencie so let it in our care and consideration Our Supreme duty is that which wee owe to God and the next to it appertaines to the Soul And yet these two are such loving correlates that though every one of them is a duty of Supreme consequence and such as by no means we may presume to neglect or omit yet cannot wee possibly performe any one of them without the other So that whosoever will serve God doth at the same time provide for his own Soul and he that is carefull for his own Soul doth at the same time serve God So that the state of these two soveraign duties in man is by a certain compendious dependencie and co-intention rendred very easie while the faithfull performance of the one is a perfect consummation of both For by
avoyd but these last are no evills but the sheaths or quivers of evills out of these either our opinion or our impatience draw evills upon our selves Bion used to say that it was a great evill not to be able to beare evills Without this ability life cannot be pleasant to any and in this consists the skill and knowledge of life Let the mind then learne to buckle with these rude toyles of life and by a frequent velitation or light skirmishing with troubles so improve it selfe that when we câ—me to deale with the serious hand and close encounters of fortune we may receive her at sharpe and like active vigilant Duellists put by her most Artfull and violent thrusts One Salustius that lived in the time of Simplicius did put upon his bare thigh a burning cole and to keepe in the fire did gently blow it that he might try how long hee could endure it I beleeve that fire did put out and quite extinguish all the burnings and raging flames of incensed fortune If crosses foreseen are alwaies held light those we tast and make experiment of before they come must needs be lighter because after tryall we feare them not feares are the foreteâ—â—h of miseries which bite us sorâ—st and mâ—st intollerably It was a most ridiculous judgement which that Sybarite mentioned by Serinus past upon the valour of the Spartans This tender Citizen travelling by chance into Lacedemon was so amazed at the severe discipline of that manly nation who brought up their children in all rigorous and laborious exercises that being returned home hee told the Fidlers of Sybaris that the forwardnesse of the Spartan Youths to dye in battell was because they would not be compelled any longer to such a toylsome life This soft fellow knew not how much Industry could prevaile against misfortune and patience against passion That valour of the Spartans was not despayre but the virtue of suffering perfected Their voluntary labours at home had so excellently improved them that they could not onely slight the necessary and common afflictions of life but overcome also by a noble volunteering the very prerogative of fate violating even the violence of death while they dyed unconstrayned and undisturbed Mithridates his feare of being poysoned made him use himselfe to a venomous diet by which he came at last to disgest all sorts of poysons without any prejudice to his health so that afterwards when he would have poysoned himselfe in good earnest he could not possibly doe it By this destroyer of mankind did he secure himselfe even from himselfe and by long acquaintance made this deadly enemie a faithfull friend he fed life with the provision of death By a like sagacity should we forearme our selves against the conspiracies if I may so say of nature Let us labour against labours It will much availe us our very feares will prove comforts by using our selves to sufferance the Antidote of life which is Patience becomes effectuall Of such great importance is this assiduous exercise in troubles that it lets in the nature of Constancie and is a sure manuduction to that sincerest vertue The Roman Fencers players for prizes barbarous and dissolute livers if but indifferently skild received their wounds without grones or any alteration of gesture or countenance because they would not be judged pusillanimous nor cowardly decliners of danger If at any time they fell by the violence of wounds they sent presently to know their masters pleasures because they would satisfie them for they themselves were contented to dye If their masters finding them incurable bad them prepare for death they would presently hold forth their throats and receive the sword most willingly O the serious faith of Playes O the faith of Players in serious dangers It is all one then whether thou thinkest fortune a meere pageant and pastime or not Thou shouldest obey with an Immortall faith even to the death Let a wise man execute the commands of his creator let him like a faithfull souldier of JESUS CHRIST certifie his great master that he is ready and willing to doe him service that he will lose his life choose rather to dye then not to submit to his pleasure The conflicts of a good man with calamities are sacred he is made a spectacle to the world to Angels and men and a hâ—llowed Present to the Almighty Let him in this state overcome his Enemies A more glorious garland then the Olympick Olive-branches shall crown an enduring Patience which by an humble but overcomming Sufferance wearies the hands of those that beat us It is the part of a wise man to tire and weare out the malice of his Enemies I say not by Suffering but by Patience which makes him neither their Patient nor trampled upon but a trampling overcomer This was the glory of Melancoma who lived not one day without an Enemy In the most vehement season of the yeare hee judged his single-selfe hard enough for his two Adversaries He could beare with the Sun his most obstinate Antagonist though fighting against him in the heate of the Summer with so many hands as he had Rayes When he might have gotten the Victory by Opposition he would not but by Submission Hee considered that the best might be overcome by the worst if force should take place That Victory was in his Judgement the Noblest when the Enemy yet whole and without any hurt was compell'd to submit There is he overthrown when not by wounds but by himselfe Therefore what vice and a spurious Patience did in the Roman Fencers let Virtue and true Patience performe in thee and what custome and exercise wrought in Melancoma let reason and Judgement worke in thee What reason effected in Possidonius let grace effect in thy heart and let not grace which workt mightily in Eustathius and sufficiently in many others languish and faile in thee alone The power of God is perfected in weaknesse giving us some prelibations as it were of it self whither by bearing with our Infirmities or by our bearing his Operations I believe this last for the glory of an almighty power against a weake thing would be very small how litle then against Infirmity it selfe That power is truly glorious and hath matter for glory which prevailes against the mind a free unconfined thing and holds it firme though surrounded with Infirmities The power of God Glories more in prevailing against us then against our infirmities Bâ—t if wee seek for more delicate or easie remedies and dare not arme our selves against misfortunes with this harnesse of proofe bâ—cause we think it too heavy It remaines that we must make use of either Hope or Expectation Evills that are foreseen lose much of their edge But because we promise our selves the favours of Fortune of whom we have alwaies a good opinion though wee seldome speak well of her and she deservs as ill our calamities while this credulous remissnesse keepes us from looking to thâ—m find way to surprize and
more as Bears Leopards Wolves Dragons Adders and Vipers were gathered together about him and ready to seize upon him what would not he give to be freed from the violence and rage of such destroyers What greater felicity could he desire then to be redeemed from such an horrid and fatall distressâ— And is it a lesser blessing to be delivered from greater evills We are surrounded with calamities torn by inordinate wishes hated by the world persecuted prest and trodden upon by our enemies disquieted with threatnings which also torture and dishearten some for in pusillanimous dispositions fear makes words to be actions and threats to be torments Death is a divine remedy which cures all these evil Death alone is the cause that temporal miseries are not eternal And I know not how that came to be feared which brings with it as many helps as the world brings damages Danger it self is a sufficient motive to make us in love w th security Death only secures us from troubles Death heals and glorifies all those wounds which are received in a good cause When Socrates had drank off his potion of hemlock he commanded that sacrifices should be offered to Aesculapius as the Genius of Medicine He knew that Death would cure him It was the Antidote against that poysonous Recipe of the Athenian Parliament Tyranny travels not beyond Death which is the Sanctuary of the good and the Lenitive of all their sorrows Most ridiculous were the tears of Xerxes and worthily checkt by his Captain Artabazus when seated on the top of an hill and viewing his great Army wherein were so many hands as would have served to overturn the world to levell mountains and drain the seas yea to violate Nature and disturb Heaven with their noyse and the smoak of their Camp he fell to a childish whining to consider in what a short portion of time all that haughty multitude which now trampled upon the face of the earth would be layd quietly under it He wept to think that all those men whose lives notwithstanding hee hastned to sacrifice to his mad ambition should dye within the compasse of an hundred yeares The secular death or common way of mortality seemed very swift unto him but the way of war slaughter he minded not It had been more rational in him to weep because death was so slow and lazie as to suffer so many impious inhumane souldiers to live an hundred years and disturb the peace and civill societies of Mankind If as hee saw his Army from that hill he had also seen the calamities and mischief they did with the tears and sorrows of those that suffered by them he had dried his eyes and would not have mourned though he had seen death seising upon all those salvages and easing the world of so vast an affliction He would not have feared that which takes away the cause of fear That is not evill which removes such violent and enormous evills If I might ask those that have made experiment of life and death whither they would chuse if it were granted them either to live again or to continue in their state of dissolution I am sure none would chuse life but the wicked those that are unworthy of it for no pious liver did ever repent of death and none ever will The Just desire not this life of the unjust which were it offered them they would fear it more now being at rest then ever they feared death when they lived The story runnes that Stanislaus the Polonian a man of marvellous holinesse and constancy had the opportunity to put this question and the respondent told him that he had rather suffer the paines of dissolution twice over again then live once He feared one life but did not fear to dy thrice Having this Solution from the experienced it is needless and fruitlesse to question on the living If Soules were Praeexistent as one Origen dreamt as Cebes Plato Hermes and other Philosophers the great Fathers of Hereticks have affirmed Wee might have reason to conclude that they would obstinately refuse to be imprisoned in the wombs of women and wallow in Seminal humours What if it were told them that they must dwell nine monthes in a thick darknesse and more then nine years perhaps all the years of their sojourning in hallucinations and the darknesse of ignorance what if the paines the exigencies the hunger and thirst they must endure before they can be acquainted with the miseries of life were laid before thâ—m The Infant while he is yet in the womb is taught necessity Quest for foode makes him violate that living Prison and force his way into the World And now comes he forth according to the Sentiment of Hippocrates to seek for Victualls the provision which proceeded from his Mother being grown too little for him But he comes from one prison into another and breaks through the first to enlarge his own which he carries with him But if the Soules â—hus incarcerated like Prisoners through a grate might behold the various plagues and diseases of those that are at liberty as Palsies Passions of the heart Convulsions Stranguries the Stone the Gout the Wolfe the Phagedaena and an hundred other horrid incurable Evils such as Pherecides Antiochus and Herod were tormented with or that fearful sicknesse of Leuthare which was so raging and furious that she did eat her own flesh and drink her blood in the extremity of the pain Or if they might see those Evills which man himselfe hath sought and found out for himself as emulations warres bloodshed confusion and mutual destruction Is there any doubt to be made think you but they would wish themselves freed from such a miserable estate or that their intellectuall light were were quite extinguished that they might not behold such horrid and manifold calamities Plato imputed the suspension of Reason in Infants and the hallucinations of Childhood to the terrour and astonishment of the Soules which he supposed them to be possessed with because of their sudden translation from the Empyreal light into the darke and grosse prisons of flesh and this inferiour World as if such a strange and unexpected change like a great and violent fall had quite doated them and cast asleep their intellectuall faculties Proclus assisted this conjecture of Plato with another argument drawne from the mutability and the multitude of Worldly Events which in the uncertaine state of this life the Soules were made subject unto Adde to this that the merriest portion of life wihch is youth is in both sexes bedewed with tears and the flowers of it are sullied and fade away with much weeping and frequent sadneâ—se Children also want not their sorrowes The Rod blasteth all their innocent joyes and the sight of the School-master turnes their mirth into mourning Nay that last Act of life which is the most desirable to the Soul I mean old Age is the most miserable The plenteous Evills of frail life fill the old Their wasted
he that violates his own body and makes way for the Soul to flye out with his own hands is damned by the very Act but if another doth it to him it is both his Salvation and his Crown The heathens esteemed it no honour for Captives to have their bonds loosed It was their freedome but not their glory When the jugde himself did break off their Chaines that they accounted honorable By this Ceremony did Vespasian and Titus acknowledge the worth of Joseph the Jew This vindicated his integrity By cutting his bonds with their Imperial hand they freed him both from captivity and disgrace Titus said that if they would break off his fetters and not stay to take them off his honour would be so perfectly repaired by it as if he had been never bound nor overcome The same difference in point of honour is betwixt the naturall death and the violent betwixt dying when wee are full of daies and the death which Tyrants impose upon us when we are mangled and grinded by their fury This honour is then greatest when the body is not dissolved but distorted and broken into peeces Certainly the best men have ever perished by the violence of Tyrants nature to preserve her innocence being very backward and unwilling as it were to take away such great and needfull examples of goodnesse Treachery and violence were ordained for the just in the dâ—ath of Abel who dyed by the wicked This better sort of death was in him consecrated to the best men those persons whom Nature respects and is loath to medle with envy laies hands upon Whom the one labours to preferre the other plotteth to destroy Nor deals she thus with the good only but with the eminent and mighty too thus she served Hector Alexander and Caesar the goodliest object is alwaies her aim When Thrasybulus the Astrologer told Alexander the Roman that he should end his daies by a violent death he answered that he was very glad of it for then said he I shall dye like an Emperour like the best and the greatest of men and not sneak out of the World like a worthlesse obscure fellow But the death of these Glorioli was not truly glorious I have onely mentioned them because that a passive death though wanting religion hath made their honour permanent That death is the truly glorious which is seald with the joy of the sufferers spirit whose Conscience is ravished with the kisses of the Dove Who can look upon his tormentour with delight and grow up to Heaven without diminution though made shorter on Earth by the head This is the death which growes pretious by contempt and glorious by disgrace Whose sufferer runs the race set before him with patience and finisheth it with joy We are carefull that those things which are our own may be improved to the utmost and why care wee not for death what is more ours then mortality Death should not be feared because it is simply or of it self a great good and is evill to none but to those that by living ill make their death bad What ever evil is in death it is attracted from life If thou preservest a good Conscience while thou livest thou wilt have no feare when thou dyest thou wilt rejoyce and walke homeward singing It is life therefore that makes thee fear death If thou didst not fear life if life had not blasted the joyes of death thou wouldst never be afraid of the end of sorrowes Death therefore is of it self innocent sincere healthfull and desirable It frees us from the malignancie and malice of life from the sad necessities and dangerous errours we are subject to in the body That death whose leaders are Integrity and virtue whose cause is Religion is the Elixir which gives this life its true tincture and makes it immortal To dye is a common and trivial thing for the good and the bad dye and the bad most of all but to dye willingly to dye gloriously is the peculiar priviledge of good men It is better to leave life voluntarily then to be driven out of it forcibly let us willingly give place unto posterity Esteem not life for its own sake but for the use of it Love it not because thou wouldst live but because thou mayst do good works while thou livest Now the greatest work of life is a good death If life then ought to be lesse esteemed then good works who would not purchase a good death with the losse of life why should we be afeared of politick irreligious Tyrants and an arm of flesh though guarded with steele Nature it selfe threatens us with death and frailty attends us every hour Why will we refuse to dye in a good cause when 't is offered us who may dye ill the very next day after let us not promise our selves a short life when our death assures us of eternal glory But if it were granted that death were neither good nor honourable but evill and fearfull why will not we take care for that which we fear Why do we neglect that which we suspect Why if it be evill do not wee arme and defend our selves against it we provide against dangerous contingencies we labour against casuall losses and we neglect this great and enevitable perill To neglect death and to contemn death are two things none are more carefull of it then those that contemne it none feare it more then those that neglect it and which is strange they fear it not because they have neglected it but they neglect it when they fear it they dare not prepare for it for fear of thinking of it O the madnesse and Idlenesse of mankind to that which they adjudge to be most Evill they come not onely unprepared but unadvisedly and without so much as forethought What mean we what do we look for Death is still working and wee are still idle it is still travelling towards us and we are still slumbering and folding our hands Let us awake out of this darke and sleepy state of mind let us shake off these dreams and vain propositions of diverse lusts let us approve of truth and realities let us follow after those things which are good let us have true joy made sure unto us and a firm security in life in death Sickness and death you are but sluggish things And cannot reach a heart that hath got wings FINIS THE WORLD CONTEMNED IN A Parenetical Epistle written by the Reverend Father EVCHERIVS Bishop of Lyons to his Kinsman VALERIANVS Love not the VVorld neither the things that arâ— in the world If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him 1 Ioh. 2.15 They are of the world therefore speake they of the world and the world heareth them Chap. 4. vers 5. If the world hate you ye know that it hated me before it hated you Ioh. 15. verse 18. If ye were of the world the world would love his own but because ye are not of the world out I
of those that sin against their own soules can be no authority unto us I beseech you look alwayes upon the vices of others as their shame not your example If it be your pleasure to look for examples seek them rather from that party which though the least yet if considered as it is a distinct body is numerous enough Seek them I say from that party wherein you shall find those ranged who wisely understood wherefore they were born and accordingly while they lived did the businesse of life who eminent for good works and excelling in virtue pruned and drest the present life and planted the future Nor are our examples though of this rare kind only copious but great withall and most illustrious For what worldly nobility what honours what dignity what wisdom what eloquence or learning have not betaken themselves to this heavenly warfare what soveraignty now hath not with all humility submitted to this easie yoke of Christ And certainly it is a madnesse beyond error and ignorance for any to dissemble in the cause of their salvation I could but that I will not be tedious to you out of an innumerable company produce many by name and shew you what eminent and famous men in their times have forsaken this World and embraced the most strict rules of Christian Religion And some of these because I may not omit all I shall cursorily introduce Clement the Roman of the stock of the Caesars and the Antient Linage of the Senatours a person fraught with Science and most skillfull in the liberall Arts betook himself to this path of the just and so uprightly did he walk therein that he was elected to the Episcopal dignity of Rome Gregorie of Pontus a Ministâ—r of holy things famous at first for his humane learning and eloquence became afterwards more eminent by those Divine Graces conferr'd upon him For as the Faith of Ecclesiastical History testifies amongst other miraculous signes of his effectual devotion he removed a Mountain by prayer and dried up a deep lake Gregory Nazianzen another holy Father given also at first to Philosophie and humane literature declined at last those Worldly rudiments and embraced the true and Heavenly Philosophy To whose industry also wee owe no meaner a person then Basil the Great for being his intimate acquaintance and fellow-student in secular Sciences he entred one day into his Auditory where Basilius was then a Reader of Rhetorick and leading him by the hand out of the School disswaded him from that imployment with this gentle reproofe Leave this Vanity and study thy Salvation And shortly after both of them came to be famous and faithfull Stewards in the house of God and have left us in the Church most usefull and pregnant Monuments of their Christian learning Paulinus Bishop of Nola the great Ornament and light of France a person of Princely revenues powerfull eloquence and most accomplish'd learning so highly approved of this our profession that choosing for himself the better part he divided all his Princely Inheritance amongst the poor and afterward filled most part of the World with his elegant and pious writings Hilarius of late and Petronius now in Itaelie both of them out of the fulnesse of Secular honours and power betook themselves to this Course the one entring into the religion the other into the Priesthood And when shall I have done with this great cloud of witnesses If I should bring into the field all those eloquent Contenders for the Faith Firmianus Minutius Cyprian Hilary Chrysostome and Ambrose These I believe spoke to themselves in the same words which another of our profession used as a sparre to drive himâ—elfe out of the Secuâ—ar life into this blessâ—d and Heavenly vocation They said I believe What is this The unlearned get up and lay hold upon the Kingdome of Heaven and we with our learning behold where we wallow in flesh and blood This sure they said and upon this consideration they also rose up and tooke the Kingdome of Heaven by force Having now in part produced these reverend witnesses whose zeal for the Christian faith hath exceeded most of their successours though they also were bred up in secular rudiments perswasive eloquence and the Pomp and fulnesse of honours I shall descend unto Kings themselves and to that head of the World the Roman Empire And here I think it not necessary that those Royal religious Antients of the old World should be mentioned at all Some of their posterity and the most renowned in our Sacred Chronicles I shall make use of as David for Piety Josiah for Faith and Ezechias for Humility The later times also have been fruitfull in this kinde nor is this our age altogether barren of pious Princes who draw near to the Knowledge of the onely true and Immortal King and with most contrite and submissive hearts acknowledge and adore the Lord of Lords The Court as well as the Cloyster hath yeelded Saints of both Sexes And these in my opinion are more worthy your Imitation then the mad and giddy Commonalty for the examples of these carry with them in the World to come Salvation and in the present World Authority You see also how the dayes and the years and all the bright Ornaments and Luminaries of Heaven do with an unwearied duty execute the commands and decrees of their Creatour and in a constant irremissive tenour continue obedient to his ordinances And shall wee for whose use thâ—se lights were created and set in the firmament seeing we know our Masters will and are not ignorant of his Commandements stop our ears against them And to these Vast members of the Universe it was but once told what they should observe unto the end of the World but unto us line upon line precept upon precept and whole volumes of Gods Commandements are every day repeated Adde to this that man for this also is in his power should learn to submit himself to the will of his Creator and to be obedient to his Ordinances for by paying his whole duty unto God he gives withall a good example unto men But if there be any that will not returne unto their maker and be healed can they therefore escape the Arme of their Lord in whose hand are the Spirits of all flesh Whither will they fly that would avoyd the presence of God What Covert can hide them from that Eye which is every where and sees all things Let them heare thee holy David let them heare thee Psalm 139. Whither shall I go from thy presence or whither shall I flee from thy Spirit If I ascend up into Heaven thou art there if I make my bed in Hell bâ—hold thou art there If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the Sea Even there shall thy hand lead me and thy right hand stall hold me If I say surely the darknesse shall cover me even the night shall be light about thee Yea
who neither can enjoy ought that is pleasant at the present nor lay up for themselves any hope of true joyes hereafter They misse the fruition of this short life and can have no hope of the everlasting They abuse these temporal blessings and shall never be admitted to use the eternall Their substance here is very little but their hope there is none at all A most wretched and deplorable condition unless they make a virtue of this desperate necessity and lay hold on the onely soveraign remedy of bettering their estate by submitting in time to the wholsome rules of heavenly and saving reason Especially because the goodliest things of this present time are such rags and fragments that he that loseth the whole fraught and true treasure of that one precious life which is to come may be justly said to lose both It remaines then that we direct and fixe all the powers of our minds upon the hope of the life to come Which hope that you may morefully and clearly apprehend it I shall manifest unto you under a type or example taken from temporal things If some man should offer unto another five peeces of silver this day but promise him five hundred peeces of gold if he would stay till the next morning and put him to his choice whither he would have the silver at present or the gold upon the day following is there any doubt to be made but he would chuse the greater sum though with a little delay Goe you and doe the like Compare the Crummes and perishing pittance in this short life with the glorious and enduring rewards of the eternall And when you have done chuse not the least and the worst when you may have the greatest and the best The short fruition of a little is not so beneficial as the expectation of plenty But seeing that all the fraile goods of this world are not onely seen of us but also possessed by us It is most manifest that hope cannot belong unto this world in which we both see and enjoy those things we delight in For Hope that is seen is not hope for what a man seeth why doth he yet hope for Rom. 8. ver 24. Therefore however hope may be abused and misapplyed to temporal things it is most certaine that it was given to man and ordained for the things that are eternal otherwise it cannot be called hope unlesse something bee hoped for which as yet or for the present life is not had Therefore the substance of our hope in the world to come is more evident and manifest then our hope of substance in the present Consider those objects which are the clearest and most visible when we would best discern them we put them not into our eyes because they are better seen and judged of at a distance It is just so in the case of present things and the future For the present as if put into our eyes are not rightly and undeceivably seen of us but the future because conveniently distant are most clearly discerned Nor is this trust and Confidence wee have of our future happinesse built upon weak or uncertain Authors but upon our Lord and Master JESUS CHRIST that allmighty and faithfull witnesse who hath promised unto the just a Kingdome without end and the ample rewards of a most blessed eternity Who also by the ineffable Sacrament of his humanity being both God and Man reconciled Man unto God and by the mighty and hidden mystery of his passion absolved the World from sinne For which cause he was manifested in the flesh justified in the Spirit seen of Angels preached unto the Gentiles believed upon in the World and received into glory Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name that at the name of JESUS every knee should bow of things in Heaven and things in Earth and things under the Earth And that every tongue should confesse that the Lord JESUS is in glory both God and King before all ages Casting off then the vaine and absurd precepts of Philosophy wherein you busie your selfe to no purpose embrace at last the true and saving Knowledge of Christ You shall find even in that imployment enough for your eloquence and wit and will quickly discern how far these precepts of piety and truth surpasse the conceits and delirations of Philosophers For in those rules which they give what is there but adulterate virtue and false wisedom and what in ours but perfect righteousnesse and sincere truth Whereupon I shall Justly conclude that they indeed usurpe the name of Philosophy but the substance and life of it is with us For what manneâ— of rules to live by could they give who were ignorant of the first Cause and the Fountain of life For not knowing God and deviating in their first principles from the Author and the Wel-spring of Justice they necessarily erred in the rest Hence it happened that the end of all their studies was vanity and dissention And if any amongst them chanced to hit upon some more sober and honest Tenets these presently ministred matter of pride and Superstitiousnesse so that their very Virtue was not free from vice It is evident then that these are they whose Knowledge is Earthy the disputers of this world the blind guides who never saw true justice nor true wisedome Can any one of that School of Aristippus be a teacher of the truth who in their Doctrine and Conversation differ not from swine and unclean beasts seeing they place true happinesse in fleshly lusts whose God is their belly and whose glory is in their shame Can he be a Master of Sobriety and Virtue in whose School the riotous the obscene and the adulterer are Philosophers But leaving these blind leaders I shall come againe to speak of those things which were the first motives of my writing to you I advise you then and I beseech you to cast off all their Axioms orgeneral Maxims collected out of their wild and irregular disputations wherein I have knowne you much delighted to imploy those excellent abilities bestowed upon you in the study of holy Scripture the wholsom instructions of Christian Philosophers There shall you be fed with various and delightfull learning with true and infallible wisedome There to incite you to the Faith you shall hear the Church speaking to you though not in these very words yet to this purpose He that believes not the word of God understands it not There you shall hear this frequent admonition Feare God because he is your Master honour him because he is your Father There it shall be told you that the most acceptable Sacrifice to God are justice and mercy There you shall be taught that If you love your self you must necessarily love your neighbour for you can never do your selfe a greater Courtesie then by doing good to another There you shall be taught that there can be no worldly cause so great as to make
the death of a man legal or needfull There you shall hear this precept against unlawfull desires Resist lust as a most bitter enemy that useth to glory in the disgrace of those bodies he overcommeth There it will be told you of Covetousnesse That it is better not to wish for those things you want than to have all that you wish There you shall hear that he that is angry when he is provoked is never not angry but when not provoked There it will be told you of your Enemies Love them that hate you for all men love those that love them There you shall hear that he laies up his treasure safeliest who gives it to the poor for that cannot be lost which is lent to the Lord. There it will be told you that the fruite of holy marriage is chastity There you shall hear that the troubles of this World happen as well to the just as the unjust There it will be told you that it is a more dangerous sicknesse to have the mind infected with vices then the body with diseases There to shew you the way of peace and gentlenesse you shall hear that amongst impatient men their likenesse of manners is the cause of their discord There to keepe you from following the bad examples of others it will be told you That the wise man gains by the fool as well as by the prudent the one showes him what to imitate the other what to eschew There also you shall hear all these following precepts That the ignorance of many things is better then their Knowledge and that therefore the goodnesse or mercy of God is as great in his hidden will as in his revealed That you should give God thanks as well for adversity as for prosperity and confesse in prosperity that you have not deserved it That there is no such thing as Eare and for this let the Heathens examine their ownâ— Lawes which punish none but willfull and premeditating offenders There to keep you stable in faith it will be told you That he that will be faithfull must not be suspitious for we never suspect but what wee slowly believe There also you shall hear that Christians when they give any attention to the noyse and inticements of their passions fall headlong from Heaven unto Earth It will be also told you there that seeing the wicked do sometimes receive good things in this world and the just are afflicted by the unrighteous those that believe not the final Judgement of God after this life do as far as it lies in them make God unjust and far be this from your thoughts There it will be told you about your private affaires that what you would have hidden from men you should never do what from God ye should never think There you shall here this rebuke of deceivers It is lesser damage to be deceived then to deceive Lastly you shall hear this reproofe of self-conceit or a fond opinion of our owne worth flye vanity and so much the more the better thou art all other vices increase by vitiousnesse but vanity is oftentimes a bubble that swims upon the face of Virtue These few rules as a tast and invitation I have out of many more inserted here for your use But if you will now turn your Eyes towards the sacred Oracles and come your self to be a searcher of those Heavenly treasures I know not which will most ravish you the Casket or the Jewell the Language or the Matter For the Booke of God while it shines and glitters with glorious irradiations within doth after the manner of most pretious gems drive the beholders Eyes into a strong and restlesse admiration of its most rich and inscrutable brightnesse But let not the weaknesse of your Eyes make you shun this Divine light but warme your Soul at the beames of it and learne to feede your inward man with this mystical and healthfull foode I doubt not but by the powerful working of our mercifull God upon your heart I shall shortly find you an unfeyned lover of this true Philosophie and a resolute opposer of the false renouncing also all worldly oblectations and earnestly coveting the true and eternall For it is a point of great impiety and imprudence seeing God wrought so many marvellous things for the Salvation of man that he should do nothing for himself and seeing that in all his wonderfull works he had a most speciall reguard of our good we our selves should especially neglect it Now the right way to care for our Soules is to yeild our selves to the love and the service of God For true happinesse is obtained by contemning the false felicities of this World and by a wise abdication of all earthly dâ—lights that we may become the Chast and faithfull lovers of the Heavenly Wherefore henceforth let all your words and actions be done either to the glory of God or for Gods sake Get Innocence for your Companion and she is so faithfull that she will be also your defendresse It is a worthy enterprise to follow after Virtue and to perform something while we live for the example and the good of others nor is it to be doubted but the mind by a virtuous course of life will quickly free it selfe from those intanglements and deviations it hath been formerly accustomed to That great Physition to whose cure and care we offer our selves will daily strengthen and perfect our recovery And what estimation or value when in this state can you lay upon those glorious remunerations that will be laid up for you against the day of recompence You see that God even in this life hath mercifully distributed unto all without any difference his most pleasant and usefull light The pious and the impious are both allowed the same Sunne all the creatures obediently submit themselves to their service And the whole Earth with the fullnesse thereof is the indifferent possession of the just and unjust Seeing then that he hath given such excellent things unto the impious how much more glorious are those things which he reserves for the pious he that is so great in his free gifts how excellent will he be in his rewards He that is so Royal in his daily bounty and ordinary magnificence how transcendent will hee be in his remunerations and requitalls Ineffable and beyond all conception are those things which God hath prepared for those that love him And that they are so is most certain For it is altogether incomprehensible and passeth the understanding of his most chosen vessels to tell how great his reward shall be unto the just who hath given so much to the unthankfull and the unbelieving Take up your Eyes from the Earth and look about you my most dear Valerian spread forth your sailes and hasten from this stormy Sea of Secular negotiations into the calme and secure harbour of Christian Religion This is the onely Haven into which we all drive from the raging Surges of this malitious World This is our
shelter from the lowd and persecuting whirlwinds of time Here is our sure station and certain rest Here a large and silent recesse secluded from the World opens and offers it selfe unto us Here a pleasant serene tranquillity shines upon us Hither when you are come your weather-beaten Vessell after all your fruitlesse toiles shall at last find rest and securely ride at the Anchor of the Cross But it is time now that I should make an end Let then I beseech you the truth and the force of Heavenly Doctrine Epitomized here by me be approved of and used by you to the glory of God and your own good These are all my precepts at present pardon the length and acknowledge my love Gloria tibi mitissime Jesu Primitive Holiness Set forth in the LIFE of blessed PAULINUS The most Reverend and Learned BISHOP of NOLA Collected out of his own Works and other Primitive Authors by Henry Vaughan Silurist 2 Kings cap. 2. v.r. 12. My Father my Father the Chariot of Israel and the Horsmen thereof LONDON Printed for Humphrey Moseley at the Prince's Armes in St. Paul's Church-yard 1654. TO THE READER IF thou lovest Heaven and the beauty of Immortality here is a guide will lead thee into that house of light The earth at present is not worth the enjoying it is corrupt and poysoned with the curse I exhort thee therefore to look after a better country an inheritance that is undefiled and fadeth not away If thou doest this thou shalt have a portion given thee here when all things shall be made new In the mean time I commend unto thee the memorie of that restorer and the reward he shall bring with him in the end of this world which truely draws near if it be not at the door Doat not any more upon a withered rotten Gourd upon the seducements and falshood of a most odious decayed Prostitute but look up to Heaven where wealth without want delight without distâ—st and joy without sorrow like undefiled and incorruptible Virgins sit cloathed with light and crowned with glory Let me incite thee to this speculation in the language of Ferarius Define tandem aliquando prono in terram vultu vel praeter naturam brutum animal vel ante diem silicernium videri Coelum suspice ad quod natus ad quod erectâ staturâ tuendum tenendumque factus es Immortalia sydera caducis flosculis praefer aut eadem esse Coeli flores existimato nostratibus Amaranthis diuturniores Farewel and neglect not thy own happiness H.V. THE LIFE OF HOLY PAVLINVS THE BISHOP of NOLA BEn Sirach finishing his Catalogue of holy men to seal up the summe and to make his list compleat brings in Simon the Sonne of Onias And after a short narration of his pious care in repairing and fortifying the Temple hee descends to the particular excellencies and sacred perfections of his person Which to render the more fresh and sweet unto posterity he adornes with these bright and flowrie Encomiums 1. He was as the Morning-star in the midst of a cloud and as the Moon at the full 2. As the Sunne shining upon the temple of the most high and as the Rain-bow giving light in the bright clouds 3. As the flower of Roses in the spring of the year as Lilies by the rivers of waters and as the branches of the Frankincense-tree in the time of summer 4. As fire and Incense in the Censer and as a vessel of beaten gold set with all manner of precious stones 5. As a fair Olive-tree budding forth fruit and as a Cypresse tree which groweth up to the clouds 6. When he put on the robe of honour and was cloathed with the perfection of glory when he went up to the holy Altar he made the garment of holinesse honourable Most great indeed and most glorious Assimilations full of life and full of freshnesse but in all this beauty of holinesse in all these spices and flowers of the Spouse there is nothing too much nothing too great for our most great and holy Paulinus The Saints of God though wandring in sheep-skins and goat-skins in caves and in mountains become eminently famous and leave behind them a more glorious and enduring memory then the most prosperous tyrants of this world which like noysome exhalations moving for a time in the Eye of the Sun fall afterwards to the earth where they rot and perish under the chaines of darkness The fame of holy men like the Kingdome of God is a seed that grows secretly the dew that feeds these plants comes from him that sees in secret but rewards openly They are those trees in the Poet Which silently and by none seen Grow great and green While they labour to conceal and obscure themselves they shine the more And this saith Athanasius in the life of Antonie the great is the goodnesse of God who useth to glorifie his servants though unwilling that by their examples he may condemn the world and teach men that holinesse is not above the reach of humane nature Apposite to my present purpose is all this prolusion both because this blessed Bishop whose life I here adventure to publish was a person of miraculous perfections and holynesse and because withall he did most diligently endeavour to vilifie his own excellent abilities and to make himselfe of no account But Pearls though set in lead will not lose their brightnesse and a virtuous life shines most in an obscure livelyhood In the explication of his life I shall follow first the method of Nature afterwards of Grace I shall begin with his Birth Education and Maturitie and end with his Conversion Improvements and Perfection To make my entrance then into the work I finde that he was born in the City of Burdeaux in Gascoyne in the year of our Lord three hundred and fifty three Constantius the Arian reigning in the East and Constans in the West and Liberius being Bishop of Rome In a Golden Age when Religion and Learning kissed each other and equally flourished So that he had the happines to shine in an age that loved light and to multiply his own by the light of others It was the fashion then of the Roman Senatours to build them sumptuous houses in their Country-livings that they might have the pleasure and conveniency of retiring thither from the tumult and noyse of that great City which sometimes was and would be yet the head of the World Upon such an occasion without doubt was Burdeaux honoured with the birth of Paulinus his Fathers estate lying not far off about the town of Embrau upon the River Garumna which rising out of the Pyrene hils washeth that part of Guienne with a pleasant stream and then runs into the Aquitane sea By this happy accident came France to lay claime to Paulinus which she makes no small boast of at this day But his Country indeed if we follow his descent which is the right way to find it is Italie and Rome