at Magdenburg under the ashes whereof he buried his honour coming valiant thither and departing cruell thence In such cases he was mercifull to women not like those Generalls who know the differences of Sex in their lust but not in their anger yea the very Jesuites themselves tasted of his courtesie though merrily he laid to their charge that they would neither Preach faith to nor keep faith with others He had the true art almost lost of Encamping where he would lie in his Trenches in despight of all enemies keeping the clock of his own time and would fight for no mans pleasure but his own No seeming flight or disorder of his enemies should cousen him into a battel nor their daring bravado's anger him into it nor any violence force him to fight till he thought fitting himself counting it good manners in Warre to take all but give no advantages It was said of his Armies that they used to rise when the swallows went to bed when winter began his forces most consisting of Northern Nations and a Swede fights best when he can see his own breath He alwayes kept a long vacation in the dog-dayes being onely a saver in the summer and a gainer all the yeare besides His best harvest was in the snow and his souldiers had most life in the dead of winter He made but a short cut in taking of cities many of whose fortifications were a wonder to behold but what were they then to assault and conquer at scaling of walls he was excellent for contriving as his souldiers in executing it seeming a wonder that their bodies should be made of aire so light to climbe whose armes were of iron so heavy to strike Such cities as would not presently open unto him he shut them up and having businesse of more importance then to imprison himself about one strength he would consigne the besieging thereof to some other Captain And indeed he wanted not his Joabs who when they had reduced cities to terms of yielding knew with as much wisdome as loyalty to entitle their David to the whole honour of the action He was highly beloved of his souldiers of whose deserts he kept a faithfull Chronicle in his heart and advanced them accordingly All valiant men were Swedes to him and he differenced men in his esteem by their merits not their countrey To come to his death wherein his reputation suffers in the judgements of some for too much hazarding of his own person in the battel But surely some conceived necessity thereof urged him thereunto For this his third grand set battel in Germany was the third and last asking of his banes to the Imperiall Crown and had they not been forbidden by his death his marriage in all probability had instantly followed Besides Never Prince hath founded great Empire but by making warre in person nor hath lost any but when he made warre by his lieutenants which made this King the more adventurous His death is still left in uncertainty whether the valour of open enemies or treachery of false friends caused it His side won the day and yet lost the sunne that made it and as one saith Upon this place the great Gustavus dy'd Whilest victory lay bleeding by his side Thus the readiest way to lose a jewell is to overprise it for indeed many men so doted on this worthy Prince and his victories without any default of his who gave God the glory that his death in some sort seemed necessary to vindicate Gods honour who usually maketh that prop of flesh to break whereon men lay too great weight of their expectation After his death how did men struggle to keep him alive in their reports partly out of good will which made them kindle new hopes of his life at every spark of probability partly out of infidelity that his death could be true First they thought so valiant a Prince could not live on earth and when they saw his life then they thought so valiant a Prince could never die but that his death was rather a concealment for a time dayly expecting when the politickly dead should have a Resurrection in some noble exploit I find a most learned pen applying these Latine verses to this noble Prince and it is honour enough for us to translate them In Templo plus quam Sacerdos In Republica plus quam Rex In sententia dicenda plus quam Senator In Iudicio plus quam Iurisconsultus In Exercitu plus quam Imperator In Acie plus quam Miles In adversis perferendis injuriisque condonandis plus quam vir In publica libertate tuenda plus quam Civis In Amicitia colenda plus quam Amicus In convictu plus quam familiaris In venatione ferisque domandis plus quam Leo. In tota reliqua vita plus quam Philosophus More then a Priest he in the Church might passe More then a Prince in Commonwealth he was More then a Counseller in points of State More then a Lawyer matters to debate More then a Generall to command outright More then a Souldier to perform a fight More then a man to bear affliction strong More then a man good to forgive a wrong More then a Patriot countrey to defend True friendship to maintain more then a Friend More then familiar sweetly to converse And though in sports more then a Lion fierce To hunt and kill the game yet he exprest More then Philosopher in all the rest The Jesuites made him to be the Antichrist and allowed him three years and an half of reigne and conquest But had he lived that full term out the true Antichrist might have heard further from him and Romes Tragedy might have had an end whose fift and last Act is still behind Yet one Jesuite more ingenuous then the rest gives him this testimony that save the badnesse of his cause and religion he had nothing defective in him which belonged to an excellent King and a good Captain Thus let this our poore description of this King serve like a flat grave-stone or plain pavement for the present till the richer pen of some Grotius or Heinsius shall provide to erect some statelyer Monument unto his Memory CHAP. 19. The Prince or Heir apparent to the Crown HE is the best pawn of the future felicity of a kingdome His Fathers Subjects conceive they take a further estate of happinesse in the hopes of his Succession In his infancy he gives presages of his future worth Some first-fruits are dispatch'd before to bring news to the world of the harvest of virtues which are ripening in him his own Royall spirit prompts him to some speeches and actions wherein the standers by will scarce believe their own eares and eyes that such things can proceed from him And yet no wonder if they have light the soonest who live nearest the East seeing Princes have the advantage of the best birth and breeding The Gregorian account goes ten dayes before the computation of the
patience she condemned them for deserving such punishment She never had blow from or jarre with her husband she so suppled his hard nature with her obedience and to her great comfort saw him converted to Christianity before his death Also she saw Augustine her sonne formerly vitious in life and erroneous in doctrine whose soul she bathd in her Tears become a worthy Christian who coming to have his eares tickled had his heart touched and got Religion in to boot with the eloquence of S. Ambrose She survived not long after her sonnes conversion God sends his servants to bed when they have done their work and her candle was put out as soon as the day did dawn in S. Augustine Take an instance or two of her signall piety There was a custome in Africk to bring pulse bread and wine to the monuments of dead Saints wherein Monica was as forward as any But being better instructed that this custome was of heathenish parentage and that Religion was not so poore as to borrow rites from Pagans she instantly left off that ceremony and as for pietie's sake she had done it thus long so for pietie's sake she would do it no longer How many old folks now adayes whose best argument is use would have flown in their faces who should stop them in the full career of an ancient custome There was one Licentius a novice-convert who had got these words by the end Turn us again O Lord God of hosts show us the light of thy countenance and we shall be whole And as it is the fashion of many mens tongues to echo forth the last sentence they learnt he said it in all places he went to But Monica over-hearing him to sing it in the house of office was highly offended at him because holy things are to be suted to holy places and the harmonie could not be sweet where the song did jarre with the place And although some may say that a gracious heart consecrateth every place into a Chapell yet sure though pious things are no where unfitting to be thought on they may somewhere be improper to be uttered Drawing near her death she sent most pious thoughts as harbingers to heaven and her soul saw a glimpse of happinesse through the chincks of her sicknesse-broken body She was so inflamed with zeal that she turned all objects into fewell to feed it One day standing with S. Augustine at an East-window she raised her self to consider the light of Gods presence in respect whereof all corporall light is so farre from being match'd it deserves not to be mentioned Thus mounted on heavenly meditations and from that high pitch surveying earthly things the great distance made them appear unto her like a little point scarce to be seen and lesse to be respected She died at Ostia in Italy in the fiftie sixth yeare of her age Augustine closing her eyes when through grief he had scarce any himself CHAP. 3. The good Husband HAving formerly described a good Wife she will make a good Husband whose character we are now to present His love to his wife weakeneth not his ruling her and his ruling lesseneth not his loving her Wherefore he avoideth all fondnesse a sick love to be praised in none and pardoned onely in the newly married whereby more have wilfully betrayed their command then ever lost it by their wives rebellion Methinks the he-viper is right enough served which as Pliny reports puts his head into the she-vipers mouth and she bites it off And what wonder is it if women take the rule to themselves which their uxorious husbands first surrender unto them He is constant to his wife and confident of her And sure where jealousie is the Jailour many break the prison it opening more wayes to wickednesse then it stoppeth so that where it findeth one it maketh ten dishonest He alloweth her meet maintenance but measures it by his own estate nor will he give lesse nor can she ask more Which allowance if shorter then her deserts and his desire he lengtheneth it out with his courteous carriage unto her chiefly in her sicknesse then not so much word-pitying her as providing necessaries for her That she may not intrench on his prerogative he maintains her propriety in feminine affairs yea therein he follows her advice For the soul of a man is planted so high that he overshoots such low matter as lie levell to a womans eye and therefore her counsell therein may better hit the mark Causes that are properly of feminine cognizance he suffers her finally to decide not so much as permitting an appeal to himself that their jurisdictions may not interfere He will not countenance a stubborn servant against her but in her maintains his own Authority Such husbands as bait the mistris with her maids and clap their hands at the sport will have cause to wring them afterwards Knowing she is the weaker vessell he bears with her infirmities All hard using of her he detests desiring therein to do not what may be lawfull but fitting And grant her to be of a servile nature such as may be bettered by beating yet he remembers he hath enfranchised her by marrying her On her wedding-day she was like S. Paul free born and priviledged from any servile punishment He is carefull that the wounds betwixt them take not ayre and be publickly known Jarres conceald are half reconciled which if generally known 't is a double task to stop the breach at home and mens mouths abroad To this end he never publickly reproves her An open reproof puts her to do penance before all that are present after which many rather study revenge then reformation He keeps her in the wholsome ignorance of unnecessary secrets They will not be starved with the ignorance who perchance may surfet with the knowledge of weighty Counsels too heavy for the weaker sex to bear He knows little who will tell his wife all he knows He beats not his wife after his death One having a shrewd wife yet loth to use her hardly in his life time awed her with telling her that he would beat her when he was dead meaning that he would leave her no maintenance This humour is unworthy a worthy man who will endeavour to provide her a competent estate yet he that impoverisheth his children to enrich his widow destroyes a quick hedge to make a dead one CHAP. 4. The Life of ABRAHAM I Intend not to range over all his life as he stands threesquare in relation Husband Father Master We will onely survey and measure his conjugall side which respecteth his wife We reade not that ever he upbraided her for her barrennesse as knowing that naturall defects are not the creatures fault but the Creatours pleasure all which time his love was loyall to her alone As for his going in to Hagar it was done not onely with the consent but by the advice of Sarah who was so ambitious
then come to them for a piece of bread He holds the reins though loosely in his own hands and keeps to reward duty and punish undutifulnesse yet on good occasion for his childrens advancement he will depart from part of his means Base is their nature who will not have their branches lopt till their bodie be fell'd and will let go none of their goods as if it presaged their speedy death whereas it doth not follow that he that puts off his cloke must presently go to bed On his death-bed he bequeaths his blessing to all his children Nor rejoyceth he so much to leave them great portions as honestly obtained Onely money well and lawfully gotten is good and lawfull money And if he leaves his children young he principally nominates God to be their Guardian and next him is carefull to appoint provident overseers CHAP. 6. The Good Child HE reverenceth the person of his Parent though old poore and froward As his Parent bare with him when a child he bears with his Parent if twice a child nor doth his dignity above him cancell his duty unto him When Sr. Thomas More was Lord Chancellour of England and Sr. John his father one of the Judges of the Kings-Bench he would in Westminster-Hall beg his blessing of him on his knees He observes his lawfull commands and practiseth his precepts with all obedience I cannot therefore excuse S. Barbara from undutifulnesse and occasioning her own death The matter this Her father being a pagan commanded his workmen building his house to make two windows in a room Barbara knowing her fathers pleasure in his absence injoyned them to make three that seeing them she might the better contemplate the mystery of the holy Trinity Methinks two windows might as well have raised her meditations and the light arising from both would as properly have minded her of the Holy Spirit proceding from the Father and the Sonne Her father enraged at his return thus came to the knowledge of her religion and accused her to the magistrate which cost her her life Having practised them himself he entayls his Parents precepts on his posterity Therefore such instructions are by Solomon Proverbs 1.9 compared to frontlets and chains not to a sute of clothes which serves but one and quickly weares out or out of fashion which have in them a reall lasting worth and are bequeathed as legacies to another age The same counsels observed are chains to grace which neglected prove halters to strangle undutifull children He is patient under correction and thankfull after it When M r West formerly Tutour such I count in loco parentis to Dr. Whitaker was by him then Regius Professor created Doctour Whitaker solemnly gave him thanks before the University for giving him correction when his young scholar In marriage he first and last consults with his father when propounded when concluded He best bowls at the mark of his own contentment who besides the aim of his own eye is directed by his father who is to give him the ground He is a stork to his parent and feeds him in his old age Not onely if his father hath been a pelican but though he hath been an estridge unto him and neglected him in his youth He confines him not a long way off to a short pension forfeited if he comes in his presence but shews piety at home and learns as S. Paul saith the 1. Timothy 5.4 to requite his Parent And yet the debt I mean onely the principall not counting the interest cannot fully be paid and therefore he compounds with his father to accept in good worth the utmost of his endeavour Such a child God commonly rewards with long life in this world If he chance to die young yet he lives long that lives well and time mispent is not lived but lost Besides God is better then his promise if he takes from him a long lease and gives him a free-hold of better value As for disobedient children If preserved from the gallows they are reserved for the rack to be tortured by their own posterity One complained that never father had so undutifull a child as he had Yes said his sonne with lesse grace then truth my grandfather had I conclude this subject with the example of a Pagans sonne which will shame most Christians Pomponius Atticus making the funerall oration at the death of his mother did protest that living with her threescore and seven years he was never reconciled unto her Se nunquam cum matre in gratiam rediisse because take the comment with the text there never happened betwixt them the least jarre which needed reconciliation CHAP. 7. The good Master HE is the heart in the midst of his houshold primum vivens et ultimum moriens first up and last abed if not in his person yet in his providence In his carriage he aimeth at his own and his servants good and to advance both He oversees the works of his servants One said that the dust that fell from the masters shooes was the best compost to manure ground The lion out of state will not run whilst any one looks upon him but some servants out of slothfulnesse will not run except some do look upon them spurr'd on with their Masters eye Chiefly he is carefull exactly to take his servants reckonings If their Master takes no account of them they will make small account of him and care not what they spend who are never brought to an audit He provides them victualls wholsome sufficient and seasonable He doth not so allay his servants bread to debase it so much as to make that servants meat which is not mans meat He alloweth them also convenient rest and recreation whereas some Masters like a bad conscience will not suffer them to sleep that have them He remembers the old law of the Saxon King Ina If a villain work on Sunday by his lords command he shall be free The wages he contracts for he duly and truly payes to his servants The same word in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies rust and poyson and some strong poyson is made of the rust of mettalls but none more venemous then the rust of money in the rich mans purse unjustly detained from the labourer which will poyson and infect his whole estate He never threatens his servant but rather presently corrects him Indeed conditionall threatnings with promise of pardon on amendment are good and usefull Absolute threatnings torment more reform lesse making servants keep their faults and forsake their Masters wherefore herein he never passeth his word but makes present paiment lest the creditour runne away from the debtour In correcting his servant he becomes not a slave to his own passion Not cruelly making new indentures of the flesh of his apprentice To this end he never beats him in the height of his passion Moses being to fetch water out of
prodigall of mens lives but thriftily improves the objects of his cruelty spending them by degrees and epicurizing on their pain So that as Philoxenus wished a cranes throat he could desire asses eares the longer to entertain their hydeous and miserable roaring Thus Nature had not racks enough for men the Colick Gout Stone c. but Art must adde to them and devils in flesh antedate hell here in inventing torments which when inflicted on malefactours extort pitie fom mercifull beholders and make them give what is not due but when used by Tyrants on innocent people such tender hearts as stand by suffer what they see and by the proxie of sympathy feel what they behold He seeks to suppresse all memorialls and writings of his actions And as wicked Tereus after he had ravished Philomela cut out her tongue so when Tyrants have wronged and abused the times they live in they endeavour to make them speechlesse to tell no tales to posterity Herein their folly is more to be admired then their malice for learning can never be dreined dry though it may be dambd up for one Age yet it will break over and Historians pens being long kept fasting will afterwards feed more greedily on the memories of Tyrants and describe them to the full Yea I believe their ink hath made some Tyrants blacker then they were in their true complexion At last he is haunted with the terrours of his own conscience If any two do but whisper together whatsoever the Propositions be he conceives their discourse concludes against him Company and solitarinesse are equally dreadfull unto him being never safe and he wants a Guard to guard him from his Guard and so proceeds in infinitum The Scouts of Charles Duke of Burgundy brought him news that the French army was hard by being nothing else but a field full of high thistles whose tops they mistook for so many spears On lesser ground this Tyrant conceives greater fears Thus in vain doth he seek to fence himself from without whose foe is within him He is glad to patch up a bad nights sleep out of pieces of slumber They seldome sleep soundly who have bloud for their bolster His phansie presents him with strange masques wherein onely Fiends and Furies are actours The fright awakes him and he is no sooner glad that it was a dream but fears it is propheticall In vain he courts the friendship of forrein Princes They defie his amity and will not joyn their clean hands with his bloudy ones Sometimes to ingratiate himself he doth some good acts but virtue becomes him worse then vice for all know he counterfeits it for his own ends Having lived in other mens bloud he dies commonly in his own He had his will all his life but seldome makes his Testament at his death being suddenly taken away either by a private hand or a publick insurrection It is observed of the camell that it lies quietly down till it hath its full load and then riseth up But this Vulgus is a kind of beast which riseth up soonest when it is overladen immoderate cruelty causing it to rebell Yet Fero is a fitter motto then Ferio for Christians in their carriage towards lawfull Authoritie though unlawfully used We will give a double example of a Tyrant the one an absolute Sovereigne the other a Substitute or Vice-roy under an absolute Prince CHAP. 18. The life of ANDRONICUS ANdronicus Comnenus descended of the Grecian Emperiall bloud was a Prince most vicious in his life and perfidious in his dealing and for his severall offenses after long banishment was at length by Emmanuel the Grecian Emperour his kinsman confined to a private city in Paphlagonia Here Andronicus hugg'd himself in his privacie though all that time he did but levell and take aim intending at last to shoot at the Empire though for a while he lay very still and with the Hedgehog seemingly dead he rounded himself up in his own prickles without any motion Leave we him there and come to behold the face of the Grecian Empire which presents us with all the Symptomes of a dying State Emmanuell being dead Alexius his sonne succeeds him a Minor of twelve years of age wanting wit to guide himself and his friends care to govern him Xena the Mother-Empresse wholly given to her pleasures with her minion Alexius Protosebastus who ruled all in the State The Nobility factious snatching what they could get and counting violent possession the best and onely title The people of Constantinople valiant onely to make mutinies on every occasion in confused multitudes without any Martiall discipline as who could expect that a rolling snow-ball should have any curious fashion Andronicus hearing of these misdemeanours found that opportunity courted him to procure the Empire for himself Wherefore he remonstrates to the whole world the great grief he conceived at these disorders For though patience had made him past feeling of any private injuries offered to himself yet he must be stark dead indeed if he were not moved with these generall miseries of the Empire He being a Prince of the bloud could not without grief behold how Xena the Empresse and Protosebastus had conspired to abuse the tender age of young Alexius so to draw all dominion to themselves and who kowing that their strength consisted in the young Emperours weaknesse intended so to breed him that in point of judgement he should never be of age and onely able in pleasures Whereupon Andronicus resolved to free his young kinsman and the Empire from this thraldome Treason is so uggly in her self that every one that sees it will cast stones at it which makes her seldome appear but with a borrowed face for the good of the Commonwealth but especially when ambition hath caught hold on pretended religion how fast will it climbe Andronicus with an army of Paphlagonians marched to Constantinople in which city he had a great party on his side Maria Cesarissa half sister to the Emperour with her husband and many other good Patriots which bemoaned the distempers in the State applying themselves to Andronicus for help counting a bad physician better then none at all Besides there were in the city many turbulent spirits desirous of alterations as profitable unto them counting themselves the petty-Landlords of the times to whom rich fines and herriots would accrue upon every exchange and all those took part with Andronicus Many more did Andronicus winne to his party by his cunning behaviour for he could speak both eloquently and religiously He would ordinarily talk Scripture-language often fouly misapplyed as if his memory were a Concordance of the whole Bible but especially of S. Pauls Epistles which he had by heart Besides no man had better command of rain and sunshine in his face to smile and weep at pleasure his tears flowed at will which caught the affections of many though others better acquainted with his tricks no more pitied his weeping then they bemoaned the
drive more from him then Nassaw's courtesie invited to him His popular nature was of such receipt that he had room to lodge all comers In peoples eyes his light shined bright yet dazled none all having free accesse unto him every one was as well pleased as if he had been Prince himself because he might be so familiar with the Prince He was wont to content those who reproved his too much humanity with this saying That man is cheap bought who costs but a salutation I report the Reader to the Belgian Histories where he may see the changes of warre betwixt these two sides We will onely observe that Duke D'Alva's covetousnesse was above his policy in fencing the rich inland and neglecting the barren maritime places He onely look'd on the broad gates of the countrey whereby it openeth to the continent of Germany and France whilest in the mean time almost half the Netherlands ran out at the postern doore towards the sea Nassaw's side then wounded Achilles in the heel indeed and touch'd the Spaniard to the quick when on Palm-sunday as if the day promised victory at Brill they took the first livery and seasin of the land and got soon after most cities towards the sea Had Alva herein prevented him probably he had made those Provinces as low in subjection as situation Now at last he began to be sensible of his errour and grew weary of his command desiring to hold that staff no longer which he perceived he had taken by the wrong end He saw that going about to bridle the Netherlanders with building of castles in many places they had gotten the bit into their own teeth He saw that warre was not quickly to be hunted out of that countrey where it had taken covert in a wood of cities He saw the cost of some one cities siege would pave the streets thereof with silver each city â—ort and sconce being a Gordian knot which would make Alexanders sword turn edge before he could cut thorow it so that this warre and the world were likely to end together these Netherlands being like the head-block in the chimney where the fire of warre is alwayes kept in though out every where else never quite quench'd though rak'd up sometimes in the ashes of a truce Besides he saw that the subdued part of the Netherlands obeyed more for fear then love and their loyalty did rather lie in the Spanish Garisons then their own hearts and that in their sighes they breathed many a prosperous gale to Nassaw's party Lastly he saw that forrein Princes having the Spaniards greatnesse in suspicion desired he might long be digesting this break-fast lest he should make his dinner on them both France and England counting the Low-countreys their outworks to defend their walls wherefore he petitioned the King of Spain his Master to call him home from this unprofitable service Then was he called home and lived some years after in Spain being well respected of the King and employed by him in conquering Portugall contrary to the expectation of most who look'd that the Kings displeasure would fall heavy on him for causing by his cruelty the defection of so many countreys yet the King favourably reflected on him perchance to frustrate on purpose the hopes of many and to shew that Kings affections will not tread in the beaten path of vulgar expectation or seeing that the Dukes life and state could amount to poore satisfaction for his own losses he thought it more Princely to remit the whole then to be revenged but in part or lastly because he would not measure his servants loyalty by the successe and lay the unexpected rubs in the allie to the bowlers fault who took good aim though missing the mark This led many to believe that Alva onely acted the Kings will and not willed his acts following the instructions he received and rather going beyond then against his Commission However most barbarous was his cruelty He bragg'd as he sate at dinner and was it not a good grace after meat that he had caused eighteen thousand to be executed by the ordinary minister of justice within the space of six years besides an infinite more murthered by other tyrannous means Yea some men he killed many times giving order to the executioners to pronounce each syllable of torment long upon them that the thred of their life might not be cut off but unravell'd as counting it no pain for men to die except they dyed with pain witnesse Anthony Utenhow whom he caused to be tied to a stake with a chain in Brussells compassing him about with a great fire but not touching him turning him round about like a poore beast who was forced to live in that great torment and extremity roasting before the fire so long untill the Halberdiers themselves having compassion on him thrust him through contrary to the will both of the Duke and the Spanish Priests When the city of Harlem surrendred themselves unto him on condition to have their lives he suffered some of the Souldiers and Burgers thereof to be starved to death saying that though he promised to give them their lives he did not promise to find them meat The Netherlanders used to fright their children with telling them Duke D'Alva was coming and no wonder if children were scared with him of whom their fathers were afraid He was one of a lean body and visage as if his eager soul biting for anger at the clog of his body desired to fret a passage through it He had this humour that he neglected the good counsel of others especially if given him before he ask'd it and had rather stumble then beware of a block of another mans telling But as his life was a miroir of cruelty so was his death of Gods patience It was admirable that his tragicall acts should have a comicall end that he that sent so many to the grave should go to his own die in peace But Gods justice on offenders goes not alwayes in the same path nor the same pace And he is not pardoned for the fault who is for a while reprived from the punishment yea sometimes the guest in the inne goes quietly to bed before the reckoning for his supper is brought to him to discharge FINIS Maxime 1 * Comineus lib. 4. cap. 8 Rodinus De Repub. lib. 5. p. 782. 2 * Erasmus Dial. in nausragio 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. * August confess lib. 9. c. 8. * August confess lib. 9. c. 9. * August confess lib. 6. c. 2. * August lib. 1. De ordine c. 8. * August confess lib. 9. c. 10. Maxime 1 * Plin. Nat. hist. lib. 10. cap. 62. 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 * 1. Sam. 1.11 Maxime 1 * Eccles 12.11 2 3 * Giveâ— each child a part Versteg Oâ— decayed intell cap 3. 4 * Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. 8. c. 18. 5 6 * Exod. 2.4 7 8 9 Maxime 1 * Stapleton in vita Tho. Mori cap. 1. 2 *
of children she would be made a mother by a proxie He was not jealous of her though a grand beauty in what company soever he came Indeed he feared the Egyptians because the Egyptians feared not God suspecting rather them of force then her of falsenesse and beleeving that sooner they might kill him then corrupt her Yet as well as he loved her he expected she should do work fit for her calling Make ready quickly three measures of meal and knead it Well may Sarah be cook where Abraham was caterer yea where God was guest The print of her fingers still remain in the meal and of crumbling dow she hath made a lasting monument of her good houswifry Being falsely indited by his wife he never travers'd the bill but compounded with her on her own terms The case this Hagar being with child by Abraham her pride sweld with her belly and despiseth her mistresse Sarah laying her action wrong sues Abraham for her maids fault and appeals to God I see the Plaintiff hath not alwayes the best cause nor are they most guilty which are most blamed However Abraham passes by her peevishnesse and remits his maid to stand or fall to her own mistresse Though he had a great part in Hagar he would have none in Hagars reâ—bellion Masters which protect their faulty servants hinder the proceeding of justice in a family He did denie himself to grant his wives will in a matter of great consequence Sarah desired Cast out this bondwoman and her sonne Oh hard word She might as well have said Cast out of thy self nature and naturall affection See how Abraham struggles with Abraham the Father in him striving with the Husband in him till God moderated with his casting-voyce and Abraham was contented to hearken to the counsel of his wife Being to sacrifice Isaac we find not that he made Sarah privie to his project To tell her had been to torture her fearing her affections might be too strong for her faith Some secrets are to be kept from the weaker sex not alwayes out of a distrust lest they hurt the counsel by telling it but lest the counsel hurt them by keeping it The dearest Husband cannot bail his wife when death arrests her Sarah dies and Abraham weeps Tears are a tribute due to the dead 'T is fitting that the body when it 's sown in corruption should be watered by those that plant it in the earth The Hittites make him a fair offer In the chiefest of our sepulchres bury thy dead But he thinks the best of them too bad for his Sarah Her chast ashes did love to lie alone he provides her a virgin tombe in the cave of Machpelah where her corps sweetly sleep till he himself came to bed to her and was buried in the same grave CHAP. 5. The good Parent HE beginneth his care for his children not at their birth but conception giving them to God to be if not as Hannah did his Chaplains at least his Servants This care he continueth till the day of his death in their Infancy Youth and Mans estate In all which He sheweth them in his own practice what to follow and imitate and in others what to shun and avoid For though The words of the wiâ—e be as nayles fastened by the masters of the Assemblies yet sure their examples are the hammer to drive them in to take the deeper hold A father that whipt his sonne for swearing and swore himself whilest he whipt him did more harm by his example then good by his correction He doth not welcome and imbrace the first essayes of sinne in his children Weeds are counted herbs in the beginning of the spring nettles are put in pottage and sallads are made of eldern-buds Thus fond fathers like the oathes and wanton talk of their little children and please themselves to heare them displease God But our wise Parent both instructs his children in Piety and with correction blasts the first buds of profanenesse in them He that will not use the rod on his child his child shall be used as a rod on him He observeth Gavel-kind in dividing his affections though not his estate He loves them though leaves them not all alike Indeed his main land he settles on the eldest for where man takes away the birth-right God commonly takes away the blessing from a family But as for his love therein like a well-drawn picture he eyes all his children alike if there be a parity of deserts not parching one to drown another Did not that mother shew little wit in her great partiality to whom when her neglected sonne complained that his brother her darling had hit and hurt him with a stone whipt him onely for standing in the way where the stone went which his brother cast This partiality is tyrannie when Parents despise those that are deformed enough to break them whom God had bowed before He allows his children maintenance according to their quality Otherwise it will make them base acquaint them with bad company and sharking tricks and it makes them surfet the sooner when they come to their estates It is observed of camels that having travelled long without water through sandy deserts Implentur cum bibendi est occasio in praeteritum in futurum and so these thirsty heirs soak it when they come to their means who whilest their fathers were living might not touch the top of his money and think they shall never feel the bottom of it when they are dead In choosing a profession he is directed by his childs disposition whose inclination is the strongest indenture to bind him to a trade But when they set Abel to till the ground and send Cain to keep sheep Jacob to hunt and Esau to live in tents drive some to school and others from it they commit a rape on nature and it will thrive accordingly Yet he humours not his child when he makes an unworthy choice beneath himself or rather for ease then use pleasure then profit If his sonne prove wild he doth not cast him off so farre but he marks the place where he lights With the mother of Moses he doth not suffer his sonne so to sink or swim but he leaves one to stand afarre off to watch what will become of him He is carefull whilest he quencheth his luxury not withall to put out his life The rather because their souls who have broken and run out in their youth have proved the more healthfull for it afterwards He moves him to marriage rather by arguments drawn from his good then his own authority It is a style too Princely for a Parent herein To will and command but sure he may will and desire Affections like the conscience are rather to be led then drawn and 't is to be feared They that marry where they do not love will love where they do not marry He doth not give away his loaf to his children and
labore magno sed ridiculo inani But this obscurity is worst when affected when they do as Persius of whom one saith Legi voluit quae scripsit intelligi noluit quae legerentur Some affect this darknesse that they may be accounted profound whereas one is not bound to believe that all the water is deep that is muddy He is not curious in searching matters of no moment Captain Martin Forbisher fetcht from the farthest northern Countries a ships lading of minerall stones as he thought which afterwards were cast out to mend the high wayes Thus are they served and misse their hopes who long seeking to extract hidden mysteries out of nice questions leave them off as uselesse at last Antoninus Pius for his desire to search to the least differences was called Cumini sector the Carver of cumine seed One need not be so accurate for as soon shall one scowr the spots out of the moon as all ignorance out of man When Eunomius the Heretick vaunted that he knew God and his divinity S. Basil gravells him in 21 questions about the body of an ant or pismire so dark is mans understanding I wonder therefore at the boldnesse of some who as if they were Lord Mashalls of the Angels place them in ranks and files Let us not believe them here but rather go to heaven to confute them He neither multiplies needlesse nor compounds necessary Controversies Sure they light on a labour in vain who seek to make a bridge of reconciliation over the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 betwixt Papists and Protestants for though we go 99 steps they I mean their Church will not come one to give us a meeting And as for the offers of Clara's and private men besides that they seem to be more of the nature of baits then gifts they may make large profers without any Commission to treat and so the Romish Church not bound to pay their promises In Merionethshire in Wales there are high mountains whose hanging tops come so close together that shepherds on the tops of severall hills may audibly talk together yet will it be a dayes journey for their bodies to meet so vast is the hallownesse of the vallies betwixt them Thus upon sound search shall we find a grand distance and remotenesse betwixt Popish and Protestant tenents to reconcile them which at the first view may seem near and tending to an accomodation He is resolute and stable in fundamentall points of Religion These are his fixed poles and axletree about which he moves whilest they stand unmoveable Some sail so long on the Sea of controversies toss'd up and down to and fro Pro and Con that the very ground to them seems to move and their judgements grow scepticall and unstable in the most settled points of Divinity When he cometh to Preach especially if to a plain Auditory with the Paracelsians he extracts an oyl out of the driest and hardest bodies and knowing that knotty timber is unfit to build with he edifies people with easie and profitable matter WILLIAM WHITACRES Dr. of D Kinges Professor and Master of S nt Iohns Coll in Cambridge where He died An o 1595. Aged 47 yeares W. Marshall sculp CHAP. 5. The life of Dr. VVHITAKER WIlliam Whitaker born at Holm in the County of Lancaster of good parentage especially by his mothers side allied to two worshipfull families His reverend unckle Alexander Nowell Dean of S. Pauls the first fruits of the English Confessours in the dayes of Queen Marie who after her death first return'd into England from beyond the Seas took him young from his parents sent him first to Pauls School thence to Trinity Colledge in Cambridge where he so profited in his studies that he gave great promises of his future perfection I passe by his youthfull exercises never striving for the garland but he wonne and wore it away His prime appearing to the world was when he stood for the Professours place against two Competitours in age farre his superiours But the seven Electours in the Universitie who were to choose the Emperour of the Schools preferring a golden head before silver hairs conferr'd the place on Whitaker and the strict form of their Election hath no room for corruption He so well acquitted himself in the place that he answered expectation the strongest opponent in all disputes and lectures and by degrees taught envie to admire him By this time the Papists began to assault him and the Truth First Campian one fitter for a Trumpeter then a Souldier whose best ability was that he could boast in good Latine being excellent at the flat hand of Rhetorick which rather gives pats then blows but he could not bend his fist to dispute Whitaker both in writing and disputing did teach him that it was easier to make then maintain a challenge against our Church and in like manner he handled both Duraeus and Sanders who successively undertook the same cause solidly confuting their arguments But these Teazers rather to rouze then pinch the Game onely made Whitaker find his spirits The fiercest dog is behind even Bellarmine himself a great scholar and who wanted nothing but a good cause to defend and generally writing ingeniously using sometimes slenting seldome down-right railing Whitaker gave him all fair quarter stating the question betwixt them yielding all which the other in reason could ask and agreeing on terms to fall out with him plaid fairly but fiercely on him till the other forsook the field Bellarmine had no mind to reinforce his routed arguments but rather consigned over that service to a new Generall Stapleton an English man He was born the same yeare and moneth wherein Sr. Thomas More was beheaded an observation little lesse then mysticall with the Papists as if God had substituted him to grow up in the room of the other for the support of the Catholick cause If Whitaker in answering him put more gall then usuall into his ink Stapleton whose mouth was as foul as his cause first infected him with bitternesse and none will blame a man for arming his hands with hard and rough gloves who is to meddle with bryers and brambles Thus they baited him constantly with fresh dogs None that ran at him once desired a second course at him and as one observes Cum nullo hoste unquam constixit quem non fudit fugavit He filled the Chair with a gracefull presence so that one needed not to do with him as Luther did with Melanchthon when he first heard him reade abstract the opinion and sight of his stature and person lest the meannesse thereof should cause an undervaluing of him for our Whitakers person carried with it an excellent port His style was manly for the strength maidenly for the modesty and elegant for the phrase thereof shewing his skill in spinning a fine thred out of course wool for such is controversiall matter He had by his second wife a modest woman eight
one to see the old learning in the other But grant that Metcalf with Themistocles could not fiddle yet he could make a little city a great one though dull in himself he could whet others by his encouragement He found the Colledge spending scarce two hundred marks by the yeare he left it spending a thousand marks and more For he not onely procured and settled many donations and by-foundations as we term them of Fellowships and Scholarships founded by other but was a Benefactour himself Pro certis ornamentis structuris in Capella pro aedificatione sex Camerarum à tergo Coquinae c. as it is evidenced in the Colledge books He counted the Colledge his own home and therefore cared not what cost he bestowed on it not like those Masters who making their Colledges as steps to higher advancement will trample on them to raise up themselves and using their wings to flie up to their own honour cannot afford to spread them to brood their Colledge But the thriving of the nourcery is the best argument to prove the skill and care of the nource See what store of worthy men the house in his time did yield Statesmen William Cecill Lord Burly Sr. John Cheek Walter Haddon Ralph Bain Bishop of Coventrie and Lichfield John Christopherson Bishop of Chichester Robert Horn Bishop of Winton James Pilkinton Bishop of Duresme John Tailour Bishop of Lincoln Thomas Watson Bishop of Lincoln Learned writers Roger Ascham George Bullock Roger Hutchinson Alban Langdale John Seaton Learned Men. Hugh Fitz-Herbert William Jreland Laurence Pilkinton Tomson Henry Wright With very many more For though I dare not say that all these were old enough to bear fruit in Metcalfs time yet sure I am by him they were inoculated and in his dayes admitted into the Colledge Yet for all these his deserts Metcalf in his old age was expell'd the Colledge and driven out when he could scarce go A new generation grew up advanced by him whose active spirits stumbled at his gravity young seamen do count ballast needlesse yea burthensome in a ship and endeavoured his removall It appears not what particular fault they laid to his charge Some think that the Bishop of Rochester his good lord being put to death occasioned his ruine Fishers misfortune being Metcalfs highest misdemeanour He sunk with his Patron and when his sunne was set it was presently night with him for according to the Spanish proverb where goes the bucket there goes the rope where the principall miscarries all the dependants fall with him Others conceive it was for his partiality in preferring Northern men as if in his compasse there were no points but such onely as looked to the North advancing alone his own countrey-men and more respecting their need then deserts Indeed long before I find William Millington first Provost of Kings Colledge put out of his place for his partiality in electing Yorkshire men But herein Metcalf is sufficiently justified for he found Charity hottest in the cold countrey Northern men were most partiall saith one in giving lands to the Colledge for the furtherance of learning Good reason therefore Northern Scholars should be most watered there where Northern Benefactours rained most Well good old Metcalf must forsake the House Methinks the blushing bricks seem asham'd of their ingratitudes and each doore window and casement in the Colledge was a mouth to plead for him But what shall we say Mark generally the grand deservers in States and you shall find them lose their lustre before they end their life The world out of covetousnesse to save charges to pay them their wages quarrelling with them as if an over-merit were an offence And whereas some impute this to the malignant influence of the heavens I ascribe it rather to a pestilent vapour out of the earth I mean That rather men then starres are to be blamed for it He was twenty years Master and on the 4 day of June 1537. went out of his office and it seems dyed soon after his Epitaph is fastned on a piece of brasse on the wall in the Colledge-Chappell We must not forget that all who were great doers in his expulsion were great sufferers afterwards and dyed all in great miserie There is difference betwixt prying into Gods secrets and being stark blind Yea I question whether we are not bound to look where God points by so memorable a judgement shewing that those branches most justly whithered which pluck'd up their own root CHAP. 16. The good Schoolmaster THere is scarce any profession in the Common-wealth more necessary which is so slightly performed The reasons whereof I conceive to be these first young scholars make this calling their refuge yea perchance before they have taken any degree in the University commence Schoolmasters in the countrey as if nothing else were required to set up this profession but onely a rod and a ferula Secondly others who are able use it onely as a passage to better preferment to patch the rents in their present fortune till they can provide a new one and betake themselves to some more gainfull calling Thirdly they are disheartned from doing their best with the miserable reward which in some places they receive being Masters to the children and slaves to their parents Fourthly being grown rich they grow negligent and scorn to touch the school but by the proxie of an Usher But see how well our Schoolmaster behaves himself His genius inclines him with delight to this profession Some men had as lieve be schoolboyes as Schoolmasters to be tyed to the school as Coopers Dictionary and Scapula's Lexicon are chained to the desk therein and though great scholars and skilfull in other arts are bunglers in this But God of his goodnesse hath fitted severall men for severall callings that the necessities of Church and State in all conditions may be provided for So that he who beholds the fabrick thereof may say God hewed out this stone and appointed it to lie in this very place for it would fit none other so well and here it doth most excellent And thus God mouldeth some for a Schoolmasters life undertaking it with desire and delight and discharging it with dexterity and happy successe He studieth his scholars natures as carefully as they their books and ranks their dispositions into severall forms And though it may seem difficult for him in a great school to descend to all particulars yet experienced Schoolmasters may quickly make a Grammar of boyes natures and reduce them all saving some few exceptions to these generall rules 1 Those that are ingenious and industrious The conjunction of two such Planets in a youth presage much good unto him To such a lad a frown may be a whipping and a whipping a death yea where their Master whips them once shame whips them all the week after Such natures he useth with all gentlenesse 2 Those that are ingenious and idle These think with the
blur the fair copy of his performance because they would not take pains to write after it I passe by his next West Indian voyage wherein he took the Cities of S. Jago S. Domingo Carthagena and S. Augustine in Florida as also his service performed in 88 wherein he with many others helped to the waining of that half Moon which sought to govern all the motion of our Sea I hast to his last Voyage Queen Elizabeth perceiving that the onely way to make the Spaniard a criple for ever was to cut his Sinews of warre in the West Indies â—urnished S r Francis Drake and S r John Hawkins with six of her own ships besides 21 ships and Barks of their own providing containing in all 2500 Men and Boyes for some service on America But alas this voyage was marr'd before begun For so great preparations being too big for a cover the King of Spain knew of it and sent a Caravall of adviso to the West Indies so that they had intelligence three weeks before the Fleet set forth of England either to fortifie or remove their treasure whereas in other of Drakes Voyages not two of his own men knew whither he went and managing such a designe is like carrying a Mine in warre if it hath any vent all is spoyled Besides Drake and Hawkins being in joynt Commission hindred each other The later took himself to be inferiour rather in successe then skill and the action was unlike to prosper when neither would follow and both could not handsomly go abreast It vexed old Hawkins that his counsell was not followed in present sayling to America but that they spent time in vain in assaulting the Canaries and the grief that his advice was slighted say some was the cause of his death Others impute it to the sorrow he took for the taking of his Bark called the Francis which five Spanish Frigates had intercepted But wheÌ„ the same heart hath two mortall wounds given it together 't is hard to say which of them killeth Drake continued his course for Port-Rico and riding within the roade a shot from the Castle entred the steerage of the ship took away the stool from under him as he sate at supper wounded S r Nicholas Clifford and Brute Brown to death Ah dear Brute said Drake I could grieve for thee but now is no time for me to let down my spirits And indeed a Souldiers most proper bemoaning a friends death in warre is in revenging it And sure as if grief had made the English furious they soon after fired five Spanish ships of two hundred tunnes apiece in despight of the Castle America is not unfitly resembled to an Houre-glasse which hath a narrow neck of land suppose it the hole where the sand passeth betwixt the parts thereof Mexicana Pervana Now the English had a designe to march by land over this Isthmus from Port-Rico to Panama where the Spanish treasure was layd up S r Thomas Baskervile Generall of the land-forces undertook the service with seven hundred and fifty armed men They marched through deep wayes the Spaniards much annoying them with shot out of the woods One fort in the passage they assaulted in vain and heard that two others were built to stop them besides Panama it self They had so much of this breakfast they thought they should surfet of a dinner and supper of the same No hope of conquest except with cloying the jaws of Death and thrusting men on the mouth of the Canon Wherefore fearing to find the Proverb true That Gold may be bought too dear they returned to their ships Drake afterwards fired Nombre de Dios and many other petty Towns whose treasure the Spaniards had conveyed away burning the empty casks when their precious liquour was runne out before and then prepared for their returning home Great was the difference betwixt the Indian cities now from what they were when Drake first haunted these coasts At first the Spaniards here were safe and secure counting their treasure sufficient to defend it self the remotenesse thereof being the greatest almost onely resistance and the fetching of it more then the fighting for it Whilest the King of Spain guarded the head and heart of his dominions in Europe he left his long legs in America open to blows till finding them to smart being beaten black and blew by the English he learned to arm them at last fortifying the most important of them to make them impregnable Now began S r Francis his discontent to feed upon him He conceived that expectation a mercilesse usurer computing each day since his departure exacted an interest and return of honour and profit proportionable to his great preparations and transcending his former atchievements He saw that all the good which he had done in this voyage consisted in the evill he had done to the Spaniards afarre off whereof he could present but small visible fruits in England These apprehensions accompanying if not causing the disease of the flux wrought his sudden death And sicknesse did not so much untie his clothes as sorrow did rend at once the robe of his mortality asunder He lived by the sea died on it and was buried in it Thus an ex-tempore performance scarce heard to be begun before we hear it is ended comes off with better applause or miscarries with lesse disgrace then a long studied and openly premeditated action Besides we see how great spirits having mounted to the highest pitch of performance afterwards strain and break their credits in striving to go beyond it Lastly God oftentimes leaves the brightest men in an eclipse to shew that they do but borrow their lustre from his reflection We will not justifie all the actions of any man though of a tamer profession then a Sea-Captain in whom civility is often counted precisenesse For the main we say that this our Captain was a religious man towards God and his houses generally sparing Churches where he came chast in his life just in his dealings true of his word and mercifull to those that were under him hating nothing so much as idlenesse And therefore lest his soul should rust in peace at spare houres he brought fresh water to Plimouth Carefull he was for posterity though men of his profession have as well an ebbe of riot as a flote of fortune and providently raised a worshipfull Family of his kinred In a word should those that speak against him fast till they fetch their bread where he did his they would have a good stomach to eat it CHAP. 22. The good Herald HE is a Warden of the temple of Honour Mutuall necessity made mortall enemies agree in these Officers the lungs of Mars himself would be burnt to pieces having no respiration in a truce Heralds therefore were invented to proclaim peace or warre deliver messages about summons of forts ransoming of captives burying the dead and the like He is grave and faithfull in discharging the service he is imployed
but give it away For what a shame is it for a man of quality to be ignorant of Solon in our Athens of Lycurgus in our Sparta Besides law will help him to keep his own and besteed his neighbours Say not that there be enough which make this their set practice for so there are also many masters of defence by their profession and shall private men therefore learn no skill at their weapons As for the Hospitality the Apparell the Travelling the Companie the Recreations the Marriage of Gentlemen they are described in severall Chapters in the following Book A word or two of his behaviour in the countrey He is courteous and affable to his neighbours As the sword of the best tempered mettall is most flexible so the truly generous are most pliant and courteous in their behaviour to their inferiours He delights to see himself and his servants well mounted therefore he loveth good Horsemanship Let never any forrein Rabshakeh send that brave to our Jerusalem offering to lend her two thousand horses if she be able for her part to set riders upon them We know how Darius got the Persian Empire from the rest of his fellow Peeres by the first neighing of his generous steed It were no harm if in some needlesse suits of intricate precedencie betwixt equall Gentlemen the priority were adjudged to him who keeps a stable of most serviceable horses He furnisheth and prepareth himself in peace against time of warre Lest it be too late to learn when his skill is to be used He approves himself couragious when brought to the triall as well remembring the custome which is used at the Creation of Knights of the Bath wherein the Kings Master-Cook cometh forth presenteth his great knife to the new-made Knights admonishing them to be faithfull and valiant otherwise he threatens them that that very knife is prepared to cut off their spurres If the Commission of the Peace finds him out he faithfully discharges it I say Finds him out for a publick Office is a guest which receives the best usage from them who never invited it And though he declined the Place the countrey knew to prize his worth who would be ignorant of his own He compounds many petty differences betwixt his neighbours which are easier ended in his own Porch then in Westminster-hall for many people think if once they have fetched a warrant from a Justice they have given earnest to follow the suit though otherwise the matter be so mean that the next nights sleep would have bound both parties to the peace and made them as good friends as ever before Yet He connives not at the smothering of punishable faults He hates that practice as common as dangerous amongst countrey people who having received again the goods which were stollen from them partly out of foolish pity and partly out of covetousnesse to save charges in prosecuting the law let the thief escape unpunished Thus whilest private losses are repaired the wounds to the Commonwealth in the breach of the Laws are left uncured And thus petty Larceners are encouraged into Felons and afterwards are hang'd for pounds because never whipt for pence who if they had felt the cord had never been brought to the halter If chosen a Member of Parliament he is willing to do his Countrey service If he be no Rhetorician to raise affections yea Barnabas was a greater speaker then S. Paul himself he counts it great wisdome to be the good manager of Yea and Nay The slow pace of his judgement is recompenced by the swift following of his affections when his judgement is once soundly inform'd And here we leave him in consultation wishing him with the rest of his honourable Society all happy successe The Holy State THE THIRD BOOK Containing Generall Rules CHAP. 1. Of Hospitality HOspitality is threefold for ones familie this is of Necessity for strangers this is Courtesie for the poore this is Charity Of the two latter To keep a disorderly house is the way to keep neither house nor lands For whilest they keep the greatest roaring their state steals away in the greatest silence Yet when many consume themselves with secret vices then Hospitality bears the blame whereas it is not the Meat but the Sauce not the Supper but the Gaming after it doth undoe them Measure not thy entertainment of a guest by his estate but thine own Because he is a Lord forget not that thou art but a Gentleman otherwise if with feasting him thou breakest thy self he will not cure thy rupture and perchance rather deride then pitie thee When provision as we say groweth on the same it is miraculously multiplied In Northamptonshire all the rivers of the County are bred in it besides those Ouse and Charwell it lendeth and sendeth into other shires So the good Housekeeper hath a fountain of wheat in his field mutton in his fold c. both to serve himself and supply others The expence of a feast will but breath him which will tire another of the same estate who buyes all by the penny Mean mens palates are best pleased with fare rather plentifull then various solid then dainty Dainties will cost more and content lesse to those that are not Criticall enough to distinguish them Occasionall entertainment of men greater then thy self is better then solemn inviting them Then short warning is thy large excuse whereas otherwise if thou dost not overdo thy estate thou shalt underdo his expectation for thy feast will be but his ordinary fare A King of France was often pleased in his hunting wilfully to lose himself to find the house of a private Park-keeper where going from the School of State-affairs he was pleased to make a play-day to himself He brought sauce Hunger with him which made course meat dainties to his palate At last the Park-keeper took heart and solemnely invited the King to his house who came with all his Court so that all the mans meat was not a morsell for them Well said the Park-keeper I will invite no more Kings having learnt the difference between Princes when they please to put on the visard of privacie and when they will appear like themselves both in their Person and Attendants Those are ripe for charitie which are withered by age or impotencie Especially if maimed in following their calling for such are Industries Martyrs at least her Confessours Adde to these those that with diligence fight against poverty though neither conquer till death make it a drawn battel Expect not but prevent their craving of thee for God forbid the heavens should never rain till the earth first opens her mouth seing some grounds will sooner burn then chap. The House of correction is the fittest Hospital for those Cripples whose legs are lame through their own lazinesse Surely King Edward the sixth was as truly charitable in granting Bridewell for the punishment of sturdy Rogues as in giving S.
kept the next Sabbath S. Paul saith Let not the Sunne go down on your wrath to carry news to the Antipodes in another world of thy revengefull nature Yet let us take the Apostles meaning rather then his words with all possible speed to depose our passion not understanding him so literally that we may take leave to be angry till Sunset then might our wrath lengthen with the dayes and men in Greenland where day lasts above a quarter of a yeare have plentifull scope of revenge And as the English by command from William the Conquerer alwayes raked up their fire and put out their candles when the Curfew-bell was rung let us then also quench all sparks of anger and heat of passion He that keeps anger long in his bosome giveth place to the devil And why should we make room for him who will crowd in too fast of himself Heat of passion makes our souls to chappe and the devil creeps in at the cranies yea a furious man in his fits may seem possess'd with a devil fomes fumes tears himself is deaf and dumbe in effect to heare or speak reason sometimes wallows stares stamps with fiery eyes and flaming cheeks Had Narcissus himself seen his own face when he had been angry he could never have fallen in love with himself CHAP. 9. Of Expecting Preferment THere are as many severall tenures of Expectation as of Possession some nearer some more remote some grounded on strong others on weaker reasons As for a groundlesse Expectation it is a wilfull self-delusion We come to instructions how men should manage their hopes herein Hope not for impossibilities For though the object of hope be Futurum possibile yet some are so mad as to feed their Expectation on things though not in themselves yet to them impossible if we consider the weaknesse of the means whereby they seek to attain them He needs to stand on tiptoes that hopes to touch the moon and those who expect what in reason they cannot expect may expect Carefully survey what proportion the means thou hast bear to the end thou expectest Count not a Courtiers promise of course a specialty that he is bound to preferre thee Seeing Complements oftentimes die in the speaking why should thy hopes grounded on them live longer then the hearing perchance the text of his promise intended but common courtesies which thy apprehension expounds speedy and speciall favours Others make up the weaknesse of their means with conceit of the strength of their deserts foolishly thinking that their own merits will be the undoubted Patrons to present them to all void Benefices The heir apparent to the next preferment may be disinherited by an unexpected accident A Gentleman servant to the Lord Admirall Howard was suiter to a Lady above his deserts grounding the confidence of his successe on his relation to so honourable a Lord which Lord gave the Anchor as badge of his office and therefore this suiter wrote in a window If I be bold The anchor is my hold But his corrivall to the same Mistris coming into the same room wrote under Yet fear the worst What if the Cable burst Thus uselesse is the Anchor of hope good for nothing but to deceive those that relie on it if the cable or small cords of means and causes whereon it depends fail and miscarry Daily experience tenders too many examples A Gentleman who gave a Basilisk for his Arms or Crest promised to make a young kinsman of his his heir which kinsman to ingratiate himself painted a Basilisk in his study and beneath it these verses Falleris asspectu Basiliscum occidere Plini Nam vitae nostrae spem Basiliscus alit The Basilisk's the onely stay My life preserving still Pliny thou li'dst when thou didst say The Basilisk doth kill But this rich Gentleman dying frustrated his expectation and bequeathed all his estate to another whereupon the Epigram was thus altered Certe aluit sed spe vana spes vana venenum Ignoscas Plini verus es Historicus Indeed vain hopes to me he gave Whence I my poison drew Pliny thy pardon now I crave Thy writings are too true Proportion thy expences to what thou hast in possession not to thy expectancies Otherwise he that feeds on wind must needs be griped with the Collick at last And if the Ceremoniall law forbad the Jews to seeth a kid in the mothers milk the law of good husbandry forbids us to eat a kid in the mothers belly spending our pregnant hopes before they be delivered Imbrue not thy soul in bloudy wishes of his death who parts thee and thy preferment A murther the more common because one cannot be arraigned for it on earth But those are charitable murtherers which wish them in heaven not so much that they may have ease aâ— their journeys end but because they must needs take death in the way In earthly matters expectation takes up more joy on trust then the fruition of the thing is able to discharge The Lion is not so fierce as painted nor are matters so fair as the pencill of the expectant limmes them out in his hopes They forecount their wives fair fruitfull and rich without any fault their children witty beautifull and dutifull without any frowardnesse and as S. Basil held that roses in paradise before mans fall grew without prickles they abstract the pleasures of things from the troubles annexed to them which when they come to enjoy they must take both together Surely a good unlook'd for is a virgin happinesse whereas thoâ—e who obtain what long they have gazed on in expectation onely marry what themselves have defloured before When our hopes break let our patience hold relying on Gods providence without murmuring who often provides for men above what we can think or desire When Robert Holgate could not peaceably enjoy his small living in Lincolneshire because of the litigiousnesse of a neighbouring Knight coming to London to right himself he came into the favour of King Henrie the eighth and got by degrees the Archbishoprick of York Thus God sometimes defeats our hopes or disturbs our possession of lesser favours thereby to bestow on his servants better blessings if not here hereafter CHAP. 10. Of Memory IT is the treasure-house of the mind wherein the monuments thereof are kept and preserved Plato makes it the mother of the Muses Aristotle sets it one degree further making Experience the mother of Arts Memory the parent of Experience Philosophers place it in the rere of the head and it seems the mine of Memory lies there because there naturally men dig for it scratching it when they are at a losse This again is twofold one the simple retention of things the other a regaining them when forgotten Brute creatures equall if not exceed men in a bare retentive Memory Through how many labyrinths of woods without other clue of threed then naturall instinct doth the hunted hare return to
imperfections Had they not been men they had not burn't yea had they not been more then men by Gods assistance they had not burn't Every true Christian should but none but strong Christians will die at the stake But to return to Ridley One of the greatest things objected against him was his counsell to King Edward which the good Prince wash'd away with his tears about tolerating the Masse for Princesse Mary at the intercession of Charles the fifth Emperour which how great it was let the indifferent party give judgement when the Historian hath given his evidence The Bishops of Canterbury London Rochester gave their opinion that to give licence to sinne was sinne but to connive at sinne might be allowed in case it were neither too long nor without hope of reformation Another fault wherewith he was charged was that wofull and unhappy discord betwixt him and reverend Bishop Hooper about the wearing of some Episcopall garments at his consecration then in use which Ridley press'd and Hooper refused with equall violence as being too many rather loading then gracing him and so affectedly grave that they were light again All we will say is this that when worthy men fall out onely one of them may be faulty at the first but if such strifes continue long commonly both become guilty But thus Gods diamonds often cut one another and good men cause afflictions to good men It was the policy of the Lacedemonians alwayes to send two Embassadours together which disagreed amongst themselves that so mutually they might have an eye on the actions each of other Sure I am that in those Embassadours the Ministers which God sendeth to men God suffereth great discords betwixt them Paul with Barnabas Jerome with Ruffin and Augustine and the like perchance because each may be more cautious and wary of his behaviour in the view of the other We may well behold mens weaknesse in such dissentions but better admire Gods strength and wisdome in ordering them to his glory and his childrens good Sure it is Ridley and Hooper were afterwards cordially reconciled and let not their discords pierce farther then their reconciliation The worst is mens eyes are never made sound with the clearnesse but often are made sore with the bleernesse of other mens eyes in their company The virtues of Saints are not so attractive of our imitation as their vices and infirmities are prone to infect Ridley was very gracious with King Edward the sixth and by a Sermon he preach'd before him so wrought upon his pious disposition whose Princely charity rather wanted a directour then a perswader that the King at his motion gave to the city of London 1 Greyfriers now called Christ-Church for impotent fatherlesse decrepid people by age or nature to be educated or maintained 2 S. Bartholomews near Smithfield for poore by faculty as wounded souldiers diseas'd and sick persons to be cur'd and relieved 3 Bridewell the ancient Mansion of the English Kings for the poore by idlenesse or unthriftynesse as riotous spenders vagabonds loyterers strumpets to be corrected and reduc'd to good order I like that Embleme of Charity which one hath expressed in a naked child giving honey to a Bee without wings onely I would have one thing added namely holding a whip in the other hand to drive away the drones So that King Edwards bounty was herein perfect and complete To return to Ridley His whole life was a letter written full of learning and religion whereof his death was the seal Brought he was with Cranmer and Latimer to Oxford to dispute in the dayes of Queen Mary though before a Syllogisme was form'd their deaths were concluded on and as afterwards came to passe being burnt the sixteenth of October Anno 1555. in the ditch over against Balioll Colledge He came to the stake in a fair black gown furr'd and fac'd with foins a Tippet of velvet furr'd likewise about his neck a velvet night-cap upon his head and a corner'd cap upon the same Doctour Smith preacht a Sermon at their burning a Sermon which had nothing good in it but the text though misapplyed and the shortnesse being not above a quarter of an houre long Old Hugh Latimer was Ridleys partner at the stake sometimes Bishop of Worcester who crauled thither afâ—er him one who had lost more learning then many ever had who flout at his plain Sermons though his down-right style was as necessary in that ignorant age as it would be ridiculous in ours Indeed he condescended to peoples capacity and many men unjustly count those low in learning who indeed do but stoop to their Auditours Let me see any of our sharp Wits do that with the edge which his bluntnesse did with the back of the knife and perswade so many to restitution of ill-gotten goods Though he came after Ridley to the stake he got before him to heaven his body made tinder by age was no sooner touch'd by the fire but instantly this old Simeon had his Nunc dimittis and brought the news to heaven that his brother was following after But Ridley suffered with farre more pain the fire about him being not well made And yet one would think that age should be skilfull in making such bonefires as being much practised in them The Gunpowder that was given him did him little service and his Brother-in-law out of desire to rid him out of pain encreased it great grief will not give men leave to be wise with it heaping fewell upon him to no purpose so that neither the fagots which his enemies anger nor his Brothers good will cast upon him made the fire to burn kindly In like manner not much before his dear friend Master Hooper suffered with great torment the wind which too often is the bellows of great fires blowing it away from him once or twice Of all the Martyrs in those dayes these two endured most pain it being true that each of them Quaerebat in ignibus ignes And still he did desire For fire in midd'st of fire Both desiring to burn and yet both their upper parts were but Confessours when their lower parts were Martyrs and burnt to ashes Thus God where he hath given the stronger faith he layeth on the stronger pain And so we leave them going up to Heaven like Eliah in a chariot of fire CHAP. 12. The true Nobleman HE is a Gentleman in a Text Letter because bred and living in an higher and larger way Conceive him when young brought up at School in ludo literario where he did not take ludus to himself and leave literarius to others but seriously applyed himself to learning and afterwards coming to his estate thus behaves himself Goodnesse sanctifies his Greatnesse and Greatnesse supports his Goodnesse He improves the upper ground whereon he stands thereby to do God the more glory He counts not care for his Countreys good to be beneath his state Because he is a great pillar shall he
of S. Katharin in Fierebois in Tourain Her first service was in twice victualling of Orleance whilest the English made no resistance as if they had eyes onely to gaze and no arms to fight Hence she sent a menacing letter to the Earl of Suffolk the English Generall commanding him in Gods and her own name to yield up the keyes of all good cities to her the Virgin sent by God to restore them to the French The letter was received with scorn and the trumpeter that brought it commanded to be burnt against the Law of Nations saith a French Author but erroneously for his coming was not warranted by the authority of any lawfull Prince but from a private maid how highly soever self-pretended who had neither estate to keep nor commission to send a trumpeter Now the minds of the French were all afloat with this the conceit of their new Generall which miraculously raised their Spirits Phancie is the castle commanding the city and if once mens heads be possest with strange imaginations the whole body will follow and be infinitely transported therewithall Under her conduct they first drive away the English from Orleance nor was she a whit daunted when shot through her arm with an arrow but taking the arrow in one hand and her sword in another This is a favour said she let us go on they cannot escape the hand of God and she never left off till she had beaten the English from the city And hence this virago call her now John or Joan marched on into other countreys which instantly revolted to the French crown The example of the first place was the reason of all the rest to submit The English in many skirmishes were worsted and defeated with few numbers But what shall we say when God intends a Nation shall be beaten he ties their hands behind them The French followed their blow losing no time lest the height of their Spirits should be remitted mens Imaginations when once on foot must ever be kept going like those that go on stilts in fenny countreys lest standing still they be in danger of falling and so keeping the conceit of their souldiers at the height in one twelvemoneth they recovered the greatest part of that the English did possesse But successe did afterwards fail this She-Generall for seeking to surprise S. Honories ditch near the city of S. Denis she was not onely wounded her self but also lost a Troup of her best and most resolute souldiers and not long after nigh the city of Compeigne being too farre engaged in fight was taken prisoner by the bastard of Vendosme who sold her to the Duke of Bedford and by him she was kept a prisoner a twelvemoneth in Rohan It was much disputed amongst the Statists what should be done with her Some held that no punishment was to be inflicted on her because Nullum memorabile nomen Foeminea in poena Cruelty to a woman Brings honour unto no man Besides putting her to death would render all English men guilty which should hereafter be taken prisoners by the French Her former valour deserved praise her present misery deserved pity captivity being no ill action but ill successe let them rather allow her an honourable pension and so make her valiant deeds their own by rewarding them However she ought not to be put to death for if the English would punish her they could not more disgrace her then with life to let her live though in a poore mean way and then she would be the best confutation of her own glorious prophesies let them make her the Laundresse to the English who was the Leader to the French army Against these arguments necessity of State was urged a reason above all reason it being in vain to dispute whether that may be done which must be done For the French superstition of her could not be reformed except the idole was destroyed and it would spoil the French puppet-playes in this nature for ever after by making her an example Besides she was no prisoner of warre but a prisoner of Justice deserving death for her witchcraft and whoredomes whereupon she was burnt at Rohan the sixth of July 1461 not without the aspersion of cruelty on our Nation Learned men are in a great doubt what to think of her Some make her a Saint and inspired by Gods Spirit whereby she discovered strange secrets and foretold things to come She had ever an old woman which went with her and tutoured her and 't is suspicious seeing this clock could not go without that rusty wheel that these things might be done by confederacie though some more uncharitable conceive them to be done by Satan himself Two customes she had which can by no way be defended One was her constant going in mans clothes flatly against Scripture yea mark all the miracles in Gods Word wherein though mens estates be often chang'd poore to rich bond to free sick to sound yea dead to living yet we reade of no old Aeson made young no woman Iphis turn'd to a man or man Tiresias to a woman but as for their age or sex where nature places them there they stand and miracle it self will not remove them Utterly unlawfull therefore was this Joans behaviour as an occasion to lust and our English Writers say that when she was to be condemned she confess'd her self to be with child to prolong her life but being reprived seven moneths for the triall thereof it was found false But grant her honest though she did not burn herself yet she might kindle others and provoke them to wantonnesse Besides she shaved her hair in the fashion of a Frier against God expresse word it being also a Solecisme in nature all women being born votaries and the veil of their long hair minds them of their obedience they naturally owe to man yea without this comely ornament of hair their most glorious beauty appears as deformed as the sunne would be prodigious without beams Herein she had a smack of Monkery which makes all the rest the more suspicious as being sent to maintain as well the Friers as the French Crown And if we survey all the pretended miracles of that age we shall find what tune soever they sung still they had something in the close in the favour of Friers though brought in as by the by yet perchance chiefly intended so that the whole sentence was made for the parenthesis We will close the different opinions which severall Authours have of her with this Epitaph Here lies Ioan of Arc the which Some count saint and some count witch Some count man and something more Some count maid and some a whore Her life 's in question wrong or right Her death 's in doubt by laws or might Oh innocence take heed of it How thou too near to guilt dost sit Mean time France a wonder saw A woman rule 'gainst Salique Law But Reader be content to stay Thy censure till the
were never asunder Fifty were privy to this plot each had his office assigned him Baptista Monteseccius was to kill Laurence Francis Pazzius and Bernardus Bandinius were to set on Julian whilest the Archbishop of Pisa one of their allies was with a band of men to seise on the Senate-house Cardinall Raphaels company rather then assistance was required being neither to hunt nor kill but onely to start the game and by his presence to bring the two brothers to the dinner All appointed the next morning to meet at Masse in the chief Church of S. Reparata Here meeting together all the designe was dash'd for here they remembred that Julian de Medices never used to dine This they knew before but considered not till now as if formerly the vapours arising out of their ambitious hearts had clouded their understanding Some advised to referre it to another time which others thought dangerous conceiving they had sprung so many leaks of suspition it was impossible to stop them and feared there being so many privie to the plot that if they suffered them to consult with their pillows their pillows would advise them to make much of their heads wherefore not daring to stay the seasonable ripening of their designe they were forced in heat of passion to parch it up presently and they resolved to take the matter at the first bound and to commit the murther they intended at dinner here in the Church taking it for granted the two Mediceans would come to Masse according to their dayly custome But changing their stage they were fain also to alter their Actours Monteseccius would not be employed in the businesse to stain a sacred place with bloud and the breaking of this string put their plot quite out of tune And though Anthony Volateran and Stephen a Priest were substituted in his room yet these two made not one fit person so great is the difference betwixt a choice and a shift When the Host was elevated they were to assault them and the Sacrament was a signe to them not of Christs death past but of a murther they were to commit But here again they were at a losse Treason like Pope Adrian may be choak'd with a flie and marr'd with the least unexpected casualtie Though Laurence was at Church Julian was absent And yet by beating about they recover'd this again for Francis Pazzius and Bernard Bandinius going home to his house with complements and courteous discourse brought him to the Church Then Bandinius with a dagger stabb'd him to the heart so that he fell down dead and Francis Pazzius insulting over his corps now no object of valour but cruelty gave it many wounds till blinded with revenge he strook a deep gash into his own thigh But what was over-measure in them in over-acting their parts was wanting in Anthony and Stephen who were to kill Laurence in the Quire You Traitour said Anthony and with that Laurence starting back avoided the strength of the blow and was wounded onely to honour not danger and so recovered a strong chapell Thus Malice which vents it self in threatning warns men to shun it and like hollow singing bullets flies but halfway to the mark With as bad successe did the Archbishop of Pisa seise on the Senate-house being conquered by the Lords therein assembled and with many of his Complices hung out of a window The Pazzians now betake themselves to their last refuge which their desperate courses had left them James the chief of their family with one hundred more repair to the market-place and there crie Liberty Liberty A few followed them at first but the snow-ball by rolling did rather melt then gather and those who before had seen the foul face of their treason naked would not be allured to love it now masked with the pretences of the publick good and at last the whole strength of the State subdued them Every tree about the city bare the fruit of mens heads and limbes many were put to death with torment more with shame and onely one Renatus Pazzius with pity who loved his conscience better then his kinred that he would not be active in the conspiracy and yet his kinred better then his conscience that he would not reveal it Treason being like some kind of strong poyson which though never taken inwardly by cordiall consenting unto it yet kill 's by being held in ones hand and concealing it Chap. 17. The Tyrant A Tyrant is one whose list is his law making his subjects his slaves Yet that is but a tottering Kingdome which is founded on trembling people which fear and hate their Sovereigne He gets all places of advantage into his own hands yea he would disarm his subjects of all sythes and pruning hooks but for fear of a generall rebellion of weeds and thistles in the land He takes the Laws at the first rather by undermining then assault And therefore to do unjustly with the more justice he counterfeits a legalitie in all his proceedings and will not butcher a man without a Statute for it Afterwards he rageth freely in innocent bloud Is any man vertuous then he is a Traytour and let him die for it who durst presume to be good when his Prince is bad Is he beloved he is a rebell hath proclaimed himself King and reignes already in peoples affections it must cost him his life Is he of kinne to the Crown though so farre off that his alliance is scarce to be derived all the veins of his body must be dreined and emptyed to find there and fetch thence that dangerous drop of royall bloud And thus having taken the prime men away the rest are easily subdued In all these particulars Machiavell is his onely Confessour who in his Prince seems to him to resolve all these cases of conscience to be very lawfull Worst men are his greatest favourites He keeps a constant kennel of bloud-hounds to accuse whom he pleaseth These will depose more then any can suppose not sticking to swear that they heard fishes speak and saw through a mil-stone at mid-night these fear not to forswear but fear they shall not forswear enough to cleave the pinne and do the deed The lesse credit they have the more they are believed and their very accusation is held a proof He leaves nothing that his poore subjects can call their own but their miseries And as in the West-Indies thousands of kine are killed for their tallow alone and their flesh cast away so many men are murdered merely for their wealth that other men may make mummey of the fat of their estates He counts men in miserie the most melodious instruments Especially if they be well tuned and play'd upon by cunning Musicians who are artificiall in tormenting them the more the merrier and if he hath a set and full consort of such tortur'd miserable souls he danceth most cheerfully at the pleasant dittie of their dying grones He loves not to be
read twenty one years on the first Chapter and yet finished it not He counts the successe of his Ministry the greatest preferment Yet herein God hath humbled many painfull pastours in making them to be clouds to rain not over Arabia the happy but over the stonie or desert so that they may complain with the Herdsman in the Poet Heâ— mihi quam pingui macer est mihi taurus in arvo My starveling bull Ah woe is me In pasture full How lean is he Yet such Pastours may comfort themselves that great is their reward with God in heaven who measures it not by their successe but endeavours Besides though they see not their people may feel benefit by their Ministry Yea the preaching of the Word in some places is like the planting of woods where though no profit is received for twenty years together it comes afterwards And grant that God honours thee not to build his temple in thy parish yet thou maist with David provide metall and materialls for Solomon thy successour to build it with To sick folks he comes sometimes before he is sent for as counting his vocation a sufficient calling None of his flock shall want the extreme unction of Prayer and Counsell Against the Communion especially he endeavours that Janus his temple be shut in the whole parish and that all be made friends He is never plaintiff in any suit but to be rights defendant If his dues be detained from him he grieves more for his parishioners bad conscience then his own damage He had rather suffer ten times in his profit then once in his title where not onely his person but posterity is wronged And then he proceeds fairly and speedily to a tryall that he may not vex and weary others but right himself During his suit he neither breaks off nor slacks offices of courtesie to his adversary yea though he loseth his suit he will not also lose his charity Chiefly he is respectfull to his Patrone that as he presented him freely to his living so he constantly presents his Patrone in his prayers to God He is moderate in his tenets and opinions Not that he gilds over lukewarmnesse in matters of moment with the title of discretion but withall he is carefull not to entitle violence in indifferent and in concerning matters to be zeal Indeed men of extraordinary tallnesse though otherwise little deserving are made porters to lords those of unusuall littlenesse are made ladies dwarfs whilest men of moderate stature may want masters Thus many notorius for extremities may find favourers to preferre them whilest moderate men in the middle truth may want any to advance them But what saith the Apostle If in this life onely we had hope we are of all men the most miserable He is sociable and willing to do any courtesie for his neighbour Ministers He willingly communicates his knowledge unto them Surely the gifts and graces of Christians lay in common till base envy made the first enclosure He neither slighteth his inferiours nor repineth at those who in parts and credit are above him He loveth the company of his neighbour Ministers Sure as ambergreece is nothing so sweet in it self as when it is compounded with other things so both godly and learned men are gainers by communicating themselves to their neighbours He is carefull in the discreet ordering of his own family A good Minister and a good father may well agree together When a certain Frenchman came to visit Melanchthon he found him in his stove with one hand dandling his child in the swadling-clouts and in the other hand holding a book and reading it Our Minister also is as hospitable as his estate will permit and makes every almes two by his cheerfull giving it He loveth also to live in a well-repaired house that he may serve God therein more cheerfully A Clergieman who built his house from the ground wrote in it this counsell to his successour If thou dost find an house built to thy mind Without thy cost Serve thou the more God and the poore My labour is not lost Lying on his deathbed he bequeaths to each of his parishioners his precepts and example for a legacie and they in requitall erect every one a monument for him in their hearts He is so farre from that base jealousie that his memory should be outshined by a brighter successour and from that wicked desire that his people may find his worth by the worthlesnesse of him that succeeds that he doth heartily pray to God to provide them a better Pastour after his decease As for outward estate he commonly lives in too bare pasture to die fat It is well if he hath gathered any flesh being more in blessing then bulk WILLIAM PERKINS The Learned pious and painfull Preacher of Gods word at S t Andrewes in Cambridge where He died Anno Dni 1602. Aged 44 yeares W. M. sculp CHAP. 10. The life of M r PERKINS William Perkins born at Marston nigh Coventry in Warwickshire was afterwards brought up in Christ-Colledge in Cambridge where he so well profited in his studies that he got the grounds of all liberall Arts and in the 24. of Queen Elizabeth was chosen fellow of that Colledge the same yeare wherein Doctour Andrew Willet one of admirable industry and Doctour Richard Clark whose learned Sermons commend him to posterity were elected into the same Society There goeth an uncontroll'd tradition that Perkins when a young scholar was a great studier of Magick occasioned perchance by his skill in Mathematicks For ignorant people count all circles above their own sphere to be conjuring and presently cry out those things are done by black art for which their dimme eyes can see no colour in reason And in such cases when they cannot flie up to heaven to make it a Miracle they fetch it from hell to make it Magick though it may lawfully be done by naturall causes True it is he was very wild in his youth till God the best Chymick who can fix quicksilver it self gratiously reclaim'd him After his entrance into the Ministry the first beam he sent forth shined to those which sat in darknesse and the shadow of death I mean the prisoners in the castle of Cambridge people as generally in such places living in England out of Christendome wanting the means of their salvation bound in their bodies but too loose in their lives yea often branded in their flesh and seared in their consciences Perkins prevailed so farre with their jaylour that the prisoners were brought fetter'd to the Shire-house hard by where he preached unto them every Lords day Thus was the prison his parish his own Charity his Patron presenting him unto it and his work was all his wages Many an Onesimus here he begat and as the instrument freed the prisoners from the captivity of sinne When this began to be known some of good quality of the neighbouring parishes became his auditours and counted
it their feast to feed out of the prisoners basket Hence afterwards he became Preacher of S. Andrews parish in Cambridge where he continued to the day of his death His Sermons were not so plain but that the piously learned did admire them nor so learned but that the plain did understand them What was said of Socrates That he first humbled the towring speculâ—â—ions of Philosophers into practice and morality so our Perkins brought the schools into the Pulpit and unshelling their controversies out of their hard school-terms made thereof plain and wholsome meat for his people For he had a capacious head with angles winding and roomthy enough to lodge all controversiall inâ—â—â—asies and had not preaching diverted him from that way he had no doubt attained to eminency therein An excellent Chirurgeon he was at joynting of a broken soul and at stating of a doubtfull conscience And sure in Case-divinity Protestants are defective For save that a Smith or two of late have built them forges and set up shop we go down to our enemies to sharpen all our instruments and are beholden to them for offensive and defensive weapons in Cases of Conscience He would pronounce the word Damne with such an emphasis as left a dolefull Echo in his auditours ears a good while after And when Catechist of Christ-Colledge in expounding the Commandments applied them so home able almost to make his hearers hearts fall down and hairs to stand upright But in his older age he altered his voice and remitted much of his former rigidnesse often professing that to preach mercie was that proper office of the Ministers of the Gospell Some octject that his Doctrine referring all to an absolute decree hamstrings all industry and cuts off the sinews of mens endeavours towards salvation For ascribing all to the wind of Gods spirit which bloweth where it listeth he leaveth nothing to the oars of mans diligence either to help or hinder to the attaining of happinesse but rather opens a wide doore to licentious security Were this the hardest objection against Perkins his doctrine his own life was a sufficient answer thereunto so pious so spotlesse that Malice was afraid to bite at his credit into which she knew her teeth could not enter Hâ— had a rare felicity in speedy reading of books and as it were but turning them over would give an exacâ— account of all considerables therein So that as it were riding post thorow an Authour he took strict notice 〈◊〉 all passages as if he had dwelt on them particularly perusing books so speedily one would think he read nothing so accurately one would think he read all He was of a cheerfull nature and pleasant disposition Indeed to mere strangers he was reserved and close suffering them to knock a good while before he would open himself unto them but on the least acquaintance he was merry and very familiar Besides his assiduity in preaching he wrote many books extant at this day And pity it was that he set not forth more of them himself for though some of his Orphan works lighted on good Guardians yet all were not so happy and indeed no nurse for a child to the own mother He dyed in the 44. yeare of his age of a violent fit of the stone It hath been reported that he dyed in the conflict of a troubled conscience which admit were so had been no wonder For God sometimes seemingly leaves his Saints when they leave the world plunging them on their death-beds in deep temptations and casting their souls down to hell to rebound the higher to heaven Besides the devil is most busie on the last day of his Term and a Tenant to be outed cares not what mischief he doth But here was no such matter Indeed he alwayes cryed out Mercy Mercy which some standers by misinterpreted for despair as if he felt not Gods favour because he call'd for it whereas Mercy is a Grace which they hold the fastest that most catch after it 'T is true that many on lesse reason have expressed more confidence of their future happinesse and have delivered themselves in larger speeches concerning the same But who could expect a long oration from him where every word was accented with pain in so sharp a disease His funeralls were solemnly and sumtuously perform'd of the sole charges of Christ-Colledge which challenged as she gave him his breeding to pay for his buriall the University and Town lovingly contending which should expresse more sorrow thereat Doctour Mountague afterwards Bishop of Winchester preached his Funerall-Sermon and excellently discharg'd the place taking for his Text Moses my servant is dead He was of a ruddy complexion very fat and corpulent lame of his right hand and yet this Ehud with a lefthanded pen did stab the Romish Cause and as one saith Dextera quantumvis fuerat tibi manca docendi Pollebas mira dexteritate tamen Though nature thee of thy right hand bereft Right well thou writest with thy hand that 's left He was born the first and dyed the last yeare of Queen Elisabeth so that his life streamed in equall length with her reigne and they both had their fountains and falls together I must not forget how his books after his death were translated into most modern Christian languages For though he excellently improved his talent in the English tongue yet forreiners thought it but wrapt up in a napkin whilest folded in an unknown language Wherefore some translated the main body of his works into French Dutch and Italian and his books speak more tongues then the Maker ever understood His Reformed Catholick was done into Spanish and no Spaniard ever since durst take up that gantlet of defiance our Champion cast down yea their Inquisition rather chose to answer it with tortures then arguments CHAP. 11. The good Parishioner WE will onely describe his Church-reference his Civill part hath and shall be met with under other Heads Conceive him to live under such a faithfull Minister as before was character'd as either judging charitably that all Pastours are such or wishing heartily that they were Though near to the Church he is not farre from God Like unto Justus Acts 18.8 One that worshipped God and his house joyned hard to the Synagogue Otherwise if his distance from the church be great his diligence is the greater to come thither in season He is timely at the beginning of Common prayer Yet as Tullie Charged some dissolute people for being such sluggards that they never saw the sunne rising or setting as being alwayes up after the one and abed before the other so some negligent people never heare prayers begun or sermon ended the Confession being past before they come and the Blessing not come before they are passed away In sermon he sets himself to heare God in the Minister Therefore divesteth he himself of all prejudice the jaundise in the eyes of the soul presenting colours false unto it He hearkens