spirituall essence and a bodily substance the body being made of clay most excellently compact together with a wonderful and vnspeakeable wisedome in which hee inclosed with a maruellous league of societie another spirituall nature that is the Soule the one sort hee called Angels the other Men. Both which he endued with a singular wisdome knowledge To this man he gaue for his habitation this goodly great Theater adorned with such variety of excellent things and placed him in the most delectable and pleasant place of all the earth which in respect of the florishing and fertile soyle beautified with goodly riuers and fountaines was called Paradise not to bee an inhabitor onely of this lower part of the world but to bee a spectator of his Creators wonderous works thereby first to know the great glory of his parent and progenitour and then to loue him aboue all things and the time being expired in which hee had appointed him here to liue hee should passe from hence to him where hee should continually enioy his glorious presence and life euerlasting But some of those Angels being puffed vp with pride through the goodly gifts wherewith God had adorned them so much forgot their due obedience that they thought themselues equall with him that made them Whereby they so greatly prouoked his displeasure that he expulsed them from the number of his ministers and reiected them from his presence This fall was so grieuous to them and the hatred so great which they conceiued against God for the same that they presently began to doe all things contrary to his commandement by all manner of meanes to offend him to derogate from his glory what they could and as much as they might to deface and corrupt this goodly frame of the world which hee with so great wisedome had made And when man persisted yet in the same estate in which he was placed from aboue supposing they had no better meanes to detract from the glory of God than if they could lay a plat to take man from him and draw him into their societie they presently put their deuice in practice and fraudulently deceiuing him with false promises and hope of greater preferment they made him reuolt from God and breake his commandement which he had giuen him to make proofe of his obedience and to follow that course and counsell which they had framed against God to his own ouerthrow When man had thus shaken off his obedience where before he led in this pleasant Paradise a most happy life free from all euill and hurtfull things the earth of its owne accord bringing forth all things plentifully hee was driuen out of this delectable place and with heauie cheare enforced to seeke another dwelling where hee must get his liuing with the labour of his body and with the sweat of his browes and fell into the punishment appointed by God for breach of his commandement that is death and damnation bereft of that rule and dominion and of all the principall ornaments which he had bestowed vpon him And where all the meane causes of things euen from the vppermost heauen vnto the lowest part of the earth depended each vpon other in such an exact order and vniformitie to the production of things in their most perfection and beauty so as it might well bee likened to that Aurea Catena as Homer calleth it by the grieuous displeasure which God conceiued against man hee withdrew the vertue which at the first hee had giuen to things in these lower parts and now through his curse the face of the earth and all this elementatie world doth so much degenerate from his former estate that it resembleth a chaine rent in peeces whose links are many lost and broken and the rest so slightly fastened as they will hardly hang together by meanes whereof the heauens and second causes do now farre otherwise work in mans corrupt nature and in this elementary world than they did before But the son of God hauing compassion vpon man that had thus grieuously sinned and was fallen into this miserable estate though by his own will yet not through pride or ambition nor by contempt of Gods commandement but was deceiued by the fraud and subtilty of the diuell cast himselfe down before his Father with all humilitie and besought him for mankinde and obtained this fauour that they should not be condemned to perpetuall punishment And yet to satisfie the iustice of God which was immutable hee offered himselfe to fulfill all that obedience which God required of man and so pacified his Father that hee procured him to make a decree to send him to bee a protector and defendor of mankinde against the tyrannie of the diuell When man was thus restored into fauour againe yet not with recouery of those goodly gifts and ornaments which he had lost the diuell beginneth to rage and to practise all manner of meanes to intrap him againe and when he perceiued that hee could not deceiue all hee handled the matter so that the benefit of this promise might come to a very few and that the greater part of the world should perish with him by drawing them from the true knowledge and worshipping of God to superstition and idolatrie Now to returne from whence we digressed seeing the felicitie or soueraigne good wee seeke for concerneth not the body only but the soule also and that the soule dyeth not but after it hath woond himselfe out of this prison it eyther liueth in perpetuall felicitie or infelicitie this happinesse cannot be taken for a temporall thing that is enioyed during this mortall life only but must be euerlasting and without end For what profiteth it a man to haue all the world saith Christ Iesus if hee lose his soule Whereby it appeareth that the Philosophers and Heathens that had not the true knowledge of God nor beleeued in him nor his promise could not attain to the felicity of man which in farre the greatest part consisteth in the ioyes of the heauenly life But contrariwise by their infidelitie they suffer eternall damnation and extreme misery And then it followeth necessarily that none but Christians and those which beleeued in the promise of his comming can attaine to this felicitie or soueraigne good which haue an assured hope to bee saued by the merits and passion of Christ. For they only that are regenerate and not the Heathens after the passage from this life are to enioy the heauenly life and then they to whom the things are giuen wherein that part of felicitie confisteth whilest we are in this world both being ioyned together are in the estate of perfect felicitie But first before wee come to shew our opinion of this soueraigne good or felicitie let vs peruse the course of mens liues that by obseruing what the things bee that men most desire in this life they may the more plainely discouer their errour and direct themselues to a better course Diogenes in a great
upon her and them And when they saw no hope of favour in this cruell man they called upon the gods and men for help wherwith hee fell into such a rage seeing hee could not have his will that hee drew his sword and thrust it through the young woman as she held her fathers legges in her armes But this beastly fact so little offended the Tyrant that such as shewed any mislike to the matter hee eyther put to death or banished which purchased him such hatred of all men that certaine of his subjects not willing any longer to endure his tyranny conspired together and slue him His wife hearing of the tumult of the people shut her into her chamber and strangled her selfe The like death suffered two yong women his daughters marriage-able having libertie to make choice of their own death But the love of Antiochus sonne to King Seleucus was much more commendable and used with greater modestie For being extremely in love with his mother in law his fathers second wife yet shame fastnesse and modesty made him so dissemble his vehement passion that he made choice rather to die than to discover his affection suffring himselfe by little and little to pine away untill his body was almost dryed up And as hee lay languishing in manner like a dead body his father lamenting the pitifull estate of his onely sonne desired Erasistratus an excellent Physician to use all his skill to find out what his sons disease should be with large promises of reward This man sitting by the yong Prince observed that ever as the Queene came to visit him his bloud would rise in his face his pulse would beat with more force and all his body would seem to quicken revive and as she departed from him he would waxe pale his pulse would beat weakly and would returne to his former state againe which when he had diligently observed two or three times hee perceived that his discase was the passion of love And comming to the king who was desirous to heare whether hee had found the cause of his sonnes sicknesse he told him that his son was in love with a woman but such an one as hee could by no means have which was the only cause of his sicknesse Then he being glad it was no worse hoping that whosoever she was he would by some meanes obtaine her for him though it cost him a great part of his kingdome desired to know who it was that his sonne was in love with It is my wife quoth he And will you said the King whom I have favoured so greatly deny her to my onely sonne and lesser him to perish that is my only comfort and useth such modestie that he had rather dye than bewray his affection by which it appeareth he is violently carried against his will and then making carnest petition to him to save his sonnes life with promise of great reward Your request said the Physitian is not reasonable make the case your owne Would you be content if it were your wife he were in love with whom you affect so tenderly to leave her to him Yea quoth the King with all my heart I would it were in my power so to save his life It is even your wife said he with whom your sonne is in love Then the King greatly rejoycing that it was in him to restore his sonne to health married his wife to his son his fatherly affection prevailing more than the tender love of his wife Saint bernard lamenting the miserable estate and condition of men that gave themselves to the pleasures and delights of this world O man quoth he naked and blinde that art made of humane flesh and a reasonable soule be mindfull of thy miserable condition why departest thou from thy selfe and troublest thy selfe with externe things and art lulled asleepe in the vanities of the earth and drownest thy selfe in the transitorie pleasures of the world Doest thou not consider that the nearer thou approachest to it the farther thou departest from thy God the more thou thinkest to winne without the more thou losest within that is thy self which is or greater price the more careful thou art of temporall things the more want thou hast of spirituall things Thou settest all things in good order and makest none account of thy selfe There is not a beast but thou tamest and thy selfe remainest without a bridle thou art vigilant in all things but in thine owne matters thou art fast asleepe The desire of base things hoyleth in thy heart and in the meane while heavenly things lyeth quenched The nearer thou commest to thy death the sarther thou goest from thy salvation Wee should take heed lest that curse fall upon us that the Prophet Isay speaking of the carelesse nobilitie and gentrie of the Iewes that gave themselves to banquetting and pastimes without consideration of their duties towards God a matter usuall enough and too much in these dayes The lute and harpe saith hee and timbrell and shalme and good wine aboundeth in your banquets but the workes of God you respect not nor have any consideration of his dâ—…gs Then followeth Therefore hath Hell enlarged his soule and opened his mouth without all measure or limitation and the stout and high and glorious of this people shall goe down into it And that it may appeare how many that give their delight to pleasures and vaine pastimes through their owne vanitie and foolishnesse are brought strangely to their ends when they are in the midst of their jollitie The French King Charles the sixth his minde being distempered committed the governement of his Realme to others and gave himselfe to pastimes there chanced a marriage to bee solemnized in his Court where the King was disposed to make himselfe and others merrie he put off all his apparell and disguised his face like a Lion annointing his body with pitch and flatned staxe so artificially to it that he represented a monster rough and covered with haire When he was thus attired and five others as wise as himselfe they came into the chamber among the Lords and Ladies dauncing and singing in a strange tune all the Court beholding them The Duke of Orleance whether that hee might better see or for some other toy snatched a torch out of a mans hand held it so neare the king that a spark falling upon him set them all on a flaming fire two of the five companions were miserably burnt in the place crying and howling most pitifully without any remedie other two dyed in great torment two daies after the fifth running speedily into a place where was water and wine to wafh himselfe was saved the King having more helpe than the rest before the flame had compassed his body round about was saved by a Lady that cast her traine and gowne about him and quenched the fire The Emperour Commodus among other his vain toyes pleasures when he beheld the Goddesse Ifis painted with
when hee dyeth for then that money which he had long hoorded up without imploying it to any use is dispersed abroad into many mens hands and serveth for necessary uses Detestabilius nil terracreavit avara Et nimio lucripejus amore nihil Than is the avaricious man Th' earth never bred thing worse And than the servile love of gaine There is no greater curse Gold and silver of it selfe is neither good nor evill but the use or abuse maketh it good or bad Money was not ordained to bee hoorded up in coffers as covetous men use but to bee imployed to serve our necessitie To this purpose I remember a Storie of an Advocate of Venice which wee call a Counsellour at law that had gotten much money by his facultie and was sent by the State of Venice to Rome to bee there agent with the Pope Before hee tooke his journey hee came to take his leave of his Father who dwele in the Countrie not far from Venice and was but a man of meane estate and brought his money with him which hee locked up in a coffer and delivered the key thereof to his father to bee kept untill his returne After hee was gone towards Rome the Father desirous to see what the sonne had locked up so fast in his coffer openeth it and findeth a great many bagges full of money he taketh out the money and filleth the bags full of sand and locketh fast the coffer againe In his sonnes absence hee buildeth his house with his sonnes money which before was old and ruinous and stuffeth it handsomely and apparelleth himselfe his wife and children in decent sort which before were somewhat bare and augmented his fare with better provision so as all things with him was greatly amended After some two or three yeares when the Advocate was returned to Venice and from thence to visit his father he marvelled to see such an alteration Hee began to consider with himselfe how his fathers estate could bee thus suddenly amended and desirous to see whether his money were safe hee receiveth the key of his father and openeth his coffer and finding the bagges full mistrusted nothing but thought all had been well as hee left it After a few daies having occasion to use money hee opened his bagges one after another and finding sand in place of his money being greatly perplexed hee ranne downe to his Father and told him that hee was robbed his Father seemed to marvell How can that bee sonne said hee seeing I kept the key of your coffer during your absence it is not possible that you can bee robbed The Advocate affirming it earnestly Come said his father let us goe see I cannot beleeve it When the coffer was opened Looke quoth the father bee not your bags as full as you left them I knew you could not be robbed Yea Father said the Advocate the bags be full but it is sand the money is gone It is all one to thee my son quoth he so the bags be full Thou wouldest but let it lye here fast locked in the coffer I have taken forth the money and imployed it to those uses for which money was ordained Thou seest how I have built my house and apparelled my selfe thy mother and thy brethren and sisters Thus aptly he taught his sonne by an extraordinarie kind of demonstration how money should be used Dionysius used the like means but with lesse severity to make known that money was to be imployed and not to bee hoorded For hearing of a rich man that lived miserably and hid his money under the ground hee commanded him upon paine of death to bring his money to him The man not with standing kept some part of it backe and brought him the rest and went into another towne to dwell where hee imployed that money that was left in buying of land and houses and such things as hee lacked and lived better with that part than hee did before with the whole Which when Dionysius heard hee sent for the man and told him that seeing now hee knew the use of money hee would restore his money to him againe and delivered all he tooke from him Calipha King of Persia was with more severitie and greater damage by a rare example punished for covetousnesse too late instructed not as Diâ—…genes would by anothers harme but by his owne losse and overthrow was a document and warning to others how to use money Allan King of the Tarâ—…tians making war upon him overthrew him and tooke him poisoner in his owne Citie His souldiers fighting very faintly in his defence because hee had layd up all his treasure in a tower and would not pay them their wages hee was by Allan imprisoned in the same tower with these words If thou haddest not kept this treasure so covetously but distributed it among thy souldiers thou mightest have preserved thy selfe and thy Citie Now therefore take thy pleasure and eate and drinke thereof seeing thou hast loved it so well And so suffered him to dye for hunger in the middest of all his riches O that covetous men were as covetous of their own good fame and honour as they are greedy of other mens goods The wise man saith there is nothing more wicked than a covetous man and nothing worie than to love money And therefore hee forbiddeth men to take great labour and care to get riches It is truly said that men ought not to be more careful to gather riches for their children than to get renowne among the vertuous seeing it is a rule that never fayleth That of the wicked gaine of fathers commeth just losse to the children And this is the difference betweene the covetous man and him that is of a noble minde that the one careth not how he come by riches so he have them the other can take no pleasure in any thing hee holdeth wrongfully from another For that to remember by what means it was gotten taketh away contentment of the thing he hath For where the conscience is not quiet saith one there the residue of the man is nothing but maâ—…yrdome That Citie or Common-wealth saith Valerius is like alwaies to continue where the desires of the flesh and money beare least rule And surely happy were that Common-wealth where all things were esteemed as they are worthy and no more For experience especially in these dayes teacheth that where the love and estimation of riches hath taken deep 〈◊〉 there vertue and knowledge and all other good things are had in small regard Apollonius being asked who was the richest man in all the world answered He that was most wise and the poorest was hee that was most ignorant Mauricius the Emperour had the like successe through his extreme covetousnesse as Calipha had and his destruction foreseene by a dreame after a very strange manner This Emperour dreamed on a time that one Phocas should destroy him his wife and children The next day being much troubled with the remembrance of
that povertie doth not cause unquietnesse but mens desires and that riches doe not deliver men from feare but reason And therefore hee that will use reason will not covet superfluous riches nor blame tolerable povertie Seneca was wont to say that a bull filleth himselfe with a little medow a wood is sufficient to feed many Elephants but man through his ambition cannot be satisfied with the whole earth neither yet with the sea And this is to bee noted that notwithstanding the goodly lessons and precepts that Seneca gave of the dangers and troubles which commonly accompanie great wealth and riches he had neverthelesse gathered together abundance of riches and possessions procuring thereby to himselfe much envie which was the chiefe cause of his destruction And the same may bee a document to others to bee very wary and circumspect that they be not carried away and overcome with the inordinate desire and love of riches and possessions when so wise and learned a man that could give so wholesome counsell and remedies to others was himselfe infected and overthrown by the same disease Seneca was schoole-master to the Emperour Nero in his youth and afterward in such authoritie and credit with him that for a time he managed all the affaires of the State and gathered great wealth which through envie procured him many enemies among which number was one Snillius who was highly in Nero's favour and spake thus unto Seneca in the Princes presence By what wisedome by what instructions and doctrine of Philosophie wherein thou takest upon thee to bee studious hast thou within lesse than foure yeares whilest the Emperour hath favoured thee and shewed thee signes of love gotten together three thousand times sesterties which value after the french mens account is seven millions and five hundred thousand crownes But though Seneca for that time escaped the accusations of his enemies yet perceiving foure years after his authoritie taken from him and his former favours diminished and that the Prince lent his eares to his enemies hee began to feare and to save his life and to prevent the Emperours cruelty he came to him and by way of oration spake thus It is fourteene yeares or thereabout O King sithence I came to you and eight yeares of this time have you beene Emperour in which space you have heaped upon mee such goods and honours as there wanteth nothing to my felicitie but a moderation thereof And after hee had reckoned up many benefits and great favours which hee had received of Nero and declared wherein consisted riches he beganne to accuse himselfe that hee had not kept the Lawes of written knowledge and lived onely by Philosophie which would have taught him to bee content with a little or that which is sufficient He told him that the riches and possessions which hee had bestowed upon him were so great that hee was not able to beare them but rather was ready to sinke under his own burthen And therefore hee desired Nero that hee would ease him of this charge and send his officers to seaze upon all to his use to whom it rightly appertained alledging it to bee a thing glorious to the Emperour that hee had advanced them to the highest dignities that could also beare meane fortune and be content with a little Nero answered him with great commendations of his service and worthinesse and exalted Seneca his merits farre above his rewards and that hee had bestowed greater benefits upon them that had much lesse deserved than Seneca had Hee told him that the delivering of his money the leaving his Prince would not bee imputed to his moderation nor to his desire of quietneste◅ but my co◅etousnesse quoth he and the feare of my crueltie will be in every mans mouth But admit that your continencie be commended yet it is not the part of a wise man there-hence to procure glorie to himself from whence springeth infamie to his friend To these faire words he added kisses and embracings and many courtesies to cover his hatred But not withstanding all these favours hee put Seneca not long after to death These be the fruits that covetousnesse bringeth forth with abundance of riches and possessions Which confirmeth his opinion that made choyce of this Poesie Medio◅ firma And he that will look into the manners of men in these dayes shall finde no doubt in divers Common-wealths even among the wisest their minds eclipsed with the vice of covetousnesse and greedy desire to augment their estate as Seneca's was as though it were mans felicitie and end for which he was borne to heape riches and poslessions together without end or measure to their owne scandall and to the evill example of others But Fabricius Emperour or rather Generall of the Romanes Armie carried a more upright minde and gave a notable example of contempt of riches For the Embadassours of the Samnites after they had reckoned up many great benefits which they had received by his meanes offered him a great summe of money and very importunately desired him to accept it alledging the cause why they presented him with this money to be that they saw him want many things to the honourable furniture of his house and provision agreeable with his estate Fabricius drawing his hands from his eares to his eyes and from them to his nose mouth and thence to his throat and downe to the lower part of his belly answered the Ambassadours that so long as he had the use of all these members which he had touched he should never lacke any thing And therefore he would not receive the money whereof he had no neede of them whom he knew could turne it to their benefit Whereby he plainely shewed that penurie proceedeth of greedy and covetous desires and not of nature As Seneca saith frugalitie is painfull to luxurious men that delight in excesse and superfluities but men given to temperance and sobrietie contenting themselves with a little feele no evill in penuric And it is no new thing to see wise men that have the meanes to enrich themselves to fall into the desire of riches and to be overcome with covetousnesse All ages have yeelded their examples even among the wisest Pertinax in the raigne of the Emperour Marcus Aurelius having the government of divers provinces and countries and passed through the greatest offices within the Romane Empire was found to be very wise very just severe and sincere so as sundry nations that misliked the governement of other Romane Magistrates would desire to have Pertinax for his wisedome and justice to bee sent in their places But after the good Emperour was dead he was so stricken with covetousnesse and desire of riches that frō thenceforth he rather imployed his industry to his infamy in gathering riches than in government of the common-wealth which was to his former vertues a great blemish and discre◅r and may serve for an example to all men to beware how they enter into the love of
scumme of the sea men without fathers and restlesse men that could stay no where to labor for their living Though the pretence of the Spaniards travell into these new found lands were to plant Christianitie among these rude people and to reduce them to the knowledge of God yet the infinit number of thousands of people which through their cruelty and covetousnesse they have there destroied in eight and forty yeere twentie millions as appeareth by their owne histories argueth plainely and is confirmed by this example following that the greedy unsatiable desire of gold and riches was the cause that drew them to undertake those painefull and dangerous travailes Which covetousnesse crueltie of theirs was a great hinderance to the planting of Religion there â—…Ferdinando Sotos a Spaniard went to Florida to seeke gold but being in a great rage and griefe because he could not there find that hee looked for he exercised great cruelty among those barbarous people It chanced that a Prince of that country came to see him presented him with two Parrots and plumes of feathers after their first salutations ended the Prince asked the Spaniard who he was and from whence he came and what he sought in these countries committing dayly so many and so great cruelties and wicked acts Sotos answered him by an interpreter that hee was a Christian the sonne of God the creatour of heaven and earth that his comming thither was to instruct those people in the knowledge of his law If thy God sayd the Prince command thâ—… to run over other mens countries robbing burning killing and omitting no kind of wickednesse we tell you in few words that we can neither beleeve in him nor in his lawes Of these greedy covetous men the Prophet Esay speaketh thus Wâ—…e be to you that joyne house to house and field to field till there be no more ground Will you dwell upon the earth alone The love of money made the French king 〈◊〉 the eleventh subject to obloquie by his niggardly sparing unseemely for a Prince without respect to his estate For having driven almost all the Gentlemen out of his Court hee was served with his taylor for all his Horaulds of armes his Barbor was his Ambassador his Physician was his Chancellour and for a mockerie of other kings he would weare a greazy cap of very course cloth and in his accounts were found twenty soâ—…s for two new sleeves to his old doublet and fifteene deniers for grease to greaze his bootes Horace reporteth of a man at Rome called Ovid so rich in money that hee might measure his gold by the bushell and yet he went almost starke naked for niggardlinesse never would fill himselfe halfe full of meat Insomuch that he lived poorely to dye rich Of such the Poet cryeth out not without cause Sed quò divitias tbt per torment a coactâ—… Cum furor haud dubius cum sit manifesta phrenesis Vt locuples moriare egenti vivere viverefato What meane these Riches by such torments got And infinite paines A madnesse is 't not A phrensey manifest it doth implye Penuriously to live richly to dye By this which hath bin sayd it is manifest that mans felicitie and his summoâ—… bonum or greatest good consisteth not in riches For who if hee be not senselesse desireth riches for it selfe but for some other thing Some for lascivious some for sumptuous others for profitable and necessary expences Which things if they might bee had without money no man would desire or care for riches Neither can riches be the common end of men seeing some have great plenty and others extreme want and poverty which have also their estimation by opinion Some calling gold and silver others pearles and precious stones others trifling things riches like little children that set their riches in pinnes and puppets But he that putteth not mans felicitie in himselfe and â—…nis nis owne matters doth like unto him that estimatethâ—… sword by his scabbard or a horse by his saddle and furniture Neither can we call that Summum bonum or the greatest good which is no good at all and is common both to good men and wicked which also make more men worse than better And how can riches be the principall end of man that withdraweth men for the most part from the true end of all things which is God For we see plainly that there is not a more compendious way to alienate a mans minde from God than to wallow in worldly wealth So that mans felicitie or Summum bonum must bee sought in some other thing than in riches For God placed not man in this world to seeke after earthly things neither that he should find the end of his desires in the scurfe of the earth Which one remembreth thus Memento rebus vanidis diffidere Opes genus formâ—… decor caduca sunt Ad ossa nuda mors reducit omnia Coelo repostus optimus thesaurus est In vaine things see no confidence thou hast For neither wealth nor birth nor shape can last To strippe us to the bone Death followes fast 'T is the best treasure that in Heaven is plac't THE FELICITIE OF MAN OR HIS SUMMUM BONUM THE THIRD BOOKâ—… CHAP. I. Of Cineas the Philosopher and King Pyrrhus Ambition the subversion of Kingdomes and Empires It engenders Parricides Instanced by Adolphus Duke of Geldria Selim the great Turke Henry the first Emperour and Solyman The ambition of Snio King of Denmarke Semiramis Iane Queene of Naples The Empresse Irene Bassianns the sonnes of Pope Alexander the sixth with sundry Histories both domestical and forreigne to that purpose The death of Pertinax Emperour And Didius Iulianus who bought the Romane Empire Dâ—…uers chances and changes in warre Histories of others unmilling to undergâ—…e the Empire HOnour and glory is another thing which men labour to aâ—…taine as though felicitie or the greatest good should consist therein But this is an erronious opinion and they greatly deceived that hold it For men desire honour and glory because they would seeme to bee â—…cndued with vertue by which they confesse that vertue is to be preferred before glory honour And honour is given as we see by dayly experience by man many times taken away againe by them that gave it But that wherein felicitie consisteth is a thing more stedfast and not so easily removed nor subject to the variable accidents of fortune Honour is gotten with much labour maintained with great exponces and lost with intolerable griefe and sorrow It is likened to a mans shadow which the more hee runneth after the more it flieth away and when he flieth from his shadow it followeth him againe as one saith Qui fugit honorem eum sequitur honos Honour followeth him that flieth from it Who is more honoured now than Christs Apostles Saint Peter Saint Paul and the like that despised honour when they lived Of all the disordered passions where with mens minds
and vanity glory and dominion brought him that he would seeme to be exalted above the condition of men But what may be sayd of them that take upon them to make Saints as the other would bee made a God and as this arrogated to himselfe a power over the sea so they will command the Angels in heaven that there may bee nothing wanting to the fulnesse of their power Yea and that their madnesse and extreame folly and wickednesse may bee in the highest degree without possibilitie to extend it selfe any further these titles and power the Popes doe challenge by the gift of their parasites That God ratiâ—…th whatsoever the Pope doth the will of the Pope is a rule of equitie and right That the Pope can doe absolutely in this world whatsoever God doth because he is all things above all things And if he change his mind it is to be presumed that God doth also change his mind And if the Pope carry with him many thousands of soules into hell yet no man may say why doe you so That all power is given to the Pope both in heaven and in earth That he may extend himselfe to heavenly earthly and infernall things That it is not lawfull to appeale from the Pope to God That the Pope may decree against the Epistles of Paul because he is greater than Paul and also that he may decree against the old Testament because hee is greater than all the authors of the old Testament Yet their ambition and desire of vaine-glory would not suffer them here to stay but it was searched and disputed among them and their parasites whether the Pope might decree things contrary to the Gospell whether hee were not above Peter in power whether hee were a pure man or else as it were God It was also disputed in their schooles not very many yeares sithence whether the Pope did participate both natures divine and humane like unto our Lord Iesus Christ. It is like that hee is some strange kind of creature that they cannot tell what maner a thing he is nor what to make of him And therefore it may be that hee is of the nature and essence of a woman or one that was taken for a woman in Italy whose condition was set forth in an Epitaph thus Aelia Lâ—…lia Crispis nec vir nec mulier nec Andtogyna nec puella nec invenâ—… nec anus nec casta nec casta nec pudica sedomnia nec meretrix nec aquis nec terris sedubique tacet Aelia Laelia Crispis nor Man nor Woman nor Hermophradite nor Virgin Yong woman nor Beldame nor Chast nor Whore nor Modest but all of these she lyes neither in the ayre nor water nor earth but every where Who will marvell at the promises that the kings of Mexico make when they are first chosen that will compare them with the power the Popes arrogate to themselves that the Sunne shall hold his course and brightnesse that the clouds shall raine the rivers shall run and the earth shall bring forth all kinds of fruit But what is it that these â—…atterers of the Popes will shame to speake to win or continue their favour 〈◊〉 â—…ndacia sunt opes aurum â—…gunt quaque volunt put antquc palmam Mentiri 〈◊〉 Lyes are to them their wealth their gold As feigning all things that they would The glorious palme they seeke to gaine Untruths by speaking and things vaine What wickednesse hath beene in many Popes their oâ—…ne authors doe testifie besides many that gave themselves to the Diuell and were notable Necromancers as hath beene sayd before and by that meanes came by the Popedom Pope Marcellinus sacrificed to the Gentiles Idols Pope Iohn the three and twentieth taught that there was no life after this For which cause hee was called by the Councell of Constance a Divell incarnate And divers of them were of such wickednesse and infidelitie that they were by the authoritie of Councels rejected not onely for heresie but also for atheisme And yet these men would be taken for the Vicars of Christ that rather resemble viceroyes of Sathan Pope Clement in a Bull kept in lead in Vienna in France commanded the Angels of heaven to bring the soule of him that went to Rome in pilgrimage for pardons and returned discharged of purgatory to the perpetuall joyes of heaven saying moreover We will not that the tormâ—…nts of hell be inflicted upon him in any sort Granting also to them that be marked with the signe of the crosse at their vowes and prayers power to take out of purgatory three or foure soules such as they list But here he seemeth to me to commit an errour in a preposterous sort that he had not first let men beleeve that hee could give power to a man to take out of purgatory three or foure soules such as hee list and then afterward to perswade them that he had power to command Angels to bring men the next way to heaven and that no torments of hell should be inflicted upon them that went to Rome for pardons The Priest seemed in his owne conceipt to proceede by degrees in better order to perswade that went up into the pulpit to preach to his parishioners and tooke for his text the Gospell where Christ fed with a few fishes foure thousand people And when he was entred into his Sermon Yea quoth hee and he confirmed his doctrine with a great miracle hee fed with a few fishes foure hundred people The clarke that stood under the pulpit hearing him say foure hundred stepped up to him Yee mistake the matter Sir quoth hee it was not foure hundred it was foure thousand Peace soole quoth the Priest let them beleeve this first The vertue that flowed so plentifully from this Pope bringeth to my remembrance a pleasant story of a mischance that happened to a present sent by a Pope which he had sanctified with the like vertue as the other had done by his Bull. In the civill warres of France the Cardinall of Loreyne was a great maintainer of the Guisians faction and persecuted vâ—…hemently the Protestants The Pope to gratifie him for his great care and paines taken in defence of his religion and authority sent him a table wherein was painted our Lady with a little childe in her armes representing Christ by the most excellent and famous painter in Christendome and consecrated with his owne hands and inclosed it in a case of silke and a letter withall giving him thankes and high commendations for his travell and providence in maintaining the Catholike religion signifying to him also that in recompence of his paines hee had sent him such a table painted by the famous man whom hee named and consecrated with his owne hands The messenger that caried this present chanced to fall sicke in a towne in Italy before he came to the Alpes and finding there one this present to the 〈◊〉 When he 〈◊〉 where the Cardinall was he presented to him the
the merchants to Babylon When hee was foure and twenty yeares old he went into Egypt about his trade of merchandise where he stayed a long time and had familiar acquaintance and friendship with Christians and Iews with whom he was much coÌ„oversant but especially with a monke of Antioch called Iohn that was an obstinate hereticke enticed thereto by the Divel through a desire of vaineglory Of this Monke he learned to falsifie the Scriptures both the old new TestameÌ„t that he might be the better armed against the Iewes Christians It is reported that hee was also scholler to a Monke called Sergius an Arrian heretick expulsed from CoÌ„stantinople by his brethren fled into Arabia where he fell acquainted with Mahomet and holpe him to 〈◊〉 the Scriptures after their own fancies to hatch a new law out of the new old Testament About this time there were strange things seene in the ayre and monsters brought forth in divers parts of the world as children with foure feet two heads and comets and fire falling from heaven and such wonderfull lights and thunder-claps that the earth seemed to shake open whereof ensued extreame pestilence that consumed a great part of the earth so as 〈◊〉 thought that the last day had bin come which did presage the wrath and threatnings of God for the sins of men In his youth he used the trade of Merchandise went often with his camels into Egypt and Palestina And as he came on a time into the land of Canaa the Princesse of that Countrey called Tagida marvelling at his strange kinds of wares merchandise fell into great liking of him which when Mahomet perceived he omitted not that opportunity but entring into familiar communication with her he uttered all his skill and eloquence to seduce her When hee perceived her to wonder at his skill in both laws and to bee as it were rapt with his stately stile and glorious words My deare Lady quoth he I will hide nothing from you but tell you the truth I am the Messias sent from God which the Iewes look for to this day which he laboured to prove by miracles wrought by the help of the Divell himselfe being a Necromancer whereby he not only deceived this Lady but also divers Iewes Saracens who thought him to be the very Messias they looked for By meane whereof in short time he had a great many followers This Lady seeing the Iewes and Saracens thus reverence depend upon Mahomet supposed that there lay hidde in him some divine majesty and being a widdow married him Thus was Mahomet suddenly advanced to great riches dominion according to his desire he went afterward into Spaine where he preached at Corduba such doctrine that the Bishop sent to apprehend him but he being warned by the divell â—…d into Affrica where hee seduced infinite numbers as also in Arabia When he understood that hee was esteemed for a high Prophet of all the countries round about him greater matters began to enter into his conceipt devising how hee might become a great Monarch And seeing himself wel followed of the common pâ—…ople that resorted to him dayly in great multitudes he perswaded the people to cast off the yoke of their obedience to the Roman Emperour making himselfe strong with a sufficient army invaded the territories of the Empire and overthrowing the Emperours Lieutenants he won froÌ„ him that which belonged to the Empire in Affrica Egypt likewise Syria Mesopotamia and other of the East countries belonging to the Persians And when the Saracens the rest of his followers saw that he had overcome the Emperors power set them at liberty from the Romans they resorted to him out of all parts to Damasco where by a generall consent they chose him to be their king let the crown on his head And thus without respect of right or wrong he joyned kingdome to kingdome countrey to country of a base fellow became a great monarch using all manner of rigour and cruelty confounding divine and humane things and like a torrent did beare all things downe before him to the admiration of all men and to the great effusion of innocent bloud This holy prophet was as wicked in life as divellish in doctrine among the rest of his vices much given to whoredome though he had 4 wives perswading the people that God had given that prerogativeto him alone But when he perceived men began to murmure at him for his vicious life hee licenced every man to have foure wives And as one of his wives found him in a chamber secretly with one of his minions Are these quoth she the manners of a prophet where with Mahomet was so ashamed that he sware solemnly never to doe the like againe And as on a time he fell downe with the falling sickenesse before the queene his wife to which through Gods plague hee was much subject and fomed at the mouth after the manner of that disease perceiving her to take it grievously that shee had matched her selfe to such an unwholsome creature he told her that the Angell Gabriel was sent to him from God to enforme him of his mind the bright shining of whose countenance he could in no wise endure which was the cause of his falling to the ground And to confirme her the rather in this opinion he wrought some miracle by the Divels helpe which gave the more credit to his words His wicked sect began about the latter end of the reigne of Heraclius the Emperour from whose obedience taking opportunitie by a sedition amongst his souldiers by whom Mahomet was made their chiefe captaine had disswaded his subjects making them beleeve that Gods will was that all men shold be at liberty subject to no man By meane whereof the Saracens Arabians depended wholly upon him as hath bin sayd and made him their king When he had determined to publish his law which Sergius he together had seemed out of the Old New Testament he appointed a great assembly of people to repaire to a certaine place to heare him preach where by miracles they shold see that God had sent him his holy prophet for the soules health of his people to moderate the law of the Iews of the Christians which were too hard to be kept and to give them another which should be a meane betweene them both And as he was preaching of his law in the place appointed there commeth a Dove flying towards him and alighteth upon his shoulder and pidleth in his care looking for meate having used her before to feede in his care for the same purpose The simple people not mistrusting his subtill device thought it had beene the holy Ghost sent from God to inspite him what to say He had also used a bull to feede in his lap and made him know his voyce And as in his Sermon he spake aloud of his law the
beauty of the flesh that as a flowre in May sheweth it selfe to day and to morrow withereth away and returneth to the earth againe from whence it came Vaine is beauty saith the wiseman deceivable is the grace of countenance Histories both divine and profane are full of many mischiefes that beauty hath brought to men Beauty is compared by holy men to a painted snake that is faire without and full of poyson within But what estimation should we have of that which a little scratch or scarre disfigureth a short sicknesse altereth a small blemish disgraceth a few years withereth and wrinckleth To all these and a great many more the most beautifull â—…ace that hath beene is subject The Prophet compareth man to a shadow that is nothing but an appearance which deceiveth the sight a false figure without substance which sometime sheweth great by and by little So happeneth it to a man which sometime seemeth to be great and yet hee is nothing but when hee is lifted up on high and placed in the highest degree of honour even then he perisheth suddenly and no man knoweth what is become of him no otherwise than a shadow when night is come Likewise the Psalmist saith I saw the wicked man mightie and flourishing like a greene bay tree I passed by him and he was no more there I sought for him but he was not to be found Likewise the glory we take in gorgeous apparell is vaine yea and more foolish than the rest The wife man saith See thou never glory in apparell And yet wherein doe men that are able to have it take more pleasure or pride than in gay apparell which was devised to cover our shame of nakednesse and other infirmities contracted by the fall of our first parent Adam And that which was invented for our necessitie is now used for pride and glory We rob almost all the creatures in the world to deck our bodies withall Neither are they sufficient that are upon the earth but we must borrow feathers of the fowles of the ayre and we must goe into the sea to rob the fishes of their pearle the sands of their precious stones And then we must dig into the ground for gold and silver as the Poet sayth Effediuntar opes irritament a malorum Wealth is digged up the incitement to all evill And all this forsooth to make our selves in our owne eyes shew to bee more goodly creatures by our vaine devices and fantasticall toyes than God hath made us by his great wisedome and specially to allure love and liking to bad intents and purposes And when they have attired themselves with the ornaments that God hath given to the creatures of the earth to the birds of the ayre to the fishes of the sea for their necessitie and beautie and with the stones and scurfe of the earth it selfe they jet it up and down be holding themselves and others in great bravery as though all this counterfeit beautie came naturally from their own persons yet all is not gold that glistereth their mindes be soyled with foule and filthy vices It is a strange thing to see the blindnesse of men that will not consider the great difference of excellencie that is between the body and the minde by the one of which we resemble and are like to the Angels that are immortall yea and to God himselfe and by the other to brute beasts that live after the motion of their senses and are subject to death and corruption And yet how carefull men are to decke the body that is but a lump of clay and to provide for his pleasures and how negligent to provide for the minde or soule that is immortall and of an Angelicall nature â—…an the Emperour was wont to say that it was unseemely for a wise man seeing he had a minde to hunt after praise from his body Saint Bernard speaking of the vaine curiositie of men to adorne and cherish their bodies saith Thou takest great paine to decke and nourish this body that is but a vessell of dung and a sepulchre of wormes and leavest thy poore soule which is the imaâ—…e of God hunger-starved and forsaken Kings in eldâ—… time made no great account of their outward habits making no difference betweene them and the common people by their apparell but by their minde and inâ—…rd furniture When Alphonsâ—… King of Arragon was admonished to weare more costly apparell I had rather said he excell my subjects in manners and authoritie than in a Diademe and purple Socrates being asked which was the most beautifull creature in the world A man quoth hee adorned with learning Plato being asked what difference was between the learned and the ignorant answered As much as is between the Physitian and the diseased And Aristotle to the same question said That there was as great difference between the learned and the unlearned as was between the living and the dead And as the sight receiveth light from the ayre that is round about it so doth the minde from learning And Ennius likeneth a wise man without learning to an uncleane glasse that is fit for nothing yet not he that knoweth many things but he that knoweth things fruitfull is wise When Alphonsus king of Arragon heard that a King of Castile should say that learning was not meete for noblemen and gentlemen hee exclamed and said These are the words of an oxe and not of a man That man saith Marcus Aurelius that taketh upon him to be a man and hath no learning what difference is there betweene him and a beast When the people of Mitylene were become masters of the sea they inflicted this punishment upon their colleagues that were revolted from them That they should not teach their children to reade nor the liberall sciences esteeming that to be of all kind of punishment the most grievous to passe their life in want of knowledge and the liberall sciences There is nothing more unjust than a man unlearned because hee thinketh nothing to bee right but what he doth himself Pythagoras engraved in a stone with his owne hand these words set it before his Acadâ—…my He that knows not that which he should know is a beast among men hee that knoweth no more than hee must needes is a man among beasts hee that knoweth all that may be knowne is a God among men If the gallants of the world were so carefull to adorne their mindes with vertue and learning as they are curious to garnish and set out their bodies with gay garments and new â—…angled fashions and vaine toyes to please their senses there would be no place for the Poets saying that speaketh thus of Courtiers Scorta placent fracti curvique é corporegressus Et 〈◊〉 crines tot nova nomina vestis The Congees Cringees and affected pace Of common strumpets are in most request And now the loose locks dangling 'bout the face With the new names of
from the the Senate He had a gentleman in his Court which he greatly favored but when he perceived that all the suits which he preferred to the Emperour and obtained he sold for money he coÌ„manded the man to bee apprehended that all the things which by bribery he had purloyned should be taken from him and restored to the owners and he to be banished to the I le of Pontus the Emperour using these words Of this offence thou shalt remaine chastised I warned for evermore to shew overmuch love and extreme favour to my servant wherby to convert love into pride and to sell favour for covetise The Emperour Antoninus would say that a gracious reward ought Gratis to be dispatched But Archelaus king of Macedon gave a good example to Princes how to bestow their liberality for when one begged of the king as he was at supper a cup of gold that thought no time well spent but when he was craving the king commanded his servant to give it to another more worthy than he beholding him that begged the cup thou said the king art worthy to crave not to receive but this man is worthy to receive though he doth not crave For men given to vertue take it as a great offence disgrace when there is no respect had of their merits and wheÌ„ vicious men or they that have little or no thing in them are made equal or preferred before theÌ„ in favor or honour which is the reward of vertue For Princes should not looke to be sued unto for reward or preferment by them that are worthy and have deserved well Meritum petere grave for honour forbiddeth to flatter or begge the rewards of vertue which should be offered to those that are worthy or have deserved them Alexander the great would play many times at tennise and his manner was to give them that playd with him as they were playing some gifts and rewards that did aske any thing of him Serapion a modest yong man pleasantly disposed that played often with the king perceiving because he never asked any thing he never had any thing given him he cast the ball to every one but Alexander And being asked of the king why he cast the ball to every one but him Because quoth Serapion you did not aske him of me then the king smiling to himselfe gave him a very great gift which when hee had with very great joy received he played more lively than before Then said the king I see plainly that gifts are more gracious to him that asketh not than to him that asketh A Poet saith Principis est virtus maxima nosse suos It is the greatest vertue in a Prince to know his own The Emperour Sigismund was wont to say that those Kings and Princes of the earth were happy that banished proud men from their Court and brought in their places men given to courtesie and humility I doubt not but his meaning was also to have flatterers disseblers and detracters banished saving that hee doubted many of their Courts would then bee left desolate and unfurnished By this which hath beene sayd it appeareth that felicity doth not alwayes attend necessarily upon the highest estates and the higher the estate the more hard there to be found except where God doth plentifully bestow his graces and blessings Because Princes seeme rather to bee ordained to the happinesse of others that be committed to their charge than of themselves as touching worldly felicity for the troubles and cares that are joyned with government draweth them many times from contentation to discontentments which detracteth from felicitie What the eye is in the body the same a Prince is in the common-wealth what the Sunne is in the element the same a Prince is in his people the Sunne is the eye of the world a Prince the eye of the multitude what the Minde is in a man the same a Prince is in his realme what God is in the administration of the whole world the same a Prince is in the people committed by God to his charge As God when he seeth all things is neverthelesse as not seeing any thing so a Prince should know all things and make as though he knew not many things And as the Sunne is no other to the poore man than to the rich man but indifferent to all so a Prince should not respect the person but should wisely consider of the matter according as it is requisite in everie thing Ecphantes sayth Rex unicum excellens quoddam opus cst imago superniiâ—…iusregis regis creators suo semper familiaras à subdit is verò regno tanquam lumine conspicua Menander and others call a Prince the lively image of â—…od that governeth al things appointed to minister justice and therefore wee ought to consider of Princes not what they are of themselves as men but how much is given or permitted to them of God Neither do we reverence and honour so much the private person in Princes as we do consider the majestie of God and the image and power of him whose delegates and deputies they are here upon the earth They are the lights of the world And as to governe well in principalitie is the most excellent dignity of all other so is it of all other the most difficult And though their charge and care bee very great yet that Prince that will with humility joyn his owne endevour with Gods graces to consider with himselfe that as he is exalted above all things in dignitie and dominion so he should labour to surmount all others in worthinesse of vertue and goodnesse to suppresse or moderate his unbridled affections which Plato sayth be very evill counsellers to purge his minde from all manner of perturbations to use magnanimitie in contemning all perills patience in bearing such crosses as God shall lay upon him to have a mind prepared for all things that may happen to be like the Ethereall substance that is above the Moone which is alwayes cleare and in one estate that considereth with himselfe that religion and the service of God is the foundation of a kingdome and that the chiefe meanes to rule well consisteth in the worthinesse and magnanimitie of the minde and in a certaine contemning and despising of humane thing after which other vertues will then easily follow For as stones and rockes beate back the waters so the mind of a Prince should break all adverse things and alwayes persist in his vertue neither to be lifted up with prosperity nor dejected with adversity but to take both fortunes with a constant mind nor to feare death it selfe Such a Prince I say may not onely attaine to the highest degree of felicity but by his example may be a meanes to the happinesse of many others For such as the Prince is such commonly are his subjects CHAP. VI. The Earthy felicities that belong unto the meane estate with the way how best to manage it
God will manifestly appeare to him that will looke into his owne estate the things which God hath created To man alone at least in this lower part hee hath given understanding by which hee may know what al other things have what they be which the things themselves know not An infallible argument that whatsoever they have or be the same they have or bee not for themselves but for man For to what purpose serveth the vertues and properties that be in them if they know them not To man only in all the world it is given to know these things to have the â—…ruition of them For the world knoweth not it selfe nor the things in iâ—… and therfore the world and all things there in contained were given to man and created for him onely for the Angels had no need of it nor brute beasts could use a thing of such excellencie but to man that hath a bodily substance it was necessary who only because he was endued with a reasonable soule could use it And seeing the possessor farre surmounteth the thing that is possessed man is of much greater dignitie than the world which is his possession and habitation But the more excellent his nature was the more filthy is his corruption the greater benefits he received of his Creator the more ungratefull he was to offend him And if we call our selves to account and examine the whole course of our life we shall see how small a part thereof we bestow in the cogitations service of him that hath given us all that we have and be And how farre we are from giving him his owne that is our selves and all that wee have which wee possesse and ought to apply to the glorie of God But contrariwise wee convert all things to our owne commodity as his proper end and us onely to our selves How few houres nay rather how few parts of one houre doe wee bestow in a whole day and night in thinking upon God as though it were the least care we have And when we pray what doe we but commit sinne upon sinne In the very heat of our prayers how cold are wee yea when we seeme most vehement and devout what vaine idle thoughts and fansies falleth into our heads So that our minds in our praiers 〈◊〉 to be carried away further from God than the space is between heaven and earth And wherof commeth this but that we are not the same we were He that killeth a man though hee were his mortall enemie his soule by and by is tormented his conscience sharpely accuseth him and telleth him hee hath not done well for the byting of no beast is more grievous than that of the conscience which argueth that there is some little sparke left of that divine light of the soule which seemeth presently to awake as it were out of a fleepe and aâ—…esteth him and reproveth the fact and is offended with his owne offence and goeth about to revenge our wickednesse in our owne persons As appeareth by Theodoricus King of the Gothes who after hee had killed Symmachuâ—… his Father in law thought hee saw as hee was at supper Symmachus face in a fish head that was set before him with other meat to cate who seemed to grinde his teeth and to looke sowrely upon him which put the King in such feare that hee fell sicke and dyed shortly after Plutarâ—… in his Booke de sera numinis vindicta reporteth a strange historie of a man that killed his father This man of all other was least suspected being so rare and unnaturall a thing for the sonne to kill his father and therefore the murther could never bee discovered untill this man long after the murther committed went on a time forth to supper and espying as hee walked a swallows nest hee with his staffe threw downe the nest and killed the young swallowes and being reprehended of some that beheld him for killing so cruelly the harmelesse little birds They have quoth he followed me long enough they cry every day that I have killed my father The men that were present marvelling to heare so strange a thing informed the King who caused him to be apprehended and being examined he confessed the matter Which example confirmeth that which hath beene said that though our nature bee corrupt yet the soule detesteth his own wickednesse and our conscience that repineth against our misdeeds tormenteth and secretly admonisheth us which could not be if there were not some little image of God and of our former divine nature left in us And whereof commeth it that seeing we know and confesse that God is our Creatour and hath so liberally given us all that we have made the world for us and that he is good and goodnesse it selfe that wee put so little confidence in him or rather mistrust his help saving that we seeme to have some sense feeling imprinted in our conscience that wee have grievously offended him are justly disinherited unworthy of his favor Our prayers be as full of distrust as our hearts be void of faith God hath advanced us far above stones plants brute beasts and all other unreasonable creatures and above the world it self He hath set us upright and given us eyes to look up towards heaven and with our eyes to behold his magnificence But wee contrariwise looke downe to the earth and tumble in the ground like swine in the dirt How many give themselves wholly and have almost no other th ought but in getting and heaping together gold and silver the scurffe of the earth which they seeke after as their greatest good and felicity Whereof riseth all our contention and suits but for earth and earthly things Which is a plaine demonstration that wee are throwne downe headlong from that honourable estate throne wherein we were by the bountiful goodnesse of God first placed If a man should see one with a crowne or diademe upon his head all soyled with dirt or delving the ground or holding the plough would not hee thinke him eyther mad or else cast out of his chaire of estate and deposed from his royall dignity What doe men but digge and turmoyle in the earth occupy themselves wholly in base things as though God had given immortalitie to the soule to bestow our labour and cogitations in dung and dirt A scepter is not given to a King to play the dizzard But if a man had held himself in his first estate that God made him our divine nature would have bin occupied in divine things and heavenly contemplation Wee should not have set our felicitie in these transitorie things as though our inheritance were in this world The consideration of these things will enforce us to confesse that the soule liveth not properly but the body onely and that his actions and motions are not free and at his owne libertie Proclus could say that the naturall life properly of the soule is not in
fall our knowledge being turned into ignoâ—…nce though wee have some fight of our end and beatitude yet we are notable about selves to attaine to it And as the cause of our misery is our separation from God so our felicity is to be joyned with God againe And seeing the same which was the soveraigne good of the firstman is also 〈◊〉 which by his revolt from God he lost from himselfe and from his posterity and the way to recover the same is to reâ—… to God â—…ine Let us see whether God of his great meâ—…y hath not left us some meanes by which we may be 〈◊〉 the right way to him againe whether 〈◊〉 doth â—…each forth his fatherly hand to us thorough the clouds and 〈◊〉 to call and draw us to him though like bastards and rebels we be altogether unworthy of his favour and mercy All men acknowledge one God the parent and Creator of mankind that hee made the world for man of nothing and that he governeth both the world man by his providence Then must it needs follow that obedience is due to the Father faith and invocation and all manner of duty belongeth to so bountifull a Lord and governour And seeing man is by nature immortall hee ought with all his mind to aspire to immortall things And because by sinne he is fallen from God and from himselfe he ought to aske pardon that hee may pacifie the wrath of God which he purchased by his pride and love of himselfe It is requisite therefore that hee acknowledge his frailty and misery that hee may with all humility submit himselfe to God And what betoken all these things but that there is one God one man one religion that is a duty of man toward God a reconciliation of the degenerate children to their father of the rebellious subjects to their Lord whose favour we lost by our fall For all the exercises of religion proceed hereof that men know God made and ruleth the world that man is immortall that he fell by transgression out of Gods favour that created him to worship and glorifie God which is his end and soveragne good And 〈◊〉 commeth all our sacrifices our adorations our ceremonies our singing of Psalmes and â—…hankesgiving and such like So that religion which is a reconciliation to God is the way that 〈◊〉 us to out felicity and Summum bonum or sovâ—…raigne good But not every religion but the true religion by which God is rightly served as he himselfe hath appointed and not as is grounded upon the inventions and phantasticall devices of men For the Heathens and 〈◊〉 and barbarous people have their severall religion of their owne invention some adoring the Sunne some the Moone others the first thing they meet in the morning some a red cloth hanging at the end of a long staffe others images of men and other creatures For there is no people so brutish or voide of humanity but by instinct of nature he knoweth there is a divine power above man whereupon he grooâ—…deth some religion The ancient wise men and Philosophers highly exalted religion above all things as the onely way to lead them to the soveraigne good which is God Plato saith the beatitude of man is to be made like God that is if hee bee just and holy which must come by godlinesse and the love of God which is the greatest vertue among men And Aristotle saith that in godlinesse all our felicity consisteth And 〈◊〉 saith If wee be of any judgement what shall wee doe but continually worship God sing Psalmes and give thankes unto him whether we digge or plough the ground whether wee labour or rest Simplicius saith He can doe nothing diligently how necessary soever it bee that is â—…othfull and negligent in the service of God Religion saith Hierâ—…cles is the chiefe and leader of all vertues which is referred to Gods cause to which all other vertues have relation as to their end For vertues are not vertues if they swerve from religion and godlinesse Fortitude referred to any other thing than to godlinesse falleth into temerity or rashnesse prudence into fraud and subtilty and so like wise of the rest But all other religions saving the true religion doe lead men to the brinke of hell or at least shew them Paradise afarre off but betweene them and it is a great deepe gulfe over which no man is able to passe nor all the world is able to fill it up yet there must needs be a passage over somwhere for the end of man is certaine to bee joyned with God And that he may be joyned with him in heaven it is requisite that he be reconciled to him in earth And the onely way to be reconciled is that God pay our debts and untill they be payd he doth not absolve us That therefore is the onely true religion that leadeth us directly to that passage by whose conduction we find out the right way over it which onely leadeth us to the end of religion that is mans salvation for true religion is the right way to reconcile us to God whereof ensueth the salvation of man And that the true religion may be discerned from those that bee the inventions of men it hath three markes by which it is made apparent But first this foundation must be taken for certaine and immoveable as laid upon a rocke that true religion is a rule of the worshipping of God by which man is reconciled and tyed to God for his owne salvation This salvation of man is his beatitude his beatitude is to be joyned with God For neither the world nor any thing in it maketh a man happy or blessed but God onely that made man maketh him happy And seeing it is manifest that he and no other must bee worshipped in the earth that will make us happy or blessed in heaven what religion soever though it shew to be very singular and very holy diverteth and draweth our minds and prayers from the Creator to the creature is idolatry and wickednesse And what religion shall perswade us to seeke our soveraigne good and beatitude any other where than with him that is onely good and the only author of good is not only vanity and erroneous but it leadeth out of the way to kill and throweth down head long to destroy And though they have offerings and thankesgiving sacrifices prayers and other observances they are vaine and blasphemous if we attribute that to a creature how excellent soever he be which we received of God and desire pardon of creatures for the sinnes and offences wee commit against the Creator Let this therefore be the first marke of true religion that it doth direct us and our prayers and advocations to one God the Creator of heaven and earth who only searcheth mens hearts with which hee will bee chiefly worshipped But this is not sufficient to worship the true God but he must bee rightly worshipped But who is so
necessary to this end and purpose the same no doubt is a happy man and in the right way to salvation and shall at length attaine to that Soveraigne good perfect felicity and beatitude which 〈◊〉 so long sought for but if hee hunt after pleaâ—… and passeth his 〈◊〉 in gathering 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 to highestate and 〈◊〉 of the world for getting or neglecting the end for which he was sent hither that man goeth awry and is unhappy and in danger of 〈◊〉 infelicity Of such 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that so lead their life these bee their lamentations and their owne words recorded by Scripture we are wearied out in the way of iniquity and perdition and the way of God have we not knowâ—… what profit have we received of all our pompe and pride and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what good have they done us They are now past away as a shadow and as a messenger that 〈◊〉 in post and we are consumed in our owne iniquiâ—… We 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 men 〈◊〉 in the way of truth These were the â—…ifull lamentations and confessions of such men as followed a wrong course of life that laboured for riches honour pompe and such like worldly vanities forgetting the weighty businesse and end for which they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were they who were esteemed happy men that were thought to runne a most fortunate course that were wondred at of all men as they that were placed in highest degree of felicity because they heaped together great abundance of riches advanced themselves and their families to great dignities that became gorgeous glorious and dreadfull to others and obtained whatsoever their lust and concupiscence desired These seemed to the world to be most happy men And without doubt they that bee in the like estate in these dayes are so esteemed of the multitude and are envied of many burne in desire to bee in the same fortune Such is our blindnesse such is the corruption of our nature never to see for the most part nor to direct our course to the right path that leadeth to felicity untill it be too late 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to these men for the Scripture addeth 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 They spake these things when they were in hell But how hardly we can performe our duty to God men and do the businesse for which we were sent hither hee shall easily perceive that will enter into the due consideration of his own disposition 〈◊〉 We need therfore a mediatour with the eternall father that hath given us a law according to his justice to bee an intercessor for us whose fulnesse must supply our defects whose merits must make satisfaction for our demerits in him therefore that is in Christ Iesus we must have a strong lively faith cal continually upon him that he will of his great mercy joyne his grace with our endeavours without which wee can doe nothing that is good by whose grace we may lead a godly life imploy our labour in the exercise of vertue which God requireth even of the heathens whom hee rewardeth with temporall gifts to excite others to vertue Brute beasts are moved by an appetite desire to these things which their senses shew them to bee good profitable for them But men follow that with all their endeavour that hath the shew of good some pleasures others riches the rest honor the more they have of those things the more they give themselves to them And in this they are deceived that their mindes being as it were enchanted with divers sorts of charmes of this world prefer evil before good whereby their wil doth altogether degenerate into a beastly appetite desire which ought to obey the understanding by nature should be reasonable By which appeareth our imbecility or corruption of nature which needeth so greatly Gods grace to give us a mind to discerne between good evill between those things which are good in shew onely and those that are good in deed and a will to desire and follow the one and eschew the other that by imbracing and following the good here in this life we may attaine to the soveraigne good in the other life where onely our wils shal be throughly satisfied with the satiety and fulnesse of heavenly pleasures which is perfect felicity and beatitude For in this life how plentifully soever worldly things happen to us our minds will never bee fully satisfied which moved Plato to say That the mind of man is so unquiet and unsatiable because hee being sent from God is not satisfied nor in quiet untill he returne thither from whence he came Hee that is in love with worldly things delighteth nothing in God The soule can never bee without delight for it eyther delighteth in base things here beneath or else in high matters above and by how much the more earnestly he is lifted up to the exercise of the highest things by so much the more lothsomnesse he is weary of the baseft things and by how much the more earnest care hee is enflamed to the lowest things so much the more damnably hee 〈◊〉 cold from the highest things One saith It is unpossible to looke with one eye up to heaven and with the other downe to 〈◊〉 earth And if thou suffer 〈◊〉 or be are a heavie crosse be not dismayed but use patience and be thankfull though thou find not presently remedy of those things that trouble thee And compare the many graces God hath bestowed upon thee before with the small things hee seemeth now to deny thee and thou shalt finde cause to accuse thy selfe of unthankfulnesse to forget so many great blessings before received and now to complaine of small matters for it is expedient that God lay his hand upon us to teach us humility and to enter into consideration of our selves And the reward which God giveth them that obey and serve him is to suffer them in this world to be exercised in afflictions knowing there is no better passage to the felicitie of heaven than to beare the crosse of tribulation here on earth For there is not a greater temptation than not to be tempted and his salvation is very suspicious that beareth no crosse in the whole course of his life Nay rather it may bee holden for certaine that such are of him lost who in this world are priviledged from adversities for the divell doth carefully labour that all those which hee hath registred for his own may live in great wealth and ease To have a thankefull minde to God and to attribute all to his providence and nothing to fortune is one of the greatest benefits we can enjoy in this life And therefore if thou see thy selfe subject to evill speech and disgrace prayse the judgment of God saith Ambrose If thou be afflicted with sicknesse impute it to the judgement of God Neyther let povertie and want withdraw thee from praysing the justice of God Neither let us despair nor torment our selves and much lesse complaine and murmur
without estate in the life to come to be joyned with God and to have the â—…uition of the joyes of heaven which is our beatitude and soveraigne good That wee may attaine to the same it behooveth us daily to pray to him that hee will give us his grace to do the things that are pleasing acceptable in his sight that as the only means we have to be restored to our felicity and soveraigne good is to returne to God againe from whom by the disobedience of our first parent we are fallen by the way of true Religion which teacheth us our duty towards God and assureth â—…s of his favour by the mediation and merits of his only Sonne Christ Iesus our Saviour and Redeemer so he will not suffer us to be drawne and led astray from him by the deceitfull allurements and unbridled lusts after volpruousnesâ—…e and worldly pleasures which like a violent torrent carrieth us away from our true felicity and beatitude into the bottomlesse pit and gulfe of miseries and that heâ—… will not suffer us to be overcome with the intemperare and inordinate desire of riches and possessions which puffeth us up in pride and vaine glory a grievous sinne and odious in his sight chaseth out of us his humility meeknesse in spirit for which his son Iesus pronounceth men blessed and which diverteth us from the love of him and our Saviour to the love and desire of earthly things which riches prepare for us But if it please him to blesse our labors or estate with plenty of riches and possessions that it wil also please him so plentifully to endue us with his grace that wee abuse not his liberalitie and blessings to the hurt of our selves or prejudice of any other but rather that we imploy them to the uses for which they were ordained to our owne necessity and to the benefit and profit of our neighbour And if it please God not to blesse us with riches as except they come by his blessing it were better to bee without them then that he will vouchsafe to grant us a contented minde with tolerable povertie without grudge or disdaine seeing much quietnesse and security alwayes attendeth upon that estate which is also free from many evils that commonly accompany riches and especially seeing it pleased our Saviour Christ to make choyce to walke upon the earth in a poore estate that was master of the whole world And also that it will please him by his grace to extinguish or suppresse in us the furious passion of ambition and inordinate desire of honour and vaine glory which was the originall cause of all our woe and misery that wee may bee coâ—…tented with our calling and estate to which hee hath appointed us and the same to performe according to the talent he hath given us That he will endue us with vertues both Morall and Christian that by the one we may be the better able to bridle and moderate the intemperate affections and violent motions of our corrupt minds which throweth us downe headlong from the quietnesse and happinesse of this life into a sea of troubles and calamities and in a civill life the better to know how to performe the duty of a man and by the other to live in the love and feare of God and in the faith of Christ to use patience in adversitie and afflictions if they happen and to bee humble in prosperity to worship and glorifie God in this life that we may bee joyned with him in the life to come which is our beatitude and summum bonnm or soveraigne good and all this for his Son Iesus Christ his saâ—…e our only Saviour and Redeemer to whom be all honour and glory Amen Thus have I ended God be thanked this Discourse of the felicity of man which I trust will be hurtfull to no man except there be any that will take that with the left hand which I deliver with the right hand The Bee and the Spider goe both to one flower the one gathereth honey the other poyson Evill mindes through their corrupt disposition may turne that good thing to their owne harme which the vertuous and well disposed receive simply to their benefit Many precepts and good lessons I have gathered our of the Philosophers and Divines medicinable to qualifie the corruption of our nature and to moderate the rigour of unruly affections which draw the minde to worldly desires and subjecteth it unto peftilent passions that are great hinderances unto happinesse And it is truly said that which way soever wee doe turne our eyes whether unto divine or prophane Histories to 〈◊〉 of our owne Countrey or those of other Nations wee shall finde all full of â—…ours wicked acts deceries lyes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 by which we may not only be taught advisedly to beware that wee be not intrapped by them but also that wee leave to wonder at honours riches pleasures and the vanities of a delicate life which the common sort doth most marvell at For seeing for the most part they are bestowed upon those that are unworthy and have never any certaine place nor sure ground they ought to bee called very cares and painefull labours and the frumps of fortune rather than the instruments of felicitie And if it be true as Cicero saith That Philosophie healeth mens mindes driveth away carefulnesse delivereth from cupidities or desires expelleth fearfulnesse then of much more force is divine Philosiphie joyned with it to bring these things to passe But saith he this power of Philosophy is not of like validitie with all men yet it prevaileth greatly where it hath gotten an ant nature Our mindes have their diseases as the 〈◊〉 hath which must be cured with 〈◊〉 and appropriate medicines They that are circumvented and seduced by a common and inveterate custome grounded upon false opinions estimation of things and fallen to the ground where they 〈◊〉 muzzling like swine in the earth must by true sentences and perswasions with examples of life be raised again reduced to the right path that leadeth to felicitie And thought the inordinate desires of pleasures riches honour and pompe of the world hath taken so deepe roote in the multitude or greater part of men that it will be as hard a matter and great a labour to purge them of those evill humors as it was for Hercules to draw Cerberâ—… out of hell yet as some bodies are of such constitution that medicines wil more easily work in them than in 〈◊〉 so some minds are so tractable and apt by a naturall inclination to receive and embrace reasonable and fruitfull perswasions that they digest them into a good nutriment and habit and reape thereby many times great comfort and profit And if the counsels or sayings of the ancient Philosophers and other learned men seeme to any in some part too severe or hard to be observed let them consider that a staffe that is warpt and grown crooked must be bent as much