others through a compliance with the humours of Ahab and Jezabel The news of his death comes instantly to the Court and Jezabel carries it to the King without specifying to him any other thing telling him onely that Naboth was out of the world and that he might now enjoy his spoils all at leasure To speak Truth Great ones have great cause to make to God Davids Prayer and to beseech him to deliver them from others sinnes and from those that are hidden from them Unfortunate Ahab knew nothing of all that had passed and takes not the pains to inform himself of the manner of that death He trusted all to his wife and gave her his signet his authority his heart and Counsels It was enough to make him guilty to put the Government of his Kingdome into the hands of that Sidonian woman who he might well know had great inclinations to bloud and rapine Princes do wisely not to rely too much in every thing upon their Counsellours of State without watching over their actions and using all diligence to discover their deportments without believing any thing lightly either on one side or the other Ahab without taking any farther information was going to possesse himself of Naboths bloudy spoil when the Prophet Elijah by the command of God came and found him upon the way and began to roar against him as a Lyon What sayes he Murther the Innocent and take away his Inheritance bedewed with his bloud After this what is there more to do Know Sir that the Vengeance of God hangs over your head and that in the same place as the Doggs licked the bloud of Naboth they shall lick yours This unhappy Prince extreamly amazed at so thundering a speech was not incensed against the Prophet but endeavouring to pacifie him said to him Wherein have I offended you and in what have you found me your enemy that you use me with all these rigours You are enough mine enemy sayes the Prophet seeing you are Gods and since yee have sold your selfe through love to an Idolatrous woman to serve her passions and commit so many wicked acts in the face of God In punishment of your crimes He will ruine your House and blot out your Posterity the bloud of that murthered Innocent will cost Jezabel dear for she shall be caten up of Doggs in the field of Jezreel Poor Ahab returns hanging down his head without passing farther tormented on one side by the remorse of his own Conscience and on the other by the love he bare to his Sidonian whom he would not any way displease He said nothing to her of all that shee had done without his privity in Naboth's businesse whether through affection or through fear of her wicked Spirit He revenges himself upon himself he rents his Clothes he fasts he covers himself with sackcloth without putting it off even when he went to bed which softned the heart of God who ordained that the Kingdome should not be taken from him during his life but that his Posterity should be deprived of it Three years were slipt away and Elijah was absent when Ahab resolved to proclaim warre with the King of Syria to recover Ramoth one of his Cities that the other had usurped and engaged Jehosaphat King of Juda to his party making a new Alliance of Arms and Interests with him When they were assembled Jehosaphat which had a zeal to the true Religion said That it would be good to consult with some Prophet before they enterprised the warre and Ahab to content him called for four hundred but they were the false Prophets of his wife who were none of the best and who foretold him all falsoly that he should have an happy issue of his enterprise King Jehosaphat asked Ahab whether amongst that great number of Baals Prophets there were never a Prophet of the true God that one might hear speak meaning by this to induce him to his duty and to the knowledge of the true Religion Ahab replyed that there was none at present but a certain man named Michaiah but he could not endure him because he prophecied nothing but mischief to him Jehosaphat said that he ought not for that to hate him but that it would be good to hear him and instantly was sent away a Gentleman of the Court to call him This man ceased not to advise him upon the way to remit something of that rigour that was usuall to him and to render himself complacent to the King as all the other Prophets had done whereto he answered That he could do nothing against the Spirit of God nor against his conscience When he was come he perceived a great assembly of false Prophets who all approved that warre One among them named Zedechiah had made himself iron horns to signifie to King Ahab that he should ransack all Syria with a mighty power and that nothing should resist his Arms. But Michaiah being asked spake at first by fiction as the other Prophets foretelling prosperities without end Whereat the King being astonished that he did it against his custome conjured him not to flatter him and to tell him openly the truth To which he answered that he would not counsell him to hazard a battell against the King of Syria for if he did his whole army would be scattered and added also that God had given permission to the wicked spirit to deceive him and that he had found no better way to do it then to speak by the mouth of so many false Prophets that encompassed him Whereupon Zedechiah being incensed at that speech gave him a blow and the King commanded his Person to be seized on and to be put in prison to be kept there fasting with bread of tribulation and water of anguish till his return But the Prophet assured him that if he went he should never return again It is a strange thing that we cannot believe Truth that comes from the mouth of Gods servants because it complyes not with our passion It is also a manifest punishment to those that despise it not to consider that God begins the ruine of their fortune by the blinding of their Counsels Ahab obstinate to his miserie marches with all his Army against the King of Syria Jehosaphat engaged through inconsideration in that league pursues what he had ill begun and thinks that there is no better means to justifie an errour then Perseverance When the two Kings approached the enemy and the Armies were ranged in Battell the King of Syria gave expresse charge to his most resolute men to aim at the King of Israel and to endeavour to carry him it being the true means to dispatch the businesse and put an end to the warre Ahab began to fear his unhappinesse and prayed Jehosaphat to go into the mingling putting him forward with courage out of a design perhaps to cause him to be destroyed and to draw all the weight of the Army upon him by diverting it from his person And indeed when the
S. Ambrose speaketh to the souls of his two pupils happy gone as you are out of the desert of this world dwell now in the everlasting delights of God united in Heaven as you have been on earth If my prayers have any force before God I will not let a day pass of my life that I remember you not I will not make a praier wherein I insert not the names of my dearest Pupils Gratian and Valentinian In the silence of the night the apple of mine eyes shall be waking and full of tears for you and as often as I approach to Altars my sacrifices shall mount to Heaven in the odour of sweetness By my will dearest children if I could have given my life for yours I should have found consolation for all my sorrows Then turning himself to his sisters those mournfull turtles whom this good Prince had so passionately loved that in consideration of them he deferred his own marriage fearing lest the love of a wife might diminish his charity towards them the good Bishop thus spake unto them My holy daughters I will not bereave you of tears this were to be over ignorant in the resentments of your hearts I wish that you bewail your brother but bemoan him not as lost he shall live more than ever in your eyes in your breasts in your hearts in your embracements in your kisses in your memorie in your praiers nor shall any thing draw him from your thoughts but you ought now to consider him with a quite other visage not as a man mortal for whom you were ever in fear but as an Angel in whom you dread nothing An Angel who will assist comfort and hold you day and night in his protection The seventeenth SECTION The tyranny of Eugenius and notable libertie of S. Ambrose IN the mean while Eugenius drawn from the school to the Throne of Monarchs to serve as a specious game for the fortune of the times changeth his ferula into a scepter and makes himself an Emperour like the ice of one night The faithless man who had been a Christian shutting up his eyes then from all consideration of piety and onely opening them to the lustre of this unexpected greatness made himself an arm of towe forsaking the direction of God to support in humane policie He put all his hope in the sword of Arbogastus and counsel of Flavianus a Gentleman of prime quality and much versed in judicial Astrologie who promised him a golden fortune if he would leave Christian Religion to re-advance the worship of false gods towards which Eugenius blinded with his presumption discovered great inclinations He chose the Citie of Milan to begin the web of his wicked purposes where S. Ambrose did not desire him not through fear of his arms but for the horrour he had conceived of his sacriledges The false Emperour failed not to write to the holy Bishop to require his friendship which he would make use of to support his authoritie but holy Ambrose shewed so generous a contempt of his letters that he deigned not so much as to make answer untill such time that being informed how Eugenius under-hand favoured the Sect of Pagans having already allowed them this Altar of Victorie for which so many battels had been fought he wrote to him a most couragious letter where not touching his election nor affairs of State as then not well known he reprehendeth him for his impietie and said among other things I ow the retreat which I made from Milan not attending Epist Ambros ad Eugenium you to the fear of God which shall perpetually be the rule of my actions The grace of our Saviour shall ever be more precious with me than that of Caesars nor will I at any time flatter a man to betray my conscience I wrong no person if I render to God that which is due to him and I profit all men when I conceal not a truth from great-ones I understand you have granted to Pagans that which constantly hath been denied by Catholick Emperours God knoweth all the secrets of your heart It is a very ill business if you unwilling to be beguiled by men think to deceive God who seeth all that is to be done even to nothing The Gentiles who so much have importuned you to satisfie their passion taught you to be urgent to make a good refusal of that which you cannot give but with committing sacriledge I am no Controller of your liberalities but an interpreter of your faith Give of your treasures what ever you think good I envie no man but you shall not give any thing of the rights of God which I will not resist with the utmost extent of my power You make a goodly matter to present offerings to Jesus Christ you will find few that make account of these dissimulations every man hereafter will regard not what you do but what you have a will to do As for my part I enter not now into consideration of your estate but if you be true Emperour you will begin with the service of the divine Majestie This is it which I cannot hide from you because my life and flatterie are two things incompatible As for the rest the Emperour Theodosius seeing the tyrannie of Eugenius in a readiness well foresaw necessitie must needs put arms into his hands to be mannaged with pietie Whilest the infamous Eugenius made slaughter of beasts amusing himself on the consideration of their entrails from thence to judge the events of war the brave Theodosius prostrated himself before the Altars of the living God covered Theodosius maketh the Court holy with hair-cloth imploring the assistance of Saints for his succour and all the prayers of souls the most purified which at that time lived within Monasteries He departed from Constantinople with these aids causing the Standard of the Cross to march before him Eugenius was alreadie encamped on the Alps to hinder the passage of his adversarie and had in a manner covered them with Statues of false Gods as of Jupiter and Hercules so bestial was this man The Emperour seeing he needs must fight commanded Gaynes Colonel of the Goths who led the vanguard to break the trenches of his enemies which he quickly did but they being yet very fresh and having a notable advantage of place taken by them sustained the first assault with much resolution and infinite loss on the Emperours part for it is thought that Gaynes who was a valiant Captain in his own person yet too wilfully opinionative to force this passage of the Alps lost there about ten thousand men which were killed like flies so that needs a retreat must be made very shamefull for Theodosius his army Eugenius whose head was not made for a diadem thinking the whole business ended after so great a slaughter of his enemies was so puffed up with this success that he rather thought how to glorifie his victorie than foresee his defence The sage Emperour on the other
side seeing his Army grown very thin and the courage of his souldiers wavering more stedfastly made his address to God He was seen upon the top of a rock prostrate on the earth and crying aloud My God you know that I in the name of your Remarkable pietie of Theodosius Son enterprized this war and have opposed the arms of the Cross against Infidelitie If in me their rest any blame I beseech you to revenge my sins on my culpable head and not abandon the cause of Religion lest we become a reproch to Infidels The same night God for his assurance shewed him a vision of two Apostles S. John and S. Philip who should be as indeed they were the Conductours of his Legions The next morning about break of day he ranged his forces in battel array and charged Eugenius not as yet througly freed from his drunken prosperitie And when he saw that those who had the vanguard proceeded therein somewhat fearfully remembering themselves of the usage of their companions he did an act of admirable confidence for he alighted from his horse and marching on foot in the head of his Army cried out Where is the God of Theodosius At this word the ayd of Heaven Victorie of Theodosius over Eugenius Ambros in oratione funebri Theodosii was so propitious that a furious whirl-wind was raised which persecuted the enemies of Theodosius casting a huge cloud of dust into their eyes and returning all their own darts back to their proper faces in such sort that as it is confessed by Claudian a very obstinate Pagan it seemed the good Emperour that day had the winds and tempests at command and that he had nothing to do but to give the word to make them obedient to his Standards Heaven fought for its beloved Theodosius and all the powers of the ayr were in arms to favour his victories The souldiers at this instant were all changed so much hope had they in their hearts fire in their courages Bacurius one of the Emperours greatest Captains with his enflamed Legions brake through the ranks penetrated the strongest resistances and gained the Alps. Eugenius his people dejected as men fallen from the clouds could not sufficiently admire this alteration The discreetest among them disposed themselves to treat of peace crying aloud that never would they bear arms against a man who had the ayr and winds in his pay Theodosius sortified them with his clemencie all dispositions by a most remarkable miracle of God who exerciseth his power as well over hearts as winds were changed in an instant and that which is admirable the most faithfull to Eugenius promised the Emperour to put him into his hands which they performed for they went to take this miserable man who sat on his Throne entertaining his goodly imaginations and crying Bring him alive speaking of Theodosius when they laying hold of his collar and most shamefully binding his hands It is you said they we must bring alive to Theodosius and that instantly They trussed him up like a beast astonished and presented him to the Emperour who having reproched him in presence of all the world for his impietie and treacherie caused him presently to be put to death to make an end of his imaginarie Empire The wicked Arbogastus who had at other times been so happy when he followed the counsels of S. Ambrose seeing the ill success of his designs became so enraged that himself thrust two swords through his own bodie being not able to endure life nor light which seemed to upbraid him with his crimes Some hold that Flavianus died in the throng that he might not survive his own shame others think he escaped and that Theodosius extended his ordinarie clemencie to him Briefly behold the course of the tyrannie of Eugenius still more and more to verifie the Oracles of S. Ambrose The Emperour came to Milan where he cast himself at the feet of the holy Bishop attributing these victories to his wisdom counsels and virtue of his prayers The eighteenth SECTION The differences of S. Ambrose with the Emperour Theodosius and his death PHilosophers say there are four things which divert thunder to wit wind rain noise and the light of the Sun And behold a thunder-clap arrested by Saint Ambrose with the wind of his mouth the holy rain of his eloquence the noise of his voice and resplendent light of his most unsported life Theodosius verily was a great Prince but as it is so difficult to be on earth and not participate of earth as that the Moon being distant by so many thousand leagues yet seemeth to bear the marks thereof on the forehead so is it very hard to be in Court and not resent the manners of the Court and souls esteemed the most temperate not to have some blemishes appear on the face This brave Emperour was naturally enclined to choller which was enkindled by the breath of those who conversed with him nourishing himself with the food of over-much credulity For this cause he had two great contestations with S. Ambrose which eminently manifested the authority of the holy Bishop The one was for a Synagogue of Jews the other Synagogue burned for the murder committed at Thessalonica The matter for the Jews was for that one of their Synagogues was burnt in the East at the solicitation of a Bishop with which Theodosius offended as if it had imported much prejudice to his Edicts caused a carefull Inquisition to be made and adjudged the good Bishop who was said to be the Authour of this fire to re-build the Synagogue now turned to cinders Saint Ambrose although he had a peaceable spirit and that he in his Diocess had never undertaken the like avoiding popular commotions as much as he might which ever transport affairs into some excess yet could he not tolerate the rigours used against Christians on this pretended injury but he very sharply wrote thereof to Theodosius as it appeareth by the letter which is yet found among his Works some words whereof behold My life passeth away in many cares wherein I am Ambros epist 17. lib. 2. engaged by obligation of my charge but I must avow that I never resented any thing more lively than to see my self as it were accused of sacriledge before your Majestie I beseech you patiently to hearken to me for if I Grave words of S. Ambrose be unworthie to be heard by you I cannot be heard of God for you You do wrong to commit your praiers and vows to me to be carried to Altars if you denie me the audience of your ears you declare me by the same sentence unworthie to bear your complaints to the ears of the living God It is not a thing to be done by a good Emperour to take away the libertie of speech nor for a good Bishop to conceal a veritie contrarie to his conscience All that which Monarchs have in them most amiable is to love libertie even in the tongues of the
who gave him life by his death as he had afforded him birth by his life Who did this but the Master of Life and Death Besides I read in the relations of Muscovia set Demetrius Legatus out by the Embassadour Demetrius that a countrey Boor being by chance clammed in the hollow body of a great tree full of honey and finding no means to come forth of his licorish captivity behold a Bear hasteneth to the same tree to eat of the honey whereof these beasts are very greedy which observed the poor forlorn creature not discerning what this might be but catching hold as one almost drowned of any thing which good luck offered him grasped the Bear who feeling himself taken laboured hard to flie through fear conceived and draweth out the peasant by an admirable accident wherein it was no easie matter to say which of the two was most affrighted Who directed this but the eye of Providence I admire also in the earth-quake of Apulia that happened the year 1627 the last day of Jâ—ly where one writeth that in the Citie of S. Severin alone ten thousand souls were taken out of the world how in the horrour of such infinite ruins and sepulcher of so many mortals a great bell fell so fitly over a child that it inclosed him and doing no hurt made a bulwark for him against any other danger who ballanced the motion of this metal but the fingers which distended heaven Will you pass to particulars of Empires You will Providence over Empires be rapt with admiration when you come to consider the beginnings progressions and events of every one You shall see them spring like small veins of water unknown and with time to take such encrease as to become huge rivers large enough to overflow the fields Sometimes it will seem to you they are onely set upon a needles point and are ready to ruin in the mean space there is an invisible hand which supporteth and re-establisheth them by their proper falls You admire how God so long suffers ungrateful and perfidious Nations to draw them unto him and afterwards the measure of their sins filled up if they must be destroyed it is but to cause others to rise out of their ruins The Assyrians after the reign of thirty eight Kings changed into Medes and Chaldaeans the Medes after the sway of nine Kings and three hundred and twenty two years ended in Astyages The Chaldaeans after two hundred and nine years in Darius the Mede But they like two rivers united in the person of Cyrus to make great the Monarchy of the Persians The Persians after two hundred thirty years and fourteen Kings dissolve into the Grecians The Grecians are multiplied to Ptolomeyes and Sâ—â—ucides All are finally swallowed in the Roman Empire Rome lost it self after one thousand two hundred twenty nine years accounted from the foundation to the Emperour Augustulus who is observed as the last Monarch before the great wrack which made the Empire a prey to so many Nations that had fed it with their bloud From the division of the Roman Empire sprang our French Spaniards English Goths Vandals Lombards Polacks Otomans and such other Powers If from thence you advance your thoughts to Providence over the Church the government of the Church which is the principal work of God and reflect upon it from its cradle to the present Age entertaining in your memory its infancy encrease travels persecution glories and crowns you will stand amazed at the bottomless depth of the counsels of the Divine Providence What mother ever had so much care and tender affection over her little infant sleeping in the cradle as this Providence for the Church and Christianity It is a remarkeable thing that at the same time when Nebuchadnezzar ruined the Temple of Jerusalem Diarium Historicum in the East the Capitol was built in the West to plant there one day the Cross and that Rome in the space of one hundred forty two years having been six times taken and ransacked by Alaricus Gensericus Odoacer the Heruli Theodoricus Belisarius and Totylas when one would have thought it were brought to nothing was ever preserved by God to be the source of lights and the mother of all Churches How many times hath God tied secret virtues to the standards of Christians How many times made winds and tempests to fight under their Ensigns How often hath he opened for them lands inaccessible calmed stormy seas for them changed deserts into Paradises of delight Petty handfuls of souldiers to discomfit huge Armies take Towns impregnable cleave rocks and hew through mountaines to do the work of Giants and find facility in all which humane reason conceived impossible Read Paulus Aemilius and Gulielmus Tyrius upon Paul Aemil. l. 4. the conquest of the holy land and you shall see that birds of the air seemed in pay with Godfrey of Bovillon For who can be but astonished to hear it told how when he besieged Jerusalem the Sultan having Serange accident taught pigeons to carry messages dispatched one of them with a letter which she bare under her wings to give advise to the besieged But good hap would have it that a Hawk seazing one her just over the Christian army took her and made her to let fall what she carried to inform ours of the enemies design How many such like accidents shew us the care God hath of his and that he never suffered them to be overthrown but to vanquish their vices and to humble their pride by the counterpoise of forraign Powers What may we say of Councels What may we likewise think of great bodies of Justice How many times have we seen counsels discovered and resolutions of which it seemed no creature had a thought God governed the hearts and tongues of those who sought to abuse them against him a great Spirit swayed all those members assembled and secretly did its work to the admiration of the whole world One same motion guided within compass all those stars as in Archimedes his sphere and accorded them by their proper contrarieties Great Vis illum veras poenas dare Sentiat quà m bono patri injuriam fecerit Senec. contro l. 1. God have we not cause to say what he did in Seneca Throughly to punish the wicked man who woundeth the Divine Providence I ordain nothing but that he understand the wrong he hath done to a good father V. MAXIM Of Accidents THE PROPHANE COURT THE HOLY COURT That all is done by chance by necessity or humane providence That all is done by the will of God except sin THe enemies of Providence use all kind of engins to oppose their own happiness Three squadrons against Providence and crack their own eye-strings that they may not behold the great eye which pursues the wicked even into the shades of death I find the Chaldaeans made three squadrons that we may speak with holy Job wherewith to assail this great Mistress
terminate their Law-suits by his Verdict His principal care was to commit Justice unto innocent hands but the horrour of his thoughts was perpetually against the unjust and against the violent thinking that his Authority and his Arms could have no better employment then in the destruction of tyrants But on the contrary he had goodnesses of heart inexhaustible for honest men and a wonderful care of the quiet and commodity of his people his access was easie his words gracious his caresses full of attractions his command sweet his answers judicious his orders so just that they seemed all consorted in heaven He denyed with sweetnesse and gave with measure although his hands were seas of Liberality and Magnificence that were never dry He had all his life time the possession of his soul by a singular moderation that retained his mouth his tongue and his anger but it could not pluck back Love by the wings which caused some spots to be seen in this Sun although they were afterward washed away again by a strong Repentance That which was most resplendent in all the parts of his life was an high generosity that never forsook his heart and that found exercise continually in all his actions He contented not himself with middle Virtues but he carried them all even up to the altitude of their Glory He had a spirit incessantly bent to great designs and a soul alwayes filled with a strong confidence which he had seated totally in God of whom he thought himself to be beloved He never was kept back by any obstacles from generous enterprises he exposed himself to all dangers even to the most terrible for the glory of his sovereign Master Prosperity had no charms upon him and adversity found not any darts that were able to abate his resolution All these virtues marched in him under the conduct of a great Reason and failed not to be followed with an happinesse that had no equal but his Prudence God having ennobled him with so eminent qualities ceased not to furnish him with Objects to put them in practise as well by the condition of his Birth as by the divers occurrences of Affairs It seems that Providence made him be born on purpose at Ingeheim upon the river of Rhine and on the Borders of France and Germany as the man that should unite those two Estates under one Sceptre He found a Monarchy at his birth which his Grandfather touched upon and which his father openly possessed that had much need of being settled by his power and husbanded by his cares He enterprised for this purpose divers warres but he never waged any one that he was not led to by strong reasons of Piety and Justice His first Arms were employed against the Saxons who were at that time Infidels and Pagans and who besides rebelled against the lawfull Power that ruled them One may say truly that that Nation was the Hydra of our Hercules whose heads continually weâ—e born again and whose bloud so often shed was but the seed of a new Warre even to infinite Never did the Arms of the Romans dare to attempt any thing upon this people which they desired rather not to know then fight with Their Standards had never resolution enough to see that which Charlemagne had power enough to beat They were warlike even to a wonder and obstinate even to all extremity The businesse was not onely to conquer the Lands and to gain the men but to overcome their Superstition and to disarm the furies of despair This is that which our Charles performed in nine Warres as cruel as possible and in the space of three and thirty years so much Constancy had he against stubbornnesse and so much Power against madnesse He defeated them in many battels he subdued their cities and took their principall fortresses he demolished the Altars of the pernicious Irminsul so many times besprinkled with humane bloud he plucked all the other Idols also out of their demolished Temples and at last constrained the brave Vitiguinde their King to yield to the happinesse of France which made him find the kingdome of God in Baptisme by the losse of that of the Barbarians But it is true that this magnificent Conquerour found not any where a Theatre of his deeds more famous then that of Italy whither the Church groaning under the chains of the Lombards called for him incessantly Above all Pope Adrian the first whom Charlemagne loved afterwards as his brother conjured him to help him speedily and to recover the Patrimony of Jesus out of the hands of so many unjust usurpers He transported over into Italy with an Eagles wings and a lions strength marching upon his fathers steps that exhaled yet the odour of his generous piety He took at first the city of Verona then that of Pavia after a long tedious siege and appeared victorious with an Army of fire in the champains of his enemies Didiâ—â— King of the Lombards that was more ready to do an injury to a disarmed power then to ward the blows of an adversary was seen conquered and taken prisoner rendering the Church her liberty by his captivity It was a sight fill'd with Magnificence and Piety to see him arrive at Rome where the heavens seemed to be all in Blessings over his head and the earth all in respect under his feet He would have marched with a little noise and prevented the Pope not desiring to make his entrance with great pomp But Adrian that watched over his march perceived it and sent out very farre to meet him abundance of the Nobility and Officers for a Convoy and when he was near enough to Rome the Souldiery with all the Citizens appeared in Anns but that which was most delightfull was a Procession of little Children well chosen out that carried boughs and sang Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini Blessed be he that comes in the name of God The Pope desiring to honour the lively image of the saviour by some kind of honours that had been heretofore rendred to the originall When the King saw the Crosses of the Senatours and that came also out to meet him he alighted off his horse and walked afoot as farre as S. Peters Church where the holy Father was at the door to receive him with his Cardinalls and all his Chair Charlemagne by a Ceremonious devotion and great respect that he bare to S. Peter and his successour would kisse every stair of the ascent of the Portall before he would close with Adrian that received and embraced him with extasies of joyes and the King kissed his hand amongst a thousand acclamations of cheerfulnesse and happinesse which the people ceased not to redouble They went both of them into the Church to render thanks for the favours that God had done them on that great day which was an holy Saturday and which gave not place for that time to the triumphs of the Resurrection The Feasts of the Passeover were spent amidst powerfull Devotions pretty
that it was not to break the Sabboth but rather to sanctifie it Following these pathes he was the first of all the Jews that made a League with the Romans which hath seemed a little harsh to Rupertus and some other Divines But we must consider what Saint Paul saith That if all commerce with the Gentiles had been forbidden to the Jews and to the first Christians they should have been constrained rather to go out of the world then converse in it Never did this great Captain in his most pressing necessities cause the Roman souldiers to come into Palestine fearing lest their approach might bring some damage and profanation to an Holy Land But forasmuch as he saw himself environed all round with Kings that bowed under the puissance of the Roman Empire he thought that it would be convenient to endeavour to gain their friendship to obtain more easily Justice against the oppressions of his neighbours He employed the power of the Infidels not to torment the faithfull but to ruine infidelity He sought to those into whose hands God had put the Power to have the exercise of it to the glory of him that had communicated it to them this was not a crime but a most exquisite piece of prudence The false high Priest Alcimus Judas's adversary did not use the matter so who caused the Armies of Antiochus to come to the destruction of the Altars and to the massacre of his brethren which caused him to be smitten with a stroak from heaven and rendred him execrable to the memory of men But we must acknowledge that of all the great qualities that hath shined in this so famous man Valour hath alwayes held one of the upper ranks He was made for Military virtue and furnished with all the necessary conditions that make Generalls of Armies and Conquerours An elevated birth an happy beginning that he had made under his father science of Warre Authority Happinesse Vigilancy Activenesse Boldnesse Government and whatsoever is best in the profession of Arms had contributed to make of him the wonder of his age He was a Lion's heart that found security in dangers and would not have even Crowns themselves if he did not pluck them out of the midst of thorns One cannot read without admiration the two books of the Maccabees in considering the great progresses that he made in so little time and so many various encounters In the space of six years he sustained the great and prodigious forces of three Kings of Asia opposing himself with a little flying Camp against Armies of fourty sixty an hundred thousand men which he put into disorder and confusion He defeated in ranged battels and in divers combats nine Generalls of the Infidels killing some with his own hand and carrying away their spoils The first amongst them was Apollonius who was of an high repute in Antiochus his Reign because that he had been employed in the principall businesses of the Realm treating with the Romans and the Egyptians for his Master It is the very same that entred into Jerusalem with an army of two and twenty thousand men and under pretence of Peace made there an horrible spoil Assoon as he had heard that Judas Maccabeus had put himself into the field with a strength very little considerable he thought that being Governour of Syria and of Phenicia and at that time upon the place the businesse concerned him above all others and therefore he collects together great troops to stop the progresse of the Jews and to succeed with all security But the valorous Maccabeus prevented him so vigorously that he had not the leasure well to bethink himself he gave him battle wherein his men seeing the assaults of the faithfull people that seemed the assaults of giants began to stagger Whatsoever pains he took to rally them fear had so farre gained upon them that they destroyed themselves for fear of being destroyed Judas by Joseph Gorians report made that day the heads of his enemies to fall under his cuttle-ax as fast as the ears of corn-fall under the hook of the reaper He chose Apollonius out of the middle of his best souldiers and ran to him challenging him to a duel in which the other was overcom in the sight of a trembling army and Judas took away his sword which he used the rest of his dayes in so many glorious combats Seron that was Lieutenant under Apollonius pushed on with vengeance and with glory that made him long since seek out an occasion to make himself renowned thinking that Apollonius his defeat was but a stroke of Fortune and that he should quickly bring Judas into good order rallyed all his forces increasing his army as much as possibly he could which gave at first a great terrour to the Hebrews seeing that the heads of that Hydra which they thought had been cut off pushed forth so suddenly They had journied and fasted the very day of the combat and seemed all discouraged but Judas exhorted them with an ardent speech that put fire and spirit into all his Army It fell so opportunely upon the enemy that Seron thought he had to do rather with hungry wolves then men and although he came with a great deal of bravery to the encountre he quickly perceived that he had sung the Triumph before the Victory and had very much ado to retire with a whole skin contenting himself to run away after he had had the hope of conquering Lysias that was the Almighty under King Antiochus grew mad to see himself out-braved by so small an army of men contemptible and knew not what account to give the King his Master to whom he had promised to root out the remainders of the Jewish people so that there should not be any memory of them left behind He chose on divers occasions three of the best Generalls of all the Armies which were Ptolomy Gorgias and Nicanor Ptolomy made not any great brags Gorgias was vain enough to promise himself the victory and perswaded himself that he was very dreadfull But Judas though he had then but three thousand men badly armed defeated him and took his camp which was filled with great riches which gave a great temptation to the Jewish Army that desired nothing but readily to throw themselves upon the booty Yet their Conductour that knew the art of Warre and that many busying themselves about the spoils had lost their honour and their life gave a strict command that they should not touch that prey of the Infidels before the defeat was perfected and thereupon set himself to pursue his enemies that were in a disorder and after he had killed a good number of them put the rest to flight Nicanor that was the third of those Generalls after he had experimented the valour of Judas with the losse of his men resolved not to commit his reputation to the incertainty of combats but put off the Lions skin to take the Foxes endeavouring to surprise Judas by treachery seeing that he
in his caroch with too much precipitation he fell and got a wound by that fall wherein corruption and worms suddenly arose that infested that miserable body after a strange manner The stink of it was so great that all the army sented the infection of it and he himself had very much ado to endure himself Sometimes he entred into great choler that made him vomit out execrable blasphemies sometimes he suffered himself to be carried away by lamentations unseemly to his dignity deploring the losse of that estate which was so beautifull so stately so triumphant filled with honours with health with contentments and delights Sometimes he passed into black affrights and felt stinging remorses for his life past saying that all his misery came from having profaned the Temple of Jerusalem and made so bloudy a butchery of that poor people that he perceived at present that there was a sovereign power in heaven to whom all Kings do owe obedience and that it is an unmeasureable folly for men to equall themselves with God Furthermore he protested that if he recovered his health he would make reparation for all his faults by an extraordinary piety filling with riches the Temple that he had pillaged and using the Jews with all courtesies and all liberalities possible for a great King adding to all this that he would make profession of the Jews Religion and would become a servant of the true God This wicked man had his mouth open to sorrows and to vows but God had no ears for him and it was in vain to seek for mercy after he had so many times despised it At last he rendred up his criminall soul after a Reign of twelve years to suffer an eternity of punishments One may observe in many Histories that some very bloudy Tyrants have not ended by the sword but that God hath laid his hand upon them by some strange malady and visible strokes that have made them die slowly and rendred them spectatours of their own dishonour and of their own funeralls So died Herod and Tyberius Alcimus Copronymus and Leo. This miserable King left a sonne behind him of a very small age named Antiochus Eupator who was assoon successour of his fathers miserie as of his Empire It is a pitifull thing that the children of Sovereign Princes that are born so great should not alwaies be born free Many are like those creatures that bear purple pearls and musk all that they have of Rich is the cause of their destruction men cease not to torment them and to hunt after them and if they love them it is onely to have their spoils Eupator for that he was born a King became a slave to two of his fathers servants that contended for the Regency and fell together by the ears to possesse that unfortunate pupill It is true that Antiochus when he was dying in a strange countrey called Philip one of his great favourites and gave him the diadem the purple royall and the ring to carry to his sonne and recommended him to him as in quality of a Tutour But Lysias that had bred up this young Prince from his tender infancy and held him yet under his government thought himself to be in a good possession and would by no means give it up He put off now that countenance of Governour which bare by necessity of duty some lineaments of severity and took one of a principall Officer of State full of attractions and complacency towards his King who esteemed himself very happy that he was got out of his Wardship and had his liberty He gained him to him by the taste he gave him of his greatnesse and delights accompanied with a thousand fair promises to make him live the most contented and the most triumphant Monarch under heaven Eupator that found his words true in that manner of life which Lysias let him leade and who durst not anger him imagining him yet to be his Master shewed himself entirely for him rejecting the pretensions of his adversary And that which aided more yet this design was that the Army of Antiochus that seemed should have upheld Philips party was found weak after it had been evill entreated in a long and tedious voyage But Lysias had great forces on foot in Palestine Phenicia and Syria who yielded themselves to his disposall seeing that the young King declared himself openly for him His competitour then began to flatter considering him guarded both with favour and with force but he ceased not to foment his ambitions which made on that occasion a great havock The new Regent whether through the hatred that he had against the Jews or whether through the desire that came to him of giving lustre to the Arms of his young Prince or whether he was moved to it by the complaints that ordinarily did beat upon his ears about the incursions and progresses of the Macchabe made a great preparation of warre and came to fall into Judea His Army was composed of an hundred thousand foot twenty thousand horse two and thirty well train'd elephants that were distributed into divers legions and carried wodden towers with great engines upon their backs Thirty women combated upon them and about them marched five hundred Cavaliers with a thousand foot-men Judas had the hardinesse to get him out of the fortresse wherein he was to go and view them and to oppose himself against their designs But assoon as he was perceived the adverse Army ranged themselves into a Battalia in the presence of the young King who was very early up that day beginning to relish the trade of warre with some alacrity The trumpets began to sound and the legions instantly were spread over the mountains and over the vallies all round about Jerusalem with such a pomp as that the earth trembled under the burden of the arms and of the engines of so great a train of men of warre They provoked then their elephants to fight by shewing them the juice of grapes and mulberies squeezed out Nothing was heard but shouts of souldiers but neighing of horses but clashings of lances and of swords and just at the break of day as the Sunne appeared in the Horizon the guilded bucklers cast out so great a light that all the neighbouring mountains seemed to be filled with burning torches It is a prodigious thing that the great heart of the Macchabee should march in the head of his army and begin to charge the enemy which he dealt roughly with killing at first five hundred men of the Kings van-guard without any losse of his But that which seemed most fearfull was that Eleazer a Jewish Captain having perceived an elephant wel armed and pompously adorned above the rest imagined that the King Eupator combated upon it and was pricked forward with a generous glory to assault and overthrow him He passed through all the ranks of the army of the Infidels that were opposed against him and arriv'd even to that terrible beast under which he slipt himself
they preferred a flint before a pearl The first unhappinesse of his conduct was that he had not an heart for God but for his own interest and that he did not unite himself close enough to Samuel that had made him King and that was the Oracle from which he should have learned the divine Will The second was a furious State-jealousie his capitall devil that put his Reason into a disorder and infected all the pleasures and contentments of his life He was but weak to hold an Empire and govern with love and yet he loved passionately all that he could least compasse and would do every thing of his own head thinking that the assistance of a good Councel was the diminution of his Authority Sometimes he was sensible of his defects but instead of amending them he desired to take away the eyes of those men that perceived them His Spirit was little in a great body his Reason barren in a multitude of businesse his Passions violent with small reservednesse his Breakin gs out impetuous his Counsels sudden and his Life full of inequalities Samuel had prudently perceived that the Philistims were dangerous enemies to the State of Judea because they knew its weaknesse and kept it in subjection a long time depriving it of the means of thinking fully upon its liberty And therefore he maintained a peace with them and used them courteously gaining all that he could by good Treaties and would not precipitate a Warre which was to weaken the Israelites without recovery But Saul thought not himself an able man if he had not spoiled all and without making any other provision of necessary things he made a great levy of Souldiers and a mighty Army to go against the enemies in which there was but two swords It was a plot that permitted not the Hebrews to have Armorers nor other men that laboured in Iron totally to disarm them and at the least motion that they should make expose them for a pâ—ey These assaulted Philistims found him businesse enough through the whole course of his Government and Life and in the end buried him with his children in the ruines of his State But God that would give some credit to Samuel's choice sent at first prosperities to Gods people under the conduct of that new King wherein that which served for a glory to that holy man was a vain bait to Saul to make him enterprise things that could give him no other ability but to destroy himself About a moneth after his election Nahash the Ammonite raised an Army to fall upon the Jabites that were in league with the people of Israel and those seeing that they were not strong enough to resist so terrible an enemy dispatched an Embassage to him to treat about a Peace But that insolent Prince made answer to their Embassadours that he would not make any treaty of Peace with them on any other condition then by plucking out their right Eyes and covering them with a perpetuall ignominy These poor people that were reduc'd almost to a despair implored on all sides the assistance of their neighbours and failed not to supplicate to the Israelites their friends to do something in their favour Their Messengers being arriv'd at Gibeah related the sad news of the cruelty of Nahash that filled the people with fear and tears Saul returning from the fields was driving his oxen when hearing the groans of his Subjects demanded the cause of it and having been informed entred into so great a rage at the pitilesse extremities of that fierce Ammonite that he instantly tore in pieces his two oxen and sent the pieces of them through all the cities and villages of his Dominion commanding every one to follow him to revenge that injury otherwise their cattle should be dealt with as he had done with his two oxen The Israelites mov'd partly by compassion and partly also by fear of those menaces poured out themselves from all parts to this Warre in such a sort that he had got together three hundred thousand men He divided them into three Battalions and went to meet the Ammonite whom he set upon so vigorously and combated so valiantly that he totally defeated his Army and humbled that proud Giant that thought on nothing but putting out mens eyes making him know that pride goes before reproach as the lightning before the thunder All the great people that compos'd that Army returned unto their houses and Saul retained onely three thousand men whereof he gave one thousand to his son Jonathan that was a man full of spirit and generosity and farre better liked then his father Saul This Militia was too little considerable for so great enemies yet he had a courage to assault a place of the Philistims and routed their Garrison whereat they being pricked beyond measure betake themselves into the field with an Army in which there were thirty thousand chariots of warre and people without end whereat the Israelites were so affrighted that all scatter'd themselves and went to hide themselves in caves so that there remained but about six hundred men with Saul who marched with a small noise and durst not appear before his adversaries Samuel had promised to see him within seven dayes to sacrifice to God and encourage the people But Saul seeing that the seventh day was come without having any tidings of him takes himself the burnt offering offers the Sacrifice and playes the Priest without having any Mission either ordinary or extraordinary As soon as he had made an end of burning the Holocaust Samuel arrives to whom he related how that seeing all the people debauch themselves and quit the Army and how that being pressed by his enemies in a time wherein it behoved them to have recourse to prayer before they gave battle he was perswaded that God would like well enough that in the necessity and long absence of Samuel he should perform the office of a Priest by presenting the burnt offering which he had done with a good intention without pretending to usurp any thing upon his office Samuel rebuked him sharply for that action to shew that there is no pretense nor necessity that is able to justifie a sin and that it no way belongs to Lay-people to meddle with the Censer and to do the Functions that regard the Priests Then Samuel fore-told him that his Kingdome should not be stable and that God would provide himself another that should be a more religious observer of his Law thereupon he left him for a time and Saul having recollected all the people that he could endeavoured to oppose the enemy The brave Jonathan accompanied with his armour-bearer found a way to climb over rocks and to surprise a court-of-Guard of the Philistims which they thought had been inaccessible which put them in a terrible fright imagining that those that had got so farre had great forces though they did not yet appear This brought their Army into a confusion and God also putting his hand farre into the
Temple of vertue she beareth pusillanimity on her forehead and the condemnation of her impotency in heart to serve as a trophey of courage and a badge of valour What course doe you then think to take for conclusion both you who envy and you who are maligned If envy be a diabolical vice and a hell of calamity why doe you not assume to you the bowels of a charity truly Christian to love the guifts of God himself in your enemies First accustom your selves to be contented with your estate and that condition of life which God hath allotted you For from thence springeth the envy whereby each one thinketh the field of his neighbour more fertile than his own each one beholdeth with a jealous eye all above him and hath no sight to contemplat what is under him Every one would change that which he is into that which he cannot be but by mischief or jnjustice The ox in the fable saith if he were a horse well furnished and caparisoned as that glorious beast who doth nothing but prance or curvett in a field or street he would work wonders none should be more able nor fit to draw a coach than he to go into the wars none should be found more couragious than he But behold him perpetually in the wain under the hand of a paisant what means hath he to do any brave thing Yet admit you should lay foot-clothes and rich abiliments on him he would ever be an ox Why do you disturb your self about the change of your condition and not rather say My God thou guidest lives estates and conditions it is a musick which thou composest of many accords it is a table of many colours it is a body of many members why should I make a false harmony an extravagant colour or a prodigious member It sufficeth me to be a party in this musick this table this body set me high set me low let me be white let me be black make me head make me foot My God it is in thee to give me my part and in me to play it well Why should I kick against the spur like a jade Why being but a miserable earthen pot should I argue against my Potter If the man whom I envie meriteth this good fortune I wrong thy justice to malign him and if he deserve it not is he not more worthy of compassion than envie since all his greatness will serve him but for a burden in this life and a condemnation in the other If all make for me in loving why should I through want of love deprive my self of so great a power which of all things is the most easie Why shall I create a hell in my self where thou hast a purpose to erect a Paradise You who are maligned to oppose envie render your selves truly virtuous know there are no shadows without light nor envie without some gift of God If the fagot smokes when it beginneth to burn when the flame shal have gotten the upper hand there will be no smoke at all Natural Philosophers observe that the rain-bow in the Heavens is not easily formed at noon-tide in the scorching days of summer because the Sun vigorous in his exaltation dissipateth wasteth and dispelleth the clouds When you shall be mounted to the highest pitch of heroick virtue envie shall neither have bowe nor arrow to assail you all shall stoup to your eminence and calumny it self shall crack when truth shall dart resplendent flashes into all eyes Vinegar is said to be used for precious stones which have their fire frozen over and their lustre eclipsed you must have a little touch of acerbity to enlighten your valour The Moon seemeth for a time to darken the Sun when it is eclipsed and yet she daily rendereth the tribute of her light Envie which maketh a shew to eclipse you will make your praises multiply by its slanders your repose by its battels and your crowns by your humiliation No man accounteth it strange that cantharides fix themselves upon roses they no less are roses for being blasted by this petty catterpiller It is well known they are not satisfied but with the fairest flowers you have nothing to do but to shake them off and thereby enjoy the odour of the beauty of the Queen of beauties Fear not to be despised because you are envied if you do not before-hand debase your self to envie through imbecillity of heart Nay rather the most envied will be sought out for a mark of an eminent virtue The envious will be the more dissipated envie will be trampled under foot and merit crowned by the hand of justice The twelfth OBSTACLE Ambition and avarice AFter so many rocks after so many counter-buffs and perils behold the shelf of shipwrack Ambition which is a furious avarice to be able to do all and to have all It is an itch which great men Ambition an itch bear upon them from their mothers womb to stir up in them a perpetual scratching an itch the malignity whereof oftentimes turneth their brain even to the making of Heaven to bow under the rules of the earth Amongst the difficult questions which the Angel Angelical enigmaes Esdras 44. proposed to the Prophet Esdras one was to weigh the fire and the other to measure the wind the last to number the veins of the abyss Ambition is a devouring fire who can poize it It is a wind who can fathom it It is an abyss who is able to recount the sources and issues thereof A wise man saith very well that the middle of the earth hath been found the depth of the sea hath been founded the height of the Riphean hills hath been measured the remotest limits of the hollow caverns of Caucasus have been discovered the head-spring of Nilus hath not escaped onely in the heart of man we cannot find the bounds of the desire of commanding This passion is no longer a mean folly it is arrived to the height of rage the evil is so great it is unknown Man is so far from discovering the remedy that he as it were despaireth of health It is enough if some lenitive may be applyed That great wit Hippocrates wished Desire of Hippocrates Hippocrates Epist ad Abderit a consultation of all the Physitians of the world to advise upon the means how to cure covetousness It is now above two thousand years ago since he had this desire after him a thousand and a thousand Philosophers have employed their endeavour to recover this pestilent feaver all have lost their labour therein the evil encreasing in the multitude of remedies the sick men are all frantick when the wind of ambition hath raised them to the height of the wheel they will never descend but by a precipice It is a most particular favour of God if it happen that an ambitious man doth once open his eyes to know himself to measure himself to put limits upon his desires and yet notwithstanding the motives and obligations which he hath
do you call breed them well Behold another vice Some offend through negligence others with too much indulgence You term well-breeding the child to cramme him up to the throat and let him have all he asketh Senseless creature see you not first you do a great injury to God He hath trusted a child in your hand to be bred like a man and you have made a lump of flesh of it a bears whelp and think there is nothing to be done but to lick it that it may grow Secondly it is a base thing to say the Sovereign Creatour having made you a Father Master Directour and Governour over this infant you should forget the character God hath engraven on your face and make your self a slave of a gluttenous belly and an irregular concupiscence Besides you put spurs to his vices to make him run headlong into the precipice you nooze haulters to strangle him you light torches to consume him For what good can be hoped nay what evil not expected from a child bred up in pride and effeminacy Hear Disentienda sunt deliciae quarum mollitie fluxu fidei virtus effeminari solet Tertul. de cultu foemin Tertullian speak Take away the curiosities and superfluities It is not the life of a Christian He hath renounced faith who breedeth his children in riot Is it not a goodly thing to see Hercules spin silk with those hands which were made to vanquish monsters Know God hath put us into the world to hew monsters more pernicious than hydraes or Cerberus and not to make coronets of roses You cannot breed your children in voluptuousness and not thereby render their souls soft and effeminate which quite extinguisheth the flame of a generous spirit and yet you complain that coming to the degrees of maturity they are fit for nothing but to live lazily and pick quarrels But it is no whit to be wondered at It is the tincture you gave them from their most tender years You have made them al their life time to dance to the tune of their own proper wills light fond and childish and now you would put the bridle over their necks and make them lead a serious life Know you not what happened to the horses of the Sybarites an effeminate kind of people who were so intoxicated and addicted to dances and balls that not so much as their horses but learnt to dance In the mean time their enemies awakened them and so closely pursued them that they were enforced to take arms for the defence of their lives They drew into the field a brave squadron of Cavalry the flower and strength of the Citie but a fidler seeing them approch mounted on these dancing horses promised their Adversaries to deliver them into their hands whilest they were dancing And instantly he began to strike up his violin and the horses to bestir themselves in dancing to break all their ranks and put the Army into disorder which shame fully made them become a prey to their enemies Behold O indulgent parents what happeneth to your children You have always bred them in sottishness sports and liberty the fatal plagues of youth when they must come to combate to undertake some brave affair some thing important for the good of their Countrey for the honour of your house for the advancement of themselves they stand eclipsed Nay perhaps it might be tollerable to behold them benummed stupified in worldly affairs but they are deaf blind and dumb in matters concerning God so that whilest you seek to make great and powerfull Lords of them you ere aware have drawn the malediction Genes 3. 14. Supra pectus tuum ventrem tuum gradieris 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 70. Interpr of the serpent upon them and made them creep on their bellies as much as to say according to the interpretation of some Fathers to spend their thoughts study and affection upon the care and education of the body to the prejudice of the soul Yet you would have those creatures to be instructed in the law of God How can it be Do you not well know that Moses seeing the Israelites dance with full Exod. 32. Sciebat Dei sermonem non posse audire temulentos bellies about the golden calf brake the tables of the Law If you demand the reason S. Hierom will tell you he knew the Law of God was not for sporters dancers and drunkards and that in the Kingdom of intemperance an eclipse ensues not onely of the Divine law but of nature also I come to the second point which is instruction so much recommended in Scripture If you have Filii tibi sunt erudi illos cura illos à pueritiâ illorum Prov. 7. children saith the Wiseman instruct them and take great care of them from their childhood You must think your children be as Temples of God recommended unto you from the hand of God himself It is an intollerable thing to have good cooks good lacheys good grooms good horse-boys to serve the belly and stable and a father who sends his son to school many times ignorant whether the Master be black or white good or bad mild or harsh religious or wicked If kine or hogs are to be driven into the fields one is sought out who knows the business but to trayn up a child of a good family an idle fellow many times is trusted who hath in him no talent at all but malice and ignorance Fathers and Mothers fear you not God will say unto you My house is forsaken I freed it from evil spirits I withdrew it from the power of devils I purged decked and adorned it I put it into your protection I consigned it into your hands what have you done with it Why have you polluted it and why suffer you it still to lie drenched in ordure You have put the lamb into the wolfs keeping you have given the victim to the slaughter-man you are the cause of his unhappiness you have twisted the coard of his ruine so soon almost as the web of his life Fathers and mothers do well if they become as great Saints as are the Hermits of the desert but if they neglect their child they render themselves guiltie before God of one of the greatest injustices in the world The Scripture in praising the great Patriarch Noe Noë vir justus perfectus in generationibus suis doth not onely say he was a good man in his own person but in his whole race so far as his power extended As much honour and glory as it is to leave a good Citizen to the Common-wealth so much dishonour and infamy it is to afford it ungracious wretches to trouble its repose dis-unite peace and embroyl affairs They are such of whom the Scripture speaketh They shall be nayls in your eyes and launces in Erunt vobis clavi in oculis lâ—nceae in lateribus adversabuntur vobis in terrâ— habitationis vestrae Num. 31. your sides
and bryers Se you not also how at the point of the first season the earth is wholly bare then in the springs progress it beginneth to produce certain small flowers which are as the eyes of the medows but eyes which spring and eclipse in one and the self-same day and the best of all is kept for the latter season And we our selves when we are born are nothing else but a little lump of flesh which is pollished with time and changed into a more lively infancie but still ignorant untill our soul be perfected by time for then we leave the rudiments of minoritie to become perfect men Behold the course which Religions have held in the world all that which is gone afore hath been either in part gross and carnal or deceitfull and lying by the cunning of the devil Grace in latter times hath set a seal on the work it began from the birth of the world If things the less antient be the less perfect we must prefer the Chaos before the sun acorns before harvests March-violets before grapes and say we have done ill to cover the earth with silver and change shepherds cottages into the gilded marble of the Capitol But they are industrious to wound themselves crying up the ancient ceremonies If this antiquitie be so recommendable why did Rome yearly change her Religion as certain birds do their feathers introducing daily some innovation in matter of superstitions derived from the same Nations they by their arms had captivated Shall it be said she will open her Temples to all the Idols of the earth and onely shut them up from heavenly verities He now here speaketh to us of a victory which is a gift of God and not a Goddess a gift which is oftentimes granted to the strength of legions and never allotted to the impietie of superstitions They will set up their Altar in the midst of a sovereign Court and say that maugre our opposition we must swallow the smoak of their sacrifices hear their goodly musick and receive the ashes of their prophane victims on our forehead where we bear the character of the living God Is it not absolutely to out-brave Christianitie under most Christian Emperours What shall now presently be done at Court by the better part of the Senate which is Christian It will be necessary that they either in refusing untruth oppose your Edicts if the unhappiness of the time should make them favour a request so uncivil or by connivency confess their sacriledge I will speak freely it is not an Altar they desire to plant in the Capitol but rather faith which they now would tear from our hearts If you command such a sin you commit it The Emperour Constans of most worthy memorie being as yet but a Catechumen would not so much as behold this Altar for fear that by the sole sight thereof his conscience might be polluted he caused it presently to be taken away and will you restore it to make them hereafter swear to your laws before false Gods What need have we of such an oath The Senat is assembled by your commands and for you To you they ow their fidelitie and conscience not to Gods who are of no account It preferreth you before their own children but not before their Religion then is it a charitie much greater than your Empire to preserve that pietie which safeguards your Empire All here below in the affairs of men is most uncertain all therein is transitorie and great fortunes which have the sun in their face have ice under foot we possess nothing immortal but true Religion which raiseth us above Monarchs to equal us with Angels Pompey after he had measured three parts of the world more by his triumphs than travels is defeated repelled banished and dead on the frontiers of the Empire by the hand of a half man and the earth which seemed too scantie for his conquests was seen to fail him for a tomb Cyrus after he had overcome so many potent enemies after he had equalled his victories to his clemencie is vanquished by Tamaris and his head crowned with so many laurels served as a matter of sport for a woman who drencht it in a leathern sack filled with humane bloud saying unto him Satiate thee with that thou so much hast desired Hamilcar Captain of the Carthaginians one of the most superstitious Princes that ever the earth bare after so many tropheys threw himself through despair into the fire which be had caused to be kindled for the sacrifice of his Gods seeing it had no whit availed him I will not say Christian Emperours shall ever be fortunate in temporal affairs but I dare affirm that if we must needs be afflicted as men although we should loose all yet never ought we to forsake Religion as Julian that unhappie Monarch hath done who joyned the ship-wrack of his faith to the loss of his Empire Most sacred Majestie remember that all the men of the world fight for you and that you should combat for Ambros epist 11. ad Valent. the true Religion without which there is neither protection in the Empire nor safety in the world If there be occasion to resolve a matter of arms make address to your Councel of War but if a point of Religion be handled you neither ought nor may determine it without the advise of your Bishops You should see them all here assembled if the practice of our enemies had not prevented them I answer for all and in the name of all I implore the pietie and justice of your Majestie that no man here may pretend to abuse your Minoritie to the prejudice of your soul Take heed how you precipitate any thing in this affair without imparting it to the Emperour Theodosius whom you have hitherto honoured as a father If you do otherwise I will not conceal that from you which my profession commandeth and conscience obligeth me to tell you You will come to the Church but you will find no Bishop there or if you do it will be but to resist you What would you answer him when he should tell you The Church hath nothing to do with your liberalities since you have adorned the Temples of Gentilism you shall never build the houses of Sion the Altar of Jesus Christ cannot endure your offerings since you have erected Altars for Idols Your word your letter your signet is the work of your heart of which our enemies make a trophey and which you cannot denie Your service can no longer be pleasing to the Saviour of the world since you are engaged to false Divinities Think you to serve two Masters Think you it will be lawfull to entertain Vestals to the contempt of Religious women of your name and belief You have no more to do with Bishops since you have preferred Sacrificers to the devil before them What answer you to this That you have committed a fault pardonable in a child Every age is perfect for Jesus Christ and
tollerations which were rather esteemed the feaver of times than men S. Ambrose entered into charge as is most probably thought about the end of the reign of this Valentinian and had not much occasion to intermedle with him yet from his enterance sheweth he would become a Lion For seeing in the State some practises in Magistrates which turned to the prejudice of the Church he with much freedom and generosity complained to the Emperour and though this Prince was one of the most absolute who had swayed the Scepter he was no whit offended but answered to S. â—mbrose It is a long time I have foreseen your nature Thood lib. 4. cap. 6. and the libertie you would use when a Myter was set on your head Yet notwithstanding did I never oppose your election and though I might exercise the resistance which the laws allow me without any other authoritie yet I gave my consent for the desire I have to behold a stout man in this charge Do what the laws of God appoint you the times are sick and need a good Physitian This so favourable beginning promised good effects The death of Valentinian the father for the future But this Prince lived not long after for having reigned about twelve years in a very harsh manner he being haughty and excessively cholerick it happened that hearing one day the Deputies of a Province in Bohemia who excused themselves upon certain incursions and roberies imputed unto them he entered into so violent and thundering distempers that they laid him on the bed of death for from the Councel-table he at that instant was carried into his chamber The veins of his body shrunk up his speech stopped his members were turmoiled with horrible convulsions and his face spread all over with purple spots In conclusion he was wasted with fervours of anger more daÌ„gerous than the dog-star which in few hours took him hence who under the sword of the Roman Empire had made so many Armies of Barbarians to tremble to teach us we have no greater enemies than our selves Valentinian left two sons the one by his first wife Severa which was Gratian The other by Justina which was Valentinian the Younger Let us see how S. Ambrose treated with them both The holy Bishop who had already exercised so much authority over the father retained it on the sons with so much the more priviledge as their age and the necessity of the affairs of the Church required Valentinian some years before his death foreseeing as it were what would happen declared his eldest son Gratian Successour of his Empire and from that time associated him to his dignity As he was a Prince very awfull and who among his sharp proceedings spared not to mingle many sweet attractives when he undertook an affair so he made himself appear in his latter days as a setting Sun in his Royal Throne and having made a most specious Oration to all his Captains and souldiers there then about him flattering and calling them companions by way of Court-ship he exhibited many large demonstrations of amity to them then taking his little son Gratian Gratian the son of Valentinian by the hand clad in an Imperial robe being then of fourteen or fifteen years of age he told them that this was his Heir whom they were one day to have for companion and who should with them tread under-foot the powers opposed against the Roman Empire adding he should equal his father in valour and in affection due to their good services but surpass him in sweetness having been made happy with a better education than himself This young youth as saith his history was beautifull as a star for his eyes sparkled like two lightening-flashes his face very amiable and complexion mingled with white and red When the souldiers beheld him in this habit they began softly to strike their targets and at that instant the trumpets sounded with a thousand acclamations to salute him This action was the cause that the sudden death of his father made him instantly Emperour with his uncle Valens who yet lived when for a singular tryal of friendship he divided his dignity with his brother the little Valentinian who was not yet above five or six years old being then left an orphan under the charge of his mother Justina Afterward the great necessities of the Empire made them likewise associate Theodosius to the Crown one of their fathers chiefest Captains The young Gratian who was endowed with an excellent disposition presently put himself under the wings of Saint Ambrose to direct him in affairs of his salvation and conscience which he esteemed the most important of all might concern him Our great Prelate entered so far into his soul that living and dying nothing was so sweet nor familiar in his mouth as the name of Bishop Ambrose And well to discover the apprehensions of this fair soul and the easie enterance it gave to all the forms of virtue proposed by this great Saint you must observe even in the judgement of Pagan Historians who never graced him above his merit that he was the most accomplished Prince for his age which ever bare the Diadem of Caesars And if a life so precious could have been redeemed with the bloud and tears of the faithfull it had replenished the Church with sanctity the Empire with glory and the whole world with wonders The beauty of body which he enjoyed contained a spirit wholly celestial enchased therein for it was full of generous viva city and as fire out of his sphere seeketh its nourishment in the conquests thereof so he lived by sciences and lights that they became tributary by his judgement and travel as well as men by his arms He laboured much in the matter of eloquence Excellent qualities of the Emperour Gratian. seeing it was then a study as it were absolutely necessary for Emperours to reign over people and that words were the cement which united wills and arms for the safety of the publick By good chance he had Ausonius for Master esteemed even in the judgement of Symmachus the most able man of his time most happy Master of an excellent schollar who made him change the school of Rhetorick for the purple of Consul-ship Gratian was naturally eloquent nor was it hard to manure so generous a nature When he pronounced some Oration he had early in his young years the majesty of his father conjoyned with an admirable modesty and a little a crimony which gave an edge to his actions The ordering and inflection of his voice were rarely proportioned He seemed eloquent in pleasing arguments grave in serious polite in laborious and when the subject required fervour and invective his mouth spake tempests This enforced no diminution upon his military exercises wherein he was infinitely dexterous whether he were to run wrastle or leap according to the custom of the Roman souldiers his agility made the world wonder or whether he were to manage a horse or handle
arms the Masters who had trained him up confessed he had dainty passages inimitable for any practice The Pagans who would blame him for diversity of Religion have never said ought else of him but that he was to good an Archer and over-fervent in hunting of wild beasts That notwithstanding set him in the estimation of warlike men and as he was singularly affable and liberal so was there nothing to be found in the world more charming than his nature Saint Ambrose having understood his spirit much affected him and endeavoured to joyn the most solid virtues to so many fair natural parts and above all perceiving that among so many Pagans and Arians who stretched out their snares on every side to surprize him it was necessary to prevent them he laid in his Royal soul deep foundations of faith and most chaste grounds of Religion to which Gratian shewed himself from the beginning much enclined There is also a letter found written in his proper stile and with his own hand where when he had heard the learned instructions of his Prelate he demands them in writing and because it is an excellent monument of his spirit and Religion I will here insert it The Emperour GRATIAN to Ambrose the Religious Bishop of God Omnipotent I Have a vehement desire to see my self united to you Apud Ambros in praefat I. de fide by corporal presence as I ever have you in my memorie and as I cohabit with you in the better part of my self which is the soul I beseech you most holy and Religious Bishop of the living God hasten unto me to teach me what I believe before I have sufficiently learned For it is not my purpose to argue upon matter of faith better loving to lodge God in my heart than conclude him in my words My desire onely is to open my soul at large to the Divinitie to receive its lights the Excellent faith and modestie of the Emperour more abundantly God will instruct me if it shall please him by your words since I confess and reverence his most Sacred Majestie well observing not to call Jesus Christ a creature or to measure him by the weakness which I acknowledge in mine own person but rather I avow our Saviour to be so great that our thoughts which are almost infinite can adde nothing thereunto For if the Divinitie of the Son could increase I would dilate my self in it for augmentation of his praises supposing I could not better gain the gracious favour of the Celestial Father than in glorifying the Son Eternal But as I fear no jealousie on Gods side so for my part I make no account to esteem my self so great an Oratour that thereby it may be in my power to adde any thing to the glory of the Divinitie by my words I acknowledge my self to be infirm and frail I praise God proportionably to my forces and not answerably to the measure of his greatness As for the rest I beseech you to afford me the Treatise of faith of which you heretofore gave me a tast adding thereunto the Disputation of the Holy Ghost in such sort that you prove his Divinitie by the Scripture and reason Hereupon I pray God dear Father and true servant of God whom I adore that he many years preserve you in safetie This Letter he that will consider it shall find to be full of much sense and verily Saint Ambrose was so ravished herewith that he confesseth never to have seen nor read at that time the like This good Emperour saith he wrote to him with his own hand as Abraham who himself prepared the dinner for Genes 18. his guests not giving commission thereof to his own servants He wrote holy words unto him as if he had an ear in Heaven and which is more remarkeable it was in a time when he was upon the point of a journey to resist Barbarians and therefore he purposely took the arms of faith from this great Bishop For observe this young eaglet from the second year of his Empire found business enough For Athanaricus King of the Goths entered into Thracia with a formidable Army and as Gratian amassed together all his Eastern troups to make head against him the Baâ—barians imagining with themselves that the Western Empire was unfurnished fell upon the Gauls whither the Emperour went with admirable expedition to succour them and it was at the time when he wrote this letter and most particularly recommended himself to Saint Ambrose taking the standard of faith from him to bear it in the front of his flourishing Legions This was not without Triumphant victory very notable success for by relation of Ammianus Marcellinus he bare himself most valiantly in this journey although very young undergoing toyls and ever appearing in the head of the army to encourage the souldiers by his presence which so enkindled them that they resolved to confront the enemy as soon as might be and defeated them at Strasbourg with so horrible a slaughter that of seventy thousand Barbarians threescore and five thousand covered the field with their massacred bodies leaving young Gratian to make a harvest in the chief field of Mars moistened with the palms of his own sweats but above all blessed by the prayers of great S. Ambrose As the Emperour returned from this conquest he received letters from the holy Prelate where among other things excusing himself that he had not accompanied him he saith It is not the want of affection Most Christian Emperour Affectionate words of S. Ambrose to the young Emperour for what title can I give you either more true or more glorious It is not I say the want of affection hath absented me from your person but modestie joyned to the decorum of my profession yet at your return I present my self before you if not with bodily steps at the least with the whole affections of my heart and all the vows wherewith I could charge the Altars and in this the dutie of a Bishop principally consisteth But it is mistaken to say that I came before you as if I had been separated from you having perpetually attended you in mind marching along with you in your thoughts heart and good favour which is the most noble presence I can desire I measured your journeys I went along with your Armie I was in your camp day and night with all my cogitations and with all my cares I stood centinel with my prayers and those of my Clergie at your Imperial Pavillion How much I was little in merit so much the more did I raise my self in diligence and assiduitie And rendering this dutie for you I did it for the whole Church herein do I use no flatterie for you love it not and well know it to be far from my nature and the place which I hold but God is a witness with us both how much you have comforted my heart by the sinceritie of your faith to whom he hath afforded such
when he had drunk gave the cup to his Deacon as esteeming him the most worthy person of the feast next himself Maximus who infinitely seemed to be pleased therewith although he inwardly felt himself gauled with this liberty did so outwardly dissemble it that he caused S. Martin to be applauded through all his Court protesting that none but â—e was worthy the title of a Bishop and that he had done at the table of an Emperour what the other Bishops would never have acted in the house of a mean Judge On the other side the wife of Maximus who already possessed the title of Empress made her self a Magdalen at the feet of Saint Martin and although never woman touched this chaste creature he suffered her to exercise all sort of ceremonies towards him undergoing a thousand troubles to rid himself of her importunities This seemed not strange in the age of threescore and ten and in the reputation of sanctity wherewith he had filled the world that a woman should kiss his feet but it was a thing very unusual to behold a Princess humbled in the dust of the earth to perform this office She regarded neither purple diadem quality nor Empire she had no eyes but for S. Martin being blind to the rest of the world After this first banquet Maximus and the Ladie went to the Saint and besought him again to take a bad dinner which the Empress would in private prepare for him with her own hands and although he in the beginning refused it was impossible for him to escape from these Saint-like invitations For these are snares which catch eagles as well as sparrows Needs would the Queen do all offices in this second feast She played the cook dressed the dining-room laid the cloth gave to the holy man water for his hands was his cup-bearer and waited on him all the time of his meal standing bolt upright as a servant with her mind intentive on her office Dinner being ended she did eat the scraps and remainder of the table which she preferred before all the Imperial delicacies Verily we may say women are violent in their affections and when once they go the right way their virtues have no mean I will not seek to penetrate the Ladies intentions which I suppose were very good but considering the proceedings of Maximus there is great cause to think he endeavoured by his infinite courtship to charm the nature of Saint Martin which to him seemed somewhat harsh Yet the great man endowed with the spirit of prophesie freely told all which should befal him Behold some part of the disposition of Maximus which I was willing to present on paper that it might appear of what condition they ordinarily are who bear arms against the obedience due to Kings who are the lively images of God The Tyrant began a revolt in England and from that time determined to establish the Citie of Trier in Germanie as the seat of his Empire and thence to raise a pair of wings to flie above the clouds which were Italie and Spain He chose for his Constable a man very consonant to his humour and of great resolution who caused himself to be called the Good man the better to colour the wickedness of his Master With this bad Councellour he endeavoured to stir up the souldiers and on every side drew the warlick troups to his party The good Emperour Gratian speedily armeth to stiffle tyranny in the birth thereof and in person goeth to encounter his adversary He had then very freshly drawn good souldiers from the Kingdom of Hungarie to his assistance of whom he made much account Others seeing that he much esteemed of them were stung with jealousie and grew cold in their Masters behalf The poor Prince being on the point to wage battel found himself carelesly and traiterously abandoned by his legions who daily stole away to increase the Army and strength of Maximus This black and hydeous treason much amazed the Emperour who complained as the Eagle in the Emblem that his own feathers gave him the storke of death seeing his souldiers who should have born him on their wings delivered him to his enemy through a neglect which shall make the Roman history to blush eternally So that seeing there was no safety for his person he sought to regain Italie as soon as possible accompanied onely with a full troup of horse consisting of about three hundred men Maximus well discovered that he would at any price whatsoever have the bloudy spoil of his Master For he charged this Good man to pursue him with all violence and not to desist till the prey were in his clutches which he did taking horses with him who ran like a tempest and could well endure any tedious travel In the end he met with the Emperour at Lyons and fearing he might escape bethought himself of a mischievous stratagem For he secretly caused the Emperour to be enformed the Empress his wife was in danger of her person if he stayed not some while to expect her because she was resolved to follow him thinking no place capable of safety or consolation where her husband was not This false report much softened the heart of Gratian who was as good a husband as an Emperour he therefore resolved to hasten to the Empress though not without evident danger of his life There is an unspeakable power in the love of neighbours which is the cause that birds and fishes are oft-times voluntarily caught with twigs and nets not fearing to put their life in danger where they see some part of themselves to be This Prince who in the extreamest disasters of his fortune was full of courage and flew every where like a flash of lightening to give order to his affairs at the news that the Empress was on her way to follow him was much terrified nor was Pitifull death of the Emperour Gratian. there an object of peril which he framed not in his thoughts Moments seemed days unto him and days as Ages A thousand santasies of affrightment summoned his heart in his solitude There was no living for him if he beheld not his dearest love in his arms She was a Princess of much merit daughter of the Emperour Constantius born after the death of her father whom Gratian faithfully loved though he as yet had no issue by her The Tyrant understanding his game succeeded to Socrat. lib. 5. cap. 11. Zozom lib. 7. cap. 13. his wish made a litter to pass along much like to that of the Empress and disposed his ambushes round about in the way The Emperour perceiving it afar off and supposing his wife Constantia was in it spurs his horse and flyeth with those wings which love and joy gave him being at that time followed by few of his people The murderers assailed and massacred him but he still shewing the courage of a Lion bare himself bravely amongst swords and halbards leaving the mark of his hand all bloudy on a wall as S. Hierom
was your enemie you were his but he never yours For hostilitie comes from an usurper and defence from a lawfull Prince You do well to justifie your self upon this attempt but there is not a man will believe your justifications Who sees not you hated his life whose burial you hinder Paulinus addeth that for conclusion he dealt with him as one excommunicate and seriously adviseth him to expiate the bloud he had shed by a sharp penance This liberty of our admirable Prelate amazed all the Councel and Maximus who never thought that a Priest in the heart of his State in the midst of his Legions in the presence of his Court could have the courage to tell him that which he would never endure to hear in his Cabinet commanded him speedily to depart from the Court All those who were friends of the holy man advised him to be watchfull upon the ambushes and treason of Maximus who found himself much galled but he full of confidence in God put himself on the way and wished Valentinian to treat no otherwise with Maximus but as with a covert enemy which did afterward appear most true But Justina the Empress thinking S. Ambrose had been over-violent sent upon a third Embassage Domnin one of her Counsellours who desirous to smooth the affairs with servile sweetness thrust them upon despair of remedie The fourteenth SECTION The persecution of S. Ambrose raised by the Empress Justina WE may well say there is some Furie which bewitcheth the spirits of men in these lamentable innovations of pretended Religions since we behold effects to arise which pass into humane passions not by an ordinary way Scarcely could Justina the Empress freely breath air being as she thought delivered from the sword of Maximus which hung over her head tyed to a silken threed when forthwith she despoiled her self furiously to persecute the authour of her liberty O God what a dangerous beast is the spirit of a woman when it is unfurnished of reason and armed with power It is able to create as many monsters in essence as fantasie can form in painting Momus desired the savage bull should have eyes over his horns and not borns over his eyes but Justina at that time had brazen horns to goar a Prelate having eyes neither above nor beneath to consider whom she struck Authority served as a Sergeant to her passion and the sword of Monarchs was employed to satisfie the desperate humours of a woman surprized with errour and inebriated with vengeance Saint Ambrose like a sun darted rays on her and she as the Atlantes who draw their bowe against this bright star the heart of the world shot back again arrows of obloquie As women well instructed and zealous in matter Herod lib. 4. Solem orientem execrantur of Religion are powerfull to advance the Christian cause so when they once have sucked in any pestilent doctrine they are caprichious to preserve their own chymeraes The mistresses of Solomon after they had caused their beauties to be adored made their idols to be worshipped so Justina when she had gained credit as the mother of the Emperour and Regent in his minority endeavoured to countenance the Arian Sect wherein she was passionate that the sword Sect of Ariant of division might pass through the sides of her own son into the heart of the Empire The Arians had in the Eastern parts been ill intreated under the Empire of Theodosius and many of them were fled to Milan under the conduct of a false Bishop a Scythian by Nation and named Auxentius as their head but who for the hatred the people of Milan bore to this name of Auxentius caused himself to be called Mercurinus He was a crafty and confident man who having insinuated himself into the opinion of the Empress failed not to procure by all possible means the advancement of his Sect and did among other things very impudently demand a Church in the Citie of Milan for the exercise of Arianism Justina who in her own hands held the soul of Justina an Arian demandeth a Church in Milan her son Valentinian as a soft piece of wax gave it such figure as best pleased her and being very cunning there was not any thing so unreasonable which she did not ever colour with some fair pretext to dazle the eyes of a child She declared unto him that the place she possessed near his persō wel deserved to have a Church in Milan wherein she might serve God according to the Religion which she had professed from her younger days and that it was the good of his State peacefully to entertain every one in the Religion he should chose since it was the proceeding of his father Valentinian which she by experience knew had well succeeded with him To this she added the blandishments of a mother which ever have much power over a young spirit so that the Emperour perswaded by this Syren sent to seek S. Ambrose and declared unto him that for the good of his State and peace of his people it was in agitation to accommodate his thrice-honoured mother and those of her Sect with a Church in Milan At this word S. Ambrose roared like a Lion which made it appear he never would yield to the execution of such requests The people of Milan who honoured their Prelate as the lively image of the worlds Saviour when they once perceived that Valentinian had suddenly called him and that some ill affair was in hand they left their houses and came thundering from all parts to the Palace whereat Justina was somewhat astonished fearing there was some plot in it and so instantly commanded the Captain of the Guard to go out and disperse the rude multitude which he did and presenting himself with the most resolute souldiers he found no armed hands to resist him but huge troups of people which stretched out their necks and cried aloud They would die for the defence of their faith and Pastour These out-cries proceeding as from men affrighted terrified the young Emperour and seeing the Captain of his Guards could use no other remedie he besought S. Ambrose to shew himself to the people to mollifie them and promise that for the business now treated which was to allow a Church to the Hereticks never had those conclusions been decreed nor would he ever permit them S. Ambrose appeared and as soon as he began to open his mouth the people were appeased as if they had been charmed with his words whereupon the Empress grew very jealous seeing with the arms of sanctity doctrine and eloquence he predominated over this multitude as the winds over the waves of the sea A while after to lessen the great reputation of S. Ambrose Strange conference pretended by the Empress she determined to oppose her Auxentius against him in a publick reputation and though she in her own conscience wel understood that he in knowledge was much inferiour to S. Ambrose notwithstanding she reputed him impudent
young-ones upon the nest All which the Empress Justina could do was speedily to save her self with her sons and daughters to set sayl on the sea and pass to Thessalonica a Citie of Greece much renowned were it but in S. Pauls Epistles Maximus finding no resistance flowed like a torrent over the fair fields of Italie and made furious havock though to take away the blemish of the bloud of the Emperour Gratian and to gain the reputation of a good Prince he shewed in the end some moderation It is verily a miracle of God that he having been treated with by S. Ambrose with so much liberty as we have said before holding still the bloudy sword in the ruins of Italie in a time when he might have done any thing which his passion dictated he so bridled himself that he not onely abstained from wronging the holy Prelate but for his sake used the whole Territory of Milan with the more humanity It seemed the Citie of Milan under the influences of its Pastour had the virtue of those sacred forrests which tamed wolves It tied up the throat of a ravenous wolf and made him court his prey Yet though she were without peril she was not void of fear seeing so many armed troups round about her and smelling the smoak of those fires which wasted her neighbours Then was the time when the admirable Bishop acted things likewise worthy of his person For all the Citizens wavering and almost ready to leave the Citie desolate to save their lives he by his eloquence and authority held them back so well that he seemed to have enchained them This scourge saith he proceedeth Ambros serm 99. Prudence and Charity of S. Ambrose from our disorders let us cease to sin and God will give over to afflict us It is a folly to flie from your countrey If you desire to be safe flie from your sins The arms of Maximus will have no power over bulwarks of sanctity Besides as it is said he is bad who is good for none but himself the charitable Prelate not content to consolate and confirm his own but seeing that all Italie was filled with extream miseries not onely spent all the means which he had to comfort them but employed therein the very gold and silver vessels of the Church for which cause the Arians sought occasion to calumniate him disposing themselves to condemn virtues since they could find no vice to lay hold on The holy man answered that which he afterward couched in his offices It is the effect of a most ardent Offic. lib. 1. cap. 18. charity to compassionate the miseries of our neighbours and to aid them according to our power yea above our power I rather choose herein to be accused of prodigality than inhumanity there is no fault more pardonable than that of bounty It is a strange thing to find men so cruel as to be troubled when they see a man redeemed from death an honest woman delivered from the violence of Barbarians which is worse than death or poor forsaken infants drawn from the contagion of Idols which they are forced to adore with menaces of death Let our enemies murmure as long as they please but I more affect to keep souls for God than to treasure up gold Whilest all this passed in Italie Theodosius came to Enterview of Theodosius Justina visit Justina and her children at Thessalonica who failed not to present all their complaints and solicite him to undertake the war against Maximus But he therein at first shewed himself very cold insomuch that not to disguise the truth partly touched in Zosimus although Theodosius was a very great Captain as one who arrived to the Empire by his own merit notwithstanding seeing his fortune now at the height he was pleased to tast the repose and delights of the Court under the shadow of his own palms and not contest again with any man fearing the hazard of wars and the slippery foot of felicitie Moreover Maximus who defied the force of all the world played the fawning dog before him and sent express Embassadours to draw him to some agreement This so wrought that when the offended Empress sounded an alarm Theodosius endeavoured to pacifie her with fair promises and good hopes saying Nothing must be precipitated that Maximus would become dutifull that it was better to give him some bone to gnaw on peaceably than enkindle a war which would never be extinguished but with rivers of humane bloud But the Ladie infinitely vexed pursued this affair with all extremity and was much displeased to see that he who held all his advancement from her husband her self and her children shewed some remisness in so urgent a necessity She bethought her self of an excellent stratagem which was to enflame the war with the fire of love The Emperour Theodosius had lost his wife Placilla and was much enclined to a second marriage Justina who heretofore had enjoyed the short tyranny of beauty making two Emperours Maxentius and Valentinian the Elder tributary thereunto was no longer in season to afford that which might very easily win Theodosius but she had a daughter named Galla then in the flower of her age and a perfect image of the mother she determined to pierce this man by the arrow of the eye of this Princess which was most easily done for she took her along with her to dissolve this heart of ice and casting her self at his feet humbly besought him by the service he heretofore had vowed to the house of great Valentinian by the ruin of her orphans and by the bloud of poor deceased Gratian whom he had associated in Empire to take the matter in hand In the same proportion as she uttered those words with great fervour the daughter composed her self to weep with a good grace and even as tears in such persons have a strong spur in them Theodosius beholding her felt the wound of Turnus when he beheld Lavinia in the like case He quickly took the Empress and her daughter up promising all assistance and from that time plainly discovering that he was powerfully touched He also failed not in few days to require Galla in marriage which the mother promised him as soon as she had irrevocably engaged him in the war she pretended The marriage was hastily enough solemnized and from the festival hall they passed into the field of Mars Maximus who saw Theodosius entertained his Embassadours with words not giving them any absolute answer much doubted the affair and bent his whole force upon defence He did all which humane prudence may that hath not the eyes of God He set his Goodman the furtherer of all his treacheries to sea commanding him to guard the Archi-pelagus with a great fleet On the other part he gave commission to his brother Marcellinus to keep passage of the Alps with a strong Army He himself with the most resolved troups descended into Sclavonia to prevent his enemy Theodosius advertised of all
seen to wax hoary in the Northern snows I see the Roman Caesars who invade or those which are already effeminated by their proper vice or such as are wanderers and dis-united not to have an assured State to resist their enemies My ears are perpetually filled with the acts of Cynogirus who having both his hands cut off bit the arms and ships of his enemies with his teeth of one Otryades who wrote his victory with his own bloud of one Sergius who fought four times with the left hand which Plinie observeth in his History as a prodigie of the one-eyed Horatius who defended a bridge against the Army of his enemies of a maid named Claelia who passed over Tyber on horse-back of one Sicinnius that had been in six-score combats and bare away thirty six spoils of his enemies with five and fourty wounds at divers times I will not extenuate their prowess nor take away from them the honour they deserved for to say there was no valour nor vigour in these ancient courages were to proceed against common opinion But we now adays see many Aristarchuses in the world who have spirits so retrograde that when we speak of bruit beasts they highly glorifie them above men as if they were of the race of Ulysses his souldiers who as fables tell us were turned into hogs so when we come to compare the valour of Christians with that of Infidels they find nothing which on our part may give them content so much have they either of malice or stupidity Let me die if in the sole life of Captain Bayard Prowess of Christians warlick atchievments may not be observed which in manage and valour surpass those of Alexander's and Pompey's and he that would number all the heroick actions which have been performed in our wars sometimes by silly souldiers sometimes also by Christian women might as soon reckon the stars in the firmament And had I now undertaken to make a simple enumeration of great Captains which have flourished in Christendom it would weary pens fill books and confound readers I would willingly know whether Constantine going out of an Oratory where he prayed with the Bishops before he had so many battels was less valiant against Maxentius Maximianus Licinius If Theodosius in recommending himself so particularly to the prayers of Monks have the less done his devoir against Maximus and Eugenius Whether Heraclius were the more remiss for carrying the Image of our Blessed Ladie in his hands when he subdued Cosroes King of Persia in three pitched battels Whether Clodovaeus did the less good when he caused his standards to march under the conduct of the prayers of Saint Martin Whether Charls Martel were weakened in his devotions when at the onely battels of Towers he cut in pieces three hundred three-score and fifteen thousand Saracens with the most hydeous slaughter that ever was seen Whether Charlemaine in being so firmly tied to Altars felt his arm to fail against the Lombards Saxons and Moors Whether the sword of Godfrey of Bovillon after so many actions of piety were the less keen when it cleft the Barbarians at a blow from the crown of the head to the girdle-stead and glistered in azure all covered with rays of Palms and Laurels Whether Bellisarius in being a good Catholick did the less charge the Goths And whether Simon Momfort in taking his sword from the Altar were the less dreadfull to the Albigean Hereticks Assuredly there is nothing so strong nothing so invincible nor triumphant as a valour which marcheth under the laws of Christian Religion The Turkish Nation which seemeth to be born to brandish the sword and to have ample transcendency in matters of arms feareth not so much the Persian and Tartarian standards as the banners of Christians And Baronius in an Epistle dedicatory of his Annals which he wrote to the Great Henry the Fourth of famous memory observeth that they hold it as a fatal Prophefie among them that their Empire shall never be destroyed unless it be by the hands of French-men If they have obtained victories against Christians in so many wars it hath ever been our divisions that have disarmed us our ambitions that have devoured us our Apostata-brothers who have betrayed us our Infidels who have acquainted them with our intentions our industries and arms our mutual quarrels which have wasted us our sins that have chastised us the hand of a powerfull God which hath excited the Saracens to purifie under some colour of temperance and justice those lands which ours had defiled by so many ordours and sacriledges for otherwise there could not be any force in the world able to resist Christian Princes were they well united We know it by the success of the battel of Lepanto and the prowess of George Castrioth called Scanderbeg who with a flying camp defeated seven Generals of the Turkish Army in seven great battels wherein he slew two thousand men with his own hand and in the end made Amurath stark mad to see himself defied beaten and maimed by a petty Lord and with so small numbers What could this brave courage have done had it been assisted with men gold and arms answerable to his merits Are you not then very ridiculous O Souldier when to be accounted valiant you play the Cyclop and fear lest devotion might weaken your courage Accuse not your Religion for it is holy accuse not devotion for it is innocent Rather accuse your own impiety your own neglect your own unworthiness of spirit and your own baseness that is it which enfeebleth you and causeth that you are onely valiant to play the beast No man looseth courage but he that never had it and no man hath it if he beg it not of the true God of hosts Where should we seek for light but of the Sun for water but in rivers and heat but in fire And where think you to find true strength but with the God of the strong The more you shall be united to him the more able shall you be not that he will ever give you strength of body as to Milo that you may bear an ox but in serving him you shall have from him the courage of a man who hath his root in reason his increase in piety and his Crown in true glory The fourth SECTION Manifest Proofs which declare that Pietie and Valour are not things incompatible IT is an intollerable thing to see certain young Roarers who think to make themselves esteemed valiant by profession of impiety and have as it were but one shame which is not to be shameless at all as if we had never seen nor as yet was ever heard in the world of souldiers furnished before God and men with great and Divine virtues who fail not to be as couragious as Lions Let us not search out Saints of the Martyrologe let us onely behold among a thousand one man whose life was very lately printed written in a low stile I mean the Marshal Boucicaut who
life of beasts and clothed himself likewise with a most simple habit desirous to shew exteriourly some tast of the reverence we ow to the bloud of the Son of God Besides abstinencies commanded he ordinarily fasted the saturday which is dedicated to the memory of the Blessed Virgin He never fed at his repast but on one dish and though he had great quantity of silver vessels he caused himself to be served in pewter and earth being glorious in publick and in his particular an enemy of worldly pomps and vanities I leave you to think how much this kind of life is alienated from the curious Nobility to whom we must daily give so many priviledges and dispensations that it seems it is for their sakes needfull to create another Christendom besides that which hath been established by the Son of God A man would say to see how they pamper their bodies they were descended from Heaven and that thither they should return not passing through the sepulcher for they deifie it and to fatten and guild a dung-hill covered with snow sport with the bloud and sweat of men Superfluity of tast being so well repressed all went Sage government of a family in true measure in the house of this good Marshal his retinue was very well entertained according to his quality and he had a very solemn custom by him religiously observed which was speedily to pay his debts and as much as he might possible to be engaged To pay his debts to none It is no small virtue nor of sleight importance if we consider the Nobility at this time so easily engulfed in great labyrinths of debts which daily encrease like huge balls of snow that fall from mountains and which require ages and golden mynes to discharge them Is it not a most inexcusable cruelty before God and men to see a busie Merchant a needy Artificer every day to multiply his journeys and steps before the gate of a Lord or a Ladie who bear his sweat and bloud in the pleyts of their garments And in stead of giving some satisfaction upon his most just requests it is told him he is an importunate fellow and he many times menaced with bastonadoes if he desist not to demand his own Is not this to live like a Tartarian Is not this to degrade ones self from Nobilitie Christianitie and Reason Is not this to thrust the knife into the throat of houses and entire families Alledge not unto me that it is impossible for you to pay at that time what is demanded Why well foreseeing your own impotency have you heaped up debts which cannot be discharged Why do you not rather admit the lessening of your port Why cut you not off so many superfluous things Are not your sins odious enough before God but you must encrease them with the marrow of the poor From hence ariseth the contempt of your persons the hatred of your name the breaches and ruin of your houses This man in well paying his debts was served and A singular discretion respected of Officers like a little Deitie there was no need to doubt nor to make a false step into his house Never would he suffer a vice or a bad servant were it to gain an Empire Blasphemies oaths lies slanders games quarrels and such like ordures were banished from his Palace as Monsters and if he found any of his family in fault he dismissed them lest they should infect the other yet not scandalizing them nor divulging their offences At the table he spake little and did voluntarily entertain himself with example of virtues in the lives of Noblemen not opening his mouth to discourse of his own proper acts but with singular sobriety In his marriage he demeaned himself most chastely and had such a horrour against impuritie that he would not so much as keep a servant who had a lustful eye Behold the cause why passing one day on horsback through the streets of the Citie of Genoa as a Ladie presented her self at her window to comb her hair and one of the Gentlemen of the Marshals trayn seeing her tresses very bright and beautifull cried out Oh what a goodly head of hair staying to behold her the Lord looked back on him with a severe eye saying It is not well done it is not fit that from the house of a Governour a wanton eye should be seen to glance In this point and all the rest which concerned the commerce and repose of Citizens he rendered so prompt and exact justice that it was a proverb amongst those of Genoa when any one was offended to say to him who had wronged him If you will not right me my Lord Marshal will The other understanding it oft-times rather chose to submit himself to right than expect a condemnation which was inevitable He so by this means gained the good opinion of the people that the inhabitants of the Citie sent to the King beseeching he might continue the government to the end of his days which having obtained it seemed to them they had drawn an Angel from Heaven to fix him at the stern of their Common-wealth At the time that the Emperour of Constantinople then dispossessed of one part of his Empire by the great Turk came into France to demand succour and had obtained of the King twelve hundred men defrayed for a year many widdow-Ladies were seen at the Court who complained of injustices and oppressions by them endured after the death of their husbands whereby this good Marshal was so moved with compassion that with much freedom he instituted an Order of Knights for the defence of afflicted Ladies which he surnamed The Order of the white Ladie because they who made profession of it bare a schuchion of gold enameled with green and thereon the figure of a Ladie in colour white thus sought he by all occasions to do good and shewed himself a great enemy of idleness the very moth of minds He ordinarily rose early in the morning and spent about three hours in Prayer and Divine Service at the end whereof he went to Councel which lasted till dinner time After his repast he gave audience to all those who would speak with him upon their affairs not failing to behold his Hall daily full of people whom he speedily dispatched contenting every one with answers sweet and reasonable from thence he retired to write letters and to give that order to his Officers which his pleasure was should be observed in every affair and if he had no other employment he went to Vespers At his return he took some pains then finishing the rest of his office ended the day The Sundays and Holy-days either he went on foot in some pilgrimage of devotion or caused the life of Saints or other victories to be read daily more and more to dispose his manners unto virtue When he marched in the field he had an admirable way not to oppress any of his company nor would he permit even in the
land of an enemy that the least disturbance should be given to Ecclesiasticks Behold you not here a life worthy of a French Cavalier Oh Nobilitie this man was not a petty Royster who makes boast to fight in a meadow but a souldier who during the wars with the English kept the field of battel three times thirty days together against those brave souldiers who would oppose him from whence he went out all sparkling with glory and wonders I would here willingly adde a Bertrand of Gueselin Count of Longuevil Constable of France whose life Monsieur Menard hath given us written by a pen of that ancient Age in old language you shall see a man who after he had solemnly dedicated in the offertory of a Mass his soul body and arms at the Altars fought six or seven times hand to hand exercised strange feats of battel and arms stood in the midst of combates bold and confident as in his chamber being otherwise furious strong and stout in the press You should see a man sage in counsels prompt in execution whom an enemy found near at hand when he thought him thirty leagues off A man in all things else free from fraud or dissimulation chearfull courteous obliging and liberal of his own employing his moveables and the jewels of his wife for relief of poor souldiers Then you may judge whether to be valiant you may live in the Court of a Christian Prince like a little Turk Where is your judgement and where your reason The fifth SECTION Against Duels I Do assure my self some will not forget to tell A condemnation of Rodomontadoes and Duels you that to be valiant men of the times you must be outragious in slanders in blasphemies in audacious words in duels challenges which are the mighty valours of this Age. Well then my souldier following this course you will learn to swear and blaspheme I speak not how great this crime is nor how much you render your â—â—ngue punishable in disposing it to this language of devils but I will say one thing which is very certain those which seek for glory out of vice have not alwayes been made eminently prosperous All you may doe in purchasing hell by these execrable oathes will bee to acquire the goodly qualities of a base clown And as concerning Duels I undoubtedly hold Authours of duels that if this infamous souldier who hath abused you were willing to speak the truth which his conscience will dictate to him he rather gives it you for an honest coverture of cowardice than for true valour The world is not so doltish as to measure courage by the model of Moors slaves and horse-boys who were the first executours of these but cheries How can you perswade us that a confused mass of these petty mutiners who have nothing else in their mouthes but these duels may be valiant men We are not so ignorant but that we well know courage never makes good alliance with servitude and effeminacy But the most part of this kind of men are servile spirits who submit to an infinite number of shamefull and tyrannical laws for a little smoak They are bodies withered with laziness who are Laziness many times entangled in their garters and stand in need to have rings for winter and summer to change according to the seasons They fear the lancet of Juvenal 1. l. 1 Satyr the Surgeon they crie out aloud for a sleight fever and will needs be tended like women in child-bed Imagine with your self what valour can be herein Were they beaten and stampt into powder in a morter a hundred of such like Rodomonts would not make up one half ounce of warlick fortitude But there is a little despair and rage which boyleth in a passionate heart to counterfeit virtue God forbid we should take chaff for gold hemlock for parsley or an Ape for a man We know valour by report of great Captains resteth in mature deliberation and coolness as in its true element When I behold one of these silly braggards who hasteneth to the field for a base fear of some shame or upon some liver-heat which tormenteth him I make as much reckoning of it as if I saw an angry hen Do you think Sichem was a couragious man for enduring to be circumcised for the love of Dinah My opinion is it was an act of much cowardice to permit himself to be cut with a razor in the most shamefull part of his body to please a silly female Jew who when it was done had great cause to turn this painfull sacrifice into scorn and laughter This poor Courtier to satisfie a wily wench for a foolish imagination of point of honour hasteneth to be cut in pieces in the field unhappy man he thinketh to marry Dinah and finds Proserpina he proposeth to himself a worldly glory that may rank him in the number of the valiant and meeteth a bloudy death which at one blow killeth body and soul Let me die if it be not the poorest thing to behold them in such adventures For if one did see them they would make those burst with laughing at their idleness who were willing to bemoan their misery I have drawn from this massacre such as were more amazed than a bridled goose and more ghastly than a dead man four days after his funeral taken from his sepulcher These silly creatures endured all this to make a wretched bruit run up and down in Paris that they were in the end beaten and had with so many cold sweats of deaths done that which their Lackeys who are somewhat more stupid would a hundred times with more willingness of heart have undertaken Behold you not who is worthy either of compassion or contempt Yet you flatter them with a pretext of courage which you enforce them to purchase at a costly rate When you applaud such actions and tell how brave a combate was performed behind the Charter-house and that both of them came thither with much resolution you are men guilty of bloud It should suffice you to have your judgements so dull in the estimation which ought to be made upon valour without rendering your tongues so tragical Their trembling swords would become very lazie to consummate the mysteries of furies if your words armed not despair to play out the rest of the game Perhaps you will say you know those who have fought duels who notwithstanding were valiant in Armies I deny not this I affirm not that a valiant man cannot fight a duel but I deny that he is valiant for fighting a duel David had been an adulterer and became a Saint but it is not for having been an adulterer that he was a Saint nor shall any one have the reputation of valour among understanding men for committing a crime For if this duel were ever an infallible mark of courage I demand wherefore have we seen those who have shewed themselves most importunate to provoke others to combat most fiery to hasten thither most
factious to be herein opinionative and in the mean time when they came to bear arms where they must witness true valour for the service of their Prince such encounters have happened that they so despairingly ran off that they have passed through forrests two leagues over and not seen a tree so much affrighted they were It is not necessary to name them happily they are already too much renowned in the Histories of the times And yet you will make much account of these goodly swaih-bucklers Assure your self the most part of those who shew Courage of duel like to that of the possessed such boyling fury in these barbarous acts are as Lunaticks possessed with an evil spirit You would be amazed to see a little girle so strong that there must be twenty men to hold her From whence I pray hath she this force but that she hath the devil in her body And tell me a young Gentleman who many times hath father mother wife children honours riches pleasures in his life would he go upon cold bloud to deprive himself of all this Would he contemn the sacred Edicts of his Prince now very lately renewed by the zeal of our great Monarch Would he descend with open eyes into hell if he had not some black spirit of the abyss which dreggeth him to the last mischief He doth that for a cold countenance an extravagant word and a caprich of spirit which he would not either for God the King or the whole world We may well say this is the malady of inferiour houses and you take it for valour A poor cocks-comb forsooth called a second who putteth into compremise at the discretion of a crack't brain all that which is most dear unto him in this world and what he hopeth in the other going to be the victim of death or the murderer of a man whom he never saw or knew or if he have seen or known him so far as to love or honour him would he play all this goodly prize if he were not possessed with an evil spirit Yet you admire this Why do you not rather wonder at the countenances the twindges and distorted mowings of the possessed I begin to perswade you to reason say you my Gallant You are an enemy of this race of Cadmus derived from the teeth of serpents and think not these petty wranglers of the times with all their letters and challenges have any valour But if a brave spirit be urged to fight by such kind of men should he refuse it Verily there are main differences in duels in the causes which make them and the proceedings of such as execute them If you must needs go to duel pass thereunto as David in sight of an Army with permission of your Prince or your Captain against some Goliah who hath defied you Go thither with intention to defend the honour of your Nation and to weaken the contrary faction Behold who is worthy If you must go to duel go thither when your King or Lord shall command you to accept the combat to end some notable war and stay a great effusion of bloud but by the hazard of two Champions Behold who is glorious But if you hasten thither upon some chimera of spirit which you call by the name of honour upon some ambiguous word to which you frame an interpretation against your self for a cold countenance a surly brow for a desire which you have to become pledge of the follies of some fellow witless and a slave to his own passions if you hasten thither for the love of some unchaste woman to whom you sacrifice humane bloud how can you be excusable For if you tell me your honour is more precious unto you than your wealth and life and therefore that as the law of nature permitteth you to defend both your riches and body at the point of your sword against a robber and a homicide from whom you cannot otherwise dis-engage your self you have the same right for the defence of your reputation which is in man as the apple in the eye I answer that being so surprized upon the sudden by some assailant who provoketh you threatneth you and thrusteth his sword into your sides if you use not a lawfull defence it is not then said that you are bound to flie with some kind of ignominy Nay I will say besides that if true honour were interessed in refusal of a challenge he that should accept it might likewise according to the laws of conscience seem somewhat tollerable But from whom ought we to derive this estimation and judgement of true honour Is it from certain sleight braggards and witless people who have sold themselves to passion eternally to renounce prudence Behold goodly Judges of honour Behold who well deserveth to prescribe unto us the rule and price of the most precious thing in the world If we desired sincerely to establish the judgement to be made of the point of honour we ought to search into the resolutions of the Church and Civilians but these kind of people are suspected by you as being alienated from the profession of arms Let us enquire it in the mouthes of warriours Was there ever a braver souldier than the late King of most famous memory And hath there likewise ever been a Prince more dexterous in arms and more fortunate than he that now reigneth Since their Edicts condemn duels both in those who challenge and such as are challenged although much different in their proceedings what do we need any other judgement to decide the point of honour But Kings and Princes sovereign say you notwithstanding their Edicts approve those by word of mouth who shew courage in such like actions Who dare reproach them with this Who dare tell them to their faces that they bely their Edicts by their particular judgements Who sees not such words are purposely invented by those men who seek for pretexts to their false liberties Why these Edicts dictated by reason agreed unto with judgement supported by justice provoked by piety to the writing of which Jesus Christ would contribute his own bloud to spare the bloud and with it the souls of so many as are lost and whom to save he gave up his own life Where should we learn the rule of honour the judgement and will of the Prince but in Oracles and virtues which he hath consigned to the memory of all Ages I intreat you trouble my head no more with these dastardly combats and detestable massacres let this be no longer but for the infamous and melancholy bloud-thirsters One Bachet understanding that a Turkish Captain had called his companion into duel What saith he are there no more Christians And have not we cause to say Are there no Saracens nor Moors and other Infidels to turn thâ—â—dge of the sword against our entrails The sixth SECTION Against the ill mannage of Arms. FRom hence it is likewise that you are taught in time of war to play the little Cannibal in arms
and to cast nothing but fire and bloud from your throat that menaces may march before you and havock and desolation after Barbarous as you are do you think because you have a sword by your side you are therefore a Master over the life and bloud of mortals Never was iron drawn out of the entrails of the earth but either against wilde beasts or men who are worse than beasts and you employ it to torment innocent people whom you ought to protect under your wings It is a strange thing that men who are made for the support of men and who are not strong but for defence of the feeble are now adayes more pernicious than wolves hail serpents inundations fire plagues and famins Behold that which maketh warfare odious behold that which disgraceth an honourable profession behold that which poureth upon the heads of Great-ones who countenance such actions the cups of Gods anger mingled with gaul worm-wood and poison of Dragons The tears of poor labourers widdows and orphans which are enforced by those who entitle themselves friends with cruelties that would justifie the Saracens and Moors cease not to mount to the Throne of God to ask vengeance on those who to satisfie their ambitions glut their appetites and fish in troubled waters enkindling wars intestine timorarious and unjust not regarding the disorders which ordinarily arise from these wicked counsels Oh God! it is a very great matter that a man can make a hundred thousand swords to be unsheathed in an instant which have no eyes to see where they strike nor hands to pull them back when they once have received motion That a man who hath but one life should expiate so many deaths so many violences so many outrages as are committed by the unbridled souldiers Much courage must be necessarily used to make military discipline be observed and if these furious corruptions cannot be hindred it were better to abandoÌ„ the charges and commands than to cement them up with the bloud and tears of so many miserable sacrifices The brave Belisarius who was one of the most Justice of Belisarius and Aurelianus excellent Captains in the world having caused two souldiers to be empaled for some crime seeing others to murmure at it Know saith he I am come to fight with the arms of Religion and Justice without which we can expect neither victory nor happiness I desire my souldiers should have their hands clean to kill an enemy Never will I suffer any man in mine Army that hath fingers crooked or bloudy were he in arms as terrible as lightening Force is of no worth Procop. l. 1. de bello Vandal if it have not equity for companion Hear a souldier speak He might perhaps have learned the same lesson from the Emperour Aurelian who wrote to one of his Lieutenants My friend If thou wilt be a Captain nay if thou wilt live contain thy soldiers in their Vopisc in Aurel dutie I would not that a peasant should so much as complain that he hath been wronged in the value of a chicken nor that any hath taken a grape from his vine without his permission I will make him give an account even to a grain of salt or a drop of oyl unjustly exacted I desire my souldiers should be rich with spoils of enemies and not the tears of my subjects I would have them carry their riches upon their swords not into their cabins I would have them â—aste in the houses of their hoasts and that there be no speech of any quarrels And is not that strange which Marcus Scaurus Excellent discipline writeth that there have been seen Regiments encamped round about a great tree laden with fruit and the souldiers to depart the next morning not doing so much wrong as to take one apple from the Master of the place And who would not be amazed at that which Lampridius speaketh of Alexander Severus that his souldiers marched to the Persian war like Senatours and that the Countrey-peasants loved them as their brothers and honoured their Emperour as a God Is it not a shamefull thing that Infidels must teach us a lesson of modesty and that this Alexander who had learned a lesson from Christians which was not to do that to another which we would not have done to our selves observed it so exactly even in the liberty of arms that he thereby became as it were adored by his subjects And in the mean time we behold Gentlemen who never having wanted good precepts exercise tyrannies on their subjects both in peace and war such as Scythians and Arabians would abhor to do War cannot now adays be made but that it seems Attila with his Army is raised up once more to pillage France It is not enemies they seek to surprize but purses and they are ever criminal enough who have some though but small wealth to loose I know not where to seek for his unhappiness to find it in its source The souldier excuseth himself upon necessity the Captain complaineth of payment the one filcheth and the other quarrelleth whilest the disorder is immortal O brave and valorous Cavaliers ought not you herein to second the good intentions of our great King and banish such infamies not onely from France but even from the memory of men If you desire to see how you are to bear your self in war I will not go about to seek out a Saint Martin for you Behold a man whose life not long since hath been published to serve as a model for the Nobility we yet touch him as it were with a finger for he died under the reign of Francis the First having served three Kings in their Armies the space of two and thirty years It is the valiant Terrail otherwise called Chevalier Bayard born in Daulphine I willingly make use of his example both because one of our most warlick Kings the son of Francis the First would needs be knighted by his hand to witness the honour he bare to his valour as also for that I see therein many noble passages which taste of the virtue of a true French souldier He was a couragious Military virtues of a brave French souldier Captain of excellent direction valiant and magnanimous of whom was said that he had the assault of a wild bull the defence of the bore and flight of the wolf I set aside his warlick deeds I take some of his virtues which I here will make use of This Royal courage had no other aim in arms but the glory of God the service of his Prince the honour of his profession whereof we have an ample testimony in a short Elogie which his Secretary made upon him saying That after these two and thirtie years service be died almost as poor as he was born Much is spoken herein and I think Bayard more glorious under this title than if he had born the Dutchy of Milan on his back He had the true piety of a good souldier For every morning he
of his valour and the trust he had in God he first of all appeared in the head of his Army and with many paces set forward before the rest making his horse curvet in a martial manner It was an easie matter to know him for his arms shined all with gold and his helmet was set with precious stones His enemies began to fall roundly upon him but the Captaines of Constantine seeing their Emperour so generously to out-brave danger followed him with such fervour as if every one of them expected an Empire for recompence They fell like lightning upon their enemies who were much amazed at this first charge yet they notwithstanding made good resistance but maugre all their endeavours those of Constantine brake through and defeated them Maxentius beholding his Cavalry in which he Maxentius defeated reposed all his hope to be so ill handled resolved upon a retreat to make use of his bridge and drown Constantine engaged in the pursuit of those that fled But oh the justice of God! The wicked man as saith the Royal Prophet falleth into the ditch which he himself had digged It is not known whether those besotted engineers failed in their design or whether the great numbers of those that fled caused this ruin but the bridge brake under Maxentius his feet and threw him into Tiber all bloudy like another Pharaoh in the red sea with all the principal of his Empire who environed his person He amazed at so violent a fall hoped yet to recover the other shore being excellently mounted where he was seen to wrestle a certain time with the waves which in the end swallowed him up There was in the begining a great slaughter of those who made resistance but in the end seeing their Emperour drowned they yielded all to the mercy of Constantine who stayed the victorious sword in the hands of souldiers to consecrate it to clemency He did well to search for the body of Maxentius in Tiber to take off his head which was fixed on the point of a lance and born to Rome and Africk to satisfie justice for the enormous forfeits he had committed when he was alive From thence this brave Conquerour is received in the City of Rome as an Angel descended from heaven for the deliverance of the world Never was triumph so highly valued as his because in the tropheys of other Emperours they triumphed for the gaining of some far-distant Province but in this lost Rome recovered it-self The Queen of Nations ceased to be the prey of Nations breathed now a sweeter ayr of ancient liberty If ever Prince saw a glorious day in all his life this was it which shined then over the head of Constantine They came from all parts of Italy to behold him and those who had seen him thought they had lived long enough supposing it unfit to behold any other humane thing Amongst so many notable spectacles at that time in the City none was looked upon but he his face was the object of all their admirations and his valour the matter of all discourses The Senate to witness the joy they conceived for this victory prepared him a triumphal Arch all of marble one of the stateliest monuments that ever had been raised to the honour of a Conquerour wherein this Inscription was engraven IMP. CAES. FL. CONSTANTINO MAXIMO P. F. AUGUSTO S. P. Q. R. QUOD INSTINCTU DIVINITATIS MENTIS MAGNITUDINE CUM EXERCITU SUO TAM DE TYRANNO QUAM DE EJUS OMNI FACTIONE UNO TEMPORE JUSTIS REMPUBLICAM ULTUS EST ARMIS ARCUM TRIUMPHIS INSIGNEM DICAVIT This said that the Senate and people of Rome dedicated this triumphal Arch to Constantine Emperour and Great Pontifice happy Prince and Augustus because by an instinct of Divinity and an admirable greatness of courage he had with his Army freed the Common-wealth from a Tyrant and all his faction by the justice of his arms Where in the Arch on the right hand were read these words Liberatori Urbis on the left hand Fundatori Quietis which clearly declared him the Freer of the Citie and Founder of Repose There was likewise inscribed on it the number of years in which they desired to render vows for this glorious victory Observe as you pass along that the Senate was as yet Pagan yet knowing the devotion which Constantine bare to the Saviour of the world though he were not then a declared Christian they abstained from the mention of Gods and spake onely of one Divinitie The sixth SECTION The death of Diocletian and feats of Arms performed by Constantine against Lycinius SInce I have undertaken to represent the famous warlick Acts of Constantine to shew his arrival to Monarchy I will here insert the end of Diocletian and Lycinius When Constantine caused his Standards to march against Maxentius there remained no more of so many Caesars but Lycinius who was created a little before the death of Galerius The brothers of Constantine would alter nothing Diocletian remained in his retirement There was none but this Lycinius who was an old souldier a man raised from nothing but advanced by arms and who had done so good services to Galerius the creature of Diocletian in the war which he had against the Persians that out of meer respect of his valour he was chosen Emperour In all other things he was of a rude and gross spirit as derived from Peasants and who all his life had done nothing else but handle iron either for tillage or war not having acquired any neatness of a civil life Behold the cause why being ignorant and proud he extreamly hated learning which he called the poison of the Empire and had it been in his power he would have banished all knowing men that there might be none able to reproach his ignorance Constantine as wise as he was warlick saw well he must mannage this spirit who might much trouble him in his design against Maxentius for which cause following this counsel he promised him a share in the Empire and his sister Constantia in marriage It is held this marriage was solemnized at Milan a little after the defeat of Maxentius where many treaties passed between Constantine and Lycinius touching their principalities and from that time a most favourable Edict was made for the re-establishment of Christians the honour of Christianity which Lycinius although a Pagan refused not to sign Victor addeth that Diocletian was sent for to the wedding of Lycinius For it was much desired to hear him speak and see what he had upon his heart his spirit being very able to give cause of distrust to two Princes who were desirous to establish themselves in all security The subtile Hermit on the other side who feared to be overtaken made an answer in which he besought their Majesties to give him leave to live in his Hermitage and affoord him that for delight which others commonly tooke for punishment That he had not for the time to come any mind upon
the 1. Decad. chap. 12. 13. Agreat man having qualities and virtues of mind and body most innumerable and that his fortune being very great be had notwithstanding equalled it by his industry and merit Behold a testimony from the mouth of an enemy I would here willingly demand of Machiavel who in the Treatise he composed of a Prince said That he which in all things would hold a strict profession of an honest man cannot long continue in the company of such others as are of no esteem and that it is necessary for a Prince who will maintain his own power to learn how he may sometimes be wicked and to practise it according to the necessity of affairs And in his State-Discourses well discovereth he is of opinion a Prince should cherish the Religion which most suteth with his designs whatsoever they be I should willingly know of all those that pursue Admirable providence of God above all humane Policy the like Maxims with this corrupt spirit what they would here answer me upon the progression of the fortune of Constantine Verily behold here a Statewisedom whereunto the pen of this Secretary who pretended ability in some petty humane tracks cannot arrive Behold a light whereat all these eyes are dazeld Behold an abyss where all carnal men are lost if we will well reckon them up we shall find twelve or thirteen who in several ways argue upon the Diadem with Constantine By what degrees hath the divine providence conducted him to the Sovereignity of the Empires of the world Is it by those which Monsieur Nicholas Machiavel hath prepared to lead his Prince in If one must dispoil himself of innocency to be re-invested with the robe Imperial why did Constantine take the way of Empire by that of sanctitie If use must be made of Religion as of an instrument of State and that taken which hath the most credit in the opinion of the people why went he about to chuse Christian Religion at that time when the most part of the world was ingulfed in Gentilism Behold Maxentius who according to the ordinary custom of the people of Rome caused the pretended books of Sybilles to be turned over consulted with Augures offered sacrifices This gave him a reputation of piety with a people as much infidel as him self Why did not Constantine pursue the same ways Why did he set the sign of the Cross on his Standards esteemed fatal and of ill presage in the minds of the most part of his army What favour might he then expect from Christians Would he draw treasures from them They were despoiled of all Pretended he to raise huge armies of them for his service They were so cut down that one onely month saw seventeen thousand heads upon the ground Did he perswade himself there was much strength in their religion They were all either massacred maimed or banished Did he look for counsel They were men esteemed void of learning or policy Did he hope for credit They were trampled under foot like dirt in the streets Why then did a man reputed of so excellent judgement confine his interests to these miserable creatures He stood in need for the accōmodation of his affairs of a Roman Senate and it was Pagan He wanted good Captains they were in a manner all Gentiles He must have Forts and they all held for ancient superstition What doth he go about And yet behold in a time wherein his affairs least seemed to require it he takes the marks of Christianitie and with them hasteneth to assail the Army of Maxentius composed of a hundred threescore and ten thousand footmen and eighteen thousand horse he himself according to the relation of those who lived in the very same time having in this conflict but very small troops From whence cometh it that he in so short a time and with so few people defeated such formidable powers Not to bely the matter had these men been but earthen statues they might make resistance Had they but been an army of sheep they might weary the souldiers of Constantine to cut their throats From whence comes it they were so soon defeated From whence comes it that Maxentius so basely betook himself to the stratagem of a bridge which he prepared for his enemie From whence comes it that a Roman Senate which had confirmed so many Edicts against the Cross a people bred up in the horrour of the crucified should readily receive a man who entred into Rome with the Cross and the name of the crucified upon his Standard From whence comes it that on the triumphall Arch dedicated to him he would have no mention of Roman Gods At the least according to the counsel of the Sectaries of the Florentine Secretary he should dissemble his religion he should give way to time he should make himself outwardly a Diocletian and inwardly if needs he would a Constantine Will any one say he was at that time a man victorious who came to give law and not receive it But who saw not that his fortune being as yet in the bud he was to walk towards Empires as on thorns fearing above all things to irritate in the change of Religion the principall spirits of the East and West who were passionately affected towards their Sect I affirm Maxentius the Defendor of the Gods ruinated himself by his ill government Lycinius was yet on foot and verily Lycinius an ancient souldier who had waxed old in arms and had never arrived to the Empire but by his valour drew in the end all the partie of Gentilism with forces innumerable both by sea and land which seemed able to swallow many worlds He made use of the counsell of Monsieur Machiavel he protested he took arms for the defence of the Gods and Altars of ancient Rligion against a man who sought to introduce a barbarous Sect into the World Was not this a matter very specious in the times when the superstition of Gentiles was exalted by Edicts of Emperours to the highest degree of honour Lycinius notwithstanding is beaten overthrown ruined both by sea and land although he were one of the most inventive in the subtilities of the art millitary of the most resolute for execution and the most stubborn to make up again a desperate fortune O you Nobilitie what shall we say hereupon Must we not confess there is one God in heaven and not any other God but that of Constantine who giveth Kingdoms establisheth Scepters and cementeth Crowns If all this proceeding had been an extravagancie of passion we might attribute one part of it to the hazard of Wars the other to the valour of Souldiers and the last to the heat of the first encounters But to hold an Empire thirtie and one years with so great an equality so accomplished a felicitie so secure a peace from the time of his last conquest what may one answer to this From whence is it that Constantine having forsaken ancient Rome of purpose to build a fair Citie
would not absolutely say fools Hereunto was added a tale that in the year of an universal peace there was a Ladie who travelling with her husband into some other Province had learned a certain manner how to beautifie her face which she very curiously made use of the rest perceiving it caused her to play at King and Queen which was a pastime where the Ladie who became Empress by the custom of the game commanded the rest what she thought good and all yielded obedience to her The Empress chosen imposed upon all her train to wash their faces which this counterfeit woman being inforced to do as the water dissolved the painting and that she appeared as she was the confusion of her forehead was so excessive that she as it were died with grief not daring afterward to undertake the like Their attire port gate countenance words houses moveables tables recreations were carried with simplicity yet accompanied with majesty civility decorum and seasoned with as true pleasures as humane life may afford I saw many old men of an hundred years and upward who were yet very fresh whereat I was much amazed and one of them looking on me Why saith he do you wonder We live here on innocent meats whereby it cometh to pass that we do not so much as know the names of diseases of which it is said you have huge registers which are the purchasers of your intemperance We have here no desire to drie up our entrails and shorten our days we are all great in the obedience we render to the law all rich in the contentment of our desires and all pleased with the happiness one of another We have no passion to tear our hearts nor cares to prejudice our lives nor avarice to burn us up alive in our houses nor ambition to make us wings fastened on with wax so to flie up to the clouds and make both land and sea famous by our falls We have an excellent law which is never to proceed against the law of nature and to tell you the truth the ignorance of sins wherein we live serves us better than all the precepts of virtue do others There is no war among us but against vices which we rather desire to vanquish than all sorts of monsters We know not what plagues mean because we neither infect the air nor land with blasphemies or bloud The seasons of the year have with us the same equality which our spirits enjoy and the sun smileth on us in all his mansions as we endeavour to have a charity perpetually smiling and the bowels of compassion towards our like When we would behold goodly Theaters we reduce into our memory the vanities of men to bewail them so much as they are frivolous We see this great spectacle of the world which it is very hard to imitate and to fault it is a crime The greatest eloquence among us is truth and the first science we teach our children is that which instructeth them not to tell a lie Above all we endeavour piously to honour and serve God uniting us to his Spirit and submitting our ways to the main stream of his Providence I stood very attentive to hear this old man speak for I was in a good place yet not contenting my self simply with what he had said I needs would see their Churches their devotions their laws and their justice their commerce and their Policie I saw the places dedicated to the service of God were exceedingly well governed observed and frequented and that their devotion was not a slight fore of apish tricks nor affected countenances but a solid belief of the Divinity with most pure affections They had no great store of bells nor took any pride to ring them nor to publish festivals with much noise nor to set up Faiâ—â— at the enterance into Churches nor to sell jewels not wear rich apparel nor to glory in their kitchins Their great solemnities were better known by silence and devotion than by any other exteriour ostent It was a blessing to behold that heresie had altered nothing either in their doctrine or manners for they had ever declared themselves enemies of all innovation and as it is said that fishes are silent and draw near to the source of waters so they banishing from their Citie all those contentious disputations set their mouthes to the fountains of verity Thither came at the time whilest I was there an able man who thought to preach Controversies to them and difficult distinctions of School-divinity but the better sort of French-men demanded whether he preached in Hebrew or no. They could not endure any one should perplex their consciences by vehemently raising up an infinite number of too subtile arguments and many times unhonest so much they feared to bring any mixture upon their innocency finding more assistance in the lights of good nature than the subtilities of men I considered how at their going from Church they went to visit goodly great Hospitals which were excellently well founded and administered for the help of the poor as well forreigners as domesticks and I saw the most curious Ladies went confidently into them with charitie in their hands humbling themselves to the services of the most indigent This made me so enamoured of their government that I judged it the quintessence of the same Theologie And verily when I sought to inform my self of their laws I found they had as few as their soundest men had medicines They were all grounded on the doctrine of the Saviour of the world namely on that word which forbiddeth us to do that to others which we would not to be done to our selves Their state was Monarchal under the government of a good King whom they honoured as a visible Divinity This King had a Councel composed of the prime men of the world who lived like Angels and spake as Oracles so much reverence they bare them that when they appeared in the streets they were seen to pass along with a certain silence mingled with veneration as if they had been animated Reliques I likewise saw old Captains grown white in forreign wars under the shadow of Palm-trees and a flourishing warlike troup readily disposed to do bravely upon occasion The obedience was there so great that if a souldier had his arm ready up to strike upon the first sound of retreat he would withhold the blow All rewards were for virtues and Fortune much complained that she in this Countrey had neither Altar nor credit Very rarely should you see a man advanced but by long and faithfull trials of his merit so that honours were there fastened as it is said with lyme and cement because they sought for nothing more honourable from great actions than the contentment to have done them All was there so peaceable that it seemed this whole Citie was the nest of Halcyons which calmeth the brow of Heaven and appeaseth tempests The Citizens entertained one another as the fingers on the hand every one taking part
a scarcity of Writers who have handled this subject I will endeavour to render it as little irksom in stile as it is profitable in matter As for the first quality I have observed in him which is his great Nobility it is certain he summed up a thousand years since his Ancestours began to be resplendent with singular lustre in the Citie of Rome which is no small space to say that ten Ages which waste rocks and wear elements had not altered the honour of this great Family He was descended from the house of those great Manlii whose hearts extended as far as the Roman Empire The most celebrated amongst them named Marcus Manlius defended the Capitol against the Gauls in the extream necessity of the Romans and redeemed as it were from the abyss the Citie which God had chosen to command over so many nations He was a man truly valorous who wanted nothing but to have been born in an ample Kingdom and not in a Republick jealous of the greatness of its subjects For he having too much courted the People to the prejudice of Magistrates was accused to have sought a change of government and was precipitated from the Capitol which he had defended to the end the theater of his glory might be turned into the scaffold of his punishment Never could any thing be seen more deplorable than this brave Captain when pleading his cause where he was upon question of his last unhappiness having produced about four hundred Citizens delivered from great necessities by his means then thirtie spoils of noble enemies whom he had slain with his own hand then ten Crowns then fourty other prizes of valour as he beheld the incensed Judges much enclining to his ruin he shewed his naked breast as yet covered over with honourable scars received in so many great battels for his Countrey and then turning his eyes his up-reard hands to heaven towards the Capitol he prayed the Gods to give the People of Rome the same understanding for the preservation of his person that they had afforded him for the safety of the Weal-publick in the defence of the Citie of Rome This spectacle was so ravishing that it was impossible to condemn him in sight of this noble fortress which subsisted not but by his valour but his enemies causing him to be carried into another place exercised a heavy judgement and an act odious to posterity which was attended by great sterilities and pestilences attributed to the death of this noble personage The other Manlius very eminent was he who slew in single combat the Captain of the Gauls in sight of both the Armies For this man advancing himself on a bridge assailed and defended by both parts challenged aloud the most valorous among the Romans to combat man to man which being understood Manlius slowly came forth with the leave of his Dictatour and having well observed his adversary who immeasurably braved it he struck him so nimbly that he fell down stark dead in the list then taking his chain off all bloudy he hung it about his own neck from whence he was surnamed Torquatus which title did afterward likewise remain unto his whole posterity The third of this race much renowned in histories by an act one of the severest ever exercised was that Torquatus who caused his sons head to be cut off for having charged and vanquished his enemy without leave The young mantickled with the honour of his Ancestours seeing a fair occasion to fight took the opportunity And not expecting the permission of his father overthrew the enemies of the Roman people in killing with his own hands a man of note in single combat whereupon full of joy he returneth with the applause of the souldiers and hasteneth to seek out his father who commanded the Army bearing in his hands the spoils of his enemies and saying aloud Father behold the cause why I may be esteemed your son But the father turning his eyes away caused the trumpet to be sounded to gather all the souldiers together and in the middest of a great Assembly as General he pronounced sentence against his son and said unto him SON Since without any respect either of the dignitie of a Consul wherewith the Common-wealth hath honoured me or the majestie of the title of a father which nature hath afforded me over you you have fought contrary to my Edict dissolving the sacred knot of military discipline which hath hitherto maintained the greatness of the Roman State I well see you have reduced affairs to such necessitie that either I must forget the Common-wealth or myself and mine But God forbid the publick suffer for our faults and that we must expiate the temeritie of one young man by the disasters of so many innocent persons Here an act of State must be performed which is for the present somewhat odious but shall be profitable for youth through all posteritie My son I have sense of nature as a father and as a Captain I resent also the stashes of this youthfull virtue which is so charming in its illusion but since I must either by your impunitie annual or by your bloud seal the commandment of the Consuls you being of my bloud I cannot think you so degenerate as to deny to re-establish by your punishment the Laws of arms which you by your errour have destroyed Thereupon he commanded the executioner to bind him and lead him to the place of punishment to be beheaded wherewith the Assembly was so astonished as if all the Captains had their heads under the same sword For every one was drenched in a deep silence until the bloud of this young Prince was seen to gush forth for then the souldiers spared neither sorrow nor execrations taking the body by main force to cover it with its spoils and enterre it with all honour I had a desire to touch this particularly thereby to teach the Reader that the great constancy which Boetius witnessed in the whole course of his life and especially at his death was in him hereditary It were a long piece of work for him who would prosecute all the acts of the Ancestours of Boetius since by the report of Saint Hierom this family hath been so illustrious that scarcely can one man be found therein which hath not enjoyed or deserved the Consulship Wherefore I may well say it was a very particular Providence of God upon this admirable man which being pleased to raise him to the condition of a great States-man hath caused him to be nobly born For although it cannot be denied but that many descended from very mean extraction have sometimes exceedingly well improved in the mannage of States yet must we affirm they have stood in much need of time diligence and eminent virtues to give a counterpoize to this defect of bloud Ordinarily those who arise from these degrees being derived from base birth are many times envied and little respected whereby finding themselves offended they often take harsh ways to
so much confusion in habits Citizens wives will become Queens if we hereafter would be taken for Queens we must become Citizens wives Perhaps those who censure us in this point require too much of us and some are therein transported with so much zeal that if we would believe them we should make all the Maries of Egypt to be at Court Those who intend to treat with us in this manner by falling upon our hair and attires touch not our hearts for could any one truely perswade us to virtue we should cover our selves with a sack so that it might advance the glory of God and the profit of our neighbour yet do I think we have some right to comliness and propriety in our garments ever abiding within the limits of the most regular in such sort that the wise may not blame our superfluities nor those who are more favourable accuse our defects But to speak sincerely there is a kind of frenzy in our proceeding He who should see the stuffs taken up somtimes at the Mercers to cloth a little body whereof the worms will quickly make a dung-hill would say they had undertaken to cover some huge Whale and he who should reckon up all the furnitures of a Ladie as they lie on a table having never seen any woman would think it were a Mercery to furnish a little Citie we resemble those birds which have no body and are as it were nought else but feathers we use therein so many fashions disguizes and invention that we tire our spirits so much studie and affection that many of us make so much business about a ruff as if we had a Common-wealth of Athens to manage And that which is most horrible is these vanities are drawn from the bloud of the poor and in the same proportion as they are extracted they so impoverish as I fear posterity may have more cause to curse our dissolutions than cherish them Nay worse is done when they so vehemently affect to begin the adultery of their bodies by that of the face that it is insensibly eaten into with painting and poyson as if they would derive beauty from corruption Then certain fashions of apparel are found out which seem to be made rather to sell bodies than to cover them I do not know what may be reserved for the eyes of a chast husband when through all markets the secret parts of his wives body are exposed as open as if they were ready to be delivered over to the best bidders I cannot tell what husbands can be pleased with the publication of this nakedness if not certain Platonists who would approve the law this Philosopher made as it is said of community of beds than the doctrine of idaeaes which would be viands too empty to satiate the hunger of concupiscence Verily if we yet retain a vien of the perfect Christianity which swaied in the golden age we ought to stifle by a generous consent all these abuses and make of the spoils of superfluity a Sacrifice of mercy giving in part for the relief of the poor that which hitherto we have dedicated to the fantasies of our spirits Since we are born with some supereminencies of body and are the goodliest creatures of the world why should we go about to beg glory from poisons of the earth from worms and spoils of the dead If opinion have put us unto it it is now long since withered by the confusion of so many hands who incessantly gathered it The glory of the greatest Ladies shall not hereafter survive but in great modesty The seventh SECTION Chastitie THis is the shortest way we have to the preservation It is the qualitie S. Paul calleth sanctificatione 1 Tim. 2. Saluabitur perfiliorum generationem sapermanserit in fide dilectione sanctificatione cum sobrietate of Chastity an incomparable virtue and the richest jewel of our sex It ought to be as natural to us as flight to birds swimming to fishes beauty in flowers and rays in the sun You need not ask what may become of a maid or wife who is prodigal of a good which should be as firmly united to her body as her hearts She is capable of all sorts of crimes and were there question to open all the gates of hell incontinency alone would put the keys into her hands There is no beast in the world that is not better than a prostitute who by the dishonour of her bed hath charged her soul with sins her body with intemperance her renown with reproaches and her memory with execration We ought so to instruct our daughters in the virtue of purity that they may not know the least shadow of sins which are committed in the world I approve not those little Dynaes who will see and smell out so many customes of Countries and entertainments for they too soon learn that which they too late will forget and take so much fire in at the ears and eyes that water enough will not be found to extinguish it I do not wish a maid though very young should be delighted in the company of children which are not of her own sex I likewise fear those of her sex who are too curious their company is sometimes so much the more dangerous than that of men as we least take heed of a domestick enemy That Chastity is ever the most stable which knoweth not so much as what voluptuousness may pretend unto I will think crows might become nightingales when any one should Hierom. ad Laetam Securiâ—ris est continentiae nescire quod quaera make me believe that a creature of our sex which is delighted to hear or utter scoffs speeches of double sense which cover ordure under golden words either is chast or can any long time continue as she is Let us guard the eyes mouth and ears of those young maidens as Temples dedicated to Honour and let us do nothing in their presence which they cannot imitate without sin let us teach them not to addict themselves either to pleasures of the mouth or sleight desires to take and freely possess any petty favours A creature which much coveteth to have that which her condition cannot afford hath many enemies in her heart which will deliver her body over to dishonour and her soul to confusion Let us cut off as much as we may so many wanton songs idle books infamous pictures gossipings dancings and banquets never is a beast taken but with some bait nor chastity lost but that such attractives serve as fore-runners There are not so many lost spirits to be found among women well bred who in sin pretended nothing but sin but the love of divers Ladies proceedeth rather from vanities of the mind than weakness of the body They desire to be in some esteem and admiration of those who can neither esteem nor admire them but in the pretensions of their own interests they take delight to be commended for their beauties which never any man so profusely
sundry remonstrances and afterwards complaints he neglecting both the one and the other and answering the Embassadours sent to treat with him very perversely he resolved to make war upon him Adde hereunto that having already put two of his brothers to death he tyrannized over the third who to get shelter from the tempest had recourse to the King of France who was no whit displeased to take this occasion to possess himself of the Kingdom of Burgundie which he saw to be very fit for him Gombaut having learned that Clodovaeus armed in good earnest against him would needs flatter his brother whom he had before much exasperated to win him to his party but he playing the fox against a fox having given him fair promises turned his back towards him and yielded to the French with all his troups The Burgundian affrighted fled and cast himself upon the Rhosne until such time that he was shut up in Avignon where Clodovaeus desperately pursued him pressed him and thrust him upon extremities so that the least word of Queen Clotilda had been sufficient to take away his life But the King contained himself both for the respect he bare to his wife whom he well knew not to be delighted with the bloud of her allies and for the discretion which Arredius a Counsellour of Gombaut used toward him The vanquished King yielded to all the conditions proposed by the Conquerour so far as to become tributary to France Afterwards the troups of Clodovaeus being retired this man full of gall and bitterness against Godegisilus his brother who had levied arms against him besieged him in Vienna contrary to all promises made to Clodovaeus and having surprized him slew him in the Church with his own hand which was an act so barbarous and onely worthy of a man abandoned of all sense of Religion This cruelty was the cause that Clodovaeus returning back again entered into Burgundie and possessed himself thereof to punish the exorbitances of a man who was as outragious to offend those who might hurt him as unable to resist the justice of arms raised against him There remained nothing for him in this shipwrack but an ignominious and miserable life which God oftentimes inflicteth for punishment of brother-slayers as he did to Cain which he finally ended in Arianism The holy Clotilda as I said before taking pitie of the issue of this wicked father employed all her endeavours to preserve for Sigismund the title of King and some competent remainders of a fortune horribly dis-membered by the evil mannage of this Prince blinded with errour and impiety From thence Clodovaeus transferred his arms into Aquitaine where he had business enough to deal with Alaricus King of the Visigoths But as I undertook not in this Treatise to enlarge upon the wars of Clodovaeus nor on his singular valour but as it may be considered to correspond with the piety he received from Clotilda I remit the Reader to the See Monsieur du Pleix History of France contenting my self to observe two or three passages of the Divine Providence over King Clodovaeus in this war The first was that having resolved to turn his arms against this Goth who drew into his Territories all the enemies of France and who was an Arian heretick most inhumanely used the Catholicks which were in his power he endeavouring to decline this blow used many wiles to surprize his adversary and murther him if he could under colour of emparlance and amity Clodovaeus notwithstanding shielded by the powerfull hand of God was delivered from his practises and although the other was supported by King Theodorick who was his father-in-law his countrey-man and leagued with other Kings our brave Monarch replenished with the confidence he had in the cause of God as one who intended to cut off the root of the Arian heresie which budded forth in France couragiously marched in the face of the enemy and with so much speed prevented him that he rather seemed to have the conduct of an army of eagles than souldiers A second testimony of the faithful love of Heaven appeared in wonders which served for a presage of the near approching victory The one was that the King according to his customary piety having appointed some men of purpose to offer up his vows at the feet of Saint Martin they entering into the Church to perform their devotions heard by good chance the Quire of Choristers who sung out aloud this versicle of the seventeenth Psalm Praecinxisti me Domine virtute ad bellum supplautasti insurgentes in me subtus me Lord thou hast engirted me with force and valour for the war Thou hast cast under me all those who were raised against me which being related to the King he thereupon conceived good success and setting forward on his way as he entered into Poictiou there was seen to issue out of the Church of S. Hilarie of Poictiers a great brand of fire like unto that flaming pillar which heretofore led the chosen people through so many dreadfull wildernesses in such sort that it seemed this great S. Hilarie who had heretofore been a light both for the East and West against hereticks enlightened still on the top of the place where he had been reverenced a burning Pharos to illuminate the conquests of a Prince who hastened to do that with the keen sword which he had formerly acted with the sharp dint of the tongue In the end coming upon the brink of a river swoln up where he knew not how to find a foord which much stopped the course of his enterprize behold a Hinde rouzed with the noise of the Army took the river in sight of the French in a place where it was passable and shewed them the way who prosperously followed The King encouraged by so many prodigies encountereth with Alaricus and gave him battel very roughly fortune holding the victory in ballance about six or seven hours until the French animated by the good example of their King renewed their forces with loud out-cries and brake with all violence through the files of the Goths Clodovaeus who had the flame of a generous vigour burning perpetually in his heart much desired to meet with King Alaricus when perceiving him in the middest of the conflict he set forward to encounter him The other already contemned by his own Goths for having heretofore refused the combat and seeing his Army in disorder became valiant in his despair and put on a resolution either to vanquish his enemy or to wash away the stains of his dishonour with his bloud He withdrew himself from the main of his Cavalrie and marcheth on towards Clodovaeus The souldiers stood still on both parts at this great duel of two Kings They came to handy strokes in the head of two Armies and charged one another bravely being a very long time bloudily bent to battel but in the end Alaricus felt the thunder which proceeding from the victorious hand of his adversary threw him down half dead
side and gaineth by force of money many mercenaries who well discovered they had no other faith but that which their fortune would give them The fourteenth SECTION The Treaty of peace between Levigildus and his son by the mediation of Indegondis THe war was yet like to continue very long had it not been that the Princess weary to behold these calamities that took beginning from an affront which she had endeavoured to dissemble with so much prudence besought her husband with great tenderness of tears to reconcile himself to his father He touched at that instant with a quite other spirit than he had hitherto felt prostrated himself before the Altar and protested before God that he abandoned all the justice of his cause for the onely considerations of piety and would rather die than prosecute those dissentions any further to the prejudice of charity He went out wholly changed upon this her motion and coming to his wife said unto her Madame behold me resolved to seek out the King my father since you so desire it But I must needs tell you that having forgotten my self in this resolution I cannot neglect you The unworthie usage which you have received at Court requireth you return not thither but in triumph Never will I admit that you undergo hazard by exposing you to the mercie of a woman which perhaps hath none either for you or me You know the affairs of France are at this time in so great confusion that you cannot hope there for any retrait to asswage your griefs We have here a Prince the Emperour Tyberius who is our allie in whose protection I advise you to put your self to pass into Africa and from thence to Constantinople if it happen that I be otherwise entreated than your hopes import At these words the poor Indegondis selt her self seized with a great trembling and wept bitterly not being able to answer one word The Prince seeing he had proceeded too far in afflicting her so faithfull heart sweetened his discourse and said Dear heart why do you trouble your self at my departure I hope the affairs will run in a way so prosperous that in two or three days we shall see one another at Court but that which I have spoken is said taking all accidents at the worst to provide the better for your safetie They had during their abode here a little son which yet hung at the breast the father taking it in his arms said Madame Behold a most precious pledge of our marriage which I recommend unto you Let God dispose of it as shall best please him but you must breed it up as a King The mother beholding the infant redoubled her sighs and the poor Hermingildus not knowing what would follow felt himself surprized with a heavy and stupid dolour which made him break off his discourse yet notwithstanding he failed not to treat with the Emperours Lieutenant to put all that which was most dear unto him into safeguard But when the fatal day of separation came these two hearts so united felt such violent convulsions of grief as if they then had foreseen the events which afterward succeeded and that this farewel should be their last Indegondis at her parting cried out Sir whatsoever happen loose not the treasure of your faith My good Mistress replied the Prince assure your self you have gained a disciple who shall never dishonour you be you merry I will expect you at Court Alas what is our life and the affairs of man That which is past is nothing the present a fantasie and the future an abyss where even those who stand on the brink see not anything These two great souls which it seemed were worthy to live an Age to manure their faithfull loves and possess Empires as perpetual inheritances of their merits go about to be divided for ever with a separation which would be judged hydeous and pitifull were it not that she hath brought forth a Kingdom to Religion Some time after that Indegondis was retired Levigildus understanding his son disposed himself to some composition conceived much joy thereat for he feared lest he might be enforced to give battel wherein he had perhaps found what a man may do thrust into despair So soon as he saw some overture of peace he dispatched his son Recaredus who was in the Army with him to gain his elder brother well knowing they were both of humours very consonant When the younger entred into Hermingildus camp and had espied him hestopped suddenly and cried out Oh my brother before I embrace I desire to know whether I come to a friend or an enemie But the good brother without making him any other answer set forward and most lovingly embraced him in the sight of the whole Army The other sighing Ah brother saith be most dear brother whither have the counsels of those transported you who desire the ruin of our house Behold your self here environed with armies and Legions and behold on the other part my father who besiegeth you with all his army Miserable that I am What shall I do but make between you both a wall of my body to hinder your designs Ah how brother are you upon the point to give my father battel Oh how unhappy would the Sun be which shineth over our heads if this day before the setting he should see his face defiled with the stains of our bloud Brother it is our Countrey against which you arm that stretcheth out to your obedience the same hands it lifted up to Altars for your safety Brother it is your father and mine against whom you march what honour can you get to tear out of his body by violēce a soul which he is ready to render up to nature to throw it out yet alive into the flaming ruins of his Kingdom Have you no other objects to give testimony of your valor I beseech you both by the Religion you have embraced and the bloud common to us both stay your arms or if you persist in your purpose kill me rather at your feet and take me as a victim to purge both the armies Behold the King who lovingly expecteth you and who reckoneth up the moments of my Embassage I bring you the word of full assurance upon my life and honour You must come instantly if you dare believe me for you cannot procrastinate nor retard this affair but you must slacken your own happiness These words were powerfull enough to transport a man who was already resolved Hermingildus having assured him of the good affection he had ever born both to the King his father and himself went to the Court Recaredus flieth with the desire he had to inform his father of the success of his Commission and being arrived he bare the news of the coming of his brother wherewith he was infinitely pleased The Prince followed quickly after and prostrated himself at the feet of the King his father saying Sir And my most dear father behold here your poor
father which was done he remaining unknown in the Citie of Sydon But that he was now returned as from the gates of death to demand his right as being the indubitate and lawfull heir of the Kingdom This Impostour had gained a subtile fellow a servant of Herod's houshold who taught him all the particulars of the Court the better to colour his counterfeiting He led the Bear through all the Citie with good success and great applause of the people who embraced this false Alexander as a man returned back from the other world For besides that the Jews were credulous enough in any thing which flattered them they were ever much inclined to the race of poor Mariamne whose son this man counterfeited to be under this pretext he was very welcome into all the Cities where there were any Jews and the poor Nation freely impoverished themselves to afford some reasonable support to this imaginary King When he saw himself strong in credit and coyn he was so confident as to go to Rome to question the Crown against Heroa's other sons there wanted not those whereof some countenancing him by credulity others through the desire they had of alteration bare him to the throne He failed not to present himself before Augustus Caesar the God of fortune and distributour of Crowns shewing he had been condemned to death by his own father through false rumours but was delivered by the goodness of the God he adored and the mercifull hands of the ministers of execution who durst not attempt on his person beseeching him to pitie a fortune so wretched and a poor King who threw himself at his feet as before the sanctuary of justice and mercy Every one seemed already to favour him But Augustus a Monarch very penetrating perceived this man tasted not of a Prince for taking him by the hand he found his skin rough as having heretofore exercised servile labours Hereupon the Emperour drew him aside saying Content thy self to have hitherto abused all the world but know thou art now before Augustus to whom thou must no more tell a lie than unto God I will pardon thee on condition thou discover the truth of this matter but if thou liest in any one point thou art utterly lost This man was so amazed with the lustre of such majesty that prostrating himself at his feet he began to confess all the imposture Augustus perceived by the narration he was none of the most daring in impostures and said Friend I give thee thy life on condition thou ransom it in my Galleys thou hast a strong body and canst well labour the Scepter would have been too full of trouble I will have thee take an Oar in hand and live hereafter an honest man without deceiving any As for the Doctour who had been Tutour to this counterfeit Alexander the Emperour observing him to be of a spirit more crafty and accustomed to evil practises caused him speedily to be put to death One might make a huge Volume of such Impostours as have been entrapped in their tricks but satisfie your self with experience of Ages and if you dare believe me take in all your affairs a manner of proceeding noble free sincere and true throughly perswading your self what the Wise-man said That he who goes forward with simplicity walketh most confidently XII MAXIM Of REVENGE THE PROPHANE COURT THE HOLY COURT That it is good to reign over men like a Lion and take revenge not permitting fresh favours to abolish the memorie of old grievances That mildness and pardon is the best revenge THis maxim of the prophane Court more properly proceeds from the throat of Tygres and Lions than the lips of men but being harsh in execution it is ever direfull in it's effects The experience How this maxim opposeth common sense of Tiberiuses Caligulaes Neroes Domitians Herodes and so many other who have pursued this with events so tragical and lives so monstrous are fit lessons to convince a heart which yet retaineth some humanity All power imployed onely to hurt is ever pernicious Notable verities and having made havock it resembleth the ruins of buildings which overwhelm not any but such as they oppress by falling on them Man is a creature more tender than any other and must be handled with much respect Nor is there any bloud so base which ought not to be spared as much as justice and reason may permit The most part of men in these miseries and weaknesses of nature seldom hit upon innocencie but by passing through many errours He who cannot tolerate some one banisheth all virtue He must necessarily excuse many things within himself who pardons nothing in another If he think himself a God his nature ought to be mercie and if a man the experience of his own faults should render him more favourable to the like in another It is a strange folly to think greatly to prosper by rigour For all done through fear being forced cannot be of long lasting unless the course of humanity fail The savage beast is then much to be dreaded when he sees the knife on one side and rails on the other There is no strength so feeble which becomes not fierce upon the defensive within the limits of necessity A man who menaceth every one with blows of a cudgel sword or fire should remember he is not a Briareus with an hundred hands and hath but one life Now becoming cruel and inexorable he makes himself an enemy of all mankind which hath so many hands and so many lives Such an one thinks he is well accompanied in revenge who shall find himself all alone in peril Then let us here say there is nothing so Sovereign The scope of the discourse for the government of men as the love of a neighbour clemency and pardon and that the character of an excellent nature is to forgive all other so much as reason may permit and to pardon nothing in himself Love is the first law of nature and last accomplishment Excellencie of love of our felicity Love from all eternity burneth in the bosom of the living God and if he breath with his Word as he doth with a respiration substantial he breaths nought but love He respiteth this love by necessity within himself he inspireth it by grace out of himself and lastly draws all to himself by love The worthy S. Dyonisius in the book of Divine attributes Division of love 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Dyoni distinguisheth three sorts of love one is called circular the other love in a right line and the third oblike Circular love properly is that which carrieth the soul with full flight into the bosom of God and there holds it as in a sweet circle of ravishing contemplations which transport it from perfection to perfection never finding end or beginning in the Divinity Love in a right line is that which tends directly to creatures by wayes not onely lawful and lawdable loving them for God of God and in
Charls of Anjou much fearing this young Lion forgat His sentence and death all generosity to serve his own turn and did a most base act detested by all understandings that have any humanity which is that having kept Conradinus a whole year in a straight prison he assembled certain wicked Lawyers to decide the cause of one of the noblest spirits at that time under heaven who to second the passion of their Master rendered the laws criminal and served themselves with written right to kill a Prince contrary to the law of nature judging him worthy of death in that said they he disturbed the peace of the Church and aspired to Empire A scaffold was prepared in a publick place all hanged with red where Conradinus is brought with other Lords A Protonotary clothed after the ancient fashion mounteth into a chair set there for the purpose and aloud pronounceth the wicked sentence After which Conradinus raising himself casting an eye ful of fervour and flames on the Judge said Base and cruel slave as thou art to open thy mouth to condemn thy Sovereign It was a lamentable thing to see this great Prince on a scaffold in so tender years wise as an Apollo beautiful as an Amazon and valiant as an Achilles to leave his head under the sword of an Executioner in the place where he hoped to crown it â—e called heaven earth to bear witness of Charls his cruelty who unseen beheld this goodly spectacle froÌ„ an high turret He complained that his goods being taken from him they robbed him of his life as a thief that the blossom of his age was cut off by the hand of a hang-man taking away his head to bereave him of the Crown lastly throwing down his glove demanded an account of this inhumanity Then seeing his Cousin Frederick's head to fall before him he took it kissed it and laid it to his bosom asking pardon of it as if he had been the cause of his disaster in having been the companion of his valour This great heart wanting tears to deplore it self wept over a friend and finishing his sorrows with his life stretched out his neck to the Minister of justice Behold how Charls who had been treated with all humanity in the prisons of Sarazens used a Christian Prince so true it proves that ambition seemeth to blot out the character of Christianity to put in the place of it some thing worse than the Turbant This death lamented through all the world yea which maketh Theaters still mourn sensibly struck the heart of Queen Constantia his Aunt wife of Peter of Arragon She bewailed the poor Prince with tears which could never be dried up as one whom she dearly loved and then again representing to her self so many virtues and delights drowned in such generous bloud and so unworthily shed her heart dissolved into sorrow But as she was drenched in tears so her husband thundred in arms to revenge his death He rigged out a fleet of ships the charge whereof he Collenutius histor Neapol l. 5. c. 4. 5. recommended to Roger de Loria to assail Charls the second Prince of Salerno the onely son of Charls of Anjou who commanded in the absence of his father The admiral of the Arragonian failed not to encounter The son of Charls of Anjou taken him and sought so furiously with him that having sunck many of his ships he took him prisoner and brought him into Sicily where Queen Constantia was expecting the event of this battle She failed not to cause the heads of many Gentlemen to be cut off in revenge of Conradinus so to moisten his ashes with the bloud of his enemies Charls the Kings onely son was set apart with nine principal Lords of the Army and left to the discretion of Constantia Her wound was still all bloudy and the greatest of the Kingdom counselled her speedily to put to death the son of her capital enemy yea the people mutined for this execution which was the cause the Queen having taken order for his arraignment and he thereupon condemned to death she on a Friday morning sent him word it was now time to dispose himself for his last hour The Prince nephew to S. Lewis and who had some sense of his uncles piety very couragiously received these tidings saying That besides other courtesies he had received from the Queen in prison she did him a singular favour to appoint the day of his death on a Friday and that it was good reason he should die culpable on the day whereon Christ died innocent This speech was related to Queen Constantia who was therewith much moved and having some space bethought her self she replyed Tell Prince Charls if he take contentment to suffer An excellent passage of clemency death on a Friday I will likewise find out mine own satisfaction to forgive him on the same day that Jesus signed the pardon of his Executioners with his proper bloud God forbid I shed the bloud of a man on the day my Master poured out his for me Although time surprize me in the dolour of my wounds I will not rest upon the bitterness of revenge I freely pardon him and it shall not be my fault that he is not at this instant in full liberty This magnanimous heart caused the execution to be staied yet fearing if she left him to himself the people might tear him in pieces she sent him to the King her husband entreating by all which was most pretious unto him to save his life and send him back to his Father Peter of Arragon who sought his own accommodation in so good a prize freed him from danger of death yet enlarged him not suddenly For his deliverance must come from a hand wholly celestial Sylvester Pruere writes that lying long imprisoned in the City of Barcellon the day of S. Mary Magdalen aproaching who was his great Patroness he disposed himself to a singular devotion fasting confessing his sins communicating begging of her with tears to deliver him from this captivity Heaven was not deaf to his prayers Behold on the day of the feast he perceived a Lady full of Majesty who commanded him to follow her at which words he felt as it were a diffusion of extraordinary joy spread over his heart He followed her step by step as a man rapt and seeing all the gates flie open before her without resistance and finding himself so cheerful that his body seemed to have put on the nature of a spirit he well perceived heaven wrought wonders for him The Lady looking on him after she had gone some part of the way asked him where he thought he was to which he replied that he imagined himself to be yet in the Territory of Barcellon Charls you are deceived said she you are in the County of Provence a league from Narbon and thereupon she vanished Charls not at all doubting the miracle nor the protection of S. Mary Magdalen prostrated himself on the earth adoring
any doth notwithstanding particularly bind himself to patience Let us conclude with four excellent instructions to be observed in adversity which are expressed in the book of Job (l) (l) (l) Job 1. Tunc surrexit seidis vestimenta sua tonse capite corruens in terram adoravit dixit Nudus egressus sum c. for it is said He rent his garments and having cut off his hair and prostrated himself on the earth adored and said Naked I came out of my mothers womb and naked I return into earth Note that rising up he rent his garments to shew he couragiously discharged himself of all exteriour blessings which are riches and possessions signified by garments He cut his hair which was a sign he put the whole bodie into the hands of God to dispose of it at his pleasure For as those Ancients sacrificing a victim first pulled off the hair and threw into the fire to testifie the whole bodie was already ordained to sacrifice so such as for ceremony gave their hair to temples protested they were dedicated to the service of the Divinity to whom the vow was made In the third instance he prostrated himself on the earth acknowledging his beginning by a most holy humility And for conclusion he prayed and adored with much reverence Behold all you should practise in tribulation well expressed in this mirrour of patience First are you afflicted with loss of goods either by some unexpected chance or by some tyranny and injustice Abate not your courage but considering the nullity of all earthly blessings and the greatness of eternal riches say My God although I have endeavoured hitherto to preserve the wealth thou gavest me as an instrument of many good deeds yet if thou hast ordained in the sacred counsel of thy providence that I must be deprived of them for my much greater spiritual avail I from this time renounce them with all my heart and am ready to be despoiled even to the last nakedness the more perfectly to enter into the imitation of thy poverty Say with S. Lewis Divitia mea Christus desixt caetera Omnis copia qua Deus meus non est mibi inopia est Archbishop of Tholouse Jesus is all my riches and with him I am content in the want of all other wealth All plenty which is not God is mere penurie to me If you be tormented with bodily pain by maladies by death of allies say My God to whom belongs this afflicted bodie Is it not to thee Is not this one of thy members It now endureth some pain since thou hast so appointed and it complains and groaneth under the scourge where are so many precepts of patience where is the love of suffering where conformity to the cross S. Olalla a Virgin Quam juvas bos apices le gere qui tus Christe trophea notant Prudent about thirteen or fourteen years of age as she was martyred and her bodie torn with iron hooks beheld her members all bloudy and said O my God what a brave thing is it to read these characters where I see thy trophies and monuments imprinted with iron on my bodie and written in my bloud A creature so tender so delicate shall she shew such courage in the midst of torments such transfixing pains and cannot I resolve to suffer a little evil with some manner of patience If be the death of an ally behold that bodie not in the state wherein it now appears but in the bright lustre of glorie wherewith you shall behold it in the day of the Resurrection wiping away your tears say what Ruricius did Let them bewail the dead who cannot have any hope of Resurrection Let the dead Fleant â—ntuos qui spom resurrectionis habere non possunt Flems mortui mortuos suos quos in perpetuim existimant interiisse lament their dead friends whom they account dead for ever In the third place arm your self with profound humility and looking on the earth from whence your body came say My God it is against my pride thy rod is lifted up in this tribulation Shall such a creature as I drawn out of the dust become proud against thy commandments and so often shake off the yoke of thy Law I now acknowledge from the bottom of my soul the abjectness of my nothing and protest with all resentments of heart my dependence on thee The little hearb called trefoyl foldeth up the three leaves it beareth when thunder roareth thereby willing to tell us it will not lift a creast nor raise a bristle against Heaven Lightening also which teareth huge trees asunder never falls upon it My God I hear thy hand murmuring over my head in this great affliction and I involve me within my self and behold the element whereinto I must be reduced to do the homage my mortality oweth thee Exercise not the power of thy thunders against a worm of the earth against a reed which serves for a sport to the wind Lastly take courage what you may in the accidents Factus in agonia prolixius erabat Domine quid multiplicati sunt qui tribulant me Multi insargunt adversum me multidicunt animae meâ— non est solus ipsi in Deo ejus Tu autem Domine susceptor meus c. that happen and by the imitation of our Saviour retire into the bosom of prayer which is a sovereign means to calm all storms Jesus prayed in his agony and the more his sadness encreased the more the multiplied his prayers Say in imitation of him My God why are my persecutours so encreased Many rise up against me Many say to my soul there is no salvation for it in God But Lord thou art my Protectour and my glorie thou art he who wilt make me exalt my head above all mine enemies The fourteenth EXAMPLE upon the fourteenth MAXIM Of Constancie in Tribulation ELEONORA WE are able to endure more than we think For there are none but slight evils which cause us readily to deplore and which raise a great noise like to those brooks that purl among pibbles whilest great-ones pass through a generous soul as huge rivers which drive their waves along with a peacefull majesty This manifestly appeareth in the death of Sosa and Maffaeus hist Indicar l. 16. Eleonora related by Maffaeus in the sixteenth book of his history of the Indies This Sosa was by Nation a Portingale a man of quality pious rich liberal and valiant married to one of the most virtuous women in the whole Kingdom They having been already some good time in the Indies and enflamed with the desire of seeing their dear Countrey again embarked at Cochin with their children very young some gentlemen and officers and with about six hundred men The beginning of their navigation was very prosperous but being arrived at Capo de bona speranza they there found the despair of their return A westerly wind beat them back with all violence clouds gathered thunders
eat them soon enough as if all this should say unto us What do we so long in the world since all things that must serve our use last so little Gold and silver continue long but last very little in our hands and though one keep them as well as he can they keep not ever one Master If there be creatures which live much longer they flie from us as Harts Crows and Swans you might say they are ashamed to participate in our frailty Great-ones of the earth have in all times done what they could with a purpose to prolong their days so naturally are we desirous of the state of Resurrection but they have many times abridged them seeking to lengthen them Garcias telleth us that a King of Zeilam having learned the adamant had the virtue to preserve life would neither eat nor drink but in a dish which he caused to be made of adamant through a strange giddiness of spirit but he failed not to find death in these imaginary vessels of immortality We make a great matter of it to see men very old they are beheld with admiration But if some desire to come to their age there is not any would have the miseries and troubles of it This Phlegon of whom we now speak who had been one of the most curious Authours of his Age made a book of long liv'd men wherein he confesseth he hath exactly looked into the Registers of the Roman Empire there to find old men and women of an hundred years and scarcely could he meet with a sufficient number of them to fill up a whole leaf of paper But if he would take the number of such as died before fifty which the Ancients called the exterminating death he had filled many huge volumes Pompey took pleasure at the dedication of Bâ—ro in historia vitae mortis his Theater to see a Comedianess act named Galeria Capiola who reckoned ninety nine years since her first enterance into a Theater It was a goodly play of life in a woman who danced on the brink of her grave But how many such like have there been people go into the tomb as drops of water into the sea not thinking on it Nay do but observe all which is Sovereign you will find among all the Emperours which were through so many ages there is not one to be found who attained to the age of a hundred years and four alone arrived to four-score or much thereabouts Gordian the elder came to this point but scarcely had he tasted of Empire but was over whelmed with a violent death Valerian at the age of seventy six years was taken by Sapor King of Persia and lived seven years in a shamefull captivity his enemy making use of his back as a foot-stool when he would mount on horse-back He was at first much greater in the estimation of men than he deserved and every one would have thought him worthy of Empire had he not been Emperour Anastasius a man of little worth and less courage who had more superstition than religion arrived to the age of four-score and eight years when he was blasted with lightening from heaven Justinim reckoned four-score and three which made him wax white in a vehement desire of glorie although being some-what contemptible in his person he was fortunate in Captains They speak of a King called Arganthon who heretofore reigned in Spain the space of four-score years and lived an hundred and fourty But this is rather in fables than authentical histories Of so many Popes as have been since S. Peter not any one hath possessed the See twenty five years scarcely find you four or five four-score years of age John the two and twentieth an unquiet and treasure-heaping spirit was about ninety years when death took off his triple Crown So many had Gregory the twelfth who was created before the schism but his papacy was as short as his life was long Paul the third attained to one above four-scor and was otherwise a man as peaceable of spirit as prudent in counsel Paul the fourth severe imperious and eloquent came to four-score and three Gregory the thirteenth lived as many a Prelate wise courteous prudent liberal who lived too little a while for the Churches good for which he could not end but too soon If we speak of the blessed S. John S. Luke S. Polycarp S. Denys S. Paul the Hermit S. Anthony S. Romuald so many other religious men they lived long And it seems there are many things in religion which further long life as contemplation of things Divine joys not sensual noble hopes wholesome fears sweet sadness repose sobriety and regularity in the order of all actions But all this is little in comparison of the Divine state wherein bodies shall not onely never end but live eternally impassible as Angels subtile as rayes of light quick as thought and bright as stars Conclusion of the MAXIMS by an advice against Libertinism where all men are exhorted to zeal of true Religion and the love of things eternal Of the obscurity and persecution of TRUTH INcredulity is an immortal disease which hath reigned from the beginning of the world and which will never end but with the worlds dissolution Dreams and lies are many times believed because they insinuate themselves into the heart by charms but truth which will never bely her self hath much ado to make her self understood and if she be once known she is beloved when she smiles and feared when she frowneth There are four things have ever been much unknown Four things much unknown in the world time wind terrestrial Paradise and truth Time is a marvellous creature which perpetually passeth over our heads which numbereth all our steps which measureth all our actions which inseparably runs along with our life and we have much business to know it as well in its nature as progression It is a very strange thing that there are such as promise themselves to reckon up the years of the world as of an old man of three-score and yet we know by the experience of so many ages it is a great labyrinth wherein we still begin never to end It was for this cause the Ancients placed the figures Hadrianus Junius of Trytons on high Towrs with tails crookedly winding to represent unto us the intrication of the foulds and compasses of time And for this also Isa 6. Hieron in Isa in the Prophet Esai the Seraphins covered the face and feet of God with their wings to teach us faith S. Hierome that we are very ignorant in things done before the world and in those which shall happen to Non est vestrum nosse tempora momenta quae Pater posuit in sua potestate Actor 1. the end of it If we on the other side consider the wind we cannot but sufficiently understand the commodities and discommodities of it which have made the wise to doubt whether it were expedient there should be
the river of Silias wherein all sinks to the bottome and nothing floateth all passeth with them into the bottom of the soul nought stayes in the superficies which is the cause that the heart replenished with cares and apprehensions dischargeth it self what it may by the tongue Besides the materiall cause of Despair which is observed in Melancholy we find others efficient which ordinarily fasten upon great strong passions of Love of Ambition and of Avarice All histories are full of miserable people who having settled their affections upon objects whence they could not with reason expect any satisfaction after an infinite number of languors toils and pursuits have buried their love in Despair and drowned their ardour in the blood of their wounds Some have hanged themselves at the gate of their Mistresses others have thrown themselves headlong down into ruines others have been exposed to salvage beasts rather chusing to suffer the fury of tygers and lions then the rage of Love without fruition The Poet Virgil did her wrong to put Dido Queen Dido profâ—â—â— in alieno â—â—lo â—bi nuâ—â—ias regis 〈◊〉 optasâ—â— lebueratne tamen secundas experiretur maluitè contrario uri quà m nubere Tertul. in exhort ad castitatem of Carthage into the number of the Unhappy saying she sacrificed her self to the sword and flames out of a Despair conceived to see her self deprived of her Trojan Tertullian justified the Ashes of his Countrey-woman assuring us she was one of the most chaste Ladies in the world and did more in the matter of Chastity then S. Paul prescribeth For the Apostle having said That it is better to marry then to burn she rather chose to burn then to marry making her own funerall alive and rather entring upon the flaming pyle then to comply with the passion of a King who sought her in marriage after the death of her husband whom she had singularly loved The passion of Ambition is no lesse violent in proud and arrogant spirits who having been long born as on the wings of glory and seeing themselves on a sudden so unfortunate as to be trampled under foot by those who adored them cannot digest the change of their fortune anticipating that by violence which they ought rather to expect from mercy Such was Achitophel accounted to be one of the greatest States-men of 1 Reg. 17. 23 his time whose counsels were esteemed as of a Deitie when seeing himself faln from the great authority he had acquired after he had set the affairs of his house in order he took a halter with which he hanged himself And it is thought Pilate followed the like course Tantis irrogante Caio angâ—â—ibus coarctatus est ut se suâ transverberans manu malorum compendium mortis celeritate quaesierit Paul Oros l. 7. c. 4. when he saw himself to be discountenanced after the death of his master Tiberius and banished by Caius Caligula the successour to the Empire This calamity seemed unto him so intolerable that he sought to shorten his miseries by hastening his death which he gave himself by his own hand Yet Eusebius who seems to be the chief authour of this narration and who is followed by Paulus Orosius and others doth not assure it as a thing undoubtedly true but as a popular rumour For my part I think it not amisse to believe Pilatus jam tunc pro sua conscientia Christian Tertul. in Apoleg Tertullian who conceiveth that after the death of our Saviour Pilate was a Christian in his conscience when he in writing expressed to the Emperour Tiberius the things which occurred in the person of our Saviour with so much honour for our Religion that from that time the Emperour resolved to put Jesus Christ into the number of the Gods But if the opinion of this Author Yes that it might very well as many examples testifie were true It could not be credible that a man who had a tincture of Christianity should have ended his life by so furious a Despair Avarice in this point will nothing at all give place to Ambition for there are many to be found who seeing themselves unexpectedly deprived of treasures which they kept as the Griphons of Scythia would no longer behold the Sun after the Sun had seen the Gold which they hid in the bowels of the earth Witnesse that covetous man of the Greek Anthology who strangled himself with the same halter wherewith another man had determined to hang himself who by chance having found this caitiffs treasure was diverted from it This may very well teach us that it is very dangerous passionately to affect the objects of the world because as saith S. Gregory one cannot without immeasurable grief lose all that which with unlimitted love is possessed The evil spirit who soundeth each ones inclinations and discovereth their dispositions powerfully intermedleth in them and layeth snares for men in all the things wherein he observeth them to be with the most fervour busied To these occasions of Despair fear of pain and shame is added which is very ordinary and is the cause that many hasten their end before they fall into the hands of their enemies or are laid hold on by Justice which is as much as if one should die not to dye This was very common among Pagans who esteemed that a glory which we hold the worst of crimes and the like opinion crept very farre into the minds of the Hebrews who thought themselves to be sacred persons and imagined they did an act generous and profitable to the glory of God to kill themselves before the hands of Infidels were bathed in their bloud This is the cause if we believe the ordinary Glosse of the first Book of Kings and Glossa in 1 Reg. 31. Dicunt Hebraei aliqui etiam Christiani quod interficere seipsum inâ—uitu Divini honoris nè vituperium exerceatur in proprio corpore redundans in Dei vituperium sicut timebar Saul non esse illicitum the antient Interpreters of this Nation that we cannot conclude the damnation of Saul by an infallible demonstration for having strucken himself seeing that according to their opinion he was not sufficiently illuminated by the lights of the antient Law that it was a Mortall sin to hasten his death to save the honour of his Religion and to deliver himself from the scorn of Infidels Nay they assure us that he in this occasion ordered himself as a treasure of God refusing to deliver up unto enemies a Head honoured with sacred Unction to be alive defiled by their profane hands They add that he had before him the example of Samson who was admired by all his own Nation for being over-whelmed with the Philistims under the ruines of a house And that after him Razias esteemed a Saint Macch. 1. 12 and a courageous man gave himself the stroke of death and threw his bowels all bloudy from the top of a turret on the heads of his enemies But
alone unexpectedly set upon by a number of souldiers he slew some of them in the place with his own hands and scattered the rest with the â—â—â—archus lightning flashes which reflected from his face It which crowned Pyrrhus in two duels It which made Constantine appear like a thunder-stroke in the battel Valer. l. 3. cap. 2. against Maxentius It which animated Scevola when left alone in the streights of an Island by the Ebb of Plin. l. 7. cap. 28. the sea he withstood a whole Army of Barbarians It which accompanied Sicinvius in a hundred and twenty pitched battels and affixed on his body fourty five wounds as so many Rubies It which taught Cynegirus after his hands were cut off to lay hold of a vessel of his enemies fleet with his teeth It which Sabel l. 7. Aenead 6. caused a souldier of the Roman Army seeing himself lifted on high and born with his armour upon an elephants Trunk unaffrightedly to strike him with so strong and violent a blow that he made him let go his hold and alone become victorious over a beast which carrieth turrets and houses on his back It is more easie to number the Stars in the sky then to keep a register of so many valourous men who have been throughout all ages Women and Virgins have had a share in glory of this kind among many nations envying the Laurels which crown the heads of brave Captains The Scythian Alexander ab Alexandro Jaxametes married not their daughters untill they brought the head of an enemy The Lacedemonian women defeated the army of Aristomenes who Pausanias in Messeniacis had assailed them at a sacrifice and they massacred them with spits Lybyssa slew seven men in a battel with her own Aeneas Sylvius in historia Bohe miae hand Semiramis was in a Bath when hearing the news of the rebellion of a Province of her Empire she speedily hastned thither not taking the leisure to put on her shoes or dresse her and brought it to obedience Herodotus She caused to be graven on a pillar of her tomb That Nature had made her a Woman but that Valour had equalled her to the most valiant Captains that she had made rivers to run along according to the current of her liking and her likings by the course of Reason that she had peopled desart lands hewed with the sword through rocks with silver-sowed fields which were unknown but to savage beasts and that amidst all her affairs she ever had time for her self and for her friends In the fore-going Age in the warres of Hungary Ascanius Contorius lib. 5. Bellar. Tranfilvan we reade of a young Christian woman at the siege of Agria who with her mother and husband fought against the Turks and the husband being slain the mother advised her daughter to retire and to interre the body of her dear Spouse But the valorous Amazon having answered It was no time for funerals took the sword of her dead husband thrust her self into the thickest of the troops killed three Turks with her own hand and in the end bare away the body of her well-beloved on her shoulders in despite of so many enemies who ceased not to shoot at her What may one adde to this Military Boldnesse Do we not daily see examples of it in our French Nobility who fight upon occasions as if every man had a hundred bodies to lose There is another which hath place in civill life and which maketh men bold in conversation forward in affairs courageous in occasions and patient in adversity Many who have not this great heart are content to be eternally what they are and do cultivate a litte life within the limits of modesty But others breathe nothing but businesses but bargains but forreign commerces but sea-voyages fearing neither storms nor shipwracks When this hardinesse meets with great States-men it maketh them pillars of Adamant which a thousand countrebuffs cannot shake All the malice which is in corrupt minds impiety in profane inventions in the factious daring in the insolent terrour in the potent threats in the passionate and cruelty in the bloudy doth not make them go back one step They think with wisdome they speak with liberty they act with courage nor have they any other fortune in their heads but the law other life but innocency other aim but truth other reward then glory Of this temper was the magnanimous Papinian the honour of Lawyers Notable Boldnesse Spartianus to whom the Emperour Severus dying recommended his two sonnes with the Government of the Empire But the impious Caracalla having embrewed his hands in the bloud of his own brother Geta and desirous this great man should set some Colour by his eloquence before the Senate and People upon an action so barbarous he freely answered him it was more easie to commit a paricide then to justifie it uttering this truth to the prejudice of his head which this wretched Prince caused to be cut off and which the posterity of great men hath honoured with immortall Crowns Of the like constancy was Aristides the Locrian in the Court of Dionysius King of Sicily who would have married one of his daughters but the father stoutly answered he had rather see her in her sepulchre then in the bed of a tyrant which cost him the life of his children nor for all this did he repent him of his free Boldnesse Such also was the great Oratour Lycurgus who managed the affairs of the Athenian Common-wealth with such equity and constancy that being ready to die he caused himself to be carried to the Senate to give an account of all the actions of his life and to satisfie all those whom he might have offended in his Government but such a life instead of stains had nought but palms and lights To this may be joyned the boldnesse of Saints who have so often defended the Truth with the perill of their life against the rage of Tyrants as that of S. Athanasius against the Emperour Constantius That of S. Ambrose against Maximus That of S. Chrysostome against Eudoxia That of S. Basil against Valeus Of S. Stanislaus against Boleslaus Of S. Thomas against Henry King of England With this a million of Religious are to be found who have undergone and Voyages of Canada the Indies do daily undergo the labours of Giants who forsake the smiling favours of their native soil to go into places whither it seems nature hath been afraid to come Thither they passe through an infinity of dangers tempests and monsters there they live in forlorn wildernesses among tombs of ice and snow there they seed upon that which to the curious and nice would be a death to taste All sweetnesse and pleasures of humane life are thence banished rigours toils and miseries there perpetually reign their eyes see none but barbarous visages their ears hear nought but out-cryes and yells their taste finds onely bitteâ—nesse their travels nought but
make horrible havock unlesse Grace and Reason cause some temper There is not any devil more familiar in Court more injurious to civil conversation more pernicious to States then Choler and Revenge Pride which is born with the most eminent conditions nourisheth it flatterers enkindle it insolent tongues sharpen it fire and sword end it In some it is haughty and cruel as it appeared in Dagobert a young Prince son of Clotharius the Second who in his tendrest years had I know not what of salvage in him which savoured of the manners of Paganisme or the humours of his Grandmother Fredegond Aymonius l. 4. p. Aemilius Annals of France albeit he afterward gained victories over himself The King his Father had appointed him two Governours Arnold to rectifie his manners Sadragesillus to breed him up to Armes and Court-like behaviour The first governed him like the Sun the second as the Northern-wind The one insinuated himself with much sweetnesse the other undertook him with too proud and arrogant an apgroach which in him rather caused Aversion then Choler of Dagobert somewhat rough Instruction From whence it came to passe that he being one day invited to the Princes Table where he did eat apart as the Kings son he placed himself right ouer against him took Dagoberts glasse and drank to him wherewith he was so desperately offended that instantly he fell upon him and taking a knife on the table cut off his beard and most contemptuonsly disfigured him Sadragesillus in this plight presented himselfe to King Clotharius who was likewise enraged and caused his son to be pursued commanding his Guard to apprehend him but he saved himself in the Sanctuary of Montmartre under the protection of S. Denis untill his fathers anger was pacified who spared not to give him a sharp reprehension and to raise Sadragesillus to great dignities to take away the acerbities of the affront he had received Another time S. Arnold asking leave of the same Dagobert to retire from Court out of the desire he had to passe the rest of his dayes in sweet solitude the King many times denied him and he growing a little earnest in a good cause he furiously draws froth his sword threatning to kill him if he persisted in this request A Lord there present stayed the blow and the Queen shewing her husband the unworthinesse of his Choler so gained him that he came to himself gave his Master full satisfaction and permitted him to go whither he thought good most affectionately recommending his person and state to him Seneca hath well said that Choler was not a sign of a courageous but a swoln spirit as it by experience appeared in Dagobert who was little war-like For being but in one piece of service against the Saxons where he received a very slight hurt he made so many ceremonies about it that he sent a lock of his bloudy hair to his father to implore his aid It is true that this Prince being in his youth a little unruly hearkned afterward to the good reasons of his Councel and became very temperate 2. There are Martiall angers which are generous Generous anger of K. Clotharius and bold when a heart upon a good occasion is enflamed to the avengement of some Injustice as it happened to Clotharius the Second who coming to succour his son Dagobert presently appeared marching along the Rhine and made himself remarkable by a notable head of hair whereupon Bertrand Captain of the Saxons darting some insolent words at him the King suddenly passed the river with great danger of his person observeth his enemy pursues him strikes him down from his horse and cuts off his head which he fixed on the top of a launce to fill the Saxon Army with terrour Thus should the anger of a great Prince be bent against proud and unjust adversaries not against his own Subjects This spurre hath sometimes added valour to the sweetest natures witnesse Charles the Simple Valour of Charles the Simple who seeing that Robert had gathered together a huge army of Rebels against him passed the river of Aisne to charge him and the other putting himself into a readinesse to resist him animating his own side and braving in the head of his army Charles looked him in the face as the Butt against which he should unburden all his gall spurs forward directly towards him and so succesfully hits him with a thrust of his lance in the mouth that he tore out his tongue and killed him 3. Yet Choler is extremely dangerous in matter of Arms especially in things where some resolution is to be taken with counsel and maturity For it troubleth The passion of anger is very prejudiciall to Military art in a General the art said an Antient and many times causeth errours irreparable This is but too much verified in the fatall day of Crescy-field where Philip of Valois one of the most valiant Monarchs which ever handled Sceptre gave battel to Edward King of England The English Army bravely encamped heard Masse leasurely took its repast and coolely expected the enemy to fight with firm footing at which time our Philip animated with anger and above all fearing lest the English might escape him hastned his army what he could causing it to march and tyring it out on the day of battel The Monk Basellus a man wel experienced in feats of arms Philip of Valois a great and a generous King loseth a battel out of a peevish humour of anger shewed him it were much better to expect till morning on which he seemed to be resolved but this Choler had already put fire into his souldiers and although some cryed out Stay Ensign-bearers yet those who marched before were so afraid to be out-gone by them who followed that they had not the patience When they came to joyn battel the Genoway Archers who were in the French army protested aloud they were not able to do their duty and instantly disbanded whereupon the King grew into a fresh anger and commanded to cut them in pieces which with all possible violence was executed ours being cruelly bent to devour their members whilst the arrows of the enemy fell upon them like hail and the horse gauled with shot horribly neighing ran away with their riders and all the place was covered with dead bodies This trouble of mind cost the losse of a battel wherein Froissard saith were eight French against one English-man and thirty thousand men where among others the King of Bohemia and Charles Count of Alencon the Kings brother were slaine in the place Behold the disasters of an il-governed Passion which never is well knowne but by the experience of its misery 4. There are other nice and haughty Cholers which are brought forth in the Curiosities of an imperious life as it happened to many Emperours who took a glory in being angry and to make their brutishnesse famous by bloudy effects Bajazet shewing one day the pleasure of hawking to the Count
the Cannons of Loches to pray and to build a Tomb for her in the midst of the Church These men prudent according to the world accommodating themselves to the time and honouring this rising Sun mounted to the throne of the Kingdome after the death of his father presented themselves before him asking they might be permitted to demolish the tomb of this woman who had so ill used him but he with incredible generosity answered he made not war against the dead and that so far was he from ruining the monuments of Agnes that he would command his Treasurer to give them six thousand florins to preserve them 15. Sage and devout women albeit the sex is too apt Humility and wisedome of Queen Anne to overcome the passion of anger for revenge fail not to re-enter into themselves and blame their proceedings when passion hath transported them out of the lists of reason Anne of Brittain seeing King Lewis the Twelfth very sick and in danger of his life upon the consideration that he left her no male-child caused a Ship to be rigged out laden with great riches which she sent into her dear countrey of purpose to retire thither so soon as the King were dead But the Marshall de Gié who commanded in a City of passage judging that his charge obliged him to let nothing passe out of the Kingdome during the Kings sicknesse did without any other order upon this resolution arrest all the goods of the poor Queen She was a Bee which lived in the sweetnesse of devotion but yet had her sting so that being much provoked by this act she pursued the Marshall and made him come to a triall at the Parliament of Tholose where he was condemned to be banished out of France But the good Queen calling back reason after the stirring of her choler with-held the blow granted liberty to the delinquent protested he was a worthy Lord and had proceeded in all he had done according to the rules of state Whence it appeareth that those cruell souls are most unreasonable which persist in hating because they have once begun and never lay down a wicked hatred for which they have no other reason but their own wickednesse 16. Lewis the Twelfth her husband might have Great and magnanimous goodnesse of Lewis the Twelfth taught her this lesson who having received ill measure under Charls the Eighth his Predecessour when he was Duke of Orleans some flatterers counselling him to ennoble his entry to the Crown by the beating down his adversaries answered in this memorable manner That it was not fit for a King of France to revenge the quarrels of the Duke of Orleans and for this purpose he marked with a crosse all the names of his enemies written down on paper Whereat many wondred thinking this note promised them nothing but a pair of gallows which made them presently fly so much they were urged by their own conscience But he assembled them all together and let them understand he had signed their names with a Crosse that they therein might behold the lesson which the authour of life dictated unto us on the Crosse which was to forgive those who persecute us Francis the First his successour following these steps pardoned the rebellious Rochellers moved by the pitifull clamours of a great number of little children who cryed for mercy at his entrance into the City Our most Christian King hath renewed the examples of the like clemency I speak nothing of the Christian generosity of Henry the Third who seeing himself taken away from Throne and Life by a most detestable Parracide left the revenge thereof to God in the sharpnesse of his wound Henry the Fourth had a soul infinitely mild and if we find in his life some humane defects yet therein there are a thousand divine virtues which shadow them by their great lights 17. But if we compare goodnesse with offence Incomparable mildnesse of Lewis the son of Charlemaigne scarcely shall we find throughout all the histories of the Christian world a Prince who in this point hath equalled the virtue of Lewis the milde son of Charlemaigne This name cost him an invincible patience which made it well appear that a nature too easie is exposed to infinite difficulties His own children Lotharius Pepin and Lewis rebelled against him and out of a horrible daring took Queen Judith from his sides whom he in a second wedlock had married caused her by force to take the veil and holding a dagger at her throat made her promise to perswade her husband to forsake the world out of their Ambition to usurp his Sceptre and to pull the Diademe from his head with hands of Harpies The poor Prince saw himself in one night abandoned by his army which slipt away before his eyes and went to yield themselves to his unnaturall sons but some honest men staying about him he besought and conjured them to save themselves and to leave him alone in perill since he was the victime of Expiation and that his sins had reduced him to this Calamity and verily he went like a victime to the Altar accompanied with the Queen his wife and his grand-child Charles to render himself up a prisoner into their hands to whom he had given both livelyhood and life This heart truely-mild said by the way to those who lead him Let my sonnes do what they will with me and all that God shall permit I onely pray you since I have never offended them not to expose me to the fury of the multitude which commonly are very unjust to those who are depressed as you now behold me and above all I will ask this favour of them that they abstain from maiming any member of the Queen my wifes body whom I know to be most innocent or pulling out the eyes of Charles my grand-child for that would to me be more bitter then death In this manner he came to his sonnes Camp who hypocritically received him with all reverence promising an usage worthy his condition and in the mean time assembled a venemous Counsell of maligne spirits to degrade him The sentence was given contrary to all form of Justice by subjects against their Sovereign Prince by Dupleix children against their father by guilty against the innocent without hearing him without seeing him and on a suddain it was publickly executed at the assembly of Compiegne This King the best in the world on his knees in the Church in the presence of his vassals among an infinite number of people held a scroule in his hand which conteined the imaginary causes of his condemnation they enforced him to read it himself to open his mouth against his own innocency to ask forgivenesse of the Assembly which did him an irreparable wrong Then to conclude this cruell scene he is constrained to take off his belt and to lay it on the Altar to despoil himself of his Royall Robes and to take from the hands of certain infamous Prelates a
and did oftentimes David goes out of the kingdome and retires himself among strangers easily depart from reason for long seasons David resolved to go out of the Kingdome and to betake himself to Achish King of the Philistims Some may seek occasion to blame his behaviour in this matter and may think it strange that he should retire himself to the Philistims the sworn enemies of the people of Israel especially after this reconciliation and oath passed between him and Saul But it must be considered that his life was no wayes assured within the Kingdome and that Saul at another time having given so solemn a promise to Jonathan for the safety of his friend yet would have kill'd him with his own hand and further that he was every day in danger to be set upon by arms from the other party with effusion of bloud both of the one and other and that it seemed better to him to avoid the occasion then to see himself perpetually obliged by so miserable a necessity to defend himself Further he considered that he brought his chiefest friends into danger not being able to retire himself amongst them without making them guilty of treason and exposing them to slaughter lastly he found not so much security amongst other Kings which having no war with Saul would have made some difficulty in enterteining him or might have delivered him up after they had received him for their own commodity This made him resolve to take his refuge amongst a Nation that bore an irreconcileable hatred against Saul But forasmuch as some have thought that he 1 King 27. bore arms for Achish against the people of God this is manifestly convinced of falshood by the Text of the Scripture where it is expressly said that David did invade the Amalekites and other people Infidels although that Achish perswaded himself that he would do the like to the Israelites after he had been so evilly used by his own Nation But he used dissimulation herein for to maintein himself in good favour with the King as the Doctour Tostatus hath very well noted And this was the cause that the great ones of the Kingdome which perceived this dissembling of David would never suffer him to be in the Army-Royall in the day that the battell joyned against the people of Israel saying openly to the King that he would betray the party and would reconcile himself with his own men by the price of the lives of the Philistims unto the great disadvantage of the whole Realm which was the cause that Achish gave him leave to depart fairly excusing it upon the suspicions which the Noble-men had taken of him At the last the fatall day of Saul drew near and he saw the Philistims which came thick and threefold upon him with the chiefest forces of their Empire he felt Saul being in great perplexitie consults with the soul of Samuel the remorse of conscience and the blood of so many Innocents undeservedly shed ceased not to leap up against his faulty head In these confusions of a troubled spirit by the representation of his crimes he sought unto the Divine Oracles to learn what he should do in so pressing a necessity But this unhappy Prince that had used Samuel so unworthily in his life and driven away as farre as he could all honest men from his councels for to let loose the raines of his fury sought after the dead in vain having trod under feet the admonitions of the living I have declared in the Maxime concerning the Immortality of the soul the whole discourse about his consulting with the Witch at Endor and it is not my purpose here to trouble again my Reader with the rehearsall of those things We may onely note that the soul of Samuel having appeared before that the Sorceresse could employ the charms of her profession rebuked Saul for having disquieted it and foretold him the routing of his Army his Death with that of his Children at which he was so affrighted that he fell down in a swound having eaten nothing all that day Whereat the Sorceresse having pity and having prepared somewhat to eat was urgent with him to take some little refreshment which he did and condescended to her intreaties and those of his servants After he went from her table he marched all night He marches against the Philistims in battell and is overthrown that he might come to the Army whether it were that he did not firmly believe that his last mishap or whether he would willingly sacrifice himself without any contrarying Gods appointment The next morning he perceived the Army of the Philistims wonderfully increased and with full resolution to fight and on the contrary the Israelites exceedingly weakned and which seemed already to carry the picture of their disastre printed in their faces The enemies gave the onset with very great violence and overthrew the van-gard in which Jonathan was with his two brethren all which sealed the last proofs of their valour with their blood and death The miserable father saw carryed away before he dyed all that might have obliged him to live and presently perceived that the whole body of the Army of the Philistims was falln upon him and yet for all that he had no desire to retire not willing to over-live those his misfortunes He was ill handled by those of the forlorn hope which ceased not to let fly their arrows very thick upon the Troops where he was and which fell with such violence and multitude that they seemed to imitate the hail in a great tempest which furiously beats down the hopes of a poor husbandman He saw his bravest Captains dy before his eyes which sacrificed themselves with despair of better fortune and although he were wounded with many wounds and that he had lost almost all his blood yet he stoutly upheld The end of Saul himself desiring nothing so much as to dye in the bed of honour But as forces failed him and the violence of his adversaries redoubled fearing lest they had a purpose to take him alive he commanded his Target-bearer to make an end of him and to give him his deaths-blow before he should fall into the hands of the Philistims The other excused himself wisely saying That he would never undertake that against his Majesty and upon so sacred a person and that one ought to expect the destiny and not to prevent it Then Saul seeing that he could not dye so soon as he desired neither by the hands of his friends nor of his enemies suffered himself to fall upon his sword and made it enter into him vomiting forth both his soul and blood with ragings and griefs unspeakable The Philistims having found his body amongst the dead corps took off his armour and cut off his head which they carried through the towns of Palestina for a pittifull spectacle making many thanksgivings in the Temple of their Idol for this victory And not content herewith they took the
body of the King with those of his three children and hung them upon the walls of Bethshan where they were seen untill the time that certain valiant men of his party took them away by night and gave them buriall Such was the end of this unhappy Prince whom impiety disobedience love of himself and the jealousie of State accompanied with his ordinary ragings threw head-long into a gulf of calamities At the same time that this unhappy battell was David receives the news thereof fought David was pursuing the Amalekites which in his absence had sacked the town of Ziklag which was the place of his retireing that Achish the King of the Philistims had bestowed upon him He was so happy that he overtook those robbers loaden with their prey and took out of their hands his two wives Ahinoam and Abigail whom they had taken away As he came from this battell a young Amalekite presents himself and brings him the news of the death of Saul of Jonathan and of his other sons affirming that he himself had stood by at the death of the King and had helped him to dye by order which he had received from him cutting off the thread of his life and delivering him from those deadly pains that caused him to languish and for a proof hereof he shewed him his Crown and his bracelet which he presented to David hoping for a great reward from him But this virtuous and wise Prince aswell for conscience sake as his reputation took great heed of receiving or manifesting any joy at this accident but on the contrary being moved with extream grief he tore his garments and put all his court in mourning he wept he fasted he made funerall Orations for the honour of Saul and Jonathan and set forth lamentations which caused as great esteem of his virtue as they moved pity to his countrey Not content herewith he caused the Amalekite that brought him the news of the death of Saul to dye by Justice which he himself had helped to confirm according as he had avouched by obedience and by compassion not enduring that he should lay hands upon a King for to take away his life from him by any pretence whatsoever that he could alledge It seemed that after the death of this unhappy Prince David should forthwith have taken possession of all his estates but wisdome hindred him from proceeding herein so hastily They knew that he had not assisted at the the battell for to help his people that he had retired himself into the hands of the capitall enemies of Israel and many might very justly think that he had born arms for Achish which might diminish much the great opinion that they had of his virtue Further also although that Saul was not so much loved in his life-time yet his death might very well have defaced that blemish of hatred that many had conceived against him They considered that he had sacrificed himself with his three sons for the publick safety and had spared nothing for his countrey They had pity on the evil usage that the Philistims had done unto his body his former good actions in time past the dignity of a King his laborious life and tragicall death did quell all the envie that any could have at his fortunes Hence it was that Abner his chief Captain who was a man sufficiently upright would not lose any time but seeing there remained yet a son of Saul named Ishbosheth aged fourty years although he was but of little courage and as little understanding he made him presently to come into the Camp and caused him to be declared the true and lawfull successour of the estates of Saul not so much for the esteem that he had of his sufficiency or for the love that he bore him as intending to reign by him and over him All the people gave unto him the oath of Allegiance except the kindred of Juda from which David was sprung which gathered together in favour of him and crowned him King in Hebron where he reigned about seven years before he possessed the whole power of the Empire The Kingdome of Judah was then one body with The kingdome divided by the ambition of the favourites two heads the house of Saul and David clashing against each other not so much by the inclination of the Masters as by the ambition of the Favourites and Servants which would reign at their costs Abner was high and courageous Joab also the Joab and Abner do seek for the government chief Captain of David stern and violent which would gain the favour of his Master by devouring him in the which he did not succeed well for that the spirit of David was not so feeble as to comply with such behaviour and it was nothing but necessity which caused him to passe by many things These two chief Captains full of jealousie the one Their combat over the other meeting together at the Fish-pond of Gibeon with the chief of the Nobility Abner began first and demanded a combat under pretence of play unto whom Joab which had no need of a spur easily consented Presently one might see the young men of each side nimbly to bestir themselves whose fingers did itch to be at it and did not fail quickly to surprise one another The sport growing hot by little and little came to a full combat and at last to a battell where many remained upon the place Joabs party was the stronger and that for twenty which he lost he killed three hundred and sixty of Abners men who was constrained to retire himself But Azael the brother of Joab a nimble runner followed The death of Azael by his rashnesse him lively with his sword at every turn ready to wound him the other which had no desire to slay him being not ignorant that if it should come to that it would prove the seed of an irreconcileable enmity between him and Joab his brother prayed him twice to depart from him and to content himself with the spoil of some other without being ambitious of his Azael would not hearken unto him but desired to make himself famous by getting the better of the Captain of the Army At last he seeing him insolent unto that extremity turned back and struck him through with his Launce Joab and Abishai his two brethren incensed with that his slaughter followed Abner with all their force who saved himself upon a hill where a great squadron of the family of Banjamin encompassed him and cryed with a loud voice unto Joab saying shall the sword devour for ever and would he make of a sport so deadly a tragedy as if he were ignorant that it was dangerous to drive them to despair Joab caused a retrait to be sounded making a shew to do that for courtesie which he agreed to for necessity Abner laying aside his warlike humour fell in love The disagreeing of Abner and Ishbosheth with a Concubine of Saul named Rispah which was a
demands an account of that action and resolved to re-establish the true King in his right because that besides that justice would have it so he was much more favourable to the Catholicks The other answered that he had dispossessed a Sit-still and a Traitour to the Religion of the Arrians and that the Greek ought to look to his own businesse without intermedling with the Kingdoms of another This Arrogance netled more the Emperour who now saw himself perswaded by all reasons to enterprise a Warre against an Heretick for Religion against a Tyrant for Justice against an Adversary for his Goods He ordered all this businesse with a marvellous prudence for he sowed first division in Gilimer's Kingdome interressing as much as possible every man to his party the Catholicks for his protection the Kinsmen of Hilderic for Revenge the Zealous men for Piety the Understanding for Reason the Souldiers for the Booty and all the world for the sweetnesse of the tranquility under his Government He chose Belizarius Generall to whom he gave an Army more Valiant then numerous of Souldiers well tried and charged him to use the Africans as his own people and as his children One cannot believe the effect that this moderation wrought The People began to look upon the Armies of that brave Captain not as upon those of an enemie but rather of a Liberatour Tripolis rendred it self quickly to him and the Isle of Sardynia revolted against the Tyrant He dismantled all the strong Holds that might defend him from the Enemie as if he had been assured to live in perpetuall peace which caused that Belizarius in a short time marched even to the gates of Carthage The Usurper as fearfull in Warre as he was bold in wickednesse was astonished and surprised having not had so much leisure as to fortifie the place of his abode He suddenly dispatches his brother Amaras to cut off all the Avenues from the Greeks but he was encountred by John the Armenian who led the Van-guard of the Imperialists and who hotly gave him battell in which the African lost the Victory and his life The Tyrant whether out of rage or out of fear caused Hilderic his Master which he kept in prison to be murther'd and went out with his best Troops to meet Belizarius all dip'd as he yet was in innocent blood and troubled with the image of his crimes He met with the Grecian Generall a little scattered from the rest of his Army and might have defeated him if art and activenesse or rather happinesse had accompanied his designs But while he ranges his ill-traind souldiers Belizarius surprises him kills his best troops and constrains him to put himself in flight He seeing his army much lessened sends for his brother Zaron who led some troops near the coasts of Sardynia to come and joyn with him which he did readily but in the mean time Belizarius following the paths that good fortune trod out for him enters Carthage which cryes for quarter to him without resistance The two brothers rallyed together made as though they would retake it but seeing themselves vigorously repulsed by the Imperialists they more thought of a Retreat then an Assault This caused all the People to despair of their party seeing they themselves had forsaken the seat of Empire They withdrew themselves to a place called Tricamerum about eight Leagues from Carthage whither Belizarius after he had taken order for the security of the conquered countrey soon followed them and commanded John the Armenian to passe the River for whose advantage they were encamped there and to charge them He obeyed and executed very courageously his Generals commands But Zaron Gilimer's brother susteins his onset and twice beat him back till such time as Belizarius re-enforced his Van-guard with new Troops who defeated the enemie and killed the chief Commander in the combat His head was cut off and shewed the Affricanes who fell into a great despair of their affairs Ah my brother sayes Gilimer the most valiant man on earth could I not be miserable without losing you and without sacrificing you to my fortune It is now that I perceive the disastre of my Nation It is now that the blood of Hilderie rebounds against me In the mean time Belizarius who lead up the battalio passed also the River which was fordable and assaults Gilimer who made but a small resistance but taking with him his domesticks saved himself by abandoning his Camp where nothing was heard but the cryes and sighs of the Captives that lamented their Misfortune The unhappy King saved himself in Rocks situated upon high mountains where there was a Fortresse almost inaccessible but unfurnished of Victuals and Munition whither Pharas had order to follow him in the place of John the Armenian who was unhappily killed by accident by a Captain that shot at a Bird. Gilimer that now thought that there was no greater enemy in the world then Hunger was quickly weary of the place to which he was retired and seeing himself sollicited every day by his friends to render up himself he sends to Pharas to demand three things for the capitulation of the Treaty which were some Bread a Sponge and a Lute some Bread because he now knew not what it was to Eat a Sponge to wipe off the tears that he continually powred out upon the Tombes of his brothers and the Funeralls of his Countrey a Lute to give some truce to his anguish by its Musick This disastrous man which had never well played the King would now play the Philosopher at the end of his dayes and expresse a contempt of all things Pharas easily granted him what he demanded and having taken him conducted him to Belizarius who was retired to Carthage This Generall contemplated the principall object of his Conquest with delight and had a great curiositie to entertein him but he did nothing but laugh with a forced and unpleasing laughter All his treasures fell into the hands of the Conquerour who suddenly carryed him to Constantinople A Triumph after the manner of the Antients was ordained in honour of Belizarius who entered in great pomp into the City with all his souldiery causing the proud spoiles of Africa to be born before him and dragging after him the prisoners among which was Gilimer in chains who was brought before the Emperour and the Emperesse seated upon their Thrones on an high Theatre with an unparrellel'd magnificence Gilimer as soon as he saw a farre off this pompous splendour cryed out Vanity of Vanities and every thing is vanity afterward began again his laughings which he did in my opinion that he might passe for a Fool and so have his life He did obeysance to Justinian with most humble submissions who used him with much clemency giving him a Place in the Lands of the Empire to finish there the rest of his dayes The Booty was divided with much equity and the rich Vessels of the Temple of Jerusalem that the Vandalls had
heretofore found and pillaged in Rome were sent back again to the Place from whence they had been transported by Titus Vespatian This warre was finished in three moneths with an Army of six thousand men so easie it is to row when God conducts the vessell But that of the West was very long in its continuance Obstinate in its Resistance Malignant in its Designes and Lamentable in its Effects Theodoric King of the Goths as I have said in the life of Boetius had made himself Master of Rome and of all Italy where he reigned with great authority He left for Successour Athanaric sonne of his daughter Amalazunta at that time but nine years old under the Protection of his Mother She was the most accomplish'd Princesse of her age and most worthy to govern an Empire Neverthelesse since she saw her self invironed with those Goth Princes that were of an humour sufficiently cruell and that did not easily brook her domination She honoured with her confidence Theodate one of the principall of them because he was of the blood Royall and appeared the most moderate of all the rest playing rather the Philosopher then the Captain This ungratefull man after the death of the little Athanaric who was not of a long life was moved with so furious a State-jealousie that by the basest of Treasons he caused that poor Princesse to be strangled in a Bath fearing lest she as being farre more able then he in the managing of affairs and he holding the Sceptre onely by her favour might take too great a share in the Government But this unnaturall man that thought to settle his Crown by the death of that innocent Queen totally ruin'd his affairs and could not avoid the vengeance of God that pursues Traytours even to the gates of hell The Emperour Justinian that had already projected to recover his City of Rome and all Italy out of the hand of the Goths hearing the rehearsall of that horrible basenesse committed against the person of Amalazunta that had sought Alliance with him failed not to take the occasion and to declare a warre against Theodate thinking that it was then a good time to set upon an Empire when he that governs it begins to be forsaken of God for the enormity of his Crimes This cowardly King was so much astonished at this news that at first he humbled himself by very great submissions offering the Sovereignty to the Emperour of the East and contenting himself to reign under him But the other seeing him so wicked and so weak despised him and caused Belizarius to advance with his Army into his Territories who suddenly possessed himself of Sicily Theodate although an Arrian Heretick had recourse to the Pope and invited him as well by Intreaties as by Menaces to make a Voyage to Constantinople to Treat a Peace between the two Crowns Agapetus who was then seated on Saint Peters Chair was so Poor and Indigent that he had not wherewith to furnish himself with Provision for the Journey that he was fain to pawn the Sacred Vessels of Saint Peters Church to bear his charges by the way He failed not to transport himself into the East and was received by Justinian with all the respects due to so high a Dignity but when he came to touch upon the point of Peace the Emperour told him That the businesse was already too farre advanced That that Warre was an Holy Warre against the Enemies of God and his Church which ought not to be hindered by the Counsells of a Pope and that he need fear nothing that Theodate could do who was more able to threated then to hurt The Pope suffered himself easily to be perswaded and quitting the Interests of that King busied himself about the Government of his Church It is a wonder that he had so much Authority as to depose Anthimus Patriarch of Constantinople who had been brought in by Faction and to substitute Menas in his Place in spight of the Empresse Theodora who had not at that time all the power that is attributed to her over the spirit of her Husband The Good Shepheard after he had Courageously done the duty of his Charge dyed in Constantinople where he left a most sweet odour of his sanctity In the mean while Belizarius pursues the Conquest enters into Pou and takes Naples by night using a Stratagem of Warre that made him put on three hundred men through subterraneous places where there passed nothing but water The taking of so flourishing a City gave astonishment and rage to the Goths who Conspired against their King Theodate and substituted by Election Vitiges in his place who was not of so Noble a Family but who seemed to them Bold and Generous to repair the Ruines of the State As soon as he was chosen he suddenly caused Theodate to be slain who was surprised in his flight and washed away by his blood the murther of Amalazunta This Prince was agitated with two contrary Passions with the desire of solitude and with the motion of his ambition the one counselled him to quit the Empire the other to retain it while that he would content them both he contents no body and was surprised in his irresolution In this conjuncture of affairs the Grecian Generall advances and marches straight to Rome which receives him with open Arms some through love and others through impotence Vitiges desirous to make his Crown renowned by some illustrious Act and to confirm by his Valour the judgement of those that had chosen him assembles from all parts the Goths spurring them on both with the Glory of their Nation and the necessity of their affairs in such a manner that in a small time he lay siege to Rome with an Army of an hundred and fifty thousand men It is in this occasion that the Valour of Belizarius was made visible in all its advantages for with an Army of six thousand men he susteined that prodigious number of Barbarians amidst sicknesse hunger and a thousand other incommodities and when the Romans wanted Arms and Ammunitions of Warre he made Arrowes of the Statues of the Gods and of the Cesars to throw at the head of his enemies In the end having sollicited with diligence and expected with constancy the succours that came to him from the East he raised the siege and scattered all that thick Cloud of Armies that environed him Vitiges is constrained to retire into Ravenna where he besieges him and presses him so strictly that he forces him to deliver to him his City and even his own Person He was carried away Prisoner with his Wife and abundance of Lords to Constantinople presented to Justinian and served for a Pompous object in the Triumph of Belizarius who was received with the full satisfaction of all the Nobles with the admiration of the wisest and with the generall acclamation of all the World The Emperour alone began to be pricked with jealousie and to entertein him with coldnesse In the mean space the Goths make
tender age in this voyage conceiving that he ought not to spare any thing which the service of God might require The ardent love caused him to expose his Royall person not onely to wearinesse but to the most dangerous blows of battels There is a certain jealous strictnesse of judgement in the understanding of men which would not that any one person should be excellent in the degree of Sovereignty in two illustrious qualities The reputation of Arms took away the high title of eloquence from Julius Cesar and we may see that S. Lewis contented himself with his rare devotion without taking that high part that he deserved in valour But this is the truth that he was courageous heroicall and valiant above all those brave ones whom the opinion of men do often deifie without very much desert Together with all his devotion he seemed to have obliged himself to take up Arms against his enemies even from his tenderest infancy He made wars both by sea and land in Europe Asia and Africa He was set upon in his minority by the neighbouring Princes and by the greatest Lords of his State from which he freed himself both by wisedome and valour marching forth into the field with the assistance of God and good counsell of his Mother He disarmed Philip his Uncle by courtesie the English by force he vanquished the inconstancy of Theohald by his stedfastnesse and the self-conceitednesse of Peter de Drues by his patience After he had pacified his kingdome he undertook the Holy War by a pious generousnesse of heart in the which he shewed marvellous valiantnesse of his person Joinville that was present saith that he stoutly ventured himself into the hottest conflicts of the battalions and fought fiercely with his own hand scattering and overthrowing the Sarazens that opposed his enterprises They speak much of the valour of Attila that visiting a certain place was set upon by two souldiers that had a purpose to kill him and escaped both the one and the other by his valour and mention But S. Lowis on a day having gone aside from the Army was set upon by six whom he put to flight by a victorious resistance When they were in some doubt about going a shore in his first voyage to Africa he was the first that threw himself upon the Coast of the Enemies with his sword in his hand without any amazement although he was up to the neck in water When he was seen at the beginning of the battel arrayed in his Royall arms he appeared like a Sun to the whole Army but as soon as he began to enter into the fight he was like a lightning that made a wonderfull flashing upon the Infidels together with all the misfortune of the time wherewith he was overborn he took the great and famous City of Damiata in his first voyage he discomfited the Sarazens in two battels he fortified four great places in Syria he compell'd the Emmiers of Egypt to restore him his prisoners he provided for the safety of all the Christians that were remaining in Palestine In his second voyage he vanquished at the first onset the Africans which had antiently made Italy Greece and Spain to tremble and had so long time disputed for the Empire of the world with the Romans and if he had not been hindred by sicknesse he had forthwith made himself master of Thunis and Carthage Behold what this ardent love did by his hands But the love indefatigable the true and faithfull character of a great stoutnesse of courage caused him not to be amazed at any thing and that he continued with an invincible magnanimity under the most burthensome accidents that contraried his enterprises This love caused him to make tryall of another voyage after the sad accidents of the first this love caused that the seas filled with terrours the Lands with Ant-heaps of Sarazens formed into Batalions the air that seemed from every part to let fly arrows of pestilence the wayes which were full of toyles the wars of terrours and maslacres the encounters of evil successe and the champions of a million of divers kinds of death never altered the constancy of his invincible heart The very day of his captivity after he had lost a great battel which overthrew all his affairs when as he saw the wayes covered with the dead bodies of his servants when he saw the river Nilus smoaking and bubling up the French blood when as the arrows of the Sarazens did fly round about his head like the hail on a winters day when as he was taken and carried to the Aunt of the Sultan and that he heard the clamours of those outrageous mouths that he saw so many infernall faces that might shake a soul of the stoutest temper he remained still in a great tranquility of mind and asked his page for his book of prayers which being ready he began to perform the duty of his Orazons which he presented every day to God with as quiet a spirit as if he had been returned from taking a walk in his gardens The very day that he was seased upon by the pestilence he beheld death coming upon him with a settled countenance he disposed of the affairs of his kingdome and of his house with a great judgment gave very excellent instructions to the princes children comforted all his good servants strengthened himself with the Sacraments entred into extasies of divine love which drove out of his heart all the cares of this present life The poor Prince sooner failed of his life then he could fail of his constancy and faithfulnesse to his high virtue It is here O Providence that you cover with a canopy of the night and darknesse the great events of the affairs of the world it is here that we acknowledge your government This Prince so wise so humble so holy which deserved that the world should bend under his laws and to have constrained good fortune to fly no where but about his colours in the mean while was handled by you as it seems to many not like to an indulgent mother but as by a step-mother severe and rigorous Alas the Lands have often undertaken the yoke and the seas have spread their back with coverlids by a pleasing calmnesse under the arms and vessels of Pirates Was there none but this Monarch to whom all creatures ought to have served as a defence that could deserve to be so evil handled at your hands In the first of his expeditions he lost his liberty and in the second his life What is the meaning of this O Providence draw the courtain a little uncover your secrets and unceil our eyes to behold them She answereth that the generall truth hath revealed to us in the Gospel his judgements on this point when he said to the Jewes which were come to take him behold your hour and the power of darknesse It is true that by a certain order of God and for causes very reasonable well known to his Providence
the evil spirits have their reign and their time which good men are not able to hinder no more then the winter and the night and that the sovereign Creatour and Governour of all things hath limited their powers and their endurings by certain celestiall periods which being not yet come to an end do make all the endeavours which can be used to destroy them unprofitable This is the cause why there is not taken in hand with such eagrenesse as might be wars in the East and Africa nor that we should undertake great designs against the powers of darknesse if we cannot see by very evident conjectures that God directs us as by the hand Neverthelesse as he reveals not alwayes to his Saints the times and seasons of Empires it happens that those that with great zeal and very rationall prudence do embark themselves in generous designs to advance the glory of God should not justly alwayes be commended even in the default of good successe And I may very well say that the most glorious action of S. Lewis was his prison and his death For to kill the Sarazens to make mountains of dead bodies rivers of bloud to overthrow Cities all in a smoke this is that which Chamgy and Tamerlan have done But to do that which S. Lewis hath done it is it which hath no compare it is that which the Angels would do willingly if they could merit it by a mortall body God which had drawn him from his Kingdome with the faith of Abraham which had lead him through so many dangers with the guiding of Moses gave him in the end to seal up his great actions the patience of Job And to countreballance that which the world esteems mishap he would have him to govern a great Kingdome a long time with an high wisdome and profound peace an exact justice for the good and repose of his people and an uncredible sweetnesse of spirit which hath made him the most amiable of all Kings on the earth and a great Saint in Paradise by the consent of all mortals and the Universall approbation of the Church Queens and Ladies JUDITH HESTER IVDITH HESTER ROYNE EXpect nothing Feminine in this Woman all in her is Male all in her is Generous all in her is full of Prodigies Nature hath put nothing in her but the Sex she hath left to Virtue to make up the rest who after she had laboured a long time in this her Master-piece incorporated her self in her work Never was beauty better placed then upon this face which bears a mixture of Terrour and of Love Lovely in its Graces Terrible in its Valour What a Court-Lady is this that came thither for nothing but to draw the sword Her hand did much by destroying an 100000 men in one onely head but her eye did much more then her hand it was that that first triumphed over Holophernes and with a little ray of its flames burnt up a whole army O what a magnificent employment had Love in this act of hers and to say truth he consecrated his arrows never was he so innocent in his Combats never was he so glorious in his Triumphs Represent to your selves a Nabuchodonozor in the flower of his age in the vigour of his Conquests holding a secret Councel wherein he makes a resolution to subdue the World After a short conclusion of an affair so great he calls Holophernes and commands him to march towards the West with an Army of 100000 Foot and 12000 Horse All the Captains assemble themselves together and in all places souldiers swarm It seems that that brave Generall did nothing but give a stamp with his foot to procreate armed men Behold him already invironed with Legions all glittering with fire and flames his Army is on foot with an horrible Artillery of military Engines and a great preparation of Victuall and Ammunition It seemed that heaven looked upon this Host with affrightment and that the earth ecchoed at every step under the clattering of its Arms. The motions of it give terrour to the stoutest sort and confusion to the weaker before it marches Noyses Affrights and Threats after it Weepings Ruins and Desolations Holophernes is in the middle as a Gyant with an hundred arms which promises to himself to demolish smoaking Cities to-overthrow Mountains and to beat all Arms to powder with the lightning of his eyes Ambassadours of all Nations are seen waiting at his gate who present unto him Crowns who offer him Tapers and Incense desire peace and mercy of him and beseech him to grant them servitude But this supercilious Generall would march upon the heads of men and make himself a river of Bloud to water therewith his Palms Fame that publishing with an hundred mouthes the wasts that that Army made on all sides failed not to fly unto Jerusalem and to carry that sad newes unto the people of God Nothing was then heard but the sighs and groans of a scared people who beholding that furious Tempest coming afar off had neither heart nor arms to oppose themselves against it Their courages were dismaied their hands weak their tongues mute they had no other defence but their tears which they powred out in abundance to begin the funeralls of their dear Countrey Manasseh reigned at that time in Jerusalem seven hundred years before the Nativity of our Lord who seeing no expedient to divert this misery abandoned himself to silence and to darknesse But Joachim the High Priest executing a Captains office together with a Priests encouraged his poore people and wiped off their tears to make them see the first ray of hope which they conceived of their dear Liberty He dispatches Posts to all parts and commands the cities that were menaced with the marches of that army to contribute all that they were able of Money Iron Men and Victuals to beat back the common Enemy and above all to prepossesse themselves of the streights of the mountains to stop up the passages where a few men would be able to do much rather then to expect them in the champain where so great forces would swallow up all that could be opposed against them After this he commands publick prayers to be made where the Altar of God was covered with sackcloth and the Priests with hair-cloth all the people were at their supplications tears and fastings even the children prostrated themselves on the earth and cryed to implore the mercy of God This excellent High-Priest not being ignorant that with Piety we ought to move the hand contented not himself onely to weep before the Altar but visited in person the Cities and the Burghs comforting the afflicted stirring up the slack strengthening the weak and doing that which the infusion of the soul doth in the Body in giving life and vigour to all the members of the State The newes comes to Holophernes that the Jews prepared themselves to make resistance to his Army whereat he entred into great fits of choler and called the Princes of the
will if they might have had but the permission given them He saw that he subsisted not but by his favour which he abused so basely He resolved to pick a quarrell with him and asked him instantly What might a Great King do that would honour a Favourite to the highest Point Haman thinking that that Question was not made but in favour and Consideration of him Answers with an Immeasurable Impudence That to honour worthily a Favourite and to shew in his Person what a great Master can do that Loves with Passion He must clothe him with his Royall Cloak put the Kings Diadem upon his Head set him upon his own Horse and command the greatest Prince of the Court to hold his Stitrop and his Bridle and lead him through all places of the City and to Cause an Herald to Proclaime before him That it is thus that Ahasuerus honoureth his Favourites The Prince was astonished at this Insolence and to make him burst with spite said to him that his Opinion was very good and therefore he commanded him to render all those honours presently to Mordecai the Jew that was at the Palace Gate This Divel of Pride was seized with so great an amazement at that Speech that he had not so much as one word in his mouth to Reply and as he was Vain-glorious and Insupportable in his Prosperity so there was nothing more Amated or more Base in Adversity He extreamly racks his spirit to dissemble his discontent The fear of Death and Punishments due to his Crimes if he did resist the Pleasure of the King made him swallow all the bitternesse of that Cup. A strange thing Poor Mordecai that was all nasty covered with Sack-cloth and Ashes is fetched is washed is trimmed up and clad after the fashion of a King Haman presents himself to hold the Stirrop of the Horse and to lead him by the Bridle while his Enemy was shewed in Triumph to the eyes of the whole City of Shushan How much Resistance do we think he made not to accept this Honour What thoughts came into his head whether it was not a Trick of Haman that would give him a short Joy to deliver him to a long Punishment He could not believe his Eyes nor his Reason he thought that all this had been a Dream In the mean while the whole City of Shushan beheld that great Spectacle and could not be sufficiently amazed at so extraordinary a Change Haman after the Ceremony was over returns very sad unto his House deploring with his Wife and friends the sad sport of Fortune The Confusion of their troubled spirits suggests nothing to them but Counsels of despair and they say That since Mordecai hath begun sure he will make an end He was very loath to go to that Feast of the Queens he feared that it would prove a sacrifice and that he should be the offering Hester that saw that her sport was spoiled if he was not present caused him secretly to be engaged and pressed by the Eunuchs of the King who under colour of Civility conduct him to his finall Misery He enters into the Chamber of the Feast The King dissembles all that had been done there was nothing talked of at the first but of passing merrily the time away Every thing flourished every thing Laughed but Poyson was hid under the Laughter and Venome under the Flowers At the end of their Repast the King Conjures the Queen to tell him at last what it was that she desired of him because he was fully resolved to divide his Crown and Sceptre with her Then sending forth a great sigh she cryed Alas Sir I do not sue to your Majesty for any of all the Honours or the Riches of your Empire but I desire of you onely my own and my poore peoples Lives which some would overthrow Destroy and Massacree by an horrible and bloody Butchery Sir I ought no longer to disguise any thing to your Majesty God hath made me be born of that Nation which is given for a Prey under your Authority and destin'd to the Shambels It is me that they aime at If they had gone about onely to make me and my People Slaves I would have held my peace and stifled my groans But Sir what have I done that my Throat should be cut after I shall have seen the Bloud of my nearest Kindred shed before mine Eyes to be thrown as the last Sacrifice upon a great heap of Dead Bodies and Buried in the Ruines of my dear Countrey Alas Sir shew us Mercy You that are the Mildest of all Princes restore me my soul and the lives of my whole Nation The King entered into an Admiration of Extasie upon these Words and said to the Queen I know not to what this Discourse tends or where the Man or the Authority is that dares do this without my command Then she replyes He to whom your Majesty hath given your Seal that Traytor and perfidious Haman It is he that hath caused bloudy Letters to be written through all the Provinces to deliver me and my People up to Death and know Sir that his cruelty rebounds upon your head Haman quickly perceived that he was a lost man and the Palenesse of Death came at the same instant into his Face The King rises from the Table and walks into the Garden that was hard by to chew upon his Choler The Queen that had put her self into a Melancholy casts her self down upon the Bed Haman throwes himself at her feet and as a man that is drowning layes hold on what ere he meets with He beseeches her he Urges her he Conjures her to shew him Mercy and in saying so bowed himself down upon the Bed and approached very near unto her The King entring at the same time into the Chamber and finding him in that Posture How sayes he will he also violate the Queen my Wife in my Presence and in my House Let some body take him away Instantly they come and cover his Face as they were wont to do to those that were carried away to Punishment and one of the Eunuchs thought of saying That he had prepared a pair of Gallows of fifty Cubites high for Mordecai the Preserver of the Kings Life It is that which is his Due answered Ahasuerus and let him be hanged suddenly upon the Gibbet that he hath set up This was executed without delay there being no body that was not extream joyfull of his Ruine Mordecai was called to the Palace to take his Place and to Govern all the Houshold of the Queen that now acknowledged him in the presence of the King her husband for her Uncle Hester afterward beseech'd the King to command Dispatches to be sent through all the Provinces to countermand and to make void the Letters of Death which cruell Haman had caused already to be spread through all the Kingdome This was found very reasonable and they were forthwith Expedited in these Termes Artaxerxes the Soveraign Lord and King of
the assistance of God upon their Arms. He also shewed himself very sensible of the favours of Heaven and desired that God should first of all triumph in all the good successes that accompanied his Standards which he expressed visibly when having defeated the Generals of King Antiochus in manifold assaults and gotten a little rest to his dear countrey he took a pressing care to cause the Temple to be repaired and cleansed that had been horribly profaned by the Infidels It was an incomparable joy to all the people when after so many desolations that had preceded he celebrated a Triumphant Dedication by which he caused the hopes of his Nation to reflourish His cares extended even beyond the World wherein we live and one may well affirm that he was the first of the Antient Fathers of the Old Testament that expressed more openly the charitable offices that ought to be rendred to the souls of the Deceased This manifestly appears in an encounter which he had with Gorgias Generall of the Army of the Enemy in which he lost some Souldiers and when he came to visit the field of battell to view the Dead and to cause them to be carried to the Sepulchre of their Fathers he found that some amongst them had in their clothes certain pieces of the offerings presented to the Idols thinking perhaps that it was lawfull for them to accommodate themselves with it for their use though in effect the Law forbad it This gave a shock at first unto his conscience that was very delicate and he deplored the unhappinesse of those forsaken people that had loaded themselves with profane Booties yet when he thought that that befell them more for want of consideration and by the hope of some little gain then by any consent that they had given to Idolatry he sent twelve thousand Drachmes into Jerusalem to cause Sacrifices to be offered for the rest of their Souls This made him to be honoured with very particular favours of heaven for he hath been sometimes seen in a combat environed with celestiall virtues that watched for his protection and filled his enemies with terror His very dreams were not without a mystery witnesse that which shewed him the Prophet Jeremy and the high Priest Onias who prayed before the face of God for the safety of the People the former of which two put into his hand a guilded sword telling him that it was that wherewith he should bring down to the earth the enemies of his Religion The great love that he had for God reflected it self continually towards his neighbour on whom he contemplated the image of the first beauty He bore in his heart all that were afflicted and burned with a most ardent love for the good of his dear countrey The zeal of Justice possessed his soul and he had no greater delights in the world then to succour widows orphans and all necessitous persons They ran to him as to their true Father they ranged themselves under the shadow of his virtue and found there a refreshment in their most parching heats His conversation was sweet his speech affable his manners without avarice He never sold his Protection nor made any Traffick of his Valour He knew not what it was to buy his neighbours lands to build palaces to plant orchards to make gardens and to heap up treasures He was rich for the poor and poor for himself living as a man untyed from all things else and fastned to virtue alone by an indissoluble knot of duty His Temperance passed even to admiration so greatly did he contemne those pleasures and delights that others regard as their chief felicity He never dreamed of causing the beautifull women-prisoners to be preserved for himself because he was skilfull in the trade of defending Ladies honours rather then assaulting them He never had any Mistresse being perpetually Master of himself and one shall have work enough to find out his wives name it is not read that he had any other children but Virtues and Victories He lived as an Essean estranged from all the pleasures of the flesh and tasted no other contentment in the world then to do great actions He never enterprised the warre against King Antiochus to make himself great and to reign but for the pure love of his Religion and dear countrey Traytours and corrupted spirits blame him for having taken up arms saying That it behoved them rather to suffer the Destinies then to make them That it behoved them to obey the Powers that God had set over their heads That it was a great rashnesse to think to resist the forces of all Asia with a little handfull of souldiers that it could not chuse but provoke the conquerours and draw upon the vanquished a deluge of calamities The world hath been full in all times of certain condescending Philosophers who accommodate themselves to every thing that they may not disaccommodate themselves for virtue They care not what visage is given to Piety so that they find therein their own advantages By how much the more mens spirits are refined to search out reasons to colour the toleration of vices by so much the more their courages are weakned and neglect to maintain themselves in duty There are some that had rather lie still in the dirt then take the pains to arise out of it Judas considered that King Antiochus was not contented with having brought the Jews to a common servitude but would overthrow all their Laws and abolish entirely their Religion He did not believe that it was lawfull for him to abandon cowardly the interests of God He thought that there are times wherein one ought rather destroy ones self with courage then preserve ones self with sluggishnesse He looked not so much upon his strength as upon his duty He perswaded himself that a good Cause cannot be forsaken of God and that we ought to essay to serve him applying our wills to his orders and leaving all the successe of our works to his disposall This great zeal that he had of Justice was accompanied with a well tempered prudence As he never let loose himself in that which was absolutely of the Law so did he never use to rack himself by unprofitable scruples that are ordinary enough to those that are zealous through indiscretion Some of his Nation shewed themselves so superstitious that being assaulted by their enemies on the Satturday they let their throats be cut as sheep without the least resistance for fear of violating the Sabbath if they should put themselves upon a defence Judas following the example of his father Matathias took away that errour which tended to the generall desolation of his countrey and shewed by lively reasons that God who hath obliged us to the preservation of our selves by the Law of Nature had never such an intention as to give us for a prey to our enemies by an indiscreet superstition That it was a good work to defend the Altars and ones countrey against the Infidels and
this change kindled again his antient vigour and rallied all his forces to oppose the Generalls of King Demetrius so that at first he defeated some of them with a very famous rout which more inflamed that Monarch not being able to endure that his Arms should be cryed down at the beginning of his Reign this made him send into the field Army upon Army with so great impetuousnesse that there was no more any means left to make resistance Yet the great heart of the Maccabee could not yield but sailed against wind and tide the thoughts of his valour making him forget those of his danger He had yet three thousand men very resolute fellows with which he promised himself to continue his victories but when Bacchides the Generall was seen appear with an army of two and twenty thousand men many withdrew themselves for fear of the danger into which the Maccabee following the ordinary tracts of his courage was about to precipitate them These run awayes beginning to wheel about to the other side stole away so handsomely from the Army that of three thousand there remained but eight hundred The Maccabee felt his heart much pierced seeing himself forsaken of his brethren and of his friends in his greatest need he burned with a desire to charge his enemies but when he considered the small forces he had about him his heart bled within him It was an evident peril to approach the enemy and death to retire from them divers thoughts about this combate contended in his heart but those that favoured his boldnesse had the upper hand Let us go sayes he to his men and try our fortune let us essay whether we shall have heart enough to encountre the army that comes against us The most considerate men replyed that they wanted not any courage but that their small appearance would not be able to affront an army of two and twenty thousand men with a Regiment not compleat and that it was expedient for them to retire that day to rallie some new troops and to return to the combate with hopes of greater advantages God forbid replyed the Maccabee that our enemies should have that contentment to see us turn our backs and flie before them this is a a thing I could never yet be taught since I took up arms Ha! Where is that gallantry that I have alwayes seen in you Ought we to be so much in love with life If our hour be come let us die valourously for our brethren and let us not leave a blemish upon the lustre of the honour that we have acquired He carries them away all by his authority and they are already resolved to conquer or to die The trumpets sounds on both sides the earth eccho's with the noise of the arms and shouts of the souldiers Bacchides causes his dragoons armed with arrows and with slings to advance who began the skirmish and lead up a great battle that endured from the morning to the evening the one combating by number and the other by valour And when the Maccabee saw that the best troops were on the right point about the person of Bacchides he resolved to make his way thither which he did with a prodigious violence making them lose their footing and beating them back with much confusion But those on the left point that were yet fresh seeing the disorder of their companions came to fall upon Judas and upon all his troop that were extremely wearied with having laid upon the place so many bodies of the enemies These defended themselves valiantly but the multitude of those that set upon them on all parts overwhelmed them and the incomparable Maccabee by having received many wounds opened as many bloudy gates to his generous soul to flie away into the other world There are neither Colossus's nor Pyramids that can equall the deeds of this gallant man Never did any man fight better or for a better Cause His heart was a source of generous flames his hand was the thunder it self his valour a miracle his life an example and his death was like to be that of his whole countrey that would have buried it self in his tomb if his brothers Jonathan and Simon had not enlarged his conquests by the imitation of his prowesse The good party was much weakned by the decease of him that was the soul of his whole countrey and it seemed that Judea would quickly be swallowed up by the great forces of King Demetrius but the succouring hand of the God of hosts was not wanting to his servants in the extremity of so many miseries The pernicious Alcimus that had raised that whole storm when he thought himself to be above his hopes was smitten with a stroke from heaven and died suddenly of a strange malady Demetrius after a Reign of some years saw a great faction raised against him from that coast whence he least expected it which deprived him of his Sceptre and his life His scornfull and haughty nature made him disdain the Kings his neighbours even so farre as to offend them by wayes of words and deeds He was also little affable and courteous to his Subjects that loved naturally to be caressed of their Prince and although at first he was of an humour good enough yet he was so much changed that having built a very sumptuous Castle near his capitall city he lived there constantly to take his pleasure and let himself be seen by very few His people of Antioch that was on the other side arrogant enough were incensed and wearied with his Reign They began to raise rebellions that were fomented under hand by the Kings of Egypt of Asia and of Cappadocia that distrusted him and thought to find him a successour He was quite astonished when he saw one Pompalus a young man before that time unknown that called himself the son of Antiochus the Illustrious and brother of Eupator come and demand the Kingdome of Syria as appertaining to him by right of birth Many Historians hold that it was a pure fiction and that that pretended was suborned by the artifice of those three Kings and namely of Ariarathes the Cappadocian yet since the Scripture names him the son of Antiochus the Illustrious I find that it is very probable to follow that which others have written and to say that that Antiochus had heretofore made love to a young Rhodian woman named Bala on whom he had begotten this naturall son with his sister Laodice He failed not to shew himself at Rome and to make himself be somewhat taken notice of by the practices of one Heraclides a wise and crafty man in managing businesses The enemies of Demetrius embraced this occasion to disturb him and carried as much as they were able this man to the Throne not by reason of Justice but because they believed they should have a better market for their pretensions by making a new creature then suffering any longer him they had rendred more absolute then they desired he should be It
is a strange thing that a man of nothing found instantly Cities Armies and a Kingdome at his devotion It was now that Jonathan the brother and successour of Judas was sought after and sued to by those two adversary Kings with extreme earnestnesse Pompalus that took the name of Alexander wrote him letters full of honour offering him the Principality and Pontificate of his Nation qualifying him with the name of friend and sending him a purple Robe with a Crown of gold Demetrius whom necessity had rendred very courteous made him also on the other side a thousand fair promises to draw him to his party He exempted him from all Tributes he took away the Garrisons he gave him places of importance by a free gift he received the Jews to offices and governments he restored all those of their Nation that he held in Hostage He granted them an intire Liberty in their Religion and Policy and Revenues also for the Temple so that there was nothing more to be desired Yet Jonathan would never range himself under his Standards but as injuries being yet fresh smart more then old ones the Jews chose rather to give themselves to the son of their most cruel persecutour then to Demetrius that had taken from them their dear Maccabee and held yet their liberty under oppression The party already made against that miserable Prince fortified it self every day and although he took all the good order that his affairs seemed to require yet he could not divert his unhappinesse that dragged him to a precipice It is true that he got the better in some small encountres but when the great battle that was to decide the controversie of the Kingdome was to be given he saw himself very much forsaken and his enemy assisted with the best forces of all Asia He failed not for all that to fight with all possible valour and although his Army was scattered he would never fly but cast himself in the hottest of the mingling killing many of his enemies with his own hand His horse having taken a false step slipped himself into a slough whence he could not get out but he suddenly quitted him got himself on foot and made a great spectacle a King covered with dirt and bloud with his sword in his hand that laid about with a stiffe arm and without remission sustained the hail of arrows that the enemy let flie upon him standing inflexible against all those disastres of his evil fortune In fine he would not quit his Crown but with his life and buried himself in honour Every one bows under the happinesse of that false Alexander he mounts suddenly upon the Throne of his adversary where he receives the services and adorations of all the world Philometer the King of Egypt that had much upheld his party in which he sought his own interests gives him his daughter Cleopatra in marriage whose wedding was magnificently celebrated in the city of Ptolomais in the presence of the two Kings the father-in-law and the son-in-law where Jonathan was also present that was caressed of both the two by extraordinary favours and managed the businesses of his State with all possible advantages Alexander seeing himself in unexpected riches and amidst so many ornaments of a borrowed fortune could not contain himself but let himself flag in a sluggish and voluptuous life abandoning all the affairs of his Kingdome to the discretion of one Ammonius a young brainlesse fellow who carried himself most insolently and incensed the Queen Laodice and all the Nobles of the Court in such a manner as that he was at last set upon and slain in the habit of a woman which he had put on to secure himself God thus taking vengeance of his filthy and effeminate life The Antiochians were first weary of the dissolute life of their Prince that was alwayes in the midst of wine and women which made them believe that he was a supposititious King that had nothing in him of generous They began to regret Demetrius whom they had seen dic with so much courage and knowing that he had left two sons yet very young one of which bore his fathers name and the other was called Antiochus Sidetes They invited the elder of them giving him assurance that he should have the Crown Philometor that was ashamed of the deportments of his son-in-law and that under pretence of moderation desired nothing lesse then to adde the Diadem of Syria to that of Egypt well knowing that so many changes of Masters make a State shake and give fair advantages to those that would invade them upholds this Rebellion forsakes Alexander and by a notable affront takes away his daughter from him to give her to the young Demetrius And to colour his inconstancy he made a Manifest that published That his son-in-law by an execrable disloyalty had made an attempt upon his Kingdome and upon his life which made him break the friendship that he had sworn with him Under this pretence he seizes on some places which it was easie for him to keep whiles he made himself authour of the fortune of the new King The miserable Alexander awaking out of his surfeits saw the Egyptian and all his Subjects bandyed against him and a great army that was coming to fall upon his head which he resisted feebly and quickly forsook his party going to hide himself in the bottomes of Arabia where he was hunted after and entrapped by Zabdiel the Arabian who cut off his head and carried it to the King of Egypt who contemplated it a long time with a spirit more then salvage for which he was punished of God and dyed three dayes after of the wounds he had received by a fall from his horse at the defeating of his son-in-law Behold marvellous sports of fortune and great revolutions that ended not at this point yet Demetrius young of age and government was not a man to settle a Kingdome shaken with so great concussions He thought more of taking the pleasures of Royalty then of bearing the burden of it businesses were to him as many punishments and pastime a continuall exercise This was the cause of new factions and great seditions that were raised in his Kingdome The Maccabees whom he gained to his party rendred him very good offices although he was more ready to receive them then liberall to reward them In the weaknesse of this new Government started up the disloyall Tryphon who had been Captain of the Guard to the false Alexander and having seized himself of a little child that his Master had left behind him he had the boldnesse to propound him for King and true Successour of the Crown When he saw that Jonathan already obliged to Demetrius was able to oppose his designs and to unravel the web of his ambitions he surprised him by a detestable treachery and caused him to be assassinated with his children after he had received the money that he had demanded for his ransome The young King altogether astonished
in the lives of the Nobility never discoursing of his own atchievements but with singular sobriety In his marriage he demeaned himself most chastely and had such an hatred against impurity that he would not so much as keep a servant that had a lustfull eye Behold how passing one day on horse-back through the streets of the City of Genoa as a Lady presented her self at a window to comb her hair and a Gentleman of the Marshalls train seeing her tresses very bright and beautifull cryed out Oh what a goodly head of hair standing still to behold her This Lord looking back on him with a severe eye said It is not well done it is not fit that a wanton eye should be seen to glance from the house of a Governour In this kind and all others which concerned the commerce and peace of the Citizens he rendred so ready and exact justice that it was a Proverb amongst the Genoes when any one was offended to say to him who had done him wrong If you will not right me my Lord Marshall will The other understanding it oft-times rather chose to submit to the right then expect a condemnation which was inevitable By this means he so gained the good opinion of the people that the inhabitants of the City sent to the King beseeching him that he might continue the Government to the end of his dayes which having obtained it seemed to them that they had procured an Angel from Heaven to be set at the Stern of their Common-wealth At that time when the Emperour of Constantinople then dispossessed of one part of his Empire by the great Turk came into France to desire succour and had obtained of the King twelve hundred men defrayed for a year many widdow Ladies were seen at the Court who complained of injustice and oppressions which were offerred them after the death of their husbands whereby this good Marshall was so moved with compassion that with much freedome he instituted an Order of Knights for the defence of afflicted Ladies which he sirnamed The Order of the White Ladie because they who made profession of it bare a Scutcheon of gold enamelled with green and thereon the figure of a Lady in a white Vestment thus sought he by all occasions to do good and shewed himself a great enemy of idlenesse as being the very moath of great Spirits He ordinarily rose early in the morning and spent about three hours in Prayer and divine Service after that duty was performed he went to Councel which lasted till Dinner-time After his repast he gave audience to all those who would speak with him upon their affairs never failing to behold his Hall daily full of people whom he speedily dispatched contenting every one with sweet and reasonable answers from thence he retired to write Letters and to give such order to his Officers which his pleasure was should be observed in all his affairs and if he had no other employment he went to Vespers At his return he took some pains or recreation then finishing the rest of his Office he ended the day On Sundayes and Holy-Dayes he either went on foot in some Pilgrimage of Devotion or caused the Life of Saints or other Histories to be read daily more and more to dispose his Life and Conversation unto Virtue When he Marched into the field he used most admirable discretion never oppressing any of his company nor would he permit even in the enemies Countrey that the least disturbance should be done to Churchmen Behold you not here a Life worthy of a French Cavalier Oh Nobility This man was not a Petty Roister that makes boast to fight in a green meadow But a Souldier who during the Warres with the English kept the Field of Battell three times thirty dayes together against those brave Souldiers who did oppose him from whence he went out all sparkling with glory and wonder I would here willingly adde a Bertrand of Guesclin Count of Longuevil and Constable of France whose Life Mounsier Menard hath given us written by a Pen of that antient Age in as antient Language You should see a man who after he had dedicated his Soul Body and Arms in the Offertory of a Masse at the Altar fought six or seven times hand to hand in the Field exercised strange Feats of Battell and Arms stood in the midst of Combats unmoved and confident as in his Chamber being otherwise furious strong and stout in the presse You should see a man sage in Counsels prompt in Execution whom an Enemy found near at hand when he thought him thirty miles off A man in all things else free from Fraud or Dissimulation Chearfull Courteous obliging and liberall of his own employing his Movables and his Wives Jewels for the relief of poor Souldiers Then you may judge whether by being Valiant you may live in the Court of a Christian Prince like a little Turk Where is your Judgement and where is your Reason BAYARD BEhold a man whose life not long since hath been published to serve as a modell for the Nobility we yet touch him as it were with our finger for he dyed under the reign of Francis the First having served three Kings in their Armies the space of two and thirty years It is the valiant Terrail otherwise called Cavalier Bayard born in Daulphine I willingly make use of his Example both because one of our most warlike Kings the sonne of Francis the First would needs be knighted by his hands to witnesse the honour he bare to his valour as also for that I see therein many noble Martiall virtues of a brave French Souldier passages which taste of the virtue of a true French souldier He was a courageous Captain of excellent direction valiant and magnanimous of whom it was said that he had the assault of the wilde Bull the defence of the Bore and flight of the wolf I set aside his warlike deeds I take some of his virtues which here I will make use of This royall courage had no other aim in arms but the glory of God the service of his Prince and the honour of his profession whereof we have an ample testimony in a short Elogy which his secretary made upon him saying That after these two and thirty years service he dyed almost as poor as he was born Much is spoken in these few words and I think Bayard more glorious under this title then if he had born the Dutchy of Milan on his back He had the true piety of a good Souldier for every morning he prayed to God most devoutly and would not permit any man to enter into his chamber during his devotions He was so obedient to those who commanced in the Army that he never refused any commission imposed upon him Yea well foreseeing that the last charge enjoyned him by the Marshall Bonivet was most dangerous and as it were impossible yet he went thither sacrificing his life to the commandments of the Lieutenant of his Prince
controversie and urged them to appear the morrow after to offer Incense and to see how God would like their offering The Anti-Priests failed not to be at the door of the Tabernacle with their Censers in their hands to make a combination apart and to oppose the Pontificate of Aaron But the living God that authorises the true High Priests appeared upon the Tabernacle after a terrible and threatning manner The people that invironed the Mutiners suddenly separated themselves at the voyce of Moses the earth opens it self under the feet of Corah Dathan and Abiram to swallow them up alive with their Pavilions and all their riches The others were devoured by fire from heaven visibly with an extream affright of the whole Army and forasmuch as there remained some rebels that mourned for the dead and enflamed the division the hand of God yet smoaking over their heads was ready utterly to destroy them had not Moses prostrated himself before the Tabernacle praying for them and had not Aaron holding the Censer and beseeching the divine Majesty between the living and the dead appeased the wrath of Heaven But the punishment of these miserable men left much terrour in the souls of the people and an example of perpetuall memory to all those that resist the Powers that are lawfully established by God There were Combats at home and abroad for the Amalekites a salvage nation descended from Esau's children endeavoured to beat back the people of God and gave them battell which Moses accepted and making Joshua Generall of the Army contented himself to go to the top of the mountain to pray to the God of the living and to obtein the Victory His prayers were darts of fire shot upon the enemies for as long as he kept his arms lifted up to God in prayer the Israelites had the better but if he slacked them never so little they had the worst which made Hur and Aaron hold up his Arms to prevent a wearinesse in them and by this means he desisted not till such time as the Adversaries covered with their dead bodies all the field of battell Now because this great People would have been but a confused masse had they remained without law and without policy which is the soul of Assemblies Moses was powerfully inspired by God to make laws as well those that concerned Religion as others that regarded the Civil The Philosophers assure us that every thing that lives in Nature lives by the Light and that all life is nothing else but Light which spreads it self into the whole Universe and not content to guild it with its brightnesse communicates to it quickning spirits and secret influences which make all the productions in the bosome of Matter That which the Light doth in the naturall World the Law imitates in the Civill It is a participation of the first Reason of the ordination and Providence Divine which insinuates it self into the masse of Mankind embellishes it with its splendours and unites it in the point of Felicity by invisible chains of love and obedience Gods reason is the sovereign Law which resides in the Divine understanding in the treasures of his Wisdome and is as the Primum Mobile of all the regulated motions of the intellectuall nature Plato sayes That the World following that rule keeps an equall path with all the fitnesse and all the measures requisite to its preservation But as soon as it departs from it it falls of necessity into great disorders which cannot be surmounted but by the Divine ordination that re-calls Nature to the point of its Felicity And because the Eternall Law is so high and so sublime that it surpasses all our thoughts God hath caused a Rivulet to flow from that source which is the Law of Nature a true light of right Reason imprinted in the understanding of all men But it being so often darkened by the black vapours of the animall Passions there was a necessitie of humane Laws and Magistrates to put them in execution by the punishment of the wicked and the recompensing of the good God gave then a strong inspiration to Moses to prescribe Precepts and Rules to his People that have been admired by all Nations The Manichees by the relation of S. Augustine rejected the law of Moses as wicked and tyrannicall but in this they have been condemned by the Church for there is no doubt but that having been given by God that is the Father of all Goodnesse it was good and profitable to keep the Jews as under a Pedigogie till the grace of the Gospel And S. Paul himself in the Epistle to the Romans where he seems to go about to destroy it calls it for all that Holy Just and Good But if ye compare it to the Law of grace ye shall find it harsh and imperfect The Mosaicall Law saith that great Doctour conteins commands but that Jesus gives assistance the one bestows light to know the other strength to execute In the antient Law God sayes Do what I command thee In the new Law we say to God Give what thou commandest Moses divided that antient Law into three parts the first of which conteined the Morall and was included in the Decalogue the Second comprehended what ever belonged to Ceremonies and was called Ceremoniall the third regarded Justice between party and party and was Judiciall The first teaches how a man ought to carry himself with God and his neighbour to obtein salvation The second treats of the Temple of the Synagogue of the High-Priest of the Priests of the Levites of the Prophets of the Votaries Nazarites and Rechabites It deciphers the instruments of Gods worship as are the Tabernacle the Ark of Covenant the Propiciatory the Table of Shew-bread the Altar of the Perfumes and of the Burnt-offerings It prescribes the order of the Sacrifices and of the Sacraments of the divers observations of Vows of Fasts of Feasts of Jubilees of Shavings of Habits The third part speaks of Kings of Warre of Peace of Marriages of Polygamy of Divorce of Crimes of Theft of Usury of Adultery of Policy of Men-servants of Maid-servants of Hirelings of Strangers and of the Poor All this is read yet to this day in the Penteteuc and is sufficiently expounded by so many Interpreters of Scripture It would be an infinite tedious and unprofitable businesse to go about to decipher it here peece-meal Let us content our selves that as the Morning dyes by bringing forth the Day so the Law is expired by producing the light of the Gospel Moses undertook not so great a work by humane strength and trusted not to himself in so high an enterprise God would conduct it with his Authority and caused the People to be commanded to purifie themselves and to stand ready on the third day to hear his will That day being come from the morning were heard great Thunders and abundance of Lightnings seen that issued out of thick Clouds at the sound of an affrightfull Trumpet that seized all
his Metropolis Jerusalem to be interred with his Fathers In the mean while Jehu marches victoriously to the City of Jezreel and the miserable Jezabel hearing of the death of her sonne by the conspiracy of his enemy and considering that there was no way to oppose him by arms had recourse to the charmes of her self sex She was yet in such a condition as she thought her capable to enamour that new King Instead of putting on mourning she decks and paints her self and places her self in a window of the City in sight of all the world to see that Conquerour passe by But he having cast his eyes on high asked who that woman was not being able yet well to discern her so farre off and when answer was made him that it was Jezabel the Queen he commanded those that were in the window to throw her down which they did without any farther deliberation and the miserable in falling bedewed the wall with her bloud and expired the remainder of her life under the feet of horses Jehu remembred as he was at supper what had passed and was touched with some remorse for the usage that had been shewed to Jezabel his Mistresse and said to his men Look out the body of that wretched woman and give it buriall for she was a Kings daughter And when they were come upon the place they found nothing but her head with the ends of her feet and hands the Doggs having eat up the rest This history is horrible and none can sufficiently imagine the vengeance of God upon those that violate Religion and shed the bloud of sacred persons and other of Gods servants One cannot justifie Jehu for the bebellion against his Master but in taking him for a scourge of the wrath of God who was an instrument of his Justice without for all that becomming just For whatsoever pretence he made of Religion he was pushed on by a tempestuous and bloudy ambition and made himself a Revenger of Tyrants for no other end but to be their successour filling with crimes the place that he had voided by fury He made use of the Prophets foâ— his own interest and left not to continue the Idolatry of the golden Calves to render himself pleasing to the most powerfull He was an ambiguous spirit and had as many waters and folds as he had pretensions He caused his Mistresse to be killed more for the fear of his mind then for the zeal of Religion This poor Sidonian that was a woman of a good understanding and courage instead of living quietly with her husband was pricked on with a vanity to make her Gods be worshipped and ceased not to persecute the Prophets having sworn that she would cause Elijah to be murthered making him to be followed and sought after in all places without being able to entrap him But on the contrary he ruined her with all her house leaving a terrour to all great ones to enterprise any thing against those that are protected under the covert of the face of God As this Prophet had been a man of Prodigies in all his Life so God limited his conversation amongst men with a strange miracle that since Enoch had not been practised in the world It is said that an egg well emptied and filled with dew will mount on high and follow the raies of the Sun that draws it So Elijah by a long exercise of contemplation was purified from all earthly things and filled with the unction of the Spirit of God He thought on nothing but on Heaven where he had lodged the better part of himself God had revealed to him that he should not dye after the manner of other men but that he should be rapt and carried away into a place of peace and rest He expected that most happy day and thought to steal away even from his own disciple Elisha that would never quit him They were walking both together after they had passed the river Jordan on dry foot Elijah having divided it with his Mantle when behold a burning Chariot drawn with Horses of fire comes to take up the Prophet Elisha his disciple had earnestly begged of him that his Spirit might be multiplyed in him as well in what touches Prophecy as the gift of Miracles and Elijah promised him that it should be granted to him in case that he could see him when he should be taken up And this is the reason for which that dear Disciple never went out of his sight so much as one moment and when that Chariot surrounded with innocent flames presented it self he saw his Master ascend who was on a sudden snatched up above the clouds of heaven in recompence of his zeal and most pure Virginity Elisha looked upon him with tears in his eyes calling him his Father the Chariot of Israel and the Conductour of the people of God In fine when he appeared no longer he rent his clothes wearing mourning for a losse common to all the people of Israel but very particular to him and gathered up his Mantle as a precious Relique which he carefully kept making use of it to divide the waters of Jordan and to renew the miracles of his Master Elijah according to the common opinion was transported to the Terrestriall Paradise from which he is to come at the Renovation of the world And as if in that dwelling of delights he had not yet cast away the care and direction of the Court Joram King of Judah received a Letter from him nine years after his Translation in which he chid sharply for his bad deportments and foretold him the sicknesse that should happen to him Some hold that that Letter was written by Elijah before he was taken up by way of Prophecy and kept till that time by Elisha Others as the Hebrews think that it came by Miracle and by the Ministery of an Angell directed by Elijah at the same time to teach us That the Saints renounce not a Legitimate care of the Court and of the Affairs of the World when they are to be directed to the glory of God to whom the Living and the Dead ought to render the Homages of their Fidelity ELISHA HE that hath seen Elijah cannot be ignorant of Elisha seeing his master made him heir of his Spirit as it were by a wonderfull transpiration That man of fire engraved his character upon the person that he loved most in all the world with so perfect an expression that he seemed to be born again in him in every thing that he had of excellency He went to take a new life in a terrestriall paradise without losing that which he had in the world He lived in the one by himself and in the other by Elisha in the one he performed contemplative Functions and in the other active in the one he was a Demi-god and in the other the Prince of men That Mantle of Elijah was more then an heaven bespangled with its Starres since it carried so many Lights and Sciences It dryed
the true God yet he left not to suffer him as long as Providence would have it so to serve him like a good subject and to give him advice very necessary for the preservation of his State He declared to him the counsels and the enterprises of the King of Syria his enemy which he knew by the spirit of Prophecy so that the other was amazed to hear that the most secret businesses which he had treated in his cabinet with his most intimate confidents were discovered He thought that his Counsellours of State sold him to the King of Israel but one assured him that that came from the Prophet Elisha who knew things to come by the Spirit of God which was in him in a wonderfull manner This Prince inflamed with choler dispatches immediately Souldiers in a great number to apprehend Elisha who failed not to beset the little city of Dothan whither the Prophet was retired The Prophets servant being risen at break of day to go abroad perceived those companies of men of arms and ran to his master much affrighted crying out That all was lost and that the city was environned with chariots and with horses that came to take him But Elisha filled with the confidence that he had in God his great Master made him answer That there was nothing to be feared and that his party was much the stronger which seemed very hard to be believed by a man whom fear had so much shaken till such time as his Master taking away the fillet of ignorance that was upon his eyes discovered to him a mountain full of chariots and of horses that entowred Elisha and watched for his protection Thus it pleases God sometimes to draw his servants out of the hands of persecutours by extraordinary wonders At other times he permitts darknesse to exercise its power upon the light and the impious to take and persecute the just to render them glorious by their sufferings He would not admit on the day of his Passion the twelve legions that he might have obtained of his heavenly Father for his defense that he might not deprive our Christianity of the example of his dolours and yet he raises up armies of fire to defend Elisha with intention to make us see that he is able to hinder us from receiving any harm but that it is the greater glory to conquer it by Patience The Prophet seeing the heavenly legions that stood to aid him would not for all that thunder strike those that came to take him but contented himself to blind them for a time that he might have given them light for ever if they would have preferred it before darknesse Those poor men seeing themselves struck with such a sudden blindnesse were extremely astonished yet as malice quits not so soon her venome they sought for the servant of God blind-folded darkned as well in mind as body when he presented himself to them and told them that he would shew them the man they sought for if they would follow him which being agreed to he led them straight into Samaria the capitall city of their enemies and at the instant restored to them their eyes to give them the knowledge of the danger wherein they weâ—e They thought that there was nothing now remaining to them but to be cut in pieces and indeed Joram the King of Israel would have caused them to be massacred had not Elisha forbid him to touch them because that he had not got them by the point of the sword but were come by miracle into his hands Furthermore he ordered that something should be given them to eat which was done and after they had taken their refection they were sent back the straight way into their Countrey Behold a courtesie worthy of the New Testament and of the Evangelicall Law Elisha would not that his miracles should be mischievous he contented himself to overcome those by Benefits that he might hurt by Justice to shew that there is nothing so victorious as a great heart that can make visible that it is the highest point of power and goodnesse to pardon that by grace and mercy that might be revenged by reason Some time after Benhaded King of Syria came to lay siege to the city of Samaria where the King was shut in and pressed so vigorously the besieged by famine that an asse's head was sold for fourscore livers and a little barrel of pigeons dung for five franks It was an extreme rage and a furious despair that expected nothing but the heighth of evils for its remedy It happen'd that King Joram passed through the street that he put on sackcloth under his clothes when a poor woman all beblubber'd with tears came to him and requested of him life and safety but the poor King not knowing what to do for her said onely to her That he was not God to give her bread she then desired Justice of him in a controversie which she had with a wicked woman The King was content to hear her and thereupon she told him that she had made an agreement with that woman to eat together two little sons whereof they were mothers on such conditions that hers should be eaten first and that the morrow following her neighbours should be serv'd up to the table also and that in the pursuance of this her little son had been massacred and devoured by his own mother and the complice of her crime but that now there was a question of proceeding to eat the son of her camrade she had hid him and refused to give him and that thereupon she beseeched his Majesty to do her Justice Joram was so affrighted at the proposition of that woman that he rent his clothes and put himself in mourning But instead of humbling himself he sware that the head of Elisha should not stay a day longer upon his shoulders vexing against him that he being so powerfull suffered such a famine of his people without helping it He was like those Mexicans that make their King swear that the Sunne shall give the Day and the Clouds their Rain and the Earth its Fruits and in case that this fails lay the blame on him and murder him He imagined that the Prophet had barrennesse and fruitfulnesse in his hands as his master Elijah and that he ought to sacrifice him for the Publick This speech cost Joram dear who was afterward dispossessed of his kingdome and the Prophet doubting of his attempt said to those that were about him That the son of the murderer Ahab had given command to cut off his head that he that was to give the stroke was upon the way and that they should keep the door fast shut where we see that the same Prophet that had before fiery legions at his command is on terms to defend himself after a fashion weak enough to resist the forces of a King But it is to teach us that God gives not alwayes to the Saints the power of Miracles no more then the spirit of
Prophecy and that that failing they ought to make use of the lights of their ordinary prudence It may be inferr'd from the sacred Text that Joram changed his mind and came himself to find Elisha not as a persecutour but in quality of a suppliant advertising him of the extreme rage of the famine by the accident that had newly happen'd to those miserable women Then Elisha inspir'd promised aloud that in that very time that seem'd so calamitous a bushel of meal should be sold but for twenty sous at the gate of Samaria and that for the same price one should have two of barley Whereto one of the Nobles of the Court on whom the King leaned replyed That that would be very hard to be believed though it should please God to open windows in heaven to make it rain corn But Elisha answered that he should see that miracle before his eyes but should not enjoy its good effects The morrow after it happen'd that four lepers that had withdrawn themselves near to the gate of Samaria pressed with hunger and with misery of which they could find no ease neither within nor without the city were resolv'd to go into the camp of the enemy to find there either bread or death As they approached their trenches they perceiv'd that all was empty which made them venture to enter in their tents where they found abundance of booty and began to pillage Yet they had some remorse of conscience to think so ardently upon their own profit without carrying that good news to the city and ran instantly to the porters of Samaria to cause the King to be advertised of that happinesse He was so out of hope that this made him enter into distrust lest it should be a plot of the enemies out of a design to make them come forth and so surprise them A resolution was made that some Cavaliers should be sent forth to discover what had passed and of the five horses that were left in the city the rest being consumed by the famine two are dispatched who confirm the news brought by the former messengers and assure that the Syrians had raised the siege in disorder forsaking their victuall their ammunitions and all their riches The God of hosts that holds in his hand the issues of battels and of sieges had operated therein raising a fervour in them that made them believe that the King of Egypt and the King of the Hittites were coming to fall upon them with huge annies to cut them in pieces whereat they were so affrighted that they quitted all that they had most precious to save their lives This hunger-starv'd people that had been so long shut up within the walls of a desolate city goes out in throngs and runs on all sides to the prey that the hand of heaven had prepared for them The abundance was so great that the Prophecy of Elisha was verified and that great Lord that had contraried it by derision was trod to death by the people at the gate of the city so dangerous it is to distrust the power of God and to oppose his Prophets Elisha had another passage with Naaman in which he expressed a great generosity This Naaman was a Syrian by Nation and Lord high Constable of the King of Syria His condition had filled him with honours and with riches but his constitution had burdened him with a shamefull leprosie that deprived him of all the sweetnesses of his life God that often makes the renown of great personages fly upon the tongue of simple people where it is lesse sophisticated permitted that a little girle a slave that had come from Judea that was at that time in Naaman's wife's service should speak a thousand good words of the miracles of Elisha to her mistresse and assured her that he would easily be able to restore health to her master and to cure him of his leprosie This came to the King of Syria's ears who very much prised his Constable by reason of the great and faithfull services that he had done him And as those that desire cure neglect no advices he sends Naaman to the King of Israel with many presents requesting him to heal him by the means of his Prophet The King was greatly amazed at these letters and imagined that that crafty Syrian meaned to pick a quarrel with him to invade his kingdome entreating him as a Deity as if he had been the authour of life and death His apprehension was so great that he rent his clothes and put himself in mourning as in the danger of near disastre But Elisha comforted him made him know that there was a most mighty God in Israel that wrought by his Prophets and bad him not to fail to send the sick man to him which he did and Naaman was immediately at Elisha's door with a great train of chariots and horses But the Prophet having a mind to shew at that time that he was not moved with the vanity of all the retinue of great personages would not so much as see him but sent him word that he should go and wash himself seven times in Jordan and then he should recover his health This Lord was vext at so dry a proceeding and went away discontented saying That if there were no other mystery in it his own countrey wanted not springs and rivers so ordinary it is for men to slight remedies that seem too easie and for the imagination to look to be entreated with pomp Yet his servants told him that the experiencing of that counsel would not cost him much and would annoy him nothing and that in any case he should make triall of it which he did and carried away a perfect cure whereat he was so ravished that he betook himself suddenly to Elisha's house to give him thanks confessing that there was no other God in the world but that of Israel in such a manner as that he gained the health of his soul by that of his body and quitted at the same time his leprosie and his infidelity He urged the Prophet to accept abundance of rich presents wherewith he came well laden but he constantly refused them which is no small proof of virtue and of greatnesse of courage For covetousnesse is like the shadow that hinders the light of the sun extinguishes its heat and nourishes serpents so she doth eclipse the brightnesses of the spirit of the Prophets deads the love of the Devout and gives nourishment to the Passions Men antiently were try'd by the river of Rhine but now they are experimented by the golden streams of Pactolus Those that render Piety mercinary have none at all the spirit in them follows the flesh aad heaven gives way to earth All the importunities of Naaman could not shake Elisha he was a basilisk that could not be enchaunted by the charms of avarice he had eyes of proof against the glistering of the gold of Syria when he would have no money the other begged of him a little earth as
fifteenth year of her age being himself not much more indebted unto yeares than she was All things laughed at the beams of this bright Morning and it seemed that Felicity her self had with full hands poured down her favours upon a Marriage which had been made in Heaven to carry along with it the approbation of all the earth But who can dive into the secrets which Providence The inconstancy of humane affairs hath in her own breast concealed from us Or who is he that hath tears enough to deplore the condition of great Fortunes when they are abandoned to the pillage and plunder of destruction This young French King having in his way but saluted Royalty after his reign but of six moneths was taken out of the world by an Impostume in his ear All France did groan under this loss by reason of the excellent inclination of that Prince but she was more touched with the impressions which in her heart her most dear Spouse received who desired to sacrifice the rest of her dayes unto the ashes of her husband Nevertheless as the tenderness of the Kings age who was troubled besides with divers indispositions of body and the short time they were married together did not permit that any issue should be left behind him there did arise upon it a report that the young Her return into Scotland Queen should return into her own Countrey where two Crowns did attend her the one in England the other in Scotland she being the true Inheritress of them both of one of which she took possession and was deprived of her rights in the other by the injustice of Usurpation 3. Elizabeth of England now began to torment The first fire of the jealousie of Estate her self with a furious jealousie against her and had already laid the Design to stop her in her return to Scotland but God was pleased that she was gallantly accompanied with a great part of the most generous of the Nobility of France and did pass the seas very fortunately and arrived so suddenly in Scotland as if she did flie in the Air there she was received of all the good Catholicks with wonderfull entertainments of applause and joy Elizabeth who did swell with despite that she failed in her design covering her artifice with the vail of friendship did send a solemn Embassage with Presents to congratulate her arrival and to give her the assurances of an eternal Alliance The good Princess who had a heart as credulous as generous was passionately taken with this friendship and disputed with her self how she should overcome her in honour and in courtesie She took from her Treasurie a Diamond of which she made a Present to her It was cut in the manner of a heart and enriched with a verse of Buchanans who had not as yet his spirit infected with Treason In the mean time Elizabeth not unlike those Sorcerers which from the fairest mornings do produce the foulest weather did not cease under-hand to sow troubles and divisions in the Realm of Scotland endeavouring to destroy her Cousin by the fines of policy whom she durst not attach by the force of Arms. On the first arrival of Queen Mary into Scotland she found the Kingdom overspread with the factions of the Calvinists which at that time troubled all the Estates in Christendom And seeing that the youth and inexperience of her widow-hood was not compatible with the great underminings which her Enemies did daily form against her State she began after the space of five years to think of a second Marriage The small success in her first marriage made Her second marriage her suspect an alliance with strangers and those who were most near unto her did disswade her from it She did cast her eyes on her Cousin Henry Stuart the young Earl of Lenox who for the comeliness of his person was one of the most remarkable in the Kingdom of Scotland and having procured a Dispensation from the Pope she married him This affection The seed of the jealousie of love although most innocent in it self being not mannaged with all the considerations of State did bring upon her the jealousie of other Princes and was in the end attended with great disasters But to speak the truth the Earl of Murray natural brother to the Queen a pernicious and luxurious man who under-hand was the Instrument of Elizabeth of England did sow the first seeds of all these Tragedies In the beginning of these troubles he was called The Prior of S. Andrew as being ordained by James the Fifth to Ecclesiastical dignity but having drunk the air of a turbulent and furious Ambition which Knox the Patriarch of the Hereticks in Scotland had inspired in him he did not cease to affect the Quality of Regent and of King nor sparing any wickednesses to arrive to the butt of his desires As he observed that the Queen his sister being yet Ambition the beginning of all evils very young and very beautifull was sought for in marriage by the King of Spain to be married to his Son and by the Emperour to be maraied to his Brother he used the utmost of his power to divert that Design politickly fore-seeing that such alliances would tend to the diminution of his power and he failed not with most violent perswasions to represent unto her that she should enjoy neither peace nor honour in her Kingdom if she were espoused to a forreign Prince and the better to divert her from it he ceased not to advance the perfections of young Lenox which he did rather to amuse her and to possess her with thoughts of love than in earnest to bring the marriage to accomplishment The generous Princess who understood not yet what Dissimulation meant gave car unto him and overcome by his counsel she proceeded to the effects of the marriage with the Earl of Lenox who was indeed accomplished with all excellent endowments both of body and of mind but being very young had not the qualities requisite to serve him to secure himself This Murray who thought he should reign in him and by him and that having advanced him to the Royal Dignity the King should be but as the instrument of his will did find himself much deceived when he observed the King to grow cold in his behalf and to reign with an Authority more absolute than he intended His fury did proceed to that height that he drew into the field to make war against the King but having bad success therein he was constrained to retire himself into England where he began his designs to destroy his Sister He had in the Scotch Court the Earl of Morton who was unto him as his other-self to whom he gave Commission to throw the apple of Discord on this marriage of the King and Queen This he performed with incredible The effects of Envy and Ambition cunning and finding some disposition by the cooling of his affection he perswaded Lenox That he was
bounty that he would vouchsafe to comfort her and confirm her spirit which was descended into the bottom of the Abyss of the miseries of this world Her prayer being ended she was inspired with infusions of love towards her Creatour and armed with a noble confidence she in this manner did express her self Wherefore art thou so sad my soul if GOD permits She comforteth her self in prison this for thy sins shouldest thou not kiss the Rod that strikes thee and adore that infinite mercy who doth chastise thee by temporary punishments not willing to make thee an object of that choler which is kindled by an eternity of flames and if this comes unto thee to approve thy virtues dost thou fear to enter into the furnace where that great workman will consume the straw onely that burns thee and will make thee to shine as gold wherefore art thou so sad my heart To be deprived of liberty and the delights of the Court take unto thee the wings of contemplation and of love and fly thou beyond these waters fly thou beyond the seas which inviron these Islands and understand that there is no prison for a Soul which GOD doth set at liberty and that all the world doth belong to him who knows how to misprise it In these considerations she took incomparable delight 1. Hope against all hope and as well as she could did charm the afflictions of her imprisonment when behold a blind felicity which made her to see unexpected events GOD stirred up a little Daniel to deliver this poor Susanna a little Infant the son of the Earl of Douglas did feel his little heart touched with the miseries of this brave Queen and had the hardiness to speak thus unto her Madam if your Majesty will understand a way to your deliverance I can give it you We have here below a Gate at which we sometimes do go forth to delight our selves upon the water I will bring you the key and have the Boat ready in which fearing my fathers anger I must save my self with you The Queen extreamly amazed at the discourse of the child made answer My little friend your counsel is very good Do as you speak and acquaint no man with it otherwise you will ruine us if you will oblige me for so great a favour I will make you a great man and you shall have content all your dayes In the mean time for want of pen and paper she wrote on her hand-kerchief with a coal and found a means to advertise the Viscount of Selon touching that design assigning both the day the place where he should attend her to which he disposed himself with so much activity as if he had rather wings to flie than paces by foot to measure The child failed not to put in execution what he promised The Queen took the key in her hand opened Her departure the Gate and nimbly leaped into the Boat with this little Companion of her fortune she took her self the pole into her hand seeing the young child had not force to steer the boat she began to guid it and to save her life by the favour of her arms One of her maids named Queneda seing her Mistress in this difficulty did leap into the water out of a window of the Castle and abandoned her self to the mercy of the waves to joyn herself unto the fortunes of her Mistress O good GOD How may the stars in the greater silence of this world with admiration behold so great a Queen to sit at the stern of a boat with oars in her hand and practising a trade of life which necessitie doth teach her and felicity doth govern The waters stroaked into a calm did perceive the effects of her fair hand and gently opened themselves to make a passage for her At last she arrived at the bank on the other side and found there the Viscount who received her with all reverence and joy She retired her self into a place of safety and thought on the means to re-establish her self to which she found her good subjects well disposed and in a short time raised an Army of about seven thousand men At which the Enemies being inraged drew up against them in great bodies and giving them battel they over-powered them in number and obtained the victory The encounter was bloudy to which one part did contribute courage and the other fury Seven and fifty personages of Honour of the House of Hamilton which is next unto the King did with their dead bodies cover the field where the Battel was fought The Queen who with horrour entertained the apprehension of so many massacres did prefer an innocent Retreat before an uncertain Victory Her bastard Brother the chief of the Rebellion of an imaginary King did now make himself an absolute Tyrant and as much as in him lay he endeavoured to root out the rest of the true Religion in Scotland by the perswasion of Knox and Buchanan he stripped the Churches naked to cover himself he oppressed all honest men and let himself loose unto all manner of insolence 8. The deplorable Queen is constrained to depart Her Retreat into England where her enemies accused her out of her Kingdom to fall no more into such cruel hands She took shipping having a desire at first to sail into France where her Memory was still preserved in singular Reputation but having a lofty heart though excellently well tempted she was ashamed to transport her self to be seen in the condition of a banished woman in a place where all the graces and virtues had given her so many tropheys She cōceived that concealed Misery was the more supportable and that it was more expedient for her to live in an Island which was an out-corner of the world than in the splendour of France Besides she conceived that she A civil shame doth hinder good designs ought to continue within the Neighbour-hood of her own Kingdom the better to facilitate her Return unto it The Archbishop Hamilton a most wise old man did disswade her from that resolution understanding very well the Deportments of Murray with the Queen of England and because she made apparence to give but little heed unto his counsels he threw himself at her feet with tears in his eyes and besought her not to follow the greatness of her mind as to make choice of that place which would be her certain destruction On the other side Elizabeth did sollicite her again and again and did importune her by a thousand courtesies to repair into England to which at last she condescended as if Necessity had prepared links of Diamonds to chain her to her misfortunes The innocent Dove in endeavouring to eschew the nets of the Fowler did fall into the talons of the Hawk She came into a Kingdom from whence Justice and Religion were banished by the horrible factions of the Hereticks She put her self into her hands who had usurped her Scepter and who made use
catalogue of Kingdomes and Titles as provokes the emulous terrifieth their neighbours and pricketh even those that are removed from them by intervals of distance They apprehend the Dignity of one to presage the danger of all They conjecture that the extent of his jurisdiction bodeth an unattempted servitude to all Kingdomes they fear whatsoever the land provideth and whatsoever monsters the sea nourisheth Greedy Domination that could never yet overcome it self when it hath once been cherished by Fortune it unlearneth nature and forgetteth moderation Moreover the temperature of the Nations as they report is fiery hot and dry swelling with pride patient of hunger and well enduring labour thirsty after glory prone to admire it self and apt to continue the virtue and valour of other Nations I produce not these things as the emanations of my own judgement which for the present is addicted to no Nation but comprehendeth all in Christ but I commemorate the vulgar reports and such things as are openly bruted by many which if they were supprest by a removall of their Causes it could cut off the occasions of many controversies The French on the other side as they write who have had knowledge of them although they are forward to dart reproaches against others unable to endure them and most impatient of contempt yet they know they are of that Nation whereof it was said Animóqūe supersunt Jam propè post animam They boast that they filled the world with the fame of their Arms before the Spaniards could redeem themselves from the diuturnall servitude of the Goths and Vandals That they have managed the Empire of the East and West that they have vanquished Constantinople by assault restored Jerusalem to Christ and Rome to the Pope seven times deprived of it by his enemies They affirm that the Gospel was first preached unto them that the primigeniall adoption of the Sonnes of God was given to them that they have advanced Learning in all Christian Kingdomes the whole world almost becoming Students of our Academy at their Paris in a word they think they have nothing to be contemned they are more apt to desire admirers then able to dispence with contemners From hence it comes to passe that both the Nations being prodigall in the accumulations of their own and envious of the others glory such flames have of late been kindled as will it may be feared become unquenchable Would to God that that Charity which is diffused in us by the spirit would suffocate these super-seminated tares of contentions Oh that it would cut off the occasions of these inhumane strivings then should we have fewer anxieties and more supportable labours of heart knowing by what remedies we might resist so pestilent an evil This is frequently augmented by the servants and favourites of Princes whilst with a familiar but a direfull glory to the greatest Empires they desire to boast the power of their Lords they display all their offensive strength and ability to hurt they presse a secret beneficence and whilst they proceed in these ambitious circulations nay whilst they bewray a fear and discover in themselves a caution by that very sedulity and caution they provoke things not to be feared and act things not to be tolerated Here I appeal to you great Masters of Policy and Participatours of hidden Councels I speak more willingly to you then to your Fortunes Consider how much God hath given you and how much he requireth of you You sit as Gods among men the Arbiters of mankind what shall be each mans lot is the verdict of your Dispensations What good things Felicity intendeth to each individuall person she pronounceth by your mouths what Navies must be prepared what Warres must be prosecured what Cities destroyed what Nations depopulated are the ambiguous effects of your opinions You are judges of the fortunes and bloud of men and of your behaviours and existimation men are judges God the discerner of all things judgeth of your head at the terrible and inevitable audit Every one beholdeth many things by the deception of his own sense uttereth many things from the dictates of affection I cannot believe what is reported that so eminent persons blest with such admirable wits adorned with the glorious gift of prudence and conscious of this frailty of humane affairs can think themselves seated in that heighth to measure all things by the circle of their own advantage that publick plenty should quit the preheminence to their private profit that all things should be serviceable to their amplitude that they should dispose their trust according to the level coyl of love hatred and ambition and that they should sacrifice the bloud of the people to their Fortunes that they therefore love Warres and are affected with Divisions and Confusion hoping thereby to purchase to themselves more beneficiall or honourable commands to close with an opportunity of treasuring up large summes of money and by the necessity of their Ministration to wed themselves to a more faithfull office or to leap into an Authority of a more hopefull permanency but goodnesse forbid that such sordid earthly and narrow cares should be the dishonourable employment of such capacious souls I rather believe that you are incited by emulous anhelations after your Masters glory whereof you have ever been most zealous ever prepared to retaliate his injuries to assert his Majesty and to dilate his Empire but I beseech you by the immortall God and by so many beloved pledges of your Kingdomes to take heed and diligently to beware lest a supervehement appetite of Glory make them averse from the right pursuit of Glory You follow Glory by a muddy search but now all mortall men desire it by a clear acquist Consider where there is the greatest splendour of celestiall virtues either in the loud cracks of thunder possessing all men with sudden fear and when fires and thunderbolts are promiscuously hurl'd about or in a fair day the air being defecated and serene and the pleasure of the light dispelling sadnesse from mens hearts hitherto you have made the power of your Lords sufficiently fearfull now render it sweet and make it amiable for therein onely it is invincible This is not the greatnesse of Princes to be alwayes encompassed with the terrours of his armed men and busied in warlike preparations with a fiery mouth to be alwayes denouncing the cruelties of torments and tortures to condemne these men to fetters those to the sword perpetually to carry about him fire and darts to make his progresse thorow smoaking Cities over the trampled bodies of half dead men and to exhaust all things lest they should be exhausted How much more glorious is it like a fortunate Cornet to prevent and exceed the hopes of all men with causes of rejoycing To repair things ruinous and disordered to conveigh glad tydings of consolation to the pensive soul to recollect things scattered and to reunite things divided By this heavenly solicitude many Kings lending their succour
their jubilations but see how they destroy one another see how they butcher one another see how they prosecute and persecute one another with endlesse hatred Either they are without Christ or Christ is without Peace It is a hard saying yet hath it more of truth then wonder The Cause of God suffereth diminution in these discords the Church mourneth for many and horrid things either the Religion we professe accuseth our errours or we the Professours accuse our Religion By us Infidels insult over the Elect the Profane over the godly the Jews over Christ and Barbarians over the Church If our honour be cheap in our own valuation why do we betray the Honour of God why do we batter his inheritance Moreover to what short consideration is it not evident that Christian dissentions have been alwayes the occasion of Heathenish rejoycings Whilst our own Armies are conflicting one with the other the Turks have taken Rhodes from us and usurped Constantinople May we not think it a miraculous indulgence of our mercifull God to divert so potent and cruel an enemy from our destruction by engaging him in the Persian Warre But this is much to be feared lest if such whirlwinds of wrath continue among us he should flie upon the torn and scattered remainder of our Kingdomes with fury and violence It is also to be feared lest the Providence being so often provoked by our renewed injuries should cast us out as a prey to the roaring and the ravenous lion The greatest Empires have been often lost in ruine for the same causes and the same offences and the wicked Kings have been subjected to a forreign domination their posterity hath been cut off and all their glories have vanished into a reproachfull scoffe What constant glories have they possessed what dry deaths hath the check of Providence allowed them by whose means it hath come to passe that the Kingdome of Christ hath devolved into the hands and power of the Sarazens Adde to these things O you Princes the unregarded grievances of your Subjects and the laborious servitude of your people Necessity compels you to devour your own members that you get into your grasp the members of another Such a numerous people as the omnipotent God hath delegated to your care and piety that they should be kneaded and compounded into one substantiall felicity by Peace and concord by holy laws and religious adoration of the Deity are either exposed as unfortunate and succourlesse oblations to the fury of their enemies or groan under the pressures of taxations and are tilted in their fortunes by the unappeased and insatiable avarice of exactours Those who have escaped the Sword Famine depopulates by lingring deaths or else they live oppressed under some tyrannous calamity They are sequestred from light and conversation they have neither countrey nor habitation neither rest nor food Fecundity the most desired blessing of their former hopes is now both hated and feared because they cannot leave an inheritance of good things to their children they would not propagate them to become heirs of misery That life which they have been carefull to preserve amidst so many dangers they now detest as unprofitable to you uncomfortable to themselves To be plundred of all things at once is their deliberate wish lest every day they should be plundred But in the mean time they are infested with a diversity of evils the amission of all things and the capitation of each particular thing an Excise upon every thing an undoubted property in nothing They fall under the cruel command of necessity where they are neither permitted to live with the honest nor to die with the quiet they are made gazing-stocks to others and are formidable to themselves whilst their estates perish to themselves their affections are lessened to you which formerly adorned and confirmed your Crowns with a loyall valour Consider Greatest Princes that next to the Honour and Worship of God the most supreme Law that binds you is the safety of the People It was once the speech of a valiant Emperour Non mihi sed exercitui sitis You are not so much born for your selves as for your subjects Their cares if you be wise must be your crosses their oppressions your burdens their miseries your infelicities and their discouragements your complaints What doth it advantage disconsolate men to be defended from the expectations of a greedy enemy by being rifled and impoverished by those of his own Nation He is a miserable Pastour from whom the tutelary Gods of the flock require more things then wolves can devour But this is the soul of misfortune the estate being exhausted the mind is dejected and the virtues are disheartned the Laws are silent among Swords the Blasphemer and the Hypocrite have the uncontrolled liberty of speaking Sword-men licenciously swagger Robbers and Plunderers are the onely Ranters Murderers are the merry-men and all variety of lust is predominant the beauty of Churches is disgraced and sullied with Sacrilegious hands Altars are overthrown Justice is vilipended and Injustice blusheth in scarlet robes Religion fainteth Piety languisheth Charity is counted scandalous and not onely all things are perverted but perverse things are neglected as if it were expedient that things should be so necessity that fruitfull mother of impieties so commanding And if you will reflect upon your own affairs I beseech you Princes among so many funeralls of Warre what can be pleasant to you You must stirre the earth adde disquiet to the sea and by many dangers you must arrive at greater danger Death that is obvious to every person must be sought for by hard labours no erroneous or reproveable course indeed if a happy Peace were unfeignedly pursued Many things are unfaithfull at home infested abroad great Armies are hard to raise costly to maintain easie to be destroyed the fate of Battels is common and the chance of Warre uncertain Prosperity doth not satisfie adversity striketh with a steep wounding dart and pierceth the very heart Many times victories themselves are the seeds of new contentions the brooding of new sorrows It is not lawfull for them that are up to keep their station nor for those that were overcome to lie still Discords increase with a prodigious fertility being once begun and many times the conquered draw the Conquerours and an inconcocted excesse of fortune obstructeth all their glories all things are intermixt with fear that depend upon expectation Many times fallacious events delude well-grounded hopes and horrid Catastrophe's befall the desperate The ingresses of Warre are troublesome the progresses doubtfull the egresses commonly deplorable Many is exhausted to make good the baffles of force by underming fraud lost Commanders are lamented to whom nothing was wanting but immortality Cyprus disappoints the Laurel and Funerals are distinguished by Palms The Conquerours stand over the ruines of the oppressed being themselves wasted by the expence of bloud and strength and nearer to their Tombs then Triumphs You would believe that a Kingdome