mercy seate may find remission Whatsoever fault hath crept into this worke O Christ pardon it Thou hast vouchsafed to make me a dispensor of thy heavenly mysteries we of the ministerie are all thy messengers but not Ex libro ejus 5. cap. 1. de fide equally all because thou hast bestowed thy gifts according to thy good pleasure Wee are all O Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 6.1 Chrys in his Tractat on the shepheard and sheepe coworkers together blessed is hee that bestoweth his talent to the best advantage Blessed is hee that buildeth upon the foundation of faith in thee gold 1 Cor. 3. silver pretious stones If our diligence satisfie not men let it suffice when we shall render our account to thee that we have done our best indevour Make them that reade this learne being purged thereby with the working together of thy sacred spirit from their corruptions to shine as gold tried in the fornace in the beauty of holy duties Thou art the good Samaritan cure the wounds of the people powre in wine and oyle heale the breaches of the land It is overwhelmed with vanity covered with injustice it swarmeth with intemperance lyeth naked and is stripped of zeale fortitude courage and constancy in the cause of the maintenance of thine honour of syncere doctrine vertuous life true practise after much profession many religious exercises and perusing multitudes of godly bookes We acknowledge that this increaseth our sinne heapeth an heavier judgement upon us with-holdeth thy love from us and incenseth thine indignation when wee bring not forth answerable fruits Adde therefore we beseech thee deare Saviour the fire of thy Spirit to warme our affections and by the flames thereof so kindle our spirits that we may bee moved forward with a fervent affection in the way of a pious conversation abounding in all manner of good workes for the great glory of thy Name the credit of our profession the continuance of thy Gospell the turning away of thy judgements long threatned yet hitherto in thy unspeakable mercy with-held from us And because of thine inexplicable love toward us and merits above that we are able to aske or thinke with thy heavenly Father for us our humble duty also binding us thereunto stirre us up through the fervency of the same spirit of strength to seeke continually at thy mercifull hands by hearty and earnest praier the increase of thy speciall blessings upon thine anointed the breath of our nostrels King Charles with his royall consort upon Prince Charles the rest of the royall Progeny the Princesse Palatine likewise and her Princely issue upō the house of Levi and the whole Common-weale of this kingdome from the highest to the lowest Incite us we instantly pray thee in the last place but not with our least but best remembrance unto all thankfulnesse for thy primarie mercy unto us for the same our most religious and vertuous Iehoshaphat the continuance of the pretious jewell of thy Gospell under him our gratious Soveraigne Cause us in sincerity of soule in a burning desire and indevour to render for both these then the which nothing in the world can be greater not unmindfull of whatsoever benefit beside to thee our only Redeemer with the whole undividable most sacred Trinity one in Nature three in Person infinitely worthy to receive of the whole familie in heaven and earth of Angels men and all creatures everlasting honour and glory immortall praise and benediction Amen The translation of St. Cyprians Epistle ad Cornelium fratrem being then B. of Rome de sacerdotibus reformandis IN Deutronomie Deutr. 17.22 the Lord God speaketh saying And the man that will doe proudly and not hearken unto the Priest or Iudge which shall be in those dayes even that man shal dye and all the people when they shall heare it shall feare and shall do no more wickedly In like manner to 1 Sam. 8.7 Samuel when he was despised of the Iewes they have not despised thee but they have despised mee The Lord likewise in the Gospell Luke 10.16 hee which heareth you heareth me and him that sent me and he that rejecteth you rejecteth me who rejecteth me rejecteth him that sent me And when he had clensed the leper Math. 8.4 goe saith he and shew thy selfe to the priest And afterward in the time of his passion when hee had received a stroke John 18.22 〈…〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a servant of the high priest and when he had said to him dost thou so answer the high priest The Lord against the high Priest answered nothing contumeliously neither from the honour of the priests detracted any thing but vindicating rather and shewing his owne innocencie If I have evill spoken upbraid me of the evill but if I have well spoken why smitest thou me Also in the Acts of the Apostles blessed Paul when it was said to him Act. 23.4 Dost thou so charge Gods high priest in reviling him albeit the Lord being now crucified they began to bee sacrilegious impious and bloudy neither did reteine at this time any of the priestly honour and authoritie notwithstanding thinking upon the very name it selfe howbeit voide and being a certaine shadow of a Priest was affraid I knew not brethren saith he that he was the high Priest For it is written thou shalt not speake evill of the ruler of thy people When these so great and such like and many other examples doe goe before us whereby the priestly authoritie is strengthened by divine verdict what manner of persons dost thou suppose them to be who being enemies to Priests and rebels against the Church Catholike are neither terrified with the threatning of the Lord forewarning them neither with the vengeance of the judgement to come Heresies and schismes whereupon they grow up For neither have heresies risen or schismes sprung up from any other ground then from hence that obedience is not given to Gods Priest Neither one Priest for the time nor one Iudge for the time is thought to bee in Christs stead to whom if according to magisteriall office divine the universall brotherhood would dutifully submit themselves there would be no moving at all against the Colledge of priests no man after divine judgement after the suffrage of the people after the joynt consent of the Bishops would make himselfe a judge not now of the B. but of God No man in the breach of the unity of Christ would rent asunder the Church no man pleasing and swelling apart abroad would build up a new heresie unlesse if there bee any of so sacrilegious temerity and reprobate mind that hee may thinke a Priest to bee made without the judgement and ordinance of God when the Lord saith in the Gospell g are not two sparrowes sold for a farthing and neither of them falls to the earth without the will of your Father when hee saith not the least things to bee brought to passe without the will of God can any one imagine
it not written for thee deliver him that suffereth wrong Is it not written for thee deliver the poore i Psal 82.4 and needy save them from the hand of the ungodly Perhaps also it may then bee said to him that hath many children I heaped honours upon thee I have bestowed upon thee an healthy body why hast not thou followed my precepts O my servant what have I done to thee or wherein have I grieved thee Have I not given to thee children conferred upon thee honours bestowed upon thee welfare why diddest thou deny me why diddest thou thinke that thy deedes should not come to my knowledge why diddest thou lay hold of my blessings and despise my commands To conclude thou maist take an example from Iudas the traytor who was both an Apostle and chosen out among the twelve for the stewardship and had the bagges of money for distribution to the poore committed to him lest he might seeme as it were one without honour or for poverty sake to have betrayed his Lord. And did his Lord therefore that hee might be justified in him bestow these preferments yea that he not as one exaspered by injury but as one dealing by collusion under colour of friendship might make himselfe obnoxious to a greater offence CHAP. XVII The Offices of young men and examples proposed and set before the eyes of them of his age BEcause therefore it sufficiently appeareth punishment to bee ordained for Vice praise and recompence for Vertue Let us take in hand to speake of the duties which ought to be found in youth that the studies of good actions may grow together with age It is the part of the younger sort desirous to bee good to have the feare of God before their eyes to honour their parents to reverence their elders to preserve chastity not to despise humility to love gentlenesse and shamefastnesse Which had are an ornament and grace to their younger yeares For as in ancient yeares gravitie in manly age cheerefulnesse so in youth modesty and bashfulnesse is commended as a certaine speciall propertie and dowrie of nature Jsaac fearing God as the towardly sonne of his father the promised and hopefull childe yeelded honour so farre forth to his father that rather then hee would be disobedient to his will he a Genes 22.9 refused not death Ioseph also when he had dreamed that the Sunne and Moone and Stars should doe b Genes 32.9 reverence to him yet with all sedulitie did he obey his father So chast was he that he would not heare an immodest word so humble was he even to the undergoing of servitude so shamefast was hee even to flight when hee was tempted to dishonesty so patient was he even to induring of imprisonment so easily was hee brought to remit injuries and so forgetfull of them that hee recompenced them with c Genes 50.21 remuneration whose modesty was so great that his chastity being assaulted by a woman he chose rather to leave his garment in her hand and flee d Genes 39.22 then to be found unchast and so sinne e v. 9. against God Moses f Ierem. 16.37.18.20 also and g 38.27 Ieremie chosen of God to declare his Oracles to the people which they were able to have done by vertue of the grace and authority they had under the veyle of modesty excused themselves CHAP. XVIII Of the vertue of a Verecundia modesty which chiefly shined in the holy Mother of God and that the gesture of the outward very often shewes the quality of the inward man WHerefore faire is the face and sweet is the grace of the vertue modesty which is not only seene in thy deeds but also in thy speeches themselves that they exceed not the meane that they sound out nothing unseemely For the mirrour of the mind doth for the most part illustrate it selfe in the speech Let modesty so poise the sound of the voyce that being strained it offend not the eare In the matter of song the first discipline is modesty likewise in the whole course of speaking in the degrees of singing to the instrument of musicke or in tuning or composing the voyce or lastly in fashioning sweetly the tongue in the beginning and first entrance blushing and awfulnesse hath ever beene commendable and much graced the proceedings In silence also it selfe wherein is the rest and repose of other vertues modesty beareth no small stroake If it be thought to proceed from childishnes or pride it is accounted a reproach if from modesty it is reputed a praise Susanna was silent in danger did iudge the losse of life to be lesse then the losse of modesty neither did she think that the preservation of her weale was to be bought with the perill of such a wracke Shee poured out her complaint to a Sus v. 41. God to whom was ever a passage given for chastity to open her mouth though abashed closed up when shee beheld the impudent foreheads of faithlesse accusers For there is bashfulnesse in the very eyes that a modest woman cannot looke up on men but avoideth their sight Neither is this the praise of Chastity only for Modestie is the companion of shamefastnesse by whose society chastitie is more secure for shamefastnesse is a good companion for the well ordering of chastitie for lending her hand and leading forward to the preventing of the first and most fearfull assaults suffereth not chastity to be insnared This is that which in her entrance into knowledge is chiefly commended to the readers in the Mother of our Lord and it is laid downe there as a rich testimonie how worthy shee was to be chosen and advanced to so high an honour that being in secret solitary in her c Luk. 1.20 chamber and saluted by an Angell shee held her peace and againe that shee was d v. 29.30 moved with his comming in unto her because the countenance of a virgin is troubled at the sight of the male sex especially of a stranger Therefore although shee were humble and curteous yet for modestie sake hee saluting her shee saluted him not nor rendred him againe any answer untill shee had knowledge of her conception by the Holy Ghost and that to this end that shee might learne in silence the divine qualitie of the fruite of her wombe and lest by her speech shee might happily some way gainesay the voyce of the Angell In prayer also it selfe modesty doth much please and doth procure much grace with our GOD. Did not this preferre the e Luke 18.15 Publican and commend him which durst not lift up his eyes to heaven f Vt vocabula corum defamata deformia cum ipsis viderentur Gellius Therefore hee is more justified and that in the judgement of the Lord then the Pharisee whom presumption fouly deformed and justly defamed Wherefore let us pray in the sincerity of a meeke and quiet spirit which is a thing in the sight of God
ruine the more thou crowdest in the higher thou sorest the more vnstable it standeth the thicker and faster it falleth because without the muniment of faith the monument of good workes cannot subsist A deceitfull station in the haven decayeth and demolisheth the shippe a sandy soyle soone yeeldeth neither is it able to susteine the weight of the structure and edifice imposed There is therefore plenitude of reward where is perfection of vertue and a certaine golden sobriety a sweetly consorting of moderation of deedes and words in the whole current of thy conversation and that according to the sacred Canon equally poised CHAP. III. All the arguments of the Philosophers through the heavenly light of the Gospell professed among us to vanish away namely of such as have placed beatitude in the sole knowledge of things or in pleasure or in the commodity of the body and what is externall AND because the sole science of things either as a vaine or as an halfe perfect and lame opinion according to the superfluous disputes of Philosophie is exploded let us consider a Quam enodem de eo divina Scriptura absolvat sententiam Enodes trunci Virg. Statimque ipse quaestionem enodem reddidit Ambr. lib. 1. Offic. how plaine a verdict the divine Scripture doth passe upon it whereupon wee see so manifold so implicate so confused questions of Philosophie to depend For the Scripture ratifieth nothing as good but what is honest and doth judge vertue in every estate of men to bee blessed such a vertue namely which neither is increased with the outward prosperity of the body nor diminished with adversity and againe giveth warrant for nothing as blessed but what is alienated from sin what is replete with innocencie what aboundeth with divine grace For it is b Psal 1.1 written Blessed is the man that hath not walked in the counsell of the ungodly nor stood in the way of sinners nor sate in the seate of the scornfull But his delight is in the law of the Lord. And in another place c Psal 119.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept. themimei Hebr. upright both tend to innocency The roote is thamam and that derived of maijm waters which in their element is immaculate without mixture as is innocency Blessed are they that are undefiled in the way and walke in the law of the Lord. Therefore innocency and knowledge make blessed and we have observed before the seed of well-doing sowne abroad to reape the blessing of eternall life Wherefore it remaineth that the defence of pleasure and feare of griefe being rejected whereof the one as d Infractum unmanly and effeminate the other as e Eviratum drouping and at despaire is condemned I may shew an happy life to cast forth the reyes of her luster even in the darknesse of dolour and griefe Which may easily appeare to every one that in the reading of the Gospell shall make but a little entrance f Math. 5.11.12 Blessed are yee when men revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evill against you for my sake falsely Rejoyce and be glad For great is your reward in heaven and in another place g Math. 16.24 If any man will follow mee let him deny himselfe take up his crosse and follow mee CHAP. IIII. Blessednesse to bee obtained by the undergoing of sorrowes and necessities For the confirmation whereof the examples of the Fathers are produced BEatitude therefore is also in sorrowes which vertue replenished with sweetnesse doth mitigate and asswage when it hath enough at home in it selfe of its owne store either for satisfaction of the conscience or procuring grace and favour abroad For neither was Moses a little blessed when pursued compassed by the Egyptians and closed in by the Sea had found out a way for him and the people through the swelling waves But when was hee stronger then at that time when being in extreame danger hee despaired not of deliverance but required according to Gods promise a day of a Exod. 14.4 For are not these words of right noble courage feare not stand still and behold the salvation of the Lord which hee will shew to you this day triumph For the Egyptians whom yee have seene this day yee shall never see them any more Neither did a small portion of happinesse befall Aaron and so hee reputed it then when hee b Objectu sui standing in the middest to the hazard of his life betweene the living and the dead with the censor of incense in his hand whereby hee made an attonement betweene God and the people and so staid the c Numb 16.48 plague that it spread no further How worthy of honourable mention is d Dan. 6.16 Daniel who was of that rare wisdome that among the affamished and hungry Lyons hee was touched with no feare of their bestiall and savage cruelty yea so farre from the least thought of anxious passion that hee might have fed and banquetted in their sight neither dreaded that in so doing they would haue beene provoked the more to have seazed upon him Wherefore in griefe likewise there is Vertue exhibiting within the sweetnesse of a good conscience which is a signification that griefe diminisheth not the pleasures thereof As therefore by griefe e Nulla virtuti decessio beatitudinis per dolorem vertue suffers no losse of beatitude so by the pleasure of the body or commodities of this life there is no increase of it Of these the f Phil. 3.7.8 Apostle speaketh well The things that were vantage to me the same J counted losse for Christs sake and to give more weight to it hee addes I account all things as losse and esteeme them as doung that I may winne Christ g Hebr. 11.25.26 Moses preferred the reproch of Christ above the treasures of Egypt and chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God then to injoy the pleasures of sinne for a season Neither did he esteeme himselfe then rich when hee abounded with money neither afterward poore when hee needed nourishment unlesse peradventure hee may then seeme to some man lesse happy when in the wildernesse his daily food to him and his people was failing But h Psal 78.25.27 28. Manna which no man dare deny to have beene a chiefe good being the bread of Angels was ministred from heaven flesh also fell from heaven upon them and was made their daily banquetting dish Bread was wanting also to holy i 1 Kings 17.4.6.10 Eliah and hee would have found it so in so great famine had hee sought after it but indeed hee seemed not to need it because hee sought it not For in such sort in the time of dearth had the Lord provided for him that the ravens brought him food both in the morning and in the evening Was hee for that cause poore because hee was poore to himselfe No yea rather hee was blessed because hee was rich to God
him did he not deale honestly by them that when he had smote them first with blindnes to hinder their attempt he afterward brought them into Samaria desired God to open a 2 Kings 6.20 their eyes and prevailed Wherefore when the King of Israel would have smitten them and b Eamque sibi dari à propheta facultatem posceret required leaue of the Prophet he answered him smite whom thou hast taken with thy sword and with thy bow but as for these set bread and water before them And this kindnesse c Ver. 23. so much overcame them that they came no more into the land of Israel How much doth this exceed that of the Greekes that when two d The Athenians and Lacedaemonians striving for the honour of the victory over the Persians at Plataees Plutarch in the life of Aristides saith it was given to the Plataeans yet afterward sundry sorts of people did strive one against the other for glory and dominion and the one e Themistocles having this device in his head to make the state of Athens greatest among the Greekes in estimation by setting on fire the arcenall where all their shippes lay was censured by of them had occasion offered to set on fire privily the ships of the other thought it a dishonour and chose f Aristides for vnjust and perfidious rather to do what was g Maluitque minùs posse honestè quà m plus turpiter lesse honestly then what was more dishonestly Now these could not doe this thing without committing of wickednesse For they in so doing must needes deceiue them who convened with them in society to make an end of the Persian warres and closely working them this mischeife though it might haue bin denied yet would shame have so covered their faces that they might not being charged with it haue forborn blushing But Elisha sought not to insnare though they sought his life but to preserve those Syrians whom the Lord had smitten because it was both honest and honourable to spare the bloud of an enemy when ir was in his power to haue spilt it Wherefore it clearely appeareth whatsoever is honestly carried and in a comely manner is alwaies commodious and commendable For both holy Iudith raised the siege by her comely and couragious contempt of her owne safety and procured the publike vtility by her owne proper attempt and divinely preserved honesty and Elisha got to himselfe more worthy praise by pardoning and feasting the adversary h Decoro contemptu then hee should haue done by vncourteous intertaining more profit to the kingdome by saving then hee should haue done by intercepting him What other thing did Iohn the Baptist but consider and examine the point of honesty and thereby discerne vnhonest wedlocke in the King and so grow to tell him boldly that it was not lawfull i Mark 6.18 for him to haue his brothers wife He could haue beene silent had he not iudged it vnbeseeming his calling for feare of death to haue his mouth stopped from speaking the truth and this to k Potuit tacere nisi in decorum sibi iudicasset mortis metu verum non dicere inclinari regi propheticam authoritatem adulatione subtexere be palpable flattery to pretend that propheticall in this case must bow to princely authority He knew because for the preservation of piety he was refractary to a King and must therefore die yet it stood him vppon to preferre honesty and the honour of religion before his owne security m Dan. 13.21 and verely what was more profitable then l 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stoica quae malorum peccatisen su non afficitur refragatur Exemplo Mosis Exod 32.19 et hic Baptistae Observanda tamen phrasis Aug. lib. 22. contra Faust Manich. in vitia saevire nos jubet Psalmista psal 4.4 saevire Apostolus Col. 3.5 mortificate membra that which brought the glory of martyrdome to this holy man And holy Susanna was not drawne through the terror of false testimonie to runne into the crime of incontinency when shee saw her selfe to bee vrged on this side with perill on that side with reproach but would rather by an honest death fly infamy then by seeking present safety to be branded with the stampe of eternall disloyaltie Therefore while she truly intended what made for her honesty shee extended thereby the thred of her life who if she had preserved that which seemed commodious for life before it she had not wonne so great renowne yea rather that which might have beene not only discommodious but perilous also she had not perhaps escaped the punishment of a crime Wherefore we observe that what is shamefull cannot be gainfull neither what is honest and pious unprofitable Because true profit comprehendeth necessary probity true probity piety and for that each of these friendly drawing together in one yoke cooperate in their mutuall offices Gods glory and the good of his people The Rhetoricians relate it as a thing memorable that the Roman n Fabricius discovered to Pyrrhus his Physicions conspiracy Plutarch in the life of Pyrrhus Captaine when the physition of an opposite king came to him and offered to give his Master poison and so to make a speedy dispatch of the warres harkened not to him bound him and sent him backe to the King his master to receive condigne punishment of his treacherie And verely it was a brave resolution that undertaking armes to trie valour hee would not vanquish by fraud For hee placed not honesty in the victory but even the victory it selfe sought by dishonest meanes in a base manner hee reputed ignominious But to let forreine testimonies goe and to come home to our owne Moses and other farre precedent monuments unto this which being drawne out exceed no lesse in excellency then in antiquity The King of Egypt would not suffer the people of Israel to depart Moses bid Aaron stretch out his rodde over all the o Exod. 7.20 waters he stretched it out and the waters of the rivers were turned into bloud and no man could drinke thereof they both sprinkled p Chap. 9.10 ashes toward heaven and there came a scabbe and brake forth into blisters and bladders upon man and upon beast they brought downe q Chap. 9.23 haile mingled with fire and thunder to the destroying whatsoever was abroad in the fields throughout all Egypt only in r Verse 26. Goshen there was no haile But when Moses besought the Lord for remedie against these evils all things were restored to their former estate the haile ceased the ulcers were healed the waters cleared Pharaoh remaining still rebellious to God the land was covered over with ſ Exod. 10.22 Moriebatur darknesse for three dayes together upon Moses lifting up his hands to heaven The Egyptians had t Chapt. 11.5 all their first borne slaine the Hebrewes had all their children u Chapt. 12.27 preserved But to these
calamities also did Moses put an end by his prayers All these miracles performed hee plainly and without imposture and this is his praise his admiration that the punishments inflicted were by the finger of God solely working in his ministery taken off even from the enemy This exceeding meeke and gentle person as it is written of him knew for a x Numb 12 3. certainty that the King would not keepe touch yet thought it his part upon request evermore to procure a removall of the plague upon hurt received to blesse upon cause of just offence to remit Hee cast forth his rodde and it was turned into a y Exod. 7.10.12 serpent which devoured the roddes of the Egyptians signifying that the word should be made flesh which should evacuate the deadly poyson of the cruell serpent through his most gracious remitting and pardoning of sinne For the rodde is the plaine z Heb. 1.3 9.4 Aarons Rodde word regall replenished with all power and the a Virga enim est Verbum directum regale plenum potestatis insigne imperij ensigne imperiall The rodde was made a Serpent because hee that was the Sonne of God was borne of God tooke flesh of the Virgin and was made man who as the Serpent b Numb 21.9 Iohn 3.14 exalted in the Crosse so hee upon the Crosse infused the medicine of his bloud to cure all humane ulcers Whence the Lord himselfe saith As the serpent was exalted in the wildernesse so shall the Sonne of man bee lifted up There is beside another signe belonging to the Lord Jesus which Moses did For hee putting his hand into his bosome it was made as c Exod. 4.6.30 white as snow doing the same againe it was as his other flesh which denoteth first the fulgor and brightnesse of the divinity of the Lord Jesus then the d Postea susceptionem carnis in qua fide credere omnes gentes populosque oporteret assuming of flesh in which it behoveth all nations and people of the world by an assured faith to beleeve Not without cause did he put his hand into his bosome because Christ is the right hand of God in whose divine and withall incarnate nature whosoever beleeveth not shall bee with Pharaoh scourged for a reprobate who albeit he would not give credit to the signes which Moses wrought by the hand of God yet when the plagues lay heavy upon him for the mitigation of them was compelled to e Thus the Lord mighty in power forceth them to stoope to his judgements that regard not his precepts submit himselfe Who was the meanes of mitigation of the judgements but Moses This was his honest dealing toward an enemy Now toward his owne people how rare was the affection of his honesty when for their preservation sake hee desired his owne name to bee expunged the f Exod. 32.32 booke of life Tobias likewise plainely expressed a forme of honesty when hee forsooke the banquet prepared for him to g Tob. 2.4 burie the dead of his owne people and invited the needy that escaped the h Vers 2. chapt 1.16 sword daily to his table but most of all i Chapt. 1.18 Chapt. 7.11 Raguel who being dealt withall about his good will in bestowing his daughter in mariage concealed not her infirmities lest thereby hee might have seemed to circumvent her suitor Therefore when Tobias the sonne of Tobias desired her to be given him he answered that by the law hee had right to her as a kinsman but he had given her to seven husbands who all dyed The just man was more jealous of anothers harmes then desirous to bestow his owne daughter How briefly resolved hee all questions of the Philosophers that might arise upon the point They have three tractates concerning the faults of houses to bee sold whether namely they ought to be kept from the knowledge of the buier or laied open this man thinkes not good to cover no not so much as the secret frailties of his owne daughter Hee affects not to move but was moved for her We need not doubt likewise of much more honesty in this man then in them because there is no comparison to be made betweene the cause of matching a daughter and the matter of commerce for money Let us further consider another thing which being done in the time of our fathers captivity bare the prime beauty of honesty For honesty is hindered by no adversity but therein is more illustrious then in prosperity In the middest of bonds weapons flames servitude which to free men is more grievous then all punishment amidst tormentors the ruins of their countrie the dreadfull terror of the living where such tragedies were acted amidst the wofull beholding the l Maccabees 7.8 bloud of the slaine the care of honesty was not interrupted but when their mansions were converted into ashes shined forth most gloriously in their affections Their study was not to bury their gold nor hide their silver thereby to reserve it for their posterity but in their extreamest calamity they had an eye to the safegard of their honesty This was in price with them together with their holy religion and therefore for the preservation hereof when they were to goe into Persia they hid the sacred fire in secret m 1 Maccab. 1.19 and solitary place signing it with a seale and covering it with silence which is the surest guard That the impure might not pollute nor the bloud of the slaine extinguish nor the vgly shape of ruinous heapes abolish this was their sole indevour Religion the roote and crowne of honesty was that only which by their captivity could not be wrested from them rightly then did they fixe their care vpon it rightly also did they forecast to fasten it vpon their posterity These a long time after when God put it into the mind of the King of Persia to restore the temple in Iudea and the lawfull rites at Ierusalem returning with Nehemias together with the of-spring of these Preists who had hid the fire of the Lord taken from the altar lest it should haue perished comming to the place being a valley in stead of fire found thick water which he commanded them to draw vp bring it to him sprinkle it vpon the wood Thus then which is to be admired at the sun obscured before with clouds suddenly breaking forth with his bright beames a great fire was kindled to the exceeding ioy of them all Nehemias * Orabat Nehemias psallebant sacerdotes hymnum Deo vsque quò consumptum est sacrificium prayed the priests sung an hymne to God so far forth vntill the sacrifice was consumed which comming to the eares of the King of Persia he built a temple there many gifts were dedicated to it It had the appellation of Nephthe which is purification and of Epathar given it by Nehemias It is found in the descriptions of Ieremy n 2 Mac. 2. commanding the