patience she condemned them for deserving such punishment She never had blow from or jarre with her husband she so suppled his hard nature with her obedience and to her great comfort saw him converted to Christianity before his death Also she saw Augustine her sonne formerly vitious in life and erroneous in doctrine whose soul she bathd in her Tears become a worthy Christian who coming to have his eares tickled had his heart touched and got Religion in to boot with the eloquence of S. Ambrose She survived not long after her sonnes conversion God sends his servants to bed when they have done their work and her candle was put out as soon as the day did dawn in S. Augustine Take an instance or two of her signall piety There was a custome in Africk to bring pulse bread and wine to the monuments of dead Saints wherein Monica was as forward as any But being better instructed that this custome was of heathenish parentage and that Religion was not so poore as to borrow rites from Pagans she instantly left off that ceremony and as for pietie's sake she had done it thus long so for pietie's sake she would do it no longer How many old folks now adayes whose best argument is use would have flown in their faces who should stop them in the full career of an ancient custome There was one Licentius a novice-convert who had got these words by the end Turn us again O Lord God of hosts show us the light of thy countenance and we shall be whole And as it is the fashion of many mens tongues to echo forth the last sentence they learnt he said it in all places he went to But Monica over-hearing him to sing it in the house of office was highly offended at him because holy things are to be suted to holy places and the harmonie could not be sweet where the song did jarre with the place And although some may say that a gracious heart consecrateth every place into a Chapell yet sure though pious things are no where unfitting to be thought on they may somewhere be improper to be uttered Drawing near her death she sent most pious thoughts as harbingers to heaven and her soul saw a glimpse of happinesse through the chincks of her sicknesse-broken body She was so inflamed with zeal that she turned all objects into fewell to feed it One day standing with S. Augustine at an East-window she raised her self to consider the light of Gods presence in respect whereof all corporall light is so farre from being match'd it deserves not to be mentioned Thus mounted on heavenly meditations and from that high pitch surveying earthly things the great distance made them appear unto her like a little point scarce to be seen and lesse to be respected She died at Ostia in Italy in the fiftie sixth yeare of her age Augustine closing her eyes when through grief he had scarce any himself CHAP. 3. The good Husband HAving formerly described a good Wife she will make a good Husband whose character we are now to present His love to his wife weakeneth not his ruling her and his ruling lesseneth not his loving her Wherefore he avoideth all fondnesse a sick love to be praised in none and pardoned onely in the newly married whereby more have wilfully betrayed their command then ever lost it by their wives rebellion Methinks the he-viper is right enough served which as Pliny reports puts his head into the she-vipers mouth and she bites it off And what wonder is it if women take the rule to themselves which their uxorious husbands first surrender unto them He is constant to his wife and confident of her And sure where jealousie is the Jailour many break the prison it opening more wayes to wickednesse then it stoppeth so that where it findeth one it maketh ten dishonest He alloweth her meet maintenance but measures it by his own estate nor will he give lesse nor can she ask more Which allowance if shorter then her deserts and his desire he lengtheneth it out with his courteous carriage unto her chiefly in her sicknesse then not so much word-pitying her as providing necessaries for her That she may not intrench on his prerogative he maintains her propriety in feminine affairs yea therein he follows her advice For the soul of a man is planted so high that he overshoots such low matter as lie levell to a womans eye and therefore her counsell therein may better hit the mark Causes that are properly of feminine cognizance he suffers her finally to decide not so much as permitting an appeal to himself that their jurisdictions may not interfere He will not countenance a stubborn servant against her but in her maintains his own Authority Such husbands as bait the mistris with her maids and clap their hands at the sport will have cause to wring them afterwards Knowing she is the weaker vessell he bears with her infirmities All hard using of her he detests desiring therein to do not what may be lawfull but fitting And grant her to be of a servile nature such as may be bettered by beating yet he remembers he hath enfranchised her by marrying her On her wedding-day she was like S. Paul free born and priviledged from any servile punishment He is carefull that the wounds betwixt them take not ayre and be publickly known Jarres conceald are half reconciled which if generally known 't is a double task to stop the breach at home and mens mouths abroad To this end he never publickly reproves her An open reproof puts her to do penance before all that are present after which many rather study revenge then reformation He keeps her in the wholsome ignorance of unnecessary secrets They will not be starved with the ignorance who perchance may surfet with the knowledge of weighty Counsels too heavy for the weaker sex to bear He knows little who will tell his wife all he knows He beats not his wife after his death One having a shrewd wife yet loth to use her hardly in his life time awed her with telling her that he would beat her when he was dead meaning that he would leave her no maintenance This humour is unworthy a worthy man who will endeavour to provide her a competent estate yet he that impoverisheth his children to enrich his widow destroyes a quick hedge to make a dead one CHAP. 4. The Life of ABRAHAM I Intend not to range over all his life as he stands threesquare in relation Husband Father Master We will onely survey and measure his conjugall side which respecteth his wife We reade not that ever he upbraided her for her barrennesse as knowing that naturall defects are not the creatures fault but the Creatours pleasure all which time his love was loyall to her alone As for his going in to Hagar it was done not onely with the consent but by the advice of Sarah who was so ambitious
labore magno sed ridiculo inani But this obscurity is worst when affected when they do as Persius of whom one saith Legi voluit quae scripsit intelligi noluit quae legerentur Some affect this darknesse that they may be accounted profound whereas one is not bound to believe that all the water is deep that is muddy He is not curious in searching matters of no moment Captain Martin Forbisher fetcht from the farthest northern Countries a ships lading of minerall stones as he thought which afterwards were cast out to mend the high wayes Thus are they served and misse their hopes who long seeking to extract hidden mysteries out of nice questions leave them off as uselesse at last Antoninus Pius for his desire to search to the least differences was called Cumini sector the Carver of cumine seed One need not be so accurate for as soon shall one scowr the spots out of the moon as all ignorance out of man When Eunomius the Heretick vaunted that he knew God and his divinity S. Basil gravells him in 21 questions about the body of an ant or pismire so dark is mans understanding I wonder therefore at the boldnesse of some who as if they were Lord Mashalls of the Angels place them in ranks and files Let us not believe them here but rather go to heaven to confute them He neither multiplies needlesse nor compounds necessary Controversies Sure they light on a labour in vain who seek to make a bridge of reconciliation over the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 betwixt Papists and Protestants for though we go 99 steps they I mean their Church will not come one to give us a meeting And as for the offers of Clara's and private men besides that they seem to be more of the nature of baits then gifts they may make large profers without any Commission to treat and so the Romish Church not bound to pay their promises In Merionethshire in Wales there are high mountains whose hanging tops come so close together that shepherds on the tops of severall hills may audibly talk together yet will it be a dayes journey for their bodies to meet so vast is the hallownesse of the vallies betwixt them Thus upon sound search shall we find a grand distance and remotenesse betwixt Popish and Protestant tenents to reconcile them which at the first view may seem near and tending to an accomodation He is resolute and stable in fundamentall points of Religion These are his fixed poles and axletree about which he moves whilest they stand unmoveable Some sail so long on the Sea of controversies toss'd up and down to and fro Pro and Con that the very ground to them seems to move and their judgements grow scepticall and unstable in the most settled points of Divinity When he cometh to Preach especially if to a plain Auditory with the Paracelsians he extracts an oyl out of the driest and hardest bodies and knowing that knotty timber is unfit to build with he edifies people with easie and profitable matter WILLIAM WHITACRES Dr. of D Kinges Professor and Master of S nt Iohns Coll in Cambridge where He died An o 1595. Aged 47 yeares W. Marshall sculp CHAP. 5. The life of Dr. VVHITAKER WIlliam Whitaker born at Holm in the County of Lancaster of good parentage especially by his mothers side allied to two worshipfull families His reverend unckle Alexander Nowell Dean of S. Pauls the first fruits of the English Confessours in the dayes of Queen Marie who after her death first return'd into England from beyond the Seas took him young from his parents sent him first to Pauls School thence to Trinity Colledge in Cambridge where he so profited in his studies that he gave great promises of his future perfection I passe by his youthfull exercises never striving for the garland but he wonne and wore it away His prime appearing to the world was when he stood for the Professours place against two Competitours in age farre his superiours But the seven Electours in the Universitie who were to choose the Emperour of the Schools preferring a golden head before silver hairs conferr'd the place on Whitaker and the strict form of their Election hath no room for corruption He so well acquitted himself in the place that he answered expectation the strongest opponent in all disputes and lectures and by degrees taught envie to admire him By this time the Papists began to assault him and the Truth First Campian one fitter for a Trumpeter then a Souldier whose best ability was that he could boast in good Latine being excellent at the flat hand of Rhetorick which rather gives pats then blows but he could not bend his fist to dispute Whitaker both in writing and disputing did teach him that it was easier to make then maintain a challenge against our Church and in like manner he handled both Duraeus and Sanders who successively undertook the same cause solidly confuting their arguments But these Teazers rather to rouze then pinch the Game onely made Whitaker find his spirits The fiercest dog is behind even Bellarmine himself a great scholar and who wanted nothing but a good cause to defend and generally writing ingeniously using sometimes slenting seldome down-right railing Whitaker gave him all fair quarter stating the question betwixt them yielding all which the other in reason could ask and agreeing on terms to fall out with him plaid fairly but fiercely on him till the other forsook the field Bellarmine had no mind to reinforce his routed arguments but rather consigned over that service to a new Generall Stapleton an English man He was born the same yeare and moneth wherein Sr. Thomas More was beheaded an observation little lesse then mysticall with the Papists as if God had substituted him to grow up in the room of the other for the support of the Catholick cause If Whitaker in answering him put more gall then usuall into his ink Stapleton whose mouth was as foul as his cause first infected him with bitternesse and none will blame a man for arming his hands with hard and rough gloves who is to meddle with bryers and brambles Thus they baited him constantly with fresh dogs None that ran at him once desired a second course at him and as one observes Cum nullo hoste unquam constixit quem non fudit fugavit He filled the Chair with a gracefull presence so that one needed not to do with him as Luther did with Melanchthon when he first heard him reade abstract the opinion and sight of his stature and person lest the meannesse thereof should cause an undervaluing of him for our Whitakers person carried with it an excellent port His style was manly for the strength maidenly for the modesty and elegant for the phrase thereof shewing his skill in spinning a fine thred out of course wool for such is controversiall matter He had by his second wife a modest woman eight
imperfections Had they not been men they had not burn't yea had they not been more then men by Gods assistance they had not burn't Every true Christian should but none but strong Christians will die at the stake But to return to Ridley One of the greatest things objected against him was his counsell to King Edward which the good Prince wash'd away with his tears about tolerating the Masse for Princesse Mary at the intercession of Charles the fifth Emperour which how great it was let the indifferent party give judgement when the Historian hath given his evidence The Bishops of Canterbury London Rochester gave their opinion that to give licence to sinne was sinne but to connive at sinne might be allowed in case it were neither too long nor without hope of reformation Another fault wherewith he was charged was that wofull and unhappy discord betwixt him and reverend Bishop Hooper about the wearing of some Episcopall garments at his consecration then in use which Ridley press'd and Hooper refused with equall violence as being too many rather loading then gracing him and so affectedly grave that they were light again All we will say is this that when worthy men fall out onely one of them may be faulty at the first but if such strifes continue long commonly both become guilty But thus Gods diamonds often cut one another and good men cause afflictions to good men It was the policy of the Lacedemonians alwayes to send two Embassadours together which disagreed amongst themselves that so mutually they might have an eye on the actions each of other Sure I am that in those Embassadours the Ministers which God sendeth to men God suffereth great discords betwixt them Paul with Barnabas Jerome with Ruffin and Augustine and the like perchance because each may be more cautious and wary of his behaviour in the view of the other We may well behold mens weaknesse in such dissentions but better admire Gods strength and wisdome in ordering them to his glory and his childrens good Sure it is Ridley and Hooper were afterwards cordially reconciled and let not their discords pierce farther then their reconciliation The worst is mens eyes are never made sound with the clearnesse but often are made sore with the bleernesse of other mens eyes in their company The virtues of Saints are not so attractive of our imitation as their vices and infirmities are prone to infect Ridley was very gracious with King Edward the sixth and by a Sermon he preach'd before him so wrought upon his pious disposition whose Princely charity rather wanted a directour then a perswader that the King at his motion gave to the city of London 1 Greyfriers now called Christ-Church for impotent fatherlesse decrepid people by age or nature to be educated or maintained 2 S. Bartholomews near Smithfield for poore by faculty as wounded souldiers diseas'd and sick persons to be cur'd and relieved 3 Bridewell the ancient Mansion of the English Kings for the poore by idlenesse or unthriftynesse as riotous spenders vagabonds loyterers strumpets to be corrected and reduc'd to good order I like that Embleme of Charity which one hath expressed in a naked child giving honey to a Bee without wings onely I would have one thing added namely holding a whip in the other hand to drive away the drones So that King Edwards bounty was herein perfect and complete To return to Ridley His whole life was a letter written full of learning and religion whereof his death was the seal Brought he was with Cranmer and Latimer to Oxford to dispute in the dayes of Queen Mary though before a Syllogisme was form'd their deaths were concluded on and as afterwards came to passe being burnt the sixteenth of October Anno 1555. in the ditch over against Balioll Colledge He came to the stake in a fair black gown furr'd and fac'd with foins a Tippet of velvet furr'd likewise about his neck a velvet night-cap upon his head and a corner'd cap upon the same Doctour Smith preacht a Sermon at their burning a Sermon which had nothing good in it but the text though misapplyed and the shortnesse being not above a quarter of an houre long Old Hugh Latimer was Ridleys partner at the stake sometimes Bishop of Worcester who crauled thither afâ—er him one who had lost more learning then many ever had who flout at his plain Sermons though his down-right style was as necessary in that ignorant age as it would be ridiculous in ours Indeed he condescended to peoples capacity and many men unjustly count those low in learning who indeed do but stoop to their Auditours Let me see any of our sharp Wits do that with the edge which his bluntnesse did with the back of the knife and perswade so many to restitution of ill-gotten goods Though he came after Ridley to the stake he got before him to heaven his body made tinder by age was no sooner touch'd by the fire but instantly this old Simeon had his Nunc dimittis and brought the news to heaven that his brother was following after But Ridley suffered with farre more pain the fire about him being not well made And yet one would think that age should be skilfull in making such bonefires as being much practised in them The Gunpowder that was given him did him little service and his Brother-in-law out of desire to rid him out of pain encreased it great grief will not give men leave to be wise with it heaping fewell upon him to no purpose so that neither the fagots which his enemies anger nor his Brothers good will cast upon him made the fire to burn kindly In like manner not much before his dear friend Master Hooper suffered with great torment the wind which too often is the bellows of great fires blowing it away from him once or twice Of all the Martyrs in those dayes these two endured most pain it being true that each of them Quaerebat in ignibus ignes And still he did desire For fire in midd'st of fire Both desiring to burn and yet both their upper parts were but Confessours when their lower parts were Martyrs and burnt to ashes Thus God where he hath given the stronger faith he layeth on the stronger pain And so we leave them going up to Heaven like Eliah in a chariot of fire CHAP. 12. The true Nobleman HE is a Gentleman in a Text Letter because bred and living in an higher and larger way Conceive him when young brought up at School in ludo literario where he did not take ludus to himself and leave literarius to others but seriously applyed himself to learning and afterwards coming to his estate thus behaves himself Goodnesse sanctifies his Greatnesse and Greatnesse supports his Goodnesse He improves the upper ground whereon he stands thereby to do God the more glory He counts not care for his Countreys good to be beneath his state Because he is a great pillar shall he
for a Paragon of his age and place having the fewest vices with so many virtues Indeed he was somewhat given to women our Chronicles fathering two base children on him so hard it is to find a Sampson without a Dalila And seeing never King or Kings eldest sonne since the conquest before his time married a subject I must confesse his Match was much beneath himself taking the double reversion of a subjects bed marrying Joan Countesse of Salisbury which had been twice a widow But her surpassing beauty pleads for him herein and yet her beauty was the meanest thing about her being surpass'd by her virtues And what a worthy woman must she needs be her self whose very garter hath given so much honour to Kings and Princes He dyed at Canterbury June the eighth 1376 in the fourty sixth yeare of his age it being wittily observed of the short lives of many worthy men fatuos à morte defendit ipsa insulsitas si cui plus caeteris aliquantulum salis insit quod miremini statim putrescit CHAP. 21. The King HE is a mortall God This world at the first had no other Charter for its being then Gods Fiat Kings have the same in the Present tense I have said ye are Gods We will describe him first as a good man so was Henry the third then as a good King so was Richard the third both which meeting together make a King complete For he that is not a good man or but a good man can never be a good Sovereigne He is temperate in the ordering of his own life O the Mandate of a Kings example is able to do much especially he is 1 Temperate in his diet When Aeschines commended Philip King of Macedon for a joviall man that would drink freely Demosthenes answered that this was a good quality in a spunge but not in a King 2 Continent in his pleasures Yea Princes lawfull children are farre easier provided for then the rabida fames of a spurious ofspring can be satisfied whilest their Paramors and Concubines counting it their best manners to carve for themselves all they can come by prove intolerably expensive to a State Besides many rebellions have risen out of the marriage-bed defiled He holds his Crown immediately from the God of Heaven The most high ruleth in the kingdomes of men and giveth them to whomsoever he will Cujus jussu nascuntur homines ejus jussu constituuntur Principes saith a Father Inde illis potestas unde spiritus saith another And whosoever shall remount to the first originall of Kings shall lose his eyes in discovering the top thereof as past ken and touching the heavens We reade of a place in Mount Olivet wherein the last footsteps they say of our Saviour before he ascended into heaven are to be seen that it will ever lie open to the skies and will not admit of any close or covering to be made over it how costly soever Farre more true is this of the condition of absolute Kings who in this respect are ever sub dio so that no superiour power can be interposed betwixt them and heaven Yea the Character of loyalty to Kings so deeply impress'd in Subjects hearts shews that onely Gods finger wrote it there Hence it is if one chance to conceive ill of his Sovereigne though within the cabinet of his soul presently his own heart grows jealous of his own heart and he could wish the tongue cut out of his tell-tale thoughts lest they should accuse themselves And though sometimes Rebels Atheists against the Gods on earth may labour to obliterate loyalty in them yet even then their conscience the Kings Aturney frames Articles against them and they stand in daily fear lest Darius Longimanus such a one is every King should reach them and revenge himself He claimeth to be supreme Head on earth over the Church in his Dominions Which his power over all persons and causes Ecclesiasticall 1. Is given him by God who alone hath the originall propriety thereof 2. Is derived unto him by a prescription time out of mind in the Law of Nature declared more especially in the Word of God 3. Is cleared and averred by the private Laws and Statutes of that State wherein he lives For since the Pope starting up from being the Emperours Chaplain to be his Patron hath invaded the rights of many earthly Princes many wholsome Laws have been made in severall Kingdomes to assert and notifie their Kings just power in Spiritualibus Well therefore may our King look with a frowning face on such whose tails meet in this firebrand which way soever the prospect of their faces be to deny Princes power in Church-matters Two Jesuites give this farre-fetch'd reason why Samuel at the Feast caused the shoulder of the Sacrifice to be reserved and kept on purpose for Saul to feed on because say they Kings of all men have most need of strong shoulders patiently to endure those many troubles and molestations they shall meet with especially I may well adde if all their Subjects were as troublesome and disloyall as the Jesuites The best is as God hath given Kings shoulders to bear he hath also given them armes to strike such as deprive them of their lawfull Authority in Ecclesiasticall affairs He improves his power to defend true Religion Sacerdotall Offices though he will not doe he will cause them to be done He will not offer to burn incense with Uzziah yet he will burn Idolaters bones with Josiah I mean advance Piety by punishing Profanenesse God saith to his Church Kings shall be thy Nursing-fathers and their Queens thy Nursing-mothers And oh let not Princes out of State refuse to be so themselves and onely hire others it belonging to Subjects to suck but to Princes to suckle Religion by their authority They ought to command Gods Word to be read and practised wherein the blessed Memory of King James shall never be forgotten His Predecessour in England restored the Scripture to her Subjects but he in a manner restored the Scripture to it self in causing the New Translation thereof whereby the meanest that can reade English in effect understands the Greek and Hebrew A Princely act which shall last even when the lease of Time shall be expired Verily I say unto you wheresoever this Translation shall be read in the whole realm there shall also this that this King hath done be told in memoriall of him He useth Mercy and Iustice in his proceedings against Offenders Solomon saith The throne is established by Iustice and Solomon saith The throne is upholden by Mercy Which two Proverbs speak no more contradiction then he that saith that the two opposite side-walls of an house hold up the same roof Yea as some Astronomers though erroneously conceived the Crystalline Sphere to be made of water and therefore to be set next the Primum mobile to allay the heat thereof which otherwise
heaven Or was it onely the true body of Samuel no the pretious ashes of the Saints the pawn for the return of their souls are lock'd up safe in the cabinet of their graves and the devil hath no key unto it Or lastly was it his seeming body he that could not counterfeit the least and worst of worms could he dissemble the shape of one of the best and greatest of men Yet this is most probable seeing Satan could change himself into an Angel of light and God gives him more power at some times then at other However we will not be too peremptory herein and build standing structures of bold assertions on so uncertain a foundation rather with the Rechabites we will live in tents of conjectures which on better reason we may easily alter and remove The devils speech looks backward and forward relates and foretells the Historicall part thereof is easie recounting Gods speciall favours to Saul and his ingratitude to God and the matter thereof very pious Not every one that saith Lord Lord whether to him or of him shall enter into the kingdome of heaven for Satan here useth the Lords name six times in foure verses The Propheticall part of his speech is harder how he could foretell to morrow shalt thou and thy sonnes be with me what with me true Samuel in heaven that was too good a place will some say for Saul or with me true Satan in hell that was too bad a place for Jonathan What then with me pretended Samuel in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the state of the dead But how came the Witch or Satan by this knowledge surely that uggly monster never look'd his face in that beautifull glasse of the Trinity which as some will have it represents things to the blessed Angels No doubt then he gathered it by experimentall collection who having kept an exact Ephemerides of all actions for more then five thousand years together can thereby make a more then probable guesse of future contingents the rather because accidents in this world are not so much new as renewed Besides he saw it in the naturall causes in the strength of the Philistines and weaknesse of the Israelitish army and in Davids ripenesse to succeed Saul in the Throne Perchance as vulturs are said to smell the earthlinesse of a dying corps so this bird of prey resented a worse then earthly savour in the soul of Saul an evidence of his death at hand Or else we may say the devil knew it by particular revelation for God to use the devil for his own turn might impart it unto him to advance wicked mens repute of Satans power that they who would be deceived should be deceived to believe that Satan knows more then he does The dismall news so frighted Saul that he fell along on the earth and yet at last is perswaded to arise and eat meat she killing and dressing a fat calf for him Witches generally are so poore they can scarce feed themselves see here one able to feast a King That which goeth into the mouth defileth not better eat meat of her dressing then take counsell of her giving and her hands might be clean whose soul meddled with unclean spirits Saul must eat somewhat that he might be strengthned to live to be kill'd as afterwards it came to passe And here the mention of this Witch in Scripture vanisheth away we will follow her no farther If afterward she escaped the justice of man Gods judgement without her repentance hath long since overtaken her CHAP. 5. The life of JOAN of Arc. IOan of Arc was born in a village called Domrenny upon the Marches of Bar near to Vaucoleurs Her parents James of Arc and Isabell were very poore people and brought her up to keep sheep where for a while we will leave her and come to behold the miserable estate of the kingdome of France wherein she lived In her time Charles the seventh was the distressed French King having onely two entire Provinces left him Gascoigne and Languedoc and his enemies were about them and in all the rest which were possessed by the English under their young King Henrie the sixth and his aged Generalls the Duke of Bedford and the Earls of Salisbury and Suffolk Besides they had besieged the city of Orleance and brought it to that passe that the highest hopes of those therein was to yield on good terms Matters standing in this wofull case three French Noblemen projected with themselves to make a cordiall for the consumption of the spirits of their King and Countreymen but this seemed a great difficulty to perform the French people being so much dejected and when mens hearts are once down it is hard to fasten any pullies to them to draw them up However they resolved to pitch upon some project out of the ordinary road of accidents to elevate the peoples phancies thereby knowing that mens phancies easily slip off from smooth and common things but are quickly catch'd longest kept in such plots as have odde angles and strange unusuall corners in them JOAN of Arc the Victorious Leader of the French Armyes She was condemned by the English for a Witch burnt at Rohan julij the 6 th 1461. being about 22 yeares of Age. Pag◠373. W. Marshall sculp By the mediation of a Lord she is brought to the presence of King Charles whom she instantly knew though never seen before and at that time of set purpose much disguised This very thing some heighten to a miracle though others make it fall much beneath a wonder as being no more then a Scholars ready saying of that lesson which he hath formerly learned without book To the King she boldly delivers her message how that this was the time wherein the sinnes of the English and the sufferings of the French were come to the height and she appointed by the God of heaven to be the French leader to conquer the English If this opportunity were let slip let them thank heavens bounty for the tender and their own folly for the refusall and who would pity their eternall slavery who thrust their own liberty from themselves He must be deaf indeed who heares not that spoken which he desires Charles triumphs at this news Both his armes were to few too embrace the motion The Fame of her flies through France and all talk of her whom the Divines esteem as Deborah the Souldiers as Semiramis People found out a nest of miracles in her education that so lyon-like a spirit should be bred amongst sheep like David Ever after she went in mans clothes being armed cap-a-pe and mounted on a brave Steed and which was a wonder when she was on horseback none was more bold and daring when alighted none more tame and meek so that one could scarce see her for her self she was so chang'd and alter'd as if her spirits dismounted with her body No sword would please her but one taken out of the Church