THE LOVING HUSBAND And Prudent WIFE Represented in the persons of St. Eustachius and Theopista Martyrs Written in Italian by John Baptista Manzini and englished by John Burbery The Historie is confirmed by Baronius with the testimony of Greek and Latine Authors LONDON Printed for J. Martin and J. Allestrye at the Bell in St. Paul's Churchyard 1657. To the most incomparable Pair and no less happy in affection than matchless in worth and honour the Right Honourable Henry Howard of Arundell my most noble Patron and the Ladie Anne his Wife T IS related of the River Alpheus that by subterranean passages it runs awhile unseen through the Countrey of Elis but afterwards breaking out repairs to the Sea though with no great stream The rivulet of my thanks for your favour to me all along my attendance on my Lords of happy memory your Grandfather and Father and since more abundantly express'd during my service with your Honours which long hath been conceal'd it having no proportion with the Sea of your bounty now openly runs thither though blushing all the way at the smallness of the stream But since at any rate I desire to be gratefull to your Honours I publishing with my gratitude my own imperfections whom can I more worthily entitle to this Book since the one is so loving a Husband and the other so prudent a Wife The Dedication then by right belonging to your Honours Valour and Beauty with the virtues of both Sexes meeting in you as lines in the center what juster Oblation could be made if the Offering had resemblance with your Honours high deserts But the Sun not secluding the Valleys from the influence of his rayes invites me to hope your Honours like the Sun in the luster of your Families will descend into this Valley and seclude not from the influence of your favourable aspect the humble labours of Your Honours most devoted and most faithfull humble Servant John Burbery The Loving Husband and Prudent Wife c. The first Book THE merit of Virtue is so great and so glorious with Man that if Man ow'd not Virtue to God he would owe less to God than to Virtue And what benefit would Life be if Life were nothing else but a bundle of evils A good life said the Moralist is a greater benefit than life it self The merit of Virtue a Treasure we have happily gotten out of the Exchequer of Gods grace is the thing that hath made Man admir'd many times above all earthly Creatures And what wonder is it that an Angel whose object is so blessed and whose nature so perfect should alwayes live burning in the love of that Creator he beholds and enjoyes A wonder it is and a wonder for a Deity that is seated on a Throne of Omnipotency to see that a worm of the earth oppress'd with the weight of his carnal desires wrestling with the distraction of so many flattering objects and oppos'd by Hells treacheries and power should be every where invincible and triumphing over all dangers by a heat of love mount above the sphear of all corporeal things on the wings of Charity and flying into the bosome of his Maker miraculously engraff and transform himself wholly into his Creator If the reverence due to the profound depths of heavenly wisdome commanded not my silence I should presume to say that to so rebellious an Angel as Lucifer a man so pious as he I speak of should in reason have been Guardian Perhaps his example might have kept him in his duty who hath rear'd with a handfull of Clay an Altar to his God to the shame of a noble spirit whose sacriledges lasted but a while to make him more eminent in his sin than his nature Of such men renowned for Virtue the Stories of Christian Religion relate many And because to arrive at the perfection of so holy a state Virtue is necessary and cannot be better learned than by an Example I have thought it fit to give the Reader a Pattern which we by imitation may improve to our advantage In the life of Eustachius you will reade the Idea of Perfection His Heart was Love's Forge his Bosome a Shop of Martyrdome Whatever we believe of all the Unfortunate we may pity in Eustachius alone His life made him a Martyr perhaps too a greater than his death yea nothing but onely death hath contributed to his rest among the intollerable and uncessant torments of so painfull a life Whosoever hath not read his life knows not yet how God playes at Tennis Job in the old Testament would have been Envie 's subject if Eustachius had not been born Eustachius hindred Job from being singular and Job him from being the first Whosoever gives not credit to Miracles let him forbear reading this Story in which it's a Miracle to me my heart doth not break in running it over much more in writing it He that denses Tribulation in a good man is a gift of God shall see by reading here whether it were possible a man of ill life could suffer without despair the thousandth part of the disasters of this heart without heart I call the heart of Eustachius a heart without heart supposing Christ did there the office of a heart And I cannot think it possible that had not God assisted particularly he could have opposed much more overcome the power of Hell so much at liberty and set on to ruine him who being onely flesh in the end would have shewed his weakness Of the Father of Eustachius his Nativity and Countrey we have no light at all from Antiquity were it that the Writers employ'd about the miracles of his life had no leisure to celebrate his birth or were it that God being alwayes mysterious would not let him be known to descend from the Earth whom he had predestin'd to be a great Ornament to his Heaven and our Law It 's the fate of the famous Rivers Euphrates and Tygris to derive their springs from Paradise He was born and liv'd long in the errours of the Gentiles and barbarous Infidels but true it is also that in the whole carriage of his life nothing could be ever observ'd to be barbarous but his Paganism He liv'd in Trajan's time God would not permit him or his Prince to be born in an age of impiety Trajan deserv'd to be born in a time when the justice of his Faith must be purg'd as that of his Government But Almighty God who was pleas'd to try his Church to make it victorious design'd that age for Princes the hardness of whose hearts was to serve for a resemblance with the mines of a rising Faith He was called Placidus from his Cradle perhaps with less expression of his mildness than his happiness Even his name assur'd him he should be very acceptable to God Being born in a Countrey if we may believe his valour which perswades us to think he was a Roman and in an age that reduced all Virtues to Courage he went to the Wars
air he adored the Spirit of God passing and triumphing on the wings of the winde He either plow'd mowed or sow'd never wanting occasion of recollecting himself He grieved that Man from the Earth an insensible thing could promise himself a gratitude for each though little labour of his tilling when he who had a soul and was rational and more oblig'd to God than any other Creature was cold slow and backward in returning him thanks who cover'd him with the Heavens warm'd him with the Sun sustain'd him on a Pavement of Flowers and nourish'd him with plenty of all things drawn out of the ground Every Flower put him in minde of a virtue The whiteness of the Lilly made him blush to think a Soul redeem'd by Christ should let a stinking Flower surpass it in purity In every Rose he found a thorn piercing his heart and upbraiding the little charity he express'd for the love of his God who crown'd and rent with thorns was torn to save him The herb Turnsole is never weary in following the tracks of the Sun Eustachius said mortifying himself and wilt thou O my heart let a Flower instruct thee in loving â—erving and contemplating on thy God The Hyacinth in the opening of his leaves sends forth sweet and sad notes and he that bewails not his sins in his heart bewails them in the leaves But what doth Eustachius perform who hath been so long and continually a Sinner Every green Herb taught him hope and every fruitfull Tree imitation These Meditations ended in extasies of his minde which sever'd from the body did run to the feet of his Creatour to thank him for the fruit he had gather'd as a benefit receiv'd and the immature fruit as a benefit expected Such was the life of Eustachius in that solitude inhabited by Angels who continually descending and ascending as it were on Jacob's Ladder beheld and admired the love which towards his Creatour he expressed whom I cannot call earthly since he alwayes liv'd in Heaven The Loving Husband and Prudent Wife c. The third Book WHosoever is thankfull to God in prosperity pays his debts but he that gives him thanks in adversity turns Creditor Tribulation sayes Saint Jerome is a fruit of the Almond-tree the rinde of which is bitter but the kernel very sweet And the Naturalists observe when the Almond-tree is full of blossoms 't is a sign of a plentifull harvest Our Eustachius makes it good whose sufferings all know which have been so great their billows have petrify'd his heart and render'd it stony obdurate and dead to passions and affections Under the bitter Plant of affliction as Jacob under the Turpentine-tree Eustachius hath bury'd the Idols of his affections his interest and desires His heart is no longer of flesh but of Christ and had it been open'd the name of Jesus would have been found there as in that of Ignatius the Martyr But God would not permit him to continue in this state Tribulations may serve to increase his temptations but cannot increase the faith of his invincible heart which can have no addition of courage The eagerness and valour he hath shew'd on all occasions give him worthily the praises and title of a Noble Commander who had been still victorious Here misery made a stand and Heaven clear'd up to this fortunate Passenger As Eustachius was discoursing one day with certain Husbandmen in order to their rural affairs two Strangers saluting them kindly approached to them whose civility the Country People returning offer'd themselves readily to serve them in what they were able The Strangers thanking them seem'd most desirous to have information of a Roman call'd Placidus who together with his Wife and two Sons had been missing fifteen years and they were in quest of Eustachius who before had been their General and their intimate Friend knew them but was not known again And who would e're have thought so pale so hairy and so humble a countenance colour'd onely with misfortune could have been the face of Placidus who formerly full of majestie and glittering like the Sun represented in the Colours of his Banners the Purple of his Triumphs At this their encounter and demands Eustachius could not choose but be sensible of the natural commotions our frailty occasions so as 't is no wonder if the memory of himself his Wife and his Sons caused him to relent The temptation was strong because too unexpected and had a too delicate opportunity and too little suspected His Friends were the cause whose affections incommodity and charity unless by not concealing them he could not return Quickly but quietly lest he should have been observ'd he sadly turn'd his back and leaving the company went weeping towards his home His tears trickl'd down in too great an abundance and he perceiv'd he wept with a kind of afflicted sensuality even tears said Metrodorus have their lust which he soon was sorry for Woe is me what do I Men weep not in this manner for the easing of nature whose sorrows to appease many tears are not requisite Men weep in this manner for some unruly passion tyrannically subduing their reason Le ts look to our selves O Eustachius least the Devill circumvent us for this violence is too great So he spake to himself when invaded by the memory of his former prosperity his love to his wife and his grief for the death of his sons but conquer'd by his fear to be seen by his God too devoted to the world he besought his sacred Majesty not to suffer any earthly affection to prevayle in his heart which dedicated and bequeathed to him was no otherwise of Eustachius than as Eustachius could not serve without a heart and love his gracious God So with unknown resentments resembling a trance which might be thought a punishment for his sorrow but probably was the sweetness and fruit of his devotion he fell to the earth beseeching God to moderate so immoderate a passion He would have begg'd of God as he was pleas'd to comfort him with the unexpected presence of two such dear friends so he would too be pleas'd even once before he dy'd to shew him his beloved Theopista since he could not hope possibly to see his little sons ah little sons so unfortunately lost and bewayl'd He would have pursu'd his desire with devout supplications and prayers if he could have been assur'd it was no temptation he being so confirm'd and onely intense in the will of his Creator that it seem'd to him a sin to desire it He so passionately was enamour'd of God that he thought if he lov'd any thing besides him 't would decrease his love to God These his irresolutions doubts exprest his devotion and affection to God T is one of the happinesses of a soul in the state of grace to see that all his thoughts affections and operations are prayers incenses and meritotorious To these supplications of Eustachius a voyce answer'd plainly from Heaven which spake in this manner Be
onely by them who under the shadow of a Deity that loves and does not punish impieties seek to shelter their consciences And is' t possible a Man of Valour though no Christian should not be asham'd to see himself prostrate at the foot of a God more wicked than wickedness it self And is' t possible he should not know these Incenses are consum'd in vain and so many and such chargeable Victims are to no other end but to waste our Wealth and Goods These are Gods which rob us though dead and though ador'd O blindness That God is not ours which seeks our perdition and that God is no God that knows not how to hinder his own Let us bestow our incenses where we have our hopes We hope not in impieties in wickednesses and eternal blasphemers of Gods name by whom they condemn'd will alwayes feel the punishment of their pride and rebellion I can answer you no otherwise but that you know us not if you threaten us And what wouldst thou have us to fear Shame And think'st thou that he 'll dye of shame who a Conquerour of the Devil and the World dyes serving and to serve his Creator What would'st thou have us fear Death A Christian hopes for death and fears it not Gods knife not Adrians affrights us A Christian hath his Country his faith hope treasures and glory in Heaven He is not a Countrey-man of this life Whosoever kils him does not drive him from the Earth but helps him to get sooner to Heaven whither he here a Pilgrim aspires O unhappy man that to live a few days would lose such a fortunate occasion of eternally beatifying himself But why nam'd I a few days If thou canst assure me of a moment of time for sacrificing to thy Gods I am ready to tell thee I will readily do it but if that cannot be so fading and uncertain is this our frail life why wouldst thou make me lose an eternal felicity for a very short moment of time for a moment uncertain for a moment which if certain would have howsoever more torment than life Friend we will dye even to fly this so troublesome life much more to serve our God that is so full of power And this life is too vile too uncertain and too dependant and we passionately desire once to dye to behold our most mercifull God to whose onely presence our souls do aspire and sigh Ah O my Sons shall we never attain to this happiness Shall we never get to tast it O most happy we if our God will be pleas'd to confer it on us And what shall we do in that blessed light which never is eclipsed In that inexhaustible and incomprehensible Sea of delights and consolations Will these petty disasters we suffer for his sake prove bitter or sweet profitable or sad Ah woe's me a frail and poor Creature who love not even so well my God but that the flesh makes me think of interest of pleasure and reward Be not scandaliz'd my sons let 's fight let 's suffer and dye for the onely love of God God alone be our object our reward and our interest Though he did not intend to reward us he deserves to be belov'd and how much for us hath he done Ah scourges ah thorns ah lances ah nails and ah cross ye know very well They spake here all together as expressing the consent of four valiant persons who animating one another as they fortify'd themselves so made the Spectators relent The Orator confounded and unable to compass his end returned to Adrian relating to him he had met with a Prison full of Constancy where he that expected to dye was more fearfull of the flowness than the sharpness of his Sword Adrian implacably incens'd with this last relation calling Placidus ingratefull sacrilegious and seditious and invoking particularly each God extoll'd and exaggerated the merit of his own piety That he had rather part with a Minister of state though usefull and glorious to the Empire than that Heaven should be sacrific'd to by his hand When he with exclamations complaints threats and injuries had sufficiently enflam'd and tormented himself the authority of the Devil his Counsellor prevailing at last he resolv'd to blot Placidus out of the book of life and ask'd by his will what death they should dye the Lions he reply'd should devour them who had for that purpose fasted three dayes together The innocent Christians were led to the Theater whither they went with a faith deserving a Theater The People who with tears resented their condition accompany'd and pitied them with a sorrow and compassion that cannot be express'd Every one was sorry for the Sons unhappy youth and every one for the Parents affliction Some thought the death of the young men was most worthy of pity because they were cut off in the flower of their age while others had a greater compassion for the Parents supposing their death to be the more pretious for by losing themselves and their Sons they lost and lamented more lives When the Theater was open'd and the persons condemned appear'd who more cheer'd up themselves in their dangers no eye was free from tears especially when they saw and heard Eustachius speak who kneeling in the midst of his beloved family cry'd aloud with his hands rear'd to Heaven Though all hell should be let loose much less a few Lyons he can have no feare that loves thee O Lord. Thou art too sweet and too dear O sweet and dear Love of our love Behold us at thy feer most ready and prepar'd for a sacrifice which is not so pure and immaculate as thou dost deserve is what four poor and miserable sinners can give thee With thy loving mercyes make it what thou would'st have it to be for thy glory What say ye dear Sons are ye glad of this occasion to shew your prompt obedience to our most gracious Father and God Take ye pleasure that he see he hath not given so much to you but that ye are ready to present and sacrifice more to him if it lay in your power Offer up to him and give him that life he so often hath bestow'd upon you preserv'd and made noble Which way will these Lyons come out Will they make peradventure to this place Come valorous Sons let us bend thither Ye are well acquainted with Lyons ye have conquer'd them formerly when ye were not old enough to distinguish them Will ye now be afraid of them when ye fight for Gods sake Ah dear husband his wife interrupting him began wrong not the valour of our Sons Ye O my Sons shall stand here together and I here before She will lead you out of this life who brought you into it Give prayses to God for the victory and bless and invoke him O holy thrice holy and a thousand times holy behold us at the sacrifice we so often have desir'd Accept O amorous accept most loving flame of our breasts this litte and last but
cordiall oblation of our wish When the grates were open'd the Lyons very hungry and at liberty issu'd forth whose horrible roaring made all the spectators affraid for they came with that violence and fury that the holy Martyrs obsequies were lamented by all e're their death None could endure to behold this destruction so as with a generous aversion all lookt another way not now not to pity but to shun the the first encounter of so sad and so skreaking a compassion Now every one disliking so merciless a spectacle departed abhorring and detesting so barbarous a cruelty when behold a sudden hissing arising each eye was recall'd to the Theater and o'recome with the wonder of an accident which disorder'd and terrifi'd each breast and each conscience When the Lyons were unchain'd and came furiously to the grate which was set wide open they no sooner approached to the prey but fearfull harmless and hungry retreated and carrying low their heads shewing they were conquer'd by the vertue of men who though living on earth were of Heaven perswaded the people to magnify Gods power who not onely when he pleases makes Lyons but the pillars themselves that bear up the Heavens tremble totter and shake In the most noble fabrique of the Temple of Solomon I remember not that in any of the Chapiters or bases of braffe were figur'd certain knobs composed of Cherubins of Lyons and Palme-trees Behold here a mystery verifi'd Eustachius Theopistas and their Sons representing four Cherubins with the branches of Palme-trees adorning their hands came conquerours out of the midst of those Lyons whom still with great ease the servants of God have usually o'recome as if they were Lambs and not Lyons Adrian to whom the relation of the miracle was brought with all speed poyson'd with the fury of his vilifi'd Devill lifting his hands towards Heaven and feigning he was comforted that he might not confess he was o'recome O Eternall Providence brake forth even the beasts themselves abhor those ill-bred People which rebell'd against the Gods The Lyon never shew'd his magnanimity more seasonably than by scorning such wicked and infamous nourishment But let them not brag their sacriledges were unpunish'd for my sword is keen enough to roote out of the world so pestiferous a graffe I must not let the Peoples simplicity be deluded by their incantations who that they might detract from the glory of our Gods have made hell protect their impiety Remove them from the Theater The next morning the Tyrant arose by break of day whose fury would not suffer him to rest He was very much afflicted to see his vast Empire inferiour in valour to the courage of four persons arm'd with nothing els but the only name of JESUS The ancient Emperors to martyrize the Christians kept a huge brazen Bull the invention I believe of some Devill who brought a hell on earth which when 't was red hot by a vehement fire affrighted and terrifi'd whosoeve beheld it This machine exposed in publique which scar'd even him that went neer to it the barbarous Tyrant gave command the four Champions should be put and enclosed in it's bulke O number proportion'd to the forme of a basis whose quadrangular firmeness was most fit to support the growing Church This liker a Devill than a Bull was no sooner made hot but dreadfully at his eyes his mouth and his nostrills breathing smoak and flames was sufficient to terrify even heaven it self much more the poor breast of a man whom the meer apprehension of dâ—â—th was enough to deterre and deject Those breathings which in every other creature were the arguments of life were in this infernall monster the symptomes of death While the Machine waxed hot the matter enflaming it self which naturally being cold by how much the more vigorously it resisted the heat by so much the more violently receiv'd and distributed the heat with more paine I imagine to my self the prisoner first assaulted by the aire which with its heat invading his head did threaten to choake him That part of the brasse then growing more vehemently hot which neerest the fire endur'd the first assaults the poor tormented creature beginning first to feele his flesh singe then fry and consume could not choose grown offensive to himself but grieve he was forc'd to bewayle with unspeakable sorrow the cruelty of that punishment which making him survive his own flesh caus'd him â—o see those limbs which so cruelly O death even painfull to our phancy he had both felt die and was forc'd to lament too when dead No sooner the cruell Emperors Command was perform'd but the fire being lighted in less than an houre the Bull which no longer was of brass but all fire threw up horrible sparkles from out of the midst of the ambient flames with so dolefull a spectacle that the standers by themselves felt their bosomes and eyes melt with pity at the sight of that object which certainly without griefe was not to be seen Our four couragious Champions were sacrific'd to truth on this altar of torments whose affectionate death I resolv'd to conceal since I feel my heart broken to pieces I would I could say with devotion but I am so great a sinner I dare not have such thoughts of my self I confess I abandon thee O Reader in the best of the story since I should have represented the devotion with which these holy Martyrs have yielded up the Ghosts beseeching God to free them at last from these earthly afflictions and make beneficiall to the piety of posterity the memory of these sufferings of which the first reward was to hear a voyce speaking from Heaven to them it shall be as ye desire O happy soules I confess I should relate how gloriously Gods omnipotence appear'd by freeing them from so terrible a burning where they were rather lulled asleep than consum'd without the least harm of a hair much less of their garments or flesh I confess it would redound very much to our profit to meditate on the pity to our own confusion which an unbelieving people afforded by their tears of which the most wicked commiserated their punishment and the best their faith did imitate I confess all this but what shall I do my pen can write no more grown feeble with compassion as well as with weariness I have spent all my affections it remaines now O Reader thou begin to use thine And when e're again before it be too late wilt thou have such a fair opportunity to meditate to weep and to lead a better life FINIS
's sing the mercies of so gratious a God O free O happy state We are in so fortunate and secure a condition that we have nothing else to fear or hope for Fortune can threaten us no longer she can no longer trouble us God be blessed and thank'd O dear most loving and mercifull God and when could I ever have imagin'd being fetter'd with so many snares of the World the Flesh and the Devil I should be so happy to be free and disengag'd from them all and onely depend on my will On my will which is now and ever shall be thee O my dearly beloved the love of my soul my God Thou shalt be my Mother my Wise my Father and Children in thee are to be calm'd my affections my miseries and thoughts thou art to be the object of my understanding the prey of my will and the glory of my memory And since thou hast brought me to this happiness shall I have so rebellious so stubborn and so senseless a heart to bewail it when it comes Ah my God my heart is of flesh be pleas'd to forgive it and of stone be pleas'd to split it draw from it the water may set forth thy glory From thee in thee and for thee I protest for the future all my thoughts my affections and words shall begin advance and terminate I protest whatsoever hath not thee for its object and center my Creatour Redeemer and my God the name I alwayes finde the most sweet I will not approve of I will no longer will any thing but what thou would'st have me to will nor love any thing but what thou would'st have me to love What is not of God or for God Eustachius shall not love or desire So raising couragiously himself Ah good men have afflictions without but consolation within as if he had endur'd nothing yet he went on beseeching God to begin now at last to exercise and try him And when said he shall we ever have a better occasion when ever finde a time so opportune to suffer for Gods sake Afflictions are no longer impediments to divert us from the service of God to which we are wholly devoted Where are the tribulations and miseries that were threatned What hitherto we have suffered was ill onely out of opinion and what have we suffered of our own Goods Honours Dignities Wife and Children were no otherwise ours than as troubles And must it be call'd and esteem'd a tribulation to be rid of troubles subjection and impediments Ah my God and what do I suffer for thy sufferings for me And what satisfaction do I make thee for the many offences I so long have committed When thou wast pleas'd to suffer for me didst not willingly lose thy Goods thy Mother and thy Countrey Wast not willingly torn in pieces and crucify'd and which is more than all most innocently And shall I wicked man in my tribulations and sorrows for my sins have nothing to relate but that I was present at the sufferings of others If thou sayst I am so weak I shall be discontented and likewise unfortunate if thou who canst not erre hast so low an opinion of the love I bear thee For my own part I confess that methinks I have more courage and dare perform more Give me ah gâ—ve me an affliction deserving the testimony of my love and let what is past be my penance Let what I must yet suffer be consecrated wholly to the love I consume my self in for thy sake for I cannot endure to be a vulgar Servant to God The favours thou hast done me oppose it and my soul cannot suffer it which blushes to be onely known a Christian by not worshipping of Idols Hitherto my Wife hath been a Sufferer my Children and Slaves and 't is now high time I suffer something for thy sake for thee O my dear most loving and mercifull God With these and the like entertainments Eustachius went so far that at last he arriv'd at a Village call'd Badiso whose retiredness and poverty so pleas'd him he resolv'd to fix there if he could The few persons living in that place made it partly seem no desart though otherwise it was unfrequented where they sow'd what was necessary to keep them alive and not sell unless they sold not because they possess'd but because they liv'd there The place was remote enough from Rome to conceal him from fame and as far from noyse as necessary to separate the minde from the pleasures of the world There poverty was no shame for riches were not known nor us'd they treacheries there for interest commanded not The men there dissembled not for there they did not covet and the women did not set themselves to sale for they lov'd not for lust but to preserve nature The air was calm the soyl very fertile and the Inhabitants sincere Eustachius thought this place was agreeable to the life he had design'd and therefore recommending himself unto God for the illumination of his will he sought how to live But he soon was entertain'd as a Partner in those rural affairs by a good and poor man of some little power there but whether a Labourer or Master I know not for I know not if the tyrannie of dominion was in force at that time in a place so retir'd Eustachius giving thanks unto God for this ultimate favour so willingly and industriously fell to tilling of the ground that the Owner of the Village being eas'd of his labour and glad of his new servant ascrib'd and imputed to Heavens gentle influence the arrival of this Pilgrim to whose care now he committed all his business and his poor estate The Earth return'd so happily Eustachius his labours that the Master was astonish'd who thought it impossible so small a spot of ground should abound in that manner All that beheld it thought it painted and not till'd it pleasing as well the eye as 't was usefull for man's life Each Turf brought forth Flowers eve-Flower Fruit and all Fruit grew ripe The Seeds seem'd ranged into order not scatter'd and the Trees being lopp'd shew'd the Husbandman's industry by their growing the better The Meadows were pleasant the fallow ground manur'd and every thing answer'd art the eye and expectation with increase delight and Plenty Ah O God the sighs of the Tiller were the South-west-winds and his tears the dew which made the soyl as fertile as the Paradise of his soul Fifteen years together liv'd Eustachius in this hard but happy poverty in which time he trafficking for eternity and leading a life that was rather a meditation than life discover'd to the world how men may live on Earth and yet dwell in Heaven Every thing inform'd him of his Maker and in every thing he found something to encite him to a Virtue If a little thin Cloud passed by he reverenc'd it as a shadow of Gods presence and contemplated in the Heavens on his Palace and in the Sun on his Tabernacle In each breath of