those which are drowned these last are innumerable thought it is thought otherwise because they are sunk into the bottom and cannot be seen Admit not I beseech thee for a testimony againstâ— Death those ejulations and tears which darken Funerals and make foul weather in the fairest faces Opinion makes the people compassionate and they bewail not the party that is dead but their owne frailty Call not for evidence to the teares of strangers because thou knowest not whence they flow but call for it to thine own for none of us is happy or miserable but in his own sense which makes us any thing What reason hast thou to think life better then death because others mourne when thou dyest who when thou wert born didst weep thy selfe It is madnesse to judge our selves miserable because others think so The solemnities of death are contrary to the ceremonies of life At the birth of man others laugh but he himself weeps At his death others weep but surely hee rejoyceth unlesse his ill life hath made his death deadly Nor must thou think that his joy is either little or none at al because it is not manifested unto thee Thou mayst lye watching by the side of one that dreams of Heaven is conversing with Angels but unlesse hee tells it thee when he is awaked thou canst discover no such thing while he sleepes The Infant that is born weeping learns to laugh in his sleep as Odo and Augustine have both observed So he that bewailed his birth with tears welcomes the shadow of his death with smiles He presaged miseries to follow his nativity and beatitude his dissolution Weeping is natural tears know their way without a gâ—ide Mirth is rude and comes on slowly and very late nor comes it then without a supporter and a leader It must be taught and acquired Weeping comes with the Infant into the world Laughing is afterwards taught him the Nurse must both teach and invite him to it When he sleeps then he sips and tasteth joy when he dies then he sucks and drinkes it Mourning and grief are natural they are born with us Mirth is slow-paced and negligent of us The sense of rejoycing if we beleeve Avicenna comes not to the most forward child till after the fortieth day Men therefore weep at thy death because it is an experiment they have not tryed and they laugh at thy birth because the miseries of thy life must not be born by them Thou onely art the infallible diviner of thy own frail condition who refusest it with teares which are the most proper expressions of unwilling constrained nature But as the ceremonies of Life and Death are contrary so he that is born and he that dyes have different events Death to some seems to destroy all but she restores all By discomposing things she puts them in their order For he that inverts things that were beâ—ore inverted doth but reduce them to their right Positure The Funeral rite of the Tâ—bitenses who are certain East-Indians is to turn the inside of their garments outward they manifest that part which before was hidden and conceale that part which before was manifest by which they seeme in my opinion to point at the liberty of the soul in the state of death and the captivity of the body whose redemption must bee expected in the end of the world This inversion by death is reparation and a preparative for that order wherein all things shall be made new Most true is that saying of the Royal Preacher 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A good name is above precious ointment and the day of death is better then the day of ones birth But thou wilt ask To whom is the day of death better than the day of his nativity It is in the first place to him that dies True thou wilt say if he be a just and holy man Yea say I though he be wicked Who doubts that there can happen in all their lives a better day to the just and honest then the day of death which frees them both from seeing and from feeling the miseries which are in this world As for the unjust it is most certain that no day can be more beneficiall to them then that which sets an end to their impieties tyranny perjury and sacriledge To deny a sword to one that would murther himself is benevolence to deny money to a Gamester that would presently cast it away is courtesie and to deny life to those that would use it to their owne damnation is Mercy and not Judgement But to whom besides these is the day of death better then the day of life Certainly to God Almighty because in that day when the wicked dye his Justice on them and his Mercy towards his own are conspicuous to all and acknowledged by all And to whom else Not to speak of the rich and ambâ—tious It is good to all men to the whole Creation and to Nature it self For in that day the fair order and prerogative of Nature is vindicated from the rage and rape of lustfull intemperate persons It becomes constant consonant and inviolable by putting off those gross vestiments which make her productions subject to the assaults and violence of man who is the most perverse and shamelesse defacer of Gods Image in himself and the most audacious and abhominable contemner of his Ordinances in his works by using them to a contrary end and quite different from that which their wise Creator made them for But let us not consider the goodnesse of death by those evils onely which it freeth us from but by the blessings also which it brings along with it Their soules are by some men less valued then Fortune and temporal power Some cast away their lives to winne a Crowne yea the Crowne and the Kingdome of another They plot to forfeit a Crown of Eternall glory by usurping a transitory one They murther their owne soules by shedding the blood of some innocent persons permitted to be overcome by men that they might have power with God and prevail Shall the short soveâ—aignty and sway of some small corners and spots of earth be compared to the everlasting triumphs in the Kingdom of Heaven The death of the sufferer is in this case the most gainfull the more he loseth by it upon earth his gain is by so much the greater in heaven The shorter our stay is here our time above if reckon'd from the day of our death is the longer but hath no end at all and the more our sufferings are the greater shall our glory be Hegesias the Cyrenian when he praised death promised not these blessings of Immortality but onely an end of temporall miseries and yet he did so far prevail with his Auditors that they preferred death to life they contemned the one and so lusted after the other that they would not patiently expect it but did impatiently long for it they fel upon their own swords and forced death to come on by
Flores Solitudinis Certaine Rare and Elegant PIECES Viz. Two Excellent Discourses Of 1. Temperance and Patience Of 2. Life and Death BY I.E. NIEREMBERGIUS THE WORLD CONTEMNED BY EUCHERIUS BP of LYONS And the Life of PAULINUS BP of NOLA Collected in his Sicknesse and Retirement BY HENRY VAUGHAN Silurist Tantus Amor Florum generandi gloria Mellis London Printed for Humphrey Moseley at the Princes Armes in St Pauls Church-yard 1654. TO THE TRUELY NOBLE And Religious Sir CHARLES EGERTON Knight SIR IF when you please to locke upon these Collections you will find them to lead you from the Sun into the shade from the open Terrace into a private grove from the noyse and pompe of this world into a silent and solitary Hermitage doe not you thinke then that you have descended like the dead in Occidentem tenebras for in this withdrawing-roome though secret and seldome frequented shines that happy starre which will directly lead you to the King of light You have long since quitted the Publick to present you now with some thing of solitude and the contempt of the world would looke like a designe to Flatter you were not my Name argument enough for the contrary Those few that know me will I am sure be my Compurgators and I my selfe dare assert this you have no cause to suspect it But what ever the thoughts of men will be I am already sure of this advantage that we live in an age which hath made this very Proposition though suspected of Melancholie mighty pleasing and even meane witts begin to like it the wiser sort alwaies did for what I beseech you hath this world that should make a wise man in love with it I will take the boldnesse to describe it in the same character which Bisselius did the hansome concubine of Mahomet the great Puella tota quanta nil erat aliud Quà m Illecebra picta delicatus harpago c. The whole wench how compleat soe'r was but A specious baite a soft sly tempting slut A pleasing witch a living death a faire Thriving disease a fresh infectious aire A pretious plague a furie sweetly drawne Wild fire laid up and finely drest in Lawne This delicate admir'd Inâ—hantresse even to those who enjoy her after their owne lusts and at their owne rate will prove but a very sad bargaine she is all deception and sorrow This world and the prince of it are the Canker-Rose in the mouth of the fox Decipit arefit pungit But those future supreme fruitions which God hath in store for those that love him are neither Phantasmes nor fallacies they are all substantiall and certaine and in the Apostles phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a far more exceeding and eternall weight of glory Nothing can give that which it hath not this transiâ—ory changeable and corrupt world cannot afford permanent treasures All it gives and all it shewes us is but trash illusion The true incorruptible riches dwell above the reach of rust and theeves Man himselfe in his outward part which was taken out of the world feeles the like passions with the world he is worn wasâ—ed dissolved and changed he comes hither he knowes not how and goes from hence he knowes not whither Nescio quò vado valete posteri was the Roman's Epitaph One generation commeth and another passeth away Properant decurrunt in absconditum they hasten and drive on to their appointed place untill the great day of accompt All the severall shapes and gestures we see in this wild Masque of time are but so many disguises which the Spirits that first assumed them cast off againe when they have acted their parts Most elegantly did Augurellius sing to Peter Lipomanus upon the death of his sister Clara Amaena Petre cum vides c. Peter when thou this pleasant world dost see Beleeve thou seest meere Dreames and vanitie Not reall things but false and through the Aire Each where an empty slipp'rie Scene through faire The chirping birds the fresh woods shadie boughes The leaves shrill whispers when the west-wind blowes The swift fierce Greyhounds coursing on the plaines The flying hare distrest 'twixt feare and paines The bloomy Mayd decking with flowers her head The gladsome easie youth by light love lead And whatsoe'r heere with admiring eyes Thou seem'st to see 't is but a fraile disguise VVorne by eternall things a passive dresse Put on by beings that are passiveles All the gay appearances in this life seeme to me but a swift succession of rising Clouds which neither abide in any certaine forme nor continue for any long time And this is that which makes the fore travell of the sonnes of men to be nothing else but a meere chasing of shadowes All is vanity said the Royall Philosopher and there is no new thing under the Sun I present you therefore with a discourse perswading to a contempt a desertion of these old things which our Saviour tells us shall passe away And with an historicall faithfull relation of the life and happinesse of a devout primitive father who gave all that he had upon earth to the poore that he might have treasure in heaven Some other Additions you will finde which meeting now in this volume under your name will in their descent to posterity carry with them this fairest Testimonie I loved you This Sir is my maine and my sole designe in this Addresse without reservation and without flattery for which respect and for no other I beleeve you will accept of what I have done and looke upon my suddaine and small Presents as upon some forward flowers whose kinde hast hath brought them above ground in cold weather The incertainty of life and a peevish inconstant state of health would not suffer me to stay for greater performances or a better season least loosing this I should never againe have the opportunity to manifest how much and how sincerely I am Sir Your Servant and well-wisher Henry Vaughan byVske neare Sketh-Rock 1653. To the onely true and glorious God the Sole disposer of Life and Death O Doe not goe thou know'st I 'le dye My Spring and Fall are in thy Booke Or if thou goest doe not deny To lend me though from far one looke My sinnes long since have made thee strange A very stranger unto me No morning-meetings since this change Nor Evening-walkes have I with thee Why is my God thus hard and cold When I am most most sick and sad Well-fare those blessed dayes of old Lad When thou did'st heare the weeping O doe not thou doe as I did Doe not despise a love-sick heart What though some Clouds defiance bid Thy Sun must shine in every part Though I have spoyl'd O spoyle not thou Hate not thine owne deere gift and token Poore Birds sing best and prettiest show When their neast is fallen and broken Deare Lord restore thy Ancient peace Thy quickning friendship mans bright wealth And if thou wilt not give me Ease From
heaviest upon the heart And by this I am induced to believe that it is naturall for man to Suffer because he onely naturally weepes Every extraneous felicity of this life is violent or forced and these constrained though splendid Adiuncts of Fortune are therefore short because noe violent thing can be perpetuall To suffer is the naturall condition and manner of man this is believed to be his misery without patience I confesse it is Nature never failes us in those things which are needful much lesse divine providence and grace Wee shall therefore never faile of Sufferings because they are the great Necessaries Medicines of Humane Nature Wee read of many men that never laught but never heard of any that never wept Democritus himself came weeping into the World none ever came without labour none without griefe Thou wilt ask why man the only creature addicted to beatitude should bee borne to trouble why through the vale of teares travells he to the house of joy why is he alone being capeable of felicity made subject unto misery Because he is borne for virtue the next and readiest instrument to attaine beatitude Now troubles or miserie are the masse or first matter of virtue and without this hard rudiment without this coyne of sorrow he cannot purchase it Nor are the good offices which these calamities doe for us either meane or few for wherefore flowes yea overflowes the divine mercy upon man but because he is miserable wherefore is Gods sure power and saving arme stretched out but because he is fraile wherefore are his comforts and refreshments so plentifully showred down but because he is sorrowfull and helplesse wherefore is his liberality and most faithful providence seen every minute but because he is poore and constantly needy yea wherefore is Immortality everlasting pleasures and a glorious resurrection secured unto us but because our bodies are mortal and subject to death and putrefaction By this time perhaps you see the appositnesse of that comparison which Eliphaz made betwixt man and a bird The bird by nature lifts himself above the earth upon his wings he passeth from hence into the cleare confines and neighbourhood of heaven where he dwells for a time and looks with contempt upon this inferiour darksome portion of the world when hee descends towards the earth he keepeth still above us he lodgeth in the height and freshnesse of the trees or pitcheth upon the spires or ridges of our houses or upon some steepe rock whose height inaccessibleness promise him securitie something that is eminent and high he alwaies affects to rest upon Man likewise ordained for heaven and the contempt of this spot of earth is by his very calamities borne up and carried above the world yea into heaven as an Eagle by the strength of his wings ascends above the clouds O the depth of the riches of the wisedome of God! O the mercifull designe and devicâ— of his providence who knowing our corrupt nature hath laid upon us a necessity of seeking those blessings whose inestimable value ought to stirre us up to a most voluntary and diligent searching after them To this necessity by the same chain of his providence hath hee tyed utility These are sufficient motives to perswade us to patience It was wisely said by some Arabian that the hedge about patience was profit for he that thinks gaine to be necessary must think labour so too Allthough Fortune should be so prodigal as to poure all her Treasures into the bosome of one man and not repent when she had done yet would this very man sometimes feele strong exigencies in indigencie Pompey and Darius were both hardly distrest with thirst they that were Lords of so many Rivers did then wish for one drop of Water Alexander the Great in some of his expeditions was like to perish with cold though his Dominion did in a manner extend to the very Sun for in the East which I may call the Suns House he was such an absolute Lord that bating the Power to forbid the Sun to rise there was nothing more could be added to his conquests Seeing then that labour or troubles are a necessity imposed upon man it followes that there are other labours belonging unto him which are also as necessary and those I shall terme Voluntarie Labours Oâ— these the Elegant Philosopher Eusebiuâ— hath excellently spoken Voluntary Labours saith he are necessary because of future Labours which hang over our heads he will beare those with more ease when they fall upon him who of his own accord and beforehand hath exercised himself in them But you see that in this course also the maine remedy is patience He that suffers willingly suffers not even that which is necessary to be suffered One wedge drives out another Venemous bitings are allayd by Venemous Medecines therefore in necessary troubles there is a necessity of voluntary Labours that Violent Evills meet not with Obstinate Wills but the unavoydablenesse of suffering would not be grievous nor the necessity or Law of Nature any way rigorous did not we by our owne exaggerations adde to their weight and our owne pain Wee helpe to encrease our owne Calamities by reasom of our Inerudition as Diphilus tells us who adviseth even the happy man to learn miseries What can wee doe more becomming our fraile condition then to teach our Mortality the troubles of life which are certain prolusions or arguments of death What is more beneficiall then to learn great tryalls and dangers that wee may leave that servile custome of fearing Fortune whose burthens we ought to bear as willingly as if wee desired to undergoe them It is a great rudiment of patience to suffer willingly when we least expect sufferings It is strange that although wee see nothing in the course of this life more frequent then miseries yet will wee not be perswaded that they may fall into our share Our griefes come most commonly before we believe they may come Nothing can make us believe that we may be miserable untill misery it selfe assures it to us The mind therefore should be tryed and prepared for it with some lusorie or mock-misfortunes Nor must we give eare to Democritus whose saying is That if there be any things for us to suffer it is good to learn them but not to suffer them It is good indeed to learn them but if they must be unavoydably suffered what will our learning of them avail us A most ridiculous advise in my Judgement And if the Author of it had been wise he had laught at nothing more then at this his owne Conclusion It is good to learn to suffer Evills but not to be evill It will benefit us much to learn to suffer them if not as they are Evills yet lest wee our selves become Evill for such we shall be by impatience Besides the overcomming of reall evills there remaine other slight hurts as the discourtesies of nature chance and furie of our enemies and our selves also which we cannot
Cease to do good and it is done The fruitlesse tree must be cut down Doest thou ask why That it may not be yea that it may be nothing and not cumber the ground Annihilation is more profitable then a fruitlesse being In this Family of Nature every one hath his task None may be idle The best and the Noblest are the most laborious Consider Heaven the first Exemplar of agility the brightest and the most active Elements are the next to it and above them move the Stars Fire is the Suburb of Heaven The Earth which is cold and dull like an Iland lies most remote and cut off as it were from the neighbourhood of light Nothing hath commerce with Heaven but what is pure he that would be pure must needs be active Sin never prevailes against us but in the absence of Virtue and Virtue is never absent but when wee are idle To preserve the peace of Conscience wee must not feare sufferings if the hand of man wound us God himselfe will cure us But if wee wound our selves by resisting him the hands of all his creatures will be against us because ours was against his Having now taught you how to master Adventitious Personal Evils and to prevent the Evils of Conscience It orderly followes that I should teach you how to subdue and triumph over Publick Evils or National Calamities The sufferings of just persons wound the heart of a wise man when his own cannot grate upon it Fortune that could neither hurt him by force nor by fraud drawes blood from him through the sides of others The righteous liver is troubled more with the losses of his neighbours then with his own Hee whose patience could not be overcome by passion lies open and naked to the assaults of compassion The life of the wise man is the most pretious and profitable he lives not only for himself but for others and for his Country The safety of the imprudent is his care as well as his own Hee is not onely their compatriot but their patriot and defender Excellent is that rapture of Menander True life in this is shown To live for all mens good not for our own He onely truly lives that lives not meerly for his own ends To live is not a private but a publick good The Treasure of good living is diffusive The Civil Guardian lookes to the goods of his VVards but the wise man is the naturall Tutor of the people and lookes to the publick good and to the aged as well as those that are in their Minority It will therefore be worthy our paines to consider and enquire how such men should carry themselves in popular and grand mutations Whither they should change their Nature or their Maners or retain them both when both fortune knaves and fooles are most changing In National alterations a wiseman man may change his outward carriage but not his inward His mind must be dry and unmoved when his Eyes flow with teares Hee must bestow a compassionate Fatherly look upon the afflicted and those that are soe weak as to believe that temporal sufferings can make them miserable But neither his tears nor those that he bewailes must work so far upon him as to break his inward peace by admitting of fear or hope or the desire of revenge and though hee himself stands in a secure station from whence he can both distresse defeat Fortune yet must he helpe also to redeem others he must take the field with his Forces and set upon her with open valour doing good as Tzetzes saith to all men and abolishing every where the power of Fortune If hee finds that the brests of others are too narrow to entertaine Royall Reason hee must labour by Stratagems by Manuductions and inducing circumstances to incourage and strengthen them Hee must not leave them untill he hath secured them Antisthenes said that a good man was a troublesome burthen Who but insipid wretches that have no feeling of their misery will assent to this position A good liver is troublesome to none but to the bad and he is by so much the more pretious and desirable That wound which makes the patient senselesse is more dangerous then that which smarts and grieves him But if their misery when it is made apparent to them by the good man is thereby diminished and they acknowledge themselves to have been made so by their own vain opinion it is just that they confesse Virtue to be healing and that by her meanes they found helpe from a strangers hand when their own were infirm and helplesse O Virtue the great lenitive of man-kind Yea of those who are thine Enemies Thy hand heals him that would hurt thee As Egypts drought by Nilus is redrest So thy wise tongue doth comfort the opprest Yea the Evill by whose association thy purity was never defiled thou dost helpe by the good In every virtuous man I hold that saying to be true which Venantius spoke of the great Captain Bonegissus His hand restores his Counsel secures whom Fortune rejects or casts out of her armes he taketh up and guards them in his And hence I am induced to differ in my opinion from Philo about that saying of the Jews Law-giver that a wise man hath heavy hands What wonder is it if they be so seeing the imprudent the afflicted and thâ— disconsolate who are grievous and heavy to themselves do all depend and hang â—pon his armes like Infants upon their mothers To help these hangers on he must needs be bowed and by speaking faire to their grievances begin to redress them This is the property or rather the prerogative of the constant and wise man Hee can descend safely from the Sphere of his owne happinesse to mingle with and to comfort the miserable Noe man by standing still can rescue one that is carryed away by a violent torrent and ready to be drowned nor if he also be overcome by the same stream can he save the other It is one thing to be thrown down and another to be bowed down He that would not be thrown down must look to the liberty of his Will and not submit it to Fortune But to restore or raise up others it is necessary that he must bow No man can take up a Child that is fallen but by bending himselfe To cure the ill-affected we must in some things incline to their affections Comfort is a potion of that nature that heals not the sick without an appearance of the same indisposition in the very Physitian The patient will otherwise suspect that for poyson which is meant for his health Hee that is ill-affected wil be unwilling to believe that another which is not so can have any skill to cure him And he that labours with the same disease can neither cure others nor himself Therefore he that would minister comfort unto the distressed must of necessity have his will above the Tyranny of Fortune he must have a mind that is invulnerable and
shelter from the lowd and persecuting whirlwinds of time Here is our sure station and certain rest Here a large and silent recesse secluded from the World opens and offers it selfe unto us Here a pleasant serene tranquillity shines upon us Hither when you are come your weather-beaten Vessell after all your fruitlesse toiles shall at last find rest and securely ride at the Anchor of the Cross But it is time now that I should make an end Let then I beseech you the truth and the force of Heavenly Doctrine Epitomized here by me be approved of and used by you to the glory of God and your own good These are all my precepts at present pardon the length and acknowledge my love Gloria tibi mitissime Jesu Primitive Holiness Set forth in the LIFE of blessed PAULINUS The most Reverend and Learned BISHOP of NOLA Collected out of his own Works and other Primitive Authors by Henry Vaughan Silurist 2 Kings cap. 2. v.r. 12. My Father my Father the Chariot of Israel and the Horsmen thereof LONDON Printed for Humphrey Moseley at the Prince's Armes in St. Paul's Church-yard 1654. TO THE READER IF thou lovest Heaven and the beauty of Immortality here is a guide will lead thee into that house of light The earth at present is not worth the enjoying it is corrupt and poysoned with the curse I exhort thee therefore to look after a better country an inheritance that is undefiled and fadeth not away If thou doest this thou shalt have a portion given thee here when all things shall be made new In the mean time I commend unto thee the memorie of that restorer and the reward he shall bring with him in the end of this world which truely draws near if it be not at the door Doat not any more upon a withered rotten Gourd upon the seducements and falshood of a most odious decayed Prostitute but look up to Heaven where wealth without want delight without distâ—st and joy without sorrow like undefiled and incorruptible Virgins sit cloathed with light and crowned with glory Let me incite thee to this speculation in the language of Ferarius Define tandem aliquando prono in terram vultu vel praeter naturam brutum animal vel ante diem silicernium videri Coelum suspice ad quod natus ad quod erectâ staturâ tuendum tenendumque factus es Immortalia sydera caducis flosculis praefer aut eadem esse Coeli flores existimato nostratibus Amaranthis diuturniores Farewel and neglect not thy own happiness H.V. THE LIFE OF HOLY PAVLINVS THE BISHOP of NOLA BEn Sirach finishing his Catalogue of holy men to seal up the summe and to make his list compleat brings in Simon the Sonne of Onias And after a short narration of his pious care in repairing and fortifying the Temple hee descends to the particular excellencies and sacred perfections of his person Which to render the more fresh and sweet unto posterity he adornes with these bright and flowrie Encomiums 1. He was as the Morning-star in the midst of a cloud and as the Moon at the full 2. As the Sunne shining upon the temple of the most high and as the Rain-bow giving light in the bright clouds 3. As the flower of Roses in the spring of the year as Lilies by the rivers of waters and as the branches of the Frankincense-tree in the time of summer 4. As fire and Incense in the Censer and as a vessel of beaten gold set with all manner of precious stones 5. As a fair Olive-tree budding forth fruit and as a Cypresse tree which groweth up to the clouds 6. When he put on the robe of honour and was cloathed with the perfection of glory when he went up to the holy Altar he made the garment of holinesse honourable Most great indeed and most glorious Assimilations full of life and full of freshnesse but in all this beauty of holinesse in all these spices and flowers of the Spouse there is nothing too much nothing too great for our most great and holy Paulinus The Saints of God though wandring in sheep-skins and goat-skins in caves and in mountains become eminently famous and leave behind them a more glorious and enduring memory then the most prosperous tyrants of this world which like noysome exhalations moving for a time in the Eye of the Sun fall afterwards to the earth where they rot and perish under the chaines of darkness The fame of holy men like the Kingdome of God is a seed that grows secretly the dew that feeds these plants comes from him that sees in secret but rewards openly They are those trees in the Poet Which silently and by none seen Grow great and green While they labour to conceal and obscure themselves they shine the more And this saith Athanasius in the life of Antonie the great is the goodnesse of God who useth to glorifie his servants though unwilling that by their examples he may condemn the world and teach men that holinesse is not above the reach of humane nature Apposite to my present purpose is all this prolusion both because this blessed Bishop whose life I here adventure to publish was a person of miraculous perfections and holynesse and because withall he did most diligently endeavour to vilifie his own excellent abilities and to make himselfe of no account But Pearls though set in lead will not lose their brightnesse and a virtuous life shines most in an obscure livelyhood In the explication of his life I shall follow first the method of Nature afterwards of Grace I shall begin with his Birth Education and Maturitie and end with his Conversion Improvements and Perfection To make my entrance then into the work I finde that he was born in the City of Burdeaux in Gascoyne in the year of our Lord three hundred and fifty three Constantius the Arian reigning in the East and Constans in the West and Liberius being Bishop of Rome In a Golden Age when Religion and Learning kissed each other and equally flourished So that he had the happines to shine in an age that loved light and to multiply his own by the light of others It was the fashion then of the Roman Senatours to build them sumptuous houses in their Country-livings that they might have the pleasure and conveniency of retiring thither from the tumult and noyse of that great City which sometimes was and would be yet the head of the World Upon such an occasion without doubt was Burdeaux honoured with the birth of Paulinus his Fathers estate lying not far off about the town of Embrau upon the River Garumna which rising out of the Pyrene hils washeth that part of Guienne with a pleasant stream and then runs into the Aquitane sea By this happy accident came France to lay claime to Paulinus which she makes no small boast of at this day But his Country indeed if we follow his descent which is the right way to find it is Italie and Rome
the Chooser much For when he dyes his good or ill just such As here it was goes with him hence and staies Still by him his strict Judge in the last dayes These serious thoughts take up my soul and I While yet 't is day-light fix my busie eye Upon his sacred Rules lifes precious sum Who in the twilight of the world shall come To judge the lofty looks and shew mankind The diff'rence 'twixt the ill and well inclin'd This second coming of the worlds great King Makes my heart tremble and doth timely bring A saving care into my watchfull soul Lest in that day all vitiated and foul I should be found That day times utmost line When all shall perish but what is divine When the great Trumpets mighty blast shall shake The earths foundations till the hard Rocks quake And melt like piles of snow when lightnings move Like hail and the white thrones are set above That day when sent in glory by the Father The Prince of life his blest Elect shall gather Millions of Angels round about him flying While all the kindreds of the earth are crying And he enthron'd upon the clouds shall give His last just sentence who must die who live This is the fear this is the saving care That makes me leave false honours and that share Which fell to mee of this fraile world lest by A frequent use of present pleasures I Should quite forget the future and let in Foul Atheism or some presumptuous sin Now by their loss I have secur'd my life And bought my peace ev'n with the cause of strife I live to him who gave me life breath And without feare expect the houre of death If you like this bid joy to my rich state If not leave me to Christ at any rate Being now ordained a Minister of holy things and a feeder of tâ—e flock of Christ that he might be enabled to render a joyfull account at the appearance of the great Shepheard he resolved with all convenient expedition to sell and give away all his large and Princely Possessions in Italy and France which hithertâ— he had not disposed of for he looked upon his great Patrimonies as matters of distraction and backsliding the thoughts and solicitousnesse about such vast revenues disturbing his pious affections and necessarily intruding into his most holy exercitations Upon this rare resolution he returnes with his faithfull Consort into France leaving Barcinoe and holy Lampius in much sorrow for his departure For though hee had entred there into the Ministery yet was he no member of that Diocesse And here saith Uranius who was his Presbyter and wrote a brief narration of his life did he open his Treasuries to the poor and the stranger He did not only refresh his neighbours but sent messengers into other remote parts to summon the naked and the hungry to this great Feast where they were both fed and cloathed with his own hands He eased the oppressed freed the captives payd the debts of whole families and redeemed divers persons that were become bondslaves to their creditors Briefly he sold all that he had and distributed the money amongst the poor not reserving one penny either for himself or his dear Therasia Saint Ambrose in his thirtieth Epistle to Sabinus confirmeth this relation Paulinum splendore generis in partibus Aquitaniae nulli secunâ—um venditis facultatibus tam â—uis quametiam conjugalibus c. Paulinus saith he the most eminent for his Nobility in all the parts of Aquitane having sold away all his patrimonies together with the goods of his wife did out of pure love to Jesus Christ divide all that vast Summe of Money amongst the poor and he himself from a rich Sâ—nator is become a most poor man having cast off that heavy secular burthen and forsaken his own house his country and his kindred that he might with more earnestnesse follow Christ His Wife also as nobly descended and as zealous for the Faith as himself consâ—nted to all his desires and having given away all her own large possessions lives with her husband in a little thatch'd cottage rich in nothing but the hidden treasures of Religion and holinesse Saint Augustine also in his first book de Civitate Dei and the tenth Chapter celebrates him with the like testimony Our Paulinus saith hee from a man most splendidly rich became most poor most willingly and most richly holy He laboured not to adde field unto field nor to inclose himself in Câ—dar and Ivory and the drossie darke gold of this world but to enter through the gates into the precious light of that City which is of pure gold like unto cleare glasse He left some few things in this world to enjoy all in the world to come A great performance certainly and a most fair approach towards the Kingdom of heaven He that fights with dust comes off well if it blinds him not To slight words and the names of temptations is easie but to deale so with the matter and substance of them is a task Conscience hath Musick and light as well as discord and darknesse And the triumphs of it are as familiar after good works as the Checks of it after bad It is no heresie in devotion to be sensible of our smallest Victories over the World But how far he was from thinking this a Victory may be easily gathered out of his ownâ— words in his second Epistle to Severus Facile nobis bona c. The goods saith he I carried about me by the slipping of my skirt out of my hand fell easily from me And those things which I brought not into this World and could not carry out of it being only lent me for a time I restored again I pulled them not as the skin off my back but laid them by as a garment I had sometimes worne But now comes the difficulty upon me when those things which are truly mine as my heart my Soul and my works must be presented and given a living Sacrifice unto God The abdication of this World and the giving of our temporall goods amongst the poore is not the running of the race but a preparing to run it is not the end but the beginning and first step of our Journey Hee that striveth for masteries shall not be crowned except he first strive lawfully And he that is to swimme over a River cannot do it by putting off his cloathes onely he must put his body also into the stream and with the motion of his armes his hands and feete passe through the violence of the Brook and then rest upon the further side of it And in his 12th Epistle he cries out O miserable and vaine men Wee believe that wee bestow something upon the poor wee trade and lend and would be counted liberall when we are most covetous The most unconscionable userers upon Earth are not so greedy as we are nor their interest and exactions so unreasonable as ours We purchase Heaven with Earth happinesse