Philosophers 1 WEre the question proposed in formall termes An inter nihil aliquid detur medium Whether something or nothing may admit a meane or middle nature few answerers in the Schools would make choice of the affirmative If any did hee might easily be thus opposed Every meane betwixt two is either by participation of both extreames as lukewarme is neither hot nor cold but a mixture of both or a meane by abnegation as being capable of neither So a stone though in it be not blinde yet cannot see and is therefore such a meane as we now speake of i medium abnegationis betwixt sight and blindnesse That which is not so is nothing can communicate no kinde of being for it hath none unto any thing therefore it is impossible there should bee any meane of participation betwixt nothing and something And to finde a meane betwixt them by abnegation that is any thing which is neither something nor nothing is as hard as to assigne a space or vacancy betweene a line and the point that terminates it What name soever we propose unlesse it have some degree or portion of entity answering to it we may justly say it is just nothing These reasons notwithstanding though they firmely hold in secular disputes of predicamentall or numerable Entities yet the infinite Essence comes not within the lists of this division Is he then a meane between something and nothing rather an excellency too transcendent to be comprehended under the name of something or of any thing for this were to make him a numerable part of being On the other side we should avouch as much under our hand as the foole said in his heart if we did cōprehend him under the other extream To say there is no God or that God is nothing are speeches altogether equivolent both equally false and alike blasphemous Fully contradictory to their falshood and in direct opposition to their blasphemie we may more safely say and think that God is one yet no one thing And if we avouch him to be all our meaning is he is a great deale more than all things The Latine ens which universally taken directly answers to our English every thing or any thing as Mirandula well observes faciem concreti habet it beares the face or image of a concrete And every concrete takes its name from that nature whereof it participates which nature notwithstanding by reason of its simple pure and perfect essence cannot brooke the same name which it bestowes on others Nothing is truly tearmed hot or white but from participation of heat or whitenesse yet to say heat is hot or whitenesse white is a speech as improper and unnaturall as it would bee to style the Kings Majesty Lord President chiefe Iustice of some Court or with some other inferiour title meerely dependent on supreame Majesty Heat then is that from which things are called as by participation of it they truly are hot Whitenesse that from whose particiration things are termed white This shall we speake of God so we speake of him as best befits his supreame Majesty that hee is no one thing but rather one from whose most pure perfect being all things are said to bee what they are That man is one thing and the earth another that any thing is sayd to be what it is includes a participation of his being whose proper name is I am whose essence is the very quintessence the incomprehensible and indiminishable fulnesse of that without which wee can neither affirme or deny ought of that which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the onely foundation of every thing that can bee named alone the onely bond of all things that can bee combined or linckt together Say we then not onely that He is one but that he onely is And that in him the eminent totality or perfection of every thing to whom this title Is can be imparted is contained Angels and immortall spirits are but they are not Being it selfe that is they are what they are by participation of his Essence who onely is who alone comprehends all things 2 Of the greatest Angell which he hath created or of the most noble intelligent Spirit which the Philosophers imagined were he present or did we know the place of his residence we might without wrong say This Angell or yonder Intelligence or speake of either as of a numerable part though a principall one of this Vniverse For though his nature be much more perfect then ours is and hee according to the perfection of his nature much more excellent then his fellow Angels are his perfections neverthelesse have their bounds and limits not uncapable of these demonstrative signes This Here or Yonder c. He neither containes the specificall perfection of our nature nor the numericall of his Fellowes within the measure of his perfection In his kind then he is most perfect yet is he not that perfection which he hath in him but the receptacle of it And if he have perfection onely in him without being himselfe perfection Quid habet quod non accepit All he hath must bee participated or borrowed from perfection it selfe And of his borrowed perfections one neither properly is another nor are all or any of them what he is His power is not the same that his wisedome is his wisedome is not his goodness nor his goodnesse his life Sathan and his Angels have life though they have lost their goodnesse and their power to practise is lesse than their wit to plot mischiefe and villany The best the wisest or mightiest of those immortall Spirits which kept their stations is not able either by his meere power to give being to things that are not or life to livelesse creatures his wisedome cannot inspire wisedome into creatures indued with life his goodnesse is no fountaine whence grace may be derived into the heart of man But when we say God is one or God onely is in this indivisible unity we include all multiplicity Nor can wee say more of him in fewer words than Seneca hath done Est totum quod vides totum quod non vides Hee is the absolute totality of all and every part of being or perfection which we see in things visible or conceive in substances invisible 3 By the same analogy of speech that wee say a statue or picture though made after life is no true man we are bound to say and thinke that no creature the best of which is but the image of God his being at the best but participated truly is It is their chiefe grace to be true shadows of true being O◠as it is usuall with Divines to enstyle Christ the true Samuel David himselfe the right Salomon the onely Sampson not that they thinke the stories of those mens lives were onely faigned legends for good example or that no such persons had ever truly beene but because they did foreshadow one far more excellent than themselves in whom that was really
saith the Lord that I will send unto him wanderers that shall cause him to wander and shall emptie his vessels and breake their bottles And Moab shall bee ashamed of Chemosh at the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel their confidence How say yee we are mightie and strong men for the warre Moab is spoyled and gone up out of her cities and his chosen young men are gone downe to the slaughter saith the King whose name is the Lord of hoasts The calamitie of Moab is neere to come and his affliction hasteth fast Ier. 48. 12 13 14 15 16 c. The horne of Moab is cut off and his arme is broken saith the Lord. Make yee him drunken for he magnified himselfe against the Lord. Moab also shall wallow in his vomit and he also shall be in derision For was not Israel a derision unto thee was he found among theeves for since thou spakest of him thou skippedst for joy ver 25 26 27. They shall howle saying How is it broken downe how hath Moab turned the backe with shame so shall Moab be a derision and a dismaying to al them about him For thus saith the Lord Behold he shall flee as an Eagle shall spread his wings over Moab Kerioth is takeÌ„ the stroÌ„g holds are surprised the mightie mens hearts in Moab at that day shall be as the heart of a woman in her pangs v. 39. 40 41 As for Babylon if she were stupid and blinde without all foresight feare or apprehension of that hideous stormes approach wherein shee perished the wonder is lesse to any Christian then their stupiditie who thinke her destruction might by rules of policy have bin preveÌ„ted For though her defendants had beene more in number then her proud wals could containe though every one had beene more stout then Hector armed with more hands then Briarius had though every one of her staâ—gazing statesmen had had more politick eyes then Argos had all had beene one totidemque occulos nox occupatuna A messenger from the Lord of hoasts had called for a dimnesse of sight upon her Seers and sung a lullaby to her souldiers everlasting sleepe I will make drunke her Pinces and her Wisemen her Captains and her Rulers and her mightie men and they shall sleepe a perpetuall sleepe and not awake saith the King whose name is the Lord of hoasts Ier. 51 vers 57. So infallibly doth divine Iustice observe the rule of retaliation whereof I shall hereafter speake Though Babylon should mount up to heaven and though shee should fortifie the height of her strengh yet from me shall spoylers 〈◊〉 unto her saith the Lord. Ier. 51. ver 53. For seeing her people hath entred into the sanctuary of the Lords house the Lord wil doe judgement upon her grauen Images vers 52. 15 To conclude The reason of Babels stupiditie and whatsoever oversights the Politician can discover in her related by Xenophon or Herodotus was that the fulfilling of Ieremies Prophesies against her might become more manifest to succeeding ages How is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and broken how is Babylon become a desolation among the nations I have layd a snare for thee and thou art also taken O Babylon and thou wast not aware thou are founde and also caught because thou hast striven against the Lord. The Lord hath opened his armorie hath brought forth the weapons of his indignation for this is the worke of the Lord God of hoasts in the land of the Caldeans Come against her from the utmost border open her storehouses cast her up as heapes and destroy her utterly let nothing of her bee left Ier. 50. vers 23 24 25 26. For she had carried away all that was in Ezekias house all that his father had laid up in store nothing was left as Esaiah had foretold c. 59. v. 36. the exact fulfilling of whose Prophecie is registred by the sacred Historian 2 Chron. 6. verse 18. The sudden surprizall of the Citie and Court of Babylon made the finding of the treasure of Darkenesse and the riches of secret places which the Lord by his Prophet had promised to Cyrus more easie then if his entrance at that time had beene suspected or feared for so the besieged might have had leisure to have hid their treasure where the enemy should hardly have found it 16 But what speciall comfort is this to Sion that Cyrus had done to Babylon as Babylon had done to her This might satiate or somewhat allay the boyling heat of a revengefull minde But is the miserie of an enemy of like use unto Gods people as was the Brazen serpent Can the sight of it cure their griefe or beget true happinesse in such as looke on it It is very probable that Babylons spoiles did helpe to reedifie Ierusalem And albeit the God of Sion had other meanes in store more by many then man can number or conceive for reducing his people into their owne Land we may notwithstanding without censure of curiositie safely conjecture that the disgraces which Nebuchadnezzar his successors has done unto the royall seed of Iudah were the first seedes of their speciall favour and grace with Cyrus Of the plagues threatned by Esaiah unto Ezekiah for shewing his treasures unto the Babylonians it was one part that of his sonnes some should bee Eunuches in the Palace of the King of Babylon Is 39. 7. Now it is unlikely that Cyrus would eyther make the Persians Eunuches or trust the Caldeans about his bodie Daniel and other his fellowes of the royall seed of Iudah being made such unto his hand were men as fit for his purpose as hee could seeke And it was his purpose upon consultation as Xenophon tels us to have Eunuches next about him as men most likely to be trusty Daniel or others of good note amongst this people being admitted to favour for to be of Cyrus bedchamber would not bee defective in procuring their countries good And easie it was for him that causeth darkenesse to bring forth light that turneth the shadow of death into the morning to raise vp a blessing unto his people out of their expiring curse But whether by this meanes or others certaine it is that such of Iudah as escaped Nebuchadnezzars sword were detained captives to him and his sonnes untill the erection of the Persian monarchy 2 Chron. cap. 36. vers 20. Now in the first yeare of Cyrus King of Persia that the word of the Lord spoken by the mouth of Ieremiah might bee accomplished the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus King of Persia that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdome and put it also in writing saying Thus saith Cyrus King of Persia All the kingdomes of the earth hath the Lord God of heaven given mee and he hath charged mee to build him an house in Ierusalem which is in Iudah who is there among you of all his people the Lord his God be with him and
made upon like accidents in generall That law or rule of equity saith he which wretched men in effect deny whilest they doe wrong to others the sâ—mâ— law the samâ— men desire might be in force whilst they suffer wrong or harms by â—t heâ—s For example he thâ—◠〈◊〉 wrong doth wish what the Fâ—â—le saith in his heart there were no God for so he might hope to escape that vengeance which whilest he thinks of a God or justice divine hangs over his head uncessantly threatning to fall upon him But hee that suffers wrong is willing to beleeve there is a God and heartily wisheth it so to be that by his assistance he may bee supported against the evills which he suffers It is for this reason saith this Philosopher expedient that such as grieve and afflict others should have experience of the like affliction to the end that being taught by their owne losse or grievance they might learne that truth which being blinded by avarice or other unruly desire they could not see before And this truth or good lesson they may easily learne so they will undergoe the mulct or punishment due to their offence with submission or patience 6 Albeit the Cardinall had beene a flat Atheist before or one at least that had not God in his thoughts whilest he sought to please the rigorous humour of this King with an invention so displeasing unto others yet after experience had taught him how exactly that misery had befalne himselfe which by his furtherance had befalne many or was likely to befall them hee did no question often wiâ—h in his heart that the rule of retaliation wherwith he was visited might be constant and unpartiall that King Lewis himselfe might not bee exempted from its visitation Now unto what rule or law could so great a King bee subject besides that one everliving rule or eternall Law it selfe He that heartily wisheth Iustice might bee done on such as have full power and authority to doe it but will not doe it doth implicitely yet necessarily acknowledge a Law or Iudge supreame Iustice it selfe so is God And he that seriously desires mitigation of that paine or misery which by the irresistible force of humane authority is inflicted on him doth acknowledge a mercy more soveraigne than any earthly power and this can be no other than God who is mercy it selfe Many may cast the feare of God out of their thoughts but none all notions of divine Iustice out of their hearts These notions or apprehensions of an everliving rule of equity mercy and justice are so deeply rooted in the consciences of all and are themselves of such an immortall nature as they can never be so utterly extinguished in any but that affliction will inspire them with fresh life and motion and make them breathe out supplications to the supreme Iudge either for mercy towards themselves or for justice upon other 7 The particular evills which Lewis by Divine Iustice in this life suffred haply had never come to the exact notice of posterity unlesse Cominaeus his wits had beene set on worke to observe them by his experience or foresufferance of the like evills from Lewis or by his procurement Besides this Authors imprisonment eight months in the iron Cage another evill there was wherein no ancient servant or follower of this King but had a large portion For he had either a naturall inclination or a disposition acquired by custome to hold them whom he did not formally sentence to any set punishment in a perpetuall feare or anxiety of minde Now the consciousnesse of this his disposition and customary practice in his best and able dayes did as it were binde him over to indure the like torments in his feeble and declining yeares Metus pessimus Tyrannus To live in perpetuall feare is to live under the most cruell Tyranny that can bee And unto this Tyranny greatest Tyrants are more subject and more obnoxious than their inferiours can be to them For though it be possible for one man to keepe many thousands in perpetuall awe and feare yet is it not so much for every man of so many in his owne particular to feare one man how greatly soever as it is for one man how great soever to stand in feare but of halfe so many Yet can no man be so great or so well guarded as not to have often and just occasion to feare some harme or other from everie one whom he hath made to feare him more than is fitting Whence he that seekes to sowe the seedes of feare in the hearts of others doth but thereby as it were consecrate his owne heart or brest to be the receptacle or store-house of the multiplied increase or crop For even in this case that saying is most true As every one sowes so shall he reape What other issue could be expected from Lewis his rigid practise upon others and his owne native timorous and ignoble disposition than such tormenting jealousies and perplexities as Cominaeus tells us in his old age did seize upon him and enforce him to feare the vertue and worth of his dearest friends not daring to trust sonne or daughter or sonne in law Now it is more than a Purgatorie even an Hell upon earth for a man which can take no joy in himselfe to deprive himselfe of all comfort from his dearest friends and them of all comfort from him So uncomfortable was the Duke of Bourbon his Sonne in Lawes companie to Lewis and Lewis his company unto him that when he came to visit him in peace and out of loyall respect and duty he caused a slye search to be made of him and of another Earle his companion whether they did not beare offensive weapons under their garments thus polluting the nuptiall joyes of his late maried sonne and heyre with sordid jealousies of his sonne in Law CHAP. 33. How the former law of retaliation hath been executed upon Princes according to Arithmeticall proportion or according to the rule of commutative justice 1 BVt however Lewis of France were punished according to the rule of Retaliation or counterpassion yet in the manner of retribution the righteous Lord did observe a kinde of Geometricall proportion The affliction or visitation it selfe was the just award of punitive Iustice yet the form of proceeding bears the character of humane distributive Iustice which hath usually some respect to the dignity of the persons awarded So humane Laws which punish capital crimes with death are dispensed with by the favour of the Prince for the manner of death That is not so ignominious or dishonorable in the execution upoÌ„ Nobles as upoÌ„ inferiors involved in the same capitall crime or treason no not albeit the Nobles be principalls and inferiours but accessories or assistants But this favourable kind of punishment for the externall forme God doth not alwaies use towards Princes If many times he may seeme to beare respect or favour unto their place or persons this ariseth not
from their greatnesse but from some other causes best knowne unto himselfe His judgements upon Princes and other Potentates are often executed according to the most strict arithmeticall proportion that can be required in the rule of Retaliation upon equalls as well for the manner as for the matter of punishment And although God in this life never plagueth any according to the full measure of their offences committed against himselfe yet he often visiteth Kings and Monarks with a fuller visible measure of calamity than they have brought upon others and with calamity of the same kinde Though Pharaoh had beene the greatest Monark and his Court the most glorious seat of Nobility till their time on earth yet because hee and his Nobles had plotted cruelty against the innocent without relentance or remorse the dignity of his or their persons procures no mitigation either for the matter or manner of punishment Their dues are fully paid them as we say in kinde the guiltlesse blood of poore Hebrew infants is rendred seven â—old into the bosome of the Aegyptian Nobility and men of Warre 2 Never did any State or Kingdome since the foundation of the world were laid receive so terrible a wound within its owne territories in one day as at this time Egypt did but females did in some measure feele the smart Yet in this last as in the former plagues no Egyptian woman had cause to lament for her selfe for her sister or daughter but many for their husbaÌ„ds their brothers or sons What was the reason The Egyptian Mid-wives and they were women if no other of their sex besides had beene more merciful to the infant males of the Hebrewes than the Egyptian men had been And as they had done so hath the Lord requited the one and rewarded the other To the mercilesse Courâ—iers Politicians and men of Warre he hath rendred vengeance and judgement without mercy and punished them with miserable and ignominious death shewing compassion on the weaker and more pitifull sex 3 It was a rare document of divine justice to ordaine of divine wisdome so to contrive that the dogges should lap King Ahabs blood in the same place where they had lapped the blood of Naboth stoned to death through his connivance or permission As sure a token it was of justice tempred with mercy and of the great Kings speciall grace or favour unto this gracelesse King of Israel that the dogs which lapped his blood should not so much as touch his body Being slaine in battell his death was honourable as the world accounteth honour yet was it not so much the dignity of his royall person as his humiliation upon the Prophets chalenge which made him capable of this favour but not a dram either of disgrace or misery from which Ahab was by Gods mercy in part released which did not fall into the scale of Iustice wherein the impiety of proud Iezabel was exactly waighed The measure of her husbands punishment is not so much less as hers was fuller than Naboths had been The sight of her coÌ„manding letters caused poore Naboth to be stoned to death by the men of his citie and at Iehues call her body is dashed against the stones by her owne servants The dogs lapped Naboths blood but they devoured Iezabels flesh she had beene shamelesly cruell in her life and she hath a most shamefull and a most fearfull death Nor would the all-seeing Iudge suffer that respect to be done to her corps which her cruell executioner intended upon remembrance that she had beene daughter to a King It was I must confesse a ruefull case and yet a judgement more righteous than rufull that she which had issued from royall womb she from whose wombe had issued royall progenie for she had beene respectively lawfull daughter lawfull wife and lawful mother unto three Kings should be entombed ere her corps were cold in the entrailes of dogs should have no better burial than the dead Ass or other carion albeit she died in her owne royall palace But thus the Almighties arme sometimes reacheth greatest Princes even in this life heavier blowes than they can give unto their poorest subjects But where the blow or matter of punishment which falls on them is much lighter the wound or torment may be more grievous as was observed before than their furie can procure unto their despised brethren 4 But neither doth the sacred relation concerning Pharaohs overthrow or Iezabels death containe a more perspicuous ocular demonstration of Divine Iustice executed according to the rigour of Retaliation than hath beene represented or rather really acted upon a publike Stage within the memory of some now living The subject of this rufull spectacle was Henry the second French King of that name The accident is not recorded by Gods Spirit yet the experiment as unpartiall Writers which I take it were eye witnesses of it have related is as exactly parallell to the rules of Gods Spirit and affords as good instruction for moderne Princes as examples in the Sacred Story did to posterity This youthfull King in the beginning of his reigne had licenced others to feed their eyes with the sight of a deadly Duell authorized by him in favour of Vivonus to the disgrace and prejudice as the Court of France expected of Chabotius whose hands notwithstanding the Lord did strengthen to kill the Favourite who after many bitter provocations had drawne him within the Lists more against his will than an old Beare is brought to the stake The death of Vivonus though most just doth no way excuse the barbarous injustice of this King who hath this justice done upon him hee had made a sport of shedding blood and he himselfe is slaine in Ludicro certamine running at Tilt and slaine by that hand which had beene his instrument to apprehend those Noble and religious Gentlemen which had been lately imprisoned and in whose misery the Court of France did then rejoyce and adding gall to wormwood solemnized these and the like triumphant shewes or sportings in their sight yet was it not Count Montgomeries hand but the right hand of the Lord which did at one and the same instant unty the Kings Bever and guide the splinter or glance of Montgomeries Speare into that eye which had beheld a Duell that could not be determined without the death of the one or other combatant both being Frenchmen his natural subjects with such delight as yong Gallants do ordinary prizes or other like spectacles of recreation Of Vivonus his death few or none but Frenchmen were eye-witnesses but of this Kings tragicall triumph Spain Germany with other countries were spectators by their proxies or Ambassadors As if the Lord would have these theÌ„ present to cary this message to their masters to be by theÌ„ directed to the rest of ChristiaÌ„ Princes Discite justitiaÌ„ moniti non temnere divos Take warning by this Princes Fate Not to approve what God doth
fully consonant to Gods owne words to Ionah Chap. 4. 10 11. Then said the Lord thou hast had pitie on the Gourd for the which thou hast not labored neither madest it to grow which came up in a night and perished in a night And should not I spare Nineveh that great City wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discerne between their right hand and their left hand and also much cattle Amongst great men many oppresse their tenants but what Lord would spoile his proper inheritance whereto no other can be intituled or eate out the heart of that ground which hee cannot alienate or demise What Architect would deface his owne worke unlesse the image of his unskilfulnesse whereof the Creator cannot bee impeached be so apparant in it as he cannot but blush to behold it Or who would leave a goodly foundation bare or naked unlesse he be unable to reare it up without injustice Now seeing the Entitative Good of proper being is the foundation of that true happinesse which flowes from more speciall participation of Gods presence wheresoever he hath laid the one it is to all that rightly consider his Wisedome Truth and Goodnesse an assured pledge of his will and pleasure to finish it with the other As his nature is immutable so are his gifts without repentance The current of his joyfull beneficence can admit no intermission much lesse admixture of any evill Sorrow woe and misery must seeke some other Originall they have no hidden vent or secret issue from the Ocean of Ioy and Happinesse 9 As the fountaine of bodily light cannot send forth darknesse but uniformly diffuseth light and light onely throughout this visible Sphere so cannot the infinite Ocean of true felicity send forth any influence but such as is apt to cherish the seeds of joy and happinesse wherewith every creature capable of them was sowne in its first creation And as it is the property of light propagated or diffused from the Sunne to make such bodies as are capable of its penetration as Glasses Chrystall Pearle c. secondary fountains of light to others so doth the influence of divine goodnesse inspire all that are conformable to his will with desire of doing to others as he hath done to them that is of being secondary authors or instruments of good to all But such as wilfully strive against the streame of his over-flowing goodnesse or boysterously counterblast the sweet and placide spirations of celestiall influence become creators of their owne woe and raise unto themselves those stormes wherein they perish Yet so essentiall it is unto this infinite Fountaine of goodnesse however provoked to send forth onely streames of life and such is the vertue of the streames which issue from him that as well the evill and miseries which miscreants procure unto themselves as their mischievous intentions towards others infallibly occasion increase of joy and happinesse unto all that give free passage unto their current And this current of life which issueth from this infinite Ocean never dryes up is never wasted by diffusion The more it is dammed or quarved by opposition of the sonnes of darkenesse the more plentifully it overflowes the sonnes of light All the good which one refuseth or putteth from thē returnes in full measure to the other But if the miseries which wicked spirits or their conforts either suffer themselves or intend to others worke good to those that receive the influence of infinite goodnesse might he not without prejudice or imputation inspire these castawayes with such mischievous thoughts or at least intend their woe and misery as these are occasions or meanes of others happinesse or of his glory Wee are indeed forbid to doe evill that good may ensue but if it bee his will to have reprobates doe or suffer evill for the good of his chosen shall not both bee good as willed by him whose will in that hee hath absolute dominion over all his creatures is the rule of goodnesse CHAP. 13. In what sense or how Gods infinite will is said to be the rule of goodnesse 1 BAd was the doctrine and worse the application or use which Anaxarchus would have gathered from some Hieroglyphicall devices of Antiquity wherein Iustice was painted as Iupiters assistant in his Regiment Hereby saith this Sophister unto Alexander then bitterly lamenting the death of his dearest Friend Clytus whom he had newly slaine in his temelent rage your Majesty is given to understād that the decrees of great Monarchs who are a kinde of Gods on earth must bee reputed Oracles of Iustice and their practices may not bee reputed unjust either by themselves or by others But this sophisticall inversion of these Ancients meaning was too palpable to please either the wiser or honester sort of Heathen though living in those corrupt times For albeit many of them conceived of Iupiter as of a great King subject to rage and passion yet all of them held Iustice for an upright milde and vertuous Lady ready alwayes to mitigate never to ratifie his rigorous decrees alwayes tempering his wrath with equity The true Iehovah as he needes no sweet-tongued consort to moderate his anger as Abigail did Davids so hath he no use of such Sophisters as Anaxarchus to justifie the equity of his decrees by his Omnipotent Soveraignty or absolute dominion over all his creatures 2 To derogate ought from his power who is able to destroy both soule and body in hell fire I know is dangerous to compare the prerogatives of most absolute earthly Princes with his would be more odious Yet this comparison I may safely make He doth not more infinitely exceed the most impotent wretch on earth in power and greatnesse than he doth the greatest Monarch the world hath or ever had in Mercy Iustice and Loving-kindnesse nor is his will the rule of Goodnesse because the designes thereof are backt by infinite power but because holines doth so rule his power and moderate his will that the one cannot enjoyne or the other exact any thing not most consonant to the eternall or abstract patternes of equity His will revealed doth sufficiently warrant all our actions because we know that he wils nothing but what is just and good but this no way hindereth but rather supposeth Iustice and Goodnesse to be more essentiall objects of his will than they are of ours And therefore when it is said Things are good because God wils them this illative infers only the cause of our knowledge not of the goodness which we know and the logicall resolution of this vulgar Dialect would be this We know this or that to be good because Gods will revealed commends it for such But his will revealed commends it for such because it was in it nature good for unlesse such it had bin he had not willed it These principles though unquestionable to such as fetch their Divinity from the Fountaine will perhaps in the judgement of others that never taste it but
him Author onely of grace and favour towards men And I could wish their heresies had beene better refuted than they are or at least that men would bee better perswaded of such refutation as Lactantius hath bestowed upon them albeit I will not bind my selfe to stand to his decision of this point but rather illustrate by instance or experiment how extreame severity may stand with the fervency of fatherly unfaigned love 2 Few mens hearts would have served them to have dealt with their owne bowels as Torquatus did with his Howbeit in all that mighty people amongst whom he lived I am perswaded but a few had taken the like care and paines to traine up their children in the most commendable qualities of that age Not one would have adventured his owne person further to have rescued his sonne from the enemy or justified him in any honourable quarrell In these and the like points he had and upon just occasion would further have manifested as much unfained love as any father could unto his sonne more than the imbecility of sex would suffer a tender hearted mother to make proofe of Doth then the adjudging of this his owne son to death rightly argue he loved him lesse than other parents did their children whose worse deserts they would not have sentenced so severely No it rather proves love and care of martiall discipline and hate to partiality in administration of civill Iustice to have beene much greater in him than in other parents of his time The more just and equall the law hee transgressed was or might have beene as for illustration sake we will suppose it to have been a law most equall and just the more it commends his impartiall severity that would not suffer the violation of it goe unpunished in his dearest sonne whom the more desirous hee was to make like himselfe in religious observance of Martiall Discipline and practice of Iustice towards the enemy the readier he was to doe justice upon him for doing the contrary That excessive love which he bare unto his person whilest his hopefull beginnings did seeme to promise an accomplishment of those martiall vertues whose first draught hee himselfe had well expressed turnes into extreame severity and indignation after he proves transgressor of those fundamentall rules by which he had taken his direction and unto whose observance his desire of posterity was destinated So it falls out by the unalterable course of nature or rather by a Law more transcendent and immutable than nature it selfe that a lesse love being chained by references of subordination betweene the objects loved with a greater cannot dislinke it selfe without some deeper touch of displeasure than if the bond or reference had beene none The neerer the reference or the stricter the bond the more violent will the rupture be and the dissociation more unpleasant As there is no enmity to the enmity of brethren if the knot of brotherly kindnesse once fully untie The reason is because our love to our brethren is neerest united with the love of our selves unto which all other love is in some sort subordinate True affection is alwayes most displeased where it is most defeated where most is deservedly expected and least performed Now as partiality towards our selves and indulgence to our inordinate desires oft-times begets desire of revenge upon unnaturall or unkinde brethren so doth the constant and unpartiall love of equity and wholesome Lawes naturally bring forth just severity towards presumptuous neglecters of them whose persons wee love no lesse than they do that would plead with teares for their impunity Towards them unto whom wee would give reall proofe of more tender and true affection than their partiall abetters doe could wee winne them by these or other warrantable means to link their love with ours or to love that best which most deserveth loue As Seleucus loved his son for saving the one of whose eyes both being forfait by the law he was cōtented to lose one of his own more dearely than most princely mothers do their children for he loved him as himselfe yet could not dispence either with himselfe or his sonne because he loved the publike law and common good that might accrue by this singular example of Iustice better than either better than both 3 For every man to love himselfe best is in our judgement no breach but rather a foundation of charitie Alaw to whose performance every man is bound in matters of necessity concerning this life or in whatsoever may concerne the life to come though not in cases of secular honour or preferment wherein Proximus quisque sibi must by the law of conscience and fundamentall rule of Christianitie give place to Detur digniori But nothing can be so worthy of love or honour as God who will we nill we doth and must enjoy this liberty or priviledge of loving himselfe best And if he love himselfe better than he doth any creature he must love equity and justice better than he doth any man for he himselfe is equity it selfe the eternall patterne as well of Iustice as of Mercy he cannot be unjustly mercifull towards those men whom he loves more dearely than any man doth himselfe And in as much as goodnesse it selfe is the essentiall object of his will he loves nothing absolutely and irrevocably but that which is absolutely immutably good So was not man in his first creation much less is he such in his collapsed estate and yet Gods love so super infinite is it extends it selfe unto our nature so collapsed and polluted with corruption which he infinitely hates This his love which knowes no limit in it selfe is limited in its effects towards men by the correspondency which they hold or lose with that absolute goodnesse or with those eternall rules of equity justice or mercy in which his will is to haue man made like him Such as have beene either in re or spe though not as they should bee yet such as either infinite loving kindnesse can vouchsafe to accept to cherish or encourage to goe forward as they haue begunne or infinite mercy to tollerate in expectation of their repentance or aversion from their wonted courses these if once they finally dissolve the correspondency which they held with Mercie or burst the linke which they had in Gods love with reference to that goodnesse wherto the riches of his bounty daily inviteth them his displeasure towards them kindles according to the measure of his former mercies or loving kindnesse If being illuminated by his Spirit they finally associate themselves to the sonnes of darknesse or having put on Christ in baptisme they resume their swinish habit and make a sport of wallowing in the mire the sweet fountaines of joy and comfort which were opened to them as they were Gods creatures not uncapable of his infinite mercy prove floods of wo misery to them as they are sworne servants of sinne and corruption For hate to filthinesse and uncleanness is essentially
deny us the right use of the name Fate or the nature of the thing thereby signified This saith he is immutable Fate that such as doe well shall be rewarded and such as doe ill shall bee punished Quid aliud est fatum saith Minucius Feliâ—â— quà m quod de unoquoque nostrum Deus fatus est qui cum possit praescire materiam pro meritis qualitatibus singulorum etiam fata determinavit Both of them follow their Master St. Paul that God will render to every man according to his workes unto them that are contentious and disobey the truth and obey unrighteousnesse shall bee indignation and wrath Tribulation and anguish shall bee upon the soule of every man that doth evill of the Iew first and also of the Graecian But to every man that doth good shall bee glorie and honour and peace to the Iew first and also to the Graecian For there is no respect of persons with God Rom. 2. verse 8 9 10 11. It is a point cleare from the authoritie of Minucius Felix and Iustin Martyr and from the grounds of Christianitie it selfe that the reasonable soule is not subject to Fate taken in the Stoicall sense for absolute necessitie whencesoever such necessitie be derived For as Iustin Martyr strongly concludes if the soule of man were by the necessitie of the Divine decree either violently driven or placidly drawne to good or evill there could bee no vice or vertue or God should bee as truely the onely author of all vice sinne and wickednesse as he is of vertue and godlinesse or as St. Austin infeâ—â—â—â— hee could not justly punish any besides himselfe who is altogether incapable of punishment but more uncapable of deserving it or of doing evill That freedome of choyse or Contingencie which these good Writers with all the auncients suppose as granted by the divine decree to the humane soule is the proper subject or immediate matter whereto Fate is limited The nature or essence of Fate in their doctrine consists in the infallible doome or sentence past by the Divine providence upon mens actions according to their nature or qualitie The actions or choyses themselves are truely and properly contingent not Fatall the events or issues of them are Fatall not contingent And in this sense did most of the heathens in their sober moodes use the name of Fates So Virgil ascribes the want of an heire male by the untimely death of the first borne and the ill successe of warre unseasonably undertaken or begun as a man would say in an ill time unto the Fates or Weirds allotted by the gods The fained coÌ„plaint or speech which hee puts in Latinus his mouth disswading Turnus his people from going to war is a true picture of Moses his expostulation with the Israelites which had gone out to warre contraâ—y to Gods Commandement and found that successe by experience which Latinus fore-warnes Turnus of Yee answered and said unto mee we have sinned against the Lord wee will goe up and fight according to all that the Lord our God commanded us And when yee had girded on every man his weapons of war ye were readie to go up every man into the Hill And the Lord said unto me say unto them Goe not up neither fight for I am not among you lest yee be smitten before your enemies So I spake unto you and you would not heare but rebelled against the Commandement of the Lord your God and went presumptuously up into the Hill And the Amorites which dwelt in that mountaine came out against you and chased you as Bees doe and destroyed you in Seir even unto Hormah And yee returned and wept before the Lord but the Lord would not hearken unto your voyce nor give eare unto you Deuter. 1. vers 41 42 43 44 45. Plagues or punishments are properly then termed fatall when GOD will not repent or change the Doome threatned when his eyes are shut unto mens teares and his eares unto their prayers But of all the heathens which I have read this point is most divinely discussed by Hierocles in his commentary upon Pythagoras golden verses If Calamitie saith he be the award of divine power Pythagoras might better have called it Divine will than Divine misfortune If it bee not the award of Divine power it had beene enough to have called it misfortune a Divine misfortune it cannot bee Out of these straights he winds himselfe with this acute distinction Inasmuch as Calamitie or vengeance is the award of Divine power it is in this respect rightly called Divine But with reference to this or that particular man it is a misfortune His meaning as he elsewhere illustrates himselfe is this The Divine power as every just iudge doth onely intend to punish evill suppose Adulterie Murder Incest c. But that this or that man should commit these or the like evils which necessarily draw calamitie upon themselves this is contingent Now the necessarie award of a contingent evill is by the Pythagoreans sometimes termed Fate sometimes Divine misfortune 2. Not to interpose ought one way or other praejudiciall to the different opinions concerning freewill as it hath reference to merit election or predestination for all which points wee have allotted a peculiar place in this long worke we hold it for the present as a part of our Creede or fundamentall point of Christianitie That man in in respect of some objects hath a true freedome of choyse or Contingencie and is enabled by his Creator to make varietie of antecedents in thought word or deede But the antecedents being once made by man though not without divine cooperation God alone allots the consequents without any concurrence or suffrage in man To repaire to Gods house or loyter at home or in worse places on the Lords day is left free unto us by the divine decree but what good or evill spirituall or temporall shall befall us upon our better or worse choise is intirely and meerely in the hands of God wee have no power or freedome to resist the doome or sentence which God hath appointed to our resolutions be they good or bad As unto evill or goodnesse indefinitely taken some measure of reward or punishment is in the language of Iustin Martyr and other of the Auncients truely fatall so every possible degree of good or evill whether meerly moral or spirituall hath successe from aeternitie fitted to it quoad pondus in measure more exact then the cunningest Arithmetician can devise Gods Iustice holds one scale his mercy and bountie the other their severall awards are most exact most infallible and irresistible yet alternant Punishment or chastisement for offences past is necessarie yet not absolutely necessarie to any mans person in this or that degree because the aeternall decree hath left him a possibilitie not to offend in this or that kinde or not to offend in such a degree or in case hee so offended to seeke for pardon
how little soever a surd number exceeds the next square yet the overplus is in division infinite And so are the events which the Politician seeks to rectifie or determine of and therefore not certainly rectifiable or determinable save onely by him whose wisdome is actually infinite It is an errour incident to little children to think they might easily shake hands with the man in the Moone or with Endymion kisse the Moone it selfe if they were upon the next hill where it seemes to them to set and if you bring them thither they think they came but a little too late if they could bee now at the next hill where they see it goe downe they imagine they might doe so yet Such for all the world is the practicall Politicians errour the cause of both in proportion the same Children are thus deceived because they imagine no distance betweene heaven and earth or betweene heaven and that part of earth which terminates their sight And so the secular Politicians minde reacheth no farther than the hemisphere of his owne facultie Either he knowes not or considers not how farre the height and depth of his wisedome and counsell that sits in the heavens and rules the earth exceeds the utmost bounds or horizon of his foresight and limited skill in this only different from the childe that his wit is more swift and nimble than the others body so that he is not so soone weary of his pursuit But if hee misse of his purpose at the first he hopes at his next flight to speed and thus in seeking after true felicity which was hard by him when hee beganne his course he runnes round all the dayes of his life even as he is led by him that daily compasseth the earth Better might Painters hope by looking on the multitude of men now living to draw accurate pictures of such as shal be in the Age to come than any Politician can expect either by observation of former times or experience of his owne to prescribe exact rules for managing of future projects For if we consider the whole frame or composition of circumstances or all the ingredients if I may so speake of every event there is as great a varietie in humane actions as there is in mens faces Never were there two events of moment upon earth altogether alike each differs from other either in the substance number or quality of occurrences or in the proportion of their consonancie or dissonancy unto the counsell of the Lord as there is no visage but differs from another if not in colour or complexion yet in shape or figure I have beene perhaps rather too long then too bold in decyphering the vanity of this proud Criticke which accuseth Christianity of cowardize in actions and devotion of stupiditie and dulnesse in consultation of State But so might Bats and Owles condemne the Eagle of blindnesse were tryall of sight to be made in that part of twilight wherein darknesse hath gotten the victory of light Some men not able to discern a friend from a foe at three paces distance in the open Sunne will reade their Pater noster written in the compasse of a shilling by moone shine much better than others clearer sighted can reade a Proclamation print The purblinde see best by night yet not therefore better sighted than others are because the absolute triall of â—ight is best made by day So is the meere Politician more quick fighted than Gods children in matters permitted by divine providence to the managing of the Prince of darknesse For albeit the righteous Lord do in no case permit or dispense with perjury fraud or violence yet he suffers many events to be compassed by all or some of these or worse meanes Now when matters usually managed by speciall providence come by divine permission once to catching hee that makes least conscience of his wayes will shew most wit and resolution For whatsoever falls to Satans disposalls shall assuredly bee collated on him that will adventure most It is his trade and profession to lend wit might and cunning for satisfying present desires upon the mortgage of soules and consciences And his Scholar or Client the politique Atheist perceiving fraud and violence to prosper well in some particulars imagines these or like meanes throughly multiplied to be able to conquer all things which he most desires But when Satans commission is recalled or his power by Gods providence contracted the cunningest intentions or violent practises of Politicians prove much like to a peremptory warrant out of date which being directed to one County is served in another Both indanger the party prosecuting and turne to the advantage of the prosecuted I conclude this Chapter and Section with the observation of a namelesse Author but set downe in verses related by Camerarius Si vitam spectes hominum si denique mores Artem vim fraudem cuncta putes agere Si propius spectes Fortuna est arbitra rerum Nescis quam dicas tamen esse vides At penitus si introspicias atque ultima primis Connectas tantum est Rector in orbe Deus Who looks on men and on their manners vile Weenes nought is wrought nought got sans force or guile Who nearer looks spyes who knows what her wheele Who coozneth fraud and oft makes force to reele But Eagle sights which pierce both far and neare Eye One who onely ruleth all this Spheare SECTION IV. Of Gods speciall Providence in suiting punishments unto the nature and qualitie of offences committed by men CHAP. 31. Of the rule of retaliation or counterpassion And how forcible punishments inflicted by this rule without any purpose of man are to quicken the ingraffed notion of the Deitie and to bring forth an acknowledgement of Divine Providence and Iustice 1 ARISTOTLE did rightly denie retaliation or counterpassion to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exact justice and yet it may be Pythagoras his thoughts did soare much higher than his when he pitched upon the affirmative In ordinary offences committed by unequall or extraordinary persons Pythagoras his tenent is not universally true As if a great person should beat his farre inferiour without just cause it stands neither with the Law of God or rule of equity to beat him in the same fashion or according to the same measure againe But when Kings and Monarks doe extraordinary wrongs unto their subjects or practise prodigious cruelties upon their inferiours they usually suffer the like harmes or plagues themselves But who saith Cominaeus shall call Potentates in question who shall accuse who shall condemne who shall punish them All as he resolves that can be required to a formall processe shall be supplyed by the complaints and teares of such as are agrieved by them by the sighes and grones of the fatherlesse and widowes These are more authentique than any witnesses of fact more powerfull then any Atturney or Advocate before the supreme tribunall of God So good and gratious a Iudge is He and so
their fury can procure unto their subjects In the case betweene Kings and Subjects properly so called or betweene superiour and inferiour subjects there is a kinde of allowance to bee made according to Geometricall proportion without swerving from the exact rule of Retaliation It is a memorable comparison which Cominaeus according to this allowance hath made betweene the evills which Lewis the eleventh French King had done to others and the like evils which God in the end of his raigne did bring upon him 2 To be disrespected by them whom hee had advanced far above their deserts and graced with dignities whereof their education and profession was uncapable could not but be a great griefe unto this great King as the like ungratefulnesse would be unto any other yet a just usuall award of Divine Iustice upon such Princes as thus neglect the rule of humane distributive justice in the dispensing of honorable favours But for a Prince which had alwayes required exact obedience alwayes accustomed to expect an observance from his Subjects more than ordinarily is given unto other Princes to be in his old age inforced to observe and flatter the churlish humour of his Physitian whose untoward service hee had recompenced with a standing fee of a thousand Crownes a month besides other gratuities extraordinary this was a perpetuall torment whereof Lewis in his perplexity could not but often complaine unto others yet could not remedy For this was a disease which he durst not make knowne unto his Physitian whose displeasure he feared more than any thing else besides death which was the only cause why he so much feared his displeasure And is it not as the wise King speakes a vanity of vanities or more than so a misery of miseries that the feare of this last point or close of life should make great men slaves for the most part of their lives and bring a necessity upon them of fearing every one with more than a slavish feare that may in probability be conceived as an instrument or messenger of its approach Now this King was so excessively afraid of death that he had given it in strict charge unto his friends and followers not to give him warning of this his last enemy by name whensoever it should to their seeming approach but to exhort him onely to a confession or expiation of his sinnes Yet was it his ill hap or fate after he had set his house in order and after his dejected spirits had beene somewhat raysed with new hopes of recovery to have death rung into his eares by his servants after such an indiscreet and unmannerly fashion as if they had sought to put him into purgatory whilest he was alive His Barber with others whom he had rewarded farre above their deserts without any preamble or circumlocution of respective language as if they had come unto him rather as Iudges to pronounce the sentence of death upon him than as gentle remembrancers of his mortality told him bluntly and peremptorily that his houre was come that hee was not to expect any further comfort from his Physitian or from the Hermit who as he thought had prolonged his life 3 If we could unpartially weigh the quality and condition of the parties who were thus uncivilly and unseasonably bold with him in the one scale of just estimation and the greatnesse of his person his natively timorous disposition and accustomance in the other the disparity would move us to bee of Cominaeus his minde in this point That this untoward remembrance or denunciation of death was more bitter and grievous unto Lewis than the sharp message of death which he had sent by Commissioners unto those two great Peeres of France the Duke of Nemours and the Earle of Saint Paul giving them but a short respite to marshall their thoughts and order their consciences before their finall encounter with this last enemie of mortality which they could not feare so much as Lewis did As this great King had done unto these great subjects so have his servants done to him 4 Lewis again had caused certain places of Little ease to be made or at least did well accept the invention of iron cages or grates little more in compass than the square of a tall mans length wherein he detained such as offended him some for divers months others for many yeares together And through consciousnesse of this his rigorous dealing with others he confined himselfe for a long time to a custody or durance as strait for his greatnesse as the iron cages were for their mediocrity They were not more desirous to see these close prisons opened or to heare of the day of their deliverance from them than he was carefull to cause the iron Fences wherewith he had incompassed the Castle wherein he had imprisoned himselfe to bee close shut save onely at such times as hee appointed them upon speciall occasions to be opened His miserable Captives were not afraid of passengers or of such as came to visit them they needed no guard to secure them Lewis caused certaine Archers to keep Centinell as well by day as by night to shoot at all that came neere his Castle gates otherwise than by his special command or appointment In fine he was more afraid to be delivered out of his Prison by the Nobility of France than his Captives were to be put in such cages That which he feared from his Nobility was not death or violence but his deposition or removall from the present government from which many wise Princes in their declining age have with honour and security sequestred themselves 5 Whether Lewis in entertaining the invention of iron cages and the use which he made of them or the Cardinall which to please his severe humor first invented them were more faultie I cannot tell nor will I dispute the rule of retaliation was more conspicuously remarkable in the Cardinall For as â—ominaeus tells us who himselfe had lodged eight months in one of them the Cardinall was by Lewis command detained prisoner fourteene yeeres together in the first that was made It was well observed whether by a Christian or Heathen I now remember not Neque lex hâc justior ulla est Quam necis artisices arte perire sua A law â—â—â—re just than this cannot beset Which cruell skill doth catch in ijs owne net One Perillus was the body or subject of the Embleme whereof this Motto was the soule He died a miserable death in that brazen Bull which he had made at the Tyrants request for the deadly torture of others And albeit this Cardinall did not dye for ought I reade in the cage of his owne invention yet had he a greater share of vexation in it than was intended for others What good effect this long and hard durance wrought in the Cardinalls soule is not specified by my Author But it is an observation of excellent use which an Heathen Philosopher hath
hate God is no accepter of persons in respect of the execution of his most righteous law as is the people so is the Prince his word must be alike fulfilled in both not only subjects that kill one another but Princes be they Kings or Monarks that authorize murder or suffer their subjects blood to be unjustly spilt by man shall their blood be spilt if other executioners faile even by the hand of their dearest friends such was Count Montgomery to this king 5 The caveat which from the untimely death of this Earle a judgement inflicted by divine justice not so much for this though this were pretended by the Queen Mother and Dowager to take away his life as for other offences hath beene elsewhere commended to yong gallants or Princes servants was to my remembrance this Not to be instruments thogh to Kings in the execution of manifest injustice seeing this noble Gentleman after much honor many victories â—otten by war in defence of those of the reformed Religion whom he had formerly wronged came at length to lose his head in that very place whither by Henry the seconds appointment he had brought divers noble Gentlemen to the fagot some of that honorable bench which afterward sentenced him to death CHAP. 34. The sinnes of parents visited upon their children according to the rule of retaliation 1 ALL the parties hitherto instanced in were visited by the rule of retaliation in their owne persons some of them not in their owne persons alone But it is usuall with the supreme Iudge to visit the ouâ—crying sinnes of irreligious parents upon their children according to the former rule And to this purpose the visitation of Ahabs and of Iezabels bloody sinnes against Naboth may by expresse warrant of Sacred Writ be improved But no Histories profane or sacred afford more fit instances for the proofe of this conclusion than our owne Chronicles doe It was a question amongst the Heathen Philosophers An res posterorum pertineant ad defunctos Whether the ill or welfare of posterity did any way increase or diminish the happinesse of their deceased ancestors The negative part is determined by the great Philosopher in his Moralls And I know no just cause or reason why any Christian Divine should either appeale from his determination or revive the doubt Yet if the affirmative part of the former question were supposed as true or were it lawfull to imagine or feign such interchange of speech or Dialogues betwixt deceased Grandfathers Vnkles and their Nephewes as our Saviour I take it not by way of reall history but of fiction doth betweene Abraham and Dives me thinks Edward the third and Lionel Duke of Clarence might have taken up Iothams parable against Bullinbrooke and the House of Lancaster If yee have dealt truly and sincerely with us and with the prime stemmes of this royall stock then rejoyce yee and your posterity in your devises but if not Let fire come out from among your selves or from our stock to devoure you and to make your posterity curse your dealings with us And in what region soever 〈◊〉 soule did in the third generation reside it might have framed its responsary unto this parable out of Adonibezeks song As I have done to you and yours so hath the Lord requited me and mine And had this or the like saying upon the deposition of Bullinbrookes heyre beene daily rung into the eares of Edward the fourth Felix quem faciunt aliena pericula cautum Amongst men none more happy is than he That can his owne by others harmes foresee it might have wrought better effects for the bodily or temporall good of his harmlesse sonnes than any dirge could after his death procure unto his soule Few Chronicles else will exhibit such a continued pedigree of unhallowed policies ill successe as our owne Annalls of those times doe 2 Vnto Richard the second and his misleaders it seemed a branch of plausible policy to banish his cozen Henry of Bullinbrook this land the vicinity of whose heroicall spirit was an heart-sore to this degenerate Prince But what successe did the Counsell of the Lord award unto this jealous devise Bullinbrook by his presence amongst foraine Nations which scarce knew him before gained so much honour and so much love with the chiefe Peeres of this Realme which had knowne him before by his absence that Richard the second was taken in his owne feare and his Crowne set upon Bullingbrookes head with generall applause But the lesse right he had unto it the greater was his jealousie lest Richard the second or some other more principall stemme of the royall Stock might take it off againe The only meanes as he thought for securing himselfe from this feare and for setling the Crowne upon the House of Lancaster was to put the poore deposed King to death whose errours deserved pitie and compassion from every true English heart if not for his Grandfathers yet for his heroicall Fathers sake that Gideon which had brought so much honour to the English Nation And after Richards death the master-piece of his policy was to suffer Mortimer the lawfull heyre unto the Duke of Clarence and now unto the English Crowne to live a miserable Captive under the enemy who had more reason to revenge himselfe upon the English by Mortimers death than Bullinbrook had to murther Richard the second This soule sinne of Bullinbrooke was visited upon the third generation His grandchilde and heyre Henry the sixt a man more free from staine of guiltlesse blood than either Richard the second or Bullinbrooke had beene is cruelly murthered by Edward the fourth a stemme of Mortimers stock and of Lionel Duke of Clarence For though God hath sworne not to punish the children for their fathers offences yet he hath professed it as a rule of his eternall justice to visit the sinnes of fathers upon the children And from the equity of this rule many Princely Races have utterly determined and expired in the dayes of such Princes as were most free from the actuall sinnes of their Ancestors which were the causes of their expiration as is in other Meditations shewed at large 3 But though it were just with God to visit Bullinbrookes sinne on Henry the sixt did Edward the fourth commit no injustice by doing that which God would have done yes he did therefore most unjustly because he did doe that which God would not have done by him And therefore the Counsell of the Lord which overthrew the bloody devises of Bullinbrooke for setling the Crowne of this Kingdome on himselfe and his heyre males did more speedily overthrow the devise of Edward the fourth God visits his sinne in the next generation upon his lovely and harmlesse Sonnes in their nonage before the devises of their hearts were capable of any evill or mischiefe towards men and did visit them by the hands of their bloody uncle Richard the third who by their Fathers appointment had practised butchery upon the House of
Pausanias a famous Antiquary or to describe him better to a meere English Reader the Cambden of Greece hath observed as much as now we doe in his narrations of the warres between the Romans and the Corinthians or Achaians managed by Metellus and Critolaus The History though briefe as being but an appendix of his intended Topography is fraught with many remarkable circumstances pointing out unto us a Divine Providâ—nce of which two concerning the selected band of Arcadia put to flight but with more honour than the rest of Critolaus army are more specially parallell to the rule of retaliation These Arcadians after the foile retyred safe to the number of a thousand unto Elatea a City of the Phocenses where they found good welcome at the first upon some â—ermes of ancient confederacy or alliance But the sudden noise of Critolaus and his companies overthrow dissolved the links of former amity The poore Arcadians were commanded by the State of Phocis forthwith to relinquish Elatea and in their returne to Peloponnesus meeting unexpectedly with Metellus forces were all slaine by the Romans in the selfe same place in which their fore-elders had forsaken the Grecian Lâ—â—guers or conâ—â—derates against Philip of Macedon Honest Countrimen see Meteors or other appearances as perfectly as Philosophers do but they often erre in guessing at the place or subject where in the appearance is made Thus many imagine the Sunne to be reddish in a foggy morning when as the rednesse is in the ayre So did this heathen Antiquary expresly and fully discern the power of Divine Iustice in this event from the circumstance of the persons a race of truce-breakers and from the place of their discomfiture His eyesight or apprehension herein was as cleare as any Christians Wherein then consists his error In attributing this award of Divine Iustice unto the Gods of Greece But did any Southsayer of Greece foretell that the fathers breach of truce should be thus visited upon their children as Elias foretold that the dogs should lap Ahabs blood and eate Iezebel and their childrens flesh in the same place where they had lapt the blood of Naboth whom Iezebel had caused to be stoned to death The identity of Iustice done upon divers people and Nations rightly argues that the God of Israel did then rule and execute judgement unto the ends of the world although he did not deale so with any Nation as he did with Israel neither had the Heathen knowledge of his Lawes much lesse such distinct foreknowledge of his judgements or visitations as was usuall in Israel unlesse it were in some cases extraordinary 4 To have seene with our eyes what we have read in a faithfull and judicious Historian one to dye in a fit of the Falling-sicknesse or as it was then presumed to bee vexed to death by an evill spirit at the time appointed for his consecration even whilest he did prostrate himselfe before the Altar to receive the Holy Ghost by the imposition of his Metropolitans hands would have moved the like question to that of Christs Disciples concerning him that was borne blinde Lord who did sinne this man or his parents Whose shame did he fome out with his last breath his owne or some others Such as is here expressed was the â—ate of Strachyquaz sonne to Bâ—leslaus the first and brother to Bâ—leslaâ—s the second King of Bâ—hâ—me who with the Bishop of Mentz was an eye witnesse of this prodigious fearefull accident And if consecration dinners were then in use as doubtlesse they were when Kings sonnes and brothers thought it no scorne to be consecrated Bishops Respondent ultima primis Strachyquaz did better brooke his name after his death than at his birth or baptisme or as my Author speakes on his lustration day The realitie answering to his name and portended by it he left behinde him The dinner provided was indeed terribile convivium a banquet of dread or horrour to all spectators a feast of whose dâ—â—â—â—ies few I thinke would eate And thus much doth the name Strachyquaz in the Bohemiaâ—â— language import A name imposed upon this unfortunate person at his birth in triumphant memorie of that bloody banquet unto which his father Bolestaus the first had invited Wenceslaus the King his Elder brother with intent to murther him as he did taking opportunitie to accomplish this impietie in the Temple of God where this King afterwards Sainted was at his midnights devotions 5. To sit as Coroners upon the soules of men deceased is a thing which I have ever misliked though sometimes practised by men otherwise of deserved esteeme And whosoever in this case will take upon him to sit as Iudge my request shall bee not to serve upon the Iury. Yet if my opinion were in this particular demanded Whether this man dying as the story presumes of a Deuill the manner of his death were any certaine prognosticke or probable presumption of his damnation my verdit should goe in mitiorem partem That thus to dye of a Devill unlesse his former life had beene devillish which the historie no way intimates doth no more argue his damnation than the untimely death of Ieroboams Child did argue him to have beene guiltie of his Parents actuall sinnes in the manner of whose death notwithstanding as wel as in Strachyquaz his tragicall end the sinnes of their Parents were remarkeably visited according to that rule of Iustice which now we treat of that is by way of counterpassion in respect if not of time yet of the places wherein they were visited That Ieroboams child dyed in Gods favour the text instructs us 1 King 14. 13. All Israel shall mourne for him and bury him for hee onely of Ieroboam shall come to the grave because in him there is found some good thing toward the Lord God of Israel c. 6 But to returne to Strachyquaz the maner of whose death as is apparent was more fearefull and prodigious yet no signe of damnation For as there is vates praeteritorum futurorum a branch of prophesie in discovering times past as well as events to come so there may bee and oft-times are prodigious and portentuous accidents which point at nothing de futuro sâ—â— a retro which looke backwards not forwards The best use or signification of this fearefull disaster was to advertise the present generation and their successors that the execrable and sacrilegious murder committed by Boleslaus father to Strachyquaz was not expiated as yet but to be visâ—â—â—d upon more generations without heartie repentance and confession of this wicked usurpers and his complices sinnes wherewith the land of Boheme had beene polluted The first borne of Egypt was slaine for their fathers offences against the infant males of the Hebrewes And Strachyquaz dyed this fearefull death by the visitation of his fathers sinnes upon him But he might perhaps have lived much longer and have dyed in peace had he lived according to that rule whose profession hee had taken upon him that is
if hee had continued as hee once resolved to doe a true pâ—nitentiarie and not affected to be a prelate For if God would not suffer his Temple to be built by David a man otherwise after his owne heart onely because hee had beene a man of warre wee may from the morall Analogie of this sacred embleme collect that the same holy Lord would not suffer the sonne of that malignant cruell Pagan Fratricide which had imbrued his hands in the blood of his Priests and murthered his annointed King in the holy place to beare rule over his house or Church This his unseasonable ambitious humor without any other actuall remarkable crime might in Divine Iustice exact some print of the supreame Iudges indignation All this notwithstanding being granted doth not prove there was no good thing found in the partie that was thus punished as well as in Ieroboams child It was a fauour to the one that he dyed in peace though in his infancie and it might be some matter of honour or favour to the other that he had Christian buriall in the Church wherein hee died and that hee was not made a prey to the fowles of the ayre But this wee speake skeptique wise what became of Strachyquaz after his fearefull end we leave it for the eternall Iudge to determine 7 Whatsoever became of him the death of his grandmother Drahomira was much more terrible as she had lived so she dyed a malitious blasphemous Pagan a cruell bloody step-dame to Christs infant Church in that Kingdome The storie I know will unto many seeme strange yet in my observation very capable of credit if we consider the exigence of those times and the then desperate state of Boheme Christianity and paganisme lay then at stake whether should be entertained whether expelled the Pagans by their unconfeionable policie which aymes at nothing but some private end alwayes readie to hazard whatsoever lyes within their levell rather then misse of it had so cunningly played the foregame and by their bloody plots removed so many principall men out of the way that there was no possibilitie left save onely in the Almighties immediate hand to make any thing of the aftergame Now in case of such desperate extremities specially when they happen during the infancie of any particular Church it cannot to mee seeme incredible if the good spirit of God doe out vy those prodigious cruelties which Sathan deviseth against the Saints by sudden miraculous executions upon their Actors Sathans instruments The Tragedy of Drahomira was briefly thus This Queen-mother had animated her Pagan-sonne Boleslaus surnamed Savus the Cruell to murder his elder brother and Liege Lord Wenceslaus onely because he had approved himselfe a zealous professor of the doctrine of life To terrifie others from taking the sacred function upon them she caused the bodies of those Priests and Prelates whom Boleslaus had â—assacred to lye unburied and one Podivivus a man of principall note in his time to hang two intire yeares upon the gallowes Vpon these and many like provocations of Gods just vengeance her grave was made before she felt her selfe sicke her buriall like to that of Corah of Dathan and Abiram Whether this opening of the earth were truly miraculous or whethet it happened in the period of some naturall declination the supporters or pillars of it being digged up or undermined before the opening of it at that time wherein this wicked woman was to passe over that very place in which she had caused the Priests bodies to lye unburied was the Lords doing and no lesse wonderfull to Christian eyes than if it had beene as perhaps it was a meere miracle The truth of this story wanted not the testimony of many ages For passengers from the day of her death untill the day wherein mine Author wrote this Story which was within this age current eschewed the place wherein she dyed as execrable and accursed by God CHAP. 37. What manner of sinnes they be which usually provoke Gods judgements according to the rule of Counterpassion And of the frequency of this kinde of punishment foresignified by Gods Prophets 1 IVstice as was intimated before doth not formally consist in retaliation and yet is retaliation a formall part or branch of Iustice And of this branch Nemesis amongst the Heathen was the ordinary Arbitresse Shee was in their Divinity a Goddesse of Iustice not Iustice her selfe nor did every wrong in their opinion belong unto her cognizance but such insolent wrongs onely as deserved vengeance or indignation Nor doth the righteous most mercifull Lord and onely God usually punish ordinary or private but publique and outcrying sinnes by the severe Law or Rule of Counterpassion And it is observable that most Prophesies which are powred out against any Land City or People with fuller indignation are so intermingled with threats of judgement by way of Counterpassion that the quality and circumstances of the crimes may seeme to serve the Prophets as glasses for representing the nature and quality of the judgements to come And if the crimes were as well knowne to mâ—n as the judgements are we would thinke the one were moulded in the other This exact proportion betwixt the patterne of sinnes which Babylon had set and the manner of Gods judgements upon her for them hath beene observed before and I will not make the prophesies concerning her destruction any part of this observation The prophesies concerning other Nations and Cities will afford plenty of instances to this purpose 2 Samaria shall be as an heape of the field and as plantings of a Vineyard and I will powre downe the stones thereof into the valley and I will discover the foundations thereof And all the graven images thereof shall be beaten to pieces and all the hires thereof shall be burnt with the fire and all the idols thereof will I lay desolate for she gathered it of the hire of an harlot and they shall returne to the hire of an harlot Micah 1. 6 7. The wound of Samaria as the Prophet addes vers 9. was incurable but so was not the wound of Iudah as yet although it was come to Iudah by infection and had touched at the very gates of Ierusalem For so he saith vers 12. The inhabitant of Maroth waited carefully for good but evill came downe from the Lord unto the gate of Ierusalem Thither it came but it found no entrance in for the present as it did into the gates of other Cities of Iudah Lachish of all the Cities of Iudah was the first which tooke the impression of Israels idolatry and did in part derive it unto Sion And as she was the first and principall in sinne so she was the first in the plagues here threatned The Chariots of Ashur did first triumph in her streets and her inhabitants felt the dint of the Assyrian swords when Ierusalem escaped with the lash of Rabshakehs tongue That which is afterwards related in the sacred story concerning Ierusalems
God prolongeth his dayes yet I know that it shall bee well with them that feare the Lord and doe reverence before him But it shall not be so well to the wicked neyther shall hee prolong his dayes hee shall bee like a shadow because he feareth not before God Verse 12 13. Besides this authoritie of the Preacher concerning the determinate extent or meaning of whose words I will not here dispute wee have a propheticall generall Rule which never faileth in it selfe nor to the apprehension of the observant How mightily soever iniquitie abounds in any Citie Land or Countrey yet the just Lord is in the midst thereof hee will not doe iniquitie Every morning doth hee bring his judgement to light hee faileth not but the unjust knoweth no shame Zephaniah 3. vers 5. 2 But these sacred as well as other Maximes have their peculiar subjects in which they are more remarkably verified at out time then at another The extraordinarie documents of Gods punitive justice had beene no doubt more rise in Iudah about Zephanies time than in former ages And amongst moderne Christian States none have beene so fertile as the Kingdome of Hungarie since it stood upon the same termes with the Turke that Iudah in Zephanies dayes did with the Chaldaean I will give the Reader onely a hint or taste from one or two particulars to set his meditations if it shall please him on working to observe the like out of the Histories of that Countrey 3 Amongst all the persons of better place or same mentioned in those Histories could there bee found but tenne as for ought I know there may bee more whose Legends eyther in respect of wrongs done to others by them or of wrongs done to them by others might afford so many pregnant proofes of Divine Retaliation as doth the Legend of Fryer George or as Thuanus calls him Martinusius the Prophets Proposition Every morning hee bringeth forth judgement to light might by exact Logicall Induction be proved to have beene universally true in that Kingdome for more than tenne yeares together This man by his valorous wit had advanced himselfe from a Turne-spit or Cole-carrier to be a Cardinall otherwise for his temporall dignitie and authoritie full Peere to most Princes of Christendome no way inferiour to many Kings save onely in want of Royall Title In the height of his prosperitie he had entertained one Marc Anthony de Ferraro Secretarie to Castaldie Lieutenant to Ferdinand the Emperour in those parts as a secret Intelligencer to betray his Master but was in the end miserably betrayed by him For this Assassinate Ferrarius having at all houres free accesse upon this hope tooke hence opportunitie to conveigh the rest of the bloody actors into the Bed-chamber of this usually well guarded Prince or Tyrant in a dismall morning before hee was dressed Ferrary himselfe giving the first wound whilest hee was reaching penne and Inoke to subscribe unto the counterfeit Letters or Patents which hee then did tender him This Fryer or Cardinall Marlinusius had plaid the Hypocrite as was then presumed with his Christian neighbours being either in affection to his owne country or for his private ends more engaged to the Turke And Captaine Lopez with the Spanish Harquebuzes designed by Ferdinand and Castaldie to assist Marquesse Pallavicino for effecting this plot were permitted without suspition of hostility into the Castle being apparelled in Turkish weeds or long gownes under which they covered their Harquebuzes and such other armour as they thought expedient for this feat 4 His death though bloody and cruell in the highest degree did not so deeply affect unpartiall hearts either with pity toward him or with indignation at his murderers as the strange and unusuall neglect of his mangled Corps did their hearts which either through partialitie or credulitie have professed a delectation of his tyrannicall life upon higher termes than hee deserved His enemies it seemes were so carefull to effect their intended plot and his friends so affrighted with his sudden disaster that his dead bodie remained many daies together above ground unburied or uncovered with the blood frozen upon it so stiffe with cold that it might rather seeme to have beene a blurred or besmeared statue of stone or marble than a dead man A fit relique for a sacrilegious Palace such was the Castle wherein hee was murthered for whose erection he had demolished an ancient Church and Monasterie of religious persons And whether it were that indignation doth sometimes make men as well peeces of Prophets as of Poets or whether it were spoken by way of bitter imprecation the Abbot upon the sacrilegious oppression did foresignifie that this Castle whose foundations were laid with others should at length be seasoned with the blood of him that built it Who buildeth so me thinkes so buildeth he As if his house should his Sepulcher bee 5 Though Gods judgements upon this man were as all his are most just yet were they unjustly done by these Assassinates They were Gods instruments but the devills agents in acting this plot and by doing to this Cardinall as hee had done to others they themselves become lyable in this life to the rigour of the indispensable Law As they have done to him so must it be done to them Gods will is fulfilled upon them as the devills will was fulfilled by them Hee was a murderer from the beginning and they are his sonnes And though they afterwards disperse themselves throughout divers Kingdomes or Nations yet the cry of this Cardinals blood doth still pursue them Which way soever they wander the Almighties net is spred out for them and being still hunted after by Gods judgements all of them are driven at length into it This wee are sure of saith the forementioned Author of the Hungarian historie that all those which were Actors of his death in time fell into great misfortunes The Marquesse Sforce within a while after was overthrowne and taken Prisoner by the Turkes who inflicted great torments upon him Captaine Monin was beheaded at Saint Germanes in Piemont Marc Anthony Ferraro in anno 1557. which was about six yeares after was also beheaded in Alexandria his native Country by the Cardinall of Trent his command Another was quartered by the French men in Provence Cheualier Campegio in anno 1562. was in the presence of the Emperour Ferdinand mortally wounded with a Bore in Bohemia Thuanus relates the selfe same accidents from the testimonies of more Writers than this save onely that hee omits the mention of him that was quartered in Provence 6 What one of many hundred mornings after this fact was there wherein Ferdinand did not lose soting either in Hungary or in Transylvania wherein the Turke did not sensibly incroach upon Christendome and gaine advantage against Christians The just comparison betweene the misery of Iudah in Zedechiaes dayes and of Hungary under Lewis the second with the parallell manner of these two noble Kings and their adherents
miscariage must be referred for breuities sake to other Treatises Onely to shut vp this exemplification of the Prophets assertion verified in peculiar sort in Hungary what example of Divine Iustice either more pregnant or more durable was ever manifested in Iudea than was to bee seene every morning for more then twenty yeares together in the fields of Moacz where the horse and his royall rider King Lewis found a miserable grave before they were quite dead but where the bones of such as were slaine in that unfortunate battaile lay unburyed in such abundance as did exhibit a wofull spectacle to every Christian passengers eye from the yeare 1526. untill the time of Busbequius his embassage to Constantinople how long after I know not which was upon the mariage betweene King Philip and Queene Mary about the yeare 1555. The Christian Hungars of those times after the losse of their late mentioned King had as just cause to insert that lamentation into their Liturgie as Ieremie had to take it up The annointed of the Lord was taken in their nets of whom we said under his shaddow we shall be preserved alive among the Heathen Lamentations 4. 20. As full an interest in that complaint of the Psalmist as the ancient Iewes had during the time of Nebuchadnezzar or Antiochus his rage The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meate unto the fowles of the heaven the flesh of thy Saints unto the beasts of the earth their blood have they shed like water there was none to burie them Ps 79. 2 3. The pittifull women of Iudea did eate their Children when Titus besieged Ierusalem The women of Hungarie no lesse mercifull as may be presumed than other Christian women are buried their Children alive lest their timorous outcryes might bewray the place of their abode or latitation when Soliman and his furious helhounds did so greedily hunt after their lives The people of Hungary would not take example from the miseries which had befallen Iudea nor breake off those sinnes which brought this miserie upon them GOD grant the Prophets and Seers of this kingdome eyes to discerne and this whole people one and other patient hearts to heare those sinnes whether of practise or opinion discovered which threaten the like judgements unto this Land as have befallen the Kingdome of Hungarie one of the most flourishing Kingdomes in the Christian world within a few yeares before its ruine FINIS * Nec dictis erit ullus bonos si cum actus ab urbe Daunius hostili Teucris urgentibus heros Vix pugna absistit similiâ— dicetur Asello Quâ—m pueri laeto pascentem pinguia in agro Ordea stipitibus duris detrudere tendunt Instantes quatiuntque sudes per terga per armos Ille autem campo vix cedere inter eundum Saepe hic atque illic avidis insistere malis Omnia conveniunt rerumque simillima imago est Credo equidem sed turpe pecus nec Turnus Asellum Turnus avia atavisque poteâ—s dignabitur heros Aptius hanc speciem referat Leo quem neque tergae Ira dare aut virtus patitur neque sufficit unus Tendere tot contra telisque obstare sequentum Hieron Vida Poet. lib. 2. * Et hic quidem omnium morbus est trium generum quae proposui eorum scilicet qui secundum corpus de Deo sapiunt eorum qui secundum spiritualem creaturam sicuti est anima eorum qui neque secundum corpus neque secunduÌ„ spiritualeÌ„ creaturaÌ„ et tamen de Deo falsa existimant eo remotiores à vero quo id quod sapiunt nec in corpore reperitur nec in facto condito spiritu nec in ipso creatore Qui enim opinatur Deum verbi gratia candidum vel rutilum fallitur sed tamen haec inventantur in corpore Rursum qui opinatur Deum nunc obliviscentem nunc recordanteÌ„ vel si quid hujusmodi est nihilominus in errore est sed tamen haec inveniuntur in animo Qui autem putant ejus esse potentiae Deum ut seipsum ipse genuerit eo plus errant quòd non solum Deus ita non est sed nec spiritualis nec corporalis creatura Nulla enim res omnino est quae seipsum gignat ut sit Aug. de Trinit lib. 1. cap. 1. * In the 5. Book Section 3. 1 * Mittamus animum ad illa quae aeterna sunt Miremur in sublimi volitantes rerum on niuÌ„ formas Deumque inter illa versantem providentem quemadmodum quae immortalia facere non potuit quia materia prohibebat defendat à morte ac ratione vitium corporis vincat Senec. ib. Whether for thus saying hee fall under the censure of Muretus in his annotations upon this place I refer it to the judicious Reader Impie stulta veterum opinio Deum voluisse quidem à primo omnia immortalia facere sed non potuisse propter materiae vitium Quasi non ut caetera omnia ita materiam condiderit ac procrearit Deus Recte Lactaâ—â—tius Idem materiae fictor est qâ—i rerum materia constantium * Qui scholas reguÌ„t ia id nobis exploratuÌ„ reliqueruÌ„t tale esse conditionalis propositionis naturam sive conditionem ut existente falso quod antecedit etiam quod subsequitur possit remanere vera conditionalis Pasq c. 1. ad RoÌ„ fol. 65 Though it were impossible for an Angell from heaven to preach any other Gospell than Paul had preached and impossible likewise for any Angell of heaven to be accursed yet S. Pauls conditionall proposition was true If an Angell from heaven should preach any other Gospell he should be accursed In like manner this supposition or conditionall If any thing could take beginning from it selfe it should be infinite is true although both these positions be false First that any thing can take beginning from it self Secondly that any thing which hath beginning can be infinite And this only is absolutely true That which truly is without all beginning is absolutely infinite * Idem absolutum quod et Deum dicimê° non cadit in numero cum omni alio ut quod Deus coelum sint plura aut duo aut alia diversa sicut nec coelum est idem absolutum ut coelum quod est aliud à terra Et quia idem absolutum est actu omnis formae formabilis forma non potest forma esse extra idem Quo enim res est eadem sibiipsi forma agit quòd autem est allerialias est quia non est idem absolutum hoc est omnis formae forma Est igitur idem absolutum principium medium finis omnis formae actus absolutus omnis potentiae Cusan de Genes dialog pag. 128. * Lib. de ente uno * Ex. 3. 14. * Cum primum ingressus Academiam sueris occurret tibi Parmenides qui unicum