profession 173 X. The Examples of great Prelates are very lively spurs to Virtue ibid. S. AMBROSE I. HIs Calling 175 II. A short Elogie of the life and manners of S. Ambrose 179 III. His Government ibid. IV. His Combats and first against Gentilism 182 Oration of Symmachus to Theodosius and Valentinian the Younger for the Altar of Victory Exercise of Pagan Religion and Revenue of Vestals ibid. V. Oration of S. Ambrose against Symmachus 184 VI. The triumph of S. Ambrose in the conversion of S. Augustine 188 VII Dispositions to the conversion of S. Augustine 191 VIII Agitations of Spirit in S. Augustine upon his conversion 194 IX Accidents which furthered this conversion 195 X. The Admirable change of S. Augustine 196 XI The Affairs of S. Ambrose with the Emperours Valentinian the Father and Gratian the son 199 XII The death of the Emperour Gratian and afflictions of S. Ambrose 202 XIII The Embassage of S. Ambrose 204 XIV The persecution of S. Ambrose raised by the Emperess Justina 206 XV. Maximus passeth into Italie 208 XVI Affliction of S. Ambrose upon the death of Valentinian 210 XVII The tyranny of Eugenius and not able liberty of S. Ambrose 211 XVIII The differences of S. Ambrose with the Emperour Theodosius his death 213 THE SOULDIER I. THe excellency of warlike virtue 217 II. He Enterance into the palace of Valour and the illusions of the Salmoneans and Rodomonts 218 III. The Temple of Valour and sage Precepts given by the Christian Souâ—dier to refute the manners of the times And first That Piety helpeth Valour 220 IV. Manifest proofs which declare that Piety and Valour are not things incompatible 222 V. Against Duels 224 VI. Against the ill mannage of arms 225 VII Against sensual Love Impurity 228 VIII Against the perfidiousnes of interests 230 IX Short and notable Instructions 231 CONSTANTINE I. THe providence of God over Constantine 233 II. The Nobility of Constantine 235 III. His Education and Qualities 237 IV. His entery into the Empire 238 V. His prowess against Maxentius 242 VI. The death of Diocletian and feats of Arms performed by Constantine against Lycinius 243 VII The vices and passions of Constantine before his Baptism with the death of Crispus and Fausta 245 VIII The calling of Constantine to christianity The progress of his conversion and Baptism 247 IX The acts of Constantine after his Baptism 248 X. The endeavour of good works with the virtues and laws of Constantine 249 XI The Zeal of Constantine in the proceedings in the Councel of Nice 251 XII The government of Constantine 254 XIII The death of Constantine 255 THE STATES-MAN I. THe excellency of politick virtue 263 II. He Table of Babylon drawn from sundry conceptions of the most singular wits of Antiquity 264 III. The destruction of Babylon and the government of the Divine Providence over the Estates of the world 266 IV. The Table of the Citie of God otherwise called The Citie of honest men drawn out of many excellent conceits of ancient Authours and things practised in some former Common-wealths 268 V. Sage Precepts drawn out of the Monuments of the divine Agathopolis 271 BOETIUS I. HIs great Nobility 276 II. The eminent Wisdom and Learning of Boetius 278 III. His enterance into government of state 280 IV. The enterance of Theodorick into Rome and his happy Government by the counsel of Boetius 282 V. The Honours of Boetius and alteration of Theodorick 287 VI. The imprisonment of Boetius 291 VII The death of Boetius 293 THE LADIE I. THat the HOLY COURT cannot subsist without the virtue of Ladies and of their piety in the advancement of christianity 297 II. That Women are capable of good Lights and solid Instructions 298 III. The ten Orders of women and the vicious qualities which Ladies ought especially to avoid 299 IV. The tenth Order of Women full of Wisdom and Virtue 302 V. A brief Table of the excellent Qualities of a Lady And first of true Devotion 302 VI. Modestie 303 VII Chastitie 304 VIII Discretion in the manage of affairs 305 IX Conjugal Love 306 X. The care of children 307 XI The conclusion of the Discourse ibid. CLOTILDA I. HEr Birth and Education 307 II. Clodovaeus requireth Clotilda in marriage 308 III. Embassage to the King of Burgundie for the marriage of Clotilda 310 IV. The arrival of Clotilda in France the life she led in the time of her Wedlock 312 V. The prudence which the Queen used in the conversion of her Husband 313 VI. The conversion of Clodovaeus 315 VII What Clodovaeus did by the perswasion of Clotilda after his Baptism 316 VIII The good success which God gave to Clodovaeus after he became a christian 317 IX The life of Clotilda in her widowhood Her afflictions and glorious death 319 INDEGONDIS X. ISsued from the bloud and house of Clotilda she transporteth the Catholick Faith into Spain 323 XI The persecutions of Indegondis 324 XII The Retreat of Hermingildus and his conversion 325 XIII The Reciprocal letters of the father and the son upon their separation 326 XIV The Treatie of peace between Levigildus and his son by the mediation of Indegondis 327 XV. Hermingildus is wickedly betrayed 328 XVI The letter of Hermingildus to Indegondis and his generous resolution 330 XVII The death of Hermingildus 331 A TABLE OF THE MAXIMS AND EXAMPLES Contained in the third Tome of the HOLY COURT The First Part of the Third Tome touching the Divinitie I. Maxim OF Religion page 339 I. Example OF the esteem we ought to make of faith and Religion 342 II. Maxim Of the Essence of God 343 II. Example The power of God over faithless souls 346 III. Maxim Of the excellency of God 348 The greatness of God compared to the abjectness of man 349 III. Example Of the weakness of man and inconstancy of humane things 352 IV. Maxim Of the providence of God 354 The foundation of truths of the providence of God 356 IV. Example Divers observations upon providence 358 V. Maxim Of Accidents 359 V. Example Of the providence of God over the estates and riches of the world 363 VI. Maxim Of praedestination 365 VI. Example Of the secret power of praedestination 368 VII Maxim Of the Divinity of Jesus 370 Of the revelation of the Word Incarnate and how all creatures bear witness of his divinity ibid. VII Example The triumph of Jesus over the enemies of Faith 373 VIII Maxim Of perfections of Jesus which make him to be beloved 375 Excellencies in the person of our Saviour 376 VIII Example Of the admirable change of worldly love into the love of Jesus Christ 379. The Second Part touching the Order of this present Life IX Maxim OF Devotion 381 IX Maxim OF dark Devotion 382 IX Maxim Affected Devotion 383 IX Maxim Transcendent Devotion 384 IX Maxim Solid Devotion 386 IX Example Of solid Devotion 387 X. Maxim Of interest 389 X. Example Of liberality and the unhappiness of such as seek
that being sent into the Territory of Milan in the quality of a Governour Probus who substituted him merily said Go Vade age non ut Judex sed ut Episcopus rule like a Bishop rather than a President recommending mildness unto him that he might apply a lenitive to the great rigours that were used in matter of justice This fell out much otherwise than Probus and Ambrose had projected for as the history telleth Auxentius an Arrian Bishop who had much longer lived than was fit for a man so wicked some little time before deceased at Milan the Metropolitan place of his Diocess and when there was question to proceed to election there were many difficulties between the Catholicks and Arrians every one coveting to create a Bishop of his own party The emulation which was much enkindled threatned to draw bloud from the veins of both sides before it could be quenched Ambrose as a Magistrate went thither to redress it And behold at the same instant a little child as if it had been an Angel descended from Heaven cried out in the midst of the assembly Ambrose must The election of S. Ambrose be created Bishop This loud voice was seconded by all men as a voice sent from the mouth of God The fire of dissention was quenched in an instant the most outragious courages forsook their arms and thought on nothing but to raise Ambrose who was not as yet baptized to bear him by ordinary degrees to the Episcopal chair There were some obstacles herein on every side Concil Nicenum Can. 1. Miserum est eum fieri â—â—gistrum qui necdum dificit esse discipulus Innocentius primus ep 12. ad Aurelium Hieron Ne milesantequm Tyre ne prâ—â—s magister sis quà m discipâ—lus For first it was against the laws of the Church to choose a Bishop since the Councel of Nice condemneth those Prelates who give Orders to Priests presently after baptism Secondly there was an Edict of the Emperour which forbade the advancement of his Officers and civil Magistrates without his express consent In the third place Ambrose who was wholly dedicated to a secular life had neither vein nor artery which enclined to election But who can resist the spirit of God when he is pleased to strike a stroke with his own hand beyond the imagination and judgements of men All difficulties one after another were taken away and this election was approved not onely by the holy See but of all the Eastern and Western Bishops who much rejoyced and congratulated with S. Ambrose by their letters The Emperour Valentinian gave his assent thereunto boasting he had sent such good Governours to Provinces that they were thought capable of Bishopricks There was no body but Ambrose to subdue who used all sort of engines and practises to divert this purpose He who ever of his own nature was exceeding mild feigned himself bloudy causing racks and tortures to bepublickly exercised on offenders yet needs would they have him for Bishop He who was most chaste made men and women of ill life haunt his house and descended even to the shadow of sin to flee the light of glory yet ceased they not to pursue him He fled and after he had for a whole night travelled hard thinking he was far off found himself at the gates of Milan from whence he departed In the end he was forced to yield to the spirit of Almighty God who gave him such evident tokens of his calling Needs must he undergo the charge he so constantly had refused and where humane prudence looseth its sight we must suffer it to attend the direction of Eternal Providence The second SECTION A short Elogie of the life and manners of S. Ambrose I Will do as Geographers who put the whole world into a little map I intend to comprize in few words that which deserveth a volume and give you a brief table of the life and manners of this great Saint S. Ambrose was a man in whom it seemed virtue Rare endowments of a Prelate was incorporated to make it self visible to mortal eyes Goodness which cometh to others by studie seemed his by nature since he had consecrated his infancy by the ignorance of vice and whiteness of innocency Others think it ill to commit a sin and with him it was a great vice to omit a virtue When he lived in the house of his father with his good sister Marcellina he attended to the practice of virtuous actions they both were as flint-stones which by proximity make the sparkles flie so the holy emulation they used in the pursuit of good enkindled the sensible apprehension of God in their hearts by a mutual reverberation He went from this school as Samuel from the Tabernacle to bear innocency to the Episcopal Throne and there to receive dignity His life served as a rule his example as a torch his learning as an ornament and his very silence as an admonition If you regard the virtues which ordinarily lay the foundations of spiritual building such as are sobriety and continency Ambrose undertook fasts for delight commonly eating but once aday and that with moderation he tyed himself to the one for the love of the Cross and admitted the other by way of necessity This exercise much served him to conserve his purity which most inviolably he kept even in the very course of secular life as it was found in his private papers where he very ardently begged of Almighty God that he would give him grace to maintain in his Episcopal dignity the gift of chastity which he had afforded him in a secular life He daily rose from his bed as the Phenix from her nest having no other flames but those of that great Sun which scorcheth Angels in Heaven and the most Angelical hearts on earth From this temperance proceeded his admirable conversation which gained all hearts and who so well knew how to joyn the wisdom of the serpent with the simplicity of the dove He was prudent with good men sharp against the practises of the wicked yet crafty never His discourse came from him with such an Oeconomy that the ignorant found instruction therein the curious light the learned solidity the eloquent grace the vitious terrour the virtuous edification the timorous confidence the afflicted consolation and the whole world admiration There was nothing idle in this man all spake in him all tended to praise-worthy actions his study was holy letters his care to express in his manners what he had read in books he was prompt in all which he did and had but one hinderance in the world and that was prayer which he would never have left if discretion had not taught him to forsake God to find God His intentions were most sincere his negotiations honourable his silence discreet his words ever profitable his heart full of compassion and although the eminency of his life raised him above all men yet the sweetness of his nature made him familiar
of our impatience the guardian of temperance the seal of virginitie the advocate of offenders the consolation of the afflicted the sepulture of the dying For the just are buried in prayer as the Phenix Praise of prayer in perfumes Prayer doth all A Christian without prayer is a Bee without sting who will neither make honey nor wax It is to little purpose to propose unto you the mysteries of faith and the maxims of Christian wisdom if you use not meditation to ruminate them It is as meat cast into a stomack without digestion which will do more hurt than good not of its own nature but by your indisposition which is bad From hence proceed the desolations of the earth From hence are derived so many fals so many miseries for that men apply not themselves to tast the things of God in prayer That which ought to incite us to this exercise is Necessitie of prayer first the necessitie which is so great that in matter of spiritual life it is as requisite to pray as in the animal to breath We are choaked with flesh and fat Oâ— meum aperui attraxi spiritum and the flames of concupiscence unless we upon all occasions open our mouthes to take the gentle air of God Secondly the pleasures we therein take in process of time is verily that which the prophet Isaiah calleth Sabbatum delicatum the delicate Sabbath As Isaiah 58. Sabbatum delicatum Pleasure Sola prima ac luminosissima veritas cibus est nostri intellectus Sola prima inundantissimáque bonitas cibus nostri nobilis ac sublimis affectus Perfection of the soul Albert. de virtut c. 37. much as to say the delicious repose of the soul The corporal eye as saith the learned Prelate William of Paris maketh its repast upon the beauty of the fields the flowers the heavens the stars and on all the objects which are found in this universe But the eye of contemplation by the means of prayer nourisheth it self with the excellencie of God and the perfections of Jesus Thirdly the puritie and perfection of the soul which is derived from this exercise ought to serve us as a special spur There it is saith Albertus Magnus where we carrie our mouthes even to the source and wel-spring of virtue There it is where God is known and knowing him that we love him and in loving him we search him in searching him we take pains and in taking pains we find him In the fourth place we have the example of our Pernoctans in oratione Dei Luc. 6. 12. Saviour who for our instruction spent the nights in prayer the example of the Apostles and all Saints who have practiced and recommended this exercise to us The ninth SECTION The necessitie of Confession MEn resemble snails every one carrieth his own house with him a house wholy replenished with darkness although it ever seem lightsom A house which hath neither door nor window though therein be a thousand witnesses which see all that passeth with as many eyes as heaven hath stars A house composed of labyrinths yet cannot the Host hide himself in it A house whereinto the sun peepeth not and yet may even the very least atoms be seen A house wherein there are perpetual pleadings yet never any issue of process but with issue of life Finally a house which hath two faces altogether different the one called hell the other Paradise In a word this house whereof I speak is the conscience It is full of darkness for the thoughts Nullus molestior oculus cuique suo Bern. l. â—5 de confiderat of men are involved in such a cloud of obscuritie that neither the devils nor Angels themselves see any thing therein yet is it lightsom for ever the eye of proper conscience reflecteth thereon There is no door nor window for all is very close shut up yet do a thousand witnesses fix their eyes thereon for the conscience alone is called a thousand-witnesses It is composed of labyrinths for there are all flexibilities and subtil mazes in this labyrinth the host Putásne Deus è vicino ego sum non Deus de longe Hierem. 23. cannot hide himself for it is ever day-pierced by the eye of God before whom neither the abyss nor hell it self hath darkness enough to hide it The sun peepeth not in there for in effect its light which displayeth all the objects of the world before our eyes cannot discover the simplest of our thoughts yet may the very least atoms be seen for there is not any thing so subtil which can free it self from the eyes of God They perpetually plead there for every moment Aula Sathanae hortus deliciarum aureum reclinatorium Bernard de interiori domo Ambr. in illud rerela Domino viam tuam the conscience chalengeth us even upon the least sins and the issue of the process concludeth not but with the end of life because at that very hour the decisive sentence of our eternitie is given In fine this house hath two faces whereof the one is called hell to wit the evil conscience and the other Paradise that is the good and innocent which we cannot throughly settle in this great corruption of the heart of man but by a good confession Too much shade hurteth seeds which begin to Idem grow darkness duls them and the eye of the sun serves them as a father Assure your self the buds of virtue hold the same course there must be day to bring them into the light and he who will hide his life shall loose all the fruit he may hope thereof Bernard de interiori domo cap. 37. Confession is the price of our immortalitie the citie of refuge given us by God but if it be once ill managed it is not a confession but a double confusion for feigned miserie excludeth true mercie nor did ever presumption well accord with pitie Among the most especial exercises of devotion are confession communion meditation spiritual lection and the fruit we derive from the word of God Concerning the practise of confession we will onely speak with much brevitie thereof for at this present there are great store of books which teach this method Hear a true observation made by Saint August tract 12. in Joan. Augustine That the beginning of our good works is the accusation of our evil If you desire utterly to forsake the animal life to submit to the spiritual put in the fore-front a good general confession Gulielm Paris de Sacrament Poenitent l. 12. Matth. 17. Confession saith S. Ambrose is the price of our immortality It is the tribute of Heaven signified by the piece of coyn which S. Peter found in the mouth of a fish Necessity seems to require it for the reasons which General confession the beginning of spiritual life follow First how many sins are left by the way how many by culpable ignorance sometimes through fear and shame
willeth us to take moderate pleasure in creatures which he hath made for our content and ease that we may enjoy them in time and place every one according to his condition profession and rule of wisdom Synesius saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pleasure lays hold of the soul Somnus balnea dolorem mitigant S. Thom. 2. q. 138. Date siceram merentibus vinum iis qui amaro sunt animo Prov. 2. the Creatour hath given the feeling of pleasure to sense to serve as an arrest to the soul and to hold it in good quarter with the body Saint Thomas among the remedies of sadness prescribes sleep and bathing The Scripture it self counselleth us to give wine and other fitting draughts for them to drink who have their hearts oppressed with bitterness If one think to make a great sacrifice to God resting perpetually stretched and involved in a pensive austeritie of spirit as being desirous to avoid all pleasures of life he deceiveth himself It hath happened that many running in their own opinion to Paradise by this path according to peculiar fancie have found themselves on the borders of hell Fourthly to remember our life is a musick-book Our life is a musick-book seldom shall you find there many white notes together in the same line black are mixed among them and all together make an excellent harmonie God gives us a lesson in a little book which hath but two pages the one is called Consolation the other Desolation It is fit for each of them to take its turn In the day of adversity think of prosperity In the day of prosperity remember your self of adversity That great Prelate of Cyrenum Synes in hymno said that the Divine Providence hath mingled our life as one would do wine and water in a cup some drink the purest some the most compound but all tast a commixtion Fifthly if you exactly compare our condition to that of an infinite number of miserable creatures who groan in so many tedious and disastrous torments you will find your fardel but a dew But we have a certain malignity of spirit which ever looks back on the good it hath not to envy it and never considers the evil from whence it is freed to render thanks to God Behold some are in the bottom of a dungeon in fetters others are bowed in painful labours from the rising to the setting Sun to get their bred Some have the megrim in their head the gout in their feet and hands the stone in their kidneys Others are overwhelmed with business loss misfortunes strange and portentous accidents yet carry it out with courage Your heart is nipped with a little sadness and behold you despair what effeminacie of spirit is this It is said hares seeing themselves pursued on every side had one day resolved to drown themselves but coming to the brink of a river and beholding frighted frogs who cast themselves at all adventure in the water to escape Courage said they we are not yet the most miserable treatures of the world behold those who are more fearfull than we Ah how often should we say the same if we saw the miseries of others Sixthly is it not a goodly thing to behold a man Unworthines of sadness who probably speaking is in the favour of God who is here nourished with Sacraments with Christs body and bloud with the word of his Master who liveth among so many helps and comforts spiritual and temporal who expecteth a resurrection a Paradise a life eternally happy and happily eternal in so beautifull a societie of Saints to frame pensiveness and scruples to himself of his own head to afflict himself like a Pagan or a damned soul that hath no further hope It is related that God one day to give an antipast of beatitude to a holy man turmoiled with sundry cogitations caused an unknown little bird to chant in his ear in so melodious a manner that instantly his troubled spirit became clean and pure and held him rapt many years in the most tastfull delicacies may be imagined O if you often had strong imaginations of Paradise how your melancholy would melt and dissolve as snow before the Sun-beams Lastly sing spiritual canticles labour employ Noble tears your spirit without anxiety and if needs you will weep lament your imperfections bewail the miseries of the poor sorrow for your curiositie lament the passion of your spouse grieve and sigh at your impatience after this glory of Paradise weep over the deluge on the earth look back like a chast dove on Dulces lachrimae sunt ipsi fletus jucundi quibus restrintur ardor animi quasi relaxatus evaporat affectus the ark of your good father Noe the father of repose and consolation Then will I say of such tears with S. Ambrose O the delicious tears O the pleasing complaints which extinguish the fervours of our mind and make our affections sweetly to evaporate The two and twentieth SECTION The third combate of the spiritual man against impuritie ALl impuritie of life ariseth from three sources whereof S. John speaketh concupisence of Joan. 2. Three sources of impietie the flesh concupiscence of the eyes and pride of life Let us now see the practice of virtues which oppose these three sorts of impurities Against concupiscence of the flesh temperance chastitie modestie do wage war Against the concupiscence of eyes to wit the unbridled desires of temporal blessings povertie justice charitie mercie gratitude Against pride of life humilitie obedience magnanimitie patience clemencie The three and twentieth SECTION Practice of Chastitie CHastitie is a virtue which represseth the impure lust of the flesh a celestial virtue an Angelical virtue which maketh heaven and Angels descend upon the earth and in this kingdom of mortalitie planteth the image and titles of immortality Clemens Alexandrinus maketh mention of certain Clemen Alex. strommat enchanted mountains at the foot whereof was heard a voice as of people preparing themselves for battel a little further the encounter and conflict and on the top songs and triumphs Behold as it Three sorts of chastitie were the condition of three sorts of chastitie With some it beginneth with labour and uncertaintie there is at the first toil and resistance against lust but the even thereof is not known With others it is become more manly as being already practiced in combats With others it triumpheth after a long habit yet notwithstanding whilest here on earth it abideth it is never absolutely secured The acts thereof are Acts. I. To renounce all unlawfull voluptuousness of the flesh II. To abstain from carnal acts not onely those which are unlawfull but sometime such as are permitted among married folk upon just occasion or for some certain time which is very ordinarie or perpetually which is singular and remarkable in the lives of some Saints So Martianus lived with his wife Pulcheria and Henry the Emperour with the Empress Chunegundis III.
coloured pretext Notwithstanding it cast most strong apprehensions into the soul of his Lady who too well knew the deportments of this Prince But considering this precious pledge of her husband held for an undoubted earnest-penny of his command she goeth and consecrateth all the difficulties which she conceived to the obedience towards her Lord. The poor Lady was no sooner arrived but was ravished and violated to satisfie the bruitish lust of a man more drunk with love than wine The Palace of a Christian Emperour which should be a Sanctuary for the chastity of Ladies is by an act black and villanous defiled The chaste turtle who would not survive her honour as soon as she returneth to her lodging exclaimeth against her husband with outragious words thinking he had consented to this disaster Go saith she to him ingratefull and unnatural man as thou are to prostitute the honour of thy wife to the bruitishness of a Prince abandoned by God and men dost thou not yet feel the executioners of thy conscience which reproach thee with thy crime Maximus much amazed at such words What is the matter or where have you been foolish woman saith he She shewing the ring Dost not thou yet acknowledge thy disloyaltie silly and perfidious man behold that which will accuse thee before God He as she began to unfold herself too soon found his own shame enjoyneth her to silence and dissimulation and hath no vein in him which tendeth not to vengeance Valentinian had a brave and valiant Captain who supported the whole Empire this was Aetius very lately adorned with the spoils of Attila whom he in a pitcht battel had vanquished Maximus thought he must ruinate this pillar to make the whole house to fall and therein was not deceived But being a man full of craft so dissembleth what was past concerning his wife as if it had never come to his knowledge onely he endeavoureth to gain the good opinion of a powerfull Eunuch named Heraclius who was the Emperours instrument and having already gotten him at his devotion suggesteth to him in great secret he had learned from a good hand that Aetius Lieutenant General of the Emperour was much puffed up with the victory he obtained against Attila and that he on all sides practised confederacies both within and without the Kingdom to make himself absolute Master of all that under the shadow of entertaining the French and Gothes in good correspondence with the Empire he purchased them for his own service with the Emperours revenues and that nothing remained for him but to set the Diadem upon his own head which quickly he would do were he not with all speed prevented Heraclius faileth not roundly to relate all this to his Master who was already stirred with jealousie towards Aetius seeing his fortune took so high a flight that it seemed to mount above wind and tempest Valentinian a hair-braind Prince perpetually drunk with lust and choller without any further inquisition sendeth for Aetius to the Palace and with enraged passion How saith he Traytour is it thou who undertakest to bereave me of the Crown and saying that taketh out a poinyard which he had in his bosom and killed him with his own hand An act both bold and barbarous The poor Aetius who had born the brunt of an Army of seven hundred thousand men who first confronted a man that shoke the pillars of all Empires who returned from the Gaules amply loaden with victorious Palms one of the most glorious Captains that ever was at that time shewed at Rome as a prodigy of valour fell dead as a sacrifice at the feet of his Master receiving by the just judgement of God that entertainment he before had given to Bonifacius the great Governour of Affrick Valentinian as if he had acted a Master-piece went presently to one of his wisest Counsellours to boast thereof asking of him if he had not well played his prize The other replieth Sacred Majesty if you had taken a hatchet with your right hand and cut off your left arm in stead of giving this accursed blow you had not done so ill And I believe you too soon will feel the loss you have received These words were not without effect for the death of Aetius being presently after divulged it put the souldiers into fury who loved him as a brave and valiant Captain under whose standard they had given so ample testimonies of their worth Two of the most hardy of them Ostias and Transtilas after they had massacred the Eunuch Heraclius assailed the person of the Emperour who was at that time in the field of Mars and desperately murdered him it being impossible to free himself from their hands God permitting this in revenge of the murder lately committed and so many adulteries wherewith this miserable Prince degenerating from the bloud of Theodosius was polluted Maximus who cast the stone and afterward withdrew his arm causing all this tragedy to be acted to his own advantage after the death of Valentinian as being most eminent obtained the Empire with little resistance and his wife during these enterprizes being dead perhaps through discontent for her own disaster seeketh the marriage of the Empress Eudoxia wife of Valentinian and daughter of our Athenais The poor Princess drenched in a deluge of sorrow for the death of the Emperour her husband shewed in the beginning to be deaf in this motion of marriage but as the spirits of women are mutable and soothed with glory in few days forgetting death she resolveth to live among the living and for accommodation of her affairs weddeth Maximus Behold him in a short time in the Throne and bed of his Master revenging himself of one wickedness by another much more execrable But vice in greatness hath ever a staggering foot Maximus was no sooner entred into the Palace but his head aked and the remorse of conscience distracted him His most trusty friends heard him sighing say he esteemed that ancient Damocles happy who was a King but the space of a dinner-while so much already was he disquieted with the Empire as if he had soreseen his own catastrophe It chanced one day this unhappy man familiarly discoursing with his new spouse let a word escape him which cost him his life for to give her a great token of his affection he confessed himself to have intermedled in the design of Valentinian his death not so much for the desire of the Empire as of her beauty Eudoxia was strucken with strange horrour at these words not supposing her first husband had been deprived of life and scepter by his practices and therefore resolving to be revenged she covereth her plot with dissimulation and bendeth all her powers to content his humour She saw how her mother had been used at Constantinople so that from thence probably she could expect no succour The fury of revenge transported her to an Wicked revenge of a woman act very hazardous which was to call Gensericus King of the
with all such as stood in need of his assistance As much as his zeal made him terrible to those who durst contend with his Master so much his mildness rendered him communicable to all the world his exteriour employments nothing diminished his interiour nor did retirement for contemplation hinder the manage of affairs Never was he imperious but to support the Empire of the Saviour of the world As he elevated himself towards Heaven when there was occasion to defend the Church so he humbled himself to lowest degrees when he was to condescend to humane infirmities Honour always seemed to him the tribute of God and whilest he lived he constantly yielded it to his Master without keeping ought else for himself but the burden of his ministery His continual exercise was to instruct Monarchs exhort people convince hereticks comfort the afflicted feed the hungry cloath the naked redeem prisoners entertain pilgrims shew the way of salvation to the erring save the desperate from shipwrack enflame the luke-warm cherish the fervent provide for all those who were under his charge and punctually to act all the duties of his profession He thought all the miseries in the world were properly Expressa ab Hilâ—r Arcl. his and bewailed them as his own He likewise accounted the good hap commodity and advancements of his neighbour were his own riches and enablements as if in one sole heart all the hearts of the world were included There was neither need of Porter nor Page in his house to give him notice of such as would speak with him for he was ever exposed to commerce as writeth S. Augustine Every one ran to him nor did any man think the time long in his company such pleasure they took in his conversation The needy who arrived at his house went not away without relief From the time he entered into office he consecrated his whole patrimony to the poor giving as it were all he had without reserving so much as himself Although transitory goods are consumed faith never is wasted Faith serveth for alms and alms fail not to faith These temporal assistances gave passage to grace and spiritual visits by which he endeavoured to sweeten as with oyl the yoke of Jesus Christ and adorn with virtue the souls of all his subjects as his own heart which was a true receptacle of charity Never was man more beloved or feared than he so well did he know to dispence these two different affections Every man reverenced him as his Lord and observed him as his father each man thought he found his countrey kindred and accommodations where S. Ambrose was The third SECTION His Government THe Ecclesiastical government of S. Ambrose is the rule of all the noble actions of the Clergie as heretofore the sicle of the Sanctuarie was the model of other coins This great man hath left such an idaea hereof in his writings and manners that the sensual find therein how to consider their end the luke-warm wherewith to be enflamed the imperfect to be corrected and the most perfect what they may daily learn His fair soul was as the Ibis a bird of Aegypt which buildeth her nest in the palms It was perpetually conversant in great contemplations and had no more impressions of the earth than the supream sphere of celestial bodies The principal Maxim on which he established the perfection of his Ecclesiastical life was that which he afterward digested in writing in the Epistle to Epist ad Irenaeum quae est secunda libri tertii in ordine vigeâ—ima Irenaeus whereof I have spoken heretofore Go to Ambrose saith he within himself behold thy self a Priest and which is more a Bishop This condition requireth a sober gravitie alienated from the manners of The foundation of an Episcopal life ordinarie men a life wholly serious weightie and solid in degree of singularitie It is a folly to think the dignitie of a Bishop consisteth in the exercise of ceremonies or exteriour gestures in publick How shall he be regarded by the people who hath nothing in his manners different from the people What wouldst thou have the world admire in thee if it behold nothing in thee above it self if it find its imperfections there if after it hath blushed at one vice to which it is subject it observe thou hast placed it in the throne of dignitie with thee Since needs I must be a Bishop (a) (a) (a) Quaeramus nobis viam inaccessam sermonibus insolentium inviam operibus imperitorum let me seek out a life free from the tongues of the most insolent and which hath nothing common with the works of weak-ones Following this rule he in his heart detested the practice of those who enter into charge by sinister ways and seek after nothing therein but exteriour lustre or temporal commodities in such sort that speaking of such a Prelate in the book which he composed of Episcopal dignity he saith (b) (b) (b) Lib. de dignitate Sacerdot c. 5. Oculis quidem carnalibus videtur quasi Episcopus magnus divinis obtuitibus inspicitur quasi leprosus magnus Caro suscepit dignitatem amina perâ—idit honestatem Caro deminatur populis anima servit demoni We behold him with carnal eyes as a great Bishop and God with his eyes which cannot be deceived sees him as a foul leaper Flesh took the dignity and the soul hath lost honesty Flesh predominateth over people and the soulis a slave to devils It is no hard matter to perswade a man to virtue who believes it to be his principal business This sage Prelate having laid the foundations of good and sincere intentions applied himself so to his charge that day and night he admitted no other thought For leaving the manage of houshould affairs to his brother Satyrus he addrest himself wholly to Episcopal functions which he exercised with so much perfection industrie and readiness that Paulinus an eye-witness of his actions said He did as much alone as five other Bishops First seeing he succeeded a man who had sown dissention he found it was very necessary often to preach Catholick verities which he performed with much fruit but labour indefatigable For coming from the order of Magistracy to Episcopal dignity he must learn that which his first profession never had taught him and although he might in such necessity have made use of others labours notwithstanding he who prudently thought fit that the doctrine we teach should bud in our hearts and take beginning in our inventions to produce it with the more utility put himself seriously to the reading of Scriptures and holy Fathers that were of his time to bring forth afterward in his soul what he should speak and observe for it was the counsel which he afterward gave to Bishop Constantius You (c) (c) (c) Collige de pluribus locis â—quam quam effundunt nubes propheticae ut terra tua humescat demesticis irrigetur fontibus Lib. 3. Ep.
1. must saith he gather together the water which distilleth from the Prophets as the clouds from many places to the end your land may be moistened and watered with their familiar fountains His preachings were solid pure gently flowing and full of good instructions and although his discourse had much sweetness in it yet had he not so suck'd honey from those bees which courted him in his cradle that he retained not their stings A nature too flexible resembleth the air which as soon giveth place to beggers as Caesars and as there is nothing more insupportable in a charge than a spirit opinionative so nothing is more fruitless than a weather-cock who turneth with every wind and hath no other direction but the passions of al those that nearest approach him S. Ambrose endeavoured to cure all the world as much as he might possibly with sweetness mixing oft-times his own tears with those of his penitents but if he met with obdurate and rebellious hearts he took upon him a marvellous predominancy both of authority and eloquence to tame vice and disarm insolence Constantine (d) (d) (d) Constantius medicus de liquidis a great Physitian observeth that it is not good to feed those with hony ormilk who are dangerously wounded for seldom by this course is death escaped Our great Bishop made the like judgement upon the maladies of the soul and never bent himself to cherish by supple indulgences those hearts which he saw to be ulcered with any malice His admonitions were not upon idle discourses for they were seen to be waited on with good effects and as it were a general reformation in all orders (e) (e) (e) Reformation of the Clergy He began to measure the Temple by the Sanctuary for esteeming that the sinews of words are laudable examples he endeavoured to make a good Clergy to serve as a mirrour for the Laity The waters of Jordan heretofore offered homage to the feet of Priests because they bare the Ark on their shoulders There is not any thing that gives not way to a good Ecclesiastick who carrieth sanctity in his heart his words are thunder-claps when his life is the lightening Behold why this great Saint desired nothing so much as to see the house not of Caesar but of Jesus free both from crime and suspition of it Above all he strove to extirpate two plagues fatal and opposite enemies of all sanctity avarice and lust not onely desiring the Priests of his Diocess should have chaste bodies but innocent hands also and not covetous to draw superfluities to their condition of life He voluntarily bred them in poverty and frugality as in the first mansion from whence the glory of the primitive Church proceeded well knowing the augmentation of riches doth not equally increase piety One would not believe what choice he made in Ecclesiastical preferments even to the refusing many times of some who had been very much recommended unto him and had nothing to give occasion of rejection but some petty uncomeliness in gesture or exteriour parts that alone offended the eyes of Saint Ambrose who was not willing to see any thing but lustre in his Clergy And although such things seemed idle to many yet was he no whit in his judgement deceived for having one day dismissed two for one sole levity in their gate he found they afterward made shipwrack of faith and already discovered the unconstant perfidiousness of their mind in this wanton action of their carriage Where reasons could not avail he employed a severe censure having no regard to exteriour semblances when there was occasions to chastise a crime Witness one Gerontius who lived in Milan under his rule a man of a spirit most pregnant and curious beyond his profession who was not contented to seek into the secrets of physick and excessively endeavour to polish his tongue which was very pregnant but he descended to some folly of Nigromancy Now this man having an itch of speech and especially of all that which he thought might make for his advantage vaunted in some company that he one night had taken one Onoscelides that is to say a devil who appeared to him with the legs of an Ass and that he had shaved him and led him to the mill whether it were that he in effect had seen such a spectre his brain being already much disposed to illusions or whether it were through vanity and imposture that he boasted himself of what he had done as it oftentimes happeneth to such kind of men who make tropheys of great crimes whilest it raiseth them in the opinion of the world above the ordinary sort These words being related to Saint Ambrose he very sharply reprehended him and imprisoned him in his own house in joyning sundry penances for expiation of this fault most unworthy of a Deacon of the Church of Milan such as he was He who was not capable of such a remedy fled and went to Constantinople with intention to disgrace S. Ambrose which he did as much as possibly he might There by the soft insinuation of his wit joyned to an incredible vain tattle in stead of seeking out a wholesom playster for his ulcers he covered them with cloath of gold in such sort that through the favour of Great-ones whom he had gained he was preferred to the Bishoprick of Nicomedia S. Ambrose effectually wrote to Nectarius discovering the impostures of this man and beseeching him for the honour of the Church and his own proper interest he would not suffer that Episcopal See to be defiled with ordures that astonished heaven and earth Nectarius employed all his power in this affair desiring both to discharge his own conscience and oblige the Bishop of Milan but he found this Impostour had by his charms got so much favor that to remove him was very difficult The glory hereof was reserved for S. John Chrysostom who afterward removed him as soon as he was preferred to the dignity of Patriarch of Constantinople Behold the severity this great Pastour used in the institution of his Clergy and as he saw that good Religious men and women served for a great ornament Religious cherished by S. Ambrose of the Church so he took a most particular care to entertain them and manure them as worthy plants of the garden of the Church Never could be rest till he saw a Monasterie erected in the suburbs of Milan where many holy personages dedicated themselves to a solitary life to perform on earth what the Angels do in Heaven As for Virgins who took the veil irrevocably to consecrate their virginity to Jesus Christ he trained them up in the Church with so much study fervour and zeal that we cannot imagine more For he dedicated to them the first fruits of his labours writing in their favour the books of Virginity which he composed in the first year of his charge in a most flourishing and elabourate stile where to shew the respect he bare to this
came from Afrik to Milan through so many perils both of sea and land such travels and sufferings to conclude her deliverance She found her son much already shaken by the shocks which the eloquence of S. Ambrose had given him Soon the holy woman knew it was this great Bishop whom God had chosen to set a seal upon this work of the conversion of a man so important and her son relateth that from that time she esteemed S. Ambrose as a very Angel of Heaven (a) (a) (a) Diligebat illum virum sicut Angelum Dei In Ambrosii ora suspendebatur ad fontem aquae salientis in vitam aeternam Conf. 6. in c. 1. She was still in the Church to behold him ever she hung on his lips as the sources which distil from the Paradise of God Here is the attraction of heat or rather the sun that must on high exhale this cold vapour after so much resistance it had made against the spirit of God Augustine himself very particularly deciphereth how being at Milan he saw the Bishop Ambrose known through the whole habitable world (b) (b) (b) In optimis notus orbiterrae as one of the best men upon the earth who ceased not to administer to his people the word of God which in it bare corn oyl and the wine of sobriety This man of God saith he at my arrival imbraced me as a father would his son and shewed he was much pleased with my coming to Milan obliging me with many charitable offices Behold the cause why I began to affect him very much not so much yet as a Doctour of truth for I expected it neither from him nor any other Catholick but as a man who wished me well I continually was present at his sermons in the beginning for curiositie to espie and sound whether his eloquence were equal to his great reputation I was very attentive to his words little caring for the matter and I found he really had a stile very learned and sweet but not the cheerfulness and quaint attractions of Faustus c c c Sermonis erat eruditioris minùs tamen hilarescentis atque mulcentis quà m Fausti though for substance of discourse there was no comparison For Faustus recounted fables and this man taught most wholesome doctrine Behold the first apprehensions that Augustine had touching the abilitie of S. Ambrose In the end he continuing to hear him for delight truth entered through his ears which were onely opened to eloquence and he found in the beginning that our Religion had not those absurdities which the Manichees obtruded and were it not true it might at least be professed without impudence which he could not hitherto be perswaded unto The old Testament which with the Manichees he so much had rejected seemed to him to have a quite other face after the learned interpretations of S. Ambrose The chymeraes and fantasies which environed his imagination were dissolved at the rising of some pettie rays from him Notwithstanding it was yet neither day nor night in his soul Errour was below and Religion had not yet the upper hand His spirit over-toiled with so many questions by the wiles of Satan propended to neutralitie being neither hot nor cold as it happened to those who forsake truth through the despair they have how to know it The eighth SECTION Agitations of spirit in S. Augustine upon his conversion BUt God still enflaming his chast desires he bent himself to consider S. Ambrose whom he perpetually had for object and seeing how this man was honoured by the chief Potentates of the earth how he flourished in such glorious actions all appeared compleat in such a life but that it went on without a wife he thinking at that time the want of a great burden to be a main miserie He as yet proceeded but to the bark of S. Ambrose observing onely what was exteriour and not penetrating into those great treasures of lights virtues contentments and heavenly consolations stored up in the bottom of the conscience of this holy Prelate He had vehement desires to speak to him somewhat more familiarly to understand his opinion to ask questions at large to discover his heart all naked and unfold the miseries of his passed life And because saith he I stood in need of a man full of great leasure to receive the ebbe and flow of thoughts which were in my soul now I found all in Ambrose except time to hear me not that he was difficult of access for he was ever in his Hall exposed to the service of the whole world but my unhappiness was to be like the Paralitick of the fish-pool still out-gone by others more strong than my self What diligence soever I used I found Ambrose environed with a large troup of solicitous men whose infirmities he comforted to my exclusion and if any little time remained for him it was imployed either in repast which was exceeding short or at his book The good Prelate studied in his Hall in sight of all the world where I oft beheld him and saw that in reading he onely ran over with his eye one page of a book then ruminated it in his heart not at all moving his lips whether it were that he would not engage himself to discourse upon his reading to all there present or whether it were he did it to preserve his voice easily weakened with much exercise of speach or for some other cause I thought time was very precious to him and seeing him so serious I supposed it a kind of impudency to interrupt him After so long a silence I went away with the rest not having opportunity to speak to him Verily this discourse sheweth a mervellous repose of spirit in S. Ambrose and as it were over much modesty in S. Augustine for it was a wonder that he who ordinarily lived at Milan in the reputation of a great wit and was already known by the Bishop to be such brake not the press at one time or other to gain some hours of audience in affairs of so great importance I should think either that he used a forbearance too shame-faced and irresolute or that S. Ambrose would not enter into disputation with a young man as yet so well perswaded of his own abilities before he had suffered him to ripen and to be throughly seasoned by the resentments of piety However it put the mind of S. Augustine into great disturbance Behold saith he almost eleven years that I have sought the truth and see I am arrived at the thirtieth year of my Age yet still perplexed To morrow infallibly it must dissolve stay yet a little perhaps Faustus will come to Milan and tell thee all But how will he tell that which he shall never know Let us hold with the Academicks and say all is uncertain for every man mantaineth what he list It is the property of man to imagine and the nature of God to know But the Academicks behold gallant men do
which said these words as it were singing Take and read often repeating them Admiration stopped the floud of tears and he began to examine in himself whether such a voice could come from any neighbour-place by some ordinary means All which well weighed he found it could not be humane but that God by this voice instructed him what he was to do He went from this place thither where he left S. Pauls Epistles with his friend Alipius imagining that as S. Anthonie had been converted by the reading of one word in the Gospel on which he casually happened God might likewise work somewhat in his soul by the words of his Apostle He openeth the book with a holy horrour and the first sentence he encountered was that which said It was time to live no longer in good cheer feasts and the Rom. 13. Non in commessationibus ebriâ—tatibus non in cubilibus imjudicitiis non in contentione aemulatione sed induimini Dominum Jesum Christum carnis providentiam ne â—â—ceritis in concupiscentiis vestris drunkenness of the world That it was time to live no longer in unchast beds quarrels vanities and emulations but that we must be clothed with Jesus Christ as with a robe of glory no more obeying the flesh nor the concupiscence of the heart There was no need to read any further Behold in an instant the ray of God which did directly beat upon his heart and opened to him a delicious serenitie Behold him throughly resolved He sheweth this passage to his faithfull Alipius as the decisive sentence of a long process which he had with sensuality And Alipius casting his eyes upon the subsequent words found (a) (a) (a) Rom. 14. Infirmum autem â—n â—â—ae reâ—ipite Receive him who is weak in faith Behold me said he If you determine to forsake the world take me for your companion They rose and went both to the good S. Monica Mother saith Augustine you shall not need to take the pains to find me out a wife Behold me a Catholick and which is more resolved to leave the world to live in continency The resolution is made and concluded with God there is no means at all to retire Had not God withheld the soul of this holy widdow of Naim it was already upon her lips to flie out for joy beholding this dead son this son of so many tears to come unexpectedly out of his tomb and present himself before her eyes with a splendour of incomparable light She made bon-fires of joy in her heart and triumphed with celestial alacritie blessing God who had stretched out the power of his arm on this conversion and who by the bounty of a true father had surmounted the vows of an afflicted mother Augustine in the mean while thought sweetly to begin his retreat from the Rhetorick Lectures wherein he was engaged There yet remained but twenty days to the time of vacation which had the continuance of twenty years to a man who then entertained far other affections notwithstanding through great wisdom and modesty he would not break with exteriour pomp by publishing a change of life in the Citie of Milan but suffered the time to steal away with little noise When the term expired he quietly discharged himself thereof and likewise freed himself from the importunity of fathers who passionately sought him to be Tutour to their children for his great capacity he alledging for his excuse that the exercise of the School had brought a difficulty of breathing and an indisposition of the breast upon him which threatened him with a ptysick if he desisted not This was very true but yet not the principal point of his resolution Behold how this great man avoided the occasions of ostentation and the divers interpretations he might make to himself for a gloss of actions and although God as he said had put into his heart flaming darts and juniper-coals against slanderous tongues he chose rather to take away occasion of calumny than to see himself put upon the necessity of defending himself very far different therein from the nature of those who make great flourishes to end them in nothing After he was discharged from his professon of Rhetorick he retired himself into the Grange of Verecundus where he stayed a long time as yet a Catachumen leading a most Angelical life spent wholly in prayer and the study of holy letters From thence he wrote to S. Ambrose of the errours of his passed life and the estate wherein he presently was by the grace of God as also of the aid he had contributed to his conversion demanding besides what book he should read the better to prepare himself for the grace of Baptism S. Ambrose certified him of the contentment he took in this so particular visitation of God and advised him to read the Prophet Isaiah but he seeing he could not yet understand it did defer it till another time wherein he might be better practised in holy Scriptures In the end the day so many times desired being S. Ambrose baptized S. Augustine come wherein he was to be born anew by Baptism it being in the thirty fourth year of his age as Cardinal Baronius accounteth it he went from the Grange of Verecundus to the Citie of Milan where he was christened by the hand of Saint Ambrose and had for companion of his Baptisin his faithful friend Alipius and his onely son Adeodatus at that time about fifteen years of age so prodigious a wit that his father could not think upon it without astonishment I had nothing Horrori â—â—ibi erat istud ingenium therein saith he my God but sin the rest is from you who so well know how to reform our deformities But all was there admirable for at the age between fifteen and sixteen years he already surpassed many great and learned men He also verified the saying of Sages affirming these such sparkling wits are not for any long continuance upon earth for he died some years after his return into Africk leaving a repose in the father who already apprehended the course of this Ingenium nimis mature magnum non est vitale youth and although he grieved to see him taken away in the flower of his age yet on the other side he was much comforted in the innocency of his life hope of his immortality knowing it was the will of the gardener who had gathered the fruit according to his good pleasure to lay it up in store After this baptism there were nothing but hymns songs lights of eternal verities thanksgiving and tears of joy This done he must take the way of Africa and they The death of S. Monica were now arrived to the port of Ostia expecting the opportunity of navigation when the holy and venerable mother Monica of fifty six years of age and worn with many labours rendered to nature her tribute and soul to its Creatour This admirable woman resembleth the Ark in
the deluge which after it had born the whole world in the bowels thereof amongst so many storms and fatal convulsions of universal nature reposed on the mountains of Armenia So S. Monica when she so long time had carried in her entrails and heart a spirit as great as this universe among so many tears and dolours so soon as she was delivered of this painful burden went to take her rest on the mountains of Sion A little before her death beholding Heaven from a high window which opened on a garden she seemed there already to mark out her lodging so much she witnessed resentment and extasie towards her son Augustine who at that time made this admirable colloquie with her couched by him afterward in his Confessions The conclusion was that she said unto him My son I have now no more obligations to the world you have discharged all the promises of Heaven to me and I have consummated all the hopes I might have on earth seeing you a Catholick and which is more resolved to perfection of the life you have embraced When it shall please God to call me I am like fruit ripe and falling that holdeth on nothing Soon after she betook her to her bed being surprized with a feaver which she presently felt to be the messenger of her last hour Behold the cause why she being fortified with arms and assistances necessary for this combat took leave of Augustine and his brother there present affectionately entreating them to remember her soul at the Altar onely meditating on Heaven and neglecting the thought of the land of Africa which she had seemed at other times to desire for the sepulcher of her body And as her other son said unto her Madame my mother we as yet are not there we hope to close your eyes in our own countrey and burie you in the tomb of your husband this holy woman seeing this man would still tie her to the present life and divert her from cogitation of death which to her was most sweet beheld him with a severe eye and then turning her self towards her son Augustine Hearken saith she what he saith as if we absent from Africa must needs be further from God She often cast her dying eyes towards this son who was her precious conquest and who in her sickness served her with most particular assistances affirming that Augustine had ever been a good son towards her and though he had cost her many sorrows he never had forgotten the respect due to a mother Verily there was a great sympathie between the soul of such a mother and such a son which was infinitely augmented after this happy conversion and therefore we must give to nature that which belongs to it The child Adeodatus seeing his Grand-mother in the last agony as possessing the affections of his father threw out pitifull out-cries in which he could not be pacified And S. Augustine who endeavoured to comfort them all upon so happy a death withheld his tears for a time by violence but needs must he in the end give passage to plaints so reasonable The Saint died as a Phenix among Palms and they having rendered the last duties to her pursued the way begun directly for Africk Behold how the conversion of S. Augustine passed and though many cooperated therein yet next unto God S. Ambrose hath ever been reputed the principal Agent and for that cause his great disciple said of him (b) (b) (b) Aug. contra Julianum Pelagianum l. 1. c. 6. Excellens Dei dispensator quâ—m veneror ut patrem in Christo enim Jesu per Evangelium ipse me genuit eo Christi ministerio lavacrum Regenerationis accepi Ambrose is the excellent steward of the great father of the family whom I reverence as my true father for he hath begotten me in Jesus Christ by the virtue of the Gospel and God hath been pleased to make use of his service to regenerate me by Baptism Whilest stars and elements shall continue it will be an immortal glory to the Bishop Ambrose to have given the Church a S. Augustine of whom Volusianus spake one word worth a thousand (c) (c) (c) Volusian Epist 2. Vir est totius gloriae capax Augustinus In aliis sacerdotibus absque detrimento cultus divini toleratur inscitia at cum ad Antistitem Augustinum venitur Legi deest quicquid ab eo contigerit ignorari Augustine is a man capable of all the glorie of the world There is much difference between him and other Bishops The ignorance of one Church-man alone prejudiceth not Religion but when we come to Bishop Augustine if he be ignorant of any thing it is not he but the law which is defective because this man is as knowing as the law it self The eleventh SECTION The affairs of S. Ambrose with the Empeperours Valentinian the father and Gratian the son LEt us leave the particulars of the life of S. Ambrose to pursue our principal design which is to represent it in the great and couragious actions he enterprized with the Monarchs of the world Let us not behold this Eagle beating his wings in the lower region of the ayr but consider him among lightenings tempests and whirl-winds how he plays with thunder-claps and ever hath his eye where the day breaketh The state of Christianitie stood then in need of a The state of Christendom brave Prelate to establish it in the Court of Great-ones The memory of Jâ—lian the Apostata who endeavoured with all his power to restore Idols was yet very fresh it being not above ten years past since he died and yet lived in the minds of many Pagans of eminent quality who had strong desires to pursue his purpose On the other side the Arians who saw themselves so mightily supported by the Emperour Constans made a great party and incessantly embroyled the affairs of Religion Jovinian a most Catholick Emperour who succeeded Julian passed away as a lightening in a reign of seven moneths After him Valentinian swayed the Empire who had in truth good relishes of Religion but withal a warlick spirit and who to entertain himself in so great a diversitie of humours and sects whereon he saw this Empire to be built much propended to petty accommodations which for some time appeased the evil but took not away the root He made associate of the Empire his brother Valens who being a very good Catholick in the beginning of his reign suffered himself to be deceived by an Arian woman and did afterward exercise black cruelties against the faithfull till such time as defeated by the Goths and wounded in an encounter he was burnt alive by his enemies in a shepherds cottage whereunto he was retired so rendering up his soul in the bloud and flames where with he had filled the Church of God The association of this wicked brother caused much disorder in the affairs of Christendom and often slackened the good resolutions of Valentinian by coldness and
Sects making his arrows of every wood so to hit the white of honour Verily if there be any vice deserving the execration Detestable hypocrisie of all mankind it is that which distendeth snares over Altars and which under colour of piety and zeal entrappeth men Cities and Provinces with a kind of theft which seeketh to make it self honourable under pretence of piety and Religion This was very familiar with this bad man for seeing many Pagans of quality who bit the bridle expecting the re-establishment of Idols he under-hand entertained them with very fair hopes On the other side he favoured the Synagogue of Jews in secret supposing these men being lost in Religion and conscience might one day serve his turn though but to fill up ditches But then beholding the Catholick Church in an eminent height he openly courted it and that with demonstrations of respect and service which might seem to proceed from none but the most zealous Letters also of his were found written to the Emperour Valentinian the Second where he made many declarations of the duty he owed to the Catholick Church so compleat that they seem much fitter for the mouth of a Bishop than of a Tyrant He speaketh of God like a Saint saying (a) (a) (a) Periâ—â—â—â— mihi crede divina teâ—tanâ—â—r Insanuâ— ubi error exâ—fabilis non est ibi velle peccare Baron an 387. 35. Great hecd must be taken not to contend with ones Master and that sins committed against Religion admit no excuse He talks of Rome (b) (b) (b) Româ— Veâ—â—rabilis enjus hac parte Principitatâ—s est Epist ad Siricium eod anno sect 65. as a Pope calling it in full voice The most Venerable and Princess of Religion He seemed to sweat bloud and water in defence of S. Ambrose whose virtue he infinitely feared it being joyned to a liberty which never accustomed to bow under tyranny In another Epistle where he writeth to Pope Siricius he tells how going from the Font of Baptism he had been transported to the Imperial Throne which being ignorant of the life of the children of God he esteemeth an incomparable favour from Heaven and in recompence thereof promiseth all service to the Church of Rome satisfying himself onely to execute that which should be commanded him without any desire to enter into the knowledge of the cause Moreover if he saw any forlorn Hereticks who were feeble in faction and much out of favour he ran upon them with all manner of violence and then shewing spiders webs of one side filled with little flies and on the other side all broken by creatures of a larger size he raiseth mightie tropheyes thinking so to piece out his fortune by the effusion of contemptible bloud In this manner he caused Priscillian and many other of his Sect to be put to death who were Hereticks possessed with a black and melancholy devil and such as in truth according to the laws both divine and humane well deserved punishment but not according to the proceedings were observed in their process much blamed by S. Martin and other wise Bishops who took notice of passions over-bloudy even in the Ecclesiasticks that sought after spoil O God! it is verily one of the greatest unhappinesses Virtutibus vitia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristot Origen Basil Albertus in Paradiso animz Prolog of humane life to say that vices keep shop near to virtues and often deceive the best experienced merchants with their artifices That is most true which is spoken by Albertus the Great Master of Saint Thomas Severitie counterfeiteth justice melancholy calleth it self gravitie babble stealeth into the name of affabilitie as doth dissolution pass under colour of free mirth The prodigal saith he is an honest man the covetous provident the self-conceited constant the craftie prudent curiosity borroweth the title of circumspection vain-glory of generosity presumption of hope carnal love of charity dissimulation of patience pusillanimity of mildness indiscreet zeal of fervour in matter of Religion and the worst of all is hypocrisie puts on the mask of sanctity Yet if with these Pretext of devotion daÌ„gerous semblances and borrowed faces they onely deceived vulgar souls it were somewhat tollerable but it is a thing most deplorable that the subtile who have no other God but their own interests by slight complacences and petty affectations of devotion ensnare noble and Religious souls who measuring all by their own innocency daily afford more support to credulity A little outward shew handsomly exprest ravisheth men with admiration and causeth Altars to be raised to them for whom God hath prepared gibbets There are also many silly A parable of the fowler birds who seeing the fowler with blear and running eyes role a huge pair of beads in his hands say this is a holy man and full of compassion but the more judicious answer We must not regard his eyes nor beads but the bloud and rapine which is in his hands Had Maximus been beheld upon this side he had never deceived the world but his plaistered devotions served his turn to amuze easie natures whilest his ambitions cleft mountains to climb to the Throne of Caesars Pope Siricius beguiled with the mask of this false piety gave demonstration of much affection to him and when he was declared Emperour many Bishops used with him at Trier sundry complements which too near approched to servitude There was none at that time but our Saint Martin who held a strong power over this spirit and the wily Maximus who well foresaw there was no resistance to be used against a stroke of thunder submitted with all pliantness and postures to draw this great Prelate to his amity He who heretofore made himself to be petitioned unto by the Bishops received the commandments of S. Martin as decrees and endeavoured to yield him all satisfaction One desire onely he fixed in his heart which was some one time to invite this holy man to his table to wipe away all the ill reputation of which the most judicious could not be ignorant but S. Martin constantly refused it until Maximus upon a time having made a thousand protestations of the sincerity of his intentions in that point which concerned the usurpation of the Empire the man of God whether perswaded by reasons or mollified by so many prayers went thither and used there passages of generosity which you shall know In this banquet were present the false Emperour Sulpitius in vita S. Martini cap. 23. Maximus with his brother and his uncle a Consul and two Counts S. Martin for his honour was placed in the middle near the person of Maximus and when about the midst of dinner the cup-bearer presented a goblet to his Master he for a singular testimony of his affection put it into the hands of the good Bishop seeming to have a holy ambition to drink therein after it was consecrated by the touch of his lips but S. Martin not using any other complement
goods of the Church they were sacred pledges which the Emperour had no right to require nor he to give Then for the Church demanded It was the house of God which his Predecessours Dionysius Eustorgius Myrocles and others had couragiously defended conserved not to be profaned by Arians but reverenced by Catholicks Moreover for that which concerned his banishment it was a thing now incompatible with his life for he more feared God who had given him this charge thā the Emperor who would take it away and that if Valentinian were ready to do that which an exorbitant power permitted Ambrose was bent on his part to suffer whatsoever a good Pastour ought to endure for his flock yea should his body be torn piece-meal under the rack of persecution yet his spirit should remain fast fixed to the Altar The history of the vine of Naboth was then read in the Church and one part of it where there passed in figure was here expressed in verity The denial of Saint Ambrose being reported in the Palace the souldiers had commandement to invade the Church on every side like a Town besieged Never was a Strange spectacle spectacle beheld more intermingled with terrour and piety The Church of Milan was then as a Tabernacle of the Lord of hosts which marched between the battalions under the conduct of the burning Pillar There was nothing without but souldiers lances pikes and swords within but prayers sermons hymns and canzonets One while this admirable Prelate offered Sacrifice at the Altar with great effusion of tears then he mounted into the Chair to encourage and consolate the people presently he introduced the symphony of Psalms anon he gave answers to the Emperours Deputies He travelled indefatigably and appeared as another Judas Machabaeus sometimes in the head sometimes in the rere and sometimes in the midst of the Army He was in his Church like the Patriarch Noe in his Ark confident in perils peaceable in tempests immoveable in all violences conspired to his ruin The people by his example in the tumult of the whole Citie and deluge of roaring waters were in this Tabernacle of peace as if they had enjoyed the antipasts of Heaven All were divided by companies to pray and watch as in Heaven the Quires of Angels The good mother of S. Augustine was then by chance in Milan very far engaged in the business for she was a Mary sister of Moses who served as an example to all other women At that time it was when God more and more to comfort his faithfull creatures discovered to S. Ambrose the sacred bodies of S. Gervasius and Protasius who heretofore had been martyred for the faith When the holy Reliques were seen to be drawn out of vaults still bloudy every one was enflamed with an incredible zeal for defence of Religion much like the Elephants in the book of Machabees who were stirred up at the sight of the juice of grapes There was nothing but lights musical consorts exultations and triumphs The miserable Empress who caused all things that passed to be hourly related unto her was now come to the condition of rage Nothing was heard in the Citie but prohibitions menaces penalties chains and imprisonments In the end the Provost was sent to Saint Ambrose to perswade him that he at the least would allow a Church in the suburbs to satisfie Justina and appease the sedition The people prevented his answer and cried out aloud that could not be done S. Ambros◠stretched out his hands and shewed his neck signifying he was ready to receive fetters and swords yea to be sacrificed on the Altar rather than deliver up the Altar They went to take the Church in the suburbs by force the people ran thither to stand upon the defence thereof The Emperial Ensigns thereon already fixed in sign of possession were abused even by little children It is a strange thing that Heaven earth and all the elements men and women great and small noble and ignoble ranged themselves on Saint Ambrose side Yea the souldiers themselves who were sent to take possession of the Church where the holy man was entered therein which at the beginning gave occasion of much terrour to the most timorous but they lifting up their peaceable hands cried out aloud They were come to pray with the Catholicks and not exercise violence on any man letting also the Emperour know that the Church belonged to him as to a Catholick Emperour there he should pray there receive favours from above there be in the Communion of true Christians If it appertained to Hereticks it would no longer be a place where the Emperour should feed on the Lamb which is never eaten but in the true Church His wicked mother ceased not to bewitch his mind and breath in his ears that Ambrose aimed at his State for which cause a Commissary was dispatched to the Bishop who roundly told him he onely desired to know one thing of him Whether he would usurp the Empire to the end he might hereafter be treated withal as with a Tyrant S. Ambrose made answer That his tyranny was infirmity and his arms prayers and tears which made him powerfull before God That heretofore Priests had given Kingdoms but not usurped them That there were some Emperours who had desired Priesthood but that Bishops never had aspired to Crowns That Priests had often felt the sword of Tyrants but Tyrants themselves had not at any time seen the sword of Priests un-sheathed against them Let Maximus be asked whether he were a Tyrant for he was very well able to make relation of strange things His tyranny was to serve the Emperour at the Altar and to be sacrificed if God suffer in serving him It well appeared this was to run his head against a rock to think of such an affair The Emperour fearing to engage his authority any further by the advise of some good Councellers gently struck sayl leaving all matters whole and entire S. Ambrose who then in the Church explicated the history of Jonas much wondered how the tempest being ceased he in an instant came out of the whales belly The fifteenth SECTION Maximus passeth into Italie YOu need but to cast a little earth abroad to scatter an army of Ants to break their Oeconomy and sport making them rather to think upon flight than the pleasure of their pillage so whilest Justina with the Arians was still employed in riots and practises how to be revenged on S. Ambrose making use of the innocent spirit of her son and authority of the Empire to satisfie her revenge God raised an accident which made her think of other matters Domnin her goodly Embassadour who departed from Maximus loaden with presents and fair words little thinking thereof was presently waited on by an army of the Tyrant who had in him as much fervour as fire and more infidelity than ice So suddenly fell he upon Italie that it was a great chance he had not taken the mother and her
S. Ambrose speaketh to the souls of his two pupils happy gone as you are out of the desert of this world dwell now in the everlasting delights of God united in Heaven as you have been on earth If my prayers have any force before God I will not let a day pass of my life that I remember you not I will not make a praier wherein I insert not the names of my dearest Pupils Gratian and Valentinian In the silence of the night the apple of mine eyes shall be waking and full of tears for you and as often as I approach to Altars my sacrifices shall mount to Heaven in the odour of sweetness By my will dearest children if I could have given my life for yours I should have found consolation for all my sorrows Then turning himself to his sisters those mournfull turtles whom this good Prince had so passionately loved that in consideration of them he deferred his own marriage fearing lest the love of a wife might diminish his charity towards them the good Bishop thus spake unto them My holy daughters I will not bereave you of tears this were to be over ignorant in the resentments of your hearts I wish that you bewail your brother but bemoan him not as lost he shall live more than ever in your eyes in your breasts in your hearts in your embracements in your kisses in your memorie in your praiers nor shall any thing draw him from your thoughts but you ought now to consider him with a quite other visage not as a man mortal for whom you were ever in fear but as an Angel in whom you dread nothing An Angel who will assist comfort and hold you day and night in his protection The seventeenth SECTION The tyranny of Eugenius and notable libertie of S. Ambrose IN the mean while Eugenius drawn from the school to the Throne of Monarchs to serve as a specious game for the fortune of the times changeth his ferula into a scepter and makes himself an Emperour like the ice of one night The faithless man who had been a Christian shutting up his eyes then from all consideration of piety and onely opening them to the lustre of this unexpected greatness made himself an arm of towe forsaking the direction of God to support in humane policie He put all his hope in the sword of Arbogastus and counsel of Flavianus a Gentleman of prime quality and much versed in judicial Astrologie who promised him a golden fortune if he would leave Christian Religion to re-advance the worship of false gods towards which Eugenius blinded with his presumption discovered great inclinations He chose the Citie of Milan to begin the web of his wicked purposes where S. Ambrose did not desire him not through fear of his arms but for the horrour he had conceived of his sacriledges The false Emperour failed not to write to the holy Bishop to require his friendship which he would make use of to support his authoritie but holy Ambrose shewed so generous a contempt of his letters that he deigned not so much as to make answer untill such time that being informed how Eugenius under-hand favoured the Sect of Pagans having already allowed them this Altar of Victorie for which so many battels had been fought he wrote to him a most couragious letter where not touching his election nor affairs of State as then not well known he reprehendeth him for his impietie and said among other things I ow the retreat which I made from Milan not attending Epist Ambros ad Eugenium you to the fear of God which shall perpetually be the rule of my actions The grace of our Saviour shall ever be more precious with me than that of Caesars nor will I at any time flatter a man to betray my conscience I wrong no person if I render to God that which is due to him and I profit all men when I conceal not a truth from great-ones I understand you have granted to Pagans that which constantly hath been denied by Catholick Emperours God knoweth all the secrets of your heart It is a very ill business if you unwilling to be beguiled by men think to deceive God who seeth all that is to be done even to nothing The Gentiles who so much have importuned you to satisfie their passion taught you to be urgent to make a good refusal of that which you cannot give but with committing sacriledge I am no Controller of your liberalities but an interpreter of your faith Give of your treasures what ever you think good I envie no man but you shall not give any thing of the rights of God which I will not resist with the utmost extent of my power You make a goodly matter to present offerings to Jesus Christ you will find few that make account of these dissimulations every man hereafter will regard not what you do but what you have a will to do As for my part I enter not now into consideration of your estate but if you be true Emperour you will begin with the service of the divine Majestie This is it which I cannot hide from you because my life and flatterie are two things incompatible As for the rest the Emperour Theodosius seeing the tyrannie of Eugenius in a readiness well foresaw necessitie must needs put arms into his hands to be mannaged with pietie Whilest the infamous Eugenius made slaughter of beasts amusing himself on the consideration of their entrails from thence to judge the events of war the brave Theodosius prostrated himself before the Altars of the living God covered Theodosius maketh the Court holy with hair-cloth imploring the assistance of Saints for his succour and all the prayers of souls the most purified which at that time lived within Monasteries He departed from Constantinople with these aids causing the Standard of the Cross to march before him Eugenius was alreadie encamped on the Alps to hinder the passage of his adversarie and had in a manner covered them with Statues of false Gods as of Jupiter and Hercules so bestial was this man The Emperour seeing he needs must fight commanded Gaynes Colonel of the Goths who led the vanguard to break the trenches of his enemies which he quickly did but they being yet very fresh and having a notable advantage of place taken by them sustained the first assault with much resolution and infinite loss on the Emperours part for it is thought that Gaynes who was a valiant Captain in his own person yet too wilfully opinionative to force this passage of the Alps lost there about ten thousand men which were killed like flies so that needs a retreat must be made very shamefull for Theodosius his army Eugenius whose head was not made for a diadem thinking the whole business ended after so great a slaughter of his enemies was so puffed up with this success that he rather thought how to glorifie his victorie than foresee his defence The sage Emperour on the other
side seeing his Army grown very thin and the courage of his souldiers wavering more stedfastly made his address to God He was seen upon the top of a rock prostrate on the earth and crying aloud My God you know that I in the name of your Remarkable pietie of Theodosius Son enterprized this war and have opposed the arms of the Cross against Infidelitie If in me their rest any blame I beseech you to revenge my sins on my culpable head and not abandon the cause of Religion lest we become a reproch to Infidels The same night God for his assurance shewed him a vision of two Apostles S. John and S. Philip who should be as indeed they were the Conductours of his Legions The next morning about break of day he ranged his forces in battel array and charged Eugenius not as yet througly freed from his drunken prosperitie And when he saw that those who had the vanguard proceeded therein somewhat fearfully remembering themselves of the usage of their companions he did an act of admirable confidence for he alighted from his horse and marching on foot in the head of his Army cried out Where is the God of Theodosius At this word the ayd of Heaven Victorie of Theodosius over Eugenius Ambros in oratione funebri Theodosii was so propitious that a furious whirl-wind was raised which persecuted the enemies of Theodosius casting a huge cloud of dust into their eyes and returning all their own darts back to their proper faces in such sort that as it is confessed by Claudian a very obstinate Pagan it seemed the good Emperour that day had the winds and tempests at command and that he had nothing to do but to give the word to make them obedient to his Standards Heaven fought for its beloved Theodosius and all the powers of the ayr were in arms to favour his victories The souldiers at this instant were all changed so much hope had they in their hearts fire in their courages Bacurius one of the Emperours greatest Captains with his enflamed Legions brake through the ranks penetrated the strongest resistances and gained the Alps. Eugenius his people dejected as men fallen from the clouds could not sufficiently admire this alteration The discreetest among them disposed themselves to treat of peace crying aloud that never would they bear arms against a man who had the ayr and winds in his pay Theodosius sortified them with his clemencie all dispositions by a most remarkable miracle of God who exerciseth his power as well over hearts as winds were changed in an instant and that which is admirable the most faithfull to Eugenius promised the Emperour to put him into his hands which they performed for they went to take this miserable man who sat on his Throne entertaining his goodly imaginations and crying Bring him alive speaking of Theodosius when they laying hold of his collar and most shamefully binding his hands It is you said they we must bring alive to Theodosius and that instantly They trussed him up like a beast astonished and presented him to the Emperour who having reproched him in presence of all the world for his impietie and treacherie caused him presently to be put to death to make an end of his imaginarie Empire The wicked Arbogastus who had at other times been so happy when he followed the counsels of S. Ambrose seeing the ill success of his designs became so enraged that himself thrust two swords through his own bodie being not able to endure life nor light which seemed to upbraid him with his crimes Some hold that Flavianus died in the throng that he might not survive his own shame others think he escaped and that Theodosius extended his ordinarie clemencie to him Briefly behold the course of the tyrannie of Eugenius still more and more to verifie the Oracles of S. Ambrose The Emperour came to Milan where he cast himself at the feet of the holy Bishop attributing these victories to his wisdom counsels and virtue of his prayers The eighteenth SECTION The differences of S. Ambrose with the Emperour Theodosius and his death PHilosophers say there are four things which divert thunder to wit wind rain noise and the light of the Sun And behold a thunder-clap arrested by Saint Ambrose with the wind of his mouth the holy rain of his eloquence the noise of his voice and resplendent light of his most unsported life Theodosius verily was a great Prince but as it is so difficult to be on earth and not participate of earth as that the Moon being distant by so many thousand leagues yet seemeth to bear the marks thereof on the forehead so is it very hard to be in Court and not resent the manners of the Court and souls esteemed the most temperate not to have some blemishes appear on the face This brave Emperour was naturally enclined to choller which was enkindled by the breath of those who conversed with him nourishing himself with the food of over-much credulity For this cause he had two great contestations with S. Ambrose which eminently manifested the authority of the holy Bishop The one was for a Synagogue of Jews the other Synagogue burned for the murder committed at Thessalonica The matter for the Jews was for that one of their Synagogues was burnt in the East at the solicitation of a Bishop with which Theodosius offended as if it had imported much prejudice to his Edicts caused a carefull Inquisition to be made and adjudged the good Bishop who was said to be the Authour of this fire to re-build the Synagogue now turned to cinders Saint Ambrose although he had a peaceable spirit and that he in his Diocess had never undertaken the like avoiding popular commotions as much as he might which ever transport affairs into some excess yet could he not tolerate the rigours used against Christians on this pretended injury but he very sharply wrote thereof to Theodosius as it appeareth by the letter which is yet found among his Works some words whereof behold My life passeth away in many cares wherein I am Ambros epist 17. lib. 2. engaged by obligation of my charge but I must avow that I never resented any thing more lively than to see my self as it were accused of sacriledge before your Majestie I beseech you patiently to hearken to me for if I Grave words of S. Ambrose be unworthie to be heard by you I cannot be heard of God for you You do wrong to commit your praiers and vows to me to be carried to Altars if you denie me the audience of your ears you declare me by the same sentence unworthie to bear your complaints to the ears of the living God It is not a thing to be done by a good Emperour to take away the libertie of speech nor for a good Bishop to conceal a veritie contrarie to his conscience All that which Monarchs have in them most amiable is to love libertie even in the tongues of the
can ought avail me Ruffinus notwithstanding insisted protesting he would instantly perswade the Bishop what ever he pleased He failed not to find out the Bishop but the Saint gave him a very sharp reprehension advising him rather to dress his own wounds than intercede for others for he partly understood that he had a hand in this fatal counsel Ruffinus notwithstanding plyed it all he could and endeavoured to charm this man with fair words saying finally for conclusion he would immediately accompany the Emperour to the Church S Ambrose who was ever very serious answered If he come thither as a Tyrant I will stretch out my neek but if in quality of a Christian Emperour I am resolved to forbid him entrance Ruffinus well saw the Bishop was inflexible and went in haste to advise the Emperour not yet on this day to hazard his approach to the Church He found him on his way as a man distracted that had the arrow in his heart and hastened for remedy and he saying he had dealt with the Bishop It is no matter saith Theodosius let him do with me what he please but I am resolved to reconcile my self to the Church S. Ambrose advertised that Theodosius came went Aedicula jaculatoria out and expected him at the door of a little Cell seperated from the body of the Church where ordinarily salutations were made Then perceiving him environed with his Captains Come you oh Emperour saith he to force us No saith Theodosius I come in the quality of a most humble servant and beseech you that imitating the mercy of the Master whom you serve you would unloose my fetters otherwise my life will fail What penance replieth the holy man have you done for the expiation of so great a sin It is answereth Theodosius for you to appoint it and me to perform it Then was the time when to correct the precipitation of the Edict made against the Thessalonians he commanded him to suspend the execution of the sentence of death for the space of thirty days after which having brought him into the Church the faithfull Emperour prayed not standing on his feet nor kneeling but prostrated all along on the pavement which he watered with his tears tearing his Psal 118. Adhaesit pavimento anima mea vivisica me secundùm verbum tuum hair and pitifully pronouncing this versicle of David My soul is fastened to the pavement quicken me according to thy word When the time of Oblation was come he modestly lifted up himself having his eyes still bathed with tears and so went to present his offering then stayed within those rayls which seperated the Priests from the Laity attending in the same place to hear the rest of Mass Saint Ambrose asked him who set him there and whether he wanted any thing The Emperour answered He attended the holy Communion of which the sage Prelate being advertised he sent one of his chief Deacons which served at the Altar to let him understand that the Quire was the place of Priests and not of the Laicks that he instantly should go out to rank himself in his order adding the Purple might well make Emperours not Priests Theodosius obeyed and answered that what he had done was not on purpose but that such was the custom of the Church of Constantinople Yea it is also remarkable that returning afterward into the East and hearing Mass at Constantinople on a very solemn festival day after he had presented his offering he went out of the Quire whereat the Patriarch Nectarius amazed asked him why his Majesty retired in that manner He sighing answered I in the end have learned to my cost the difference between an Emperour and a Bishop To conclude I have found a Master of truth and to tell you mine opinion I do acknowledge amongst Bishops but one Ambrose worthy of that title Behold an incomparable authority which was as the rays of his great virtue and sanctity from whence distilled all that force and vigour which he had in treating with all men I imagine I hitherto have exposed the principal actions of S. Ambrose to the bright splendour of the day and so to have ordered them that all sorts of conditions may therein find matter of instruction It hath not been my intention to distend them by way of Annals but historical discourses proper to perswade virtue So likewise have I not been willing to charge this paper with other particular narrations which may be read in Paulinus Sozomen Ruffinus and which have exactly been sought out by Cardinal Baronius suitable to his purpose I conclude after I have told you that Paulinus his Secretary witnesseth he writing by him a little before his death saw a globe of fire which encompassed his head and in the end entered into his mouth making an admirable brightness reflect on his face which held him so rapt that whilest this vision continued it was impossible for him to write one word of those which Saint Ambrose dictated As for the rest having attained the threescore and Death of S. Ambrose fourth year of his age he was accounted as the Oracle of the world for they came from the utmost bounds of the earth to hear his wisdom as unto Solomon and after the death of Theodosius Stilicon who governed all held the presence of Saint Ambrose so necessary that he esteemed all the glory of the Roman Empire was tied to the life of this holy Prelate In effect when on the day of holy Saturday after his receiving the Communion he had sweetly rendered up his soul as Moses by the mouth of God a huge deluge of evils overflowed Italie which seemed not to be stayed but by the prayers of this Saint Let us I beseech you pass over his death in the manner of the Scripture which speaketh but one word of the end of so many great personages and let us never talk of death in a subject wholly replenished with immortality Oh what a life what a death to have born bees in his first birth on his lips and at his death globes of light in his mouth What a life to be framed from his tender age as a Samuel for the Tabernacle not knowing he was designed for the Tabernacle What a life to preserve himself in the corruption of the world in a most undefiled chastity as a fountain of fresh water in midst of the sea What a life to arrive to honour and dignities in flying them and to have enobled all his charges by the intefrity of his manners What a life not to have taught any virtue before he practised it and to become first learned in examples before he shewed himself eloquent in words What a life so to have governed a Church that it seemed a copy of Heaven and an eternal pattern of virtues What a life to have born on his shoulders the glory of Christendom and all the moveables of the house of God! What a life to have so many times trampled the head of
Dragons under-foot and rendered himself the Oracle of the world and the Doctour of Monarchs And what a death to die as in a field with palms planted by his hand manured by his industrie and watched with sweats What a death to have built himself before his death a tomb stuffed with precious stones of so many goodly virtues What a death which hath made it known that S. Ambrose was born for all the world and could not die without the tears of all the world since as every one had his interests in the life of this Prelate so he found in his death the subject of his sorrow What a death to die with these words in his mouth I am neither ashamed to have lived nor fear to die because we have a good Master What a death to return to Heaven as the dove of the deluge to his Ark bearing words of peace as an olive-branch in his mouth What a death to see vice trodden under his feet Heaven all in crowns over his head men in admiration the Angels in joy the Arms of God laden with recompences for his merits Prelates who please your selves with Myters and Croziers would to God this incomparable man as he is the ornament of your Order might be ever the model of your actions And if your dignities make you be as Mountains of Sinai wholly in lights flames and thunder-strokes let the innocency of your life render you by his imitation Mountains of Libanus to bear the whiteness of snow in the puritie of your conversation the odour of incense in your sacrifices and devotions and fountains in the doctrines and charities you shall distribute to the whole world THE SOVLDIER TO SOULDIERS O Brave and couragious Nobility whose Ancestours have fixed the Standards of the Cross upon the land of Infidels and cemented Monarchies with their bloud to you it is I address these lines for you it is my pen laboureth excited with a generous design in hath to honour your profession Here it is where I present the true figures of valour Here I display the palms and crowns which environed the head of your Fathers Here I do restore the value of fair and glorious actions reserved for your imitation Enter with a firm footing and a confident courage into this Temple of glory perswading your selves that there is nothing so great in the world as to tread false greatness under foot and deifie virtues Worldly honour is the feast of Gods said an Ancient where the ambitious are not invited but in quality of IXIONS and TANTALUSSES to serve there as buffons but that which consisteth in valour joyned to integrity of manners ought to be the object of your affections the recompence of your labours and trophey of your memorie Reflect onely with a favourable eye on this poor endeavour which I consecrate to your benefit and afford by your virtues effect to my prayers and accomplishment to my writings THE SOULDIER The first SECTION The excellency of Warlick Virtue IF the profession of arms were as well managed as it is excellent and necessary in civil life we could not have eyes enough to behold it nor tongues sufficient to praise it and although our spirit should arrive to the highest top of admiration it would ever find wonders in this subject not to be attained We seem to hear the Scripture speak that God God of hosts himself affecteth the glory of arms when he causeth himself to be surnamed the God of hosts and when the Prophets represent him unto us in a fiery Chariot all environed with burning Legions at which time the pillars of Heaven tremble under his feet the rocks are rent abysses frown and all the creatures of the universe shake under the insupportable splendour of his Majesty In effect this great Monarch of Town belieged by God Heaven and earth ceaseth not to make war and if we will consider his proceedings we shall find it is more than fifty Ages since he hath laid siege to a rebellious Citie which hath for ditches abysses of iniquity for walls and rampires obstinacy for towers and bulwarks mountains of pride for arms resistance against divine inspirations for artillery tumult and insolency for houses dens of hypocrisie for Palaces labyrinths of dissimulation for tribunal and bar impiety for Temple proper-will for Idol self-love for Captain blindness for souldiers exorbitant passions for counsel folly and for constancy perverse opinion This Citie in a word is the heart of man against The hurt of man which God daily wageth war to give us libertie by our captivitie advancement by our fall greatness by our abasing and life by death which maketh us die to all dead things to live for immortality God would that we fight by his example not onely with spiritual arms but sometimes with material and it is a thing very considerable that Abraham the first Father of all the faithfull was a warriour since S. Ambrose Ambros Offic. lib. 1. cap. 24. Fide primus justitiâ precipuus in praelio strenuus in victoriâ non avarus domi hospitalis uxori sedulus reckoning up all his titles according to the Scripture sheweth he was a good Religious man a good Justice a good Captain a good hoast and a good husband Yea also it is a passage much more admirable to say what Clemens Alexandrinus hath observed that the first Army of the faithfull which ever was marched not thinking thereon under the figure of the Cross and the name of Saviour although it were about two thousand years before the birth of the Messias The fourteenth Chapter of Genesis teacheth us that nine Kings came into the field with their troups to fight four against five Those of Sodom and Gomorrha were there in person who like effeminate Princes turned their back at the first encounter and in flying fell into pits of sulphure Their defeat gave leisure to the enemy to pillage all the Countrey where poor Lot the nephew of Abraham was taken having by mishap chosen his habitation in a Territory fertile in wealth and iniquities The news coming to the ears of Abraham he speedily armed his houshold-servants who were to the number of three hundred and eighten and with shepheards assaulted Kings whom he valorously vanquished bringing back his kinsman and all the booty which his enemies had taken Behold the first battel renowned in Scripture where this brave Doctour of Alexandria before alledged very well subtilizeth and saith that the number of Abrahamâ—s souldiers is represented by three Greek letters T. J. H whereof the first signifieth the Cross and the other two the name of Saviour God being desirous so to consecrate the first arms of believers by the Mysteries of his Greatness to declare that the warfare which is well managed is his work and glory Likewise we do not find that the name of Sun hath been given Warriours suns in holy Writ to a living man with so much lustre and applause as to a souldier and
remembering what had passed in the Roman Empire he saw that those Emperours who had shewed themselves most fervent in the superstition of false gods and were the greatest persecutours of Christians had been infamous and unhappy not beloved of the people without name not honoured issueless and and for the most part odious and execrable to posterity He then imagined that this Religion which professed so much sanctity and was grown up in the tempests of three hundred years had something divine in it and that perhaps it would not be amiss to invoke in this great labyrinth of affairs the God of his mother As he then went up and down revolving these discourses in the bottom of his thoughts casting his eyes up to Heaven he perceived about the evening the figure of a great Cross all composed of most resplendent light which seemed unto him to bear these Characters IN HOC VINCE Vanquish in this sign This was much more important than the bowe in Heaven which Augustus Caesar saw about the sun when he entered into Rome to take possession of the Empire Notwithstanding Constantine and the Captains who observed this sign in Heaven had some distrust because of the figure of the Cross which till then was ever accounted of an ill presage Now as the Emperour slept in the night in great perplexity of cogitations it seemed that the God of the Christians appeared unto him with the same sign which he had seen the day before commanding him expresly to carry it hereafter in his Ensigns Following this vision he caused a Banner to be made in the manner as Eusebius describeth it who had seen it It was as a launce all of gold which had a piece of wood athwart in form of a Cross from whence hung a rich imbroidery in which was the image of the Emperour and about it a Crown of gold and pearl which bare in the middle the two first letters of the name of our Saviour This was from that time forward his prime Banner which the Romans called the Labarum It was no otherwise different from the standards of the Roman Bands but that it carried the sacred cypher of this venerable Title which was not understood by all the world but held by the Pagans as some devise of the fantasie of spirit The war against Maxentius having so prosperously succeeded as we have said under this propitious standard Constantine held the Saviour of the world in great veneration and made the Edicts which we know in favor of Christians Notwithstanding he for a long time deferred his publick and solemn profession thereof whether it were that the course of great warlike enterprizes and affairs diverted his mind or whether he feared to distast the prime men of the Empire by this change It is likewise thought that his wife Fausta whom he in the beginning much affected greatly weakened his love to Christianity in such sort that the Christians ceased not to be still ill intreated in this remisness of the Emperour In the Absolute coÌ„version of the Emperour end after the calamitie of the death of his son and wife so tragically happened in his own house he seriously opened his eyes about the nineteenth year of his Empire to seek remedy for his evils Zosimus a Pagan leadeth us as it were not thinking of it to the knowledge of the time and manner of his Baptism For he saith that Constantine after the death of Crispus and Fausta had great remorse of conscience and that not wholly having abjured Paganism he sought from South-sayers and Pagan Philosophers as others adde the means to purifie himself from the bloud which he so unfortunately had shed It is said that one Sopater the wisest of the Discourse of Sopater Platonists who had sometime lived in his Court told him these stains of bloud would stick on souls and never be washed out and that if they departed this life without punishment they would re-enter into other bodies to expiate in the end those crimes which they had committed and that there was no other remedy The Emperour found this Philosophie very harsh and his spirit being much tormented with very strange disturbances behold saith Zosimus an Aegyptian newly come from Spain to Rome note that he meaneth the great Bishop Hosius who was sent at the same time into Aegypt by Pope Sylvester This Aegyptian saith he having insinuated himself into the favour of some Ladies of the Court found by their means access to the Emperour who failed not to propose unto him the difficulties and troubles of his conscience This man answered him that his Majesty should not need to disquiet himself hereupon and that there was no crime so enormous which might not be expiated by the remedies which are practised in Christian Religion To this the Emperour very willingly hearkened and resolved all delayes laid apart to become a Christian See here the beginning of the Baptism of Constantine His Baptism As for the sequel it is a question much perplexed for some would have him to be baptized in the suburbs of Nicomedia upon the point of death and others at Rome by S. Sylvester about the 19th year of his Empire I say briefly to decide this difficulty that it is a most unreasonable belief to think that Constantine the Great called by the general voice of the holy Fathers The holy and Religious Emperour Constantine recorded in memorials and publick registers of the Church which are recited before Altars as the chief of Orthodox Princes Constantine whom the Arians yea the most refractory which have been after him never durst declare of their faction to have been christened at his death by the hand of an Arian Bishop out of the communion of the Catholick Church There is not one to be found who favoureth this opinion but Eusebius who hath been an Ensign-bearer of the Arians and who no more ought to be credited in this article than a Pagan Historian it being most unequal to take him for a Judge who had made himself a party in this affair And if some passages be found somewhat doubtful in the Chronicle of S. Hierom which seem to support this errour it is easie to consider that this Doctour who was a merchant enriched with infinite variety of learning hath made many pieces which he rather translated and compiled from others than composed upon his own invention and the learned are not ignorant that his Chronicle is accounted in this kind of books as a work formed from observations and opinions of Eusebius which should not at all alter the estimation we have of Constantine acknowledged and averred by so many other passages of the same Doctour And if S. Ambrose in the funeral Oration of Theodosius said that Constantine received Baptism being in extremity we must not Iâ— ultimis coâ—stitutus therefore infer that he was baptized by Arian in the last instant of his life otherwise he would not call him in the same passage a Monarch of great
Libertine thou dost ask how this material fire burneth spiritual souls It is one of the most unfortunate sciences not to understand hell but by proper experience to dispute the activity of a fire as true as the mouth of God and unfaithfully deny on earth what must everlastingly be learned under earth Algazel the Arabian Avicen said a damned soul suffers no other pain but the object of its eternal perdition Algazel and Avicen behold two goodly Authours to oppose the wisdom of the eternal word I am of opinion we learn from devils how to believe in God and derive our Theology from the lips of the wicked and our belief from infidelity as if one should prostitute a Vestal to a lost man Alas wretched spirit how worthy art thou of compassion when not satisfied to play the Epicure in thy manners thou wilt divide thy Libertinism with Philosophy If this discourse which ought to be dedicated to holy horrour of Gods judgements Gulielm Paris de universo did permit farther question one might shew with the great Bishop of Paris that a damned soul kept in a prison of fire retains all the same senses as if it were with the bodie in the middest of flames since we feel in this life such vivacity onely from the imagination that it in us produceth the same effects which the presence of objects doth And this Doctour witnesseth he hath seen and known men who needed no other purgation but the sight of a medecine But if the sole idea do thus what will the real impression of fire work upon a soul which raised by the Divine power above its ordinarie force leaves a form and a character as if a hot-iron were stamped on the flesh We might deduce with S. Thomas Turrecremata Cajetan Isolam and Ocham all the exquisite dolours of a soul that feeleth it self imprisoned as in a cage of fire and stormeth seeing it self not onely deprived of sweet liberty but tormented by an imperious element destined by God for its punishment by extraordinary ways by a suppliment of the antipathy of senses and which shamefully wrack it as if a person of eminent quality were insolently abused by some slave come from the Moors or Arabia We should likewise set before you with other Divines See S. August 21. Citie of God S. Gregory in the 4. of his dialogues S. Thomas contra Gentes l. 4. c. 90. Suar. part 3. and the R. P. Theophilus Raynaud in his natural Theology where this question is excellently handled the quality of a prodigious deformity caused by fire raised above its condition which extreamly afflicteth an immortal spirit then especially when it understands the excellent gifts wherewith God had endowed it the favours and glories it might pretend unto this most blessed eternity One might say with many other modern Doctours that the soul being the root of sensitive qualities is no less tormented by objects dissenting from sense than as if sense were present and hath a spiritual sense by the help of which it trieth and feeleth the fire with an experimental knowledge wholly like the action of sense All these opinions might be argued with many instancies and reasons but it being not according to the scope of this design I say in one word with S. Gregory the Great There is made in the soul from a visible fire a heat and an invisible pain It is true the soul separated from the body hath not a natural antipathy and disagreement from fire but what this imperious element cannot have remaining within the limits of nature it obtaineth by a particular ordinance and disposition of God who chooseth and expresly deputeth it to serve him as an instrument and a sign in this action and to be as an eternal messenger of his anger against a damned soul Now as the Sovereign Judge of the world gave life to Cain for a punishment so according to S. Ambrose he engraved by the same means a disastrous mark on his person which continually set before the eyes of this fratricide the image of his crime and the Divine justice In such manner that oftentimes turmoyled during life in the miseries and confusions of his bruitish spirit so soon as he represented to himself this sign he acknowledged the decree of God who prolonged his life to lengthen his calamities So this Divine hand Omnipotent in its effects imprinteth fire on a damned soul as the true token of his justice the character of his anger the centinel and executioner of his eternal will who beareth the face of an incensed God with all his decrees in his own flames who presseth and lieth heavy on this miserable thing separated from the sight of God and resigned through an eternal malediction to the life of divels 2. Thou must here understand O Reader this Foundation of the eternity of the pains of the damned truth touching the eternity of the pains of the damned confirmed by express texts of holy Scripture and the decision of the universal Church and by all Ages is grounded upon the justice of God ever to be adored by our wills although impenetrable to the weakness of our understanding and for confirmation hereof I think we should not omit the reasons of S. Gregory S. Bernard and S. Thomas before we produce that which to me seems the most formal for although they are not all necessarie in their conclusions yet they fail not to furnish us with much light and to give matter of true piety which is the butt whereat we aim in this discourse You O sinner demand why is a deadly sin strucken and punished with an eternal pain I answer you first with S. Gregory 1. Reason of S. Gregory the Great that if an eternal malice be proved in sin justice by all reasonable ways requireth the chastizement of it to be eternal for an eternity of crimes Non transeunt opera nostra ut videantur sed temporalia quaeque velut aeternitatis semina jaciuntur must be counterballanced with an eternity of miseries Now sin in some sort is eternal and in some manner extends beyond our life which alone is capable of merit or demerit For tell me those stones and kernels of pomegranades and apple-trees and all other trees created in the first week of the world were they temporary or eternal Temporary you will say for they fell before the tree And yet behold they propagate to our time and live in as many trees as there are of their kind on earth for these five thousand years or thereabouts The like is it with the actions you do at this present For they seem to pass in a moment yet are they so many seeds of eternity Reader understand well what I say behold here a secret wherewith daily to acquire a rich treasure of merits make me all your virtues as eternal by the sincerity of your intentions as they in effect are such in their consequence When you do a good work be it prayer alms
Spina gratiam floris humanae speculum praefetens vitae quae suavitatem perfunctionis suae finitimis curaâ—si stimulis saepe compungit S. Ambr. l. 3. Hexameron Impatient of divers qualities not all the same liveries For the Kingdome of this Passion is an admirable Purgatory where punishments are divers and every one participates of them according to the quality of his apprehension and the diversity of objects Such saith S. Ambrose is the condition of our life Roses which before sin grew without thorns are afterward on all sides armed with sharp-pointed prickles to teach us that the most smiling fortunes take part in the cares and miseries of the condition of mortals I observe nice impatient ones who have been bred as it were between silk and cotton and who never beheld the miseries of the world but through shadows and clouds and therefore the use they have taken to be served from their childhood according to their humour causeth patience to be a matter very extraordinary with them So you see that upon the least occasion presented of suffering their weak spirit shrinks within it self and their tender flesh makes resistance These are they of whom the Prophet Baruch spake My nice ones have walked through hard and rough Delicati mei ambu laverunt vias difficiles Baruch 1. 26. wayes And of whom Seneca hath aptly said They are ulcers which are irritated when they are lightly touched or that you make but a shew to do it I on the other side observe suspicious Impatient ones who skirmish with flies and are tormented upon shadows of affronts which never were continually ruminating on some slight cold countenance not purposely shewed them or some word spoken meerly out of freedome of speech on the other side I see of them that are prompt and sharp whose bloud quickly comes into their faces whose eyes sparkle voice is shrill fashion turbulent and veins wholly bent upon revenge so that they do not long dispute with a yoke but break it and runne at randome where they oftentimes commit as many errours as they go steps I observe others who are more bitter then sharp in their Impatience and in this number I behold many wayward and prying old men who still have some accusations to make against the actions of youth I see many Courties discountenanced many entranced lovers many officers servants male and female dismissed many suitours rejected in their pursuits many envious who repine at the prosperity of their Neighbour on the other part I behold many persons afflicted in the world one with sicknesse another for the death of a friend one with contempt another with slander one with poverty another with deformity of body some with indispositions of mind and other temporall mishaps It is of this Sadnesse whereof the Wise-man speaketh when he saith that Even as the moth marreth a garment and a little worm gnaweth wood so Sadnesse insensibly eateth Prov. 25. Sicut tinea vestimento vermis ligno ita tristitia viri nocet cordi the heart of man Lastly I see many miserable creatures who cease not to find fault with their vocation and to complain of those who govern them to accuse the Age and seasons and oft-times to call God in question Some tell their evil to all the world like unto those sick persons who sought for remedies from all who passed by the gates of their Temples others hatch their discontent in the bottome of their heart and have much to doe that it be not seen in their faces others publickly drag their Crosse through Currents of water with murmures and imprecations of which the Scripture saith That the clamour and noise of Tumultus murmurationum non abscondetur Sap. 1. their exclamations openly brake forth Others cannot restin any place being weary of all manner of sports recreation and company others are vexed at themselves are dotish melancholick frightfull as if they had some evil spirit in their heart so much oppression of mind they feel they neglect all the offices of civill life yea and the functions of naturall life loth any longer to eat or drink as if they already were in their graves from thence proceed black fansies illusions despair and a thousand agitations of mind which cannot be sufficiently expressed It is Sadnesse which in Scripture is called a geuerall Plague Verily it is a lamentable thing to see how we are here Omnis plaga Eccl. 25. 17. handled by the unhappinesse of our passions I am not ignorant there are dolours so great and Sadnesses so deep that an extraordinary grace of God is necessary to free a soul from it which is touched with it and to set it at liberty but we must likewise say that we often betray our Repose and Conscience by suffering so many bad seeds to grow up in our hearts which we might kill with some resistance of virtue and some ordinary help of the grace of God § 2. Humane Remedies of Sadnesse and how that is to be cured which proceedeth from melancholy and pusillanimity WHilst the great Genius of Physick Hyppocrates drave away maladies by his precepts and almost snatched bodies out of the hands of death one Antiphon arose in Greece who envious of his glory promised to do upon souls what the other did on mortall members and proposed this sublime invention which Plutarch calleth the art of curing of all Sadnesses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plutarch in vita 10. Rhetorum where we may truly say he used more vanity promises and ostent of words then he wrought good effects Certainly it were to be wished that our age which is so abundant in miseries should likewise arise great comforts to sweeten the acerbities of the times to pour oil on the peoples yoke as the Scripture speaketh Isa 10. 27. to enter into the interiour of so many poor souls beaten down with Sadnesse and wasted with cares to draw them out of the shadow of death with the first raies of some felicity Another Helena were needfull to mingle the divine Drug of Nepenthe in the meats of so many afflicted persons who moisten their bread with their tears before they eat it For my part I think that to apply a remedy to Sadnesse there must a diligent consideration be had of its nature kind and quality for fear that going about to give it comfort the evil be not exasperated or that a medicine be unprofitably applyed There are Sadnesses which come from humour Four kinds of Sadnesses there are which proceed from pusillamity others are caused by scruples others by an infinite many of irksome objects which happen in the chances of humane life As for those which grow from Melancholick humour they are deep rooted as being the inheritances of Nature and the effects of Temperature They may notwithstanding be greatly moderated by prudence discretion and study which one may use in overcoming them It were not to be desired to cut off all manner of Melancholy