nature and none can falsifie it who violate not the first laws of the world The father loves the son as a portion cut from himself naturally the son loves the father and so often as he wandereth from this love he is like a fish out of the water This was the conceit which S. Ambrose had upon the passage of Genesis Let the Producant aquae reptile Genes 1. Quam bona mater sis aquae hinc considera ô homo docuisti altercationes parentum in filios separationes odia offen sam disce ergò ab aquâ quae sit parentum filiorum necessitudo Genes 9. Maledictus Chanaan servus servorum erit waters bring forth fish Let the good mother be the water and good children the fish saith he God once commanded the water to bring forth forth fish and instantly it obeyed and ever since for almost these six thousand years that the world wheels about the water feedeth its fishes without murmur and the fish never go out of the water but by constraint O man who hast taught divisions between father and son mother and daughter thou shouldst be ashamed Entreat the water to teach thee and the fish to shew thee thy lesson It is a strange thing the Patriarch Noe justly provoked against an unnatural son who had revealed the nakedness of his father shooteth the arrow of malediction not against the head of the guilty son but his children He cursed not Cham but Canaan and if you ask why Theodoret upon Genesis answereth Noe would not curse him whom God once had blessed For this had been to take off the seal of the Sovereign Master and raze his edicts but S. Ambrose says very pertinently that Noe the more to punish his evil son cursed him in his race as if the wounds which fathers receive in the affliction of their children were more sensible to them than their proper and personal hurts Take away the beam from the Sun and he shines not the stream from the fountain it drieth up the member from the body it putrifies the son from the father and he no longer is a son This admitted and resolved we draw a necessary consequence from the reciprocal love between two and since we must hereafter speak of the duty of sons towards their parents let us now pursue the course begun and mention the duty of parents towards their children One would not at first perhaps believe what I say but it is most undoubted Parents are in some sort more obliged to their children than children to parents For who is more bound than he who by justice both divine and humane oweth most Now what owe children to their parents The life they received which they cannot render again and therefore are not bound to it Well may they owe the honour which falls upon themselves well the helps and services in case of necessity But the father so soon as the infant hath set foot into being is very straightly obliged to provide him two things nourishment and instruction according to capacity These are the two heads of this discourse wherein I purpose to shew O fathers and mothers that you commit a great sin when you abandon your children to become a prey of misery ignorance and iniquity The reasons are evident For first you sin against the grand Law of nature written by God with a stile of fire not onely on the hearts of all living creatures but even on plants which is to cherish what they have produced Grapes hang on the vine fruits on the tree and take with time their just encrease from the juice and substance of the wood which brings them forth The lamb knows his damme among a thousand to suck her and asks the tribute of nature Eagles bear their young on their backs Serpents throw themselves many times into boyling cauldrons to save their egs The Pelican as the report is lets her self bloud to make a bath of it for her brood And you in this vessel of the vast world wherein all creatures row alike in this point according to the course of nature would you be an unprofitable burden Deserve not you to be banished from all the parts of the earth and not to enjoy any thing but fire or nothing to settle on since the one is barren and the other devoureth all Secondly see you not that neglecting your children you do like an adulterer not a father For what seeks the adulterer posterity No To afford a child to the world servant to God a Citizen to the Common-wealth No To have a creature who may serve for the exercise of his charity to be an object of his providence and an encouragement for his diligence No what pretends he then loathsom and lewd lust And what do you else when after consummation of marriage and the birth of a son you carelesly leave him without providing for his necessities Besides if as saith Tertullian it is to be a homicide anti-dated Homiâ—idii festinatio est prâ—hibere nasâ—i Tertul. in Apol. to hinder the generation of a man what will it then be when he is already born and registred amongst mortals through remisness and sloth to suffer him to die with hunger cold thirst and misery When wrinkles and grisly hairs shall seize on your forehead when old age shall bow your back and necessity cast you into calamity with what face dare you crave help from that son or daughter whom you all the time of their life have neglected Were it not well all creatures made complaint over your ashes This man will perhaps answer As for my part Gods name be praised I have had a care of my children They want nothing necessary for sustentation of life Is it enough to give them necessaries But how do you give them without love and void of charity as a stony loaf given and taken by constraint Fathers and mothers it is a strange thing to Partiality of parents see your odde proceedings One loves the male another the female One the girles another the boyes One this because he is nosed like himself the other that because she hath her eyes gate and speech The father takes his Idol to his side the mother hers and in one and the same house set up Altar against Altar If you strike my little Deity I wil not spare yours If you bring not incense to mine I will overthrow yours Childish and ridiculous people to cast affection on children through sensuality passion and fury perpetually to fall out about children to let them suck discord with their milk from the example of those who begot them what is it else but early to put a sword into the hand of these little creatures but to tear one another and to cherish factions and partialities before their eyes be open to understand them Let them look to it who govern in such manner saith the other as for my self I take no other care than to breed my children well and regard them all alike What
do you call breed them well Behold another vice Some offend through negligence others with too much indulgence You term well-breeding the child to cramme him up to the throat and let him have all he asketh Senseless creature see you not first you do a great injury to God He hath trusted a child in your hand to be bred like a man and you have made a lump of flesh of it a bears whelp and think there is nothing to be done but to lick it that it may grow Secondly it is a base thing to say the Sovereign Creatour having made you a Father Master Directour and Governour over this infant you should forget the character God hath engraven on your face and make your self a slave of a gluttenous belly and an irregular concupiscence Besides you put spurs to his vices to make him run headlong into the precipice you nooze haulters to strangle him you light torches to consume him For what good can be hoped nay what evil not expected from a child bred up in pride and effeminacy Hear Disentienda sunt deliciae quarum mollitie fluxu fidei virtus effeminari solet Tertul. de cultu foemin Tertullian speak Take away the curiosities and superfluities It is not the life of a Christian He hath renounced faith who breedeth his children in riot Is it not a goodly thing to see Hercules spin silk with those hands which were made to vanquish monsters Know God hath put us into the world to hew monsters more pernicious than hydraes or Cerberus and not to make coronets of roses You cannot breed your children in voluptuousness and not thereby render their souls soft and effeminate which quite extinguisheth the flame of a generous spirit and yet you complain that coming to the degrees of maturity they are fit for nothing but to live lazily and pick quarrels But it is no whit to be wondered at It is the tincture you gave them from their most tender years You have made them al their life time to dance to the tune of their own proper wills light fond and childish and now you would put the bridle over their necks and make them lead a serious life Know you not what happened to the horses of the Sybarites an effeminate kind of people who were so intoxicated and addicted to dances and balls that not so much as their horses but learnt to dance In the mean time their enemies awakened them and so closely pursued them that they were enforced to take arms for the defence of their lives They drew into the field a brave squadron of Cavalry the flower and strength of the Citie but a fidler seeing them approch mounted on these dancing horses promised their Adversaries to deliver them into their hands whilest they were dancing And instantly he began to strike up his violin and the horses to bestir themselves in dancing to break all their ranks and put the Army into disorder which shame fully made them become a prey to their enemies Behold O indulgent parents what happeneth to your children You have always bred them in sottishness sports and liberty the fatal plagues of youth when they must come to combate to undertake some brave affair some thing important for the good of their Countrey for the honour of your house for the advancement of themselves they stand eclipsed Nay perhaps it might be tollerable to behold them benummed stupified in worldly affairs but they are deaf blind and dumb in matters concerning God so that whilest you seek to make great and powerfull Lords of them you ere aware have drawn the malediction Genes 3. 14. Supra pectus tuum ventrem tuum gradieris 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 70. Interpr of the serpent upon them and made them creep on their bellies as much as to say according to the interpretation of some Fathers to spend their thoughts study and affection upon the care and education of the body to the prejudice of the soul Yet you would have those creatures to be instructed in the law of God How can it be Do you not well know that Moses seeing the Israelites dance with full Exod. 32. Sciebat Dei sermonem non posse audire temulentos bellies about the golden calf brake the tables of the Law If you demand the reason S. Hierom will tell you he knew the Law of God was not for sporters dancers and drunkards and that in the Kingdom of intemperance an eclipse ensues not onely of the Divine law but of nature also I come to the second point which is instruction so much recommended in Scripture If you have Filii tibi sunt erudi illos cura illos à pueritiâ illorum Prov. 7. children saith the Wiseman instruct them and take great care of them from their childhood You must think your children be as Temples of God recommended unto you from the hand of God himself It is an intollerable thing to have good cooks good lacheys good grooms good horse-boys to serve the belly and stable and a father who sends his son to school many times ignorant whether the Master be black or white good or bad mild or harsh religious or wicked If kine or hogs are to be driven into the fields one is sought out who knows the business but to trayn up a child of a good family an idle fellow many times is trusted who hath in him no talent at all but malice and ignorance Fathers and Mothers fear you not God will say unto you My house is forsaken I freed it from evil spirits I withdrew it from the power of devils I purged decked and adorned it I put it into your protection I consigned it into your hands what have you done with it Why have you polluted it and why suffer you it still to lie drenched in ordure You have put the lamb into the wolfs keeping you have given the victim to the slaughter-man you are the cause of his unhappiness you have twisted the coard of his ruine so soon almost as the web of his life Fathers and mothers do well if they become as great Saints as are the Hermits of the desert but if they neglect their child they render themselves guiltie before God of one of the greatest injustices in the world The Scripture in praising the great Patriarch Noe Noë vir justus perfectus in generationibus suis doth not onely say he was a good man in his own person but in his whole race so far as his power extended As much honour and glory as it is to leave a good Citizen to the Common-wealth so much dishonour and infamy it is to afford it ungracious wretches to trouble its repose dis-unite peace and embroyl affairs They are such of whom the Scripture speaketh They shall be nayls in your eyes and launces in Erunt vobis clavi in oculis lâ—nceae in lateribus adversabuntur vobis in terrâ— habitationis vestrae Num. 31. your sides
too far from his profession but he notwithstanding would omit nothing of his duty preferring the memory of the dead and the affairs of his living Prince before all the interests of his own person He came then to the Councel-table where Maximus Majestie of S. Ambrose sate on his Throne who seeing S. Ambrose rose up to give him the kiss according to the custom of that Age but the Bishop taking place among the Counsellours who very honourably invited him to sit uppermost freely said to Maximus I wonder how you offer the kiss of peace to a man of whom you are ignorant for were I well known in the rank I hold you should not see me here Maximus amazed at this liberty could not say ought else but Bishop you are in choller S. Ambrose replieth I have more shame than anger in me to see my self in a place where I should not be Notwithstanding saith Maximus you might have learnt the way having been here once already It is a double fault in you replieth the Prelate to have summoned me twice Thereupon Maximus Why came you hither To demand peace of you answereth S. Ambrose which I have required as of an inferiour and you now enforce me to seek it as from an equal The proud man who thought himself lessened if compared to the Emperour Valentinian was moved at these words and cried out How equal By whose favour By the favour of God answereth S. Ambrose who hath preserved that Empire in Valentinian which he gave him Maximus at this word entered into violence It is you saith he that have deceived me and your goodly Count Bauton who under pretext to preserve the Empire for a child made other accommodations for himself and for this effect is joyned with Barbarians to invite them to pass into the Empire And who hath more credit than I to cause them to march under my Standards when I list I have thousands under my pay by whom I can be served before all the men in the world and had you not stopped the course of mine arms with your goodly Embassage no man living had been able to oppose me He spake this with quick flashes of choller The holy Bishop coldly answered It is dishonourable in you to reproch my Embassage and put your self upon these extravagancies For to whom appertaineth it to defend widows and orphans if not to a Bishop That is it which the law of my Master commandeth me Judge in favour of the orphan and defend the widow and deliver the weak from oppression Notwithstanding I will not give so much credit to my Embassage as to perswade my self it hath staid the course of your arms What squadrons have I opposed against you What wals What rocks Have I stopped up the passage of the Alpes with mine own bodie By my will could I so have done I should account all your objections as a glorie to me But you your self sent the Count Victor whom I met at Mentz to treat of peace Wherein hath Valentinian deceived you if he have granted the peace which you demanded of him In what hath the Count Bauton played false with you unless you term it deceit to be faithfull to his Master In what have I beguiled you Was it then when you said that Valentinian need not put me to the trouble of this Embassage but come himself in person as a son to his father and that I freely answered you There was no likelyhood to see a Princess widow of a great Emperour to put her self into the way with her son tender of age and feeble of body to pass the Alpes in the extremities of winter and that as for the child whom you desired onely to see the mother so much affected him she could in no sort suffer him to be separated from her Is not this the answer was given to your Embassadour in the Citie of Milan when I was then present with you What deceit find you in this proceeding Did I ever promise you the coming of the Emperour and have I failed you in my faith Have I diverted your troups Have I staid your Eagles Where are those Barbarians which the Count Bauton caused to pass into Italie Verily if he who is a stranger should have called people of his Nation to the succour of his Master it would be very excusable since you who are so much interessed in the preservation of the Roman Empire threaten us that you have Barbarians under your pay whom you can make to over-run us when you please Behold a little the difference that is between the sweetness of Valentinian and your menaces You are much troubled not to have fallen upon Italie with Barbarian Legions and Valentinian hath graciously diverted the forreign Gauls whom be had invited to his service whilest you in the mean time make waste on the Grizons with your Barbarians he hath bought peace for you with his own money and you with ingratitude repay him Behold your brother who is now by your side and you shall see an irreproachable testimonie of the Emperours clemencie He held in his Province and hands that which is most dear to you in the world Every one thought it was reason to revenge the ashes of the Emperour Gratian upon a near allie of him who was the authour of his death and yet Valentinian upon the news of the assassinate committed upon his most honourable brother and in the greatest fervour of his most just passion hath so moderated himself as to send him back with honour whom he might with justice have hereft you Compare your self presently with him and make your self Judge in your proper cause He hath restored you your brother in perfect health render him his at the least thus dead as he is Why do you denie him the ashes of his brother since he hath not refused your satisfactions yea to his own prejudice He hath afforded you a man in like degree of alliance though in quality much different He hath granted you one alive render him one dead to yield him the last offices A Tartarian covered with sand a Pyrate which he by chance found dead upon the sea shore and you denie us to bury with our own hands the prime Monarch of the world You take from a Queen-mother from a widow-Empress from an orphan-Emperour the bones of a son a husband a brother whom you have deprived of life and scepter The bodies of reprobates are taken down from the gallouss to put them into the arms of their mothers what hath the bodie of Gratian done to be bereaved after death the charitie of his Allies Why do you forbid us tears which very Tyrants themselves who have torn eyes out have never denied to the afflicted You fear say you it may exasperate minds that is to say you fear a death which you have caused and which you have unworthily procured even then when you might and ought to save it by all ways of justice and humanitie And tell me not he
all other consideration This good husband who had so much affection for his dear spouse suffers himself to be won by the ambition and easiness of his nature which bowed much to the wills of those who seemed to wish him well and by the lustre of the purple presented to him Maximianus would needs play the Tyrant aswell over loves as men and plotting marriages placeth his daughter in the conjugal bed of Constantius to plant him in the Throne of Caesars S. Helena of more worth than an Empire understanding Virtue of S. Helena the news bare this alteration with great constancy not complayning either of the chance force or disloyalty of Constantius but accounted it an honour that to refuse her no other cause was found but the good fortune of her husband She more feared than envied Scepters and was hidden in her little solitude as the mother of pearl under the waves breeding up her young Constantine in such sort as God should direct her Constantius touched with this admirable virtue lived in body with Theodora and in heart with his Helena He gave contentment in the East to a man Imperious and served the times to have his will another day But he was in the West in the better part of himself Besides when he was absolute and that he must needs divide the Empire with Galerius his Colleague he voluntarily resigned the rest of the world unto him to have France Spain and his I le of England where the moity of his heart remained It is a very hard matter long to restrain an honest Love of Constantius and S. Helena and lawful love It is said when Sicily was torn from Italy by an arm of the Sea which interposed it-self a-thwart palm-trees were found by the violence of waters rent asunder which in sign of love still bowed the one to the other as protesting against the element which had separated their loves The like happened to Constantius and Helena the torrent of ambitions and affairs of the world having parted their bodies could not hinder the inclinations of their hearts Constantius returned into Great Britain there to live and make his tomb for he in the end died in the Citie of York And as he being on his death-bed was asked which of his children he would have succeed him since besides Constantine he had three sons by Theodora at that time forgetting his second wife and her off-spring he answered aloud CONSTANTINUM PIUM I will have no other successour but the PIOUS CONSTANTINE which was approved by all the Army Thus God the Master of Scepters and Empires willing to reward the modestie of the virtuous Helena laid hold of her bloud to give it the Empire of the world in the end leaving the sons of Theodora to whom Maximian promised all the greatness of the world The third SECTION His Education and Qualitie A Great Oratour hath heretofore said speaking Gregor epist 6. l. 5. ad Childebertum Quantò caeteros homines regia dignitas antecellit tantò caeterarum gentium regna regni profectò vestri culmen excellit of Constantine that he appeared as much above Kings as Kings above all other men It is the Elogie which afterward S. Gregorie gave to our Kings Verily he was accomplished with a spirit and bodie in so high a degree of perfection that there needed no more but to see him to judge him worthy of an Empire Nature sometimes encloseth great souls in little bodies ill composed as fortune hath likewise placed Kings in Shepherds Cottages It is an unhappiness deserving some compassion when a great Captain is of so ill a presence as to be taken for one of his servants and be made to cleave wood and set the pot over the fire to prepare his own dinner as it heretofore happened to Philopaemen Constantine took no care for falling into such accidents Beautie of Constantine It seemed as Eumenius saith that nature from above had been dispatched as a brave harbinger to score out a lodging for this great soul and to give him a bodie suteable to the vigour of his spirit so well was it composed He was of a stature streight as a palm of an aspect such that the Oratours of that time called it divine of a port full of Majestie his eyes sparkled like two little stars and his speech was naturally pithie sweet and eloquent his bodie so able for militarie exercises that he amazed the strongest and so sound that he had no disease In these members so well proportioned reigned a vigorous spirit very capable of learning if the glorie of Arms had not wholly transported him into actions of his profession His father well enformed of his fair qualities caused him to come into the East where he took a tincture of good letters at the least so much as was needfull for a warlick Emperour and applied himself seriously to the exercise of Arms wherein he appeared with so much admiration that he was alreadie beheld with the same eye one would an Achilles or an Alexander were they alive again Diocletian who had not as yet forsaken the Empire would have him at his Court to work him from apprehension of Christianitie to which he might be alreadie much disposed and draw him to the hatred of our Religion It was a most dangerous school He was bred in the Court of Diocletian for this young Prince for education ordinarily createth manners and we are all as it were that which we have learned to be in our younger dayes Constantine notwithstanding gathered flowers in this garden-bed not taking the breath of the serpent which was hidden there-under He soon learned from Diocletian militarie virtue prudence to govern souldiers good husbandrie in revenews authoritie to become awfull but he took nothing either of his impietie or malice This Barbarous man in the beginning passionately loved him and would perpetually have him by his sides but when he saw that passing through Palestine and other parts of his Kingdom the young Constantine was more respected than himself so much his carriage especially compared to the harsh countenance of the Emperour had eminence in it he began to grow into suspicion and as it is said desired secretly to be rid of him But Constantine prevented the blow retiring under an honourable pretext to the Court of Galerius the associate of his father Constantius who most willingly left this son with him in pledge thereby to hold some good correspondence with him This Galerius was a creature of Diocletians who Constantine at Court of Galerius had heretofore declared him Caesar yet still retained such power over him that when he had displeased him he made him run on foot after his coach not deigning so much as to look upon him He in the beginning very courteously entertained the son of his faithfull friend affording him all manner of favours but in process of time he conceived a strong jealousie beholding in this young Mars more excellent parts than
little wild-Asses in a wildernesse O! what dangerous beasts oh what salvage creatures saith Plato Plato de Republ. are children ill bred Foxes and Wolves are a thousand times more casy to be tamed then dissolute youth which hath folly for guide and Impudency for companion O God! what a monster see I here I also discover young maids and women to whom Nature as S. Gregory Nazianzen saith had supereminently afforded the Greg. Nag Carm. in mulier goodly veil of virtuous shamefac'dnesse dyed in the richest and most beautifull Incarnadine that may be yet have they defaced it When they conceived sin they had Basil apud Melissam got a little shame after they had brought it forth they became extreamly impudent in glances in words in conversation in immodesty and dissolution I have seen Lionesses and Panthers taken out of the most salvage wildernesses which one well practised in the ordering of beasts with a little industry lead along through cities and villages but I never found a bridle strong enough to curb an impudent woman A cohabitation with Aspicks and Vipers would be more sweet and supportable I see moreover in this Region many deceivers and impostours many Buffons and hunters after bountifull meals who have belly-talk perpetually in their mouths and actions such as were those of the Cynick Diogenes which they cover with a pretext of Nature Lastly I see servants bandied against their Masters sonnes rebellious against their fathers people revolted against their King who trample under foot all manner of obedience and justice I see hideous Monsters of Heresies of impiety and Atheisme who uncontrolably throw forth blasphemies against religion Behold the effects and goodly government of Impudency § 4. Of Reverence due to God TO reform the Image of Shamefac'dnesse let us Remedies reflect on our first originall and see how God would train us up to Reverence by an admirable way of The great reverence of the Divinity his divine Providence Is it not a thing very remarkable that the apparitions and communications of the Divinity although they seem to be most important to awaken our faith were at all times so rare that God rather chose to permit doubts in the faith of his Essence and formall infidelities then to shew and communicate himself upon all occasions under corporall and visible formes which might cause any diminution in the reverence due to his Majesty He is in the world as a King in his palace who sees all and is not seen by any He looketh on us through so many latice-windows as there are creatures yet is invisible to our corporall eyes Verily It was an ancient maxime held by the Hebrews to oblige them to the reverence of the Divinity that the Majesty of God was so potent and awfull that no man might see it without dying in the place which they inferred upon the passage of Exodus No man shall Ezod 38. see me and live Thence Manoah father of Samson after the admirable Judic 13. apparition of the Angell the Lieutenant of God which appeared unto him said to his wife we shall dy for we haue seen God And Jacob according to the interpretation Gen. 32. 30. of some Father after the notable vision of the ladder said not by a motion of joy but out of admiration O wonder I have seen God face to face and yet I am alive And albeit God communicated himself to his Clarâ atque persp cuâ praesentiâ divinae dignationis donatus Ambr 1. Hexam c. 2. greatest favourites under visible figures yet never did he shew himself properly in his Essence no not to Moses although S. Ambrose saith of him that God gave him a clear and most manifest view of his divine presence We must understand it in such manner as that this great law-giver had most resplendent and most familiar apparitions of God above the other Prophets For God seemed to speak with him face to face as one friend talks to another notwithstanding we must say with the greatest doctours of the Church that for all this he saw not the essence of God Such is the opinion of Pope Euaristus of S. Dionysius of S. Irenaeus of Tertullian Euarist Dionys c. 4. Hâ—erarch coelestis Origen 2. princip Irenaeus â— 4. adveâ—sus Haereses c. 34. Tertul. adversus Marâ—ian Deum nemo vidit unquam Joan. 1. 18. Illi autem id eo viderunt qui cunque DeuÌ„ viderunt quia cùm voluerit sicut voluerit apparet eâ— specie quam voluntas elegerit etiam latente naturâ Aug. ep 112. ad Paulinam Non loquatur nobis Dominus Exod. 12. and the text of S. John is therein expresse No man hath ever seen God and the decision of S. Augustine who saith That as for those who have seen him this favour was granted them Because God appeared when he would and how he would in such figure as it pleased him to make choyce of his Essence still remaining under covert Let us also add for a reason that as often as God in the old Testament gave to his people visible marks of his presence he gave them with so much terrour and affrightment that the poor people astonish'd at his approch so prodigious were enforced to say Let not God speak to us We know it by the apparition of the mount Sinai where they saw voices that is to say exhalations of flames which made a great noise in the clouds and burning lamps and horrible smokes the sound of Trumpets and Clarions being mingled throughout all this loud Dinne which made them to swoon and become pale at the foot of the mountain and with suppliant hands to beseech Moses to speak to them because the voyce of God was too terrible Wherefore was all this done but to maintein reverence in the people which were ready enough to let themselves loose to impudency Alas How can we live under the laws of God with so little respect and reverence even in Churches Have we not still the same signes the like advertisements All in this universe on us about us and above us is marked with the messages of the fear of God Above us God reigneth in the store-house of air and clouds the pillars of the Firmament tremble the heavens are bowed in all their regions under the glory of his steps The winds are the Courriers and Postillions of his will who run along spreading his name throughout the four quarters of the habitable world The Sun confesseth he is but a shadow in comparison of the increated light and presenteth as many fingers as there are rayes to write down the commandments of God upon the brow of clouds his decrees move with wings of lightnings and are heard in the roaring voyce of thunders It is so naturall to bear a reverence to his Divine Majesty that there is not a creature in the world how insensible soever which feeleth not the touches of this much-to-beadored greatnesse Wild beasts who roam up and down
their ends by unlawfull wayes 392 XI Maxim Of craft 394 XI Example Of craft 397 XII Maxim Of revenge 399 XII Example Of reconciliation 402 XIII Maxim Of the Epicurean life 404 XIII Example The dreadfull events of sensuality 470 XIV Maxim Of sufferings 408 That the Divine Providence excellently appeareth in the afflictions of the just ibid. XIV Example Of constancy in tribulation 411. The Third Part touching the State of the other World XV. Maxim OF death 413 XV. Example OF the manner how to die well drawn from the model of our Lady 416 XVI Maxim Of the immortality of the soul 419 XVI Example Of the return of souls 423 XVII Maxim Of Purgatorie 425 XVII Example Of the apparition of souls 428 XVIII Maxim Of eternal unhappiness 430 XVIII Example Of the Day of Judgement and pains of hell 434 XIX Maxim Of sovereign Beatitude 435 XIX Example Of contentments of Beatitude 438 XX. Maxim Of Resurrection 440 The condition of the glorified bodies 441 That the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is the foundation of ours and that we should behold the sweetness and glories of it as the sources of our eternity 442 XX. Example Divers observations on the length of Life and desire of Resurrection 445 Conclusion of the MAXIMS I. OBscuritie and persecution of truth 446 II. The definition of sensuality the description division and sundry sorts of Libertines 447 III. The causes of sensuality well described by the Apostle S. Jude 448 IV. The ignorance nullity of sensuality 449 V. The effects of sensuality and punishment of the wicked 450 VI. Hydeous usage of the wicked for the sin of impiety 451 VII Advice to youth and such as too easily give way to impiety 452 VIII That the remedy of our evil consisteth in zeal towards Faith  Division of the DIARY I. ACTS OF DEVOTION II. PRACTICE OF VIRTUE III. BUSINESSE IV. RECREATION A Table of the SECTIONS THE FIRST PART Concerning Devotion SECTION Page I. THe importance of well ordering every action of the day 456 II. At Waking ibid. III. Five good actions to begin the day 457 IV. Of Adoration the first Act of Devotion ibid. V. An example of Adoration 458 VI. Of Thanksgiving the second Act of Devotion ibid. VII A pattern of Thanksgiving ibid. VIII Of offering or oblation the third Act of Devotion ibid. IX The manner of offering our selves to God 459 X. Of Contrition the fourth Act of Devotion ibid. XI A Form of Contrition ibid. XII Of Petition or Request the fifth Act of Devotion 460 XIII A Form of Petition ibid. XIV Of the time proper for spiritual reading ibid. XV. An abstract of the Doctrine of Jesus Christ to be used at the Communion ibid. XVI What we are to do at the Celebration of the blessed Sacrament and other ensuing Acts 461 XVII Devotion for the dayes of the Week ibid. XVIII Devotion for the hours of the day 462 XIX Of Confession A very necessary Act of devotion and advice thereon 463 XX. An excellent prayer of S. Augustine for this exercise taken out of a Manuscript of Cardinal Sacripandus ibid. XXI Of Communion the chiefest of all acts of devotion with a brief Advice concerning the practice of it 464 THE SECOND PART Of the Practice of Virtues I. TWelve fundamental Considerations of Virtues 464 II. Seven paths of Eternity which lead the soul to great virtues 466 III. Perfection and wherein it consisteth 467 IV. Of Virtues and their degrees ibid. V. Four orders of those that aspire to perfection 470 VI. A short way to perfection practised by the Ancients ibid. VII The means to become perfect ibid. VIII How we ought to govern our selves against Temptations Afflictions and Hinderances which we meet with in the way of virtue ibid. IX Remedies against Passions and Temptations which proceed from every vice 472 THE THIRD PART Of Business I. BUsiness of what importance 473 II. Two heads to which all business is reduced ibid. III. Of the Government of a Family ibid. IV. Of Direction in Spiritual matters 474 V. Advice for such as are in office and government ibid. THE FOURTH PART Of Recreation I. REcreation how necessary 475 II. Of the pleasures of the Taste ibid. III. Of Gaming 476 IV. Of Dancing ibid. V. Of wanton songs and plays ibid. VI. Of walking and running ibid. VII The four conditions of Recreation 477 VIII Of vicious conversation and first of impertinent ibid. IX Of vain conversation ibid. X. Of evil conversation 478 XI The Conditions of a good conversation ibid. XII Conclusion of the DIARY ibid. EjACULATIONS for the Diary 479 PRAYERS for all Persons and occasions 480 A TABLE OF ALL THE Gospels and Particulars of our SAVIOUR'S Passion mentioned in the ENTERTAINMENTS of LENT with their Moralities and Aspirations UPon the words of Genesis cap. 3. Thou art dust and to dust thou shalt return page 481 Upon the Gospel of S. Matthew cap. 6. Of hypocritical fasting 482 Upon S. Matthew the 18. Of the Centurions words O Lord I am not worthy ibid. Upon S. Matthew the 5. Wherein we are directed to pray for our enemies 483 Upon S. Matthew the the 6. Of the Apostles danger at sea 484 Upon S. Matthew the 4. Of our Saviours being tempted in the desart 485 Upon S. Matthew the 25. Of the Judgement-day 486 Upon S. Matthew the 21. Jesus drove out the buyers and sellers out of the Temple ibid. Upon S. Matthew the 12. The Pharisees demand a sign of Jesus 487 Upon S. Matthew the 15. Of the woman of Canaan 488 Upon S. John the 15. Of the probatick pond 489. Upon S. Matthew the 17. Of the transfiguration of our Lord. ibid. Upon S. John the 8. Jesus said to the Jews Where I go ye cannot come 490 Upon S. Matthew the 23. Jesus said The Pharisees sit in Moses chair believe therefore what they say 491 Upon S. Matthew the 20. The request of the wife of Zebedee for her sons James and John 492 Upon S. Luke the 16. Of the rich Glutton and poor Lazarus ibid. Upon S. Matthew the 21. Of the Master of the Vineyard whose son was killed by his Farmers 493 Upon S. Luke the 15. Of the prodigal child 494 Upon S. Luke the 11. Jesus cast out the devil which was dumb 495 Upon S. Luke the 4. Jesus is required to do miracles in his own countrey 496 Upon S Matthew the 18. If thy brother offend thee tell him of it alone ibid. Upon S. Matthew the 15. The Pharisees asked Why do thy Disciples contradict ancient Traditions 497 Upon S. Luke the 4. Jesus cured the fever of Simons mother in law 498 Upon S. John the 4. Of the Samaritan woman at Jacobs Well near Sichar 499 Upon S. John the 8. Of the woman found in adultery 500 Upon S. John the 6. Of the five fishes and two barley loaves ibid. Upon S. John the 2. Of the whipping buyers and sellers out of the Temple 501 Upon S. John the 7. The Jews marvel at the
always ready to form new at his pleasure The ears will Pleasure hold their part in this consort and therefore they must be tickled with the most exquisite musick both of voice and all sorts of instrumenes which serve as wings and chariots to immodestie Then come the dances of the Corybants the frisks capers ballets courtings liberties impudencies and all sorts of voluptuous pleasures which make the body dissolve into all corruption With what conscience can a Christian expect Paradise living in this manner Doth he think hell hath no flames but for the rich glutton mentioned in the Gospel and that he pursuing the same ways shall be freed from the like punishments Hell casteth up such people who here waste their life in delicacies that they may no otherwise Ducunt in benis dies suos â—n puncto ad inferna descenâ—unt Job 21. 13. live than in the immortality of fire of the worm of conscience and darkness As concerning excess of apparel one cannot say too much so great is this superfluity and ever shall the discourse be unprofitable the mischief being so confirmed and uncapable of remedy Therein it is that women display all the vanity of their sex all the industry of their spirit being curious and inventive enough in their own interests and all the presumption of their nature which is but too ambitious and as saith Tertullian there it is where they Totam circumferunt in istis mulieritatem bear all the glory of their sex I speak not of those who attire themselves modestly dutifully and as it were necessarily for comely ornament I speak of those miserable sacrifices of vanity who studie nothing else but to deck themselves up beyond their condition estate and means oftentimes with an ill intention many times with the spoils of the poor Masks of hypocrifie who find no other employment Indignity of excess in apparel in this life but to counterfeit no other desire but to seem what they are not For verily if you should see all their jewels and trinkets in one heap you would say it were the pillage of a citie It is an admirable thing that one little carkase should drag so great a train along with it They go adorned saith the Scripture as Temples and certainly they are very like those Temples of Aegypt which hid a Cat or Rat under golden Pavilions Is not this a sin inexcusable before God to make all the elements take pains to cover a miserable nakedness which is nothing else but a meer scarre of sin Is not this a great illusion to bolster out a dung-hill which perhaps we must carry to morrow to a grave as if it were to be erected upon Altars Oh miserable creatures what have the worms to do which shall gnaw your bodies if your hair be of three of four parishes your eye-brows pulled with little pincers your eyes disguised your cheeks put in a vermillion tincture your stench drowned in muskie odours your garments plaited bumbasted loose hanged surcharged with pearls precious stones and chains to serve as snares to Sottish jealousie of excess catch some foundered lovers It is not the solid beauty of objects which allureth you but a meer opinion because such an one hath it you therefore must needs have the like If you were perswaded that the fat or dung of a Crocodile were fit to whiten the skin you then would go even to Nilus for it And if one should tell you that two flint stones of the Moluccaes would become your ears and that already such and such did wear them you would rather hazard the killing of your own body than deprive your self of them You see the unreasonable proceeding of this superfluity But I say much more It is cruel and injurious to God and his Church What rocky heart would not be cleft and icy eye dissolved into tears Riot cruel and injurious to God and his Church if it did bend it self to behold the exorbitancy of these wicked delights To say that three parts of Christendom lived perpetually on gall and tears were drenched in a forsaken miserable and necessitous life were covered with bloud and oppressions whilst others glutted themselves in superfluity of palate-pleasing curiosities even almost to bursting never deigning so much as to set a foot on the ground making their excrementitious spittings to swim in gold beholding themselves in the vain-glorious ostent of their bravery always wantonizing still sportively dallying Woe to the rich men of Sion who put their Amos 6. Vae qui opulâ—nti estis in Sion confiditis in mente Samariae Optimates capita populorum ingredientes pompaticè domum Israel Bibentes vinum in phialis optimo unguento delibuti nihil patiebantur super contritione Joseph trust and confidence in the mountain of Samaria Woe to the Great-ones who make boast in the house of Israel who drink delicate wine in their cellars and live involved in the most exquisite perfumes without ever caring for the affliction of the poor I know the belly hath no ears but I know not what mouth it may have to defend it self at the judgement of Almighty God when the hunger of so many needy penurious wretches consumed with want before your gate shall accuse you at the Tribunal of this formidable Judge I know these Courtiers want not prattle enough but I cannot imagine what they can answer before the Judgement of God if the Angels should come to drain these inordinate habits to make bloud distil to speak those affrighting words of the Prophet Jeremie Behold the bloud Words of Jeremie formidable Jer. 2. 34. In alis tuis inventus est sanguis pauperum and life of poor men which I have found in the folds of thy garment Judge what Christianity this is and what hope you may have of future life living in these delicacies strucken with the thunders of so many maledictions Ah if you adored a God crowned with roses or pearls it would be a matter nothing strange but to prostrate ones self daily before the * * * Haec hujusmedi per transennam inspicere sat erit Crucifix charged with nails and thorns you living in such excess and superfluity in flesh dissolved in softness how can that but be cruel The Christians of the Primitive Church were scrupulous to bear coronets of flowers on their heads according to the custom of feasts remembring their Master had carried thorns and Clemens Alexandrinus judgeth that to seek Clemens Alex. pedag 1. c. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out such effeminacy is a meer mommery and a manifest mockery of the venerable passion of the Son of God With what eyes can you behold the Crucifix covered with bloud and wounds holding it honourable to bear flowers rubies and diamonds not for once but to drench all your life if it were possible in the nice delicacies of the flesh How can one excuse such a manner of proceeding By what mark
surprized by King Ptolomey courting a Mistris of his for which contempt in that instant the Ladie was enforced to drink poison and the unfortunate Courtier was hanged before his own lodging Another minion of the Emperour Constantius after he had mannaged the Julius Capit. affairs wars revenues houshold and person of the Emperour was disgraced and put to death because he presented to his Master at that time incensed with choler a pen ill made for writing to sign certain dispatches withal Macrinus a hunter a fencer Eunapius in Aedes a scrivener became an Oratour then a Fiscal next Pretour of the Palace then Emperour and lastly was massacred with his son Piadumenus Ablavius most powerful under Constantine torn in pieces under Constantius as a victim What circumvolutions what comedies what tragedies what examples to those who in this world have no other aim but to become great casting under foot all laws both divine and humane Out alas It is said that Cambises King of Persia to teach Herod l. 5. justice to a certain President of his who newly then entered into office commanded him to cover the chair of judicature with the skin of Sesamnes his father put to death and flayed because he had been an ill Judge What should he do being seated on this Note woful Tribunal upon the bloud of his father but become wise by a dreadful experience An infinite number of ambitious men are in office and magistracie mounted upon the ruins and bloud of their Predecessours who have made most wicked and deplorable trials and have pursued the same ways without fearing the like event I. Learn O Noblemen that all the greatness of Instructions the world cannot make you great if not by contempt of it All therein is little and yet to despise that little is a great matter II. Know that your fortunes ought to be as the Sixtus in bibliotheca Patrum Non est minimum in humaenâ vitâ negligere minima halcyons nest which seemeth sowed to her bodie Matters most aptly proportioned to our nature are the best What face soever a man sets upon it he is little Much turmoyl of government and affairs may well hinder him but never make him happy III. You must use the honour which God hath Semper circumveniunt montem Sir nunquam ad terram promissionis perveniunt Petrus Blesensis p. 40 allotted you as the coyn of his coffers for which you in his last judgement are accountable and must limit your pretenses and desires with mediocrity otherwise you shall be as they who wandered perpetually about the mountain of Sir without ever arriving at the land of promise Conclusion of the Second Book That the life of a bad Courtier is a perpetual obstacle to virtue TO approve good by words and pursue evil in effect to condemn the world and adore it to desire heaven and be fixed to the earth to love ones self excessively and live perpetually contrary to the better part of our self to seek for peace and live in an everlasting warfare to lodge in one same heart fire and ice sickness and health joy and sorrow death life To command imperiously and obey faintly to be ever abroad and never out of prison to dream without sleep and sleep without repose to be divided to all the world and never within ones self To wish that which cannot be had and contemn what is possessed To seek after that which hath been despised and hourly to change resolution To exercise no piety but by constraint nor reason but by fits Not to avoid one sin but by another and to descend into the precipice with open eyes To take up the buckler after the wound received and to be cured by the overthrow of health To slake thirst with salt water and quench fire with sulphur To have no constancy but for evil nor amity for any thing but that which deserveth it not To have sottish actions and glorious pretexes as much faith as the ice and assurance as the wind To be the slave of a thousand false Deities and not to reflect on the true Divinity To prefer the fetters and onions of Aegypt before the liberty and palms of the heavenly Sion To leave Paradise to follow the gardens of Tantalus and those enchanted Islands which recoyl backward according to the proportion we think to approch them To carry under a smooth countenance a heart spotted as the skin of a panther To joyn a voluptuous life to a penurious avarice to prodigality servitude to predominance nobilitie to baseness pride to misery and envy to pitie To promise without faith swear without regard command without reason appoint without order affect without choise hate without cause walk without a path and to live perpetually banished from ones self so to become too much tyed to ones self This is the life of a Courtier who hath alienated himself from the life of God Adde hereunto that vice is commonly waited on with a most painful life wherein if endeavour be not used to sanctifie it by virtue there is found a hell anticipated where a Paradise is imagined Petrus Blesensis Chancellour to the Archbishop of Epist 4. Canterhury having some time attended in the Court of the King of England recounteth the evils he there found by experience in a letter which he addressed to the Chaplains of the same Prince There he complaineth the Courtiers many times suffer for hell all those pains which S. Paul endured for Heaven For they are exposed to dangers both of sea and land rivers and mountains thieves and false brothers to fasting and watching to weariness and to all the incommodities of human life He hath seen saith he bread and wine served up which one could not put into their mouthes without shutting their eyes such loathing it enforced and viands that killed men under the shew of nutriment He hath known Lords draw their swords for a cabbin which deserved not a battel among hogs He hath seen a Prince who delighted to be attended by officers suddenly surprized to whom he gave notice of his remove when they had physical drugs in their bellies and made them oftentimes run themselves out of breath through forrests and darkness and at other times to pine away in expectation of all that which would but frustrate their hope He hath seen harbingers troublesom before they received gifts and most ungrateful after they had them who made no scruple to put an honestman out of his lodging and to pull him both from table and bed that he might lie in the streets He hath seen at Court porters worse than Cerberus with whom the memory of a benefit lasted not three days and who took pleasure to make those stand in the durt and rain that had obliged them Buffons and jesters found ever free passage nothing but virtue and honesty had a wainscot face shewed them Finally all the plagues of Aegypt dwelt there frogs flies ulcers rivers of
principally for the benefits received that day In invocation the light of heaven is required to know our sins and amend them In discussion an account is asked of our soul running through the hours of the day of thoughts words works and omissions In petition pardon of our sins is implored In the up-shot of all good purposes are made to correct ones self by the assistance of grace If you think to live in such purity that you may find nothing more to examine it is for want of light or application of mind Know there are six things ever to busie the most perfect in their examen The first to ponder the roots of our defects errours Six things in examen to employ the most perfect imperfections The second to see the remedies which may be given thereunto The third to distinguish true and solid virtues from those which are no other than virtues in apparence The fourth to pick out in all our works the intentions and motives which transport us and what the affections are which at that time govern our soul The fifth to see what wanteth of perfection in good works which we do and how they may be performed with the most accomplishment The sixth to compare our gains our losses our encrease our decrease in matter of virtue A particular examen is made when one undertaketh Particular examen to wrastle with one vice alone and to extirpate one sole imperfection For he that will sometime strike at them in gross resembleth the souldier of Sertorius Plutar. in Sertor who tugged at a horses tayl by strength of arm to pull it quite away Another more wise pulled it off hair after hair and so prevailed The like happeneth in our vices and defects He must pull them away by little threads who will effectually correct them Wherefore one riseth in the morning with a thought not to fall that day into such an imperfection and to oppose it in every place as some enemy which one would vanquish After dinner retiring himself apart he doth three things The first to ask an account of his soul of the relapses which have been made into this imperfection The second to note the number making so many pricks with a pen. The third to purpose to arm himself for the rest of the day After supper the like exercise is made and so one findeth out from day to day from week to week from moneth to moneth what profit is made There is no imperfection so deeply rooted which is not pulled away by the grace of God you remaining in the constancy of such an exercise The twelfth SECTION The practice of Communion ALl those who dispose themselves to a life more Christian know they have not a means more wholesom nor effectual to acquire and preserve the grace of God than the Sacrament of the Altar and for this cause it is fit both often and duely to have access thereunto But a beautiful looking-glass Communion without preparation what it is in a golden frame in the house of a blind man an excellent lute in the chamber of the deaf a goodly diamond in a truss of straw a honey-comb in the throat of a dead lyon what availeth all this The blind man seeth not the deaf heareth not the diamond sparkleth not the honey-comb nourisheth not And what profiteth likewise the blessed Sacrament in a faint languishing and indisposed soul Imagine according to that which the learned Eucharist the foundation of Paradise Rupertus saith that the Blessed Sacrament is the fountain of terrestrial Paradise which watereth the whole Church with its delicious refreshings All the faithful draw from thence but all come Three sorts of hearts not with the same disposition Some bring thither a heart of paper that is to say a childish heart which padleth in the water and no whit profiteth Others a heart like a sive that lets all go through and retaineth nothing but a little moysture The rest a heart of a sponge which is abundantly replenished with the favours and mercies of God If you desire to communicate fruitfully make a present to your celestial spouse who is pleased to feed among lilies of a lilie of six leaves There are six remarkable qualities Lilie with six leaves to communicate which must be had to accomplish this exercise Two before communicating desire and puritie Two in communicating humility and charity Two after communicating thanksgiving and renovation of the inward man by the oath of fidelity You must then endeavour from the eve of the day Desire you are to receive to make a furnace of desires in your heart that so you may say with the Prophet Jeremie I feel in my heart a burning fire which fixeth Jer. 20. Factus est iâ— corde meo quasi ignis exaestuans claususque in ossibus meis defeci ferre non sustinens it self even in my bones and the violence thereof is such that I cannot bear it Let us go to this sacred table as the thirsty Hart to the stream of waters as an hungry creature to a feast as the bridegroom to the wedding a thousand times desired as the covetous to a myne of gold as the conquerer to spoils Is not there matter sufficient to serve as a spur to your desires since there is our beginning our origen our treasure our sovereign good The mother of young Tobie sighing said My son Tob. 10. Omnia simul in te uno habentes non debuimus demittere te all our treasures our riches our honours our contentments our delights were in thy person and therefore we ought never to be separated from thee But it is verily in this subject we have true cause to speak these words All is in the sacred Eucharist the body the bloud the soul the life the humanity the divinity of Greatness of the Eucharist Jesus Christ all that which he hath derived from the Eternal Father all that which he hath taken from our nature he yieldeth us in this blessed Sacrament and doth as the bee who robbeth the flowers of his Masters garden to restore all again in honey All the perfections which our Lord hath conferred on his own Person are seasoned to us in this high and majestical mysterie as in a honey-comb It is an extension of the Incarnation of the Son of God He was once hypostatically united to one sole man but here he is united to all men as oftentimes as they receive him by a visceral transfusion of himself as one should melt one piece of waxe within another as saith S. Cyril And then who would not desire such an union of a Saviour so merciful with a sinner so miserable of a sovereign Physitian with a sick man so remediless of a King so powerful with a vassal so wretched of a Father so benign with a son so refractary May we not well say that they which tast not this celestial viand have their rellishes much dulled with the leeks
inability is vanquished by the grace of God and virtue of fortitude which warranteth courage to undertake and strengtheneth it to bear what reason dictateth And Sufferers more couragious than undertakers although to undertake seem a thing very glorious it is notwithstanding the hardest task to endure a temptation to oppose it with unmoved foot to wrastle with it to trample on it and in the end by virtue to erect tropheys over it Saint Thomas very judiciously yieldeth the reasons S. Thom. 1. 2. q. 123. 1. Because he who is assaulted seemeth ever in worse state than he that assaulteth for encountering he always presupposeth himself to be stronger Now it appeareth he who undergoeth some brave action of courage is the assailant and he who withstandeth a temptation is opposed and sometimes shaken without thinking thereof which is far more troublesom and hard and therefore draweth after it much more resolution in case a good and generous resistance be made against it 2. The assailant beholdeth the peril as future and he who is tempted seeth the temptation even almost within his gates in his heart in his bowels 3. The assailant often dischargeth his pistol like an harcubusier before he have leisure to know the danger and readily retireth The other who suffereth burneth as with a gentle fire and in the mean space if he be patient he long time stayeth with a reposed rest yet not striking at all which is a thing worthy of an eternal crown The Alexanders the Caesars who flew like Eagles to the conquest of worlds oftentimes yielded themselves up to the least temptation Their strength was disguised not real The seventeenth SECTION The arms against temptation contained in twelve Maxims THe means to resist temptations is not to frame The means to resist temptations to your self a spiritual insensibility which feeleth nothing It is hard to obtain it so sensible self-love is and when one hath it he rather is a stone than a man It is not to drive away one temptation by another and do one mischief to be freed of another For to pursue such courses is like washing ones self with ink It is not to hide one from all kind of encounters and never to do well for fear to have occasion of a combate against ill but to resist it couragiously in that sort as I will shew That great fore-mentioned John Picus Mirandula hath collected twelve notable maxims the practice whereof is most profitable to enable your self in spitual combate against impotency I. Maxim That you must be tempted on what Thesal In hoc posui sumus Temptation our trade side soever it happen It is our profession our trade our continual exercise The Eagle complaineth not of her wings nor the Nightingale of her song nor Peacock of her tayl because it is by kind and it is as natural for man to be tempted as for a bird to flie to sing to prune her feathers If you forsake not the way of spiritual life fearing to be tempted and turn head to worldly contentments hold it for an infallible verity you therein shall be much more engaged and which is worse without comfort honour merit or recompence you shall leave a paper-Cross which if you knew well how to mannage would load you no more than feathers do the bird you will forsake it say I to take another hard uneasie and bloudy which would invest you in the Confraternitie of the bad thief That great Prelate of France Sydonius Apollinaris relateth Sidon Apol. l. 2. c. 1. that a certain man called Maximus being arrived at the height of honour by unlawful and indirect ways much grived from the first day and breathing out a great sigh spake these words O Damocls I esteem thee most happy to have been a King onely A remarkable speech of Maximus Foelicem te Damocles qui non uno longius prandio regni necessitatem toleravisti Travel of worldlings the space of a dinner time It is now a whole day that I have been so and can no longer endure it II. Remember that in the affairs of the world we fight a longer time we travel more painfully we reap more fruitlesly The end of one toyl is the beginning of another In pains taking there is no hope but ever to labour A temporal toyl draweth after it an eternity of pain III. Is it not a meer folly to believe a Paradise an eternal life a Jesus Christ who made unto himself a ladder of the cross to ascend to the throne of his glorie and you in the mean while to be desirous to live here with arms a-cross To see the Master open Indignity of curiosity the way of Heaven through so many thorns and the servant not to be willing to tread but upon flowers To see under a head all wasted and worn with suffering delicate members as one should make to a Colossus of brass feet of flax IV. Were there no other fruit in temptation but Greatness of temptation conformity to Iesus Christ the conformity which we thereby have with Jesus Christ the sovereign Wisdom it would be highly recompenced A brave Captain said to a souldier who died with him Although thou hadst been unknown all thy life time it is no small honour for thee to die this day with thy Master And who would not hold it for a great glory to have the Son of God for Captain for companion for spectatour for theatre for guerdon in all his afflictions and tribulations Who would not account it a great dignity to be daily crucified with him To distend his hands and arms upon the Cross in withholding them from violences rapines ruins wherewith the spirit of lying transporteth us To fetter your feet and hinder them from running after the unbridied desires of your heart To make bitter your tongue in subduing the pleasures of tast To cover your body with wounds in suppressing the incitements of flesh by a holy mortification To lessen your self by the contempt of honour according to the example of him who being able always to walk upon the wings of Cherubins would creep amongst us like a little worm Galat. 9 Ego stigmata Domini Jesu in corpore meo porto Distrust of ones self of the earth What a glory were it to say what Saint Paul said I hear the marks of my Saviour Jesus on my body V. Not to confide in humane remedies when you undertake to overcome a temptation It is not a thing which dependeth meerly upon us It is necessary God go before and we thereto contribute our free will If he watch not over our heads it will be a hard matter for us to keep centinel No creature is so feeble as he who holdeth himself for strong being onely armed with his own confidence Many Concilium Arausicanum Multa in homine bona siunt quae non facit homo bona Nulla vero facit homo bona quae non Deus praesiet ut faciat
her Sun no world after her little world nor life after the loss of the moity of her soul In the mean space some babler insinuating hereupon and saying she did ill to afflict her self for a death which could not but be happy since it was free from the sense of pain and that for her self it was true her loss was unspeakable but the providence of God made it reparable by a second wedlock which would wipe away her tears and that in her constancy the world approved all but the resolution she took to remain for ever miserable She so much with time mollified her courage upon the like remonstrances that she married the brother of her dead husband and after him a third the King of Mauritania Josephus relateth Joseph 17. Antiqu. that the first night of her wedding the soul of her husband appeared to her and said Glaphyra you have approved common bruit which says women are light Where are now your tears Where your sorrow Where the vows you made me Your words were full of promises your promises of oaths and your oaths of perjuries and infidelity For after my fathers cruelty had violently pulled away this my immortal soul which now speaks to you you laid aside your great grief which seemed would never have an end and yielding your self up to the importunities of ill proposed suits you have admitted my brother into your bed entertaining my memory and ashes as if I had been but a shadow and not content herewith after his decease you married the King of Mauritania and behold you now have turned your wanness into vermillion your tears into pearls and sorrow into gold and scarlet You are drenched in delights over head and cars and take so much pleasure among the living that you forsake the memory of the dead Now know although you be so ungrateful towards me I have not forgotten you nor shall it be long before you be with me The poor Queen was so terrified with this vision that she was quickly taken into the other world leaving saith the history by the publication of this apparition a notable proof of the immortality of our souls Yet we do not forbid second wedlocks but all widdows are advertised they must proceed with great discretion and that according to the Apostles counsel the greatest perfection rests in widdow-hood But above all so use the matter that this widdow-hood be not idle that your children may find you a true mother the Church a perpetual votaress virgins a protectrice the poor a charitable nurse Monasteries a good friend orphans a tutress the house one retired societies an example of good odour and God above all a faithful servant To encourage you to this resolution you shall presently hear Saint Hierom speak who used words to this effect in the Treatises he wrote unto two widdows You have learnt in marriage the troubles of marriage God was pleased to give you this school to instruct you for widdow-hood by your own experience You have vomited up the choller which surcharged your stomach would you take it up again to hear it in your mouth Would you return to the snare from whence you went Fear you the world may want if you bring no children Let it fail through virtue rather than be supported by weakness All those who are married have not children and such as have are many times enforced to curse their fruitfulness To whom say you shall I leave all this wealth since I am mortal To God who cannot die To Jesus that you may make an heir of your own Master Your father will be afflicted at it but God glorified your family mourn but the Angels will rejoice Let your father do what he will with his riches it is not to him to whom you owe your birth but to Jesus the Authour of your regeneration Beware of those venemous creatures who seek their gain from anothers charge and who tell you there is no sense that a young woman should waste her youth in sad solitude and neither tast the delight of children nor reward of pleasure If you have posterity why desire you a second marriage and if you have none why fear you not a second sterility If you be a mother you perhaps set over your children not a nursing father but an enemy not a parent but a Tyrant Needs must you forget your own children in the pursuits of your loves and trick up your self in the defection from your orphans who as yet scarcely know how to lament or understand their own misery Alledge not here unto me wealth affairs and services No woman takes a husband but to lye with a husband Otherwise what a folly were it to resign up her chastity to multiply her riches What will it be when a husband shall persecute you having your estate What will it be when you no longer shall be suffered to love the children by your first husband and that you must hide your self from doing them any good and hate them to shew you have renounced the ashes of the dead If you have children of a second wedlock be you never so good you shall be a step-mother If you spare ought from your son in law you will be cruel and if by accident any ill befal him it is you did it if you deny him meat you are ingrateful and if you give him any you have poisoned him It is time you bury to your self all these pleasures in the tomb of your husband Counterfeiting cannot make a fair accord with tears nor doth grief permit the pomp of attire Meagerness and fasts should be your pearls and prayer your perfumes If a Queen of Carthage said heretofore of her husband He that espoused me in the first wedlock took my heart and love with him let him enjoy let him possess them unto the grave If she set glass at so high a rate what shall we do by gold and pearls If a Pagan widdow in the law of nature condemned all the pleasures of marriage what may be expected from a Christian Ladie who ows her chastity not onely to a dead husband but a living God and with whom she ought to live and reign for ever The reputation of chastity is a most delicate Lilly in the person of women It is a very beautiful flower but there needs no more than a little breath a little bad air to corrupt it when age bendeth towards vice and that she hath the freedom of a husbands authority whose shadow many times might serve as a bulwark to chastity What doth a widdow in so great a family and amongst so many servants whom I would not have her to despise as servants but regard with some modesty remembring with her self they are men If the state and quality of her condition require a retinue let at the least some ancient grave man be seen to bear sway who by his good life may commend the honour of his Mistress I know many of them who having shut their door against
the Roman People contrary to the command of Laws and honesty I declare him from this time forward unworthy both of the Common-wealth and my house The unfortunate son was so overwhelmed with melancholy upon this judgement given by his father that the next night he killed himself and the father esteeming him degenerate would not so much as honour his funerals with his presence Good God what severity what thunders what lightnings against the disobedience of sons among Pagans And you wicked sons in Christianity where the Law of love should oblige you to the duty which I prove unto you with an adamantine knot do you think all is permitted you And you fathers are not you most worthy of your unhappiness when you cherish by a negligent and soft indulgence the disobediences of your children which you should root up from their infancy and not suffer them to grow to the prejudice of your houses with so many bloudy tragedies as are daily seen in the mournful theater of the worlds Fili suscipe senium tam patris tui non contristes eum in vitâ illius si defecerint sensus veniam da non spernas eum in tuâ virtute Eccles 3. Qui timeâ— Deum honorat pareâ—tes quasi Dominis serviet iis qui segenuerunt miseries Let us conclude upon the fourth duty of children which is succour Son receive the old age of thy father and mother in thy bosom Take heed thou do not contristate them in any kind Beware thou scornest them not if they chance to fall into any debility of spirit Assist them with all thy might It followeth The child which feareth God never fails either in the honour or ayd he should yield to his parents nay more be shall serve them as a servant his Master We need not here seek out examples in holy Scripture or where the Law of nature is handled the more our proofs are taken from Infidels who had nothing at all but the light of reason so much the more clour and weight they have I will not make mention here of a Roman daughter (a) (a) (a) Fulgos l. 5. c. 3. who fed her father from her own breasts condemned to dye of hunger between four wals you may sufficiently see that often recorded in writing Yea under Peter of Castle there lived a man that never ceased weeping until he were put to death instead of his father who was to be executed I speak nothing now at all of that but cannot omit an example recounted in Bibliotheck of the great with Photius who telleth on a time there happened in Sicily as it hath often been seen an eruption of Aetna now called mount Gibel It is a hydeous thing and the very image of hell to behold a mountain which murmurs burns belches up flames and throws out its fiery entrails making all the world fly from it It happened then that in this horrible and violent breach of flames every one flying and carrying away all they had most precious with them two sons the one called Anapias the other Amphinomus carefull of the wealth and goods in their houses reflected on their father and mother both very old who could not save themselves from the fire by flight and where shall we said they find a more precious treasure than those who begat us The one took his father on his shoulder the other his mother and so made passage through the flames It is an admirable thing that God in consideration of this piety though Pagan did a miracle for the monuments of all antiquity witness the devouring flames stayd at this spectacle and the fire roasting and broyling all round about them the way onely through which these two good sons passed was tapistred with fresh verdure and called afterward by posterity the holy field in memory of this accident What may we answer to this what can we say when the virtues eâ—en of Pagans dart lightening-flashes of honesty and duty into our eyes What brasen or adamantine brow can covetous and caytive sons have who being rich and abounding in means deny necessary things to those who brought them into the world yea have the heart to see them struggle with extream misery whilst they offer a sacrifice of abomination to their burning avarice Wicked son wreched daughter know you what you do when you commit such a crime You hold the soul bloud and life of your progenitours in your coffers you burn them with a soft fire you consume them with a lingring and shameful death you are accountable before God for what they suffer And for whom is remorse of conscience For whom infamy For whom necessity For whom punishments in the other life but for such as in this manner abuse a treasure so recommended by God Take heed O children take heed of breaking this triple cord of the Law divine natural and civil which indissolubly tie you to the exercise of that piety which you have abjured Take heed of irreverence disobedience and ingratitude towards your parents expect not onely in the other life the unavoydable punishments of Gods Justice against such contumacy but in this present life know you shall be measured with the same measure you afforded others You know the history of the miserable father dragged by the hair with the hand of his son unto the threshold of his door where seeing himself unworthily used Hold son saith he it is enough the justice of God hath given me my due I committed the like outrage heretofore against my father thy Grand-father which thou at this instant actest upon me I dragged him hither and behold me hither haled Go no further O Justice O terrour O dreadful spectacle Great eye of God which never sleepest over the crimes of mortals O divine hand which ever bearest arms of vengeance hanging over the heads of rebellious children How terrible thou art who can but fear thee who will not heareafter tremble at the apprehension of thy judgements Children be pious live in the duty you have vowed and resigned to your progenitours and to all your superiours Live full of honour and glory in this world live in expectation of palms and crowns which you shall enjoy in the other world And you likewise fathers and mothers embrace charity towards your good children with all affection and if any forget their duty and afterward stretch out hands humbly to your obedience receive them into favour exercise mercy towards them as you desire should be done to you by God our common father But if you still groan under the ingratitude of wicked children and the fear of future evils wipe away your tears sweeten your acerbities season your bitterness with the comfort of a good conscience When you have done all you can and all you ought to do leave the success to God and say unto him My God who hast seen the cause of my afflictions to proceed from my self accept my good desires for the works of this evil child
an instrument proper for this end For certainly this Antipater was of a dark spirit close and mischievous much of his Father Herods disposition as it was presently to be seen When he was advanced he resolved fully not to descend but with loss of life and to hold that Kingdom as well as others by some notable trick Behold why he played the Proteus and changed himself into all forms to gain credit with Herod who then began to like him very well and he the more to fortifie himself spared not under hand to aggravate the calumny against the children of Mariamne and after he had thrown the stone withdrew his arm so cunningly that it seemed he had not touched it for he always was conversant with Alexander and Aristobulus with much respect as with his Masters yea when he made false tales to tickle the ears of his father then feigned he by a counterfeit modesty to take their cause in hand and defend them so discreetly for his own advantage that thereby he cast them further into suspition King Herod judged that to countenance him it were to good purpose to send him to Rome which he did allotting him a flourishing retinue and an infinite number of recommendations There it was that he much embroyled businesses writing to his father That he had discovered at Rome strange plots that he should take heed of his brothers Alexander and Aristobulus that they had practised ill dispositions in every place that their purpose had no other aim but to shorten his days and dispossess him of his Empire This had so much the more colour for that these miserable Princes galled with their repulse could not dissemble their discontent they ever casting forth some words which gathered by the spies of Pheroras and Salome never fell to the ground Herod sighed to see that he having pacified all abroad the fire should kindle in his own house and thereupon had some desire to arrest his sons but he would attempt nothing upon their persons without Caesars command referring all to him both for his ordinary complacence and safeguard of his own affairs After he had revolved this affair with a thousand anxieties in his heart wherein he bare the chief extent of his counsels he resolved in his own person to carry his sons to Rome and accuse them before Caesar In the whole course of this long way from Palestine to Italie he held himself close and reserved not making the least disgust against his children appear that he might not occasion in them any suspition Being arrived at Rome he learned Augustus Caesar was then in the Citie of Aquileia without delay he went thither conducting with him Alexander and Aristobulus who were received by the Emperour who was as their father with all demonstration of love In the mean time this miserable father spying his opportunity demands day of Caesar for an audience which he affirmed was of great consequence it was granted him and he came at the time appointed bringing these two poor delinquents who doubted nothing nor at that time sought any thing but to laugh and pass their time with their ancient acquaintance When they were in the midst of a brave assembly of Princes there present Herod breathing out a great sigh said Behold me GREAT CAESAR a happy King by your favour and an unfortunate father through the disgrace of my house If nature had denied me children fortune should see me without miseries all my disasters proceed from my own progeny It much troubleth me to defile your ears worthy Caesar with the recital of so great wickedness but necessity which hath no law enforceth me and your justice which establisheth all laws inviteth me Behold my two unnatural sons who after they had received the honour to be bred at your feet after they had obtained from me all the favours which could be expected froÌ„ a King by your gracious clemency sufficiently powerfull and from a father of his own nature most indulgent betraying the glory of the education they had at your hands forgetting even the nature and bloud they received from me have attempted a crime which I dare not name I live too many years in their opinion and too long enjoy a Kingdom which with so much labour I purchased I have opened to them the gate of honour that they may enter after that natural death shall close up mine eyes and they will pass through by the portal of parricide preparing ambushes for my life to snatch away the spoil steeped in my bloud Behold I prostrate them at your feet not willing to retain any right in mine own displeasure neither of King nor father but that which shall be decreed for me by your justice Yet notwithstanding O Great Caesar I would beseech you to bestow upon my old age which you have pleased so much to honour some repose in my own house and free me from the hands of these parricides So likewise I think it not expedient for children so ungratefull who have trampled laws both divine and humane under foot to live any longer and still to have the Sun in their eyes to serve as a witness and an upbraiding of their crime Herod spake this with a marvellous vehemency so that he put the whole assembly into an astonishment and these poor young men who had as much innocency as simplicity seeing themselves charged on the sudden with such a tempest of words made the apple of their eyes to answer and weep in good earnest They endeavoured to speak fearing least their silence might make them culpable but the more they strove so much the more the sobs choaked up their words Augustus Caesar who was a judicious and courteous Prince saw well by this their aspect these young men had more mishap than malice and casting a gracious eye upon them Courage my children be confident saith he answer at your leisure and be not troubled All those there present bare already much compassion towards them and Herod shewed even by his countenance he was moved so eloquent are the tears of nature Alexander seeing the eyes of the whole assembly very favourable took heart represseth his sighs being as he was eloquent speaketh in these terms MY LORD AND FATHER Your Majesty Apologie of Herodâ—s son before Augustus hath not brought us so far to the Altars of mercy to offer us up as a sacrifice to revenge we are at the knees of Caesar as in the Temple of Clemency whither being conducted by your warrant command it maketh us say your words are sharp but proceedings most sweet If calumny had so altered your excellent nature as to make you take resolution upon our lives to the prejudice of our innocency you might have done it in Palestine as a father and a King the sentence and execution were in your own hands But God permitted you to bring us to the Court of Augustus not to leave the head where the crown was designed but rather to return it back
sea where the tempest handled the vessels of Lycinius so ill that an hundred and thirty were lost and the rest put to flight Whilest these things were in doing Constantine very streightly besieged the Citie of Byzantium having raised plat-forms that were like huge mountains which at the least equalled in height the walls of the Citie from whence he battered it and endammaged it with much facility Lycinius seeing it was not the securest way for him gaineth Bithynia where he trieth his utmost endeavour making arrows of all wood but all succeeded so ill with him that of an Army which exceeded an hundred thousand men there scarce remained thirty thousand He who could not yet find in his heart to give over shuts himself up in the Citie of Nicomedia where Constantine furiously assaulteth him so that seeing himself upon the extream despair of his affairs he went out of the Citie and cast himself at the feet of Constantine laying aside the purple robe and Diadem and onely demanding a place of safety where he might pass the rest of his days which could not much longer continue for he was fully three-score years of age A certain Priest of Nicomedia who lived at that End of Lycinius time there and who set hand to this History saith that Constantine sent him into France to bewail his sins but the more probable opinion is that he put him to death being weary of his disturbances and having much distrust of his spirit notwithstanding that Constantia still lived and begged of her brother the life of her husband Constantine cannot be excused to have used most severe punishments even against his nearest kindred having still in his head the fire of war and ambition and not being reconciled but very late to the mildness of Christianitie Behold how so many Emperours being removed he remained sole Master of the world making afterwards divisions to his brothers the sons of Theodora as he thought good He that would attentively consider this arrival of Constantine to Monarchy and the reign of more than thirty years which God gave him shall see more clear than day that all these favours came not to him but by the virtue of true Religion whose Altars he the first of all Emperours exalted The seventh SECTION The vices and passions of Constantine before Baptism with the death of Crispus and Fausta I Will not here present unto you a Constantine in outward lineament as Eusebius hath done to cover his faults and onely expose beauties to view It is no wonder that he had vices before Baptism but it is the miracle of Christianity to change Lions into Lambs sinks into fountains and thorns into roses and tulipans The ice of winter makes the beauty of the spring darkness contributes to the lustre of light nor ever is the sun more bright than after an eclipse So grace which is the splendour of eternal light makes it self to be seen with more triumphs in arms where it hath subdued most iniquities It is certain that this warlike humour of Constantine transported him into vanities ambitions jealousies and in some sort into a bloudy disposition which was greatly fomented by the education he received in the Palace of Diocletian Behold a prodigious accident which happened in his house by a precipitation ill ordered the death of his poor son Crispus poisoned by the commandement of his father upon a wicked and sinister calumny raised upon him by his step-mother Verily my pen shaketh with humour being to touch upon this history and I know many Grecian flatterers either have passed it over in silence or been willing to disguise it in favour of Constantine but the holy Martyr Artemius freely avoweth before Julian the Apostata who reproched him with it forbearing to deny a fact which was very notorious yet desirous to sweeten it by intervening circumstances Cardinal Constant 19. Bar. Baronius is much displeased with Eusebius who hath spoken nothing of it as if it were a thing very strange that a man who wrote to the son the life of his father in form of a Panegirick should not charge his writings with crimes and furies which men then endeavoured to suppress by all means Great men have Alban animal Albertus their judgements too tender for such like histories and ordinarily resemble that creature which bears his gall in his ear They cannot hear a true Historie in any thing which toucheth them without offence they must sometimes understand their own lives in the rumours of people where the one unlimittedly takes the liberty of speaking all since the other takes licence of doing all The vices of Constantine about these times cannot be concealed But he having caused his son Crispus to be put to death and thereunto added the death of his wife Fausta who had raised the calumny against the innocent this distick was affixed to the gates of his Palace attributed afterward to Consul Ablavius Saturni aurea saecla quis requirat Sunt haec gemmea sed Neroniana It was an allusion to the humour of Constantine who much loved pearls and precious stones as also to that which passed in the matter of Crispus and Fausta the substance whereof is this Let us not seek any more for the golden Age of Saturn Behold one all of pearl but the Age of Nero. Let us speak what we think most probably to have happened in this affair We have already mentioned how Constantine in the prime of his youth was espoused in his first wedlock to Minervina upon The first marriage of Constantine which the Writers of his time have much praised him as a Prince very chaste who to avoid wandering and unlawfull pleasures willingly tyed himself to a legitimate marriage and from that time took upon him the spirit of a husband It is an easie matter to believe that this Minervina whom he married had taken the name of Minerva because of the Minervina wisdom grace and beauties resplendent in her person It seemeth these great perfections of mind and body ever draw along with them a certain fate which affordeth them no long continuance but rather the lives of roses that in the evening make a tomb of the scarlet whereof in the morning they made a cradle The poor Princess quickly died after she had brought forth to Constantine at one birth which was her first and last two twins to wit a son named Crispus and a daughter who from the name of her Grand-mother was called Helena and afterward married to Julian the Apostata This Crispus was verily the most accomplished Crispus and his qualities Prince of that Age for he at the very first sucked in piety with his milk having the most glorious S. Helena for his first Mistress in Christianity From thence being initiated in the study of good letters he had for Tutour that famous man Lactantius Firmianus one of the most eloquent and ancientest Authours of Christianity who being the instructour of Caesars notwithstanding lived in such
envy dials and return back again for fear to be surprized by this prettie sport of men the hours would be ashamed that being the daughters of the day and night they were painted with shadows In the end having given full scope to his wit he concludes and saith I pray you send us two dials so soon as you can to the end you may be known by the figures of your spirit in a Country where no man shall see the print of your foot-steps I would have them understand that our Senatours here are as learned as Doctours that they may admire your inventions and esteem them as dreams so that being awakened they may confess they have nothing comparable to us Cassiodorus amassed together all the strength of Cassiodorus variarum 16. Epist 40. his wit when he was to dispatch letters to Boetius in the behalf of his King Witness whereof yet is that other excellent Epistle of Musick where we learn that our great K. Clodovaeus having demanded a singular Player on the Lute of Theodorick who then raigned in Italy address was presently made to Boetius to chuse him with a magnificent letter which still retaineth a notable testimony of his ability Angelus Politianus who had throughly read him holdeth opinion that there is nothing to be found more sharp than He in Logick more subtile in the Mathematicks more rich in Philosophy not more sublime in Theology adding the judgement of Albertus Magnus and of S. Thomas who have commented upon his works and assuring us that his sentences were all as it were without appeal Laurentius Valla calleth him the last of the learned thereby willing to say that all the glory of the excellent wits of antiquity was buried with him But why go we about to search out the testimonies of Authours since we have still some of his true works in our hands which are the mirrours wherein the wit of Boetius makes it self to be seen with more advantage to all posterity It may be said he had too much Philosophy for a States-man but the bird is not burdened with her feathers no more than the tree with his leaves and flowers What wrong hath he done to the City of Rome if when he saw himself to be taken from the Common-wealth and in tearms where he could not assist it with his counsels he honoured it with the riches of his wit charming the sharpness of troubles with the sweetness of his retirement and giving an account to posterity of the time which he husbanded for it The third SECTION His enterance into the government of the State I Will willingly leave all digestion to come to my project and seeing the life of Boetius furnisheth us not with many slight matters wherewith ordinarily volumes are stuffed when men desire to distend them beyond their merit I rest on negotiations of government which shew a man as well as doth the needle the hours upon a true clock Boetius happened in a time which gave him an admirable list to combat in with firm footing against vices the most applauded and to place his virtues in the bright splendour of light not holding them still imprisoned within the precincts of a library Behold here a strong adversary that fortune put upon him which exercised his constancy in rough affairs and caused him in the end to pass by the dint of sword ending a brave life by a Tragedie very bloudy no whit abating his noble courage This is a history which verily hath given accasion of much horrour to spirits the most strong and execration to mouthes the most innocent to detest the tyranny of a barbarous sword purpled with the bloud of an honourable old man by whose mouth all learning and the best maxims of State did speak It is necessary my Reader well to deduce this narration you first understand the humour qualities fortune beginning progress and the end also of this Persecutour You must therefore understand that the City of Rome which counteth its age and continued before the Caesars seaven hundred years and after Augustus who was the first Emperour about five hundred twenty three and generally from the foundation thereof one thousand two hundred twenty nine was at that time involved in very great perplexities the Emperours living then the age of flowers and driving one another as waves to be broken against the rocks One Nepos elected to the Empire chose for his Constable a man called Orestes who sought to take the Purple from his Master to give it to his son and verily he caused him aloud to be saluted Caesar and set the Diadem on his head surnammg him Augustus though afterward for contempt the name of Augustulus was given unto him It is a fatal blow from the providence of God that the Empire of the West which begun by an Augustus must receive end by an Augustulus as that of the East having commenced under Constantine the Great concluded afterward in the person of Constantinus Dragosus vanquished by Mahomet Nepos seeing himself betrayed by him in whom he most confided sent for Odoacer King of the Heruli to his aid who like the wolf in the fable reconciled the dogs that worried one another by eating them For he defeated these two contesting Princes and seeing himself march in the fair fields of Italy with swords in hand attended by strong Legions the great weakness of the Empire so many times overwhelmed by civil wars being unable to oppose his designs he being entreated to help a friend payeth himself by his own hands and makes himself Master of his possessions Experience ever teaching us that forrain charities have fingers some-what crooked to lay hold on that which they make shew to succour The Emperour Zeno who reigned in Constantinople understanding all this goodly business dispatcheth Theodorick into the West to make head against this usurper whether he had a purpose to throw the apple of discord between those two strangers who in too near a degree closely courted his estate to make them devour one another or whether that he cordially loved this man and that to oblige him not hurting himself he freely gave him a matter desperate he armed and supported him with gold and strength to raise him to that throne not having at that time any will thereunto This Theodorick was bastard-son of Theodomire King of the Goths born of a concubine called Aureliana His father who sought for land which is very easily found out for a tomb had much afflicted the Eastern Empire oft-times making inrodes even to the gates of Constantinople whereat Leo the Emperour who then reigned being somewhat amazed endeavoured to gain him by some honest composition which was done and the more firmly to bind this accord Theodomire sent his little son Theodorick who was not above eight or nine years of age in hostage to Constantinople The Emperour beholding him to be of a good disposition and a brave courage very heartily loved him and afterward Zeno who succeeded both to the
understanding this defeat became so furious that he caused the head of his prisoner to be cut off with his wife and children by his second marriage commanding through extremitie of cruelty to throw the body into a ditch which was executed Nor content with this he re-entereth into Burgundie boyling with choller with intention to recover all to his obedience but he found himself assaulted by the Burgundians in a battel who slew him and knowing him by his long hair they cut off his head and fixed it on the point of a launce to serve for a sad spectacle to the French This accident afflicted the heart of the mother who bewailed her son with inconsolable tears as well because he was the first whom she had bred with all tender affection as for that she seeing him dead in the pursuit of so many bloudy acts was full of anxiety in the matter of salvation of his soul The poor Queen fortified her self as much as she might against the violences of sorrow and armed her self against other accidents which she foresaw might grow from the evil dispositions of her children Clodomer left three sons very young whom the holy woman bred up in her house and near her person into whom the most excellent Maxims of all wisdom and piety were distilled These little children very well bred and gently trained by the very good precepts of their grand-mother promised something excellent in time to come and served as a most sweet lenitive to this disconsolate turtle to sweeten the acerbities she had conceived upon the death of their father when behold a horrible frenzie crept into the souls of Childebert and Clotharius her two sons which is read in all our histories the brows whereof do blush to leave a blemish of execration on the wicked exorbitancy of ambition It were much fitter for the great men of the earth to have gnawing vultures and sharp rasors in their entrails than to nourish such a passion which being onely puffed up with a smoke violateth all it hath therein of right or humanity to fatten it self with bloud and never as it were openeth its eyes but in the flames of the damned Childebert and Clotharius sons of the great Clodovaeus and the holy Clotilda despoyling themselves of all respect sweetness and humanity conceived a mortal jealousie against their little Nephews imagining their mother would breed them up to their prejudice and so not taking counsel of ought but their own bruitish passion they resolved to be rid of them The poor children were perpetually under the wing of their good grand-mother Clotilda who could never suffer them out of her sight such fear had she of ill habits which are easily made to slide into the hearts of children by the corruption of evil companie These infamous Uncles besought their mother to let their little Nephews come to visit them to have thereby some harmless recreation promising to restore them again speedily into her hands The holy woman who could not imagine the execrable malice which was hatched in the hearts of these unnatural sons consented these little ones should go fearing lest the denial she might make would further exasperate the suspition of the suppliants Yet did she even then quake for fear and bidding them farewel kissed them with redoubled embracements raptures and affections not being able to contain her passion nor the presage of her unhappiness The little innocents went to the slaughter with a smiling countenance as children who have walks of recreation and play in their heads When they had them in their full power they dispatched a messenger to their mother to bear unto her most unwelcome news For he was commanded to shew her a poynard and a cyzars requiring her she would make choice which of these she should judge fittest for her grand-children either to pass them by the dint of sword or forcibly to shave them and make them Monks Clotilda extreamly astonished at this impudence answered As well dead as Monks which some very inconsiderately have interpreted thinking this answer proceeded from an ambition she had that her grand-children might reign but the admirable Princess would say that we ought not to apply any to the service of God but voluntaries and that she had rather see her children well dead than to behold them in a religious profession by constraint and force This wretched messenger made to the humour of his Masters in stead of sweetening the matter made a very harsh relation of his message which precipated the evil already beginning to fall into extremity Clotharius possessed with a diabolical spirit took Thibault the eldest of these children and striking him down to the ground thrust his sword quite through his body The little Guntharus who was the second besprinkled with the bloud of his brother whom he saw distended on the pavement grasped the knees of his uncle Childebert with lamentable out-cries saying O Uncle save my life wherein have I offended you He so quaked in all the parts of his body and so transfixed him with his sighs that the other though he purposed this mischief was seized with much compassion and prayed his brother to pass no further But Clotharius enraged and more ravenous than a Tyger of Armenia What saith he you have been of the Councel and yet now hinder me in the execution I will run you both through with my sword Childebert amazed threw the poor victim from his knees and delivered him to the executioner who in that very place cut his throat As they were upon these contestations the third son of Clodomer named Clodoaldus was taken away by a friend of the father and secretly bred up in Ecclesiastical condition wherein he arrived to so perfect a sanctity that forsaking the shadow of Diadems and Scepters which deceiveth the credulity of the most passionate by its illusions he hath merited Altars on earth and a Crown of glory in Heaven For this is that S. Cloud which we reverence near unto Paris What imagination is sufficiently powerfull to figure to its self the ardent dolours which seized on the spirit of poor Clotilda when she heard all that passed by the practise of her unnatural sons What might this soul think so free and purified from the contagions of the earth which apprehended the shadow of the least sins when she beheld her house polluted with so horrible sacriledges Yet still she guided the helm of reason in so tempestuous a storm of passions and in so dead a night of misery she adored a ray of the Providence of God which she considered in the depth of her sorrows she her self no whit affrighted took up the mangled bodies of these innocent creatures and gathered together the scattered members as well as she could saying Poor Children I bewail not your death although it cannot be too much bemoaned You are dead like little Abels like little Innocents forsaking the earth profaned with the crimes of your Uncles to hasten to possess a place in
can any longer be a husband That she married him to live and to give life to others by love not to cut her own throat and her childrens through wickedness That a man who renounceth honour can no more pretend to nature To conclude that it is wealth which maketh men and that it was no dishonour to marrie a servant who is the favourite of a mightie King We came not into the world to be masters of fortune but to yield to its Empire What content can there be to walk up and down Towns and Cities like a beggers following a husband the object of the worlds laughter and reserve all is left of his miserable bodie to swords and flames So much were her ears beaten with such like discourses She yieldoth that through a most unspeakable cowardice she forsook her religion and husband to marry this servant who seemed noble enough since he had the golden fleece The King seeing she had yielded added for full accomplishment of inhumanity that Suenes should remain in his own house as a slave to his wise and servant Behold here the extremity of all worldly miseries Yield thy self up said one poor Suenes Admirable constancie sâ—est thou not that of so many palaces and such treasures there is not left for thee so much as a house covered with stubble of so many children none to call thee father Is it not time to forsake thy faith since she who slept by thy sides hath left thee Wert thou amongst the chains of Lestrigons and Tartars thou mightst breath a more wholesom air But to behold thy self a slave to thy servant in thine own house and to have perpetually before thee the infidelity of a disloyal wife for object how is it possible but to overthrow the most stable constancie in the world But Suenes assembling together all the forces of his heart said O faithless and perfidious discourses All is taken from me but they cannot take away Jesus Christ I follow him in libertie and bondage in prosperitie and adversitie in life and death whilest one small threed of life remains in my heart one silly spark of breath upon my lips I will combat against the gates of hell and all the laws of impietie O the power of the spirit of God! O divorce from flesh and bloud O spectacle worthy to be beheld by angels over the gates of heaven with admiration A man to die in so many indignities such punishments such deaths without dying without complaint growing wan or speaking any one word unworthy the lips of a Christian What is it to be a puissant but to brave all the powers of earth and hell What is it to be rich but to place all your treasures in the heart of God II. MAXIM Of the Essence of GOD. THE PROPHANE COURT THE HOLY COURT That it is fit to obey Nature all other Divinitie being most unknown That nothing is so known as God although not acknowledged through our ingratitude ACynick Philospher heretofore sought for a man with a candle at noon-day and now adays the wicked seek God in a clear and full light and when they have found him become blind by their own lights in that they see not him who is not to be known but in the quality of a Judge punishing their offences Out alas what is man without God Tertullian speaking of the countrey about the Euxine Tertul. advers Marcion l. 1. cap. 1. Excellent description of Tertullian sea saith It is a Region separated from the commerce of men as well by the providence of Nature as the reproach of its bruitishness It is peopled by most savage Nations which inhabit if we may say so a wandering cart that serves them for house a habitation which though perpetually in motion is less inconstant than their manners Their abode is uncertain their life wholly savage their luxury promiscuous and indifferent for all sorts of objects They make no scruple to serve in the flesh of their parents in a feast with beeff and mutton and think the death of such cursed who die when they no longer are fit to be eaten Sex softeneth not women in this countrey for they sear off their dugs being young and make a distaff serve for a launce being otherwise so fervent in battel that they had much rather fight than marry The Climate and elements are as rigid as their manners The day is never bright the sun never smileth nor is the skie any thing but a continued cloud The whole year is a winter and the wind ever North. Ice robs them of rivers and if they have liquor the fire affords it The mountains are still covered with ice and snow All is cold in this countrey but vice which ever burneth Yet I must tell you saith he there is not any thing amongst these wonders more prodigious than wicked Marcion For where shall we find a monster more odious or a man in nature more senseless than him who did not acknowledge the Divinitie and will have the causes and sublime reasons given him of the Essence of God which never were nor shall be for then there would be somewhat above God The Emperour Tiberius having conceived some Humano arbitratu divinitâ—s pensitatur nisi homini Deus placuerit Deus non erit Tertul. Apol. c. 5. Nec quicquam refert Deum neges an asseras Arno. l. 1. good opinion of Divinitie in the Person of our Saviour was willing to rank him in the number of other gods but it was not executed because it must pass by decree of the Senate and God who is all that which he is by nature regarded not the judgement of men to authorize his Divinitie You were as good deny God saith Arnobius as to make the truth of his Essence depend upon the weakness of humane reason 1. I ask of you whether there be any thing in the world more present with us and more familiarly known than our self our substance our life our being It seemeth say you it is the most certain of our knowledges Now if I shew the science we have of God is better known to us than our selves God is far stronger more undoubted and invincible than the knowledge we have of our self I necessarily convince the ignorance of the Divinitie is stupid ungratefull and punishable with all the rigours of eternal justice I pray tell me what so certain knowledge can you have of your self Have you it by the knowledge of History which is a reasonable knowledge by revelation which is extraordinary by prophesie which is mysterious by faith which is infallible I do not see you alledge any of these for confirmation of your own being You have no proofs say you more certain than your senses which you know notwithstanding to be bruitish deceivers and deceived in so many objects You hear your self speak you smell your self you touch your self and for that you affirm you are although you have not any knowledge of the better part of
her for love which she cannot have by nature It is a shadow of the goodness of God who ceaseth not to provide for our necessities to love us as his children Hosea 11. Et ego quasi nutritius Ephraim portabam eos in brachiis meis nescierunt quod curarem eos In funiculis Adam traham eos in vinculi◠charitatis Exod. 2. to defend us as the apple of his eye I was said he by his Prophet as the foster-father of my people I bare them all between my arms they never vouchsafing to open their eyes to my protection Yet will I draw them to me by the hands of Adam which are the chains of my charity Behold in Exodus the little Moses who floateth on Nilus in a cradle of reeds the mother for fear of the rigour of men abandoneth him to death the sister followeth him with her eyes to see what will become of him but her weakness could do nothing to warrant him from danger God in the mean space becomes the Pilot of this little bark he conducteth it without sails without rudder without oars he bears it upon the waves he makes it arrive at a good haven He draweth out this infant who was as a victim exposed to make of him a God of Pharaoh one day to drown in the red sea the posterity of those who would have drenched him in Nilus 8 Adde to this immenss goodness justice an inseparable His Justice virtue of the Divinity which seems to oblige God to preserve and direct what he created But it is to judge most abjectly of this divine understanding to say as did Averroes he abused his magnificence and soyled his dignity if he busied himself in the mannage of so many trifles S. Ambrose judged better when he said If God wrong himself in the government Amb. l. 1. offic c. 13. Si injuria est regere multò major injuria fecisse cum aliquid non fecisse nulla sit injustitia non curare quod feceris summa inclementia of the world did he not himself a greater injury in creating it For to do or not to do what one is not obliged unto hath no injustice in it but to abandon a creature after it is produced is a stain of inhumanity And if we regard the justice which appertaineth to the government of men what malignity and prostitution of mind were it to think souls the most caitive having some spark of justice yet God who must be sovereign perfection would suffer the world to be exposed to fortune or delivered over to tyrāny as a prey and a booty without any care of it or inquiry into injustices There is not any Age which could not furnish out a million of proofs against these mischievous beliefs if we would open our eyes to consider them but our distrusts and pusillanimities blind us and alienate us from knowledge of those truths which God reserveth for the most purified souls 9 To conclude the last colume which should settle His Power our faith in the verity of divine government is the magistral power God exerciseth over all the world which he ruleth tempereth and directeth with one sole thought much otherwise than did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist l. de mundo heretofore those practick wits who vanted to animate statues because they by certain engines gave them motion Wretched and blind that we are ever bowed down to the earth perpetualy divested of those great lights of Saints We measure God by the ell of men we cloth him after our fashion and we hold impossible to the Divinity what our understanding cannot comprehend Shall we never say with the Prophet Jeremiah O most strong O onely great and Hier. 32 19. Fortissime magne potens Domine excercituum nomen tibi magnus consilio incomprehensibilis cogitatu cujus oculi aperti sunt super omnes vias filiorum Adam onely potent The God of bosts is thy name Thou art great in thy counsels incomprehensible in thy cogitations and thy eyes are upon all the waies of the children of Adam We daily see upon men who are but worms of the earth so many tokens of Gods power A King speaketh and a hundred thousand swords hasten out of scabbards at the sound of one syllable A master of a family builds and at one silly beck behold so many artificers so many mules and horses some draw materials out of the bottom of quarries others carry them in waggons some make morter and cement others hew stones some raise them aloft others lay them some play the carpenters and others polish marbles There are some who work in iron and others in brass all is done to the liking of one man who is possessed of a little money Do you never consider God as a great King in an army as a great father of a family in a house who by his sovereign power governs all he created not with a toilsome care but an incomparable facility He gave in the begining of the creation an instinct to all Guil. Par. de vnivers 1. p. par 3. c. 14. Nascitur aranea cum lege libro lucern◠living creatures and there is not any so little a spider which comming into the world bringeth not its rules its book its light it is presently instructed in all it should do God speaketh interiourly to all creatures in a double language with a powerfull impression a secret commandement he gives a signal into the world and every one doth his office every one laboureth regularly as in a ship and all things Deus ipse universa sinu perfectae magnitudinis potestatis includit intentus sempe operi suo vadens per omnia movens cuncta vivificans universa Tertul. l. de Trin. c. 2. agree to this great harmony of heaven The little Nightingal in the forrests makes an Organ of her throat sometimes breaking her notes into warbles sometime stretching them out at length The Swallow is busie in her masonrie the Bee toileth all the day in her innocent thefts the Spider furnisheth out the long train of her webs and makes more curious works with her feet than the most skilfull women can weave with their hands Fishes play their parts under the water beasts of service labour in their duty small grains of seed though dead and rotten give life to great trees which advance to the clouds There is nothing idle in all nature nothing disobedient but men and divels who employ their liberty to resist him whose power is as just as it is eternal 10 Let us then concluding this discourse adore the divine Providence which holdeth the helm of the universe Let us behold it as a watch-tower furnished with a thousand fires that abundantly enlighten this Ocean whereon we sail Let us behold it as a burning pillar in the wilderness of this life Let us behold it as our pole-star and never loose sight of it It is our support our sweetness our
Heirs of this Royal Line to death to satisfie his ambition and content his tyranny Who dictated to the Prophet Daniel (a) (a) (a) Dan. 9. 26. that after the Edict of King Artaxerxes granted in favour of the re-establishment of the Temple there should be seventy weeks to the birth of Christ that is to say the space of 490. years which was found true by calculation of the best Historians Who made the Prophet Aggeus speak with this thundering majesty Agg. 2. and worthy the lips of the God of Hosts WITHIN A SHORT TIME I WILL MOVE HEAVEN EARTH AND SEA THE DESIRED BY AL NATIONS OF THE WORLD SHAL COME AND I WIL REPLENISH THIS HOUSE WITH GLORY Was it not the same Spirit which afterward wrought those great mysteries we see who then shewed them to his faithfull servants It is he who guided the pen of Isaiah when he proclaimed the Messias should Isaiah 7. be born of a Virgin he who revealed to the Prophet Micah this birth should happen in Bethlehem Micah 5. he who opened the eyes of Zacharie to see him in the Zach. 9. triumph he afterwards made in Jerusalem he who deciphered to David all the particularities of his passion Psal 2. in the second Psalm This great consent of Prophets without design or art astonished the Jews who had the Scriptures in their hands and could reckon up all the versicles of their Bible They well saw it was the uncontroulable voice of Prophets but their vanity had so blinded them that they rather wished to have no Messias than to acknowledge him poor according to the world although his very poverty had been reckoned by the Prophets in the number of his greatnesses 3. Perhaps it will appear to be less strange that the Strange testimony of Gentilism Hebrews who were a chosen people had so many revelations touching the Word of God But who will not be rapt with admiration to consider the words which the wisest the greatest and most glorious of Gentilism left to posterity concerning this mystery I speak not of Trismegistus of Pythagoras of Numenius nor of others whose writings may be called in question I speak of Plato Aristotle Cicero How came that into Plato's mind which he so eloquently afterward couched in the fourth book of his laws to wit (a) (a) (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato l. 4. de legibus That God should be to men the rule and measure of all things and principally if it were so or ought to be so in any part of the world that there were a Man-God From whence think you came it that Aristotle who proceeded so advisedly in all his Maxims let this word fall (b) (b) (b) Non esse Diis immortalibus indecorum hominis induere naturam quo ab erroribus sevocentur mortales Caelius refert l. 17. c. 34. That it was no unbeseeming thing for the Gods immortal to revest themselves with humane nature to destroy the errours which were crept into the world Who suggested to Cicero one of the wisest Politicians that ever was amongst men what he wrote in his Book of a Common-wealth (c) (c) (c) Cicer. l. 3. de Rep. Nec erit alia lex Romae alia Athenis alia nunc alia posthac sed apud omnes gentes omni tempore una lex Deus ille legis hujus inventor disceptator lator c. Jam nova progenies coelo dimittitur alâ—c Te duce siqua manent sceleris vestigia nostri irrita perpetua solvent formidine terras Virgil. That the time would come there should be no other law at Rome than at Athens but that amongst all Nations and in all times there should be one same eternal and immutable law one common Master and Emperour over all which should be God himself the inventour teacher and introducer of this law and that he who obeyed him not should flie from himself as a despiser of his own nature But in this alone that he would not obey he were grievously chastised although he might escape all other punishment It were a thing superfluous to alledge here the verses of the Sybils which it is known were so express that many of the principal of the Gentiles were converted to Christianity by reading the testimonies these divine women rendered of the Word Incarnate We all likewise know God to make this argument the more visible permitted a little before the Nativity of our Saviour that Virgil the most eminent of all Poets composed that his excellent work where he expresseth in Latin verse the conceptions of Sybilla Cumaea and speaketh plainly of a child which should be sent from Heaven to pardon the sins of men and fill the earth with blessings And to shew this was not alone in the minds of particulars we read that towards the reign of Augustus Julius Marathus foretold Nature should bring forth a King for the worlds Empire Which so amazed the Senate according to the relation of Suetonius (d) (d) (d) Sueton. in Aug. 54. the Historian that they forbade to breed up children which should be born within the time this South-sayer had prefixed Doth not Josephus (e) (e) (e) Joseph l. 7. c. 11. de bello Judaico also make mention of the prediction which said Nations come from Judea should become Masters of the universe The Romans understood not this language but applied it some to Augustus others to Vespasian until such time as truth drew aside the curtain and made the accomplishment of these predictions perspicuously appear in the Person of our Saviour Nay not so much as Porphirie yea Mahomet and Porphyrius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 devils but give some Elogie of honour to Jesus Porphirie in the Treatise he made of the blessings of Philosophie saith It is a great matter that devils themselves have spoken in favour of Jesus confessing him to be endowed with singular pietie for which cause he entered into possession of most happie immortalitie And Mahomet Alcoran Azoar 1. 4. 11. 13. That the spirit of God bare record to Christ the Son of Mary that the soul of God was given him that he is the Messenger Spirit and Word of God that his doctrine is perfect and enlighteneth the Old Testament O God of the universe how powerfull is verity to derive testimonies in favour of his Word from the very lips of the most prophane 4. Let us adde also some divine reasons in this brevitie Reasons of seemliness whereunto we have voluntarily confined our selves Who sees not that humane understanding constrained by the consideration of mysteries doth homage also to the Incarnation of the Son of God Where is that darkness which can hinder the bright day of faith What can Infidels say That this mystery is impossible Impossible how Either on Gods part or mans or from the repugnance of humane understanding with such like propositions because by their saying they involve contractions How would it
I say O God how little is the world Is it for this we deceive we swear and make a divorce between God and us But admit we were not interessed in this action must we not rest on the law of God who maketh life and ordaineth death by the juridical power of his wisdom ever to be adored by our wills though little penetrable to understanding Will you I pronounce an excellent saying of Tertullian The world is the Vterus naturae An excellent coÌ„ceit drawn from the words of Tertullian belly of Nature and men are in it as children in the mothers womb the birth of men are the world 's child-bearings death its lying in and deliveries Would you not die to hinder the world from bringing forth and unburdening it self by the way the Sovereign Master hath appointed it We have seen Tyrants of all sorts some invented exquisite torments and tryals others forbade eating and drinking some to weep some caused children to be taken from the teat to strangle them and cut their throats as Pharaoh and Herod But never was there any amongst them who forbade women with child to be delivered The world hath for a long space been big with you and would not you have it to be delivered at the time God's counsels have ordained Were it a handsom thing think you to see an infant presently to have teeth and articulate speech and yet if it might be would stay in the mothers womb using no other reason but that there is warm being Judge now and take the even ballance if the world be the belly of nature if this good mother bare us the time Gods providence appointed if she now seek her deliverie that we may be born in the land of the living in a quite other climate another life another light are not we very simple to withstand it as little infants who crie when they issue out of bloud and ordure at the sight of day-light yet would not return thither from whence they came 4. Behold the Providence of God in that which Providence in the death of the vicious Boet. l. 4. de consol Cum supplicis carent inesâ— illis aliquid alteriuâ— mali ipsâ— impunitâ—s S. Eucher in paraenesi concerneth death in the generality of all men Let us see in this second point the like providence towards the wicked the vicious rich and proud Great-ones who spit against Heaven We must first establish a most undoubted maxim that there is nothing so unhappy as impunity of men abandoned to vice which is the cause the paternal providence of God arresteth them by the means of death dictating unto them an excellent lesson of their equality with other men Mortals circumvolve in life and death as Heaven on the pole artick and antartick from east to west the same day which lengtheneth our life in the morning shorteneth it in the evening and all Ages walk that way not any one being permitted to return back again Our fore-fathers passed on we pass and our posteritie follows us in the like course you may say they are waves of the sea where one wave drives another and in the end all come to break against a rock What a rock is death There are above five thousand years that it never ceaseth to crush the heads of so many mortals and yet we know it not I remember to this purpose a notable tradition of the Hebrews related by Masius upon Josuah to wit Masius in Josuah Notable action of Noah that Noah in the universal deluge which opened the flood-gates of Heaven to shake the columns of the world and bury the earth in waters in stead of gold silver and all sort of treasure carried the bones of Adam into the Ark and distributing them among his sons said Take children behold the most precious inheritance your father can leave you you shall share lands and seas as God shall appoint but suffer not your selves to be intangled in these vanities which are more brittle than glass more light than smoke and much swifter than the winds My children all glideth away here below and there is nothing which eternally subsisteth Time it self which made us devours and consumeth us Learn this lesson from these dumb Doctours the relicks of your grand-father which will serve you for a refuge in your adversities a bridle in your prosperities and a mirrour at all times Moreover I affirm death serves for a perfect lesson of justice to the wicked which they were never willing throughly to understand for it putteth into equality all that which hazard passion and iniquity had so ill divided into so many objects Birth maketh men equal since they receive nought else from their mothers womb but ignorance sin debility and nakedness but after they come out of the hands of the midwife some are put into purple and gold others into rags and russets some enter upon huge patrimonies where they stand in money up to the throat practise almost nothing else throughout their whole life but to get by rapine with one hand and profusely spend with the other Some live basely and miserably necessitous A brave spirit able to govern a large Common-wealth is set to cart by the condition of his poverty Another becomes a servant to a coxcomb who hath not the hundreth part of his capacity It is the great Comedie of the world played in sundry fashions for most secret reasons known to Divine Providence would you have it last to eternity See you not Comedians having played Kings and beggars on the stage return to their own habit unless they day and night desire to persist in the same sport And what disproportion is there if after every one have played his part in the world according to the measure of time prescribed him by Providence he resume his own habit I also adde it is a kind of happiness for the wicked to die quickly because it is unfit to act that long which is very ill done And since they so desperately use life it is expedient not being good it be short that shortness of time may render the malice of it less hurtfull If examples of their like who soon die make them apprehensive of the same way and how seasonably to prepare for death it is a singular blessing for them But if persisting in contempt they be punished it is God's goodness his justice be understood and that it commandeth even in hell 5. But if at this present you reflect on the death of the Just which you should desire I say God's Providence there brightly appeareth in three principal things which are cessation from travels and worldly miseries the sweet tranquility of departure and fruition of crowns and rewards promised First you must imagine what holy Job said That The sweetnes of the death of the just Iob 3. Qui expectant mortem quasi effodientes thesaurum Tert. de pallio Homo pellitus orbi quasi metallo datur this life is to the just as
simplicity to forsake certain pleasures for an uncertain beatitude That the glorie of Paradise is most certain to good men WE live here among the groans of creatures Opinion concerning beatitude every one well understands he is not in his right situation and all the world turns from one side to another like a sick man in a bed and if any one lie still it is rather through the impotencie of motion than the happiness of repose Our soul well knows it is the daughter of a good house that there is another place which expecteth it another life which inviteth it It seeth some glimmers of felicity in the mass of this bodie but hath much ado to follow them so many illusions deceive it upon one side and so many obstacles oppose it on the other The great floud and ebbe of perpetual disturbances Disturbances of life August l. 2. de Trinit c. 12. Amor magis sentitur cum prodit indigentia shew us we are made for some great matter since among so many objects there is none which either fully or long contenteth us We understand our happiness by the continual change of our miseries and our strong appetite by distast of all things Love which according to Plato is the son of indigence never is so ill as with its own mother from whom it learns nothing but its poverty which addeth a sharp spur to direct it to riches When I read S. Gregory Nazianzen in the great Naz. de itineribus vitae The divers wayes of humane life according to S. Gregory That the choice of conditions of life is hazardous work he compiled of sundry courses of life it seems to me I behold a man in the enterance of a labyrinth much distracted who will and will not who desires waxeth drouthy is intranced and become pale yea in the height of his delights It seems to me nature leadeth him through all the corners of her Kingdom and sayes unto him O man what wouldest thou do to become happie Behold I conduct thee through all the parts of my jurisdiction of purpose to afford thee felicitie which thou seekest Wilt thou then marrie fy no saith he for there is too much hazard in the adventure single life it is painfull would you have children they cloy with too much care barreness it hath no support riches they are treacherous to their Master and many have been in danger to loose life for having too much wherewith to live charges and honours they cost overmuch and are indeed dead trees whereinto ostriches flie as well as eagles would you have favour it is a squib which cracks in the air and leaves nothing behind it but burnt paper and smoak but if the Courts of Great-ones afford good fruit there is store many times of evil birds which devour it Thou wouldest then live in subjection saith nature since thou canst not command He replieth he could not obey I will make thee poor saith she to teach thee humilitie you were as good quoth he to put me on the wheel Thou shalt have beautie it is the snare of lust youth it is the bubling of time strength it shall be inferiour to bulls nobility it is too full of libertie eloquence it is too vain skill in pleading it is nought but wrangling Wouldest thou wear a sword by thy side it is to live either an homicide or to become a victime of death retire into some wilderness it is to languish Will you have title it is to become captive traffick it hath too much hazard and pains travel it hath too much toil sail on the sea there are too many storms stay on the land it is repleat with miseries learn some trade all is full of craft and I find none good manure the earth I am not able live idlely that is to rot alive One knoweth not on what side to turn him in the Obtiruntur humilitate depressa nutant celsa fastigio S. Eucherius Miseries of this present life world poor states are overwhelmed under their miseries great totter born down with the weight of their own greatness We find by experience that we here lead a painfull bitter and corruptible life which is fruitfull in miseries knowing in all whereof it should be ignorant and many times impotent but to do ill A life over which elements predominate which heats burn cold congeals humours swell maladies torment the very air and viands wherewith it lives cease not to corrupt A life which loves tyrannize hopes flatter cares devour anxieties oppress joyes make profusely dissolute A life which ignorance blindfolds flesh tempteth the world deceives sin poisoneth the devil beguiles inconstancy turmoileth time takes away and death despoileth Now what spirit is so bruitish and unnatural Necessary consequence which considering upon one side how God accommodateth all creatures even the least flies to the full latitude of that felicitie their nature admitteth and on the other side seeing this great abyss of miseries Bonum omnes conjectant maxime vero principalissimum Aristot politic lib. 1. cap. 1. wherein we role in this life doth not judge that God who in his nature is most wise and benign hath not so given the King of creatures over as prey to injuries and calamities as not to have reserved a life of spirits for him since he is spirit to please him by an intellectual felicitie 2. The Sages of Gentilism have looked this verity Opinion of the wise Summum hominis bonum est perfectio per sua intellectiva in the face by the sole ray of natural light For if we consult with Alpharabius the Arabian he will tell us that the Sovereign felicitie of man consisteth in a perfect dispose of the functions of his soul as well those which concern the understanding as such as depend on the will If we ask of the Philosopher Heraclitus what wiped his eyes so many times drenched in his tears He will tell you that it was the contemplation of a good not imaginable which expected souls in the other life If we desire to understand the apprehensions of Metrodorus we shall learn the soul must ascend until it behold time in its source and the infinity of the first Being If we cover to hear Plato upon it doth not he discourse in his Phedon that the soul recollected within it self mounteth to the Divinity Ascende donec saeculum rerum videas infinitatem Plato in Phaedone Mercur Trismeg Pymander cap. 1. Plotinus Ennead 1. l. 6. Ennead 5. l. 8. whose image it carrieth and that in the fruition thereof it satisfieth all desires It it not likewise the doctrine of Trismegistus in his Pymander Doth not he teach us the soul after death of the bodie returns to its nature as a troubled water which purifieth when it is setled And doth not Plotinus triumph on this subject in publishing that blessed souls at their passage out of bodies go to the first beautie which hath power to make
leave us nothing but that which we have given for God The seventh SECTION The way to become perfect TO this end you must keep a perpetual watch over your actions and be like a Seraphim beset all over with eyes and lights as Bassarion said you shall perceive your progression in virtue when you begin purged from greater sins to be fearfull of the least when you feel your self loosed from ardent desires of interest and honour when your tongue is restrained from slander and vanity when your heart is more purified in its affections and that you draw near to indifferency The means to make your self thus perfect is first to be enflamed with a fervent desire of perfection secondly not to neglect the extirpation even of the slightest imperfections thirdly to have a good directour who may be to you as the Angel Raphael was to young Tobias and withal to confer very often with spiritual men and to be warned by their good example fourthly to make as it were a nose-gay of flowers out of the lives of Saints to take from it odour and imitation fifthly to become constant in good purposes and to offer them up to God as by the hands of our Saviour Jesus Christ The eighth SECTION How we must govern our selves against temptations tribulations and Obstacles occurring in the way of virtue FInally seeing in the practise of virtue we must ever be ready armed to overthrow the power of our adversary and to further our own affairs of salvation call to mind these twelve maxims which I propose against such obstacles as may happen The way to resist temptation is not to frame your self to a spiritual insensibility unmoved with any thing that is hard to attain so sensible is self-love and to have it were to be stone not man it is not to expel one temptation by another and to do one evil to be delivered from another for to take that course were to wash your self in ink It is not to hide your self upon all occasions and never to do good for fear of fighting with evil but to resist stoutly as I shall shew you The great Scholar Joannes Picus Mirandula hath collected twelve remarkble Maxims the practise whereof is exceeding profitable when we address our selves to spiritual combat against weakness The first Maxim That you must be tempted on what side soever it happen In hoc positi sumus It is our profession our trade and continual exercise The eagle complaineth not of her wings neither the Nightingale of her voice nor the Peacock of his train because these are natural to them and it is as natural to a man to be tempted as to a bird to flie to sing to prune her feathers If you desert the course of spiritual life through fear of being tempted and turn about to worldly delights assure your self you will be much more engaged and which is worse without comfort honour or recompence you forsake a cross of paper which if you knew well how to carrie would be no heavier burthen than feathers to a bird you forsake it I say to take up another which is hard toilsome and bloudy and will make you of one confraternity with the bad thief Sidonius Apollinaris relateth how a certain man named Maximus arriving by unlawfull and indirect means at the top of honour was the very first day much wearied and fetching a deep sigh said thus Foelicem te Damocle qui non longiùs uno prandio regni necessitatem tolerasti O Damocles how happy do I esteem thee for having been a King but the space of a dinner I have been one a whole day and can hear it no longer The second Remember that in the affairs of the world we fight longest we work hardest and reap least the end of one labour is the beginning of another in pains taking the onely hope is ever to take pains and temporal labour doth many times pull after it eternal punishment The third Is it not direct folly to believe there is a Paradise an eternal life and a Jesus Christ who of the Cross made a ladder to get up to his throne of glory and yet to desire to live here with folded arms to see the master open the way to heaven through so many thorns and the servant unwilling to tread on any thing but flowers to see a fresh and tender limb to a head worn away with sufferings like a brazen Colossus with feet of flax The fourth Were there no other fruit in tribulation but conformity with Jesus Christ who is the Sovereign wisdom yet were it a high recompence A famous captain said to a souldier dying with him hadst thou been obscure all thy life yet art thou not a little honoured to day in dying with thy master and who would not glory to have the Son of God for his leader his companion his spectatour his theatre his reward in all afflictions and Tribulations who would not account it a great honour to be crucified daily with him to stretch his hands and arms upon the Cross by restraining them from violence rapine and ruin whereunto we are carried away by the spirit of lying to fetter his feet by hindering them from running after the unbridled desires of his heart to embitter his tongue by overcoming the pleasures of the taste to annihilate himself by despising honour after his example who when he might have walked upon the wings of the Cherubims would rather creep amongst us like a little worm of the earth what a glorie were it to say with S. Paul I hear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus Gal. 6. 17. The fifth Not to put any trust in humane means when you undertake to subdue a temptation It is not a thing depending wholly upon us God must go before and we contribute our will for if he watch not over us to much purpose is it for us to keep centinel None is so weak as he that thinks himself strong Multa in homine bona fiunt quae non facit homo Nulla verò facit homo bona quae non Deus praestet ut faciat homo saith the councel of Orange Many good things are done in man which man doth not But man doth not any good which God doth not He that thinks to resist temptations without his aid is like one that would go to the wars and stumbles at his own threshold And therefore an effectual means in this combat is to insist much on prayer especially at the first assault of a temptation The sixth When you have overcome a temptation take heed of unbending and softening your courage as if you had no more enemies to encounter As distrust is the mother of safety so security is the gate of danger If the enemy goeth up and down continually like a roaring Lion be you on the other side a watchfull Lion in the centinels of the Lord of hoasts and take for your word super speculam Domini ego sto I stand upon the watch-tower
Fear and Anger 3. That there are two ways to overcome all passions the first is a precaution of mind against the occasions and vain appearances of all worldly things The second a serious diversion to better things as prayer study labour and business But above all you must pray to God for the light and strength of his holy grace which infinitely transcends all humane remedies Against Gluttony 1. REpresent unto your self the miserable state of a soul polluted and plunged in the flesh 2. The hardness of heart 3. The dulness of understanding 4. The infirmities of body 5. The loss of goods 6. The disparagement of Reputation 7. The horrour of the members of Jesus Christ to make members of an unclean creature 8. The indignity to worship and serve the belly as a bruitish and vile God 9. The great inundation of sins flowing from this spring 10. The punishments of God upon the voluptuous Against sloth 1. The ceaseless travell of all creatures in the world naturall and civil 2. The easiness of good works after grace given by Jesus Christ 3. The anxiety of a wavering and uncertain mind 4. The shame and contempt 5. The confusion at the day of judgement 6. The irreparable loss of time Against Covetousness 1. The disquiet of a greedy mind 2. The insatiability of desire 3. The many wars and battels which we must run through to satisfie one single desire 4. The dishonour of denial insupportable to a generous soul 5. The dependance and servitude we must undergo to comply with those from whom we expect the accomplishment of our wishes 6. The easiness of offending God through excessive greediness of temporall things 7. The transitory and fleeting pleasure of those things which we most ardently desire 8. That God many times allows us the fulfilling of our desires as a punishment for our faults Against carnall love 1. To consider the barrenness of worldly loves which are true gardens of Adonis where 〈◊〉 can gather nothing but triviall flowers surrounded with many bryars 2. To set a value on things and not to be deceived with shows 3. To guard your senses to shun accidents and occasions of sinning and above all to have a particular recourse to God upon the first impression of thoughts 4. To pull your self away by main force from presented objects and to direct your self by serious designs and good employments 5. To set often before you the imperfection the ingratitude the levity the inconstancy the perfidiousness of those creatures we most servilely affect Against Sadness THere is a holy sadness as when we are moved at our Saviours Passion or for our own sins which is the gift of God not a punishment There is one furious which hath no ears and is rather cured by miracle than precept There is another natural arising from our disposition and another vicious which is nourished by ill habits and neglect of our own salvation 1. Against this last we must consider That our desires and love cause for the most part our sadness and that the true way to diminish the cares that consume us is to sweeten the sharp and ardent Affection we bear to worldly things 2. The little esteem we have of God is the cause that we are often troubled at frivolous things whether they threaten or happen He that would truly love this great God which deserveth to possess all love of heaven and earth should not entertain fear or sadness for any thing but for the loss of God no man can loose him but he that purposely forsakes him 3. There is nothing beyond remedy but the tears of the damned A man who may persist in the way to paradise should not place himself in the condition of a little hell and he who can hope for that great All ought not to be sad for any thing Against Envy 1. THe way not to envy any thing is to account nothing in this life great 2. To covet onely the inheritance of the land of the living which is never lessened by the multitude or shares of the possessours 3. To consider seriously the motives which induce us to love our neighbour as participation of the same nature THE THIRD PART OF THE CHRISTIAN DIARY The first SECTION BUSINESSE Of what importance THe third employment of the day is business whether Publick or Private the government of your Family or discharge of some Office Good devotion is a good employment and nothing is more to be avoided than idleness which is the very source of sin He that labours said the old Hermite is tempted but by one devil he that is idle is assaulted by all No man is too Noble to have an occupation If iron had reason it would choose rather to be used in labour than to grow rusty in a corner The second SECTION Two Heads to which all Business is reduced IN Business we must consider the Substance and the Form The Substance for it is great wisdom to make good choice herein to take in hand good employments and to leave the bad the dangerous and burthensom which do nothing but stop up the mind and choke all feeling of devotion especially when there is no obligation to undertake them They are truly sick even in health who interpose out of curiosity to know to do and solicite the business of others It is sufficient said the Emperour Antonius that every one in this life do that well which belongs to his calling The Sun doth not the office of the rain nor the rain that of the Sun Is it not absolute madness of some in the world whose onely employment is to attempt all things but perform none As for the Form in the exercise of charge offices and business there is required knowledge conscience industry and diligence Knowledge 1. In learning that which is requisite to be known for the discharge of your duty 2. In informing your self of that which of your self you cannot apprehend 3. In hearkening very willingly to advise examining and weighing it with prudence and governing your self altogether by counsel Conscience in performing every thing with good intention and great integrity according to the Divine and Humane laws Industry in doing all discreetly and peaceably with more fruit than noise so that we express no anxiety in business like that Prince of whom it was said That he seemed always vacant in his most serious employments Diligence in spying out occasions and doing every thing in due time and place without disorder confusion passion haste irresolution precipitation For these are the faults which commonly destroy good government He that hath never so little wit good inclination shall ever find wherein to busie himself especially in works of mercy amongst so many objects of the miseries of his neighbour The third SECTION Of the government of a Family THat man hath no little business who hath a Family to govern a good Father who breedeth his Children well that they may one day serve the Common-wealth is employed
in an important affair for the publick A Mother who bringeth up a little Samuel for the service of the tabernacle as S. Monica did her son Augustine obliged all posterity A Master Mistress who keep their servants in good order please both God and men Four things very considerable are here required Choise Discretion Example Entertainment Choise in considering the Quantity Quality Capacity Faithfulness of those you take into your service For the Quantity it is evident that it ought to be proportionable to your estate and revenues It is a great folly to make ostentation of many servants merely through vanity As Herod the sophist did according to the relation of Philostratus who allowed his son four and twenty pages every one of them bearing the name of some letter in the Alphabet for so blockish was the child that he could not any way else learn the first rudiments Stars which have least circuit are nearest the Pole and men who are least perplexed with business are commonly nearest to God A great retinue is a mark of a great want Were there such a beast as the Hebrew fables have feigned that must have the grass of a thousand mountains for his daily allowance would you account him happier than a Nightingale which is satisfied with a few seeds or a Bee which liveth on dew The rich need many pounds the poor a little bread both are indigent but the one not so much as the other for his want is the lesser A great number of servants make not a man happy for none is a greater Master or better obeyed than he that serves himself For Quality take heed of resembling witches who care not to give the devil wages so they may make use of his service for their own ends you must either take good servants or make them such In the one there is good luck in the other for the most part difficulty For many are like the ass of Vincent Ferrerius that did more for a Carter who swore by the devil than for his Master who led him in the name of God which the holy man seeing turned him off not able to endure such bruitishnesh in a beast and can you think that for the necessities of your business it may be lawfull for you to maintain one who hath neither God nor conscience that your children may at the very first be corrupted by his poisonous conversation For Capacity it is necessary that besides honesty there must be an ability to discharge his office and though we say the saints are good at all things yet God doth not ever give them either desire or means to undergo all kinds of business Our abilities are limited as well as our minds and every one hath his particular talent which must be known by those that will make use of him For Faithfulness it is one of the qualities which the Gospel gives a good servant you have reason to require it and discreetly to make trial of it not by suspicions jealousies which onely serve to provoke such as have a disposition to do well A man is oftentimes made faithfull by being thought faithfull and many through continual fear to be cozened have taught others to cozen justifying their deceit by their own distrust as the Romane Philosopher saith you must allow your officers what command and freedom their charges require not quarreling with them every minute for trifles notwithstanding you must carefully reserve the state of your affairs for your own private knowledge For it is an equal fault indifferently to trust all or to distrust all The fourth SECTION Of Government in spiritual things WHen you have met with a good choice the government is not hard For S. Augustine saith nothing is so easie as to perswade those to good who have a great desire to put it in practice Govern your family proportionably as the good Eleazar did his which Binet hath so lively designed First banish vice scandal from your house let wanton love and impurity never come near it no more than the serpent to the flower of the vine Let not surfetting drunkenness or excess know so much as the gate let neither unclean speech nor blasphemy be heard in it For as Nebuchadnezzar made the pages that attend on him learn his language so the devil teacheth those of his acquaintance his Dialect Having exiled vice accustom your Family to some devotion causing them to hear diligently the word of God especially on Sundays and Holydays inviting them to frequent the Sacrament according to their condition assembling them as Charles Boromeus did at evening or some time of the day to say certain prayers together if convenience of place permit and to see how they are instructed in the Articles of Faith Your example will do more than all your words For the life of a Good Master and Mistress is a perpetual monitour in a house Those that seek to gain their good opinion study to be like them and in endeavouring to be beloved become good We live in an age where we have more need of patterns than precepts servants adhere to the pillars of a house as Ivie to great trees in a word to the commands of great-ones all affections are of wax they become so pliable It is fitting likewise that to preserve this opinion you be liberal according to your means in ordering your Family honourable in such expences as are requisite both for necessity and decorum For we make use of nets to take fishes and of liberality as a golden hook to take men Remember besides in mannaging your business more peculiarly to invoke Gods assistance saying often unto him these words of Solomon Wisd 9. O God give me wisdom that sitteth by thy Throne O send her out of thy holy Heavens and from the Throne of thy glorie that being present she may labour with me that I may know what is pleasing unto thee to put it in execution Take heed of indiscreet precipitation in the beginning of an enterprize of anxiety in the progression and of despair in the conclusion If your project have good issue give the praise to God and an example of modesty to your neighbour but if business keep not time to your will learn you to keep time to the Divine providence which maketh all harmony in the world you have power over your own designs but not over their events you are not to pray that things may prove as you desire but to desire them as they prove Accustom your self not to be grieved at worldly accidents no more than for an ill dream For all things here below pass away like a dream and we do much if in losing all we retain that belief But by long soothing our own wils we have forsaken as Cassian saith the very shadow of patience The fifth SECTION Advice for such as are in office and government BOnaventure hath made an excellent Treatise which he calleth The wings of the Seraphin wherein he giveth very wise
of my Father that is in Heaven be is my brother and sister and mother Moralities 1. IT is a very ill sign when we desire signs to make us believe in God The signs which we demand to fortifie our faith are oft-times marks of our infidelity There is not a more dangerous plague in the events of worldly affairs than to deal with the devil or to cast nativities All these things fill men with more faults than knowledge For divine Oracles have more need to be reverenced than interpreted He that will find God must seek him with simplicity and profess him with piety 2. Some require a sign and yet between Heaven and earth all is full of signs How many creatures soever they are they are all steps and characters of the Divinity What a happy thing it is to study what God is by the volume of time and by that great Book of the world There is not so small a flower of the meadows nor so little a creature upon earth which doth not tell us some news of him He speaks in our ears by all creatures which are so many Organ-pipes to convey his Spirit and voice to us But he hath no sign so great as the Word Incarnate which carries all the types of his glory and power About him onely should be all our curiosity our knowledge our admiration and our love because in him we can be sure to find all our repose and consolation 3. Are we not very miserable since we know not our own good but by the loss of it which makes us esteem so little of those things we have in our hands The Ninivites did hear old Jonas the Prophet The Queen of Sheba came from far to hear the wisdom of Solomon Jesus speaks to us usually from the Pulpits from the Altars in our conversations in our affairs and recreations And yet we do not sufficiently esteem his words nor inspirations A surfeited spirit mislikes honey and is distasted with Manna raving after the rotten pots of Aegypt But it is the last and worst of all ills to despise our own good Too much confidence is mother of an approching danger A man must keep himself from relapses which are worse than sins which are the greatest evils of the world he that loves danger shall perish in it The first sin brings with it one devil but the second brings seven There are some who vomit up rheir sins as the Sea doth cockles to swallow them again Their life is nothing but an ebbing and flowing of sins and their most innocent retreats are a disposition to iniquity For as boiled water doth soonest freeze because the cold works upon it with the greater force so those little fervours of Devotion which an unfaithfull soul feels in confessions and receiving if it be not resolute quite to forsake wickedness serve for nothing else but to provoke the wicked spirit to make a new impression upon her It is then we have most reason to fear Gods justice when we despise his mercie We become nearest of kin to him when his Ordinances are followed by our manners and our life by his precepts Aspirations O Word Incarnate the great sign of thy heavenly Father who carriest all the marks of his glory and all the characters of his powers It is thou alone whom I seek whom I esteem and honour All that I see all I understand all that I feel is nothing to me if it do not carry thy name and take colour from thy beauties nor be animated by thy Spirit Thy conversation hath no trouble and thy presence no distast O let me never lose by my negligence what I possess by thy bounty Keep me from relapses keep me from the second gulf and second hell of sin He is too blind that profits nothing by experience of his own wickedness and by a full knowledge of thy bounties The Gospel for Thursday the first week in Lent out of S. Matth 15. Of the Woman of Canaan ANd Jesus went forth from thence and retired into the quarters of Tyre and Sidon And behold a woman of Canaan came forth out of these coasts and crying out said to him Have mercy upon me O Lord the Son of David my daughter is sore vexed of a devil who answered her not a word And his Disciples came and besought him saying Dismiss her because she crieth out after us And he answering said I was not sent but to the sheep that are lost of the house of Israel But she came and adored him saying Lord help me who answering said It is not good to take the bread of children and to cast it to the dogs but she said Yea Lord for the dogs also eat of the crums that fall from the tables of their masters Then Jesus answering said to her O woman great is thy faith be it done to thee as thou wilt and her daughter was made whole from that hour Moralities 1. OUr Saviour Jesus Christ after his great and wondrous descent from heaven to earth from being infinite to be finite from being God to be man used many several means for salvation of the world And behold entering upon the frontiers of Tyre and Sidon he was pleased to conceal himself But it is very hard to avoid the curiosity of a woman who seeking his presence was thereby certain to find the full point of her felicity A very small beam of illumination reflecting upon her carried her out of her Countrey and a little spark of light brought her to find out the clear streams of truth We must not be tired with seeking God and when we have found him his presence should not diminish but encrease our desire to keep him still We are to make enterance into our happiness by taking fast hold of the first means offered for our salvation and we must not refuse or lose a good fortune which knocks at our door 2. Great is the power of a woman when she applies her self to virtue behold at one instant how one of that sex assails God and the devil prevailing with the one by submission and conquering the other by command And he which gave the wild Sea arms to contain all the world finds his own arms tied by the chains of a prayer which himself did inspire She draws unto her by a pious violence the God of all strength such was the fervency of her prayer such the wisdom of her answers and such the faith of her words As he passed away without speaking she hath the boldness to call him to her whiles he is silent she prays when he excuseth himself she adores him when he refuseth her suit she draws him to her To be short she is stronger than the Patriarch Jacob for when he did wrestle with the Angel he returned lame from the conflict but this woman after she had been so powerfull with God returns strait to her house there to see her victories and possess her conquests 3. Mark with what weapons she overcame the
silver whereof I shall never have use and still be vexed with care how to preserve it O most mercifull Lord suffer me not to be taught by hell fire that which I may have neglected to learn out of thy Gospel I most heartily renounce all luxury and pomp of the world and this carnal life which would always busie it self about my body If thou be pleased to make me rich I will be so for the poor and if thou make me poor I will make my self rich in thee who art the true riches of all thine elect The Gospel upon Friday the second week in Lent S. Matth. 21. Of the Master of a Vineyard whose son was killed by his Farmers ANother Parable hear ye A man there was an housholder who planted a Vineyard and made a hedge round about it and digged in it a press and builded a tower and let it out to husbandmen and went forth into a strange Countrey And when the time of fruits drew nigh he sent his servants to the husbandmen to receive the fruits thereof And the husbandmen apprehending his servants one they beat another they killed and another they stoned Again he sent other servants more than the former and they did to them likewise And last of all he sent to them his Son saying They will reverence my Son But the husbandmen seeing the Son said within themselves This is the heir come let us kill him and we shall have his inheritance And apprehending him they cast him forth out of the Vineyard and killed him When therefore the Lord of the Vineyard shall come what will be do to those husbandmen They say to him The naughty men he will bring to nought and his Vineyard be will let out to other husbandmen that shall render him the fruit of their seasons Jesus saith to them Have you never read in the Scriptures The stone which the builders rejected the same is made into the head of the corner By our Lord was this done and it is marvellous in our eyes Therefore I say to you That the Kingdom of God shall be taken away from you and shall be given to a Nation yielding the fruits thereof And he that falleth upon this stone shall be broken and on whom it falleth it shall all to bruise him And when the chief Priests and Pharisees had heard his Parables they knew that he spake of them And seeking to lay hands upon him they feared the multitudes because they held him as a Prophet Moralities WE have reason to fear all that is in us yea even the gifts of God All his favours are so many chains If they bind us not to do our duty they will bind us to the punishment due for that neglect Our soul is given us by God as a thing borrowed from Heaven we must not be too prodigal of it We must dig up ill roots as we do in land cultivated The time will come that we must render up the fruits and shall we then present thorns Examine every day how you profit and what you do draw every day a line but draw it toward eternity What can you hide from God who knows all What can you repay to God who gives all and how can you requite Jesus who hath given himself 2. How many messengers doth God send to our hearts without intermission and how many inspiratiosn which we reject So many Sermons which we do not observe and so many examples which we neglect Jesus comes in person by the Sacrament of the Altar and we drive him from us to crucifie him when we place the Devil and Mortal sin in his room What other thing can we expect for reward of all these violences but a most fearfull destruction if ye do not prevent the sword of justice by walking in the paths of Mercy Our vanities which at first are like small threeds by the contempt of Gods grace come to be great cables of sin He that defers his repentance is in danger to lose it and will be kept out of the Ark with the croaking Raven since he hath neglected the mourning of the sorrowfull Dove 3. It is a most horrible thing to see a soul left to it self after it hath so many times forsaken the inspirations of God It becomes a desolate vineyard without inclosure The wild Boar enters into it and all unclean and ravenous creatures do there sport and leap without controle God hangs clouds over it but will let no drop of water fall upon it The Sun never looks upon it with a loving eye all there is barren venemous and near to hell Therefore above all things we must fear to be forsaken of God Mercy provoked changes it self into severe Justice All creatures will serve as Gods instruments to punish a fugitive soul which flies from him by her ingratitude when he draws her to him by the sweetness of his benefits Aspiration ALas O great Father of the worlds family I am confounded to see thy vineyard so ill ordered made so barren and spoiled My passions domineer like wild beasts and devours the fruits due to thy bounty I am heartily sorry I have so little esteemed thy graces and to have preferred all that which makes me contemptible before thee I do this day renounce all the abuses of my soul I will grow and prosper under thy blessings I will flourish under thy aspect and fructifie under thy protection Command onely thy graces and sweet dews of Heaven which are as paps of thy favours to rain upon me and water this rotten trunk of my heart Speak to that eye of love that beautifull eye of Jesus that it will shine upon me but once with that ray which doth make souls happy for ever The Gospel upon Saturday the second week in Lent S. Luke 15. Of the prodigal Child ANd he said A certain man had two sons and the younger of them said to his father Father give me the portion of substance that belongeth to me and he divided unto them the substance And not many days after the youngest son gathering all his things together went from home into a far Countrey and there he wasted his substance living riotously And after he had spent all there fell a sore famine in that Countrey and he began to be in need and he went and cleaved to one of the Citizens of that Countrey and he sent him into his Farm to feed swine And he would fain have filled his belly of the husks that the swine did eat and no body gave unto him And returning to himself he said How many of my fathers hirelings have abundance of bread and I here perish for famine I will arise and will go to my father and say unto him Father I have sinned against Heaven and before thee I am not now worthy to be called thy son make me as one of thy hirelings And rising up he came to his father and when he was yet far off his father saw him and was moved with mercy and
and to execute all the decrees of his divine Providence as our chiefest helps to obtain perfection Aspirations OBeauteous garden of Olives which from henceforth shalt be the most delicious object of my heart I will lose my self in thy walks I will be lost with God that I may never be lost I will breathe onely thy air since it is made noble by the sighs of my dear Master I will gather thy flowers since Jesus hath marked them with his bloud I will wash my self in those fountains since they are sanctified by the sweat of my Jesus I will have no other joy but the sorrow of the Son of God nor any other will but his O my sweet Saviour Master and teacher of all humane kind wilt thou be abridged of thine own will which was so reasonable and pure to give me an example of mortifying my passions and shall I before thy face retain any wicked or disordinate appetites Is it possible I should desire to be Lord of my self who am so bad a Master when I see the Authour of all goodness separate himself from himself onely to make me and all mankind partakers of his merits Of the apprehension of JESUS IN that obscure and dolorous night wherein our Saviour was apprehended three sorts of darkness were cast upon the Jews upon Judas and upon Saint Peter A darkness of obduration upon the hearts of the Jews a darkness of ingratefull malignity upon Judas and a darkness of infirmity upon Saint Peter Was there ever any blindness like that of the Jews who sought for the shining Sun with lighted torches without knowing him by so many beams of power which shined from him They are strucken down with the voice of the Son of God as with lightening and they rise again upon the earth to arm themselves against Heaven They bind his hands to take away the use of his forces but they could not stop the course of his bounties To shew that he is totally good he is good and charitable even amongst his merciless executioners and he lost all he had saving his Godhead onely to gain patience When S. Peter stroke the high Priests servant the patience of our Lord Jesus received the blow and had no patience till he was healed If goodness did shew forth any one beam in the garden modesty sent forth another in the house of Anuas when his face was strucken by a servile hand his mouth opened it self as a Temple from whence nothing came but sweetness and light The God of Truth speaketh to Caiaphas and they spit upon his brightness and cover that face which must discover Heaven for us The mirrour of Angels is tarnisht with the spittle of infernal mouthes and wounded by most sacrilegious hands without any disturbance of his constancy That was invincible by his virtue as the willfulness of the Jews stood immoveable by their obduration There are souls which after they have filled the earth with crimes expect no cure of their diseases but by the hell of the reprobate 2. The second darkness appeareth by the black passion of Judas who falls down into hell with his eyes open and after he had sold his soul sold Jesus and both all he had and all he was to buy an infamous halter to hang himself A soul become passionate with wanton love with ambition or avarice is banished into it self as into a direct hell and delivered to her own passions as to the Furies The Poet Hydra had but seven heads but the spirit of Avarice S. Iohn Climacus saith hath ten thousand The conversation of Jesus which was so full of infinite attractions could never win the spirit of Iudas when it was once bewitched with covetousness The tinkling of silver kept him from rightly understanding Iesus He makes use of the most holy things to betray Holiness it self He employes the kiss of peace to begin war He carries poison in his heart and honey in his mouth he puts on the spirit of Iesus to betray him This shews us plainly that covetous and traiterous persons are farthest from God and nearest to the devils 3. The third power of darkness appeared in the infirmity of S. Peter who after so many protestations of fidelity for fear of death renounced the Authour of life One of the Ancients said The greatest frailty of Humanity was that the wisest men were not infallibly wise at all times And all men are astonished to see that the greatest spirits being left to themselves become barren and suffer eclipses which give examples to the wisest and terrour to all the world God hath suffered the fall of S. Peter to make us have in horrour all presumption of our own forces and to teach us that over-great assurance is oftentimes mother of an approching danger Besides it seemeth he would by this example consecrate the virtue of repentance in this fault of him whom he chose to be head of his Church to make us see that there is no dignity so high nor holiness so eminent which doth not ow Tribute to the mercy of God Aspirations Upon S. Peters tears IT is most true saith S. Peter that a proud felicity hath alwayes reeling feet Thou which didst defie the gates of hell hast yielded thy self to the voice of a simple woman All those conquests which thou didst promise to thy self are become the tropheys of so weak a hand Return to the combat and since she hath triumphed over thee do thou at least triumph over thy self Alas I am afraid even to behold the place of my fall and the weak snares of a simple woman appear to me as boisterous chains Yet what can he fear who is resolute to die If thou find death amongst these massacres thou shouldst rather embrace than decline it For what can it do but make thee companion of life it self Our soul is yet too foul to be a sacrifice for God let us first wash it with tears I fell down before the fire and I will rise by water I have walked upon the sea to come to Jesus and I will now return to him by the way of my tears I will speak now onely by my tears since I have lately talked so wickedly with my mouth Since that which should open to speak Oracles for the Church hath been employed to commit foul treason since we have nothing left free to us but sighs and groans let us make use of the last liberty which is left us and when all is spent return to the mercy of Jesus which all the sins of the world can never evacuate I will from henceforth be a perpetual example to the Church by my fall and rising again from death for the comfort of sinners and the fault of one night shall be lamented by me alll the days of my life Moralities upon the Pretorian or Judgement-Hall 1. IN the passion of our Saviour all things are divine and it seemeth they go as high as they could be raised by that Sovereign power joyned with
anxious wayward and irksome to our selves The onely means to amend and correct your self is to represent the hurt this passion bringeth by depriving you of wisdome of justice civility concord virtue and of the splendour of the spirit of God The way to lessen the opinion you have of being despised is not lightly to believe tale-tellers and to find reasons to excuse him who hath erred not to be curious to know that which may displease you to fortifie your self in that side you find to be most feeble in you avoiding objects which most ordinarily provoke you to live with peaceable people to shun cares and troublesome affairs to afford your self convenient solaces to extirpate petty Curiosities and false opinions which you have of your sufficiency in such sort that you imagine within your self that you ought to be used with great respect and that you should not suffer any disgrace either by word or deed but that men and elements must contribute to your likings Behold from whence your feaver proceedeth and how you may handsomely remedy it O soul infinitely nice It seems you were bred in a box in perfumed Cotton and that you must endure nothing Broth overmuch salted a garment too straight a mustachio ill turned up the creaking of a door the wind of a window the least indiscretion of a servant puts you out of your self What do you take your self to be You believe those flatterers who say Do you suffer this you measure not your self by your quality And yet Kings and Queens and the Monarchs of the earth have endured and daily do endure many slight oppositions with great tranquillity and you silly worm of the earth turn against God when he permitteth any thing to happen contrary to your liking Frame unto your self a life simple and free from affectations take away your wantonnesse your pleasures and petty peevishnesse Choler is engendred by overmuch curiosities Seneca de Ira. Ira voluptatibuâ— generatur volu ptatum suppressionâ— sopitur Seneca de Ira l. 2. c. 14. Ira perturbat artes Agrippinus Epictetus Stobâ—us of spirit stifle them and you immediately extinguish it Know that to quarrell with an equall is hazardous with an inferiour is contemptuous and with a superiour it is foolish Set before you the Maxime of Pirrhus that great Master of Fence who said this passion was a Trouble-Trade and that whilst you continue the same humour you shall be unable for all good employments Do as the brave Philosopher Agrippinus of whom Epictetus makes mention who perceiving that when any misfortune befell him he thereby became hasty and chollerick What is this saith he I play the slave where I should play the Monarch O misfortunes I will deceive you Thereupon he wrote the praises of every evil which might happen against his will If a calumny the praise of the profit calumny brought If an Exile the praise of exile If a quartane Ague the praise of the Quartane Ague And by this means he came to such a height of Tranquillity that so soon as a fresh mischief assailed him he met it with a smiling countenance and said God be praised behold the way of my exercise And you who are a child of light fed with the body and bloud of your master for Heaven and the company of Angels you cannot say when some little inconvenience befalleth you praised be Jesus behold here how the good purpose I have made of patience is exercised And then if you feel any rebellion Take heed you shew it not either by words or outward signs but get you and lodge at the signe of silence where the haven of Tranquility is Do as those that are ill of the falling sicknesse who retire at the approch of their fits that they may not let any things uncomely appear Renedictus Dominus Deus meus qui docet manus meas ad praelium digitos meos ad bellum Psal 143. Benedictus Dominus rupes mea Stabilisque manens dâ—t cuncta moveri say Blessed be our Lord God who teacheth my hands to fight and frameth my fingers to warre The Hebrew hath it Blessed be our Lord who is my rock To shew you that God if you endeavour to vanquish your passions will place you upon the holy rock of Tranquility from whence he in his immutability beholdeth the motion of all ages Take a good friend a faithfull companion who may divert your passion in its first fit who may admonish you and play on Davids harp to drive away this devil of mad Saul and take you from the occasions of hurt The second remedy for such as long chew on their choler and entertain aversions irreconcileable is that It The second remedy Cogitemus nequaquam licere nobis orare nec iratas fundere preces ad Deum quotidie crèdamus nos è corpore migraturos nihilque nobis continentiâ castitatis nihil abre nuntiatione facultatum nihil divitiarum contemptu nihil jejuniorum vigiliarum laboribus conserendum quibus propter iracundiam solam odium ab universitatis judice supplicia promittuntur aeterna Cassian l. 8. c. 21. de Institutis Renunt Vade priuÌ„s reconciliare â—â—atri tuo tunc veniens offeres munus tusi Matth. 5. 24 were good to ponder and consider the words of Cassian Let us perswade our selves that whilst we are angry It is not permitted us to pray unto God and to present him our prayers Let us take each day to be our last and let us not think that for being chast and continent for having forsaken the pleasures of the world and despised riches for macerating our bodies with fastings watchings and labours much is due to us if at the end of the reckoning it be found we carry hatred and anger in our hearts That alone is sufficient to condemn us to eternall punishments by the sentence of him who shall judge the whole world Take not this as my saying but take it as an oracle which that great man hath collected from many holy men of his age When you keep in your heart some hatred against your neighour you do a notable wrong to your soul For first what have we more sweet more mercifull then altars There we should seek for mercy if God had banished it from all parts of the world and yet whilst you deferre reconciliation with your enemy you deprive your self of the right of altars and if you still have some spark of Christianity as often as you approch to them you hear the voice of the son of God who speaketh to you in the bottome of your heart and saith these words of the Gospel Go first of all and reconcile your self to your brother and then you shall come to offer your sacrifice of the altar By despising these words of our Saviour and going on you commit a new sacriledge by recoyling back and avoiding the altar and sacrifice you fly from pardon and life And then in what a state are you
takes her Abbesse who is dragged by the hair used with all hideous extremities and confined to a prison She caused all the religious women to come who had opposed her she torments them with sundry tortures layes hold of the charters seizeth on all the papers maketh her self Abbesse and bearing a barbarous soul in the heart of a woman exerciseth rigours and cruelties which struck horrour into all the world The Bishops had no other defence but the Thunders of Excommunication of which these creatures abandoned by God made very little account Macon Governour of Poictiers was entreated to use a strong hand but he excused himself saying he would not contend with the daughter of a King without commission But it was not fit matters should so continue and honest men unable any longer to see the Church groan under an unheard of Tyranny implore by most humble supplications the aid of three Kings Clotharius Gontran and Childebert who being sensibly touched with these disorders gave large Commissions power and commandment to Governours to assist the Bishops of Tours Colen and Poictiers who were appointed to determine this difference Order is at this time well observed Justice is there supported by force the gallants who had adhered to the faction of the nunnes scatter under the terrour of arms and Royall authority This Empresse of Rebels is taken and carried to the Councell to give an account of her deportments She comes thither in an audacious manner retaining still something of her arrogancy and insupportable haughtinesse even in her depression and after she had employed arms she skirmisheth what she could with her tongue which was by falling on the life and manners of her Abbesse whom she accused of many trifling things reproching her among other points to have made a garment for her niece of a Cope taken out of the Treasury of the Church which was false to have caused secular persons to eat at her Table to have a bath in the Monastery and to play at Chesse For this required to have her deposed that she might be put into her place wherein it plainly appeareth that ambition is not onely furious but blind in its fury She who swallowed Camells maketh an anatomy of a fly she who was defiled with the crimes of Tyrants reprehendeth slight recreations which had been permitted under the government of S. Radegonde The Abbesse replied very modestly to all her objections and made her innocency appear as bright as the rayes of the sunne whereupon she was reestablished with honour and applause in her dignity and the other condemned to ask her pardon and to submit to her commands To which she stoutly answered she would never do it and that they should rather advise upon the means of putting the Abbesse to death then to use her in such sort But she persisting in this obduratenesse is again deprived of the communion of the Church separated from all her complices who are placed in diverse Monasteries there to do penance yet she still finding her self to be supported by some by reason of her noble extraction on a time stole her self from the just punishment of evil carriage and fled with her Cousin to Childeberts Court where being not able any longer to raise storms she was constrained to be quiet rather for want of force then through the defect of courage One may by this proceeding see the Tempests which arise from ill rectified desires when they are underpropped by some manner of power and that there is nothing so sovereign as in their root to mortifie them 5. But they never are so insolent as when they Ambitions which bud in hearts of base extraction are most infelent The example of a Chirurgion of S. Lewis wisely repressed and chastised by the prudence and justice of Philip the 3. King of France bud in the hearts of people of base extraction who behold themselves unexpecteoly raised to some extraordinary favour S. Lewis had taken into his friendship his Chirurgion named Peter La Brosse because besides the experience he had in his profession he had made himself praise-worthy for the goodnesse of his wit and great loyalty This favour mounted much higher under Philip the Third successour of S. Lewis for he not content to honour this man with a particular affection bestowed benefits upon him with such an inestimable profusion that he raised him to the dignity of Chamberlain and conferred honours and largesses upon all his kindred This fellow seeing the young King had not the moderation of the father to proportion his affections to his reputation and the good of his state usurped upon his spirit entred into all his secrets and needs would intermeddle in State-affairs from which his birth and the much limited capacity of his wit ought to have deterred him The King had in a second wedlock married a most virtuous Princesse Mary of Brabant who held in his heart that place which the Law of God and the Sacrament of Marriage gave her It is a wonder how this child of the Earth entreth hereby into jealousies and thought the tender affections of the King towards his dearest spouse might lessen the good favours of his Master whom he was desirous to possesse in the title of a Sovereign He sought to cast the apple of discord into so happy a marriage and seeing this knot could not be broken but with much labour having a soul sold to Iniquity it is thought he found means to poyson Lewis eldest son of Philip and of Isabel his first wife This young Prince is by a sudden death taken away to the infinite grief of all the Court Physicians being consulted with upon it judge his life was shortned by poyson not knowing the authour of so detestable a crime The wicked man in the mean time gives close counter-blows and under-hand fixeth this suspicion upon the innocent Queen And albeit her behaviour which did print innocency on the mild aspect of her face sufficiently freed her before all good men yet the interest which commonly step-mothers have in the death of their husbands children and the subtil slights of this devil who coloured the matter with zeal of publick good began to blemish a life which was as free from stains as the brightest stars The King is already half wavering but loth to precipitate any thing in an affair of such importance he resolved to consult with the Oracles of that time and to have recourse to the lights of heaven since they on earth were eclipsed There was in those dayes a religious woman in Flanders who was thought to be endowed with the spirit of Prophesie and to tell the most hidden things to whom he resolved to send the Abbot of S. Denis to satisfie him in the truth of the fact La Brosse who expected a more speedying dispatch upon his informations began to be troubled and fearing this Prophetesse might marre all so wrought that the Bishop of Bayeux his kinsman agreed with the Abbot to undertake the journey
habit of penance with which he was put into the hands of the Guard and a few dayes after led along in Lotharius his train All Histories mourn in the horrour of this narration and there is not any who in his thoughts condemns not the Authours of this attempt But this good King being re established by the endeavour of his best Subjects did never pursue his injuries witnessing in all occasions an extream facility to be reconciled to his children and when afterward he was upon the point of death he rallyed together all he had of life spirits and strength to forgive them asked of God that he would not take vengeance upon their crimes This was to fulfil the whole law and to do at the Court all that which the most perfectly religious can perform in a Cloister 18. I will yet tell you for a conclusion that there are certain industries which they who are near great ones may use to appease their Anger and to divert the pernicious effects by some delay which is the best Counsellour Argentre this furious passion can have This is to be seen in the course that Bavalon took Addresse of Bavalon to appease that anger of the Duke of Brittaign with the Duke of Brittaigne The Prince being offended with the Count of Clisson Constable of France resolved to take him in a snare and undo him To compasse this enterprise he made a great feast whereto he invited all the principall Lords of Brittaigne courting Clisson with incomparable courtesie After all he let him see his Castle of Lermine where leading him from story to story and from chamber to chamber he brought him to the chief Turret praying him to consider the fortifications to reform the defects whilst he spake a word to Seigneur Laval brother in law to Clisson He no sooner entred in but he saw himself arrested by the Guard and put into irons with commandment given to Mounsieur Bavalon Captain of the Castle to throw him the next night in a sack into the water Bavalon who perceived his Master was very quick and thought that night might give him better counsel resolved to do nothing In the mean time solitude and darknesse having recollected the Dukes spirits together which had all day been scattered by the tempest of passion he found his heart infinitely ballanced between the satisfaction of revenge and the apprehension of inevitable dangers which would wait on it imagining the shadow of the Constable already drowned as he thought would draw fire bloud and havock upon his desolated Countrey The hideous visions which already pitched battell in his distempered brain the displayed Ensignes and Armies heaped together from all parts drew deep sighs from him which were observed by the gentlemen of his chamber Bavalon about break of day comes into his chamber and being asked concerning the secret execution of his command he answered It is done loth to open any more untill he could clearly look into his masters mind The Duke upon this word beginneth his sobbs again with beating his hands which testified great despair in him But he insisting and many times demanding whether Clisson were drowned The Captain replyed He was and that he about mid-night had buried the body fearing it might be discovered Then began the Prince afresh to curse and to abhorre his own anger which had transported him to this out-rage and said Would to God Bavalon I had believed thee when thou didst counsel me to do nothing or that thou hadst not believed me when I so passionately commanded thee His trusty servant seeing he spake in good earnest and that it was time to declare himself assured him Clisson was alive and that he had deferred his commandment out of this consideration that if he persisted in the same mind he should alwayes have means enough to execute him The Duke rapt with this prudence embraced him and gave him a thousand florins for finding out so excellent a remedy for his Passion Observations upon ENVY Which draweth along with it Iealousie Hatred and Sadnesse WE enter into black and Saturnian Passions which are Envie Jealousie Fear Sadnesse and Despair wherein we shall observe a venemous malignity which replenisheth the heart with plagues the life with furies and the world with Tragedies I will begin this order with two Court-Monks who in their time made a great noyse one of which being born for cruelty and bred in massacres his life was a continuall crime and his memory a perpetually execration But the other profiting by the experience of his evils Lamentable envy and enmity of Ebroin against S. Leger opened himself a way unto glory and drew upon him the blessings of posterity Under the reign of Clotharius the third Ebroin governed the State in the quality of the Major of the Palace who was of a spirit ambitious cruell and subtle valuing nothing above his own ends and placing conscience under all things in the world He entred into this charge like a Fox and swayed therein like a Lion doing nought else but roar against some and devour others there being no power able enough to bend his pride as if there were not riches enough in all the world to satisfie his avarice God who often-times suffereth not things violent to be long-lasting gave an end to his tyranny by the death of his Master whose reign was short and life most obscure He left two sons the eldest of which bare the name of Childeric and the youngest was called Thierry Ebroin seeing himself like creeping Ivie which seeks a pillar for support not to stand fair in Childerics mind whether this Prince were too clear sighted to discover his jugglings or whether under the reign of his Father he had otherwise used him then his condition deserved it made him arrogantly to adhere to Thierries faction thinking he had power and credit enough to make an alteration both in nature and State-affairs He then raiseth a controversie in a matter which was sufficiently decided by birth and assembleth the Estates to deliberate upon it where there were so many creatures whom he accounted to be obliged to follow his liking that the palm of so doubtfull a battell seemed to him already absolutely gained There was then in France one Leger a man of great birth of an excellent spirit of an eminent virtue accompanied with grace of body and other parts which made him fit for the Court. His Uncle who was a great Prelate had very nobly bred him giving him admittance into the Palace and his affairs but the sweetnesse of his nature not born for much trouble made him addict himself to the Church and become a religious man but was afterward taken out of his Monastery to be Bishop of Autun His degree and merit then obliged him to be present at this Assembly where it was treated of making a new King and seeing Ebroin insolently supported the younger to the prejudice of Nature and the laws of the Kingdome he undertook to
the night putting in his place an image in his bed The house failed not to be set upon the next morning and the Guard of Saul entring by force passed on unto the bed and found there the counterfeit Michol vvas accused hereof and chidden by Saul but she excused her self saying That her husband had compelled her to do this threatning to kill her if she would not obey and that the presence of so manifest a danger had forced her to procure this invention He ceased not to encrease his anger and to invent every day new means to destroy him whom he ought to have preserved above all men In the mean time David knew not whither to retire The life of David in banishment himself and saw himself every day amongst the nets hunted like a poor beast which caused him to passe a life so worthy to be esteemed by the whole world in very many bitternesses He would have taken the boldnesse to have gone to Samuel who was yet alive but this his interview would have been prejudicial both to the one and the other in the the mind of Saul which turned all its suspicions into fury He removed himself from thence unto the town of His arrivall at Nob causeth great disastre to the high Priest Nob to the high Priest Ahimelech who seeing him in very small equipage was somewhat amazed at his arrivall but David for to confirm him told him that he went about a certain urgent businesse which the King had given him in chaâ—ge and that it was necessary that it should be done without noise the which had compelled him to take but few people with him which were come forth very suddenly without having leasure to take order for necessary things for their journey whereby he should do him a great pleasure to give him some bread and to help him to some weapons which the haste of the businesse would not suffer him to take The Priest answered that he had no other loaves then those of the shew-bread which were consecrated but that they might make use of them if they were purified and especially if they abstained from all converse with women of which David having assured him he gave them those and having no other sword then that of Goliah which was kept in the Tabernacle for a Monument he presented it to him wherewith he was very well contented judgeing it the best of all and so went forward in his way Saul having heard a report that David had appeared entred into great forrests and going through a wood with a lance in his hand being compassed by his Captains and Officers sharply complained of the unfaithfulnesse of his servants asking them with reproach What it was that David had promised them and whether he would give them every one Lordships or make them Captains or Camp-masters that they had thus forsaken their Prince That it was a pitifull thing to behold him betrayed of his own children for to uphold a rebel which sought nothing but an occasion to get his Crown from him Hereupon Doeg master of the shepherds of Saul and Doeg accuseth the high Priest being innocent Idumean by nation and of barbarous behaviour having been at Nob when David passed by there and desirous to get favour with his Master accused Ahimelech the Priest with all his company for having helped David with weapons and Provision and having testified a good affection to his party which caused Saul to send for him presently and handle him with great anger reproaching him with villany and suspecting him of treason The other answered very wisely That he being retired from the knowledge of business at the Court and of the Bed-chamber he could not know the intents of David but knowing very assuredly the good-will that the King had testified towards him the great charges and commissions wherewith he had honoured him the favour that he had shewed to him by so neerly allying him to his house he could not nor he ought not to drive him away from his lodging having received no command from the King and not being able to understand by any the offence that David had incurred This excuse was very just and lawful But the violent Bloudy effects of the jealousie of Saul are never contented with reasons intending to be masters of the Laws although they are slaves to their brutish passions Saul commanded without any other form of proceedings to kill him with those of his company which the souldiers did very much abhorre and there was not found one that durst lift up his hand against those sacred persons But Doeg that villanous butcher which had a long time been bred up in slaying beasts having gathered together the small rable of his servants set upon the high Priest and the Priests which accompanied him to the number of 85. which were all murdered in one day and this cursed servant stretching further yet the command of his master drave on his murderers to the sacking of the town of Nob which they filled with fire and bloud What will not the jealousie of State do what will not tyranny rage and fury when they are seconded by evil servants which blow the coal able to devour both men and towns Saul the plain countrey-fellow the cordiall man the child of one year after he had suckt the breath of this serpent kills the high Priest and the Priests buries the smoking towns in the bloud of the miserable citizens A thousand poor bloudy sacrifices stretched out upon the cart pleaded sufficiently before God with the voyce of their bloud for to pull down this in humane Tyrant for whom all the furies prepared their pincers and torches Poor David having understood by Abiathar the son of the high Priest all that was past was pierced with a most bitter grief accusing himself as the cause of the death of those unhappy ones and took along with him him that brought him this sad news using him as his own brother He perceived well that the spirit of Saul David saves himself in the caves of the desert whither father and mother go to seek him was wholly envenomed and in despair of remedy he saved himself in the cave of Adulla where he thought he had been hid from the eyes of the whole world But his father and his brethren flying the persecution ceased not till they had found him therein and did wonderfully pierce his tender heart lamenting for the change of his fortune because they perceive not any more in him a David triumphant the object of all the thoughts and discourses of all tongues But he comforted them promising not to forsake them and recommended all that was dearest unto him which was the person of his father His piety towards them with that of his mother to the King of Moab until that he knew what it would please God to do with him At the same time all the banished all that fled for Banished men repaired to him safety
heretofore found and pillaged in Rome were sent back again to the Place from whence they had been transported by Titus Vespatian This warre was finished in three moneths with an Army of six thousand men so easie it is to row when God conducts the vessell But that of the West was very long in its continuance Obstinate in its Resistance Malignant in its Designes and Lamentable in its Effects Theodoric King of the Goths as I have said in the life of Boetius had made himself Master of Rome and of all Italy where he reigned with great authority He left for Successour Athanaric sonne of his daughter Amalazunta at that time but nine years old under the Protection of his Mother She was the most accomplish'd Princesse of her age and most worthy to govern an Empire Neverthelesse since she saw her self invironed with those Goth Princes that were of an humour sufficiently cruell and that did not easily brook her domination She honoured with her confidence Theodate one of the principall of them because he was of the blood Royall and appeared the most moderate of all the rest playing rather the Philosopher then the Captain This ungratefull man after the death of the little Athanaric who was not of a long life was moved with so furious a State-jealousie that by the basest of Treasons he caused that poor Princesse to be strangled in a Bath fearing lest she as being farre more able then he in the managing of affairs and he holding the Sceptre onely by her favour might take too great a share in the Government But this unnaturall man that thought to settle his Crown by the death of that innocent Queen totally ruin'd his affairs and could not avoid the vengeance of God that pursues Traytours even to the gates of hell The Emperour Justinian that had already projected to recover his City of Rome and all Italy out of the hand of the Goths hearing the rehearsall of that horrible basenesse committed against the person of Amalazunta that had sought Alliance with him failed not to take the occasion and to declare a warre against Theodate thinking that it was then a good time to set upon an Empire when he that governs it begins to be forsaken of God for the enormity of his Crimes This cowardly King was so much astonished at this news that at first he humbled himself by very great submissions offering the Sovereignty to the Emperour of the East and contenting himself to reign under him But the other seeing him so wicked and so weak despised him and caused Belizarius to advance with his Army into his Territories who suddenly possessed himself of Sicily Theodate although an Arrian Heretick had recourse to the Pope and invited him as well by Intreaties as by Menaces to make a Voyage to Constantinople to Treat a Peace between the two Crowns Agapetus who was then seated on Saint Peters Chair was so Poor and Indigent that he had not wherewith to furnish himself with Provision for the Journey that he was fain to pawn the Sacred Vessels of Saint Peters Church to bear his charges by the way He failed not to transport himself into the East and was received by Justinian with all the respects due to so high a Dignity but when he came to touch upon the point of Peace the Emperour told him That the businesse was already too farre advanced That that Warre was an Holy Warre against the Enemies of God and his Church which ought not to be hindered by the Counsells of a Pope and that he need fear nothing that Theodate could do who was more able to threated then to hurt The Pope suffered himself easily to be perswaded and quitting the Interests of that King busied himself about the Government of his Church It is a wonder that he had so much Authority as to depose Anthimus Patriarch of Constantinople who had been brought in by Faction and to substitute Menas in his Place in spight of the Empresse Theodora who had not at that time all the power that is attributed to her over the spirit of her Husband The Good Shepheard after he had Courageously done the duty of his Charge dyed in Constantinople where he left a most sweet odour of his sanctity In the mean while Belizarius pursues the Conquest enters into Pou and takes Naples by night using a Stratagem of Warre that made him put on three hundred men through subterraneous places where there passed nothing but water The taking of so flourishing a City gave astonishment and rage to the Goths who Conspired against their King Theodate and substituted by Election Vitiges in his place who was not of so Noble a Family but who seemed to them Bold and Generous to repair the Ruines of the State As soon as he was chosen he suddenly caused Theodate to be slain who was surprised in his flight and washed away by his blood the murther of Amalazunta This Prince was agitated with two contrary Passions with the desire of solitude and with the motion of his ambition the one counselled him to quit the Empire the other to retain it while that he would content them both he contents no body and was surprised in his irresolution In this conjuncture of affairs the Grecian Generall advances and marches straight to Rome which receives him with open Arms some through love and others through impotence Vitiges desirous to make his Crown renowned by some illustrious Act and to confirm by his Valour the judgement of those that had chosen him assembles from all parts the Goths spurring them on both with the Glory of their Nation and the necessity of their affairs in such a manner that in a small time he lay siege to Rome with an Army of an hundred and fifty thousand men It is in this occasion that the Valour of Belizarius was made visible in all its advantages for with an Army of six thousand men he susteined that prodigious number of Barbarians amidst sicknesse hunger and a thousand other incommodities and when the Romans wanted Arms and Ammunitions of Warre he made Arrowes of the Statues of the Gods and of the Cesars to throw at the head of his enemies In the end having sollicited with diligence and expected with constancy the succours that came to him from the East he raised the siege and scattered all that thick Cloud of Armies that environed him Vitiges is constrained to retire into Ravenna where he besieges him and presses him so strictly that he forces him to deliver to him his City and even his own Person He was carried away Prisoner with his Wife and abundance of Lords to Constantinople presented to Justinian and served for a Pompous object in the Triumph of Belizarius who was received with the full satisfaction of all the Nobles with the admiration of the wisest and with the generall acclamation of all the World The Emperour alone began to be pricked with jealousie and to entertein him with coldnesse In the mean space the Goths make
and pierced it with his sword but finding himself cooped in by the multitude of men that were about and over him he could not make a retreat soon enough but was as S. Ambrose said buried in his triumph Yet Judas having perceived the puissant forces of the King saw well that the party was not tenable and made an honourable retreat into Jerusalem Lysias failed not to follow and to besiege him in his trenches with abundance of engines of stone and fire The other defended himself very courageously resolving rather to bury himself in that place then to yield it up by any sort of basenesse The besieged after some time were reduced to some extremity being combated by arms and hunger in a year of rest wherein the Jews according to their custome had sowed nothing and were no more in hopes to gather any fruits There was every where a very great desolation but as the favours of heaven happen often to good men in the bottome of their miseries behold an unexpected accident that provided farre other businesse for Lysias and his pupill Philip took his time and seeing his Rivall busied in that Jewish warre was resolved to ruine him and to make Eupator a companion of his misery seeing he had rendred himself the instrument of his will The deceased King had a brother named Demetrius who was at that time at Rome given in hostage having not the liberty to return unto his Kingdome Philip pricked with jealousie against Lysias failed not to solicite that young Prince to seize upon the Empire businesses being not yet well settled in the Nonage of King Eupator It was an injustice and perfidiousnesse against the sovereign but forasmuch as Antiochus the last dead father of Eupator had hereunto supplanted his Nephew by the same artifices Demetrius left not to hearken to it In those fair hopes of the Crown and in his captivity he was as a bird that torments himself in his cage upon the arrivall of a spring and burned with a strong passion to have his dismission from the Roman Senate to put in order as he said the affairs of the Kingdome and to assist the King his nephew after his fathers death But the Romans that took pity on the pupil by reason of Justice and that feared lest this man would embroil the State denyed him the liberty that he desired Philip failed not to possesse himself of the city of Antioch the Metropolis of the Kingdome and to tread out the way for Demetrius to his Nephew's throne There were men suborned that ceased not to sow amongst the souldiers and people That it was not a fundamentall Law in the Kingdome of the Seleucides that the Nephew should precede the uncle and although men had a mind to introduce it that the father of the pretended King had abrogated it usurping the Sceptre upon his Nephew that one should do his race no injury to render it the same usage that there was no reason to refuse a Prince of four and twenty years of age well made full of spirit of courage and authority to take a child that had neither strength nor counsel nor industry and which was born for nothing but to ruine all To this was added that it was not the bloud of the Seleucides that was upon the Throne but that Lysias Reigned and went about to render himself usurper of the Crown of Asia which was the uttermost of reproaches that so generous a Nation could endure to see a man of nothing insolent savage to make himself master of the most considerable part of the world and to exercise a tyranny upon men of honour and merit that oppose his pernicious designs These complaints often redoubled ceased not to stirre up spirits and to procure the change of State that followed Lysias saw well that it was not now a time to be obstinate on the ruine of the Jews nor to busie himself about the siege of one place when the whole Realm was a tottering He thought on nothing but on getting speedily out of that warre with some little honour thinking it not convenient to provoke a people mutinous enough in that commotion He caused the young King to look upon them with a quite other countenance and told him that it was best to let them live in peace without disturbing them in the matter of Religion assuring him that in all other cases they would contain themselves within their duty and that good services enough might be drawn from them Yet that he might not discover any lightnesse in this change he laid all the fault upon Menelaus that was an Apostate Jew and an enemy of his Nation who he said had been the cause of all the confusion by his railing speeches and therefore he made him serve for a sacrifice to that treaty of Peace in which he singularly obliged the Jews and washed away the blot that the favour expressed by him to this wicked villain had printed upon his face He shewed by this action the counsel that Politicians give their Sovereigns to abandon those to the publick hatred that have carried them to reproachable excesses to disburden themselves of the envy and if he had practised this example towards him that then made himself the teacher of it his Sceptre had been more secured and his life most lasting Lysias before he raised the siege of Jerusalem made an Oration publickly before the Principals of the Army and all the souldiery alledging fair pretenses for that resolution but taking great heed not to discover the chief cause for fear lest that news should wave the minds of those that inclined enough already to the side of novelty and sedition He used a wonderfull diligence to render himself before the city of Antioch into which he entred and Philip who found not himself yet strong enough to hold out a long siege quitted to him the place and fled away to Egypt This first successe puffed up the heart of Lysias who became exceeding haughty and considered so little the Romans in that high puissance that made the earth to tremble that he permitted an Embassadour sent to him by the Senate to be assassinated without shewing any reason In the mean time one Diodorus that had bred up Demetrius in his infancy transported himself from Syria to Rome and animated him by a great vigour of words and reasons to render himself an usurper of the Crown He certified him that his Nephew Eupator which was a child but nine years old was not any whit considered that Lysias was the object of the publick execration that he had confidence in no body nor any one in him that all the souldiery and people sought a new Master and that he was assured that if he did onely shew himself though he should be followed but with one servant onely all the world would run to him to carry him to the throne He kindled so strongly the ambition of that young Prince that he secretly stole away from Rome and made account
is a strange thing that a man of nothing found instantly Cities Armies and a Kingdome at his devotion It was now that Jonathan the brother and successour of Judas was sought after and sued to by those two adversary Kings with extreme earnestnesse Pompalus that took the name of Alexander wrote him letters full of honour offering him the Principality and Pontificate of his Nation qualifying him with the name of friend and sending him a purple Robe with a Crown of gold Demetrius whom necessity had rendred very courteous made him also on the other side a thousand fair promises to draw him to his party He exempted him from all Tributes he took away the Garrisons he gave him places of importance by a free gift he received the Jews to offices and governments he restored all those of their Nation that he held in Hostage He granted them an intire Liberty in their Religion and Policy and Revenues also for the Temple so that there was nothing more to be desired Yet Jonathan would never range himself under his Standards but as injuries being yet fresh smart more then old ones the Jews chose rather to give themselves to the son of their most cruel persecutour then to Demetrius that had taken from them their dear Maccabee and held yet their liberty under oppression The party already made against that miserable Prince fortified it self every day and although he took all the good order that his affairs seemed to require yet he could not divert his unhappinesse that dragged him to a precipice It is true that he got the better in some small encountres but when the great battle that was to decide the controversie of the Kingdome was to be given he saw himself very much forsaken and his enemy assisted with the best forces of all Asia He failed not for all that to fight with all possible valour and although his Army was scattered he would never fly but cast himself in the hottest of the mingling killing many of his enemies with his own hand His horse having taken a false step slipped himself into a slough whence he could not get out but he suddenly quitted him got himself on foot and made a great spectacle a King covered with dirt and bloud with his sword in his hand that laid about with a stiffe arm and without remission sustained the hail of arrows that the enemy let flie upon him standing inflexible against all those disastres of his evil fortune In fine he would not quit his Crown but with his life and buried himself in honour Every one bows under the happinesse of that false Alexander he mounts suddenly upon the Throne of his adversary where he receives the services and adorations of all the world Philometer the King of Egypt that had much upheld his party in which he sought his own interests gives him his daughter Cleopatra in marriage whose wedding was magnificently celebrated in the city of Ptolomais in the presence of the two Kings the father-in-law and the son-in-law where Jonathan was also present that was caressed of both the two by extraordinary favours and managed the businesses of his State with all possible advantages Alexander seeing himself in unexpected riches and amidst so many ornaments of a borrowed fortune could not contain himself but let himself flag in a sluggish and voluptuous life abandoning all the affairs of his Kingdome to the discretion of one Ammonius a young brainlesse fellow who carried himself most insolently and incensed the Queen Laodice and all the Nobles of the Court in such a manner as that he was at last set upon and slain in the habit of a woman which he had put on to secure himself God thus taking vengeance of his filthy and effeminate life The Antiochians were first weary of the dissolute life of their Prince that was alwayes in the midst of wine and women which made them believe that he was a supposititious King that had nothing in him of generous They began to regret Demetrius whom they had seen dic with so much courage and knowing that he had left two sons yet very young one of which bore his fathers name and the other was called Antiochus Sidetes They invited the elder of them giving him assurance that he should have the Crown Philometor that was ashamed of the deportments of his son-in-law and that under pretence of moderation desired nothing lesse then to adde the Diadem of Syria to that of Egypt well knowing that so many changes of Masters make a State shake and give fair advantages to those that would invade them upholds this Rebellion forsakes Alexander and by a notable affront takes away his daughter from him to give her to the young Demetrius And to colour his inconstancy he made a Manifest that published That his son-in-law by an execrable disloyalty had made an attempt upon his Kingdome and upon his life which made him break the friendship that he had sworn with him Under this pretence he seizes on some places which it was easie for him to keep whiles he made himself authour of the fortune of the new King The miserable Alexander awaking out of his surfeits saw the Egyptian and all his Subjects bandyed against him and a great army that was coming to fall upon his head which he resisted feebly and quickly forsook his party going to hide himself in the bottomes of Arabia where he was hunted after and entrapped by Zabdiel the Arabian who cut off his head and carried it to the King of Egypt who contemplated it a long time with a spirit more then salvage for which he was punished of God and dyed three dayes after of the wounds he had received by a fall from his horse at the defeating of his son-in-law Behold marvellous sports of fortune and great revolutions that ended not at this point yet Demetrius young of age and government was not a man to settle a Kingdome shaken with so great concussions He thought more of taking the pleasures of Royalty then of bearing the burden of it businesses were to him as many punishments and pastime a continuall exercise This was the cause of new factions and great seditions that were raised in his Kingdome The Maccabees whom he gained to his party rendred him very good offices although he was more ready to receive them then liberall to reward them In the weaknesse of this new Government started up the disloyall Tryphon who had been Captain of the Guard to the false Alexander and having seized himself of a little child that his Master had left behind him he had the boldnesse to propound him for King and true Successour of the Crown When he saw that Jonathan already obliged to Demetrius was able to oppose his designs and to unravel the web of his ambitions he surprised him by a detestable treachery and caused him to be assassinated with his children after he had received the money that he had demanded for his ransome The young King altogether astonished
not of this present which is nothing in comparison of the infinite obligations I owe to your worth Well saith he sith you give it with so good a will I accept it for your sake but cause your daughters to come hither that I may bid them farewell These virtuous souls following their mothers presidency had also with her charitably assisted him during the time of his infirmities cure many times touching their Lute whereon they played very sweetly for his minds recreation Upon this summon of his into his presence they fell at his feet the elder of the daughters in the name of both made a short speech unto him in her mother language importing a thankfull form unto him for his just performed preservation of their honour The Captain heard it yet not without a weeping-joy and admiration at the sweetnesse and humility he therein observed and then said Ladies ye do that which I ought to do which is to give you thanks for the many good helps ye have afforded me for which I find my self infinitely obliged unto you Ye know men of my profession are not readily furnished with handsome tokens to present fair maidens withall But behold your good Lady-mother hath given me two thousand five hundred ducats take each of you a thousand of them as my gift for so I am resolved it shall be Then turning to his Hostesse Madam saith he I will take the five hundred to my self to distribute them among poor Religious women who have not had like happinesse with you to be preserved from the souldiers plundering pillage And as you better then any other may judge of the necessities which each one may by such accidents have befaln them so I am confident I can depute none a more faithfull steward for the disposing thereof then is your wise ingenious and charitable self unto whose sole disposall I freely recommend it The Lady touched to the quick with so rare and pious a disposition spake these words unto him O flower of Chevalry to whom none other can be compared Our blessed Saviour and Redeemer Jesus Christ who for us sinners suffered death and passion both here in this world and in the other reward you The Gentleman of the house who at that time heard the courtesie of his ghest came to thank him with a bended knee making him withall a surrender of his person and a sequestration of his whole estate but he most nobly left him master of himself and of his estate The young gentlewomen who amongst other their many accomplishing endowments were skilfull at the needle made him a present of a crimson-sattin purse very richly wrought and of two bracelets woven with thread of gold and silver He very graciously receiving them Behold saith he I esteem these more then ten thousand crowns and instantly he put the bracelets on his wrists and the purse into his pocket assuring them that while these their respective remembrances would last he would wear them for their sakes Which civil ceremonies ended he mounted on his horse accompanied thence with his true friend the Lord D' Aubigny and with about two or three thousand other gentlemen and souldiers the Lady of the house the daughters and the whole family as passionately lamenting his departure as if they should have been put to the sword although they had assurance from him by his undeniable Protection under which he left them and their possessions to be unmolested after his departure If the starres were to descend from heaven I would demand now whether they might find more love and respect then this heaven-born piece of generosity did both receive and return But be ye your own judges if your observations tell you not it farre otherwise befalls those silly fencers who in like times of advantages rush themselves into such well feathered nests no otherwise then as fatall Comets portending fire and the destroying sword who make the props of buildings tremble with their loud blasphemies who load whole families with injuries without the least regard of age sex or honour but make a sport at the bloud and wounds over whom they tyrannize pillaging them like ravenous harpies fatted with humane ruines However should they do nothing else all their life time but heap up mountains of gold and silver they could not arrive to the least part of the contentment which this good Captain enjoyed who sought no other recompence from his fair way'd actions but the satisfaction of his serene conscience and the glory to have done so well And thus it is O ye who would your selves to be indeed enobled that hearts are gained thus ye oblige if I may so say both earth and heaven to become due tributaries to your virtues with blessings round about you here and with a crown of immortality hereafter THE STATES-MEN JOSEPH MOSES IOSEPH MOSES I Begin the Elogies of holy States-men with the Patriarch Joseph who was the first of Gods chosen people that entred into the Court of an Infidel Prince to make of his life an example of virtue and of his demeanour a miracle Here is an high design of God who transports a young child out of the cabans and condition of shepherds to make him the second person of a great Kingdome to give him the heart and the treasures of his Master the friendship of the Nobles the veneration of the People and the admiration of all the world Those that look upon this history after a common manner observe ordinarily therein the changes of humane things the beginnings the progresses and the issues of worldly affairs But if we would penetrate farther we should find two great reasons and two admirable designs of Providence about the entrance and negotiation of Joseph in Egypt The first is that according to the saying of the great S. Leo it was reasonable that the eternall Word that was to come for the salvation of the whole world should be divided through all Ages and through all Nations shewing himself to some in figure to others in reality giving himself to some by Hope to others by Presence and to many by remembrance He insinuated himself into the antient Jews by Prophecies into the Gentiles by Oracles into the Learned by Riddles into the People by visible Figures into the Saints and the Religious by Mysteries into the Profane and Gentiles by Government and Politick Prudence This is the fashion that he held towards the Egyptians making them see the first rayes of the Birth-day of his coming in the person of Joseph that wore very advantageously the Lineaments of his Divine Perfections and merited to be called by advance The Saviour of the world The second reason is that God meaning to begin that Divine work of the persecutions and the wonders of his chosen People transports Joseph thither and makes of him a man of sufferings and of prodigies to be as a grain of seed out of which one should see spring that numerous posterity that should equall the starres of heaven
instruments of the Justice that he exercised upon the sins of his people King Nebuchadonozor that reigned in that Monarchy six hundred years before the Nativity of our Lord fell upon Palestine with a mighty Army took and pillaged the city of Jerusalem carried away King Jehojakim with the richest vessels of the Temple and abundance of prisoners of the most noted men amongst which was Daniel accompanied with other young children of a good parentage The King gave charge to Ashpenaz chief Gentleman of his Chamber to chuse him Pages of Royall extraction well made without any blemish or disgrace as well of mind as body that should be versed in arts befitting the Nobility well learn'd in exercises docile and well-governed and that he should teach them the Chaldean Tongue which was the Language of the Kingdome that they might wait upon him in his Chamber Ashpenaz having proceeded in the businesse with much consideration resolved to take Daniel and his three companions Ananias Azarias and Misael From hence one may collect that this young child was endowed with most excellent qualities for the conversation of the world and the life of the Court Some have perswaded themselves that he was the son of King Hezekiah but it is without foundation and with ignorance of the Chronology seeing that if this opinion were true it must be inferred that Daniel that is here dealt with as a child and chosen for Nebuchadonozor's Page was at that time fourscore and ten years old which would be a great impertinency Yet it is credible that he was descended from some son or daughter of the same King but however one may assure that he was of the bloud Royall seeing the King had expresly ordered that the Children that were to appear before him for his service should be taken out of that quality Besides his eminent birth he was endowed with a very gentle fashion knowing according to his age dextrous in the exercises of the Court of a sweet and prudent spirit very different from the temper of him that we proposed in the precedent Elogy But to speak sincerely if a good man ought to be considered as a Temple these exteriour qualities make but the portall there are others in the understanding and in the will that compose the Mysteries of the Sanctuary This young child was endowed with a great intelligence in things of Faith and Religion and of a chaste fear of God and of rare virtues that surpassed farre the ability of his age Who can sufficiently commend that which he did at his entrance into the Court with his companions that took light from his spirit and strength from the imitation of his courage They were now come from the siege of an hunger-bitten city from a long voyage and abundance of wearisome toils they find themselves suddenly in the abundance and delicacies of a magnificent Court where they were to be sed as the other Pages with the viands that were served up to the Kings table Youth hath ordinarily a great inclination to a sensuall life and to content all its appetites so that there are some that seem not to eat to live but to live to eat Yet these young children made a firm resolution to abstain from all the delicious food that was served up to Nebuchadonozor's table whether for the fear that they had lest they should have been offered unto Idols or for the love of Temperance they earnestly beseeched the master of the Pages to entertain them with nothing but with pulse and when he feared lest that usage should make them lean and that the King should perceive it they prayed him to try them for the space of ten dayes assuring him that living in such a manner they should be full of health and vigour This was verified by experience and when they were to appear in the presence of the King they were found in good plight active and well instructed above all the rest The Prophet saith That the beauties of the desert Psal 64. Pinguescent speciosa deserti shall be fat and fruitfull so those bodies that are as deserts deprived of the fat and of the abundance that a voluptuous life ministers to the delicate have a certain blessing of God that infuses into them an health a grace and a beauty sutable to a good temper Do we not see that all those birds of prey that feed themselves with the flesh of beasts send forth an horrid cry but the Nightingales that live innocently by some little seeds of plants sing melodiously Daniel was made to charm the ear of a great King by his discourses to live in contemplations and in lights he would have nothing to do with the smoak and ill vapours of Nebuchadonozor's Kitchen He was full three years under this master of the Pages Praying Fasting keeping the Law of God learning the Language of the Countrey and the Modes of the Court This time being expired he was presented to the King amongst other children of divers Nations who liked him exceeding well with his companions and found that he eminently surpassed the capacity of all those of the Countrey and of the rest that were nourished with him When he was advanced in age and now approaching to thirty years it pleased God to render him very famous at the Court as another Joseph by the Interpretation of a Dream King Nebuchadonozor had a great Vision in his sleep which very much disquieted his mind for there remained in him an Idea that he had dreamt of some magnificent thing but his Dream was escaped from him and he could by no means unfold it whether he said true or whether he dissembled to try his Diviners and all those that undertook to foretell hidden things He makes a great Assembly of the Sages of the Countrey in his Palace to know of them what it was that he had dreamed whereat these men were very much astonished and told him with all humility that no man ever dealt so with the Interpreters of Dreams but that the extraordinary manner was to declare the Vision and then seek for the Interpretation This King that was of an impetuous and extravagant spirit said That he was not contented with that triviall fashion of telling his Dreams to give them matter of inventing afterward such an Interpretation as they would but that the true secret of the Science was to divine the Dream it self The Magicians reply'd That there was none but the Gods that could give a resolution of that and that their commerce was farre distant from ours The King thereupon sent them away with anger and without giving vent to his choler resolved to rid himself of all the Diviners in his Kingdome having already given command to his Captain of the Guard to put them all to death All of them fled and were exactly searched for Daniel that was thought to make profession of these extraordinary Sciences was involved in the same danger there being no want of wicked minded men that seeing him
who devoured them immediately and published an Edict in favour of the true Religion This King reigned seventeen years till such time as Cyrus by a most particular design of God seized upon the Monarchy and dealt favourably with the faithfull people Daniel remained alwayes very considerable having seen five Kings passe away and was at last honoured even by his enemies themselves for his rare virtues and for the wonders that God had placed in his person One may observe in his life abundance of Lineaments that adorn highly the conversation of a true Courtier as are his constancy in Religion his Devotion the tendernesse of his love to God his Charity towards his neighbour his modesty his sparingness to speak of himself his Moderation in Prosperity his Strength of spirit in Adversity his inviolable Firmnesse never to yield to sin his exact Faithfulnesse towards his Master his Conscience Science and Ability in the Administration of his Charges his Love to his Friends his Compassion to the Miserable his affability towards all the World his patient enduring of the humours of Strangers his Prudence in his Conduct and the blessing of God that made all his enterprises prosper THE RELIGIOUS MEN. ELIJAH ELISHA ELIIAH THE PROPHETTT ELISHA THE PROPHETT BEhold here an admirable Courtier that was never of the number of those flatterers of the Court that keep Truth in Iron-Chains and give to vices the colour of virtue Elijah was a Prophet that included the name of God and of the Sun in his Name and who all his life-time bare the perfections of them both as being a true child of Light of Fire and a visible image of the invisible beauties As he was yet hanging at his mothers breast his father had a vision by which it seemed to him that his son sucked fire in stead of Milk and nourished himself with a most pure flame which without offending him furnished him with an Aliment as delicious as possible So was he all his life a Man of Fire and as it seemed that that King of Elements followed the course of his words and will so he burnt also in the Interiour with that fire that kindles the heart of Angels He was the first of men that set up the Standart of Virginity that consecrated it upon his body when it was unknown and despised in the World who made an Angelicall order of the Mount Carmel to which he hath transmitted his spirit through a long and sweet posterity that hath found sources of contemplation which he derived to the world to water the barrennesse of the Earth that hath traced the Originals of all his virtues upon that fair Carmel upon that sacred solitude that was his first Terrestriall Paradise His Speech was Thunder and his Life Lightning his Example a School of great Actions his Zeal a Devouring fire his Negotiations the affairs of Eternity His Conversation an Idea of the Contemplative and Civil Life his Translation a Miracle without peer I leave to those that have undertaken to write his Life the retail of his Virtues and of his Miracles staying onely upon his Actions that he did at Court treating with the Kings Ahab Jehu Ahazias and the wicked Queen Jezabel He flourished nine hundred years before the Nativity of our Lord in the Kingdome of Israel which was then divided both by Religion and by Policy from that of Judah and Jerusalem Ahab the son of Amri an ill Crow of an ill Egge held then the Empire and being married to a Sidonian the daughter of the King of Sidon which was called Jezabel an haughty and malicious woman he was totally governed by her and to render himself complacent to her humours caused a Temple to be erected to the God Baal and near that Temple a Grove to be Planted where were committed all the Abominations ordinary to Idolaters Elijah that burned with the Zeal of the honour of God was touched with a most sensible grief by so scandalous an action and was stireed up by his great Master to destroy that Mystery of Iniquity Now he knowing that it was hard to Preach efficaciously the Truth to Spirits froliking it in the middest of the smiling prosperities of the world thought by the order of the God of the Universe that it was best to afflict that wicked people by a long famine and great adversities to make them reflect upon themselves and return to the worship of the true Religion He sware then aloud and publickly before Ahab for the punishment of his Idolatry that there should not be during three years either rain or dew upon the earth and that the Heavens should become Brasse to chastise that Age of Iron and that he should not expect that it should be opened during that time unlesse it were by the words of his mouth As soon as he had said this in the presence of witnesses he went away to the Eastern Coast and hid himself at the Brook of Carith over against Jordan where God nourished him by Ravens that brought him orderly every day his portion In the mean while the drought failed not to raise a great famine on the earth and chiefly in the Kingdome of Israel where one could see nothing but people crying with hunger But the Heavens took in hand to revenge the God of Heaven and the Clouds that are as the Breasts of the Earth had no water for a people that abused the Elements and all the Creatures to the prejudice of the Creatour In the mean while God that spares not alwayes the Lands and Goods of his Servants in a common havock that they may not amuse themselves on the vain prosperities of the World permitted that that Brook that furnished the Prophet with water should grow dry as well as the rest But as the Ocean which retires it self out of one River swells it self in another so this great Nursing-father of Elias that seemed to fail in matter of that little Rivulet recompensed it by the miraculous liberality of a poor widdow He forsook not that station that Providence had assigned him although barren before he had orders for it from God his Master who sent him to the Countrey of Sidon to Sarepta assuring him that he had already provided for his nourishment The Prophet arriving at the destined place found at the City-gate a poor Widow-woman the mother of a little sonne and forasmuch as he knew that the Famine was great every where that he might not astonish her at first he desired of her onely a glasse of water which she gave him with a good will after which he prayes her to add to it a morsell of bread but the good woman sware to him that she had but one handfull of Meal left in the great rigour of Famine and that she was going to gather two or three small sticks to make a little fire and to bake a Cake which would be the last that she and her sonne should eat in all their lives for after that repast they must
Syrians thought that he that engaged himself so boldly was the most interressed and that without doubt there was all likely hood that it was Ahab they fell upon him with ardour so that he thought he should have been hemmed in But when he betook himself to crying out aloud animating his souldiers to his defence the enemies that had a mind to spare him retired to fall on Ahab It happened that an Archer letting fly an arrow at randome stroke him with a mortal wound whereupon he commanded his Coach-man to turn about and to draw out of the mingling well perceiving that he was grievously hurt All the Army was immediately scattered and the Herald of Arms proclaimed that every man might return to his home King Ahab dyed the same day and his body was brought back to Samaria where it happened that as his Coach that was all bloody was a washing in a pool of the same City the Dogs ran thither and licked up his bloud according to Elijahs prophecy Ahaziah his sonne succeeded him inheriting the superstition and misery of his father for after he had reigned a very little while he fell out at a window of his house and grievously hurt himself without being ever able to find a remedy to his evill And having forsaken God sent messengers to the God of Ekron to know if he should recover from that sicknesse but the Prophet Elijah having met his Messengers upon the way rebuked them sharply for that they went to consult with Idols as if there were no God in Israel and commanded them to tell their Master that he should not be cured of his wound but should dye without ever rising out of the Bed wherein he lay This Prince offended at this truth causes the Prophet to be pursued and sends one of his Captains with fifty souldiers to apprehend him This man in mockery called him Man of God and prayed him to descend from the mountain whither he had retired himself but Elijah persisting alwayes in his spirit of rigour said that he would give him proofs that should make him know that he was not a Man of God through vanity and irrision and at the same instant he caused fire to descend from heaven which consumed him and all his company Ahaziah sends another of them for the same purpose which meets also with the same successe He charges again a third the Captain of which gained Elijah by submission and brought him to his Master to whom he spake constantly the truth and advertised him of his approaching death and the other durst not do him any mischief well knowing that he was under Gods protection The truth of the Prophecyed was manifest soon after by the death of Ahaziah who had for successour his brother Joram who reigned twelve years and although Elijah was already translated from this life that is but a passage to another estate his Prophecy failed not to be accomplished particularly upon the house of Ahab and the wicked Jezabel For Elisha according to the order of God and the command received from his Master caused Jehu to be crowned to reign in Israel To this purpose he dispatched one of his Disciples put a violl in his hand wherein was the oyl destined for his unction giving him charge to go to Ramoth in Gilead where Jehu one of Jorams principall Captains commanded and besieged the city continuing the siege that Joram had laid before it whiles he went to Samaria to be dressed of some wounds that he had received in the warre against the Syrians Aboue all he recommended to him that the businesse should be kept very secret and that when he should be arrived he should call Jehu aside and withdraw into some chamber and there consecrate him King with that unction that he had in his hand making him know that God gave him his masters house and crown to revenge the bloud of the Prophets and servants of God upon the race of Ahab and on Jazabel This sonne of a Prophet sent by Elisha did all that was commanded him and arriving at the Camp found Jehu environed with other Captains and signified to him that he had a word or two to speak to him which made him quit the company and enter into a neighbouring chamber where the other powred out the sacred oyle upon his head said to him I have anointed you this day over the people of the God of Israel and consecrated you King to ruine from God the house of Ahab your Master and to revenge the bloud of the Prophets and servants of God upon Jezabel who shall be eaten up of Doggs and no body shall give her buriall As soon as he had said this he opens the door and flies Jehu comes forth and shews himself to his Captains who had a curiosity to know what had passed in that treaty and asked of him what that mad-man meant that came to him Jehu feigning that they well enough knew the cause of it and need not go about to inform themselves held them in expectation and in fine declared to them that it was one of Elisha's desciples that had brought him the news that he should reign in Israel and that such was the will of God It is a wonderfull thing that none of the chief men of the Army opposed themselves against it but that all at that very instant laid down their Cloaks under Jehu's feet as it were to raise him a throne and cryed out God save the King The conspiracy against Joram being framed he hinders any notice to be given him and marches with a strong hand to the City to surprise him and Ahaziah King of Judah together with him that was come to visite him in his sicknesse The sentinell that stood at the gate of the City told that he saw a body of Cavaliers coming in a right line to the City whereupon the King ordered that one of his men should go out to discover it This Scout was gained by Jehu and ranged himself on his side Another is sent out which doâ—s also the same whereat the King being much astonished takes his Coach and and Ahaziah his to see what the businesse was As soon as he perceived Jehu he said What are you not a man of peace Whereto Jehu replyed What peace while the fornications and poysonings of Jezabel your Mother are yet in full vigour Joram saw plainly by his countenance and by that answer that there was mischief and began to wheel about saying to Ahaziah his companion We are betrayed and seeing that he was no way prepared to make resistance to such a power betook himself to flight But Jehu bending his Bow le ts fly an Arrow at him that pierced him through and killed him in his Chariot At the same instant he caused his body to be taken up to cast it on the road in the field of Naboth and pursued Ahaziah who having received a mortall wound as he fled gave up the Ghost at Megiddo from whence he was carried to
the true God yet he left not to suffer him as long as Providence would have it so to serve him like a good subject and to give him advice very necessary for the preservation of his State He declared to him the counsels and the enterprises of the King of Syria his enemy which he knew by the spirit of Prophecy so that the other was amazed to hear that the most secret businesses which he had treated in his cabinet with his most intimate confidents were discovered He thought that his Counsellours of State sold him to the King of Israel but one assured him that that came from the Prophet Elisha who knew things to come by the Spirit of God which was in him in a wonderfull manner This Prince inflamed with choler dispatches immediately Souldiers in a great number to apprehend Elisha who failed not to beset the little city of Dothan whither the Prophet was retired The Prophets servant being risen at break of day to go abroad perceived those companies of men of arms and ran to his master much affrighted crying out That all was lost and that the city was environned with chariots and with horses that came to take him But Elisha filled with the confidence that he had in God his great Master made him answer That there was nothing to be feared and that his party was much the stronger which seemed very hard to be believed by a man whom fear had so much shaken till such time as his Master taking away the fillet of ignorance that was upon his eyes discovered to him a mountain full of chariots and of horses that entowred Elisha and watched for his protection Thus it pleases God sometimes to draw his servants out of the hands of persecutours by extraordinary wonders At other times he permitts darknesse to exercise its power upon the light and the impious to take and persecute the just to render them glorious by their sufferings He would not admit on the day of his Passion the twelve legions that he might have obtained of his heavenly Father for his defense that he might not deprive our Christianity of the example of his dolours and yet he raises up armies of fire to defend Elisha with intention to make us see that he is able to hinder us from receiving any harm but that it is the greater glory to conquer it by Patience The Prophet seeing the heavenly legions that stood to aid him would not for all that thunder strike those that came to take him but contented himself to blind them for a time that he might have given them light for ever if they would have preferred it before darknesse Those poor men seeing themselves struck with such a sudden blindnesse were extremely astonished yet as malice quits not so soon her venome they sought for the servant of God blind-folded darkned as well in mind as body when he presented himself to them and told them that he would shew them the man they sought for if they would follow him which being agreed to he led them straight into Samaria the capitall city of their enemies and at the instant restored to them their eyes to give them the knowledge of the danger wherein they weâ—e They thought that there was nothing now remaining to them but to be cut in pieces and indeed Joram the King of Israel would have caused them to be massacred had not Elisha forbid him to touch them because that he had not got them by the point of the sword but were come by miracle into his hands Furthermore he ordered that something should be given them to eat which was done and after they had taken their refection they were sent back the straight way into their Countrey Behold a courtesie worthy of the New Testament and of the Evangelicall Law Elisha would not that his miracles should be mischievous he contented himself to overcome those by Benefits that he might hurt by Justice to shew that there is nothing so victorious as a great heart that can make visible that it is the highest point of power and goodnesse to pardon that by grace and mercy that might be revenged by reason Some time after Benhaded King of Syria came to lay siege to the city of Samaria where the King was shut in and pressed so vigorously the besieged by famine that an asse's head was sold for fourscore livers and a little barrel of pigeons dung for five franks It was an extreme rage and a furious despair that expected nothing but the heighth of evils for its remedy It happen'd that King Joram passed through the street that he put on sackcloth under his clothes when a poor woman all beblubber'd with tears came to him and requested of him life and safety but the poor King not knowing what to do for her said onely to her That he was not God to give her bread she then desired Justice of him in a controversie which she had with a wicked woman The King was content to hear her and thereupon she told him that she had made an agreement with that woman to eat together two little sons whereof they were mothers on such conditions that hers should be eaten first and that the morrow following her neighbours should be serv'd up to the table also and that in the pursuance of this her little son had been massacred and devoured by his own mother and the complice of her crime but that now there was a question of proceeding to eat the son of her camrade she had hid him and refused to give him and that thereupon she beseeched his Majesty to do her Justice Joram was so affrighted at the proposition of that woman that he rent his clothes and put himself in mourning But instead of humbling himself he sware that the head of Elisha should not stay a day longer upon his shoulders vexing against him that he being so powerfull suffered such a famine of his people without helping it He was like those Mexicans that make their King swear that the Sunne shall give the Day and the Clouds their Rain and the Earth its Fruits and in case that this fails lay the blame on him and murder him He imagined that the Prophet had barrennesse and fruitfulnesse in his hands as his master Elijah and that he ought to sacrifice him for the Publick This speech cost Joram dear who was afterward dispossessed of his kingdome and the Prophet doubting of his attempt said to those that were about him That the son of the murderer Ahab had given command to cut off his head that he that was to give the stroke was upon the way and that they should keep the door fast shut where we see that the same Prophet that had before fiery legions at his command is on terms to defend himself after a fashion weak enough to resist the forces of a King But it is to teach us that God gives not alwayes to the Saints the power of Miracles no more then the spirit of
much onely as would load two mules to build an Altar to the true God with holy ground and not profaned by Idolatry expressing by this request that he desired to worship the true God in spirit and in truth though he received not Circumcision nor the other Ceremonies of the Jews He aded to his former suit the permission to accompany his master to the Temple of the Idols through a pure civility without rendring any inward adoration to the Gods of Syria which the Prophet granted him and sent him away in peace all full of blessing But Gehazi Elisha's servant was like to spoil all by a wicked cozenage for he ran after Naaman who seeing him come alighted out of his chariot and received him with much honour asking what he desired of him The other feigned that two children of the Prophets were come to see his master and that he desired to gratifie them with a talent of silver and to give to each of them a change of raiment Naaman thought himself obliged by this request and instead of one talent gave him two with two handsome suits of clothes causing all of it to be carried by two of his servants by reason that a talent of silver was a good load for one man Gehazi thought that he had succeeded bravely in his cheat but when he presented himself to his master he told him that he had been present in spirit at all that had passed and that he was not ignorant that he had at present silver from Naaman enough to become a great Lord and to buy lands and servants but for punishment of his crime the leprosie of Naaman should stay on him and should passe as an inheritance to all his race and at that instant he was stricken with the leprosie and retired himself leaving an horrible example to all those that betray their conscience to satiate their covetousnesse It happens that these bad servants extremely black the reputation of their masters that have not alwayes their eyes on their shouldiers as Elisha had to see that which passes behind them but when they imagine that they live very innocently and that they discharge their consciences in their charges one may find that a crafty wife or a corrupted Committee sell them by a thousand practices and devour the marrow and the bloud of men under the favour of their name Sigismond the Emperour made one of his officers named Pithon that had betrayed his affairs through covetousnesse of money drink up a glasse of melted gold 'T was but a bad potion but sutable for the chastisement of an overflowing avarice that hath no longer eyes for heaven having already given all her heart to the earth It is credible that Naaman was advertised of the untrustinesse of Gehazi and that this nothing blemished the high reputation of Elisha that was spread through all Syria After the cure of this Naaman Benhadad that was his Master and his King fell into a mortall sicknesse and when he had learnt that the Prophet Elisha was come as farre as his city of Damascus he dispatched Hazael one of the prime men of his Kingdome with fourty camels laden with great riches to consult with him about the hope that he might have of his recovery and to desire his help The Prophet was not like Hyppocrates that would cure none but Greeks and refused to go into Persia though he was invited thither by letters and by the offers of that great and magnificent King Artaxerxes But quite contrary the man of God thought that one ought not to limit the gifts of heaven and that he that opens the treasures of nature to all the Nations of the earth would not have one detain the marks of his power without communicating them to those that bear in any fashion his Image He cleansed the leprosie of Naaman but yet for all that cured not Benhadad because it was a decree of Providence that he should die of that sicknesse The Scripture tells us not expresly what became of those great presents but it leaves us to think that Elisha refused them as he had done those of Naaman and did nothing that belyed his generosity Although one may also believe that he accepted them as well to diminish the levies of the enemies of his people as to spread them amongst the poor of his own countrey He spake onely to this Hazael the Kings Embassadours a very short speech which was that he should die of that sicknesse and should never rise out of his bed again and yet in appearance he commands him to tell him that he should escape it and recover again his health Which causes here a question to arise thorny enough touching the permission of a lie and which hath made Cassian and other antient Divines say that there are some profitable lies which one ought to make use of as one uses serpents to make treacle But this opinion is no way followed but is found condemned by S. Augustine and the most renowned Doctours So that when Elisha said to Prince Hazael touching his King He shall die but tell him he shall escape we ought to take it as a command that authorizes a lie but as a prophecy of that which should be done For the Prophet foresaw these two things with one and the same sight both that Benhadad should die and that Hazael to flatter him should promise him health and life And therefore he addes Tell him that he shall escape which in a Prophets terms is as much as a future and means that although I declare to you his death yet I know you well and am certain that according to your politick Maxims you will not fail to promise him a cure It is just as God commaaded the evil spirit to lie and to deceive Ahab foretelling what he would do and not commanding that which ought not to be done according to the laws of a good conscience As Elisha was foretelling of that Kings death he felt an extasie of spirit and changed countenance notably and began to weep whereat Hazael was much astonished and had a curiosity to know the reason of a change so sudden But the Prophet continuing in the trans-ports of his spirit said unto him I weep and I sigh bitterly for I know the evils that thou wilt make my poor people one day suffer Thou wilt burn down the fair cities thou wilt make the young men passe by the edge of the sword thou wilt dash out the brains of the little infants thou wilt inhumanely rip up women great with child thou wilt sack my dear countrey for which I now pour out my tears by way of advance The Embassadour was amazed at a discourse so strange and said Why What am I should do all these outrages God forbid that I should ever ever proceed so farre I have in all this no more belief then hath my dog But Elisha insisting told him I know by divine Revelation that thou shalt be King of Syria and that which I
with a prodigious army against which there was no humane resistance He sent a certain man named Rabshakeh in an Embassage to King Hezekiah who vomited out blasphemies and proposed to him conditions shamefull to his reputation and impossible to all his powers All the people were in an affright expecting nothing but fire and sword The King covered with sackcloth implores the heavenly assistance and sends the chief Counsellours of his State to the Prophet Isaiah to turn away this scourge by his prayers The holy man in that confusion of affairs wherein one could not see one onely spark of light encourages him animates him and promises him unexpected effects of the mercy of God The Prophecy was not vain for in one onely night the Angel of God killed an hundred fourscore and five thousand men in the Army of the Assyrians by a stroke from heaven and a devouring fire which reduced them to dust in their guilded arms This proud King was constrained to make an ignominious retreat and being returned to Niniveh the capitall city of his Empire he was slain by his own children This is a manifest example of the amiable protection of God over the Holy Court who defended his dear Hezekiah by the intercession of the Prophet as the apple of his eyes He expressed yet another singular favour to him in a great sicknesse caused by a malignant ulcer of which according to the course of nature he should have died and therefore Isaiah went to see him and without flattering him brought him word of his last day exhorting him to put the affairs of his State in order This good King had a tender affection to life and being astonished at that news prayed God fervently with a great profusion of tears that he would have regard to the sincerity of his heart and to the good services that he had done him in his Temple and not to tear away his life by a violent death in the middle of its course The heart of the everlasting Father melted at the tears of that Prince and he advertised Isaiah who was not yet gone out of the Palace to retread his steps and carry him the news of his recovery He told him from God that he should rise again from that sicknesse and within three dayes should go up to the Temple ro render his Thanks-giving Further he promised him that his dayes should be augmented fifteen years and that he should see himself totally delivered from the fury of the Assyrians to serve the living God in a perfect tranquility The King was ravished at this happy news and desired some sign of the Divine will to make him believe an happinesse so unhoped for Isaiah for this purpose did a miracle which since Joshua had not been seen nor heard which was to make the Sun turn back so that the shadow of the Diall which was in the palace appeared ten degrees retired to the admiration and ravishment of all the world And to shew that the Prophet was not ignorant of Physick he caused a Cataplasme composed of a lump of figs to be applyed to the wound of the sick man whereby he was healed and in three dayes rendred to the Temple This miracle was not unknown to the Babylonians who perceived the immense length of the day in which it was done and their Prince having heard the news of it sent Embassadours to King Hezekiah to congratulate his health and to offer him great presents whereat this Monarch that was of an easie nature suffered himself to be a little too much transported with joy and out of a little kind of vanity made a shew of his treasures and of his great riches to those strangers which served much to kindle their covetousnesse And therefore the Prophet who was never sparing of his remonstrances to the King rebuked him for that action and fore-told him that he made Infidels see the great wealth that God had given him through a vain glory which would cost him dear and that having been spectatours of his treasures they had a mind to be the masters of them and that at length they should compasse their design but that it should not be in his time This Prince received the correction with patience and took courage hearing that the hail should not fall upon his head passing over his to his childrens Manasses his son succeeded him a Prince truly abominable who wiped out all the marks of the piety of his father and placed Idols even in the very Temple of the living God All that Idolatry had shown in sacriledges cruelty in murders impudence in all sort of wickednesses was renewed by the perfidiousnesse of this man abandoned of God Poor Isaiah that had governed the father with so much authority had no credit with the son this tygre was incensed at the harmonious consorts of the divine Wisdomes that spake by his mouth and could no more endure the truth then serpents the odour of the vine Yet he desisted not to reprehend him and to advertise him of the punishments that God prepared for his crimes whereat this barbarous man was so much moved and kindled with fury that he commanded that this holy old man that had passed the hundreth year should be sawn alive by an horrible and extraordinary punishment O Manasses cruell Manasses the most infamous of tyrants and the most bloudy of hang-men this was the onely crime that the furies themselves even the most enraged should never have permitted to thy salvagenesse This venerable Master of so many Kings this King of Prophets this prime Intelligence of the State this Seraphim this instrument of the God of Hosts to be used so barbarously at the Court by his own bloud after so many good counsels so many glorious labours so many Oracles pronounced so many Divine actions so worthily accomplished All the Militia of heaven wept over this companion of the Angels and the earth caused fountains to leap up to bedew her lips in the midst of her ardent pains His Wisdome hath rendred him admirable to the Learned his Life inimitable to the most Perfect his Zeal adorable to the most Courageous his Age venerable to Nature and his Death deplorable to all Ages JEREMIAH BEhold the most afflicted of Holy Courtiers a Prophet weeping a Man of sorrows an heart alwayes bleeding and eyes that are never dry He haunted not great men but to see great evils and was not found at Court but to sing its Funerals and to set it up a tomb Yet was he a very great and most holy person that had been sanctified in his mothers womb that began to prophecy at the age of fifteen years a spirit separated from the vanities and the pretensions of the world that was intire to God that lived by the purest flames of his holy love and quenched his thirst with his tears He drank the mud of bad times and found himself in a piteous Government in which there was little to gain and much to suffer After that the
wherewith God hath entrusted them and abuse it to outward pomp rather then exercise it to the advantage of good men Let the fear of misdemeanours and obliquities banish all fiercenesse from them and let them esteem it the greatest impotence to boast a Priviledge of Injustice or a Power to hurt The cause of the Warre must first be balanced by an accurate examination lest the affections obtain precedence over Equity and Reason lest iniquity be predominant in the better part and force and fury comply to cheat the world under the specious title of Injustice I am both sad and ashamed to consider with my self what frivolous occasions have prevailed with many whereon to ground a Warre The Trojan Warre that common Sepulchre of Asia and Europe flamed out from the impetuous flagrancies of a noble Whore By a thousand ships she was re-demanded and for her that had lost all modesty vast numbers of gallant Hero's lost their neglected lives So many chaste lay open to the lust of the enemies that an unchaste might be restored Alexander being yet a child was reprehended by his Tutour for his profusion of Frankincense in his Sacrifices to the Gods but being arrived to mans estate that he might wash away this admonition of his master he invadeth Arabia and there the second time offereth up Sacrifice for the conquest of the Countrey The Egyptians for a slain Cat rose up in arms against the Romans and fourty destroyed many thousand men Caligula with a mighty noise of armed men and a great preparation of all Military ornaments hasteneth to the Ocean there to gather cockles The Romans being contumeliously upbraided with this ridiculous Expedition conspired and almost effected the utter ruine of the scoffing Tarentians The people of Alexandria rebelled against Galienus because of a sottish contention between the Master and the Servant concerning the elegancy and neatnesse of a pair of shoes And to omit many examples which I could commemorate William of England sirnamed the Conquerour who was victorious over all men but himself revenged a pleasant conceit of Maximus the Prince with innumerable destructions The Conquerour was of a corpulent habit and his belly was somewhat prominent thorow a plenty of Hydropick humours wherefore when Philip the King of France heard of the nature of his disease We will allow him time saith he to provide for his lying in which by the bulk of his belly appeareth to be near at hand The Conquerour being mad with fury replyed That he would rise up after his delivery and kindle five hundred fires in France to adorn his up-sitting Nor was he unmindfull of his resolution for presently upon his recovery he entred France with a stupendious army wholly addicting himself by fire famine and horrible slaughters to the satisfaction of his revenge Shall we suppose that he playes and trifles with the bloud of men who upon such slight provocations can enterprize such mournfull Tragedies May we suppose those people miserable with whom the scoffs of furious men must be expiated with such a direfull destruction No man ought to believe himself or another concerning the cause of a Warre but let him weigh it with the exquisite prudence of the principall men whose advices are the more fruitfull of truth the lesse they are espoused to affection A right intention must necessarily be coveted to a just Cause and all these things are estimated by a sober and moderate conclusion or a justifiable end Be such a thought eternally banished from the head and heart of a Christian Prince that he should array himself in a Military posture to oblige some light affections of a luxuriant mind that he should run on slaughters command the burning of towns prosecute and seem to rejoyce in devastations that he should destroy he should extinguish and bury his own glory in the overthrow of others This is the indelible ignominy of Centaures and the Lapathae who in warring seek nothing but Warre The wisest Kings thorow tumults and intestine jarres have made a progresse unto Justice Equity and Concord and being themselves in Arms have sacrificed undefeigning vows to Peace They think of an Enemy as a Physician sometimes of his Patient that he must be recovered by corrosives and sharp remedies Oh that he would have been cured with a diet or asswaged with fomentations But when against the Law and Right of Nations he hath persisted in his obstinacy and contemned the reiterated offers of composing the present differences then you must bind then you must cut then you must burn him yet all this to restore not to exterminate him And all things composed behold like the scourge of a deadly and destructive Warre a Northern tempest rageth in the miseries of Germany there they wallow in bloud and in their night-marches they are conducted by the hideous light of burning Cities some few making a resistance and all men being astonished at the ferall prodigy The Altars are polluted with sacrifice Virgins with rapes the chains of Church-men are heard louder and further then the drums of their persecutours holy things are profaned and the abomination of desolation is consummated their very King who had appointed them thither being either ignorant of those outrages or unconsenting Now can any man conceive that this was devised by a Christian mind Can it be imagined that he who hath any reverence unto or sense of Religion can give such directions It is not credible such a monster could not have been brought forth had not hell conceived the bottomelesse-pit exhaling the fuliginous vapours and the devils themselves torturing mens minds into such uncouth diversities All things cannot properly have a reflected reference unto men The Privado's and Ministers of Princes are not at all times to be accused as though they had cast off all humaniry and covered themselves with brutish cruelty There are certain vagabond and deceitfull spirits destinated to revenge who being themselves lost in misery cease not to comfort their malice by driving others into a participation of those miseries which reason greatest Princes ought so much the more to invite yea to admonish you to leagues of Peace because our Omnipotent God in his secret counsel hath determined to subdue Satan by your hands and to cast him under your feet The highest circumspection and vigilancy are therefore requisite least matter be suppeditated to the Devil who altogether watcheth for destruction from the affections and vices of men Jealousie that tinder of Kingdomes and Nations easily taketh fire if it be fomented onely with an animal wisdome and be not mixed with the prudence of the Saints They who are addicted to one part say that the Spaniards do too much expose their power to Envy that it is hatefull unto equalls terrible to inferiours and if not prevented destructive unto all There is amongst them say they such an epidemicall itch after domination such intentive and indefatigable cares of their ambition such a luxurious wit to enlarge their Empire so vast a