Ancients both Greek and Latine they will tell us wonders but let us hearken to Holy Scripture and Fathers First Immisit Deus soporem in Adam cumquè obdormivisset tulit unam de costis ejus replevit carnem pro eá aedificavit Deus costam quam tulerat in mulierem Adam particeps Angelicae curiae intravit in sanctuarium Dei August l. 9. de Genes ad lit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aquila 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Symach 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tertul. Accidentium spiritus in Genesis chap. 2. where the creation of woman is declared it is said that God caused a profound sleep to steal upon Adam and that being asleep he drew woman out of his side These words are very considerable What meaneth it that God before he made woman caused sleep to steal into the eyes of Adam I will not here tell you that some have glossed that he could not have admitted this production of woman in any other manner but I affirm with the Septuaginta this sleep was an extasie with Saint Augustine that it was a repture and with others a trance of spirit For he then had need enough to fortifie himself with consideration since woman came into the world who would bid him many battels Poor Adam fell into an apoplexy into a convulsion into swooning fits as already feeling the cross thwartings passions and afflictions he should receive from woman Moreover who can but admire the phrase which the Scripture useth in this creation where it is said woman was built Good God! what meaneth this thou already hadst erected so many goodly buildings Heaven and earth the high and low stations of the world thou hadst created Adam with a plentiful concurrence of many parts and yet the Scripture saith not thou then didst build but when woman was to be created God built God made his first piece of architecture And why It is because woman is a house wherein the heart of man should inhabit who is alas there but too often captive Or is it that a woman costs as much in making as a fair house To build a house you must have so much sand lime stone timber iron-work manufactures hands strokes of hammers masons carpenters and to dress and attire a woman so many coiffs kerchiefs cawls so many false hairs paintings gowns petticotes chopins verdingals whalebones so many carcanets gold chains jewels gemmes attendants that a house were almost as soon built as a woman furnished What doth she when she is built Saint Augustine saith she becomes the scholler of a serpent the gate of sin the fountain of errour and the rust of pietie Good God! what unhappiness is this If from the side of man a flaming dart or keen sword had been drawn they would have done less hurt than an evil woman which I speak without prejudice of the virtuous The first woman ungrateful towards God a traiteress to her husband a murderess of her race made a bridge for Satan to pass into the world and needs would lodge him in her heart whom God had confined to the deep pit of hell Others who have prostituted themselves to evil for these five thousand sixe hundred and thirtie years that the world hath circumvolved have acted upon this large Theatre of many forms so many bloudy tragedies that they make histories to blush thereat The daughters of Loth the Thamars Athaliaes Jezabels Vasties Helenaes Fredegondaes approve it and their ashes also incessantly produce others into the world Work-mistresses of all mischief Alas Mothers instruct your daughters well whilst they are young breed them up in the fear of God frame them to duty imprint on their tender hearts as with a searing-iron the love of chastity modesty in their behaviour and devotion in their souls And you young men who suffer your selves to be cheated and deceived by impudent women permitting them to bewitch you with love-drinks and wicked attractives open your eyes and behold the precipice before you and then I doubt not you will abhor it Trust not their familiar conversation Efficacissimum est glutinum ad capiendas animas mulieris August and dalliances know they are full of danger and that there is not any can resist them without the particular grace of God Strength little availeth the Sampsons sunk to the ground Wisdom is to seek the Solomons fell Valour therein is short the Davids found it Sanctity is not free from their batteries the Elishaes were persecuted by women and the John Baptists therein lost their heads That venerable face those eyes enflamed with heavenly rays which won reverence from the wild beasts of the desert could not mollifie a female dancer That wise head where the maxims of eminent virtues resided was taken from the shoulders of a Saint carried in a dish to a banquet by the sacrilegious hands of a shameless woman That tongue from whence distilled a stream of honey was pricked and pierced with a bodkin wherewith the wretch used to curle her hair Now according to the counsel of Saint Chrysostom take into your hands this bloudy head ask of it O head which should never die who hath drenched thee into the wanness of death Who hath bathed thee in this bloud Who hath put out thine eyes the torches of the elect and thunder-strokes of the wicked Who hath layed an eternal silence on that tongue which first of all announced the Kingdom of Heaven The love of women Lyons and Tigers reverenced me in wildernesses and women massacred me in a Kings Palace women mingled my bloud with wine and made me as a pompous morsel of their tragical banquets When I say this I not onely accuse women but carnal men who suffer themselves to be allured and surprized with sottish love and trampling under foot the honour of God the presence of Heaven and Angels the conjugal bed and faith promised to their wives wallow themselves in execrable adulteries which fill families with opprobrie confusion and tragedies why say I families nay Kingdomes and Empires and if we will well examine it we shall find the greatest part were turned topsie-turvie by foolish love O you that sigh hearing speech of the furious disorders this unhappy sin brings into the world I beseech you with Saint Paul by the very bowels of our Lords mercy offer your bodies to God as an hoast lively holy and acceptable to the Divinity and you especially who are in the state of marriage entertain your beds honourable and chaste cemented with a perpetual knot of faith love and peace that God may please thereon perpetually to shower down from on high his holy benedictions and after the course of this painful life crown you with comforts in the glory of the Blessed The thirty fifth SECTION That the evils of marriage ought not to be imputed to sex but sin and of the disorders committed in this Sacrament IF the unhappiness of marriages proceeded onely from women we might necessarily conclude they were alwayes unfortunate
to give beginning to your Sacrifice IX This action should serve as a preparative to another more long and serious devotion which you are to make in your closet when first you come out of your bed If you have so gorgeous garments to put on that necessarily you must bestow some notable time to dress you it is a miserable servitude Observe you not it should be done to render your tribute to God Then cloath your self indifferently Exercise of the morning as much as shall be necessary for comlyness and health Afterward with bowed knees use five things Adoration Thanksgiving Oblation Contrition Five things to be practised and Petition Adoration in adoring God prostrated on the earth resounding like a little string of the worlds great harp and offering to the Creatour this whole universe as a votive-table hanged upon his Altar wholly resigning your self to his will For this act it is very expedient to use the Hymn of the three children in the fornace who called all creatures as by a check-roul to the praises of God Thanksgiving for all benefits in general and particularly for that you have happily passed over this night The Church furnisheth us with an excellent form of thanksgiving in the Hymn Te Deum laudamus Oblation of your faculties sences functions thoughts words works and of all that you are remembering the sentence of S. John Chrysostom That the worst avarice is to defraud God of the oblation of your self Offer to God the Father your memorie to replenish it with profitable and good things as a vessel of election to the Son your understanding to enlighten it with eternal verities to the Holy Ghost your will to heat it with his holy ardours Consign your bodie to the Blessed virgin to preserve it under the seal of puritie Contrition in general for all sins and particularly for some vices and imperfections which most surcharge you with a firm purpose to make war against them and extirpate them with Gods assistance Petition not to offend God mortally nor to fail with grace light and courage to resist those sins to which you are most inclined To practice those virtues which are most necessarie for you To be guided and governed this very day by the providence of God in all that may concern the weal of your soul bodie and things external To participate in all the good works which shall be done in the Christian world To obtain new graces and succours for the necessities of your neighbours whom you then may represent and this by the intercession of Saints wherewith your prayer should be seasoned Spiritual lesson It is then to very good purpose to spend some quarter of an hour at the least in reading some spiritual book imagining it as a letter sent from God to you for direction of your actions X. When you put on your apparel to acknowledge Cloathing your great servitude so to serve with much industry the most abject and brutish part of man To think you garnish a body which even this very day may be a putrified rottenness What time and diligence had Jesabel used in the last day of her life to adorn and deck a body that was trampled under the feet of horses and gnawn by dogs some few hours after Masse must be heard at a due hour in the manner Masse before related and that is a most especial act of devotion XI The second employment of the day is in Affairs the affairs which one mannageth whether it be for the publick or for your own particular in the government of your familie or discharge of some office A good business is a good devotion and nothing is so much to be feared as idleness which is a very antheap of sins He who taketh pains said the ancient Fathers of the desert is tempted but by one devil he that is idle by them all There is no person so noble or eminent that ought not to find out some employment If iron had the reason of understanding it would tell you it better loved to be used by much exercise than to rust and consume in the corner of a house XII In the practise of charges offices affairs to use knowledge conscience dexteritie diligence Knowledge in learning that which is profitable to be known for the discharge of dutie in informing ones self of that which cannot be guessed at in hearing counsel examining and weighing it with mature deliberation Conscience in administering all things with integritie according to laws both divine and humane Dexteritie in doing all things discreetly peaceably with more fruit than noyce In such manner that one shew not anxietie in affairs but like that Prince of whom in ancient time one said That in the most busie occupation he seemed ever to have the greatest vacation Diligence observing occasions well and performing every thing in time and place He that hath never so little spirit and good disposition shall always find wherein to employ himself principally in the works of mercy both spiritual and temporal amongst so many objects of our neighbours miseries XIII Time of repast recreations sports and visits Recreation should be very regular for fear nature be not dissolved in a lazy and bestial life greatly unworthy of a noble heart Away with gluttony play detraction curiosity scoffing babling Let the conversation be as a file to smooth and cleanse the spirit and ever to adapt it to its proper functions XIIII One should not in affairs recreations retirements omit at some times to elevate his heart to God by jaculatory prayers Happy are they who Elevation of heart to God in every hour of the day do make unperceivably some litle retrait in their hearts casting their eye like a lightning-flash upon the hour past and foreseeing the direction of the next Above all after dinner it is fit to reenter into ones self and to see the good order which hath been given for the execution of the mornings good purposes XV. In the evening before you go to bed you Evening are to use examen of conscience Lytanies and other vocal prayers with the preparation of the meditation of the next day happily to shut up the day with acts of contrition faith hope charity prayers for the living and dead Thereupon settle your self to sleep with some good thought to the end according to the Prophet your night may be lightned with the beauties of God If any interruption of sleep happen mark it out with jaculatory prayers and elevations of heart as anciently the Just did who for this cause were called the crickets of the night This doing you shall lead a life replenished with honour repose satisfaction towards your self and shall each day advance one step forward to eternity The marks which amongst others may give you a good hope of your predestination are principally twelve First A lively simple and firm faith 2. Purity of heart which ordinarily is free from grievous sins 3. Tribulation
it ordinarily is cherished lessened and lost it self Aglae began at first to be weary of the frequency of this infamous familiarity then recalled again into her heart the sense of honour next of virtue and lastly God more fully touching her soul set her in open view to her self and made her entertain a great distast of this inordinate life Boniface on the other side felt his conscience much galled and thought on nothing but to break his chain which he often begged of God giving many alms in the height of his uncleanness Aglae called him to her in this disposition and said She was was resolved Admirable conversion to make an end of the exorbitancies of her life that it was in conclusion to wearie heaven and earth too much by her sins and that if love had wounded her repentance would cure her God having left her no other remedie upon evils past than sorrow to have committed them As for the rest as he had followed her with so much facilitie in wickedness it was no reason he should forsake her in the way of repentance That she was a woman he a man that his sex obliged him to take at the least so much courage as her self in a matter which concerned eternal salvation and that desiring to equal him in this resolution she should have the happiness above him to have prevented him Boniface replied She might confidently do what she thought good he would ever account it his glorie to wait on her in so good a purpose and that God could not do him a greater favour than to change the commandments of his Mistress into precepts of salvation The Ladie answered She found nothing more necessary Devotion of Aglae in enquiry after Martyrs than to implore the mercy of God by the bloud of his Martyrs and therefore he should take a voyage into the Province of Cilicia where daily many such were made and bring her thence some relicks The Steward who could not forget his sweet nature said unto her Madame you would much wonder if from the Countrey of Martyrs I return a Martyr and that my body be brought back to serve you for relicks Aglae replied Mock not but do speedily what I tell you and think your self most happy to be at the feet of so many glorious Confessours He failed not to put himself quickly on the way with men and money handkerchiefs and perfumes for performance of his purpose and handled the matter so that he was speedily in the Citie of Tharsus at that time the Theater of Martyrs Scarcely was he arrived but he heard twenty Christians were led forth into a publick place to be martyred and being already changed into another man who breathed nothing at all but the glory of God he stole from his company and went presently into the open place where perceiving the Martyrs he brake through the throng Boniface martyred hastened to kiss their chains and wounds moistening his eyes with their bloud and earnestly beseeching them to pray unto God for him The President Simplicianus seeing this young stranger meddle so far in a matter whereunto he was not called commanded him to withdraw but he speaking with a generous confidence and publickly professing what he was he caused him to be apprehended and to be put to the torture where he was roughly handled for the executioners not content to have pulled off his skin with iron pincers thrust silvers of pointed reeds between the flesh and nails which caused most exquisite torments Notwithstanding the valorous Champion had no other words in his mouth in the extremity of his torments but My Saviour Jesus I give thee thanks for the favour thou hast done me to day by letting me suffer for thy sake It is good reason the bodie which hath so much offended thee bear somewhat for thee If executioners encrease my torments augment the assistance of thy grace and crown my combat with a faithfull perseverance He spake with so much fervour grace and devotion that those present were much moved thereat which the Judge perceiving commanded molten lead to be poured into his mouth to enforce him to a cruel silence but that not succeeding as he imagined the people mutined and brake down an Altar set up there for sacrifice to Idols whereat the Provost was somewhat astonished and thinking it not fit at that time any further to incense them he sent all the Martyrs back into prison The next day he went to the place with more violence and terrour and thinking to terrifie Boniface he shewed him a cauldron of hot scalding pitch threatening withal to burn him if he obeyed not the Emperours Edicts To which the Martyr answered There was neither fire sword nor any horrid torture able to separate him from Jesus Christ he then shewing himself very resolute without leisure given to say any more was plunged into the cauldron from whence he by miracle came forth entire to the admiration of all the world which began to work great conversions among the people Simplicianus fearing a second sedition caused his head speedily to be cut off with an ax and to consummate a glorious Martyrdom In the mean space they who were of his company sought round about for him at which time they heard there was a young Christian stranger to be executed who had shewed very much constancy in his punishment They thinking nothing less than of him said it was not their Boniface who ever would more readily be found among Courtisans than the executioners of Tharsus Yet coming to the place for curiositie they found his head upon one side his body on the other extreamly amazed at what was passed They bought his body for five hundred liures and having it in their hands they asked him mercy with weeping tears for the rash judgement they had given to the prejudice of his virtue Upon this they had nothing so much in their desires as to carry back the body to their Mistress Aglae supposing they could not give her any relicks either more undoubted or acceptable The holy woman had already had a revelation from the mouth of an Angel of the glory of Boniface and being on the way to encounter him so soon as she met him she prostrated her self before his body and said My dear Boniface I shed not tears over thee they Speech of Aglae to Boniface would fall too low to bewail such a death as thine Thou wentest out a penitent from me and returnest a Martyr thou art become a Master from the first day of thy apprentiship thou hast vanquished ere scarce seen the enemie yea the Crown wherewith thou soughtest to glorifie other Martyrs is fallen on thy own head Ah how many bloudie gates were to be opened to thy generous soul to afford a large passage to its triumphs Iron hooks which have dissevered thy holy members have united thy heart to Jesus Reeds thrust under thy nails have confirmed thy constancie Boyling cauldrons found in thy heart
Saint Paul doth not consist in words To build upon the Promises which were made to David concerning 1 Par. 2. 9. Solomon if there be some favourable there are also others that say That if he leave God he shall be cast away by God for ever To alledge that he was buried in the Sepulchre of his father how many of the damned have had a quiet death and a stately buriall To bring forth all the kindnesses and favours of God towards him are but so many reproaches of his unthankfulnesse The argument which is drawn from the negative which they esteem ordinarily very weak is here too strong for his condemnation For whence comes it that Nathan his Master and Partizan who wrote the Books of the Kings or caused them to be continued by Aziah and Haddo his disciples whence comes it I say that Authours so affectionate to Solomon so zealous for the honour of their Nation having undertaken to give us his story and having forgotten nothing of the least things even to the numbering of Solomons horses after they have so expresly spoken of his sinne have not added his repentance This thing was too much important for the glory of God for the reputation of their Master for the edification of their people for the example of other Kings to passe it over in silence Surely we might well accuse them either of great malice or of grosse stupidity a thing which cannot happen to Prophets which write by the inspiration of God Further who knows not that repentance ought to be followed by outward actions and conformable to the movings of the heart Who will not avouch that it ought to be testified by a renouncing of sins and all things that have drawn us to offend Where is it then spoken that Solomon had dismissed one onely of his thousand women which were those nets of his destruction Where is it written that he destroyed the Temples and beat down the Images which he had erected at the solicitations of his Mistresses We know all the contrary that these Abominations remained standing untill King Josiah who caused them to be overthrown That which causes the more fear is that by how much the more a man comes near the great understanding which they attribute to the Devils by so much also he takes the greater part in their punishment when he falls into any grievous sinne The great lights of these rare Spirits turned themselves into the flames of their punishments and their knowledge serves for nothing but to nourish the more the worm of Conscience Now as Solomon was advantaged by understanding and wisdome aboue other men and that he fell into the sinne of Apostacie and turning from God there is great danger lest God turned from him his Mercy which is used more ordinarily towards those that sinne by ignorance although culpable Adde unto all this that those which in their old age continue in the sins of unthankfulnesse which they have contracted by long habits are very hard to cure because that old men become more hardned in evil more despising all admonitions which are made to them by presuming on the authority which they think is due to their age Further also their luxury is not onely a sinne of the flesh which then lesse feels the violence of great temptations but a spirituall sinne which proceeds from a spirituall and enraged concupiscence which makes them offered professedly rather then by frailty He that shall The conclusion touching Solomons salvation well weigh this shall find that it is better to leave to the secret mercy of God that which one cannot attain by reason and to fear every thing in this life even to the gifts of heaven and ones own surenesse thereby JUSTINIAN CHARLEMAGNE Or CHARLES THE GREAT IVSTINIAN EMPEROVR CHARLEMAINE EMPEROVR AND K. OF FRANCE PRovidence is an excellent work-woman which renews yet every day in the world that which God did in the terrestriall Paradise He took clay to make a Man the most excellent piece of all the Creatures and she takes some men of the earth to make them Sovereigns and Demi-gods in the Universe This Emperour that hath filled the world with his brave Deeds and the Ages with his memory was of a very base extraction which served to him as a cloud of glory and caused a marvellous day to spring out of the deep of his obscurity The beginning of his Nobility came from his uncle Justine who having been born a Cow-herd mounted by the stairs of Virtue and of Valour even to the Throne of the Emperours of Constantinople Nature had furnished him with a good understanding with a body well made and robustuous and God had inspired into him from his most tender years a particular grace of Devotion which rendered him good officious and charitable towards all the world As he was keeping the Cows he saw passing by some men of warre who were going in an expedition against the Infidels he perswaded himself that he was very fit for that employment and stout enough to give good strokes to the enemies of God and his Religion Upon this thought he sold a cow that was his own buyes a sword and the rest of the small equipage of a Souldier bids adieu to his kindred goes and lists himself and suddenly of a peasant becomes a man of war Yet Procopius makes him so poor that he gives him nothing but a little bread in a scrip when he entred into Constantinople He passed through all the proofs of a long and laborious warfare in which he behaved himself with an exact discipline a great dexterity a courage invincible and above all with a discretion that made him lovely and gained the hearts of all the world He came to the office of an Ensign of a Lieutenant of a Captain of the Guard of a Collonel of a Generall and in the end was put amongst the Counts of the Court that were the greatest Lords of the Imperiall house Anastasius at that time was Emperour happening to die Amantius his high Chamberlain who was a very rich and a great monied man had a very earnest desire to make himself Emperour But he was disfavoured by nature having not been born a perfect man he thought therefore that he should never be liked by the Militia in so high a dignity and would needs make it fall upon Theocritus who was his creature that he might reign in him and by him with a full satisfaction of his whole desires To this end he opened his treasures and resolved to make great distributions of money to the souldiers committing the managery of the hors-men to the Earl Justin who he knew was well affected by all the world and very capable to favour his canvasing But the men of warre looking upon the hand that gave the gold and not upon the coffer from whence it came nor the design of him that did it unexpectedly proclaimed Justin Emperour whereto the Senate and the People shewed a strong inclination
due to God ibid. 5 Of the Reverence which the Holy Humanity of our Lord did bear to his Eternall Father 84 THE TWELFTH TREATISE Of Anger 1 THe Origen of Anger its Nature Causes and Diversities 86 2 Three principall kinds of Anger 87 3 The Contemplation of the serenity of the diuine Spirit is the mistresse of meeknesse 88 4 That the example of our Saviour doth teach us the moderation of Anger ibid. 5 Politick Rimedies to appease such as are Angry 89 6 Morall Remedies against the same passion ibid. THE THIRTEENTH TREATISE Of Envie and Jealousie 1 THe Picture thereof 91 2 The Definition of Envie its severall kinds and first of Jealousie ibid. 3 Two other branches of this stock which are Indignation and malicious Envie with Calumny its Companion 93 4 Humane remedies of Envie 94 5 Divine remedies drawn from the benignity of God 95 6 The mercifull eye of Jesus serveth for an antidote against all sorts of Envie 96 7 A Detestation of Envie 97 THE FOURTEENTH TREATISE Of Mildnesse and Compassion 1 THe great misery of Man makes Compassion necessary in the world 98 2 The Essenc of Compassion and how it findeth place in hearts most generous 99 3 Moderate severity is necessary in Government but it ought to be free from Cruelty 100 4 The goodnesse of God beateth down the rigour of men ibid. 5 The Mercies of the incarnate word are able to soften the harshest hearts 101 HISTORICALL OBSERVATIONS Vpon the four Principall Passions which are as four Devils disturbers of the HOLY COURT OBSERVAT. Page 1 THe disasters of such as have yielded to the Passion of Love and the glory of souls which have surmounted it 107 2 Observations upon the Passion of Desire wherein we may behold the misery of Ambitious and turbulent spirits 112 3 Observations upon Anger and Revenge 117 4 Observations upon Envie which draweth with it Jealousie Hatred and Sadnesse 121 A TABLE Of the LIVES and ELOGIES of Illustrious Persons contained in the Fifth Tome MOnarchs 131 David 139 Solomon 151 Justinian 158 Charlemaign 172 S. Lewis King of France 177 Judith 181 Hester 187 Josuah 196 Judas Machabeus 197 Godfrey 207 George Castriot 209 Boucicaut 211 Bayard 214 Joseph 218 Moses 227 Samuel 235 Daniel 241 Eliah 248 Eyisha 265 Isaiah 260 Jeremiah 263 S. John Baptist 267 S. Paul and Seneca 271 Mary Stuart 291 Cardinall Pool 313 A Treatise of the Angel of Peace to all Christian Princes 1 THE HOLY COURT FIRST BOOK Of Reasons which should excite men of qualitie to Christian Perfection That the COURT and DEVOTION are not things incompatible The FOUNDATION of this TREATISE THe wise Hebrews have observed a matter worthy of consideration for the direction of Great-ones to wit that between the bed of the Kings of Judea The gloss upon Isaiah ch 38. observeth also Juxta parietem Templi Solomon extruxit palatium A notable observation of the Hebrews and the Altar of God there was but one single wall and they adde that David one of the most holy Monarchs had reserved for himself a secret postern through which he passed from his chamber to the house of God that is to say the Tabernacle which served as a sanctuarie for his afflictions and an arsenal for his battels They say likewise he left the key of this sacred postern to his Posteritie a key a thousand times more pretious than Fortune the golden Goddess of the Romans giving to it the imitation of his virtue as an everlasting inheritance Achaz was he who stopping up the gate of the Temple Parali 2. 28. clausit januas Templi shut against himself the gates of Gods mercie and thereby opened the passage to his own confusion This is to instruct Princes and all persons of quality that as the element of birds is the air and water of fishes so the element of great spirits if they will not betray their own nature nor bely their profession is piety Yet notwithstanding it is a wonder how the Court where the most noble spirits should reside hath in all Ages been cried down in matter of virtue You will say hearing those speak who make many fair and formal descriptions of the manners of Courtiers that the Court is nothing else but a den of darkness where the heavens and stars are not seen An admirable definition of the Court drawn out of divers ancient Authors but through a little crevis that it is a mil as the Ancients held it always skreaking with a perpetual clatter where men enchained as beasts of labour are condemned to turn the stones That it is a prison of slaves who are all tied in the golden guives of speciors servitude yet in this glitter suffer themselves to be gnawn by the vermine of passion That it is a list where the combatants are mad their arms nothing but furie their prize smoke their carreer glassie ice and utmost bounds but precipices That it is the house of Circes where reasonable creatures are transformed into savage beasts where Buls gore Lions roar Dogs worrie one another Vipers hiss and Basilisks carrie death in their looks That it is the house of winds a perpetual tempest on the firm land ship-wrack without water where vessels are split even in the haven of hope Briefly that it is a place where vice reigneth by nature misery by necessity and if virtue be found there it is but by miracle Such discourses are often maintained with more The Answer fervour of eloquence than colour of truth For to speak sincerely the Court is a fair school of virtue for those who know how to use it well In great seas great fishes are to be found and in ample fortunes goodly and heroick virtues This proposition which putteth an incompatibilitie of devotion and sanctitie into the life of men of eminencie seemeth to me very exorbitant for three reasons The first for that it is injurious to God the second prejudicial to humane societie and the third sheweth it to be false by the experience of all Ages To prove these three verities The Defence of the Court. is to ruin it in the foundations the proofs whereof are easie enough which we will begin to glance at that hereafter we may deduce them more at length For as concerning the first it cannot be denied to be a great injurie to almightie God to strike at his heavenly and paternal providence This is to touch him in the apple of his eye and in the thing which he esteemeth most pretious Now so it is this maâ—ime which establisheth an impossibilitie of devotion the first wheel of virtue in the life of Great ones imputeth a great defect unto the government of God The divine providence is a skilful posie-maker who knoweth artificially how to mingle all sorts of flowers to make the Nosegay of the elect called in holy Scripture Fasciculus viventium It constituteth the different manners of lives different qualities and conditions It leadeth men by divers way
to the same port It is that which maketh Kings to reign 1. Reg. 25. 29. and giveth them officers as members of their state and by this means frameth the Court of Great-ones But if after it hath so made and composed them as of the flower and choise of men it should abandon them in the tempest without pole-star without rudder without Pilot were not this with notable deformitie to fail in one of the prime pieces of its work-manship Judge your self For the second reason it is most evident that to further this impossibilitie of devotion in the course of Courtiers lives is to cast them through despair of all virtues which cannot subsist without piety into the libertie of all vices which they will hold not as extravagant fallies of frailtie but as the form of a necessary portion of their profession And as the rank they hold maketh them transcend other men who willingly tie themselves to the manners and affections of those on whom they see their fortunes depend that would be as it were by a necessary law to precipitate mankind into the gulf of corruption To conclude for the third reason this proposition is manifestly contradicted by an infinit number of examples of so many Kings and Princes of so many worthy Lords and Ladies who living in the Ocean of the world as the mother pearls by the dew of heaven have preserved and do yet still preserve themselves for ever in admirable puritie and in such heroick virtues that they cannot gain so much wonder on earth but they shall find in heaven much more recompence This is it which I intend to produce in this Treatise of the Holy Court after I have informed the mind with good and lively reasons which as I hope by the grace of the holy Spirit of God shall make all persons of quality to behold they do infinit wrong to take the splendour of their condition for a veil of their impieties and imperfections Virtue is a marvellous work woman who can make Mercury of any wood yea should the difficultie be great the victorie would be more glorious but all the easieness thereof is in their own hands and the obligations they have to tend to perfection are no less important than those of Hermits as I intend shall appear in the process of this discourse The first MOTIVE Of the obligation which secular men and especially persons of qualitie have to perfection grounded upon the name of Christian. A Great abuse is crept into the minds of secular persons who hold vice in predominance and virtue under controle It is in that they esteem Christian perfection as a bird out of their reach and a qualitie dis-proportionable to their estate As for my self saith one of these I have made provision of virtue according to my quality I pretend not to be a S. Francis nor to be rapt as a S. Paul to the third heaven I find there is no life but with the living and to hold time by the fore-lock while I can Let our pleasures take that scope which nature presenteth to them were we as wicked as Judas if we have the faith of S. Peter the mercy of God pardoneth all An impertinent discourse as I will hereafter declare On the other side there are women who chatter and say I will not be a S. Teresa it is not my intention to be canonized I love better to see my diamonds in my life glitter on my fingers than to carrie themafter my death on my statues I better love a little perfume whilst I yet breath air than all the Arabian odours after my death I will have no extasies nor raptures It is enough for me to wallow in the world I may as well go to Paradise by land as by water Such words are very impure in the mouth of a Christian nay so prejudicial to eternal salvation that through the liberty of speaking too much they take away all hope of doing well For pursuing the tender effeminacy of that spirit they take the measure of virtue very short and disproportionable their intentions being infirm the works are likewise the more feeble not squarely answering the model of knowledge from whence proceedeth a general corruption I affirm not all Christians ought to embrace the perfection of S. Francis and of S. Teresa No. There are some whom the Divine providence will direct by other aims But I say that every Christian is obliged to level at perfection and if he hath any other intention he is in danger to loose himself eternally A bold saying but it is the sentence of S. Austine You should always be displeased with your Aug. Serm. 11 of the Apostle Semper tibi displiceat quod es si viâ— pervenire ad id quod non es Si dixeris sufficit periisti A notable speech of S. Augustine self for that which you are if you desire to attain to that which you are not and if you chance to say it is enough you are undone And who are you that dare limit the gifts of God And who are you that say I will have but such or such degree of graces I satisfie my self with such a sanctity I have proceeded far enough in a spiritual life let us set up our staff here What wickedness is this Is not this to imitate that barbarous and senseless King who cast chains into the sea to tie the Ocean in fetters God hath given us a Xerxes heart of a larger latitude than the heavens which he will replenish with himself and you will straiten it like a snail to lodge him in narrow bounds whom the whole world cannot comprehend Judge if this proceeding be not very unreasonable and if you yet doubt weight two or three reasons which you shall find very forcible and by them you will conclude with me you have no less obligation to be perfect than the most retired Hermit that ever lived in the most horrid wilderness of Egypt The first reason I propose to underprop this assertion is drawn from the nature and essence of perfection At what mark think you should one aim to arrive to this scope If I should say will you be perfect bury your self alive in a sack put a halter about your neck go roast your self in the scorching beams of the Sun go roal your self in snow and thorns this would make you admire your hair stand an end and bloud congeal in your veins But if one tell you God Perfection engrafted upon love hath as it were engrafted perfection with his own hands upon the sweetest stock in the world what cause have you of refusal Now so it is as I say There is nothing so easie as to love the whole nature of the world is powred and dissolved into love there is nothing so worthy to be beloved as an object which incloseth in the extent thereof all beauties and bounties imaginable which are the strongest attractives of amity yea it forceth our affections with a sweet
and other reprehensible manner Secondly what invalidities and nullities of confession may happen now by the defect of the Priest who perhaps hath not sufficient jurisdiction sometime through your own indisposition who neither will have sorrow nor good purpose of amendment and sometime for other circumstances Thirdly who It s utility seeth not that the foundation of a life truly Christian is humility And we know not how better to attain this virtue than by representing to our selves no longer by piece-meal but wholly in gross the youth follies the slackness negligences infidelities and impurities of our passed life All that coming to pour it self upon our consideration like a great squadron necessarily stirreth in us a great confusion and dolour for our ingratitude In the fourth place we ordinarily see those who duely make this act unfolded and delivered in all its particulars do come as it were out of the furnace sparkling with radiant brightness to form a life absolutely new You therein observe a conscience most â—urious intentions better rectified actions more purified a promptness better awakened for the service of God a modesty more regular in prosperity a heart more elevated in adversity a more generous contempt of the world Briefly although one should reap but this onely good which is the peace and tranquility of conscience it would always be a matter marvellously recommendable And we know by experience many consciences tormented with divers remorses and scruples have after a general confession found themselves wholly pacified and have begun to breath a more benign air of the mercies of God To proceed therein it is good well to sound your heart afore-hand The manner and to cescend into the knowledge of your self which is a work of no small importance The tenth SECTION The Practice of Confession THe heart of man is a little abyss which seemeth Heart of man Pravian cor hominis inscrutabile Hier. 17. neither to have bounds bottom nor shore It is malicious and inscrutable said the Prophet The Hebrew readeth in the same place that it is a supplanter who escapeth from us like an eel when we think to hold it and oftentimes it overthroweth us The great S. Macarius assureth us it is Macar hom 43. a little vessel but full of caverns labyrinths precipices lyons serpents and other venemous beasts Moreover self-love which oftentimes like a wicked Knowledge of ones self very hard watch-man placeth himself at the gate of our heart will not suffer truth to approach It maketh him think it is too crude drie austere old wrinckled to be presented to such a Prince In the mean time it relateth all things to the heart to its own advantage Self-love and entertaineth it with a thousand curiosities of conceits It maketh all vices to be beheld therein in full proportion and virtue in eclipse This admitted necessarily the assistance of God is to be implored in a very particular manner to obtain the knowledge of our selves and to labour therein couragiously and stoutly without flattering our selves God threateneth in the Prophet he will lay a heavy correction upon us leaving us to our selves Psal 49. Arguam te statuam contra faciem tuam It seemeth we now have our heads turned backward never to know what passeth in our hearts But God in the day of judgement will turn it before and if we take not very good heed to our confusion S. Augustine triumpheth upon this passage August in Psal 49. Quae post dorsum posuisti ante faciem ponam videbis foeditatem tuam non ut corrigas sedut erubescae Tolle te à tergo tuo constitue te ante te That which thou hast put behind thee I will place before thine eyes Thou shalt see thy impurities not to correct them but to confound thee Turn thy face go behind thy self and set thy self before thy self The manner will be after an humble and serious invocation of the Holy Ghost to call to mind all your life according to the course and progress of ages remembring your self of the places where you have made abode the persons with whom you have conversed the affairs which you have handled the sins to which you have been most inclined and which most afflict your conscience Observing also if it be possible the number of those which are most heinous which if it cannot be done do not search them out with pensiveness and anxiety The order which ought to be observed is to run Multa D. Th. opusc 64. de medo confitendi puritate conscientiae through the law or the ten Commandments of God and those of the Church taking every one in his place As upon the first Commandment to examine the sins of infidelity of contempt of holy things of impiety forceries divinations magick dreams superstitions distrusts of the mercy of God presumptions of ones own ability languishment coldness hypocrisies impurities sacriledges in the service of God speaking distinctly upon every word wherein and how I by what motive and to what purpose II. Upon the second unnecessary oaths false oaths blasphemies execrations profanation of things sacred and words of Scripture III. Upon the third the exercise of labour traffick of civil and criminal justice and other works forbidden on Sundays The irreverence committed on this great day in neglecting to hear the whole Mass or some notable part thereof and employing all your time in excess of tongue dances masks follies sensualities IV. Upon the fourth contempt hatred distast ingratitude irreuerence disobedience towards father and mother kindred and Superiours Neglect towards your subjects vassals and houshold-servants V. Upon the fifth the clamours enmities quarrels violences faithlesness injustices oppressions poisonings abortions slaughters malice outrages cruelties committed against your neighbour The ill usage of your own person by perplexity despair or impatient desire of death VI. Upon the sixth fornications adulteries incests whoredoms ravishments secret marriages sacriledges self-softnesses pollutions ill use of marriage and other infamous luxuries which Tertullian termeth monsters Adde all that which attendeth on wantonness as dishonest thoughts unchaste words lascivious glancings kisses touches books pictures comedies love-letters dancings masks too free conversations with evident danger of sin and sometime charms love-potions or other attractives characters and witch-crafts VII Upon the seventh thefts pilferies robberies connivence with thieves falsification of instruments of letters seals wills contracts scedules obligations false purchases false buyings false sales false coyns deceits defraudations surprizes usurpations of the goods of the Church simonies usuries delays of reasonable payments injustices litigious wranglings excessive expences foul play in game cruelties toward the poor and such like things VIII Upon the eighth false witnesses and sollicitations thereof calumnies diffamatory libels lies impostures hypocrisies dissimulations flatteries treasons confusion of your neighbour IX Upon the ninth enterprizes and designs contrary to marriage by seducing the parties with words signs gestures letters gifts attractions with
to the abilitie of his person It fell out this cruel creature who had done this mischievous act sickened of a languishing maladie and found himself enforced to be carried to that fame place where he was whom he had bereaved of sight His heart said within him he would never endure him but for revenge would put out his eyes On the contrarie the blind man made earnest suit to do this act of charitie to him withall the most fervent endeavour as if he had sought some great fortune from the hand of a Prince Behold he prevailed he is deputed to the service of the sick man and he dedicated to him all the functions of his bodie except the eyes which the other had pulled out Notwithstanding saith the Cardinal he wanted not eyes having those of supreme charitie and patience You would say this good blind man was all eyes all arms all hands all heart to attend this sick man so much consideration vigour diligence and affection he used And what should they here say who upon the least affronts burn with a revengefull spirit V. Not to have a lazie and languishing charity which is onely in idea but to be diligent cordial strict not for particular ends but the taintless maximes of virtue It was a great folly in those Philosophers called the Contemplators who placed perfection in sitting with arms a-cross without doing any act to assist in the society of men Witness the prime Prince among them named Pirrho who beheld the stars whilest his companion Axaquus falling into a ditch cried out for help They both were found the one Laert. l. 6. in this misery despairing and the other contemplating It was said to the Master What do you here my friend Why endeavour you not to draw your companion Stupidity of Pirrho Sine mediter ut bonus sim Plin. l. 2. Deus est mortali juvare mortalem haec ad aeternam glorian out of this ditch No other answer would he make Let me alone I meditate how to become an honest man And behold him a lazy truant without any further search in giving aid to this miserable man In the whole history of Pliny the best word is this It is a Divinity for one man to do good to another and behold the most assured way of eternal glory VI. For this purpose you ought to know not onely at your finger ends but to have both in heart and hand the works of mercy spiritual and corporal You must dispose your selfe with especial endeavour to Almes alms-deeds There is the school of rich men it is their lesson their philosophy their heavenly Alchimy their justification their salvation their glory The practise of almes is not now to be required It is easily found There are as many waies of mercy as there are miseries in mankind which are every day exposed to our eyes A thousand fold happy are they who seriously bend themselves to comfort such every one to the proportion of his power How many brave and noble spirits are industrious in that kind Some as the Emperour Titus thought they had lost a day wherein they had obliged no man Others daily fed some poor creature in whom they acknowledged the person of Jesus Christ Others went up and down into publike streets to find out the necessities of men to relieve and consolate them Others humbled themselves continually to the services of the sick and indigent Others taught this practise to their little children almost from the nurces breast as soon as they began to stutter out words they were made oratours for the poor Others distributed their revenew in equal portions to Churches needy persons and for their own maintenance Others gave the first fruits of all their increase of profits Others founded and instituted a thousand excellent works of piety Behold good life herein fair hope and generous charity And is it not to be the scorn and scandal of mankind Ista verò injustitia magna ut egeat Dominus habeat unde luxurietur filius tuus August l. de disciplina Christiana Val. 4. c. 8. to amass riches for worms for moths for children many times wicked drunken loose Libertines who will play and disport upon their parents tombs It were a notable inscription if one should put these words upon your monument which Valerius gave to one called Gillias QUOD GILLIAS POSSIDEBAT OMNIUM QUASI COMMUNE PATRIMONIUMERAT HIC IPSIUS LIBERALITATIS PRAECORDIA HABUIT ET DOMUS EJUS QUASI QUAEDAM MUNIFICENTIAE OFFICINA What Gillias had was the possession of all mankind This man had his heart and entrals composed even of Charity it self His house was a shop of bounty Of Virtues that oppose the third impurity which is pride of life The thirty first SECTION The practice of humility and magnanimity TO say that Noble men and persons of quality have no need of the virtue of humility is to say that sick men have no need of health Humility is the element and orb of virtues It is the gate of Christianity saith S. Cyprian and we ought not to Primus Religionis introiâ—us Ciprian de Nativitate Christi Humility of great men Mâ—gna virtus est humilitas honorata think that man will be loyal to faith who is unfaithful to the virtue of Jesus Christ to wit humility It is necessary for all men but especially great ones who are more roughly assaulted by the storms of pride And if this virtue be a contempt of it's own excellency where shall you find out this excellency to find out the contempt thereof Shall it be in mean and inferiour spirits They naturally are in their own way of baseness but not therefore in the path of humility The most exact humility is that which hath more of honour and less of the sense of honour saith S. Bernard The stars are beheld in the bottom of a pit and profound humility maketh the most radiant splendours appear in greatness The sun dispelleth the grossest vapours and draweth the thinnest and subtile to himself How much the more you lessen your self so much the nearer you shall approach to the Sun of true glory If you desire to practice this celestial virtue behold the actions I. Do not intoxicate your brain with a mad vanity Acts. Pride of Nobility reprehenlible of noble race which causeth many to dig out and disentomb their Grand-sires as it were from the ashes of old Troy and as Ausonius saith in so carefully searching out uncertain parents they many times give occasion to think they have none certain Nobility is not to be blamed since it is the happiness of good extraction but to be vauntingly puffed upon this occasion is a meer folly He that should revolve and rifle the whole mass of mankind saith Plato should find there is no King which commeth not from servitours nor servitour who commeth not from Kings II. Not to affect nor seek after humane praises flattery complacence ticklings of reputation
in all things to bear the seeming scepter Then seeing him dayly become more weak than himself to secure this state upon his own sons he makes the eldest to wit Phaselus Governour of Jerusalem and giveth to Herod his Unhappy Politician youngest the Tetratchie of Galilee Some time after having sucked down all the wind which his ambition presented to him and not knowing what more to do he drank a cup of poyson which in a banquet was offered to him by the slie cunning of Malicus his enemie Behold the current of humane things These Spirits enragedly mad after greatness which they pursue with all manner of toyl and sinister practises are as those little bubbles that rise on the water in time of a tempest they encrease and crack in a moment Antipater being dead his two sons Phaselus and Beginning of Herod Herod divide the succession each one holdeth firmly his share and striveth to possess the heart of Hircanus making him always personate his own part Herod as soon as he was in office even in the life of his father being as yet but fifteen years of age well discovered what he would be by his natural inclinations which proceeded from him as flashing streaks from a cloud to be instantly turned into lightening He had a malign spirit craftie ambitious even to furie and whose fingers perpetually itched after bloud and slaughter And verily he defiled his tender years and first beginning of principalitie with effusion of humane bloud falling not onely upon one called Ezechias reputed a Pirat but he also cut in pieces with him many Jews without either warrant or knowledge of the cause which involved many innocents in this ruin The mothers of those people massacred by young Herod went out of the Temple disconsolate with their hair disheveled requiring justice of Hircanus who was no other than a meer idol of principalitie Notwithstanding much importuned by the cries and lamentations of these weeping women and incited by the Peers of his Kingdom he ordained that Herod should appear before a tribunal of justice In this action the young man sufficiently shewed the boldness of his spirit and fierceness of his courage The other who were accused came to this Parliament of Judea altogether in mourning habit he thither went as to a feast or a Theater waited on with a flourishing retinue clothed in scarlet frisled perfumed and besides with the recommendations of the Romans who sent nothing but armed words commanding the Judges to pardon without any other process He then being but fifteen years old so amazed the Judges and Advocates with his very fashion and countenance that of all those who were prepared for long pleadings against him there was not one to be found that had the heart to mutter in his presence One of the Judges called Sameas an honest man more hardie than Liberty of a judge the rest cried out aloud to King Hircanus there present Sir I wonder not this young Lord commeth in such equipage to this barr every one doth what he can for his own safeguard But I admire that you and your Councel suffer him thus to proceed as if he came hither not to be adjudged but to murther the Judges you presently through favour will enfranchise him but he one day by Justice will assail yours And verily of the whole Senat no one escaped whom Herod being come to the full mannage of the Kingdom put not to death except him who delivered his opinion with such libertie It is reported of Sameas that when afterward there was question moved to receive Herod for King the rest constantly opposing it he freely said he gave his voice to Herod and some amazed thereat Let it not seem strange unto you saith he God in his indignation Grave speech will give unto you a bad King and a worse he cannot find than Herod He is the scourge you stand in need of to chastice your infidelitie Hircanus then seeing the Judges animated by Sameas more inclining to the ballance of justice than mercy caused him secretly to be shifted away For he embosomed him with love and so hatched the serpents egge in his breast Herod nothing inferiour to his father in policie pursuing his plots and examples inseparably united himself to the Romans gayning them with all manner of services and entertaining Hircanus to serve his turns as a shadow with all manner of complacence and flatterie The Kingdom of Judea seemed as yet not to behold him but at distance his brother Phaselus as the eldest held the best part Aristobulus whom you have seen led in fetters to Rome had also two sons the eldest of which was called Alexander father of this chaste Mariamne whose patience we decipher The other was Antigonus with whom Herod had much occasion Or both he discharged himself in Great revolution in the Kingdom of Judea process of time For the unfortunate Alexander successour to the unhappiness of his father Aristobulus putting himself into the field with such troops as he could amass together in the disaster of his fortune was in favour of Herod oppressed by the Romans Antigonus having escaped out of captivitie wherein he was held at Rome with Aristobulus his father gave Herod matter enough to work on For putting himself into the Parthians power he wrought so much with promises and hopes that they undertook to establish him in his Royal throne And thereupon they arm both by sea and land and handle the matter so by force and policie that they stir up Hircanus and Phaselus Herod with much difficultie saved himself and though he had a courage of steel was so astonished with this surprise that it was a great chance he had not ended his life upon his own sword Hircanus unworthily used by the commandment of his nephew Antigonus had both his ears cut off and thereby made for ever uncapable of the High-priestood Phaselus the brother of Herod enraged with the turn of fortune voluntarily knocked out his own brains against the side of a rock Herod who always cleaved to the fortune of the Romans as ivy to a wall seeing his affairs reduced to an extremitie imploreth their assistance representeth the outrages of Antigonus the hostilitie of the Parthians signifieth the services of his father Antipater promiseth on his part all the world and so handleth the matter that beyond his expectation he is declared King and at that instant Antigonus enemie of the people of Rome as a fugitive and ally of the Parthians Herod pursueth him with might and main ayded by the Roman forces The miserable Antigonus after a very long resistance was imprisoned becoming the very first of Kings who by commandment of Mark Anthony was executed with a punishment most unfit for his qualitie and condition and among the Romans not usual leaving his head upon a scaffold in the Citie of Antioch for no other cause but for the defence of the inheritance of his Ancestours But Strabo saith Mark
humane and politick without Heavens direction For so doing you will build upon quick-silver phantasms of greatness which will afford you illusions in this life to drench you in the other into eternal confusions When you have done all which justice and conscience Nec consilio prudenti nec remedio sagaci divinâ— providentiae fatalis dispositio subverti vel reformari potest Apul. Metamor 9. Heâ— fatis superi certasse minores Sil. Ital. l. 5. dictate leave successes to God and know there are strokes from Heaven that cannot be vanquished either by prudence of counsels or any humane remedies We are to be answerable unto God with our good desires not powers the petty gods of the earth can do nothing against the Decrees of Heaven Take these words of S. Paul not as ordinary but as Oracles of an immutable Veritie (a) (a) (a) Rom. 8. Prudentia carnis mors est prudentia autem spiritus vita pax Prudence of flesh is death but prudence of spirit is peace and life If you have good success in ought you do thank God and look on him saith (b) (b) (b) Bernard de consider l. 5. Tob. 6. 3. S. Bernard as an Omnipotent Will a virtue full of affection an eternal light a sovereign beatitude which replenisheth all here below with the abundance of his ever-honoured bounty But if in doing all you can you find main oppositions and irksom afflictions in the world say as the chast Sara did seeing her self injured by her servant O God I turn my face to the Ad. te Deus faciem mâ—am converto ad te oculos meos dirigo Peto Domine ut de vinculo improperii hujus absolvos me aut certe desuper terram cripias me c. place whence I expect my consolation I fix mine eyes on thee because thou settlest all my hopes I beseech thee deliver me from the fetters of this disgrace or deliver me out of this world Thy counsels are impenetrable to the weakness of my understanding but I am wel assured of one thing that he who faithfully serves thee shall never be deceived If his life be assaulted with afflictions it shall reap Crowns If it be exposed to the ardour of tribulations thou wilt stretch out an assisting hand If thou exercisest it under thy chastisements it shall be to make it find out the path of thy mercies The fifth EXAMPLE upon the fifth MAXIM Of the Providence of GOD over states and riches of the world EULOGIUS THe Divine Providence is a marvellous workman Drawn from the observation of Paul a Greek Authour which ruleth here below over the heads of mortals it laboureth in this great mass of mankind it takes men of earth to make them of gold and of those men of gold makes men of earth It commixeth slaves and Kings and causeth the one not thinking of it to spring from the other in the revolution of times as Plato said But we who know not all its secrets sometimes blame the works of it which should rather stir up our admiration than be subject to our censure One complaineth the wealth of the world is not well divided and that the wicked have ever the greatest share Men who oftentimes know not how to part with a finger breadth of land but by dis-joyning most intimate charities would make themselves distributers of the worlds fortunes as if they looked more narrowly into the world than he that made it I will here set down a memorable history drawn out of a rare Grecian Authour named Paulus who Paul Syllegus l. 3. c. 48. compiled many Narrations learned from the best of his Age. He recounteth how in the time of the Emperour Justin the elder about the year 528. after the birth of Christ there was in Thebais one named Eulogius a stone-cutter by his trade of poor means but very rich in virtue Which maketh us say Poverty resembles the Island of Ithaca as said Archesilas which Poverty the Isle of Ithaca 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stob. serm 93. though rough and bushie failed not to breed the bravest men of Greece whom she made use of as a school for all the exercises of virtues This man who at that time had no other wealth on earth but his hands spared not to store up treasures of good works as pledges in Heaven He feared Virtues of a good poor man God was devout chaste sober abstinent courteous peacefull charitable and embraced eminent virtues in a mean fortune It is a strange thing that notwithstanding his labour which was hard enough he fasted most part of his time even to Sun-set and with the little money he got by the sweat of his brows relieved the poor He walked like Abraham before pilgrims he washed their feet and received them into his little house with all possible charity Then seeking out needy persons of his own Parish to give them some refection according to his abilitie he extended his compassion even to beasts not suffering any thing to escape his bounty One would have said seeing all this poor trades-man did he had been some rich Lord such abundance appeared in so low a poverty It happened that a holy Hermit called Daniel who Daniel the Hermit made a rash demand lived in great reputation for the excellent endowments of his soul passing along that way so journed in the poor cottage of Eulogius who received him like an Angel descended from Heaven He who was a most spiritual man looking very far into the Mason's life found therein such eminent perfection that he well perceived devotion many times lodged with little noise in a secular life and that God who is a great Master had servants every where This so enflamed him to the love of those virtues he observed in his hoste that returning to the Monastery he exercised great devotion as fasting three whole weeks together with intention to obtain an ample estate from God for Eulogius Fervour so transported this good man that he considered not that God who preserveth us to health loveth us not to curiosity and that the banquets he made for his greatest servants as Elias and S. Paul the Hermit when he for them opened the treasures of Heaven were onely bread and clear water of fountains Notwithstanding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he without intermission importuned Heaven by his prayers complaining God who was most just gave riches in excess to so many sinners to puff up their pride and foment riot when the poor Mason who deserved rivers should stream nothing but gold for him was invaded by harsh poverty which tied up his hands from virtue But he persisting day and night to beg the fruit of his request heard a voice from Heaven which commanded him to lay aside so indiscreet a request saying If his Eulogius left his poverty he would forsake his conscience But he pertinaciously persevering in the pursuit of his desire through a goodness wholly blind answered He well knew
be therein sufficiently informed The Jews were heretofore the chosen people and are become the reprobate God for them drave back the waves of the read sea and suffered them to walk drie-foot between two waters as between two chrystal vaults and afterward why did he drown them so many times in rivers of their bloud with so horrible slaughters that in the whole siege of Jerusalem under Titus and Vespasian were reckoned according to Josephus his calculation eleven hundred thousand Vide Iosephum Hegesippum Thraenos dead God opened to them the sides of rocks to quench their thirst and afterward why dried he up the dugs of women who saw their little ones die between their arms they unable to give them one drop of milk God for them made Manna and clouds of Quails to showt and why afterward did he so afflict them with such cruel and enraged a famine that the hands of mercifull mothers slew and roasted on coals their own proper children and eat them to satisfie their hunger God carried them through deserts as upon eagles wings and wherefore afterward did he abandon them to eagles and vultures which so many times made carrion of the bodies of his children God had given them a land so fat and fruitful that it streamed altogether milk and honey and wherefore afterward had it entrails of iron denying food to the living yea burial to the dead God gave them strength as a devouring fire before which all Nations were but as straw and why afterwards became it the shuttle-cock of the arms of Infidels God gave them liberty for an inheritance and why afterward obtained they not so much as an honourable servitude Why at the siege of Jerusalem among so many thousand prisoners did they so much disdain to make use of a Jew that there being never a a Cross to crucifie them they were reserved for beasts to devour them rather than derive any service from them God gave them knowledge and wherefore afterwards became they blockish idle and stupid in all learning God ordained for them the assistance and protection of Angels and why afterward forsook they their Temple crying out aloud Let us depart let us depart from hence God destined to them Royalty and Empire over neighbouring Nations and why afterward had they not one inch of land at their own dispose and especially of land where formerly Jerusalem was built unless they purchased it with money onely to enjoy it one hour or two in the year and weep over it and bedew it with the water of their eyes after they had so often moistened it with their bloud God established priest-hood to them and afterwards what became of Jerusalem the Holy What became of Solomon's Temple the miracle of the world Where is the Propitiatory the Table of Proposition-bread the Rational which was before the peoples oracle Where is the majesty of High-priests the comeliness of Prelates the perpetuity of Sacrifices From whence comes it that it is above fifteen hundred years ago since this miserable Nation goes wandering through the Regions of the earth as abandoned into an eternal exile without Priests without Temple without Sacrifice without Prince King or government O eternal God how hast thou thrown down thy foot-stool O God of justice how hast thou made desolate thy royal Priesthood O God of vengeance how hast thou suffered thy Sanctuary to be profaned Who hath ever heard speech of such a punishment There have been adulteries rapines concussions gluttonies yea and idolatries which God hath not revenged in this manner A captivity of three-score and ten years expiated all these sins but this after fifteen hundred years to what sin may we attribute it but to the neglect of the essence of the Word Incarnate After the time that the Son of God shut his eyes steeped in tears and bloud over the miserable Jerusalem he never hath opened them to afford them mercy A Lord so sweet so mild so clement as that he raised thieves almost from bloud and robbery in an instant to thrones of glory for having acknowledged and confessed his name so roughly to chastise the neglect of his authority for the space of so many Ages what meaneth this but to prove the opposing of the divine Essence of God is a crime of all the most hydeous and unspeakable Run over the Histories of antiquity as long as you Tragical events of the wicked please revolve in your memory all the experiences which your Age may afford and if you see the impious come to a good end say There is no cause of fear Cain their Patriarch banished from the sight of God lived long like a melancholy spirit among forrests with a perpetual affrightment until Lamech took away his life The Cainists were all drenched in the waters of the deluge Pharaoh drowned in the Red-sea Nebuchadnezzar turned into a beast Holofernes slain in his bed by the hand of a woman Senacherib lost one hundred four-score and five thousand men for a blasphemy Antiochus strucken with a horrible maladie Birds did eat the tongue of Nicanor and his hand was hanged up over against the Temple Heliodorus was visibly chastised by Angels Herodes Agrippa born from the Theater to the bed of death The President Saturninus strucken blind Hermianus eaten by worms in his Pretourship Leo the fourth all covered over with botches and carbuncles Bamba crowned with a diadem of pitch after his eyes were pulled out Julian the Apostate strucken with a dart from Heaven Michael the Emperour who had in his train a heap of young scoffers that in scorn counterfeited the ceremonies of the Church was torn in pieces as a victim by his own servants Olympius strucken with thunder in a bath And if we observe times more near Rogero dragged to a laystall Vanin burnt at Tholouse Alsan Calefat divided between fire and water and slain by his own hand Great eye of God which art ever open upon the sins of the earth who can steal himself from the lightning-flashes Great hand of God who thunderest and lightenest perpetually over rebellious heads who is able to resist thy justice Advice to Youth and such as too easily give way to impietie O Unfortunate youth who having received the first tincture of good instruction after thou wert bred with so much care and honour by those to whom thou owedst thy birth betrayest the tears of thy parents the travels of thy teachers and the whole hopes of the publick How canst thou embark thy self among these treacherous and ignominious associates How canst thou walk among so many shelves and precipices not so much as once opening thy eyes to behold the abyss thou hast under thy feet So many heads crushed in pieces under the Divine vengeance are as broken masts and shivers of a shipwrack advanced on the promontory of rocks to give notice of the deplorable events they have found whose examples thou still pursuest yet thou lookest on them with arms across and dallyest in
composed a brief form of Confession making the penitent say thus Father I accuse my self That I have been disquieted with anger exasperated with envy puffed up with pride and have thereupon fallen into an inconstancy of mind scoffings slanders and excesses of speech I accuse my self That I have been more ready to judge my superiours than to obey them That being reprehended for my faults I have murmured and shewed my self refractory in matters of duty I accuse my self That I have preferred my self before my betters vaunting and boasting with much vanity and presumption of all that belonged to me and despising others with mockery and derision I accuse my self That I have neglected the duty of my own charge and ambitiously aimed at others I have neither had respect to obedience nor modesty in my words nor government in my carriage but much self-opinion in my intentions hardness in my heart and vain-glory in my words I accuse my self That I have been a Hypocrite stiff in hatred and aversion from my neighbour biting in speech impatient of subjection ambitious of honour covetous of wealth slothfull in works of Charity and Devotion in conversation unsociable and many times uncivil I accuse my self That I have been ready to speak of the actions of others rash in censuring contentious in arguing disdainfull in hearing presumptuous in informing others dissolute in laughter excessive in pleasures of tast and in gaming costly in apparel burthensom to my friends troublesom to the peacefull ungratefull to those who have done me any good harsh and imperious to such as were under my charge I have boasted to have done that which I did not to have seen what I saw not to have said what I said not and on the contrary have dissembled and denied to have seen what I have seen to have said what I did say and to have done what I did do I accuse my self of carnal thoughts impure rememberances dishonest motions which I have not soon enough resisted They who live more dissolutely shall find as Hamartolus a Greek Authour saith that they have great accounts to cast up at the audit of concupiscence wherefore they may examine themselves concerning kisses touchings softness pollutions fornications adulteries abuse of marriage and other sins called monstrous adding also impieties sorceries divinations false oaths perjuries blasphemies calumnies contentions disobediences injustices oppressions falsehoods thefts usuries sacriledges and the like You must not think that there can be made a Form of Confession like a boot fit for all legs consciences are as faces every one hath its diversity what Saint Bernard hath said in general may serve for a direction yet must it be particularized with the circumstances expressing the intention quality manner and continuance of the vice The twentieth SECTION An excellent Prayer of S. Augustine for this exercise taken out of a Manuscript of Cardinal Seripandus O God behold the stains and wounds of my sin which I never can nor will bide from the eyes of thy Majesty I feel the smart of them already in remorse of my conscience and other sufferings ordained by thy providence for my correction but all that I suffer cannot equal my demerit I onely wonder that feeling the pain of sin so often I still retain the malice and obstinacy of it My weakness boweth under the burden yet my iniquitie remaineth immoveable My life groaneth in languishments yet is not reformed in its works If thou deferre the punishment I deferre my amendment and if thou chastise me I can no longer endure Whilest thou correctest I confess my offence but after thy visitation I remember my sorrows no more As long as thou hast the rod in hand to scourge me I promise all But if thou withdraw it I perform nothing If thou touch me I crie out for mercy and if thou pardon I again provoke thee to strike O Lord God I confess my miseries and implore thy clemency without which there is no salvation for me O God give me what I ask of thee though without any merit of mine since without any merit of mine thou hast taken me out of nothing to ask it of thee The one and twentieth SECTION Of Communion the chiefest of all acts of Devotion with a brief Advice concerning the practise of it AS for Receiving remember the six leaves of the Lilly which it ought to have I mean desire and purity before you present your self at it Humility and Charity in presenting your self thanksgiving and newness of spirit after you have presented your self And if you desire to know the qualities whereby you may discern a luke-warm Communion from a fervent I say that a good Communion ought to be light som savoury nourishing effectual Lightsom in illuminating you ever more and more with the light and truth of faith which begets in you an esteem of divine things and a contempt of the worldly fading and temporal Savoury in making you to relish in will and sense what you know by the light of understanding Yet if you have not this last in a tender and sensible devotion be not discomforted at it for sensible devotion will often happen to those that have least charity as Richardus observes upon the Canticles Affectuosa dilectio interdum officit minùs diligentem It is sufficient that you have good habits of virtue in the upper region of your soul Nourishing in keeping your self in a good spiritual estate in good resentments of Heavenly things in good affections towards the service of God free from driness leanness and voluntary barrenhess Effectual in applying your self immediately to the exercise of solid virtues humility patience charity and the works of mercy for that is the most undoubted mark of a good Communion It is good to present your self with sincere intentions pondered and fitted to occurrences communicating as Bonaventure observes sometimes for remission of sins sometimes for remedy of infirmities sometimes for deliverance out of some affliction sometimes to obtain a benefit sometimes for thanksgiving sometimes also for the help of our neighbour And lastly to offer up a perfect praise to the most blessed Trinitie to commemorate the passion of Jesus Christ and to grow daily in love toward him To this end before you communicate you may say this Prayer of Thomas Aquinas O Most sweet Jesus My Lord and Master O that the force of thy love subtiler than fire and sweeter than honey would engulf my soul in an Abyss drawing it from all inordinate affections to things heneath Heaven that I might die with love of thee since out of love thou didst vouchsafe to die on the Cross for me And after Communion make these Petitions of S. Augustine O God let me know thee and let me also know my self Let the end of my desires be ever where thou art O god let me hear no hatred but to my self nor love but to thee and be thou the beginning progress and the end of all my actions O God let me humble my self
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
on thy part what ingratitudes on mine Preserve me in what is thine and wash away with the precious bloud of thy Son what is mine Shelter me under the wings of thy protection from so many shadows apparitions and snares of the father of darkness and grant that though sleep close my eys yet my heart may never be shut to thy love Lastly fall asleep upon some good thought that your night as the Prophet saith may be enlightened with the delights of God and if you chance to have any interruption of sleep supply it with ejaculatory prayers and elevations of heart as the just did of old called for this reason The crickets of the night Thus shall you lead a life full of honour quiet and satisfaction to your self and shall make every day a step to Eternity The marks which may amongst others give you good hope of your predestination are eleven principall 1. Faith lively simple and firm 2. Purity of life exempt ordinarily from grievous sins 3. Tribulation 4. Clemency and mercy 5. Poverty of spirit disengaged from the earth 6. Humility 7. Charity to your neighbour 8. Frequentation of the blessed Sacrament 9. Affection to the word of God 10. Resignation of your own mind to the will of your Sovereign Lord. 11. Some remarkable act of virtue which you have upon occasion exercised You will find this Diary little in volume but great in virtue if relishing it well you begin to put it in practice It contains many things worthy to be meditated at leisure for they are grave and wise precepts choisely extracted out of the moral doctrine of the Fathers Though they seem short they cost not the less pains Remember that famous Artist Myrmecides employed more time to make a Bee than an unskilfull workman to build a house EJACULATIONS FOR THE DIARY In the Morning MY voice shalt thou hear in the morning O Lord In the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee and will look up Psal 5. 3. Thou shalt make thy face to shine upon me and all the beasts of the forest shall gather themselves together and lay them down in their dens Psal 184. 22. My dayes are like the dayes of an hireling Untill the day break and the shadows flie away Job 7. 1. Cant. 4. 6. Beginning a good work In the volume of the book it is written of me I delight to do thy will O my God yea thy Law is within my heart Psal 40. 7. 8. In good Inspirations The Lord God hath opened mine ear and I was not rebellious neither turned away back Isaiah 50. 5. At Church How amiable are thy Tabernacles O Lord of hosts Psal 84. 1. Before reading Speak Lord for thy servant heareth 1 Samuel 3. 9. Speaking My heart is inditing a good matter I speak of the things which I have made touching the King Psal 45. 1. Eating Thou openest thine hand and satisfiest the desire of every living thing Psal 145. In Prosperity If I do not remember thee let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth If I prefer not thee above my chief joy Psal 137. 6. Adversity The Lord killeth and maketh alive 1 Sam. 2. 6. Shall we receive good at the hand of God and shall we not receive evil Job 2. 10. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glorie Luke 24. 26. Troubles Surely man walketh in a vain shew surely they are disquieted in vain Psal 39. 6. Calumnies If I pleased men I should not be the servant of Christ Gal. 1. 10. Praises Not unto us O Lord not unto us but unto thy Name give glorie Psal 115. 1. Against vain hope As a dream when one awaketh so O Lord when thou awakest thou shalt despise their image Psalm 73. 20. Pride Whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased Luke 14. 11. Covetousness It is more blessed to give than to receive Acts 20. 35. Luxury Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ 1. Cor. 6. 15. Envy He that loveth not his brother abideth in death 1 John 3. 14. Gluttony The Kingdom of God is not meat and drink Rom. 14. 17. Anger Learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart Matth. 11. 29. Sloth Cursed be he that doth the work of the Lord negligently Jer. 48. 10. Rules of Faith God cannot be known but by himself What is to be understood of God is to be learned by God Hilar lib. 5. de Trin. God doth not call us to the blessed life by hard questions In simplicity must we seek him in piety profess him Idem lib. 10. Remove not the ancient bounds which thy fathers have set Prov. 22. 28. Many are the reasons which justly hold me in the bosom of the Catholick Church Consent of people and nations Authority begun by miracles nourished by hope encreased by charity confirmed by antiquity August lib. De utilitate credendi To dispute against that which the universal Church doth maintenance is insolent madness Idem Epist 118. Let us follow universality antiquity consent Let us hold that which is believed every where always by all Vincentius Lyrinensis De profanis vocum novitatibus Acts of Faith Lord I believe help thou mine unbelief Marc. 9. 24. I know that my Redeemer liveth c. Job 19. 25. Hope Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me Psal 24. 4. I will be with him in trouble I will deliver him and honour him Psal 90. 15. Charity Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee My flesh and my heart faileth but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever Psal 73. 25 26. Feed me O Lord thy suppliant with the continual influence of thy Divinity This I request this I desire that vehement love may throughly pierce me fill me and change me into it self Blosius PRAYERS for all Persons and occasions For the Church WE beseech thee O Lord graciously to accept the prayers of thy Church that she being delivered from all adversitie and errour may serve thee in safety and freedom through Jesus Christ our Lord. For the King WE beseech thee O Lord that thy servant CHARLS by thy gracious appointment our King and Governour may be enriched with all encrease of virtue whereby he may be able to eschew evil and to follow Thee the Way the Truth and the Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. For a Friend ALmighty and ever-living Lord God have mercy upon thy servant N. and direct him by thy goodness into the way of eternall salvation that through thy grace he may desire those things which please thee and with his whole endeavour perform the same through Jesus Christ our Lord. For Peace O God from whom all holy desires all good counsels and all just works do proceed give unto us thy servants that peace which the world cannot give that both our hearts may be set
to obey thy Commandments and also that by thee we being defended from the fear of our enemies may pass our time in rest and quietness through the merits of Jesus Christ our Saviour In the time of Plague LEt thy anger cease O Lod and be appeased for the iniquity of thy people as thou hast sworn by thy self O holy God holy and strong holy and immortal have mercy upon us For the Clergy ALmighty and everlasting God who by thy Spirit dost sanctifie and govern the whole body of the Church graciously hear our prayers for all those whom thou hast ordained and called to the publick service of thy Sanctuary that by the help of thy grace they may faithfully serve thee in their several degrees through Jesus Christ our Lord. For a Citie COmpass this Citie O Lord with thy protection and let thy holy Angels guard the walls thereof O Lord mercifully hear thy people For the sick O God the onely refuge of our infirmities by thy mighty power relieve thy sick servants that they with thy gracious assistance may be able to give thanks unto thee in thy holy Church through Jesus Christ For grace LOrd from whom all good things do come grant unto us thy humble servants that by thy holy inspiration we may think those things that be good and by thy merciful guiding may perform the same through our Lord Jesus Christ For the afflicted O Almighty God the afflicted soul the troubled spirit crieth unto thee Hear O Lord and have mercy for thou art a merciful God For friends I Beseech thee O Lord for all those to whom I am indebted for my birth education instruction promotion their necessities are known unto thee thou art rich in all things reward them for these benefits with blessings both temporal and eternal For enemies O God the lover and preserver of peace and charity give unto all our enemies thy true peace and love and remission of sins and mightily deliver us from their snares through Jesus Christ our Lord. For travellers ASsist us mercifully O Lord in our supplications and prayers and dispose the way of thy servants towards the attainment of everlasting salvation that among all the changes and chances of this mortal life they may ever be defended by thy most gracious and ready help through Christ our Lord. For a Family ALmighty and everlasting God send down thy holy Angel from heaven to visit protect and defend all that dwell in this house through Jesus Christ our Lord. For the dying FAther of spirits and God of all flesh receive the souls which thou hast redeemed with thy bloud returning unto thee For the fruits of the earth O God in whom we live and move and have our being open thy treasure in the due season and give a blessing to the works of thy hands For women in travel O Lord of thy goodness help thy servants who are in pains of child-birth that being delivered out of their present danger they may glorifie thy holy name blessed for ever Against temptation ALmighty God which dost see that we have no power of our selves to help our selves keep thou us both outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul through Jesus Christ For misbelievers and sinners ALmighty and everliving God who desirest not the death of a sinner mercifully look upon all that are deceived by the subtility of Satan that all evil prejudice laid aside they may return to the unity of thy truth and love For Prisoners O God who didst deliver S. Peter from his chains and restoredst him to liberty have pitie upon thy servants in captivity release their bonds and grant them freedom and safety for his merits who liveth and reigneth with thee and the holy Ghost ever one God world without end For temporal necessaries REplenish those O Lord we beseech thee with temporal nourishment whom thou hast refreshed with thy blessed Sacraments Against tempests DRive spiritual wickedness from thy house O Lord and preserve it from the malignity of tempestuous weather A Prayer of Thomas Aquinas before study O Unspeakable Creatour who out of the treasure of thy wisdom hast ordained Hierarchies of Angels and hast placed them above the highest heaven in a wonderfull order and disposed them sweetly for all parts of the world Thou the true fountain and incomprehensible principle of light and wisdom vouchsafe to illuminate the darkness of my understanding with a beam of thy light remove the darkness wherein I was born sin and ignorance Thou who makest the tongues of infants eloquent loosen my tongue and pour forth the grace of thy spirit upon my lips give me acuteness to apprehend capacity to retain subtility to interpret aptness to learn readiness to speak direct my beginning further my progression and perfect my conclusion THE PENITENT OR ENTERTAINMENTS for LENT And for the first day upon the Consideration of Ashes THou art Dust and to Dust thou shalt return Genes 3. 1. It is an excellent way to begin Lent with the consideration of Dust whereby Nature gives us beginning and by the same Death shall put an end to all our worldly vanities There is no better way to abate and humble the proudest of all Creatures than to represent his beginning and his end The middle part of our life like a kind of Proteus takes upon it several shapes not understood by others but the first and last part of it deceive no man for they do both begin and end in Dust It is a strange thing that Man knowing well what he hath been and what he must be is not confounded in himself by observing the pride of his own life and the great disorder of his passions The end of all other creatures is less deformed than that of man Plants in their death retain some pleasing smell of their bodies The little rose buries it self in her natural sweetness and carnation colour Many Creatures at their death leave us their teeth horns feathers skins of which we make great use Others after death are served up in silver and golden dishes to feed the greatest persons of the world Onely mans dead carcase is good for nothing but to feed worms and yet he often retains the presumptuous pride of a Giant by the exorbitancie of his heart and the cruel nature of a murderer by the furious rage of his revenge Surely that man must either be stupid by nature or most wicked by his own election who will not correct and amend himself having still before his eyes Ashes for his Glass and Death for his Mistress 2. This consideration of Dust is an excellent remedy to cure vices and an assured Rampire against all temptations S. Paulinus saith excellently well That holy Job was free from all temptations when he was placed upon the smoke and dust of his humility He that lies upon the ground can
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
running to him fell upon his neck and kissed him And his son said to him Father I have sinned against Heaven and before thee I am not now worthy to be called thy son And the father said to his servants Quickly bring forth the first stole and do it on him and put a ring upon his hand and shoes upon his feet and bring the fatted calf and kill it and let us eat and make merry because this my son was dead and is revived was lost and is found And they began to make merry But his elder son was in the field and when he came and drew nigh to the house he heard musick and dancing And he called one of the servants and asked what these things should be And he said to him Thy brother is come and thy father hath killed the fatted calf because he hath received him safe But he had indignation and would not go in His father therefore going forth began to desire him But he answering said to his father Behold so many years do I serve thee and I never transgressed thy commandment and thou didst never give me a Kid to make merry with my friends But after that thy son this that hath devoured his substance with whores is come thou hast killed for him the fatted calf But he said to him Son thou art always with me and all my things are thine But it behoved us to make merry and be glad because this thy brother was dead and is revived was lost and is found Moralities 1. THis parable is a true table expressing the excursions of a prodigal soul and her return to the mercy of God by the way of repentance Note that the first step which she trode toward her own destruction as Cain did was her departing from God not by changing of place but of heart It departed from the chiefest light which made it fall into an eclipse of reason and so into profound darkness She diverted her self from the greatest bounty which made her encline toward all wickedness being strayed from her sovereign being which made her become just nothing 2. She continued in sin as in a Countrey which was just nothing where she was vexed on all sides with disquiet with cares with fears and discontents All sins toss their followers as the ball is tossed at Baloon Vanity sends them to pride pride to violence violence to avarice avarice to ambition ambition to pomp and riot pomp to gluttony gluttony to luxury luxury to idleness idleness to contempt and poverty and that poverty brings them to all worldly misery For all mischiefs follow a wicked soul which departing from God thinks to find a better condition 3. Affliction opens the eyes of man and makes him come to himself that he may the better return to God There is no journey so far as when a man departs from himself not by place but by manners A sea of Licentiousness interposeth it self between his soul and innocence to divorce her from the way of goodness But Gods grace is a burning wind which dries it up and having brought man to himself takes him by the hand and leads him even to God 4. O what a happy thing it is to consider the effects of Gods mercy in the entertainment of the good father to his prodigal son The one had lost all which he had of a good son but the other had not lost what belonged to a good father The son had yet said nothing when fatherly affection pleaded for him in the heart of his father who felt the dolours of a spiritual labour and his entrails were moved to give a second birth to his son Though he were old yet he went the pace of a young man Charity gives him wings to flie to the embracements of his lost child He is most joyfull of that comes with him even of his very poverty This without doubt should give us a marvellous confidence in Gods mercy when we seek it with hearty repentance It is a sea of bounty which washeth away all that is amiss Since he hath changed the name of master into that of father he will rather command by love than reign by a predominant power No man ought to despair of pardon except he who can be as fully wicked as God is good none is so mercifull as God none is so good a father as he for when you may have lost your part of all his virtues you can never while you live lose the possibility of his mercy He will receive you between his arms without any other reason but your return by repentance 5. The same Parable is also a true glass shewing the life of those young unthrifts who think they are born onely for sport for their bellies and for pleasure They imagine their fathers keep for them the golden mines of Peru and their life being without government their expences are without measure Some of them run through the world they wander into all places but never enter into consideration of themselves They return from forrain parts loden with debts and bring home nothing but some new fantastical fashions cringes and corantoes There are many of them in whom pride and misery continue inseparable after they have lost their money and their brains Their fathers are causes of their faults by gathering so much wealth for those who know not how to use it Yet if they have the true repentance of the prodigal child he must not deny them pardon But mercy must not be had of those who ask it by strong hand or seek it by a counterfeit sorrow Aspirations IT is an accursed wandring to travel into the countrey of nothing where pleasure drops down as water from a storm the miserable consequences whereof have leaden feet which never remove from the heart Good God what a countrey is that where the earth is made of quick-silver which steals it self from under our feet when we think to tread upon it What a countrey is that where if a man gather one bud of roses he must be forced to eat a thousand thorns and be companion with the most nasty filthy beasts in their stinking ordures and be glad to eat of their loathsom draffe for want of other meat Alas I have surfetted and such a misery as this is necessary to make me remember the happiness which I possessed in thy house O mercifull Father behold my prodigal soul which returns to thee and will have no other advocate but thy goodness which as yet pleads for me within thy heart I have consumed all which I had but I could not consume thy mercy For that is as an Abyss which surpasseth that of my sins and Miseries Receive me as a mercenary servant if I may not obtain the name of a son Why shouldst not thou receive that which is thine since the wicked spirits have taken that which was not theirs Either shew me mercy or else shew me a heart more fatherly than thine and if neither earth nor heaven can
as mine Mine eyes O mine eyes who have first received that fire which hath so passionately devoured my soul I will make you imitate the Pond of Hesebon and sooner shall those two fountains be dried up which serve the stream of Jordan than you shall want water to wash the steps of your Concupiscences I will have that neck which hath suffered it self to be embraced by unlawfull Arms held under the yoke of him that hath overcome me and so happily subjected me to to his Empire These arms and hands which have been the chains of wanton embracements shall henceforth for ever be lifted up to Heaven in prayer and they shall have no other Altars but the feet of my Lord and Master if I dare think my self worthy to kiss them This mouth which hath been the gate of unchastity shall now become a Temple of Gods praises And this heart which hath been a burning furnace of worldly love shall be a burning lamp of holy affections before God and shall have no other oyl to maintain it but that water which shall be drawn from mine eyes O my God since I have so betrayed my heart abused my youth spent prodigally thy Treasures and made crowns to Baal out of thy silver since I have forsaken thee who art eternal unchangeable and incomparable Goodness without whom all other goods are nothing to follow a wanton fire which hath brought me to the brim of everlasting precipice where shall I find sufficient tears to wash my offences where shall I find enow parts of my body to be continually offered up as the sacrifice of my repentance I would make my life immortal to have my pains so lasting and if thy mercy will not let me be the object of thy vengeance let me at least serve for a sacrifice at thy Altars The Gospel upon Friday the fifth week in Lent S. John 11. The Jews said What shall we do for this man doth many miracles THe chief Priests therefore and the Pharisees gathered a Councel and said What shall we do for this man doth many signs if we let him alone so all will believe in him and the Romans will come and take away our place and Nation But one of them named Caiaphas being the High Priest of that year said to them You know nothing neither do you consider that it is expedient for us that one man die for the people and the whole Nation perish not And this he said not of himself but being the High Priest of that year be prophesied that Jesus should die for the Nation and not onely for the Nation but to gather in one the children of God that were dispersed From that day therefore they devised to kill him Jesus therefore walked no more openly among the Jews but he went into the Countrey beside the Desart unto a Citie that is called Ephrem and there he abode with his Disciples Moralities 1. ONe of the greatest Tragedies acted in the life of man which makes curious persons to question wise men to wonder good men to groan and the wicked to rejoyce is to see an innocent man oppressed by colour of justice Now Jesus being resolved to espouse our miseries as far as they can reach was pleased to pass through those rigours and formalities of the wicked coloured with a pretext of equity He is not here condemned by a mean people without consideration without power without formality of process But by these chief Priests and principal men of that Nation assembled in Councel they informed themselves they reason and conclude his death The Lions of Solomons throne did anciently bear certain Writs of the Law to signifie that it was to be handled by couragious and clear-seeing Judges But here Foxes got it into their hands and did manage it by crafty deceits and wickedness Alas we are far from the Laws of God when we cannot abide the least word spoken against our reputation We are troubled to suffer for innocency as if it were a greater honour to suffer for a direct offence Shall we never think that the triumph of virtue consists in well doing and thereby sometimes receiving harm even from those who are esteemed good men 2. There are some difficulties in affairs where truth is shut up as within a cloud Wise men can hardly find out where the point lies but God doth so order it that falshood leaves always certain marks by which it may be known and the beauty of truth is ever like that lake of Affrick which early or late discovers all that is cast into it and makes all impostures plainly appear when we think they are most concealed And this appears by the proceeding of Caiaphas who chose to condemn Christ for those things which were the certain tokens that he was the true Messias He concluded his death by reason of his miracles and those gave him authority as to the Prince of life A troubled spirit makes darts of every thing which it can to fight against reason and kills it self not suspecting its own poison 3. The devil publisheth Jesus for the true Messias and so doth likewise Caiaphas prophesie the same It is not always a certain mark of goodness to speak that which is good but it is an assurance of virtue to avoid that which is ill There are many from whom good works do escape while they both think and do ill Truth makes use of their tongues when Devils command their hearts It is this which makes us to see our Saviours Empire and the extent of his conquests which is not limited by time he being already entered into possession of Eternity and it is not bounded by place because it contains all Immensity Night hath no power to cover it because it is light it self It cannot be shut up in any deceitfull shadow because it scatters and discovers all falshood It cannot be comprehended within our senses because it exceeds their Capacity and it is present in all places being omnipotent and eternal in all time Aspirations O Jesus Father of all blessed unions who hast suffered death to unite all the children of God together who are scattered over all the countreys of the world wilt thou have no pitie of my heart so many times torn in pieces strayed among a great multitude of objects which estrange and draw me from the first of all Unities My soul melts through all the Gates of my senses by running after so many creatures which do kindle covetousness but never serve to refresh or cool the heat of it Draw me O Lord from the great throng of so many exteriour things that I may retire into my own heart and from thence arise to thine where I may find that peace which thou hast cemented fast with thy most precious bloud When shall I see the first beams of that liberty which thou grantest to thy children When shall my thoughts return from wandering in those barren regions where thou art not acknowledged When shall I be re-united and so
whole world as he did proportioning his torments according to the fruits which were to proceed from his Cross Perhaps O faithfull soul thou lookest for a mans body in thy Jesus but thou findest nothing but the appearance of one crusted over with gore bloud Thou seekest for limbs and findest nothing but wounds Thou lookest for a Jesus which appeared glorious upon Mount Tabor as upon a Throne of Majestie with all the Ensigns of his Glory and thou findest onely a skin all bloudy fastened to a Cross between two thieves And if the consideration of this cannot bring drops of bloud from thy heart it must be more insensible than a diamond 3. To conclude observe the third quality of a good death which will declare it self by the exercise of great and heroick virtues Consider that incomparable mildness which hath astonished all Ages hath encouraged all virtues hath condemned all revenges hath instructed all Schools and crowned all good actions He was raised upon the Cross when his dolours were most sharp and piercing when his wounds did open on all sides when his precious bloud shed upon the earth and moistened it in great abundance when he saw his poor clothes torn in pieces and yet bloudy in the hands of those who crucified him He considered the extream malice of that cruel people how those which could not wound him with iron pierced him with the points of their accursed tongues He could quickly have made fire come down from Heaven upon those rebellious heads And yet forgetting all his pains to remember his mercies he opened his mouth and the first word he spake was in favour of his enemies to negotiate their reconciliation before his soul departed The learned Cardinal Hugues admiring this excessive charity of our Saviour toward his enemies applies excellent well that which is spoken of the Sun in Ecclesiasticus He brings news to all the world at his rising and at noon day he burns the earth and heats those furnaces of Nature which make it produce all her feats So Jesus the Sun of the intelligible world did manifest himself at his Nativity as in the morning But the Cross was his bed at noon from whence came those burning streams of Love which enflame the hearts of all blessed persons who are like furnaces of that eternal fire which burns in holy Sion On the other part admire that great magnanimity which held him so long upon the Cross as upon a throne of honour and power when he bestowed Paradise upon a man that was his companion in suffering I cannot tell whether in this action we should more admire the good fortune of the good thief or the greatness of Jesus The happiness of the good thief who is drawn for a cut-throat to prison from prison to the Judgement-hall from thence to the Cross and thence goes to Paradise without needing any other gate but the heart of Jesus On the other side what can be more admirable than to see a man crucified to do that act which must be performed by the living God when the world shall end To save some to make others reprobate and to judge from the heighth of his Cross as if he sate upon the chiefest throne of all Monarchs But we must needs affirm that the virtue of patience in this holds a chief place and teaches very admirable lessons He endures the torments of body and the pains of spirit in all the faculties of his soul in all the parts of his virgin flesh and by the cruelty and multiplicity of his wounds they all become one onely wound from the sole of his foot to the top of his head His delicate body suffers most innocently and all by most ingrate and hypocritical persons who would colour their vengeance with an apparance of holiness He suffers without any comfort at all and which is more without bemoaning himself he suffers whatsoever they would or could lay upon him to the very last gasp of his life Heaven wears mourning upon the Cross all the Citizens of Heaven weep over his torments the earth quakes stones rend themselves Sepulchers open the dead arise Onely Jesus dies unmoveable upon this throne of patience To conclude who would not be astonished at the tranquility of his spirit and amongst those great convulsions of the world which moved round about the Cross amongst such bloudy dolours insolent cries and insupportable blasphemies how he remained upon the Cross as in a Sanctuary at the foot of an Altar bleeding weeping and praying to mingle his prayers with his bloud and tears I do now understand why the Wiseman said He planted Isles within the Abyss since that in so great a Gulf of afflictions he shewed such a serenity of spirit thereby making a Paradise for his Father amongst so great pains by the sweet perfume of his virtues After he had prayed for his enemies given a promise of Paradise to the good thief and recommended his Mother to his Disciple he shut up his eyes from all humane things entertaining himself onely with prayers and sighs to his Heavenly Father O that at the time of our deaths we could imitate the death of Jesus and then we should be sure to find the streams of life Aspirations O Spectacles of horrour but Abyss of goodness and mercy I feel my heart divided by horrour pitie hate love execration and adoration But my admiration being ravished carries me beyond my self Is this then that bloudy sacrifice which hath been expected from all Ages This hidden mystery this profound knowledge of the Cross this dolorous Jesus which makes the honourable amends between Heaven and earth to the eternal Father for expiation of the sins of humane kind Alas poor Lord thou hadst but one life and I see a thousand instruments of death which have taken it away Was there need of opening so many bloudy doors to let out thine innocent soul Could it not part from thy body without making on all sides so many wounds which after they have served for the objects of mens cruelty serve now for those of thy mercy O my Jesus I know not to whom I speak for I do no more know thee in the state thou now art or if I do it is onely by thy miseries because they are so excessive that there was need of a God to suffer what thou hast endured I look upon thy disfigured countenance to find some part of thy resemblance and yet can find none but that of thy love Alas O beautifull head which dost carry all the glory of the highest Heaven divide with me this dolorous Crown of Thorns they were my sins which sowed them and it is thy pleasure that thine innocency should mow them Give me O Sacred mouth give me that Gall which I see upon thy lips suffer me to sprinkle all my pleasures with it since after a long continuance it did shut up and conclude all thy dolours Give me O Sacred hands and adored feet the Nails which have pierced
He sayes that it was a design of God on which they should think no more unlesse to thank him These bad brethren after their fathers death finding themselves pricked with remorse of conscience and imagining that that pardon was but a dissembling cast themselves at his feet and beseech him to lay aside all the resentments of past wrongs but he raised them weeping and promised them a Charity totally fraternall and for ever inviolable And though he was so puissant and so absolute he never advanced his own children to the prejudice of his brothers observing them and respecting in every thing the right of Eldership which nature had given them over him Certainly a man that hath such a power over himself ought to be looked upon on earth as a Starre that should descend from heaven and as the liveliest image of the divine Goodnesse he merits not onely to triumph on Pharaoh's charrets but on the Heaven of heavens and so be beheld by Angels with admiration of his desert Finally that which was glorious in Joseph for the fulnesse of this perfection was the strength and equality of an incomparable spirit he was alwayes like himself and saw all the changes of his fortune without changing He descends into the deep pit with the same countenance as he mounts upon Pharaoh's charret He complains of nothing He accuses no body He stifles all the displeasures and all the resentment of nature in him He is loved of his Mistresse without condescending to her passion He is hated of her without accusing her cruelty He is accused without defending himself persecuted without resisting So many years roul over his head without writing one onely word to his father to the disadvantage of his inhumane brothers He suffers with silence He hides his evils with industry He does good without affectation He bears upon his shoulders all the cares of a great Government without groaning under his burden He communicates his glories and his pleasures He reserves to himself onely the toils He takes the bitter and the sweet the hard and the soft prosperities and adversities as the sea that receives all the rivers without changing either colour or savour All his life is but a picture that hath alwaies the same visage and as the Deâ—ty does continually one and the same action without altering or wearying it self he continues the exercises of his goodnes without remission even to the last article of his life MOSES WHat spectacle is this here A cradle of bulrushes floating upon the River Nile and in it a little abandoned Infant for whom his own mother is constrained to make a grave of water to avoid the fury of the murderers that came to pluck him from the breast His sister follows him with weeping eyes and sayes to him Go poor child whither fortune shall conduct thee go my dear brother upon the floats of a furious Element which perhaps will be more favourable to thee then those inhumane men that seek thy life when as thou knowest not yet what 't is to live This River will have pity on thee or if it swallows up thy cradle in its waves it will lodge thy bones in its bosome and cover thy death to sweeten the bitterest of our evils which is to have eyes to look upon our misery But while that this poor maid weeps upon the bank of Nilus and mingles her tears with the water of the River Providence takes the care of that cradle she makes her self as the Pilot of that little vessel which is without mast without rudder without cordage she supplies all and does all she shews how one may find life in death and an haven in a shipwrack The daughter of King Pharaoh comes with her female train and in it is her intention to bathe her self but in God's intention that she might be made the mother of that little Infant exposed to the mercy of the waters and that since she could not be so by Nature she might be by Adoption She discovers first of all that cradle which was on the waters side and dispatches one of her damsels to take it up and bring it her that she might see what was in it she finds a very fair child which pleads his case before her by the cloquence of his tears and of his cryes and implores her mercy against the fury of the Infant-slayers Her heart is melted in compassion towards it and she gives command that it should be kept and nourished his sister standing opportunely by sayes unto her that she knew where was a good Nurse that would well acquit her self of that duty if it pleased her Majesty that she might call her whereto she having shewed some inclination she causes the mother to come that nursed with all security her dear Infant which she had exposed through diffidence This little body drawn out of the bundle of rushes is he that God hath chosen to shake all Egypt to overthrow the pride of Pharaoh's and to draw his people out of Captivity The Hebrews were already multiplied exceedingly in the Kingdome of Egypt after the death of Joseph in the space of sixty five years and began to make themselves feared of their Masters The face of the Realm was changed and he that was then upon the Throne was a Prince that remembred not any longer the obligations that the Monarchy had to the Patriarch Joseph but blamed the counsels of his Predecessours for having permitted a stranger-people to have a dwelling in his Kingdome that seeming to him according to humane Policy of pernicious consequence and thinking that that waxing stronger as it did every day might be capable to make an attempt upon the State or be serviceable to those that had a design to make a commotion and to embroil the affairs of the Kingdome He judged not ill according to the rules of Politicians and for that purpose he resoved with himself to abate and to destroy them by what means soever it was done The first was to consume them amongst stones and mortar in the structure of those prodigious Pyramids that are to be seen in Egypt The second was to command the Midwives to kill all the Male-children which they did not execute through the fear which they had of God and the horrour of that command This made him advise upon a third means and ordain that all the Boyes from the day of their birth should be drowned in the River Nile But God that would teach Princes and State-Ministers that although one should have in Idea any just and lawfull design yet one never ought to seek to compasse it by unjust and violent means permitted not this unhappy Prince that gnawed himself with cares and unquietnesse and tormented his life by so many new inventions of malice and of fury ever to bring about what he projected and his successour after a thousand scourges and a thousand disastres of his Kingdome which he saw every day fall by pieces before his eyes was buried in the red