oh my beloved sonnes to partake some part of the burthen with mee Which you doe if you will remembring your owne salvation keepe Gods Commandements and live in unity and godly love from which as from a most plentifull Fountaine will flow out abundantly wonderfull vertues viz. Humility mutuall love setled peace and concord which vertues if they doe as they should do abide and abound in you Christ will be alwayes amongst you and all things will have good successe This is it as I said before to divide the burthen with me and so hee divinely goes on exhorting them to have God in all their thoughts these are the things said he that I thought fit to admonish you of at my entrance This was a faire demonstration what a worthy Bishop hee would bee to them His speciall care was to take away all strifes and contentions from amongst them and therefore in his speeches to them still commended peace and unity which were so full of native and genuine Eloquence and strengthned by Gods Word and his beautifull Life that they tooke deeply and did work powerfully for what he said that he did his Heart was adorned with charity his countenance was composed of meeknesse Hee was wondrous affable hee was temperately severe What a care had he of the poore How did hee support poore Orphans and Widowes Was he not a Father to all Ages Sexes Orders that were in that City how carefull in his Sermons to excite men not onely to heare but also to worke out their salvation How watchfull was hee in his Episcopall charge lest the Devill should cause any of his floâ—â—â— to goe astray What admonitions gave he to his Clergy and lest while hee preached unto others he himselfe should be a cast away how did hee addict himselfe to watching fasting prayer and Meditation Did hee not likewise send Letters to other Bishops his fellow-labourers to entreat them not to forget their charge which actions and deportments as they did deserve love so they did gaine him the love and reverence of all about him He sate Bishop two and twenty yeers in Rhegium unto the 466. yeer of Christ. He flourished chiefly under Leo the 1 Having done his work so well so long a time in the Church the time of his dissolution came and he fell sicke and dyed But before he yielded up the Ghost he called divers unto him and made a heavenly speech unto them all weeping for the feare of losing so good a Bishop and so worthy a Father It begins Video dilectissimi c. I see most dearely beloved how you all grieve and I wonder not for it is hard for true lovers to part without teares but you must beare it for to have stayed longer here might seem better for you for me it is better to bee dissolved and to be with Christ. Consider that mans life is weake and fraile heaped with many froward and troublesome businesses providing things needful to save his body from misery and want for the life that I have enjoyed was but given me upon condition to render it againe not grudgingly but gladly and with a cheerefull heart forâ—â—â—â—th is the onely easement of all our trouble and anguish the longer I live the longer I live in sinne the more time I spend the more I erre and goe astray each houre purchasing to my selfe a new paine and punishment For it is not the man which liveth longest but he that liveth justly and vertuously shall attaine the promise and reward of heaven Hee it is that is worthy to be honoured and lamented of all good men and so divinely goes on certifying them of the resurrection to glory and entreating them to live in love and keep peace unbroken These dying words melted them into teares for what can make sooner or deeper compassion into ones heart than to heare the dying words of a good man So after Psalmes and Hymnes sung by his friends he praying lifted up his hands to God in the sight of them all and departed His Corps with the Citizens and all his Priests was with great pompe interred in the Church which hee had consecrated to the honour of God and the blessed Saint Apollinaris hee dyed the eighth of the Calends of Iuly Hilarius the second being Bishop of Rome and Martianus tuling the Empire Faustus succeeded him a worthy and pious man Saint Prospers sayings 1. Of being with God It is the greatest misery of man to bee without Him without whom Hee cannot be but whosoever doth not meditate of Him nor rightly conceive of Him nor yet truely love Him is for certaine without Him 2. How wicked men should be hated He hates perfectly who hates in righteousnes and knowledge that is that thou shalt neither hate the man for his vice nor love the vice for the mans sake Wee may rightly then hate the wickednesse of wicked men and yet love the Creature so that man is not to bee blamed for the sinne nor yet the sinne to be loved for the man 3. Of the hope of the faithfull Let it not good Christian affright thee that thou dost not presently enjoy what thou believest be sure that thou continue thy prayer in Hope though the thing promised bee as yet hid Worke still and increase in vertues for while the constancy of thy Faith is tryed the Mercy and Glory is augmented 4 Of Riches and Honours Thou boastest thy selfe of thy wealth and braggest of thy honour and triumphest in thy strength and beauty Consider what thou art by sinne and consider what thou shalt bee in the grave and thy Plumes will fall for every proud man forgets himselfe 5. Of being in Christ. The branches are so in the Vine that they adde nothing to it but receive from it their life and liberty the Vine is so in the Branches that it gives nourishment to them takes none from them and so to have Christ dwelling in us and wee in Him is profitable to us not to Christ for though one branch be cut off another may spring from the living tree but that which is cut off cannot live without the Vine 6. Of a two-fold life Life is two-fold of the body of the soule as the soule is the life of the body so the life of the soule is God and as when the soule departs the bodie dyes so when God departs the soule dyes Prosper lib. 1. The poore eate the fruits of their labours but the rich eat the fruits of their sinnes Prosper de vita contemplativa He is ignorant of his sins which hee should know and bewaile that doth curiously consider others offences But if he turn to himselfe and behold his own manners he will nor reprehend others but lament his own sins Prosper de vocatione Gentium Those things which God would have hidden are not to be searcht into but those things which are manifest are not to be neglected lest in those wee become unlawfully curious and in these
it was Opera instinctu malorum Daemonum ut per timorem homines ab ill is absterrerentur By the helpe â—nd instinct of the Devils to skarre and affright men from reading such Books as would learn them goodnesse and happinesse Hee got much reâ—ute by being so constant against Idâ—lâ—try and Superstition and by perswading the Gentiles to leave it as a vaine and unprofitable service and declared unto them the exceâ—lency and benefit of the true worship of God so that hee did cause many to come out of that miserable condition and cherefully to embrace the Faith of our Saviour Christ crucified But to conclude the Bibliotheca veterum Patrum doth sufficiently speake for him and register his worth and parts to succeeding Ages One of the first after the apostles times whose writings wee enjoy was Iustin Martyr who florished in the time of Antoninus Pius and his successors Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus And in his apology to the senate and people of Rome he writes that there were from the nativity of Christ 150 yeares to his daies Hee did not live free from malicious men But the chiefe of all his adversaries and accusers Qui carbone notandus was Crefcens a Cynick Philosopher but no ways deserving the name who was a man of a corrupted life and wholly addicted and given up to Luxury and Gluttony and many other vices hee was the incarnate Devill that never left off his accusation of this worthy Instrument and at last by his malice and envy got opportunity against him because he was a faithfull Christian. It is observed that the envious man doth not beare envy so much to the persons of those whom they envy as they do to the good things which are in them Envy indeed is the Mistris of injustice and it inciteth both the thought and the hand to all kinde of ill and wicked actions for when the condition of another man is just upright and cheerfull then is envy most plotting and contriving sad and sorrowfull And whosoever beareth envy to any good man and doing well it may well be said of him That he is not only envious to the Common-wealth but to himselfe also and in the end will be his own destruction It is a principall point of wisedome truly to know how to esteeme of life for hee that esteemeth and loveth his life for the love of it selfe he lives not but to live But a wise man lives no longer then that his life may be worth more then his death A great part of life is lost to those that dâ— ill a greater to those that doe nothing and all to those that do that they should not do But the actions of a well grounded and advised man tend alwayes to some certain and good end and what he purposeth hee bringeth to perfection because his intendments end in performances of good and vertuous conclusions This Iustin Martyr used to say of the Christians in his time that which the soule is in the body that are Christians in the World for as the soule is in the body but not of the body so do Christians dwell in the World but are no part of it He had divers other Sayings especially these two First It is best of all not to sinne it is next to that to amend upon the punishment Secondly That it is the greatest slavery in the World to be subject to ones own passions But moderate passions are the most affable expressions of humanity passions must not be too fierie nor yet too dull but there ought to be a mean betwixt both For the first are like Horses that endanger those that ride them and the later prove a trouble to the Guide The one will not be backt by any and the other will be abused by any a good temper is a sure expression of a well composed Soule Therefore the onely way to live worthily and die with prayse is to be noble in our actions honest in our intentions and temperate in our tongues But this envy though of a long continuance no whit daunted Iustin for hee did suffer his Martyrd me cheerfully and willingly surrendred his soule into his Saviours protection Saying My life is neere finished and while I lived I made my chiefest study the only trumpet of his glory These Works are knowne to be his 1 A Dialogue with Triphon the Jew 2 An Apologie to the Roman Senate 3 An Apologie to Antoninus Pius 4 An Oration to the Gentiles 5 Of Monarchy 6 An exposition of Faith and the true confession of it 7 An Epistle to Zeno and Serenus 8 An Epistle to Diognetus 9 A Booke of Questions from Christians to the Gentiles with Answers 10 An explication of those questions which the Gentiles propounded to the Christians 11 Some Answers to some necessary Questions 12 A reproofe of certaine Sentences of Aristotle More questions to the Gentiles about God and the Resurrection of the Dead These be averr'd to be his by Eusebius Nicephorus Zozomâ—n Baronius Bellarmine and Bibliotheca Patrum Perionius and Tritenhemius and also by Robert Stephan in his last Edition An. Christi 170. Sanctus Irenaeus S. IRENAEVS IT is hard to finde out the Country parents the time of the birth and the habitation of Irenaeus in his yong yeeres But it is certaine hee was Bishop of Lions and a famous Writer and Martyr Oâ—â—umenius saith he was a Frenchman but most do take him to be of Asia a Grecian not a Latine as Cardinall Bellarmine and others because he was a constant Auditor to Polycarpus Bishop of Smyrna and his name doth denote him a Grecian and his Writings were Greeke not Latine if we will give credit to Iustin Martyr Eusebius Basil Epiphanius Ierome Theodoret Melissus Anastatius and Damascen His exquisite skill and dexterity in searching into the secrets of Heresies doth sufficiently manifest that hee was excellent for Philosophy For usually Heresies have had their springing from Philosophy his acute and witty Disputations with them and his cleere refutation of them do speake his learning besides the Order and Method hee uses with the Prefaces before his Books besides his demonstrating how that Heresies have not onely oppositions and some contradictions in themselves but that they do plainly thwart and crosse the truth of all Churches and the Writings of the Prophets Apostles and Evangelists which hee proves in his first and foure last Books but the nineteenth Chapter of his second Booke manifests his generality of Learning First by refuting all their sophisticated arguments and ungrounded positions which hee proves to be onely fetcht out of the Fables of Poets and Philosophers herein shewing that hee had well vers'd himselfe in Thales Anaximander Anaxagoras Democritus Empedocles Plato and Aristotle so also in most Tragick Comick and Lyrick Poets Seeing in the confutation of them in the defence of their Heresies He doth fitly and wittily use their Exclamations Proverbs and Examples hence is it that Tertullian doth stile
it was for profit in both these hee shewed exquisite eloquence and depth of judgment as well knowing what he did He doth not use any circumlocutions hee desired rather to give the best then much and naughty His stile is no where languid or dull he strives to refresh to stirre up to comfort the Reader for the learning and sincerity that you shall find you may admire him In briefe hee hath so done all that none but the malicious can speak against him or his Works This and a great deale more doth that learned Erasmus speake of our Arnobius so that who pleaseth to read his prayses at large may view them set forth in the Epistle Dedicatâ—ry before the Commentary on the Psalmes printed by Frobenius This Arnobius flourished in the time of Dioclesian from the yeere of our Lord 290 to 300. Arnobius sayings Of Prayer It is the bed of a sick and weake mans soule refresheth in tentations and keepes warme the actions of grace In Psal. 41. Of Despaire He that fals into Despaire is like a ship that looseth her Anchors and runs on the Rocks In Psal. 42. Of Persecution Persecution brings death in one hand and life in the other for while it kils the bodie it crowns the soule In Psal. 45. His Writings 1 Seven Books against the Gentiles 2 Commentary on the Psalmes 3 A learned tract of Rhetoricke hee died under Dioclesianus the Emperour An. Christi 326. The life of Eusebius Caesariensis EVSEB CAESARIENSIS EVsebius Bishop of Caesarea Palaestina formerly called the Tower of Strato for his great friendship towards Pamphilus sirnamed also Pamphilus being Scholer to Dorotheus the Eunuch a most learned man and a most diligent searcher of the Divine Library with Pamphilus was so famous among all the contemporary Bishops of his age for his knowledge in divine and humane Learning so that his deserts were celebrated with this most noble Eulogie of the Emperour Constantine who would often say That it was Eusebius happinesse to bee worthy to be Bishop not onely of one City but of the whole World A praise of an high straine beseeming an high place Indeed mens abilities should be answerable to their dignities greatest perfections are fittest for greatest places and promotions If Moses be placed over all the Israelites as supream Judge his endowments ate proportionable but with his employments his measure of spirit is abated and part resteth on the seventy Elders who were fitted for the like performances He that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is an Over-seer and such had need bee furnished with more then ordinary gifts for correcting of vice instructing the ignorant making straight that which is crooked Such were the manifold endowments of this Reverend Bishop Eusebius And for his eloquence Saint Ierome stiled him Romani eloquii Tubam the Trumpet of Roman elocution Eloquence in a Minister is a singular ornament Moses was fearfull to take up Gods Embassage not being eloquent but slow of speech therefore God appointeth his brother Aaron for his helper The lineaments of a Picture make it no exquisite without colours and varnish they make it beautifull Oftentimes a faire out-side leads us to the finding of hidden worth within and the phrase or stile of writing sets a lustre upon the matter Luther caused to be painted over his study doore Verba sine rebus Erasmus Res sine verbis Lutherus nec res nec verba Carolastadius res verba Melancthon Words without matter Erasmus matter without words Luther neither matter nor words Carolostadius both matter and words Melancthon Thrice happy Melancthon judicious and eloquent Omne tulit punctum qui misâ—uit utile dulci. The same was the commendation of Eusebius That he was a defender of the Arrian Heresie and a corrupter of the Nicene Synod some Writers affirme either deceived by the affinity of name and dignitie which he had with Eusebius first Bishop of Berithus in Palaestina and afterward at Nicomedia in Bythinia Captain of the Arrians or else induced to that beliefe because Eusebius of Caesarea would not consent in the Nicene Councell to the propounders of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Consubstantiall but after a long inquisition and examination of the said word done by him not maliciously but rather out of sincere pietie for when many of the Bishops would have the word Homousii as excluding a multitude of gods inducted by Arrius and most of the Bishops did sharply oppose the acception of the same word as introducing the opinion of Sabellius who held that the Father Sonne and Holy Ghost were but one person through their diversitie of opinions Eusebius being doubtfull to whether part hee should assent Eustathius Bishop of Antioch accused afterward by Cyrus Bishop of Bexoen opprobriously termed him a Favourer of the Arrians and a corrupter of the Nicen Faith Eusebius on the conâ—rary affirmed that hee neither favoured Arius nor corrupted the Nicen Faith but that Eustathius did introduce the perfidious opinion of Sabellius Lastly when it was declared by the Fathers that this word Homousii did not take away the distinction of persons which were of the same Nature and Essence hee subscribed to the Decree of the Homousii or Consubstantialls and by the Fathers command hee composed that Nicene Creed which is now sung in the Church A singular stayed discretion in a man of authority and eminent dignity not rashly to suffer any noveltie to creep into the Church without examination how farre forth it may prove profitable to the good of the Church especially in matters of greatest importance such as this concerning the Deity 's essence and manner of existence which is well distinguished by the Schoolmen every person in the Deity say they is alius alius sed non aliud aliud the former notes the distinction of persons but the later their essence to be the same and undivided such as the Father is such is the Sonne and such is the Holy Ghost And that you may the better be drawne into the admiration of his eloquence take notice of some of his sentences which were like Gold Coine containing much worth in a little compasse they are here inserted Of the Law and Gospell Moses did write the old Law in dead Tables of stone but Christ did write the perfect Documents of the new Testament in living soules And the difference of the Law and Gospell may further appeare in this that the Law is a killing letter for it worketh death making us lyable to the curse For cursed is hee that continueth not in all things that are written in the Law to doe them but the Gospel is a quickning letter and supplies for our defects in not obeying the Law we being clothed with anothers righteousnesse the long white robes of Christs righteousnes the imputation whereof makes us as acceptable to God as if wee had fulfilled the Law in our own person Christ having actively and passively fulfilled the whole Law for us by
satisfying Gods Justice and working our salvation Of serving God There are two ways of serving God when wee despise the World and love God onely this is Religion in perfection the other is when wee love God and the world and this is an imperfect affection and profession of Religion The former is perfection without imperfection which is not attainable in this life for since wee bee partly flesh and partly spirit our affections are divided in their operations I sleepe saith the Spouse but my heart waketh her better part was directed towards God her carnall part was lesse capable of heavenly raptures being sluggish and drowsie The good that we would do that doe wee not but the evill we would not doe that doe wee Wee love God and the World here as if the love of God and the World were competible but the good Christian labours as much as hee may to renounce the World to gaine God which is better then 1000 Worlds to lose God is to lose all Tolle meum tolle Deum to lose the World and get God by the losse of it is with Mary to choose the better part which never shall be taken away God is All in All. None but Christ. Of Christs Incarnation Christ that he might shew himselfe unto men and teach them the true way of adoring and worshipping his Father taking on him our nature came downe into the World his first Miracle being to shew God in the shape of a man And surely that was a great miracle farre beyond the reach of our capacitie that the Creatour should so farre stoop to the Creature as to take upon him the nature of man that hee that made woman should be borne of a woman that he whom the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain should be contained in the narrow wombe of a Virgin that God that made man should himselfe be made man in all things like us sin alone excepted that the Sonne should take upon him the nature of a servant that the King of Kings should be subject himselfe to the meanest vassals that he that was invested with the Robes of the Deity should be clothed with the rags of our humanity A wonder exceeding all wonder a Miracle without a parallell Of the Devils power The Devill doth worke upon the natural inclination and free will which men have unto evill thereby overthrowing States and Cities and by the flattery of pleasures drawing many soules to all kind of wickednesse taking their affections with pleasant and delightfull objects hee doth hold the World in captivity and subjection The Devill cannot compell us to commit sin hee may move externally by propounding objects but the tinder which taketh fire is our own naturall corruption We may thanke our selves for sin and the punishment of sin Eve blamed the Serpent the Serpent beguiled me this made her not excusable had shee not consented to the temptation the Serpent had not deceived her but the occasion of sinning being offered and the will consenting sin is committed and punishment for sinne is admitted Of the Apostles Christ chose illiterate men to convert the whole World which hee did that his divine counsell and power working and operating in them might be manifested and declared It is Gods ordinary proceeding by small or no meanes to bring great things to passe what were a few fishermen for converting the whole World What weake instruments were Rams Horns for the blowing downe of the walles of Iericho Elijahs Mantle divideth Iordan A little barley Cake tumbling downe the Hill overthrows the tents of Midian Thus Gods strength is perfected in weaknesse and his Majestie shines in meannesse and the more contemptible the means the greater is his glory manifested in the meanes that hee that glorieth may glory in the Lord. Of Christs Divinity Christs Divinity shined through his body as light doth through a Lanthorn with beams of humane and divine light illuminating the soules of men No marvell then that his Adversaries confesse saying Never man spake like this man his words argued his Divinity which were socelestiall and void of exception as mans wisdome could not contradict When his Adversaries would have apprehended him they went backwards and fell to the ground another argument of his Deity the rayes whereof confounded the faces and daunted the courage of malicious men When Pilate said Knowest thou not that I have power to condemne thee reply was made thou couldst have none except it were given thee from above My Deity stoops not to thine humanity Of Gods Word The Fountaines of Israel were the words which were delivered to Israel for to them the Oracles of God were first committed whence living waters should be drawn to water the Church of Christ. Therefore Saint Pauls caution was not in vaine that wee should not despise the Iewes they being broken off from the Olive tree wee being graffed in and partaking of the fatnesse of it their ruine is our rising Let us not be high-minded but feare least wee suffer by their example Of Gods Omnipotencie God doth order augment perfect penetrate and move all things in every place yet his nature is not thereby impaired or polluted and thus he becomes a Saviour and Physician to the wicked and as the Musician sheweth his Art in tuning a disordered Harpe so Christ declareth himselfe to be the soules Physician by curing mans discording affections and regulating them by his exemplary Life and Doctrine It is God that is able when and how hee will to dispose of the creature for his owne glory and our good If wee bee so fast bound with chains in prison that wee cannot get out hee turnes our captivity as the Rivers in the South if sicknesse oppresse God is our health Are we hungry God is the bread of Life to feed us thirsty God is water of life to refresh us naked his robes of righteousnesse cloath us he is every way able to relieve us Of Salvation Christ by his precious bloud wrought mans freedome and redemption his desertion by God on the Crosse was either to manifest the dignity of his passion or his miraculous affection to mankind laying downe his soule for mans salvation Admirable was his love to man in so great a worke and in the manner of performing it the worke was wonderfull that enemies should be saved who were to be destroyed and the manner of it as wonderfull that it should be procured with the shedding of his owne bloud a drop whereof is more precious then a thousand Worlds Our sins were of a deepe die which nothing but Christs bloud could expiate It was not the shedding of the bloud of Bullocks or Goats in time of the Law that was satisfactory to God they were types of the shedding of the bloud of the Lambe of God which taketh away the sins of the World manent actn tolluntur reatu This is Christ our Saviour And as hee was infinitely read in Books of Divinity so
led a Monastick course of life and was over the Church of Edissa as Trithemius reports in his booke of Ecclesiasticall Writers He was made Priest by Saint Basil the Great borne he was of Christian parents in the time of Constantine the Great a Syrian hee was by Nation even from his childhood abstemious and shunned the appearance of evill His parents in a Vision saw a fruitfull Vine branch spring forth of Ephraems mouth and they saw it spread as it were into most parts of the world and though all the fowles of Heaven came and eat of the fruit yet still there remayned a great quantity this as they verily judged shewed how his doctrine of the true Vine Iesus Christ should be so copious and delicate that all Nations in all ages might out of his Works gather nourishment and yet there would be store enough for others that should come after and certain it is that this man had admirable endowments whom all the worthy Fathers of the Church have so highly commended it will not therefore seeme false what here is recorded of this Father if so many worthy Writers may be credited and it hath alwayes been the custome of the Church to celebrate the memory of pious and religious men especially of those who did as this Ephraem optabat enim non videri sed bonus esse he did not onely desire to seeme but to be really good whose minde was as a golden Ring all enchased and decored with rich jewels heare therefore what a man he was of whom Gregorius Nyssenus speaks thus Celebrandus est mihi igitur Ephraem ille qui cunctis Christianis versantur in ore that is That Ephraem the Syrian must be praysed of me who is well known to all Christians in the World neither is hee ashamed of his Kindred whose Vertues are as a generall light to all whose life and doctrine have made most men wonder at him there are none but such as be ignorant of great Saint Basil but know him And as the same Father speaks the prayses which he gives this man are not small or such onely as are worldly neither doth hee speake of his education or forme of bodie or comelinesse of his person but as hee witnesseth they were Actio Contemplatio Fides Spes Charitas Pietas erga Deum c. that is Action and Contemplation Faith Hope and Charitie Pietie towards God Meditation on the holy Scriptures puritie of minde and bodie strict Mortifications privacie of life diligence in prayer often changing his place by trials and hardnesse a flying from evill being instant in preaching no lodging but the cold earth an incredible austeritie of life poverty with singular Humility mercifull in a manner beyond humane condition opposing and indeed not enduring the Broachers of Heresies in a word furnished with all the gracious endowments that should bee in the man of God how zealously did He in His Writings by sundry places of Scripture and severall undeniable arguments detest those furious and mischiefe working Hereticks as Sabellius Arrius Apollinarius Anomius Novatus and others in so much that He was stiled the Pancratiastes or the unconquered Souldier of Iesus Christ For his great love to God and his Neighbours the words of his own will do sufficiently declare which deserve to be engraven in Golden Characters Nullo modo in tota mea vita contra Deum contumeliosus extiti nec sermo stultus è labiis meis egressus est Neminem in tota vita maledict is onerari nec cum ullo Christiano homine contentiosum me praebus that is By no means in all my life saith hee have I reproached God or suffered foolish words to flie out of my mouth never did I burthen any man with curses nor did I ever shew my selfe contentious with any so that it doth plainly appeare what circumspection hee had over his wayes Hee was wondrous studious in the Word of God and made divers very comfortable and learned Commentaries and he was wonderfull eloquent to perswade men to embrace the Word of God hee kept his bodie and minde chaste and pure as doth appeare by repelling the shamelesse behaviour of a lewd woman which being instigated by the Devill thought to have entic'd him to lust but this grave Father what with his exhortations admonitions and divine speeches caught and overcame the Tempter so that shee which had beene light of behaviour by his fatherlike advise prov'd a grave modest religious Matron He would very often weep for and bewaile the calamities of men the losse of time his inbred corruptions Hee that reads but that one Tract of his of Humilitie seriously will if endued with any sparke of grace remove all pride and self-conceit and will with that King and this Father confesse That hee is a worme and no man corrupted with sinne and iniquitie Indeed Humility for her excellency should be the sister of true Nobility for God hath more respect unto them that with humblenesse of heart can cast themselves lowly before the presence of his Majesty For as the lowlinesse of heart maketh man highly in favour with God even so meeknesse of words maketh him to sinke into the hearts of men such was this our Ephraems condition of humilitie Who shall read his booke of Divine Love whose heart will not be inflamed For the greatest argument of godly love is to love that which God willeth and commandeth and contrariwise not to love that which God loveth not And the true lover of God which is properly the charitable person is under no rule but he is Lord above all inventions all precepts and all commandements that God hath given to man for love is not confined or limited within any bounds Who shal read his Tract of Chastity Virginity wherin it is praysed but wil studie to keep his body and soule free from adultery and lust and say as Saint Paul did that our bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost For Chastitie is the beauty of mans life consisting either in sincere Virginity or in faithfull Matrimony For chastitie puritie of life continencie or refusing the corrupt pleasures of the flesh and of this witty wicked world are precious in the â—ight of our Creatour and doe possesse such as keepe their bodies cleane and undefiled and in life and conversation refraine from evill And who is hee that hath any sence in him or faith meditating his Divine Sermons of the last judgement and Christs second comming but will speedily prepare himselfe to appeare and strive ever so to live as if he was presently to give an account of his whole life for our whole life is nothing else but as it were a glue which in a man fasteneth the soule and body together which proceedeth of the temperament of the Elements whereof the bodie is made which if it bee not violently melted before through our owne distemperance or loosed with the moysture of our owne merits or suddenly consumed with the
love or hate of God weareth away through age of the body and so at length comes to nothing Life is of its owne nature a grievous thing most miserable and full of innumerable cares O life saith a wise man how may a man get from thee without Deaths helpe thy evils be infinite and yet no man is able either to avoid nor yet to abide them And if any good thing happen to a man in his life he feeleth also therewith tribulation and sorrow as sometime no other which maketh our joyes little and our life deplorable For the manner of his life it was solitary for he would say by this meanes Ex turbulentis hujus saeculi perturbationibus ac procellis liberari c. that is He was freed out of the turbulent turmoiles and stormes of this World that hee did sweetly enjoy his thoughts without distraction that hee was the more fit for divine Contemplation and studie Yet hee often remov'd but it was still to doe some notable service for the Church of Christ. Hee went to the Citie of Edissa to visit the Churches and to meet with some learned Father to conferre but by the providence of God he met with an Harlot who was impudent yet witty this Ephraem presently turnd his eyes away not willing to behold her but she the more earnestly lookt him in the face to whom hee spoke Oh woman why doe you so greedily gaze on mee to whom shee readily replyed Ex te viro ego sumi I am come from your loines why then doe you cast your eyes upon the earth out of which you were taken and neglect me well he rejoyced that GOD had sent him good counsell from the wicked But not staying here hee went to Caesarea of Cappadocia where hee both heard and saw that sweet Trumpet of Gods glory Saint Basil whom he entirely reverenced here he desired of God to give him abilitie of utterance to preach to the people which God gave him abundantly he did not any wayes affect prayse so his will runs Nulla Ephraem cecineritis carmina c. that is sing no Verses in commendation of Ephraem bury mee not with any lofty Linnens or Ointments rayse no Monuments or Tombs for I am a sojourner and a stranger here as all my Fathers were Psal. 39. He was wondrously mercifull to the poore for though hee had not of his owne to give yet by his sweet and attractive Sermons he stirred up the hearts of others to relieve them he was of so Angelick an Aspect that his Dove-like simplicity his compassion and integritie was easily decyphered in his countenance Gregorius Nyssenus compares him with Abel for offering sacrifice to God which was his soule and body as an acceptable sacrifice to Enoch for his constant walking with God to Noah for his never making shipwrack of Faith and a good Conscience To Abraham for leaving his owne and going forth by Gods promises To Isaack being willing to lay down his life for the Gospel To Iaakob for supplanting Esau so hee the Hereticks and for blessing the people at his death To Ioseph for Chastitie and especially for distributing the pure wheat of GODS Word wiâ—ely to the famishing soules in many things to Moses for striking the Rocke and bringing forth water from the flinty stone so he by the Rod of Gods Word did fetch teares from hard-hearted men and brought many to repentance To Iosuah for bringing many into the spirituall Canaan to Samuel for devoting his youth to God To Elias for reproving false Teachers to Elizeus for abundance of the spirit to Saint Iohn Baptist for living in the Wildernesse and teaching men to repent To Saint Paul for his manifold sufferings and indeed it is hard to say wherein hee was defective at the time of his death hee denied to have any cost bestowed upon him but willed them to give it to the poore And a great man having prepared a rich Vestment for him said That pietie should be respected before povertie and so did not give it as Ephraem had willed him but hee was presently sorely visited and could not be released till this old man imposed his hands on him and blessed him and then said to him Perfice Homo quae dudum promisisti Perfect that which whilome ô Man thou diddest promise and so he was restored to health Well this Father gave the people comfortable directions at the time of his death so that it was rather Transitus quà m mors a sleeping in the Lord quietly and comfortably in fulnesse of dayes and was buried by the Monkes that were his Disciples I could bee tedious if I should largely and particularly expresse the prayses that many Writers afford Him Basil the Great sayes of him that distabat à mundana sapientia He affected not worldly wisdome Saint Ierâ—me sayes that He came to be of that fame that next to the Scriptures his Works were publikely read Theodoret stiles him a most admirable man an excellent Writer in his fourth booke Chap. 29. Zozomen saith of him that about that time there liv'd one Ephraem Syrus a man excelling others and a singular ornament to the Catholike Church the Tripartite History calls him a man admirable for knowledge and writing So also doth Simeon Metaphrastes Anastasius Synasta Photius Cedrenus Nicephorus Trithemius and others so as I have said He flourished under Constantine the Great and died under Valens Ephraem Syrus his Sayings Of the excellencie of Faith As the body is more worth then the raiment so the soule more worth than the body and faith in Christ more excellent than all get therfore that in thy soule which may get him who is the rich clothing both of soule and body Vpon earnest though late repentance Despise not an old man who desires to come to the haven though he comes late yet he comes in time God rejected not those that come at the eleventh houre thou knowest not but that hee may have his penny as well as the first Of perseverance in Grace The resolute Traveller knowes that his journey is long and the way durty and dangerous yet goes on in hope to come home to his house so let the Christian though the way to Heaven be narrow and difficult though it be set with troubles and persecutions yet let him goe on till hee hath finished his course with joy for Heaven is his home Of the neglecting the Soules welfare Hee that feasts his body with banquets and delicate fare and starves his soule for want of spirituall food is like him that feasts his slave and starves his own wife therefore rejoyce rather with thy wife and keep under thy servant and so all shall be safe Of comming to Christ. Stay not away o my soul from him though thou beest wounded for hee came to heale though thou beest lost for he came to seek let not thy diseases affright thee from the Physitian for hee calls those that are
the Scriptures speake in these words ab initio Geneseos adultimum librum Regum insigne opus c. that is Questions from the beginning of Genesis to the end of the second of Kings a most famous worke in which saith he by way of Question and Answer Theodoret doth briefely and clearly explaine all the hard places of Scripture with admirable industry what pen can sufficiently blazon thy worth for his Commentaries on the Psalter doth not the same Senesis stile them Nobiles Commentarii that is Heroicke Commentaries and upon his Commentaries on St. Pauls Epistles doth he spare to commend him For saith he not Feruntur Commentarii in omnes Pauli Epistolas in quibus quantum fieri â—otest c. that is there are likewise extant Theodorets Commentaries on all St. Pauls Epistles in which as much as can be the genuine sence of St. Paul is succinctly elegantly orderly and piously exprest and which in Saint Pauls writings seemes to be most difficult sentences are joyned with sentences with wonderfull skill and Art to the great profit of the Reader And if I should enlarge my selfe which of the Fathers either doe not use his Authority with great approbation and commendation and all of them doe hold him an able judicious eloquent man he dyed being not very old but rather spent with labour and studies than with age and dyed in the reigne of Theodosius the yonger Emperour and was buried in the same Sepulchre in which that holy man Iacobus Nizibenus before mentioned was intombed His sayings of the government of the soule The delights of the soule are to know the Maker to consider the Workes of Heaven and to know her owne estate and being The soule knoweth all things wherefore he that knoweth his soule knoweth all things and hee that knoweth not his soule knoweth nothing The soule when it dyeth carryeth nothing with it but her vertue and learning and it seeks none other helpe wherefore all such as for the multitude of their sinnes and transgressions are hopelesse as murtherers blasphemers with such like wickednesse the justice of God and their owne deserts condemnes them unto everlasting death from which they shall never bee delivered But such saith he as have lived godly and carefully shall be by death delivered from the prison of the body and shall ascend up into a purer life and dwell in heaven for ever If the soule of man through sinne be once dead it is never againe revived but by the onely meere grace and mercy of the most gracious and ever-living God whose vengeance by his justice still waiteth the destruction of wicked and wilfull sinners therefore say the learned and doe conclude that blessed is the soule that is not infected with filthinesse of this World I have set his Workes as they are registred in two Tomes Printed at Collen 1617. Tome 1. 1 Vpon all the hard questions in Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers Deuâ—eronomy Joshua Judges Ruth and upon the Kings 2 Exposition of all the Psalmes 3 Vpon the Canticles 4 Vpon Jeremiahs prophesie 5 Vpon Baruch 6 Vpon Jeremiahs Lamentation 7 Vpon Ezekiel 8 Vpon Daniel Hosea 9 Joel Amos Abdiah 10 Micha Nahum 11 Habakkuk Zephaniah 12 Aggee Zâ—â—hary 13 Malachy to which are now added these 14 Vpon Moses Song Exod. 15. Vpon his Song in Deuteronomy Vpon Anna her Song Vpon Abakkucks Song Vpon Esaies Prayer Vpon Jonas Prayer Vpon Ezechiah's prayer Vpon the prayer of the 3 Children An Hymne of these 3. Virgin Maries Song Zachariah's prayer Symeons prayer Tome 2. 1 Vpon all St. Pauls Epistles from the Romans to Philemon 2 Ecclesiasticall History 5 Books 3 Three Dialogues against certaine Heretiques 4 The fables of Hereticks 5. 5 An Epitome of divine decrees 6 A religious History 7 Of Evangelical truth drawne out of the knowledge of Philosophy 8 Of Divine providence and of the soul of man An. Christi 390. Sanctus Hieronymus Stridonensis S. HIERONYMVS THis great and eminent Father of the Church must bee ranked according to his deserts In writing whose life I follow the directions of Erasmus of Roterdam To begin therefore the time of his Birth was under the Reigne of Constantine the Great in the yeare of Christ 331 in a Towne called Stridon which was ovethrown by the Gothes then wasting and spoyling severall places Upon the borders of Dalmatia and Pannonia as he himselfe testifies some as Blondus will have it to be that which now is called Sdrigna a little Town of Histria in Italie some hold that to this day there is to be seene Saint Hieroms Monument He had a yonger brother called Paulinianus his mothers name was Castorina His Fathers name was Eusebius but we will not insist upon his parents but will declare his owne worth he had sufficient meanes as may appeare by his education which was at Rome then counted the onely Nursery of Letters as hee doth testifie for though learning was at the same time in France Spaine and Affricke yet no where was it so free from pollution and corruption as at Rome His Master for the Grammar was Donatus and Victorinus for the Rhetorique Some have made question whether this Donatus were the same that made such eloquent Commentaries on Terence and Virgil Well making faire hopes of a large progresse in Learning and being well furnished in these he proceeds to read Porphyrius Isagoge or Introduction to Logique and read the Philosophy of Plato and the Stoicks but not staying here he lookes now into Cosmography History and Antiquities and intends to study Divinity and to set it forth with all the lustre that might be His fellow students were Pammachius Bonosus both these were highly born Heliodorus who for his eminency of parts was made a Bishop This Hierome received his baptisme also at Rome as he proves and now being sufficiently seasoned with these Arts he soares higher and followes the foot-steps of learned men as Pythagoras Plato Apollonius and so he addresseth himselfe to travaile he surveyed all France aud gained acquaintance and love of the chiefest Scholars hee testifies that he was at Triers where hee described that Booke of St. Hilaries de Synodis with his owne hands and Bonosus travailed with him as may be seen in his Epistle to Florentius so having taken a view of most of the Libraries and having conferred with the learnedest in those places whither he came he visited the place of his Birth and the place of his new Birth having like a wise Merchant stored himselfe with abundance of Goods hee resolves upon a course of life and a fit place to settle downe in hee likes not Rome as savouring somewhat of Paganisme and was too full of pleasures which are dangerous Baits for young men to bee insnared with Neither doth he like his owne Country being corrupted with Barbarous delights as he testifies himselfe in his Epistles saying In my Country they make their belly their god and he is counted the holiest which is the
counsell if I have wronged any one in anger I desire you pardon mee that am penitent for my offences After hee had made this prayer and confession being brought home againe hee died foure dayes afterward in the Reigne of the Emperour Heraclius and of Chintilan the most Christian King of the Goths in Spaine being exceedingly famous for soundnesse of doctrine and for abundance of charitable works Many mellifluous Sentences fell from his holy mouth and pen some whereof collected out of his writings are these following Of Affliction Thou seeekest rest and condemnest ease but remember that affliction and greater is the fruit of preaching then of silent quietnesse as Christ saith to the Church Sicut Lilium inter spinas sic amica mea inter filios As the Lily among thornes such is my beloved among the daughters of men Of Christ. Hee came from Heaven into the Virgins wombe from the womb into the manger from the manger unto the Crosse from the Crosse unto the Sepulchre from the Sepulchre he returned into Heaven Of the Church The Church is a fenced Garden because it produceth many fruits of spirituall workes it is a Fountaine because it floweth with the Doctrine of Salvation Armed because it is defended by the Lords protection and sealed by the word of Faith Of Wisdome Wisdome is above all things neither can there be any justice without wisdome and none can fully receive the wisdome of God but such as withdraw themselves from worldly cares He is more to be blamed that knoweth what hee ought to follow and will not follow that which he knoweth Knowledge and a good life are both profitable but if both cannot be obtained a good life is to bee sought rather than much knowledge Of Perseverance The reward is promised to those that begun but it is given to those that persevere As it is written He that shall persevere to the end shall be saved Of Converts New converts should not trouble themselves with outward cares for if they be entangled in them like new planted trees not well rooted they are suddenly shaken and doe wither Of Compunction Compunction of the heart is the humilitie of the minde accompanied with teares arising from the remembrance of him and the feare of judgement Of Repentance His repentance is acceptable that doth bewaile his sins condemning himselfe and lamenting for them being as profuse in weeping as he was forward in sinning Of thought As the Viper is killed by the young ones in her belly so wee are betrayed and killed by our owne thoughts nourished in our own bosomes which doe both poyson and consume the soule Of Conscience All things may be shunned but a mans owne heart For no man can run from himselfe for a guilty conscience will not forsake him wheresoever he goeth Of speech The evill speech of the heart are hurtfull cogitations and meditations of the tongue punishable speeches The evill speech of action is an ill life corrupting others by example Of pride Every sinner is proud for by doing that which is prohibited he contemneth divine precepts Therefore pride is the beginning of all sinne for the disobeying of Gods Commandements is transgression and sinne Of Diet. Diet should not bee luxurious nor wanton but sufficient to sustain Nature for as Philosophers say the belly should bâ— so meated that it may keep life and soule together not corrupt both life and soule together Of the Soule The life of the bodie is the soule the life of the soule is God and as the body is dead without the soule so the soule is dead without God As Angels had a beginning but no ending so also have soules For some things are temporall perpetuall and eternall Temporall matters have a beginning and ending Perpetuall have a beginning but no end Eternall have neither beginning nor end Of the Saints glory As white compared to black is more beauteous so the glorification of the Saints compared to the damnation of the wicked will bee more glorious therefore the damnation of the wicked is an augmentation of the Saints glory After the Resurrection the Saints all bodily ascend into Heaven as Christ saith to his Father Iohn 17. The Devils have a threefold prescience or fore-knowledge namely by naturall subtiltie temporall experience and supernaturall revelation The Devill in deceiving any one observes his nature and doth apply such temptation as will draw his naturall inclination to sin Good done with discretion is vertue and any action undiscreetly done is vice For even undiscreet vertue is accounted vice Philosophie doth shew the order of causes Morality the order of â—iving and Logicke the reason of understanding Drunkennesse is a vice which makes the mind forgetfull of it self through superflâ—ous drinkâ—ing It is impiety to spend on the rich that which should be given to the poore and by peeling the poore to obtaine the favour of the powerfull As to take water from the thirsty ground and powre it into Rivers that have no need thereof Hee that begins to amend and grow better let him beware lest he grow proud of his vertues lest vain-glory give him a greater overthrow than his former vices When the poor are fed for ostentation sake a worke of mercy is turned into a sinne Doe good in secret if thou canst but if not have a desire to doe it in secret and so thou shalt avoid ostentation Avoid anger or moderate it shunne furie or restrane it for a wise patient silence doth overcome an enemy sooner than impatience An. Christi 731. Beda VENERABLE BEDE THis Venerable Bede was a Benedictine Monke of the Monastery of Saint Peter and Paul in England He was an English Saxon borne in the yeare of Christs Incarnation 671. in the time of Deodatus Pâ—pe Hee was deprived of both his parents when he was but seven yeares old Hee was delivered into the Monastery of Saint Peter and Paul by the care of his Neighbours and was brought up there under Benedict and Cealfrid then Abbots and men famous for Piety and learning where in short space hee shewed what parts he had gained by vertuous education in his youth for he was a man most studious in the holy scriptures and wondrously learned skilfull in all secular occasions a great Philosopher Astronomer Musitian and Poet skilfull in the Greek Tongue a mellifluous Rhetorician Arithmetician and a famous Divine Hee practised these three things himselfe and taught others to doe so too O rare scribere docere to pray to write to preach at nineteene yeares of his age he was by Ceolfrids appoyntment ordained a Deacon Sergius the third being then Pope and at thirty he was ordained Priest from which time hee wholly devoted himselfe to the study of the sacred Scriptures in meditation and interpretation of them for he speakes so much of himselfe in the end of the History of England in these words
made many sermons to the people and did not he compile that worthy piece that is termed Vitiorum Destructorium which is indeed the very undermiâ—er of the Kingdome of sinne and darknesse these workes are so able to defend themselves that I neede not spend time to lend praise to them Fourthly as his learning was great his pains wonderfull his Scholars famous his Workes unreproveable so his life and conversation was as upright and honest Certainly he who did take such labour to kill vice in others would not harbour it in his owne soule Are not those his remedies which hee hath prescribed against the Capitall sinnes demonstration sufficient that his aime was to kill them are not all his arguments against them as so many Engines unresistable who is so ignorant of his pious intention that knowes not the reason why he entred into that strict course of life but that he might be the more free from the snares of the world and that he might have the more time and space to give himself to prayer watching fasting meditation and godly writing and what ingenuous spirit but knowes that writing many books is wearinesse to the flesh as Solomon speakes and did not he write many and those solid ones which must needs take up most part of his time adde moreover the set houres of his publick exercises which could not be performed with that generall applause as they were had not hee in private spent much time in molding them so that these things considered seriously who can finde almost in all his life any time for to be idle or ill imployed in did hee not all his life rather chuse to live poorely as holding that to bee the lesse subject to any incombrances was hee not alwayes a friend to the poore as well knowing whose Members they were and to whom they did belong And as his Life was full of Charity and labour so it was as spotlesse and innocent free from suites and needlesse contentions so that in all his deportments he shewed himselfe a patterne of meeknesse temperance and sobriety And to conclude when it pleased God to call him from earth was not his heart and soule ready to be offered Saint Pauls Cupio dissolvi was his resolution and at his death was he not of all learned pious and devout men generally lamented aswell knowing what a great labourer was then called to rest so after a religious devout humble and laborious life he departed quietly in the Lord being in his time the glory of the Pulpit the Father of scholars and the light and grace of the Schoole-men He departed in the yeare of our Lord 1245. in the reigne of Fredericke the second then Emperour Some of Alexander Alensis his wise and religious Sayings collected out of his Workes Of Charity Charity in the soule of a man is like the Sunne in the Firmament which spreads his beames upwards downewards upwards towards God the Angels Saints downwards to the Creatures especially to the poore that are good and as the Sunne shines upon the good and bad so true charity dilates its beames to its enemies Destruct vitior pa. 7. cap. 12. Num. 3. Of Patience A soule patient for wrongs offered is like a man with a sword in one hand and salve in another could wound but will heale Part. 6. cap. 26. Of Faith What the eye is to the body that is faith to the soule t is good for direction if it be well kept as Flies doe hurt the eye so doe little sinnes and ill thoughts the soule par 6. cap. 32. Of the detestation of Covetousnesse It deserves hate of all men for sixe reasons First because it is a sinne against Nature making the desires of the soule terrene whereas they should be Celestiall Secondly from the many curses that are laid against it in Gods Word Woe to them that joyne house to house Esay 5. Thirdly from the many evills it subjects a man to it is the roote of all evills Fourthly it makes a man a foole Thou foole this night c. Fiftly it causes strifes and contentions From whence are strifes c. Sixtly it brings men into snares which drowne them in perdition Destruct vitior page 44. Of the Sinne of Lying Every lye is odious but that most which is against the poynts of Faith as to say that Jesus Christ was not borne of the Virgin Mary c. Faith must bee defended not opposed Dectruct page 52. Of good Counsellours Such should be holy in their lives true in their words righteously zealous and wise by experience par 4. cap. 44. in Destruct Of the danger of customary sinnes Custome in sinne enticeth and invadeth youth tyes fast and bindes age deceives and infects the affections subverts the judgement and is hardly cured par 5. cap. 2. num 11. Of Humility An humble man is like a good tree the more full of fruit the branches are the lower they bend themselves par 4. cap. 48. num 6. Of teares and weeping Shed teares of compunction of compassion of devotion weepiâ—g availes not if it bee feigned for vaine things immoderate for the dead or the crying of the wicked in Hell torments par 4. cap. 52. num 5. An. Christi 1264. Bonaventura BONAVENTVRVS IN many Authours this Seraphick writer was called Iohn Gerso the Cardinall of Paris thinkes that hee was called Eustachius some have term'd him Eustathius others Eutychius but the most call him Bonaventure the reason why hee was termed Eustathius or Eustachius was because in all his disputations had at Paris with the Grecians he stil was constant and resolved to defend the truth with all solidity and gravity Hee was borne in Etruria of the Greeks called Tyrrhenia one of the most flourishing parts of all Italy called at this day Tuscany his fathers name was Ioannes Fidantius his mother Ritelia both of great Descent wondrous devout and full of charity who had this sonne borne to their mutuall joy in one of the ancientest and renowmedst Cities of all Tuscany called Balneo-Regium in English The Kings Bath This Bonaventure in his youth shewed what he would prove afterwards for as he was mainly addicted to study so he set himselfe to follow that way and those men which were most holy and learned in those times principally Alexander of Hales the glory of that age as also Ioannes Rupellius with many others and for certaine it is that age was as active and full of Disputations as any could be so that Bonaventure could not want occasion or opportunitie for exercise For his feature and proportion of body though as Nazianzen said in the life of Saint Basil his minde was so adorned that hee would passe over all the praise of his outward parts yet he doth plainly say that Saint Basil when he was young was of an able strong constitution comely proportioned gratefull in his behaviour of an heavenly aspect So I may say of this great Doctor though his soule was richly decked
Gather my Saints together vnto mee Psal 50. 5. THE GLORY OF THEIR TIMES OR The Liues of the Primitiue Fathers CoÌ„tayning their Chiefest Actions workes Sentences and Deaths Aske thy father and hee will shew thee Aske thy Elders and they will tell thee Deu. 32. 7. LONDON Printed by I Okes. and are to be sold in Pauls Church-yard at the white Lyon 1640. G Glouer fecit To the Reader on the Religious and Illustrious Lives of the Primitive Fathers THe publication of a Book doth draw on much expectation but this Worke doth not only satisfie the Readers curiosity but even draw him to wonder and admiration For was not the Creation of Heaven and Earth most wonderfull and glorious For when there was nothing but rudis indigestaque moles quam dixere Chaos a rude lumpe void of forme then God made the Sun Moon and Stars also and set them in the Firmament to give light upon the Earth and this natural Light the World enjoyed in the beginning but afterward out of the Chaos of blind Ignorance God to the Worlds greater amazement created and ordained the Firmament of Religion and placed therein the Sun of Righteousnesse our Saviour Jesus Christ then clouded under Types and Figures and also the Moon which was the Primitive Church round about which the Fathers shined like Stars of severall magnitudes but all glistering with light of Life and Learning Here is a poesie gathered out of old Gardens not decayed nor withered with Time or Age but as fresh and fragrant as from the newest stocke This savoury meat hath God brought to hand Here is sweeâ— out of the strong let your soule taste it and then blesse God for sending such able men into his Harvest in the innocencie of the Church and in the time of the hottest persecutions These were Gods Champions on earth who did fight his battails and defend his cause even reproving Kings and Princes for his sake These were called Fathers of honour and therefore let us honour them because they honoured God and though we cannot imitate them so neere in their lives as wee ought yet let us strive to imitate them as neere as we can in our minds and let us follow thousands of Martyrs through temporall death to eternall life and with Nazianzen give our selves wholly to the performances of all Christian duties For these Primitive Fathers they all gloried and tooke delight in their sufferings and bid large profers for Heaven come what torment could come even the losse of their lives for by their humility and patience they both triumphed over Tyranny and Death and now have obtained for their reward the eternall Crown of Glory which they enjoy and weare When any of these Holy Fathers met at Generall Councels concerning any weighty cause about setling Religion or suppressing of any Heresie sprung in the Church with what devotion reverence did they meet not trusting in their own knowledge sharpnesse of wit strength of brain deepnesse of judgement as it were in an arme of flesh they knew that there was a Divine power who ruled and governed all their actions and intentions they trusted in Him that hath the Key of David opening and no man shutting and prayed to the Lord the Father of our Lord Jesus to direct their cogitations this was the way they took and persevered in And should such good men as these bee forgotten such Pillars of Truth as these not seene and made manifest pity it were that their worth should be obscured or that the grave should bury their deserts All which time hath now brought to light and collected together in one Volume the use and fruit of which I wish to every Christian man This Work being then a Constellation of Divine Lights that were visibly seene in the East and Westerne Horizon of the Church and are here set in their severall places and Centuries of yeares wherein they lived shewing not onely their mortall aspect by curious and lively brasse Sculptures representing their Effigies and Countenances but also the divine influences of their souls in their lives actions and divine sentences for their Seraphick Contemplations were full of sublime and sweete expressions that as their faces were full of Reverend lines of gravity so did their Writings abound with sententious lines of Piety Insomuch that these words may justly be subscribed under their severall Pictures Exempla plus dictis valent facta mea non dicta vos Christianos milites sequi volo nec disciplinam modo sed exemplum etiam à me petere Examples prevaile more than Precepts I would have all Christian Souldiers follow my steps in works as well as words and in your lives make me your Rule and Example for Omnia prosperè Deum sequentibus eveniunt adversa spernentibus for Gods servants and followers are always fortunate and blessed but his foes miserable and wretched In a word the faces of the holy Primitive Fathers are here the object of your sight their Graces of your knowledge and understanding their Sentences may serve for your minds illustration and illumination and their Lives for your practice conversation and imitation and in all they have been and are accounted sacra Ecclesiae Lumina holy Lights of the Church shining once on Earth and now in Heaven and therefore all that would become Stars in glory after this life let them imitate these resplendent Stars of Grace that hereafter they may shine in glory with Christ Jesus the Sonne of Righteousnesse in his Fathers Kingdome for ever Amen Typographus The Names of all the Primitive Fathers contained in this Booke Philo Iudeus Ann. Mundi 4024. Iosephus 4057 Ann. Christi Ignatius 71 Polycarpus 71 Dionysius 71 Saeculum secundum ab anno 100 ad 200. Iustinus Mart. 150 Irenaeus 170 Ab 200 ad 300. Tertullianus 204 Clemens Alexandrinus 204 Origenes Adamantiâ—s 226 Gregorius Thaum 233 St. Cyprianus 250 Arnobius 285 Lactantius Firmianus 290 Ab anno 300 ad 400. Eusebius Caesari 329 St. Athanasius 340 Hilarius Pictav 355 Cyrillus Hieros 365 Ephrem Syrus 365 Basilius Mag. 370 Gregorius Nazâ—anzenus 370 Epiphanius 370 S. Ambrosius 374 Gregorius Nyssenus 380 Theodoretus 389 S. Hieronymus 390 S. Chrysostomus 398 Ab anno 400 ad 500. S. Augustinus 420 Cyrillus Alexan. 430 Petrus Chrysologus 440 Prosper Aquitan 445 Ab anno 500 ad 600. Fulgentius 529 Ab anno 600 ad 700. S. Gregorius Magnus 604. Isidorus Hispal 630 Ab anno 700 ad 800. Beda venerabilis 731 Iohannes Damascenus 731 Ab anno 800 ad 900. Nicephorus 828 Ab anno 900 ad 1000 ad 1100. Theophylactus 1071 Anselmus Cant. 1081 Ab anno 1100 ad 1200. Rupertus Tuitiensis 1119 S. Bernardus 1130 Petrus Lombardus 1145 Ab anno 1200 ad 1300. Alexander Hales 1245 Bonaventura 1265 Thomas Aquinas 1265 An. Mundi 4024. Philo Iudaeus PHILO IVDAEVS THis Philo was a Iew of Alexandria of the stocke of the priests and hee is deservedly placed among the Ecclesiasticall Writers because that in his workes hee
sayth are as sower Grapes whose greatest Honours are fading and false flourishes whose profits and riches are but poysoned baits to intrap men therefore happy are they that have a good and a quiet soule for it is given them from above For if we consider man according to the life we shall find him full of vanity weaknesse inconstancy misery and presumption a fruitfull Argument to divert him from all singularity And he that will avoyde trouble and sorrow must apply his mind to wisedome This Polycarpus wrote many things most of which are kept in the Vatican There is extant an Epistle of his to the Philippians An. Christi 71. Sanctus Dionysius Areopagita S. DIONISIVS AREOPAGITA BEsides those of the Latine many of the Greek writers have written this Dionysius actions as Aristarchus a Chronologer and Methodius Bishop of Constantinople Metaphrastes and Suidas amongst the Latine Authors Hilduinus at the request of Ludovicus Pius the Emperour Ado Mathaeus Galenus and others as Cardinall Baronius in his first and second Tome of his Ecclesiastical Annalls but both the one and the other wheresoever they mention him stile him Hominem sapientissimum Episcopum sanctissimum Martyrem illustrissimum idest A most wise man an holy Bishop and a most famous Martyr This Dionysius was borne at Athens the most famous City of all Greece the mother of all Arts and Sciences His parents were eminent rich and civill of life given much to hospitality and wonderous liberall This Dionysius giving himselfe to study prov'd himselfe so learned that hee was accounted among the chiefe of Athens He travelled into Egypt for the more commodiousnesse of studie also for to get the skill of Astronomy at the age of twenty five yeers whilst hee liv'd at Heliopolis with Apollophanes the Philosopher hee saw that generall Eclipse of the Sunne at our Saviours Passion which did envelope the earth in darknes for three houres which he said was not naturall and this as one amazed hee spoke of it Aut Deus naturae patitur autmundi Machina dissolvetur id est either the God of nature doth now suffer or the frame of the whole world shall be dissolved Michaell Syngellus priest in Ierusalem reporteth that he heard his father say that he heard this Dionysius speake of that Eclipse in these words Ignotus in carne patitur Deus cujus gratia rerum Vniversitas densa hac caligine obfcurata est atque concussa id est God unknowne in the flesh did suffer for whose sake the Uniuerse was struck and covered with thicke darknesse And this Dionysius in an Epistle written to Polycarpus being asked what this great Ecclipse might portend said that it shewed a change and a great alteration and that hee did seriously observe the day and the houre This Saint Denis tooke to Wife one Damaris a grave Matron as Saint Ambrose and Saint Chrysostome doe well note hee lived in the management of State Affaires and administred Justice with admirable discretion and most men wondred at him for his prudence and Philosophy At the same time Saint Paul the Doctor of the Gentiles came to Athens and taught them there true divine Philosophy driving away and overthrowing all the Sects of vain philosophy as of the Epicures Stoicks Academicks Peripateticks who at the time resided in Athens and were highly esteemed of but when Saint Paul was entred into the Citie hee saw an Altar with this Inscription Ignoto Deo From which Saint Paul as a wise and prudent Preacher took occasion to preach to them the true God who is the Creator of all things There was in the same City a high and eminent place of Judicature whereon 12 Judges sate to censure Malefactors and Offenders and thereupon that place was called Areâ—pagus or Mars his Hill and those that were appointed Iudges to sit in that place were for their severity and integrity called Areopagites It so fell out that Saint Paul preaching of the true God as also of the Resurrection and the Iudgement of the World was accounted by all those great philosophers as a wicked and sacrilegious person and so being brought to this place before the Iudges he did with that Divine Eloquence and with such forcible Arguments convince those Philosophers and by the great blessing of God did convert this Dionysius President and chiefe of the Judges with Damaris his Wife who used Saint Paul courteously and were instructed by him in the knowledge of our Lord Iesus Christ at the knowledge of this the whole City of Athens was amazed because that this Dionysius was reputed of all men to be a most wise and judicious man but Dionysius was not ashamed of a Master to become a Scholer and exprest to the whole Church how that he magnified this divine Learning and sacred knowledge of Christ. Now though hee was thus converted to the Faith yet he kept the name of Areopagite and within three yeeres prov'd an admirable proficient to propagate the Gospel of our Saviour And so staying a good while in Athens he did with great labour and wisdome preach the Word of God For he as a wise Harvest-man brought in many sheaves of corne into Gods Store-house the Church and so he went to Ephesus to visit S. Paul and see S. Iohn now returned out of Pathmos from Banishment by whose perswasion Clemens then governing the Church of Rome this Dionysius repaired to Rome having done his spirituall worke at Athens and left one Publius to look to that Flocke Hee was by the said Clement authorized to goe into France to preach the Word there and to give knowledge of salvation to that Nation and France was at that time a fit place to plant the Gospel in but the first Labourers were martyred that were sent thither hereupon this Dionysius took his fellow-labourers in this journey and work one Rusticus a priest Eleutherius a Deacon and Eugenius some others Eugenius he sent to Spain who setling at Toledo was there first Archbishop afterwards going into France was martyred Dionysius comming into France esteemed that Paris would be the fittest place to reside in and there hee found himselfe not frustrated of his expectation for in a short space hee brought many sheep into the fold of Christ not onely in Paris but also in many other places and those that were converted were not of the meaner sort but many rich noble and great persons who being converted overthrew the Temples of their false gods and erected new places for Divine Worship But the common enemy of the Church of Christ seeing and observing this happy progresse that this Kingdome would be weakned if this doctrine was maintained Whereupon hee began to contrive plots and malicious projects how to hinder the work of this Dionysius And thereupon put it into the mindes of those Idolatrous priests by their malice to hasten his death but marke the over-ruling hand of God although many were sent armed secretly to dispatch
his reigne but the ancient Martyrologies affirme that Saint Denis suffered martyrdome under Hadrianus as Cardinall Baronius hath well and judiciously obserued it And so secondly we may conclude safely that Denis lived one hundred and ten yeers His writings are extant yet not without some scruple or doubting howbeit those of the best judgment give good reason why they are his I will not rehearse any of those great Miracles which the papists doe ascribe to him however I must not neglect to recite unto you his works being so loftie and divine and relishing of a Spirit which was ruled by the Dictate of the Holy Ghost And indeed I could bee large if I should but recite the Testimonies of all Ecclesiasticall Writers who have commended this godly martyr Bellarmine saith that hee used often that saying of Ignatius of Christ Amor meus crufixus est that is to say My love and delight is crucified His Sentences follow And his Works as Cardinall Bellarmine hath registred them He used to say that hee desired of God but two things first to know the truth himselfe Secondly to preach it as he should to others No lesse observable was his speech to Timothy Hadst thou seene the Saints agonies at that time as I did speaking of their cruell persecutions of him thou couldst not but weep considering the sentence denounced against them that Peter was crucified and Paul beheaded that multitudes of the common Rabble smiting them did spit in their faces and it is worthy the remembring that at their parting after they had received the sentence of death from the Magisâ—rate Paul said to Peter Peace beâ— with thee thou Foundation of the Church and Shepherd of Christs Lambs and Sheep And Peter to Paul Go in peace thou Preacher of good things thou Mediator and Captain of our Salvation and chiefest Labourer in the Lords Harvest But at their departure saith he did follow my Master Paul And in the same Epistle Observe a Miracle my brother Timothy not to be slightly passed over I who was present at their parting after their death saw them hand in hand entring into the gates of the Citie clothed with a garment of light and wearing on their heads glorious Crowns 1 Of the Celestiall Hierarchie 1 Book 2 Of the Ecclesiasticall Hierarchie 1 Book 3 Of Divine Names 1. 4 Of Mysticall Divinity 1. 5 Epistles to Caius 4. 6 To Dorotheus 1. 7 To Sosipater 1. 8 To Polycarpus 1. 9 To Demophilus 1. 10 To Titus 1. 11 To Apollophanes 1 12 To John the Apostle 1. To confirme that these Works were his it is sufficient that they were allowed of Saint Gregory the Great in his 33 Homily on the Gospels and not only of him but of divers others who have writ of him as St. Maximus and others An. Christi 150. Iustinus Martyr IVSTINVS MARTER LOoke upon this effigies and you behold an acute Philosopher a Judicious Divine a constant Martyr a stout shield of the Christian Faith an Elegant ancient and eloquent Writer in the defence of the Truth Whom many of the Fathers have highly esteemed and deepely praised as Photius in his Book entituled the Library and Eusebius in his Ecclesiastical History S. Ierom likewise reckons him none of the meanest amongst those famous Champions of the Church so Epiphanius terms him Vir sanctus Dei a man an holy man and a lover of God Anastasius Paulus Orosius in his seventh Book and fifth Chapter and Plinius secundus in his Epistles in the tenth booke But Photius doth amongst the rest give and afford him a large Eulogie it begins in these words Est autem vir ille ad Philosophiae tum nostrae tum potissimum prophanae summum evectus fastigium c. which is That this man came to a great height not onely of our philosophy but also of that which is counted prophane flowing in the copiousnesse and abundance of all sorts of learning and histories and knew very well how to beautifie and adorn his words with Rhetoricall expressions Hence was it that hee was so able to deliver his mind in apt termes and significant phrases so that those things that came from him were wonderfull emphaticall patheticall and significant and work'd much upon the souls of his Auditors Hee was sonne to Prisâ—us Bacchius hee was borne in a certain little Towne in the province of Palestine called Naples But hee tooke great delight in Rome and therefore hee chose that to be the seat of his residence where both in speech life and habit he professed himselfe a Philosopher but he made his philosophy subservient to his sacred studie of divinity and would say He kept it for use and that in his studies he found great profit by it Tritenhemius the famous Abbat of Spanheim in his collections of the ancient fathers doth give this Iustin Martyr a very good report for he cals him Christi amatorem cultorem insignem a great lover and worshipper of Christ Jesus Cardinall Bellarmine and Baronius doe both highly prayse and exâ—oll him for his Learning in their Writings especially Baronius in his Annals doth commend him because Hee was the first Champion that set himself against the dangerous Heretick Marcion His words are these Caeterum non defuerunt qui statim adversus Marcionis venena pararent antidotum praestilit id quidem omnium primus Iustinus Martyr that is There wanted not those that presently prepared antidotes against the poyson and venome of â—arcion but the first that undertooke the cause was Iustin Martyr Nay hee not onely prayses him for that according to his due merit but also for his valour and prudence in discovering the Heresie of the Valentinians he cites Tertullian adversus Valent cap. 4. 5. to utter these words Viri sanctitate praestantia Insignes Haeresiarcharum contemporales instructissimis voluminibus prodiderunt retardarunt ut Iustinus Martyr There were men famous for sanctity worth and excellencie who by their dexterous Writings supprest the Heresie of Valentinus as Iustin Martyr so that it easily doth appeare that he did not onely suffer much for his Saviours cause but also did much study and accustome himself to defend it against all oppositions in his time For custome is a second nature and when the soule takes delight in any vertue it is gain'd upon by an usuall and customary iteration He began to flourish in the Reigne of Antoninus Pius and in the time of Telesphorus as doth appeare by his Apologie which hee dedicates to the same Emperour wherein hee grievously complains against the Prâ—consul in Asia because he did with such extream crueltie persecute the poore Christians with the sword as was thought against the minde of that good Emperour who was calme and gentle towards them and would not suffer them to read any Books of the Prophets which spoke of Christ upon pain of death But this Iustin Martyr lays him open to the Emperour and saith
which had caused great discord betwixt two Breâ—hren that Hee by His prayer stopt the force of the River Lycus which overflowed and drowned the neighbouring fields and so brideled the swelling waves that ever after they did keep within their own bounds and banks That this Faâ—her likewise cast out Devils out of the bodies of men that He stayed the plague in places that were infected that he heald the sick and weak and that He also raised the dead and that Hee brought many souls to embrace the Gospel of Christ Iesus Whether he was so full of these Works and Wonders I doe not here intend to dispute but I have onely related what I have read of him and I have not much cause to suspect the wordes of so many Fathers of the Church who witnesse it of Him Take therefore I pray you the commendation which Saint Basil the great affords Him in His Booke of the Holy Ghost Chapter 29. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Where shall I find a fit place for this great Gregory and his praises May I not fitly set him with the Prophets and Apostles a man endued with the same spirit in great measure a man whose life paralled those former stars of Heaven a man who did powerfully shew the vigour of the Word of God We should do injury to the Truth if we should not account him amongst the blessed in glory and felicity which like an eminent Torch shined in the Church of Christ ope S. S. tremendam habuit adversus Daemones potestatem And who by the helpe of the Holy Ghost had mighty power against Devils Hee had received such a plentifull portion of the graces of Gods Spirit that by the helpe of seventeen more Christians he brought whole Cities and Countries to the obedience of the Gospel Hee also chang'd the course and bridled the force of Rivers and of a great Lake which was cause of dissention betwixt two brothers and his predictions of things to come makes him that hee may be reckoned amongst the Prophets If saith Saint Basil I should reckon up all His Wonders and Miracles which hee did in the sight of the people I should even attribute that title to him which his very adversaries afforded him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a second Moses for they are so fixed in the hearts of men and so knowne amongst all so faithfully registred amongst Historians that the envy of the Devill nor the length of time can ever abolish the memory of them Qui à tempore magni praesidis Ecclesiae vestrae Gregorii Who from the time of that Great President of your Church Saint Gregory have flourished Here I cannot but cite the admirable commendation that Eusebius the Historian giues him beginning thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 about the same time that Xistus ruled the Roman Church and Demetrianus who succeeded Fabianus in the Church of Antioch and Firmilianus the Church of Caesarea that this Gregory called Theodorus who was an Auditour of S. Origens together with his brother Athenodorus did wisely manage the Church of Pontus and in another place the said Eusebius reckons up this famous Gregories actions Verum quoniam Beati Gregorii historiae textus mentionem attulit c. But for as much as the Text of the History hath mentioned this Blessed Saint Gregory I will not omit the worthy Workes of so great a man There was a great Lake in Pontus full of all sorts of fish which came to be the Inheritance of two Brethren who fell to civill dissention about it so that many men had lost their lives in the quarâ—ell which thing when Gregory heard of he presently came to the place and uttered these words to the two contentious Brothers Nolite ô Filioli rationales animas pro multis animantibus viâ—lare Fraternam pacem quaestus cupiditate dissolvere Dei leges naturae pariter jur a temer are that is Do not ô my sonnes ô doe not destroy so many reasonable soules for a few mute creatures break not the bond of brotherly love and peace for transitory gaine doe not so rashly and desperatly violate the Laws oâ— God and Nature at once come wiâ—h mee to this fatall Lake and I will by the help of God reconcile you for ever Whither comming this good man upon his bended knees prayed heartily to God in the sight and hearing of all present and Eusebius sets down the words of his prayer That he desired of God that never any more fish might be in it but that it should be a field for corn that by this means these two Brethren might agree in love together whose prayer God heard and did immediatly grant his request to the amazement of all the standers by Such force have the prayers of a faithfull man with God this one action is enough to renowme him in all Ages but he was admirable likewise for ingenuity and dexteritie of wit as the same Eusebius gives testimony of him in these words Sed ingenii sui in parvo nobis maxima monumenta dereliquit But hee shewed in briefe the excellency of his wit For Magnificentissime scripsit that is He writ most elegantly upon Ecclesiastes and left a brief but an eloquent Exposition upon the Catholike Faith which hath beene and is a great edification of the Church of Christ His wordes begin thus Vnâ—â— Deus Pater Verbi Viventis that is One God the Father of the Living Word of the Subsisting Wisdome of the Ever-living Power the Perfect begetter of the Perfect One the Father of the onely begotten Sonne and so goes on expressing the Deitie and Triniâ—â— in most apt and significant judicious termes Saint Gregory Nyssen affords this man a singular Encomium and Eulogie in these words Sicâ—t de Mose ait Scriptura c. that is That as the Scripture speaks of Moses so may I of this Gregory Hee was seene in all the Learning of the Gentiles hee found how weake and unwise their opinions were and embraced with great ard our and sanctity the Gospel Saint Hierome also blazons 〈◊〉 his Works with prayse and commendation They begin thus Theodorus qui postea Gregorius a pellatus est Theodore who was after called Gregory was Bishop of Neocaesarea in Pontâ—s in his youth to learne the Greeke and Latine with his Brother Anthenodorus he passed from Cappadociâ— to Beritum and afterwards to Caesarea of Palestine where Origen seeing their admirable wit taught them Philosophie and so instâ—ucted them in Divinitie and sent them to their Mother this Gregory wrote an eloquent Letter to Origen extant yet And Hierome stiles him Virum Apostolicorum signorum virtâ—tum that is A man ful of signes and Apostol call Miracles And he that will read more of him let him accept of this cloud of Witnesses Sanctus Gregorius pap lib. 1. Dialogorum cap. 7. Socrates lib. 4. c. 22. Enagrius lib. 3. cap. 31. Cedrenus in anno 12. Anastasii Imp.
ought to be done of such as would please God There was one Caecilius a Priest and upright man who first did enlighten his minde a man worth commendation whom this Saint Cyprian highly honoured and reverenced calling him novae vitae parentem The Father of his Christian life It is not possible to reckon up all his severall graces this adds to his credit that being but a Neophyte in Christianity yet God so disposed it that hee was chosen to be a Bishop with an unconceiveable joy of the people which did honour him but he was so humble that hee seemed not to regard their praises but at his comming out and going into his house a World of Christians attended quae illi pietas qui vigorâ— misericordia quanta quanta censura O how great his piety his valour O how admirable his mercy and his discretion His countenance full of gravity and pleasantnesse not too much expressing a severe sadnesse nor yet affecting wantonnesse but so equally tempered that it was hard to say whether hee was more loved or feared his carriage was answerable to his aspect not any wayes swelling or puft up with pride nor dejected with poverty But what was this Bishops love to the poore may be a patterne to all succeeding ages but Satan envied this good man and so at last he was banished but even in this state he performed a world of good Witnesse that speech made and sent to Nemesianus â—oelix and Lucius with other Priests and Deacons saying It is no shame but glory not to be feared but to be rejoyced at to suffer banishment or paines for Christ that such as suffer shew that they are valiant Captains of Vertue provoking by the confessions of their mouth and sufferings of their bodies the hearts of the faithfull to Martyrdome For saith he it is no new thing for a Christians body to be beaten with clubs or to be full of wounds or skars in as much as they were ornaments to them not any discouragements and though the Mines afford no beds to Christians yet they shall rest in the Lord and though their weary bodies lie on the cold ground yet they shall be refreshed though their hands and feet have bin loaden with fetters and chains of iron yet Christ will loose them and make them free men of Heaven the tying of them fast here is a meanes to make them run the faster to Heaven and though they be stripped of their garments yet Christs Righteousnesse would cover them their deformity shall be turned to honour their mourning to joy their pain to pleasure and to endlesse felicity And though they could not bee admitted the Temples to pray in yet they might offer their bodies and souls in humility and contrition to God which would be Sacrifices that would please him And concludes his comfortable speech to them with the words of S. Paul These present sufferings are not to be compared with the brightnesse of that glory that shall be revealed to the Children of God As also that saying of his shews his worth Quis doceret poenitentiam lapsos Veritatem Hâ—reticos Schismaticos unitatem filios Dei pacem Evangelicae pacis legem Who ever gave such directions to such as were fâ—lne to renew their repentance Who ever gave better directions to Hereticks to embrace the Truth Who better taught Schismaticks the way to Unity or the Children of God the pâ—th of peace and prayer By Him it was that the blaspheming Gentiles were convinc'd in themselves of those things whereof they accused the Christians By Him it was that the weaker Christians were so willing to forsake all worldly preferments in hope of a reward in heaveu Hee it was of whom wee may truly learne pity and patience It was this Cyprian that overcame the malice of his Eâ—vious Adversaries by a sweet and Christian-like meeknesse Who was it that afforded stronger Cordials and Counsels to conquering Martyrs and to speak truth Quis denique tot confessores frontium notatarum secunda inscriptione signatos ad exemplum Martyrii superstites reservatos incentivo tubae Coelestis animaret Who ever did by the heavenly trumpet encourage so many Confessours branded and twice written downe and signed and daily expecting Martyrdome to stand firme in the faith as Saint Cyprian It was then the singular providence of God that this man should be yet reserued so that his feare and his departure was divine and approved that yet he might confirme many convince others and comfort many others in their sufferings for at this time the Church of God was deeply wounded by the common adversary and therefore fit it was that hee and such like as he was should binde up and cure the wounded and broken Lactantius gives this Cyprian a great commendation for his gravity and cleernesse of stile he was unwilling to have been Bishop but the voices of all cried out either Saint Cyprian or none and indeed who can sufficiently set forth either his wisdome or diligence in feeding Christ his flock so that hee was like a loving Father to all A vigilant Bishop and an heavenly inâ—pired Master when as the Church 〈…〉 miserably wasted by persecution under 〈◊〉 the Emperour whose governmenâ— was â—ut short but as Saint Cypriâ—n witnesseth himselfe extremly bloudy for the Church saith 〈◊〉 having enjoyed a long peace under his â—â—ther all men studied their private wealth so that Devotion and Religion and good 〈◊〉 were quite neglected and all estates and â—orts of men and women were fearfully corrupâ—ed sâ—vit hoc â—â—agellâ—m Deus God suffered thi◠〈◊〉 of persecution to reforme it which Saint Cyprian avoided by flying as 〈◊〉 testifies but his Adversaries sought for him to have cast him to be devoured by Lions in the Amphitheatre so that they that would â—ot believe him a Bishop in prosperity should 〈◊〉 him one in banishment but what great goâ—â— in his banishment did hee performe doth easily appeare by his care to see the slaughtered christians to have decent buriall to care that 〈◊〉 wounded and mangled should have releafe and comfort and it pleaâ—ed God to afford him â—uch a perswading power that he obtain'd whatsoever he desired for them but this storme of persecution was but of one yeers continuance For 〈◊〉 raigned but one yeer and three moneths so that all things being â—alme this Saint Cyprian returned to his charge againe gathering together the dispersed â—lock yet for all this the Barbarians entred Nâ—midia wasting and destroying many Christians whom Saint Cyprians provided for and got monies for the ransome of such as were captives About this time a grievous pestilence raged in Africk in which Saint Cyprian shewed a marvellous measure of Piety and Charity Hee comforted some administred to those that were in want hee stird up those Christians that were persecuted by Pagans to afford them neverthelesse reliefe in the time of Contagion teaching them to doe good even for evill but yet not all these unparalleld
by way of Commentaries and Illustrations on them hee composed many Volumes therein following Origen of whom he was a diligent admirer and imitator Hee flourished under Constantine the Great and Constantius about the yeere of our Lord 320. And after a long and studious life hee surrendred his soule into his Makers hands His Life was written by Accacius his Successour and Eusebius Bishop of Emesen His Apologie is to be found in his Workes sacr a lib. 2. hist. there collected Now appertaining to the understanding of the divine Scriptures are these Works following 1 All the Canonicall Books of the old Testament translated into Greek 2 Of Hebrew places one Book 3 Of the description of the Holy Land one Book 4 Of the doctrine of the Ancients and another of collections of Divinitie 5 Learned Commentaries literally and mystically on the whole Psalmes 6 Fifteene Bookes of Commentaries on Isaiah the Prophet 7 Thirty Volumes in defence of either Testament opposed by Porphyrie in fifteen Books 8 Of Evangelicall preparation five Books 9 Of Evangelicall demonstration twenty books 10 Of the dissonance of the Evangelists one Book 11 Of Evangelical Canons one Book 12 Commentaries on the first Epistle to the Corinths An. Christi 330. L. Caelius Lactantius Firmianus LACT FIRMIANVS I Doe not finde any mention of the parents Countrey or education of this Father nor is his fame and reputation therefore diminished seeing that hee is registred and numbred amongst the ancient Pillars of the Church for his Pietie and Learning and hee is sufficiently praysed by those pens whose worth and veritie have been approved in all ages It is no small credit to be enrolled amongst a cloud of so divine and pious Fathers I finde by the testimony of Saint Ierome that hee was the Scholer of Arnobius who in the Reigne of Dioclesianus the Emperour was together with Flaviâ—s the Grammarian cald to preferment and that hee publikely taught Rhetorick in Nicomedia Hee addicted himselfe to writing Bookes amongst other his workes Saint Ierome speakes these words of his Treatise of Gods Anger Edidit Lactantius librum qui inscribitur Grammaticus pulcherrimum de Ira Dei that is Lactantius set forth a booke called the Grammarian and another beautifull and faire piece of Gods Anger and indeed his subjects which hee treates of and the stile in which he writes are both excellent divine and fluent savouring of a minde that was truly mortified and intended to bring his Auditors to a resolved course of sanctification and pietie For piety and holinesse is the true knowledge of God it was never yet saith hee rewarded with punishment or shame For true piety preserveth and defendeth every vertuous man from shame The party to whom he dedicates the most of his Workes addes no small testimony to his parts and learning for most of them were inscribed to no lesse person than to Constantine the Great an Emperour whose fame doth and will for ever flourish in the Church if for no other cause than even for his pietie and studie to preserve the professors of the Gospell and for his bounty and liberality to the Bishops of his time as also for his building of Churches for divine worship and his valour and heroicke constancie in opposing Hereticks and Schismaticks who began to grow potent And Saint Ierome leaves him not thus but proceeds further in his divulging his prayses in the translation of Eusebius under Constantinus the Emperour in these words Lactantius quasi quidam fluvius Eloquentiae Tullianae Crispum filium Constantini Latinis literis â—rudivit vir omnium suo tempore eruditissimus that is This Lactantius flowed with Eloquence and was as abounding as Tully himselfe and as famous for his stile of Latine Hee was Tutor to Crispus the sonne of Constantine and learned him the Latine tongue A man in his time of all others the most learned and dexterous for the education of Princes and well and deeply seene in the points of Divinity and againe Lactantium propter eruditionem hic legendum that is Lactantius therefore is approvedly read for his singular Learning Quis mihi interdicere potest ne legam institutionum ejus libros quibus contra Genies fortissimè scripsit quos silegeris stylum Ciceronis excerptum reperies that is who can forbid me to reade his Bookes of Institutions which with such a noble and valorous resolution Lactantius published against the Heathens which if you doe reade you shall finde a pure elegant and eloquent phrase no whit inferiour to that of Cieero Platina gives this Lactantius also a faire commendation in these words and to the same effect His verò temporibus floruisse Firmianum Lactantium constat Arnobii Discipulum c. that is about these times flourished Firmianus â— actantius Arnobius his Scholler who taught Rhetoricke in Nicomedia who upon some disturbance left that profession betaking himself to writing in which hee was so excellent that next to Cicero he bore away the name from any other Writer Hee writ many famous Treatises full of judgment and discretion so that in his old age hee was for his rare parts appointed to be Tutor to Crispus the sonne of Constantinus the Emperour a place of great weight and estimation and of no lesse carefulnesse and wisdome which arguâ—â—h this Lactantius to be able in his parts or else hee would scarce have beene admitted to a place of that dignity Saint Augustine and Ierome in severall places are not sparing to commend this Lactantius the latter of them speakes that although his parts were great and his preferments eminent and large yet he died very poore and so lived not gaping or greedily pursuing worldly preferments of honour and riches but as one who was willing to count all as dung and drosse so that hee might gaine the eternall inheritance For a quiet and peaceable life ought to be preferred before all other things and should be the chiefest study and care of every man so that hee might passe his life time in joy and tranquillitie that his soule might bee free from anguish and trouble at his death For it is impossible for that man to be excellent both in riches of this world and in the practise of godlinesse Honour and riches are the occasions of all kindes of mischiefs for they doe draw and seduce a man out of the right way In the time of the great persecution of the Church of Christ under Dioclesianus the Emperour begun against the Christians as Eusebius relates it in the nineteenth yeere of Dioclesian in which there was cruell demolition of Churches and sacred Temples burning of holy and godly Books inhumane tortures and torments inflicted against the Christians so that where any were found that were pious and Christian they were fetcht and most severely martyred for the truth as Cardinall Baronius averres and indeed all other Ecclesiasticall Historians that though the Tempest raged horribly yet this worthy constant Father retain'd his piety and
the Macedonians by these three the Churches were miserably vexed But foure yeeres after the Councell of Sardis even to the death of Constantius some ten yeeres space this Athanasius was again banished into the Desarts of Libya but the Emperour was sorely vexed at him but Liberius then Bishop of Rome pleaded hard for him in so much that Constantius banished him for it well in the absence of Athanasius Constantius caused councels to be held in severall places that was chiefe against Photinus the Heretike who dispraised both the Orthodoxe and Arrians Against this Photinus both the Orthodoxe Christians and Arrians agreed well But in what troubles was the Church under the Reigne of Constantius who gouerned 24 yeers in which space there were so many Councels and nine contrary Confessions of Faith to that of the Nicene Councell the two first were proposed at Antioch the third by Constantius his Embassadours to Constans the fourth was sent by Eudoxius to the Westerne Bishops the fifth sixth and seventh was at Sirmium the eighth at Seleucia by the Acacians the ninth was at Constantinople to which Vlphilas the Bishop of the Gothes subscribed upon all these hath Athanasius divinely spoken Witnesse his Creed every syllable whereof beares matter of importance answerable to the judgment of so divine an Author whose doctrine in other things was no lesse judicious though not altogether so profitable as in this his compendious abridgment and abbreviation of the Christian faith briefly comprehended in a short Epitome yet not so briefely as plainly dilucidated and expounded to the general benefit and edification of the Church Concerning which it may be said maximum in minimo that the greatest thing is in the least the most matter in fewest words And albeit in the Apostles Creed there are not many words yet the words might appeare unto some not sufficient for restrayning Heretikes from their opinions and hence this Father advisedly undertooke the penning of this his Creed for explication of those articles which others wrested and perverted to their own and others destruction which had it bin sooner written in all probability those their errors had bin nipped in the bud never germinated to the scandal and annoyance of the Church of God So that as it is said of the good woman by the Son of Syrach Many daughters have done vertuously but thou excellest them all so may we say of this learned and reverend man many have written Creeds of the Christian faith but thine the Apostles onely excepted is inferiour unto none yea superiour being compared with others Upon these occurrences Constantius died sorrowing for three reasons The first that hee had furthered his Kindreds death the second because hee had nominated Iulian the Apostate Emperour the third that he had too much approved those new and Hereticall Arrian points But now the case of the Church under Iulian was deplorable who strive to put downe all Christianity But for all this Athanasius receives his charge at Alexandria where while he staid he called the Bishops together and they strengthened the Nicene Confession and they condemned the Arrians Eunomians Macedonians and the Audaeans and Apollinarians with the Sabellians but now the Church increasing at Alexandria by Athanasius presence the great Philosophers Magicians Wisards and South-sayers cry out that they can do nothing unlesse this Athanasius be removed So Letters were granted not onely to take him but to kill him upon this Athanasius leaves Alexandria and intends to go by ship to Thebais his friends grieving at his departure he told them Nubecula est â—ito transitura It was a cloud that would soone be over and so it came to passe for the yeere after Iulian died fearfully but how ever he sent after Athanasius to apprehend him but they were deceived that sought him for hee came presently back to Alexandria and kept close till Iulian was dead Then Iovianus succeeding in the Empire recall'd the banished Orthodox Bishops and embrac'd them highly Athanasius writ an Epistle to this ' Emperour of the Nicene Faith but this good Iovianus after seven moneths raigne died at Bythinia so Valentinianus and Valens succeeded him different these were for Valentinian was Orthodoxe but Valens was an Arrian and did persecute the Easterne Churches so that Athanasius was forced to hide himselfe in his Fathers Monument the space of foure moneths yet for all this stir this Emperour was in a manner forc't to give leave to Athanasius to reside in Alexandria so long as this Athanasius liv'd the Church of Alexandria was quiet but this good Father died in the seventh yeere of Valens his Raigne peaceably and in his old age having been Bishop 46 yeeres of Alexandria This Father is commended of all Ecclesiasticall Writers Gregory Nazianzen stiles him Tubam ingentem columnam Ecclesiae The great Trumpet of the Church and the Churches Pillar and further he calls him Oâ—ulum Orbis Doctorem Certaminum vocem magnam fidei sustentaculum secundum Christi praecursorem Lampadem Epiphanius calls him patrem rectae fidei Theodoret stiles him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Bulwarke of Truth Saint Basil praises this Father highly so doth Iulius the Roman Bishop in his Epistle to the Alexandrians So doth Constantine the younger in his Letters to the said Citizens So doth Saint Hierome Ruffinus lib. c. 14. So doth Cassianus lib. 7. de Incarnat cap. ult and Vincentius Lirinensis and Cyrillus of Alexandria and divers others and so this Father having finisht his course and kept the faith expects the second comming of the Lord Jesus Athanasius his Sayings Of Faith The religious forme of godlinesse is above every forme and is knowne only by Faith For it is the light of the soule the doore of life the foundation of eternall salvation for without it no man can come neere the number of the sons of God and without it all the endevoâ—â— of man is of none effect So the Apostle Paul declares himselfe saying ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus Againe his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertaine to life and Godlinesse 2 Pet. 1. 3. To believe rightly in God and also of the whole Trinity is to direct all our hope unto God and with sure trust to depend only upon his truth and goodnesse These are the works of faith saith he namely a quiet and good conscience the love of God and the blessed Trinitie and the hope of things to come a boldnesse to come to the Throne of grace prayer true worship confession of the truth obedience perseverance in yielding up of the spirit and to goe immediatly to God Saint Athanas. de meditatione Let the Sun when it riseth in the Firmament see the Psalter or thy Prayer book in thy hands that so the Sonne of righteousnesse may shine into thy heart by faith in thy heart Saint Athanas. de meditatione Be instant at prayers with God and worship him that hung upon the Crosse
children doe they might please God better in obeying his Commandement and their Parents who lege talionis deserve more respect then their children can give them Many Bishops by the Emperours command being assembled at Selâ—ucia to give their opinions concerning the Arrian Heresie Saint Hâ—lary comming on a Sunday into a Chappell belonging to a Castle Florentia a Heathen Maid cry'd cut with a loud voice That a servant of God was come thither and falling downe at his feet shee earnestly desired his benediction and afterward leaving her parents shee followed him even to Poicters saying That though hee were not the father of her generation yet he was the Father of her regeneration Thus it is an easie thing with God of the stones to raise up Children unto Abraham to mollifie stony hearts and make them fructifie and beyond all mans beliefe by small or no meanes to bring great things to passe no lesse then an Heathens Conversion at the sight and approach of a man of God Such is the freenesse of Gods grace which is agens liberrimum The Winde bloweth where it listeth and thou hearest the sound thereof but knowest noâ— whence it commeth nor whither it goeth even so is every one that is borne of the Spirit Hee got much credit and approbation in the Arrian Synod and by persecution of his enemies Valens and Vrsatius was sent back againe into France where Saint Martin met him seeking his acquaintance and adoring him as an earthly Deity Afterward Saint Hilary being come home and finding his Daughter to whom he had written a former Epistle constant in desiring to be married to the Bridegroome which her Father had provided shee returned unto Christ the Bridegroome of her soule whose body her Father with his owne hands buried O glorious Funerall better than life being translated from Earth to Heaven and that in the flowre of her age and spring of her youth Thus despising naturall affection hee shewed loves perfection in seeking her eternall felicity and glorification An History which sets forth to the life the reward of obedient Children She that obeyed her earthly father is rewarded by God her heavenly Father And whereas she did expect for a recompence of her patience an earthly Bridegroome she was espoused to the Bridegroome of her soule fairer than the sons of Men richer than the greatest Potentates whose are all the Beasts of the Mountaines and the Cattell on a thousand Hills sweeter than all sweetnesse and better than all goodnesse Within few yeeres after Saint Hilary departed this present life in the Reigne of the Emperours Valens and Valentian Earth deploring Heaven rejoycing and also our Saviour Jesus Christ admitting him into felicitie to whose glory he had lived and died Thus a blessed Life was seconded by a blessed Death and he that had seene the various changes in the revolutions of times did at last exchange 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 drosse for gold misery for happinesse and in peace was gathered to his Fathers But what eloquence can expresse his facundiousnesse he being in discretion provident in handling matters profound in learning eloquent for vertue admirable in composition various in resolution subtle and wise as our Saviour saith as a Serpent yet gracious as the simple Dove He was the Salt of Wit the Fountain of Eloquence the Treasury of Knowledge the Light of Learning a Defender of the Church and an Enemy to the opposers thereof whose words read seemed not words but thunder He that would know the character of his minde let him remember his constancie reade his Volumes and weigh his Sayings some whereof are here inserted Whose excellency may appeare to any indifferent Reader who shall weigh them in the ballance of mature judgement and they deserve no lesse approbation or title than sometimes did the sayings of Pythagoras among the ancients which were intitled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the golden words of Pythagoras for according to that of the Wise man A word spoken in due season is like unto Apples of Gold in pictures of silver Such were these following viz. Of Custome Custome is a strong obligation and therefore he is a better Christian who not only by remission of sinne but by ignorance in sinne is blamelesse and innocent Whence it was that the Prophet denounceth a woe against such as draw iniquity together with cords of vanity Such are the cords of long continued custome which habituate a man in an evill way making him irrecoverably wicked Can a Blackamoore change his skin saith the Prophet or the Leopard his spots no more can yee that are accustomed to evill learne to doe good So that the truth of the ancient Proverbe is manifest that Custome is a second Nature for as slips of trees that are ingrafted and inoculated into another stocke partake of the nature of the stocke whereinto they are ingrafted so whatsoever vice a man accustometh himselfe unto to the same are his affections glued as it were and inseparably joyned and the corruption thereof concentraâ—ed and made coessentiall unto it Of Gods Works God hath performed many things whose naturall causes being hid yet their effects are knowne And Faith is religious though joyned with naturall ignorance A fit Register of Gods various wisedome yea the treasure house thereof is the whole Universe wherein all his workes are done in number weight and measure all which by their operations and impressions they make are easily to be discerned to bee nothing else but the foot-steps of his Majesty Now as Moses could not see GODS face but his hinder parts he saw so can we not many times discerne Gods workes in themselves à priori but à posteriori wee may by necessary collections Proportionably Faith which is the gift of God in it selfe is a glorious grace but because of our ignorance naturall and affected wee doe not attaine to that height and depth of that divine mystery which they that shall doe must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must have an Eagles eye not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 having their understandings darkned being strangers from the covenant of grace Of hidden treasure By the similitude of hidden treasure the riches of our hopes are shewed because God was found in man for obtayning of whom all is to be sold that wading through all wants we may attaine the riches of Heaven That man can want nothing which hath him which is All in all And as sometime the Philosopher said Omnia mea mecum porto Whatsoever is mine I beare about mee so may a Christian rich in grace say Deus meus omnia since I enjoy God I enjoy all without whom enjoying all I enjoy nothing other things utor non fruor I enjoy for their use but have no true contentment in enjoying them Of the Church Those that are out of the Church cannot be capable of understanding divine mysteries for the ship wherein Christ preached the Word of Life was a Type of the Church those without being like the sands were
sick and maimed if thou dyest uncured it is thy own fault his mercy and goodnesse is open freely to thee as to Mary Magdalen and the penitent Thiefe His Workes are contained in three Tomes which containe matters of severall subjects all full of Divinity printed at Antwerpe 1619. Bellarmine doubts of many of them Trithemius doth thus record them 1 Of the Holy Ghost one book 2 Of compunction of heart one book 3 Of Contrition one book 4 Of Penitence one book 5 Of the strife of this World one book 6 Of the Day of Iudgment one book 7 Of the Resurrection one book 8 Of the blessednesse of the Soule one book 9 Of Thoughts Homily one 10 Of the difficultie of preaching one book 11 Of celebrating the mysteries one book 12 Lamentations for the Citie of Edissa An. Christi 370. Sanctus Basilius Magnus S. BASILIVS THe life of this great St. Basil is of worth and rarity that it is not only fit for imitation but also admiration and therfore I have excerpted it partly out of his owne works and partly out of those funerall Sermons which have beene made for him by St. Gregory Nyssen and Gregory Nazianzen the one his halfe brother the other his most faithfull and worthy friend as also out of St. Hierome Amphalochirs Bishop of Iconium and Helladius Bishop of Caesarea and successor to St. Basil I also take some passages out of Metaphrastes Suidas and Cardinall Baronius A Writer saith of this St. Basil that he wel deserv'd the name of Great for he was Magnus ingenio Magnus Eloquio Magnus Sapientia Magnus Sanctimonia Magnus Divina gloriae propugnande propagandaeque Zelo Magnus adversus Hareticos Constantiâ Magnus dein omnibus rebus negotiis idest Hee was great in Wit great in Eloquence great in Wisedome great in Sanctity great in defending great in propagating Gods glory great inconvincing Heriticks and great in all his imployments and undertakings He was born in Helleno-Pont in the Iland of Pontus of Noble Wealthy and Holy Parents his Fathers name was Basil his Mothers Emilia they had ten Children whereof the eldest was called Maâ—rina who dyed a Religioâ—s Virgin such as the trees were such were their fruit for all their off-spring are commended for piety and holinesse His grand-father and great grandfather endured heavy miseries and afflictions for Christs sake under the reigne of the Emperour Galerius Maximâ—s a sworne enemy to the Christians in his time these kept close in Desarts and Caves and endured all hardnesse as well for their lodging apparell diet as also expecting each moment when they should have beene apprehended and at last suffered constant Martyrdome for Religion So you see this St. Basil proceeded from an holy and religious progeny and what more is he was a grace even to them He was of a rare wit and grave judgement sweetly composed behaviour wondrously modest he got learning first at Caesarea then at Constantinople then he went to Athens where he gain'd and held the love of Gregory Nazianzen Well he was wholly bent to the study of Theology â—nd therefore left Athens and went into Aegypt to see and heare one Porphyrius read Divinity and here hee stayed one whole yeare He was of an excellent constitution but with much watching praying reading fasting and spare diet he did much wear down his strength He left this Porphyrius and travailed to see Ierusalem He converted his Master Eubulus to the Faith of Christ so that he travaild with him to Ierusalem where lodging at Antioch at one Libanius his house a great rich man this Saint Basil expounded to this Libanius some of Homers verses wondrous difficult to bee understood with such readinesse and wit that hee even astonished this Libanius so that hee made them a great banquet but Eubulus and Basil feasted with nothing but meere bread and water and this St. Basil strived to have wonne this Libanius from Idolatry to Christianity but could not so deepe was his wilfulnesse but he gave admirable directions and instructions to the young men concerning their behaviour and deportment in their studies and so tooke leave of Libanius and were wondrous kindly entertained of the Bishop of Ierusalem and were by him baptized Having ended this jâ—urney they returned to Antioch where Meletius the Bishop made this Basil a Deacon and being ordered he shewed by his able parts what a Prelate he in time would prove for Antioch was fild with his fame so that he went to Caesarea a City of Palaestine where Hermogenes the Bishop consecrated him a Priest who presently dying all mens expectations were upon Basil to have succeeded him but Factions arising one Eusebius a Catholike Christian but puft up with envy and vaine-glory succeeded Hermogenes and this Eusebius perceiving the admirable parts of Basil and withall the peoples affection to him began to hate him so that Basil retreated into Mataria beyond the River Iris a solitary place of Pontus Here he stayed some certain years with Gregory Nazianzen where they led such holy and godly lives that they were esteemed rather divine than mortall St. Gregory in his 8. Epist. hath lively described his life with S. Basil. Here they were both driven to that exigency that if it had not bin for S. Basils mother Emilia they had there perished Here St. Basil gain'd many schollers and was famous as well for his Doctrine as his pious example and in this place they had matter enough to exercise their patience not onely from their poverty but also from their adversaries for it happened that Musonius Bishop of NeoCaesarea dying when there were publick meetings for the election of another Bishop that might be worthy the place as St. Gregory Thaumaturgus was they all pitched their thoughts upon this Basil which so gald the Hereticks of that place who knew his Doctrine would overthrow theirs his life shame their doings that they presently with all the policy they could rais'd slanders and opprobrious disgraces against this man But Basil like another Lampe had so enlightned all Pontus with his vertues that though Valens the Empeperour favoured the Hereticks and though they did waste the Easterne Churches and daily accuse this Basil nay though this Basil was hated of Eusebius before and seemed to be well content with a solitary life yet as if stayed up at this time by God he reconciles himselfe to Eusebius who ever after highly loved and esteemed him and being departed this life all men concluded that there was none so worthy of this place as St. Basil so by their choyce and by the advice of Gregory Nazianzen he yielded to their requests and proved a worthy shepheard to that flocke as well by truely feeding them as by driving away all Hereticks which were as Wolves to devoure the Church But scarce was he setled in this Bishoprick but there arose a mighty famine in this City the rich and Merchants would not part with their provision so that there were miserable
that Saint Basil was so beloved of God that hee was kept in the midst of all dangers as an other Noah and as Moses Aaron and Iosuah Symeon Metaphr astes names him Praeclarissimam Ecclesiae facem splendidissimum purae Veritatis Solem qui suorum claritate radiorum omnes orbis terrarum or as illustret and also Excelsam Dei Columnam Theologiae Iâ—bar legitimum ipsius sapientiae filium Consummatam Intelligentiae perfectionem Patris aeterni Legatum Divini verbi Tubam Donorum Spiritus Sancti Dispensatorem fidelem that is The resplendent torch of the Catholike Church a bright Sunne to the truth by whose lustre and brightnesse all the parts of the world are enlightned a main Pillar for the trueth of God a bright beame of theologie the very sonne of Wisdome the perfection of Understanding the Embassador of the Eternall Father the trumpet of Gods Word a faithfull Steward and Dispensour of the guifts of the Holy Ghost Thus doe these and so have many others of the Primitive Fathers celebrated this Saint Basills praise Cardinall Bellarmine speaking of his Works calls them no otherwise then Basilii Magni opera praeclarissima the most famous works of Saint Basill the Great hee flourished under Valens died under Gratianus as Saint Hierome in his Ecclesiasticall Writers doth testifie Saint Basils Sayings To know thy selfe is a difficult consideration For as the eye can see all things but it selfe so some can discerne all faults except their owne Divine Love is a never failing treasure hee that hath it is rich and hee that wanteth it is poore The love of God is an excellent ointment to cure the infirmities of the minde and cleere the eyes of the understanding Basil. in Hexamero Hee that willâ—know true love let him learne to love Christ for Christ is love Basil ibid. Divine love is a never failing treasure he that hath it is rich and he that wants it is poore Basil in hom What shall I doe shall I pull downe my Barnes Who doth not pitie his unhappinesse He wants in abundance and is troubled with too much wealth and is unhappy in his present prosperitie and as his field brought him a great increase so that increase did augment his care and trouble Basil in Hexameron There are three things which nourish Humilitie daily subjection consideration of our own frailtie and the hope of reward Basil in Hom. Every Hypocrite is like Simon carrying the Crosse on his shoulders they afflict their bodies with corporall abstinence and yet through the love of glory they live to the World Basil ibid. Three things doe settle a wandring minde watching me ditation and prayer the assiduity and fervencie whereof doe establish and settle the soule Hee being asked why wee should love those that speak ill of us answered Because for their sakes it is that we are blessed according to those words of Christ Blessed are yee when men speak evill of you Mat. 6. He likewise being demanded of Eubulus the Philosopher what was the definition of Philosophie answered The meditation of death He being demanded again Quis est mundus made this answer Quâ— est super mundum Saint Basil speaking of the joyes of Heaven saith of the sweete harmony that is there the sweet melodie the heavenly musique they enjoy would ravish a soule on earth if it were but capable of it nay farther hee goes and sayes that it is sweeter than devotion more sweete than contemplation and farre sweeter than all things in this earthly Mansion Sanctus Basil in Psal primum When he had read the Bible over saith that it is a Physicians shop of preservatives against poysoned Heresies A patterne of profitable Laws against rebellions spirits a treasury of most costly jewels against beggerly rudiments a foundation of most pure water springing up unto everlasting life The originall thereof being from Heaven not from Earth the Author being God not man the matter veritie pietie puritie uprightnesse The forme is Gods Word Gods testimony Gods Oracles are effects light of understanding repentance from dead works newnesse of life peace and holinesse the end and reward of the studie The same Basil hearing of a Senator that had renounced the World and yet retained unto himselfe some part of his meanes to live within a Cloyster told him that he had left to be a Senatour that was not made a Monke I have here set downe his Works as they are contained in foure Tomes printed at Basile in the yeere of Grace 1540. Tome 1. 1 Homilies upon the work of the six days being eleven in number 2 Homilies upon the Psalmes 17. 3 Homilies of severall Arguments 28. Tome 2. 1 Of Virginity two books 2 Of Paradise one book 3 Against Eunomius three books 4 Against Sabellians and Arrians 5 Of the Holy Ghost one book 6 Of free will one book 7 Of Baptisme two books Tome 3. 1 Sermons seven 2 Of the judgement of God 3 Of the Confession of Faith 4 The summe of Morals 80. 5 Questions largely explained 6 Questions shortly explained 7 Monasticall Constitutions Tome 4. Epistles of Saint Basil and Gregory the Divine 180. 2 An Epistle to Chilo of solitary life 3 Other Epistles of the same 4 An Oration against them who calumniate those which say there is a Trinitie Cardinall Bellarmine thinks as Saint Hierom that there are but nine Homilies of Saint Basils the other two he supposes to bee Gregory Nyssens and so this great Light went out whose memory wil ever be fresh and honorable among the faithfull An. Christi 390. The Life of S. Gregory Nazianzen S. GREGORI NAZIANZEN GRegory first Bishop of Sasima a little Citie in Cappadocia then of Nazianzen in Cappadocia and then of Constantinople whom the Graecians for his singular learning and authority first after Saint Iohn the Evangelist sirnamed the Divine was a living Library of Philosophie and Divinitie and the most eloquent Oratour of his Time attayning to the high stile of Polemon Laodicenus a most famous Sophister So that as men exceed beasts in the ability of speech so hee excelled others in the facultie of Eloquence and sweetnesse of speech whereby he allured mens minds enclined their wills and affections defended the poor and oppressed comforted the afflicted and got himselfe a generall fame and good opinion using it also to the edification and instruction of others in Divinity For his eloquence was but the expression of his divine contemplations and conceptions Non enim tam nos ratio juvaret nec tam esset in nobis manifesta nisi quae mente concepimus proferre etiam loquendo possemus Ipsa vitae praecepta etsâ— natura sunt honesta tamen plus ad formandas mentes valeant quoties pulchritudinem rerum claritas orationis illuminat Reason would not be so helpfull to us nor so manifest in us unlesse wee could by speech expresse our conceipts Even moral precepts of life although naturally honest yet are more powerfull to fashion minds when
cleernesse of speech doth illuminate their beauty And in this faculty this famous holy Saint was most powerfull so that it may be said Veram animae illius pulchritudinem in oratione â—lucere hanc illius comitem ac ministram The true beauty of his soul did shine forth in his eloquence Rhetoricke being both his companion and servant And to the higher increase of his glory hee was a familiar friend to Basil the Great and St. Hierome was his Scholar for Divinitie moreover he was of so great authoritie estimation in the Grecian Church that whosoever durst oppresse his testimony was accounted and suspected for an Heretike and generally hee was a man of so great learning integrity and eloquence that his Adversaries durst not contradict his assertions so that Gregories 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or affirmation was a confirmation and authority to prove any point of Divinitie Hee loved and adored solitude and the Monasticke Life and when for his excellent Learning and sanctitie of life hee should have been made a Bishop he retired himselfe into obscuritie desiring rather to lead a poore religious life than to be advanced to popular Honour But Omnipotent God would not have so cleere a Light of Religion which might illuminate many soules hidden under the bushel of a Monastick life Being therefore by divine providence discovered and found out hee was by the people made a Bishop and afterward to excuse his former flying and retiring a solemne 〈◊〉 was composed iâ— qua ars artium animarum regimen ostenditur shewing that the government of soules is the Art of all Arts. For his great Learning and sanctity of Life he was called Gregory the Great before Pope Gregory was so stiled At the last growing old and uncapable of Episcopall Government having constituted another Bishop in his place he returned to his former solitude and Monastick Life Hee lived in the Reigne of the Emperour Theodosius Anno 390. Gregory Nazianzen his Sayings Wee should walke in the middle way betwen fearfullnesse aâ—d rashnesse that wee may bee more modest then they are who ambitiously aspire to undeseâ—ved honour and more confident then such as decline all good actions for feare of being censured In a great multitude of people of severall ages and conditions who are like a Harpe consisting of many strings it is hard to give every one such a touch in words and preaching that they may all be pleased and none offended A sparke of envie will sooner inflame the minde than the flames of vertue can warme the affection For a little Worm-wood being cast into a great deale of Honey presently maketh it bitter but twise as much Honey mingled with Worm-wood will not make it sweete Better is that spirituall warfare which doth make one drawne ere to God then that peace which doth separate from God The Art of Arts and Discipline of Disciplines is government in a man who is of all creatures most various in manners and divers in will The chiefe wisdome is a laudable life and a pure minde before God whereby the pure are joyned to him that is pure and the holy to him that is holy Hee that for a vertuous course of life begun desires to be praised hee eats the fruit of his tree before it is ripe Thus Gregory Nazianzen used to say that God required but three things of every man that should be saved First faith and confidence in God For Faith is the gift of God and breathed by the Spirit of God into the hearts of those that be the children of God And through a lively quick and fruitfull faith wee have our first entrance unto God but the faith that is without good works is not a lively but a dead faith and therefore now not to be called faith no more than a dead man is to be called a man Secondly continence in his tongue For the tongue is a slippery and nimble instrument wherby commonly the treasures of the heart are in such wise unlocked and laid forth and spread abroad that not onely thereby friendship is greatly ingendred earthly treasures increased the life quietly stablished perpetuall prayse and everlasting felicitie obtained but contrariwise friendship is decayed worldly riches are diminished the life most miserably wasted infamie and immortall pain is thereby purchased The tongue if it be well used is the most precious member of a man but otherwise the most detestable pernicious evill and full of pestiferous poyson And it is most plaine that the heart within is very filthy and fouly defiled and corrupted whensoever the tongue is wickedly â—ent and utterly uncleane by filthy and wicked speeches Thirdly Chastity in his body For Chastity is the beauty and glory of a man a chast heart which is onely seene and approved of God is most precious and blessed in his sight and therefore deserveth of all men so farre forth to be well judged or else condemned as the words uttered from the mouth the manner of outward gesture the usage in eating and drinking and the order of apparell seemeth to be honest modest temperate and seemly And Chastitie without Charity is a Lampe without Oile take the Oile away and the Lampe giveth no light take away Charity then Chastity pleaseth not at all Therefore that man whose minde is wholy dedicated to the use of vertue and chastity of life and despiseth the vanities of this life most certainly prevaileth and obtaineth salvation in the end He composed Works in prose and verse containing 30000 Verses as namely annotations on the first Chapter of Ezechiel and a Sermon on the contention of the Maccabees also on the Pharisees question concerning Divorce One Homily beginning Jesus qui piscatores and on the passion and death of Christ out of the foure Evangelists A Tragedy entâ—tuled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Or Christ suffering He writ also in favour of the younger Christians prohibiâ—ed by Julian the Apostate to study any Grecian Arts besides many other divine Poems that young men learning them instead of the Greeke Poets might attaine tâ—e knowledge of the Greeke Tongue and of versifying An. Christi 370. Sanctus Epiphanius S. EPIPHANIVS THere were many of this Name and therefore it will be convenient and profitable to the Reader to know them that thereby this famous Father may bee distinguished from the rest and nothing attributed to him but what doth truly belong to him There was one that was called Epiphanius Scholasticus because he translated the Tripartite History of the Church out of Greeke into Latin as Cassiodorus testifies there was a second that was Bishop of Selybria otherwise called Olybria which writ an oration against the burners of Images as Possevinus saith another was called Vlpianus a Sophister as Suidas reports A fourth of this name there was who in the acts of the second Nicen Councell affirmed that Eusebius of Cesarea had in his Commentaries on the Psalmes spoken some things of the inequality of the Father and
appeared as it were a bright fire entring into his mouth and his face presently was as white as snow which so amazed Paulinus that hee could not write what came from Him the Captaine Stilicho had a servant possessed and Saint Ambrose healed him but hee after writ many false things and Stilicho should have punished him Ambrose hearing of it â—ad the servant to bee brought to him to whom Saint Ambrose said he should be delivered to Satan which came to passe immediatly Hee healed likewise Nicetius of the pain of his feet After he had ordained one Priest of Ticinum he fell sick and Stilicho hearing said That all Italie would be ruined when so pious a man died Foure Deacons in his sicknesse discoursing softly who should succeed him one answered Symplicianus and Ambrose by inspiration answered presently Senex sed bonus that is He is an old man but a good man at which they were affrighted which came to passe for Symplicianus did succeed him and Venerius succeeded Symplicianus Foelix governed the Church at Bononia Castus and Polemius bred under Saint Ambrose continued Deacons in Millaine before hee died hee was instant in prayer those that stood by heard him pray with his hands lifted up and so he departed this life and was buried in a Church called by his name with the confluence of abundance of people of all sorts and ages hee was another Elias and feared not to speak the truth before Kings and Emperours so that hee got the title Irrefragabilis Ecclesiae Doctor and is reputed amongst the most famous Fathers of the Latin Church Baronius and divers others have writ his life Saint Augustine prayseth Him highly so doe all grave Historians His Works that follow will prayse him in the gates Hee flourished under Grâ—tianus and Theodosius Emperours and died the third yeere after Theodosius which as Baronius says was in the yeere of our Lord three hundred ninety seven Sentences out of Saint Ambrose Against covetous desires and pride Men that are carried away with insatiable covetousnesse are as it were hurried to Hell with unbridled and untamed Horses What wealth or faculties hadst thou oh man at thy first entrance into the World what shalt thou have at thy departure why doest thou therefore torment thy selfe Against neglect of grace Gold is offered to thee thou doest not say I will come tomorrow and take it but art glad of present possession thou shunnest delayes and puttest aside all excuses but salvation is promised offered to our souls and few men haste to obtain it Confession of sins To accuse our selves is to acquit our selves he that confesseth his sins acknowledgeth Gods righteousnesse Confession takes off Gods anger Against anger Anger is the fire-brand of all evill resist it if you can if not keepe thy place the best station is thy patience Liberalitie It is not to be so much enquired how much thou givest but with what heart that is not liberality when thou takest by oppression from one and givest it to another Of Virgins The victorie of Virgins exceeds that of Angels for they live out of the flesh these live in it Ambros de officiis Victorie is most glorious after a combat difficult and laborious The circle of goodnesse is to use Justice in seeking wisdome in inventing fortitude in prosecuting and temperance in possessing that there may be Justice in the affection wisdome in the understanding fortitude in effecting and temperance in using We have all things in Christ and Christ is all in us If thou desirest to be cured of the wounds of sinne hee is thy Physician if thou art in a hot Fever of worldly affections hee is thy cooling Fountaine if thou art loaden with iniquitie he is thy Justice in necessity he is thy helper if thou fearest death hee is thy life if thou would shun darknesse he is thy light if thou seekest Heaven hee is the way if thou desirest spirituall food he is thy heavenly Manna Selfe accusation for sinne is the beginning of Justification for hee that declareth his owne transgression glorifieth Gods Justice by his confession Ambros. super Beati immaculati A cleere conscience should not regard slanderous speeches nor thinke that they have more power to condemne him than his owne conscience hath to cleere him He that giveth counsell to another should be exemplary in good works in learning in integritie in gravity that his speech may be wholsome and irreprehensible his counsell profitable his life honest and his opinion gracious Comfort should be given with milde gentlenesse not with rugged harshnesse that so it may rather pacifie sorrow and mitigate the fury of passion than stirre up in the minde any commotion Christ took upon him the nature of man that he might confirme man Again Christ suffered himself to be overcome that hee might overcome by his sufferings Againe saith this Father wee owe God all that we have for our creation O then what do we owe him for our preservation Again he saith what have wee that we have not received yes saith hee sins of all sorts and degrees His Works in the Pariâ—ian Edition 1549 are by Cardinall Bellarmine registred In the reading whereof you shall finde no lesse judgement then eloquence well beseeming such a Father Tome 1. 1 Of Offices 3 books 2 Of Virgins three books 3 Of the Institution of Virgins one book 4 To a devout Virgin one book 5 To a falne Virgin one book 6 Of Widdowes one book 7 Of Penitence two books 8 Exhortation to penitence one book 9 Of forsaking the World one book 10 Of the good of Death one book Bellarmine takes that book to a falne Virgin not to be St. Ambroses Tome 2. 1 Of the calling of the Gentiles two books 2 Of Faith to Gratianus five books 3 Of the Holy Ghost three books 4 Of Faith against the Arrians one book 5 Of the Incarnation one book 6 Of the Mystery of the Pasche one book Bellarmine allows not that of the calling of the Gentiles to be this Fathers Tome 3. 1 A Funerall Oration at the death of Valentinian 2 Another on Satyrus 3 Of the Resurrection 4 On the death of Theodosius 5 Ten books of Epistles 6 Sermons to the people 92. Bellarmine doubts some Epistles to be his and some Sermons Tome 4. 1 His Exameron six books 2 Of Paradise one book 3 Of Cain and Abel two books 4 Of Noe one book 5 Of Abraham two books 6 Of Isaac and the soule one book 7 Of Jaacob and a blessed life two books 8 Of Joseph one book 9 Of the blessings of the Patriarchs 1 book 10 Of Naboth one book 11 Of Eliah and fasting 12 books 12 Of Tobiah one book 13 Of Job and David three books 14 Of Davids Apologie one book 15 Of Solomon one book 16 Of Mysteries one book 17 Of the Sacraments six books 18 Of the dignitie of the Priesthood one book 19 Prayers before Divine Service 1 book 20
richest So taking advice with his fellowes he resolved to depart into some remote place that he might the freer give himselfe to the study of the holy Scriptures and the more truely follow our Saviour Pammachius advised him to marriage but this Hierome desired liberty Boâ—osius hee perswades him to a Monasticke course of living in some remote Island Well the minde of St. Hierome was thus resolved hee got him a rich Library and tooke a competency of meanes for his support and maintenance hee goes into Syria with Heliodorus with him but Heliodorus repents him of his resolution and so returnes home it is thought that they both in their journey saw Hierusalem which was famous at that time And being now destitute of his friends his body was much altered by changeing his course of life so that hee was sicke but was wondrously courteously used by a Monke but more especially by Euagrius who afforded him lodging kindly at his house being recovered to his health with a great ardour of soule he set himselfe to follow Christ so he departed farre off into a solitary place where was no company but wilde Beasts and Serpents and a few Cells of Monkes here and there scattered among the Syrians and Agarens onely Euagrius would now and then even in this his solitarinesse give him a visit Ruffinus who of a former friend became an Enemy at this time came to Nytria of Egypt and now also his brother Paulinianus having betaken himselfe to a Religious course of life was after a while made a Priest which thing Iohn Bishop of Hierusalem did not approve of but Saint Hierome doth answer it sufficiently his dislike grew because Paulinianus was made so young being not yet thirâ—y yeeres old as mâ—y be seene in his Epistle to Paulinianus Saint Hierome lived foure yeeres in this state all this while subjugating his body and studying and meditating continually with watching fastings and prayers and serioâ—sly repenting the sins which he had in his youth committed and imploring Gods grace to preserve him from future temptations So that as Erasmus speaks hee did not onely study hard all day but spent most part of the night in pious performances so that Minima pars noctis dabatur somno minor cibo nulla otio that is Hee did allow the least time to sleepe little for refreshments by diet none for idlenesse When hee was weary with study he would go to prayer or to sing an Hymne he read over all his Library and what is rare sacras literas ad verbum ediscebat that is he learnt the Scriptures perfectly to a word hee was vigilant in reading the Prophets and finding out the intent of their prophesies he was studious in the Evangelists that he might know our Saviours life the better and with more ease and profit follow it His prayer was Lord let me know my selfe first that I may the better know thee the Saviour of the world Hee was so addicted to reading that hee would let none passe him no not Ethnicos non Haereticos not the Heathenish Authours nor yet the Heretikes what he read with judgement he made use of knowing how to fetch Gold from a dunghill or Medicines from poyson by this meanes so fitting each Authour for his owne memory that hee was able to speake suddenly upon any point of Learning hee was mainly taken with Origen so that hee cald him by way of praysing him Suum his owne that little Book which he writ to his Associate Heliodorus shewes sufficiently what an able man hee would prove in the schoole of Christ. Hee had excellent skill in Hebrew knowing how necessary it was for the understanding of the Scriptures which he got of one Bar-hamina hee obtained excellent knowledge in Chaldee knowing that some of the Prophets as Daniel and some other books as that of Iob was written not onely in the Hebrew but also in the Chaldaick Dialect so likewise did he gaine the Syrian because of some affinity with the Hebrew Now having past so long a time in this strict and rigid course of life by the perswasions of Epiphanius Bishop of Salamine and Paulinus Bishop of Antioch whom upon some necessary employments the Emperour had calld to Rome some say hee was made Priest at twentie yeeres of age by Liberius Bishop of Rome but hee testifies hee was ordained at Antioch by Paulinus aforesaid When hee came to Rome hee was acquainted with many Noble Matrons especially Marcella who being stirr'd up by Athanasius and other Priests of Egypt was the first of that sex that profest a Monasticke life at Rome and shee by her faire devout carriage gained others aswell Virgins as Matrons to the same profession especially Sophronia Principia Paula and Eustochium to whom divers others joyned themselves and Hierome instructed them and stirr'd up their spirits to the studie of the holy Scriptures but hee wanted not those that envied him for there came in closely at the same time certaine Arrians under the name of Origenists whom they knew this Sâ—int Hierome had in high esteeme and so they did strive to defame his splendour by raising scandals of him so that hee left the City of Rome as unworthy of him and as some write Melania and Paula went with him or else did presently follow him hee describes his journey in his Workes and gives sufficient Reasons why he went and why he visited so many places hee termes Gregory Nazianzen his Master for Divinitie hee heard likewise Apollinarius at Antioch hee went to Alexandria but for the practice of Divinitie he chose to live in Bethelem which hee made famous by his excellent preaching Here Paula builded foure Monasteries three for women one for men in which Saint Hierome lived many yeeres as hee testifies in his Epitaph of Paula Ruffinus prosecuted Saint Hierome with a great deale of malice in so much that Saint Augustine began to suspect him untill he better knew his life and learning yet though this Ruffinus was so bitter against him Hee had famous men that stood for him as Epiphanius in Syria Theophilus Bishop of Alexandria Marcella Pammachius and Chromatiâ—s at Rome so that being much threatned and hated by these Arrians his life may be term'd a tedious Martyrdome hee studied Gods Word thirty yeeres having buried Paula his Disciple the time came that his course was accomplished and so in the ninety one of his age of Christs Nativitie 422. Under Honorius and Constantius hee payed Natures debt his bones were afterward translated to Rome where to this day there is a Monument of his to bee seene Hee was in his life of such fame that Greece did rejoyce that shee had his Works translated His Epistles are approved of in Italy France Spain all Germany and Afrike He was honoured and sought to far and neere by Bishops by Noble Matrons by great Rulers many great personages came farre having seene his Workes to see the Authour Amongst the rest one Alipius sent by Saint Augustine Paulus Orosius
the Historian came to see him so did Sulpitius Severus who highly commended him Apodemius out of France with many others with him Hee was full of Eloquence but hee that will read Erasmus commendation of him will admire how one man should be so generally expert in such rare gifts Quis docet apertius quis delectat urbanius quis movet efficacius quis laudat candidius quis suadet gravius quis hortatur ardentius c. that is who teaches more distinctly who delights more modestâ—â— who moves more effectually who prayses more candidly who perswades more gravely who exhorts more ardently Dalmatia Pannonia Italy may boast of him Stridon rejoyceth in him for bringing so great a Light to the world Italy comforts her selfe in three respects First that she instructed him next that shee baptized him lastly that shee reserves his bones as a memoriall of him France is glad that hee sent Epistles to her inhabitants all the world may bee comforted in having such an excellent Bulwark for the truth all ages and sexes may get profit out of his Volumes the best wit may hee helpe and all cannot but praise him except Heretikes whom hee detested Heare but what Trithemius speaks of him Vir in saecularibus valde eruditus in divinis Scripturis inter omnes doctores eruditissimus c. that is Hee was a man well seene in secular Learning but in Divinitie he carries the chiefe fame amongst all the Doctours of the Church famous for the knowledge in Languages he was the rooter out of all Hereticks the defender of the Truth a labourer in Vertue an hater of Vice a true Meditatour on Gods Law Baronius doth commend him deeply as you may read in his Annals So doth Prosper Sentences out of Saint Hierome Vpon Heresies Dead flesh is to bee cut off for feare of Gangreenes the scab'd sheepe is not to be admitted into the Fold lest it defile corrupt and spoile others Arrius at first was but as a sparkle but because he was not at first suppressed he proved the incendiary of the whole Church Of Innocence Wee must be like to children who forget hurts who doe not retaine anger look not on beauty to lust after it doth not speak one thing and think another so unlesse wee have puritie and such innocence we shall not enter Heaven Of Gods Word If according to the Apostle Christ is the power and the wisdome of God then hee that knows not the Scriptures knows not the power of God hee that is ignorant of Gods Word knows not Christ. Of simplicitie Thou must be a Dove and a Serpent the one not to doe hurt to others the other not to be hurt by others Vpon disgrace The Sonne of God endured the shamefull death of the Crosse and dost thou think to follow him and be where hee is and live here in pleasures Vpon Women Womens beauty is not to be respected but their chast modesty shee is truly chast who hath liberty and opportunitie to sinne and will not E duris ad placida He used to say of himselfe that whether hee did eat or drinke or whatsoever else he did that horrible voice was ever in his eares Surgite mortui venite ad jâ—dicium Arise you dead and come forth to judgement He saith the first Adam sinned by a Tree whereby we were lost and our second Adam to redeeme us dyed on a Tree If Adam was cast out of paradise for one sin O Lord what shall become of a sinner that hath a world of sins All Vertues are so united together that hee that wants one wants all and therefore hee that hath one hath all Whatsoever it is a shame to speake it is a shame also to thinke therefore the safest and perfectest course is to accustome the minde to watch over the thoughts and at their first motion either to approve or reject them that so good cogitations may be cherished and the bad extinguished Beware that thou hast not an itching tongue or eares Doe not detract from others nor harken unto them that doe detract from others He that doth afflict his body and yet forsake concord doth prayse God in the Cymball but doth not prayse him in the Quire He that gives almes to a poore sinner is truly mercifull For nature is to be respected not the person For he that gives to a poore sinner not as hee is a sinner but as hee is a man hee doth not relieve a sinner but a man Christ was a sacrifice ordained for our reconciliation and if thou dost contemne the mystery of the Sacrament thou contemnest the remedy contained in the Sacrament A just and valiant man should neither be deject in adversity nor puft up with prosperity but in both estates should be moderate When the body is strong the soule is weake and again when the body is weake the soule is strong The kingdome of Heaven suffers violence for it is great violence that men borne on earth should seek Heaven by vertue possesse it whereunto they have no right by nature I have here set out his Works as they are recorded by the Edition set forth 1567 contained in nine Tomes Tome 1. 1 Hortatory Epistles 42 2 To Heliodorus 3 To Rusticus and Laeta 4 To Salvina 5 To Ageruchia two Epistles 6 To Paulinus 7 To Paula 8 To Eustochius 3 Epistles 9 To Paulus Concordiensis 10 To Theophilus of Alexandria 11 To Castrutius 12 To Exuperantius 13 To Julianus 14 To the Virgins of Hermon 15 To Ruffinus 16 To Chromatius to Antonius of shunning suspected places 17 To Sabinianus Nepotianus 18 To Florentius Demetriades 19 To Furia Gaudentius 20 To Caelantia Eustochius two Epistles 21 To Lucinius Abigaus 22 To Julianus Castorina 23 To Theodosius Augustine 24 To Nycaeas Chrysogonus 25 To Rusticus 26 Twelve funerall Epistles in prayse of many Tome 2. 1 Against Heretikes 2 Helvidius Jovinianus 3 Apologie for his bookes against Jovinian 4 Apologie to Domnio 5 To Pammachius 6 Against Vigilantius 7 Against the same one booke 8 To Marcella against Montanus 9 Against the Luciferians 10 Originists 11 Against John of Jerusalem 12 To Pammachius to Theophilus 13 Apologies against Ruffinus three books 14 To Câ—esiphon against Pelagius 15 Against the Pelagians three books 16 Thirty Epistles of divers Arguments 17 Eight Epistles to Hierome Tome 3. 1 Prefaces and explication of questions 2 To Paulinus 3 Prefaces on the Pentateuch 4 On Jonah Kings Chronicles Esdras Tobiah Judith Hester Job Proverbs Ecclesiastes Canticles Esaiah Jeremiah Ezekiel Daniel 5 Twelve prophets and foure Evangelists 6 Then follow the explication of questions propouÌ„ded by divers as Damasus Dardanus Vitalis Amandus Miverius Alexander Cyprian Paula Euagrius Marcella Sophronius Hedibia Principia Fabiola Ruffinus Sunia Fretella Algasia Paulinus Desiderius 7 Then follow some questions out of Hebrew on Genesis Chronicles Kings 8 Also books of Hebrew names which are in the Old or New Testament
in a solitary course of life so that I may be also skilfull in the study of heavenly matters whereunto all these Sciences and gifts are but servants and subalternate which words the Father of this Damascen grieved at being loth to lose such an able man whom he so loved yet because he would not seeme so to requite his pains for his sonnes tuition gave him a large reward at his farwell and so dismissed him in peace so he going to Laura a solitary place spent the remainder of his life in heavenly meditations and in fulnesse of dayes dyed and so did Damascens Father likewise his Father being dead the Prince of the Saracens called this Iohn to possesse his Fathers place which hee at first refused but it was imposed upon him which hee administred with singular fidelity Hee lost his right hand which was cut off by the policy of the exhibition of certain fained Letters which were shewed and read to the Emperour Leo Isauricus that if it pleased him to come with an Army into those parts hee would procure him the City of Damascus to be yeelded to him he having as he said almost all the rule and preheminence in those parts Leo receving the letters sent one presently backe unto the Prince of the Saracens wherein he signified how farre it was from his thoughts to make any hostile invasion into his Dâ—minions though hee had faire hopes of successe by such a mans promise to assist and direct him Hereupon Damascen was presently sent for by the Prince and the Letters were shewed to him he wondred at the matter and said the hand-written was some thing like to his but for the fact or intention hee never harboured such an one in his soule but the Prince being inraged commanded his right hand to be cut off which was as my author relates restored to him againe to convince by this wonderfull act the heart of the incensed Prince and to manifest to all men the innocencie of this Iohn it wrought so effectually that hee had all his Offices and preferments bestowed on him againe but hee intended another course for hee desired the Prince to acquit him of all his places and to give him leave to live retiredly after much debate the Prince yeelded and so immediatly this Iohn did sell all his goods except such as hee gave to his Kindred for the avoiding of suites and strifes and made distribution to the poore And so going to Hierusalem hee went to be admitted into the same Monastery into which Cosmas had beene before whither comming the President of the place finding him to bee full fraught with all sorts of learning appointed a famous member of that Societie to be his Instructour in the study of Gods Word but hee as also a second and third refused it holding themselves not able to teach such a learned man the fourth takes him into charge and gives him precepts and rules both how to order his body and soule to whom this Iohn perceiving his directions to be sweet and wholsome gave speciall obedience and singular respect though afterwards hee was by his said Master ejected out of the Monastery for a matter of disobedience but by his sorrow and submission hee was restored hee was full of Divine Hymnes and having by Gods blessing gained much in the knowledge of Gods Word he was by the Governour of the Church of Hierusalem ordain'd a Priest who having that charge laid on him hee did with great care and pâ—ety undergo it so that it is said of him to his eternall praise Cum religiosae vitae curriculum confeâ—isset c. that is when hee had consummated the course of a religious life when he had kept the Faith or as my Authour speaks when hee had propagated the faith in his Sermons when hee had graced it with his Writings hee was after much labour and travell cald to rest His prayses are large which are afforded him they stile him pietatis Athâ—etam Ecclesiae ornamentum veritatis ducem certatorem religiosae vitae cultorem dogmatum peritum insipientes sapientia instruentem prophanorum institutorem that is the Champion of Pietie the Churches ornament the Captain for Truth the imbracer of a religious life skilfull in his doctrines instructing the unlearned in Wisdome reducing the prophane to Holinesse Suidas speaks thus of him Iohannes Damascenus sirnamed Mansur was a most eloquent man behinde none of his time for various learning His Works are many and those accurate he was so skillfull in Musique that none ever did or will parallel him Trithemius terms him Virum sanctum doctum A learned and holy man of life of whom there are wonderfull things reported for his doctrine and sincerity of life Hee writ divinely many things in Greeke in Constantinople hee was highly esteemed hee brought many from sin and impiety to embrace the truth Hee was a stout Antagonist against Heretikes Hee flourished under Theodosius that worthy Emperour in the yeere of Christs Incarnation 731. Damascen his Sayings If therefore there be no Resurrection there is no God nor any providence but all things are governed by chance and fortune For we see that the just are in necessity and do suffer injurie but sinners and the unjust have abundance of riches and pleasures but who shall imagine that this is not the worke of a just judgement and wise providence therefore there shall be a resurrection for God is just and of those that trust in him is a mercifull rewarder Worldly wisdome is to disguise and cover the heart to dissemble in words to make falshood appeare truth and to make truth appeare falshood this wisdome young men learne by experience those that know it grow proud and despise others those that know it not are subject fearful and admire it in others being obey'd it maketh men climbe to the highest degree of Honour being gotten it commandeth men to rejoyce in the vanity of temporall honour to requiâ—e wrongs with advantage and having power to yield to no opposition and being destitute of ability to expresse malice to counterfeit a peaceable goodnesse of disposition An Angell is an intellectuall substance always moveable free incorporeall ministring to God by Grace not nature and immortall whose specificall kind of substance is knowne onely to the Creatour The Name of Christ doth expresse the unity of person in two natures it expresses also his Regall dignitie and fulnesse of grace by the prerogative of anointing I have here placed his Works as they are set downe in the Parisian Edition 1619. 1 Of Parallells three books 2 Of the Orthodoxe Faith foure books 3 Of some who have died in the faith 4 A speech of Christs Transfiguration 5 Of the birth of the blessed Virgin 6 Of her Assumption 7 Divine Iambiâ—kes Greek and Latine 8 Various Hymnes 9 Damascens Logick 10 Institutions of Decrees 11 Physicks 12 Of Heresies 13 A Dialogue against the Manichees 14 Of Nature 15 A learned Epistle
16 Of the two wils in Christ. 17 How we are created in the Image of God 18 Of Images three speeches 19 St. Stephens life 20 A dispute of a Christian and Saracen 21 A fragment of Sentences 22 Of the eight naughty thoughts by Euagrius 23 Of the same by Nilus 24 Of the day of judgment 25 Damascens History 26 Of the holy Sabbath 27 An Oration by Damascen Cardinall Bellarmine amongst his Ecclesiasticall Writers calls him a man of great Holinesse and Learning And as Beda was admired in the West so was he in the East Hee suffered many things for the Faith under Constantinus Copronymus wrote many famous things before he died whom the Master of the Sentences and all the Schoole Doctours have imitated for his worth and wit An. Christi 828. Sanctus Nicephorus NYCEPHORVS HAving drawne the pictures of so many famous Fathers eminent in the Church for their piety sanctity and learning it is necessary leviter tantûm vitam S. Nicephori adumbrare lightly to shadow out the life of St. Nicephorus for indeed what praises can reach the height of his perfection who like a bright lampe of learning and of religious life shined forth in the Horizon of the Church in the yeare 840. for then he lived in his brightest lustre like the East starre leading both the vulgar by his Doctrine and the wise men by his writings to the knowledge of Christ for sapientes faciunt loquuntur sapienter omnia wise men doe and speake all things wisely and Nicephorus being really religious must needs bee wise in words wise in actions and which is the highest wisedome wise to salvation Neither was he inferiour to most of the Fathers for profound judgement and learning both in Humanity and Divinity having read much and spent many houres to adorne his soule with Art and Grace that so he might informe others in the Doctrine of Salvation and illuminate the world then being in great darknes and under the shadow of sin and death He was a Physitian to cure the miseries of humane life and especially those which are incident to the soule namely tenebras intellectus errores mentis vitia appetitus irrectitudinem voluntatis the errors of the understanding the viciousnesse of the appetite and the crookednesse of the will for all these maladies of the soule he cured by his powerfull Doctrine and religious exemplary life so that those that were blind through spiritual ignorance he made them see and abhorre their sinne the lame in Charity and good workes hee made chearefull and forward to doe good the stubborne hee convinced and confuted by Arguments the weake he comforted and instructed And as the Sunne doth with his chearefull beames soften waxe refresh the drooping flowers and cherish the new sowne seeds so with the beams of his life and learning hee did warme and soften the obdurate hearts of men refreshed wearied soules groaning under the burthen of their sinnes and by his Doctrine cherished the seeds of Grace to bring forth in others the fruits of good life and conversation The Philosophers were derided quia in librossnâ—s quos de gloria contemnenda scripserunt nomina sua inscripserunt because to those bookes which they writ of contemning glory they set their owne names shewing themselves thereby most vaine-glorious But Nicephorus Workes are a glory to his name living to eternity in his learned Volumes If therefore his great wisedome and learning which attracted generall admiration may deserve commendation If the gifts and graces of his soule were so wonderfull and divine If his life were so sanctimonious and exemplary hee being a spirituall Physitian and a Sunne to illuminate the ignorant world if all these may render his life perfect and glorious then Nicephorus may be acknowledged amongst the most famous Fathers of his time who after this Pilgrimage of life peregrè constitutus properabat in Patriam regredi being a stranger on earth made haste to returne to heaven leaving to the world his Sentences and Workes He lived in the time of the Emperour Andromicus senior to whom he dedicated his Ecclesiasticall History containing eighteen Bookes and survived after the yeare of our Lord 1300. not long after exchanging this life for eternall glory His Sayings Of Example The naturall man cannot attaine to the height and perfection of active vertue or contemplative unlesse he propose unto himselfe our Saviours example as perfect God and man equall in power and vertue to God the Father and beseech him to give him the power of operation and contemplation Of Security He that liveth in security is so farre from thinking of appeasing Gods just anger towards him that he heaps sinne on former sinnes as if God did not behold them and would not require an accompt of them Of Providence God doth behold and moderate our actions using the scourge of affliction for our castigation and conversion and after due correction sheweth his Fatherly affection to those that put their trust in him for salvation Of the Scriptures The Scriptures rightly conceived make us cheerefull and active in the performance thereof also good just quiet upright and conformable to our great example of righteousnesse Christ Jesus Of Christ. The Wisedome and Divinity of Christ was seene by his words and actions drawing his Disciples to divine contemplation and imitation and working Miracles for their Faiths confirmation so bringing them to perfection which consisteth in the love of God Of Martyrs The ancient Martyrs would not be so called though they suffered Martyrdome yet they would not bee called Martyrs ascribing that title onely to Christ and so by their humiliation deserved a glorious exaltation Of Faith None of the ancient Fathers and Patriarchs did please God but by Faith in Christ as appeareth by Abraham his faithfull obedience being his justification Of Peters denyall Christ asked Peter three times if he loved him not for his own knowledge or information but that by his three-fold profession he might help and heale his threefold negation of him These are those things which he writ Namely his Ecclesiasticall History which hee composed both for style and words in elegant Greeke Also a Synopsis of the whole divine Scripture digested into Trimeter Iambicks wherein he briefely contained the arguments of all the bookes This Worke beginneth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Gulielmus Esingr in his Catalogue of Ecclesiasticall Writers doth adde that he did write of the Acts done after the Maccabees even to Christ and the destruction of Ierusalem The Genealogy of the Patriarchs unto David Of Mosaicall Rites A Catalogue of the Iudges of Israel A description of tbe Kings of Israel and of the Patriarchs of Constantinople The Genealogy of Christ. Of our Saviours Miracles according to the foure Evangelists An. Christi 1071. Sanctus Theophylactus THEOPHILACTVS THe birth place of this Father was the famous City of Constantinople which once was the glory of the Roman Empire and the bulwarke of Christendome against the Turkes but
as occasion served How full of Hospitality was he to strangers How humble how cheerfull and how liberall not onely refreshing their bodies but comforting likewise their soules with spirituall directions Did not all men knowing his excellencies send in reliefe to the Brethren either by shipping out of England or by Wills of men dying still was this Monastery supplyed There did likewise belong faire revenues to this Abby out of England to bring in which to the Cloyster this Anselmus came over in the first yeare that he was ordained Abbot and not onely for that reason but also to see and speak with Lanfrancus who was from being an Abbot preferred to the Arch-bishopricke of Canterbury Whither when Anselmus was come with what a confluence of all sorts of people was hee entertained at Canterbury so there was Discourse had betwixt Lanfranck and himself and this is said of them both to their commendations Non erat ullus eo tempore qui aut Lanfranco authoritate vel multiplici rerum scientiâ aut Anselmo praestaret in Sanctitate vel Dei sapientiâ that is There was none at that time that did exceede Lanfranck in authority and variety of knowledge nor Anselme in holinesse nor heavenly wisedome He proceeds now to effect that for which hee came and takes an account of all the meanes which did belong to their Monastery but it is to be wondred at with what expressions of joy and love was he every where entertained what grave Counsells and directions hee gave to all sorts of people especially to the Clergy there was not a Lord or a Lady in England at that time but did strive to expresse their loves to him by presenting him with rich presents nay William the Conquerour though otherwise sterne and rigid yet how did hee expresse his love to this great man So having beene joyfully received of all sorts in England he intends his journey for his Monastery againe having gained large meanes for his fellowes But now the Conquerour dying and leaving his sonne William King of England Lanfranck also the Arch-bishop being dead this William began fearfully to waste the Churches throughout England which Anselme having with griefe heard of did he not at the solicitation of Hugh Earle of Chester and other Nobles come againe into England and comming to the Court did hee not modestly and divinely tell the King what wrongs he had done and how such things would draw downe Gods heavy judgements upon him and his posterity but the King was for the present unflexible so this Anselme went to this Hugh Earle of Chester but the King falling sicke all men cryed up this Anselmes fame and that hee was the onely man to bee Arch-bishop of Canterbury By the Kings authority and the whole Kingdomes love he was consecrated the first Sunday in Lent in the yeare of Grace 1093. But he found this place at that time to bee full of troubles and cares yet he being sent for to Court did meekly beseech the King to cease from afflicting the Churches did not this man performe his charge with patience industry and with expressions of learning and fidelity he was not any wayes addicted to pride not ensnared with covetousnesse neither was he tainted with idlenesse He committed the administration of his houshold affaires to one Baldwine Hee did mainly lament the abuse that was offered to the Church by prophane covetous men who took the meanes of them into their owne possession The King return'd from forraine parts Anselmus humbly intreats of his Majesty that hee might have licence to go to Rome but at this the King was incensed and told him there should no Pope have any Authority over his subjects nor any power within his dominions hereupon there was a generall meeting of all the Bishops and Lords at Rothingam to decide this Here most to gaine the Kings favour were directly against this Arch-bishop onely the Bishop of Rochester stood with him But the King was so vexed that he told him he would not hold him as an Arch-bishop unlesse forthwith he would deny the Popes authority and again at Winchester desiring of the King the same thing the King told him that hee should never have that liberty nor any other if he did persist in that minde So Baldwine was driven out of England and Anselmes servants misused and his lands alienated and hee himselfe derided and hated yet in the depth of this storme hee retained his piety and said that of our Saviour By patience possesse your soules at last he was forced by secret meanes to flye and so came to a place called Whitsands and so to Saint Bertine being glad that hee was out of England but then the King hearing presently ceized upon all his lands and goods and so Anselme came to Lions and was kindly entertained by the Arch-bishop of that place and so being weake in body and unfit to travaile to Rome hee sent his cause thither but stay'd in Lions till they returned They comming backe told him all excuses laid aside hee must himselfe goe in person to Rome So they came to Secusium and presented themselves to the Abbat of that place there were three of them Anselmus and Baldwine and Edinerus which writ this his life So after much travaile and danger we came to Rome and it was bruted abroad of this Fathers approach and all men desired to see him but it being extreame hot in the City of Rome this Anselme lived in a Village seated pleasantly called Schlavia a great deale of time was spent in deliberating for the Churches good but it was thought safest for Anselme not to returne into England while William lived neither did he but his successor Henry came into Normandy hearing that Anselme was there and did reinvest him into all his state and honours againe and he came into England and was entertained with great reverence of all the Lords of the Kingdome and the love of all the Common people So King Henry was very glad that hee had gained the peace of Anselme but hee was even spent with age labour and watching for age brings to us experience in one hand and death in the other and so did not live long after his return but with a great expression of holinesse and comfort did commend his spirit to God Time deales with man Arithmetically First he addes to beauty multiplies his graces and then he subtracts all these and makes a long lasting division between him and Nature And now he is dead it is high time to cover this sweet and heavenly Father with his first mother the Earth who being honourably attended to the grave with the Rose and the Violet is laid to sleepe in the bosome of the earth and shall enjoy though not so suddenly yet as certaine a Spring as they and which is more an everlasting one His Sayings S. Anselm de Malitia foeditate peccati Cap. 190. Saint Anselme was wont to say that if hee should see the shame of sinne on
restrained the persecution Did not he being sent for to Rome oppose the Schismaticks that hee stopt their mouthes and so by his care and diligence peace was restored to the Church Did hee not so gaine the love of Prince The obaldus that he was joyfull and ready to part with all his titles and dignities and means for the maintenance of Gods Churchâ—â— Oh should I or could I indeed reckon up all his eminencies and gracious endowments How incredible nay how unimitable are they For God brought mighty things to passe by this Saint Bernards meanes Take his commendation as one gives it him Serenus vultu modestus habitu circumspectus in verbis in sacra meditatione assiduus c. that is Of a gracious countenance a modest habit circumspect in his words assiduous in meditation devout in prayer strong in the faith patient in hope made up of charity chiefe for humility principall of all in piety in counsels provident powerfull in deeds never idle rejoycing when reproached modest to petitioners flowing with abundance of wisdome vertue and grace with God and men apt in speech fitting himselfe to his auditory admired for his dyet and not affecting any earthly promotions nay he is termed Olivaspeciosa Vitis fructuosa Palma florida Cedrus multiplicatâ— vas Electionis vas Honoris in domo Dei vas auri solidum c. that is A beautifull Olive-tree a fruitfull Vine a flourishing Palm-tree a lofty Cedar a vessell of Election a vessell of Honour in the House of God a pure vessell of solid Gold set with precious stones He foretold his death and hee that desires to read copioâ—sly of each circumstance there is an Epistle extant to Arnaldus an Abbot thus much in briefe after so many great labours in the Churches cause having happily finished his â—ayes being the first Abbot of that place at the age of sixty three yeeres having setled above a hundred and sixty Monasteries for Religion He sickned and commended his soule devoutly into Gods hands a great concourse of people shedding teares for the losse of such an Angelike man This hapned in the same yeere that Eugenius the third of that name an holy man departed this life Anastastus succeeding him in the Roman See then reigning that illustrious Fredericke over the Romans and Ludovicus that godly Prince the sonne of Ludovicus governing France Hee was buried on the Calends of September with great state and pompe Anno 1130. Bernard his Sayings Of sloth Sloth is a certaine languishing sluggishnesse of the minde whereby one neglects to begin that which is good or to finish that which is begun Of brotherly love Then selfe love is just and temperate when that which is withdrawne from pleasurable vanitie is bestowed to relieve our brothers necessity for true love regards the common good Helpe is in vaine expected where punishment is deserved Expectation from others must be according to our dealing with others Of Ambition Ambition is a gilded misery a secret poyson a hidden plague the Engineere of deceit the mother of hypocrisie the parent of envy the originall of vices the moth of holinesse the blinder of hearts turning remedies into diseases and medicines into sicknesse Of Gods love God loved us sweetly wisely and valiantly sweetly because hee put on our flesh wisely because hee was blamelesse valiantly because hee suffered death Learne therefore O Christian from Christ how to come to Christ Learne to love him sweetly lest we be allured wisely lest we be deceived and valiantly lest we be subdâ—ed and vanquished The Soules three estates There are three estates of holy souls the first in the corruptible body the second without the body the third in the glorified body The first in warfare and unperfectnesse the second in rest and quietnesse the third in perfect felicity and happinesse Of the hearts Ascension There are foure degrees of ascension first to the heart secondly in the heart thirdly of the heatt and fourthly above the heart In the first God is feared in the second his counsel is heard the third is the desire of Christs comming the fourth is the fruition of Gods presence Saint Bernard when he entred the Temple or any other holy place when he came to the door of entrance said thus to himselfe Stay here all my worldly thoughts all vanity that I may entertain heavenly meditations His Works are these that follow registred by his owne Scholer who wrote his Life and by Cardinall Bellarmine Such as are reckoned by Godfrede his Scholer are these 1. Homilies in praise of the Virgin Mary 4 books 2 Of the degrees of Humilitie one book 3 Of loving God one book 4 Apologie to William one book 5 Of Precept and dispensation one book 6 Exhortations to the Souldiers of the Temple 7 Of grace and Free will 8 Of consideration five books 9 Sermons on the Canticles 86 books 10 Epistles to divers 351. 11 On Saint Malachies life the Bishop of Ireland These are of the second order and no doubt to bee made of them as Bellarmine Writes 1 Of the Lords comming seven sermons 2 On the Vigils of Christs Nativitie 6 sermons 3 On Christmasse day 6 sermons 4 On New yeeres day 3 sermons 5 On Twelfth day 4 6 On the first Sunday after the Epiphany two sermons 7 On St. Pauls conversion two sermons 8 On Candlemas day three sermons 9 On Septuagessima two sermons 10 On Quadragessima seven sermons 11 On St. Benedict one sermon 12 On our Lady day three sermons 13 On Palme-sunday three sermons 14 On Easter day foure sermons 15 Sunday after Easter two sermons 16 On Rogation weeke one sermon 17 On Ascension day one sermon 18 On Whitsontide one sermon 19 On St. John Baptists one sermon 20 On Saint Peter and Paul foure sermons 21 On David and Goliah one sermon 22 On the seven houres three sermons 23 On St. Victor two sermons 24 On St. Mary Magdalen one sermon 25 On our Lady day five sermons 26 On these words it is a great signe one sermon 27 On the Virgin Maries birth day one sermon 28 On Saint Michael two sermons 29 On All Saints day five sermons 30 On St. Malachies one sermon 31 On Esayes words five sermons 32 On St. Martine one sermon 33 On St. Clement one sermon 34 On Saint Andrews Eve one sermon 35 On Saint Andrews day two sermons 36 On Humbertus one sermon 37 At the Dedication of a Church six sermons 38 On the 90. Psalme seventeen sermons 39 On divers Arguments 35. 40 Of the depth of the heart foure sermons 41 Of conversion to the Clergie one sermon 42 Short sermons 66. 43 Of the gifts of the Holy Ghost one sermon 44 St. Bernards sentences 45 A Declamation on that saying We have left all Those of which there is some doubt made are these 1 To his Brethren 2 Meditations 3 Of the inward house the soule 4 Of the order of life 5 Of the Ladder of Monks 6 Form
Table with his hand and said jaâ— contra Manichoeos conclusum esse that now the Manichees were foyled He was one that may be a perpetuall patterne for refusing and contemning worldly honours and wealth for though he was young and had great wayes to helpe himselfe yet he regarded them not nay insomuch that when Clement the fourth Bishop of Rome would have made him Arch-bishop of Naples he did refuse it and when great promotions were offered to him his usuall answer was Chrysostomi in Matthaeum Commentarios mallem that is I had rather have the Commentaries of Saint Chrysostome upon Sâ—int Matthew He desired three things principally First that he might not be weary in well-doing Secondly that he might not dislike that calling though with poverty which hee had chosen thirdly what became of his brother Rainaldus who endured such a bloody death for the good of the Church and in this last he said hee was sure that his brother for that temporall death enjoyed eternall life In his teaching hee alwayes strove to frame his speech to the peoples capacity and that hee might avoid all pride and ostentation nay in his disputations he would seeme to yeeld that he might rather shew his humility than height of learning Hee had abundance of Auditors as Doctors Bishops Arch-bishops Cardinalls who counted themselves happy in being his hearers He was of spirit wondrous mild in his corrections and reproofes hee would hate the vice and spare the person When as he was deputed to be at the Councell of Lions hee fell sicke and was carryed on a Mule to Severinum where when he was entred into a Cloyster he writ his Commentaries on the Canticles and perceiving his death to draw nigh received the blessed Eucharist prostrate on the earth After when his sister asked him if he would have any thing answered he should within a little space enjoy all things This was his fiftieth yeare of his age He had many witty sayings as one asking him why he was so long silent under Albertus he answered because he had nothing of worth to say to him Another asked him what was the most pleasant thing to him Hee replyed to understand all he had read One telling him he was not learned as he was supposed hee answered I will study the more to prove his words false A woman reproved him that seeing hee was borne of a woman hee should so shunne them Yes said he even therefore because I was borne of them One asked him how he might live without blame hee told him if he would remember his reckoning to the great Judge of Heaven and Earth So when after great paines and studies hee had approved himselfe to the Church of God he yeelded to Nature and was honourably interred with all the Rites and Ceremonies due to so great a person as he was His Workes are of that value that he who hath them in his study is furnished for all manner of learning His Sayings A day will come when faire dealing shall be found a jewell and false dealing shall come to nothing when a good conscience shall be better than a good purse for the Judge will not then be put off with faire words nor drawne aside with hope of reward He that 's armed for the warres let him consider who it is that gives him strength and teacheth his fingers to fight then let him employ that strength to his glory so that by this means come life come death all 's welcome that God sends In all thy undertaking make much of time especially in that weighty matter of Salvation O how much would that man which now lies frying in Hell rejoyce if there were but possibility to obtain the least moment of time wherein he might compasse the favour of God and so be freed from those torments which seize upon him for evermore Thou that art young hast death at thy back whereas the old man hath it before his eyes and that must needs bâ— a more dangerous enemy that pursues thee than that which marcheth up towards thee face to face Remember therefore thy Creator in the dayes of thy youth and remember withall that though God promise forgivenes to repentant sinners yet he doth not promise they shall have to morrow to repent I have set down his Works as Cardinall Bellarmine hath registred according to the Roman Edition Tome 1. Contains his life upon the Perihetmenias and the Analatickes Tome 2. Containes Commentaries upon the 8 bookes of Physicks Vpon the fourth book De Coelo Mundo and of the generation Tome 3. Contains his works upon the books de Meteoris Tome 4. Vpon the Metaphysicks 12 books Tome 5. Vpon the 10 books of Ethicks and upon the 8 books of Politicks Tome 6. Vpon the 1. and 2. books of the Sentences Tome 7. Vpon the third and fourth of the Sentences Tome 8. Vpon Disputaâ—ions and Quodlibets Tome 9. Containes his summes against the Gentiles with the Commentaries of Franciscus Ferrariâ—nsis Tome 10. The first part of his summes of Divinity with the Commentaries of Card. Caietan and the Exposition of divine names by St. Denis Tome 11. Containes primam secundae secundam secundae With Cajetans Commentaries Tome 12. Containes the tertiam partem summae Tome 13. Contains Commentaries on Iob on the 57. Psalme on the Canticles Esay Jeremy Lamentations Tom. 14. Commentaries on St. Matthew and St. Iohn Tom. 15. Contains his golden chain on the 4 Evangelists Tom. 16. On all the Epistles of S. Paul Sermons de tempore and of the Saints Tome 17. Contains 73 little Tracts and a little book upon the foure bookâ— of Sentencâ—s THus farre have we brought the lives of these holy Fathers and Doctors in every Century of yeares wherein they lived downe to our owne Moderne Writers whose vertues have shined on Earth like starres in the firmament by illuminating the darknesse of the blinde world with the light of the Coelestiall Doctrine These holy men I say did willingly and chearefully offer their lives and bodies as a living sacrifice to God not grudgingly or piningly but with alacrity of spirit for though by the hand of envy and tyranny they were judged to death yet they willingly dyed for his cause and yeelded their bodies as a debt due to Nature for they thought so long as the soule was in the body it was no better than in prison for the body at the best is is but a Coffin of the soule as the grave is a Coffin for the body Therefore let us strive by their examples to goe to heaven like them through persecutions tribulations and all worldly temptations for wee ought to desire with ardency as these holy Fathers did that joyfull day which all the Elect have and doe still long to enjoy For when Death and Time shall both cease and tender downe their Sâ—epters of authority as I doe now my self prostrate before God Almighty then shall I and never till then bee truely and really happy