seeme to you happy or vnhappy I know not because I was neuer conuersant with him but what if you had had his company would you then know him Can you take knowledge of his felicity by no other meanes No truly Then it seemeth ô Socrates that you will say likewise I cannot tell whether the great King of Persia bee happy or not and so it is true for I know not how he is instructed with learning or with iustice Doth all felicity consists in this Truly by mine opinion for I account that man or woman that is honest and good to be happy and him that is vniust and vnhonest vnhappy Then according to your words Archelaus is vnhappy Yea surely if he be vniust and vnhonest Thus much of Socrates Yet negligence is to be auoided and prouidence without ouermuch care and possession without feare is necessary and requisite It is a wise mans part to put aside dangerous things before they come to do hurt for the losse or harme a man receiueth by his own fault is more grieuous then that which happeneth to him by another man Thucidides saith It is no shame for a man to confesse his pouerty but it is a shame to fall into it by his owne fault He must haue all things premeditate that happeneth to men and thinke the same may fall vpon him for the things that are foreseene before pierce not so deepely as that which commeth suddenly and taketh a man vnwares He that will make his life pleasant must not take ouermuch care to prouide for it neither can any man take full pleasure of any thing except he haue a minde prepared for the losse of it One proâ—…steth by long study to haue learned this to contemne mortall things and not to bee ignorant of his ignorance Death is to all men by nature terrible but to a Christian that knoweth with how great an aduantage hee changeth his estate it ought to bee had in contempt whereof the heathens that knew not God nor what should become of them made little account who for friuolous causes would offer themselues voluntarily to die whose examples though they be not to be followed but auoyded as an vnlawfull and vnnaturall act yet they may serue to perswade men the rather to discharge themselues of all feare of death that haue an assured hope certaine knowledge to possesse the vnspeakable ioyes of heauen when the Infidels through a vaine hope of a better life wherein neuerthelesse they were deceiued would often make choise of a voluntary death CleoÌ„brotus hauing read Plato his booke of the immortality of the Soule wherein he disswadeth men from the ouermuch loue of this life thinking he had found the ready way to deliuer his soule out of prison cast himselfe downe headlong from a high wall and brake his necke They haue a custome in Narsinga that when the men die their wiues be buried aliue with them that with great solemnity and ioy when the king is dead there is a pile of wood of a most pleasant sauour set on fire the kings carkeise carried into it and then all his concubines whereof he hath great store and all his familiar friends and fauourites and such of his seruants as were in estimation with him are likewise carried into that pile of wood to which place they go with such haste ioy to be burnt that to accompany their king in that kind of death they seeme to esteeme it the greatest honour and felicity that can happen to them The Indians by custome doe marry many wiues and when the husband is dead there is great contention among his wiues which of them he loued best that she may be buried with him then she that hath iudgement with her with great ioy merry countenance is led by her friends to the place and casting her selfe into the fire vpon her husband is burnt with him as a most happy woman the rest remaining leading a sorrowfull life There hath been a people dwelling by the mountaines called Rifei who hold this for a custome when they come to the age of 50 They make great piles of wood and put fire to them there burne themselues aliue and sacrifice to their gods and the same day the kinsfolke children make a great feast and do eate their flesh halfe burnt and drinke with wine the dust of their bones How much lesse then should Christians feare death when it pleaseth God to send for them that hope for a crowne of glory after this life They make a good bargaine that with the death of the body seeke the saluation of their Soule Plato saith All the life of wise men is the meditation vpon death that men ought not to be carefull to liue long but to liue well For the honourable age saith Saâ—…mon is not that which is of long time neither that which is measured by the number of yeeres but wisedome is the gray haire an vndefiled life is the old age And Euripides saith This life is life by name but in very deed labour Death is not a torment but a rest and end of all mans miseries and labours And Seneca Before old age come a man should learne to liue well and in old age to die well But the day of our death saith Gregory our Creator would not haue knowne to vs that the same being alwayes vnknown may be alwayes thought to be at hand and that euery man should be so much the more feruent in operation by how much hee is vncertaine of his vocation that whilest we be vncertaine when we shall die wee may alwayes come prepared to death And because that is so certaine a thing that no man can escape it shall bee good alwayes to thinke vpon death especially in the time of prosperity â—…or the thinking often thereof will bridle and restraine all other cuill thoughts and desires of worldly vanities for in prosperity we forget humane srailty It is reported that the Emperour Charles the fift fiue yeeres before he died euen when he was occupied in his greatest affaires caused a sepulcher to be made with all things appertaining to it that was necessary for his buriall being dead and that secretly lest it might be taken for ostentation or hypocrisie which things he had closely carried with him whithersoeuer he went fiue yeeres together some thinking there had been some great treasure in it some other that there had been bookes of old stories some thought one thing some another but the Emperour smiling said that he carried it about with him for the vse of a thing to him aboue all others most precious In that sort he seemed to set death alwayes before his eyes that the coÌ„tinuall remeÌ„brance therof might driue from his heart the vaine pompe pride of this world Let vs imagine that we see a maÌ„ of mean estate whose mind is cleansed from all perturbations vnquietnes that hath
spirituall essence and a bodily substance the body being made of clay most excellently compact together with a wonderful and vnspeakeable wisedome in which hee inclosed with a maruellous league of societie another spirituall nature that is the Soule the one sort hee called Angels the other Men. Both which he endued with a singular wisdome knowledge To this man he gaue for his habitation this goodly great Theater adorned with such variety of excellent things and placed him in the most delectable and pleasant place of all the earth which in respect of the florishing and fertile soyle beautified with goodly riuers and fountaines was called Paradise not to bee an inhabitor onely of this lower part of the world but to bee a spectator of his Creators wonderous works thereby first to know the great glory of his parent and progenitour and then to loue him aboue all things and the time being expired in which hee had appointed him here to liue hee should passe from hence to him where hee should continually enioy his glorious presence and life euerlasting But some of those Angels being puffed vp with pride through the goodly gifts wherewith God had adorned them so much forgot their due obedience that they thought themselues equall with him that made them Whereby they so greatly prouoked his displeasure that he expulsed them from the number of his ministers and reiected them from his presence This fall was so grieuous to them and the hatred so great which they conceiued against God for the same that they presently began to doe all things contrary to his commandement by all manner of meanes to offend him to derogate from his glory what they could and as much as they might to deface and corrupt this goodly frame of the world which hee with so great wisedome had made And when man persisted yet in the same estate in which he was placed from aboue supposing they had no better meanes to detract from the glory of God than if they could lay a plat to take man from him and draw him into their societie they presently put their deuice in practice and fraudulently deceiuing him with false promises and hope of greater preferment they made him reuolt from God and breake his commandement which he had giuen him to make proofe of his obedience and to follow that course and counsell which they had framed against God to his own ouerthrow When man had thus shaken off his obedience where before he led in this pleasant Paradise a most happy life free from all euill and hurtfull things the earth of its owne accord bringing forth all things plentifully hee was driuen out of this delectable place and with heauie cheare enforced to seeke another dwelling where hee must get his liuing with the labour of his body and with the sweat of his browes and fell into the punishment appointed by God for breach of his commandement that is death and damnation bereft of that rule and dominion and of all the principall ornaments which he had bestowed vpon him And where all the meane causes of things euen from the vppermost heauen vnto the lowest part of the earth depended each vpon other in such an exact order and vniformitie to the production of things in their most perfection and beauty so as it might well bee likened to that Aurea Catena as Homer calleth it by the grieuous displeasure which God conceiued against man hee withdrew the vertue which at the first hee had giuen to things in these lower parts and now through his curse the face of the earth and all this elementatie world doth so much degenerate from his former estate that it resembleth a chaine rent in peeces whose links are many lost and broken and the rest so slightly fastened as they will hardly hang together by meanes whereof the heauens and second causes do now farre otherwise work in mans corrupt nature and in this elementary world than they did before But the son of God hauing compassion vpon man that had thus grieuously sinned and was fallen into this miserable estate though by his own will yet not through pride or ambition nor by contempt of Gods commandement but was deceiued by the fraud and subtilty of the diuell cast himselfe down before his Father with all humilitie and besought him for mankinde and obtained this fauour that they should not be condemned to perpetuall punishment And yet to satisfie the iustice of God which was immutable hee offered himselfe to fulfill all that obedience which God required of man and so pacified his Father that hee procured him to make a decree to send him to bee a protector and defendor of mankinde against the tyrannie of the diuell When man was thus restored into fauour againe yet not with recouery of those goodly gifts and ornaments which he had lost the diuell beginneth to rage and to practise all manner of meanes to intrap him againe and when he perceiued that hee could not deceiue all hee handled the matter so that the benefit of this promise might come to a very few and that the greater part of the world should perish with him by drawing them from the true knowledge and worshipping of God to superstition and idolatrie Now to returne from whence we digressed seeing the felicitie or soueraigne good wee seeke for concerneth not the body only but the soule also and that the soule dyeth not but after it hath woond himselfe out of this prison it eyther liueth in perpetuall felicitie or infelicitie this happinesse cannot be taken for a temporall thing that is enioyed during this mortall life only but must be euerlasting and without end For what profiteth it a man to haue all the world saith Christ Iesus if hee lose his soule Whereby it appeareth that the Philosophers and Heathens that had not the true knowledge of God nor beleeued in him nor his promise could not attain to the felicity of man which in farre the greatest part consisteth in the ioyes of the heauenly life But contrariwise by their infidelitie they suffer eternall damnation and extreme misery And then it followeth necessarily that none but Christians and those which beleeued in the promise of his comming can attaine to this felicitie or soueraigne good which haue an assured hope to bee saued by the merits and passion of Christ. For they only that are regenerate and not the Heathens after the passage from this life are to enioy the heauenly life and then they to whom the things are giuen wherein that part of felicitie confisteth whilest we are in this world both being ioyned together are in the estate of perfect felicitie But first before wee come to shew our opinion of this soueraigne good or felicitie let vs peruse the course of mens liues that by obseruing what the things bee that men most desire in this life they may the more plainely discouer their errour and direct themselues to a better course Diogenes in a great
that giveth himselfe to study as in him that is occupied in matters of the common-wealth as it is to bee seene in David and then may it truly be said that such a contemplative life is to bee preferred before all other kindes of life as that which leadeth to the true felicitie and beatitude or Summum bonum The contemplative or studious life hath been in such estimation among men that divers examples are registred in histories both of Heathens and Christians that have voluntarily forsaken the world and all societie of men to leade this kinde of life to whom many strange things have happened among the rest by the report of St. Ierome Anthonie being in the wildernesse met with a strange kinde of creature or monster that resembled a little man and a crooked nose a horned forehead whose lower parts ended into the feet of a goate who brought him dates to eate And when Anthonie asked him what he was he answered I am a mortall man one of the inhabitants of the wildernesse whom the foolish Gentiles worshipped being deluted with many erroneous opinions called them Fauni Satyri and Incubi I am the Embassador of my companions we desire thee to pray to our common God for us whom wee know is come for the salvation of the world which words were no sooner spoken but he seemed to flye away One reporteth of one Paul an Hermite that from the time he was sixteene yeares old untill threescore he lived in the desart with dates and from threescore unto an hundred and twenty at what time he died he was fed daily by a Crow who brought him bread by which he lived without any other sustenance Persius exciteth men thus to the contemplation of things to the love and exercise of vertue Discite O miseri causas cognoscite rerum Quid sumus aut quidnam victuri giguimur orde Quis datus aut metae quâ—…m victur flexus ordâ—… Quis modus argenti quid fas optare quid asper 〈◊〉 nummus habet patriae charisque propinquis Quantum elargiri deceat quexâ—… te Deus esse Iussit humanâ—… quâ parte locatus es in re O wretches learne the cause of things to know And what we be and why we were borne so And what to overcome what to order give And in what bounds and limits we should live How moderate coyne what justly to desire And being possest of money to enquire What use to make of it what we doe owe Vpon our kin or countrey to bestow With what endowments God would have us gracâ—… And in what part of mortall things we 're plact The end of the fourth Booke THE FELICITIE OF MAN OR HIS SVMMVM BONVM THE FIFT BOOKE CHAP. I. Wherein the true property of felicity consisteth The difference betwtxt the felicity of this life and the Summum bonum The life of Tymon of Athens Diuers weighty considerations touching the life of man Of the Sea-man The life of the Husband-man of the Marchant Of the Souldier Calamities of warre Of Miriam Inhumane Cruelty of the Iewes Of the Numantians The misery of Famine The insolency of warre Of Paris The estate of a Souldier truly deciphered The estate of a Lawyer The miserâ—…es of a Client NOw that wee haue shewed by diuers reasons and by the opinion of learned men and by many examples that the Felicitie of Man or his Summum bonum consisteth not in pleasure nor in riches nor in honour and glory nor yet in vertue or in the action of vertue order requireth to prosecute our discourse and proue whether we can finde out wherein this felicity doth consist and the way that leadeth to it In which discourse although in parâ—… we will deliuer our owne opinion according to that talent which God hath giuen vs yet in the principall which is contained in the last booke we will follow the opinion of learned Diuines otherwise it may be said tractent fabrilia fabri Let Smithes meddle with their Forges But the greatnesse and difficulty of the matter doth not a little terrifie me and maketh mee ready to withdrawe my pen from the paper the subiect being beyond my strength to handle as it ought and putteth me in minde of a wise answer made by Simonides the Poet to Cyrus of whom being desired to shew his opinion what God was the Poet craued three dayes respit to answer him and when the time was expired he desired double so much time more and that being come he doubled that time also giuing him to vnderstand that the more he considered of God the more difficulty he found in the matter and the further hee was from the perfect knowledge of God So in this matter though farre inferiour to the other the more I consider of it the more difficulty I seeme to finde yet the common saying doth something animate mee In arduis voluisse satest Wee haue said before that whosoeuer will search for the felicity of man hee must haue respect to the whole man which consisteth of body and soule for such part as the soule taketh in this life and in the life to come such doth the body take also whether it bee ioyes or sorrowes felicity or infelicity And though this life in continuance is nothing in respect of the life to come nor can admit any comparison or proportion betweene them the one being temporall and the other without time no more then that which hath end to that which is infinite yet because it is something in respect of time whereof it is a part we will first treat of the felicity of this life and then of that of the life to come But here riseth an ambiguity of no small importance how we may conforme and apply the things which the name of felicity seemeth to purport and our humane nature with true and Christian felicity For affliction for Christs sake in this world is the direct means to attaine to the perfect felicity of the life to come God hauing appointed to the godly no other passage but through the flame and furnace of afflictions Dulcia non meruit qui non gustauit amara Hee deserves not to eate sweet meates that never tasted of what was bitter Which seemeth to be repugnant to the name of felicity to our humane nature For the felicity of this life if we haue any respect to the imbecillity of our humanitie seemeth to looke for a contentment ioyned to the other things wherein felicity consisteth And in afflictions and troubles though men vse patience they hardly find contentment that is not to desire to be in a better estate but the propertie of felicity is to satisfie his desire and to be voide of feare And hee upon whom God bestoweth that great blessing after a quiet life in this world to inherit the ioyes of the life to come seemeth to be more happy then hee that liueth here in affliction and enioyeth the same heauenly blessednesse in the other
friends which agreeth with Plinie that in the courts of Princes the idle and vaine name of friendship onely remamth In the courts of Princes I do confesse there is a conuersation of persons but no confederation of will For enmitie is holden for naturall and amitie for a stranger In Court the manner is whom they deprave in secret the better to deceive to praise them openly The Court is of such nature that they that doe most visit them the worse they intreat them and such as speake best to them the more evill they wish them They which haunt the Courts of Princes if they will be curious and no fooles shall finde many things whereat to wonder and much more whereof to beware And to another question whether the Court be deare or good cheape he answered Some things in the Court are at a good price or to say it better very good cheape that is cruell lies false newes unhonest women fained friendship continuall enmities double malice vaine words and false hopes of which eight things we have such abundance in this Court that they may set out Boothes and proclaime Faires In the Court saith he there be few that liue contented and many that be abhorred In the Court none hath desire there to die and yet wee see not any that will depart from thence In the Court we see many doe what they list but very few what is meete In the Court all dispraise the Court and yet all follow the Court and the fashion of the Court is if a man be in fauour he knoweth not himselfe and if the same man be out of fauour no man will know him This life at Court is no other thing then a languishing death a certaine vnquiet life without peace and principally without money and a certaine purchase of dammage and offence to the body and of hell to the soule which mooued one to say Excat aula qui vult esse pius It may be wished that the Spanish Court which he meaneth had a priviledge or speciall prerogatiue to vse these manners alone An Italian compareth the life of Courtiers with that of Sea-faring men saving that there is in them this difference that the Sea-man commeth to the end of his purpose by sayling well and the Courtier to his by doing ill Zenobia the noble Queene of Palmerines is reported to haue had a well ordered Court as appeared also by her answer made to the Emperour Marcus Aurelius who making warre vpon her offered her conditions of peace and demaunded her sonne to bee sent to him for a pledge I meane not to satisfie thy request said she for I heare thy Court is replenished with many vices where my Palace is furnished with sundrie Philosophers from whom my children draw doctrine one part of the day and erercife the knowledge of Armes the other part Of such men one thus noteth their nicenesse Horum aliquis vest is operosa tegmine cultus Molliter alivedem flectit sparsamque renodat Casariem laxos patitur flaitare capillos If these men would haue more respect to inward vertue and lesse to externe vanity and not be so curious in decking their bodies that they neglect to adome their minds nor to effeminate themselues to the delicitenesse of tender women but rather to foâ—…me themselues to the comelinesse of manly men for the outward habit of the body for the most part discouereth the inward disposition of the mind they might better find the way to felicity To him that slike is as cloth and gold as brasse it is no matter what vesture he hath so as accoram be observed for it is the minde and not the habite that giveth grace to a man and yet there may be betweene them and others a difference in habite and a respect had to the dignitie of the place and person pride and vaine-glory may be as well covered with base apparell as with gorgeous attire as appeared by the taunt which Socrates gave to Antisthenes the Philosopher for this man used to weare bare apparell as it were in contempt of the vanitie of gay garments and when he walked in the streets as he chanced to meete men hee would set out to the shew a hole in his cloke whose manner when Socrates had observed I see quoth he thy pride and vanitie thorow the hole of thy cloke Let us leave Courtiers entertaining their Ladies and follow other mens pathes in examining a little the estate of Princes for whom only in the judgement of men it seemeth Felicitie was created for he that considereth what the things be that bring a man to a quiet contented and happie life will thinke that fortune hath provided for them above all others most plentifully What maketh a man more had in admiration in this world then riches dignities dominions libertie to doe well or evill without controlment abilitie to exercise liberality to have the fruition of all manner of pleasures both of body and mind They have all things that may be desired for a mans contentment whether it be in sumptuous apparell and ornaments of the body or in the varfelicitie and happinesse which whosoever will onely consider superficially must needs confesse that they alone triumph ouer all those things which are the cause of other mens sorrow and trouble But if we will behold the matter neere hand weigh it in equall ballance we shall find that the same things which we think to be the meanes to attaine to felicity and to make them happie is the cause to many of their infelicitie and unhappinesse The danger they are in by the greatnesse of their estate and malice of their enemies seemeth to detract from their felicitie and giueth them just cause of suspition and feare It appeareth by histories that there were Emperours that durst not goe to bed untill they first caused their beds corners of their chamber to be searched for feare lest they should be slaine when they were asleep Were it not better said Inlius Caesar to die once then to liue in such continuall feare and suspition They command all and yet many of them seeme as though they were gouerned by one or two which is much disallowed of diuers State men And it is said in the Prouerbs that safetie commeth of many Counsellers and that good counsell commeth of God And the Philosopher aduiseth Princes not to commit all their matters to any one Counseller alone for no man can alwaies of himselfe rightly consider and know all things and in reasons that are contrary one to another discerne which is best and therefore he that followeth his owne opinion alone is rather accounted proud then wise Through such an opinion of his owne wisedome Lautrec is reported to haue lost the kingdome of Naples from the King his Master and all that he had in Italie because he would not aske nor follow the aduice of them that were wiser then himselfe The ordinary guard of
of life and so far beyond the imbecillity of mans nature to beare with that moderation it ought so as such men as were of good condition before being once made Popes many of them become the most wicked of all others hardly will felicity be found in their estate for besides that the Popes have beene Atheists Heretikes Conjurers Adulterers Murderers and given to all kinde of vice and wickednesse their pride vaine toyes and illusions of the people make it apparant that religion is with many of them but a scoffe and mocke The Cardinall Benno writeth thus of Hildebrand called Gregorie the seventh The Emperour Henry the third saith he used often to goe to pray in the Church of S. Mary in Mount Aventin Hildebrand having by spiall watched all his doings caused the place where the Emperor used to pray to be marked and hired one with promise of money to lay secretly great stones vpon a beame of the Church so as he might let them fall directly upon the Emperours head as he was praying and knocke out his brains which thing when this wicked fellow made haste to accomplish as he was about to place a stone of great weight upon a beame the stone by his weight drew the fellow to him breaking the thin boords that were under the beame both the stone he by the judgement of God fell downe to the pavement of the Church with the same he was crushed to death which thing being knowne to the Romanes they tyed a rope to his feete and drew him three daies together thorow the streetes This Hildebrand by the report of the same author after he had asked something of the consecrated hoast which they call the body of Christ against the Emperour he cast it into the fire though the Cardinals that were present perswaded him to the contrary And nothing sheweth their infelicity more apparantly then their illuding and deriding of religion abusing the world with their fabulous figments and seducing the people from the Word of God and the true Christian Religion to their vaine toyes and childish inventions dealing with the Scriptures as a naughty painter did when he ill-favouredly painted certaine cockes he caused his boy to dirâ—… away the naturall cockes out of sight lest they should discover and disgrace the evill workmanship of his counterfeit cockes So when the Popes had set forth their owne traditions and their Fryers figments they caused the Old and New Testament to be laid out of sight knowing that the true Word of God would discover and disgrace the vanity of their traditions and counterfeit illusions as the fables of Fryer Francis and Dominicke and such like miracles which are receiued into the Romish Church and must be beleeved vpon paine of heresie such as the Poet might well cry out vpon O 〈◊〉 Credula mens hominis erectae fabulis aures Oh how credulous is the minde of man and how ready are his eares to listen to fables And if so many evils happen to men by the Popes not onely in their bodies goods and possessions as appeareth by Histories and the writers of their owne liues but also to the danger of their soules by the opinion of learned Diuines that estate cannot be a happy estate that bringeth men to so great vnhappinesse Which Popes are so puffed up with pride and vaine-glory that a Pope was not ashamed to accept the name but gloried that Constantine the Emperour called him God Eberard Archbishop of Salisburge in a publike assembly of the Princes and States of Germany two hundred yeeres since in an Oration spake thus of the Popes These Babylonian Flamines or Gentiles Priests covet to raigne alone they can suffer no equall they will not leave untill they have cast downe all thiâ—… under their feete and sit in the Temple of God and be lifted vp above all thing that is worshipped Their hunger after riches and thirst after honour is vnsatiable the more yee giue to the greedy-gut the more he desireth offer him your finger and he will coveâ—… your hand He that is the servant of the servants of God desireth neverthelesse to be the Lord of Lords as if he were God He speaketh great things as if he were God himselfe This cast-away changeth lawes establisheth his owne he defileth rifleth spoyleth deceiveth killeth which lost man they vse to call Antichrist in whose fore-head the name of blasphemie is written I am God I can not erre he sitteth in the Temple of God he ruleth farre and wide And Chrysostome saith Whosoever desireth the supremacie vpon earth he shall finde confusion in heaven Neither shall he be accounted among the servants of Christ that seeketh after the supremacie And Alberius a learned Divine saith that the rulers of the Romane Church by their crafty and subtill wits observing times sometimes lift vp the Empire another time by leasure abase it againe and to what purpose saving that by little and little they may cast downe vnder their feete as themselues vaunt all heavenly and earthly things all spirituall and temporall things And searching the old Histories saith Hierom I can finde none that devided the Church and seduced the people from the house of God but them that were appointed Priests to God But the pride and covetousnesse of Popes with many other vices and their illuding the world discovereth their hypocrisie and sheweth them plainely not to be the men they professe Besides advancing themselves above Emperors and Kings and making them hold their stirrops and leade their horses as hath beene said and glorying to be called God it is established among them that all men of what dignity or preeminence soever they be as soone as they come into the Popes sight a great way off they must make three courtesies and kisse his feete Saint Bernard speaking of their pompe saith Saint Peter was never knowne at any time to have gone apparelled with precious stones or silke not covered with gold nor carried with a white horse not attended upon with souldiers nor compassed about with great traines of servants he beleeved that without those things that healthfull commandement might sufficiently be accomplished If thou love mee feede my sheepe The same Bernard detesting their pompe and couetousnesse called them Antichrists and saith thus The offices of dignity of holy Church are translated into filthy gaine and the workes of darknesse it remaineth that the man of sinne be revealed the sonne of perdition a spirit not onely of the day but also of noone-light that is not onely transformed into an Angell of light but is also advanced aboue all that is called God or that is worshipped And the extreme couetousnesse of the Popes and their Court was more truely then eloquently thus set forth by one of their owne authors Curia vult marcas bursas exhaurit arcas Si bursae parcas fuge Papas Patriarchas Si dederis marcas 〈◊〉 implever is arcas Culpa
God will manifestly appeare to him that will looke into his owne estate the things which God hath created To man alone at least in this lower part hee hath given understanding by which hee may know what al other things have what they be which the things themselves know not An infallible argument that whatsoever they have or be the same they have or bee not for themselves but for man For to what purpose serveth the vertues and properties that be in them if they know them not To man only in all the world it is given to know these things to have the â—…ruition of them For the world knoweth not it selfe nor the things in iâ—… and therfore the world and all things there in contained were given to man and created for him onely for the Angels had no need of it nor brute beasts could use a thing of such excellencie but to man that hath a bodily substance it was necessary who only because he was endued with a reasonable soule could use it And seeing the possessor farre surmounteth the thing that is possessed man is of much greater dignitie than the world which is his possession and habitation But the more excellent his nature was the more filthy is his corruption the greater benefits he received of his Creator the more ungratefull he was to offend him And if we call our selves to account and examine the whole course of our life we shall see how small a part thereof we bestow in the cogitations service of him that hath given us all that we have and be And how farre we are from giving him his owne that is our selves and all that wee have which wee possesse and ought to apply to the glorie of God But contrariwise wee convert all things to our owne commodity as his proper end and us onely to our selves How few houres nay rather how few parts of one houre doe wee bestow in a whole day and night in thinking upon God as though it were the least care we have And when we pray what doe we but commit sinne upon sinne In the very heat of our prayers how cold are wee yea when we seeme most vehement and devout what vaine idle thoughts and fansies falleth into our heads So that our minds in our praiers 〈◊〉 to be carried away further from God than the space is between heaven and earth And wherof commeth this but that we are not the same we were He that killeth a man though hee were his mortall enemie his soule by and by is tormented his conscience sharpely accuseth him and telleth him hee hath not done well for the byting of no beast is more grievous than that of the conscience which argueth that there is some little sparke left of that divine light of the soule which seemeth presently to awake as it were out of a fleepe and aâ—…esteth him and reproveth the fact and is offended with his owne offence and goeth about to revenge our wickednesse in our owne persons As appeareth by Theodoricus King of the Gothes who after hee had killed Symmachuâ—… his Father in law thought hee saw as hee was at supper Symmachus face in a fish head that was set before him with other meat to cate who seemed to grinde his teeth and to looke sowrely upon him which put the King in such feare that hee fell sicke and dyed shortly after Plutarâ—… in his Booke de sera numinis vindicta reporteth a strange historie of a man that killed his father This man of all other was least suspected being so rare and unnaturall a thing for the sonne to kill his father and therefore the murther could never bee discovered untill this man long after the murther committed went on a time forth to supper and espying as hee walked a swallows nest hee with his staffe threw downe the nest and killed the young swallowes and being reprehended of some that beheld him for killing so cruelly the harmelesse little birds They have quoth he followed me long enough they cry every day that I have killed my father The men that were present marvelling to heare so strange a thing informed the King who caused him to be apprehended and being examined he confessed the matter Which example confirmeth that which hath beene said that though our nature bee corrupt yet the soule detesteth his own wickednesse and our conscience that repineth against our misdeeds tormenteth and secretly admonisheth us which could not be if there were not some little image of God and of our former divine nature left in us And whereof commeth it that seeing we know and confesse that God is our Creatour and hath so liberally given us all that we have made the world for us and that he is good and goodnesse it selfe that wee put so little confidence in him or rather mistrust his help saving that we seeme to have some sense feeling imprinted in our conscience that wee have grievously offended him are justly disinherited unworthy of his favor Our prayers be as full of distrust as our hearts be void of faith God hath advanced us far above stones plants brute beasts and all other unreasonable creatures and above the world it self He hath set us upright and given us eyes to look up towards heaven and with our eyes to behold his magnificence But wee contrariwise looke downe to the earth and tumble in the ground like swine in the dirt How many give themselves wholly and have almost no other th ought but in getting and heaping together gold and silver the scurffe of the earth which they seeke after as their greatest good and felicity Whereof riseth all our contention and suits but for earth and earthly things Which is a plaine demonstration that wee are throwne downe headlong from that honourable estate throne wherein we were by the bountiful goodnesse of God first placed If a man should see one with a crowne or diademe upon his head all soyled with dirt or delving the ground or holding the plough would not hee thinke him eyther mad or else cast out of his chaire of estate and deposed from his royall dignity What doe men but digge and turmoyle in the earth occupy themselves wholly in base things as though God had given immortalitie to the soule to bestow our labour and cogitations in dung and dirt A scepter is not given to a King to play the dizzard But if a man had held himself in his first estate that God made him our divine nature would have bin occupied in divine things and heavenly contemplation Wee should not have set our felicitie in these transitorie things as though our inheritance were in this world The consideration of these things will enforce us to confesse that the soule liveth not properly but the body onely and that his actions and motions are not free and at his owne libertie Proclus could say that the naturall life properly of the soule is not in
end or good which is God by whom and for whom we were created did allure and draw our will But now by our pride and presumptuousnesse and fall of our first parent our matters be brought to this passe that in earthly things we have Lynces eyes but in spirituall things we are as blind as beetles In seeking for the true light the true God and the right way to felicity or Summum bonum our eyes do not only twinkle as an Owle against the Sunne but are shut close together Yet notwithstanding there remaineth to vs some signes or tokens by which we may know these things specially if wee call continually to minde our fall For then we should not wallow in the dirt like swine and desire these earthly things that appertaine nothing to us nor to our end and felicity nor stand like men amazed with the greatnesse of our fall but wee should seek our end or soveraigne good or beatitude in the grace of God and in the face of our Creator from which by our owne fault wee are fallen cast away To make the matter more plaine we will use Morneyes similitude He that desireth to know the use of any instrument as of a saw he must not judge of it by the rust that hath eaten into it or that it is defaced or broken by some chance but by the whole teeth scowred cleane and fit to cut even as it came out of the artificers shop So likewise must we judge of a man not estimating his end greatest good of his blindnesse of his ignorance of his wickednesse and such like that are come upon him but of the excellency of the goodnesse of the brightnesse wherewith he was at the first endued of the Creator Neither may wee apply the use of a sawe to that it is of Iron and hath a handle and will cut for these things be in every sword and yet a sword is not a sawe but because it hath teeth and is of a peculiar forme by which a sawe di◅ereth not onely from a sword or knife that hath no teeth but also from a file that hath teeth also In like sort we must examine a man if we shall judge of a mans use or end by his life or senses To what purpose was a man made seeing these things be also in plants beasts But God made man not in vaine wherefore his end and good must be estimated by that peculiar proper part by which he doth excell and is a man by which he surmounteth all things that be that live that have sense that is by the principall part of his soule which is his understanding for what is more excellent than that And as this particular forme which giveth the particular use to a sawe is common to all sawes so likewise that speciall form of man by which the end of man differeth from that of all other creatures is so proper to him as neverthelesse it is common to all mankind For as this property is engendred by nature in all men so all men ought to levell direct their course to that end as their greatest or fove◅aigne good and beatitude For the same which was the end and good of the first man is also the end good of all men although our understanding is become dull our will foolish and our nature corrupted And as our first parent whilest he was in his perfect estate did aspire and lift himselfe up to God as to his end and beatitude so must we climbe up to God as much as by our minds we are able And as to cleave unto God was his soveraigne good and beatitude so cannot we attaine to our greatest good and felicity except we return to God againe from whom we are fallen away Seeing then that understanding was given to man by a singular priviledge cleare at the first without spot or blemish that he might behold the end and good for which he was created we must use the helpe thereof to discerne between the true end to which we ought to direct the course of our life and the false reputed ends and felicity which diverteth and leadeth us astray from our greatest good and happinesse or beatitude which is God By nature every man wisheth well to himselfe and directeth his course to some end which he thinketh to be good for him But though this desire or appetite of good be common to all yet there is great diversity in their taste which as in them that have the greene sicknesse or a woman with child that longeth to eat coales and ashes or other evill things greedily as good meat sheweth plainely a great distemperance of their nature which maketh men propone to themselves divers ends to which they direct the course of their life Some give themselves to pleasures others to covetousnes and getting of riches and possessions some to ambition and desire of honour and glory all which hath been shewed before to divert men from their true end and soveraigne good Which blindnesse and corruption of our nature and understanding is happened to us by our disobedience and fall For when mans understanding was cleare and unspo◅ed he saw apparantly that God was his true end and soveraigne good in whom onely all our desires were fixed settled But because our nature is now corrupted our understāding deformed having nothing left in us of that good wee had before our fall but a variable and vaine desire of that wee have lost and have not if we consider our owne estate and ability and an uncertaine kind of knowledge or rather an imagination of God and that also being confused grown out of use either we take not God for our true end and soveraigne good though he offer himself every where unto us or if we desire to go to him we go astray fall either to wickednes or to superstition or else as the most part of men do take that which commeth next to hand addict our selves to the world sensible matters tumbling in these excrements of the earth like swine in the dirt But these be not the things for which man was created nor wherein his end or soveraigne good or felicity must be sought for man cōsisteth of a body soule the body mortall the soule immortall if we seek the felicity of man in the body only men shal do great injury to the soule to our selves For if it be in the body it dyeth putrifieth with the body which were a miserable estate But wee seeke after the felicity of the whole man and of his whole life which cannot be in the body except we take form beauty for it that rather delighteth him that beholdeth it than himselfe that hath it which is also many wayes defaced and lost with sicknesse with a wound or with the heat onely of the Sunne But in the soule that is annexed to the body there are three faculties vegetative or increasing
sensitive and understanding Now let us see in which of these wee may lay the end or felicity of mā The soul giveth life to the body the perfection of life is health If we respect nothing else in this life then he that was first created healthfull had nothing wherewith to occupy himselfe But if sithence our corruption our principall care ought to bee of our health what thing is more unhappy than a man whose felicity standeth upon so false and feeble a ground Seeing the body is subject to an infinite number of perils of hurts of mischances weak and fraile alwaies uncertaine of life and most certaine of death which commeth to him by many means and wayes who is he that is so sound of body or so feeble of mind that if his choise be given him will not rather chuse a sound mind in a sickely body than a little frenzie or imperfection of mind in a very healthful body In the mind therfore our chiefe good must be seeing we be willing to redeem the perfect estate of our mindswth the miseries of our bodies Next unto this is the sensitive part whose felicity seemeth to bee in pleasure but then were beasts more happy than men that feele pleasures more sweetly and fully And how soone are these pleasures ended with repentance also It pleased the gods said Plautus that sorrow should follow pleasure as a companion But wee seeke for the greatest or soveraigne good and if it be good it will amend men aud make them better But what doth more weaken and corrupt men than pleasures and what doth lesse satisfie men and more weary them But wee looke not for that which doth finish but that continueth our delight whereas these pleasures contrariwise soone decay and quickly spoyle us As Petrarke saith Extrema gaudii luctus occupat The extremity of joy and pleasure sorrow doth possesse The delight of the mind is greater and more meet for a man and more agreeable to his end than the pleasures of the senses And if choyce be given to him that hath passed all his life in pleasures and hath but a few houres to come either to enjoy the fairest curtisan in Rome or else to deliver his countrey who is so beastly or barbarous that will not presently chuse rather to delight his mind with so noble an act than to satisfie his senses with pleasure And to conclude the place of pleasures is in the senses which are decayed taken away by sicknesse by wounds by old age And if these pleasures that be exercised by the sensitive part will not sooner be abated yet death will utterly extinguish them But seeing man hath two kindes of life mortall and immortall the one of which he preferreth as farre the better before the other we must not seeke for such an end or good as perish both together but such as maketh men happy indeed everlasting and immortall which cannot be found in these transitory things Now followeth the third part of the soule which is understanding which is occupied sometimes in it selfe sometimes in the matters of the world and other while in the contemplation study of divine things Of these three operatiōs springeth three habits vertue prudence sapience And seeing that understanding is the most excellent thing in man let us see in which of these we may place our soveraigne good For in this part of the soul the end beatitude of man must needs consist for what thing can be imagined beyond man beyond the world beyond the Creator of both That vertue cannot be his end or soveraigne good hath bin shewed before For vertue is nothing but the tranquility quietnes of the affections what be affections but a sodaine tempest in the soule that are raised by a very smal wind which overthrow the mightiest ship that is in a moment and maketh the most skilfull mariners to strike saile and reason it selfe to give over the stern And if our end of felicity should be in vertue what were more miserable than man that must fight continually against his affections which neverthelesse will not be overcome as the mariners labour to save themselves in a tempest from the raging of the sea that gapeth every moment to devoure them So that in this life vertue cannot bring us to felicity and in the other life it can stand us in no stead where wee shall have no affections Therefore vertue cannot bee our end or Soveraigne good Neither is prudence the thing we seeke for which is nothing but the right use of reason in exercising the affaires of this world And what bee the affaires of this world but contention strifes sutes warres bloudshed spoile murders burnings and sackings of townes and countries with an infinite number of such like stuffe Neither can they that have the charge of government in common-wealths which are all subject to these things be accounted happy but they rather are happy that are defended from them by their cares and unqui◅nesse for the Physitians care is more profitable to the f◅che body than to himselfe Besides that men are turned to dust and the world will be destroyed but the soule liveth and forsaketh these kind of affaires Therefore prudence cannot bee the end and felicity of man that is included within the limits of this world CHAP. II. Divine co◅ the best wisedome That our greatest knowledge is ◅eere ignorance Of wonderfull and strange secrets in nature The excellency of faith Religion our reconciliation to God All nations acknowledge a supreame Deity That no vertues are vertues that swerve from religion and godlinesse Of the only true religion Salvation of man the only true beatitude Markes by which the true religion is knowne The necessity of a Mediatour Who and what our Mediatour is And that the soveraigne beatitude is onely to be attained unto by our blessed Saviour Christ Iesus the Righteous LEt vs now examine sapience after Morney as we have done the rest or that part of wisedome which is conversant in the contemplation of God and divine matters for that in all mens judgements seemeth to bee a mostexcellent thing By instinct of nature every man knoweth that there is a God for the workes of God doe present him continually to us But how should we enter throughly into the knowledge of the Creator of all things when we know not the things before our eyes Socrates confessed freely that he knew this one thing That he knew nothing Which confession as himselfe thought was the cause he was by the Oracle called the wisest man of his time And Porphyrius said that all Philosophy was but a conjecture or light perswasion delivered from one to another and nothing in it that was not doubtfull and disputable But he that knoweth God in this wherein is hee the more happy Reason sheweth us that God is good that he is just that hee loveth the good and hateth the evill Our conscience whispereth us in the
eare that wee doe no good thing but much evill and that good wee doe we doe it badly What felicity is in this knowledge when it Waâ—…th us continually of our wickednesse But hee that giveth himselfe to contemplation climbeth higher God is immortall immutable impassible that God dyeth not like a man nor is altered or moved And when he is come thither he is at the wall his minde can goe no further And what kind of knowledge is this What madnesse is it to take upon us to know a thing by that it is not Shall we perswade our selves that wee know what thing a Camell is because wee know it is not a Frogge So that our highest knowledge we must confesse to be meere ignorance And who will place mans end or soveraigne good and felicity in ignorance But those that climbe highest to search for knowledge fall into such errors and entangle themselves in such labyrinthes that they know not how to winde themselves out But as men that looke stedfastly upon the Sunne the more they behold the brightnesse thereof the more their eyes dazell untill they become starke blind so happeneth it to them that aspire to the knowledge of God and divine things thâ—…more they search the lesse they know by their owne wisedome which peradventure moved one to say Simple ignorance is better than arrogant knowledge We are forbidden by Saint Paul to be over curious in seeking the knowledge of things above our reach Nolt altum Sapere The want of ability in us to know the causes of naturall things here in earth the effects whereof we see daily before our eyes argueth plainely that God would not have us aspire too high in knowledge when he hath hidden these base things from us Who knoweth the cause why the Lodestone draweth iron to it which being there with rubbed pointeth toward the North pole and garlike and a Diamond hindereth his operation though some take upon them to draw reasons thereof from their owne conceit to feed their owne humors And who knoweth the cause why the fish called Echeneis or Remora no bigger than a Carpe will stay the greatest ship or galley that is if hee cleave to his side notwithstanding any force of wind or oâ—…res And who knoweth the cause why the fish called Tâ—…rpedo having touched one end of a pyke or speare casteth the man into a traunce that toucheth the other end The beast called Catoblepa killeth a man a mile from him with his sight onely A Wolfe seeing a man first maketh him unable to speake with an infinite number of like things which sheweth that God will not have us enter into his secrets of these base things much lesse of divine things further than he hath given us power Where of if his meaning had beene to have given us knowledge he would have given us another sense and a deeper reason by which we might have known these and the like hidden properties of his creatures Therefore our onely refuge is to attaine to that by faith which we cannot attaine by our mind and understanding that by a lively faith we may be lifted up above our mind that what by the sharpnesse thereof we cannot reach comprehend by faith we may pierce and see thorough And what is it to have faith in God but to looke for all our good from him to beleeve that all refterh with God And seeing that to have faith continually to hope to expect is to deâ—…re that we have not already it is evident that wee can never here see possesse the thing we looke for but the greater a mans faith is the more he despiseth worldly things the more fervent his desire is to heavenly things the greater is his mislike of himselfe and the more â—…hement is his love to God Plato saith that what course soever men take they cannot be happy or enjoy the soveraigne good in this life but in the other life without doubt saith he they that follow vertue shal be rewarded with beatitude And Pythagoras saith that man as it were banished from the face of God walketh as a stranger in this world And Hermes saith that the end of man is to live by his minde and the life of the mind is God Thus farre the Philosophers knowledge did reach that the end of man is to live by his minde that his soveraigne good or beatitude is not to be enjoyed in this life but is to be found in the other life with God But they wanted faith to carry them whither their wisedome could not reach For that knowledge of God we attaine unto in this life by naturall wisedome is ignorance by supernaturall faith In vaine therefore we seeke here either by action or contemplation the thing that is not here to be found For Plâ—…tinus alwaies affirmeth that beatiâ—…de and eternity goeth ever together which beatitude saith Platâ—… is that we be joyned and made like to God who is the top the boâ—…de and the end of all blessednesse In seeking then for this end and soveraigne good of man we finde that the world was made for man man for the soule the soule for the mind the mind for some higher cause which is God For the world was not of it selfe nor for it selfe bâ—…t was made of some and for some So man not having his being of himselfe cannot be the end of himselfe He that mâ—…eth any thing maketh it not for it but for himselfe so that he is the end thereof neither is the thing good in it selfe but to him that made it as touching that he made it to his own use He therefore is the good of that thing by whom and for whom it is called good And seeing man is made by God and for God he must needes be his end and the greatest good So saith Plâ—…tinus the soveraigne end of man is meere good that is God Other things appertaine to the end but they be not the end By this it appeareth that after the ancient wise men and better sort of Philosophers that were guided by reason onely the felicity or beatitude and soveraigne good of man must not be sought for in this life but in the other life And that man ought to employ his time in this life to the knowledge and worshipping of God as to his onely end that he may with God and in God have the fruition of all good things perpâ—…tually in the other world By the authority allâ—…grd of the leâ—…d Heathens and by the reasons and arguments and grnerall consent of the learned Divines among which number I account the Lord Pleâ—…s whom in this Part I chiefly follow it is manifest that as the body of 〈◊〉 is to the soule so is this morraâ—… life to the immâ—…ll And that the end of man in this world is the knowledge and worshipping of God and his foveraigne good 〈◊〉 to that end is the fruition and possession of God in heaven but by reason of our
in pleasures which is common to brute beasts neither in riches which are sought for some other thing rather than for it selfe as reputation honour such like nor in honour glory which is but a vaine admiration of the people by whom it is many times given taken away and is also desired for an opinion of vertue but that wherin felicity consisteth is the last end to which all other ends are referred to which end whosoever hath attained hee proceedeth no further but resteth settled And it is peculiar and proper to men alone neyther is it in vertue nor in the action of vertue after the Academickes and Peripaâ—…tikes nor in the power of a wise man But vertue may be a helpe to the attaining of felicity especially that of this life for no man is able to endure the things that happen to men though hee bee armed with all manner of vertues with that minde that hee may neverthelesse bee accounted happy For felicity in one part and contentation may not be dissevered and the end or true felicity of man which is all one consisteth not in morall vertues as hath beene said but his end and proper action is the glory of God to know and worship him We shewed before that in seeking for felicity respect must be had to the body and soule to this life and to the life to come For Christ saith What avayleth it a man to have all the world and to lose his soule And because there seemeth to be a kind of happinesse in the world and men are said to live happily we called the happinesse of this life felicity and that of the heavenly life beatitude or blessednesse and soveraigne good But when we had examined all the estates of life and could find none worthy to be called felicity all being subject to troubles and unquietnesse and full of misery wee were driven to use violence to the word and to call that happinesse of life felicity wherein is least infelicity in the managing of which discourse it appeareth how little power is in men to the attaining of felicity and that all commeth from God and therefore we call Felicity the contentation of a faithfull mind in a godly life and death which commeth by the enjoying of Gods benefits and graces yet neverthelesse our owne endeavour must bee thereto imployed with the meanes which hee hath given us and continuall praiers that he will blesse our labors according to his good will and pleasure which if it succeed not to the happinesse wee looke for in this life yet to take all things patiently and be thankefull and say with the Poet Forti animo mala fer nec bis miser esto dolare Nec citò ventur is pramoriare bonis Beare evils boldly let not griefe Twice wretched make thee Nor in despaire of future good Death overtake thee And thinke that he doth all for our good and hath reserved for us the true felicitie and blessedness of the life to come in respect wherof al the pleasures that can happen to men in this world are nothing and therefore all our actions and labors to the attaining of felicity in this life must have relation to the true felicity and beatitude in the life to come whereof this is but a shadow and the way to come by the other for the right way that leadeth to the happinesse of this life is also the way to the happinesse and blessednesse of the heavenly life that is to live in the feare of God and returne to him again from whom wee are fallen by faith in Iesus Christ our Mediatour and Redeemer whereof ensueth peace of conscience and quietnesse of minde and call with humility to him for his graces to contemne honour and glorie riches reputation with all the pride and pompe and vanities of the world which men so greedily hunt after that are as pins and pibble stones with such like toyes for children to play with to purge his mind of all manner pâ—…rrurbations and unquietnesse to think nothing greatly to bee esteemed but a cleare conscience and undefiled soule to bee content with that which is sufficient and to measure that sufficiency with a sound upright judgement not after the common custome of men whose minds are corrupted overcome with covetousnes ambition unsatiable desires So that none can attaine to this felicitie but he upon whom God bestoweth his graces as faith health and liberty of body a sufficiency of worldly goods to sustain his life with a quiet possession of them a minde inclined to vertue with such like good things necessary to happines of life And if men would advisedly consider of this matter suffer themselves to bee perswaded as the truth is that the way to the happinesse of this life is not contrary to the true felicity and happinesse of the life to come nor any hinderance but rather a â—…urtherance the way to the same they would be more carefullin following the right path that leadeth to the felicity of this life and not so negligent in seeking for the blessednesse of the other life But so long as they hold this erronous opinion that they can hardly enjoy the felicity of this life that of the life to come as repugnant one to the other because the things wherein they put their felicity as riches pleasures honour and glory puffeth them up in pride and vaine glorie and ministreth much occasion to the increase of fin and the happines of the other life is promised to the meeke and poore in spirit Many rather than they wilâ—…orsake and leave to hunt after things wherein consisteth their false reputed 〈◊〉 to which men are by the corruption of their nature strongly addicted wil hazzard the losse of the true felicity and happinesse of the heavenly life But if they were perswaded that they mistake the mark they shoot at when they 〈◊〉 for felicity or happines among riches pleasure honour or reputation of the world which are rather hindrances to felicity and have brought many to infelicity and extreme misery that the end â—…rue felicity of man is in this world the knowledge worship of God to which is joined the fruition of him in heaven that such happinesse as is in this life which we improperly call felicity consisteth in a contented mind which must come by the enjoying of Gods graces and giâ—…es joyned without endeavour in cleansing our mindes from all maner of perturbations and passions that bring forth unquietnesse and are hinderance to felicity these worldly vanities and false shewes of happinesse would not withdraw men from the true felicity of the life to come nor from the happiness that may be found in this life Plato could say to one that asked him who was happy Hee that knoweth God and loveth him so that the felicity of both worlds dependth upon Gods grace in this life to be of a godly minde to have sufficient to the necessity of nature to bee content
mine opinion upon any mans sleeve I protest to have done it with 〈◊〉 without arrogancie or meaning to detract from any man his 〈◊〉 having drawn mine opinion in a great part from them whom in all things I have not thought good to follow Neither is mine intent to take upon me to teach any man having 〈◊〉 my selfe as the proverbe is with mine owne foot by which I know my insufficiency but to discourse onely leaving to every one his free censure If any thing hath escaped me by want of diligence or lack of knowledge or by committing overmuch trust to memory it shall agree with your modesty 〈◊〉 to excuse my ignorance than to blame my negligence seeing the matter was taken in hand for my exercise only 〈◊〉 Non omnia possumus omnes An errour will easily slip through a mans fingers whilest he is writing though he bee very circumspect and a fault is sooner espyed in another than amended in himselfe Bonus aliquando dormitat Homerus Take it now as it is and if it be to your liking give God the thankes to whom they are due that directed my pen to your benefit if otherwise yet my labour is not 〈◊〉 because I bestowed it upon my selfe and not for you Farewell and speake well and thinke as ye list That wisheth happinesse to them that secke the right way for it Ri. Barkeley COurteous Reader amongst some others help this mistake page 151. Omnia sunt hominum tenui pendentia filo Et subito casu quae valuere ruunt Which Distick reade thus interpreted All humane things depend by a small thread And those most strong are soone demolished A DISCOVRSE VPON THE FELICITIE OF MAN THE FIRST BOOKE CHAP. I. The opinions of the Ethnick Philosophers concerning the Summum bonum The difference betwixt the fclicitie of the Soule and the Bodic And that no man by his owne wisedome or industrie can attaine to either of them That there is no happinesse in the Delights and Pleasures of this world And these illustrated by the Histories of Sardanapalus the last Monarch of the Assyrians and by Heliogabalus and Nero Emperours of the Romanes THe ancient Philosophers and learned men of divers ages among the things whereof they were inquisitive found no greater difficultie than in searching out what the felicitie of man should bee which they called Summum bonum his greatest or 〈◊〉 good or happinesse This 〈◊〉 ministred such 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 among them and 〈◊〉 them into so many 〈◊〉 opinions that the further they waded the more they 〈◊〉 themselues and as if they had been in a 〈◊〉 they knew not how to wynde themselues out 〈◊〉 in his time collected out of the Philosophers bookes two hundred eightie eight things wherein according to the inclination of their seuerall conceits they would haue this felicitie to consist And no maruell for how was it possible that they that knew not God but as it were in a dreame from whom all good things commeth should know or teach the way to attaine to the greatest good thing that God giueth to men That may bee applyed to these Philosophers that was spoken by one of euill spirits Damones non 〈◊〉 benedicere quia non possunt benefacere The Diuell saith he cannot blesse nor speake well because he cannot doe well So may it bee said of them that they cannot speake well or reason aptly of felicitie because they cannot doe the things that appertaine thereto For though our vnworthinesse bee such that we are not able of our 〈◊〉 to deserue so great a benefit without Gods speciall fauour and free gift yet wee must 〈◊〉 to doe the things that are pleasing and acceptable to him to make our selues capable and apt to receiue it And although God hath distributed among the 〈◊〉 many goodly gifts yet they can doe nothing though morally good that is acceptable in his 〈◊〉 and therefore they are not capable of that great blessing which he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to his elect This argueth the error of those Philosophers that held it to 〈◊〉 in the power of a wise man to attaine to felicitie which onely said they was also a good man But such a wise or good man was 〈◊〉 doubt as rare as the 〈◊〉 of Arabia and might bee sought as Diogenes sought for a man at noone daies in the streets with a candle For whether it bee the felicitie of this life or that of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no man is able by his wisedome or vertue or any power of his owne to attaine to either of them 〈◊〉 our nature was corrupted by the fall of our first parents our force is so 〈◊〉 and weake that the wisest man is not able to make sufficient resistance against the assaults of the world the flesh and the 〈◊〉 which conspire together against vs as mortall 〈◊〉 to our felicitie The things that were made to obey vs seeme now through the curse that followed our fall to rebell against vs. Reason should rule our affections but now contrariwise our affections beare rule ouer reason The cause of which alteration in mans nature because the Philosophers knew not they thought a man was able of himselfe to attaine to felicitie which none can doe without the helpe and 〈◊〉 of Gods holy spirit But whosoeuer will take vpon him to seeke for the felicitie of man hee must haue respect to the whole man and not to any part And forasmuch as man consisteth of two principall parts that is of body and soule he cannot be said to bee in the state of perfect felicitie except both parts bee partakers of it Then can it not bee in the power of man as the Philosophers taught to attaine to this Summum 〈◊〉 or soueraigne good but in his power only that hath giuen men the 〈◊〉 to be 〈◊〉 from perpetuall miserie and to enjoy in this world and in the world to come the things wherein the 〈◊〉 of man consisteth Which graces God hath not giuen to all sorts of men but to such onely as beleeue in him whom he hath sent to bee our Redeemer from that miserable estate into which wee are fallen by the disobedience of our first parents And if it were as the Philosophers thought in the power of a wise man to doe the things whereby he might attaine to felicitie in this world for that was the felicitie which some of them treated of yet were that but one part of felicitie to which neuerthelesse they are not able to attaine the other and that faire the greater part is to bee enioyed in the other life to come which to bring to passe of himselfe is not in the power of any mortall man And that our meaning may bee the better conceiued let vs suffer a little digression When God had determined to create natures of vnderstanding after his owne image of whom hee would be knowne and worshipped in the same sort as he would appoint them some he made of a spirituall essence without bodies others of a
assembly of people going backward of purpose and seeing euery one laughing him to scorne asked them alowd if they were not ashamed to mocke him for going backward when hee walked whereas they did so all the daies of their life As if hee should say that no man followed the right course of life but rather that all liued contrary to that they ought For all men desire to be in a happy estate Hecopus hic labor est But few take the right course to attaine to it It is commonly said that wise men differ from fooles in this that they set vp a marke to shoot at these shoot their arrows vp into the ayre at random without any certain marke And again that good men differ in this from the wicked that some propose to themselues a good end others an euill end some that which is good indeed others that which is good in shew only Many set vp no marke or end at all to which they should direct the course of their life but fall from one kinde of life into another as chance offereth without any certaine end or purpose Some direct the course of their life to some end as to a marke but because they mistake one thing for another they neuer attaine to that they desire Others though they see what the marke or end is to which they should direct the course of their life which is felicitie yet as men who vse to take vpon them blind-folded to finde out a post or hillocke or such like wander vp and down without finding that they secke so they being made blinde by their affections which as Plato saith bee very euill counsellers and clogged with worldly cares and carried away with vnsatiable desires bestow their labour in vaine and can neuer finde that they seeke for And though all men desire one thing that is a happy estate yet the great difference we see in the course of their liues argueth their mistaking some other thing for that they secke after by meane whereof they can neuer attaine to the end of their desires Let vs looke into mens labours and consider what the things bee for the obtaining whereof they imploy all their trauell and study for that seemeth the thing which they take for felicitie or a great meane to the attaining of it For euery man naturally desireth that which he thinketh to be good Three things I obserue that the most part of men greedily hunt after and leaue no stone vnturned as the prouerbe is to attaine to them Some desire to liue in pleasure many seeke for riches others labour for honour and glory in these things according to their seuerall inclinations they put their felicitie But how farre they are from the true felicitie shall hereafter if God will appeare rather by the common iudgment of men that will vse reason for their guide than by Logicall arguments and by examples of them whose miserable estate and vnfortunate end hath discouered the error of their disordered and licentious life that by seeking felicitie where it was not they found in felicitie where it was By whose example after Diogenes counsell wee may become wise by another mans harme for he is wise very late that is made wise by his own harme For as Seneca saith Longum iter per praecepta brene efficax per exempla The way by precepts is long by examples short and pithy And first to beginne with Pleasure wherein some learned men of account among the ancient Philosophers as Epicurus and others seeing how willingly men are drawne to pleasures held that felicitie or soueraigne good should consist They reasoned thus That action is the end or felicitie of man to which by nature of his own accord he is most willingly ledde But all men of their owne accord are most willingly led to pleasures Therefore Pleasure is the end or felicitie of man But the Epicures were in this greatly deceiued for man as in the substance of his body participateth with brute beasts so in his spirituall essence which is a reasonable soule hee participateth with Angels And though hee be by the worst part of his nature giuen to pleasure yet reason reprehendeth and blameth his brutish affections But the cause of this dissention in mans nature the Philosophers saw not only Christian Religion sheweth why his affections are repugnant to reason If felicitie as the Philosophers affirme bee the proper action of man then can it not bee in Pleasure for that is common with him and brute beasts but after them it must bee an action peculiar and proper to him alone And seeing that man is made of two distinct natures though by the great wisedome of the Creatour wonderfully vnited together it is more reason that his felicitie should bee agreeable with the best part of his nature which is a reasonable soule and resembleth the Angels that are made after the image of God than with the worst part of his nature which resembleth and is of the like substance to brute beasts But he that will enter into the due consideration of mans felicitie must haue respect to both his natures the body and the soule both which it must in a sort touch yet according to the proportion and difference of excellencie that is betweene them the one representing the image of God being immortall the other participating with brute beasts being subiect to death and corruption Such a felicitie as consisteth in the momentany pleasures of this life the Indian captiues may challenge The Indians haue a manner when they haue taken one of their enemies prisoner whom they meane not presently to cate not to imprison him as the vse is in these parts of the world but they bring him with great triumph into the village where hee dwelleth that hath taken him and there place him in a house of some man that was lately slaine in the warres as it were to re-celebrate his funerals and giue vnto him his wiues or sisters to attend vpon him and to vse at his pleasure They apparel him gorgeously after their manner and feede him with all the daintie meats that may be had and giue him all the pleasures that can be deuised When hee hath passed certaine moneths in all manner of pleasures like an Epicure and is made fat with daintie and delicate fare like a Capon they assemble themselues together at some festiuall day and in great pompe bring him to the place of execution where they kill him and eate him This is the end of this poore captiues pleasures and the beginning of his miseries whose case is nothing inferiour to theirs who enioying the pleasures of this life for a small time wherein they put their felicitie are rewarded with death and perpetuall torments For as he was taken prisoner by his enemies so are they captiued by the Diuell who feedeth their humours with variety of pleasures that he may at length deuoure and destroy them both body and soule Many examples are
the care they have to maintaine themselves and their credit in their estate is greater than the pleasure they take in possessing them For every small matter they thinke detracteth much from their reputation when they lye dying disposing their goods gotten with such toyle of their bodies and care to their minds danger to their lives and hazzard many times to their soules there is such gaping for that they have that they have more trouble to please all than they took pleasure to possesse all But improperly untruly are riches called goods when they bring with them so many evils For greater is the number without comparison of such as being good become evill by riches than of them that being wicked are by riches made good Alexander the Great sent Ambassadours to Phocion of Athens with a Present of an hundred talents being in value almost twentie thousand pounds Phocion demanding the cause of this great gift seeing there were so many Athenians besides him Because quoth they our master esteemeth you among all the rest for a vertuous and good man Then quoth he let him suffer me both to seeme and to bee so indeed and carry his Present backe to him againe Diogenes in the like sort refused Alexanders offers of worldly goods For being visited on a time by him as he was in his tub I see quoth Alexander to Diogenes that thou art poore and hast neede of many things aske what thou wilt and I will give it thee In the meane time quoth Diogenes stand out of the Sunne Some of his nobilitie standing by and supposing that hee studied what he might aske urged him to aske something Whether of us two said Diogenes to Alexander seemeth to thee to have most neede and therfore poorest I that desire nothing but my tub and a little bread or thou that art King of Macedon and doest hazzard thy selfe to so many dangers to enlarge thy dominions so as the whole world seemeth too little to satisfie thy ambitious and covetous minde Alexander had Diogenes in such admiration for the contempt of worldly goods that he said with alowd voice If I were not Alexander I would be Diogenes He said further that there was no other felicitie in this world than either to bee King Alexander that commandeth all or to be Dâ—…ogenes that commandeth Alexander The like boldness of speech Diomedes the Pirate used to Alexander being taken and brought before him for Piracie For the King demanding of him how he durst presume so to molest the seas without authoritie Because quoth he I rob but with one ship and thou doest the same with a great navie I am accused and called a Pirate and thou a King But if I had a navie and thou but one ship I should be called a King and thou a Pirate But the iniquitie of my fortune and poore estate and thy intolerable pride and unsatiable avarice hath made us both theeves If my bare estate were something amended peradventure I should become better but the more thou hast the worse thou wilt be The King pardoned him and his libertie of speech considering with himselfe that a great navie which is prepared with riches maketh not the right difference between a King and a poore Pirate that hath but one ship if the end of their enterprise be one that is to take by violence that which is none of theirs But the justice and equitie of the cause maketh the true difference and is appropriate to the dignitie qualitie of a King The same Diogenes before named being taken for a spie and brought to King Philip Alexanders father when hee made warre upon the Grecians and examined said I am indeed an espie of thy covetousnesse and madnesse that commest hither to hazzard thy selfe and thy Kingdome Iulius Casar passing by a little village said that hee had rather bee the first in that little towne than second at Rome By which sayings of these men it may be gathered that they esteemed him not poore that was not endued with worldly goods and possessions and contented himselfe with that he had but that he rather was poore that had much and yet desired more which is a thing common to all rich men Crescit amor nummi quantum ipsa pecunia crescit seth The love of mony grows as the mony it selfe increa He is happy not that hath what he desireth but he who desireth not that which he hath not And where the greedy desire of riches hath taken roote there is no prohibited meanes neither by the lawes of God nor by the ordinances of men that can restraine them if all other means faile to feck for help of the Divell to findeit out There was a Priest but few yeares past in the yeare one thousand five hundred thirtie to whom the divell had shewed treasure in a chrystall glasse at Norimberg And when the Priest taking one of his friends with him went to seeke for it without the towne he saw in the hole where he digged a chest and a blacke dog lying upon it And as he went down into the hole the earth fell upon him and killed him and filled up the hole againe Like wise there was one that sought for money by Magicke neare Paris and as hee would have taken up the coffer where it was a whirle-winde carried it away and a peece of the wall fell upon him and made him lame all his life A just reward and good example for men to beware how they trust to the Divels helpe And this was a strange thing that happened of late in the yeare of grace one thousand five hundred ninetie one there was one Mark Bragadin that professed himselfe to bee an excellent Alcumist but indeed a notable Magician This man came from Venice into Baviere and there practised to make gold in such abundance that he would give his friends whole lumps of gold making no more estimation of gold than of brasse or iron he lived stately like a Prince kept a bountifull house and had servants of great account and was saluted with a title of dignitie and drew many Princes into admiration of him insomuch as he was accounted another Paracelsus And after hee had long exercised his art made himselfe knowne to all the Princes was desired of them all hee came at length into the Duke of Bavieres Court who finding after a while his fraud illusions committed him to prison And when the Duke had commanded him to bee examined and put to the torture he desired he might suffer no such paine promising that he would confesse of his own accord all the wickedness that ever he had câ—…mitted and exhibited accordingly to the Duke in writing the whole course of his lewd life desiring neverthelesse that it might not be published Hee confessed that hee was worthy to dye but yet made humble sute that his concubine Signora Caura and his whole familie might returne untouched into Italie Not long after
chosen by joyning together the Cardinals consent to make choice of the holyest man a matter of no small difficulty by corrupting the Cardinals with money which was no rare thing in those dayes was made Pope Which time and manners seemeth to agree with the Poets saying Aurea nunc vere sunt secula plurimus auro Venit honos This is the golden age not that of old For now all honour 's to be bought with gold Wherein they were greatly overseene so to discredâ—… the sinceritie of their election make themselves subject to obloquie that had alwayes the holy Ghost so ready at their commandement as it seemeth by the report of Paulus Iovius For when the generall Councell sate at Trent the posts went so fast betweene the Pope and them that it was commonly spoken by the Italians as they saw thâ—… passing by there goeth the holy Ghost inclosed in a boxe from Rome to Trent viz. to inspire the Councell what the Pope would have decreed The Emperour Charles the fifth and the French king sent the holy Ghost accompanied with Angels to Rome to the Cardinals to helpe elect the Popes that were chosen in their times as is reported The Divell shewed a strange example upon Benediâ—… the ninth who through his wickednesse â—…orcery was called Maledictus and was killed by the Divell 〈◊〉 a wood This Pope after he was dead or rather Sathan in his habit was met by a Hermit his body like a Beare tayle like an Asse a myter upon his head and a Cope upon his backe the Hermite knowing him by his habite and not by his face or forme which resembled so many kinds of bruit beasts asked him how it chanced that he was fallen into such a metamorphosis Because quoth he in my Popedome I lived without law I now wander like a beast Pope Sylvester the second called before Gilbert a Frenchman borne came by the Popedome as Platina Nauclerus Benno the Cardinall and others report by the help of the Divel In his youth he became a Monke but for saking the Monastery he followed the Divell to whom hee had wholly given himselfe and went to Hispalis a Citie in Spaine for learnings sake where his hap was to insinuate himself into the favor of a Saracen Philosopher skilfull in Magicke In this mans house he saw a booke of Necromancy which he was desirous to steale away But the booke being very warily and safely kept by the Saracens daughter with whom hee had familiar acquaintance at last hee wan her favour that hee might secretly take it away and reade it over Which when hee had gotten into his possession with promise to deliver it againe hee determined to depart thence fearing neverthelesse what danger hee might fall into by his theft After he had escaped this danger being overcome with ambition and a divellish defire to rule he obtained first by corruption the Archbishopricke of Reymes and afterward that of Ravenna and at last the Popedome as is sayd before by the helpe of the Divell upon condition that after his death hee should be wholly his by whose subtilty he had attained to that high dignitie And although in his Popedome he dissembled his Necromancy yet hee kept in a secret place a Brasen head of whom hee received answere of such things as he was disposed to demand of the Diuel At length when this Gilbert desirous to reigne long asked the Divel how long he should live Pope the wicked spirit answered him cunningly after his maner that if he came not to Ierusalem he should live long And as it happened him to say Masse after he had reigned foure yeares and somewhat more in a Church called the holy Crosse at Ierusalem he fel suddenly into an extreame fever and knew by the rumbling and noyse of the Divel who looked for performance of his promise that his time was come to dye But he falling into an earnest repentance openly confessing his impietie familiarity with the Divell to the people bewailed his grievous offence committed against God and exhorted all men to beware of ambition and the subtiltie of the Divell and to lead an honest and godly life When he perceived that death approached he desired that his hands tongue might be cut off because with them he had blasphemed God and sacrificed to the Divell and then that his mangled carkase as it had deserved might be layd in a cart the horses driven forth without any guide and where they did of their owne accord stay that there his body might be buried All which things being done the horses stayed when they came against a Church of Lateran where they tooke him forth and buried him Whereby men conjecture that through his repentance God had shewed him mercy Neverthelesse whatsoever became of his soule the Divell would not leave his old acquaintance with his body in many yeares after For their writers report that a little before the death of many Popes that succeeded him his bones should bee heard to rattle and his tombe would â—…weate By which signes men knew that a Pope would shortly dye But if a common custome had not altered the case and qualified the greatnesse of the fault it would have seemed strange that they which professe themselves to bee Vicars of Christ should bee so familiarly acquainted with the Divell For there were eighteene Popes Necromancers one succeeding another as some write Tantum exempla valent adeò est imitabilis error Examples are of such validity that even errours are imitated Bonifacius the eight relying upon his own crafty wit which hee thought was sufficient to bring him to the Popedome practised this device He used to put a rcede through a hole into Pope Celestinus chamber fast by his beds head in the night he would speake through the reede tell the Pope that if he meant to save his soule he must yeeld over his Popedome to such a man naming himself The simple Pope supposing he had bin warned by a voyce from heaven for his soules health called the Cardinals together told them that he was determined to give over his Popedome desired their consent to Bonifacius In this sort Bonifacius became Pope when he was dead there went a common proverbe of him that he crept in like a Foxe governed like a Wolfe died like a Dog And what was it but a desire to increase their glory reputation that invented their myters adorned with peatle precious stones other their masking garmâ—…s habits of strange forme though they preteÌ„d a vaine significatioÌ„ of things by theÌ„ in maintaining of which toyes they are so curious as sometime that hath miâ—…stred occasion of much controversie among them which children would take for trifler to play with Cornelius Agrippa reporteth of a contention betweene the Augustine Friars and other religious men whether Saint Augustine did weare a blacke stole upon a white weede or a white stole upon
under the water a long time And as soone as he was under the water the sea began to worke in the place where he leapt in of a great height as though there had bin a tempest After he had staied under the water longer than he used to do the people cryed out Thou Cynops art the onely man of the world thinking he would shew himselfe to them againe as he did before But Saint Iohn prayed to God that hee might be no more seene among men which prayer tooke such effect that Cynops could be no more seene Which when the people perceived they turned their admiration to Saint Iohn who then sayd to the three spirits I command you in the name of Iesus Christ that was crucified that ye depart and be seene no more in this Island Which words were no sooner spoken but they forthwith vanished away The fame of this art being blown abroad was the cause that a great many bookes of Necromancie in divers places were burnt This desire of vaineglory through singularity of knowledge was not wrought in the minds only of Cynops and other Infidels by the instigation of the divel whose helpe they used in aâ—…ayning the same but in our Christian Prelates also who used the like means being overcome with the same desâ—…es to what perill of their soules I leave to the judgement of others Tâ—…itemius the Abbot an excellent learned man and worthy of fame if by adding Necromancy to the rest of his learning he had not made himselfe infamous by his owne confession burned with an execâ—…ive desire of vaineglorie For saith he as I went up and downe musing devising with my selfe how I might finde some thing that never any man knew before and that all men might wonder at and layd my selfe downe to sleepe in an evening with the same cogitations there came one to me in the night that I knew noâ—… and excited me to persever in my intended purpose promising me his helpe which he performed What kind of learning hee taught him he sayd was not meete for the common sort but to be knowne onely of Princes whereof hee sheweth some examples denying the same to be done by the divels helpe but by naturall meanes to which hee will hardly perswade any man of judgment And though he would cover some of his strange feates under the pretext of nature yet his familiaritie with the Divel in many things was apparent The Emperour Maximilian the first married with Marie the daughter of Charles Duke of Burgundy whose death loving her dearely he took gâ—…evously This Abbot perceiving his great love towards her told him that he would shew him his wife againe The Emperour desirous to see her went with the Abbot and one more into a chamber The Abbot forbad them for their lives to speake one word whilest the spirit was there Mary the Emperours wife commeth in and walketh up and downe by them very soberly so much resembling her when shee was alive in all points that there was no difference to be found The Emperour marvelling to see so lively a resemblance called to mind that his wife had a little blacke spot a Mole some call it behind in her necke which he determined to observe the next time shee passed by him and beholding her very earnestly hee found the Mole in the very same place of her necke Maximilian being much troubled in minde with this strange sight winked upon the Abbot that hee should avoyd the spirit Which being done hee commanded him to shew him no more of those pastimes protesting that hee was hardly able to forbeare speaking which if hee had done the spirit had killed them all The Divell was so ready at the Abbots commandement that as hee travelled on a time in the company of a man of account who reported this story they came into a house where was neither good meate nor drinke the Abbot knocked at the window sayd adfer fetch Not long after there was brought in at the window a sodden pickerell in a dish and a bottle of wine The Abbot fell to his meate but his companions stomacke would not serve him to eate of such a Caterers provision Albertus Magnus being a notable Necromancer besides his other learning that had beene Bishop of Regenspurg and after became a Monke at Collen at such time as William Grave of Holland was chosen Emperour and returned from his Coronation at Aquisgraven to Collen with many Princes and great estates where in the night was made him a sumptuous banquet Albertus being there also to shew the Emperour and the Princes some pastime after their journey by his skill caused the chamber where they were in their sight to be like a forest the floore seemed to be ground covered with greene grasse and beâ—…bes and flowers planted with trees of divers sorts the Larke singing in the ayre the Nightingale and the Cuckow singing in the trees and haw-thorne bushes as though it had been in the middest of May. In the which pastime the Emperour tooke such delight that hee rewarded the house whereof Albertus was Monke with land priviledges thinking that no sinnefull act which was done by so famous and holy a Monke in the presence also of so many Prelats But what their reward shall be at the day of judgement the Lord onely knoweth But to excell in these prohibited sciences is not sufficient glory to these kind of men except they also leave their knowledge in writing to the prejudice of posterity which argueth their desire of glory to bee agreeable with that of the Poet that sayth Vade â—…tur felix liber long ssâ—…ma vive Tempora quumque meos tellus obduxerit artus Tu varios populos diversaq regna superstes Quaere studeque meum late diffundere nomen Goe happy booke live long and when i' th dust My bones are layd as sure I am they must Be thou still safe and wander the world round With all thy care my name abroad to sound Among the rest Pope Gregorie the seventh an excellent Necromancer by the report of the Cardinall Benno would by shaking his sleeves make sparks of fire leape out of them to the judgement of men by which strangething he sought to win an opinion of great holinesse By these examples of Popes and Prelates with the rest it appeareth how ready the Divell is to stirre up mens mindes where he seeth any inclination to the desire of vaineglory whose helpe and service they never lacke untill he hath brought them to destruction of bodie or soule These kind of men be they it should seeme to whom Beelzebub is supposed to write an Epistle reported by an old author thus Beelzebub the prince of Divels and Duke of darknesse with his guard and all the potentates of hell To Archbishops Bishops Abbots and other Prelates rulers of Churches his welbeloved friends now and for ever Infernall salutations and a league of inviolable society which can never
enemies were all slaine saving the captaine and some thirty more which saved themselves for the time upon a little hil which they defended against the whole army But seeing that they were not able to prevaile the captaine chusing rather to die by his own hands than to suffer his enemies to have the honour of such a revenge tooke his two sons that were between fifteen eighteen yeare old slue first them in the sight of the army then himselfe The rest of the souldiours seeing the noble courage of their captaine charged their great peeces after they had 〈◊〉 the spoile rather than they would fall into their enemies hands suffer an ignominious death they staÌ„ding at the mouthes of the great peeces put fire to them and 〈◊〉 themselves the King all the army beholding the matter and highly commending the valour and noble minds of the Turkes By these examples it may appeare what estimation men ought to make of worldly honor and glory that is gotten by rule and principality when a poore Priest in a short time was able to dispossesse many kings of their kingdomes and to make himselfe a mighty Monarch of them all And when he was in the judgement of men in the highest degree of felicity a handfull of men of his owne guard could in his owne pavilion in the middest of his army and forces secure and free from all imagination of perill put him and his nobility with his principal Captaines to the sword and had escaped without any harme or let inriched with a great prey if they had passed on their journey all at their â—…ase and had notbin so carelesse to attend their enemies comming which they might easily have prevented Divers other Hermites of Mahomets sect about the same time both in Affrica and Asia excited with the like desire of glory attempted the like enterprises and attayned to great matters to their owne harme to others though not altogether with like successe This principality and rule made the Iewes the chosen people of God despise his helpe and favour that had done so many wonderfull things for them For a Iew having gathered together two hundred thousand men of that nation they trusted so much to their owne forces that every man did cut off one of his fingers and when they were to joyne in battell with their enemies their Generall pronounced these words Lord of the world helpe us not seeing thou hast rejected us And more than this there were divers of the same nation in the age wherein Christ was borne knowing by the 〈◊〉 Prophecies that the time was come in which the 〈◊〉 must shew himselfe to the world that 〈◊〉 themselves to be Christ but their lives and doctrine 〈◊〉 almost the memory of them vanished away like smoke notwithstanding they had many followers and were maintained by the authority of their principal doctors But these Infidels and Iewes are not so much to be â—…velled at that sought glory with so great hypocrisie if we behold the wicked mind of a Christian in our age that through an excessive desire of glory went about to perswade men that he was the very Messias This man was of Frizeland named George David he called himselfe a new prophet and the nephew of God he feined to have talke with wild beasts and birds in all manner of languages and that they brought him meat for his sustenaÌ„ce And among other his vanities and toyes he said that heaven was altogether empty and that he was sent to adopt men to be sonnes and inheritours of the kingdome of heaven That the Divell is the authour of these horrible and hainous offences committed by men to the dishonour of God and destruction of themselves by his instigation and stirring up their minds to the desire of vaineglorie may something appeare by this strange historie reported by Licosthenes in his Prodigâ—… By which men may be warned to beware of the subtill devices practices of that old Serpent that 〈◊〉 coÌ„tinually in weight whom he may devoure who if he can find no 〈◊〉 â—…ment among men to serve his purpose can by 〈◊〉 sufferance as it should seeme 〈◊〉 himselfe or possesse infants and doe wonderfull things by his false shews of counterfeit miracles and crafty illusions to 〈◊〉 the world In the kingdom of Babylon the vij day of March in the 〈◊〉 1532. a child was borne of a meaâ—… woman whose favour and forme was good and wel proportioned but his eyes and teeth shined contrary to nature At the houre of his birth not onely the elements but all the powers of the heavens were moved and shewod forth terrible and fearefull signes For at midnight the Sun was seene to shine bright as if it had bin day and after it was turned into darkenesse againe so as it was not seene in Babylon which is not noted for a miracle the space of a whole day the Sunne was seene againe with starres of strange figures and of divers kinds wandring up downe in the element Over the house where the child was born besides other signs fire was seene fall from the ayre that killed men The next day the Sunne was eclipsed the weather being very tempestuous it rained pearles The third day a firie Dragon was seene to flye about Babylon There appeared also a new hill exceeding in height other hills which was by and by divided into two parts in the middest whereof was found apillar wherein was written in Greeke The houre of the nativity is come the end of the world is at hand The xiij houre after his birth a voice was heard crying in the aire Prepare your hearts to receive and blessed are they that keepe his word After this child had lived two moneths hee brake out in speech like an old man and professed himselfe to be the son of God And being asked what these signes did preâ—… The pearles that fell from the element he said did 〈◊〉 the people that would beleeve his word the flying 〈◊〉 signified his adversaries He healed all 〈◊〉 he restored sight to the blind hee revived the 〈◊〉 with his word and professing himself to be a true interpreter of the holy Scripture secret mysteries he was through all Babylon contrary to the laws of their couâ—… adored and worshipped for a God Thus will Sathan never leave to use the helpe of men as instruments to oppose himselfe against God and to draw them from true obedience to the destruction both of their body soule For to beleeve that there be no Spirits as I heare there be such in these daies or that they shew not themselves to men in divers figures worke not things here in the earth among men and in the ayre above us contrary to the opinion of so many learned men of divers ages and to common experience of all times is meere ignorance and wilfull obstinacy and the next way to atheisme 〈◊〉 an excellent learned man was also
the temporaâ—… and lay men that would consent toâ—… vile an act to murder his Prince they searched diligâ—… in their cloysters religious houses for one of 〈◊〉 owne stampe to serve their turne And at last they 〈◊〉 a yong novice of their owne for their purpose called Iames Cleâ—… a Dominican Monke or Friar about 〈◊〉 and twentie yeare old who not past halfe a yeare before sung his first Masse This harebraind fellow they perceived was a fit instrument to commit this vile murder of their king him they perswade with many reasons and faire promises of great matters to undertake this enterprise and put him in hope that he should escape without danger But if the worst happened yet they assured him that hee should bee canonized for a Saint This yong man at length being overcome with their perswasions and subtill devices not considering sufficiently the great danger both of his body soule gave his consent and promise to kill the king But afterward being pricked in conscience and doubtfull whether the matter were good he desired to be satisfied by the Iesuits who in learning and vertue are in mens opinions preferred before al other orders that his conscience might bee assured of the goodnesse of this enterprise And when the Iesuits had put him out of doubt that the act was very honest and meritorious for his soule he was resolute His favourers are not ashamed to write that as this Frier was with great devotion praying to God for the good successe of this meritorious enterprise an Angell came to him and sayd Frier Iames â—…ise and prepare thy selfe to attaine a crown of Martyrdome Thou shalt defend the Catholicke religion in France against all the persecutors and shalt kill the king himself that laboreth to destroy the same religion And after a certaine time when he had praied fasted with great devotion no doubt he tooke his journy the twentieth day of Iuly in the year one thousand five hundred eighty nine from Paris to Clowes which is about two leagues where the king lay with his campe having for his companion another yong Frier like himselfe The next day in the morning the Frier having told the Kings servants that hee had letters and a Message to deliver to the King hee was presently without any suspicion brought into the Kings chamber for the King was better affected to the Dominicans than to any other order of Friers and suffered them at all times to have accesse to his presence and because of the secretnesse of his message all other were commanded forth Then this hypocrite with great humility and dutie delivered his counterfeit letters but this caytiffe with a knife that was double poysoned strake at the king thinking to have thrust him to the heart But the king perceiving the blow comming strake downe the Friers hand and received the wound in his belly about the wast where the knife was left sticking The king drew forth the knife out of his body and turning himselfe to the Frier thrust him into the face supposing his bodie had beene armed The Gentlemen without hearing the noyse within ran into the chamber and beholding what was done after the kings Councell had examined the Frier they fell upon him and slue him and cast the other Frier that stood without head-long into the river and drowned him The day following his carkesse was torne in peeces with wilde horses and the king died after midnight And that it may the better appeare what dangerous and horrible effects this ambitious humour desire to maintaine them the reputation of the high dignities and glorious estate that are possessed of them worketh it shall not bee impertinent to the matter to shew some part of the proceedings of Pope Sixtus after the French kings death whereof he was taken for the principall author Whereby we shall perceive how far they are deceived that thinke felicitie to consist in honourable and glorious estate when the same shall so blind and corrupt the minde of the principall Prelate that arrogateth to himselfe such high titles and holinesse and authoritie over all as to conspire with traytours to excite a Monke or Frier treacherously to lay violent hands upon his annoynted king and contrary to all humanity and Christianity to allow and exalt the fact above the skies wherein he forgot this good sentence 〈◊〉 peccato addit qui culpa quam fecit patrocinia defensionis adjungit When newes came to Rome of the kings murder whereas all men were amazed and astonied at so horrible a fact the like whereof was never heard before lamented of thousands by infinite streames of teares Pope Sixtus nothing dissembling his joy and gladnesse made all Rome triumph and rejoyce with him with all manner of pleasures and pastimes and the Pope himselfe assembleth the Cardinals and others of his retinew in the Consistorie to heare him preach The argument of his Sermon was that the wicked and traiterous Frier that murdered this king should be canonized a Saint and that his praise and commendations for so worthy an act ought to be exalted above the skies And because he was not ignorant that it was of great moment to the setting forth of a notable act if it were compared with such as were most worthy of commendation and finding none of all those heroicall and glorious acts of famous men that are registred in histories of antiquitie worthy to bee compared with this he bringeth his comparison from God himselfe Hee feared not which a man may tremble to report to compare the murder of this Christian king by the treason of a Monke or Frier with the worke of the creation of the world and also with the incarnation of Christ and with the other mysteries of our salvation In the second part of his Sermon he defameth and slandereth the king whom by his wicked counsell he had caused to be killed most shamefully and ignominiously pronouncing him damned whom not long before for his singular godlinesse he exalted with his praises up to Heaven calling him sonâ—…e the most Christian king And all this spoken and much more to the like effect with such bitternesse and rancor that it is easily seene what monstrous minds many of them carry that are overcome and blinded with passion of ambition and unsatiable desire to aspire and maintaine their estate in honour and glory The manners of these ambitious Popes bringeth to my remembrance a storie of a Spanish Priest that in the rebellion in Castile against the Emperour and King of Spaine Charles the fifth every Sunday for the space of three weekes recommended to the prayers of his Parishioners among other things the usurped king and captaine of the rebels called Iohn of Padilia the Queen his wife For of a truth said he these be the true kings all the rest before were tyrants It chanced shortly after that Iohn of Padilia passed that way with his army and the souldiers that lodged in the
beauty of the flesh that as a flowre in May sheweth it selfe to day and to morrow withereth away and returneth to the earth againe from whence it came Vaine is beauty saith the wiseman deceivable is the grace of countenance Histories both divine and profane are full of many mischiefes that beauty hath brought to men Beauty is compared by holy men to a painted snake that is faire without and full of poyson within But what estimation should we have of that which a little scratch or scarre disfigureth a short sicknesse altereth a small blemish disgraceth a few years withereth and wrinckleth To all these and a great many more the most beautifull â—…ace that hath beene is subject The Prophet compareth man to a shadow that is nothing but an appearance which deceiveth the sight a false figure without substance which sometime sheweth great by and by little So happeneth it to a man which sometime seemeth to be great and yet hee is nothing but when hee is lifted up on high and placed in the highest degree of honour even then he perisheth suddenly and no man knoweth what is become of him no otherwise than a shadow when night is come Likewise the Psalmist saith I saw the wicked man mightie and flourishing like a greene bay tree I passed by him and he was no more there I sought for him but he was not to be found Likewise the glory we take in gorgeous apparell is vaine yea and more foolish than the rest The wife man saith See thou never glory in apparell And yet wherein doe men that are able to have it take more pleasure or pride than in gay apparell which was devised to cover our shame of nakednesse and other infirmities contracted by the fall of our first parent Adam And that which was invented for our necessitie is now used for pride and glory We rob almost all the creatures in the world to deck our bodies withall Neither are they sufficient that are upon the earth but we must borrow feathers of the fowles of the ayre and we must goe into the sea to rob the fishes of their pearle the sands of their precious stones And then we must dig into the ground for gold and silver as the Poet sayth Effediuntar opes irritament a malorum Wealth is digged up the incitement to all evill And all this forsooth to make our selves in our owne eyes shew to bee more goodly creatures by our vaine devices and fantasticall toyes than God hath made us by his great wisedome and specially to allure love and liking to bad intents and purposes And when they have attired themselves with the ornaments that God hath given to the creatures of the earth to the birds of the ayre to the fishes of the sea for their necessitie and beautie and with the stones and scurfe of the earth it selfe they jet it up and down be holding themselves and others in great bravery as though all this counterfeit beautie came naturally from their own persons yet all is not gold that glistereth their mindes be soyled with foule and filthy vices It is a strange thing to see the blindnesse of men that will not consider the great difference of excellencie that is between the body and the minde by the one of which we resemble and are like to the Angels that are immortall yea and to God himselfe and by the other to brute beasts that live after the motion of their senses and are subject to death and corruption And yet how carefull men are to decke the body that is but a lump of clay and to provide for his pleasures and how negligent to provide for the minde or soule that is immortall and of an Angelicall nature â—…an the Emperour was wont to say that it was unseemely for a wise man seeing he had a minde to hunt after praise from his body Saint Bernard speaking of the vaine curiositie of men to adorne and cherish their bodies saith Thou takest great paine to decke and nourish this body that is but a vessell of dung and a sepulchre of wormes and leavest thy poore soule which is the imaâ—…e of God hunger-starved and forsaken Kings in eldâ—… time made no great account of their outward habits making no difference betweene them and the common people by their apparell but by their minde and inâ—…rd furniture When Alphonsâ—… King of Arragon was admonished to weare more costly apparell I had rather said he excell my subjects in manners and authoritie than in a Diademe and purple Socrates being asked which was the most beautifull creature in the world A man quoth hee adorned with learning Plato being asked what difference was between the learned and the ignorant answered As much as is between the Physitian and the diseased And Aristotle to the same question said That there was as great difference between the learned and the unlearned as was between the living and the dead And as the sight receiveth light from the ayre that is round about it so doth the minde from learning And Ennius likeneth a wise man without learning to an uncleane glasse that is fit for nothing yet not he that knoweth many things but he that knoweth things fruitfull is wise When Alphonsus king of Arragon heard that a King of Castile should say that learning was not meete for noblemen and gentlemen hee exclamed and said These are the words of an oxe and not of a man That man saith Marcus Aurelius that taketh upon him to be a man and hath no learning what difference is there betweene him and a beast When the people of Mitylene were become masters of the sea they inflicted this punishment upon their colleagues that were revolted from them That they should not teach their children to reade nor the liberall sciences esteeming that to be of all kind of punishment the most grievous to passe their life in want of knowledge and the liberall sciences There is nothing more unjust than a man unlearned because hee thinketh nothing to bee right but what he doth himself Pythagoras engraved in a stone with his owne hand these words set it before his Acadâ—…my He that knows not that which he should know is a beast among men hee that knoweth no more than hee must needes is a man among beasts hee that knoweth all that may be knowne is a God among men If the gallants of the world were so carefull to adorne their mindes with vertue and learning as they are curious to garnish and set out their bodies with gay garments and new â—…angled fashions and vaine toyes to please their senses there would be no place for the Poets saying that speaketh thus of Courtiers Scorta placent fracti curvique é corporegressus Et 〈◊〉 crines tot nova nomina vestis The Congees Cringees and affected pace Of common strumpets are in most request And now the loose locks dangling 'bout the face With the new names of
it hath received many great blessings from God as no people in the world more both in proportion and agilitie of body and in valour and noblenesse of minde with divers other singular gifts yet we are by a certaine naturall inclination and a worse custome too apt to counterfeit strangers maners we imitate the Spaniards in their pride the Italians in their dissembling and other vices the Frenchmen in their rashnesse and inconstancie the Fleming we beginne to follow in their quaffing and drunkennesse and all these we counterfeit or rather exceede in their vanitie of attyres and gestures Pride and excesse were two of the finnes for which Sedom was punished For many of our travellers bring us the worst of their manners leaving the best behinde as the Spider draweth poyson from the same flower the Bee sucketh honey as though they made a conscience to bring any good thing from them Nothing is more odious and contemptuous to us than the simplicity of manners and habits of our forefathers and yet Histories are full of examples of famous men and Nations that so long as they continued in the simplicitie of habits and manners and singlenesse of life of their â—…fathers so long also they kept their vertue and fame gotten by the same but as soone as they drew to them the manners of other countries they brought also their vices with them and thereby lost that reputation which before they had gotten by their vertue So long as the Lacedaemonians observed Lycurgus ordinances and singlenesse of life and manners they were one of the most flourishing Common-wealths in the world and when they changed them with strangers manners their reputation was soone decayed Princes should foresee that the corruption of an evill custome creepe not into their Realme for it bringeth in vices and driveth out all vertues Alexander the great was conquered by the luxuriousnesse of Asia of which by his vertue before he had made conquest The Romanes likewise so long as they used the simplicity and singlenesse of life of their forefathers encreased their estate untill they became masters of the world but afterward when they brought into their country the luxuriousnesse and delicatesse of Asia they lost all and themselves also and were so drowned in voluptuousnesse that they got not so much fame reputation by their vertue as they lost by their vice and vanity The care of antiquity was to adorne their minds with vertueland knowledge not regarding the ornaments of the body Epaminondas was a famous Captaine among the Grecians and wanne many victories who had but one onely garment and if it chanced him to send it to the Fuller hee was driven to tarry at home for lacke of another and yet being of so small substance when the King of Persia had sent him gold of great value for a gift he would not take it Paulus Aemilius a Romanc when hee was made the second time Consull was sent to make warre upon the Macedons where he wanne a notable victory with wonderfull store of riches and treasure which not withstanding he lived in such poore estate that after his death his wife could hardly have any dower But the Italians since that time have changed their manners from vertue to vice turned matter into forme with divers frivolous inventions The Emperour Marcus Aurelius saith that by the prowesse of our forefathers are honoured those that now live and by the little that is in them that live now our posteritie shall be infamous for they that are now have turned the acts and labours of antiquitie into foolish toyes and vanitie Guevarra seemed to be of the opinion that Travellers into Italie brought no great good home with them into their own Countries for writing a letter to an Embassadour of the Emperour Charles the fifth among other things wisheth that hee come from Italie so sound of body and so perfect of soule as when hee departed from Spaine for in new Countryes alwaies there are learned new fashions for to speake the truth saith hee I have seene few come from Italie that came not only absolute but also dissolute The property of Bels is to call men to service and never enter into the Church themselves in my judgment such is the condition of Italy where bee a great many Sanctuaries that provoke to prayer but the people therof have no devotion but seeing you come from Rome I would not have you boast of that place for the fashions of Italy are more pleasant to be declared than sure to bee followed Rome is not now in the power of Christians as it was in the time of the Heathens for then being the mother of all vertues shee is now turned to bee the schoole of all vices O how much and how much is betweene the customes of Italy and the law of a good Christian and when he had reckoned up many vices there usuall he concludeth that if he desire with those conditions to bee a Romane much good may it doe you quoth hee for upon the day of account you would rather have beene a labourer in Spaine than an Embassadour at Rome which agreeth with Mantnan Vivere qui sanctè cupitis discedite Romà Omniacum liceant non licet esse pium From Rome depart you that would holy be Religion lives not with such libertie And yet this is the Country and people that we havein such admiration and desire to see and imitate Heare also what the Emperour Marcus Aurelius saith of the vices of Rome Italy in his time brought from other Countries and how much they are degenerate from the ancient Romanes which hee often repeateth in his writings and bewayleth with teares hee calleth Rome the head of vices O Rome without Rome which now hast nought but the wals and art a common stewes of vices not without teares quoth he I say that there was never any Romane Captaine that did kill tenne thousand Asians with the weapons he brought into Asia but that he lost an hundred thousand Romanes with the vices they brought to Rome At the same time when the warre was kindled in the East tenne valiant Captaines brought these vices to Rome whose names my penne shall forbeare to tell because their vile offences should not obscure their valiant deeds Before that Rome conquered Asia wee were rich wee were patient wee were sober wee were wise we were honest and above all we lived contented but now all vices may be learned in Rome as all sciences may bee heard in Greece O unhappy Rome that hast now nothing but the name of Rome because there is in thee such scarcity of vertue and such plenty of vice the wals of Rome are carried of a great height but her vertues be very low Rome braggeth of the great number of her inhabitants but Rome may weep that her vices be many more without comparison In one month a man may number all the stones of her stately buildings but in many yeares a
to enter into their Countrey saying that if kingdomes grow rich by trading with strangers they become poor of their proper vertues Wee cannot say with the Poet Câ—…lum non animors mntant qui trant more current Though forraine seas you passe and nations strange Yet t is the Climate not the minde you change For we change both ayre and minde not as he would have it in reformation but rather in deformation of maners from simplicity or singlenesse to diffinulation or doublenesse I allow well of the counsell of Favorinus the Philosopher Vivendum est moribus prateritis loquendum verbis prasentibus We should live after the maners used in times past and speake with words used at this present It is noted among learned men for a dangerous thing in a common-wealth a change or ruine to bee feared when the authority of good lawes is contemned faults goe unpunished vertue not rewarded and honest manners changed for worse The people of Creta being ill used of the Rhodians their enemies desired their gods that they would suffer some evill maners to be brought in among them thinking that to bee a worse curse than warre or pestilence or any other thing But had it not been more honourable and commendable for our nation to have continued in the simplicitie of habits and manners of our forefathers retaining their vertues than to receive the vanity of attyres and gestures of other countries with their corruption of maners with them to exchange our vertues for their vices are our maners and habits better now than were in times past those of our forefathers because they cannot lately out of Italy out of Spaine out of France from the Dutchmen Is there no better rule to be given how to discerne between that which is good that which is not good but by the example of other countries doth dignitie consist in sumptuousnesse of apparell decency in varietie of attires civility in vanity of gestures hospitality in excesse luxuriousnes order in consusiò Vertue in former ages was wont to be in estimatioÌ„ with the antiquity a rule to direct their lives by through which many became famous aswel privat men as whole Nations But what fruit hath bin brought to us with these new fashions and strangers manners what effect hath it wrought If it be lawfull to speake the truth besides to be proud and effeminate and the exchange of our vertues for their vices a confusion of all things What difference is there in habits betweene estates Doth not the baser sort glitter in gold and silver equally with the greater whereof ensueth many mischiefes The maners that in time past for reverence were peculiar to Princes the greater states of the Nobility as due onely to them are they not now common and usuall with the baser sort and even among carters But this alteration of fashions and manners so highly esteemed both brought forth no Decios no Fabios no Fabricios no Scipies no more than they have done with them from whence we had them since their old simplicity of manners were corrupted for where there is so great care for the backe and belly there is smal regard had to provide for the mind and soule where men so carefully desire to decke their bodies with silke silver or gold they have no care to garnish their minds with vertue learning and godlinesse The manners and fashions of these latter ages I meane in a civill life are so contrary to the manners and precepts of antiquity that 〈◊〉 must needs bee either they were fooles then and wee wise nowâ—… else they were wise then and wee not sowise now But because they were schoolemasters to the world and attained to that by their vertue which wee hunt after by a formalitie of habits and manners and cannot come by that is to bee famous in the world in all ages and had in admiration even to this day I rather beleeve that they were wise and led us the right path by morall vertue to civility without these vaine toyes now in use and we out of the high-way and many wayes their inferiours For what is civilitie but the manners of men grounded upon morall vertue and the precepts of wise men No man is looked into what is within him If the outside be gay and well set forth to the shew his 〈◊〉 trickes used with the right grace then all is well 〈◊〉 is a worthy man and surely he that beholdeth him must have a deepe conceit if he thinke better of him than he thinks of himself like unto the Asse that carried the image of Isis upon his back when he saw all menbow their knees do reverence to the goddesse he waxed 〈◊〉 and stately as though they had done all that reverence unto him untill he that drave the Asse gave him a 〈◊〉 or two with his whip and told him that this honor was not done to him but to that which he carried upon his backe and yet an ape is but an ape though he be clothed in purple gold And it may be sayd to them 〈◊〉 set so much by outward forme 〈◊〉 inward matter as the Fox when he saw a mans head so artificially made that there seemed to want 〈◊〉 vital spirits to 〈◊〉 it a lively head of a man the tooke it up and after he 〈◊〉 be held it a while ô quoth he what a goodly head 〈◊〉 is but it hath no braine And such vaine-glorious 〈◊〉 that hunt after fame beyond their merit may do 〈◊〉 teach birds to speake and to give them a 〈◊〉 let them flye into the fields as 〈◊〉 did If 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 advisedly consider what a disorder and confusion befides many inconveniences the alteration of our maners and habits from the simplicity plainenes of our forefathers through a vain imitation of other countries fashions and mislike of our own hath brought forth may we not rightly say to the authors thereof Defunct is patribus successit 〈◊〉 Cujus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 valuere ruunt The fathers dead they leave a wicked brood Whose lewd example ruines that which stood And it is not sufficient for men to delight in the matter of evill but they must also give it after the maner of other countries a peculiar forme to set it forth with the greater grace that it may allure and draw their desires to a further and more generall mischiefe The Romanes complained that the men of Asia and Greece sent their vices with their manners into Italy and corrupted the simplicitie of their former manners and vertues left to them by their forefathers from whence our travellers have brought the same corruption to us and given us the like cause of complaint of them as they had of the other There hath beene an old saying that all evils rise out of the North but we may say that all our evils come to us out of the South How happy were that common-wealth where yong men would labour to shine
perfection So wee say that the operation or worke of the sight is more perfect than the operations of all other senses because it commeth from a power more perfect and is more pure and subtill And the art of a blacke Smith is lesse perfect than that of a gold Smith because the matter whereupon he worketh as his subject which is iron is lesse perfect than the matter which is gold upon which the gold smith worketh so the operations of the understanding proceeding from the most perfect power of al other working upon an object most perfect which is substances abstract and divine must needes bee the most perfect operation which is nothing else but the contemplation of divine substances But the operations of the senses are not pure but are mixt with paine or lacke as to eate endureth no longer than we suffer the paine of hunger or have neede of meate so that the pleasure of eating is joyned with the paine of hunger and likewise of all the other senses The operations also of a civill life are not pure and simple as are the operations of the understanding which is a power voyde of all matter but they are full of perturbations troubles and affections farre from the delight and quietnesse of a contemplative life For all our operations and actions and likewise the exercise of morall vertues are full of travell and wearinesse the troubles and unquietnesse of the warres wherein men exercise fortitude is known to all men likewise the endlesse labours both of body and minde that is in governement in a common-wealth by exercising justice liberalitie prudence temperance and other vertues is apparent and all our travels and labours whether it be in warres or peace is to enjoy quietnesse As one said every motion is to rest and if we see a man withdraw himself from publike affaires and from medling with worldly matters to a private and quiet life all say with one voice that man is happy that leadeth a secure and quiet life free from worldly cares and troublous affaires of the Common-wealth by which we confesse that we judge a peaceable and quiet life to be the end of all our travels so that the felicity of man seemeth in our owne judgement to consist in a quiet life free from worldly cares and troubles and forasmuch then as such quietnesse is in no kind of life to be found but in a contemplative life then in must rest the felicity of man after the Philosophers The contemplative or studious life also is not onely to be preferred before the active and civill life by the excellency of the subject whereupon it worketh that is divine things the vacancie of worldly cares troubles but also that it is of such condition that fortune hath no power over it as it hath over other states of life A small provision serveth his necessitie hee is free from all feare of losse of goods and from any great care of keeping that he hath because his riches is in his minde he carrieth all his goods about with him and is content with himselfe And therefore say they a wise man that giveth himselfe to contemplation though he be placed in a most solitarie place or wildernesse yet hee is happy by reason of the excellencie of his minde which is occupied in despising humane matters as base things and in beholding divine things as the Poet saith Felices animâ—… quibus bac cognascere primum Inque domus super as scandere cura fuit Blest they who these things did both know love Whoselove was with the gods to dwell above But because a civill life requireth continuall action mans felicitie cannot consist in contemplation except there should be one felicity of a private man and another of a Common-wealth And therefore after Varrâ—… mans felicitie so long as he liveth in this world doth neither consist in rest nor in action but rather in a mixture of both together if there must bee one felicitie of a common-wealth and of a private man for the minde cannot throughly have the fruition of perfect contemplation untill it be separated from the body And Aristotle saith that as a horse is borne to runne an oxe to till the ground and a dogge to hunt so a man is borne to two things to understand to do For that nothing might bee wanting to the excellencie of the minde of man by which we resemble God the great Creator of all things he placed man as the end of the whole frame of the world in this goodly great Theatre not only as an inhabitour of the lower part of the world under the Moone to make one entire Common-wealth with the rest of his kind like to that heavenly principality above but as a certaine spectator also of divine things who by comparing things past with things present might foresee things to come and know and love by his word and worke the glorie of his parent And when he should ascend up to him hee should joyne himselfe to God and conforme all the harmonie of his gifts to his goodnesse and glory which by two manner of wayes is brought to passe when he helpeth and maintaineth his fellows and brethren according to his calling by the rule of Gods laws and magnifieth God in continuall contemplation by prayers and thanks-giving Therfore that the minde being fallen into the prison of the body might raise it selfe up againe as it were by certaine degrees to perpetuall light In man there is from the body a continual ascending by the spirit to the inward soule In the world where with we are environed from the elements and compound things by the Aethereall substance to heaven In mans common-wealth from kingdomes and cities to the due order of the whole course of nature from hence to the incorporate world and God himself as the first example and patterne of all justice and truth For besides the incorporate world that is above all the rest of which all the others depend there are three bodily worlds coupled together one with another as it were with a chaine of gold the greater the lesse and mans common-wealth betweene them both and the contemplative life is to bee preferred before the active life in this that it resembleth God more neare than the other because it is occupied in the operations of the minde and understanding God being understanding it selfe Now if the contemplation or studious life of the Philosophers which they bestowed in the knowledge of God by his workes and by their reason and understanding were imployed to the knowledge of God by the testimony of his holy Scripture and by faith then may it more rightly bee said that the contemplative life is more perfect than the active life But Christian contemplation properly isto be exercised in afflictions and to feele motions of the spirit and not to be studious only that resembleth rather an active life which afflictions and spirituall motions may as wel be in him
being loth the lacke of them should bee any hindrance to his Citizens death he went to Athens and openly in the market place hee caused the people to be assembled that hee might deliuer some newes to them who knowing his humour that used to speake with no man ranne to the place out of all parts expecting attentively some strange matter when they were come together he cryed out with his hoarse voice My Citizens of Athens if any of you be disposed to hang your selues doe it quickly for I meane shortly to cut downe the gibbets for my necessary building And when he had ended his charitable motion he departed home to his house without speaking any word more where he liued many yeeres continuing in the same opinion detesting the miserable estate and condition of men And when Tymon perceiued that death approched he tooke order for his buriall to bee at the low water marke in the very brinke of the Sea that the waues might not suffer any man to come neere him to see his bones or ashes and caused this Epitaph to be written vpon his tombe made Latine thus Hic sum post vitam miseramque inopema sepultus Nomen non quaeras dij lector te male perdant After a poore and wretched life Heere I am laid in ground Reader forbeare to aske my name So Thee the Gods confound And as another of his condition that liued solitarily in the woods eschuing likewise the company of men came to him to supper In the middest of their banket O Tymon quoth he what a pleasant supper is this that hath no more guests but thou and I So were it said Tymon if thou were away hee was so hatefull to the condition of men that hee could not endure the company of him that was of his owne disposition Pliâ—…ie meditating vpon the miseries where with man is borne and the endlesse travels wherein hee liveth saith Among all the creatures that nature hath brought foorth onely man is ambitious man onely is proud couetous and superstitious onely desireth long life and maketh a sepulchre wherein to bee buried and rightly was this spoken by Plinie for other beasts neither riches doe make proud nor pouerty sad they weepe not when they be borne nor waxe sad when they shall die Marcus Aurelius both an Emperor and Philosopher entring into a deepe contemplation of the calamities and miseries wherewith our poore life is continually afflicted burst out in these words The battell of this world is so perillous the issue so terrible and dreadfull that I assure my selfe if any old man should come out of the earth and would make a true discourse and declaration of his life from the time hee came forth of his mothers belly to his last breath and that the bodie would recite all the paines it hath suffered and the heart would discouer all the conflicts of fortune all men would bee astonished at the body that had suffered such things and at the heart that had in such sort languished and dissembled whereof I haue had experience in my selfe and will freely confesse it though to my infamy but in time to come it may be profitable to some others In 〈◊〉 yeeres that I liued saith he I would needes prooue all the vices of this life make proofe whether the wickednesse of man might in some sort be satisfied And after I had seene all I found that the more I ate the more hungry I was the more I dranke the more I thirsted the more I slept the more I desired to sleepe the more I rested the more weary I was the more I had the more couâ—…tous I was the more I sought the lesse I found and to conclude I neuer had thing in my possession that was not sometime troublous to me and by by I desired some other thing S. Chrysoâ—…some being in admiration after he had with great coÌ„passion bewayled the calamities of men and the darkenesse wherewith they are overwhelmed pronounced with a loud voice I wish that I were placed in so high a tower that I might behold all men and that I had such a voice that it might be heard over all the earth and understood of all people that I might with a shrill cry speak thus with King Dauid O ye children of men how long will your hearts be hardned and not without cause for hee that will behold with a sound iudgement the estate of the world in these dayes what fraud and deceit what dissimulation blasphemies adulteries licentiousnesse warres effusion of blood rapines ambition couetousnesse malice and such like wherewith the world is as it were drunke may thinke that the time is at hand whereof the Prophet Esay spake in such detestation Your iniquities have made a division betweene you and your God your sinnes have hidden their face before you that it might not heare for your hands bee soyled with blood your fingers with iniquity your lips have uttered lies and your tongue wickednes there is not one that calleth vpon Iustice no man iudgeth according to equity they conceave fellonie and are delivered of iniquitie they have disclosed egges of Aspis and have spunne the cobweb of a Spider he that shall eate of their egges shall die he that shall breake them foorth will come a Basyliske their feete runne to evill and they make haste to sheade innocent blood their thoughts bee wicked imaginations truth is throwne downe the streets and equity cannot enter in our wickednesse is multiplied and our sinnes witnesse against vs. When the Preacher had considered the vanities of the world and miseries of men he said thus Wherefore I iudged those that are dead to bee more happy then such as be aliue yea him that is yet vnborne to be better at ease then they both because he seeth not the miserable workes that are done vnder the sun Silenus saith that the greatest gift which God gaue to man was not to be borne the next to that was to die as soone as he was borne Plato that divine Philosopher entering into the due consideration of the miseries of this life Knowest thou not saith he that the life of man is no other thing but a pilgrimage which wise men passe with ioy singing heartily when they see the necessity of their approch to the inevitable end thereof Knowest thou not that man in his greatest part consisteth of the soule that is enclosed within the body as in a tabernacle wherewith nature hath environed us not without great paine and trouble and if shee bestow vpon vs some little good things they are hidden and of small continuance and are seasoned with bitternesse and pensivenes by meanes whereof the soule feeling griefe desireth the heavenly habitation and wisheth for the fruition of the ioyes there Consider that the departure from this world is nothing but a change from evill to good But come hither saith he from his nativity to his grave what kind of misery is there that he suffreth not
over-much either in abundance of friends or riches and not to be so familiar with any man but that he may be angry with him if there shall be cause without danger or alteration of things And what felicitie can a Prince have that hath under his government so many thousands of people who must wake for them all heare the complaints of every one haue care for all their safetie His waking defendeth all mens sleeping his labour all mens rest his industry all mens delights that he is occupied bringeth to all men case for as if the Planets of the world make never so little stay or swarue aside it is to the exceeding hurt of all things so a Prince cannot rest nor be idle without the great detriment of his people whose care is no lesse to maintaine his people in peace then to defend them from the invasion of their enemies besides many other calamities that accompany Scepters whereof a meane estate never findeth any taste For rightly saith one that it is not sufficient for a Prince to draw to him all vertues but hee is bound also to roote all vices out of the Common-wealth These be the thornes they have for a counterpoyse of their brightnesse and royall dignities which ought to be like a lampe that giveth light to all the world But if it be eclypsed with any vice then it is more notorious and subject to greater reproch then in any other private person for they are not onely blame-worthy saith Plato for the fault they commit but for the evill example they giue And it is a great felicitie saith St. Augustine not to be ouercome of felicitie Great compassion saith Marcus Aurelius should be had upon a Prince because all follow him for their owne profit but none for his loue and seruice as appeareth by that when he leaueth to giue them they begin to hate him The Emperour Dioclesian said that there was nothing more hard then for a Prince to rule well for three or foure of those who haue credit with the Prince ioyne sometime together in one speech and of purpose tell fained things for true whereby hee is often deceiued CHAP. III. The estate of Popes and Prelates St. Bernards complains of the Clergie Eberard Archbishop of Salisburch Oration against the Church of Rome Alberius a learned Divine to the same purpose with other Coherences The estate and charge of the meaner Clergie The estate of Marriage The Commodities arising from Marriage confirmed by many noted Histories The discommodities of Marriage approoâ—…ed by sundry examples Of Solon and Thales two of the Sages with other pertinent stories Of the goodnesse of peace and the bad effects thereof c. LET us now enter into the consideration of Prelates beginning with Popes who as they chalenge the Supremacie over all other estates so they seeme to be placed in the highest degree of Felicitie they come by their dignitie without labour and for the most part without effusion of blood and preserue their estate without perill commanding all The Monarkes and Princes of the world honour them they are rich and seeme to want nothing that men desire in this world to make their life happy although those whom they represent were the very patterns and examples of povertie But he that will with an upright judgement consider of their estate shall finde them rather unhappie for if they will take upon them the government of St. Peters ship according to the commandements of God they must be not as they professe in words but in deeds the servants of the servants of God which must not regard his owne life in respect of the care he should have of them under his charge which being wisely considered of Pope Adrian a learned man and of good life finding by experience that dangers and troubles of principality specially of his calling would confesse oftentimes to his familiar friends with teares that among all the estates in the world there was not any that seemed to him more miserable and dangerous then that of Popes and Bishops for although the throne and chaire where he sate was richly garnished with divers pompes yet it was full of thornes and the costly cloake that covered him was full of sharpe needles and so heauy to be carried that it made his shoulders ake how strong soever he were that did beare it and for the trimme myter which covered their heads it was a very flame that burned them even to the inmost part of their soule And if to enter into the dignity of the Apostleship not called thereto by the Holy Ghost and not to enter into the Church through the doore which is Christ but by the window by the favours of men by corruption by the authority of Princes is not to be the Vicar of Christ and successour of the Apostles but is a theefe and the Vicar of Iudas Iscariot and of Symon Magus what case are then the Popes in that have come into the Church by all these wayes and also by the Divels helpe as appeared by the example of Syluester the second They take vpon them to keepe the keyes of heaven but they shut vp the way thither that neither themselues will enter in nor suffer others they procure wars they vexe Princes and trouble the people they excite the subiects against their naturall Princes the Prince against his subiects When Otho the 4. and Fredericke the 2. were in contention for the Empire Pope Innocent the 3. maintained it vnder hand yet notwithstanding he made a very cloquent Oration of the vnity concord that ought to be betweene Christian Princes A Citizen of Rome perceiving his dissembling said vnto him Holy Father your words seeme to be of God but the effects and drifts which are contrary to them come from the divell They build sumptuous Palaces they are clothed in Purple and Gold to the infamie of religion and intolerable burthen of the people exceeding in pompe and pride the most notable tyrants that have beene A holy and learned man in a sermon in the presence of a Pope reprehended their manners thus that they were not hired men for shepheards nor wolues for hired men but divels for wolues And yet they are not ashamed to call themselues the successors of Saint Peter who might rightly say to them as unworthy to succeede him You wicked dissembling men depart from my house Fallaces prauique domo discedite â—…ostra Bernard thus complaineth of the Bishops of his time The Bishops to whom the Church of God is now committed be not teachers but seducers not Pastours but deceivers not Prelates but Pylates And if felicitie can not easily be found in temporall principality how much more hard it is to be found in their estate that challenge Empire over all Monarkes and Kings and supremacie over all spirituall functions so as they take vpon them authority over body and soule which estate and dignity being by their vsurpations exalted above all other estates
the sentence God knoweth said he that I am vniustly condemned yet I will not appeale here from your sentence because I know that ye shall sooner be beleeued in your lying then I in speaking the truth and therefore I receiue this iudgement for my sinnes Neuerthelesse I appeale from your sentence to the eternall Iudge which is Christ before whom I summon you The Cardinals fell into a laughing and mocking him said That if he would go before they would follow it happened that the Bishop hauing withdrawne himselfe within a Monastery dyed within a yeere and a halfe after wherof when the Cardinals heard they were in a great iollitie and in a scoffing manner said one to another that they must goe seeke the Archbishop Within few dayes after one of the Cardinals had such a blow by one of his owne people that his trypes and puddings went forth at his lower parts and dyed The other Cardinall grinding his teeth 〈◊〉 his owne hands and dyed mad arnand for his crueltie and seditions which he maintained among the people was so hated of all men that being assaulted one day in a Monastery he was there slaine and his body cast into the towne-ditch where he lay three dayes all the people both men and women vsing all manner of cruelties and despites vpon it Lucian a notorious blasphemer of Christ his Diuinity was deuoured with dogges Arrius had also a wonderfull end for as he was comming to dispute with the Prelates he fell into such a loosenesse of belly that he auoided his guts and bowels The death of Lewis the eleuenth King of France was also something strange for as he was beholding Tennisse players with his wife among other talke he said that he hoped to doe nothing hereafter that should offend God which words were no sooner out of his mouth but he fell downe speechlesse and languishing a few houres he dyed in the same place which argueth the miserable condition of men that a mightie King when he least thought vpon death and had many goodly houses and buildings ended his life suddenly in the most vile and filthy place of all his Castle where men vsed to make water And the manner of the death was very rare that Atterius Rufus a Romane knight suffered This man dreamed or was warned by a vision that when the Gladiators or Fencers exercised their 〈◊〉 at Syracusa as the manner then was to kill one another with their naked swords he should be slaine by one Râ—…tiarius a man to him vnknowne which dreame he declared the next day to them that sate by him to behold this fight or pastime This Retiarius chanced to bee brought in place with one Mirmillo whose face as soone as Atterius beheld he told them that this was the man that he dreamed should kill him and rose vp presently meaning to depart but being perswaded by them that sate by him he stayed As the two men were fighting Retiarius chanced to driue Mirmillo to the place where Atterius sate and hauing cast him downe by him he thinking to kill Mirmillo thrust his sword thorow Atterius and slue him It is no lesse strange to consider of the miserable end of men by two contrary passions sudden sorrow and ioy Don Pedro and Don Iohn hauing the gouernment of the kingdome of Castile in the nonage of the young King their Nephew made warres vpon the Moores 〈◊〉 Grenata and as they returned homeward in good order Don Pedro being in the vaward and Don Iohn in the rereward whom the Moores preased so hard that he was faine to send to Don Pedro to returne to his aide Hee hastening to assist Don Iohn could by no meanes make his souldiers follow him and drawing his sword to strike some of them thinking therby to make the rest more obedient he was so troubled to see he could not helpe Don Iohn that he fell downe dead from his Horse which when Don Iohn heard that was valiantly fighting with the Moores he conceiued such griefe that he fell downe speechlesse his strength fayling and dyed within a little while after Herennius a Sicilian as he was led to prison for being partaker of a conspiracy was so perplexed through feare of the future Iudgement that he fell downe dead at the entry into the prison Plantius looking vpon his dead wife cast himselfe vpon her dead body and with very sorrow dyed The like happened to a French Gentleman the son of Gilbert of Mompensier who went to Pozzuola to visit his fathers tombe and being ouercome with extreme sorrow after hee had shed abundance of teares he fell downe dead vpon the sepulcher This is no lesse strange that ioy hath wrought the same effect and such as sorrow could not kill sudden ioy hath dispatched A woman hearing of a great slaughter of the Romanes by their ouerthrow at the battell of Thrasymeno where her sonne serued as a souldier meeting him at the gate vnlooked for fell downe dead in his armes as shee was embracing him Another woman hearing a false report and beleeuing that her sonne was dead as soone as she saw him dyed presently Philemon had certaine figs gathered for him and being set within his sight an Asse came to them and began to eate he willed a Boy to drine away the Asse who went so slowly that he had eaten all the figs before the Boy came Because thou hast made no more haste said Philemon giue the Asse wine also wherewith he fell into such a laughter that he dyed forth with Diagoras and Chilon hearing that their children had wonne the prize at the games of Olympus laughed so heartily for ioy that they dyed immediatly Of late yeeres Sinas hauing the charge of certaine Gallyes vnder the great Turke seeing his sonne restored to him againe that was taken prisoner by the Christians dyed with extreme ioy at the first sight of him But that the miserable conditions of men may be seene as well by the strangenesse of their death as by the infinite troubles of their life we will alleage a few examples more for to prosecute it at the full would containe a great volume of the seueritie or crueltie that hath beene vsed in a strange sort The Transiluanians hauing taken certaine Rebels with their Captaine made them fast three dayes and then made them eate their Captaine halfe roasted and afterward his bowels sod before they put them to death There were sixe men for some notorious fact condemned iudged to this death they were set aliue into the ground all sauing their head aboue in front three against three and face to face and there continued in that sort vntill they miserably ended their liues An Italian Gentleman hauing the vpper hand of his enemie who vpon his knees asked for mercie willed him to deny God which when the other had done in hope of life he thrust his sword thorow him saying I will now kill thee body and soule Certaine Italians were
sent from a Free State in Embassage to the Duke of Moscouia and as one of them kept his Cap vpon his head in the presence of the Duke he being therewith offended caused a nayle to be driuen thorow his Cap into his head Ludit in humanis diuina potentia rebus Et certam prasens vix habet hora fidem The Diuine power all humane things derides And scarce one certaine houre with vs abides The Emperour Marcus Aurelius meditating vpon the miserable condition of men spake in this sort I haue imagined with my selfe whether it were possible to find any estate any age any countrey any kingdome where any man might be found that durst vaunt he had not in his life tasted what manner of thing aduerse fortune is And if such a one might be found it would be such an ougly monster that both the quick and the dead would desire to see him Then he concludeth In the end of my reckoning I haue found that he which was yesterday rich is to day poore hee that was yesterday whole is to day sicke he that yesterday laughed to day I haue seene him weepe he that was yesterday in prosperitie to day I haue seene him in aduersitie he that yesterday liued I haue seene him by and by in his graue Saint Augustine entring deepely into the consideration of the miserable condition of men and wondering at their infelicitie maketh thus his complaint to God Lord after men haue suffered so many euill things mercilesse death followeth and carrieth them away in diuers manners some it oppresseth by feauers others by extreme griefe some by hunger others by thirst some by fire others by water some by the sword others by poyson some thorough feare others are stifled some are torne in pieces by the teeth of wild beasts others are peckt with the fowles of the ayre some are made meat for the fishes others for wormes and yet man knoweth not his end And when hee goeth about to aspire higher hee falleth downe and perisheth And this is the most fearefull thing of all fearefull things the most terrible of all terrible things when the soule must be separated from the body And what a miserable sight is it to see one lying in the pangs of death and how lothsome when he is dead And then followeth the dreadfull day of Iudgement when euery one must yeeld account of his life past This is the time when Monarkes and Princes must giue account whether they haue laid intolerable exactions vpon their subiects and beene the cause of the effusion of innocent blood to feede their ambitious humours This is the time when the Pastours and Prelates must giue vp a reckoning of their flocke and with what doctrine good or bad they haue fed them This is the time when Merchants must yeeld an account and all other Trades that stand vpon buying and selling for the falshood they haue vsed in vttering their Wares whose case is hard if it bee true the Poet saith Periurata sâ—…o postponit numina lucro Mercator Stygiis non nisi dignus aquis The periur'd Merchant will forsweare for gaine Worthy in Stygian waters to remaine This is the time when Lawyers will tremble how to answere the animating their poore Clyents to waste their goods to their great hinderance or vtter vndoing in continuing their suits in a wrong cause the end whereof is their owne gaine This is the time that Magistrates and Iudges must bee called to a reckning whether they haue administred iustice vprightly and indifferently without fauour or corruption This is the time when men of Warre must answer for their spoyles and rapines and intolerable outrages and cruelties vsed vpon euery sexe and age that Christ dyed for as well as for them This is the time that couetous men and vsurers must yeeld an account for their rapines and oppressions and for the vndoing of infinite numbers to enrich themselues with their excessiue and vnlawfull interest and gaines This is the time that Widowes and Orphanes and other afflicted people will cry out and present their complaints before God of the iniustice and wrongs they haue sustained and suffered This is the time when the wicked shall say quaking and trembling for feare and repenting too late Looke how yonder folkes which we had heretofore in contempt as base persons and of none account in respect of our selues are now exalted in the sight of God and are accounted among the Saints This is the time saith Saint Hierome when they that stut and stammer shall be more happie then the cloquent And many Sheepheards and Heardmen shall bee preferred before Philosophers many poore beggers before rich Princes and Monarkes many simple and grosse heads before the subtill and fine-witted Then shall the fooles and insensible persons saith Saint Augustine take hold vpon Heauen and the wise with their wisedome shall fall downe into hell where is the miserie of all miseries and such as the miseries of this world be pleasures and delights in respect of them This is the iudgement spoken of in Saint Matthew Goe yee cursed into hell fire where is nothing but lamenting and gnashing of teeth which is prepared for the Diuell and his angels before the beginning of the world where they shall bee tormented for euer and euer and shall wish for death but they shall not finde it they shall desire to die and death shall flie from them These miseries to which men are subiect made the Prophet Esay sorry that hee was not destroyed or styfled in his mothers wombe and murmured that his legges did hold him vp and complained vpon the paps that gaue him sucke â—…remie mooued with the like spirit considering that man is formed of the earth conceiued in sinne borne with paine and in the end made a prey for wormes and serpents wished that his mothers belly had serued him for a sepulchre and her wombe for a tombe The consideration of the miserable estate of this life brought in a custome to the people of Thracia to weepe and lament at the birth of their children and to reioyce when they dyed But the Philosopher Demosthenes discouered his conceit by a more particular passion For beeing demanded of the Tyrant Epymethes why he wept so bitterly for the death of a Philosopher being so strange a matter for a Philosopher to weepe To this Demosthenes answered I weepe not O Epymethes because the Philosopher dyed but because thou liuest being a custome in the Schooles of Athens to weepe more because the cuill doe liue then for the death of the good Seeing therefore wee haue perused the principall estates of life and can finde nothing in them worthy to be called Felicitie nor answerable to the thing which that word seemeth to purport but rather that they all defect so much from felicitie that they decline to infelicitie and miserie Let vs doe yet with a better minde as many now a dayes vse to doe
from him so that we may call the Felicity of this world the contentation of a faithfull minde in a godly life and death which commeth by the enioying of Gods benefits and graces And although all good things that can happen to vs come from God yet we must bestow our endeuour and vse those meanes which he hath giuen vs to make our selues capable of them and to dispose them to the attaining of a happie life Seeing therefore that our endeuour and labour is requisite to felicitie let vs see how and to what end wee ought to bestow the same that we may enioy it There are two sorts of ends some are precedent some subsequent some the last ends to which when we haue attained wee rest setled and contented and proceede no further others are degrees to the last ends As for example A Merchant buildeth a ship to the end to saile ouer the Sea to such a Port to transport his Wares hee transporteth his wares to sell them to make money to buy other commodities that he doth to sell them to his gaine this he doth to gather riches hee gathereth riches to build houses or to buy land or to liue in pleasure or to winne honour and reputation or such like and thus being come to the last end of his labour for which all the rest were vndertaken hee resteth settled and seeketh no further Euen so all mens desires and labours are addressed from one end to another hoping at last for a contented and happie life But because many vnderstand not wherein felicitie consisteth nor the way to it others take the instruments for the thing it selfe few attaine to the end of their desires First therefore when we know what the felicitie is to which we may attaine wee must submit our selues to the will and pleasure of God from whom all good things doe proceed and with all humilitie desire him to blesse our labours and bestow vpon vs those his benefits and graces with condition neuerthelesse if it be his will for he onely knoweth what is best for vs that are necessary to happinesse of life Then wee must set before our eyes Felicity as a marke to which wee must direct the course of our life wherein we must haue a continuall respect to the true felicity and beatitude or Summum benum of men that is to glorifie and magnifie God in this life as hath beene said which is his last end and proper action whereunto is ioyned the ioyes of heauen in the life to come without which our life here is meere infelicity how pleasing soâ—…uer it be To this end which is our proper action and true felicity we must alwaies haue a speciall regard For in euery nature the end must be common to all of that kinde But that we commonly call felicity or happinesse in this life is rather so by name then indeed for thâ—…s life is but a pilgrimage and way to that common end and true felicity of men which through their owne faults some ouercome with great troubles and labour as they that not knowing the right way or not willing to follow it passe ouer mountaines and rockes with much wearinesse others better aduised that follow the right path walke quietly as in a plaine smooth ground and come to the end of their iourney without any great paines and therein resteth our indeuour to make choise as much as in vs lyeth of the smooth way and auoide the rough and stonie passage that we may come to the end of our iourney with lesse trouble and vnquietnesse But let vs see what manner of felicity or happinesse that is which dependeth vpon Gods benefits and graces and may be enioyed in this life and how farre those graces must extend to make vs happy Seeing this felicity commeth from God the author of all good things and goodnesse it selfe and is so much desired of all men it must needs be some one good thing or many wherein it doth consist And for as much as it concerneth both the body and soule or mind things of a contrary condition it must be more then one thing Aristotle saith Of euill things a little will doe a great deale of harme but to doe a little good requireth a great many or a great quantity of good things So we may say of this matter That to bring forth such an effect as is felicity the greatest good thing that happeneth to men in this world many good things are requisite The things after Gueuarra that cannot be bought with treasure nor can admit comparison with any other things are the Liberty we haue the Knowledge we learne the Health we inioy and the Vertue for the which we deserue commendation for Libertie lighteth the heart Knowledge enricheth the vnderstanding Health preserueth our life and Vertue is the glory of the soule All which are so much the more precious as they are the true figures and fore-runners of Gods grace to such as it pleaseth him to esteeme and choose Let vs examine some of the good things which God hath diuersly distributed among men to some he hath giuen a continuall health liberty of body to others he hath giuen a light heart merry disposition of mind to some an inclination to this or that vertue to others a contempt of worldly riches and honours to some a quiet mind and void of perturbations and passions to others iudgement to discerne betweene things good in shew and those that be good in deed to some an inclination or apt disposition to make choise of the one and refuse the other to others a quiet life void of troubles to some patience to beare afflictions and crosses if any happen so as they seeme to verifie the Poets saying Gaudet patientia duris Patience endures aduersity To others he hath giuen a competent portion and sufficiency of worldly wealth to maintaine their estate and to serue their necessary vse such other like things Now if all these good things did concurre together in one man with the remission of his sinnes which is the greatest good that can be inioyed in this world without which beatitude cannot be obtained who would deny him to be happy For he in whom these things do meete together liueth a pleasant and contented life and maketh a godly and quiet end and whotoâ—…uer leadeth continually a contented life and dyeth in the sauour of God he is in perfect felicity But many that liue quietly seeme to liue contentedly when indeed if their minds were knowne they may be said rather to liue patiently because they want the meanes to haue that they would they seeme content with that they haue This fault is common to all men that euery one liketh another mans estate better then his owne as the Poet wisely noteth when he asketh this question Qui fit Mâ—…cenas vt nemo quam sibi sortem Seu ratio dederit seu sors obiecerit illa Contentus viuat laudet diuersa sequentes How comes
because he seeth that those benefits and graces which doe leade men to the happinesse of this life will be to some an hinderance to the true felicitie of the heauenly life and therefore he taketh from them the occasions wherewith they may offend him and leadeth them in the exercise of such things as stand them most in stead to serue him For the Lord saith Justin Martyr wil not honour his children with worldly happinesse for a reward of godlinesse for those things which bee subiect vnto corruption cannot bee a recompence to good men for their vertue When God sendeth aduersitie it is to exercise vs if hee afflict vs with pouertie it is to make vs to deserue better when hee blesseth vs with plentie so much the more ought wee to giue him thankes doe him seruice yeeld him praise and glory and obedience if hee chastise vs with sickenesse or any other way wee ought to thinke his meaning is to amend and make vs better for God for the most part suffereth aduersities to vse their force against such as are most strong not to tempt them aboue their power but through exercise the better to confirme them If we obeyed God as becommeth vs it is certaine that things should bee ruled here after such fashion as we should be contented Well then let vs admit that all those good things before spoken of which engender felicitie meet together in very few or none at all yet neuerthelesse let vs pray to God to bestow vpō vs so many of them as it shal please him to thinke meet for vs and vse our endeuour to passe our time in such felicity as is agreeable with our humane condition which as we said before is improperly called felicity or at least with as little infelicitie as may be But if his pleasure be otherwise then to beare his crosses patiently alwayes looking vp to the true felicity For he that falleth into a ditch and cryeth God helpe without employing those meanes which he hath giuen him for his help may lie there long before he come forth therfore we must vse those means which God hath giuē vs. He hath endued vs with reason to iudge of those things that be subiect to our sences and as a necessary meanes by which we should sustaine and gouerne this corporall life By this reason wee are taught to discerne betweene good and euill betweene vertue and vice Reason sheweth vs felicitie and what it is to be happie but our stubborne and vnruly affections will not be obedient to the iudgement of reason sithence our nature did degenerate being corrupted by originall sinne Therefore Gods grace must assist vs otherwise our endeuour is nothing for in this so great imbecillitie of nature and by the subtill practices of the diuell who lieth in waite to hinder and peruert our good intents and purposes our power and forces are very little so as wee be no otherwise able of our selues to doe those things which are requisite to the attaining of felicitie then as a body that is made weake with long sicknesse is able to go who is by and by weary and if any chance to thrust him euer so little he falleth to the ground so our strength and force is often ouercome with the vehemencie of our affections and often ouerthrowne by the subtiltie of the diuell Yet neuerthelesse we must not desist nor be discouraged but vse our indeuour and force such as it is and call to God to supply our defects with his grace Our principall consideration and care must be daily to praise and glorifie God to meditate often vpon him and to be thankfull for all his benefits which is our proper action and end in this mortall life as hath beene said and the means to bring vs to the ioyes of heauen which is our greatest good and beatitude or true felicitie Then how to passe thorow this vale of miserie and troublous life as plaine and smooth a way and with light burthen as our endeuour can finde and God will permit I liken a quiet life and meane estate voyd of worldly cares to a plaine way and that which is interrupted with greedy desire and hunting after riches and honours and reputation with such like perturbations to a rough and vneuen way full of hils and stones and they that possesse them to be laden with a great burthen and therefore trauell painfully in respect of the other to the end of their iourney To bring this to passe we must purifie and cleanse our minds from our corrupt and vncleane affections that we may be the better able to see and desire those things which be good indeed and auoid those things that be good in shew onely wherein morall vertues are very necessary for by them our vnruly affections and vnprofitable desires are bridled or suppressed or at least moderated which are the chiefe cause of an vnhappy life They mooue mens desires to pleasures to riches to honour and glory which hath beene shewed before by many examples and sayings of wise men to be the cause of infelicity they stirre vp pride enuy hatred malice desire of reuenge feare and such like perturbations and vnquietnesse of the mind and will neuer suffer the soule or mind to be in quiet and rest which is contrary to felicity and a happy life which consisteth not in fleshly pleasures nor in the abundance of riches or possessions nor in principality or power but in a contented and quiet mind void of sorrow and feare which cannot be obtained without Gods speciall grace and gift and his assistance to our endeauours The counsell which King Dauid gaue to his sonne in his death-bed is meete to be followed of all men Thou Salomon my sonne know the God of thy father and serue him with a perfect heart and willing mind for the Lord searcheth euery mans heart and vnderstandeth all the thoughts of mens minds If thou seeke him thou shalt find him but if thou forsake him hee will cast thee off for euer And Tobit gaue this counsell among other things to his sonne My sonne set our Lord God alwaies before thine eyes and let not thy will be set to sinne or to transgresse the commandements of God doe vprightly all thy life long and follow not the wayes of vnrighteousnesse for if thou deale truly thy doings shall prosperously succeed to thee and to all them which liue iustly Blesse thy Lord God alway and desire of him that thy wayes may be made straight and that all thy counsels and purposes may prosper And if thou desire to know whether thou be happy or not examine thy selfe whether thou be glad merrily disposed of a quiet conscience without feare of worldly things and content with thine estate whether thou be neuer pensiue or melancholike for the lacke or losse of any worldly thing whether no hope in gaping for any thing to come troubleth thy mind whether day and night thy mind be pleased and in
worldly wealth reputation all other vanities for which men are called happy in coÌ„tempt that is resolute void of all feare euen of death it selfe that esteemeth nothing to be greatly regarded or cared for but a vertuous mind that taketh all things that happen to him either as Gods blessing or his crosse and all for his good whose mind is alwaies quiet cleere that holdeth this opinion as the sentence of an Oracle That no man can be hurt except he be hurt of himself who would not reuerence that maÌ„ in his heart think him equall with the Emperour Nay who if he be of a right iudgement would not preferre him before all Emperours and Kings in the World as more happie then them all He is accounted a great estate that hath dominion and power ouer others but he is a great estate indeede that hath himselfe in his owne power And therefore if thou desire to be great and to make all things subiect to thee make thy selfe subiect to reason thou shalt rule much if reason rule thee But if such a man as we speak of be not or hardly to be found that is able among so many assaults and afflictions to which men are subiect to make sufficient resistance as without Gods especiall grace ioyned to his endeuour it is not possible yet let vs set such a man before our eyes in our conceit to giue vs aime the better to direct our leuell and though we strike not the marke yet let vs labour to shoot as neere it as we can And if we cannot attaine to that which is answerable to the name of felicity yet we shall the rather by that means auoid many parts of infelicity For he that laboureth not to erre saith Plato misseth narrowly We are troublous many times to our selues by desiring and coueting those things that bee not worth the hauing as abundance of riches reputation such like But Plato saith not the rich but the wise and prudent auoid misery We are often vnquieted with feare of the losse of those things the lacke whereof if wee looke thorowly into the matter is not hurtfull to vs but an opinion of harme We feare many things that haue in them nothing that is dreadfull but the feare it selfe Put away ioyes feare hope be not sorrowfull the mind is cloudy and bridled where these things raigne Demetrius said that he accounted none more vnhappy then he that neuer tasted of aduersity which to a vertuous man is an exercise of his vertue which otherwise would wither lose his force brightnâ—… as iron with rest gathereth rust but with vse and occupying it shineth bright The best thing in worldly things is to contemne the things of this world A man by nature is subiect to sickenesse and by losse of his goods may fall into pouerty and by the displeasure of the Prince or people may lose his reputation but to make him vicious that is vertuous wicked that is honest a coward that is valiant base minded that is of noble courage is neither in the power of nature of men nor of fortune therefore to a man endued with vertue nothing can happen that can greatly distemper him who only triumpheth ouer all those things that make other men happy Ille sapit solus volitant alij vclut vmbrâ—… He is only wise whilest others fly like shaddowes When vertue is present men take example thereat saith Salomon and if it go away yet they desire it it is alwayes crowned triuÌ„pheth and winneth the battell and the vndefiled rewards He standeth as a tree well rooted which though it be shaken with diuers winds yet none caÌ„ make it fall He knoweth his body his lands and goods be subiect to the power of men but so long as his mind is free to himselfe at liberty he maketh no great account of the rest he can moderate prosperity beare stoutly and asswage the sharp stings of aduersity and despise those things which other men wonder at It is the property of a great mind to contemne great things to desire rather mean matters then ouergreat If there be any happy man in this world said Socrates it is he that hath a cleane vndefiled soule a cleare conscience stained with nothing for in him onely the misteries of â—…od may bebeheld seen The most pleasant and sweet thing in mans life said he is learning vertue the history of vnknowne things and quietnes of life free from worldly affaires and troubles void of cupidities desires which distemper the traÌ„quillity of the mind he preferreth before all that a man can possesse for he is happy that hath no need and desireth no more TraÌ„quillity of conscience security of innocency maketh a happy life for nothing bringeth more labor trouble to this life then to boyle with earthly desires and nothing causeth more quietnes then to desire nothing of these worldly matters Seneca affiâ—…meth this by his owne experience Rebus paruis alta prastaâ—… quies The wise Emperour Marcus Aurelius seemeth to be of the same opinioÌ„ when he taxeth the folly of mâ—…n that forsake a quiet life they might finde at home to seek with trouble for aduancement and credit abroad here be saith he many men wise but more fooles and the greatest foole of all is he who being at râ—…st in his house searcheth with diligence elsewhere troubles trauels peâ—…plexities for that for the most part he 〈◊〉 no other fruit of the offices and â—…states for which he searcheth abroad then to suffer coÌ„tinual paine care and griefe at home If men inferiour to this noble Empâ—…rour in wisdom and knowledge would rely vpon his â—…dgement counsell and learne to fly opinion grounded vpon a common custome of the multitude they should find better means to attaine to a happy life with loâ—…e quietnes then by hunting so earnestly after credit reputation to make them enuied and hated of others with trauell vexation both of body and mind to themselues And though officers functioÌ„s must of necessity be in cueâ—…y coÌ„monwealth cueâ—…y one must feâ—…ue employ his trauel in the same yet they should expect â—…he time of their calling not preuent it by intruding themselues before their vocation The Venetians haue Magistrates called Pragadi of the word because in the first foundation of their city men were prayed to take the office and to helpe to gouerne the estate But in these dayes there is no need to pray men to take offices of gouernment but men themselues will pray and with great labour and other meanes sue with shame enough for offices of rule though meane and themselues insufficient and of little worth Euery man now will bee a Magistrate and beare rule ouer others though he cannot well gouerne himselfe which hath brought things that were heretofore had in regard almost in contempt as Saint Hierome saith Things of
no difference betweene having and not desiring A little will serve thee to happinesse of life to which thou shalt the more easily perswade thy selfe if thou consider as hath beene said that the true end and felicitie of man and his proper action is to glorifie God and that the common opinion of happinesse that commeth by pleasures riches honour and glory is contracted by the fall of our first parent and by the corruption and alteration of our nature As to him that is sicke of an ague sower things seeme sweete and pleasant because the disease hath corrupted and altered his taste If thou wilt avoyde the things that be odious to God and men in poverty bee not proud nor in riches covetous in age be not lecherous nor in youth shamelesse If thou see thy selfe in poore estate without credit and reputation and of a cleare conscience and beholdest another live in abundance of wealth and honours bee not dismayed nor thinke thy selfe lesse in Gods favour or lesse happy than he because he surmounteth thee in riches and reputation and worldly vanitie for God distributeth these temporall goods in differently both to the good to the bad For if God should give them only to good men the wicked would thinke for that cause he should be worshipped and prayed unto and if hee should bestow worldly goods upon the wicked onely the weake in faith would feare to bee converted wholly to God lest he should want It is a manifest sign of damnation for a man to â—…live here wickedly and to enjoy at the ful health of body the goods of fortune All such saith one as God marketh with recompence and reward in the book of this world it is a signe that he hath raced them out of the Register of heaven Arme thy selfe therefore with patience and expect the islue of Gods ordinance with a quiet and thankefull minde and thereto wholly submit thy selfe That which seemeth sometimes to a man full of griefe and pain becommeth many times the cause of his joy and comfort And the same that in the beginning seemeth to worke his infelicity bringeth to him unlooked for happinesse The best way is to take those things patiently that thou canst not amend And if thine estate be not sufficient to maintain thee and thine endeavour by honest meanes to amende it But if God blesse thee plentifully with riches and possessions hoord it not niggardly nor spend it prodigally but be beneficiall to others and use liberalitie to those that lacke and deserve well of thee for after Cicero wee ought to doe most for them that most loveth us yet with this consideration that thou spare at the brimme lest whilest thou shouldest powre out a pint there run forth a pottle let the old proverb never fall out of thy minde Serò parsimonia in fundo It is too late to spare when all is out Cicero counselleth us not to shut our purse so fast that a will to do good cannot open it nor yet so to unloose it that it bee open to every body And Alcmenes saith hee that possesseth much should live according to reason and not to his lust meaning that riches are hurtfull except thy mind be above riches that can moderate riches by their use not by their plentie Remember alwayesthat thou live by thy mind which after Plato is the true life and thereof hast chitsly the name of a man The substance of thy body is common with that of brute beasts but by thy minde thou resemblest the Angels and God himselfe The minde is not disgraced with the deformity of the body but by the beauty of the minde the body is graced Give not thy selfe to fleshly pleasures to ambition nor to covetousnesse as the most part of men doe thy understanding was not given thee to that purpose Thales being asked who was happy answered he that hath an healthfull body and a learned and a vertuous minde And Ecclefiasticus saith better is the poore being whole and strong than a rich man that is afflicted in his body Health and strength is above all gold and a whole body above infinite treasure There is no riches above a sound body and no joy above the joy of the heart And Anxagoras to the like question said none of these that thou accountest happy but he rather is happy that thou beleevest is unhappy meaning that the rich and honourable persons who are wondered at as the happiest men for their wealth and reputation are unhappy and he happy that contenteth himselfe with a little which agreeth with Democritus opinion that he is happy that is merry with a little money and hee unhappy that is sad in the middest of great riches Give not over thy minde unto heavinesse and vexe not thy selfe in thine owne counsell The joy of thy heart is the life of man and a mans gladnesse is the prolonging of his dayes Love thine owne soule and comfort thine heart drive sorrow farre from thee for sorrow hath slaine many and there is no profit therein envie and wrath shorten the life and carefulnesse bringeth age before the time Socrates walking in the Burse or market place and beholding the great variety of things there to bee sold How many things quoth he have I no neede of Others are rather tormented in minde at the sight of such things and will say within themselves how many things doe I lacke but hee contenting himselfe with that which is sufficient to nature esteemed gold and purple and precious stones and such like delights of rich men more fit for players of Tragedies than necessary to the use of life as hee shewed by these verses which he had oft in his mouth Argentea ista vasa simul at purpura Tragâ—…diarum accommoda bistrionibus Sunt ad beatam conferunt vitam nihil Those silver vessels and that purple be More fit for Actors in a Tragedie To blessed life they no way doe belong With such vanities mens minds bee occupied by the corruption of our nature and our judgments are so blinded with our impure affections that of all creatures man doth leaft performe his proper action and least directeth the course of his life to his true end and felicitie For whereas the great God of nature hath tyed together all his creations with some meane things that agree and participate with the extremities and hath composed the intelligible athereall and elementarie world by indissoluble meanes and boundes as betweene plants and living Creatures hee hath made sponges and oysters that in part resemble living things and in part plants betweene the creatures of the earth and those of the water Otters Tortoyfes and such like betweene those of the water and birds of the ayre flying fishes betweene brute beasts and those of a spirituall essence and understanding which are Angels he hath placed man which combineth heaven and this elementarie world together whose one part is subject to death and the other
part immortall all other creatures of the earth live according to their nature and kinde man only is seene to degenerate but if we lay aside the consideration from whence our corruption commeth by the fall of our first parent and account of our selves according to our present state among so many millions as replenisheth all the corners of the earth how many use their endeavours to live as they ought If things bee layd before us that differ in value every man will make choyce of the best But in our selves that are composed of a bodie which participateth with brute beasts and of a soule that is of an Angelicall nature and resembleth God himself who maketh choyce of the best that is to live after his best part which is immortall how many thousands live like brute beasts pleasing their senses feeding their belly and following the lusts of the flesh without any respect to the excellencie of their minde as though they would incorporate their soule to their body with an indivisible bond of brutish nature and how few hundreds contemne their mortall part which is the body to joyne their better part which is their immortall soule with the Angels and heavenly creatures whom they in that part resemble A third sort there are far exceeding born the other in number that neither give themselves wholly to live after the flesh with the one nor after the mind with the other but in a sort participating with them both imploy their greatest care labour to the attaining of the things that are in most estimation of the world They labour and aspire to excell others not in dignitie of vertue and knowledge but in estate and reputation and to the attaining of the things which leade to that end every one willingly bestoweth his labour and diligence for no man is content with his estate Hinc illa lachryme hereof ariseth all our complaints and griefe and the greatest part of the calamities and miseries that happen to men for mens desires be so unsatiable and their mindes so uncertaine and variable thâ—… no estate of life alwayes pleaseth any man because they seeme to want some things that bee incident to the estates opposite to theirs For they that bee in principilatie and honourable estate desire to have joyned to their rule and reputation the securitie and tranquility of a private life which they seeme to lacke And the private man affecteth to have joyned to those things which hee enjoyeth the dignity and authority to command of honourable estates The rich man wisheth to have added to his abundance of wealth the poore mans quietnesse of minde and freedome of worldly cares and safety of person and goods The poore man would have added to those things of his the rich mans plenty and credit The Citizen would have joyned to his civill and easie life the pleasures and delights of the fields and countrey The Couutrey man would have the civility and company and good fellowship of the towne joyned to the wholesome ayre of the Countrey and pleasant gathering of the fruits of the earth The souldier wisheth to his glorious title the safety of a peaceable life Hee that liveth in peace desireth to the security and safety of his estate the honourable reputation of a man of warre which he hath gotten by the continuall hazzard and perill of his person And so of all other estates of life some things are desired that seeme to be wanting to the fulnesse of their happinesse which are as unpossible to be joyned together as for heate and cold to be at one time both together in one subject being diametrally contrary in quality So hat the greatest hinderance to our attaining of felicity or happinesse of life proceedeth from our evill affected minds that desire unpossible things which also diverteth us from our proper action and true end or beatitude We passe our time in vaine hope of things never like to come to passe as Petrarke saith Bene sperando male habendo transit vita mortalium In hoping well and having evill the life of man passeth away Every good thing wee possesse is lesse the things hoped for seeme great And such is also the infirmitie of our common nature seldome or never so sully to enjoy prosperitie as in no respect to finde cause of complaint of the qualitie of our estate For many are raysed to great wealth that beare shame of their base linage some ennobled by birth and parentage and yet live in povertie many blessed with riches and nobilitie that want the delight of children and some made glad with procreation that feele great sorrow and discomfort by their childrens untowardlinesse No man is wont to be long and every way happy a worse fortune ever followeth the former But what estate or course of life soever thou follow have alwaies a speciall regard to these two things to live in the feare of God and to observe the rules of honesty among men from which what soever happen let nothing divert thee To God thou owest a good conscience and to thy neighbour a good example All things will happen well to thee if thou place God the beginning and the end For in this life thou shalt not finde greater comfort than by that which proceedeth of a good conscience of honest counsels of upright actions of contempt of casuall things and of a quiet and peaceable life But in these dayes many feare their fame but few their conscience and yet there is not saith Saint Augustine a more happy thing than the quietnesse of conscience And if any afflictions or crosses happen that thou canst not avoyde yet thou mayst overcome them with patience Fly unto God for succour he will give it thee that is the only way to make thee safe secure and happy Friendship was wont to bee accounted a helpe to happinesse of life but wee may now rightly say with the Poet Illud amicitia quondam venerabile nomen Prostat in questu pro meretrice sedet That name of friendship venerable of yore Is prostrate now complaining like a whore The time is so changed and mens manners with them so corrupted that the precepts heretofore given by wise men for the commoditie of life grounded upon vertue and honesty will not now serve the turne Friendshippe is growne cold faith is foolishnesse honesty is in exile and dissimulation hath gotten the upper hand That is effectually done which is commonly spoken he that cannot dissemble cannot live Machiavels rules are better followed in these dayes than those of Plato Aristotle or Cicero whose schollars have so well profited under him that many are able to teach their master Professe saith hee love and friendshippe to thine enemie and if hee fall into the water up to the knees give him thine hand to helpe him out And if he fall in up to the waste helpe him likewise but if hee fall into the water up to the chinne then
honours and such like bringeth not felicity but the service of God Iugera non faciunt felicem plurima frater Non Tergestini dulcia musta soli Non Tyriae vestes Aurâ—… non pondera flavi Non ebur aut gemma non juvenile decus Non dulcis nati soboles non bellula conjux Non tenuisse suâ—… sceptra superbamanu Noveris rerum causas licet astra polique Et nostro quicquid sub Iove mundus habet At mea si quaeris quae sit sententia Frater Dicam vis felix vivere vive Deo Brother not many acres make thee blest Nor the sweet grapes in Tergestine prest Not Tyrian garments not thy golden treasure Not Ivory gemmes nor all thy youthfull pleasure Not thy faire issue not thy beauteous bride Not a proud scepter with thine hand to guide To natures secrets though thy skill extend And thou the starres and poles dost apprehend With all the world doth beneath Iove containe Yet if thou ask'st of me what thou shalt gaine By these I le speake if thou wouldst make thy ' boad In heaven so live that thou mayst live to God The end of the fifth booke THE FELICITIE OF MAN OR HIS SUMMUM BONUM THE SIXTH BOOKE CHAP. I. The Creation of Man and the estate he was in at the beginning before his fall Mans alteration after his fall how he participates with the nature of brute beasts All things made to serve man rebell against him Man only of all other Creatures declineth from his originall nature The reason why God suffereth evill to be committed The means that God hath given to man by which to escape the dangers into which he is fallen Of the three faculties of the soule vegetative sensitive and understanding c. IT appeareth by that which hath bin said what manner of felicitie men may enjoy in this life which is rather an usurped name and improperly so called than so indeed Now resteth to discourse upon the true end and felicity of man or beatitude and Summum bonum When God had created this goodly frame of the world being so called of his excellent and beautifull forme replenished with such varietie of creatures and placed the earth in the middest last of all he made man after his owne image which St. Paul interpreteth to bee justiâ—… and holinesse of truth who was after called Aâ—…am of the veine of red earth whereof hee was made And when God had finished this worke and made man hâ—… ceased from creating any more things and rested in him in whom hee delighted and would for ever after communicate himselfe his wisdome his justice and his joy and gave unto him a companion for his greater comfort and pleasure This man he adorned with many goodly gifts and placed him in Paradise which signifieth the best part of the earth and that estate of men in which they should have lived without sin and death In which place appointed for their habitation are the four fountaines of the goodly rivers of Euphrates Tigris Ganges and Nilus which they water passe through and containeth almost a third part of the earth But when this man by the temptation subtill practices of the Serpent tasted of the forbidden fruit withdrew himselfe from the due obedience of his Creator he lost many of those goodly ornaments wherewith God had endowed him and fell into the punishment appointed for his transgression eternall death and damnation But the son of God bearing a singular favour to man pacified his father to satisfie his justice which was immutable he took upon him to fulfill all that obedience 〈◊〉 God required of man and restored him into Gods favour againe though not with recovery of all his lost ornaments revealed the promise of God which he had also procured to send him to be a protector of mankind against the tyranny of the Divell therefore he is called the word because he revealed this secret decree out of the breast of the eternal Father And this was the first miracle that God wrought after his creation of the world and the creatures therin contained staying them that were to dye without the second causes and without that ordinarie course of life which before hee had established Iosephus writeth that Adam set up two tables of stone in which he wrote the beginning of the creation the fall of man and the promise Now if wee consider what a worthy and beautifull creature man was before his fall the very habitation temple of God without sinne and without death wee may easily judge what an ungrateful and unhappy creature he was to revolt from God to the Divell whereby he and his posterity became subject to sinne and death For first God made him after his own image likenes that is he made him most good uncorrupt holy righteous immortall furnished him with most excellent gifts that nothing might bee wanting unto him to all blessednesse in God His understanding was wholly divine his will most free most holy he had power of doing good evil a law was given him of God which shewed him what he should doe or what he should not doe For the Lord said Thou shalt not eate of the tree of knowledg both of good evil God simply required of him obedience faith that whole Adam should depend upon him that not constrained by necessity but should do it freely he told him also the perill willed him not to touch the tree lest he dye So that he left him in his own counsell whose will was then free might have chosen whether he would have broken Gods commandment or not Neither did â—…atan in the serpent compel him to eat but perswaded the womaÌ„ with hope of a more excellent wisedome who drew on her husband willingly to bee partaker of the same by the false and lying perswasion and promise of the divel by the delectable shew sightliness of the tree the fruit whereof after the woman had first tasted she gave to her husband also to eate By meanes whereof hee lost those goodly gifts ornaments which God had bestow'd upon him which gifts hee gave to Adam upon condition that hee would also give them to his posterity if himselfe did keep them but would not give them if hee by his unthankfulnes would cast them away so that by his transgression disobedience hee was cast out of Paradise that is out of that happy estate found al the elements lesse favorable His nature condition was alter'd from goodnes holines to sin and wickednes from sincerity to corruption the influences that descend from the stars and planets which are of themselves simply good through our sinnes and corruption turne to evill so as all things made for our use rebell and conspire together against us and our sinnes are the cause of all our evill Which fall and alteration of mans nature and his ingratitude towards
this earthly body but above And Plato likeneth the soule when hee is in generation to men that dwell in a pestilent ayre and the soule that is without generation to them that dwell in a faire greene meadow And as they that dwell in an unwholesome countrey are for the most part sickely and few continue in their naturall health so the soule as long as it liveth in this elementary body as in a prison and both together in this world will be subject as it were to sicknesse that is to sinne to passions to corruption and uncleannesse For among so many men that are endued with a mind who useth it that is as Morney further saith in men how many beasts and among men what is more rare than a man And of these that use their minde how few use it well That is saith he in men how many Divels And if from among men beasts and divels should bee taken away what marvell is it that the Philosopher sought for a man at noone day with a lincke in the middest of a great assembly of men Some in condition resemble a Wolfe others a Foxe some a Swine others this or that kinde of Beast but few resemble a man in that hee is a man and more few in that hee is the image of God God created man to his owne glorie but as hee is now hee is continually a dishonour to God whereby it appeareth man is not now the same hee was at the beginning That hee is deprived of that high dignity and divine nature that was first given him That hee is fallen from being the Temple and habitation of God to bee the dungeon of sinne and wickednesse Which alteration of his estate and condition is not to bee imputed to God who is the author of all good and goodnesse it selfe but to his owne fault that would not persist in the same estate wherein God had placed him but would bee equall with his Creatour Whereby hee grievously offended God and procured his severe sentence and curse By meane whereof hee is not onely bereaved of those goodly gifts and ornaments which before by his contemplation and glorifying of God hee enjoyed at the full but hee is also become subject to those things which for his sake and use were created As Châ—…yfippus truly said Qudm falsò accusant superos stultèque queruntur Martales etenim nostrorum causa malorum Ipsi nos suâ—… sua quemque vecordia ladit How falsly and how foolishly doe men Accuse and rayle upon high powers when Wee all of our owne evils are the ground And each mans madnesse doth himselfe confound Order required that reason should obey God and our senses and desires should bee obedient to reason But now contrariwise the senses over-rule reason and desires lead our will the body commandeth the soule and the cart is before the horse So that wee must confesse wee bee most justly punished even by the same meanes by which our first parent committed the offence For as by his disobedience he rebelled against his Lord and Creator so by a just punishment the things which hee made to serve mans use rebell against him The defects of the soule and the motions wee seele of anger of lust and such like besides reason proceedeth not from our originall nature nor from our first creation but from the contagion of the flâ—…sh and enticements of the world being become corrupt and uncleane which is come upon our good nature as rust commeth upon iron And those things which be now common unto us and brute beasts by the corruption of our nature wee are ashamed neverthelesse if wee bee seene to doe them When wee are angry if a man given to vertue and honesty come the while it stayeth it selfe presently as though vice durst not abide the sight of vertue And if a man bee eâ—…pied in the act of Venus though lawfull he will bee ashamed and blush as if his bloud laboured to hide and cover him By which Repentance following those affections nature doth sharpely admonish us beeing ashamed to doe like brute Beastes of the difference betweene us and them which shee would not doe if shee had beene created brutish from the beginning But contrariwise brute beastes forbeare not to follow their motions openly because it was their nature at the beginning wherein they continue Man onely of all other Creatures of the earth dâ—…lineth from his originall nature in whom alone all things are corrupted If wee commit any vicious act though secretly beeing alone our Conscience by and by sheweth it selfe to bee our companion and doth not onely witnesse against us but condemneth us and punisheth the fact For though the soule bee a spirituall â—…ffence such as the elements and bodily substances can doâ—… nothing against it and had it selfe in his owne power and was ruler and commander of the body which before the fall suffered nothing of the body yet the objects and filthinesse of the flesh environing and as it were cleaving to the soule doth corrupt and defile her as good Wine receiveth an evill taste of a fustie vessell For the bodie is inclosed within the Elements the bloud within the body the spirits within the bloud the soule within the spirits the minde within the soule and Hermes further addeth God within the minde Fire covered with ashes shineth not the Sunne hidden with a thicke blacke cloud casteth foorth lesse light so the Soule being drowned in moyst and foule matter receiveth a certaine myst which shadoweth and covereth the minde and darkeneth the light of reason This power that God gave to these things over the substance of the Soule besides his nature which otherwise of their own nature they could not have done argueth the greatnesse of the offence which man committed against God and his high justice in his punishment Our wisedome is ignorance our knowledge is vanity our godlinesse is hypocrisie our vertue is nothing but a cloke to cover our vice For if it were possible to see into a man how many salvage beasts should wee see lurking in a mans heart as in a forrest or thicke wood Our imagination and thoughts what are they but meere wickednesse and vanitie These evils we have received by propagation from our first parent Sentit adhuc proles quod commisere parentes The children are yet sensible of what their parents have committed For the sins we commit is a punishment of his offence And though they are come to us by Gods permission yet it is not to bee imputed to him as an author of it because hee could by his absolute power hinder and let evill For hee proponeth lawes to man with rewards and punishments Hee willeth him to embrace good and flye evill To the doing whereof hee denyeth not his grace without which wee can doe nothing nor refuseth our diligence and labour Here if we cease and give over the sin and negligence is attributed to man and not to God though
registred in histories of the miserable estate and vnfortunate end of those that haue put their felicitie and passed their time in voluptuousnesse and pleasure which change was so much the more grieuous and painefull to them as it was diametrally contrary to their former delicious life But of an infinite number let vs draw out a few wherewith he that will not be satisfied to him more will be insufficient Sardanapalus King of the Assyrians was so much addicted vnto voluptuousnesse and pleasure that besides his excesse in delicate meats and pleasant drinks wherewith by all manner of meanes hee sought continuâ—…lly to satisfie his vnsatiable appetite forgetting all humanity he would neuer be seene abroad among men but leading his life like a woman alwayes kept himselfe close in the company of harlots attired in womans apparell counterfeiting also in his speech a womans voyce In filthy pleasures and incontinencie he exceeded the most infamous strumpets his luxuriousnesse reported by credible Authors wherein hee went beyond all his predecessors was such that it cannot bee vttered without offence to modest eares The Monarchie of the Assyrians that was gotten with great labour and industrie and increased and continued with like vertue and valour was by the licentious life of this lasciuious man cleane ouerthrowne For Arbaces his Lieutenant generall of the Medes a man of great courage determined to reuote from him and being desirous to see how he spent his time by the fauour of an Eunuch whom he had corrupted he was let in to Sardanapalus vnder pretence to conferre with him of weighty affaires where hee found him spinning among a company of women apparelled like them in a more vndecent sort than the common fame went of him Which gaue Arbâ—… occasion to disdaine him and encouraged him the more to shake off the yoke of subiection to such an effeminate man And conspiring with diuers others whom he had drawne to his societie he came with a great Armie towards Sardanapalus who hearing of the multitude of people that had reuolted against him had prepared sufficient force to encounter with them And after certaine battels fought wherein Sardanapalus was victor presuming vpon the coâ—…nnance of his good fortune 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 secure and carelesse of his enemies and againe to his accustomed luxurious 〈◊〉 which he thought himselfe to haue been long weaned he falleth to his old manners Luxuriant animi vebus plerunque facyndis Mens minds are often surfeited with prosperity and maketh a Feast to all his Army so the day being spent in banquetting and carowsing when night came their heads laden with wine nothing mistrusting their enemies whom they had before vanquished they gaue themselues to rest which being knowne to Arbaces by his spials he assailed the Kings Campe in the dead of the night and finding them vnarmed and vnready to fight put so many of them to the sword that the Riuer of Euphrates was made red with their bloud The King with a few fled into the Citie of Nyna where hee thought himselfe safe by reason of the answer of an old Oracle made to some of his Progenitours that Nyna could neuer be wonne vntill the riuer became an enemy to the city which hee thought could neuer come to passe The Towne was so fortisied with wals that with little resistance the King held out the siege the space of two yeares the third yeare the riuer was so increased with continuall raine that it ouerthrew the walls of the Citie and made a breach of very great breadth then Sardanapalus perceiuing the time of the Oracle was come 〈◊〉 to despaire and finding no place where to hide himselfe left hee should fall into his enemies hands hee caused a great Tabermacle of wood to be set vp and compassed it round about with store of dry wood into the which after he had put all his gold and 〈◊〉 and sumptuous apparell he placed his 〈◊〉 and Euâ—…ches in the midst and lastly shut himselfe in among them and causing his seruants to put fire to the frame they were all burnt together Arbaces hearing of the Kings death entred the City at the breach and by a generall conseâ—… was made King Thus miserably ended Sardanapalus his pleasures through whose voluptuous life the Empire of the Assyrians which was the first Monarchie of the world was no doubt by the iust iudgment of God translated from the Assyrians to the Medes But such Monsters of nature sometime the world hath brought forth as Heliogabalus the Romane Emperour abandoning all vertue and honesty gaue himselfe to follow his beastly appetite that he seemed to surmount all before him and as possibility would suffer all that should succeed him in vice and volupâ—…ousnesse This Heliogabalus of whom graue Authors write such matter as seemeth incredible whereof a great part shall be passed ouer of me with silence not 〈◊〉 to be written He erected a Councell of women who should determine what manner of attire the matrones of Rome should weare and laying aside all modâ—…y he caused to bee brought into his palace great companies of common women for his friends in whose company hee was so much delighted that hauing gathered together all the harloâ—… and bawdâ—… could bee found hee commeth in person into the place where they were assembled apparelled in a womans 〈◊〉 and made vnto them a very eloquent and well studied â—…tion calling them 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 by which the noble Capâ—…ines and 〈◊〉 of the Romanes when they would giue their souldiers an honourable title were vsee to call them which signifieth Companions in warre The matters which the strumpets were there to treate of with him was new inuentions and deuices of ribaldrie Hee would somtimes sit in his chariot starke naked which should be drawne through the Citie of Rome with foure of the fairest yong women naked likewise that could be found He was in his expences about his person his diet and his house and other superfluous toyes vnmeasurably sumptuous which to declare will hazzard the credit of the reporter All his care and imaginations were how to exceede in wastesull expences to passe his time in all manner of deliciousnesse such as was neuer heard of before Hee neuer sate downe but amongst most sweet and pleasant flowers with which were mixt diuers kindes of odoriferous things wonderfull costly and of most delectable sauour Hee would neuer eate but of that which was of excessiue price and deuised all manner of meanes that whatsoeuer he did eate should be most costly He would say that no sawce made his meate taste so well as the greatnesse of the price His ordinarie dinners or suppers neuer were of lesse charge than one thousand Markes sometime aboue ten thousand pounds His apparell was alwaies of purple and cloth of gold beset with pearle and precious stones of inestimable price euen to his shooes Hee would not weare a garment twice or drinke twice of one cup whether it were gold or