in the thing we love These poore soules naturally desirous of eternity tie themselves by love to many obiects to find out the contentment they pursue but as all creatures are necessitous they starve and deceive them teaching them in the end by their proper hunger and deceit that there is but one onely meanes to make them happy and eternall which is to enter into the heart and love of a Being supreame independent Notwithstanding God though inuisible traceth on the lights of the Heavens on the enamell of flowers on the christall of fountaines and upon so many other creatures Beauties and Vertues which are visible characters of his divinity and if we learne to use holy the blessings he powreth upon essence created to apply them wholy to the essence increate wee very soone shall arrive to the perfection of love But in stead of following these pathes which the Saints tracked out unto us the most part of men brutish of sence and benummed in Reason shut up the maiesty of love in a caytive and miserable passion wherein they commit as great a crime as those Egyptian Idolaters who lodged their Divinities in the bodies of Rats and reremice The loue which now adayes beares sway in the world with so much fury is the house of stormes a sweet poyson a golden snare a pleasing cut-throat an ungoverned feaver a perpetuall folly A vertigo a losse of wit which having rendered man unprofitable to all things maketh him unable for love it selfe It entreth into the heart as the Indian Rat into the belly of the Crocodile where after it hath left impressions of qualities most maligne and infectious it parcheth up all the flowers of it it vilifieth all that which is generous and perverteth what is Religious What man is there who as yet having some little wisedome and understanding would make himselfe a slave to such a passion to deliver his soule over to sinne his body to infection his reputation to opprobry and his life to a perpetuall bondage If we must love as one cannot live without it let us goe to this chaste loue the altar whereof alwayes pure ever burning is supported by foure Columns which are Intention Discretion Faith and Patience Intention that one may love to the honour of God and have an object wherein vertue may be exercised Discretion that amities may be guided and contained in duty and decorum Faith that promises may be kept secrets and rights of amity inviolably observed Patience that one may constantly persevere in loving notwithstanding all oppositions which may interpose to dissolve this vnion But when shall we finde these qualities in the amities of the world Is not intention effeminate and mercenary discretion inconsiderate fidelity most unconstant patience uncertaine There needeth but one word ill understood but a cold countenance but an ill tale but a bad interest to breake amities that were thought most strong wherein they plainly shew themselves to have been never what they professe since they so soone desist to be what they protested If we speake of amities between sexe and sexe and that in those we observe any to be most pure and ardent as some such may be found they are Angels which exeecise it in mortall flesh and howsoever the matter goes the approaches unto them are ever fearefull since vertues themselves as said St. Austine cannot be loved without danger The ancients beleeved women by their conversation had transformed their gods into beasts to teach us men might therein become something worse and that there was not any sanctity so strong which had not ever in these amities a slippery foot if it tooke not the feare of God and discretion for companions If we consider the amities of youth among the same sexe they are for the most part inconstant inconsiderate without weight without reason without measure They often begin by chance proceed upon slights and shiftings and conclude upon neglect If they be amities of men tied to estates fortunes and conditions of the world they all reflect upon their owne interests and have not that spirit of community which is the soule of good will Finally all worldly loves resemble the statue of the god Moloch which had outwardly goodly semblances and inwardly emptinesse and flames how pleasing and gentile soever they seeme exteriorly they are hollow within they are burning troublesome and having possessed a heart leave it nothing but smoake and barke Let us then learne the love of God and in God and for God deriving our affections from Heaven and perpetually making them reascend to their source In the end for a third consideration strive by imitation of our great Charles to destroy Idols not of Temples but of hearts to render that glory to the true God which creatures usurpe by defiling with such basenesse that which they stole away with so unbounded arrogance That grosse Idolatry which set gods on altars which wee now would take for Monsters is no longer in vogue of this world wherein wee live but another is slipt into the place thereof much more subtile and spirituall which maketh men and women who live in some eminence of greatnesse to adore riches beauty and other gifts much esteemed by the world All is ful of idolaters in the secular life all is replenished with flatterers who reverence the fortune of great ones and speake of them in so bold tearmes that after they have left shame they put themselves in hazard to loose Religion A Lord or Lady is not now adayes praysed if we say not It is a creature to be adored It is a Divinity sent on earth to make it selfe knowne and beloved in mortall members that its spirit begins where that of the most supreame intelligencies ends that it is the prime of faces so renowned amongst the Hebrews That it hath nothing common with others but birth and death That there needs the life of a Phoenix to make up such another master-peece and such like vaine complements intollerable even to those who are most greedy of applauses Is it not to fill the world with idols thus to proceed and to make cannonizations grounded upon Capritches of a giddy spirit who desire to make the dreams of lovers to passe into Maximes of verity Let us learne to looke on all the greatnesses of the world as things mortall and on all these images of vanity as gliding shadowes which have nothing solid in them Let us looke on them as eggs which make a faire shew outwardly but have oft-times an Aspicke within Let us looke on them as enchanted apples which invite all the world to taste and poyson all that eate them Let us look on them as those pieces of Tapistry which on the best side shew countreys and people and on the backe side seames stitches knots and vgly shapes When we see some prosperity which smileth on us let us think it resembles those Indian reeds which grow not without knots and windings If we behold some good in the creature let us presently lift up our eies to the Creator and give thanks to this spirit of lights this most pure Act this intelligible sphere fountain of Idaeas source of Essences the chiefe of beauties to whom I consecrate my heart and pen in this little peece beseeching him to continue his blessings over my designes and workes * ⎠* FINIS Divers conditions of men The foundation of this History Sap. 4. The originall of Idolatry Cyril lib. 1. conâ—ra Iulian Didymus lib. Exegeseon S. Hierome in Epistol ad Titum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ammonius in antiquis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fâ— Taranis Scythicae non mitiorara Dianae Hunting of Clodoaldus in the Grove of Jrminsul â—ad meetâ—â—g Combat of pâ—etie betweenâ— the father anâ— sonne Tyranny of superstition Condition of vowed Whether the daughter of Iephte were sacrificed Arrivall of certaine Gentlemen for the deliverance of Iacinthus An accident of a prisoner Preparation for sacrifice Iaâ—inthus taken away The taking of the gentlemen Diodor. â— 4. An honourâ—ble passion â—â— Hildegardis Concharum 〈◊〉 semata Diversitie of Loves Proceeding of spirituall amities Divers agitations of mind in Hildegardis Hildegardis discovered her purpose to foster-Father Araspus â—nswer of Araspus Sticking passions Proper iudgment to be feared in Devotion Prudence of Araspus Power of women Hildegardis visiteth the prisoners Hildegardis betrayed What worldly amities are Amity in what sexe most constant Plin l. 7. c. 〈◊〉 velocitas cogitâ—â—tionum animi celeritas et inâ—â—nij vaâ—ietas muâ—tiformes notas imprimit â—apere et amare â—ix Deo concediâ—r Publ. Syrus â—urprise of Hildegardis Passions of the high Priest Quicquid in faeminam committitur si virgo fuerit dupliciter componatur Iu cod legum anliauarum Beauty persecuted Non punitur fectus si non sequatur effectuâ— Hildegardis prâ—â—ueth her virginity Robert Archbishop oâ— Canterbury saitâ— the Saxons called this triall in their language Ordâ—leum Triall by fire what it is Baron â—â—â— 998. Otho 3. Mary of Arragon Revolution of affaires Chances from whence they come S. Thomas q. 117 Gulieâ—â—s Paris r. part de â—niuers part 30. c. 24. Greatnesse of France In Panigir Maxâ—â—â—iani Vertues of Charlemaigne Warre of the Saxons The Castle of Irminsul rendered Clodoaldus prostrated to Charlemaigne Gods of the Saxons Sorrow of Hildegardis The meeting of Hildegardis and ischyrion Iudgment of Charlemaigne Iacintbus delivered Description of Hildegardis Her speech to the King Ischyrions gratitude True lawes of Amity The conclusion and instructions of the History To the Lady Countesse of S. PAVL Horoscopes A signiâ— Coeâ—i nâ—liâ—e timere quae timent gentes Hier. 10. 2. Concil Braccarense 1 Tolat 〈◊〉 Chryst et Greg. in Math c. 2. Ambr. Hex l. 4. c. 4. Sapientia Chaldâ—â—oâ—um Tela araneae in quam si cuâ—ex inciderit exvere se non potest Gene. 49. v. 6 Secundum Hebr. Tertul. de resur Carnis Iugenij divini cura magna molitionis Regina Christi Sorâ—â— Cael. Rod. Nicatas Cardan Augustin de doctrina Christiana Nugatoria et noxia superstitio ex quadam pestifera societate hominum et daemonum Instruction concerning amitie
as it seemed to promise her much facility in a project which was otherwise impossible It also happened very fortunately that the execution of offenders was put off till another day for certaine customes of antiquity and religion that are strong chaines among people and which gave her full scope to accomplish her desires Wee daily see among many occurrents of affaires that to be verified which an ancient Author said who having made a large recitall of all the naturall armes which God giveth creatures he affirmes a women eminently hath them all and that there is neither fire nor sword which yeeldeth not either to beauty or cunning wyles which with them are very frequent She is able to walke thorough a Corps-du-guard to pierce Rockes and to seat her selfe in places where nothing can penetrate but lightning Hildegardis so mannaged her businesse in a short time that a hundred iron gates were all-most ready to fly open at her command Shee having disposed so many affections to her service failed not to visite the prisoners whom she knew naturally much to desire their liberty Shee went about mid-night into the dungeon accompanied only with a trusty maid-servant and a page who bare a Torch before them The poore gentlemen extremely weary with the labours of the former day and who after so great a perplexity of thoughts began to sleep upon their sadnesse hearing the great dore to open with a confused noise they suddenly awakened but when they beheld this heavenly face which promised more day-light to their affaires then the torch could afford to their eyes it seemed unto them some Divinity favourable to their affections was descended into the dungeon to comfort them but perceiving it was the she-Priest of the Temple which had charge to attend the sacrifices they were somewhat astonished But the generous Ischyrion cried out aloud Madame what is the matter come you then to leade us out to butchery Shee desirous to sound them answered Sir trouble not your selfe but as you have fought valiantly dispose your selves to die bravely To which he replyed he was already thoroughly prepared and asked her if it were she must do the deed To which she answered That never had she learned the trade to cut mens throats but that she was onely to assist in the sacrifice and to cut off the tipps of the victimes haire to throw the first fruits into the flames I at the least render thankes to my fortune saith Faustin that we are fallen into so good a hand and that since wee must needes die our death shall be honoured with the eyes of such a beauty Vpon this Hildegardis felt her heart surprized and stood some distance of time without speaking one word casting her eyes on the yong Iacinthus kept in the same dungeon and who notwithstanding the light and voice still slept securely Behold saith Ischyrion how this child doth allie the brother to the sister that is sleepe to death Why should wee so much feare death since to speake truly it is as it were nothing else but to performe once for all what Iacinthus now doth and what wee daily doe many times Then turning himselfe with a smiling countenance to the vestall Madame saith he should wee dare to hope a favour from you we would not beg life For wee know wee are accounted in the number of the most wretched sacrifices and that the people must be appeased by our death Doe then but save this little innocent pardon the tendernesse of his age take pity on the sorrow of his father verely we may vaunt even in these dungeons hee is our deare conquest and that we have purchased him in a sharpe combat at the price of our bloud which causeth his death to afflict us more sensibly then our owne At this word Hildegardis breathed foorth a deepe sigh which shee notwithstanding sought to smoother yet turning to her companion she said Verely this heart is truly generous what could hee doe more should hee pleade his brothers cause Behold what contempt of death what resolution It is fittest for such to live since they so well know how to use life Therevpon drawing neere vnto him Sir said shee Doe me the honour to tell me your name and what you are He replyed there needed in him for sacrifice but body and soule as for his name it served for no other use That all which miserable men can doe is wisely to conceale themselves and that among disasters the most secret were ever the best for generous soules This answere more enkindled the curiosity of the Lady to enquire after that which he was willing to dissemble so that seeing himselfe pressed on all sides he said Madame I am called Ischyrion since you must needs know it and I intreat you to thinke I doe not now begin to fight with Monsters for my whole life resembleth those pieces of Tapistry where Dragons are seene among golden apples It is a perpetuall web of miseries and glories there was never any thing so various I have beene told I sprang from regall bloud but being very young and unknowne was stolne away by Pirates and then recovered againe by shepherds whereof Thoas the most eminent among them was pleased to breed mee with his owne sonne Faustin here present with whom I have vowed a most faithfull and strict amity After that I had a vehement desire to travell all the world over with him and to make enquiry into my birth which I have hitherto done nor is there any place of fame in the habitable world to which in this my youth I have not travelled and ennobled it with some conquest wee together have seene above a hundred times the gates of death wide open to receive us but still our good Genius found some way for our deliverance untill now I see no helpe at all verely in my opinion death alone must shew mee the place where my parents are He cut off these words very short unwilling to seeme either vaine-glorious in recitall of his owne adventures or suppliant to purchase life by the history of his travels But shee who considered these discourses like unto Pictures which tell more then they expresse not being able any longer to dissemble her heart which shee seemed to distill with her teares having broken some very deepe sobs said unto him Worthy sir and friend God hath not created me a rocke to be insensible of humane miseries I plainly see your atchievements very neere approach the fortunes of our house and it seemes the web of our destinies hath passed thorough the one and the same hand For my father had a sonne taken from him when he was very young a while after the death of his wife my thrice honoured Mother which drenched him into so deep a sorrow that thorough griefe he expected death Hee notwithstanding comforted himselfe in me beholding me in most innocent yeeres of a nature very cheerefull and doubted not but that I in time might bring him a
giueth here upon Lyranus also on the glosse he made upon the Scripture following herein the greater part of the Hebrew Doctors holdeth the daughter of Iephte was not sacrificed but shut up in a Monastery for ever where shee preserved her virginity attending to prayer fasting and austerity of the Nazaraeans and not seene by her Parents but foure times in the yeere this may in some sort be insetred upon the Hebrew Text But because Tertullian S. Augustine S. Hierome S. Epiphanius S. Chrysostome Theodoret and so great a number of ancient Fathers conclude on a reall sacrifice I finde these elder opinions cannot bee contradicted but with much temeritie Yet notwithstanding whatsoever hath been done without either Law or reason ought not to passe for an example But the Devill thirsty of humane bloud falsly perswaded their Priests the greatest mercy they might vse in this matter was to become most cruell which they did all of them ioyntly condemning the little Iacinthus to death Whilst the victime was in preparation certayne Noble Personages bent themselves to free him and behold among others two Gentlemen who arrived in this Forrest of Irminsul as fitly as if they had been Angel-guardians of the father and childe The one of them was Ischyrion who wandred up and downe the world to understand the certainty of his owne birth and the other Faustin his companion They had now somtime remained in Sexonie finding there matter enough for brave feats of Armes which had gained them reputation among Martiallists At the first entrance into the wood they fell upon a very strange adventure for night beginning to robbe them of day-light they perceived a mooving creature in a certayne thicket which was the cause that Faustin who was ever very dextrous of hand supposing it a wilde beast shot an arrow which tooke effect for instantly they saw a man issue foorth who besides that hee was already much disfigured by the great toyle he had undergone being besmeered with bloud appeared much more horrible and came to cast himselfe at their feet vehemently entreating them to make an end of what they had begun But strucken with much horror and compassion hereof having staunched his bloud and bound up the wound which was but light they caused him briefly to relate his story wherein they understood hee had heretofore beene a brave Soldier and borne armes in Thrace vnder one called Mammuchan whom hee much commended That after his death he had travelled into many countries and that being taken by chance he was sold to give matter of pastime to the people in a combat with savage beasts or to serve as a sacrifice for some Idol That being fallen into the hands of the sacrificers of Irminsul hee was led along to the altar with a great number of other prisoners to bee sacrificed but that hee was saved by the helpe of a friend who had done him this good office and that expecting the opportunity of embarquing on the German sea he was enforced to wander up and down in the forrests like a poore Wolfe not daring to trust any man so much hee feared to be taken agayne and to bee led backe to the place whereinto he no more would willingly re-enter then into his mothers wombe For hee added that onely to behold the Idol of Irminsul and the bloody sacrifices made at his altars where men and children were massacred was so hideous a spectacle as it was able to teare out of the body a soule which stucke lesse to the flesh then did his Moreover he told them there was a generall bruit that the next day a very solemne sacrifice should bee made of a youth of a noble house which was exceeding much deplored These gallants were hereupon greatly pricked on with a spurre of glory and made a resolution to set him at liberty But this man who considered them as hansome young men and of great hope much disswaded this enterprize which hee iudged to have in it most certaine perill and a most uncertaine victory but they seeming to make little account of his reasons he added they were not onely to fight against men but savage beasts which kept centinel about this profane Irminsul and that Lyons made not any differente between the flesh of Peasants and gentlemen But that which was able to stay the most adventurous more enflamed the young valour of these brave Warriors in such sort that they retiring into a poore Cabin which this Soldier shewed them there to passe the night they concluded to determine the matter the next morning This proiect seemed to them not rash at all for they imagined they had nothing to doe but to force an assembly of Idol-Priests assisted by certaine guards wretched enough and that were the act done they had sufficient intelligence with the Nobility of the Country to giue order for their safety The Sun seemed to them on that day too tardy such haste made they to enter into the List but as they cast their eyes on every side in expectation of this goodly spectacle they afarre off beheld all the preparation of the sacrifice which came out of the Castle to enter into the forrest All this much rather resembled some assembly of Sorcerers then any pompe or ceremony of religion Certaine Children of an ill aspect marched before and were cloathed in blacke Cassocks carrying some of them Torches others perfuming-pans in their hands After came a sacrificer who held a round bason full of water thereby to notifie one of the most necessary elements Then two other bare on their shoulders a little altar of silver wherein there were crosse-barres which discovered the holy fire within The poore Iacinthus destined to this office so magicall was in the midst and shewed in his carriage a countenance confident enough They had clothed him with a garment of white sattin and set on his head a Coronet of flowers which made him appeare amongst these ministers of Irminsul as the day-star over the shades of night Behind him a man vested with a loose garment of fine litmen without sleeues shewed a naked sword which was to cut off the head of this miserable sacrifice Two or three paces behind appeared the shee Priest Hildegardis endowed with an exquisite beauty shee on that day being adorned with a garment all over tissued with rich embroderies her haire discheveled and the top of her head crowned with a little myter she also caried a great silver charger with golden Scyzers to cut off the tops of his haire whom they were to sacrifice When the rayes of the Sun reflected on the golden tresses and the glosse of her garment seemed as a starre crowned with lights but otherwise she walked along with a carelesse pace and a deiected countenance which sufficiently witnessed the horror her heart conceived at these hatefull sacrifices Then marched the high Priest with a most awfull aspect attended by a very great number of bloody Priests who were to have a
as these projects had not beene executed and that lawes vsed not to search with such rigour into intentions which were not concluded with ill effects that it was expedient to take all assurances possible for the future but that there was no colour to punish with death an evill pâ—â—pose which passed away without the preiudice of any In the end some insisted much on her religious profession ioyned to an inviolable virginity and it was said it would be a spectacle of an ill presage to deliver into the hands of a base executioner a body consecrated so many yeeres to altars and which had preserved it selfe within the limits of so singular purity and which was a thing rather to be amired then reprehended All this seemed very considerable to the most temperate spirits but the high Priest who of his owne nature was harsh and felt himselfe touched to the quicke in this affaire disposed all his counsels towards rigour Sirs said hee if you have any feeling in you reserve it for a god betrayed a Temple polluted for a religion prostituted at the will of Pirats and not for a silly brazen face who braveth us even in fetters Had you no other proofe to condemne her but her owne apologie you would be just enough to chastise an insolent creature who no longer having an heart for the gods hath shewed herselfe shamelesse towards men She speakes in chaines as if she were in Thrones and if wee will beleeve her her discourse is more rationall then ours múch wiser then our lawes more religious then our Temple and more puissant then our gods She will teach us lessons of piety and justice as if they were most proper in the mouth of her who was never willing to know them but to violate them she alleageth nature against the Master of nature shee dares maintaine she did well to flie away as if shee had been in a prison not in a Temple bound not with fetters of iron but with the bonds of her vowes and her owne promises framed and contrived by her proper lips whilst she enioyed full liberty If you will have nature prevaile against reason there is not any crime for which sensuallity findes not more excuses then lawes can create punishments It hath been too great an honour for her to be stolne away thereby to make her reverenced here as a Divinity nor is it strange that she complaine of iniuries since she takes the most solid benefits in evill part It is her great zeale to holy things which mooved her to set men at liberty who by her owne confession are the most wretched and forlorne creatures of the earth and for this cause forsooth shee is pleased to play the Divine condemning our lawes and sacrifices as if we were to give an account to a silly Maid of the beliefe of our ancestors which is common to us with so many other Nations and as if it were a matter unjust to sacrifice offenders against justice who are unworthy to live in the world which they so often have polluted with their wickednesse That she no more accuseth our lawes to ezcuse her passion it is knowne well enough love hath caused her to attempt these goodly tricks It is no wonder if she betray Temples who hath betrayed her chasti tie and that she separate her selfe from the gods since she hath separated that from her body which ought to sticke to the body as fast as her soule Never is she virgin enough of whom it may be doubted whether she bee a virgin or no Is it not a goodly businesse for a Maid of a Family to cause her selfe to be stolne away by men who have in the whole world no greater innocency then to debaush virgins We found her in the night time shut up with young strangers we know not what she did but if we consider what she might have done we can find no other proofes of her honour then those we may derive from the lips of theeves and lovers to whom shee hath given those hands which she so many times hath offered up to altars I here accuse not simple desires I condemne most wicked effects which neither sexe nor age can excuse which the gods avenge which religion condemneth which lawes punish and which can never be expiated but by fire The chaste Maid seeing her selfe so sharpely persecuted by the practises of the high Priest in all that which she held most pretious cryed out aloud her innocency was charged with a blacke and most mischievous imposture and since hee spake of fire shee was very willing to handle hot iron before all the company in witnesse of her virginity This was a triall very ordinary among the Saxons Hereupon the Counsell consenting therevnto a piece of iron red-hot was brought forth which the couragious Hildegardis lifting her eies up to heaven grasped hard not burning nor hurting her selfe at all whereat many raised loud cries of admiration in favour of her but the high Priest with an enraged voice pronounced she was a forceresse and did all this by art magick in which he was seconded by this mercenary troupe of counsellers who most basely complied with his passion All protested they ought to condemne to flames an enemy of the gods a Trayteresse and a prostitute And this unworthy high Priest seeing many waver addeth there ought no seruple to bee made of her profession whereof she was degraded nor of her virginity which shee had lost that there were examples enow of Romane vestalls and lastly that it was a soveraigne meanes to appease the gods Yet notwithstanding it was concluded she should be sent backe againe to prison that they might not precipitate any thing before a second audience Wee may see by this passage that the iudgments of men are very divers according to those motions they take from passion There is no doubt but this triall by handling fire hath beene received into the ancient lawes of many people and beene practised else-where by Christians with good effect We know what the most illustrious Cardinall Baronius relateth touching the Empresse Mary daughter of the King of Aragon and wife of Otho the third who most ignobly having sollicited a chaste Court-Lord to sinne and seeing herselfe despised therein accused the innocent man to have attempted her honour and procured his head to bee chopped off by the decree of the Emperour her husband But the wife of the dead man most confident of her husband's innocency taking the head in her hand went to the Emperor as he was fitting on his feat of judgement demanded justice for a death so tragicall and appealed to the triall of fire which shee touched without burning and so perswaded Otho that he caused the vnchaste creature to bee put to death to wipe away the staine of bloud unworthily shed Notwithstanding as it is not lawfull to tempt God nor to have recourse to things so extraordinary so we cannot be ignorant that such practises have been
renewed by fire when all the elements shall be purified when this great house of nature going out from the last consumption by fire as from a furnace shall appeare more resplendent then ever to the eyes of it's workeman What a spectacle to behold the Saviour of the world so long expected to come upon the chariot of clouds accompanied with so many Saints and intelligences to command over the heads of Emperours who have persecuted his Saints in all the parts of the world What rejoycing of Angels what glory of bodies raised againe what City of peace what kingdomes of the Elect Then shal be the time when fathers mothers who haue had the happinesse to become of the number of the blessed shall embrace their Children so much desired and deplored not as this Clodoaldus to desire and bewaile them once more againe but to see them for ever triumphant over death in that glorious immortallity which shall cause all our torments to die to make all our glories survive Then shall be the time when chast lovers who have affected each other so entirely in conjugall amities and who were separated by deaths so dolorous that they as it were forced their eyes to dissolve with their hearts over the Tombes of their deare consorts shall recover their losses and shall behold those persons they so much esteemed encompassed round about with inestimable glory what embracements then what profusions of hearts what entertainments what discourses when all that which we shall see of the earth we being seated over those vast Temples of starres lights and intelligences shall seeme little and unworthy to possesse a heart made for eternity There it is great Countesse where I hope we shall behold that wel-beloved and so worthy to bee beloved sonne of yours there it is where we shall see that brave Duke of Frons sac issuing out out of his Tombe as out of the enkindled pile of the Phoenix out of a chariot of glory from an Altar of immortality The bloud of the most illustrious house of Orleans which ranne in his veines those rayes of Majesty which his celestiall spirit imprinted on his forehead that grace of speach which dwelt on his lips that valour which possessed his heart that piety which entertained all the powers of his soule all those gifts of God which waited on his person shall bee much fairer then ever since they shall never desist to be faire The mountaine of Gelboa hath taken away from us this Ionathas yet mortall and the mountaines of Sion will restore him us immortall Hee hath printed the earth with his courage and loyalty with the characters of his bloud voluntarily sacrificing himselfe for the glory of God the service of the King the repose of France in an age wherein the most deplored die but in a manner whereof none are fit to die but the most glorious At this great day he shall impresse on the firmament of lights which shall issue from his body the excellent beauties of his soule and shall appeare to our eyes more lustrous then the brightest of starres Lift up the eyes of hope and faith above all that is mortall to behold him now in this state of immortality Prevent your joyes by the stability of your beliefe Let weake mothers weepe who thinke they have enclosed in a Tombe all they possessed and confidently take palmes and lillies to crowne his image and honour his ashes oft-times repeating this noble saying which so worthily replenished your lips in the most vehement smarts of your wounds My God thou hast broken my fetters I wil sacrifice an hoast of praise unto thee Let us preserve our selves wholy pure for this great day Let us sigh after it in the fervour of so many miseries Let us anticipate its splendors amongst so much darkenesse Let us looke upon it thorough so many obstacles with an eye mingled with teares and love And that we may leave the mind satisfied in these discourses Take good Reader three notable instructions where in this whole History is concluded The first shal be upon the subject of these reacknowledgements and Christian accidents to adore the divine providence with a most humble reverence to be willing to depend on it in all the parts of our life to commit all the time to come thereof to it 's direction and to condemne the vanity of those who are ready to maintaine this History was an effect of the starres We have now a dayes in the World too many spirits ill rectified which make no scruple to impute these great vicissitudes to Heavenly constellations and to appoint the starres to be as the distributors of all the fortunes in the world These discourses were tollerable among Pagans borne with a yoake on their necks under the servitude of Divels But to see Christians dig into the sepulchres of Gentiles to draw from thence superstitions observations figments and Chimeraes how can this be tolerable to those who beare as much reverence towards Truth as they have otherwise prudence in their carriage It is not my purpose in this worke to combat long against such-like opinions I will not enlarge my selfe upon that Oracle of Ieremy which saith The faithfull are not to beleeve stars and signes of Heaven in that manner as Pagans doe as if they had any superiority over our lives and fortunes I will not cite the counsell of Braga nor Tolledo against the Priscillianists nor likewise borrow armes from the sixt homily of S. Basil upon Genesis nor from St. Chrysostome nor St. Gregory the great upon St. Mathew nor from Eusebius in the booke of preparation to the Gospel nor from an infinite number of others I onely say with St. Ambrose for instruction of those who shall vouchsafe to read these lines that the Astrologie of these ill composed spirits and the webbs of spiders are two things of like nature they are fit to entangle flies not soules well grounded in the sincerity of ancient beliefe They who undoubtedly promise themselves vain haps from their Horoscopes those who deceive them are so much unfurnished of reason as disposed to a coldnesse in Religion And of this there are cleere pertinent proofes For first of all those who deale with setting Horoscopes as much understand the great Oeconomy of Heaven and the pretended signification of so many stars as we know the Canadois since we find their most knowing masters are as it were involved in perpetuall contradictions not upon articles indifferent but things meerely essentiall upon principles as it appeareth by the writings of Ptolomy Albumazar Abenezra Cardan and others much later In such sort that these contradictions destroy all experience which notwithstanding is the onely foundation of judiciary Astrologie These great Temples of light are now reserved to God and Angels the soveraigne Creator hath spred over a Cypres of night and darknes to cast a veyle on our curiosity He who cannot perfectly know the slip of an hearbe nor
the least little creature which creepeth on the ground how can he boast not onely to understand the courses and measures of stars but the most secret impressions they may have over the objects of this lower world Moreover although these stars had power over bodies over humours and inclinations where would their command be over a soule immateriall created to the image of God called by the title of glory in the Scripture And which Tertullian dareth very well tearme the occupation of the divine spirit the Queen of the vniverse the sister of Iesus Ptolomy the ablest among them doth not hee affirme that wise men sway over stars thinking it vnresonable to impute the happines of life to the influence of celestiall bodies so to bereave them the effects of prudence In the third place Let us put case the stars governe us and that according to their diverse aspects we may devine upon the chances of men that we may inferre such a child borne under such a constitution of planets had heretofore such a fortune and therefore the other which followeth in his birth the same tracks shall have the same hap I demand what meanes have they to establish this Maxime and to make a science in so great uncertainty since those stars never returne againe to the same point or if they doe returne it wil be in the revolution of almost innumerable ages which no man hath seene not ever shall It may be said the planets finish their courses in a very small number of yeeres which is the cause we may the more easily observe them but who will dare to affirme the planets alone have part in my nativity and that so many other unknowne stars are idle in Heaven without having any influence upon mortall things This is it which Seneca condemned in the Astrologers of his time They confine us saith hee to a very slender quantity of starres and see not that all these great celestiall bodies which are over our heads are able to make great mutations In the end who knowes not that according to S. Augustines reason the motion of Heauen is so swift that to goe about to write downe the good happ of man in this great booke is to engrave characters on the water Experience is exposed to these reasons Some predictions of Astrologers are produced which are said to have beene true and it is no wonder seeing the number of their truths being so small it will bee no very hard matter to reckon them but hee that would summe the lies and impostures may equall them with the sands of the sea Well now I aske if so many wits who labor to turne names and make Anagrams sometimes by chance happen right as he who found upon the name of one Andrè Paion Pendis a Rion that which afterward happened unto him must wee conclude thereupon that the skill of Anagrams is divine and infallible Every good judgement will hold this proposition ridiculous and who sees not that Astrologers confounding starres times and celestiall houses make of our lives that which Anagrammatists do with our names shall we then beleeue them The Arabian Albumazar held as an Oracle of learning amongst them having once attributed the advancement of Christianity to the good concurrence of constellations went about out of madnesse to take the measure of its progresses to which God hath appointed no limits He left in writing two most notable falshoods upon this point the first wherof is that after the revolution of three ages changes of Empires should bee made in the world as for example saith hee three hundred yeeres after Alexander the great Arelazor advanced himselfe who conquered the Persians which is most untrue and never heard of thorough all histories Hee proceedeth and saith that three hundred yeeres after this Arelazor Christ the Messias is borne which by his account should have beene sixe hundred yeeres after Alexander although according to the supputation of the most understanding this Monarch lived but three hundred and fifty yeeres before him But let us passe over this Parachronisme the same man addeth that according to the course of starres he found Christian religion should continue a thousand and foure hundred yeeres and God be thanked it hath already exceeded those more then two hundred and shall last to the world's end Who can endure these lies and impieties if hee hath not abjured verity and piety to become a slave to Iupiter and Saturne Great ones should at the least have regard to the experience of so many Princes who following the Maximes of judiciall Astrologie led a timerous and painefull life which they concluded in most tragicall events The Pharao's of Egypt who were perpetually bent upon Horoscopes and caused children to bee slaine whose Ascendents imported predictions of scepters and crownes were destroyed by the omnipotent hand of God The Tiberiuses and Dioclesians who were so happy among Astrologers have beene unhappy in their Empires wherin they lived as Lyons ruddy with bloud and fettered with many passions Manuel Comnenus became by these wayes suspitious and cruell Branas was taken by Isaacius Angelus Peter of Castile miserably deprived of scepter and life And Lewis Forza who did all by the direction of a Mathematician was vanquished dispoyled and put into an iron cage Let us then say with St. Augustine that all this superstition is not only vaine but pernitious and that there is some apparance it is sprung from a wicked alliance between men and divels The second lesson shall be well to purifie your amities for as those persons whom we have represented unto you loving one another very chastly yea with in the bonds of love purely humane have in the end reaped much contentment and glory from their charitable offices So there is no doubt but that amity elevated by a divine motive besides that it is one of the most delicious charmes of humane life must of necessity bee of much merrit before the divine Majesty Verily wee affirme those ancients saw much when they said love was a desire of immortality For every creature necessarily loveth its Being which is the foundation of all good and well-being which alone maketh Being to bee desired and the ever Being which is the accomplishment of well being But as each thing created proceeding from nothing tendeth insensibly to nothing and cannot have from its stock this perpetuall Being it seekes to revive and produce it selfe it some kind of immortality by the meanes of love which makes alliances and productions in all nature But the desire of a brutish immortality is a thing very low and abiect in comparison of the conditions of the spirit which looke towards another life another state above all the wayes of nature How much thinke we do our soules which are noble intelligent and divine desire not simply to be immortallized for they already are immortall but to be eternized in a fulnesse of liberty by the helpe of love which maketh us live