Flores solitudinis certaine rare and elegant pieces, viz. ... / collected in his sicknesse and retirement by Henry Vaughan.

Flores Solitudinis .

Certaine Rare and Elegant PIECES ; Viz. Two Excellent Discourses Of 1. Temperance , and Patience ; Of 2. Life and Death . BY I.E. NIEREMBERGIUS . THE WORLD CONTEMNED ; BY EUCHERIUS , BP of LYONS . And the Life of PAULINUS , BP of NOLA .

Collected in his Sicknesse and Retirement , BY HENRY VAUGHAN , Silurist .

Tantus Amor Florum , & generandi gloria Mellis .

London , Printed for Humphrey Moseley at the Princes Armes in St Pauls Church-yard . 1654.

TO THE TRUELY NOBLE And Religious Sir CHARLES EGERTON Knight . SIR ,

IF , when you please to locke upon these Collections , you will find them to lead you from the Sun into the shade , from the open Terrace into a private grove , & from the noyse and pompe of this world into a silent and solitary Hermitage : doe not you thinke then , that you have descended ( like the dead ) in Occidentem & tenebras , for in this withdrawing-roome ( though secret and seldome frequented , ) shines that happy starre , which will directly lead you to the King of light . You have long since quitted the Publick , & to present you now with some thing of solitude and the contempt of the world , would looke like a designe to Flatter you , were not my Name , argument enough for the contrary . Those few that know me , will ( I am sure ) be my Compurgators ; and I my selfe dare assert this , you have no cause to suspect it . But what ever the thoughts of men will be , I am already sure of this advantage , that we live in an age , which hath made this very Proposition ( though suspected of Melancholie , ) mighty pleasing , and even meane witts begin to like it ; the wiser sort alwaies did , for what ( I beseech you , ) hath this world , that should make a wise man in love with it ? I will take the boldnesse to describe it in the same character which Bisselius did the hansome concubine of Mahomet the great : Puella tota quanta , nil erat aliud Quàm Illecebra picta , delicatus harpago , &c. The whole wench ( how compleat soe'r ) was but A specious baite ; a soft , sly , tempting slut ; A pleasing witch ; a living death ; a faire , Thriving disease ; a fresh , infectious aire ; A pretious plague ; a furie sweetly drawne ; Wild fire laid up and finely drest in Lawne .

This delicate , admir'd In●hantresse ( even to those who enjoy her after their owne lusts , and at their owne rate , ) will prove but a very sad bargaine ; she is all deception and sorrow . This world and the prince of it are the Canker-Rose in the mouth of the fox ; Decipit , arefit , pungit . But those future , supreme fruitions which God hath in store for those that love him are neither Phantasmes , nor fallacies ; they are all substantiall and certaine , and in the Apostles phrase , 〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉 , a far more exceeding and eternall weight of glory . Nothing can give that , which it hath not , this transi●ory , changeable and corrupt world cannot afford permanent treasures . All it gives , and all it shewes us , is but trash & illusion . The true incorruptible riches dwell above the reach of rust and theeves .

Man himselfe in his outward part , which was taken out of the world , feeles the like passions with the world , he is worn , was●ed , dissolved and changed , he comes hither , he knowes not how , and goes from hence , he knowes not whither . Nescio quò vado , valete posteri ! was the Roman's Epitaph : One generation commeth , and another passeth away . Properant & decurrunt in absconditum , they hasten and drive on to their appointed place , untill the great day of accompt . All the severall shapes and gestures we see in this wild Masque of time are but so many disguises which the Spirits that first assumed them , cast off againe when they have acted their parts . Most elegantly did Augurellius sing to Peter Lipomanus upon the death of his sister Clara ; Amaena , Petre , cum vides , &c. Peter , when thou this pleasant world dost see , Beleeve , thou seest meere Dreames and vanitie ; Not reall things , but false : and through the Aire Each where , an empty , slipp'rie Scene , through faire . The chirping birds , the fresh woods shadie boughes , The leaves shrill whispers , when the west-wind blowes . The swift , fierce Greyhounds coursing on the plaines , The flying hare distrest 'twixt feare and paines ; The bloomy Mayd decking with flowers her head , The gladsome , easie youth by light love lead ; And whatsoe'r heere with admiring eyes Thou seem'st to see , 't is but a fraile disguise Worne by eternall things , a passive dresse Put on by beings that are passiveles .

All the gay appearances in this life seeme to me but a swift succession of rising Clouds , which neither abide in any certaine forme , nor continue for any long time ; And this is that , which makes the fore travell of the sonnes of men to be nothing else , but a meere chasing of shadowes . All is vanity ( said the Royall Philosopher , ) and there is no new thing under the Sun .

I present you therefore with a discourse perswading to a contempt & a desertion of these old things which ( our Saviour tells us ) shall passe away ; And with an historicall , faithfull relation of the life and happinesse of a devout , primitive father , who gave all that he had upon earth to the poore , that he might have treasure in heaven . Some other Additions you will finde , which meeting now in this volume under your name , will in their descent to posterity , carry with them this fairest Testimonie , I loved you . This ( Sir ) is my maine and my sole designe in this Addresse , without reservation and without flattery , for which respect , and for no other , I beleeve you will accept of what I have done , and looke upon my suddaine and small Presents , as upon some forward flowers whose kinde hast hath brought them above ground in cold weather . The incertainty of life , and a peevish , inconstant state of health would not suffer me to stay for greater performances , or a better season ; least loosing this , I should never againe have the opportunity to manifest how much and how sincerely I am

Sir Your Servant and well-wisher Henry Vaughan . byVske neare Sketh-Rock . 1653.

To the onely true and glorious God , the Sole disposer of Life and Death . O Doe not goe , thou know'st I 'le dye , My Spring and Fall are in thy Booke ! Or if thou goest , doe not deny To lend me , though from far , one looke ! My sinnes long since have made thee strange , A very stranger unto me ; No morning-meetings ( since this change ) Nor Evening-walkes have I with thee . Why is my God thus hard and cold , When I am most , most sick and sad ? Well-fare those blessed dayes of old , ( Lad ! When thou did'st heare the weeping O doe not thou doe as I did , Doe not despise a love-sick heart ! What though some Clouds defiance bid , Thy Sun must shine in every part . Though I have spoyl'd , O spoyle not thou , Hate not thine owne deere gift and token ! Poore Birds sing best , and prettiest show , When their neast is fallen and broken . Deare Lord ! restore thy Ancient peace , Thy quickning friendship , mans bright wealth ; And if thou wilt not give me Ease From sicknes , Give my Spirit health !

To the Reader .

CAndidus & medicans Ignis deus est . So sings the Poet , and so must I affirme , who have been tryed by that white and refining fire , with healing under his wings . Quarrelling with his light , and wandring from that fresh and competent gourd , which he had shadowed me with , drew those Sun-beames upon my head , whose strong and fervent vibrations made me oftentimes beg of him , that I might dye . In these sad Conflicts I dedicated the Remissions to thy use , Reader , & now I offer them to thy view . If the title shall offend thee , because it was found in the woods and the wildernesse , give mee leave to tell thee , that Deserts and Mountaines were the Schooles of the Prophets , and that Wild-hony was his diet , who by the testimony of the Sonne of God , was the greatest amongst those that are borne of women . It may be thy spirit is such a popular , phantastick flye , as loves to gad in the shine of this world ; if so , this light I live by in the shade , is too great for thee . I send it abroad to bee a companion of those wise Hermits , who have withdrawne from the present generation , to confirme them in their solitude , and to make that rigid necessity their pleasant Choyse . To leave the world , when it leaves us , is both sordid and sorrowfull ; and to quitt our station upon discontents , is nothing else , but to be the ●pes of those Melancholy Schismaticks , who having burnt off their owne hands in setting the world on fire , are now fallen out with it , because they cannot rule it . They are Spirits of a very poore , inferiour order , that have so much Sympathy with worldlie things , as ●o weepe at Parting ; And of as low a Parentage are those , that will be sick of Leap-yeares & Sublunarie mutations . I honour that temper , which can lay by the garland , when he may keepe it on : which can passe by a Rosebud , and bid it grow , when he is invited to crop it , — Whose gentle measure Complyes and suits with all estates ; Which can let loose to a Crown , and yet with pleasure Take up within a Cloyster gates . This Soule doth Span the world , and hang content From either pole unto the center , Where in each Roome of the well-furnished tent He lyes warme and without adventure .

Prince Lewes , the eldest Son of Charles King of Naples , at the age of twenty one yeares , and just when he should have been married to the youthfull Princesse of Majorica , did suddenly at Barcellon put on the rou●h and severe habit of the Franciscans : The Queens and Princesses theye met to solemnize the marriage of his sister Blanch with James King of Aragon , imployed all their Rhetorick to disswade him from it ; but to no purpose , he loved his Sack-cloth more then their silks , and ( as Mounsier Mathieu ( alluding to that young Princesse , ) speakes of him , ) Left Roses to make Conserve of thornes . Resolution , Reader , is the Sanctuary of Man , and Saint Pauls content is that famous Elixir , which turnes the rudest mettall into smooth and ductible gold : It is the Philosophers secret fire , that stomack of the Ostrich which digests Iron , and dissolves the hardflint into bloud and nutriment . It was an honest Reply that his Cook made unto the Duke of Millain , when worsted in a great battell by the Florentines , the over passionate resentment of so unexpected a repu'se , made him quarrell with his meate : If the Florentines ( said he ) have spoyled your tast , that is no fault of mine ; the meate is pleasant , and well drest , but the good successe of your Enemies hath made your appetite ill .

I protest seriously unto thee , and without Scepticisme , that there is no such thing in this world , as misfortune ; the foolish testinesse of man arising out of his misconstruction and ignorance of the wise method of Providence , throwes him into many troubles . The Spouse tells us , that the fingers of the Bride-groome are deckt with Beryll and pretious stones : what ever falls upon us from that Almighty hand , it is a diamond ; It is celestiall treasure , and the matter of some new blessing , if we abuse it not . God ( saith the wise King , ) created not Evill , but man ( who was created upright ) sought out many inventions : these indeed be get that monster ; his ill digestion of his punishment ( which is a kinde of divine diet , ) makes him to pine away in a sinfull discontent . If thou art sick of such an Atrophie , the precepts layd down in this little booke ( if rightly understood , and faithfully practised ) will perfectly cure thee .

All that may bee objected is , that I write unto thee out of a land of darkenesse , out of that unfortunate region , where the Inhabitants sit in the shadow of death : where destruction passeth for propagation , and a thick black night for the glorious day-spring . If this discourage thee , be pleased to remember , that there are bright starrs under the most palpable clouds , and light is never so beautifull as in the presence of darknes . At least intreat God that the Sun may not goe down upon thy own dwelling , which is hartily desired and prayed for , by

Hen: Vaughan . Newton by Vsk in South-wales . April . 17. 1652.

Two Excellent DISCOURSES Of 1. Temperance and Patience . Of 2. Life and Death . Written in Latin by Johan : Euseb: Nierembergius .

Englished by HENRY VAUGHAN , Silurist .

— Mors Vitam temperet , & vita Mortem .

LONDON : Printed for Humphrey Moseley , and are to be sold at the Princes Armes in St Paul's Church-yard . 1654.

OF TEMPERANCE AND PATIENCE .

THe Doctrine of good living is short , but the work is long , and hard to be perswaded , though easie to bee learnt : for to be good , is of all things the most easie , and the most ready , if wee could learne but one other Art , which Antisthenes termed the most necessary , I will add , the most difficult , and that is , to forget to doe Evill . I find that peace and joy have two handles , whereby we may take hold of them , Patience , and Temperance . Rule thy Evil with these , and then thy will may rule thee well . Horses are ruled with bridles and spurs . In prosperity use the first , that is , restraine , or keepe in thy selfe . In adversity the last , that is , Incite , and use thy selfe to a gallant Apathie , and contempt of misfortunes . Generous and metlesome Coursers when they are breathed , or rid abroad , are compelled to trample upon those very things , whose first sight startled and terrified them ; doe so with thy selfe : tread under thy feet thy most hideous adversities ; so shalt thou forget the feare of fortune , which makes men unfit for vertue . Patience in adversity is temperance in prosperity . Nor can it be easily resolved , which of these two excells : This is most certaine , that noble sufferance is as necessary to man , as the virtue of temperance . Some few Crosses thou canst beare well , but fortune can afflict thee with many , and thou by patience ( the greatest of virtues ) must afflict her with more ; for — The naked man too getts the field , And often makes the armed foe to yeeld .

It costs not much to live well , and it is as cheape to learne it . The whole Art is comprised in these two words , Patience , and Temperance . In these lies all the Mysterie of Peace : you would think it a Secret of the Priests of Ceres , it is so unknown to any , but sacred minds . These are the Domestick Gods of tranquility , and the tutelar Angels of good men : beleeve with Epictetus , that the Quintessence of all Philosophie is squeezed into these two , 〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉 beare and forbeare . He neither obtaines , nor retaines his joy , that doth not abstain , and sustaine . These are the two Poles upon which tranquility and vertue move . To obtain peace , you must bear ; to retain it , you must forbeare . An odd way of fruition ; By refusing you obtaine , and by suffering you preserve : by refusing the favours , and suffering the spite of fortune . By this very carriage did Diogenes beleeve that he had quite deposed and overthrown her : hee crowned his temples with branches of Pine , the old Isthmian ceremonie , and walked like an absolute victour in the Sacred Games . Being required by a crosse fellow , not to usurpe that honour till he had lawfully strived , he answered , that he had overcome two enemies , Pleasure and Griefe , the one by forbearing , the other by bearing . Make not thy self a Woman : thou hast ( if thou wilt use them ) both Temperance and Patience , the best Stratagems , and Countermines against the Wiles of Fortune . Her storms and suddain● furies ( which are alwaies clean , and without dissimulation , ) thou mayst break and overcome by bearing ; Her Arts , her deep and cankerd hatred , by listning to Reason , and a warie , stayd Circumspection , while she spends and wasts with her owne malice . The wrath of furious and hasty persons is sincere , and without artifice ; It hath no poyson , but what breakes out presently at the tongue , or the hand : Fortune too , when in this humour , is lesse Noxious , for She makes then an indifferent use of all Tooles , and disposeth of them without Study . But when She begins to hate , She becomes slow and weary , and not contented with open valour , addes to it Treachery . She pines with the Memory of her old favours , and that She may pull down what She built , adornes her most deadly Intentions , as Poverty and grievous Miseries , in the dresse of Felicity . All her projects , machinations and Engines to Torture and vex Man , amount to no more , then to give him what he would not have , and to deny him what he would have . He breaks her neck that abstaines from the first , and contemnes the last .

But here is our double Disease , by which Virtue Conceived for a great end , together with Felicity , become both abortive , that wee neither rightly wish , nor rightly abstain , loath , or love , but doe both most absurdly , most preposterously . We Covet most unseasonably , when even necessity is necessary , and this to him that wants , is no more then a wish . We covet , I say , such things as fortune hath not , and in a time when they may not be had . Wee would have Cherries in January : These wishes are their own Torments : Fortune too most Commonly gives them but cold Comfort . Why should we Covet extraneous Goods ? It is better to serve the necessity of the time , then to be a slave to Fortune . Wee are set upon longing like Woemen with Child , that labour with strange appetites and depraved stomacks ; that loath healthfull Viands , and ( which in them is very strange ) abhorre sweet meats ; That affect raw , absurd compositions , that eat lime , Charcoles and Ashes , that in the dead of Winter long for Summer-fruits , and in Summer for Winter-fruits . What dost thou think is bearing and forbearing ? It is to be even with Fortune , discreetly to abstaine , discreetly to will , and to covet nothing . Abstain then : otherwise what wilt thou do by Coveting , but make way for Fortune , and enlarge her Empire ? Though she would not , she must needs hit thee . Her being blind , hinders not but she may shoote well : When the mark is have at all , and every where : an Archer without out Eyes cannot misse it . Though unwilling , her Arrowes cannot wander from him , whose lust wanders after all things . She will hit him without Ayming , whose hope aymes at every thing . No Weapon falls in vaine amongst a multitude . Her scope to hurt , is the same scope thou takest to wish .

Thou must know that the Command of Fortune over man about these outward things , lies in the midst of the will , as the hand in the midst of a bended bow . If thou holdest thy will by the middle , then art thou master of both ends , and mayst doe any thing . If thou commandst the one halfe , I will not say , thou hast no hold at all . Liberty hath two Limbs , to Will , and to refraine : The one is a stronge Arme , the other a weak Hand : What thou hast not , thou mayst refraine from wishing to have , but no man can have what ever he would have . When you refrain from willing , then have you Power over all things ; when your will lusteth , then you are subject to all things . Outward goods are fleeting things , and the faithfull servants of unfaithfull chance . O how great a treasure , how provident and infallible a supply against these sudden Ebbs and diminutions is a regular and resolute will ! Why are we troubled at them ! We are too hard for Fortune , and by much too hard , if wee command but the one halfe of our will ; that maimed and halting hand ( if I may so speak ) will overtake and bring back the most averse and winged Felicities . It will enrich us sooner and surer then all the Treasures of Croesus : Those are but beggerie before thee if thou covet them not , if thy will be not a begger . Not to will , makes thee securely rich , even when thou wilt , that is , when thou doest will nothing . Thou makest Fortune poore by leaving her no power over thee , and nothing in her self , wherewith to please thee ; I meane to deceive thee . Thou wilt be richer than Attalus by contemning his store , and of greater power than Midas ; for his was placed in fruition and touching , but thine in absence and emptinesse . By wishing nothing thou hast all , yea those things which thou seest not : and what wonder then , if those things thou seekest not , being abundantly enriched by thy most pretious povertie ? It was Divinely argued by Eusebius , That he onely should be esteemed rich , who was perswaded that he had enough . For those that adde still to what they have already gotten , and never thinke that they can get enough , though richer than Midas , are most poor and miserable beggers ; because they are nothing rich in their own minds . And in another place , An unreasonable covetousnesse ( saith he ) is sooner driven away with the losse of riches allready gotten , then by a plenteous and dayly accesse of more treasures . Wherefore thou art then only rich , and possessest all things to thy mind , when to have nothing is in thy will : When ever thou sayest , It is enough , thou hast all . Yea , thou hast more then thou shouldst have . All that comes afterwards doth but load and overwhelme thee .

Of such an Immoderate use is Temperance , and I Judge Patience to be of no lesser . Happily it may be easier ; for having learnt to abstain , we may the better sustain . Impatience ariseth naturally out of Cupidity , and feare is the Daughter of hope . Cast these away , and you will find , that an adverse Fortune may be entertained , not onely with Patience , but with much wellcome . Crates , or Zeno ( a gallant man , if either of the two ) being at Sea in a great storm , caus'd all his goods ( wherewith the Ship was Loaden ) to be thrown over board , and thanked Fortune for the kindnesse : doe thou the like , and approving of thy misfortunes , say , It is well done , Fortune , thou hast read me a good lesson , thou hast had care of my Soul . I thank thee that thou art Come thy selfe to fetch these burthens , which I should have brought thee home . Thou hast dealt courteously to lend me their use , and to prevent their Abuse . I like thy Method , and prefer thy advise to thy favours ; I know thy meaning . I must make a wise use of these crosses , I must have recourse to virtue , to my self , and to my God . Thou dost not onely Incite , but compell me to goodnesse . I am brought safe to shore , by the splitting of the Ship : hereafter I will be better provided . Behold , thou hast left yet behind thee some moveables , which thou shouldst have taken with thee , they are thine by right . Thou gavest me so many things , that thou canst not well remember them . I desire not to conceale them , take all thy Reliques and appendencies with thee , all that is here besides my selfe ; I hold thy leavings not worthy of acceptance from the mind of man . I wish that we would so deal with Fortune , as a certain old man did with theeves that came to rob his house . Take with you ( said he ) all that you see here . They did so , leaving nothing behind them but an empty purse ; which the old man tooke up , and following after , called to them ; Take this also with you , which you forgot to put up . Fortune perhaps amazed at such a Noble , Serene disposition , would restore all : It is most certaine the Theeves did . But let a Christian reject this figment of Fortune , and in all worldly mutations acknowledge and kisse the divine hand .

But if after all this , thou wilt not excuse the outward and ravenous manners of Fortune ; there will be no Just cause for thee to accuse them , having received no damage by her . If thou wilt purge thy mind from wishes and hopes , thou mayst safely place thy selfe before her very Arrowes , and defie them . And truly I believe it will be thy most secure station . When Stratonicus saw an unskilfull fellow shooting at Buts , he got presently close to the White , as the onely place free from danger : and being asked his reason for that unusual Refuge , he answered ; Least that fellow should hit me . Fortune ( we say ) is blind ; stand then in her way : She hits that the least , which she most aimes at ; but if all her shafts should fall upon thee , they can draw no blood from thee , as long as thou art not drawn by covetousnesse . If you break off the point of the Weapon , it cannot hurt you . Our own Covetousnesse is Fortunes edged toole ; take that away , and you disarme her , and secure your selfe : blunt weapons wound not to blood .

I suppose now that Epictetus his abridgement , or reduction of Philosophy into two words , Abstain and Sustain , will seeme prolix enough to you . The first we have past through ; the second and last , I meane Sustain , or the Art of bearing well , wee shall find tedious enough . Hee cannot be said to wish for nothing , that finds fault with that which he hath . This bearing well is to desire nothing but what wee have . A Serene , bright Will then , not clouded with thick and muddy desires , will find the burdens of Fortune to be very light : For Fortune of her selfe is very light and easie , but she hath for pannels our own Lusts , which are heavier than her packs , and without these shee puts not one loade upon us . Nothing tires and weighs us down but our own wishes , which evills ( being ignorant that our burthen proceedes from them , ) we multiply with an Intent to ease our selves , but in the meane time the weight increaseth . A certain plain Countryman wearied with ploughing , and returning home from the field after his daies task , tyed the Plough to his Asse , and afterwards mounted himself upon his back ; but the tyred Asse , and overloaden , could not stirre from the place ; whereupon the Country-man lights , and with the Plough upon his backe remounting the Asse , tells him , Now I hope thou canst goe well , for it is not thou , but I that carry the Plough . Wee are every day as ridiculous , though not so harmlesse as this Country-man . Wee study with new cares and new desires to ease and diminish our old lusts ; which not onely keepes under , but choaks and presseth to death all the seeds of Joy and Content . This is nothing else , but to retain the former load undiminish'd , and to put another on the top of it . As long as we tolerate these burthens , we become intollerable to our selves , without any exaggeration of Fortune . Let us shake them off , let us cast off hope , that troublesome Tympany ; so shall we find Fotune light , and be able to bear both her and our selves . All things may be born of him , that bears not future Evills ; Those are grievous burthens , which miraculously oppresse us , and so strangly accommodate themselves to our hurt , that they exist in the heart , and vexe it , before they can exist in time . Not onely Evil , but Good , when it is hovering and uncertain , doth afflict us . Of Evills themselves there cannot come so many together upon us , as we can feare : fortune can throw at us but few darts at one time , and were she not still furnished by our lusts , we should quickly see her quiver empty . Abstinence then , or the restraining of our desires is the Nurserie of patience , by a like title as the toleration of evill and good

But when I name Patience , I speake not of a Simple thing ; for there is not onely patience in Evill , but in Good also , and this later is sometimes the most difficult . There is one when we suffer , and another when we act . There be also other divisions of Patience . Holy Ephrem makes it threefold : the first towards god , the second towards the tempter , or wicked Angel , and the third towards man . I shall add a fourth , and the most difficult of all , towards our selves ; or I will make it onely twofold , first towards those that are without us , the second and last towards our selves , or those commotions which fight against us from within . This last is the greatest , because it teacheth us to beare those pressures which lean upon us , and bow us down . It is harder to resist those weights which come forcibly upon us from above , then those which come oppositly , or over against us . The beasts can draw more after them , then they can carry upon their backs . Man hath enough to beare within himselfe : but evills are a great familie , and keep aswell without doores as within . Every minute of our tranquility is purchased with patience ; It is the great Sacrament of peace , the Sanctuary of Security , the Herald and the badge of felicity . What will it availe us to be at peace with those that are without , while we suffer intestine warres and tumults within ? let us have peace in our selves , and having mastered the rebellion and disorders of the will , let us be the patients of our sadnesse , yea of our Impatience , and some times of our patience .

As nothing is more accidentall to man then to suffer , so should he conclude , that nothing is more necessary for him than patience . It is the naturall medicine for all humane calamities , with which ( as the heart with Dittany ) wee pull out the heads and splinters of those arrowes which the mighty hunters of this world shoot at us . Nature dealt not more unkindly with man , than with other creatures : The Boare is cured with Ivie , the Dragon with wild-lettice , and the Snake with Fennell . Others have their cure nearer , in their owne members : his tongue is the Balsom to a wounded dog ; and the Catholicon of man is silence and patience . But did I say that to suffer was accidentall to man ? I blot out that errour , and affirme , It is necessary : wherefore patience is most necessary ; for by that we are freed from a slavish sufferance , as by a certaine gifted premunition and defensive faculty . By patiently enduring we become impassible . The minde is invulnerable , unlesse in the fits of impatience , as Achilles was in the heele . Think not the Art of patience to be any more , then not to suffer voluntarily ; at least , not in spight of thy will . Hee that gently endures , doth by a short cut free himself from the tedious labours and numerous punishments of life . Necessities should be chearefully borne . The hands , the feet , and the other limbs will sooner fail to execute their duties , then to be Insensible of paine . The sick , the maimed , yea and the dismembred are not so morcified , but they are subject to sensation . It was an excellent saying of Herod the Sophist , when hee was pained with the gout in his hands and feet ; When I would eat , ( said he ) I have no hands ; when I would goe I have no feet ; but when I must be pained , I have both hands and feet . So entire and whole are we alwaies to griefe ; which sufficiently sheweth , that the soundnesse of man is best seene in his patience ; and such a strong necessity of suffering is laid upon us , that when our limbs faile us in their offices , they must not faile of sufferings . Thou wilt aske then what can they suffer , when without spirit and motion ? I will tell thee ; Not to be apt to suffer , is their suffering . Nothing is lacking to the misery of man , though his limbs should be wanting , his griefe by that defect will abound the more .

Deeply , and into the Inmost Closets of our hearts should that saying of the Temanite descend , Man ( said he ) is borne unto trouble , and the bird to flye . Observe , if the birds be unfurnish'd of any thing for flight : they are all over arm'd for it ; Their Bills are keen and sharp-pointed , and serve like foredecks to cut their aire ; Their pinions are two swift rowers , and the feathers in both wings placed orderly every one longer then the other represent soe many oares . Their traines are the Sternes , with which they bend their whole bodies , and govern them in their flights , and with their feete and crooked clawes like Anchors , they stick and fasten themselves to the green branches , which are their Havens , and shady Harbours . Though thou hadst never seene them use their wings , yet by their very Structure , thou would'st Judge that those feathered Sayles were design'd for the aire , and flying . Man is every way as well accoutred for trouble . Observe him : Thou shalt find nothing wanting that may conduce to his passion , though he wants much of Patience . Man is every way most exactly trimmed and adorned for trouble ; He was made unfit for labour , that he might be fit for sufferings ; He hath no wings to fly from them , he is poor , infirme , naked , defencelesse ; and ( which is worse than all ) forsaken of himself : Betwixt nakednesse and poverty he is on all sides exposed and appointed for misery , as the bird is for the flight . Thou shalt observe all this in him ; for wanting all the necessaries which support life , he is surrounded onely with those sad necessities and intanglements which make life grievous and burthensome ; as a Sparrow is drest and cloathed all over with those soft habiliments which make his flights easie and pleasant . The onely difference betwixt them is this , that those Instruments of flying may faile the birds , but those of suffering cannot faile Man . So carefull was Nature of Mans condition , that she would not trust Fortune with his relatives . The Eagle may casually lose his sharpnesse of sight , the Roe her swiftnesse , and the Lyon his strength ; but Man while he lives cannot not misse of afflictions . There is a greater care had of our affaires ; And to a glorious end are these Calamities made sure unto us , if wee can make them beneficiall .

The first token , and evidence of life is crying . The Prim-roses , or first blossoms of it are teares ; from these it take its inauguration . Man is not borne before he suffers : Yea , he grones and complaines in his very passage into the World . The first homage he payes to life is sufferance , and from that minute to his last , he becomes ( as Blesensis saith ) a constant tributary to misery . I Judge him that murmurs at this payment , that kicks under this generall burthen , to wrong and disesteem the Noblest Nature , I mean Man ; and to be worthy of this very puishment , not to be at all . He is a most vile abuser of Humane Nature , that thinks it not worth his patience , and values himselfe at a most sordid rate ; let him beare in his manhood , what he bore in his Infancie , and not be ashamed of his Investiture , because he felt affliction , before he felt the light . It is the first lesson we are taught here , and the last that wee shall learn . All other Creatures , as soone as they are born , make some use of their strength ; but Man knowes no use of any thing but teares : He must afterwards be taught the cause of them . We must teach him every thing , but weeping . All other things are given him for his labour , but teares he can have for nothing . This onely faculty was bestowed upon him gratis , all other concessions are the rewards of his paines ; but teares were given him freely , because they ease and allay his sorrowes . This convenient Salve did nature ordain for some inevitable Sores . She prepared this Oyle to allay the aking of those stripes the World gives us , which without this Native Oyntment would have smarted more : for those wounds , whose anguish is not vented at the Eyes , lie heaviest upon the heart . And by this I am induced to believe , that it is naturall for man to Suffer , because he onely naturally weepes . Every extraneous felicity of this life is violent , or forced ; and these constrained , though splendid Adiuncts of Fortune are therefore short , because noe violent thing can be perpetuall . To suffer is the naturall condition and manner of man , this is believed to be his misery : without patience , I confesse , it is . Nature never failes us in those things which are needful , much lesse divine providence and grace : Wee shall therefore never faile of Sufferings , because they are the great Necessaries , & Medicines of Humane Nature . Wee read of many men that never laught , but never heard of any that never wept . Democritus himself came weeping into the World ; none ever came without labour , none without griefe .

Thou wilt ask , why man , the only creature addicted to beatitude , should bee borne to trouble ? why through the vale of teares travells he to the house of joy ? why is he alone , being capeable of felicity , made subject unto misery ? Because he is borne for virtue , the next and readiest instrument to attaine beatitude . Now troubles , or miserie are the masse , or first matter of virtue , and without this hard rudiment , without this coyne of sorrow he cannot purchase it . Nor are the good offices which these calamities doe for us , either meane or few ; for wherefore flowes , yea overflowes the divine mercy upon man , but because he is miserable ? wherefore is Gods sure power and saving arme stretched out , but because he is fraile ? wherefore are his comforts and refreshments so plentifully showred down , but because he is sorrowfull and helplesse ? wherefore is his liberality and most faithful providence seen every minute , but because he is poore and constantly needy ? yea wherefore is Immortality , everlasting pleasures , and a glorious resurrection secured unto us , but because our bodies are mortal , and subject to death and putrefaction ? By this time perhaps you see the appositnesse of that comparison which Eliphaz made betwixt man and a bird . The bird by nature lifts himself above the earth upon his wings , he passeth from hence into the cleare confines and neighbourhood of heaven , where he dwells for a time , and looks with contempt upon this inferiour darksome portion of the world : when hee descends towards the earth , he keepeth still above us , he lodgeth in the height and freshnesse of the trees , or pitcheth upon the spires or ridges of our houses , or upon some steepe rock , whose height & inaccessibleness promise him securitie ; something that is eminent and high he alwaies affects to rest upon . Man likewise ordained for heaven , and the contempt of this spot of earth is by his very calamities borne up and carried above the world , yea into heaven , as an Eagle by the strength of his wings ascends above the clouds . O the depth of the riches of the wisedome of God! O the mercifull designe , and devic● of his providence ! who knowing our corrupt nature , hath laid upon us a necessity of seeking those blessings , whose inestimable value ought to stirre us up to a most voluntary and diligent searching after them . To this necessity by the same chain of his providence hath hee tyed utility . These are sufficient motives to perswade us to patience . It was wisely said by some Arabian , that the hedge about patience was profit : for he that thinks gaine to be necessary , must think labour so too . Allthough Fortune should be so prodigal as to poure all her Treasures into the bosome of one man , and not repent when she had done ; yet would this very man sometimes feele strong exigencies in indigencie . Pompey , and Darius were both hardly distrest with thirst ; they that were Lords of so many Rivers , did then wish for one drop of Water . Alexander the Great , in some of his expeditions was like to perish with cold , though his Dominion did in a manner extend to the very Sun ; for in the East ( which I may call the Suns House , ) he was such an absolute Lord , that ( bating the Power to forbid the Sun to rise ) there was nothing more could be added to his conquests .

Seeing then that labour or troubles are a necessity imposed upon man , it followes , that there are other labours belonging unto him , which are also as necessary ; and those I shall terme Voluntarie Labours . O● these the Elegant Philosopher Eusebiu● hath excellently spoken ; Voluntary Labours ( saith he ) are necessary , because of future Labours which hang over our heads : he will beare those with more ease when they fall upon him , who of his own accord , and beforehand hath exercised himself in them : But you see that in this course also the maine remedy is patience . He that suffers willingly , suffers not , even that which is necessary to be suffered . One wedge drives out another . Venemous bitings are allayd by Venemous Medecines ; therefore in necessary troubles , there is a necessity of voluntary Labours , that Violent Evills meet not with Obstinate Wills : but the unavoydablenesse of suffering would not be grievous , nor the necessity or Law of Nature any way rigorous , did not we by our owne exaggerations adde to their weight , and our owne pain . Wee helpe to encrease our owne Calamities by reasom of our Inerudition , as Diphilus tells us , who adviseth even the happy man to learn miseries . What can wee doe more becomming our fraile condition , then to teach our Mortality the troubles of life , which are certain prolusions , or arguments of death ? What is more beneficiall , then to learn great tryalls and dangers , that wee may leave that servile custome of fearing ? Fortune , whose burthens we ought to bear as willingly , as if wee desired to undergoe them ?

It is a great rudiment of patience to suffer willingly , when we least expect sufferings . It is strange , that although wee see nothing in the course of this life more frequent then miseries , yet will wee not be perswaded that they may fall into our share : Our griefes come most commonly before we believe they may come . Nothing can make us believe , that we may be miserable , untill misery it selfe assures it to us . The mind therefore should be tryed and prepared for it , with some lusorie or mock-misfortunes . Nor must we give eare to Democritus , whose saying is , That if there be any things for us to suffer , it is good to learn them , but not to suffer them . It is good indeed to learn them , but if they must be unavoydably suffered , what will our learning of them avail us ? A most ridiculous advise , in my Judgement : And if the Author of it had been wise , he had laught at nothing more then at this his owne Conclusion . It is good to learn to suffer Evills , but not to be evill . It will benefit us much to learn to suffer them , if not as they are Evills , yet lest wee our selves become Evill ; for such we shall be by impatience . Besides the overcomming of reall evills , there remaine other slight hurts , as the discourtesies of nature , chance and furie , of our enemies and our selves also , which we cannot avoyd ; but these last are no evills , but the sheaths or quivers of evills ; out of these either our opinion , or our impatience draw evills upon our selves . Bion used to say , that it was a great evill , not to be able to beare evills . Without this ability , life cannot be pleasant to any , and in this consists the skill and knowledge of life .

Let the mind then learne to buckle with these rude toyles of life , and by a frequent velitation or light skirmishing with troubles so improve it selfe , that when we c●me to deale with the serious hand , and close encounters of fortune , we may receive her at sharpe , and like active , vigilant Duellists , put by her most Artfull and violent thrusts . One Salustius that lived in the time of Simplicius did put upon his bare thigh a burning cole , and to keepe in the fire did gently blow it , that he might try how long hee could endure it . I beleeve that fire did put out and quite extinguish all the burnings and raging flames of incensed fortune . If crosses foreseen are alwaies held light , those we tast and make experiment of before they come , must needs be lighter , because after tryall we feare them not : feares are the forete●●h of miseries , which bite us sor●st , and m●st intollerably . It was a most ridiculous judgement which that Sybarite ( mentioned by Serinus ) past upon the valour of the Spartans . This tender Citizen travelling by chance into Lacedemon , was so amazed at the severe discipline of that manly nation , who brought up their children in all rigorous and laborious exercises , that being returned home hee told the Fidlers of * * A towne in the higher Calabria in Italy 20. miles distant from Rome : the Inhabitants were mightily given to pleasure , and taught their horses to dance to the pipes ; which the Crotoniatae their deadly enemies observing , brought into the field a company of minstrels : the Sybarits horses bearing the pipes began to dance , and disordered their Army , by which meanes they were overthrowne to the number of 300000. Sybaris , that the forwardnesse of the Spartan Youths to dye in battell was , because they would not be compelled any longer to such a toylsome life . This soft fellow knew not how much Industry could prevaile against misfortune , and patience against passion . That valour of the Spartans was not despayre , but the virtue of suffering perfected . Their voluntary labours at home had so excellently improved them , that they could not onely slight the necessary and common afflictions of life , but overcome also ( by a noble volunteering , ) the very prerogative of fate , violating even the violence of death , while they dyed unconstrayned and undisturbed . Mithridates his feare of being poysoned , made him use himselfe to a venomous diet , by which he came at last to disgest all sorts of poysons without any prejudice to his health : so that afterwards when he would have poysoned himselfe in good earnest , he could not possibly doe it . By this destroyer of mankind did he secure himselfe even from himselfe , and by long acquaintance made this deadly enemie a faithfull friend : he fed life with the provision of death . By a like sagacity should we forearme our selves against the conspiracies ( if I may so say ) of nature . Let us labour against labours ; It will much availe us : our very feares will prove comforts ; by using our selves to sufferance , the Antidote of life , which is Patience , becomes effectuall .

Of such great importance is this assiduous exercise in troubles , that it lets in the nature of Constancie , and is a sure manuduction to that sincerest vertue . The Roman Fencers , players for prizes , barbarous and dissolute livers , if but indifferently skild , received their wounds without grones , or any alteration of gesture or countenance , because they would not be judged pusillanimous , nor cowardly decliners of danger ; If at any time they fell by the violence of wounds , they sent presently to know their masters pleasures , ( because they would satisfie them , ) for they themselves were contented to dye ; If their masters ( finding them incurable ) bad them prepare for death , they would presently hold forth their throats and receive the sword most willingly . O the serious faith of Playes ! O the faith of Players in serious dangers ! It is all one then , whether thou thinkest fortune a meere pageant and pastime , or not ; Thou shouldest obey with an Immortall faith even to the death . Let a wise man execute the commands of his creator , let him like a faithfull souldier of JESUS CHRIST certifie his great master , that he is ready and willing to doe him service , that he will lose his life , & choose rather to dye , then not to submit to his pleasure . The conflicts of a good man with calamities are sacred : he is made a spectacle to the world , to Angels and men , and a h●llowed Present to the Almighty . Let him in this state overcome his Enemies ! A more glorious garland then the Olympick Olive-branches shall crown an enduring Patience , which by an humble , but overcomming Sufferance wearies the hands of those that beat us . It is the part of a wise man , to tire and weare out the malice of his Enemies . I say not by Suffering , but by Patience , which makes him neither their Patient , nor trampled upon , but a trampling overcomer . This was the glory of Melancoma , who lived not one day without an Enemy . In the most vehement season of the yeare , hee judged his single-selfe hard enough for his two Adversaries : He could beare with the Sun , his most obstinate Antagonist , though fighting against him in the heate of the Summer with so many hands as he had Rayes . : When he might have gotten the Victory by Opposition , he would not but by Submission . Hee considered , that the best might be overcome by the worst , if force should take place . That Victory was in his Judgement the Noblest , when the Enemy , yet whole and without any hurt , was compell'd to submit . There is he overthrown , when not by wounds , but by himselfe .

Therefore what vice , and a spurious Patience did in the Roman Fencers , let Virtue and true Patience performe in thee : and what custome and exercise wrought in Melancoma , let reason and Judgement worke in thee : What reason effected in Possidonius , let grace effect in thy heart , and let not grace which workt mightily a a

One of the Courtiers of the Emperor Traian , and afterwards a most glorious Martyr .

Being in Chase of a Stagge , he observed betwixt his hornes the signe of the Cross , and heard a voice out of his mouth , speaking to him in the Latin tongue , Cur me persequeris ? Whereupon leaving his game , he retyred presently into his own house , and having called together his wife and children , were all baptized and received the Christian Faith . But in the persecution under Hadrian , he and his wife Theophila for their faithfullnesse to JESVS CHRIST , were burnt together in a brasen bull ; And so having overcome and endured unto the end , they received the morning star , and crownes of life , which shall never be taken from them . See Volater lib. 15.

in Eustathius , and sufficiently in many others , languish and faile in thee alone . The power of God is perfected in weaknesse , giving us some prelibations ( as it were ) of it self ; whither by bearing with our Infirmities , or by our bearing his Operations . I believe this last : for the glory of an almighty power against a weake thing would be very small ; how litle then against Infirmity it selfe ? That power is truly glorious , and hath matter for glory , which prevailes against the mind , a free unconfined thing , and holds it firme though surrounded with Infirmities : The power of God Glories more in prevailing against us , then against our infirmities .

B●t if wee seek for more delicate or easie remedies , and dare not arme our selves against misfortunes with this harnesse of proofe , b●cause we think it too heavy ; It remaines that we must make use of either Hope , or Expectation . Evills that are foreseen , lose much of their edge : But because we promise our selves the favours of Fortune ( of whom we have alwaies a good opinion , though wee seldome speak well of her , and she deservs as ill , ) our calamities , while this credulous remissnesse keepes us from looking to th●m , find way to surprize and oppresse us at once . Against violent misfortunes we may not use violence . Expectation will sometimes serve us best , if it be accompanied with a strong and irremisse beliefe , that the Crosse is at hand , and will not delay . For what happens in this life more frequent , than unthought of events ? Wee meete oftentimes even in one day with matter of grief , and matter of Patience . It is strange , that for those two meales we eat in the day , wee are all the day , and all our life long providing : But for trouble , for griefes and sadnesse , which take not up two houres in the day , but all the houres and daies of our lives , wee never think to make any preparation . Cast up ( if thou canst ) how many things must be had to humor the pride of mans appetite ; more than for a Sacrifice . It is no small state , nor ceremonie that the belly is serv'd with : How many men doth this worms-meat Imploy , Cookes , Bakers , Fishers , Fowlers , Hunters , Sheepfeeders , Herdsmen , Millers , Colliers , and Butchers ? How many Instruments , Spits , Pots , Trivets , Cauldrons , Chasing-dishes , Chargers , Platters , and a thousand other utensils of gluttonie ? And to what end is all this preparation ? But to please one palate once in the day , or twice at most . O foolish men ! Wee are ever providing for pleasures , but never for troubles , which not twice , but for a great portion of our time , ( if not continually ) wee must needs endure . Who against the certain approach of an Enemy , will be secure and quiet , and upon the comming of a friend watchfull and sollicitous ? Why do we provide so much for pleasures and vanitie , and provide nothing against the day of trouble and miserie ? We are guarded about with Cloaths of state , Canopies , Couches , Silk-Curtains , Feather-Beds and Pillowes ; wee arme our selves for delights and softnesse , for sleeping and eating , because they are every daies works ; but hear not every day telling us , that the Evill day is behind . We labour to provide for the backe and the belly , why not for the better part , why not for our fraile condition ? The Sense of the secure liver is too too delicate : The affliction of the Inconsiderate or unprepared too bitter . Chance throwes downe the carelesse violently : and Fortune tires the idle even to vexation . The rude and unexperienced in troubles afflicts and macerates himselfe with an impatient mind in the very midst of his most affected bla●dishments , and in the bosome and calme of all his pleasures .

I hold Impatience to be a kind of Night-Mare which comes upon us waking , or the Day-hag of life : This troublesome disease ( for our time of rest is his time of mis●ule , and when wee are sleeping , then is he stirring , ) sets upon us when wee are most at ease , and with a certain strange heavinesse seemes to oppresse and smother us , when in the meane time that weight which so much oppresseth us , is laid on by our owne Imagination : and this sometimes makes us crye out , as if wee were killed ; others , according to Lucretius , Struggle & grone as if by Panthers torne Or Lyons teeth , which makes them lowdly mourn . Some others seem unto themselves to dy . Some clime steep solitudes & Mountains high , From whence they seeme to fall inanely down , Panting with fear , till wak'd , and scarce their owne , They feel about them if in bed they lye , Deceiv'd with dreams , and nights Imagerie .

But the greatest trouble of all , is , that without any hope of remedy , they vainly strive and endeavour to shake off this shadow of heavinesse ; In vain with earnest struglings they contend To ease themselves : for when they stir & bend Their greatest force to do it , even thenmost Of all they faint , and in their hopes are crost . Nor tongue , nor hand , nor foot will serve their turne , But without speech and strength within they mourne .

What more expresse Image can there be of Impatience lying heavily especially upon those , who drouse away their time in a vitious rest and Idlenesse ? They are opprest , cry out , rage , and vainly resist , without any burthens but what their own fancy layes upon them . They feele the weight the heavier , the more they stirre it , without they shake it quite off . To refuse , or not willingly to undergoe burthens , is the onely burthen of Impatients . But if they would awake to themselves ( which of necess●ty they must , for when can the will be more Rational , than when necessity is unreasonable ) all these factitious weights and seeming heavinesse would quickly vanish : Force must not be used against Fortune , but Patience . This excells so much in strength , that it bears all : For it bears what ever it will , and for this very reason because it Wills . Samson carryed away the do●es , the two posts , and the barre of the Gate of the City of Gaza ; but this strength lay in his haire , like the locks of Nisus and Pterelaus . A miraculous strength ; but weakly secured . The strength of Patience is more safely seated ; It lyes not in a lock , which may be cut off by some Dalilah , or Comethe , or Scylla , or any womanish and fearfull hand . To Will , is the Sanctuary of its strength ; by being willing it is not onely enabled to bear , but also beareth . The backe and shoulder of Patience is the Will. This voluntary fortitude of the mind will do all its businesse , without the help of outward Engines ; It needs not the assistance of the Armes , nor the weak use of wishes . The strength of Virtue is not external , but in it self .

There remain also other necessary Indurances , though not to those that suffer them allready , yet to others that may , or are about to undergoe them : For the preservation of our Country & liberties we ought patiently to suffer even unto death . It is not too deare a rate to pay that debt wee owe to Nature , for the defense of Nature in our publick Persons : To this we want not the Incouragement of examples . What ever hath been suffered heretofore , may be suffered now by us . But if those presidents rather cool , then provoke our Courage , why dare not wee suffer a little , seeing they suffered so much ? To teach us this Virtue of Patience , and strengthen our ruinous brittle condition , the motherly love and fatherly care of the eternal , Divine mind , did provide and disperse through certaine spaces and Intervalls of time ( like knots for the strengthning of a weak reed , ) persons of such eminent Patience and Piety , as might by their examples sustaine and beare up mankind , untill the Antient of daies , and Father of Immortality himself should descend into this mortall life , and be born for Patience , and for death . In the meane time , that the populous World might not want a Glasse to dresse themselves by , he sent these to be the substitutes and forerunners of his mighty and inimitable Patience . The first he consecrated to this dignity was Abel , in whom Patience ( saith holy Aldhelmus ) was Original , as Sinne was in Adam . God joyned Patience to his Innocence by a certain Original Justice or claim in him ; but to the rest of the Just it descends together with sufferings , by right of Inheritance : to none more , to none better then to the Innocent . But now even by this , those suffer most , that should suffer least , the good and the Just . But those sufferings are most sacred , that are most unjust . Adam found out afflictions , and Abel Patience ; the medicine presently followed the disease . Evills were the Inventions of Sinne , Patience was the Device of Innocence . So that Patience as their peculiar Treasure abounds more , and is more beloved by the Just , then by any else . But that Posthume Cry of Abel proceeded not from Impatience : For God would not have taken to himself the cause of one dying discontentedly , and with Indignation ; but as devout Alexandrinus saith , 〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉 , &c. Abel the Just dying unjustly was the first of men that shewd the foundations of death to be ruinous ; wherefore he being dead yet speaketh . Death , whose right came by unrighteousnesse , laid ruinous foundations indeed , because ill-layd , upon the Just dying unjustly . It hath cause to grieve , that it erred so fouly in its first stroke , seeing it might have made a better beginning in wicked Cain . But there was Divinitie in it , that death taking possession of mankind by the Murther of the Just , might be justly exterminated and swallowed up in Victory by the undefiled Virgin-Prince of the Just , who for that end was born of a Virgin . Ephrem saith , that death howled or lamented in her very beginning , which shewed what would be her end . The Hern by instinct of Nature Chatters and mourns , before he becomes the prey of the Falcon. Death dyed by him , over whom she had no power . Only there is the night of death , where sin , where corruption lives .

Another tie of Constancy laid upon the World , after a convenient space , was Job , who retained his Patience after prosperity , and after Innocence . Patience is no where merrier , nor better contented with it self , then in the Innocent . Integrity and Fortune seldome lodge together . Adversity is the Whetstone which keepes it from rust , and makes it shine . No Virtues can subsist without troubles , which are their foode . They live not commodiously , where their Provision is farre from them : Wherefore holy and Just men have adversity alwaies ( like a Well ) at their dores . I shall take up then with that saying of Eliphaz : Affliction comes not forth of the dust , nor doth trouble spring out of the ground ; but rather from Heaven ; and comes oftner to holy and heavenly livers , then to Worldly and unrighteous persons .

After Job , and at a convenient distance from his time was Tobiah appointed , who instead of Celandine , made use of Patience to heal his Eyes : being blind●d by the Swallows , he found a more pretious medicine then their He●be , and his glory is more by bearing with the living , than burying the dead . This holy man also after Innocence , though not after prosperity , retained his Patience ; untill at last the Son of God himselfe , after Impassibility and Allmightinesse , became wofully passible , and humbled himself to the death of the Crosse : of so great an example was Patience worthy , and so necessary was this voluntary passion of God himselfe to our fatall necessity of suff●ring . By this mighty example of himself he hath sanctified Patience to be the All-heal , or Universal Antidote of Evills , and the Soveraign Lenitive of sorrowes . Divinely did one sing to the blessed JESUS . 〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉 . Thou the Nepenthe easing griefe Art , and the minds healing reliefe .

At this secret Counsel of the Almighty , did the rude Instincts , or hallucinations rather of the old Heathens ( proceeding , noe doubt , from their sense of Humane misery . ) blindly aime . They dreamt of some Son of God to be the great exemplar of Patience , and pattern of Virtue ; but finding none , they made and proposed to themselves Hercules the Son of Jupiter , for a president of continuall Patience , Obedience and Virtue : about whose labours and atchievements , Antiquity hath mightily pleas'd it self with lies and Fables . This ( indeed ) they rightly apprehended , that labour or troubles are rather repugnant to , then unworthy of Divinity ; they held them becomming Vir●ue , and withall necessary , that they might adorne Patience with these two Jewells , the reward of suffering , and the dignity of the Sufferer . But the Truth of God hath now outdone the Fictions of men ; It hath exceede all they did licentiously wish , but could not hope for . Our Patience is now sufficiently instructed by the SONNE of God , who is the pleasant remedy and Panacea of Evills . The blessed JESUS breathed nothing but Patience , nothing but mildnesse in his life , in his Doctrine .

These are the great examples which true Christians should follow ; not those of spurious Patience , and a narrow , heathen fortitude , which after it had born some Evills indeed , dyed at the root , and could not bear it self . Seneca ( otherwise in many things a very true , and sometimes a Christian Philosopher , ) proposeth to his readers the example of Cato ; but I utterly reject it ; for he destroyed himselfe , because he could not save his Common-wealth . What Constancy was here , though in a state that concern'd not his private happinesse ? or what manner of Constancy was that , which durst not endure and hold out , but was overcome , not by irrecoverable , fallen affaires , but falling : Not collasped and ruin'd , but tottering and doubtfull ? I confesse , it was a spectacle , which the Eye of God Intentive to his great and various works might behold with glory : and I confesse him a brave Heathen , Ill-disposed . But I see nothing glorious and excellent in him , nothing of true worth , but what I can find as wel in the most degenerate and womanish Sardanapalus . If wee look upon Cato amidst the publick ruines , wee shall finde him overthrowne and laid along , where an old wall stands up , no Enemy having touch'd him . A most unworthy man ▪ ( if he was a man , ) to fall thus basely like a Woman ; who at the noyse of any thing suddenly thrown down , casts her self to the ground , and squeaks though untouch'd , and far enough from danger . But thou wilt say , Though all things became subject to one man , though his legions possest the Earth and his Navies the Seas , yea though Caesars own regiment was in the gates , yet Cato made his way out . An honest voice , if it were not flattery : I tell thee he did not make his way , but sneakt and fled out most shamefully : His legs could not carry him off , and therefore hee ran away upon his hands . But it is all one , flye with which he will , it is a plain flight ; his busie and searching fear , which in him ( by reason of a sudden , unmanly astonishment ) was most Sagacious , shew'd him this postern or backdoor , which he most basely fled out at . But what could that man be afraid of , that had born so often the Assaults of Fortune ? He feared that very same Fortune : How can that be , ( say'st thou ) seeing he had coped with her so long before ? For that valour let him thank his errour : He believed Fortune ( according to her old vogue ) to be still inconstant , he expected that the Tyde should turne ; but finding her obstinate , and resolved in earnest to the contrary , he feared her last blow , and providing for himself by a most dastardly tendernesse , did with his owne hands dresse and make a wound to his own liking . To be patient , or to suffer as wee please , is not Patience . He could bear the anger , but not the hatred and feud of Fortune . That is poore valour , that bears onely the flourishes and pickearings of an Enemy , but dares not receive his full charge . A weak man will for some time stand under a great burthen ; but he that carries it through , and home , is the strongest . Cato then was a most base , pusillanimous combatant ; hee quitted his ground , and left Fortune in the field , not only unconquer'd , but untir'd , and flourishing with a whole Arme , which hee had not yet drawn bloud from : What Inconstancy can be greater then his , who was more Inconstant than Vertiginous Fortune ? Or who more a Coward then he , that fled and ran away swifter and sooner than her wheeles ? To call Cato then either constant , wise , or good , is most unjust ; nay more , it is an Injurie to mankind , to call him a man , who hath deserved so ill of Wisedome and men , by thinking that any Cause , or Chance in this World can be worthy of a wise mans death . I would he had read the Conclusion of Theodorus , not the dissertation of Socrates ! Theodorus Cythereus most truly affirmed , that there never can be cause enough for a wise man to cast away his life ; And he proves it by invincible reason : For him ( saith he ) that contemns humane Chances , to cast away his life because of them , how contrary is it to his own Judgment , which esteems nothing good , but what is Virtuous , nothing vitious but what is evill ? I wish , when he did read Socrates , that he had also understood him ! for then he should have heard him condemning that 〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉 , or mad refuge of selfemurther , and commanding him not to stirre out of his appointed station without full Orders from the great Generall of life . Why then dost thou cry up Cato for a great leader , who was a most cowardly common Souldier , that forsook his Charge , and betrayed the Fort intrusted to him by the Prince of Life ? But here thou wilt reply , that his last nights contemplation , just before he quitted it , was Immortality . The end he did study it for , made it then unseasonable : And I know not ( seeing he was but an Imperfect speculator in the Doctrine of Immortality , ) why hee should be so hasty to try whither Eternity was perishable , or not , by casting away his own . He should have expected it , as he did expect the change of Fortune , which till that night he alwaies esteemed Mortall : He should have prepared for it by makeing triall of his Constancie before Eternity .

What praise then either of Patience , or Fortitude hath he deserved ? he did no more then the most effeminate , Hemon and Sardanapalus . O the glorious Act of Cato then , equall to his , that handled the Spindles ! An Act of Women , Evadne , Jocasta , and Auctolia . An Act of Whores , Sappho and Phaedra . An Act of Wenches , Thysbe , Biblis , Phillis and Anaxarete . An Act of Boyes , Iphis and Damocles . An Act of Doting , decrepit men , Aegeus , Sesostris and Timathes . An Act of Crazie , diseased Persons , Aristarchus and Erat●sthenes . An Act of Madmen , Aristotle , Empedocles , Timagoras and Lucretius . A rare commendation indeed for a wise man , to have done that which Whores , Wenches and Boyes , sick men and Madmen did , whome either the Impatience of their lust , or Fortune made Impatient of life . Whither thou wilt say , that Cato kill'd himself to fly from Fortune , or to find Immortality , thou canst in neither deny his Impatience either of Joy , or else of feare , and in both of life . I would he had been as patient now of life , as he was sometimes of thirst ! That voice of Honour , upon the Sands of Libya , was his ! where ( the R●man Army like to perish with thirst ) a Common Souldier that had taken up a litle muddy Water in his Helmet , presenting it to him , had in stead of thanks this bitter rebuke , Base man ! & couldst thou think Cato alone Wants courage to be dry , & , but him , none ? Look'd I so soft ? breath'd I such base desires , Not proofe against this Libye Sun 's weak fires ? That shame and plague on thee more justly lye ! To drinke alone , when all our troops are dry . Here was a glorious Voice , and there followes it a more glorious hand : For , with brave rage he flung it on the Sand , And the spilt draught suffic'd each thirsty band .

This manly Virtue he degenerated from in his last Act , and all his friends wisely bending to the present necessity , hee onley broke . The people being all taken , he only fled . To see Cato a sufferer in the publicke miserie , had been a Publick comfort ; they would have judged it happinesse to have been unhappy with him . It is Honour to suffer with the Honourable , and the Tyranny of Fortune is much allayed , and almost welcome to us , when shee equally rageth against the good and Noble , as against our private selves . If , as he refused the remedy of thirst , he had also rejected this ill remedy against misfortune , his glory had been perfect .

Wee must then be the Patients of life ; and of this Patience ( which I thinke the greatest of any , ) wee have two eminent examples in Job and Tobiah , who not onely provoked by Fortune , but by their wives also , defended their Calamities in the defense of life . For the other Patience in death ( which is the least , ) the example of Abel sufficed , designed by the wonderfull Counsell of God ( untill the manifestation of his Son , that great Arch-type of Patience in life and death , ) to suffer , though Innocent , a violent and unexperienced death , that the first onset of fate ( which was most furious , ) meeting in him with an unconquerable Patience , might be so●● what tamed , and the weapons of death having their edge dulled in the first conflict , might afterwards be of lesse terrour to mankind . Just Abel was the first that shew'd us the way of dying , when the name of death , as yet untri'd , was most formidable unto life ; that he might teach man Patience in his death , and leave it to posterity as a Medicine found out by him . But when men ( by a sad experience grown wise , ) found out a greater Evill then death , which to religious men was this sinfull life , and to the miserable and Impatient their own lives ; then were Job and Tobiah set forth the convincing examples of Patience in life , who endured a life more bitter than death , lest by not enduring , they should , to their misery , adde sinne . They taught the World that Patience was a better Medicine for Evills than death , and withstood the opinions of the Lunatick people . Falsely did Euripides ( arrogating a laudable Title to death , ) terme it The greatest medicine of Evills , 〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉 .

As if he in another place had not term'd it the greatest of Evills . If death then be not its own Medicine , how can it be the Medicine of Evills ? It is an Evill great enough , that it is not the Medicine of Evills ; but that sufficeth not , it is also the greatest Evill . Aeschylus is in the like errour , for it is called by him The Physician of incurable Evils , 〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉 .

A most ridiculous appellation : How can that be the Physitian of incurable Evills , which is it selfe such an incurable Evill as their owne Machaon could not resist ? Equally false is that of Sophocles , The last Curer of diseases is death . 〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉 .

If death it selfe be a disease , which must , and shall be healed , how can it be the last curer of diseases ? But these men ( after the Common manner of Physicians , ) held the cure of great Evills to consist in desperate remedies , as obstinate diseases are expell'd by strong and Diaphoretick Medicines : Health indeed is dear unto us , and death , I confesse , puts an end to all its diseases , and to all Medicaments too . It takes away the disease sooner and oftner then any other remedy ; but these Poets themselves ( as sick men say of their Potions ) deny not but it is bitter .

〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉 . It is better to live ill , then to dye well , Saith Euripides himselfe in another place ; such a good opinion had hee of death . It had beene but a sorry provision for mankind , if God had given us no other Medicine against Temporal Evills , but death . The cure of our miserable condition had been both imperfect and uncertain , and to our sad necessity there had been added necessarie despair , when the cure of small Evils had been by a greater , and the great Evill it self left incurable .

But ( Glory to the blessed Jesus ! ) wee are both fully c●red , and faithfully cared for ! That which can cure all Evills , must be something that is not Evill ; Therefore death cannot cure them , because it is an Evill ; for God created it not , but it came into the World through the envy of the Divell : Good men hold it to be Evill , & the bad find it so . Thou wilt ask then , what is the Medicine of Evills ? I answer , it is that , which is the Medicine that strengthens us to bear the violence , and the pangs of death ; that which the very Enemies of it cannot deny to be good , I mean Patience : that which being made Evill by abuse , yet in that state hath been commended by men that were not Evil , by Seneca in his Cato , Dion in his Melancoma , and Philo in his Pancratiastes : So winning and attractive is the Virtue of Patience , that the very shadow of it procures reverence , and make the very abuse and corruption of it laudable . If then the Counterfeit of it could beautifie vice , and make it amiable even to wise men , what wonder is it , if the Substance be a protection and ornament to Virtuous persons ? This is the Medicine which Leonides gave against death . Let those Titles therefore which death usurped , be vindicated by the right owner . Patience then is the best medicine of Evills ; It is the cure of the Incurable , the last Physitian , the Ease in death , the mollifying Oyle , the gentle purge , the pleasant Potion , and that I may recover its right to another Title which death usurped from the pen of B●etius , It is a sanctuary that lies alwaies open to the distressed . Lastly , lest I should deny that , which even the envy of Fortune could not deny , Patience ( as Zeno elegantly said , ) is the Queen regent of all things , yea of that rebellious changling Fortune . But let us adde to the certainty of the cure , the easinesse of comming by the medicine : We need not send for it into Forraign Regions , nor dig it out of Mines , nor extract it out of the Veines of Herbs , or the vital parts of beasts : Wee need not go for it to the Apothecary , nay I shall adde , wee need not wish for it ; It is already in our custody , a manuall Antidote that is alwaies about us , and in us , effectuall for all things , and ready for all men . It is a Physitian we need not call upon ; not like death , that forsakes the wretched , and those that earnestly long for it , that hath no pitty upon teares , but keeps off , — And will not hear the Crie Of distrest man , not shut his weeping Eye .

Hitherto we have taken view but of one side of Patience , and that halfe of her which she opposeth to Evills . Every part of her is lovely and excellent : and if we remove now from this Collateral station to a direct , we shall behold her intire beauty , and how well shee deserves of good . The Sacraments of this Virtue are two : To suffer Evill : to do good : Nobly doth she celebrate both ; with her there is no Evill , without her there is no good . I think her the Mart , and Mother-City of all that is good . Every Virtue is a Colonie of Patience , planted and nourished by her . Virtues owe their Original to her , she is part of it , and in every one of them . She is their holy fire , their Vesta , and Lararium , or private Chappell ; they are her Nuns or Virgins , what ever they have , either sacred or glorious , is from her : To the perfection of man there is nothing more necessary : For as Brasse must be first melted , and afterwards cast ; so the hard and rigid matter of Virtues must be softned and dissolved by Patience , that man may become a glorious and living Statue of Divinitie . No marvell , that wee require labour and hardnesse in Virtuous persons , seeing wee expect it from Smiths ; A certain Just Law of all the World hath exacted it to be the price of Virtue . Beare what thou wouldst not , and thou shalt enjoy what thou wilt . Labour is the good mans purse : Patience is his Gold : Onely an obstinate , sordid Idlenesse makes men poor , not onely in body but in mind also : Without Patience they cannot possesse their own Soules . Neither Nature , nor Virtue , nor Fortune ( and this last thou wilt perhaps think strange , ) trust us with their goods without this . Prosperity , when it is lent to man , dispensenth its treasures to none so plentifully , as to the laborious : Without a blow it stroaks us not . The sweet-meats it brings are not eaten , but in the sweat of the face . It was truly said of Fortune , Give bread to the poor , but give him thy fists for sauce . 〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉 .

The Snake will easily slip through our hands , unlesse we grasp her with Figleaves , or some knotty , rough grass ; Fortune is very slippery , and without labour , and a strong hand , she will not be held . Honest gaine breeds most Joy , I shall adde most security , when it is gotten with most pain . Labour is the earnest we give for after-Joyes , which are an addition , or consequence rather , attending the other fruits of it . Though it goes before them , yet it is refreshed with their following after ; As hunger , which is a Natural sauce , sweetens the meat , and the Joyes of the eater , even before ●e eates : Wee look with most delight upon those things which wee think to be our own , and we think them most , which wee have most labour'd for . Patience is a certain Title to possession , but labour gives the Right . The Mother loves those children best , and as most hers , which shee brought forth with most pain . Hony is gathered of bitter herbes ; they that love not the bitternesse , must not eate of the Honey . The drones of Attica ( saith Tzetzes , ) will not touch the hony of Hymettus , because it is gather'd of Thyme , which the Attic drone cannot endure to light upon . The Noble Xenophon loved no glory , but that which was purchased by his owne Industry .

The glory of God himselfe is not without labour , which he hath shew'd unto us by his works , and amplified in particular natures according to his wisdome , for our example . Wickedly did Hermogenes think of that Supreme , eternally active Mind , esteeming him to rest , by reason of idlenesse and inefficacie , though elegantly refuted by Afer in these words , his glory is the more in that he hath laboured . God doth not onely looke upon , and rule the World , he made it also ; And which of these , thinkst thou , is most worthy of glory ? is it not to have made it ? What is more glorious then to have made glory ? In the present Sabbath and solemnity of Gods rest , the workes which he hath made , declare his glory unto men , whose task also is , to work . Besides , this first curious draught of his Almighty hand contributes something to the perfect beauty of his immortal , last one ; for the Divine Eye ( reflecting upon this proofe , ) will adorne that building of holinesse and glory with everlasting strength , and an inviolable , Celestial freshnesse . God made not man by a Fiat , as he did the rest of the Creatures , but fell to work himself , and like the Potter that first tempers , then fashions the Clay , he made him by makeing , not by speaking . That one royall creature capable of felicity , was consecrated for beatitude , and the Divine likenesse with the ceremony of labour : Here man was instructed , before he was made : he received the exemplar of living before he received life : Idlenesse was forbidden him , before he had the Power given him to be active . But when he gave him life , he gave him also with it another Specimen , or Item of labour , breathing into him , as if he had used respiration ( which refresheth the laborious , ) to shew man the use of his breath . All things that were created for the service of mankind , were by the manner of their Creation ( which was with a Fiat , or command , ) taught to be obedient and humble : But man was first ordained for Dominion , afterwards for labour ; And God himself , the Lord of all , labour'd in his Creation , that Hee might make him to be in love with his Ordinance , and that God ( plotting as it were against himself , ) might by that love of man be induced to love him the more , and to esteeme him more his owne Creature then any other , because he onely ( like his Creatour ) loved Activity , and the use of life . And this I believe is the meaning of Xenophon : Labour ( saith he ) is a certain over-measure , or extraordinary favour of love .

So glorious an Ornament is Patience , either in suffering , or else in doing , I believe in both ( for Labour , without the good of Patience , is good of it selfe , ) that for no other end , but to be thought temperate and wise , the Pythagoreans commended abstinence , the Stoicks severity , the Cynick exceeded to rigour , the Gymnosophists to cruelty , and a face of madnesse and despair . Every one of these adorned his Heresie with Patience , and all the rude statues they erected to wisedom , were crowned with this Virtue . Edesius being sent by his Father to traffick into Greece , quitted the Merchant , and turn'd Philosopher : His Father upon his return receiving him with stripes , and hee patiently bearing them , asked him , what he had learnt in the Schooles of the Philosophers ? He answered , To bear your anger dutifully : With the same testimony did another Scholer of Zeno adorne the Stoa : but Possidonius was hardlier provoked then either ; he was so tortured with bodily pain , as if the disease had maliciously laboured to confute his principles : but how far it prevailed , appeares best by his own words ; It is to no purpose , ( said he ) vex me as much as thou canst , thou shalt never make me give thee an ill word . So carefull was he of the reputation of his Master . But Dionysius Heracleotes , not able to rule his passions , lost the repute of a Philosopher . So much doth that Majesty and tacite reverence wee admire in Virtue depend upon Patience .

Patience doth that for the private man , which their life-guards doe for Kings : It keepes him safe , and reverenc'd . It is the minds main-guard , that preserves the Authority of Virtue , and secures the Virtuous person , lest Evills should make him Evill . It is in the oppressed a certain tutelar Angel , and the sacred Guardian of their Spirits from Affliction . Most appositely did Halitargius call Patience the Conservatrix of our Condition . O how great is the Glory of Virtue , whose Guard and attendant is Patience , the Queene of all things ! She is not onely the Crown and Ornament of Philosophie , but the badge and Garland of the Christian warriour . She is not onely honour'd by the Impatient themselves , but by the furious and Salvage . Abraames , almost slaine and martyr'd by the Indian Infidels , did with this one weapon not onely resist , but overcome a whole City : And that with more expedition then Caesar , and with better successe then Alexander ; for to such admiration and reverence of his person did his patience drive them , that in the very midst of the storme his persecutors b●came suddenly calme , begging forgivenesse with teares , and with the generall consent of the people elected him for their Patron and President , whom a little before ( having not seen this pearle of Patience , ) they design'd for destruction and death . It was the Majesty of this Immoveable , Serene Virtue , that forced them to this miraculous Election , adjudging it of most royall Excellencie , and most worthy of Soveraignty .

Leander told the Fathers , met at Toledo , that Patience would either win , or overcome her adversaries . Solon knew this : For being checkt by some standers by , because he suffered an uncivill fellow to spit upon him , he answered : Fisher-men , that they may catch one whiting , suffer themselves to be dashed over with the fome and flowings of the Sea-waves ; and shall not I do the like to catch a man ? Whither he catched him , or not , I cannot tell : But I am sure , that John Fernandius , a Servant of JESUS CHRIST , and a Fisher of men , catch'd a whole Kingdome with that very baite . Hee preaching to the Indians in the street , one barbarous Infidel , having gathered his mouth full of sordid spittle , came pressing through the crowd to the place where he stood , and delivered it just in his face ; but he nothing moved therewith , and neither rebuking the Barbarian , nor discomposing his former gesture , persisted in his Masters businesse , and preach'd on : His Doctrine though powerfull , after the silent Rhetorick of this publick example , might for that time have beene well spared . Here was the foundation of the Churches of Japan and Amangucia : This very Indian ( and none before him ) becomming the first fruits of that region unto CHRIST . So glorious a document of Patience made him envy our Divine Philosophy , that envy made him Ambitious , and his holy Ambition made him a Christian . So gainfull an Industry is Patience , and such a compendious Art of overcomming . Most wholsome is the advice of Pimenius : Malice ( saith he ) never overcomes malice , you must overcome malice with goodnesse : But if we could overcome one Evill with another , why will wee not reserve that Glory for Virtue ? By such a bloodlesse Victory did Motois overthrow his Adversary ; from whom he fled most valiantly , lest he should offend him ; I do not say with his hands , but with his sight ; for Patience hath no hands , but shoulders . His Adversary pursues : Motois had lockt himself up , & became his own prisoner , esteeming it guilt enough , that another could be angry with him : But hearing that his Enemy was come in ( being only Impatient till he had shewed more Patience , ) hee breakes open the door , bids him welcome , and like one that had offended , desires to be forgiven , and afterwards feasts him . This story I have touch'd upon , that thou maist see how powerfull an Instrument of tranquillity , and a quiet , happy life , Patience is , that makes peace to beare fruit in another mans soyl , and civilizeth forraigners . How fruitfull then is she at home , ? How prosperous a dresser of Virtues in himselfe is the patient man , that will not suffer the propagation of Vices in another ?

But Leander said , that Patience doth either overcome , or else win her Enemies ; I say , she doth both win and overcome : She wins men , and overcomes Fortune ; nay , she makes her ( though unwilling ) a most officious servant of Goodnesse . The name of Patience is not an empty , titular Honour ; it hath also very large and princely revenues for the maintenance of Virtue . That Fable of the Divine in holy Maximus is truth . He saith , that wise men dwell in the shadow of a tree , which the more the people cut it , growes the more . It strives , and vies with the Iron ; or to borrow the Poets expression , 〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉 , It lives when kill'd , and brancheth when 't is lopt . His own Mythology is most elegant : By this tree ( saith he ) is signified wisedom , which turnes misfortunes into Ornaments , trouble into Virtue , losse into gain , and scars into beauty : For the Patient and wise liver , like the Serpent of Lerna , when he is most mangled , is most entire ; he drinkes in fresh spirits through his very wounds , his courage is heightned by them , and his spilt blood , like dew , doth cherish and revive him , Like some faire Oke , that when her boughes Are cut by rude hands , thicker growes : And from those wounds the Iron made , Resumes a rich and fresher shade .

The benefit then wee receive from Patience , is twofold : It diminisheth the sorrowes of the body , and increaseth the treasure of the mind : Or to speak more properly , there is one great benefit it doth us , It turnes all that is Evill into Good . Most apposite to this , is that of Nazianzen , Patience digesteth misery .

Concoction and Digestion of meats are the daily miracles of the stomack : they make dead things contribute unto life , and by a strange Metamorphosis turne Herbes , and almost all living Creatures into the Substance of Man , to preserve his particular Species : No otherwise doth Virtue by Patience ( which is her stomack , ) transform and turne all damages into benefits and blessings , and those blessings into it self . Lupines , or bitter Pulse , if steep'd in water , will grow sweet and nourishing : Patience doth macerate miseries , to fatten it selfe with them . Certaine Divine Raies breake out of the Soul in adversity , like sparks of fire out of the afflicted flint . The lesser the Soule minds the body , the lesser she adheres to sensibility , shee is by so much the more capable of Divinity , and her own Nature . When her Den of flesh is secure and whole , then is she in darkness , & sleepes under it : When it is distressed and broken , then is she awake , and watcheth by some Heavenly Candle , which shines upon her through those breaches . The wounds of the Body are the windowes of the Soul , through which she looks towards Heaven ; light is her provision , shee feedes then upon Divinity . Sublime is that rapture of the most wise Gregory , — 〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉 . — — one food the best for all Is to feed on the great Gods mind , & draw An Immense light from the bright Trinity .

Death it self , which the lust of eating brought into the World inedible , or as Zeno saith , indigestible , is eaten , digested and transubstantiated into life by Patience , begun in Abel , and perfected in JESUS CHRIST . So that now , that saying of Pirrho , who affirm'd , that there was no difference betwixt death and life , is no longer a Paradox ; nor need we make use of that shrewd exaggeration of Euripides : who knowes ( said he ) but this which we call life , is death , and death life ? we see , that men , when they are ( as we speak ) alive , are then only sick , but the dead neither sicken , nor suffer any sorrowes : Certainly the death of a good liver is eternal life .

Every Action of a wise man is a certain emulation of Death ; wee may see it exprest in his patience . The Soul by this Virtue disintangles , and frees her selfe from the troubles of Mortality : For the frivolous flesh burning with fevers , or drown'd in dropsies , or any other diseases , the attendants of corruption , which possesse and fill up the narrow Fabrick of Man ; the Soul ( as in great inundations , when the lower roomes are overflown ) ascends to the battlements , where she enjoyes a secure , healthfull ayre , leaving the ground-roomes to the tumult and rage of the distemper'd humours . She ascends thither , where griefe cannot ascend . Carneades , comming to visit Agesilaus grievously tormented with the Gout , and turning his back to be gone , as if impatient of the violence and insolencie of the disease ( whose custome it is to shew litle reverence towards the best men , the prerogative of Vir●●e can give no protection to Nature , ) Agesilaus pointing from his feet to his brest , calls him back with this Check , stay Carneades , the pain is not come from thence hither . Hee shew'd by this , that his mind was in health , though his feet were diseased , and that the pain had not ascended thither , where the Soule sate inthroned . At this height she hath two priviledges more then ordinary ; she is lesse affected with the body , because at some distance from it ; and hovers above griefe , because above sensibility ; shee is nearer to God , and dresseth her selfe by his beames which she enjoyes more freely , as from a kind of Balconie , or refreshing place , having onely a Knowledge , but no Sense of the bodies affliction . From this place she overlookes the labours and conflicts of the flesh , as Angels from the windowes of Heaven behold Warre , and the Slaughter of distracte●●●en . One benefit more shee hath by Patience , that though shut up in the body , yet shee can have a tast of her glorious posthume liberty . Death looseth the Soule from the body , it breaks in sunder the secret bonds of the blood , that she may have the full use of her wings , and be united to Divinity . Patience , though it doth not quite loosen the chaine , yet it lengthens it , that she may take the aire , and walk some part of the way towards Home : Though it frees not the Soul from the body , yet it gives her liberty and dominion over it . He that is tyed up by a long Cord , is within the compasse allowed him untyed , and a free man . The Spirit of man incensed by adversities , and collected into it selfe , is by a certain Antiperistasis made more ardent and aspiring : Fire is never stronger , nor more intense then amongst Water ; In the bosome of a cloud it breakes forth into thunder : So this Divine Spark , which God hath shut up in Vessels of Clay , when all the passages of pleasures are stopt , his raies ( which before were diffused and extravagant ) returne into it selfe , and missing their usuall vent , break forth with such violence , as carries with it sometimes the very body , and steales the whole man from passion and mortality . The Levitie of fire is of greater force , then the Gravity and Massinesse of Earth : His Spirit is unresistable , and the unknown force of it will blow up the greatest Mountains , and the strongest Castles this earth affords .

Hitherto have I discoursed of outward Evills , I shall now consider the Inward , and how Patience is their Antidote . You have seen her Prerogative over Fortune , and reputed Evills , which are called Evills , because they seem to be so , not because they are so ; as disgrace , grief , and poverty . All these are but fictitious Evils , which Custom and Humane error have branded with that injurious denomination : for in these contingencies there is no reall Evill , but the Evill of opinion ; neither is any man miserable but in his own conceit , and by comparison . The glory of Patience would be but poor and trivial , if it could doe no more then take away , or beare with such frivolous and fictitious troubles as these : If it prevailed onely against Evills , which we do not suffer , but invent . It s true glory is , that it subdues true Evills : Not that it bears them , but that it removes them far from us : Not that it endures them , but than it abstaines from them : For truly to suffer Evil , is to do Evil , whose Agent alwaies the Patient is , by reason of a most ill impatience : But Patience is onely excellent , because it suffers not . This worst kind of Evil is therefore the greater , because because when 't is in acting , it is not seen ; and were it not afterwards felt , there would be no place left for Virtue . This is the usuall method of Vice , a flattering , Comical entrance , and a Tragical exit . The force and malice of Evil Actions may be gathered by their Nature : They are so powerfully hurtful , that when they cease to be , they cease not to torment us : and so malignant , that while we act them , they flatter us , that being Acted , they may afflict us : While we are doing them , they conceal and deny themselves ; but being done , they appear to our sorrow . Wherefore he that will lead a blessed , a joyfull , and a peaceful life , must make it his whole work , to do no work , but what Religion and Virtue shall approve of . What peace and security can he enjoy that will revenge himselfe , ( what more would cruelty have ? ) according to his own lust ? What life can he be said to live , that kills himselfe to please his inordinate affections ? What joy can he have , whose troubled conscience is his continual Executioner , racking and tormenting him in the very embraces of smiling Fortune ? No outward Fomentations will serve turne against that Indisposition to which fevers and fire are but coolers . Wee can provide against the violence of winter and Summer-weather when and how we please : But the inward heats and colds , the raging accessions of the Spirit admit no cure . Patience , though Fortune should assist her , will never heal the wounds of conscience .

He that suffers by the guilt of Conscience , endures worse torments then the wheel , and the saw : As that heat which ascending from the liver , and the region of the heart , doth diffuse it selfe through the body , is greater then the united flames of the dog-star and the Sun . What torturing invention of Amestris , Pher●tima , or Perillus did ever so afflict distress'd wretches , as the fury of his owne Conscience did torment Orestes , though freed from all men but himself ? no Tyrant is so cruel as a guilty spirit : Not Scylla with his prison , Siuis with his Isthmian pine , Phalaris with his bull , Sciron with his Rock , nor Faunus in his Inne . The Pelusians when they punished Parricides , conceived no torture so answerable to the heynousnesse of the crime , as this inward Divine revenge ; neither the a a Pliny mentions this punishment : the parricide after his apprehension , to augment the horror of his conscience , was first whip● with rods dipt in the blood of his murthered parents : and afterwards together with a dog , an ape , and a cock ( Creatures which shew litle reverence towards their sires ) he was thrust alive into a strong sack , and so thrown into the Sea . Sack , nor the Lime-kil pleased them so much as this gnawing worm , the terrible and luctual excogitation of the wise Father of Nature . They ordered therefore , and enacted it for a Law , that the murtherer for three daies and three nights should be pent up in some narrow roome together with the naked body of the slaine , and be forced to look upon it , whither he would , or not ; which was effected by putting him in such a posture , as permitted him not to look any way , but just upon the dead . The Sicilian Tyrant himselfe knew that conscience was a more cruell torment then the bull of brasse . This made him spare the most unnaturall and bloody offenders , that they might be tormented , not with scalding metalls , and glowing Iron , but by a damning conscience . The first penaltie for murther was conscience : The first Actor of a violent death was punished with life : He that first saw , and introduced death , was thought worthy of no other punishmen● , but the security of life , which he first shewed to be not secure : for it is a more mercilesse punishment then death , to have long life secured with a killing conscience . So he that brought murther first into the World , was first punished with the terrourr of conscience : Which are then most torturing , when health and strength are the capital punishments . The Protoplasts themselves , the parents of death , and of mankind too , who gave us death before they gave us life , thought it a greater plague then death , to be still alive , and yet to be guilty of death ? They would have fled to death , to flye from themselves . Apposite to this is that of Marius Victor , — They faine would ( if they might ) Descend to hide themselves in Hell . So light Of foot is vengeance , and so near to sin , That soon as done , the Actors do begin To fear and suffer by themselves : Death moves Before their Eyes ; Sad dens , and duskie groves They haunt , and hope ( vain hope which fear doth guide ! ) That those dark shades their inward guilt can hide .

You see now that conscience , even amongst cell cell The inhabitants of Pelusium , a town in the borders of Egypt , now called Damiata ; It was built by Peleus the fratricide , from whom the Citizens desce●ded . the Pelusians , was held a legal and politick punishment , that in Phalaris it was a Tyrannical devise , in Cain the Divine vengeance , and in Adam and Eve , the Justice of Nature . God , Nature , Reason , and fury it selfe ( which in this case must not be defined madnesse , ) do all beare witnesse , that selfe-condemnation , or the guilt of conscience is of all others the most bitter and avenging torment .

Adde to this , that the certainty of it is as infallible , and inevitable , as the extremity and fiercenesse of it are implacable : there was never any Tyrant so cruel , but would pardon some offender : There was none so severely inquisitive , but some might either escape from him , or deceive him : But the rigour of conscience permits neither favour , flight , nor fraud . It is utterly inexorable , and neither our feete will serve us to ran away , nor our hands to free us : whither shall a man ran from himselfe , from the secrets of his own spirit , from his life ? No man can be an Impostour or dissembler with his own heart , no man can undo what he hath already done : to have sinned is the remediless plague of the Soul . It was a slow expression of Victor , that Vengeance is near to sinne . It is swifter then so : It is not consectaneous , or in chase of it , but coetaneous with it , and its foster-sister The punishment hath the same birth with the offence , and proceedes from it ; It is both the Sister , and the Daughter of it : Wickednesse cannot be brought forth without its penalty : The brest that conceives the one , is big with the other , and when the one is borne , he is delivered of both . It is a fruitfullnesse like that of Mice , whose young ones are included the one in the other , and generate in the very wombe . Conscience , while man thinkes of Evill , even before he acts , doth rebuke that thought : so that the punishment is praeexistent to the crime , though in the reigne of Virtue it is noiselesse and uselesse ; as penal Lawes are dead letters , untill they are quickned by offenders . It is then in its minority , and without a sting , or else it is asleep , untill the Cry of Sinne awakes it . In the state of Evill , Conscience is the first and the last revenger : when smal offences are wiped out , enormous crimes like capital letters will still remain .

No man can find a Sanctuary to save him from himself . No evill doer can so fly for refuge , as to be secure , though he may be safe : Hee will be afraid in that place , where he thought not to fear : Though he fears not the friends of the murthered , yet he finds that within him , which makes him sore afraid : He may escape the Executioner and the sword , but he will be overtaken by himselfe ; and being safe , hee will be afraid even of his safety : Though he may find fidelity in his fellow-Tyrants , yet shall he find none in his own bosome , which is ever clamorous , and spues out blood and guilt . Nature deviseth such a punishment for evill doers , as that which tyed living Malefactors unto the putrid Carkasses of dead men , that the horrour and stench of them might afflict their spirits , and the quick flesh be infected and devoured by the dead and rotten . The punishment sticks fast unto us after the offence , whose carkasse is terrour of Conscience , Shame , and a gnawing remorse , that feeds still upon the faulty , but is not satisfied . The guilty person can have noe peace , But night and day doth his owne life molest , And bears his Judge and witnesse in his brest .

Adde to this , that Reason which in all other pressures and misfortunes is the great Auxiliary and Guardian of man , is in an offended Conscience his greatest Enemy , and imploys all her forces to his vexation and ruine .

Fortune therefore is not the onely cause of our contristation ; we our selves do arm adversities , and put a sword into the hand of griefe to wound us with ; we are sticklers against our selves . Evill Actions afflict more then Evill Fortune ; We are not onely troubled that it was Chaunce , but that it was our Choice . It is the worst kind of misery , to be made miserable by our owne approbation . That evill which we procure to our selves , must needs grieve us more , then that which we casually suffer : Noe damage is so doleful , as a condemning conscience . Truly , I do believe , that the onely misfortune of Man is Sinne. And so very bad and mischievous a Cheat it is , that when it is most punished , wee think it most prospers ; neither can Fortune be justly termed Evil , but when she is the Assistant of Evill men , and the surety for Evill doing . This permitted successe makes the affaires of the most unrighteous to be esteemed Just: This is a felicity like that of beasts , which we put into pleasant and well watered pastures , that they may be fed for slaughter . Against this true misfortune , as well as the false and seeming , Patience must be our Antidote ; not by bearing , but by abstaining from it . Patience in this Case must elevate it selfe , and passe into a virtuous anger and contempt of sinfull prosperity : We must be piously impatient of all their proffers and poisonous allurements ; Impatient , I say , that we may patiently overcome them .

Therefore as I have formerly exhibited the Art of bearing well to be the onely remedy against Fortune : So now I shall demonstrate to you , that the Art of abstaining well , is the sole medicine against these true and inward misfortunes : Differing diseases must have different cures . Patience is the poyson that kills Fortune , and the Balm that heales her stripes : but a sacred impatience , or abstinence from Sinne is the Antidote of Conscience ; and the Basis or foundation of this holy impatience is transcendent and triumphant Patience . To mitigate or overcome Fortune is a trivial trick : Flattery will do it , if we can but descend to approve of , and commend all that she doth . To preserve the peace of Conscience , wee must be rigid , and censorious : We must speak home , and truly : We must examine before we Act , and admit of no Action that wil be a just cause but for to blush . The approaches of Fortune are abstruse : She moves not within the light of Humane wisedome ; or if she doth , the strength of her Prerogative lies betwixt Willingnesse and Constraint : It is a kind of fatal fooling : Man playes with his Stars untill they hurt him : But the cause of an evill Conscience is within our view , and may be prevented by Counsell ; For no man can Sinne against his Will , or without his Knowledge . One naile must drive out another : He that would avoyd damnation , must avoid also those things which are damnable : He cannot grieve too much , that grieves only to prevent Eternal griefe . The helps we use against Fortune are after-games . But the Salves of Conscience must precede the wound ; the cure of spirituall diseases is their prevention . In the affaires of this World the best man is the experienced : But in the distresses and affaires of Conscience , he is the wisest that is most ignorant . A noxious Knowledge is death , and every Sinner is a Fool. The wised●me of Doves is innocence , and that which makes the light to shine is its simplicity . Light is a Type of Joy , and Darknesse of Sorrow : Joy is the fruit of innocence , and sorrow of Sinne. The sorrow we take for Fortune is hurtfull : Those teares , like tempestuous droppings , if not kept out , will rot the house : But the sorow for sinne is healing . Penitential tears are the O●le of the Sanctuary : God gives them , and afterwards accepts them : they both cleanse us and cherish us . When Marble weepes , it washeth off the dust : Worldly teares are the waters of Marah ; the tree that sweetens them , must be shewed by the Lord : The waters of the pool * * the word in the He brew signifies , the house of powring out : which in a secret Allegorie may very well concerne man . Bethesda heal'd not , untill the Angel stirred them ; without true remorse teares profit not : but if they have that Ingredient , they are showers which the Lord hath blessed , and must not be stopped , although they might . As courage , and a joyfull heart are the ripe fruits of innocence , so shame and sorrow are the hopefull buds and primroses of it . Contrition is the infancie of Virtue : Therefore that sadnesse must not be expelled which expelleth Vice . It is an invention of the Deity to destroy Sinnes : That they might be either unfruitfull , or fruitfull onely to their owne destruction : For this we have two instances from Nature , in the Mule and the Viper : Whereof the one is barren , and the other unhappily fruitfull . Nature is carefull that Evills may not multiply , or if they do , that they may not prosper . The Mule is barren , lest there should be an increase of Monsters . Apposite to this , is that saying of Gregory Cerameus , 〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉 &c , Evils ( saith he ) are denyed from God the power of propagating , as mules have not the faculty to preserve their kind by generating one another . The Viper notwithstanding is a mother , but shee brings forth her owne destruction : The birth of her young ones is her death . So sorrow , that is the child of sinne , is the death of it also . Let therefore this saving destroyer of sins be made much off , let this godly sorrow be still cherished , and never rebuked : he that dryes up his teares , before he is cleansed , takes delight in his filthinesse , and like the lothsome drunkard , would sleep in his vomit : Penitent afflictions should never be resisted but by precaution .

Hee then that would not drink of this Wormwood , must be sure to refuse the sugred venom of sinne : No man is Evill for nothing . Every defect in life is occasioned by a defect of Patience : because we cannot endure to be constantly good : because we are impatient of continuall holinesse . Two Evills attend upon Sinners , the Evill of sin , and the Evill of Punishment , which is the Evil of sorrow : To escape the last , we must abstain from the first : wee must be either impatient of the first , or else the patients of the last : Unlesse wee will suffer a litle to avoid offences , wee must suffer much after we have fallen into them . A short displeasure is better then a long torment : This previous Patience of abstaining , frees us from two subsequent Evils : The pain of Conscience untill we repent , and after that the pain of Penitence : These two are the Appendants , or retinue of every sinne ; A seasonable , innocent forbearance is the fense against them both : one small griefe averts these two great ones : How wholesome and comfortable is that Patience which prevents sinne and sorrow , the Consequent of it ? But Virtue , when it is most healthfull , is in the estimation of some reputed to be poyson : For no other reason do they reject it , of whome Theodotus elegantly sings , Virtues faire cares some people measure For poys'nous works , that hinder pleasure .

This Patient abstinence from Evill is the Mother of holy Joy , it keeps the mind pleasant and serene : What is there , or what can there be more beneficial , or delightfull to man , then a pure , innocent conscience , where all the Virtues ( like busie Bees ) are in constant action , as in a fair , flowry field , or rather in Paradise ? where all is Divine , all Peacefull , nothing polluted , no feare , no distraction . In this state , as Theophanes saith , The wise man is adorned with a Godlike Conscience , and a mind becomming the very Deity . What is there more joyful , then to be master of such a Power , as cannot be violated by Tyrants and Torments ? It was a golden and Victorious saying of Tiburtius : Every punishment is poor , when a pure Conscience keepes us company : For as the guilty can receive no comfort : So the Innocent cannot lose his Joy . The Joy of Conscience is Natures recompence , the coalescent reward , or fruite of integrity , an entailed happinesse , the native blandishment of life , and the minds mighty purchase : What happier gaine can be , then to rejoice alwaies , for what wee have done but once ? or what greater damage then an unrighteous gain ? It was bravely said by Chilo , that the heavi●st losse was to bee chosen before base gain : That will grieve us but once , the other alwaies . The losse of temporal goods will trouble us but for a time , but a lost Conscience will torment us Eternally . What greater liberty can there be , then not to fear any thing ? And what can he be affeard of , that is not frighted by the guilt of his own spirit ? when Periander was asked , what liberty was ? he answered , A good Conscience . And another saith , that Man should with Virtue arm'd , and hearten , d be , And innocently watch his Enemy : For fearlesse freedom , which none can controule , Is gotten by a pure and upright Soul .

Sinne makes remisse and c●wardly spirits to be the constant slaves of misery : what liberty , yea , what joy can he have , or what dares he do , Whose guilty soul with terrours fraught , doth frame New torments still , and still doth blow that flame Which still burns him : nor sees what end can be Of his dire plagues , and fruitful penalty ? But fears them living , and fears more to dye . Which makes his life a constant Tragedy .

Therefore to preserve the mirth and peace of Conscience , righteous , or honest Actions are mainly conducing , and should be alwaies our imployment ; for this is the appointed task of man , and it is his mysterie too . The hand is the best Sacrifice . The Antient Portugals used to dedicate to their Gods the right hands of their captives ; but offer thou thine own , and not anothers . To be onely without Vice , is a vitious commendation : Nay , it is not commendable at all , but self-indulgence , or a flattering of our owne corrupt inactivity . To such a passe is man come , that he is not ashamed to do lesse for Virtue , then the vitious will do for Vice . It is a most poore and fordid glory , to be onely not numbred amongst the bad : It is a base degree of praise , to be reputed onely not base . To be without Vice , is not to be good : Not to be vitious , and to be Virtuous , are two things . To refrain from Evill , is scarse not Evill , especially if we proceed no further : For to be able to be good , and not to be throughly so , is , if not Evill , a neighbourhood to Evill . True praise consists not in a bare abstinence from Evill , but in the pursuance & the performance of good . It sufficeth not therefore that we doe nothing which may afflict us , but we must withall doe something that may exhilarate us . This we must remember , that to do good is one thing , and to become good is another ; Although we cannot become good , unlesse wee doe good ; But we become good , not because we have done good works , but because we did them well . Discretion , which considers the manner of doing good , orders the Action so excellently , that oftentimes there is more goodnesse in the manner , then in the Action : What will it availe us to do good , if it be not well done ? It is to write faire , and then to poure the Inke upon it . Actions cease to be good , unlesse well acted , they are like excellent colours ill-layed on . The more glorious thy intention is , the more carefully thou must manage it . Indiscretion is most evident in matters of importance : One drop of Oyle upon Purple , is sooner seen , then a whole quart that is spilt upon Sack-cloath .

The Ermyn keepes his whitenesse unstained with the hazard of his life : Hee values himselfe at a most sordid rate , that esteems lesse of Virtue , then this beast doth of his skin ; that prefers a foule life to a fair death , that loves his blood more then his honour , and his body more then his Soule . Ennius saith , that the way to live , is , not to love life . Life is given us for another cause , then meerly to live : he is unworthy of it , that would live onely for the love of life ; the greatest cause of life is Virtue : what more absolute madnesse can there be , then to make life the cause of sin , yea the cause of death , And for lifes sake to lose the crow● of life ?

What greater unhappinesse , then to dye eternally by refusing death ? The Virtuous youth Pelagius , rather then he woul●d lose his Innocence , suffered the most exquisite and studyed torments of that impure Tyrant Habdarrhagmanus : He suffered many deaths before he was permitted to dye : Hee saw his limbs , his hands , and his sinewes cut in sunder , and lying dead by him , while he yet lived . This preservation of their honour some chast beauties have paid dearly for . It cost Nicetas his tongue , Amianus his Eye , Saint Briget her face , Apollonia her teeth , and Agatha her breasts : The lovely Cyprian Virgin paid her life for it . Nature even for herself doth lay a snare , And handsome faces their own traitours are .

The beauty of Chastity is best preserved by deformity , and the purity of life by a contemptible shape .

The Shoomaker is carefull of the neatnesse of a shooe , which is made to be worn in durt and mire : And shall man be negligent to adorn his Soul , which is made for Heaven , and the service of the deity ? Every artificer strives to do his worke so , as none may find fault with it ; And shall we do the works of life perfunctorily and deceitfully ? All that makes man to be respected , is his worke , as the fruite doth make the Tree : and a good work can never be too much respected . Keepe thy selfe alwaies in respect by doing good : Thy own dignity is in thy own power : If thy works be good , thou shalt be accounted good too ; If better then any , thou shalt be acknowledged for the best . Man is the effect of his own Act , he is made by those things which he himself makes : Hee is the work of his own hands . A rare priviledge , that permits men , and impowers them to make themselves : Thou hast leave to be whatsoever thou wouldst be . God would not limit thy happinesse : He left thee power to encrease it , to polish and beautifie thy selfe according to thy own mind . Thy friend , or thy neighbour cannot do it : Thy owne good must be thy owne industry . Virtue , because she would be crosse to Fortune , is not adventitious . It is our great happinesse , that this great good must not be borrowed . Blessed be that Divine mercy which hath given us means to be saved without the assistance of our neighbours , who have endeavoured to damn us ! That almighty hand which first Created man in the Image of his Creatour , finished him not , but left some things for him to doe , that he might in all things resemble his maker . It is one thing to be an Idol , or Counterfeit , and another to be a lively Figure and likenesse : There are many Coppies , which are not assimilant to their Originals , like Pictures that have not so much as an ayre of those faces they were drawn by . To the Politure and sweetning of the Divine Image , there are some lines expected from thine owne hand . If some expert Statuary , suppose Phidias himselfe , should leave unfinished some excellent peece , like that Statue of Minerva at Athens , and out of an incurious wearinesse , give himself to some obscure and Artlesse imployment , or to meere Idlenesse , wouldst not thou much blame and rebuke him for it ? And canst thou deserve any lesse , if by a loose and vitious life thou wilt either totally deface the Image of God in thy selfe , or else leave it unfinished ? Doest thou think that God is maimed , seeing thou doest leave his Image without hands , I mean , without good works ? Dost thou think that he is blind , seeing thou dost extinguish , or put quite out that discerning light and informing wisdome which hee hath given thee ? Hee that doth not integrally compose himself , and will not carefully strive for perfection , would represent God to be imperfect , and a Monster . Virtuous manners ( saith holy Maximus ) are types of the Divine goodnesse , by which God descends to be represented by man , assuming for a body those holy habits , and for a soule the Innocent dictates of wisdome in the spirit , by which he makes those that are worthy , to become Gods , and seals them with the true character of Virtue , bestowing upon them the solid riches of his infallible and immortal Knowledge .

Work then while it is day , while it is life-time ; work and cease not : Finish this expectation , this great spectacle , not of men onely , but of God and Angels . Remember that the rewards and applause of this World are but a Paint of eternity : The solid and permanent glory is given in Heaven , When every man shall have praise of God . The Limbner is carefull to beautifie and shew his utmost skill in that peece , which hee knowes to be intended for judicious eyes : Thou art not to paint , but really to make a living Image of the Divine mind , which also must be examined and judged by that searching eye , from which nothing can be hidden : have a care that no ill mixture , nothing disproportionable , nothing uneven or adulterate may be found in it . The presents we offer to the true God , must be true and solid works , not the fictitious oblations of Jupiter Milichus : Why wilt thou delight in a maimed Soule , or which is worse , in a Soul whose best part is dead ? Thou hadst rather have a member cut off , then hanging dead by thee : Thou wouldst then onely wish for its company , when it would be no hindrance to thee . And canst thou endure the immortal Soul to be sick of death , to be sick in his best part , in the head ? wilt thou suffer thy mind to drowse , to be paralytical and senselesse , never thinking of God , nor of doing good ? In such a liver , the beauty of his immortal part is crusted over with an incurable leprosie ; and reason , which is the Soules Countenance , is most ingloriously ecclipsed . The Task of life is to labour , and the Sacrament of the Soule is to work rationally . Idlenesse is a Parenthesis in the line of life : When we do nothing , wee do not live .

Slothfullnesse is a dead Existence , a kind of sleep when we are awake : That life is empty , that is not filled with the care of living well . It was truly said by Possidonius , that one day of a learned mans life , was more pleasant , then all the years of the unlearned : One houre , one minute well spent , is to be preferred before a sinfull , voluptuous for-ever . Time is a sacred thing : it flowes from Heaven , it is a thred spun from thence by the motion and circumvolution of the spheres . It is an emanation from that place , where eternity springs . The right use of it , is to reduce it to its Original : If we follow time close , it will bring us to its Fountain . It is a clue cast down from Heaven to guide us thither . It is the younger brother of eternity , the one must be sought in the other . It hath some assimilation to Divinity : it is partly knowable , and partly not : Wee move in it , and wee see it not : It is then most invisible ; when most present . If we be carefull of it , the benefit is ours : If wee neglect it , we cast away our selves . Hee lives not at all , that lives not well : And hee that lives ill , shall dye worse : Hee suffers a living and sensible death : It is death , because it wants the fruit of life ; and it is sensible , because it is with losse and punishment . Many ill livers comfort themselves with a vain conceir , that the state of death is senselesse : But Vice and Idlenesse are more malitious deaths , they carry with them the penalty of sense : They are fertill in evills , and barren of good , like a cursed ground that bringes forth nothing but thornes and thistles .

You expect grapes from your vines , & corn from your Fields , but no Fruit at all from your selves : Were you made to be good for nothing ? for shame be your own dressers , Manure your selves , and prune your vain and noxious affections . Man himself is his own pretious Soile , his own fruitfull field , and thriving Plant : let him that expects fruits from extraneous things , tast first of his own . Good workes are the apples of this Heavenly Plant. The Vine and the Field , though they bear not for themselves , pay their annual proventions . If they had beene left to their first fruitfullnesse before the Curse , they had exceeded in a most uberous , spontaneous fertility ; if they should yeild nothing now , they would be good for nothing . Man bears fruit for himselfe , and may bear as much as he pleaseth : Wilt thou then keepe backe thy own provision ? Wilt thou pine thy selfe ? or by burying thy talent in the dust , be an enemy to thy own soule , and envious towards others ?

Virtue in my opinion is like to Musick : it pleaseth most of all the Virtuous man himself ; and it pleaseth also the vitious , whose Conscience doth force him to admire that in others , which he neglects in himselfe . Musick delighteth both the Musician , and the unskillfull . Musick built the Walls of Thebes ; and Virtue must build the new Hierusalem . Musick and Virtue are the performances of the hand , and the Cordials of the mind . Every lover of Virtue is Musical , that is so say , he is pleased with the suffrages of his own Conscience , and solaced with the Celestiall flights of his pure Spirit : Hee loves the works of Virtue ( not to gain the peoples applause , ) but for Virtues sake , whose beauty and power are best seene in her workes . Honesty is one of the liberal Arts , it is a trade of Conscience , not of gaine . Craftsmen shew their skill in their works : The Sculptor in his Cuts , the Painter in his limnings , and the Goldsmith in his Plate . To do something , not the manner of doing it , is their care : Their worke may be well done , though negligently , and without much Art . The Limner may give a stroke in hast or anger , which neither Judgement , nor curiosity can ever match . Giotto's circle , though drawn perfunctorily , surpassed the most elaborate peeces of other Ar●●sts . Virtue alone makes no use either of errour or chance , and this she doth meerly to oppose Fortune . In virtuous actions , if wee erre in doing , though we do good , yet the worke of Virtue is not well done . In other Arts , one Exemplar , or Act may serve to shew the Artificers skill , though he should never work more : But it is not so in Virtue ; As we cannot know a skillfull Musician , unlesse he plaies upon some Instrument ; so Virtuous men are not manifested untill they Act : He that will give any proofe of himselfe , must needs be active ; but to be so once , is not activity .

Virtue is a most usefull thing , and the use of it dyeth not after it is used : For allthough all the actions of man are transitory , yet when they proceed from Virtue , they are permanent . I advise thee therefore to be permanent , yea to be immortal . Care not for those things which the World esteems to be enduring , as Gold , and the Wealth of Fortune ; those will make them wings and fly away , when thou doest least look for it . Care thou for those things which the people , and their Hypocritital rulers value not , because they believe them to proceed from a sheepish and rewardlesse tamenesse , and not from grace , and the secret dispensations of the God of peace . Care , I say , for Righteousnesse and Innocence ; Care that thy Actions be upright : These are the treasures which the World believing to be transient , shall find one day to be truly solid and permanent . Thou hast read somtimes that advice of the Apostle , Redeem the times : That is to say , what thou doest well at one time , thou shalt have it at all times : Thy good Actions , with●rsoever thou goest , will bear thee company : They are Companions of a most rare fidelity , and will leave thee neither in the hour of death , nor after death . When our friends cannot follow us , then do our good works travell with us , they are then our best friends , and overcome our foes . Envy it selfe is appeased with death , it falls off with the body . Malice knowes no posthume persecution , and the glory of Virtue in that state is above the reach of her Enemies : though they may disturb our temporal rights , they are too short to oppose our claime to immortality : The onely peaceful possession of the dead , is his good life , and righteous dealings : what wil it avail the rich oppressours of this World , to have their Carkasses buried in the abundance of their treasures , unlesse they mean by it , to restore that unto the Earth which was digged out of her bowells ? Gold and Silver are no ransome for unrighteousnesse . Virtue alone , which survives death , is the refreshment of the dead : He cannot be affeard to dy , who is assured of a better subsistance after death : Their dissolution is onely fearful to those , who lose all by it , and their life to boot . The Posthume Inheritance of man is his righteousnesse and integrity , which death takes not from him , but puts him in possession of them . Thou maist gather , that good or Virtuous works are proper and necessary to the Soul , out of mans natural desire of fame , and that innate appetite of immortality which is planted in his Spirit : Nature desires nothing which is not rational , and her perswasions , even when they degenerate , strain , and point at some primitive delights , and innocent priviledges which she was free to before her corruption . All secular glories dye with the body , goodnesse only is above the power of death : That faire part of life is kin to the Supreme good , and death cannot hurt it ; yea it is secured by death , which kills envy , and frees the virtuous both from the malice of their Enemies , and the possibility of failing in themselves .

Therefore the best imployment for man ( if he will consider either his own benefit , or the approbation and liking of nature , which aimes also at immortality ) is the work of virtue , yea far better then the work of reason . Many , while they study the reason of virtuous works , passe by virtue it self . By a fruitless study how to do good , they lose their time , and doe none at all . Theorie is nothing so beneficial as Practice . It is a true saying that Jamblichus cites out of Pythagoras ; Every good thing consists of substance and use , and not of meer knowledge . To be good , is to doe good . The knowledge of a skilfull Physitian profits not the sick , unlesse he falls to practise , and gives him something towards his cure . Learned Aphorisms heal not the diseased , but bitter Medicines . That Soul which can reason subtilly , and discourse elegantly , is not saved ; but the Soul which doth good works : Knowledge and Faith without actual Charity are both dead .

Neverthelesse there is amongst men a certain covetousnesse of Wisdome and Knowledge , as well as of Money . The acquisition pleaseth them , but they will not set it out to use . As Usurers hoard up their mony , laying it out neither in pious works , nor for their own necessities , but suffer it to lye under rust and darknesse : So some Learned men neither practise those excellent rules of Living which they have learnt , nor will they impart them unto others : They study stil more curiosities , being in the mean time incurious of their salvation . I will say of them , as Anacharsis said of the Athenians , They know no use of money but to count it . There is no man poorer then the rich miser , and none more unlearned then the unpractised . Nature is contented with mediocrity : The World hath many things in it which humane affairs have no need of . Virtue also is perfected in few precepts : Though we fill the world with our Writings , it is not our Volumes that can make us good , but a Will to be so . Book-men write out of no other design , but to reform and civilize Mankind : They make several Assayes , numerous attempts , and then renew them . The Dice run not well alwaies , the last cast may carry more then all the former . Therefore to stir up and incline the Will to goodnesse , many things are necessarie ; but to be good there is nothing needfull but willingnesse . We suffer our selves to be cheated by hope ; we trust that when we have gathered so much knowledge as we covet , then we shall do all that we can d●sire . O foolish and vain pr●crastination . Alchuvius terms it a Palsie , I am sure it is a madnesse . We stay like that foolish Beggar for a Mess from the Kings table , and in the mean time starve . We care not to use this present life which is our own , but study the secrets of another , which as yet is not ours . We would learn Mysteries , and some things that are either out of our way , or else beyond it . Christians should neither wander , nor sit down , but goe on ; What is that to thee ? follow thou me . Content is a private sphere , but wants nothing , and is ever calme . They that study the world are ( of the two ) the worst Speculators . Popular , politick persons live alwayes by events : Their ambition and firienesse makes their lives uneven , and uncertaine : innocent , and undisturbed habits are the companions of Humility . Giant-spirits , though they may flash sometimes with faire thoughts , have alwaies dark and stormy affections . Men , or the most part of men , are like Swans , whose feet though ever in a living Bath , are alwaies black ; but their wings and doune , which keep above those streames , are pure white . That part of our lives which is ever padling with the current of Time , is foul and defiled ; but that which soares above it , is fair and holy . Worldly businesse is the Soules Idlenesse .

Man , ordained to be King of the Worlds Republick , had been a meer Cypher , if without Soul-imployment . He had been created to no end without this Aime . If he for whom all things were made , will not endeavour to secure himself being made , he was made in vain . An ornament to the World he cannot be : He was not made with any great gaity , & his decaies are both numerous and hastie . If to be seen only , were the duty of created things , the Stars should have been onely fixt , and not moving . Stop ( if thou canst ) the course of the Sun , his restlesse and vast circ●mvolution : As motion makes him bright and lively ( for hee rejoyceth to run his race ) so standing still , and slothtfulnesse would make him sad and sullied ; the beauty of the Firmament would be darken'd , the freshnesse of the earth would fade , and the whole family of Nature missing those cherishing beames , would pine and decay : Rivers would fall asleep , Minerals would prove abortive , and the mourning world would wast away under darknesse and sterility . But the Sunne though he should not move , would not be uselesse ; his very sight is beneficial . Hee is the created light of the visible world , a marvellous vessel , and an ornament in the high places of the Lord . But man for whom all these things were made , without he b● active and serviceable to his own Soule , is good for nothing . There is nothing more pleasant , nothing more peacefull , nothing more needfull then an industrious , Wise man , and nothing more impertinent , and uselesse then the sluggard . The rest of the mind is the motion of Virtue , and the idlenesse of the idle is the disturbance of his Spirit . He that doth nothing , is of lesse use , and by much worse then nothing it selfe . Wouldst thou be reduced into that unnaturall Vacuity of not being , which is without form and void ? Cease to do good , and it is done . The fruitlesse tree must be cut down : Doest thou ask why ? That it may not be ; yea , that it may be nothing , and not cumber the ground . Annihilation is more profitable then a fruitlesse being . In this Family of Nature , every one hath his task : None may be idle . The best and the Noblest are the most laborious . Consider Heaven , the first Exemplar of agility ; the brightest and the most active Elements are the next to it , and above them move the Stars . Fire is the Suburb of Heaven : The Earth which is cold and dull , like an Iland lies most remote , and cut off ( as it were ) from the neighbourhood of light . Nothing hath commerce with Heaven , but what is pure : he that would be pure , must needs be active : Sin never prevailes against us , but in the absence of Virtue , and Virtue is never absent , but when wee are idle . To preserve the peace of Conscience , wee must not feare sufferings ; if the hand of man wound us , God himselfe will cure us : But if wee wound our selves by resisting him , the hands of all his creatures will be against us , because ours was against his .

Having now taught you how to master Adventitious , Personal Evils , and to prevent the Evils of Conscience ; It orderly followes , that I should teach you how to subdue and triumph over Publick Evils , or National Calamities . The sufferings of just persons wound the heart of a wise man , when his own cannot grate upon it . Fortune , that could neither hurt him by force , nor by fraud , drawes blood from him through the sides of others . The righteous liver is troubled more with the losses of his neighbours , then with his own . Hee whose patience could not be overcome by passion , lies open and naked to the assaults of compassion . The life of the wise man is the most pretious and profitable , he lives not only for himself , but for others , and for his Country : The safety of the imprudent is his care , as well as his own : Hee is not onely their compatriot , but their patriot and defender . Excellent is that rapture of Menander , — True life in this is shown , To live for all mens good , not for our own . He onely truly lives , that lives not meerly for his own ends . To live is not a private , but a publick good : The Treasure of good living is diffusive . The Civil Guardian lookes to the goods of his Wards : but the wise man is the naturall Tutor of the people , and lookes to the publick good , and to the aged as well as those that are in their Minority . It will therefore be worthy our paines , to consider and enquire how such men should carry themselves in popular and grand mutations ; Whither they should change their Nature , or their Maners , or retain them both , when both fortune , knaves and fooles are most changing . In National alterations , a wiseman man may change his outward carriage , but not his inward : His mind must be dry and unmoved , when his Eyes flow with teares : Hee must bestow a compassionate , Fatherly look upon the afflicted , and those that are soe weak , as to believe that temporal sufferings can make them miserable . But neither his tears , nor those that he bewailes , must work so far upon him , as to break his inward peace by admitting of fear , or hope , or the desire of revenge ; and though hee himself stands in a secure station , from whence he can both distresse & defeat Fortune , yet must he helpe also to redeem others ; he must take the field with his Forces , and set upon her with open valour , doing good ( as Tzetzes saith ) to all men , and abolishing every where the power of Fortune . If hee finds that the brests of others are too narrow to entertaine Royall Reason , hee must labour by Stratagems , by Manuductions , and inducing circumstances to incourage and strengthen them ; Hee must not leave them , untill he hath secured them . Antisthenes said , that a good man was a troublesome burthen . Who but insipid wretches , that have no feeling of their misery , will assent to this position ? A good liver is troublesome to none , but to the bad , and he is by so much the more pretious and desirable . That wound which makes the patient senselesse ; is more dangerous then that which smarts and grieves him . But if their misery when it is made apparent to them by the good man is thereby diminished , and they acknowledge themselves to have been made so by their own vain opinion ; it is just that they confesse Virtue to be healing , and that by her meanes they found helpe from a strangers hand , when their own were infirm and helplesse . O Virtue , the great lenitive of man-kind ! Yea of those who are thine Enemies ! Thy hand heals him , that would hurt thee , As Egypts drought by Nilus is redrest , So thy wise tongue doth comfort the opprest .

Yea , the Evill by whose association thy purity was never defiled , thou dost helpe by the good . In every virtuous man I hold that saying to be true , which Venantius spoke of the great Captain Bonegissus : His hand restores , his Counsel secures : whom Fortune rejects or casts out of her armes , he taketh up and guards them in his . And hence I am induced to differ in my opinion from Philo , about that saying of the Jews Law-giver , that a wise man hath heavy hands . What wonder is it if they be so , seeing the imprudent , the afflicted , and th● disconsolate , who are grievous and heavy to themselves , do all depend and hang ●pon his armes , like Infants upon their mothers ?

To help these hangers on , he must needs be bowed , and by speaking faire to their grievances , begin to redress them . This is the property , or rather the prerogative of the constant and wise man ; Hee can descend safely from the Sphere of his owne happinesse to mingle with , and to comfort the miserable . Noe man by standing still can rescue one that is carryed away by a violent torrent , and ready to be drowned ; nor if he also be overcome by the same stream , can he save the other . It is one thing to be thrown down , and another to be bowed down . He that would not be thrown down , must look to the liberty of his Will , and not submit it to Fortune . But to restore , or raise up others , it is necessary that he must bow . No man can take up a Child that is fallen , but by bending himselfe : To cure the ill-affected , we must in some things incline to their affections . Comfort is a potion of that nature , that heals not the sick , without an appearance of the same indisposition in the very Physitian : The patient will otherwise suspect that for poyson , which is meant for his health . Hee that is ill-affected , wil be unwilling to believe that another which is not so , can have any skill to cure him : And he that labours with the same disease , can neither cure others , nor himself . Therefore he that would minister comfort unto the distressed , must of necessity have his will above the Tyranny of Fortune , he must have a mind that is invulnerable , and yet seem to be very tender and sensible of her lightest strokes . It is one thing to be subject to these affections , and another to rule them : To be had of them , and to have them . He that would loose others , must not be bound himselfe . When Mus●nianus observed a Troop of horse , that was under his command , to halt , and make a stand , expecting some Omen from a bird that had suddenly pitched before them , he bent his bow , and riding up to the front of the Troop , shot at the bird , and killed him : Then laughing at their folly , he told them , that there was but litle advice or help to be expected from such irrational creatures , that were not onely ignorant of the destiny of others , but could not foresee their own ill luck . Wee must look first to our own safety , afterwards to others : The hand of the helper should make the first assay upon himself : He that experimentally knowes , he can swim , is fi to save another that is in danger to be drtowned .

But when I speak of tendernesse , and a seeming complyance with the weaknesse of others ; I mean not dissimulation . I allow a community of tears , but not of the cause of tears . Let the miserable bewail their misery , and let the wise man mourne with those that mourn , because they mourne amisse , not because they suffer . Let him not mourne for the power of Fortune , but for the weaknesse of man . When a friend of Solon found him weeping , hee told him , That tears were not the potion against Fortune , and would therefore profit nothing ; I know it well ( said Solon ) and that is it which I Lament . He bewailed the tears of others , not the cause of their tears : That is it which a wise man ( the enemy and the avenger upon Fortune , ) may justly bewail , to see men weep , when weeping availes not . He is troubled , not because they suffer , but because they will not be comforted ; yea , because they will not be men : He thinkes not that it is Evill to suffer worldly afflictions ; Nay , hee knowes it is good , but he knowes withall that worldly sorrowes slay the Soul . This is the consideration that calls forth his tears : Hee wisely distinguisheth , that man is not made miserable by any outward accidents , but by his own opinion : For no man is made unhappy , because he exists , or is , but because he thinks himselfe to be so : The wise man bewailes a greater Evil then the Evil of misfortune , and that is the inability of some men to beare Evil. Hee mourns not because they are Patients , but for their impatience . The true or reall Evil which he knowes to be in them , is their ignorance of false or reputed Evills . That which causeth him to weep , is their causelesse weeping . He that disguiseth his constancie thus , dissembles not . I make not a wise man to be impassible , but enduring and compassionate , yea the Patient of compassions : Though I exempt him from the crowd and populacie ; I place him not above Humanity : Though he is no peere of the Multitude , yet he descends to pitty them : But we doe not therefore disturb his peace and serenity , because he is mercifull and condoling ; but because it is his expectation , his desire . He is not stormy , nor treacherous , nor base , but courteous , liberal and happy ; he is in all estates master of himself ; he is kept fresh and pleasant by the secret Joyes and vivifications of an unoffended Conscience . It was well said by the School-Divine ; That the tears of the righteous were the smiles of their Soules .

Gregory Nazianzen commended his Brother Cesarius for his honest dissimulation with the dissembling Court. He was inwardly an Anachorite , and outwardly a Courtier . In publick and splendid affaires affaires ( which are more seducing and inconstant then private , ) this policie is necessary : Wee should alwaies have a snare ready for them , that we may escape theirs . In the downright blowes of Fortune , that is , in our own domestick losses , We should be sincere and naked ; we should put on nothing but our native complexion , and a serene mind . In this Case , wee should be so undaunted , as to looke upon upon Fortune , and overcome her without any weapons , we should set naked upon her , not onely without defensive armes , but without cloaths . In the dangers of others , we must deal otherwise ; wee must use all means to secure them : Wee must deal with Fortune as she deals with us , by disguises and stratagems : All her wares are but gilded clouds , a Superficiall wash ; they are not that which they seem to be ; to be true to our selves , wee must be false to these , wee must not trust them . Shee cannot require more from us , or better , then what shee gives : Her Good , and her Evill are both counterfeits , and he that dissembles with them , offends not . The riches of this world are not sound within : Wee may not for th●ir sakes corrupt our Soules , and be mad● like unto them . Let the peace of Co●●●●●nce shine within , upon a white and undefiled Throne , though wee look mournfull and ragged without . No Man deals better , or more justly with this World , then he that lends her his face , but keeps his heart . This is the Nature of the World , to give us a fair looke , and an empty hand . Consider thy selfe : How often hast thou been that Creature , which thou didst not seem to be ? All the accoutrements of Fortune , all her pomp , and the transitory course thereof , when laid out with the best advantage , seemes to me but a Stage-play . Her most glorious favourits passe by like Whifflers , which carry Torches in their hands onely to shew the deformity of their vizards : They hasten away , and like To speedy posts , bear hence the Lamp of life .

All the glory of this World , hath darknesse , and treachery in it . It passeth gloomily by us , like high-way-men that traverse the road with veiled faces : hee that will be even with this Counterfeit , must clap on a vizard too , and by an honest dissimulation , preserve himself .

In the funeralls of our friends , our kindred and benefactors , wee may moderately mourne ; but we must not lose our Patience , nor that Christian peace , which is the golden fruit of faith and hope . The great mercy of God hath so provided , that Evill when it sets upon us , is but an apparition ; there comes good presently after it . To live well , we have in our selves more then enough : we need not any extraneous help ; our very desiring of it , makes us miserable . So excellently best is our condition , that the blessed life is ours gratis , but misery we must hunt after . The happy life needes neither riches nor wishes ; Misery cannot be had without desiring , and it is never given without Covetousnesse , which is the price paid for it . Wee suffice of our selves for a happy life ; why not for meere life , which is something lesse ? shall we think our selves poor , because we abound with the means of happinesse ? As long as the batteries of Fortune cannot shake the mind , nor make the wil to fly into shivers ; the heart is whole , and our peace is secure : Her musters and preparations seem formidable but to children only : Take off the helmet , or vizard of Evil , and underneath it , you will find good : Hast thou lost a friend that took care for thee like a mother , and furnished the like a Father ? that very losse is an occasion of greater gain , though at first it appears not . Parents sometimes to sport with their Children disguise themselves : The Child at the first sight is dejected , but having taken off the Masque , he findes his Mother : He laughs , kisseth and embraceth her , and if shee comes again in that dresse , he fears her not . Who would not be astonished at that furious Army of Evils , which fought against holy Job ? It was a sad sight to see a Father , after the losse of his Children , and substance , to lye languishing under the Tyranny of a devouring Ulcer , And where ? upon a dunghill , the very sink of uncleannesse and corruption . But this frighted him not : Hee was so farre from thinking it an Evil , that he played with the worms , and made that , which his friends esteemed for vengeance and misery , to be his meditation and mirth : Hee was sure that he was innocent , and retaining his integrity , he could not misse of joy . He saw through that Crust and Scab , the sure mercies of God : His beautifull and healing hand , shined through that lothsome Veyle . He desired not the comforts of his kinred , nor his friends : he said to corruption , thou art my Father , and to the worms , you are my Sisters . This was onely a shel , or seeming Evil ; but the kernel , or substance that lay within it , was solid and reall good . As Children deal with nuts , so good and wise men deal with Calamities ; they break the shell , and eate the kernell : both the Good and Evill of this World have their fucus , and outside : Hee that knowes that , and knowes how to take it off , is a knowing man , and knowes how to use them .

This lesson Saint Paul taught the Citizens of Corinth . Let them that weep ( saith he ) be as though they wept not : and they that rejoyce , as though they re●oyced not : And they that buy , as though they possessed not . He allowes onely an illusive and seeming commerce with the World : Hear his reason , and you will acknowledge his Justice : The fashion of this World ( saith he ) passeth away , or is transient and deceiving : That which men call fruition in this World , is but face-acquaintance : All temporall possession is but a looking on , the things themselves passe away . They are still in a Cryptical , unperceived motion , when we suppose them to be fast lockt , and fettered in our armes : They creep from us like a mist or smoke , which in confused and silent Evolutions steales out at the top of the chimney , after it hath fouled it within .

All worldly things , even while they grow , decay , As smoke doth , by ascending , wast away . Saith Dionysius Lyrinensis . The Apostle would have us to put on the same disposition , and to be even with this great deceiver by a like deception . Let us give it but a glimpse , and halfe a face , as it gives us but a transient and flattering salute . Let us weep and not weepe , rejoyce and not rejoyce , use it and not use it . This wee can never Act handsomly without personating , or rather mocking this Arch-cheat . When our Eyes flow with tears , we must keep our Consciences smiling and pleasant : Wee must have Heraclitus his face , and Democritus his heart . The forehead is the Index of the mind ; but the Soul of the just must shine , when his face is most clouded . Wee must not give our strength unto the World , that is to say , we must not seriously affect it : In all our negotiations with it , we must stand at a distance , and keepe our affection for him , who must be loved with all the heart , with all the strength , and with all the Soul . Saint Paul ( when he made use of this expression , ) had respect , I believe , unto the rites of the Roman Theater , the Comick and Tragick Lawes of their Poets , which together with their Government , were dispersed into all civill climates : He applied to the various representations , suddain changes and successive showes of the Stage , where Truth moved in disguise , and the serious travels of the Sons of Men , were by Masquers and personating Counterfeits solidly Acted : Where the short flourish of humane affaires did wither by degrees , and ended in a sad Catastrophe , while the Poets plot upbrayded the vanity of States-mens policie . The World is a meer Stage ; the Master of the Revels is God ; the Actors are Men ; the Ornaments and flourishes of the Scenes are honour , power and pomp ; the transitory and painted Streams of Mortality , which passe along with the current of time , and like flowers , do but onely appeare , when they stay longest : Hee that enjoyes them most , doth but smell to them , and the shortest fruition permits as much .

What else was the Majesty of the Assyrian Empire , but a tractitious , vanishing apparition , a slight Flash of transient glory ? It shot by like a falling star , and was presently succeeded by the Medes and Persians : after them came the Macedon , and last of all the Roman . The Kingdomes of mortall men are not Immortal : they are no better then their Rulers . Where is Ninus now , where is Semiramis , Cyrus , Darius , Alexander , Antipater , Ptolomie , Julius Caesar , Octavian , and Tiberius ? Where now are these Patriarchs of amb●ition , these weak roots of the Assyri●n , Median , Persian , Macedonian , Asian , Egyptian , and Roman greatnesse ? What is become of these Primats of pride , these eldest Sons of Fortune , these prosperous disturbers of mankinds peace , before whom the world became dumb , like a Sparrow before a Kite ? what a deep Silence ! What a thick darkness is now drawn over them ! Nothing remaines of them but their names , and the bare Skeleton of glory : Their onely boast , is , that they have been : Our onely Knowledge , is , that they are vanished . Nay , it is most certain , that we a a Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona multi ; sed omnes Illach ymabiles urgentur , ignotique longâ nocte , carent quia vate sacro . know not all their names ; those we are acquainted with , are not many : so ruinous a thing is humane glory , though held by mortal men to be immortal . They are deceived : It leaves neither Reliques , as their bodies do ; nor Inscriptions , like their Sepulchers . The glory of men is more mortal then their Carkasses . Their bones remain after ●heir Funerals , after the fire , & Executioner ; And th●ir teeth may be seen , when they can neith●r snarl● , nor bite . But their fame is edibl● , it is dev●●red by time without F●re , ●●a , without Aire ; for by no● re●●●●ing p●s●erity , it becomes dumb , and miss●●h their ●ongues , by whose speaking it lives . All the felicity of men is a dream , it comes on they know not how , and when it vanisheth , they cannot so much as discern its Back-parts . If these recorded Empires , these famous Yoaks and Burthens of the World came so suddenly to nothing ; what will be the lot of these petty fetters , these leaden manacles that we are bound with ? If those massie and mighty weights were so clearly blown off ; what will become of these loose Packes , which have nothing to balasse them , but feathers , but chaffe and motes ? Those universall Monarchies founded upon the principall Cities of the World , whose Colony was the whole Earth : Those Cities whose bulwarks did threaten the Clouds , whose Armies and Fleets made the Earth to tremble , and the Seas to grone : whose Lawes ( like Oracles ) were held sacred and unalterable ; found no security against the Arm of God , which tears the Crowne from the Head , and the Scepter from the right hand of the Lawgiver . He considers in his dwelling pl●c● , like a cl●●r 〈◊〉 upon h●●bs : ●e 〈…〉 the things that are to c●●e : He ●●●●th the Nations with the S●ve of 〈◊〉 : He b●owes upon them , and they w●th 〈◊〉 and ●hall not be planted . And why t●in●●ou the● that these dry and fading 〈…〉 f●ourish for ever ? All temporall tri●mphs have their date : they passe away in a sure and uninterrupted course , and when they begin to decay and unloade thems●lves , then they are swiftest . All the pomp of this World , is but gilded emptiness● , a nine daies blossome , whose beauty drops into the same Mould from whence it sprung . It is the Consciousnesse of their delusion , that makes these worldly honours fly from us so fast ; lest if they should stay long , wee should discover their Cosenage ; the discoverer then would be ashamed of his dot age , and the discovered would blush at his deceit .

Therfore Saint Paul , in these versible and transitory fashions of the World , would have us to personate Stage-players , who when they weep , grieve not ; when they b●y , they poss●sse not ; when they command , they are without authority . Seeing the World is but a play , and a fable , hee would not have us to act in earnest . Players Act the lives of others , not their owne : I wish that we could do so too . Excellent is that advice of the divine , To live a stranger unto life .

Why should I be troubled with the affaires of others , more then with their Agues or Feavers ? he that lives without the Affections of this life , is master of himself , and looks upon all things , as Spectators do upon Stage-playes , who are without passion , because without Interest . The Actors care not how the Scenes varie : they know , that when the Play is ended , the Conquerour must put off his Crown in the same Ward-robe where the Fool puts off his Cap. Take this wholsome Counsel of resting quiet in the degree appointed thee , not from the mouth of Musonius , Teletes , or Epictetus , who adviseth thee to be a Pantomime , or shifting Masquer in these worldly Enterludes , but from the mouth of Saint Paul , that great Doctour of the Universe . Let every man wherein he is called , therein abide with God .

That Supreme , Eternall mind is the master and deviser of this worldly Drama : Hee brings on the persons , and assignes them their parts . Art thou called to be a servant ? be not troubled at it : Hath he ordained thy life to be short ? desire not to have it lengthned : If poor , desire not to be made rich . What part soever he hath appointed for thee , be contented therewith , and Act it faithfully . It is thy duty to represent the person thou wert chosen for , and not to choose ; that is the prerogative of thy great master . If it be his will , that thou shouldst Act a begger , a sick man , or an afflicted , let it be thy care to act it well , and to meddle with no other action . The stageplayer is not commended , because he acts the part of a Prince , but because hee acts it well , and like a Prince . It is more commendable to act a foole , a begger , or a mourner to the life ; then to act a King , or a Philosopher foolishly . In the beginning , the midle , and the end of thy Course , keep thou to thy part . The best way of acting is to make thy heart consentaneous to thy tongue , thy deeds to thy words , and thy conversation to thy doctrine . In all the tumults and combustions of this World , keepe constant to thy station ; comfort the afflicted , and envy not the wicked ; despise not the one , and flatter not the other : remember thy Creator , and forget not thy end .

Gloria tibi mitissime Jesu !

OF LIFE and DEATH .

THE People think Life to be the greatest good , and Death the greatest evill . They are mightily deceived : And as in the least blessings , so in this , which is the greatest , they greatly erre . For Life , if thou livest not well , is the greatest evill ; and Death , if thou dyest not ill , is the greatest good ; and dye ill thou canst not , unlesse thou livest ill . A life that is not good encreaseth evils and wickednesse ; and the death of the good sets an end to afflictions and miseries . Those that are sick of the Jaundis , judge the sweetest honey to be the most bitter : So evil men esteem Death to be evill , because of their evill conscience ; but Death is not so to any , but to those onely , whose evill lives end in the evill of endlesse death . This controversie I shall decide with such reasons as must not be numbred , bu● weighed . If wee look upon Philosophy , it takes part with Death , and is the first that marcheth into the field against this popular error . It teacheth us that this hideous nothing , this imaginary fear of the multitude should be alwayes contemned , and sometimes desired . How many wise men hath this contempt of Death made Immortall ? For those , who by a continual remembrance of death , did compose and regulate their lives , are now by the memory of their virtuous lives vindicated from death . Socrates perfected his wisdom by his willingnesse to dye ; Pythagoras by his gentlenesse ; Anaxagoras dyed merrily ; * * One of the Indian Gymnosophists , who feeling himself a little sick made a great Bonefire , and in the presence of Alexander burnt himselfe therein . Alexander a little before asked him , What he would have ? hee answered , I shall see thee shortly . Which fel out , for he dyed at Babylon few days after . Calanus resolutely ; hee would not stay to be tamely besieged by her , but sally edout , and took her . he surprized death and a●l of them despised her . No definitions we can give will suffice to make Death odious , every one will make it desirable . Whither you consider what Death is , or what are the effects , or consequents of it ; whether the evil or the good attending it ; or whether Death it self be a meer evill or meer good all make for it . For though it should be an evill , yet the good that comes by it exceeds that evill ; and being evill , it cannot be so great an evill as all those evils it puts an end to .

What one thing hath Life that is desirarable ? Contentions , and obstinate , busie miseries , whose frequency and number hath made them lesse feared then Death , which comes but once : Whose assiduity , or daily malice to afflict us , hath by a long custome made us not valiant , but senslesse and blockish . Orpheus defined Life to be the penalty of Soules ; and Aristotle added , That it was a punishment like to that , which tied the living to the dead , mouth to mouth , and breast to breast . The pure and eternal Soul is tyed to the putrid and wasting carkasse . If God should now suddenly create a man , giving him withall in that very instant the perfect and free use of his mind , and should then bring before him all Mankind ( as he did all living creatures before the first man ) and shew him in this mixt multitude some weeping and sighing ; some without eyes to weep ; some without hands ; others without legs ; some sick and languishing ; others eaten up with horrid , impure ulcers ; some beging ; others quarrelling ; some plotting treason , and washing their hands in innocent blood ; some old and decrepi● , quivering , trembling , and leaning upon staves ; some distracted , and bound up in chains ; others plundered , tortured , murthered , and martyred ; their murtherers in the mean time pretending Religion , Piety , and the Glory of God : And after all this outward Scene , should so enlighten his eyes , that he might discover another inward one , I meane their secret thoughts , and close devices , their tyranny , covetousnesse , & sacriledge varnished outwardly with godly pretences , dissembled purity , and the stale shift of liberty of Conscience : Is there any doubt to be made , think you , but after such impious , and astonishing spectacles , he would quickly repent of his existence or being , and earnestly desire to be dissolved again , that he might rest in peace , and not be cast into this hospital , and valley of villanies which we call the World . It is for this cause , that wise Nature is so slow and niggardly in her dispensations of reason and maturity unto man , lest a sudden perfection should make us loath her , and lest the necessary evils of life understood in grosse , and upon our first entrance into life should discourage us from undergoing those miseries which by degrees , and successive conflicts we more willingly struggle with . Abner the Eastern King , so soon as his son was born , gave order for his confinement to a stately and spatious Castle , where he should be delicately brought up , & carefully kept from having any knowledg of humane calamities ; he gave speciall command that no distressed person should be admitted into his presence ; nothing sad , nothing lamentable , nothing unfortunate ; no poor man , no old man , none weeping nor disconsolate was to come near his Palace . Youthfulnesse , pleasures , and joy were alwaies in his presence , nothing else was to be seen , nothing else was discoursed of in his company . A most ridiculous attempt to keep out sorrow with bars and walls , and to shut the gates against sadnesse , when life is an open door by which it enters . His very delights conveigh'd displeasure to him , and grief by a distast of long pleasure found way to invade him . So constant is pleasure in inconstancy , that continual mirth turns it into sadnesse . Certainly though Abner by this device might keep all sorrows from the presence of his son , hee could not keep them from his sense : Hee could keep out , and restrain external evils , but could not restraine his inherent affections . His son longed ; this made him sad in the very midst of his joyes . And what thinkst thou did he long for ? Truly , not to be so cumberd with delights . The grief of pleasures made him request his father to loose the bonds of his miserable felicity . This suit of the Son crost the intentions of the Father , who was forced to give over his device to keep him from sadnesse , lest by continuing it , he should make him sad . He gave him his liberty , but charged his attendants , to remove out of his way all objects of sorrow : The blind , the maimed , the deformed , and the old must not come near him . But what diligence is sufficient to conceal the miseries of Mortality ? they are so numerous , that they may as soon be taken out of the world , as hidden from those that are in the world . Royal power ●●●vailed lesse here then humane infirmity ; for this last took place in spight of the first . The Prince in his Recreations meets with an old man , blind , and leprous ; the sight astonisheth him ; he startles , trembles , and faints , like those that swound at the apparition of a Spirit ; enquires of his followers what that thing might be ? And being inwardly perswaded that it was some fruit of humane life , he became presently wise , disliked pleasures , condenmed mirth , and despised life . And that his life might have the least share here , where Fortune hath the greatest , he rejected the hopes and blandishments of life , yea that which is to many the price of two lives , his Kingdom , and royal Dignity : He laboured with all diligence to live so in the world as if he had been dead , that by avoyding sin , the cause of sorrow , he might be , though not safe , at least secure . If this single accident made him so much offended with life , what ( think you ) would he have done , had his liberty been universal , and unbounded ? What if he had seen the inside of those stately Tombes wee build for the worms to eat us in , where they feed upon such fat oppressors as have been fed here with the tears and pillage of the oppressed ? What if he had narrowly searched every corner of the world , and seen those necessary uncleannesses in which the birth of man is celebrated , in which this miserie is inaugurated , by the paines of the Mother , and the cries of the Infant ? What if he had entred into their bed-chambers and bosomes , where some sit weeping , others wishing ; some surfeited and sick with fruition ? where some mourn for their wives , others for their children ; some pine and starve with want , others are full and vomit ; some are troubled with lack of necessaries , and others are as much vexed with abundance and superfluity ? What if after all this search , and wide disquisition he could not have found one house without some misfortune , and none without tears ? What if he had been admitted into the breasts of all those , whom either domestick , hidden griefs , lingring diseases , worldly cares , or an insatiable covetousness is ever tormenting ? Perhaps thei sight of so many evils had driven him to a refusall of life , in which we doe so dye with miseries , and by which miseries doe so live in us ; at least he had earnestly wished and groaned for some means of redemption from so miserable a bondage . If any had brought him the joyful news of liberty , and affirmed that some were already made free , he had certainly envyed them very much , and would have been impatient to know the means . But when it had been told him that the device and release was death , I do not onely think , but I verily beleeve that he had both approved of it , and would have sought for it more then for hidden treasure . He had judged it not onely desirable and convenient , but necessary , and the greatest felicity , and favour that the living could expect .

If some solitary travellour , shut up in a wilderness , and surrounded with wild beasts , should on the one side see a Tiger making towards him , on the other a Lyon , and from some third place a scalie , winding Serpent , or a Basilisk , which kils with ●is very looks , Whose hissings fright all Natures monstrous Ills , His eye darts death , more swift then poison kils . All Monsters by instinct to him give place , They fly for life , for death lives in his face ; And hee alone by Natures hid commands Reigns Paramont , and Prince of all the sands .

If these , with a thousand more , as Bears , Leopards , Wolves , Dragons , Adders , and Vipers were gathered together about him , and ready to seize upon him , what would not he give to be freed from the violence and rage of such destroyers ? What greater felicity could he desire , then to be redeemed from such an horrid and fatall distress● ? And is it a lesser blessing to be delivered from greater evills ? We are surrounded with calamities , torn by inordinate wishes , hated by the world , persecuted , prest , and trodden upon by our enemies , disquieted with threatnings , which also torture and dishearten some ; for in pusillanimous dispositions fear makes words to be actions , and threats to be torments . Death is a divine remedy which cures all these evil Death alone is the cause that temporal miseries are not eternal . And I know not how that came to be feared , which brings with it as many helps , as the world brings damages . Danger it self is a sufficient motive to make us in love with security . Death only secures us from troubles : Death heals , and glorifies all those wounds which are received in a good cause . When Socrates had drank off his potion of hemlock , he commanded that sacrifices should be offered to Aesculapius , as the Genius of Medicine . He knew that Death would cure him . It was the Antidote against that poysonous Recipe of the Athenian Parliament . Tyranny travels not beyond Death , which is the Sanctuary of the good , and the Lenitive of all their sorrows .

Most ridiculous were the tears of Xerxes , and worthily checkt by his Captain Artabazus ; when seated on the top of an hill , and viewing his great Army ( wherein were so many hands as would have served to overturn the world , to levell mountains , and drain the seas , yea to violate Nature , and disturb Heaven with their noyse , and the smoak of their Camp ) he fell to a childish whining , to consider in what a short portion of time all that haughty multitude , which now trampled upon the face of the earth , would be layd quietly under it . He wept to think , that all those men ( whose lives notwithstanding hee hastned to sacrifice to his mad ambition ) should dye within the compasse of an hundred yeares . The secular death , or common way of mortality , seemed very swift unto him , but the way of war & slaughter he minded not . It had been more rational in him to weep , because death was so slow and lazie , as to suffer so many impious , inhumane souldiers to live an hundred years , and disturb the peace and civill societies of Mankind . If as hee saw his Army from that hill , he had also seen the calamities and mischief they did , with the tears and sorrows of those that suffered by them , he had dried his eyes , and would not have mourned , though he had seen death seising upon all those salvages , and easing the world of so vast an affliction . He would not have feared that , which takes away the cause of fear : That is not evill , which removes such violent and enormous evills . If I might ask those that have made experiment of life and death , whither they would chuse ( if it were granted them ) either to live again , or to continue in their state of dissolution , I am sure none would chuse life but the wicked , & those that are unworthy of it ; for no pious liver did ever repent of death , and none ever will . The Just desire not this life of the unjust , which ( were it offered them , ) they would fear it more , ( now being at rest , ) then ever they feared death , when they lived . The story runnes that Stanislaus the Polonian , a man of marvellous holinesse and constancy ; had the opportunity to put this question , and the respondent told him , that he had rather suffer the paines of dissolution twice over again , then live once : He feared one life , but did not fear to dy thrice .

Having this Solution from the experienced , it is needless , and fruitlesse to question on the living . If Soules were Praeexistent , as one Origen dreamt , as Cebes , Plato , Hermes , and other Philosophers , the great Fathers of Hereticks , have affirmed ; Wee might have reason to conclude , that they would obstinately refuse to be imprisoned in the wombs of women , and wallow in Seminal humours . What if it were told them , that they must dwell nine monthes in a thick darknesse , and more then nine years ( perhaps all the years of their sojourning ) in hallucinations , and the darknesse of ignorance ? what if the paines , the exigencies , the hunger and thirst they must endure , before they can be acquainted with the miseries of life , were laid before th●m ? The Infant while he is yet in the womb , is taught necessity . Quest for foode makes him violate that living Prison , and force his way into the World . And now comes he forth , ( according to the Sentiment of Hippocrates , ) to seek for Victualls ; the provision which proceeded from his Mother , being grown too little for him . But he comes from one prison into another , and breaks through the first to enlarge his own , which he carries with him : But if the Soules ●hus incarcerated ( like Prisoners through a grate ) might behold the various plagues and diseases of those that are at liberty , as Palsies Passions of the heart , Convulsions , Stranguries , the Stone , the Gout , the Wolfe , the Phagedaena , and an hundred other horrid incurable Evils , such as Pherecides , Antiochus , and Herod were tormented with , or that fearful sicknesse of Leuthare , which was so raging and furious , that she did eat her own flesh , and drink her blood in the extremity of the pain : Or if they might see those Evills , which man himselfe hath sought and found out for himself ; as emulations , warres , bloodshed , confusion , and mutual destruction ; Is there any doubt to be made , think you , but they would wish themselves freed from such a miserable estate ; or that their intellectuall light were were quite extinguished , that they might not behold such horrid and manifold calamities . Plato imputed the suspension of Reason in Infants , and the hallucinations of Childhood to the terrour and astonishment of the Soules , which he supposed them to be possessed with , because of their sudden translation from the Empyreal light , into the darke and grosse prisons of flesh , and this inferiour World ; as if such a strange and unexpected change ( like a great and violent fall , ) had quite doated them , and cast asleep their intellectuall faculties . Proclus assisted this conjecture of Plato , with another argument drawne from the mutability , and the multitude of Worldly Events , which in the uncertaine state of this life , the Soules were made subject unto . Adde to this , that the merriest portion of life , wihch is youth , is in both sexes bedewed with tears , and the flowers of it are sullied , and fade away with much weeping , and frequent sadne●se . Children also want not their sorrowes : The Rod blasteth all their innocent joyes , and the sight of the School-master turnes their mirth into mourning . Nay that last Act of life , which is the most desirable to the Soul , I mean old Age , is the most miserable . The plenteous Evills of frail life fill the old : Their wasted Limbs the loose skin in dry folds Doth hang about ; their joynts are numm'd and through Their veines not blood , but rheumes and waters flow . Their trembling bodies with a staffe they stay , Nor doe they breath , but sadly sigh all day : Thoughts tire their hearts , to them their very mind Is a disease ; their Eyes no sleep can find .

Adde to these usuall infirmities , the confluence of adventious maladies : For all the former distempers and corruptions of life gather themselves together , and make head in old age ; when the inward strength , and expulsive power of Nature is decayed , when wee are almost dead , then do they revive and rage most of all . Rivers are no where more full , nor more foule then towards the Channell-end . But this generall decay I acknowledge to be a great benefit , because it drives away all voluptuous and unseemly delights from the aged , that their Soules may be lively and in health , when the hour of dissolution comes . And indeed it is necessary , that griefes and unpleasantnesse should lay hold upon age , because men ( who are alwaies unwilling to think of dying , ) may be thereby weaned from the delights of life , and learn to dye before the day of death . Seeing then , that the temporal life is in all its portions so full of misery , it is not irrational to conclude , that Soules ( if they were praeexistent , ) would be very unwilling to submit to this sad Bondage of flesh and blood . Nor do I wonder that Isis , in his sacred Book , writes , that the Soules , when they were commanded to enter into the bodies , were astonished , and suffered a kind of Deliquium , or traunce ; and that they did hisse and murmure , like to the suspirations of wind . Camephes sets down their complaints : 〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉 , &c. Miserable wretches ! in what have we so foulely trespassed , what offense so heinous and worthy of so horrible a punishment have we committed , as to be shut up and imprisoned for it , in these moist and cold carkasses ? Our Eyes from henceforth shall not behold the Divine spirits , for wee shall onely peepe through two small Spheres made of grosse and corrupt humours . When we look towards Heaven , we shall have onely the liberty to grone for the presence of our Creatour , but see him we may not ; for we shall see then by a Secondary light , which is the light of the lower World , and not be permitted to use our own discerning light , &c. We shall hear our Kinred rejoycing in the air , and mourn that we are not partakers of their liberty , &c. But thou great Father and maker of Spirits , who doest dispose of all thy works as it pleaseth thee , appoint we beseech thee some terme to our sad bondage , and let this punishment passe quickly over us , that we may be restored again to our celestiall liberty , to behold ( without obstruction ) the perfect beauty of all thy works , &c. They comforted themselves with the thought of the bodies dissolution , and petitioned before th●ir captivity , that their inlargement might be hastned : when they were excluded from the heavenly life , there was no greater blessing then the death of the body , which sets an end to the earthly . Hee that loves death , hates a transitory corrupt condition , and he that hates his own life here , shall keep it unto life erernall .

I do verily believe , that to him that throughly considers it , no part of life can be desireable . It is altogether so full of sorrowes ; It is a peece weaved of calamities and troubles , yea , life it selfe is its owne vexation . As those that travell in rough , uneven and mountainous roades are alwaies gasping and weary , which makes them sit down often , to recover their spent breath , and refresh themselves , that having reach'd the brow and crown of the hill , they may walk onwards with more delight , and be at leasure to feed their Eyes with the beauteous prospect , and freshnesse of those green & flowry plaines which lye extended before them : So this troublesome and tumultuous life hath need of death , for its ease and repast , as a state in which it doth repaire and strengthen it selfe against the fair Journey and progresse of eternity . Frail and weary life cannot last , and hold out untill the Indiction of immortality ; So long a journey cannot be performed without subsiding ; A resting place must be had : Death is the Inne where we take up , that we may with more chearfullnesse set forwards , and be enabled to overtake , and to keep company with eternity . Nay , so fraile is life , that it cannot expect , or stay for the day of death without some prevening recreations : It travells by Stages , and Periodical Courses , where it breathes , and gathers strength against the next motion . As tyred travellours make frequent Pauses in the very Roade , and cannot stay for the refreshment of lodging ; So life , by reason of the importunity , and the multitude of humane troubles , cannot endure or hold out till it reacheth the Inne , which is death ; but is driven to rest in the shade upon the way-side ; for sleep ( the shadow of death ) is nothing else but a reparation of weary and fainting life . So much more excellent then life is death , that life is driven to be sustained by so many deaths , that is to say , the mortal life is necessarily preserved by sleep , which is the usher & Masquerade of death . Reedes , because they are very weak and brittle , are strengthned with distinct knots or joynts , which makes their length firme , and keepes them from cleaving : So life , if it were not refreshed and mantained still by successive , set allevations of certain prolusions of death , would fall asunder and vanish upon its first appearance .

Hitherto we have discoursed of life , let us now consider death , and compare it with life . If death in its shadow and projection be the recreation of life , how delightfull will it be at home , or in it self ! Wearinesse is a preparative which makes rest pleasant : That Recipe which succeedes bitternesse , must needs be sweet . Charidemus used to say , That through all temporal things there was a chaine drawne , whereof one link was pain , and the other pleasure : That these succeeded one another , and so ( said he ) after great sorrowes there come greater joyes . What greater sorrowes can there be , then the sorrowes of life ? There is therefore no greater pleasure then the pleasure of death , which succeed those great sorrows . Phalaris said , That men held life to be pleasant , because they suspected death to be grievous and irksome . He speaks after the sense of the people , and abuseth life , not esteeming it to be good , but because he thinks death to be Evill . I shall crosse his saying , and inferre that death should be esteemed pleasant , because wee are sure that life is painfull : But there is an appearance of something like errour , because we see many here , that passe through their whole lives without any troubles or discontents . That felicity is rare and adulterate , and happens most commonly to those that desire it not : look not upon those few which escape in this storme , but upon those which are drowned : these last are innumerable , thought it is thought otherwise , because they are sunk into the bottom , and cannot be seen .

Admit not , I beseech thee , for a testimony against● Death , those ejulations and tears which darken Funerals , and make foul weather in the fairest faces . Opinion makes the people compassionate , and they bewail not the party that is dead , but their owne frailty . Call not for evidence to the teares of strangers , because thou knowest not whence they flow ; but call for it to thine own , for none of us is happy or miserable but in his own sense which makes us any thing . What reason hast thou to think life better then death , because others mourne when thou dyest , who when thou wert born , didst weep thy selfe ? It is madnesse to judge our selves miserable , because others think so . The solemnities of death are contrary to the ceremonies of life . At the birth of man others laugh , but he himself weeps . At his death others weep , but surely hee rejoyceth , unlesse his ill life hath made his death deadly . Nor must thou think that his joy is either little or none at al , because it is not manifested unto thee : Thou mayst lye watching by the side of one that dreams of Heaven , & is conversing with Angels , but unlesse hee tells it thee when he is awaked , thou canst discover no such thing while he sleepes . The Infant that is born weeping , learns to laugh in his sleep , as Odo and Augustine have both observed : So , he that bewailed his birth with tears , welcomes the shadow of his death with smiles : He presaged miseries to follow his nativity , and beatitude his dissolution . Weeping is natural ; tears know their way without a g●ide : Mirth is rude , and comes on slowly , and very late , nor comes it then without a supporter and a leader : It must be taught , and acquired . Weeping comes with the Infant into the world ; Laughing is afterwards taught him ; the Nurse must both teach , and invite him to it . When he sleeps , then he sips and tasteth joy ; when he dies , then he sucks and drinkes it . Mourning and grief are natural , they are born with us ; Mirth is slow-paced , and negligent of us : The sense of rejoycing ( if we beleeve Avicenna ) comes not to the most forward child till after the fortieth day . Men therefore weep at thy death , because it is an experiment they have not tryed ; and they laugh at thy birth , because the miseries of thy life must not be born by them . Thou onely art the infallible diviner of thy own frail condition , who refusest it with teares , which are the most proper expressions of unwilling , & constrained nature .

But as the ceremonies of Life and Death are contrary , so he that is born , and he that dyes , have different events . Death to some seems to destroy all , but she restores all : By discomposing things she puts them in their order : For he that inverts things that were be●ore inverted , doth but reduce them to their right Positure . The Funeral rite of the T●bitenses ( who are certain East-Indians ) is to turn the inside of their garments outward ; they manifest that part which before was hidden , and conceale that part which before was manifest ; by which they seeme , in my opinion , to point at the liberty of the soul in the state of death , and the captivity of the body , whose redemption must bee expected in the end of the world . This inversion by death is reparation , and a preparative for that order wherein all things shall be made new . Most true is that saying of the Royal Preacher , 〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉 . A good name is above precious ointment , and the day of death is better then the day of ones birth . But thou wilt ask , To whom is the day of death better than the day of his nativity ? It is in the first place to him that dies ; True ( thou wilt say ) if he be a just and holy man ; Yea ( say I ) though he be wicked . Who doubts that there can happen in all their lives a better day to the just and honest , then the day of death , which frees them both from seeing , and from feeling the miseries which are in this world ? As for the unjust , it is most certain , that no day can be more beneficiall to them , then that which sets an end to their impieties , tyranny , perjury , and sacriledge . To deny a sword to one that would murther himself , is benevolence ; to deny money to a Gamester that would presently cast it away , is courtesie ; and to deny life to those that would use it to their owne damnation , is Mercy , and not Judgement . But to whom besides these is the day of death better then the day of life ? Certainly to God Almighty ; because in that day when the wicked dye , his Justice on them , and his Mercy towards his own are conspicuous to all , and acknowledged by all . And to whom else ? Not to speak of the rich and amb●tious , It is good to all men , to the whole Creation , and to Nature it self : For in that day the fair order and prerogative of Nature is vindicated from the rage and rape of lustfull , intemperate persons : It becomes constant , consonant , and inviolable , by putting off those gross vestiments which make her productions subject to the assaults and violence of man , who is the most perverse and shamelesse defacer of Gods Image in himself , and the most audacious and abhominable contemner of his Ordinances in his works , by using them to a contrary end , and quite different from that which their wise Creator made them for .

But let us not consider the goodnesse of death by those evils onely which it freeth us from , but by the blessings also which it brings along with it . Their soules are by some men less valued then Fortune and temporal power ; Some cast away their lives to winne a Crowne , yea the Crowne , and the Kingdome of another . They plot to forfeit a Crown of Eternall glory , by usurping a transitory one : They murther their owne soules by shedding the blood of some innocent persons , permitted to be overcome by men , that they might have power with God , and prevail . Shall the short sove●aignty and sway of some small corners and spots of earth be compared to the everlasting triumphs in the Kingdom of Heaven ? The death of the sufferer is in this case the most gainfull ; the more he loseth by it upon earth , his gain is by so much the greater in heaven . The shorter our stay is here , our time above ( if reckon'd from the day of our death ) is the longer , but hath no end at all ; and the more our sufferings are , the greater shall our glory be . Hegesias the Cyrenian , when he praised death , promised not these blessings of Immortality , but onely an end of temporall miseries ; and yet he did so far prevail with his Auditors , that they preferred death to life ; they contemned the one , and so lusted after the other , that they would not patiently expect it , but did impatiently long for it ; they fel upon their own swords , and forced death to come on , by turning life out of doors before her lease was out ; and had not Ptolomie by a special Edict silenced his Doctrine , he had robbed him of more subjects then ever War or the Plague could have taken from him . Before the blessed Jesus had made his entrance through the veile , and opened the way to heaven , the reward of righteousnesse and sanctity was long life , the peculiar blessing of the Pa●riarchs : It was a favour then not to appear before perfect purity , a Judge of infinite , and all-seeing brightnesse , without an Advocate or friend to speak for us , in the strength and heat of irregular youthfulnesse , when not so much as time had subdued or reformed the affections ; but now b●cause Christ is gone thither before , and hath provided a place for us , the greatest blessing , and highest reward of holynesse is short life , and an unseasonable , or a violent death : For those harsh Epithets ( which are but the inventions of fearfull , and sinful livers ) are swallowed up of immort●lity , & an unspeakable heavenly happinesse which crowns and overflowes all those that dye in Christ . Wee consider not those blessings which death leads us to , and therefore it is , that we so frequently approve of our most frivolous , wordly wishes , and sit weeping under the burthens of life , because we have not more laid upon us . A certain groundlesse suspition , that death is evill , will not suffer us to believe it to be good , though the troubles of life make us complement , and wish for it every day . This foolish fear and inconstancy of man , Locmannus ( one of the most antient Sages of Persia , and admitted also into the Society of the Arabian Magi , ) hath pleasantly demonstrated in the person of an Old man , loaded ●ith a gr●at burthen of Wood ; which having quite tyred him , he threw down , and called for death to come and ease him : Hee had no sooner called , but death ( which seldome comes so quickly to those that call for it in earnest , ) presently appeared , and demands the reason , why he called ? I did call thee ( said he ) to help me to lift this burthen oft wood upon my back , which just now fell off . So much are we in love with miseries , that we fear to exchange them with true happiness : we do so doate upon them , that we long to resume them again , after wee have once shaked them off ; being either faithlesse and wavering , or else forgetfull of those future joyes , which cannot be had without the funerall and the death of our present sorrowes .

What man distrest with hunger , if hee sate upon some Barren and Rockie bank , bounded with a deep River , where nothing could be expected but Famine , or the Fury of wild beasts ; and saw beyond that stream a most secure and pleasant Paradise , stored with all kinds of bearing Trees ; whose yielding boughes were adorned and plenteously furnished with most fair and delicate fruites ; If it were told him that a little below , there was a boate , or a bridge to passe over , would refuse that secure conveyance , or be affeard to commit himself to the calm and perspicuous streames , choosing rather to starve upon the brink , then to passe over , and be relieved ? O foolish men ! For Gold , which is digged out of the Suburbs of Hell , we trust our selves to the raging and unstable Seas , guarded with a few planks , and a little pitch ; where onely a Tree ( as Aratus faith ) is the partition betwixt death and us : And after many rough disputes with violent perills , and the fight ●f so many more ; wee perish in the unhappy acquisition of false happinesse ; the Sea either resisting , or else punishing our covetousnesse . But to passe into our Heavenly Country , into the bosome and embraces of Divinity , into a Realm where Fortune reigns not , wee dare not so much as think of it . Who after long banishment , and a tedious pilgrimage , being now come near to his native Country , and the house of his Father , where his Parents , his brethren , and friends expect him with longing , would then turn back , and choose to wander again , when he might have joy , when he might have rest ? God the Father expects us , the blessed Jesus expects us , the mild and mourning Dove doth long and grone for us : The holy Virgin-mother , the Angells our friends , and the Saints our kindred , are all ready to receive us . It is through death that wee must passe unto them : Why grieve we then , yea , why rejoyce wee not to have this passage opened ?

But let us grant that death were not inevitable , yea , that it were in the power of man , and that every one had a particular prerogative given him over destinie ; So that this greatest Necessity were the greatest freedome , yea , that man could not dye , though he desired death : Yet in this very state , would hee be troubled with Fortune and Hope . He would be a fool that would not venture to dye , to enjoy true felicity : That would choose rather to live alwaies in the changeable state of most unchangeable and lasting miseries , then to put an end to them all by dying once . It is madnesse to feare death , which ( if it reigned not upon the Earth ) wee would both desire and pray for . It was wisely adjudged by Zaleucus , that death ought to be publickly proclaimed , though men had been immortall . Had death been arbitrary , and at every mans pleasure , I believe we had esteemed it as desireable as any other joy ; now because it is Imperial , and above us , let it not seem too much , if wee grant it to be tollerable . It was absurdly said by on● , that death was a necessary Evill , and ought therefore to be patiently born . His Inference was good , though from a bad Principle : Death is rather a necessary good : And if necessity makes Evils to be tolerable , there is more reason , it should make good so . Death because it is good , should be made much of ; and wee should rejoyce that it is necessary , because that makes it certain . How great a good is that , by which it is necessary that we be not miserable ! Which frees the captive without ransome , dismisseth the oppressed without the consent of the oppressour , brings home the banished in spite of the banisher , and heal●s the sicke without the pain of Physick : Which mends all that Fortune marred ; which is most just ; which repaires and makes even all the disorders and inequalities made by time and chance ; which is the blessed necessity that takes away necessary Evills ? He had erred less● , if he had mentioned a necessity of bearing life patiently , whose more proper definition that sorry proverbe is ; for it casts us into necessary Evills against our will , and is the cause that wee willfully meddle with Evills that are unnecessary . It is a discreet method of nature , that infuseth the Soules into the body in such a state that is not sensible of their captivity , lest they should murmur at the decrees of the great Archiplast . What wise man that were neare the terme of his appointed time , if he were offered to have life renew'd , would consent to be born again , to be shut up in flesh , & fed for nine months with excrementitious obscenities , to bear all the ignominies of Nature , all the abuses of Fortune , to resume the ignorance of Infancie , the feares of Childhood , the dangers of youth , the cares of manhood , and the miseries of old age ? I am of ●eliefe that no man did ever live so happily , as to be pleased with a repetition of past life . These Evills which with our owne consent wee would not have reiterated , wee are driven into without our consent : They are necessarily inferred , that they may be willingly borne , to shew the necessity of Patience . Wee are born on condition , that wee must dye . Death is the price or reward of life : It is the Statute-law of mankind , and that ought to be born as a publick good , which ( were it not already enacted ) would be the spontaneous petition of all men . Certainly if life were without the Jubile of death , it were just to refuse it , as a servitude which hath no year of release .

Let us now clearly prove , that death is not Evill , out of her assimilation and conformity to those things , which are most excellently good . None leade a better life , then those that live so , as if they were dead , Rom. C●ap. 6. ver. 7. For he that is dead , is freed from Sinne. Therefore that which is the exemplar of goodnesse , cannot be Evill : The onely true praise of the living , is to assimilate death : He is the most commendable liver , whose life is dead to the World , and he is the most honest that lives the least to it ; whose Soul listens not to the body , but is at a constant distance from it , as if they were dissolved ; or though it sojournes in it , yet is not defiled by it , but is separated from sensuality , and united to Divinity . What is the reason ( thinkest thou , ) that the Divine Secrets are revealed to men most commonly in their sleep ; because that similitude of death is most pleasing to God . Life is a wild and various madnesse , disturbed with passions , and distracted with objects ; Sleepe ( like death ) settles them all ; it is the minds Sabbath , in which the Spirit , freed from the Senses , is well disposed and fitted for Divine intimations . The Soul is then alive to it selfe , while the body reigns not , and the affections are ecclipsed in that short Interlunium of the temporall life .

Philosophie , or humane Knowledge is nothing else but a Contemplation of death ; not to astonish or discourage men , but first to informe , and then to reform them : for the fruit of Philosophy is Virtue , and Virtue is nothing else but an imitation of death , or the Art of dying well , by beginning to dye while we are alive . Virtue is a certain Primrose , a prolusion or Assay of dying . Therefore that by which man becomes immortall and eternall is the preface , and the Inch●ation of death . This is the main drift of Philosophy , to make life comfortable by conforming it unto death , and to make death immortality by regulating life . Death is intollerable to him only that hath not mortified his desires , while he yet lives ; but expects to swallow up death , and all the powers of it at once ; that is to say , in the hour of death . We cut our meate , and feed on it by bits , lest we should be choaked by swallowing it whole ; so death , if it be assayed and practised by degrees , will be both pleasant in the tast , and wholsome in the digestion ; if we mortifie one affection to day , and another to morrow . Hee that cannot carry a great burthen at once , may carry it all by portions . Philosophy acts the part of death upon the Stage of life : it kills sensuality , and makes death most easie to be born by teaching us to dye dayly . What can be more grievous then death unto him , who together with his own , feeles the paine of a thousand other dying cupidities ? We faile not to bewaile the losse of one thing , whither honour , pleasure , or a friend : How much more when we loose all at a blow , and loose eternal life in one short minute ? The Soule of the wise man frees her selfe from the body in an acceptable time , she casts off the delectations of the flesh , and the cares of this World while it is day-light , that shee may enjoy her self , and be acquainted with God before the night comes . She finds by experience , that her forces are more vigorous , and her light more discerning , when she is not sullied with Earthly negotiations , and the gross● affections of the body ; she finds that covetousnesse , love and feare permit her not to see the truth , and that the affaires of the body are the Remora's of the Spirit : and therefore she concludes , that he must neglect the cryes of the flesh , and be attentive onely to the voyce of God ; and upon these considerations , shee shakes off that Bondage ; she deserts the familiarity and consultations of blood , that she may advise with , and discerne the most clear light of truth ; she casts off pleasures , by which even Spirits are made subject to sense and pollution . The truth is most pure , and will not be manifested , but to the pure and the undefiled : Therefore all the scope and the end of Virtue is , to separate the Soul from the body , and to come as near death as possibly may be , while wee are yet alive . This is the cause that wise men do so much love and long for death , at least they fear it not . How can he feare death , who by dying passeth into the life of the blessed ? Who hath already delivered himselfe from more feares and inconveniences then death can free him from ? Yea from those dangers which make death fearfull ? Who before his dying day , hath disarmed and overcome death ? Shall he that all his life-time desired to be separated from the body , repine at the performance and fullfilling of it ? It were most ridiculous , if hasting towards home , thou wouldst refuse the helpe of another to convey thee thither with more speed , and be angry at thy arrival in that Port , whither thou didst bend thy course since the first day thou didst set forth . There is no man that seeking for a friend , will not rejoyce when he hath found him . No man will be angry if another perfects what he did begin , but was not able to finish . Nature by death perfects that which Virtue had begun in life , and the endeavour dies not , but is continued , and thrives by a necessary transplantation . While he yet lived , he denyed himselfe the use of the body , because it hindr●d the course of the Soul ; and the body dying , he doth but persist in the same just denyall . It is a greater pleasure to want , then not to use what wee doe not want .

This Correlation of Death and Virtue I shall exhibite , or lay out to your view , by a discussion of those honours which each of them procures . As Virtue by the Consideration of death , ordereth and preserves her Majesty ; so by imitating death , she obtaines the reverence and admiration of all : What more reverend thing can wee labour for , then that , which by our reverence of it , makes the worst livers to be reputed not bad ? As those who are Evill , are loath to believe themselves to be such , because of an innate reverence due from every man to Virtue , which makes them love the repute of Excellencie , though not inherent , and rejoyce to be accounted good of themselves , or in their own esteem , though they be evill , taking pleasure in that self-deception : So those who have beene vitious in their lives ( out of the reverence wee owe to death , ) wee dare not speak evill of when they are once dead ; Nay , it is not civil , nor pious , to mention the dead without commendation , either by praise , or else by prayer , & our Christian well wishes , as if they had been most deserving in their lives . So powerfull is the Majesty of death , that it makes the most contemptible , venerable . Those we most envie while they live , we speak well of when they are dead . Excellent is that observation of Mimnermus , Against the Virtuous man we all make head , And hate him while he lives , but praise him dead .

Envy pursues us not beyond the grave , and our honour is not free and secure til we are layd in it . That humble and quiet dust stops the lying and malicious mouth . Socrates foresaw that his draught of hemlock would ( after his death ) make his very enemies his worshippers : He saw his Statues erected by the same decree that did cast him downe : And what was the motive ( thinkst thou ) that made his enemies worship him dead , whom they persecuted living ? There is amongst the people a secret tradition that whispers to them , that those who are freed from the miseries of this life , live happily in another world . Now happinesse even in their opinion is worthy of honour ; therefore the honour or veneration which death exacts , is a certain tribute , or a debt rather that is due to happinesse ; and if for this thou wilt advise with thy Aristotle , he will not deny it . The Lacedemonians bestowed the Olympick palms and honours ( which whosoever won in his life time , he was accounted most happy ) upon all that dyed , without exception , or extenuation ; adorning the statutes of some , and the tombes of all with the green and flourishing Laurel , esteeming every one of the dead as happy as the most fortunate Victor that lived . The antient Romans held the greatest honour of the living to consist in the renown of their dead Ancestors : They judged him to be highly honoured , that was enjoyned by any dying persons to perform some extraordinary service for them , as an Embassie , or some other weighty negotiation : And * * One of the Counsellors of Alexand the great . Callistratus in his first book of Questions affirmes , That Embassadors so employed are the most honourable ; because that the suffrages and election of dying men is most venerable , as being then upon the borders of immortality , and discerning more then those who are yet in the midst of life , and more in the clouds of thick-sighted humanity . That honour is the greatest which is done us by the honourable . Nor is this glory of death a Relative of the Soul only ; Looke well upon the body , that provision of the worms , a frail and perishing objects , but ful of Majesty . We are nothing so moved , nor doe we so gravely compose our selves at the presence of a King , as at the sight of a dead body . With how much awfulnesse doth it lye along ! with what a secret mysterious command doth it check all about it ! It is a silent , abstruse Philosopher , and makes others so too : Nor is it onely venerable , but sacred , and the Depositum , and Index of an almighty Restauratour . The honour of Sepulture is a part of Religion .

Now , if it be argued that goodnesse consists onely in utility , or benefits , it follows that nothing is good , but that which profiteth : Death then is the best , and the greatest subordinate good of all ; for the death of others benefits those that see it , and their own death is most profitable to those that mind it . The Lamae ( who are the Priests of the Tehitenses ) are in this point the most excellent Philosophers in the world : When they prepare to celebrate prayers , The pipes of death used by the Lamae . they summon the people together with the hollow , whispering sounds of certain Pipes made of the bones of dead men ; they have also Rosaries , or Beads made of them , which they carry alwayes about them , and they drink constantly out of a Skull : Being asked the reason of this Ceremony by Antonie Andrada , who first found them out ; one that was the chiefest amongst them , told him , that they did it , Ad Fatorum memoriam . They did therefore pipe with the bones of dead men , that those sad whispers might warn the people of the swift and invisible approach of death , whose Musick they termed it , and affirmed it to be the most effectuall of any ; That the Beads they wore did put them in minde of the fraile estate of their bodies , and did in prayer-time regulate and humble their thoughts ; That a constant commemoration of death was as beneficial to the Soul as devotion , & therefore they carryed them alwaies about them as the powefull Momento's of their approaching departure out of the Land of the living . To this he added , that their drinking in a skull did mortifie their affections , represse pleasures , and imbitter their tast , lest they should relish too much the delights of life ; Lastly , he added that this constant representation of death , was an Antidote against all the sinfull Excesses and deviations of man . With the same Medicine they secured themselves from other iniquities : When they were to swear concerning any thing , they laid their hands upon certain Images set with the bones of dead men , by which ceremony they were put in mind of the last Judgement , and the Account which the dead and the Quick must give in that great , that impartiall and censorious day . Certainly this was no barbarous , but a very humane and elegant Philosophy , which taught men to season , and redeeme all the daies of their lives , with the memory of the one day of their death . Admirable was the memory of Mithridatés , who was master of two and twenty Languages , and could readily discourse in every one of them ; and no lesse happy was that of Cyrus , Themist●cles and Seneca ; but a constant memory of mans miseries , and his death exceeds them all . As the rootes of the tree in the I le of Malega , upon that side which lookes towards the East , are an Antidote or preservative , but those which spread Westward are poysonous and deadly : So the Cogitations of a Christian , which are the Roots by which hee stickes to Heaven ( for every Christian is a Tr●e reversed , ) when they look towards the West , or setting point of life , are healing and salutiferous ; but those which reflect still upon temporall things , and his abode in this World are destructive and deadly . Nature doth every minute commend unto us this memoriall of death . Hermes in his sacred book contends , that respiration was given to man , as a sign of that last efflation , in which the Soul parts from the body . Wee should therefore as often as wee breath , remember death , when we shall breath our last , when the Spirit shall returne unto him that gave it . Our whole life is nothing else but a repeated resemblance of our last expiration ; by the emission of our breath we doe retaine it , and ( as I may say ) spin it out . God gave it not continual and even , like fluent streames , or the calme and unwearied Emanations of light , but refracted and shifting , to shew us that we are not permanent but transitory , and that the Spirit of life is but a Celestial Gale lent us for a time , that by using it well , we may secure it Eternally . Another Hermetist adviseth us , Adorare relliquias ventorum , to make much of , and to honour our Soules , which are the breathings , and last dispensations of the still fruitful , and liberal creator : This we can never do but by a frequent study of our dissolution , and the frailty of the body . Of such an effectuall goodness is death , that it makes men good before it comes , and makes sure of Eternity by a virtuous disposing of time . Thinke not that evill , which sends from so far the beams of its goodnesse . There is no good liver but is a debtor to death , by whose lendings , and premunitions we are furnished and fitted for another world .

The certainty of it , and the incertainty of the time and manner , ( which is the onely circumstance that seemes to offend us , ) if it were seriously considered , deserves to be the most pleasing & acceptable ; for amongst all the wondrous Ordinances of Divine providence , there is none more Excellent for the Government of man then death , being so wisely disposed of , that in the height of incertainty it comprehends and manifests an infallible certainty . God would have us to be alwaies good , to keepe in his likenesse and Image : Therfore it is his will , that we should be alwaies uncertaine of our most certain death . Such is his care of us , lest the knowledge of a long life , and a late death should encourage us to multiply our transgressions , as the notice of a swift dissolution might dishearten and astonish us . But being left now in a possibility of either , we are taught to live soberly , and to expect the time of our change in all holynesse and watchfullnesse . The possibility of dying shortly , doth lessen the cares of life , and makes the difficulties of Virtue easie . Bondage and Slavery ( if it be but short , ) is to those that suffer it the lighter by so much : And a large allowance of time makes us slow to Virtue , but a short portion quickens us , and the incertainty of that very shortnesse makes us certaine to be good . For who would weep , and vexe himself for worldly provisions , if he certainly knew that he should live but one month ? and how dares he laugh , or be negligent of his Salvation , that knowes not whither hee shall live to see one day more , yea , one hour ? The incertainty of death makes us suspect life , and that suspition keepes us from sinning . The world was never fouler , nor more filled with abominations , then when life was longest , when abused Nature required an Expiation by waters , and the generall submersion of her detestable defilers . Theophrastus did unjustly to raile at Nature , and condemne her of partiality ▪ when he envyed the long life of some plants and inferiour creatures , as the Oake , the Hart , the Ravens ; some of which live to feed and flye up and down in the World above five hundred years . He quarrelled with the wise dispensations of Divinity , because a slight suite of feathers , and a renew'd dresse of greene leaves could weare out a building that lodged a rationall Soul , and the breath of the Almighty . Both his wish and his reason were erroneous : He erred in desiring long life , and in judging happinesse to consist in the multitude of yeares , and not the number of good workes . The shortnesse of life is lengthned by living well : When life was reckond by centuries , the innumerable sins of the living so offended God , that it repented him to have made impenitent man : Those that sinned out of confidence of life he punished with sudden destruction . That long liv'd generation had made the world unclean , and being polluted by their lives , it was purged by their deaths . He shorten'd afterwards the lease of life , reducing it to an hundred and twenty years , that by the diligence of frequent death , he might reform the past disorders of long life , and prevent them for the future , teaching both sexes to amend their lives by giving them death for their next neighbours . So beneficiall is death , so much profits the certainty of it , and as much the incertainty : The ignorance of the day of death is in effect the same with the knowledge of it ; the first makes us watch , lest it come upon us unawares ; and the last ( though it might name the day to us ) yet could it not arme us better against it , perhaps not so well . This incertainty of dying , certainly secures us from many errors ; it makes us prudent , provident , and not evill . Death therefore is a device of the Almighty , and a wise instrument of divine policy . Zaleucus so highly approved of it , that he was about to enact and proclaime a Law for dying , had he not found it already published by the edict of Nature : And in his Preface to those Laws made for the Locrenses , he warns them , 〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉 , &c. To have alwayes before their eyes that time , which is to every one the end of life , because a hearty repentance for all former injuries seiseth upon all men that thinke of death , and an earnest desire or wishing , that all their actions in life had been just . Wherefore it is expedient that in all our dealings and thoughts death should act a part , and be our familiar counsellor , ever present with us ; so shall we be carefull to doe all things virtuously and justly . Death then is most necessary to govern mankinde , because the memory of it keeps us in awe , and conformable to virtue . All Commonwealths that follow the method of Nature , must approve of this Law of Zaleucus , and death in all their consultations should guide their lives .

Certainly in the Government of the rebellious Generation of Man , Death hath been the most awfull Engine of the Deity ; without this stern he guided them not : When man was immortall , God saw it necessary to preserve his immortality by death ; he injoyned the Law of Abstinence to Adam , under the penalty of dying , which is continued still by the same artifice of death , lest iniquities should be immortall , & wickedness should escape punishment : by the patience and submission of his only Son to death he restored dead men to life , he conferred upon him all his lost honours , renewd and confirmed his old prerogative , and together with the salvation of his Soule gave him a sure promise , that his body allso should be made Immortal ; but in all these favours , and after full reconciliation , he would not remove death , but continued it still , and the incertainty as well as the certainty of it . This divine devise of death so pleased God , and was so necessary for the good of man , that though by the merits of his dying Son he changed all the former things , blotting out ordinances , abolishing Ceremonies , & opening the gates of Heaven to all believers , yet would not he Exterminate death . It was out of his mercy that he refused to abrogate it , that while corruption reigned , death also might reign over it , lest this poyson should want its Antidote . We have therefore no just cause to complain of death , which is an Invention conducing to our great good , and the incertainty of the time ( though it most vexeth us ) is notwithstanding the most beneficial Circumstance that attends it . The time of life is certainly known , & there is but one entrance to the light of this World : The Ceremony of dying is not formal ; It keeps not to one time , nor one manner , but admits of all times , and many manners . Life comes into the World but one way , but hath many waies to go out . It was the benevolence of God to open so many doors to those that flye for refuge . One way is more then enough to find out dangers , but to escape them , many are but necessary . Death is not a burthen of seaven or nine monthes , but life must have time before it sets forth . And what are the first encounters of it ? Tears ●nd Bonds . It cannot avoyd Evills , and it is afeared to bear them ; therefore it delaies time , and when it cannot lurk any longer , it comes forth Crying . Death leads us forth to joy and liberty : Therefore it stayes not , it seeks no corners nor protractions . Nor doth death free us onely from suffering Evills , but keeps us also from doing any : To be good every day , thou m●st dye dayly . The incertainty also of the time of death , and the manner of it , like a busie Monitour , warnes thee to do good , and to be good at all times , and in every place , private or publick : And the inevitablen●sse of it takes away all Excuse or pretensions for thy impreparation .

The Glory of death , is also much augmented by its facility , in redressing the difficulties of life . It is not without the Divine counsel , and a speciall priviledge that the Soule of man is so easily parted from the body ; the life of beasts is more tenacious , and will suffer much indignitie and fury before it leaves them . There is n● living creature more fraile , none more weak then man ; the lightest str●ake fells him ; the Soul is very nice , and will quickly cast off the body if it persists but in the least Indisposition . A single hair killed Fabius , and a Grape Anacreon ; these contemptible instruments destroy'd them as effectually as the thunderbolt did Esculapius . Coma dyed as easily as he could wish , and Baptist a Mirandulus as he could think : His Soule quitted his body without any grudging , without a disease , without poyson , without violence , or any fatall mischance . No door can keep death out , it defeats life with its own weapons , and kills us with the very Cordials and comforts of it . Perhap● no kind of death is more violent then th●● which sets upon us with the forces o● l●●e , because it kills when life is most vigorous and pleasant . Their owne wishes have destroyed many : And life hath oftentimes perished by her own contrivements . Clidemus was killed with honour , Diagoras with joy , Plato with rest , and Philemon with laughter . This last is both a merry , and a frequent destroyer , and freed Sicily from one Tyrant . Death also makes use sometimes of our very virtues to exanimate us : Shame killed Diodorus , and the Mother of Secundus the Philosopher dyed with blushing , and an excessive modestie . Life is a fraile possession , it is a flower that requires not rude and high winds , but will fall in the very whispers and blandishments of fair weather . It is folly to labour to retain that which wil away ; to fly from that which will meet us every where , yea , in the way we fly , is a vain and foolish industry . Whither we seek death or avoyd it , it will find us out : Our way to fly , and our very flight end both in death ; by hasting from it , we make hast to it . Life is a journey , whose end cannot be mist ; it is a steady ayming at dissolution : Though we fetch wide Compasses , and traverse our way never so often , we can neither lengthen it , nor be out of it : What path soever we take , it is the Port-roade to death . Though youth and age are two distant Tropicks of life , yet death is as near to the one , as to the other : And though some live more , and some lesse , yet death is their equal neighbour , and will visit the young as soon as the old . Death is a Crosse , to which many waies leade , some direct , and others winding , but all meet in one Center : It matters not which thou takest , nor whither thou art young or aged : But if thou beest young , thou maist come sooner thither , then the old , who is both doting and weary . It was necessary that a Sanctuary being provided for the distressed , the way to it should be easie , pervious , and at an indifferent distance from all parts . Good should be diffusive , and the gate that leads to it , must be without doors and bolts . The entrance into this life , is narrow and difficult , it is difficultly attained , difficultly retained , and lyes alwaies in the power of another . Every man may take life from us , none can take death . Life is subject to the Tyranny of men , but death is not ; life makes Tyrants , and death unmakes them . Death is the slaves prerogative ●oyall , and the Sabbath of the afflicted . Leo Iconomachus the Emperor , made the birth of both sexes tributary : but death never paid taxation . It was not lawfull in his reigne to get Children without paying for them ; every Infant so soon as borne , was to give him contribution , they paid then the Excise of life . Death onely frees us from these Impositions of Tyrants .

And wilt thou then condemn liberty , and that maturity of death by which it ripens every age ? wilt thou the divine liberality blame , because thy life is short , or may be so ? thou hast no reason to find fault with the years already given thee , because thou shalt not have more : thou mayst as well quarrel with Nature , because she made not thy dimensions larger , and thy body heavier by eighty or a hundred pounds : he that measured thy proportion , measured thy time too : and too much of this last would have been as troublesome and unweildy as too much of the first : for Long life , opprest with many woes , Meets more , the further still it goes .

Death in every age is seasonable , beneficial , and desirable : It frees the old man from misery , the youthfull from sin , and the infant from both . It takes the aged in the fullnesse of their time ; It turnes the flowers of youth into fruit ; and by a compendious secret improvement , matures infancy , leading it into the Gate of Heaven , when it cannot go one step upon Earth , and giving it the wings of a Dove to flye , and be at rest , before it can use its feet .

To these past arguments of the goodnesse of death , I shall adde another . Death in the old world , ( before the manifestation of God in the flesh , ) was the publick index , or open signe of hidden divinity . It is the gift of God , who gives nothing but what is good . The Divell playing the Ape , and labouring to imitate the Inimitable Jehovah , did by asserting death to be the greatest good , mainly fortifie those abominable rites and honours conferred upon him by his blind worshipers : When they petitioned him for the greatest blessing that the Gods could give to man , he ( by the permission of the true God whom they had deserted ) would within three daies strangle them in their beds , or use some other invisible meanes to set an end to their daies . Thus he served Triphonius , Agamedes , and Argia for her three Sons : This miserable mother requested of him , that hee would give the best thing to her children , that could be given to men : her petition was granted , and within a very short time they received that which she thought to be the worst , namely death . So great is the ods betwixt seeming to be , and being really : betwixt opinion and truth : yea that death which we judge to be the worst , I meane the immature , is oftentimes the best . What greater good had deckt great Pompey's Crown Then death , if in his honours fully blown , And mature glories he had dyed ? those piles Of huge successe , lowd fame & lofty stiles Built in his active youth , long , lazie life Saw quite demolished by ambitious strife : He lived to weare the weake and melting snow Of lucklesse Age , where garlands seldom grow . But by repining fate torne from the head . Which were them once , are on another shed .

Neither could I ever grant that the death of Infants and Children , though commonly bewail'd as unseasonable , were the parents misfortunes , but the courtesies rather , and mercies of the almighty . To omit Amphiaraus , and other Ethnick instances ; I shall make use of a true and Christian History , which in these later years , was the great admiration of King Philips Court. Didacus Vergara , a most noble hopefull ●outh , adorned with all those vertues which ●eautifie a blooming life , was famous in the mouths of all good men , and as deare in their hearts . But what was the reward ( thinkest thou ) of his virtuous life ? An immature and almost a sudden death ; So that it is not to be doubted , but it was a divine favour . Being to go into bed , he spoke to his sister , O what manner of night will this be unto me ! I beseech you , deare sister , furnish me with some candles , and leave one to burn by me . Abought midnight he suddenly called , so that all the familie was awaked , and got up ; to whom he told that he should dye that night ; and desired them to send presently for his Confessour . They all imagined that he had been troubled with some dream , especially his Father , a most renowned Physitian , when he felt his pulse to beate well and orderly . But notwithstanding all this , they omitted not to send for his Confessour , who was Gasper Pedroza : He ( as if touched with some Divine presension ) was at that dead time of the night awake , and being come to the sorrowfull Father , he told him , that Didacus was expected in another World before day , that the Virgin-Q●eene of Heaven had revealed so much to him , and that hee would be gone as soon as the Sacraments could be administred unto him . It fell out just so : For those sacred sol●mnities were no sooner ended , but he was dissolved , as if he had stayed onely for that spirituall refection to strengthen him in his Journey . He left this dark and low World towards the first breakin gs of the day , and ascending to eternity upon the wings of the morning . He might have past from thence with lesser noise , and in a shorter time ; but he expired more solemnly then so ; and yet without weary accessions , and the Tyranny of sicknesse : He stayed for the saving institutions of his redeemer , the businesse that detain'd him so long , was Heaven , and not the tumults of a tyring and obstinate dissolution ; all this proves it to have been the hand of God , and not an unfortunate , sudden death ; the precise Actions of the deity must be attended with unusuall circumstances . Whome God doth take care for and love , He dies young here , to live above .

There is room enough for life within the compasse of few years , if they be not cast away : Think not that to last long , and to live long is the same thing : every one that hath stayd long upon earth , hath not lived long .

Some men find fault with death , because no experiment can be made of it , without an absolute dissolution : they would dye twice , to trye what kind of state it is , that they may be fitly furnished against the second time , when they must dye in earnest . But this is madness , and were it granted them , the good they pretend would not be performed . For he that will cast away one life without preparing for death , wil not fear to hazard another ; desperate malefactors will take no warning by r●prieves . Besides , what benefit would there be by dying twice , seeing that of necessity they must live twice too , and so be twice miserable , if not twice impious ? It is strange , that these men who fear death , and adjudge it to be evill , should desire to have it doubled , and that which , by their good will , they would not tast once , they will beg to chew and swallow downe twice ; whereas if death were an Evill , it would be so much the lesser by comming but once . The miseries of life are nothing so civill ; they are instant , importunate , and outragious ; they will reinforce themselves , and set upon us twice or thrice , yea , a thousand times . Death is more modest , she wearies us not as long as wee are well : When our disorders have turned the harmony of life into discord and noise , then shee comes to cast those murmurers asleep , and to give the Soul peace : He is no troublesome guest that comes but once . But it were a great happinesse , thou wilt say , if men did experimentally know what it is to dye : Truely this Felicity is not wanting : Death is a most admirable , ingenious Excogitation : Though we dye but once , yet do not we dye at once : We may make , yea we do make many assaies or tryals of dying : Death insinuates it selfe , and seizeth upon us by peecemeals ; it gives us a tast of it self : It is the Cronie , or Consort of life : So soon as we begin to be , w●e begin to wast and vanish ; we cannot ascend to life , without descending towards death : Nay we begin to dye before we appeare to live ; the perfect shape of the Infant is the death of the Embryo , childhood is the death of Infancie , youth of Childhood , Manhood of youth , and old age of Manhood . When we are arrived at this last stage , if we stay any long time in it , and pay not the debt we owe , death requires interest ; she takes his hearing from one , his sight from another , and from some she takes both : The extent and end of all things touch their beginning , neither doth the last minute of life do any thing else , but finish what the first began . We may know also what death is , by the apparition or Image of it . We see it , and make tryal of it assiduously : we cannot act life one day , but wee must act death at night : Life is a Terrace-walke with an Arbour at one end , where we repose , and dream over our past perambulations . This lesser rest , shewes us the greater ; the Soule watcheth when wee sleepe , and Conscience in the Just as well as the unjust will be ruminating on the works of life , when the body is turned into dust . Sleepe is nothing else but death painted in a night-peece ; it is a prelibation of that deepe slumber , out of which we shall not be awaked untill the Heavens be no more : We go to bed under a Scene of Stars and darknesse , but when we awake , we find Heaven changed , and one great luminary giving light to all : We dye in the state of corruption , errours , and mistinesse : But wee shall be raised in glory , and perfection , when these clouds of blacknesse that are carried about with diverse winds , and every Enemy of truth shall vanish for ever , and God alone shall be all in all . We affect sleepe naturally , it is the reparation of man , & a laying by of cares . The Coppy cannot match the pattern : if we love sleep then , why should wee hate the Idaea of it ; why should we feare death , whose shadow refresheth us , which nature never made , nor meant to fright us with ? It was her intention to strengthen our hope of dying , by giving us the fruition of this resemblance of death ; lest we should grow impatient with delay , she favour'd us with this shadow and Image of it , as Ladies comfort themselves with the pictures of their absent lovers . There is no part of life without some portion of death , as dreames cannot happen without sleepe , so life cannot be without death . As sleepe is said to be the shadow of death ; So I think dreams to be the shadowes of life , for nothing deceives us more frequent then it : When we shal be raised from death , we shal not grieve so much because the joys of life were not real , as because there were none at all . It was said by one , that he had rather dream of being tormented in Hell , then glorified in Paradise : for being awaked , he should rejoyce to find himselfe in a soft featherbed , and not in a lake of unquenchable fire : But having dreamt of Heaven , it would grieve him that it was not reall . Paracelsus writes , that the watching of the body is the sleep of the Soul , and that the day was made for Corporeall Actions , but the night is the working-time of Spirits . Contrary natures run contrary courses : Bodies having no inherent light of their own , make use of this outward light , but Spirits need it not . Sun-beams cannot stumble , nor go out of their way . Death frees them from this dark Lantern of flesh . Heraclitus used to say , that men were both dead and alive , both when they dyed , and when they lived : when they lived their Soules were dead , and when they dyed , their Soules revived . Life then ▪ is the death of the Soule , and the life of the body : But death is the life of the Soule , and the death of the body .

I shall return now to prosecute the Commendations of death , because it comes but once . Death ( like the Phoenix ) is onely one , lest any should be ill . That which comes but once , is with most longing looked for , and with most welcome entertained . That poor man , the owner of one Ewe , nourished her in his bosome , she did eate of his meat , and drank out of his Cup , as Nathan exemplified . The Father that hath but one Son , hath more cares , then he that hath many ; so should we be more carefull to provide for death which comes but once , then for the numerous and daily calamities of life : By providing for that one , wee turne the rest all into so many joyes . Whatsoever is rare , whatsoever is pretious , it is single , and but one . There is nothing so rare , nothing that is comparable to a good death . But it is not the universality or diffusivenesse of it that makes it so , but the contempt and the subduing of it ; h●s death is most pretious , by whom death is contemned . Dissolution is not a meere merit , but a debt we owe to nature , which the most unwilling must pay . That wisedome which can make destiny to be her servant , which can turne necessity into virtue , Mortality into Immortality , and the debt we owe to nature into a just right and Title to eternall glory , is very great . What greater advantage can there be , then to make Heaven due to us , by being indebted to nature , and to oblige Divinity by paying a temporal debt ? Clemens called them Golden men , who dyed thus ; that is to say , when it was necessary to dye . They made necessity their free will , when either the publick liberty , the prerogative of reason , or the word of God called for their sufferings : For though death be a debt due to Nature , yet in these causes , Nature doth willingly resigne her right , and God becomes the Creditor . If we pay it unto him before the time of pure resolution , Nature is better pleased with that anticipation , then if we kept our set day : He is the best debtour , that paies before the time of payment . The day of payment by the Covenant of Nature is old age , but the good man paies before the day . If the noblenesse of thy mind will not incite thee to such a forward satisfaction ; let the desire of gaine move thee , for the sooner thou payest , the more thou dost oblige . Hee that suffers an immature death for the good of his Country , for the sacred lawes , or the vindication of the truth of God , and not for his owne vain glory , doth free himselfe from the Natural debt , and doth at the same time make God his debtour , and all mankind ? To a man that dyes thus , all men are indebted : God owes him for the Cause , and men for the effect : The last doth at least set us an example , and the first improves the faith , and gives life to Charity .

Adde to this , that this great good of a passive death , is a voluntary imitation of the Son of God , who laid down his life for the life of the World : And it is also done without our industry ; this great virtue , this glorious perfection requires not our care and activity to bring it about . This death is most pretious and the best , because it is executed by others , and not by ourselves : To suffer death , not to dye , is glorious . If prisoners break their chaines , it is neither their glory , nor their security , but augments their Guilt , and hastens their condemnation : So he that violates his own body , and makes way for the Soul to flye out with his own hands , is damned by the very Act : but if another doth it to him , it is both his Salvation and his Crown . The heathens esteemed it no honour for Captives to have their bonds loosed : It was their freedome , but not their glory . When the jugde himself did break off their Chaines , that they accounted honorable . By this Ceremony did Vespasian and Titus acknowledge the worth of Joseph the Jew : This vindicated his integrity : By cutting his bonds with their Imperial hand , they freed him both from captivity and disgrace . Titus said , that if they would break off his fetters , and not stay to take them off , his honour would be so perfectly repaired by it , as if he had been never bound , nor overcome . The same difference ( in point of honour ) is betwixt the naturall death and the violent : betwixt dying when wee are full of daies , and the death which Tyrants impose upon us , when we are mangled and grinded by their fury . This honour is then greatest , when the body is not dissolved , but distorted and broken into peeces . Certainly the best men have ever perished by the violence of Tyrants ; nature ( to preserve her innocence ) being very backward and unwilling ( as it were ) to take away such great and needfull examples of goodnesse . Treachery and violence were ordained for the just in the d●ath of Abel ; who dyed by the wicked . This better sort of death was ( in him ) consecrated to the best men ; those persons whom Nature respects , and is loath to medle with , envy laies hands upon : Whom the one labours to preferre , the other plotteth to destroy . Nor deals she thus with the good only , but with the eminent and mighty too : thus she served Hector Alexander and Caesar : the goodliest object is alwaies her aim . When Thrasybulus the Astrologer told Alexander the Roman , that he should end his daies by a violent death , he answered , that he was very glad of it , for then ( said he ) I shall dye like an Emperour , like the best and the greatest of men , and not sneak out of the World like a worthlesse , obscure fellow . But the death of these Glorioli was not truly glorious : I have onely mentioned them , because that a passive death ( though wanting religion ) hath made their honour permanent . That death is the truly glorious , which is seald with the joy of the sufferers spirit , whose Conscience is ravished with the kisses of the Dove : Who can look upon his tormentour with delight , and grow up to Heaven without diminution , though made shorter on Earth by the head .

This is the death which growes pretious by contempt , and glorious by disgrace : Whose sufferer runs the race set before him with patience , and finisheth it with joy . We are carefull that those things which are our own , may be improved to the utmost ; and why care wee not for death ? what is more ours then mortality ? Death should not be feared , because it is simply , or of it self , a great good , and is evill to none but to those that by living ill make their death bad : What ever evil is in death , it is attracted from life . If thou preservest a good Conscience while thou livest , thou wilt have no feare when thou dyest , thou wilt rejoyce and walke homeward singing . It is life therefore that makes thee fear death : If thou didst not fear life , if life had not blasted the joyes of death , thou wouldst never be afraid of the end of sorrowes . Death therefore is of it self innocent , sincere , healthfull , and desirable . It frees us from the malignancie and malice of life , from the sad necessities and dangerous errours we are subject to in the body . That death , whose leaders are Integrity and virtue , whose cause is Religion , is the Elixir which gives this life its true tincture , and makes it immortal . To dye is a common and trivial thing , for the good and the bad dye , and the bad most of all : but to dye willingly , to dye gloriously is the peculiar priviledge of good men . It is better to leave life voluntarily , then to be driven out of it forcibly : let us willingly give place unto posterity . Esteem not life for its own sake , but for the use of it : Love it not , because thou wouldst live , but because thou mayst do good works while thou livest . Now the greatest work of life is a good death . If life then ought to be lesse esteemed then good works , who would not purchase a good death with the losse of life ? why should we be afeared of politick , irreligious Tyrants , and an arm of flesh though guarded with steele ? Nature it selfe threatens us with death , and frailty attends us every hour : Why will we refuse to dye in a good cause when 't is offered us , who may dye ill the very next day after ? let us not promise our selves a short life , when our death assures us of eternal glory .

But if it were granted that death were neither good nor honourable , but evill and fearfull , why will not we take care for that which we fear ? Why do we neglect that which we suspect ? Why , if it be evill , do not wee arme and defend our selves against it ? we provide against dangerous contingencies , we labour against casuall losses , and we neglect this great and enevitable perill . To neglect death , and to contemn death are two things : none are more carefull of it , then those that contemne it ; none feare it more then those that neglect it ; and which is strange , they fear it not because they have neglected it , but they neglect it , when they fear it : they dare not prepare for it , for fear of thinking of it . O the madnesse and Idlenesse of mankind ! to that , which they adjudge to be most Evill , they come not onely unprepared , but unadvisedly , and without so much as forethought . What mean we , what do we look for ? Death is still working , and wee are still idle , it is still travelling towards us , and we are still slumbering and folding our hands . Let us awake out of this darke and sleepy state of mind , let us shake off these dreams and vain propositions of diverse lusts : let us approve of truth and realities , let us follow after those things which are good ; let us have true joy made sure unto us , and a firm security in life , in death . Sickness and death , you are but sluggish things , And cannot reach , a heart that hath got wings .

FINIS .

THE WORLD CONTEMNED , IN A Parenetical Epistle written by the Reverend Father EVCHERIVS , Bishop of Lyons , to his Kinsman VALERIANVS .

Love not the World , neither the things that ar● in the world . If any man love the world , the love of the Father is not in him .

1 Ioh. 2.15 .

They are of the world , therefore speake they of the world , and the world heareth them .

Chap. 4. vers. 5.

If the world hate you , ye know that it hated me before it hated you .

Ioh. 15. verse 18.

If ye were of the world , the world would love his own , but because ye are not of the world , out I have chosen you out of the world ; therfore the world hateth you .

ver. 19.

Remember the word that I said unto you , the Servant is not greater than the Lord : if they have persecuted me , they will also persecute you : If they have kept my saying , they will keepe yours also .

v. 20.

London , Printed for Humphrey Moseley , at the Princes Armes in St Pauls Church-yard . 1654.

Advertisement .

HEribert Ros-weyd published this peece at Antwerp 1621. It is mentioned by Gennadius cap. 63. ●e Scriptoribus Ecclesiasticis ; and Erasmus ( long before Ros-weyd's Edition ) writ some Notes upon it . The Author Eucherius was a Roman Senatour , but being converted to the Faith , he left the Senate , and lived in a poor Cell by the river Druentium , where his Wife Galla died . His two daughters , Consortia , and Tullia , having learnt Christ , continued both in the Virgin-life , & signorum gloriâ claruerunt . He sate Bishop in the chair of Lyons ( as I find him placed by Helvicus ) in the year of our Lord 443. Some will have him a Century lower , but that difference weakens not the certainty of it . The peece it self ( in the Original ) is most elaborate and judicious , and breaths that togatam elegantiam which in most of the Roman Senatours was not more acquired ▪ then natural . What this Valerian was ( more then our Authors Kinsman , by whose pen his name lives ) is not certainly known . Some will have him to be Priscus Valerianus , the Prefect , or Deputy of France , mentioned by Sidonius Apollinaris : Others are willing to let him passe for that Valerian , whose Homilies now extant were published by Sirmondus . But as it is not determinable , so is it not material : This we may safely conclude , that he was a very eminent , noble . Personage , and one that followed too much after temporal pomp , and the powers of this world ; though neither of them could lend him so much light , as would keep him from obscuritie . To bring down these top-branches , Eucherius layes the Axe to the root of the tree , by shewing him the vanity , and the iniquity of riches and honours , the two grand inticements of popular spirits . And this he doth with such powerfull and clear reasons , that to virtuous and peaceful minds he hath renderd them not only contemptible , but odious . Much more might have been spoken against them , but ( seeing the Age we live in , hath made all his Arguments , Demonstrations ) he hath in my judgement spoken enough .

H.V.S.

EVCHERIVS to his Kinsman VALERIANVS , &c.

THEY are happily linked in the bond of blood , who are held together by the bond of love . And for this gift ( which is descended upon us from the Father of lights , ) both you and my selfe may greatly rejoyce : Whom love as well as kindred hath united , and those two faire obligations have betrothed in one entire affection . One of them wee tooke from the Fathers of our flesh , and the other from our private dispositions . This double tye by which ( love binding us on the one side , and blood on the other , ) we are mutually knit together ; hath inforced me to inlarge my selfe in this Epistle with some excesse more then usuall ; that I might commend unto your Consideration the Cause of your owne Soul , and assert the work of our profession to be , that Supreme beatitude which is onely true , and capable of those things which are Eternal .

And indeed your own pious propension is not repugnant to the profession of holy living , who already by a forward felicity of manners have in some points prevented , and met with many things which are taught un●o us by sacred learning : So that by the meanes of provident and discreet Nature , you seem unto me to have seized upon many duties of Religion ; as the Concessions and Indulgences of our good God towards you , whose gift it is , that the Divine wisedome should partly find in you , and partly conferre upon you the riches of his Kingdome .

But although ( by the hands of your Father , and Father in law , ) you have been allready advanced and seated upon the highest pinnacles of temporall honours , and are still adorned and surrounded with illustrious titles descending from them both ; Yet I desire , and long to find in you a thirst of greater and far higher honours , and shall now call you not to Earthly , but Heavenly honours , not to the dignities and splendour of one short age , but to the solid and enduring glories of eternity : For the onely true and indelible glory is , to be glorified in Eternity .

I shall therefore speak unto you , not the wisedome of this World , but that secret and hidden wisdome which God ordained befor the World unto our glory . I shall speake with much care and affection towards you , and with very little respect or animadversion of my selfe ; for I have in this attempt considered more , what I wish to see perfected in you , than what I am able to do in my self .

The first duty of Man ordained and brought forth into this World for that end , ( my most dear Valerian ! ) is to know his Creatour , and being known , to confesse him , and to resigne or give up his life ( which is the wonderfull and peculiar gift of God , ) to the service and worship of the giver ; that what he received by Gods free donation , may be imployed in true devotion , and what was conferred upon him in the state of wrath and unworthinesse , may by an obedient resignation make him pretious and beloved . For of this saving opinion are we ; That as it is most certain , that we came forth first from God , so should we believe it , and presse on still towards him : Whereupon we shall conclude , that he onely , rightly and divinely apprehends the purpose of God in making man , who understand it thus , That God himself made us for himself .

It is then our best course , to bestow our greatest care upon the Soul ; So shall that which is the first and highest in dignity , be not the lowest , and last in consideration . Amongst us Christians , let that which is the first in order , be the first cared for ; let Salvation which is the chiefest profit be our chiefest imployment . Let the safeguard and the defense of this , take up all our forces ; let it be not only our chiefest , but our sole delight . As it surpasseth all other things in excellencie , so let it in our care and consideration .

Our Supreme duty is that which wee owe to God , and the next to it appertaines to the Soul . And yet these two are such loving correlates , that though every one of them is a duty of Supreme consequence , and such as by no means we may presume to neglect or omit , yet cannot wee possibly performe any one of them without the other . So that whosoever will serve God , doth at the same time provide for his own Soul ; and he that is carefull for his own Soul , doth at the same time serve God . So that the state of these two soveraign duties in man , is by a certain compendious dependencie and co-intention rendred very easie , while the faithfull performance of the one , is a perfect consummation of both : For by the unspeakable tendernesse and mercy of God , the good wee do to our own Soules , is the most acceptable service and sacrifice that we can offer unto him .

Much Physicall curiosity , much care and many strict observations are bestowed upon the body ; much pain it undergoes in hope of health ; and deserves the Soule no Medicine ? If it be but fit and necessary , that diverse helps and means of healing are sought for the body , for the recovering onely of a temporall and transitory health , is it not unjust that the Soul should be excluded , and be suffered to languish and putrifie with deadly and spirituall diseases ? Shall the Soul onely be a stranger to those proper and pretious remedies ordained for it by the great Physitian ? Yea rather , if so many things are provided for the body , let the provision for the Soul be far more abundant : for if it was truly said by some , that this fleshly frame is the servant , and the Soul the Mistris , then will it be very undecent and injurious , if we shall preferre and place the servant before the Mistris . It is but a just claim , that the better part should require the better attendance ; for with constant and intentive diligence should wee look on that side , where the greater dignity and our most pretious treasure is laid up . It is not agreeable to reason , and it takes from the honour of our imployment , that we should subject it to the unworthier party . The flesh being allwaies inclined to vitiousnesse , drawes us back to the Earth , as to its proper center and Originall : But the Soul being descended from the Father of lights , is like the sparks of fire still flying upwards . The Soule is the Image of God in us , and the pretious pledge of his future munificence . Let us imploy all our innate forces , and all outward Auxiliaries for the preservation of this : if we manage ▪ and defend it faithfully , wee take care for , and protect the intrusted pledge and purchased possession of God . What conveniencie can wee have to build , unless we do first of all lay the foundation ? but to him that hath design'd a superstructure of true blessings , the fundamentall must be Salvation . And if hee hath not laid that foundation , upon what can the Consequences he hopes for be builded ? how shall he be filled with the Increase of those remunerations and after-blessings , that wants the first fruits , and denies the rewarder ? what portion can he have in the joyes of Eternity , that will be wanting to his own Salvation ? How can he live the life of the blessed , that wil not rise from death ? or what will it benefit him to heape up temporal provision , and the materials of this World ; when he hath stored up nothing for the comfort of his Soule ? Or as our Lord JESUS CHRIST hath said , What is a man profited , if hee gain the whole World , and lose his own Soul ? There can therefore be no cause for sparing and laying up , where it is manifest , that the Soul is already lost ; where Salvation is forfeited , what gaine or profit can be hoped for ? Or wherein shall the true treasure be laid up , or wherewith shall he receive it , when the Soules pretious vessell , and the storehouse of Eternal joyes is utterly ruined and broken ? let us therefore while we have time , labour for true riches , and make earnest hast to that holy and Heavenly commerce , which is worth our looking and longing after .

Eternall life may be obtained in a very few daies : Which daies though they should be blest with an inoffensive and untainted holinesse of life , yet because they are but few , are to be lightly esteem'd of : for nothing can be rich in value , which is but short in duration : Nor can that procure any long or durable joyes , whose time of existence or abode is narrow and transient . The short Accommodations of this life have but short effects . It seems therefore but just unto me , that to the joyes of this present life ( if it hath any ) we should preferre the true and indubitable joyes of that which is everlasting . For the felicity we enjoy here , is at best but temporal , but the other is eternal ; and the fruition of a transitorie , uncertaine happinesse is but a frailty and accident ; but the possession of inviolable and never ending joyes , is triumph and security .

It is clear then , that the Eternal life is most blessed ; for what other thing can be named , or thought upon , that is more happy then everlasting life ? As for this present short life , it is so very short , that it is withall most miserable . It is prest and assaulted on every side with surrounding , inevitable sorrowes , it is distrest with many evill defects , and tost to and fro by secret and penal accidents . For what is there in all the whole World that is so uncertain , so various , and so replenished with troubles , as the course of this life ? Which is full of labour , full of anguish , fraught with cares , and made ominous with dangers : which is distracted with violen● and suddaine mutations , made unpleasant with bodily distempers , afflicted with thoughtfullnesse , and mentall agonies , and lies naked and open to all the Whirlwinds of time and Chance ? What benefit then , yea , what reason have you to turne aside , and run away from Eternal joyes , that you may pursue and follow after temporall miseries .

Do not you see , my dear Valerian , how every one that is provident ( even in this life , ) doth with plenty of all necessaries furnish that cottage or field , where hee knowes he shall reside ? and where he abides but for a short time , his provision is accordingly , where he intends a longer stay , he provides likewise a greater supply ? unto us also , who in this present World ( being straightned on every side ) have but a very short time , are Eternall ages reserv'd in the World which is to come ; if so be that wee competently provide for an Eternall state , and seeke onely what is sufficient for the present , not perversely bestowing the greatest care upon the shortest and smallest portion of time , and the smallest care upon the time of greatest and endlesse extent .

And indeed I know not , which should soonest , or most effectually incite us to a pious care of life Eternal , either the blessings which are promised us in that state of glory , or the miseries which we feel in this present life . Those from above most lovingly invite and call upon us ; these below most rudely and importunately would expell us hence . Seeing therefore that the continuall Evills of this life , would drive us hence unto a better , if we will not be induced by the good , let us be compelled by the Evill : Both the good and the bad agree to incite us to the best , and though at difference amongst themselves ; yet both consent to make us happy . For while the one invites us , and the other compells us , both are sollicitous for our good .

If some eminent and powerfull Prince having adopted you for his Son , and co-partner , should forthwith send for you by his Embassador ; you would ( I believe ) break through all difficulties , and the wearisome extent of Sea and Land , that you might appear before him , and have your adoption ratified . God Almighty , the Maker and the Lord of Heaven and Earth , and all that is in them , calls you to this adoption , and offers unto you ( if you will receive it , ) that dear stile of a Sonne , by which he calls his onely begotten , and your glorious Redeemer . And will you not be inflamed and ravished with his Divine love ? will you not make hast , and begin your Journey towards Heaven , lest swift destruction come upon you , and the honors offered you be frustrated by a sad and sudden death ?

And to obtain this adoption , you shall not need to passe through the unfrequented and dangerous Solitudes of the Earth , or to commit your selfe to the wide and perillous Sea : When you will , this adoption is within your reach , and lodgeth with you . And shall this blessing , because it is as easie in the getting , as it is great in the consequence , find you therefore backward or unwilling to attain it ? How hard a matter to the lukewarme and the dissembler will the making sure of this adoption prove ? for as to the faithfull and obedient it is most easie , so to the hypocrite and the rebellious , it is most difficult .

Certainly , it is the love of life that hath inslaved us so much to a delectation , and dotage upon temporal things . Therefore do I now advise you , who are a lover of life , to love it more . It is the right way of perswading , when we do it for no other end but to obtain that from you , which of your owne accord you desire to grant us . Now for this life which you love , am I an Embassadour ; and intreat that this life which you love in its transient and momentary state , you would also love in the Eternal . But how , or in what manner you may be said to love this present life , unlesse you desire to have it made most excellent , perfect , and etternally permanent , I cannot see ; for that which hath the power to please you when it is but short and uncertain , will please you much more , when it is made eternal and immutable : And that which you dearly love and value , though you have it but for a time , will be much more deare and pretious to you , when you shall enjoy it without end . It is therefore but fit , that the temporall life should look still towards the Eternal , that though the one , you may passe into the other . You must not rob your selfe of the benefits of the life to come , by a crooked and perverse use of the present . This life must not oppose it selfe to the damage and hurt of the future : For it were very absurd and unnatural , that the love of life should causse the destruction and the death of life .

Therefore whither you judg this temporall life worthy of your love , or your Contempt ; my present argument will be every way very reasonable . * * An excellent Dilemma . For if you contemne it , your reason to do so , is , that you may obtain a better : and if you love it , you must so much the more love that life which is eternall .

But I rather desire , that you would esteem of it , as you have found it ; and judge it to be ( as it is indeed ) full of bitternesse and trouble , a race of tedious and various vexations ; and that you would utterly forsake and renounce both it , and its occupations . Cut off at last that wearisome and endlesse chain of secular imployments , that one and the same slavery , though in several negotiations . Break in sunder those cords of vain cares , in whose successive knots you are alwayes intangled , and bound up , and in every one of which you travell is renewed and begun again . Let this rope of sands , this coherencie of vaine causes be taken away : In which ( as long as men live ) the tumult of affairs ( being still lengthen'd by an intervening succession of fresh cares ) is never ended , but runnes on with a fretting and consuming sollicitousness , which makes this present life , that is already of it selfe short and miserable enough , far more short and more miserable . Which also ( according to the successe or crosnesse of affairs ) lets in divers times vain and sinfully rejoycings , bitter sorrows , anxious wishes , and suspitious fears . Let us last of all cast off all those things which make this life in respect of their imployment but very short , but in respect of cares and sorrows very long . Let us reject , and resolutely contemn this uncertain world , and the more úncertain manners of it , wherein the Peasant as well as the Prince is seldom safe , where things that lye low are trodden upon , and the high and lofty totter and decline . Chuse for your self what worldly estate you please : There is no rest either in the mean , or the mighty . Both conditions have their miseries , and their misfortunes : The private and obscure is subject to disdain , the publick and splendid unto envy .

Two prime things I suppose there are , which strongly enchain , and keep men bound in secular negotiations ; and having bewitch'd their understanding , retaine them still in that dotage ; the pleasure of riches , & the dignity of honours . The former of which ought not to be called pleasure , but poverty ; and the latter is not dignity , but vanity . These two ( being joyn'd in one subtile league ) set upon man , and with alternate , insnaring knots disturb and intangle his goings . These ( besides the vain desires which are peculiar to themselves ) infuse into the mind of man other deadly and pestiferous lustings , which are their consequents ; and with a certaine pleasing inticement sollicite and overcome the hearts of Mankind .

As for Riches ( that I may speake first of them ) what is there , I pray , or what can there be more pernicious ? They are seldom gotten without Injustice ; by such an Administrator are they gathered , and by such a Steward they must be kept ; for Covetousnesse is the root of all evils . And there is indeed a very great familiarity betwixt these two , Riches * * Divitiae & Vitia . and Vices in their names , as well as in their nature . And are they not also very frequently matter of disgrace , and an evill report ? Upon which consideration it was said by one , that a a Every rich man is either a tyrant himself , or the son of a tyrant . Riches were tokens of Injuries . In the possession of corrupt persons they publish to the world their bribery and unrighteousnesse , and elswhere , they allure the eyes , and incite the spirits of seditious men to rebellion , and in the custody of such they bear witnesse of the sufferings , and the murther of innocent persons , & the plundering of their goods .

But grant that these disasters should not happen , can we have any certainty , whither these things that make themselves wings , will fly away after our decease ? He layeth up treasure ( saith the Psalmist ) and knoweth not for whom he gathers it .

But suppose that you should have an heir after your own heart , doth hee not oftentimes destroy and scatter what the Father hath gathered ? doth not an ill-bred son , or our ill choice of a Son-in-law prove the frequent ruin of all our labours and substance in this life ? What pleasure then can there be in such riches , whose collection is sin and sorrow , and our transmision , or bequeathing of them anxious and uncertaine ?

Whither then at last will this wild and deviuos affection of men carry them ? You know how to love accidental and external goods , but cannot love your own self . That which you so much long for is abroad , and without you ; you place your affection upon a forraigner , upon an enemy . Returne , or retire rather into your selfe , and be you dearer , and nearer to your own heart then those things which you call yours . Certainly if some wiseman , and skilfull in the affaires of this world , should converse , and come to be intimate with you , it would better please you , that he should affect your person , then affect your goods ; and you would choose , that he should rather love you for your self , then for your riches ; you would have him to be faithful unto man , not to his money . What you would have another to performe towards you , that doe you for your self , who ought to be the most faithfull to your self . Ourselves , ourselves wee should love , not those things which wee phantastically call ours .

And let this suffice to have been spoken against Riches .

As for the Honours of this world ( to speak generally , and without exception ▪ for I shall not descend to particulars ) what dinity can you justlt attribute to those things which the base man , and the bad , as well as the noble and good , promiscuously obtain , and all of them by corruption and ambition ? The same honour is not conferred upon men of the same merits , and dignity makes not a difference betwixt the worthy and the unworthy , but confounds them . So that which should be a character of deserts , by advancing the good above the bad , doth most unjustly make them equal ; and after a most strange manner there is in no state of life lesse difference made betwixt the worst men , and the best , then in that state which you term honourable . Is it not then a greater honour to be without that honour , and to be esteemed of according to our genuine worth , and sincere carriage then according to the false gloss of promiscuous , deceiving honours ?

And these very things ( how big soever they look ) what fleeting and frail appearances are they ? We have seen of late men eminently honourable , seated upon the very spires , and top of dignity , whose incredible treasures purchased them a great part of the world ; their successe exceeded their own desires , and their prodigious fortunes amazed their very wishes : But these I speak of were private prosperities . Kings themselves with all their height and imperiousnesse , with all their triumphs and glory shined but for a time . Their cloathings were of wrought of gold , their diadems sparkled with the various flames , and differing relucencies of precious stones ; their Palaces were thronged with Princely attendants , their roofs adorned with gilded beams , their Will was a Law , and their words were the rules and coercive bounds of Mankind . But who is he , that by a temporal felicity can lift his head above the stage of humane chances ? Behold now , how the vast sway and circumference of these mighty is no where to be found ! their riches and precious things too are all gone , and they themselves the possessors and masters of those royal treasures ! most late , and most famous Kingdoms ( even amongst us ) are now become a certaine fable . All those things which sometimes were reputed here to be very great , are now become none at all .

Nothing I think , nay I am sure , of all these riches , honours , powers went along with them from hence : All they took with them was the pretious substance of their faith and piety . These onely ( when they were deprived of all other attendants ) waited on them , and like faithfull , inseparable companions , travelled with them out of this wrold . With this provision are they now fed ; with these riches , and with these honours are they adorned . In these they rest , and this goodnesse is now their greatnesse .

Wherefore , if we be taken at all with honours and riches , let us be taken with the true and durable ones : Every good man exchangeth these earthly dignities for those which are celestiall , and earthen treasures for the heavenly . He layes up treasure there , where a most exact and inconfused difference is made betwixt the good and the bad ; where that which is once gotten shall be for ever enjoyed ; where all things may be obtained , and where nothing can be lost .

But seeing we are fallen into a discourse of the frailty of temporal things , let us not forget the frail condition of this short life . What is it , I beseech you , what is it ? Men see nothing more frequently then death , and minde nothing more seldome . Mankinde is by a swift mortality quickly driven into the West , or setting point of life , and all posterity by the unalterable Law of succeeding ages and generations follow after . Our fathers went from hence before us ; we shall goe next , and our children must come after . As streames of water falling from high , the one still following the other , doe in successive circles break and terminate at the banks ; so the appointed times and successions of men are cut off at the boundary of death . This consideration should take up our thoughts night and day ; this memoriall of our fraile condition should keep us still awake . Let us alwayes thinke the time of our departure to be at hand ; for the day of death , the farther we put it off , comes on the faster , and is by so much the nearer to us . Let us suspect it to be near , because we know not how far . Let us , as the Scripture saith , make plain our wayes before us .

If we make this the businesse of our thoughts , and meditate still upon it , wee shall not be frighted with the fear of death ▪ Blessed and happy are all you who have already reconciled your selves unto Christ ! no great fear of death can disturb them , who defsire to be dissolved that they may be with Christ ; who in the silence of their own bosomes , quietly , and long since prepared for it , expect the last day of their pilgrimage here . They care not much how soon they end this temporal life , that passe from it into life eternal .

Let not the populacy and throng of loose livers , or hypocriticall time-pleasers perswade us to a neglect of life , neither be you induced by the errours of the many to cast away your particular salvation . What wil the multitude in that day of Gods judgement avail us , when every private person shall be sentenced , where the examinations of works , and every mans particular actions , not the example of the common people shall absolve him ? Stop your ears , and shut your eyes against such damnable Precedents that invite you to destruction . It is better to sow in tears , and to plant eternal life with the few , then to lose it with the multitude . Let not therefore the number of sinfull men weaken your diligence of not sinning ; for the madnesse of those that sin against their own soules , can be no authority unto us ; I beseech you look alwayes upon the vices of others as their shame , not your example .

If it be your pleasure to look for examples , seek them rather from that party , which though the least , yet if considered as it is a distinct body , is numerous enough : Seek them ( I say ) from that party , wherein you shall find those ranged , who wisely understood , wherefore they were born , and accordingly while they lived , did the businesse of life ; who eminent for good works , and excelling in virtue , pruned and drest the present life , and planted the future . Nor are our examples ( though of this rare kind ) only copious , but great withall , and most illustrious .

For what worldly nobility , what honours , what dignity , what wisdom , what eloquence , or learning have not betaken themselves to this heavenly warfare ? what soveraignty now hath not with all humility submitted to this easie yoke of Christ ? And certainly it is a madnesse beyond error and ignorance for any to dissemble in the cause of their salvation . I could ( but that I will not be tedious to you ) out of an innumerable company produce many by name , and shew you what eminent and famous men in their times have forsaken this World , and embraced the most strict rules of Christian Religion . And some of these ( because I may not omit all , ) I shall cursorily introduce .

Clement the Roman , of the stock of the Caesars , and the Antient Linage of the Senatours , a person fraught with Science , and most skillfull in the liberall Arts , betook himself to this path of the just ; and so uprightly did he walk therein , that he was elected to the Episcopal dignity of Rome .

Gregorie of Pontus , Gregorius Thaur●aturgus . a Minist●r of holy things , famous at first for his humane learning and eloquence , became afterwards more eminent by those Divine Graces conferr'd upon him . For ( as the Faith of Ecclesiastical History testifies , ) amongst other miraculous signes of his effectual devotion , he removed a Mountain by prayer , and dried up a deep lake .

Gregory Nazianzen , another holy Father , given also at first to Philosophie and humane literature , declined at last those Worldly rudiments , and embraced the true and Heavenly Philosophy : To whose industry also wee owe no meaner a person then Basil the Great ; for being his intimate acquaintance , and fellow-student in secular Sciences , he entred one day into his Auditory , where Basilius was then a Reader of Rhetorick , and leading him by the hand out of the School ; disswaded him from that imployment with this gentle reproofe , Leave this Vanity , and study thy Salvation . And shortly after both of them came to be famous and faithfull Stewards in the house of God , and have left us in the Church , most usefull and pregnant Monuments of their Christian learning .

Thou hast his life annexed to this Epistle : as a precedent after these precepts . Paulinus Bishop of Nola , the great Ornament and light of France , a person of Princely revenues , powerfull eloquence , and most accomplish'd learning , so highly approved of this our profession , that choosing for himself the better part , he divided all his Princely Inheritance amongst the poor , and afterward filled most part of the World with his elegant and pious writings .

Hilarius of late , and Petronius now in Itaelie , both of them out of the fulnesse of Secular honours and power , betook themselves to this Course ; the one entring a a Hilarius about this time ( which was 435. years after Christ ) did lead a monastical life ; but upon the death of Honoratus , he was ele●ted his successor in the Bishoprick of Orleans , in which dignity he continued not long , for being addicted to solitarinesse , he resigned it , and turned into the Wildernesse . into the religion , the other into the Priesthood .

And when shall I have done with this great cloud of witnesses , If I should bring into the field all those eloquent Contenders for the Faith , Firmianus , Minutius , Cyprian , Hilary , Chrysostome and Ambrose ? These I believe spoke to themselves in the same words which a a St. Augustine . another of our profession used as a sparre to drive him●elfe out of the Secu●ar life into this bless●d and Heavenly vocation ; They said , I believe : What is this ? The unlearned get up , and lay hold upon the Kingdome of Heaven , and we with our learning , behold where we wallow in flesh and blood . This ( sure ) they said , and upon this consideration they also rose up , and tooke the Kingdome of Heaven by force .

Having now in part produced these reverend witnesses , whose zeal for the Christian faith hath exceeded most of their successours , though they also were bred up in secular rudiments , perswasive eloquence , and the Pomp and fulnesse of honours ; I shall descend unto Kings themselves , and to that head of the World , the Roman Empire . And here I think it not necessary that those Royal , religious Antients of the old World should be mentioned at all . Some of their posterity , and the most renowned in our Sacred Chronicles I shall make use of ; as David for Piety , Josiah for Faith , and Ezechias for Humility . The later times also have been fruitfull in this kinde , nor is this our age altogether barren of pious Princes , who draw near to the Knowledge of the onely true and Immortal King , and with most contrite and submissive hearts acknowledge and adore the Lord of Lords . The Court , as well as the Cloyster , hath yeelded Saints , of both Sexes . And these in my opinion are more worthy your Imitation , then the mad and giddy Commonalty ; for the examples of these , carry with them in the World to come Salvation , and in the present World , Authority .

You see also how the dayes and the years , and all the bright Ornaments and Luminaries of Heaven , do with an unwearied duty execute the commands and decrees of their Creatour ; and in a constant , irremissive tenour continue obedient to his ordinances . And shall wee ( for whose use th●se lights were created , and set in the firmament , ) seeing we know our Masters will , and are not ignorant of his Commandements , stop our ears against them ? And to these Vast members of the Universe it was but once told , what they should observe unto the end of the World ; but unto us line upon line , precept upon precept , and whole volumes of Gods Commandements are every day repeated . Adde to this , that man ( for this also is in his power ) should learn to submit himself to the will of his Creator , and to be obedient to his Ordinances ; for by paying his whole duty unto God , he gives withall a good example unto men .

But if there be any that will not returne unto their maker and be healed , can they therefore escape the Arme of their Lord , in whose hand are the Spirits of all flesh ▪ Whither will they fly , that would avoyd the presence of God ? What Covert can hide them from that Eye which is every where , and sees all things ? Let them heare thee , holy David , let them heare thee . Psalm 139.

Whither shall I go from thy presence , or whither shall I flee from thy Spirit ?

If I ascend up into Heaven , thou art there : if I make my bed in Hell , b●hold thou art there .

If I take the wings of the morning , and dwell in the uttermost parts of the Sea ;

Even there shall thy hand lead me , and thy right hand stall hold me .

If I say , surely the darknesse shall cover me : even the night shall be light about thee .

Yea the darknesse hideth not from thee , but the night shineth as the day : the darkness and the light are both alike to thee .

Therefore ( willing or unwilling ) though they should absent themselves from the Lord of all the world by their Wills , yet shall they never be able to get their persons out of his Jurisdiction and Supreme right . They are absent from him indeed in their Love and affections : But he is present with them in his prerogative and anger . So then being ranagates , they are shut up , and ( which is a most impious madnesse ) th●y live without any consideration or regard of God , but within his power . And if these being earthly Masters , when their servants run away from them ; with a furious and hasty search pursue after them ; or if they renounce their service , prosecute them for it , and become the assertours of their owne right over them ; why will not they themselves render unto their Master which is in Heaven his most just right ? Why will they not stay in his Family , and freely offer themselves unto his service , and be as impartial Judges in the cause of God as in their own ?

Why with so much dotage do we fixe our Eyes upon the deceitfull lookes of temporal things ? Why do we rest our selves upon those thornes onely , which wee see beneath us ? Is it the Eye alone that wee live by ? Is there nothing usefull about us but that wanderer ? We live also by the eare , and at that Inlet wee receive the glad tydings of Salvation , which fill us with earnest grones for our glorious liberty and the consummation of the promises ; Whatsoever is promised , whatsoever is preached unto us , let us wait for it with intentive wishes , and most eager desires . That faithfull one , the blessed Author of those promises assures us frequently of his fidelity and performance , let us covet earnestly his best promises .

B●t notwithstanding this which hath been spoken , if a sober and virtuous use were made of the Eye , we might by that very faculty be drawn to a certaine sacred longing after Immortality , and the powers of the World to come ; if that admiration , which by contemplating the rare frame of the World wee are usually filled with , were returned upon the glorious Creatour of it , by our praises and benediction of him ; Or if we would meditate what a copious , active and boundlesse light shall fill our eyes in the state of Immortality , seeing so fair a luminary is allowed us in the state of corruption : Or what transcendent beauty shall be given to all things in that eternall World , seeing this transitory one is so full of Majesty and freshnesse ; There can be no excuse for us , if we sollicite the faculties of these members to abuse and perversenesse : Let them rather be commodiously applyed to both lifes , and so minister to the use of the temporall , as not to cast off their duty to the Eternal .

But if pleasure and love delight us , and provoke our Senses , there is in Christian Religion , a love of infinite comfort , and such delights as are not nauseous and offensive after fruition . There is in it , that which not onely admits of a most vehement and overflowing love , but ought allso to be so beloved ; namely , God , blessed for evermore , the onely beautifull , delightfull , immortal and Supreme good , whom you may boldly and intimately love as well as piously ; if in the room of your former earthly affections , you entertain Heavenly and holy desires . If you were ever taken with the magnificence and dignity of another person , there is nothing more magnificent then God . If with any thing that might conduce to your honour and glory ; there is nothing more glorious then him : If with the splendour and excellencie of pompous showes , there is nothing more bright , nothing more excellent . If with fairnesse and pleasing objects , there is nothing more beautifull . If with verity and righteousnesse , there is nothing more just , nothing more true . If with liberality , there is nothing more bountifull . If with incorruption and simplicity , there is nothing more sincere , nothing more pure then that Supreme goodnesse . Are you troubled that your treasure and store is not proportionable to your mind ? The Earth and the fullnesse thereof are under his lock : Do you love any thing that is trusty and firm ? There is nothing more friendly , nothing more faithfull then him : Do you love any thing that is beneficial ? There is no greater benefactor . Are you delighted with the gravi●y or gentleness of any object ? there is nothing more terrible then his Almightinesse , nothing more mild then his goodnesse . Do you love refreshments in a low estate , and a merry heart in a plentifull ? Joy in prosperity , and comforts in adversity are both the dispensations of his hand . Wherefore it stands with all reason , that you should love the giver more then his gifts , and him from whom you have all these things , more then the things themselves . Riches , Honours , and all things else , whose present lustre attracts and possesseth your heart , are not onely with him , but are now also had from him .

Recollect your dispersed , and hitherto ill-placed affections , imploy them wholly in the Divine service . Let this dissolute love and compliance with worldly desires become chast piety , and wait upon sacred affaires . Call home your devious and runnagate thoughts , which opinion and custome have sadly distracted ; and having supprest old errors , direct your love to his proper object , bestow it wholy upon your Maker . For all that you can love now is his , his alone , and none else . For of such infinitenesse is he , that those who do not love him , deale most injuriously : because they cannot love any thing , but what is his .

But I would have an impartial judgement to consider , whether it be just for him to love the work , and hate the Workman ; and having cast by , and deserted the Creator of all things , to run and seize upon his creatures every where , and without any difference , according to his perverse and insatiable lust . Whereas it behoved him rather to invite God to be gratious and loving to him , by this very affection to his works , if piously layd out . And now man gives himself over to the lusts and service of his own detestable figments , and most unnaturally becomes a lover of the Art , and neglects the Artificer , adores the Creature , and despiseth the Creator .

And what have we spoken all this while of those innumerable delights which are with him ? or of the infinite and ravishing sweetnesse of his ineffable Goodnesse ? the sacred and inexhaustible treasure of his Love ? or when will it be that any shall be able to expresse or conceive the dignity and fulnesse of any one Attribute that is in him ? To love him then is not onely delightfull , but needfull : For not to love him , whom even then when we love , we cannot possibly requite , is impious ; and not to returne him such acknowledgements as we are able , whom if we would , we can never recompence , is most unjust : For what shall we render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards us ? What shall we render unto him for this one benefit , that he hath given salvation to man by faith , and ordained that to be most easie in the fact , by which he restored hope to the subjected world , and eternal life unto lost man ?

And that I may now descend unto those things which were sometimes out of his Covenant , I mean the Nations and Kingdomes of the Gentiles , doe you think that these were made subject to the Roman power , and that the dispersed multitude of Mankind were incorporated ( as it were ) into one body under one head for any other end , but that ( as Medicines taken in at the mouth are diffused into all parts of the body ) so the Faith by this means might with more ease be planted and penetrated into the most remote parts of the world . Otherwise by reason of different powers , customs , and languages , it had met with fresh and numerous oppositions , and the passage of the Gospel had been much more difficult . Blessed Paul himself describing his course in planting the Faith amongst this very people , writes in his Epistle to the Romans , That from Hierusalem and round about to Illyricu● he had fully preached the Gospel of Christ . And how long ( without this preparation in the fulnesse of time ) might this have been in doing , amongst Nations , either innumerable for multitude , or barbarous for immanitie ? Hence it is that the whole earth now from the rising of the Sun unto the going down thereof , from the farthest North and the frozen sea breaks forth into singing , and rings with the glorious name of Jesus Christ . Hence it is , that all parts of the world flock and run together to the Word of Life : The Thracian is for the Faith , the African for the Faith , the Syrian for the Faith , and the Spaniard hath received the Faith . A great argument of the divine clemency may be gathered out of this , that under Augustus Caesar , when the Roman power was in the height , and Acmie , then the Almighty God came down upon the earth and assumed flesh . Therefore that I may now make use of those things , which you also are versed in , it may be clearly proved ( if any skilled in your Histories would assert the truth ) that from the first foundation of the Roman Empire ( which is now one thousand one hundred and eighty five years ago ) what ever additions and growth it gathered either in the reign of their first Kings , This letter was written in the year of our Lord 435. or afterwards under the administration of Consuls , all was permitted by the onely wise , and almighty God to prepare the world against the coming of Christ , and to make way for the propagation of the Faith .

But I return thither , from whence I have digrest . Love not the world ( saith St. John ) neither the things that are in the world ; for all those things with delusive , insnaring shews , captivate our sight , and will not suffer us to look upwards . Let not that faculty of the eye which was ordained for light , be applyed to darknesse , being created for the use of life , let it not admit the causes of death . Fleshly lusts ( as it is divinely spoken by the Apostle ) war against the soul , and all their accoutrements are for the ruin and destruction of it . A vigilant guard doe they keep , when they are once permitted to make head , and after the manner of forraign and expert enemies , with those forces they take from us , they politickly strengthen and increase their own .

Thus hitherto have I discoursed of those splendid allurements , which are the chiefest and most taking baits of this subtile world , I mean Riches and Honours . And with such earnestnesse have I argued against them , as if those blandishments had still some force . But what beauty soever they had , when cast over heretofore with some pleasing adumbrations , it is now quite worn away , and all that paint and cousenage is fallen off . The world now hath scarce the art to deceive . Those powerfull and bewitching lookes of things , beautiful sometimes even to deception , are now withered , and almost loathsome . In former times it laboured to seduce us with its most solid and magnificent glories , and it could not . Now it turnes cheat , and would entice us with toyes , and slight wares , but it cannot . Reall riches it never had , and now it is so poor , that it wants counterfeits . It neither hath delectable things for the present , nor durable for the future ; unlesse wee agree to deceive our selves , the world in a manner cannot deceive us .

But why delay I my stronger arguments ? I affirm then that the forces of this world are dispersed and overthrown , seeing the world it self is now drawing towards its dissolution , and pants with its last gasps , and dying anhelations . How much more grievous and bitter will you think this assertion , that for certain it cannot last very long ? What should I trouble my self to tell you that all the utensils and moveables of it are decayed and wasted ? And no marvell that it is driven into these defects , and a consumption of its ancient strength , when now grown old and weary it stoopes with weaknesse , and is ready to fall under the burthen of so many ages .

These latter years and decrepitness of time are fraught with evils and calamities , as old age is with diseases . Our forefathers saw , and we still see in these last dayes the plagues of famine , pestilence , war , destruction , and terrours . All these are so many acute fits and convulsions of the dying world . Hence it is that such frequent signs are seen in the firmament , excessive Ecclipses , and faintings of the brightest Luminaries , which is a shaking of the powers of heaven ; sudden and astonishing Earthquakes under our feet , alterations of time● and governments , with the monstrous fruitfulnesse of living creatures ; all which are the prodigies , or fatall symptomes of time going indeed still on , but fainting , and ready to expire . Nor is this confirmed by my weak assertions onely , but by sacred authority and the Apostolical Oracles : For there it is written , that upon us the ends of the world are come , 1 Co● . 10.11 Which divine truth seeing it hath been spoken so long agoe , what is it that we linger for , or what can we expect ? That day , not onely ours , but the last that ever the present world shall see , calls earnestly for our preparation . Every hour tels us of the coming on of that inevitable hour of our death , seeing a double danger of two finall dissolutions threatens every one in particular , and all the world in generall . Wretched man that I am ! the mortality of this whole frame lyes heavily upon my thoughts , as if my own were not burthensome enough . Wherefore is it that we flatter our selves against these sure fears . There is no place left for deviation : A most certain decree is past against us , on the one side is written every mans private dissolution , and on the other the publick and universal .

How much more miserable then is the condition of those men ( I will not say , in these out-goings , or last walks of time , but in these decayes of the worlds goodly things ) who neither can enjoy ought that is pleasant at the present , nor lay up for themselves any hope of true joyes hereafter . They misse the fruition of this short life , and can have no hope of the everlasting : They abuse these temporal blessings , and shall never be admitted to use the eternall . Their substance here is very little , but their hope there is none at all . A most wretched and deplorable condition ! unless they make a virtue of this desperate necessity , and lay hold on the onely soveraign remedy of bettering their estate , by submitting in time to the wholsome rules of heavenly and saving reason . Especially because the goodliest things of this present time , are such rags and fragments , that he that loseth the whole fraught , and true treasure of that one precious life which is to come , may be justly said to lose both .

It remaines then , that we direct and fixe all the powers of our minds upon the hope of the life to come . Which hope ( that you may morefully and clearly apprehend it ) I shall manifest unto you , under a type or example taken from temporal things . If some man should offer unto another five peeces of silver this day , but promise him five hundred peeces of gold , if he would stay till the next morning , and put him to his choice , whither he would have the silver at present , or the gold upon the day following , is there any doubt to be made , but he would chuse the greater sum , though with a little delay ? Goe you and doe the like : Compare the Crummes and perishing pittance in this short life , with the glorious , and enduring rewards of the eternall : And when you have done ▪ chuse not the least and the worst , when you may have the greatest and the best . The short fruition of a little is not so beneficial , as the expectation of plenty . But seeing that all the fraile goods of this world are not onely seen of us , but also possessed by us : It is most manifest that hope cannot belong unto this world , in which we both see and enjoy those things we delight in : For Hope that is seen is not hope ; for what a man seeth , why doth he yet hope for ? Rom. 8. ver. 24. Therefore however hope may be abused , and misapplyed to temporal things , it is most certaine that it was given to man and ordained for the things that are eternal ; otherwise it cannot be called hope , unlesse something bee hoped for , which as yet ( or for the present life ) is not had . Therefore the substance of our hope in the world to come is more evident and manifest , then our hope of substance in the present .

Consider those objects which are the clearest and most visible ; when we would best discern them , we put them not into our eyes , because they are better seen and judged of at a distance . It is just so in the case of present things and the future : For the present ( as if put into our eyes ) are not rightly and undeceivably seen of us ; but the future , because conveniently distant , are most clearly discerned .

Nor is this trust and Confidence wee have of our future happinesse built upon weak or uncertain Authors , but upon our Lord and Master JESUS CHRIST , that allmighty and faithfull witnesse , who hath promised unto the just , a Kingdome without end , and the ample rewards of a most blessed eternity . Who also by the ineffable Sacrament of his humanity , being both God and Man , reconciled Man unto God , and by the mighty and hidden mystery of his passion , absolved the World from sinne . For which cause he was manifested in the flesh , justified in the Spirit , seen of Angels , preached unto the Gentiles , believed upon in the World , and received into glory . Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him , Philip. Chap. 2. ver. 9 , 10. and given him a name which is above every name : that at the name of JESUS every knee should bow , of things in Heaven , and things in Earth , and things under the Earth . And that every tongue should confesse that the Lord JESUS is in glory , both God and King before all ages .

Casting off then the vaine and absurd precepts of Philosophy , wherein you busie your selfe to no purpose , embrace at last the true and saving Knowledge of Christ . You shall find even in that , imployment enough for your eloquence and wit , and will quickly discern how far these precepts of piety and truth surpasse the conceits and delirations of Philosophers . For in those rules which they give , what is there but adulterate virtue , and false wisedom ? and what in ours , but perfect righteousnesse and sincere truth ? Whereupon I shall Justly conclude , that they indeed usurpe the name of Philosophy , but the substance and life of it is with us . For what manne● of rules to live by could they give , who were ignorant of the first Cause , and the Fountain of life ? For not knowing God , and deviating in their first principles from the Author , and the Wel-spring of Justice ; they necessarily erred in the rest : Hence it happened , that the end of all their studies was vanity and dissention . And if any amongst them chanced to hit upon some more sober and honest Tenets , these presently ministred matter of pride and Superstitiousnesse , so that their very Virtue was not free from vice . It is evident then , that these are they , whose Knowledge is Earthy , the disputers of this world , the blind guides , who never saw true justice , nor true wisedome . Can any one of that School of Aristippus be a teacher of the truth , who in their Doctrine and Conversation differ not from swine and unclean beasts , seeing they place true happinesse in fleshly lusts ? whose God is their belly , and whose glory is in their shame . Can he be a Master of Sobriety and Virtue , in whose School the riotous , the obscene , and the adulterer are Philosophers ? But leaving these blind leaders , I shall come againe to speak of those things which were the first motives of my writing to you .

I advise you then , and I beseech you , to cast off all their Axioms , orgeneral Maxims collected out of their wild and irregular disputations , wherein I have knowne you much delighted ; & to imploy those excellent abilities bestowed upon you in the study of holy Scripture , & the wholsom instructions of Christian Philosophers . There shall you be fed with various and delightfull learning , with true and infallible wisedome . There ( to incite you to the Faith ) you shall hear the Church speaking to you , though not in these very words , yet to this purpose , He that believes not the word of God , understands it not . There you shall hear this frequent admonition ; Feare God , because he is your Master , honour him because he is your Father . There it shall be told you , that the most acceptable Sacrifice to God are justice and mercy . There you shall be taught , that , If you love your self , you must necessarily love your neighbour ; for you can never do your selfe a greater Courtesie , then by doing good to another . There you shall be taught , that , there can be no worldly cause so great , as to make the death of a man legal or needfull . There you shall hear this precept against unlawfull desires . Resist lust as a most bitter enemy , that useth to glory in the disgrace of those bodies he overcommeth . There it will be told you of Covetousnesse , That it is better not to wish for those things you want , than to have all that you wish . There you shall hear , that he that is angry , when he is provoked , is never not angry , but when not provoked . There it will be told you of your Enemies , Love them that hate you , for all men love those that love them . There you shall hear , that he laies up his treasure safeliest , who gives it to the poor , for that cannot be lost which is lent to the Lord . There it will be told you , that the fruite of holy marriage is chastity . There you shall hear , that the troubles of this World happen as well to the just , as the unjust . There it will be told you , that it is a more dangerous sicknesse to have the mind infected with vices , then the body with diseases . There to shew you the way of peace and gentlenesse you shall hear , that amongst impatient men , their likenesse of manners is the cause of their discord . There to keepe you from following the bad examples of others , it will be told you , That the wise man gains by the fool , as well as by the prudent : the one showes him what to imitate , the other what to eschew . There also you shall hear all these following precepts . That the ignorance of many things is better then their Knowledge ; and that therefore the goodnesse or mercy of God is as great in his hidden will , as in his revealed . That you should give God thanks as well for adversity , as for prosperity ; and confesse in prosperity , that you have not deserved it . That there is no such thing as Eare ; and for this let the Heathens examine their own● Lawes , which punish none but willfull and premeditating offenders . There to keep you stable in faith , it will be told you , That he that will be faithfull , must not be suspitious ; for we never suspect , but what wee slowly believe . There also you shall hear , that Christians when they give any attention to the noyse and inticements of their passions , fall headlong from Heaven unto Earth . It will be also told you there , that seeing the wicked do sometimes receive good things in this world , and the just are afflicted by the unrighteous , those that believe not the final Judgement of God after this life , do ( as far as it lies in them ) make God unjust , and far be this from your thoughts . There it will be told you about your private affaires , that what you would have hidden from men , you should never do , what from God , ye should never think . There you shall here this rebuke of deceivers ; It is lesser damage to be deceived , then to deceive . Lastly you shall hear this reproofe of self-conceit , or a fond opinion of our owne worth ; flye vanity , and so much the more , the better thou art : all other vices increase by vitiousnesse , but vanity is oftentimes a bubble that swims upon the face of Virtue . These few rules , as a tast and invitation , I have ( out of many more ) inserted here for your use .

But if you will now turn your Eyes towards the sacred Oracles , and come your self to be a searcher of those Heavenly treasures , I know not which will most ravish you , the Casket , or the Jewell , the Language or the Matter . For the Booke of God , while it shines and glitters with glorious irradiations within , doth after the manner of most pretious gems , drive the beholders Eyes into a strong and restlesse admiration of its most rich and inscrutable brightnesse . But let not the weaknesse of your Eyes make you shun this Divine light , but warme your Soul at the beames of it , and learne to feede your inward man with this mystical and healthfull foode .

I doubt not but ( by the powerful working of our mercifull God upon your heart , ) I shall shortly find you an unfeyned lover of this true Philosophie , and a resolute opposer of the false ; renouncing also all worldly oblectations , and earnestly coveting the true and eternall . For it is a point of great impiety and imprudence , seeing God wrought so many marvellous things for the Salvation of man , that he should do nothing for himself : and seeing that in all his wonderfull works he had a most speciall reguard of our good , we our selves should especially neglect it . Now the right way to care for our Soules , is to yeild our selves to the love and the service of God : For true happinesse is obtained by contemning the false felicities of this World , and by a wise abdication of all earthly d●lights , that we may become the Chast and faithfull lovers of the Heavenly . Wherefore henceforth let all your words and actions be done either to the glory of God , or for Gods sake . Get Innocence for your Companion , and she is so faithfull , that she will be also your defendresse . It is a worthy enterprise to follow after Virtue , and to perform something while we live , for the example and the good of others : nor is it to be doubted , but the mind , by a virtuous course of life , will quickly free it selfe from those intanglements and deviations it hath been formerly accustomed to . That great Physition to whose cure and care we offer our selves , will daily strengthen and perfect our recovery .

And what estimation or value ( when in this state ) can you lay upon those glorious remunerations that will be laid up for you against the day of recompence ? You see that God , even in this life , hath mercifully distributed unto all ( without any difference ) his most pleasant and usefull light . The pious and the impious are both allowed the same Sunne , all the creatures obediently submit themselves to their service : And the whole Earth with the fullnesse thereof is the indifferent possession of the just and unjust . Seeing then that he hath given such excellent things unto the impious , how much more glorious are those things which he reserves for the pious ? he that is so great in his free gifts , how excellent will he be in his rewards ? He that is so Royal in his daily bounty , and ordinary magnificence ; how transcendent will hee be in his remunerations and requitalls ? Ineffable and beyond all conception are those things which God hath prepared for those that love him ; And that they are so is most certain : For it is altogether incomprehensible , and passeth the understanding of his most chosen vessels to tell , how great his reward shall be unto the just , who hath given so much to the unthankfull and the unbelieving .

Take up your Eyes from the Earth , and look about you , my most dear Valerian ; spread forth your sailes , and hasten from this stormy Sea of Secular negotiations , into the calme and secure harbour of Christian Religion . This is the onely Haven into which we all drive from the raging Surges of this malitious World . This is our shelter from the lowd and persecuting whirlwinds of time : Here is our sure station and certain rest : Here a large and silent recesse , secluded from the World , opens and offers it selfe unto us . Here a pleasant , serene tranquillity shines upon us . Hither when you are come , your weather-beaten Vessell ( after all your fruitlesse toiles ) shall at last find rest , and securely ride at the Anchor of the Cross .

But it is time now that I should make an end . Let then ( I beseech you , ) the truth and the force of Heavenly Doctrine Epitomized here by me , be approved of and used by you to the glory of God and your own good . These are all my precepts at present : pardon the length , and acknowledge my love .

Gloria tibi mitissime Jesu !

Primitive Holiness , Set forth in the LIFE of blessed PAULINUS , The most Reverend , and Learned BISHOP of NOLA :

Collected out of his own Works , and other Primitive Authors by Henry Vaughan , Silurist .

2 Kings cap. 2. v.r. 12.

My Father , my Father , the Chariot of Israel , and the Horsmen thereof .

LONDON , Printed for Humphrey Moseley at the Prince's Armes in St. Paul's Church-yard , 1654.

TO THE READER .

IF thou lovest Heaven , and the beauty of Immortality , here is a guide will lead thee into that house of light . The earth at present is not worth the enjoying , it is corrupt , and poysoned with the curse . I exhort thee therefore to look after a better country , an inheritance that is undefiled and fadeth not away . If thou doest this , thou shalt have a portion given thee here , when all things shall be made new . In the mean time I commend unto thee the memorie of that restorer , and the reward he shall bring with him in the end of this world , which truely draws near , if it be not at the door . Doat not any more upon a withered , rotten Gourd , upon the seducements and falshood of a most odious , decayed Prostitute ; but look up to Heaven , where wealth without want , delight without dist●st , and joy without sorrow ( like undefiled and incorruptible Virgins ) sit cloathed with light , and crowned with glory . Let me incite thee to this speculation in the language of Ferarius : Define tandem aliquando prono in terram vultu , vel praeter naturam brutum animal , vel ante diem silicernium videri . Coelum suspice , ad quod natus , ad quod erectâ staturâ tuendum tenendumque factus es . Immortalia sydera caducis flosculis praefer , aut eadem esse Coeli flores existimato nostratibus Amaranthis diuturniores . Farewel , and neglect not thy own happiness .

H.V.

THE LIFE OF HOLY PAVLINVS , THE BISHOP of NOLA .

BEn Sirach finishing his Catalogue of holy men ( to seal up the summe , and to make his list compleat ) brings in Simon the Sonne of Onias : And ( after a short narration of his pious care in repairing and fortifying the Temple ) hee descends to the particular excellencies , and sacred perfections of his person . Which to render the more fresh and sweet unto posterity , he adornes with these bright and flowrie Encomiums .

1. He was as the Morning-star in the midst of a cloud , and as the Moon at the full .

2. As the Sunne shining upon the temple of the most high , and as the Rain-bow giving light in the bright clouds .

3. As the flower of Roses in the spring of the year , as Lilies by the rivers of waters , and as the branches of the Frankincense-tree in the time of summer .

4. As fire and Incense in the Censer , and as a vessel of beaten gold set with all manner of precious stones .

5. As a fair Olive-tree budding forth fruit , and as a Cypresse tree which groweth up to the clouds .

6. When he put on the robe of honour , and was cloathed with the perfection of glory , when he went up to the holy Altar , he made the garment of holinesse honourable .

Most great ( indeed ) and most glorious Assimilations , full of life , and full of freshnesse ! but in all this beauty of holinesse , in all these spices and flowers of the Spouse , there is nothing too much , nothing too great for our most great and holy Paulinus . The Saints of God ( though wandring in sheep-skins , and goat-skins , in caves , and in mountains ) become eminently famous , and leave behind them a more glorious and enduring memory , then the most prosperous tyrants of this world ; which like noysome exhalations , moving for a time in the Eye of the Sun , fall afterwards to the earth , where they rot and perish under the chaines of darkness . The fame of holy men ( like the Kingdome of God ) is a seed that grows secretly ; the dew that feeds these plants comes from him , that sees in secret , but rewards openly . They are those trees in the Poet , Which silently , and by none seen , Grow great and green .

While they labour to conceal , and obscure themselves , they shine the more . And this ( saith Athanasius in the life of Antonie the great ) is the goodnesse of God , who useth to glorifie his servants , though unwilling , that by their examples he may condemn the world , and teach men , that holinesse is not above the reach of humane nature . Apposite to my present purpose is all this prolusion , both because this blessed Bishop ( whose life I here adventure to publish ) was a person of miraculous perfections and holynesse , and because withall he did most diligently endeavour to vilifie his own excellent abilities , and to make himselfe of no account . But Pearls , though set in lead , will not lose their brightnesse ; and a virtuous life shines most in an obscure livelyhood .

In the explication of his life I shall follow first the method of Nature , afterwards of Grace : I shall begin with his Birth , Education , and Maturitie ; and end with his Conversion , Improvements , and Perfection . To make my entrance then into the work , I finde that he was born in the City of Burdeaux in Gascoyne , in the year of our Lord three hundred and fifty three , Constantius the Arian reigning in the East , and Constans in the West , and * * He subscribed to the damnable heresie of Arius , as both Hierome and Athanasius testifie against him . Liberius being Bishop of Rome : In a Golden Age , when Religion and Learning kissed each other , and equally flourished . So that he had the happines to shine in an age that loved light , and to multiply his own by the light of others . It was the fashion then of the Roman Senatours to build them sumptuous houses in their Country-livings , that they might have the pleasure and conveniency of retiring thither from the tumult and noyse of that great City , which sometimes was , and would be yet the head of the World . Upon such an occasion ( without doubt ) was Burdeaux honoured with the birth of Paulinus , his Fathers estate lying not far off , about the town of Embrau , upon the River Garumna , which rising out of the Pyrene hils washeth that part of Guienne with a pleasant stream , and then runs into the Aquitane sea . By this happy accident came France to lay claime to Paulinus , which she makes no small boast of at this day . But his Country indeed ( if we follow his descent , which is the right way to find it ) is Italie , and Rome it self ; his Ancestors were all Patricians , and honour'd ( by a long succession ) with the Consular purple . His Patrimonies were large , and more becomming a Prince then a private man ; for besides those possessions in the City of Burdeaux , and by the River Garumna , he had other most ample Inheritances in Italy about Narbone and Nola , and in Rome it self . And for this we have a pregnant testimony out of Ausonius , who labouring to disswade him from Evangelical poverty , and that obscure course of life ( as he is pleased to term it ) layes before him ( as the most moving arguments ) the desolation of his ancient house , with the ruin and sequestration ( as it were ) of his large possessions ; his words are these . Ne raptam sparsamque domum , &c. Let me not weep to see thy ravish'd house All sad & silent , without Lord or Spouse , And all those vast dominions once thine owne , Torn 'twixt a hundred slaves to me unknown .

But what account he made of these earthly possessions , will appeare best by his own words in his fifth Epistle to Severus : Ergo ●ihil in hunc mundum inferentibus substantiam rerum temporalium quasi tonfile v●ll●s app●●it , &c. God ( saith he ) layes these temporal accommodations upon us that come naked into this world , as a fleece of wooll which is to be sheared off . He puts it not as a load to hinder us , whom it behoves to be born light and active , but as a certain matter which rightly used may be beneficial . And when he bestoweth any thing upon us , that is either dear or pleasant to us , he gives it for this end , that by parting with it , it may be a testimonial , or token of our love and devotion towards God , seeing we neglect the fruition of our best present things for his sake , who will amply reward us in the future .

He had conferred upon him all the ornaments of humane life which man could be blest with . He was nobly born , rich , and beautifull , of constitution slender and delicate , but every way fitted for virtuous imployment ; of an excellent wit , a happy memory , and , which sweeten'd all these gracious concessions , of a most mild and modest disposition . To bring these seeds to perfection , his Father ( having a care of him equall to his degree ) caused him to be brought up under the regiment of Decius magnus Ausonius , a famous Poet and Oratour , who at that time kept a School of Grammar and Rhetorick in the City of Burdeaux . The Ingenuity and sweetnesse of Paulinus so overcame and ravished Ausonius , that he used all possible skill and diligence , to adorne and perfect those natural abilities which he so much loved and admired in this hopefull plant . The effect was , that he exceeded his Master . Ausonius upon this being called to the Court by the old Emperor Valentinian ; Paulinus gave himselfe to the study of the Civill Law , and the acute and learned pleadings of that age , wherein he was so excellent , that the Emperor taking notice of his Abilities , took order for his Election into the Senate , and this a very long time before his Tutor attained to that honour . This praecedence of eloquence and honour * * Cedimus ingenio quantum praecedimus aeyo , Assurgit Musae nostra Camaena tuae . Sic & fastorum titulo prior , & tua Romae Praecessit nostrum sella curulis ebur . Ausonius himself confesseth ; but having a greater witnesse , I shall leave his testimony to the Margin , to make room for the other . Take then ( if it please you ) the Judgement of that glorious and Eloquent Doctour Saint Hierome , for thus he writes in his thirteenth Epist. to Paulinus , O si mihi liceret istiusmodi ingenium non per Aonios montes & Heliconis vertices , ut poetae canunt , sed per Sion , &c. O that I were able ( saith he ) to extoll and publish your ingenuity and holy learning , not upon the Aonian hills , or the tops of Helicon ( as the Poets sing ) but upon the Mountaines of Sion and Sinai ; that I might preach there what I have learnt from you , and deliver that sacred mysteries of Scripture through your hands ; I might then have something to speak , which learned Greece could never boast of . And in another place , A most pregnant wit you have , and an infinite treasure of words , which easily and ap●ly flow from you , and both the easinesse and the aptness are judiciously mixt .

To these Divine favours already conferred upon him , God added another great blessing , the Crown of his youth , and the Comfort of his age ; I meane Therasia , a Noble Roman Virgin , whom he tooke to wife in the midst of his honours , and who afterwards ( of her owne free will ) most joyfully parted with them all , and with her own pleasant possessions to follow Christ in the regeneration .

At this height of honours , & growing repute , he was employ'd ( upon some concernments of the Empire ) into Italy , France , and Spain ; Where he was detained ( together with his dear consort ) for the space of almost fifteen years ; during which time , he secretly laboured to make himself acquainted with the glorious Fathers of that age , and ( the Spirit of God now beginning to breath upon him ) hee was strongly moved to embrace the Christian Faith . In these travells of his , it was his fortune to arrive at Millaine , where Saint Augustine , and Alypius , the Bishop of Tagasta in Africk , did the Sojourne ; here by accident he was known of Alpyius , though unknown to him ; as we see it often fall out , that great persons are known of many , which to them are unknown .

Much about this time ( which was the eight and thirtieth year of his age , ) he retired privately with his wife into the City of Burdeaux . And the hour being now come , that the singing of birds should be heard , and the lips which were asleep should speak : Hee was there by the hands of holy Delphinus ( who then sate Bishop in the Sea of Burdeaux , ) publickly baptized , from which time forward he renounced all his Secular acquaintance , associating himself to the most strict and pious livers in that age , especially to Saint Ambrose the Bishop of Millan , and Saint Martin the Bishop of Tours . That he was baptized about the eight and thirtieth yeare of his age , is clear by his owne words in his first Epistle to Saint Augustine , Nolo in me corporalis ●rtus , magis quam spiritalis exortus aetatem consideres , &c. I would not ( saith he ) that you consider my temporall age , so much as my spiritual ; my age in the flesh is the same with that Cripple , who was healed in the beautifull gate by the power of Christ working by his Apostles ; but my age in the regeneration is the same with the blessed Infants , who by the wounds intended for Christ himself , became the first fruits unto Christ , and by the losse of their innocent blood , did foreshew the slaughter of the Lamb , and the passion of our Lord . Now for the first , Saint Luke tells us , That the Cripple upon whom this miracle of healing was shown , was above forty years of age ( Acts Chap. 4. ver. 22. ) and for the Infants , the Evangelists words are , that Herod sent forth his messengers , and slew all the Male Children that were in Bethlem , and the Coasts thereof , from two years old and under . So that considering all the Circumstances which offer themselves for the clearing of this point , it will evidently appear , that he was baptized ( as I have said before ) in the eight and thirtieth year of his age . The onely Instrument which God was pleas'd to ordain , and imploy upon the Earth for his Conversion , was his dear and Virtuous Wife Therasia ; Which makes me conjecture , that she was borne of Christian parents , and had received the faith from her infancie . This Ausonius his old Tutor , ( who was scarce a good Chrihian , ) forgat not to upraid him with in most injurious termes , calling her Tanaquil , and the Imperatrix of her Husband : To which passionate passages ( though sadly resented ) Paulinus r●plyed with all the humanity and sweetnesse which language could expr●sse . Thus Ausonius barks at him . Undè istam meruit non foelix Charta repulsam ? Hostis ab hoste tamen , &c. — how could that paper sent , That luckless paper , merit thy contempt ? Ev'n foe to fo ( though furiously ) replies ; And the defied , his Enemy defies : Amidst the swords and wounds ther 's a Salute . Rocks answer man , and though hard , are not mute . Nature made nothing dumb , nothing unkind : The trees and leaves speak trembling to the wind . If thou doest feare discoveries , and the blot Of my love , Tanaquil shal know it not .

To this Poetical fury , Paulinus reposeth with that Native mildnesse , which he was wholly composed of : Continuata meae durare silentia linguae , Te nunquam tacito memoras ; placit amque latebris Desidiam exprobras ; neglectaeque insuper addis Crimen amicitiae ; formidatamque Jugalem Objicis , & durum iacis in mea viscera versum , &c. Obdurate still , and tongue-tyed you accuse ( Though yours is ever vocall ) my dull muse ; You blame my Lazie , lurking life , and adde I scorne your love , a Calumny most sad ; Then tell me , that I fear my wife , and dart Harsh , cutting words against my dearest heart . Leave , learned Father , leave this bitter Course , My studies are not turn'd unto the worse ; I am not mad , nor idle ; nor deny Your great deserts , and my debt , nor have I A wife like Tanaquil as wildly you Object , but a Lucretia , chast and true .

To avoid these clamours of Ausonius , and the dangerous sollicitations of his gr●at kindred and friends , he left Burdeaux and Nola , and retyred into the Mountanous and solitary parts of Spaine , about Barcin●e and Bilbilis upon the River Sale . Two journeyes he made into Spain , this last , and his first ( before his baptism ) upon the Emperours affairs ; he Sojourned then in new Casti●e , in the City of Complutum now called Alcala de henares , where his wife Therasia was delivered of her onely Son Celsus , who died upon the eighth day after his birth . Holy Paulinus in his Panegyrick upon the death of Celsus the Son of Pneumatius , by his Wife Fid●lis , takes occasion to mention the early death of this blessed infant , Hoc pignus commune superno in lumine Celsu Credite vivorum lacte favisque frui . Aut cum Bethlaeis infantibus in Paradiso ( Quos malus Herodes perculit invidiâ , ) Inter odoratum ludit nemus , &c. This pledge of your joint love , to Heaven now fled , With honey-combs and milk of life is fed . Or with the Bethlem-Babes ( whom Herods rage Kill'd in their tender , happy , holy age ) Doth walk the groves of Paradise , and make Garlands , which those young Martyrs from him take . With these his Eyes on the mild lamb are fixt , A Virgin-Child with Virgin-infants mixt . Such is my Celsus too , who soon as given , Was taken back ( on the eighth day ) to Heaven , To whom at Alcala I sadly gave Amongst the Martyrs Tombes a little grave . Hee now with yours ( gone both the blessed way , ) Amongst the trees of life doth smile and play ; And this one drop of our mixt blood may be A light for my Therasia , and for me .

These distant and obscure retirements he made choice of , because he would not be known of any , nor hindred in his cours● ; Which at Nola , and the adjacent parts of Rome ( where his Secular honours an I antient descent made all the people obsequious to him ) could not possibly be effected Besides very few in those Western parts ( especially of the Nobility ) had at that time received the Christian Faith ; for they look'd upon it as a most degenerate , unmanly profession : such a good opinion had those rough times of peace and humility . This made him lesse looked after by the Inhabitants of those parts ; and his own friends not knowing what became of him , began to give him over , and not onely to withdraw from him in their care , but in their affections also , giving out that he was mad , and besides himself . But all this moved him not : he was not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ , he counted all things dung that he might gaine his Saviour , and hee fainted not , but endured , as seeing him that is invisible . The first step to Christianity ( saith Saint Hierome ) is to contemne the censures of men . St. Hierome Ep. 26. This foundation he laid , and upon this he built ; he had given himselfe wholly to Christ , and rejected the world ; he tooke part with that man of sorrowes , and suffered the scoffs and reproaches of these men of mirth . The people are the many waters , he turn'd their froth and some into pearls , and wearied all weathers with an unimpaired Superstitie . Hee was sounded upon that Rock , which is not worne with time , but wears all that oppose it . Some dispositions love to stand in raine , and affect wind and showers beyond Musick . Paulinus sure was of this temper ; he preferred the indignation and hatred of the multitude to their love , he would not buy their friendship with the losse of Heaven , nor call those Saints and propagators , who were Devills and destroyers . What courage he had in such tempests , may be seen in every line almost of his workes ; I shal insert one or two out of his 6th Epistle to Severus : Utinam , frater mi , digni habeamur qui maledicamur , & notemur , & conteramur , atque etiam interficiamur in nomine Jesu Christi , dum non ipse occidatur Christus in nobis . &c. I would ( saith he ) my dear brother , that we might be counted worthy to suffer reproach , to be branded and troden upon ; Yea , and to be killed for the name of Christ , so that Christ be not killed in us . Then at last should we tread upon the Adder , and the Dragon , and bruise the head of the old Serpent . But ( alas ! ) wee as yet relish this World , and do but pretend to love Christ ; we love indeed to be commended and cherished for professing his name , but wee love not to be troubled and afflicted for his sake . And in his first Epistle to Aper ; O blessed displeasures ( saith he ) to displease men by pleasing Christ ! Let us take heed of the love of such , who will be pleased without Christ . It is an observation of the Readers of Saint Cyprian , quod in ejus scriptis singula propè verb● Martyrium spirant , that through all his writings , almost every word doth breath Martyrdome . His expressions are all Spirit and Passion , as if he had writ them with his blood , and conveyed the anguish of his sufferings into his writings . I dare not say so much of Paulinus , nor of any other Father of the Church ; but I fear not to say that Paulinus both durst , and ( had he beene called to it ) would have laid downe his life for the love of Christ .

Four yeares hee spent in these remote parts of Spain , during which time , he did lead a most solitary and austere life , labouring by all meanes to conceale and vilifie himself . But a City that is built upon a hill cannot be hidden ; his holinesse and humility had so awaked the Common people dwelling about the place of his abode , that they would not rest again till they had him for their Minister . This most honourable and sacred charge he would by no meanes adventure to undergo , judging himselfe a most unworthy vile sinner , not fit to deale in holy Scripture , much lesse to handle and administer the mystical Elements of life . But God , who had ordained him for it , would not suffer this . For the people ( not without violence and some rudeness , ) carried him away to Barcinoe , where holy Lampius , then Bishop of that Sea , did upon Christmasse day by the laying on of his hands , consecrate him a faithfull steward and learned dispenser of the Mysteries of God . This passage we have fully related in his sixth Epistle to Severus , Nos modo in Barcinonensi ( ut ante Scrips●ram ) civitate consistimus , &c. I live now ( saith he ) as I formerly writ to you in the City of Barcinoe , where ( since the last letters received from you ) I was by the violence of the people ( God , I believe , having foreordained it ) compell'd to enter into holy Orders upon that day in which our Lord was born . I confesse it was done against my will , not for any dislike that I have to the place ( for Christ is my witnesse , that my highest desire was to begin my imployment in his house with the office and honour of a door-keeper ) but having designed my selfe ( as you know ) * * For Nola. elsewhere , I was much terrified with this sudden and unexpected pleasure of the Divine will : However I refused it not , but submitted with all humility , and have put my necke into the Yoke of Christ , though altogether unworthy and unable . I see now that I have medled with things that are too wonderful for me ; I am made a Steward of the Secrets of the Almighty , and honourd with the dispensation of Heavenly things , and being called nearer to my Master , I am exercised about the Body , about the Spirit , and the glory of Jesus Christ . The narrownesse of my understanding cannot comprehend the signification of this high and sacred dignity , and I tremble every minute ( when I consider my own infirmities ) to thinke of the great burthen that is laid upon me . But he that gives wisedome to his little ones , and hath perfected praise out of the mouths of babes and sucklings , is able to finish what he begun in me , that by his mighty working , I may be made worthy , who was most unworthy to be called . The Priesthood is an Office belonging to the Kingdome of Heaven . It is an honour that is ranged upon holy ground , and by it selfe . Worldly dignities , which are but humane inventions , are , and may be acquired ( with lesse offence ) by humane meanes , as bribery , ambition , and policie . But to take hold of this white robe with such dirty hands , is nothing lesse then to spit in the face of Christ , and to dishonour his Ordinance . He that doth it , and he that permits it to be done , agree like Herod and Pilate , to dispise and crucifie him . They that Countenance and ratifie such disorders , take care to provide so many Judasses to betray Christ , and then vote the treason to be lawfull . Every man can speak , but every man cannot preach : Tongues and the gift of tongues are not the same things : The wisdome of God hath depth and rich●s , and things hard to be spoken , as well as milk , and the first principles of his Oracles . Wee have amongst us many builders with hay and stubble , but let them , and those that hired them , take heed how they build ; The tryal will be by fire , and by a consuming fire . The hidden things of dishonest , the walking in Craftinesse , and the handling deceitfully of the word of God they are well versed in ; b● true sanctifie , and the S●irit of God ( which Saint Paul thought he had ) I am very sure they have not .

A modest reader would now thinke that Paulinus had removed himselfe farre enough from the elaborate temptations , and clamorous pursuits of Ausonius ; But even in this will he be deceived . For at the fourth years end , did the Incantations of this busie and obstinate Charmer find him out . God ( no doubt ) providing for the security of his servant all that while , by delaying them in severall regions , or else by concealing the abode of his beloved votary , from this pursuer of Soules . For with all the artifice and strength of wit , did he set upon him in this last letter , which the divine providence suffered not to come into his hand , till he had set both his hands to the plough , and seald his conformation with that indelible Character . And now having set a hedge about his beloved , he suffered this Fowle of the Evening to fly over , which chattered to him in these melodious numbers . Vertisti , Pauline , tu●s dulcissim● mores ? &c. Sweet Paulinus , is thy nature turn'd ? Have I so long in vaine thy absence mourn'd ? Wilt thou , my glory , and great Romes delight , The Senates prop , their oracle , and light , In Bilbilis and Calagurris dwel , Changing thy Ivorie-chair for a dark Cell ? Wilt bury there thy Purple , and contemn All the great honours of thy noble stem ?

To this Roman Magick , and most pernicious Elegancy , Paulinus replyed with a certain sacred and serene simplicity , which proved so piercing , and powerful , that he was never after troubled with the Poetry of Ausonius . — Revoe andum me tibi credam , Cum steriles fundas non ad divina percatus ? Castatidis supplex averso numine musis , &c. Shall I beleeve you can make me return , Who pour your fruitless prayers when you mourn , Not to your Maker ? Who can hear you cry : But to the fabled Nymphs of Castalie ? You never shall by such false Gods bring me Either to Rome , or to your company . As for those former things you once did know , And which you still call mine , I freely now Confesse , I am not he , whom you knew then ; I have dyed since , and have been borne agen . Nor dare I think my sage instructor can Believe it errour , for redeemed man To serve his great redeemer . I grieve not , But glory so to erre . Let the wise knot Of worldlings call me fool ; I slight their noise , And heare my God approving of my choice . Man is but glass , a building of no trust , A moving shade , and , without Christ , meer dust : His choice in life concerns the Chooser much : For when he dyes , his good or ill ( just such As here it was ) goes with him hence , and staies Still by him , his strict Judge in the last dayes . These serious thoughts take up my soul , and I While yet 't is day-light , fix my busie eye Upon his sacred Rules , lifes precious sum , Who in the twilight of the world shall come To judge the lofty looks , and shew mankind The diff'rence 'twixt the ill and well inclin'd . This second coming of the worlds great King Makes my heart tremble , and doth timely bring A saving care into my watchfull soul , Lest in that day all vitiated and foul I should be found : That day , times utmost line , When all shall perish , but what is divine . When the great Trumpets mighty blast shall shake The earths foundations , till the hard Rocks quake , And melt like piles of snow , when lightnings move Like hail , and the white thrones are set above . That day , when sent in glory by the Father , The Prince of life his blest Elect shall gather ; Millions of Angels round about him flying , While all the kindreds of the earth are crying , And he enthron'd upon the clouds shall give His last just sentence , who must die , who live . This is the fear this is the saving care , That makes me leave false honours , and that share Which fell to mee of this fraile world ; lest by A frequent use of present pleasures I Should quite forget the future , and let in Foul Atheism , or some presumptuous sin . Now by their loss I have secur'd my life , And bought my peace ev'n with the cause of strife . I live to him , who gave me life & breath , And without feare expect the houre of death . If you like this , bid joy to my rich state , If not , leave me to Christ at any rate .

Being now ordained a Minister of holy things , and a feeder of t●e flock of Christ , that he might be enabled to render a joyfull account at the appearance of the great Shepheard , he resolved with all convenient expedition to sell and give away all his large and Princely Possessions in Italy and France ; which hithert● he had not disposed of ; for he looked upon his great Patrimonies as matters of distraction and backsliding , the thoughts and solicitousnesse about such vast revenues disturbing his pious affections , and necessarily intruding into his most holy exercitations . Upon this rare resolution he returnes with his faithfull Consort into France , leaving Barcinoe and holy Lampius in much sorrow for his departure . For though hee had entred there into the Ministery , yet was he no member of that Diocesse . And here ( saith Uranius , who was his Presbyter , and wrote a brief narration of his life ) did he open his Treasuries to the poor and the stranger . He did not only refresh his neighbours , but sent messengers into other remote parts to summon the naked , and the hungry to this great Feast , where they were both fed and cloathed with his own hands . He eased the oppressed , freed the captives , payd the debts of whole families , and redeemed divers persons that were become bondslaves to their creditors . Briefly , he sold all that he had , and distributed the money amongst the poor , not reserving one penny either for himself , or his dear Therasia . Saint Ambrose in his thirtieth Epistle to Sabinus confirmeth this relation : Paulinum splendore generis in partibus Aquitaniae nulli secun●um , venditis facultatibus tam ●uis quametiam conjugalibus ; &c. Paulinus ( saith he ) the most eminent for his Nobility in all the parts of Aquitane , having sold away all his patrimonies , together with the goods of his wife , did out of pure love to Jesus Christ divide all that vast Summe of Money amongst the poor ; and he himself from a rich S●nator is become a most poor man , having cast off that heavy secular burthen , and forsaken his own house , his country , and his kindred , that he might with more earnestnesse follow Christ . His Wife also , as nobly descended , and as zealous for the Faith as himself , cons●nted to all his desires , and having given away all her own large possessions , lives with her husband in a little thatch'd cottage , rich in nothing but the hidden treasures of Religion and holinesse . Saint Augustine also in his first book de Civitate Dei , and the tenth Chapter , celebrates him with the like testimony : Our Paulinus ( saith hee ) from a man most splendidly rich , became most poor most willingly , and most richly holy . He laboured not to adde field unto field , nor to inclose himself in C●dar and Ivory , and the drossie darke gold of this world , but to enter through the gates into the precious light of that City , which is of pure gold like unto cleare glasse . He left some few things in this world , to enjoy all in the world to come . A great performance certainly , and a most fair approach towards the Kingdom of heaven . He that fights with dust , comes off well , if it blinds him not . To slight words , and the names of temptations , is easie , but to deale so with the matter , and substance of them , is a task . Conscience hath Musick , and light , as well as discord and darknesse : And the triumphs of it are as familiar after good works , as the Checks of it after bad . It is no heresie in devotion to be sensible of our smallest Victories over the World . But how far he was from thinking this a Victory , may be easily gathered out of his own● words in his second Epistle to Severus ; Facile nobis bona , &c. The goods ( saith he ) I carried about me , by the slipping of my skirt out of my hand , fell easily from me : And those things which I brought not into this World , and could not carry out of it , being only lent me for a time , I restored again . I pulled them not as the skin off my back , but laid them by , as a garment I had sometimes worne . But now comes the difficulty upon me , when those things which are truly mine , as my heart , my Soul , and my works must be presented and given a living Sacrifice unto God . The abdication of this World , and the giving of our temporall goods amongst the poore , is not the running of the race , but a preparing to run ; it is not the end , but the beginning , and first step of our Journey . Hee that striveth for masteries , shall not be crowned , except he first strive lawfully ; And he that is to swimme over a River , cannot do it by putting off his cloathes onely , he must put his body also into the stream , and with the motion of his armes , his hands and feete , passe through the violence of the Brook , and then rest upon the further side of it . And in his 12th Epistle , he cries out , O miserable and vaine men ! Wee believe that wee bestow something upon the poor : wee trade and lend , and would be counted liberall , when we are most covetous . The most unconscionable userers upon Earth are not so greedy as we are , nor their interest and exactions so unreasonable as ours . We purchase Heaven with Earth , happinesse with misery , and immortality with rust and rottennesse . Such another Divine rapture is that in his Poems . — Et res magna videtur , Merc ari propriam de re pereunt● salutem ? Perpetuis mutare caduca ? &c. — And is the bargain thought too dear , To give for Heaven our fraile subsistence here ? To change our mortall with immortall homes , And purchase the bright Stars with darksome stones ? Behold ! my God ( a rate great as his breath ! ) On the sad crosse bought me with bitter death , Did put on flesh , and suffe'rd for our good , For ours , ( vile slaves ! ) the losse of his dear blood .

Wee see by these Manifesto's what account he made of this great deed ; so great , that none now adaies thinke of doing it . Go thy way , sell whatsoever thou hast , and give to the poor , is a commandement , as well as , take up the Crosse and follow me . This last cannot be done , but by doing the first . Well sell oftentimes , but seldome give : and happily that is the reason we sell so often . He that keeps all to himselfe , takes not the right way to thrive . The Corn that lies in the Granarie will bring no harvest . It is most commonly the foode of vermine , and some creatures of the night and darknesse . Charity is a relique of Paradise , and pitty is a strong argument that we are all descended from one man : He that carries this rare Jewell about him , will every where meete with some kindred . He is quickly acquainted with distressed persons , and their first sight warmes his blood . I could believe , that the word stranger is a notion received from the posterity of Cain , who killed Abel . The Hebrewes in their own tribes , called those of the farthest degree , brothers ; and sure they erred lesse from the law of pure Nature , then the rest of the Nations , which were left to their owne lusts . The afflictions of man are more moving then of any other Creature ; for he onely is a stranger here , where all things else are at home . But the losing of his innocency , and his device of Tyranny have made him unpittied , and forfeited a prerogative , that would have prevailed more by submission , then all his posterity shall do by opposition . Not to give to one that lacks , is a kind of murther : Want and famine are destroyers as well as the sword , and rage very frequently in private , when they are not thought of in the Publick . The blessed JESUS who came into the World to rectifie Nature , and to take away the inveterate corruptions of man , was not more in any of his precepts , then in that which bids us Love one another . This is the cement not onely of this World , but of that other which is to come . Blessed are the mercifull ; and , give to him that asketh thee , proceeded from the same lips of truth . And in his description of the last judgement , he grounds the sentence of condemnation pronounced against the wicked upon no other fact , but because they did not cloath the naked , feed the hungry , and take in the stranger . Love covers a multitude of sins , and God loves the chearfull giver . But this is not our whole duty : though we give our bodies to be burnt , and give all our goods unto the poor , yet without holinesse we shall never see the face of God . Darknesse cannot stand in the presence of light , and flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdome of God . The great difficulty then ( as our holy Bishop here saith ) is to become a living sacrifice ; and truly the next way to it , is by an Evangelical disposing of these outward incumbrances ; this will open and prepare the way before us , though it takes nothing from the length of it . The Hawke proines and rouseth before she flyes , but that brings her not to the mark : Preparations , and the distant flourishes of Array will not get the field , but action , and the pursuance of it .

His Estate in France being thus disposed of , he retyred into Italy ; where having done the like to his Patrimonies there , hee came to Millaine , and was honourably received by holy Ambrose , then Bishop of that Sea . But these gay feathers of the World , being thus blown off him , by the breath of that Spirit which makes the dry tree to become green , and the spices of the Garden to flow out , all his kindred and former acquaintance became his deadly Enemies . Flyes of estate follow Fortune , and the Sun-shine ; friendship is a thing much talked off , but seldome found ; I never knew above two that loved without selfe-ends . That which passeth for love in this age , is the meere counter to it ; It is policie in the cloathes of love , or the hands of Esau with the tongue of Jacob. These smooth Cheats the World abounds with : There is Clay enough for the potter , but little dust whereof commeth Gold . The best direction is Religion ; find a true Christian , and thou hast found a true friend . He that fears not God , will not feare to do thee a mischiefe .

From Millaine he came to Rome , where he was honourably entertained by all , but his own kindred , and Siricius the great Bishop . It was the ill Fortune of this zealous Pope , to be offended not onely with Paulinus , but with that glorious Father Saint Hierome . It was a perillous dissolutenesse of some Bishops in that Century , to admit of Lay-men , and unseason'd persons into the Ministry . This rash and impious practice Siricius had , by severall strict Sanctions or decrees , condemned and forbidden ; and it is probable that the reason of his strange carriage towards Paulinus and Hierome was , because he would not seem to connive at any persons that were suddenly ordained , though never so deserving , lest he should seeme to offend against his own edicts . It is a sad truth that this pernicious rashnesse of Bishops ( fighting ex diametro with the Apostolical cautions ) hath oftentimes brought boars into the Vineyard , and Wolves into the sheepfold ; which complying afterwards with all manner of Interests , have torne out the bowels of their Mother . Wee need no examples : Wee have lived to see all this our selves . Ignorance and obstinacie make Hereticks : And ambition makes Schismaticks ; when they are once at this passe , they are on the way toward Atheisme . I do not say that Ecclesiastical pol●ty is an inviolable or sure sense against Church-rents ; because there is a necessity that offences must come , though wo to them by whom ; but rules of prevention are given : and therefore they should not be slighted . The Bride-groom adviseth his spouse to take these foxes while they are litle .

In a pleasant field halfe a mile distant from Nola lies the Sepulcher of the blessed Martyr Felix . To this place ( which from his youth hee was ever devoted to , ) did Paulinus now retire . It was the custom of holy men in that age no● onely to live near the Tombs of the Martyrs , but to provide also for their buriall in those places ; because they were sure , that in the Resurrection , and the terrours of the day of Judgement God would descend upon those places in the soft voyce , that is to say in his love and mercies . Eusebius is his fourth Book , and the sixth Chapter of the life of Constantine tells us , how that great Emperour gave strict order for his buriall amongst the Tombes of the Apostles , and then adds , 〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉 . Saint Chrisostome in in that homilie which hee writ to prove that Christ is God , gives the same relation , 〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉 , &c. The Emperors of Constantinople ( saith he ) esteeme it for a great honour , if they be buried not within the shrines of the Apostles , but at the Gates of their Temple , that they may be the door-keepers of those poor fishers . So Marcellina , descended from the consular Nobility of Rome , refused to be buried amongst her Ancestors , that she might sleepe at Millaine with her great Brother Saint Ambrose , where shee lies under this Epitaph . Marcellina , tuos cum vita resolveret artus ; Sprevisti patriis , &c. Life , Marcellina , leaving thy faire frame , Thou didst contemne those Tombes of costly fame , Built by thy Roman Ancestours , and lyest At Millaine , where great Ambrose sleeps in Christ . Hope , the deads life , and faith , w●ich never faints , Made thee rest here , that thou may'st rise with Saints .

To this place therefore near Nola in Campania ( a Country lying within the Realm of Naples , and called now by the Inhabitants Terra di Lavoro , ) as to a certain Harbour and recesse from the clamours of their friends , and the t●mptations of the World , did Paulinus and Therasia convey themselves . His affection to this holy a a Paulininus calls him a Martyr , quia multa pro Christo passus , ersi non occi●us . Martyr was very great : for frequenting Nola , when he was yet a youth , he would oftentimes steale privately to visit his Sepulcher : and he loved the possessions which his Father had left him in those parts above any other , because that under pretence of looking to his estate there , he had the convenience of resorting to the Tombe of Felix ; where he took in his first love , and in the seaven and twentie●h year of his age , made a private vow to become a Servant o● Jesus Christ . This Felix was by a descent a Syrian , though born in Nola , where his Father ( trafficking from the East into Italie , had purchased a very fair estate , which he divided afterward betwixt him and his Brother Hermias ; but Felix following Christ , gave all to his brother . The frequent miracles manifested at his Tombe , made the place famous , and resorted to from most parts of the world . Saint Augustine , upon a Controversie betwixt his Presbyter Boniface , and another fellow that accused him , when the truth of either side could not be certainly known , sent them both from Hippo to Nola , to have the matter decided upon Oat● , before the Tombe of Felix ; and in his 137th Epistle , hee sets down the reason , why he sent them so farre . His words are these : Multis notissima est sanctitas lo ci , ubi Felicis Nolensis corpus conditum est , quò volui ut peragrent , quia inde nobis facilius fideliusque scribi potest , quicquid in eorum aliquo divinitus fuerit propalatum . The holinesse ( saith he ) of that place where the body of Felix of Nola lies interred , is famously knowne to many ; I have therefore sent them thither , because that from thence , I shall be more easily and truly informed about any thing that shall be miraculously discovered concerning either of them .

Paulinus had not lived very long in this place , but it pleas'd God to visit him with a very sharpe and tedious sicknesse . Hee had now ( upon Earth ) no Comforter but Therasia ; His Estate was gone , and his contempt of that made the World contemne him . In this solitude and poverty , he that tries the reines and the heart , begins to take notice of this his new servant , and the first favour he conferred upon him was a disease . Good Angels doe not appeare without the Ecstasie and passion of the Seere : without afflictions and trialls God will not be familiar with us . Fruit-trees if , they be not pruned , will first leave to beare , and afterwards they will dye . Nature , without she be drest by the hand that made her , will finally perish . He that is not favour'd with visitations , is ( in Saint Pauls phrase ) a bastard , and no Son of the Superiour Jerusalem . Paulinus had put from him all occasions of worldly sorrowes , but he wanted matter for Heavenly Joyes . Without this disease , hee had not known so soone , how acceptable his first Services were unto his Master . This sicknesse was a pure stratagem of love , God visited him with it for this very purpose , that he himselfe might be his Cordial .

Man and the Eagle see best in the day-time , they see by the light of this World : but the a a Paulinus will have the word which is commonly used in the Latin , to be Nicticora , from 〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉 , which signifies the apple or candle of the eye , and not from 〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉 . And this he saith was told him by a holy man , that had lived a long time in the deserts of Egypt , where he observed the nature of this bird of night , and the Pelican . night-Raven is a bird of Mysterie , and sees in the darke by a light of her own . Paulinus hought now ( like the servant of Elisha ) that hee had not a friend in all the World to be of his side ; but God removes the mist from his Eyes , and shewed him a glorious Army of Saints and Confessours , who during the time of his sicknesse , did so throng and fill up his Cottage , and the fields about it , that neither his Palace in Rome , nor his house in Burdeaux could ever boast of such a number . These Comforters he hath recorded with his own pen in his first Epistle to Severus ; viderant pueri tui , &c. Your men ( saith he ) that were here with me , have seen , and can tell you with what constant diligence all the Bishops , and my brethren the Clergy , with the common people my neighbours , did minister unto me all the time of my sicknesse . Unto you , who are unto me as my own soul , I take leave to boast and glory in this mercy of the Lord , whose goodnesse it is , that I am so plentifully comforted . There is not one Bishop in all Campania that did not come personally to visit me , and those whom either a farther distance , or their own infirmities would not permit to travel , fai'd not to visit me by their Presbyters & letters . The Bishops of Africk allso with the beginning of the spring , sent their particular letters and messengers to comfort me . Thus he that forsakes houses and brethren , and lands to follow Christ , shall receive an hundred fold even in this World , and in the world to come life everlasting .

As touching the letters or Embassage rather of the African Bishops to Paulinus , it happened on this manner . Alypius , the Bishop of Tagasta in Africk , had at Millain ( as I intimated before ) taken speciall notice of Paulinus : And the rumour of his Conversion ( as the actions of eminent and noble personages passe quickly into the most distant regions , ) had filled with joy not onely the Churches of Africk but the most remote corners of Christianity , even the very wildernesse and the scattered Isles , which in those daies were more frequented by Christians , then populous Continents and splendid Cities . Alypius upon this ( because he would not loose so fair an opportunity to ground his acquaintanec , ) dispatcheth a letter from Tagasta to Paulinus , to gratulate his conversion to the Faith ; encouraging him withall to hold fast his Crown ; and for a token , sent him five of Saint Augustines bookes against the Ma●ichaeans , which in that age ( when the Invention of the Presse was not so much as thought of , ) was a rich present . Paulinus was so taken with the reading of these Volumes , that he conceived himself not onely engaged to Alypius , but to Augustine also . Whereupon he sent his servant from Nola with letters full of modestie and sweetnesse to them both , and with particular commendations to other eminent lights of the Church then shining in Africk . These letters received by Augustine and Alypius , and communicated by them to the other Bishops , and the African Clergy , were presently Coppied out by all , and nothing now was more desired by them , then a sight of this great Senatour , who was turned a poor Priest , and a fool ( as Saint Paul saith ) for Christ his sake , and the off-scouring of the World . But above all , the Soules of holy Augustine and Paulinus ( like Jonathan and David , or Jacob and Joseph ) were knit together , and the life of the one was bound up in the life of the other . The perfect love and union of these two , can by none be more faithfully , or more elegantly describ●d , ●hen it is already by Saint Augustine himself . I shall therefore insert his own words , the words of that tongue of truth and Charity ; August . Epistol. 22. ad Paulin. O bone vir , O bone frater ! lei dico ut toleret , quia adhuc lates oculos meos , latebas animam meam , & & vix obtemperat immo , non obtemperat . Quomodo ergo non doleā quod nondum faciem tuā novi , hoc est , domū animae tuae , quam sicut meam novi ? legi enim literas tuas fluentes lac & mel , praeferentes simplicitatē cordis , in qua quaeris dominū , sentiens de illo in bonitate , & afferens ei claritatē & honorem . Legerunt fratres & gaudent , infatigabiliter & ineffabiliter tam uberibus & tam excellentibus donis dei , bonis tuis . Quotquot eas legerunt , rapiunt ; quia rapiuntur , cum legunt . Quàm suavis odor Christi , & quàm fragrat ex eis ? dici non potest , illae literae cum te offerunt ut videaris , quantum nos excitent ut quaeraris : nam et perspicabilē faciunt , & desiderabilem . Quantò enim praesentiam tuam nobis quodammodò exhibent , tantò absentiam nos ferre non sinunt . Amant te omnes in eis , & amari abs te cupiunt . Laudatur & benedicitur deus , cujus gratiâ tu talis es . Ibi excitatur Christus , ut ventos & Maria tibi plasare tendenti ad stabilitatem suam dignetur . Ibi conjux excitatur , non dux ad mollitiem viro suo , sed ad fortitudinem redux in ossa viri sui : quam intuam unitatem redactam , in spiritualibus tibi taus firmioribus quantò castioribus nexibus copulatam , officijs vestrae sanctitati debitis ir te , uno ore salutamus . Ibi cedri Libani a terram depositae , & in arcae fabricam compagine charitatis erectae , mundi hujus fluctus imputribilitèr secant . Ibi gloria ut acquiratur , contemnitur ; & mundus , ut obtineatur , relinquitur . Ibi parvuli , si●e etiam grandiusculi filij Babylonis eliduntur ad petram , vitia scilicet confusionis , superbiaeque secularis . Haec atque hujusmodi suavissima & sacratissima spectacula literae tu● praebent legentibus ; literae fidei non fictae , literae spei bonae , literae purae charitatis . Quomodo nobis anhelant sitim tuam , & desiderium defectumque animae tuae in atria domini ? Quid amoris sanctissi●i spirant ? Quantam opulentiam sinceri cordis exaestuant ? Quas agunt gratias deo ? Quas impetrant â deo ? blandiores sunt , an ardentiores ? luminosiores , an faecundiores ? Quid enim est , quòd ita nos mulcent , ita accendunt , it a compluunt ; & it a screnae sunt ? Quid est , quaeso te , aut quid tibi pro eis rependam , nisi quia totus sum tuus in eo , c● us tot us es tu ? si parùm est , plus certê non h●beo . O good man , O good brother ! you lay hidden from my Soul , and I spoke to my Spirit , that it should patiently bear it , because you are also hidden from my Eyes ; but it scarse obeyes , yea it refuseth to obey . How then shall I not grieve , because I have not as yet knowne your face , the habitation of your Soul , which I am as well acquainted with as my owne ? For I have read your letters flowing with milk and honey , manifesting the simplicity of your heart , in which you seek the Lord , thinking rightly of him , and bringing him glory and honor . Your brethren here have read them , and rejoyce with an unwearied and unspeakable Joy , for the bountifull and excellent gifts of God in you , which are your riches . As many as have read them , snatch them from me ; because when they read them , they are ravished with them . How sweet an Odour of Christ , and how fragrant proceeds from them ? It cannot be exprest how much those letters , while they offer you to be seen of us , excite us to seek for you : They make you both discerned and desired : For the more they represent you unto us , wee are the more impatient of your absence . All men love you in them , & desire to be beloved of you . God is blessed and praised by all , through whose grace you are such . There do we find that Christ is awaked by you , and vouchsafeth t● rebuke the winds and the Seas , that you may find them calme in your Course towards him . There is your dear wife stirred up , not to be your leader to softnesse and pleasures , but to Christian fortitude ; becomming Masculine again , and restored into the bones of her Husband : whom we all with one voice salute and admire , being now united unto you , serving you in spiritual things , wherein you are coupled with mutuall embraces , which the more chast they be , are by so much the more firm . There do we see two Cedars of Libanus fell'd to the Earth , which joyned t●gether by love , make up one Arke , that cuts through the Waves of this World without detriment or p●trefaction . There glory , that it may be acquired , is contemned ; and the World , that it may be obtained , is forsaken . There the Children of Babylon , whither litle ones , or of Maturer age ; I mean the Evils of Confusion and secular pride , are dashed against the stones . Such sacred and delightfull spectacles do your letters present unto us : O those letters of yours ! Those letters of an unfained faith , those letters of holy hope , those letters of pure Charity ! How do they sigh and gaspe with your pious thirst , your holy longings , and the Ecstatical faintings of your Soul for the Courts of the Lord ? What a most sacred love do they breath ? with what treasures of a sincere heart do they abound ? How thankfull to God ? How earnest for more grace ? How mild ? How zealous ? How full of light ? ? How full of fruite ? Whence is it that they do so please us , and so provoke us , to showre and raine upon us , and yet are so calm and so serene ? What is this I beseech you ? or what shall I returne unto you for these letters , unlesse I tell you , that I am wholly yours in him , whose you are altogether ? If this be too little , in truth I have no more .

These were the first effects of Paulinus his letters ; but shortly after , St. Augustine sent him others , nothing inferiour to this first , either in affection , or Piety . And the year following , being elected by Valerius to fit his Coadjutor in the Sea of Hippo , where he afterwards succeeded him ; It was resolved by them all , namely by Valerius , Augustine , Alypius , Severus , and Profuturus , the African Bishops , that a messenger should be dispatched into Campania to ●resent Paulinus with their several letters , and the sincere gratulations of their respective Clergy ; which accordingly was performed .

In the beginning of this year , which was the three hundred ninety and fifth after Christ , Theodosius Augustus the first , a most pious Emperour , and a Nursing Father of the Church departed this life . The Ethnick writers hating his memory as virulently as his person , laboured with all manner of lyes and Libels to render him odious and detestable to posterity . Holy Endelochius awaked with these scandalous clamours , and the insolent aspersions cast upon so religious an Emperour , writes earnestly to Paulinus , and prevailes with him , to imploy those excellent abilities bestowed on him , in the defense of this faithfull Souldier of Jesus Christ , and Champion of his Spouse . This task Paulinus performed , as appears by his owne words in his 9th Epistle to Severus , to whom hee sent a Coppy of his learned Panegygick ; however posterity have suffered in the losse of it . But we want not another witnesse : That learned Father , and happy translator of the booke of God in his thirteenth Epistle to Paulinus , gives us a very fair and full account of it . Librum tuum quem pro Theodosio principe prudenter ornateque , &c. Your booke ( saith he ) whihc elegantly and judiciously you composed in the defense of the Emperor Theodosius , and sent to me by a a He proved afterwards a most detestable Heretick . Vigilantius , I have with much delight read over . What I admire in it , is your Method : For having excelled all other writers in the first parts , you excell your selfe in the last . Your stile is compact and neat , and with the perspicuity and purenesse of Cicero , and yet weighty and sententious ; for that writing which hath nothing commendable in it , but words , is ( as one saith ) meer prating . The consequence besides is very great , and the coherence exact . What ever you infer , is either the confirmation of the antecedent , or the inchoation of the subsequent . Most happy Theodosius , to be vindicated by such a learned Oratour of Christ ! You have added to the glory of his Imperial robe , and made the utility of his just lawes sacred to posterity . But this rare peece , with many more mentioned by Gennadius , either through the envie of the Heathen , or the negligence of our own , are unfortunately lost ; especially a Volume of Epistles written to his Sister , with some controversial peeces against the Ethnick Philosophers , mentioned also by Saint Augustine in his four and thirtieth Epistle ; and a most learned Treatise of true Repentance , and the glory of Martyrs .

Much about this time , the name of Paulinus began to be famous in the East ; and not onely there , but in all parts of the Christian World . It is almost incredible ( especially in this age of Impieties and Abominations ) how much the example of this one man prevailed over all . The Course he ran , drew another wealthy and noble R●man ( I mean Pammachius ) from the Senate to the Cell ; and all the Fathers of that age , when they prest any to holy living , and a desertion of the World , brought in Paulinus for their great exemplar , and a star to lead them unto Christ . St. Augustine propounds him to Romanianus & Licentius , Saint Hierome to Julian , and the Daughters of Geruntius ; and Saint Chrysostome in his thirteenth homily upon Genesis , sets him downe for a pattern to the husbands , and Therasia to the wives . The reverend Bishop of Hippo did very earnestly sollicite him to come over into Africk , & he gives his reason for it in these words : Non imprudenter ego vos rogo , & flagito , & postulo , &c. Not unadvisedly doe I intreat and earnestly desire , and require you to come into Africk , where the Inhabitants labour more now with the thirst of seeing you , then with the famous thirstinesse of the Climate . God knowes , I ask it not for my private satisfaction , nor for those onely , who either by my mouth , or by the publick fame have heard of you ; but for the rest , who either have not heard , or else having heard will not believe so great a change ; but when they themselves shall see the truth , they will not onely believe , but love and imitate . It is for their sakes therefore , that I desire you to honour these parts with your bodily presence : Let the Eyes of our flocks also behold the glory of Christ in so eminent a Couple , the great exemplars to both Sexes , to tread pride under their feet , and not to despaire of attaining to prefection . And in his fifty ninth Epistle to Paulinus , when ( according to the custome of those holy times ) hee had sent his Presbyter to him to be instructed , he cannot ( saith he ) profit more by my Doctrine , then he can by your life . Saint Hierome useth the same Engine to bring down the high thoughts of Julian : Art thou ( saith he ) nobly descended ? So were Paulinus and Therasia , and far nobler in Christ . Art thou rich and honourable ? So were they : and from the height of honours and worldly riches became poor and inglorious , that they might gain Christ . Dearly did Anastasius , who succeeded Siricius in the Sea of Rome , affect this holy Bishop , as appears by his owne words in his sixteenth Epistle to Delphinus the Bishop of Burdeaux .

But amidst all these triumphs of the Church of God , for the conversion of so eminent a person , and the frequent gratulations of learned men , exprest by their letters or personall visits , there were none that raged with so much hatred and malice against him as his own kindred , and former acquaintance . A Prophet hath no honour in his own Country , and those of his owne house will be his Enemies . There are no such persecutors of the Church , as those that do it for selfe-ends , and their private advantage . Sweetly doth he complain of these bitter , unnatural dealings in his fifth Epistle to Severus . Potiore mihi parente germanus es , quam illi quos caro tantùm & sanguis mihi sociat , & . You are my Brother now by a greater Father , then those who are tyed to me by flesh and blood onely . For where is now my great affinity by blood ? Where are my old friends ? where is my former acquaintance ? I am become as a dream before them all , and as a stranger to my owne brothers , the Sons of my Mother . My kinsmen and my friends stand looking upon me afar off , and they passe by me like hasty floods , or the streames of a brook that will not be stay'd . They convey themselves away , and are ashamed of me , who displeased them by pleasing God . And in his first Epistle , I beseech you ( saith he ) If I shall have need ( for now my servants , and those I made free-men , are become my despisers , ) that you would take care to send the old Wine , which I beleive I have still at Narbon , hither unto me , and to pay for the carriage : Do not fear , dear brother , to make the poor your debtor , &c. The Noble Spirit is the bravest bearer of indignities : and certainly extraction and a virtuous descent ( let popular flatterers preach what they will to the contrary , ) is attended with more Divinity , and a sweeter temper , then the indiscrete Issue of the multitude . There is an eminent difference betwixt flowers and weedes , though they spring from the same mould . The Ape contending with the Lyonesse , told her , that she was a very fair creature , but very barren : For you ( said the Ape ) bring forth but one at a birth , and I bring six , or more ; 'T is true ( replyed the Lionesse , ) but thy fix are six Apes , and my one is a Lyon . The greatest part of men , which we commonly terme the populacy , are a stiffe , uncivill generation , without any seed of honour or goodnesse , and sensible of nothing but private interest , & the base waies of acquiring it . What Virtue , or what humanity can be expected from a Raymond Cabanes , a Massinello , or some Son of a Butcher ? They have one barbarous shift , which Tigers and Beares would blush to commit : They will cut the throats of their most generous and Virtuous Benefactours , to comply with times , and advantage themselves ; Yea , they will rejoyce to see them ruined , and like inhumane Salvages , insult over their innocent and helplesse posterity . I could compare those fawning Hypocrits , that waite not upon men , but upon their Fortunes , to that smiths bitch in the Apologues of Locmannus the Persian , which sleeping in the forge , could not be awaked with all the noise of the hammers , the Anvile , and the Bellowes : but if the smith would offer to stirre his teeth to eat , shee would start up presently , and attend upon him with all officiousnesse . She would share with him in the fruits of his labours ; but would not watch and look to the shop one minute while he laboured .

Paulinus had now first lost these false friends , but was loaded for it with the love and commendations of true ones ; And I know not which offended him most , to be despised by the first , or commended by the last . He had ( like Saint Paul , ) great heavinesse , and continuall sorrow of heart , to see that his brethren and kinsmen according to the flesh , hated him because he loved Christ : And on the other side , his humility would not suffer him to beare the labour of love , I meane the generall applause and sincere commendations conferred upon him by his Christian friends . Severus in one of his Epistles written to him ( after hee had spent some lines in the commendation of his zeale and constancie , ) contrary to the custome of that plaine age , subscribed himself , Te multa dilectio ad mendacii peccatum traxit . his Servant . To the first he replyed , that his excessive love had drawn him to the sin of untruth : And the last he desired him to desist from , for this reason ; Cave ergo ne posthac , &c. Have a care hereafter ( saith he ) that you who are a Servant of Christ , called unto liberty , terme nor your self the servant of a sinner , and of one that is not worthy to be called your fellow-servant . The virtue of humility will not excuse the vice of flattery . Thus Gregorie the great , when Pope Anastasius had exceeded towards him in his laudatory elocutions , blasted them all with this humble reply ; Quod verò me ●s domini , quod lucernam , &c. Your calling me the mouth of the Lord , a shining light , and a strong helper , is nothing else but an augmentation of my iniquity ; for when I deserve to be punished for my sins , then do I instead of punishment receive praise . Severus , in another of his Epistles to Paulinus , earnestly intreated him to suffer his picture to be taken by a limner , which he had sent to him for that purpose , that he might have it to set up , together with the picture of Saint Martin , before the sacred font in a fair Church which Severus was then in building . This friendly motion Paulinus was very much offended with , and would by no means consent unto , teling Severus , that too much love had made him mad ; And in his eighth Epistle , reasoning with him about this request , What kind of picture ( saith he ) would you have from me , the picture of the earthly , or the Heavenly man ? I know you love onely that incorruptible image , which the King of Heaven doth love in you . I am ashamed to picture what I am , and I dare not picture what I am not . But Severus resolving to force it from him , would not be satisfied with any other returne ; whereupon he sent it to him , with these following verses , the elegant expresse of his unfeined humility . The first coppy relates to the pictures , and the latter to the Font. Abluitis quicunque animas & membra lavacris , Cernite propositas ad bona facta vias , &c. You that to wash your flesh and Soules d●w near , Ponder these two examples set you here . Great Martin shewes the holy life , and white ; Paulinus to repentance doth invite ▪ Martins pure , harmlesse life tooke Heaven by force , Paulinus tooke it by teares and remorse . Martin leads through victorious palms and flowers , Paulinus leades you through the pooles and showres . You that are sinners , on Paulinus look , You that are Saints , great Martin is your book . The first example bright and holy is , The last , though sad and weeping , leads to blisse .

The verses relating to the Font , were these . Hic reparandarum generator fons animarū Vivum viventi lumine flumen agit , &c. Here the great well-spring of wash'd Soules , with beams Of living light quickens the lively streams ; The Dove descends , and stirs them with her wings , So weds these waters to the upper springs , They strait conceive : A new birth doth proceede From the bright streams by an immortall seed . O the rare love of God! sinners wash'd here , Come forth pure Saints , all justfied and clear . So blest in death and life , man dyes to sins , And lives to God ; Sin dies , and life begins To be reviv'd : Old Adam falls away , And the new lives , born for eternal sway .

Nor did the manners of holy Paulinus differ from his mind : all his Garments , all the Utensils of his poor Cot , were so many emblems and memento's of humility . Grace is an Elixir of a contrary Nature to the Philosophers stone , it turn'd all the gold and Silvervessells of this great Senatour into earthen dishes and wooden spoons . Righteousnesse and honesty are alwaies poor . In his first Epist. to Severus , he presents him with some of this innocent furniture ; Misimus testimonialem divitiarum scutellam buxeam , &c. I have sent you ( saith he ) a platter made of a box-tree , for a testimoniall of my , riches ; receive , it as a pledge or earnest of Evangelicall poverty , and let it be an example to you , if as yet you will make use of any Silver platters . To this he addes , that he was very desirous to be supplyed with some more earthen dishes , which ( saith he ) I do very much love ; and then subscrib●s reason , quòd secundum Adam cognata nobis sint , & domini th●saurum in talibus vasis commissum habeamus ; because they are near kin to us by Adam , and because the treasure of the Lord is committed to our care in such vessells . Certainly poverty ( as man is now to be considered ) is his best , and his true estate . Riches , though they make themselves wings , yet do they not fly to Heaven . The h●m● or house of gold , is the heart of the Earth , and mineralls are a fuel of hell-fire . Poverty was the Inauguration of the first man , who was made naked , and all his posterity are born , so . This onely have I found ( saith Solomon ) that God made man upright , but he hath sought out many invention . By Covetousne●se we loose our uprightnesse : Wee come here light and easi● , b●t we load our selves af●●rwards with ●nnecessary burthens . Perditi● tua ex te , these weights that we take up , sink us down : Our temporall misery as well at the Eternal is from our selves . The merriest creature that I can see , is the * * Paulinus calls Christ ( mstically ) a sparrow : H●c est ille pass●r , qui requirentibus se n viis hilaritèr ostend it ; nunc in portis fit obvius , nunc in platis occurrit , nunc in muris vel turribus sublimis convocat ad se amatores suos , & invitat eos in altitudines habitationum suarum , ut impleat ve●bum suum , & exaltatus omnia ad se trahat . Quis dabit nobis p●nnas columbae deargentatas , ut pennati pervolemus ad bravîum supernae vocationis , sequentes istum passerem solitarium , qui est unicus dei filius , supervolitantem , cui in altis habitat , & humilia respicit ? Sparrow . This makes me think , that hee is not troubled with forethoughts , which are the hands of covetousnesse . What man and beasts scatter and leave behind them , is his provision : his table is laid every where , and the first bush he meets with , is his bed . Our Saviour , who knew the nature and thoughts of all created things , was pleased to send us to school to the birds . They are alwaies full of Musical livelinesse , and a certain bright freedome , which descends not so low as men and beasts . Spirits , when they have businesse upon Earth , must assume bodies . Clarity and purification is a kind of poverty : it is a state that have cast off dregs & burthens . Divine is that saying of Gr. Pi●ides . 〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉 . Poor habits are naturally heaven-seekers .

But Paulinus , though he was poor , yet was he charitable , and withall liberall . The widowes mite is more then the rich mens abundance . In the four hundred and tenth year after Christ , when the Gothes raged in Italy , and had sackt Nola , Paulinus ( amongst many others , ) was taken prisoner by them ; Lib. 1. d ▪ Civitate de● . And thus ( saith Saint Augustine ) as I afterwards learnt from him , did he then pray in his heart . Domine , ne excrucier propter aurum & argentum ; ubi enim omnia mea sunt , tu scis . O Lord suffer me not to be troubled with the losse of Gold & Silver , for thou knowest where all my riches are laid up . His treasure was laid up in Heaven , where he commanded us to lay it , who foretold , that these calamities should come upon the World . And God ( without doubt ) had reguard unto his prayer , for the barbarous enemie leading all the rest into captivity , he onely was left behind . But amongst all these plunderings and outward afflictions , hee never failed in his daily almes to the poor , nor was the hand of his faithfull Therasia any way shortned . At last his store failing , and no more provision being left , then onely one loafe of bread ; A poor man comming to the door for reliefe , Paulinus commands it should be given him . But Therasia ( arguing with herselfe , that no begger could be poorer then Paulinus now was , and that it was as much charity to keepe it for him , as to give it to another , ) conceal'd the loafe , and suffered the poor man to go without it . A day or two after , some men that were sent with relief to Paulinus , from his friends , arrive at Nola , and tell him that they had been there much sooner , had not one of the ships , which was loaden with corn , been cast away almost in the Harbour ; the rest that were fraught with Wine and other Victualls , being come safe to shore . Whereupon Paulinus turning towards Therasia , put her in mind of her overmuch carefullnesse , with these words , Understand now Therasia , that this great ship full laden with Co●ne , was cast away for that one loafe of bread which thou didst steale from the poore man .

But passe we now to his Episcopall dignity . In his own Workes we have not one line that mentions this Ecclesiasticall honour , nor any other passage of his life , that might but seem to conduce to his own glory . They breath nothing but humility , nothing but self-deniall and dedignation . Wee must be guided then through this part of his life by other Authors , and such faithfull records as are come unto us , from the hands of learned and publick persons ; who either upon the generall interest and concernments of the Church , or their own private merits , and not by reflection were acquainted with him . The first that offers himself to us , is Uranius , his own Presbyter , who in that short narration which he wrote of his life , sets him forth to posterity in this following Character ; Cum autem ad summum sacerdotij gradum , &c. When he was honoured ( saith he ) with the highest degree in the Priesthood , he did not shew himself such a Bishop that desired to be feared , but one that endeavoured to be beloved . He was never so farre angry , as not in his anger to shew mercy . Nor could that man indeed be angry , for he regarded not calumnies , and he avoyded hatred . He never sate in Judgement , but mercy sate close by him . He was truly such a Bishop as laboured to get the love of all . For hee lived a Consolation to all , and their great example to make sure their Salvation . Nor is this my voyce onely : even the barbarous Nations who knew my Lord Paulinus by report onely , will testifie as much . And worthily was hee beloved of all , who was a friend to all . For who was there cast down , and he did not lift him up ? who ever called to him for help , and was not piously and comfortably answered ? For he was pious , tender hearted , humble and courteous , hating none , despising none . He gave to all , he cherished all : he encouraged the fearfull , pacified the violent , those with his words , these with his example ; Some he comforted with his letters , and those that wanted , with his mony . He loved not any riches , nor any treasures , but those which Christ promised to his followers . Gold and Silver , and the other accommodations of life he approved of , if they were liberally given to the poor , not covetously hoorded up . Briefly , he had in him all goodnesse , for he loved Christ . Hee had Faith , Meeknesse , love towards his neighbours , a constant care of the poor , compassion upon the weak , and laboured for nothing in his life , but peace and charity . All his endeavours were to make men good , and to save their Soules . What place is there in the World , what solitude , what Seas which acknowledge not the good works of holy Paulinus ? All men desired his acquaintance , and did extreamly long to have a sight of him . Who ever came to him without joy or who went from him , but he desired to stay longer ? those that could not see him in the body , desired to see him in his writings ; for he was sweet and gentle in his Epistles , elegant and ravishing in his Poems . What more shall I say ? The relations that may be given of him , would be scarse credible , but that his knowne integrity is above falshood .

Nola was at this time a very famous and splendid City , nothing inferiour to the best Emporiums of Italie , and had withall a very rich Sea ; which questionlesse was a great occasion , that the piety of this blessed Bishop was so renowned , and so familiarly spoken of in the most remote parts of the World . So the just and faithfull God exalteth those that humble themselves , and honours those that honour him . He had beene faithfull in those things that were his own , and was therefore intrusted with the treasures of the Church . Prosper in his second book , de vitâ Contemplativâ , and the ninth Chapter , tells us , how hee disposed of them ; Sanctus Paulinus ( ut ipsi meliùs nostis ) ingentia praedia quae fuerunt sua , vendita pauperibus erogavit : sed cum posteà factus esset Episcopus , non contempsit Ecclesiae facultates , sed fidelissime dispensavit . Holy Paulinus ( saith he ) as you best know , sold all those princely Possessions which were his own , and gave of them to the poor : but when he was afterwards consecrated Bishop , he neglected not the revenues of the Church , but was a most faithfull Steward and dispenser of them . So faithfull , that when he lay upon his death bed , hee had not one piece left to relieve himself , but was driven to lay out for some Cloathes which he had given to the poor , a small summe of mony , which God ordained to be sent to him for that very purpose a litle before the hour of his dissolution . So that living and dying , he kept to the Apostles rule , and owed no man any thing but love . Hee was a great lover of learned and holy men , and confesseth in one of his Epistles to Alypius , that his affection to Saint Ambrose , was the first inducement which he felt to incline him to Christianity . His dearest and most intimate friends were Saint Augustine , Saint Ambrose , Saint Hierome , Saint Martin the Bishop of Tours , Delphinus the Bishop of Burdeaux , and Amandus his Successour ; Alypius the Bishop of Tagasta , Januarius the Bishop of Naples , afterwards a Martyr , Victricius the Rhotomagensis , Aper , Severus , and Nicetas of Da●ia . I may say of him as the Scripture saith of Moses , he was the meekest man upon the face of the Earth . He was not onely obedient and serviceable to these Fathers , and pillars of the Church , but to his own Presbyters and Domesticks : he judged himself the most unworthy , and the most unable of all his brethren . Victor the Monk , sent from Severus to see him ( according to the custome of those times ) washed his feete . This was a ceremony , which in that age of holinesse could not be refused . But Victor by this did not onely wash his feet , but his face also ; for he drew tears from him , because hee might not deny him the performance of that Evangelical service . Servivit ergo mihi peccatori , & vae misero mihi quod passus sum ; he served me a sinner ( saith the holy Bishop ) and woe is to me because I suffered him . But he staid not at tears , for as soone as Victor had done washing his feet , to requite his service , he fetched him clean water , and held the bason while he wash'd his hands . He was not like that insolent Abbot that did cast off his humility with his Cowle , and being asked by his brethren , why he was then so proud , that was formerly such an humble Monk , made answer ; that in his Monachisme , when he went so low , and stooping , he was searching for the keyes of the Abbey ; but now having found them , he did hold up his head to ease himself .

This true carriage of an Evangelist , made him both honourd and beloved ; the Church rejoyced , and glorified ●od for him , and the Court admired him . Holynesse is a light that cannot be hidden : It is a candle set upon a hill : stars never shine more glorious , then when they are neare black Clouds . In the year of our Lord , four hundred and nineteen ( a grievous Schism then happening in the Church , ) there was a convention of certain Bishops and Fathers at Rome , to quiet those groundlesse perturbations , and stop the breach . But Honorius the Emperour , judging by his skil in the temper of those Church-men , that no good would be done without the presence of Paulinus , who then lay sick at Nola , dispatched his Imperial le●ter to this holy Bishop , wherein he earnestly intreated him ( if possible ) to shake off his present indisposition , and to repaire in person to the Synod , lest that great blessing of peace , which he and the Church did earnestly hope and long for , might by his absence unfortunately miscarry . This royall record ( because it is a monument of no lesse sincerity then concernment , and discovers unto us much of the face of those times ) I shall verbatim insert .

Sancto & venerabili Patri , Paulino , Episcopo Nolensi .

TAntùm fuit apud nos certa sententia , nihil ab his sacerdotibus , qui ad Synodum convenerant , posse definiri , cum beatitudo tua dé corporis inaequalitate causata , itineris non potuit injuriam sustinere , ut propter absentiam sancti viri , non quidem obtentura : Interim tamen vitia gratulantur , cùm prava & vetus ambitio , & cum benedicto viro sanctaeque vitae diù vel●t habere certamen , ut contra haec Apostelicae institutionis bona , de praesumptis p●r vim pariet●bus ●xistimet confidendum . O verè digna causa quam non nisi coronae t●ae beata vita designat ! Dilatum itaque Judicium nuntiamus , ut divina praecepta ex venerationis tuae ore promantur , qui easecutus implesti ; nec potest alius ●orum praeceptorum lator existere , quam qui dignus Apostolicis disciplinis est approbatus . Specialiter itaque domine sancte , meritò venerabilis pater , Justus dei famulus , divinum opus , contemp●o labore , tributum hoc nobis visitationis tuae ( si ita dicendum est ) munus indulge , ut postpositis omnibus , quantùm temperantia his & tranquillitas suffragantur , Synodo profuturus , sine intermissione etiam desideriis nostris , & benedictioni quam cupimus , te praestare dig●eris .

To the holy and reverend Father PAULINUS , Bishop of Nola.

SUch a firm opinion have we that nothing can be agreed and concluded upon by the Bishops met in this Synod , ( your Holinesse by reason of your bodily indisposition being not able to travel hither ) that for your onely absence it is not like to continue : In the mean time offences triumph and rejoyce at it , and the old and wicked sinne of ambition , which of a long time desires to contend even with your holynesse and upright life , presumes now , and is confident that having forcibly taken the wall from us , it will carry you also against the wholsomnesse of Apostolicall institution . O! a cause truly worthy not to be determined , but by your holy life , which is your Crown ▪ we therfore d●clare unto you , that we have suspended our judgement for the present , that we may have the truth of these Divine precepts pronounced by your reverend mouth , who have both followed them , and fullfilled them : For none can be a fit arbiter of those rules , but he that hath approved himself worthy and conformable to Apostolicall discipline . Wherefore , holy Sir , worthily reverend Father , the faithfull Servant of God , and his Divine work , we intreat you particularly , that slighting the troubles of this Journey , you would favour us with this gift and tribute ( if I may so speak ) of your presence : and laying aside all other concernments ( so far as your health and ease will permit , ) be in your owne person at this Synod , and vouchsafe to lend your assistance to our desires , and that blessing which wee earnestly long for .

Wee see by this letter in what account hee was with the Emperour , and that his integrity and holyness were not dissimulations and popular Fables , but experimentall truths so known and so believed ; hee was a true Christian , and no Impostour . It was not the Custome , but the nature ( if I may so say ) of those Primitive times to love holy and peacefull men . But some great ones in this later age , did nothing else but countenance Schismaticks and sedicious raylers , the despisers of dignities , that covered their abominable villanies with a pretence of transcendent holinesse , and a certain Sanctimonious excellencie above the Sons of men . This Vaile ( which then cousend weak eyes ) is now fallen off their faces , and most of their patrons have by an unthought of Method received their rewards : The rest without doubt ( though they shift themselves into a thousand shapes ) shall not escape him , whose anger is not yet turned away , but his hand is stretched out still . But retur●e we to Paulinus : Whose Charity and tendernesse towards the poor , was both inimitable and incredible ; This iron age wants faith as well as mercy : When he had given them all he had , to the last that begged he gave himself . Gregorie the great , in the third Book of his Dialogues , and the first Chapter , hath recorded this memorable passage . I shall cut it short , and in as , few words , as conveniently may be , give you all that is material . When the Vandals had miserably wast●d Campania , and carried many of the inhabitants into Africk , blessed Paulinus gave all that he had both towards his own sustenance , and the reliefe of the poor , amongst the prisoners and Captives . The Enemy being departed , and his prey with him ; a poor Widow ( whose onely Son was ( amongst the rest of the Natives ) by a Son in law of the King of the Vandals carried into Bondage , ) comes to petition Paulinus for so much Money as might serve to redeem him . Paulinus told her that he had nothing then left , either in money or other goods , but promised , if shee would accept of him , to go with her into Africk , and to be exchanged for her Son . The poore Widow taking this for a meere scoffe , turnes her back to be gone . Paulinus followes after , and with much adoe made her believe , that he meant it ( as he did indeed ) in earnest . Upon this , they travell'd both into Africk , and having opportunity to speake with the Kings Son in Law , the poor widow begged of him first ▪ to have her son restor'd unto her Gratis : but the youthfull and haughty Vandal averse to all such requests , would hear her no farther ; whereupon she presents him with Paulinus , and petitioned to have her Son set at liberty , and the other to serve in his stead . The Prince taken with the comely and reverend countenance of Paulinus , asked him , what his occupation or trade was ? Paulinus answered , that he never followed any trade , but that he had good skill in dressing of Herbes and Flowers . Upon this , the Prince delivered her Son to the Widow , who took him home with her , and sent Paulinus to work into his Gardens .

The Prince delighting much in Flowers and Sallets , would very frequently visit Paulinus , and took such delight in him , that he forsook all his Court-associates to enjoy the company of his new Gardiner . In one of these visits , Paulinus taking occasion to confer seriously with him , advised him to be very carefull of himselfe , and to consider speedily of some means to secure and settle the Kingdome of the Vandals a a This was about the year of our L. 428. about which time the Vandals after their excursions through Polonia , Italy , Franconia , and Andalusia had setled in Africk , where they continued quietly until the reigne of Justinian , bu● rebelling against him , they were together with their King Gillimer totally overthrown by the great Captaine Beli●arius An. Christi 533. in Mauritania ; for ( said he ) the King your Father in law will shortly dye . The Prince something troubled with the suddain newes , without further delay acquaints the King with it ; and tells him withall , that his Gardiner ( whose prediction this was ) excelled all other men both in wisedome and learning . Whereupon the King requested , that he might see him ; you shall , replyed the Prince , for to morrow when you are at dinner , I will give order that hee shall come in person with the dishes of Sallate to the Table . This being agreed upon , and accordingly performed , the old Tyrant upon the first sight of Paulinus exceedingly trembled , and speaking to his Daughter , who sate next to him , to call to her husband , he told him , that the prediction of his Gardiner was very true ; for yesternight ( said he ) I saw in a dream a great tribunal with judges sitting thereon , and amongst them this Gardiner , by whose judgement a scourge which had been formerly put into my hands , was taken from me . But learn of him what his profession is , and what dignity he had conferred upon him in his own Country , for I cannot believe him to be ( as he pretends ) an inferiour or ordinary person .

As soon as dinner was ended , the Prince stole from the presence into the Garden , and earnestly intreated Paulinus to tell him , who he was ; I am ( said he ) your Gardiner , which you received in exchange for the Widowes Son . I know that , replyed the Prince , but I desire to know your profession in your own Country , and not the servitude you have put your self in with me for the present ; To this Paulinus answered , that he was by profession a Bishop , and a servant of Jesus Christ the Son of the living God . At these words the Prince was mightily troubled , and requested him to depart againe into his own Country , assuring him , that before he departed , he would give him any thing that he should please demand . Paulinus replyed , that he would desire no●hing , but to have those Captives which were carried out of Campania , set at liberty , and transported to their Native Country . To this the Prince consented , and for Paulinus his sake , furnished them with shipping and all other necessaries for their voyage , and sent them home joyfull in the Company of their blessed and beloved Bishop .

Some few daies after , th● old Tyrant ( as God had foretold by his holy Servant ) departed out of this World into his owne place ; And so that scourge which God had put into his hand for the punishment of a great part of the Christian World , was taken away , and the instrument cast into the fire . Wherefore whoever thou beest , that readest this book , and art a sufferer thy selfe , or doest see and grieve for the calamities of the Church , the oppression of the poor , & the violent perverting of judgement & justice in a province , do not thou marvel at the matter , nor vex thy self ; for he that is higher then the highest , regardeth it , and there be higher then t●ey . Envy not the glory of Sinners , for thou knowest not what will be their end ; but submit thy self under the mighty hand of God , expecting with patience the time of refreshing , and I do assure thee upon my Soul , thou shalt not be deceived ,

Paulinus , with all his joyfull Captives , was now landed in Campania , where all the Inhabitants , as upon a solemne feast-day flocked together to welcome him , and to poure their joyes into his bosome ; some received their Sonnes , some their brothers , and some their husbands : both the receivers and the received were beholding to Paulinus . They commended , honoured and admired him : He exhorted , incouraged and confirmed them . Mutuall Consolations are a double banquet , they are the Churches Eulogiae , which we both give and take . What the Campanians most admired in Paulinus , was that which the Scripture commends in Moses : youthfullnesse in old age . He was now as earnest , as hearty , and as active for the glory of God , as in his most vigorous years . His spiritual force was not abated , nor the Eye of his Soul any way dimmed . Hee did not coole towards his setting , but grew more large , more bright , and more fervent . Bearing trees , when their fruit is ripe , bend their boughes , and offer themselves to the gatherers hands . He knew that his time of departure was at hand , and therefore Moses-like he made his Doctrine to drop as the raine , and his speech distilled as the dew . Hee poured out his milk and his Wine , and made them drink abundantly . To labour in the heat of the day , and to give over in the cool , is great indiscretion , the contention should be alwaies hottest towards the end of the race .

I am now come to my last Paragraph , which all this while I did reserve for his Works of Piety . And these indeede ( if wee consider his unworldlinesse , and religious poverty ) were very great and very sumptuous . He repaired and beautified the four old Basilica's , or Churches , dedicated to the Martyr Felix , and built the fifth , which exceeded them all , both for beauty and largenesse . This he dedicated to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ . It was adorned with two stately Porches , the one opend towards the way of Publick resort , the other was a private Postern ; and the path leading to it , was through a pleasant green field set with fruit-trees and other shady wood , ●enced about with a very high and sumptuous wall ; The entrance into this Court was through a fair Marble-Gate , in whose Front were cut these following verses . Caelestes intrate vias per amoena vireta , &c. Through pleasant green fields enter you the way To blisse ; and wel through shades and blossoms may The walkes leade here , from whence directly lyes The good mans path to sacred Paradise .

This Church was joyned to the other four , and an entrance made from the one into the other , by high and spatious Arches , supported with pillars of Marble . Through these pillars ( whose height did almost reach to the roof , ) as through a traverse was to be seene , by those that came from the old Ch●rch into the new , the picture of the Crosse , limned in most lively and glorious Colours , and hung with Garlands of palms and flowers ; above it shined a cleare and luminous skie , and on the Crosse , which was all Purple , sate perching a flock of white Doves ; at the bottome of this Paisage were written these verses . Ardua florifera Crux , &c. The painfull Crosse with flowers an● Palms is crown'd , Which prove , it springs ; though all in blood ' is drown'd : The Doves above it shew with one consent , Heaven opens onely to the innocent .

In the Courts belonging to this Church , were very faire and spatious walks , paved with stone , and covered over head against the violence of weather . The outside was supported with Pillars , and the Inner was divided into neat and cleanly Cells , opening towards the Walks , where the people that came thither to celebrate the Vigils of Felix , reposed themselves . Round about these Courts were great Cisterns , and Lavers of severall kinds of Marble most curiously polished , whose diverse-formes and colours were very delightfull , and much recreated the beholders . The Porches , which were very large , and contained with in them many private Oratories , or places of prayer , were all richly pictured with sacred Histories out of the Pentateuch , the book of Joshuah , Judges and Ruth ; This Church is fully described in his twelfth Epistle to Severus , and his ninth Natalis , when Nicetas came out of Daciae to see him . Ecce vidès quantus splendor velut aede renatâ Rideat , insculptum camerâ crispante lacunar In ligno mentitur ebur ; tectoque supernè Pendentes lychni spiris retinentur ahenis , Et medio in vacuo laxis vaga lumina nutant Funibus , undantes flammas levis aura fatigat , &c. You see what splendour through the spatious Isle , As if the Church were glorified , doth smile . The Ivory-wrought beams seem to the sight In graven , while the carv'd roofe looks curl'd and bright . On brasse hoopes to the upmost vaults we tie The hovering Lamps , which nod and tremble by The yeelding Cords ; fresh Oyle doth still repair The waving flames , vex'd with the fleeting aire .

Having finished this Church , hee built another , not far from Nola , in a litle Town called Fundi , where his possessions ( which he afterwards sold and gave to the poor , ) were situate ; this also de dedicated to our Lord Jesus , whom he used to call th● Saint of Saints , and the Marty of Martyrs . In this Church in the great Isle leading to the Altar , he caused to be put up another peece of Limning , or sacred Paisage , which for b●auty ●nd exce●l●ncie exceeded all the former . We have it most lively described and explained in these following verses . Sanctorum labor & merces sibi rite cohaerent , Ardua Crux , pretiumque crucis sublime , corona , &c. The paines of Saints , and Saints rewards are twins , The sad Crosse , and the Crowne which the Crosse wins . Here Christ the Prince both of the Cross and Crown Amongst fresh Groves and Lillies fully blown , Stands , a white Lamb bearing the purple Crosse , White shewes his purenesse , Red his bloods dear losse : To ease his sorrowes the Chast Turtle sings , And fans him swetting blood with h●r bright wings ; While from a shining Cloud the Father Eyes His Sons sad conflict with his Enemies , And on his blessed head lets gently down Eternal glory made into a Crown . About him stand two flocks of di●fering notes , One of white sheepe , and ●●e of sp●ckled goates , The first possesse his right hand , and the last Stand on his left : The spotted Goates are cast All into thick , deep shades , while from his right The white sheepe passe into a whiter light .

But in all these sacred buildings , our most pious and humble Bishop did not so much as dream of Merit . He thought ( as bl●ssed Mr. Herbert did ) that they were good works , if sprinkled with the blood of Christ ; otherwise hee thought them nothing . It will not be amisse , nor perhaps needlesse , to produce his own words in his own defense : Nisi dominus aedificaverit domum , vano aedificantes labore sudabimus . Oremus ergo dominum , ut dum nos illi aedificamus domicilia quae videntur , ille nobis intus aedificet illa quae no● videntur , domum videlice● illam non manufactam . Unlesse the Lord build the house , wee labour in vaine to build it . Let us therefore ( saith he ) pray to the Lord , that while wee outwardly build unto him these visible buildings , hee would build inwardly in us those which are invisible , that is to say , the house not made with hands . How can a servant merit by making use of his masters goods ? All we do , and all we give are but his concessions and favours first given unto us . Cum suis & hìc & ibi rebus lo●upletamur , in this World , and in the World to come all ou● magnificence is but his munificence . But Paulinus was not onely outwardly pious , but inwardly also . He did so abound with private devotions , that all the time from his Baptism to his buriall , may be truly called his Prayer-time . All that he did think , all that he did speak , and all that he did write , was pure devotion . Either publick or private prayers took up all his tim● . Our Saviour tells us , that Gods Elects cry day and night unto him , Luk. 18. and Saint Paul adviseth us to pray without ceasing , and in every thing to give thanks , for this ( saith he ) is the will of God in Christ Iesus concerning you . Holy Paulinus called Saint Paul his Master , having made himselfe his Disciple , hee would not neglect his commands : If you continue in my word ( saith our Saviour ) then are you my Disciples indeed .

To this I shall adde his Conformity and obedience to the Church , a blessing of no small consequence in all ages , especially in this age of Schismes and Heresies . Hee highly honoured the memory of the Saints of God , and was a most chearfull and devout observer of Sacred Festivals , or holy daies . His pious affection to these blessed seasons , together with the necessity and convenience of them , he hath most elegantly and learnedly demonstrated in his Poems . — hos per long a morantes Tempora , dum tardi splendens rota vertitur anni Sustineo intentis affecto pectore votis : Quos cupio totis mihi praelucere diebus , Vel quando veniunt ita compensare moras , ut Aestivis possent spatiis producere lucem , Aut illum pensare diem , qui sistere Jussis Syderibus , longo lassavit lumine mundum , Humanos duplicans dilatâ nocte labores . Ergo velut caelum stellis , & floribus arva Temporibusque annos dominus , sic ipse diebus Tempora distinxit festis , ut pigra diurnis Ingenia obsequiis , saltem discrimine facto , Post intervallum reduci sollemnia voto Sancta libenter agant , residesque per annua mentes Festa parent domino , quia Jupiter intemeratos Justitiae servare piget : delinquere suetis , Parcere peccato labor est : decurritur omni Valle , per ascensum non est evadere cursu . Inde bonus dominus cunctos pietatis ut alis Contegat , invalidis niti v●rtutis ad arcem Congrua sanctorum dedit intervalla dierum , Ut saltem officiis mediocribus ultima Christi Vestimenta legant , & eos sacra fimbria sanet . Primus enim gradus est caelo pertexere cunctos Continuâ bonitate dies , & tempore toto Pascha sacrum Christi Cultu celebrare pudico . Quod si mista seges tribulis mihi germinat , & cor Incultum stimulat terreni spina laboris , Vel festis domino studeam me offere diebus , Ut vel parte mei tanquam confinia Vitae , Corpore ne toto trahar in Consortia mortis .

Englished thus . Those sacred daies by tedious time delai'd While the slow years bright line about is laid , I patiently expect , though much distrest By busie longing , and a love-sicke brest ▪ I wish , they may outshine all other daies , Or when they come , so recompence delaies As to outlast the Summer-hours bright length , Or that fam'd day , when stopt by Divine strength , The Sun did tyre the World with his long light , Doubling mens labours , and adjourning night . As the bright Skye with stars , the fields with flowers , The years with diff'ring seasons , month● and houres God hath distinguished and mark'd ; so he With sacred feasts did ease and beautifie The working dayes : because that mixture may Make men ( loath to be holy ev'ry day , ) After long labours with a freer will . Adore their maker , and keepe mindfull still Of holyness● , by keeping holy daies : For otherwise they would dislike the wayes Of piety as too severe . To cast Old customes quite off , and from sinne to fast Is a great work . To runne which way we will , On plaines is easie , not so up a hill . Hence 't is our good God ( who would all men bring Under the Covert of his saving wing , ) Appointed at set times his solemne feasts , That by mean services , men might at least Take hold of Christ as by the hemme , and steal Help from his lowest skirts their Soules to heal . For the first step to Heaven , is to live well All our life long , and each day to excel In holynesse ; but since that tares are found In the best Corn , and thistles will Confound And prick my heart with vaine cares , I will strive To weed them out on feast-daies , and so thrive By handfuls , 'till I may full life obtaine , And not be swallow'd of Eternall paine .

Two places upon Earth were most renowned with the memory of our Saviour , Bethlem for his birth , and mount Calvarie for his passion . To extirpate all remembrance of his Humanity out of these places , Hadrian the persecutor caused the Idol of Jupiter to be set up , and worshipped in Mount Calvarie ; and in Bethlem he built a Mosquie for that Egyptian block Adonis , which the Idolatrous Jewes called Thamuz . Some men amongst us have done the like : Two Seasons in the year were consecrated by the Church to the memory of our Saviour : The Feast of his Nativity and Circumcision , and the Feast of his Passion and Resurrection . These two they have utterly taken away : endeavouring ( in my opinion ) to extinguish the memory of his Incarnation and Passion , and to race his blessed name out of those bright columnes of light , which the Scripture calls daies . They will not allow him two daies in the year , who made the day●s and the nights . But it is much to be feared , that he who hath appointed their daies here , will allow them for it long nights .

Holy Paulinus had now attained a good old age , the fore-runners ( as Master Herbert saith ) were come , and the Almond tree did flourish : hee was all white with years , and worshiped ( like Jacob ) lea●ing upon the top of his staffe . His virtuous and deare Therasia had died ( I believe ) long before this time ; God having ordained him to be hindmost , who was the stronger Vessell , and best able to bear her absence , and the unavoydable disconsolations of flesh and blood . And now ( having for some time stood gazing after her , ) he begins to follow , God visiting him with a strong paine in the side , which in a few daies did set him at liberty to overtake her , by breaking the prison .

Three daies before his dissolution , Symmachus and Hyaci●thinus , two Bishops of his acquaintance c●me to visit him ; whereupon hee spoke to Uranius his Presbyter , that hee should prepare to attend him in the administration of the Sacrament ; for ( said he ) I desire to receive it in the company of my brethren , which are now come to see mee . This sacred Solemnity was no sooner ended , but suddenly hee began to ask , where his brothers were ? One that stood by , supposing that he had asked for the two Bishops , answered , Here they be : I know that , replyed Paulinus , but I aske for my brothers Januarius and Martinus , Januarius was Bishop of Naples , and a Martyr ; and Martinus was the Bishop ●f Tours in France who were here with me just now , and promised to come to me again . And having thus spoken , he looked up towards Heaven , and with a voyce as chearfull as his countenance , which seemed to shine and revive with joy , he sung out the one hundred and twentieth Psalme , I lift up mine Eyes unto th● hills from whence cometh my help . My help commeth from the Lord , who made Heave● and Earth .

This being done Posthumianus , another Presbyter that was then present , told Paulinus , that there were forty shilling● unpaid for the Cloathes which he had given to the poor , before be fell sick . To this Paulinus replyed with a smile , that he remembred it very well : and Son ( said he ) tak● no thought for it , for beleive me , there is on● that will not be wanting to pay the debt of the poor . The words were no sooner out of his mouth , but presently there comes in from the parts of Lucania ( now called Basilicata ) a Presbyter sent from the holy Bishop Exuperantius to visit Paul●nus ; who brought him fifty shillings for a token from the Bishop . Paulinus receiving the money , blessed God , saying , I thank thee O Lord , that hast not forsaken them that seek thee . Of these fifty shillings he gave two with his owne hand to the Presbyter that brought them , and the rest he delivered to Post humianu● to pay for the Cloathes which were given to the poor .

The Evening now drawing on , hee remained quiet and well at ease untill midnight : but the paine then increasing in his side , he was troubled with a great difficulty , and shortnesse of breathing , which held him till five in the morning . The day begining to break , he felt the usuall motions of holynesse awaking his Spirit , to which ( though weak ) he chearfully obeyed , and sitting up in his bed , celebrated Mattins himselfe . By this time all the Deacons and Presbyters of his diocesse were gathered together at the door , and came ( like the Sons of the Prophets ) to see the translation of their aged Father . After some short exhortations to holynesse and Christian courage , he lifted up his hands and blessed them , mindfull ( it seems ) of our Saviours carriage at his ascension , whose peace he prayed might rest upon them .

Shortly after ( the pain still encreasing and prevailing against him ) hee became speechlesse , and so continued untill the Evening ; when suddenly sitting up ( as if hee had been awaked out of his sleep ) he perceived it to be the time of the Lucernarium , or Evening-Office , and lifting up his hands towards Heaven , he repeated with a low voyce , this verse out of the Psalmes , Thy word is a Lantern unto my feet , and a light unto my paths . About the fourth hour of the night , when all that were present sate diligently watching about him ; his poor Cottage did suddenly shake with such a strong Earth-quake , that those who kneeled about his bed were something disordered with it , and fell all trembling to their prayers . The Guests of Eternal Glory were now entred under that narrow roof , where ( after the abdication of his great worldly honours ) he had lived so long in all holynesse and humility . For in that instant of time ( saith Uranius ) he was dissolved , the blessed Angels testifying that they were present to conduct his happy and glorious Soul into the joy of his Master . By the like signe did Christ signifie to his Church in Hierusalem , that he heard their prayers when they were persecuted by the mercilesse Jews . Gregory the great , in the place

St. Paulinus to his Wife Therasia . COme my true Consort in my Joyes and Care ! Let this uncertaine and still wasting share Of our fraile life be giv'n to God . You see How the swift dayes drive hence incessantlie , And the fraile , drooping World ( though still thought gry , ) In secret , slow consumption weares away . All that we have , passe from us : and once past Returne no more ; like clouds , they seeme to last , And so delude loose , greedy mindes . But where Are now those trim deceits ? to what darke sphere Are all those false fires sunck , which once so shin'd They captivated Soules , and rul'd mankind ? He that with fifty ploughes his lands did sow , Will scarse be trusted for two Oxen now , His rich , lowd Coach known to each crowded street Is sold , and he quite tir'd walkes on his feet . Merchants that ( like the Sun ) their voyage made From East to West , and by whole-sale did trade , Are now turn'd Sculler-men , or sadly swett In a poore fishers boat with line and nett . Kingdomes and Cities to a period tend , Earth nothing hath , but what must have an end : Mankind by plagues , distempers , dearth and warre , Tortures and Prisons dye both neare and farre ; Furie and hate rage in each living brest , Princes with Princes , States with States contest ; An Vniversall discord mads each land , Peace is quite lost , the last times are at hand ; But were these dayes from the last day secure , So that the world might for more yeares endure , Yet we ( like hirelings ) should our terme expect , And on our day of death each day reflect . For what ( Therasia ! ) doth it us availe That spatious str●ames shall flow and never faile , That aged forrests hie to tyre the Winds , And flowers each spring returne and keepe their kinds ? Those still remaine : but all our Fathers dyed , And we our selves but for few dayes abide . This short time then was not giv'n us in vaine , To whom tyme dyes , in which we dying gaine , But that in time eternall life should be Our care , and endlesse rest our industrie . And yet , this Taske which the rebellious deeme Too harsh , who god 's mild lawes for chaines esteem , Suites with the meeke and harmelesse heart so right That 't is all ease , all comfort and delight . " To love our God with all our strength and will ; " To covet nothing ; to devise no ill " Against our neighbours ; to procure or doe " Nothing to others , which we would not to " Our very selves ; not to revenge our wrong ; " To be content with little ; not to long " For wealth and greatnesse ; to despise or jeare " No man , and if we be despised , to bear ; " To feede the hungry ; to hold fast our Crown ; " To take from others naught ; to give our owne ; These are his precepts : and ( alas ! ) in these What is so hard , but faith can doe with ease ? He that the holy Prophets doth beleeve , And on Gods words relies , words that still live And cannot dye ; that in his heart hath writ His Saviour's death and tryumph , and doth yet With constant care , admitting no neglect , His second , dreadfull comming still expect : To such a liver earthy things are dead , With Heav'n alone , and hopes of h●av'n hee 's sed ; He is no Vassall unto worldly trash , Nor that black knowledge , by which pretends to wash , But doth defile : A knowledge , by which Men With studied care loose Paradise agen . Commands and titles , the vaine worlds device , With gold , the forward seed of sin and vice , He never minds : his Ayme is farre more high , And stoopes to nothing lower than the skie ; Nor griefe , nor pleasures breede him any pain , He nothing feares to loose , would nothing gaine ; What ever hath not God , he doth detest : He lives to Christ , is dead to all the rest . This Holy one sent hither from above A Virgin brought forth , shadow'd by the Dove ; His skin with stripes , with wicked hands his face , And with foule spittle soyl'd and beaten was ; A Crown of thornes his blessed head did wound , Nayles pierc'd his hands and feet , and he fast bound Stuck to the painefull Crosse , where hang'd till dead With a cold speare his hearts dear blood was shed . All this for man , for bad , ungratefull Man The true God suffer'd ! not that sufferings can Adde to his glory ought , who can receive Accesse from nothing , whom none can bereave Of his all-fullnesse : : but the blest designe Of his sad death was to save me from mine ; He dying bore my sins , and the third day His early rising rais'd me from the clay . To such great mercies what shall I preferre , Or who from loving God shall me deterre ? Burne me alive , with curious , skilfull paine Cut up and search each warme and breathing vaine : When all is done , death brings a quick release , And the poore mangled body sleepes in peace . Hale me to prisons , shut me up in brasse : My still free Soule from thence to God shall passe ; Banish or bind me , I can be no where A stranger , nor alone ; My God is there . I feare not famine ; how can he be sed To sterve , who feedes upon the living bread ? And yet this courage springs not from my store , Christ gave it me , who can give much , much more ; I of my selfe can nothing dare or doe , He bids me fight , and makes me conquer too . If ( like great Abr'ham , ) I should have command To leave my fathers house and native Land , I would with joy to unknown regions run , Bearing the Banner of his blessed Son . On worldly goods I will have no designe , But use my owne , as if mine were not mine ; Wealth I 'le not wonder at , nor greatnesse seeke , But chuse ( though laugh'd at , ) to be poore & meeke . In woe and wealth I 'le keepe the same stay'd mind , Griefe shall not breake me , nor joyes make me blind : My dearest Jesus I 'le still praise , and he Shall with Songs of Deliverance compasse me . Then come my faithfull Consort ! joyne with me In this good fight , and my true helper be ; Cheare me when sad ; advise me when I stray ; Let us be each the others guide and stay ; Be your Lords Guardian : give joynt ayde and due ; Helpe him when falne ; rise , when he helpeth you ; That so we may not onely one flesh be , But in one Spirit , and one Will agree . FINIS .

Notes, typically marginal, from the original text

Notes for div A64744-e3580

Notes for div A64744-e16600

Notes for div A64744-e21040

Notes for div A64744-e23590