THE HOLY STATE, THE PROFANE STATE BY THOMAS FULLER, D.D., PREBENDARY OF SARUM, &c. &c. AUTHOR OP "THE WORTHIES OF ENGLAND," "THE HISTORY OF THE HOLY WAR," " PISGAII-SIGIIT OF PALESTINE," " ABEL REDIVIVUS," &c. &c. whose copious folio treatise on " Algebra " is known to every mathe- matician as one of the most able introductions to that subject which had then been published. Our language was at that time in a marked course of transition, gradually passing from a state of much roughness and barbarism into one of incipient order, euphony, and refinement. The extreme usefulness, therefore, of a good glossography, compiled at such an impor- This word, though often conveying the signification of "a collector of taxes," seems to have been occasionally employed by our old writers in the sense of "a ranger," " a steward," and sometimes even that of "a comptroller." THE EDITOR'S PREFACE. ix taut period, by a person of such competent qualifications as Kersey, who nourished in the reigns of James and Charles I., and survived all the changes under the commonwealth and the Revolution, will be obvious to every man of learning. In its plain and lucid explanations of our old words, it exhibits one of those excellences which our (otherwise) great modern lexicographer is said not to have possessed. A portion of its worth is modestly described in the preface, from which the following is a brief quotation : " It contains all manner of difficult words and terms of art which are to be found in any writers of note. As for the individual terms, care has been taken every where to set down their original and proper signifi- cation, which tends very much to clear up the several senses wherein they are now generally received : and they are also explained with all possible perspicuity and brevity, so as not to interpret any hard words by others that are as little intelligible, at least not so obvious to persons who are not well versed in polite literature ; a fault too frequent in performances of this nature ! There are many principles and rules laid down, with apposite hints and remarks, throughout the whole work, so as to be of very good use to young students, as also to foreigners, who are desirous to be acquainted with the peculiar idioms of our English tongue; which is now so far improved, that, for copiousness, variety of style, clearness and elegancy of expres- sion, and other advantages, it may be said to equal, if not surpass, all other modern languages." This dictionary, then, it will be perceived, is no mean authority in explaining much of our ancient phraseology, in which service it has often been employed to good purpose. In the notes, every Latin quotation which occurs in the volume will be found freely rendered into English. The twenty portraits of celebrated personages were understood to be faith- ful copies from the best originals extant in the days of Fuller \ and they have been carefully copied in the present edition. In my preface to the " Church History," I gave a quotation from " the Literary Remains " of SAMUEL T. COLERIDGE, ESQ., in praise of my author ; and from the same posthumous work of that profound genius I cite a passage, almost equally laudatory, which he wrote in his copy of " the Holy State," in reference to " the Life of Paracelsus," in page 54 : "It is matter of regret with me, that Fuller whose wit (alike in quantity, quality, and perpetuity, SURPASSING THAT OF THE WITTIEST IN A WITTY AGE) robbed him of the praise not x THE EDITOR'S PREFACE. less due to him for an equal superiority in sound, shrewd good- sense, and freedom of intellect had not looked through the two Latin folios of PARACELSUS'S 'Works/ It is not to be doubted, that a rich and delightful article would have been the result. For who, like Fuller, could nave brought out and set forth this singular compound of true philosophic genius, with the morals of a quack, and the manners of a king of the gipsies ?" This great man also makes a just remark on one of Fuller's failings, which in him seemed to be more venial than in any of his contemporaries. Coleridge wrote it, as a note, on a passage in " the Profane State/' under the article " the Rigid Donatists," page 376 : "The only serious macula in Fuller's mind is his uniform support of the right and duty of the civil magistrate to punish errors in belief. Fuller would, indeed, recommend MODERA- TION in the practice : but, of upas, woorara, and persecution, tin-re are no moderate doses possible." But perhaps the most obviously-equitable judgment which even a man of adverse sentiments would form concerning one of the predominant features in all our author's varied productions, has been thus finely portrayed by COLERIDGE : " It raises, or ought to raise, our estimation of Fuller's good sense, and the general temperance of his mind, when we see the heavy weight of prejudices (the universal code of his age !) incumbent on his judgment, and which, nevertheless, left sanity of opinion the general character of his urritings I " Of this ' ' general temperance of mind " an apposite instance will be found in the words of one of his biographers : "In April, 1643, he conveyed himself to the king at Oxford, who received him gladly. As His Majesty had heard of his extraordinary abilities in the pulpit, he was now desirous of hearing them from it: and accordingly Mr. Fuller preached before His Majesty at St. Mary's church. His fortune upon this occasion was very singular. He had before preached and published a sermon in London, upon the new moulding church- reformation, which made him be censured as too hot a royal- ist ; and now, from his sermon at Oxford, he was thought to be too lukewarm : which can only be accounted for from that inflexible principle of moderation in himself, which he would sincerely have inculcated in each party, as the only means of reconciling both." 46, HOXTON-SQUARE, JAMES NICHOLS. March 10M, 1841. CONTENTS. HOLY STATE. BOOK I. Page. CHAPTER I The good Wife . 1 II The Life of Monica 4 III The good Husband 7 IV. The Life of Abraham 9 V The good Parent 11 VI The good Child >. 14 VII The good Master 1C VIII The good Servant 19 IX The Life of Elieier .... 21 X The good Widow 23 XL The Life of the Lady Paula . 25 XII The constant Virgin 31 XIII The Life of Hildegardis 35^ XIV The elder Brother XV The younger Brother 42 BOOK II. CHAPTER I The good Advocate 49 II The good Physician 51 III The Life of Paracelsus 54 IV. The controversial Divine 57 V The Life of Dr. Whitaker 61 VI The true Church Antiquary .., 64 VII The general Artist , 67 xii CONTENTS. Page, CHAPTER VIII The Life of Julius Caesar Scaliger .. 70 IX. The faithful Minister . 73 X. The Life of Mr. Perkins 80 \I._Thegood Parishioner 84 XII The good Patron 87 XIIL The good Landlord 90 XIV The good Master of a College 93 XV The Life of Dr. Metcalf 9G XVI The good Schoolmaster 99 XVII The good Merchant 103 ^<-XVIII The good Yeoman 106 XIX The Handicraftsman 109 XX. The good Soldier 113 ^ XXI The good Sea-Captain 120 XXII._The Life of Sir Francis Drake 124 XXIII The good Herald 131 'XXIV The Life of Mr. William Camden 134 XXV The true Gentleman .'. 137 BOOK III. CHAPTER I Of Hospitality 143 II_ Of Jesting ; 145 III Of Self-Praising 147 IV Of Travelling 149 V Of Company 152 VI Of Apparel 155 VII Of Building 157 VIIL Of Anger 160 IX Of expecting Preferment 162 X Of Memory 165 XI Of Fancy 168 XII Of natural Fools 171 CONTENTS. xiii Page. CHAPTER XIII. Of Recreations , 174 XIV Of Tombs 178 XV Of Deformity ._ 181 XVI Of Plantations 184 XVII. Of Contentment 186 XVIII Of Books 189 XIX Of Time-Serving 192 XX Of Moderation 196 XXI Of Gravity 199 XXII Of Marriage 203 XXIII Of Fame 205 XXIV Of the Antiquity of Churches, and Necessity of them ... 209 XXV Of Ministers' Maintenance .. .. 218 BOOK IV. CHAPTER I. The Favourite 227 II. The Life of Hainan 234 III The Life of Cardinal Wolsey 237 . IV The Life of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk 241 V The wise Statesman . 244 VI. The Life of William Cecil, Lord Burleigh 2 VII The good Judge 255 VIII The Life of Sir John Markham 259 IX The good Bishop 262 X The Life of St. Augustine 269 XI The Life of Bishop Ridley 273 XII The true Nobleman 279 XIII The Court-Lady 283 XIV The Life of Lady Jane Grey 289 XV The Life of Queen Elizabeth 293 XVI The Ambassador 299 XVII The good General 306 Xiv CONTENTS. Pago. CUAPTCE XVIII. The Life of Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden 309 X I X. The Prince or Heir-Apparent to the Crown 314 \\._TheLifeofEdward, the Black Prince 319 XXI.-The King 325 BOOK V. PROFANE STATE. MIAPTKB L The Harlot 335 II TheLifeof Joan, Queen of Naples 339 III The Witch 342 IV The Witch of Endor 340 V The Life of Joan of Arc -)^349 VI The Atheist 354 VII The Life of Caesar Borgia 359 VIII The Hypocrite 3G3 IX. The Life of Jehu 365 X. The Heretic 367 M The rigid Donatists 370 XII. The Liar 379 XIII. The common Barretor 381 . The degenerous Gentleman 384 XV. The Traitor 391 XVI. The Pazzians' Conspiracy 393 XVII. The Tyrant 396 XVIII The Life of Andronicus 400 XIX. The Life of Duke D'Alva ..450 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK I. CONTAINING ESSAYS AND CHARACTERS. f v- x ' UNIVERSITY S O*T : THE HOLY STATE THE FIRST BOOK. CHAPTER I. THE GOOD WIFE. ST. PAUL to the Colossians (iii. 18) first adviseth women to submit themselves to their husbands, and then counselleth men to love their wives. And sure it was fitting, that women should first have their lesson given them, because it is hardest to be learned, and therefore they need have the more time to con it. For the same reason, we first begin with the character of a good wife. MAXIM I. She commandeth her husband in any equal matter, by constant obeying him. It was always observed, that what the English gained of the French in battle by valour, the French regained of the English by cunning in treaties : * so if the husband should chance, by his power, in his passion, to prejudice his wife's right, she wisely knoweth, by compounding and complying, to recover and rectify it again. ii. She never crosseth her husband in the spring-tide of his anger t but stays till it be ebbing-water. And then mildly she argues the matter, not so much to condemn him, as to acquit herself. Surely, men, contrary to iron, are worst to be wrought upon when they are hot ; and are far more tractable in cold blood. It is an observation of seamen, that if a single meteor or fire- ball falls on their mast, it portends ill luck; but if two come COMINEUS, lib. iv. cap. 8; et BODINUS, De Republica, lib. v. p. 782. B 2 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK I. together, (which they count Castor and Pollux,) they presage good success.* But, sure, in a family it bodeth most bad, when two fireballs (husband's and wife's anger) come both together. in. She keeps home if she have not her husband's company, or leave for her patent to go abroad. For the house is the woman's centre. It is written: "The sun ariseth; man goeth forth unto his work and to his labour until the evening;" (Psalm civ. 22 ;) but it is said of the good woman : " She riseth while it is yet night." (Prov. xxxi. 15.) For man in the race of .his work starts from, the rising of the sun, because his business is without doors, and not to be done without the light of heaven ; but the woman hath her work within the house, and therefore can make the sun rise by lighting of a candle. IV. Her clothes are rather comely than costly, and she makes plain cloth to be velvet by her handsome wearing it. She is none of our dainty dames, who love to appear in variety of suits'every day new, as if a good gown, like a stratagem in war, were to be used but once. But our good wife sets up a sail according to the keel of her husband's estate ; and if of high parentage, she doth not so remember what she was by birth, that she forgets what she is by match. v. Arcana imperil (her husband's secrets) she will not divulge. Especially she is careful to conceal his infirmities. If he be none of the wisest, she so orders it that he appears on the public stage but seldom ; and then he hath conned his part so well, that he comes off with great applause. If his forma informant be but bad, she provides him better formas assist entes, gets him wise servants and secretaries. VI. In her husband's absence, she is wife and deputy -husband, which makes her double the files of her diligence. At his return he finds all things so well, that he wonders to see himself at home when he was abroad. VII. Her carriage is so modest, that she disheartens wantons not only to take, but even to besiege, her chastity. I confess, some t KRASBIUS, Dialogi, in Naufragio. CHAP. I. THE GOOD WIFE. 3 desperate men will hope anything ; yea, their shameless bold- ness will fasten on impossibilities, measuring other folks' bad- ness by their own ; yet, seldom such salamanders, which live in the fire of lust, dare approach, without seeing the smoke of wan- tonness in looks, words, apparel, or behaviour. And though charity commands me to believe, that some women who hang out signs, notwithstanding, will not lodge strangers ; yet these mock guests are guilty in tempting others to tempt them. vm. In her husband's sickness she feels more grief than she shows. Partly that she may not dishearten him, and partly because she is not at leisure to seem so sorrowful, that she may be the more serviceable. IX. Her children, though many in number, are none in noise, steering them with a look whither she listeth. When they grow up, she teacheth them not pride but painfulness, making their hands to clothe their backs, and them to wear the livery of their own industry. She makes not her daughters gentlewomen before they be women, rather teaching them what they should pay to others, than receive from them. x. The heaviest work of her servants she maketh light, by orderly and seasonably enjoining it. Wherefore her service is counted a preferment, and her teaching better than her wages. Her maids follow the precedent of their mistress, live modestly at home. One asked a grave gentlewoman, how her maids came by so good husbands, and yet seldom went abroad ; " O" said she, " good husbands come home to them." So much for this subject; and what is defective in this description shall be supplied by the pattern ensuing. B 2 4 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK I. CHAPTER II. THE LIFE OF MONICA. MONICA is better known by the branch of her issue, than root of her parentage, and was born in or nigh Tagasta, in Africa.* parents, whose names we find not, were Christians, and il dt her education, committing her to the breeding of an old umid in tlu house; who, though herself crooked with age, was excellent to straighten the manners of youth. She instructed her with holy severity, never allowing her to drink wine, or between meals. Having outgrown her tuition, she began by degrees to sip and drink wine ; lesser draughts, like wedges, widening her throat for greater, till, at last, (ill customs being not knocked, but insensibly screwed, into our souls,) she could fetch off her whole ones. Now it happened that a young maid, formerly her partner in potting, fell at variance with her, and (as malice, when she shoots, draws her arrow to the head) called her "toss-pot and drunkard;" whereupon Monica reformed herself, and turned temperate. Thus bitter taunts sometimes make wholesome physic, when God sanctifies unto us the malice of our enemies to perform the office of good-will. After this was she married to Patricius, one of more honour than wealth, and as yet a Pagan ; wherein she brake St. Paul's precept, " To marry only in the Lord." Perchance, then there was a dearth of husbands ; or she did it by her parents' impor- tunity, or out of promise of his conversion: and the history lu rein being but lamely delivered [to] us, it is charity to sup- port it with the most favourable construction. He was of a stern nature; none more lamb when pleased, or lion when angry; and, which is worse, his wild affections did prey abroad,t till she lured them home by her loving behaviour. Not like those wives who, by their hideous outcries, drive their wandering husbands farther out of the way. lln own house was to her a house of correction, wherein her husband's mother was bitter unto her, having a quarrel not so much to her person as relation, because a daughter-in-law. Her Auoi- '.siiones, lib. ix. c. 8. f ^id., lib. ix. c. 9. liHllllllllllllliiliiiii HILDEGA-IiniS. CHAP. II. THE LIFE OF MONICA. 5 servants, to climb into the favour of their old mistress, trampled on their young ; they bringing tales, and the old woman belief ; though the teeth of their malice did but file her innocency the brighter. Yea, at last her mother-in-law, turning her compur- gator, caused her son to punish those maids who causelessly had wronged their mistress. When her neighbours, who had husbands of far milder dis- positions, would show her their husbands' cruelty legible in their faces, all her pitying was reproving them : and, whereas they expected to be praised for their patience, she condemned them for deserving such punishment. She never had blow from or jar with her husband, she so suppled his hard nature with her obedience; and to her great comfort saw him converted to Christianity before his death. Also she saw Augustine her son, formerly vicious in life, and erroneous in doctrine, (whose soul she bathed in her tears,) become a worthy Christian; who, coming to have his ears tickled, had his heart touched, and got religion in to boot, with the eloquence of St. Ambrose. She survived not long after her son's conversion, (God sends his servants to bed when they have done their work !) and her candle was put out, as soon as the day did dawn in St. Augustine. Take an instance or two of her signal piety : There was a custom in Africa,* to bring pulse, bread, and wine to the monu- ments of dead saints; wherein Monica was as forward as any. But, being better instructed, that this custom was of Heathenish parentage, and that religion was not so poor as to borrow rites from Pagans, she instantly left off that ceremony ; and as for piety's sake she had done it thus long, so for piety's sake she would do it no longer. How many old folks now-a-days, whose best argument is "use," would have flown in their faces who should stop them in the full career of an ancient custom ! There was one Licentius, a novice-convert, who had got these words by the end : " Turn us again, O Lord God of hosts : show us the light of thy countenance, and we shall be whole." (Psalm Lxxx. 3.) And, as it is the fashion of many men's tongues to echo forth the last sentence they learn, he said it in all places he went to. But Monica, overhearing him to sing it in the house of office, was highly offended at him;f because holy things are to be suited to holy places ; and the harmony could " AUGUST INI C&nfessiones, lib. vi. c. 2. t AUGUST IN us, De Ordine, lib. i. c. 8. 6 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK I. not be sweet where the song did jar with the place. And although some may say, that "a gracious heart consecrateth every place into a chapel;" yet, sure, though pious things are no where unfitting to be thought on, they may somewhere be improper to. be uttered. Drawing near her death, she sent most pious thoughts as harbingers to heaven : and her soul saw a glimpse of happiness through the chinks of her sickness-broken body. She was so inflamed with zeal, that she turned all objects into fuel to feed it. One day, standing with St. Augustine at an east window, she raised herself to consider the light of God's presence, in respect whereof all corporal light is so far from being matched, [that] it deserves not to be mentioned. Thus mounted on heavenly meditations, and from that high pitch surveying earthly things, the great distance made them appear unto her like a little point, scarce to be seen, and less to be respected.* She died at Ostia in Italy, in the fifty-sixth year . of her age ; Augustine closing her eyes, when through grief he had scarce any himself. * AUGUSTINI Confessionesj lib. ix. c. 10. CHAP. III. THE GOOD HUSBAND. 7 CHAPTER III. THE GOOD HUSBAND. HAVING formerly described a good wife, she will make a good husband ; whose character we are now to present. MAXIM I. His love to his wife weakeneth not his ruling her; and his ruling lesseneth not his loving her. Wherefore he avoideth all fondness, (a sick love, to be praised in none, and pardoned only in the newly-married !) whereby more have wilfully betrayed their command, than ever lost it by their wives' rebellion. Methinks, that [the] he-viper is right enough served which, as Pliny reports, puts his head into the she-viper's mouth, and she bites it off. * And what wonder is it if women take the rule to themselves, which their uxorious husbands first surrender unto them? ii. He is constant to his wife, and confident of her. And, sure, where jealousy is the jailer, many break the prison ; it opening more ways to wickedness than it stoppeth; so that where it findeth one it maketh ten dishonest. in. He alloweth her meet maintenance, but measures it by his own estate. Nor will he give less, nor can she ask more. Which allowance, if shorter than her deserts, and his desire, he length- eneth it out with his courteous carriage unto her, chiefly in her sickness; then not so much word-pitying her, as providing necessaries for her. IV. That she may not intrench on his prerogative, he maintains her 'propriety in feminine affairs. Yea, therein he follows her advice. For the soul of a man is planted so high, that he over- shoots such low matters as lie level to a woman's eye; and, therefore, her counsel therein may better hit the mark. Causes that are properly of feminine cognizance he suffers her finally to PLIXII Xat. Hist., lib. x. cap. 62. 8 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK I. decide ; not so much as permitting an appeal to himself, that their jurisdictions may not interfere. He will not countenance a stubborn servant against her ; but, in her, maintains his own authority. Such husbands as bait the mistress with her maids, and clap their hands at the sport, will have cause to wring them afterwards. v. Knowing she is the weaker vessel, he bears with her infirmities. All hard using of her he detests ; desiring therein to do not what may be lawful, but fitting. And, grant her to be of a servile nature, such as may be bettered by beating; yet he remembers he hath enfranchised her by marrying her. On her wedding-day she was, like St. Paul, " free born," and privileged from any servile punishment. VI. He is careful that the wounds betwixt them take not air, and be public! ij kiioivn. Jars concealed are half reconciled; which if generally known, it is a double task to stop the breach at home, and men's mouths abroad. To this end, he never publicly reproves her. An open reproof puts her to do penance before all that are present; after which, many rather study revenge than reformation. VII. He keeps her in the wholesome ignorance of unnecessary secrets. They will not be starved with the ignorance who, perchance, may surfeit with the knowledge of weighty counsels, too heavy for the weaker sex to bear. He knows little, who will tell his wife all he knows. VIII. He beats not his wife after his death. One, having a shrewd wife, yet loath to use her hardly in his life-time, awed her with telling her, that he would beat her when he was dead ; meaning, that he would leave her no maintenance. This humour is unworthy a worthy man, who will endeavour to provide her a competent estate. Yet he that impoverisheth his children to enrich his widow, destroys a quick-hedge to make a dead one. CHAP. IV. THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM. 9 CHAPTER IV. THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM. I INTEND not to range over all his life as he stands three- square in relation, husband, father, master. We will only survey and measure his conjugal side, which respecteth his wife. "We read not that ever he upbraided her for her barrenness, as knowing that natural defects are not the creature's fault, but the Creator's pleasure ; all which time his love was loyal to her alone. As for his going-in to Hagar, it was done not only with the consent but by the advice of Sarah ; who was so ambitious of children, [that] she would be made a mother by a proxy. He was not jealous of her, (though a grand beauty,) in what company soever he came. Indeed, he feared the Egyptians, because the Egyptians feared not God ; suspecting rather them of force, than her of falseness, and believing that sooner they might kill him than corrupt her. Yet, as well as he loved her, he expected she should do work fit for her calling. " Make ready quickly three measures of meal and knead it." (Gen. xviii. 6.) Well may Sarah be cook, where Abraham was caterer, yea, where God was guest. The print of her fingers still remains in the meal ; and of crumb- ling dough she hath made a lasting monument of her good housewifery. Being falsely indicted by his wife, he never traversed the bill, but compounded with her on her own terms. The case this : Hagar being with child by Abraham, her pride swelled with her belly, and [she] despiseth her mistress. Sarah, laying her action wrong, sues Abraham for her maid's fault, and appeals to God. I see, the plaintiff hath not always the best cause ; nor are they most guilty who are most blamed. However, Abraham passes by her peevishness, and remits his maid to stand or fall to her own mistress. Though he had a great part in Hagar, he would have none in Hagar's rebellion. Masters who pro- tect their faulty servants, hinder the proceeding of justice in a family. He did deny himself, to grant his wife's will in a matter of great consequence, Sarah desired : " Cast out this bondwoman 10 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK I. and her sou." (Gen. xxi. 10.) O hard word ! She might as well have said, " Cast out of thyself nature and natural affec- tion." See how Abraham struggles with Abraham ; the father in him striving with the husband in him, till God moderated with his casting-voice, and Abraham was contented to hearken to the counsel of his wife. Being to sacrifice Isaac, we find not that he made Sarah privy to his project. To tell her, had been to torture her, fearing her affections might be too strong for her faith. Some secrets are to be kept from the weaker sex ; not always out of a distrust, lest they hurt the counsel by telling it, but lest the counsel hurt them by keeping it. The dearest husband cannot bail his wife when death arrests her. Sarah, Acs; and Abraham weeps. Tears are a tribute due to the dead. It is fitting that the body, when it is sown in cor- ruption, should be watered by those that plant it in the earth. The Hittites make him a fair offer: "In the chiefest of our sepulchres bury thy dead." (Gen. xxiii. 6.) But he thinks the best of them too bad for his Sarah. Her chaste ashes did love to lie alone : he provides her a virgin-tomb in the cave of Mach- pelah ; where her corpse sweetly slept till he himself came to bed to her, and was buried in the same grave. CHAP. V. THE GOOD PARENT. H CHAPTER V. THE GOOD PARENT. HE beginneth his care for Ms children, not at their birth but [their] conception, giving them to God to be, if not (as Hannah did) his chaplains, (1 Sam. i. 11,) at least his servants. This care he continueth till the day of his death, in their infancy, youth, and man's estate. In all which, MAXIM I. He showeth them, in his own practice, what to follow and imitate; and, in others, what to shun and avoid. For though " the words of the wise be as nails fastened by the masters of the assemblies," (Eccles. xii. 11,) yet, sure, their examples are the hammer to drive them in, to take the deeper hold. A father that whipped his son for swearing, and swore himself whilst he whipped him, did more harm by his example than good by his correction. ii. He doth not welcome and embrace the first essays of sin in his children. Weeds are counted herbs in the beginning of the spring : nettles are put in pottage, and salads are made of eldern-buds. Thus fond fathers like the oaths and wanton talk of their little children ; and please themselves to hear them displease God. But our wise parent both instructs his children in piety, and with correction blasts the first buds of profaneness in them. He that will not use the rod on his child, his child shall be used as a rod on him. in. He observeth gavel-kind * in dividing his affections, though not his estate. He loves them (though leaves them not) all alike. Indeed, his main land he settles on the eldest : for, where man takes away the birth-right, God commonly takes away the blessing, from a family. But, as for his love, therein, like a well-drawn picture, he eyes all his children alike, if there be a parity of deserts ; not parching one to drown another. Did not that mother show little wit in her great partiality, who, when " Gives each child a part." .VERSTE CAN, " Of decayed Intelligence," cap. 3. 12 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK I. her neglected son complained that his brother (her darling) had hit and hurt him with a stone, whipped him, only for standing in the way where the stone went which his brother cast ? This partiality is tyranny, when parents despise those that are deformed, enough to break them whom God had bowed before. IV. He allows his children maintenance according to their quality. Otherwise it will make them base, acquaint them with bad company and sharking tricks; and it makes them surfeit the sooner when they come to their estates. It is observed of camels, that, having travelled long without water through sandy deserts,* implentur, ctim bibendi est occasio, et in prateritum et in futurum : f and so these thirsty heirs soak it when they come to their means, who, whilst their fathers were living, might not touch the top of their money, and think they shall never feel the bottom of it when they are dead. v. In choosing a profession he is directed by his child's disposition. Whose inclination is the strongest indenture to bind him to a trade. But when they set Abel to till the ground, and send Cain to keep sheep ; Jacob to hunt, and Esau to live in tents ; drive some to school, and others from it ; they commit a rape on nature, and it will thrive accordingly. Yet he humours not his child when he makes an unworthy choice beneath himself, or rather for ease than use, pleasure than profit. VI. If his son prove mid, he doth not cast him off so far, but he marks the place where Jte lights. With the mother of Moses, he doth not suffer his son so to sink or swim, but he leaves one to stand afar off to watch what will become of him. (Exod. ii. 4.) He is careful, whilst he quencheth liis luxury, not withal to put out his life; the rather, because their souls who have broken and run out in their youth, have proved the more healthful for it afterwards. VII. He moves him to marriage rather by argument drawn from his good, than his own authority. It is a style too princely for a 1 "When they find a well of water, they not only slake their long-sustained thirst, but drink still more largely in anticipation of future abstinence." EDIT. f PMNU Nat. Hist., lib. viii. c. 18. CHAP. V. THE GOOD PARENT. 13 parent herein to " will and command ; " but, sure, lie may will and desire. Affections, like the conscience, are rather to be led than drawn; and, it is to be feared, they that marry where they do not love, will love where they do not many. VIII. He doth not give away his loaf to his children, and then come to them for a piece of bread. He holds the reins (though loosely) in his own hands ; and keeps, to reward duty, and punish undutifuliiess. Yet, on good occasion, for his children's advancement, he will depart from part of his means. Base is their nature who will not have their branches lopped, till their body be felled ; and will let go none of their goods, as if it pre- saged their speedy death : whereas it doth not follow, that he that puts off his cloak must presently go to bed. IX. On his death-bed he bequeaths his blessing to all his children. Nor rejoiceth he so much to leave them great portions, as honestly obtained. Only money well and lawfully gotten is good and lawful money. And if he leaves his children young, he principally nominates God to be their guardian; and, next Him, is careful to appoint provident overseers. 14 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK I. CHAPTER VI. THE GOOD CHILD. MAXIM I. HE reverenceth the person of his parent, though old, poor, and froward. As his parent bare with him when a child, he bears with his parent if twice a child ; nor doth his dignity above him cancel his duty unto him. When Sir Thomas More was Lord Chancellor of England, and Sir John his father one of the Judges of the King's Bench, he would in Westminster-hall beg his blessing of him on his knees.* ii. He observes his lawful commands, and practiseth his precepts, with all obedience. I cannot, therefore, excuse St. Barbara from undutifulness, and occasioning her own death. The matter this: Her father, being a Pagan, commanded his workmen, building his house, to make two windows in a room. Barbara, knowing her father's pleasure, in his absence enjoined them .to make three, that, seeing them, she might the better contem- plate the mystery of the Holy Trinity.f Methinks, two windows might as well have raised her meditations, and the light arising from both would as properly have minded her of the Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son. Her father, enraged, at his return, thus came to the knowledge of her religion, and accused her to the magistrate ; which cost her her life. in. Having practised them himself, he entails his parents' precepts on his posterity. Therefore such instructions are by Solomon (Prov. i. 9) compared to frontlets and chains, (not to a suit of clothes, which serves but one, and quickly wears out, or out of fashion,) which have in them a real lasting worth, and are bequeathed as legacies to another age. The same counsels, observed, are chains to grace; which, neglected, prove halters to strangle undutiful children. STAPLE-TON in Vit& Thoma Mori, cap. 1. f ALPHONS. VILLEG. in the " Life of Barbara," on the 4th of December. CHAP. VI. THE GOOD CHILD. 15 IV. He is patient under correction, and thankful after it. When Mr. West, formerly Tutor (such I count in loco parentis] to Dr. Whitaker, was by him, then Regius Professor, created Doctor, Whitaker solemnly gave him thanks before the University for giving him correction when his young scholar. v. \In marriage he first and last consults with his father. When propounded, when concluded. He best bowls at the mark of his own contentment who, besides the aim of his own eye, is directed by his father, who is to give him the ground. He is a stork to his parent, and feeds him in his old age. Not only if his father hath been a pelican, but though he hath been / an ostrich * unto him, and neglected him in his youth. He confines him not a long way off to a short pension, forfeited if he comes in his presence ; but shows piety at home, and learns (as St. Paul saith, 1 Tim. v. 4) to requite his parent. And yet the debt (I mean only the principal, not counting the interest) cannot fully be paid ; and therefore he compounds with his father to accept in good worth the utmost of his endeavour. VII. Such a child God commonly rewards with long life in this world. If he chance to die young, yet he lives long that lives well ; and time mis-spent is not lived but lost. Besides, God is better than his promise, if he takes from him a long lease, and gives him a freehold of better value. As for disobedient children, VIII. If preserved from the gallows, they are reserved for the rack, to ' be tortured by their own posterity. One complained, that never father had so undutiful a child as he had. " Yes/' said his son, with less grace than truth, " my grandfather had." The word employed by Fuller is " estridge ; " and the contrast which he insti- tutes, in this passage, cannot be applied to any of the habits of the goshawk. Between it and the pelican no such difference exists as that which is here noted betwixt the pelican and the estridge, and which properly fixes the bird thus described to be the ostrich, whose carelessness respecting the hatching of its eggs, and the rearing of its young, has been the subject of both sacred and classical tradition and allusion, from time immemorial. EDIT. 16 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK I. I conclude this subject with the example of a Pagan's son, which will shame most Christians. Pomponius Atticus, making the funeral oration at the death of his mother, did protest, that, living with her threescore and seven years, he was never recon- ciled unto her, se nunquam cum matre in gratiam rediisse ; because (take the comment with the text) there never happened betwixt them the least jar which needed reconciliation.* CHAPTER VII. THE GOOD MASTER. HE is the heart in the midst of his household, primum vivens et ultimum moriens, first up and last a-bed, if not in his person, yet in his providence. In his carriage he aimeth at his own and his servants' good, and to advance both. MAXIM I. He oversees the works of his servants. One said, that " the dust that fell from the master's shoes was the best compost to manure ground." The lion, out of state, will not run whilst any one looks upon him;f but some servants, out of slothfulness, will not run except some do look upon them, spurred on with their master's eye. Chiefly he is careful exactly to take his servants' reckonings. If their master takes no account of them, they will make small account of him, and care not what they spend who are never brought to an audit. ii. He provides them victuals, wholesome, sufficient, and seasonable. He doth not so alloy his servants' bread, or debase it so much, as to make that servants' meat which is not man's meat. He alloweth them also convenient rest and recreation : whereas some masters, like a bad conscience, will not suffer them to sleep that have them. He remembers the old law of the Saxon In Vit& AUici in fine Epist. ad Atiicum. f PLINII Nat. Hist., lib. viii. cap. 16. CHAP. VII. THE GOOD MASTER. 17 king Ina : " If a villain work on Sunday by his lord's command, he shall be free." * in. T7ie wages he contracts for, he duly and truly pays to his ser- vants. The same word in the Greek, log, signifies " rust " and " poison : " and some strong poison is made of the rust of metals ; but none more venomous than the rust of money in the rich man's purse unjustly detained from the labourer, which wiH poison and infect his whole estate. IV. He never threatens f his servant , but rather presently corrects him. Indeed, conditional threatenings, with promise of pardon on amendment, are good and useful. Absolute threatenings torment more, reform less, making servants keep their faults and forsake their masters : wherefore, herein he never passeth his word, but makes present payment, lest the creditor run away from the debtor. v. In correcting his servant, he becomes not a slave to his own passion. Not cruelly making new indentures of the flesh of his apprentice. To this end, he never beats him in the height of his passion. Moses, being to fetch water out of the rock, and commanded by God only to speak to it with his rod in his hand, being transported with anger, smote it thrice. Thus some masters, who might fetch penitent tears from their servants with a chiding word, (only shaking the rod withal for terror,) in their fury strike many blows which might better be spared. If he perceives his servant incorrigible, so that he cannot wash the blackamoor, he washeth his hands of him, and fairly puts him away. VI. He is tender of his servant in sickness and age. If crippled in his service, his house is his hospital. Yet how many throw away those dry bones out of which themselves have sucked the marrow ! It is as usual to see a young serving-man an old beg- gar, as to see a light-horse, first from the great saddle of a noble- man, to come to the hackney-coach, and at last die in drawing a car. But the good master is not like the cruel hunter in thej fable, who beat his old dog because his toothless mouth let go \ the game. He rather imitates the noble nature of our prince * SIR HENRY SPELMAN in ConciliiSj anno Christi 692, p. 188. -\ Ephes. vi. 9. C 18 ^THE HOLY STATE. BOOK I. Henry, who took order for the keeping of an old English mastiff which had made a lion run away.* Good reason good service in age should be rewarded. Who can without pity and pleasure behold that trusty vessel which carried sir Francis Drake about the world? Hitherto our discourse hath proceeded of the carriage of masters toward free covenant-servants, not intermeddling with their behaviour towards slaves and vassals, whereof we only report this passage : When Charles V., emperor, returning with his fleet from Algiers, was extremely beaten with a tempest, and the ships overloaden, he caused them to cast their best horses into the sea, to save the life of many slaves, who, according to the market-price, were not so much worth.f Are there not many that, in such a case, had rather save Jack the horse than Jockey the keeper ? And yet those who first called England " the pur- gatory of servants/' sure, did us much wrong ; purgatory itself being as false in the application to us, as in the doctrine thereof; servants with us living generally in as good conditions as in any other -country. And well may masters consider how easy a transposition it had been, for God to have made him to mount into the saddle that holds the stirrup ; and him to sit down at the table who stands by with a trencher. How's " Continuation of Stow's Chronicle," p. 836. f PANTALEON, part iii. De illust. Qem., et alii autores. CHAP. VIII. THE GOOD SERVANT. . 19 CHAPTER VIII. THE GOOD SERVANT. HE is one that, out of conscience, serves God in his master ; and so hath the principle of obedience in himself. As for those servants who found their obedience on some external thing, with engines, they will go no longer than they are wound or weighed up. MAXIM i. He doth not dispute his master's lawful willy but doth it. Hence it is that simple servants (understand such whose capa- city is bare measure, without surplusage, equal to the business they are used in) are more useful, because more manageable, than abler men, especially in matters wherein not their brains but hands are required. Yet if his master, out of want of expe- rience, enjoins him to do what is hurtful, and prejudicial to his own estate, duty here makes him undutiful, (if not to deny, to demur in his performance,) and, choosing rather to displease than hurt his master, he humbly represents his reasons to the contrary. ii. He loves to go about his business with cheerfulness. One said, lie loved to hear his carter, though not his cart, to sing. " God loveth a cheerful giver : " and Christ reproved the Pharisees for disfiguring their faces with a sad countenance. Fools, who, to persuade men that angels lodged in their hearts, hung out a devil for a sign in their faces ! Sure, cheerfulness in doing renders a deed more acceptable. Not like those servants, who doing their work unwillingly, their looks do enter a protestation against what their hands are doing. in. He dispatcheth his business with quickness and expedition. Hence the same English word SPEED signifies "celerity," and "success;" the former, in business of execution, causing the latter. Indeed, haste and rashness are storms and tempests, breaking and wrecking business : but nimbleness is a fair, full wind, blowing it with speed to the haven. As he is good at hand, so he is good at length, continually and constantly care- ful in his service, Many servants, as if they had learned the c 2 20 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK I. nature of the besoms they use, are good for a few days, and fterwards grow unserviceable. IV. He disposeth not of his master's goods without his privity or consent. No, not in the smallest matters. Open this wicket, and it will be in vain for masters to shut the door. If servants presume to dispose small things without their masters' allow- ance, (besides that many little leaks may sink a ship !) this will widen their consciences to give away greater. But though he hath not always a particular leave, he hath a general grant, and a warrant dormant, from his master, to give an alms to the poor in his absence, if in absolute necessity. v. His answers to his master are true, direct, and dutiful. If a dumb devil possesseth a servant, a winding cane is the fittest circle, and the master the exorcist to drive it out. Some ser- vants are so talkative, one may as well command the echo as them not to speak last ; and then they count themselves con- querors, because last they leave the field. Others, though they seem to yield, and go away, yet, with the flying Parthians, shoot backward over their shoulders, and dart bitter taunts at their masters ; yea, though, with the clock, they have given the last stroke, yet they keep a jarring, muttering to themselves a good while after. VI. Just correction he bears patiently, and unjust he takes cheer- fully. Knowing that stripes unjustly given more hurt the master than the man : and the logic maxim is verified, Agens agendo repatitur, "The smart most lights on the striker." Chiefly he disdains the baseness of running away. VII. Because charity is so cold, his industry is the hotter to provide something for himself, whereby he may be maintained in his old age. If under his master he trades for himself, (as an apprentice may do, if he hath covenanted so beforehand,*) he provides good bounds and sufficient fences betwixt his own and his master's estate, (Jacob " set his flock three days' journey" from Laban's, Gen. xxx. 36,) that no quarrel may arise about their property, nor suspicion that his remnant hath eaten up his master's whole cloth. BRACTON, lib. v. tract. 2, cap. 3, num. 7. CHAP. IX. THE LIFE OF ELIEZER. 21 CHAPTER IX. THE LIFE OF ELIEZER. ELIEZER was steward of Abraham's household,, lieutenant- general over the army of his servants, ruler over all his master had ; the confidence in his loyalty causing the largeness of his commission. But as for those who make him the founder of Damascus, on no other evidence but because he is called " Eliezer of Damas- cus," they build a great city on too narrow a foundation. It argues his goodness, that Abraham, if dying without a son, intended him his heir, (a kinsman in grace is nearest by the surest side !) till Isaac, stepping in, stopped out Eliezer, and reversed those resolutions. The Scripture presents us with a remarkable precedent of his piety, in a matter of great moment : * Abraham, being to send him into Mesopotamia, caused him to swear that he would faithfully fetch Isaac a wife from his own kindred. Eliezer demurred awhile before he would swear; carefully surveying the latitude of his oath, lest some unseen ambushes therein should surprise his conscience. The most scrupulous to take an oath will be the most careful to perform it : whereas those that swear it blindly, will do it lamely. He objects : " Peradventure the woman shall not be willing to follow me." At last, being satisfied in this query, he takes the oath ; as no honest man who means to pay, will refuse to give his bond, if lawfully required. He takes ten camels, (then the coaches of the east-country,) with servants and all things in good equipage, to show a sample of his master's greatness ; and, being a stranger in the country, asked direction of him who best knew the way, God himself. If any object, that his craving of a sign was a sign of infidelity, and unmannerly boldness, to confine God to particulars ; yet, perchance, God's Spirit prompted him to make the request, who sometimes moves men to ask what he is minded to give ; and his petition seemeth just, because granted. Rebekah meets him at the well. The lines, drawn from " That the nameless servant (Gen. xxiv.) was this Eliezer, Abraham's steward, is the opinion of Luther, in his Comment on that chapter; RIVET, on the same, Exercit. Ill ; with many others. 22 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK I. every part of the sign required, centre themselves in her. " Drink, my lord/' said she, "and I will draw water for thy camels." Her words prophesy, that she will be a good house- wife, and a good housekeeper. Eliezer's eyes are dazzled with the beams of God's providence. Her drawing of water drew more wonder from him ; and the more he drinks of her pitcher, the more he is athirst to know the issue of the matter. He questions her of her parentage, and finds all his mystical expec- tation historically expounded in her. Then he bowed down his head, and did homage to God's providence, blessing Him for his protection. Many favours which God giveth us ravel out for want of hemming, through our own unthankfulness : for though prayer purchaseth blessings, giving praise doth keep the quiet possession of them. Being come into the house, his first care is for his cattle, whose dumbness is oratory to a conscientious man ; and he that will not be merciful to his beast, is a beast himself. Then, preferring his message before his meat, he empties his mind before he fills his body. No dainties could be digested, whilst his errand, like a crudity; lay on his stomach. In delivering his message, first he reads his commission : " I am Abraham's servant." Then he reports the fulness of his master's wealth, without any hyperboles. How many, employed in such a matter, would have made mountains of gold of mole- hills of silver ! Not so Eliezer, reporting the bare truth j and a good estate, if told, commends itself. As plain also is his narra- tion of the passages of God's providence, the artificialness whereof best appeared in his natural relation. Then concludes he, with desiring a direct answer to his motion. The matter was soon transacted betwixt them ; for, seeing that heaven did ask the bans, why should earth forbid them? Only her friends desire Rebekah should stay ten days with them ; which Eliezer would not yield to. He would speedily finish that bargain whereof God had given the happy earnest ; and, because blessed hitherto, make more haste hereafter. If in a dark business we perceive God to guide us by the lantern of his providence, it is good to follow the light close, lest we lose it by our lagging behind. He will not truant it now in the afternoon ; but with convenient speed returns to Abraham, who only was worthy of such a servant, who only was worthy of such a master. CHAP. X. THE GOOD WIDOW. 23 CHAPTER X. THE GOOD WIDOW. SHE is a woman whose head hath been quite cut off; and yet she liveth, and hath the second part of virginity. Conceive her to have buried her husband decently according to his quality and condition, and let us see how she behaves herself after- wards. MAXIM I. Her grief for her husband, though real, is moderate. Excessive was the sorrow of king Richard II., beseeming him neither as a king, man, nor Christian, who so fervently loved Anna of Bohemia, his queen, that, when she died at Sheen in Surrey, he both cursed the place, and also out of madness overthrew the whole house.* ii. But our widow *s sorrow is no storm, but a still rain. Indeed, some foolishly discharge the surplusage of their passions on themselves, tearing their hair; so that their friends, coming to the funeral, know not which most to bemoan, the dead hus- band, or the dying widow. Yet commonly it comes to pass, that such widow s* grief is quickly emptied, which streameth out at so large a vent ; whilst their tears that but drop, will hold running a long time. in. She continues a competent time in her widow's estate. Anciently they were at least to live out their annum luctus, " their year of sorrow." But as some erroneously compute the long lives of the patriarchs before the flood, not by solary but lunary years, making a month a year;f so many over-hasty widows cut their year of mourning very short, and within few weeks make post-speed to a second marriage. IV. She doth not only live sole and single, but chaste and honest. We know pest-houses always stand alone, and yet are full of infectious diseases. Solitariness is not an infallible argument WEAVER, "Funeral Monuments," p. 473, out of STOW'S "Annals." t I'i'lc AUGUSTINUS De Civitate Dei, lib. xv. cap. 12. 24 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK I. of sanctity ; and it is not enough to be unmarried, but to be uudefiled. v. Though going abroad sometimes about her business, she never makes it tier business to go abroad. Indeed, " man goeth forth to his labour ;" and a widow in civil affairs is often forced to act a double part of man and woman, and must go abroad to solicit her business in person, what she cannot do by the proxy of her friends. Yet, even then, she is most careful of her credit, and tender of her modesty, not impudently thrusting into the society of men. O, it is improper for tinder to strike fire ; and for their sex who are to be sued to, first to intrude, and offer their company ! VI. S/ie loves to look on her husband's picture, in the children he hath left her. Not foolishly fond over them for their father's sake, (this were to kill them in honour of the dead !) but giveth them careful education. Her husband's friends are ever her welcomest guests ; whom she entertaineth with her best cheer, and with honourable mention of their friend's and her husband's memory. VII. If she can speak little good of him, she speaks but little of him. So handsomely folding up her discourse, that his virtues are shown outwards, and his vices wrapped up in silence ; as count- ing it barbarism to throw dirt on his memory who hath moulds cast on his body. She is a champion for his credit, if any speak against him. Foolish is their project, who, by raking up bad savour against their former husbands, think thereby to perfume their bed for a second marriage. VIII. She putteth her especial confidence in God's providence. Surely if He be " a Father to the fatherless," it must need fol- low that he is " an Husband to the widow ; " and therefore she seeks to gain and keep His love unto her, by her constant prayer and religious life. IX. She will not mortgage her [first] husband's pawns, thereby to purchase the good-will of a second. If she marrieth, (for which she hath the apostle's licence, not to say mandate, " I will that the younger widows marry,") she will not abridge her children of that which justly belongs unto them. Surely, a broken faith to CHAP, XI. THE LIFE OF THE LADY PAULA. 25 the former is but a weak foundation to build thereon a loyal affection to a later love. Yet if she becomes a mother-in-law, there is no difference between her carriage to her own and her second husband's children, save that she is severest to her own, over whom she hath the sole jurisdiction. And if her second husband's children, by a former wife, commit a fault, she had rather bind them over to answer for it before their own father, than to correct them herself, to avoid all suspicion of hard using of them. CHAPTER XI. THE LIFE OF THE LADY PAULA. "WHAT?" will some say, "having a wood of widows of upright conversation, must you needs gather one crooked with superstition to be pattern to all the rest ? Must Paula be their president [precedent] ? whose life was a very mass-book; so that if every point of Popery were lost, they might be found in her practice." Nothing less. Indeed, Paula lived in an age which was, as I may say, in the knuckle and bending betwixt the primitive times and superstition : Popery being then a-hatching, but far from being fledged. Yea, no Papist (though picking out here and there some passages which make to his purpose) will make her practice, in gross, the square of his own. For where she embraces some superstitions with her left hand, she thrusts away more with her right. I have, therefore, principally made choice to write her Life, that I may acquaint both myself and the reader with the garb of that age in church-matters, wherein were many remarkable passages ; otherwise I might and would have taken a far fitter example. I know, two trades together are too much for one man to thrive upon ; and too much for me it is to be an historian and a critic, to relate and to judge. Yet, since Paula, though a grar cious woman, was guilty of some great errors, give me leave, to hold a pencil in one hand, and a sponge in the other, both to draw her life, and dash it where it is faulty. And let us that live in purer times be thankful to God for our light, and use our 26 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK I. quicker sight to guide our feet in God's paths, lest we reel from one extremity to another. To come to the Lady Paula's birth : the noblest blood in the world by a confluence ran in her veins. I must confess, the most ancient nobility is junior to no-nobility, when all men were equal. Yet give others leave to see Moses's face to shine, when he knew it not himself; and seeing Paula was pleased not to know but to neglect and trample on her high birth, we are bound to take notice thereof. She was descended from Aga- memnon, Scipio, and the Gracchi ; * and her husband Toxotius, from jEneas, and the Julian family ; t so that in their marriage the wars of the Grecians and Trojans were reconciled. Some years they lived together, in the city of Rome, in holy and happy wedlock ; and to her husband she bare four daugh- ters, Blesilla, Paulina, Eustochium, and Ruffina. Yet still her husband longed for posterity, like those who are so covetous of a male heir, they count none children but sons; and at last God, who keeps the best for the close, bestowed Toxotius, a young son, upon her. But, commonly, after a great blessing comes a great cross : scarce was she made a mother to a son, when she was made a widow ; which to her was a great and grievous affliction. But as a rub to an overthrown bowl proves a help by hindering it, so afflictions bring the souls of God's saints to the mark, which otherwise would be gone, and transported with too much earthly happiness. However, Paula grieved little less than excessively hereat ; she being a woman that, in all her actions, (to be sure to do enough,) made always measure with advantage. Yet, in time, she overcame her sorrow, herein being assisted by the counsel and comfort of St. Jerome, whose constant fre- quenting of her, commented upon by his enemies' malice, (which will pry narrowly and talk broadly,) gave occasion to the report, that he accompanied with her for dishonest intents. Surely, if the accusations of slanderous tongues be proofs, the primitive times had no churches but stews. It is to be sus- pected, that Ruffin, his sworn enemy, raised the report ; J and if the lady Paula's memory wanted a compurgator, I would be one myself, it being improbable that those her eyes would burn with lust which were constantly drowned with tears. But the reader may find St. Jerome purging himself; and he who had HIEROKYMI Epist. ad Eustoch., p. 185. f IDEM in e&dem Epist., p. 172. ERASMUS in Scholia in cpitaphium Paula, p. 193. In Epistola quae incipit, Si tibi*putem," torn. ii. fol. 368. CHAP. XI. THE LIFE OF THE LADY PAULA. 27 his tongue and an innocent heart, needed nobody else to speak for him. It happened that the bishops of the East and West were sum- moned, by the emperor's letters, to appear at Rome, for the according of some differences in the church : * it seems by this, that the Pope did not so command in chief at Rome, but that the power of congregating synods still resided in the emperor. 1 1 it her came Paulinus, bishop of Antioch; and Epiphanius, bishop of Salamine in Cyprus, who lodged at the lady Paula's ; and his virtues so wrought upon her, that she determined to leave her native country, and to travel into the East, and in Judea to spend the remainder of her life. The reasons that moved her to remove were, because Rome was a place of riot and luxury, her soul being almost stifled with the frequencies of ladies' visits ; and she feared courtesy in her would justle out piety, she being fain to crowd up her devotions to make room for civil entertainments. Besides, of her own nature she ever loved privacy and a sequestered life, being of the pelicans' nature, which use not to fly in flocks. Lastly: she conceived that the sight of those holy places would be the best comment on the history of the Bible, and fasten the passages thereof in her mind. Wherefore, she intended to survey all Palestine, and at last to go to Bethlehem, making Christ's inn her home, and to die there where he was born; leaving three of her daughters, and her poor infant Toxotius, behind her. For mine own part, I think she had done as acceptable a deed to God, in staying behind to rock her child in the cradle, as to visit Christ's manger, seeing grace doth not cut off the affections of nature, but ripen them; the rather, because Christianity is not nailed to Christ's cross and Mount Calvary, nor piety fastened (as we may say) to the freehold of the land of Palestine. But if any Papist make her a pattern for pilgrimages, let them remember that she went from Rome : and was it not an unna- tural motion in her to move from that centre of sanctity ? She, with her daughter Eustochium, began her journey ; and, taking Cyprus in her way, where she visited Epiphanius, she came at last to Judea. She measured that country with her travelling, and drew the truest map thereof with her own feet, so accurately that she left out no particular place of importance. At last she was fixed at Bethlehem, where she built one monas- tery for men, and three for women. . It will be worth our pains HIEROXYMI Epist. Prcedict., p. 172. 28 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK I. to take notice of some principal of the orders she made in those feminine academies ; because Paula's practice herein was a lead- ing case, though those that came after her went beyond her. For, in the rules of monastical life, Paula stood at the head game; and the Papists in after-ages, desirous to better her hand, drew themselves quite out. Each monastery had a chief matron, whilst Paula was prin- cipal over all. These societies were severed at their meat and work, but met together at their prayers : they were carefully kept apart from men ; not like those epicene monasteries, not long since invented by Joan queen of Sweden, wherein men and women lived under one roof, not to speak of worse liber- tines. Well were nuns called " recluses ; " which, according to the true meaning of the word, signify ' ' those who are set wide open, or left at liberty ; " though that barbarous age mistook the sense of the word for " such as were shut up," and might not stir out of their cloister.* They used to sing " Hallelujah," which served them both for a psalm, and a bell to call them all together. In the morning, at nine o'clock, at noon, at three o'clock in the afternoon, and at night, they had prayers, and sang the Psalms in order.f This, I believe, gave original to " canonical hours." The apos- tle's precept is the plain song, " Pray continually ; " and thus men's inventions ran their descants upon it, and confined it to certain hours: a practice in itself not so bad for those who have leisure to observe it, save that when devotion is thus artificially plaited into hours, it may take up men's minds in formalities to neglect the substance. They rose also at midnight to sing Psalms : a custom begun before in the time of persecution, when the Christians were forced to be antipodes to other men ; so that when it was night with others, it was day with them, and they then began their devotions. These night-prayers, begun in necessity, were conti- nued, in Paula's time, in grateful remembrance, and since corrupted with superstition : the best is, their rising at midnight breaks none of our sleep. These \irgins did every day learn some part of the holy Scrip- tures ; whereas those nuns who pretend to succeed them learn only with post-horses to run over the stage of their beads, (so many Ave Marias, and Paternosters,) and are ignorant in * LITTLETON, fol. 92. f ManS, hora tertia, sextfi, nona, vesperi. HIERONYMUS, in Prcsfat. JSpist., p. 180. Surely, living in Palestine, he meaneth the Jewish computation of hours. CHAP. XI. THE LIFE OP THE LADY PAULA. 29 all the Scripture besides. Such as were faulty she caused to take their meat apart from others, at the entrance of the dining- room; with which mild severity she reclaimed many : shame in iiuous natures making a deeper impression than pain. Mean time, I find amongst them no vow of virginity, no tyran- nical penance, no whipping themselves; as if, not content to inter their sins in Christ's grave, they had rather bury them in furrows digged in their own backs. They wrought hard to get their living ; and on the Lord's day alone went out of their monastery, to hear God's word. ^ ( t \\a> >lu- more rigid and severe towards herself than to any of them; macerating her body with fasting, and refusing to drink any wine, when advised thereto by physicians for her health. So that as a holy man complained of himself, whilst he \\ent about to subdue an enemy, he killed a subject*) she overturned the state of her body, and, wliilst she thought to snuff the candle, put it quite out. Yea, St. Jerome himself, what his rl><|uence linvin doth commend in her, his charity doth excuse, and his judgment doth eondemii.t But we must charitably believe, that these her fastings proceeded out of true humiliation and sorrow for her sins; otherwise, where opinion of merit is annexed to them, they are good only to fill the body \\ith \\ind, and the soul with pride. Certainly, prodigious Popish self-penance is will-worship, and the purest Epicurism, \\herein pain is pleasant: for as long as people impose it on themselves, they do not deny their own will, but fulfil it; and whilst they beat down the body, they may puff up the flesh. Nor can her immoderate bounty be excused, who gave all and more than all away ; taking up money at interest to give to the poor, and leaving Eustochium her daughter deep in debt, a great charge, and nothing to maintain it. Sure, none need be more bountiful in giving than the sun is in shining; which, though freely bestowing his beams on the world, keeps, notwith- standing, the body of light to himself. Yea, it is necessary that liberality should as well have banks as a stream. She was an excellent text-woman; yea, could say the holy Scriptures by heart, and attained to understand and speak the Hebrew tongue; a language which Jerome himself got with great difficulty, and kept with constant use. Skill in Hebrew will quickly go out, and burn no longer than it is blown ; yet she, in her old age, did quickly learn it. She diligently heard BERNARD, De Votis. -f- Haec refero, non quod inconsideranter et ultra vires sumta oner a probem, $c. p. 181. 30 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK I. Jerome expounding the Old and New Testament, asking him many doubts and queries in difficult places, (such constant scouring makes our knowledge brighter !) and would not suffer his judgment to stand neuter in hard points, but made him express the probable opinion. Most naturally fly from death; God's saints stand still till death comes to them ; Paula went out to meet it, not to say, called death unto her, by consuming herself in fasting. She died in the fifty-sixth year of her age, and was solemnly buried in Bethlehem. People of all' countries flocked to her funeral. Bishops carried her corpse to the grave : others carried torches and lamps before it ; which, though some may condemn to be but burning of day, was no more than needed, she being buried in a grave or grot, as an eye-witness doth testify.* Psalms were sung at her burial, in the Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and Syriac tongue ; it being fit there should be a key for every lock, and languages to be understood by all the miscellany company there present. Eustochium her daughter had little comfort to be executrix or administratrix unto her, leaving her not a penny of money, great debts, and many brothers and sisters to provide for ; quos sustentare arduum, abjicere impium.-f I like not this charity reversed, when it begins far off, and neglects those at home. To conclude: I can do her memory no better right, than to confess she was wrong in some things. Yet, surely, God's glory was the mark she shot at, though herein the hand of her practice did sometimes shake, and oftener the eye of her judg- ment did take wrong aim. GEORGE SAND YS'S Travels," p. 179. f " To procure due suste- nance for them, was no easy task ; and if she had abandoned them, it would have been an act of impiety." EDIT. CHAP. XII. THE CONSTANT VIRGIN. 31 CHAPTER XII. THE CONSTANT VIRGIN. THE constant virgin is one who hath made a resolution with herself to live chaste, and unmarried. Now there is a grand difference betwixt a resolution and a vow. The former is a covenant drawn up betwixt the party and herself; and com- monly runs with this clause, durante nostro beneplacito, " as long as we shall tliink fitting ; " and therefore, on just occasion, she may give a release to herself. But in a vow God is interested as the creditor ; so that except He be pleased to give up the bond, none can give an acquittance to themselves. Being now to describe the virgin, let the reader know that virginity belongs to both sexes ; and though, in courtesy, we make our maid a female, let not my pen be challenged of impropriety, if casually sometimes it light on the masculine gender. MAXIM I. She chooseth not a single life solely for itself, but in reference to the better serving of God. I know none but beggars that desire the church-porch to lie in, which others only use as a passage into the church. Virginity is none of those things to be desired in and for itself, but because it leads a more con- venient way to the worshipping of God, especially in time of persecution. For, then, if Christians be forced to run races for their lives, the unmarried have the advantage, lighter by many ounces, and freed from much incumbrance, which the married are subject to; who, though private persons, herein are like princes, they must have their 'train follow them. ii. She improveth her single life, therewith to serve God the more constantly. Housekeepers cannot so exactly mark all their family affairs, but that sometimes their ranks will be broken; which disorder, by necessary consequence, will disturb their duties of piety, to make them contracted, omitted, or unseason- ably performed. The apostle saith, " Such shall have troubles in the flesh;" and grant them sanctified troubles, yet even holy- thistle and sweetbrier have their prickles, But the virgin is 32 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK I. freed from these incumbrances. No lording husband shall at the same time command her presence and distance, to be always near in constant attendance, and always to stand aloof off in an awful observance; so that providing his breakfast hazards her soul to fast a meal of morning prayer. No crying children shall drown her singing of Psalms, and put her devo- tion out of tune. No unfaithful servants shall force her to divide her eyes betwixt lifting them up to God, and casting them down to oversee their work. But, making her closet her chapel, she freely enjoyeth God and good thoughts at what time she pleaseth. in. Yet in all her discourse she maketh an honourable mention of marriage. And good reason that virginity should pay a chief rent of honour unto it, as acknowledging herself to be a colonia deducta from it. Unworthy is the practice of those who in their discourse plant all their arguments point-blank to batter down the married estate, bitterly inveighing against it ; yea, base is I the behaviour of some young men, who can speak nothing but^ satires against God's ordinance of matrimony, and the whole 1 sex of women. This they do, either out of deep dissimulation, to divert suspicion, that they may prey the farthest from their holes : or else they do it out of revenge ; having themselves formerly lighted on bad women, (yet no worse than they deserved,) they curse all adventures, because of their own ship- wreck : or, lastly, they do it out of mere spite to nature and God himself: and pity it is but that their fathers had been of the same opinion ! Yet it may be tolerable, if only in harmless mirth they chance to bestow a jest upon the follies of married people. Thus when a gentlewoman told an ancient bachelor who looked very young, that she thought he had eaten a snake ; "No, mistress," saith he, "it is because I never meddled with any snakes ; which maketh me look so young." IV. She counts herself better lost in a modest silence, than found in a bold discourse. Divinity permits not women to speak in the church ; morality forbids maids to talk in the house, where their betters are present. She is far from the humours of those who (more bridling-in their chins than their tongues) love, in their constant prating, to make sweet music to their own ears, and harsh jarring to all the rest of the company. Yea, as some report of sheep, that when they run they are afraid of the noise of their CHAP. XII. THE CONSTANT VIRGIN. 33 own feet ; so our virgin is afraid to hear her own tongue run in the presence of graver persons. She conceives, the bold maintain- ing of any argument concludes against her own civil behaviour ; and yet she will give a good account of any thing whereof she is questioned, sufficient to show her silence is her choice, not her refuge. In speaking, she studiously avoids all suspicious expres- sions, which wanton apprehensions may colourably comment into obscenity. v. She blusheth at the wanton discourse of others in her company. As fearing, that, being in the presence where treason against modesty is spoken, all in the place will be arraigned for prin- cipal. Yea, if silent, she is afraid to be taken to consent; if offering to confute it, she fears lest, by stirring a dunghill, the savour may be more noisome. Wherefore, that she may not suffer in her title to modesty, to preserve her right, she enters a silent caveat by a blush in her cheeks, and embraceth the next opportunity to get a gaol-delivery out of that company where pshe was detained in durance. Now, because we have mentioned I blushing, which is so frequent with virgins that it is called " a \ maiden's blush/' (as if they alone had a patent to die this colour !) give us leave a little to enlarge ourselves on this subject. 1. Blushing oftentimes proceeds from guiltiness. When the offender, being pursued after, seeks as it were to hide himself under the vizard of a new face. 2. Blushing is other -times rather a compur gator than an accuser. Not arising from guiltiness in our virgin, but from one of these reasons : First, because she is surprised with a sudden accusation; and though armed with innocency that she cannot be pierced, yet may she be amazed with so unexpected a charge. Secondly, from sensibleness of disgrace, ashamed, though inno- cent, to be within the suspicion of such faults, and that she had carried herself so that any tongue durst be so impudent as to lay it to her charge. Thirdly, from a disability to acquit her- self at the instant ; her integrity wanting rather clearing than clearness; and, perchance, she wants boldness to traverse the action; and so, non-suiting herself, she fears her cause will suffer in the judgments of all that be present : and although accused but in jest, she is jealous the accusation will be believed in earnest ; and edged tools, thrown in merriment, may wound reputations. Fourthly, out of mere anger: for as in fear the blood makes not an orderly retreat, but a confused flight, to the 31 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK I. heart; so, in blushing, the blood sallies out into our virgin's cheeks, and seems as a champion to challenge the accuser for wronging her. 3. Where small faults are committed, blushing obtains a pardon of course with ingenuous beholders. As if she be guilty of casual incivilities, or solecisms in manners occasioned by invincible ignorance, and unavoidable mistakes, in such a case, blushing is a sufficient penance to restore her to her state of innocency. VI. She imprisons not herself with a solemn vow never to marry. For, first, none know their own strength herein. Who hath sailed about the world of his own heart, sounded each creek, surveyed each corner, but that still there remains therein much terra incognita to himself? Junius, at the first little better than a misogynist, was afterwards so altered from himself, that he successively married four wives.* Secondly, fleshly corruption, being pent, will swell the more ; and Shimei, being confined to Jerusalem, will have the greater mind to gad to Gath. Thirdly, the devil will have a fairer set mark to shoot at, and will be most busy to make people break their vow. Fourthly, God may justly desert people for snatching that to themselves which is most proper for him to give ; I mean, continency. Object not, that thou wilt pray to him to take from thee all desire of mar- riage; it being madness to vow that one will not eat, and then pray to God that he may not be hungry. Neither say, that now thou mayest presume on thyself, because thou art well stricken in years ; for there may happen an autumn-spring in thy soul : and lust is an unmannerly guest ; we know not how late in the evening of our lives it may intrude into us for a lodging. VII. She counts it virginity to be unspotted, not unmarried. Or else, even in old age, when nature hath given an inhibition, they may be strong in desiring who are weak in acting of wick- edness ; yea, they may keep stews in their hearts, and be so pregnant and ingravidated with lustful thoughts, that they may, as it were, die in travail because they cannot be delivered. And though there be no fire seen outwardly, as in the English chimneys, it may be hotter within, as in the Dutch stoves ; and as well the devils, as the angels in heaven, " neither marry nor are given in marriage." JUNIUS, in his Life " writ by himself. CHAP. XIII. THE LIFE OF HILDEGARDIS. 35 VIII. As she lives with less care, so she dies with more cheerfulness. Indeed, she was rather a sojourner, than an inhabitant, in this world ; and therefore forsakes it with the less grief. In a word, the way to heaven is alike narrow to all estates ; but far smoother to the virgin than to the married. -Now, the great advantage virgins have to serve God above others, and the high favours He hath bestowed on some of them, shall appear in this virgin prophetess, whose Life we come to present. CHAPTER XIII. THE LIFE OF HILDEGARDIS. HILDEGARDIS was born in Germany, in the county of Span- heim, in the year 1098. So that she lived in an age which we may call the first cock-crowing after the midnight of ignorance and superstition. Her parents, Hidebert and Mechtilda, dedicated her to God from her infancy: and, surely, those whose childhood, with Hildegardis, hath had the advantage of pious education, may be said to have been good "time out of mind," as not able to remember the beginning of their own goodness. At eight years of age she became a nun, under St. Jutta, sister to Megenhard, earl of Spanheim, and afterwards she was made abbess of St. Rupert's nunnery, in Bingen-on-Rhine in the Palatinate. Men commonly do beat and bruise their links before they light them, to make them burn the brighter : God first humbles and afflicts whom he intends to illuminate with more than ordi- nary grace. Poor Hildegardis was constantly and continually sick, and so weak that she very seldom was strong enough to go.* But God, who denied her legs, gave her wings, and raised her high-mounted soul in visions and revelations. I know, a general scandal is cast on revelations in this igno- rant age : first, because many therein entitled the meteors of their own brain to be stars at least, and afterwards their revela- Fuerunt ei ab ipsa pens, infantia crebri ac fere continui languorum dolores, ltd, ut pedum incessu perraro uteretur THEOD. ABBAS in Vita Hildegardis, lib. i. cap. 2. D 2 36 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK I. tions have been revealed to be forgeries : secondly, because that night-raven did change his black feathers into the silver wings of a dove, and, transforming himself into an angel of light, deluded many with strange raptures and visions, though in their nature far different from those in the Bible. For St. Paul, in his revelations, was " caught up into the third heaven ; " whereas most monks, with a contrary motion, were carried into hell and purgatory, and there saw apparitions of strange tor- ments. Also St. John's " Revelation " forbids all additions to the Bible, under heavy penalties; their visions are commonly on purpose to piece out the Scripture, and to establish such superstitions as have no footing in God's word. However, all held Hildegardis for a prophet, being induced thereunto by the piety of her life, (no breck * was ever found in her veil, so spotless was her conversation !) by the sanctity of her writings, and by the general approbation the church gave unto her. For, Pope Eugenius III., after exact examination of the matter, did in the Council of Treves (wherein St. Bernard was present) allow and privilege her revelations for authentical. She was of the Pope's conclave, and emperor's council, to whom they had recourse in difficulties : yea, the greatest torches of the church lighted themselves at her candle. The patriarch of Jerusalem, the bishops of Mentz, Cologne, Bremen, Treves, sent such knots, as posed their own fingers, to our Hildegardis to untie. She never learned word of Latin, and yet therein would she fluently express her revelations to those notaries that took them from her mouth ; f so that, throwing words at random, she never brake Priscian's head : as if the Latin had learned to make itself true without the speaker's care. And, no doubt, He that brought the single parties to her, married them also in her mouth ; so that the same Spirit which furnished her with Latin words, made also the true syntaxis. Let none object, that her very writing of fifty-eight Homilies on the Gospel is false con- struction, where the feminine gender assumes an employment proper to men ; for, though St. Paul silenceth women for speak- ing in the church, I know no Scripture [which] forbids them for writing on Scripture. Such infused skill she had also of music, whereof she was naturally ignorant, and wrote a whole book of verses, very good according to those times. Indeed, in that age the trumpet of * " Breck or Brack, a gap in a hedge." PHILLIPS AND KERSEY'S "New- World of Words." EDIT. f TRITHEMIUS De Scriptor. Eccles., fol. 92. CHAP. XIII. THE LIFE OF HILDEGARDIS. 37 the warlike heroic, and the sweet harp of the lyric verse, were all turned into the jingling of cymbals, tinkling with rhymes and like-sounding cadences. But let us hear a few lines of her prophecies, and thence guess the rest : " In those days there shall rise up a people without understanding, proud, covetous, and deceitful ; the which shall eat the sins of the people ; holding a certain order of foolish devotion under the feigned cloak of beggary. Also they shall instantly preach without devotion or example of the holy martyrs, and shall detract from the secular princes, taking away the sacraments of the church from the true pastors, receiv- ing alms of the poor, having familiarity with women, instructing them how they shall deceive their husbands, and rob their hus- bands to give it unto them." * &c. What could be said more plain to draw out to the life those Mendicant Friars, (rogues by God's statutes,) who afterwards swarmed in the world ? Hear also how she foretold the low water of Tiber, whilst as yet it was full tide there : " The kings and other rulers of the world, being stirred up by the just judgment of God, shall set themselves against them, and run upon them, saying, We will not have these men to reign over its with their rich houses, and great possessions, and other worldly riches, over the which we are ordained to be lords and rulers ; and how is it meet or comely, that those shavelings, with their stoles and chesils,-^ should have more soldiers or richer armour and artillery than we? Wherefore let us take away from them what they do not justly but wrongfully possess." It is well the Index Exjmrgatorius was not up in those days, nor the Inquisition on foot ; otherwise, dame Hildegardis must have been called to an after-account. I will only ask a Romanist tliis question : This prophecy of Hildegardis, was it from heaven or from men ? If from heaven, why did ye not believe it ? If from men, why did the Pope allow it, and canonize her ? As for miracles, which she wrought in her life-time, their number is as admirable as their nature. I must confess, at my first reading of them, J my belief digested some, but surfeited on See much more to this purpose in Catalog. Testium Veritatis in Hildegarde : also in Fox's " Acts and Monuments," p. 461. t Chesil is an abbreviation of Chesible, the form in which the word is found in our old writers. Holyoake quotes the following passage from Baldus, in explanation of the term : Vestis reli- gioswum, vulgo planeta presbyteri, quia, instar parvee casx, totum hominem tegit : " One of the vestments of the religious, commonly called the planet of a priest ; because, being in size almost equal to a small cottage, it completely covers the whole of hi* person." EDIT. In LIPTOMAN, in Vitis Sanct., torn. v. fol. 91. et seq. 38 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK I. the rest : for she made no more to cast out a devil, than a barber to draw a tooth, and with less pain to the patient. I never heard of a great feast made all of cordials : and it seems improbable, that miracles (which in Scripture are used sparingly, and chiefly for conversion of unbelievers) should be heaped so many together, made every-day's work, and by her commonly, 'constantly, and ordinarily wrought. And, I pray, why is the Popish church so barren of true works, now-a-days, here wrought at home amongst us ? For, as for those reported to be done far off, it were ill for some if the gold from the Indies would abide the touch no better than the miracles. However, Hildegardis was a gracious virgin, and God might perform some great wonders by her hand; but these picefraudes with their painting have spoiled the natural complexion of many a good face, and have made truth itself suspected. She died in the eighty-second year of her age, was afterwards sainted by the Pope, and the seventeenth day of September assigned to her memory. I cannot forget how Udalric, abbot of Kempten, in Germany, made a most courteous law for the weaker sex: "That no woman, guilty of what crime soever, should ever be put to death in his dominions ; " because two women, condemned to die, were miraculously delivered out of the prison, by praying to St. Hildegardis.* BRUSCHIUS, De Monasteriis ; et CENTURIATORES, Centur. xi. col. 350. CHAP. XIV. THE ELDER BROTHER. 39 CHAPTER XIV. THE ELDER BROTHER. THE elder brother is one who made haste to come into the world, to bring his parents the first news of male-posterity ; and is well rewarded for his tidings. His composition is then accounted most precious when made of the loss of a double virginity. MAXIM I. He is thankful for the advantage God gave him at the starting in the race into this world. When twins have been even matched, one hath gained the goal but by his length. St. Augustine saith, that " it is every man's bounden duty solemnly to celebrate his birth-day." * If so, elder brothers may best afford good cheer on the festival. ii. He counts not his inheritance a writ of ease to free him from industry. As if only the younger brothers came into the world to work, the elder to compliment : these are the tops of their houses, indeed; like cotlofts,t highest and emptiest. Rather, he laboureth to furnish himself with all genteel accomplishment, being best able to go to the cost of learning. He need not fear to be served as Ulric Fuggar was, (chief of the noble family of the Fuggars in Augsburgh,) who was disinherited of a great patrimony, only for his studiousness, and expensiveness in buying of costly manuscripts. J QiUBStionibus ex utroque mixtim, torn. xl. col. 8, 4. Thus the reference stands in all the editions of " the Holy State," original and modern, which I have examined. But as I knew that scarcely any impression of St. Augustine's Works extends beyond ten tomes or volumes, I was desirous to verify the quotation, and to give a correct reference. After a long search, I have discovered the passage in Quaestiones ex utroque mixtim, quzest. 127 which, in my edition, (Colon. Agripp. 1G1G,) forms part of the Appendix to tome iv. p. 58. The following is the con- nexion in which it is found : Nam si ENCAENIA celebrabantur Hierosolymis, id est y dedicationis templi Dei agebatur festivitas ; quanto magis ipsius hominis celebran- dus natnlis est, qui magis templum Dei est, cujus etiam, ad agendum Deo gratias, manibus templum est fabricatum. Itaque qui Deo instituente natum se novit, ut ei gratias agat, cognitum habens mysterium ejus, debet in natali suo gaudere, videns profectum esse nativitatis suae EDIT. -f According to modern usage, com- monly written " cocklofts." EDIT. $ THUANUS, De Obit. Vir. Doct. in anno 1584. 40 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK I. III. He doth not so remember he is an heir, that he forgets he is a son.Wherefore, his carriage to his parents is always respectful. It may chance that his father may be kept in a charitable pri- son, whereof his son hath the keys; the old man being only tenant for life, and the lands entailed on our young gentle- man. In such a case, when it is in his power, if necessity requires, he enlargeth his father to such a reasonable proportion of liberty as may not be injurious to himself. IV. He rather desires his father's life than his living. This was one of the principal reasons (but God knows how true ! ) why Philip II., king of Spain, caused, in the year 1568, Charles, his eldest son, to be executed, for plotting his father's death, as was pretended. And a wit in such difficult toys,* accommodated the numeral letters in Ovid's verse to the year wherein the prince suffered. 1568. FILIVs ante DIeM patrlos InqVIrlt In annos. 1568. " Before the tIMe, the oVer-hasty son Seeks forth hoVV near the father's Life Is Done." But if they had no better evidence against him but this poetical synchronism, we might well count him a martyr. v. His father's deeds and grants he ratifies and confirms. If a stitch be fallen in a lease, he will not widen it into a hole by cavilling, till the whole strength of the grant run out thereat ; or take advantage of the default of the clerk in the writing, where the deed appears really done, and on a valuable consideration : he counts himself bound in honour to perform what, by marks and signs, he plainly understands his father meant, though he spake it not out. VI. He reflecteth his lustre, to grace and credit his younger breth- ren. Thus Scipio Africanus, after his great victories against the Carthaginians, and conquering of Hannibal, was content to serve as a lieutenant in the wars of Asia, under Lucius Scipio, his younger brother, f OPMERUS was the author thereof. FAMIANUS STRADA, De Bella Belgico, lib. vii. p. 432. f PLUTARCH, in the Life of Scipio." CHAP. XIV. THE ELDER BROTHER. 41 VII. He relieveth his distressed kindred, yet so as he continues them in their calling. Otherwise, they would all make his house their hospital, his kindred their calling, When one, being a hus- bandman, challenged kindred of Robert Grosthead, bishop of Lincoln, and thereupon requested favour of him to bestow an office on him; "Cousin," quoth the bishop, "if your cart be broken, I will mend it ; if your plough [be] old, I will give you a new one, and seed to sow your land. But a husbandman I found you, and a husbandman I will leave you." It is better to ease poor kindred in their profession than to ease them from their profession. VIII. He is careful to support the credit and dignity of his family. Neither wasting his paternal estate by his unthriftiness, nor marring it by parcelling his ancient manors and demesnes amongst his younger children, whom he provides for by annu- ities, pensions, moneys, leases, and purchased lands. He remembers how, when our king Alfred divided the river of Lea (which parts Hertfordshire and Essex) into three streams, it became so shallow that boats could not row, where formerly ships did ride. Thus the ancient family of the Woodfords (which had long continued in Leicestershire, and elsewhere in England, in great account, estate, and livelihood) is at this day quite extinct. For when Sir Thomas Woodford, in the reign of king Henry VI., made almost an even partition of his means betwixt his five grandchildren, the house in short space utterly decayed ; not any part of his lands now in the tenure or name of any of his male line, some whereof lived to be brought to a low ebb of fortune.* Yet, on the other side, to leave all to the eldest, and make no provision for the rest of their children, is against all rules of religion, forgetting their Christian-name to remember their sir-name. BUETON, in his " Description of Leicestershire," p. 264. 42 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK I. CHAPTER XV. THE YOUNGER BROTHER. SOME account him the better gentleman of the two, because son to the more ancient gentleman ; wherein his elder brother can give him the hearing, and a smile into the bargain. He shares equally with his elder brother in the education, but differs from him in his portion; and though he giveth also his father's arms, yet, to use the herald's language, he may say, *' This to my elder brother I must yield ; I have the CHARGE, but he hath all the FIELD." Like, herein, to a young nephew of Tarquin's, in Rome, who was called Egereus, from " wanting of maintenance," because his grandfather left hi nothing.* It was, therefore, a man- nerly answer which a young gentleman gave to king James, when he asked him what kin he was to such a lord of his name : ''Please your majesty," said he, "my elder brother is his cousin-german." MAXIM I. He repines not at the providence of God in ordering his birth. Heirs are made, even where matches are, both in heaven. Even in twins, God will have one next the door to come first into the world. ii. He labours, by his endeavours, to date himself an elder brother. Nature makes but one, industry doth make all the sons of the same man heirs. The fourth brother gives a martilet f for the difference of his arms ; a bird observed to build either in castles, steeples, or ships ; showing that the bearer hereof, being debar- red from all hopes of his father's inheritance, must seek, by war, learning, or merchandise, to advance his estate. J LIVIUS, lib. i. f Martlet, a swift little martin, a bird. In Heraldry, a pigeon, with its feet erased or torn off; it is also the mark of distinction in an escutcheon, for a fourth brother or family." PHILLIPS AND KERSEY. In the text Fuller evidently alludes to the martinet, a bird of the swallow tribe, and not to a jngeon EDIT. + GERARD LEIGH, in his Nine Differences of Brothers* Arms." CHAP. XV. THE YOUNGER BROTHER. 43 III. In war he cuts out his fortunes with his own sword. William the Conqueror, when he first landed his forces in England, burnt all his ships, that despair to return might make his men the more valiant. Younger brothers, being cut oft 7 at home from all hopes, are more zealous to purchase an honourable sup- port abroad. Their small arteries, with great spirits, have wrought miracles; and their resolution hath driven success before it. Many of them have adventured to cheapen dear enterprises, and were only able to pay the earnest ; yet fortune hath accepted them for chapmen, and hath freely forgiven them the rest of the payment for their boldness. IV. Nor are they less happy, if applying themselves to their book. Nature generally giving them good wits ; which, because they want room to burnish, may the better afford to soar high. v. But he gaineth more wealth, if betaking himself to merchandise. Whence often he riseth to the greatest annual honour in the kingdom. Many families in England, though not first raised from the city, yet thence have been so restored and enriched, that it may seem to amount to an original raising. Neither doth an apprenticeship extinguish native nor disenable to acquisitive gentry ; and they are much mistaken who hold it to be in the nature of bondage. For, first, his indenture is a civil contract, whereof a bondman is incapable. Secondly, no work can be base [which is] prescribed in reference to a noble end ; as theirs is, that learn an honest mystery to enable them for the service of God and the country. Thirdly, they give round sums of money to be bound. Now, if apprenticeship be a servitude, it is either a pleasing bondage, or strange madness, to purchase it at so dear a rate. Gentry therefore may be sus- pended perchance, and asleep during the apprenticeship ; but it awakens afterwards. VI. Sometimes he raiseth his estate by applying himself to the court. A pasture wherein elder brothers are observed to grow lean, and younger brothers fat. The reasons whereof may be these : 1. Younger brothers, being but slender in estate, are easier bowed to a court-compliance than elder brothers, who stand 44 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK I. more stiff on their means, and think scorn to crave what may be a prince's pleasure to grant, and their profit to receive. 2. They make the court their calling, and study the mystery thereof; whilst elder brothers, divided betwixt the court and the country, can have their endeavours deep in neither, which run in a double channel. 3. Elder brothers spend highly in proportion to their estates, expecting afterwards a return with increase; which, notwith- standing, never pays the principal : and whilst they thus build so stately a staircase to their preferment, the younger brothers get up by the back-stairs in a private, silent way ; little expense being expected from them that have little. VII. Sometimes he lighteth on a wealthy match to advance him. If meeting with one that is pilot of her own affections, to steer them without guidance of her friends, and such as disdaineth her marriage should be contracted in an exchange, where join- ture must weigh every grain even to the portion. Rather, she counts it an act both of love and charity to affect one rich in deserts, who commonly hath the advantage of birth, as she hath of means; and so it is made level betwixt them. And thus many a young gentleman hath gotten honourable maintenance by an heiress, especially when the crying of the child hath caused the laughing of the father. VIII. His means, the more hardly gotten, are the more carefully kept. Heat, gotten by degrees, with motion and exercise, is more natural, and stays longer by one, than what is gotten all at once by coming to the fire. Goods acquired by industry, prove com- monly more lasting than lands by descent. IX. He ever owneth his elder brother with dutiful respect. Yea, though God should so bless his endeavours as to go beyond him in wealth and honour. The pride of Jesuits is generally taxed, who, being the youngest of all other Orders, and therefore by canon to go last, will never go in procession with other Orders, because they will not come behind them.* c Preface to The Jesuits' Catechism." CHAP. XV. THE YOUNGER BROTHER. 45 X. Sometimes the paternal inheritance falls to them who never hoped to rise to it. Thus John, surnamed Sans-terre, or, " Without-land," having five elder brothers, came to the king- dom of England ; death levelling those who stood betwixt him and his crown. It is observed of the Coringtons, an ancient family in Cornwall, that, for eight lineal descents, never any one that was born heir had the land, but it ever fell to younger brothers.* To conclude : there is a hill in Voitland, f (a small country in Germany,) called Feitchtelberg, out of which arise four rivers, running four several ways; namely, 1. Eger, east; 2. Msenus, west; 3. Sala, north; and, 4. Nabus, south: so that he that sees their fountains so near together, would admire at their falls so far asunder. Thus, the younger sons, issuing out of the same mother's womb and father's loins, and afterwards embracing dif- ferent courses, to try their fortunes abroad in the world, chance often to die far off, at great distance, who were all born in the same place. CAHEW'S Survey of Cornwall," foL 117- t " I rather think > that this name was given it by the Sclaves ; who, finding it deserted, or but thinly peopled, at their coming thither, might call it by the name of VOID-LAND ; from which the alteration unto Voitland is both plain and obvious." HEYHN. THE HOLY STATE. BOOK II. CONTAINING ESSAYS AND CHARACTERS. THE HOLY STATE. THE SECOND BOOK. CHAPTER I. THE GOOD ADVOCATE.* HE is one that will not plead that cause wherein his tongue must be confuted by his conscience. It is the praise of the Spanish soldier, that whilst all other nations are mercenary, and for money will serve on any side he will never fight against his own king ; nor will our advocate, against the sovereign truth plainly appearing to his conscience. MAXIM I. He not only hears, but examines, his client ; and pincheth the cause, where he fears it is foundered. For many clients, in tell- ing their case, rather plead than relate it ; so that the advocate lu'ars not the true state of it, till opened by the adverse party. Surely, the lawyer that fills himself with instructions, will travel longest in the cause without tiring. Others, that are so quick in searcliing, seldom search to the quick ; and those miraculous apprehensions who understand more than all, before the client hath told half, run without their errand, and will return without their answer. ii. If the matter be doubtful, he will only warrant his own dili- gence. Yet some keep an assurance-office in their chamber, and will warrant any cause brought unto them ; as knowing that, if they fail, they lose nothing but what long since was lost their credit. We take it promiscuously for civil or common lawyer. E 50 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK II. III. He makes not a Trojan siege of a suit, but seeks to bring it to a set battle in a speedy trial. Yet sometimes suits are continued by their difficulty, the potency and stomach of the parties, without any default in the lawyer. Thus have there depended suits in Gloucestershire, betwixt the heirs of the lord Berkeley, and sir Thomas Talbot, viscount Lisle, ever since the reign of king Edward IV., until now lately they were finally com- pounded.* IV. He is faithful to that side that first retains him\ Not like Demosthenes, who secretly wrote one oration for Phormio, and another in the same matter for Apollodorus his adversary.t v. In pleading, he shoots fairly at the head of the cause; and, having fastened, no frowns nor favours shall make him let go his hold. Not snatching aside here and there to no purpose, speak- ing little in much, as it was said of Anaximenes, that " he had a flood of words, and a drop of reason." His boldness riseth or falleth, as he apprehends the goodness or badness of his cause. VI. He joys not to be retained in such a suit where all the right in question is but a drop, blown up with malice to be a bubble. Wherefore, in such trivial matters, he persuades his client to sound a retreat, and make a composition. VII. When his name is up, his industry -is not down; thinking to plead, not by his study, but his credit. Commonly, physicians, like beer, are best when they are old ; and lawyers, like bread, when they are young and new. But our advocate grows not lazy. And if a leading case be out of the road of his practice, he will take pains to trace it through his books, and prick the footsteps thereof wheresoever he finds it. VIII. He is more careful to deserve, than greedy to take, fees. He accounts the very pleading of a poor widow's honest cause sufficient fees ; as conceiving himself, then, the King of CAMDEN'S " Britannia," in Gloucestershire. -f PLUTARCH, in Vit& Demostheni*. CHAP. II. THE GOOD PHYSICIAN. 51 Heaven's advocate, bound ex officio to prosecute it. And although some may say, that such a lawyer may even go live in Cornwall, where it is observed that few of that profession hitherto have grown to any livelihood,* yet shall he (besides those two felicities of common- lawyers, that they seldom die either without heirs or making a will t ) find God's blessing on his provisions and posterity. \Ve will respite him a while, till he comes to be a judge; and then we will give an example of both together. CHAPTER II. THE GOOD PHYSICIAN. MAXIM I. ffe trusteth not the single witness of the water, if better testi- mony may be had. For, reasons drawn from the urine alone are as brittle as the urinal. Sometimes the water runneth in such post-haste through the sick man's body, it can give no account of any thing memorable in the passage, though the most judi- cious eye examine it. Yea, the sick man may be in the state of death, and yet life appear in his stale.J ii. Coming to his patient, he persuades him to put his trust in God, the Fountain of health. The neglect hereof hath caused the bad success of the best physicians : for, God will manifest, that, though skill come mediately from Him to be gotten by man's pains, success comes from Him immediately to be disposed at his pleasure. in. He handsels not his new experiments on the bodies of his patients. Letting loose mad receipts into the sick man's body, to try how well nature in him will fight against them, whilst CAREW, " Survey of Cornwall," foL 60. f COKE, in his Prefece to LITTLETON'S " Tenures." The old Saxon name, still in common use, for " urine." EDIT. E 2 52 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK Hi himself stands by and sees the battle ; except it be in desperate cases, when death must be expelled by death. IV. To poor people he prescribes cheap but wholesome medicines. Not removing the consumption out of their bodies into their purses ; nor sending them to the East Indies for drugs, when they can reach better out of their gardens. . v. Lest his apothecary should oversee, he oversees his apothecary. For, though many of that profession be both able and honest, yet some, out of ignorance or haste, may mistake : witness one of Blois, who, being to serve a doctor's bill, instead of optimi, (short written,) read opii, and had sent the patient asleep to his grave, if the doctor's watchfulness had not prevented him.* Worse are those who make wilful errors, giving one thing for another. A prodigal, who had spent his estate, was pleased to jeer himself, boasting that he had cozened those who had bought his means. " They gave me," said he, " good new money, and I sold them my great-great-grandfather's old land." But this cozenage is too, too true in many apothecaries, selling to sick folk for new money antiquated drugs, and making dying men's physic of dead ingredients. VI. He brings not news, with a false spy, that the coast is clear, till death surprises the sick man. I know, physicians love to make the best of their patient's estate. First, it is improper that a f/j 'id 'ores vit(E should be nuncii mortis. Secondly, none, with their good-will, will tell bad news. Thirdly, their fee may be the worse for it. Fourthly, it is a confessing that their art is conquered. Fifthly, it will poison their patient's heart with grief, and make it break before the time. However, they may so order it, that the party may be informed of his dangerous condition, that he be not outed out of this world before he be provided for another. VII. When he can keep life no longer in, he makes a fair and easy passage for it to go out. He giveth his attendance for the STEPHEN'S "Apology for Herodotus," lib. i. cap. 16. CHAP. II. THE GOOD PHYSICIAN. 53 facilitating and assuaging of the pains and agonies of death. Yet, generally, it is death to a physician to be with a dying man. VIII. Unworthy pretenders to physic are rather foils than stains to the profession. Such a one was that counterfeit who called him- self "the Baron of Blackamore," and feigned he was sent from the emperor to our young king Henry VI., to be his prin- cipal physician. But, his forgery being discovered, he was apprehended, and executed in the Tower of London, anno 1426 : * and such the world daily swarms with. Well did the poets feign ^Esculapius and Circe brother and sister, and both children of the sun : for, in all times, (in the opinion of the multitude,) witches, old women, and impostors have had a com- petition with physicians. And commonly the most ignorant are the most confident in their undertakings, and will not stick to tell you what disease the gall of a dove is good to cure. He took himself to be no mean doctor, who, being guilty of no Greek, and being demanded why it was called a hectic fever; "Because," saith he, "of an hecking cough which ever attendeth that disease." And here it will not be amiss to describe the Life of the famous quack-salver, PARACELSUS, both because it is not ordinarily to be met with, and that men may see what a monster many make "a miracle of learning," and propound him their pattern in their practice. STOW'S " Survey of London," p. 55. 54 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK II. CHAPTER III. THE LIFE OF PARACELSUS. PHILIP THEOPHRASTUS BOMBASTUS of HOENHAIM, or PARA- CELSUS, born,, as he saith himself, in the Wilderness of Helvetia, anno 1493, of the noble and ancient family of the Hoenhaims. But Thomas Erastus, making strict inquiry after his pedigree, found none of his name or kindred in that place. Yet it is fit so great a chemist should make himself to be of noble extrac- tion : and let us believe him to be x of high descent, as, perchance, born on some mountain in Switzerland. As for his education, he himself boasts that he lived in most Universities of Europe ; * surely, rather as a traveller than a student, and a vagrant than a traveller. Yea, some will not allow him so much ; and one, who hath exactly measured the length of his life, though crowding his pretended travels very close, finds not room enough for them.f But it is too ridicu- lous what a scholar of his relates, that he lived ten years in Arabia to get learning, and conversed in Greece with the Athe- nian philosophers. J Whereas, in that age, Arabia the Happy was accursed with barbarism, and Athens grown a stranger to herself; both which places being then subjected to the Turks, the very ruins of all learning were ruined there. Thus we see how he better knew to act his part, than to lay his scene, and had not chronology enough to tell the clock of time, when and where to place his lies to make them like truth. The first five-and-twenty years of his age, he lived very civilly. Being thirty years old, he came to Basil, just at the alteration of religion, when many Papists were expelled the University, and places rather wanted Professors, than Professors places. Here, by the favour of (Ecolampadius, he was admitted to read physic ; and for two years behaved himself fairly, till this acci- dent caused his departure : A rich .canon of Basil, being sick, promised Paracelsus an hundred florins to recover him ; which, being restored to his health, he denied to pay. Paracelsus sues him, is cast in his suit ; the magistrate adjudging him only an ordinary fee, because the cure was done presently with a few In prcefatione Chirunjias Magnce. -\ SENNERTUS, De Chymicorum Conscttsu, cap. iv. p. 35. BICKEKUS, in Hermete Rcdivivo. CHAP. III. THE Lli'K OF PAllACELSUS. 55 pi Ik The physician, enraged hereat, talked treason against the State in all his discourses, till the nimbleness of his tongue forced the nimbleness of his feet, and he was fain to fly into Alsitia. Here, keeping company with the gentry of the coun- try, he gave himself over to all licentiousness. His body was the sea wherein the tide of drunkenness was ever ebbing and flowing ; for, by putting his finger in his throat, he used to spew out his drink and drunkenness together, and from that instant date himself sober, to return to his cups again. Every month lu- had a new suit, not for pride but necessity; his apparel serv- ing both for wearing and bedding ; and, having given his clothes many vomits, he gave them to the poor. Being Codrus over- night, he would be Croesus in the morning, flush of money as if he carried the invisible Indies in his pocket, Some suspected the devil was his pnrsr-ln'sircr, and that he carried a spirit in the pommel of his suonl, his constant companion ; whilst others maintain, that, by the heat of the furnace, he could ripen any metal into gold.* All the diet he prcsci -i'neil his patients was this, to eat what, and how often, they thought fitting themselves; and yet he did most strange cures. Like the quicksilver he so much dealt with, he would never be fixed in one place, or live anywhere lunger than a twehe-month ; for, some observe, that by that time t!ii> maladies reverted again, which he formerly cured. He tra\e v, stron:: pli\Mc as summoned nature, with all her force, to expel the present disease; but the remnant dregs thereof, al'trrv. arils K -inforeing themselves, did assault nature, tired out with the violence of her former task, and easily subdued it. His scholars brag, that the fragments of his learning would feast all the philosophers in the world ; boasting that the gout, the disgrace of physic, was the honour of Paracelsus, who, by curing it, removed that scandal from his profession. Whereas others say, he had little learning, and less Latin. When any asked him the name of a herb he knew not, he would tell them there was no use thereof in physic ; f and yet this man would undertake not only to cure men, but to cure the art of curing men, and reform physic itself. As for religion, it would as well pose himself as others to tell what it was. He boasted, that shortly he would order Luther and the Pope, as well as he had done Galen and Hippocrates. He was never seen to pray, and seldom came to church. He BEROLDUS, tn Considerations Vitas et Mortis, p. 76, ex Andraa Jocisio. f- BEROLDUS, vt prius, p. 77. 56 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK II. was not only skilled in natural magic, (the utmost bounds \vhereof border on the suburbs of hell,) but is charged to con- verse constantly with familiars. Guilty he was of all vices but wantonness ; and I find an honest man his compurgator, that he was not given to women.* Perchance he drank himself into wantonness, and passed it ; quenching the fire of his lust, by piling fuel too hard and fast upon it. Boasting that he could make a man immortal, he himself died, at forty-seven years, in the city of Saltzburg. His scho- lars say, he was poisoned, through the envy (that dark shadow ever waiting on a shining merit !) and malice of his adversaries. However, his body should have been so fenced with antidotes, that the battery of no poison might make a breach therein; except we impute it more to his neglect than want of skill, and that rather his own security, than his enemies' malice, brought him to his grave. But, it may be, he was willing to die, count- ing a twelve-months, time enough to stay in one place ; and forty-seven years, long enough to live in one world. We may more admire, that so beastly a drunkard lived so long, than that so skilful a man died so soon. In a word : he boasted of more than he could do, did more cures seemingly than really, more cures really than lawfully ; of more parts than learning, of more fame than parts ; a better physician than a man, a better surgeon than physician.f OPORIVUS, in Epist. de Paracelso. -f- In the " Literary Remains" of the late highly-gifted SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE, Esq., will be found the subjoined laudatory remarks, which he had written upon this article in his folio copy of FULLER'S " Holy State:"" It is matter of regret with me, that Fuller whose wit, alike in quantity, quality, and perpetuity, surpassing that of the wittiest in a witty age, robbed him of the praise not less due to him for an equal superiority in sound, shrewd, good sense, and freedom of intellect had not looked through the two Latin folios of Paracelsus's Works. It is not to be doubted, that a rich and delightful article would have been the result. For who, like Fuller, could have brought out and set forth this singular compound of true philosophic genius with the morals of a quack, and the manners of a king of the gypsies ? " EDIT. CHAP. IV. THE CONTROVERSIAL DIVINE. 57 CHAPTER IV. THE CONTROVERSIAL DIVINE. HE is truth's champion to defend her against all adversaries, atheists, heretics, schismatics, and erroneous persons what- soever. His sufficiency appears in opposing, answering, mode- rating, and writing. . MAXIM I. He engageth both his judgment and affections in opposing of falsehood. Not like country fencers, who play only to make sport ; hut, like duellers indeed, as if for life and limb. Chiefly if the question be of large prospect and great concernings, he is zealous in the quarrel. Yet some, though their judgment weigh down on one side, the beam of their affections stands so even they care not which part prevails. ir. In opposing a truth, he dissembles himself her foe, to be her better friend. Wherefore he counts himself the greatest con- queror when truth hath taken him captive. With Joseph, having sufficiently sifted the matter in a disguise, he discover- eth himself: "I am Joseph, your brother," (Gen. xlv. 4,) and then throws away his vizard. Dishonest they, who, though the debt be satisfied, will never give up the bond, but continue wrangling when the objection is answered. in. He abstains from all foul and railing language. What ! make the Muses, yea, the Graces, scolds? Such purulent spittle argues exulcerated lungs. Why should there be so much rail- ing about the body of Christ, when there was none about the body of Moses in the Act kept betwixt the devil and Michael the archangel ? IV. He tyranniseth not over a weak and undermatched adversary. But seeks rather to cover his weakness, if he be a modest man. When a Professor pressed an answerer (a better Christian than a clerk) with an hard argument, Reverende Professor, said he, 58 THE HOLY STATE, BOOK II. ingenue confiteor me non posse respondere Imic argumento. To whom the Professor, Recte respondes* v. In answering, he states the question, and expoundeth the terms thereof. Otherwise the disputants shall end, where they ought to have begun, in differences about words ; and be barbarians each to other, speaking in a language neither understand. If the question also be of historical cognizance, he shows the pedi- gree thereof, who first brewed it, who first broached it, and sends the wandering error, with a passport, home to the place of its birth. VI. In taking away an objection, he not only puts by the thrust, but breaks the weapon. Some rather escape than defeat an argu- ment ; and though by such an evasion they may shut the mouth of the opponent, yet may they open the difficulty wider in the hearts of the hearers. But our answerer either fairly resolves the doubt; or else shows the falseness of the argument, by beggaring the opponent to maintain such a fruitful generation of absurdities, as his argument hath begotten ; or, lastly, returns and retorts it back upon him again. The first way unties the knot, the second cuts it asunder, the third whips the opponent with the knot himself tied. Sure, it is more honour to be a clear answerer, than a cunning opposer ; because the latter takes advantage of man's ignorance, which is ten times more than his knowledge. VII. What his answers want in suddenness, they have in solidity. Indeed, the speedy answer adds lustre to the disputation, and honour to the disputant ; yet he makes .good payment who, though he cannot presently throw the money out of his pocket, yet will pay it, if but going home to unlock his chest. Some that are not for speedy, may be for sounder, performance. When Melancthon, at the disputation of Ratisbon, was pressed with a shrewd argument by Eccius, " I will answer thee," said he, " to-morrow/' " Nay/' said Eccius, " do it now, or it is nothing worth." " Yea," said Melancthon, " I seek the truth, and not mine own credit ; and therefore it will be as good if I answer thcc to-morrow by God's assistance." t "Reverend Professor, I ingenuously confess, that I am unable to reply to your argument." The Professor said, "Yours is a correct answer." EDIT. f MXJ.CHIO* ADAMUS. in I'itis Gcrmanornm Theoloyorum, p. 339. CHAP, IV. THE CONTROVERSIAL DIVINE. 59 VIII. In moderating, he sides with the answerer, if the answerer sides with the truth. But if he be conceited, and opinioned of his own sufficiency, he lets him swoon before he gives him any hot water. If a paradox-monger, loving to hold strange, yea, dan- gerous, opinions, he counts it charity to suffer such a one to be beaten without mercy, that he may be weaned from his wilful- ness. For the main, he is so a staff to the answerer, that he makes him stand on his own legs. IX. In writing, his Latin is pure, so far as the subject will allow. For, those who are to climb the Alps, are not to expect a smooth and even way. True it is, that schoolmen, perceiving that fallacy had too much covert under the nap of nourishing Language, used threadbare Latin on purpose, and cared not to trespass on grammar, and tread down the fences thereof, to avoid the circuit of words, and to go the nearest way to express their conceits. But our divine, though he useth barbarous school-terms, which, like standards, are fixed to the controversy, yet, in his movable Latin passages and digressions, his style is pure and elegant. x. He affects clearness and plainness in all his writings. Some men's heads are like the world before God said unto it, Fiat 1 1' r ! These dark-lanterns may shine to themselves, and under- stand their own conceits, but nobody else can have light from them. Thus Matthias Farinator, Professor at Vienna, assisted with some other learned men, as the times then went, was thirty years [in] making a book of applying Plato's, Aristotle's, and Galen's rules in philosophy, to Christ and his prophets; mid it is called* Lumen Anima; quo tamen nihil est caliginosius, labore magno, sed ridiculo et inani.^ But this obscurity is worst when affected ; when they do as Persius, of whom one J saith, Leyi vohtit qua scripsit, intelligi noluit qua legerentur.^ Some affect this darkness, that they may be accounted profound; whereas one is not bound to believe, that all the water is deep that is muddy. MERCATOR'S "Atlas," in the Description of Austria. f " Though its title is The Light of the Soul, yet, unfortunately, nothing can be darker than this immense undertaking, which is at once ridiculous and useless." EDIT. SCALIGER, De Arte Poetica, lib. vi. cap. 6. " He was ambitious of obtaining readers for his productions ; but seemed to feel no wish, that those who read them should understand their meaning." EDIT. 60 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK II. XI. He is not curious in searching matters of no moment. Captain Martin Forbisher fetched from the farthest northern countries a ship's lading of mineral stones, (as he thought,) which after- wards were cast out to mend the highways.* Thus are they served, and miss their hopes, who, long seeking to extract hidden mysteries out of nice questions, leave them off as useless at last. Antoninus Pius, for his desire to search to the least differences, was called cumini sector, "the carver of cumin seed." One need not be so accurate ; for as soon shall one scour the spots out of the moon, as all ignorance out of man. When Eunomius the heretic vaunted, that he knew God and his Divinity, St. Basil gravels him in twenty-one questions about the body of an ant or pismire : f so dark is man's under- standing ! I wonder, therefore, at the boldness of some, who, as if they were lord-marshals of the angels, place them in ranks and files. Let us not believe them here, but rather go to heaven to confute them. XII. He neither multiplies needless, nor compounds necessary, con~ troversies. Sure, they light on a labour in vain, who seek to make a bridge of reconciliation over the jxsya %o-//,a J betwixt Papists and Protestants; for though we go ninety-nine steps, they (I mean their church) will not come one to give us a meet- ing. And as for the offers of Clara and private men, (besides that they seem to be more of the nature of baits than gifts,) they may make large proffers, without any commission to treat, and so the Romish church not bound to pay their promises. In Merionethshire, in Wales, there are high mountains, whose hanging tops come so close together that shepherds on the tops of several hills may audibly talk together, yet will it be a day's journey for their bodies to meet ; so vast is the hollowness of the valleys betwixt them ! Thus, upon sound search, shall we find a grand distance and remoteness betwixt Popish and Pro- testant tenets, to reconcile them, which, at the first view, may seem near, and tending to an accommodation. XIII. He is resolute and stable in fundamental points of religion. These are his fixed poles and axle-tree, about which he moves, GARDEN'S Elizabeth," anno 1576. f EPISTOLA 1C8, qua est ad Ennnmium. $ The immense chasm." EDIT. GIRALDUS CAMBRENSIS, in Description of Wales. CHAP. V. THE LIFE OF DR. WHITAKER. 61 whilst they stand immovable. Some sail so long on the sea of controversies, tossed up and down, to and fro, pro and con } that the very ground to them seems to move, and their judgments grow sceptical and unstable in the most settled points of divinity. When he cometh to preach, especially if to a plain auditory, with the Paracelsians, he extracts an oil out of the driest and hardest bodies ; and, knowing that knotty timber is unfit to build with, he edifies people with easy and profitable matter. CHAPTER V. THE LIFE OF DR. WHITAKER. WILLIAM WHITAKER, born at*Holm, in the county of Lan- es ixtor, of good parentage, especially by his mother's side, [was] allied to two worshipful families. His reverend uncle, Alex : under Nowell, dean of St. Paul's, (the first-fruits of the English Confessors in the days of queen Mary, who, after her death, first returned into England from beyond the seas,) took him young from his parents, sent him first to Paul's school, thence to Trinity College in Cambridge ; where he so profited in his studies, that he gave great promises of his future perfection. I pass by his youthful exercises ; never striving for the gar- Lin d but he won and wore it away. His prime appearing to the world was wheii he stood for the Professor's place against two competitors, in age far his superiors. But the seven electors in the rniversity who were to choose the emperor of the schools, preferring a golden head before silver hairs, conferred the place on Whitaker; and the strict form of their election hath no room for corruption. He so well acquitted himself in the place, that he answered expectation, the strongest opponent in all disputes and lectures; and, by degrees, taught envy to admire him. By this time the Papists began to assault him and the truth. First, Campian, one fitter for a trumpeter than a soldier ; whose best ability was, that he could boast in good Latin, being excel- lent at the flat hand of rhetoric, which rather gives pats than " blows ; but he could not bend his fist to dispute. Whitaker, 62 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK II. both in writing and disputing, did teach him,, that it was easier to make than maintain a challenge against our church ; and in like manner he handled both Durteus and Sanders, who succes- sively undertook the same cause, solidly confuting their argu- ments. But these teasers, rather to rouse than pinch the game, only made Whitaker find liis spirits. The fiercest dog is behind; even Bellarmme himself, a great scholar, and who wanted nothing but a good cause to defend, and generally writing ingenuously, using sometimes slanting seldom down-right railing. Whitaker gave him all fiiir quarter, stating the ques- tion betwixt them, yielding all which the other in reason could ask, and, agreeing on terms to fall out with him, played fairly but fiercely on him, till the other forsook the field. Bellarmine had no mind to re-inforce his routed arguments, but rather consigned over that service to a new general, Sta- pleton, an Englishman. He was born the same year and month wherein sir Thomas More was beheaded ; * an observation little less than mystical with the Papists, as if God had substituted him to grow up in the room of the other, for the support of the Catholic cause. If Whitaker, in answering him, put more gall than usual into his ink, Stapleton (whose mouth was as foul as his cause) first infected him with bitterness ; and none will blame a man for arming his hands with hard and rough gloves, who is to meddle with briers and brambles. Thus they baited him constantly with fresh dogs. None that ran at him once, desired a second course at him : and, as one f observes, Cum nullo lioste unquam conflixit, quern non fudit et fugavit. J He filled the chair with a graceful presence; so that one needed not to do with him as Luther did with Melancthon when he first heard him read, abstract the opinion and sight of his stature and person, lest the meanness thereof should cause an undervaluing of him ; for our Whitaker's person carried with it an excellent port. His style was manly for the strength, maidenly for the modesty, and elegant for the phrase thereof ; showing his skill in spinning a fine thread out of coarse wool, for such is controversial matter. He had, by his second wife, a modest woman, eight children ; it being true of him also, PITZJEUS, De Must. Angl. Scrip, cetat. 16, p. 796. f DAVENANT, in Prefatione De Judice et Norma Fidei. + " In every conflict into which he entered, he always discomfited his adversary, and compelled him to retreat.", EDIT. In Epistold ad Spalatinum. C1TAP. V. THE LIFE OF DR. WHITAKEE. 63 is said of the famous lawyer, Andreas Tiraquilms,* Singulia annis singulos libros et liberos reipublica dedit. t My father hath told me, that he [Dr. Whitaker] often wished that he might lose so much learning as he had gotten in after. supper studies, on condition he might gain so much strength as he had lost thereby. Indeed, his body was strongly built for the natural temper, and well repaired by his temperate diet and recreations ; but, first, he foundered the foundation of this house by immoderate study, and at last the roof was set on fire by a hot disease. The unhappy controversy was then started, whether justify- ing faith may be lost. And this thorny question would not suffer our nightingale to sleep. He was sent for up by arch- bishop \Vhitgift to the Conference at Lambeth; after which, returning home, unseasonable riding, late studying, and night- watching, brought him to a burning fever, to which his body was naturally disposed, as- appeared by the mastery of redness in his complexion. Thus lost he the health of his body, in main- taining that the health of the soul could not be lost ! AD agreed that he should be let blood ; which might then easily have been done, but was deferred, by the fault of some about him, till it was too late. Thus, when God intends to cut a man's life off, his dearest friends, by dangerous involuntary mistakes, shall bring the knife. He died in the forty-seventh year of his age, anno Domini 1595 ; and in St. John's College (whereof he was Master) was solemnly interred, with the grief of the University and whole church of God. THUANUS, Obit. Doctorum V\rorum y anno 1558. -f "Every year he presented the commonwealth both with a book and with a child." EDIT. 64 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK II. CHAPTER VI. THE TRUE CHURCH ANTIQUARY. HE is a traveller into former times, whence he hath learnt their language and fashions. If he meets with an old manu- script, which hath the mark worn out of its mouth, and hath lost the date, yet he can tell the age thereof either by the phrase or character. MAXIM I. He baits at middle antiquity, but lodges not till he comes at that which is ancient indeed. Some scour off the rust of old inscriptions into their own souls, cankering themselves with superstition, having read so often, Orate pro anima* that at last they fall a-praying for the departed ; and they more lament the ruin of monasteries, than the decay and ruin of monks' lives, degenerating from their ancient piety and painfulness. Indeed, a little skill in antiquity inclines a man to Popery ; but depth in that study brings him about again to our religion.f A nobleman who had heard of the extreme age of one dwelling not far off, made a journey to visit him ; and finding an aged person sitting in the chimney-corner, addressed himself unto him with admira- tion of his age, till his mistake was rectified : for, " O sir ! " said the young-old man, " I am not he whom you seek for, but his son ; my father is farther off in the field." The same error is daily committed by the Romish church, adoring the reverend brow and grey hairs of some ancient ceremonies, perchance but of some seven or eight hundred years' standing in the church ; and [they] mistake these for their fathers, of far greater age in the primitive times. * " Pray for his soul." EDIT. f Who will be hardy enough to assert, that ALEXANDER POPE had never perused this passage? especially when he recollects these celebrated lines in the " Essay on Criticism : " , " A little learning is a dangerous thing : Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring. There, shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, And drinking largely sobers us again." EDIT. CHAP. VI. THE TRUE CHURCH ANTIQUARY. 65 II. He desires to imitate the ancient Fathers, as well in their piety , as in their postures. Not only conforming his hands and knees, but chiefly his heart, to their pattern. O the holiness of their living, and painfulness of their preaching ! How full were they of mortified thoughts and heavenly meditations ! Let us not make the ceremonial part of their lives only canonical, and the moral part thereof altogether apocryphal, imitating their devo- tion not in the fineness of the stuff, but only in the fashion of the making. in. He carefully marks the declination of the church from the pri- mitive purity. Observing how, sometimes, humble devotion was contented to lie down, whilst proud superstition got on her back. Yea, not only Frederic the emperor, but many a godly Father some hundreds of years before, held the Pope's stirrup ; and, by their well-meaning simplicity, gave occasion to his future greatness. He takes notice how their rhetorical hyper- boles were afterwards accounted the just measure of dogmatical truths; how plain people took them at their word, in their funeral apostrophes to the dead ; how praying for the departed brought the fuel, under which after-ages kindled the fire of pur- gatory ; how one ceremony begat another, there being no bounds in will- worship, wherewith one may sooner be wearied than satisfied ; the inventors of new ceremonies endeavouring to supply in number what their conceits want in solidity; how i urn's souls, being in the full speed and career of the historical use of pictures, could not stop short, but must lash out into superstitions ; how the Fathers, vailing their bonnets to Rome in civil courtesy, when making honourable mention thereof, are interpreted by modern Papists to have done it in adoration of the idol of the Pope's infallibility. All these things he ponders in his heart, observing both the times and places, when and where they happened. IV. He is not zealous for the introducing of old, useless ceremonies. The mischief is, some that are most violent to bring such in, are most negligent to preach the cautions in using them ; and simple people, like children in eating of fish, swallow bones and all, to their danger of choking. Besides, what is observed of horse-hairs, that, lying nine days in water, they turn to snakes ; so some ceremonies, though dead at first/in continuance of time F 66 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK II. quicken, get stings, and may do much mischief, especially if in such an age wherein the meddlings of some have justly awaked the jealousy of all. When many Popish tricks are abroad in the country, if then men meet with a ceremony which is a stranger, especially if it can give but a bad account of itself, no wonder if the watch take it up, for one on suspicion. v. He is not peremptory, but conjectural, in doubtful matters. Not forcing others to his own opinion, but leaving them to their own liberty ; not filling up all with his own conjectures, to leave no room for other men ; nor tramples he on their credits, if in them he finds slips and mistakes. For here our souls have but one eye ; (the apostle saith, " We know but in part ; ") be not proud, if that chance to come athwart thy seeing side which meets with the bund side of another. VI. He thankfully achnowledgeth those by whom he hath profited. Base-natured they, who, when they have quenched their own thirst, stop up, at least muddy, the fountain. But our anti- quary, if he be not the first founder of a commendable conceit, contents himself to be a benefactor to it in clearing and adorn- ing it. VII. He affects not fanciful singularity in his behaviour. Nor cares to have a proper mark, in writing of words, to disguise some peculiar letter from the ordinary character. Others, for fear travellers should take no notice that skill in antiquity dwells in such an head, hang out an antique hat for the sign, or use some obsolete garb in their garments, gestures, or discourse. VIII. He doth not so adore the ancients as to despise the moderns. Grant them but dwarfs, yet stand they on giants' shoulders, and may see the further. Sure, as stout champions of truth follow in the rear, as ever marched in the front. Besides, as one excellently observes, Antiquitas saculi juventus mundi. " ' These times are the ancient times, when the world is ancient ; ' and not those which we count ancient ordine .retrogrado, 'by a computation backwards from ourselves/ " * SIR FRANCIS BACOX'S "Advancement of Learning," p. 4G. CHAP. VII. THE GENERAL ARTIST. 67 CHAPTER VII. THE GENERAL ARTIST. I KNOW the general cavil against general learning is this : that aliquis in omnibus est nullus in singulis. " He that sips of many arts, drinks of none." However, we must know, that all learning, which is but one grand science, hath so homogeneal a body, that the parts thereof do, with a mutual service, relate to, and communicate strength and lustre each to other. Our artist, knowing language to be the key of learning, thus begins : MAXIM I. His tongue , being but one by nature, he gets cloven by art and industry. Before the confusion of Babel, all the world was one continent in language; since divided into several tongues, as several islands. Grammar is the ship by benefit whereof we pass from one to another, in the learned languages generally spoken in no country. His mother-tongue was like the dull music of a monochord, which, by study, he turns into the har- mony of several instruments. ii. He first gaineth skill in the Latin and Greek tongues. On the credit of the former alone, he may trade in discourse over all Christendom. But the Greek, though not so generally spoken, is known with no less profit, and more pleasure. The joints of her compounded words are so naturally oiled, that they run nimbly on the tongue ; which makes them, though long, never tedious, because significant. Besides, it is full and stately in sound : only it pities our artist to see the vowels therein racked in pronouncing them, hanging oftentimes one way by their native force, and haled another by their accents which counter- mand them. in. Hence he proceeds to the Hebrew, the mother-tongue of the world. More pains than quickness of wit is required to get it, and with daily exercise he continues it. Apostasy herein is usual, to fall totally from the language, by a little neglect. As F 2 68 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK II. for the Arabic, and other oriental languages, he rather makes sallies and incursions into them than any solemn sitting before them. IV. Then he applies his study to logic and ethics. The latter makes a man's soul mannerly and wise ; but as for logic, that is the armory of reason, furnished with all offensive and defens- ive weapons. There are syllogisms, long swords ; enthymemes, short daggers; dilemmas, two-edged swords that cut on both sides ; sorites, chain-shot : and, for the defensive, distinctions, which are shields ; retortions, which are targets with a pike in the midst of them, both to defend and oppose. From hence he raiseth his studies to the knowledge of physics, the great hall of nature; and metaphysics, the closet thereof; and is careful not to wade therein so far, till, by subtle distinguishing of notions, he confounds himself. v. He is skilful in rhetoric, which gives a speech colour, as logic doth favour, and both together beauty. Though some condemn rhetoric as the mother of lies, speaking more than the truth in hyperboles, less in her meiosis, otherwise in her metaphors, contrary in her ironies ; yet is there excellent use of all these, when disposed of with judgment. Nor is he a stranger to poetry, which is music in words ; nor to music, which is poetry in sound : both excellent sauce ; but they have lived and died poor that made them their meat. VI. Mathematics he moderately studieth, to his great contentment. Using it as ballast for his soul ; yet to fix it, not to stall it ; nor suffers he it to be so unmannerly as to justle out other arts. A.S for judicial astrology, (which hath the least judgment in it,) this vagrant hath been whipped out of all learned corporations. If our artist lodgeth her in the out-rooms of his soul for a night or two, it is rather to hear than believe her relations. VII. Hence he makes his progress into the study of history. Nestor, who lived three ages, was accounted the wisest man in the world. But the historian may make himself wise, by living as many ages as have past since the beginning of the world. His books enable him to maintain discourse, who, besides the stock of his own experience, may spend on the common purse C1IAP. VII. THE GENERAL ARTIST. 69 of his reading. This directs 1dm in his life, so that he makes the shipwrecks of others sea-marks to himself; yea, accidents which others start from for their strangeness, he welcomes as his wonted acquaintance, having found precedents for them formerly. Without history a man's soul is purblind, seeing only the things which almost touch his eyes. VIII. He is ivell seen in chronology, without which history is but a heap of tales. If, by the laws of the land, he is counted a natu- ral who hath not wit enough to tell twenty, or to tell his age,* he shall not pass with me for wise in learning who cannot tell the age of the world, and count hundreds of years : I mean not, so critically as to solve all doubts arising thence ; but that he may be able to give some tolerable account thereof. He is also acquainted with cosmography, treating of the world in whole joints ; with chorography, shredding it into countries ; and with topography, mincing it into particular places. Thus, taking these sciences in their general latitude, he hath finished the round circle, or golden ring, of the arts ; only he keeps a place for the diamond to be set in ; I mean, for that predominant profession of law, physic, divinity, or state-policy, which he intends for his principal calling hereafter. FITS-HERBERT, De Nat. Brev. de Idiold inquirendo. 70 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK II* CHAPTER VIII. THE LIFE OF JULIUS CAESAR SCALIGER. I KNOW my choice herein is liable to much exception. Some will make me the pattern of ignorance, for making this Scaliger Jhe pattern of the general artist ; whose own son Joseph might have been liis father in many arts. But, all things considered, the choice will appear well-advised, even in such variety of examples. Yet, let him know that undertakes to pick out the best ear amongst an acre of wheat, that he shall leave as good, if not a better, behind him, than that which he chooseth. He was born, anno 1484, in Italy, at the castle of Eipa, upon Lacus Benacus, now called Lago di Garda, of the illustrious and noble family of the Scaligers, princes, for many hundreds of years, of Verona, till at last the Venetians outed them of their ancient inheritance. Being about eleven years old, he was brought to the court of Maximilian, emperor of Germany; where, for seventeen years together, he was taught learning and military discipline. I pass by his valiant performances achieved by him, save that this one action of his is so great and strong, it cannot be kept in silence, but will be recorded : In the cruel battle at Ravenna, betwixt the emperor and the French, he not only bravely fetched off the dead bodies of Bene- dictus and Titus, his father and brother, but also, with his own hands, rescued the eagle, (the standard imperial,) which was taken by the enemies. For which his prowess, Maximilian knighted him ; and with his own hands put on him the golden spurs and chain, the badges of knighthood. Amidst these his martial employments, he made many a clan- destine match with the Muses ; and whilst he expected the tides and returns of business, he filled up the empty places of leisure with his studies. Well did the poets feign Pallas patroness of arts^nd arms; there being ever good intelligence betwixt the two professions, and, as it were, but a narrow cut to ferry over out of one into the other. At last, Scaliger sounded a retreat to himself from the wars, and wholly applied himself to his book ; especially after his wandering life was fixed by marriage unto the beautiful Andietta Lobeiaca, with whom he lived at Agin, near Montpelier in France. CHAP. VIII. THE LIFE OF JULIUS SCALIGER. 71 His Latin was twice refined, and most critical, as appears by his own writings, and notes on other authors. He was an accu- rate Grecian ; yet began .to study it when well nigh forty years old, when a man's tongue is too stiff to bow to words. What a torture was it to him, who flowed with streams of matter, then to learn words, yea, letters, drop by drop ! But nothing was unconquerable to his pains, who had a golden wit in an iron body. Let his book of Subtleties witness his profound skill in logic and natural philosophy. His skill in physic was as great as his practice therein was happy; insomuch that he did many strange and admirable cures. Hear how a noble and learned pen doth commend him : * Non hunc fefellit ulla vis recondita Sulubris herbae, saltibus si quam aviis Celat nivosus Caucasus, sen quam procul Hijthaa duro contegit rapes gelu. Hie namque spectantes ad Orcum non seme I Animas represrit victor, et membris suis Hetrere tuccis compulit felicibus, Nigrique avaras Ditis elusit manus. " On snowy Caucasus there grew no root Of secret power, but he was privy to 't ; On cold Riphaean hills no simple grew, But he the force thereof and virtue knew : Wherewith, applied by his successful art, Such sullen souls as would this world depart, He forced still in their bodies to remain, And from death's door fttch'd others back again." As for his skill in physiognomy, it was wonderful. I know some will say, " That cannot be read in men's faces which was never wrote there ; and that he that seeks to find the disposition of men's souls in the figures of their bodies, looks for letters on the backside of the book." Yet is it credibly averred, that he never looked on his infant son Audectus but with grief, as sorrow-struck with some sad sign of ill success he saw in his face; which child at last was found stifled in bed, with the embraces of his nurse, being fast asleep. f In mathematics he was no Archimedes, though he showed his skill therein with the best advantage, and stood therein on his tiptoes, that his learning might seem the taller. But in poetry his over-measure of skill might make up this defect, as is attested by his book De Arte Poetica. Yet his STEPHANUS BOETIUS, Regius Senator Burdigalcs ad Vidum Brassacum President. t In Vita Julii Scalig., p. 54. 72 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK II. own poems are harsh and unsmooth, (as if he rather snorted than slept 011 Parnassus,) and they sound better to the brain than ear. Indeed, his censure in poetry was incomparable ; but he was more happy in repairing of poems, than in building them from the ground, which speaks his judgment to be better than his invention. What shall I speak of his skill in history, whose own actions were a sufficient history? He was excellently versed in the passages of the world, both modern and ancient. Many modern languages, which departed from Babel in a confusion, met in his mouth in a, method ; being skilful in the Sclavonic tongue, the Hungarian, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, and French. But these his excellent parts were attended with prodigious pride ; and he had much of the humour of the Ottomans in him, to kill all his brethren, and cry down all his equals, who were cor-rivals with him in the honour of arts, which was his principal quarrel with Cardan. Great was his spite at Erasmus, the morning- star of learning, and one by whom Julius himself had profited ; though afterwards he sought to put out that can- dle whereat he had lighted his own. In the bickering betwixt them, Erasmus plucked Scaliger by the long locks of his immo- derate boasting, and touched him to the quick. (A proud man lies pat for a jeering man's hand to hit !) Yea, Erasmus was a badger in his jeers ; where he did bite, he would make his teeth meet. Nor came Scaliger behind him in railing. However, afterward Scaliger repented of his bitterness, and before his death was reconciled unto him.* Thus his learning, being in the circuit of arts, spread so wide, no wonder if it lay thin in some places. His parts were nimble, that, starting so late, he overtook, yea, over-ran his equals : so that we may safely conclude, that, making abatement for his military avocations, and late applying himself to study, scarce any one is to be preferred before him for generality of human learning. He died anno 1558, in the seventy-fifth year of his age. * THUANUS, Obit. Illust. Vir. anno 1558. fllAl*. IX. THE FAITHFUL MINISTER. 73 CHAPTER IX. THE FAITHFUL MINISTER. WE suppose him not brought up by hand only in his own country-studies, but that he hath sucked of his mother Uni- versity, and thoroughly learnt the arts : not as St. Rumball,* who is said to have spoken as soon as he was born, doth he preach as soon as he is matriculated. Conceive him now a gra- diiate in arts, and entered into orders, according to the solemn form of the Church of England, and presented by some patron to a pastoral charge, or place equivalent ; and then let us see how well he dischargeth his office. MAXIM I. . He endeavours to get the general love and good-will of his parish. This he doth, not so much to make a benefit of them, as a benefit for them, that his ministry may be more effectual ; otherwise he may preach his own heart out, before he preacheth any thing into theirs. The good conceit of the physician is half a cure; and his practice will scarce be happy where his per- son is hated. Yet he humours them not in his doctrine, to get their love; for such a spaniel is worse than a dumb dog. He shall sooner get their good- will by walking uprightly, than by crouching and creeping. If pious living, and painful labouring in his calling, will not win their affections, he counts it gain to lose them. As for those who causelessly hate him, he pities and prays for them : and such there will be. I should suspect his preaching had no salt in it, if no galled horse did wince. ii. He is strict in ordering his conversation. As for those who cleanse blurs with blotted fingers, they make it the worse. It was said of one who preached very well, and lived very ill, " that when he was out of the pulpit, it was pity he should ever go into it ; and when he was in the pulpit, it was pity he should ever come out of it." But our minister lives sermons. And yet I deny not, but dissolute men, like unskilful horsemen, who CAMDEV'S Britannia, in Northamptonshire. 74 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK II. open a gate on the wrong side, may, by the virtue of their office, open heaven for others, and shut themselves out. in. His behaviour towards his people is grave and courteous. Not too austere and retired; which is laid to the charge of good Mr. Hooper the martyr, that his rigidness frighted people from consulting with him.* " Let your light," saith Christ, " shine before men;" whereas over-reservedness makes the brightest virtue burn dim. Especially he detesteth affected gravity, (which is rather on men than in them,) whereby some belie their register-book, antedate their age to seem far older than they .are, and plait and set their brows in an affected sadness. Whereas St. Anthony the monk might have been known among hundreds of his order by his cheerful face, he having ever (though a most mortified man) a merry countenance.f IV. He doth not clash God's ordinances together about precedency. Not making odious comparisons betwixt prayer and preaching, preaching and catechising, public prayer and private, premedi- tate prayer and ex tempore. When, at the taking of New Carthage in Spain, two soldiers contended about the mural crown, due to him who first climbed the walls, so that the whole army was thereupon in danger of division; Scipio the general said, he knew that they both got up the wall together, and so gave the scaling crown to them both. J Thus our minister com- pounds all controversies betwixt God's ordinances, by praising them all, practising them all, and thanking God for them all. He counts the reading of Common Prayers to prepare him the better for preaching ; and, as one said, if he did first toll the bell on one side, it made it afterwards ring out the better in his sermons. v. He carefully catechiseth his people in the elements of religion. Except he hath (a rare thing !) a flock without lambs, of all old sheep ; and yet even Luther did not scorn to profess himself discipulum Catechismi, " a scholar of the Catechism." By this catechising, the Gospel first got ground of Popery : and let not our religion, now grown rich, be ashamed of that which first * / , Fox ' s " Acts and Monuments," in his Life. -|- ATHANASIUS, in ejus Vita. + PJLUTARCII, in Scipio's Life, p. 1807. CHAP. IX. THE FAITHFUL MINISTER. 75 gave it credit and set it up, lest the Jesuits beat us at our own weapon. Tlirough the want of this catechising, many, who are well skilled in some dark out-corners of divinity, have lost them- selves in the beaten road thereof. VI. He will not offer to God of that which costs him nothing. But takes pains aforehand for his sermons. Demosthenes never made any oration on the sudden ; yea, being called upon, he never rose up to speak, except he had well studied the matter: and he was wont to say, "that he showed how he honoured and reverenced the people of Athens, because he was careful what he spake unto them." * Indeed, if our minister be surprised with a sudden occasion, he counts himself rather to be excused than commended, if, premeditating only the bones of his sermon, he clothes it with flesh ex tempore. As for those whose long custom hath made preaching their nature, [so] that they can discourse sermons without study, he accounts their examples rather to be admired than imitated. VII. Having brought his sermon into his head, he labours to bring it into his heart y before he preaches it to his people. Surely, that preaching which comes from the soul most works on the soul. Some have questioned ventriloquy, (when men strangely speak out of their bellies,) whether it can be done lawfully or no: might I coin the word cordiloquy, when men draw the doctrines out of their hearts, sure, all would count this lawful and com- mendable. VIII. He chiefly reproves the reigning sins of the time and place he I'm -.v hi. AVe may observe, that our Saviour never inveighed against idolatry, usury, sabbath-breaking, amongst the Jews. Not that these were not sins, but they were not practised so much in that age, wherein wickedness was spun with a finer thread ; and therefore Christ principally bent the drift of his preaching against spiritual pride, hypocrisy, and traditions, then predominant amongst the people. Also our minister con- futeth no old heresies which time hath confuted ; nor troubles his auditory with such strange hideous cases of conscience, that it is more hard to find the case than the resolution. In public reproving of sin, he ever whips the vice, and spares the person. * PLUTARCH, in the Life of Demosthenes. 76 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK II. IX. He doth not only move the bread of life, and toss it up and down in generalities, but also breaks it into particular directions. Drawing it down to cases of conscience, that a man may be warranted in his particular actions, whether they be lawful or not. And he teacheth people their lawful liberty, as well as their restraints and prohibitions ; for, amongst men, it is as ill taken to turn back favours, as to disobey commands. x. The places of Scripture he quotes are pregnant and pertinent. As for heaping up of many quotations, it smacks of a vain ostentation of memory. Besides, it is as impossible that the hearer should profitably retain them all, as that the preacher hath seriously perused them all ; yea, whilst the aiiditors stop their attention, and stoop down to gather an impertinent quota- tion, the sermon runs on, and they lose more substantial matter. XI. His similes and illustrations are always familiar, never con- temptible. Indeed, reasons are the pillars of the fabric of a sermon; but similitudes are the windows which give the best lights. He avoids such stories whose mention may suggest bad thoughts to the auditors, and will not use a light comparison to make thereof a grave application, for fear lest his poison go farther than his antidote.* * I am afraid, that, after only a slight scrutiny, our author will be found to have been, occasionally, an egregious offender against some of these his own grave precepts. Take one example out of many : In his " Comment on Ruth," pub- lished by himself in 1654, he informs the right worshipful Lady Anne Archer, in his dedication, that, though now bearing the name of " a Comment," " these endea- vours were preached in an eminent place, when I first entered into the ministry, above twenty years since." On the passage, Abide here fast by my maidens," (Ruth ii. 8,) he offers this observation : " Hence we gather, it is most decent for women to associate and accompany themselves with those of their own sex, Miriam, with a feminine choir, with timbrels and dances, answered the men ; (Exod. xv. 20 ;) and the disciples wondered that Christ talked with a woman ; (John iv. 27 ;) showing hereby, that it was not his ordinary course to converse alone with one of another sex. For herein the apostle's precept deserves to take place ; namely, to avoid from all appearance of evil." These remarks are in tolerably good taste ; but, in his " Comment " on verse 21 of the same chapter, " Thou shalt keep fast by my young men," his wicked wit bursts forth in the following " OBJECTION Here,either Ruth's memory failed her, or else she wilfully com- mitted a foul mistake. For Boaz never,bade her to keep fast by Ms yvung men, but < 1! U 1 . IX. THE FAITHFUL MINISTER. 77 XII. He provideth not only wholesome but plentiful food for his If. Almost incredible was the painfulness of Baronius, the compiler of the voluminous " Aimals of the Church," who, for thirty years together, preached three or four times a-week to the people.* As for our minister, he preferreth rather to entertain lii> people with wholesome cold meat which was on the table before, than with that which is hot from the spit, raw and half- roasted. Yet, in repetition of the same sermon, every edition hath a new addition, if not of new matter, of new affections. "Of whom," saith St. Paul, "we have told you OFTEN, and NOW we tell you weeping." (Phil. iii. 18.) XIII. He makes not that wearisome, which should ever be welcome. Wherefore his sermons are of an ordinary length, except on an extraordinary occasion. What a gift had John Halsebach, Pro- fessor at Vienna, in tediousness ! f wno > being to expound the Prophet Isaiah to his auditors, read twenty-one years on the first chapter, and yet finished it not. \i \ . He counts the success of his ministry the greatest preferment. \ herein (lod hath humbled many painful pastors, in making them to be clouds to rain, not over Arabia the Happy, but over the Stony or Desert; so that they may complain with the herdsman in the poet: Heu mihi, quam pingui macer ett mihi taunu in arvo ! t ' M y starveling bull, Ah woe is me ! In pasture full, How lean is he ! " (verse 8,) Abide here fast by my maiden*. It seems, she had a better mind to male company, who had altered the gender in the relating of his words. " ANSWER Condemn not the generation of the righteous, especially on doubt- ful evidence. Boaz gave a command (verse 15) to his young men to permit her to glean. She mentioneth them, therefore, in whom the authority did reside, who had a commission from their master to countenance and encourage her in her^extraordi- nary gleaning ; which privilege his maidens could not bestow upon her." EDIT. The words being somewhat ambiguous, are thus : In audiendis confessionibus et termonibus ad popnlum ter in hebdomada qudterve habendis per triyinta et amplius annos diligentistima assiduitate laboravit. SPONDANUS, in Vita Baronii, p. 2, part 7. f MERCATOR, "Atlas," in the description of Austria. t VIRGILII Bucol. iii. 100 EDIT. 78 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK II. Yet such pastors may comfort themselves, that great is their reward with God in heaven, who measures it, not by their success, but endeavours. Besides, though they see not, their people may feel, benefit by their ministry. Yea, the preaching of the word in some places is like the planting of woods, where, though no profit is received for twenty years together, it comes afterwards. And grant, that God honours thee not to build his temple in thy parish, yet thou mayest, with David, provide metal and materials for Solomon thy successor to build it with. xv. To sick folks he comes sometimes before he is sent for. As counting his vocation a sufficient calling. None of his flock shall want the extreme unction of prayer and counsel. Against the communion, especially, he endeavours that J anus's temple be shut in the whole parish, and that all be made friends. XVI. He is never plaintiff in any suit but to be right's defendant. If his dues be detained from him, he grieves more for his parishioners' bad conscience than his own damage. He had rather suffer ten times in his profit, than once in his title, where not only his person, but posterity, is wronged ; and then he pro- ceeds fairly and speedily to a trial, that he may not vex and weary others, but right himself. During his suit he neither breaks off nor slacks offices of courtesy to his adversary ; yea, though he loseth his suit, he will not also lose his charity. Chiefly he is respectful to his patron ; that, as he presented him freely to his living, so he constantly presents his patron in his prayers to God. XVII. He is moderate in his tenets and opinions. Not that he gilds over lukewarmness in matters of moment with the title of " dis- cretion ; " but, withal, he is careful not to entitle violence, in indifferent and inconcerning matters, to be zeal. Indeed, men of extraordinary tallness, though otherwise little deserving, are made porters to lords ; and those of unusual littleness are made ladies' dwarfs; whilst men of moderate stature may want masters. Thus many, notorious for extremities, may find favourers to prefer them ; whilst moderate men in the middle truth may want any to advance them. But what saith the apostle ? " If in this life only we had hope, we are of all men the most miserable." (1 Cor. xv. 19.) CHAP. IX. THE FAITHFUL MINISTER. 79 XVIII. He is sociable and willing to do any courtesy for his neigbour- ministers. He willingly communicates his knowledge unto them. Surely, the gifts and graces of Christians lay in common, till base envy made the first enclosure. He neither slighteth his inferiors, nor repineth at those who in parts and credit are above him. He loveth the company of his neighbour-ministers. Sure, as ambergris is nothing so sweet in itself, as when it is com- pounded with other things ; so both godly and learned men are gainers by communicating themselves to their neighbours. XIX. He is careful in the discreet ordering of his own family. A good minister, and a good father, may well agree together. When a certain Frenchman came to visit Melancthon,* he found him in his stove, with one hand dandling his child in the swaddling- clouts, and in the other hand holding a book and reading it. Our minister also is as hospitable as his estate will permit, and makes every alms two, by his cheerful giving it. He loveth also to live in a well-repaired house, that he may serve God therein more cheerfully. A clergyman who built his house from the ground wrote in it this counsel to his successor : " If thou dost find An house built to thy mind Without thy cost, Serve thou the more God and the poor ; My labour is not lost." XX. Lying on his death-bed, he bequeat/ts to each of his parishioners his precepts and example for a legacy. And they, in requital, erect every one a monument for him in their hearts. He is so far from that base jealousy that his memory should be outshined by a brighter successor, and from that wicked desire that his people may find his worth by the worthlessness of him that succeeds, that he doth heartily pray to God to provide them a better pastor after his decease. As for outward estate, he com- monly lives in too bare pasture to die fat. It is well if he hath gathered any flesh, being more in blessing than bulk. PANTALEOX, De Illustr. Germ, in Vita, Melancth. 80 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK II. CHAPTER X. THE LIFE OF MR. PERKINS. WILLIAM PERKINS, born at Marston, nigh Coventry, in Warwickshire, was afterwards brought up in Christ-College in Cambridge, where he so well profited in his studies, that he got the grounds of all liberal arts ; and, in the twenty-fourth [year] of Queen Elizabeth, was chosen Fellow of that College, the same year wherein Dr. Andrew Willet, (one of admirable industry,) and Dr. Richard Clark, (whose learned sermons commend him to posterity,) were elected into the same Society. There goeth an uncontrolled tradition, that Perkins, when a young scholar, was a great studier of magic, occasioned per- chance by his skill in the mathematics. For, ignorant people count all circles above their own sphere to be conjuring ; and presently cry out, those things are done by black art for which their dim eyes can see no colour in reason. And in such case, when they cannot fly up to heaven to make it a miracle, they fetch it from hell to make it magic, though it may lawfully be done by natural causes. True it is, he was very wild in his youth, till God (the best Chymic, [Chemist] who can fix quick- silver itself) graciously reclaimed him. After his entrance into the ministry, the first beam he sent forth shined to those " which sat in darkness and the shadow of death ; " I mean, the prisoners in the Castle of Cambridge ; people (as generally in such places) living in England, out of Christendom, wanting the means of their salvation, bound in their bodies, but too loose in their lives ; yea, often branded in their flesh, and seared in their consciences. Perkins prevailed so far with their jailer, that the prisoners were brought (fet- tered) to the shire-house hard by, where he preached unto them every LordVday. Thus was the prison his parish; his own charity, his patron presenting him unto it ; and his work was all his wages. Many an Onesimus here he begat, and, as the instrument, freed the prisoners from the captivity of sin. When tliis began to be known, some of good quality of the neighbour- ing parishes became his auditors, and counted it their feast to feed out of the prisoners' basket. Hence afterwards he became H r 11 i.i-: i c, ii . ST AUGUST IX V" or TUB LJNIVEHSITY, CHAP. X. THE LIFE OF MR. PERKINS. 81 preacher of St. Andrew's parish in Cambridge, where he con- tinued to the day of his death. His sermons were not so plain but that the piously learned did admire them, nor so learned but that the plain did under- stand them. What was said of Socrates, "that he first humbled the towering speculations of philosophers into practice and morality ; " so our Perkins brought the schools into the pulpit, and, unshelling their controversies out of their hard school- terms, made thereof plain and wholesome meat for his people. For he had a capacious head, with angles winding and roomy enough to lodge all controversial intricacies; and had not preaching diverted him from that way, he had no doubt attained to eminency therein. An excellent surgeon he was at jointing of a broken soul, and at stating of a doubtful conscience. And, sure, in case-divinity Protestants are defective. For, (save that a Smith or two of late have built them forges, and set up shop,) we go down to our enemies to sharpen all our instruments, and are beholden to them for offensive and defensive weapons in cases of conscience. He would pronounce the word damn with such an emphasis, as left a doleful echo in his auditors' ears a good while after ; and when catechist of Christ-College, in expounding the Com- mandments, applied them so home, able almost to make his hearers' hearts fall down, and hairs to stand upright.* But in his older age he altered his voice, and remitted much of his former rigidness; often professing that to preach mercy was that proper office of the ministers of the Gospel. Some object that his doctrine, referring all to an absolute decree, hamstrings all industry, and cuts off the sinews of men's endeavours towards salvation. For, ascribing all to the wind of God's Spirit, (which bloweth where it listeth,) he leaveth nothing to the oars of man's diligence, either to help or hinder to the attaining of happiness, but rather opens a wide door to licentious security. Ware this the hardest objection against Perkins's doctrine, his own life was a sufficient answer thereunto, so pious, so spotless, that malice was afraid to * S. W., Master of S. S. C. Dr. Samuel Ward was the person whom the preced- ing initials were intended to designate. He received the early part of his academical education in Christ College, (of which Perkins was then Fellow,) and in 1609 was appointed to the Mastership of Sidney-Sussex College, in which Fuller obtained a Fellowship, through the interest of his uncle Davenant v/ith his friend Dr. Ward, from whom he received several of the interesting particulars which he has here given concerning Perkins EDIT. 82 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK II. bite at his credit, into which she knew her teeth could not enter. He had a rare felicity in speedy reading of books, and, as it were but turning them over, would give an exact account of all considerables therein. So that, as it were riding post through an author, he took strict notice of all- passages, as if he had dwelt on them particularly; perusing books so speedily, one would think he read nothing ; so accurately, one would think he read all. He was of a cheerful nature and pleasant disposition. Indeed, to mere strangers he was reserved and close, suffering them to knock a good while before he would open himself unto them ; but, on the least acquaintance, he was merry and very familiar. Besides his assiduity in preaching, he wrote many books, extant at this day. And pity it was, that he set not forth more of them himself; for though some of his orphan works lighted on good guardians, yet all were not so happy ; and, indeed, no nurse for a child [is equal] to the own mother. He died in the forty-fourth year of his age, of a violent fit of the stone. It hath been reported, that he died in the conflict of a troubled conscience ; which, admit [it] were so, had been no wonder : for God sometimes seemingly leaves his saints when they leave the world, plunging them on their death-beds in deep temptations, and casting their souls down to hell, to rebound the higher to heaven. Besides, the devil is most busy on the last day of his term ; and a tenant to be outed cares not what mischief he doth. But here was no such matter. Indeed, he always cried out, " Mercy ! mercy ! " which some standers-by misinterpreted for despair, as if he felt not God's favour, because he called for it ; whereas mercy is a grace which they hold the fastest that most catch after it.* It is true, that many, on less reason, have expressed more confidence of their future happi- ness, and have delivered themselves in larger speeches concern- ing the same. But who could expect a long oration from him, where every word was accented with pain in so sharp a disease ? His funerals were solemnly and sumptuously performed at the sole charges of Christ -College ; which challenged, as she gave him his breeding, to pay for his burial ; the University and town lovingly contending which should express more sorrow thereat. Dr. Mountague, afterwards bishop of Winchester, preached his funeral sermon, and excellently discharged the place, taking for his text, " Moses my servant is dead." * S. W., ut priiis. CHAP. T. THE LIFE OF MR. PERKINS. 83 He was of a ruddy complexion, very fat and corpulent, lame of his right hand ; and yet this Ehud, with a left-handed pen, did stab the Romish cause, and, as one saith, Dextera quantu mvis fuerat tibi manca, docendi Pollebas mird dexteritate tamen.* '* Though nature thee of thy right hand bereft, Right well thou writest with thy hand that 's left." He was born [in] the first and died the last year of queen Elizabeth ; so that his life streamed in equal length with her reign, and they both had their fountains and falls together. I must not forget, how his books after his death were trans* lated into most modern Christian languages. For, though ha excellently improved his talent in the English tongue, yet foreigners thought it but wrapped up in a napkin, whilst folded in an unknown language. Wherefore, some translated the main body of his works into French, Dutch, and Italian; and his books speak more tongues than the maker ever understood. His " Reformed Catholic" was done into Spanish; and no Spaniard ever since durst take up that gauntlet of defiance [which] our champion cast down. Yea, their Inquisition rather chose to answer it with tortures than arguments. HUGH HOLLAKD, in his Icones. 84 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK II. . CHAPTER XL THE GOOD PARISHIONER. WE will only describe his church-reference ; his civil part hath and shall be met with under other heads. Conceive him to live under such a faithful minister as before was charactered ; as either judging charitably that all pastors are such, or wish- ing heartily that they were. MAXIM I. Though near to the church, he is not far from God. Like unto Justus : " One that worshipped God ; and his house joined hard to the synagogue." (Acts xviii. 7.) Otherwise, if his distance from the church be great, his diligence is the greater to come thither in season. ii. > He is timely at the beginning of Common Prayer. Yet, as Tully charged some dissolute people for being such sluggards, , that they never saw the sun rising or setting, as being always up after the one, and a-bed before the other ; * so some negli- gent people never hear prayers begun, or sermon ended : the Confession being past before they come, and the Blessing not come before they are passed away. in. In sermon, he sets himself to hear God in the minister. There- fore divesteth he himself of all prejudice, the jaundice in the eye of the soul, presenting colours false unto it. He hearkens very attentively. It is a shame when the church itself is cceme- terium, wherein the living sleep above ground, as the dead do beneath. IV. At every point that concerns himself, he turns down a leaf in his heart. And rejoiceth that God's word hath pierced him, as hoping that whilst his soul smarts, it heals. And as it is no De Finibus Boni et Mali, lib. ii. CHAP. XI. THE GOOD PARISHIONER. 85 manners for him that hath good venison before him to ask whence it came, but rather fairly to fall to it ; so, hearing an excellent sermon, he never inquires whence the preacher had it, or whether it was not before in print, but falls aboard to practise it. v, He accuseth not his minister of spite for particularizing him. It does not follow, that the archer aimed, because the arrow hit. Rather, our parishioner reasoneth thus : " If my sin be noto- rious, how could the minister miss it ? if secret, how could he hit without God's direction ? " But foolish hearers make even the bells of Aaron's garments to clink as they think. And a guilty conscience is like a whirlpool, drawing in all to itself which otherwise would pass by. One, causelessly disaffected to his minister, complained that he, in his last sermon, had person- ally inveighed against him, and accused him thereof to a grave, religious gentleman in the parish. "Truly/' said the gentle- man, " I had thought in his sermon he had meant me ; for it touched my heart." This rebated the edge of the other's anger. VI. His tithes lie pays willingly with cheerfulness. How many part with God's portion grudgingly, or else pinch it in the pay- ing ! Decimum } " the tenth/' amongst the Romans was ever taken for what was best or biggest.* It falls out otherwise in paying of tithes, where the least and leanest are shifted off to make that number. VII. He hides not himself from any parish-office which seeks for him. If chosen churchwarden, he is not busily-idle, rather to trou- ble than reform, presenting all things but those which he should. If overseer of the poor, he is careful the rates be made indiffer- ent, (whose inequality oftentimes is more burdensome than the sum,) and well-disposed of. He measures not people's wants by their clamorous complaining, and dispenseth more to those that deserve, than to them that only need, relief. VIII. He is bountiful in contributing to the repair of God's house. For though he be not of their opinion, who would have the * Fluctus decimus pro mavimo. OVIDIO et LUCAXO. 86 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK II, churches under the gospel conformed to the magnificence of Solomon's temple, (whose porch would serve us for a church,) and adorn them so gaudily, that devotion is more distracted than raised, and men's souls rather dazzled, than lightened; yet he conceives it fitting that such sacred places should be handsomely and decently maintained ; the rather, because the climacterical year of many churches from their first founda- tion, may seem to happen in our days ; so old, that their ruin is threatened if not speedily repaired. IX. He is respectful to his minister's widow and posterity for his sake. When the only daughter of Peter Martyr was, through the riot and prodigality of her debauched husband, brought to extreme poverty, the State of Zurich, out of grateful remem- brance of her father, supported her with bountiful maintenance.* My prayers shall be, that ministers' widows and children may never stand in need of such relief, and may never want such relief when they stand in need ! THUANI Obit. Fr. Doct., anno 1562. CHAP. XII. THE GOOD PATRON. 78 CHAPTER XII. THE GOOD PATRON. THAT, in the primitive times, (though I dare not say generally in all churches,) if not the sole choice, at least the consent, of the people was required in appointing of ministers, may partly appear out of Scripture,* more plainly out of Cyprian, f and is confessed by [the] reverend Dr. Whitgift.J These popular elections were well discharged in those purer times, when men, being scoured with constant persecution, had little leisure to rust with factions ; and when there were no baits for corruption, the places of ministers being then of great pains and peril, and small profit. But, dissension creeping in, in after-ages, (the eyes of common people, at the best but dim through ignorance, being wholly blinded with partiality,) it may seem, their right of election was either devolved to, or assumed of, the bishop of the diocess, who only was to appoint curates in every parish. Afterwards, to invite lay-men to build and endow churches, the bishops departed with their right to the lay-patrons, according to the verse : Patronum faciunt dos, cedificatio, fundus : " A patron 's he that did endow with lands, Or built the church, or on whose ground it stands : " it being conceived reasonable, that he who paid the church's portion should have the main stroke in providing her an hus- band. Then came patronages to be annexed to manors, and by sale or descent to pass along with them : nor could any justly complain thereof, if all patrons were like him we describe. MAXIM I. He counts the living his to dispose, not to make profit, of. He fears more to lapse his conscience, than his living ; fears more the committing, than the discovery, of Simony. Acts xiv. 23, x ei P rov ^ ffavr5 ' 1" kib. i. epist. 4. J " Defence of the Answer to the Admonition," p. 164. Condi. Toletan. anno 589, can. 9 ; Synod Antiochen., can. 24 ; and 2 Condi. Gangrense, can. 7, 8. 88 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK II. II. A benefice he sometimes giveth speedily, never rashly. Some are long in bestowing them, out of state, because they love to have many suitors ; others, out of covetousness, will not open their wares till all their chapmen are come together, pretending to take the more deliberation. in. He is deaf to opportunity, if wanting desert. Yet is he not of the mind of Tamerlane, the Scythian king, who never gave office to any that sought for it. For, desiring proceeds not always for * want of deserving ; yea, God himself likes well that his favours should be sued for. Our patron chiefly respects piety, sufficiency, and promise of painfulness, whereby he makes his election. If he can by the same deed provide for God's house and his own family, he counts it lawful ; but on no terms will prefer his dearest and nearest son or kinsman, if unworthy. IV. He hates not only direct Simony, or rather Gehazism by the string, but also that which goes about by the bow. Ancient councils present us with several forms hereof. I find how the patron's sons and nephews were wont to feed upon the incumbent, and eat out the presentation in great banquets and dinners, till at last the Palentine council brought a voider to such feasts, and made a canon against them.f But the former ages were bunglers, to the cunning contrivance of the Simony-engineers of our times. " O my soul, come thou not into, their secrets ! " As if they cared not to go to hell, so be it were not the nearest way, but that they might fetch a far compass round about. And yet Father Campian must not carry it so clearly, who taxeth the Protestants for maintaining of Simony. J We con- fess it a personal vice amongst us, but not to be charged as a church-sin, which by penal laws it doth both prohibit and punish. Did Rome herein look upon the dust behind her own doors, she would have but little cause . to call her neighbour " slut/' What saith the epigram ? An Petrus fuerat Roma, sub judice Us est ; Simonem Roma nemofwsse negat. For, "on account of." EDIT. f Condi. Patent, anno 1322, cotutit. 14. $ Vide VIDEL. Comment, in Epist. Ignatii ad Trallenses. CHAP. XII. THE GOOD PATRON. 89 " That PETER was at Rome, there 's strife about it; That SIMON was there, none did ever doubt it." V. He hates corruption not only in himself, but his servants. Otherwise, it will do no good for tlie master to throw bribes away, if the men catch them up at the first rebound, yea, before ever they come to the ground. Camden can tell you what Lord-Keeper it was, in the days of queen Elizabeth, who, though himself an upright man, was hardly spoken of for the baseness of his servants in the sale of ecclesiastical preferments.* VI. When he hath freely bestmved a living, he makes no boast of it. To do this were a kind of spiritual Simony, to ask and receive applause of others ; as if the commonness of faulting herein made a right, and the rarity of giving things freely, merited, ex condigno t a general commendation. He expects nothing from the clerk [whom] he presented, but his prayers to God for him, respectful carriage towards him, and painfulness in his calling ; who, having gotten liis place freely, may discharge it the more faithfully: whereas those will scarce afford to feed their sheep fat, who rent the pasture at too high a rate. To conclude : let patrons imitate this particular example of king William Rufus, who, though sacrilegious in other acts, herein discharged a good conscience : Two monks came to him to buy an abbot's place of him, seeking to outvie each other in offering great sums of money, whilst a third monk stood by, and said nothing ; to whom said the king, " What wilt thou give for the place ?" , "Not a penny," answered he, "for it is against my conscience ; but here I stay to wait home on him whom your royal pleasure shall design abbot." " Then," quoth the king, " thou of the three best deservest the place, and shalt have it;" and so bestowed it on him. * In the " Life of Queen Elizabeth," anno Domini 1596. -f- " Through proper worthiness." EDIT. 90 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK II. CHAPTER XIIL THE GOOD LANDLORD. THE good landlord is one that lets his land on a reasonable rate ; so that the tenant, by employing his stock, and using his industry, may make an honest livelihood thereby, to maintain himself and his children. MAXIM I. His rent doth quicken his tenant, but not gall him. Indeed, it is observed, that where landlords are very easy, the tenants (but this is per accidens, out of their own laziness) seldom thrive, contenting themselves to make up the just measure of their rent, and not labouring for any surplusage of estate. But our landlord puts some metal into his tenant's industry ; yet not granting him too much, lest the tenant revenge the landlord's cruelty to him upon his land. ii. Yet he raiseth his rents (or fines equivalent) in some proportion to the present price of other commodities. The plenty of money makes a seeming scarcity of all other things, and wares of all sorts do daily grow dear. If, therefore, our landlord should let his rents stand still as his grandfather left them, whilst other wares daily go on in price, he must needs be cast far behind in his estate. in. What he sells or sets to his tenant, he suffers him quietly to enjoy according to his covenants. This is a great joy to a tenant, though he buys dear, to possess without disturbance. A strange example there was of God's punishing a covetous landlord, at Bye in Sussex, anno 1570. He, having a certain marsh, wherein men on poles did dry their fish-nets, received yearly of them a sufficient sum of money ; till, not content therewith, he caused his servant to pluck up the poles, not suffering the fishermen to use them any longer, except they would compound at a greater rate. But it came to pass the same night, that the sea, break- ing in, covered the same marsh with water, and so it still continueth.* HOLLINSHED, p. 1224. CHAP. XIII. THE GOOD LANDLORD. 91 IV. He detests and abhors all enclosure with depopulation. And because this may seem a matter of importance, we will break it into several propositions. 1. Enclosure may be made without depopulating. Infinites of examples snow this to be true. But depopulation hath cast a slander on enclosure ; which because often done with it, people suspect it cannot be done without it. 2. Enclosure made without depopulating is injurious to none. I mean, if proportionable allotments be made to the poor for their commonage, and free- and lease-holders have a consider- able share with the lord of the manor. 3. Enclosure without depopulating is beneficial to private per- sons. Then have they most power and comfort to improve their own parts ; and, for the time and manner thereof, may mould it to their own conveniency. The monarch of one acre will make more profit thereof, than he that hath his share in forty in common. 4. Enclosure without depopulating is profitable to the common- wealth. If injurious to no private person, and profitable to them all, it must needs be beneficial to the commonwealth, which is but the summa totalis of sundry persons, as several figures. Besides, if a mathematician should count the wood in the hedges, to what a mighty forest would it amount ? This underwood serves for supplies, to save timber from burning; otherwise our wooden walls in the water must have been sent to the fire. Add to this the strength of an enclosed country against a foreign invasion. Hedges and counter-hedges, having in number what they want in height and depth, serve for barri- cadoes, and will stick as bird-lime in the wings of the horse, and scotch the wheeling-ab'out of the foot. Small resistance will make the enemy to earn every mile of ground as he marches. Object not, that " enclosure destroys tillage, the staff of a coun- try;" for it need not all be converted to pasturage. Cain arid Abel may very well agree in the commonwealth ; the plough- man and shepherd part the enclosures betwixt them. 5. Enclosure with depopulation is a canker to the common- wealth. It needs no proof: woful experience shows how it un-houses thousands of people, till desperate need thrusts them on the gallows. Long since had this land been sick of a pleu- risy of people, if not let blood in their western plantations. 6. Enclosure with depopulation endamageth the parties them- selves. It is a paradox, and yet a truth, that reason shows such 92 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK II. enclosures to be gainful, and experience proves them to be loss, to the makers. It may be, because God, being p.$ The fort of Gog-Magog Hills, nigh Cam- bridge, is counted impregnable, but for want of water, the mischief of many houses, where servants must bring the well on their shoulders. * VIRGILII JEneid. ii. 32. f " And though remote my father's palace stood, With shades surrounded, and a gloomy wood." This is PITT'S translation of the passage EDIT. $ " Water, indeed, is the best." EDIT. CAMDEN'S Britannia, in Cam- bridgeshire. 158 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK III. III. Next, a pleasant prospect is to be respected. K medley view, such as of water and land at Greenwich, best entertains the eyes, refreshing the wearied beholder with exchange of objects. Yet I know a more profitable prospect, where the owner can only see his own land round about. IV. A fair entrance, with an easy ascent, gives a great grace to a building. Where the hall is a preferment out of the court, the parlour out of the hall ; not, as in some old buildings, where the doors are so low, pigmies must stoop, and the rooms so high, that giants may stand upright. But now we are come to con- trivance : v. Let not thy common rooms be several, nor thy several rooms be common. The hall, which is a pandocheum,* ought to lie open ; and so ought passages and stairs, provided that the whole house be not spent in paths ; chambers and closets are to be private and retired. VI. Light (God's eldest daughter !) is a principal beauty in a building. Yet it shines not alike from all parts of heaven. An east window welcomes the infant beams of the sun, before they are of strength to do any harm, and is offensive to none but a sluggard. A south window in summer is a chimney 'with a fire in it, and needs the screen of a curtain. In a west window in summer-time, towards night, the sun grows low and over- familiar, with more light than delight. A north window is best for butteries and cellars, where the beer will be sour for the sun's smiling on it. Thorough lights are best for rooms of entertainment, and windows on one side for dormitories. As for receipt : VII. A house had better be too little for a day, than too great for a year. And it is easier borrowing of thy neighbour a brace of chambers for a night, than a bag of money for a twelve-month. It is vain, therefore, to proportion the receipt to an extraordi- nary occasion ; as those who, by overbuilding their houses, have dilapidated their lands, and their states have been pressed to death under the weight of their house. As for strength : , "A house for the reception of guests, an inn." EDIT. CHAP. VII. OP BUILDING. 159 VIII. Country-houses must be substantives, able to stand of them- selves. Not, like city-buildings, supported by their neighbours on either side. By " strength " we mean such as may resist weather and time, not invasion, castles being out of date in this peaceable age. As for the making of moats round about, it is questionable whether the fogs be not more unhealthful than the fish brings profit, or the water defence. Beauty remains behind, as the last to be regarded, because houses are made to be lived in, not looked on. IX. Let not the front look asquint on a stranger, but accost him right at his entrance. Uniformity, also, much pleaseth the eye ; and it is observed, that free-stone, like a fair complexion, soonest waxeth old, whilst brick keeps her beauty longest. x. Let the office-houses observe the due distance from the mansion- house. Those arc too familiar which presume to be of the same pile with it. The same may be said of stables and barns ; with- out which, a house is like a city without works, it can never hold out long. XI. Gardens, also, are to attend in their place. When God planted a garden eastward, he made to grow out of the ground every tree pleasant to the sight, and good for food. (Gen. ii. 9.) Sure, He knew better what was proper to a garden than those who now-a-days therein only feed the eyes, and starve both taste and smell. To conclude : In building, rather believe any man, than an artificer in his own art, for matter of charges ; not that they cannot but will not be faithful. Should they tell thee all the cost at the first, it would blast a young builder in the budding, and therefore they soothe thee up till it hath cost thee some- thing to confute them. The spirit of building first possessed people after the flood, which then caused the confusion of lan- guages, and since of the estate of many a man. 1GO THE HOLY STATE. BOOK III. CHAPTER VIII. OF ANGER. ANGER is one of the sinews of the soul : he that wants it hath a maimed mind, and, with Jacob sinew-shrunk in the hollow of his thigh, must needs halt. Nor is it good to converse with such as cannot be angry, and, with the Caspian Sea, never ebb nor flow. This anger is either heavenly, when one is offended for God ; or hellish, when offended with God and goodness ; or earthly, in temporal matters. Which earthly anger (whereof we treat) may also be hellish, if for no cause, no great cause, too hot, or too long. MAXIM I. Be not angry with any without a cause. If thou beest, thou must not only, as the proverb saith, be appeased without amends, (having neither cost nor damage given thee,) but, as our Saviour saith, be in danger of the judgment. (Matt. v. 22.) ii. Be not mortally angry with any for a venial fault. He will make a strange combustion in the state of his soul, who, at the ..landing of every cock-boat, sets the beacons on fire. To be angry for every toy, debases the worth of thy anger ; for he who will be angry for any thing, will be angry for nothing. in. Let not thy anger be so hot, but that the most torrid zone thereof may be habitable. Fright not people from thy presence with the terror of thy intolerable impatience. Some men, like a tiled house, are long before they take fire ; but, once on flame, there is no coming near to quench them. IV. Take heed of doing irrevocable acts in thy passion. As the revealing of secrets, which makes thee a bankrupt for society ever after. Neither do such things which, done once, are done for ever, so that no bemoaning can amend them. Samson's hair grew again, but not his eyes. Time may restore some losses, others are never to be repaired. Wherefore, in thy rage, CHAP. VIII. OF ANGER. make no Persian decree which cannot be reversed or repealed ; but rather Polonian laws, which (they say) last but three days. Do not in an instant what an age cannot recompense. v. Anger kept till the next morning, with manna, doth putrefy and corrupt. Save that manna corrupted not at all, (and anger most of all,) kept the next sabbath. (Exod. xvi. 24.) St. Paul saith, " Let not the sun go down on your wrath ; " (Ephes. iv. 26 ;) to carry news, to the antipodes in another world, of thy revengeful nature. Yet let us take the apostle's meaning, rather than his words, with all possible speed to depose our passion; not understanding him so literally that we may take leave to be angry till sunset; then might our wrath lengthen with the days ; and men in Greenland, where day lasts above a quarter of a year, have plentiful scope of revenge. And as the English, by command from William the Conqueror, always raked up their fire, and put out their candles, when the curfew-bell was rung,* let us then also quench all sparks of anger and heat of passion. VI. He that keeps anger long in his bosom giveth place to the devil. (Ephes. iv. 27.) And why should we make room for him, who will crowd in too fast of himself? Heat of passion makes our souls to chap, and the devil creeps in at the crannies ; yea, a furious man in his fits may seem possessed with a devil, foams, fumes, tears himself; is deaf and dumb, in effect, to hear or speak reason; sometimes wallows, stares, stamps, with fiery eyes and flaming cheeks. Had Narcissus himself seen his own face when he had been angry, he could never have fallen in love with himself. COWEL'S " Interpreter,*' out of STOW'S " Annals." 162 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK III. CHAPTER IX. OF EXPECTING PREFERMENT. THERE are as many several tenures of expectation as of pos- session, some nearer, some more remote, some grounded on strong others on weaker reasons. As for a groundless expectation, it is a wilful self-delusion. We come to instruc- tions how men should manage their hopes herein. MAXIM I. Hope not for impossibilities. For though the object of hope be futurum possibile, yet some are so mad as to feed their expectation on tilings, though not in themselves, yet to them, impossible, if we consider the weakness of the means whereby they seek to attain them. He needs to stand on tiptoes that hopes to touch the moon ; and those who expect what in reason they cannot expect, may expect. ii. Carefully survey what proportion the means thou hast bear to the end thou expectest. Count not a courtier's promise-of-course a specialty that he is bound to prefer thee. Seeing compli- ments often- times die in the speaking, why should thy hopes (grounded on them) live longer than the hearing ? Perchance the text of his promise intended but common courtesies, which thy apprehension expounds speedy and special favours. Others make up the weakness of their means with conceit of the strength of their deserts, foolishly thinking that their own merits will be the undoubted patrons to present them to all void benefices. in. The heir-apparent to the next preferment may be disinherited by an unexpected accident. A gentleman, servant to the lord admiral Howard, was suitor to a lady above his deserts, ground- ing the confidence of his success on his relation to so honourable a lord ; which lord gave the anchor as badge of his office, and therefore this suitor wrote in a window, " If I be bold, The ANCHOR is my hold." CHAP. IX. OP EXPECTING PREFERMENT. 163 But his cor-rival to the same mistress, coming into the same room, wrote under : " Yet fear the worst : What, if the CABLE burst ? " Thus useless is the anchor of hope, (good for nothing but to deceive those that rely on it !) if the cable, or small cords of means and causes, whereon it depends, fail and miscarry. Daily experience tenders too many examples. A gentleman who gave a basilisk for his arms or crest, promised to make a young kinsman of his his heir; which kinsman, to ingratiate himself, painted a basilisk in his study, and beneath it these verses : Falleris, aspectu basiliscum occidere, Plini, Nam vitce nostrce spent, basiliscus alit. " The basilisk 's the only stay, My life preserving still ; Pliny, thou liedst, when thou didst say, The basilisk doth kill." But this rich gentleman, dying, frustrated his expectation, and bequeathed all his estate to another, whereupon the epigram was thus altered : Certt aluit, sed spe vana, spes vana venenum : Ignoscas, Plini, verus es historicus. " Indeed, vain hopes to me he gave, Whence I my poison drew : Pliny, thy pardon now I crave, Thy writings are too true." IV. Proportion thy expenses to what thou hast in*possession, not to thy expectancies. Otherwise, he that feeds on wind must needs be griped with the colic at last. And if the ceremonial law forbade the Jews to seethe a kid in the mother's milk, the law of good husbandry forbids us to eat a kid in the mother's belly, spending our pregnant hopes before they be delivered. v. Imbrue not thy soul in bloody wishes of his death who parts thee and thy preferment. A murder the more common, because one cannot be arraigned for it on earth. But those are charitable murderers who wish them in heaven, not so much that they may have ease at their journey's end, but because they must needs take death in the way. M 2 164 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK III. VI. In earthly matters, expectation takes up more joy on trust, than the fruition of the thing is able to discharge. The lion is not so fierce as painted ; nor are matters so fair as the pencil of the expectant limns them out in his hopes. They fore-count their wives fair, fruitful, and rich, without any fault ; their children witty, beautiful, and dutiful, without any frowardness ; and as St. Basil held, that roses in Paradise before man's fall grew without prickles, they abstract the pleasures of things from the troubles annexed to them, which when they come to enjoy, they must take both together. Surely, a good unlooked-for is a virgin-happiness ; whereas those who obtain what long they have gazed on in expectation, only marry what themselves have deflowered before. VII. When our hopes break, let our patience hold. Relying on God's providence without murmuring; who often provides for men above what we can think or desire. When Robert Holgate could not peaceably enjoy liis small living in Lincolnshire, because of the litigiousness of a neighbouring knight ; coming to London to right himself, he came into the favour of king Henry VIII., and got, by degrees, the archbishopric of York.* Thus God sometimes defeats our hopes, or disturbs our posses- sion of lesser favours, thereby to bestow on his servants better blessings, if not here, hereafter. GODWIN, in his " Catalogue of Archbishops of York.'* CHAP. X. OF MEMORY. 165 CHAPTER X. OF MEMORY. IT is the treasure-house of the mind, wherein the monuments thereof are kept and preserved. Plato makes it the mother of the muses.* Aristotle sets it one degree further, making expe- rience the mother of arts, memory the parent of experience. Philosophers place it in the rear of the head ; and, it seems, the mine of memory lies there, because there naturally men dig for it, scratching it when they are at a loss. This again is two- fold : one, the simple retention of things ; the other, a regaining them when forgotten. MAXIM I. Brute creatures equal, if not exceed, men in a bare retentive memory. Through how many labyrinths of woods, without other clew of thread than natural instinct, doth the hunted hare return to her muce ? f How doth the little bee, flying into several meadows and gardens, sipping of many cups, yet never intoxicated, through an ocean (as I may say) of air, steadily steer herself home, without help of card or compass ! But these cannot play an after-game, and recover what they have forgotten, which is done by the mediation of discourse. .11. Artificial memory is rather a trick than an art, and more for the gain of the teacher than profit of the learners. Like the toss- ing of a pike, which is no part of the postures and motions thereof, and is rather for ostentation than use, to show the strength and nimbleness of the apm, and is often used by wan- dering soldiers as an introduction to beg. Understand it of the artificial rules which at this day are delivered by memory- mountebanks ; J for, sure, an art thereof may be made, (wherein * Metaphys., lib. i. cap. 1. -|- PHILLIPS and KERSEY define it thus: " Muse or muset, (a term in hunting,) the place through which a hare goes to relief.'* The sense which Fuller here attaches to it is that of a hare's seat, in modern sporting phraseology. EDIT. J In FULLER'S "Appeal of injured Innocence," (new edit. 8vo. 1840, p. 447,) he alludes to this passage, and adds an anecdote concerning these "memory-mountebanks;" which, as it shows his ready wit, is worthy of being preserved : " None alive ever heard me pretend to the art of memory, who, in my book, 166 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK III. as yet the world is defective,) and that no more destructive to natural memory than spectacles are to eyes, which girls in Hol- land wear from twelve years of age. But till this be found out, let us observe these plain rules : in. First soundly infix in thy mind what thou desirest to remember. ' What wonder is it if agitation of business jog that out of thy head, which was there rather tacked than fastened? whereas those notions which get in by violenta possessio will abide there till ejectio firma, sickness or extreme age, dispossess them. It is best knocking-in the nail over-night, and clinching it the next morning. IV. Overburden not thy memory, to make so faithful a servant a slave. Remember, Atlas was weary. Have as much reason as a camel, to rise when thou hast thy full load. Memory [is] like a purse, if it be over-full that it cannot shut, all will drop out of it. Take heed of a gluttonous curiosity to feed on many things, lest the greediness of the appetite of thy memory spoil the digestion thereof. Beza's case was peculiar and memorable : Being above four-score years of age, he perfectly could say by heart any Greek chapter in St. Paul's epistles, or any thing else which he had learned long before, but forgot whatsoever was newly told him ; * his memory, like an inn, retaining old guests, but having no room to entertain new. v. Spoil not thy memory by thine own jealousy, nor make it bad by suspecting it. How canst thou find that true which thou wilt not trust ? St. Augustine tells us of his friend Simplicius, who, being asked, could tell all Virgil's verses backward and forward ; and yet the same party vowed to God, that he knew not that he could do it till they did try him.f Sure, there is concealed strength in men's memories, which they take no notice of. (' Holy State,* p. 165,) have decried it as a trick, no art ; and, indeed, is more of faney than memory. I confess, some ten years since, when I came out of the pulpit of St. Dunstan's East, one (who since wrote a book thereof) told me in the vestry, before credible people, that he in Sidney College had taught me the art of memory. I returned unto him, that it was not so; for I COULD NOT REMEMBER that I had ever seen his face ! Which, I conceive, was a real refutation." EDIT. THUANI Obit. Doctorum Virorum, p. 384. f Testatus est Deum, nescisse se hoc posse ante illud experimentum. AUGUSTINUS, Liber De Anima tt ejvs Orig., torn vii. cap. 7. CHAP. X. OF MEMORY. 167 VI. Marshal thy notions into a handsome method. One will carry twice more weight trussed and packed up in bundles, than when it lies untowardly napping and hanging about his shoulders. Things orderly fardled up under heads are most portable. VII. Adventure not all thy learning in one bottom, but divide it betwixt thy memory and thy note-books. He that, with Bias, carries all his learning about him in his head, will utterly be beggared and bankrupt, if a violent disease (a merciless thief!) should rob and strip him. I know, some have a common-place against common-place books, and yet, perchance, will privately make use of what publicly they declaim against. A common- place book contains many notions in garrison, whence the owner may draw out an army into N the field on competent warning. VIII. Moderate diet and good air preserve memory. But what air is best, I dare not define, when such great ones differ. Some say, a pure and subtle air is best, another commends a thick and foggy air.* For the Pisans, sited in the fens and marsh of Arnus, have excellent memories, as if the foggy air were a cap for their heads.f IX. Thankfulness to God for it, continues the memory. Whereas some proud people have been visited with such oblivion, that they have forgotten their own names. Staupitius, tutor to Luther, and a godly man, in a vain ostentation of his memory repeated Christ's genealogy (Matt, i.) by heart in his sermon ; but, being out about the captivity of Babylon, " I see," saith he, " God resisteth the proud ; " and so betook himself to his book.J Abuse not thy memory to be sin's register, nor make advantage thereof for wickedness. Excellently Augustine : Quidam vero pessimi memoria sunt mirabili, qui tanto pejores sunt, quantd minus possunt, qua male cogitant, oblivisci.\\ * PLATO, ARISTOTLE, TULLY. f Singulari valent memoria, quo urbs crassiore fruatur acre MERCATOR, "Atlas," in Tuscia. ^ MELCHIOR ADAMUS, in Vita Staupiiii, p. 20. De Civitate Dei, lib. vii. cap. 3. || " Some of the most wicked of mankind possess wonderful powers of memory ; but they are such persons as become still worse, by their greater inability to forget the evil thoughts which they have themselves conceived." EDIT. 168 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK ITI. CHAPTER XL OF FANCY. IT is an inward sense of the soul, for a while retaining and examining things brought in thither by the common sense. It is the most boundless and restless faculty of the soul : for whilst the understanding and the will are kept as it were in libera custodia to their objects of verum et bonum, the fancy is free from all engagements. It digs without spade, sails without ship, flies without wings, builds without charges, fights without bloodshed, in a moment striding from the centre to the circum- ference of the world, by a kind of omnipotency creating and annihilating things in an instant ; and things divorced in nature are married in fancy, as in a lawful place. It is also most rest- less : whilst the senses are bound, and reason in a manner asleep, fancy, like a sentinel, walks the round, ever working, never wearied. The chief diseases of the fancy are, either that they are too wild and high-soaring, or else too low and grovel- ling, or else too desultory and over-voluble. Of the first : MAXIM I. If thy fancy be but a little too rank, age itself will correct it. To lift too high is no fault in a young horse, because with tra- velling he will mend it, for his own ease. Thus, lofty fancies in young men will come down of themselves, and, in process of time, the overplus will shrink to be but even measure. But if this will not do it, then observe these rules : ii. Take part always with thy judgment against thy fancy, in any thing wherein they shall dissent. If thou suspectest thy con- ceits too luxuriant, herein account thy suspicion a legal convic- tion, and damn whatsoever thou doubtest of. Warily Tully : Bene monent, qui vetant quicquam facere, de quo dubitas, cequum sit an iniquum* " Those are excellent moralists who prohibit you from doing any thing, con- cerning the propriety or impropriety of which you entertain some doubts." EDIT. m CHAP. XI. OF FANCY. 169 Take the advice of a faithful friend, and submit thy inventions to his censure. When thou pennest an oration, let him have the power of Index Expurgatorius, to expunge what he pleaseth ; and do not thou, like a fond mother, cry if the child of thy brain be corrected for playing the wanton. Mark the argu- ments and reasons of his alterations, why that phrase least proper, this passage more cautious and advised; and, after a while, thou shalt perform the place in thine own person, and not go out of thyself for a censurer. If thy fancy be too low and humble, IV. Let thy judgment be king, but not tyrant, over it, to condemn harmless, yea, commendable, conceits. Some, for fear their ora- tions should giggle, will not let them smile. Give it also liberty to rove, for it will not be extravagant. There is no danger that weak folks, if they walk abroad, will straggle far, as wanting strength. v. Acquaint thyself with reading poets, for there fancy is in her throne. And in time the sparks of the author's wit will catch hold on the reader, and inflame him with love, liking, and desire of imitation. I confess, there is more required to teach one to write than to see a copy. However, there is a secret force of fascination in reading poems to raise and provoke fancy. If thy fancy be over-voluble, then VI. Whip this vagrant home to the first object whereon it should be settled. Indeed, nimbleness is the perfection of this faculty; but levity the bane of it. Great is the difference betwixt a swift horse, and a skittish that will stand on no ground. Such is the ubiquitary fancy, which will keep long residence on no one subject, but is so courteous to strangers, that it ever wel- comes that conceit most which comes last ; and new species sup- plant the old ones, before seriously considered. If this be the fault of thy fancy, I say, whip it home to the first object whereon it should be settled. This do as often as occasion requires, and by degrees the fugitive servant will learn to abide by his work without running away. 170 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK 111. VII. Acquaint thyself by degrees with hard and knotty studies. As school-divinity, which will clog thy over-nimble fancy. True, at the first it will be as welcome to thee as a prison, and their very solutions will seem knots unto thee. But take not too much at once, lest thy brain turn edge. Taste it first as a potion, for physic ; and by degrees thou shalt drink it as beer, for thirst : practice will make it pleasant. Mathematics are also good for this purpose : if beginning to try a conclusion, thou must make an end, lest thou losest thy pains that are past, and must pro- ceed seriously and exactly. I meddle not with those Bedlam- fancies, all whose conceits are antics; but leave them for the physician to purge with hellebore. VIII. To clothe low-creeping matter with high-flown language, is not fine fancy, but flat foolery. It rather loads than raises a wren, to fasten the feathers of an ostrich to her wings. Some men's speeches are like the high mountains in Ireland, having a dirty bog in the top of them ; the very ridge of them in high words having nothing of worth, but what rather stalls than delights the auditor. IX. Fine fancies in manufactures invent engines rather pretty than useful. And, commonly, one trade is too narrow for them. They are better to project new ways, than to prosecute old ; and are rather skilful in many mysteries, thar thriving in one. They affect not voluminous inventions, wherein many years must constantly be spent to perfect them ; except there be in them variety of pleasant employment. x. Imagination (the work of the fancy) hath produced real effects. Many serious and sad examples hereof may be produced. I will only insist on a merry one. A gentleman having led a company of children beyond their usual journey, they began to be weary, and jointly cried to him to carry them; which, because of their multitude, he could not do, but told them he would provide them horses to ride on. Then cutting little wands out of the hedge as nags for them, and a great stake as a gelding for himself, thus mounted, fancy put mettle into their legs, and they came cheerfully home. CHAP. XII. OF NATURAL FOOLS. 171 XI. Fancy runs most furiously when a guilty conscience drives it. One that owed much money, and had many creditors, as he walked London-streets in the evening, a tenter-hook caught his cloak. " At whose suit ? " said he, conceiving some bailiff had arrested him. Thus guilty consciences are afraid where no fear is, and count every creature they meet a serjeant sent from God to punish them. CHAPTER XII. OF NATURAL FOOLS. THEY have the cases of men, and little else of them beside speech and laughter. And, indeed, it may seem strange that risibile being the property of man alone, they who have least of man should have most thereof, laughing without cause or measure. MAXIM I. Generally nature hangs out a sign of simplicity in the face of a\ fool. And there is enough in his countenance for a hue-and- cry to take him on suspicion : or else it is stamped on the figure of his body ; their heads sometimes so little, that there is no room for wit ; sometimes so long, that there is no wit for so much room. ii. Yet some, by their faces, may pass current enough till they cry themselves down by their speaking. Thus men know the bell is cracked when they hear it tolled ; yet some that have stood out the assault of two or three questions, and have answered pretty rationally, have afterwards of their own accord betrayed and yielded themselves to be fools. in. TJie oaths and railing of fools is often-times no fault of theirs, but their teachers. The Hebrew word ["pi] Barac signifies " to bless," and " to curse ; " and it is the speaker's pleasure if he use it in the worst acceptation. Fools of themselves are 172 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK III. equally capable to pray and to swear ; they, therefore, have the greatest sin who, by their example or otherwise, teach them so to do. IV. One may get wisdom by looking on a fool. In beholding him, think how much thou art beholden to HIM that suffered thee not to be like him. Only God's pleasure put a difference v betwixt you. And consider, that a fool and a wise man are alike both in the starting-place their birth, and at the post their death ; only they differ in the race of their lives. v. It is unnatural to laugh at a natural. How can the object of thy pity be the subject of thy pastime ? I confess, sometimes the strangeness, and, as I may say, witty simplicity of their actions may extort a smile from a serious man, who at the same time may smile at them and sorrow for them. But it is one thing to laugh at them in transitu, ' " a snap and away," and another to make a set meal in jeering them, and, as the Philis- tines, to send for Samson to make them sport. VI. To make a trade of laughing at a fool, is the highway to become one. Tully confessed, that whilst he laughed at one Hircus, a very ridiculous man,* dum ilium rideo pene factus sum ille.^ And one telleth us of Gallus Vibius, a man first of great eloquence, and afterwards of great madness, which seized not on him so much by accident as his own affectation, so long mimically imitating madmen that he became one. J VII. Many have been the wise speeches of fools, though not so many as the foolish speeches of wise men. Now, the wise speeches of these silly souls proceed from one of these reasons : either because, talking much, and shooting often, they must needs hit the mark sometimes, though not by aim, by hap : or else because a fooFs mediocriter is optime ; sense from his mouth, a sentence ; and a tolerable speech cried up for an apophthegm : or, lastly, because God may sometimes illuminate them, and * Epist., lib. ii. epist. 9. f " While I was laughing at him, I oecame almost the same kind of being." EDIT. + Dum insanos imitatur, quod assimulabat ad vivum rcdeyit. RHOJDIGINUS, Antiq., lib. xi. cap. 13. CHAP. XII. OF NATURAL FOOLS. 173 (especially towards their death) admit them to the possession of some part of reason. A poor beggar in Paris, being very hun- x gry, stayed so long in a cook's shop, who was dishing-up of meat, till his stomach was satisfied with the only smell thereof. The choleric, covetous cook demanded of him to pay for his breakfast. The poor man denied it, and the controversy was referred to the deciding of the next man that should pass by, who chanced to be the most notorious idiot in the whole city. He, on the relation of the matter, determined that the poor man's money should be put betwixt two empty dishes, and the cook should be recompensed with the gingling of the poor man's money, as he was satisfied with the only smell of the cook's x meat. And this is affirmed by credible writers as no fable, but an undoubted fact.* More waggish was that of a rich-landed fool, whom a courtier had begged, and carried about to wait on him. He, coming with his master to a gentleman's house where the picture of a fool was wrought in a fair suit of arras, cut the picture out with a penknife. And being chidden for so doing, " You have more cause," said he, " to thank me ; for if my master had seen the picture of the fool, he would have begged the hangings of the king as he did my lands." When the standers-by comforted a natural who lay on his death-bed, and told him that four proper fellows should carry his body to the church : " Yea," quoth he, " but I had rather by half go thither myself;" and then prayed to God, at his last gasp, not to require more of him than he gave him. As for a changeling, who is not one child changed for another, but one child on a sudden much changed from itself; and [as] for a jester, which some count a necessary evil in a court, (an office which none but he that hath wit can perform, and none but he that wants wit will perform,) I conceive them not to belong to the present subject. * Jo. AND. PANOR., BARBA, et alii inde ad nostrum \astatem\ ; HIERO. FRANC, in lib. Furios. De Reg. Juris/". ; BOER. Decis. xxiii. n. 58 ; MANTIC. De Conject. ult. v. lib. ii. tit. 5. n. 8 ; CORSET. Sing. Verbi Testamentum. 174 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK III. CHAPTER XIII. OF RECREATIONS. RECREATIONS is a second creation, when weariness liatli almost annihilated one's spirits. It is the breathing of the soul, which otherwise would be stifled with continual business. We may trespass in them, if using such as are forbidden by the lawyer, as against the statutes physician, as against health divine, as against conscience. MAXIM I. Be well satisfied in thy conscience of the lawfulness of the recreation thou west. Some fight against cock-fighting, and bait bull- and bear-baiting, because man is not to be a common barrister to set the creatures at discord ; and, seeing antipathy betwixt creatures was kindled by man's sin, what pleasure can he take to see it burn? Others are of the contrary opinion, and that Christianity gives us a placard * to use these sports ; and that man's charter of dominion over the creatures enables him to employ them as well for pleasure as necessity. In these, as in all other doubtful recreations, be well assured, first, of the legality of them. He that sins against his conscience, sins with a witness. ii. Spill not the morning (the quintessence of the day !) in recrea- tions. For sleep itself is a recreation. Add not, therefore, sauce to sauce; and he cannot properly have any title to be refreshed, who was not first faint. Pastime, like wine, is poison in the morning. It is then good husbandry to sow the head, which hath lain fallow all night, with some serious work. Chiefly, intrench not on the Lord's-day to use unlawful sports ; this were to spare thine own flock, and to shear God's lamb. * According to PHILLIPS and KERSEY, " Placard, (among the French,) is a table wherein laws, orders, &c., are posted or hung up : also a libel, or abusive writing, posted up or dispersed abroad : in our common-law, a particular license, by which a man is allowed to shoot with a gun, or to use unlawful games, &c." Fuller here uses the word in the latter, or legal, sense. EDIT. CHAP. XIII. OF RECREATIONS. 175 III. Let thy recreations be ingenious, and bear proportion with thine age. If thou sayest with Paul, " When I was a child, I did as a child ; " say also with him, " But when I was a man, I put away childish things." Wear also the child's coat, if thou usest his sports. IV. Take heed of boisterous and over-violent exercises. Ringing oft-times hath made good music on the bells, and put men's bodies out of tune ; so that, by over-heating themselves, they have rung their own passing-bell. v/ Yet the ruder sort of people scarce count any thing a sport which is not loud and violent. The Muscovite women esteem none loving husbands except they beat their wives. It is no pastime with country-clowns that cracks not pates, breaks not shins, bruises not limbs, tumbles and tosses not all the body. They think themselves not warm in their gears, till they are all on fire ; and count it but dry sport, till they swim in their own sweat. Yet I conceive the physician's rule in exercises, Ad ruborem, but non ad sudorem* is too scant measure. VI. Refresh that part of thyself which is most wearied. If thy life be sedentary, exercise thy body ; if stirring and active, recreate thy mind. But take heed of cozening thy mind, in setting it to do a double task, under pretence of giving it a play-day, as in the labyrinth of chess, and other tedious and studious games. VII. Yet recreations distasteful to some dispositions relish best to others. Fishing with an angle is, to some, rather a torture than a pleasure, to stand an hour as mute as the fish they mean to take ; yet herewithal Dr. Whitaker was much delighted.f When some noblemen had gotten William Cecil, lord Burleigh, and Treasurer of England, to ride with them a-hunting, and the sport began to be cold, " What call you this ? " said the Trea- surer. " O ! now," said they, f< the dogs are at a fault." "Yea," quoth the Treasurer, "take me again in such a fault, " Till you are in a gentle glow, but not till you sweat." EDIT. -j- In las " Life," writ by Mr. Ashton. 176 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK III. and I will give you leave to punish me ! " Tims, as soon may the same meat please all palates, as the same sport suit with all dispositions. VIII. Running, leaping, and dancing, the descants on the plain song of walking, are all excellent exercises. And yet those are the best recreations which, beside refreshing, enable, at least dis- pose, men to some other good ends. Bowling teaches men's hands and eyes mathematics and the rules of proportion. Swimming hath saved many a man's life, when himself hath been both the wares and the ship. Tilting and fencing is war without anger ; and manly sports are the grammar of military performance. IX. But, above all, shooting is a noble recreation, and a half-liberal art. A rich man told a poor man, that he walked to get a stomach for his meat. " And I," said the poor man, " walk to get meat for my stomach." Now, shooting would have fitted both their turns ; it provides food when men are hungry, and helps digestion when they are full. King Edward VI., though he drew no strong bow, shot very well ; and when once John Dudley, duke of Northumberland, commended him for hitting the mark : " You shot better/' quoth the king, ' ' when you shot off my good uncle Protector's head."- But our age sees his suc- cessor exceeding him in that art ; whose eye, like his judgment, is clear and quick to discover the mark, and his hands as just in shooting as in dealing aright.* x. Some sports, being granted to be lawful, more propend to be ill- than well-used. Such I count stage-plays, when made always the actors' work, and often the spectators' recreation. Zeuxis, the curious picturer, painted a boy holding a dish full of grapes in his hand, done so lively, that the birds, being deceived, flew to peck the grapes. But Zeuxis, in an ingenious choler, was angry with his own workmanship. " Had I," said he, " made the boy as lively as the grapes, the birds would have been afraid to touch them." f Thus two things are set forth to us in stage- plays : some grave sentences, prudent counsels, and punishment of vicious examples; and, with these, desperate oaths, lustful talk, and riotous acts are so personated to the life, that wantons i * This refers to the princely accomplishments and high character of king Charles I. EDIT. 4- PLINU Nat. Hist., lib. xxxv. cap. 10. CHAP. XIII. OF RECREATIONS. 177 are tickled with delight, and feed their palates upon them. It seems, the goodness is not portrayed out with equal accents of liveliness, as the wicked things are : otherwise, men would be deterred from vicious courses with seeing the woful success which follows them. But the main is, wanton speeches on stages are the devil's ordinance to beget badness ; but I ques- tion whether the pious speeches spoken there be God's ordi- nance to increase goodness, as wanting both his institution and benediction. XI. Choke not thy soul with immoderate pouring-in the cordial of pleasures. The creation lasted but six days of the first week. Profane they whose recreation lasts seven days every week. Bather abridge thyself of thy lawful liberty herein ; it being a wary rule which St. Gregory* gives u&: Solus in illicitis non cadit, qui se aliquando et a licitis caute restringit ; f and then recreations shall both strengthen labour, and sweeten rest ; and we may expect God's blessing and protection on us in following them, as well as in doing our work. For he that saith grace for his meat, in it prays also to God to bless the sauce unto him. As for those that will not take lawful pleasure, I am afraid they will take unlawful pleasure, and, by lacing themselves too hard, grow awry on one side. Moral., lib. v. ; et Homil. xxxv., supra Evang. -f- IC The only man who does not fall by unlawful things, is he who occasionally refrains with caution from such things as are lawful." EDIT. 178 THE HOLY STATE, BOOK III. CHAPTER XIV. OF TOMBS. TOMBS are the clothes of the dead. A grave is but a plain suit, and a rich monument is one embroidered. Most moderate men have been careful for the decent interment of their corpse. Few of the fond mind of Arbogastus,* an Irish saint, and bishop of Spires in Germany, who would be buried near the gallows, in imitation of our Saviour, whose grave was in Mount Calvary, near the place of execution.* MAXIM I. It is a provident way to make one's tomb in one's life-time. Both hereby to prevent the negligence of heirs, and to mind him of his mortality. Virgil tells us, that, when bees swarm in the air, and two armies, meeting together, fight as it were a set battle with great violence, cast but a little dust upon them, and they will be quiet : Hi motus animorum, atque hcec certamina tanta, Pulveris exigui jactu compressa quiescunt.-\ " These stirrings of their minds and strivings vast, If but a little dust on them be cast, Are straightways stinted, and quite overpast." Thus the most ambitious motions and thoughts of man's mind are quickly quelled when dust is thrown on him, whereof his fore-prepared sepulchre is an excellent remembrancer. ii. Yet some seem to have built their tombs, therein to bury their thoughts of dying. Never thinking thereof, but embracing the world with greater greediness. A gentleman made choice of a fair stone, and, intending the same for his grave-stone, caused it to be pitched up in a field a pretty distance from his house, and used often to shoot at it for his exercise. " Yea, but," said a * WARR^EUS, De Scriptor. Hiber., p. 26. f Georglc, lib. iv. CHAP. XIV. OF TOMBS. 179 wag that stood by, "you would be loath, Sir, to hit the mark." And so are many unwilling to die, who, notwithstanding, have erected their monuments. in. Tombs ought, in some sort', to be proportioned not to the ivealth, but deserts, of the party interred. Yet may we see some rich man of mean worth loaden under a tomb big enough for a prince to bear. There were officers appointed in the Grecian games, who always by public authority did pluck down the statues erected to the victors, if they exceeded the true symme- try and proportion of their bodies.* We need such now-a-days to order monuments to men's merits, chiefly to reform such depopulating tombs as have no good fellowship with them, but engross all the room, leaving neither seats for the living, nor graves for the dead. It was a wise and thrifty law which Reutha king of Scotland made : That noblemen should have so many pillars, or long pointed stones, set on their sepulchres, as they had slain enemies in the wars.f If this order were also enlarged to those who in peace had excellently deserved of the church or commonwealth, it might well be revived. IV. Over-costly tombs are only baits for sacrilege. Thus sacrilege hath beheaded that peerless prince, king Henry V., the body of whose statue on his tomb in Westminster was covered over with silver plate gilded, and his head of massy silver ; J both which now are stolen away. Yea, hungry palates will feed on coarser meat. I had rather Mr. Stow than I should tell you of a nobleman who sold the monuments of noblemen, in St. Augus- tine's church in Broad-street, for a hundred pounds, which cost many thousands, and, in the place thereof, made fair stabling for horses; as if Christ, who was born in a stable, should be brought into it the second time. It was not without cause, in the civil law, that a wife might be divorced from her husband, if she could prove him to be one that had broken the sepulchres of the dead : || for it was presumed he must needs be a tyran- nical husband to his wife, who had not so much mercy as to spare the ashes of the departed. LUCIANUS, Hepl EiK6vwv. f HECTOR BoETHius, in the " Life of King Reutha." J. SPEED, in the end of Henry V. In the Description of London, Broad-street Ward, p. 184. II Si nimirum sepul- chrorum dissoiutorem esse probaverit KIRK MAN, De Funer. Roman., lib. ii. cap. 26, ex cod. De Repudiis. N 2 180 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK III. V. The shortest, plainest, and truest epitaphs are best. I say, " the shortest;" for when a passenger sees a chronicle written on a tomb, he takes it on trust, some great man lies there buried, without taking pains to examine who he is. Mr. Camden in his " Remains " presents us with examples of great men that had little epitaphs.* And when once I asked a witty gentleman, an honoured friend of mine, what epitaph was fittest to be written on Mr. Camden's tomb ; " Let it be," said he, "CAMDEN'S REMAINS." I say also "the plainest;" for except the sense lie above ground, few will trouble themselves to dig for it. Lastly, it must be " true ; " not, as in some monuments, where the red veins in the marble may seem to blush at the falsehoods written on it. He was a witty man that first taught a stone to speak, but he was a wicked man that taught it first to lie. VI. To want a grave is the cruelty of the living, not the misery of the dead. An English gentleman, not long since, did lie on his death-bed in Spain, and the Jesuits did flock about him to pervert him to their religion. All was in vain. Their last argument was, " If you will not turn Roman Catholic, then your body shall be miburied." " Then," answered he, " I will stink ; " and so turned his head, and died. Thus love, if not to the dead, to the living, will make him, if not a grave, a hole : and it was the beggar's epitaph : Nudus eram vivus, mortuus ecce tegor. " Naked I lived, but, being dead, Now, behold, I 'm covered." A good memory is the best monument. Others are subject to casualty and time ; and we know that the pyramids themselves, doting with age, have forgotten the names of their founders. To conclude : Let us be careful to provide rest for our souls, and our bodies will provide rest for themselves. And let us not be herein like unto gentlewomen, who care not to keep the inside of the orange, but candy and preserve only the outside thereof. * As, Fui Caius. Scaligeri quod reliquum est. Depositum Cardinalis Poli, $c. CHAP. XV. OF DEFORMITY. 181 CHAPTER XV. OF DEFORMITY. DEFORMITY is either natural, voluntary, or adventitious, being either caused by God's unseen providence, (by men nick- named " chance,") or by man's cruelty. We will take them in order. MAXIM I. If thou beest not so handsome as thou wouldst have been, thank God thou art no more unhandsome than thou art. It is his mercy thou art not the mark for passengers' fingers to point at, an heteroclite in nature, with some member defective or redun- dant. Be glad that thy clay-cottage hath all the necessary rooms thereunto belonging, though the outside be not so fairly plas- tered as some others. ii. Yet it is lawful and commendable by art to correct the defects and deformities of nature. Ericthonius, being a goodly man from the girdle upwards, but, as the poets feign, having down- wards the body of a serpent, (moralize him to have had some defect in his feet,) first invented chariots,* wherein he so sate that the upper parts of him might be seen, and the rest of his body coiicealed.f Little heed is to be given to his lying pen, who maketh Anna Boleyn, mother to queen Elizabeth, the first finder-out and wearer of ruffs, to cover a wen she had in her neck.J Yet the matter is not much, such an addition of art being without any fraud or deceit. in. Mock not at those who are misshapen by nature. There is the same reason of the poor and of the deformed ; he that despiseth them despiseth God that made them. A poor man is a picture of God's own making, but set in a plain frame, not gilded ; a deformed man is also his workmanship, but not drawn with Fuller employs the word charets ; which our lexicographers derive from the Law-Latin word charea, " a car," cart," or chariot." EDIT. f SERVIUS in tllwl l r iryHii, lib. iii. Georg., Primus Ericthonius, $c. $ SANDERS De Schismntc Any lie., lib. i. p. 17. 182 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK III. even lines and lively colours : the former not for want of wealth as the latter not for want of skill but both for the pleasure of the Maker. As for Aristotle, who would have parents expose their deformed children to the wide world with- out caring for them, his opinion herein, not only deformed but most monstrous, deserves rather to be exposed to the scorn and contempt of all men.* IV. Some people, handsome by nature, have wilfully deformed them- selves. Such as wear Bacchus's colours in their faces, arising not from having but being bad livers. When the woman considered the child that was laid by her, " Behold," said she, "it was not my son, which I did bear." (1 Kings iii. 21.) Should God survey the faces of many men and women, he would not own and acknowledge them for those whom he created : many are so altered in colour, and some in sex, women to men and men to women in their monstrous fashions ; so that they who behold them cannot, by the evidence of their apparel, give up their verdict of what sex they are. It is most safe to call the users of these hermaphroditical fashions, " Fran- cisses " and " Philips," names agreeing to both sexes. v. Confessors, who wear the badges of truth, are thereby made the more beautiful. Though deformed in time of persecution for Christ's sake, through men's malice. This made Constantine the Great to kiss the hole in the face of Paphnutius, out of which the tyrant Maximinus had bored his eye for the profes- sion of the faith ; t the good emperor making much of the socket even when the candle was put out. Next these, wounds in the war are most honourable. Halting J is the stateliest march of a soldier ; and it is a brave sight to see the flesh of an ancient as torn as his colours. He that mocks at the marks of valour in a soldier's face, is likely to live to have the brands of justice on his own shoulders. VI. Nature often-times recompenseth deformed bodies with excellent wits. Witness ^Esop, than whose Fables children cannot read * Polit., lib. vii. cap. 16. -f RCFFINUS, lib. i. cap. iv. : Not in the modern military meaning of "stopping," but in the ancient sense of "limping," "walking like a lame man." "Bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt and the blind." (Luke xiv. 21.) EDIT. CHAP. XV. OF DEFORMITY. 183 an easier, nor men a wiser, book ; for all latter moralists do but write comments upon them. Many jeering wits who have thought to have rid at their ease on the bowed backs of some cripples, have, by their unhappy answers, been unhorsed and thrown flat on their own backs. A jeering gentleman commended a beggar, who was deformed, and little better than blind, for hav- ing an excellent eye. " True," said the beggar, " for I can dis- cern an honest man from such a knave as you are ! " VII. Their souls have been the chapels of sanctity, whose bodies have been the spitols * of deformity. An emperor of Germany, com- ing by chance on a Sunday into a church, found there a most misshapen priest, pent portentum naturae^ insomuch as the emperor scorned and contemned him. But when he heard him read those words in the service, " For it is He that made us, and not we ourselves," the emperor checked his own proud thoughts, and made inquiry into the quality and condition of the man ; and finding him, on examination, to be most learned and devout, he made him archbishop of Cologne, which place he did excel- lently discharge.^ * This word is also used by ancient English writers in the forms of spital, spittall, spittle, and spittle-house, for " hospital" or " alms-house." EDIT. f " Almost a monster of nature." EDIT. GULIELMUS MALMSBUH., lib. ii. cap. 10. 184 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK HI. CHAPTER XVI. OF PLANTATIONS. PLANTATIONS make mankind broader, as generation makes it thicker. To advance a happy plantation, the undertakers, planters, and place itself must contribute their endeavours. MAXIM I. Let the prime undertakers be men of no shallow heads, nor nar- row fortunes. Such as have a real estate ; so that, if defeated in their adventure abroad, they may have a retreating-place at home, and such as will be contented, with their present loss, to be benefactors to posterity. But if the prince himself be pleased not only to wink at them with his permission, but also to smile on them with his encouragement, there is great hope of success : for then he will grant them some immunities and privileges. Otherwise, (infants must be swathed, not laced !) young planta- tions * will never grow, if straitened with as hard laws as settled commonwealths. H. Let the planters be honest, skilful, and painful people. For if they be such as leap thither from the gallows, can any hope for cream out of scum? when men send, as I may say, Christian savages to Heathen savages ! It was rather bitterly than falsely spoken concerning one of our Western Plantations, consisting most of dissolute people, that it was ' f very like unto England, as being spit out of the very mouth of it." Nor must the planters be only honest, but industrious also. What hope is there that they who were drones at home, will be bees abroad ? especially if far off from any to oversee them. HI. Let the place be naturally strong, or, at leastwise, capable of fortification. For though, at the first, planters are suffi- The application of this word to " colonies " and " colonization," so common in Fuller's days, has gradually been disused. The definition of PHILLIPS and KER- REY is that which generally obtained till the reign of queen Anne : " Plantation, a company of people sent from one country to settle in another : also, a spot of ground in America, for the planting of tobacco, sugar-canes, &c." EDIT. CHAP. XVI. OF PLANTATIONS. 185 ciently fenced with their own poverty; and though, at the beginning, their worst enemies will spare them,, out of pity to themselves, their spoil not countervailing the cost of spoiling them ; yet when once they have gotten wealth, they must get strength to defend it. Here know, islands are easily shut, whereas continents have their doors ever open, not to be bolted without great charges. Besides, unadvised are those planters who, having choice of ground, have built their towns in places of a servile nature, as being over-awed and constantly com- manded by some hills about them. IV. Let it have a self-sufficiency, or some staple commodity, to balance traffic with other countries. As for a self-sufficiency, few countries can stand alone ; and such as can for matter of want, will for wantonness lean on others. Staple commodities are such as are never out of fashion, as belonging to a man's being, being with comfort, being with delight, the luxury of our age having made superfluities necessary. And such a place will thrive the better, when men may say with Isaac, Rehoboth, "Now the Lord hath made room for us;" (Gen. xxvi. 22;) when new colonies come not in with extirpation of the natives j for this is rather a supplanting than a planting.* v. Let the planters labour to be loved and feared of the natives. With whom let them use all just bargaining, being as naked in their dealings with them, as the other in their going ; keeping all covenants, performing all promises with them. Let them embrace all occasions to convert them, knowing that each con- vert is a conquest ; and it is more honour to overcome Pagan- ism in one, than to conquer a thousand Pagans. As for the inscription of a Deity in their hearts, it need not be new written, but only new scoured, in them. I am confident, that America, though the youngest sister of the four, is now grown marriage- able, and daily hopes to get Christ to her Husband, by the preaching of the Gospel. This makes me attentively to listen after some Protestants' first-fruits, in hope the harvest will ripen afterwards. * These and the subjoined reflections are indicative of a benevolent heart and an enlightened understanding, worthy of a Christian philanthropist. EDIT. 186 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK III. CHAPTER XVII. OF CONTENTMENT. IT is one property which (they say) is required of those who seek for the philosopher's stone, that they must not do it with any covetous desire to be rich ; for otherwise they shall never find it. But most true it is, that whosoever would have this jewel of contentment, (which turns all into gold, yea, want into wealth,) must come with minds divested of all ambitious and covetous thoughts, else are they never likely to obtain it. We will describe contentment first negatively : MAXIM I. It is not a senseless stupidity [respecting] what becomes of our outward estates. God would have us take notice of all acci- dents, which, from Him, happen to us in worldly matters. Had the martyrs had the dead palsy before they went to the stake to be burnt, their sufferings had not been so glorious. ii. It is not a word-braving or scorning of all wealth in discourse. Generally those who boast most of contentment, have least of it. Their very boasting shows, that they want something, and basely beg it, namely, commendation. These in their lan- guage are like unto kites in their flying, which mount in the air so scornfully, as if they disdained to stoop for the whole earth, fetching about many stately circuits. But what is the spirit these conjurers, with so many circles, intend to raise ? A poor chicken, or, perchance, a piece of carrion : and so the height of the others' proud boasting will humble itself for a little base gain. in. But it is a humble and willing submitting ourselves to God's pleasure in all conditions. One observeth, (how truly, I dispute not !) that the French naturally have so elegant and graceful a carriage, that what posture of body soever in their salutations, or what fashion of attire soever they are pleased to take on them, it doth so beseem them that one would think nothing CHAP. XVII. OF CONTENTMENT. 187 can become them better. Thus, contentment makes men carry themselves gracefully in wealth, want, in health, sickness, free- dom, fetters, yea, what condition soever God allots them. IV. It is no breach of contentment for men to complain, that their sufferings are unjust, as offered by men. Provided they allow them for just, as proceeding from God, who useth wicked men's injustice to correct his children. But let us take heed, that we bite not so high at the handle of the rod, as to fasten on His hand that holds it ; our discontentments mounting so high, as to quarrel with God himself. v. // is no breach of contentment for men, by lawful means, to seek the removal of their misery, and bettering of their estate. Thus men ought, by industry, to endeavour the getting of more wealth, ever submitting themselves to God's will. A lazy hand is no argument of a contented heart. Indeed, he that is idle, and followeth after vain persons, shall have enough : but how ? " Shall have poverty enough." (Prov. xxviii. 19.) VI. God's Spirit is the best schoolmaster to teach contentment. A Schoolmaster who can make good scholars, and warrant the success as well as his endeavour. The school of sanctified afflictions is the best place to learn contentment in: I say, " sanctified ; " for, naturally, like resty horses, we go the worse for the beating, if God bless not afflictions unto us. VII. Contentment consisteth not in adding more fuel, but in taking away some fire. Not in multiplying of wealth, but in subtract- ing men's desires. Worldly riches, like nuts, tear many clothes in getting them, spoil many teeth in cracking them, but fill no belly with eating them, obstructing only the stomach with toughness, and filling the guts with windiuess. Yea, our souls may sooner surfeit, than be satisfied, with earthly things. He that at first thought ten thousand pounds too much for any one man, will afterwards think ten millions too little for him- self. 188 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK III. VIII. Men create more discontents to themselves, than ever happened to them from others. We read of our Saviour, that, at the burial of Lazarus, 'Erapaev lauro'v, "He troubled himself," (John xi. 33,) by his spirit raising his own passions, though without any ataxy or sinful disturbance. What was an act of power in Him, is an act of weakness in other men. "Man disquieteth himself in vain," with many causeless and needless afflictions. IX. Pious meditations much advantage contentment in adversity. Such as these are, to consider, first, that more are beneath us than above us. Secondly, many of God's dear saints have been in the same condition. Thirdly, we want rather superfluities than necessaries. Fourthly, the more we have, the more we must account for. Fifthly, earthly blessings, through man's cor- ruption, are more prone to be abused than well-used. In some fenny places in England, where they are much troubled with gnats, they use to hang up dung in the midst of the room for a bait for the gnats to fly to, and so catch them with a net pro- vided for the purpose. Thus the devil ensnareth the souls of many men by illuring * them with the muck and dung of this world, to undo them eternally. Sixthly, we must leave all earthly wealth at our death ; " and riches avail not in the day of wrath." But as some use to fill up the stamp of light gold with dirt, thereby to make it weigh the heavier ; so it seems some men load their souls with thick clay, to make them pass the better in God's balance : but all to no purpose. Seventhly, the less we have, the less it will grieve us to leave this world. Lastly, it is the will of God, and therefore both for his glory and our good, whereof we ought to be assured. I have heard, how a gentleman, travelling in a misty morning, asked of a shepherd, (such men being generally skilled in the physiognomy of the heavens,) what weather it would be. ff It will be," said the shepherd, " what weather shall please me : " and being courteously requested to express his meaning ; " Sir," said he, "it shall be what weather pleaseth God; and what weather pleaseth God, pleaseth me." Thus contentment maketh men to " Deceiving." The substantive and adjective of this expressive word, (illusion, i/lusive,} are still in fashion j but we have abandoned the use of the verb to illure. EDTT. CHAP. XVIII. OF BOOKS. 189 have even what they think fitting themselves, because submit- ting to God's will and pleasure. To conclude : A man ought to be like a cunning actor, who, if he be enjoined to represent the person of some prince or nobleman, does it with a grace and comeliness ; if, by and by, he be commanded to lay that aside, and play the beggar, he does that as willingly and as well. But, as it happened in a tragedy, (to spare naming the person and place,) that one, being to act Theseus (in Hercules Furens) coming out of hell, could not for a long .time be persuaded to wear old sooty clothes proper for his part, but would needs come out of hell in a white satin doublet : so we are generally loath, and it goes against flesh and blood, to live in a low and poor estate, but would fain act in richer and handsomer clothes, till grace, with much ado, subdues our rebellious stomachs to God's will. CHAPTER XVIII. OF BOOKS. SOLOMON saith truly, "Of making many books there is no end ; " so insatiable is the thirst of men therein : as also endless is the desire of many in buying and reading them. But, we come to our rules : MAXIM I. It is a vanity to persuade the world one hath much learning, by getting a great Horary. As soon shall I believe every one is valiant that hath a well-furnished armory. I guess good house- keeping by the smoking, not the number, of the tunnels, as knowing that many of them (built merely for uniformity) are without chimnies, and more without fires. Once a dunce, void of learning but full of books, flouted a library-less scholar with these words : Salve, Doctor sine libris ! * But, the next day, the scholar coming into the jeerer's study crowded with books, Salvete, libri, saith he, sine Doctore ! t Good morning, Mr. Doctor without books ! " EDIT. t " A11 hail > ye good books tvithout a Doctor ! " EDIT. 190 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK III. II. Few books, well selected, are best. Yet, as a certain fool bought all the pictures that came out, because he might have his choice ; such is the vain humour of many men in gathering of books. Yet, when they have done all, they miss their end ; it being in the editions of authors as in the fashions of clothes, when a man tliinks he hath gotten the latest and newest, presently another newer comes out. in. Some books are only cursorily to be tasted of. Namely, first, voluminous books, the task of a man's life to read them over. Secondly, auxiliary books, only to be repaired-to on occasions. Thirdly, such as are mere pieces of formality, so that if you look on them you look through them ; and he that peeps through the casement of the index, sees as much as if he were in the house. But the laziness of those cannot be excused who perfunctorily pass over authors of consequence, and only trade in their tables and contents. These, like city-cheaters, having gotten the names of all country- gentlemen, make silly people believe they have long lived in those places where they never were, and nourish with skill in those authors they never seriously studied. IV. The genius of the author is commonly discovered in the Dedi- catory Epistle. Many place the purest grain in the mouth of the sack, for chapmen to handle or buy : and from the dedica- tion one may probably guess at the work, saving some rare and peculiar exceptions. Thus, when once a gentleman admired how so pithy, learned, and witty a dedication was matched to a flat, dull, foolish book; "In truth/' said another, "they may be well-matched together, for I profess they be nothing akin." v. Proportion an hour's meditation to an hour's reading of a staple author. This makes a man master of his learning, and dis-spirits * the book into the scholar. The king of Sweden never filed his men above six deep in one company, because he would not have them lie in useless clusters in his army, but so * One of the now-unusual meanings of this old word, from the distributive force of the particle cfo, is, " to infuse the spirit " of the book into the reader who thus meditates EDIT. CHAP. XVIII. OF BOOKS. 191 that every particular soldier might be drawn out into service.* Books that stand thin on the shelves, yet so as the owner of them can bring forth every one of them into use, are better than far greater libraries. VI. Learning hath gained most by those books by which the printers have lost. Arias Montanus, in printing the Hebrew Bible, (commonly called "the Bible of the King of Spain/') much wasted himself, and was accused in the Court of Rome for his good deed, and being cited thither, -f Pro tantorum laborum pramio mx veniam impetravit.% Likewise Christopher Plan- tin, by printing of his curious interlineary Bible in Antwerp, tlirough the unseasonable exactions of the king's officers, sunk and almost ruined his estate. And our worthy English knight, who set forth the golden-mouthed Father in a silver print, || was a loser by it. VII. Whereas foolish pamphlets prove most beneficial to the printers. When a French printer complained that he was utterly undone by printing a solid, serious book of Rabelais concerning physic, Rabelais, to make him recompense, made that his jest- ing, scurrilous work, which repaired the printer's loss with advantage. Such books the world swarms too much with. When one had set out a witless pamphlet, writing Finis at the end thereof, another wittily wrote beneath it, " Nay, there thou liest, my friend, In writing foolish books there is NO END." And, surely, such scurrilous, scandalous papers do more than conceivable mischief. First, their lusciousness puts many palates out of taste, that they can never after relish any solid and wholesome writers. Secondly, they cast dirt on the faces of * WARD'S "Animadversions of War," sect. xvii. lib. ii. cap. 5. f "With difficulty obtained pardon, instead of a reward, for the editorial pains which he had bestowed on that immense undertaking. "EoiT. THUANUS Obit. Virorum Doctorum, anno 1598. Idem> in eodem opere, anno 1589. II This is an allusion to sir Henry Savile's splendid edition of " the Works of St. Chrysos- tom," in 8 vols, folio. (Eton, 1613.) The Greek types employed in printing that edition were accounted the most beautiful of any in that age, and, according to vulgar exaggeration respecting this and similar works, were supposed to be formed of silver. The whole cost, including adequate literary aid, was estimated to be upwards of eight thousand pounds. .EDIT. 192 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK III. many innocent persons, which, dried-on by continuance of time, can never after be washed off. Thirdly, the pamphlets of this age may pass for records with the next, because publicly uncon- trolled ; and what we laugh at, our children may believe. Fourthly, grant the things true they jeer at, yet this music is unlawful in any Christian church, to play upon the sins and miseries of others; the fitter object of the elegies, than the satires, of all truly religious. But what do I, speaking against multiplicity of books in this age, who trespass in this nature myself ? What was a learned man's* compliment, may serve for my confession and conclu- sion : Multi mei similes hoc morbo laborant, ut cum scribere nes- ciant, tamen a scribendo temperare non possint.-\ CHAPTER XIX. OF TIME-SERVING. THERE be four kinds of time-serving. First, out of Christian discretion, which is commendable. Second, out of human infirmity, which is more pardonable. Third and Fourth, out of ignorance or affectation, both which are damnable. Of them in order : MAXIM I. He is a good time-server that complies his manners to the seve- ral ages of this life. Pleasant in youth, without wantonness ; grave in old age, without frowardness. Frost is as proper for winter, as flowers for spring. Gravity becomes the ancient ; and a green Christmas is neither handsome nor healthful. ii. He is a good time-server that finds out the fittest opportunity for every action. God hath made "a time for every thing under the sun," save only for that which we do at all times, to wit, sin. * ERASMUS, in Prafatione in tertiam seriem Ilieron. Operunt, torn. iv. p. 408. f " Many persons labour under an infirmity similar to my own : Though ill-qualified for authorship, yet they are not able to refrain from scribbling." EDIT. CHAP. XIX. OF TIME-SERVING. 193 III. He is a good time-server that improves the present for God's glory and his own salvation. Of all the extent of^time, only the instant is that which we can call " ours." IV. He is a good time-server that is pliant to the times in matters of mere indifferency. To blame are they whose minds may seem to be made of one entire bone, without any joints. They cannot bend at all, but stand as stiffly in things of pure indiffer- ency, as in matters of absolute necessity. v. He is a good time-server that in time of persecution neither betrays God's cause nor his own safety. And this he may do, 1. By lying hid both in his person and practice. Though he will do no evil, he will forbear the public doing of some good. He hath as good cheer in his heart, though he keeps not open house, and will not publicly broach his religion, till the palate of the times be better in taste to relish it. " The prudent shall keep silence in that time, for it is an evil time ; " (Amos v. 13 ;) though, according to St. Peter's command, we are " to give a reason of our hope to every one that asketh ; " (1 Peter iii. 15 ;) namely, that asketh for his instruction, but not for our destruc- tion, especially if wanting lawful authority to examine us. " Ye shall be brought," saith Christ, (no need have they, therefore, to run !) " before princes for my sake." (Matt. x. 18.) 2. By flying away. If there be no absolute necessity of his staying, no scandal given by his flight ; if he wants strength to stay it out till death ; and, lastly, if God openeth a fair way for his departure. Otherwise, if God bolts the doors and windows against him, he is not to creep out at the top of the chimney, and to make his escape by unwarrantable courses. If all should fly, truth would want champions for the present ; if none should fly, truth might want champions for the future. We come now to time-servers out of infirmity : VI. Heart-of-oak hath sometimes warped a little in the scorching heat of persecution. Their want of true courage herein cannot be excused. Yet many censure them for surrendering up their forts after a long siege, who would have yielded up -their own o 194 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK III. at the first summons. O ! there is more required to make one valiant, than to call Cranmer or Jewel " coward ; " as if the fire in Smithfield had been no hotter than what is painted in " the Book of Martyrs." VII. Yet afterwards they have come into their former straiahtness and stiffness. The troops which at first rather wheeled about than ran away, have come-in seasonable at last. Yea, their constant blushing for shame of their former cowardliness hath made their souls ever after look more modest and beautiful. Thus Cranmer, who subscribed to Popery, grew valiant after- wards, and thrust his right hand, which subscribed, first into the fire ; so that that hand died (as it were) a malefactor, and all the rest of his body a martyr. VIII. Some have served the times out of mere ignorance. Gaping, for company, as others gaped before them, Pater noster, or " Our Father/' * I could both sigh and smile at the witty simplicity of a poor old woman, who had lived in the days of queen Mary and queen Elizabeth, and said her prayers daily both in Latin and English ; and " Let God," said she, " take to himself which he likes best." IX. But worst are those who serve the times out of mere affectation. Doing as the times do, not because the times do as they should do, but merely for sinister respects, to ingratiate them- selves. We read of an earl of Oxford fined by king Henry VII. fifteen thousand marks, for having too many retainers.f But how many retainers hath time had in all ages, and servants in all offices ! yea, and chaplains too ! x. It is a very difficult thing to serve the times. They change so frequently, so suddenly, and sometimes so violently from one extreme to another. The times under Diocletian were Pagan ; under Constantine, Christian ; under Constantius, Arian ; under Julian, apostate; under Jovian, Christian again : and all within With open mouth uttering, like parrots, the Lord's Prayer, either according to the Popish or the Protestant form EDIT. + LORD BACON, in " Henry VII.," p. 211. CHAP. XIX. OF TIME-SERVING. 195 the age of man, the term of seventy years. And would it not have wrenched and sprained his soul with short turning, who in all these should have been " of the religion for the time being ? " XI. Time-servers are often-times left in the lurch. If they do not only give their word for the times in their constant discourses, but also give their bonds for them, and write in their defence. Such, when the times turn afterwards to another extreme, are left in the briers, and come off very hardly from the bill of their hands. If they turn again with the times, none will trust them ; for who will make a staff of an osier ? XII. Miserable will be the condition of such time-servers when their master is taken from them. When, as the angel swore, that "TIME shall be no longer." (Rev. x. 6.) Therefore, it is best serving of Him who is ETERNITY, a Master that can ever protect us. To conclude : He that intends to meet with one in a great fair, and knows not where he is, may sooner find him by stand- ing still in some principal place there, than by traversing it up and down. Take thy stand on some good ground in religion, and keep thy station in a fixed posture, never hunting after the times to follow them ; and, a hundred to one, they will come to thee once in thy life-time. o 2 196 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK III, CHAPTER XX. JOF MODERATION. " MODERATION is the silken string running through the pearl-chain of all virtues." * It appears both in practice and judgment : we will insist on the latter, and describe it first negatively : MAXIM I. Moderation is not a halting betwixt two opinions, when the thorough believing of one of them is necessary to salvation. No pity is to be shown to such voluntary cripples. We read of a haven in Crete, " which lay toward the south-west, and towards the north-west." (Acts xxvii. 12.) Strange, that it could have part of two opposite points, north and south ; sure it must Jbe veiy winding. And thus, some men's souls are in such intri- cate postures, they lie towards the Papists, and towards the Protestants ; such we count not of a moderate judgment, but of an immoderate unsettledness. ii. Nor is it a lukewarmness in those things wherein God's glory is concerned. Herein it is a true rule : f Non amat qui non zelat.% And they that are thus lukewarm here, shall be too hot hereafter in that oven wherein dough-baked cakes shall be burnt. in. But it is a mixture of discretion and charity in one's judgment. Discretion puts a difference betwixt things absolutely neces- sary to salvation to be done and believed, and those which are of a second sort and lower form, wherein more liberty and lati- tude is allowed. In maintaining whereof, the stiffness of the judgment is abated, and suppled with charity towards his neighbour. The lukewarm man eyes only his own ends and particular profit ; the moderate man aims at the good of others, and unity of the church. * BISHOP HALL, "Of Christian Moderation," p. 6. f AUGUSTINUS contra Adamant., cap. 13. + He who evinces little zeal possesses no love." EDIT. CHAP. XX. OF MODERATION. 197 IV. Yet such moderate men are commonly crushed betwixt the extreme parties on both sides. But what said Ignatius ? * " I am Christ's wheat, and must be ground with the teeth of beasts, that I may be made God's pure manchet." f Saints are born to suffer, and must take it patiently. Besides, in this world generaUy they get the least preferment; it faring with them, as with the guest that sate in the midst of the table, who could reach to neither mess, above or beneath him : Esuriunt medii, fines bene sunt saturati ; Diocerunt stulti, Medium tenuere beati. " Both ends o' th 1 table furnish'd are with meat, Whilst they in middle nothing have to eat. They were none of the wisest, well I wist, Who made bliss in the middle to consist." Yet these temporal inconveniences of moderation are abun- dantly recompensed with other better benefits : for, 1. A well-informed judgment in itself is a preferment. Potamon began a sect of philosophers called *ExXexT*xo/,J [" the Eclectics"] who wholly adhered to no former sect, but chose out of all of them what they thought best. Surely, such divines, who in unimporting controversies extract the probablest opinions from all professions, are best at ease in their minds. 2. As the moderate man's temporal hopes are not great, so his fears are the less. He fears not to have the splinters of his party, when it breaks, fly into his eyes, or to be buried under the ruins of his side, if suppressed. He never pinned his reli- gion on any man's sleeve ; no, not on " the arm of flesh ; " and therefore is free from all dangerous engagements. 3. His conscience is clear from raising schisms in the church. The Turks did use to wonder much at our Englishmen for pinking or cutting their clothes, counting them little better than mad for their pains, to make holes in whole cloth, which time of itself would tear too soon ! || But grant, men may do with their own garments as their fancy adviseth them ; yet woe be to such who willingly cut and rend the seamless coat of Christ with dissensions ! , lib. v. f According to PHILLIPS and KERSEY : " Man- chet, the finest and smallest sort of wheaten bread." EDIT. J DIOGENES LAERTES, in fine proamii. According to PHILLIPS and KERSEY: " To pink, to cut silk, taffety, cloth, &c., with variety of figures." EDIT. II BIDULPH, in his " Travel to Jerusalem," p. 98. 198 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK Til. 4. His religion is more constant and durable ; being here, in via, " in his way " to heaven, and, jogging-on a good traveller's pace, he overtakes and outgoes many violent men, whose over- hot, ill-grounded zeal was quickly tired. 5. In matters of moment, indeed, none are more zealous. He'thriftily treasured up his spirits for that time, who if he had formerly rent his lungs for every trifle, he would have wanted breath in points of importance. 6. Once in an age the moderate man is in fashion. Each extreme courts him, to make them friends ; and, surely, he hath a great advantage to be a peace-maker betwixt opposite parties. Now, whilst (as we have said) moderate men are constant to themselves, v. Violent men reel from one extremity to another. Who would think that the East and West Indies were so near together? whose names speak them at diametrical opposition. And yet their extremities are either the same continent, or parted with a very narrow sea. As the world is round, so we may observe a circulation in opinions, and violent men turn often round in their tenets. VI. Pride is the greatest enemy to moderation. This makes men stickle for their opinions, to make them fundamental. Proud men, having deeply studied some additional point in divinity, will strive to make the same necessary to salvation, to enhance the value of their own worth and pains ; and it must be funda- mental in religion, because it is fundamental to their reputation. Yea, as love doth descend, and men doat most on their grand- children ; so these are indulgent to the deductions of their deductions and consequential inferences to the seventh genera- tion, making them all of the foundation, though scarce of the building, of religion. Ancient Fathers* made "the Creed/' Symbolum,-\ the shot and total sum of faith. Since which, how many arrearages and after-reckonings have men brought us in ? To which if we will not pay our belief, our souls must be arrested, without bail, upon pain of damnation. Next to pride, popular applause is the greatest foe moderation hath ; -and, sure, * IRE NJE IT s, cap. 2, 3 ; TERTULLIANUS De Virgin. Velan. ; HILARIUS ad Constant. August.; TAUR. MAXIM, Sermo De Symbolo ; AUGUSTINI, Serm. 2, et 1081. De tempore. f That fi ne summary of necessary Christian doctrine, commonly called " the Apostles' Creed." EDIT. CHAP. XXI. OF GRAVITY. 199 they who sail with that wind have their own vain-glory for their haven. To close up all : Let men, on God's blessing, soundly (yet wisely) whip and lash lukewarmness and time-serving; their thongs will never fly in the face of true moderation, to do it any harm ; for, however men may undervalue it, that Father * spake most truly : Si virtutum finis ilk sit maximus, qui plurimorum spectat profectum, moderatio prope omnium pulcherrima CHAPTER XXI. OF GRAVITY. GRAVITY is the ballast of the soul, which keeps the mind steady. It is either true, or counterfeit. MAXIM I. Natural dulness, and heaviness of temper, is sometimes mis- taken for true gravity. In such men in whose constitutions one of the tetrarch elements, fire, may seem to be omitted. These sometimes not only cover their defects, but get praise: Scepe latet vitium proximitate boni.% They do wisely to counterfeit a reservedness, and to keep their chests always locked, not for fear any should steal treasure thence, but lest some should look in, and see that there is nothing within them. But they who are born eunuchs, deserve no such great commendation for their chastity. Wonder not much, that such men are grave, but wonder at them if they be not grave. n. Affected gravity passes often for that which is true. I mean, with dull eyes, for in itself is nothing more ridiculous. When one shall use the preface of a mile, to bring-in a furlong of matter, set his face and speech in a frame, and, to make men * AMBROSIUS De Pceniten. contra Novat., lib. i. cap. 1. f " For if that design of the virtues be the most sublime which has regard to the benefit of the greatest number of persons, then may moderation stand, almost without rivalry, as the fairest of the fair." EDIT. $ "A vice often lies concealed in the immediate vicinage of a virtue." EDIT. 200 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK III. believe it is some precious liquor, their words come out drop by drop : such men's vizards do sometimes fall from them, not without the laughter of the beholders. One was called " Gra- vity " for his affected solemnness, who, afterwards being catched in a light prank, was ever after, to the day of his death, called " Gravity-levity." in. True gravity expresseth itself in gait, gesture) apparel, and speech. * Vox qucedam est animi, corporis motus.^ As for speech, gravity enjoins it, 1. Not to be overmuch. "In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin." (Prov. x. 19.) For, of necessity, many of them must be idle, whose best commendation is, that they are good for nothing. Besides, \ Dum otiosa verba caver e neyligi- mus y ad noxia pervenimus. And great talkers discharge too thick to take always true aim ; besides, it is odious in a com- pany. A man full of words, who took himself to be a grand wit, made his brag that he was the leader of the discourse in what company soever he came, and, " None," said he, " dare speak in my presence, if I hold my peace." "No wonder," answered one, " for they are all struck dumb at the miracle of your silence." 2. To be wise and discreet. "Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt." (Coloss. iv. 6.) Always, not only sometimes in the company of godly men. TindaVs being in the room hindered a juggler that he could not play his feats. || (A saint's presence stops the deviFs elbow-room to do his tricks !) And so some wicked men are awed into good discourse, whilst pious people are present. But it must be always "seasoned with salt," which is the primum vivens et ultimum moriens at a feast, first brpught, and last taken away, and set in the midst as most necessary thereunto. With salt, that is, with wisdom and discretion, non salibus, sed sale;^ nor yet with smarting jeers, like those whose discourse is " fire-salt," speak- ing constant satires to the disgrace of others. * Ambrosius De Offic., lib. i. cap. 18. f " The motion of the body is frequently an indication, almost equal to a vocal declaration, of the feelings or inten- tions of the mind." EDIT. GREG. Moral, lib. vii. cap. 17. " While we are negligent in avoiding the use of vain words, we soon begin to employ those which are injurious." EDIT. || Fox's " Martyrs," p. 1079. JT " Not with smart and flighty sayings, but with such pleasant and uncorrupted discourse as may minister grace to the hearers" EDIT. CHAP. XXI. OP GRAVITY. 201 IV. That may be done privately without breach of gravity, which may not be done publicly. As when a father makes himself his child's rattle, sporting with him till the father hath devoured the wise man in him. Equitans in arundme longa. " Instead of stately steed, Riding upon a reed : " making play unto him, that one would think he killed his own discretion, to bring his child asleep. Such cases are no trespass on gravity ; and married men may claim their privilege, to be judged by their peers, and may herein appeal from the censuring verdict of bachelors. v. Nature in men is sometimes unjustly taxed for a trespass against gravity. Some have active spirits ; yea, their ordinary pace is a race. Others have so scornful a carriage, that he who seeth them once, may think them to be all pride ; whilst he that seeth them often, knows them to have none. Others have, per- chance, a misbeseeming garb in gesture which they cannot amend ; that fork needing strong tines * wherewith one must thrust away nature. A fourth sort are of a merry, cheerful dis- position ; and God forbid all such should be condemned for lightness ! O, let not any envious eye disinherit men of that which is their " portion in this life," (Eccles. v. 18,) comfort- ably to enjoy the blessings thereof ! Yet gravity must prune, though not root out, our mirth. VI. Gracious deportment may sometimes unjustly be accused of lightness. Had one seen David dancing before the ark, (2 Sam. vi. 16,) Elijah in his praying- posture when he put his head betwixt his legs, (1 Kings xviii. 42,) perchance he might have condemned them pf unfitting behaviour. Had he seen Peter * The teeth or grains of a fork or harrow. Fuller in this passage alludes to Horace's celebrated line, (Epist. lib. i. 10, 24,) Naturam expelles furca, tamen -usque recurret. Which FRANCIS thus translates: " Drive Nature out with proud disdain, The powerful goddess will return again." EDIT. 202 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK III. and John posting to Christ's grave, (John xx. 4,) Rhoda run- ning into the house, (Acts xii. 14,} he would have thought they had left their gravity behind them. But let none blame them for their speed until he knows what were their spurs, and what were the motives that urged them to make such haste. These their actions were the true conclusions, following from some inward premisses in their own souls ; and that may be a syllo- gism in grace, which appears a solecism in manners. VII. In some persons gravity is most necessary. Namely, in magis- trates and ministers. One Palavizine, an Italian gentleman, and kinsman to Scaliger, had in one night all his hair changed from black to grey.* Such an alteration ought there to be in the heads of every one that enters into holy orders or public office, metamorphosed from all lightness to gravity. VIII. God alone is the giver of all gravity. No man wants so much of any grace as He hath to spare ; and a constant impression of God's omnipresence is an excellent way to fix men's souls. Bishop Andrews ever placed the picture of Mulcaster, his school- master, over the door of his study, (whereas in all the rest of his house you should scarce see a picture,) as to be his tutor and supervisor, f Let us constantly apprehend God's being in pre- sence, and this will fright us into staid behaviour. * SCALIGER, De Subtil., p. 18. f Vide in the Funeral Sermon on him, p. 18. CHAP. XXII. OF MARRIAGE. 203 CHAPTER XXII. OF MARRIAGE. SOME men have too much decried marriage, as if she (the mother) were scarce worthy to wait on virginity, (her daughter,) and as if it were an advancement for marriage to be preferred before fornication, and praise enough for her to be adjudged lawful. Give this holy estate her due, and then we shall find, MAXIM I. TJiough bachelors be the strongest stakes, married men are the best binder Sj in the hedge of the commonwealth. It is the policy of the Londoners, when they send a ship into the Levant or Mediterranean Sea, to make every mariner therein a merchant, each seaman adventuring somewhat of his own, which will make him more wary to avoid, and more valiant to undergo, dangers. Thus married men, especially if having posterity, are the deeper sharers in that State wherein they live; which engageth their affections to the greater loyalty. ii. It is the worst clandestine marriage , when God is not invited to it. Wherefore, beforehand beg his gracious assistance. Mar- riage shall prove no lottery to thee, when the hand of Provi- dence chooseth for thee ; who, if drawing a blank, can turn it into a prize, by sanctifying a bad wife unto thee. in. Deceive not thyself by over-expecting happiness in the married estate. Look not therein for contentment greater than God will give, or a creature in this world can receive ; namely, to be free from all inconveniences. Marriage is not like the hill Olympus, oAoj Aa/x.7rpo'f, " wholly clear," without clouds. Yea, expect both wind and storms sometimes, which when blown over, the air is the clearer and wholesomer for it. Make account of certain cares and troubles which will attend thee. Remem- ber the nightingales which sing only some months in the spring, but commonly are silent when they have hatched their eggs, as 204 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK III. if their mirth were turned into care for their young ones. Yet all the molestations of marriage are abundantly recompensed with other comforts, which God bestoweth on them who make a wise choice of a wife, and observe the following rules : IV. Let grace and goodness be the principal loadstone of thy affec-. tions. For, love which hath ends, will have an end ; whereas that which is founded in true virtue, will always continue. Some hold it unhappy to be married with a diamond-ring; perchance, (if there be so much reason in their folly,) because the diamond hinders the roundness of the ring, ending the infinite- ness thereof, and seems to presage some termination in their love, which ought ever to endure ; and so it will, when it is founded in religion. v. Neither choose all, nor not at all, for beauty. A cried-up beauty makes more for her own praise than her husband's pro- fit. They tell us of a floating-island in Scotland ; but, sure, no wise pilot will cast anchor there, lest the land swim away with his ship. So are they served, and justly enough, who only fasten their love on fading beauty, and both fail together. VI. Let there be no great disproportion in age. They that marry ancient people merely in expectation to bury them, hang them- selves, in hope that one will come and cut the halter. Nor is God's ordinance, but man's abusing thereof, taxed in this homely expression, used by the apostle himself. If virginity enforced above the parties' power be termed by St. Paul, "a snare or halter," * (1 Cor. vii. 35,) marriage is no better when against one's will, for private respects. VII. Let wealth in its due distance be regarded. There be two towns in the land of Liege called Bovins and Dinant, the inhabitants whereof bear almost an incredible hatred one to another, and yet notwithstanding their children usually marry together ; and the reason is, because there is none other good town or wealthy place near them.f Thus parents, for a little * 'Ov X 1va. &p6xov vijuv (Tr^d\w, 1 Cor. vii. 35. f PHILIP DE COMINES, lib. ii. cap. 1. CHAP. XXIII. OF FAME. 205 pelf, often many their children to those whose persons they hate; and thus union betwixt families is not made, but the breach rather widened the more. This shall serve for a conclusion : A bachelor was saying, " Next to no wife, a good wife is best." " Nay," said a gentle- woman, " next to a good wife, no wife is the best." I wish to all married people the outward happiness which, anno 1605, hap- pened to a couple in the city of Delph in Holland, living most lovingly together seventy-five years in wedlock ; till the man, being one hundred and three, the woman, ninety-nine years of age, died within three hours each of other, and were buried in the same grave.* CHAPTER XXIII. OF FAME. FAME is the echo of actions, resounding them to the world, save that the echo repeats only the last part, but fame relates all, and often more than, all. MAXIM I. Fame sometimes hath created something of nothing. She hath made whole countries, more than ever nature did, especially near the poles; and then hath peopled them likewise with inhabitants of her own invention, pigmies, giants, and Ama- zons. Yea, fame is sometimes like unto a kind of mushroom, which Pliny recounts to be the greatest miracle in nature, because growing and having no root, as fame no ground of her reports.f ii. Fame often makes a great deal of a little. Absalom killed one of David's sons, (2 Sam. xiii. 30,) and fame killed all the rest ; and generally she magnifies and multiplies matters. Loud was that lie which that bell told, hanging in a clock-house at West- THUANUS, De Obit. Virorum Doctorum, in eodem anno, p. 185. f In miraculis vel maximum est tubera nasci et vivere sine ulla radice. PLINII Nat. Hist., lib. xix. cap. 2. 206 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK III. minster, and usually rung at the coronation and funerals of princes, having this inscription about it, " King Edward made me Thirty thousand and three ; Take me down and weigh me, And more shall you find me." But when this bell was taken down at the dooms-day of abbeys, this and two more were found not to weigh twenty thousand.* Many relations of fame are found to shrink accordingly. in. Some fames are most difficult to trace home to their form. And those who have sought to track them, have gone rather in a circle than forward ; and oftentimes, through the doubling of reports, have returned back again where they began. Fame being a bastard, or filia populi, it is very hard to find her father ; and often-times she hath rather all than any for her first authors. IV. Politicians sometimes raise fames on purpose. As that such things are done already, which they mean to do afterwards. By the light of those false fires, they see into men's hearts ; and these false rumours are true scouts to discover men's disposi- tions. Besides, the deed, though strange in itself, is done afterwards with the less noise, men having vented their wonder beforehand ; and the strangeness of the action is abated, because formerly made stale in report. But if the rumour startles men extremely, and draws with it dangerous consequences, then they can presently confute it, let their intentions fall, and prosecute it no further. v. The Papal side, of all fame-merchants, drive the most gainful trade. As that worthy knight hath given us an exact " Survey" thereof.f But, long before them, strange was that plot of Stratocles, who gave it out that he had gotten a victory ; and the constant report thereof continued three days, and then was confuted : and Stratocles being charged with abusing his people - STOW'S "Survey of London," p. 528. -f- SIR EDWARD SANDYS'S " View of the West Religion?," p. 100. CHAP. XXIII. OF FAME. 207 with a lie, " Why," said he, " are ye angry with me for making you pass three days in mirth and jollity, more than otherwise you should ? * VI. Incredible is the swiftness of fame in carrying reports. First, she creeps through a village, then she goes through a town, then she runs through a city, then she flies through a country, still the farther the faster. Yea, Christ, who made the dumb speak, made not tell-tale fame silent, though charging those he cured to hold their peace ; ' ' but so much the more went there a FAME abroad of him." (Luke v. 15.) Yea, some things have been reported soon as ever they were done at impossible dis- tance. The overthrow of Perseus was brought out of Macedoii to Home in four days.f And, in Domitian's time, a report was brought two thousand five hundred miles in one day. In which accidents, 1. Fame takes post on some other advantage. Thus the overthrow of the Sabines was known at Rome prius pene quam nunciari possit,\ by the means of the arms of the Sabines drowned in the river of Tiber, and carried down by the tide to Rome. And thus, anno 1568, the overthrow which the Spa- niards gave the Dutch at the river of Ems, was known at Groningen before any horseman could reach thither, by the multitude of the Dutch caps which the river brought down into the city. 1 1 But these conveyances are but slugs to make such miraculous speed : wherefore sometimes reports are carried, 2. By the ministration of spirits. The devils are well at leisure to play such pranks, and may do it in a frolic. And yet they would scarce be the carriers, except they were well paid for the portage, getting some profit thereby, (doing of mischief is all the profit they are capable of,) and do harm to some by the suddenness of those reports. Or else, 3. The fame is antedated and raised before the fact, being related at guess before it was acted. Thus, some have been causelessly commended for early rising in the morning, who indeed came to their journey's end over-night. If such fore- made reports prove true, they are admired and registered; if false, neglected and forgotten : as those only which escaped shipwreck hung up votivas tabulas, " tablets with their names," * PLUTARCH'S IIoAm/ca Uapayyf\fj.ara. -J- LIVY, lib. xlv., juxta princip. % " Almost sooner than it could be narrated." -EDIT. LIVY, lib. i. || FAMIANUS STRADA De Bello Belgico, lib. v. p. 456. 208 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK III. in those haven-towns where they came ashore. But as for those who are drowned, their memorials are drowned with them. VII. General reports are seldom false. Vox populi vox Dei. A body of that greatness hath an eye of like clearness ; and it is impossible that a wanderer, with a counterfeit pass, should pass undiscovered. VIII. A fond fame is best confuted by neglecting it. By " fond " understand such a report as is rather ridiculous, than danger- ous, if believed. It is not worth the making a schism betwixt newsmongers to set up an anti-fame against it. Yea, seriously and studiously to endeavour to confute it, will grace the rumour too much, and give suspicion that indeed there is some reality in it. What madness were it to plant a piece of ordnance to beat down an aspen leaf, which, having always the palsy, will at last fall down of itself! And fame hath much of the scold in her ; the best way to silence her is, to be silent, and then at last she will be out of breath with blowing her own trumpet. IX. Fame sometimes reports things less than they are. Pardon her for offending herein, she is guilty so seldom. For one kingdom of Scotland, which, they say, geographers describe a hundred miles too short, most northern countries are made too large. Fame generally overdoes ; underdoes but in some particulars. The Italian proverb hath it : " There is less honesty, wisdom, and money in men than is counted on : " yet sometimes a close churl, who locks his coffers so fast fame could never peep into them, dieth richer than he was reported when alive. None could come near to feel his estate ; it might therefore cut fatter in his purse than was expected. But fame falls most short in those transcendents which are above her predicaments; as in Solomon's wisdom : " And, behold, one half was not told me : thy wisdom and prosperity exceedeth the fame that I heard. " (1 Kings x. 7.) But chiefly in fore-reporting the happiness in heaven, which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive. CHAP. XXIV. ANTIQUITY AND NECESSITY OF CHURCHES. 209 CHAPTER XXIV. OF THE ANTIQUITY OF CHURCHES, AND NECESSITY OF THEM. WE will consider their antiquity amongst the Jews, Heathens, and Christians. Now, temples, amongst the Jews, were more or less ancient, as the acceptation of the word is straiter or larger. MAXIM I. Take TEMPLE for " a covered standing structure," and the Jews had none till the time of Solomon. Which was, from the begin- ning of the world, about two thousand nine hundred [and] thirty- two years : * till then, they had neither leave nor liberty to build a temple. For the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, lived in pilgrimage; their posterity in Egypt, in persecution; their children in the wilderness, in constant travelling; their successors in Canaan, in continual warfare, till the days of Solomon. ii. Take TEMPLUM for TECTUM AMPLUM,f " a large place covered to serve God therein," and the tabernacle was a movaM* temple. Built by Moses in the wilderness, about the year of Hie world two thousand four hundred [and] fifty-five. Yea, we find God's Spirit styling this tabernacle " a temple : " " Eli the priest sate upon a seat by a pillar of the temple/' (1 Sam. i. 9.) " Before the lamp of the Lord went out in the temple/' (1 Sam. iii. 3.) Such a portable church Constantine had carried about with him when he went to war 4 in. God's children had places with altars to serve God in, before they had any temples. Such altars seem as ancient as sacrifices ; both which are twins ; and in relatives find one and find both. Indeed, the first altar we read of in Scripture is that which Noah built after the flood. But hear what a learned man saith thereof: Non tamen existimandum toto illo tempore, quo ante Vide Chr&n. HELVICI. f ISIDORUS, lib. xv. cap. 14. $ SOCRATES, lib. i. cap. 14 ; et SOZOMEN., lib. i. cap. 8. RIVETUS, in Genesim, p. 275. P 210 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK III diluvium pii homines Deo sacrificarunt, altarium usum fuiss( incognitum. Potius id credendum, Noachum sequutum fuisst exemplum eorum, qui eum prcecesserant, imo morem inolitum* IV. The Jews, beside the temple, had many other synagogues. Serving instead of chapels-of-ease to the mother-church at Jeru- salem. In the New Testament, (the temple yet standing,) it is plain that Christ- often graced such synagogues with his pre- sence and preaching ; and it is probable they were in use ever since Joshua's time, when the land was first inhabited with Israelites, and that the Levites, dispersed all over the land, did teach the people therein : f otherwise, Palestine was a great parish, and some therein had [to walk] an hundred miles to church; besides, people's souls were poorly fed, having but three meals in a year, being but thrice to appear at Jerusalem. v. Many Heathen temples were ancienter than that of Solomon's. Amongst which Pagan temples, there is much justling for precedency; though some think that of Apis in Egypt shows the best evidence for her seniority, wherein was worshipped an ox, of whose herd (not to say breed) was the calf which the Israelites worshipped in the wilderness, being made in imitation thereof. But the Heathen had this gross conceit, that their gods we^ affixed to their statues, as their statues were confined in their temples ; so that, in effect, they did not so much build temples for their gods, as thereby lay nets to catch them in, inviting them thither as into a palace, and then keeping them there as in a prison. VI. Most civilized Heathen nations had temples for their gods. I say, most. For the Persians are said to have none at all. Perchance, it was because they chiefly worshipped the sun; and then, according to the general opinion of fixing deities to their temples, it was in vain to erect any structure, therein to restrain and keep his ubiquitary beams. And yet that the " For the supposition must not be once entertained, that in the long period before the flood, during which pious men offered sacrifices to God, the use of altars was unknown. We ought rather to believe, that in this Noah followed the example of his predecessors, and that this ancient usage had become regularly engrafted on the general practice of mankind." EDIT. -f- HOSPINIANUS, De Orig. Temp., cap. iv.. CHAP. XXIV. ANTIQUITY AND NECESSITY OF CHURCHES. 211 Persians were wholly temple-less will hardly be believed, seeing the Assyrians on this side, (Sennacherib was killed, worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, 2 Kings xix. 37,) and the Indians on the other side of them, had their temples erected, as some will have it, by Bacchus, their Dionysius. Yea, we find a temple in Persia dedicated to Nanea, in the time of Antiochus : * and though it may be pretended that the influence of the Grecian empire on the Persians had then spiced them with a smack of Grecism, yet Nanea will scarce be proved any Grecian deity ; not to say any thing of the temple of Bel. Civilized. For, as for the Scythian wandering Nomades, temples sorted not with their condition, as wanting both civility and settled- ness : and who can expect churches from them, who had no houses for themselves ? Lastly, I say, nation. For the Stoics only, a conceited sect, forbade any building of temples, either out of derision of the common deceit that deities were kept in durance in their temples ; or else out of humour, because they counted the general practice of other men a just ground for their contrary opinion. And now we come to the antiquity of Christian churches ; and crave leave of the reader, that we may for a while dissolve our continued discourse into a dialogue. A. I am much perplexed to find the beginning of Christian churches in the Scripture. There I find the saints meeting " in the house of Mary the mother of Mark," in " the school of Tyramms," "in an upper chamber;" but can see no founda- tion of a church ; I mean, of a place and structure separated and set apart solely for Divine service. B. That the saints had afterwards churches in your sense, is plain : " Have ye not houses to eat and drink in, or despise ye the church of God, and shame them that have not ? " (1 Cor. xi. 22.) Here the opposition is a good exposition of the apos- tle's meaning; and the antithesis betwixt houses and church speaks them both to be local : so that St. Paul thought their material church " despised," that is, abused and unreverenced, by their lay-meeting of love-feasts therein. A. By your favour, sir, the apostle by " church " meaneth there " the assembly or society of God's servants," as appears by what followeth: " Or despise ye the church of God, and shame them that have not ? " Them, and not that, not speaking of the place but persons. The latter words of the apostle comment on the former, showing how "to shame those who had not," (that is, 2 Maccabees i. 13. Vide etiam 1 Maccabees vi. 2. p 2 212 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK III. to neglect and upbraid the poor,) is to " despise the church of God." B. Pardon me, sir; for the apostle therein accuseth the Corinthians of a second fault. Imprimis, he chargeth them for despising God's material church ; item, for shaming their poor brethren in their love-feasts ; the particle " and " showeth the addition of a new charge, but no expounding or amplifying of the former. But, sir, suspending our judgments herein, let us descend to the primitive times before Constantine : we shall there find churches, without any contradiction. A. Not so, neither. Herein also the trumpet of antiquity giveth a very uncertain sound. Indeed, we have but little left of the story of those times, wherein Christian books were as much persecuted as men; and but a few confessor-records, escaping martyrdom, are come to our hands. Yea, God may seem to have permitted the suppression of primitive history, lest men should be too studious in reading, and observant in prac- tising, the customs of that age, even to the neglecting and undervaluing of his written word. B. Yet how slenderly soever those primitive times are storied, there is enough in them to prove the antiquity of churches. I will not instance on the decrees of Euaristus, Hyginus, and other Popes, in the first three hundred years, about the consecrating of churches, because their authority is suspected as antedated ; and none are bound to believe, that the Gibeonites came from so far a country as their mouldy bread and clouted shoes did pretend. Churches are plainly to be found in Tertullian, two hundred years after Christ ; and Euse- bius witnesseth, that, before the time of Diocletian, the Chris- tians had churches, which the tyrant caused to be destroyed.* A. But Origen, Minutius Felix, Arnobius, and Lactantius, being pressed by the Heathen, that Christians had no churches, answered, by way of confession, yielding that they had nqne.f * Hist. Eccks., lib. viii. cap. 1 et 2. f Objicit nobis Celsus quod non habeamus imagines, out aras, aut templa. ORIGINES, Contra Celsum, lib. iv. Celsus et aras et simulacra et delubra ait nos defugere quo minus fundentur, Idem, Contra Celsum, lib. viii. Accusatis nos quod nee templa habeamus, nee imagines, nee aras. ARNOBIUS, Contra Gentes, lib. iv. Putatis autem nos occultare quod calamus, si delubra et aras non habemus. MINUTIUS FELIX, p. 73. Quid sibi templa, quid arcs volunt, quid denique ipsa simulacra? $c. LACTANTIUS. " Celsus objects against us, that we have no images, altars, or temples." ORIGEV. "Celsus says, that we refrain from erecting altars, statues, and tem- ples." Idem. " You accuse us of having neither temples, images, nor altars." CHAP. XXIV. ANTIQUITY AND NECESSITY OF CHURCHES. 213 This is the difficulty [which] perplexeth me. It was a bloody speech of Abner : " Let the young men rise up and play before us/' But worse is their cruelty who make sport at the falling out of the old men, when the reverend brows of antiquity knock one against another, and Fathers thus extremely differ in matters of fact. B. Why, Sir? A charitable distinction may reconcile them : if by churches, " stately magnificent fabrics " be meant, in that acceptation the Christians had no churches. But small orato- ries and prayer-places they then had, though little, low, and dark; being so fearful of persecution, they were jealous the sun-beams should behold them: and indeed stately churches had but given a fairer aim to their enemies' malice to hit them . Such a homely place learned sir Henry Spelman * presents us with, which was first founded at Glastonbury, thatched and wattled : and let not our churches, now grown men, look with a scornful eye on their own picture, when babes in their swad- dling clothes. And no wonder if God's house Erubuit Domino cultior esse suo, " The church did blush more glory for to have Than had her Lord. He begg'd ; should she be brave ? " Christ himself being then cold, and hungry, and naked in his afflicted members. Such a mean oratory Tertullian calls Triclinium Christianvrumrf " the parlour/' or " three-bed-room, of the Christians." A. But it seems not to consist with Christian ingenuity J for the fore-named Fathers absolutely to deny their having of churches, because they had only poor ones. B. Take, then, another answer; namely, In denying they had no temples, they meant it in the same notion wherein they were interrogated, to wit, they had no temples like the Pagans for Heathen gods, no claustra numinum, "wherein the Deity they served was imprisoned." Or may we not say, that in that age the Christians had no churches generally, though they might have them in some places ? the elevation of their happi- ness being varied according to several climates : and Chris- ARNOBIUS. " But you suppose that we conceal the object of our worship, since we have neither temples nor altars." .MINUTIUS FELIX. LACTANTIUS says, " What meaning do they wish to convey by temples and altars, or even by statues*" EDIT. De Conciliis Sritan., p. 11. t Adversus Gentes, cap. 3, 9. $ " Ingenuousness," as the word then very generally signified EDIT. 214 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK III. tencloin then being of so large an extent, it might be stormy with persecution in one country, and fair weather in another. We come now to the NECESSITY. VII. There is no absolute necessity that Christians should have churches. No necessity at all in respect of God, no absolute necessity in respect of men, when persecution hinders the erecting of them : in such a case, any place is made a church for the time being ; as any private house where the king and his retinue meet is presently made the court. VIII. Christians have no direct precept to build churches under the Gospel. I say, " direct : " for the law of God, which commands a public sanctification of a sabbath, must needs, by way of necessary consequence, imply a set, known, and public place.* Besides, God's command to Moses and Solomon to build a temple, in a manner obligeth us to build churches. In which command, observe the body and the soul thereof. The BODY thereof was ceremonial and mortal, yea, died, and is buried in our Saviour's grave : the SOUL thereof is moral and eternal, as founded in nature, and is always to endure. Thus St. Paul finds a constant bank for ministers' maintenance locked up in a ceremonial law : " Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn." The apostle, on the morality couched therein, founded the charter of endowment for ministers in the Gospel. Besides, God hath left a warrant dormant with his church : " Let all things be done decently and in order." And this ties Christians tp the building of churches for their public assemblies, whereby not only decency but piety is so much advanced, especially in these three respects : 1. Hereby the same meat serves to feed many guests, one pastor instructing many people in the same place. 2. Devotion is increased with company. Their praises are the louder; and music is sweetest in a full concert. Their prayers are the stronger, besetting God as it were in a round, Ut communes fidelibus preces Deus verlo suo edicit, sic et templa publica ipsis peragendis destinata esse oportet CALVIN i Institutiones, lib. iii. cap. xx. num. 30. CALVIN says, " As Gcd in his word enjoins on believers the performance of common prayers, so it is of necessary consequence that He has appointed the erec- tion of churches for such Divine service." EDIT. CHAP. XXIV. ANTIQUITY AND NECESSITY OF CHURCHES. 215 and not suffering Him to depart till he hath blessed them. * Hcec vis grata Deo.-f 3. The very place itself, being dedicated to God's service, is a monitor to them hoc agere,% and stirs up pious thoughts in them. Say not, " It is but lame devotion that cannot mount without the help of such a wooden stock ; " rather, it is lame indeed which is not raised, though having the advantage thereof. IX. Those that may, must frequent the public churches. Such as now-a-days are ambitious of conventicles are deeply guilty : for as it had been desperate madness, in time of persecution, pub- licly to resort to Divine service, so it is no less unthankfulness to God now, to serve him in woods and holes, not taking notice of the liberty of the Gospel, which he graciously hath vouch- safed; yea, such people in effect deny the king to be a " Defender of the Faith," but make him a persecutor rather, in that they dare not avouch the truth in the face of his authority. If it be good they do, thanks be to God ! it may be done any where ; if bad, it must be done no where. Besides, by their voluntary private meetings, they give occasions to many to suspect their actions there : and, grant them unjustly traduced for their behaviour therein, yet can they not justly be excused, because they invite slanderous tongues to censure them, in not " providing for honest things in the sight of men," and clearing God's service as well from the suspicion, as from the guilt, of any dishonesty. We should now come to speak of the holiness, reverence, decency, and magnificence of churches : but herein I had rather hear the judgments of other men. Let it serve instead of a conclusion to observe, that Solomon's temple was the stateliest structure that ever was or shall be in the world; built by the wealthiest contrived by the wisest king, in seven years, (now counted the life of a man,) by an army of workmen, no fewer than one hundred fifty-three thousand three hundred, (1 Kings v. 15, 16,) of the soundest timber, most precious stones, most proper metal, as the nature of the things required; either the strongest, brass ; or the richest, gold : in a word, earth gave it most costly matter, and Heaven itself most curious workman- ship, God directing them. And though Solomon had no mines TERTULLIANI Apologia. f " Such holy violence is pleasing to God." EDIT. " To perform such Divine service." EDIT. 216 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK III. of gold and silver in his own land, yet bad he the spoils and gifts of the neighbouring nations ; and, once in three years, the golden land of Ophir came swimming to Jerusalem. God being the landlord of the earth, Solomon was then his receiver, to whom the world paid-in her rent, to build his temple. And was not he a most wealthy king, "in whose days silver was nothing accounted of?" seeing, in our days, the commander of both Indies hath so much brass coin current in his court ? As for Josephus's conceit, that the second edition of the temple by Zerubbabel, as it was new forelled and filleted* with gold by Herod, was a statelier volume than the first of Solomon ; it is too weak a surmise to have a confutation fastened to it. And yet we will not deny but the world hath seen greater buildings for the piles and fabrics; as may appear by this parallel : 1. God's temple, built at Jerusalem by Solomon ; sixty cubits long, twenty cubits broad, thirty cubits high. (2 Cliron. iii. 3.) 2. Diana's temple, built at Ephesus by the kings of Asia; four hundred and twenty-five feet long, two hundred and twenty feet broad, sixty feet high.f 3. Sepulchre church, built on Mount Calvary by Constantine ; long, broad, high. We find no set dimension, but hyperbolical expressions of it.J 4. St. Sophia's church, built at Constantinople by Justinian ; two hundred and sixty feet long, seventy-five feet broad, one hundred and eighty feet high. 5. St. Paul's church, built at London by king Ethelbert; six hundred and ninety feet long, one hundred and thirty feet broad, one hundred and two feet high.|| 6. Turkish mosque, built at Fez ; one hundred and fifty * These two verbs are book -binders' terms, well understood in Fuller's days, and not now obsolete. To forel then meant to cover with vellum, as well as with com- mon parchment ; though it is now generally restricted to the latter material, prepared from sheep-skins. To fillet signifies to adorn with a gold line any part of the back or sides of a book. The word volume, in the next clause of the sentence, shows that this was our author's meaning. EDIT. -f PLINII Nat. Hist., lib. xxxvi. cap. 14. $ "ftyos, Hireipov JU,T)KOS [/col] -OT\(TOS, M vrKeurra tvpvv6p.fvov. EUSEBIUS, De Vita Constantini, lib. iii. cap. 24. " In height it was boundless ; in length and breadth it extended beyond concep- tion." EDIT. EVAGRIUS, lib. iv. cap. 30. || Namely, in the body of the church, beside the steeple. .CAMDEN'S Britannia, in Middlesex. CHAP. XXIV. ANTIQUITY AND NECESSITY OF CHURCHES. 217 Florentine cubits long, eighty Florentine cubits broad, Flo- rentine cubits high.* But when the reader hath with his eyes surveyed these tem- ples, and findeth them to exceed Solomon' s, yet let him remem- ber, first, that there is nothing more uncertain than the mea- sures used in several countries; one country's span may be another country's cubit, and the toe of one country as big as the foot of another. Secondly, that in Solomon's temple great cubits were meant, primae mensurce. (2 Chron. iii. 3.) Thirdly, that we see most of these structures only through the magnify- ing glass of fame ; or else by the eyes of travellers, who usually count the best they ever saw to be the best [that] was ever seen ; yea, in charity, will lend a church some hundreds of feet, to help out the dimension thereof, as Bellonius, a modern eye-witness, counteth three hundred and sixty-five doors in the present church of Sophia, f which hath but four, as an exact traveller hath observed. J Lastly, whilst human historians will overlash for the honour of their own nations, we know it must needs be true what Truth hath written of Solomon's temple. * " The height we find not ; but it is a mile and half in compass." LEO AFRICANUS, lib. iii. p. 126. f Observ., lib. i. cap. 76. SANDYS'S " Travels," p. 32. 218 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK III. CHAPTER XXV. OF MINISTERS' MAINTENANCE. MAINTENANCE of ministers ought to be plentiful, certain, and in some sort proportionable to their deserts. It should be plentiful, because MAXIM I. Their education was very chargeable, to fit them for their pro- fession. Both at school and in the University; their books very dear; and those which they brought* in folio, shrink quickly into quartos, in respect of the price their executors can get for them. Say not, that scholars draw needless expenses on themselves by their own lavishness, and that they should rather lead a fashion of thrift, than follow one of riot; for let any equal man tax the bill of their necessary cnarges, and it amounts to a great sum ; yea, though they be never so good husbands. Besides, the prices of all commodities daily rise higher ; all per- sons and professions are raised in their manner of living. Scholars, therefore, even against their wills, must otherwhiles be involved in the general expensiveness of the times ; it being impossible that one spoke should stand still, when all the wheel turns about. OBJECTION. " But many needlessly charge themselves, in living too long in the University; sucking so long of their mother they are never a whit the wiser for it ; whilst others, not staying there so long, nor going through the porch of human arts, but entering into divinity at the postern, have made good preachers, providing their people wholesome meat, though not so finely dressed." ANSWER. Much good may it do their very hearts that feed on it ! But how necessary a competent knowledge of those sciences is for a perfect divine, is known to every wise man. Let not men's suffering be counted their fault, nor those accused to "stand idle in the market, whom no man hath hired." Many would leave the University sooner, if called into the country on tolerable conditions. The antithesis in the sentence requires this word to be bought. EDIT. CHAP. xxv. or MINISTERS' MAINTENANCE. 219 ii. Because ministers are to subsist in a free, liberal, and comfort- able way. Balaam, the false prophet, rode with his two men ; (Numb. xxii. 22;) God's Levite had one man. (Judges xix. 11.) O, let not the ministers of the Gospel be slaves to others, and sen-ants to themselves ! They are not to pry into gain through every small chink. It becomes them rather to be acquainted with the natures of things, than with the prices ; and to know them rather as they are in the world, than as they are in the market. Otherwise, if his means be small, and living poor, necessity will bolt him out of his own study, and send him to the barn, when he should be at his book, or make him study his Easter-book more than all other writers. Hereupon, some, Avan ting Avhat they should have at home, have done what they should not abroad. in. Because hospitality is expected at their hands. The poor come to their houses, as if they had interest in them ; and the minis- ters can neither receive them nor refuse them. Not to relieve them, were not Christianity ; and to relieA r e them, were worse than infidelity, because therein they wrong their providing for their OAvn family. Thus, sometimes are they forced to be Nabals against their will; yet it grieveth them to send away the people empty. But what shall they do, seeing they cannot multiply their loaves and their fishes ? Besides, clergymen are deeply rated to all payments. O that their profession were but as highly prized, as their estate is valued ! IV. Because they are to provide for their posterity . That after the death of their parents they may live, though not in a high, yet in an honest, fashion; neither leaving them to the Avide world, nor to a narroAv cottage. v. Because the Levites, in the Old Testament, had plentiful provi- sion. O ! it is good to be God's pensioner, for He giveth His large allowance. They had cities and suburbs, (houses and glebe-land,) tithes, freewill- offerings, and their parts in first- fruits and sacrifices. Do the ministers of the Gospel deserve Avorse Avages for bringing better tidings ? Besides, the Levites' 220 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK III. places were hereditary, and the son sure of his father's house and land without a faculty ad succedendum patri.* VI. Because the Papists, in time of Popery, gave their priests plen- tiful means. Whose benefactors, so bountiful to them, may serve to condemn the covetousness of our age towards God's ministers, in such who have more knowledge, and should have more religion. OBJECTION. " But the great means of the clergy in time of Popery was rather wrested than given. The priests melted men's hearts into charity with the scare-fire of purgatory : and for justice now to give back what holy fraud had gotten away, is not sacrilege, but restitution. And when those grand and vast donations were given to the church, there was, as some say, a voice of angels heard from heaven, saying, Hodie venenum in ecclesiam Christi cecidit" f ANSWER. If poison then fell into the church, since hath there a strong antidote been given to expel it, especially in impropria- tions. Distinguish we betwixt such donations given to uses in themselves merely unlawful and superstitious, as praying for the dead, and the like ; and those which in genere were given to God's service, though in specie some superstitious ends were annexed thereto : and grant the former of these to be void in their very granting, yet the latter ought to be rectified and reduced to the true use, and in no case to be alienated from God. Plato saith, that in his time it was a proverb amongst children : Tu>v opQw; Saftfvrew, ovx eo-nv $a/pe(ri. " Things that are truly given must not be taken away again/' Sure, as our Saviour set a child in the midst of his disciples to teach them humility, so now-a-days a child need be set in the midst of some men to teach them justice. Excellently Luther : J Nisi super- esset spolium jfigypti, quod rapuimus Papa, omnibus ministris verbi fame pereundum esset ; quod si sustentandi essent de contri- butione populi, miser e profecto ac duriter viverent. Alimus ergo de spoliis ^Egypti collectis sub Papatu ; et hoc ipsum tamen quod reliquum est diripitur a magistratu : spoliantur parochice et scholae, non aliter ac si fame necare nos velint. " To succeed to his father." EDIT. f " This day has poison entered into the church of Christ" ED*T. $ In his " Comment on Genesis xlvii.," P- 631. " Unless some of the spoils had remained which we snatched from the Pope, all the ministers of God's word must have perished through hunger ; for if their maintenance had depended on the contributions of the people, they would CHAP. XXV. OP MINISTERS* MAINTENANCE. 221 OBJECTION. "But in the pure primitive times the means were least, and ministers the best : and now-a-days does not wealth make them lazy, and poverty keep them painful ? Like hawks, they fly best when sharp. The best way to keep the stream of the clergy sweet and clear, is to fence out the tide of wealth from coming unto them." ANSWER. Is this our thankfulness to the God of heaven, for turning persecution into peace, in pinching his poor ministers ? When the commonwealth now makes a feast, shall neither Zadok the priest, nor Nathan the prophet, be invited to it ? that so the footsteps of primitive persecution may still remain in these peaceable times, amongst the Papists, in their needless burning of candles ; and amongst the Protestants, in the poor means of their ministers ! And what, if some turn the spurs unto virtue into the stirrups of pride, grow idle and insolent ? let them soundly suffer for it themselves, on God's blessing ; but let not the bees be starved, that the drones may be punished. VII. Ministers' maintenance ought to be certain. Lest some of them meet with Labans for their patrons and parishioners; changing their wages ten times ; and at last, if the fear of God doth not fright them, send them away empty. VIII. It is unequal that there should be an equality betwixt all ministers' maintenance. Except that first there were made an equality betwixt all their parts, pains, and piety. Parity in means will quickly bring a level and flat in learning ; and few will strive to be such spiritual musicians, to whom David directeth many psalms, ("To him that excelleth,") but will even content themselves with a canonical sufficiency; and desiring no more than what the law requires, more learning would be of more pains and the same profit, seeing the mediocriter goeth abreast with optime.* indeed have had only a miserable and mean pittance. Our sustenance, therefore, is derived from the spoils of Egypt, which had been collected together under the Papacy ; and yet the rest of these spoils are seized on by the magistrates, who despoil parishes and schools just as though they were desirous of destroying us by hunger." This passage will remind some readers of similar vituperative sentences in the Sermons of our undaunted Latimer. EDIT. " He that possesses only a mediocrity of talent and learning goeth abreast with him who is best qualified." EDIT. 222 THE HOLY STATE* BOOK III. OBJECTION. "But neither the best, nor the most painful and learned, get the best preferment. Sometimes men of the least get livings of the best worth ; yea, such as are not worthy to be the curates to their curates, and crassa ingenia go away with opima sacerdotia" * ANSWER. Thus it ever was, and will be. But is this dust only to be found in churches, and not in civil courts ? Is merit every where else made the exact square of preferment ? Or did ever any urge, that all offices should be made champaign for their profits, none higher than other ? Such corruptions will ever be in the church, except there were a law, (ridiculous to be made, and impossible to be kept !) that men should be no-men; but that all patrons or j>eople, in their election or presentations of ministers, should wholly divest themselves of by-respects of kindred, friendship, profit, affection, and merely choose for desert : and then should we have all things so well-ordered, such pastors and such people, the church in a manner would be triumphant whilst militant. Till then, though the best livings light not always on the ablest men, yet, as long as there be such preferments in the church, there are still encouragements for men to endeavour to excel ; all hoping, and some happening on, advancement. OBJECTION. " But ministers ought to serve God merely for love of Himself; and pity but his eyes were out that squints at his own ends in doing God's work." ANSWER. Then should God's best saints be blind; for Moses himself had "an eye to the recompeiice of reward/' Yea, ministers may look not only on their eternal but on their temporal reward, as motives to quicken their endeavours. And though it be true, that grave and pious men do study for learn- ing's sake, and embrace virtue for itself, yet it is true that youth (which is the season when learning is gotten) is not with- out ambition, nor will ever take pains to excel in any thing, when there is not hope of excelling others in the reward and dignity. And what reason is it that whilst Law and Physic are great portions to such as marry them, Divinity, their eldest sister, should only be put off with her own beauty ? In after- ages men will rather bind their sons to one gainful than to seven liberal sciences : only the lowest of the people would be made ministers, who cannot otherwise subsist; and it will The greatest blockheads bear away the richest benefices." EDIT. CHAP. xxv. OF MINISTERS' MAINTENANCE. 223 be bad when God's church is made a sanctuary only for men of desperate estates to take refuge in it. However, let every minister take up this resolution : " To preach the word, to be instant in season, out of season ; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all long-suffering and doctrine." If thou hast competent means comfortably to subsist on, be the more thankful to God the Fountain, to man the channel ; painful in thy place, pitiful to the poor, cheerful in spending some, careful in keeping the rest. If not, yet retire not for want of a spur. Do something for love, and not all for money ; for love of God, of goodness, of the godly, of a good conscience. Know, it is better to want means, than to detain them ; the one only suffers, the other deeply sins : and it is as dangerous a persecu- tion to religion, to draw the fuel from it, as to cast water on it. Comfort thyself that another world will pay this world's debts, " and great is thy reward with God in heaven : " a reward, in respect of his promise ; a gift, in respect of thy worthlessness : and yet the less thou lookest at it, the surer thou shalt find it, if labouring with thyself to serve God for Himself ; in respect of whom even heaven itself it but a sinister end. TO THE READER. THESE " General Rules " we have placed in the middle, that the books on both sides may equally reach to them ; because all persons therein are indifferently concerned. THE HOLY STATE, BOOK IV. CONTAINING ESSAYS AND CHARACTERS. THE HOLY STATE. THE FOURTH BOOK. CHAPTER I. THE FAVOURITE. A FAVOURITE is a court-dial, whereon all look whilst the king shines on him ; and none, when it is night with him. A minion differs from a favourite ; for he acts things by his own will and appetite, as a favourite by the judgment and pleasure of his prince. These again are two-fold: either such as rely wholly on their king's favour, or such as the king partly relies on their wisdom, loving them rather for use than affection. The former are like pretty wands in a prince's hand, for him to play with at pleasure ; the latter, like staves, whereon he leans and supports himself in state-affairs. MAXIM I. God is the original patron of all preferment, all dignities being in his disposal. "Promotion/' saith David, "comes neither from the east, nor from the west, nor yet from the south." (Psalm Ixxv. 6.) The word here translated south, in the Hebrew signifies " the desert ; " and such a coarse list bounded Palestine both on the south and north ; so that in effect prefer- ment bloweth from no point of the compass.* True, every man is fortune su follow my sole judgment and pleasure." EDIT. CHAP. XXI. THE KING. 329 Such a gracious sovereign God hath vouchsafed to this land. How pious is he towards his God, attentive in hearing the word, preaching religion with his silence, as the minister doth with his speech ! How loving to his spouse, tender to his children, faithful to his servants whilst they are faithful to their own innocence ; otherwise, leaving them to justice under marks of his displeasure ! How doth he, with David, walk "in the midst of his house " without partiality to any ! How just is he in punishing wilful murder ! so that it is as easy to restore the murdered to life, as to keep the murderer from death. How merciful is he to such who, not out of legier malice,* but sudden passion, may chance to shed blood ! to whom his pardon hath allowed leisure to drop out their own souls in tears, by constant repentance all the days of their lives. How many wholesome hius hath he enacted for the good of his subjects ! How great is his humility in so great height ! which maketh his own praises painful for himself to hear, though pleasant for others to report. His royal virtues are too great to be told, and too great to be concealed. All cannot, some must, break forth from the fuU, hearts of such as be his thankful subjects. But I must either stay or fall. 'My sight fails me, dazzled with the lustre of majesty : all I can do is, pray : Give the king thy judgments, O Lord, and thy righteousness to the king's son ! Smite through the loins of those that rise up against his majesty ; but upon him and his let the crown flourish ! O cause his subjects to meet his princely care for their good, with a proportionable cheerfulness and alacrity in his service ! that so thereby the happiness of church and state may be continued. Grant this, O Lord, for Christ Jesus's sake, our only Mediator and Advocate ! Amen. * Malice prepense, fixed, or settled EDIT. ADDITIONAL NOTE. THE preceding paragraphs, containing a noble testimony to the royal virtues of king Charles L, were published in 1G42, when that monarch's cause was on the decline ; and were retained in every subsequent edition during the Inter-regnum, much to the injury of Fuller's secular interest. They remind one of the following disinterested character of him, by that excellent Whig bishop, Dr. William Fleet- wood, in a sermon preached on the 30th of January, 1710 : "As for the praises that are bestowed upon king Charles, I know not who should envy them ; nor how a church-of-England minister can honestly decline them. He must know nothing of that prince's history; he must have little sense of justice, gratitude, or honour, by whom his memory is not held most precious. It were a small thing to say, no prince, (although his father was a very learned one,) but I will say, no private gentleman, did ever understand the constitution of our church 330 THE HOLY STATE. BOOK IV. better, defend it with stronger arguments, adhere to it with more judgment, adorn it with better manners, live up to its good principles with more virtue, nor, in perform- ance of its offices, show more devout and exemplary good behaviour, than did king Charles I. I will not, in these things, except the queen [Anne] upon the throne, nor that blessed saint in heaven, her sister. No prince did ever show more personal favour to its ministers, nor give more countenance and credit to its discipline and orders. And must I say, ' No prince but he did ever die in its defence,' to justify the high esteem we have him in ? I may, because it is so true, that they who envy him the glory of that title, upon all accounts besides, will yet allow he fell a martyr for the church of England. Would not that church be, most deservedly, the hatred and reproach of all the world, that should be sparing of her praises and best incense (but let it ever be unhallowed incense) to his memory ? Let them take heed, lest some degree of guilt be thought to make those people over-tender, who are soon offended with the praises of king Charles I. And let even us ourselves take heed, that such our praises may appear so well designed, and be managed with that good temper, sobriety, and modest truth, that they provoke those men to nothing but com- punction, and relentings, and repentance, where these things are wanting ; and both ourselves and them to the imitation of all those excellent good qualities, those civil virtues, and those religious, Christian graces, that made him appear so highly exem- plary, both in life and death." To afford the reader an opportunity of duly appreciating some other parts of the character of king Charles I., it may not be deemed improper in me to quote the following paragraph, from the recorded opinions of one for whose intentional impartiality I can personally vouch, and who has been blamed for his too strong bias in favour of that unhappy prince : " Flattered as the great pacificator of nations by those who needed his aid, and boasting in private of his successful cunning and policy, which he was pleased to call king-craft, his majesty king James I. imbibed very false ideas both of his own capabilities, and of his royal power and prerogatives, and infused, into the minds of his children, the same unmanageable notions, which seemed to descend, as if by generation, to the last of his unfortunate race. In forming a judgment concerning his successor, we are too apt to contemplate Charles as an insulated personage : but if we consider the high veneration in which he held his royal father's published sen- timents both on religion and politics, instead of viewing him as the self-tutored despot, we shall rather pity him as an obedient son, who, from mistaken yet consci- entious motives, endeavoured to carry into practical effect those tyrannical principles about the truth of which neither his royal parent, nor any of those around his per- son, would ever suffer him to hesitate Highly as I venerate the memory of that virtuous and unfortunate monarch, I am compelled to express my fears, that if his Majesty's arms had been finally successful against the Parliamentary forces, he would have been induced, by some of the most artful of his counsellors, to adopt the maxim which was defended by Amyraut, that, 'with regard to subjects, so eminent is the authority of supreme rulers, that it cannot be diminished even by the just solemnity of an oath.' His Majesty's sense of justice might, for a season, have prevented its adoption ; but the powerful influence of the queen in the management of public affairs, and the decided predilection of many of the courtiers for French principles and manners, might have ultimately overpowered the dictates of his more upright judgment. This character which I have sketched of Mary de Medicis was equally applicable to her daughter, queen Henrietta Maria ; and the baneful effect of her interference in the government of England may be truly said to be distinctly perceptible in every subsequent act of the two kings, her immediate descendants, till the last of them was compelled to abdicate the throne of these realms, and to find an asylum in a foreign land. May this Protestant kingdom never again be cursed with a Popish queen ! " EDIT. THE HOLY STATE. BOOK V. CONTAINING THE PROFANE STATE. EXPLANATORY NOTE. " THE Profane State," according to Fuller's own arrangement, constitutes, some- what ominously, the fifth book of his " Holy State ; " from which anomalous sequel, one might be induced to infer a wish on his part to warn the reader against " begin- ning in the Spirit, and ending in the flesh." There are allusions, however, in the characters here portrayed which cannot be mistaken by those who have perused the history of the eventful period, (1C42,) in which this book was published. Some of the female personages are described in terms of grossness certainly not greater than was the general tone of that age, but obviously with the intention that their portraits should produce a deterring effect and a repulsive abhorrence. Fuller's observant eye perceived " the signs of the times," and he contributed his share towards prevent- ing or abating the evils which threatened to involve in one common ruin all the organized elements of civil and ecclesiastical government. Of the demoralizing tendency of such a violent and sweeping disruption of society, we who live in halcyon days can form no adequate conception. The Diaries of Evelyn and Pepys have afforded us a more complete and faithful detail of the bitter fruits of civil discord, than was furnished by any of the contemporary historians. But, as a truly graphic sketch, none can compete with the subjoined extract from the instructive auto-biography of the great lord Clarendon, which he wrote, for the information of his own family, some years after the Restoration ; though, in ascribing the enormous mass of evil almost exclusively to Cromwell and the Parliamentarians, he must be regarded as personating the partisan rather than the philosopher. Speaking of his youthful sovereign, Charles II., at the commencement of his reign, the noble historian says i " By degrees he unbent his mind from the knotty and ungrateful part of his business, grew more remiss in his application to it, and indulged to his youth and appetite that license and satisfaction that it desired, and for which he had opportunity enough, and could not be without ministers abundant for any such negotiations ; the young people thereof of either sex having been educated in all the liberty of vice without reprehension or restraint. All relations were confounded by the several sects in religion, which discountenanced all forms of reverence and respect, as relics and marks of superstition. Children asked not blessing of their parents ; nor did they concern themselves in the education of their children, but were well content that they should take any course to maintain them- selves, that they might be free from that expense. The young women conversed without any circumspection or modesty, and frequently met at taverns and common eating-houses ; and they who were stricter and more severe in their comportment, became the wives of the seditious preachers or of officers of the army. The daughters of noble and illustrious families bestowed themselves upon the divines of the time, or other low and unequal matches. Parents had no manner of authority over their children, nor children any obedience or submission to their parents ; but every one did that which was good in his own eyes.' This unnatural antipathy had its first rise from the beginning of the Rebellion, when the fathers and sons THE PROFANE STATE. THE FIFTH BOOK. CHAPTER I. THE HARLOT. THE harlot is one that herself is both merchant and merchan- dise, which she selleth for profit, and hath pleasure given her into the bargain, and yet remains a great loser. To describe her is very difficult ; it being hard to draw those to the life, who never sit still : she is so various in her humours and mutable, it is almost impossible to character her in a fixed posture ; yea, indeed, some cunning harlots are not discernible from honest women. Solomon saith, " She wipeth her mouth ; " and who can distinguish betwixt that which was never foul, and that which is cleanly wiped ? MAXIM I. Her love is a blank, wherein she writeth the next man that tendereth his affection. Impudently the harlot lied: " There- fore came I forth to meet thee, diligently to seek thy face, and I have found thee." (Prov. vii. 15.) Else understand her, that she came forth to meet him, not qua talis, but qua primus, "because he came first;" for any other youngster in his place would have served her turn. Yet see how she makes his chance her courtesy ; she affecting him as much above others, as the common road loves the next passenger best. n. As she sees, so herself is seen by her own eyes. Sometimes she stares on men with full, fixed eyes ; otherwhiles she squints 336 THE PROFANE STATE. BOOK V. forth glances, and contracts the beams in her burning-glasses, to make them the hotter to inflame her objects. Sometimes she dejects her eyes, in a seeming civility ; and many mistake in her a cunning, for a modest, look. But as those bullets which graze on the ground do most mischief to an army; so she hurts most with those glances which are shot from a down- cast eye. in. She writes characters of wantonness with her feet as she walks. And what Potiphar's wife said with her tongue, she saith unto the passengers with her gesture and gait : " Come, lie with me ; " and nothing angereth her so much, as when modest men affect a deafness and will not hear, or a dulness and will not understand, the language of her behaviour. She counts her house a prison, and is never well till gadding abroad. Sure, it is true of women what is observed of elm, if lying within doors, dry, no timber will last sound longer ; but if with- out doors, exposed to weather, no wood sooner rots and corrupts. IV. Yet some harlots continue a kind of strange coyness even to the very last. Which coyness differs from modesty, as much as hem- lock from parsley. They will deny common favours, because they are too small to be granted. They will part with all or none ; refuse to be courteous, and reserve themselves to be dishonest ; whereas women truly modest will willingly go to the bounds of free and harmless mirth, but will not be dragged any farther. v. She is commonly known by her whorish attire. As crisping and curling, (making her hair as winding and intricate as her heart,) painting, wearing naked breasts. The face indeed ought to be bare, and the haft should lie out of the sheath ; but where the back and edge of the knife are shown, it is to be feared they mean to cut the fingers of others. I must confess, some honest women may go thus, but no whit the honester for going thus. The ship may have Castor and Pollux for the badge, and not- withstanding have St. Paul for the lading. Yet the modesty and discretions of honest matrons were more to be commended, if they kept greater distance from the attire of harlots. CHAP. I. THE HARLOT. 337 VI. Sometimes she ties herself in marriage to one, that she may the more freely stray to mamj.And cares not though her husband comes not within her bed, so be it he goeth not out beyond the four seas. She useth her husband as a hood ; whom she casts off in the fair weather of prosperity, but puts him on for a cover in adversity, if it chance she prove with child. VII. Yet commonly she is as barren as lustful. Yea, who can expect that malt should grow to bring new increase ? Besides, by many wicked devices she seeks on purpose to make herself barren, (a retrograde act to set nature back !) making many issues, that she may have no issue ; and a hundred more damnable devices, " Which wicked projects first from hell did flow ; And thither let the same in silence go, Best known of them who did them never know ! " And yet, for all her cunning, God sometimes meets with her, who varieth his ways of dealing with wantons, that they may be at a loss in tracing him ; and sometimes, against her will, she proves with child, which, though unable to speak, yet tells at the birth a plain story, to the mother's shame. VIII. At last } when her deeds grow most shameful, she grows most shameless. So impudent, that she herself sometimes proves both the poison and the antidote, the temptation and the pre- servative; young men distasting and abhorring her boldness. And those wantons who, perchance, would willingly have gathered the fruit from the tree, will not feed on such fallings. IX. Generally she dies very poor. The wealth she gets is like the houses some build in Gothland, made of snow,* no lasting fabric; the rather, because she who took money of those who tasted the top of her wantonness, is fain to give it to such who will drink out the dregs of her lust. OLAUS MAGNUS, De nit. Sept., lib. i. cap. 23. z 338 THE PROFANE STATE. BOOK V. X. She dieth commonly of a loathsome disease. I mean that disease, unknown to antiquity, created within some hundreds of years, which took the name from Naples. When hell invented new degrees in sins, it was time for Heaven to invent new punishments. Yet is this new disease now grown so common and ordinary, as if they meant to put Divine justice to a second task to find out a newer. And now it is high time for our harlot, being grown loathsome to herself, to run out of herself by repentance. Some conceive that when king Henry VIII. destroyed the public stews in this land, (which till his time stood on the Bank's Side on Southwark, next the Bear-garden, beasts and beastly women being very fit neighbours !) he rather scattered than quenched the fire of lust in this kingdom ; and, by turn- ing the flame out of the chimney where it had a vent, more endangered the burning of the commonwealth. But they are deceived; for, whilst the laws of the land tolerated open uncleanness, God might justly have made the whole State do penance for whoredom: whereas now that sin, though com- mitted, yet is not permitted ; and though (God knows !) it be too general, it is still but personal. t CHAP. II. THE LIFE OF JOAtt, $UEEN OF NAPLES. 339 CHAPTER II. THE LIFE OF JOAN, QUEEN OF NAPLES. JOAN, grandchild to Robert king of Naples, by Charles his son, succeeded her grandfather in the kingdom of Naples and Sicily, anno 1343; a woman of a beautiful body, and rare endowments of nature, had not the heat of her lust soured all the rest of her perfections, whose wicked life and woful death we now come to relate : * and I hope none can justly lay it to my charge, if the foulness of her actions stain through the cleanest language I can wrap them in. She was first married unto her cousin Andrew, a prince of royal extraction, and of a sweet and loving disposition. But he being not able to satisfy her wantonness, she kept company with lewd persons, at first privately; but afterwards she presented her badness visible to every eye, so that none need look through the cliinks where the doors were open. Now, Elizabeth queen of Hungary, her husband Andrew's mother, was much offended at the badness of her daughter-in- law, whose deeds were so foul she could not look on them, and so common she could not look beside them; wherefore, in a matronly way, she fairly advised her to reform her courses. For the lives of princes are more read than their laws, and gene- rally more practised. Yea, their example passeth as current as their coin, and what they do they seem to command to be done. Cracks in glass, though past mending, are no great matter ; but the least flaw in a diamond is considerable. Yea, her personal fault was a national injury, which might derive, and put the sceptre into a wrong hand. These her mild instructions she sharpened with severe threat- enings : but no razor will cut a stony heart. Queen Joan imputed it to age's envy ; old people persuading youth to leave those pleasures which have left themselves. Besides, a mother- in-law's sermon seldom takes well with an audience of daughter- in-laws. Wherefore the old queen, finding the other past grace, (that is, never likely to come to it,) resolved no longer to punish Taken out of BROVIUS, AnnaL Eccles., anno 1344 ; PETRARCH^: Epist. lib v et SUMMONTIUS, Hist. Ncopol.,\\\>. iii. z 2 310 THE PROFANE STATE. BOOK V. another's sin on herself, and vex her own righteous soul ; but, leaving Naples, returned into Hungary. After her departure, queen Joan grew weary of her husband Andrew, complaining of his insufficiency; though those who have caninum appetitum are not competent judges what is suffi- cient food. And she caused her husband, in the city of Aversa, to be hung upon a beam and strangled in the night-time, and then threw out his corpse into a garden, where it lay some days unburied. There goes a story, that this Andrew, on a day, coming into the queen's chamber, and finding her twisting a thick string of silk and silver, demanded of her for what purpose she made it. She answered, f ' To hang you in it ! " * which he then little believed, the rather because those who intend such mischief never speak of it before. But such blows in jest-earnest are most dangerous, which one can neither receive in love, nor refuse in anger. Indeed, she sought in vain to colour the business, and to divert the suspicion of the murder from herself, because all the world saw that she inflicted no punishment on the actors of it, who were in her power. And in such a case, when a murder is generally known, the sword of the magistrate cannot stand neuter, but doth justify what it doth not punish. Besides, his corpse was not cold before she was hot in a new love, and .married Lewis prince of Tarentum, one of the beauti- fullest men in the world. But it was hard for her to please her love and her lust in the same person. This prince wasted the state of his body to pay her the conjugal debt, which she extorted beyond all modesty or reason, so unquenchable was the wild- fire of her wantonness. After his death, she (hating widowhood as much as nature doth vacuum} married James king of Majorca, and commonly styled prince of Calabria. Some say he died of a natural death ; others, that she beheaded him for lying with another woman ; who would suffer none to be dishonest but herself; others, that he was unjustly put to death, and forced to change worlds, that she might change husbands. Her fourth husband was Otho of Brunswick; who came a commander out of Germany, with a company of soldiers, and performed excellent service in Italy. A good soldier he was, and it was not the least part of his valour to adventure on so * COLLENUSIUS, Reyn. NeopoL, lib. v. CHAP. II. THE LIFE OF JOAN, QUEEN OF NAPLES. 341 skittish a beast : but he hoped to feast his hungry fortune on this reversion. By all four husbands she had no children; either because the drought of her wantonness parched the fruit of her womb; or else because provident nature prevented a generation of monsters from her. By this time her sins were almost hoarse with crying to Heaven for revenge. They mistake who think Divine Justice sleepeth, when it winks for a while at offenders. Hitherto she had kept herself in a whole skin, by the rents which were in the church of Rome. For, there being a long time a schism betwixt two Popes, Urban and Clement, she so poised herself between them both, that she escaped unpunished. This is that queen Joan that gave Avignon in France (yet under a pretence of sale) to Pope Urban and his successors : the stomach of his Holiness not being so squeamish, but that he would take a good alms from dirty hands. It may make the chastity of Rome suspi- cious with the world, that she hath had so good fortune to be a gainer by harlots. But see now how Charles prince of Dyrrachium, being next of kin to prince Andrew that was murdered, comes out of Hungary with an army into Naples, to revenge his uncle's blood. He was received without resistance of any, his very name being a petard to make all the city-gates fly open where he came. Out issues Otho the queen's husband, with an army of men out of Naples, and most stoutly bids him battle, but is overthrown ; yet was he suffered fairly to depart the kingdom, dismissed with this commendation, that never a more valiant knight fought in defence of a more vicious lady. Queen Joan, finding it now in vain to bend her fist, fell to bowing of her knees ; and having an excellent command of all her passions, save her lust, fell down flat before Charles the Conqueror, and submitted herself. " Hitherto," said she, " I have esteemed thee in place of a son ; but, seeing God will have it so, hereafter I shall acknowledge thee for my lord." Charles knew well that necessity, her secretary, indited her speech for her, which came little from her heart ; yet, to show that he had as plentiful an exchequer of good language, promised her fairly for the present. But mercy itself would be ashamed to pity so notorious a malefactor. After some months' imprisonment, she was carried to the place where her husband was murdered, and there accordingly hanged, and cast out of the window into the garden, whose corpse at last was buried in the nunnery of St, Clare. 342 THE PROFANE STATE. BOOK V. CHAPTER III. THE WITCH. BEFORE we come to describe her, we must premise and prove certain propositions, whose truth may otherwise be doubted of. 1. Formerly there were witches. Otherwise God's law had fought against a shadow : " Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." (Exod. xxii. 18.) Yea, we read how king Saul, who had formerly scoured witches out of all Israel, afterwards drank a draught of that puddle himself. 2. There are witches for the present, though those night-birds fly not so frequently in flocks, since the light of the Gospel. Some ancient arts and mysteries are said to be lost ; but, sure, the devil will not wholly let down any of his gainful trades. There be many witches at this day in Lapland, who sell winds to mariners for money ; (and must they not needs go whom the devil drives ?) though we are not bound to believe the old story of Ericus king of Swedeland, who had a cap, and, as he turned it, the wind he wished for would blow on that side.* 3. It is very hard to prove a witch. Infernal contracts are made without witnesses. She that in presence of others will compact with the devil, deserves to be hanged for her folly, as well as impiety. 4. Many are unjustly accused for witches. Sometimes out of ignorance of natural and misapplying of supernatural causes ; sometimes out of their neighbours' mere malice ; and the suspi- cion is increased if the party accused be notoriously ill-favoured : whereas deformity alone is no more argument to make her a witch, than handsomeness had been evidence to prove her a harlot; sometimes out of their own causeless confession, being brought before a magistrate, they acknowledge them- selves to be witches, being themselves rather bewitched with fear, or deluded with fancy. But the self-accusing of some is as little to be credited, as the self-praising of others, if alone, without other evidence. Therefore called ventosus pileus OLAUS MAGNUS, De Gent. lib. iii. cap. 14. CHAP. III. THE WITCH. 343 5. Witches are commonly of the feminine sex. Ever since Satan tempted our grandmother Eve, he knows that that sex is most liquorish to taste, and most careless to swallow, his baits. *Nescio quod habet muliebre nomen semper cum sacris.-\ If they light well, they are inferior to few men in piety; if ill, superior to all in superstition. 6. They are commonly distinguished into white and black witches. White, I dare not say "good/' witches (for "woe he to him that calleth evil good ! ") heal those that are hurt, and help them to lost goods. But better it is to lap one's pottage like a dog, than to eat it mannerly with a spoon of the devil's giving. Black witches hurt and do mischief. But in deeds of darkness there is no difference of colours : the white and the black are both guilty alike in compounding with the devil. And now we come to see by what degrees people arrive at this height of profaneness. MAXIM I. At the first she is only ignorant, and very malicious. She hath usually a bad face, and a worse tongue, given to railing and cursing, as if constantly bred on Mount Ebal ; yet speak- ing, perchance, worse than she means, though meaning worse than she should. And as the harmless wapping J of a cursed cur may stir up a fierce mastiff to the worrying of sheep ; so, on her cursing, the devil may take occasion by God's permission to do mischief, without her knowledge, and perchance against her will. u. Some have been made witches by endeavouring to defend them- selves against witchcraft. For, fearing some suspected witch should hurt them, they fence themselves with the devil's shield against the devil's sword, put on his "whole armour," begin- ning to use spells and charms to safeguard themselves. The art is quickly learnt to which nothing but credulity and prac- tice is required ; and they often fall from defending themselves to offending of others, especially the devil not being dainty of his company, where he finds welcome ; and being invited once, he haunts ever after. FULGENTIITS, in Sermonibus. -f- " The name of WOMAN has always had a sort of undefinable connexion with sacred things." EDIT. Wappiiu/, like our old word whiffling, seems to have been a provincial term for " the yelping " or " barking " of a cur. EDIT. Multi dum vitare student qua; vitanda non snnt, fuga van& superstitionis superstitiosi fiunt CAHDANUS, De Sitbtil., lib. viii. p. 924. 344 THE PROFANE STATE. BOOK V. III. She begins at first with doing tricks, rather strange than hvrt- ful. Yea, some of them are pretty and pleasing. But it is dangerous to gather flowers that grow on the banks of the pit of hell, for fear of falling in ; yea, they who play with the devil's rattles, will be brought by degrees to wield his sword, and from making of sport they come to doing of mischief. IV. At last she indents downright with the devil. He is to find her some toys for a time, and to have her soul in exchange. At the first, (to give the devil his due,) he observes the agreement to keep up his credit, else none would trade with him ; though at last he either deceives her with an equivocation, or at some other small hole this serpent winds out himself, and breaks the covenants. And where shall she, poor wretch, sue the forfeited bond ? In heaven she neither can nor dare appear ; on earth she is hanged, if the contract be proved ; in hell her adversary is judge, and it is woful to appeal from the devil to the devil. But, for a while, let us behold her in her supposed felicity. v. She taketh her free progress from one place to another. Sometimes the devil doth locally transport her : but he will not be her constant hackney, to carry such luggage about, but often-times, to save portage, deludes her brains in her sleep ; so that they brag of long journeys, whose heads never travelled from their bolsters. These, with Drake, sail about the world ; but it is on an ocean of their own fancies, and in a ship of the same. They boast of brave banquets they have been at, but they would be very lean should they eat no other meat. Others will persuade, if any list to believe, that by a witch-bridle they can make a fair of horses of an acre of besom-weed. O silly souls ! O subtle Satan, that deceived them ! VI. With strange figures and words she summons the devils to attend her. Using a language which God never made at the confusion of tongues, and an interpreter must be fetched from hell to expound it. With these, or Scripture abused, the devil is ready at her service. Who would suppose that roaring lion could so finely act the spaniel ? One would think he were too old to suck, and yet he will do that also for advantage. CHAP. III. THE WITCH. 345 VII. Sometimes she enjoins him to do more for her than he is able. As to wound those whom God's providence doth arm, or to break through the tents of blessed angels, to hurt one of God's saints. Here Satan is put to his shifts, and his wit must help him where his power fails : he either excuseth it, or seemingly performs it, lengthening his own arm by the dimness of her eye, and presenting the seeming bark of that tree which he cannot bring. VIII. She lives commonly but very poor. Methinks she should bewitch to herself a golden mine, at least good meat, and whole clothes. But it is as rare to see one of her profession, as a hangman, in a whole suit. Is the possession of the deviFs favour here no better? Lord ! what is the reversion of it here- after? IX. When arraigned for her life, the devil leaves her to the law, to shift for herself. He hath worn out all his shoes in her former service, and will not now go barefoot to help her ; and the circle of the halter is found to be too strong for all her spirits. Yea, Zoroastes himself, the first inventor of magic, (though he laughed at his birth,) led a miserable life, and died a woful death in banishment.* We will give a double example of a witch : First, of a real one, out of the Scripture, because it shall be above all exception ; and then of one deeply suspected, out of our chronicles. * PLINIUS, lib. iii. cap. 1. 346 THE PKOFANE STATE. BOOK V. CHAPTER IV. THE- WITCH OF ENDOR.* HER proper name we neither find, nor need curiously inquire : without it, she is described enough for our knowledge, too much for her shame. King Saul had banished all witches and sorcerers out of Israel ; but no besom can sweep so clean, as to leave no crum of dust behind it. This witch of Endor still keeps herself safe in the land. God hath " his remnant/' where saints are cruelly persecuted ; Satan also his remnant, where offenders are severely prosecuted, and (if there were no more) the whole species of witches is preserved in this individuum } till more be provided. It happened now, that king Saul, being ready to fight with the Philistines, was in great distress, because God answered him not concerning the success of the battle. With the silent, he will be silent : Saul gave no real answer in his obedience to God's commands, God will give no vocal answer to Saul's requests. Men's minds are naturally ambitious to know things to come : Saul is restless to know the issue of the fight. Alas ! what needed he to set his teeth on edge with the sourness of that bad tidings, who soon after was to have his belly full thereof? He said to his servants, " Seek me out " (no wonder she was such a jewel to be sought for !) " one with a familiar spirit." "Which was accordingly performed, and Saul came to her in a disguise. Formerly Samuel told him, that his " disobedience was as witchcraft ; " now Saul falls from the like to the same, and tradeth with witches indeed, (the receiver is as bad as the thief !) and at his request she raiseth up Samuel to come unto him. " What ! true Samuel ? " It is above Satan's power to degrade a saint from glory, though for a moment : since his own fall thence, he could fetch none from heaven. " Or was it only the true body of Samuel?" No; the precious ashes of 1 Sam. xxviii. CHAP. IV. THE WITCH OF ENDOR. 347 the saints (the pawn for the return of their souls !) are locked up safe in the cabinet of their graves, and the devil hath no key unto it. " Or, lastly, was it his seeming body ? " He that could not counterfeit the least and worst of worms, (Exodus viii. 18,) could he dissemble the shape of one of the best and greatest of men ? 'Yet this is most probable, seeing Satan could change himself into an angel of light, and God gives him more power at some times than at other. However, we will not be too peremptory herein, and build standing structures of bold assertions on so uncertain a foundation : rather, with the Rechabites, we will live in tents of conjectures, which, on better reason, we may easily alter and remove. The devil's speech looks backward and forward, relates and foretells. The historical part thereof is easy, recounting God's special favours to Saul, and his ingratitude to God, and the matter thereof very pious. " Not every one that saith, Lord, Lord ! " (whether to him or of him !) " shall enter into the kingdom of heaven." For Satan here useth the Lord's name six times in four verses. The prophetical part of his speech is harder, how he could foretell, " To-morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me." "What ! with me, true Samuel, in hea- ven?" That was too good a place (will some say) for Saul. " Or with me, true Satan, in hell ? " That was too bad a place for Jonathan. " What then ? " With me, pretended Samuel, in 5j [hades] " in the state of the dead." But how came the witch or Satan by this knowledge? Surely, that ugly monster never looked his face in that beau- tiful glass of the Trinity, which (as some will have it) repre- sents things to the blessed angels. No doubt, then,, he gathered it by experimental coUection, who, having kept an exact ephe- merides of all actions for more than five thousand years together, can thereby make a more than probable guess of future contingents ; the rather, because accidents in this world are not so much new as renewed. Besides, he saw it in the natural causes, in the strength of the Philistines, and weak- ness of the Israelitish army, and in David's ripeness to succeec Saul in the throne. Perchance, as vultures are said to smeL the earthliness of a dying corpse ; so this bird of prey resented * * To resent, from the Latin sentio, " to feel," and re intensive, in all its forms, was almost uniformly used by our old writers, down to the age of James II., m signification of feeling intensely either in the mind or through any one of ene Our modern usage of the word resentment, in the sense of strong anger 348 THE PROFANE STATE. BOOK V. a worse than earthly savour in the soul of Saul, an evidence of his death at hand. Or else we may say, the devil knew it by particular revelation; for God, to use the devil for his own turn, might impart it unto him, to advance wicked men's repute of Satan's power, that they who would be deceived should be deceived to believe, that Satan knows more than he does. The dismal news so frighted Saul, that he fell along on the earth ; and yet at last is persuaded to arise and eat meat, she killing and dressing a fat calf for him. Witches generally are so poor they can scarce feed them- selves. See here one able to feast a king. " That which goeth into the mouth defileth not." Better eat meat of her dressing, than take counsel of her giving; and her hands might be clean, whose soul meddled with unclean spirits. Saul must eat somewhat, that he might be strengthened to live to be killed, as afterwards it came to pass. And here the mention of this witch in Scripture vanisheth away, and we will follow her no farther. If afterwards she escaped the justice of man, God's judgment, without her repentance, hath long since over- taken her. on account of some affront or injury received," it will be perceived, is but confining what was formerly a general term to a more restricted meaning. Resented, in this sentence, has no reference whatever to the word scent, but retains the ancient mean- ing of felt a strong and unearthly savour. EDIT. CHAP. V. THE LIFE OF JOAN OF ARC. 349 CHAPTER V. THE LIFE OF JOAN OF ARC. JOAN OF ARC was born in a village called Domrenny [Droimy] upon the Marches of Bar, near to Vaucouleurs. Her parents, James of Arc and Isabel, were very poor people, and brought her up to keep sheep : where for a while we will leave her, and come to behold the miserable estate of the kingdom of France wherein she lived. In her time Charles VII. was the distressed French king, having only two entire provinces left him, Gascony and Lan- guedoc ; and his enemies were about them, and in all the rest, which were possessed by the English, under their young king Henry VI., and his aged generals, the duke of Bedford and the earls of Salisbury and Suffolk. Besides, they had besieged the city of Orleans, and brought it to that pass, that the liighest hopes of those therein was, to yield on good terms. Matters standing in tjiis woful case, three French noblemen projected with themselves, to make a cordial for the consump- tion of the spirits of their king and countrymen.* But this seemed a great difficulty to perform, the French people being so much dejected ; and when men's hearts are once down, it is hard to fasten any pullies to them to draw them up. However, they resolved to pitch upon some project out of the ordinary road of accidents, to elevate the people's fancies thereby, know- ing that men's fancies easily slip off from smooth and common things, but are quickly catched and longest kept in such plots as have odd angles, and strange unusual corners in them. Hereupon, they resolved to set up the aforesaid Joan of Arc, to make her pretend that she had a revelation from heaven, to be the leader of an army, to drive all the English out of France : and she, being a handsome, witty, and bold maid, (about twenty years of age,) was both apprehensive of the plot, and very active to prosecute it. But other authors will not admit of any such complotting, but make her moved thereunto, either of her own, or by some spirit's, instigation. By the mediation of a lord, she is brought to the presence of * GYRARD SEIGNEUR DU HAILI.IZAK, in " Charles VII." 350 THE PROFANE STATE. BOOK V. king Charles, whom she instantly knew, though never seen before, and at that time of set purpose much disguised.* This very thing some heighten to a miracle ; though others make it fall much beneath a wonder, as being no more than a scholar's ready-saying of that lesson, which he hath formerly learned, with- out book. To the king she boldly delivers her message, how that this was the time wherein the sins of the English, and the sufferings of the French, were come to the height, and she appointed by the God of heaven to be the French leader to conquer the English. If this opportunity were let slip, let them thank Heaven's bounty for the tender, and their own folly for the refusal; and who would pity their eternal slavery, who thrust their own liberty from themselves ? He must be deaf, indeed, who hears not that spoken which he desires. Charles triumphs at this news. Both his arms were too few to embrace the motion. The fame of her flies through France; and all talk of her, whom the divines esteem as Deborah, and the soldiers as Semiramis. People found out a nest of miracles in her education, that so lion-like a spirit should be bred amongst sheep, like David. Ever after she went in man's clothes, being armed cap-a-pie, and mounted on a brave steed : and, winch was a wonder, when she was on horseback, none was more bold and daring ; when alighted, none more tame and meek ; f so that one could scarce see her for herself, she was so changed and altered, as if her spirits dismounted with her body. No sword would please her, but one taken out of the church of St. Catherine in Fierebois in Tourain.J Her first service was in twice victualling of Orleans, whilst the English made no resistance, as if they had eyes only to gaze, and no arms to fight. Hence she sent a menacing letter to the earl of Suffolk, the English general, commanding him, in God's and her own name, to yield up the keys of all good cities to her, the virgin sent by God to restore them to the French. The letter was received with scorn ; and the trumpeter that brought it commanded to be burnt, against the law of nations, saith a French author, || but erroneously: for his coming was not warranted by the authority of any lawful prince, but from a private maid, how Though he had never been seen by her before, and was at that time, of set purpose, much disguised EDIT. f GERSON, lib. De mirabili Victoria cnjns.ltim Puellas, paulo post inilium. $ POLYDORE VIRGIL, in " Henry VI.," p. 471. See the copy thereof in SPEED'S " King Henry VI.," p. 654. II Du SERRES in his " French History," translated by Grimston, p. 326. CHAP. V. THE LIFE OF JOAN OF ARC. 351 highly soever self-pretended, who had neither estate to keep nor commission to send a trumpeter. Now the minds of the French were all afloat with this the conceit of their new general, which miraculously raised their spirits. Fancy is the castle commanding the city ; and if once men's heads be possessed with strange .imaginations, the whole body will follow, and be infinitely transported therewithal. Under her conduct, they first drive away the English from Orleans : nor was she a whit daunted, when shot through her arm with an arrow ; but, taking the arrow in one hand, and her sword in another, " This is a favour," said she, " let us go on : they can- not escape the hand of God ! " * and she never left off, till she had beaten the English from the city. And hence this virago (call her now John or Joan !) marched on into other countries, which instantly revolted to the French crown. The example of the first place was the reason of all the rest to submit. The English in many skirmishes were worsted and defeated with few numbers. But what shall we say? When God intends a nation shall be beaten, he ties their hands behind them. The French followed their blow, losing no time, lest the height of their spirits should be remitted : (men's imaginations, when once on foot, must ever be kept going, like those that go on stilts in fenny countries, lest, standing still, they be in danger of falling :) and so keeping the conceit of their soldiers at the height, in one twelve-month they recovered the greatest part of that the English did possess. But success did afterwards fail this she-general : for, seeking to surprise St. Honorie's ditch near the city of St. Denis, she was not only wounded herself, but also lost a troop of her best and most resolute soldiers ; and, not long after, nigh the city of Campiegne, being too far engaged in fight, was taken prisoner by the Bastard of Vendome, who sold her to the duke of Bedford, and by him she was kept a prisoner a twelve-month in Rohan. It was much disputed amongst the statists what should be done with her. Some held that no punishment was to be inflicted on her, because Nullum memorabile nomen Fceminea in pcena. " Cruelty to a woman Brings honour unto no man." Du SERRES, p. 317. 352 THE PROFANE STATE. BOOK V. Besides, putting her to death would render all Englishmen guilty, who should hereafter be taken prisoners by the French. Her former valour deserved~praise,^her present misery deserved pity ; captivity being no ill action, but ill success. Let them rather allow her an honourable pension, and so make her valiant deeds their own by rewarding them. However, she ought not to be put to death ; for if the English would punish her, they could not more disgrace her than with life ; to let her live, though in a poor, mean way, and then she would be the best confutation of her own glorious prophecies. Let them make her the laundress to the English who was the leader to the French army. Against these arguments necessity of State was urged, a reason above all reason; it being in vain to dispute whether that may be done which must be done. For, the French super- stition of her could not be reformed except the idol was destroyed ; and it would spoil the French puppet-plays in this nature for ever after, by making her an example. Besides, she was no prisoner of war, but a prisoner of justice, deserving death for her witchcraft and whoredoms; whereupon she was burnt at Rohan, July 6th, 1461, not without the aspersion of cruelty on our nation.* Learned men are in a great doubt what to think of her.f Some make her a saint, and inspired by God's Spirit, whereby she discovered strange secrets, and foretold tilings to come. She had ever an old woman who went with her, and tutored her ; J and it is suspicious, seeing this clock could not go with- out that rusty wheel, that these things . might be done by confederacy; though some, more uncharitable, conceive them to be done by Satan himself. Two customs she had which can by no way be defended. One was her constant going in man's clothes, flatly against Scripture. Yea, mark all the miracles in God's word, wherein though men's estates be often changed, (poor to rich, bond to free, sick to sound, yea, dead to living !) yet we read of no old ^Eson made young, no woman Iphis turned to a man, or man Tiresias to a woman ; but, as for their age or sex, where nature places them, there they stand, and miracle itself will not remove them. Utterly unlawful therefore was this Joan's behaviour, as Senlcntia post homines natos durissima POLYDORUS VIRGILIUS, p. 477- f GERSON, in the book which he wrote of her, after long discussing the point, leares it uncertain, but is rather charitably inclined. $ SERRES, p. 325. CHAP. V. THE LIFE OF JOAN OF ARC. 353 an occasion to lust ; and our English writers say, that when she was to be condemned, she confessed herself to be with child, to prolong her life ; but, being reprieved seven months for the trial thereof, it was found false.* But grant her honest : though she did not burn, herself, yet she might kindle others, and provoke them to wantonness. Besides, she shaved her hair in the fashion of a friar, f against God's express word, it being also a solecism in nature, all women being born votaries, and the veil of their long hair minds them of their obedience, [which] they naturally owe to man. Yea, without this comely ornament of hair, their most glorious beauty appears as deformed as the sun would be pro- digious without beams. Herein she had a smack of monkery, which makes all the rest the more suspicious, as being sent to maintain as well the friars, as the French crown. And if we survey all the pretended miracles of that age, we shall find, what tune soever she sung, still they had something in the close in the favour of Mars, though brought in as by-the-by, yet, perchance, chiefly intended; so that the whole sentence was made for the parenthesis. We will close the different opinions which several authors had of her, with this epitaph : " Here lies Joan of Arc, the which Some count saint, and some count witch ; Some count man, and something more ; Some count maid, and some a whore : Her life 's in question, wrong or right ; Her death 's in doubt, by laws or might. O innocence, take heed of it, How thou too near to guilt dost sit. (Meantime France a wonder saw, A woman rule 'gainst Salic law.) But, reader, be content to stay Thy censure till the judgment-day : Then shalt thou know, and not before, Whether saint, witch, man, maid, or whore ! " Some conceive that the English conquests, being come to the vertical point, would have decayed of themselves, had this woman never been set up, who now reaps the honour hereof as her action ; though, thus, a very child may seem to turn the waves of the sea with his breath, if casually blowing on them at that very instant when the tide is to turn of itself. Sure, after * POLYDORE VIRGIL, ut prius. A A 354 THE PROFANE STATE. BOOK V. her death, the French went on victoriously ; and won all from the English, partly by their valour, but more by our dissen- sions; for then began the cruel wars betwixt the Houses of York and Lancaster, till the red rose might become white, by losing so much blood, and the white rose red by shedding it. CHAPTER VI. THE ATHEIST. THE word "atheist" is of a very large extent: every poly- theist is, in effect, an atheist ; for he that multiplies a deity, annihilates it ; and he that divides it, destroys it. But, amongst the Heathen, we may observe, that whosoever sought to withdraw people from their idolatry was presently indicted and arraigned of atheism. If any philosopher saw God through their gods, this dust was cast in his eyes for being more quick-sighted than others, that presently he was con- demned for an atheist ; and thus Socrates, the Pagan martyr, was put to death cu$ 0eo.* At this day three sorts of atheists are extant in the world : 1. In life and conversation. " God is not in all his thoughts ; " (Psalm x. 4 ;) not that he thinks there is no God ; but thinks not there is a God, never minding or heeding Him in the whole course of his life and actions. 2. In will and desire. Such could wish there were no God or devil; as thieves would have no judge nor jailor. Quod metuunt periisse expetunt.^ 3. In judgment and opinion. Of the former two sorts of atheists, there are more in the world than are generally thought ; of this latter, more are thought to be than there are ; a contemplative atheist being very rare, such as were Diago- ras,J Protagoras, Lucian, and Theodoras, who, though carrying * JUSTINI MARTYRIS Secunda Apologia pro Christianis, p. 56. -f " They wish the destruction of that of which they are afraid." EDIT. David cum dicit, Stultus dixit in corde, $c., videtur Diagoram prcedixisse. AUGUS- TINUS, Contra Petilianum, torn. 7, lib. iii. cap. 1. " David's assertion, ' The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God,' seems to have been uttered as a prediction concerning Diagoras." EDIT. CHAP. VI. THE ATHEIST. 355 God in his name, was an atheist in his opinion. Come we to see by what degrees a man may climb up to this height of pro- faneness. And we will suppose him to be one living in wealth and prosperity, which more disposeth men to atheism than adversity. For, affliction mindeth men of a Deity, as those who are pinched will cry, " O Lord ! " But much outward happiness, abused, occasioneth men, as wise Agur observeth, " to deny God, and say, ' Who is the Lord ? ' " MAXIM I. First, he quarrels at the diversities of religions in the world. Complaining how great clerks dissent in their judgments, which makes him sceptical in all opinions : whereas such differences should not make men careless to have any but careful to have the best religion. ii. He loveth to maintain paradoxes, and to shut his eyes against the beams of a known truth. Not only for discourse, which might be permitted : for as no cloth can be woven except the woof and the warp be cast cross one to another, so discourse will not be maintained without some opposition for the time. But our inclining atheist goes further, engaging his affections in disputes, even in such matters where the supposing them wounds piety, but the positive maintaining them stabs it to the heart. in. He scoffs and makes sport at sacred things. This, by degrees, abates the reverence of religion, and ulcers men's hearts with profaneness. The Popish proverb, well understood, hath a truth in it : " Never dog barked against the crucifix, but he ran mad." IV. Hence he proceeds to take exception at God's word. He keeps a register of many difficult places of Scripture ; not that he desires satisfaction therein, but delights to puzzle divines therewith ; and counts it a great conquest when he hath posed them. Unnecessary questions out of the Bible are his most^ - necessary study; and he is more curious to know where Lazarus's soul was, the four days he lay in the grave, than ? careful to provide for his own soul when he shall be dead. Thus is it just with God, that they who will not feed on the plain meat of his word, should be choked with the bones thereof. 2 A 2 356 THE PROFANE STATE. BOOK V. But his principal delight is to sound the alarum, and to set several places of Scripture to fight one against another, betwixt which there is a seeming and he would make a real contra- diction. v. Afterwards he grows so impudent as to deny the Scripture itself. As Samson, being fastened by a web to a pin, carried away both web and pin ; so if any urge our atheist with argu- ments from Scripture, and tie him to the authority of God's word, he denies both reason, and God's word, to which the reason is fastened. VI. Hence he proceeds to deny God himself. First, in his adminis- tration ; then, in his essence. What else could be expected but that he should bite at last, who had snarled so long ? First, he denies God's ordering of sublunary matters. " Tush, doth the Lord see, or is there knowledge in the Most Highest ? " mak- ing him a maimed Deity, without an eye of providence or an arm of power, and, at most, restraining him only to matters above the clouds. But he that dares to confine the King of heaven, will soon after endeavour to depose him, and fall at last flatly to deny him. VII. He furnisheth himself with an armory of arguments to fight against his own conscience. Some taken from 1. The impunity and outward happiness of wicked men. As the Heathen poet, whose verses for me shall pass un- Englished : Esse Deos credamne? fidem jurata fefellit, Et fades illi, quce fuit ante, manet.* And no wonder if an atheist breaks his neck thereat, whereat the foot of David himself did almost slip, when he saw the pros- perity of the wicked; (Psalm Ixxiii. 2, 3;) whom God only reprieves for punishment hereafter. 2. From the afflictions of the godly. Whilst, indeed, God only tries their faith by patience. As Absalom complained of his father David's government, that none were deputed .to redress people's grievances; so he objects, that none righteth the wrongs of God's people, and thinks (proud dust !) the world would be better steered if he were the pilot thereof. OVIDII Amorum, lib. iii. eleg. 3. CHAP. VI. THE ATHEIST. 357 3. From the delaying of the day of judgment. With those mockers, whose objections the apostle fully answereth. (2 Peter iii.) And in regard of his own particular, the atheist hath as little cause to rejoice at the deferring of the day of judgment, as the thief hath reason to be glad that the Assizes be put off, who is to be tried, and may be executed before, at the Quarter- Sessions : so death may take our atheist off, before the day of judgment come. "With these and other arguments he struggles with his own conscience, and long in vain seeks to conquer it, even fearing that Deity he flouts at, and dreading that God whom he denies. And as that famous Athenian soldier, Cynsegirus,* catching hold of one of the enemies' ships, held it first with his right hand, and, when that was cut off, with his left, and when both were cut off, yet still kept it with his teeth; so the conscience of our atheist though he bruise it, and beat it, and maim it never so much still keeps him by the teeth, still feeding and gnawing upon him, torturing and tormenting him with thoughts of a Deity, which the other desires to suppress. VIII. At last he himself is utterly overthrown by conquering his own conscience. God in justice takes from him the light which he thrust from himself, and delivers him up to a seared conscience and a reprobate mind, whereby hell takes possession of him. The apostle saith, that a man may feel God in his works. (Acts xvii. 27.) But now our atheist hath a dead palsy, is past all sense, and cannot perceive God, who is every where presented unto him. It is most strange, yet most true, which is reported, that the arms of the duke of Rohan in France, which are fusills or lozenges, are to be seen in the wood or stones throughout all his country ; so that break a stone in the middle, or lop a bough of a tree, and one shall behold the grain thereof (by some secret cause in nature) diamonded or streaked in the fashion of a lozenge.f Yea, the very same in effect is observed in England : for the resemblances of stars, the arms of the worshipful family of the Shugburies in Warwickshire, are found in the stones within their own manor of Shugbury.J But what shall we say ? The arms of the God of heaven, namely, power, wisdom, JUSTINUS, lib. ii. t Because of these natural forms in wood and stone, it seems that from thence the dukes assumed their arms. CAMDEV'S Britannia, in Warwickshire. 358 THE PROFANE STATE. BOOK V. and goodness, are to be seen in every creature in the world, even from worms to men ; and yet our atheist will not acknow- ledge them, but ascribes them either to chance, (but could a blind painter limn such curious pictures?) or else to nature, which is a mere sleight of the devil to conceal God from men, by calling him after another name ; for what is natura naturans but God himself? IX. His death commonly is most miserable. Either burnt, as Diagoras ; or eaten up with lice, as Pherecydes ; * or devoured by dogs, as Lucian; or thunder-shot and turned to ashes, as Olympius. However, descending impenitent into hell, there he is atheist no longer, but hath as much religion as the devil, to confess God and tremble : Nullus in inferno est atheos, ante fuit: " On earth were atheists many, In hell there is not any." All speak truth, when they are on the rack ; but it is a woful thing to be hell's convert. And there we leave the atheist; having dwelt the longer on his character, because that speech of worthy Mr. Greenham deserves to be heeded, that " atheism in England is more to be feared than Popery." f To give an instance of a speculative atheist, is both hard and dangerous. Hard ; for we cannot see men's speculations, otherwise than as they clothe themselves visible in their actions, some atheistical speeches being not sufficient evidence to convict the speaker an atheist. Dangerous ; for, what satisfaction can I make to their memories, if I challenge any of so foul a crime wrongfully ? We may more safely insist on an atheist in life and conversation; and such a one was he whom we come to describe. PAULUS DIACONUS, lib. xv. f In his " Grave Counsel," p. 3. CHAP. VII. THE LIFE OF CvESAll BORGIA. 359 CHAPTER VII. THE LIFE OF C.ESAR BORGIA. CAESAR BORGIA was base son- to Roderick Borgia, otherwise called Pope Alexander VI. This Alexander was the first of the Popes who openly owned his bastards;* and whereas his predecessors, counting fig-leaves better than nothing to cover their nakedness, disguised them under the names of ' ' nephews and god-sons," he was such a savage in his lust as nakedly to acknowledge his base children, and especially this Csesar Borgia, being like his father in the swarthiness of the complexion of his soul. His father first made him a cardinal, that thereby his shoulders might be enabled to bear as much church-preferment as he could load upon him. But Borgia's active spirit disliked the profession, and was " ashamed of the Gospel," which had more cause to be ashamed of him ; wherefore he quickly got a dispensation to uncardinal himself. The next hinderance that troubled his high designs was, that his eldest brother, the duke of Candia, stood betwixt him and preferment. It is reported also, that these two brothers justled together in their incest with their own sister Lucretia,f one as famous for her whoredoms, as her namesake had formerly been for her chastity. J The throne and the bed cannot severally abide partners, much less both meeting together as here they did. Wherefore Csesar Borgia took order, that his brother was killed one night as he rode alone in the city of Rome, and his body cast into Tiber ; and now he himself stood without com- petitor in his father's and sister's affection. His father was infinitely ambitious to advance him, as intend- ing not only to create him a duke, but also to create a dukedom for him, which seemed very difficult, if not impossible ; for he could neither lengthen the land, nor lessen the sea, in Italy; and petty princes therein were already crowded so thick, there was not any room for any more. However, the Pope, by fomenting the discords betwixt the French and Spanish about OUICCIARDINI'S " History of Italy," lib. i. p. 10. p. 179. LIVIUS, lib. i. 360 THE PROFANE STATE. BOOK V. the kingdom of Naples, and by embroiling all the Italian states in civil dissensions, out of their breaches picked forth a large principality for his son, managed in this manner : There is a fair and fruitful province in Italy, called Romania, parcelled into several states, all holding as feodaries from the Pope, but by small pensions, and those seldom paid. They were bound also not to serve in arms against the church ; which old tie they little regarded, and less observed, as conceiving time had fretted it asunder ; soldiers generally more weighing his gold that entertaineth them, than the cause or enemy against whom they fight. Pope Alexander sent his son Borgia to reduce that country to the church's jurisdiction, but, indeed, to subject it to his own absolute hereditary dominion. This in short time he effected, partly by the assistance of the French king, whose pensioner he was, (and, by the French title, made duke Valentinois,) and partly by the effectual aid of the Ursines, a potent family in Italy.* But afterward the Ursines, too late, were sensible of their error herein, and grew suspicious of his greatness. For they, in helping him to conquer so many petty states, gathered the several twigs, bound them into a rod, and put it into his hands to beat them therewith. Whereupon they began by degrees to withdraw their help; which Borgia perceived, and, having by flattery and fair promises got the principal of their family into his hands, he put them all to the sword. For he was perfect in the devilish art of dealing an ill turn ; doing it so suddenly, his enemies should not hear of him before ; and so soundly, that he should never hear of them afterwards, either striking always surely or not at all. And now he thought to cast away his crutches, and stand on his own legs, rendering himself absolute, without being beholden to the French king or any other. Having wholly conquered Romania, he cast his eyes on Hetruria, and therein either won to submission or compliance most of the cities, an earnest of his future final conquest, had not the unexpected death of his father, Pope Alexander, prevented him. This Alexander, with his son Caesar Borgia, intended to poison some rich cardinals; to which purpose a flagon of poisoned wine was prepared. But, through the error of a servant, not privy to the project, the Pope himself and Borgia GUICCIARDINI, lib. iv. p. 237. f MACHIAVEL, in his " Prince," rap. vii. CHAP. VII. THE LIFE OF CAESAR BORGIA. 361 his son drank thereof, which cost the former his life, and the other a long languishing sickness.* This Caesar Borgia once bragged to Machiavel, that he had so cunningly contrived his plots, as to warrant himself against all events. If his father should die first, he had made himself master of such a way, that, by the strength of his party in the city of Rome, and conclave of cardinals, he could choose what Pope he pleased, so from him to get assurance of this province of Romania to make it hereditaiy to himself. And if (which was improbable) nature should cross her hands, so that he should die before his father, yet even then he had chalked out such a course, as would insure his conquest to his posterity : so that, with this politic dilemma, he thought himself able to dis- pute against heaven itself. But (what he afterwards complained of) he never expected, that, at the same time wherein his father should die, he himself should also lie desperately sick, disenabled to prosecute his designs, till one unexpected counterblast of fortune ruffled, yea, blew away, all his projects so curiously plaited. Thus three aces chance often not to rub ; and politicians think themselves to have stopped every small cranny, when they have left a whole door open, for Divine Providence to undo all which they have done. The cardinals proceed to the choice of a new Pope, whilst Borgia lay sick a-bed, much bemoaning himself; for all others, had they the command of all April showers, could not bestow one drop of pity upon him. Pius III. was first chosen Pope ; answering his name, being a devout man: such black swans seldom swim in Tiber. But the chair of pestilence choked him within twenty-six days ; and, in his room, Julius was chosen, or rather his greatness chose himself, a sworn enemy to Csesar Borgia, who still lay under the physicians' hands, and had no power to oppose the election, or to strengthen his new-got dukedom of Romania. The state of his body was to be pre- ferred before the body of his state ; and he lay striving to keep life, not to make a Pope. Yea, the operation of this poison made him vomit up the dukedom of Romania, which he had swallowed before ; and, whilst he lay sick, the states and cities therein recovered their own liberties formerly enjoyed. Indeed, this disease made Borgia lose his nails, that he could never after scratch to do any mischief; and, being banished GUICCIARDINI, lib. vi. p. 307. THE PROFANE STATE. BOOK V. Italy, lie fled into Navarre, where he was obscurely killed in a tumultuous insurrection. He was a man master in the art of dissembling, never looking the same way he rowed; extremely lustful, never sparing to tread hen and chickens. At the taking of Capua, where he assisted the French, he reserved forty of the fairest ladies to be abused by his own wantonness.* And the prodigality of his lust had, long before his death, made him bankrupt of all the moisture in his body, if his physicians had not daily repaired the decays therein. He exactly knew the operations of all hot and cold poisons, which would surprise nature on a sudden, and which would weary it out with a long siege. He could contract a hundred toads into one drop, and cunningly infuse the same into any pleasant liquor, as the Italians have poisoning at their fingers' ends. By a fig, which restored Hezekiah's life, (2 Kings xx. 7,) he took away the lives of many. In a word, if he was not a practical atheist, I know not who was. If any desire to know more of his badness, let them read Machiavers " Prince/' where Borgia is brought in as an instance of all villany.f And though he deserves to be hissed out of Christendom, who will open his mouth in the defence of Machiavers precepts, yet some have dared to defend his person ; so, that he in his book shows not what princes should be, but what then they were ; intending that work, not for a glass for future kings to dress themselves by, but only therein to present the monstrous face of the politicians of that age. Sure, he who is a devil in this book, is a saint in all the rest ; J and those that knew him, witness him to be of honest life and manners : so that, that which hath sharpened the pens of many against him, is his giving so many cleanly wipes to the foul noses of the Pope and Italian prelacy. GUICCIARDINI, lib. v. p. 2CO. -j- Nunquam verebor in exemplum Valentinum subjicere. MACHIAVEL'S "Prince," cap. xiii. p. 73. + His " Notes on Livy," but especially his " Florentine History," savours of religion. BOISSARDUS, Iconum Virorum illustrium pars iii. CHAP. VIII. THE HYPOCRITE. 363 CHAPTER VIII. THE HYPOCRITE. BY hypocrite we understand such a one as doth "practise hypocrisy/' (Isaiah xxxii. 6,) make a trade or work of dissem- bling : for otherwise, * Hypocriseorum macula carere, aut paucorum est, aut nullorum.^ The best of God's children have a smack of hypocrisy. MAXIM I. A hypocrite is himself both the archer and the mark, in all actions shooting at his own praise or profit. And therefore he doth all things that they may be seen. What, with others, is held a principal point in law, is his main maxim in divinity, to have good witness ! Even fasting itself is meat and drink to him, whilst others behold it. n. In the outside of religion he outshines a sincere Christian. Gilt cups glitter more than those of massy gold, wliich are seldom burnished. Yea, well may the hypocrite afford gaudy facing, who cares not for any lining ; brave it in the shop, that hath notliing in the warehouse. Nor is it a wonder if in out- ward service he outstrips God's servants, who out-doeth God's command by will- worship, giving God more than he requires ; though not what he most requires, I mean, his heart. in. His vizard is commonly plucked off in this world. Sincerity is an entire thing in itself : hypocrisy consists of several pieces cunningly closed together; and sometimes the hypocrite is smote, as Ahab with an arrow, (1 Kings xxii. 34,) betwixt the joints of liis armour, and so is mortally wounded in his reputation. Now by these shrewd signs a dissembler is often discovered : First, heavy censuring of others for light faults. HIERONYMUS, contra Pelag., lib. ii. ; et AUOUSTINUS, in eadem verba Sermo. 59, De Tempore. t " It " the lot of very few, if of any at all, to be devoid of the blot of hypocrisy." EDIT. 364 THE PROFANE STATE. BOOK V. Secondly, boasting of his own goodness. Thirdly, the unequal beating of his pulse in matters of piety; hard, strong, and quick, in public actions; weak, soft, and dull, in private matters. Fourthly, shrinking in persecution ; for painted faces cannot abide to come nigh the fire. IV. Yet sometimes he goes to the grave neither detected nor suspected. If masters in their art, and living in peaceable times, wherein piety and prosperity do not fall out, but agree well together. Maud, mother to king Henry II., being besieged in Winchester Castle, counterfeited herself to be dead, and so was carried out in a coffin, whereby she escaped.* Another time, being besieged at Oxford in a cold winter, with \\ uiring white apparel she got away in the snow undiscovered. f Thus, some hypocrites, by dissembling mortification, that they are dead to the world, and by professing a snow-like purity in their conversations, escape all their life-time undiscerned by mortal eyes. v. By long dissembling piety, he deceives himself at last. Yea, he may grow so infatuated, as to conceive himself no dissembler, but a sincere saint. A scholar was so possessed with his lively personating of king Richard III., in a College-comedy, that ever after he was transported with a royal humour in his large expenses ; which brought him to beggary, though he had great preferment. Thus the hypocrite, by long acting the part of piety, at last believes himself really to be such an one, whom at first he did but counterfeit. VI. God here knows, and hereafter will make hypocrites known to the whole world. Ottochar, king of Bohemia, refused toi do homage to Rodolphus I., emperor, till at last, chastised with war, he was content to do him homage privately in a tent; which tent was so contrived by the emperor's servants, that, by drawing one cord, it was all taken away, and so Ottochar pre- sented on his knees, doing his homage, to the view of three armies in presence.! Thus God, at last, shall uncase the closest CAMDEV'S Britannia, in Hampshire. -f- MATTHEW PARIS, n anno Domini 1141. + PANTALEON, lib. de Illnstribus Gcrmanis in Vita Rodolphi Jmpcraloris, part. ii. p. 283. CHAP. IX. THE LIFE OF JEHU. 365 dissembler, to the sight of men, angels, and devils, having removed all veils and pretences of piety : no goat in a sheep- skin shall steal on his right hand at the last day of judg- ment. CHAPTER IX. THE LIFE OF JEHU. JEHU, the son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi, was one of an active spirit, and therefore employed to confound the house of Ahab ; for God, when he means to shave clear, chooses a razor with a sharp edge, and never sendeth a slug on a message that requireth haste. A son of the prophets, sent by Elisha, privately anointed him king at Ramoth-Gilead ; whereupon he was proclaimed king by the consent of the army. Surely, God sent also an invisible messenger to the souls of his fellow-captains, and anointed their hearts with the oil of subjection, as he did Jehu's head with the oil of sovereignty. Secrecy and celerity are the two wheels of great actions. Jehu had both : he marched to Jezreel faster than fame could fly, whose wings he had clipped by stopping all intelligence, that so at once he might be seen and felt of his enemies. In the way, meeting with Jehoram and Ahaziah, he conjoined them in their deaths, who consorted together in idolatry. The corpse of Jehoram he orders to be cast into Naboth's vineyard, a garden of herbs royally dunged, and watered with blood. Next he revengeth God's prophets on cruel Jezebel, whose wicked carcass was devoured by dogs to a small reversion, as if a head that plotted, and hands that practised, so much mischief, and feet so swift to shed blood, were not meat good enough for dogs to eat. Then, by a letter, he commands the heads of AhaVs seventy sons, (their guardians turning their execution- ers,) whose heads, being laid on two heaps at the gate of Jezreel, served for two soft pillows for Jehu to sleep sweetly upon, having all these cor-rivals to the crown taken away. The priests of Baal follow after. With a pretty wile, he fetches them all into the temple of their idol, where, having ended their sacrifice, they themselves were sacrificed. However, 366 THE PROFANE STATE. BOOK V. I dare not acquit Jehu herein. In " holy fraud " I like the Christian- but not the sur-name thereof; and wonder how any can marry these two together in the same action, seeing, surely, the parties were never agreed. This I dare say, be it unjust in Jehu, it was just with God, that the worshippers of a false god should be deceived with a feigned worship. Hitherto I like Jehu as well as Josiah ; his zeal blazed as much. But, having now got the crown, he discovers himself as a dissembling hypocrite. It was an ill sign when he said to Jonadab the son of Eechab : " Come with me, and see m^ zeal for the Lord." Bad inviting guests to feed their eyes on our goodness ! But hypocrites, rather than they will lose a drop of praise, will lick it up with their own tongue. Before he had dissembled with Baal; now he counterfeits with God. " He took no heed to walk in the way of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart." Formerly his sword had two edges, one cut for God's glory, the other for his own prefer- ment. He that before drove so furiously, whilst his private ends whipped-on his horses, now will not go a foot-pace in God's commandments. " He departed not from the golden calves in Dan and Bethel." I know what flesh will object, that " this state-sin Jehu must commit to maintain his kingdom ; for the lions of gold did sup- port the throne of Solomon, but the calves of gold the throne of Jeroboam and his successors. Should he suffer his subjects to go up to Jerusalem thrice a year, (as the law of Moses com- manded, Exodus xxxiv. 23,) this would un-king him in effect, as leaving him no able subjects to command. And as one in the Heathen poet complains : Tres sumus imbelles numero, sine viribU'S uxor, iMertesque senex, Telemachusque puer. 1 Three weaklings we, a wife for war too mild, Laertes old, Telemachus a child ! ' so thrice a-year should Jehu only be king over such an impo- tent company of old men, women, and children. Besides, it was to be feared that the ten tribes going to Jerusalem to wor- ship, where they fetched their God, would also have their king." But faith will answer, that " God that built Jehu's throne without hands, could support it without buttresses, or being beholding to idolatry; and therefore herein Jehu, who would CHAP. X. THE HERETIC. 367 needs piece out God's providence with his own carnal policy, was like a foolish, greedy gamester, who, having all the game in his own hand, steals a needless card to assure himself of win- ning the stake, and thereby loses all/' For this deep diver was drowned in his own policy; and Hazael, king of Syria, was raised up by God to trouble and molest him. Yet God rewarded him with a lease of the kingdom of four successive lives ; who, had he been sincere, would have assured him of a crown here and hereafter. CHAPTER X. THE HERETIC. IT is very difficult accurately to define him. Amongst the Heathen ATHEIST was, and amongst Christians HERETIC is, the disgraceful word-of-course, always cast upon those who dissent from the predominant current of the time. Thus those who in matters of opinion varied from the Pope's copy the least hair- stroke, are condemned for heretics.* Yea, Virgilius, bishop of Saltzburgh, was branded with that censure, for maintaining that there were antipodes opposite to the then known world, f It may be, as Alexander, hearing the philosophers dispute of more worlds, wept, that he had conquered no part of* them; so it grieved .the Pope that these antipodes were not subject to his jurisdiction, which much incensed his Holiness against the strange opinion. We will branch the description of an heretic into these three parts : 1. He is one that formerly hath been of the true church. " They went out from us, but they were not of us." (1 John ii. 19.) These afterwards prove more offensive to the church than very Pagans ; as the English-Irish, descended anciently of English parentage, (be^it spoken with the more shame to them, and sorrow to us !) turning wild, become worse ene- mies to our nation than the native Irish themselves. * Hie videtur quod omnis qui non obedit statutis Romance sedis sit htereticus GLOSS A, in C. nulli dist. 19, in verbo Prostratus. f JOH. A VENT., lib. iii., Annal. Boior. 368 THE PROFANE STATE. BOOK V. 2. Maintaining a fundamental error. Every scratch in the hand is not a stab to the heart ; nor doth every false opinion make a heretic. 3. With obstinacy. Which is the dead flesh, making the green wound of an error fester into the old sore of a heresy. MAXIM I. It matters not much what manner of person he hath. If beau- tiful, perchance the more attractive of feminine followers : if deformed, so that his body is as odd as his opinions, he is the more properly entitled to the reputation of " crooked saint." ii. His natural parts are quick and able. Yet he that shall ride on a winged horse to tell him thereof, shall but come too late, to bring him stale news of what he knew too well before. in. Learning is necessary in him, if he trades in a critical error. But if he only broaches dregs, and deals in some dull, sottish opinion, a trowel will serve as well as a pencil to daub-on such thick coarse colours. Yea, in some heresies, deep studying is so useless, that the first thing they learn is, to inveigh against all learning. IV. However, some smattering in the original tongues will do well. On occasion, he will let fly whole vollies of Greek and Hebrew words ; whereby he not only amazeth his ignorant auditors, but also in conference daunteth many of his opposers, who, though in all other learning far his superiors, may perchance be con- scious of want of skill in those languages, whilst the heretic hereby gains credit to his cause and person. v. His behaviour is seemingly very pious and devout. How foul soever the postern and back-door be, the gate opening to the street is swept and garnished, and his outside adorned with pretended austerity. VI. He is ^extremely proud, and discontented with the times Quarrelling, that many beneath him in piety are above him in CHAP. X. THE HERETIC. 369 place. This pride hath caused many men, who otherwise might have been "shining lights/* prove smoking firebrands in the church. VII. Having first hammered the heresy in himself, he then falls to seducing of others. So hard is it for one to have the itch, and not to scratch. Yea, Babylon herself will allege, that "for Sion's sake she will not hold her peace." The necessity of propagating the truth is error's plea to divulge her falsehoods. Men, as naturally they desire to know, so they desire what they know should be known. VIII. If challenged to a private dispute, his impudence bears him out. He counts it the only error, to confess he hath erred. His face is of brass, which may be said either ever or never to blush. In disputing, his modus is sine modo ; * and, as if all figures (even in logic) were magical, he neglects all forms of reasoning, counting that the only syllogism which is his conclusion. IX. He slights any synod, if condemning his opinions. Esteeming the decisions thereof no more than the forfeits in a barber's shop, where a gentleman's pleasure is all the obligation to pay, and none are bound except they will bind themselves. x. Sometimes he comes to be put to death for his obstinacy. Indeed, some charitable divines have counted it inconsistent with the lenity of the Gospel, which is to expect and endeavour the amendment of all, to put any to death for their false opinions ; and we read of St. Paul, (though the Papists paint him always with a sword,) that he only came "with a rod." However, the mildest authors allow, that the magistrate may inflict capital punishments on heretics,t in cases of 1. Sedition against the state wherein he lives. And, indeed, such is the sympathy betwixt church and commonwealth, that there are few heresies, except they be purely speculative, (and " His method is unmethodical." EDIT. f GERARD'S " Common- places," De Magistrate Polit. p. 1047. B B 370 THE PROFANE STATE. BOOK V. so, I may say, have heads without hands, or any practical influ- ence,) but in time the violent maintainers of them may make a dangerous impression in the State. 2. Blasphemy against God, and those points of religion which are awfully to be believed. For either of these, our heretic sometimes willingly undergoes death; and then, in the calendar of his own conceit, he canon-, izeth liimself for a saint, yea, a martyr. CHAPTER XI. THE RIGID DONATISTS. THE Donatists were so called from a double Donatus, whereof the one planted the sect, (anno Domini 331,) the other watered it, and the devil, by God's permission, gave the increase. The elder Donatus, being one of tolerable parts and intolerable pride, raised a schism in Carthage against good Cecilian, the bishop there, whom he loaded unjustly with many crimes, which he was not able to prove; and, vexed with this disgrace, he thought to right his credit by wronging religion, and so began the heresy of Donatists.* His most dominative tenet was, that the church was perished from the face of the earth, the relics thereof only remaining in his party. I instance the rather on this heresy, because the reviving thereof is the new disease of our times. One Vibius in Rome was so like unto Pompey, f ut permutato statu Pompeius in illo, et ille in Pompeio, salutari possit : J thus the Anabap- tists of our days, and such as are Anabaptistically inclined, in all particulars resemble the old Donatists, abating only that difference which is necessarily required to make them alike. The epithet of " rigid " I therefore do add, to separate the Donatists from themselves, who separated themselves from all other Christians. For there were two principal sides of them : AUGUST INUS, ad Quod vult Deum. -j- VALERIUS MAXIMUS, lib. ix. cap. 15. $ " That if either of them at any time had assumed the atti- tude and position of the other, Vibius might have been easily mistaken for Pompey, and Pompey accosted as Vibius." EDIT. CHAP. XI. THE RIGID DONATISTS. 371 First, the Rogatists, from Rogatus their teacher ; to whom St. Augustine beareth witness, that "they had zeal, but not according to knowledge." These were pious people for their lives, hating bloody practices, though erroneous in their doc- .trine. The learned Fathers of that age count them part of the true church, and their brethren, though they themselves dis- claimed any such brotherhood with other Christians.* O ! the sacred violence of such worthy .men's charity, in plucking those to them which thrust themselves away ! But there was another sort of Jesuited Donatists, as I may say, whom they called Circumcellions, though as little reason can be given of their name as of their opinions, whom we principally intend at this time.f Their number in short time grew not only to be considerable, but terrible. Their tenet was plausible and winning ; and that faith is easily wrought which teacheth men to believe well of themselves. From Numidia, where they began, they over- spread Africa, Spain, France, Italy, and Rome itself. We find not any in Britain, where Pelagianism mightily reigned; J either because God in his goodness would not have one country at the same time visited with a double plague ; or else because this infection was to come to this island in after-ages, furbished up under a new name. Their greatest increase was under Julian the emperor. This apostate, next to no religion, loved the worst religion best, and was a professed friend to all foes of goodness. The Donatists, being punished under former Christian emperors, repaired to him for succour ; not caring whether it was an olive or a bram- ble they fled to, so be it afforded them shelter. They extolled him for such a godly man, (flattery and false doctrine go ever together!) "with whom alone justice did remain;" and he restored them their good churches again, and armed them with many privileges against Christians. Hereupon they raised a cruel persecution, killing many men in the very churches, mur- Ipsum fratemitatis nomen utcunque Donatistis fastidiosum, est tamen orthodoxis erga ipsos Donatistas necessarium.-OpiA.TUS, lib. iii. init. " The name of BRETHREN, how scornfully soever rejected by the Donatists, is still necessarily employed towards them by the orthodox." EDIT. f ST. AUGUSTINUS, in Psalm cxxxii., Quia circum cellos vagantur, counts them so called ; which is rather his allusion than the true etymology. "St. Augustine (on Psalm cxxxii.) counts them so called because they walk about their cells." EDIT. + SIR HENRY SFELMAN'S " Councils," p. 446. Quod apud eum sohim justitia locum haberet AUGUSTINUS, contra literas PetiL, lib. ii. cap. 97. 2 B 2 372 THE PROFANE STATE. BOOK V. dering women and infants, defiling virgins, or ravishing them rather, for consent only defiles. God keep us from standing in the way where blind zeal is to pass ! for it will trample down all before it, and mercy shall as soon be found at the hands of prevailing cowards. What the Anabaptists did in Germany, we* know ; what they would do here, had they power, God knows. The best security we have [that] they will do no harm, is because they cannot. We come to set down some of their principal opinions. I say, " principal ; " for at last they did interfere with all heretics, Arians, Macedonians, &c. Ignorant zeal is too blind to go right, and too active to stand still : yea, all errors are of kin, at the farthest but cousins once removed; and when men have once left the truth, their only quiet home, they will take up their lodging under any opinion which hath the least shadow of probability. We will also set down some of their reasons, and how they torture Scripture with violent interpretations, to wrest from it a confession on their side, yet all in vain. FIRST POSITION. "That the true church was perished from the face of the earth, the remnants thereof being only in parte Donati, ' in that part of Africa where Donatus and his followers were/ " * The Anabaptists, in like manner, stifle God's church by crowding it into their corner, confining the monarchy of Christ in the Gos- pel unto their own toparchy, and having a quarrel to the words in the Creed, " catholic church." THE DONATISTS' REASONS.- It is said, "Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flocks to rest in the South/' (Cant. i. 7.) By this the Donatists are meant : Africa, wherein they lived, was in the South. CONFUTATION. An argument drawn from an allegory is weak, except all the obscurities therein be first explained. f Besides, Africa Cresariensis (where the Donatists were) was AUGUSTINUS, Contra Crescon., lib. ii. cap. 37. f Quis non impuden- tissime nitatur aliquid in allegoria positum pro se interpretari, nisi habeat et mani- festo testimonia quorum famine illustrentur obscura? AUGUSTINUS, JEpist. 48, ad Vincent., torn. ii. " Is it not a piece of the greatest impudence in any one, to attempt to give, to something contained in an allegory, an interpretation favourable to his own precon- ceptions, unless he can produce obvious testimonies, the clear light of which may illustrate the obscurities of the allegory ? " EDIT. CHAP. XI. THE RIGID DONATISTS. 373 much more West than South from Judea. But God's church cannot be contracted to the chapel of Donatus, to which God himself (the truest Surveyor) alloweth larger bounds : " Ask of me, and I will give thee the Heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession." (Psalm ii. 8.) Now, the restrainers of the church to a small place (as much as in them lies) falsify God's promise, and shorten Christ's portion. Many other places speak the large extent of the Gos- pel : Gen. xxii. 17 ; xxviii. 14; Psalm Ixxii. 8, &c.* SECOND POSITION. " That their church consisted of a holy company, pure and undefiled indeed." Thus also the Anabaptists brag of their holiness, as if nothing else were required to make men pure, but a conceit that they are so. Sure, had they no other fault but want of charity, their hands could not be clean who throw so much dirt on other men's faces. REASONS. It is said, " That Christ might present to himself a glorious church, without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it should be holy, and without blemish : " (Eph. v. 27 :) which the Donatists appropriate to themselves. CONFUTATION. This glorious presentation of the church is performed in the world to come.f Here it consisteth of sinners, who had rather confess their wrinkles than paint them, and had need to pray daily, " And forgive us our trespasses." THIRD POSITION. "That mixed communions were infectious; and the pious, promiscuously receiving with the profane, are polluted thereby." Hear the Anabaptizing sing the same note : " By profane and ignorant persons coming to the Lord's table, others also that communicate with them are guilty of the same profanation." J REASONS. Because several places of Scripture commend, yea, command, a separation from them. " Take forth the pre- cious from the vile." (Jer. xv. 19.) "Be ye separate, and touch no unclean thing." (2 Cor. vi. 17.) "Withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly." (2 Thess. iii. 6.) " Purge out therefore the old leaven," &c. (1 Cor. v. 7.) CONFUTATION. In these and the like places, two things are * OPTATUS MILEVITANUS, lib. ii. ; et AUGUSTINUS, Contra Liter. PetiL, ca p. 6 8. ) AUGUSTINUS, ut prius ad Vincentium, et epist. 50, ad Bonifacium. % " Protestation protested," p. 14. 374 THE PROFANE STATE. BOOK V. enjoined : First, a separation from intimate familiarity with pro- fane persons : Secondly, a separation from their vices and wjck- edness, by detesting and disclaiming them. But neither civil state-society, nor public church-communion, is hereby prohi- bited. By " purging out the old leaven/' church-censures are meant, to excommunicate the openly profane. But that mixed communions pollute not, appears, because St. Paul saith, " But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread," c., (1 Cor. xi. 28,) but enjoins not men to examine others ; which was necessary, if bad communicants do defile. It neither makes the cheer nor welcome the worse, to sit next to him at God's table, who wants a wedding-garment ; for he that touches his person, but disclaims his practices, is as far from him, as the east from the west, yea, as heaven from hell. In bodily dis- eases, one may be infected without his knowledge, against his will : not so in spiritual contagions, where * acceditur ad vitium corruptions vitio consensionis ; t and none can be infected against their consent. FOURTH POSITION. " That the godly were bound to sever from the society of the wicked, and not to keep any communion with them." Thus the most rigid of modern factors for the Independent congrega- tions would draw their files out of the army of our national church, and set up a congregation wherein Christ shall reign in beauty and purity. But they may fly -so far from mystical Babylon, as to run to literal Babel ; I mean, bring all to con- fusion, and founder the commonwealth. For they that stride so wide at once, will go far with few paces. REASON. Because it is written : " What communion hath light with darkness ? " (2 Cor. vi. 14 :) and in other places, to the same effect. J CONFUTATION. The answer is the same with the former. But the tares shall grow with the corn. And in the visible militant church and kingdom of grace, that wicked men shall be unseparably mingled with the godly, beside our Saviour's tes- timony, (Matt. xiii. 30,) these reasons do approve : First, because hypocrites can never be severed, but by Him that can search the heart. Secondly, because, if men should make the separation, weak Christians would be counted no Christians, AUGUSTINUS, Contra Don. post Coll. lib. f In which a man adds the sin of his full consent to the viciousness of his native corruption." EDIT. AUGUSTINUS, Contra Petil., lib. ii. cap. 39. CUAP. XI. THE RIGID DONAT1STS. 375 and those who have a grain of grace under a load of imperfec- tions would be counted reprobates. Thirdly, because God's vessels of honour from all eternity, not as yet appearing, but wallowing in sin, would be made cast-aways. Fourthly, because God, by the mixture of the wicked with the godly, will try the watchfulness and patience of his servants. Fifthly, because thereby he will bestow many favours on the wicked, to clear his justice, and render them the more inexcusable. Lastly, because the mixture of the wicked, grieving the godly, will make them the more heartily pray for the day of judgment. The desire of future glory makes the godly to cry, " Come, Lord Jesus ! " but the feeling of present pain (whereof they are most sensible) causeth the ingemination, " Come, Lord Jesus ! come quickly ! " In a word, as it is wholesome for a flock of sheep, for some goats to feed amongst them, their bad scent being good physic for the sheep to keep them from " the shakings ; " so, much profit redounds to the godly by the necessary mixture of the wicked amongst them, making the pious to stick the faster to God and goodness. FIFTH POSITION. " That the efficacy of the sacrament depends on the piety of the minister ; * so that, in effect, his piety washeth the water in baptism, and sanctifieth it ; whereas the profaneness of a bad man administering it, doth unsacrament baptism itself, making a nullity thereof." Herein the Anabaptists join hands with them, as it is generally known by their re-baptizing : yea, some tending that way have maintained, that sacraments, received from ignorant and unpreaching ministers, are of no validity. f REASON. It is written : " A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit." (Matt. vii. 18.) CONFUTATION. This is true of men's personal, but not of their ministerial, acts : that minister that can add the word of institution to the element, makes a sufficient sacrament. J And sacraments, like to shell-meats, may be eaten after foul hands, without any harm. Cum obsint indigne tractantibus, prosint tamen digne wmentibus.\\ Yet God make all ministers pious, AUGUSTINUS, Contra Liter. Petil., lib. i. cap. 1. f J. PENRY, pp. 46, 49. $ AUGUSTINUS, Tract. 80 in Johannem. Idem, Contra Parmen, lib. ii. cap. 10. || " While the sacraments are injurious to those who have unworthily administered them, they are, notwithstanding, profitable to humble and worthy receivers." EDIT. 376 THE PROFANE STATE. BOOK V. painful, and able! We, if beholding the present age, may justly bemoan their want, who, remembering the former age, must as justly admire their plenty. SIXTH POSITION. " That all learning and eloquence was to be condemned." * Late sectarists go farther : Greenwood and Barrow moved queen Elizabeth to abolish both Universities : t " Which we believe and wish may then be done, When all blear eyes have quite put out the sun." REASON. Because learning hath been the cause of many heresies and discords in the church. CONFUTATION. Not learning, but the conceit thereof in those that wanted it, and the abuse thereof in such as had it, caused heretics. SEVENTH POSITION. " That magistrates have no power to compel people to serve God, by outward punishment : " which is also the distilled position of our Anabaptists. Thus blinding the ministers, and binding the magistrate, what work do they make ! REASON. Because it is a breach of the liberty of the crea- ture : J the King of heaven gave not men free-will for the kings of the earth to take it away from them. CONFUTATION. God gave men free-will to use it well; if they abuse it, God gave magistrates power to punish them, else they " bear the sword in vain." They may command people to serve God, who herein have no cause to complain ; better " to be compelled to a feast," (Luke xiv. 23,) than to run to a fray. But these men who would not have magistrates compel them, query, whether, if they had power, they would not compel magistrates ? The Donatists also did mightily boast of miracles and visions. They made nothing, to step into the third heaven, and have familiar dialogues with God himself. They used also to cite their revelations, as arguments for their opinions. We will trust the copy of such their visions to be true, when we see the AUGUSTINUS, contra Crescon., lib. i. cap. 30. -f- DR. SOAME, writing against them, lib. ii. p. 4. AUGUSTINUS, contra Crescon., lib. iii. cap. 51. Donatus oravit, respondet ei Deusdecaslo AUGUS- TINUS, in Johann. tract. 3, propefinem. " Donatus prayed : God replied to him from heaven." EDIT. CHAP. XI. tfHE RIGID DONATISTS. 377 original produced. Herein the Anabaptists come not behind them. Strange was the Donatists' ambition of martyrdom: they used to force such as they met to wound them mortally, or violently to stab and kill them ; and on purpose to fall down from steep mountains,* who one day may wish the mountains to fall on them. For martyrs are to die willingly but not wilfully ; and though to die be a debt due to nature, yet he that pays it before the time may be called upon for repayment, to die the second death. Once many Donatists met a noble gentleman, and gave him a sword into his hand, commanding him to kill them, or threat- ening to kill him. Yet he refused to do it, unless first they would suffer him to bind them all : " For fear," said- he, " that when I have killed one or two of you, the rest alter their minds and fall upon me." Having fast bound them all, he soundly whipped them, and so let them alone. Herein he showed more wit than they wanted, and more charity than wit, denying them their desires, and giving them their deserts, seeking to make true saints by marring of false martyrs.f These Donatists were opposed by the learned writings of private Fathers, Optatus Milevitanus, and St. Augustine, (no heresy could bud out, but presently his pruning-hook was at it !) and by whole councils, one at Carthage, another at Aries. But the Donatists, whilst blessing themselves, cared not for the church's anathemas, being so far from fearing her excom- munications, that they prevented them in first excommunicating themselves by separation ; and they count it a kindness to be shut out, who would willingly be gone. Besides, they called at Carthage an anti-council of their own faction, consisting of two hundred and seventy bishops, to confirm their opinions .J Let truth never challenge error at the weapon of number alone, without other arguments ; for some orthodox councils have had fewer suffrages in them, than this Donatistical conventicle ; and we may see small pocket-Bibles, and a great folio Alcoran. But that which put the period to this heresy, (for after the six hundredth year of Christ, the Donatist appears not, "I looked after his place, and he was not to be found ! ") was partly their own dissensions, for they crumbled into several divisions amongst themselves. Beside the honest Rogatists, (of whom THEODORETUS, infabulis Heretic. t CENTURIATORES, Cent. 4. cap. v. p. 211, ex Theodoreto. $ AUGUSTINUS, Eplst. ad Vincentium. In minutula frusiula, Idem. 378 THE PROFANE STATE. BOOK V. before,) they had several sects, some more, some less strict, called from their several masters, Cresconians, Petilians,* Ticonians, Parmenians, Maximians, &c. which much differed amongst themselves. Thus is it given to all heresies to break out into under-factions, still going further in their tenets ; and such as take themselves to be twice-refined, will count all others to be but dross, till there be as many heresies as heretics ; like the Ammonites, so scattered by Saul " that there remained not two of them which were together." (1 Sam. xi. 11.) But chiefly they were suppressed by the civil magistrate. Moses will do more with a frown, than Aaron with a blow ; I mean, with church-censures ! For, Honorius, the godly emperor, with his arm above a thousand miles long, easily reached them in Europe, Asia, and Africa ; and, by punishments mixed with the church's instructions, converted and reclaimed very many.f In such a case, teaching without punishment had done little good, and punishment without teaching would have done much harm; both mingled together, by God's blessing, caused the conversion of many, and final suppression of that heresy. The same God of his goodness grant, that, by the same means, such as revive this heresy now-a-days, may have their eyes opened and their mouths stopped, their pride less and their knowledge more, that those may be stayed who are going, and those brought back who are gone into their dangerous opinion ! For if the angels in heaven rejoice at the conversion of a sinner, none but devils and men devilishly- minded will be sorrowful thereat. Petilian went not so far as the rest. ATJGUSTJNUS, De Correct. Donati, lib. iii. cap. 17, 19. Vide AUGUSTINUM, De Schism. Maxim. Brevis Cottat. 3 diei. f He caused the patent of privilege which Julian granted the Donatists, publicis locks affigendum in Ittdibrium. Vide BARONJUM, in anno 362, num. 264. CHAP. XII. THE LIAR. 379 CHAPTER XII. THE LIAR. THE liar is one that makes a trade to tell falsehoods, with intent to deceive. He is either open or secret. A secret liar or equivocator is such a one, as, by mental reservations and other tricks, deceives him to whom he speaks, being lawfully called to deliver all the truth. And, sure, speech being but a copy of the heart, it cannot be avouched for a true copy that hath less in it than the original. Hence it often comes to pass, " When Jesuits unto us answer, ' Nay,' They do not English speak, 'tis Greek they say." Such an equivocator we leave, more needing a book than character to describe him. The open liar is, first, either mischievous, condemned by all; secondly, officious, unlawful also, because doing ill for good to come of it ; thirdly, jesting, when in sport and merriment. And though some count a jesting lie to be like the dirt of oysters, which (they say) never stains, yet is it a sin in earnest. What policy is it for one to wound himself to tickle others, and to stab his own soul to make the standers-by sport ? We come to describe the liar. MAXIM I. At first he tells a lie with some shame and reluctancy. For then, if he cuts off but a lap of truth's garment, his heart smites him ; but, in process of time, he conquers his conscience, and, from quenching it, there ariseth a smoke which soots and fouls his soul, so that afterwards he lies without any regret. ii. Having made one lie, he is fain to make more to maintain it. For an untruth, wanting a firm foundation, needs many but- tresses. The honour and happiness of the Israelites is the misery and mischief of lies : " Not one amongst them shall be barren," (Deut. vii. 14,) but miraculously procreative to beget others. 380 THE PROFANE STATE. BOOK V. III. He hath a good memory which he badly abuseth. Memory in a liar is no more than needs. For, first, lies are hard to be remembered, because many, whereas truth is but one. Secondly, because a lie cursorily told, takes little footing and settled fast- ness in the teller's memory, but prints itself deeper in the hearers, who take the greater notice, because of the impro- bability and deformity thereof; and one will remember the sight of a monster longer than the sight of a handsome body. Hence comes it to pass, that when the liar hath forgotten him- self, his auditors put him in mind of the lie, and take him therein. IV. Sometimes, though his memory cannot help him from being arrested for lying, his wit rescues him. Which needs a long reach to bring all ends presently and probably together, gluing the splinters of his tales so cunningly, that the cracks cannot be perceived. Thus a relic-monger bragged, he could show a feather of the dove at Christ's baptism ; but being to show it to the people, a wag had stolen away the feather, and put a coal in the room of it. " Well," quoth he to the spectators, " I can- not be so good as my word for the present ; but here is one of the coals that broiled St. Lawrence, and that is worth the seeing." * v. Being challenged for telling a lie, no man is more furiously angry. Then he draws his sword and threatens, because he thinks that an offer of revenge, to show himself moved at the accusation, doth in some sort discharge him of the imputation ; as if the condemning of the sin in appearance acquitted him in effect : or else, because he that is called " a liar " to his face, is also called a coward in the same breath, if he swallows it ; and the party charged doth conceive, that, if he vindicates his valour, his truth will be given him into the bargain. VI. At last he believes his own lies to be true. He hath told them over and over so often, that prescription makes a right ; and he CHEMNITIUS, in Exam. Cone. Trident., part iv. p. 12. CHAP. XIII. THE COMMON BARRETOR. 381 verily believes, that at the first he gathered the story out of some authentical author, which only grew in his own brain. VII. No man else believes him when he speaks the truth. How much gold soever he hath in his chest, his word is but brass, and passeth for nothing : yea, he is dumb in effect ; for it is all one whether one cannot speak, or cannot be believed. To conclude : Some of the West Indians, to expiate their sin of lying, use to let themselves blood in their tongues, and to offer the blood to their idols : a good cure for the squinancy, [quincy,] but no satisfaction for lying. God's word hath taught us better : " What profit is there in my blood ? " The true repentance of the party, washed in the blood of Christ, can only obtain pardon for this sin. CHAPTER XIII. THE COMMON BARRETOR. A BARRETOR * is a horseleech, that only sucks the corrupted blood of the law. He trades only in tricks and quirks. His highway is in by-paths, and he loveth a cavil better than an argument, an evasion than an answer. There be two kinds of them : either such as fight themselves, or are trumpeters in a battle to set-on others. The former is a professed dueller in the law, that will chal- lenge any, and in all suit-combats be either principal or second. MAXIM I. References and compositions he hates, as bad as a hangman hates a pardon. Had he been a scholar, he would have main- Barretor, barrator, or barratour, according to PHILLIPS and KERSEY, is a law-term, signifying " a common wrangler that sets men at variance, and is never quiet but at brawl with one or another ; a stirrer-up and maintainer of law-suits and quarrels." On account of the similarity in the name and sound, it was sometimes employed ironically, to designate a barrister of a litigious disposition EDIT. 382 THE PROFANE STATE. BOOK V. tained all paradoxes ; if a surgeon, he would never have cured a wound, but always kept it raw ; if a soldier, he would have been excellent at a siege, nothing but ejectio firma would out him. ii. He is half-starved in a Lent of a long vacation, for want of employment. Save only that then he brews work to broach in term-time. I find one so much delighted in law-sport, that when Lewis the king of France offered to ease him of a number of suits, he earnestly besought his Highness to leave him some twenty or thirty behind, wherewith he might merrily pass away the time.* in. He hath this property of an honest man, that his word is as good as his bond. For he will pick the lock of the strongest conveyance, or creep out at the lattice of a word. Wherefore, he counts to enter common with others, as good as his own several : for he will so vex his partners, that they had rather forego their right, than undergo a suit with him. As for the trumpeter-barretor, IV. He falls in with all his neighbours that fall out, and spurs them on to go to law. A gentleman, who in a duel was rather scratched than wounded, sent for a surgeon, who, having opened the wound, charged his man with all speed to fetch such a salve from such a place in his study. "Why," said the gentleman, " is the hurt so dangerous ?" " O yes ! " answered the surgeon, "if he returns not in post-haste, the wound will cure itself, and so I shall lose my fee." Thus the barretor posts to the houses of his neighbours, lest the sparks of their small discords should go out before he brings them fuel, and so he be broken by their making-up. Surely, he loves not to have the bells rung in a peal ; but he likes it rather when they are jangled backward, himself having kindled the fire of dissension among his neighbours. STEPHENS'S "Apology for Herodotus.'* CHAP. XIII. THE COMMON BARRETOR. 383 V. He lives till his clothes have as many rents as himself hath made dissensions. I wonder any should be of this trade, when none ever thrived on it, paying dear rates for their counsels : for, bringing many cracked titles, they are fain to fill up their gaping chinks with the more gold. But I have done with this wrangling companion, half afraid to meddle with him any longer, lest he should commence a suit against me for describing him. The reader may easily perceive, how this book of " the Pro- fane State " would swell to a great proportion, should we therein character all the kinds of vicious persons who stand in opposi- tion to those who are good. But this pains may well be spared, seeing that rectum est index sui et obliqui;* and the lustre of the good formerly described, will sufficiently discover the enormity of those who are otherwise. We will therefore instance in three principal offenders,f and so conclude. " Uprightness is an index not only of itself, but also of that which is crooked or unjust." EDIT. f These three " principal offenders," as the reader will perceive, are "the degeuerous gentleman," "the traitor," and "the tyrant." EDIT. 384 THE PROFANE STATE. BOOK V. CHAPTER XIV. THE DEGENEROUS GENTLEMAN. SOME will challenge this title of incongruity, as if those two words were so dissonant, that a whole sentence cannot hold them ; for, sure, where the gentleman is the root, degenerous cannot be the fruit. But if any quarrel with my words, Vale- rius Maximus shall be my champion, who styleth such, * nobilia portenta.-\ By GENTLEMAN we understand one whom the heralds (except they will deny their best records) must allow of ancient parentage. Such an one, when a child, being kept the devil's Nazarite, that no razor of correction must come upon his head in his father's family, see what he proves in process of time, brought to extreme poverty ! Herein we intend no invective glance on those pious gentlemen whose states are con- sumed through God's secret judgment, and none of the owners' visible default ; only we meddle with such as by carelessness and riot cause their own ruin. MAXIM I. He goes to school to learn in jest, and play in earnest. Now this gentleman, now that gentlewoman, begs him a play-day ; and now the book must be thrown away, that he may see the buck hunted. He comes to school late, departs soon, and the whole year with him (like the fortnight when Christmas-day falls on a Tuesday) is all holidays and half-holidays. And as the poets feign of Thetis, that she drenched Achilles her son in the Stygian waters, that he might not be wounded with any weapon; so cockering mothers enchant their sons, to make them rod-free ; which they do, by making some golden circles in the hand of the schoolmaster. Thus these two, conjoining together, make the indentures to bind the youth to eternal ignorance ; yet, perchance, he may get some alms of learning, here a snap, there a piece of knowledge, but nothing to purpose. VALERIUS MAXIMUS, lib. iii. cap. 5. f " Genteel monsters/' or noblemen horrible for their moral deformity and wickedness. EDIT. CHAP. XIV. THE DEGENEROUS GENTLEMAN. 385 II. His father's serving-men (which he counts no mean preferment I) admit him into their society. Going to a drinking-match, they cany him with them " to enter him/' and applaud his hopefulness, finding him vicious beyond his age. The butler makes him free (having first paid his fees accustomed) of his own father's cellar ; and guesseth the profoundness of his young master's capacity, by the depth of " the whole ones" he fetcheth off. in. Coming to the University, his chief study is to study nothing. What is learning but a cloak-bag of books, cumbersome for a gentleman to carry? and the Muses? fit to make wives for farmers' sons ! Perchance, his own tutor, for the promise of the next living, (which, notwithstanding his promise, he afterwards sells to another,) contributes to his undoing, letting him live as he list. Yea, perhaps his own mother (whilst his father diets him for his health with a moderate allowance) makes him surfeit underhand, by sending him money. Thus whilst some complain that the University infected him, he infected the University, from which he sucked no milk, but poisoned her nipples. IV. At the Inns of Court, under pretence to learn law, he learns to be lawless. Not knowing by his study so much as what an execution means, till he learns it by his own dear experience. Here he grows acquainted with "the roaring boys/' I am afraid so called by a woful prolepsis, here for hereafter. What formerly was counted the chief credit of an orator, these esteem the honour of a swearer, PRONUNCIATION, to mouth an oath with a graceless grace. These, as David saith, " clothe them- selves with curses as with a garment/' and therefore desire to be in the latest fashion both in their clothes and curses. These infuse all their skill into their young novice; who shortly proves such a proficient, that he exceeds his masters in all kinds of vicious courses. v. Through the mediation of a scrivener, he grows acquainted with some great usurer. Nor is this youngster so ravenous, as the other is ready to feed him with money, sometimes with a courteous violence forcing on him more than he desires, provided the security be good, except the usurer be so valiant c c 386 THE PROFANE STATE. BOOK V as to hazard the losing of a small hook to catch a great fish, and will adventure to trust him, if his estate in hope be over- measure, though he himself be under age. Now the greater part of the money he takes up is not for his own spending, but to pay the shot of other men's riot. After his father's death, he flies out more than ever before. Formerly he took care for means for his spending, now he takes care for spending for his means. His wealth is so deep a gulf, no riot can ever sound the bottom of it. To make his guests drunk, is the only seal of their welcome. His very meanest servant may be master of the cellar ; and those who deserve no beer may command the best wine. Such dancing by day, such masking by night, such roaring, such revelling, able to awake the sleeping ashes of his great-great-grandfather, and to fright all blessing from his house. VII. Meantime the old sore of his London-debts corrupts and festers. He is careless to take out the dead flesh, or to dis- charge either principal or interest. Such small leaks are not worth the stopping, or searching-for, till they be greater; he should undervalue himself to pay a sum before it grew consider- able for a man of his estate. Nor can he be more careless to pay, than the usurer is willing to continue, the debt ; knowing that his bonds, like infants, battle * best with sleeping. VIII. Vacation is his vocation, and he scorns to follow any profes- sion. And will not be confined to any laudable employment. But they who count a calling a prison, shall at last make a prison their calling. He instils also his lazy principles into his children; being of the same opinion with the Neapolitan gentry, who stand so on the puntoesf of their honour, that they prefer robbery before industry, and will rather suffer their daughter to make merchandise of her chastity, than marry the richest merchant. J To fatten. EDIT. f Punto, the Italian word for "point," or "punc- tilio." .EDIT. + SIR WILLIAM SEGAR, in his " Honours Military and Civil." CHAP. XIV. THE DEGENEROUS GENTLEMAN. 387 IX. Drinking is one of the principal liberal sciences he professeth. A most ungenteel quality, fit to be banished to rogues and rags. It was anciently counted a Dutch vice, and swarmed most in that country. I remember a sad accident which hap- pened to Fliolmus king of Gothland, who whilst a Lord of Misrule ruled in his court, and both he and his servants were drunk, in mere merriment, meaning no harm, they took the king, and put him in jest into a great vessel of beer, and drowned him in earnest.* But one tells us, that this ancient and habited vice is amongst the Dutch of late years much decreased : t which if it be not, would it were ! Sure, our mariners observe, that, as the sea grows daily shallower and shallower on the shore of Holland and Zealand, so the channel of late waxeth deeper on the coasts of Kent and Essex. I pray God, if drunkenness ebbs in Dutchland, it doth not flow in England, and gain not in the island what it loseth in the continent. Yea, some plead, when overwhelmed with liquor, that their thirst is but quenched : as well may they say, that in Noah's flood the dust was but sufficiently allayed. x. Gaming is another art he studies much. An enticing witch, that hath caused the ruin of many. Hannibal said of Mar- cellus, that nee bonam nee malam fortunam ferre potest ; " he could be quiet neither conqueror nor conquered ; " thus, such is the itch of play that gamesters neither winning nor losing can rest contented. One propounded this question, Whether men in ships on sea were to be accounted among the living or the dead, because there were but few inches betwixt them and drowning ? The same scruple may be made of great gamesters, though their estates be never so great, Whether they are to be esteemed poor or rich, there being but a few casts at dice betwixt a gentleman (in great game) and a beggar? Our gallant games deeply; and makes no doubt in conscience to adventure advowsons, patronages, and church-livings in gaming. He might call to mind Sir Miles Pateridge, who (as the soldiers cast lots for Christ's coat) played at dice for Jesus's beUs with king Henry VIII., and won them of him. Thus he brought OLAUS MAGNUS, Hist. Septent., p. 531. t VERSTEGAN, "Restitu- tion of decayed Intelligence," p. 53. J LIVIUS, lib. xxvii. These were four bells, the greatest in London, hanging in a fair tower, in Paul's church- yard Sxow's " Survey of London," p. 357. 2 c 2 388 THE PROFANE STATE. BOOK V. the bells to ring in his pocket ; but the ropes afterwards catched about his neck, and for some offences he was hanged in the days of king Edward VI. XI. Then first he sells the outworks of his state, some straggling manor. Nor is he sensible of this sale ; which makes his means more entire, as counting the gathering of such scattering rents rather burdensome than profitable. This he sells at naif the value; so that the feathers will buy the goose, and the wood will pay for the ground. With this money if he stops the hole to one creditor, by his prodigality he presently opens a wider gap to another. XII. By this time the long-dormant usurer ramps * for the payment of his money. The principal, (the grandmother,) and the use, (the daughter,) and the use upon use, (the grandchild,) and, perchance, a generation farther, have swelled the debt to an incredible sum ; for the satisfying whereof our gallant sells the moiety of his estate. XIII. Having sold half his land, he abates nothing of his expenses. But thinks five hundred pounds a-year will be enough to main- tain that, for which a thousand pounds was too little. He will not stoop till he falls, nor lessen his kennel of dogs, till, with Acteon, he be eaten up with his own hounds. XIV. Being about to sink, he catcheth hold at every rush to save himself. Perchance, sometimes he snatcheth at the thistle of a project which first pricks his hands, and then breaks. Herein, it may be, he adventured on a matter wherein he had no skill himself; hoping, by letting the commonwealth blood, to fill up his own veins again ; and therefore trades with his partner's brains, as his partner with his purse, till both miscarry together. Or else, it may be, he catcheth hold on the heel of another man, who is in as dangerous a case as himself; and they, embracing each other in mutual bonds, hasten their drowning together. His last manor he sells twice, to a country-gentleman, and a London-usurer ; though the last, as having the first title, pre- vails to possess it ; usurers herein being like unto foxes, they * Is exceedingly importunate and outrageous, EDIT. CHAP. XIV. THE DEGENEROUS GENTLEMAN. 389 seldom take pains to dig any holes themselves, but earth in that which the foolish badger made for them, and dwell in the manors and fair houses which others have built and provided. xv. Having lost his own legs, he relies on the staff of his kindred. First visiting them as an intermitting ague, but afterwards turns a quotidian, wearing their thresholds as bare as his own coat. At last, he is as welcome as a storm ; he that is abroad shelters himself from it, and he that is at home shuts the door. If he intrudes himself yet, some with their jeering tongues give him many a gird, but his brasen impudence feels nothing ; and let him be armed, on free-cost, with the pot and the pipe, he will give them leave to shoot their flouts at him till they be weary. Sometimes he sadly paceth over the ground he sold, and is on fire with anger with himself for his folly, but presently quench- eth it at the next ale-house. XVI. Having undone himself, he sets up the trade to undo others. If he can but screw himself into the acquaintance of a rich heir, lie rejoiceth as much at the prize, as the Hollanders when they had intercepted the Plate-Fleet. He tutors this young game- ster in vice, leading him a more compendious way to his ruin, than possibly he could find out of himself. And doth not the guide deserve good wages for his direction ? XVII. Perhaps he behaves himself so basely that he is degraded. The sad and solemn ceremonies whereof, we may meet with in old precedents : but of them all, in my apprehension, none should make deeper impression in an ingenuous soul than this one, that, at the solemn degradation of a knight for high mis- demeanour, the king and twelve knights more did put on mourning garments, as an emblem of sorrow for this injury to honour, that a man gentle by birth and blood, or honoured by a prince's favour, should so far forget not only himself but his order, as to deserve so severe punishment.* MARXHAM'S " Decads of Honour," p. 76. 390 THE PROFANE STATE. BOOK V. XVIII. His death is as miserable as his life hath been vicious. A hospital is the height he hopes to be advanced to : but com- moiily he dies not in so charitable a prison, but sings his last note in a cage. Nor is it impossible, but that, wanting land of his own, he may encroach on the king's highway ; and there, taking himself to be lord of the soil, seize on travellers as strays * due unto him, and so the hangman give him a wreath more than he had in his arms before. If he dies at liberty, in his pilgrimage betwixt the houses of his acquaintance, perhaps some well-disposed gentleman may pay for his burial, and truly mourn at the funeral of an ancient family. His children, if any, must seek their fortunes the farther off, because their father found his too soon, before he had wisdom to manage them. Within two generations, his name is quite forgotten, that ever any such was in the place ; except some herald in his visitation pass by, and chance to spell his broken arms in a church-window. And then, how weak a thing is gentry, than which (if it wants virtue) brittle glass is the more lasting monument ! We forbear to give an instance of a degenerous f gentleman ; would to God the world gave no examples of them ! If any please to look into the forenamed Valerius Maximus, J he shall there find the base son of Scipio Africanus, the conqueror of Hannibal and Africa, so ill-imitating his father, that, for his viciousness, he received many disgraceful repulses from the peo- ple of Rome, the fragrant smell of his father's memory making him to stink the more in their nostrils. Yea, they forced him to pluck off from his finger a signet-ring, whereon the face of his father was engraven, as counting him unworthy to wear his picture, who would not resemble his virtue. * Cattle wandering about^without owner, which, if found thus straying, are seized by the bailiff of the lord of the manor, placed in the pinfold, (or green-yard,) and, if unclaimed within a certain time, become his property. EDIT. -J- In every edition, except the first, this word is misprinted dangerous. EDIT. Loco prius citato. CIIAP. XV. THE TRAITOR. 391 CHAPTER XV. THE TRAITOR. f A TRAITOR * works by fraud, (as a rebel does by force,) and in this respect is more dangerous, because there is less stock required to set him up. Rebellion must be managed with many swords, treason to his prince's person may be with one knife. Generally their success is as bad as their cause, being either detected before defeated in or punished after their part acted. Detected before, either by [the] wilfulness or weakness of those who are privy to it. MAXIM I. A plotter of treason puts his head into the halter, and the halter into his hand to whom he first imparts it. He oftentimes reveals it, and, by making a footstool of his friend's head, climbs up the higher into the prince's favoUr. ii. Some men's souls are not strong enough, but that a iveighty secret will work a hole through them. These, rather out of folly than falseness, unawares let fall words, which are taken up by the judicious ears of such who can spell treason by putting together distracted syllables, and by piecing of broken sen- tences. Others have their hearts swollen so great with hope of what they shall get, that their bodies are too little to hold them, and so betray themselves by threatenings and blustering lan- guage. Others have cut their throats with their own hands ; their own writings, the best records, being produced against them. And here we must know, that in. Strong presumptions sometimes serve for proofs in point of treason. For, it being a deed of darkness, it is madness fo He is either against the sovereign person alone, or against the State wherein he lives. We deal only in describing the former ; because, to character the other, exact skill in the municipal laws of that State is required, wherein he is charged of 392 THE PROFANE STATE. BOOK V. look that the sun should shine at midnight, and to expect evi- dent proof. Should princes delay till they did plainly see trea- son, they might chance to feel it first. If this semi-plena pro- batio * lights on a party suspected before, the party himself is the other part of the proof, and makes it complete. And here the rack, though, Fame-like, it be Tamficti pravigue tenax, quam nuncia veri,-\- is often used ; and the wooden horse hath told strange secrets. But, grant it pass undiscovered in the plotting, it is com- monly prevented in the practising, IV. By the majesty, innocency, or valour of the prince or his attend- ants. Some have been dazzled with the divine beams shining in a prince's face, so that, coming to command his life, they could not be masters of their own senses. Innocency hath pro- tected others, and made their enemies relent ; and pity (though a stranger to him for many years before) hath visited a traitor's heart in that very instant. If these fail, a king's valour hath defended him ; it being most true of a king, what Pliny reports of a lion, in hunting if he be wounded and not killed, he will be sure to eye and kill him that wounded him.f v. Some, by flourishing aforehand, have never stricken a blow. But, by warning, have armed those to whom they threatened. Thus, mad Somervile, coming to kill queen Elizabeth, by the way (belike, to try whether his sword would cut) quarrelled with and wounded one or two, and therefore was apprehended before he came to the court. VI. The palsy of guiltiness hath made the stoutest traitor's hands to shake, sometimes to miss their mark. Their conscience, sleep- ing before, is then awakened with this crying sin. The way seems but short to a traveller, when he views it from the top of a hill, who finds it very long when he comes into the plain : so treason, surveyed in the heat of blood and from the height of * " Nearly full proof." EDIT. f This is part of Virgil's description of Fame, who, in her variable reports, " adheres as tenaciously to that which is feigned and erroneous, as she plainly narrates that which is true." EDIT. * Nat. Hist., lib. viii. cap. 16. CHAP. XVI. THE PAZZIANS 3 CONSPIRACY. 393 passion, seems easy to be effected; which, reviewed in cold blood on even terms, is full of dangers and difficulties. If it speed in the acting, generally it is revenged afterwards : for, VII. A king, though killed, is not killed, so long as he hath son or subject surviving. Many who have thought they have dis- charged the debt, have been broken afterwards with the arrear- ages. As for journeymen-traitors, who work for others, their wages are ever paid them with a halter ; and where one gaineth. a garland of bays, hundreds have had a wreath of hemp. CHAPTER XVI. THE PAZZIANS' CONSPIRACY. IN the city of Florence,* being then a popular State, (April 26th, anno 1478,) the honourable family De Medices managed all chief affairs ; so beloved of the people for their bounty, that the honour they had was not extorted by their greatness, but seemed due to their goodness. These Mediceans depressed the Pazzians, another family in that State, as big set, though not so high grown, as the Medicei themselves, loading them with injuries, and debarring them not only from offices in the city, but their own right. The Pazzians, though highly wronged, counterfeited much patience ; and, which was a wonder, though malice boiled hot in their hearts, yet no scum ran over in their mouths. At last, meeting together, they concluded, that, seeing the legal way was stopped with violence, the violent way was become legal, whereby they must right themselves; and they determined to invite Julian and Laurence Medices, the govern- ors of the State, to dinner, with cardinal Raphael Riarius, and there to murder them. The matter was counted easy, because these two brethren were but one in effect; their heads in a manner standing on the same shoulders, because they always * The sum hereof is taken out of MACHIAVJL'S " Florent. Hist.," lib. viii. p. 407> et sequentibus. 391 THE PROFANE STATE. BOOK V. went together, and were never asunder. Fifty were privy to this plot; each had his office assigned him. Baptista Monte- seccius was to kill Laurence; Francis Pazzius and Bernardus Bandinius were to set on Julian ; whilst the archbishop of Pisa, one of their allies, was, with a band of men, to seize on the senate-house. Cardinal Raphael's company, rather than assist- ance, was required ; being neither to hunt, nor kill, but only to start the game, and by his presence to bring the two brothers to the dinner. All appointed the next morning to meet at mass, in the chief church of St. Reparata. Here meeting together, all the design was dashed : for here they remembered that Julian de Medices never used to dine.* This they knew before, but considered not till now, as if for- merly the vapours arising out of their ambitious hearts had clouded their understanding. Some advised to refer it to another time ; which others thought dangerous, conceiving they had sprung so many leaks of suspicion, it was impossible to stop them ; and feared, there being so many privy to the plot, that, if they suffered them to consult with their pillows, their pillows would advise them to make much of their heads ; wherefore, not daring to stay the seasonable ripening of their design, they were forced in heat of passion to patch it up presently; and they resolved to take the matter at the first bound, and to commit the murder (they intended at dinner) here in the church, taking it for granted, the two Mediceans would come to mass, accord- ing to their daily custom. But, changing their stage, they were fain also to alter their actors. Monteseccius would not be employed in the business, to stain a sacred place with blood; and the breaking of this string put their plot quite out of tune. And though Anthony Volateran, and Stephen a priest, were substituted in his room, yet these two made not one fit person ; so great is the difference betwixt a choice and a shift. When the Host was elevated, they were to assault them ; and the sacrament was a sign to them, not of Christ's death past, but of a murder they were to commit. But here again they were at a loss. Treason, like Pope Adrian, may be choked with a fly, and marred with the least unexpected casualty. Though Laurence was at church, Julian was absent. And yet, by beating about, they recovered this again : for, Francis Pazzius and Bernard Bandinius, going home MACHIAVIL, Disput. de Repub. lib. iii. cap. vi. p. 397. CHAP. XVI. THE PAZZIANS' CONSPIRACY. 395 to his house, with compliments and courteous discourse brought him to the church. Then Bandinius with a dagger stabbed him to the heart, so that he fell down dead, and Francis Pazzius, insulting over his corpse, (now no object of valour but cruelty,) gave it many wounds, till, blinded with revenge, he struck a deep gash into his own thigh. But what was over-measure in them, in over-acting their parts, was wanting in Anthony and Stephen, who were to kill Laurence in the choir. " You traitor," said Anthony ; * and, with that, Laurence starting back avoided the strength of the blow, and was wounded only to honour, not danger, and so recovered a strong chapel. Thus malice which vents itself in threatening, warns men to shun it; and like hollow-singing bullets, flies but half-way to the mark. With as bad success did the archbishop of Pisa seize on the senate-house, being conquered by the lords therein assembled, and, with many of his complices, hung out of a window. The Pazzians now betake themselves to their last refuge which their desperate courses had left them. James, the chief of their family, with one hundred more, repair to the market- place, and there cry, " Liberty ! liberty ! " A few followed them at first; but the snow-ball, by rolling, did rather melt than gather ; and those, who before had seen the foul face of their treason naked, would not be allured to love it now masked with the pretences of the public good ; and, at last, the whole strength of the State subdued them. Every tree about the city bare the fruit of men's heads and limbs. Many were put to death with torment; more, with shame; and only one, Renatus Pazzius, with pity, who loved his conscience better than his kindred, that he would not be active in the conspiracy; and yet his kindred better than his conscience, that he would not reveal it ; treason being like some kind of strong poison, which though never taken inwardly by cordial consenting unto it, yet kills by being held in one's hand, and concealing it. MACHIAVIL, Disput. de Repub. lib. iii. cap. vi. p. 399. 396 THE PROFANE STATE. BOOK V. CHAPTER XVII. THE TYRANT. A TYRANT is one whose list is his law, making his subjects his slaves. Yet this is 'but a tottering kingdom which is founded on trembling people, who fear and hate their sovereign. He is twofold : 1. In titulo, [in title,] properly an usurper. 2. In exercitio, [in practice,] whom we only describe. MAXIM I. He gets all places of advantage into his own hands. Yea, he would disarm his subjects of all scythes and pruning-hooks, but for fear of a general rebellion of weeds and thistles in the land. ii. He takes the laws at the first, rather by undermining than assault. And therefore, to do unjustly with the more justice, he counterfeits a legality in all his proceedings, and will not butcher a man without a statute for it. III. Afterwards, he rageth freely in innocent blood. Is any man virtuous? Then he is a traitor, and let him die for it, who durst presume to be good when his prince is bad. Is he beloved? He is a rebel, hath proclaimed himself king, and reigns already in people's affections ; it must cost him his life. Is he of kin to the crown, though so far off that his alliance is scarce to be derived ? All the veins of his body must be drained and emptied, to find there, and fetch thence, that dangerous drop of royal blood. And thus, having taken the prime men away, the rest are easily subdued. In all these particulars, Machiavil is his only counsellor ; who, in his " Prince," seems to him to resolve all these cases of conscience to be very lawful. CHAP. XVII. THE TYRANT. 397 IV. Worst men are his greatest favourites. He keeps a constant kennel of blood-hounds, to accuse whom he pleaseth. These will depose more than any can suppose, not sticking to swear that they heard fishes speak, and saw through a mill-stone at midnight. These fear not to forswear, but fear they shall not forswear enough to cleave the pin and do the deed. The less credit they have, the more they are believed, and their very accusation is held a proof. v. He leaves nothing that his poor subjects can call their own, but their miseries. And, as in the West-Indies, thousands of kine are killed for their tallow alone, and their flesh cast away ; so, many men are murdered merely for their wealth, that other men may make mummy of the fat of their estates. VI. He counts men in misery the most melodious instruments. Especially if they be well-tuned and played upon by cunning musicians, who are artificial in tormenting them, the more the merrier ; and if he hath a set and full consort [concert] of such tortured miserable souls, he danceth most cheerfully at the plea- sant ditty of their dying groans. He loves not to be prodigal of men's lives, but thriftily improves the objects of his cruelty, spending them by degrees, and epicurizing on their pain; so that, as Philoxenus wished a crane's throat, he could desire asses' ears, the longer to entertain their hideous and miserable roaring. Thus nature had not racks enough for men, (the colic, gout, stone, &c.,) but art must add to them, and devils in flesh antedate hell here in inventing torments; which, when inflicted on malefactors, extort pity from merciful beholders, and make them give what is not due; but, when used by tyrants on innocent people, such tender hearts as stand by suffer what they see, and, by the proxy of sympathy, feel what they behold. VII. He seeks to suppress all memorials and writings of his actions. And as wicked Tereus, after he had ravished Philomela, cut out her tongue; so when tyrants have wronged and abused the 398 THE PROFANE STATE. BOOK V. times they live in, they endeavour to make them speechless, to tell no tales to posterity. Herein their folly is more to be admired than their malice, for learning can never be drained dry : though it may be dammed up for one age, yet it will break over ; and historians' pens, being long kept fasting, will after- wards feed more greedily on the memories of tyrants, and N describe them to the full. Yea, I believe, their ink hath made some tyrants blacker than they were in their true complexion. VIII. At last he is haunted with the terrors of his own conscience. If any two do but whisper together, (whatsoever the proposi- tions be,) he conceives their discourse concludes against him. Company and solitariness are equally dreadful unto him, being never safe ; and he wants a guard to guard him from his guard, and so proceeds in infinitum. The scouts of Charles duke of Burgundy brought him news, that the French army was hard by, being nothing else but a field full of high thistles, whose tops they mistook for so many spears.* On lesser ground, this tyrant conceives greater fears. Thus in vain doth he seek to fence himself from without, whose foe is within him. IX. He is glad to patch up a bad night's sleep, out of pieces of slumber. They seldom sleep soundly, who have blood for their bolster. His fancy presents him with strange masks, wherein only fiends and furies are actors. The fright awakes him ; and he is no sooner glad that it was a dream, but fears it is pro- phetical. x. In vain he courts the friendship of foreign princes. They defy his amity, and will not join their clean hands with his bloody ones. Sometimes, to ingratiate himself, he doth some good acts ; but virtue becomes him worse than vice, for all know he counterfeits it for his own ends. * COMINEUS, Comment., lib. i., juxta finem* CHAP. XVII. THE TYRANT. 399 XI. Having lived in other men's blood, he dies commonly in his own. He had his will all his life, but seldom makes his testament at his death, being suddenly taken away either by private hand, or public insurrection. It is observed of the camel, that it lies quietly down till it hath its full load, and then riseth up. But this vulgus \_" the populace "] is a kind of beast, which riseth up soonest when it is overladen ; immoderate cruelty causing it to rebel. Fero is a fitter motto than Ferio* for Christians, in their carriage towards lawful authority, though unlawfully used. We will give a double example of a tyrant : the one, an absolute sovereign ; the other, a substitute or viceroy under an absolute prince. Fero, " to endure ; " and ferio, " to strike," or " to resist." The meaning is, " Patience is a fitter motto than Resistance for Christians." EDIT. 400 THE PROFANE STATE. BOOK V, CHAPTER XVIII. THE LIFE OF ANDRONICUS. OR, THE UNFORTUNATE POLITICIAN, IK the first edition of the Holy and the Profane State," published in 1642, the rticle ANDRONICUS, written with much care and elegance, was comprised within six pages, filling up only a tenth part of the space which it now occu- pies. According to the announcement in the notes, the narrative professed to be borrowed chiefly from Nicetas. After Fuller's famous defence of Basing- house, and his clerical attendance on that branch of the royal army which pro- ceeded into Cornwall under the command of lord Hopton, he received from king Charles I. the appointment of chaplain to the infant princess Henrietta Maria, and attended in that capacity during her Majesty's mournful sojourn in Exeter \ and when that city surrendered, his services were of great importance in procur- ing favourable terms for the garrison and the inhabitants. During these four years of active service in the war, he had ample opportunities of becoming acquainted, through friends and foes, with the views of both the belligerent parties ; and knew many clever men whose culpable cupidity was then excited, and who did not attempt to dissemble their eagerness to derive personal profit and aggrandizement from our national convulsions. He was induced, therefore, to enlarge this article, and, with all-tlje appendages of a true historical nar- rative, to form it into a kind of " Menippean Satire " on the ambition, avarice, cruelty, and other destructive vices, which had then sufficiently developed themselves in the leading characters of the republican movement. He accord- ingly published it in a pocket size, (foolscap 8vo. pp. 176,) in the style in which it is now presented to the reader, divided into six books, (in our edition called "sections,") with a preface, which is here subjoined, and a copious index (eight pages) of the principal subjects narrated in the small volume. As it obtained a great circulation and much approbation, he inserted it entire (with the exception of the preface and index) in every subsequent impression of " the Profane State ; " and it has been regarded by moderate men of every party as a salutary and seasonable warning to all those who were engaged in ambitious, unpatriotic projects, during that distressing season of domestic war- fare. In reference to many curious events which subsequently occurred, Fuller's broad intimations proved to be eminently prophetic ; but in none of his anticipatory delineations was he afterwards accounted to have been more felici- tous, than in the speech of Andronicus, on the eve of his being elected to be joint-emperor with the youthful Alexius Comnenus, which the reader will find in page 412, and which might have been purposely indited as a pattern for that of Cromwell, when he reluctantly declined the faintly-proffered sovereignty of these realms, and with much apparent coyness accepted the Protectorate. Other then-uncontemplated co-incidences will be obvious to every one who is acquainted with the historical records of those times of civil discord. EDIT. CHAP. XVIII. THE LIFE OF ANDRONICUS, 401 TO THE READER. WE read of king Ahasuerus, that, having his head troubled with much business, and finding himself so indisposed that he could not sleep, he caused the records to be called for, and read unto him ; hoping thereby to deceive the tediousness of the time, (an honest fraud !) and that the pleasant passages in the chronicles would either invite slumber unto him, or enable him to endure waking with less molestation. (Esther vi. 6.) We live in a troublesome and tumultuous age ; and he needs to have a very soft bed who can sleep soundly now-a-days, amidst so much loud noise, and many impetuous rumours. Wherefore it seemeth to me both a safe and cheap receipt, to procure quiet and repose to the mind which complains for want of rest, to prescribe unto it the reading of history. Great is the pleasure and profit thereof. Zaccheus, we know, was low and little in stature ; but when he had borrowed some height from the fig-tree, into which he climbed, (Luke xix. 4,) the dwarf was made a giant on a sudden ; last minute beneath the arms, but now grown above the heads, of other men. Thus, our experimental knowledge is, in itself, both short and narrow, as which cannot exceed " the span of our own life." But when we are mounted on the advantage of history, we can not only reach the year of Christ's incarnation, but even touch the top of the world's beginning, and, at one view, over-see all remarkable accidents of former ages. Wherefore, until such time as I shall, by God's providence, and the authority of my superiors, be restored to the open exer- cise of my profession, on terms consisting with my conscience, (which welcome minute I do heartily wish, and humbly wait for ; and will greedily listen to the least whisper sounding there- unto,) it is my intent, God willing, to spend the remnant of my days in reading and writing such stories as my weak judgment shall commend unto me for most beneficial. Our English writers tell us of David, king of the Scots, that whilst he was prisoner in a cave in Nottingham Castle, he with his nails (shall I say " carved ? " or) scratched out the whole history of our Saviour's passion, in the wall. And although the figures be rough and rude, yet in one respect they are to be compared unto, yea, preferred before, the choicest pieces, and most exact platforms, of all engravers, being done at such D D 402 THE PROFANE STATE. BOOK V. disadvantages; cut out of a main rock, without any light to direct lum, or instruments to help him, beside his bare hands. The application of the story serves me for manifold uses. First. Here I learn, if that princes, then meaner persons, are bound to find themselves some honest employment. Secondly. That, in a sad and solitary condition, a calling is a comfortable companion. Thirdly. Where men want necessaries, fit tools and materials, the work that they do, if it be any degree pass- able, deserves, if not to be praised, to be pardoned. Which encourageth me to expect of the charitable reader favour for the faults in this tract committed, when he considers the author, in effect, banished, and bookless, and wanting several accommoda- tions requisite to the completing a history. Noah, to make an essay whether " the waters were abated from the face of the earth," before he would adventure to expose the whole freight of his ark to danger, dispatched a dove to make discovery, and report unto him the condition of the world, intending to order himself accordingly. (Gen. viii. 8.) A deep deluge hath lately overflowed the whole kingdom, to the drown- ing of many, and dangering of all. I send forth this small trea- tise, to try whether the swelling surges and boiling billows in men's breasts, (flowing from the distance in their judgments, and difference in their affection,) begin now to assuage, and whether there be a dry place for this my innocent dove safely to settle herself. If she find any tolerable entertainment or indif- ferent approbation abroad, it will give me encouragement to adventure a volume of a more useful subject, and greater con- cernment in the view of the world.* Thine in all Christian offices, THOMAS FULLER. SECTION I. 1. ALEXIUS COMNENUS, only son of Manuel Comnenus, succeeded his father in the empire of Constantinople, anno Domini, 1179. A child he was in age and judgment : of wit, too short to measure an honourable sport, but lost himself in low delights. He hated a book, more than a monster did a looking-glass; and when his tutor endeavoured to play him into scholarship, by presenting pleasant authors unto him, he This was his " Pisgah-Sight of Palestine. "_EmT. CHAP. XVIII. THE LIFE OF ANDRONICUS. 403 returned, that learning was beneath the greatness of a prince, who, if wanting it, might borrow it from his subjects, being better stored. " For," saith he, "if they will not lend me their brains, I will take away their heads." Yea, he allowed no other library, than a full-stored cellar, resembling the butts to folios ; barrels, to quartos ; smaller runlets, to lesser volumes ; and studied away his time with base company, in such debauched- ness. 2. Leave we Alexius drowning his care (or rather careless- ness) in wine, to behold Xene his mother, the regent-empress, surfeiting also in pleasure with her husband, Proto-Sebastus, who had married her, since the decease of Manuel her late hus- band. This Proto-Sebastus, a better stallion than war-horse, was a perfect epicure, (so that Apitius, in comparison of him, was a churl to starve himself,) better at his palate than at his tongue ; yet better at his tongue than his arms, being a noto- rious coward. He, with the empress, conspired to the dissolute education of young Alexius, keeping him in constant ignorance of himself; their strength consisting in his weakness, who, had he been bred to understand his own power, might probably have curbed their exorbitancies. 3. The body of the Grecian State, at this time, must needs be strangely distempered, under such heads. Preferment was only scattered amongst parasites, for them to scramble for it. The court had as many factions as lords, save that all their divi- sions united themselves in a general viciousness ; and that Theo- dorus the patriarch was scoffed at by all as an antic, [antique,] for using goodness when it was out of fashion, and was adjudged impudent for presuming to be pious alone by himself. 4. As for the city of Constantinople, the chief seat of the Grecian empire, she had enjoyed happiness so long that now she pleaded prescription for prosperity. Because living in peace " time out of mind," she conceived it rather a wrong, to have constant quiet denied, than a favour from heaven, to have it continued unto her. Indeed, she was grown sick of a surfeit of health; and afterwards was broken, with having too much riches. For, instead of honest industry and painful thrift, which first caused the greatness of this city, now flowing with * wealth, there was nothing therein but the swelling of pride, the boiling of lust, the fretting of envy, and the squeezing of oppres- sion. So that should their dead ancestors arise, they would be puzzled to see Constantinople for itself, except they were directed thereunto by the ruins of St, Sophia's temple. True, 2 D 2 401 THE PROFANE STATE. BOOK V. it was, some years since, upon a great famine, some hopes were given of a general amendment. During which time, riot began to grow tlirifty, pride to go plain, gluttons to fast, and wantons were starved into temperance. But forced reformation will last no longer than the violent cause thereof doth continue. For, soon after, when plenty was again restored, they relapsed to their former badness; yea, afterwards became fouler for the purge, and more wanton for the rod, when it was removed. 5. Now, there was an anti-faction in the Grecian empire, maintained by some lords of ancient extraction, who were highly offended at the great power which Proto-Sebastus and Xene the empress usurped to themselves; and meeting pri- vately together, Andronicus Lapardas, as prolocutor for the rest, vented his discontentment, complaining, it was more than high time that they now awake out of the lethargy of security, into which, by fools' lullabies, they had cozened themselves : that they in the empire who have most at the stake, are made only lookers on ; sometimes admitted to the council out of com- pliment, and for countenance, barely to concur; but, for the main, kept in ignorance of most material passages : that their names are all branded for death, and that no love to their per- sons, but fear what might follow, had hitherto secured their lives : in a word, that they must speedily resolve on some pro- jects for their protection, or else they should approve themselves heirs to Epimetheus, who is not found to have left any land unto his sons, but only to have bequeathed an useless sorrow unto them, for their portion. 6. Hereupon they entered into a strict combination with themselves secretly, vowing that they would improve their utmost might to bring in Andronicus Comnenus, a prince of the blood, one of great parts and abilities, (but lately banished out of the empire,) to counterpoise the power of Proto-Sebastus, and to free young Alexius from the wardship of such as abused him. We will present the reader with a list of their titles and offices, who were engaged in tliis design ; entreating him not to be offended with us because of the hardness and length of their names, but rather with their godfathers, who christened them. We have an English proverb, that "bones bring meat to town;" and those who are desirous to feast themselves on the pleasant and profitable passages of history, must be content sometimes to stoop their stomachs to feed on hard words, which bring matter along with them. 7. (1.) Maria Prophyrogeiiita Caesarissa, daughter to CHAP. XVIII. THE LIFE OF ANDRONICUS. 405 Manuel the late emperor, by a former wife, half-sister to Alexius the young emperor. (2.) Caesar, her husband, an Italian lord, who was so over- topped with the high birth and spirit of his wife, that in this History we find him not grown much above the bare mention of his name. (3.) Conto-Stephanus, the great duke, admiral of the galleys. (4.) Camaterus Basilius, president of the city. (5.) Hagio-Christophorites Stephanus, captain of the guard. (6.) Disypatus Georgius, lecturer in the great church, a higher office than the modern acceptation of the word doth imply, (7.) Tripsycus Constantinus, one of the most noble extrac- tions. (8.) Macroducas Constantinus, no whit inferior to him in pedigree or power. (9.) Aiidronicus Lapardas, formerly mentioned, together with the aforesaid, * (10.) Theodorus, the patriarch, last-named, because least interested. For in matters of piety, he was governed by his conscience ; but in matters of policy, by good company, being therein himself utterly unskilled : and strangers in unknown ways commonly follow the most beaten track of others before them. All these joined in a league to bring Andronicus home to Constantinople ; who, what he was, and how qualified, we will not forestall the reader, conceiving it, though something pain- ful, yet more healthful, for him to gain his character by degrees in the sequel of his actions, wherein he will sufficiently discover himself, without our description of him. 8. Now, Maria Ca3sarissa was employed unto Andronicus, (having ability in herself, and advantage by her sex, for the cunning carriage of the matter,) td acquaint him with their designs. She, coming to CEnseum, where he lived in banish- ment, informed him of the general discontent in the Grecian empire; and how those who basely served Xene, did only command in the State ; that, beside those great persons whose names she presented in writing, many others (as yet scrupulous neuters) would have their doubts fully satisfied, and declare on his side, when they saw him appear with a powerful army ; that it would be a meritorious work to enfranchise his kinsman Alexius from their slavery, whereunder he and the Grecian empire did groan. 406 THE PROFANE STATE. BOOK V. 9. Welcome was this invitation to Andronicus, to be requested to do what of himself he desired. How willingly doth the fire fly upwards ! especially when employed to fill up a vacuity; because then doing three good offices, with one motion; namely, expressing its dutifulness to the dictates of dame Nature; and contributing, in case of necessity, to the preservation of the universe; and pleasing its own peculiar tendency, which delights in ascending. Such now the condition of Andronicus, who, in this undertaking, would show courteous in granting the request of his friends, appear pious in promoting the general good, and, withal, satisfy the appetite of his own ambition and revenge. Wherefore, with treasure, whereof he had plenty, he provided men and arms, and prepared with all speed for the expedition. 10. But he could not be more busy about his war, than Xene was employed about her wantonness, counting in life all spilled that was not sport ; who, to revenge herself on envious death, meant in mirth to make herself reparation for the shortness of her life. That time, which flieth of itself, she sought to drive * away with unlawful recreations. And though music did jar, and mirth was profaneness, at this present time, wherein all did feel what was bad and fear what was worse ; yet she by wanton songs (panders to lust !) and other provocatives, did awaken the sleep- ing sparks of her corruption into a flame of open wickedness. .11. But it was a great and sudden abatement to her jollity, to hear that Andronicus, with a puissant army, was approaching the city. Alexius Proto-Sebastus, her minion, did woo all people to make resistance. But he found abundance of neuters, (of that lukewarm temper which heaven and hell doth hate,) " who would not out of their houses, but stay at home and side with neither party."* These did maintain, that the public good was nothing but the result of many men's particular good ; and therefore held, that, in saving their own, they advanced the general [good] . Indeed, they hoped, though the great vessel of the State was wrecked, in a private fly-boat of neutrality to waft their own adventure safe to the shore. But who ever saw dancers-on-ropes so equally to poise themselves, but at last they fell down and brake their necks ? And we will take the bold- ness to point at these hereafter, and to show what was their success. 32. The best thing which befriended Proto-Sebastus, next to * '' atitov ptvoi' K&9?]00ai, kai CHAP. XVIII. THE LIFE OF ANDRONICUS. 407 his own money, was the obliging disposition of Xene. She had as many nets as gestures to catch affections in and, with her smiles, did not only press but pay all carpet-knights* and amorous persons to be of her party. The city of Constantinople was thrice walled, " with wood, stones, and bones," plenty of shipping, artificial fortifications, and multitudes of men. The worst was, their arsenal was a goodly stable of gallant wooden horses, but they wanted riders to manage them, the Grecians at this time being very simple seamen ; though nature may seem both to woo and teach them to be skilful mariners, by affording them plenty of safe harbours. However, the Grecians, conceiv- ing navigation beneath their honour, (which indeed was above their industry,) resigned the benefit of trading in their own seas to the Italians of Pisa, Genoa, Florence, and Venice. Proto- Sebastus hired mercenary mariners of these ; and with them manned his ships, stopping the passages of Propontis, by which Andronicus, coming from Paphlagonia^ out of the Lesser Asia, was to pass. 13. But now an admiral was to be provided for his navy. Conto-Stephanus, the great duke, formerly mentioned, chal- lenged the place as proper to himself, scorning to be made a stale to wear the style in peace, and not to execute the office in war, when occasion was offered to show his valour, and serve his country. What should Proto-Sebastus do ? It is equally dan- gerous to offend or employ him. Yet he resolves on the latter, not willing to teach him to be dishonest by suspecting him, and conceiving it to be an engagement, on a noble nature, to be trusty, because he was trusted. But he no sooner received the charge, but betrayed all the galleys to Andronicus ; whereby, in an instant, he was made master of all those seas. The news whereof being brought to the city, O what riding, what running, what packing, what posting ! Happy he that could trip up his neighbour's heels, to get first into the favour of Andronicus. Many that staked their wives and children at home in the city, had laid good bets abroad on the opposite party. * According to PHILLIPS and KERSEY : " Knights of the carpet are another sort of knights, made out of the field [of battle], and so called because, in receiving their order, they commonly kneel upon a carpet." Hence it became a proverbial expression to designate a man who, in modern days, is sometimes styled " a parade general," one who has had less inclination, than opportunity, to distinguish himself by his skill and prowess in active service. A carpet knight is therefore properly defined by Dr. Johnson, " a knight that has never known the field, and has recom- mended himself only at table." EDIT. 408 THE PROFANE STATE. BOOK V. 14. Andronicus, being easily wafted over, comes to the gates of Constantinople. Here, to oppose him, there was rather a skirmish than a fight, or rather a flourish than a skirmish ; the land forces consisting of two sorts : first, old soldiers, who formerly having been notorious plunderers had their arms so pressed down with the weight of the people's just curses, that they could not lift up their swords to any purpose ; but, having formerly preyed, on their friends, were made a prey to their foes : secondly, citizens, used only to traverse their shops, and unacquainted with military performances. The city, once entered, was instantly conquered, whose strength was much over-famed : such populous places, like unwieldy bodies, sink with their own weight. 15. Proto-Sebastus was taken prisoner, and was kept some days and nights waking, being pinched when once offering to shut his eyes : a torment which we meet not with to be used to so high a person, though, they say, of late, in fashion for the discovery of witches. But, to put him out of his pain, Andronicus is conceived, by some, merciful unto him, in causing his eyes to be bored out, seeing it was less torture not to see, than not to sleep. So much for this great coward ; though this his character cannot be guessed from his demeanour herein, seeing a better soldier might have been worsted in this expedition against forces of open foes, and fraud of seeming Mends, it being impossible to make them fight who are resolved to fly. 16. The army thus entering the city, some outrages they must of course commit; but those neither for number nor nature such as might have been expected. For when a place is taken by assault, the most strict commanders are not able to keep the mouths of their soldiers' swords fasting ; but may be commended for moderate, if they feed not to a surfeit. Besides, such was the infinite wealth of Constantinople, her treasures would tempt the fingers of saints, much more of soldiers ; the Paphlagonians, whereof the army consisted, vowed, that, seeing then- swords had done so good service, they would make hilts of gold for their blades of steel. 17. There was then inhabiting in the city of Constantinople multitudes of Franks, (understand French, Germans, and prin- cipally Italians,) so that well might this city be called New Rome, from the abundance of Latins that lived therein. These, first by manufactures, and then by merchandize, got great wealth, (their diligence being more, and luxury less, than the CHAP. XVIII. THE LIFE OP ANDROXICUS. 409 Greeks,) insomuch that they engrossed all trading to them- selves. This attracted the envy of the natives, that strangers should suck the marrow of the State ; alleging, that, in process of time, the ivy would grow to be an oak, and those prove absolute in their own power who, at first, were dependent for their protection. Andronicus, with something more than a bare connivance, though less than a full command, freely consigned these Franks over to the rapine of his army. 18. Such of them as related by former friendship or alliance to the Grecians, fled to them for shelter ; who, instead of pre- serving, persecuted them, their company being conceived infec- tious, lest it should bring the plague of the soldiers' fury along with it. And who finds a faithful friend in misery ? All their goods were spoiled, and most of their lives spilled, save such as formerly had escaped by flight to their ships. Thus Andronicus found a cheap way, both to pay his soldiers, and please the peo- ple, who counted him an excellent physician of the State, and this a great cure done by him, in purging the superfluous, yea, noxious aliens out of the city. Indeed, careful he was to pre- serve the city itself from spoiling, as having then a squint eye at the empire ; and, knowing Constantinople to be the seat thereof, he would not deface that fair chair into which, in due time, he hoped himself to sit down. SECTION II. 1. ANDRONICUS, being thus peaceably possessed of Constanti- nople, (anno Domini 1180,) first made his humble address to the young emperor Alexius, and ceremoniously kissed his feet. The spectators variously commented on his prodigious humility therein ; some conceiving, he meant to build high, because he began so low ; others thinking, that their toes had need beware the cramp whose feet he kissed. 2. The next stage whereon his hypocrisy acted, was the great church itself; where meeting Theodorus the patriarch at the door, he encountered him with transcendent courtship, protest- ing, that, in him, he beheld the pattern of St. Chrysostom, his famous predecessor ; it being questionable, whether that worthy Father did more truly survive, in the learned books he left to posterity, or in the looks and life of Theodorus. And whilst the patriarch was meditating a modest reply, Andronicus did 410 THE PROFANE STATE. BOOK V. pour compliments so full and fast upon him, that, stifled there- with, he could breath no answer in return, but only fell into a swoon of amazement. 3. Hence he advanced into the choir, unto the monument of Manuel his kinsman, and late emperor. At sight whereof, the tears trickled down his reverend cheeks, as if they had run a race which of them should be the foremost. Some interpreted this, the love which Andronicus bore to the memory of the dead emperor; and others feared, that, .as the moist dropping of stones is the forerunner of foul weather, so this relenting of his hard heart presaged some storm, to follow after, in the State. Then, coming to Manuel's tomb, ordering his voice so low as seeming he might not be and yet so loud as certain he was heard what he spake, he expressed himself to this effect : 4. " Dear Manuel, my loyalty styles thee sovereign, but my blood calls thee cousin. I will not say, it was thy fault, but my fate, not to have my love to thee understood, according to the integrity of my intentions. My innocence, by thee, was ban- ished into a far country. The burden did not grieve me, but the hand that laid it on ; not so much to be an exile, as an exile made by thee. However, all my revenge unto thee shall be in advancing the honour and safety of thy son Alexius ; to free whose innocence from the abuse of his friend-pretended ene- mies, I have embarked myself in a dangerous and desperate design. Yea, my manifold infirmities (of which I am most conscious) grieve me not so much in my own behalf, as because thereby I am rendered disable from being serviceable to your son in so high a degree as I desire." 5. Then, sinking his voice past possibility of being overheard, he continued : " Base, bloody hound ! which chasest me from place to place ! I here arrest thy drowsy ashes, it being now past thy power to break this marble chest. I scorn to ungrave thy dust, wishing that all my enemies were as sumptuously entombed ! But thy son, wife, daughter, favourites, friends, name, memory, I will utterly destroy. The poet's fancy begat three Furies in hell, and I will be the fourth on earth." 6. Some will demand how we came to the knowledge of this speech, being so secretly delivered. It is answered, it is possi- ble* some invisible ear might lie in ambush within the ear- reach of his words. Besides, let me not be challenged for a In all editions, except the first, this word is printed "impossible," much to the injury of the sense EDIT. CHAP. XVIII. THE LIFE OF ANDRONICTJS. 411 libel, who can produce the party from whom I received it ; and, amongst others, discharge myself on one principal author of excellent credit : * though I believe that this speech was never taken from the original of Andronicus' s mouth, but was trans- lated from the black copy of his wicked actions, which afterward he committed. 7. His devotions ended, he retired to his own house; and there lived very privately, as renouncing all worldly pomp and pleasure, whilst his engineers, underhand, were very active to procure the empire for him ; which was thus contrived : A peti- tion was drawn, in the name of all the people, requesting Andronicus, that he would be pleased, for the good of the State, to be chosen joint emperor with Alexius. This was subscribed by the principal men in every place; and then herds of silly souls did the like. They never consulted with the contents of the paper, whether it was bond, bill, libel, or petition; but thought it a sin, not to score their marks where, they were told, their betters had gone before them. At first they wanted names for their parchment, but afterward parchment for their names. Here it would be tedious to recount what sleights and forgeries were used herein. If any delayed to subscribe, they were presently urged with great men's precedents : that it was superstition, to be more holy than the bishops ; rigour, to be more just than the judges ; malapertness, to pretend to more wisdom than so many statesmen, who had already signed it. And, thus, many fearful souls were compelled to consent, by the tyranny of others' examples. Indeed, some few there were who durst be honest ; whose souls did stand on a basis of their own judgments, without leaning, with implicit faith, on others. These disavowed this State-bigamy, protesting against the co-empireship of Andronicus, and boldly affirming, that crowns take a master if they accept a mate. But, then, all their names were returned unto Andronicus, who registered them in his black calendar, who, for the present, did remember, and for the future would requite them. 8. The principal agent, that openly promoted this business, was Basilius, a bishop, one that professed heaven, and practised earth; much meddling in temporal matters, being both lewd and lazy in his own profession. Only herein he had the cha- racter of a good churchman, that " by his preaching and living he set forth his office accordingly." NICETAS CHOXIATES, in Vita Alexii, numero 16. 412 THE PROFANE STATE. BOOK V. 9. And now, the scene being covertly laid, in a solemn assembly, on a high festival, this bishop, as the mouth of the rart, (whose names he held in a parchment-roll,) represented to Andronicus the sincere intentions and earnest wishes of the State, most humbly requesting him, that he would be pleased so far to case the tender years of his dear kinsman, young Alexius, at to bear half the burden of the crown, and to accept to be joint emperor with him ; presuming, that such was the goodness and humility of Andronicus, that he would not disdain a part, though he did deserve the whole; and, after a long oration, concluded : " Thus anciently the Roman senate coupled old delaying Fabius with over-hasty Marcellus, blending youth with age, the swift with slow; wholesome mixture, when the one brought eyes, the other hands ; the one was for advice, the other for action. And thus alone it is possible, that the dis- tempered state of the Grecian empire at this present can be cured with this cordial, and sacred composition, of the gravity of your Highness to temper the green years of Alexius." 10. Hereat Andronicus discovered a strangeness in his looks, as if he had needed an interpreter to understand the language which was spoken unto him ; and, after some pause, proceeded : " Let me not be censured for unmannerly in not returning my thanks, having my soul for the present possessed with a higher employment of admiration, that so many aged statesmen, as rich in wisdom as years, should be so much mistaken in mine abilities as to conceive me in any degree fit for the moiety of a crown. Go, choose some gallant, whose very flesh is steel, can march all day, and watch all night, whose vast achievements may add honour unto your empire. Alas ! my pale face, lean checks, dim eyes, faint heart, weak legs, speak me fit for no crown, but a coffin, no royal robes, but a winding-sheet. Nor am I ashamed to confess, that my youth hath been exceeding ricious ; wherein I spared the devil the pains of courting me, by preferring myself to his service ; and now it is my only joy, with grief to recollect my former wickedness. Of late I have found out a small private place, (call it, as you please, least of cell*, or greatest of graves,) wherein I intend wholly to devote the remnant of my life to meditation of mortality. For, seeing naturally our souls * are too deeply-rooted in earthliness, it is good to loosen them a little before ; that so by death they may be plucked up with the more easiness. Not that wilfully, either " in all editions except the first EDIT. CHAP. XVIII. THE LIFE OF ANDRONICUS. 413 out of laziness or sullenness, I decline to serve my country, which claims a share in me. But though I know I am not to live for myself, I am to die to myself, and may now, at this age, justly challenge to myself a writ of ease from all worldly employ- ment." 11. But Basilius, perceiving that he did but compliment a denial, pressed him with the greater importunity ; confessing it would torment the modesty of his Highness to be told how high the audit of his virtues did amount, knowing that he desired rather to deserve than hear his own commendations. But, withal, instantly entreated him to remember, (what he full well understood !) that the entreaties of a whole state had the power of commands ; and that Heaven itself was not so impregnable, but that it might be battered open by the importunity of poor petitioners; that, from his acceptance of this their humble proffer, they should hereafter date the beginning of their happi- ness ; that this day should stand in the front of their almanacs and in scarlet-text, as a leader, command over the rest which' followed it, as the new birth-day of the Grecian empire. 12. However, at that present, nothing more was effected; and, because it was late, the assembly was dismissed : only some principal persons were appointed, with their private per- suasions, to mollify the stiffness of Andronicus ; who prevailed so far, that, meeting next morning in the full concourse of all sorts of people, Andronicus first loosened the vizard of his dis- simulation for a time, letting it fairly hang by ; at last it fell off of its own accord, and thankfully accepted their shouts and exclamations, with, " God save ALEXIUS and ANDRONICUS, joint emperors of Greece ! " 13. Then, mounted on a high tribunal, he made an eloquent oration ; as, indeed, he was not only sweet but luscious in his language, and with the circles of fine phrases could charm any stranger both into love and admiration of his person. Smiling with a pleasant countenance, he told them, that he conceived his own condition was represented in the eagle, displayed in the imperial standard : for as naturalists report that the sovereign of birds renews his age, so he seemed to himself grown young again ; as if the heavens had bestowed upon him new shoulders for new burdens ! And seeing it was their pleasure to elect him to the place, he promised to rescue right out of the paws of oppression, to be the only " Master of Requests ; " so that all complaints should have free access to him, and, if just, redress from him. But especially he would be careful of his own con- 414 THE PROFANE STATE. BOOK V. versation, intending (grace assisting him !) " to have a law in his own example." In a word, his speech was all excellent good in itself, save for this only fault, that not one syllable t hereof was either truly intended or really performed. 1 1 . The solemnities of his coronation were performed in great state, with much pomp and expense : and we may observe, that the coronations of usurpers are generally more gorgeous in their celebrations, than those of lawful princes. For usurpers, out of excessive joy of what they have undeservedly gotten, care not what cost they lavish. Besides, ceremonies are more substan- tial to them, to tell the world what they are ; who otherwise would take less notice of them, as not entitled by any right to the place they possess. Whereas kings, on whose heads crowns are dropped from heaven by lineal descent, often save super- fluous charges at their coronation, as being but a bare cere- mony, deriving or adding no right unto them, but only clearing and declaring the same to others. 15. The noise of the people's shouts did alarm young Alexius, who hitherto was fast sleeping in some obscure corner, and little dreamt that mean while an empire was stolen away from him. But now, coming to Andronicus, he publicly congratulated his happiness, and with a smiling countenance embraced him, as heartily glad that he had gotten so good a companion in so great an employment. We read, that in the country of Lithuania, there is a peculiar custom, that married men have adjutores tori, "helpers of the marriage-bed," who, by their consent, He with their wives ; and these husbands are so far from conceiving either hatred or jealousy against them, that they esteem them their principal friends. Surely, the beds in that country are bigger than in other places ; seeing, amongst all other nations, a wife is a vessel wherein the Cape-merchant will not admit any adventurers to share with him. It seems, Alexius was one of this Lithuanian temper, that could accept a partner in his empire, tickled with joy at the shows and solem- nities of his coronation : and well might he laugh till his heart did ache, though some did verily think, that, amongst all the pageants there presented, he himself was the strangest and most ridiculous spectacle. As for Xene the empress, she appeared not at all in public, being pensive at home, having almost wept out her own eyes because Proto-Sebastus had his bored out. 16. Next very day, in all patents and public receipts, their names were transposed, first Andronicus, and then Alexius ; this reason being rendered, that it was unfitting that a youth CHAP. XVIII. THE LIFE OF ANDRONICUS. 415 should be preferred before so grave and reverend an old man ; or rather, because, as in Numeration, the figure is to be put before the cipher. Here some of the friends of Alexius pro- pounded to stop the ambition of Andronicus before the gan- grene thereof spread further; seeing what he received did not satisfy but enlarge his proud breast, prompting new thoughts unto him, and widening his heart for higher desires. The motion found many to praise, but not to practise it; none would do what all desired were done. The younger sort con- ceived, that this office, because dangerous, was most proper for old men to undertake, who need not to be thrifty of their lives, seeing it was too late to spare at the bottom. Old men were of the opinion, it best beseemed the boldness and activity of youth : and such as were of middle age did partake of the excuses of both. Thus, in a project that is apparently des- perate, even those who are proudest on their terms of honour will be so humble as, in modesty, to let meaner men go before them. 17. As for "the Lords of the Combination," (who first pro- cured Andronicus's coming to Constantinople,) they found themselves, that they now had far over-shot the mark they aimed at. For they intended only to use him for the present, to humble and abate the pride and power of Proto-Sebastus : which done, they meant either wholly to remove or warily to confine him. But now what they chose for physic must be given them for daily food : arid woful is the condition of that man who, in case of necessity, taking hot water to prevent swooning, must ever after drink it for beverage, even to the burning out of his bowels. For Andronicus, though he came in as a tenant-at-will, would hold his place in fee to himself and his heirs. And whereas the aforesaid lords promised them- selves, if not advancement to new, assurance to their old, offices, they found themselves preferred to nothing but neglect and contempt ; neither intrusted in the advice, nor employed in the execution, of any matters of moment. 18. Indeed, Andronicus did loathe the sight of those lords, as debtors do of bailiffs, as if their very looks did arrest him to pay for those grand favours which he had formerly received from them, brought by their help from banishment, to power and wealth in the city. Nor would he make use of them, as too sturdy to be pliable to his projects; standing on their former deserts and present dignities ; but employed those osiers of his own planting, which might be easily wreathed to all purposes, 416 THE PROFANE STATE. BOOK V. being base upstarts, depending on his absolute pleasure. And as he used these alone, so these, only in matter of execution ; who, taking himself (and therein not mistaken !) to be sole friend to hi HIM- If, \\ould not impart his counsels to any one, being wont to say, that " ships sink as deep with one as with one hundred leaks." 19. We will conclude this book with an independent story, hoping the reader will take it as we find it : There was a noted beggar in Constantinople, well known to the people thereabouts, (as who had almost worn the thresholds of noblemen's doors as bare as his own clothes,) an exceeding tall, raw-boned body, with a meagre .and lank belly, so that he might have passed for famine itself. This man was found begging about the lodgings of Andronicus, very late at night, at an unseasonable hour, except one would say, that men of his profession, as they are never out of their way, so they are never out of their time, but may seasonably beg at any hour when they are hungry. Being apprehended at the guard, and accused for a conjurer, (his ugly face being all the evidence against him,) Andronicus delivered him over to the indiscreet discretion of the people, to do with him as they pleased. These wild justicers, [justiciaries,] with- out legal proof or further proceeding, for alms, bestowed on him a pile of wood and a great fire, where they burnt him to ashes ; whose face might justly have entitled him to a whipping-post, but not to a stake. 20. Say not, that this is beneath our History, to insert the death of a beggar in the life of an emperor : for all innocents are equal in the court of heaven : and this poor man, who, \\hilst alive, was so loud at great men's doors, for meat to preserve his life, his blood may be presumed to be as crying and clamorous at the gates of heaven to revenge his death. For herein Andronicus taught the people to be tyrannical, a need- less lesson to such apt scholars, who afterwards proved proficients herein, to the cost of their teaclier, as, God willing, shall be showed hereafter. SECTION III. 1. THE news of Andronicus's being chosen joint-emperor, no sooner arrived at the ears of Maria Csesarissa, (anno Domini 1181,) but she was drowned in a deluge of grief; being CHAP. XVIII. THE LIFE OF ANDROXICUS. 417 beholden to nature that she could vent herself in tears,- seeing that sorrow which cannot bleed in the eyes, doth commonly fester in the heart. And when her nurse lovingly chid her for excessive sadness, she pleaded her sex, which ean scarce do any thing without overdoing ; so that feminine passions must either not be full or overflow. 2. But anger soon after having got the conquest of her own grief, with furious speed she repaired to the place where " the Lords of the Combination" were assembled, and there she abruptly vented herself in these expressions : 3. " Greece is grown barbarous, and quite bereft of its former worth ; not so much as the ruins of valour left in you, to reach forth unto posterity any signs that you were extracted from brave ancestors ! Time was when the Grecian youth adven- tured for the golden fleece: you may now adventure for the ass's skin, the dull emblem of your own conditions ! The merry Greek hath now drowned the .proverb of the valiant Greek. Tame traitors all ! that could behold an usurper mate and check your lawful emperor, and neither wag hand or tongue in opposi- tion ! Did my father Manuel, for this, impair his own to raise your estates ? He made you honourable and great : O that he could have made you grateful ! The best is, your very sin will be your punishment. And though your practice hath been so base, your judgment cannot be so blind as to believe, that your channels of nobility can have a stream, when the fountain of honour is dammed up by your un worthiness." 4. The lords, though by their silence they seemed first to swallow her words, yet the expression of " tame traitors " would not go down their throats ; the largest souls being narrowest in point of credit, and soonest choked with a disgrace. Mamalus, therefore, in the behalf of the rest : " Madam," said he, " suffic- eth it now for us barely to deny your speech. Had you been a man, we should have proceeded to defy the speaker. What your passion now condemns in us for base, your judgment will not only acquit for right, and approve for safe, but even com- mend for honourable, and advantageous for our master Alexius. Our lives and lands are at the sole dispose and the cruel mercy of our enemies. We are instantly undone, if we whisper the least and lowest syllable of loyalty, and utterly disabled from any future service to Alexius. We conceive it therefore better, for a time, to bow to our foes, rather than to be broken by them ; to spare in words, and spend what we please in thoughts. We want not a will, but wait a time, to express our reality to E E 418 THE PROFANE STATE. BOOK V. the emperor, with most safety to ourselves, and effect for him, in a season least subject to suspicion." 5. Pacified with these words, she was contented to attend the performance of the promise, in time convenient; though never living so long as to behold it, being prevented by violent death. For now Andronicus began freely to rage in innocent blood, cutting off such nobles as he thought would oppose him. Something like truth was alleged against them, to stop tlic clamours of the multitude. And power never wants pretences, and those legal, to compass what it doth desire. They were indicted of conspiracy against Andronicus; and knights of the post (of the devils own dubbing !) did depose it against them. Yea, silence was not enough to preserve men's innocence ; some being accused that their noses did wrinkle, or their eyes wink, or their foreheads frown, or their fingers snap, treason against Andronicus ! 6. In this his epidemical cruelty, it was much that a famous jester of the court escaped his fury. Of this fellow, his body downwards was a fool, his head a knave, who did carefully note, and cunningly vent, by the privileges of his coat, many State- passages, uttering them in a wary twilight betwixt sport and earnest. But, belike, Andronicus would not break himself by stooping to so low revenge ; and made conscience in breaking the ancient charter of jesters, though wronging the liberty of others of greater concernment. 7. Of such as were brought to public execution, it was strange to behold the difference of their - demeanour. Some, who were able to be miserable, with an undaunted mind did become their afflictions, and by their patience made their miseries to smile, not bowing their souls beneath themselves, only appealing for justice in another world. Others did fool- ishly rage and ramp, mustering whole legions of curses, as if therewith to make the axe turn edge; and then, seeing no remedy but death, their souls did not bow by degrees, but fell flat in an instant ; of lions, turning calves, half-dead with fear, received the fatal stroke of the executioner. So many were confusedly huddled to death, it is hard to rank them in order; only we will insist on some principal persons. 8. First, Maria Csesarissa and her husband ; (whether it was conscience or manners, not to part man and wife ;) and because Andronicus durst not, for fear of the people, bring them to public death, their physician was bribed with gold, which lie conceived cordial for himself; and thereupon he did quickly CHAP. XVIII. THE LIFE OF ANDRONICUS. 419 purge out both their souls by poison, an unsuspected way, which robs men of their lives, and yet never bids them to stand. 9. Next followed Xene, the mother-empress, being accused of high treason for attempting to betray the city of Belgrade to Bela king of Hungary. A packed council condemned her to death, who, though otherwise vicious, was generally bemoaned, as most innocent in this particular. But Andronicus the emperor cunningly derived the whole hatred hereof on young Alexius, (whose power he never used or owned, but only to make him the cloak-father for odious acts,) urging him to sign the warrant for her execution. In the stout refusal whereof, Alexius showed more constancy than was expected to come from him, clearly answering all arguments, herein showing him- self a child in affection, and more than a child in judgment. Whereupon some ground their presumptions, that his soul deserved better breeding, and that he was not to be censured for weakness of capacity; but rather his friends to be con- demned for want of care, and himself to be bemoaned for lack of education. He flatly told Andronicus, that Nero was recorded " monster " to all ages for killing his mother ; and that he would never consent to her death that gave him life. 10. But he proceeded to aggravate the crime of Xene ; Bel- grade being such a piece of strength that it was a whole pro- vince in effect ; and though but a town in bulk, was a kingdom in benefit, all Greece awfully attending the fortune thereof. He minded Alexius, that "fathers of countries should know no mothers ; " but that sovereigns' affections are only of kin to the good and safety of their subjects. "Besides/' saith he, "you need not scruple so much at her death, who is dead whilst living, and hath been many years drowned in luxury : so that what was cruelty in Nero, will be exemplary justice in you." 11. Alexius rejoined, that if his mother Xene was so drowned in luxury, the more need she had to drown her sins in penitent tears, except it were conceived charity to kill both her soul and body; that princes were not to own private affections, where they were destructive to the common good, but might and must, where they consisted with the public safety ; or else to become a prince, would be all one as to leave off to be a man. Grant Belgrade a strong place, it was still in their own possession, and her intended treason succeeded not. And, therefore, he con- ceived it a middle and indifferent way, that she should be deprived of liberty for plotting of treason, and yet be permitted to live because the plot took no effect; a cloister should be 2 E 2 THE PROFANE STATE. BOOK V* provided, whereto she should be close confined, therein to do penance for her former enormities; and in this sentence he conceived that he impartially divided himself betwixt the affec- of a child, and severity of a judge. 12. But Andronicus, who was resolved to have no denial, hi-hly commended him for his filial care of Ins mother's soul. r*," said he, "for the benefit thereof, fifty friars, at my own proper charges, shall be appointed, who, after her death, night and day, shall daily pay their prayers in her behalf, whose suf- frages are as well known above, as her prayers are strangers tli- re; it being to be presumed, that, whilst she is living, the II. avens will be deaf to her, who so long hath been dumb to t h. in. Speak not of her project, that it took no effect ; for, had it succeeded, none would have called it treason, but have beheld it under a more favourable notion/' He minded Alexius, that 'iad sufficient power of himself, being joint emperor, to put to death ; but that he would in no case deprive him of this peerless opportunity of eternizing his memory to posterity, and securing the State by his necessary severity. For all hereafter would be deterred from attempting of treason, as despairing of pardon, when they beheld the exemplary justice on his own mother. 13. Alexius still persisting in his denial, Andronicus at last fell to flat menacing; yet so cunningly carried it, that his threats did not seem to proceed from any anger, but from love to the person, and grief for the perverseness, of Alexius. He protested, he would no more break his sleep, he would steer the State no longer ; let even the winds and the waves hereafter be the pilots to that crazy vessel. He called the Heavens to wit- ness, (before whom he entered a caveat to preserve his own innocence !) how he had tendered happiness to Alexius, but could not force it upon him, who wilfully refused it. In a word, so passionate he was, and so violent was the stream of his importunity, that the young emperor, either out of weakness, or weariness to swim against it, was at last carried away with the current thereof, and subscribed the warrant. 14. To divert whose mind from musing upon it, a solemn hunting in the country was contrived, that there he might take his pleasure. In a forest not far off, a stately stag was lodged, ambitious (as they told him) to fall by the hand of an emperor, or else to be dubbed a hart imperial, if chancing to escape. All things being ready, Alexius is carried thither; but, withal, those arc sent along with him who hunted this hunter, marked CHAP. XVIII. THE LIFE OF ANDRONICUS. 421 all his motions, learned the language of his looks and hands, with the different dialects of his several fingers, so that he could not speak a word, or make a sign, to any of his faithful servants, but presently it was observed, and, if material, reported to Andronicus. None of his friends durst show any discontent. If any was seen sadly to wag his head, it was a certain sign that that head stood but loose on his shoulders ; and, by the next return, the news would be, that it was fallen off : so miserable was the condition of this prince, and of all his followers ! 15. But Andronicus had a hind to hunt at home, and must provide for the execution of Xene. And now, to enter the ten- der years of his son Manuel for great actions, he thought first to blood him with an empress, in private delivering the warrant unto him. Behold here an unexpected accident ! This good child of a bad father (grace can cut off the oldest and strongest entail of wickedness !) refused the employment, alleging, there was no such dearth of hangmen that a prince need take their office ; and that it was against his conscience, her crime being rather packed than proved, seeing she was never brought to answer for herself. Hereat his father, mad with rage, rated and reviled him : " Bastard ! thou wert never true eagle's bird, whose eyes are dazzled at the sun of woman's beauty. What ! doth thy cowardice take sanctuary at conscience ? He never climbs a throne that stands on such poor pretences. What, if she never appeared to answer ? Where the fact itself doth cry, it is needless for the offender to speak. Narrow-hearted fool ! A cottage is fitter for thee than an empire. Have I pawned mine own soul to found thy greatness, and am I thus requited?" and so abruptly brake off into weeping. 16. Manuel modestly returned : " I am sorry, sir, you should pawn your soul for my sake; but, however, I am resolved not to lose mine own. Whosoever climbs a throne without conscience, never sits sure upon it. I had rather suc- ceed to your private paternal possession, than to an ill-gotten empire. Nor am I dazzled at the lustre of her beauty, but at the clearness of her innocence ; all men being generally com- purgators for her integrity herein. Employ me, and try my valour in any other service. Command, and I will fetch the lion's only heir out of his den, both in sight and spite of sire and dam. Only herein I desire to be excused, and I hope deserve not to be accounted a coward for fearing to commit a sin ! " How much Andronicus was be-madded hereat, may easier be conceived than expressed, to receive a final repulse 422 THE PROFANE STATE. BOOK V. from his own son ! Insomuch as, at the last, he was fain to make use of Hagio-Christophorites Stephanus, captain of the guard, who alone, of all " the Lords of the Combination," stuck to hira, and was respected of him ; and he very fairly took order .patch her, stifling her, as some say, betwixt two pillows. 17. Tlu next news which took possession of the tongues and ears of people, was the cruel and barbarous death of young \iu : whilst the vulgar did wonder that he died so soon ; and the wise did more admire that he lived so long; and the ditl'rmicc was not great, betwixt him that was now but a ghost, \\ liiUt living, but a shadow. Basilius went too far to fetch a tit parallel out of the Roman history, to compare Andronicus and Alexius with old Fabius and sprightful Marcellus;* who might have met in the same story, far nearer, (because later by a hundred years,) a more lively resemblance in the consulship of Julius Caesar and Bibulus ; whereof the one did all, the other drank all. 18. The manner of Alexius's death was, that he had his neck broken with a bow-string ; the punishment in that place (as still amongst the Turks) much used : and, in this tyrant's reign, the string did cruelly strangle more at home, than the bow did valiantly kill abroad. This bow-string (to make a short digres- sion) was an instrument whereon Andronicus used to play, and Bportingly to make much mirth and music thereon to himself, calling it his "medicine for all maladies." "For whereas," said he, "purges were base, vomits worse, cupping painful, clysters immodest, blood-letting cruel ; this bow-string had all the opposite good qualities unto them; and the same did quench the heat of fevers, drain the moisture of dropsies, cure pleurisies without piercing a vein, stay the vertigo, heal the strangury, by opening the urine, and only stopping the breath." This being one base humour of Andronicus, (unworthy civility and Christianity !) to break jests on men in misery, just as they to die. As for the corpse of Alexius, (on whom he had practised with his foresaid medicine,) they were most unworthily handled ; and dead bodies, though they cannot be hurt, may be wronged, especially of such eminent persons. 19. Now, to refresh the reader amidst so many murders and massacres, it will not be amiss to insert an unexpected marriage. Alexius left Anna an empress-dowager : and some days after her husband's death, he [Andronicus] addressed himself a suitor unto Vid, <},r,>, sect. ii. parag. ix. p. 412. CHAP. XVIII. THE LIFE OF ANDRONICUS. 423 her, being to encounter with invincible disadvantages. First, he came reeking with the blood of slain Alexius ; and what hope could he have, that she would embrace that viper that had stung her other-self to death ? Secondly, the disproportion of his age, being past seventy ; and what motley-coloured marriage would it make, to join his gray to green ? his cold November being enough to kill her flowery May ! Notwithstanding all this, he had formerly been so fleshed with fortune, he conceived he could never be lean afterwards ; and knew, that, in matters of this nature, confidence in attempting is more than half the way to success. 20. First, he possessed himself of her judgment, and made her believe that all his former undertakings were in service to her, grieving that Alexius did not value the pearl he wore. He protested, there was nothing about him old but his hairs, which were dyed white not by his age, but by his carefulness for her preservation. Then, he assaulted her affection, principally pressing that argument, which was never propounded to a mere woman and returned with a denial, namely, assuring her of power and greatness, promising she should be the conduit through which all his favours should pass, and all his people under his command should be blessed or blasted by her influ- ence. Neither were gifts wanting, and those of the largest size, bestowed on her servants, who promoted his cause ; and the dullest bodies work on the most subtile souls, by the media- tion of such spirits. 21. Now, whether it was out of childishness, (not being full fourteen,) or out of fear, (being far from her friends, and her person in his power,) or out of pride, (loath to abate of her former state,) she assented to his desire. But, to speak plainly, he showeth himself to have store of leisure, and want of work, who is employed to find a root in reason for all the fruit that grows from fancy : sufficeth it, she loved him, affirming it was no wonder that he should take a poor lady's affections captive, whose valour in the field had subdued the most manly of his enemies. 22. To make this story pass for probable, we may fellow it with the like in our English chronicles. Richard III., though not so old, more ugly than Andronicus, obtained the love of, and was married to, the countess of Warwick, the relict of prince Edward, (son to king Henry VI.,) whom the same Richard had slain at Tewkesbury, she knowing so much, and he not denying it. They were name-sakes, both Annes ; and THE PllOFAh". BOOK V* when they had cast up their audit, both, I believe, might equally boast of their bargains ! 23. But Andronieus, who was never unseasonably amorous, (but had his lust subordinate to his ambition and cruelty, when ravr him leave and leisure to prosecute his pleasure,) was not softened by the dalliance of marriage, to remit any thing of his former tyranny. He protested that he counted the day lost, wherein he had not killed or tortured some eminent person, or else so planet-struck him with his frowns, that he enjoyed not himself alter. He never put two men together to death after the same way, as not consisting with his state to wear one torture threadbare ; but ever appeared in exchange and variety of new manner of punishments. And if any wonder, that there was not a general insurrection made against this monster of mankind, to rend him from the earth ; know that he had one humour that did much help him, in being stern and cruel to < 11, but affable and courteous to poor people, and so still kt j>t iu with the vulgar. Besides, many stately structures he luid sweetened his cruelties with some good acts for the public. Now, that we might not seem to have weeded the life Vndronicus, or to be akin to those flies which, travelling by many fragrant flowers, only make their residence on some sore or dunghill, we will recount some of his good deeds ; and pity it was, that they had not proceeded from a better author. He surveyed the walls of Constantinople, and mended Thrm, wheresoever the chinks thereof did call for reparation. He plucked down all the buildings without, (yet so, that the owners sustained no loss thereby,) for fear, in case of an enemy's invasion, those houses might serve them for ladders to scale the city with more ease. Thus all Constantinople was brougfit within the compass of her walls, as she remains at this day ; not like many ill-proportioned cities in Europe which groan under over-great suburbs, (so that the children over-top the mother,) and branch themselves forth into out-streets, to the impairing of the root, both weakening and impoverish- in- the city itself. He bestowed great cost in adorning the Porphyry throne, which an usurper did provide and beautify, for a lawful prince to sit upon it. He brought fresh water, a trea- sure in that place, through a magnificent aqueduct, into the heart of the city, which after his death was spoiled out of spite, (as private revenge in a furious fit oft impairs the public good,) people disdaining to drink of his water, who had made the run with blood! His benefaction to "the Church of CHAP. XVIII. THE LIFE OF ANDRONICUS. 425 Forty Martyrs " amounted almost to a new founding thereof, intending his tomb in that place; though it was arrant pre- sumption in him, who had denied the right of sepulture to others, to promise the solemnity thereof unto himself. 25. But that which gained him the greatest reputation far and near, even amongst those that never saw his face, was an edict for the saving of shipwrecked goods. There was amongst the Greeks a constant practice, founded in cruelty, and strengthened by custom, that if a vessel was discovered in danger of drowning, those on the shore, like so many ravenous vultures, flocked about that carcass to pick out the eyes thereof, the wealth therein. These made all their hay in foul weather, which caused them not only duly to wait, but heartily to wish, for a tempest : and as the wicked tenants in the Gospel concluded to " kill the heir that so the inheritance might be their own," these remorseless men, to prevent future cavils and clamours about the goods, dispatched the mariners, always by wilful neglecting their preservation, and too often by downright con- triving their destruction ; more cruel than the very stocks and stumps of trees, which, growing by rivers' sides, commonly hang over the water, as if out of pity tendering their service to such as are in danger of drowning, and stooping down to reach their hands to help them to the shore ! Now, Andronicus, taking this barbarous custom into consideration, forbad it, for the time to come, on most terrible penalties, (and this lion, if enraged, would by his loudness roar hearing into the deaf !) and enjoined all to improve their utmost endeavours for the preservation of their persons. Hence followed such an alteration, that ship- wrecked goods, if floating to land, safely kept themselves without any to guard them. Men would rather blow their fingers, than heat their hands with a rotten plank ; rather go naked, than cover themselves with a rag of shipwrecked canvass. It was ominous to steal the least inch of a cable, lest it lengthened itself into a halter to him that took it. All things were preserved equally safe, of what value soever ; and untold pearl might lie on the shore untouched, like so many oyster- shells. This dis- persed the fame of his justice and mercy into foreign parts : and as sounds which are carried along by the river's side, having the advantage of hollow banks and the water to convey them, are heard sooner and quicker, than sounds of the same loudness over the land ; so the maritime actions of princes concerning trading, wherein strangers as well as their own native subjects are interested, report them to the world in a higher tone, and 426 THE PROFANE STATE. BOOK V. by a quicker passage, than any land-locked action of theirs, N\'hich hath no further influence, but only terminates in their own kingdom. Yea, this one ingratiating decree of Androiiicus did si-t him up with so full stock of reputation, that, upon the bare credit thereof, he might now run on score the committing of many murders, and never have his name once called to account for any injustice therein. 26. And as the seamen by water, so the husbandmen by land, (and those, we know, have strong lungs and stout sides !) cried u I > the fame of Andronicus, because he. was a great preserver of tillage, and corn was never at more reasonable rates than in his reign. He cast a strict eye on all customers * and tax-gather- ers ; and as evil spirits are observed to walk much about silver mines, so Andronicus did incessantly haunt all public receivers of money ; and, if finding them faulty, O excellent sport for the people, to see how those sponges were squeezed ! He allowed large and liberal maintenance to all in places of judicature, that want might not tempt them to corruption. Thus, even the worst of tyrants light sometimes on good actions, either stumb- ling on them by chance, or out of love, not of virtue, but of their own security. They are wicked by the general rule of their lives, and pious by some exceptions; just by fits, that they may be more safely unjust when they please. And hereby Andronicus advanced himself to be tolerable amongst mankind. 27. We could willingly afford to dwell longer under the tem- perate climate of his virtues ; but travellers must on their jour- ney, coming now to the torrid zone of his fury, which indeed was not habitable. His foes he executed, because they were his foes ; and his friends, because they were his friends. For they that let out a courtesy at interest to a tyrant, commonly lose the principal : witness Conto-Stephanus, the great duke, admi- ral of the galleys, who, by betraying his trust, brought Androni- cus to Constantinople, and now fairly had his eyes put out. As for Georgius Disypatus, Andronicus intended to roast him, being a corpulent man, upon a spit, affirming that such fat unison wanted no larding, but would baste itself; and meant to serve him up as a dainty dish, in a charger or tray, to his widow, had not some intervening accident diverted it. He made a bloody decree, which had a train of indefinite and unlimited extent, and would reach as far as the desire of the measurer; namely, that all such of the nobility which were Custom-house officers, or collectors ef clues. EDIT. CHAP. XVIII. THE LIFE OF ANDRONICUS. 427 now, or should hereafter be, cast into prison, should be executed without any legal trial, with their children and kindred. Prince Manuel, whose worst fault was that Andronicus begat him, in vain opposed this decree, alleging this to be the ready way for his father to un-emperor himself, by destroying that relative title, and leaving liimself no subjects. 28. But Andronicus had found Scripture, whereby to justify his act, and brought St. Paul for his patron, whose practice and confession he cited : " For the good that I would, I do not ; but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me." (Rom. vii. 19, 20.) God keep us from Apocrypha-com- ments on canonical Scripture ; send us his pure text, without the gloss of Andronicus ! who, belike, conceived he could not be a perfect tyrant, by only torturing of men, except also he did rack God's word, rending text from context, and both from their true intent. 29. This decree startles such " Lords of the Combination " as were left alive, together with Mamalus, principal secretary to the late emperor, and Alexius Ducas, the most active, but not nearest, prince of the blood. These, meeting together, much bemoaned themselves, till Mamalus, counting such puling pas- sion beneath masculine* spirits, thus uttered himself: 30. "You late adorers of Andronicus, who did conceive it would pose the power of heaven to cure the State, save only by his hand ! be your own judges, whether it be not just that they should die of the physic who made a god of the physician. Diseases do but their kind, if they kill, and an evil expected is the less evil : but no such torment as to die of the remedy. Only one help is left us, if secretly and speedily pursued. "We know, Isaacius Angelus, by birth and merit, is entitled to the crown. True, he lives privately in a convent ; but worth can- not be hid, it shines in the dark; and greatness doth best become them to wear it, by whom it is found before it is sought for, as more deserved than desired by them. Say not, that he is of too mild a disposition ; for, his soft temper will make the better poultice for our sore necks, long galled with the yoke of tyranny. And seeing we have thus long been unhappy under the extremities, the childhood of Alexius, and old years of Andronicus, let us try our fortunes under the middle age of Isaacius ; and no doubt we shall light on the blessed mean and happy temper of moderation." 31. The motion found entertainment beyond belief. And 428 THE PROFANE STATE. BOOK V* Alexius Ducas offered it to their consideration, that so meek a dove would never make good eagle ; giving a character, how a prince should be accomplished with valour and experience, by insinuation designing himself. It is pleasant to hear a proud man speaking modestly in his own praise, whilst the auditors affect a wilful deafness, and will not hear his whispering and slanting expressions, till at last he is fain to hollow downright self-flattery into their ears ! Here it fared thus with Ducas, \\lnt thereby only exposed himself to contempt ; and, perceiving no success, zealously concurred with the rest for advancing of Isaacius. All necessary particulars were politicly contrived, each one had his task appointed him ; some to seize on the ships, others to secure the palace, and make good the great church ; and the whole model was exactly methodized, consider- ing the vast volume thereof, wliich consisted of many persons of quality therein engaged. SECTION IV. 1. BUT great designs, like wonnds, if they take air, corrupt. This project against Andronicus could not be covertly carried, because consisting of a medley of persons of different tempers and unsuiting souls, having private intents to themselves, not cordial, uniting their affections (but only friends " for the time being ") against the common foe : so that through the rifts and chinks of their several aims and ends, which could not be jointed close together, the vigilancy of Andronicus did steal a glimpse of their design, apprehensive enough to light a candle for him- self from the spark of the smallest discovery. 2. And now, (anno Domini 1182,) let him alone to prevent their proceedings, by cutting both them and theirs off, (that no mindful heir might succeed to their spite !) and that with all possible speed ; for he steered his actions by the compass of that character which one made of him, as followeth : " I love, at leisure, favours to bestow, And tickle men by dropping kindness slow : But my revenge I in one instant spend ; That moment which begins it, doth it end. u Half-doing undoes many ; 'tis a sin Not to be soundly sinful, to begin And tire ! I '11 do the work. They strike in vain Who strike so that the stricken might complain." CHAP. XVIII. THE LIFE OF ANDRONICUS. 429 3. Mamalus was the first who was brought to execution, on this manner : A mighty fire was made ; and, to provoke the tyranny thereof, (as if that pure element of itself had been too fine and slender effectually to torment him !) they made the flame more stiff and stuffy, by the mixture of pitch and brim- stone. Then Mamalus was brought forth stark naked, inso- much that all ingenuous beholders, out of a modest sympathy, conceived that they saw themselves naked in seeing him ; and, therefore, as much as lay in their power, they covered him, by shutting their eyes. When the soldiers with pikes were pro- vided to thrust Mamalus into the fire, whilst many spectators durst not express their pity to him, out of pity to themselves, lest commiserating of him should be understood complying with him ; but were cautious to confine their compassion within the compass of their breast, that it should not sally forth into their eyes and outward gestures. 4. Betwixt this dilemma of deaths, the sharp pikes of the soldiers on the one side, and fury of the fire on the other, he preferred the former, not as most honourable, and best comply- ing with a military soul, (not being at leisure, alas ! in time of torment, to stand on terms of credit,) but as least painful. But the soldiers denied him this choice, and forced him into the fire ; and then, hearing his shrieks, even those who refused, out of favour, to give any pity to his person, could not, out of justice, deny the payment of some compassion (bound there- unto by the specialty of humanity) unto his miserable condi- tion. 5. Meantime Andronicus was a spectator, tickling himself with delight, only offended that the sport was so short, and Mamalus dead too soon; the stench of whose burning flesh (offensive to others !) was a perfume to him, who had the Roman nose of Caligula, Nero, Domitian, and such monsters of cruelty. And, as he pleased his own smell with the odour of revenge, his sight with beholding the execution, his ear with the music of his enemy's dying groans so there wanted not those that wished, that his other senses were also employed according to his deserts, his touch and taste, that they might feelingly partake >f the torture of the fire. Thus died Mama- lus, scarce twenty-four years of age, before the bud of his youth had opened into a flower ; having in his parts not only pro- mises, but some assurance, that the hopes of his future worth should be plentifully performed, had not this untimely accident prevented it. 430 THE PROFANE STATE. BOOK V. 6. Lapardas acted next on the scaffold, though not con- demned to death, but to have his eyes bored out. His extrac- was noble, state great, pride greater; to maintain which, he contrived the advancing of Andronicus to the throne ; the under-ground foundation of whose greatness was closely laid by Lapardas, whilst he left the visible structure thereon to others. Like a mole, he conveyed his train, closely spurring on Basilius, who posted of himself, to act in odious projects, whilst himself aculkcd unseen; hoping, if matters held, to be rewarded by Andronicus for his secret service ; if they miscarried, to provide for his own safety; seeing none could challenge him of any appearing open ill * actions wherein he was engaged. 7. But quickly he fell off of his speed in serving Andronicus ; whether because he conceived his deserts found .not a propor- tionable reward, or because he bare a love to the person of Alexius ; or because he was not perfectly bad, and, fainting in the way of wickedness, could not keep pace therein with the fast and wide strides of Andronicus ; or, which is most proba- ble, he slowly perceived his error, that tyrants pluck down those stairs whereby they ascend to their greatness : and then, too late, [he] began to unravel what he weaved before. True it was, he had assisted Andronicus so long, that he had offended all the side of Isaacius ; and had deserted him so soon, that he disengaged all the party of Andronicus ; and so was unhappy not to have the cordial affections of either. 8. On the scaffold he spake little, expecting that the pain would kill him, confessing he owed a death to nature, and a violent death to justice ; and forgave all the world, save his own self. Beholding the sun, " Farewell," said he, " life of my life, my night must be at my noon ! " and then laying his hands on his eyes : " Must I lose you thus ? Was it because I shot forth wanton glances, or beheld rivals with envious looks, or adored the shine of gold, that I must thus lose you ? Or was it because I acted in a dark way, to advance the cruelty of a tyrant, that now all my endeavours are seen by the world, and I must be blind ? However, God's justice appears clearest to me in the loss of my eyes ! " Thus was Lapardas tortured ; and though some may think that Andronicus swerved from his principles, taking away only light, not life, from him, and thereby rather more enraging him for, than wholly disabling him from, revenge ; None could challenge him, that any actions in which he was engaged appeared openly to be evil EDIT. CHAP. XVIII. THE LIFE OF ANDRONICUS. 431 yet we may be assured, that tyrant did never so do his works by the half, but that he struck out their teeth whose eyes he bored out, so securing their persons that he put them past power of doing him mischief. 9. During this raging cruelty of Andronicus, we may com- mend in Theodorus the patriarch, rather his success than policy, (his simple goodness being incapable of the latter,) who season- ably withdrew himself from Constantinople, to a private place lie had provided in the isle of Terebinthus. Here he had built him a handsome house, equally distant from envy and contempt, bravery and baseness ; so that if security and sweetness had had a mind to dwell together, they could not have found a fitter place for that purpose. Several reasons moved him to his speedy removal, beside the avoiding the fury of Andronicus : First, because Basilius undermined him at the court in his patriarch- ship, Theodorus being absent thence, when present there ; hearing only the name and blame, when the other had the power and profit thereof. 10. Secondly. To avoid the sight of people ; conceiving every eye which did behold, did accuse him as a principal cause of their miseries, for helping Andronicus to the empire. In whom Theodorus had been strangely mistaken, as the best men are soonest deceived with the painted piety and pensive looks of hypocrites, counting all gold that shines, all sooth * that is said ; betrayed by their own charity into a good opinion of others. Lastly. It grieved him to see ignorance and impiety so ram- pant, base hands committing daily rapes on the virgin Muses ; so that they might now even ring out the bell for dying learn- ing, and sadly toll the kneU for gasping religion. Wherefore, as divines solemnly observe to go off of the bench just before the sentence of condemnation is pronounced upon the malefac- tor ; so this patriarch, perceiving the city of Constantinople cast, by her own guiltiness, and by the confession of her crying sins against herself, thought it not fit for him to stay there, till Divine Justice should pass a final, fatal doom upon that place, (wliich he every minute expected,) but embraced the private opportunity of departure. 11. Soon after his retiring, he ended his life. We need not inquire into his disease, if we consider his age, accounting now fourscore-and-four Winters. And well might his years be reck- oned by Winters, as wanting both Springs and Summers of * Truth EDIT. THE PROFANE STATE. BOOK V. prosperity, living in constant affliction. And yet the last four years made more wounds in his heart, than all the former ploughed wrinkles in his face. He died, not guilty of any wealth, who long before had made the poor his heirs, and his own hands his executors. After hearty prayers that religion might shine when he was set, falling into a pious meditation, he went out as a lamp, for lack of oil. No warning groan was sighed forth to take his last farewell, but even he smiled himself into a corpse; enough to confute those that they belie death, who call her grim and grisly, which in him seemed lovely and of a good complexion ! The few servants he left, proportioned the funeral rather to their master's estate than deserts, supply- ing, in their sorrow, the want of spices and balm; which, surely, must be so much the more precious, as the tears of men are to be preferred before gums, which are but the weeping of tires. 12. The patriarch's place was quickly supplied by Basilius the bishop, so often mentioned, preferred to the place by the emperor : a patron and chaplain excellently met ! for, what one made law by his list,* the other endeavoured to make Gospel by his learning. In stating of any controversy, Basilius first stu- died to find out what Andronicus intended or desired to do therein ; and then let him alone to draw that Scripture, which would not come of itself, to prove the lawfulness of what the other would practise ! Thus, in favour of him, he pronounced the legality of two most incestuous matches; and this Grecian Pope gave him a dispensation to free him from all oaths of allegiance, which he had formerly sworn to Manuel or Alexius. For, this was the humour of Andronicus, to have religion along with him, so far as it lay in his way; courting the com- pany of pious pretences, if possibly they might be procured, to countenance his designs. But, in case they were so foul that no gloss of justice could be put upon them, he disdained that piety which would not befriend him, and impudently acted his pleasure in open opposition of all religion. 13. But whilst this Basilius was thus hot about his secular affairs, there wanted not an aged hermit, who took him to task, and soundly told him his own, though it made but small impression in him. Meeting him at advantage, " Hermits, you know," saitli lie, "hate both luxury and compliment. In plain truth, I must chide you, that, seeing earth is but your inn, ami By his own ii-ll! or pleasure EDIT. CHAP. XVIII. THE LIFE OF ANDRONICUS. 433 heaven your home, you mistake the first for the latter. Man's soul is so intent on its present object, that it is impossible it should attend two callings at the same time, but must needs make default in the pursuance of one of them. Your tem- poral intermeddling draws the envy of the laity, for whose love you should rather labour. Nor are you stored with foreign observations, really to enable you for such undertakings. Say not, that you may meddle with temporal state-affairs, and yet not entangle yourself with them, seeing the world is such a witch, it is impossible'to do the one without the other ! Observe those clergy sticklers on the civil stage, and you shall seldom find them crowned with a quiet death. Remember your predecessor Chrysostom, who did only pray and preach, and read and write ; thereby made happy in the despite of his enemies : for, though twice expelled his patriarchship, he was twice restored with greater honour ; so that it was not want of policy which lost, but store of piety which caused him to recover, his place again. I speak not this out of any repining at the lustre of your prefer- ment, who envy outward honour no more than the shining of a glow-worm, but merely out of love to your person, and desire of your happiness." 14. But Basilius, in some passion, returned : " I perceive you are lately broken loose out of your cell, which makes you more fierce and keen, like hawks when they are first unhooded, and newly restored to the light. Know, Sir, one may well attend two callings, if they be subordinate, as the means and the end. All my secular business is in order to the good of the church. The love of the laity unto us, without some awe mingled with it, can neither be long-lasting nor much serviceable. My education hath admitted me into general learning, and made me capable of any employment. I deny not the world to be a witch ; but I know how to arm my soul with holy spells against all her enchantments. Whereas you say, ' One cannot meddle with worldly matters, but must entangle himself therewith ; ' it is all one as if you should affirm, that a temperate man cannot eat meat but he must surfeit. Proofs from the event argue not the justice or injustice of the act ; and nothing can be inferred from the ill success of our meddling in secular affairs. To your instance of Chrysostom, I oppose the example of Augustine, bishop of Hippo, who set in full brightness, and yet kept a court in his own house, where he umpired and decided all temporal controversies. You trample on that which you call pride in me, with that which is so in yourself. And all this F F 1)1 THE PROFANE STATE. BOOK V. proceeds out of spite, because you cannot turn your cowl into a mitre." l."i. But Basilius was deaf to all these persuasions, and, join- ing with Hagio-Christophorites Stephanus, (chief engineer for Andronicus,) advanced all cruel designs. And now, Mamalus and Lapardas being executed, all others were possessed with a panic fear : and no wonder when the string is broken, if the beads be scattered ! It being feared that the plot [had] mis- carried, they strove to make themselves innocent, by first making others guilty. And yet it was vain to take the pains \\ ho should start quickest, when they all met even at the post ; for Andronicus took order that they were all alike executed. 16, There were two of his creatures, Trypsicus, and Hagio- Christophorites Stephanus, who only fell out who should be most officious to liim. Each had the other in jealousy ; fearing his rival would engross the emperor unto him. Especially Stephanus was fearful of Trypsicus ; understanding that Andro- nicus wrote private letters unto him, styling him, his beloved friend, with other expressions which spake more intimacy than Stephanus was willing to hear. This Trypsicus had been a dangerous promoter* in all company, representing to Andronicus every syllable spoken against him, to the disadvantage of the speaker ; and, as one saith, (I conceive rather in the language of the times, than his own,) " Every man then was to give an account of every idle word." It happened therefore, that one was procured, who accused Trypsicus for jeering of John, the emperor's eldest son, for [being] deformed, and that he scattered some loose expressions bewailing the misery of the times. Now, though the great service which Trypsicus had done might deserve to overweigh so light an offence ; it cost him his life, confiscation of his goods, and ruin of his posterity. 17. Now hath Stephanus room to domineer alone in the favour of Andronicus, sending him to seize on Isaacius, who for the present was got out of his convent. It was past the skill of the spaniel to catch him, who dived for the instant ; but we shall find him in due time above water, und that to purpose. According to PHILLIPS and KERSEY: "In a law-sense, promoters or pro. mooters are a set of informers, who, for prosecuting such as offend in penal actions, have part of the fines for their reward. They chiefly belong to Spiritual Courts the Exchequer, and the Queen's Bench." EDIT. CHAT. XVIII. THE LIFE OF ANDRONICUS. 435 SECTION V. 1. SECURITY is the mother of danger, and the grandmother of destruction. Let Andronicus be a proof hereof; who now, (anno Domini 1183,) nearest to his ruin, grew most confident, as conceiving he had stopped every cranny where danger might creep in, and therefore, in a bravery, he sent a defiance to For- tune herself, which, notwithstanding, was returned with his own speedy overthrow. 2. Yet could he not justly complain, that he was suddenly surprised, seeing Nature might seem to have gone out of her way to give him warning ; and Nemesis did not hunt him so fast, but that she allowed him fair law to provide for himself, by several prodigies which happened at that time. But Andro- nicus, not only against the full intent, but almost visible mean- ing, of the same accidents, did make a jesting construction of them, and was deaf to the loud language of all ominous passages, as not relating unto him. 3. Being told of the apparition of a comet, (no legier-star of heaven, but an extraordinary ambassador !) portending his death, as some expounded it ; he scoffingly replied, that he was glad to see the heavens so merry, to make bonfires for his triumphs: and what was a comet, but the kitchen-stuff of the air? which, blazing for a while, would go out in a snuff: add- ing, that that star might presage the fall of some prince that wore long hair ; whereas, his was short enough. When another told him of an earthquake which had lately happened, " I am glad," saith he, " that the mother-earth, sick of the colic, had so good a vent for her wind." * Being informed that the statue of St. Paul, his tutelary saint, was seen to weep; he evaded the sad presage thereof, by distinguishing on tears, there being a homonymy t in their language, as bearing not only different, but contrary, senses, proceeding either from mirth or mourning; and, therefore, that weeping might probably fore- show good success. In a word, all serious and solemn omens he tuned to a jesting meaning, keeping himself constant to * All editions, except the first, have "her mind," instead of her wind. EDIT. f- An equivocation. The first edition has in this place the word harmony, which is evidently erroneous. It was corrected in the second and subsequent editions EDIT. 2 F 2 l!li: PROFANE STATE. BOOK V. hia first principle, " That Fortune, when feared, is a tyrant; when scorned, is a coward." But though he unjustly perverted the sense of these prodigies, the event did truly interpret them in his destruction. 4. For, Isaacius Angelus, persecuted by the executioner, fled into the great church, (in those days the sanctuary at large for innocents,) where making an oration to the people, he exceeded expectation and himself, as if hitherto he had thriftily reserved his worth (a serious, others say, simple, man !) to spend it more freely when occasion required it. He spake not like those mer- cenary people who make their tongue their ware, and eloquence their trade; but he uttered himself so pathetically, that he did not court attention, but command it. He made both his inno- cence and the cruelty of Andronicus to appear so plain, that the people not only afforded him protection for the present, but also bestowed on him sovereignty for the future, and instantly elected and proclaimed him emperor of Greece. 5. Stand we here still, and wonder what should be the rea- son, that Andronicus should suffer this Isaacius, next prince of the blood, so long safely to survive, who had cut off other per- sons of less danger and lower degree. We cannot ascribe it to liis incogitancy, as inconsistent with his vast memory to forget a matter of such importance. Less can we impute it to his pity, as if sparing him out of compassion ; seeing that a thread might sooner hope to be prolonged under the knife of Atropos, than any to find favour under his impartial cruelty. Was it not, then, because he had him in his power, and, counting himself sure to seize on him at pleasure, reserved him, as sweet-meat, to close his stomach, when first he had fed on several dishes of coarser diet ? or because he slighted him, as a narrow-hearted man, religiously bred in a convent, unfit for a camp, the object rather of his contempt, than fear? for that his hands might seem tied with his beads, from being dangerously active in the State. But let us remove our wondering at this neglect of Andronicus, to make room for our admiration of Divine Provi- dence, who confounded this politician in his own cunning. Thus the most expert gamesters may sometimes over-see ; * and trai- tors, though they be careful to cut down all trees which hinder This word, like many others employed by Fuller, is made to convey a double meaning : In endeavouring to obtain, by dishonest means, a sight of " the deal " in the hands of his partner at cards, the gamester often overshoots the mark, and, con- ceiving that his eye had caught more than was really perceptible, in his subsequent movement he commits a great oversight. EDIT. CHAP. XVIII. THE LIFE OP ANDRONICUS. 437 their ambitious prospect, will unawares leave one still standing, whereof their own gallows may be made. 6. Immediately all the prisons in the city were set open ; and those petty sinks of dissolute people emptied themselves into a common-sewer, and became into a tumultuous torrent. Head- long they haste to the palace of Andronicus ; where, not finding him at home, they wreaked their spite upon that beautiful building, and the sumptuous furniture therein. Should I insist upon particulars, all sorts of readers would be sadded therewith. Ladies would lament the loss of so many pearls and precious stones, whose very cases were jewels. Soldiers [would] bemoan the spoiling of so magnificent an armory. But scholars would be most passionate, to bewail the want of that library, so full fraught with rarities that nothing abated the preciousness but the plenty of them. Many records, the stairs whereby anti- quaries climb up into the knowledge of former times, were torn in pieces ; though we need not believe them so old, as that some of them had escaped Noah's flood, and were now drowned in a popular deluge. 7. Nothing was preserved whole and entire : whether, because they pretended some religion in revenge, as not aiming, out of covetousness, to enrich themselves, but, out of justice, to punish the tyrant : or, because they thought the very goods of Andronicus were become evil, guilty of their owner's faults, and therefore were all to be abolished as execrable : yea, as if the very chapel itself, which he had built, had been un-hallowed by the profaneness of the founder, with all the utensils thereof, it was defaced. A stately structure it was ; Andronicus not being of their opinion, who, conceiving a holy horror to live in dark and humble cells, fancy not triumphant churches for fear that their hearts be there lost in their eyes. But he professed his devotion to rise with the roof of the church ; so that his soul seemed to anticipate heaven, by beholding the earnest thereof in a beautiful temple. However, now his chapel was laid flat to the ground ; and, amongst other things therein of inestimable value, the letter, which, by tradition, was reported to be written by Christ's own hands to Abgarus king of Edessa, then was embezzled. So irresistible is the tyranny of a tumult; and, therefore, it may be all good men's prayers, that the people may either never understand their own power, or always use it aright. 8. Andronicus, as we said before, had secretly conveyed him- self away. Who would not have thought, but that this great 438 THE PKOFANE STATE". BOOK V, fencer should have been provided of variety of guards, against all the cross-blows of fortune; at least, to have had some impregnable place near hand to retire unto ? Whereas he had no other policy to escape, than that poor shift which the silly, simple hare useth against the hounds, by flying before them. Indeed, had the conspiracy against Andronicus been but local or partial, so that he had had any sound part to begin on, he would probably have made resistance ; (as physicians must have some strength of nature in their patient, to practise on;) but the defection from him was so general and universal, he found not any effectual friend left him. Only he had scraped together a mass of coin, more trusting in money than men, hoping in foreign parts to buy some friends therewith ; knowing that gold, if weight, is current in all countries. Then taking Anna his empress and Maraptica his whore, with some few servants [whom] he durst confide in, and the treasure [which] he had formerly provided, he made speed in a pinnace through the Black Sea, to the Tauro- Scythians, out of the bounds of his empire, hoping there to live in quiet. And because we have mentioned Anna the empress, we cannot pass her by in silence, For if one would draw a map of misery, to pair like years with like mishap, it is hard to find a fitter pattern. 9. Daughter she was to the king of France, being married a child (having little list to love, and less to aspire !) to the young emperor Alexius, whilst both their years put together could not spell thirty. After this, she had time too much to bemoan, but none at all to amend, her condition ; being slighted and neglected by her husband. Oft-times being alone, (as sor- row loves no witness,) having room and leisure to bewail her- self, she would relate the chronicle of her unhappiness to the walls, as hoping to find pity from stones, when men proved unkind unto her. Much did she envy the felicity of those milkmaids, who each morning pass over the virgin-dew and pearled grass, sweetly singing by day, and soundly sleeping at night, who had the privilege freely to bestow their affections, and wed them who were high in love, though low in condition : whereas royal birth had denied her that happiness, having neither liberty to choose, nor leave to refuse ; being compelled to love, and sacrificed to the politic ends of her potent parents. 10. But Anna, unhappy at her first voyage, hoped to better her condition by a second adventure; yet made more haste than good speed, marrying Andronicus some weeks after the (U-uth of Alexius. Surely, there is an annus luctits, " a year of CHAP. XVIII. THE LIFE OP ANDRONICUS. 439 mourning/' which the modesty of widows may do well to observe, lest, neglecting it in their widowhood, it be required of them afterwards with interest, in the ill success of their second marriage. For Maraptica, a proud harlot, but excellent musician, justled with Anna in the emperor's affection, (and half an old husband was too much for a young lady to spare !) and, in process of time, prevailed to obtain violent possession. The empress, knowing herself honest and amiable, stood on her deserts ; not descending to beg that love which she conceived due unto her, but daring him to detain it at his own peril, see- ing he wronged himself in wronging of her, forfeiting his troth, which he had publicly pledged' unto her. But the courtezan, knowing that that love needs buttresses in cunning which hath no foundation in conscience, applied herself in all particulars to be complaisant to the desires of Andronicus. This Maraptica, though she had fair, fine fingers to play on the lute, had other- wise foul, great clutches, to snatch, grasp, and hold whatsoever she could come by ; and, knowing that she Jiad but " a short term in the tenement " of her greatness, (subject both to the mortality and mutability of Andronicus,) and, withal, that she was not "bound to reparations/' therefore cared not "what waste she made ; " but, by wrong and rapine, scraped together a mass of money. Meantime, Anna was kept poor enough ; who, whilst maid, widow, and wife, (twice a bride, before once a woman !) scarce saw a joyful day, though born of a king, and wrdded to two emperors. 11. But, to return to Andronicus, who, pursued-after by his guilty conscience, found no rest in himself; so that, for many nights, sleep was a stranger unto him. He that had put out other men's eyes, could not close his own ; and, when nature in him starved for want of rest, did at last hungrily snatch at short slumbers. Dreams did more terrify, than sleep refresh, him. His active fancy in the night did descant on what he had done before. Sometimes, the pale ghost of Alexius seemed with glowing pincers to torment him; otherwhile, Maria Csesarissa stitched hot burning needles through his side; and, not long after, two streams of reeking blood seemed to flow out of the eyes of Lapardas, wherein Andronicus for a while seemed to swim, till, beginning to sink, to save himself he caught hold on his pillow, and so did awake. 12. When awaked, his mind was musing upon a prophecy, which, some days since, was delivered unto him. For he had -employed an agent unto one Seth, an old conjurer, to know of 440 THE PROFANE STATE. BOOK V. him what should be the name of liis next successor in the empire. Now, first, a great S was presented in a basin of water ; and, next that, an I ; but both so doubtfully delineated, that they were hardly legible : done on purpose for several rea- sons : Because it stood not with the state of " the prince of darkness" to be over-clear in his acts ; and those that vend bad \\ans l,\r to keep blind shops : besides, obscurity added vene- ration to his oracles ; and active superstitious fancies, whet with the difficulty of them, would be sharp-sighted to read more than was written. But the main was, to save his own credit, taking covert of mystical expressions, that, in case Satan should fail in his answers, he might lay the blame on men's understand- ing him. 13. Put then these two letters together, S I, and read them backwards, I S, by an hysteresis, and take a part of the whole by a synecdoche ; (all favourable figures must be used, to piece out the devil's short skill in future contingents !) and then Andronicus was told by the conjurer, he had the name of his successor. Ask me not why hell's alphabet must be read backward ; let Satan give an account of his own cozenage : whether out of an apish imitation of the Hebrew, which is read retrograde ; or because that ugly, filthy serpent crawls cancer- like ; or to make his answers the more enigmatical, for the rea- sons aforesaid. Andronicus, by this I S, understood Isaurus Comnenus, who lately, by usurpation, had set up a kingdom in the isle of Cyprus, and therefore always observed him with a jealous eye, and now too late perceives his error, and finds the prophecy performed in Isaacius Angelus. 14. Thus, those that are correspondents with the devil for such intelligence, have need, when they have received the text of his answers, to borrow his comment too, lest otherwise they mistake his meaning. And men may justly take heed of curi- osity to know things to come ; which is one of the kernels of " the forbidden fruit," and even in our age sticks still in the throats of too many, even to the danger of choking them, if it be not warily prevented.* Those who have perused the auto-biography of William Lilly, the notorious astrologer, will not require to be told, that a strong passion for becoming acquainted with the secrets of futurity, both as they regarded individuals and entire masses, had, in Fuller's days, pervaded the minds of men of all ranks and parties. Though this mania has been made the subject of deserved ridicule by Butler, in his "Hudi- bras," as one of the prevailing sins of the Parliamentarians ; yet it was as strongly felt by their opponents, who in shoals repaired to the devil's oracle in Lilly's house, or sat down in privacy to unravel the mysterious predictions of Nostradamus. EDIT. CHAP. XVIII. THE LIFE OF ANDRONICUS. 441 15. Hitherto, what disasters had happened to Andronicus might partly be imputed to men and second causes : whereas now Divine Justice, to have its power praised in its punish- ments, seemed visibly to put out a hand from heaven ; and he wants eyes that cannot or shuts them that will not behold it. See now the galley, wherein he sailed, having all the canvass thereof employed with a prosperous wind, when suddenly it was checked in the full speed, and beaten back with foul weather into a .small harbour, called Chele. Soon after, the winds serv- ing again, he set forth the second time, and had not made many leagues, when Neptune with his trident thrust him back again ; such was the violence of the seas against him ! A third time he set forth with a fair gale, when instantly the wind changing forced him to return. Here what tugging, what towing, what rowing ! nothing was omitted which art or industry, skill or will, could perform ; Andronicus dropping a shower of gold to the sailors, to reward the sweat that fell from them. All in vain : for as indeed he had offended the Fire, with the innocents he burnt therein ; angered the Air, with hundreds of carcasses which therein he had caused to be hanged ; provoked the Earth, by burying men alive in her bosom ; so, most of all, he had enraged the Water against him, (now mindful of his injuries,) by him made a charnel-house and general grave, into which the body of the young emperor Alexius was cast, with thousands of his subjects. God, herein to prevent all misconstructions of casualty, (which otherwise men might fasten upon it,) and knowing that men are slow in their apprehensions, and dull in their memory, to learn the lessons of his justice, re-iterated and repeated it three several times, that the most blockish scholar might learn it perfectly by heart : " This is the work of the Lord ; and it may justly seem marvellous in our eyes." Thus Andronicus was the third time sent back " to the place from whence he came, and so to the place of execution." For he was no sooner come to the shore, but servants employed by Isaacius, who had way-laid all the ports on the Black Sea, stood ready to arrest him. 1 J J THE PROFANE STATE. BOOK V. SECTION VI. 1. ANDBONICUS, (anno Domini 1184,) having now left him neither army to fight, nor legs to fly, (being in the possession of enemies,) betook himself to his tongue, bemoaning his case, and with tears begging their favour. But those eyes which \\eej >iug in jest had mocked others so often, could not now be t cd that they were in earnest. The storm at land was more iin Mineable than the tempest at sea. Two heavy iron chains were put about his neck, (in metal and weight different from :i he wore before !) and, loaden with fetters and insolences .1 the soldiers, (who in such ware seldom give scant measure,) he was brought into the presence of Isaacius. Here the most merciful and moderate contented themselves with tongue- iigc, calling him "dog of uncleanness, goat of lust, tiger of cruelty, religion's ape, and envy's basilisk." But others pulled him by the beard, twitched the hair left by age on his head; and, proceeding from depriving him of ornamental excrements, dashed out his teeth, put out one of his eyes, cut off his right hand ; and, thus maimed, without surgeon to dress him, man to serve him, or meat to feed him, he was sent to the public prison, amongst thieves and robbers. 2. All these were but the beginning of evil unto him. Some days after, with a shaved head crowned with garlick, he was set on a scabbed camel with his face backwards, holding the tail thereof for a bridle, and was led clean through the city. All the cruelties which he in two years and upwards had committed upon several persons, were now abbreviated and epitomised on him, in as large a character as the shortness of the time would give leave, and the subject itself was capable of. They burnt him with torches and firebrands, tortured him with pincers, threw abundance of dirt upon him, and, withal, such filthiness, that the reader would stop his nose if I should tell him the composition thereof; it is enough to say, that the worst thing that comes from man, was the best in the mixture thereof. 3. Such as consult with their credit will be cautious how they report improbable trutlis, fearing they will not be received for truths, but rejected for improbable ; especially in this age, wherein men resume their liberty, conceiving it against the /n-irUege of their judgments to have their belief (which should be a voluntary !) pressed by the authority of others to give CHAP. XVIII. THE LIFE OF ANDRONICUS. 443 credit to what bears not proportion with likelihood. Could an old man, (such as Andronicus was,) past the age of man, (three- score and ten,) who now only lived by the courtesy of death to spare him, endure such pain, three miles, through so populous a city ? The poets only feigned Atlas to be weary of carrying of heaven ; but must not our Andronicus be either stifled for want of breath, or back-broken with store of weight, under so much earth thrown upon him? And was it possible that he who, before these times, had one foot in the grave, should have the other not follow after, when driven with such cruelty ? 4. To render this likely, we may consider, first, that it was the intent of the people, not to kill, but to torment him. Secondly. When one dish is to go clean through a table of guests, men are mannerly, all take some, though none enough. Besides, he was one of a strong constitution, whose brawny flesh nature had knit together with horny nerves. And yet, had he been a weak man, a candle with glimmering light will burn long in a socket, being thrifty of itself. Life was sweet to Andronicus under all those noisome smells ; and he would not part with it, whilst he could keep it. But, what was the main, it was possible God might support his life, either out of justice or mercy; and we read in Scripture of men, "that they shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them." (Rev. ix. 6.) 1 say " out of justice," visibly to acquit Himself in the eyes of the world, by making such a monster the open mark for man's age; or, "out of mercy," giving him a long and large time of repentance, if he had the happiness to make use thereof. 5. Behold here a strange conflict, betwixt the cruelty of the people on the one side, and the patience of Andronicus on the other ! and yet an indifferent umpire would adjudge the victory to the latter : no raging, no raving, no muttering, no repining ; but all swallowed in silence ! Only he cried out, "Lord, have mercy upon me ! " and, " Why break ye a bruised reed ? " and, sensible of his own guiltiness, he seemed contented to pass his purgatory here, that so he might escape hell hereafter. 6. After multitudes of other cruelties, tedious to us to rehearse, (and how painful then to him to endure!) he was hanged by the heels betwixt two pillars. In this posture, he put the stump of his right arm, whose wound bled afresh, to his mouth, so to quench (as some suppose) the extremity of his thirst with his own blood, having no other moisture allowed him ; when one ran a sword through his back and belly, so that 1 j 1 THE PROFANE STATE. BOOK V. his very entrails were seen, and seemed to call (though in vain) on the bowels of the spectators, to have some compassion upon him. At last, with much ado, his soul, which had so many doors opened for it, found a passage out of his body into another world. 7. Hear how one of great learning is charitably opinioned of his final estate, making this apostrophe to his ghost : " O Aiidronicus! O thou emperor of the East! how much wast thou bound unto God, whose will it was that for a few days 1 1 1011 shouldst suffer such things, that thou mightest not perish for ever ! Thou wast miserable for a short time, that thou mightest not be miserable for all eternity. I make no doubt but thou hadst the years of eternity in mind, seeing that thou didst suffer such things so constantly and courageously ! " * 8. But doth not so strong charity argue a weak judgment ? Despair itself may presume of salvation, if such an one was saved. How improperly did he usurp that expression, compar- ing himself to " a bruised reed," (Matt. xii. 20,) when another scripture-resemblance was more applicable unto him, of "a bulrush bowing down his head ; " (Isaiah Iviii. 5 ;) only top- heavy for the present with sense of suffering, not inwardly contrited in heart for the sins he had committed ! Must not true repentance have a longer season to ripen it, and, by works ensuing, to avouch to the world the sincerity thereof? Inso- much that of late some affirm, that the good thief on the cross did not then first begin but first renew his repentance, lately interrupted by a felonious act. Allow Andronicus for a saint, and we shall people heaven with a new plantation of whores and thieves ; and how voluminous will " the Book of Martyrs " be, if pain alone does make them ! 9. On the other side, we must be wary how, in our censures, we shut heaven- door against any penitents. Far be it from us to distrust the power of God's mercy, or to deny the efficacy of true (though late) repentance. The last groan which divorces the soul from the body, may unite it to God : though the arm of his body was cut off, the hand of his faith might hold. All that I will add is this : If Andronicus's soul went to heaven, it is pity that any should know of it, lest they be encouraged to imitate the wicked premisses of his life, hoping by his example to obtain the same happy conclusion after death. 10. After his execution, the tide of the people's fury did turn, DBEXELIUS, Upon Eternity," Consideration v. p. 147. CHAF. XV1IT. THE LIFE OF ANDRONICUS. 445 who began to love his memory and lament his loss. Such as before were blinded with prejudice against him, could now clearly see many good deeds he had done for the public; and began to recount with themselves many sovereign laws which he had enacted. Some bemoaned the misery which he had endured, as if his punishment was over-proportioned to his deserts. Whether this pity proceeded out of that general humour of men, never to value things till they are lost ; or, because their revenge had formerly surfeited upon him, and now began to disgorge itself again ; or, which is most probable, this compas- sion arose from the mutability and inconstancy of human nature, which hates always to be imprisoned in one and the same mind, but, being in constant motion through the zodiac of all passions, will not stay long in the same sign, and sometimes goes from one extremity to another. 11. By this time Isaacius was brought by Basilius the patriarch unto the throne, and placed thereon with all solem- nity: then the crown was put upon his head, on the top whereof was a diamond-cross, (greatness and care are twins !) which Isaacius kissed. " I welcome thee," said he, " though not as a stranger, who have been acquainted with crosses from niy cradle. Thou art both my sword and my shield; for hitherto I have conquered with suffering." Then weighing the crown in his hand, "It is," saith he, "a beautiful burden, which loads more than it adorns." 12. Here Basilius the patriarch made a sermon-like oration unto him, which, as it was uttered with much gravity, so it was heard with no less attention, and embraced by the emperor with great thankfulness : " Not presuming, Sir, to teach you what you do not know, I am incited by my calling, and encouraged by your clemency, to put you in mind of what otherwise you may forget. This crown and sceptre were sent you from heaven ; only we have done our duty in delivering them unto you. And now methinks, that Divine Majesty perfectly shines in you his image. These our eyes upheld, and folded hands, and bared heads, and bended knees, are due from us to God ; and we pay them to Him, by paying them to you his receiver. And we doubt not, but you will improve the power and honour bestowed on you, for the protection of the people committed unto you, 13. " In a man's body, whilst natural heat and radical mois- ture observe their limits, all is preserved in health : if either exceeds their bounds, the body either drowns or burns. It 1 10 THE P-ROFANE STATE. BOOK V. farcth thus in the constitution of the State, betwixt your power and our prosperity: whilst both agree, they support one ano- ther ; but if they fall out about mastery, even that which over- comes will be destroyed in a general confusion. And if you should betray your trust, though we bow, and bear, and sigh, and sob, armed with prayers and tears ; yet know that our sad mournings will mount into that court, where lie the appeals of subjects, and the censures of sovereigns, which will heavily be inflicted by Him whom you represent. I speak not this out of any distrust of your justice, but out of earnest desire of your happiness, wishing that the greatness of Constantine, founder of this place, the goodness of Jovian, the success of Honorius, the long life of Valens, the quiet death of Manuel, the immortal fame of Justinian, and whatsoever good was singled on them, may jointly be heaped upon you and your posterity." 14. Hereupon followed such a shout of 'the people, as the oldest man present had not heard the like ; and all interpreted it as a token presaging the future felicity of the new emperor. And thus we have presented the reader with the remarkable intricacy and perplexity of success, (as if Fortune were like to lose herself in a labyrinth of her own making,) winding back- ward and forward, within the compass of five years, with more strange varieties than can easily be paralleled in so short a continuance of time : (1.) First, Alexius, no Andronicus. (2.) Then, Alexius, and Andronicus. (3.) Then, Andronicus, and Alexius. (4.) Then, Andronicus, no Alexius. (5.) Then, Isaacius, no Andronicus. Thus few strings, curiously played upon by the cunning fingers of a skilful artist, may make much music : and Divine Providence made here a miraculous harmony by these odd- expected transpositions, tuning all to his own glory. 15. Here I intended to end our History, save that I cannot discharge my trust, and be faithful to the truth, without taking some special observation of Basilius. We cannot forget how active an instrument he had been to serve the cruelty of Andro- nicus : and when first I looked wishly [wistfully] upon his hands, (so busied in wicked employments,) I presently read his fortune, that he should come to a violent death. The old her- mit * seemed to me a prophet, to confirm me in my opinion, Sect. 4, par. 13, pa^e 433. CHAP. XVIII. ^THE LIFE OF ANDRONICUS. 447 when reproving him for stickling in temporal matters ; and my conjectures grew confident, that this patriarch in process of time would either shake off his mitre from his head, or his head from his shoulders. And, perchance, if the ingenuous reader would be pleased freely to confess his thoughts therein, he was pos- sessed with the same expectation. 16. How wide were we from the mark ! How blind is man in future contingents ! How wise is God in crossing our con- ceits, leaving the world amused with his ways, that men, finding themselves at a loss, may learn more to adore what they cannot understand ! See Basilius as brave and as bright as ever; and whilst all his fellow- servants had their wages paid them by Andronicus, some made longer in their necks, others shorter by their heads, he alone survives in health and honour : which made most to admire what peculiar antidote of sovereign virtue he had gotten, to preserve himself from the infectious fury of that tyrant. 17. But that which advanceth this wonder into the marks of a miracle, is, that this cunning pilot should so quickly " tack about " when the wind changed, and ingratiate himself with Isaacius. When times suddenly turn from extremes, those per- sons who formerly were first in favour, are cast farthest behind ; and they must be very active and industrious to recover them- selves. But Basilius, by a strange dexterity, was instantly in the front of favourites, and, without any abatement, carried it in as high a strain as ever before; and, although (being weary already !) I am loath to travel further into the reign of this new emperor, to see, in the sequel thereof, what became of Basilius at last ; yet, so far as I can from the best-chosen advantage dis- cern and discover his success, no signal punishment, above the ordinary standard of casualties, did befall him ; and, for aught [which] appears to the contrary, he died in his bed. 18. Of such as seriously consider this accident, some, per- chance, may be so well stocked with charity as to conceive, that he repented of his former impiety, and thereupon was pardoned by Heaven, and came to a peaceable end. Others may con- ceive, that as, when a whole forest of trees is felled, some aged, eminent oak by the highway's side may be suffered to survive, as useless for timber, because decayed, yet useful for a land- mark, for the direction of travellers; so Basilius, being now aged, and past dangerous activity, was preserved for the informa- tion of posterity ; and, when all others were cut down by cruel deaths, he [was] left alone to instruct the ensuing age of the tra- 448 THE PROPANE STATE. BOOK V. gical passage which had happened in liis remembrance. But the most solid and judicious will express themselves in the language of the apostle : " Some men's sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment ; and some men's follow after." (1 Tim. v. 24.) All notorious offenders are not publicly branded in the world with an infamous character of shame or pain ; but some cany their sins concealed, and receive the reward for them in another world. 19. It only remaineth, that we now give the personal descrip- tion of Andronicus, so far forth as it may be collected from the few extant authors who have written thereof. I. HIS STATURE. He was higher than the ordinary sort of men. He was seven full feet in length, if there be no mistake in the difference of the measure. And whereas often the cock-loft is empty, in those whom nature hath built many stories high; his head was sufficiently stored with all abilities. II. HIS TEMPER. Of a most healthful constitution, of a lively colour, and vigor- ous limbs ; so that he was used to say, that he could endure the violence of any disease for a twelvemonth together, by his sole natural strength, without being beholden to art, or any assist- ance of physic. III. HIS LEARNING. He had a quick apprehension and solid judgment ; and was able, on any emergent occasion, to speak rationally on any con- troversy in divinity. He would not abide to hear any funda- mental point of religion brought into question ; insomuch that, when once two bishops began to contend about the meaning of that noted place, " My Father is greater than I am/' Androni- cus, suspecting that they would fall foul upon the Arian heresy, vowed to throw them both into the river, except they would be quiet : a way to quench the hottest disputation, by an in-artificial answer drawn from such authority. IV. HIS WIVES. First, Theodora Comnenia, daughter of Isaacius Sebasto- Crator, his nearest kinswoman ; so that the marriage was most incestuous. CHAP. XVIII. THE LIFE OF ANDRONICUS. 449 The second, Anna, daughter to the king of France ; of whom largely before. V. HIS LAWFUL ISSUE, BOTH BY HIS FIRST WIFE. John Comnenius, his eldest son. It seems, he was much deformed, and his soul as cruel as his body ugly. He assisted Hagio-Christophorites Stephanus in the stifling of Xene. Manuel, his second son, of a most virtuous disposition. Let those that undertake the ensuing history, show how both had their eyes bored out by Isaacius. VI. HIS NATURAL ISSUE. I meet with none of their names : and though he lived wantonly with many harlots and concubines, yet, (what a Father observeth,) HoXyyajx/a -BTOISI arexviotv " Many wives make few children." And it may be imputed to the providence of nature, that monsters (such as Andronicus) in this particular are happy, that they are barren. VII. HIS BURIAL. By public edict it was prohibited, that any should bury his body. However, some were found, who bestowed, though not a solemn grave, yet an obscure hole, upon him, not out of pity to him, but out of love to themselves ; except any will say, that his corpse, by extraordinary stench, provided its own burial, to avoid a general annoyance. 450 THE PROPANE STATE, BOOK V. CHAPTER XIX. THE LIFE OF DUKE D'ALVA. FERDINAND ALVAREZ DE TOLEDO, duke of Alva, one bred abroad in the world in several wars, (whom Charles V. more employed than affected, using his churlish nature to hew knotty service,) was by Philip II., king of Spain, appointed governor of the Netherlands. At his first arrival there, the loyalty of the Netherlanders to the king of Spain was rather out of joint, than broken off, as not being weary of his government, but their own grievances. The wound was rather painful than deadly : only the skirts of their lungs were tainted, sending out discontented not rebel- lious breath; much regretting that their privileges, civil and ecclesiastical, were infringed, and they grinded with exactions against their laws and liberties. But now duke D'Alva coming amongst them, he intended to cancel all their charters with his sword, and to reduce them to absolute obedience. And whereas every city was fenced not only with several walls, but different local liberties and muni- cipal immunities, he meant to lay all their privileges level, and, casting them into a flat, to stretch a line of absolute command over them. He accounted them a nation rather stubborn than valiant, and that not from stoutness of nature, but want of correction, through the long indulgence of their late governors. He secretly accused Margaret duchess of Parma, the last governess, for too much gentleness towards them, as if she meant to cure a gangrened arm with a lenitive plaster; and affirmed that a lady's hands were too soft to pluck up such thistles by the root. Wherefore the said duchess, soon after D'Alva's arrival, (counting it less shame to set than to be out- shined,) petitioned to resign her regency, and returned into Italy. To welcome the duke at his entrance, (anno Domini 1568,) he was entertained with prodigies and monstrous births,* which FAMIANUS STHADA De Bello Belgico, p. 430. CHAP. XIX. THE LIFE OF DUKE D J ALVA. 451 happened in sundry places; as if nature on set purpose mistook her mark, and made her hand to swerve, that she might shoot a warning-piece to these countries, and give them a watchword of the future calamities they were 1 to expect. The duke, nothing moved hereat, proceeds to effect his project, and first sets up "the Council of Troubles," consisting of twelve, the duke being the President. And this Council was to order all things in an arbitrary way, without any appeal from them. Of these twelve, some were strangers, such as should not sympa- thize with the miseries of the country; others were upstarts, men of no blood, and therefore most bloody ; who, being them- selves grown up in a day, cared not how many they cut down in an hour. And now, rather to give some colour, than any virtue, to this new composition of counsellors, four Dutch lords were mingled with them, that the native nobility might not seem wholly neglected. Castles were built in every city to bridle the inhabitants, and garrisons put into them. New bishops' sees [were] erected in several cities, and the Inquisition brought into the country. This Inquisition, first invented against the Moors, as a trap to catch vermin, was afterwards used as a snare to catch sheep; yea, they made it heresy to be rich. And though all these proceedings were contrary to the solemn oath king Philip had taken, yet the Pope (who only keeps an oath- office, and takes power > to dispense with men's consciences) granted him a faculty to set him free from his promise. Sure, as some adventurous physicians, when they are posed with a mongrel disease, drive it, on set purpose, into a fever, that so, knowing the kind of the malady, they may the better apply the cure : so duke D'Alva was minded, by his cruel usage, to force their discontents into open rebellion, hoping the better to come to quench the fire when it blazed out, than when it smoked and smothered. And now, to frighten the rest, with a subtile train he seizeth on the earls of Egmont and Horn. These counted themselves armed with innocehcy and desert, having performed most excellent service for the king of Spain. But when subjects' deserts are above their princes' requital, oftentimes they study not so much to pay their debts, as to make away their creditors. All these victories could not excuse them, nor the laurel wreaths on their heads keep their necks from the axe ; and the rather, because their eyes must be first closed up, which would never have patiently beheld the enslaving of their country. The French ambassador was at their execution, and wrote to his 2 G 2 452 THE PROFANE STATE. BOOK V. master Charles IX., king of France, concerning the earl of Egmont, "that he saw that head struck off in the market- place of Brussels, whose valour had twice made France to shake."* This Council of Troubles, having once tasted noble blood, drank their belly-fulls afterwards. Then descending to inferior persons, by apprehensions, executions, confiscations, and banish- ments, they raged on men's lives and states. Such as, upon the vain hope of pardon, returned to their houses, were appre- hended, and executed by fire, water, gibbets, and the sword, and other kinds of deaths and torments : yea, the bodies of the dead (on whom the earth, as their common mother, bestowed a grave for a child's portion) were cast out of their tombs by the duke's command, whose cruelty outstunk the noisomeness of their carcasses. f And, lest the maintaining of garrisons might be burdensome to the king his master, he laid heavy impositions on the people ; the duke affirming that these countries were fat enough to be stewed in their own liquor, and that the soldiers here might be maintained by the profits arising hence ; yea, he boasted that he had found the mines of Peru in the Low-Countries, though the digging of them out never quitted the cost. He demanded the hundredth penny of all their movable and immovable goods, and, beside that, the tenth penny of their movable goods that should be bought and sold, with the twentieth penny of their immovable goods ; without any mention of any time, how long those taxes and exactions should continue. The States protested against the injustice hereof, alleging that all trading would be pressed to death under the weight of this taxation ; weaving of stuffs (their staple trade) would soon decay, and their shuttles would be very slow, having so heavy a clog hanging on them ; yea, hereby the same commodity must pay a new toll, at every passage into a new trade. This would dishearten all industry, and make laziness and painfulness both of a rate, when beggary was the reward of both, by reason of this heavy imposition, which made men pay dear for the sweat of their own brows. And yet the weight did not grieve them so much, as the hand which laid it on, being imposed by a foreign power against their ancient privilege. Hereupon, many Nether- landers, finding their own country too hot, because of intolerable FAMIAXUS STRADA, De Bella Belgico, p. 449. -J- GRIMSTONE'S History of the Netherlands," p. 413. CHAP. XIX. THE LIFE OF DUKE D'ALVA. 453 taxes, sought out a more temperate climate, and fled over into England. As for such as stayed behind, their hearts, being brim-full before with discontents, now ran over. It is plain, these wars had their original, not out of the church, but the State-house. Liberty was true doctrine to Papist and Protestant, Jew and Christian. It is probable, that in Noah's ark the wolf agreed with the lamb, and that all creatures drowned their antipathy, whilst all were in danger of drowning. Thus all several reli- gions made up one commonwealth to oppose the Spaniard ; and they thought it high time for the cow to find her horns, when others, not content to milk her, went about to cut off her bag.* It was a rare happiness that so many should meet [agree] in one chief, William of Nassau, prince of Orange, whom they chose their governor. Yea, he met their affections more than half way in his loving behaviour ; so that Alva's cruelty did not drive more from him, than Nassau's courtesy invited to him. His popular nature was of such receipt, that he had room to lodge all comers. In people's eyes his light shined bright, yet dazzled none, all having free access unto him : every one was as well pleased as if he had been prince himself, because he This character of the cruel general is corroborated by Brandt, and all the histo- rians of that period, many of whom were the contemporaries of the Duke D'Alva. The subjoined instances of his varied and refined cruelty are extracted from GRIMSTONE'S " History:" " The state of marriage the only foundation of all society, and the bond of love and peace, the true ground of all good life and conversation amongst men, which most consisteth in a true and loving consent was, by the Duke of Alva, broken and disannulled ; for that the parties who were married in the Reformed assemblies, were held as heretics unless they married again, which many did ; by that means to bestow the rich women upon his soldiers for a price. To conclude : He did openly break and disannul all honest amity and love, that one man is bound to show unto the other; murdering and executing women that helped their husbands, and children that comforted their parents, in their greatest extremities, and such as did but comfort them with a letter ; as was to be seen in the town of Maestricht, where the father was cruelly put to death, because he lodged his son (that he had not seen in long time before) one night ; and another, because he gave a poor widow (whose husband had been put to death for religion) certain corn for alms ; another, for that he sent certain money unto his friend who was then in England : and he confiscated the goods of many honest and rich women, because they had lodged their husbands in their houses ; whereby they were compelled to beg their bread. He likewise profaned the holy sacrament of baptism, causing the children that had been openly and publicly baptized, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, to be rebaptized again, because they had been baptized (as he said) by heretics ; which was against the decrees of councils, and all the laws both of God and man." (Pages 413, 414.)_EDiT. 454 THE PROFANE STATE. BOOK V. might be so familiar with the prince. He was wont to con- tent those who reproved his too much humanity, with this saying : " That man is cheap bought, who costs but a saluta- tion."* I report the reader to the Belgian Histories : where he may see the changes of war betwixt these two sides. We will only observe, that duke Diva's covetousness was above his policy, in fencing the rich inland, and neglecting the barren maritime, places. He only looked on the broad gates of the country, where- by it openeth to the continent of Germany and France, whilst in the in can time almost half the Netherlands ran out at the postern door towards the sea. Nassau's side then wounded Achilles in the heel, indeed, touched the Spaniard to the quick, when, no Palm- Sunday, (as if the day promised victory !) at Brill they took the first livery and seisin t of the land, and got soon after most cities towards the sea. Had Alva herein prevented him, probably he had made those provinces as low in subjection as situation. Now at last he began to be sensible of his error, and grew weary of his command; desiring to hold that staff no longer which, he perceived, he had taken by the wrong end. He saw that going about to bridle the Netherlanders with building of castles in many places, they had gotten the bit into their own teeth. He saw that war was not quickly to be hunted out of that country, where it had 'taken covert in a wood of cities. He saw the cost of some one city's siege would pave the streets thereof with silver, each city, fort, and sconce being a Gordian knot, which would make Alexander's sword turn edge before he could cut through it ; so that this war and the world were likely to end together, these Netherlands being like the head-block in the chimney, where the fire of war is always kept-in, (though out every where else,) never quite quenched, though raked up sometimes in the ashes of a truce. Besides, he saw that the subdued part of the Netherlands obeyed more for fear than love ; and their loyalty did rather lie in the Spanish garrisons, than their own hearts; and that in their sighs they breathed many a prosperous gale to Nassau's party. Lastly : he saw that foreign princes, having the Spaniard's greatness in suspicion, desired he might long be digesting this breakfast, lest he should make his dinner on them ; both France and England counting BARCLAII Icones Anim., cap. 5. f Delivery and possession of the country. EDIT. CHAP. XIX. THE LIFE OF DUKE D J ALVA. 455 the Low-Countries their outworks to defend their wall. "Where- fore he petitioned the king of Spain, his master, to call him home from this unprofitable service. Then was he called home, anc^ lived some years after in Spain, being well respected of the king, and employed by him in conquering Portugal ; contrary to the expectation of most, who looked that the king's displeasure would fall heavy on him, for causing by his cruelty the defection of so many countries. Yet the king favourably reflected on him ; perchance, to frus- trate on purpose the hopes of many, and to show that kings 3 affections will not tread in the beaten path of vulgar expecta- tion. Or, seeing that the duke's life and state could amount to poor satisfaction for his own losses, he thought it more princely to remit the whole, than to be revenged but in part. Or, lastly, because he would not measure his servant's loyalty by the suc- cess, and lay the unexpected rubs in the alley to the bowler's fault, who took good aim, though missing the mark. This led many to believe, that Alva only acted the king's will, and not willed his acts, following the instructions he received, and rather going beyond than against his commission. However, most barbarous was his cruelty. He bragged as he sate at dinner, (and was it not a good grace after meat?) that he had caused eighteen thousand to be executed by the ordinary minister of justice within the space of six years, beside an infinite more murdered by other tyrannous means. Yea, some men he killed many times, giving order to the execution- ers to pronounce each syllable of torment long upon them, that the thread of their life might not be cut off but unravelled, as counting it no pain for men to die, except they died with pain : witness Anthony Utenhow, whom he caused to be tied to a stake with a chain in Brussels, compassing him about with a great fire, but not touching him, turning him round about like a poor beast, who was forced to live in that great torment and extremity, roasting before the fire so long, until the halberdiers themselves, having compassion on him, thrust him through, contrary to the will both of the duke and the Spanish priests.* When the city of Haarlem surrendered themselves unto him, on condition to have their lives, he suffered some of the soldiers and burghers thereof to be starved to death, saying, that though he promised to give them their lives, he did not promise to find GRIMSTONE'S "History of the Netherlands," p. 411. 456 THE PROFANE STATE. BOOK V. them meat. The Netherlander used to fright their children with telling them, duke D'Alva was coming ; and no wonder if children were scared with him, of whom their fathers were afraid! He was one of a lean body and visage, as if his eager soul, biting for anger at the clog of his body, desired to fret a passage through it. He had this humour, that he neglected the good counsel of others, especially if given him before he asked it, and had rather stumble than beware of a block of another man's telling. But as his life was a mirror of cruelty, so was his death of God's patience. It was admirable, that his tragical acts should have a comical end ; that he that sent so many to the grave, should go to his own, and die in peace. But God's justice on offenders goes not always in the same path, nor the same pace : and he is not pardoned for the fault, who is for a while reprieved from the punishment ; yea, sometimes the guest in the inn goes quietly to bed, before the reckoning for his supper is brought to him to discharge. END OF THE PROFANE STATE. AN INDEX THE SEVERAL CHAPTERS CONTAINED IN THIS BOOK : THE FIRST FIGURE SHOWING THE BOOK ; THE SECOND, THE CHAPTER ; THE THIRD, THE PAGE. Book. Chap. Page. Abraham, his Life , i. 4 9 Advocate, the good ii. 1 49 Alva, Duke D', his Life v. 19 449 Ambassador, the iv. 16 299 Andronicus, his Life v. 18 400 Anger iii. 8 160 Antiquary, the true Church , ii. 6 64 Antiquity and Necessity of Churches iii. 24 209 Apparel iii. 6 155 Artist, the general ii. 7 67 Atheist, the v. 6 354 Augustine, St., his Life iv. 10 269 Barretor, the common v. 13 381 Bishop, the good .. iv. 9 262 Books iii. 18 189 Borgia, Csesar, his Life v. 7 359 Brandon, Charles, Duke of Suffolk, his Life iv. 4 241 Brother, the elder i. 14 39 Brother, the younger i. 15 42 Building iii. 7- 157 Burleigh, Lord, his Life iv. 6 251 Csesar Borgia, Life of v. 7 359 Camden, Mr. William, his Life ii. 24 134 Cecil, William, (Lord Burleigh,) Life of. iv. 6 251 Child, the good i. 6 14 Church Antiquary, the true ii. 64 Churches, Antiquity and Necessity of, iii. 24 209 458 INDEX. Book. Chap. Page. Common Barretor, the v. 13 381 Company iii 5 152 Conspiracy of the Pazzions v. 16 393 Constant Virgin, the i. 12 31 Contentment iii. 17 186 Controversial Divine, the ii. 4 57 Court-Lady, the iv. 13 283 Deformity iii. 15 181 Degenerous Gentleman, the v. 14 384 Divine, the controversial ft. 4 57 Donatists, the rigid v. 11 370 Drake, Sir Francis, his Life ii. 22 124 Duke D'Alva, his Life v. 19 449 Duke of Suffolk, Life of the iv. 4 241 I :.! ward the Black Prince, his Life iv. 20 319 Elder Brother, the i. 14 39 Eliezer, hia Life i. 9 21 Elizabeth, Queen, her Life iv. 15 293 Endor, Witch of, her Life v. 4 346 Expecting Preferment iii. 9 162 Faithful Minister, the ii. 9 73 Fame iii. 23 205 Fancy iii. 11 168 Favourite, the iv. 1 227 Fools, natural iii. 12 171 General Artist, the ii. 7 67 General, the good iv. 17 306 Gentleman, the degenerous v. 14 384 Gentleman, the true ii. 25 137 Good Advocate, the ii. l 49 Bishop, the i v . 9 262 Child, the i. 6 14 General, the iv. 17 306 Herald, the ii. 23 131 Husband,the i. 3 7 Judge, the iv. 7 255 Landlord, the ii. 13 99 Master of a College, the ii. 14 93 Master, the i. 7 IQ Merchant, the ii. 17 103 Parent, the i. 5 n Parishioner, the ii. n g4 Patron, the ii. 12 87 Physician, the ii. 2 51 Schoolmaster, the ,. ii. IQ 99 INDEX. 459 Book. Chap. Page. Good Sea-Captain, the ii. 1 120 Servant, the ,.. i. Q 19 Soldier, the ii. 20 113 Widow, the i. 10 23 Wife, the i. 1 1 Yeoman, the ii. 13 106 Gravity iii. 21 199 Grey, Lady Jane, Life of iv. 14 289 Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, Life of iv. 18 309 Hainan, his Life iv. 2 234 Handicraftsman, the ii. 19 109 Harlot, the v. 1 335 Heir-apparent to the Crown iv. 19 314 Herald, the good ii. 23 131 Heretic, the v. 10 367 Hildegardis, her Life i. 13 35 Hospitality iii. 1 143 Husband, the good i. 3 7 Hypocrite, the v. 8 363 Jane Grey, Lady, her Life , iv. 14 289 Jehu, his Life v, 9 365 Jesting iii. 2 145 Joan of Arc, her Life v. 5 349 Joan, Queen of Naples, her Life v. 2 339 Judge, the good iv. 7 255 King, the iv. 21 325 Lady, the Court- iv. 13 283 Landlord, the good ii. 13 90 Liar, the v. 12 379 Life of Abraham i. 4 9 Andronicus Comnenus , v. 18 400 St. Augustine iv. 10 269 Caesar Borgia v. 7 359 Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk i v. 4 241 William Camden ii. 24 134 William Cecil, Lord Burleigh iv, 6 251 DukeD'Alva v. 19 449 Sir Francis Drake ii. 22 124 Edward, the Black Prince iv. 20 319 Eliezer , U \ 9 21 Queen Elizabeth iv. 15 293 Lady Jane Grey.... iv. 14 Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden i v. 18 309 Haman iv. 2 234 Hildegardis i. 13 35 460 INDEX. Book. Cliap. Page. Life of Jehu v. 9 365 Joan of Arc v - Joan, Queen of Naples v. Sir John Markham iv. Nicholas Metcalf " 9G Monica, the Mother of St. Augustine i. Paracelsus " 3 64 Lady Paula i. H 25 William Perkins ii. 10 80 Nicholas Ridley, Bishop of London iv. 11 273 Julius CtEsar Soaliger ". 8 70 William Whitaker ii. 5 61 Witch of Endor v. 4 346 Cardinal Wolsey iv. 3 237 Maintenance of Ministers iii. 25 218 Markham, Sir John, his Life iv. 8 259 Marriage iii. 22 203 Master, the good i. 7 16 Master of a College, the good ii. 14 93 Memory iii. 10 165 Merchant, the good ii. 17 103 Metcalf, Dr., his Life ii. 15 96 Minister, the faithful ii. 9 73 Ministers' Maintenance iii. 25 218 Moderation iii. 20 196 Monica, her Life i. 2 4 Natural Fools iii. 12 171 Necessity and Antiquity of Churches iii. 24 209 Nobleman, the true iv. 12 279 Paracelsus, his Life ii. 3 54 Parent, the good i. 5 11 Parishioner, the good ii. 11 84 Patron, the good ii. 12 87 Paula, Lady, her Life i. 11 25 Pazzians' Conspiracy, the v. 16 393 Perkins, Mr., his Life ii. 10 80 Physician, the good ii. 2 51 Plantations iii. 16 184 Politician, the unfortunate, Life of v. 18 400 Preferment, expecting iii. 9 162 Prince, the iv. 19 314 Prince, the Black, his Life iv. 20 319 Queen Elizabeth, Life of iv. 15 293 Queen Joan of Naples, Life of v. 2 339 Recreations ,. Hi. 13 174 INDEX. - 461 Book. Chap. Page. Ridley, Bishop, his Life iv. 11 273 Rigid Donatists, the v. 11 370 Scaliger, Julius Caesar, his Life ii. 8 70 Schoolmaster, the good ii. 16 99 Sea-Captain, the good ii. 21 120 Self-praising in. 3 147 Servant, the good i. 8 19 Soldier, the good ii. 20 113 Statesman, the wise iv. 5 244 Suffolk, Duke of, (Charles Brandon,) Life of iv. 4 241 Sweden's King, his Life iv. 18 309 Time-serving iii. 19> 192 Tombs iii. 14 178 Traitor, the v. 15 391 Travelling iii. 4 149 True Church Antiquary, the ii. 6 64 Gentleman, the ii. 25 137 Nobleman, the iv. 12^ 279 Tyrant, the v. 17 396 Unfortunate Politician, (Andronicus Comnenus,) Life of v. 18 400 Virgin, the constant i. 12 31 Whitaker, Dr., his Life ii. 6 61 Widow, the good i. 10 23 Wife, the good i. 1 1 Wise Statesman, the iv. 5 244 Witch, the v. 3 342 Witch of Endor, the v. 4 346 Wolsey, Cardinal, his Life iv. 3 237 Yeoman, the good ". 18 106 Younger Brother, the i. 16 42 DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES. PORTRAITS OP CELEBRATED PERSONS, FROM THE BEST ORIGINALS, WITH FULLER'S OWN DESCRIPTION OF THEM, COPIED FROM THE TITLE OF EACH PLATE. PLATE I. PAGE 4. PAGE. 1. MONICA, Wife of Patricius, and Mother of St. Augustine. She died at Ostia, in Italy, A. D. 389, aged 56 Years 4 2. PAULA, Widow of Toxotius, and Mother to Eustochiura. She died at Bethlehem, A.D. 404, aged 56 Years, 8 Months, and21 Days 25 3. PHILIP THEOPHRASTUS PARACELSUS, Physic-Professor at Basil. He died at Saltzburgh, A.D. 1540, aged 47 Years 54 4. HILDEGARDIS, a Yirgin-Prophetess, Abbess of St. Rupert's Nunnery. She died at Bingen, A.D. 1180, aged 82 Years 35 5. WILLIAM WHITAKER, Doctor of Divinity, King's Professor, and Master of St. John's College, in Cambridge, where he died, A.D. 1595, aged 47 Years 61 6. JULIUS C^SAR SCALIGER, a great Restorer of Learning. He died at Agen in France, A.D. 1558, aged 75 Years 70 PLATE II. PAGE 80. PORTRAITS OF CELEBRATED PERSONS, PROM THE BEST ORIGINALS. 1. WILLIAM PERKINS, the learned, pious, and painful Preacher of God's Word, at St. Andrew's in Cambridge, where he died, A.D. 1602, aged 44 Years 80 2. SIR FRANCIS DRAKE, one of the first of those who, in his Sea- Voyages, put a Girdle about the World. He died upon the Seas, A.D. 1595 124 3. WILLIAM CAMDEN, Clarencieux King of Arms. He died at Westminster, A.D. 1623, aged 74 Years 134 4. THOMAS WOLSEY, Archbishop of York, Chancellor of Eng- land, Cardinal, and Legate de Latere. He died at Leicester- Abbey, A.D. 1529, November 29th 237 5. WILLIAM CECIL, Baron of Burleigh, and Lord-Treasurer of England. He died A. D. 1598, aged 77 Years 251 6. ST. AUGUSTINE, the learned and painful Bishop of Hippo in Africa, for the Space of forty Years ; where he died, in the 70th Year of his Age, about the Year of our Lord 430 269 DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES. 463 PLATE III. PAGE 273. PORTRAITS OP CELEBRATED PERSONS, FROM THE BEST ORIGINALS. PAGE. 1. NICHOLAS RIDLEY, Bishop of London. He died a constant Martyr for the Truth, and was burnt at Oxford, A. D. 1555, October 16th 273 2. ELIZABETH, Queen of England. She died at Richmond, A.D. 1602, March 24th, in the 44th Year of her Reign, and the 70th of her Life 293 3. JANE GREY, proclaimed Queen of England ; "Wife to the Lord Guilford Dudley. She was beheaded on Tower-Hill in London, A.D. 1553, February the 12th, at 18 Years of Age 289 4. GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS, the pious and valiant King of Sweden. He was slain in the Battle at Lutzen, A.D. 1632, Novem- ber 16th, aged 38 Years 309 5. EDWARD, Prince of Wales, commonly called THE BLACK I'KIXCE. He died at Canterbury, A.D. 1326, June 8th, aged 46 Years 319 6. JOAN, the first of that Name, Queen of Naples ; who, for her Incontinency and other wicked Practices, was put to Death, A.D. 1381 339 7. JOAN OP ARC, the victorious Leader of the French Armies. She was condemned by the English for a AVitch, and burnt at Rohan, A.D. 1461, July 6th, being about 22 Years of Age 349 8. FERDINAND ALVAREZ DE TOLEDO, Duke of Alva, Viceroy of tin- Netherlands under Philip II. He died in Portugal, A.D. 1582, in the 75th Year of his Age 449 THE END. LONDON : PRINTED BY JAMES NICHOLS, HOXTON-SQUARE. LIBRARY USE RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED THIS BOOK IS DUE BEFORE CLOSING TIME ON LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW TO. DISC. JUU231369 MAY A 3 ?nn? LD 62-20m-7,'6o (F5756slO)9412 General Library University of California Berkeley LD 2lA-40m-2,'69 (J6057slO)476 A-32 General Library University of California Berkeley Y.U U.C. BERKELEY LIBRARIES 0051031=531 F8 184 \ THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY