ADVERTISEMENT TOUCHING AN HOLY WARRE. WRITTEN IN THE YEARE 1622. WHEREUNTO THE AUTHOR PREFIXED AN EPISTLE TO THE BISHOP OF WINCHESTER LAST DECEASED. LONDON. Printed by John Haviland for Humphrey Robinson. 1629. ΤΟ THE RIGHT REVEREND FATHER IN GOD, LANCELOT ANDREWS, LORD BISHOP OF WINCHESTER, AND COUNSELLOR OF ESTATE TO HIS MAJESTY. MY LORD, AMONGST Consolations, it is not the least, to represent to a man's self like examples of calamity in others. For examples give a quicker impression' than arguments; and besides, they certify us, that which the Scripture also tendereth for satisfaction, that no new thing is happened unto us. This they do the better2, by how much the examples are liker in circumstances to our own case; and more especially if they fall upon persons3 that are greater and worthier than ourselves. For as it savoureth of vanity, to match ourselves highly in our own conceit1; so on the other side it is a good sound conclusion, that if our betters have sustained the like events, we have the less cause to be grieved.5 In this kind of consolation I have not been wanting to myself; though as a Christian I have tasted (through God's great goodness) of higher remedies. Having therefore, through the variety of my reading, set before me many examples both of ancient and later times, my thoughts (I confess) have chiefly stayed upon three particulars, as the most eminent and the most resembling. All three, persons that had held chief place of 1 penetrant magis. 2 afficiunt autem exempla eo magis, quo, &c. si Fortuna illos non levius mulctarit, qui, &c. 4 si nos ipsos cum melioribus componamus. 5 non esse cur nos supra modum conqueramur. • Cogitationes meæ moram (fateor) fecerunt, imo etiam acquieverunt, in tribus præcipue viris; tanquam maxime eminentibus, et cum illâ fortunâ quæ mea aliquando fuit conjunctissimis. authority in their countries; all three ruined, not by war, or by any other disaster, but by justice and sentence, as delinquents and criminals; all three famous writers, insomuch as the remembrance of their calamity is now as to posterity but as a little picture of night-work, remaining amongst the fair and excellent tables of their acts and works1; and all three (if that were any thing to the matter) fit examples to quench any man's ambition of rising again; for that they were every one of them restored with great glory, but to their further ruin and destruction, ending in a violent death. The men were, Demosthenes, Cicero, and Seneca; persons that I durst not claim affinity with, except the similitude of our fortunes had contracted it. When I had cast mine eyes upon these examples, I was carried on further to observe how they did bear their fortunes, and principally how they did employ their times, being banished and disabled for public business: to the end that I might learn by them; and that they might be as well my counsellors as my comforters. Whereupon I happened to note, how diversely their fortunes wrought upon them; especially in that point at which I did most aim, which was the employing of their times and pens. In Cicero, I saw that during his banishment (which was almost two years) he was so softened and dejected, as he wrote nothing but a few womanish epistles. And yet, in mine opinion, he had least reason of the three to be discouraged: for that although it was judged, and judged by the highest kind of judgment, in form of a statute or law, that he should be banished, and his whole estate confiscated and seized, and his houses pulled down, and that it should be highly penal for any man to propound his repeal; yet his case even then had no great blot of ignominy; but it was thought but a tempest of popularity which overthrew him. Demosthenes contrariwise, though his case was foul5, being condemned for bribery; and not simple bribery, but bribery in the nature of treason and disloyalty; yet nevertheless took so little knowledge of his fortune, as during his banishment he did much busy himself and intermeddle with matters of state; and took upon him to 4 The rest of this sentence is not in the Cambridge MS. 2 Fuerunt hi tres viri, Demosthenes, Cicero, et Seneca. Quando igitur cum viris hisce eximiis me tum fortuna tum studia conjunxerint, inquirere et observare cœpi, &c. 3 epistolas quasdam muliebres omnia questibus implentes. temporis procella, 5 licet judicium quo proscriberetur ignominiæ plenum esset. |