Historie & policie re-viewed, in the heroick transactions of His Most Serene Highnesse, Oliver, late Lord Protector; from his cradle, to his tomb: declaring his steps to princely perfection; as they are drawn in lively parallels to the ascents of the great patriarch Moses, in thirty degrees, to the height of honour. / By H.D. Esq.

The Parallel.

Thus we are at length arrived, within the highest Port of personal perfection, that any Prince can possibly call an Anchor in: the sublimest step that mortal man is capable to mount. The Stars, we know, are beheld in

the bottom of a pit, and profound humility, maketh the most radiant splendours to appear in Princely greatnesse.

The Sun, we see, that is the Prince of Pla∣nets, dispelleth alwayes all the grossest, thick∣est, and stiffest, vapours, and draweth the thinnest and most subtile to himself. How much more then that we do attenuate, lessen, and anihilate our selves, which we can do no other way so well, as by the practise of this celestial vertue of Humility, so much the nearer we are sure to approach to the Son of Righ∣teousnesse, and true Glory.

Nay, that Son of Righteousnesse and true Glory himself, was pleased not to render him∣self, so illustrious to us, in any one particular, as in the practise of this, both profound and sublime vertue; the whole course of his life, from the Crib, to the Crosse, being nothing else but a constant moving homily of Humility. It is no wonder then, that the Holy spirit of God, was pleased to take such punctual care, so expressely to describe, this excellency in our great Patriarch; and I doubt not, but upon a strict examen, we shall find our late Princely Protector, and second Moses, his Pa∣rallel, in this also, as well as in all his other most heroical perfections.

As for his humility to Godward, and pure meeknesse of spirit, in submission to his Will, and Divine Commands, I hope, we have pret∣ty well put out of question already; as for his remarkable humility, and meeknesse of

spirit towards man, his continual conversation cannot but bring in sufficient evidence.

Is there any man now living, that can with ju∣stice tax him of any pride, or imperious distance, that he ever kept with his people? No, it is no∣toriously known, to all that ever knew him, that he did alwayes communicate himself with so much sweetnesse, affability, facility, and curtesie, that he did ever augment his respect, by very familiarity; the usual course most commonly to dissolve it, and in that resembled perfectly the most precious Amethyst, which shines so much the more clearly, and orientally, as it has been more often worne. As nothing was too high for his courage, understanding, & piety, so nothing was too low for his bounty, conversation, & curtesie. For God did not only bestow on him, an equal proportion of the Mo∣saical spirit of meeknesse; but conferred upon him in like manner, the glorious gift which the Scripture attributes to the Patriarch Joseph, both in the Psalmes, and in the Epistle to the Hebrews, which is no small gift of the Spirit indeed, to oblige hearts with sweetnesse; not unlike those famous Engins of Archimedes, which made water mount by descending; so his most honourable humility vouchsafed to descend, but to make himself re-ascend to the source of the prime sublimity, and so as his vertues upon Earth, have made him Laurels here, they have procured for him most incor∣ruptible Crowns in Heaven.

* 1.1Well then might blessed Bernard tell us,

that Magna virtus est humiltas honorata, Humi∣lity in persons of Honour, is a most sublime vertue; indeed it is a piece of excellency, one∣ly proper for Princes, and great Persons. I will not deny but poor inferiour spirits, may be capable of it; but this, I am sure of, that they which lie buried in a base condition, have nothing of an equal latitude to expresse it; for the great Ones of the Earth onely, are they, that are most roughly assaulted with the storms of Pride, and so consequently must receive more glory and praise from the repulse of it.

Nay, I will be bold to assert yet further, in the behalf of our Mosaical high Humility, that all the vertues in the World, signifie nothing at all, without it, no more, than as was said in the Ascent, a wholesom Medicament would do to a mans health, with a mixture of poison in it: amasse all that can be called good in any single person, and let this one thing onely be wanting, those very vertues will prove but specious vices, nay, holy traytors to his soul, and betray it to the very worst of impieties. Let a man have all the liberality and munifi∣cence in the World, if he be once proud of it, it will presently degenerate into a very foul prodigality; and as the wise Socrates expres∣seth it, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, makes men by the sottish usage, and manage∣ment of the graces themselves, turne those Virgins, to be prostituts, forgetting, that to know how to give well, is a great Science; and that the distribution of gifts, and graces,

is to be made with a prudent oeconomy. Give a man constancy, and let him grow up to a pride of it, the nature of the vertue will be presently destroyed, and soon passe into plain obstinacy, and perversity, the most dangerous condition that a man can possibly fall into, though otherwise he may be, the learnedst, and most knowing person alive.

It was most excellently well observed there∣fore of the Learned Gerson,* 1.2 If you see one to walk, saith he, in the way of his proper judge∣ment, and stiff in it, although he had one foot in Paradise, he must presently withdraw it; for it is better to walke in the shades of death, under the conduct of humility, than to have a Paradise it self, in any pitiful pride, or the pleasures of pro∣per phansie. Nay the vertue of fortitude it self, the most consistent sure with pride, and self-conceit of any vertue; yet if it be but infected with it, it proves presently presump∣tion, and where that once gets entrance, it puffs up so prodigiously, that it makes of a man, as it were, a meer Baloon, filled with winde, a scarcrow of honour, a pitiful teme∣rarious nothing, void of courage, an under∣taker without successe, a phantastick without shame, which in the end, will become burden∣some to it self, and odious to all the World; and makes men come into a field of honour, as it is said some of our neighbours do, with a clattering noise, and fury like thunder, but vanish presently like smoke: and yet such men as these, will think themselves, it may be,

valiant,* 1.3 because they fear nothing (as they say) but the wise Velleius tells us, that Nemo saepius opprimitur quàm qui nihil timet, and that frequentissimum calamitatis initium, est securitas, To be secure in ones own opinon, and to fear nothing, is the ready way to ruin: fear in∣deed is most commonly the mother of safety, and the true means not to be afraid of a mis∣fortune, is to fear it alwayes.

A Motto therefore fit for a true valiant man, to carry in his colours, is, that which I have seen in a Noble hand, Pauca timeo, Pau∣ciora despicio, I fear few things, and despise fewer; Now this unhappy spirit of Pride, is the mother of this cursed security, and what is worse, insolency; with which, true forti∣tude can no way cohabit,* 1.4 as the wise Italian tells us, Sempre é congiunto in un medesimo sug∣getto, l'insolentia con la timiditate, Insolency and timidity are never found asunder; but alwayes accompanying one another in the same subject: So by consequence, without this Mosaick meeknesse of spirit, no man can be accounted, much lesse be, truly valiant.

I have seen a man in like manner, by a ri∣diculous conceit of his own patience, (which it may be, he had at first, to a vertuous pro∣portion) fool himself into the opinion of a Stoick; but, indeed grew worse than any Stock, or, at least, as stupid.

I should be infinite to enumerate the many massacres which this unhappy pride of spirit, makes continually upon the whole chained of

holy vertues, it is, apparently the plain mur∣deresse, and envenomer of them all: So much onely as has been said, may serve to shew, how this high Mosaick Ascent of Humility, and Meeknesse of spirit, is the very ratio formalis, as the Schooles speak, of all, and every one of the vertues, that can be seated in the heart of man.

No wonder then, that the All wise Spirit of God, took such particular care to recommend it to us, in the person of our first Moses; and as easie must it be to conceive a reason, why our gracious second, his precious Parallel, should so faithfully endeavour to imitate him in that, as well as his other perfections, they being both pre-ordained by God, to be the greatest Magazines of all vertuous goodnesse amongst men, that either this, or that Age has produced.

We have seen them both in their humble retreat from, and modest avoidance of worldly honours & advancements to humane greatness, which after they were so violently compel'd unto, by Divine precept, behold, and admire, with what moderation, humility, and meek∣nesse, of spirit, they have ever managed them: excellently therefore does holy Cyprian stile this tanscendent vertue of Humility,* 1.5 Primum religionis introitum, & ultimum Christianitatis exitum, The Gate of all Religion, and the Crown or highest Ascent of Christianity; for who can think, that he will be faithful to Jesus Christ, that can be unfaithful to that

virtue, which shined so 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 in him, to wit, that of humility? and truly, I cannot cease from wonder, when I consider the little reason, that any man in the earth has, to be proud of any thing; and it was doubtlesse the holy consideration of his Mosaical High∣nesse too.

First the highest petigree of the greatest man upon Earth, is but to have been an eternity in nothing; for if we mount still upwards, as∣cending to the prime source and origine of time, when we shall have reckoned millions of Ages, we shall find nothing but inexplicable Labyrinths, and abysses of one great eter∣nity, without beginning or end: and when we shall present to our thoughts, all that time which has preceded, be it reall, or ima∣ginary, we shall be ashamed to see, so many millions of years, wherein we had not so much as the being of a rush, a silly gnat, or a but∣ter-flie.

Nay, that blustring insolent Rodomont, be he what, and where he will, that threatneth this day to hew down mountains, and thun∣der-strike his fellow mortals, and thinks the whole house of Nature was created onely for him, and so prepares to swallow it all by a∣varice, and waste it as fast by riot, thirty or forty years agoe, more or lesse, was not able to contend for excellency, with a pitiful Ca∣ter-pillar.

His Mosaical Highnesse, I say, considered all this, and a great deal more, to render him∣self

a true imitator of his Master. First, though his Nobility of birth, was very great, as we have seen, he never intoxicated his brains with it, as some do now adayes, that make it their businesse to dig out, and disentomb their Grandfathers, as it were from the ashes of old Troy,* 1.6 and spend so much time, as Ausonius sayes very well, In searching out of uncertain Parents, that they many times give occasion to suspect, that they have none certain. No, my Lord, though he knew very well how to va∣lue the happinesse of a good extraction; yet for any man to be proudly pufft up with it, he accounted no lesse than madnesse; for re∣volving the whole masse of mankind, we shall find, as Plato told us, long agoe, That there is no King which comes not from Clownes, nor Clown, who is not descended from the blood of Kings.

Then for beauty of body, though his High∣nesse had as fair a proportion, as any man, as we have likewise shewed; yet he could as lit∣tle pride himself in that, knowing it to be but a covering for ordures, the blanching of a dunghill with snow, or at the best, but a fad∣ding flower of the field, which hath, as it were, for Horizon, the very instant of its birth, Et dum nascantur consenuisse rosas: no more could any of his great natural, or acquired parts, raise him above his proper pitch, knowing the best learning amongst men, to be but a quali∣fied ignorance, the memory it self to be, but the belly of the soul, and most frequently fill'd with nothing but winde: the best and most

acute wit of man, he lookt upon as a poor thin thing, like the spiders web, and fitter to catch flies, than any thing else: and as for the judgement, he knew how dangerous a thing it was to confide in that, little lesse than a le∣prosie in the heart of man.

No more could his Mosaick Soul be ele∣vated with all the honours he enjoy'd, and greatnesse of this world; for he took all them for burdens, and at the best, lookt upon them, but as golden Maskes, and weather-cocks of inconstancy; and for all manner of praises, flattery, complacency, and ticklings of some vain men, he ever hated and contemned, as fit onely to inebriate shallow brains: for riches he evermore scorned, as the offall of the earth, the nest of rust, and tinder of concupiscence: for Palaces and stately Houses, he valued but as the bones of the earth, pil'd one upon an∣other, with ciment and morter: for precious Stones, he esteemed as they were, the excre∣ments of an inraged Sea, borrowing their worth onely from illusion.

Much lesse could his great wisdom be cap∣able of that vanity, wherewith men usually pride themselves, in cloaths, meer nourishment for moths, to cover bodies which must be food for wormes; he lookt upon all bravery of ap∣parel, but as plaisters of the scars of sin, to wit, nakednesse: borrowed feathers from all kinds of birds, unpunisht thefts, witnesses of our poverty, that makes us to beg the assi∣stance of so many creatures, to cover our

shame: Moreover, he knew, that Vestitus ut tegit corpus ita detegit animum, Our attire does not more cover the nakednesse of our bodies, than discover that of our mindes; his High∣nesse therefore purposely did (as all wise men will) avoid any vanity, or ostentation in that. Nor yet could his Mosaick Highnesse, be ta∣ken with that empty piece of pride, which most great ones now adayes are possest withal, to behold behind him, great and gay Trains of servants, who but burden their Masters with their many sins, and make them become an∣swerable for their accumulated follies.

See here a miracle of men, in the contempt of riches and honours; for the first he never cared to hold, lockt up in his coffers, nor ever thought were as they should be, but when they were distributed; for they resembled, as I have heard, he used to say, nothing more naturally, than a dunghill, which stinks when it lies heaped together, but fattens fields when spread abroad: and for the other, he took it for as great a meer mockery, to affect great∣nesse amongst men, as if a Rat should pride himself to be a Lord forsooth, amongst Mice. He was so far from feeding himself with, or priding himself in, glory; that he would often say too, as I have heard, all that, was but the swelling of the eare. Are not these Apo∣thegms worthy of so great a Prince? In fine, his Highnesse alwayes concluded with the Prophet Habakkuk, Quomodo potentem vinum decipit,* 1.7 sic erit vir superbus, That as drunken∣ness

was taken with wine, so were the braines of men intoxicated with pride, and proper opinion.

There is no man will deny sure, but that all those actions, and expressions aforesaid, were very high humiliations before God, and in∣dubitable marks of a pure Mosaick spirit; but where were his humilities to men, and his meeknesses of spirit, in points of government? If this be demanded, by any doubting per∣son, let him tell me, how often he has found any surly, supercilious looks fall from him, or any fastidious, disdainful words, or gestures, which so usually accompany common great∣nesse?

No, his Highnesse, besides the great amae∣nity, and affability of his Noble-nature, had better studied the accomplisht Cyrus,* 1.8 in Xeno∣phon, who tells us, that Fastuosum ac morosum ingenium, quod fastidium sui, aliorumque secum trahit, felix principatus non admittit: Insolency and morosity, are not at all consistent with the condition of a happy Prince: and what Au∣sonius so highly commends in his Gratianus,* 1.9 Quod faciles interpellantibus praeberet aditus, nec de occupatione causaretur, quinimo ubi postu∣lata aut querimonias explicassent, percunctaretur, numquid praeterea vellent? That he was a Prince of easie accesse, and a very patient eare, not expostulating, why men came to trouble him? but when they had said all, would ask still, Whether they had any more to say?

In short, his Highnesse was truly that, which

the most gracious Emperour Titus, would have every Prince to be careful to be; that is, Sweet, Serene, and Pleasant to all, and Non oportere à sermone Principis quemquam tristem discedere, That it was not fit for any Prince, to send any man from his presence away sad, or discontented.

His Highnesse very well understood, that Verba aliquando munera faciunt: and if he were forced at any time to deny a favour, he did it alwayes so, Ʋt benignis negata res verbis, sit gratior quam concessa morosis, That he would oblige more by his very denials, than some Kings that I have known, would do by their very grants.

It was observed by a great Critick upon Julius Caesar, that Quamvis eum Clementia, li∣beralitas, & fortitudo commendarent, odium ta∣men, conjuratio & praematura mors oppressit, quod elatior populo blandiri, senatoribus assur∣gere gravaretur aut nesciret, verbis quoque ute∣retur asperis, &c. Though he was hugely com∣mendable for his Clemency, Liberality, and Courage, yet he fell under a sad Fate, for want of a little complacency with the people, and soothing the Senate with some comple∣ment, and had alwayes too much asperity in his tongue.

Could any of these imputations ever light upon our Mosaical Protector? No, he was ever as distant from them, as the Sphere of fire, can be from the Center of the Earth; so that we may securely conclude, that his late Highnesse

has as much out-done Julius Caesar in this, as in all his other glories: never was that great Title of Serenity, so truly given to any Prince, as to him; for it was born with him.

Thus we have seen these two great Persons of Honour, our first and second Moses, enter∣ing this grand Theater of the World, from the first Scene of their humble retirements to the last issue and Catastrophe of all their hap∣pinesses, attired with nothing but humility, that still accompanying and crowning all their Actions; as it was the basis, so it was the ver∣tical point of all their greatnesse; nay, the very Orb and Element, that all their other Vertues moved in, and by which they arrived at all their glories; so disproving the Philo∣sophy of Seneca, who sayes that Servitus est magnitudinus, non posse fieri minorem,* 1.10 That it is the slavery of greatnesse, not to be made lesse; which though may be true in bodies, they have proved to be contrary in souls: and what Pliny assures us, to be more true, that Natura nusquam magis quàm in minimis tota est:* 1.11 na∣ture is most entirely it self, and whole in the least things.

This sweet littlenesse of theirs, is that, which has rendred them so great, in the sight of God and man; for by so lessen∣ing and annihalating themselves, they have enlarged their glories, and raised themselves so many degrees towards Heaven, as erected eternal Trophes to their honour upon earth,

and those as great, as ever were written, or can be, in the Records of Fame.

Thus we have, I hope, happily finisht the whole Stair-case of all our Mosaick difficult Ascents: we shall now beg a little breathing-space, upon the top of this holy Mount, before we dare to adventure any higher; and yet we have but halfe a dozen short and easie Ascents more left us to climb (for they are Ascents of Favour and Prerogative) be∣fore we can introduce this glorious Couple, our first and second Moses, within their blessed Tabernacle of Repose; and so we do intend to conclude (though it can never be sufficient∣ly accomplished) this high piece of Mosaick Work.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Bern.
• * 1.2

  Gerson
• * 1.3

  Vell. Pa∣terc.
• * 1.4

  Guichard, l. 2.
• * 1.5

  Cyprian de Nativ. Christi.
• * 1.6

  Auson. in Paneg.
• * 1.7

  Habak. 2.
• * 1.8

  Xexoph. Cyr.
• * 1.9

  Auson, in Paneg. Gratiani.
• * 1.10

  Seneca.
• * 1.11

  Plin.