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 second Ascent. (Book 2)

MOses was from his Cradle blest with a very beautiful body,* 1.1 for which he was most remarkable, in his infancy, so the sacred text tells us, that he was a fair and goodly child. Now, that bodily beauty is an indubitable blessing, and a Ray of the Divi∣nity it self; none sure but a monstrous Ther∣sites, or a Mopsus will dispute, and none, but an errant Apostate from Christianity, a meer perfidious and profane Manichee, dare deny. Does not the Lord himself proclaim, as he is the God of Nature, that beauty and graceful comlinesse of body is entirely his gift? Nay, ha's he not often imployed this his own glori∣ous dispensation, to be an instrument of his mighty wonders, a lightning flash of his pow∣er, and as a resplendent Torch of his greatest Victories? which his All-Wise Providence would never have done, did he not only ap∣prove the nature of, but intend to give the greatest honour to,* 1.2 that his own dispensation. Thus was the Lord pleased, to make the beau∣ty of our little Moses the cause of his mira∣culous preservation, by affecting the heart of Pharaoh's daughter. And therefore we find

it to be expresly said of Judith likewise; Do∣minus hanc in illam pulchritudinem ampliavit,* 1.3 ut incomparabili decore omnium oculis appareret, The Lord so amplified her beauty, that she should appear incomparable lovely, and al∣lure the eyes of all that should behold her: So God, purposing to stay the violent streams of Holofernes his arms, though he could with his omnipotent hand, have buried that vast Army, in the bowels of the earth, as he did Corah and his Complices, or have call'd out, from the center it self, millions of arm'd men in Cadmean equipage (equal to the Poets fan∣cy) to have destroyed them,* 1.4 or might have (by an expedition of Angels) dispatcht the businesse again, as he once did upon the host of Senacherib, under the command of inso∣lent Rabsheketh, their proud Captain General: Yet he was pleased, without stretching of his hand forth, to any other miracle, to raise the beauty onely of a gracious widow, to tri∣umph over all those dreadful Legions, and to wage war with the most puissant Monarch of the world. Nay, it is expresly said, that God himself added a certain air, mine, or garb of attractive parts in Judith, to surprize the Cittadel, the heart, of that barbarous Com∣mander; that he, being made more drunk with love, then with wine, might be more ea∣sily taken in the snare of her eyes, and sacri∣fice his unhallowed head, to her fair hands. Nay,* 1.5 the Lord fought with the self-same wea∣pon again, and raised onely the same arms a∣gainst,

the proud and imperious Haman, to confound him with that lovely Engin onely. For when he was upon the point to command, the throats of infinite numbers to be cut, of Gods own people, as sheep mark't out for the slaughter: The omnipotent then, onely op∣pos'd a poor frail female beauty against him, which tumbled him from the top of Fortunes wheel, and made him to swing under an ele∣vated gibbet; God so turning in an instant, by the power of an excellent beauty onely, the heart of a savage, Prince, from a Lion to a Lamb; and making Assuerus, clean contrary to his great Favorites design, to preserve the lives, and confirm the safety and liberty of his people: Nor is this high verity remarka∣ble, onely in feminine, but also masculine beauty,* 1.6 which, besides the instance of our Mo∣ses, God himself seems to confirm in his ele∣ction of Saul, to the government of his own people, of whom the greatest commendation we find written, is, that he was a very proper man, and when he stood amongst the people, he was higher then any other, from the shoul∣ders upwards, and that there was none like him, for beauty of person, amongst all the peo∣ple. I could be infinite in particulars, to dilucidate this divine dispensation, and tell you, how the All-wise God thought fit to confer that extraordinary favour, on all his principal servants, as David, Solomon, with all the rest of the Princes and Prophets of his people, not any one of which do we finde

mark't out with any deformity, a thing in it self so unpleasing to God, that he has, by po∣sitive Law, banisht all such persons, not on∣ly from serving at his holy, Altars,* 1.7 but from a capacity to bear any civil charge: But I must hasten to our beloved Parallel, so shall con∣clude this Ascent with some remarks upon the person of our blessed Saviour himself, whom all antiquity ha's delivered to us, to have had a most excellent humane beauty; and that doctrine of theirs, is not only groun∣ded upon those many mystical, and indeed in∣comparable, beauties attributed to him in the Canticles, but more positively and clearly col∣lected, out of that most remarkable passage of the Psalmist, Speciosus forma prae filiis hominum,* 1.8 Thou art fairer then the children of men, from whence, I say, all the ancient Doctors of the Church, do unanimously conclude and as∣sure us, that our blessed Lord and Saviour, expresly selected for himself, a most excellent beauty of body, and an extraordinary supream grace of speech. Nay,* 1.9 Nicephorus goes about to describe to us certain lineaments of his bo∣dy, his exact stature, colour, and perfect pro∣portion of parts, which he pretends to draw out of all antiquity, and delivers them in all to be most gracious, lovely, and specious: from whence we may draw this most excellent use, to teach us [that since the Lord was plea∣sed voluntarily to dispoil himself of all Ho∣nours, Riches, and worldly greatnesse, to give us an example of his high humility: yet would,

notwithstanding, consecrate this thing called Beauty, in his own most illustrious person, and that of his blessed Mother] what value we ought to set upon so heavenly a gift, and how careful we should be, never to prophane it; So I passe to the Parallel.

The Parallel.

We have seen in our Ascent the beauty of our Moses, and divers other persons, besides that of our Saviours, celebrated in holy Scri∣pture; and truly, I must be bold to adde; not without a great deal of reason; for, the more admirable sure the piece of workmanship is, when it duely examines and contemplates it self, ought more to incite a man, and raise him to a higher love, and greater praise of the workman, which is (if the word may be par∣doned) God himself, and he that has the fai∣rest preparation, in his bodily Fabrick or Stru∣cture; reason justly requires of him, that he should order his manners proportionably, and, according to the perfection of his soul, endea∣vour to make her appear more fair, being lodged in so compleat and well-proportion'd a body: And they that shall abuse this fair and inestimable gift of Heaven, to any impious, fond, carnal prophanation, by devoting that, and themselves to any sensual, sordid, bruit∣ish life, do plainly drag the gift of heaven, and Divinity it self in the dust. Nay, they are

guilty of a more barbarous ingratitude, than they that steal Silver and Gold from the Ta∣bernacle, to make Altars to Baal or Ashteroth; or, that light their Lamps at the Altar-fire of the Omnipotent, to make pillage afterwards of his Temple; or, that take bread from the Master of the house with one hand, and stabb him with the other.

Well then, it may be granted, that a beau∣tiful and well proportioned body, is an indu∣bitable gift of God, and that the Lord con∣fers it ordinarily, upon his dearest Saints and Servants. And I hope it will no more be doubted, whether the same All-wise Provi∣dence, has dealt lesse graciously, in favour of his deceased Highnesse, our second Moses, than he has done with the former, and other his dear favourits upon Earth. Indeed but bare∣ly to question it, were not onely to argue a simple or malitious blindnesse in the Asker, but would convince him guilty of a perilous prophanation, in the neglect of so much di∣vinity instamped upon his sacred Person; nay would make him appear, impiously to traduce the Almighty Providence it self, to have been lesse careful, of our glorious departed Pro∣tectors most incomparable soul, than it should have been, in not preparing for it, an equal body to lodge in, who, with his body, and his soul, was pre-ordained, to serve, as an instru∣ment of Divine wonders, equally with his Grand Archetype Moses, that Prince of Patri∣archs.

Now, that we may the better accomplish our happy Parallel, in this beautiful Ascent, it would not be amisse to exmine, what kind of beauty, the old Rabbins, and more ancient paintings, do deliver of that great Moses, and what is agreed upon all sides to be a beauty, most proportionable to a Prince. As to the former, we find by many ancient Pens, as well as Pensils, Moses drawn forth to us, with a goodly, large, and illustrious countenance, a cheerful, fair, and exporrected forehead, (such a one, as Justinian wisht his greatest Judges and Generals to have) a severe, but graceful Aspect; a gallant, no gigantick stature, a ro∣bustious, yet well proportioned body, and in the carriage, as well as shape, of every limb, a gracious and most becoming Majesty.

Now I appeal again to all but blind men, or malitious, whether this, be not his late High∣nesse Picture too? As for the next Quaere, what is the most amiable beauty in a Prince, I shall extract it, out of a most excellent Mo∣dern Author.* 1.10 Forma Principis, non tam venu∣stas est muliebris, quàm dignitas, quae in obtutu ge∣stibusque consistit, &, quemadmodum Tyrius ait, occulto & potenti introitu, hominum animis illa∣bitur, & Majestas nuncupatur, consistit autem, in decorae magnitudine, in proportione membro∣rum, in line amentis aptis, in colore & succo, &c. Deformat hanc spectei dignitatem, quicquid nimis exquisitum est, de Pixide aut speculo comp∣tum, & infrae virum. A Princely form, saith he, carries nothing of effeminate beauty in it,

but a prerogative planted in the forehead, which consists in looks and gestures, and (as Maxim. Tyrius tells us) with a close and powerful entry, surprizeth mens souls, and is called Majesty. And this again consists in a comely largenesse, in proportion of members, in apt lineaments, in colour, moisture, &c. This dignity of Princely beauty, is deformed, by any over-curiosity of tricking, or taking any thing out of the box, or borrowing too much from Barber or Looking-glasse, all that, is below a man.

Let any, again, but his Highnesse's most malitious enemies, say, whether this was not the late Protectors very Picture, and Cha∣racter too? With this true Masculine beauty it was, that the great Marius, though proscri∣bed, strook him to the heart, that was employ∣ed to have stab'd him: and made him flee from him, that with so much trouble and dif∣ficulty, had hunted and sought out for him. With this glorious perstringent aspect it was, that Octavianus Caesar, assaulted the Asassinate, and with the vigour (almost celestial) of his Majestick eyes, thunder-strook the villaine, that was otherwise resolved, to have tumbled him down from some Alpine Precipice. This is the true, virile, Princely beauty, which our second Moses had, in its perfection, equal to the former Moses, or either of those great Ro∣mans, by which he has frequently, confounded Traitours, dasht all asassinates, dissolv'd con∣spiracies, and rendered himself the wonder of

the Age.* 1.11 Adeo tanquam cum virtute ipsa, cer∣tamen haberet, haec naturae, sive dignitas, sive ma∣jestas, etiam ab iis, honoris, obsequiique tributa ex∣primit, qui adversus virtutem ipsam conspirasse videntur, sayes the same Moderne Author; So as if this same Majesty of Princely beauty, would claime priority of virtue it self, exact∣ing the tribute of honour and obedience, from the very haters themselves of, and conspira∣tors against, virtue. I shall close up all this, with what a brave Orator, in a Panegyrick, said to Constantine the Great, our Country∣man,* 1.12 and one of the goodliest, brave Princes that ever lived upon Earth. Te cùm milites vident, admirantur & diligunt, sequuntur oculis, animo tenent: Deo se obsequi putant, cujus tàm pulchra forma est, quàm certa divinitas: that Nature was sent, on purpose, by God, as a gallant Harbinger, to compose a body for him, suitable to his great spirit, as a stately house for a beautiful Lady to live in, and that one∣ly this exteriour form of his, made him to be beloved and esteemed of all the World, as a certain divinity, or God descended from Hea∣ven.

This I am sure, (though malice it may be will not) ought every one of this Nation with as much justice and reason, say, of his late most Serene Highnesse, our second Moses, and Lord Protector, who, as the former, was, from his Cradle, known to be a most goodly Child, and during those his first, sweet, and ten∣der years, kept still a very gallant Stature, tall,

and streight, as a Palm-tree, and radiant, as a Star; and, as the excellent Cassiodorus well expresseth it,* 1.13 he was in all things so accomp∣lisht, ut ne de aspectu Principis possit errari. Every man might read a Prince in his Coun∣tenance.

Thus beauty of body, we see, is not a little desireable in a Prince; but if the house an∣swer not to the Frontispiece, what may we else say, but that Nature hath built up a goodly glorious Mansion, to lodge therein a great, though handsome Beast? It shall be, therefore, our endeavour in our succeeding higher As∣cents, to make the internal Moses, in him, ap∣pear equal to the external, that so, foul-faced malice it self, may not have power to deny, the Parallel to be most Compleat.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Exod. 2.2.
• * 1.2

  Ibid.
• * 1.3

  Judg. 10.4
• * 1.4

  Chron 2.2
• * 1.5

  Esther 8.
• * 1.6

  1 Sam. 10.23, 24.
• * 1.7

  Deut. 23.
• * 1.8

  Psal. 45.
• * 1.9

  Niceph. l. 1.
• * 1.10

  Fred. de Marsel.
• * 1.11

  Idem.
• * 1.12

  Plin. in Panegyr. Con.
• * 1.13

  Cassiod.