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I take it for a verity unquestionable, that great spirits set apart and pre-ordained by Divine Providence, for the performance of fu∣ture wonders, have most particular tutelar An∣gels assigned to them for their protection, from their very infancy; and those very persons, from their Cradles, are frequently pointed
out to us, by the finger of God himself, in their most miraculous preservations. So we see in Histories, how the little King Mithridates, (that was to prove one of the greatest, and most puissant Monarchs of the whole Earth) being involved in lightning flashes, whilst he innocently slept in his infant-cradle, the flames consuming his very swadling-cloaths and linnens, yet he remained untoucht in his body.
In like manner, we finde another Prodigy of Divine providence, so loudly proclaimed in the Greek Anthology, how a father and an innocent son, were equally surprized with a sad ship∣wrack, which took away the life of the father, and gave the son leave to arrive in a safe Har∣bour, having no other vessel or plank to car∣ry him ashore, but the very corps of his de∣ceased father, who so afforded him a second life by his death: and this very child thus wonderfully delivered, grew up to be one of the bravest men in Greece.
I cannot passe by one other effect of Divine providence, no lesse stupendious than the former, that fell out not long since in the Country of Apulia, where happened an Earth∣quake, the last day of July 1627. and so prodigi∣ous a one, that (as I have heard, and seen writ∣ten) in the City of St. Severin alone, more than ten thousand souls, were taken out of the World; and yet in the horror of such infinite ruines, and sepulchre of so many mortals, a great Bell fell so fitly over a little child, that it
not onely did him no hurt, but miraculously inclosing him, made it self a Bulwark and de∣fence for him against the danger of all the o∣ther ruines: and this Child is now grown up (as I am informed) to be one of the most considerable persons in all Italy.
Thus little Romulus, like our Infant Moses, being exposed to the same mercilesse element, was most strangely preserved to be the Foun∣der of the greatest City, Monarchy, State, and Empire, of the universal World. I should be infinite if I should run through the whole Se∣ries of sacred Providence, in the particular miraculous preservations, that have been shewed upon such principal persons, from their very infancies. Yet, truly, if there were no other instances of Divine providence left us, but onely these two, of our first and second Moses, we needed not alledge more arguments to prove the singular care, the Lord takes over the persons of good Princes.
We have seen on the one side, a little In∣fant floating on the waters of Nilus, in a cradle built of Bulrushes, and lying just like a worm hidden in straw, and whose afflicted friends, measured his Tombe with their eyes, in every billow of that faithlesse element; yet was pre∣served at length from danger, by the very blood of Pharaoh, to turn his Diadem into dust, and to bury him and his whole army, in the dreadful gulph of the Red Sea.
They that have seen his late Highnesse, our sacred second Moses, in the like former immi∣nent
perills, and the great actions he has since, most gloriously arrived at, can best make a Parallel of the Providence. No Nurse or ten∣der Mother whatsoever, could be half so care∣full to drive a fly from the face of her little Infant, whilst it slept, as the Providence of our gracious Lord, has ever shewed its self affecti∣onate, in the conservation of his Highnesse his most elevated soul: and, though I cannot say he was exposed upon, yet, as I have heard, he has been in equal dangers, by, the water, as his first Matter Moses was: and a great deal more by fire; tumbling from Precipices, falls from Coaches, Horses, and Houses too, and what not? insomuch that it is said, the im∣minency of those his Infant dangers, has struck the very hearts, and chil'd the blood, in the veins, of all beholders.
Thus then we see a very parallel provi∣dence, over these two great persons, their very Cradles kissing, and, as it were, conspiring to rock each other: and truly, not without a great deal of reason, that they should run pa∣rallel in their childhood-deliverances, (as we have seen) who were in their riper years, to serve equally, as inspired instruments of Di∣vine wonders: and all the World, methinkes, if it had not been wilfully blind, must needs have discerned, in his Highnesse his Infancy, that he was then, pointed out, by the Al∣mighty Providence, to be the same person, which he has since, so gloriously approved himself to be. Those who had the honour to
know his Highnesse, in those dayes, can tell us, how he was born, a Thaumaturgus, and like another Hercules Alexicacus, fill'd his cra∣dle with no lesse wonder, than he has done the field since, and afterwards the Throne. Those his early wonders, yet, were but as the flashing streakes of a Cloud, to be so instant∣ly turned into lightning; as we shall see more at large, in his diligent, and faithful imita∣tion of his great Master, and Prototype Mo∣ses, in all his higher Ascents.