11 Of the things that preserue Kingdoms.
THe things that preserue Weale pub∣liques, are of two sorts: First, Di∣uine, and that is, first the Prouidence and Decree of God:* and secondly, the true worship of God. For that is infallibly true, 1. Sam. 2. I loue those that loue me. secondly, Humaine meanes, which are of two sorts: First, from our selues, as first the site of the Kingdome: Secondly the grounds: Thirdly the tribute; Fourthly, moderate libertie: Fiftly, Counsaile and Prudence at home: sixtly, concord of subiects. Secondly from without, as first friends, secondly, publique faith sincere∣ly kept: thirdly, firme leagues with the enemie: fourthly, auxiliarie helps: fift∣ly, when by God one Nation is opposed against another. Two vertues •o chiefely preserue Kingdomes; Beneficience to∣wards all, and truth and fidelitie in per∣forming promises.*
It is a discourse of very facile demon∣stration, That true religion by her actes seruing the diuine wisedome, is truly the Page 69end, and in some sort the efficient, and forme of all humane felicitie, aswell of that which consists in the goods of the bodie, and externall things, as of that which consists in the goods of the minde. And if any man presume to say to con∣trarie, the same shall be found to speake against euery part of Philosophie and Di∣uinitie, against the decrees of all wise men, against the consent of all Nature: And he shall not onely doe so, but also contradict all morall, Politicall, Natu∣rall, and Metaphysicall learning: he shall be repugnant to the writing of the most learned, to the sayings of the greatest Emperours, to the wisest Sages of all fa∣mous Nations, Lawyers, Physitions, An∣tiquaries, the most renowned men of all times; and euen to the euents of all Na∣tions and Kingdomes. And it will be∣houe him, if he will speake truth, to haue this whole world to perish, and another order of naturall things, vnlike and con∣trarie to this world that is, to be institu∣ted. For it will neuer appeare that true felicitie had euer any other rise, then from true Religion. Therefore, when Religion shall be so oppressed, that the Sonne of Men when he comes, shall not find faith Page 70on the Earth, then shal this whole world perish:* which doth then also decay, and in part fall, when true Religion is in any part decayed or shaken. And this is that which the Lawyers say, That Ius status, The Law of state, consists (before all things) in sacris & sacerdotibus,* in sacred things, and sacred persons, and Priests: the same Lawyers also determining, that the first precept of the Law of Nations, was Religion, which they preferred to parents, countrey, or life it selfe. And that this is so, yea further, that all tem∣porall felicitie depends vpon vertue, and religion, (albeit outward felicitie be no infallible note of the true Religion) the vnanimous consent of AEgyptians, As∣syrians, Chaldaeans, Persians, Greeks, and Romanes, will cleare it. But let first Di∣uinitie lead the way. Doth not our God promise long life to those that honour Father and Mother?* which the learned doe interprete to be meant of this tempo∣rall life. And if it sometimes chance that he be of longer life, who hath beene in∣iurious to his parents, and those set ouer him, we must not respect that which sometimes, but that which for the most part falles out. Besides, the godly if they Page 71die sooner, they lead a more pleasant life, which doth well recompence the short∣nesse of it. And I say further, that neuer any that was iniurious to their patents, came to that age, which many godly at∣tained vnto, as Enoch and Elias.
We may also obserue what Iobs opinion was herein. The iust shall be claed with the impious mans garments,* and the innocent shall diuide his siluer. Their inheritance and succession is very momentanie and short. The same saith Dauid in sundrie Psalmes. God shall destroy thee for euer, plucke thee out of thy dwelling, and roote thee out of the Land of the liuing.* Againe, Let them fall away as water that runneth apace. In another place.* O how suddenly do they consume, perish, and come to a feare∣full end? The same holy Dauid doth al∣so foretell, that vnto the good, good things shall be more lasting. For the righ∣teous shall flourish as a Palme tree, and shall multiply as the Cedar of Libanus. His seede shall be mightie in the land,* glo∣rie and honour shall be in his house: where∣as the bloudie and deceitfull man shall not liue halfe his daies.* And Basil and Chry∣fostome interpret the 34. Psalme of the temporall felicitie of Dauid. He that Page 72would liue, and see many good daies, let him keepe his tongue from euill, and his lippes that they speake no guile, &c. And this is the tenour of the whole Scripture.
Consonant hereto is the iudgement of the wisest Heathens: the chiefest a∣mongst the Egyptians affirming, in the person of God: I am present to them that are good,* godly, pure, religious, and holy, and my prefence doth so helpe them, that they know all things, and haue God the father pleased and propi∣tious to them. On the other side. I dwell farre from the slouthfull, the ignorant, impious, the enuious, the vniust, and ho∣micides, giuing them ouer to the will of the Diuell, who takes vengeance of them. What can be spoken more diuinely, then this of that great Egyptian Sage Trisme∣gistus? Of the same iudgement, as con∣cerning religion, and diuine things, that they are the onely grounds and causes of prosperitie and felicitie, were the Assyri∣ans, Chaldaeans, Babyionians. Else, why should the King of Niniue, that most an∣cient & potent King,* so diuinely order his repentance, & humiliation to God vpon that only short Sermon of Ionas? Yet forty dayes, and Niniue shalbee destoyed; that Page 73man and beast were commanded a solemn fast, putting on sackcloth, & crying to the Lord, and that euery man should returne from the wickednes that was in his heart, for who can tell if God will turne from his fierce wrath, that we perish not? Had not this beene in vaine, but that they iudged, that Religion and Pietie was the cause of felicitie? In like sort when Samaria was taken by Salmanassar,* and the Iewes ca∣ried away into Media and Assyria, the land being giuen to be inhabited vnto a people ignorant of the true worship of God, who were deuoured of Lyons, be∣cause they feared not the Lord, did not they attribute this to the ignorance of seruing the true God, by which onely thing they conceiued they might be deli∣uered from that iudgement? But if they had not beleeued that temporall euils be∣fall the wicked from God, and temporall good things are giuen to the godly, they would neither haue done thus, nor would the euent haue answered their actions. The same things are recorded of the Chaldaeans and Babylonians con∣cerning their opinion of religion in that kind. For thus an anciēt Historian writes. The Caldaeans being the most ancient of Page 74the Babylonians,* did obtaine that place in the Commonwealth, which the Priests did in Egypt: for they were de∣puted to the worship of their Gods, phi∣losophyzed all their life time; and were accounted most skilfull in Astrologie. Many by a certaine diuination fore-told things to come, and as well by auguries and sacred things, as by ceraine other signes, were wont to interprete both euil auguries, diuinations, and coniectures, to be disturned from men, and good ones to befall other men: which thing we see more plainly deliuered by the diuine O∣racle. For when Nabuzaradon, the chiefe Steward to Nabuchadnezzar,* had set the Prophet Ieremie at libertie, he spake thus vnto him, The Lord thy God hath pronounced this plague vpon this place: now the Lord hath brought it, and done according as hee hath said: because ye haue sinned againse the Lord, and haue not obeyed his voyce, therfore this thing is come vpon you. So we see, he iudged that temporall punishments were infli∣cted vpon men & Nations for their sins. Besides, the Kings of the Assyrians, Chal∣daeans, and Persians, were also Priestes, nor could they obtaine the Kingdome, Page 75except they had beene of the companie of their Magi, who were Priests, and instructed in their learning: for Nemo regnare potest, nisi inter Magos sit iudica∣tus:* No man could raigne there, vnlesse he were iudged to be amongst their Ma∣gi or Priest. Whereby they gaue to vn∣derstand, that in Religion and Pietie con∣sisted the felicitie of Kings and King∣domes. And Clemens Alexandrinus re∣ports,* that it was the custome amongst all the learned Nations, that hee who should be King, must also be a Priest: so much they iudged religion to import the felicitie of Kingdomes. Hence it is that Xenophon writes,* that the Persians accounted them most happy, that were most godly, but the societie of the im∣pious to be most vnhappy. If we descend to the Grecians we shall find them all of one iudgement in this point, namely, that all felicitie depends vpon pietie. Plato, whom they call the God of Philoso∣phers, in many places shewes, That by Prudence & Goodnesse men are brought to beatitude and happinesse: without which prudence and piety no good thing can befall men, but all good blessings are turned vnto euill. And therefore in Page 76the end of that most sweete and ingenu∣ous Dialogue, which he frameth betwixt Socrates and Alcibiades, he concludeth, Nemo foelixesse potest, nisi sapiens bonus{que} sit. No man can be happie that is not wise and good.* To which purpose in a∣nother place he saith, That no man, who is vicious, can be happie: and that the world was contained and preserued of God, for good men; and therefore of the Grecians was called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, faire, because it abhorres all sinne committed by any; nor could it admit of any sinne within it, seeing it is faire and beautifull: but sinne is a thing incomposed, deformed, and brings ruine and reproach with it. And the wise (saith he) do deliuer, that Hea∣uen and Earth, the Gods and Men, are knit together in a certaine societie and friendship, and with a modest or nature, temperance, and iustice. To spend no more time amongst the Grecians, whose sayings are to this end infinite, let vs conclude with the Romans, the wisest, happiest, & most flourishing Empire of all others. Cicero, the Prince of Orators, de∣termineth it thus:* How desirous are we to be in a nored of our selues (Fathers con∣script) & yet neyther haue we ouercome Page 77the Spaniards with numbers, nor the french with strength, nor the Carthagini∣ans with craft, nor the Greeks with Arts, nor (to conclude) with the domestique or nariue sense of this ayre and earth, the Italians and Latines, but with piety and religion, and by this onely wisedome, that wee haue acknowledged that all things are ruled and gouerned by the power of the immortall Gods: by this onely haue we vanquished all Nations and Countries. So then I will close this discourse with the authoritie of a graue writer,* concerning Romulus his institu∣tion of the Romane Re-publique. When Romulus (saith he) had obserued, that there were certaine causes of the felicity of Weale-publiques, vpon which it was vulgarly agreed, but yet granted but to a few to attaine vnto them; First, the fa∣uour of the diuine powers, which being present all things doe prosperously suc∣ceed. Secondly, temperance, hand in hand with iustice, by which two it com∣meth to passe, that men hurt themselues lesse, mutually consent together the bet∣ter, and doe not measure felicitie by their filthy pleasure, but by honestly, and good∣nesse: and lastly military valour, by whose Page 78helpe other vertues subsist, he did not suppose that any of these good things came of their owne accord, but vnder∣stood, that a Citie was made godly, tem∣perate, iust and strong in battell, by right lawes, and emulation of honest studies, Therfore he gaue great diligence chiefely to these things, enterprising and com∣mencing all his actions, before all things, from the worship of the Gods, not suf∣fering his Citizens to thinke or speake any thing but well and excellently of that diuine and blessed nature. The same Author saith, that all men, to whom the pietie of the Romans was vnknown, may cease to admire of their happy successe in watres, seeing they neuer tooke armes but vpon most iust causes, which thing did chiefly procure to them the fauour of the Gods. So that it is most euident, that all Nations with ful consent haue deereed this truth, that all felicitie and happinesse, temporall & eternall, hath his dependāce & root from Vertue, Religion, and Pietie. Therefore the Ciuilians teach, that the first precept of the Law of Nations,* was Re∣ligion towards God, the second obediēce to parents & country, the third defence of our self & ours, the fourth, not to insidiate Page 67or lie in wait, and beguile another. From whence wee collect, that all deceits, in∣iuries, and death it selfe, is to be suffered for religions sake, our Parents, & Coun∣trie: but together with life, Countrie, and Parents, all thinges are to be esteemed of no worth, in respect of our Religion and Dutie to GOD; and that is the first precept of the Lawe of Nations. Besides, the same Ciuilians testifie,* That publike Law consists in Sacred thinges Sacred persons, and Magistrates; so that Ius status, the Law of state or standing, as the Politicians cal it, hath his life from Sacred thinges and persons: And there∣fore the Common-wealth ruines, and cannot stand, (for hence is it called Sta∣tus) without Sacred thinges and persons. And this is it that Cicero speakes: Pietie is the foundation of all vertues; which pietie towardes God being taken away, faith, and societie of Mankinde, and that one most excellent Vertue, Iustice, must needes also faile. Hence the same Author perswades,* Let this from the beginning of all men bee beleeued, that the Gods are the Lords and Moderatours of all thinges; and that the thinges which they doe, are by their power and prouidence Page 80done; and that they highly deserue of Mankinde; and that they behold what kinde of man euery one is, what he doth, with what minde and what pietie hee re∣uerenceth Religion; and that they take an account of the godly and impious. So saith another historian, writing of Zaleu∣cus a law-giuer. It behoues them that wil inhabit a Citie,* to beleeue that there are Gods, and that they are chiefly to bee worshipped, as the first and most excel∣lent benefactours of mortall men, from whom onely are giuen to Mankind, Po∣steritie, Riches, Vertues, and all good thinges: And also it behoues them to performe and offer vp to them a minde expiated, and pure from all improbitie and blem•sh; for the Gods will not with a cheerefull eye behold the polluted Sa∣craments, and gifts, of the flagitious and sinfull person, but the iust and innocent institutes, and the holy manners of mor∣tall men, are by the whole Diuinities em∣braced. Hence I conceiue, it is impreg∣nably concluded by consent of all Nati∣ons, and wise men, and from the Oracle of God himselfe, that Kingdomes and Common-wealths, and all felicitie euen of temporall prosperitie, depends vpon Page 81Religion and Pietie, as the infallible ground of all Gods blessings.
