The holy court in five tomes, the first treating of motives which should excite men of qualitie to Christian perfection, the second of the prelate, souldier, states-man, and ladie, the third of maxims of Christianitie against prophanesse ..., the fourth containing the command of reason over the passions, the fifth now first published in English and much augemented according to the last edition of the authour containing the lives of the most famous and illustrious courtiers taken out of the Old and New Testament and other modern authours / written in French by Nicholas Caussin ; translated into English by Sr. T.H. and others.

HE must be ignorant of the chief and most visible of beauties that knowes not Joshua. One cannot see the Sun without remembring the great com∣merce that this Valourous Captain had with the King of Stars. All the World lift their eyes up to it, but none hath ever lifted his voyce as far as it, to make himself be heard, and to make himself to be obeyed. The Stars knew Joshua because he bore the Name of him that formed them; It is he that first gave us the fore-tasts of the name of Jesus, at which the Heaven, the Earth, and Hell do bend the knee.

What lovely thing had not this generous Joshua, seeing one cannot name him without mentioning Salva∣tion, which is the wish and content of all men? Who would think that such a spirit had been born and bred in servitude? And yet he was Pharaohs slave, he was as the rest in the chain, that was at that time common to all his people. Those were very patient that could endure it, but he was far more valiant that found a means to break it.

When in his little infancy he played upon the banks of the River of Nile with the other prisoners, he then strook terrour into all its flotes, and the Angels of E∣gypt, knew that he should tread under his feet the pride Pharaoh, and carry away the spoils of that proud kingdome so many times cemented with the blood of his brethren. He did every thing by Moses's orders, and Moses did nothing without him. If one was the eye of his people, the other was the arm; if one was the Con∣ductour of them, the other was the Protectour. If one had the Providence, the other reserved to himself the execution which is ordinarily the most difficult piece of Prudence.

Moses lifted up his hands to Heaven, and Joshua his Arms upon the head of the enemies of God; the one combated with the lipps, and the other with the sword; the one poured out oyl and wine upon the Al∣tars, the other shed the bloud of the wicked to make a sacrifice to the justice of the Sovereign Monarch.

He was inclined to war by the disposition of God himself, he received the sword as from his hands, and wore it fifty seven years alwayes in assaults, alwayes in defenses, alwayes in various encountres, and in bloody battels, for the safety and the glory of his Nation.

He hath reaped more Palms, then heaven hath stars, he made as many combats as journeyes, and gained as many victories as he gave battels. Happinesse never deliberated whether she should follow his undertakings. She was under him as a souldier in pay, and whither one carried his Standarts, the other incontinently dis∣plaied her wings to cover them. They never brake a∣sunder, and hazard that hath often a foot so slippery, found firm ground when it was covered with the arms of Joshua.

He affronted Gyants that seemed to have been born onely for the terrour of Mankind. He tumbled down towers of flesh, and trod under feet Monsters that the most valiant durst not so much as look on. He took Cities whose walls and Citadels were so high that they seemed to be lost in heaven.

The Plains of Makkedah of Libnah, of Lachish, of Debir, of Hebron, of Gilgal, of Gezer, and of Jeri∣cho bear yet the seeds of his Lawrels. Eglon and Ai preserve his Trophes which are yet standing after they have seen the ruines of the Pyramids of Egypt. But Gibeon carries away the price of his victories, see∣ing that it was it that saw the Sun stand still upon his Conquest.

Plato and Aristotle that hold the heavens and the Stars, animated Julius Firmicus that believes them fil∣led with sence and with prudence, would not have fail∣ed to tell us here, that it was the love and the admira∣tion of the valour of that great Captain, that tyed the Sun by insensible chains in the middst of his firmament,

and that he could not endure to set before he had seen the end of that famous battell; he could see nothing a∣mongst our Antipodes that came near this specta∣cle; he esteemed his Light more noble and more precious for that it had shone that very Day even upon the Valour of the most rare Man of the whole Earth.

But the Scripture teaches us, that the chief of the Lu∣minaries of heaven stood for that time immovable, not by any understanding that it had, but by obedience that it rendred to its Creatour, seeing the Creatour himself would obey the voyce of a man. All the Militia of hea∣ven desired to be of the Party, the Moon and the Starres waited upon their King, and would not move one step that was not troden according to his measures.

After this do we think it strange that the Rivers turned about their Passages to favour Joshua's, and that the sacred Jordan was sensible of the foot-steps of a mortall man, to whom the Heavens themselves gave some veneration?

Millions of men grew pale with fear when they saw one single man with his sword in hand; The walls of Cities fell to the ground, though he did not touch them but with his eyes.

The onely presence of one Joshua was worth an hundred Regiments; The souldiers thought nothing impossible under him, and by him the enemies esteem'd themselves vanquished as soon as seen.

What may one say of a Generall that subdued thir∣ty and one Kings, that brake so many Sceptres, that saw so many Crowns and Diadems at his feet? One sole Victory carried away upon a Monarch cau∣sed the Roman Captains to be seen in a Chariot of I∣vory drawn by white Horses, and sometimes by Ele∣phants and Lyons: Sesostres King of the Egyptians four Kings to be tyed to his Coach, for that he had conquered them in battell. But our Joshua, a sub∣duer of Pride as well as men, desires no exteriour pomp to honour his deeds of valour. It sufficed him that God Triumphed in him, and would not have any other glory, but to be under the feet of him that mar∣ches upon the wings of the winds, and upon the head of Cherubins.

He was not onely a valiant Souldier, and wise Ge∣nerall, but at last the Judge and Prince of his people, Great in Arms and in Laws, and accomplished in all sort of virtues. The Israelites thinking one day that Moses their Conductour had been lost in the Wilder∣nesse, desired the High-Priest Aaron to make them a God to supply his default; But after that Moses was dead, and that they beheld Joshua seated in his place, they desired no more any other Deity because they per∣ceived in him the liveliest impression that man can have of God upon the earth.

Virtues that seemed most contrary were reconciled in him, and made but one sole visage of perfection. Piety made nothing soft in his Courage, nor Courage any thing fierce in his Piety. Heigth of Spirit found that she was compatible with Meeknesse. Activenesse went the same pase with providence, and the most Il∣lustrious of glories reposed in him under the shadow of humility. Justice in him did not offend Clemency; He imitated the living God that is mercifull even as farre as Hell. He punished Crimes with a zeal mixt with ardour and compassion; and when he caused A∣chan that sacrilegeous man to dye, at the time that his hand was stiffe to hold the ballance of Justice in an e∣quality, he felt in his heart a tendernesse that made him give death to the culpable as a benefit, though o∣thers took it for a punishment.

But let us remember while we speak of Joshua that God hath covered him with the rayes of glory; to teach us, that we are constrained to cover his brave acts in silence.

To conclude, He to whom nothing was wanting but immortality, dyed as a setting Sun, animating his peo∣ple with the spirit that went out of his body: and some hold that the Hebrews put upon his Tomb the figure of a Sun, as if they would say that he was amongst men that which the Sun is amongst the stars, and that there is nothing even as far as the shadow of death, that hath not kindled for him lights of Im∣mortality.