But they told the prophet roundly, that they would worship the queen of heaven, as they and their fathers, their kings and their princes had used to do; for then, said they, had we plenty of victuals, and were well, and felt no evil': Adding, that all manner of misery were befallen them since they left off that service of the queen of heaven. So blind is the wisdom of man, in looking into the counsel of God, which to find out there is no better or other guide than his own written will, not perverted by vain additions. But this history of the kings of Israel and Judah hath herein a singular prerogative above all that have -been written by the most sufficient of merely human authors. It setteth down expressly the true and first causes of all that happened; not imputing the death of Ahab to his over-forwardness in battle, the ruin of his family to the security of Jeroboam in Jezreel, nor the victories of Hazael to the great commotions raised in Israel, by the coming in of Jehu, but referring all unto the will of God, I mean, to his revealed will; from which, that his hidden purposes do not vary, this story, by many great examples, gives most notable proof, True it is, that the concurrence of second causes with their effects, is in these books nothing largely described; nor perhaps exactly in any of those histories that are in these points most copious. For it was well noted by that worthy gentleman Sir Philip Sidney, that historians do borrow of poets, not only much of their ornament, but somewhat of their substance. Informations are often false, records not always true, and notorious actions commonly insufficient to discover the passions which did set them first on foot, Wherefore they are fain (I speak of the best, and in that which is allowed, for to take out of Livy every one circumstance of Claudius, his journey against Asdrubal in Italy, fitting all to another business, or any prac. 1 Jer. xliv. 17, 18. 2 Sir Philip Sidney, in his Apology for Poetry, tice of that kind, is neither historical nor poetical ;) to search into the particular humours of princes, and of those who have governed their affections, or the instruments by which they wrought, from whence they do collect the most likely motives or impediments of every business; and so figuring, as near to the life as they can imagine, the matter in hand, they judiciously consider the defects in counsel, or obliquity in proceeding. Yet all this, for the most part, is not enough to give assurance, howsoever it may give satisfaction. For the heart of man is unsearchable; and princes, howsoever their intents be seldom hidden from some of those many eyes which pry both into them, and into such as live about them, yet sometimes either by their own close temper, or by some subtle mist, they conceal the truth from all reports. Yea, many times the affections themselves lie dead, and buried in oblivion, when the preparations which they begat are converted to another use. The industry of an historian having so many things to weary it, may well be excused, when, finding apparent cause enough of things done, it forbeareth to make further search; though it often fall out, where sundry occasions work to the same end, that one small matter in a weak mind is more effectual than many that seem far greater. So comes it many times to pass, that great fires, which consume whole houses or towns, begin with a few straws that are wasted, or not seen, when the flame is discovered, having fastened upon some wood pile, that catcheth all a bout it. Questionless it is, that the war commenced by Darius, and pursued by Xerxes against the Greeks, proceeded from a desire of the Persians to enlarge their empire; howsoever the enterprise of the Athenians upon Sardes, was noised abroad as the ground of that quarrel; yet Herodotus 3 telleth us, that the wanton desire of queen Atossa, to have the Herod. 1..i. Grecian dames her bondwomen, did first move Darius to prepare for this war, before he had received, any injury, and when he did not yet so much desire to get more, as to enjoy what was already got ten. I will not here stand to argue whether Herodotus be more justly reprehended by some, or defended by others, for alleging the vain appetite, and secret speech of the queen in bed with her husband, as the cause of those great evils following; this I may boldly affirm, (having, I think, in every estate, some sufficient witness,) that matters of much consequence, founded in all seeming upon substantial reasons, have issued indeed from such petty trifles, as no historian would either think upon, or could well search out. Therefore it was a good answer that Sixtus Quintus the pope made to a certain friar coming to visit him in his popedom, as having long before, in his meaner estate, been his familiar friend. This poor friar being emboldened by the pope to use his old liberty of speech, adventured to tell him, that he very much wondered how it was possible for his holiness, whom he rather took for a direct honest man, than any cunning politician, to attain unto the papacy; in compassing of which, all the subtlety, said he, of the most crafty brains, find work enough; and therefore the more I think upon the art of the conclave, and your unaptness thereto, the more I needs must wonder. Pope Sixtus, to satisfy the plaindealing friar, dealt with him again as plainly, saying, hadst thou lived abroad as I have done, and seen by what folly this world is governed, thou wouldst wonder at nothing. Surely, if this be referred unto those exorbitant engines, by which the course of affairs is moved, the pope said true; for the wisest of men are not without their vanities, which requiring and finding mutual toleration, work more closely, and earnestly, than right reason either needs or can. But if we lift up our thoughts to that supreme governor, of whose empire all that is true which, by the poet, was said of Jupiter: Qui terram inertem, qui mare temperat • Who rules the duller earth, the wind-swoln streams, Then shall we find the quite contrary. In him there is no uncertainty nor change; he foreseeth all things, and all things disposeth to his own honour; he neither deceiveth nor can be deceived; but, continuing one and the same for ever, doth constantly govern all creatures by that law which he hath prescribed, and will never alter. The vanities of men beguile their vain contrivers, and the prosperity of the wicked is the way leading to their destruction: yea, this broad and headlong passage to hell, is not so delightful as it seemeth at the first entrance, but hath growing in it, besides the poisons which infect the soul, many cruel thorns deeply wounding the body; all which, if any few escape, they have only this miserable advantage of others, that their de scent was the more swift and expedite. But the service of God is the path guiding us to perfect happiness, and hath in it a true, though not complete felicity, yielding such abundance of joy to the conscience, as doth easily countervail all afflictions whatsoever; though indeed those brambles that sometimes tear the skin of such as walk in this blessed way, do commonly lay hold upon them at such time as they sit down to take their ease, and make them wish themselves at their journey's end, in presence of their Lord, whom they faithfully serve; in whose presence is the fullness of joy, and at whose right hand are pleasures for evermore.' Wherefore, it being the end and scope of all history to teach, by examples of times past, such wisdom as may guide our desires and actions, we should not marvel, though the Chronicles of the kings of Judah and Israel, being written by men inspired with the spirit of God, instruct us chiefly in that which is most requisite for us to know, as the means to attain unto true felicity, both here and hereafter; propounding examples which illustrate this infallible rule, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wis'dom.' Had the expedition of Xerxes, (as it was foretold by Daniel,) been written by some prophet after the captivity, we may well believe, that the counsel of God therein, and the execution of his righteous will, should have occupied either the whole, or the principal room in that narration. Yet had not the purpose of Darius, the desire of his wife, and the business at Sardes, with other occurrents, been the less true, though they might have been omitted, as the less material; but these things it had been lawful for any man to gather out of profane histories, or out of circumstances otherwise appearing, wherein he should not have done injury to the sacred writings, as long as he had forborne to derogate from the first causes, by ascribing to the second more than was due. Such, or little different, is the business that I have now in hand; wherein I cannot believe that any man of judgment will tax me as either fabulous or presumptuous. For he doth not feign, that rehearseth probabilities as bare conjectures; neither doth he deprave the text, that seeketh to illustrate, and make good in human reason, those things which authority alone, without further circumstance, ought to have confirmed in every man's belief. And this may suffice in defence of the liberty which I have ased in conjectures, and may hereafter use when oc |