Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

SECTION VI.

Dying Regrets of Worldly-Minded Professors.

66

1. CARDINAL RICHELIEU.

Man, fool man! here buries all his thoughts,
Inters celestial hopes without one sigh."-YOUNG.

RICHELIEU, an eminent cardinal and minister of state in France, was born of a noble family at the castle of Richelieu, in the year 1585. Being a man of prodigious capacity, and of a restless and insatiable ambition, he formed vast designs, which made his life a series of agitations and perplexities. He found himself frequently under the necessity of opposing the grandees of the kingdom, the royal family, the whole house of Austria, and even Louis XIII. himself. Amidst his greatest and most arduous concerns, he did not neglect to cultivate literature, and to show himself a patron of men of letters. He manifested a particular regard for persons of the religious orders; and advanced those who were most remarkable for their abilities and virtues. He made many friends, and many enemies, but his consummate policy enabled him to triumph over all the machinations of his opponents.

66

When this great statesman approached the conclusion of his time, he became very serious, and acknowledged to Peter du Moulin, the celebrated French Protestant, that he had often been hurried into measures which his conscience disapproved. That he had been urged into many irregularities, by what is called state policy; that as he could not tell how to satisfy his conscience for these deviations from rectitude, he had many temptations to disbelieve the existence of a God, a future state,

and the immortality of the soul-and, by these means, to quiet the upbraidings of his mind. But in vain. So strong was the idea of God in his soul, so clear the impression of him upon the frame of the world, so unanimous the consent of mankind, and so powerful the convictions of his own conscience, that he could not avoid feeling the necessity of admitting a Supreme Being, and a future state; and he wished to live as one that must die, and to die as one that must live forever."

The serious state of his mind increased as he drew near his last hour. A person who came to see him, inquired, "why he was so sad?" The cardinal replied: "The soul is a serious thing; it must either be sad here for a moment, or be sad forever."

He died in 1642, amidst storms and perils, before he had completed his designs, leaving behind him a name, splendid indeed, but by no means dear and venerable.

2. CARDINAL WOLSEY.

"Had I but served my God with half the zeal
I served my king, he would not in mine age

Have left me naked to mine enemies."-WOLSEY.

THOMAS WOLSEY, a distinguished person in the reign of Henry VIII., was born in the year 1471, and it is said he was the son of a butcher at Ipswich. Being made chaplain to the king, he had great opportunities of gaining his favour, to obtain which he practised all the arts of obsequiousness. Having gradually acquired an entire ascendency over the mind of Henry, he successively obtained several bishoprics; and, at length, was made archbishop of York, lord high chancellor of England, and prime minister, and was, for several years, the arbiter of Europe. The emperor Charles the fifth, and the French king Francis the first, courted his interest,

and loaded him with favours. As his revenues were immense, and his influence unbounded, his pride and ostentation were carried to the greatest height. He had eight hundred servants, among whom were nine or ten lords, fifteen knights, and forty esquires.

From this great height of power and splendour he was suddenly precipitated into ruin. His ambition to be pope, his pride, his exactions, and his opposition to Henry's divorce, occasioned his disgrace. This sad reverse so affected his mind, as to bring on a severe illness, which soon put a period to his days. A short time before he left the world, the review of his life, and a consciousness of the misapplication of his time and talents, drew from him this sorrowful declaration: "Had I but served God as diligently as I have served the king, he would not have given me over in my gray hairs. But this is the just reward that 1 must receive for my indulgent pains and study, not regarding my service to God, but only to my prince."

With these painful reflections this famous cardinal finished his course. He affords a memorable instance of the variety and inconstancy of human things, both in his rise and fall, and a striking admonition to those who are abusing the talents and opportunities which God has given them to promote his honour and the happiness of men.

3. CESAR BORGIA.

"Hast thou by statute shoved from its design

The Saviour's feast, his own blest bread and wine;
And made the symbols of atoning grace
An office key, a pick-lock to the place,
That infidels may prove their title good
By an oath dipp'd in sacramental blood?—
A blot that will be still a blot, in spite
Of all that grave apologists may write ;
And though a bishop toil to cleanse the stain,
He wipes and scours the silver cup in vain."

CÆSAR BORGIA, a natural son of Pope Alexander VI., was a man of such conduct and character, that Machiavel has thought fit to propose him, in his famous book called "The Prince," as an original and pattern to all princes, who would act the part of wise and politic tyrants. He was made a cardinal; but as this office imposed some restraints upon him, he soon determined to resign it.

The reflections he made a short time before his death, (which happened in the year 1507,) show, however, that his policy was confined to the concerns of this life, and that he had not acted upon that wise and enlarged view of things, which becomes a being destined for immortality. "I had provided," said he, "in the course of my life, for everything except death; and now, alas! I am to die, although entirely unprepared."

4. HUGO GROTIUS.

HUGO GROTIUS was born in Holland, in the year 1583. He possessed the most happy disposition, a profound genius, a solid judgment, and a wonderful memory. These extraordinary natural endowments had all the

advantages that education could give them; and he was so happy as to find, in his own father, a pious and an able instructor, who formed his mind and his morals. Before he was fifteen, he maintained public theses in mathematics, philosophy, and law, with the highest applause; and he ventured to form plans that required very great learning, but which he executed in so finished a manner, that the republic of letters were struck with astonishment.

Yet after all his attainments, reputation, and labour, in the cause of learning, he was constrained at last to cry out: "Ah! I have consumed my life in a laborious doing of nothing! I would give all my learning and honour for the plain integrity of John Urick!"

This John Urick was a religious poor man, who spent eight hours of the day in prayer, eight in labour, and but eight in meals, sleep, and other necessaries.

Grotius had devoted too much of his time to worldly company, secular business, and learned trifles-too little to the exercises of the closet. This is forsaking the fountain of living waters, and hewing out to ourselves broken cisterns that can hold no water.

5. SIR JOHN MASON.

A STRONG testimony to the importance of religion, is given by Sir John Mason, who, though but sixty-three years old at his death, had flourished in the reign of four sovereigns, (Henry VIII., Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth,) had been privy-counsellor to them all, and an attentive observer of the various revolutions and vicissitudes of those times. Towards his latter end, being on his death-bed, he spoke thus to those about him :

"I have lived to see five sovereigns, and have been

« AnteriorContinuar »