Cap. XVI. Whatever thou hast, O king, comes from God. He has given thee beauty of body, and thou must see to it that there be virtue of the soul corresponding to this. Worship and fear God, for earthly kingdoms are as nothing compared with his.
Cap. XVII. Death makes all equal; rich and poor, king and subject, all go one way. Prepare thyself, therefore, for thy journey, and adorn thyself betimes with virtue. May God direct thee in the right way.
Cap. XVIII. [70]The king is honoured above all, so long as his acts are good, but if the king be avaricious and proud, the people is grieved. Not all that a king desires is expedient for him: he has a charge laid upon him and must maintain law and do justice.
O king, do away the evils of thy reign, restore the laws and banish crime: let thy people be subject to thee for love and not for fear.
Cap. XIX. All things change and die, the gems that were bright are now dimmed, the Church herself has lost her virtue, and the Synagogue becomes the spouse of Christ. The good men of old have passed away, and the bad of old live again. Noah, Japhet, Abraham, Isaac, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, Elijah, Micaiah, Elisha are gone; Nimrod, Ham, Belus, Ishmael, Abiram, Korah, Dathan, Zedekiah, and Gehazi survive. Peter is dead, but Tiberius lives; Paul is reconverted into Saul; the examples of Gregory, Martin, Tobit, and Job are neglected. Benedict is dead, but Julian lives: there is a new Arius, a new Jovinian, who spread their heresy.
Cap. XX. As the good men in the Church of God have passed away, so also the men who were famed for prowess in the world are gone, as Trajan, Justinian, Alexander, Constantine, Theodosius, Julius, Hannibal, while the bad still survive, as Nero, Dionysius, Tarquin, Leo, and Constantius. Solomon is dead and Rehoboam survives. The love of David and Jonathan is gone, but the hatred of Saul still lives; the counsel of Achitophel is followed and that of Hushai rejected; Cato is banished and Pilate is made judge in his stead; Mordecai is hanged and Haman is delivered; Christ is crucified and Barabbas is let go free.
Cap. XXI. Temperance and chastity also have disappeared. Socrates and Diogenes are dead, Epicurus and Aristippus still live; Phirinus is dead and Agladius survives; Troilus and Medea are dead, while Jason and Criseida remain; Penelope and Lucretia have passed away, Circe and Calipso still live. The laws of marriage are no longer kept in these days, chaste love is all but unknown, and adultery everywhere prevails. Women have no modesty, no chastity, and no patience: vice blooms and flourishes, while the flower of virtue is trodden under foot.
Liber Septimus.
Cap. I. Now the golden head of Nebuchadnezzar’s statue is gone, and the feet of iron and clay remain: the world is in its final stage of deterioration. There are principally two causes, lechery, which leads to sloth, and avarice, which is ever unsatisfied.
Cap. II. The avaricious are merciless to the poor, and their hard hearts are typified by the iron of the statue. He is wretched who is ever desiring more, not he who has little and is content.