poor Hare cryed out but had onely this answer for all her courtesie that those who found themselves not well might go out Yet this I will say for the comfort of the English Wives that the English Men make the best Husbands in the World if their Natures have not been too much corrupted and deprav'd with the licentiousness and Vices of the Time Notwithstanding they shu'd answer them if they be wise when they come a wooing to them as the Athenians did Demetrius who pretending Dominion over them told them that he would be a good Lord unto them to whom they wisely answered that they no wayes doubted it but for their parts they desired to have no Lord at all OF AN Excellent Wife SHe is like an Excellent Watch Rich and Fair but above all True onely in this they differ in that her Goodness depends on nothing but her self for those who are only good because they are lookt unto it follows if they were not lookt unto they would be bad She is never in ill humour and never in better then in her Husbands company with whom alone she is familiar but civil and courteous unto all she has all the handsomness of a Mrs. the Goodness of a Wife and delightsomness of pleasant Company united in her alone and whatsoever she does is becoming her not so much because 't is so as because she makes it so She is sparing in superfluous things that she may be more bountiful in those more necessary and spends with such discretion in her House as her expences are more profitable then others savings are Her Vertue and Beauty makes it alwayes a Temperate Zone with her where her Husband lives as in a PARADICE Her HONOVR like a flaming Cherubin conserving and rendring her inaccessible to all beside Whence in this Critical Age where they find out blemishes in the Moon and spots even in the Sun it self they could never find out any spot or blemish in her she onely having found out the way to stop Rumours Mouth and silence Calumny whilst they bark and bite at every one besides In fine she has all the perfections of a Wife and all that can make a Husband happy This if her husband knows not 't is an unpardonable fault and ignorance in him if he does 't were no compliment nor fondness in him but a Just esteem of his own Happiness to say as often as he sees her O my dearest you are all mine and I am all yours and when I cease for to be so may I be the miserablest man alive as now I am the most happy OF Your New Irreligious ORDER THey are amongst you Irreligious as your reformed Orders or Capucins and Carthusians are amongst your Religious professing a more perfect state of life and higher degree of perfection then the rest They keep quire and for Psalmody have a sort of Bawdy songs composed by certain Authors of their own far surpassing your Antient Heathens for their Legend of Saints they have Apitious's and Heliogabulu's Lives and Aretins pictures for heightning their devotion They meditate most devoutly on a Peticoat and are rapt into extasy with contemplation of the Mystery therein they observe their Rules of Modesty in Ladies company most exactly standing with their hands in their Codpieces and minding Bawdry whatsoever they say unto them As others have done by Philosophy they have wholly subverted all Morality neither deal they more favourably with Divinity doubting whether there be any God or no and holding all Scripture Apochrypha Excepting onely the Canticles of Solomon which with their gloss passes for Canonical Bawdry they count Heaven but a Melancholly place and care not for coming there so as those who would have them sav'd must make a new Heaven a purpose for them Marry the old Hell with a little Addition will serve them well enough In fine they are incapable to conceive how any Man can be honest or Woman chaste and make a fool of Macchiavel who held that Men could not be extreamly vitious so as by help of their Example your after Ages will learn of the present that too many Religions incline men to Atheisme as well as none at all And such as these whilst they call themselves Wits have brought the name of Wit into such obloquy as you will shortly see the Church sensure it the Lawes condemn it Casuists invent new Cases for it And finally all Good Christians put it in their Litanies to be delivered from such wits as these OF VVIT. VVIT like Beauty has somewhat in it of Divine and they profane either who use them to vitious ends it is rather a slight then force of the spirit and is chiefly exprest in quick expedients and reparties The French call it le point de l'esprit beâ—ause it is sharp and easily penetrates things whence clenches and quibbles are not wit because they go no farther then the outward word It is that in pleasant and factious discourse as eloquence is in grave and serious and well comports with jest raillerie but no wayes with profaneness and scurrilitie it is the spirit and quintessence of speech extracted out of the substance of things and a spiritual fire that rarefies and renders every thing spiritual like it sâ—lf it is a soaring quality that just as Dedalus wings elevates those who have it above other men and is the same in the brain as Nobility is in the blood In fine it is somewhat above expression and easier to admire then tell you what it is not acquir'd by Art and Study but Nature and Conversation and is so volatile a thing as it is altogether as volatile to describe Rendring those who have it good and vertuous as well as witty men and whosoever is otherwise we may well conclude wants as much of wit as they do of being such ESSAYES OF HISTORY And how it is to be written HISTORY may well be called the Book of Princes since it chiefly becomes Princes to read and study it It is a Mirrour representing passed Times or Persons and is twofold either of affairs in General or Heroick Persons in particular in either It is to represent nothing that is false nor conceal any thing that is true but since all truths are not indifferently to be uttered it is enough to pass over lightly and touch gently what is dangerous to handle or insist upon 'T is long since that not without some reason the wiser sort have suspected the Faith of all Historians whilst they writ all in extrâ—ams either through hate or favour and leaving the Truth in the midst think they do nothing unless they â—â—ther depress to Hell or exalt to Heaven those which they treat of with their Invectives or Eâ—comiums To write a History well of all your four dimensions 't is rather to have heighth and depth then longitude and latitude that is 't is rather to have heighth and depth of expression then too diffuse circumstances or long narrations and for
lost What 's now become of all their glorious boast Of 〈◊〉 us themselves nâ—w conquered 〈…〉 more for shame to shew their head 〈…〉 be to add A 〈…〉 to the first we had Mâ—an timâ— thâ— â—ritons hissing them to scorn 〈…〉 And Sea-Nymphs riâ—â—ng from their watry bed Make wreaths for crowning thy victorious head So shud the Conquerors be â—rown'd and so The Conquer'd hist and scorn'd where e'r they go Greatest Example of Heroick worth As ever yet our latter age brought forth As formerly the Land of Brittain was So now the Sea 's too narrow for thy praise Which will in time so immense become as we Must seek new Worlds and tongues for praising thee And 't will at last become the work alone Of Extasie and Admiration Great and Magnanimous Prince surpassing far Him who was styl'd the Thunder-bolt of War TO IANVS Recomending Welbeck to him c. On Newyears-day An. 1666. THOU that art alwaies old and new That yearly dost thy youth renew And yearly too more aged grow Ianus if ever thou 'lt bestow A well deserved gift and grace On any persons any place Bestow it now this present year Upon this place and persons here Preserve them long in safety and With them preserve the King and Land For they would not be safe I know Unless the King and Land were so First drive this year from England far All other wars but forraign war And let our Enemies only prove The harm of Mars who harm do love Next let no storms our Seas molest Where th' peaceful Halcyon builds her nest But to those Coasts and Climates go That Halcyon-daies did never know Lastly that plague which where it comes Unpeoples Towns and peoples Tombs Drive hence and what is worse then that All Traytors to the King and State That so delivering of our Ile From all its fears we may the while Abroad Sea-monsters overcome And its Land-monsters too at home Another gift thou hast in store Which if thou grant we ask no more That this year to our Royal King And Queen may happy Issue bring This Ianus grant and thou shalt see Each year on this solemnitie More vows unto thee we shall pay And off'rings on thy Altars lay Then ever was or shall be paid Or ever on thy Altars laid Since out of Chaos all was born Till unto Chaos all return On Welbeck WElbeck a place of much Renown betwixt Your best of ancient and of modern mixt As if one age alone could not suffice For building such a noble Edifice No petty Garnishments that look so spruce As they were more for ornament then use Nor Towers nor Turrets in the air agen As they were rather built for birds then men But all large and capicious you find Justly proportion'd to the Owners mind All great and solid as in ancient times Before our modern buildings were our crimes Enter'd at first you 'd think you entered some Huge Piazza made for all the world to come So great mens Houses shu'd be builded great And not so much for prospect as receipt Amongst the rest the Stables all appear As if each one some Princely Palace were And 't was but fit they shu'd be so where all The Horses you of princely race might call For the Riding-House 't is of so vast extent It does some mâ—ghty Temple represent Where seeing them ride Admiring Indians wo'd Adore each Horse there as a Semi-God And if this to the Horse what wo'd they do To him who rides and animates them too From hence beholding of the Park you 'd say For pleasantness 't were some Arcadia And think you saw the jolly Nymphs and Swains Feeding their flocks upon the lawns and plains And heard them in the pleasant woods and groves Inchant your eares with chanting of their loves 'Mong trees so thick and fair they seem th' aboads Not only of Rural birds but rural gods But least we loose our selves and stray too far 'T is time to th' house it self for to repair Where though the Rooms be vast and every thing Seems made for entertainment of a King Yet that 's the least you look on but the Lord Himself the noblest prospect does afford In whom your late Nobilitie may see What th' ancient were and modern ought to be And 'mongst the * other Arts he does profess May learn of him the Art of Nobleness He looks not as some do that you shud d' off Your Hat and make a reverence twelve-score off Nor takes Exceptions if at every word You don't repeat your Grace or else my Lord But as they 'd seem great men by Pride so he Is one indeed by noble curtesie And dos appear a hundred times more great By leaving it then they by keeping state Whence h 'as so high a reputation got 'Mongst all that know all that know him not Through all degrees of honour he has past Of Viscount Earl Marquess and Duke at last H 'as ever had the general esteem Of honouring them more then they honour'd him ON THE Dutchess of Newcastles Closet WHat place is this looks like some sacred Cell Where Holy Hermits antiently did dwell And never ceast importunating Heaven Till some great Blessing unto Earth was given Is this a Lady-Closet 't cannot be For nothing here of vanity you see Nothing of curiosity nor pride As all your Ladys Closets have beside Scarcely a Glass or Mirrour in 't you find Excepting Books the Mirrours of the mind Nor is 't a Library but only as she Makes each place where she comes a Library Carrying a living Library in her brain More worth then Bodleys or the Vatican Here she 's in Rapture here in Extasy With studying high and deep Philosophy Here those clear Lights descend into her Mind Which by Reflection in her Books you find And those high Notions and Ideas too Which none before but she did ever know Whence shee 's her Sexes Ornament and Grace And Glory of the Times hail sacred Place To which the world in after-times shall come As unto Homers shrine or Virgils Tomb Honouring the walls wherein she made aboad The Air she breath'd ground on which she tro'd So Fame rewards the Arts and so agen The Arts shall honour her who honour'd them Whilst others who in other hopes did trust Shall after death lie in forgotten dust TO LILLY Drawing the Countess of Castlemains PICTVRE STay daring man and ne'r presume to draw Her Picture till thou may'st such colours get As Zeuxes and Apelles never saw Nor e re were known by any Painter yet Till from all Beauties thou extracts the Grace And from the Sun the beams that gild the Skyes Never presume to draw her Beautious face Nor the bright Beams and Sun-shine of her Eyes In vain the whil'st thou dost the labour take Since none can set her forth to her desert She who 's above all Nature e're did make Much more 's above all can be made by Art Yet been't discourag'd since who e're
on And for their apprehensions of things we see they can be affraid of Bug-bears rejoyce when you tell them they shall have somewhat they are delighted with and love those who give it them Which being so why may they not at those years be taught to fear vice to delight in vertue and to love God if they were but prudently represented to their imaginations Let them be taught then to fear no other Bug-bear but vice especially that which they shall see them most inclin'd unto and when they see them delighted with any thing either of fair or sweet c. Let them tell them 't is God who gives and sends it them and presently cry out Oh how Good How fair how sweet is God! c. By which means they shall imprint in their tender minds a dear and affectionate love of him after which it would be easy to to make them do whatsoever they shall understand to be most pleasing to him and abstain from doing whatsoever may be displeasing to him on the contrary under which notions they may represent both vertues and vices to them as they shall see occasion This if their first Tutors or Governants would but do Their second Tutors or preceptors would more easily do the rest of whom I will only say that you are to chuse him more for prudence then for learning more a Gentleman then a Pedant and one that has more studyed men then Books Mean time let him so season what he teaches him with sweetness the common bait of children as so he may be delighted with learning it Above all let him be a Religious honest man for he is to inform his manners as well as his understanding and more souls for want of good Tutors then Bodies for want of good Midwives in these latter Times have perished and been cast away For the ordering his studies in particular I say nothing more But let his Rule be ne quid nimis to study nothing too much for learning consisting either in words or matter of which the first has no depth and the last no bottom to study t'one too much were trifling and t'other labour lost besides too much study but condenses the thought which is only for your melancholy Schoolmen a Gentlemans thoughts should be more rarifyed and refin'd As for Travail none can give him better directions then my noble Lord his Father who has made right use of them by bringing home all that was good mother Nations and leaving all the bad behind And thus much conâ—erning Education may suffice and I have insisted more upon the pious then learned part because as 't is the most neglected so 't is the most necessary for none can be either a good child to his Parents or subject to his Prince who is not first a good servant to Almighty God And the reason is clear for how can it be expected that they should be grateful or obedient unto either for their being and conversation if they be not so to God in whom as the Scripture saies They both live and move and have their being Neither let any imagine that this sort of Education should make children sad and melancholly on the contrary I see not how any can be truly merry and cheerful who cannot think on God or Death without fear and horor whilst every thing puts them in mind thereof and this is the case of all those who in their youth are not Educated in Vertue and Piety Which Education MADAM if you give your Son it may well be said of you as it was of another most resembling you that she not only brought forth children but vertuous ones her Vertue being as fruitful as her Self TO Sir C. B. Of the choice of a VVife OF all worldly things the choice of a wife is that which requires the longest deliberation for diu deliberandum est quod statuendum est semel We are long to deliberate of that which we can onely choose but once and and when all 's done Fortune will have a main hand in it or to speak more Religiously Almighty-God Whence 't is said that Marriages are made in Heaven 'T is the part of a Wise man then to leave as little in it to Fortune as he can and of a Religious as much as he can unto Almighty God Amongst all the requisits of Marriage Beauty is the most fragile and deceives the expectation most both because the one expects to find the same Adoration when a Wife as when she was a Mrs and t'other finds not their Wives such Goddesses when marryed as they immagined before they marryed them To marry for Beauty onely is to buy a House onely for the outside without considering the Conveniences within and Age or a little sickness takes that away and them and there 's an end of all the delight you had Whence 't is no ill distinction that a woman exceeding fair is better for a Mrs. then a Wife If she be but moderately handsome it is enough so the rest be supplyed by the Beauty of the mind the one being only the pleasure of the first day tother of all your life Of all things Complacency is the best Cyment of affection and similitude of humour and disposition for similis simili gaudet All Likes do love their Like and hate the contrary unless perhaps some humours in them may be too predominant and then a little of the contrary would be a good Allay as Mirth to Melancholly or a placid or Patient humour to a Harsh or Chollerick disposition With handsomness of Body and good disposition of mind the Goods of Fortune make no ill composition so they be not the principal ingredient for so Love would wholly degenerate into interest and men would look on their wives no otherwise then Farmers on their Cattel only considering how much they are worth in the Market and nothing else I need not give you a Caveat not to marry with any of condition much below your self for you are too wise I know to be fool'd by any such fond affection nor is there any danger of your marrying much above your self since we have few nobility so high into which a Gentleman of your birth and fortune may not aspire to match without ambition This is all Sir that ocurs to write unto you for this present upon this subject who wish you all happiness in a wife and know you so well as I am sure your wife will have all happiness in you TO THE LADY N. N. Of Benefits GOod will is that well ordered charity which the Holy Scripture commends unto us so much and which it obliges us to have even for our Enemies 't is that which humanity binds us to and which makes one man a man unto another who otherwise would be a God or else a Beast according as he benefited or injurr'd them But in friendship Good Will is like the power that never proceeds to Act promises to performance or flowers unto fruit unless it proceeds
spiritual ones and never perceive how miserable they are nor know they the whilst what harm they do to others for to do ill most commonlâ—y goes no farther then ones self but to speak of it is a spreading sin and one knows not how far it goes 't is like oyle which easily insinuates self into others minds and afterwards so spreads and dilates it self as the stain of it can ne're be wholly taken out again As the Weapon-salve cures at distance so do those discourses wound and they raise up more Spirits with them like ignorant Conjurers then they can lay again Amongst the rest lascivious speeches are the most dangerous of all for such is mans proneness to lust and the Lubriety of his mind as 't is well compared to Ice about the brink of some precipice which of it self is so slippery as they can hardly abstain from falling in but when you add the Impulse of others 't is in a manner impossible Such then I shall avoid as publick Impoysoners or as those infected with the Plague who long to communicate their contagion to others and there is nothing more infectious then such mens company Above all I can least suffer them when they talk profanely of God and of Religion and 't is but the duty of every Christian to reprehend them for it for as he shu'd be counted no good subject who could hear the King and State ill spoken of so shu'd he be no good christian who could hear the like of God and of Religion and this is that which renders the state of such as these more desperate and deplorable and wholly exempts them from the General pardon of other sinners for if he who excuses his fault redoubles it he certainly who Glories in it renders it a hundred times more inexcusable then before for by the first he only offends God but by this he Braves him too and the first may be repented of and so forgiven but in this they are so far from repenting it and consequently of being forgiven as they declare a will of committing it again OF RELIGION AND GOOD LIFE To Theotima I Knew a Noble man who was wont to say when he saw any one bravely vitious indeed That they were valianter then he who durst be damn'd And though we are not lightly to judge so of any one yet when we see any professedly wicked and Irreligious 't is much to be feared that they are in a damnable state for there are two things conducing to â—alvation a Good Life and Good Religion and the one without the other nothing avails us as the Apostle sayes towards the attaining of Eternal Life For the first our Rule is the Commandments of Almighty God which whosoever transgresses is in danger of damnation For the second the Evangil of our Saviour Christ tells us that out of his Church there is no Salvation Of the first there is no doubt since even the very Heathens themselves by the only light of Nature held absolutely necessary for a Good Life the observance of all that God has commanded us for the second there is much doubt even amongst Christians themselves Some holding they may be sav'd in all Religions as well Christian as Iewish or Pagan c. And if so what needed our Saviour to have come into the world to teach us a new Religion since there were old Religions enow in the world before Others again are of opinion That in all Christian Religions they may be sav'd at least and if so what needed the Holy Scripture so nicely to distinguish betwixt the True Church of Christ and Herisies pronouncing all Hereticks infallibly damned or such as adher'd to their private opinions against the Generally received ones of the Church which being so Theotima all who have any care of their salvation besides living well are to endeavour to follow the Religion anciently instituted by our Saviour Christ and to insist on the foot-steps of the ancient Christians to find it out which however obscur'd by length of time may yet by those who diligently seek be easily discovered Since then our Saviour has said that Seducers should come but that his Church should never fail Let us not hearken to these new start-up Teachers crying out here is Christ and there is Christ so long till they make many doubt whether there be any Christ or no which is all the fruit of their new Doctrines to make people doubt of the old and be certain of nothing nor will there ever be an end of them till they return into the old again For if it be lawful for any man to begin a new Religion another will presently start up and cry Why not I as well as he and so they will at last increase to Infinite As we tender then our salvation Theotima let us hold firm unto the old which our Saviour himself has instituted and taught us who sayes of himself That he is the Way the Truth and the Life the Way in which we cannot err the Truth by which we cannot be deceived and the Life in which and by which we are to live Eternally To the same Counselling him to write OF SPIRITUAL MATTERS YOu are the first Theotima who encouraged me to write of spiritual matters from which I confess I was but too much discouraged before by the Libertines of the Time who make no more of God â—or Godly things then they did of the King and his Regalities in the dayes of Rebellion But where should I find Readers when I have done when besides your self and some few others resembling you it is a Language none now adayes understand more then old â—sk or the Punick and Carthagenian Tongue when I shall find opportunity I shall not be wanting to it but for importunity this is not a Time nor Place There are spiritual Books enow already unless they were better followed and enow of Religion unless they were better understood Mean time I thank you for the good opinion you have of me to think me capable of so good a work whilst some are so scrupulous as they should think themselves damned if they should but laugh and have so little scruple on t'other side as to think me little better because I am not as melancholly as themselves I thank God I have always been a profest Enemy to Vice and although this be but a negative kind of Vertue yet 't is somwhat as the world goes now where those may be counted Saints who are not altogether Sinners as those who are not altogether knaves may be counted honest men and I thank God I am still constant to my first principles as you will see by these pieces which I send you here which though they are not so spiritual as you desire tend towards it yet at least in a moral way and credit me Theotima We have as much need now of Morality as Divinity and 't is but a preposterous way to perswade the t'one without the other or seek to plant vertue and piety in their hearts without clearing them first of vice and impiety This then is the way Theotima which I have ta'n which if I find but approved by you I shall with the more chearfulness pursue it and glory in the Title of being Your devoted Servant and Convertit FINIS