inquisitive and judicious Reader then much matter and conceit compendiously digested with sufficiency of perspicuity To conclude lines of a farre fetcht and labour'd fancy with allusions and curiosity and in similes of little more fruit or consequence then to ravish the Reader into the writers fine Chamaeleon colours and feed him with aire I approve not so much as heighth and force of spirit sententiously and weightily exhibited wit needs not rack it self where matter flowes embroderies become not a rich stuffe and art is best exprest where it least appeares A strong wing is to be preferred before a painted and good â—ense and matter elegantly delivered before extravagancy of fancy and conceit such unnaturall impertinency serves rather to shadow then illustrate to overwhelme then set forth the subject as well apposite as accurate writing is the Authorsglory Postscript upon occasion of the then young Princes pretended desire to have sight of the following Poems ANd here under pardon to conclude with this further defence of Love the subject of this little work but taking it more large and high I find love to be the most worthy object of the best and most generous dispositions and none but maligne natures that addresse not their thoughts towards it for what good and worthy mind hath its being that is not bent as upon its felicity either to the love of women the most naturall of men the most noble or above all of God the most happy and rewardfull Whither else tend all our studies of comlinesse of glory and noble actions of charity and good deeds Wherein can man so well resemble his great Creator as by worth and goodnesse to win love what more noble end can any man have to study vertue and perfection then thereby to win affection and praise the reward and food of vertue and tribute of God Nay love the essence of God the good spirit and wings of the soule the Mother Child and finall cause of Beauty the begetter and maintainer of the world the life of life by love the Sunne shines and the earth brings forth by love is society and commerce maintained by love the soule dwels with the body and God with the soule by love nature ever works for our preservation when the body and almost the soule are laid in sleep Admirable love without thee life is hatefull man but a wolfe to man the world a second Chaos For thy sake alone who affectest not a decaying Mansion I apprehend losse by growing old yet thus againe am I comforted by thy most divine power that thou never abandonest the dwelling of goodnesse and art successively fruitfull over all the good works of nature to the worlds period so that to the vertuous where the love of women failes the love of men begins and where that by the withering imperfections of age grows cold as the aire to a setting Sunne there for our supreame and infinite comfort begin to shine most clearly the beames of that divinest love which before were too much intercepted by the sensualities and passions of our younger yeares to make us therein eternally happy by that operation of love and contemplation of beauty which at the last must be our soules immortall food and joy Advertisement upon the first Verses I am not ignorant that who keepes the common road falls not into the incumbrances incurred by them who search or by or nearer wayes Writing is a by-path of life I am yet ingaged to it but hope shortly to get out and by the way I give you this Antidote and Rapsody of praecaution and true information concerning the following pieces The reason why I retaine and expose them with others is not so much that I esteem them worthy of view or life as that they were many yeares since Copyed and spread abroad beyond my knowledge then and are now beyond my power to recall they are more Chaffe then Corn fitter to bee ventilated blown away and play in the aire then vented in any Market and commerce of wit and censure they are incorrect if not incorrigible yet I consent to leave them and many other my pieces such as they are to represent unto me the difference 'twixt then and now To attempt to perfect them were to dispersonate their youth and hasty nature and fall into the much frequented stage Error of putting stronger lines and more conceited and elaborate elegancy into weake mouths and strong passions then well comporteth with them let their youth and genuine conception plead their pardon You shall mistake them if you often conceive them not rather the off-spring of fancy then passion But take them at the worst they have something of reason and serious in them and the errours of love are not so foule as the love of errour nor is it impertinent to perswade love in them who have constrained it in you and love may bee such as to become no lesse justifiable then naturall Love is in truth of divers kinds ever an Ebullition of the liver sometimes it is made and forced upon us sometimes wee weave and foole our selves into it sometimes it proceeds from gratitude and good nature of gratification It is generally the child of weaknesse as well as of idlenesse witnesse my selfe in my childish youth and Melancholy humour A vigorous gayety of the heart and mind taken up and busie in other affections and entertainments hardly admits it It is a sad confinement a disease like womens longing where the violent appetite of one object no better then the rest gives relish to that alone whilst a right and undistasted apprehension of every thing in the true kind is the much better and sounder constitution and as in longing after such or such a morsell the consideration is carried by the fancy and tast which have no rule but themselves or as at Table the hearty approbation of some one dish is a provocation to others appetites so in love And as most Dogs will often strive to get away anothers bone though otherwise little desired or when a morsell is offered to bee snatched from them grow greedy of that which before they neglected so in affections I leave the application Sometimes as love hath been tearmed a warfare so is brave Conquest made ambition too many make it their felicity and effeminately bend all their affections towards it Sometimes it is taken up for a fashion and to be in fashion is in idle times of no small importance to idle and gallant persons Sometimes like Coqualuchios and Epidemicall diseases it may much proceed from the disposition of the Ayre as in other kind wee may observe of quarrells that they seldome go alone Our poore volatile ayery affections are strongly wrought upon as well from outward as inward incentives winds and Aspects The first accesse of love is not ever by the eyes it hath often a strong foundation and preocupation begotten at the eare when a noble heart takes impression of a well lodged reputation eminent in fame vertue
Which set our weake subdu'd distempered minds on fire Reason is put to flight and appetite beares sway Which blindly leads and blindly forceth us obey And that hee much mistakes who from a womans minde Or reason doth expect or just effects to finde Since passions indigest conceipt meere chance and will Their resolutions and their actions governe still But soft my gall-distilling pen your griefe contain Which howsoever just yet blaphemy refrain Admit her heart of fleshly temper fram'd as mine Bee pierc'd and captivate by Cupids pow'r divine Alas shee rather should bee pitied then accus'd Since what from force proceeds may justly bee excus'd And if indeed my faire Coelestia it bee true That your heart for another burnes as mine for you If you desire to bee so happy in your love That his affections unto you may mutuall prove If you expect your sighs which numberlesse abound Shall eâ—re receive reward or e're with joy bee crown'd Oh! let your your kindnesse then extended unto mee Make you deserve your happy hopes effects to see And faire beware lest if you shew unkind disdaine Loves justice justly yeeld you Talions law againe And if 't bee true that griefe delights in company Then will you love my presence and my sympathy Together wee will sit and comfort one another For griefe is most extreame when we our passions smother Where breathing out at large our due complaints of love Wee 'l both our hearts discharge and pitie learne to move And this lame happinesse of love shall please my mind That though you cannot love you are not yet unkind â—â—t pardon mee deare friend 't is not report alone Can prooflesse my aspiring fixed hope dis-throne But stedfast still in zeale and confidence I dwell As faithfull I love her shee may love mee as well IN fruitlesse expectation to remaine To bee in bed and yet debarr'd of rest To serve where you no favour can obtaine Is saith th' Italian to bee most distrest And these unfortunate effects I prove My faire Coelestia in my fervent love 'T is you detaine my long expected blisse 'T is you that make mee restlesse passe the night 'T is you I faithfull serve yet you it is Mercilesse you with-hold my chiefe delight And know faire creature hee that faithfull serves A costlesse favour ever well deserves Thinke that you have a friend that doth possesse A curious garden plentifully fraught VVith all the pleasures nature can expresse And all delights that ever cunning wrought And all these beauties singularly grac'd By a faire fountaine in the Center plac'd Hee lets you in with welcome entertaine And grants that many wayes your selfe you please Yet midst this ravishment you doe complaine Of thirst extreame which seeking to appease At that faire fountaine which you chance t'espie Your unkind friend his water doth deny And most uncharitable doth permit That part of it should idly slide away And part corrupt by over-keeping it Rather then yeeld a drop your thirst to stay VVhich nothing else can quench and 's onely bred By those dry sweets wherewith hee had you fed Would you now take this party for your friend O no I know you rather would conceive That all his kindnesses did only tend VVith quenchlesse thirst your pleasures to bereave And justly might you wish you ne're had knowne Those joyes whereby your joy is overthrowne That cruell friend faire love are you to me And your perfections that faire garden are VVhither a welcome guest I seeme to bee My senses ravisht all with pleasures rare Of beautie enterchange of words and kisses VVhich yet all breed but thirst and further wishes And those as cheapely you may satisfie As you a water drop may easily give Why cruell faire is't then that you deny That kindnesse without which I cannot live Deale plainly may not this the true cause bee You love my verses better farre then mee And apprehend that if I once obtain The full of my ambitions high desire My love will Moone-like enter on the wain And having won the day straight sound retire O do not so abuse your selfe and mee My love like Phoebus never change shall see My love like Phoebus never change shall see In constant course and heate ever the same And like the Northerne Pole shall fixed bee More firme then can be mov'd by heavens frame Constant to you till death I will remaine For never shall I see so faire againe No faire Coelestia love is Venus sonne Feare not the mother for the child 's destroying Nor is that saying unto you unknowne That th' essence true of love is in enjoying Hee playes the best who holdeth what hee wins The wiser sort still at their end begins If you approve my muses loftie flight And to be fed with change of praises still You must not oft delude her and invite Her to an empty lure that yeelds no fill A Hawke that loftily hath flowne and hard Well merits the best food and best reward Those exhalations that the heavens feed Did they not downe againe distill their rain Coelestiall bodies soone should want and need Those vapours which the earth sends up againe And Iove himselfe should lose his sacrifice But that hee mortals feeds and gratifies No fire can long subsist by smoak alone Flame 's by an oily solid substance fed Who divers times a field hath till'd and sowne Yet findes no profit by his labour bred His folly well deserves to reape but wind Having oft prov'd it barren and unkind Who shoots his arrows up and nothing hits Fooles bolts they prove which their own heads do break One may be ventur'd but he wants his wits That all his Quiver spends one shaft to seek Though vertue ought not foule repulse receive Yet wisdome wils us fruitlesse labours leave Full ill hee sings whose song cannot obtain A draught of drink impatient thirst to swage Though silly Bird I warble many a straine To please your eares imprison'd in your cage Birds long unfed their singing soon neglect No Almes no thankfull language must expect As happy in love are they that give as take Faire pity me and make me happy then Since you your self shall equall happy make VVomen receive farre more delight then men And if you find that I unfaithfull prove Let me be made a reprobate of Love And if you like these off-springs of my brain Whereto your self the Heroine mother are Suffer them not to die with drought but daign To water them from that your fountain faire VVhich true Parnassus spring doth Poets breed And tasted makes their Muse her self exceed It 's true that my affections lately bent And shap't their course that Mid-land straight to win Where Love hath plac'd his uttermost extent His else insatiate conquest to confine And as in nature it is proper known That fire should mount untill it hath attain'd His proper place the concave of the Moon So love untill it hath that center gain'd Whether by natures stimulating force It is
ridiculous and tedious kinde of complements which some use as Saddles to all horses tyrannous oppressions to solid dispositions and such as abound therein get nothing but the purchase of lyers which is not to bee credited when they speake truth whereas an old fashioned free-hearted word or two to the purpose are ever more significant and effectuall There hath also been some treatises framed to frame a good Ambassadour but none that I know have descended to tâ—e formall and now morall part of civill and respective demeanor in giving and returning visits receptions and convoyes giving place at home and at the Table and such like some retired Ambassadour or Secretary might well performe such a taske Hee will affect more to heare then to speake but when hee unfoldeth himselfe hee will consider what and to whom and ever containe himselfe within the bounds of his knowledge and truth otherwise hee shall bee a loser by one of his best blessings his language Hee will not shew that brutish sensualitie to carry his mind in his belly nor his soule upon his backe much lesse let it transmigrate into a horse or dogge Bookes and women hee will use with discretion and moderation left they devoure and confound him nor shall hee make right use of either who beareth not himselfe above them All these are to bee used for life and not as if wee lived onely for them Hee will educate his sonne to be like himselfe and not infuse Grammar and Philosophie into him in such sort as if nothing else concerned him and his well-being And therefore hee will bring him up to the true understanding of honour and true reputation and make him no stranger to the managing of a house and fortune which as much importeth him and the strangenesse whereof to young mindes wholly ingaged to other studies and delights is one of the greatest causes of so many ruins to private fortunes What is most comely and right shall bee his study and to discerne of truth and right requires a fulnesse as well of acquisite as naturall furniture Judgement of comelinesse comes the more easily upon common observation That becomes us best which is most our owne most proper and proportionable to the circumstances of our fortune and condition It is over incident to many to trouble themselves incurre contempt and ruine their estates by an erroneous affectation of greater expense curiositie and bravery then would bee expected from them such breed and feed the Canker that consumes them What is observed and approved by the best most sober and judicious and neither to leade nor contemne to follow the fashion is the best rule to be outwardly too different is monstrous to be affected and curious light and ridiculous But I have past my hower and will not exceede nor intend I either to write all or any thing formally or fully in this Subject or if I did I know it were but lost labour for nature and preoccupate affection so possesse us that impressions may be renewed and confirmed but hardly first wrought upon the mind by the pen especially without out predisposition of naturall parts assiduity of meditation and iteration if not also the addition of frequent and authorized example In effect much pen-labour might bee spared at least in matters of moralitie for the best natures and judgements with experience need it not and the worst are incorrigible OBserve and practise this confused heap And you may chance no small advantage reap Nothing more fairely then discretion growes Yet with not ever clad in beautie goes Some say that nature doth the mind neglect Whilst shee the body doth too much affect 'T is best I grant when both are richly joyn'd But if you love your selfe love best the mind If you this Inventory rude despise You may I doubt more curious prove then wise A Supplement to the Gentleman at such time as hee was out of my hands HEe will practise frugalitie not so much out of a base affection to the love of money as out of a generall election which hee hath made in all things to order himselfe by that which is the best most comely and reasonable whereunto hee will subject all his affections and thereby avoyd the ingageing himselfe upon a present heate and humour to infinite inconveniences and repentance which hee might incurre as men daily doe by rejecting a due regard to the distant future and the true use of that discourse and reason which God hath given him where with to governe his actions and resolutions and which differenceth him from the beasts of the fields Nay it is ordinarily seene that even the brute beasts themselves in their courses doe lesse digresse from such reason as concerneth them then many an inordinate and wilfull man His course and demeanour shall bee ever constant equable and correspondent to his fairest ends and pretences as flowing from the same fountaine all of a tenure all of a peece avoyding that just reprehension which falls often upon none of the least eminent of being one in publick other in private now brave and generous and presently unworthy and sordid unweaving their owne web and unadvisedly clothing themselves in such motley as they would otherwise disdaine to put on Hee will not bee a Libertine in his jests towards men much lesse towards God and therefore will kill such itch in his tongue as most odious in Religion and most pernicious to himselfe and others All discoveries of an affected humour detract from him in the censure of the most judicious Wherefore hee will decline them especially in his cloathing for it argues too great levitie to bee imployed therein and too poore a diffidence of his proper worth to seeke esteeme and valuation from it I will little esteeme the respect of man or woman who shall respect outward more then inward bravery or rich apparell more then a rich mind though both doe well with women the best of them are not carried with showes He will not easily upon argument enter into passion which but argues his owne doubt and weakenesse for a cleare understanding will pitie or endeavour to rectifie but not bee troubled at others ignorance and calmenesse maintained with a friend is better then to prevaile in the cavills of dispute He will examine his owne sufficiencie and goodnesse by the best Authors and the wisest and best men and approve of himselfe onely so farre as hee proveth conformable unto them and finding himselfe fit to doe service to God his King or Country hee will put off all restinesse and floath and set himselfe forward to the imployment of his best industrie and abilities for the common good yet ever so that hee regard due opportunitie and modesty and make use of meanes just and honorable towards his advancement and imployment for though audacitie prevaile often upon others weakenesse yet it is more secure from disgrace to bee over-modest and considerate then overbold and presumptuous nor will preferment unduely attained bee valued and
respected by mindes truely worthy and noble There are amongst us a barbarous kind of gallants who conceive it great bravery to looke big and contemptuously especially upon strangers towards whom in truth a formalitie and curtesie of fashion is most requisite and many women are not free from taxe who commonly have neither freedome nor civilitie in store but for their servants they thinke to endeare and set themselves off by such carriage though often voyd of other worth wee become accessary to their rudenesse by terming it rather pride then rusticitie which it truely is They are proud to be thought proud but should be taught better manners by a just and out doing scorne and censure we nourish it in them by sinking under it and blame what wee breed as wee doe Children whom we first teach to be liquorish by giving them what they otherwise had not affected It is also no small fault in great ones not to be courteous to their inferiours or not to countenance worth in place of their advantage they expose themselves often rather to suffer a presumptuous obtruding familiaritie then fairely to invite it whereby they open the doore to sawcy boldnesse and shut it upon the better and more modest dispositions Though it bee true that there is nothing whereon worthily to fix our affections in this world nor valuable to the fleeting and uncertaine life of man yet hee will above all earthly things esteeme of true honour and goodnesse as of that which will make him the most respected by the wisest and best of men most advantagious to perpetuate unto him a faire and happy reputation which the most worthy and magnanimous spirits have ever laboured for and most acceptable to God who cannot be pleased in anything incompatible and unlike to himselfe If therefore hee either value to bee well regarded by vertuous men to leave a good reputation and name to descend upon his posteritie to bee secure from the ruines scornes and punishments that evill men daily undergoe or to bee well accepted with God whereby to provide to himselfe a welbeing as well after as in this present life let him labour for the true understanding of vertue as the onely rich habit of a faire soule the knowledge whereof cannot faile to render him like unto it selfe nor is it any thing but a wilfull and stupid blindnesse to the discerning thereof that causeth the defect and contempt of it in those many weake and uncultivated spirits that these and all times produce A Favorite NAming a Favorite I intend not a Minion the creature of Fancy that holds by the face suddenly exhaled to such an height as is against nature for an unprepared braine to containe it selfe from giddinesse whose proper Spheare is that of pleasure and not of businesse especially of State him I leave to his Prince like his garden to please his eye and terme him a Favorite whose tenure is in Capite and whose good fortune hath made his worth and abilities knowne to his Master fit to have the secrets of his bosome and his most important affaires communicated unto him for his Counsell and guidance therein This is the man whom neither birth nor industry wherein he hath many equalls hath called to the relish of a Kingly power yet fortunately finding himselfe in that most happy height and condition of meanes to doe-good and glad the hearts of good men is as well in gratitude to his Master as thankfulnesse to God bound to exercise the uttermost of his endeavours by making himselfe a blessed instrument of all welfare to the State wherein he is potent which will ever be most easie to him who is armed with place and authority and if he accompany them with vertue modesty and goodnesse he shall be an Armour of proofe against such spight and envy as is incident to his greatnesse from the tongues of malignant persons Circumstance of place favour and fortune shall not transport his constant and well prepared heart nor will hee discover in himselfe any such uncomely vanitie and lightnesse as to seeme to set his mind upon magnificence of buildings furniture apparell feasts and titles but will rather affect the high glory which growes to good minds out of their disposition to moderation and solid goodnesse from the tongue and pens of good and vertuous men And howsoever wealth greatnesse of title and the chiefe honours of the Kingdome where hee moves are not more due to any then to himselfe yet hee will observe such a slow and graduall accesse unto them that his investing himselfe therewith shall rather appeare an unaffected or unlooked for favour of his Master or a seisin and livery after a due purchase made by his vertue and merit then a sudden affected and unproportionable elevation which will so bee his advantage as it is seene in nature that high objects bee they never so loftie doe not yet appeare so much to the eye as such as are much inferiour and of a suddain ascent Hee will recommend to the favour of his Master and cherish such as are vertuous or excell in any commendable perfections and such onely himselfe will bee noted to have about him For wee ordinarily conster great men by such as enjoy their company and good affection and according as they shall entertaine the good advise at least the persons of such neere unto them their ends may be calculated Evill men and flatterers like Sirens will presse upon them and it hath ever beene hard for men in great place to discover them nay such will obtrude upon them as will gladly worke advantage to themselves or their cause through their destruction No small caution will bee required therein but hee is an able man and my abilities may bee remembrancers but not Informers unto him Wherefore I will leave with this Character upon him that he is either the happiest or most unfortunate man in the Kingdome If hee order himselfe well and put not on pride presumption precipitation and passion with his greatnesse but runne a course of meeknesse moderation and goodnesse his reputation and memory are like to bee blessed and applauded but if otherwise hee misguide himselfe and contemne the good opinion and affection of the better part of the world it is to bee feared lest himselfe in his end prove odious and contemptible and bee condemned as unworthy of that faire fortune and favour which have shined upon him A Divine A Divine is Gods ordinary Ambassadour residing with us not to exercise the pompe and state of one nor to represent Gods Majesty and glory but to use the order care vigilance and diligence of an Ambassador by being a faithfull Minister in his function and charge Though he be termed Theologus he will be Theophilus a zealous lover as well as a verball Preacher of God and he may be defined with a good Oratour Vir bonus dicendi peritus for if he preach not first to himself and that his life be not answerable to his exhortations
the onely way of Cure but nothing more ordinarily neglected by such as only affect to say something to draw a Fee but wil be sure not to trouble their own mindes to cure their Patients But from such God deliver me who will as little admit them to the tryall of my disease and constitution as the Law doth a Butcher to be a Juror Purging Medicines shall bee his last refuge after prescription of convenient exercise order and dyet which by some of the best are affirmed to bee sufficient to cure any disease curable Hee will affect chearefulnesse of countenance and fashion for it is a Cordiall to the sick but he will take heed of an unseasonable merriment which is often as absurd as unwelcome to the seriousnesse of a sick man A thousand things have been and might be said to his instruction for no art more requires it but this in summe shall serve my turn who mean only to say something of a good but not to work a cure upou a bad Physitian I conclude that Physick had need have a God as well to the practice as to the invention of it for errors are so grosse and ordinary diseases and symptomes so complicate Indications so crosse nature and constitutions so diversly affected in Crisis and evacuation nor doth she ever powerfully shew her self till she be put to it for life Purging and blood-letting prove so ordinarily diverters impediments and weakners in stead of helpers to nature and seeing by a mistaking we call those our diseases which are in truth the working of nature towards our cure and the discharge of her self as in fits of Agues Collicks the Stone and the like for my part I chuse rather with David to put my self into the hands of God then man whose endeavours of cure and errors make us ordinarily more misreable then our disease it self I end to my good Doctor with that Counsell of the Scripture whereupon it is to bee hoped that hee will guide his practice namely that hee and his Art are to bee employed upon necessity which I think to be for the sense is ambiguous in such Cases where nature and dyet have ever appeared defective to work a Cure and that his art upon infalliblâ— and cleare grounds hath ever been found successefull A Lawyer A Good Lawyer is so fallen in love with my Lady Justice that there is no greater Antipathy in the world then betwixt him and injury nor hateth he any thing more then an undue course of proceeding He will make his Science compatible with conscience and so runne her course that at the length he may bee thought a fit Judge to preside her high Court of Chancery Hee will have a greater feeling of the cause and interest of his Client then of his Fee and entertaining the defence of it for just will affect more the gaining of it to him then to himself reputation His carriage shall not bee onely perfunctory neither in the taking notice nor in the pleading of the Cause but hee will both search and pleade it home without tendernesse either of his paines or of the Judge his displeasure Hee will not so much frame his practise to corru t custome as to honesty nor beare his eyes on the papers of his present Client and his mind on the Fee that presseth at his Closet doore Hee will esteeme his taking no better then theft without the industry of deserving and of himself worse then of a theese if his Client relying upon him hee appeare not in his defence yet goe away with his money Wherefore hee will entertaine no other causes then hee can honestly goe through nor take Fees without a resolution to discharge his dutie for them Though the Law bee an imperious Lady and unsociable yet hee will endeavour to accompany her with the study of other literature whereby to breed her better respect and his owne prevalence and indeed the study being somewhat dry and dull requires other learning wherewith to lard and grace it Hee will rather fast from Imployment then become patron of an unjust cause especially without having first delivered to his Client his opinion of the nature thereof and the probability of the successe Hee will not make a jest of his profession as some of them doe affirming their practise a pretty tricke to get money a contention of wits and purses a politick pastime to entertaine busie braines an a duell where the greatest stroakes are given underhand but will so defend right and Justice as hee would wish to be defended by them in his best titles and innocencie A Souldier TO bee a good Souldier and Commander hee must know well how to obey and command himselfe Hee must temper his judgement with courage and valour with discretion he will not bee greedy of other imployment then such whose issue is likely to breed his honour and though he owe obedience to his King or superiour yet if any such execution shall be imposed upon him as appeares not feazable unto him he will first discharge his duty in discovering the improbability but being pressed by their authority will undergo the charge with all alacritie and forwardnesse Hee is constituted a Corrector of vice and disorder in others and therefore must in no sort admit them in himselfe especially that of drinking which is too ordinarily incident to his profession for if it were possible hee should bee more then a man but that makes him lesse and it is to bee admired how such as professe and are generally in love with honour and reputation so farre as they will venture their lives upon small puntilio's to the maintayning thereof can consent to overwhelme themselves with such a vice as drawes an undervaluing contempt and scorne upon them even from the meanest sort of people Though it bee most unfit for a good Commander to bee prodigall of his owne life or his Souldiers upon an undue hazard yet their condition being such as to have sold themselves to mortall adventure hee will bee ambitious of nothing more then to meet with a faire occasion of dying in the bed of honour and who feareth death will never bee fitting for that profession and therefore will maintaine himselfe prepared for it Hee must in the exercise of his calling bee an enemy to sloth and idlenesse and keepe them from creeping upon him as hee would doe his blade from rust A continuall vigilance must bee the Sentinell of safetie to himselfe and the Troopes under him his taking notice of well deservers his good example and faire promises will animate his Souldiers and he will ever prove himselfe just of his word both to them and the enemy for if he often deceive and forfeit the trust and confidence that ought to be reposed therein he must impute others diffidence to his owne fault and will finde it a perpetuall prejudice unto him He will make it a principall care to well discipline his men before hee bring them into service for that makes the
see Thoughts stagg'ring reel whilst the poore bark doth rowle Cling to the Mast Pray Labor to the Lee Throw out their lading wrastle with the waves Sink down their sayles now lifted up on high Now almost swallow'd in th' Abysse of graves Now a cleer heaven and straight a dismall sky Here learn how fairest daies may overcast Confounding all your quiet with a blast What masters me to day may you to morrow But for our comfort God can master sorrow HEre see how in a sanguine complection when Gods grace begins powerfully to shine and work as in the month of March and turning of the year storms upon storms and Frigida pugnabant calidis humentia siccis Mollia cum duris sine pondere habentia pondus Till Deus hane litem melior natura diremit MY perverse fortune from my youth with my melancholy disease fruitfull in nothing but thoughts and those not ever the most necessary or naturall have often occasioned me with reflection upon my self to write something not so much to apologize for alas it is vaine where there might have bin prevention as to give some ease to my self and extenuation in what I may mis-appeare to the world but I have often bin diverted from such discourse by the overgrown wildernesse which long time and confusion have brought upon me Yet thus much let me say for my self and wonder at my selfe in that I may truely say so that neither carelesnes prodigality nor an humor disposed to riot or luxury have bred my harme Nay if there be any truth in me nothing hath more procured it then a misguided sobriety of diet with such an inordinate care for the ordering of my fortune in my beginnings finding my self pent and ingaged to wife and children as whatsoever may bee conceived I dare affirme no man of riper yeares and judgement but might have falne into and will whensoever it shall please God to entangle him in divers and strong incumbrances inward and outward which in the circumstances of my condition so malignly concurred that being something by nature and more by accident mis-diet over apprehension and studiousnesse disposed to a strong melancholy it was impossible to extricate my self without such an aggravation as rendred it incurable and me most miserable in the Shipwrack of all joy and contentment Wherein finding my self thus plunged one while my refuge was to the helplesse Physitian and another at last to strong diversions such as building Court company travaile and the like which all proved but such miserable helpers as melancholy men use to finde full of expence which till then about my age of 25. from 18. when I was married I had avoided Building as troublesome both to my fancy and purse I soon left and the losse of the brave Prince Henry on whom I had laid my grounds with much sicknesse soon after casting me down and increasing my disease I became unable to make use either of my naturall parts or time and expence bestowed in Court thoughts beget melancholy and that thoughts alternatively It is questionable whether I did more hurt my self with my thoughts which many years together long since brought me often even to an utter exhaustion or whether with Gods assistance in a strong constitution of body and minde for had not God furnished me with as strong and present supply of extrications as intrications I must often have perished I more extraordinarily relieved and supported my self to subsist against the impetuous curiosity of my disease and nature but my unhappinesse hath also bin such as in criticall times of my life to have met with such unluckie crosses and connexions of fate to put me out of my course that the consideration thereof would make any man not otherwise superstitious take knowledge of an over-ruling hand therein whereunto I humbly thank God I so submit my self as that for my spirituall good I acknowledge there ought to have gone no lesse to work a total conversion in me so hard is sanctification to be wrought even in men of religious inclinations For my posterity I must crave their pardon hoping they will with me submit to the Almighty hand which can at its good pleasure as well raise as ruine Worldly confidence illudes nor can any thing confirm prosperity in this and the better world but a firm faith and resolved obedience to God and his Son in whom alone is salvation That that alone can reconcile and calme the contrarieties of our complections in the distractions of pleasure profit conscience honor decency authority over others or a self-injoying making true Religion the only starre of our course whilst others for want of it sometimes wildly flote and sometimes sink in the confusion of their passions Good intentions without firm resolutions are insufficient No man hath meant more thriftily then my self but alasse in what a mist of contrary indications and contingencies doe we live when I concluded against hous-keeping I have bin indulgently over-ruled by others to the contrary And this I have found a great error in my nature to have bin more apt to gratifie others then my self and to beleeve them often more wise and trusty then there was due cause a miserable condition of the better natures Engagement to wife and servants made over-necessary take away the liberty of our resolutions to intend thrift is commonly enough to enrich but woful experience teacheth me that diseases and crosses such may come as shall turne the strongest out of his way No man more abhorred debt felling and felling then my selfe yet few have more incurred them No man almost hath allowed himselfe lesse cost or sensuality then I yet the diversions my disease hath urged me unto have set another face upon mee towards such as were not acquainted with my inside and native affections Few have more affected the service of King Country and Freinds not have by accident bin more unserviceable I ever extreamely fancyed my chief feat yet fear of cost in fitting the house and heighth of charge in living there by occasion of such an eminent fear with other accidentall considerations kept me thence till such time as my fortune was most unfit for that and it for me and yet against much reason and interest of my own I was drawn with relation to my predecessors and posterity to settle my self there with so much cost and trouble as but by the grace of God it is a wonder how in such indisposition and lownesse I have undergone This the good God can doe and howsoever it shall please him to dispose of me whose preserving hand I confesse I have wonderfully found may it please him to make my life and death to his glory it is all my ambition Many unluckie circumstances like that of a free minde entered into Court with a pent fortune I omit partly in respect of others and partly as fit to be confined to my self who have suffered their perplexities and contrarieties Gods grace
though the Melancholique patient hath a Wolfe by the eares of his disease trouble in holding and stirring and unsafe to let goe yet I esteem it a poore resolution to suffer a rooted mischiefe which is presently noxious and will more and more grow dangerous upon feare of adventure where there is any the least hope of delivering our selves in supportable evils admit and excite rather to any hazard then a miserable toleration a hopelesse condition is most calamitous a well-built body will indure and work out very much like a good Ship against soule weather at Sea mine I thank God is such that had not my minde like an evill Steers-man infinitely even of late been injurious unto it I had by Gods grace infallibly prevailed both against my Giant disease and infinite intervening unfriendly accidents but by Gods help I daily mend and hope to leap over the wall Nil desperandum in Christo nil aâ—spice Christo. L'industrie est de nous L'heâ—rex suceez de dieu December 11. 1637. TO give us courage in misfortunes it was well said of Fortune that her course is irregular and that we ought not to despaire of her for often when she appeares to threaten us with imminent ruine she is truely in the article and Catastrophe of our good and advantage It is more verifyed in the wayes of God nothing more ordinary with him then by humbling us to exalt us and to strew the path to Heaven with afflictions Caesar animated his Pilot by carrying him and his Fortunes it was a vain presumption but he who the Almighty is Pilot to cannot sink nor miscarry to demonstrate his power and awake the faith of his Favourites he permits as to his Disciples the stormes to rise and waves to threaten destruction and in his mighty and supernaturall rescues appeare his sweetest comforts his greatest glory Nec Deus intersit nisi dignus vindice nodus as the Divines affirm that tentations proceeding from the Devill may bee distinguished by their violent and suddain surprise So may Divine deliverances be infallibly known by the suddain and extraordinary help that we receive from them at such time as our condition appeares unto us most irremediable and desperate I have infinite matter and thanks to render to my Maker to my Saviour but in nothing more then that of his abundant mercy hee hath been pleased to lead me through Seas through Wildernesses of troubles and errour by a cloud by fire by the thunder of his voice by infinite wonders for neere forty yeares together to bring meat last to his happy Land of promise that is to peace joy and repose in him where alone flows all true happinesse and fixed contentment There can in truth be no constant courage without a firm Faith and assurance of Gods favour towards us that alone fortifies us against danger darknesse and death December 12. 1637. IT is truely said that wee know so much as we put in practice nor are the notions and floting impressions of the brain without a through tincture of the heart and soule any effectuall Science and so it is that vertue is constituted a habit and not only a babling scientificall discourse of the minde untill I considered this I often wondered to see the best Clerks often the worst men as well as none of wisest Men read and study commonly rather for curiosity to censure to learne language and the course and manner of the world to maintain a side to gain bread and knowledge like other men rather then truth vertue and piety to gather opinions and to appeare good rather then to be Propounding to our selves wrong objects no wonder if wee misse the right which makes so many Scholars who study to get the best Livings lesse vertuous in their lives then others who more vertuously and spiritually then worldly affected study rather to nourish then cloath to Dye then paint their mindes Corrupt nature like a depraved stomach turns and assimilates all nourishment it makes an alien of forain instruction and governs it selfe by its own Laws Nay ordinarily against our wills and resolutions nature relapses and ravisheth us from our Moralls from our Metaphysicals Sensuality prevailes and we prevaricate with our Consciences when I approached Gods Sanctuary this was yet lesse strange unto me there as Copernicus hath placed the Sun in the Center of this Universe whose influence and Magnetique vertue gives life and motion to all materiall creatures so is it cleare that the immateriall minde of man hath its life and motion only from the good Spirit of God and unlesse by his influence and inspiration he carry our instructions and informations to the root except he alter reform and season our hearts like hasty showers all passeth away whereas a sound heavenly dew worketh a better watering and fruitfulnesse want of that Divine irradiation makes us such Mungrills such half Christians as we ordinarily are acknowledging our Faith and Saviour in our tongues and denying him in our lives God of his great grace grant us his saving Spirit and we shall as well practice as seem to know and professe Amen Amen December 14. 1637. NO wonder that I search into the abstruse causes and proceedings of my disease for I am a wonder to my self that a Sanguine complection with a naturall strength of body and minde and none of the most impertinent in wit and discourse should fall into so great a confusion and consumption of minde body and fortune without some outward most apparent violence But besides what I have formerly expressed I consider that steeping my self in my beginnings in the study of Mountaynes Essayes which are full of Scepticisme and a kinde of Morall mortification in crying down the delights and presumptions of this world proved to a tainted and tender minde a great amatement and blunting with an anxious disposition of doubt in the ordinary course and pleasures of this life that and much adverse accident nipt me in my first Spring otherwise in all probability I who in that lownesse and oppression of spirits which hath possessed me could yet so beare up as in some measure to become sought and respected by the better sort might have been somewhat more then I have been in the eminency of this world but the great and good God hath otherwise ordained nor am I without hope that hee who hath to this day so wonderfully supported and converted me will thereby work his glory and my good It is true that my course hath been most improsperous yet never of a grossely irrationall or unthrifty election I have in truth been so farre from humouring my self in the impulsions of Nature or most delightfull objects of my fancy that I have mainly resisted my self therein It hath pleased God to make me an instrument of crossing and punishing my self in whatsoever I most placed my minde The obstinate continuance of my disease and the failings of those whom I have trusted and relyed upon have abused me I have lost much