they were alive We must not so live as if they were perished but so as pressing forward to the most intimate participation of the communion of Saints And we also have some wayes to expresse this relation and to bear a part in this communion by actions of intercourse with them and yet proper to our state such as are strictly performing the will of the dead providing for and tenderly and wisely educating their children paying their debts imitating their good example preserving their memories privately and publikely keeping their memorials and desiring of God with hearty and constant prayer that God would give them a joyfull resurrection and a mercifull judgement for so S. Paul prayed in behalf of Onesiphorus that God would shew them mercy in that day that fearfull and yet much to be desired day in which the most righteous person hath need of much mercy and pity and shall find it Now these instances of duty shew that the relation remains still and though the Relict of a man or woman hath liberty to contract new relations yet I do not finde they have liberty to cast off the old as if there were no such thing as immortality of souls Remember that we shall converse together again let us therefore never do any thing of reference to them which we shall be ashamed of in the day when all secrets shall be discovered and that we shall meet again in the presence of God In the mean time God watcheth concerning all their interest and he will in his time both discover and recompense For though as to us they are like water spilt yet to God they are as water fallen into the sea safe and united in his comprehension and inclosures But we are not yet passed the consideration of the sentence This descending to the grave is the lot of all men neither doth God respect the person of any man The rich is not protected for favour nor the poor for pity the old man is not reverenced for his age nor the infant regarded for his tendernesse youth and beauty learning and prudence wit and strength lie down equally in the dishonours of the grave All men and all natures and all persons resist the addresses and solennities of death and strive to preserve a miserable and an unpleasant life and yet they all sink down and die For so have I seen the pillars of a building assisted with artificiall props bending under the pressure of a roof and pertinaciously resisting the infallible and prepared ruine Donec certa dies omni compage solutâ Ipsum cum rebus subruat auxilium till the determined day comes and then the burden sunk upon the pillars and disordered the aids and auxiliary rafters into a common ruine and a ruder grave so are the desires and weak arts of man with little aids and assistances of care and physick we strive to support our decaying bodies and to put off the evil day but quickly that day will come and then neither Angels nor men can rescue us from our grave but the roof sinks down upon the walls and the walls descend to the foundation and the beauty of the face and the dishonours of the belly the discerning head and the servile feet the thinking heart and the working hand the eyes and the guts together shall be crush'd into the confusion of a heap and dwell with creatures of an equivocall production with worms and serpents the sons and daughters of our own bones in a house of durt and darknesse Let not us think to be excepted or deferred If beauty or wit or youth or Noblenesse or wealth or vertue could have been a defence and an excuse from the grave we had not met here to day to mourn upon the hearse of an excellent Lady and God onely knows for which of us next the mourners shall go about the streets or weep in houses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We have lived so many years and every day and every minute we make an escape from those thousands of dangers and deaths that encompasse us round about and such escapings we must reckon to be an extraordinary fortune and therefore that it cannot last long Vain are the thoughts of Man who when he is young or healthfull thinks he hath a long threed of life to run over and that it is violent and strange for young persons to die and naturall and proper onely for the aged It is as naturall for a man to die by drowning as by a fever And what greater violence or more unnaturall thing is it that the horse threw his Rider into the river then that a drunken meeting cast him into a fever and the strengths of youth are as soon broken by the strong sicknesses of youth and the stronger intemperance as the weaknesse of old age by a cough or an asthma or a continuall rheume Nay it is more naturall for young Men and Women to die then for old because that is more naturall which hath more naturall causes and that is more naturall which is most common but to die with age is an extreme rare thing and there are more persons carried forth to buriall before the five and thirtieth year of their age then after it And therefore let no vain considence make you hope for long life If you have lived but little and are still in youth remember that now you are in your biggest throng of dangers both of body and soul and the proper sins of youth to which they rush infinitely and without consideration are also the proper and immediate instruments of death But if you be old you have escaped long and wonderfully and the time of your escaping is out you must not for everthink to live upon wonders or that God will work miracles to satisfie your longing follies and unreasonable desires of living longer to sin and to the world Go home and think to die and what you would choose to be doing when you die that do daily for you will all come to that passe to rejoyce that you did so or wish that you had that will be the condition of every one of us for God regardeth no mans person Well! but all this you will think is but a sad story What we must die and go to darknesse and dishonour and we must die quickly and we must quit all our delights and all our sins or do worse infinitely worse and this is the condition of us all from which none can be excepted every man shall be spilt and fall into the ground and be gathered up no more Is there no comfort after all this shall we go from hence and be no more seen and have no recompense Miser ô miser aiunt omnia ademit Una die infausta mihi tot praemia vitae Shall we exchange our fair dwellings for a coffine our softer beds for the moistned and weeping turf and our pretty children for worms and is there no allay to this huge calamity Yes there
desire Were they not made unwillingly weakly and wandringly and abated with sins in the greatest part of thy life Didst thou pray with the same affection and labour as thou didst purchase thy estate Have thy alms been more then thy oppressions and according to thy power and by what means didst thou judge concerning it How much of our time was spent in that and how much of our estate was spent in this But let us goe one step further How many of us love our enemies or pray for and doc good to them that persecute and affront us or overcome evill with good or turn the face again to them that strike us rather then be reveng'd or suffer our selves to be spoil'd or robbed without contention and uncharitable courses or lose our interest rather then lose our charity And yet by these precepts we shall be judged I instance but once more Our blessed Saviour spake a hard saying Every idle word that men shall speak they shall give account thereof at the day of Judgement For by thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned and upon this account may every one weeping and trembling say with Job Quid faciam cum resurrexerit ad judicandum Deus What shall I doe when the Lord shall come to judgement Of every idle word O blessed God! what shall become of them who love to prate continually to tell tales to detract to slander to back-bite to praise themselves to undervalue others to compare to raise divisions to boast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who shall be able to stand upright not bowing the knee with the intolerable load of the sins of his tongue If of every idle word we must give account what shall we doe for those malicious words that dishonor God or doe despite to our Brother Remember how often we have tempted our Brother or a silly woman to sin and death How often we have pleaded for unjust interests or by our wit have cousened an easie and a beleeving person or given evill sentences or disputed others into false perswasions Did we never call good evill or evill good Did we never say to others thy cause is right when nothing made it right but favour and money a false advocate or a covetous Judge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so said Christ every idle word that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so St. Paul uses it every false word every lie shall be called to judgement or as some Copies read it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every wicked word shall be called to judgment For by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 idle words are not meant words that are unprofitable or unwise for fooles and silly persons speak most of those and have the least accounts to make but by vaine the Jewes usually understood false and to give their mind to vanity or to speak vanity is all one as to mind or speak falshoods with malicious and evill purposes But if every idle word that is every vain and lying word shall be called to judgment what shall become of men that blaspheme God or their Rulers or Princes of the people or their Parents that dishonour the Religion and disgrace the Ministers that corrupt Justice and pervert Judgment that preach evill doctrines or declare perverse sentences that take Gods holy Name in vain or dishonour the Name of God by trifling and frequent swearings that holy Name by which wee hope to bee saved and which all the Angels of God fall down and worship These things are to be considered for by our own words we stand or fall that is as in humane Judgements the confession of the party and the contradiction of himselfe or the failing in the circumstances of his story are the confidences or presumptions of law by which Judges give sentence so shall our words be not onely the means of declaring a secret sentence but a certain instrument of being absolved or condemned But upon these premises we see what reason we have to fear the sentence of that day who have sinned with our tongues so often so continually that if there were no other actions to be accounted for we have enough in this account to make us die and yet have committed so many evill actions that if our words were wholly forgotten wee have infinite reason to feare concerning the event of that horrible sentence The effect of which consideration is this that we set a guard before our lips and watch over our actions with a care equall to that fear which shall be at Doomes-day when we are to passe our sad accounts But I have some considerations to interpose 1. But that the sadnesse of this may a little be relieved and our endevours be encouraged to a timely care and repentance consider that this great sentence although it shall passe concerning little things yet it shall not passe by little portions but by generall measures not by the little errors of one day but by the great proportions of our life for God takes not notice of the infirmities of honest persons that alwayes endevour to avoid every sin but in little intervening instances are surprized but he judges us by single actions if they are great and of evill effect and by little small instances if they be habituall No man can take care concerning every minute and therefore concerning it Christ will not passe sentence but by the discernible portions of our time by humane actions by things of choice and deliberation and by generall precepts of care and watchfulnesse this sentence shall be exacted 2ly The sentence of that day shall be passed not by the proportions of an Angell but by the measures of a Man the first follies are not unpardonable but may bee recovered and the second are dangerous and the third are more fatall but nothing is unpardonable but perseverance in evill courses 3ly The last Judgement shall bee transacted by the same Principles by which we are guided here not by strange and secret propositions or by the fancies of men or by the subtilties of uselesse distinctions or evill perswasions not by the scruples of the credulous or the interest of sects nor the proverbs of prejudice nor the uncertain definitions of them that give laws to subjects by expounding the decrees of Princes but by the plain rules of Justice by the ten Commandements by the first apprehensions of conscience by the plain rules of Scripture and the rules of an honest mind and a certain Justice So that by this restraint and limit of the finall sentence we are secur'd we shall not fall by scruple or by ignorance by interest or by faction by false perswasions of others or invincible prejudice of our own but we shall stand or fall by plain and easie propositions by chastity or uncleannesse by justice or unjustice by robbery or restitution and of this wee have a great testimony by our Judge and Lord himselfe Whatsoever yee shall bind in earth shall be
Christ descended from his Fathers bosome and contracted his divinity with flesh and bloud and marryed our Nature and we became a Church the spouse of the bridegroom which he cleansed with his bloud and gave her his holy Spirit for a dowry and heaven for a joynture begetting children unto God by the Gospel this spouse he hath joyn'd to himself by an excellent charity he feeds her at his own table and lodges her nigh his own heart provides for all her necessities relieves her sorrowes determines her doubts guides her wandrings he is become her head and she as a signet upon his right hand he first indeed was betrothed to the Synagogue and had many children by her but she forsook his love and then he marryed the Church of the Gentiles and by her as by a second venter had a more numerous issue atque una domus est omnium filiorum ejus all the children dwell in the same house and are heirs of the same promises intituled to the same inheritance Here is the eternall conjunction the indissoluble knot the exceeding love of Christ the obedience of the Spouse the communicating of goods the uniting of interests the fruit of marriage a celestiall generation a new creature Sacramentum hoc magnum est this is the sacramentall mystery represented by the holy rite of marriage so that marriage is divine in its institution sacred in its union holy in the mystery sacramentall in its signification honourable in its appellative religious in its imployments It is advantage to the societies of men and it is holinesse to the Lord. Diâ—o autem in Christo Ecclesiâ It must be in Christ and the Church If this be not observed marriage loses its mysteriousnesse but because it is to effect much of that which it signifies it concerns all that enter into those golden fetters to see that Christ and his Church be in at every of its periods and that it be intirely conducted and over-rul'd by Religion for so the Apostle passes from the sacramentall rite to the reall duty Neverthelesse that is although the former discourse were wholly to explicate the conjunction of Christ and his Church by this similitude yet it hath in it this reall duty that the man love his wife and the wife reverence her husband and this is the use we shall now make of it the particulars of which precept I shall thus dispose 1. I shall propound the duty as it generally relates to Man and Wife in conjunction 2. The duty and power of the Man 3. The rights and priviledges and the duty of the Wife 1. In Christo Ecclesia that begins all and there is great need it should be so for they that enter into the state of marriage cast a dye of the greatest contingency and yet of the greatest interest in the world next to the last throw for eternity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 life or death felicity or a lasting sorrow are in the power of marriage A woman indeed ventures most for she hath no sanctuary to retire to from an evill husband she must dwell upon her sorrow and hatch the egges which her own folly or infelicity hath produced and she is more under it because her tormentor hath a warrant of prerogative and the woman may complain to God as subjects do of tyrant Princes but otherwise she hath no appeal in the causes of unkindenesse And though the man can run from many hours of his sadnesse yet he must return to it again and when he sits among his neighbours he remembers the objection that lies in his bosome and he sighes deeply Ah tum te miserum malique fati Quem attract is pedibus patente portâ Percurrent mugilésque raphanique The boyes and the pedlers and the fruiterers shall tell of this man when he is carryed to his grave that he lived and dyed a poor wretched person The Stags in the Greek Epigram whose knees were clog'd with frozen snow upon the mountains came down to the brooks of the vallies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hoping to thaw their joynts with the waters of the stream but there the frost overtook them and bound them fast in ice till the young heardsmen took them in their stranger snare It is the unhappy chance of many men finding many inconveniences upon the mountains of single life they descend into the vallies of marriage to refresh their troubles and there they enter into fetters and are bound to sorrow by the cords of a mans or womans peevishnesse and the worst of the evill is they are to thank their own follies for they fell into the snare by entring an improper way Christ and the Church were no ingredients in their choice but as the Indian women enter into folly for the price of an Elephant and think their crime warrantable so do men and women change their liberty for a rich fortune like Eriphyle the Argive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 she prefer'd gold before a good man and shew themselves to be lesse then money by overvaluing that to all the content and wise felicity of their lives and when they have counted the money and their sorrowes together how willingly would they buy with the losse of all that money modesty or sweet nature to their relative the odde thousand pound would gladly be allowed in good nature and fair manners As very a fool is he that chooses for beauty principally cui sum eruditi oculi stulta mens as one said whose eyes are witty and their soul sensuall It is an ill band of affections to tye two hearts together by a little thread of red and white 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And they can love no longer but untill the next ague comes and they are fond of each other but at the chance of fancy or the small pox or childebearing or care or time or any thing that can destroy a pretty flower But it is the basest of all when lust is the Paranymph and solicits the suit and makes the contract and joyn'd the hands for this is commonly the effect of the former according to the Greek proverb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 At first for his fair cheeks and comely beard the beast is taken for a Lion but at last he is turn'd to a Dragon or a Leopard or a Swine That which is at first beauty on the face may prove lust in the manners 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So Eubulus wittily reprehended such impure contracts they offer in their maritall sacrifices nothing but the thigh and that which the Priests cut from the goats when they were laid to bleed upon the Altars 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said St. Clement He or she that looks too curiously upon the beauty of the body looks too low and hath flesh and corruption in his heart and is judg'd sensuall and earthly in his affections and desires Begin
burning basons do with intolerable circles of reflected fire Such are the principles of a sinners Philosophy And no wiser are his hopes all his hopes that he hath is that he shall have time to repent of that which he chooses greedily that he whom he every day provokes will save him whether he will or no that he can in an instant or in a day make amends for all the evils of 40 years or else that he shall be saved whether he does or no that heaven is to be had for a sigh or a short prayer and yet hell shall not be consequent to the affections and labours and hellish services of a whole life he goes on and cares not he hopes without a promise and refuses to beleeve all the threatnings of God but beleeves he shall have a mercy for which he never had a revelation If this be knowledge or wisdome then there is no such thing as folly no such disease as madnesse But then consider that there are some sins whose very formality is a lye Superstition could not be in the world if men did beleeve God to be good and wise free and mercifull not a tyrant not an unreasonable exactor no man would dare do in private what he fears to do in publick if he did know that God sees him there and will bring that work of darknesse into light But he is so foolish as to think that if he sees nothing nothing sees him for if men did perceive God to be present and yet do wickedly it is worse with them then I have yet spoke of and they beleeve another lie that to be seen by man will bring more shame then to be discerned by God or that the shame of a few mens talk is more intolerable then to be confounded before Christ and his army of Angels and Saints and all the world * He that excuses a fault by telling a lie beleeves it better to be guilty of two faults then to be thought guilty of one and every hypocrite thinks it not good to be holy but to be accounted so is a fine thing that is that opinion is better then reality and that there is in vertue nothing good but the fame of it * And the man that takes revenge relies upon this foolish proposition that his evill that he hath already suffer'd growes lesse if another suffers the like that his wound cannot smart if by my hand he dies that gave it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sad accents and dolefull tunes are increased by the number of mourners but the sorrow is not at all lessened I shall not need to thrust into this account the other evils of mankinde that are the events of ignorance but introduc'd by sin such as are our being moved by what we see strongly and weakly by what we understand that men are moved rather by a fable then by a syllogisme by parables then by demonstrations by examples then by precepts by seeming things then by reall by shadowes then by substances that men judge of things by their first events and measure the events by their own short lives or shorter observations that they are credulous to beleeve what they wish and incredulous of what makes against them measuring truth or falshood by measures that cannot fit them as foolishly as if they should judge of a colour by the dimensions of a body or feel musick with the hand they make generall conclusions from particular instances and take account of Gods actions by the measures of a man Men call that justice that is on their side and all their own causes are right and they are so alwayes they are so when they affirm them in their youth and they are so when they deny them in their old age and they are confident in all their changes and their first error which they now see does not make them modest in the proposition which they now maintain for they do not understand that what was may be so again So foolish and ignorant was I said David and as it were a beast before thee Ambition is folly and temerity is ignorance and confidence never goes without it and impudence is worse and zeal or contention is madnesse and prating is want of wisdome and lust destroyes it and makes a man of a weak spirit and a cheap reasoning and there are in the Catalogue of of sins very many which are directly kinds and parts and appendages of ignorance such as are blindnesse of minde affected ignorance and wilfull neglect of hearing the word of God resolved incredulity forgetfulnesse of holy things lying and beleeving a lye this is the fruit of sin this is the knowledge that the Devill promised to our first parents as the rewards of disobedience and although they sinn'd as weakly and fondly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon as slight grounds and trifling a temptation and as easie a deception as many of us since yet the causes of our ignorance are increased by the multiplication of our sins and if it was so bad in the green tree it is much worse in the dry and no man is so very a fool as the sinner and none are wise but the servants of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The wise Chaldees and the wiser Hebrewes which worship God chastly and purely they only have a right to be called wise all that do not so are fools and ignorants neither knowing what it is to be happy nor how to purchase it ignorant of the noblest end and of the competent means towards it they neither know God nor themselves and no ignorance is greater then this or more pernicious What man is there in the world that thinks himself covetous or proud and yet millions are who like Harpaste think that the house is dark but not themselves Vertue makes our desires temperate and regular it observes our actions condemns our faults mortifies our lusts watches all our dangers and temptations but sin makes our desires infinite and we would have we cannot tell what we strive that we may forget our faults we labour that we may neither remember nor consider we justifie our errors and call them innocent and that which is our shame we miscall honour and our whole life hath in it so many weak discourses and trifling propositions that the whole world of sinners is like the Hospitall of the insensati madnesse and folly possesses the greater part of mankinde What greater madnesse is there then to spend the price of a whole farm in contention for three sheaves of corn and yet tantum pectora caecae noctis habent this is the wisdome of such as are contentious and love their own will more then their happinesse their humour more then their peace Furor est post omnia perdere naulum Men lose their reason and their religion and themselves at last for want of understanding and all the wit and discourses by which sin creeps in are but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 frauds of the tongue and consultations of
most mens interest to do it these men are in a pitiable condition and are to be helped by the following rules 1. Let every man consider that he hath two relations to serve and he stands between God and his Master or his neerest relative and in such cases it comes to be disputed whether interest be preferred which of the persons is to be displeased God or my Master God or my Prince God or my Friend If we be servants of the man remember also that I am a servant of God adde to this that if my present service to the man be a slavery in me and a tyranny in him yet Gods service is a noble freedom And Apollonius said well It was for slaves to lie and for free men to speak the truth If you be freed by the blood of the Son of God then you are free indeed and then consider how dishonourable it is to lie to the displeasure of God and onely to please your fellow-servant The difference here is so great that it might be sufficient onely to consider the antithesis Did the man make you what you are Did he pay his blood for you to save you from death Does he keep you from sicknesse True You eat at his table but they are of Gods provisions that he and you feed of Can your master free you from a fever when you have drunk your self into it and restore your innocence when you have forsworn your self for his interest Is the change reasonable He gives you meat and drink for which you do him service But is not he a Tyrant and an usurper an oppressor and an extortioner if he will force thee to give thy soul for him to sell thy soul for old-shoes and broken bread But when thou art to make thy accounts of eternity will it be taken for an answer My Patron or my Governour my Prince or my Master forced me to it or if it will not Will he undertake a portion of thy flames or if that may not be will it be in the midst of all thy torments any ease to thy sorrows to remember all the rewards and clothes all the money and civilities all the cheerfull looks and familiarity and fellowship of vices which in your life time made your spirit so gay and easie It will in the eternall loads of sorrow adde a duplicate of groans and indignation when it shall be remembred for how base and trifling interest and upon what weak principles we fell sick and died eternally 2. The next advise to persons thus tempted is that they would learn to separate duty from mistaken interest and let them be both served in their just proportions when we have learned to make a difference A wife is bound to her husband in all his just designes and in all noble usages and Christian comportments But a wife is no more bound to pursue her husbands vitious hatreds then to serve and promote his unlawfull and wandring loves It is not alwayes a part of duty to think the same propositions or to curse the same persons or to wish him successe in unjust designes And yet the sadnesse of it is that a good woman is easily tempted to beleeve the cause to be just and when her affection hath forced her judgement her judgement for ever after shall carry the affection to all its erring and abused determinations A friend is turned a flatterer if he does not know that the limits of friendship extend no further then the pale and inclosures of reason and religion No Master puts it into his covenant that his servant shall be drunk with him or give in evidence in his Masters cause according to his Masters scrolls and therefore it is besides and against the duty of a servant to sin by that authority it is as if he should set Mules to keep his sheep or make his Dogs to carry burdens it is besides their nature and designe and if any person falls under so tyrannicall relation let him consider how hard a Master he serves where the Devil gives the imployment and shame is his entertainment and sin is his work and hell is his wages Take therefore the counsel of the son of Syrac Accept no person against thy soul and let not the reverence of any man cause thee to fall 3. When passion mingles with duty and is a necessary instrument of serving God let not that passion run its own course and passe on to liberty and thence to licence and dissolution but let no more of it be entertained then will just do the work For no zeal of duty will warrant a violent passion to prevaricate a duty I have seen some officers of Warre in passion and zeal of their duty have made no scruple to command a souldier with the dialect of cursing and accents of swearing and pretended they could not else speak words effective enough and of sufficient authority and a man may easily be overtaken in the issues of his government while his authority serves it still with passion if he be not curious in his measures his passion will also serve it self upon the authority and over rule the Ruler 4. Let every such tempted person remember that all evil comes from our selves and not from others and therefore all pretences and prejudices all commands and temptations all opinions and necessities are but instances of our weaknesse and arguments of our folly For unlesse we listed no man can make us drink beyond our measures And if I tell a lie for my Masters or my friends advantage it is because I prefer a little end of money or flattery before my honour and my innocence They are huge follies which go up and down in the mouthes and heads of men He that knows not how to dissemble knows not how to reigne He that will not do as his company does must go out of the world and quit all society of men We create necessities of our own and then think we have reason to serve their importunity Non ego sum ambitiosus sed nemo aliter Romae potest vivere non ego sumptuosus sed urbs ipsa magnas impensas exigit Non est meum vitium quod iracundus sum quod nondum constitui certum vitae genus adolescentia haec facit The place we live in makes us expensive the state of life I have chosen renders me ambitious my age makes me angry or lustfull proud or peevish These are nothing else but resolutions never to mend as long as we can have excuse for our follies and untill we can cozen our selves no more There is no such thing as a necessity for a Prince to dissemble or for a servant to lie or for a friend to flatter for a civil person and a sociable to be drunk we cozen our selves with thinking the fault is so much derivative from others till the smart and the shame falls upon our selves and covers our heads with sorrow And unlesse this gap be stopped and that we