as it were in Triumph through a World of Bonds Rods Swords Racks Wheels Flames Strapadoes and whatsoever else is most terrible These joys are impregnable and unspeakable indeed This Peace is unconceivable passes all understanding This Friend is unmatchable Let not such an one so true so fast so good be slighted or offended Therefore let us be of St. Paul's mind set Conscience at an high Price Consider what it will be worth in a day of Trouble of Death of Judgment Weigh what the Price of Conscience would be at in Hell if men might buy their Peace and Rate it accordingly Look how chary a proud Woman is of her Beauty a Wise-man of his Eye a Weak man of his Stomach So and much more than so should a Christian be careful of his Conscience Of his Heart Prov. 4. 23. Keep thy Heart with all diligence c. Pet. 23. 1. I have lived in all good Conscience before God until this day Heb. 13. 18. We trust we have a good Conscience in all things willing to live honestly Give Conscience content and rest and it will pay thee an Hundred-fold It will round thee in the Ear and say this is well however it be taken and therefore be not discouraged This is naught however applauded and Painted 'T is stark staring naught 'T is Pride Hypocrisie therefore amend it Other Friends go and come and stand afar off now at hand now I know not where But Conscience is no starter 'T is never from our sides out of our Bosoms A pacified Conscience what a Blessing is that What joys be those which will carry a man out of the Earth and make him say Tho I have Wife Children Friends Wealth House Health Ease Honour c. after mine own Hearts desire yet these are nothing to my Comfort and Contentment within Oh Conscience Thou hast a special gift in Comforting that canst make the Patient laugh and rejoyce when the Spectators weep and mourn and canst carry frail Flesh singing and rejoycing thorough a World of Miseries These joys be strong indeed and pass mans understanding Phil. 4. 7. Other Friends love not to come to a Sick-mans Bed-side Or if they do they cannot abide to hear his groaning to see a Dead man At the most they can but follow him to the Grave But Conscience will make a mans Bed in his sickness and cause him to lye the softer It will stand by him when he groans and Comfort him It will hearten him against Death when it 's coming and say thy Redeemer lives It will whisper to him when departing and say Thy Warfare is accomplished It will lodge the Body in the Grave as in a Bed accompany the Soul into Heaven and enable it to look God in the Face without any terror So fast a Friend is this that when Riches Husband Parents Friends Breath Life Nay when Patience Hope Faith have left us in some measure this will not leave us That 's the best Glass which shews the smallest spots The brightest Light that shews the least Motes The finest Flesh that is sensible of the least pricking So that Conscience that is sensible of the least Sin or failing is the Perfection of Christianity whereunto we should all endeavour to attain If you lay an heavy burden upon a sound Shoulder it goes away with it well enough So if the Soul and Conscience be sound and God enable a man to bear it Diseases Imprisonment Disgrace c are easily born As the cleerest Blood makes the best Spirits So doth a good Life the quietest Conscience The purest air breeds the greatest agility and the purest Life the fairest Hope A natural Conscience shews only the danger of Sin and so makes a man fear it But a spiritual Conscience shews the filthiness and pollution of Sin and so makes a man hate it A good Conscience appears in the Countenance and looks merrily out at the Windows of the Eyes But this is not till Faith hath healed the Conscience This made Stephen to look like an Angel Act. 6. 15. and the Apostles to rejoyce in their sufferings Act. 5. 41. This is Praemium ante praemium even Heaven afore-hand some Clusters of Grapes of that Celestial Canaan A good Conscience will not only stand under the greatest pressures as we see in St. Paul 2 Cor. 1. 9. 12. We had the Sentence of Death in our selves that we should not trust in our selves but in God which raiseth the Dead For our rejoycing is this the Testimony of our Conscience that in simplicity and Godly sincerity not with fleshly Wisdom but by the Grace of God we have had our Conversation in the World But goes as merrily to Dye in a good cause as ever he did to Dine as we see in divers of the Martyrs Be the Air cleer or Cloudy he enjoys a continual serenity and sits always at the blessed Feast whereat the Angels are continually the blessed Cooks and Butlers as Luther phraseth it and the three Persons of the Trinity are gladsome Guests A good Conscience is a full Feast a lasting Feast not for a day as was Nabal's Nor for seven dayes as was that of Sampson No nor for ninescore dayes as was of that Ahasherus But a durable Feast without intermission of solace or interruption of Society Vis ergo O Homo semper epulari Vis nunquam tristis esse saith Bernard Bene vive Would'st thou never be sad Would'st thou turn thy whole Life into a merry Festival Get and keep a good Conscience Prov. 17. 22. A merry Heart doth good like a Medicine All true mirth is from the peace of Conscience When Faith hath healed the Conscience there is a Sabbath of rest and blessed tranquillity lodged in the Soul and then the Body also is vigorous for the most part and in good plight and healthful Eccles 9. 7. c. Go thy way saith Solomon there to one that hath a good Conscience Eat thy Bread with joy and drink thy Wine with a merry Heart Let thy Garments be always White and let thy Head lack no Oyntment c. That is be merry at thy Meals light-some in thy Cloaths painful and cheerful in thy Calling c. all which do much further Health Such shall renew their strength They shall mount up with wings as Eagles They shall run and not be Weary And they shall walk and not Faint Isa 40. 31. Let a man be sound within and at Peace with his own Conscience and he will be able bravely to bear up under unspeakable Pressures as did St. Paul 2 Cor. 1. 9. 12. as an old beaten Porter to the Cross Maluit toller are quà m deplorare His stroak was heavier than his groaning Job 23. 2. Conscience is frequently in Scripture called the Spirit of a Man as being planted by God in every part of the reasonable Soul where she produceth occasionally several Operations as being the Souls School-Master Monitor and domestical Preacher God's spy and Man's Over-seer The principal
Sanders to run over the Irish Mountains quite out of his Wits till he perish of hunger In brief it so oppresses that it causeth the sweating Soul to cry with David Oh my Bones are broken And with Moses who know's the power of his Wrath And to joyn with Soloman a wounded Spirit who can bear what Man what Angel Who under Christ Nay this stroke upon the Soul seperated from all Sin drew from the Lord of Life those sad cryes My God my God why hast thou forsaken me That which a Thousand taunts ten Thousand racks could not have done this one alone apprehended and felt wrested from him And shall such a thing as this so near so great a Neighbour be offended Be we then of St. Paul's mind Set Conscience at an high Price Consider what it will be worth in the Day of trouble of Death of Judgment and resolve to begg starve burn dye a Thousand deaths to save Consciences life As a good Conscience next to God its Master is our best Friend in the World so Conscience offended is our forest Enemy The greatest Friends are bitterest Foes when divided No Wars to Civil Wars to domestical Wars The nearer the worse and therefore the Conscience being nearest if it become an Enemy is the heaviest of all others For First It 's an unavoidable Enemy other Enemies may be kept off with strength or put off with skill but so cannot Conscience No Barrs no Bolts no Bulwarks can keep that from thy Table or Bed Dan. 5. 5. Belshazzar may sooner keep out ten Thousand Medes and Persians than one Conscience That will pass through all his Guards and Officers to his presence and in the Face of his Nobles and Concubines arrest him and shake him in despight of his security Nor will this Officer be bob'd with a bundle of Distinctions and Evasions When God sets it a work it marches furiously like Jehu and will take thee up with his answer What Peace so long as thy Whoredoms and sins remain As there is no Respondent like Conscience so there is no Objector like to that A man may make a shift with a wrangling Sophister yea with the Devil himself better than with his Conscience For no Devil knows that by me which I do by my self And the Conscience shall have the hearing when the Devil shall not For Conscience is the Kings Solicitor and speaks for the great King Secondly This Enemy is unsufferable It strips us at one stroke of all other Comforts a sick Stomach makes that meat which before much pleased now to encrease the Disease So doth a sick Conscience It takes away the relish of all natural Comforts and of all spiritual Exercises and Ordinances and makes a man a burden and terror to himself It fills one full of Horrors and unhappiness the Violentest diseases may be born but when the Pillers are shaken when that which bears up all is wounded when the Heavens fight against a man and a poor Creature must wrestle against infinite justice and power Oh how hard a thing is this The wrath of a King is terrible and the rage of Seas of Fire of Lyons but still here is Creature against Creature Weak to Weak but who knows the power of Gods anger Who can stand before that consuming Fire Not man Not mountains Not Angels The terrors of God and anguish of Spirit cast's the Devil himself into a frenzy and makes him mad As those parts of the Nail next to the flesh at first are softer than the rest but after a while they grow into that hardness which is in the remoter parts So the Consciences of all men have those seeds of insensibility in them which makes them at last deaf to every Charm and secure against all the thundering Judgments which are denounced against them As the operation of the Sun is always strongest there where it is not at all seen to Wit in the Bowels of the Earth So the judgments of God do oft lye heaviest there where they are least perceived to Wit in an hard Heart and seared Conscience When men go about to extinguish and darken the light of direction which God hath put into their Hearts and Consciences to guide their paths by he puts out their light of Comfort and leaves them to Darkness and Sorrow Other afflictions are but the taking some stars of Comfort out of the Firmament when others are left still to shine there But when God's countenance is hid from the Soul the Sun it self the fountain of Light is darkned to such and so a general Darkness befalls them A light Load upon a raw Shoulder is very grievous So is a little outward grief to a wounded Conscience Every fowl that hath a beautiful Feather hath not the sweetest Flesh Nor doth every Tree that beareth a goodly Leaf bring good Fruit. Glass gives a clearer sound than Silver and many things glister besides Gold The wicked man's jollity is but the Hypocrisie of mirth It may wet the Mouth but cannot warm the Heart Smooth the Brow but not fill the Breast In the midst of his greatest mirth he hath many a secret gripe in his Conscience and little knows the World where his shooe pinches him As Jezabel no doubt had a cold Heart under a painted Face So many a mans Heart akes and quakes within him when yet his Face counterfeits a smile We have a cloud of Witnesses Prophets Apostles Martyrs who would hazard themselves upon the angry Seas Lyons Flames rather than upon a displeased Conscience Collected out of the Works of B. Reynolds Dr. Harris and Dr. Stoughton by S. C. Some choice Sentences and Sayings concerning the Blessings and Benefits which accompany a pure peaceable and good Conscience COnscience is a Prime faculty of the reasonable Soul there set to give notice of its spiritual Estate in what Terms it stands with God Conscience saith St. Austin is like a Wife the best of Comforts if good the worst of naughts if bad Deal friendly with Conscience and next to God it will prove thy best friend in the World First Thy truest Friend that will never flatter thee but make thee know thy self Secondly The surest Friend that will never start from thee It wll Ride with thee It will lye with thee sleep with thee Wake with thee It will Walk with thee Be with thee in every place beyond all times Thirdly The sweetest Friend in the World If natural cheerfulness be so good an House-keeper to a good man that it Feasts him daily as Solomon saith Oh then what will be the Banquets of a Conscience sanctified purified and pacified What joys those that will carry a man above ground and make him forget the best of Natures Comforts what Comforts those that will make him sing under the Whip in the Stocks at the Stake in despite of the Fire Oh what the strength of Conscience that can sooner tyre the Tyrant than the Martyr And can carry weak Strength as weak as Water
Commander and chief Controuler of all his Desires and doings Conscience is a most Celestial gift It is so of God and in Man that it is a kind of middle thing between God and Man less than God and yet above man It may be called our God in the sense that Moses was called Pharaoh's God having Power to controul and avenge our disobedience with greater plagues than ever Moses brought upon Egypt Many seek for knowledge few care for Conscience yet is Conscience got with more ease and kept with more advantage than all our Science Keep Conscience pure and it will keep thee in Peace Let men the World and the Devils do their worst they cannot hurt him that hath a good Conscience saith Bernard A good Conscience is the Paradise that God walks in the Throne that Christ sits upon the Temple that the holy Spirit dwels in the Golden-pot wherein is kept the hidden Manna c. Conscience is the Book of Books the ancientest piece of Scripture in the world The first Tables of God's own hewing and Hand-writing in the Heart of Man for whose sake all other Books since yea the Scripture it self was afterwards written on purpose to Comment upon it This is the Book that every man should be well versed in To study other Books will make thee a Schollar but to study this will make thee a Christian Peace of Conscience is worth our utmost endeavour It will make a man sleep without a Pillow yea without a Bed Hence it was that Jacob took such good rest upon a Stone That Peter loaden with Iron Chains could sleep so sweetly tho for ought he knew he was to dye the next day That Mr Philpot and his fellow Prisoners could rouse as merrily in the Straw in the B B of London's Colehouse as if they had been upon Down Beds in a Pallace It is a Feast with any Food tho never so course and slender It made those blessed Martyrs in the Reign of Severus the Emperor of whom Eusebius writes that after long and hard imprisonment being released for a time they appeared to the People as those that came è Myrothecia non Ergastulo rather out of Shops from among sweet Oyntments than out of filthy Prisons They were brought forth saith he rejoycing in their Torments and carrying in their Countenances a certain Divine aspect This inward peace of Conscience made the Prophet Isay cheerfully to submit himself to the Saw Jeremiah to be stoned Paul to the Sword Peter to the Cross Lawrence to the Grid-iron c. Prov. 28. 1. The righteous is bold as a Lyon Conscintia pura semper secura A good Conscience hath a secure Confidence and he that hath it sits Noah-like mediis tranquillus in undis Quiet in the greatest Combustions Freed if not from the common Destruction yet from the common Distraction For he knows whom he hath trusted and is sure that neither Life nor Dèath nor things Present nor things to come can ever sunder him from God's love in Christ Rom. 8. 38 39. Tho Saul could not be merry without a Fidler Ahab without Naboth's Vineyard Nor Haman without Mordecai's curtesie Yet he that hath a good Conscience can be merry without all these Yea as the Lilly is fresh beautiful and looks pleasantly tho among Thorns So can such an one exult in the midst of troubles St. Paul tho no man out of Hell ever suffered more then he yet did he not only Glory in Tribulations but Over-abounded exceedingly with joy 2 Cor. 7. 4. There are four quiet Consciences and never a one of them good First The ignorant Conscience which with the blind Man swallows many a Fly and know's it not Ephe. 4. 18 19. Secondly The Conscience that was never yet well awakened The sleeping Conscience But Sin lyes at the Door His Bones are full of the Sin of his youth which shall lye down with him in the Dust Job 20. 11. This is worse than a troubled Conscience Here the strong Man armed keepeth possession and therefore all things are at Peace Luke 11. 21. Thirdly The deluded Conscience that Dreams of nothing but Visions of Peace Lam. 2. 14. being deluded by Satan and his Instruments as Ahab was by his false Prophets 1 Kin. 22. 21 22. Most men are in this condition Zech. 1. 11. Behold all the Earth sits still and is at rest Zeph. 1. 11. I will punish the men that are setled on their Lees c. These dye like Lambs and are accounted happy Jer. 51. 40. Fourthly The obdurate Conscience These Treasure up wrath against the day of Wrath Rom. 2. 5. Job 36. 13. There is no greater a Plague than such a Conscience David before he was smitten either by God's hand or by the Prophet's reproof his own sanctified Conscience did the Office of a faithful Monitor and houshold Chaplain For his Heart presently mis-gave him 1 Chron. 21. 8. 2 Sam. 24 10. Bee-Masters tell us that those are the best Hives that make the greatest noise Sure it is that that is the best Conscience that suffers not a man to sleep in Sin David's heart smote him for numbring the People It was for his own for a small for a secret Sin For failing in the manner only For he knew that a man might as well dye of an in ward bleeding as of an outward Wound The good Soul is often afflicted for it's failings in those Duties which others applaud and extoll A good and a peaceable Conscience saith Bernard est lectus Animae The Bed on which the Soul takes sweet repose Behold the Considence of a good Conscience towards God 1 Pet. 3. 21. when it is parling with God by Prayer and bold intercession It dares plead with God as Jeremy did Righteous art thou O Lord when I plead with thee Yet let me talk with thee of thy Judgments c. Jer. 12. 1. And interrogates as St. Paul Rom. 8. 33 34 35. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect It is God that justifies Who is he that Condemns c And expostulates with God as David often did When God seems to be asleep he will awaken him When to delay he will quicken him When to have lost his wonted kindness he will find it for him In pure Water the Face may be seen not so in muddy So in a pure Conscience Gods Face may be seen and no where else in the Earth As Faith makes the Conscience good before God so Purity makes it good before men The unlearned man with a good Conscience saith St. Austin will go to Heaven when thou with all thy Learning shalt be cast into Hell Surgunt indocti rapiunt Regnum Coelorum c. Faith looks to Promises Fear to threats Hope to futures Obedience to Duties Repentance to Sins c. But Conscience looks to all A good Conscience will stand a Man instead when he appears before the great Tribunal of God where Courage dares not shew it's Face nor Eloquence open
it's Mouth nor Majesty hath any respect nor Greatness hath any favour where Money bears no Mastery as that Martyr said To be feasted with the Fruits of a good Conscience is Angels food and some of the Sweet-meats of Heaven as a tormenting Conscience is one of the greatest miseries of Hell No man can attain to a good Conscience but by a careful and diligent keeping of his Heart saith Bernard A good Conscience hath ever one Eye upon God to observe his Precepts and the other up to God by Prayer to begg his direction and Assistance Every man would willingly live and dye Comfortably No way so to do but by laying up a Foundation of Comfort in an holy Conversation A wicked Man would gladly forget himself and run away from himself He cannot look backward or inward to himself without guilt and Horror It was therefore good Counsel of an old Rabbi Ne sis impius coram te ipso Be not wicked in thine own sight Learn to reverence thy Conscience No such good Companion as a good Conscience A man may then dare to be acquainted with himself as some men have written the History of their own Lives A Leper cares not much for a Looking-Glass because he shall see by it nothing but his own Deformity A Bank-rupt cannot abide to cast up his account because he shall find himself worse than nothing But he that leads a holy Life is like to a man who hath Travelled over a beautiful Valley and being on the top of the Hill turns about with delight to take a View of it again A good Conscience will be a Noah's Ark to save us from perishing with the World A Zoar to shelter us from Wrath to come It will be a Simon to help us to bear our Crosses His Motto is Miser sit qui miser esse potest Let who will be miserable he cannot To get and keep a good Conscience we must dislodg two home-bred Innmates 1. Carnal delights Rest not in these in Wealth in Men Rely not on Wines Meats Musick Pleasures Company c. These will deceive in times of Distress Besides Nature soon putrifies and turns to Corruption and so proves baneful 2. Take heed of sinful Lusts These War against the Peace and Comfort of the Soul 2 Pet. 2. 12. Yea they are so far from Comforting that they oppress The end of such Mirth is heaviness of Spirit Sorrow Fear Anguish Tribulation and Woe upon every Soul that wallow's in such sensual Sins Conceive therefore of Sin yea of every Sin as of a Disease a Wound an Enemy to Peace and Complain and strive against it Still walk in the Light and keep thy self in God's presence so Peace shall be upon thee and thy Spirit shall be held up in cheerfulness Oh the power of Conscience As it makes an happy Estate miserable if bad So a miserable Condition blessed if Good As will fully appear in this rare Example Anno Christi 1555. There was one Algerius a Student in Padua a young man of excellent Learning who having attained to the Knowledge of the Truth ceased not by Instruction and Example to teach it to others for which being accused to the Pope by his command he was cast into Prison where he lay long and during that time he wrote a most affectionate Letter to the distressed Saints wherein among many others sweet expressions he thus writeth I cannot but Communicate unto you some Portion of my delectations and joys which I feel and find Who would believe that in this dark Dungeon I should find a Paradise of Pleasure For in this place of Sorrow and Death dwells Tranquillity and hope of Life In an infernal Cave I have joy of Soul I have found Honey in the entrails of a Lyon Where others weep I rejoyce Where others tremble I have strength and boldness c. All these things the sweet hand of the Lord doth minister unto me He doth Comfort me and fills me with gladness He drives away all Sorrow and strengthens encourages heals refreshes and advanceth me c. Collected out of the Works of B P. Reynolds Dr. Harris Dr. Stoughton c. by S. C. About CHARITY THe Emblem of Charity is a naked Child giving Honey to a Bee without wings Naked because excuseless and simple a Child because tender and growing Giving Honey because Honey is pleasant and Comfortable To a Bee because a Bee is Painful and deserving Without wings because helpless and wanting If thou deniest unto such thou killest a Bee If thou givest to other than such thou preservest a Drone Not to give to the Poor is to take from him Not to feed the Hungry if thou hast it is to the utmost of thy Power to kill him That therefore thou may'st avoid both Sacriledg and Murther be Charitable Be not too cautious in discerning the fit Objects of thy Charity lest a Person perish through thy discretion What thou givest to mistaken want shall return a Blessing to thy deceived Heart 'T is better in relieving idleness to commit an accidental Evil than in neglecting misery to omit an Essential good Better two Drones be preserved than one Bee perish God takes particular notice and books down every Act and work of Mercy that is done to his People even to a little Cake of Bread 1 Kin. 17. 30. And to a Cup of cold Water Mat. 10. 42. Water that is a cheap thing Cold water no matter either of cost or Pains Even this shall be rewarded Christ comes in his Flesh to you when Poor Christians come to you He presents a pale Face a thin Cheek He presents a bare Arm or Leg to you Will you not do something to support Christ And to cloth Christ in his Members Shall the Bones of Christ stare and stand out Shall the naked Flesh and skin of Christ pine away for want of succour Christians that come to you are your own Flesh Isa 58. 7. And shall the Head do nothing for the Foot And shall the Hand and Eyes do nothing for the Leg What! Not for it's own Flesh And for those that be of the same Body Give cheerfully and bless God that you have an Estate to give and bless God that you have an opportunity to give and an Heart to give and that hereby you make God a sharer in your Wealth and Plenty and your selves sharers in his Blessedness Therefore bless your self bless your Houses bless your Estates For it 's a Blesseder thing to give than to receive Act. 20. 35. As Husband-men cast some of their Corn back into a fruitful Soil whereby in due time they reap with advantage So should we do with our Worldly blessings Sow them in the Bowels and upon the Backs of the poor Members of Christ and in the day of Harvest we shall find a great encrease Alms in Greek comes from a word that signifies to Pitty because they should proceed from a merciful and pittiful Heart And in the Hebrew and Syriack it 's
Aurea Legenda OR APOTHEGMS SENTENCES AND SAYINGS OF MANY Wise and Learned men USEFUL For all sorts of Persons Collected out of many Authors by Sa. Clark sometimes Pastor in B. F. The Preacher sought to find out acceptable Words and that which was written was upright even Words of Truth The words of the Wise are as Goads and as Nails fastened by the Masters of the Assemblies which are given from one Shepherd Eccle. 12. 10. 11. London Printed for Nathanael Ranew at the King's-Arms in St. Paul's Church-yard 1682. Some choice Sentences and Sayings concerning the Mischiefs and Miseries which attend an impure unquiet and guilty Conscience COnscience is God's spy and Man's overseer God's Deputy judg holding its Court in the whole Soul bearing witness of all a Mans doings and Desires and accordingly excusing or accusing absolving or Condemning Comforting or Tormenting What art thou then the better when none is by so long as thy Conscience is by Conscience is the great Register or Recorder of the World 'T is to every Man his private Notary keeping record of all his Acts and Deeds It hath â—he Pen of a ready Writer and takes from â—hy Mouth all that thou speakest yea â—rom thy Heart all thou Contrivest And tho its writing may be for the present like to the writing with the juice of an Onion or Lemon illegible Yet when thou comest to the fire of Distress it will then appear or at farthest in the great Day of Judgment it will discover all Conscience always keeps Centinel in a mans Soul and like a Register Records all our good and evil Actions Tho the darkness of the Night may hide us from others and the darkness of the Mind may seem to hide us from our selves yet still the Conscience hath an Eye to look in secret upon what ever we do and tho in many Men it sleeps in regard of motion yet it never sleeps in regard of Observation and Notice It may be hard and seared but it can never be Blinded That writing which in it now seems to be invisible when it 's brought to the fire of Gods judgment will be most Clear There is nothing so much fastened in the Memory as that which Conscience writes All her Censures are written with indelible Characters never to be bloted out All or most of our knowledge forsakes us in Death Wit acuteness Variety of language Habits of Sciences Arts Policies Inventions c. only those things which Conscience imprinteth shall be so far from being obliterated by Death that they shall thereby be much more manifest whether they be impressions of Peace or Horror Conscience is a most bribeless Worker It never know's how to make a false report of any of our ways 'T is Gods Historian with reverence be it spoken that writes not Annals but Jornals The words Deeds and Cogitations of Hours and Moments Never was there so absolute a Compiler of Lives as Conscience is It comes not with prejudice or acceptation of Persons but dares speak the truth of a Monarch as well as of a Slave Nero the Emperor shall find as great a Fire burning in his Bosom as he dares wrap the poor Christians in to light him to his Lusts Before and in the acting of Sin we will hear nothing but afterwards Conscience will send forth a shrill and a sharp Voyce which shall be heard all the Soul over as was that of Reuben to his Breth'ren did not I warn you saying Sin not against the Child c. It 's as proper for Sin to raise Terrors in the the Soul as for rotten Flesh or Wood to breed Worms That worm which never dieth is bred here in the froth of filthy Lusts and flagitious Courses and it lyes grubbing and gnawing upon Mens inwards many times in the Ruff of all their jollity This made Saul to call for his Musick Belshazzar for his carousing Cups Cain for his Workmen to build him a City and others for other of the Devils Anodines to put by the Pangs of their wounded Spirits and throbbing Consciences One small drop of an evil Conscience will trouble a whole Sea of outward Comforts and Contentments A confluence whereof would no more ease a wounded Conscience than a Silken Stoking will do a broken Legg As a little water in a Leaden Vessel is heavy So is a little trouble in an evil Conscience An evil Conscience is a burden importable able to quail the Courage and crush the Shoulders of the strongest Hercules of the mightiest man upon Earth Hence Job preferred and Judas chose strangling before it Daniel chose rather to be cast to the Lyons than to carry a Lyon about with him in his Bosome an enraged Conscience The primitive Christians also used to cry out Ad leones potius quam ad Lenones abjiciamur Let us rather be cast to the Lyons than to be thrust into Brothel-houses What good is there in a Chest full of Goods when the Conscience is empty of goodness such an one is like unto Naaman a Rich man but a Leper For excellent Parts and Gifts without a good Conscience are but as so many sweet Flowers upon a Dead man wrapped up in fair Linnen Or like to sounding Brass or a tinkling Cymbal Conscience is God's greatest Officer and Vice-gerent in Man set by him to be as it were thy Angel keeper Monitor Remembrancer King Prophet Witness Examiner Judge yea thy lower Heaven If thou slightest and wrongest it it will be an Adversary unto thee and an informer against thee an Accuser Witness Judg Jailor Tormenter a Worm Wrack Dungeon unto thee yea thy upper Hell An evil Conscience makes the Wicked fly when none pursues Prov. 28. 1. Such a fearful Fugitive was bloody Cain such were those cursed Canaanites Jos 24. 12. that were chased by Gods Hornets among them that is by the Blood-hounds of their own Consciences Such were those Syrians who struck with a Pannick fear fled for their Lives and left their rich Camp for a Booty to the Hunger-starved Israelites 2 Kin. 7. 7. c. The shadows of the Mountains seemed to be armed men to guilty Gaal Judg. 9. 36. The Burgundians when ready to joyn Battel with their Enemies thought that long Thistles were Spears He that is delivered up to a seared Conscience to a dead and dedolent Disposition is in a manner in a desperate condition He heaps up wrath against the Day of Wrath c. Rom. 2. 5. this made a reverend Man say I had rather be in Hell with a sensible Conscience than on Earth with a reprobate Mind Plutarch thought that the very Life of a vicious and a wicked man was punishment enough for him without either Gods or mans revenging hand For saith he if they examine their Lives they find themselves empty of Grace and Goodness destitute of Hope loaden with Fear Sadness uncheerfulness and of Suspicion of what will follow after Their lives therefore are worse than the life of a Dog For a Dog lives
hand of Charity touches tho it be but a Cup of cold Water it turneth it not into Gold but into Heaven But Charity is now so fled that Elias wants his Hostess of Sarepta Elisha the Sunamite St. Paul cannot find the Purpuriss Nor Peter the Tanner Job we have not And Obadiah we find not Captain Cornelius is a black Swan And good Onesiphorus is not to be heard of most men have shut up their Bowels and buried them afore-hand Their Hearts are hardened and their Hands are withered Of Mouth mercy indeed there is good store as there was in St. Jame's his days Go and be warmed fed Clothed But with what A fire a Feast a Suit of words But a little hand-full were far better than many of these Mouth-fulls Were their blessing worth an Half-penny as the Beggar told the Cardinal they would be advised how they parted with it Look how it is with the Moon the fuller she is of Light the farther she is from the Sun And as the Sun moveth slowest when he is highest in the Zodiack So are they usually slowest to give who are highest in their Estates 1. Charity by the Antients was pictured like a Child because the Charitable must be humble and Courteous like a Child She was pictured naked because She seeketh not her own She looked merrily God loves a Cheerful giver Charity was covered with a Cloud Alms must be given privately Charity held a bloody Heart in her right Hand A good man is merciful he first pittieth and then relieveth Charity offered Honey to a Bee without Wings that is Helps such as would but cannot help themselves Unworthy we are doubtless of such an Honour as to relieve hungry thirsty naked Christ in his poor Members The Macedonians called and counted it a Favour that they might have their Hand in so good a Work 2 Cor. 8. 1. David thanked God that of his own he would receive an Offering 1 Chron. 29. 9. Men Sow cheerfully upon good ground and account their Seed better in the Ground than in the Garner And is not Mercy as sure a Grain as Vanity Sow therefore plentifully Sow cheerfully Mich. 6. 8. Love Mercy God likes not that our Alms should come from us as drops of Blood from our Heart but like life Honey from the Comb That we be glad of an opportunity of shewing Mercy and rather seek than want an Object for it The Liberal Soul shall be made Fat and he that Watereth shall be Watered himself His Soul shall- be like a watered Garden c. Isa 58. 8 9. Of Stephen King of Hungary and of Oswald one of our Saxon Kings it is storied that their right Hands after Death never putrified because they had been much imployed in relieving the Poor and afflicted Sure it is that their Souls that do it in a right manner decay not dye not wither not See Prov. 11. 17. Luke 16. 11 12. c. And for the Bodies of such see the Promise If thou draw out thy Soul to the Hungry then shall thy Health spring out speedily Isa 58. 8. And if the merciful man be sick God will make his Bed in all his sicknss God will stir up the feathers under him Mercy shall be his Cordial and his Pillow of sweet repose For the good names of such The Liberal shall have love and respect with men A good repute and report both alive and Dead And this is better than precious Oyntments Eccles 7. 1. And than Riches Prov. 22. 1. Whereas the Vile shall not be called Liberal nor Nabal be called Nadib The Churl bountiful in Christ's Kingdom Isa 32. 5. For their Estates The Liberal man deviseth Liberal things and by Liberal things he shall stand A man would think he should fall rather by being so bountiful But on the contrary he takes a right Course to thrive For getting is not the way to abundance but giving The gainfulest Art is Alms-giving saith St. Chrysostom Whatsoever we scatter to the Poor we gather for ourselves saith another Riches thus laid out are laid up Non pereunt sed parturiunt said a third By our Liberality Christ accounts himself both gratified and engaged Prov. 19. 17. God will bless his Stock and his Store Deut. 15. 10. His righteousness and his Riches too shall endure for ever Prov. 28. 27. He that gives to the Poor shall not lack Lastly For his Posterity The righteous is merciful and lendeth and his Seed is blessed Psal 37. 26. Jonathan was paid for his kindness to David in his Son Mephibosheth Jethro for his love to Moses in the Kenites 1 Sam. 15. 6. whereas the Children of unmerciful men are threatened Psal 109. 12. 16. Eccles 5. 14. For either he leaves it to a Prodigal that Rides to Hell with Golden Spurs and Forks it abroad as fast as the Miser his Father raked it together Or if he be a good Husband yet usually he thrives not but it melts away as Snow before the Sun And for the Life to come Such lay hold upon Eternal Life which is assured to them whilst they live here Prov. 14. 21. and 11. 17. Mat. 5. 7. Jam. 2. 13. And enjoyed by them hereafter Luk. 16. 19. 1. Pet. 1. 7. Mat. 25. 34. c. He that denies to give God the interest of his gifts by Charity forfeits the Principal And he that takes in his worldly Commodities without paying to God his Custom shall lose the whole Of Judg Manwood it is recorded that his Salary was not more fixed than his Charity He and the Poor had one Revenue one Quarter-day Instead of hiding his Face from the Poor it was his Practice to seek for them laying out by Trustees for Pensioners either hopeful or indigent whereof he had a Catalogue which made the best Comment upon that Text The Liberal man deviseth Liberal things This is the best Conveyance that ever Lawyer made To have and to hold to him and his Heirs for ever When thou seest Misery in thy Brother's Face let him see mercy in thine Eye The more the Oyl of mercy is poured on him by thy Pitty the more the Oyl in thy Cruse shall be encreased by thy Piety Proportion thy Charity to the strength of thine Estate lest God proportion thine Estate to the weakness of thy Charity Let the Lips of the Poor be the Trumpets of thy Gifts lest in seeking applause thou losest thy reward Nothing is more pleasing unto God than an open Hand and a close Mouth Those reprobates spoken of Mat. 25. 42. robbed not the Saints but relieved them not Moab and Amon were Basterdized and banished the Sanctuary to the tenth Generation for a meer omission because they met not God's Israel with Bread and Water in the Wilderness And Edom is sore threat'ned for not harbouring them in the Prophecy of Obadiah The Spirits of Wealth distilled in good works do much Comfort a Man's Conscience The Liberal are renowned in the Earth As Abraham that free-Hearted House-keeper Obadiah
to Honour Moderation preserves us in it Men come down by Domineering Haste undoeth that which a just delay ripeneth It was his excellent Motto Nolo Minor me timeat despiciatve Major My Inferiours shall not fear my Superiors shall not despise me Humility shuns Honour and is the way to it The purest Gold is most Ductile It 's commonly a good Blade that bends well The Reed that bends and is whole is better than the strong Oak that not bending breaks There is no such prevalent Workman as Sedulity and Diligence A man would wonder at the mighty things which have been done by degrees and gentle Augmentations Patience Diligence and Moderation are the common steps to Excellency It 's for Omnipotence to do mighty things in a Moment But by degrees to grow to greatness is the course he hath left for man We make our selves more injuries than are offered us and the apprehension of wrong doth more harm than the smartest part of the wrong it self It 's the Wise man's Glory and the States-mans Prudence to pass by offences A Fool struck Cato in the Bath and when he was sorry for it Cato had forgot it For saith Seneca Melius putavit non agnoscere quam ignoscere Light injuries are made none by not regarding which with a pursuing revenge grow both to height and burden and live to mischief us when they might die to secure us The upper Region is most composed The Wisest men rage the least knowing that Observation and Resentment do but provoke and encourage the Malice which neglect and silence deads and dissipates Discontent is the greatest Weakness of a generous Soul which is always so intent upon it's unhappiness that it forgets it's Remedies Faction can be as little spared in a Monarchy as an Eye or an Ear as through which the Prince hath a cleerer apprehension of his own and other's affairs than he can have when his Followers are all agreed But when Factions are carried too high and too Violent it 's a sign of Weakness in Princes and tends much to the Prejudice of their Authority and Business Queen Elizabeth had a happy time of it if it were but for this That her Favourers Divisions were her support For thereby she attained the knowledge of all things that happened So as no Suit or Design passed the Royal assent before she understood as much of Reason as Enemies or Friends could bring for or against it The Lord Willoughby in Queen Elizabeths days having taken a Spanish Genet designed for a Present to that King and being offered either a Thousand pound or a Hundred pound a year in exchange for it He nobly answered If it had been a Commander he would freely have released him but being only a Horse he saw no reason why he could not keep a good Horse as well as the King of Spain himself It 's a right noble Spirit not to be so stupid as not to resent nor so unworthy as to retain a sense of Injuries To have the Courage to observe an affront is to be even with an Adversary To have the Patience to forgive it is to be above him Sr. Henry Wotton as he was travelling to Rome asked his Host at Siena a Man well versed in men and Business what Rules he would give him for his Port Conduct and Carriage There is one short remembrance said he will carry you safe through the World nothing but this Keep your thoughts close and your Countenance loose Seneca said That the good things of Prosperity are to be wished and the good things of Adversity to be admired Prosperity said my Lord Bacon is the blessing of the Old Testament and Adversity of the New We are consecrated by Dangers to Services and we know not what we can do until we have seen all we can fear The common People saith one are like Rivers which seldom grow so impetuous as to transcend the bounds of Obedience but upon the Over-flowing of a general Oppression Good Husbandry may as well stand with great Honour as Breadth may may consist with Height Of Edward Earl of Darby it is recorded That when he was buried no Trades-man could demand the Payment of a Groat that he owed him Nor a Neighbour the restitution of a Penny he had wronged him Sr. William Fitz-Williams a brave Soldier used to say That he durst never adventure upon War with Men till he had made his Peace with God That a good Conscience breeds great Resolutions and the innocent Soul is impregnable Six things are recorded of him 1. That he never made the Aged the Young or the Weak the Objects of his Rage that could not be so of his Fears 2. That he never basely killed in cold Blood them that had nobly escaped his Sword in Hot. 3. That he never led the Soldiers without pay or quartered in the Country without Money 4. That tho he was second to none that acted in the War such was his Valour yet he was the first that spake for Peace such his sweet Disposition 5. That he would never suffer a Clergy-Man should be abused A Church to be violated or the Dead to be un-buried 6. That he would never force an Enemy unto necessity always saying Let us disarm them of their best Weapons Despair Not fight an Enemy before he had Skirmished him Nor undertake a Design before he Consulted his God his Council his Friends his Map and his History Sr. Walter Mildmay coming to the Court after he had founded his Colledge Emanuel in Cambridg Queen Elizabeth said to him Sr. Walter I hear that you have erected a Puritan Foundation No Madam said he far be it from me to Countenance any thing contrary to your Established Laws But I have set an Acron which when it comes to be an Oak God alone knows what will be the Fruit of it The middle Region of the Air is coolest as most distant from the direct Beams that warm the Highest and the reflexed that heat the lowest The mean man that is as much below the Favour of the Court as above the Business of the Country is the most happy and Composed man This being the utmost of a knowing Man's wish in England That he were as much out of the reach of Contempt as to be above a Constable and as much out of the Compass of trouble as to be below a Justice There is a Glory in the obscurity of worthy Men who as the Sun which they equal as well in common Influence as Lustre are most looked on when Eclipsed Cloths for necessity warm Cloths for Health cleanly for Decency lasting for Strength was the Maxim and Practice of Judg Manwood insomuch as Queen Elizabeth called him her Good-man Judg. Tullies Offices a Book which Boys read and men understand was so esteemed by the Lord Burleigh that to his dying Day he always carried it about him either in his Bosom or in his Pocket as a complete Piece that like Aristotle's Rhetorick would make both
a sum of Money should not empty the King's Coffers neither should Riches be the pay of worth which are meerly the Wages of Labour He that gives it embaseth a Man He that takes it vilifies himself Who is so most rewarded is least Secretary Walsingham would say Stay a little and we shall have done the sooner Secretary Cecil would say It shall never be said of me that I will defer till to Morrow what I can do to day Sr. Richard Morison would say Give me this day and take the next your self He that knoweth to speak well knoweth also where he must hold his Peace said the Old Grecian Think an Hour before you speak and a Day before you Promise said one of our English Sages The two main Principles which Guide humane Nature said Judg Dodderidg are Conscience and Law By the former we are obliged in reference to another World by the latter in Relation to this When the Lord Chief Justice Fitz-James came upon the Bench he knew no more than Melchisedech or Levi Father nor Mother neither Friend nor Interest For when a Cousin of his urged for a kindness Come to my House said the Judg and I will deny you nothing Come to the King's Court and I must do you Justice Plato said That a Man's mind is the Chariot Reason the Coach-man Affections the Horses desire of Honour the Whips both exciting to go forward and awing to be exact Honour always keeping up curiously the Honoured Person in an heigth of Action that keeps an even Pace with admiration Evenness and Constancy being the Crown of Vertue The Lord Gray was the first that brought a Coach into England And Henry Fitz-Alan Earl of Arundel when he was Steward at King Edward the 6 th's Coronation was the first that rid in a Coach in England William Pawlet Marquess of Winchester was Servant to King Henry the 7 th and for Thirty years together Treasurer to King Henry the 8 th King Edward the 6 th Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth Thus he served divers Soveraigns in very mutable Times being as he said of himself no Oak but an Osier He had the rare happiness of setting in his full Splendour having lived ninety seaven years and seen a Hundred and three that descended out of his Body Sr. Henry Sidney's Motto was I will never threaten For to threaten an Enemy is to instruct him A Superiour is to endanger my Person And an Inferiour is to disparage my Conduct The Character of a happy Life HOw happy is he born and taught That serveth not another's Will Whose Armour is his honest thought And simple Truth his utmost skill Whose Passions not his Masters are Whose Soul is still prepar'd for Death Vnty'd unto the World by care Of Publick Fame or private breath Who envies none whom Chance doth raise Nor Vice hath ever understood How deepest Wounds are given by Praise Nor Rules of State but Rules of Good Who hath his Life from Rumours freed Whose Conscience is his strong Retreat Whose State can neither Flatterers feed Nor ruin make Oppressors great Who God doth late and early pray More of his Grace than Gifts to lend And entertains the harmless Day With a Religious Book or Friend This Man is freed from servile bands Of hope to rise or fear to fall Lord of himself tho not of Lands And having nothing yet hath all Sr. Henry Wotton It was an excellent Saying of Sr. John Packinton in Queen Elizabeth's days that a sound Faith was the best Divinity A good Conscience the best Law And Temperance the best Physick Upon the fall of the Earl of Somerset DAzled still with heigth of place Whilst our Hopes our Wits beguile No Man marks the narrow space 'Twixt a Prison and a smile Then since Fortunes favours fade You that in her Arms do sleep Learn to swim and not to Wade For the Hearts of Kings are deep But if Greatness be so blind As to trust in Towers of Air Let it be with Goodness lin'd That at least the fall be fair Then tho darkned you shall say When Friends fail and Princes frown Virtue is the roughest way But proves at Night a Bed of Down Sr. Henry Wotton It 's one of Machiavel's rules That they which rise very high should descend timely and quit the Envy lest they lose the Honour of their greatness When Charles the 5 th presented Secretary Eraso to his Son Philip the 2 d. he said He gave him somewhat greater than his Estate and more Royal than his Empire I understand not saith mine Author speaking of James Hay Earl of Carlisle the reason of his Ante-Suppers the manner of which was to have the Table coverd at the first entrance of the Guests with Dishes as high as a tall Man could well reach filled with the choicest and dearest Viands Sea or Land could afford And all this once seen and having feasted the Eyes of the invited was removed and fresh was set on to the same heigth having only this advantage of the others that it was hot At one of these Meals an Attendant did Eat to his single share a whole Pye reckoned to the Earl at Twenty pound being composed of Amber-Greece Magisterial Pearl Musk c. And another went away with Forty pounds of Sweet-meats in his Cloak-bag When the most able Physicians and his own Weakness had passed a Judgment upon this Earl that he could not live many days he did not forbear his Entertainments but made divers brave Cloths as he said to Out-face naked and despicable Death adding withal That Nature wanted Wisdom Power or Love in making Man mortal and subject to Diseases Sr. Thomas Lake was a Man of such dixterity and dispatch that he would indite Write and Discourse at the same time more exactly than most Men could severally perform them for which he was then called the swift-sure Of Sr. Edward Cook it is recorded that he would never be perswaded privately to retract that which he had Publickly adjudged Professing That he was a Judg in a Court not in a Chamber He was wont to say No wise man would do that in Prosperity whereof he should repent in Adversity His Motto was Prudens qui patiens It 's a sure Principle of rising that great Persons esteem better of such as they have done great Courtesies to than those they have received great Civilities from looking upon this as their Disparagement the other as their Glory It 's an excellent Rule that no man should let what is unjustifiable or Dangerous to appear under his Hand thereby to give Envy a steady aim at his Place or Person Nor mingle interests with great Men made desperate by Debts or Court injuries whose falls have been ruinous to their wisest Followers Nor pry any farther into secrecy than rather to secure than shew himself Nor to impart that to a Friend that may impower him to be an Enemy It was the Saying of a great Man among us that a through-paced Papist
go down into Hell Robert Earl of Leicester the great Favorite in Queen Elizabeths days tho he allowed himself in some things that were very inconsistent with Religon yet came at last to this resolution That Man differs not from Beasts so much in Reason as in Religion And that Religion was the highest Reason nothing being more Rational than for the supream Truth to be belivered the highest Good to be embraced the first Cause and almighty Maker of all things to be owned and feared and for those who were made by God and live wholly upon him to improve all for him and to live wholly to him as Rom. 12. 1. Give up your Souls and Bodies to him c. It was the Observation of a learned Man That however men may for a time offer violence to their Reason and Conscience subduing their understanding to their Wills and Appetites Yet when these Faculties get but a little Liberty to examine themselves or to view the World or are alarumed with Thunder Earth-quakes or some violent Sickness they feel a sense of a Deity brought back upon them with greater force and Power than before they shook it off with These and such like Considerations wrought upon Functius the learned Chronologer who reflecting upon his deserting the Calling of a Divine to imbrace the Honour of a privy Counsellor he left this warning to Posterity Disce mei Exemplo mandato munere fungi Et fuge ceu Postem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Justus Jonas Left this Legacy to all that came after him Quid juvatinnumeros scire evolvere casus Si facienda fugis si fugienda facis Sr. Philip Sidney when he lay upon his Death-bed left this Farewel among his Friends Love my memory Cherish my Friends their Faith to me may assure you that they are honest But above all govern your Wills and Affections by the Will and Word of your Creator In me behold the end of this World and all it's Vanities Sr. John Mason Privy Counsellor to King Henry the 8 th and King Edward the 6 th upon his Death-bed called for his Clerk and his Steward and delivered himself to this Purpose I have seen five Princes and have been Privy Counsellor to four I have seen the most remarkable observables in forraign Parts and been present at most State-Transactions for Thirty years together and I have learned this after so many years Experience that seriousness is the greatest Wisdom Temperance is the best Physick a good Conscience is the best Estate and were I to live again I would change the Court for a Cloister my Privy Counsellors bustles for an Hermits retirement and the whole Life I lived in the Pallace for one hours Enjoyment of God in the Chappel Now all things forsake me besides my God my Duty and my Prayer Apothegms Sayings of very Wise men SIR Francis Walsingham towards the latter end of his Life grew very Melancholly and writing to Lord Chancellor Burleigh he said thus We have lived enough to our Country to our Fortune and to our Sovereign It is now high time that we begin to live to our selves and to our God In the multitude of Affairs which passed through our Hands there must be some Miscarriages for which a whole Kingdom cannot make our Peace And when some Court-Humorists were sent to divert him Ah said he while we Laugh all things are serious round about us God is serious when he preserves us and hath Patience towards us Christ is serious when he Dyeth for us The Holy Ghost is serious when he striveth with us The Holy Scripture is serious when it 's read before us Sacraments are serious when they are administred to us The whole Creation is serious in serving God and us They in Hell and Heaven are serious And shall a Man that hath one foot in the Grave jest and Laugh Salmatius whom the learned of his time never mention without such Expressions as these Vir nunquam satis laudandus nec temerè sine laude nominandus Guil. Riv. Totius Reipublicae Literariae decus When he came to Dye went out of the World with this Expression Oh I have lost a World of time Time that most precious thing in the World whereof had I but one hour longer it should be spent in David 's Psalms and Paul 's Epistles Oh Sirs said he Mind the World less and God more All the learning in the World without Piety and the true fear of God is nothing Worth The Fear of the Lord that is Wisdom and to depart from Evil that is understanding Grotius after an exact survey of all the Hebrew Greek and Latine Learning After so many Elaborate discourses in Divinity and other Parts of Learning concluded his Life with this Protestation That he would give all his Learning and Honour for the Plain Integrity and harmless Innocence of Jean Urick a devout poor Man that spent eight hours of the day in Prayer c. Eight in Labour and but eight in Sleep and other necessary occasions He also complained to another that admired his astonishing Industry saying Ah! Vitam perdidi opérosè nihil agendo I have lost my Life with busily doing nothing And he gave this Direction to a Third that desired him in his great Wisdom and Learning in brief to teach him what to do Be serious said he Edward Peito Esquire told his Physicians that when God had sent him his Summons all the Sins of his former Life did even kick him in the Face and that he now saw that the Evil attending Well-doing was short but the Good eternal If we do ill the Pleasures of ill doing pass away but the Pain remaineth And his chief charge about his Children was that they should be educated Religiously that they might have God for their Portion as well as his Estate Prince Henry his last Words were O Christ Thou art my Redeemer and I know that thou hast Redeemed me I wholly depend upon thy Providence and Mercy From the very bottom of my Heart I commend my Soul into thy Hand A Person of quality waiting upon him in this his last sickness who had been his constant Companion at Tennis and asking him how he did He answered Ah Tom I in Vain wish for that time which I lost with thee and others in vain Recreations Now my Soul be glad For at all the Parts of this Prison the Lord hath set his Aid to loose thee Head Feet Milt and Liver are failing Arise therefore and shake off thy Fetters Mount from this Body and go thy way This gracious Prince used to say that he knew no sport worth an Oath And that he knew not what they called Puritan preaching but he loved that Preaching best which went neerest his Heart and that spake as if that Preacher knew the mind of God Sr. Thomas Coventry hearing some Gallants jesting with Religion said to them That there was no greater Argument of a Foolish and inconsiderate Person than profanely to droll at
and tranquillity which springs from a good Conscience gives a sweet relish and satisfaction to the Soul which no Throne by it's own Vertue can afford Publick Faith the Laws of Nations and natural Equity ought to be sacred and inviolable Bonds which in all Ages and in all Nations ought most Religiously to be observed Princes are ordinarily the Rules of their Subjects actions And are as the Primum Mobile to all their Motions Their great Examples are imitated and followed by the People Each one sees observes and strives to follow their Prince as their Guide If the Prince be virtuous the People are of that Inclination If wicked and Vicious the Subject are apt Schollars to such a bad Lesson The Lives of glorious Princes ought to be as unspotted as the purest Christal For certain it is if a Prince lose his Honour that loss is irreparable for ever The Crimes of private Persons may be concealed in the obscurity of their quality and buried in Oblivion as well as their Memory But the Actions of Princes whether good or bad survive to Posterity The Sun shines as well on the wicked as the good God pardoneth more often than he punisheth His Clemency spreadeth more Universally than his Justice A seasonable act of Justice and thereby an Effusion of a little Blood sometimes prevents an inundation of Misery and takes away the cause of ample Pardons and unlimited Clemency The King of the Bees hath they say no Sting which teacheth Princes not to be transported with the Violence of their Passions and to meditate rather on Clemency as more Natural than on Rigours which Nature declines Of all Wars the Defensive is most just and Glorious That right which permits of a repulsion of force by force is as ancient as the Foundation of the World Nature it self inspires it the Laws permit it the Casuists dispute it but in Conclusion the best Divines Authorize it Great wounds in the more Noble parts endanger the Body and Dissensions in the Royal Family are commonly Destructive and fatal to the whole Line Youth is an Age wherein the acquisition of ill Habits are more facile than the infusions of good and Vertuous dispositions The Founders of Rome were Brethren and Twins Yet those that had lain together in one Womb could not sit quietly together in one Throne and nothing would serve until the Blood of the one was mingled in the Morter and laid in the Foundation of the Walls of that glorious City Silla and Marius never were in Peace nor could they rest while their Power was equal The Triumvirat a Composition of three of the choicest men could not continue long Anthony and Lepidus were forced to surrender to the Fortune of Augustus Marcus Aurelius with all his Philosophy and Wisdom found it an unsupportable burthen to bear Sail with the Factions of Lucius Verus his Colleague in the Empire Bassianus Caracalla was Voluntarily a Fratricide in his Brother Geta that he night raign alone Gallienus creating Odenate his Colleague hastened his own Death with the ruin of the Empire And in brief all Examples in this kind easily demonstrate that the admission of a Companion in the Throne is neither facile nor tollerable Humble Virtues are as commendable as aspiring and Tumultuous Honour and to raign in Peace with Justice is as Glorious as to Conquer triumphantly in War It is fit for a Prince to have the Theory of severity but not to Practise it if possibly he can avoid it The Oblivion of injuries is an Act every way more noble than Revenge A Prince who raigns without Honour cannot Live a moment without Danger He that scorns his own Life may easily become Master of another's He who maketh Friendship his Treasure may be liberal when he pleaseth without Danger of Profusion He hath true repose of Spirit who preserveth his Reason entire and neither lyeth down nor riseth up in fear It 's the usual fate of Great men seldom to be content with their present State They think that either their own merits are not rewarded enough or their Inferiors too much and so through discontent striving to be higher they fall lower It 's an excellent Point of skill in a Commander to know when his strength hath attained it's just bounds of Conquest and there stopping his Desires of gaining more to fix upon the good Government of what he hath already gotten It was Augustus his Lot after a long and honourable Raign to dye and yet Tum quidem Pauci luxêrunt postea Omnes Few mourned at his Death afterwards All. For Tiberius succeeded him who was as wicked as Augustus was good We must not live to eat but eat to live We should eat less than Nature desires and yet so much as to refresh nature and to make us fit for the service of God and Man Luk. 21. 34. Nature is content with a little Grace with less Aristotle saith that the Ass-Fish of all other Creatures hath his Heart in his Belly And Solinus observes that the Dolphin hath his Mouth almost in his Belly Such are our greedy Cormorants who as it were wear their Guts in their Heads and their Brains in their Bellies If you will be careful to please Dionysius you need not feed upon green Herbs said the Parasite to the Philosopher And if you can be content to feed upon green Herbs said the Philosopher to the Parasite you need not care to please Dionysius Spend-thrifts entomb their Ancestors in their Bowels They turn their Rents into Ruffs their Lands into Laces Hang their Patrimonies in their Ears as saith Seneca wear a pretty Grove Hang a handsome Farm on their Backs And thus they waste their substance with Riotous living as did that Prodigal Luke 16. 13. Tenuis mensa sanitatis Mater saith St. Chrysostom A slender Diet is the Mother of Health Augustus the Emperor never drank but thirce at one meal and lived till he was almost four-score years old Queen Elizabeth of blessed Memory did seldom Eat but of one sort of Meat at one Meal and rose ever with an Appetite and lived till she was about seventy years old King Edward her Brother called her by no other name than His sweet Sister Temperance They knew full well that much Meat much Malady Of the Lord of Worcester in Queen Elizabeths days it is recorded that his Father by his Temperance reached to the ninety seventh year of his Age because he did never Eat but one Meal a day and his Son's sparingness attained to eighty four because he never Eat but of one Dish at one Meal The Belly was the first Sword that the Devil drew against us and doth it still so that if we let out our Appetites it may cut our Throats For many more perish by intemperance than by Violence By surfeiting than by suffering Meat kills as many as the Musket Multitudes dig their own Graves with their Teeth The Board kills more than the Sword The Cardinal of Burbon would not part