reverence yet deserves it most honour when those gray haires are beautified with knowledge Oh how pleasant a thing is it when gray headed men minister judgement and when the Elders can give good counsell Oh how comely a thing is wisedome unto aged men and understanding anâ— prudency to men of honour This no doubt as it begets them esteeme amongst their Equals so it highly improves their reverence with Inferiours For foolish age though it should be exempted from derision yet such is the levity of time and piercing eye of youthfull observation as age becomes censured by youth whereas youth ought rather to interpret the best then detract in the least from the reverence of age It is too true that every obliquity be it either of higher or lower quality is more incurable in age then youth The reason is Age becomes more insensible of what it has committed and growes more indurate through an accustomed habit whereas though an unconfined heat of youth drive the other into folly an ability of conceipt brings them to an apprehension of what they have done and consequently to a recollection of themselves to reforme what they have mis-done Now the way how to improve this reverence in Parents to their Children and Magistrates to their Inferiours is to expresse such patterns of piety in the whole course of their life as the very shadows reflecting from such Mirrors may produce an awfull reverence zeale and love in their Observers with a zealous desire of imitation in their Successors This no doubt begot a pious emulation in our Predecessors towards those whose actions being of ancient record induced them to trace those steps wherein they had walked and with much constancy to professe those vertues which they had found in them so highly approved Others lives became their lines lines to direct them by their Coppy lights to conduct them to an higher pitch of true Nobility It is a Rule worthy inscription on the ancient Wardrobe of Age Old men by how much they are unto death neerer by so much more ought they to be purer This will attract unto them duty in their life and eternity after death Now Gentlemen that you may better observe this Reverence addressed to those to whom you owe all Obedience be it farre from you to debate or dispute their commands It suites not well with the duty of a Child to expostulate with a Father especially in morall respects where the quality or nature of the command discovers no Opposition to the Law divine Be never in their presence without a pious feare and awfull reverence Interrupt them not in their discourse neither preferre your owne opinion before their advise It tastes of an ill condition to stand upon conditions with a Father upon proposals of meanes or exhibitions But much more distastefull to contest in termes as if the memory of nature were lost in you and all acquaintance with piety estranged from you This it was which moved that dis-passionate Theban to take up his unseasoned Sonne in this manner putting him in mind of his neglect even of civile duty which the better to remember hee layes before him his uncivile demeanour in this severe Character An Ale-house seemes by your Apologie an excellent Receipt for a Male-content I am sory you have lost the Principles of more divine Philosophy You might recall to mind those Attick Studies wherein you were sometimes versed those Academick Colleagues with whom you discoursed A Memoriall of these might have better qualified this humour by reducing your troubled affections to a clearer temper But my hopes now are to be resolv'd into prayers for as yet there can appeare small hope where your Morning Sacrifice is offer'd to Smoake a sweet perfume for an intended Convert You seeme to presse your Father to a performance of promise God blesse you I see plainely your pen must necessarily make that Maxime good Where there is a want in the practise of piety it must needs beget a neglect of Duty nay of Civility I could wish that you would be as ready to reform the errours of your life as I to performe the Offices of a fatherly love So speedily do's love descend so slowly do's it ascend To conclude all in one I must tell you to condition with a Father argues no good condition in a Sonne But let the wisest Consort you consult with advise you and with their Tap-Rhetorick surprize you you shall find that I have power to proportion meanes to every ones merit From which resolution neither shall affection draw me nor power over-awe me So as if you expect from me a Patrimony exercise Piety Be what you seemâ— or prove the same you vow Wee have dissembling practisers enow Thus have you heard the course of a profuse Sonne with the resolution of a dis-consolate Father Collect hence what discontents accompany the one what distractions conscionably may attend the other Children reflect constant cares but uncertaine comforts Cares are proper attributes to Parents Comforts those fruits after a long Seed-plot of cares the sole Harvest they reape It is true Parents are to dispence with discomforts in their Children and receive them as familiar Guests to lodge with them But what heavy fates attend such Children as exemplarily present this condition Welcome Guests you cannot be to your father in heaven who make your inferiour cares such unwelcome Guests to him on earth I have found in some Children a serious inquisition after their Fathers yeares so as if they could possibly have contracted with the Register to inlarge his aged Character hee could not want an ample Fee for so gratefull a labour Such as these would ride in their Fathers saddle before their time But trust me few of these Lap-wing hopes or loose-pinion'd desires but they cloze in a fatall Catastrophe and as their ill-grounded hopes were scean'd in prodigality so they end tragically in an Act of misery Let it be your honour to reverence their gray haires and with wishes of pious zeale to rejoyce in their length of dayes For this it is will bring an happinesse to your age and beget a reverend obedience in yours as you in all piety offer'd like Sacrifice unto yours For take this for a constant position You shall seldome see any Prodigals falling short of these inherent Offices of duty but if they live to have a progeny they receive the like discomforts from their posterity Nay I have knowne very few such Vnnaturalists who desired their Fathers death in hope to enjoy his Land that ever enjoy'd much comfort in possession of that Land For as these murder their Parents in their hearts so they are many times stifled in the fruition of their hopes Tasting more aloes of discontent in their enjoying then ever they did sweetnesse in their expecting Consider then the excellency of that divine Proverbe A foolish Son is a griefe unto his Father and a heavinesse to her that bare him Now lesse then
a kinde of frenzy it admires that now which it will laugh at hereafter when brought to better temper Civility is never out of fashion it ever reteines such a seemely garbe as it conferres a grace on the wearer and enforceth admiration in the beholder Age cannot deface it contempt disgrace it nor gravity of judgement which is ever held a serious Censor disapprove it Bee thus minded and this Complement in you will bee purely refined You have singular patternes to imitate represent them in your lives imitate them in your loves The Corruption of the age let it seize on ignoble spirits whose education as it never equall'd yours so let them strike short of those nobler indowments of yours labour daily to become improved honour her that will make you honoured let vertue be your crowne who holds vanity a crime So may you shew holinesse in your life enjoy happinesse at your death and leave examples of goodnesse unto others both in life and death COurts and eminent places are held fittest Schooles for Complement There the Cinnamon tree comes to best growth there her barke gives sweetest sent Choice and select fashions are there in onely request which oft-times like those Ephemera expire after one dayes continuance whatsoever is vulgar is thence exploded whatsoever novell generally applauded Here bee weekely Lectures of new Complements which receive such acceptation and leave behinde them that impression as what garbe soever they see used in Court publikely is put in present practise privately lest discontinuance should blemish so deserving a quality The Courts glosse may bee compared to glasse bright but brittle where Courtiers saith one are like Counters which sometime in account goe for a thousand pound and presently before the Count bee cast but for a single penny This too eager affection after Complement becomes the consumption of many large hereditaments Whereto it may bee probably objected That even discretion injoynes every one to accommodate himselfe to the fashion or condition of that place wherein hee lives To which Objection I easily condescend for should a rusticke or boorish Behaviour accompany one who betakes himselfe to the Court hee might bee sure to finde a Controuler in every corner to reprove him or some complete Gallant or other pittifully to geere and deride him But to dote so on fashion as to admire nothing more then a phantasticke dressing or some anticke Complement which the corruption of an effeminate State hath brought in derogates more from discretion then the strict observance of any fashion addes to her repute This place should bee the Beacon of the State whose mounting Prospect surveyes these inferiour coasts which pay homage and fealty unto her The least obliquity there is exemplary elsewhere Piercing'st judgements as well as pregnant'st wits should bee there resident Not a wandring or indisposed haire but gives occasion of observance to such as are neere How requisite then is it for you whose Nobler descents promise yea exact more of you then inferiours to expresse your selves best in these best discerning and deserving places You are women modesty makes you completest you are Noblewomen desert accompanying your descent will make you noblest You may and conveniency requires it reteine a Courtly garbe reserve a well seeming State and shew your selves lively Emblemes of that place wherein you live You may entertaine discourse to allay the irkesomenesse of a tedious houre bestow your selves in other pleasing recreations which may no lesse refresh the mind then they conferre vigour and vivacity to the body You may be eminent starres and expresse your glory in the resplendent beames of your vertues so you suffer no blacke cloud of infamy to darken your precious names Shee was a Princely Christian Courtier who never approached the Court but shee meditated of the Court of heaven never consorted with her Courtiers but shee contemplated those Citizens of heaven nor ever entred the Presence-Chamber but shee thought of the presence of her Maker the King of heaven And how shee was never conscious of that thought which redounded not to her Subjects honour which shee preferred next to the love of her Maker before the fruition of an Empire Such Meditations are receits to cure all inordinate motions Your Lives should be the lines to measure others Actions Vertue is gracious in every subject but most in that which the Prince or Princesse hath made gracious Anciently the World was divided into three parts whereof Europe was held the soule properly every Politike State may be divided into three Cantons whereof the Court is the Sunne You are Objects to many Eyes be your actions platformes to many lives I can by no meanes approve that wooing and winning Complement though most Courts too generally affect it which makes her sole Object purchase of Servants or Suitors This garbe tastes more of Curtezan then Courtier it begets Corrivals whose fatall Duello's end usually in blood Our owne State hath sometimes felt the misery of these tragicke events by suffering the losse of many generous and free-bred Sparkes who had not their Torches beene extinguished in their blood might to this day have survived to their Countries joy and their owne same So great is the danger that lyes hid in affable Complements promising aspects affectionate glances as they leave those who presumed of their owne strength holding themselves invulnerable many times labouring of wounds incurable Be you no such Basilisks never promise a calme in your face where you threaten a storme in your heart Appeare what you are lest Censure taxe you of inconstancy by saying you are not what you were An open countenance and restrained bosome sort not well together Sute your discourse to your action both to a modest dispose of your affection Throw abroad no loose Lures wandring eyes strayed lookes these delude the Spectators much but the Actors most A just revengeâ— by striving to take in others they are taken by others How dangerous doe we hold it to be in a time of infection to take up any thing be it never so precious which wee find lost in the street One of your loose lookes be it darted with never so Complementall a state is farre more infectious and mortally dangerous There is nothing that sounds more cheerefully to the eare or leaves a sweeter accent nothing that conveyes it selfe more speedily to the heart or affords fuller content for the time then conceit of love It will immaze a perplexed wretch in a thousand extremes whose amazed thoughts stand so deepely ingaged to the Object of his affection as hee will sustaine any labour in hope of a trifling favour Such soveraignty beauty reteines which if discretion temper not begets such an height of conceit in the party beloved as it were hard to say whether the Agent or Patient suffer more To you let me returne who stand fixed in so high an Orbe as a gracefull Majesty well becomes you so let modesty grace that Majesty that demeaning your selves like Complete
wipe their mouthes as if they were innocent but behold this Haman-policy shall make them spectacles of finall misery wishing many times they had been lesse wise in the opinion of the world so they had relished of that divine wisdome which makes man truly happy in another world even that wisdome I say who hath built an everlasting foundation with men and shall continue with their seed neither can this divine wisdome chuse but bee fruitfull standing on so firme a root or the branches dry receiving life and heat from so faire a root Now to describe the beauty of her branches springing from so firme a root with the solidity of her root diffusing pith to her branches The root of wisdome saith the wise Son of Sirach is to feare the Lord and the branches thereof are long life This feare where it takes root suffers no wordly feare to take place Many worldlings become wretched onely through feare lest they should bee wretched and many die onely through feare lest they should dy but with these who are grounded in the feare of the Lord they neither feare death being assured that it imposeth an end to their misery nor the miseries of this present life being ever affied on the trust of GODS mercy How constantly zealously and gloriously many devout men have died and upon the very instant of their dissolution expostulated with their owne soules reproving in themselves their unwillingnesse to die may appeare by the examples of such whose lives as they were to GOD right pleasing so were their soules no lesse precious in their departing upon some whereof though I have formerly insisted yet in respect that such memorable patternes of sanctity cannot be too often represented I thought good purposely as usually I have done in all the Series of this present Discourse where any remarkeable thing was related to have it in divers places repeated to exemplifie this noble resolution or contempt of death in the proofe and practice of some one or two blessed Saints and Servants of God Ierome writeth of Hilarion that being ready to give up the ghost hee said thus to his soule Goe forth my soule why fearest thou Goe forth why tremblest thou Thou hast served Christ almost these threescore ten yeares and doest thou now feare death Saint Ambrose when hee was ready to die speaking to Stillico and others about his bed I have not lived so among you saith hee that I am ashamed to live longer to please God and yet againe I am not afraid to die because wee have a good Lord. The reverend Bede whom wee may more easily admire than sufficiently praise for his profound learning in a most barbarous age when all good literature was in contempt being in the pangs of death said to the standers by I have so lived among you that I am not ashamed of my life neither feare I to die because I have a most gracious Redeemer Hee yeelded up his life with this prayer for the Church O King of glory Lord of Hostes which hast triumphantly ascended into heaven leave us not fatherlesse but send the promised Spirit of thy truth amongst us These last funerall Teares or dying mens Hymnes I have the rather renued to your memory that they might have the longer impression being uttered by dying men at the point of their dissolution And I know right well for experience hath informed me sufficiently therein that the words of dying men are precious even to strangers but when the voice of one wee love and with whom wee did familiarly live cals to us from the Death-bed O what a conflict doe his words raise How strongly do griefe and affection strive to inclose them knowing that in a short space that tongue the organs whereof yet speak and move attention by their friendly accents was to bee eternally tied up in silence nor should the sound of his words salute our cares any more And certainly the resolution of a devout dying man being upon the point of his dissolution cannot but bee an especiall motive to the hearer of Mortification Which was one cause even among the heathens of erecting Statues Obelisks or Monuments upon the Dead that eying the Sepulchers of such noble and heroick men as had their honour laid in the dust they might likewise understand that neither resolution of spirit nor puissance of body could free them from the common verdict of mortality which begot in many of them a wonderfull contempt of the world Albeit it is to bee understood that Christians doe contemne the world much otherwise than Pagans for ambition is a guide to these but the love of God unto them Diogenes trod upon Plato's pride with much greater selfe-pride but the Christian with patience and humility surmounteth and subdueth all wordly pride being of nothing so carefull as lest hee should taste the Lotium of earthly delights and so become forgetfull with Vlysses companions of his native Countrey Meane time he sojournes in the world not as a Citizen but as a Guest yea as an Exile But to returne to our present discourse now in hand in this quest after that soveraigne or supreme end whereto all Actuall Perfection aspireth and wherein it resteth wee are to consider three things 1. What is to bee sought 2. Where it is to be sought 3. When it is to be sought For the first wee are to understand that wee are to seeke onely for that the acquisition whereof is no sooner attained than the minde whose flight is above the pitch of frailty is fully satisfied Now that is a blessed life when what is best is effected and enjoyed for there can bee no true rest to the minde in desiring but partaking what she desireth What is it then that wee seeke To drinke of the water of life where our thirst may bee so satisfied as it never be renued our desires so fulfilled as never higher or further extended Hee that hath once tasted of the fountaine named Clitorius fons and choice is the taste of such a fountaine will never drinke any wine no wine mixed with the dregs of vanity no wine drawne from the lees of vaine-glory the reason is hee reserves his taste for that new wine which hee is to drinke in his Fathers kingdome And what kingdome The Kingdome of heaven a kingdome most happy a kingdome wanting death and without end enjoyng a life that admits no end And what life A life vitall a life sempiternall and sempiternally joyfull And what joy A joy without sorrowing rest without labouring dignity without trembling wealth without losing health without languishing abundance without failing life without dying perpetuity without corrupting blessednesse without afflicting where the sight vision of God is seene face to face And what God God the sole sufficient summary supreme good that good which we require alone that God who is good alone And what good The Trinity of the divine persons is
where wee are to seeke Where in Heaven the house of God the Citie of the great King the inheritance of the just the portion of the faithfull the glory of Sion Where not without us but within us for the Kingdome of God is within us So as I may say to every faithfull soule Intus habes quod quaeris That is within thee which is sought of thee It is God thou seekest and him thou possessest thy heart longeth after him and right sure thou art of him for his delight is to bee with those that love him Lastly when on Earth when in this life when while wee are in health while wee are in these Tabernacles of clay while wee carry about us these earthly vessels while wee are clothed with flesh before the evill day come or the night approach or the shadow of death encompasse us now in the opportunate time the time of grace the time of redemption the appointed time while our peace may bee made not to deferre from youth to age lest wee bee prevented by death before wee come to age but so to live every day as if wee were to dye every day that at last wee may live with him who is the length of daies What remaineth then but that wee conclude the whole Series or progresse of this Discourse with an exhortation to counsell you an instruction to caution you closing both in one Conclusion to perswade you to put in daily practice what already hath beene tendred to you Now Gentlemen that I may take a friendly farewell of you I am to exhort you to a course Vertuous which among good men is ever held most Generous Let not O let not the pleasures of sinne for a season withdraw your mindes from that exceeding great weight of glory kept in store for the faithfull after their passage from this vale of misery Often call to minde the riches of that Kingdome after which you seeke those fresh Pastures fragrant Medows and redolent Fields diapred and embrodered with sweetest and choicest flowers those blessed Citizens heavenly Saints and Servants of God who served him here on Earth faithfully and now raigne with him triumphantly Let your Hearts bee exditers of a good matter and your voices viols to this heavenly measure O how glorious things are spoken of thee thou Citie of God as the habitation of all that rejoyce is in thee Thou art founded on the exaltation of the whole Earth There is in thee neither old-age nor the miserie of old-age There is in thee neither maime nor lame nor crooked nor deformed seeing all attaine to the perfect man to that measure of age or fulnesse of Christ. Who would not become humble Petitioner before the Throne of grace to bee made partaker of such an exceeding weight of glory Secondly to instruct you where this Crowne of righteousnesse is to bee sought it is to bee sought in the house of God in the Temple of the Lord in the Sanctuary of the most High O doe not hold it any derogation to you to bee servants yea servants of the lowest ranke even Doore-keepers in the House of the Lord Constantine the Great gloried more in being a member of the Church than the Head of an Empire O then let it bee your greatest glory to advance his glory who will make you vessels of glory But know that to obey the deligths of the flesh to divide your portion among Harlots to drinke till the wine grow red to make your life a continued revell is not the way to obtaine this crowne Tribulation must goe before Consolation you must clime up to the Crosse before you receive this Crowne The Israelites were to passe thorow a Desart before they came to Canaan This Desart is the world Canaan heaven O who would not bee here afflicted that hee may bee there comforted Who would not be here crossed that hee may bee there crowned Who would not with patience passe thorow this Desart onely in hope to come to Canaan Canaan the inheritance of the just Canaan the lot of the righteous Canaan a fat Land flowing with milke and honey Canaan an habitation of the most holy Canaan a place promised to Abraham Canaan the bosome of Father Abraham even Heaven but not the heaven of heaven to which even the earth it selfe is the very Empyraean heaven for this is heaven of heaven to the Lord because knowne to none but to the Lord. Thirdly and lastly that I may conclude and concluding perswade you neglect not this opportunate time of grace that is now offered you I know well that Gentlemen of your ranke cannot want such witty Consorts as will labour by their pleasant conceits to remove from you the remembrance of the evill day but esteeme not those conceits for good which strive to estrange from your conceit the chiefest good Let it bee your task every day to provide your selves against the evill day so shall not the evill day when it commeth affright you nor the terrours of death prevaile against you nor the last summons perplex you nor the burning Lake consume you O what sharpe extreme and insuperable taskes would those wofull tormented soules take upon them if they might bee freed but one houre from those horrours which they see those tortures which they feele O then while time is graunted you omit no time neglect no opportunity Bee instant in season and out of season holding on in the race which is set before you and persevering in every good work even unto the end Because they that continue unto the end shall bee saved What is this life but a minute and lesse than a minute in respect of eternity Yet if this minute bee well imployed it will bring you to the fruition of eternity Short and momentany are the afflictions of this life yet supported with Patience and subdued with long sufferance they crowne the sufferer with glory endlesse Short likewise are the pleasures of this life which as they are of short continuance so bring they forth no other fruit than the bitter pils of repentance whereas in heaven there are pleasures for evermore comforts for evermore joyes for evermore no carnall but cordiall joy no laughter of the body but of the heart for though the righteous sorrow their sorrow ends when they end but joy shall come upon them without end O meditate of these in your beds and in your fields when you are journeying on the way and when you are so journing in your houses where compare your Court-dalliance with these pleasures and you shall finde all your rioting triumphs and revelling to bee rather occasions of sorrowing than solacing mourning than rejoycing Bathe you in your Stoves or repose you in your Arbours these cannot allay the least pang of an afflicted conscience O then so live every day as you may die to sin every day that as you are ennobled by your descent on earth
Yet if old age must doat as 't is too common That age suits better with the man then woman Thus have you heard how continent this weaker Sex has beene in their assaults how constant in their resolves how ready to encounter with the extreames of death and danger rather then impaune that incomparable gage of their honour Love was the line by which they were directed Fame the ayme to which they aspired and Honour the centre wherein they closed SECTION V. Their modesty in Count'nance Habit and expression of affection IT is true Nothing deserves lesse credit then the Looke Yet in candid and ingenuous natures it appeares much otherwise For these cannot disguise their Count'nance with a counterfeit appearance These are they who make their face an Index to their mind They cannot walke in the clouds with Tiburâ—ia nor adulterate their cheekes with a false blush nor cast forth taking lures from their eyes These are what they seeme and as to seeme lesse then they are would tax them of weakenesse so to seeme more then they are would evince them of arrogance To avoide then these two hazzards they desire to have their thoughts legible in their eyes These be farre distanced from the conceit of that wanton who with a presuming confidence affirmed That she could catch more with her eyes then others could with their embraces But such as these are such profest Traders in the merchandize of honour as they merit no esteeme in the eye of goodnesse For as these cloath their actions with habiliments of splendid sinne so they close for most part their light spun Scene with apparent shame These then we resolve to leave behind us addressing our penne to such vertuous patternes as are rank'd before us And such whose modest countenance scornes to entertaine the least acquaintance either with scorne or too much smoothnesse lest the one might imply pride the other lightnesse These cannot endure to partake of their despicable condition who can shew an open-house but reteine a shut count'nance They have hospitalitie in the one as well as the other and to a vertuous Lover have ever in readinesse a prepared harbour I cannot remember said that modest Matron that I have suffer'd mine eyes to stray from me nor to hunt after forreine Suiters to bring them home to me I have not ey'd that face since I was married which could either so take me as to preferre it before his who had best title to me nor so delude me as to beget in my thoughts a glowing fancy and so corrupt me by admiring a strange beauty No doubt but that princely Surveyor of his daughters dispositions Augustus could gather well enough by Iulias light lookes as well as her loose Consorts what received freest entertainment in her heart as hee might to his comfort collect what vertuous thoughts accompanied his Livia by observing those staid lookes and modest countenance which bestow'd an incomparable addition on her virgin beauty Pietie as it receives scandall from the countenance and Chastity treason from the eye by conveying trecherous thoughts to the heart so Modesty runs many times on hazzard by the outward habit All gorgeous attire is held the attire of sin Being such as is either worne above our ranke or by a garish and phantastick effeminacy to introduce that broad spreading Tetter of vanity or loosenes of folly into the State That simple old woman belulled with a sleepy zeale had a minde to goe to 'th Church purposely to take a nap and many of our daintie ones desire nothing more then to goe to the Temple to present to a deluded eye a new dresse O the phrensie of humane vanitie when the Sanctuary cannot plead priviledge from this selfe admiring Idolatry It is a true position As to lust makes one a sinner so he falls into the same List who has a desire to be lusted after Modesty then as it is the decent'st dresse for a Virgin much more for a reverend Matron whose demure looke unaffected gate civill habit should returne a president unto others how to conforme themselves to the time without affectation and how to demeane themselves in the whole progresse of their life as may deserve a vertuous imitation These as they reteine a loyall heart so they affect a civill habit They have no lures for light eyes These mould their course to the example of that religious-noble widow Who after the death of her truly honour'd and endeared Lord could neither in the habit of her person nor furniture of her Chamber admit of any other colour but the Sable livery of a Mourner And being one day demanded by a compleate Courtier whose sense consisted most in sent why shee would not put off that sullen-cloudy habit seeing it was high time for her rather to thinke of a new choice then still to confine herselfe to that disconsolate recluse O Sir replyed she though my Husbands Funeralls were long since solemnized on earth yet shall they be ever in solemnizing with me so long as I am on earth This habit me thinkes so infinitely becomes me as I should not looke like my selfe should I put any other on me Neither can I hold this funerall roome a disconsolate Recluse as you please to stile it for trust me Sir I conceive more absolute comfort in it by remembring his person whom sometimes I enjoyed in it then if all that various affluence of your courtly pleasures should accompany it for by inthralling my selfe to these I should become lesse my selfe by depriving my widow-thoughts of those Soule-solacing soliloquies and sweet aspirations I enjoy in it Excellent was the Answer of that Heroick Stranger who being asked why she addressed not herself to the habit of our countrey Because quoth she I can finde no constancy in the habit of your countrey you affect forraigne fashions so much as it implies you dis-affect your owne why should I then accommodate my selfe to yours who have none of your owne The way then to preserve opinion is in our choice of habit to admire no selfe-affected fashion We have choicer ornaments to beautifie us then those whose outward splendour highly detracts from that inward beauty which should truly accomplish us Now in our Expression of affection which requires a great measure of discretion we shall finde a rare temperance in the feminine Sex These could shadow their reserved loves with a discreet secrecy and with an absolute command of what soveraignizeth most over that Sex decline apparent grounds of jealousie That modest Mytilene confidently maintain'd That she had rather cease to live then surcease to love yet would she rather in exile live then discover her exil'd love It argues indeed a modest policy to reserve our affections to our selves yet not so long as to deprive us of the meanes to enjoy those whom we love equally as our selves Delay gives way to Corrivalls Fabius Maximus indeed wonne by delaying but delay seldome speeds so well in our Assay of loving and yet
foolish you cannot be so long as dis-obedience hales you to ruine For your folly becomes an abridger of your dayes or an ingager of your yeares to many dis-consolate cares Inverting that by making it a cursing which by preserving it in his owne purity might have beene an incomparable blessing Remember then that golden sentence and let it reteine a faire Character in the signature of your conscience Childrens children are the crowne of the Elders and the glory of the Children are their Fathers As you are their Crowne so let them be your glory Let every day wherein you live produce a testimony of your unfeigned duty your entire love This shall be a meanes to accumulate Gods blessings on you and leave patterns of piety to such as shall succeed you with a Sacrifice of like Obedience to please you and in the memory of their vertues deservingly to prayse you Thus by performing the religious taske of sincere Obedience you cannot chuse but seasonably afford them your Supportance to whom you tender'd such entire Reverence Should Children forget their duty to those that bred them or neglect all such pious offices as properly become them Should those native impressions be wholly razed in them which as shadowes to their bodies should individually attend them Should humanity lose his name or piety relinquish her nature yet might these even by fixing on sensible creatures find such moving objects as the very parentall affection which these inferiour Emblemes beare to those that gave them being could not chuse but strike in them a glowing shame and present to their weake memory the neglect of their necessitated duty It is said of the Cranes that when their Parents have moulted their feathers their young ones seeke about for all such necessaries as may relieve them till such time as their aged Parents recover their feathers or by death leave them Likewise to shew how wee ought to succour and support our Parents when they grow aged may be instanced in the tender affection of the Storke whereof wee reade that when the Storkes grow old their affectionate brood take up their Parents upon their owne wings and set them in their nests and like tender Infants place them in their owne bosome where they nurse and nusle them affording them all supportance that may any way accommodate them Nay of all the birds in the ayre the Vultur onely suffers his Parents to perish with hunger which discovers his ravenous and odious nature It is most true what an ancient Father sometimes observed should wee bestow on them whatsoever we could possibly conferre on them yet could wee not doe that which they have done for us beget them How tender then should wee be of their supporting from whom we receive the source of our being It is written of the Tyger though a beast of a savage and truculent nature that when they take away the young one they set looking Glasses or some transparent models in the way to stay the pursuit of the she Tyger wherein seeing her selfe represented by reflexion of the Glasse she there solaceth her selfe with the conceit of her owne forme while the Hunters make way for escape Whence wee may take a view of the tender affection of the savagest Creature to her Cubs in an imaginary reflexion on their feature These unfeignedly love those who came from them and no doubt by a secret instinct of nature are equally requited by a thankefull remonstrance returned to them and shall the Parthian Tyger reteine more impressive Characters of a tender nature then the most noble and rationall Creature You heard before how when the old Storke through age becomes naked of feathers destitute of all personall supply or succour when her life becomes tedious unto her through those infirmities of age which attend her yet shee receives comfort from those who derived their being from her Shee is fed by her brood and carried by them from place to place upon their wings So was aged Anchises carried by his pious Aeneas and so should all Children doe to their distressed Parents Valerius relates an excellent example wherein hee shewes how we ought by so imitable a patterne to succour and support our Parents when they are in necessity which hee commends unto us in this admirable story There was sometimes a certaine noble Woman of high descent and parentage who being adjudged to dye for some foule offence yet in respect of her Family the Iudge decreed she should not dye publikely but be shut up in prison and so dye for hunger But her tender-hearted Daughter being then married having got leave of the Iudge that shee might daily visit her Mother a dis-consolate prisoner but before she were admitted to her to be carefully search'd that shee brought no reliefe unto her So as being in that manner prevented to afford her such comfort or repast as she desired behold how wittily naturall affection became provided shee pull'd forth her owne brests and with her milke nourish'd her Mother And when the Iudge wondred how shee could so long subsist being deprived of all meanes of reliefe having at last heard what her Daughter had done unto her Mother being moved with compassion and the unexemplary piety of her affection he restored the Mother to her Daughter Now shall Pagans expresse better the piety of Christians then Christians the humanity of Pagans Shall a beameling shew more splendor then the Sonne it selfe whose reflection affords that lustre A glimmering at the best had but these Ethnicks and that onely darting from the light of nature whereas we enjoy the Sunne in his Meridian glory being adorned with an inward beauty expecting no Elysiaâ— fâ—â—lds but those essentiall joyes of Eternity As our hopes are higher our expectance surer our grounded assurance firmer let our affections appeare purer our actions in the practise of piety clearer It was an excellent commendation which that Monument bore in her front to the memory of that vertuous Matron Constantia the Lady Lucie A true performer of all duties to Husband Parents Children Friends In the first expressing conjugall constancy in the second filiall piety in the third naturall propinquity in the fourth reciprocall courtesie Now of these some have maintained that no office was more obliging then that of a Child to his Parent confirming their affection with this reason In the losse of a Wife one may redeeme that losse with the marrying of another In the losse of a Child one may repaire that losse in the generation of another And in the losse of a Friend one may recover that losse by the purchase of another But should we forgoe a Father or a Mother wee cannot possibly restore that losse with the supply of another Howsoever I stand doubtfull of the authentick validity of this opinion seeing wee are expresly injoyned to leave Father and Mother for our Wife which parentall dereliction implyes that Man is to adhere to his Wife in the
saith are matter of scandall to Christians eyes those eye-sores which wound the inward man with the sting of anguish Now what receit better or more soveraigne to cure this malady than to take away the cause which begets this infirmity And what may wee suppose the cause to be but the complacency of the flesh when wee labour to satisfie our desires and give easie reines to our affections For the flesh while shee is obedient becomes a servant to the soule shee governeth the other is governed this commandeth that is commanded but having once begun to usurpe shee will scarcely ever become a faithfull and loyall subject What necessity then is there injoyned us to stand upon our guard when we have a Tarpeia within our gates ready to betray us to our professed enemy With what continuall and incessant labour ought wee to imploy our selves that this untamed Iebusitâ— might bee so tired and wearied that all inordinate motions might bee extinguished which by sloth and want of imployment are ever cherished Let us then embrace Continence and by power of so good a spirit dispossesse the bad Let us not entertaine those dangerous motives to sinne which like a Snake in the bosome will wound us to death And what bee those motives Wanton thoughts and wanton words which corrupt mens manners with wicked workes It is a sure note and worthy observance Whensoever any thought is suggested to you which tasteth of evill make the doore of your heart fast lest you give actuall possession to the Divell Wanton words likewise are dangerous motives to incontinence the habit whereof being once attained will hardly be relinquished So as Speech which Democritus cals the image of life being exercised in scurrility seemes to deface that Image by laying on it the darke and sable colour of death For as muddy water is an argument that the fountaine is troubled so filthy words are witnesses that the heart is corrupted A good Tree brings forth good fruit a pure Spring cleare water and an uncorrupt heart words tending to the edification of the hearer Now hee who useth his tongue to filthy communication incurres a threefold offence First in dishonouring God Secondly in sinning against his own soule Thirdly in ministring matter of scandall or offence to his brother How necessary is it then to keepe a watch upon our mouth and a gate of circumstance unto our lips that we offend not with our tongue which like the poisonous Adder stings even unto death wounding the soule with an incurable dart Neither doe I speaking of wantonnesse onely restraine my discourse to incontinence but to whatsoever else may properly tend to the complacency or indulgence of the flesh as to tender obedience to her in the desire of luscious and lascivious meats or the like including all such as turne the grace of God to wantonnesse making a profession of faith but denying the power thereof in their life and conversation Thirdly Pride that Luciferian sinne whose airie thoughts are ever mounting must be subdued by the spirit of humility We would hold it to be no faithfull part of a subject to make choice of no livery but his who is a profest foe to his Soveraigne And what I pray you doe we when we attire our selves in the habiliments of Pride not onely outwardly in gorgeous apparell choicest perfumes and powdred lockes but likewise inwardly in putting on the spirit of Pride attended by scornefull respects disdainfull eyes and haughty lookes Can wee bee truly termed Subjects May wee wearing the Divels crest partake of the seamelesse coat of Christ May we expect a Crowne after death that oppose him who wore a thorny Crowne to crowne us after death No as the Souldier is knowne by his Colours the Servant by his Cognizance the Sheepe by his marke and coine by the stampe so shall we bee knowne by our Colours if wee be Christs Souldiers by our Crest or Cognizance if his followers by our marke if his Sheepe and Lambkins by our stampe or superscription if his Coine or Sterling O know how much wee are the humbler by so much to our Beloved are we the liker Let us resemble him then in all humility that afterwards wee may reigne with him in glory Lastly that wee may become conformable unto him whose Image wee have received wee are to learne of the blessed Apostle in all things to bee contented Content saith the Proverbe is worth a Crowne but many Crownes come farre short of this content Now to propose a rule how this Content may be acquired were a Lesson well worthy our learning which I could wish might bee as soone learned as proposed for Content briefly consists in these two To bee free from desiring what wee have not to bee free from fearing to lose what wee already have Now hee who seeth nothing in the world worthy desiring cannot choose but be free from feare of losing being so indifferent touching the world or whatsoever else hee hath in enjoying For he that neither hath nor seeth ought in the world which he esteemes worthy his love enjoyeth nought but hee can willingly bee content to leave for no man feareth the losse of that which he doth not love But to draw neerer a point these two passions or affections of desire and feare desire of having more than wee have feare of losing what wee already have may be properly said to have a threefold respect To the goods or endowments of the Minde of the Body and of Fortune For the first Plato in his Timaeo saith If a man lose his eyes or feet or hands or wealth we may say of such an one hee looseth something but hee who loseth his heart and reason loseth all For in the wombe of our Mother the first thing which is ingendred or participates forme is the heart and the last which dieth is the same heart So as properly it may be called Reasons Treasurie or store-house where those divine graces are seated which conferre the best beauty to man giving him a note of distinction from other creatures the more to dignifie man For howsoever all creatures have hearts yet only to man is given an understanding heart Other creatures have hearts indeed sensible of present paine but they cannot recall to minde what is past or probably collect by what is past the seasons of times or issues of affaires likely to ensue In the heart of man there is the reasonable power with which hee governeth himselfe the irascible power with which he defendeth himselfe and concupiscible by which he provideth for things necessary to releeve himselfe Now admit wee were deprived of that principall blessing the intellectuall part so as like raving and raging Orostes we were forced to take many blinde by-paths wanting the means of direction by reason of our wofull distraction and crying out with Octavia in Seneca O to the spirits below that I were sent For death were easie to this punishment Admit I say all
this yet is the afflicted soule to bee content abiding Gods good leisure who as hee doth wound so he can cure and as hee opened old Tobiths eyes so can he when he pleaseth where he pleaseth and as hee pleaseth open the bleered eyes of understanding so with a patient expectance of Gods mercy and Christian resolution to endure all assaults with constancie as he recommendeth himselfe to God so shall he finde comfort in him in whom he hath trusted and receive understanding more cleare and perfect than before he enjoyed Or admit one should have his memorative part so much infeebled as with Corvinus Messala he should forget his owne name yet the Lord who numbreth the starres and knoweth them all by their names will not forget him though he hath forgot himselfe having him as a Signâ—t upon his finger ever in his remembrance For what shall it availe if thou have memory beyond Cyrus who could call every souldier in his army by his name when it shall appeare thou hast forgot thy selfe and exercised that facultie rather in remembring injuries than recalling to minde those insupportable injuries which thou hast done unto God Nay more of all faculties in man Memory is the weakest first waxeth old and decayes sooner than strength or beauty And what shall it profit thee once to have excelled in that facultie when the privation thereof addes to thy misery Nothing nothing wherefore as every good and perfect gift commeth from above where there is neither change nor shadow of change so as God taketh away nothing but what he hath given let every one in the losse of this or that facultie referre himselfe with patience to his sacred Majestie who in his change from earth will crowne him with mercy Secondly for the goods or blessings of the Body as strength beauty agilitie c. admit thou wert blinde with Appius lame with Agesilaus tongue-tied with Samius dwarfish with Ivius deformed with Thersites though blinde thou hast eyes to looke with and that upward though lame thou hast legges to walke with and that homeward though tongue-tied thou hast a tongue to speake and that to GOD-ward though dwarfish thou hast a proportion given thee ayming heaven-ward though deformed thou hast a glorious feature and not bruitish to looke-downward For not so much by the motion of the body and her outwardly working faculties as by the devotion of the heart and those inwardly moving graces are wee to come to GOD. Againe admit thou wert so mortally sicke as even now drawing neere shore there were no remedy but thou must of necessity bid a long adieu to thy friends thy honours riches and whatsoever else are deare or neere unto thee yet for all this why shouldest thou remaine discontented Art thou here as a Countryman or a Pilgrim No Countryman sure for then shouldest thou make earth thy Country and inhabit here as an abiding city And if a Pilgrim who would grieve to bee going homeward There is no life but by death no habitation but by dissolution He then that feareth death feareth him that bringeth glad tidings of life Therefore to esteeme life above the price or feare death beyond the rate are alike evill for he that values life to be of more esteeme than a pilgrimage is in danger of making shipwracke of the hope of a better inheritance and he that feareth death as his profest enemy may thanke none for his feare but his securitie Certainly there is no greater argument of folly than to shew immoderate sorrow either for thy own death or death of another for it is no wisedome to grieve for that which thou canst not possibly prevent but to labour in time rather to prevent what may give the occasion to grieve For say is thy friend dead I confesse it were a great losse if hee were lost but lost hee is not though thou bee left gone hee is before thee not gone from thee divided onely not exiled from thee A Princesse wee had of sacred memory who looking one day from her Palace might see one shew immoderate signes or appearances of sorrow so as shee moved with princely compassion sent downe presently one of her Pensioners to inquire who it was that so much sorrowed and withall to minister him all meanes of comfort who finding this sorrowfull mournes to bee a Counsellor of State who sorrowed for the 〈◊〉 of his daughter returned directly to his Soveraigne and acquainted her therewith O quoth she who would thinks thaâ— a wise man and a Counsellor of our State could so forget himselfe as to shew himselfe 〈◊〉 for 〈…〉 of his childs And surely whosoever shall but duly conâ—ider mans 〈◊〉 with deathe necessity cannot chuse but wonder why any one should bee so wholly destitute of understanding to lament the death of any one since to die is as necessary and common as to be borne to every one But perchance it may bee by some objected that the departure of their friend is not so much lamented for that is of necessity and therefore exacts no teares of sorrow being if spent as fruitlesse as the doome reverselesse but their sudden and inopinate departure Whereto I answer that no death is sudden to him that dies well for sudden death hath properly a respect rather to the life how it was passed or disposed than to death how short his summons were or how quickly closed Io. Mathes preaching upon the raising up of the womans sonne of Naim by Christ within three houres afterward died himselfe The like is written of Luther and many others As one was choaked with a flie another with a haire a third pushing his foot against the tressal another against the threshold falls downe dead So many kinde of wayes are chalked out for man to draw towards his last home and weane him from the love of the earth Those whom God loves said Menander the young yea those whom hee esteemeth highest hee takes from hence the soonest And that for two causes the one is to free them the sooner from the wretchednesse of earth the other to crowne them the sooner with happinesse in Heaven For what gaine wee by a long life or what profit reape wee by a tedious Pilgrimage but that wee partly see partly suffer partly commit more evils Priamus saw more dayes and shed more teares than Troilus Let us hence then learne so to measure our sorrow for ought that may or shall befall us in respect of the bodie that after her returne to earth it may bee gloriously re-united to the soule to make an absolute Consort in Heaven Thirdly and lastly for the goods or blessings of Fortune they are not to command us but to bee commanded by us not to be served by us but to serve us And because hee onely in the affaires of this life is the wealthiest who in the desires of this life is the neediest and he the richest on earth who sees little worth desiring on earth we