of the world 'T is the Epitaph on their tomb Read it I grant more-over Death may be contemned but not avoided you may be the greatest Princes of the earth An infinite number of your companions are buried under these corrupted ruins Suppose in fine that your Soveraignty did extend it self over all the Empire of the world A thousand and a thousand too of your semblables have now nothing more their own then that corruption which devours even to the very bones Ambitious Heart see here a Mirrour which flatters not since it represents to the life the realty of thy miseries Well maist thou perhaps pretend the conquest of the Universe even those who have born away that universall Crown are now crowned but with dust and ashes Covetous wretch behold the book of thy accounts 'T is no wonder the Miser ne're thinks of Death his thoughts are onely taken up for this Life calculate all that is due to thee after payment of thy debts learn yet after all this that thy soul is already morgaged to devils thy body to worms and thus notwithstanding all thy treasures there will not abide with thee one hair upon thy head one tooth in thy chops nor one drop of blood in thy veynes nor ne're so little marrow in thy bones nay the very memory of thy being would be extinguish't if thy crimes did not render it eternall both here and in the torments of hell Proud arrogant man measure with thy bristled brows Pride is but like the nooneflourish of a flows or which at Sunset perisheth the dilatation of the earth Brave with thy menacing regards the heavens and the stars These mole-hills of rottennesse whereof thy carkasse is shap't prepare toward the tomb of thy vanity Seneca Epist Quotidie morimur quotidie enim demitur aliqua par vitae These are the shades of Death inseparable from thy body since it dies every hour If thou elevate thy self to day even to the clouds to morrow thou shalt be debased to nothing But if thou doubt of this truth behold here a thousand witnesses which have made experience of it Luxurious Wanton give thy body a prey to voluptuousnesse deny nothing to thy pleasures but yet consider the horrour and dreadfunesse of that Metamorphosis when thy flesh shall be turned to filth and even that to worms and those still to fresh ones which shall devour even thy coffin and so efface the very last marks of thy Sepulture How remarkable is the answer of Diogenes to Alexander What art thou musing on Cynicke says this Monarch to him one day having found him in a Charnell-yard I amuze my self here answers he in search of thy father Philips bones among this great number which thou see'st but my labour is in vain for one differs not from another Great Kings the discusse of this answer may serve you now as a fresh instruction to insinuate to you the knowledge of your selves You walk in triumph to the Tomb followed with all the train of your ordinary magnificences but by being arrived at this Port blown thither with the continuall gale of your sighs your pomp vanisheth away your Royall Majesty abandons you your greatnesse gives you the last Adieu and this your mortall fall equalls you now to all that were below you The dunghill of your body hath no preeminence above others unlesse it be in a worse degree of rottennesse of being of a matter more disposed to corruption But if you doubt of this truth Corruprio optimi pessima behold and contemplate the deplorable estate to which are reduced your semblables Their bald scalps have now no other Crown then the circle of horrour which environs them their disincarnated hands hold now no other Scepter but a pile of worms and all these wretchednesses together give them to see a strange change from what they were in all the glories of their Court The seriout meditation of his miserable condition 't is capable to make any man wise These palpable and sensible objects are witnesses not to be excepted against Let then your souls submit to the experiment of your senses But what a Prodigy of wonders here do I not see the great Army of Xerxes reduced and metamorphosed into a hand full of dust All that world of men in those days which with its umbragious body covered a great part of the earth shades not so much as a foot on 't with its presence Be never weary of thinking of these important truths Seneca in the Tragedy of Hercules brings in Alcmena In Hercule Oetaeo Ecce vix totam Hercules Complevit urnam quam leve est pondus mihi Câ—totus aether pondus incubuit leve with grievous lamentation bearing in an urn the ashes of that great Monster-Tamer And to this esfect makes her speak Behold how easily I carry him in my hand who bore the Heavens upon his shoulders The sense of these words ought to engage our spirits to a deep meditation upon the vanity of things which seem to us most durable All those great Monarchs who sought an immortality in their victories and triumphs have mist that and found Death at last the enjoyment of their Crownes and splendours being buried in the same Tomb with their bodies See here then a new subject of astonishment The Mathematicians give this Axiome The warld is a Game at Chesse where every of the Set haâ—s his particular Name and Place designed but the Game done all the pieces are pellmellâ—d into the Bagg and even so are all mortals into the grave All lines drawn from the Center to the Circumference are equall Kings and Princes abate your haughtinesse your subjects march fellow-like with you to the Center of the grave If life gave you preheminence Death gives them now equality There is now no place of affectation or range to be disputed the heap of your ashes and their dust make together but one hillock of mould whose infection is a horrour to me I am now of humour not to flatter you a whit We read of the Ethiopians that they buried their Kings in a kind of Lestall and I conceive thereof no other reason then according to the nature of the subject they joyned by this actiotion the shadow and the substance the effect with the cause the stream with its source for what other thing are we then a masse of mire dried and bak'd by the fire of life but scattered again and dissolv'd by the Winter of Death and in that last putrefaction to which Death reduceth us the filth of our bodies falls to the dirt of the earth as to its center for so being conceived incorruption let us not think strange to be buried in rottennesse Earth dust and ashes 'T is well men hide themselves after death in the Earth or the enclosure of Tombs their sulth and noysomnesse would else be too discovert remain still the same be it in a vessell of gold or in a coffin of wood
of the World been of such a worth as every day you descry they had powerfully resisted against the assaults of Ages but as they had nothing admirable in them but the Name Memorials have preserved that and let them perish But yours MADAME which are too perfect for a sutable Name shall not cease to survive the revolutions of Times as being enlivned by Vertue which alone can exempt from Death Let it not seem strange then if I hazard the perils of the Sea to render Homage to a Queen whose Greatness perforce humbles the most arrogant spirits being not able so much as in thought to reach to the first degree of her Glory The Graces themselves are hers and the VERTVES have allianced their own and her Name and all the adorable qualities which are found here below are admirable in her alone as in their Source I am constrained to be silent MADAME being over charged with too much subject of speech The number of your Perfections astonishes me the greatness of your Merit ravishes me the splendour of your Vertue dazles me And in this dazle this transport this excess of admiration wherein my senses and spirits are all alike engaged I am compeled to cast my self at the feet of your Majesty and demand pardon of the boldness which I assume onely to enjoy the stile of MADAME Your MAJESTIES Most humble and most obeisant Servant P. de la SERRE TO THE QUEEN OF GREAT BRITAIN Upon the MIRROVR Which flatters not Of le Sieur de la SERRE SONNET PRincess this perverse Ages glorious gemme Whose least of Vertues seems a prodigie Illustrious Sien of the fairest Stemme That Heaven e're shew'd this Vniverse's eye Though Fate with thousand hind'rances averse Barres me the place to which my duty 's bent I cannot cheer my Soul from self-torment But by design to pourtray you in Verse But since that Serres shew's in this true Mirrour The Vertues of your Mind 's eternal splendour As lively as your Body's beautious measure My heed to view you here lets others pass So well I here agnize all your rare treasure That I ne're saw a better Crystal-Glass Par le Sr. C. TO THE AUTHOR upon the same subject STANCES DIvine Spirit knowing Soul Which with lovely sweet controul Rank'st our Souls those good rules under Which thy Pen layes down with wonder Whil'st the sweetness of thy Voice Breathes oracular sacred noise All thy Works so well esteem'd Thorough Europe proofes are deem'd Of thy Gifts which all admire Which such Trophies thee acquire And with these thy Muse invested Orpheus is by thee out-crested Also since blind Ignorance Makes no more abode in France Seldome can we meet with such As the works of thy sweet â—'uch Such immortal straines of spirit As do thousand Laurels merit But although thy active Muse Wonders did before produce As we seldome see the like This doth with amazement strike 'T is a Mirrour that doth shine More with Fire then Crystaline 'T is a Mirrour never flatters On my eyes such rayes it scatters That therewith I daz'led am Searching for thee in the same By some charm or stranger case I see thy spirit not thy face This strange fashion doth amaze me When I ne're so little gaze me I am streight all on a fire The more I look more I admire 'T is a mirrour sure of flame Sparkling more we mark the same Yet not every prying eye Shall it-self herein espie 'T is not for so commune use Free from flattering abuse None so clearly here are seen As King Charles and his fair Queen Therefore thus the Author meant To the World it to present Since it is a thing so rare And unparallelled fair That it should a Tablet bee For the fairest he could see Serres this thy work-man-ship Doth my spirit over-strip With such judgement and such grace Thou do'st shew in little space Three strange Wonders without errour Two bright Suns in one clear Mirrour And by this thy rare composure Shall thy Name beyond enclosure Of this present Age obtain Eternal honour for thy pain Writing to these Princes Graces Thou art prais'd in thousand places Par le mesme Upon the Book SONNET HEre undisguis'd is seen in this true Mirrour The glory or the shame of mortal story As Reason or the miss-led senses errour Do win the day or yield the Victory Serres doth here lively delineate Our every-dayes vain wretched passages And what is destin'd after Funeral state To innocent pureness or black wickedness Such diverse subjects in this one enclosed Such various objects to the view exposed Thou little Monarch Man small Vniverse Thy Soul it lessons thus and thee informes As thou art Soul with henvenly fires converse As thou art Flesh thou art a Bait for wormes To the Reader IT may perhaps seem strange that I treat so often in my Works of the same matter as of the contempt of the VVorld and Meditations of Death But if the importance of the subject be considered and the profit to be derived thence a Man will never be weary of seeing such fair truths under different presentations Besides the conceptions of spirit upon the same matter are like the productions of Nature in the Species's of Tulips Every year she gives a Change both to their Colour and Array And though they be still Tulips she renders them so different from their first resemblance that they can hardly otherwise be known but by the name The Mind doe's the same upon the same subject its Fancies which are its ornature and emblishment render it by their diversity so different from it self that it is hardly known but by the Titles which it bears to particularize each conceit So that if once again I represent unto thee the pour-trait of Vanity and the Image of Death my spirit which hath steaded me for Pencil and colouring in this VVork hath rendred it so rare in its Novelty and so excellent in difference from those which have preceded that thou shalt find nothing in it commune with them but my name Thou mayest consider moreover that I dedicate Books to Kings and Queens not every day and that these objects of such eminent magnificence do so nobly rouze the faculties of my Soul that I could not have petty thoughts for such high Personages It is that which without ostentation makes me believe that if thou buy once again this Book and tak'st the pains to read it thou wilt regreet neither the Time nor Money which thou shalt employ therein ADIEU If thou beest of so good an humour to pardon the Faults excuse those of the Impression The Scope addrest to the SERIOUS LEt merrier Spleens read Lazarill ' or laugh At Sancho Pancho or the Grapes-blood quaffe And tickle up their Lungs with interlace Of Tales and Toyes that furrow up the face With wrinckling Smiles But if they abusive be To slight these hints of their Mortalitie Urg'd by our Authour 't is a foolish way And weakly does become corruptive
wherein he is of possessing all things he looseth the possession of himself and having too much dreamed on his pleasures his Life is past as a Dream without return I must tell you one of my meditations I shall never be able to comprehend the meaning of those who moan themselves against Fortune A man may well complain against Fortune these vain regréetes exempt him not from the pain the World all the pleasures of this life One forsooth will upbraid to this foolish Deity her deceipts without considering that he deceived himself in giving Trust to a Goddesse that near had any He yet will accuse her to have conducted him still through craggy ways and over-spread with thorns as if in following one that is blinde a man should not hazard to run this danger Another will make ye fresh complaints against the World detesting it's Sweets The world may well be the instrument of our destruction not the cause cursing it's charms and calling it a Thousand times deceiptfull but why one would say to hear these plaints that the world began but now to receive its birth I mean were but now newly created that no man knows it yet and that its first couzenages began but now to be discovered What follyl is not this to cheat ones self to have commerce with a cheater the world never yet bore any other name or title The number of those whom the world hath deceived is so great that they that still trust it are now no more excusable why then aym we to nourish our selves with its delights whose after-bitternes impoysons sensibly our souls But if its charms be powerful enough to tempt reason they are yet too feeble to vanquish it provided that the wil consent not so that a man remain convict of all the crimes whereof he may be accused What seeming ground then have we to be enraged against those pleasures which we have received The will is so free that it cannot suffer violence but from it self if our selves ' only give them both being and form the Fancies conceive these delights the will gives them birth they are the works whereof our imaginations form the Spices Pleasures are the greatest enemies of life for in casting flowers upon our heads they fill our hearts with thorns and our desires make the Metamorphosis changing them into objects palpable and sensible which are marks of the seal of our depravednesse Let a man then abhor pleasures instead of accusing them detest their vanity in lieu of complaining of deceitfulnesse But if they be criminall they onely bear the stain of their Fathers and if they be complices of our destruction t is we give them Birth to give us death Let men cease to lament of Fortune since the Mirror of its flying scarfe Fortune is still her self he which trusts her takes delight to be cheated and wings expresse to the life its lightnesse and our folly Let none Argue any more that the world is cause of our ruine since we cannot chuse but tread every hour over the dust and ashes of those who have too late repented to have followed it As for voluptuousnesse t is a vain Idaea to which our passions give a body to make it serve as a sensible object of their brutality insomuch that it can do nothing but by our first motions taking its vigour from our force Pleasure still takes its force from our volunt ary weakness 'T is more then folly when the folly of others serves us not for example and its power from our Soverainty and this renders us doubly culpable palleating our faults instead of acknowledging them since laments rather than excuses might absolve us them Is it not that St. John Chrysostome toucht with compassion of our miseries cries out in astonishment of our weaknes Oh World how many hast thou deceved but this is its trade and profession Oh Fortune how many hast thou made to fall but even yet still while I am speaking she gives employment to her treason and exercise to her Tyranny O Pleasures comfitted in Sweets and yet steeped in bittersnesse how many have ye poysoned but yet their venome is so common that the whole earth is infected with it What remedy then to all these ils No other then this to pry into ones self in the MIRROVR of his own Ashes We can no better contemplate any thing then in the Mirrour of our Nothing AMIRROUR always hanging at the Girdle and which flatters not AMIRROUR whose glasse though more brittle then one of Chrystall makes us yet to see that all the objects of the World are false All the Mirrours of the World flatter except this of our miseries but that of our Corruption a Mirrrour which represents us more lively in our pourtraict then in our selves A Mirrour whose kind of shadow and Chimera makes us see in effect that which we are in appearance A Mirrour all miraculous which preserves certain Species's of nothing to render them sensible to our knowledge A Mirrour all divine which metamorphosing our bodies into shadows yet expresses us so naturally that the most arrogant cannot mistake themselves A Mirrour lastly which Nature hath charmed with it's own proper spels to the end that viewing himself herein a Man may be able to resist the charms of the World's allurements I am greatly astonisht at those that preach us the Knowledge of our selves to be so troublesom difficult since at all times and in all places of all sides of all sorts of fashions we are nothing at all or if by an excesse of flattery and vanity I borrow some names to expresse truly what we are If a wan would still study himself he would become the wisest of the World it can be no other then those of dure and mire whose noysomnesse takes away all doubt on it from the most incredulous In what then consists this trouble of studying to know one's-self since the most ignorant may in this go out Doctors in the schoole of our miseries Self-knowledge onely difficile to the proud where lies the difficulty to arrive to this knowledge when the very wind of our sighs carries away every moment some of that polluted dust whereof we be made Where is this pain say I yet since our senses and spirits can have no other object then this of Inconstancy as unseparable to their nature as it is proper to our condition And what can be this difficulty when we are capable of no action more then to destroy our selves We must break this rinde farther Humility is a skilfull Schoole-master to ieach us to know our selvs I will beleeve that every one knows from whence he comes and whither he goes that his body is but a work of rottennesse and that the worms attend thereof the prey as a nourishment which to them is destinated A man knows no more then he remembers but it is important to consider that these
of thy opinion Plotinus and henceforth will maintain every where with thee that Man is an abridgement of the wonders of the world The eight wonders of the world Since that all the Univers together was created but for his service and pleasure Say we yet moreover that those wonders of the world so renowned are but the works of his hands so that also the actions of his spirit in divine Contemplation can take their Rise above the Sun and beyond the heavens and this too now in the chains of its servitude Great Kings be it supposed that you are living pourtraits of Inconstancy Man flies away by little and little from one part of himself that he may entirely enter at once into himself The perfection of your Nature lies in this defect of you powers for this Vicissitude which God hath rendred inseparable to your condition is a pure grace oâ— his bounty since you wax old onely that you may be exempted from the tyranny of Ages since I say you die every moment onely to make acquisition of that immortality to which his love has destin'd you This defest of inconstancy is the perfection of man since he is changable to day to be no more so to morrow O happy Inconstancy if in changing without cease we approach the point of our soveraign felicity whose foundations are immoveable O dear Vicissitude â—rowling without intervall in the duâ—â— of our originall we approach bâ— little and little to those Age of glory which beyond all time assigne at our End the beginning of a better Carreere A man is onely happy in the perpetitall inconstancy of his condition O Glorioâ—â— Death since terminated at thâ—â— cruell instant which separates 〈◊〉 from Immortality It is true I confesse it again Great Kings that you are subject to all the sad accidents of your subjects The greatest misery that can arrive to a man is to offend God But what happinesse is it if these misfortunes are as so many severall waies which conduct you into the Port. Be it granted that you are nothing but Corruption in your birth Misery in your Life and a fresh infection in your Death All these truths are as so many attributes of honour to you since you disrobe your selves in the grave of all your noisomnesse for to Deck your selves with the ornaments of Grace of felicity and glory which belongs in proper to your souls as being created for the possession of all these Good Things Who can be able to dimension the greatnesse of Man Heaven Earth Nature the very Divels are admirers of the greatness of man since he who hath neither bounds nor limits would himself be the circumference of it Would you have some knowedge of mans power hear the commandement which Josuah made to the Sun to stop in the middest of his carreere Would you have witnesses of his strength Samson presents you all the Philistins buried together under the ruines of the Temple whose foundations he made to totter Require you some assurances of his courage Job offers you as many as he has sores upon his body In fine desire you some proofes of his happinesse Heaven hath fewer of Stars than of felicities to give him Man may be what somever he will be What name then shall we attribute him now that may be capable to comprehend all his glory There is no other than this of man John 19.5 and Pilate did very worthily no doubt to turn it into mockage before the Jewes Ecce homo Behold the Man he shews them a God under the visage of a Man Let the world also expose the miseries of Man in publicke His Image of Earth is yet animated with a divine spirit The name Man is now much more noble than that of Angels With what new rinds soever a man be covered he beares still in biforehead the marks of his Creator which can never change Nature Weâ—â— may they tear his bark the Inmaâ—â— of it is of proofe against the strokeâ— of Fortune as well as the gripes oâ— Death The Man of Earth may turn into Earth but the Man of heaveâ— takes his flight alwaies into heaven That Man I say fickle and inconstant kneaded and shap't from dirt with the water of his own tears may resolve into the same matter Buâ— this stable and constant Man created by an omnipotent hand remaines uncessantly the same as incapable of alteration Rouze then your selves from sleep great Princes He that would alwaies muse of Eternitie would with out doubt acquire its glory not for to remember Death but rather to tepresent unto your selves that you are immortall since Death hath no kind of Dominion over your Soules which make the greatest as being the Noblest part of you Awake then great Monarchs not for to muse of this necessity which drawes you every hour to the tomb but rather to consider that you may exempt your selves from it if your Actions be but as sacred as your Majesties Great PRINCES Awake Man is a hidden treasure whose worth God onely knowes and permit me once more to remembrance You that you are Men I meane the Master-pieces of the workes of God since this divine work-Master hath in conclusion metamorphosed himselfe into his own work My seathered pen can fly no higher Man onely is the ornament of the world Those which have propounded that Man was a new world have found out proportionable relations and great correspondencies of the one to the other for the Earth is found in the matter where of he is formed the Water in his teares the Aire in his sighs the Fire in his Love the Sun in his reason and the Heavens in his imaginations But the Earth subsists and he vaniseth O Sweet vanishment since he is lost in himself that he may be found in his Creator but the Earth remaines firm and his dust flies away O happy flight since eternity is its aime The Water though it fleets away yet returnes the same way and retorts upon it's owne paces Man may be said to be happy in being subject to all mishaps But man contrarily being setled upon the declining stoop of his ruine rouls insensibly without intervall to the grave his prison O dear ruine O sweet captivity since the soul recovers her freedome Death is a grace rather than a paine and this Sepulture serves but as a Furnace to purifie his body The Aire although it corrupt is not for all that destroied the corruption of man destroies its materiall O glorious destruction since it steads him as a fresh disposition to render him immortall The Fire though it fairely devoure all things is yet preserved still it selfe to reduce all the world into Ashes But Man perceives himself to be devoured by Time without ability ever to resist it Oh beneficiall Imporence since he finds his Triumph in his overthrow the Sun causeth alwaies admiration in its ordinary lustre The felicitie of man
think to stablish to themselves a shelter of honour to the proof of all sorts of atteints and on the contrary they warp the web of their own ruin Just so is it with the Rich ones of the world who by an ingenious industry To what effect is it to seek repose in this world it is never to be found but in God employ all their assaies to lay solide foundations here below of an immortall life and yet all their actions cannot but terminate in an end contrary to their designes since they search Eternity in the circles of Ages alwaies in revolution and repose in the perpetuall instability of all worldly things Insomuch that they trouble themselves to suffer much and all their cares and paines are but as fresh sowings of * See the ambiguity of the French word Souties in the first Chapter Marigolds which dying in their gardens respring in their hearts there to die never Behold the end of their journey-work Treasures to what effect serve you me if I must enter all naked into the grave Pleasures what becomes of your sweets if my last sighs are but bitternesse Grandeurs of this life in what stéad you meif you cannot exempt me from the miseries of death LORD I am rich enough in that I serve for an object of pity to thy adorable Providence whose o're liberall boundry furnishes me for all my daies nourishment enough to passe them what can I wish more on what side somever I take my way to go the course of Death Heaven is an object of consolation to the most miserable I can never loose from view the heavens which are the Gates of thy Palace Insomuch as if any thing fail me I have but to strike there with my regards thou art alwaies upon a ready watch to succour the miserable Supply me then O LORD if it please thee with thy ordinary charities and since that hope dies after me I will rather cease to be then to hope in thee These are the strongest resolutions of my soul We read of the children of Israel We beg of God every day new favours and every day we render our selves unthankfully for those we have received that having received of God an infinity of riches at their coming out of the red Sea by the wrack of their enemies they made of their treasures Idols and joyning in this sort Idolatrie to Ingratitude they erected altars to their brutalitie since under relief of a brute beast they represented their God But leave we there the children of Israel and speak of the Father◠of BABYLON I mean those wicked rich ones of the world to whom God hath done so great favours in heaping them with so many goods Are not they every day convicted of Idolatry in their unacknowledgement since the coffers of their treasures are the Idols of their temples Are we worthily Christians when idolatry is more familiar to us then to infidels since we make idols of al the objests of our passions More beasts then brutes in their voluntary depravednesse they offer incense to their brutish passions and no otherwise able but to erect them secret altars in their souls they there sacrifice everie hour a thousand sighs to a◠unsatiable abition Insomuch that the God of heaven is the God of their dissimulation and the Calf of Gold the God of their beleef and opinion Say we then boldly that the objects of our passions are Golden Calves to us since our hearts become their Idolaters One here will sigh for love of honours as well as for his Mistresse with designe to hazard a thousand lives and as many souls for the conquest of their vain felicities and see here his idolatry making his God of these Chimera's of honour which vanish away like a Dream at the rouzing up of our reason Another there What solly is it to seek repese in the world which subsists onely in revolution will lose quite and clean all the peace wherein he is of a quiet life for to set up a rest purely imaginary in the amassement of treasures And if heaven hearing his votes with design to punish him gives some favourable successe to his cares and watchings he becomes an Idolater now indeed an Idoloter of those goods which as yet he adored but in hope and renders himself miserable sor having desired too ardently felicities which onely bear the voice to be so The goods of the earil are right evils and at Death each one shall so experiment them but their usage and possession may prove as dangerous upon the earth as Rocks within the Sea One will have his heart wounded and his Soul attained with a new trick of ambition and as all his desires and thoughts are terminated to the objects of his designs he is never in health while the feaver of his passion is continuall I leave you to consider of what ratiocination he can be capable during the malady of his spirit All sorts of ways seem equally fair unto him for to guide him unto the port whither he aspires having no other aim but this to acquire at what rate some-ever that good whereof he is in Quest and of this Good it is whereof he makes his Idoll after a shamefull immolation of the best days of his Life to the anxieties of its possession Another-will establish his repose in the turmoyle of the word turning his spirit to all winds to be under covert from the tempests of fortune Blinde as he is he follows this Goddesse with the hoodwinckt eyes Wavering as he is he aspires but after the savours of this inconstant Deity of which he is secretly an idolater but if perchance she elevate him very high there is no more hazard of his fall the laws of this necessitie are inviolable and one cannot avoid the rigour of them if not avoiding their servitude Insomuch that after he hath sneak't himself a long time amongst the grandeurs of the earth he finds himself enlabirinthed in the miseries wherein he is born without possessing anie thing in propritie but the usance of a puffe of wind which enters once again at last into his entrals to force thence the last sigh And thus he becomes the Victime of the Idoll of his passions without purifying nevertheless from the sacrifice of his life the soyl of those offerings which he hath made upon the altars of Vanity Behold the sad issue of this Dedalean labyrinth If the fruition of all the world together were to be sold it were not wort so much b trouble a to open s the mouth onely to ◠say I will not buy it wherein so manie of the world take pleasure to intricate themselves in O how Rich is he LORD who hath thy love and fear for his treasure O how happy is he who hath for object of felicity the contempt of these things of the world O how Contented is he who thinks alwaies of eternall delights To have manie riches for a hundred
the stroakes of fortune or the thunders of heaven What a folly is this to esteem ones selfe happy for having diverse cabbins upon earth to put himselfe under convert from the raine and wind during the short journey of life The raine ceases the wind is past and life dies and then the tempest of a thousand eternall anguishes comes to entertain him without possibility of discovery even from hope one onely port of safety To be onely rich then in aedifices is to be rich in castles of paper and cards such as little children lodge their pety cares in To what purpose steads it us to be richly lodged We must build upon the unshakeable foundations of eternitie if a man would be sheltered from all sorts of stormes if every houre of the day may be that of our departure Men trouble themselves to build houses of pleasure but the pleasures fade away and we also and these houses remain for witnesses of our folly and for sensible objects of sorrow and griefe in that cruell necessity to which we are reduced to abandon them It is to be considered that we are born to be travellers and Pilgrims as such are we constraind to march alwaies straight to the gisâ— of Death Though we saythe Sun sets every night yet it rests not and so Man though he lay himselfe to sleep rests not from hisvoyage to Earth without ever resting or being able to find repose even in repose it selfe To what then are all these magnificent Pallaces when our onely retreat beats on to the grave To what end are all this great number of structures when we are all in the way and point to end our voyage O how well is he housed that lodgeth his hope in God and laies the foundations of his habitation upon Eternity A good conscience is the richest house that one can have Another designes his treasures in numerous Shippings traficking with all winds in spight of stormes and tempests but be it granted a perpetuall calm as heart could wish and imagine we as himselfe does that he shall fish with Fortunes nets all the Pearles of the Ocean what can he doe at the end with all his ventures if he truck them away he can gain but stuffe of the same price if he sell them he does but change white purified earth for yellow which the Sun purifies as well within the mines what will he doe now with this new merchandize or this his gold behold him alwaies in trouble to discharge himself of so many burdens If gold were potable he might perhaps nourish himselfe therewith for a while but as Midas could not do it in the fable he will never bring it to passe in the verity he must needs keep watch then day and night to the guard of his riches and well may he keep sentinell Death comes to rob him of them since at his going out of the world she takes them away from him What appearance is there that the treasures of the Sea should be able to make a man rich since the possession of all the world together cannot doe it The treasure of good workes is eternall riches A hundred thousand ships are but a hundred thousand shuttle-cockes for the wind and a hundred thousand objects of shipwrack Suppose they arrive to the Port the life of their Master is alwaies among rocks for 't is a kind of ship which cannot arrive at other shore but at the banke of the grave And I leave you to consider what danger he may run Our life is a Ship which loosing from the Haven to the cradle at the moment of our birth never comes ashore again till it run aground upon the grave if there the storm of his avaricious passion cast him The sand-blind-sighted may foresee his ruine and the most judicious will beleeve it infallible Behold in fine a man rich to much purpose that would have drain'd by his ambition the bottomlesse depths of the Ocean and now to find himselfe in the end of his carreere in the abysses of hell having an Eternitie of evils for recompence of an age of anxieties which he hath suffered during his life Lord if I would be rich in wood let it be in that of thy Crosse from henceforth let its fruits be my revenues and my rents If I would traffick in meads Let the meditation of the hay of my life be my onely profit If I set my selfe to build houses He which puts his trust in God is the richest of the world how poor soever he be let it be rather for my soul than for my body and in such sort that my good workes may be the stones the purity of my conscience the foundation And lastly If I would travell the seas to goe to the conquest of their treasures let my teares be the waves thereof and my sighs the winds and thy grace alone the onely object of my riches Make me then rich O LORD if it please thee by the onely misprise of all the treasures of the Earth and teach this secret language to my heart It is already sufficient enjoyment of rest and quiet to set up ones rest in God onely never to speak but of thee in its desires nor of other then thy self in its hopes since of thee alone and in thee onely lies the fulnesse of its perfect felicity and soveâ—aign repose Let us not rest our selves in so fair a way I cannot comprehend the design of these curious Spirits who go seeking the Philosophers-stone in that Spitle where an infinite number of their companions are dead of regreet to have so ill imployed their time They put all they have to the quest of that which never was and burning with desire to acquire wealth they reduce all their own into cinders and their lungs also with vehement puffing without gaining other recompence at the end of their labours The love of God is the only Philosopher-stone since by it a man may acquire eternalâ— treasures but this now to know their folly but the Sun sets the candle goes out the bed of buriall is prepared there must be their Enter at the Exit of so manie unprofitable pains To what purpose serves it now to know they are fools having no more time to be wise What cruell Maladie of spirit is it to sacrifice both ones body and soul in and unluckie alymbick for to nourish a vain ambition whose irregular appetite can never be satisfied Is not this to take pleasure in kindling the fire which consumes us to burn perpetually with desire of being rich in this world An inclination toward the misprize of Earth is a presage of the getting of Heaven and yet get nothing by it And then to burn again eternally in hell without possibility to quench the ardour of those revenging flames is not this to warp ones-self the web of a fate the most miserable that ever was Produce we then of nothing the creation of this
complaint If Riches consisted onely in Gold Diamonds Pearls or such like things of like raritie those which have not of them might count themselves miserable But every man carries his treasure in his conscience He which lives without just scandall lives happily and and who can complain of a happy life But if to have the hap of these felicities of this life Riches are of use to human life but not of necessity for without them a man may live content a man judge presently that he ought of nececessity to have a great number of riches This is to enslave himself to his own opinion abounding in his proper sense and condemning reason for being of the contrary part I know well that a man is naturally swayed to love himself more then all things of the world and that this love proceeds from the passion of our interest seeking with much care and pain all that may contribute to our contentments and whereas Riches seem to be Nurses of them this consequence is incident to be drawn that without them is no contented living But at first dash When Reason reigns the passions obey it is necessary to distinguish this love into Naturall and Brutall and believe that with the illumination of reason we may purifie the relishes of the first even to the point of rendring them innocent without departing from our interests and consequently the enjoyment of our pleasures giving them for object the establishment of our setled content in misprision of all those things of the world which may destroy it As for this brutish Love which estranging us from God separates us also from our selves the passion of it becomes so strong by our weaknesse that without a speciall grace we grow old in this malady of Spirit of contenting our Senses rather then obeying our Reason making a new God of the Treasures of the Earth But in conclusion these Gods abandon our bodies to the Worms and our souls to the Devils And for all their riches the greatest Great ones can onely purchase a glorious Sepulture Is not this a great advantage and a goodly consolation Maintain we boldly He whose will submits to Gods will lives ever content that a man may find quietnes of life in all sorts of conditions with the onely richnesse of a tractable Soul resign'd to take the time as it comes as God sends it without ever arguing with his providence There is no affliction whereto our Soul cannot give us asswage The Spirit of a Man will bear his infirmity There is no ill whereto it self is not capable to furnish us a remedy A man how miserable somever may find his contentment amidst his miseries if he lives for his soul more then for his bodies behalf God makes us to be born where he will and of what Parents he pleases if the poorness of our birth accompany us even to death he hath so ordained it what can else do but let him so do Can he be accounted miserable that obey's with good grace his soveraigns decrees O 'T is a greater danger to be very rich then viry poor for riches often makes men lose their way but poverty keeps 'em in the straight path how is it far more easie to undergo the burthen of much poverty then of great riches For a man extreamly poor is troubled with no thoughts more important then onely how to find means to passe his life in the austerities whereto he is already habituated without repining after other fortune as being estranged equally both from his knowledge and reach in which respects he may well be stil'd happy But a man very rich dreams of nothing but to eternize the continuance of his days although his fancy be in vain instead of letting them quietly slide away insomuch that being possest with no passion more then love of life he thinks alwaies to live and never to die But Death comes ere he thinks on 't and taking from him all to his very shirt Death cannot be said to deceive any body for it is infallible and yet the world complaint of it constrains him to confesse that riches are onely profitable by misprision since by the contempt a man makes of them he may become the richest of the world O what a sensible pleasure 't is to be Rich say worldly men alwaies but I would fain know in what consists this contentment what satisfaction can there be had to possesse much treasure knowing what an infinite number of our companions are reduc'd to the last point of poverty Some in Hospitals where they he in straw over whelmed with a thousand fresh griefs Others at the corner of a street where a piece of a Dung-hill serves them at once both for bed and board Some again in Dungeons where horrour and afright hunger and despair tyrannize equally over their unfortunate spirits And others in some Desert to which ill fate has confined them to make their ills remedilesse as being far removed from all sorts of succours How with the knowledge of these truths There is no emptinesse in nature for miseries fill al a man shall be able to relish greedily the vain sweets of worldly riches it must needs be for want of reason or pity and consequently to be altogether brutish or insensible I shall have suppose a hundred thousand crownes in rents and all this revenue shall serve but to nourish my body and its pleasures without considering that a hundred thousand poor soules sigh under the heavy burden of their miseries every Day and yet men shall esteem me happy in being rich in this fate O how dangerous are the treasures which produce these felicities Is it possible It is a brave generositie to be sensible of othermens miseries that the Great-ones of the world doe not thinke at all in the middle of their Feasts of the extream poverty of an infinite number of persons and that in themselves they do not reason secretly in this sort What in this instant that we satiate the appetite of our senses with all that nature hath produced most delicious for their entertain a million and many more poor soules are reduced to this extremitie as not to have one onely crumb of bread And in this serious thought what relish can they find in their best-cook'd cates and in their sweetest condiment does not this important consideration mingle a little bitternesse But if their spirits estrange themselves from these meditations and fasten to objects more agreeable O how hard of digestion is the second service of their collation He which cannot love his neighbour hath no love for himselfe To speak ingenuously every time when I consider in that condition exempt from want wherein God hath given me birth and wherein his goodnesse which is no other than himselfe keeps me still alive I say when I consider the misery to which the greatest part of the world is reduced I cannot be weary of blessing this adorable Providence which grants
of the Conquerour had diverse times surrounded the Universe But what shame after so much glory Great Men cannot commit little faults What infamy after so great honour Lucullus victorious over so many Empires is found in fine subjected under the dominion of his pleasures his valour ha's made may slaves every where and yet his sottishnesse renders hm in the end slave to his own passions Insomuch that after he had exalted the splendour of Rome's beauty by his brave actions worthy-admiration he again blouzeth it's lustre by his excessive deboshes all black with vice And now 't is in vain to seek for Lucullus triumphant since he is onely to be found overthrown in reputation in which he survives thus rendring himself doubly miserable We read of Epaminondas Plutarchu in Apophtheg Reg. Imp. Trâ—â—lis sollicitusque circum ivit urbem that returning victorious from the Louctrians he received with regreet the Present of the honour of Triumph which the Senate had prepared him apprehending evermore the deturne of the Wheele so that the next morrow after the Festivall he took on him mourning habit to prepare himselfe betimes to suffer the change of his fortune It is remark't in the history of Demetrius that entring in Triumph into Athens the people cast flowers and an infinite number of golden Globes up and down the â—treets for a sign of a sumptuous â—ongratulation But what signe of Vicissitude and frailty We are but as so many flowers planted by Nature in the garden of the Earth onely Death gathers us could there â—e more apparent than this which these flowers represented â—nce there is nothing more fraile a Nature than they And these â—alles shewed also by their round â—nd still rouling figure that the Glory whereof they were the â—mbole and Hieroglyphick could â—ot be firm and stable according as Truth it selfe soon after published by a sudden change which rendred the fate of this Victor deplorable Consider a little upon the same subject what revolutions hath the Ball of Empire made since the first Monarch In like respect also we are as Bowles for still we rowle along to the grave let it fall at his Death is it not credible that it hath â—uâ— over diverse times the circuit of the Universe and its figure instructs us that in the inconstancy which is proper to all created things it will still rowle incessantly from one to another without ever staying since its Center is nâ— where at all For so long as the world shall endure a continual vicissitude will be its foundation And what meanes can there be â— find a seat upon the earth which may be sheltered from inconstancy which reigns soveraignly anâ— necessarily as essentiall to aâ— whatsomever subsists here below I have not been far behold me upâ—â— returne Tertullian assures us that in tâ—â— Triumphs of the Romans the â— was a man waged to cry aloud to the Triumpher Remember thou art a Man Plinie passeth farther yet Worldly honours are so many temptatiom to make us idelatrize ouâ— selvs and tells us that they were accustomed to put an iron ring upon the Conquerours finger in sign of servitude as if silently to intimate unto him that he was besides himselfe by an excesse of vanity in this amplitude of honour wherein he saw himselfe elevated above his companions And upon the same subject a great number of Historians do adde that about the Charriot of the Triumpher there were two men assigned the one carrying a Deaths-head the other the Image of a Peacock and both continually crying Vanitie is a dangerous enemie since it betraies us while it seemes to oblige us by the complaceace which it gives us REMEMBER THAT THOU ART A MAN Certainly vanity makes great Prize of us then when we are elevated to some eminent degree of honour And though our heads be but as of dead-mens for we are dying uncessantly and our miseries resemble us to those Images of Peacocks which cannot bear uptrain but upon ugly Feet Yet our blindnesse is so great and this Selfe-love so extream that men are dazled with too much splendour and amaâ— becomes slave to himselfe by loving himself with too much passion Greatness and prosperity never let themselves bepossest but to take greater possession of us And as they have allurements to charme us and sweets to ravish us a Man had need implore the succour of Divine grace if he would escape their pleasing tyrannie and not thing but flight from them or contempt can give us weapons to resist them Let us still return to the point We read of Judas Macchabens that returning victorious from Galilee the people conducted him to the Temple by a way all tapistred with flowers Abraham after he had vanquished five Kings was received in Triumph into Salem now called Hierusalem Iudith received the honour of Triumph by the destruction of Holofernes and all the people of Bethulia laden with Palme to make her triumphall wreaths cried out in her favour Behold the glory of Hierusalem and the joy of all her Nation Joseph shews himself in Triumph also upon the Chariot of Pharaoh Gen. 41.41 42. c. who puts his royall Ring upon his finger gives him his chain of gold and makes him publickly to be acknowledged for the second person of Egypt David triumphs over Goliah with a magnificence worthy of his victory and the Virgins chant to his glory Saul hath killed his thousands and David his ten thousands 1. Sam. 18.7 Mordecai also had his turne of Triumph mounted upon the horse of Ahasuerus and had his praises Heraldized by Haman in these termes Thus shall it be done to the man Esther 6 1â— whom the King will honour All these triumphs are worthy of admiration I avouch it but the Triumph over our selves is worthy astonishment as having to combate our passions and conse quently the winning'st enemies of the world I say the winning'st or the pleasing'st since they guard themselves onely with such kind of weapons whose hurtings make us often sigh rather for joy than grief Certainly the Victory of reason over all the revolten faculties of our soules merits alone the honour of a Triumph and what advantage soever a man hath over his enemies he himselfe is yet still vanquisht if his vices be not subdued I pursue my designe They which have enthronized Vertue in their breasts have laid their foundations upon the ruines of their passions to testifie to us that a Man cannot be vertuous with their predominancy And after essay of diverse meanes upon designe to vanquish them I have found none more powerfull than this The Meditation of Death but if any doubt this the tryall on it will be profitable for him How is it possible that a Man should let himselfe be mastered with the passion of Revenge if he but muze of that Vengeance which his sins may draw downe every moment upon his head as being every houre in estate to dic
full of ashes and what object more sensibly can be presented before our eyes to shew us the truth of our miseries then this of our selves From Earth is our production and the same serves us with nourishment and for sepulture also as if ashamed the Sun should afford his light to out wretchednesse Make we then every day Funerall processions or at least visit in meditation every hour our Tomb as the place where our bodies must take so long abode Celebrate we our selves our own Funerals The thought of our end is a soveraign remedy against our passions and invite to our exequies Ambition Avarice Pride Choller Luxury Gluttony and all the other Passions where with we may be attainted to the end to be Conquerours even by our own proper defeat For when a Man yeelds to the Meditation of Death then reason commands sense All obey to this apprehension of frailty and feeblenesse Pleasures by little and little abandon us the sweets of life seem sowr and we can find no other quiet but in the hope of that which Truth it self hath promised us after so much trouble Proud Spirits be ye Spectators of this Funeral Pomp which this great Monarch celebrates to day He invites the Heaven and the Earth to his Exequies since in their view he accompanies his pourtrayed Skeleton unto the Tomb his Body conducts thither its shadow the originall the painted figure in attendance till a Metamorphosis be made both of one and t'other O glorious action where the Living takes a pride to appear Dead as dying already by his own choice as well as necessity O glorious action where the Triumpher takes a glory in the appearance of his overthrow O glorious action where all the honour depends upon the contempt of the worlds honour O glorious action where Garlands of Cypresse dispute the preheminence with Laurell and Palme O glorious action where the Conquerour under-going the Laws of Nature elevates himself above it making his puissance to be admired in his voluntary weaknesse But I engage my self too far in 't Herodotus remarks that the Queen Semiramis made her Sepulcher be erected upon the entrances of the principall Gate of the * Babylon City to the end that this sad object of wretchednesse might serve for a Schoole-master to passengers to teach them the Art to know themselves O blessed Lesson is that which the Tombs can affoord us O gracions Science is that which they instruct us Strabo testifies No better Schoole then the Church-yard that the Persians made Pipes of dead-mens bones which they used at Festivals to the end that the sad harmony which issued thence might temper the excesse of joy But may not we say our Lungs to be to us such kind of Whistles and that our dolorus sighs which produce thence the harmony are capable to moderate the violence of our contentments A strange thing it is that all the animated objects which are affected by our senses bear the image of Death and yet we never think but of Life Let our eyes but fairly turn their regards on all sides All that lives they may see dies and what ha's no life passes away before ' em Our eares are tickled with the sweet harmony of Voices or Instruments or Tabors or Trumpets But these sonnds are but Organs spirited with blasts whose borrowed wind is lost when the motion ceaseth and there behold the Faile of their life And for Instruments The objest of our nothingnesse ha's a grace and allurement capable to ravish the best spirits 't is true they warble delightfully yet their melody is often dolefull to the mind when it considers that it proceeds from certain guts of dead beasts which Art hath so contrived Tabors being of the same nature must also necessary produce the same effects and Trumpets also do but sob in our ears since their clangor is forced onely by the violence of a blast of sighs Our Taste cannot satiate the hunger of its appetite but with dead and breathlesse things and all our other senses are subject to the same necessity Insomuch Death is ever present and at hand to our heart but still absent from our memory that Death environs us on all sides though we be always her own and yet we never think on 't but in extremities as if we were onely to learn at the last instant that we are Mortall and the hard experience which we make on 't were the onely Lesson which by Nature is given us LORD render me capable if it please thee of this Science which may effectually teach me the Art to know my self to the end that this knowledge may represent to me alwayes the reality of my wretchednesse Make me that I may see my self may understand and feel my self to die every moment but so that I may see it with the eyes of my heart perceive it with the eyes of my soul and feel it by the sense of my conscience therein to find my repose and safety I know well that Nature mourns uncessantly the death of its works which are devoured every hourby time and though no where thus can I see but Sadnesse it self yet ne'rethelesse remain I insensible of the horrour of these objects and though they be terrible my spirit not is afrighted Render me therefore if it please thee render me fearfull and make me even to tremble in thinking of it since the thought of it is so important suffer me not to live a kind of Death without meditating of that life which is exempt from Death and whereof Eternity is the Limit All my votes do terminate at this and all my wishes which I addresse to thy bounty that I may one day see the effects of my hopes Let us advance on our first proposition O how celebrious and glorious is the Triumph over our selves Let us leave the Laurels A Mnn hath no greater enemy than himselfe and Palmes to those famous Conquerours of Sea and Land Their Crownes are now metamorphosed into dust their renowne into wind themselves into corruption and for a surplusage of mishap after the conquest of the whole World they die in the miseries whereunto they were born Cyrus could not bound his ambition lesse than to the vast extention of the Universe and yet a * Tomyris simple woman onely prescrib'd him an allay and placed his head in the range of his owne Trophies Arthomides plaies Iupiter upon Earth his pourtraict is the onely Idoll of his subjects There is nothing more vain than Vaine-glory t is a body without soule or life having no subsistance but in imagination and yet one turne of the wheele casts him a sacrifice upon the same altar which he had erected to his glory his life glistering with triumphs but his death in such a ruine clouded even the memory of his name All those stately Triumphers of whom Antiquity trumpets-out wonders have had no other recompence of their labours but this vain conceipt that
to these assaults the most valiant resist not their violences All droop at approach of an enemy so redoubtable But our defeat it rightly carried is more glorious then our Triumph What successe is this by being overcome to bear away the crown of victory such submission is a mark of Soveraignty Petrus Gregorius tells us of the Emperour Charls the fifth If the meditation of death make not a sinner change his life nothing will do it that he caused his winding head-kercher to be carried before him for a standard in all his Armies six years before he died to the end that the continuall object of his greatnesse might not be too powerfull to tempt him to misconceive himself We do the same every day without thinking on it for our shirts are in a manner as so many winding sheets which we carry always with us in all places where we go But if this sad object be not enough to moderate our ambition and rebate our vanity this voluntary is inseparable from pain we must needs undergo the Law 'T is best to let Death be welcome to us since 't is inevitable which we impose upon our selves LORD suffer me not if it please thee so far to mistake my self as never to come to the point of meditating of this blessed Decree which thou hast imposed on me to die one day But illuminate my spirit with the light of thy grace which may stead me as a Pharos to shew me the haven of the grave where the ship of my life must put ashore Make me also if it please thee to be ignorant of all things else but the knowledge to live well that I may also dye so and thus let the miseries which accompany me the mishaps that follow me and all the other afflictions which thy goodnesse hath subjected me to be the ordinay objects of my thoughts to the end that I stray not from the way of my salvation And now have I no other passion but to see the effects of these prayers Let us go to the end Those that have averred that the world is to us an hostile Army composed of so many Souldiers as there are objects in nature capable to agitate the power of our passions had very good reasons to defend the truth of their Thesis These objects of it make war against us continually with all the assaults inventions and stratagems of a cruel enemy Beauty that assaults our souls by the way of our eyes with as much cunning as force for at first view it amuseth the Sence with admiration by a slight of complacence to which its sweets and allurements insensibly engage it Afterwards the Sensus Communis receiving the fair Species of the Idea of this fair enemy presents them to the Fancy the Fancy to the Vnderstanding which after it hath examined them according to its capacity offers them to the Will which by a natural apprehension finds it self obliged to love the subject from whence these amiables do proceed And now then it is the Cue of Reason either to condemn or authorize this love but most often that becomes charmed it self and we vanquish't Not that Reason is not sufficiently strong and powerful Our passions are the flatteringest enemies of the world for they assault us with those semblant satisfactions to us as may seem most agreeable and thus they are most â—o be feared but whereas its force and vertue depends meerly upon grace the contempt which ordinarily it makes of this renders both alike unprofitable This is that which obliges us in all these conflicts to implore the help of heaven rather then to trust upon our strengths and evermore to have a jealous eye to this our subtile enemy which yet can never get other advantage upon us then that which our wretchlesness suffers it to acquire The very fairest objects of the world We cannot justly complain of our defeat since it is voluntary may well inforce admiration but not love since love cannot be formed in our hearts but by a powerful reflexion of the amiable qualities which are found in the subject and in this it is necessary that the understanding do operate and the will consent And this cannot be done without a free deliberation which we absolutely authorize Insomuch that we cannot be overcome if we rush not into it with desire of our own overthrow And this not so neither as if there were no trouble in the resistance but rather it is a way to acquire much more glory in the victory over beateous objects by the power of reason which is more troublesome and difficult then that which one gets over an enemy by force of armes But the honour also surpasseth always the difficulty The rewards which God hath prepared after all our troubles do infinitely surpass our deserts and what pain soever a man can possibly take the prize and crown at last can admit of no comparison We must then bravely combate those proud beauties which make publick profession to enchain our hearts in irons and put our souls upon the rack and let them see to their confusion that the natural Magick of their charmes is to us a new Art of Logick which informes us to make Arguments both to give for granted their power and yet destroy their force Fair leave have they to expose to view their blandishments and graces the light of Reason produceth a livelyer Day whose luster duskes the midday-splendour for by the aid of this light a man may see that all their quaintnesses are but dawbings their delicacies but artifice and their attractives but onely composed by distillatories And how can one Idolatrize them then after meditational presentment of these verities Behold the onely means to prescribe a rule over these Soveraigns who would impose it on the whole world He commands best that can obey reason Not that this kind of combate requires force of courage but rather of prudence after first a misprise of them to fly away and not to put the victory into hazard There are yet other enemies which render themselves as redoutable as the former such are Ambition riches c. what means is there to resist them or to speak better to vanquish them they have no less allurements and sweets then the beauties afore-spoken of and though the force of them be different they cease not nevertheless to excite and move the passions with all sort of violence Ambition ha's its particular delicacies and charmes to ravish mens hearts and soveraignize over their souls and I beleeve that its Empire extends it self far beyond that of Love for all the world is not capable of this latter passion but of the other every man has a smatch from that defect from our original where with a man is tainted Vanity is bred and born with us but it is in our choise whether to let it ever keep us company And this passion is so much the more to be seared as it is natural and