Conscience FIRST MAXIM Of making many Books there is no end Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter Fear God and keep his Commandmens this is the whole duty of Man Eccles 12. PARAPHARASE MUch is the Counsel that 's given and many are the Books that are written to help Man to become great and to render him perfect Wisdom has but one word thereupon and this word is the Compendium of all that wise Men have said the end of all that which its self said since the beginning of ages It hath never spoken nor ever writ but to make Men understand how to love God and obey his Will this is to be the whole duty of Man REFLECTION WHen the Creator formed the project of our nature and that he conceiv'd the Idaea of Man as he pretended that this was the chief and most excellent Piece he conceived not onely a Body and a Soul He saw well that as the Body separated from the Soul would be but rottenness even so the Soul seperated from God would be another deformity infinitely more frightfull and instead of the being chief of the work he contrived he should but make a monster Not to fail in his design at the same time that he joyned the Body with the Soul he judged that it was necessary to joyn the Soul with God by the means of Grace and he would that this Grace entred into his workmanship and that these three together were the whole Man Stop a moment and consider well the Wisdom of God when he proposed to himfelf the meeting of these three so different things and to form thereof the chief of his work How many marvels in Man when they are united How many misfortunes when they are seperated Grace repelled and withdrawn the Soul there 's reprobation and sin The Body separate from the Soul there 's death The Soul separated from the Body and from Grace there is Hell Three objects of horrour or of fear Rejoyn these and make but one they are three coelestial beauties and the three greatest miracles of divine power united together and that is Man Time Deum hoc est omnis Homo II. MAXIM Let thy glorying be in the fear of the Lord and all thy communication in the precepts of the most High Eccles 9. PARAPHRASE EStablish your Honour by fearing God and being faithful to him If you would that Men should look on you with respect and esteem and always see on your countenance that modesty and in your conduct that force and tranquility of spirit which raises a man above other men have always in your self some thought of the goodness of the Creator and his eternal perfections and accustome your heart not to relye but on him in all its designs and hopes REFLECTION DO not as the proud In timore Domini sit tibi gloriosio man who is ashamed to fear and to worship God because people fear and worship him and who establisheth his honour by making light of his duty Take you heed in forming your opinions and Maxims of taking for a man of nobility and greatness your being less wise then others And do not believe a folly that is particular to be more worth then Wisdom that 's common If because you are noble it 's painful to you to do what mean people do That which is good you ought to do better then they Do not imitate his devotion surpass it Do not follow him in the ways of falvation and in the exercise of righteousness and holiness have regard to your condition March first and serve as an example Keep your rank in the Churches permit not that any should be more devout nor more modest then you Since you are first in quality your place before the Altars and during the sacrifices is to be more near to God and the more raised by Prayer Remember that you have no surer means to put your self above this croud of little people then to abase your self more then they before this supream Majesty and to adore him more perfectly III. MAXIM Vanity of vanities all is vanity and vexation of spirit Eccles 1. PARAPHRASE YOu must love nothing but Universa vanitas God The true good and true pleasure is not to be found but in him alone The good which appears before our eyes deceives us it is nothing but illusion and vanity And this false and apparent good becomes a real evil as soon as it pleases us and that we begin to love it REFLECTION ALl the felicities of this life are vain and deceitful When they present themselves to us we take them for stable and immoveable things Our heart being drawn by this appearance stretcheth out its arms and blindly fastens its self unto them promising its self eternal pleasures in possessing them But it is to embrace running water from the hour that we begin to possess rhem they begin to run away from us During embracements and joys and amidst our mutual promises and hopes of an inseperable tye they escape from between our hands and continue their course we continue ours and we quit our selves we go each where our destiny calls us and where time leads us They to nothing we to death Time goes apace and the end is near it is not far between the pleasures of a moment and the tears of eternity These long years that we figure between the two are very often but a night Perhaps those who shall see us this evening settled in a high and powerful fortune will find us next morning buried in its ruines Today prosperity health riches and honours To morrow all these vanities in the air wind and smoak our Body in a Tomb our Soul in another World there to lament and to say eternally but too late Universa vanitas afflictio spiritus The justest reason we ought Vanitas vanitatum to contemne these runagate felicities for consists in this word Vanitas God alone is the true Good created goods are the productions and shadows of this essential and Infinite Good Consider and open your eyes You are rich but if God withdraws himself from your heart what remains and of what do you boast To be heir and master of the shadow of an house without having any right to the house and without being able to go into it what Patrimony and what sort of inheritance is this for a man To be Master of a Treasure or a Revenue Master of a Kingdom an Empire a part of the World the whole World all the appearances of good Possess all the shadows of God all his works all his gifts but without possessing of himself What a possession is this for a Soul who breaths after the true Good and who cannot be filled or satisfied but by him alone The worst of it is that these shadows of the Creator these Riches and Magnificences which are about us are not in us Gold and Silver enter into the Houses Pleasures enter into your eyes and senses
Compare them from hence forth and do at the feet of the Cross before your Redeemer and your Father what you will do that day before your Judge when that you shall see the truth written in the Book where all is written Consider that this is a Mercy which has out-run your merits Ingratitude which hath follow'd Mercy and which hath been conceived in the midst of favours Justice which examins the good and the evil which weighs the goodnesses of God and the sins of man and who in the one and the other sees nothing but Infinite In fine it is an eternity where sinners shall never cease to be sinners and proud and where the Judge shall never cease to be just where his Holiness shall be the measure of his anger his anger infinitely offended the measure of their pain and his infinite beauty which they shall never see the measure of their despair I say too much in a Subject where is least need of speaking The whole History of man needs but these four words His pleasures shall end His actions shall be judged His sins shall be punished His pains shall be eternal There is not only whereof to read but to contemplate and meditate What opinion so ever the World hath of an able man if he has not yet begun to meditate thereupon he has not yet begun to be wise Youth and Folly think only on the present time Avarice on time to come Prudence and Policy remembers often what passed yesterday and foresees what will happen to morrow true Wisdom looks on one side even to the beginning of time and the creation of man and on the other side to death and eternity and from these two distant extreams it makes its time present and gives them thoughts of this day V. MAXIME When the wicked man cometh then cometh also contempt Prov. 18. PARAPHRASE THat which hinders you from making serious on Christian truths and which makes you slight the business of your conversion as least of all the affairs of a Man of wit and quality is the custome that you have contracted of living disorderly and not refusing any thing to your passions This unhappy custome is the bottom of that Gulf from whence it is rare to see any sinner go out and to enter again into the ways of repentance and salvation It is nevertheless necessary to go out from thence The Holy Fathers and the fathers spiritual will tell you means One of the best is that which Solomon presents you in the following Maxime VI. MAXIM When I perceived that I could not otherwise obtain her except God gave her me I prayed unto the Lord and besought him with my whole heart Wisd 8. PARAPHRASE DEsiring to obtain grace to overcome my evil habits and to live holily I address my self to God and I have asked it of him with all my affection and with all thâ— endeavour that an ardent desire could produce Steep'd in tears and prostrate before His Altars where I heard his voice which called me to repentance I said unto him O Lord shed into me that Wisdom and Light which makes Man see that beauty of vertue which is in thee Thou commandest me to be chast and devout give me devotion and chastity and then command what thou pleasest REFLECTION HOpe not to receive these sorts of favors nor any other spiritual or temporal if you ask them not Without prayer there will be no change of life You would have Grace which gives the first power to be chast but according to the ordinary Laws of Wisdom you shall not have it but by the means of Prayer Grace gives the will to be and to accomplish effectually this good desire In like manner hope not for them if you ask them not strongly and with an ardent and sincere affection To pray to God feebly to have pitty on your miserable life is to pray him to defer punishing of you to the end that you might defer turning to him and this testifies that you fear that he hears you not because you fear to break the chains which tye you to the Creature and to love nothing more then it God would when we pray Deprecatus sum illum ex totis pracordiis to him that our bowels themselves should have a voyce and that there should be in us a Divine fire which should give to our groans the force to mount up to himself and to follow him as far as his justice would make him fly that he might not hear us God would be pursued solicited importuned Follow Him press Him be importunate and be constant Fear nothing but letting your self be overcome by his refusals and your not persevering Hope in his Word as the Etiamsi occideris me in ipso sperabo Saints have done against hope it self and in despight of despair Tell him when you see him with a sword in his hand to sacrifice you to his wrath and when you see the sword thrust into your Heart that from the bosom of Death even to the gates of Hell you will adore his goodness and that you will yet expect favour and you may be assured of his succours Say that the way to perish is to fly when he threatens That there is no place so sure during in wrath in the World as to be near him that it is the only way where the afflicted sinners and the dead can find safety Ad quem ibimus Verba vitae aeternae habes I am a sinner I am mortal where shall I go too but to thee Confess that he can do all that he is the Master but maintain that as all powerful as he is he cannot resist the Prayers of the humble and Indignum c. In te Domine speravi non confunda in aeternum afflicted and since all is put to trust before him desire him to regard you without pitty and to abandon a heart who sincerely confides in his protection and love Talk boldly and say with the Canaanitish Woman that he ought to be no more cruel nor more pittyless towards you then Masters towards the little Dogs of their houses that you ask not but the Crums of his table as the rest of the Saints Speak as this Woman who knew well how it was necessary to speak to a God Although he calls you an importunate Body although he push you back and bids you to get out Stay Fasten your self to his feet and declare to him there you will be so long as that he hath either punish'd importunity with death or heard you In fine do well by your holy violences as that you may draw from his heart the lovely word which hath comforted so many sinners and which may oblige you to say O Mulier magna est fides tua fiat tibi sicut vis Matt. 15. Thou astonisht me oh infidel Great is thy confidence be gone then in peace what thou wilt shall be done The glory of a mortal Prince is to prevent petitions and
over hearts when they have seen the sweetnesses of humility joyned to the force of their wit and mingled with the splendor of their triumphs and glorious actions When you are in Companies where 't is rare to find a man who knows himself and speaks modestly and humbly be ye humble but take heed that you are not so by affectation and vanity Do not boast nor blame your self observe the Laws of Wisdom say not of your self neither good nor evil Do not you consider your self as a more imperfect man then others but as a Nothing of which there is nothing to say and of which you must never talk Do not ask one to slander you have only a care of being offended when one does and endeavor to be humble enough to desire one should do it Praise not those who ought to be blamed content your self to condemn no body When you meet scandalous persons instead of contemning them learn from them how much you ought to be slighted your self and look on them as a mirrour which discover to you an important truth The shadow which you see at your feet whilst the Sun casts its eyes on you and enlightens you what is it other then a figure which represents your body such as it is at night black and dark and such as it should always have been if this Star had never appeared The miserable wretches that you find in this World whilst that God sheds on you his blessings and that he heaps on you happiness and wealth What are they but an hideous picture where you are represented such as you would be if it pleased Divine Providence to abandon you Say then you who are rich and happy and who want nothing when you see on the straw a Begger cover'd with sores and diseases dying of hunger and cold say Behold my shadow there is what I should be had it not been for the particular goodness and care which God hath had of me You who are wise and devout when you hear the scandalous life of an infamous sinner spoken off say likewise There is my shadow 't is that I should have been and this that I should be from this day if my Sun withdrew its Light and if his Grace forsoâ—k me It is true that the life of this Person is scandalous and horrible but it is your Image Humble your selves and adore the mercy of God who hath done great things in you X. MAXIM There shall'no evil happen to the just Prov. 12 PARAPHRASE THe just and devout man enjoys always inward rest There shall be no accident which hinders him from keeping himself in his duty and order or excites him to disorderly motions Fear and sadness are storms which mount not to the region where he is elevated by grace The noises shall Eccho thither but Peace shall never leave him and whilst his Soul shall be peaceful in matters little to him that his fortune were troubled or his affairs disordered REFLECTION ACcustom your self to look on all that happens without astonishment and without fear When affliction happens fret not against God and quit not your design of being eternally faithful to him Bear chastisement with respect and humility and let not your courage and your vertue abate under the pain Remember that God chastiseth those that are dear to him as a Father never finds a Son more lovely then when he receives correction humbly and respectfully So likewise doth man never please his Creator more then when he is humble obedient and faithful in adversity There is no Man that endures not No true Christian that endures not with patience No true Saint that endures not with pleasure The beginning of holiness is to be calm and modest under the hand of God when he afflicts us The perfection of it is to be happy thereby and to feel what the Apostles tyed when that Ibant gaudentes à conspectu Concilit quod digni habiti sunt pro nomine Jesu contumeliam pati going from before their Judges charged with outrages and affronts they gloried therein holily and marched through the streets as in triumph amongst the reproaches of Christ There is without doubt the highest Estate of spiritual life and I can say which the holy Fathers that it is to see that which is the most admirable to behold in the new and powerful grace of the incarnate word To see a man who in the midst of poverty and the ruines of his house enjoy in his Soul an heavenly rest and hath no other complaints to make to those that visit him nor to the Angels who contemplate him but those of St. Paul when he suffered superabundo gaudio joy overwhelms me it surpasseth my peins and my strength Other Saints have had no other thoughts they have always spoken of the times of affliction as of the most happy and most desireable It is by afflictions that on Earth we resemble our Crucified Saviour that we equal the Martyrs in Heaven that we surpass the Angels in death To die and to suffer are the consummation of Divine charity and this was the highest sublimity of the glory of the Word made man when he finished love on the Cross amongst the pains of death that he cried out consummatum est The Angels cannot arrive at this good fortune your devout Soul may Aspire thereto whilst you are mortal and capable of suffering It is not enough to imitate the Angels and to love Do that which to them is unimitable love in suffering and dying At least maintain your selves in this Condition by patience That whilst sickness and poverty or other miseries overwhelm you let not your heart sink under its pressures and suffer not that the disturbances and persecutions in the World should shake you and bereave you of any of your inward repose Above all have a particular Non contristabit justum quâ—d ei acciderit care of not letting your self be troubled by those pains who have their first rise within our selves and who are born of our corruptions as are melanchollies and scrupulous fears and the other torments of a weak and a fearful imagination The most part of these hidden miseries within us and incurable by humane industry are no other thing then an inward night of thick clouds where the Devil forms Spectres and Visions to affright us Be not amused nor so much alarm'd as to dispute or fight with these chimerical monsters Wait only in patience the coming of the morning which destroy them all without noise and make known the mistake of your fear and disquiets I speak of the Wisdom of God which after these sorts of obscurities he implants in holy Souls Wisdom is the first Ray of the light of Glory and the true dawning of the day of Eternity It is this Aurora that disperseth all the dreams Doctrinam quasi ante lucernam omnibus illumino Eccl. 24. fancies and ignorances in the Imagination of Man who shall re-establish reason in its force
his friends REFLECTION THere are but these two Lights that are faithful and that we may be able to to follow safely amidst the darknesses which surround us The greatest Wits have gone astray in following themselves The meanest and most ignorant have never done it in following the Gospel When one hearkens to his own prudence for enlightned asmuch as can be one often fails of being happy in his attempts But in the hearkening to the council of friends one is always praise worthy Fortune may trouble the success of our actions wisely managed and with council but it cannot rob us of the honour of it It is success enough in a design to acquire the glory of having acted discreetly therein and the reputation of being wise IX MAXIM When he speaketh fair believe him not for there are seven abominations in his heart Proverb 26. PARAPHRASE WHen there is danger for Consciences in a City and that there runs any noise of a new contagious Doctrine don't leave your self to be deceived by its sweetness nor its lustre Distrust words that please you and devotions that astonish you much more A devout voice a pale and a dejected countenance a simple and a reformed habit mysterious words mortifications exemplary and too apparent are vails proper to cover the poison of Hell when they are brought into company and distributed to the curious REFLECTION THe primitive Christians were excused when they suffered themselves to be deceived by appearances of holiness and perhaps we could excuse some innocent women this day when we see them admire the look of an Hypocrite that counterfeits the Reformer But since one has known by six hundred years experience that the archest Hereticks and Anti-christs of each age have begun their life of Seducers by a life of Alms and fasting and by an extatick Devotion there can happen nothing more shameful to Men of Wit and Judgment then to take a dogmatist or a cheat for a Prophet and although he preach manifestly against the Church of God to believe nevertheless that he comes from Heaven because he does Alms makes long Prayers and hath the secret of painting modesty on his countenance Ne credideris ei saith Solomon who ever he be that meddles with Divine mysteries were he one come out of the Caves and the greatest severities were he as saith St. Paul an Angel descended out of Paradise were he as saitâ— Saint Cyprian a Martyr stretched on a wheel and suffering for the Name of the Saviour all the pains of a cruel and infamous death â—f from the top of this wheel he witnesseth that there rests in his Soul any thoughts or opinions contrary to the sentiments of the Church he is an Apostate and a Reprobate You are one your self if you render your self his disciple he damns himself in dying the death of the Saints and you damn your self in hearkening to this Martyr of Jesus Christ Net perveniâ—â— ad Christi pramia qui relinquit Ecclesiam Christi Si occisus pro nomine Christi fuerit ab unitate divisâ—s coronari in morte non poterit Whosoever believes not the Church is out of the Church and whosoever dies out of the Church although he die between the hands of Tyrants dies out of the number of the Predestinated ones he hath no portion among the Elect of the Son of God Alienus est profanus est host is est habere non potest Deum Patrem qui Ecclesiam von habet Mâ—trem In one word Fili mi saith the Wise man Si te lactaverinâ— pecâ—atores ut acquiesâ—as eis Whatsoever sweetness and whiteness there is in the Milk take heed of taking of it when they are poisoners that give it It would be an horrible phrenzie if because you are counselled to beware of this Milk so dangerous that you should desire to taste it and if in the same hour you should do it in despight to those charitable persons who prayed you not to do it and who would oppose this unhappy design 'T is nevertheless the strange and in conceivable fancy or the strange Devil of many Assoon as the Church declares to them that there is the poison of Hell mixed in any Doctrine and by an holy charity adviseth them 〈◊〉 â—â—nounce and to avoid those who teach it from thence forth they feel themselves drawn thither ward and there they run as to a precious Doctrine worthy to be known and maintain'd in despight to the Holy Spirit of God and in despight of all those who persecute and condemn it Be you not of their number but reflect young man as you are that its time for you to be wise since you judge it is time to speak of holy things and that you say your sentiments thereon in company and in the Schools At least respect the dignity of your Soul formed after the Image of the Wisdom and of the Holiness of God and profane it not so shamefully as to be willing to take for his Gospel or his Philosophy all the novelties that fools are pleased daily to invent and propose in their discourses X. MAXIM He that walketh uprightly walketh sure but he that perverteth his ways shall be known Prov. 10. PARAPHRASE HE that walks plainly and sees where he will go marcheth with assurance but he who counterfeits or wipes out his steps shall be known In hiding his crafts one hides not himself Dissemblers and deceivers bear in their faces the character of their Genius It is sufficient to see a Traitor to make you distrust him and fear him Life is found in the public ways of righteousness and fidelity but crooked and hidden paths lead to death REFLECTION TAke good heed of entring into any of these paths and of following the company who walk in those dark and by-roads Banish from you craft dissimulation and lies have no vail upon your heart and engage it not in the intrigues of dangerous affairs and criminal parties where there is need of being cover'd Be you glad that nothing hinders it from being seen and remember that the fairest and most excellent of things have no better policy to gain men and â—o merit their esteem and friendship then to shew themselves If there be beauty in your Soul it cannot have too much day and you ought to assure your self that one will have so much the more respect and love for you as you shall have of freedom and sincerity It is true that silence is necessary on many occasions but you must always be sincere and courteous You ought to retain some thoughts but disguise none There are ways of holding ones peace without shutting up the heart of being discreet without being dull and silent of hiding some truths without covering them with lies of being faithful to his friends without deceiving others and without betraying his Conscience In fine it is a great advantage to thrive in the World and to have the reputation of telling nothing which ought to be secret or was false XI MAXIM
to loved of those who ought to obey you Whatsoever name of Prince Lord or Magistrate that you bear in a Province or City believe this That you shall not have any power nor be really the Master of any thing but when you shall be the Master of Hearts But observe that to be beloved of the people the first lesson is in loving them love nothing but their persons seek nothing else by your goodness towards them but the pleasure of obliging them without interest and the honour of loving them sincerely and that without hope That of feigning love is a wicked trade and by acting the part of a friend on the stage of the World by promises and comical civilities A Man learns nothing but to deceive and betray himself In the art of gaining hearts the great secret is to love naturally and that without art without reflection it self and if I might so say without vertue Love is so much the more powerful over the will and so much the more vertuous and more admirable as it doth without vertue the good it doth and follow nothing but its instinct the nature Divine charity it self is not perfect but when it is transformed into the nature of the charitable person and that it is become his inclination and its weight Futhermore let clemency be inseparable from your person and let it enter into all your Councils Be severe in words and actions when you must be so but then have you another tongue and other hands besides your own Imploy not your hands but when you must distribute favours and let not your tongue serve you but to pronounce edicts of mercy and love Take not those for enemies who are sincerely afflicted for having displeased you And when its necessary to punish any guilty person do not give him time if possible to repent before your face and have recourse to your goodness If his tears and his grief prevent you believe that you have lost the rights of your anger and endeavour to imitate the Master of Kings and Judges who cannot punish sinners but in the time that they are proud and who doth not make the misery of any one to continue eternally but because they love eternally their malice II. MAXIM Keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life Prov. 4. PARAPHRASE LEt your greatest care and your chief business be to keep your Heart because it is the first spring of life When that finds it self in disorder the rest must necessarily be so also and nothing in your person nor your house can be happy whilst your heart is not Govern your passions and lusts and do not follow them Distrust your own will because it is your own enemy and that it seeks no other thing by its impatient desires and disorderly inclinations then to beget in you intestin wars and to see there confusion despair and death Keep all that in chains and let them be as so many rebellious prisonners committed to the Conduct of your reason REFLECTION THe Passions are a very wise invention of nature who was willing to give man extraordinary forces on occasions where he ought to act strongly for the repelling a dangerous evil or acquireing any good of which the conquest is painfull When these invisible fires are lighted in the veines a man is more then himselfe and he then does nothing but what seems miraculous There goes out of his heated bloud sparks and I know not what points of flame as stings which enter into the heart and by unforeseen motions push it on to bold attempts Hee runs where vehemency carries him finding nothing difficult being able to believe nothing to be invincible nor more powerfull and strong then the fire of which he feels him selfe animated The mischief is that these forces shut up in man are contrary to him These are seditious and cruel domesticks At least if they are not kept chained alwayes hee is lost if they are not his slaves he must of necessity be their victime The Passions knit to the heart of man by the eternall wisdome are as Lyons or as horses of great price fastned to the Chariot of a Conquerour When that our spirit exempt from crime without dependance on interest Master of its desires Conqueror of the world Image of the greatness and of the Majesty of God comes to appear there on drawn by them into glory and immortality there is not in nature a statelier spectacle nor more worthy to be contemplated nor admired by Angels But when it happens during the triumph that the horses break their bits they carry away their guides by force from their Master and there can be nothing seen more sad and disastrous they drag along with them all the triumph into precipices And this conqueror which the people gatherd together admired and contemplated is no more any thing but the sport of a Troop of furies and a sad example of the weakness of the vertues of the man and the vanity of his greatness The Passions are from God the excess which happens is of the sin of the first Man The work was holy pure when it went ouâ— from the hands of the Creator But the fire of hell is set thereto and our teares had not been able to quench it although wee had never ceased to weep since it was lighted The evil has lasted neer six hundred yeers already and continues to this very day and it is thence that all the mischiefs that betide us form themselves Our spirit sent from Heaven into this lower world Corpus mortis Caro peccati enters into an house built of earth into a body composed of a corruptible matter of dirt filled with the stings of sin and of death The vapours of this corruption form within us a thick dark and tempestuous cloud which covers us with horrour and obscurity Our passions wrapt up in this Cloud they heat themselves and there take fire and goe out thence like lightning and whirlwinds These turbulent fires drive on the Imagination the imagination being driven and carried away carries with it the thoughts and the will of the soul The immortal soul follows motion and goes where heat and fury leads it It takes dâ—signs and conceives blindly inconsiderate opinions foolish and deceitfull hopes and impetuous desires It runs and hazards it self and its headlong rashness stops not its selfe but when in the end it is arrived to its unhappyness lost in an abiss of crimes and teares The worst of it is that when it finds it selfe there it is ashamed to retire thence It falls there by folly and it abides there by Pride Man coverd with darkness and filled with errours plunged in filth and loaden with chains tyed by stubborness to his customes and his ignorance is a sad spectacle for Heaven who contemplateâ— with pitty this image of God in so deplorable a condition During the estate of innocence the passions raised not themselves but by the