Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A40047
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Essays suppos'd to be written by Monsieur Fouquet being reflections upon such maxims of Solomon as are most proper to guide us to the felicity of both the present and the future life / translated out of French.
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Fouquet, Nicolas, 1615-1680.; Gage, E.
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1694
(1694)
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Wing F1650; ESTC R36469
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80,413
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228
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and Nature By the help of the same Rays when you become wise you will discover not by Revelation or any miraculous Illumination but by Conjectures supernaturally guided the darkest Thoughts of Men Hearts the Designs of Human Policy the Snares laid by Ambition Hypocrisie Quaecumque sunt absconsa improvisa didici Sap. 7. Envy and Impiety with all the Dangers hidden in the secret Paths of Treachery and Hatred I shall see them says Job speaking to God and shall walk in the midst of an undaunted confidence when I shall be enlightned by your light Quando splendebit lucerna tua super caput meum in tenebris ad lumen tuum Ambulabo To conclude Be wise and you shall see all the Accidents of Danger before they come nor will you study as others do to give them a Repulse when present but go and meet them afar off to prevent them with little Pains You will do in relation to domestick Troubles what Solomon did miraculously in relation to contagious and stormy blasts of Air he knew the Art how to go and find them in their Caves and there to dispel them He knew the Art how to make Health Happiness and Abundance reign in his Provinces when at the same time other Nations pined with Famine or perished by Diseases MAXIM II. Stultus illudet peccatum inter Justos morabitur gratia Prov. 14. PARAPHRASE Sin is pleasing to all at the time of committing it but when once committed the Wise man grieves and afflicts himself bitterly for it the Weak and Scrupulous despairs he that is hardened and impudent mocks at it and wonders at the tenderness of those good Men that pity him and talk of Repentance Of all the Diseased those that are most to be pitied are such as pity not themselves but are in love with their Distemper Let us hate ours Hatred is its Remedy and a sign that we are not forsaken but that Heaven has yet Designs of Mercy for us REFLECTIONS It is the ordinary Custom of Men to apply themselves with great assiduity to useless and idle trifles and to take no manner of care for things of the highest importance You bestow a great expence in the Habits you wear and take a great deal of pains to dress your self handsomly that you may appear pleasing in the Eye of the World and never so much as think of healing that horrid Canker that eats into your Face the loathsomness of which makes every one flee your company and renders you hideous and insupportable to all that see or come near you To what end serves all this expensive Bravery What good do these precious Movables of your Chamber with this magnificence of your Bed do you if in the midst of all these Riches and so much costly Gaiety designed for the sweetning of your Sleeps you feel the Stone within you tearing with its sharp points your Intrails and forcing you to cry out like to a Criminal on the Rack I mean if in the height of the Prosperity and Honours of your Family you feel the Sting of Mortal Sin that disappoints your rest and if you must hear night and day the dreadful Crys of your wounded Conscience which puts you in mind of the approach of Death and of Eternal Misery Dum ad speciosa tormenta alligatus sub ingenti titulo Cruciaris No certainly Sin is not an Evil of small importance to be neglected or made sport withal There is not a Wise Man upon the Earth that would not chuse to lose his Goods and Life nor a Saint in Heaven that would not renounce his Paradise to go and suffer eternally in Hell rather than to commit a Mortal Sin It is said of the Seraphins That they were grieved they ever had a Being when they first saw Sin to grow amongst them and that they became the Companions of Sinners What St. Paul said in the Transports of his Love was no less seraphical nor admirable That it would be more easie for him to perish himself and be put in the number of the Reprobate than to see those Sins in the Hearts of Christians which they see in themselves and suffer to remain there without remorse He said this from the bottom of his Heart because he understood the two essential Properties of Man's Sin which are no less than to be the death of an immortal Soul and the true Cause of the death of a God a Paricide and a Deicide There have been some converted Sinners so divinely illuminated and so clear sighted in the foulness of Sin as that after having mingled with their Food Ashes and their Tears and after having suffered the severest Austerities in their Bodies for several years not thinking they had yet satisfied for their Sins have wished to go and suffer the Torments of Hell there to finish the time of their Penance It would be a long Work to collect what the Fathers have writ and to consider all they have observed hereupon it will be sufficient for you to know his Mind who is the Master of Saints and what his Thoughts are of you and your Sins and how he comes to know them but then you must interrogate him thereupon and he will answer To learn this well your best way is not to have recourse to the great Doctors you will gain this Science sooner in Solitude than in the Schools Whoever you are that have spent several years in thinking of other things than your Salvation and matters of Eternity do not deny your Conscience three or four days time to hear what it will say to you from God on this mighty Subject and to learn of it the explication of these few words of St. Denis Lux in se Notitiam Tenebrarum Habet That Light contains in itself the knowledge of Obscurity that in seeing and knowing itself it knows what is Darkness St. Denis means That God had the same thoughts of Man's Sins that the Sun would have of Night could he but see and know himself undoubtedly though there be nothing of Darkness in the Sun yet had he Eyes and Understanding as he must see beyond any Person that his Light is the most perfect of all visible Beauties so he must needs see also beyond any that there is no Deformity so dreadful or such an Enemy to the Eyes as the Night Altho' he had never been acquainted with her nor had ever seen her his own perfect Brightness would suffice him to know and measure her truly by Nothing is so certain as That in God there is not any Spot or Sin but that He is all Infinite Light and Brightness and yet with this pure and impeccable Essence it is that He sees what Sin is beyond what all Men in their sinful and corrupt Nature ever did see I leave you here to your self O Christian Soul lift up your Eyes and contemplate privately upon this Divine Truth That God by his own Holiness knows your Sinfulness examines considers and
it self to All without exception it is but an ill Principle in a Master and Mistress to chuse out one in a Family where there is a number of Servants and to repose their whole Trust on his shew of Fidelity discarding in a manner all the rest for then his idle and rash Reports must needs make them commit a thousand faults and cause more noise in a House in one day than there would be in a year would they endeavour to make themselves beloved of all To win Hearts there lies the true and perfect Secret of Oeconomy in a Family of Policy in a State and of Hierarchy in the Sanctuary whatsoever Government you may have to make it happy you must be taking and amiable go not about to seek a more ingenious and uncommon method GOD himself uses no other in his Eternal Empire Vbi regnat aeternus Amor aeterna Pulchritudo This Lady we speak of neglects not to employ her self in Works befitting her Sex performing curious things with her Needle and though she has no farther Skill than what Nature put into her Fingers in her Childhood yet she proves knowing enough to set Patterns and give Directions to the most skilful Work-women making her self admired of all the Ladies that spend the time of their Visits in seeing her work and in learning of her but they come too late to her acquaintance to be capable of imitating her Quaesivit lanam linum operata est consilio manuum suarum These little Employments set not says Solomon the bounds to her Virtue Capacity and Industry Manum suam misit ad fortia She that knows how to employ her Fingers so well knows also how to employ her Arm and when Necessity requires it can shew that Heroick Courage which gives her the Title of the strong Woman Is she to resist any violent Assaults of her Neighbours to withdraw ill-gotten Goods out of an Injust Possession to maintain the Rights of Innocence against the Power and Subtilties of the Law and relieve her oppressed Dependents or Is she to buy and sell or to conquer such Obstacles as hinder her Designs to encrease the limits of her Lordships by some advantagious acquisition and to get a Victory over all the Policies of Envy and Treachery This matchless Lady undertakes it pursues it and brings it to effect Roboravit fortitudine brachium suum Beyond all this says the Prophet her miraculous Genius has taught her the Art of trafficking she knows how to transport the Grain and Profits arising from her Lands as far as the Indies and bring back in the same Ships the Riches of Ophir and Tharsus with all the Gold and Silver and other things of which her Family or her Country can stand in need Facta est quasi navis institoris de longe portans panem A fine Conceit it is of Solomon That her Ships are the figures of her two Hands wonderfully skilful and wonderfully successful both in giving out and receiving in insomuch as that God blessing these at home blesses those when they are on the Sea and the very Storms yielding an Obedience to the Benediction of God pay them a Respect and even help to bring them home to their Port. But in all this the Miracle of her Parts which is the most charming and best deserves to be published is that she has made her Husband the Richest of Men without impoverishing or hurting any Person and without giving occasion either to Heaven or Earth to complain of her Confidit in ea Cor Viri sui spoliis non indigebit There remains yet a Miracle in her Person which in my opinion should make her admired by Posterity above all the rest and that is That in all this bustle of Traffick and of the manage of her Household Affairs she makes not the least shew of any such matter but in occasions where Decency engages her to be in the company of Knowing Men ravishes them with the manner of her Conversation Her delight and merit in these Conversations lies not in talking her self nor in mixing her Opinions and Reasonings with their Arguments she holds that the Rules of Wisdom and Modesty forbid her to appear before them but in the quality of a Disciple and that she ought to rank her self as Mary Magdalen did at the Feet of our Saviour Sedens secus pedes domini audiebat verbum illius True it is that she has not studied and would therefore be much in the wrong to reason with them upon high Mysteries but what is not to be found in other Women she possesses three Sciences in perfection which ravish these Masters of Learning The first is That she knows how to put Questions that are the most pertinent and to offer the finest Subjects on which they can exercise their Parts The second is That she knows how to conceive clearly and without difficulty the Answers which they make The third That she knows how to value them and to show this value by excellent and sincere Expressions the truth of which appears in her Looks The soveraign Pleasure of those Men who know great things is not to vent them in the Schools one of the chief and them in the Schools one of the chief and most ancient Laws of the Schools is That whatsoever is said there is to be contradicted so that the Schools are as their Field of Battel and the Standers-by as Witnesses of their Triumph At least it appears to me to be very well said of a solid Writer of our Times That in those Conversations where the Unlearned have a great deal of Wit and Modesty and the Learned a great deal of Wisdom and Eloquence the Delight and Honour of both is not unequally matched The great Character of this strong Woman is comprised in these words Fallax gratia vana est pulchritudo Mulier timens dominum ipsa laudabitur MAXIM XVIII Salus animae melior est omni auro argento Corpus Validum quam Census immensus Eccles xxx PARAPHRASE Know you who have a Non est census super censum salut is nec oblectamâ—ntum super gaudium Cordis mind to be rich and happy in this Lower World that there is no greater Treasure than the Health of Body and that you can aim at no Happiness beyond the Joy of Heart Lose not these good things by running after other and be convinced that an Empire is not to be compared to them Death is to be preferred Melior est mors quam Vita amara requies aeterna quam languor perseverans before a Life of Bitterness and Affliction and it is more easie to be at rest in a Grave than to lye languishing on a Bed and suffer for several years the insupportable Weariness and Pains of a lasting Malady REFLECTIONS Life and Health are two of God's Presents which deserve to be cherish'd and tenderly preserved The Wise man fails not in this Care concerning Health and it really