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
say to you on my part the Prophet David has included whatsoever can be or ought to be said on this Subject in these few words That there is in Man great Sin and in GOD great Mercy Great Sins are such as are committed contrary to the most holy Laws of Nature and which spring in the Heart in Ingrateful Man after Baptism during the heighth of the Favours and Benefits of his Redemption They are such as are renewed after Pardons received and Promises made of Repentance such as are multiplied by continual Relapses as are fortified by Impunity are hardned by Chastisements and such as scandalousloy encrease under the weight of Sickness Misfortune and Malediction mocking at the Authority and Threats of Justice In fine great Sins are such as put a Man alive into the Beginning Flames of Hell when sharp Sorrows and a despairing Remorse seize on the Heart of a Sinner and that to get some Ease he falls into that desperate Frenzy of imagining he is got out of the Reach of God Almighty's Hand which makes him stand at defiance with Heaven and abandon himself to all the wicked Effects of Atheism and Brutality Opprimamus Justum nec Parcamus viduae Impleamus nos Vino Nullum sit praetum quod non pertranseat luxuria nostra Great Mercy is that which beholds this Spectacle with an Eye of Compassion and efficaciously undertakes to afford a Remedy To effect this it assembles what is most strong and attractive in the Conquering Grace of the Holy Ghost Quast antelucanum illumino of which it frames a Light like to the Morning Aurora By the means of such a Light spread over the Face of the most stupified Sinners this Divine Mercy gets into their Eyes without Violence or Trouble and breaking the Fetters of their Dead Sleep awakens and illuminates them makes them in an instant see the Beauties of Virtue and calls and draws them to it then this Mercy it self entring into them with its divine Attractives and becoming Mistris of their Hearts engages them by an irrevocable resolution to the performance of Acts of Penance and Sanctity Corruscasti splenduisti Rupisti Surditatem meam S. Aug. O Great and Adorable Mercy which sets no Limits to the extent of its Benefits which has not seen in Six thousand Years the Crime committed on the face of the Earth that it was not ready to pardon if the Sinner were ready to repent and accuse himself of it which does not see any such in Hell amongst all the Blasphemies and execrable Impieties of that place that it would not now be ready to forgive if the Devils and the Damned would stoop from their Pride to ask that Grace and draw from their Hearts an Act of Humility and Contrition How many are the Sins O Christian Soul that your Life numbers since you were first a Sinner and how many have the Favours of God been since that time Has there a day passed in which this loving Father of his prodigal Children has not been watching fo ryou and looking about to offer you his Hand that He might draw you out of the Pit you were fallen into from the Gates of Death and Hell and out of the Bonds of the Devil In a word There is great Sin and foul Ingratitude in Man and in GOD great and high Mercy Consider then if you think good what you have to do in this Case and which of the two Resolutions you ought to take whether to flee as you purposed so far from God that you might be out of the call of his Voice running where Despair and Blindness will lead you or whether you will turn home to that Mercy which stretches out its Arms to you and calls you to your Salvation Consider I say and chuse Chuse Alas said St. Peter Ad quem ibimus verba vitae aeternae habes Grace and Life O Divine Saviour are between your Lips ready to be poured forth on miserable Man my Heart longs for both I am a Sinner Death and Sin are in me and stop my Breath there remains for me but a moments space of Life and then follow Pains to Eternity Whither shall I go to seek for Remedy Whither can I unless I go to you Verba vitae aeternae habes Examine well these few words and try to hear what is said to you thereupon from above for my part I have nothing more to say than what you have newly heard you have great Sins upon you and you stand in need of great Mercy go up to Mount Calvary there is no other place where it may be found or where you ought to seek it True it is that you are there accused of having shed the Blood of your Saviour and of having been the Executioner that has crucified him There you are shewn on the top of a Tree the most enormous Crime that ever was committed and it is laid to your charge but be not frighted only be sure as soon as you appear before the Crucifix to let the Truth issue from your Heart and out of your Mouth confess that you are the Guilty One against whom both Heaven and Earth call out for Vengeance Iniquitatem meam Ego Cognosco you will strait find there will come Mercy out of the Heart of God to meet and embrace you and He will join his Grace on your Lips to the Confession of your Faults and the Truth of your Sorrow Misericordia veritas obviaverunt sibi Speak out then own your Crime and say with David Peccatum meum Contra me est semper True it is O Lord that my great Sin which contains all the infinite multitude of my Offences is present with you on the Cross but then your great Mercy is with you there too it is by that Standard you will measure the designs of your Heart towards me and it is with it you will consult to learn what Answer you shall return to my Tears Miserer mei secundum magnam Misericordiam tuam I implore not the Mercy of Angels or Saints or of a God all Glorious in Heaven my Need reaches to the want of the Greatest and Supreme Mercy and that is not to be had but from a God upon the Cross whom I have put to death He is the Only One that must renew my Life Unite those innumerable Pardons and Favours which you have granted to all Sinners since the beginning of the World O unite them all at present into one for me alone Secundum multitudinem Miserationum tuarum In me you behold all the Sinners that ever were therefore I must seek in you for all that Goodness and all that Love that has converted them all even to this day O my divine Saviour glorifie your Omnipotence and shew what a God can do for so lost a Creature and how his Grace can raise a quite dejected Heart Entertain these kind of Thoughts in your Mind as much as you are able and by the number of your Acts of
in his Body as if it were lodged in a Tomb all the Life he has is but the Life of a Beast and only a Shadow of Human Life To be Ignorant according to the Opinion of the Wise Man is to be a sort of Creature that spends a great deal of Time in passing on from his Birth to his Death without making a Step into Life Perierint quasi non fuerinty Nati quasi non Nati REFLECTIONS As Knowledge is one part of our Perfection so it is also one part of our Felicity Make your self then a Knowing person so far at least as you are obliged to be such by the Laws of Nature and of Religion and by those of Decence and Honour Of what Age soever you are at this present and let your Rank be what it will in the World it is necessary if you will hold the Rank of a Man of Worth that you be not ignorant either in Philosophy or in Christian Divinity You may know enough of both without putting your self to any great Trouble or Pains and without running after those Professors who make a Trade of teaching these Noble Sciences I do not advise you to go and study under them or to haunt teir Schools but I advise you to learn what you are to think of Eternity and by what Means you may avoid a Misery of that duration The Masters that are fittest to teach you these things have expected you for this long time at least there is no need of your going far to seek them you may find them wheresoever you are your self and near enough to you to speak privately to your Heart it is but entring within your self and you may hear what they will say Here follow some Reflections that will help you to know these Masters and to profit by their Discourses Mind then that you no sooner began to live but that you were obliged by the nature of your Birth to begin to know three Truths 1. That there is a God that gave you Life 2. That there is a Nothing from whence you came and a Death to which you are going 3. That there is a Jesus Christ who redeemed you and must give you a Resurrection At your coming into the World you have met with three Masters or three Voices ordained to teach you these three Lessons The Voice of Nature the Voice of Death and the Voice of the Gospel and Grace These are not three Discourses but three Subjects for your Meditation that I present you with In the first place I say That to make your self perfectly knowing in the Morals it will behove you to become the Disciple and Scholar of Death and to take Lessons from that Master Death does not speak but it has a Silence in which is summed up all the Doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles and that contains all those admirable Instructions they have left to aid you in leading a Good Life and to help you to solve well upon every occasion those Difficulties that shall be offer'd to you by your blinded Conscience All the Counsels of the Holy Fathers are in the Mouth of Death what makes the Wonder is that Death without speaking a word causes all those Counsels and Instructions to enter into your Heart and does this in such a way and with that Force and Energy which those Holy Fathers could never arrive at Death does this says Solomon every time she presents her self In ea finis Cunctorum admonetur hominum before your Eyes and as often as she invites you to the House where she is and shews you in the Face of a Dying Person the Sentence that Heaven has decreed against you That you must dye and be to morrow in the same Condition as you now behold this fick expiring Creature Testamentum hujus Mundi morte Morieris Solomon means that when Men dye certain pale Characters appear to be traced upon their Lips which every one can read and where they find these two words Hodie mihi Cras tibi The Prophet calls this their Will or Testament which Death writes for them and makes their Heirs with those others that encompass their Bed to see and be Witnesses to it All read it and all understand it You that are the Great Ones of the World have often read it and you have learned from thence says St. Gregory that the Inheritance which every one of your Ancestors has left you at the Moment of his Death has been the News that you must dye as he has done and that you and all the Riches Honours and Greatness you now enjoy must in a few days time return to what they have been heretofore to Dust to Ashes and to Nothing Pulvis es in pulverem Reverteris Of all the Forefathers you have had since the beginning of the World there has not been one amongst them that has missed the Signing of this Testament and the leaving you this Inheritance Such a Testament cries out Solomon as a Young Man enriched by the Rapine and unjust dealings of his Father needs but read with attention to become the holy and happy Heir of a Dives and damned Person Read then but observe that the great benefit of this Reading and of this contemplation does not consist in beholding what Death has shewn you but in remembring that you have seen it When She has shewn you in the low bottom of a Sepulchre whole Armies of Worms covering the Face you lately adored and that She has made you confess that this Rottenness was once your Idol the few Sillables she would have you imprint in your Mind which contain all her Instructions are Memento homo Remember Young-man what you have seen in this Tomb and what you have learnt there In truth to the learning of your Morals perfectly and how to live Wisely and Christianly it will conduce but little to look on dying and dead People There is not that Person does not go to see his Relations and Friends upon their Death-bed and who at that time does not think of the Affairs of another World and propose to himself Designs of Conversion and Repentance but then by the next Morning we find all these Thoughts blotted out of our Minds like Dreams and we know nothing of what we saw and what we designed Yesterday Indevotion Libertinism and Vanity have the same station in our Hearts as before and we begin again to live like Sinners that had not heard or known that any in the World had ever died O ye Mortals cries out Death it is not only in the Church whilst you are shedding Tears at the Funeral of your Brother who died Yesterday suddenly without one Word of Confession after an Impenitence for several Years that you are to study the Doctrine I teach but it is by remembring this miserable Exit Memento Keep in your Mind the Thought of this Death and cherish the Memory of it whatsoever Change of Fortune may befal you or in what part of the World
Man inflicts on himself as much as ever Tyrants did upon the Martyrs they have made These sort of Principles and others like them preached up by the Montainists and Novatians were never any Honour to Devotion or Devout Persons though they might be so often to their Directors who have judged them fit Cloaks to hide their growing Heresies and who by shewing to us Devotees ruin'd in the Health both of Body and Mind by their Watchings and Fasts pretend to give us infallible Proofs of the Holy Lives of their Teachers and Sanctity of their Doctrine Be devout but in case you cannot be so without rendring Devotion either falsely commendable or truly ridiculous and contemptible never pretend to it at all Bring not into the Sanctuary under the Title of a Mortified and Spiritual Man such Defects as will make the Wise to laugh at you as well as others and Condemn you against their Wills it is a matter of Shame that happens almost every day even in the most modest Conversations never to hear the Devout spoken of but that it is with some Censure of their Carriage Make not one in the number of those that are the cause of this as you will infallibly do if you go about to square your Devotions to certain ways of living such as the Tongues of Libertines have Right to make sport with and the truly Pious are obliged in Conscience to condemn Of this number you will certainly be if at your return from your long Contemplations made at the Feet of the Altar you bring home with you the Uneasiness of your Melancholy and Fantastical Humour One of the chief Rules of eminent Sanctity is That we must live in our Family after the manner that an Angel would live there if this be too hard for you yet live in it like a Reasonable Man at least live not there like a Wild Beast giving your Domesticks occasion to complain of you each hour of the day and attribute to you what was said of a great Devotee of old That the more he Fasted and Prayed the more insupportable he became Call to mind that there is no other true Saint in the World but he that understands true Charity and true Civility to be one and the same Virtue Beware above all things of what happens frequently in the Carriage of some Spiritual Persons that you do not rank your Disobedience and Opiniatrety in the number of your Virtues and Duties and that you do not fix your Aim upon Superstitious Ways and Courses Repel with vigor all Follies seizing on the Imagination such as are Illusions Anxieties and Disquiets caused by the Dreams of Fancy Suffer not any empty Fear or Vapour raised from the Earth to mingle with your Thoughts where God would see only what is Divine Fear Mortal Sin and flye it more than you would do Death but be not frighted with the Name and Shew of Sin The Devil to fright poor fearful Woman makes use of the most innocent and harmless things and gives them often the Resemblance of Mortal Sins fear them not nor make the Wise laugh at your Deceit and Weakness as you would do at a Child who should be frighted at the sight of a Marble Serpent on a Fountain for as there is nothing less venomous or dangerous than these Dragons and Monsters of Brass and Marble made to adorn the Palaces of Princes so there is nothing less Sin and Impurity than those Visions and Ghosts of Sin with which the Devil uses to haunt the Imaginations of the chastest Virgins they sigh and grieve and are ready to despair at them believing they are damned the Indevout seeing this mock at it let it have your Compassion but imitate them not raise your Courage high enough to slight these interiour Goblins Freedom Tranquility Courage and Wisdom are the Companions of true Devotion and must enter along with it into your Soul At least it is true what a Holy Father said excellently well That to become devout is to receive by the Benefit of Grace all that Vigour and those Good Qualities which Nature had denied us at our Birth It would be a wonderful Misfortune to have the contrary befal you and having been a Man of good Sense when you dealt in the Affairs of the World you should now after having seriously resolved to give your self to God begin the Exercises of a Good Life by becoming uncivil shy dreaming and fantastical Where Grace is there should not be wanting any one Beauty or Greatness that befits an Immortal Soul and yet we see great Sinners who shew in the Face of the World to have Honour and Courage whilst Persons of devotion make it none of their Duty to correct the Defects of their timerous Nature The true Means to unite within us those Perfections I have named and to accomplish a Spiritual and Christian Life with Honour and Glory is to observe well what this Text of Solomon teaches being one of the choicest things he has written and to make it our principal care and business to converse daily with God and practise a familiarity in his Presence Generositatem illius glorificat Contubernium habens Dei True it is that God is your Lord and Master and that the Rank you hold before him should put you in the humblest place under his Feet and even below a Nothing if that were possible but yet notwithstanding when you come to love him and that with Mary Magdalen during the conversation of one Heart with another you possess the high Privileges near him that belong to a Lover that Glorious Quality gives you a Right to behold Him as your Equal and to say boldly to Him Dilectus meus mihi ego illi My Beloved is mine and I am his In the Church and at the times of Sacrifice and Adoration let your Submission and Respects shew you to be a poor Shadow in his Sight but in other places and at times of liberty accustom your self to treat with him as you do with those that love you and whom you love He is near you as they are tell Him the same things you would say to them acquaint Him with your Affairs and Designs your Hopes and your Fears and all that relates to you get to have the most intimate familiarity with Him and the most secret communication that is possible say to Him whatsoever the Transports of Love shall draw from your Heart and fear nothing so much as to be daunted in the presence of this Spouse since nothing more displeases Him in a Holy Soul than the trembling Fits of Distrust and the Disquiets of a Scrupulous Conscience True it is that he is to be soveraignly respected yet since it is His Will to love you and that He will have you love him tenderly and divinely all the Honour He expects from you is to have you converse with Him as you would do with one that loves you and to tell him your Thoughts with all the Freedom of a
with them then shew this great Abundance to your Soul and you say to her what our Lord said Behold and be at rest Anima Mea habes multa bona congregata in plurimos annos requiesce See my Soul we have got into our Hands all that can be desired in the World be content and comfort your self This Soul not be comforted instead of opening a Heart to let in Joy and Hope answers you only with Complaints after having tasted and tryed these new Remedies these new Employments and all your other precious Novelties she thrusts them back with Scorn and cries out to you Cumeta Vanitas afflictio spiritus Ye Goods of the Earth ye Riches and Honours what are ye but Vanity of Vanities Affliction and Despair Wonder not at this an immortal Soul that feels the Violence of its Desires and finds that besides the good things you shew her she cannot be without an infinity of others infinitely more desirable When she comes to know that she must rest quiet and content her self with what she sees in your Hands and that there is nothing for her to pursue or hope for in Heaven what must her Sufferings be Can she take any other Resolution than to abandon her self to Vexation and Sorrow and to all the Miseries of a despairing Conscience No certainly this does not arise from a capricious Melancholy bred within you but from a hidden Insight born with you which takes its time at your hours of leisure to put your Soul continually in mind that when she is separated from God all her spiritual and Divine Substance is not other thing than an extream Misery and from that instant an infinite one tho' not to be felt infinitely but in Hell Behold the interiour Peace that great Riches afford but Wisdom tells us by the Pen of Solomon we are to reckon otherwise of a Mediocrity MAXIM XI Mendicitatem Divitias ne dederis mihi Prov. xxx PARAPHRASE Let me have neither Poverty or great Riches says Solomon this I apprehend and that gives me Horror The one leads Man to Atheism and transforms him into a Devil the other turns him into a Beast and makes him the Mockery of Human kind These are two Pits digged upon the Earth to be the two great Descents into Hell Fools run blindly to the one and cast themselves into it by their Profusions the Proud and Covetous haste to the other and damn themselves by labouring Night and Day to get to it Our true Quiet and Repose is found where Wisdom keeps in the middle Of all the Conditions of Human Life the most secure most honourable and most easie is to live between Superfluity and Indigence and the furthest off that it is possible from either Extream REFLECTIONS It has been the Opinion of the World from the beginning and still continues so That the Felicity of Man during this Mortal Life consists in his possessing of a great Abundance Many seem though at the hour of Death to be of another mind and speak of Riches like Persons that were become perfectly undeceived but whatsoever they say we see very few return from thence by the help of Remedies who do not bring back with them their old Mistake The Rule That the Richer a Man is the more he is Happy sticks as fast in our Hearts as our Life does there We must be dead St. Augustine says before we can learn to despise what we worship here below The Contempt of Riches is a Change of Mind which does not befal us but at our going out of the World and entrance into Eternity Do you anticipate that Day and learn to know those Truths at present which ought to be no less known by Christians in the Church of Jesus Christ than they are in Hell by the Damned and Devils It is his Judgment inspired by God who was the Wisest amongst Men That to become Happy in this World we must ever keep our selves in a certain middle way wherein being not Rich or Poor we may neither be in want of any thing or have any thing superfluous and wherein being freed from the Disquiets inseparably accompanying Want and Abundance we may live peaceably here by the Wisdom of our Carriage and bring it so to pass that after many years of a calm and devout life we may go to enjoy an Eternity in another Life infinitely more desirable Order your Affairs to this end Take the Pains to settle your self in this happy way of having neither more nor less than is sufficient for one of your Condition strive to have enough to make you pass your days with Honour and in Peace and to aid you in performing the indispensible Duties of Justice and Christian Prudence towards your self and those that belong to you have enough to satisfie this but at the same time keep your self from having enough to satisfie Ambition and your other Passions The Passions are so many Furies within us which are chained up and laid fast asleep by Virtue but are soon awaked by the sound and ratling of Silver and Gold They begin to cry out excessively and to struggle with their Chains at the first perceiving that we have in our Coffers the Means to humour them the Money we tell over and they see lodged in our Hands sets them into a rage and they are not to be quieted till we put our selves out of the capacity of contenting them Reduce your self then low by your Alms and let that glorious Incapacity be one of the Examples and Inheritances you leave to your Children In a word take this for one of your Maxims Nec Mendicitatem nec Devitias Neither too much nor not enough These are two Evils that equally lead to the last of Miseries and that coming upon us do mark us with as fatal a Character as Man can bear in his Forehead Do not stay to know the Miseries of a Prison by your own Experience inform your self well about it whilst you have your Liberty It is sufficient one would think to have Eyes to look into the Lives of the Poor and Rich to teach us to avoid the ever being like to either of them Consider with your self that should you come to be suddenly enriched and be one of those that wears the Title of a great Lord all the advantage you would get above those of a middle Fortune would be to have night and morning a great Hurry and Trouble round you to have more Flatterers at your Table more Vanity and Foolery in your Train more Unnecessaries in your Furniture more Noise in your House and Disquiet in your Mind more Sins in your Conscience and more to repent of at your Death Have never so many Thousands you are not able to purchase a second Body and whilst you have but one what need have you of two Houses of three Tables and much less of threescore Hands to serve you The greatness of this Trouble and Expence wherein is it useful but to others to