soules have given easie way to your mortall enemie Vtinam miserrimus ego c. I would I poore wretch saith Tertulian might see in that day of Christian exaltation An cum cerussa purpurisso croco cum illo ambitu capitis resurgatis No you staines to modesty such a Picture shall not rise in glory before her Maker There is no place for you but for such women as aray themselves in comely apparell with shamefastnesse and modestie not with broided haâ—re or gold or pearles or costly apparell But as becommeth women that professe the feare of God For even after this manner in time past did the holy women which trusted in God tire themselves Reade I say reade yee proud ones yee which are so haughty and walke with stretched-out neckes the Prophet Isaiah and you shall finde your selves described and the judgement of Desolation pronounced upon you Because the Daughters of Sion are haughty and walke with stretched-out neckes and with wandring eyes walking and minsing as they goe and making a tinckling with their feet therefore shall the Lord make the heads of the daughters of Sion bald and the Lord shall discover their secret parts And hee proceeds In that day shall the Lord take away the ornament of the slippers and the calles and the round tyres The sweet balles and the bracelets and the bonnets The tyres of the head and the sloppes and the head-bands and the tablets and the eare-rings The rings and the mufflers The costly apparell and the veiles and the wimples and the crisping-pins And the glasses and the fine linnen and the hoods and the lawnes Now heare your reward And in stead of sweet savour there shall be stinke and in stead of a girdle a rent and in stead of dressing of the haire baldnesse and in stead of a stomacher a girdling of sack-cloth and burning in stead of beauty Now attend your finall destruction Thy men shall fall by the sword and thy strength in the battell Then shall her gates mourne and lament and shee being desolate shall sit upon the ground See how you are described and how you shall be rewarded Enjoy then sinne for a season and delight your selves in the vanities of Youth be your eyes the Lures of Lust your eares the open receits of shame your hands the polluted instruments of sinne to be short be your Soules which should be the Temples of the Holy Ghost cages of uncleane birds after all these things what the Prophet hath threatned shall come upon you and what shall then deliver you not your Beauty for to use that divine Distich of Innocentius Tell me thou earthen vessell made of clay What 's Beauty worth when thou must dye to day Nor Honour for that shall lye in the dust and sleepe in the bed of earth Nor Riches for they shall not deliver in the day of wrath Perchance they may bring you when you are dead in a comely funerall sort to your graves or bestow on you a few mourning garments or erect in your memory some gorgeous Monument to shew your vaine-glory in death as well as life but this is all Those Riches which you got with such care kept with such feare lost with such griefe shall not afford you one comfortable hope in the houre of your passage hence afflict they may releeve they cannot Nor Friends for all they can doe is to attend you and shed some friendly teares for you but ere the Rosemary lose her colour which stickt the Coarse or one worme enter the shroud which covered the Corps you are many times forgotten your former glory extinguished your eminent esteeme obscured your repute darkened and with infamous aspersions often impeached If a man saith Seneca finde his friend sad and so leave him sicke without ministring any comfort to him and poore without releeving him we may thinke such an one goeth to jest rather than visit or comfort and such miserable comforters are these friends of yours What then may deliver you in such gusts of affliction which assaile you Conscience shee it is that must either comfort you or how miserable is your condition She is that continuall feast which must refresh you those thousand witnesses that must answer for you that light which must direct you that familiar friend that must ever attend you that faithfull Counsellour that must advise you that Balme of Gilead that must renew you that Palme of peace which must crowne you Take heed therefore you wrong not this friend for as you use her you shall finde her She is not to be corrupted her sincerity scornes it Shee is not to bee perswaded for her resolution is grounded Shee is not to bee threatned for her spirit sleights it She is aptly compared in one respect to the Sea she can endure no corruption to remaine in her but foames and frets and chafes till all filth bee removed from her By Ebbing and flowing is shee purged nor is she at rest till shee be rinsed Fugit ab agro ad ciuitatem à publico ad domum à domo in cubiculum c. Discontentedly shee flies from the Field to the City from publicke resort to her private house from her house to her chamber Shee can rest in no place Furie dogs her behinde and Despaire goes before For Conscience being the inseparable glory or confusion of every one according to the quality disposition or dispensation of that Talent which is given him for to whom much is given much shall be required We are to make such fruitfull use of our Talent that the Conscience wee professe may remaine undefiled the faith we have plighted may be inviolably preserved the measure or Omer of grace we have received may be increased and God in all glorified Which the better to effect wee are to thinke how God is ever present in all our actions and that to use the words of Augustine Whatsoever we doe yea whatsoever it bee that wee doe he better knowes it than we our selves doe It was Seneca's counsell to his friend Lucilius that whensoever he went about to do any thing he should imagine Cato or Scipio or some other worthy Roman to be in presence In imitation of so divine a Morall let us in every action fix our eye upon our Maker Whose eyes are upon the children of men so shall we in respect of his sacred presence to which we owe all devout reverence Abstaine frome vill doe good seeke peace and ensue it Such as defil'd themselves with sinne by giving themselves over unto pleasure staining the Nobility splendour of their Soules through wallowing in vice or otherwise fraudulently by usurpation or base insinuation creeping into Soveraignty or unjustly governing the common-weale such thought Socrates that they went a by-path separated from the counsell of the gods but such as while they lived in their bodies imitated the life of the gods such hee thought had an easie returne to the place
your Acquaintance for that shewes weaknesse Nor inconstant to those you have chosen for that argues lightnesse Nor too forward in the discovery of your counsels for so you might bee taxed of too much opennesse ever ayming at that absolute end of Acquaintance to profit more and more in the practice of goodnesse So shall God bee your Guide good men your friends and your Countrey where you had education receive much glory from your life and conversation THE ENGLISH GENTLEMAN Argument Moderation defined No vertue can subsist without it Wherein it is to be used Wherein to be limited Of the accomplished end which attends it MODERATION IN the whole progresse of mans life which is nothing else but a medley of desires and feares wee shall find that there is no one vertue which doth better adorne or beautifie man than Temperance or Moderation which indeed is given as an especiall attribute to man purposely to distinguish him from brute beasts whose onely delight is enjoying the benefit of Sense without any further ayme THis Moderation therefore being a note of distinction betwixt man and beast let us draw neere to the knowledge of this so exquisite a vertue which that wee may the better attaine let us first see how she is defined because every instruction grounded upon reason touching any subject ought to proceed from a definition that we may the better understand what that is whereof wee dispute Moderation is a subduer of our desires to the obedience of Reason and a temperate conformer of all our affections freeing them from the too much subjection either of desires or feares First it causeth our Desires to be subject to the obedience of reason pulling us alwayes by the sleeve and remembring us how wee are men and partake of reason and therefore ought not to subject our Desires to the captivity of Sense as brute beasts which have no reason Secondly it is a conformer of all our affections freeing them from all unworthy subjection either in respect of our Desires or Feares of our Desires as having learned in all things to bee contented whether that portion wherewith God hath blessed us be little or great of our Feares as suffering no worldly thing to be so neerely endeered to us as to feare the losing of it which wee so dearely tender For the first it is an excellent saying of a sage Morall There is no difference betweene having and not desiring for hee that desires nothing injoyes more then hee that possesseth the whole world for his desires are satisfied which the worldling can never be so long as his thoughts and desires are to the objects of earth engaged so as the difference betwixt the poore wanting and rich not using is by these two expressed the one carendo the other non fruendo whereas if the poore having little desire no more then that little which they have they become rich in desire and enjoy by desiring little more above estimate then the dung-hill wretch whose eyes cannot enjoy themselves for coveting will ever be master of For as men sicke of an Atrophie eat much but thrive not so these though they devoure widowes houses feed upon the fat of the Land lay land unto land and hoord up treasure to enrich a progeny of rioters yet these seldome thrive with the fat of their oppressions but make oft-times as fearefull ends as their beginnings were calme and prosperous It is a singular blessing which the Poet attributes to one who was not onely rich but could enjoy that hee had freely God gave thee wealth and power to use it too Which these Earth-wormes of ours can never doe Neither onely in matters of Desire are wee to entertaine the choice company of Moderation but in our Feares where we many times feare to forgoe what wee already with much content enjoy So as the former direct their ayme to what they have not but the latter stand surprized with feare lest they should leese what they already have the former argues an avaritious mind who can never confine his Desires to what it hath the latter a worldly besotted affection that can never find heart to forgoe what it already enjoyes A Philosopher perceiving Dionysius to sit merrily in the Theater after hee was expulsed his Realme condemned the people who banished him Certainely this Prince shewed an admirable Moderation both in respect of his Desires and Feares first in his Desires extending not his thoughts above that low verge whereto his Tyrannie had forced him nor fearing any succeeding losse being above the reach of greater misery This Moderation appeared in Furius Camillus whom neither honour could too much transport nor disgrace cast downe bearing the former with no lesse temperance then he did the latter with patience and esteeming it his onely conquest to conquer passion in the height of affliction It is likewise a great argument of Moderation when in extremity wee stand prepared to encounter with the worst of danger passing all inducements to feare with a mind no lesse resolute than cheerefull saluting affliction with a smile and entertaining surmises of danger with a jest This did Crassus who being willed by the Arabian guides to make haste before the Moone was past Scorpio But I said hee feare more Sagittarie meaning the Archers of Persia. There is nothing which expresseth more true worth in any man then his constancie and courage in the encounters of this life imitating in this respect Vespasian who upon the instant of his Dissolution when death had summoned him to make present surrender by paying his debt to Nature of that short Lease of life which with many an unquiet houre he had traced standing up upon his feet used these words It became an Emperour to take his leave of earth standing implying that the extremities which either Nature or Fortune could inflict upon him could not so much deject him or by their assaults enforce him to doe ought unworthy himselfe Whence wee are taught and well may this lesson deserve our observation to entertaine this life with patience expecting death with a desired assurance for there is no better meanes to moderate the passions of Desire and Feare then to enter into meditation of the world and withall to consider how there is nothing of that esteeme in the world that may seeme worthy our Desires coveting to have it or worthy our Feare inwardly doubting to lose it This serious consideration will bee of force to move the greatest worldling to a Moderation of his desires subjecting them to the obedience of reason Whereas if hee should give reines to his owne Avarice Ericthous bowels could not containe more in proportion then his in an illimited desire and affection for the World being like a City without a wall a house without a doore a ship without helme a pot without a cover and a horse without a bridle hath brought out people equally consorting with her in nature and temper of unbridled
such in this life as it rather consisteth in the remission of sinnes than Perfection of vertues Yea wee sinne daily so as properly we can attribute nothing to our owne strength but weaknesse to our owne ability but infirmnesse to our resolves but uncertainnesse to our wils but untowardnesse to our affections but depravednesse nor to the whole progresie of our lives but actuall disobedience But rather I say wee meane of that Christian Perfection which every one in this Tabernacle of clay is to labour for that wee may become perfect through him who became weake that wee might bee strengthned hungry that we might be nourished thirsty that wee might bee refreshed disgraced that wee might be honoured yea who became all unto all that by all meanes hee might gaine some But wherein may this actuall perfection bee properly said to consist In Mortification which like the swift gliding torrent of Hydaspes divides or dilates it selfe to two channels Action and Affection Action in expressing it Affection in desiring to expresse it Action in suffering Affection in desire of suffering The one actuating no lesse in will than the other in worke Where the Action being more exemplar and in that more fruitfull gives precedency to Affection which concurres with the act to make the worke more graciously powerfull For where a worke of Mortification is performed and a hearty desire or affection to that worke is not adjoyned that Action may bee properly said to bee enforced rather than out of a free or willing disposition accepted Now this twofold Mortification extends it selfe properly to these three Subjects Life Name Goods Life which even Humanity tendreth Name which a good man before the sweetest odours preferreth Goods on which the worldling as on the supreme good lieth For the first many excellent and memorable examples of sundry devout and constant servants of Christ Iesus are in every place frequent and obvious who for the confirmation of their faith and the testimony of a good conscience joyfully and cheerefully laid down their lives esteeming it an especiall glory to bee thought worthy to suffer for him who with all constancy suffered to become an example of patience to them which were easie to illustrate by the sufferings of many eminent and glorious Martyrs Prudentius writeth that when Asclâ—piades commanded the tormentors to strike Râ—manus on the mouth the meeke Martyr answered I thanke thee O Captaine that thou hast opened unto mee many mouthes whereby I may preach my Lord and Saviour Tot ecce laudant ora quot sunt vulnera Looke how many wounds I have so many mouthes I have to praise and laud the Lord. Ignatius words were these to witnesse his constancie at the time of his suffering Frumentum sum Christi per dentes bestiarum molor ut mundus panis Dei inveniar I am Christs corne and must bee ground by the teeth of wilde beasts that I may become pure manchet for the Lord. It is reported that blessed Laurence being laid upon the Gridiron used these words to his Tormentors Turne and eate it is enough Saint Andrew when he went to bee crucified was so rapt with joy as hee rejoyced unmeasurably in that blessed resemblance of his Masters death Blessed Bartholomew willingly lost his skin for his sake who had his skinne scourged that hee might bee solaced Iohn dranke a cup of poison to pledge his Master in a cup of affliction Thus Laurence's Gridiron Andrewes Crosse Bartholomew's Skinne Iohns Cup expressed their Mortification by a willing surrender of their life for his sake who was the Lord of life Yea should wee survey those strange invented torments during the bloudy issue of the tenne Persecutions which were contrived by those inhumane Assasinates whose hands were deepâ— died in the bloud of the Saints wee should no lesse admire the constancy of the persecuted suffering than the cruelty of the Persecutors infesting What rackes hookes harrowes tongs forkes stakes were purposely provided to torment the constant and resolute Professours of the truth wearying the tormentors rather with tormenting than abating any part of their constancie in the height and heat of their tormenting Yea they were solaced in the time when they suffered esteeming death to bee such a passage as might give them convoy to a more glorious heritage Neither did these blessed Professors of the faith receive comfort by the eye of their meditation firmely fixed on heaven but by the compassion and princely commiseration of divers eminent ad victorious Emperours bearing soveraignty then on earth Constantine the Great used to kisse the eye of Paphnutius which was bored out in Maximinas time The like noble and princely compassion wee reade to have beene shewed by Titus Trajan Theodosius and many other Princes graciously affected towards the poore afflicted and persecuted Christians Yea God moved the hearts of those who naturally are most remorselesse or obdurate in commiserating the estate of his afflicted Which may appeare by the Gaolor in the Acts who washed Saint Pauls stripes and wounds O how comfortable were these passions or passages of affliction these tortures or torments the trophies of their persecution the blessed memoriall whereof shall extend the date of time receiving a crowne of him who is the length of dayes So as King Alexanders Stagges were knowne and hundred yeares together by those golden collars which by the Kings commandement were put about their neckes or as King Arthurs bodie being taken up some what more than six hundred yeares after his death was knowne to bee his by nothing so much as by the prints of ten severall wounds which appeared in his skull so these glorious stampes of their passion shall appeare as trophies to them in the day of exaltation because as they lost their lives for the testimony of the Gospel they shall finde them recorded in the booke of life receiving the crowne of consolation for the deep draught which they tooke of the cup of affliction And reason there is we should dis-value our lives for the profession of our faith since forlorne and miserable is his life that is without faith For if the Heathen whose future hopes were fixed on posterity and not so much as the least knowledge of eternity dis-esteemed their lives to gaine them renown or propagate their countries glory much more cause have wee to subject our lives to the censure of death having hope after death to live in glory It is reported that the body of Cadwallo an antient King of the Britains being embalmed and dressed with sweet confections was put into a brazen image and set upon a brazen horse over Ludgate for a terror to the Saxons and Zisca the valiant Captaine of the Bohemians commanded that after his decease his skin would bee flayed from his bodie to make a drum which they should use in their battels affirming that as soone as the Hungarians or any other Enemies should heare the sound of
where wee are to seeke Where in Heaven the house of God the Citie of the great King the inheritance of the just the portion of the faithfull the glory of Sion Where not without us but within us for the Kingdome of God is within us So as I may say to every faithfull soule Intus habes quod quaeris That is within thee which is sought of thee It is God thou seekest and him thou possessest thy heart longeth after him and right sure thou art of him for his delight is to bee with those that love him Lastly when on Earth when in this life when while wee are in health while wee are in these Tabernacles of clay while wee carry about us these earthly vessels while wee are clothed with flesh before the evill day come or the night approach or the shadow of death encompasse us now in the opportunate time the time of grace the time of redemption the appointed time while our peace may bee made not to deferre from youth to age lest wee bee prevented by death before wee come to age but so to live every day as if wee were to dye every day that at last wee may live with him who is the length of daies What remaineth then but that wee conclude the whole Series or progresse of this Discourse with an exhortation to counsell you an instruction to caution you closing both in one Conclusion to perswade you to put in daily practice what already hath beene tendred to you Now Gentlemen that I may take a friendly farewell of you I am to exhort you to a course Vertuous which among good men is ever held most Generous Let not O let not the pleasures of sinne for a season withdraw your mindes from that exceeding great weight of glory kept in store for the faithfull after their passage from this vale of misery Often call to minde the riches of that Kingdome after which you seeke those fresh Pastures fragrant Medows and redolent Fields diapred and embrodered with sweetest and choicest flowers those blessed Citizens heavenly Saints and Servants of God who served him here on Earth faithfully and now raigne with him triumphantly Let your Hearts bee exditers of a good matter and your voices viols to this heavenly measure O how glorious things are spoken of thee thou Citie of God as the habitation of all that rejoyce is in thee Thou art founded on the exaltation of the whole Earth There is in thee neither old-age nor the miserie of old-age There is in thee neither maime nor lame nor crooked nor deformed seeing all attaine to the perfect man to that measure of age or fulnesse of Christ. Who would not become humble Petitioner before the Throne of grace to bee made partaker of such an exceeding weight of glory Secondly to instruct you where this Crowne of righteousnesse is to bee sought it is to bee sought in the house of God in the Temple of the Lord in the Sanctuary of the most High O doe not hold it any derogation to you to bee servants yea servants of the lowest ranke even Doore-keepers in the House of the Lord Constantine the Great gloried more in being a member of the Church than the Head of an Empire O then let it bee your greatest glory to advance his glory who will make you vessels of glory But know that to obey the deligths of the flesh to divide your portion among Harlots to drinke till the wine grow red to make your life a continued revell is not the way to obtaine this crowne Tribulation must goe before Consolation you must clime up to the Crosse before you receive this Crowne The Israelites were to passe thorow a Desart before they came to Canaan This Desart is the world Canaan heaven O who would not bee here afflicted that hee may bee there comforted Who would not be here crossed that hee may bee there crowned Who would not with patience passe thorow this Desart onely in hope to come to Canaan Canaan the inheritance of the just Canaan the lot of the righteous Canaan a fat Land flowing with milke and honey Canaan an habitation of the most holy Canaan a place promised to Abraham Canaan the bosome of Father Abraham even Heaven but not the heaven of heaven to which even the earth it selfe is the very Empyraean heaven for this is heaven of heaven to the Lord because knowne to none but to the Lord. Thirdly and lastly that I may conclude and concluding perswade you neglect not this opportunate time of grace that is now offered you I know well that Gentlemen of your ranke cannot want such witty Consorts as will labour by their pleasant conceits to remove from you the remembrance of the evill day but esteeme not those conceits for good which strive to estrange from your conceit the chiefest good Let it bee your task every day to provide your selves against the evill day so shall not the evill day when it commeth affright you nor the terrours of death prevaile against you nor the last summons perplex you nor the burning Lake consume you O what sharpe extreme and insuperable taskes would those wofull tormented soules take upon them if they might bee freed but one houre from those horrours which they see those tortures which they feele O then while time is graunted you omit no time neglect no opportunity Bee instant in season and out of season holding on in the race which is set before you and persevering in every good work even unto the end Because they that continue unto the end shall bee saved What is this life but a minute and lesse than a minute in respect of eternity Yet if this minute bee well imployed it will bring you to the fruition of eternity Short and momentany are the afflictions of this life yet supported with Patience and subdued with long sufferance they crowne the sufferer with glory endlesse Short likewise are the pleasures of this life which as they are of short continuance so bring they forth no other fruit than the bitter pils of repentance whereas in heaven there are pleasures for evermore comforts for evermore joyes for evermore no carnall but cordiall joy no laughter of the body but of the heart for though the righteous sorrow their sorrow ends when they end but joy shall come upon them without end O meditate of these in your beds and in your fields when you are journeying on the way and when you are so journing in your houses where compare your Court-dalliance with these pleasures and you shall finde all your rioting triumphs and revelling to bee rather occasions of sorrowing than solacing mourning than rejoycing Bathe you in your Stoves or repose you in your Arbours these cannot allay the least pang of an afflicted conscience O then so live every day as you may die to sin every day that as you are ennobled by your descent on earth
is their love to the Court This moved his Highnesse of late to declare his gracious pleasure to our Gentry that all persons of ranke and quality should retire from the Citty and returne to their Countrey where they might bestowe that on Hospitality which the liberty of the time too much besotted with fashion and forraine imitation useth to disgorge on vanity Their ancient Predecessours whose chiefest glory it was to releeve the hungrie refresh the thirstie and give quiet repose to the weary are but accounted by these sweet-sented Humorists for men of rusticke condition meere home-spun fellowes whose rurall life might seeme to derogate from the true worth of a Gentleman whose onely humour is to be phantastically humorous O the misery of errour how farre hath vanity carried you astray ye generous spirits that you should esteeme noble bountie which consists not so much in Bravery as Hospitality boorish Rusticitie How much are you deluded by apish formalitie as if the only qualitie of a Gentleman were novell complement or as if there were no good in man besides some outlandish congie or salute Alas Gentlemen is this all that can be expected at your hands Must your Countrey which bred you your friends who love you the poore whose prayers or curses will attend you be all deprived of their hopes in you No rather returne to your Houses where you may best expresse your Bountie by entertaining into your bosome that which perchance hath beene long time estranged from you Charitie For beleeve it as assuredly yee shall finde it that your sumptuous Banquetting your midnight revelling your unseasonable rioting your phantasticke attiring your formall courting shall witnesse against you in the day of revenge For behold the Lord commandeth and he will smite the great house with breacheâ— and the little house with clefts Returne therefore before the evill day come distribute to the Necessitie of the Saints become good Dispensers of what you have received that yee may gaine your selves grace in the high Court of Heaven But as for yee that put farre away the evill day and approach to the Seat of iniquitie Ye that sing to the sound of the Viâ—ll and invent your selves instruments of Musicke yee shall goe captive with the first that goe captive O miserie that Man with so beauteous an Image adorned with such exquisite ornaments of Art and Nature accomplished to so high a ranke above others advanced should delude himselfe so with the shade of vanitie as to become forgetfull of his chiefest glory But experience I doubt not will unseale those eyes which lightnesse and folly have blinded till which happie discovery of Youthfull errour I leave them and returne to my former Discourse You may perceive now how requisite Bountie is for a Gentleman being an especiall marke as I observed before whereby we may discerne him Amongst sundrie other Blessings conferred by God on Solomon this was not one of the least in that he gave him a large heart Not onely abundance of substance and treasure to possesse but a large heart to dispose Indeed this is a rare vertue worldlings there are who possesse much but they enjoy little becomming subject to that which they should command The difference betwixt the poore wanting and rich not using is by these two expressed the one Carendo the other Non fruendo Of which two the greater misery is the latter for he slaves himselfe to the unworthiest Servitude being a Servant to obey where he should be a Master to command To conclude this point in a word if wee ought to shew such contempt to all earthly substance as hardly to entertaine it much lesse affect it let us make it a benefit let us shew humanitie in it by making choice of the poore on whom we may bestow it This which we waste in rioting might save many from famishing let us bestow therefore lesse of our own backs that we may cloth them lesse of our owne bellies that we may feed them lesse of our owne palats that we may refresh them For that 's the best and noblest bountie when our Liberalitie is on such bestowed by whom there is no hope that it should be required THe third and last marke whereby a true generous Disposition is distinguished is Fortitude or sloutnesse being indeed the argument of a prepared or composed minde which is not to be dismayed or disturbed by any sharpe or adverse thing how crosse or contrary soever it come Excellently is this Fortitude defined by the Stoicks terming it a vertue which standeth ever in defence of equitie not doing but repelling an injurie Those Heires of true Honour who are possest of this vertue dare oppose themselves to all occurrents in defence of reputation preferring death before servitude and dishonour If at any time as many times such immerited censures occurre they die for vertues cause they meet death with a cheerefull countenance they put not on a childish feare like that Bandite in Genoa who condemned to die and carried to the place of execution trembled so exceedingly that he had two men to support him all the way and yet he shivered extremely Or as Maldonatuâ—â— relates how he heard of those which saw a strongman at Paris condemned to death to sweat bloud for very feare proving out of Aristotle that this effect may bee naturall But these whose generous spirits scorne such basenesse never saw that enterprise which they durst not attempt nor that death which could amate them where Honour grounded on Vertue without which there is no true Honour moved them either to attempt or suffer But now to wipe off certaine aspersions laid on valour or fortitude wee are not to admit of all daring Spirits to be men of this ranke For such whose Ambition excites them to attempt unlawfull things as to depose those whom they ought to serve or lay violent hand on those whom loyall fidelitie bids them obey opposing themselves to all dangers to obtaine their purpose are not to be termed valiant or resolute but seditious and dissolute For unlesse the enterprise be honest which they take in hand be their Spirits never so resolute or their minds prepared it is rashnesse but not valour having their actions ever suted by dishonour Sometimes likewise the enterprize may be good and honest the cause for which they encounter with danger vertuous the Agents in their enterprize couragious yet the issue taste more of despaire than valour Example hereof wee have in the Macchabees in the death of Razis one of the Elders of Ierusalem a lover of the City and a man of very good report which for his love was called a Father of the Iewes One who did offer to spend his body and life with all constancie for the religion of the Iewes yet being ready to be taken on every side through the fury of Nicanor who so eagerly assaulted and hotly pursued him he fell on his Sword yea when his bloud was utterly
them followed their Labour So as there was no difference betwixt the Patricians and Plebeians inter faecem florem civitatis as one well observeth but an expresse taske was imposed and exacted on every Subject Whence it grew that the Roman Empire became absolute Soveraignesse of many other ample Dominious whose flourishing estate as it was described to King Pyrrhus appeared such That the City seemed a Temple the Senate a Parliament of Kings Neither is it to be doubted but even as God is no accepter of persons so his command was generall without exception of persons In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eate bread Albeit I doe not hence conclude that all are to intend the Plough or betake themselves to Manuall Trades for so I might seeme to presse that exposition which a Frier once urged against Latimer touching reading of Scripture in a vulgar tongue If the rude people objected hee should heare the Scripture read in English the Plow-man when hee heareth Hee that holdeth the Plough and looketh backe is not apt for the Kingdome of God would there upon cease to plow any more the Baker when hee heareth it read A little Leaven corrupteth the whole lumpe might be moved not to use Leaven at all and when the Scripture saith If thine eye offend thee plucke it out the ignorant might bee perswaded to pull out their eyes and therefore it was not good to have the Scripture in English To which objection Latimer vouchafed no other answer than this Hee would wish the Scriptures to be no longer in English till thereby either the Plow-man were perswaded not to plow or the Baker not to bake No I am not so stupid as not to apprehend how severall places or offices are deputed to sundry men how some are appointed for guiding and guarding the State others for ranking and ranging Powers in the Field others for teaching and training of Youth in the Schoole others for propounding and expounding of the Lawes of our Realme at the Barre others for caring and curing of maladâ—es in the body others for breaking the bread of life and breathing the spirit of comfort to the afflicted Whence wee gather that of all degrees none are exempted or excepted a Vocation is proposed and imposed which of necessity must be by one or other observed and intended For as in the mutuall offices of our Body every member intends that peculiar function or office to which it is assigned or limited so in the Body of the State being all members depending and subsisting of that State wee are all in our mutuall places or offices to discharge that Taske which is injoyned us Wherein I should thinke it convenient if we observed the selfe-same rule which the members of our Body use in the due performance of their offices For wee see not one of them incroach or intrude into anothers place or imployment The Eye it sees and handles not the Hand it handles and sees not the Palat it tastes and smels not the Nose it smels and tastes not the Eare it heares and walkes not the Foot it walkes and heares not And so of the rest but contrariwise how itching are men after such imployments as least concerne them How officious in businesse which least touch them The Dray-man hee will play the Divine a Dairy-woman the Physician the Collier the Informer the Farmer the Lawyer Wherein surely I have observed in the small Progresse of this my Pilgrimage no small inconvenience redounding to the publike State For say whence sprung all these Schismes in the Church these many rents in Christs Seamelesse-coat but from those who of Mechanickes became Divines professing to teach before they were taught Whence are so many mens dayes abridged their easie maladies without hope of being cured but by meanes of these Horse-leaches who gaine experience by the death of their Patients professing themselves Artists before they know the definition of an Art Whence are so many unjustly vexed so injuriously troubled but by these base Informers who become disturbers rather than Reformers whence arise these differences betwixt party and party but by meanes of some factious and seditious Instruments who like the Serpent Dipsas sucke the moisture and verdure of every hopefull Plant building their foundation on the ruine of others Surely as wee have Statutes enacted of purpose to have such turbulent members duely curbed and censured so were it to bee wished that such Lawes as are to this end provided were likewise executed for by this meanes the flourie borders of our Realme should bee stored with grave Divines and learned Professors leading their flocks to the greene pastures of ghostly instruction not to the by-paths of errour and confusion with judicious and expert Physitians who are not to learne experience by the death of their Patients with sincere and uncorrupted officers whose ayme is not to gaine but to redresse abuses with upright and conâ—cionable Lawyers whose desire is to purchase their Clients peace and not by frivolous delayes to cram their purses O what a golden age were this â— when each performing a mutuall office unto other might so support one another as what one wanted might be supplied by another Then should wee have no Sectists or Separatists divided from the unity of faith to disturbe us No artlesse Quack-salvers or cheating Mountebanks to delude us no factious Brands to set a fire of debate amongst us no currupt or unconscionable Lawyers by practising upon our states to make a prey of us Then should we heare no ignorant Laicks familiarly disputing of the too high points of Predestination rejecting the ordinary meanes of attaining salvation as may be seene in the Synodals or Conventicles of many seduced soules even in these dayes where some Barbar is made a Cathedrall Doctor to improve rebuke and exhort but how is it possible that ought should bee hatched but errour where singularity grounded on ignorance is made a Teacher S. Basil talking with the Emperour Valens of matters of religion and the Cooke comming in saucily and telling the holy man his opinion that it was but a small matter to yeeld to his master the Emperor in a word or two and that hee needed not to stand so precisely in divine matters which seemed indifferent or of no moment Yea Sir Cook quoth S. Basil it is your part to tend to your pottage and not to boyle and chop up divine matters and then with great gravity turning to the Emperour said that those that were conversant in divine matters with conscience would rather suffer death than suffer one jot of holy Scripture much lesse an article of faith to be altered or corrupted So carefull have former times beene of the reverence which ought to be had in dispensing the heavenly Mysteries of Gods word admitting none to so holy and high a vocation but such who had Vrim and Thummim knowledge and holinesse beautifying their knowledge I say with holinesse of conversation being
the wall of the City with banner displayed Another Bohemian espying this ran to the Captaine and clasping him fast about the middle asked one Capistranus standing beneath whether it would bee any danger of damnation to his soule if hee should cast himselfe downe headlong with that dogge so hee termed the Turke to be slaine with him Capistranus answering that it was no danger at all to his soule the Bohemian forthwith tumbled himselfe down with the Turke in his armes and so by his owne death only saved the life of all the City The like worthy exploits might bee instanced in those heires of fame the Rhodians in the siege of their City the Knights of Malta in their sundry defeats and discomsitures of the Turks the inhabitants of Vienna who being but a handful in comparison of their enemies gave them not only the repulse but wholly defeated their designes This Valour or Fortitude which indeed appeareth ever in the freest and noblest minds is excellently defined by the Stoicks to be A vertue ever fighting in defence of equitie These who are professors of so peerelesse a vertue are more ready to spare than to spill their aimes are faire and honest free from the least aspersion either of crueltie or vain-glory for as they scorne to triumph over an afflicted foe so they dislike that conquest unlesse necessitie enforce it which is purchased by too much bloud The Salmacian Spoiles rellish better to their palate for they are so full of noble compassion as the death of their enemy enforceth in them teares of pitty This appeared in those princely teares shed by Caesar at the sight of Pompeys head and in Titus that Darling of Mankind in those teares hee shed at the sight of those innumerable slaughters committed upon the Iewes Now as my purpose is not to insist on the postures of warre so I intend not to dwell upon every circumstance remarkable in martiall affaires but upon the maine scope of militarie discipline whereto every generous and true bred Souldier is to direct his course Let your aime bee therefore Gentlemen to fight for the safetie and peace of your Countrey in the defence of a good conscience which is to bee preferred before all the booties of warre for as you have received your birth and breeding from your Countrey so are you to stand for her even to the sacrifice of your dearest lives provided that the cause which you entertaine in her defence be honest without purpose of intrusion into anothers right or labouring to enlarge her boundiers by an unlawfull force For howsoever the ancient Heathens were in this respect faultie being some of them Truce breakers others violent intruders or usurpers of what was little due unto them wee for our parts have learned better things being commanded not to take any thing from any man but in all things learne to be contended But of all enterprizes worthy the acceptance of a Gentleman in this kinde if I should instance any one in particular none more noble or better deserving as I have else-where formerly touched than to warre against the Turk that profest enemy of Christendome the increase of whose Empire may bee compared to the milt in mans body for the grandure of it threatens ruine and destruction to all Christian States drawing light to his Halfe Moone by darkening of others and shewing even by the multitude of his insolent Titles what his aimes be if the Lord put not a hooke in the nose of that Leviathan Praise-worthy therefore are those glorious and no doubt prosperous expeditions of such English and other Christian Voluntaries as have stood and even at this day doe stand engaged in personall service against the great Turke for these though they perish in the battell shall survive time and raise them a name out of the dust which shall never be extinguished These are they who fight the Lords battell and will rather die than it should quaile These are those glorious Champions whose aime is to plant the blessed tidings of the Gospell once againe in that Holy Land which now remaines deprived of those heavenly Prophets which she once enjoyed of those godly Apostles which she once possessed of that sweet Singer of Israel with which her fruitfull coasts once resounded O Gentlemen if you desire imployment in this kinde what enterprize more glorious If you aime at profit what assay to your soules more commodious If you seeke after fame the aime of most souldiers what expedition more famous since by this meanes the practices of Christs enemies shall be defeated the borders of Christendome enlarged peace in Sion established and the tidings of peace every where preached Neither did ever Time give fairer opportunity to effect it than now when the very Guard of his person his Ianizaries begin to mutine and innovate by interposing their suffrages in his government Besides in assayes of this nature being taken in hand for the peace and safety of Christendome assureth more securitie to the person engaged for little need hee to feare a strong foe that hath a stronger friend Admit therefore that you returne as one that commeth with red garments from Bozra so as the Devill and his angels like wilde Bulls of Basan run at you you shall breake their hornes in his Crosse for whom you fight As wee have discoursed of imployments publike which wee divided into two ranks Civill and Military and of the manner how Gentlemen are to demean themselves in Court or Campe so are we now to descend to imployments private wherein wee purpose to set downe such necessary cautions or observances as may seeme not altogether unprofitable or unusefull for the consideration of a Gentleman And first I will speake of the imployment of a private Iustice of Peace wherein he is appointed and made choice of not only to redresse such annoyances as may seeme to prejudice the state of that Countie wherein he lives and is deputed Iustice but likewise to mediate attone and determine all such differences as arise betwixt partie partie for to these also extends the office of Iustice of Peace Yea wee are to wish him to be as well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Compounder as a Commissioner of the Peace Godlinesse should bee their chiefest gaine and right and peace their greatest joy for such are both Pacidici Pacifici Pleaders for peace and leaders to peace Peace-lovers and peaceable livers As for the rest they are deservedly blamed that confine all their practice not within those ancient bounds usque ad aras but with those usuall bounds usque ad crumenas The old position was was Iustice is to bee preferred before profit but now the termes are transposed in the proposition and the avaritious desire of having never disputeth of the equity of the cause but of the utilitie Kinde men such are but where they doe take hardening their hearts against the crie of the poore
the performance hereof as appeareth in the foresaid place and the nexet ensuing verse where he saith You shall doe all that I have commanded you that your dayes may be multiplyed and the dayes of your children in the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers to give them as long as the heavens are above the earth Marke the extent of this Blessing for it promiseth not onely length of dayes to them that performe it but even to the children of them that performe it and that in no unfruitfull or barren land but in the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers to give them and that for no short time but so long as the heavens are above the earth So as this blessed promise or promised blessing is as one well observeth not restrained but with an absolute grant extended so that even as the people that were in the gate and the Elders wished in the solemnizing of that mariage betwixt Boaz and Ruth that their house might be like the house of Pharez so doubtlesse whosoever meditates of the Law of the Lord making it in his Family as a familiar friend to direct him a faithfull counsellor to instruct him a sweet companion to delight him a precious treasure to enrich him shall find successe in his labours and prosperitie in the worke of his hands But amongst all as it is the use of Masters of housholds to call their servants to account for the day past so be sure Gentlemen and you who are Masters of houses to enter into your owne hearts by a serious examination had every night what you have done or how you have imployed your selves and those Talents which God hath bestowed on you the day past in imitation of that blessed Father who every night examined himselfe calling his soule to a strict account after this manner O my soule what hast thou done this day What good hast thou omitted what evill hast thou committed what good which thou shouldst have done what evill which thou shouldst not have done Where are the poore thou hast releeved the sicke or captive thou hast visited the Orphan or Widow thou hast comforted Where are the naked whom thou hast cloathed the hungry whom thou hast refreshed the afflicted and desolate whom thou hast harboured O my soule when it shall be demanded of thee Quid comedit pauper how poorely wilt thou looke when there is not one poore man that will witnesse thy almes Againe when it shall be demanded of thee Vbi nudus quem amiti victi how naked wilt thou appeare when there is not one naked soule that will speake for thee Againe when it shall be demanded of thee Vbi sitiens quem potasti esuriens quem pavisti Vbi captivus quem visitasti Vby moestus quem relevasti O my soule how forlorne wretched and uncomfortable will thy condition be when there shall not appeare so much as one witnesse for thee to expresse thy charity not one poore soule whom thou hast releeved one naked whom thou hast cloathed nor one thirstie whom thou hast refreshed nor one hungry whom thou hast harboured nor a captive whom thou hast visited nor one afflicted whom thou hast comforted Thus to call your selves to account by meditating ever with Saint Hierome of the judgement day will be a meanes to rectifie your affections mortifie all inordinate motions purifie you throughout that you may be examples of piety unto others in your life and heires of glory after death concluding most comfortably with the foresaid Father If my mother should hang about me my father lye in my way to stop me my wife and children weepe about me I would throw off my mother neglect my father contemne the lamentation of my wife and children to meet my Saviour Christ Iesus For the furtherance of which holy resolution let no day passe over your heads wherein you addresse not your selves to some good action or imployment Wherefore Apelles posie was this Let no day passe without a line Be sure every day you doe some good then draw one line at the least according to that Line upon line line upon line And Phythagoras posie was this Sit not still upon the measure of corne Doe not looke to eat except you sweat for it according to that Hee which will not worke let him not eat In my Fathers house saith Christ are many mansions So that no man may sing his soule a sweet requiem saying with that Cormorant in the Gospel Soule take thy rest for in heaven onely which is our Fathers house there are many mansions to rest in In this world which is not of our Fathers house there are not many mansions to rest in but onely Vine-yards to worke in Wherein because not to goe forward is to goe backeward we are to labour even to the day of our change Hereupon Charles the fifth gave this Embleme Stand not still but goe on further Vlterius as God saith to his guest Superius Sit not still but sit up higher Doing thus and resolving to be no masters over that Family whose chiefest care is not the advancement of Gods glory you shall demeane your selves being here worthy that Vocation or calling over which you are placed and afterwards by following hard toward the marke obtaine the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Iesus THE ENGLISH GENTLEMAN Argument Of the difference of Recreations Of the moderate and immoderate use of Recreation Of the Benefits redounding from the One and inconveniences arising from the Other Of Recreations best sorting with the qualitie of a Gentleman And how he is to bestow himselfe in them RECREATION RECREATION being a refresher of the mind and an enabler of the body to any office wherein it shall bee imployed brancheth it selfe into many kinds as Hawking which pleasure one termed the object of a great mind whose aymes were so farre above earth as he resolves to retire a while from earth and make an evening flight in the ayre Hunting where the Hounds at a losse shew themselves subtill Sophisters arguing by their Silence the game came not here againe by being mute it came not there Ergo by spending their mouthes it came here Fishing which may be well called the Embleme of this world where miserable man like the deluded fish is ever nibbling at the bait of vanitie Swimming an exercise more usuall than naturall and may have resemblance to these diving heads who are ever sounding the depths of others secrets or swimming against the streame may glance at such whose only delight is opposition Running a Recreation famously ancient solemnized by the continued succession or revolution of many ages upon the Olympiads in Greece so as the accompt or yearly computation came from Races and other solemne games used on Olympus Wrastling Leaping Dancing and many other Recreations of like sort as they were by the continuance of many yeares upon
Olympus kept and with publike feasts duly celebrated so in many places of this Kingdome both Southward in their Wakes and Northward in their Summerings the very same Recreations are to this day continned Shooting amongst the Scythians and Parthians was an exercise of especiall request as afterward amongst the Amazonites being women expert above all people of the world in Shooting and practising the Dart. Bowling amongst the Romans was much used especially in Lucullus time whose Garden-alleyes were ever stored with young Gentlemen who resorted thither to Recreate themselves with this exercise The Greekes had a Cynosargus to traine and exercise their Youth in wrastling and a Cerostrotum to annoint their bodies in before they wrastled The ancient Romans had a Circus to inure and practise their Youth against military service wherein they wrestled and contended They used likewise as the French doe to this day the exercise of the Ball which play is never sufficiently praised by Galen being an exercise wherein all the organs or faculties of mans body are to be imployed as the eye to be quick and sharpe in seeing the hand ready in receiving the body nimble in moving the legs speedy in recovering That Fencing also was of much use and practice among the Romans even in their height of glory and during the flourishing time of their Empire may appeare by that high commendation which Cicero giveth it terming it The strongest and soveraignest exercise against death and griefe The Iusts Turnaments and Barriers likewise were amongst our ancient Knights usually practised and observed both for gaining the favour of such Ladies as they loved as also for the honour of their Countrey vanquishing such strangers with whom they contended may appeare in Histories of all ages Or to descend to more soft and effeminate Recreations we shall find of what great esteeme Musicke was even with some who were in yeares as ripe as they were for wisedome rare Socrates when he was well strucke in yeares learned to play upon the Harpe Minerva and Alcibiades disliked the loude Musicke of Dulcimers and Shalmes but admired the warbling straines of the Harpe Plato and Aristotle would have a man well brought up in Musicke Lycurgus in his sharpe lawes allowes of Musicke Chyron taught Achilles in his tender yeares Musicke Achasia with Diotima and Hermione taught Pericles Prince of Troy or rather Duke of Athens Musicke Epaminondas of Leuctra was experienced in Musicke Themistocles was lesse esteemed because not seene in Musicke Alexander was so ravished with Musicke that when he heard a Trumpet he used to cry ad arma ad arma not able to containe himselfe so highly were his spirits erected by the force of Musicke Painting likewise among the ancient Pagans was for a Recreation used though at this day through the dishonour our painted Sepulchers doe to their maker much abused Fabius surnamed Pictor from whence the Fabij tooke their names was a painter for he painted the walls of the Temple of Peace Metrodorus a Philosopher and painter of Athâ—ns sent to by L. Paulus to bring up his children and to decke the Roman triumphs Protogenos his table wherein Bacchus was painted moved King Demetrius lying at the City Rhodes so much to admire his rare Art and Workmanship that whereas he might have consumed the City with fire he would not for the preciousnesse of that table and therefore staying to bid them battell wonne not thâ— City at all So Campaspe pictured out in her colours by by Apelles and Crotons five daughters lively pourtrai'd by Zeuxes gained those famous Artists no lesse honour Howsoever his art was in painting I cannot chuse but commend his quicke wit in answering being by them reproved whom he most distasted and thus it was Two Cardinals reproving one Raphael a Painter in that he made the Pictures of Peter and Paul too red answered that Saint Peter and Saint Paul were even as red in heaven as they saw them there to see the Church governed by such as they were This device or invention of painting was by the Pagans generally but especially those of the better sort taken onely for a recreation and no trade or profession labouring to shew their cunning in beautifying garnishing and adoring the triumphs of their Conquerours or indecoring their Temples dedicated to the gods As the Scythes used to erect obeliskes or square stones upon the Hearse of the deceased in number so many as he had slaine of his enemies where he that had not slaine an enemy could not drinke of the Goblet spiced with the ashes of some memorable Ancestos at solemne feasts and banquets For other painting too much affected at this day it was not so much as used by any Matron Wife or Virgin whose best red was shamefastnesse and choisest beauty maiden bashfulnesse onely as Festus Pompeius saith common and base whores called Shaenicolae used daubing of themselves though with the vilest stuffe But this may seeme an art rather than a recreation wee will therefore descend to some others whose use refresheth and recreateth the minde if imployed as they were first intended being rather to beguile time than to reape gaine And first for the antiquity of Dice-play we have plenty of authorities every where occurring being much used by all the Roman Emperours at Banquets and solemne meetings where they bestowed themselves and the time at no grame so much as Dice So as Augustus was said to be a serious gamester at Dice affecting them much when at any time he retired from Court or Campe. Whence it is that Suetonius bringeth in Augustus Caesar speaking thus Si quas manus remisi cuique exegissem aut retinuissem quod cuique donavi vicissem c. If I had exacted those chances which I remitted every one and kept that which I bestowed I had gotten by play whereas now I am a loser by my bounty Though no game more ancient or which indeed requireth a conceit more pregnant than the Chesse which we read to have beene in great request amongst the ancient Romans whereof we have a History in the time of Caius Caligula tending to this purpose This Emperour being naturally addicted to all cruelty chanced one day amongst others to send for one Canius Iulus a Philosopher of eminent esteeme at that time with whom after some conference the Emperour fell into such a rage as he bade him depart thence but expect within short time to receive due censure for his boldnesse For quoth he flatter not thy selfe with a foolish hope of longer life for I have doomed thee to be drawne by the officer unto death But see with what resolution this noble Canius bore himselfe I thanke you quoth he most gracious Emperour and so departed Within some few dayes after the Officer according to the Emperours commandement repaired to the houses of such as were adjudged not by any legall processe but only by the Emperours pleasure to suffer death amongst which he
darkeneth the understanding Drinke you may and drinke wine you may for wee cannot allow the device of Thracius but wee must disallow Saint Pauls advice to Timothy Vse a little wine for thy stomacks sake and thine often infirmities So as you are not enjoyned such a strict or Laconian abstinence as if you were not to drinke Wine at all for being commanded not to drinke it is to bee implyed not to use drunkennesse wherein is excesse for in many places are wee allegorically and not literally to cleave to the Text. As for Origen strange it is that perverting so many other places by Allegories onely he should pervert one place by not admitting an Allegory For our Lord commanding to cut off the foot or any part of the body which offendeth us doth not meane wee should cut off our members with a knife but our carnall affections with a holy and mortified life whence it is that Origen was justly punished by using too little diligence where there was great need because hee used too great diligence where there was little need No lesse worthy was Democritus errour of reproving who was blinded before hee was blind for a Christian need not put out his eyes for feare of seeing a woman since howsoever his bodily eye see yet still his heart is blind against all unlawfull desires Neither was Crates Thebanus well advised who did cast his money into the Sea saying Nay sure I will drowne you first in the Sea rather than you should drown me in covetousnesse and care Lastly Thracius of whom Aulus Gellius writeth was for any thing that I can see even at that time most of all drunken when hee cut downe all his vines lest hee should be drunken No I admit of no such strict Stoicisme but rather as I formerly noted to use wine or any such strong drinke to strengthen and comfort Nature but not to impaire her strength or enfeeble her For as by a little we are usually refreshed so by too much are wee dulled and oppressed There are some likewise and these for most part of the higher sort I could wish they were likewise of the better sort who repaire to the House of the strange woman sleeping in the bed of sinne thinking so to put from them the evill day And these are such as make Whoredome a Recreation sticking not to commit sinne even with greedinesse so they may cover their shame with the curtaine of darkenesse But that is a wofull Recreation which brings both soule and body to confusion singing Lysimachus song Short is the pleasure of Fornication but eternall is the punishment due to the Fornicator so as though hee enjoy pleasure for a time hee shall be tormented for ever But consider this Gentlemen you I say whose better breeding hath instructed you in the knowledge of better things that if no future respect might move you as God forbid it should not move and remove you from these licentious delights yet respect to the place whence you descended the tender of your credit which should be principally valued the example which you give and by which inferiours are directed should be of force to weane you from all inordinate affections the end whereof is bitternesse though the beginning promise sweetnesse It was Demosthenes answer unto Lais upon setting a price of her body Non emam tauti poenitere sure I am howsoever this Heathen Orator prized his money above the pleasure of her body and that it was too deare to buy repentance at so high a rate that it is an ill bargaine for a moments pleasure to make shipwracke of the soules treasure exposing reputation and all being indeed the preciousest of all to the Object of lightnesse and Subject of basenesse paying the fraught of so short a daliance with a long repentance Wherefore my advice is unto such as have resorted to the House of the strange woman esteeming it only a tricke of youth to keepe their feet more warily from her wayes For her house draweth neere unto death and her paths unto Hell So as none that goe in unto her shall returne neither shall they understand the wayes of life Let such as have herein sinned repent and such as have not herein sinned rejoyce giving thankes to God who hath not given them up for a prey to the lusts of the flesh craving his assistance to prevent them hereafter that the flesh might be ever brought in subjection to the spirit For as the Lionesse having beene false to the Lion by going to a Libard and the Storke consorting with any other besides her owne mate wash themselves before they dare to returne home and the Hart after he hath satisfied his desire retires to some private or desolate Lawne hanging downe his head as one discontent till he hath washed and rinsed himselfe and then hee returnes cheerefully to his herd againe so wee cannot be unto God truly reconciled till wee be in the flood of repentance thorowly washed Thus shall you from the wayes of the strange woman be delivered thus shal your good name which is aptly compared to a precious ointment remaine unstained and a good report shal follow you when you are hence departed There is another Recreation used by Gentlemen but especially in this Citie which used with Moderation is not altogether to be disallowed and it is repairing to Stage-playes where as they shall see much lightnesse so they may heare something worthy more serious attention Whence it is that Thomas Aquinas giveth instance in Stage-playes as fittest for refreshing and recreating the mind which likewise Philo Iudaeus approveth But for as much as divers Objections have beene and worthily may bee made against them wee will here lay them downe being such as are grounded on the Sacred Word of God and with as much perspicuity and brevity as we may cleare and resolve them Playes were set out on a time by the Citizens for the more solemnity of a league concluded betwixt the Cantons of Berna and Tiguris touching which Playes sundry differences arose amongst the Ministers of Geneva which could not easily be determined about a young Boy who represented a woman in apparell habit and person in the end it was agreed of all parts that they should submit the determination of this difference with generall suffrage and consent to the authenticke and approved judgement of their Beza holden for the very Oracle both of Vniversity and Citie and who had sometimes beene vers'd in theatrall composures to his glory This controversie being unto him referred hee constantly affirmed that it was not onely lawfull for them to set forth and act those Playes but for Boyes to put on womens apparell for the time Neither did hee only affirme this but brought such Divines as opposed themselves against it to be of his opinion with the whole assent and consent of all the Ecclesiasticall Synod of Geneva Now in this first Objection we may observe the
himselfe howsoever he may be said to exclude divers Poets the bounds of his Common-weale for their obscene and immodest labours which effeminated youth training them rather to the Carpet than the Campe yet wrote he many Epigrams and excellent Poems in his younger yeeres before hee intended himselfe to Philosophy For even in Fables appeare seeds of Vertues as Macrobius testifieth Yea but our Stage-stingers or Poet-scourgers will againe object that these Theaters which were at first erected for honest delight and harmelesse merriment grow many times busie with states laying aspersions on men of eminent rank and quality and in briefe will spare none so they may gaine themselves by disparaging others But I must answer thus much for them albeit Non me tenet aura Theatri that such as imploy their pens in taxing or tainting any noble or meriting person in this kind deserve no better censure then as they whipt so to be whipt themselves for their labour for they must know to use the words of one who was once an eminent Statist that some things are priviledged from jest namely Religion matters of State great persons any mans present businesse of importance and any case that deserveth pity and generally men ought to find the difference betweene saltnesse and bitternesse Certainely he that hath a Satyricall veine as hee maketh others afraid of his wit so hee had need be afraid of others memory This was very straitly looked into by the ancient Heathens who ordained many strict Lawes to punish such bitter Satyrists as touched the good name of any Citizen either in publike Stage or any private worke The ancient Romans had a Law enacted in their twelve Tables That whosoever should impeach any ones good name or detract from the credit of his person either in verse or action should suffer death So as Tiberius slew Scaurus and not altogether undeservedly for writing a spitefull Tragedy against him In like manner did Augustus banish Ovid for writing too wantonly towards some that were neere him So Nero injoyned Lucan silence for his smooth invection framed against him So as Stesichorus writing bitterly against Helen Aristophanes against Clean Eupolis against Alcibiades Callisthenes against Alexander suffered equall punishments according to their demerits This Eupolis is said to be one of the first Comedians and was drowned in Hellespont about the time of that famous Sea-fight betweene the Lacedemonians and Athenians but I can scarcely assent to his opinion for wee find it recorded that hee was throwne into the Sea by Alcibiades for presenting him on the publike Stage embracing Timandra in a lascivious sort and that hee used these words Oft times Eupolis hast thou drowned me upon the stage I will once drowne thee in the sea Thespis likewise is said to be the first inventer of a Tragicke Scene as Horace witnesseth Thespis some say inventing first the straine Of tragicke Scenes grew famous in his veine Whose Actors that ye might the better note With painted faces sung the lines he wrote Mounted in Chariots which with greedy eares The people heard and hearing sent forth teares And in these did Satyrus no doubt among the Greekes shew an admirable Art being so highly extolled by Demosthenes for unto him did this Satyrus propose the first forme of speaking plainely and articulately as hee was no lesse praised by him then the Roman Roscius was by Cicero or Aesopus to whom Cicero useth many titles of love and familiarity in his Epistles For Roscius and Aesopus were held the choicest and chiefest Orators even at that time when the Common-weale excelled not onely in Eloquence but also in wisedome The like of Pilades and Hyla Master and Scholler who were such passionate Actors as they enforced admiration in the hearer But to what end should I prosecute either Comicke or Tragicke subjects any further My opinion briefly is this As Comedies should breath nothing but Terenee's Art Cecilius gravity Menanders sweetnesse Aristophanes conceit and Plautus wit so Tragedies should relish of nothing but of the royall and majestick measures of Sophocles the sententious fulnesse of Euripides and the sincere integrity of Seneca For these which tend to corrupt youth making their Stages Stewes or their Scenes meere Satyres to detract from the credit or estimation of any person either publike or private as their Authors deserve due punishment so should they be avoyded the former sort because they are in danger to deprave us the latter because perhaps wee shall heare them touch the credit of such as are neere us For such as Enterludes Gentlemen as participate with neither of these but in a temperate and equall course mixe profit with honest delight you shall account the time you bestow in hearing them not altogether fruitlesly spent For albeit the Italians are held worthy before all others to carry away the Garland for Poesie being for number and measure fuller and for weight and merit better as may appeare in the happy labours of Petrarch and Boccace yet if wee looke home-ward and observe the grace of our presentments the curiosity of our properties and propriety of our action we may justly conclude that no Nation is or hath beene so exquisite in that kind But to draw in our sailes touching this Recreation as I approve of the moderate use and recourse which our Gentlemen make to Playes so I wholly condemne the daily frequenting of them as some there be especially in this Citie who for want of better imploymnet make it their Vocation And these I now speake of be our Ordinary Gentlemen whose day-taske is this in a word They leave their beds to put on their clothes formally repaire to an Ordinary and see a Play daily These can find time enough for Recreation but not a minutes space for Devotion So as I much feare me when they shall be strucke with sicknesse and lie on their death-bed it will fare with them as it fared with a young Gentlewoman within these few yeares who being accustomed in her health every day to see one Play or other was at last strucke with a grievous sicknesse even unto death during which time of her sicknesse being exhorted by such Divines as were there present to call upon God that he would in mercy look upon her as one deafe to their exhortation continued ever crying Oh Hieronimo Hieronimo me thinkes I see thee brave Hieronimo Neither could she be drawne from this with all their perswasions but fixing her eyes intentively as if she had seene Hieronimo acted sending out a deep sigh shee suddenly dyed And let this suffice to have beene spoken of the moderate use of this Recreation upon which I have the longer insisted because I am not ignorant how divers and different opinions have been holden touching the law fulnesse of Stage-Playes which I resolved to reconcile in as briefe and plaine a manner as I could before I descended to the rest For as much as wee have begun to treat
of all honest Recreations and protest enemies to all civill society For as we read of the Bird Curuca that she will rather hatch the egges of another then hatch none at all so these will rather engage themselves in others differences and like subtill Spiders spin the webbe of dissention then be without imployment but they hatch the Cockatrice egges reaping the fruit of their labours to their shame But wee have insisted too long upon them wherefore wee will returne to our former discourse As wee have briefly touched some Recreations well sorting with the quality of a Gentleman being such as tend especially to his accomplishment outwardly so are wee now to treat of such as may conferre no lesse benefit to the inward man by enabling him for matters of discourse Of which ranke Reading of History is to be accounted as one tending especially thereto and that not onely in respect of discourse but in respect of discipline and civill society being there taught how to demeane or behave our selves in all our actions how to moderate our affections how to gaine worthy esteeme both in our managements publike and private Cicero entring into the commendation of Histories honours them with this Rhetoricall definition Histories saith he are the witnesses of times the light of truth the life of memory the mistresse of life the messenger of antiquity In which notable exemplification hee shewes what excellent fruits may be gathered from the select flowers of Histories First how the passages and events of former times are there recorded Secondly how the truth of things by the light of History is discovered Thirdly our memory is revived Fourthly our life is directed Fifthly antiquities successively transcribed In Tacitus are three notes which are required in a perfect History First Truth in sincere relating without having any thing haustum ex vano Secondly Explanation not onely of the sequels of things but also the causes and reasons Thirdly Iudgement in distinguishing things by approving the best and disallowing the contrary Touching which three notes we are to observe first that there is necessarily required in every History a sincere relation of truth foisting nothing in which may seeme either fabulous or impertinent Likewise it is not enough to lay downe or explaine the sequels or issues of things but the causes and reasons from whence those sequels issued Thirdly there is required judgement in distinguishing probabilities from improbabilities never setting ought downe for a grounded truth without approved authority Having thus proposed unto you the fruits redounding from History as also what is required therein to make it more generally affected it rests now that I shew my opinion touching your choice of Histories of which subject because I have heretofore copiously treated I will only speake a word and so descend to the last branch of this Observation Augustine in his fourth booke De Civit. Dei cals Salust A noble and true Historian noble in respect of his descent true in respect of his discourse Neither doth hee indeed deserve any lesser title for his phrase is elegant without affectation his discourse continuate without impertinent digression and the Series of his History stored with much sententious instruction From the depth of a princely judgement Caesars Commentaries have received most noble approbation But if you would take view of a flourishing State whose greatnesse never any attained to being raised from such beginnings be acquainted with Tacitus or Livie where you shall observe the courses and passages of many eminent Princes how they bare themselves in their height how in their hate Heare you shall see Those men who as Cosmo saith carry their heart in their mouth are more to be pitied then feared for these judge men onely by the outward appearance whereas Tiberius gloried in nothing so much as in cunningly cloaking his purposes with faire pretences going invisible and deluding his subjects resolutions with a seeming good Here you shall likewise observe others so obsequiously seeming as they strove not onely to satisfie the minds but eyes of the Citizens understanding well enough that the common sort of people were catcht sooner by a cheerfull countenance and a pleasing outward semblance then any other respect whatsoever Some you shall see note much yet will be seene to note little therefore Agrippina in Tacitus knowing her life to be attempted by Nero knew well that her onely remedy was to take no notice of the treason so is Scipio described by Cicero to be the most cunning searcher of mens minds and Sylla by Salust Others you shall observe so much dejected presently upon any losse sustained as they entertaine affliction with a desperate sorrow crying out with Afranius sonne Alas mee wretched or Philotas-like receive such deepe impression or apprehension of their disgrace as through it they are forced to lose the faculty of speech Whereas others like Furius Camillus are neither puffed up with honour nor cast downe with disgrace as his Dictator-ship could not make him too haughtily affected no more could exile from his Countrey cause him to be dejected Such was the resolution of the ancient Romans who at the disaster of Canna when their utter ruine and overthrow was rung in every place did nothing unworthy themselves Here you shall encounter with a Iugurth Speaking little but doing much there with a Catiline Speaking much but doing little Here one in all mens opinions worthy of an Empire before hee had it but most unworthy when hee hath it exemplified in Galba there one much doubted before hee have it but generally loved when he had it exemplified in Severus Againe observe you may in the course of Histories how justly God hath shewne himselfe towards such as practised treason against their Princes though they were Heathens find out one of all those who conspired Caesars death in the Capitoll who died in their bed For no sooner had Antony shewed in his funerall Oration the thirty three wounds wherewith Caesar was deprived of life by his conspirators and erected a Temple to Caesar and sung a mournefull hymne in memory of Caesar then Trebonius and Decimus were the first that were dispatched being of the conspiracie Cassius likewise was killed on his Birth-day who some say killed himselfe with the same dagger wherewith Caesar was killed Yea observe the misery of these Assasinates being so unhappy as they could hardly find one so friendly as to lend a hand to end their misery For Cassius offered his throat to Pindarus his Page Brutus to Strato who denying to doe it was answered by a servant Votis tuis nec decrit amicus nec servus The like revenge was inflicted on Septimius for betraying his Master Pompey The like on the Magi for their treacherous attempts after the death of Cambyses The like on Bessus for his disloyalty towards Darius And to descend to later times even within the bounds of our owne nation what just revenge
exposing their estate and name to a miserable hazard whose Youth as it addes fuell to desire so Age the truest Register of the follies of Youth will besprinkle those desires with the bitter teares of Repentance grieving to have committed what may hardly be redeemed For hee that surceaseth but then from sin when hee can sinne no more forsaketh not his sinnes but his sinnes forsake him It is one thing to fall into light sinnes through occasion onely or humane frailty and another thing to fall through affected negligence and security Farre be the latter from you Gentlemen whose aymes ought to be so much the more glorious as your Descents are noble and generous Though humane frailty move you to offend labour to redeeme that time wherein you did offend by vying sinnes with sighes those ungodly Tares with uncessant Teares for if you will live when you be dead you must die to sinne while you be alive And for as much as pardon cannot be procured but where repentance is renewed as wee are Omnium notarum peâ—catores so should we be Omnium horarum poenitentes as every houre sinning so every houre sighing as every houre committing so every houre bringing forth fruits of remission Thus like Hismenias the Thebane who would shew Musicians of all sorts to imitate the best and reject the worst have I proposed and set downe Recreations of all sorts making choice withall of such especiall and select ones as best sort with the quality of a Gentleman concluding how and after what manner he is to bestow himselfe in them Neither have I taxed any particular Recreation provided that it transgresse not the bounds of modesty but admitted it as indifferent for the use of a Gentleman Yea such Recreations as may seeme to undergoe the censure of Lightnesse have I not only not reproved but worthily approved being with decencie used Whereupon Gregory saith I admire King David a great deale more when I see him in the Quire then when I see him in the Campe when I see him singing as the sweet Singer of Israel then when I see him fighting as the worthy Warrior of Israel when I see him leaping then when I see him weeping when I see him dancing before the Arke then when I see him drawing forth his Armie to the field When David fought with others hee overcame others hee wounded others hee made others sicke But when hee danced before the Arke and delighted himselfe hee was overcome himselfe hee was wounded himselfe hee was sicke himselfe But this sicknesse did rather affect him then afflict him joy him then annoy him I will play still sayes hee that others may still play upon mee For it is a good sport when GOD is delighted though Michol be displeased Whence you see that it is not the Recreation but the circumstance tending to that Recreation which for most part giveth occasion of offence as the Time when Gods Sabbath is not to be dishonoured nor our serious occasions intermitted the Place where the Holy ground is not by the feet of Lightnesse to be profaned nor Places where Iustice is administred to the exercise of such delights inured the Persons who wee must take such heed lest the weakest of our Brethren bee scandaled or offence to any by our sports occasioned Doing thus wee shall glorifie God not onely in this life but in that best and blest life which is to come if wee fall not backe into the same sinnes but bid a long fare-well to the illusions of the Divell if with diligent attention to the Word of God earnest desire of conversion and continuall confession of our sinnes wee procure the carefull eye of the Almighty to watch over us For it sufficeth him in his great mercy that wee surcease from sinne whereby we shall be more easily moved to the practice of all good workes Wherefore to conclude this Observance with that exhortation of golden-mouthed Chrysostome to the end wee may render more honour to his Sabbath Let not any one hence-forth be seene trying masteries on Horse-backe nor spending any part of the day in unlawfull meetings Let not any one hence-forth consort himselfe in games at Cards or Dice or the tumultuous noise which ariseth from thence For I pray you answer me saith hee what profit is there in fasting if all the day eating nothing you game sport sweare and forsweare and so spend the day in worse then nothing Let us not I beseech you be so negligent in that weighty affaire of our salvation but rather let our communication be of Spirituall things And let every one take in his hand a godly booke and calling his Neighbours together water both is owne understanding and theirs who are assembled with Heavenly instructions that so wee may avoid the deceits of the Divell Performing this Gentlemen your Recreations shall be healthfull to your selves helpfull to your Countrey delightfull to the vertuous and beseeming men of your ranke nobly generous THE ENGLISH GENTLMAN Argument Of Acquaintance Of the choice of Acquaintance Of constancy in the choice of Acquaintance Of reservancy towards Acquaintance Of the absolute end of Acquaintance ACQVAINTANCE THE comfort of an Active life consists in Society as the content of a Contemplative consists in Privacie Intermission of Action in the former is a kind of death intention to Devotion in the latter is a pleasant life For solitary places are the best for prayer but publike for practice We read that Christ went out into a solitary place and there prayed but he entred into the Synagogue and there preached that such Libertines as were there trained might bee reclaimed And Wisedome cryeth without and uttereth her voice in the streets that her words might be practised As there is no publike State which can subsist without commerce trafficke and mutuall society so there is no creature living whose life would not be tedious being debarred from all use of company There are two Birds which are noted both in divine and humane writ to be lovers of solitarinesse the Owle in the Desart and the Pelicane in the Wildernesse Which two among divers other birds were accounted uncleane and therefore were not to be eaten by the Iewes As retirednesse from occasions abroad makes us more serious in occasions at home so this privacie or solitarinesse makes the memory more retentive in affaires usefull to our selves but withdrawes our hand from affording helpe or assistance to others But life should be communicative not only intending it selfe but labouring wherein it may doe good to any For whereas Saint Bernard saith that the affinity is neere betweene the dwellers in a Cell and in Heaven it is to bee understood that such whose mortified affections and regenerate will have concluded all worldly honours to be worldly tumours and all secular honour to be the Devils trafficke have stepped neere unto Heaven Neither are wee to conclude thence that such who have to deale
was even ready to give over But at that very instant Agesipolis King of the Lacedemonians came with the other point of the battell in a hapyy houre and saved both their lives when they were past all hope Here see apparent arguments of true love mixed with a noble and heroick temper for friends are to be tryed in extremities either in matters of state or life in state by releeving their wants in life by engaging themselves to all extremes rather then they will suffer their friend to perish These are they who will latch the blow of affliction laid upon their friends with the buckler of affection preferring death before their friends disgrace Marcus Servilius a valiant Roman who had fought three and twenty combats of life and death in his owne person and had alwayes slaine as many of his enemies as challenged him man to man when as the people of Rome resisted Paulus Aemilius triumph stood up and made an Oration in his behalfe in the midst whereof hee cast up his gowne and shewed before them the infinite skars and cuts he had received upon his brest the sight of which so prevailed with the people that they all agreed in one and granted Aemilius triumph Here observe the tender respect of one friend towards anothers honour there is nothing unassayed nothing unattempted which may procure or further it For this friendship or combination of minds as there is nothing more precious so there is nothing which doth comparably delight or solace the mind like unto it being faithfully grounded Their discourse like some choice Musicke delights our hearing their sight like some rare Object contents our seeing their presence fully satisfies us in our touching their well-seasoned jests like some delicious banquet relish our tasting and their precepts like sweet flowers refresh our smelling Thus is every sense satisfied by enjoying that which it loveth as the senses wanting their proper objects become uselesse so men whether in prosperity or adversity wanting friends to relye on are wretched and helpelesse So as there is no greater wildernesse then to bee without true friends For without friendship society is but meeting acquaintance a formall or ceremoniall greeting Whereas it is friendship when a man can say to himselfe I love this man without respect of utility for as I formerly noted those are no friends but hirelings who professe friendship onely to gaine by it Certainely whosoever hath had the happinesse to enjoy a true and faithfull friend to whom hee might freely impart the secrets of his brest or open the Cabinet of his counsels hee I say and onely hee hath had the experience of so rare a benefit daily redounding from the use of friendship where two hearts are so individually united as neither from other can well be severed And as it is certaine that in bodies inanimate union strengthneth any naturall motion and weakneth any violent motion so amongst men friendship multiplieth joyes and divideth griefes It multiplies joyes for it makes that joy communicative which before was single it divideth griefes for it shares in them and so makes them lesse Now perfection of friendship is but speculation if wee consider the many defects which are for most part subject to all worldly friendship yea and as the world increaseth in age so it decreaseth most commonly in goodnesse for in Courts are suits and actions of Law in Cities tricks and devices to circumvent in the Countrey ingrossing and regrating of purpose to oppresse It is rare to see a faithfull Damon or a Pythias a Pylades or Orestes a Bitias or a Pandarus Nisus or Euryalus And what may be the cause of this but that the love of every one is so great to himselfe as hee can find no corner in his heart to lodge his friend in In briefe none can gaine friends and make a saving bargaine of it for now it is a rule commonly received Hee that to all will here be gratefull thought Must give accept demand much little nought So as it may seeme it is not given to man to love and to be wise because the Lover is ever blinded with affection towards his beloved so as hee dis-esteemes honour profit yea life it selfe so hee may gratifie his beloved But my opinion is quite contrary for I hold this as a firme and undoubted Maxime that hee who is not given to love cannot be wise For is hee wise that reposeth such trust in his owne strength as if hee stood in no need of friends Is hee wise who dependeth so much on his owne advice as if all wit and wisedome were treasured in his braine Is hee wise who being sicke would not be visited poore and would not bee succoured afflicted and would not be comforted throwne downe and would not be raised Surely in the same case is hee who fleights the purchase of a friend preferring his owne profit before so inestimable a prize There is none whether hee be valiant or a profest coward but may stand in need of a friend in a corner For be he valiant hee stands in need of a friend to second him if a coward hee needs one to support him Therefore whosoever wanteth fortitude whether it be in mind or body let him embrace friendship for if his weaknesse proceed from the mind hee shall find a choice receit in the brest of his friend to strengthen and corroborate him so as griefe may assaile or assault him but it cannot dismay or amate him Againe if his weaknesse proceed from the body that weaknesse is supplied by the strength of his friend who will be an eye to direct him and a foot to sustaine him Telephus when hee could find none amongst his friends to cure his wound permitted his enemy to doe it and hee who purposed to kill Prometheus the Thessalian opened his impostume with his sword If such effects have proceeded from enmity what rare and incredible effects may be imagined to take their beginning from amity Then which as nothing is striâ—ter in respect of the bond so nothing is more continuate in respect of the time being so firme as not to be dissolved so strict as not to bee anulled so lasting as never to be ended Neither is this benefit derived from friend to friend onely restrained to matter of action or imployment but extendeth it selfe to exercises of pleasure and recreation For tell me what delight can any one reape in his pleasure wanting a friend to partake with him in his pleasure Takes hee delight in Hunting let him choose Acquaintance that may suit him in it not onely a Hunter but one whose conceit if occasion serve can reach further such an one I would have him as could make an Embleme of the Forrest where he raungeth compose a Sonnet on the objects which he seeth and fit himselfe for ought hee undertaketh Of which ranke was that merry Epigrammatist as it may be imagined who being taxed for wearing a horne
repell the spels of so inchanting a Syren For as the Vnicornes horne being dipt in water cleares and purifies it so shall this soveraigne receit cure all those maladies which originally proceed from the poyson of vice The mind so long as it is evill affâ—cted is miserably infected For so many evils so many Divels first tempting and tainting the soule with sinne then tearing and tormenting her with the bitter sense of her guilt Saint Basil saith that passions rise up in a drunken man like a swarme of Bees buzzing on every side whatsoever that holy Father saith of one vice may be generally spoken of all so as wee may truely conclude with that Princely Prophet They come about us like Bees though they have honey in their thighs they have stings in their tailes wounding our poore soules even unto death Requisite therefore is it to avoid the society of such whose lives are either touched or tainted with any especiall Crime these are dangerous Patternes to imitate yea dangerous to consort with for as the Storke being taken in the company of the Cranes was to undergoe like punishment with them although she had scarce ever consented to feed with them so be sure if wee accompany them we shall have a share of their shame though not in their sinne Avoid the acquaintance of these Heires of shame whose affected liberty hath brought them to become slaves to all sensuality and sure ere long to inherit misery Give no eare to the Sycophant whose sugred tongue and subtill traine are ever plotting your ruine hate the embraces of all insinuating Sharkes whose smoothnesse will worke on your weaknesse and follow the Poets advice Avoide such friends as feigne and fawne on thee Like Scylla's rocke within Sicilian Sea So dangerous are these Sirenian friends that like the Sicilian shelves they menace shipwracke to the inconsiderate sailer For these as they professe love and labour to purchase friends so their practices are but how to deceive and entrap those to whom they professe love Whence it is that Salomon saith A man that flattereth his Neighbour spreadeth a net for his steps That is hee that giveth eare to the Flatterer is in danger as the bird is before the Fowler Hee whistleth merrily spreadeth his Nets cunningly and hunteth after his prey greedily And let this suffice to be spoken for the Timist who professeth observance to his friend onely for his owne end Now Gentlemen as I would not have you to entertaine time with fawns so neither with frowns The former as they were too light so the latter are too heavy The one too supple the other too surly For these Timonists for we have done with our Timists as Cicero said of Galba's leaden and lumpish body His wit had an ill lodging are of too sullen and earthly a constitution It is never fair weather with them for they are ever louring bearing a Calender of ill weather in their brow These for the most part are Male-contents and affect nothing lesse then what is generally pleasing appearing in the world naturalized Demophons whose humour was to sweat still in the shadow and shake in the sunne So as howsoever they seeme seated in another Clime for disposition they are like the Antipodes unto us opposing themselves directly against us in all our courses They are of Democritus mind who said that the truth of things lay hid in certaine deepe mines or caves and what are these but their owne braines For they imagine there can be no truth but what they professe They proclaime defiance to the world saying Thou miserable deluded world thou embracest pleasure wee restraine it Thou for pleasure doest all things wee nothing Now who should not imagine these Stoicks to be absolute men Such as are rare to see on earth in respect of their austerity of life and singular command over their affections such as are divided as it were from the thought of any earthly busines having their minds spheared in a higher Orbe Such as are so farre from intermedling in the world as they dis-value him that intends himselfe to negotiate in the world Such as when they see a man given to pleasure or some moderate Recreation whereby hee may be the better enabled for other imployments sleight him as a Spender of time and one unfit for the society of men Such as say unto Laughter Thou art mad and unto joy What meanest thou Such as take up the words of that grave Censor in the Poet Tak'st thou delight to race those pathes where worldlings walked have Which seldome doe refresh the Mind but often doe deceive Yet behold how many times these mens severity comes short of sinceritie They will lay heavy burdens on others shoulders which they will be loath to touch with the tip of their finger The Taskes which they impose on others are insupportable the pressures they lay on themselves very easie and tolerable Of this ranke was Aglataidas of whom that noble and faithfull Historian Comines writeth saying While he served in the Campe hee was of a most harsh austere condition doing many things perversly and desiring rather to be feared then loved Such was this Timon from whose name wee entitle these frowning friends who can hardly be true friends to any being so opposite or repugnant to all as they can scarcely hold concurrence with any Neither was this Timon as Plutarch reporteth of him onely harsh and uncivill towards men but towards women also so as going forth one day into his Orchard and finding a woman hanging upon a wild fig-tree O God quoth he that all trees brought forth such fruit Vnfit therefore was this Timon for the Acquaintance of man who profest himselfe so mortall and irreconciliable an enemy to the sociablest and entirest Acquaintance of man So as these Timonists are to be cashiered for two reasons first for their owne harsh and rough condition secondly for the unjust grounds of their opinion which dissents so farre from society as it disallowes of Marriage the ordinary meanes appointed to preserve society So as leaving them and their opinion as already evinced wee will descend to make choice of your neerest Acquaintance I meane the choice of your wife the first day of which solemnity promiseth either a succeeding Iubile or a continued Scene of sorrow where nought is sung but dolefull Lachrymae It was pleasantly spoken of him who said Wives are young mens Mistresses Companions for middle age and old-mens Nurses The first sort take as much content in wearing their Mistresse favour as winning it the second sort in winning rather then wearing it the third neither in wearing nor winning it but like children to be cherished and cockered by it The second sort are wee onely to speake of where wives are to be made companions and such entire ones as they are bone of your bone and flesh of your flesh In the choice whereof wee will propose such necessary cautions as
or conversation then where ill ones are affected and frequented MAny and singular were the commendations attributed to Augustus amongst which none more absolute then this As none was more slow in entertaining so none more firme or constant in reteining which agrees well with that of the Sonne of Sirach If thou gettest a friend prove him first and be not hasty to credit him But having found him we are to value him above great treasures the reason is annexed A faithfull friend is a strong defence and hee that findeth such a one findeth a treasure This adviseth every one to be no lesse wary in his choice then constant in the approvement of his choice so as it rests now that wee presie this point by Reasons and Authorities illustrating by the one and confirming by the other how consequent a thing it is to shew our selves constant in the choice of our Acquaintance There is no one thing more dangerous to the state of man or more infallibly proving fatall then lightnesse in entertaining many friends and no lesse lightly cashiering those who are entertained Which error I have observed to have borne principall sway in our new-advanced Heires whose onely ambition it is to be seene numerously attended phantastically attired and in the height of their absurdities humoured These are they who make choice of Acquaintance onely by outward habit or which is worse by roisting or ruffian behaviour with whom that false Armory of yellow Bands nittie Locks and braving Mouchato's have ever had choice acceptance And herein observe the misery of these depraved ones who having made choice of these mis-spenders of time and abusers of good gifts they will more constantly adhere to them then with better affected Consorts Oh that young Gentlemen would but take heed of falling unwarily upon these shelves who make shipwrack of their fortunes the remaines of their fathers providence yea not onely of their outward state which were well to be prevented lest misery or basenesse over-take them but even of their good names those precious odours which sweeten and relish the Pilgrimage of man For what more hatefull then to consort with these companions of death whose honour consists meerely in protests of Reputation and whose onely military garbe is to tosse a Pipe in stead of a Pike and to fly to the Tinderbox to give charge to their smoakie Ordnance to blow up the shallow-laid foundation of that shaken fortresse of their decayed braine these hot liver'd Salamanders are not for your company Gentlemen nor worthy your Acquaintance for of all companions those are the worthiest acceptance who are so humble-minded and well affected as they consort with others purposely to be bettered by them or being knowing men by their instructions to better them That course which the ancient Vestals observed such usefull Companions as these have ever seconded They first learned what to doe secondly they did what they had learned thirdly they instructed others to doe as they had learned Such as these were good Companions to Pray with to Play with to Converse or Commerce with First they are good to Pray with for such as these only were they who assembled together in one place imploying their time religiously in prayers supplications and giving of thankes and honouring him whom all Powers and Principalities doe honour with divine Melodie which was expressed not so much with the noise of the mouth as with the joyfull note of the heart nor with the sound of the lips as with the soule-solacing motion of the spirit nor with the consonance of the voice as with the concordance of the will For as the precious stone Diacletes though it have many rare and excellent soveraignties in it yet it loseth them all if it be put in a dead-mans mouth so Prayer which is the onely pearle and jewell of a Christian though it have many rare and exquisite vertues in it yet it loseth them every one if it be put into a dead-mans mouth or into a mans heart either that is dead in sinne and doth not knocke with a pure hand So many rare presidents have former times afforded all most inimitable in this kind as to make repetition of them would crave an ample volume wee will therefore onely touch some speciall ones whose devotion hath deserved a reverence in us towards them and an imitation in us after them Nazianzin in his Epitaph for his sister Gorgonia writeth that she was so given to Prayer that her knees seemed to cleave to the earth and to grow to the very ground by reason of incessancie or continuance in Prayer so wholly was this Saint of God dedicated to devotion Gregory in his Dialogues writeth that his Aunt Trasilla being dead was found to have her elbowes as hard as horne which hardnesse she got by leaning to a deske at which shee used to pray so continued was the devotion of a zealous professor Eusebius in his History writeth that Iames the brother of our Lord had knees as hard as Camels knees benummed and bereaved of all sense and feeling by reason of continuall kneeling in Prayer so sweet was this Taske undertaken for Gods honour where practice made that an exercise or solace which the sensuall man maketh a toyle or anguish Hierome in the life of Paul the Eremite writeth that hee was found dead kneeling upon his knees holding up his hands lifting up his eyes so that the very dead corps seemed yet to live and by a kind of zealous and religious gesture to pray still unto God So transported or rather intraunced was the spirit of this lovely Dove as even in death hee expressed the practice of his life These followed Augustines rule in their forme of Prayer seeke saith he what you seeke but seeke not where you seeke Seeke Christ that 's a good what Seeke what you seeke but seeke him not in bed that is an ill where But seeke not where you seeke Moses found Christ not in a soft bed but in a bramble bush For as wee cannot goe to heaven on beds of down no more can these devotions pierce heaven which are made on beds of down Albeit every place is good for as no place is freed from occcasion of sinne so no place should be free from Prayer which breaketh downe the Partition wall of our sinne But certainely those downie Prayers taste too much of the flesh to relish well of the spirit for as he is a delicate Master who when his belly is full disputeth of fasting so hee is a sensuall Prayer who in his bed onely addresseth himselfe to devotion Neither are these onely good companions to pray with but also to play with I meane to recreate and refresh our minds with when at any time pressed or surcharged either with cares of this world or in our discontinuance from more worthy and glorious Meditations of the world to come for as in the former wee are usually plunged so by the latter wee are commonly
and imitation if so be wee deserve the name or title of friends First is If wee see our friend doubtfull or unresolved to advise him if afflicted to comfort him if sick or restrained to visit him if weake in estate or impoverished to relieve him if injured to labour by all means to right him and in all things to be helpefull to him supplying his necessity by apparent testimonies of our approved amity It is reported that on a time Duke Godwin bringing up a service to Edward the Confessors Table he chanced to slip with one of his feete but to recover himselfe with the other whereupon presently he used these words in the Kings hearing One brother supports another O quoth the King so might I have said too if Godwin had not beene meaning that he was the cause of his brothers death whose life was a staffe to his state but his fall a weakning to his feet Certainly every faithfull friend should be as a Brother or as in a naturall body one member ministers aid and succour to another where the head cannot say to the foot I have no need of thee nor the foot to the hand but every one in their distinct and mutuall offices are ready to execute their severall duties So I say should friends and Acquaintance be one to another not in preying or feeding one upon another as if all were fish that came to net for this were to make no difference or distinction betwixt friend or foe but for some intendment of private benefit to dissolve the strict bond of friendship Wheras a friend being indeed a mans second selfe or rather an individuate companion to himselfe for there is one soule which ruleth two hearts and one heart which dwelleth in two bodies should be valued above the rate of any outward good being such a happines as he giveth a relish to the dayes of our pilgrimage which otherwise would seeme like a wildernes for the world as it is both to bee loved and hated loved as it is the worke of the Creator hated as the instrument of temptation unto sinne ministers some few houres of delight to the weary pilgrime by the company and society of friends recourse and concourse of Acquaintance without which comfort how tedious and grievous would these few yeeres of our desolate pilgrimage appeare How highly then are we to value the possession of a good friend who partakes with us in our comforts and discomforts in the frownes and fawnes of fortune shewing himselfe the same both in our weale and woe It is written of Sylla that never any did more good to his friends or more harme to his enemies Which princely courtesie to his friends could not choose but increase them howsoever his extreame courses towards his enemies might seeme rather to inrage than appease them For as remembrance of benefits argues a noble nature so forgetting of injuries having in the meane time power to revenge implies a bravely resolved temper Whence it was that Themistocles when Symmachus told him he would teach him the art of memory answered hee had rather learne the art of forgetfulnesse saying hee could remember enough but many things hee could not forget which were necessary to bee forgotten As the over-weening conceit of himselfe indignities done him by his foes opposition in the quest of honour and the like all which a great minde could hardly brooke being so illimited as he can admit of no corrivall in his pursuit of honour But to descend to the greatest benefit which proceeds from friendship Commerce and Acquaintance we shall find how miserable the state and condition of this flourishing Iland had beene whose Halcyon dayes have attained that prerogative of peace which most parts of Christendome are at this day deprived of had not the friendly compassion and devout zeale of sundry learned and faithfull instruments of Christ delivered her from that palpable blindnesse and Heathenish Idolatry under which she was long detained captive S. Ierome in the end of his Dialogue against the Pelagians writeth thus Vntill the very comming of Christ saies he the Province of Britaine which hath beene oftentimes governed by Tyrants and the Scottish people and all the Nations round about the Ocean Sea were utterly ignorant of Moses and the Prophets So that then by the testimony of S. Ierome all our Religion was superstition all our Church-service was Idolatry all our Priests were Painims all our gods were Idols And to appropriate to every Nation their peculiar god there was then in Scotland the Temple of Mars in Cornwall the Temple of Mercury in Bangor in Wales the Temple of Minerva in Malden in Essex the Temple of Vistoria in Bath the Temple of Apollo in Leycester the Temple of Ianus in Yorke where Peters is now the Temple of Bellona in London where Pauls is now the Temple of Diana Therefore it is very likely that they esteemed as highly then of the Goddesse Diana in London as they did in Ephesus and that as they cried there Great is Diana of the Ephesians so they cried here being deluded with the same spirit Great is Diana of the Londoners Even no more than 53. yeeres before the incarnation of Christ when Iulius Caesar came out of France into England so absurd senselesse and stupid were the people of this Land that in stead of the true and ever-living Lord they served these Heathenish and abominable Idols Mars Mercury Minerva Victoria Apollo Ianus Bellona Diana and such like And not long after Anno Christi 180. King Lucius being first christened himselfe forthwith established Religion in this whole kingdome But thanks thankes be to God in the time of the New Testament three and fifty yeares after the incarnation of Christ when Ioseph of Arimathea came out of France into England many in this Realme of blind and ignorant Pagans became very zealous and sincere Christians For Saint Philip the Apostle after hee had preached the Gospel throughout all France at length sent Ioseph of Arimathea hither into England Who when he had converted very many to the faith died in this Land and hee that buried the body of Christ was buried in Glastenbury himselfe Also Simon Zelotes another Apostle after he had preached the Gospel throughout all Mauritania at length came over into England who when he had declared likewise to us the doctrine of Christ crucified was in the end crucified himselfe and buried here in Britaine About this time Aristobulus one of the seventy Disciples whom Saint Paul mentioneth in his Epistle to the Romans was a reverend and renowned Bishop in this Land Also Claudia a noble English Lady whom St. Paul mentioneth in his second Epistle to Timothy was here amongst us a famous professor of the faith Since which time though the civill state hath beene often turned up-side downe by the Romans by the Saxons by the Danes by the Normans yet the Gospel of Christ hath
and uncorrigible dispositions naturally affected to all sensuall liberty preferring one minutes pleasure or profit before an eternity of succeeding pleasures and profits reserved for those only whose lives are imployed in promoting their Makers glory being wholly addressed to please him and whose deaths like the choicest odours sent out a sweet smell the perfume of a good and vertuous life sending out a voice even in their last period to praise him What admirable moderation divers ancient Princes have shewen especially in their contempt to the glory and pompe of this life Histories can afford sufficient examples but to omit forraigne instances my purpose is to insert here one of our owne which by how much more neere us by so much deeper impression should it enforce in us Canutus that was absolute King almost of five kingdomes somewhat before the Conquest upon a time in his Progresse riding neere the Thames light and sate downe before the shore then as it were to try a conclusion hee commanded the water being now ready to arise againe and to flow not to come any neerer him But the water keeping his naturall course came up still higher and higher till it began to wet him Whereupon to his Nobles which were about him Yee call mee sayes he your King and Master and so indeed I am and yet loe yee I cannot command so much as this little streame but doe what I can that will doe still as it list Whereupon presently hee posted to Westminster and resigned his Crowne to the Crucifix there neither could hee ever after this be perswaded to weare it any more The like indifferency to all princely honours shewed those memorable Saxons Kingulfus Iva Ceodulphus Eadbertus Ethelredus Keredus Offa. Sebbi Sigebertus Charles the fifth Emperour of Germany gave up his Empire into the hands of the Princes Electors and with-drew himselfe in the yeere 1557. into a Monastery The like of late yeeres did his sonne King Philip of Spaine Neither need wee to exemplifie this subject touching contempt of the world onely in such as the glorious light of the Gospel had shone upon but such whose time of darkenesse had never attained to so blessed a Sunne-shine As it may be instanced in Dioclesian who voluntarily relinquished the flourishingest Empire in the world Yea to adde one example more even amongst those whose best Religion is Policie and whose onely aimes are to inlarge their own Soveraignty Amurah the second Emperour of the Turkes after he had gotten infinite victories became a Monke of the straightest Order amongst them in the yeere of our Lord 1449. All which may seeme to confirme what Selâ—ucus being King was wont to say That if a man knew with what care a Diadem was clogged hee would not take it up though it lay in the street So as when the Romans had despoiled Antiochus of all Asia hee gave them great thankes saying they had rid him of many insupportable cares Now as we have defined this vertue to be a subduer of our desires to the obedience of reason and a temperate conformer of all our affections so are wee to direct our eye to the conclusion to wit a freer of the affections from the too much subjection either of desires or feares So as we are here to observe that hee is the man whom our definition only aimes at whose well-tempered brest is neither transported with a desire of enjoying what it hath not nor surprised with a feare of losing what it now enjoyes Having so much as may content him the losse whereof should hee sustaine could nere deject him Such an one the Tragick Poet entituleth a Prince as one too worthy to bee numbred amongst the inferiour ranke Who feares desires and flilling cares suppresse Are Kings at least they can be nothing lesse For these are they who have absolute soveraignty over their passions and in prosperity scorne as much to be proud as in adversity to shew themselves base Yea they will rather entertaine the extreamest encounters that misery can lay upon them then lose the least of that liberty of mind with which their noble temper hath endued them In briefe those onely who dis-value sublunary things esteeming them as they are onely to minister to our necessity and not to reare them as blind worldlings use in the tabernacle of their heart to commit idolatry keepe consort with this Definition for the golden meane as it is onely approved by them so in a princely moderation of their affections they are ever readiest to enter lists with their owne passions that if any either exceed or come short of this meane they may so square and hammer it till it bee reduced to a proposed meane And let this suffice for the Definition we will now descend to the second branch wherein wee intend to shew that no vertue can subsist without Moderation being indeed the temper which allayeth and aptly disposeth all our actions making them equally seasoned which otherwise would become violent and immoderate AS Moderation is a subduer of every inordinate or indisposed affection so is it a seasoner or temperer of all our actions making them seeme worthy the title of vertuous which without this temper would appeare vicious For without this Moderation he that is liberall should incurre the name of prodigall the frugall the name of miserable the resolute be termed dissolute the morall civill man a coward the wise Stoicall the regular meerely formall the just rigorous the mercifull remisse So defective is the structure of all vertues wanting the sweet temper of Moderation to season them Neither proceedeth this from the malevolent or uncharitable censures of men as former times have beene too apt to traduce or mis-interpret their best deservings by aspersing some unworthy blemish upon their demerits As in Rome if the Pisoes bee frugall they are censured-parcimonious if the Metelli religious they are taxed superstitious if the Appii popular they are termed ambitious if the Manlii austere they are stiled tyrannous if the Lelii wise they are curious the Publicolae aspiring if courteous But meerely upon the want or deficiency of such actions which are not tempered with Moderation For to give instance in each kinde how nobly and invincibly did Alexander the great beare himselfe in all exploits how much feared abroad and how much loved at home how affable to his friends and how terrible to his foes Yet how much were all his actions of valour and matchlesse resolution darkened through want of Moderation being so excessively given to passion in his drinke as his nearest and dearest friends could not bee secure from his fury For howsoever those acts and exploits of his against Darius yea against all opponents expressed the noblenesse of his person with the continued attendance of succeeding fortune yet the death of Clytus the torments he inflicted on Callisthenes and depopulation of Persepolis detracted as much from his glory as ever his Conquests gained him glory Likewise how
minds are so drenched in the depth of worldly affections and so entangled by the reeds and oaze of earthly vanities as they are divided from the Sailers Starre and the Haven of the ship-wrackt soule being miserably forced to grope in darkenesse without a light to direct them and to remaine wofully shelfed being farre from sight of heaven to receive them And let this suffice to have beene spoken touching Moderation in your expence of coine I meane your frugall dispensation of such estates as God hath blessed you withall ever remembring that you must give account of your Talent not onely I say of your Talent of knowledge but of that Talent of Substance whereof in this life you were possessed And so I descend to your Expence of time that precious Treasure which is incomparably to be valued above all that wee enjoy because it affords a respit of using or employing whatsoever wee enjoy TIme is so absolute and soveraigne a Regent as hee is all-commanding but not to be countermanded whence we commonly say Time and Tide stayeth for no man There is nothing undertaken by man which can be effected without the attendance and gracefull assistance of Time Neither can experience be gained nor Truth the Daughter of Time discovered nor the issue of any mans expectance attained nor any thing worthy observance produced unlesse Time further it There is nothing of consequence that can bee done at an instant great Taskes require long Time neither can wee limit Time but Time will limit us whence it appeares that nothing can be intended much lesse affected unlesse Time assist and second it Time being thus precious wee must of necessity value it above any inferiour Substance seing without the company of Time wee are wholly deprived of the use of our Substance Whence it was that a friend of mine caused these two verses to be set directly before his Table of accounts If Coines expence be such pray then Divine How rare and precious is th' expence of Time Now there be three sorts of persons with whom I am to encounter by way of admonishment for their abuse or carelesse expence of Time the Ambitious Voluptuous and miserable covetous person For the first hee trifles away Time in the pursuit of impossibilities spending his meanes and mis-spending Time in hope of a day which day hee seldome or never sees for his Time is abridged before it come So as the date of his death anticipates the day of his hopes Now to point out the place of his abode hee is ever to bee found in the eminentest places for obscurity fits not his humour whose onely aimes are to acquire honour He is so farre from moderating his humour as hee is humorously conceited of his worth and thinkes whatsoever the Parasite saies in his commendations to be no lesse then what hee in his owne proper person deserves For his Contemplations they are ever mounting yet seldome so high mounting as heaven for his thoughts are directed to another Sphere Hee is prodigall in his feasts solicitous in the pursuit of friends impatient in the quest of rivals and importunate in the dispatch of his affaires and though it be a greater reproach to lose what is got then not at all to get yet his aime is to get though hee fore-see his losse before he get and though the least liberty be apportioned to the greatest fortune yet in his highest fortunes will hee use the greatest liberty the reason his hee conceits himselfe to walke in a Cloud where no popular eye can reach him Hee is unmeasurably opinionate and admires his owne knowledge wherein hee discovers his owne folly for as hee that seekes to bee more wise then he can be shall be found to be lesse wise then hee should be so hee who conceits himselfe more wise then hee is displayes himselfe to the world what hee is So as it seemes hee differs in opinion from the Poet who holds this as a maxime He 's solely wise who is not selfely wise But humble in the judgement of his eyes Now his daily Tasks may be aptly compared to Domitians sports who spent the whole day in catching Flies For those many projects which hee hath devised those impossible aymes hee hath contrived those ayrie Turrets hee hath reared fall in the end to nothing and like those misty conclusions of the deluded Alchymist bewray the folly of him that formed them And as Domitian grew ashamed of his owne impieties exiling all Arts lest the knowledge of them should bring him to a discovery of himselfe so the ambitious man whose aimes are as boundlesse as his purposes fruitlesse when his eyes begin to be unsealed and those scales of ambition which hindred his sight removed hee will then if then be not too late acknowledge his shame and ingenuously confesse that his unbounded aimes deserved no better guerdon for had his actions beene sincere they had made him more secure Likewise for the Voluptuous man whose belly is his god and sensuality his delight let me speake thus much as his care extends but onely to the day slaving himselfe to the pleasures of sinne and preferring the huskes of vanity before the soule solacing cates of eternity so shall his misery appeare greater when deprived of those delights wherein his sole felicity consisted This fleshly Libertine mis-imployeth Time in two respects first in respect of himselfe secondly in respect of those good creatures which were ordained for the use or service of himselfe In himselfe by exposing so glorious an Image to the subjection of sense and mis-applying those gifts which hee hath received being diverted from those good offices for which they were bestowed In Gods good creatures by converting them to abuse which were only ordained for use and turning them to wantonnesse which were created for health and releefe of weaknesse This is hee who makes life a merriment his pilgrimage a pastime each yeare his Iubile This is hee who turnes fasting into feasting praying into playing almes-deeds into all mis-deeds This is he whose sole delight is in dainty feeding to cause inordinate motions to be stirring without least respect at all of his soules starving This is he whose dishes are the poore mans curses and whose gate is the beggers Gaole where they are barred from the least crum of comfort This is he who walkes and struts in the street sends forth his eye to bring him in a booty of Lust or acquaint him with some new fashion or delight him with some vaine shew This is hee who sends forth his eare to convey unto him some choice melody to intraunce him his taste with some luscious viands to provoke him his smell with some rare perfumes to cheere him his tooth with soft cloathing or whatsoever may more effeminately move him But whereto shall these outward delights availe him when the cold earth shall entertaine him when hee shall be divided from them and they from him
this yet is the afflicted soule to bee content abiding Gods good leisure who as hee doth wound so he can cure and as hee opened old Tobiths eyes so can he when he pleaseth where he pleaseth and as hee pleaseth open the bleered eyes of understanding so with a patient expectance of Gods mercy and Christian resolution to endure all assaults with constancie as he recommendeth himselfe to God so shall he finde comfort in him in whom he hath trusted and receive understanding more cleare and perfect than before he enjoyed Or admit one should have his memorative part so much infeebled as with Corvinus Messala he should forget his owne name yet the Lord who numbreth the starres and knoweth them all by their names will not forget him though he hath forgot himselfe having him as a Signâ—t upon his finger ever in his remembrance For what shall it availe if thou have memory beyond Cyrus who could call every souldier in his army by his name when it shall appeare thou hast forgot thy selfe and exercised that facultie rather in remembring injuries than recalling to minde those insupportable injuries which thou hast done unto God Nay more of all faculties in man Memory is the weakest first waxeth old and decayes sooner than strength or beauty And what shall it profit thee once to have excelled in that facultie when the privation thereof addes to thy misery Nothing nothing wherefore as every good and perfect gift commeth from above where there is neither change nor shadow of change so as God taketh away nothing but what he hath given let every one in the losse of this or that facultie referre himselfe with patience to his sacred Majestie who in his change from earth will crowne him with mercy Secondly for the goods or blessings of the Body as strength beauty agilitie c. admit thou wert blinde with Appius lame with Agesilaus tongue-tied with Samius dwarfish with Ivius deformed with Thersites though blinde thou hast eyes to looke with and that upward though lame thou hast legges to walke with and that homeward though tongue-tied thou hast a tongue to speake and that to GOD-ward though dwarfish thou hast a proportion given thee ayming heaven-ward though deformed thou hast a glorious feature and not bruitish to looke-downward For not so much by the motion of the body and her outwardly working faculties as by the devotion of the heart and those inwardly moving graces are wee to come to GOD. Againe admit thou wert so mortally sicke as even now drawing neere shore there were no remedy but thou must of necessity bid a long adieu to thy friends thy honours riches and whatsoever else are deare or neere unto thee yet for all this why shouldest thou remaine discontented Art thou here as a Countryman or a Pilgrim No Countryman sure for then shouldest thou make earth thy Country and inhabit here as an abiding city And if a Pilgrim who would grieve to bee going homeward There is no life but by death no habitation but by dissolution He then that feareth death feareth him that bringeth glad tidings of life Therefore to esteeme life above the price or feare death beyond the rate are alike evill for he that values life to be of more esteeme than a pilgrimage is in danger of making shipwracke of the hope of a better inheritance and he that feareth death as his profest enemy may thanke none for his feare but his securitie Certainly there is no greater argument of folly than to shew immoderate sorrow either for thy own death or death of another for it is no wisedome to grieve for that which thou canst not possibly prevent but to labour in time rather to prevent what may give the occasion to grieve For say is thy friend dead I confesse it were a great losse if hee were lost but lost hee is not though thou bee left gone hee is before thee not gone from thee divided onely not exiled from thee A Princesse wee had of sacred memory who looking one day from her Palace might see one shew immoderate signes or appearances of sorrow so as shee moved with princely compassion sent downe presently one of her Pensioners to inquire who it was that so much sorrowed and withall to minister him all meanes of comfort who finding this sorrowfull mournes to bee a Counsellor of State who sorrowed for the 〈◊〉 of his daughter returned directly to his Soveraigne and acquainted her therewith O quoth she who would thinks thaâ— a wise man and a Counsellor of our State could so forget himselfe as to shew himselfe 〈◊〉 for 〈…〉 of his childs And surely whosoever shall but duly conâ—ider mans 〈◊〉 with deathe necessity cannot chuse but wonder why any one should bee so wholly destitute of understanding to lament the death of any one since to die is as necessary and common as to be borne to every one But perchance it may bee by some objected that the departure of their friend is not so much lamented for that is of necessity and therefore exacts no teares of sorrow being if spent as fruitlesse as the doome reverselesse but their sudden and inopinate departure Whereto I answer that no death is sudden to him that dies well for sudden death hath properly a respect rather to the life how it was passed or disposed than to death how short his summons were or how quickly closed Io. Mathes preaching upon the raising up of the womans sonne of Naim by Christ within three houres afterward died himselfe The like is written of Luther and many others As one was choaked with a flie another with a haire a third pushing his foot against the tressal another against the threshold falls downe dead So many kinde of wayes are chalked out for man to draw towards his last home and weane him from the love of the earth Those whom God loves said Menander the young yea those whom hee esteemeth highest hee takes from hence the soonest And that for two causes the one is to free them the sooner from the wretchednesse of earth the other to crowne them the sooner with happinesse in Heaven For what gaine wee by a long life or what profit reape wee by a tedious Pilgrimage but that wee partly see partly suffer partly commit more evils Priamus saw more dayes and shed more teares than Troilus Let us hence then learne so to measure our sorrow for ought that may or shall befall us in respect of the bodie that after her returne to earth it may bee gloriously re-united to the soule to make an absolute Consort in Heaven Thirdly and lastly for the goods or blessings of Fortune they are not to command us but to bee commanded by us not to be served by us but to serve us And because hee onely in the affaires of this life is the wealthiest who in the desires of this life is the neediest and he the richest on earth who sees little worth desiring on earth we
and all things in it confessed the same I asked the Sea and the depths and the creeping things in them and they answered wee are not thy god seeke him above us I asked the breathing Aire and the whole Aire with all the inhabitants thereof made answer Anaximenes is deceived I am not thy God I asked the Heaven Sun Moone and Stars neither are we thy god answered they And I spake to all these who stand about the gates of my flesh tell me what you know concerning my god tell me something of him and they cried out with a great voice He made us Then I asked the whole Frame and fabricke of this World tell me if thou be my god and it answered with a strong voice I am not said it but by him I am whom thou seekest in mee hee it was that made mee seeke him above me who governeth mee who made mee The interrogation of the creatures is the profound consideration of them and their answer the witnesse they beare of God because all things cry God hath made us for as the Apostle saith the invisible things of God are visible to bee understood by those things which are made by the creatures of the world Thus wee understand the Author of our Creation of whom seriously to meditate and with due reverence to contemplate is to die to all earthly cogitations which delude the sinne-be-lulled soule with extravagancies And let this suffice for the first Memoriall or Consideration to wit who it was that made us we are now to descend to the second particular which is for what end he made us He who rested not till hâ— had composed and disposed in an absolute order of this Vniverse proposed us an example that we should imitate So long as we are Pilgrims here on earth so long as we are Sojourners in this world we may not enjoy our spirituall Sabbath wee may stay a little and breath under the Crosse after the example of our best Master but rest wee may not For what end then did hee make us That wee might live such lives as may please him and die such deaths as may praise him lives blamelesse and unreprovable lives sanctified throughout pure without blemish fruitfull in example plentifull in all holy duties and exercised in the workes of charitie that he who begetteth in us both the Will and the Worke may present us blamelesse at his comming Now that our lives may become acceptable unto him to whose glory they ought to bee directed we are in this Tabernacle of clay to addresse our selves to those studies exercises and labours which may benefit the Church or Common-wealth ministring matter unto others of imitation to our soules of consolation in both to Gods name of glorification wherein appeareth a maine difference betwixt the Contemplative and Active part for sufficient it is not to know acknowledge and confesse the divine Majesty to dispute or reason upon high points touching the blessed Trinitie to bee wrapt up to the third heaven as it were by the wings of Contemplation but to addresse our selves to an actuall performance of such offices and peculiar duties as wee are expresly injoyned by the divine Law of God Our Lord in the Gospel when the woman said Blessed is the wombe that bare thee and the brests that gave thee sucke Answered Yea rather blessed are they that heare the word of God and keepe it And when one of the Iewes told him that his mother and brethren stood without desiring to speake with him Hee answered and said unto him that told him Who is my mother and who are my brethren And stretching forth his hand toward his Disciples hee said Behold my mother and my brethren For whosoever shall doe the will of my Father which is in heaven the same is my brother and sister and mother It is not knowledge then but practise which presents us blamelesse before God Therefore are wee exhorted to worke out our salvation with feare and trembling Not to idle out the time in the market-place as such who make their life a repose or cessation from all labours studies or vertuous intendements Of which sort those are and too many of those there are who advanced to great fortunes by their provident Ancestors imagine it a Taske worthy men of their places to passe their time in pastime and imploy their dayes in an infinite consumption of mis-spent houres for which they must bee accomptants in that great Assize where neither greatnesse shall bee a subterfuge to guiltinesse nor their descent plead priviledge for those many houres they have mis-spent O how can they answer for so many vaine and fruitlesse pleasures which they have enjoyed and with all greedinesse embraced in this life Many they shall have to witnesse against them none to answer for them for their Stoves Summer-arbours Refectories and all other places wherein they enjoyed the height of delight shall be produced against them to tax them of sensuall living and witnesse against them their small care of observing the end for which they were made O Gentlemen you whose hopes are promising your more excellent endowments assuring and your selves as patternes unto others appearing know that this Perfection whereof we now intreat is not acquired by idling or sensuall delighting of your selves in carnall pleasures which darken and eclypse the glory or lustre of the soule but in labouring to mortifie the desires of the flesh which is ever levying and levelling her forces against the spirit Now this Mortification can never be attained by obeying but resisting and impugning the desires of the flesh Wherefore the onely meanes to bring the flesh to perfect subjection is to crosse her in those delights which shee most affecteth Doth shee delight in sleepe and rest keepe her waking takes shee content in meats and drinkes keepe her craving takes shee solace in company use her to privacie and retiring takes she liking to ease inure her to labouring Briefly in whatsoever she is delighted let her bee alwayes thwarted so shall you enjoy the most rest when shee enjoyes the least Hence it was that Saint Ierome that excellent patterne of holy discipline counselleth the holy Virgin Demetrias to eschew idlenesse exhorting her withall that having done her prayers she should take in hand wooll and weaving after the commendable example of Dorcas that by such change or variety of workes the day might seeme lesse tedious and the assaults of Satan lesse grievous Neither did this divine Father advise her to worke because she was in poverty or by this meanes to sustaine her family for she was one of the most noble and eminent women in Rome and richest wherefore her want was not the cause which pressed him to this exhortation but this rather that by this occasion of exercising her selfe in these laudable and decent labours shee should thinke of nothing but such as properly pertained unto the service of God which place hee
that drum they would not abide but take their flight This moved Scipio to appoint his Sepulcher to bee so placed as his image standing upon it might looke directly towards Africa that being dead he might still bee a terrour to the Carthaginians If respect of Pagans to their Country or an eye to popular glory did so inflame them as their Countries love exceeded their love of life surviving in their death and leaving monuments of their affection after death how lightly are wee to value the glory of this life if the losse thereof may advance our Fathers glory or ought tending to the conversation of this life being assured by him whose promises faile not by such a small losse to gaine eternity Now as it is not the death but the cause of the death which makes the Martyr we are to know that to die in the maintenance of any hereticall opinion is Pseudo-martyrdomâ— for howsoever those Arians Manichees and Pelagians those Macedonians Eutichees and Nestorians yea generally all Hereticks were constant and resolute enough in seconding and maintaining their erroneous opinions yet forasmuch as the cause for which they contended was Heresie tend it might to their confusion but never to their glory for as honey-comâ—es saith learned Tertullian are by Waspes composed so are Churches by the Marcionists and consequently by all Heretickes disposed in whose Synodals or conventicles many thousands are perverted none converted or to the Church of Christ faithfully espoused Whereas Truth which may be pressed but not oppressed assailed but never soiled like the greene Bay-tree in the midst of hoarie winter or a fresh Spring in the sandy desart appeares most glorious when her adversaries are most malicious bearing ever a countenance most cheerefull when her assailants are most dreadfull Neither only in this glorious act of Martyrdome but in all inferiour works the affection of the minde as well as the action of the man is to bee considered for God himselfe who hath an eye rather to the intention than action will not approve of a good worke done unlesse it be well done As for example when the Pharisie fasted prayed gave almes and payed tithe of all that he possessed he did good workes but he did not those good works well the reason was hee exalted himselfe in his workes without attributing praise unto him who is the beginner and perfecter of every good worke for his fasts were hypocriticall not of devotion his prayers ineffectuall because they sounded of Ostentation his almes unacceptable because exhibited only for observation and his tithes abominable being given to colour his secret oppression for which cause did our Saviour pronounce a woe upon them saying Woe unto you Pharisies for yee tithe Mint and Rue and all manner of herbes and passe over judgement and the love of God these ought yee to have done and not to leave the other undone Whence it appeares that the worke it selfe was approved but the manner of doing it reproved for that they preferred the tithing of Mint and Rue before the judgement and love of God so they preferred it as the one was performed while the other of more serious and consequent importance was omitted Whence wee are cautioned that in our workes of Mortification we doe nothing for any sinister or by-respect but only for the glory of God to whom as all our Actions are properly directed so are they to have relation onely unto him if wee desire to have them accepted Is it so that this Actuall Perfection is to be acquired by Mortification wherein is required not only the action but affection And that wee are even to lay downe our lives if the cause so require to promote the glory of our Maker Tell me then Gentleman how farre have yee proceeded in this spirituall progresse Have yee unfainedly desired to further the honour of God repaire the ruines of Sion and engage your owne lives for the testimony of a good conscience Have ye fought the Lords battell and opposed your selves against the enemies of the Truth Have yee shut the doore of your chamber the doore of your inner parlour I meane your heart from the entrance of all earthly affections sensuall cogitations and expressed true arguments of Mortification the sooner to attaine this high degree of Christian Perfection Have yee made a covenant with your eyes not to looke after the strange woman a covenant I meane with your hearts never to lust after her Have yee weaned your itching and bewitching humours from affecting forraine and out-landish fashions Which howsoever they be to fashion conformed they make man of all others most deformed Have yee done with your reere-suppers midnight revels Curtaine pleasures and Courting of Pictures Have yee left frequenting Court-maskes Tilt-triumphs and Enterludes boasting of young Ladies favours glorying more in the purchase of a glove than a Captaine in the surprizall of a Fort Have yee cashiered all those Companions of death those seducing Consorts of misery and betaken your selves to the acquaintance of good men conceiving a settled joy in their society O then thrice happy you for having honoured God he will honour you having repaired the ruines of Sion hee will place you in his heavenly Sion or engaged your lives for the testimony of a good Conscience hee will invite you to that continuall feast of a peaceable Conscience or fought the Lords battell hee will say you have fought a good fight crowning you after your victory on earth with glory in heaven or shut the doore of your Chamber and kept the roome cleane and sweet for your Maker hee will come in and sup with you that you may rejoyce together or made a covenant with your eyes not to look after the strange woman with those eyes yee shall behold him who put enmitie between the Serpent and the Woman or weaned your itching and bewitching humours from affecting Out-landish fashions madding after phantasticke habits for stuffe it skils not whether silken or woollen so the fashion be civill and not wanton you shall be cloathed in long white robes and follow the Lambe wheresoever he goeth or done with your mid-night revels and Court pleasures you shall bee filled with the pleasures of the Lords House and abide in his Courts for ever or left frequenting Maskes Tilt-triumphs and Enterludes the glorious Spectacles of vanity you shall bee admitted to those angelicall triumphs singing heavenly Hymnes to the God of glory or chashier'd those companions of death whose end is misery you shall have the Saints for your companions and share with them in the Covenant of mercy Doe yee not hence observe what inestimable comforts are reserved for those who are truly mortified mortified I say in respect of your contempt to the world which is expressed by ceasing to love it before you leave it Who would not then disvalue this life and all those bitter sweets which this fraile life affordeth to possesse those incomparable sweets which every faithfull
soule enjoyeth Yea but our silken worldling or delicate Wormeling will object This discipline is too strict for flesh and bloud to follow Who can endure to yeeld his head to the blocke or his body to the faggot when the very sight of death in another ministers to the beholder motives of terror Surely this is nothing to him that duely considereth how be that loseth his life shall save it but he that saveth his life shall lose it What is a minutes anguish to an eternity of solace Wee can endure the launcing or fearing of a putrified member and this endures as long as our time of wrastling with our Dissolution which brings us to our Saviour nor skils it much what kinde of death wee die seeing no kinde of death can hurt the righteous be the terrors and torments of death never so numerous The way then to contemne death is to expect it and so to prepare our selves for it as if wee were this very houre to encounter it resolving never to goe with that conscience to our bed with which wee durst not goe to our grave being so uncertaine whether before the next morne wee shall bee taken out of our bed and shrouded for our grave And this shall suffice touching our Mortification or Contempt of life if with such a sacrifice wee may bee thought worthy to honour him who gave us life Wee are now to speake of Mortification in respect of name or report wherein you are to understand that this is two-fold First in turning our â—ares from such as praise us Secondly in hearing with patience such as revile us For the first it is and hath beene ever the condition of sober and secret men to avert their eare from their owne praises at least with a modest passing over such vertues as were commendable in them which modesty appeared in Alphonsus Prince of Aragons answer to an Orator who having repeated a long Panegyricall oration in his praise replied If that thou hast said consent with truth I thanke God for it if not I pray God grant me grace that I may doe it Others likewise we reade of who could not with patience endure their persons or actions to bee praised above truth this princely passion appeared in Alexander who hearing Aristobulus a famous Greek Historian read his writings purposely penned upon the memorable acts he had atchieved wherein he commended him farre above truth being mightily incensed therewith threw the booke into the river as he was sailing over Hydaspes saying with all hee was almost moved to send Aristobulus after Neither indeed will any wise man endure to heare himselfe praised above truth seeing no lesse aspersion may be laid on his person by being too highly praised than if he were discommended for should wee praise one for his bountie who is publikely knowne to the world to be parcimonius or for his humility who is naturally ambitious or for his continencie who is licentious our praises would not tend so much to his honour as to the display of his nature yea even he himselfe guilty in himselfe would tax us knowing that he the least of all others deserved these praises from us It is flattery saith one to praise in absence that is when either the vertue is absent or the occasion is absent But in the report of our owne praise admit wee should deserve it the safest course is to withdraw our eare from hearing it lest vaine-glory transport us upon hearing of those praises which are spoken of us for if our aymes be only to purchase popular esteeme preferring the praise of men before the praise of God or the testimony of a good conscience as our aymes were perverted so shall wee bee rewarded Now there is no better means to abate or extenuate this desire of praise in us than duly to consider whose gifts they bee that deserve this praise in us for were they our owne wee might more properly be praised for them but they are Gods and not ours therefore is the praise to be ascribed unto God not unto us For he that would be praised for Gods gift seeketh not Gods glory but his owne in that gift though he be praised by men for Gods gifts yet is he dispraised by God for not seeking Gods glory but his own for this gift and he who is praised by men God dispraising shall not be defended by men God judging nor bee delivered God condemning Whereas he that loveth God will chuse rather to bee deprived of all future glory than detract by any meanes from God the Author of all glory Let us then so avert our eare from selfe-praise or ought else that may beget in us vain-glory or ostentation that we may become like unto him who dis-esteemed all worldly praise from the houre of his birth to the houre of his passion Secondly we are to heare with patience such as revile us and reason good for observing this a blessing is pronounced on us Blessed are yee saith the Lord of all blessing when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evill against you falsly for my sake rejoyce and bee exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven for so persecuted they the Prophets which were before you Yea not only the Prophets but even Him of whom all the Prophets bare witnesse yet became hee as one that did not heare having no rebukes in his mouth When hee was tempted in the wildernesse the Scripture was his armour of resistance when hee was reviled on the Crosse he prayed for his enemies to expresse his heavenly patience Now if the Sonne of God was in the desart tempted what Hermit can expect to bee from temptation freed If the Master be reviled how may the servant looke to bee intreated For howsoever some or indeed most of the ancient Fathers doubt whether the Divell did know that Christ was GOD or no touching that parcell of Scripture wherein Christ was tempted in the Desart yet may it appeare probable by inference from the text it selfe that after Iesus had said unto him It is written thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God the Divell tooke him up into an exceeding high mountaine and shewed him all the kingdomes of the world and the glory of them saying All those things will I give thee if thou wilt fall downe and worship me Whence I collect that after Christ had told him that he was God he continued his temptation which was an argument to evince him of palpable ignorance or of distrust to Christs speech which argued his diffidence but our purpose is not too curiously to insist upon these subtill digressions it sufficiently appeareth that Christ who ought to bee every faithfull Christians patterne was reviled yet opened not hee his mouth but with sweet silence and amiable patience offered his prayers unto his Father for them who maliciously offered him upon the Crosse leaving us an example of admiration and
wipe their mouthes as if they were innocent but behold this Haman-policy shall make them spectacles of finall misery wishing many times they had been lesse wise in the opinion of the world so they had relished of that divine wisdome which makes man truly happy in another world even that wisdome I say who hath built an everlasting foundation with men and shall continue with their seed neither can this divine wisdome chuse but bee fruitfull standing on so firme a root or the branches dry receiving life and heat from so faire a root Now to describe the beauty of her branches springing from so firme a root with the solidity of her root diffusing pith to her branches The root of wisdome saith the wise Son of Sirach is to feare the Lord and the branches thereof are long life This feare where it takes root suffers no wordly feare to take place Many worldlings become wretched onely through feare lest they should bee wretched and many die onely through feare lest they should dy but with these who are grounded in the feare of the Lord they neither feare death being assured that it imposeth an end to their misery nor the miseries of this present life being ever affied on the trust of GODS mercy How constantly zealously and gloriously many devout men have died and upon the very instant of their dissolution expostulated with their owne soules reproving in themselves their unwillingnesse to die may appeare by the examples of such whose lives as they were to GOD right pleasing so were their soules no lesse precious in their departing upon some whereof though I have formerly insisted yet in respect that such memorable patternes of sanctity cannot be too often represented I thought good purposely as usually I have done in all the Series of this present Discourse where any remarkeable thing was related to have it in divers places repeated to exemplifie this noble resolution or contempt of death in the proofe and practice of some one or two blessed Saints and Servants of God Ierome writeth of Hilarion that being ready to give up the ghost hee said thus to his soule Goe forth my soule why fearest thou Goe forth why tremblest thou Thou hast served Christ almost these threescore ten yeares and doest thou now feare death Saint Ambrose when hee was ready to die speaking to Stillico and others about his bed I have not lived so among you saith hee that I am ashamed to live longer to please God and yet againe I am not afraid to die because wee have a good Lord. The reverend Bede whom wee may more easily admire than sufficiently praise for his profound learning in a most barbarous age when all good literature was in contempt being in the pangs of death said to the standers by I have so lived among you that I am not ashamed of my life neither feare I to die because I have a most gracious Redeemer Hee yeelded up his life with this prayer for the Church O King of glory Lord of Hostes which hast triumphantly ascended into heaven leave us not fatherlesse but send the promised Spirit of thy truth amongst us These last funerall Teares or dying mens Hymnes I have the rather renued to your memory that they might have the longer impression being uttered by dying men at the point of their dissolution And I know right well for experience hath informed me sufficiently therein that the words of dying men are precious even to strangers but when the voice of one wee love and with whom wee did familiarly live cals to us from the Death-bed O what a conflict doe his words raise How strongly do griefe and affection strive to inclose them knowing that in a short space that tongue the organs whereof yet speak and move attention by their friendly accents was to bee eternally tied up in silence nor should the sound of his words salute our cares any more And certainly the resolution of a devout dying man being upon the point of his dissolution cannot but bee an especiall motive to the hearer of Mortification Which was one cause even among the heathens of erecting Statues Obelisks or Monuments upon the Dead that eying the Sepulchers of such noble and heroick men as had their honour laid in the dust they might likewise understand that neither resolution of spirit nor puissance of body could free them from the common verdict of mortality which begot in many of them a wonderfull contempt of the world Albeit it is to bee understood that Christians doe contemne the world much otherwise than Pagans for ambition is a guide to these but the love of God unto them Diogenes trod upon Plato's pride with much greater selfe-pride but the Christian with patience and humility surmounteth and subdueth all wordly pride being of nothing so carefull as lest hee should taste the Lotium of earthly delights and so become forgetfull with Vlysses companions of his native Countrey Meane time he sojournes in the world not as a Citizen but as a Guest yea as an Exile But to returne to our present discourse now in hand in this quest after that soveraigne or supreme end whereto all Actuall Perfection aspireth and wherein it resteth wee are to consider three things 1. What is to bee sought 2. Where it is to be sought 3. When it is to be sought For the first wee are to understand that wee are to seeke onely for that the acquisition whereof is no sooner attained than the minde whose flight is above the pitch of frailty is fully satisfied Now that is a blessed life when what is best is effected and enjoyed for there can bee no true rest to the minde in desiring but partaking what she desireth What is it then that wee seeke To drinke of the water of life where our thirst may bee so satisfied as it never be renued our desires so fulfilled as never higher or further extended Hee that hath once tasted of the fountaine named Clitorius fons and choice is the taste of such a fountaine will never drinke any wine no wine mixed with the dregs of vanity no wine drawne from the lees of vaine-glory the reason is hee reserves his taste for that new wine which hee is to drinke in his Fathers kingdome And what kingdome The Kingdome of heaven a kingdome most happy a kingdome wanting death and without end enjoyng a life that admits no end And what life A life vitall a life sempiternall and sempiternally joyfull And what joy A joy without sorrowing rest without labouring dignity without trembling wealth without losing health without languishing abundance without failing life without dying perpetuity without corrupting blessednesse without afflicting where the sight vision of God is seene face to face And what God God the sole sufficient summary supreme good that good which we require alone that God who is good alone And what good The Trinity of the divine persons is
a kinde of frenzy it admires that now which it will laugh at hereafter when brought to better temper Civility is never out of fashion it ever reteines such a seemely garbe as it conferres a grace on the wearer and enforceth admiration in the beholder Age cannot deface it contempt disgrace it nor gravity of judgement which is ever held a serious Censor disapprove it Bee thus minded and this Complement in you will bee purely refined You have singular patternes to imitate represent them in your lives imitate them in your loves The Corruption of the age let it seize on ignoble spirits whose education as it never equall'd yours so let them strike short of those nobler indowments of yours labour daily to become improved honour her that will make you honoured let vertue be your crowne who holds vanity a crime So may you shew holinesse in your life enjoy happinesse at your death and leave examples of goodnesse unto others both in life and death COurts and eminent places are held fittest Schooles for Complement There the Cinnamon tree comes to best growth there her barke gives sweetest sent Choice and select fashions are there in onely request which oft-times like those Ephemera expire after one dayes continuance whatsoever is vulgar is thence exploded whatsoever novell generally applauded Here bee weekely Lectures of new Complements which receive such acceptation and leave behinde them that impression as what garbe soever they see used in Court publikely is put in present practise privately lest discontinuance should blemish so deserving a quality The Courts glosse may bee compared to glasse bright but brittle where Courtiers saith one are like Counters which sometime in account goe for a thousand pound and presently before the Count bee cast but for a single penny This too eager affection after Complement becomes the consumption of many large hereditaments Whereto it may bee probably objected That even discretion injoynes every one to accommodate himselfe to the fashion or condition of that place wherein hee lives To which Objection I easily condescend for should a rusticke or boorish Behaviour accompany one who betakes himselfe to the Court hee might bee sure to finde a Controuler in every corner to reprove him or some complete Gallant or other pittifully to geere and deride him But to dote so on fashion as to admire nothing more then a phantasticke dressing or some anticke Complement which the corruption of an effeminate State hath brought in derogates more from discretion then the strict observance of any fashion addes to her repute This place should bee the Beacon of the State whose mounting Prospect surveyes these inferiour coasts which pay homage and fealty unto her The least obliquity there is exemplary elsewhere Piercing'st judgements as well as pregnant'st wits should bee there resident Not a wandring or indisposed haire but gives occasion of observance to such as are neere How requisite then is it for you whose Nobler descents promise yea exact more of you then inferiours to expresse your selves best in these best discerning and deserving places You are women modesty makes you completest you are Noblewomen desert accompanying your descent will make you noblest You may and conveniency requires it reteine a Courtly garbe reserve a well seeming State and shew your selves lively Emblemes of that place wherein you live You may entertaine discourse to allay the irkesomenesse of a tedious houre bestow your selves in other pleasing recreations which may no lesse refresh the mind then they conferre vigour and vivacity to the body You may be eminent starres and expresse your glory in the resplendent beames of your vertues so you suffer no blacke cloud of infamy to darken your precious names Shee was a Princely Christian Courtier who never approached the Court but shee meditated of the Court of heaven never consorted with her Courtiers but shee contemplated those Citizens of heaven nor ever entred the Presence-Chamber but shee thought of the presence of her Maker the King of heaven And how shee was never conscious of that thought which redounded not to her Subjects honour which shee preferred next to the love of her Maker before the fruition of an Empire Such Meditations are receits to cure all inordinate motions Your Lives should be the lines to measure others Actions Vertue is gracious in every subject but most in that which the Prince or Princesse hath made gracious Anciently the World was divided into three parts whereof Europe was held the soule properly every Politike State may be divided into three Cantons whereof the Court is the Sunne You are Objects to many Eyes be your actions platformes to many lives I can by no meanes approve that wooing and winning Complement though most Courts too generally affect it which makes her sole Object purchase of Servants or Suitors This garbe tastes more of Curtezan then Courtier it begets Corrivals whose fatall Duello's end usually in blood Our owne State hath sometimes felt the misery of these tragicke events by suffering the losse of many generous and free-bred Sparkes who had not their Torches beene extinguished in their blood might to this day have survived to their Countries joy and their owne same So great is the danger that lyes hid in affable Complements promising aspects affectionate glances as they leave those who presumed of their owne strength holding themselves invulnerable many times labouring of wounds incurable Be you no such Basilisks never promise a calme in your face where you threaten a storme in your heart Appeare what you are lest Censure taxe you of inconstancy by saying you are not what you were An open countenance and restrained bosome sort not well together Sute your discourse to your action both to a modest dispose of your affection Throw abroad no loose Lures wandring eyes strayed lookes these delude the Spectators much but the Actors most A just revengeâ— by striving to take in others they are taken by others How dangerous doe we hold it to be in a time of infection to take up any thing be it never so precious which wee find lost in the street One of your loose lookes be it darted with never so Complementall a state is farre more infectious and mortally dangerous There is nothing that sounds more cheerefully to the eare or leaves a sweeter accent nothing that conveyes it selfe more speedily to the heart or affords fuller content for the time then conceit of love It will immaze a perplexed wretch in a thousand extremes whose amazed thoughts stand so deepely ingaged to the Object of his affection as hee will sustaine any labour in hope of a trifling favour Such soveraignty beauty reteines which if discretion temper not begets such an height of conceit in the party beloved as it were hard to say whether the Agent or Patient suffer more To you let me returne who stand fixed in so high an Orbe as a gracefull Majesty well becomes you so let modesty grace that Majesty that demeaning your selves like Complete
you thinke that a jetting Gate a leering Looke a glibbery Tongue or gaudy Attire can move affection in any one worthy your love Sure no hee deserves a light one for his choyce who makes his choyce by one of these To bee an admirer of one of these were to preferre in his choyce a May-marrian before a Modest Matron Now there are some fashions which become one incomparably more than another the reason whereof may bee imputed either to the native propriety of the party using that forme habit or complement or else to the quality of the person which makes the fashion used infinitely more gracious For the first you shall never see any thing imitated but it seemes the imitator worst at the first Habit will bring it into a second nature but till such time as custome hath matur'd it many imperfections will usually attend it Whereas whatsoever is naturally inbred in us will best beseeme and adorne us it needs no other face than what nature gave it and would generally become worse were it never so little enforced For the second as in any Theatrall presentment what becomes a Peere or Potentate would not sort with the condition of any inferiour substitute every one must bee suited to the person hee presents So in the Theatre of state distinct fashions both in Habit and Complement are to bee retained according to the place wherein hee is ranked Lucrece no doubt stamped a deeper impression of affection in the heart of her beholder by addressing her selfe to hous-wivery and purple-spinning than others could ever doe with their reere bankets and riotous spending All are not of Aegystus minde who was taken with a Complement of lightnesse This argued that a youthfull heat had rather surpriz'd his amorous heart than any discreet affection preferr'd him to his choyce But how vading is that love which is so lightly grounded To what dangerous overtures is it exposed Where Vertue is not directrice in our choyce our inconstant mindes are ever prone to change Wee finde not what wee expected nor digest well what wee formerly affected All is out of square because discretion contriv'd not the building To repaire this breach and make the Object wee once entertained ever beloved Let nothing give us Content but what is decent This is the Habit Gentlewomen which will best become you to bee woo'd in and content a discreet Suitor most to have you woone in All others are neither worth viewing wooing weighing nor wearing Rich Iewels the more wee looke on them the more are wee taken with them Such Iewels are modest women whose countenance promiseth goodnesse an enforced smile native bashfulnesse every posture such tokens of Decency and comelinesse as Caius Tarquinius in his Caia could conceive no fuller happinesse Shee I say who made wooll and purple her dayes taske and this her constant impreze Where thou art Caius I am Caia Conforme then your generous Dispositions to a Decency of fashion that you may attract to your selves and beget in others motives of affection FOuntaines runne by many winding and mazie Currents into one maine River Rivers by sundry Channels into one maine Ocean Severall wayes direct passengers into one City but one onely way guides man to the heavenly City This way is Vertue which like some choyce confection sweetens the difficulty of every Occurrent that encounters her in her quest after Perfection Of all those Cardinall Vertues it is Temperance onely which seasons and gives them a vertuous rellish Which Vertue dilates it selfe to severall branches all which bud forth into one savoury fruit or other It is true that hee who is every way Complete may bee properly styled an absolute man But what is it which makes him Complete It is not a seru'd face an artfull Cringe or an Italionate ducke that deserves so exquisite a title Another age will discountenance these and cover these Complete formalists with dust No Ladies it is something that partakes of a more Divine Nature than a meere Complementall gesture If you would aspire to perfection observe the meane that you may attaine the end Temperance you cannot embrace if Decency bee estranged from your choyce If temperate you cannot chuse but bee decent for it includes an absolute moderation of our desires in all subjects Come then Gentlewomen love to bee decent and that will teach you the best Complement You have that in you which divinely employ'd will truly ennoble you Your descent may give you an higher ascent by way of precedency before others but this you cannot appropriate to your owne deserts but that Nobility of blood which is derived to you by others Labour to have something of your owne which you may challenge to bee yours properly without any helpe of an ancient pedigree How well doth it seeme you to expresse a civill decent state in all your actions You are in the eyes of many who precisely observe you and desire to imitate whatsoever they note observable in you You may then become excellent patternes unto others by reteining decency and entertaining her for your follower Shee will make you appeare gracious in their sight whose judgements are pure and uncorrupted howsoever our Corkie censurers traduce you your fame cannot bee blemished nor the odour of those vertues which so sweetly chafe and perfume you decayed Decency attended you in your life and the memory of your vertues shall crowne you after death Even there Where youth never ageth life never endeth beauty never fadeth love never faileth health never vadeth joy never decreaseth griefe is never felt groanes are never heard no object of sorrow to bee seene gladnesse ever to bee found no evill to bee fear'd Yea the King shall take pleasure in your beauty and at your end invest you with endlesse glory Prize not then the censure of sensuall man for hee is wholly set on vanity but fixe your eyes on him who will cloath you with eternity Let this bee your Crowne of comfort that many are improved by your Example many weaned from sinne many wonne to Sion By sowing the seed of goodnesse that is by giving good examples expressed best by the effectuall workes of faith you shall reape a glorious harvest Actions of goodnesse shall live in you and cause all good men to love you Whereas those are to bee esteemed worst who not onely use things evilly in themselves but likewise towards others For of so many deaths is every one worthy as hee hath left examples of naughtinesse unto posterity Let vertues then bee stayres to raise you an improved fame the rudder to steere you these will adde unto your honour seat you above the reach of Censure and joyne you individually to your best Lover THE ENGLISH GENTLEVVOMAN Argument Estimation a Gentlewomans highest prize how it may be discerned to be reall how superficiall how it may be impregnably preserved how irreparably lost The absolute end whereto it chiefly aspires and wherein it cheerefully rests ESTIMATION ESTIMATION
may attaine a more glorious end That onely deserves your love which shall make you for ever live Vertue if you love her and live with her by becomming your survivor will crowne your happy memory with succeeding honour IT is usually observ'd that Hawkes of one Ayrie are not of one nature Some are more metall'd others more lazy As in Birds so in all other Creatures Livia and Iulia Angustus his daughters were sisters but of different natures Some there are who even from their infancy have such excellent seeds of native goodnesse sowne in them as their dispositions cannot rellish ought that is irregular In arguments of discourse they are moderate in Company temperate in their resolves constant in their desires continent in their whole course or carriage absolute Others naturally so perverse that like our humorous Ladies they can affect nought that others love nor rellish ought that others like The byas of their fancy runnes still on the fashion their tongue a voluble Engine of feminine passion their resolves full of uncertainty and alteration The whole Enterlude of their life a continued Act of femallfollies It were hard to winne these to the love of vertue or those to delight in vice This might easily bee illustrated by divers memorable instances personated in such who from their very Cradle became seriously devoted to a religious privacy supplying their want of bookes wherein they were meerely ignorant with a devout and constant meditation of Gods works wherein they employed their whole study Industrious were their hands in labouring and bounteous were they in bestowing A native compassion lodged in their hearts which they expressed in their charitable workes Hospitality to the stranger and needy beggar was their highest honour Suffer they would the height of all extremes ere they would suffer the desolate to want reliefe So strongly were their affections fortifi'd against the assaults of an imperious Lover as death was to them a cheerfull object to preserve their high-priz'd honour Such singular effects as these have beene usually produced by an innate noble disposition so as some of these whom wee have here cursorily shadowed were endowed with such virile spirits as they stickt not to spit in the face of tyranny others were not abash'd to disfigure their owne beauty lest it should become an adulterers booty In these had vertue taken such deepe impression as nothing could deepely touch them but what trenched on their reputation Though by nature they were timorous and inconstant resolution had so prepar'd them as they became discreetly valiant looking death in the face without feare and embracing her stroke as a favour Doe you admire this in them Imitate them and you shall bee no lesse by succeeding times honoured than these in ours admired Conceive your life to bee an intricate Labyrinth of affliction the very anvill whereon the heavy hammer of misery incessantly beateth Reflect on your birth and you shall perceive how you give the world a good morrow with griefe Looke at your death how you bid the world good night with a groane Ioy then cannot bee long lasting when you are daily taking leave of the place where you live which now though living you are leaving Besides no continued hope of comfort can bee expected where feare presents her selfe an inseparable attendant Feare has command o're subject and o're King Feare has no Phere seare's an imperious thing To allay which feare addresse your selves to that most which may give you occasion of fearing least And what may that receipt be A minde purely refin'd from the corruption of this infectious time Meditate therefore of that never fading beauty that is within you Labour to preserve it from the injury of all incroaching Assailants If your flesh with any painted flourish of light Rhetoricke wooe her timely prevent her before shee winne her If the world with her Lure of honour command or the like seeke to draw her reclaime her lest vanity surprize her If her profest Enemy labour to undermine her make knowne his long-profest enmity unto her that a vigilant circumspection may arme her Admit your dispositions become sometimes averse from the practice of that which you should most affect divert the Current of them You love liberty confine it to moderate restraint You affect honour curbe it with a serious meditation of your owne frailty You desire to gather sowe your bread upon the water Charity will bring you quickly to a better temper You admire gorgeous attire remember the occasion how you first became cloathed had not sinne beene these poore habiliments had never needed Doth delicate fare delight you Consider how it is the greatest misery to pamper that delicately or cherish it with delicacy that is your mortall and profest enemy Doe wanton consorts worke on your fancy Cure betime this dangerous phrenzy Avert your eye lest it infect your heart Converse with reason and avoid nothing more than occasion Doe you finde your affections troubled or to passion stirred Retire a little from your selves attemper that boyling heat which workes so violently on you and in the end resolve thus It will redound more to our honour to bridle anger than to engage our discretions by giving reynes to our distemper Can you not see your Neighbours field flourish without an Envious Eye Of all others expulse this soonest because of all others it partakes of the Divell the nearest As you are commanded to love him as your selves so with not that evill unto him which you would not have to fall upon your selves Lastly doe you finde a remisnesse in you to any employment that is good Shake off this naturall dulnesse and inflame your affections with a Divine ferventnesse You have hitherto beene slow in doing good shew that in doing ill Meane time with the wings of holy and heavenly desires mount from earth to heaven plant your affections above though your pilgrim dimensions bee here below Which the better to facilitate reteine ever in your memory this devout Memoriall or Meditation Think whence you came and bee ashamed where you are and bee aggrieved where you goe to and bee affrighted Every way wherein you walke as it is full of snares so should it bee full of eyes Those two roots of inordinate feare and inordinate love have brought many to the brinke of misery by plunging their mindes in the puddles of vanity Looke about you snares you shall finde within you snares without you Snares on your right hand and those deceitfull Prosperity in affaires temporall In which such persons are usually taken and surprized by whom the benefits of God are abused As the Rich when hee bestowes his wealth in attiring himselfe sumptuously the Mighty in oppressing the needy the Amorous or Lovely in giving others occasion to bee taken with their beauty Whence the Lord by the mouth of his Prophet Thou hast made thy beauty abhominable Snares likewise on your Left hand and those fearefull Adversity in affaires in temporall
the Gods had bestowed on him greatest cause of all others to give them thankes for three things First was for that they had made him a reasonable Creature and no Beast Second was for civilizing him a Grecian and no Barbarian Thirdly in making him a Man and no Woman yet did hee sometimes ingenuously confesse the necessitie of them in winding up all his humane felicitie in these foure particulars So I may have said he eyes to reade my mind to conceive what I reade my memory to conserve what I have conceived and read and a woman to serve me at my neede should adversitie assaile me it should not foile me should an immerited disgrace lye heavy on me it should not amate me should my endeared friends forsake me by enjoying my selfe thus in mine owne family I should laugh at the braves of fortune account reproach my repute and partake in the free societie of so sweet and select a friend within me as no cloud without mee could perplex me Here was a brave Philosophicall resolution He could see nought on earth that could divert his thoughts from the contemplation of Heaven provided that he enjoyed that on earth which made his earth seeme a second Heaven Some are of opinion indeede that hee had perused the Mosaicall Law and that he bestowed much time in it during his reside with his deare friend Phocion in Cilicia No marvaile then if he found there the excellency of their Creation with their primary office or designation Being made helpes for man and so intimate to man as she tooke her mould from man as man his modell from mold Yea but she was made of a rib will some say and that implide a crooked condition No but rather thus A rib is bending which presupposed her pliable disposition And if that ancient Philosophicall Maxim hold good That the temperature of the soule followes the temperature of the body we must necessarily conclude that as their outward temperature and composure is more delicate so their inward affections must be more purely refined No violent passion so predominant which their mild temper cannot moderate provided that they be seasoned with grace which makes them proficients in all spirituall growth For a quicke unsanctified wit is a meere pery for the Divell whereas witts accompanied with humilitie make their privatest Soliloquies to converse with actions of glory These and onely these reteine in memory the object and end of their creation And as those affectionate Sabines call'd their wives their Penates their Houshold Gods through that incomparable comfort they conceived in them and benefits they derived from them So are these Domi-portae Damae-portae delitiae horti as that witty Epigrammatist was sometimes pleased to enstile them the choicest Sociates of humane Solace So as if the world were to be held a Wildernesse without societie it might justly despaire of that comfort without their company Whence it is that the wise man concludeth Without a woman would the house mourne When that Delphick Oracle had told that flourishing and victorious state that her many triumphes and trophies should not secure her nor her numerous ports so enrich her nor that confidence she reposed in her powerfull Allyes priviledge her For the very beautifull'st City she had her sole magnificent Metropolis whose present glory aspired to the Clouds should labour of her owne providence and interre her honour in the dust if they did not by sprinkling the purest dust that earth could afford upon their prophaned Altars expiate her guilt and appease their wrath A strong and serious consultation being forthwith taken they advised amongst themselves which might be the purest and most precious dust but so many men so many mindes For the Earth-worme who made Gold his God and that Dust his Deitie held none to be purer then the soile or dust of gold Others held that none was purer then the dust of that Copper whereof the Athenians had made the pictures of the two Tyrants Armodius and Aristogyton because their death gave life to the state their dust recovered their countries fame Others held Ebonie because the most continuate Monument of humane memory and monumentall Embleme of his mortalitie Others held Ivorie because an Emblematicall Mettall of puritie While one whose opinion was delivered last though his judgement appeared best freely imparted himselfe to them taxing them all of errour For saith he it is not the pouder dust or ashes of any materiall shrine that can be possibly any way propitious to the gods as the enormitie of our losses hath incensed them so must the ashes of some living sacrifice appease them My opinion then is positively this The ashes of some undefiled virgin must be sprinkled on their Altar if we meane to preserve our state and honour This experience hath confirmed long since so highly usefull as wee may reade what eminent states had perished how their glory had been to dust reduced nay their very names in oblivion closed and with dishonour cloathed had not the fury of the incensed gods beene pacified and by offertories of this nature attoned This might be instanced in those sacrifices of Iphigenia Hesyone Mariana with many others whose living memory raysed it selfe from dust in so free and voluntary offering themselves to the stake to deliver their endanger'd state confirming their country-love with the losse of their dearest life Search then no further yee Conscript Fathers how to appease their wrath Virgin ashes cannot but be the purest dust of Earth Whose sacred vowes as they are dedicated to Vesta who cannot admit her Temple to be prophaned by any impure touch So ha's shee conferred such an excellent priviledge on a virgin state as the fierce untamed Vnicorne when nothing can bring him to subjection nor attemper the madding fury of his disposition as if he had quite put off his nature and assumed another temper he will be content mildly to sleepe in the lap of a Virgin and in eying her allay his passion With joynt voyce and vote all the Ephori inclined to his opinion which so well appeased those divine furies as their state before by the Oracle so highly menaced became secured their Altars which were before prophaned purged and those pollutions whereof their City laboured clearely expiated These poeticall Fictions though they easily passe by the eare yet they convey by a morall application an Emphaticall impression to the heart For hence might be divinely concluded There is nothing comparably precious to a continent soule Nothing of so pure nor pretious esteeme as a virgin state And that a woman being the weaker vessell when shee either in her virgin-condition remaines constant or in her conjugall state loyall she so much more inlargeth her glory as her Sex or condition partakes more of frailtie But to divert from these eye her in the Excellency of her Creation you shall finde her in her qualitie an helper in her societie a comforter in the perplexities of her consort a counsellour and in all these
when the one chus'd rather to spit out her tongue then spite her countrey by disclosing the revengers of her wrong the other to be torne by wilde beasts then make that tender bosome of her native countrey a receipt for tame beasts Here were virile spirits cloathed with womanly habits Their mindes were better composed then to give way to an effeminate passion when they beheld their indeared Countrey suffer in her reputation Thus did their noble Sex shew Prudence without singularitie Iustice without partialitie Temperance with modestie Fortitude in those amicable expressions to their countrey SECTION III. Their moderation of passion ALthough we have discoursed of this subject before in our treaty of Temperance yet to amplifie this point wee shall finde that there is no passion whereto by reason of our humane frailtie we are most inclined which we shall not observe by imitable Mirrors of this Sex to be strangely attempered nay subdued And first to begin with what worketh strongliest upon our weake conditions Revenge which may reflect by a proper and genuine division upon these three distinct objects Life Fame Fortunes For the first how bravely could that Noble Spartan Lady when she was staged upon the Scaffold to receive the stroke of death becken to her injurious Accuser with a mild and gracefull aspect advertise him of the wrongs he had done her wishing him to lay his hand on his heart and make his peace seasonably with the Gods For my life quoth shee as it is of little use to the State so I lesse prize it in regard I can benefit my Country smally by it Trust me I pitty more the indangering of your inward peace then the losse of my life This may be redeemed by an Elysian freedome yours never to be prevented but by perpetuall sorrowing Indeede I lose my friends but these are without me But you should have a nearer friend within you from whose sweet amitie and amiable familiaritie if you should once sever heare the last breathing words of a dying woman you are lost for ever So easily did she remit that wrong which cost her life With what moderation did that triumphant Thomyris beare the death of her sonne A feminine passion could not extract from her well-tempered eyes one teare nor from her resolved heart one sigh She knowes how to shadow passion with a cloud and immaske the designe of a future revenge with the whitest vaile She chuseth rather to perish in her selfe then doe ought unworthy of herselfe She could put on a countenance of content when she heard how her sonne had paid to nature her debt though in a reflexion to his youth before his time I was his mother and hee is now returned to her who is mother to us both If I lov'd him too much while he lived with me I will make satisfaction for that errour by bemoaning his losse the lesse now when hee has left mee But I finde her moderation in this object amongst all others most imparallel'd which I the rather here insert because she was a rare Phoenix both in our time and clime A woman nobly descended richly endowed which by her practise of pietie and workes of mercy became highly improved She when she understood how passionately and disconsolately her noble Husband tooke the death of his daughter whom hee infinitely loved for her promising infancy gave apparent arguments of succeeding maturitie made it one of her constant'st taskes to allay his passion and by playing the part of a faithfull and discreet Consort expostulates with the grounds of his immoderate sorrow in this manner How is it Sir that your wisedome should thus forget it selfe Is it any newer thing to dye then to be borne Are we here placed to survive fate Or here planted to pleade a priviledge against death Is our daughter gone to any other place then where all our predecessours have gone to Yea but you will say She dy'd in her blooming youth before the infirmities of a decrepit age came upon her The more was shee bound to her Maker The fewer her yeares the lesser her cares the fewer her teares Take upon you then something more of man and partake lesse of woman These comforts which I make bold to apply to you might be more seemingly derived to me by you To grieve for that which is remedilesse argues weakenesse and not to prevent what admits a probabilitie of cure implies carelesnesse Let us neither be too effeminatly weake in the one nor too securely remisse in the other so may wee cure the one with patience and redeeme the other by a timely diligence For the next Object reflecting upon their Fame Nicetas sayes plainely No punishment so grievous as shame And Nazianzen yet more expressely Better were a man dye right-out than still live in reproach and shame Ajax being ready to dispatch himselfe used these as his last words No griefe doth so cut the heart of a generous and magnanimous spirit as shame and reproach For a man to live or dye is naturall but for a man to live in shame and contempt and to be made a laughing-stocke of his enemies is such a matter as no well-bred and noble-minded man that hath any courage or stomacke in him can ever digest it And yet bravely-spirited Leonida sleighted those Assailants of her fame with no lesse dis-respect then her foes sought to blemish it I am more confident of my fame said she then to suspect how any light tongue should impeach it Nor was that vertuous Clareana lesse resolute who directing her speech to her Accusers told them her fame was so farre distanced beyond the reach of their impeaching as it ingenuously pittied the weakenesse of their detraction This confirmed the resolution of that noble patron who occasionally used these words in a grave and great assembly No womans fame could priviledge it selfe from a dangerous â—aint if it were in hazard to suffer or lose it selfe by a poysonous tongue For the last but least which is Fortune Many Heroicke spirits have we had of this Sex who so farre dis-esteemed this outward rinde for no other title would they daigne to bestow on it as one of them freely professed What matter is it whether I be rich or poore so my minde be pure And these instances are not so rare but we may finde another of the same sex to second so vertuous and accomplished a sister The poorest thing on earth is to suffer ones enlivened thoughts to be fixt on earth And we have a third to make up a consort She is of a weake command who submits her thoughts to the command of fortune And this a Quaternion of brave resolved spirits expressed in delivering the noblenesse of their thoughts in these proper imprezes which with their Diamonds they left writ in the panes of their owne chamber windowes The device of the first was this It is not in the power of fate To weaken a contented state And the second scornes to fall short of her
resolution Fortune may sundry Engines finde But none to raze a noble minde The third in contempt of Fortune inlargeth this subject Should Fortune me distresse My minde would be no lesse The fourth to shew her affection true Toutch attests her constancy in this Fate may remove Life but not love Thus have we showne their spritely tempers in their contempt of all oppositions that might assaile or assault them Life they sleighted being in competition with honour Fame though it was too high a prize to lose yet being not conscious to themselves of any staine they neglected with a gracefull scorne the irregular libertie of a loose tongue And for Fortunes they stood so indifferent as they held Content their Crowne and that Crowne the absolutest imbellishment of an infranchis'd mind SECTION IIII. Their continency in assaults NOble spirits cannot chuse but preferre that most which incomparably adornes them most Though the Case give an outward beautie to the Instrument yet it is the Instrument gives the harmony to the Case or all were out of case Now if creatures who never were indowed with Reason and whose highest desires confined themselves to Sense so much abhorred a communitie in the use of their Sex or an incestuous commixture of Seed in their generations of one kind How much more those who have captivated their Sense to Reason and knowne what it was to give reines to unbounded libertie or slave their inward freedome to the weakely recompenc'd service of vanity For man who as he is the noblest creature and accomplish'd best with those choicest ornaments of grace to beautifie so Princely a feature so is he to discover some impressions of the dignitie of his nature by living so on earth as after earth hee may live for ever O how hatefull it is for a Beast to be liker Man then Man to himselfe For Beast to partake of Man while Man partakes no lesse of Beast Lust saies that Ambrosian Father is detestable to brute beasts and Savages The loving Turtle forsakes her Laune and dis-esteemes life when she has lost her love On no greene branch will she perch no cheerefull ayre will she breath no new confort will she entertaine A retired melancholy is her affected melody Privacy is her mansion remotest shades close best with her disposition The Porphyrio or Purple Cout cannot endure to repaire to his nest after that he findes it stained with an adulterous foote yet so loving is hee to his owne as he scornes to take any unworthy revenge of his Make but by an incessant passion of continued griefe to weave out the web of his woes and so dispatch himselfe It is reported of the Camell that they usually hood-winke him when at any time they bring his mother unto him which act observe this incestuous hate he no sooner knowes then he tramples her under his feete and kickes her to death with his heeles So egregiously hatefull is incest even to brute Beasts whose native instinct abhorres such obscene commixtures Nay to present to your eyes the spleenefull disposition of some creatures who to revenge their abused Loves have reteined a memory above their qualitie to expedite their intended tragedy This might be instanced in that memorable example of Crathis who dwelling in the towne of Sybaris so monstrously and unnaturally raged in the heate of immoderate lust as on a time neglecting all humanitie to extinguish the violent flames of his bestiall affection came to a She-Goate and coupled with her which the He-Goate as one seeing yet reserving revenge for a fitter time found the said Crathis one day fast asleepe upon presentment of which opportunitie to revenge the injury of his corrupted love and revenge the horrour of his detested lust hee presently fell upon him and mall'd him to death with his hornes By these you shall collect how Myrrha never lookes better then when Mya stands beside her and how the preciousest Gems shew ever in the darkest places their fairest lustre Ladies we have here who are so farre from a light assent as they scorne to admit a weake assault which confirmes the judgement of that nobly-accomplish'd though unfortunate Gentleman In part to blame is she that has beene tride He comes too neare that comes to be denide This that noble minded Lady Armenia expressed who being solemnly invited to King Cyrus wedding went thither with her husband At night when those royall rites had beene solemnized and they returned her husband asked her how she liked the Bridegroome whether upon perusall of him she thought him to be a faire and beautifull Prince or no Truth sayes she I know not for all the while I was forth I cast mine eyes upon none other but upon thy selfe Those receiving portells of her Senses were shut against all forreigne intruders Shee had made a morall league with her loyall eyes to fix on no unlawfull beautie lest her surprized eye might ingage her to folly Nor could these hold it to stand with their repute either to heare or conceive ought that might worthily trench upon their husbands fame or redound to his reproach One of Hiero's enemies finding nothing else in him whereby he might revile him or asperse disgrace upon him reproaching him with a stinking breath went home and questioned his wife why she told him not thereof who answered she thought all men had the like savour This confirmes that Maxim of divine Plato The lover is ever blinded with affection towards his beloved But to enlighten the beautie of this Subject with one exquisite and imparallel'd example for all bestow your eyes upon Chiomara wife of Orgiagon a petty King of that Province upon discomfiture of the Gallo-Gracians being ravished by a Roman Captaine gave a memorable patterne of conjugall vertue and sponsall continency for She cut off the fellowes head from his shoulders and escaping from her Guard brought it to her Lord and Husband We might enlarge this discourse by illustrious examples derived from the continence of those Dalmatian and Sabine Ladies who preferred their honour before life holding nothing in more contempt then loose love That Princely care which Darius wife and his daughters had to preserve their highly-valued honour and how much their care was cherished by that universall Conquerour And though youth matched with age oft-times begets distracted thoughts yet might we produce instances not onely in the survey of forraigne States but even within our native borders how fresh-blooming youth unequally affianced to hoary age has borne it selfe so free from scandall that though they might professe themselves vestall Virgins at the funerall of their Husbands yet so cautious were they to decline shame as their modest thoughts scorned to incline to a prohibited embrace of sinne Albeit I must ever cloze in opinion with the Poet There 's nothing does more dully move In fancies Orbe then aged love Age then with an ingenuous acknowledgement of his owne strength should not fully such prime redolent blossomes with an earthy touch
and expeditenesse in the way of Commerce with our daily experience of discourse with creatures of that sexe in treaties of Converse It seemes those three gentlemen as if they had beene Trium-viri in their fruition of this happinesse could returne sufficient arguments of their Mistresses abilities in this kind While one making choice of this Posy expressed the absolutenesse of his choice in the neatnesse and elegancy of her discourse which hee recommended to the impressure of his Diamond in a Window My choice is one whose accents beare such weight As all discourses else to mee seeme light These lines when another Gentleman had perused as one who conceiv'd himselfe no lesse enriched by his choice seconds the former in this manner by engraving this Impreze to his Mistresse honour Single's my choice yet with her cheered am I As if that single conference were many The third nothing short in his Conceipt of the like beauty and for subjects of Discourse no lesse moving in the care of Fancy to publish to the world that hee tender'd his deserving Mistresse no lesse affection with a more enlivened or mounting invention closed his opinion he reteined of her in this commendation My Consort 's single yet when shee is by me Mee thinkes the Spheares in Warbling Quires draw nigh me Such as these may wee well hold with that eminent Statist for old mens Nurses and young mens Mistresses Should their youthfull prime entertaine by an enforced injunction a frosty Consort their vertuous temper is such as their enforced choice must admit no change Euryala was never more obsequious to tender Ithacus then these will expresse themselves to their decrepit husbands Their disparity in yeares must not beget in their affections any disloyaltie of thoughts Though they be young Brides they will performe the offices of old Nurses Their care must extend it selfe instead of amorous embraces to preserve health in their declining husbands which they addresse themselves to with no lesse alacrity then if they had beene matched to persons of more vigorous quality These have made a league with their eyes that they shall be no betrayers of their hearts As it was their doome to marry unequally and to bestow their Virgin youth on meere patients engaged to each infirmity so they have vowed solely to observe them constantly to love them peaceably to live with them and amidst all overtures so to beare with their infirmities as no peevish humour of age shall distemper them nor any groundlesse jealousie suggest to their revenge an opportunity to wrong them And this their Observance must not proceed from any by-respect as many cautelous younglings doe who usully accommodate themselves to their perverse husbands humour with hope of a day to come after Their affections are pure without dissembling their care constant without projecting their desires addrest to please without humoring Others wee shall find of their sexe fit to be young-mens Mistresses And these no lesse modestly pleasing then vertuously affecting These can stand upon their points without apish nicenesse and hold their distance without a squeamish precisenesse They can love without fonding ingratiate themselves without fauning Neate they desire to goe without phantasticknesse Sweetly can they converse without affectednesse These hold it a feminine madnesse to pride themselves in that which stript their Predecessors of their purest state These reflect upon Eve with a teare-swolne eye and in a retired contemplation and recollected affection present her Image to their well-composed thoughts And this they make their Diarie to the end it may worke upon their imaginations more effectually O was not Eve created in her will free and innocent in her reason sage and prudent in her command strong and potent And what deprived her of so blest a condition but an indisposed heat of ambition Had her thoughts confin'd themselves to the lists of her present state shee had never throwne upon her posterity such a surviving staine O had shee beene content with what shee was her sexe had never beene so miserable as it is Her ambition became our perdition Her pride our ruine They sigh to see their sexe so vainely magnifi'd to heare them with Titles of Worthies dignifi'd to have their Portratures in such magnificent manner beautifi'd These they sleight with more religious contempt then ever the victorious Vtican did the erection of his statue being no embellishment as hee accounted it to the essence of vertue Well deserving a succeeding memory was that Motto I did never in any thing to my selfe arrogate wherein I did not from my selfe derogate And such is the modesty of these patterns of piety as they cannot endure to have their commendable actions too much observed or publickly applauded lest by hearing themselves praised they might incurre vaine-glory and so become deluded Their constant nuptiall Impreses or Loves loyall Posies were these Chaste faith enstiles me Spouse A Hand for my Wheele a Bed for my Spouse Where thou art Caius I am Caia I love I live and yet I give that to my Love by which I live To live and have no heart were strange yet have I none but by exchange Death may contract my life but not my love Such as these famous Mirrors shall wee occasionally encounter withall in our Readings Who though they were Ethnicks borne reteined in them such impressions of morall goodnesse as their memory left an Annall to posterity being so much more to be admired in regard those times wherein they flourished were with mists of pagan ignorance clouded These desired to doe well and not to be applauded to advance vertues and not to have their names recorded nor their amiable features with glorious Frontispices impaled To improve goodnesse by humility was their highest pitch of glory This their sundry excellent fancies confirmed their elegant labours discovered whereof though many have suffered Oblivion through the injury of time and want of that incomparable helpe of the Presse the benefit whereof wee enjoy yet shall wee find by the testimony of our approvedst Authors that many of these women which for brevity sake wee have onely shadowed have beene assistants to the highest and most enlivened Composures that ever derived birth or breath from Helicon Besides other Historicall Relations whose memory time shall sooner expire in her selfe then obscure Turne over those mysterious volumes of the Sibyls those accurate ayres of Corinnathia that incomparable Corrivall to the Poet Pindarus those Emathian raptures of Argentaria that happy Consort and assistant to the heroick Lucan Neither need wee travell abroad in pursuit of forraigne Instances Wee have not onely formerly enjoyed but even in these times are we seazed of many eminent and deserving women and in addition to their honour noâ—ly descended who rightly merit the style bestowed on them The WITS And these have the happinesse to judge of a well-composed line to breath spirit in invention to correct the indisposure of a Scene to collect probably a worke I must confesse of
of filiall duty and to performe them with all alacrity Besides doe Children desire a blessing The Honour which they render unto their Parents is confirâ—ed with a promise Nor is any Commandement ratified with a stronger Assumpsit Length of dayes is promised which implyes an abridgement of time to such as neglect it Nay that I may presse this Argument a little further by recounting those benefits which arise from parentall honour wee shall generally observe how that dis-regard to obedience which Children shew towards their Parents â—s fully requited by the Disobedience of their Children when they come to be Parents For what more may you expect from yours then what you tendered unto yours You may collect hence what singular blessings are from Obedience derived Againe what discomforts even to Posterity are from disobedience occasioned The one proposeth a long life the other implyeth a short life The one conferrs a comfort on us in our posterity the other a myriad of afflictions in our progeny Nor can that Child be of â—a ingenuous nature who with a free and uncoacted embrace addresseth not his best endeavours to advance this Honour Let him but respect upon his parents tendernesse and hee cannot chuse but highly taxe himselfe of unthankefulnesse should hee suffer the neglect of one houre in returning the obedientiall sacrifice of a Child to his Father Neither is any time to be exempted from so pious a taske For as their tender and vigilant eye has beene from infancy to yeeres of more maturity ever intentively fixed that their hopes might be improved and their comforts â—n that improvement numerously augmented so ought it to be the delightful'st study to their posterity to crown their Parents white hairs with comfort and in imitation of that veâ—tuous Corinthian to recollect themselves by considering what might give their Parents most content and with all cheerfulnesse to performe that for them even after their death which they conceived could not chuse but content them in their life Alas so indulgent are most Parents and so easily contented as the very least offices of duty performed by their Children transport them above comparison When Children in Obedience play their part They drop young blood into an aged heart Nay I may truly affirme of this precious plant of filiall Obedience what our ancient Poets sometimes wrote of that Aesonian herbe or what the ever living Homer reported of his Moli that it has power to restore nature and beget an amiable complexion in the Professor For a good life attracts to the countenance sayes the Ethick expressive Characters of love Now should you more curiously then necessarily enquire after the extent of this Obedience as wherein it is to be exercised and to what bounds confined take this for a positive Rule that in whatsoever shall not be repugnant to the expresse will of God there is required this Observance yea even in matters of indifference it is farre safer to oppose your owne wils then distaste your Parents It was an excellent saying of Saint Gregory Hee that would not offend in things unlawfull must oft abridge himselfe in things lawfull The way to infuse more native heat in this Obedience is to shew an alacrity of obeying even in Subjects of indifference for a remissenesse in these cannot but argue a probable coolenesse in those of higher consequence And as the command of a discreet Father will injoyne his Child nothing but what may comply equally with piety and reason so will a dutifull Child submit himselfe to his Fathers command without the least unbeseeming debate or expostulation Thus from these Premisses may wee draw this infallible Conclusion Would you enjoy length of dayes glad houres or a succeeding comfort in yours Answer their aged hopes who have treasured their provisionall cares for you bring not their silver haires with sorrow to their Grave but returne them such arguments of proficience in every promising Grace that your sincere and unfeigned Obedience may not be only a surviving comfort to your Parents but a continuall Feast to your owne Conscience Neither are you to performe these offices of Obedience with a regardlesse affection or without due Reverence For as God would have those who are Labourers in his Vineyard to doe their worke with cheerefulnesse so is it his will that naturall Children returne all offices of duty and filiall Obedience with humility and reverence Age is a crowne of glory when it is found in the way of righteousnesse And this closeth well with that saying of the Preacher The crowne of old men is to have much experience and the feare of God is their glory But admit they were such whom native Obedience injoynes you to reverence as the nearer to their Grave the further from knowledge the nearer to earth the more glued to earth yet for all this in lawfull things are you not to alien your thoughts of obedience from them but as you derived your being from them so with a sensible compassion of their infirmities with the veile of piety to cover their nakednesse It is true indeed what that sententious Morall sometimes observed There is no sight more unseemely then an old man who having lived long reteines no other argument of his age then his yeares This moved Curius Dentatus to conclude so positively that he had rather be dead then live as one dead Neither indeed is age to bee measured by yeares but houres Many are old in yeares who are young in houres Many old in houres who are young in yeares For time is of such unvaluable estimate that if it be not imployed to improvement it becomes a detriment to the Accomptant No object more distastefull said that divine Morall then an Elementary Old-man No subject of discourse more hatefull said witty Petrarch then a d dialecticall Old-man A logicall age howsoever it appeare copious in words it seldome becomes plenteous in workes Free discoursers in Philosophy are oft the slowest proficients in the practick part of Philosophy Whereas it is better to be a Truant at Schoole then in the practise of life For as it is better to know little and practise much then to know much and practise little So it is a more usefull knowledge to learne the art of living then of learning For many with their learning have gone into Hell whereas none were they never so simple but by living well have gained Heaven It is an excellent Caution indeed and well deserving our deepe Impression If thou hast gathered nothing in thy youth what canst thou find in thine age Put sufficient it is not to gather but to make use of that experimentall treasure Medicines deposited afford small benefit to the Patient nor are Talents to bee buried nor our Lights under a bushell shrouded Knowledge cannot be usefully active unlesse it be communicative Howsoever then Age in respect of her ancient livery with those aged Emblemes of her antiquity exact
reverence yet deserves it most honour when those gray haires are beautified with knowledge Oh how pleasant a thing is it when gray headed men minister judgement and when the Elders can give good counsell Oh how comely a thing is wisedome unto aged men and understanding anâ— prudency to men of honour This no doubt as it begets them esteeme amongst their Equals so it highly improves their reverence with Inferiours For foolish age though it should be exempted from derision yet such is the levity of time and piercing eye of youthfull observation as age becomes censured by youth whereas youth ought rather to interpret the best then detract in the least from the reverence of age It is too true that every obliquity be it either of higher or lower quality is more incurable in age then youth The reason is Age becomes more insensible of what it has committed and growes more indurate through an accustomed habit whereas though an unconfined heat of youth drive the other into folly an ability of conceipt brings them to an apprehension of what they have done and consequently to a recollection of themselves to reforme what they have mis-done Now the way how to improve this reverence in Parents to their Children and Magistrates to their Inferiours is to expresse such patterns of piety in the whole course of their life as the very shadows reflecting from such Mirrors may produce an awfull reverence zeale and love in their Observers with a zealous desire of imitation in their Successors This no doubt begot a pious emulation in our Predecessors towards those whose actions being of ancient record induced them to trace those steps wherein they had walked and with much constancy to professe those vertues which they had found in them so highly approved Others lives became their lines lines to direct them by their Coppy lights to conduct them to an higher pitch of true Nobility It is a Rule worthy inscription on the ancient Wardrobe of Age Old men by how much they are unto death neerer by so much more ought they to be purer This will attract unto them duty in their life and eternity after death Now Gentlemen that you may better observe this Reverence addressed to those to whom you owe all Obedience be it farre from you to debate or dispute their commands It suites not well with the duty of a Child to expostulate with a Father especially in morall respects where the quality or nature of the command discovers no Opposition to the Law divine Be never in their presence without a pious feare and awfull reverence Interrupt them not in their discourse neither preferre your owne opinion before their advise It tastes of an ill condition to stand upon conditions with a Father upon proposals of meanes or exhibitions But much more distastefull to contest in termes as if the memory of nature were lost in you and all acquaintance with piety estranged from you This it was which moved that dis-passionate Theban to take up his unseasoned Sonne in this manner putting him in mind of his neglect even of civile duty which the better to remember hee layes before him his uncivile demeanour in this severe Character An Ale-house seemes by your Apologie an excellent Receipt for a Male-content I am sory you have lost the Principles of more divine Philosophy You might recall to mind those Attick Studies wherein you were sometimes versed those Academick Colleagues with whom you discoursed A Memoriall of these might have better qualified this humour by reducing your troubled affections to a clearer temper But my hopes now are to be resolv'd into prayers for as yet there can appeare small hope where your Morning Sacrifice is offer'd to Smoake a sweet perfume for an intended Convert You seeme to presse your Father to a performance of promise God blesse you I see plainely your pen must necessarily make that Maxime good Where there is a want in the practise of piety it must needs beget a neglect of Duty nay of Civility I could wish that you would be as ready to reform the errours of your life as I to performe the Offices of a fatherly love So speedily do's love descend so slowly do's it ascend To conclude all in one I must tell you to condition with a Father argues no good condition in a Sonne But let the wisest Consort you consult with advise you and with their Tap-Rhetorick surprize you you shall find that I have power to proportion meanes to every ones merit From which resolution neither shall affection draw me nor power over-awe me So as if you expect from me a Patrimony exercise Piety Be what you seemâ— or prove the same you vow Wee have dissembling practisers enow Thus have you heard the course of a profuse Sonne with the resolution of a dis-consolate Father Collect hence what discontents accompany the one what distractions conscionably may attend the other Children reflect constant cares but uncertaine comforts Cares are proper attributes to Parents Comforts those fruits after a long Seed-plot of cares the sole Harvest they reape It is true Parents are to dispence with discomforts in their Children and receive them as familiar Guests to lodge with them But what heavy fates attend such Children as exemplarily present this condition Welcome Guests you cannot be to your father in heaven who make your inferiour cares such unwelcome Guests to him on earth I have found in some Children a serious inquisition after their Fathers yeares so as if they could possibly have contracted with the Register to inlarge his aged Character hee could not want an ample Fee for so gratefull a labour Such as these would ride in their Fathers saddle before their time But trust me few of these Lap-wing hopes or loose-pinion'd desires but they cloze in a fatall Catastrophe and as their ill-grounded hopes were scean'd in prodigality so they end tragically in an Act of misery Let it be your honour to reverence their gray haires and with wishes of pious zeale to rejoyce in their length of dayes For this it is will bring an happinesse to your age and beget a reverend obedience in yours as you in all piety offer'd like Sacrifice unto yours For take this for a constant position You shall seldome see any Prodigals falling short of these inherent Offices of duty but if they live to have a progeny they receive the like discomforts from their posterity Nay I have knowne very few such Vnnaturalists who desired their Fathers death in hope to enjoy his Land that ever enjoy'd much comfort in possession of that Land For as these murder their Parents in their hearts so they are many times stifled in the fruition of their hopes Tasting more aloes of discontent in their enjoying then ever they did sweetnesse in their expecting Consider then the excellency of that divine Proverbe A foolish Son is a griefe unto his Father and a heavinesse to her that bare him Now lesse then
magnanimous man as reproach and shame Oh then deferre no time but seasonably apply your taske by infusing into his breathing wounds some balmy comfort such as that Cordiall was of a divine Poet Nulla tam tristis sit in orbe nubes Quam nequit constans relevare pectus Nulla cordati Scrinio Clientis Ansa querelis No Cloud so dusky ever yet appeared Which by minds armed was not quickly cleared Ne're Suit to th' bosome of a Spirit cheered Sadly resounded Againe should you find him afflicted with sicknesse which hee increaseth with a fruitlesse impatience wishing a present period to his daies that so death might impose an end to his griefes Suffer him not so to waste his Spirits nor to dishonour him who is the searcher of Spirits but apply some soveraigne receipt or other to allay his distemper which vncured might endanger him for ever Exhort him to possesse his soule in patience and to supply this absence of outward comforts with the sweet relishing ingredients of some mentall or spirituall solace Ingenious Petrarch could say Be not afraid though the out-house meaning the body be shaken so the soule the Guest of the body fare well And he closed his resolution in a serious dimension who sung He that has health of mind what has he not 'T is the mind that moulds the man as man a pot Lastly doe you find him perplexed for losse of some deare friend whose loyall affection reteined in him such a deepe impression as nothing could operate in him more grounded sorrow then such an amicable division Allay his griefe with divine and humane reasons Tell him how that very friend which he so much bemones is gone before him not lost by him This their division will beget a more merry meeting Let him not then offend God by lamenting for that which he cannot recall by sorrowing nor suffer his too earthly wishes for his owne peculiar end to wish so much harme to his endeared friend as to make exchange of his seat and state of immortality with a vale of teares and misery Admit he dyed young and that his very prime hopes confirmd the opinions of all that knew him that a few maturer yeares would have so accomplish'd him as his private friends might not onely have rejoyced in him but the publique state derived much improvement from him His hopefull youth should rather be an occasion of joy then griefe Though Priam was more numerous in yeares yet Troilus was more penurious in teares The more dayes the more griefes No matter whether our dayes be short or many so those houres we live be improved and imployed to Gods glory But leaving these admit you should find him sorrowing for such a Subject as deserves no wise mans teares as for the losse of his goods These teares proceed from despicable Spirits and such whose desires are fixed on earth So that as their love was great in possessing them so their griefe must needs be great in forgoing them Many old and decrepit persons to whom even Nature promiseth an hourely dissolution become most subject to these indiscreet teares For with that sottish Roman they can sooner weepe for the losse of a Lamprey then for the very nearest and dearest in their Family At such as these that Morall glanced pleasantly who said Those teares of all others are most base which proceed from the losse of a beast And these though their grounds of griefe appeare least yet many times their impatience breakes forth most Fearefull oathes and imprecations are the accustomablest ayres or accents which they breath These you are to chastise and in such a manner and measure as they may by recollection of themselves agnise their error and repeat what that divine Poet sometimes writ to impresse in them the more terror That house which is inur'd to sweare Gods judgements will fall heavy there These as they are inordinate in their holding so are they most impatient in their losing And it commonly sareth with these men as it doth with the Sea-Eagle who by seeking to hold what she has taken is drench't downe into the gulfe from which shee can never be taken It was the saying of sage Pittacus that the Gods themselves could not oppose what might necessarily occurre Sure I am it is a vaine and impious reluctancy to gaine-say whatsoever God in his sacred-secret decree has ordained His sanctions are not as mans they admit no repeale What availes it then these to repine or discover such apparent arguments of their impatience when they labour but to reverse what cannot be revoked to anull that which must not be repealed Exhort them then to suffer with patience what their impatience cannot cure and to scorne such servile teares which relish so weakly of discretion as they merit more scorne then compassion Now there is another kinde of more kind-hearted men who though in the whole progresse of their life they expressed a competent providence being neither so frugall as to spare where reputation bad them spend nor so prodigall as to spend where honest providence bad them spare Yet these even in the shore when they are taking their farewell of earth having observed how their children in whom their hopes were treasured become profuse rioters set the hoope an end and turne Spend-thrifts too and so close their virile providence with an aged negligence sprinkling their hoairy haires with youthfull conceipts and singing merrily with the Latian Lyrick Our children spend and wee 'l turne spenders too And though Old-men doe as our young men doe This I must ingeniously confesse is an unseemly sight That old men when yeares have seazed on them and their native faculties begin to faile them should in so debaucht a manner make those discontents which they conceive from their children the grounds of their distemper For as the adage holds it prodigious for youth to represent age so is it ridiculous for age to personate youth But for decrepit age as it is for most part unnaturall to bee prodigall so is it an argument of indiscretion for it to be too penuriously frugall For to see one who cannot have the least hope of living long to bee in his earthly desires so strong to be so few in the hopes of his succeeding yeares and so full of fruitlesse desires and cares what sight more vnseemely what spectacle more uncomely That man deluded man when strength failes him all those certaine fore-runners of an approaching dissolution summon him and the thirsty hope of his dry-ey'd executors makes them weary of him that then I say his eager pursuit of possessing more when as he already possesseth more then he can well enioy should so surprize him discovers an infinite measure of madnesse for as it divides his affections from the object of heaven so it makes him unwilling to return to earth when his gellied blood his enfeebled faculties and that poor mouldred remainder of his declining cottage as
to all dangers without mature judgement to foresee and resolution to prevent the iminency of all occurrents which made Homer dilate upon the essence of true Fotitude represented in Hector as an Archytipe no lesse imitable then for mannagement in all Assaies admirable He brings him in dehorting his brother Paris from his inconsiderate purpose with this good caveat It becommeth us not to take Armes upon every sensuall respect but to ground the motion of warre upon a cause honestly moving To be brief there should be no vertue which should not rather-character her selfe by her owne purity then be displaied by a curious or affective style which rather detracts then augments those perfect and unstained ornaments wherewith she is endued and that which Cicero speaks of the office of an Orator censuring that Speech as most vicious which seemes most curious may I speak of Honour whose dependence is of Vertue onely illustrated in her selfe because her essence gives to her more eminence than the polish'd styles of the best Rhetoricians could ever effect But I will descend into the particular discourse of truly honourable What they should be that arrogate that Name and what they are that merit it Honour relisheth best when highliest descended not boasting with Lycas in the Tragedy of noble Ancestors but of inward vertues making their mindes the purest mansions of Nobility their vertues the Symbolls of their dâ—scent and progeny For what is it to challenge precedencie by our Ancestors being made Noble by them whom our owne actions perchance makes as ignoble I can approve that disposition of Alexander the best who rather wished his Fathers exploits though not in eâ—vy to be obscured whereby his owne memorable atchievements might purchase him glory not by relation had to the prowesse of his Father but his owne demerits yet not with a too listning eare of attention hearing his warlike designes above truth praysed but more willing to doe then heare of his doings For hearing Aristobulus on a time commending his memorable acts farre above truth in his writings He threw the booke into the river as he was sailing over Hydaspis saying he was almost moved to send Aristobulus after For this I have alwaies observed in an honourable minde no popular conceipt can transport her above her Shpaere She cannot endure a temporizing Humorist that feedes on the aire of his owne applause but like a wise Ithacus commits the sailes of his prudent and provident affections to be disposed by Vertue stopping his eare at the Incantations of the voice-alluring Syren or cup-attracting Cyrce An honourable man stereth his Ship with no Sterne of Ambition but with a temperate opinion of himself and his owne Actions referring the whole current and passage of his intentions purposes and endeavours to his Countries welfare whose safety he preferres before his owne wishing rather death with a good opinion of his country then immerited honours with her detriment The Truly Honourable will accept of no honours but such as her deserts challenge nor those neither if not obtruded This moved many of the Ancient Heroes whose acts deserve no lesse memory then their lifes did glory to expose themselves to all perils whereby their names might be recorded in the Annalls of Fame leaving not only Statues or Monuments of what they have been but by the exact representation of their vertues what they are for even the Pagans reserved a place of honour and celebrity to such as had either exempted their Country from the servitude of her enemy or had augmented her glory by the voluntary resignation of their lives Such were the memorable Annalls of the Decii Curtii Bruti Many of the worthy mannagers of State in former times desired to have no statues to be erected in their glory rather making their owne vertues the liveliest records of their memory the reason whereof may be conceived or at least conjectured by those occurrents which even hapned in their times being pursued by that publique foe to vertue and all vertuous intendments Envy which marrow-eating locust attended the worthiest personages that then breathed Caesar had a Pompey Pompey a Septimius African a Marius Eschines a Demosthenes Cicero a Cethegus This might move and that not without just cause that Columne of justice Lacedemons glory vertuous Agesilaus to erect no statue in his honour lest his life 's Ideome after death should be no lesse contemned then he was in his life envied In meum honorem simulachra erigi non cupio ea enim magis gloriam detrahunt quà m augent in hoc autem humili thoro fama mea ab aliorum invidia maximè aliena est I desire to have no statue nor curious monument erected in mine honour they rather diminish than propagate our Glory my Fame is least envied in this low and dejected Bed of earth Poore Prince shall thy Name which hath spread it selfe by so many victories atchived so many conquests purchased non sine sanguine sudore shall they feare to be vanquished or suppressed by times anatomy cankred envy that never knew what Honour meant but by corrupting honour O then how vaine be those Trophies which are hung in honour of those Heroes of former times What availeth it Cyrus of the translated Monarchy from the Medes to the Persians or for Alexander to have reduced the whole world into one Monarchy or Caesar so farre to have dispersed his glory making his motto Veni Vidi Veci The envenomed breath of one serpentine spirit can consume so great and happy vertues which once aspired to that height that eminence as they enstyled their possessors truly Heroicall making Flaccus axiome no lesse true to demonstrate our declining memory then to describe our Times mortality Quò pius Encas quo Tullus dives Ancus Pulvis umbra sumus Dust and ashes indeed yet such as albeit the slimy substance of the externall man rest immured and incaged in the Bowels of earth yet there is an aethereall an heavenly aspiring beauty which cannot be depressed with the terrene and massie weight of earths interior centre alta petit nec cessat quoad altissima perringit It hovereth higher as a Bird farre removed from her native repose till it arrive at those Elysian Fields of true immortality where her expected habitation is possessed even the mansion of heavenly Syon Hence therefore may those carnall and epicureall men who have wallowed in all mundane delights drunke deep of the sensuall Lethe of their security be confounded with shame who relinquishing the offred time of grace expose themselves to the Brothells of sin and impiety forgetting all respect of honour as Corvinus Messala did his owne Name and when they behold the admired and most resplendent honours of our Time either to decline by some in auspicious accident or cut by the common Sithe of Fate compare their contaminate lives with their refined vertues They are gone and who will now remember them They were pillars of the state while they lived but now the