by the Cape of good hope till I arive at the haven of eternall happinesse THE same water which being liquid is penetrated with an horsehaire will beare the horse himselfe when it is hard frozen I muse not then that those precepts and threats of GODS judgements enter not into the hardned hearts of some old men frozen by the practice of sinne which pierce and penetrate deepe into the tender hearts and melting consciences of yonger folks thawed with the warmth of GODS feare Hence see I the cause why the sword of the Word so sharpe that it serveth in some to divide the joyntes and marrow in others glaunceth or reboundeth without dint or wound from their cristall frozen and adamantine hearts I cannot promise my selfe to bee free from sinne I were then no man but I will purpose in my selfe to bee free from hardnesse of heart by custome and continuance in sinne I may erre in my way I will not persist and goe on in my errours till I cannot returne againe into my way I may stumble I may fall but I will not lye still when I am fallen WHen I see two game-cocks at first sight without premeditated malice fight desperatly and furiously the one to maintaine the injury offered the other to revenge the injury received by the first blow and to maintaine this quarrell not onely dye the pit with their bloud but die in the pit with their mutuall bloudy wounds me thinkes I see the successe of those duëllers of our time which being ambitious of Achilles his praise Pelidis juvenis cedere nescij desperatly and furiously adventure their lives heere and indanger their soules heereafter onely for the vaine termes of false honour I will not say but that being flesh and bloud I may be carelesse of my flesh and bloud to revenge injurious indignities offered me yet since as a tenant my soule must answer her Landlord for reparations of the house she dwels in and I have no warrant of GOD or man for such revenge I will not kill my owne soule to kill an other mans body I will not pull the house of my body on my soules head in a fury that GOD may make them both fuell for the fury of hell fire WHen I view the heavens declaring the glory of GOD and the firmament shewing his handy worke and consider that each litle numbred starre even of the sixth magnitude containeth the earths dimension 18. times in bignesse by Astronomers conclusions I easily descend to consider the great difference of earthly mens glory and that weight of glory affoorded the Saints in heaven For what a poore ambition is it to bee the best man in a City What 's a City to a Shire What a Shire to the whole Island What this Island to the Continent of Europe What Europe to the whole Earth What that Earth to a Starre What that Starre to Heaven and that to the Heaven of Heavens And so by a retrogradation how litle How nothing is this poore glory I finde many which say hoc nihil est aliquid I finde in my selfe cause to say hoc aliquid nihil est If I needs will bee somebody by my ambition I will bee ambitious to bee ranged with the Saints in Heaven rather then ranked with the Kings on earth since the least in the Kingdome of Heaven is greater then they I Saw once a Ierfalcon let fly at an Heron and observed with what clamour the Heron entertain'd the sight and approach of the Hawke and with what winding shifts hee strave to get above her labouring even by bemuting his enemies feathers to make her flaggwinged and so escape but when at last they must needs come to a necessitated encounter resuming courage out of necessity hee turned face against her and striking the Hawke thorough the gorge with his bill fell downe dead together with his dead enemie This sight seemed to mee the event of a great sute in Law where one trusting to his cases potency more then his causes equity endeavours to disinherit his stubborne neighbour by colourable titles to his land Heere may you heare the clamorous obloquies of the wronged and see the many turnings and winding Meanders in the Law sought out to get above his adversary And lastly when the issue must come to tryall oftentimes in the grapple they both sinke to beggery by the Law whiles lawfully they seeke to get above each other Hence warned against potent enemies I will alway pray LORD make mee not a prey unto their teeth and against an equall or inferiour I will not borrow the lawes extreme right to doe him extreme wrong nor fall to law with any body till I fall by law to bee no body I will not doe that to have my will which will undoe my selfe of what I have by my willfullnesse THe Psalmist doth not slander the slanderers when in a good description of their bad natures hee saith their throat is an open sepulcher c. the poyson of Aspes is under their lippes For what more loathsome stench and noisome smells can a new opened sepulcher belch out then these venomous open throated slanderers And well may their lipscontaine the poyson of Aspes of which Lucan saith in nulla plus est serpente veneni when a few words of theirs shall like a Witches spell charme and strike dead a mans deerest reputation I will therefore indeavour to make my actions of that vertue that as an antidote of Mithridates his best confection they may repell the worst infection those serpents shall spit at mee And albeit I cannot bee free from their assaults from which none is freed yet I will not with Cleopatra set those Aspes so neere my heart that they may stop my vitall spirits with their poyson And since I must passe thorough this Africa of monsters and harmefull beasts I will carefully feare and shunne the worst of tame beasts the flatterer and of wild beasts the slanderer MEditation is a busie search in the store-house of fantasie for some Idea's of matters to bee cast in the moulds of resolution into some formes of words or actions In which search when I have used my greatest diligence I finde this in the conclusion that to meditate on the Best is the best of Meditations and a resolution to make a good end is a good end of my resolutions A Meditation of the Authors found written before a Sermon of his for easter-EASTER-day MY heart a matter good indites O then Lord make my tongue a ready writers pen That so assisted by thy graces art Thy grace unto the world I may impart So raise my thoughts my willing minde so blesse That I thy glorious rising may expresse And rays'd from death of sinfull ignorance Thy selfe-advancing power may advance And if my simple willingnesse wants skill Thou mad'st me willing LORD accept my will An other written before a Sermon of his on the 51. Psalme verse 1. LORD guide my tongue that covets to declare How great my sinnes how good thy mercies are I both would shew and yet so great is either That whil'st I both would shew I can shew neither They both are infinite they both began Ere I beginning had or shape of man Where then shall I begin with hope to shew How great both are who both exceeding know Mercy still pardons sinne doth still offend And being endlesse both where shall I end Thou first and last whose mercy heale my sin Shew me to end and teach me to begin The last thing the Author wrote a few daies before his death A Bubble broke its ayre looseth By which losse the bubble's lost Each frost the fayrest flower brooseth Whose lives vanish with that frost Then wonder not we die if life be such But rather wonder whence it is we live so much Tales long or short whether offending Or well pleasing have their end The glasse runnes yet the set-time ending Every atom doth descend If life be such as such life is t is sure When tales and times find ends why should life still indure This world is but a walke of paine That ha's onely end by death This life 's a warre in which we gaine Conquest by the losse of breath Who would not war-fare end and travells cease To live at home in rest and rest at home in peace Nothing heere but constant paines Or unconstant pleasures be Worthlesse treasures loosing gaines Scantie store chaynd liberty If life affoord the best no better fate How welcome is that death that betters that bad state What 's the earth when trimmest drest To that cristall spangled dwelling Yet the Saint in glory least Is in glory farre excelling Glorious Redeemer let this earth of mine Thy glorious body see and in thy glory shine Oft I see the darksome night To a glorious day returning As oft doth sleepe intombe my sight Yet I wake againe at morning Bright Sunne returne when sleepe hath spent deaths night That these dimne eyes of mine may in thy light see light FINIS
The Inventors premeditation upon this Emblematicall Frontispice of the subsequent pious MEDITATIONS MY Heart a matter good indite By good Examples Cloud by Day By Faiths shining Lamp led by Night With Zeals wings soare up the steep way To Light inaccessible which To Fill and not be Fill'd is rich Leaving th' Earth and TITLES below Where black Heart buried yet not dead Some Posthume rayes doth now bestow Whiles it lies sleeping in Deaths bed An Adamantine heart GOD leaves But takes that which Contrition cleaves Let each sound heart take in good part This thus reflected Broken heart RESOLVED MEDITATIONS Meditated REsolutions Written by A. W. Enlarged 1634 LONDON Printed for Walter Hammond Loquela Emblematici Frontispicij in obsequtum Inventoris piam Authoris memoriam suggesta ACcensus radijs zeloque agitante levatus In coelum geminis flammâ ocyus evolat alis Igne rapax Animus mundique nitentia tangit Lumina Nubâ—genis variata nixa Columnis Sursum contendens summaeque Volumina Legis Secum adamanda verenda Dieque ac Nocte revolvit Haec alto ènsu Mundó TITVLISque relictis Non illum DVX SOLIS amatique arbiter Ortûs Despicit afflictum cum mens divulsafatiscit Cordaque dividuo perrumpit Malleus ictu Si silices gest at solidoque Adamante rigescens Effugit insultus faevi verbera motûs LVNAE LVX illum non respicit alma rigorem Hîc fractum COR Lector habes penetrale serenae Mentis innocuae per quod post funera paucos Nunc spargit radios animi vigor ultimus ardor Verus instanti duplicata potentia mòrte Colli at hos rapiatque in concava pectora Candor Lucidus ingenij deducetque aethere flammas Concipietque novos aeterni luminis ignes GVLIEL HAYDOCK Spare-Minutes OR RESOLVED MEDITATIONS AND PREMEDITATED RESOLVTIONS Written by A. W. Ego cur acquirere pauca Si possim invidear The second Edition corrected and enlarged LONDON Printed by R. B. for Walter Hammond and are to be sold by Michael Sparke in Greene Arbour 1634. TO THE RIGHT Worshipfull My much Honoured Friend Sr William Dodington Knight all health and happinesse Right Worshipfull I Will not make an over large gate to my little City A short Epistle best suites with so small a volume and both fitly resemble your knowledge of mee and mine acquaintance with you short and small But a mite freely given makes a poore widow liberall and in this Present poore like my habilities is a thankfulnesse infinite like your deservings To speake much might be thought flattery to say nothing would be knowne ingratiude I must therefore be short I may not bee silent The happy fortune of my tongue hath incouraged my penne and I humbly crave in the one what I favourably found in the other a courteous acceptance Which if you please to add to your former favours my happinesse I shall have just cause to rest Your Wòrships truly devoted ARTHVR WARVVICK RESOLVED MEDITATIONS AND Premeditated resolutions IT is the over curious ambition of many to be best or to be none if they may not doe so well as they would they will not doe so well as they may I will doe my best to doe the best and what I want in power supply in will Thus whils I pay in part I shall not bee a debtor for all Hee owes most that payes nothing PRide is the greatest enemy to reason and discretion the greatest opposite to pride For whiles wisdome makes art the ape of nature pride makes nature the ape of art The Wiseman shapes his apparell to his body the proud man shapes his body by this apparell 'T is no marvell than if hee know not himselfe when hee is not to day like him he was yesterday and lesse marvell if good men will not know him when hee forgets himselfe and all goodnesse I should feare whilest I thus change my shape least my maker should change his opinion and finding mee not like him hee made mee reject mee as none of his making I would any day put off the old cause of my apparell but not every day put on new fashioned apparell I see great reason to bee ashamed of my pride but no reason to bee proud of my shame THe reason that many men want their desires is because their desires want reason Hee may doe what hee will that will doe but what he may I Should marvell that the Covetous man can still bee poore when the rich man is still covetous but that I see a poore man can bee content when the contented man is onely rich the one wanting in his store whiles the other is stored in his wants I see then wee are not rich or poore by what wee possesse but by what we desire For hee is not rich that hath much but hee that hath enough nor hee poore that hath but little but hee that wants more If GOD then make mee rich by store I will not impoverish my selfe by covetousnesse but if hee make mee poore by want I will inrich my selfe by content HYpocrisie desires to seeme good rather than to be so honestie desires to bee good rather than seeme so The worldlings purchase reputation by the sale of desert wisemen buy desert with the hazard of reputation I would do much to heare well more to deserve well and rather loose opinion then merit It shall more joy mee that I know my selfe what I am than it shall grieve me to heare what others report mee I had rather deserve well without praise than doe ill with commendation A Coward in the field is like the Wisemans foole his heart is at his mouth and hee doth not know what hee does professe but a Coward in his faith is like a foole in his wisedome his mouth is in his heart and hee dares not professe what hee does know I had rather not know the good I should doe than not do the good I know It is better to be beaten with few stripes than with many EAch true Christian is a right traveller his life his walke CHRIST his way and Heaven his home His walke painefull his way perfect his home pleasing I will not loyter least I come short of home I will not wander least I come wide of home but bee content to travell hard and be sure walke right so shall my safe way find its end at home and my painefull walke make my home welcome AS is a wound to the body so is a sinfull body to the soule the body indangered till the wound bee cured the soule not sound till the bodies sinne bee healed and the wound of neither can be cured without dressing nor dressed without smarting Now as the smart of the wound is recompensed by the cure of the body so is the punishment of the body sweetned by the health of the soule Let my wound smart by dressing rather than my bodie die Let my body smart by correction rather than my soule perish IT is some hope of goodnesse not to
grow worse It is a part of badnesse not to grow better I will take heed of quenching the sparke and strive to kindle a fire If I have the goodnesse I should it is not too much why should I make it lesse If I keepe the goodnesse I have 't is not enough Why doe I not make it more Hee ne're was so good as hee should bee that doth not strive to be better than he is He never will be better than he is that doth not feare to bee worse than hee was HEalth may be injoyed sicknesse must be indured one body is the object of both one GOD the Author of both If then hee give mee health I will thankfully enjoy it and not thinke it too good since it is his mercy that bestowes it if hee fend sickenesse I will patiently indure it and not thinke it too great since it is my sinne that deserves it If in health I will strive to preserve it by praising of him if in sickenesse I will strive to remove it by praying to him Hee shall bee my GOD in sicknesse and in health and my trust shall bee in him in health and in sicknesse So in my health I shall not need to feare sicknesse nor in any sicknesse despaire of health IT is the usuall plea of poverty to blame mis-fortune when the ill-finished cause of complaint is a worke of their owne forging I will either make my fortunes good or bee content they are no worse If they are not so good as I would they should have beene they are not so bad as I know they might have beene What though I am not so happy as I desire 'T is well I am not so wretched as I deserve THere is nothing to be gotten by the worlds love nothing to bee loft but its love by its hate Why then should I seeke that love that cannot profit mee or feare that malice that cannot hurt mee If I should love it for loving mee GOD would hate mee for loving it If I loath it for hating mee it cannot hurt mee for loathing it Let it then hate mee and I will forgive it but if it love me I will never requite it For since its love is hurtfull and its hate harmelesse I will contemne its hate and hate its love AS there is a folly in wit so there is a wisdome in ignorance I would not bee ignorant in a necessary knowledge nor wise above wisâ—dome If I know enough I am wise enough If I seeke more I am foolish IT s no marvell that man hath lost his rule over the creature when hee would not bee ruled by the will of the Creator Why should they feare man when man would not obey GOD I could wish no creature had power to hurt mee I am glad so many creatures are ordained to helpe me If GOD allow enough to serve me I will not expect that all should feare me NO affliction for the time seemes joyous all time in affliction seemes tedious I will compare my miseries on earth with my joyes in heaven and the length of my miseries with its eternity so shall my journey seeme short and my burthen easie THere is nothing more certaine than death nothing more uncertaine than the time of dying I will therefore bee prepared for that at all times which may come at any time must come at one time or another I shall not hasten my death by being still ready but sweeten it It makes me not die the sooner but bee the better THe commendation of a bad thing is his shortnesse of a good thing its continuance it were happie for the damned if their torments knew end 't is happier for the Saints that their joyes are eternall If man that is borne of a woman bee full of misery 't is well that hee hath but a short time to live if his life be a walke of paine it s a blessing that his daies are but a spanne-long Happie miseries that end in joy happie joyes that know no end happie end that dissolves to eternity HAd I not more confidence in the truth of my Saviour than in the traditions of men povertie might stagger my faith and bring my thoughts into a perplexed Purgatorie Wherein are the poore blessed if pardon shall bee purchased onely by expense Or how is it hard for a rich man to enter into heaven if money may buy out the past present and future sinnes of himselfe his deceased and succeeding progeny If Heaven bee thus fold what benefit has my poverty by the price already paid I finde no happinesse in Roome on earth 'T is happinesse for mee to have Roome in heaven THere is no estate of life so happie in this world as to yeeld a Christian the perfection of content and yet there is no estate of life so wretched in this world but a Christian must bee content with it Though I can have nothing heere that may give mee true content yet I will learne to bee truely contented heere with what I have What care I though I have not much If I have enough I have as much as I desire If I have as much as I want I have as much as the most if I have as much as I desire IT is the greatest of all sinnes alway to continue in sinne For where the custome of sinning waxeth greater the conscience for sinne growes the lesse it is easier to quench a sparke then a fire I had rather breake the Cockatrices egg then kill the Serpent O daughter of Babylon happie shall hee bee that taketh thy children whilest they are young and dasheth them against the stones NAture bids mee love my selfe and hate all that hurt mee Reason bids me love my friends and hate those that envie mee Religion bids mee love all and hate none Nature sheweth care Reason wit Religion love Nature may induce me Reason perswade mee but Religion shall rule mee I will hearken to Nature in much to Reason in more to Religion in all Nature shall make mee carefull of my selfe but hatefull to none Reason shall make mee wise for my selfe but harmelesse to all Religion shall make mee loving to all but not carelesse of my selfe I may heare the former I will hearken onely to the later I subscribe to some things in all to all things in Religion ABundance is a trouble want a misery honour a burthen basenesse a scorne advancements dangerous disgrace odious Onely a Competent estate yeelds the quiet of content I will not climbe least I fall nor lye in the ground least I am trod on I am safest whiles my legges beare me A competent heate is most helthfull for my body I would desire neither to freeze nor to burne A Large promise without performance is like a false fire to a great Peece which dischargeth a good expectation with a bad report I will fore-thinke what I will promise that I may promise but what I will doe Thus whilest my words are led by my thoughts and followed
another in honour and yet the highest want a glory There though one Starre differs from another in glory yet in the fullnesse of glory they all shine as Starres Heere the greatest may want there the least hath enough Heere all the earth may not bee enough for one There one heaven is enough for all LORD let me rather be least there without honour heere then the greatest heere without glory there I had rather bee a dore-keeper in that house then a ruler in these tents WHen I see the heavenly sun buried under earth in the evening of the day and in the morning to finde a resurrection to his glory Why thinke I may not the sonnes of heaven buried in the earth in the evening of their daies expect the morning of their glorious Resurrection Each night is but the pastdayes funerall and the morning his Resurrection Why then should our funerall sleepe bee other then our sleepe at night Why should we not as well awake to our Resurrection as in the morning I see night is rather an intermission of day then a deprivation and death rather borrowes our life of us then robbs us of it Since then the glory of the sunne findes a Resurrection why should not the sonnes of glory Since a dead man may live againe I will not so much looke for an end of my life as waite for the comming of my change I See that candle yeelds mee small benefit at day which at night much steeds mee and I know the cause is not because the candles light was lesse at day but because the daies light is lesse in the evening As my friends love to mee so mine to my friend may bee at all times alike but wee best see it when wee most need it and that not because our love is then greater but our want Though then I welcome a courtesie according to my want yet I will value a courtesie according to its worth That my fortunes need not my friends courtesie is my happinesse should my happinesse sleight my friends courtesie 't were my folly I See that candle makes small shew in the day which at night yeelds a glorious lustre not because the candle has then more light but because the ayre hath then more darkenesse How prejudiciall then is that ambition which makes mee seeme lesse then I am by presuming to make mee greater then I should bee They whose glory shines as the sparkes amongst stubble loose their light if compared to the Sonne of glory I will not seat my selfe higher then my place least I should bee disgraced to an humility but if I place my selfe lower then my seat I may be advanced to the honour of friend sit up higher I had rather bee exalted by my humility then be brought low by my exaltation I See that candle which is as a sunne in the darkenesse is but as a darkenesse in the sunne the candle not more lightning the nights darkenesse then the sunne darkning the candles light I will take heed then of contention especially with great ones As I may bee too strong for the weaker so I must bee too weake for the stronger I cannot so easily vanquish mine inferiors but my superiors may as easily conquer mee I will doe much to bee at peace with all men but suffer much ere I contend with a mighty man I See when I follow my shadow it flies me When I flie my shadow it followes mee I know pleasures are but shadowes which hold no longer then the sunshine of my fortunes Least then my pleasures should forsake mee I will forsake them Pleasure most flies me when I most follow it IT is not good to speake evill of all whom wee know bad it is worse to judge evill of any who may prove good To speake ill upon knowledge shewes a want of charity to speake ill upon suspition shewes a want of honesty I will not speake so bad as I know of many I will not speake worse then I know of any To know evill by others and not speake it is sometimes discretion to speake evill by others and not know it is alway dishonesty Hee may bee evill himselfe who speakes good of others upon knowledge but hee can never bee good himselfe who speakes evill of others upon suspition A Bad great one is a great bad one For the greatnesse of an evill man makes the mans evill the greater It is the unhappie priviledge of authority not so much to act as teach wickednesse and by a liberall crueltie to make the offenders sinne not more his owne then others Each fault in a leader is not so much a crime as a rule for error And their vices are made if not warrants yet presidents for evill To sinne by prescription is as usuall as damnable and men run poast in their journey when they goe to the divell with authority When then the vices of the rulers of others are made the rules for vices to others the offences of all great ones must needs bee the greatest of all offences Either then let mee bee great in goodnesse or else it were good for mee to bee without greatnesse My owne sinnes are a burthen too heavie for mee why then should I lade my selfe with others offences To speake all that is true is the property of fooles to speake more then is true is the folly of too many Hee that spends all that is his owne is an unthrifty prodigall Hee that spends more then is his owne is a dishonest unthrift I may sometimes know what I will not utter I must never utter what I doe not know I should bee loath to have my tongue so large as my heart I would scorne to have my heart lesse then my tongue For if to speake all that I know shewes too much folly to speake more then I know shewes too little honesty IT is the ambitious folly of too many to imitate rather greatnesse then goodnesse They will sooner follow the example of their Lord then the precepts of their GOD. I will alway honour greatnesse I will onely imitate goodnesse and rather doe good without a patterne then commit evill in imitation 'T is better to bee saved without a president then to bee damn'd by example THere is no security in evill society where the good are often made worse the bad seldome better For it is the peevish industry of wickednesse to finde or make a fellow 'T is like they will bee birds of a feather that use to flocke together For such commonly doth their conversation make us as they are with whom wee use to converse I cannot bee certaine not to meet with evill company but I will bee carefull not to keepe with evill company I would willingly sort my selfe with such as should either teach or learne goodnesse and if my companion cannot make mee better nor I him good I will rather leave him ill then hee shall make me worse TO teach goodnesse is the greatest praise to learne goodnesse the greatest profit
dunghill Neat apparell is an ornament to the body but a disgrace if either proud or slovenly I See corruption so largely rewarded that I doubt not but I should thrive in the world could I but get a dispensation of my conscience for the liberty of trading A little flattery would get mee a great deale of favour and I could buy a world of this worlds love with the sale of this little trifle Honestie Were this world my home I might perhaps be trading but alas these merchandize yeeld lesse then nothing in heaven I would willingly be at quiet with the world but rather at peace with my conscience The love of men is good whiles it lasteth the love of GOD is better being everlasting Let me then trade for those heavenly marchandize if I finde these other in my way they are a great deale more then I looke for and within little more then I care for AS faith is the evidence of things not seene so things that are seene are the perfecting of faith I beleeve a tree will be greene when I see him leavelesse in winter I know he is greene when I see him flourishing in summer It was a fault in Thomas not to beleeve till he did see It were a madnesse in him not to beleeve when he did see Beleefe may somtime exceed reason not oppose it and faith be often above sense not against it Thus whiles faith doth assure mee that I eate CHRIST effectually sense must assure me that I taste bread really For though I oftentimes see not those things that I beleeve yet I must still beleeve those things that I see THere is none so innocent as not to be evill spoken of none so wicked as to want all commendation There are too many who condemne the just and not a few who justifie the wicked I oft heare both envie and flattery speaking falsehoods of my selfe to my selfe and may not the like tongues performe the liketaskes of others to others I will know Others by what they doe themselves but not learn my selfe by what I heare of others I will be carefull of mine own actions not credulous of others relations THe Crosse is but a signe of CHRIST crucified CHRIST crucified the substance of this Crosse. The signe without the substance is as nothing the substance without the signe is all things I hate not the signe though I adore but the substance I will not blaspheme the Crosse of CHRIST I will not worship but CHRIST crucified I will take up my Crosse I will love my Crosse I will beare my Crosse I will imbrace my Crosse yet not adore my Crosse. All knees shall bend in reverence to his name mine never bow in idolatry to his image IT is the nature of man to be proud when man by nature hath nothing to be proud of Hee more adorneth the Creature then he adoreth the Creator and makes not onely his belly his God but his body I am ashamed of their glory whose glory is their shame If nature will needs have me to bee proud of something I will bee proud onely of this that I am proud of nothing AS the Giver of all things so each receiver loveth a cheerefull giver For a bargaine is valued by the worth of the thing bought but a gift by the minde of the party giving which made the widowes mite of more worth then the riches of superfluitie I see then he gives not best that gives most but he gives most that gives best If then I cannot give bountifully yet I will give freely and what I want in my hand supply by my heart Hee gives well that gives willingly I See at a feast that others seed heartily on that dish which perhaps would not suite with my appetite whilest I make as good a meale on those cates that perhaps their palats could not relish I will not therefore thinke I doe well because my actions please not others nor bee confident that my actions are good because my doings please my selfe but bee more carefull to provide what is good at a feast then what 's delightfull and more study to expresse what is honest in my actions then what 's pleasing So if sicke stomackes cannot relish my sound meates the fault shall light on their ill appetites and if unseasoned judgements like not my honest intentions the fault shall fall on their ill relished apprehensions It would please mee well to have praise when I deserve it but joy mee more to deserve praise when I have it FINIS Spare-Minutes OR RESOLVED MEDITATIONS AND PREMEDITATED RESOLVTIONS The Second part Written by ARTHVR WARVVICK LONDON Printed by G. M. for Walter Hammond and are to be sold by Michael Sparke in Greene Arbour 1634. TO THE VERTVOVS and Religious Gentlewoman my much esteemed friend Mistrisse ANNE ASHTON be health and happinesse heere and hereafter Worthy Mistrisse THE acknowledgement of your favours shal bee my meanest thankes and to thanke you for those favours must bee my best acknowledgement I can doe no more I will doe no lesse Nor have I any better meanes to shew my owne living gratefullnesse then by coupling it with my dead Sons thankfullnesse and by receiving his to enliven my owne and to testifie both to posterity by this small memoriall Neither is it unsutable that his study should yeeld some matter of thankfullnesse after his death who in his life time studied to be thankfull to you his most deserving friend Which gave me his sad father a fit hint to dedicate these his last Meditations to your selfe to whose name and worth he meditated and intended to rayse a fairer Monument had hee lived This prevented what remaineth but that this remnant cloathe his thankfullnesse as farre as it can and supply the necessitated defect of his uneffected purpose These collected out of loose papers seeme to bee wrought in some sudaine temperate heate of his honest fantasie and hammered on the anvill of objected occaseons and being forged roughly into these shapes were cast a cooling into the next paper that came to hand and so wanting filing and polishing must crave pardon for their ruder forme They assume their greatest worth and value from your courteous acceptance and accompt it their chiefest happinesse if for them you love his memory while you live who endeavoured to make your memory out-live your selfe This if you deigne to doe you shall much comfort the sadnesse of Your assured and devoted friend Arthur Warwick RESOLVED Meditations AND PREMEDITATED Resolutions The Second part WHen one ascends from the ground to an higher roome I observe with what contempt he insults and tramples on the staires by which he riseth and how he first and most darteth that step by which he first stepped from the durt Which putteth me in minde of the practice of the aspiring ambitious who to get up to their wished height of honour bedurt with scorne and neglect those by whose shoulders they were first mounted and exalâ—ed I hate that ambition which
inforceth ingratitude which being the basest of vices cannot but foyle and disgrace a man graced with such honours I am not preferr'd with honour if debased with ingratitude HE that will not be perswaded to leape downe from an high chamber at once commeth willingly downe by the stayres and yet the declining degrees of his winding descent make it not lesse downward to him but lesse perceived of him His leape might have brought him downe sooner it could not have brought him down lower As I am then fearefull to act great sinnes so I will bee carefull to avoid small sinnes He that contemn's a small fault commits a great one I see many drops make a shower and what difference is it whether I be wet either in the raine or in the river if both be to the skinne There is small benefit in the choyce whither we goe downe to Hell by degrees or at once THE gentle and harmelesse sheepe being conscious of their owne innocency how patiently how quietly doe they receive the knife either on the altar or in the shambles How silently and undaunted doe they meet death and give it entrance with small resistance When the filthie loathsome and harmefull swine roare horribly at the first handling and with an hideous crying reluctancy are haled and held to the slaughter This seemes some cause to me why wicked men conscious of their filthy lives and nature so tremble at the remembrances startle at the name and with horrour roare at the approach of death when the godly quietly uncloathe themselves of their lives and make small difference twixt a naturall nights short sleepe and the long sleepe of nature I will pray not to come to an untimely violent death I will not violently resist death at the time when it commeth I will expect and waite my change with patience imbrace it with cheerefullnesse and never feare it as a totall privation IT is no small fault to be bad and seeme so it is a greater fault to seeme good and not be so The cloake of dissimulation is a maine part of the garment spotted with the flesh A vice thus covered is worse then a naked offense There is no divell to the Hypocrite WHen I see the Larkers day-net spread out in a faire morning and himselfe whirling his artificiall motion and observe how by the reflecting lustre of the sunne on the wheeling instrument not onely the merry larke and fearefull Pigeon are dazeled and drawne with admiration but stowter birds of pray the swift Merlin and towring Hobbie are inticed to stoope and gazing on the outward forme loose themselves Me thinks I see the divels night-nets of inticing harlots fully paraleld spread out for us in the vigour of our youth which with rowling eyes draw on the lustfullnesse of affection and betray the wantonnesse of the heart and witâ— their alluring glances often make to stoope within danger of their fatall nets not onely the simple and carelesse but others also men otherwise wary and wife who comming within the pull of the net lie at the mercy of that mercilesse fowler to their certaine destruction Hence I resolve when I see such glasses to shunne such motions as assured that those glasses have nets adjoyning those nets a fowler attending that fowler a death prepared for me then which I cannot die a worse I may by chance I must by necessity at sometime come within their view I will at no time come within their danger I cannot well live in this world and not see them at all I cannot live well in this world nor at all in the better world if I bee caught in their fatall nets THere bee that make it their glory to feed high and fare deliciously every day and to maintaine their bodies elementary search the elements the earth sea and aire to maintaine the fire of their appetites They that thus make their bellies their Gods doe make their glory their shame I distaste a sordid diet as unwholsome I care not to taste and feed on variety of delicates as unhealthfull Nature contented with a few things is cloyed and quelled with over many and digestion her cooke imployed in the concoction of so much variety at once leaves the stomacke too fowle a kitchin for health to abide in Since then so to feed may the sooner end my life and the end of my life is not so to feed I will bee taught by Grace not to live to eat but eat to live and maintaine health by a competent diet not surfet with excesse HE that too much admires the glory of a Princes Court and drawne up thither by his ambition thinks high places to bee the highest happinesse let him view the foggie mists the moist vapours and light exhalations drawne up from the earth by the attractive power of the glorious sunne-beames which when they are at highest either spend themselves there in portending meteors to others terrour and their owne consumption and either by resolution are turned into raine or congâ—lation unto hayle or snow which sinke lower into the earth at their fall then they were at their assending For my part I may admire such a glowing coale I will not with the Satyr kisse it As I thinke it not the least and last praise to please Princes so I know it is not the least danger of times to to live with them procul a Iove procul a fulmine Hee presumes too much of his owne brightnesse that thinkes to shine cleere neere the sunne where if his light bee his owne it must bee obscured by comparison if borrowed from the sunne then is it not his but an others glory A candle in the nights obscurity shewes brighter then a torch at noone-day And Caesar thought it a greater glory to be the first man in some obscure towne then the second man in Rome the head city of the world IT is a common custome but a lewd one of them that are common lewd ones by custome to wound the fame and taint the reputation of their neighbours with slanders and having no lesse impotency in their tongues then impurity in their hearts forme both opinions and censures according to the mould of evill in themselves And this they doe either with the Lapwing to divert by their false cries the travelling stranger from finding the nest of their filthinesse or with the curtold Fox in the fable to endevour to have all foxes cut-tayld or with the fish Sepia to darken with the pitchie inke of aspersions all the water of the neighbourhood that so themselves may scape the net of Censure justly cast to catch them Or els to have themselves thought as good as any other they will not have any thought good that dwells neere them I will therefore suspect him as scarce honest who would with a slander make mee suspect an other as dishonest I will not presently disrespect him as dishonest whom a lewd person dishonesteth with suspition The divell is not more blacke-mouth ' then a slanderer