them for our future Happiness and close this Treatise with some considerations of Death our last Enemy or rather Friend CHAP. III. Against the fear of Death KIng of Terrours and Fears 't is somewhere called But me-thinks since it frees us of such a miserable world such a miserable Life it should not seem so terrible Stultum est timere quod vitari non potest 'T is a folly to fear what cannot be avoided as Death Death frees us I say of all our cares fears anxieties troubles miseries Enemies and yet we abhor it and will not consider our folly Who is more free from care than he that sleeps Death is but a long sleep and if we dye well it will without doubt be a sweet one Me-thinks the considerations of our unhappy Lives should induce us rather to meet or pursue then shun or flye from Death and account it rather our Friend then Enemy since it openeth the Door to fame and extinguisheth Envy 'T is a Debt we owe to Nature and so 't is but Reason and Honesty to pay it That 's the best time when a man has made his peace with GOD and all the World and hath atchieved worthy expectations and ends has been beneficial and helpful to others in his Generation and done Noble Acts or such as have been praise-worthy The fear of Death is worse than Death it self and is augmented with dreadful Stories when indeed 't is nothing so painful as they make it the vital parts being not the sensiblest How many dye away so sweetly and without noise though sensible as if they only fell asleep 'T is but a weak Opinion therefore makes us fear it For there can be no Reason to fear it since no one can fear that he knows not 'T is as Natural to Dye as to be Born and to a Child perhaps one is as painful as the other To return from whence we came what Burthen what Grief is it or what pain 'T is but the same Journey we have made from Death viz. from nothing to Life without fear without Passion which we will make again from life to death 'T is no more 't is the same thing Nay 't is the Birth-day of Eternity which we fear as our last and carries us from that Death that began in our Mothers Womb to the life that shall never end We shall then see the whole Heavens together and the glory thereof in its due place which we can now see but darkly through the narrow passages of our optick Nerves afar off Instead of taking us from our selves it sets us at liberty and makes us free to our selves Instead of bringing us into darkness it takes it from us and gives us a larger light our Intellectuals You see then there is nothing in Death that 's terrible or fearful Diseases Sighs Groans gastly looks Lamentation of Friends and Allies that make it seem dreadful are but the Mask and Vizard under which Death is only hid and veild 'T is great cowardize then and weakness to fear it To what end have Men Reason and Wisdom given them but to help them in a good Action They signifie nothing if they cannot do more with them than a Fool doth with his folly and which time performeth in a fool and in the weakest Sex too But to lay aside Wisdome and Reason 't is worth our remark there is hardly a Passion before spoken of so weak but it clearly vanquisheth the fear of Death And therefore Death is no such kill-cow such an Hector such a terrible Enemy Honour and Glory aspire to it Love contemns it Grief and Despair pursue it Revenge carries it Captive c. To fear Death then is to be an Enemy to thy self and Life since no man can live at ease that fears to dye 'T is a madness to trouble thy life with the fear of Death and thy Death with the care of life he is only a free-man that fears it not Nay life it self is but a slavery if it were not made free by Death Our lives would be a burthen should they not end in Death if it were quite taken from us we should desire it more than now we fear it who would not dye to avoid the toyl and vexatious trouble of doing the same thing every day and all the dayes of his life over again Nay 't is unjust to fear Death for if it be good why do we fear it if evil why do we make it worse and add evil to evil Since it is an obligation must be paid the time and place uncertain where it will attend us le ts therefore attend it in all places and be ever ready to receive it 'T is a vain thing then to pretend unwillingness to dye because of thy Youth flower and strength 't is fatal to great and glorious Persons not to live long Great Virtue and long life seldom go together Life is measured by the end and if that be good the quantity adds nothing to its perfection Consider why art thou loath to leave the World Hast thou not seen all One day is like another there is no other light nor other night You see the World is made up only of a company of Fools and Knaves Once in a few years if it be well observed you will find the years fall out the same as formerly the same weather as great Rains as great Frosts as great Droughts as great Plenty as great scarcity as cool Summers as warm Winters 't is but the same over again one year is like another and there is nothing new under the Sun So that he that has lived thirty or five and thirty years shall see as much as if he had lived five and thirty thousand 'T is one and the same Sun the same course of the World If thou leavest Parents and Friends thou art going to more and these shall quickly follow thee If thou leavest small Children what then Are they more thine than Gods Does not he think you love them best that loved them first How many such have come to greater preferment than other men 'T is an excellent thing therefore to be prepared for Death at all times and to end our lives before our Death that our sins may dye before our selves that when we come to dye we may have nothing else to do This is an Honourable Death and becoming a Gentleman This is the true Bed of Honour indeed For to dye well is to dye willingly Against the unlawful rash desire of Death As we should not fear so we should not Desire Death 'T is injustice and to be out of Charity with the World which our lives may benefit 'T is ingratitude to Nature not to prize life and improve it to the best advantage since 't is so freely bestowed on us Yet so as if need be to contemn Death for that 's the way to make thy life free If thou canst not contemn Death thou shalt never perform any glorious Act but rather expose
thy self to many eminent dangers For while thou art sollicitous to preserve thy self thou hazzardest thine Honour Virtue and Honesty The contempt of Death produces the most Honourable exploits whether in good or evil He that fears not Death fears nothing for he can do what he will and is master both of his own and anothers life That the self-murther of the Romans and other Nations was rather pusillanimity and Cowardize than Magnanimity and Courage I know the wisest were wont to say That a Wise Man liveth as long as he should not so long as he can Death being no more at his command and in his power than Life There is but one way into the World but ten hundred thousand wayes out of it Every vein will set us free This way has been much commended by some rather then live in care trouble misery and accounted the best gift of Nature that no one is compelled to live against his will Whence Timon the Athenian imployed all his skill in perswading his countrey-men to shorten their lives by hanging themselves on Gibbets which he had erected in a Field that he bought for the same purpose to whose perswasions many agreed But whether this be a lawful course may be questioned The Platonists approve of it so do the Cynicks and Stoicks Socrates and Seneca who commend Dido Cato and Lucretia So likewise Sr. Thomas More * In his Vtopia If a Man be troublesome to himself or others Dost thou see that precipice that Pit that Pond that Tree that Well that Knife that Sword that Pistol c. There is Liberty at hand Wherefore has our Mother Earth broughtforth so many variety of Poysons but that Men in distresses might make away themselves so Seneca advises we give God thanks no one is compelled to live perforce And * Lib. 8. Cap. 15. Eusebius admires Sophronia a Roman Matron that to save her self from the Lust of Maxentius the Tyrant kill'd her self * Lib. 3 De Virginitate Ambrose likewise commends Pellagius for the same fact But Lactantius explodes this opinion and confutes it Lib. 3. Cap. 18. De Sapientia So does St. Augustine Epist 52. ad Macedonium Cap. 61. ad Dulcitium Tribunum St. Hierom to Marcella of Blesilla's Death and St. Cyprian de Duplici Martyrio 'T is a prophane act abominated by GOD and all good Men and expresly prohibited in Scripture Exod. 20.13 Thou shalt not kill Now if we must not kill our Neighbour much less our selves He that kills another destroys but his * Mat. 10.28 Body but he that kills himself destroys both Body and Soul * Rom. 3.8 No evil is to be done that good may come of it Yet if any which is a sad case be given over to such an act they should rather be objects of our greatest pity then condemnation as murtherers damn'd Creatures and the like For t is possible even for Gods elect having their Judgments and Reasons depraved by madness deep melancholly or how otherwise affected by Diseases of some sorts to be their own executioners We are but flesh and blood the best of us and know not how soon God may leave us to our selves and Deprive us of our Understanding Wherefore le ts be slow to censure in such cases Again for a man to Kill himself is an act of pusillanimity and the greatest cowardize imaginable notwithstanding in former times it was held among the Hebrews Greeks Romans Egyptians Medes Persians Britains French and Indians an act of virtue courage magnanimity c. since thereby a man hides himself Basely and sneakingly from the strokes of Fortune which is beneath a Gentleman For a true and lively virtue should never yield That 's true Fortitude to contemn and smile at the miseries of fortune If the whole VVorld should fall on such a man it might kill him but never daunt him VVell then I shall close with this That as we should not fear Death but rather contemn it nor on the other hand pull it on our selves So we should be alwayes walking ready to meet it in any place at any time alwayes prepared Remembring our whole life is but a continual dying or death We are every day nearer to our end every moment the less time to live Let then our Lives be with care and speed amended that when this Life is ended our souls may be saved and eternally glorified Which of our Hope Life and Creation is the END Mors Ultima Linea Rerum ERRATA PAge 8. 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splendid beams which is gained by excelling thy competitours in their own way and beating them at their own Weapon Against Duelling And here I think it not amiss to tell thee I mean not by Weapon to exceed him in a Duel And since for the most part this foolish Action and unlawful practice of Gentlemen arises between Equals and about punctillios of Honour I shall shew you it is no Honour nay the greatest dishonour a Gentleman can possibly be guilty of it standing in direct opposition to 1. Sense and Reason 2. Honour and Reputation 3. Valour and Courage All which they so much pretend to And 4. All Morality and Piety The irrationality of Duelling First can any thing be more irrational and sensless than to see men forfeit their Peace Pleasure Habitations Life Soul and all for a Word a whimsical punctillio as they suppose of Honour Or to purchase eternal Damnation for a momentary revenge or terrours and guilt of Conscience for a Humour Then to see Men for a lye invite him that gave it to give them also their Deaths-wound For an affront to expose themselves to ruine And for fear of the reproach of Man incur the terrours of the Almighty Then to see Men cast away Repentance and all hopes so desperately as they do who leave themselves no space nor grace for either Then to see Men follow so empty a praescript merely because 't is the fashion and not be able to counterpoise their most weighty matters and affairs to suppress it Than to see Men that are Rational Creatures yet not make use of so much Reason as to consider these things Secondly 't is a false way of measuring Honour by the Sword on every trivial occasion of a Mistress Health a word a slight carriage and the like fooleries which are the usual causes of Quarrels which is indeed the dishonour of a Gentleman by how much it is his Honour to pass by Offences 'T is more Honourable to make Peace than to add fuel to strife which may perhaps end in Murther In all publick dangers of thy Countrey and in the Service of thy Prince be as forward as any and in such Lawful attempts quit thy self like a Man that the World may see thou fearest not Death nor preferrest Life before thine Honour and Reputation Thus the declining of a Duel will appear rather to be shunning of Sin and Damnation than Cowardize especially if thy Actions and walkings render thee truly conscientious Since the Mad Infamous Cruel Irrational Impious Act of Duelling sets God at defiance 'T will be the true Honour and Reputation everlasting of a Gentleman to endeavour the extirpation of this idle wicked and damnable custome which renders a Christian Irreligious and even a Moral Man a Fool. But if they must contend and Quarrel let it be to exceed each other in this Magnanimous Heroick and Honourable design Duelling is rather Cowwardize than Courage or Valour Thirdly the vain-huffing Valour of the giddy-pated Hectors of our times is most ridiculous and in effect the rankest piece of Cowardise and Fool-hardiness imaginable under the pretence of Courage being fuller fraught with a sordid fear than a prudent caution and that which they fear is only the breath of a Man's word which runs them on all hazzards and to fight to decline the aspersion of Cowardize and yet if Victor run away from the avenger of Blood some Catch-pole who perhaps yet is no Gentleman Is it not the greatest piece then of pusillanimous Cowardize imaginable or madness when notwithstanding they will encounter the very wrath of God and like the Giants fight against Heaven and dare rather be damn'd than be anger'd or Reproacht Duelling directly opposite to Morality Piety Fourthly that which Duellists finely as they think or rather foolishly smooth over with the term of satisfaction is but in effect down-right malice or revenge which is as it were a barbarous Execution of Justice They being thirsters after their Enemy's blood than which nothing is more Delectable Delicious nor desirous to them Nay they discover themselves to be indeed down-right Murtherers since what they do is with premeditation and deliberation And so are no less likewise impious in letting the Sun go down on their wrath but also Rebellious against the Sacred Dictates of the Almighty And if they dye in the conflict as 't is not impossible they may both and tumble into a Ditch their Bed of Honour with grinning countenances are they not highly promoted This Bed of Honour this grinning Honour O how becoming they are a Gentleman In a word not only Charity is thereby infringed but all sobriety meekness patience humility forgiveness of Injuries gratitude and all other Virtues since in this their beastial Rage rashness they will not let their very Friends escape their Sword 's point if there be but the least seeming mistake As well as Piety which teacheth us to love our Enemies forgive our Brother not only seven but seventy times seven times but they will not bear much less forgive one How would these Huffs learn that lesson then to turn the other cheek if smote first on one when a very word sets them on fire of Hell Besides that 'T is the Honour and Glory of a Man to pass by Offences Anger resteth in the bosom of a Fool. He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty and he that Ruleth his Spirit than he that taketh a City From the opposing these sacred decrees of Heaven arise all the Duels on Earth between these Zamzummims who have enacted clean contrary pronouncing such to be milk-sops and soft gibbos that resent not an affront so hainously as to dispatch the Offender into the other State This they decree to be Gallantry the Spirit of Meekness Prudence and Humility Cowardize or pusillanimity The wayes to avoyd a quarrel you may see beneath in Anger rectified Whether excess of Drinking become a Gentleman I cannot omit here one main occasion of this vain Duelling viz. That beastial Exercise of Drinking a Recreation too common among those that call themselves Gentlemen than which nothing is more uncomely to such forasmuch as this vice un-mans a Man if it either elevate his speech to an intemperate pitch as either to commit folly or to lose his gravity or on the other side if it render him stupid or sottish or inflames him into Rage or Lust or any wise hebetates his understanding obfuscates his Reason or renders him uncapable of serving God in his Calling or his King Countrey or Neighbour let the pretence be what it will which for the most part he must needs be guilty of if he compels another to drink according to his own stint or humour Therefore in all Companies be thou an Ahasuerian that none may be compelled to drink more than he is willing which best becomes a true Gentleman forasmuch as there is no Reason for thee to compell another to be rul'd
light offence then provoke thee to such a rash Action for in losing a true tryed Friend thou losest the greatest Earthly happiness imaginable To our Enemies also though never so inveterate is to be performed all actions of humanity and kindness we are to forgive them though they should transgress not only seven but seventy times seven times even as God hath forgiven us Forasmuch as 't is the Honour of a Man to pass by Offences much more is it becoming a Gentleman than that beastial way of Revenge 'T is very easie to say I forgive him and yet never forget him nor his Injury which is beneath a Gentleman If thou hast indeed forgiven him manifest it in all civil Behaviour and by Obligations as frequently as opportunity presents Nay if need were to Relieve him with thy Estate to thy Power And in all other cases that lie in thy way to do him good which is the greatest Conquest imaginable thou canst have over him and thereby thou shalt melt him into remorse and sorrow Lastly SUBSECT VII To Himself DID we but know how rightly to behave our selves to our selves 't were not the least part of our Happiness And herein since our whole Discourse has been for the accomplishing a Gentleman in other Respects in general which yet somewhat relates hereunto in many places I shall conclude it with this which comes more particularly to the health of his Person which as Physitians tell us consists in a Right Regulation of the six non-natural things as they call them which are 1. Aër 2. Meat and Drink 3. Sleeping and Waking 4. Rest and Exercise 5. Retentions and Evacuations 6. Passions and perturbations of the mind Which will comprehend most of what I intend to add on this Subject Wherefore as briefly as I may beginning with DIVISION I. Air. OF all Earthly felicities that a Gentleman doth or can enjoy Health is the chiefest It being that alone that sweetneth all other Happinesses unto us What pleasure is to be taken in Coffers of Silver and Gold in the Richest Apparel in the fairest and stateliest Edifices in the most delicate Fare in the pleasantest and most Ravishing Musick nay in the most beautifull Wife or in ought else without Health Nothing so precious in this World nor nothing more desirable nor delectable for without it all other things are nothing worth Pleasures will be but torments whilst they are thought of since they cannot be enjoyed All the Gold in Ophir or the Indies Diamonds or other precious stones are but eye-sores whilst they cannot ease They nothing avail Honours Polite and Turgid Titles do not suit with a crazy rotten Carkass confin'd to a Bed a Nihil refert utrum agrum in ligneolecto an in aureo colloces Senca Epist 17. or imprisoned in the narrow confines of a small Chamber Beauty flyes away with it and is metamorphosed into Deformity in an instant and length of dayes is but a protraction of misery a lingring and continual Death without it In a word it is that and that alone which sweetneth all things in this Life and makes them amiable to us But in the praise of Health that of Scaliger Poet 44. is most compleat and full Cum Ariphrone Sicyonii sic exclamat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which are rendred by some thus in Latine O Sanitas beata O Sanitas amanda O Sanitas colenda Tecum mihi beatè Reliquum agitare vitae Liceat mihi perennis Comes o adesto vitae Nam quicquid est bonorum Et quicquid est Leporum Et quicquid est Honorum Et quicquid est Amorum Magnis in auri acervis In liberis venustis In principum decore In Conjugum favore Et quicquid est quod ampli Largitur orbis Author Quietis a Labore Gaudiique post dolorem Tecum viget viretque O Sanitas beata Tu ver facis suave Fulgere gratiarum Sine te nihil beatam Quas a Calcagino Imitati sunt O Qua nec altera vetustior est coelitum O una cunctis expetita Sanitas Quodcunque reliquum est vitae utinam Agam una omnium contubernalis sis mihi Quicunque enim fortunis fruitur aut liberi Aut est aliter obnoxius voluptiae Te una favente cuncta habet propria Afflant illum Charites est media Hyems Rigeat tamen ver illi flosculos parit Absente te sunt cuncta Dura aspera Nec grata prorsus caetera est faelicitas Quum esse planè desinit faelicitas He that 's sick neither heareth tasteth or fancieth aright he enjoys not himself The sweetest Meats are bitter to him or at least unsavoury The most harmonious Musick sounds harsh and doth but disturb him he delights in nothing as he ought for nothing eases him How careful then ought a Gentleman of all others to be of preserving and maintaining the Jewel of his Health without which he being not able to enjoy Friends Relations or any thing he hath Wherefore that he may possess an orthostadian health indeed and live happily let him observe this our following Discourse The Air is an Element without which we cannot live one moment of time it being continually received into our Bodies by respiration or pores So that as is the Air such are our Spirits and as are our Spirits so likewise are our Humours and as are our Humours such are our sollid parts So that 't is not only a cause of Life but Diseases of all sorts and Death it self A Gentleman therefore should have a special care if he intend to preserve and prolong his Life for the enjoying those many pleasures God and Nature has cast before him that his House be Scituated in a good Air of the Nature of the Air both in Substance and Quality I have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cap 6. Sect. 2. Sub Sect. 2. Memb. 1. Sub-Memb 1. Division 1. Sub-dâ—vision 1. else-where shewed in a Book lately published and how variously it may be altered by the Stars Seasons of the Year Winds Meteors Zones Climates Quarters of the World Regions Scituation of places Cities Towns Houses and by the particular Constitution and Nature of the place Wherefore I shall not trouble my Reader with a recital of the various alterations they make in us and the strange effects the Air in every respect hath on us or build one so or remove to such an one Now to know whether the Air be good you must know it s considered either in Relation to it self or in Relation to the Body receiving it As in Relation to it self a clear pure serene Air is to be preferred in regard our Temperature and Constitutions for
our selves Thy present State is good and in some mens Opinion to be preferred Paul therefore was happy who had learned in what state soever he was therewith to be content Let them rail on scoff on slander and lye on Sapiens contumelia non afficitur quia contra Sycophantae morsum non est remedium 'T is to no purpose to be troubled Wicked People will use their Tongues to detract from and asperse their Neighbours Who is free from such Calumnies Disgraces Slights Not the King himself nor the most pious and best men though never so circumspect CHRIST himself was a Wine-bibber with them Company-keeper of Publicans and Sinners a Devil and what he did was by the help of Beelzebub Nay GOD himself is Blasphemed by them Benè facere malè audire Regium est Let them scoff defame undervalue slander abuse and take their course 'T is an ordinary thing keep Faith and a good Conscience within commit thy case to God Repay not evil for evil but overcome it rather with good Besides 't is some comfort to consider that Honour Respect Esteem Employment in this World are not always attained by desert or worth neither do they make a man really worthy but are commonly bought and sold or attained by some great mens Letters Favour Friendship Affection c. For 't is Opinion and Interest only that carries things in this World Whence we so often find fools preferred and wisemen neglected little regarded or esteemed 'T is as ordinary as can be to see an Impertinent Illiterate Asse preferred before his betters because he can put himself forwards prate and temporize with every one and hath the countenance of Friends 'T was alwayes so and ever will be Qui nescit dissimulare nescit vivere Cardan Lipsius Melancton Budeus Erasmus men of great Learning Parts and to whom the whole World is so much beholden died all poor as they lived because they could neither flatter nor dissemble The Race is not to the swift nor the Battle to the strong but Time and Chance and sometimes a mischance happens unto us all the best of us Sic Superis visum GOD sees it good for us to be so humbled and therefore perhaps he has bid Shimèi Curse Good Men do not alwayes find Grace and Favour lest they should be puffed up grow Insolent and proud As St. Paul appologizes for himself Lest I be exalted above measure Le ts therefore indure with patience whatever happens and through good or bad Report enter into Immortallity And thus much shall suffice to be spoken of the Rectifying of the chief Passions For the rest in the same manner they may be subdued which for brevities sake I willingly pretermit And because That Immortality but now named ought to be the chief aim and care of a Gentleman I shall conclude with some Considerations of Life and Death CHAP. II. Of Life COncerning our Lives I must needs say and so it will appear if we seriously consider all things 't is but a fools Paradise and the World but a great Bedlam or a common Prison of Gulls Cheats Flatterers All conditions under the Heavens from the highest to the lowest are out of Tune As in Cebes Table Omnes errorem bibunt Before we came into the World we were Intoxicated with errours Cup and all our Lives long macerated and direfully cruciated with Anger Fear Sorrow Envy Discontent and the rest of those horrid Passions before spoken of Nay all our dayes are sorrow our Travel grief and our Heart taketh no rest in the Night as the wise Man notes And the Hearts of the Sons of Men are evil and madness is in their hearts while they live nay even the wisest In the multitude of Wisdom is much grief and he that increaseth Knowledge increaseth sorrow All is sorrow grief vanity and vexation of Spirit in the World the Wisest Man Solomon will not justifie his own Actions Surely sayes he I am more foolish then any Man and have not the understanding of a Man in me Nothing pleased him he hated his Labour and Life it self Impudence Folly and Fortune that care not what they do or say shall Rule more in the World then Virtue or Wisdom which oft-times give way whence honest and wise men are termed Fools How ordinary is it for such as cannot or will not Lye Dissemble Shift Flatter Temporize as others do but are honest and plain-dealing to be accounted Ideots Asses and no better then fools Again if the Philosophers that gave Precepts of wisdom to others Inventers of Arts and Sciences the seven Wise Men of Greece be fools as Lactantius in his Book of Wisdome proves them Dizzards Asses and Mad-men so full of absurd and ridiculous tenets and brain-sick positions that to his thinking never any old Woman or sick Person doted worse Democritus took all from Leucippus and left the Inheritance of his folly to Epicurus He makes no difference between Plato Xenophon Aristippus Aristotle and the rest and Beasts saving that they could speak If I say these men had no more Brains then so many Beetles what shall we think of the commonalty and the major part if not of the whole World Supputius Travelled all over Europe to find and confer with a wise man but returned at last without his Errand Cardan thinks few men are well in their wits And Tully concludes every thing to be done foolishly and unadvisedly All dote but not in the same kind not alike one is proud another ambitious a third envious a fourth avaritious a fifth poring ever in a Book or writing Books a sixth lascivious a seventh given to Wine c. The whole course of our Life is indeed but matter of Laughter no difference between us and Children Majora Ludimus grandioribus pupis They play with Babies and we with greater bables 't is the same thing Charon in Lucian was conducted by Mercury to such a place wâ—ere he might see all the World at oncâ— After he had sufficiently viewed it Mercury would needs know what he had observed He told him he saw a promiscuous multitude whose Habitations were like Mole-hills they like Emmets and Cities like so many Hives of Bees and every Bee had a sting and did nothing but sting one another Some domineering like Hornets greater then the rest some like filching Wasps others as Drones Over their heads hung a confused company of perturbations anger fears sorrows cares anxieties hope ignorance jealousie Envy avarice revenge c. And innumerable Diseases which by the hooks of Disorder they were continually pulling on their own Heads Some were brawling some fighting riding running Sollicitè ambientes callidè litigantes for toys and trifles and such momentary things Their Towns and Provinces were factious Rich against Poor and Poor against Rich. And so condemn'd them all for Fools Ideots Asses The meditation of mans Life made Heraclitus Cry and weep continually to see its Madness And Democritus contrarywise to Laugh at the folly of it
offend God if he be conformable to the World or else he must live in contempt disgrace and misery all his Life What difference between words and deeds the Tongue and Heart How common is it for a Scholar to crouch to an illiterate Pesant for a meals meat A Scrivener better payed for a Bond or Bill then a Student A Lawyer get more in a day then a Philosopher in a year Better rewarded for an hour then a Scholar for a twelve moneths study If we have any bodily Disease we send for the Physitian but of the diseases of the mind we take no notice Lusts torment us on one side Envy Anger Ambition c. on the other we are torn in pieces by our Passions one in disposition the other in Habit. But the misery is we seek for no Cure Every man thinks with himself I am well I am wise laughs at others when indeed all fools But now adayes we have Women Polititians Children Metaphysitians Every silly fellow can square a Circle make perpetual motions find out the Philosophers Stone interpret the Revelation make new Theoricks new Logick new Philosophy a new Body of Physick a new System of the World For one Virtue notwithstanding you shall find ten Vices in any individual Person on Earth A wise man is a great wonder Our Life is but a span or hand-breadth as David declares We are but of yesterday and know nothing because our days upon Earth are as a shadow Swifter than a Post they flye away and see no good Few Man that 's born of a Woman is of few dayes and full of trouble he cometh up like a flower and is cut down he fleeth also as a shadow and continueth not * St. August Confess Lib. 10. Cap. 28. Catena est vita nostra perpetuorum malorum tentatio super terram quis potest molestias Difficultates pati All his dayes are sorrows and his Travel grief Hath he not an appointed time upon Earth Are not his dayes all like the dayes of an Hireling Nay his dayes are as grass and as a flower of the Field Surely the People are grass At the best estate man is but Vanity and that every man The King as well as the Pesant The Philosopher as well as the Dunce The Noble as well as the base The Earth is curst for his sake and in sorrow shall he eat of it all his dayes it shall bring him out nothing but Thorns and Thistles and in the sweat of his Face shall he eat bread till he return unto the ground out of which he was taken into which again he must be transmuted and while he remains in the Land of the Living he shall be fraught with all manner of miseries and calamities Man is full of miseries miseries of Soul of Body while he sleeps wakes whatever he doth or wherever he turns as St. Bernard well notes Great travel is Created for all men and an heavy yoak on the Sons of Adam from the day that they came out of their Mothers Womb unto that day they return unto the Mother of all things namely their thoughts and fear of their hearts and their Imagination of things they wait for and the day of Death from him that sitteth on the glorious Throne to him that sitteth beneath on the Earth from him that 's cloathed in blew silk and weareth a Crown to him that 's cloathed in simple Linnen wrath envy trouble and unquietness and fear of Death and rigour and strife and such things come to both man and Beast but seven-fold to the ungodly If the World smile on us we are thereby ensnared puffed up Dat vitam animamque Pecunia And Prout res nobis fluit ita et animus se habet we thereupon forget our selves and others If we are poor and dejected we rave take on lament repine and covet wealth Or if we can carry our selves even between these two yet to Riches we shall find cares fears anxieties and troubles annexed To Poverty disgrace slights derision and affronts c. And no condition we shall find without Inconveniencies To Idleness is Poverty annexed To Wisdom Knowledge Learning much labour pain and trouble To Honour and Glory Envy To increase of Children care and sollicitude To Voluptuousness and Riot Diseases and Infirmities As if as the Platonists hold man were born into the World to be punisht for such sins as he had * Maintaining very idly the Pre-existency of the Soul and that it is sent into the Body upon Earth to play as it were an after-game A preposterous way of Reformation to put the Soul into such fatal prophasities of sinning as it must be here in this World This must needs be the direct course to Ruine it and cast it on a fatal necessity of perishing especially if cast on such times and places as are over-run with Barbarism and Vice If our conditions of Recovery be so near impossibility our State is as bad as the Devils and if the non-performance of these conditions be punisht with greater penalties 't is worse Better be abandoned to eternal Despair then have hopes to be Rescued by such means only as 't is ten thousand to one but will exceedingly increase our torment and misery formerly committed All this befalls man in this Life and perhaps eternal trouble in the Life to come Whence Pliny on the consideration of the many miseries man brings with him into the World said It were good for a Man not to be Born at all or else so soon as he is Born to dye Which made the Scythians mourn at their Births and rejoyce at the Funeral of their Children and Friends They cease from their Labours c. Job also cursed the day of his Birth Why dyed I not from the Womb Why did I not give up the Ghost when I came out of the Belly Why did the Knees prevent me or the Breasts that I should suck For now should I have been still and been quiet I should have slept then had I been at Rest And farther in this manner he exclaims Wherefore hast thou brought me then forth out of the Womb Oh that I had given up the Ghost and no eye had seen me And Solomon the wise concludes the day of Death to be better then the day of ones Birth In a word 't is a misery to be born into this wretched World a pain to live and a trouble to dye For the Lives of the best men you see are stuff'd with vexation mischief and trouble To particularize all is as great a task as to perfect the motion of Mars and Mercury which so puzzles our Astronomers or to Rectifie the Gregorian Calendar or Rectifie those Chronological Errours in the African Monarchy find out the Quadrature of a Circle The Creeks and Sounds of the North-East and North-West passages I shall therefore content my self with this hint only of the Vanity of the World and therein of our Lives that we may endeavour to amend