know all thy evill inclinations all thy vicious qualities let him know all the good thou dost and all the evill thou committest Discover unto him all the particular favours thou receivest from God Desire him that when he perceiveth in thee any irregular and disordinate affection he will not forbear to tell thee of it that too very often least that by being ashamed to reprehend thee he should dissemble at thy faults But if it should chance that he telleth thee he finds nothing to be reprehended in thy life doe not presently conclude that thou art innocent because perhaps the reason of his silence is for that he sees he shall get thy hatred by speaking or else that he despairs of thy amendment Wherefore entreat him more and more that soe he may see thou hast a reall and earnest desire of advancing in perfection Begin to lay before him the number of thy imperfections resolve to reform thy manners according to his Counsell Rejoyce as often as he reprehendeth thee for thy faults and still endeavor to come better from him or at least in a disposition to grow better It is a great matter considering the common frailty of our nature when a man is willing desirous to amend 4. These are the mutuall offices of a spirituall Directour one that desires to learn vertue of him that soe the one may grow better and the other not loose his labour in instructing him The greatest obstacle in Beginners is a rebellious refractory Spirit impatient to learn incapable of being cured For some that confide too much in their own wisedome refuse to be governed by another All these things say they which you tell me I know already What profit is there in shewing me things which are clear enough of themselves and repeating the same things over and over Very much because thou knowest many things which thou dost not perhaps attend unto Admonitions are not so much for teaching us as for exciting the memory and hindring us from forgetting things We often dissemble things that are clear and therefore t is not amisse to inculcate the knowledge of what we already know Vertue gathers strength when it is touched and encouraged Some are hindred and disheartned by a foolish apprehension or fear which is a childish fault and unworthy of any man Others like frantick men keep all close to themselves will not discover their infirmities to their spiritual Physitian The Devill persuades them to this silence hoping thereby to make his advantage of it as long as they discover nothing When thou art troubled with any corporall disease however soe shamefull thou hast no difficulty to shew it to him that is to cure it and yet thou hidest with great care the Vlcers of thy Soul as if hiding would cure them whereas they will at some time or other discover themselves in spight of all thy care He that hideth his wounds will never be cured 5. Does the Phisitian doe thee any wrong if he discovers thy disease if when thou art in danger he tells thee that thou art ill that thou art in a feavor that thou art to abstain one day from meat ordains thee to drink water in another Sure thou wouldst commend him and thank him for it But if any one should tell thee that thy passions or desires are violent that thy opinions are vain and idle thy affections immoderate or the like thou wouldest presently cry out that thou art affronted injured abused and therefore wilt be revenged of him Unhappy man what hurt does it doe thee to be admonished of thy Salvation What injury canst thou call it unles such a one as a looking glasse may be said to doe to an ugly face He shews thee what thou art Mend therefore thy faults which he reprehends in thee correct thy manners wash of the spots of thy Conscience T is in thy power if thou wilt to live soe that no man can justly reprehend thee CHAP. III. Of the purgative way and how to extirpate all sins and vicious Affections The best motive to this is a continuall Remembrance of Death and Eternity 1. WHensoever any man committeth a Sin he actually strayeth from God this is the cause of all the misery in the world From this proceed all the pains and troubles of this life this is the Poyson which infecteth the whole world We doe not perceive the malice of it when we commit the sin but when t is once committed then we understand the mischeif it brings with it We read of Tyrants that were wont heretofore a strange punishment to tye living bodies unto dead carkases that soe they might be poysoned to death with the horrid infection of an abominable stench By sin we are brought to suffer the like punishment we carry about with us our own Executioner cannot easily deliver ourselves from it If thou canst not resolve to suffer something for avoiding sin thou wilt be forced to suffer much after thou hast committed it An evill action is no sooner resolved upon but it presently produceth its own punishment T is this which makes us guilty of death and eternall damnation We must therefore have a speciall care to expiate our conscience from all Sin by contrition confession and satisfaction And t is not enough to avoid falling into great sins but we must also have a care to avoid lesser faults which although they doe not cause immediate death to the Soul yet weaken our spirituall forces are a disposition to mortall sin But the ship wrack is equally the same whither the ship be swallowed up and lost under one great wave or sunk by degrees the water entring in drop by drop We may be more to blame for yeilding unto these lesser faults in regard the difficulty to ouercome them was lesse The weaker our enemy is the greater is our shame if we permit ourselves to be overcome by him 2. Thou wilt never be able to attain unto much Vertue and to restore thyself to thy former liberty unles thou canst first quit thyself of all affection even to the least sins For otherwise thy body may be in the desert and thy mind at the same time in Egipt All does not goe well with thee if after having pardoned injuries and forsaken thy dishonest loues thou dost still give ear to calomnies detractions against thy neighbors if thou art still delighted with some dangerous beauty For to purchase an interior purity t is not enough to extirpate all sin out of thy soul but thou must also root out all evill habits or affections which may often remain behind after the sin is forgiven If thou dost only cut the boughs leave the root entire thou wilt see in a short time new branches of iniquity grow up from the same stock Thou sayest that thou art resolved to root out of thy soul all thy old Vices But I fear thou dost not barr the Door against them but leavest it seemingly
thou refusest it didst thou ever refuse to take the most bitter medicine when he told thee it was necessary God commandeth light and easy matters that thou maist gain eternall life and wilt thou not obey him If thou hadst a suit in law thou wouldest employ all thy thoughts in it thou wouldst be alwaies speaking of it thou wouldst not cease to sollicite many friends to the end that the Judges might be favorable to thee and deliver their sentence in thy behalf and yet whereas thy eternal doom is nigh at hand thou laughest thou playest and puttest thyself in danger of perishing without redemption by perpetuall sinning Ah! forbear at last grow wise whilst thou hast time quiting thy former dissolutions begin from this instant to live soe as if this day were to be thy last This is true Philosophy this is true wisedome to separate by degrees the Soul from the Body even in this life as much as we can 7. This must be thy constant employment dayly care in labour in rest in all occasions still endeavor to forget this world and think of nothing but Eternity All that enters into Eternity remaineth fixed and immoueable nothing can ever change it The rich covetous Glutton after so many ages is still asking for a drop of water and will be forced to ask in vain for all Eternity Eternity is a durance which is alwaies present and never to be named without horrout and apprehension it is a wheel that is alwaies turning it is a beginning that is alwaies beginning will never come to an end One serious thought of it changeth all the pleasures of the world into bitternes and striketh men into a deadly fear leaving them quite astonished it tameth all the rebellion of the Soul and raiseth it up from the unprofitable cares of the world to the exercise of Vertue it seasoneth hunger and thirst renders all labour easy all sorrow sweet all pain delightfull and makes it seem short Suppose the vast and infinite spaces of the firmament were all filled with numericall figures who but God would be able to summ up these almost infinite numbers and yet this innumerable number is not the beginning of Eternity Suppose so many years so many ages were passed as are signifyed by those figures yet after all this it could not be said that Eternity was become so much the lesse The miserable souls of the poor damned that are tormented in everlasting flames are not yet come to the beginning of their desperate Eternity If this consideration doth not breed a horrour in thy soul and if thou dost not seriously mend thy life by considering it thou art harder then any stone CHAP. IV. Of Gluttony The disorders caused by it and Remedies against it How to know when we have got the victory over it 1. THe first combat thou hast to undergoe is against Gluttony which nourisheth all other vices This was the sin which opened the gate unto Death both spiritual and corporal For our first parents by eating the forbiddden apple killed us all before we were born The Devill our spirituall enemy still makes use of the same temptation of gluttony that so he may overcome us with more ease when he hath weakned our inward forces by means of this vice Hence from too much eating proceeds a stupid heavy and languishing disposition hence proceedeth scurrilous language too much pratling dissolution of maners hence proceedeth uncleanlines wrangling and contention by this our spirit becomes dull and all vertue is extinguished in our soul This makes us spend our means brings us into poverty occasioneth many diseases and in fine hastneth our Death Few are sick whose sicknes doth not proceed from intemperance in dyet For if the body could want those evill humors which arise from too much eating and drinking sicknes could only attack but never overcome it soe true it is that Gluttony killeth more then the sword 2. Oh vile and infamous servitude to be subject unto our insatiable appetites Nature hath given thee a little body but thou by thy glutony surpassest in greedines the greatest of Beasts A Bull is content to feed upon the pasture of a few Acres one wood sufficeth many Elephants but the whole world is too narrow for thee all that flyeth in the ayr all that swimmeth in the water all that is fed and bred in the woods is not enough to content thy belly Behold what a stir there is in the kitchins of great men see how many cooks are still running from one fire to another see what a troop of servants and maids in perpetuall labour and sweat See what a slaughter there is of living creatures see how many are employed to draw wine in the cellars See how busy they are to cover the Tables with silver plate how carefull to dispose the dishes in due order and with various art in fine see with what promptitude every one runs about his own office One can scarce think that all this is for one house where so many sorts of wine are brought together from severall kingdomes where so many tables are prepared with so much care and attendance But in the mean time I doe not by this intend to dissuade thee from allowing thy body sufficient nourishment We cannot so overcome it but it will of necessity exact its ordinary food But hete lyes the cunning and deceit of concupiscence that under pretence of necessity it often draws us to seek our pleasure in eating Wilt thou know how little will satisfy hunger consider that thou art but one that thou hast but one body one stomack by this means thou wilt easily know that what is more then enough for one is too much and consequently not necessary A little contenteth nature but concupiscence hath no end in her desires 3. Hunger is not ambitious but is content with what is enough and cares not what it is The pleasure of Tasting is soon past and then common meats are as good as those which are esteemed most delicate We must of necessity eat when we are hungry and drink when we are thirsty but nature doth not bid us examine whither the bread be white or brown whither the water be out of the common river or cooled and refreshed by art all that it requires is to satisfy hunger and quench thirst Fish that is brought from the Sea Rivers and Ponds Venison and Wild Bore Variety of Fowl and soe many severall sorts of Wine are Delicacies more fit for the kitchin of Apicius then for a sober man Even Epicurus himself that sought his pleasure in good cheer did use to commend a sober dyet And indeed there is nothing so delicate and sweet which doth not seem unsavory when once we grow out of tast with it and there is nothing so unsavory which doth not seem sweet delicat when hunger presseth us Dost thou desire to quitt all superfluous care for thy nourishment Consider thy End Thou wilt dye soon
lead or direct others unto Heaven being thyself soe addicted and tyed to the world Or with what confidence dost thou goe about to describe vertue unto us being thyself soe little vertuous Secondly what new Instructions dost thou give us in thy Book Thou repeatest the same things after a rude and unpolish'd manner which had bine written long since by innumerable Authours with much more Learning and in a more elegant stile and thou art not ashamed with a proud deceit to expose the riches of others for thy own These are the words wherewith some perhaps will endeavor to carp at my labour But first I could excuse myself with the saying of a wise man because Fungor vice cotis acutum Reddere quae ferrum valet exors ipsa secandi Horat. de Art Poet. That is If I cannot doe well myself I may at least excite others to doe well Like to a Whet-stone that an edge can put On steel though't self be dull and cannot cut And that I may use the words of another learned man I am not soe foolish as to pretend to be able to cure others being myself subject to the same infirmities but like one that lyes sick in the same Hospitall with others I make bold to entertain thee with the discourse of our common miseries and I communicate the remedies which I think are most proper to cure them Imagine therefore that thou only hearest me talking to myself I am not afraid to let thee be partaker of my secrets in this kind In writing these Instructions I doe not soe much professe myself a Master to teach others as a Scholler that learneth or rather teacheth himself by teaching others These are two things which are done reciprocally for whilst we endeavour to teach others we teach ourselves at the same time As to the second Objection which may be brought against me I have no better Answer then to confesse ingeniously that here is but very little of my own invention having borrowed most of the matter from other writers I have set down many things which I had partly observed by my own experience which partly also in reading the holy Fathers and antient Philosophers I had noted as usefull Documents for my own practise But I have laboured after the example of Bees to make one good well-tasted Honey out of the mixture of severall Collections mingling still something of my own to the words of my Authours And I have endeavour'd to use an easy stile without any vain ornaments of flourishing Rhetorick because my design is to teach Christians how to doe wel not how to speak well Thou hast here then a summe or Compendium of all the Morall instructions which have bine severally delivered by the antient Fathers for teaching us how to live well happily in this world Thou hast here the Quintessence of all the best morall sayings of Seneca Epictetus Antonius and other Sages of the antient Times And I thought it sufficient to set down those wholesome Admonitions which to me had often proued efficacious Remedies in my greifs and troubles without quoting the places from whence I had taken them because I had gathered them as spirituall Remedies for the Soul not as points of wit to please the fancy my intention design being more to profit then delight my Reader A sick man does not trouble himself to enquire who it was that mingled the Physick which he is to take nor is he sollicitous to know whence the Remedy is brought provided it be good cures him of his Sicknes I have omitted many things which I could have said as also many things which might have bine declar'd with more Subtility I thought it better to have a few good Morall precepts which may be alwaies ready at hand then to study a greater number not to have them ready for use when occasion requires He hath learnt much who knows as much as is necessary for the Salvation of his Soul God send that this my small Labour may be useful to all those who shall read it especially to myself least that my Book should be forced to blush when my life is marked to be of a contrary practise unto what I write A TABLE of the Chapters CHAP. I. OF mans last End The misery of declining from it and of the means to arrive unto it page 1 Chap. II. That he who desires to live well must choose a good spirituall Directour The Qualities of such a Directour and the duties of such as desire to learn Vertue pag. 7 Chap. III. Of the Purgative way and how to extirpate all sins and vicious Affections That the best motive to this is a continuall Remembrance of Death and Eternity pag. 13 Chap. IV Of Gluttony The disorders caused by it and Remedies against it How to know when we have got the victory over it pag. 24 Chap. V. Of Luxury the shamefulnes of it how easy it is to fall into it and how it is to be avoided by seeking spirituall Delights and the solid pleasures of the mind pag. 29 Chap. VI. Of Avarice the evill effects of it The comparison betwixt a rich man and a poor man The inconstancy and Vanity of Riches pag. 35 Chap. VII Of Anger The Character of an angry man The causes effects Remedies of Anger pag. 43 Chap. VIII Of Envy and Sloth The description of both vices Remedies against them pag. 58 Chap IX Of Pride Ambition and vain Glory The Character of a proud man The vanity and danger of Honours and dignities The evill effects of Pride remedies against it pag. 62 Chap. X. Of moderating our outward Senses How we must treat our Body and how to govern our Eyes Of the vanity of Apparell pag. 73 Chap. XI Of the Tongue the importance and difficulty of governing it What is to be observed and what to be avoided in speech and lastly how to endure the euill Tongues of others pag. 80 Chap. XII Of the inward Senses The use of opinions How to cultivate our mind with good Thoughts Diverse instructions how to govern the Sensitive faculties of our Souls pag. 88 Chap. XIII Of Love the nature causes effects of it Of the Remedies against it Of Hatred pag. 93 Chap. XIV Of Desire and Flight What we are to desire and what to fly or avoid pag. 100 Chap. XV. Of Ioy and Sadnes How a vertuous man is to rejoyce That he who foresees all things is never sad Severall Remedies against Sorrow and Sadnes pag. 105 Chap. XVI Of Hope and Despair How to moderate both pag. 111 Chap. XVII Of Fear How vain it is how to be overcome How to avoid Boldnes Something again of Anger pag. 114. Chap. XVIII Of the faculties of a Rationall Soul How we are to keep our understanding from Curiosity What Study is best How hurtfull it is to search into the life and manners of others How we are not to heed what others falsely report of us Of the
thou art unworthy of all honour because no man justly deserves to be honoured but he that is vertuous and comtemns all honour and glory True nobility is never proud and he that is above others in dignity is also above them in modesty the chief glory of great men is when they humble themselves most 6. Consider the weaknes of thy condition measure thy body and thou wilt find many things whereof thou oughtest to be ashamed but nothing whereof to be proud Doe not contemn the opinion of Philosophers and Mathematicians it is true what they teach that the whole earth is but a point compared to the vast extent of the heavenly sphears What madnes what folly then to divide this point into soe many kingdomes so many Governments No man can be great in a little space This earth which thou treadest on now with so much pride will cover thee ere long and all that thou wilt possesse of it will be but just soe much as will cover thy cold body Goe now and build great and immortall pallaces upon this nothing Goe and exercise thy fury and insolency upon it Goe and increase here thy avarice extend thy ambition gather armies and make war against thy neighbors When thou hast bine mad and frantick long enough thou wilt see acknowledge at last the vanity and deceit of all these Titles and honours All that shineth in this world is but glasse it breaks at the same time that it casteth a lustre Great trees are many years in growing but are cut down in one hour 7. If thou canst be content to live private thou hast cut of a great inticement to pride No man lives in state and pompe to please his own eyes or the eyes of a few of his familiar friends but the reason of his living with great spendor is to be noted by the world Who would put on purple if he thought he should be seen by no man who cares when he eats in private to have his meat served in gold and silver who would expose his gallant Tapestries and other rich moveables under the shadow of an old tree where none but himself should look upon them Ambition desires to be seen as on a Theater and never strives to make a greater shew then when commended and applauded If the Bee hath made her honey if the horse hath run well if the Tree hath born good fruit they seek nothing else but man still desires praise to be taken notice of and to hear men cry There he is that is He. But if thou considerest well who they are by whom thou desirest to be praised thou wilt not find it such a hard matter to contemn the applause of the Vulgar and common sort The multitude is a vain and changeable rabble whom thou thyself often callest mad and who every moment accuse themselves of their own folly by disapproving and recalling so often what they had done said not long before The life as well of him that praiseth as of him that if praised is short and these praises too are only given a man in a small corner of the world which is all but a point and there too all doe not agree to it nor perhaps doth he that is praised beleeve all that is said of him But it is a brave thing to be spoken of in future ages and to be praised by those whom thou never sawest nor never shalt see Why dost thou not grieve also for not having bine praised and commended by those who lived before thou wert born But suppose that those who shall praise thee after thy death were immortall and also that thy memory should last for ever what will this avail thee being dead and what does it avail thee being yet alive to hear thou art praised Thou art often praised where thou art not present and at the same time thou art troubled or tormented where thou art The price of every thing is in the thing itself and it is not made better by being commended nor worse if not praised Can we say that the Sun looseth any thing of his light if no man looks upon it or admires it Can a fig loose its sweetnes a flowr its beauty a Iewell its lustre because they are not commended It is a great argument of a noble Soul and one that knows it hath its origine from above to contemn the praises of men and to find content in itself Thou loosest all praise if thou desirest it for what is there in thee which deserveth 〈◊〉 how great is thy frailty how great 〈…〉 misery how great is the incertitude 〈…〉 Salvation Thou art an unprofitable servâ—… to God although thou didst doe all which thou art obliged to doe But with what face wilt thou dare to say that thou hast done all thou wert obliged to doe Take heed therefore thou art not said to be that without which thou art not within and take heed thou art not praised by others for what thy own conscience tells thee thou art to blame in Render unto God what thou hast received from him to wit thy Being life and understanding then what will be left thee but thy sins Since therefore thou art nothing thou canst not boast of this nothing Thou will then begin to be something when thou shalt acknowledge thyself to be nothing CHAP. X. Of moderating our outward Senses How we must treat our Body and how to govern our Eyes Of the vanity of Apparell 1. OBserve well this commendable form of life that is to allow unto thy Body those things only which are necessary to preserve it in health Thou must use it hardly that it may not rebell against the Soul for the body is to obey the spirit and not the Spirit to obey the body Eat to satisfy hunger and drink to satisfy thirst let thy garments be such as to keep out the cold thy house such as to defend thee against the injuries of the Weather As for other things which have bine invented for vain ornament and pompe be afraid to use them for they are like so many snares to catch thee in He easily contemneth all that is honest who is too sollicitous for his body and loueth it too much Thou art born to greater things and not to make thy Soul a slave unto thy body upon which thou must look as the prison of thy mind the fetters of thy liberty The just and wise man hath a care of his body not for the love he bears unto it but because he cannot live without it The body is the instrument of the Soul and we should esteem that Artist but a bad work-man who insteed of working his Art should spend all his time in looking after the Tools of his Trade T is the sign of a dull spirit to be busyed and employed in nothing but what concerns the Body 2. In regard that Death commonly enters into the Soul through the windows of our Senses let it by thy care to change their
the midst of his pains when he is stoned to death S. Laurence rejoyceth and triumpheth over the Tyrant in the midst of the flames S. Apollonia a yong Virgin throws herself into the fire which was prepared for her Anaxarchus the Philosopher being pounded in an iron morter laughs at his Tormentor Socrates takes the poyson which was brought him with a chearfull countenance and drinks a health to Critias Why art thou afraid of fire and a troop of hangmen that stand about thee ready to butcher thee Death lyes hid under all these preparations which are terrible only unto fools death lyes hid which so many children and yong Virgins have embraced with joy Consider the things in themselves without all disguise and thou wilt see there is nothing terrible in them but thy fear We are like children who are afraid even of those whom they love most and are most familiar with if they fee them maâ—ked But thou art worse then any child in thy folly whilst thou art afraid not only of greif itself but of the very shadow of it 3. Turn thy mind from thy own private cause to consider the common misery of the world Say to thyself I know that my body is frayl and mortall subject unto many miseries and must at last yeild to death I knew long agoe that many afflictions would befall me What then am I now afraid of If I am sick the infirmity of my body will conduce to my spirituall health Shall I be reduced to poverty I shall lead a more safe and quiet life Shall I loose my riches I shall also be quit of many cares and freed from continuall danger Shall I suffer any shame if it be just I will hate the cause of it if unjust I shall comfort myself with the innocency of my own conscience Shall I come short of my hopes I will consider that even Kings are not able to obtain all which they desire Shall I be banished I will goe with a willing mind and I will esteem it as a pilgrimage Shall I be blind by this means I shall not see such objects as move concupiscence Will men speak ill of me They will only say what I deserve and doe as they are wont Shall I dye I know I came into the world on this condition to goe out again But shal I dye abroad no contrey is a banishment to him that considers we have no permanent City in this world Shall I dye yong and before my time no reasonable man should complain that he is released out of prison too soon and before his time Death banishment and sorrow are not pains to be feared but the Tributes of our mortall condition It is a folly to fear that which thou canst not avoid 4. Be not too confident or bold and undertake nothing above thy forces for no man is sooner oppressed then he that presumeth too much of himself Our forces are but weak without Gods help from whom cometh all our power all our strength Boldnes ever proceeds from too much esteem of our own strength from contempt of our Adversaries from a hasty wit and a mind not much accustomed to the management of affairs He that is more wise feareth more for he measureth his own forces and considers what he is able to bear and what not Bold persons when they are fallen into some great dangers contrary to what they expected resist a little but presently loose courage being forced at last to confesse that human counsells are full of vanity incertitude A careles unwary security is the beginning of future misery 5. Anger will never overmaster thy judgment if thou first takest away the opinion of a supposed injury Thou art thyself the cause of all thy own evills misery and sufferings Why dost thou cast the blame of all thy disquiet upon others if thou fallest into them by thy own fault No man is hurt but by himself As nurses use to say unto children doe not cry and thou shalt have it thou maist say the same with better reason unto thyself when thou art moved with anger Be not angry doe not make a stir and thou wilt sooner obtain what thou desirest Resolve with thyself upon certain dayes not to be angry at all whatsoever shall happen and soe try thyself after this manner for a month or two and thou wilt find in time that thou hast much profited by it and thou wilt laugh at those things which formerly were wont to make thee angry and disquiet thy mind A quiet and sweet disposition is not only gratefull to those with whom we converse but also is most advantageous unto him that is endowed with it A quiet mind hath this advantage that it alwaies rejoyceth alwaies triumpheth CHAP. XVIII Of the Faculties of a Rationall Soul How we are to keep our Vnderstanding from Curiosity What study is best How hurtfull it is to search into the life and manners of Others We are not to heed what others falsely report of us Of thee Abnegation of our will 1. GOd hath given thee Vnderstanding that thou mightest know him and by knowing love him but thy understanding hath received a double wound by sin to wit Ignorance blindnes Thou mistakest in the knowledge of Truth and thou art ignorant for the most part what to doe and what to fly How great diligence is used to preserve a Town from the plague or to defend a castle from the enemies forces least any Spy should enter within the wals Soe shouldest thou watch least thy understanding should give entrance to any evill object The Senses first represent the species of things then the undersanding admits them and proposes them to the Judgement and lastly the judgment proposeth them to the will But the senses propose equally good and bad and it belongs to the mind to admit them or exclude them 2. First we must keep our mind and understanding from Curiosity Why dost thou employ thy mind in vain things since it was created for God and solid wisedome Wisedome is thrifty As he that tasteth the hearb wolf-bane that he may know the quality of it dyes before he can judge what Tast it hath soe they who look after what doth not belong unto them doe themselves much harm before they come to know what they sought after To know unprofitable things is little better then being ignorant He that desires to be truly wise doth not study to get knowledge that he may be esteemed but that be may live well nor doth he seek so much to delight his mind by his studies as to find in them a remedy of his passions and evill inclinations Dost thou desire to know the course force and influence of the stars What art thou the better when thou knowest all this if in the mean time thou art ignorant of thy own weaknes Dost thou desire to speak in an elegant stile It will be more to thy purpose to learn to be silent Dost thou long to know news what
sensuall into a spirituall life and to withdraw them by degrees from too much application to externall Objects least they should be engaged too far in them and consent to unlawfull pleasures The Senses are to obey and not to command And in the first place thou oughtest to be carefull to contain thy eyes for the eyes being of a quick nature and suddenly catching the severall species of things are apt to convey all these images first to the fancy or imaginative part and next to the understanding where by moving the Appetite they often prove the cause of many sins if we have not a great care to prevent it And if unto this guard and custody of thy Eyes thou canst also joyn a purity of intention in thy Interiour thou wilt find God in all things and when thou hast once learnt to adore God in his creatures thou wilt easily be able to raise up thy mind from contemplating the Creatures to contemplate the majesty of God himself Beware of casting thy eyes on a woman that paints and dresses herself to please men she is the true picture of Incontinency and thou art in danger to perish in looking on her Be not curious in going to Comedies Balls dances and such like Recreations For such things distract the mind fill it with vain Imaginations and hinder it from raising itself to heavenly Meditations Where the eyes wander the affections and heart also wander 3. Hearing is the Sense of Learning through which the knowledge of Truth and Wisedome enters into the understanding Thou must therefore be very prudent in governing thy hearing least thy ears should admit falsehood in lieu of Truth folly insteed of wisedome Shut thy ears against all detraction calumnies backbitings idle rumors and unprofitable discourses in a word against all that doth not conduce in some manner to the good of thy Soul For as one that hath heard good Musick still retains the sweetnes of it in his ears even after he is retired from the place where he heard it so euill speech although it doth not alwaies hurt just when we hear it yet often-time it sticks for a long while in our memory and our mind often ruminates upon it By how much the more seldome thou hearknest unto men so much the oftner shalt thou perceive God speaking interiorly unto thy Soul The use of sweet perfumes is the mark of effeminate persons and such as have a bad name Wherefore I counsell thee to reject this sort of vanity and to render thy life exemplar by the sweet odour and perfume of thy Vertues As for thy Tast thou maist if thou wilt mortify it by abstinence and sobriety but as for the sense of Touching it is to be overcome by using hair-cloaths disciplines and such other like austerities It is better to afflict thy body in this world and by that means to save it then to damn it and thy Soul too by consenting to all sort of unlawfull pleasures 4. Whereas we may sometimes judge of the inward state of Soâ—l by the outward habit and dresse of the body have thou a speciall care to banish all outward marks in thy apparell of a corrupt mind Those who were esteemed the wise men amongst the antient Heathens would have an honest man to live so as not to move a finger without some reason for it I doe not exact from thee such a strict behaviour but I could wish thou didst observe it I mention this because I would have thee abstain from all dissolute laughter scurrilous discourse too much freedome uncivill gestures and all other rude behaviour that so thou maist have nothing in thy carriage which may give offence unto others either by the undecency of thy cloaths stern looks unbeseeming gestures contempt of others shewing a dislike of their company or any thing else which may give them a horrour and aversion from thy person Remember also that many things may be done with honesty which are not honest to be seen 5. Man was created naked and was not ashamed of his nakednes because he had no knowledge of it But after he had sinned and cast of the robes of Innocency which untill then was a sufficient mantle outward garments became afterwards necessary to hide his shame And yet such is the pride and vanity of men that what was at first enjoyned as a kind of punishment is now esteemed a prerogative of dignity We now seek cloaths not so much to cover as to adorn our bodies and to please the sight of others The quality of cloaths often discovers the inclinations of the mind and to be over curious in dressing and composing ourselves before a looking-glasse shews an effeminate nature Thou wilt soon be ashamed of these outward ornaments if thou considerest what they cover He that is rich with the ornaments of vertue doth not need these outward ornaments of the body Vertue makes the best shew when it appears without disguise whatsoever we adde to it to make it seem greater is still lesse then vertue itself T is a meer vanity and mistake to make a fair shew without by being richly clad and within to cover nothing but Vice Men wilfully load themselves with chains but because they are of gold they doe not apprehend the infamy of Servitude Some again are not content to be fettererd with gold but they will also pierce their very flesh with it to wit when they bore their ears to hang gold rings and pendants in them which are worth sometimes the revenue of their whole Estate making that which was once a name of punishment now to become a term of ambition Many again spend much time with their comb and a looking-glasse and are more sollicitous for the neatnes of their hair then for the salvation of their Soul Such is the force of foolish opinion amongst wordly people that they think themselves much adorned with those things which they ought rather to throw away tread under feet Let thy cloaths therefore be without Vanity and made not for pompe but necessity keep a decent medium not too uncomely but fitted to thy state and condition Although thou wert all drest with gold and pretious stones yet without Christ and the ornaments of his grace thou art still deformed and ugly in the sight of God These are the ornaments which are lasting which cover and adorn not a dying body but the soul which is immortall It is a meer folly to cover a dunghill with gold CHAP. XI Of the Tongue the importance and difficulty of governing it What is to be observed and what to be avoided in speech and lastly how to endure the evill tongues of others 1. THe government of our Tongue is a thing of as great importance as the preservation of the apple of our eye because life and death are both in the power of the Tongue He that is not able to rule his Tongue is compared to an open Town without Walls notwithstanding it cannot be tamed