without least respect had to his Masters benefit Difference therefore you are to make of their care in cherishing the one and chastising the other which can hardly be effected unlesse you who are to make this difference of your servants have an eye to their imployments Neither would I have your care so extended as to afflict and macerate your selves by your excessive care a meane is the best both in the preservation of health and wealth Be diligent saith Salomon to know the state of thy flocke and take heed to thy herds Yet withall note his conclusion Let the milke of thy goats be sufficient for thy food for the food of thy familie and for the sustenance of thy maids Whence you may observe that to gather is admitted so the use or end for which wee gather be not neglected For such whose Hydroptick minds are ever raking and reaping yet know not how to imploy the blessings of God by a communicative exhibition unto others are become vassals unto their owne making their gold-adoring affection an infection their reason treason and the wealth which they have got them a witnesse to condemne them But I have insisted too long on this point especially in framing my speech to you whose more free-borne dispositions will ever scorne to be tainted with such unworthy aspersions wherefore I will descend briefly to such instructions as you are to use touching spirituall affaires being Masters of Housholds in your private families WE reade that Abraham commanded his sons and his houshold that they should keepe the way of the Lord to doe righteousnesse and judgement And wee are taught what wee must doe returning from Gods house to our owne and what wee are to doe sitting in our houses even to lay up Gods word in our heart and in our soule and binde it for a signe upon our hand that it may be as a frontlet betweene our eyes And not only to be thus instructed our selves but to teach them our children speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house and when thou walkest by the way and when thou liest downe and when thou risest up And not so onely but thou shalt write them upon the posts of thine house and upon thy gates Whence you see how no place time or occasion is to be exempted from meditating of God but especially in Housholds and Families ought this exercise of devotion to be frequently and fervently practised for a Blessing is pronounced upon the performance hereof as appeareth in the foresaid place and the next ensuing verse where he saith You shall doe all that I have commanded you that your dayes may be multiplied and the dayes of your children in the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers to give them as long as the heavens are above the earth Marke the extent of this Blessing for it promiseth not only length of dayes to them that performe it but even to the children of them that performe it and that in no unfruitfull or barren land but in the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers to give them and that for no short time but so long as the heavens are above the earth So as this blessed promise or promised blessing is as one well observeth not restrained but with an absolute grant extended so that even as the people that were in the gate and the Elders wished in the solemnizing of that mariage betwixt Boaz and Ruth that their house might be like the house of Pharez so doubtlesse whosoever meditates of the Law of the Lord making it in his Familie as a familiar friend to direct him a faithfull counseller to instruct him a sweet companion to delight him a precious treasure to enrich him shall finde successe in his labours and prosperitie in the worke of his hands But amongst all as it is the use or Masters of housholds to call their servants to account for the day past so be sure Gentlemen and you who are Masters of houses to enter into your owne hearts by a serious examination had every night what you have done or how you have imployed your selves and those Talents which God hath bestowed on you the day past in imitation of that blessed Father who every night examined himselfe calling his soule to a strict account after this manner O my soule what hast thou done this day What good hast thou omitted what evill hast thou committed what good which thou shouldst have done what evill which thou shouldst not have done Where are the poore thou hast releeved the sicke or captive thou hast visited the Orphan or widow thou hast comforted Where are the naked whom thou hast cloathed the hungry whom thou hast refreshed the afflicted and desolate whom thou hast harboured O my soule when it shall be demanded of thee Quid comedit pauper how poorely wilt thou looke when there is not one poore man that will witnesse thy almes Againe when it shall be demanded of thee Vbi nudus quem amicivisti how naked wilt thou appeare when there is not one naked soule that will speake for thee Againe when it shall be demanded of thee Vbi sitiens quem potasti Vbi esuriens quem pavisti Vbi captivus quem visitasti Vbi moestus quem relevasti O my soule how forlorne wretched and uncomfortable will thy condition be when there shall not appeare so much as one witnesse for thee to expresse thy charitie not one poore soule whom thou hast releeved one naked whom thou hast cloathed nor one thirstie whom thou hast refreshed nor one hungry whom thou hast harboured nor a captive whom thou hast visited nor one afflicted whom thou hast comforted Thus to call your selves to account by meditating ever with S. Hierome of the judgement day will be a meanes to rectifie your affections mortifie all inordinate motions purifie you throughout that you may be examples of pietie unto others in your life and heires of glory after death concluding most comfortably with the foresaid Father If my mother should hang about mee my father lie in my way to stop me my wife and children weepe about mee I would throw off my mother neglect my father contemne the lamentation of my wife and children to meet my Saviour Christ Iesus For the furtherance of which holy resolution let no day passe over your heads wherein you addresse not your selves to some good action or imployment Wherefore Apelles posie was this Let no day passe without a line Be sure every day you doe some good then draw one line at the least according to that Line upon line line upon line And Pythagoras posie was this Sit not still upon the measure of corne Doe not looke to eat except you sweat for it according to that He which will not worke let him not eat In my Fathers house saith Christ are many mansions So that no man may sing his soule a
noting his errour It is not your Hen that is lost but your Citie Roma that is taken by Alaricus King of the Gothes Wherewith comming a little to himselfe he seemed to beare with much more paâ—ience the surprize of the one than the losse of the other O childish simplicity you say well yet the like is in us We cannot endure that any one should steale from us our silver yet either honour riches or pleasure may have free leave to steale away our heart We would by no meanes be defrauded of our treasure yet it troubles us little to be depraved with errour We avoid the poisons of the body but not of the minde intending more the diet of the body than the discipline of the minde Since then in these externall desires this Actuall Perfection whereof we have formerly treated may receive no true rest or repose for to those it only aspireth wherin it resteth wee must search higher for this place of peace this repose of rest this heavenly Harbour of divine comfort we are to seeke it then while we are here upon earth yet not on earth would you know what this soveraigne or absolute end is wherein this Actuall Perfection solely resteth wherein the Heart only glorieth and to the receiver long life with comfort in abundance amply promiseth Hearken to the words of Iesus the Sonne of Sirach It is a great glory to follow the Lord and to be received of him is long life Nor skils it much how worldlings esteeme of us for perhaps they will judge it folly to see us become weaned from delights or pleasures of the world to see us embrace a rigorous or austere course of life to dis-esteem the pompe and port of this present world This I say they will account foolishnesse But blessed are they who deserve to be of that number which the world accounts for fooles God for wise men But miserable is the state of these forlorne worldlings whose chiefest aime is to circumvent or intrap their brethren making their highest aymes their owne ends and accounting bread eaten in secret to be the savourest and stolne waters the sweetest for these never drinke of their own Cisterne or feed of the flesh of their owne fold but partake in the spoile of others yet wipe their mouths as if they were innocent but behold this Haman-policy shall make them spectacles of finall misery wishing many times they had been lesse wise in the opinion of the world so they had relished of that divine wisdome which makes-man truly happy in another world even that wisdome I say who hath built an everlasting foundation with men and shall continue with their seed neither can this divine wisdome chuse but be fruitfull standing on so firme a root or the branches dry receiving life and heat from so faire a root Now to describe the beauty of her branches springing from so firme a root with the solidity of her root diffusing pith to her branches The root of wisdome saith the wise Son of Sirach is to feare the Lord and the branches thereof are long life This feare where it takes root suffers no worldly feare to take place Many worldlings become wretched only through feare lest they should be wretched and many die only through feare lest they should die but with these who are grounded in the feare of the Lord they neither feare death being assured that it imposeth an end to their misery nor the miseries of this present life being ever affied on the trust of Gods mercie How constantly zealously and gloriously many devout men have died and upon the very instant of their dissolution expostulated with their owne soules reproving in themselves their unwillingnesse to die may appeare by the examples of such whose lives as they were to God right pleasing so were their soules no lesse precious in their departing upon some whereof though I have formerly insisted yet in respect that such memorable Patteâ—nes of sanctity cannot be too often represented I thought good purposely as usually I have done in all the Series of this present Discourse where any remarkable thing was related to have it in divers places repeated to exemplifie this noble resolution or contempt of death in the proofe and practice of some one or two blessed Saints and Servants of God Ierome writeth of Hilarion that being ready to give up the ghost he said thus to his soule Goe forth my soule why fearest thou Goe forth why tremblest thou Thou hast served Christ almost those threescore and ten yeares and doest thou now feare death Saint Ambrose when he was readie to die speaking to Stillico and others about his bed I have not lived so among you saith he that I am ashamed to live longer to please God and yet againe I am not afraid to die because we have a good Lord. The reverend Bede whom wee may more easily admire than sufficiently praise for his profound learning in a most barbarous age when all good literature was in contempt being in the pangs of death said to the standers by I have so lived among you that I am not ashamed of my life neither feare I to die because I have a most gracious Redeemer He yeelded up his life with this prayer for the Church O King of glory Lord of Hostes which hast triumphantly ascended into heaven leave us not fatherlesse but send the promised Spirit of thy truth amongst us These last funerall Teares or dying mens Hymnes I have the rather renued to your memory that they might have the longer impression being uttered by dying men at the point of their dissolution And I know right well for experience hath informed me sufficiently therein that the words of dying men are precious even to strangers but when the voice of one we love and with whom we did familiarly live calls to us from the Death-bed O what a conflict doe his words raise How strongly doe griefe and affection strive to inclose them knowing that in a short space that tongue the organs whereof yet speak and move attention by their friendly accents was to be eternally tied up in silence nor should the sound of his words salute our eares any more and certainly the resolution of a devout dying man being upon the point of his dissolution cannot but be an especiall motive to the hearer of Mortification Which was one cause even among the Heathens of erecting Statues Obelisks or Monuments upon the Dead that eying the Sepulchres of such noble and heroick men as had their honour laid in the dust they might likewise understand that neither resolution of spirit nor puissance of body could free them from the common verdict of mortalitie which begot in many of them a wonderfull contempt of the world Albeit it is to be understood that Christians doe contemne this world much otherwise than Pagans for ambition is a guide to these but the love of
time receivedst thy good things and likewise Lazarus evill things but now he is comforted and thou art tormented And in the Parable of the ten Virgins where the five foolish Virgins tooke their Lamps and tooke no oyle with them but the wise tooke oyle in their vessels with their Lamps and when the Bridegroome came those that were ready went in with him and were received but those foolish ones who were unprovided though they came afterwards crying Lord Lord open unto us could not be admitted For know deare Christian and apply it to thy heart for knowledge without use application or practice is a fruitlesse and soule-beguiling knowledge that hee who promiseth forgivenesse to thee repenting hath not promised thee to morrow to repent in Why therefore deferrest thou till to morrow when thou little knowest but thou maist die before to morrow This day this houre is the opportunate season take hold of it then lest thou repent thee when it is past season Man hath no inte est in time save this very instant which hee may properly terme his let him then so imploy this instant of time as hee may be heire of eternitie which exceeds the limit of time Let us worke now while it is day for the night commeth when no man can worke Why therefore stand wee idling Why delay wee our conversion Why cry wee with the sluggard Yet a little and then a little and no end of that little Why to morrow and to morrow and no end of to morrow being as neere our Conversion to day as to morrow Why not to day as well as to morrow seeing every day bringeth with it her affliction both to day and to morrow Meet it is then for us to make recourse to the Throne of mercy in the day of mercie and before the evill day come lest wee be taken as he who beat his fellow servants when the great Master of the Houshold shall come O earth earth earth heare the Word of the Lord Earth by creation earth by condition earth by corruption Remember now thy Creator in the dayes of thy youth while the evill dayes come not nor the yeares draw nigh when thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them While the Sun or the light or the Moone or the Stars that be not darkened nor the clouds returne after the raine In the day when the Keepers of the house shall tremble and the strong men shall bow themselves and the grinders cease because they are few and those that looke out of the windowes be darkened And the doores shall be shut in the streets when the sound of the grinding is low and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird and all the daughters of musick shall be brought low Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high and fears shall be in the way and the Almond tree shall flourish and the Grashopper shall be a burden and desire shall faile because man goeth to his long home and the mourners goe about the streets Or ever the silver coard be loosed or the golden bowle be broken or the pitcher be broken at the fountaine or the wheele broken at the Cisterne Then shall the dust returne to the earth as it was and the spirit shall returne unto God who gave it Hence then are we warned not to deferre time lest wee neglect the opportunate time the time of grace which neglected miserable shall we be when from hence dissolved Yea but will some object True repentance is never too late which is most true but againe I answer that late repentance is seldome true Repent then while yee have time for as in Hell there is no redemption so after death there is no time admitted for repentance O remember that a wounded conscience none can heale so that like as the Scorpion hath in her the remedy of her owne poison so the evill man carrieth alwayes with him the punishment of his owne wickednesse the which doth never leave to torment and afflict his minde both sleeping and waking So as the wicked man is oft-times forced to speake unto his conscience as Ahab said to Eliah Hast thou found me O mine enemie Now there is no better meanes to make peace with our consciences than to set God continually before our eyes that his Spirit may witnesse to our spirits that we are the children of grace Wherein many offend daily who promise to themselves security either by sinning subtilly or secretly Subtilly as in dazling or deluding the eyes of the world with pretended sanctity and concluding with the Poet That I may just and holy seeme and so the world deceive And with a cloud my cunning shroud is all that I doe crave But such Hypocrites will God judge and redouble the viols of his wrath upon their double sinne Secretly when man in the foolishnesse of his heart committeth some secret sin and saith Who seeth him There is none looking thorow the chinke to see mee none that can heare me but simple fooles how much are these deceived Is there any darknesse so thicke and palâ—able that this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the piercing eye of heaven cannot spie thee thorow it O if thou hope by sinning secretly to sin securely thou shalt be forced to say unto thy God as Ahab said unto Elijah Hast thou found mee O mine enemie Nay O God terrible and dreadfull thou hast found me And then let me aske thee in the same termes that the young Gallant in Erasmus asked his wanton mistresse Art thou not ashamed to doe that in the sight of God and witnesse of holy Angels which thou art ashamed to doe in the sight of men Art thou so afraid of disgrace with men and little carest whether thou be or no in the state of grace with God Art thou more jealous of the eyes of men who have but power only to asperse a blemish on thy name or inflict a temporall punishment on thy person than of his who hath power to throw both thy soule and body into the burning Lake of perdition It was a pretty saying of Epicurus in Seneca Whereto are offences safe if they cannot be secure Or what availes it guiltie men to finde a place to lye hid in when they have no confidence in the place where they lye hid in Excellent therefore was the counsell of zealous Bernard and sententious Seneca that wee should alwayes as in a mirrour represent unto our eyes the example of some good man and so to live as if he did alwayes see us alwayes behold us for wee who know that the eyes of God are upon all the wayes of men and that no place so remote no place so desart or desolatâ— as may divide us from his all-seeing presence ought to be in all our workes so provident and circumspect as if God were present before our eyes as in truth he
bodie repaire it with an upright soule Art thou outwardly deformed with spirituall graâ—â—â— be thou inwardly beautified Art thou blinde or lame or otherwise maimed be not there with dejected for the Blâ—nd and Lame were invited It is not the outward proportion but the inward disposition not the feature of the face but the power of grace which worketh to salvaâ—â—â—on Alcibiades Socrates scholer was the best favoured Boy in Athens yet to use the Philosophers words looke but inwardly into his bodie you will finde nothing more odious So as one compared them aptly these faire ones I meane to faire and beautifull Sepulchres Exterius nitida interius faetida outwardly hansome inwardly noysome Notable was that observation of a learned Philosopher who professing himselfe a Schoole-master to instruct Youth in the principles and grounds of Philosophie used to hang a Looking-glasse in the Schoole where he taught wherein he shewed to every scholer he had his distinct feature or physnomy which he thus applied If any one were of a beautifull or amiable countenance hee exhorted him to answer the beautie and comlinesse of his face with the beautie of a well-disposed or tempered minde if otherwise he were deformed or ill featured he wished him so to adorne and beautifie his minde that the excellencie of the one might supply the defects or deformities of the other But thou objectest How should I expresse my descent my place or how seeme worthy the company of eminent persons with whom I consort if I should sleight or disvalue this general-affected vanity Fashion I will tell thee thou canst not more generously I will not say generally expresse thy greatnes of descent place or qualitie nor seeme better worthy the company with whom thou consortest or frequentest than by erecting the glorious beames of thy minde aboue these inferiour things For who are these with whom thou consortest meere triflers away of time bastard slips degenerate impes consumers of their patrimonie and in the end for what other end save misery may attend them Haires to shame and infamie These I say who offer their Morning-prayers to the Glasse eying themselves 〈◊〉 till Narcissus-like they fall in love with their owne shadowes O England what a height of pride art thou growne to yea how much art thou growne unlike thy selfe when disvaluing thy owne forme thou deformest thy selfe by borrowing a plume of everie Countrey to display thy pie-coloured flag of vanitie What painting purfling powdring and pargeting doe you use yee Idolls of vanitie to lure and allure men to breake their first faith forsake their first love and yeeld to your immodestie How can you weepe for your sinnes saith Saint Hierome when your teares will make furrowes in your face With what confidence do you lift up that countenance to heaven which your Maker acknowledges not Doe not say that you have modest mindes when you have immodest eyes Death hath entred in at your windowes your eyes are those cranies those hatefull portells those fatall entrances which Tarpeia-like by betraying the glorious fortresse or cittadell of your soules have given easie way to your mortall enemie Vtinam miserrimus ego c. I would I poore wretch saith Tertullian might see in that day of Christian exaltation An cum cerussa purpurisso croco cum illo ambitu capitis resurgatis No you stanes to modestie such a Picture shall not rise in glory before her Maker There is no place for you but for such women as array themselves in comely apparell with shamefastnesse and modestie not with broided haire or gold or pearles or costly apparell But as becommeth women that professe the feare of God For even after this manner in time past did the holy women which trusted in God tire themselves Reade I say reade yee proud ones yee which are so haughtie and walke with stretched-out neckes the Prophet Isaiah and you shall find your selves described and the judgement of Desolation pronounced upon you Becaâ—se the Daughters of Zion are haughtie and walk with streâ—ched-out neckes and with wandring eyes walking 〈◊〉 minsing as they goe and making a tinckling with theâ—â— feet therfore shall the Lord make the heads of the daughters of Zion bald and the Lord shall discover their secret parts And he proceeds In that day shall the Lord take away the ornament of the slippers and the calles and the round tyres The sweet balles and the bracelets and the bonnets The tyres of the head and the sloppes and the head-bands and the tablets and the eare-rings The rings and the mufflers The costly apparell and the gâ—ailes and the wimples and the crisping-pins And the glasses and the fine linnen and the hoods and the launes Now heare your reward And in stead of sweet savour there shall be stinke and in stead of a girdle a rent and in stead of dressing of the haire baldnesse and in stead of a stomacher a girding of sack-cloth and burning in stead of beautie Now attend your finall destruction Thy men shall fall by the sword and thy strength in the battell Then shall her gates mourne and lament and shee being desolate shall sit upon the ground See how you are described and how you shall be rewarded Enjoy then sin for a season and delight your selves in the vanities of Youth be your eyes the Lures of Lust your eares the open receits of shame your hands the polluted instruments of sinne to be short be your Soules which should be the Temples of the Holy Ghost cages of uncleane birds after all these things what the Prophet hath threatned shal come upon you and what shall then deliver you not your Beautie for to use that divine Distich of Innocentius Tell me thou earthen vessell made of clay What 's Beautie worth when thou must die to day Nor Honour for that shall lye in the dust and sleepe in the bed of earth Nor Riches for they shall not deliver in the day of wrath Perchance they may bring you when you are dead in a comely funerall sort to your graves or bestow on you a few mourning garments or erect in your memory some gorgeous Monument to shew your vain-glory in death as well as life but this is all Those Riches which you got with such care kept with such feare lost with such griefe shall not afford you one comfortable hope in the houre of your passage hence afflict they may releeve they cannot Nor Friends for all they can doe is to attend you and shed some friendly teares for you but ere the Rosemary lose her colour which stickt the Coarse or one worme enter the shroud which covered the Corpse you are many times forgotten your former glory extinguished your eminent esteeme obscured your repute darkened and with infamous aspersions often impeached If a man saith Seneca finde his friend sad and so leave him sicke without ministring any comfort to him and poore without releeving him we may thinke such an one
ever to swim in troubled waters nor can they endure to be mated Though their aimes bee to perpetuate their greatnesse yet those Beasts which are bred about the River Hypaniâ— and live but one day may oft-times compare with them for continuance whence the Poet saith excellently out of his owne observation Much have I seene yet seldome seene I have Ambition goe gray-headed to his grave There is nothing which the Ambitiouâ— man hates so much as a corrivall he hopes to possesse all and without a sharer But so indirect are his plots and so insuccessive their end as hee findes to his great griefe that the promise of securitie had no firme foundation to ground on nor his attempts that issue they expected Now Gentlemen you whose better parts aime at more glorious ends so confine your desires to an equall meane that mounting too high bring you not to an irreparable fall Wee are borne indeed as that divine Father saith to be Eagles and not Iayes to fly aloft and not to seek our food on the ground but our Eagle eyes are to be fixed on the Sunne of righteousnesse not on temporall preferments We are to soare to the Tower from whence commeth our helpe For it is not lifting up a mans selfe God likes but lifting up of the spirit in prayer Here are wings for flying without feare of falling for other aymes they are but as feathers in the aire they delude us howsoever they seeme to secure us But I heare some young Gentleman object that it is a brave thing to be observed in the eye of the world to have our persons admired our selves in publike resorts noted yea our Names dispersed indeed I grant He who consists on nothing more than showes Thinkes it is brave to heare Loe there he goes But such whose solid vnderstandings haue instructed them in higher studies as much disvalue popular opinion or the Corkie conceits of the vulgar as the Nobilitie scornes to converse with any thing unworthy it selfe Their greatnesse hath correspondence with goodnesse for esteeme of the world as in respect of their owne worth they deserue it so in contempt of all outward glory they disvalue it Come then yee nobly affected Gentlemen would yee be heires of honour and highly reputed by the Highest Resemble the Nature of the Highest who humbled himselfe in the forme of Man to restore miserable man vilifying himselfe to make man like himselfe It is not beleeve it to shine in grace or esteeme of the Court which can ennoble you this glory is like glasse bright but brittle and Courtiers saith one are like Counters which sometime in account goe for a thousand pound and presently before the Count bee past but 〈◊〉 single pennie It is more glory to be in the Courts of the Lord to purchase esteeme with him whose judgement never erres and whose countenance never alters It is reported by Commine in his French Annals that Charles whom he then served was of this disposition that he would make assay of the greatest matters revolving in his mind how he might compasse them yea perchance saith he assayes farre above the strength of man See the picture of an Ambitious spirit loving ever to be interessed in affaires of greatest difficultie Camelion-like on subtill ayre he feeds And vies in colours with the checkerd meeds Let no such conceits transport you lest repentance finde you It is safer chusing the Middle-path than by walking or tracing vncouth wayes to stray in your iourney More have fallen by presumption than distrust of their owne strength And reason good for such who dare not relie on themselves give way to others direction whereas too much confidence or selfe-opinionate boldnesse will rather chuse to erre and consequently to fall than submit themselves to others judgement Of this opinion seemed Velleius the Epicurean to bee of whom it is said that in confidence of himselfe hee was so farre from feare as hee seemed not to doubt of any thing A modest or shamefast feare becomes Youth better which indeed ever attends the best or affablest natures Such will attempt nothing without advice nor assay ought without direction so as their wayes are secured from many perills which attend on inconsiderate Youth My conclusion of this point shall be in a word that neither the rich man is to glory in his riches the wise man in his wisdome nor the strong man in his strength for should man consider the weaknesse and many infirmities whereto he is hourely subâ—ect hee would finde innumerable things to move him to sorrowing but few or none to glory in Againe if he should reflect to the consideration of his Dissolution which that it shall bee is most certaine but when it shall be most vncertaine he would be forced to stand upon his guard with that continuall feare as there would be no emptie place left in him for pride This day one proud as prouder none May lye in earth ere day be gone What confidence is there to be reposed in so weake a foundation where to remaine ever is impossible but quickly to remove most probable Then to use Petrarchs words be not afraid though the house the Bodie be shaken so the Soule the guest of the Body fare well for weakning of the one addeth for most part strength to the other And so I come to the last passion or perturbation incident to Youth REvenge is an intended resolve arising from a conceived distaste either justly or unjustly grounded This Revenge is ever violent'st in hot blouds who stand so much upon termes of reputation as rather than they will pocket up the least indignitie they willingly oppose themselves to extremest hazard Now this unbounded fury may seeme to have a two-fold relation either as it is proper and personall or popular and impersonall Revenge proper or personall ariseth from a peculiar distaste or offence done or offered to our own person which indeed hath ever the deepest impression Which may be instanced in Menelaus and Paris where the honour of a Nuptiall bed the Law of Hospitalitie the professed league of Amitie were joyntly infringed Or in Antonie and Octavius whose intestine hate grew to that height as Antonies Angell was afraid of Octavius Angell Which hatred as it was fed and increased by Fulvia so was it allayed and tempâ—red by Octavia though in the end it grew irreconciliable ending in bloud as it begun with lust Revenge popular or impersonall proceedeth extrinsecally as from factions in Families or some ancient grudge hereditarily descending betwixt House and House or Nation and Nation When Annibal was a childe and at his fathers commandement he was brought into the place where he made sacrifice and laying his hand upon the Altar swore that so soone as he had any rule in the Common-wealth he would be a professed enemie to the Romans Whence may be observed how the conceit of an injury or offence received worketh
in May-games profest lovers of all sensuall pleasures That Roman Curtezan Semphronia was noted for her singing sporting and dancing wherein shee laboured to shew more art than became a modest woman with other motives of Licentiousnesse But in my opinion there is no one meanes to sift out the Disposition of Man better than by noting how he beares himselfe in passion which is of that violence as many times it discovers him though his purpose was to walke never so covertly from the eye of popular observance Should we have recourse to the lives of sundry Tyrants whose outward appearance or semblance promised much goodnesse we might finde sufficient matter to confirme this argument Some whereof as Tiberius so commonly carried and covered their plots as none could dive into their thoughts pretending ever most smoothnesse when they intended a tempest Yet if at any time as it befell many times their Spirits became netled or incensed so farre did passion transport them as they apparantly expressed their Natures without further Character Other discoveries may be made and those are the manifestest of all how men are affected or disposed when they are least themselves and this is with griefe I speake it for too highly doth Albion labour of it when Man losing indeed that Name at least his Nature becomes estranged from the use of reason by drowning his understanding with drunkennesse In high Germanie the parents of such children as should be married will see those which should be their sonnes in law to be drunke before them to see what Disposition they are of before they marrie their children unto them For they imagine if they be subject to any especiall vice they will then discover it having no Locke to keepe it secret Yet in this there are different humours which reigne and rage according to the Disposition of the person subject unto it as we shall see one lumpish without all conceit another jocund and merry apt for any conceit one weeping as if some disastrous fortune had befallen him another laughing 〈◊〉 if some merry Scene were presented him We reade of two distinct conditions in Philip and Alexander when they were in drinke for the one shewed his rage and furie towards his foes the other to his friends the one whereof participates of more true generous spirit than the other For as nothing can be imagined more ignoble than to triumph over our friend so nothing relisheth of more resolution than to shew our spirit so it be upon equall termes and without braving upon our Enemie But would you indeed see the disposition of Man truly discovered and the veile which kept him from sight cleare taken away Then come to him when he is advanced to place of honour or esteeme for Promotions declare what men be and there you shall finde him pourtrayed to life Galba was esteemed in the opinion of all fit to governe till he did governe Many have an excellent gift of concealing and shadowing which giveth grace to any picture so long as they are obscure and private but bring them to a place of more eminent note and give a lustre to their obscuritie you shall view them as perfectly as if their Bodies were transparant or windowes were in their bosomes Here you shall see One unmeasurably haughtie scorning to converse with these Groundlins for so it pleases him to tearme his inferiours and bearing such a state as if he were altered no lesse in person than place Another not so proud as he is covetous for no passion as a learned Schooleman affirmeth is better knowne unto us than the coveting or desiring passion which he calls Concupiscible and such an one makes all his inferiours his Sponges and Ostridge-like can digest all metalls Another sort there are whose well-tempered natures have brought them to that perfection as the state which they presently enioy makes them no more proud than the losse of that they possesse would cast them downe These Camillus-like are neither with the opinion of Honour too highly erected nor with the conceit of Affliction too much deiected As their conceits are not heightned by possessing it so they lose nothing of their owne proper height by forgoing it These are so evenly poized so nobly tempered as their opinion is not grounded on Title nor their glory on popular esteeme they are knowne to themselves and that knowledge hath instructed them so well in the vanitie of Earth as their thoughts have taken flight vowing not to rest till they approach heaven Pompey being combred with his Honour exclaimed to see Sylla's crueltie being ignorant after what sort to behave himselfe in the dignitie he had and cried out O perill and danger never like to have end Such is the nature of Noble spirits as they admire not so much the dignitie of the place to which they are advanced as they consider the burden which is on them imposed labouring rather how to behave themselve in their place than arrogate glory to themselves by reason of their place Neither are these sundrie Dispositions naturally ingraffed in men meerely produced from themselves as the affections or Dispositions of our mindes doe follow the temperature of our bodies where the Melancholy produceth such the Cholericke Phlegmaticke and Sanguine such and such according to Humours predominant in that body whence these affections are derived but I say these participate also of the Clime wherein we are For otherwise how should our Observations appeare good which we usually collect in the Survey of other Countries noting certaine vices to be most entertained in some especiall Provinces As Pride among the Babylonians Envie among the Iewes Anger among the Thebans Covetousnesse among the Tyrians Gluttonie among the Sidonians Pyracie among the Cilicians and Sorcerie among the Aegyptians to whom Caesar gave great attention as Alexander was delighted in â—he Brachmans So as I say our Dispositions how different or consonant soever doe not only partake of us but even of the Aire or temperature of Soile which bred us Thus we see what Diversitie of Dispositions there is and how diversly they are affected Let us now take a view of the Disposition it selfe whether it may be forced or no from what it naturally affecteth THe Philosopher saith that the Disposition may be removed but hardly the Habit. But I say those first Seeds of Disposition as they are Primitives can hardly be made Privatives being so inherent in the Subject as they may be moved but not removed Not removed objectest thou Why Disposition can be of no stronger reluctance than Nature and wee see how much shee may be altered yea cleare removed from what she formerly appeared For doe we not in the view of humane frailtie observe how many excellent wits drained from the very Quintessence of Nature as apt in apprehending as expressing a conceit strangely darkned or dulled as if they had beene steeped in some Lethaean slumber Nay doe we not in
alter the state or qualitie of his Disposition whence the sententious Flaccus To passe the Sea some are inclinde To change their aire but not their minde No shouldst thou change aire and soile and all it were not in thy power to change thy selfe yet as soone thy selfe as thy Disposition which ever accompanies and attends thee moving in thee a like or dislike just as shee is affected HAving thus proved that the Disposition is not to be forced wee are now to descend to discourse of the Noblest and most generous Disposition which wee intend to make knowne by certaine infallible markes which seldome erre in their attendance being vowed Servants to such as are vertuously affected The first is Mildnesse the second Munisicence the third Fortitude or Stoutnesse Mildnesse is a qualitie so inherent or more properly individuate to a Gentleman as his affabilitie will expresse him were there no other meanes to know him Hee is so farre from contemning the meaâ—â—â— as his Countenance is not so cheerefull as his Heart compassionate though the one be no lesse gracious in promising than the other generous in his performing He poizeth the wrongs of the weakest as if they were his owne and vowes their redresse as his owne He is none of these furly Sirs whose aime is to be capp'd and congied for such Gentilitie tastes too much of the Mushrom You shall never see one new stept into Honour but he expects more observance than an Ancient for though he be but new come from Mint he knowes how to looke bigge and shew a storme in his Brow This Meeknesse admits of Humilitie to keepe her company in whose sweet familiaritie she so much glories as she cannot enioy her selfe without her And in very deed there is no Ornament which may adde more beauty or true lustre to a Gentleman than to be humbly minded being as low in conceit as he is high in place With which vertue like two kinde Turtles in one yoake is Compassion as I noted before linked and coupled which Compassion hath many times appeared in the renowmedst and most glorious Princes When Pompeyes head was offered to Caesar as a most gratefull and acceptable Present it is reported that hee washed the Head with teares of princely compassion and inflicted due punishment vpon his Murderers The like is written of Titus that Love and Darling of Mankinde in his taking and destroying of Ierusalem using these words I take God to witnesse I am not the cause of the destruction of this people but their sinnes mixing his words with teares and tempering his victorious successe with royall moderation The like is related of Marcus Marcellus who having won the most flourishing City of Syracusa stood upon the walls shedding plenty of teares before he shed any bloud And this Compassion attracts ever unto it a kinde of princely Maiestie gaining more love than any other affection For as proud Spirits whose boundlesse ambition kâ—eps them ever afloat till they sinke downe for altogether use to triumph in others miseries till miserie in the end finde them out so these in a discreet moderation or noble temper will never assume more glory to themselves for any exploit how successively or prosperously soever managed Such is the native Modestie wherewith they are endued as their victories are never so numerous or glorious as to transport them above themselves Which Modestie surely becommeth men of all Degrees but especially men of eminent and noble ranke to the end they may understand and acknowledge in every action that there is a God from whom all things proceed and are derived Now as there is no glory equall to the command or soveraigntie over our owne passions the conquest whereof makes Man an absolute Commander so there is no ornament which conferres more true or native grace to one ennobled by place or birth than to put on the Spirit of Meekenesse being expresly commanded and so highly commended of God as the goodnesse thereof is confirmed by a promise The meeke shall inherit the earth So Humilitie is said to purchase Gods favour for by that one vertue wee become to have a resemblance of him whose glory it was to disesteeme all glory to fashion us like unto himselfe Now how precious may that exquisite Treasure appeare unto us which conferres so much light on us as by it wee are brought to know our selves being strangers as it were and aliens unto our selves till Humilitie tooke off the veile and shewed man his Anatomie So rare was this divine vertue and so few her professors in former time especially amongst such whose titles had advanced them above inferiour ranke as the place which they held made them forget the mould whereof they were made An excellent historicall demonstration wee have hereof as wee receive it from venerable Bede who reports 〈◊〉 thus Aidan a religious Bishop weeping for King Osuinus and demanded by the Kings Chaplaine why he wept I know said he that the King shall not liue long for never before this time have I seene an humble King Which hapned accordingly for he was cruelly murdered by Oswin But thanks to him who became humble for us wee have in these declining dayes among so many proud Symeons many humble Iosephs whose chiefest honour they make it to abase themselves on earth to adde to their complement of glory in heaven so much sleighting the popular applause of men as their only aime is to have a sincere and blamelesse conscience in them to witnesse in that judiciall day for them These have not like those furies of revenge hearts full of wrath but with all meeknesse and long-suffering will rather endure an injurie than inflict too violent revenge though they have readie power to effect or performe it It is reported of Thomas Linacres a learned English-man much commended for his sanctitie of life that when hee heard it read in the fifth Chapter of S. Matthew Diligite inimicos Blesse them that curse you c. he brake forth into these words O amici aut haec vera non sunt aut nos Christiani non 〈◊〉 O my friends either these things are not true or we are no Christians True it is indeed that so strangely are some men affected as they tender revenge equally deare as their owne life their plots are how to circumvent their traines how to surprize their whole consultations how to inflict due revenge where they have alreadie conceived distaste And these are those Bulls of Basan who rome and roare and when the prey falleth they stare on it and teare it with their teeth On these men may that of the Poet be truly verified They feare no Lawes their wrath gives way to might And what they plot they act be 't wrong or right But how farre the Disposition of these men may seeme removed from the meeke and humble affected whose only glory is to redresse wrong and render right judgement unto all
some mixture of pride for they would have the world to observe how well they deserve it and againe their humilitie which is seldome in these without some tincture of vaine-glory in that they so little desire it So as these popular and firie spirits whose only aimes are to dignifie themselves deserve no sharper curbe for over-valuing themselves than these who pride themselves in their humilitie deserve for counterfeiting a kinde of debasing or dis-valuing of themselves to the eye of the world Whence I might take occasion to speake of those precise Schismaticks who cannot endure any precedencie or prioritie of place to be in the Church but an equalitie of Presbyterie but I will leave them to a sharper censure till they be throughly cured of their distemper Now for the second motive to sinne which is the Concupiscence of the eye as it is so to be moderated that it stray not so should it be so directed that it sleepe not sleepe not I say in the survey of that for which it was created The eye strayeth when it coveteth what it should not it sleepeth when it retireth from what it should it strayeth when it lusteth after a strange woman it sleepeth when it readeth not the Law of God to reclaime it from lusting after a strange woman it strayeth when it lusts after Naboths vineyard it sleepeth when it lookes not after Gods vineyard Neither is the eye so to be limited as if contemplation were only intended for as it is not sufficient to pray unlesse wee practise as well as pray so is it not sufficient to looke upon the Law unlesse wee live after the Law on which wee looke Wee reade that Abraham buried Sarah in the cave of Maâ—pelah that is in a double Sepulchre He that burieth his minde in knowledge only without any care of practice he buries Sarah in a single Sepulchre but he that buries his minde as well in the practice and feeling of religion which is all in all as in the knowledge and understanding of it he buries Sarah in a double Sepulchre and so must all wee doe which are the true children of Abraham for then with Abraham burying our spirit in a double Sepulchre wee shall with Elizeus have a double Spirit a spirit that as well doth as teacheth Otherwise wee are but tinkling Cymbals making only a sound of religion without any sound or sincere profession being as that honey-tongu'd Father saith in body inward but in heart outward Now the eye as it is the tenderest and subtilest organ of all others so should the object on which it is fixed be the purest and clearest of all others The Eagle accounts those of her young ones bastards which cannot fix their eyes upon the Sunne and with equall reflexion as it were reverberate the beaming vigour or splendour thereof which should be the Embleme of divine contemplation teaching us that howsoever wee have our feet on earth wee are to have our eyes in heaven not by prying too saucily into the sealed Arke of Gods inscrutable will but by meditating ever of him so to rest in him that after earth wee may for ever rest with him It is observed by profest Oculists that whereas all creatures have but foure muscles to turne their eyes round about man hath a fift to pull his eyes up to heaven How farre divert they then their eyes from the contemplation of that object for which they were created who cannot see their neighbours ground but they must cover it nor his beast but they desire it nor any thing which likes them but with a greedy eye they heart-eat it So large is the extent or circuit of their heart to earthly things as they can see nothing but they instantly desire so strait is the circumference of their heart to heavenly things they set no minde on them as if altogether unworthy their desire So as I cannot more aptly compare these idolizing worldlings to any thing than to the bird Ibis which is of that filthy nature as she receives those excrements in at her mouth which she had purged before from her guts Neither doe they resemble this bird only in respect of their bestiall or insatiate receit but also in the unbounded extent of their heart Oris Apollo writeth that the Egyptians when they would describe the heart paint that bird which they call Ibis because they thinke that no creature for proportion of the body hath so great a heart as the Ibis hath Neither hath our worldly Ibis a lesse heart to the filthy desires of the world being of necessity forced to leave the world before he can leave desiring the things of this world for their Satan-like come from compassing the whole earth esteeming no joy to the worldling like much enjoying yet am I not so rigorously affected or from feeling of humanity so farre estranged as with Democritus to move you to pull out your eyes that the occasion of temptation might be removed by being of your eyes those motives to temptation wholly deprived Nor with that inamored Italian to wish you to fix your eyes upon the beames of the Sunne till they were â—eared that the sight of your Mistresse might not move your disquiet No enjoy your eyes and make them directers to guide you not as blinde or deceitfull guides to entrap you use the object of this Sense but weane it from assenting to concupiscence concluding ever with that good remembrance May that object be from our eyes removed which makes us from our deare Lord divided Now for the last Motive which is the Pride of life it was Lucifers sinne and therefore should be each true Christians scorne For this sinne saith an ancient and learned Father are the children of the kingdome throwne into utter darknesse and whence commeth this but because they ascend up unto that Mountaine unto which the first Angell ascended and as a Devill descended Hee who entertaineth this Motive is an ambitious man who as one rightly observeth may be well and fitly similized with the Chameleon who hath nothing in his body but Lungs so the badge of the ambitious is to be windy and boisterous whereas if hee would measure all his undertakings rather by the dignity of the thing than the Ambition of his minde he should finde as much content as now he finds disquiet It was the rule of a wise Statesman and well deserves it the observance of every private person but especially of such who sit neere the Sterne of State not to suffer any ambitious heat transport him but to measure aâ—l things according to their dignity and worth and withall rather to refer the opinion of themselves and their actions to the censure of others and freely put themselves to be weighed in the judicious scale or ballance of others than to be approvers of themselves without the suffrage of others for certainely as there is no humour more predominant than Ambition nor
so much lamented for that is of necessitie and therefore exacts no teares of sorrow being if spent as fruitlesse as the doome reverselesse but their sudden or inopinate departure Whereto I answer that no death is sudden to him that dies well for sudden death hath properly a respect rather to the life how it was passed or disposed than to death how short his summons were or how quickly clozed Io. Mathes preaching upon the raising up of the womans sonne of Naim by Christ within three houres afterward died himselfe The like is written of Luther and many others As one was choaked with a flie another with a haire a third pushing his foot against the tressall another against the threshold falls downe dead So many kinde of wayes are chalked out for man to draw towards his last home and weane him from the love of earth Those whom God loves saith Menander die young yea those whom hee esteemeth highest hee takes from hence the soonest And that for two causes the one is to free them the sooner from the wretchednesse of earth the other to crowne them the sooner with Happinesse in Heaven For what gaine wee by a long life or what profit reape wee by a tedious Pilgrimage but that wee partly see partly suffer partly commit more evils Priamus say more dayes and shed more teares than Troilus Let us hence then learne so to measure our sorrow for ought that may or shall befall us in respect of the bodie that after her returne to earth it may be gloriously re-united to the soule to make an absolute Consort in Heaven Thirdly and lastly for the goods or blessings of Fortune they are not to command us but to be commanded by us not to be served by us but to serve us And because hee onely in the affaires of this life is the wealthiest who in the desires of this life is the neediest and he the richest on earth who sees little worth desiring on earth we are so to moderate our desires as I have formerly touched in respect of those things we have not that wee may labour to over-master our desires in thirsting after more than we already have likewise so to temper and qualifie our affections in respect of those things we have as to shew no immoderate sorrow for the losse of those we have but to be equally minded as well in the fruition of those wee have as privation of those we have not For of all others there is no sorrow baser nor unworthier than that which is grounded on the losse of Oxe or Cow or such inferiour subjects Neither incurre they any lesse opinion of folly who carried away with the love of their Horse Hound or some such creature use for some prize or conquest got to reare in their memory some Obeliske or Monument graced with a beauteous inscription to preserve their fame because poore beasts they have nothing to preserve themselves for howsoever this act seeme to have some correspondence with gratitude labouring only to grace them who have graced us rearing a stone to perpetuate their fame who memoriz'd our Name by speed of foot yet is it grosse and so palpable to those whose discretion is a moulder of all their actions as they account it an act worthier the observation of an Heathen than a Christian. Cimon buried his Mares bestowing upon them specious Tombs when they had purchased credit in the swift races of the Olympiads Xanâ—ippus bewailed his Dogs death which had followed his master from Calamina Alexander erected a Citie in the honour of Bucephalus having beene long defended by him in many dangerous battels And the Asse may well among the Heathen be adorned with Lillies Violets and Garlands when their Goddesse Vesta by an Asses bray avoided the rape of Priapus But howsoever these actions among Pagans might carry some colour of thankfulnesse rewarding them by whose speed fury agilitie or some other meanes they have beene as well preserved as honoured yet with Christians whose eyes are so clearely opened and by the light divine so purely illumined would these seeme acts of prophanenesse ascribing honour to the creature to whom none is due and not to the Creator to whom all honour is solely and properly due In briefe let us so esteeme of all â—he goods and gifts of Fortune as of Vtensils fit for our use and service but of the Supreme good as our chiefest Soâ—ace For he who subjected all things to the feet of man that man might be wholly subject unto him and that man might be wholly his he gave man dominion over all those workes of his so he created all outward things for the bodie the bodie for the soule but the soule for him that shee might only intend him and only love him possessing him for solace but inferiour things for service Thus farre Gentlemen hath this present discourse inlarged it selfe to expresse the rare and incomparable effects which naturally arise from the due practice of Moderation being indeed a vertue so necessary and well deserving the acquaintance of a Gentleman who is to be imagined as one new come to his lands and therefore stands in great need of so discreet an Attendant as there is no one vertue better sorting his ranke not only in matters of preferment profit or the like but in matters of reputation or personall ingagement where his very name or credit is brought to the tesh Looke not then with the eye of scorne on such a follower but take these instructions with you for a fare-well Doth Ambition buzze in your eare motions of Honour This faithfull Attendant Moderation will disswade you from giving way to these suggestions and tell you Ambition is the high road which leads to ruine but Humilitie is the gate which opens unto glory Doth Covetousnesse whisper to you matters of profit Here is one will tell you the greatest wealth in the world is to want the desires of the world Doth Wantonnesse suggest to you motives of Delight Here is that Herbe of Grace which will save you from being wounded and salve you already wounded In briefe both your expence of Time and Coine shall bee so equally disposed as you shall never need to redeeme Time because you never prodigally lost it nor repent your fruitlesse expence of Coine because you never profusely spent it Thus if you live you cannot chuse but live for ever for ever in respect of those choice vertues which attend you for ever in respect of your good Example moving others to imitate you And for ever in respect of that succeeding glory which shall crowne you THE ENGLISH GENTLEMAN Argument Of Perfection Contemplative and Active The Active preferred Wherein it consisteth Of the absolute or Supreme end whereto it aspireth and wherein it resteth PERFECTION WE are now to treat of a Subject which while we are here on earth is farre easier to discourse of than to finde for Perfection is not absolute in this life but
Serpent or some brute beast and this it knew but it would not for thy goodnesse sake This it was which forced from that devout and zealous Father this emphaticall discourse or intercourse rather with God who upon a time walking in his garden and beholding a little worme creeping and crawling upon the ground presently used these words Deare Lord thou might'st have made me like this Worme a crawling despicable creature but thou would'st not and it was thy mercy that thou would'st not O as thou hasâ— ennobled me with the Image of thy selfe make me conformable to thy self that of a worm I may become an angel of a vassall of sin a vessell of Sion of a shell of corruption a Star of glory in thy heavenly mansion And in truth there is nothing which may move us to a more serious consideration of Gods gracious affection towards us than the very image which we carry about us preferring us not only before all the rest of his creatures in soveraignty and dominion but also in an amiable similitude feature and proportion whereby we become not only equall but even superiour unto Angells because Man was God and God Man and no Angell To whom are wee then to make recourse to as the Author of our Creation save God whose hand hath made and fashioned us whose grace hath ever since directed and prevented us and whose continued love for whom he loveth he loveth unto the end hath ever extended it selfe in ample manner towards us How frivolous then and ridiculous were their opinions who ascribed the Creation of all things to the Elements as Anaximenes to the piercing Aire Hippeas to the fleeting Water Zeno to the purifying Fire Zenophanes to the lumpish Earth How miserably were these blinded and how notably evinced by that learned Father who speaking in the persons of all these Elements and of all other his good creatures proceedeth in this sort I tooke my compasse saith he speaking to God in the survey of all things seeking thee and for all things relinquishing my selfe I asked the Earth if it were my god and it said unto me that it was not and all things in it confessed the same I asked the Sea and the depths and the creeping things in them and they answered we are not thy god seeke him above us I asked the breathing Aire and the whole Aire with all the inhabitants thereof made answer Anaximenes is deceived I am not thy God I asked the Heaven Sun Moone and Stars neither are wee thy god answered they And I spake to all these who stand about the gates of my flesh tell me what you know concerning my god tell mee something of him and they cryed out with a great voice He made us Then I asked the whole Frame and fabricke of this World tell me if thou be my god and it answered with a strong voyce I am not said it but by him I am whom thou seekest in mee hee it was that made mee seeke him above me who governeth me who made me The interrogation of the creatures is the profound consideration of them and their answer the witnesse they beare of God because all things cry God hath made us for as the Apostle saith the invisible things of God are visibly to be understood by those things which are made by the creatures of the world Thus wee understand the Author of our Creation of whom seriously to meditate and with due reverence to contemplate is to die to all earthly cogitations which delude the sinne-belulled soule with extravagancies And let this suffice for the first Memoriall or Consideration to wit who it was that made us we are now to descend to the second particular which is for what end he made us He who rested not till he had composed and disposed in an absolute order of this Vniverse proposed us an example that we should imitate So long as we are Pilgrims here on earth so long as we are Sojourners in this world wee may not enjoy our spirituall Sabbath wee may stay a little and breath under the Crosse after the example of our best Master but rest wee may not For what end then did he make us That we might live such lives as may please him and die such deaths as may praise him lives blamelesse and unreproveable lives sanctified throughout pure without blemish fruitfull in example plentifull in all holy duties and exercised in the workes of charitie that he who begetteth in us both the Will and the Worke may present us blamelesse at his comming Now that our lives may become acceptable unto him to whose glory they ought to be directed we are in this Tabernaâ—le of clay to addresse our selves to those studies exercises and labours which may benefit the Church or Common-weale ministring matter unto others of imitation to our soules of consolation and in both to Gods name of glorification Wherein appeareth a maine difference betwixt the Contemplative and Active part for sufficient it is not to know acknowledge and confesse the divine Majesty to dispute or reason upon high points touching the blessed Trinitie to be rapt up to the third heaven as it were by the wings of Contemplation but to addresse our selves to an actuall performance of such offices and peculiar duties as we are expresly injoyned by the divine Law of God Our Lord in the Gospell when the woman said Blessed is the wombe that bare thee and the brests that gave thee sucke Answered Yea rather blessed are they that heare the word of God and keepe it And when one of the Iewes told him that his mother and brethren stood without desiring to speake with him He answered and said unto him that told him Who is my mother and who are my brethren And stretching forth his hand toward his Disciples he said Behold my mother and my brethren For whosoever shall doe the will of my Father which is in heaven the same is my brother and sister and mother It is not knowledge then but practice which presents us blamelesse before God Therefore are we exhorted to worke out our salvation with feare and trembling Not to idle out our time in the market-place as such who make their life a repose or cessation from all labours studies or vertuous intendments Of which sort those are and too many of those there are who advanced to great fortunes by their provident Ancestors imagine it a Taske worthy men of their places to passe their time in pastime and imploy their dayes in an infinite consumption of mis-spent houres for which they must be accomptants in that great Assize where neither greatnesse shall be a subtâ—â—â—â—g to guiltinesse nor their descent plead privilege for those many houres they have mis-spent O how can they answer for so many vaine and fruitlesse pleasures which they have enjoyed and with all greedinesse embraced in this life Many they shall have to witnesse against them none to
God unto them Diogenes trod upon Platoes pride with much greater selfe-pride but the Christian with patience and humilitie surmounteth and subdueth all worldly pride being of nothing so carefull as lest he should taste the Lotium of earthly delights and so become forgetfull with Vlysses companions of his native Countrey Meane time he sojournes in the world not as a Citizen but as a Guest yea as an Exile But to returne to our present discourse now in hand in this quest after that soveraigne or supreme end whereto all actuall perfection aspireth and wherein it resteth wee are to consider three things 1. What is to be sought 2. Where it is to be sought 3. When it is to be sought For the first wee are to understand that wee are to seeke only for that the acquisition whereof is no sooner attained than the minde whose flight is above the pitch of frailtie is fully satisfied Now that is a blessed life when what is best is affected and enjoyed for there can be no true rest to the minde in desiring but partaking what she desireth What is it then that wee seeke To drinke of the water of life where our thirst may be so satisfied as it never be renued our desires so fulfilled as never higher or further extended He that hath once tasted of the fountaine named Clitorius fons and choice is the taste of such a fountaine will never drinke any wine no wine mixed with the drâ—gs of vanitie no wine drawne from the lees of vaine-glory the reason is hee reserves his taste for that new wine which hee is to drinke in his Fathers kingdome And what kingdome The kingdome of heaven a kingdome most happy a kingdome wanting death and without end enjoying a life that admits no end And what life A life vitall a life â—empiternall and sempiternally joyfull And what joy A joy without sorrowing rest without labouring dignitie without trembling wealth without losing health without languishing abundance without failing life without dying perpetuitie without corrupting blessednesse without afflicting where the sight and vision of God is seene face to face And what God God the sole-sufficient summary supreme good that good which wee require alone that God who is good alone And what good The Trinitie of the divine persons is this summary good which is seene with purest mindes The Heart triangle-wise resembleth the image of the blessed Trinitie which can no more by the circumference of the World be confined than a Triangle by a Circle is to be filled So as the Circular world cannot fill the Triangular heart no more than a Circle can fill a Triangle still there will be some empty corners it sayes so long as it is fixed on the world Sheol it is never enough but fixed on her Maker her only Mover on her sweet Redeemer her dearest Lover she chants out cheerefully this Hymne of comfort There is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Iesus She then may rest in peace And what peace A peace which passeth all understanding Shee then may embrace her Love And what Love A Love constantly loving She then may enjoy life And what life A life eternally living She then may receive a Crowne And what Crowne A Crowne gloriously shining This Crowne saith S. Peter is undefiled which never fadeth away The Greeke words which S. Peter useth are Latine words also and they are not only Appellatives being the Epithetes of this Crowne but also Propers the one proper name of a Stone the other of a Flower for Isidore writeth there is a precious stone called Amiantus which though it be never so much soiled yet it can never at all be blemished and being cast into the fire it is taken out still more bright and cleane Also Clemens writeth that there is a flower called Amarantus which being a long time hung up in the house yet still is fresh and greene To both which the stone and the flower the Apostle as may be probably gathered alludeth in this place Here then you see what you are to seeke For are your desires unsatisfied here is that which may fulfill them Are your soules thirstie here is the Well of life to refresh them Would you be Kings here is a Kingdome provided for you Would you enjoy a long life a long life shall crowne you and length of dayes attend you Would you have all goodnesse to enrich you enjoying God all good things shall be given you Would you have salvation to come unto your house and secure you rest you in Christ Iesus and no condemnation shall draw neere you Would you have your consciences speake peace unto you the God of peace will throughout establish you Would you have your constant'st Love ever attend you He who gave himselfe for you will never leave you Would you have him live ever with you Leave loving of the world so shall he live ever with you and in you Would you have a Crowne conferred on you A Crowne of glory shall empale you Seeke then this one good wherein consisteth all goodnesse and it sufficeth Seeke this soveraigne or summary good from whence commeth every good and it sufficeth For he is the life by which wee live the hope to which wee cleave and the glory which wee desire to obtaine For if dead he can revive us if hopelesse and helplesse he can succour us if in disgrace he can exalt us Him then only are we to seeke who when we were lost did seeke us and being found did bring us to his sheepe-fold And so I descend from what wee are to seeke to where wee are to seeke that seeking him where he may be found wee may at last finde him whom wee so long have sought For the second wee are to seeke it while wee are on earth but not upon earth for earth cannot containe it It is the Philosophers axiom That which is finite may not comprehend that which is infinite Now that supreme or soveraigne end to which this Actuall Perfection is directed whereto it aspireth and wherein it resteth is by nature infinite Ena without end beginning and end imposing to every creature a certaine definite or determinate end The sole solace of the Soule being onely able to fill or satisfie the Soule without which all things in heaven or under heaven joyned and conferred together cannot suffice the Soule So boundlesse her extent so infinite the object of her content How should Earth then containe it or to what end should wee on Earth seeke it Seeing whatsoever containeth must of necessitie be greater than that which is contained But Earth being a masse of corruption how should it confine or circumscribe incorruption Seeing nothing but immortalitie can cloath the Soule with glory it is not the rubbish or refuse of earth that may adde to her beautie Besides the Soule while it sojournes here in this earthly mansion she remaines as a captive inclosed in prison
What delights then can be pleasing what delicates relishing to the palat of this prisoner She is an exile here on earth what societie then can be cheerefull to one so carefull of returning to her Countrey If Captives restrained of their libertie Exiles estranged from their Countrey can take no true content either in their bondage be it never so attempred nor in their exile be they never so attended how should the Soule apprehend the least joy during her abode on earth Where the treasure is there is the heart her treasure is above how can her heart be here below Mortalitie cannot suit with immortalitie no more can Earth with the Soule Whereto then be the motions of our Soule directed To Him that gave it no inferiour creature may suffice her no earthly object satisfie her nothing subject to sense fulfill her In Heaven are those heavenly objects wherewith her eye rests satisfied in Heaven are those melodious accents wherewith her eare rests solaced in Heaven those choicest odours wherewith her smell is cherished in Heaven those tastfull'st dainties wherewith her soule is nourished in Heaven those glorious creatures wherewith herselfe is numbred What difference then betwixt the satietie and saturitie of Heaven and the penurie and povertie of Earth Here all things are full of labour man cannot utter it The eye is not satisfied with seeing nor the eare filled with hearing whereas in Heaven there is length of dayes and fulnesse of joy without ending And wherein consists this fulnesse Even in the sweet and comfortable sight of God But who hath seene God at any time To this blessed Austine answers excellently Albeit saith he that summary and incommutable essence that true light that indeficient light that light of Angels can be seene by none in this life being reserved for a reward to the Saints only in the heavenly glory yet to beleeve and understand and feele and ardently desire it is in some sort to see and possesse it Now if wee will beleeve it though our feet be on earth our faith must be in heaven or understand it wee must so live on earth as if our conversation were in heaven or feele it wee must have so little feeling of the delights of this life as our delight may be wholly in heaven or desire it wee must hunger and thirst after righteousnesse to direct us in the way which leadeth to heaven It cannot be saith a devout holy man that any one should die ill who hath lived well Wee are then to labour by a zealous religious and sincere life to present our selves blamelesse before the Lord at his comming O if wee knew and grosse is our ignorance if we know it not that whatsoever is sought besides God possesseth the minde but satisfies it not wee would have recourse to him by whom our minds might be as well satisfied as possessed But great is our miserie and miserable our stupiditie who when wee may gaine heaven with lesse paines than hell will not draw our foot backe from hell nor step one foot forward towards the kingdome of heaven Yea when wee know that it pleaseth the Devill no lesse when wee sinne than it pleaseth God to heare us sigh for sinne yet will wee rather please the Devill by committing sinne than please God by sending out one penitent sigh for our sinne For behold what dangers will men expose themselves unto by Sea and Land to increase their substance Againe for satisfaction of their pleasures what tasks will they undertake no lesse painfull than full of perill A little expectance of penitentiall pleasure can make the voluptuous man watch all the night long when one houre of the night to pray in would seeme too too long Early and late to inrich his carelesse heire will the miserable wretch addresse himselfe to all slavish labour without once remembring either early or late to give thanks to his Maker Without repose or repast will the restlesse ambitious Sparke whose aimes are only to be worldly great taske himselfe to all difficulties to gaine honour when even that which so eagerly he seekes for oft times brings ruine to the owner Here then you see where you are to seeke not on earth for there is nought but corruption but in heaven where you may be cloathed with incorruption not on earth for there you are Exiles but in heaven where you may be enrolled and infranchised Citizens not on earth the grate of miserie but in heaven the goale of glory In briefe would you have your hearts lodged where your treasures are locked all your senses seated where they may be fully sated your eye with delightfull'st objects satisfied your eare with melodious accents solaced your smell with choicest odours cherished your taste with chiefest dainties relished your selves your soules amongst those glorious creatures registred Fix the desires of your Heart on him who can only satisfie your heart set your eye on him whose eye is ever upon you and in due time will direct you to him intend your eare to his Law which can best informe you and with divinest melodie cheere you follow him in the smell of his sweet oyntments and hee will comfort you in your afflictions taste how sweet hee is in mercy and you shall taste sweetnesse in the depth of your miserie become heavenly men so of terrestriall Angels you shall be made Angels in heaven where by the spirituall union of your soules you shall be united unto him who first gave you soules And so I come to the third and last When wee are to seeke lest seeking out of time wee be excluded from finding what wee seeke for want of seeking in due time If words spoken in season be like apples of gold with pictures of silver sure I am that our actions being seasonably formed or disposed cannot but adde to our soules much beautie and lustre To every thing there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven which season neglected the benefit accruing to the worke is likewise abridged There is a time to sow and a time to reape and sow wee must before wee reape sow in tears before wee reape in joy Seeke wee must before wee finde for unlesse wee seeke him while he may be found seeke may wee long ere wee have him found After the time of our dissolution from earth there is no time admitted for repentance to bring us to heaven Hoc momentum est de quo pendet aeternitas Either now or never and if now thrice happy ever Which is illustrated to us by divers Similitudes Examples and Parables in the holy Scripture as in Esaus birth-right which once sold could not be regained by many teares and in the Parable of Dives and Lazarus where Abraham answered Dives after he had beseeched him to send Lazarus that he might dip the tip of his finger in water and coole his tongue Sonne remember that thou in thy life
is And therefore Prudentius in one of his Hymnes give this memorandum Thinke with thy selfe if thou from sin would free thee Be 't day or night that God doth ever see thee O then let us fix our thoughts upon God here on earth that we may gloriously fix our eyes upon him in heaven Let us so meditate of him here on earth that wee may contemplate him there in heaven So repent us to have dishonoured him here on earth that wee may be honoured by him in heaven Let us become humble Petitioners unto him and prostrate our selves before his foot-stoole of whom if we begge life his hand is not so shortâ—ed as it will not save his eare so closely stopped as it will not heare it is reported that when a poore man came to Dionysius the Tyrant and preferred his petition unto him standing the imperious Tyrant would not give eare unto him whereupon this poore Petitioner to move him to more compassion fell downe prostrate at his feet and with much importunity obtained his suit after all this being demanded by one why he did so I perceived quoth he Dionysius to have his eares in his feet wherefore I was out of hope to be heard till I fell before his feet But God who intendeth rather the devotion of the heart than the motion of the hand or prostration of the bodie will heare us if wee aske faithfully and open unto us if wee knocke constantly and having fought a good fight crowne us victoriously Thus you have heard what we are to seeke where we are to seeke and when we are to seeke What a Kingdome not of earth but of heaven Where not on earth nor in earth but in heaven When while we are here on earth that after earth we may reigne in heaven What a Garden inclosed a Spring shut up a Fountaine sealed What a crowne of righteousnesse a precious pearle a hid treasure What wisdome health wealth beautie libertie and all through him who is all in all Aristippus was wont to say that he would goe to Socrates for wit but to Dionysius for money whereas this we seeke and seeking hope to enjoy confers upon us the rich treasures of wisdome and abundance of riches for evermore For first seeke we the kingdome of heaven and the righteousnesse thereof and all things else shall be ministred unto us Secondly where wee are to seeke Where in Heaven the House of God the Citie of the great King the inheritance of the just the portion of the faithfull the glory of Sion Where not without us but within us for the kingdome of God is within us So as I may say to every faithfull soule Intus habes quod quaeris That is within thee which is sought of thee It is God thou seekest and him thou possessest thy heart longeth after him and right sure thou art of him for his delight is to be with those that love him Lastly when on earth when in this life when while we are in health while we are in those Tabernacles of clay while we carry about us these earthen vessels while we are cloathed with flesh before the evill day come or the night approach or the shadow of death encompasse us now in the opportunate time the time of grace the time of redemption the appointed time while our peace may be made not to deferre from youth to age lest wee be prevented by death before we come to age but so to live every day as if we were to die every day that at last we may live with him who is the length of dayes What remaineth then but that wee conclude the whole Series or progresse of this Discourse with an Exhortation to counsell you an instruction to caution you closing both in one Conclusion to perswade you to put in daily practice what already hath beene tendred to you Now Gentlemen that I may take a friendly farewell of you I am to exhort you to a course Vertuous which among good men is ever held most Generous Let not O let not the pleasures of sinne for a season withdraw your mindes from that exceeding great weight of glory kept in store for the faithfull after their passage from this vale of misery Often call to minde the riches of that Kingdome after which you seeke those fresh Pastureâ— fragrant Medows and redolent Fields diapred and embrodered with sweetest and choicest flowers those blessed Citizens heavenly Saints and Servants of God who served him here on earth faithfully and now raigne with him triumphantly Let your Hearts be enditers of a good matter and your voices viols to this heavenly measure O how glorious things are spoken of thee thou Citie of God as the habitation of all that rejoyce is in thee Thou art founded on the exaltation of the whole earth There is in thee neither old-age nor the miserie of old-age There is in thee neither maime nor lame nor crooked nor deformed seeing all attaine to the perfect man to that measure of age or fulnesse of Christ. Who would not become humble Petitioner before the Throne of grace to be made partaker of such an exceeding weight of glory Secondly to instruct you where this Crowne of righteousnesse is to be sought it is to be sought in the House of God in the Temple of the Lord in the Sanctuary of the most High O doe not hold it any derogation to you to be servants yea servants of the lowest ranke even Doore-keepers in the House of the Lord Constantine the Great gloried more in being a member of the Church than the Head of an Empire O then let it be your greatest glory to advance his glory who wil make you vessels of glory But know that to obey the delights of the flesh to divide your portion among Harlots to drinke till the wine grow red to make your life a continued revell is not the way to obtaine this Crowne Tribulation must goe before Consolation you must clime up to the Crosse before you receive this Crowne The Israelites were to passe thorow a Desart before they came to Canaan This Desart is the world Canaan heaven O who would not be here afflicted that he may be there comforted Who would not be here crossed that he may be there crowned Who would not with patience passe thorow this Desart onely in hope to come to Canaan Canaan the inheritance of the just Canaan the lot of the righteous Canaan a fat Land flowing with milke and honey Canaan an Habitation of the most holy Canaan a place promised to Abraham Canaan the bosome of Father Abraham even Heaven but not the heaven of heaven to which even the earth itselfe is the very Empyraean heaven for this is heaven of heaven to the Lord because knowne to none but to the Lord. Thirdly and lastly that I may conclude and concluding perswade you neglect not this opportunate time of grace that is now
offered you I know well that Gentlemen of your â—anke cannot want such wittie Consorts as will labour by their pleasant conceits to remove from you the remembrance of the evill day but esteeme not those conceits for good which strive to estrange from your conceit the chiefest good Let it be your task every day to provide your selves against the evill day so shall not the evill day when it commeth affright you nor the terrours of death prevaile against you nor the last summâ—ns perplex you nor the burning Lake consume you O what sharpe extreme and insuperable taskes would those wofull tormented soules take upon them if they might be freed but one houre from those horrours which they â—ee those tortures which they feele O then while time is granted you omit no time neglect no opportunitie Be instant in season and out of season holding on in the race which is set before you and persevering in every good worke even unto the end Because they that continue unto the end shall be saved What is this life but a minute and lesse than a minute in respect of eternity Yet if this minute be well imployed it will bring you to the fruition of eternitie Short and momentanie are the afflictions of this life yet supported with Patience and subdued with long sufferance they crowne the â—ufferer with glory endlesse Short likewise are the pleasures of this life which as they are of short continuance so bring they forth no other fruit than the bitter pils of repentance whereas in heaven there are pleasures for evermore comforts for evermore joyes for evermore no carnall but cordiall joy no laughter of the body but of the heart for though the righteous sorrow their sorrow ends when they end but joy shall come upon them without end O meditate of these in your beds and in your fields when you are journeying on the way and when you are sojourning in your houses where compare your Court-dalliance with these pleasures and you shall find all your rioting triumphs and revelling to be rather occasions of sorrowing than solacing mourning than rejoycing Bathe you in your Stoues or repose you in your Arbours these cannot allay the least pang of an afflicted conscience O then so live every day as you may die to sinne every day that as you are ennobled by your descent on earth you may be ennobled in heaven after your descent to earth Laus Deo Totum hoc ut à te venit totum ad te redeat A Gentleman IS a Man of himselfe without the addition of either Taylor Millener Seamster or Haberdasher Actions of goodnesse he holds his supreme happinesse The fate of a younger brother cannot depresse his thoughts below his elder He scornes basenesse more than want and holds Noblenesse his sole worth A Crest displayes his house but his owne actions expresse himselfe Hee scornes pride as a derogation to Gentry and walkes with so pure a soule as he makes uprightnesse the honour of his Familie He wonders at a profuse foole that he should spend when honest frugalitie bids him spare and no lesse at a miserable Crone who spares when reputation bids him spend Though heire of no great fortunes yet his extensive hand will not shew it Hee shapes his coat to his cloth and scornes as much to be beholden as to be a Gally-slave He hath beene youthfull but his maturer experience hath so ripened him as he hates to become either Gull or Cheat. His disposition is so generous as others happinesse cannot make him repine nor any occurrent save sinne make him repent He admires nothing more than a constant spirit derides nothing more than a recreant condition embraceth nothing with more intimacie than a prepared resolution Amongst men he hates no lesse to be uncivill than in his feare to God-ward to be servile Education hee holds a second Nature which such innate seeds of goodnesse are sowne in him ever improves him seldome or never depraves him Learning hee holds not only an additament but ornament to Gentry No complement gives more accomplishment He intends more the tillage of his minde than his ground yet suffers not that to grow wilde neither He walkes not in the clouds to his friend but to a stranger He eyes the Court with a vertuous and noble contemplation and dis-values him most whose sense consists in sent Hee viewes the City with a princely command of his affections No object can with-draw him from himselfe or so distract his desires as to covet ought unworthily or so intraunce his thoughts as to admire ought servilely He lives in the Countrey without thought of oppression makes every evening his dayes Ephemeris If his neighbours field flourish he doth not envy it if it lie fit for him he scornes to covet it There is not that place he sees nor that pleasure he enjoyes whereof he makes not some singular use to his owne good and Gods glory Vocation hee admits of walking in it with so generous and religious a care as hee makes Pietie his Practice acts of Charitie his Exercise and the benefit of others his sole solace Hee understands that neither health commeth from the clouds without seeking nor wealth from the clods without digging He recommends himselfe therefore in the morning to Gods protection and favour that all the day long hee may more prosperously succeed in his labour He holds idlenesse to be the very moth of mans time Day by day therefore hath he his taske imposed that the poison of idlenesse may be better avoided He holds as Gods opportunitie is mans extremitie so mans securitie is the Devils opportunitie Hoping therefore he feares fearing he takes heed and taking heed he becomes safe Hospitalitie he holds a relique of Gentry He harbours no passion but compassion He grieves no lesse at anothers losse than his owne nor joyes lesse in anothers successe than his owne peculiar Recreation he useth to refresh him but not surprize him Delights cannot divert him from a more serious occasion neither can any houre-beguiling pastime divide him from an higher contemplation For honest pleasures he is neither so Stoicall as wholly to contemne them nor so Epicureall as too sensually to affect them There is no delight on mountaine vale coppice or river whereof he makes not an usefull and contemplative pleasure Recreation he admits not to satisfie his sense but solace himselfe Hee fixeth his minde on some other subject when any pleasure begins too strongly to worke upon him He would take it but not be taken by it Hee attempers his attractivest pastimes with a little Alloes to weane him all the sooner from their sweetnesse He scornes that a moment of content should deprive him of an eternitie of comfort He corrects therefore his humour in the desire of pleasure that he may come off with more honour Acquaintance he entertaines with feare but retaines with fervour He consorts with none but where he presumes he may either better them or
be bettered by them Vertue is the sole motive of his choice Hee conceives how no true amitie nor constant societie can ever be amongst evill men He holds it a blemish to the repute of a Gentleman and an aspersion to his discretion to make choice of those for his Associates who make no more account of time than how to passe it over Conference he affects and those hee admits only into the list of his discourse whom he findes more reall than verball more solid than complementall He will try him before he rely on him but having found him touch they touch his honour that impeach him Moderation in his desires cares feares or in what this Theatre of Earth may afford he expresseth so nobly as neither love of whatsoever he enjoyes can so enthrall him nor the losse of what he loves can any way appall him A true and generous Moderation of his affections hath begot in him an absolute command and conquest of himselfe He smiles yet compassionately grieves at the immoderation of poore worldlings in their cares and griefes at the indiscretion of ambitious and voluptuous Flies in their desires and feares Perfection hee aspires to for no lower mound can confine him no inferiour bound impale him Vertue is the staire that raiseth to height of this Story His ascent is by degrees making Humilitie his directresse lest he should faile or fall in his progresse His wings are holy desires his feet heavenly motions He holds it the sweetest life to be every day better till length of dayes re-unite him to his Redeemer Hee hath plaid his part on this Stage of Earth with honour and now in his Exit makes heaven his harbour FINIS EMBLEME WIth a Climacterick yeere this Worke began Which is exprest when Sev'ns Nines doe meet Held fatall to this short-spun threed of man And with same number ends the finall sheet Of these Observances whereof I treat Threescore and three is held the dangerous yeere And just so many sheets shall you finde here But not a leafe to give a life to feare Vpon the Errata HOwsoever some no lesse justly than confidently might â—vouch quod plura non dantur vulnera miâ—â—tiâ—n praelio â—uam authori in prelo Yet must I ingeniously wipe off this aspersion from my judicious friend and Artist an ornament to his Profession Whose sâ—dulous care towards me and others hath already gain'd him a deserved esteeme and approvement of all Authors Truth is Gentlemen when you encounter with any Erroâ—s as they are individuates to all Labours you are to impute the Eâ—â—or to the absence of the Author Whose affaires in the Countrey tooke him from cares of the City Or to explaine himselfe more fully that he may come off fairely and possesse him of your opinion more freely He was call'd away from Laurence Iury by the impannel of a Northerne Iury and pressed to attendance by an Old Bayliffe of the Country when his occasion lay for the Presse in the old Bayly neere the City In a word had not a Nisi prius interposed these Errors by a Quest of in juiry had beene prevented It is your generous Candor to rectiâ—ie him with your pennes who solely for your sakes undertooke this paines ERRATA Vtilitas Erroris Humilitas Authoris PAg 12. lin 35. for Harparates read Harpocrates p. 20. l. 7. for stanes r. staines p. 29. this marginall distich omitted Est Venus in vinis vinis Venus illita venis Sint procul à mensis vina Venusque meis p. 35. l. 9. for as r. is p. 38. l. 6. for Comine r. Commes p. 64. l 23. for stare r. seaze p 112. marg for utilitas r. utilitatis p. 106. l. 10. A branch of Vocation undistinguished p. 149. l. 31. for enndagred r. endangered p. 157. l. 18. for Hawke r. hanke * which inverts sense p. 159. l. 17. for enevors r. endevours p. 166. l. 10. for smimming r. swimming p. 170. l. 33. for thrust r. tâ—ussd p. 236. l 16. * A branch of Acquaintance undistinguished p. 241. l. 23. * Another undistinguished p. 250. l. 26. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. ib. num for 295. r. 296. p. 321. l. 22. for wounded r. wounding p. 323. l. 18. for 80. r. 8. p. 324. l. 35. for estimate r. estimates p. 326. marg for Charibdis r. Charybdis p. 357. marg for felicie r. felicitie p 369. l. 12. for say r. saw p. 406. l. 2. for lesse r. Ishai p. 421. marg for percepit r. praecepit ¶ Sundry marginall notes you shall finde obscured which by your candor may be cleared Mancipia paueae lectionis cum sint ☞ For my Dedication instead of all unnecessary excuses of presumption I wil cloze briefly with this constant Resolution Though to your TITLE there be HONOVR due It is your SELFE that makes mee HONOVR you Observat. 1. The Dangers that attend on Youth Vnum est inslar belluae humiliari aliud est belluinos inores imitari * Vicina lâ—psibus adolesc â—â—a Hieron Omnia in hat aetole juvenescunt vitia Euseb. lib 3.17 Si ingratum dixâ—ris omnia dixeriâ— Min. Publianus Quisimus Quinam â—â—â—mus in Ephebio constituâ—um est Diog. Cyn. Lectum non citius relinquens quà m in Deum delinquens nâ—n citius surgens quà m insurgens The vanitie of Youth displâ—yed in foure distinct Subjects GATE Audacia pro 〈◊〉 habetur Salust in Bell. Catiâ— Dan. 4.27 29. 30. Seneca LOOKE Plutarch in vit Syll. August Gregor De tranq an Quo altior in divitiis eo copâ—ostor in vitiis Ber. de inter Dom. Mâ—â—am 1. SPEECH Sine loq â—â—la non potest slaâ—e societas Arâ—st Aug. de Magist. Psal. 141.3 Prou. 25.11 In vit Phoc. In lib. desecr secret Two reasons why Young men were not admitted to deliver their opinions in publike assemblies * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pic. Mâ—rand in epist. ad Hâ—râ—ol Neque locus neque amious quisquaÌ„ teget quem arma non texerint Salust in Bell. Iugurth Ferociam animi quam habebat vivus in vultu retinust Catilina Salust in Conjur Caâ—il Salust Law Logicke and the Swâ—tzers may be hired to fight for any one Blos 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basil. Virtus maxima in mole minima Eccles. 22.8 9. HABIT In vit Solon Horâ—t epist. l. 1. Ep. 18. * Vt in exequiis epuâ—sque celebrandis nâ—mioque apparatu corporis omnis inutilis sumptus prohibeatur Plutarch in vit Alcibiad Socrates Mihi mirabile fit quòd non enecentur cum tantum onus bajulent Clem. Alex. 2. Paedag. Hieron ad Fur. de vid. Serm. Tom. 1. Aug. de Christ. fide Tertull. de hab Mul. cap. 7. 1 Tim. 2.9 10. 1 Pet. 3.5 Prima est haec ulâ—io quod se Iudice neâ—o nocens absolvitur Iuv. Sat. 13. August in enar sup 45. Psal. Bernard de interdomo cap. 1. Anâ— Solâ—loq cap. 14 Sen. 〈◊〉 Lucil. Tuscul. quaest lib. 1. Aug. sup Psâ—â— 64. Prov. 5.5 Prov. 7.